WATERTOWN, NY – The FHL is regaining some attention this season with the return of Chase Tippin to the Watertown Wolves.
Pro Hockey News got a chance to talk to one of the league’s most notorious tilt artisans and get some background.
“I never thought fighting in hockey was gonna bring me to a point of playing down south no matter what the level but it did,” said Tippin. Born and raised in Collingwood, Ontario, Tippin spends his free time working out at the gym or with his dogs Ceelo and Duke.
“I came to the team in the first year of the FHL when we played out of Alexandria Bay,” said Chase. “We played in this old rink called Bonnie Castle. It was a bit of a dump.” After two seasons the team moved to Watertown. “The rink wasn’t what it is now, but it was a lot better and the fans from Alex Bay still came to the games. The league back then was crazy; you saw a lot of wild things!”
Five years ago Tippin decided to retire. “I didn’t play much,” Chase recalls. “Just some beer league and a little senior back home. But I was constantly wondering if I could still throw down on the ice.” So last year Tippin returned and played 2 games with the Northern Federals. “My second game I fought my now team mate Justin Coachman, and I found out I still had it in me. So when I was given the chance to play this year I jumped all over it.”
Chase remarked about how the league has changed. “It’s not the Federal of old where every team carried an enforcer. I guess you could say it’s soft in a sense.”
Chase remarked about another renowned FHL enforcer that PHN interviewed a few years ago; former Danville Dashers’ Chris Affinati. “Pound for pound the toughest guy I have ever fought,” Tippin recalled. “He wasn’t very big, but the guy could bang and he did the job of an enforcer better than anyone else but he respected the game.”
“Chase is bigger and stronger than most guys,” Affinati told Pro Hockey News. “He throws fast for a big guy, and hits harder than anyone I’ve fought; like a Mack truck. I’m happy he’s back. I’ve been in the box with him before after a tilt, and we would be comparing injuries and high-fiving. We’ve battled maybe 18 times, and then patted each other on the back and left it there on the ice. There’s a special respect – a code – among fighters.”
“That’s a true enforcer in my eyes, said Tippin of Affinati. “Someone that knows it’s a job, it’s nothing personal.”
We asked Tippin about his perspective and possible concerns with head injuries.
“People in hockey keep bringing up this whole “head injury” bull****, saying that fighting leads to it,” remarked Tippin. “Yeah, I mean there is the chance of falling and hitting your head or being knocked out, but that comes with the sport. Doctors have proven already that fighting in hockey is the lowest cause of possible head injuries in hockey. When I started fighting I knew what could happen. I’ve had my nose broken numerous times. My hands are beat up, covered in scars, and hurt most days, but I expected that and I live with it everyday. Some mornings I feel like a 70-year-old man, but I have no regrets and if given the chance to go back and start over I would do the exact same thing. Fighting will never leave hockey. The game is too fast and to hard to get rid of it. “
“I’m doing this all over again for a new group of guys,” Chase remarked. “Some young guys are just getting their foot in the door, working to move on to the next level. I’m out there making sure that nobody takes liberties of my team mates, and if you try……well I’ll be sure to let you know it isn’t gonna happen again.”
PHN asked Affinati about a rumor in the FHL that he plans to try and come out of retirement for a few games and have an “Affi and Tip” meeting at center ice once again. “I can’t confirm that,” said Affinati. “But you never know.”
Photos courtesy of Candi Lago Churchill, Sew Blest Photography
Additional media courtesy of Chase Tippin and Chris Affinati
Follow the author on Twitter @RonnaReporter
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