from Carlos Monarrez of the Detroit Free Press,

Darren McCarty watches The Fight once a year, on the same day every year: March 26.

That’s the anniversary of McCarty’s fight with Claude Lemieux, which provided one of the most cathartic moments in Detroit sports history, when the Red Wings and the Colorado Avalanche engaged in a brawl to end all brawls in 1997.

McCarty used to watch a scratchy, old VHS copy of the fight. His pals at Fox Sports Detroit have since given him an upgrade, but it almost doesn’t matter. McCarty knows The Fight by heart. He knows it step for step, fist for first, punch for punch.

“I can feel the anger,” McCarty said Monday, his voice rising with excitement. “I can feel like — my blood will boil. I get so worked up when I tell the story. I remember the different moments.

“And I don’t think it’s so much of hitting (Lemieux) or anything, but just the adrenaline of when I tell it that Igor Larionov starts it with (Peter) Forsberg and I say, ‘Oh, my God.’ It’s like I went into Shark Week because I knew Lemieux was out there, and when I realized it was on.”

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