Fighting in Beer Leagues

[jordanking87]

two dudes went at it during a pick up game I was apart of sunday....pathetic and a waste of everyone's ice time.

 

[Outl4w]

^^ Now that is when i would say take it to the parking lot. I want to skate.

 

[Jisatsu]

Fighting in pay to play hockey is ridiculous. You want to pay to fight? Join a mma/bjj club or a boxing gym. I'm here to embarrass other fat old guys, not fight. I get enough of that macho mumbo-jumbo at my work, I don't need it on the ice.

Even when play gets rough with the guys I play with, we all just smile shrug it off and laugh. Good times had by all. I won't play A-league any more because of wanna be hot heads.

 

[Grave77digger]

Fighting is just the natural next step to escalating stupidity. Im not a hot head. Typically cracking jokes at the faceoffs at how we are getting our butts kicked, but then some times someone does something so stupidly dangerous you go a little crazy. I was hit/boarded/tripped whatever you want to call it chasing an icing with 2 minutes left in a losing game and the guy felt the need to slow up to get behind me then blast me as soon as I put on the brakes to to avoid the back wall. I went flying face first into the wall hard and wasnt sure if I was hurt or not, couldnt get up and the ref didnt bother calling a penalty. I Mfd the guy, threw my helmet at him ( I couldnt get up). If there were no cheap shots in hockey there would be no fighting. A good ref can prevent the escalation by doing their job and calling penalties.

 

[predfan24]

Fighting in pay to play hockey is ridiculous. You want to pay to fight? Join a mma/bjj club or a boxing gym. I'm here to embarrass other fat old guys, not fight. I get enough of that macho mumbo-jumbo at my work, I don't need it on the ice.

Even when play gets rough with the guys I play with, we all just smile shrug it off and laugh. Good times had by all. I won't play A-league any more because of wanna be hot heads.

In my experiences the lower the level of players you play with the more hot heads there is. My theory is these guys are new and are not used to contact despite hockey being a contact sport and take it personally.

But I agree fighting in beer league is stupid. The only way I would fight somebody is if I was defending myself or somebody did something to me so unbelievably stupid like try to injure me on purpose and I completely flipped my lid.

 

[iamjs]

I agree to an extent, but I play Div 1 Mens league and the games get very intense. Fighting just happens, things boil over. If I was in a lower divison then I bet there wouldn't even be close to as many fights if any.

you'd actually be surprised at the number of fights or attempted fights. Usually it's the guy who played the leftover minutes on his high school JV team who has this illusion that he's Gretzky or Mario but never got a chance because of his coach.

Now he has to join D league to prove the world that his coach was wrong. There's usually one on every team.

 

[HamDangled]

I was playing a game in the intramural league at my university this year and one guy on the other team was a nutcase. Their team had 4 skaters and a goalie, so we gave them one of our guys so we could even play (otherwise they'd forfeit). Every guy on this team was an alumni so they were all like 30-40. Meanwhile our while team was 18-21 or so and we were playing in the 2nd lowest of 4 skill levels.

I guess this guy got tripped up by accident and gave one of our guys 3 crosschecks after the whistle. He later got tripped up again and yelled "Touch me again and I WILL F***ING KILL YOU! I WILL END YOUR LIFE." His elementary school-aged children were on the bench for all of this. After hearing this I asked the ref if he would please watch this guy because I didn't feel safe, he assured me he'd be tossed following another incident.

Sure enough, he ran one of our guys from behind and that was that. Then as he was skating off came back after another of our guys. I yelled to him that he was an adult and should act like he was in front of his children.

I was surprised because usually the 40 year olds are the ones who say "I've got work tomorrow!" Not the ones who go looking to start ****.

 

[HamDangled]

Also played my first year of house league this year and was exposed to many fights. The age range for my group was 15-21 which I think is far too large a range at that age. Anyway, lots of fights. I saw 4 guys get suspended for fighting on my team (one of them twice). It's $460 and you get 3 games for fighting, 2 for instigator, and another 2 for successor (sometimes the amount of games would be more). Essentially if you stared a fight and won it you're getting 7-8 games, almost half the season.

One game I was in front of the other teams net and this defenceman (the goalie's brother- the goalie was a hot head too) kept trying to shovel my back leg out from under me. I looked at him and said what the hell? He responded, "I'LL KNOCK YOU THE ******* OUT!" I looked back at him bewilders and said, are you for real right now? It's house league. He ended up fighting later in the game, got 8 games, came back for one and suspended another 3. Somedays I feel like I play in the old Federal League.

 

[CunniJA]

Good lord. That's next level ****, man.

 

[The Tikkanen]

Fighting in pay to play hockey is ridiculous. You want to pay to fight? Join a mma/bjj club or a boxing gym. I'm here to embarrass other fat old guys, not fight. I get enough of that macho mumbo-jumbo at my work, I don't need it on the ice.

