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On Monday, news broke that ex-NHLer-turned-broadcaster Paul Bissonnette was involved in an altercation at a Scottsdale restaurant and now he’s telling the story in his own inimitable style.
Bissonnette co-hosts Barstool Sports’ Spittin’ Chiclets podcast and is part of TNT’s studio coverage of the NHL. (They do a fantastic job by the way. TNT knows how to put together a studio crew.) On the latest episode of Spittin’ Chiclets, he talked about how the entire incident went down.
“I’ll just start from the from the beginning,” Bissonnette said. “So, I go to this place called Houston’s, so one of the best-ran chains known to man; very military-like. The staff is incredible.”
Bissonnette said that he went to Houston’s and ordered a salad on Sunday night when he heard a commotion in the bar area from some belligerent, apparently drunk patrons giving the staff a hard time.
“I look over and there’s this gentleman in a red golf shirt, along with about nine other guys,” Biz explained. “He’s being asked to leave by the smaller assistant manager. And this guy is just screaming in his face, creating a ruckus. The whole restaurant now is looking over there like what is happening?”
The restaurant’s manager tried to calm down the other guys by telling them they couldn’t drink in that area unless they had a seat.
They didn’t like that.
One of the men started putting his hands in the restaurant manager’s face.
“I get up and I go over, and I walk over. I grabbed the guy’s arm. I said, Listen, buddy, if you keep harassing and assaulting the staff here, I said, we’re gonna go outside and we’re gonna have some problems. The minute that left my mouth, the guy beside him starts throwing punches, and then next thing you know, there was four guys swinging at me.”
Paul Bissonnette Gives More Details About Wild Restaurant Brawl
Bissonnette — who had 340 penalty minutes in 202 NHL games — said that the fight spilled out of the restaurant.
“My shirt gets ripped off as I’m kind of getting pushed out towards where the main door is,” he explained. “We’re still swinging because there’s like a statue towards the right side as you go to the bathroom. And luckily, I was able to kind of duck underneath that and make my way with the door. Well, we’re all of a sudden now in the parking lot, and they keep coming and we end up in kind of where the first rock area is, where there’s gravel, and they get me down. They’re throwing punches. I’m able to get back up. I lose my shoe. I’m taking some and I’m giving some.”
Jeez, it was a yard sale…
He said that at one point, a shot he threw at one of the guys seemed to enrage the rest of the group and the ex-NHLer was on the receiving end of some kicks.
“They got me on the ground, and I ate three kicks; one of the neck, two in the head,” he said. I was able to get up. And now at this point, I have no shoes on. I got my pants, no shirt.”
Fortunately, he said this all happened over the course of about three minutes and police were quickly on the scene and restored order.
“I just want to thank all the police officers, the ambulance and firemen who came over and helped me out, checked the vitals and, you know, got me kind of back to normal to at least get home to sleep late in the night.”
Bissonnette’s co-host former NHL defenseman Ryan Whitney said he was glad Bissonnette was alright after the ordeal, and I would like to second that. Things could have gone very badly, but fortunately, they didn’t.