He had to be his own enforcer.
He did it by being worse than the offender in a lot of cases.
There was a funny story from an old timer who used to do color commentary for the Sabres - Jim Lorentz. He retells a tale about the first time he's playing Gordie and Gordie was his boyhood hero and this game against the Wings was in either 68 or 1969. So they go into the corner and Howe hits him with an elbow, then starts jabbing him in the arm, buttending him just below where the old shoulder pads would end. Every shift, some sort of whack on the arm from either end of Howe's stick. He said his arms weight a million pounds by the end of the night and he needed ice for the bruising but he didn't care because he got to play in a game with Howe.
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