Beer League Frustrations Vent Thread III

[Blufreezy]

Played the last game of our regular season tonight against a team who was bumped down from C to D recently. They had pretty good defense and a great goalie on top of we didn't play a good game and they beat us 5-0. In the last 30ish seconds of the game one of their players was about to receive a breakaway pass but I hustled and cut in front of him to intercept it. I continue on and cradle the puck back in my zone a bit and then send a breakout pass up the ice, I head up the ice and this guy runs me along the boards and starts slashing me calling me on to fight. I'm confused as **** to what's going on so I do what I always do when someones riled and stand there smiling and laughing at him as it gets broken up and he gets sent to the box with two double minors. Thanks for the power play bud, I'm sorry you feel embarrassed. (If only it wasn't the end of the game ) I don't fight, I have a real job to go to, I can't hide a black eye behind the walls of a McDonald's drive thru.

Anyways game ends we shake hands like usual and as we're walking to our dressing room they're standing by their room waiting for the guy with the key, a few guys on their team starts chirping our goalie saying he's so bad and a bunch of other crap - completely unprovoked - Luckily our goalie is older and mature enough to not give a ****.

I've played hockey for like 20 years, I don't think I've ever seen such a pathetic showing of poor sportsmanship in my life. It's ****ing meaningless D1 division ****ing beer league - Congratulations, you were good in house league as a kid. Get over yourselves. We played bad, you played good, you shut us out, woopty doo, No one cares. The sad thing is I don't think any of the guys acting like dicks were under the age of 30.

 

[Goonzilla]

Played the last game of our regular season tonight against a team who was bumped down from C to D recently. They had pretty good defense and a great goalie on top of we didn't play a good game and they beat us 5-0. In the last 30ish seconds of the game one of their players was about to receive a breakaway pass but I hustled and cut in front of him to intercept it. I continue on and cradle the puck back in my zone a bit and then send a breakout pass up the ice, I head up the ice and this guy runs me along the boards and starts slashing me calling me on to fight. I'm confused as **** to what's going on so I do what I always do when someones riled and stand there smiling and laughing at him as it gets broken up and he gets sent to the box with two double minors. Thanks for the power play bud, I'm sorry you feel embarrassed. (If only it wasn't the end of the game ) I don't fight, I have a real job to go to, I can't hide a black eye behind the walls of a McDonald's drive thru.

Anyways game ends we shake hands like usual and as we're walking to our dressing room they're standing by their room waiting for the guy with the key, a few guys on their team starts chirping our goalie saying he's so bad and a bunch of other crap - completely unprovoked - Luckily our goalie is older and mature enough to not give a ****.

I've played hockey for like 20 years, I don't think I've ever seen such a pathetic showing of poor sportsmanship in my life. It's ****ing meaningless D1 division ****ing beer league - Congratulations, you were good in house league as a kid. Get over yourselves. We played bad, you played good, you shut us out, woopty doo, No one cares. The sad thing is I don't think any of the guys acting like dicks were under the age of 30.

I don't begrudge guys for being ultra-competitive and playing to win, even getting a little carried away, but if you win 5-0 that's plenty enough of proving something without having to perform like a circus monkey. For me bad winners are worse than bad losers.

 

[Fremitus Borealis]

Yeah, getting excited and whatnot is one thing, but if you're going over the top like that for a beer league game, that tells me you've got some other issues going on off the ice.

And I totally hear you on the "I have to go to work in the morning" thing. Being competitive is great, but I don't see how ANYBODY is okay with getting physically messed up in a meaningless, late-night beer league game. If you have a white collar job, your boss/coworkers may be displeased with your black eye, facial lacerations, broken arm, or whatever; if you have a blue collar job, you sort of, oh I dunno, need to make sure you're physically capable of doing it, which is hard when you're in a sling, or have to spend the next two days in the dentist's office, etc.

 

[Goonzilla]

I still just don't get the 'I have work in the morning mentality'. Everybody does, but every time I step on the ice I know I might break a leg or get all my teeth knocked out. That risk and the competitive/combative part of the game is one of the attractions; not going out to hurt or maim someone, but certainly mixing it up a little and looking to dominate physically to some degree where I can.

I know there's gonna be guys on the other team giving as good as they get; and occasionally someone's gonna get a little carried away; its human nature.

