Bill McCreary didn’t need the NHL’s approval to know what was coming on December 2, 1992. He also didn’t need much convincing that the Red Wings’ Bob Probert and the Rangers’ Tie Domi were going to settle things once again.
In Stories From Ice Level: A Great NHL Referee Tells All, the Hall of Fame referee says then-commissioner Gary Bettman came down to the referee’s room at Madison Square Garden and made clear he wanted the looming fight kept from becoming the night’s main attraction.
“We go into the game in New York, we’re getting ready for the game, and Mr. [NHL commissioner Gary] Bettman came down [to the referee’s room],” McCreary recalled.
Bettman, still early in his tenure, was bothered by the attention the matchup was drawing.
“He was really upset about the media attention for the two people who were potentially going to fight,” McCreary said. “He didn’t want that to be the centre of attention for the game, which we understood from where his position was in the game at the time.”
McCreary said Bettman preferred the fight not happen at all. But once the referee listened to the commissioner’s view, he also understood the reality of the situation: there was no stopping it.
The reason the rematch had so much juice was simple. Probert and Domi had already gone at it on the same ice surface 10 months earlier, on February 9, and Domi had landed more punches to win that one. Afterward, Domi skated to the penalty box and made a two-handed motion around his waist, as if he were strapping on a championship belt.
By the time the teams met again, the buildup was intense enough that McCreary decided the safest route was to get it over with right away. He met with both fighters before puck drop.
“I knew that the only way to have it, have the game go on, was to have the fight early, get it over with, done,” McCreary said. “So I spoke to both players before we got the game going.
It was either before the national anthem or after, I just can’t remember exactly. I asked, ‘Are we going to do this early?’
“They both said yes, and I said, ‘Okay, we’ll do it early.’”
McCreary made one more thing clear to both men before they dropped the gloves.
“‘But when we’re done, it’s over,” McCreary told the combatants.”‘There will be no more scrumming or anything the rest of the game. Or I’ll just throw you out of the game, simple as that.’
“‘So, it’s a one-and-done, and it’s over and it’s finished, win, lose or draw.’ And they both agreed.”
When it finally happened, McCreary had no doubt who came out on top.
“On this occasion, Probert left everything out there,” McCreary said. “Aside from one big roundhouse from Domi that connected, ‘Probie’ dominated the rematch.”
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