The RinkFor the not so ready for prime-time players, coaches, referees, and the people that have to live with them. Discuss experiences in local leagues, coaching tips, equipment, and training.
My only complaint recently is that I'm on two bad teams. I'm one of the best forwards on both teams, and I like to think I hustle my ass off, so it can be frustrating.
The winger who believes it's better to double-team the guy in the corner than cover the guy with the 90mph slapshot creeping in from the point.
Having those slapshots continually sail by my ear, which is better than them landing I guess.
Falling on my ass because I'm terrible.
The refs who have never called a penalty in their lives, but break out some obscure delay of game penalty because our goalie dropped a puck forward out of his glove rather than behind him.
The refs who call 20 penalties a game, then spend 2 minutes explaining each one in a run-time game.
The refs who can't even hit the faceoff dot when they drop a puck.
Any jerkjob who chops my goalie's glove.
Having 66% of this season's games start at 11pm or later.
The winger who believes it's better to double-team the guy in the corner than cover the guy with the 90mph slapshot creeping in from the point.
Having those slapshots continually sail by my ear, which is better than them landing I guess.
Falling on my ass because I'm terrible.
The refs who have never called a penalty in their lives, but break out some obscure delay of game penalty because our goalie dropped a puck forward out of his glove rather than behind him.
The refs who call 20 penalties a game, then spend 2 minutes explaining each one in a run-time game.
The refs who can't even hit the faceoff dot when they drop a puck.
Any jerkjob who chops my goalie's glove.
Having 66% of this season's games start at 11pm or later.
The guy who doesn't practice what he preaches.
"K guys, lets keep the shifts short and make sure to back check hard" Mean while he takes 3 minutes shifts circling around the red line waiting for a 100ft pass
People that think that every goal against is a result of a collosal break down. Beleive it or not, sometimes the other team makes a nice play and scores.
The puck hog in warmup
Our warm ups are pretty standard as we only gat 5 minutes if we are lucky...semi circle around the goalie and fire away, alternating leftside rightside leftside righside to get the goalie movie laterally. We had a sub come out one day, nabbed 7 or 8 pucks, line them up in the slot and did rapid fire while the rest of the team shared the other 3 pucks.
Goon squads
Pretty self explainatory. Played against one guy who 'bragged' about not finnishing a game all year. No surprised he gooned someone and got tossed.
Chronic arguers
Yep, that offside call was close and could of gone either way...but now we are killing a 2minute minor penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct...but it's totally worth it because you pwned the ref with the "Your heads up your ass" comment...very original!
And I agree...earlier in the game when you took the 50 ft run at the guy jumped in the air, and kicked him in the throat, and as he lay convulsing on the ice you planted your stick in him like you were Neal Armstrong planting a flag on the moon....that was a total BS call. Good thing you argued! That 2nd minor was worth it! Everyone knows that the rest of the calls all game will now go our way!
We're all a bunch of jerk-offs, so it works well. The C and the A are always in a race to see who can rack up the most PIMs. Every other team hates us. We decided not to put names no our jerseys so we would be less identifiable.
We gloat. We are bad sports. We constantly yell at the refs. We take runs at people. Revenge before goals.
And after all that, we still win the championships 1/3 of the time.
Good call on the wingers than pretend they're defensemen.
Also, the guys that run the league. They can't evaluate players properly, so they just randomly force teams to give up players based on team success rather than individual talent. So a team with a couple B-level ringers on a crappy D-level team can keep them, while a solid D-level with maybe a C-level goalie has to give up everyone who can score or move up and get smoked.
And another **** you to the guys who run the league who demanded we make roster changes or move up a few days before registration was due, rather than THE ENTIRE SUMMER when they could have called or e-mailed. Not like we've given them $20,000 in league fees the last five years or anything.
We're all a bunch of jerk-offs, so it works well. The C and the A are always in a race to see who can rack up the most PIMs. Every other team hates us. We decided not to put names no our jerseys so we would be less identifiable.
We gloat. We are bad sports. We constantly yell at the refs. We take runs at people. Revenge before goals.
And after all that, we still win the championships 1/3 of the time.
We're all a bunch of jerk-offs, so it works well. The C and the A are always in a race to see who can rack up the most PIMs. Every other team hates us. We decided not to put names no our jerseys so we would be less identifiable.
