DENVER (CBS4) – One of the best parts of the CBS4 Sports show The 19th Hole is the interesting conversation that takes place between CBS4’s Vic Lombardi and his special guests in a moving golf cart.

This week the golf course where it all goes down is Bear Creek Golf Course in Denver, and the guest is Cody McLeod of the Colorado Avalanche.

The main topic of conversation? Hockey fights, of course. (McLeod is a bit of a specialist.)

The following are six things overheard in McCleod’s discussions with Lombardi in the golf cart:

No NHL player got in more fights than he did this season.

McLeod, who wore his fake front teeth for the show, said he got in “19 or 20 I think. Too many!” Over the court of his eight year career as a pro, he has gotten in more than 100 fights.



He studies how other players fight.

In March McLeod had a good idea that he would be getting in a fight with the Minnesota Wild’s Chris Stewart, a former Avs teammate who is also a little bit larger than McLeod. “He’d been with the team three or four days and he hadn’t had a fight. I knew he was coming after me. … So I was watching his fights the night before.” McLeod told Lombardi he just likes to get a sense for what other players might do in a fight if it just so happens that he and that player were to get in a brawl.

Learning how to fight helped vault McLeod into the pros.

McLeod was 16 when he went to Portland, Oregon, to play at the Major-Junior level in the Western Hockey League, which is a route he says many players take to get to the pros. “I just wanted to play hockey so bad and I wanted it so bad. … Players that I played with were getting drafted and going to the pros and I had played with them for two or three years. And I always thought that I was just as good as them. So once I started scrapping and learning how to fight (things changed).”

He thinks he owes his on-ice temper partially to his red hair.

“I want to win, and I get pissed off easily. It’s the red hair. I’ve got a temper a little bit.” Lombardi then added “Don’t mess with the gingers!”

He’s not too worried about getting hurt in a fight.

“I do my job and I know who I’m fighting and what I have to do to protect myself. That’s the biggest thing — I’ve had 100 some fights and I’ve never been hurt in them. I’ve banged up my hands a couple of times but never been knocked out, or had a concussion.”

He’s full of great hockey quips.

An example: “If you’re going to do something stupid on the ice you’d better be ready for the consequences.”

Learn more about McLeod and his fights, including the surprising fact that he didn’t lose his first tooth during a hockey game, on The 19th Hole Saturday afternoon following the CBS PGA Tour broadcast of the third round of the FedEx St. Jude Classic. (And don’t worry, Lombardi and McLeod do eventually talk about something besides fighting.)

See episodes of The 19th Hole on a special section of CBSDenver.com.