If there was anyone you did not want to play with, it was Tie Domi.
But Andreas Lilja did what was forbidden – and was threatened with death.
– I have never ridden so fast before, he says in the podcast Släpp Sargen.
Andreas Lilja had a fine career in the NHL, and especially in the Detroit Red Wings, where he quickly became an audience favorite with his fighting spirit and sacrificial playing style. And there were not many players he was afraid of. But one that he really ended up in the hood of – and talk about doing it on the wrong player – was Tie Domi.
– He was not to be played with then. He was Sundin’s patron, and Sundin was not touched very often then. He mostly had to go around in no man’s land, and even if they tried to take him nicely, Domi was there and protected him all the time, says Lilja in the podcast Släpp Sargen.
Domis tokilska
Lily will never forget a special event.
– It was a match in Florida and we led 4-1, and there were about two minutes left of the match. Tie Domi comes and dumps the puck in my corner, and I hear how he is on his way to me. I thought, “the only thing he has to do now is turn me off.” I hear and I know he’s approaching, and instead of taking the tackle, I turn around and insert the club between his legs. I turn my club, and he flies right into the rim. At first I thought he would go through the rim, he says.
The bang was huge – but Domi did not stay and squirm. Instead, he was up quickly.
– I’ve never seen a person get up so fast. He threw down his gloves and started chasing me, and I’ve probably never ridden that fast. I’m starting to back down, because I knew I absolutely did not want to fight Tie Domi. He tried to chase me and the judge intervenes. They figured I would not fight him. The judges came to me and said, “I am doing you a favor. You get 2 + 10 ”. He did not want to risk that we would be on the ice again, says Lilja.
“Would kill me”
But Domi’s anger did not subside. He too had to leave the ice, and he refused to let go of what had just happened.
– We went off the ice, and Domi just shouted at me: “You fucking Swede, I’m gonna kill you”. All the way out of the ice, and then he ran from his locker room to our locker room. It’s 20 meters of concrete that saves me, because he could not get further. But I only hear him standing and shouting that he is going to kill me, he says.
And for Lilja’s part, it did not end there. Only four later, the teams would meet again, this time in Toronto.
– Everyone is saying that I will die that match. But luckily they have a match in between, and on the match warm-up the same day as our match, he is still on the ice when we get there, and he goes up to me and says that it is my lucky day. I did not understand anything, but he told me he was suspended. And then he just winked at me. And then I stopped meeting him that season. But we have met after, and he has said: “You were lucky. I would have killed you. ”
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