Beer League Frustrations Vent Thread III

[ArGarBarGar]

Continue venting.

Previous thread: http://hfboards.mandatory.com/showthread.php?t=1452477

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[STC]

Won our game in OT, my buddy cellied. Other team was being dirty & chippy all game (plus the other games we've played them) so they rush the ice and a scrum ensues. Long story short were all leaving the ice and one guy decides to say "I swear on my life I will kill your brother and your family...."



If I had a dollar for every time some coward made a threat either as he was leaving the ice or as he was walking into the locker room I'd be a very rich man.

People who mean business take care of it on the ice right then and there and without much talking beforehand. Cowards who just want to hear themselves talk wait till the handshake line or until everyone is headed to the locker room...then they go hide in the room.


I play against one team with a guy like that..the last 3 games he hasn't said a word on the ice, but after the game he challenged me to a fight in the parking lot while he was walking into his locker room as I was walking into mine 40 feet down the hall.

 

[StLHokie]

Last night we got beat worse than I've ever experience in a hockey game at any level. Score was like 12-1 or something brutal.

The frustrating part wasn't that we got beat, but rather how. I play for a military team here in Germany which means we have players from all sorts of backgrounds. We've got ex D1 players, guys that have played Junior B, etc while also having guys that have really just started learning how to skate and play for the first time.

We normally have the teams separated into more of an "A" and "B" team, but at times the teams are mixed because the amount of games we have are limited, and the team is more about having fun playing. So everyone gets a chance to play.

Well last night, it ended up that we had a game against a very very strong team. Guys on the other team were ex-DEL2 players, one guy was a brother of a player who's played over 100 games for team Germany etc. They were clearly a team that our "A" team would have a pretty good challenge with. But because of how our team works, we ended up having probably 5 guys that were on the "A" team, and the other 10 were from the "B" team.

Needless to say, the 5 A team guys were on the ice for a grand total of 1 goal against. one of the B team lines were a -2. The second B team line? Each player was at least a -8.

Literally nothing we could do to stop the one line from conceding a goal almost every time they were on the ice. Tried matching lines/etc. Didn't work. So frustrating.

 

[Outl4w]

We won the championship 3-0. The other teams first shot of the game the goalie makes a glove save, and refs blows the whistle. Five seconds later a guy skates full steam ahead of two hands the goalie in the wrist. I skate to the player and completely level him. The ref tells me if I touch him again or say a word to him I go to the box. I just tell the ref thanks he deserved that. The ref smirked and didn't reply, but he knew that guy deserved it. A few shifts later same guy tries to deke me, and I still the puck from him on the boards. I start to skate away and he two hands me in the back. I go end to end and score. He then calls me a f**, and I laugh and say sweet cheeks that goal is for you. He lost it. Throws it equipment on the bench and starts cursing all kinds of tirades. He gets a 10 minute bench misconduct. We dominated , and if it wasn't for their goalie making several amazing saves it would have been 6+ to 0.

 

[Goonzilla]

We won the championship 3-0. The other teams first shot of the game the goalie makes a glove save, and refs blows the whistle. Five seconds later a guy skates full steam ahead of two hands the goalie in the wrist. I skate to the player and completely level him. The ref tells me if I touch him again or say a word to him I go to the box. I just tell the ref thanks he deserved that. The ref smirked and didn't reply, but he knew that guy deserved it. A few shifts later same guy tries to deke me, and I still the puck from him on the boards. I start to skate away and he two hands me in the back. I go end to end and score. He then calls me a f**, and I laugh and say sweet cheeks that goal is for you. He lost it. Throws it equipment on the bench and starts cursing all kinds of tirades. He gets a 10 minute bench misconduct. We dominated , and if it wasn't for their goalie making several amazing saves it would have been 6+ to 0.

That doesn't sound too much like a beer league frustration; laid out a dude, got a freebie from the ref, scored a goal and won the championship.

 

[Outl4w]

That doesn't sound too much like a beer league frustration; laid out a dude, got a freebie from the ref, scored a goal and won the championship.

