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.
So it's not beer league, but my usual 6am drop in today. There is this angry slovak guy that always comes, and he must not have been taught how to filter the **** coming out of his mouth. He is the guy that makes quiet comments under his breath at guys that are not as good as him, and he really is not that good himself. So i've been playing for 5 months or so, I'm 27 now and only played a year of peewee... so im not the greatest player. I shoot the puck on a breakeaway that goes over the net this morning, and this ****** skates up to me and says "what the hell are you doing? You play hockey like a retard". I almost lost my ****ing mind. I remain calm enough to tell him I've been playing for 5 months, and that he needs to think twice about trying to intimidate me, because it sure as hell isnt going to work. I then call him a ****ing **** sucker, and i think he is so used to people being afraid of him that he was kinda shocked. Anyways, he shut up real quick and i heckled him for about 30 minutes after that anytime he made a mistake. Im still pissed just thinking about it , but at 6'2 200lb im not taking **** from some idiot at rec hockey who wants to get all tough guy on me.
We have a guy like that in one of my pickups that I go to. But instead of telling face to face, he makes sniping remarks skating by, I can honestly never tell what he's saying. Regardless he is also pretty bad and cherry picks (as in stands at the opposing blueline) constantly. He gives up on passes that are a little bit ahead or behind him and makes a small hissy fit about it.
Not exactly beer league, but i play every few days at one outdoor rink around town.
I went one day, and there was a guy clearly better than everyone there, mostly kids (13 and under) and a few of me and my buddies who have never played organized hockey, just 3 seasons on the out door ice. Needless to say we weren't even close to his level.
So we threw our sticks in and this guy ends up on a team with my friend and some of the kids. He never passed, deked through kids on his own team, and just insisted on making everyone look stupid.
He got around me, missed the shot and as i was going off to switch, he came by and put it through my legs while i wasnt facing him and started chirping me.
Eventually we all got fed up and stopped playing with him. So a dad and his son come out, the son wearing like, road hockey goalie gear but wants us to shoot on him, so we all gently shoot and keep it low and are having fun.
The guy who insisted on showing everyone up, then comes out and hammers a shot top shelf on the kid, and started chirping the 12 year old in net.
I absolutely lost it. Next move he tried around me, i knocked him on his ass. He kept his head down and all times so i hit him in the chest, and he fell flat on his ass. After this he starts slashing me, tripping me, and just abusing me in general on the ice.
I want to preface this part with saying that i'm not a mean guy, i'm really shy and quiet and have never been into a fight, im always the kind to talk this stuff out.
So i threw my gloves down and challenged him to a fight after he made one of the kids cry because the kid hadn't touched the puck all night being on his team.
The kid blew me off like he didnt want to fight, so i told him to quit being a dumbass and we would be fine, then as i skated away he shoved me from behind down to the ice.
I got up, and as he was laughing in my face, fed him my fist.
I have never felt so good about putting someone in their place.
He ended up trying to get up and falling flat on his face before his friends came and forced him to come off the ice. I'm not sure if it was my punch or the ice, but there was blood pouring out of his nose.
Sorry for the essay like response, i just figured people here would understand where i was coming from.
I normally don't approve of fights or punches being thrown during drop-in/stick toss games. Chirping and going all out against 12 year old kids is bad enough, but that cowardly shove from behind tells me he deserved it.
So it's not beer league, but my usual 6am drop in today. There is this angry slovak guy that always comes, and he must not have been taught how to filter the **** coming out of his mouth. He is the guy that makes quiet comments under his breath at guys that are not as good as him, and he really is not that good himself. So i've been playing for 5 months or so, I'm 27 now and only played a year of peewee... so im not the greatest player. I shoot the puck on a breakeaway that goes over the net this morning, and this ****** skates up to me and says "what the hell are you doing? You play hockey like a retard". I almost lost my ****ing mind. I remain calm enough to tell him I've been playing for 5 months, and that he needs to think twice about trying to intimidate me, because it sure as hell isnt going to work. I then call him a ****ing **** sucker, and i think he is so used to people being afraid of him that he was kinda shocked. Anyways, he shut up real quick and i heckled him for about 30 minutes after that anytime he made a mistake. Im still pissed just thinking about it , but at 6'2 200lb im not taking **** from some idiot at rec hockey who wants to get all tough guy on me.
This weekend there was a little miscommunication and no one brought beers. No one brought their girlfriends/wives/mistresses either so we couldn't ask anyone to run to the liquor store. I had to hydrate myself with that other clear liquid that isn't vodka. I wasn't a happy camper.
No hockey sodas post game? Ouch. Mortal sin of beer league: no beer after the game.
