Nilan documentary showcases hockey's fight game, highlights the career of a premier tough guy

During his playing days, Chris Nilan was known as "Knuckles," one of the NHL's premier tough guys of the 1980s.

Decades later, he's telling his story in the documentary "The Last Gladiators." In the opening scene, Nilan stretches out his hands, then makes a pair of fists and showed part of the sacrifices he's made while earning that nickname. The knuckle on his right pinky finger is ground to about nothing. The one was on his index finger was shattered and now gone, nothing now but a soft patch of skin.

"The Last Gladiators" shows the price paid for so many fights.

The film is in theaters this month in select cities and debuts on video on demand Friday.