Most of the worst injuries I've seen around beer league or rec hockey are either accidental or self-inflicted, from accidental stickings, sprains, twists or falling into the boards and the like; not because someone got a little rub out or encouragement to move. I still think you're much more likely to get injured other than in a contact situation. In contact guys are a little more on their toes, prepared or protective of themselves.

I know it's not taking me anywhere; and play for fun, but I'm gonna do what I can to try and help my team win. Of course I'm not gonna go boarding some guy who can barely skate..or anyone, but if you're a star and expecting to just skate where you like and do what you want then think again.

..and I gotta work in the morning too.

 

[Fremitus Borealis]

The problem is, there are guys who do seem to go out there with the intention of being a "tough guy" who's gonna rough everyone up just to prove how tough he is, and the fact that these guys tend to not be that great at the sport makes it doubly annoying.

Last night is a perfect example. I got absolutely decked from behind in the defensive zone when I was covering the point by the other team's center, who then proceeded to chide me for not watching where I was going, calling me "bro" a bunch of times, which was cute, and then after I got up, two-hands me in the back with his stick a couple times. (No penalty call, by the way. Thanks, refs.) This is a perfect ****ing example of what I'm talking about.

Luckily, he fell like a total ***** on his next shift, hitting his head on the ice in the process, when no one else was within 15 feet of him, so I guess we're even.

 

[leftwinger37]

I still just don't get the 'I have work in the morning mentality'. Everybody does, but every time I step on the ice I know I might break a leg or get all my teeth knocked out. That risk and the competitive/combative part of the game is one of the attractions; not going out to hurt or maim someone, but certainly mixing it up a little and looking to dominate physically to some degree where I can.

I know there's gonna be guys on the other team giving as good as they get; and occasionally someone's gonna get a little carried away; its human nature.

Most of the worst injuries I've seen around beer league or rec hockey are either accidental or self-inflicted, from accidental stickings, sprains, twists or falling into the boards and the like; not because someone got a little rub out or encouragement to move. I still think you're much more likely to get injured other than in a contact situation. In contact guys are a little more on their toes, prepared or protective of themselves.

I know it's not taking me anywhere; and play for fun, but I'm gonna do what I can to try and help my team win. Of course I'm not gonna go boarding some guy who can barely skate..or anyone, but if you're a star and expecting to just skate where you like and do what you want then think again.

..and I gotta work in the morning too.

You understand how to walk the line, but a lot of others don't, and a lot of people's intentions are not as good. It's unfortunate, but you really do have to expect the worst out of most people on the ice. Some people are out there for recreation, some are out there to compete, and some are out there to take out their frustrations; the "I gotta work in the morning" crowd is addressing the latter.

Everyone understands the inherent risks of hockey when they step on ice, but being Joe Six-Pack's punching bag because he's having a bad day is not hockey.

 

[JKinCLE]

Played last night in the worst conditions ever. This rink only has 3 walls, and its been unusually warm in Ohio (about 60-70 degrees). Ice was like compacted slush down to the lowest layer with a thick haze of fog the entire time. Humidity was insane. Lungs were destroyed. Just bad.

Oh yeah and we lost.

Not to mention I was playing blind since I my shield was completely fogged up from warm ups to final buzzer.

 

[Blufreezy]

I still just don't get the 'I have work in the morning mentality'. Everybody does, but every time I step on the ice I know I might break a leg or get all my teeth knocked out. That risk and the competitive/combative part of the game is one of the attractions; not going out to hurt or maim someone, but certainly mixing it up a little and looking to dominate physically to some degree where I can.

I know there's gonna be guys on the other team giving as good as they get; and occasionally someone's gonna get a little carried away; its human nature.

Most of the worst injuries I've seen around beer league or rec hockey are either accidental or self-inflicted, from accidental stickings, sprains, twists or falling into the boards and the like; not because someone got a little rub out or encouragement to move. I still think you're much more likely to get injured other than in a contact situation. In contact guys are a little more on their toes, prepared or protective of themselves.

I know it's not taking me anywhere; and play for fun, but I'm gonna do what I can to try and help my team win. Of course I'm not gonna go boarding some guy who can barely skate..or anyone, but if you're a star and expecting to just skate where you like and do what you want then think again.

..and I gotta work in the morning too.

To put it into perspective they dominate every other team in the league in total PIM's.

Them: 174
Us: 58
Everyone else:
75
64
100
74

They're goons.