Nah it was funny. Fun times

 

[Meuracas]

Last night we got beat worse than I've ever experience in a hockey game at any level. Score was like 12-1 or something brutal.

The frustrating part wasn't that we got beat, but rather how. I play for a military team here in Germany which means we have players from all sorts of backgrounds. We've got ex D1 players, guys that have played Junior B, etc while also having guys that have really just started learning how to skate and play for the first time.

We normally have the teams separated into more of an "A" and "B" team, but at times the teams are mixed because the amount of games we have are limited, and the team is more about having fun playing. So everyone gets a chance to play.

Well last night, it ended up that we had a game against a very very strong team. Guys on the other team were ex-DEL2 players, one guy was a brother of a player who's played over 100 games for team Germany etc. They were clearly a team that our "A" team would have a pretty good challenge with. But because of how our team works, we ended up having probably 5 guys that were on the "A" team, and the other 10 were from the "B" team.

Needless to say, the 5 A team guys were on the ice for a grand total of 1 goal against. one of the B team lines were a -2. The second B team line? Each player was at least a -8.

Literally nothing we could do to stop the one line from conceding a goal almost every time they were on the ice. Tried matching lines/etc. Didn't work. So frustrating.

I feel for you, I really do. We've got something similar going on with our team, where there's a bunch of guys who have only recently started playing hockey and others who went to Junior B etc.

Basically same thing, depending on how the lineups rotate (we roll 3 lines of forwards and 3 pairs of D) approximately 3-4 forwards and 2-3 D are always left out of the lineup. We've got usually 2 good lines and the third line which concedes most of the goals - and if you are lucky you end up playing center on the helicopter line - no wings.

My question is, what do those guys get out of it? I mean, every time they hit the ice they get pinned down on the D-zone, let in a goal and come back on the bench. I get it, it should be fun and everyone plays but...is that really their concept of fun? And if the team actually wants to get better and advance to an upper tier, how do you ask these guys nicely to drop out?

 

[Fremitus Borealis]

^Yeah, my team is having a similar issue at the moment. We're in the novice division, but the range in ability level even on one team is pretty huge. We've been trying to deal with it by having one "slower" guy per line instead of having one terrible line, but I'm not sure how sustainable that is.

What I don't really understand is how it is seemingly the guys who are the worst who have no interest in improving at all. For some of them I think joining hockey was kind of an excuse to "be active again" or something, but in my mind, there are waaaaay cheaper ways to do that than playing hockey

My biggest worry is what's going to happen moving forward into next season. You can only stay in the novice division for one year, so I'm worried there will be some nightmare scenario where they try and break our team up and force us onto different teams advancing into D2. I'd much rather just have the "less motivated" guys quit and fill their spots with new guys next fall.

 

[Goonzilla]

I feel for you, I really do. We've got something similar going on with our team, where there's a bunch of guys who have only recently started playing hockey and others who went to Junior B etc.

Basically same thing, depending on how the lineups rotate (we roll 3 lines of forwards and 3 pairs of D) approximately 3-4 forwards and 2-3 D are always left out of the lineup. We've got usually 2 good lines and the third line which concedes most of the goals - and if you are lucky you end up playing center on the helicopter line - no wings.

My question is, what do those guys get out of it? I mean, every time they hit the ice they get pinned down on the D-zone, let in a goal and come back on the bench. I get it, it should be fun and everyone plays but...is that really their concept of fun? And if the team actually wants to get better and advance to an upper tier, how do you ask these guys nicely to drop out?

Presumably you've got a team captain, manager or organiser that can take care of any dirty jobs like trimming down the roster?

But you've got to decide why everyone plays. I have no problems playing with weaker players, providing they try hard and are improving, but it's no fun if they're just turning up, staying out too long, making little or no effort and not improving.

Also got to remember it's still a team sport; and the team is only as good as the weakest links or line. If the top two are scoring 6 goals and the bottom is letting in 6 then it's going to be frustrating, but there's an onus on the top players to help them out some. If the better players refuse to play with them or shuffle the lines to bring some balance, then they're just as culpable in any poor results. How you organise your lines is important..and doesn't mean anyone has to play with the weaker guys every week either.

