Rolling with the punches

The way hockey is played changed dramatically in the early to mid-1970s, when the Philadelphia Flyers rose to the highest echelons of the NHL by using violence and intimidation to create space for the team’s skilled players, winning the Stanley Cup in 1974 and 1975.

At the forefront of the violence and intimidation component of the success of the team, which came to be nicknamed the Broad Street Bullies, was Dave ‘The Hammer” Schultz.

A smalltown boy from rural Saskatchewan, Schultz was thrust into the role of intimidating the opposition by pounding its tougher players into submission, setting NHL records for penalty minutes along the way. It was a role he was never entirely comfortable with, but he embraced it nonetheless, as it meant living his dream of playing in the NHL. (Schulz was traded to the Los Angeles Kings in 1976, and would go on to play for the Pittsburgh Penguins and Buffalo Sabres before retiring after the 1980-81 season.) As he says in Hammered: The Fight of My Life, “I never loved it. But from the moment I started fighting, I knew I couldn’t stop.”

Fifty years after the Flyers won their second of two consecutive Stanley Cups, and more than 40 years after his career came to a sudden (if not predictable) end, Schultz was an angry alcoholic, estranged from his family and friends, living a life of regret and looking for answers. He knew he had made mistakes in his life and takes responsibility for them, but as a product of the macho world of professional sports he can’t admit he has problems, let alone allow himself to seek help for them.

Hammered, co-written with Dan Robson, is not the typical retelling of past glories by a former athlete. On the contrary — Schultz goes deep, giving the reader a warts-and-all portrayal of his life, from the highs of being a Stanley Cup champion to the lows of losing his wife and being estranged from his children due to his selfish behaviour when he was in the NHL — and his inability to cope with life after hockey.

Schultz tells of the very steep price he paid for on-ice glory and unconditional adulation from the Philadelphia faithful, and his search for meaning and purpose after he had been chewed up and spit out by the hockey machine. His problems stem from childhood traumas such as growing up with an alcoholic father and sexual abuse suffered at the hands of a neighbour in one of the small towns where he grew up.

Hammered is an entertaining and at time difficult read. The narrative alternates from amusing and entertaining stories of Schultz’s life and career in hockey to sad, sometimes pathetic stories of a man known mostly for doing something he came to despise, weighed down by regret and lacking the tools to confront his past and deal with the things making his life miserable.

Ultimately, though, Hammered offers hope. After getting help through the Flyers’ alumni organization, Schultz achieves sobriety after somewhat reluctantly confronting the issues made his life miserable.

One life-changing and humbling event for Schultz was the death from cancer of his beloved granddaughter, Annalise, in 2020 when she was nine.

Upon visiting her grave with his ex-wife on the anniversary of Annalise’s death, Schultz says, “I regret so much. But I also feel hope. Remembering Annalise, I can see that I owe it to her — and to everyone I love — to live for the hope and joy that new days bring. I can’t waste the moments this life has left.”

While Schultz’s life isn’t perfect, he has found himself in a place of gratitude with a belief that his life is worth living.

Gilbert Gregory is the Free Press night sports editor.