2 things....(both mentioned)
1)the D-bag in beer league who takes it WAY to serious...we are all competitive but there is always "that guy" who takes it to another level
2) (typically at pick ups) the 13-16 year olds who insist on going coast to coast or through 4 defenders everytime they get the puck and try to "dangle" there way to the net while not passing to 4 other wide open team-mates....then scooping the ice or jumping into the boards after they score all while screaming like they just got the cup winning goal....not to mention the defender's they just "dangled" were 8 years old and 50 years old who have a combined playing experiance of 2 years.....i want to check the crap out of them even when they are on my team
I think the thing that drives me most insane is when people bump in adult league, and someone on the bench *****es that a penalty should be called. Really? Really? It's a physical game. Yes, I know there is no hitting. You don't have to take offense to every bump. Just move on and play hard.
I think the thing that drives me most insane is when people bump in adult league, and someone on the bench *****es that a penalty should be called. Really? Really? It's a physical game. Yes, I know there is no hitting. You don't have to take offense to every bump. Just move on and play hard.
I agree with this for the most part.
As a skilled forward with some nastiness to my game, there are lines that you don't cross:
1. Don't finish a check on me in beer league hockey. There's a reason it's non-check and finishing a hit is chicken ****. I'm not expecting to get hit anymore, so I don't brace myself for them like I used to. It's a real jerk move IMO.
2. When I put a move on a defenseman at the blue line, if you body me up a little fine. However, make one push to try to get me off the puck and leave it at that. Anything else, IMO, falls similarly under the rule above. I understand the defensive side of hockey (growing up my brother is a stay at home defender who was downright physical as can be) and that you are taught to play the man.
I add a different perspective than Cole. If I make a move on you at the blue line, I expect you to try to make sure I don't beat you clean. However, it's not within the rules to push me off and then continue to do so so that I can't get to the puck (I've had beer league defenders shove me off twice and attempt to steer me the rest of the way into the boards). That's something you do again, in a real physical hockey game that I grew up playing and was okay with. Not in a beer league setting.
The dynamics of the game change when you play beer league hockey. Physical defensmean at times, struggle to adapt and this ends up frustrating them more than anyone which usually ends up with the defensman laying a full on body check. That upsets me because again, as someone whose played check hockey for awhile, I know how to embrace for a hit. I'm not expecting to get lit up playing beer league. Here's a different take, I use to love to create offense by dumping it in and laying a hit on a defenseman. I can't do that anymore and I adjusted, not sure why others can't.
All in all, I agree with your points in spirit Cole because I think you probably stay on the line that I outlined above. I've met a few who do the things I outlined above and it's almost solely because the only way they can stop forwards is by playing outside of the rules. Again, to put it into perspective, if they can do that, why can't I dump a puck in and lay the body... because it's not off the rush and I don't fall on my ass when I'm pushed? The ironic thing is, that if I did dump it in and lay the lumber, these are the same guys who'd be in the refs ear and trying to fight me. Hockey really is full of a bunch of punks haha.
Yeah I cannot disagree with anything in your post. I was a defensive dman in juniors/college. I love that aspect of the game. It's why i don't play adult league because there is no real reason. I love blocking shots and taking hits. When I feel like **** the next day, I know i battled hard. Adult league has nothing to do with those things. If i play adult league, I just try to keep me feet moving and poke check. It's not my favorite, but that's why i don't really play it.
my biggest problem with beer league is that the refs are some of the most uneducated people in terms of the rulebook.
i mean, i understand offside and icing get missed sometimes, and it's tough for those guys to see every penalty on the ice, but making up [censored] roughing and boarding and, worse yet, a made-up goal against us, is the worst thing save for the 1% of players who play dirty on the regular.
my biggest problem with beer league is that the refs are some of the most uneducated people in terms of the rulebook.
i mean, i understand offside and icing get missed sometimes, and it's tough for those guys to see every penalty on the ice, but making up [censored] roughing and boarding and, worse yet, a made-up goal against us, is the worst thing save for the 1% of players who play dirty on the regular.
Double edged sword, to be honest. Who really wants to ref games at like 11:30PM at night? I'm just happy that there are refs there. Yea, it's annoying when some guys get that power and abuse it, but it's definitely hard to see everything if you haven't played the game forever. I feel their pain and know I wouldn't do it for $10-$20 a game. Just not worth the hassle.
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.
You gotta be kidding me. They must take their beer league way serious up there in Canada because down here in the States that would never fly. Nobody would be willing to waste time and money showing up for games and getting that kind of participation out of it. And almost nobody would be quiet about it. There would be constant in-fighting about ice time on the bench and in the locker room. We've got a good group and have weeded out the problem children (a-holes) over the course of several seasons.
And having played 90% of my hockey in southern States like California and now Florida.....I don't really have a problem with former Junior players showing up for beer league and taking over/coaching from the bench, at least not at the rinks I play at. But for me, i've had mostly good experiences with those guys that were from the States and went up north to play and then came back.
