Foes become teammates

Imagine showing up to work one day, and you have a new co-worker. But not just any co-worker, someone that you have had serious disagreements with in the past, or worse, maybe even a fight.

In the world of professional hockey, the above scenario is not as far-fetched as it would be in the business world.

Tyler Elbrecht and Dyson Stevenson are in their first season as teammates with the Wichita Thunder. Last season, they found themselves on opposite benches as Elbrecht played for one of Wichita’s top rivals, the Kansas City Mavericks.

The two players squared off in three separate fights during the 2017-18 season, which shouldn’t be surprising based on their career statistics. Elbrecht has 781 penalty minutes in 352 career ECHL games while Stevenson has accumulated 588 penalty minutes in 264career games in the league.

“When we fought it was never anything personal,” Elbrecht said. “Fighting is just part of the game and when we dropped the gloves with one another it was to get ourselves or our teammates going, so there were no hard feelings when we became teammates this season.”

Stevenson said the two never knew each other personally before this season, but they knew enough about each other’s games that fighting each other came naturally.

“I knew that he was a good, rough and tumble guy that wasn’t afraid to drop the gloves, so when the situation called for it, he was a guy I would seek out,” he explained.

Becoming teammates with Elbrecht put Stevenson a little bit at ease, as he knew there would be one less potential opponent for him to square off with this season.

“Over the summer, (Thunder head coach) Malcolm (Cameron) called me and told me that I wouldn’t have to fight Elbrecht anymore this season, and I knew that meant that we had signed him,” he said. “I was happy knowing that I wouldn’t have to square off with him again. He wasn’t a guy that I hated, it just was that we are both guys who knew when our team needed a spark, and more often than not, that meant we were both on the ice at the same time when we knew a fight it what was needed.”

Elbrecht has fought his fair share of friends and former teammates over the years, and as he says, that’s never a battle you want to lose.

“When you fight a friend or a former teammate it can be funny,” he said. “In that situation, you definitely want to get the upper hand and win the fight because you know if you don’t, you’re going to hear about it later.”

Stevenson had a memorable run-in with a former teammate two seasons ago when he was with the Allen Americans.

“Vincent Arseneau was a great teammate when I was in Allen. We won two championships together, but he also was one of the scariest guys in the league and is probably the hardest hitter I have ever played with. He went to Wichita the summer after we won our second championship, and when they visited Allen for the first time that season, I had him over to my place for dinner the night before the game. The next night, on his first shift of the game, he took a run at one of our new players and tried to fight him, and I couldn’t let that happen, so I had to jump in and drop the gloves with him, even though I had cooked him dinner the night before.”

Both players still see a place in hockey for fighting, and hope that it never is completely eliminated from the game.

“I think there’s still a place in the game for fighting, and I hope it remains part of hockey,” Elbrecht said. “It helps to bring energy to the bench and to the fans, and it helps to protect the skilled players from taking too much abuse from opponents. You want to be able to hold guys accountable for their actions and fighting allows that to happen.”

“I think fighting will wear off eventually, but hopefully will never be completely gone,” Stevenson said. “There’s new rules in juniors and the AHL where guys start to get suspended after a certain amount of fights, so you can definitely see where it’s headed. I don’t necessarily agree with people trying to eliminate fighting, but I also don’t disagree with it from a player safety perspective.

“For the skilled guys around the league, it helps their game when they know that if someone on the other team tries to rough them up a bit, their teammates can have their back and drop the gloves to protect them,” he added.