 

[Boot]

You understand how to walk the line, but a lot of others don't, and a lot of people's intentions are not as good. It's unfortunate, but you really do have to expect the worst out of most people on the ice. Some people are out there for recreation, some are out there to compete, and some are out there to take out their frustrations; the "I gotta work in the morning" crowd is addressing the latter.

Everyone understands the inherent risks of hockey when they step on ice, but being Joe Six-Pack's punching bag because he's having a bad day is not hockey.

Exactly this. I enjoy hockey when it gets physical, but there's a line between physical and being dirty or acting like an idiot.

 

[bombers15]

I'm not usually one to complain about refs, but this is too silly not to share.

We are down late in the game and pull the goalie. I end up scoring to tie the game with about a minute left.

All is well, but as we try to line up for the faceoff the ref tells us that the goalie can't go back in the net. Uh, what? He didn't offer any sort of reasonable explanation. There's a rule in our league about changing on the fly, but you can always change lines after a goal, so that couldn't have been it. Nobody could make heads or tails of what on earth he was talking about. So we had to do the faceoff with our goalie on the bench. Luckily nothing happened and he skated to the net quickly.

 

[RandV]

To put it into perspective they dominate every other team in the league in total PIM's.

Them: 174
Us: 58
Everyone else:
75
64
100
74

They're goons.

There's almost always one of those teams in a division

Most bizarre experience I've had playing against one of them was a game that actually little to no physicality or roughness, but they probably wracked up 50 minutes in misconducts and game ejections getting worked up at the refs over routine hooking/tripping/etc penalties. My team was just an afterthought to them that game, it was hilarious.

 

[Fremitus Borealis]

Thought about starting a new thread for this, but I'll just keep it in here for now; if mods think it's worth moving, feel free.

Anyway, it's taken a while, but my team has finally collectively realized why we're having so much trouble scoring as a group: pretty much everyone collapses down low in the defensive zone, so it's basically twice as hard to get a breakout. The defensemen were kind of the first ones to bring this up after our last game, though it was in the form of "we don't have anyone to pass to when all you forwards are below the hashmarks."

While that is true, as a forward, I can say that 90% of the time that I end up that far down low, it's because the other team has the puck on my side of the net, and the confounded defenseman isn't even touching him (or, anywhere near him). So while they're telling us to go cover the points and leave the defending to them, a lot of them are getting burned (or stuck, or whatever) down low to the point where I feel like if we're not back there, we'll be letting in like 10 goals per game.

So the question is, how do we rectify this (aside from the obvious "get better defensemen" or "learn to defend properly")? The defensemen want us to trust that they'll take care of the bad guys, but the forwards don't really believe they can be trusted. Strategically I know the d-men are right, but practically I'm not sure they realize how much space they've been giving away for free near our net.

 

[Summer Rose]

I'm not usually one to complain about refs, but this is too silly not to share.

We are down late in the game and pull the goalie. I end up scoring to tie the game with about a minute left.

All is well, but as we try to line up for the faceoff the ref tells us that the goalie can't go back in the net. Uh, what? He didn't offer any sort of reasonable explanation. There's a rule in our league about changing on the fly, but you can always change lines after a goal, so that couldn't have been it. Nobody could make heads or tails of what on earth he was talking about. So we had to do the faceoff with our goalie on the bench. Luckily nothing happened and he skated to the net quickly.

Yeah that's not correct at all. You can substitute the goalie for an extra attacker on the fly, substitute a goalie for another goalie on the fly (no one ever does this of course, but it is technically legal), but you can't put the goalie back on with the extra attacker coming off on the fly and need to wait for a stoppage.

However, scoring a goal is a stoppage of play... so wait, the ref didn't let you put your goalie back on during a stoppage, but let him come back on after the puck dropped? Wtf?

 

[leftwinger37]

So the question is, how do we rectify this (aside from the obvious "get better defensemen" or "learn to defend properly")? The defensemen want us to trust that they'll take care of the bad guys, but the forwards don't really believe they can be trusted. Strategically I know the d-men are right, but practically I'm not sure they realize how much space they've been giving away for free near our net.

It can be painful -brutally painful- but you really do have to let the defensemen do their jobs. They might be having trouble staying with "their man" but imagine the feeling of helplessness when they look up and a whole team is closing in on their ground. It's hard to focus on who's got who when it's just utter chaos. I know it's difficult to just stand by and watch, but once one forward gets out of position and starts chasing the puck, it all breaks down. The other team sets up around you and starts moving the puck like a power play.

