Mike Sundheim

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A few weeks ago WTVD’s Kerith Burke contacted me with a unique idea for a fun little story. Essentially, she wanted to learn the ins and outs of fighting in hockey from Hurricanes defenseman Tim Gleason. After some negotiating with Gleason (“I don’t want to hit a girl”), we managed to bring him on board for what I’m sure will be a must-see feature when Burke puts it together to air.

I snapped some shots of the proceedings with my BlackBerry. I think you can tell that it ended up being a lot of fun, even when the reporter got a little overzealous with her left hook. Tim spoke to Kerith about everything from how a fight starts to proper positioning (Keep that chin down). He showed her how to grab an opponent and establish an advantage and guided her through some of the do’s and don’ts of sparring with the NHL’s heavyweights.

He also talked about who some of the toughest fighters are in the league today, and selected his all-time favorite tough guy (If you consider where Tim grew up, and who may have been wearing the local team’s sweater around the time he was coming of age, you may be able to figure it out). Tim also carefully expressed the purposes and parameters of fighting in hockey, and exactly why and when a fight may occur.

I will obviously throw a media alert up when the story is set for air, and provide a link when Kerith puts in abc11.com.

Special thanks to Skip Cunningham and Kevan Hover, who were instrumental in outfitting Kerith, who is not exactly the same size and shape as most of the people they have equipment laying around to fit. And obviously thanks to Tim for his patience and being a good sport as always, and to WTVD’s Mark Armstrong for taking one for the team.

Media Alerts: Needless to say, the reacquisition of Erik Cole has ignited most of our fans and the local media. Erik was the center of attention at practice today, and you’ll be seeing his face all over the evening news tonight. WRALSportsfan has already posted video of Cole, Maurice and Staal talking about the trade.

• Erik will join the Insiders with Mike Maniscalco and Scott Jackson on 99.9 The Fan tonight (Insiders regular Mark Thomas is out this week following the birth of his daughter, Blair Elizabeth… Congrats Mark!) at 4:25.
   
• Jim Rutherford will also join The Insider this evening, calling in around 5:45 p.m.
   
• Rutherford will join Jeff Marek and Craig Simpson on Hockey Night in Canada Radio on Sirius 122 tonight at 6:15 p.m.
   
• Cole will be on 850 The Buzz’s morning show Friday with Adam Gold and Joe Ovies at 8:20 a.m.
   
• Also, in case you missed it, Paul Maurice joined the Insiders last night with Scott Jackson and Dave Shore.

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