Your post threw me for a loop when you mentioned that guy Barry, because at my last rink there was a super nice guy in his 60's named Barry who was just starting. He would be at stick and puck a couple times a week until he finally started trying to play in some open hockey games when I moved away. But this was in Rockledge, FL.
At my last game I made what i thought was a routine glove save on a particularly heavy shot in the first period. It left my hand stinging (didn't catch the puck in the webbing)but I thought nothing of it. By the third period my hand was still sore, but I shruged it off as the guy just having a hard shot and that a couple beers would make it all better.
At the bar I was rubbing my hand and noticed that my wedding ring wasn't spinning on my finger. Figuring my hand was swollen I pulled as hard as I could on my wedding band to get it off and set it down on the table. Thats when I noticed that my ring was destroyed. The shot had flattened the one side of my ring (I'll try to post a picture later). Has anyone else ever had this happen?
Needless to say my wife just rolled her eyes and was only slightly annoyed when I said I'd just toss the ring in my night stand until I felt like taking it to a jewler to get fixed.
My wedding ring is made of tungsten...and hockey was one of the reasons I wanted it that way.
You gotta be kidding me. They must take their beer league way serious up there in Canada because down here in the States that would never fly. Nobody would be willing to waste time and money showing up for games and getting that kind of participation out of it. And almost nobody would be quiet about it. There would be constant in-fighting about ice time on the bench and in the locker room. We've got a good group and have weeded out the problem children (a-holes) over the course of several seasons.
And having played 90% of my hockey in southern States like California and now Florida.....I don't really have a problem with former Junior players showing up for beer league and taking over/coaching from the bench, at least not at the rinks I play at. But for me, i've had mostly good experiences with those guys that were from the States and went up north to play and then came back.
Your post threw me for a loop when you mentioned that guy Barry, because at my last rink there was a super nice guy in his 60's named Barry who was just starting. He would be at stick and puck a couple times a week until he finally started trying to play in some open hockey games when I moved away. But this was in Rockledge, FL.
Not really, I'd say those guys are an exception. I play in that league, but in the top division. On my team there's myself and two others that are well below that skill level yet except for the last minute of a close game or last few minutes of a playoff game we keep the ice time even. At worse in a close games we'll put a stacked line out to start the PP.
The problem in that situation, while you almost nobody would be quiet about it, really it's an advantageous situation for 6 of the 9 forwards. The problem is with the bottom 3 guys not being outspoken about it. Or I don't know maybe that is a stereotypical Canadian politeness thing? They're probably newer players on their just happy to be on a team.
Watching this thread makes beer league sounds like a lot of fun! I wish i could join a beer league...
I stopped drinking though, are you required to drink beers?
That's another thread, but where I live that's seriously chirp worthy, unless you have a condition. We even have guys who start drinking beer before they step on the ice, and some use it as an energy drink between shifts.
I do not drink much, especially if it's very late, but one bottle is a MUST.
Watching this thread makes beer league sounds like a lot of fun! I wish i could join a beer league...
I stopped drinking though, are you required to drink beers?
Not at all. We have a guy in our league who is a captain and is friendly with everyone; he even comes in the other teams locker rooms after the games and hangs. He doesn't touch beer; he'll sit and drink from a plastic jug of ice tea.
I play on a team with a bunch of my old college friends who are still in the area so we drink a couple before and during. Every game someone brings a 30 and someone else brings another 30 and whatever is left after the game we PLB (parking lot beers) it.
Double edged sword, to be honest. Who really wants to ref games at like 11:30PM at night? I'm just happy that there are refs there. Yea, it's annoying when some guys get that power and abuse it, but it's definitely hard to see everything if you haven't played the game forever. I feel their pain and know I wouldn't do it for $10-$20 a game. Just not worth the hassle.
yeah, ok, there's that, but i wouldn't call it a blessing that we even have refs. part of why they are all bad is because they don't get paid much and good refs don't want to bother with beer league. IMO the league needs to continually educate the refs, improve officiating altogether.
just because someone gave you pants and girdle, and called you a ref, doesn't mean you know what you are doing.
My favorite is when a player decides he wants to camp out right in front of me in the crease, but yet gets mad if i give him a shove out of my crease, or a defenseman forces him out.
Like yes it is non-contact, but don't expect to get to stand right in the goalies kitchen and expect nothing to happen to you. I'm not dirty where i'll slash you or anything like that, but i'll give you a solid blocker to the back more so as a way to just get you off balance and not able to deflect a shot.
So, I'm signed up as a free agent for my beer league which has the first game of the season tomorrow and I still haven't got a call back. There's a vent. ****ing annoying.
, but at 6'2 200lb im not taking **** from some idiot at rec hockey who wants to get all tough guy on me.