 

[Beezeral]

Played against the typical hot head last week. He took a slash from a guy who isn't a great skater and lost his mind the rest of the game. He was throwing elbows, running people along the boards, all kind of crap. Sorry you took a chop in the shin, but that doesn't excuse you going after everyone's head the rest of the night.

 

[bombers15]

Yeah that's not correct at all. You can substitute the goalie for an extra attacker on the fly, substitute a goalie for another goalie on the fly (no one ever does this of course, but it is technically legal), but you can't put the goalie back on with the extra attacker coming off on the fly and need to wait for a stoppage.

However, scoring a goal is a stoppage of play... so wait, the ref didn't let you put your goalie back on during a stoppage, but let him come back on after the puck dropped? Wtf?

Yeah, he wouldn't let the goalie back in during the stoppage. So we had to drop the puck and then a player came off and switched for the goalie who rushed back to the net. Which, if you're correct (which I think you are), is also against the rules. So he didn't let us do something within the rules and forced us to do something against the rules.

Complete madness.

 

[Fremitus Borealis]

It can be painful -brutally painful- but you really do have to let the defensemen do their jobs. They might be having trouble staying with "their man" but imagine the feeling of helplessness when they look up and a whole team is closing in on their ground. It's hard to focus on who's got who when it's just utter chaos. I know it's difficult to just stand by and watch, but once one forward gets out of position and starts chasing the puck, it all breaks down. The other team sets up around you and starts moving the puck like a power play.

Sad but true, I guess. Of course I suppose if we just left the defensemen to their own devices, I'd at least feel like I got more offensive chances in each game.

 

[MegaAlf]

In general, the less skilled/competitive the league, the more insane high sticking goes on. People in your junior program probably knew how to control their sticks much better. I have a guy on my team in beer league who insists on playing without a cage or visor. He got high sticked in the nose this past Sunday pretty hard.

I played with a guy last season that wore a visor with no mouthpiece. He was joking about getting his teeth knocked out so he could get new ones. About 10 minutes late he had to leave because he got one chipped in half from a high stick and the pain was getting to him. It was C-League.

I wear a cage. Guys in C-League are too wild. I would have gotten my jaw broken one game if I didn't have a cage. I think the guy intentionally high sticked me as I was leaning over because he didn't apologize after. Usually it's only the B-League players playing down that run no cage or use a visor in C-League.

 

[WickedWinger]

Haven't posted on here in awhile, but I needed to vent a little. Why is it that parents think it's acceptable to just drop their 8/9/10 year old son off at a stick and puck and just leave? This has been an on going problem at the rink where I play at for a while now. You pull up for a stick and puck and see a convoy of minivans parked in front with their hatches open, unloading bags, sticks, and kids. Walk into the locker room and there is a dozen pre-teen kids in there. Bags, sticks, helmets, etc scattered everywhere. Kids running around screaming/shooting practice pucks/shoving each other... it's like a ******* daycare in there. When you finally make it out onto the ice, it's a free for all. There's no order to anything. Kids are throwing their sticks around, fighting with each other,playing inside the nets, it's completely ridiculous. What's worse, i out look into the bleachers and there is on average one or two people up there. That tells me that these kids are here completely unsupervised. The other day it came to a head. All of the pucks from my end were in the net. I look around, don't see anything pucks so I skate In and start retrieving the pucks out of the goal and CLANK, some little brat skates in from the other end and rips one off the cross bar not six inches from my face. I was absolutely livid.

I had to chase a kid down the other day when I kept noticing him trying to shoot a puck with a stick that was twice his size, only to realize that it was MY stick that I brought as a back up and left in the locker room. After giving him a stern talking to about not taking something that wasn't his and getting a lot of eye rolling as a response, I decided to head to the administration office to have a chat with them. After explaining what happened along with a hand full of other issues with these kids being out there unattended, I got an apology and a refund. I was told that in the future I might want to start coming in for the earlier stick and puck that there's usually not as many kids. Okay, problem is, I work. I can't come in at noon to play hockey during the week. Forget about the weekend, the place is like chuck e cheese on ice. I know I'm not the only one who's complained about this. Ive spoken with a couple other adults and even some of the college kids who come up to practice and they have all voiced their concerns to the office. I tried suggesting a late night 16+/18+ only stick and puck and was told there wouldn't be enough people to warrant it. I even inquired why they weren't concerned about one of these kids getting hurt and not having a parenton site to notify. I was told that was their problem and not mine. I mean come on, you know good and we'll that if little Billy got hurt and had to go to the hospital, it wouldn't matter that his mom dropped him off and left. she'd sue that place in a heart beat. She'd probably try to claim it was the rinks responsibility to watch her kid.

