I am a bit (cough, cough) older so I'd like to bring to your attention the name engraved on the Lady Byng trophy as recipient two years running...Stan Mikita(66-67. 67-68)
On his wikipedia page I found the following:
In his early years, Mikita was among the most penalized players in the league, but he then decided to play a cleaner game and went on to win the Lady Byng Memorial Trophy for sportsmanlike conduct twice. Mikita's drastic change in behavior came after he returned home from a road trip. His wife told him that while their daughter, Meg, was watching the Black Hawks' last road game on television, she turned and said, "Mommy, why does Daddy spend so much time sitting down?" The camera had just shown Mikita in the penalty box again (from Mikita's autobiography "I Play to Win.")
What the page does not say is that Stan announced to the press at training camp that he was going to 'clean up his play" and then proceeded to play exactly as he had before....chippy, elbows first, etc, etc. but because he had told the press he was 'clean", the refs stopped looking at him.
ps....the Broad Street Bullies were pretty tough
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For 'tis the sport to have the engineer. Hoist with his own petard.
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