 

[leftwinger37]

Also got to remember it's still a team sport; and the team is only as good as the weakest links or line. If the top two are scoring 6 goals and the bottom is letting in 6 then it's going to be frustrating, but there's an onus on the top players to help them out some. If the better players refuse to play with them or shuffle the lines to bring some balance, then they're just as culpable in any poor results. How you organise your lines is important..and doesn't mean anyone has to play with the weaker guys every week either.

Took the words right out of my mouth... err fingers. If your lineup is top-heavy, you're staking the deck against yourself. You've got to put your weaker players in a position to succeed. How can you expect anything more than disappointment if they have nothing to work with? Playing with better players simplifies the game for the weaker guys because they really just have to work on being in the right spots and having their sticks on the ice. Accordingly, it takes a lot of pressure of that top line to be accountable for all of the team's production. If you're not going to "cut the fat" so to speak, then you've just got to play with the hand you've been dealt.

 

[theotis77]

Other team was allowed to pick up a ringer for reasons I can't explain, as there was no justification for it. No idea why the league office let it happen. He's playing about 2 divisions below where he should be, and is scoring 4 goals a game.

 

[Gavy]

My ball hockey team had a game last thursday.

During the game one of our guys got high sticked in the cheek, the ref blew the whistle and our guy turned around to say something to the guy who high sticked him.. BAM!!
The guy sucker punched our guy in the jaw with his glove on. Knocked him out and our guy went down, smacked his head of the floor and I guess that woke him up and he got up and by that time a scrum ensued, their team trying to restrain their guy and our team trying to get our guy.
What does the guy who high sticked and sucker punch our guy do? Gets free and lets go 2-3 more punches on our restrained guy who is still woozy.

Immediately leaves the floor and arena.

We will probably play those guys again, our team is full of close knit guys so there will no doubt be hell to pay.
I'm honestly thinking about asking the other team to sit that guy out for that game as I don't want it to be an absolute ****show

 

[bigwillie]

Went on a 30 mile bike ride yesterday, then took a 2 hour nap before heading to a pickup. Played in net for the first 30 minutes before switching to skate out, since we had three goalies but not a whole lot of skaters.

My only complaint is that I'm ridiculously sore today.

 

[JKinCLE]

Helicopter line - no wings

I'm pretty familiar with this. Not the terminology, but I love it.

And if the team actually wants to get better and advance to an upper tier, how do you ask these guys nicely to drop out?

Is there a way to achieve this?

What I don't really understand is how it is seemingly the guys who are the worst who have no interest in improving at all.

You have to wonder when the pride kicks in, right?

I'd much rather just have the "less motivated" guys quit and fill their spots with new guys next fall.

In a perfect world...


I am glad you guys went through the trouble of writing out all of my grievances and saved me the time. But I'm with you guys on almost all points.

 

[Fremitus Borealis]

Yeah I mean the thing is.... I want them to get better. The problem is, not all of them seem to want to. Actually the strangest thing to me is that a few of the worst guys on my team actually have kids who play... so I'm wondering if the problem is a) they just joined the league so they could have something in common with their kids, or b) they have kids, so they don't have the time or will to actually improve their game, because they have *actual* things to worry about (i.e. feeding their family). Obviously the latter is important for sure, but I'm not sure that it trumps one's ability improve at things. Some of the better players on my team have kids who play as well, so I'm sure it's not a one-size-fits-all answer.

 

[Fremitus Borealis]

Related frustration: how ****ing hard is it to get back to the captains with a simple yes/no on whether you'll be playing/practicing/whatever? I fully understand that getting 100% turnout on anything with a group of people who have lives outside of rec hockey will be kind of rare, since it means taking time you could be using on family, other hobbies, etc. But when it comes to letting us know if you'll be there, just so we can get a head count? That takes like 2 minutes.

