An excerpt from Phil Esposito's book "Thunder and Lighting"...

For the rest of my life I would have to satisfy myself by playing in Old-Timers games. The first Old-tmers game I played in was in Stamford, Connecticut, at the Dorothy Hamill Arena. Gordie Howe, Bobby Hull, and I all played. Gordie was fifty-two and Hull forty-two. We were playing against college guys who could skate pretty well, young guys, lawyers and stockbrokers in their twenties and thirties.
I mean, these guys were flying. Gordie and I were sitting on the bench, and Gordie said, "Jesus, these guys can skate."
"I know," I said. "goddamn, they are getting a little too serious."
Gordie said, "Yeah, they are. We've got to talk to them."
Gordie and I went out onto the ice, and I heard him say to one of the young guys, "Hey take it easy son. Slow down. You don't want to embarrass us old guys."
The guy said, "What's the matter, old timer? Can't keep up?"
The puck dropped, and I sent it over to Bobby, and out of the corner of my eye I could see Gordie whacking the guy who had taunted him.
Whack! Smack! Boom! Bang! The guy went down and he started moaning, "Oh Jesus. Oh Jesus."
Gordie said, "Get up, you fucking suck. Get up. I didn't hit you that hard."
I skated over and said, "Gordie, what happened?"
"I speared him in the balls, " Gordie said.
"You're kidding me, "I said.
"No, " Gordie said. "That will slow him down."
Gordie skated over to their bench, and he said "Does anybody else here want to try to embarrass me?" He then repeated the question to drive home the point.
No one said a word.
I said, "Gordie, you are fucking nuts."
"No way they are going to embarrass me," he said. "I won't let them."
I love Gordie. Gordie is one tough son of a bitch.