We gloat. We are bad sports. We constantly yell at the refs. We take runs at people. Revenge before goals.
And after all that, we still win the championships 1/3 of the time.
We're all a bunch of jerk-offs, so it works well. The C and the A are always in a race to see who can rack up the most PIMs. Every other team hates us. We decided not to put names no our jerseys so we would be less identifiable.
We gloat. We are bad sports. We constantly yell at the refs. We take runs at people. Revenge before goals.
And after all that, we still win the championships 1/3 of the time.
I hate the ringer that shows up to the begginer league and shoots slappers from the point through traffic. I hate it even more this week b/c I took that slapper off my leg. You know in that spot you always get hit, above the boot and to the side of the shin pad with no protection.
My only complaint recently is that I'm on two bad teams. I'm one of the best forwards on both teams, and I like to think I hustle my ass off, so it can be frustrating.
One thing that has been driving me nuts in one of my leagues is there's a guy who's basically taking over the team, setting the lines. What makes it worse is that he keeps putting all the best players on his line with the rest on the other lines. The problem with that is there's a pretty big difference in skill between the two lines and it gets to the point where the other line is lucky to get 3 shots on net all game. To make matters worse, his line hasn't even been able to score that often. Based on the skill that's on that line, they should be scoring 5-6 goals every game but lately they struggle for 2-3. The problem is the other team just looks at the line and puts their better defensive pairing on the ice against them and shut them down every time.
If you were from NY I would think you were describing my team. We have had the same collection of guys for the past year, and we had a guy added late this season. He comes in and decides he is the "captain and coach". The guy is also a flat out awful hockey player. We have kept the lines pretty loose the last year and a half, we all get along really well, and we give everyone a chance to play with everyone. We have a few guys that are very good, a few beginners, and guys in the middle like myself. For the most part, we are between 18-22 or so, because were the guys that work at the rink.
Long story short, this year we got this guy added to our team who didnt have a team so he comes in and declares himself coach, captain and GM. He is assigning lines in warmups, assigning D-pairings, and bringing people with him to the rink, screwing with everyones ice time, because he is the only player on the team too winded to keep up with a regular shift. Our last game, the first period ended, and el capitan skates over to the bench, and says to our best player (who in addition to being the best player we have by a mile, is also a really great kid, who always looks to set up the guys that have never played before, and has the ego of a snail) "I'm gonna drop you to the second line". The blank stare with the WTF face that followed was too priceless for words.
Why don't you guys just boot his ass off the team?
If anyone came in and even thought about pulling that stuff with our team he'd be gone. We're a pretty tight group; you have to earn the respect of your teammates, and then we'll go to battle for you.
We split up our duties with the captain taking over the admin and general attitude/direction (i.e. keeping things cool, recruiting players, dealing with subs, paying league fees, etc), one forward is the alternate and he's in charge of forward lines and practices, and one defenseman is an alternate and is in charge of D pairings and drills. Works out really well.
players thinking they are "a" players when they are barely "c"
i play on two teams, the one i really enjoy and everyone has a good time except this one guy who tries to run the team but im not too upset about all that
the other team....we have guys that are over 30 and play goons, and a couple that try and coach us like hard, pre game speeches and talks about positioning and doing the small things when its ****in beer league and noone dumps and chases, then i have these 2 guys who look and skate exactly alike and are ****in terrible and take 2 minute shifts because they dont skate.
i really cant stand my one team. i only like about 3 guys on the team. its the most ignorant delusional lockerroom ive ever been in. these guys take it so seriously and really think we should play a system or something. they try and coach but they are the dumbest hockey minds ive played with, zero hockey sense. the worst is we've had so many ****ing too many men penalties because these 2 guys that look and skate exactly alike dont know how to handle it when we dont have even lines....plus the goons and the other guys who dont know how to change lines take a **** load of penalties which means guys like me get shorter shifts
****ing ****ernner **** ass
LMAO. I'm sorry for this but that post actually made my morning. I don't think I can tolerate humanity enough for team sports.
Easier still, just tell him to shut up and sit down. Don't guys play hockey to get away from that at home?
from my experience the guys whose old ladies are the boss at home seem to like to try and run everything when they get away from them... whether its at hockey, softball, work whatever.
Nah, I'm just venting (OK, whining). I really like my teammates and I enjoy playing on my teams, I'd just like to win for once.