Best part is it tends to be the more boisterous, full-of-themselves guys who do this. Same kind of people who don't use turn signals because, "Pssh, I know where I'm going!"

 

[STC]

Related frustration: how ****ing hard is it to get back to the captains with a simple yes/no on whether you'll be playing/practicing/whatever? I fully understand that getting 100% turnout on anything with a group of people who have lives outside of rec hockey will be kind of rare, since it means taking time you could be using on family, other hobbies, etc. But when it comes to letting us know if you'll be there, just so we can get a head count? That takes like 2 minutes.

Best part is it tends to be the more boisterous, full-of-themselves guys who do this. Same kind of people who don't use turn signals because, "Pssh, I know where I'm going!"

I put this on the captain. You need a strong captain to reign this in. On my teams we have a strict email policy where you have to reply in or out to the game by email. Replies have to be in by the morning of the game. Maybes or 50/50 or gonna try and make it are considered NO's. Later in the day captain sends out an email with the lineup including line assignments.

If someone says they will be there and they don't show up they are fined a case of beer that they have to bring to the next game.

If someone who said no changes their mind and wants to play they have to email the team first and make sure there is room in the lineup.

 

[Fremitus Borealis]

Last night my team endured yet another loss. We're actually getting better as a team every game, but there are a handful of frustrating things that have been wearing on me, and almost all of them happened last night.

Probably the worst is that we've had at least one too-many-men penalty in every game. On some level, **** happens.... but on these it's usually "what didn't happen"... i.e. the guy on the ice didn't hustle off. Other times, some guys seem to get confused about who should even be going over the boards, and then we'll end up with a whole crowd of people standing around.

I think it's symptomatic of a bigger issue, which is that the captain and others are kind of afraid to step on anybody's toes. I get that we're all in this for fun and everything, but at a certain level there's got to be some "strategy" involved, at least as far as "don't have two players who can barely skate out there for the PK" and things like that. As of now we've just been "rolling" the lines, i.e. you know who's ahead of you and who's behind you in your position, and you just change based on that. The problem is the "not-as-strong" players tend to have a harder time getting back to the bench, and still have no internal clock telling them how long is too long to be out.

Other guys just have no hustle whatsoever. I get that it's 10PM on a weeknight and you probably have to work in the morning, but come on man, you signed up for this ****, ya know? There are a couple guys who have pretty decent skills, but their top speed has got to be about 1/3 as fast as they actually could skate.

Finally, I'm convinced that there are a good 5 or 6 guys on my team who don't actually know how the offsides rule works. We had about a half dozen great scoring opportunities blown last night because either someone wasn't careful at the line, or else one of the other guys was just inexplicably parked in the attacking zone, 10 seconds before the puck entered. These are the ones that are the most mind-blowing, because it's not like they just got overzealous and entered slightly ahead of the puck carrier; instead, they're basically sitting there, watching the play approach them.

Anyway, enough ranting for now. Despite how I made it sound, it actually wasn't that bad of a game I just wish we could iron out this crap so we could start winning a few games.

 

[ArcataShark]

My ball hockey team had a game last thursday.

During the game one of our guys got high sticked in the cheek, the ref blew the whistle and our guy turned around to say something to the guy who high sticked him.. BAM!!
The guy sucker punched our guy in the jaw with his glove on. Knocked him out and our guy went down, smacked his head of the floor and I guess that woke him up and he got up and by that time a scrum ensued, their team trying to restrain their guy and our team trying to get our guy.
What does the guy who high sticked and sucker punch our guy do? Gets free and lets go 2-3 more punches on our restrained guy who is still woozy.

Immediately leaves the floor and arena.

We will probably play those guys again, our team is full of close knit guys so there will no doubt be hell to pay.
I'm honestly thinking about asking the other team to sit that guy out for that game as I don't want it to be an absolute ****show

Damn, that's wild. Hope your guy is okay. What kind of clown high sticks someone, then sucker punches the player?!? I would hope they sit this guy for the next game. Hope you guys get revenge by playing a good clean game and kicking the crap out of them on the score sheet.