Sorry for the rant, just needed to get it off my chest.

 

[Zrhutch]

Overzealous refs are the absolute worst. I got called for unsportsmanlike when I jokingly called a guy on the other team four eyes, and then my buddy got called right after me for saying, and I quote "he went to the box for saying four eyes?" The other team scored twice, I had to bail us out in the shootout, did, and our coordinator/captain gave me a bucketful of **** for it during and after the game. All for saying four eyes.

This league man.

 

[FLYLine27*]

Had a 8:20 game yesterday night. Show up and I see my team standing around the lobby area (always a bad sign)...walk and and find out the team wasn't going to have enough guys so they didn't bother to show up.

****ing *******s. I could have made plans if they had emailed the league earlier in the day and said they weren't coming.

 

[Goonzilla]

Had a 8:20 game yesterday night. Show up and I see my team standing around the lobby area (always a bad sign)...walk and and find out the team wasn't going to have enough guys so they didn't bother to show up.

****ing *******s. I could have made plans if they had emailed the league earlier in the day and said they weren't coming.

You still get the ice don't you? I never mind any extra time to work on stuff.

 

[Goonzilla]

Overzealous refs are the absolute worst. I got called for unsportsmanlike when I jokingly called a guy on the other team four eyes, and then my buddy got called right after me for saying, and I quote "he went to the box for saying four eyes?" The other team scored twice, I had to bail us out in the shootout, did, and our coordinator/captain gave me a bucketful of **** for it during and after the game. All for saying four eyes.

This league man.

Hey ref, all I said was I was here 'for ice'. 'Isn't everyone'? Then start calling 'for ice' every stoppage.

I usually never give refs any grief, but one day at my daughters field hockey they had a blatantly biased ref who was affiliated to the other team and only penalised my daughters team. It was one of only three occasions I've ever seen what I would be comfortable calling cheating by a match official anywhere.

He was a bit of a tyrant and was dressing down parents too.

I said to him 'you're having a great game ref' and he turned around and snapped at me 'what did you say'? He was wanting to eject or take some disciplinary action against a parent.

I said to him 'I said you were having a great game ref'. Everyone laughed their ***** off at him and the guy was powerless to do anything.

Afterwards I said a few other things to him in front of everyone, including the other team and their parents; and pretty much everyone nodded in agreement. For once I'm sure the guy felt pretty small.

 

[Boot]

I'm not usually the kind of guy to complain about refs. I know it's a thankless job and stuff happens that usually balances out, but man, tonight was brutal.

We had two refs for the game tonight, and apparently it was one of the refs first games. You'd think he'd swallow the whistle a bit and let the more experience guy handle the majority of the calls, but no.

The team we were playing against is notorious for being chippy; hitting in a no check league, cross checks, hooking, tripping, the works. They got one penalty the entire game to our four, including one for roughing on one of our softest players. They failed to call an icing against them while they were on the powerplay, blew the whistle dead twice while the puck was still on the crease, and blew a play dead while we had our goalie pulled and the other team hemmed in the zone because one of our players was in the crease while the puck was over on the boards. They even pushed a faceoff out of the zone when a shot missed and the puck ended up in the goal netting - I've never *once* seen anyone call it like that.

The bias was just awful, it was like playing 6-5 the whole night. It was a wonder we were within a goal at the end.

You still get the ice don't you? I never mind any extra time to work on stuff.

Been in situations like that, the rink tried to shoo us away because they didn't want to have to zamboni the ice again before the next game. We whined enough that they let us get out there, though.

 

[phillipsj89]

Had a 8:20 game yesterday night. Show up and I see my team standing around the lobby area (always a bad sign)...walk and and find out the team wasn't going to have enough guys so they didn't bother to show up.

****ing *******s. I could have made plans if they had emailed the league earlier in the day and said they weren't coming.

$500 fine in our league if another team doesn't show. $200 fine if the other team doesn't have a goalie.