Trust me I understand. It's always a predicament when your playing on a team full of good people but the team sucks. Luckily after years I finally found a team that had a good group of guys and could play good hockey.
As much as playing with a good group of people is key. Me personally, I can only take so much playing with teammates who are far below my level and don't challenge my competitive instincts. Having a good time is foremost but eventually after years you want to play with people who can skate, pass, shoot, pick their heads up, breakout, cycle. It feels good to play real hockey again.
I was desperate for some hockey one year and basically put my name out for any team that had a spot. Ended up with a team in Division 7, I think, of the Duffers Hockey League in Vancouver. (I usually play Div 1 but thought at least it would be a way to get some skating legs in).
These guys played a full, set-line system. They had their top line which they put out in all key situations, their second line, and their 3rd "checking line". The checking line was where they stuck guys they thought couldn't score. That's where I ended up as the new guy.
It didn't matter if we'd gotten on the ice two seconds earlier. If the other team iced the puck for an offensive zone faceoff, we were called back to the bench so "the top line" could go out. Faceoff in our own end? Back to the bench we go so the top line's "faceoff specialist" could come out. We get on and the other team takes a penalty? Back to the bench so "the top unit" could go on the PP.
It was Division SEVEN. Beer league. These guys sucked.
My last game I got kind of cheesed off. I was ticked not just for myself, but for my two linemates. Here's two guys who at a later age were learning to play hockey, paying the same as the rest of these clowns and playing way, way, way less. So the "second line is out" and the bench notices the other team has some weak guys on the ice. Woop! Better get the top line out there to take advantage. They start calling the second line off. I practically tossed my "checking line" linemates over the boards onto the ice and gave us a shift. I checked the hell out of every opposing player setting up every gimme pass I could for these guys until finally one of them, an awesome, nice guy named Barry, finally managed to swipe one home.
Then I quit.
Anyways, end of that story. One of my big pet peeves is playing with guys who played Junior B. I don't mean the nice guys(who in my experience, are few and far between) who played a high level of hockey and are chill about it. I mean the idiots who played a couple of games of Junior B one year and think they're the cat's you-know-what. Always quick to criticise their teammates, their goalies, etc. "Keep two hands on the stick" "heads up for the pass" "don't throw it up the middle" and then proceed to not follow their own advice.
My favorite is a guy who quite literally will not shut up about how everyone else should carry and move the puck. His play is characterized by getting the puck in his own end, skating wide down the wing until he's practically beside the net and hitting the outside of the post, missing the two or three guys open in the slot. Oi.
Goon teams irritate me as well. It's a beer league...relax.
I was desperate for some hockey one year and basically put my name out for any team that had a spot. Ended up with a team in Division 7, I think, of the Duffers Hockey League in Vancouver. (I usually play Div 1 but thought at least it would be a way to get some skating legs in).
These guys played a full, set-line system. They had their top line which they put out in all key situations, their second line, and their 3rd "checking line". The checking line was where they stuck guys they thought couldn't score. That's where I ended up as the new guy.
It didn't matter if we'd gotten on the ice two seconds earlier. If the other team iced the puck for an offensive zone faceoff, we were called back to the bench so "the top line" could go out. Faceoff in our own end? Back to the bench we go so the top line's "faceoff specialist" could come out. We get on and the other team takes a penalty? Back to the bench so "the top unit" could go on the PP.
It was Division SEVEN. Beer league. These guys sucked.
My last game I got kind of cheesed off. I was ticked not just for myself, but for my two linemates. Here's two guys who at a later age were learning to play hockey, paying the same as the rest of these clowns and playing way, way, way less. So the "second line is out" and the bench notices the other team has some weak guys on the ice. Woop! Better get the top line out there to take advantage. They start calling the second line off. I practically tossed my "checking line" linemates over the boards onto the ice and gave us a shift. I checked the hell out of every opposing player setting up every gimme pass I could for these guys until finally one of them, an awesome, nice guy named Barry, finally managed to swipe one home.
Then I quit.
You've got to be kidding
To me it's simple, we all pay the same $$$ so we all get the same ice.
Doesn't matter what the situation is, if you're up then you're up.
If that means that the weaker players are killing a penalty or on the PP so be it.
We win as a team and we lose as team.
Good for you for what you did.