 

[CarpeNoctem]

I have a permanently screwed up right hip because a no-talent ********* couldn't take me stripping him of the puck every time he had it, so he corkscrewed me from behind.

How I miss playoff games between adult men in a recreational league, when some players are under the illusion that the lives of their families are on the line. FFS, I don't miss it.

 

[Fremitus Borealis]

I have a permanently screwed up right hip because a no-talent ********* couldn't take me stripping him of the puck every time he had it, so he corkscrewed me from behind.

How I miss playoff games between adult men in a recreational league, when some players are under the illusion that the lives of their families are on the line. FFS, I don't miss it.

Yeah. The worst are the fat pieces of **** who can barely skate, but have decided that instead of getting better at hockey, they're just going to be the rec league Tie Domi. Our "main rival" team has a guy like this and good god is it ****ing annoying. I line up across from him on the opening faceoff and he's already trying to shove me down; I'm convinced the refs allow it because they think it's funny seeing the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man out on the ice, and can't bear the thought of trying to fit him into the penalty box.

 

[Claudi27]

Last night we got beat worse than I've ever experience in a hockey game at any level. Score was like 12-1 or something brutal.

The frustrating part wasn't that we got beat, but rather how. I play for a military team here in Germany which means we have players from all sorts of backgrounds. We've got ex D1 players, guys that have played Junior B, etc while also having guys that have really just started learning how to skate and play for the first time.

We normally have the teams separated into more of an "A" and "B" team, but at times the teams are mixed because the amount of games we have are limited, and the team is more about having fun playing. So everyone gets a chance to play.

Well last night, it ended up that we had a game against a very very strong team. Guys on the other team were ex-DEL2 players, one guy was a brother of a player who's played over 100 games for team Germany etc. They were clearly a team that our "A" team would have a pretty good challenge with. But because of how our team works, we ended up having probably 5 guys that were on the "A" team, and the other 10 were from the "B" team.

Needless to say, the 5 A team guys were on the ice for a grand total of 1 goal against. one of the B team lines were a -2. The second B team line? Each player was at least a -8.

Literally nothing we could do to stop the one line from conceding a goal almost every time they were on the ice. Tried matching lines/etc. Didn't work. So frustrating.

I would kill to play against such good players.

There's hardly anything at stake, you're not supposed to win, just play hard, get beat, see what you need to work on, and get back at it.

I feel like you should be glad.

 

[Goonzilla]

I love playing against guys that have played Junior or college, etc. It's challenging, you have to push yourself and you really get to see where you're at with your game.

I know one of them will leap in here and say they're not even trying; but every now and then they want to show everyone they still got it.

They're great to learn off too, either giving pointers or just watching them..or getting dangled or stripped by them.

 

[Goonzilla]

Yeah. The worst are the fat pieces of **** who can barely skate, but have decided that instead of getting better at hockey, they're just going to be the rec league Tie Domi. Our "main rival" team has a guy like this and good god is it ****ing annoying. I line up across from him on the opening faceoff and he's already trying to shove me down; I'm convinced the refs allow it because they think it's funny seeing the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man out on the ice, and can't bear the thought of trying to fit him into the penalty box.

I'm in two minds about it, because I love a challenge and I love competing, be it checkers, running up a hill, playing hockey or whatever. It's not about trying to prove anything to anyone, but it is about pushing yourself.

Invariably it means playing hard at hockey, not playing dirty, but you play to win..and winning matters..or at least effort does. That means you'll rub some people up the wrong way sometimes, but you can always find some guys on the other team up for a little 'competition'. I'll 'bump' people where I can, but not trying to wipe anyone out..and won't complain if I get bumped.

That said, I've come across idiots in sports just looking to hurt or maim people..to me they're still a challenge to be 'dealt' with, be it verbally or whatever.

 

[DonskoiDonscored]

I really don't understand how ringers have fun at lower levels. 10-2 final and it was 6-1 after the first.

They only had two goal scorers...