Even when play gets rough with the guys I play with, we all just smile shrug it off and laugh. Good times had by all. I won't play A-league any more because of wanna be hot heads.

I've suggested that to a few guys who seemed bent on fighting. The reason they fight is because they probably have experience where most rec leaguers don't and they can rag doll guys. In an MMA or boxing gym the same would happen to them, thus the reason why they don't quit hockey for that sport.

 

[Danglous]

I've suggested that to a few guys who seemed bent on fighting. The reason they fight is because they probably have experience where most rec leaguers don't and they can rag doll guys. In an MMA or boxing gym the same would happen to them, thus the reason why they don't quit hockey for that sport.

Are you saying there are guys who play rec league JUST for the sole purpose of fighting?

 

[BarneyStinson]

Are you saying there are guys who play rec league JUST for the sole purpose of fighting?

Absolutely, infact i know of a couple. Fighting in my league is only a 2 game suspension so it happens a lot

 

[ShakeyBonez]

It may not be needed or even dumb at times

But I seriously like watching beer league fights.. Its so damn funny on the outside looking in.

This one time scorekeeping, This game was getting chippy in the 3rd period (playoffs) one team down by 2-goals so it was kind of close as the losing team had wringers. Anyway, nobody scores. with 0.9 there is a face off. and as the buzzer goes off, somebody shoved the opposing teams captain.... All hell broke loose, The next thing i see is this big burly dude, hoping over the boards and skates full speed to the redline, with his arm out like a clothes hanger (wrestling style).. he clothes hangs this one dude and a fraction of a second later it was mayhem! full team on team brawl 8 on 8... The refs had all they could handle.. and it didnt help that peoples familys started to come onto the rink.. meanwhile i was laughing like a hyena in the scorekeepers box.

this was roller hockey btw, and i say continue the beer league fights for my amusment.. it seriously is priceless

 

[YNWA14]

Out of curiosity what would you guys do in a situation where you just don't want to fight but a guy grabs you and starts throwing punches?

I only ask because normally I would just avoid the situation, but sometimes it's hard to just skate away and if you fight in my league you get kicked out for the rest of the season (if not longer depending). Do you just turtle? Do you try and wrap the guy up?

I'm just thinking of an incident from my first season (this summer) where a guy skated up and crosschecked one of our guys in the head, then started trying to fight, and when he couldn't grab anyone because the refs were between them he spit in one of my guys' face. If the ref had been a bit further from the play there definitely would have been a fight.

 

[JoeCool16]

Try to get away from him and skate to your bench. Chances are his whole team aren't a bunch of fools and he won't challenge your entire team while you're sitting with him. Walk with a few buddies to the parking lot after game just in case he's a real nut and is waiting for you.

If you can't get away, know your team/refs and their response. If they're going to come to your defense and pull the guy off, then I'd recommend turtling to (A)not escalate the situation further to where you could get a line brawl and (B)because no one wants to get suspended/fined, which every rec league I know would do both of.

If you can't get away and there's no one there to hep you, that's when you'd tie him up, I think. You probably won't be as likely to get clocked in the face and seriously hurt, but you'll still tire him out and hopefully diffuse the situation. I'd always steer clear of dropping the gloves and outright fighting, though! It's a dangerous thing to do when you don't know how, and NHL players have mostly done it many times over the course of their careers and know how to stay up, how to fall, and have refs ready to step in if it gets bad. The other person also may not want to risk a lengthy suspension and a huge fine for going crazy in a fight, which you don't know about the other guy in beer league.

 

[sanityplease]

That's a tough one. IMHO, dealing with an idiot like that on the ice, isn't worth getting kicked out of the league. I'd call him down to the lowest & the other team for letting a moron like that play. Then have the team captain talk to the league managers about him. Do it in an email so there's a record if anything ever happens. If there's proof that the league knows about a dangerous player, & they don't do anything about it, they can be held somewhat responsible for future issues.

A friend of mine got jumped in a beer league game by a monster, ripped his cage off, knocked him out with a flurry of punches, & fractured his skull when he hit the ice.

Police officer didn't take him seriously when he reported it. Nothing happened other than the guy finally getting kicked out of the league.

 

[Devil Dancer]

Out of curiosity what would you guys do in a situation where you just don't want to fight but a guy grabs you and starts throwing punches?

Considering I wear a fishbowl, I'd laugh at him for breaking his knuckles on my helmet.

 

[Terry Yake]

unless some guy just grabs you and starts throwing blows, there is no reason to fight in beer league

contact is part of the game and some players just never realize that. i've lost count of how many times i've bumped or shoved someone along the boards trying to get the puck and had them come after me trying to start something. i pay good money to play in those leagues, there is no way i'll risk getting suspended or kicked out because some moron doesn't understand hockey and just wants to fight

 

[Cursed Lemon]

Well, the thing of it is, I've never seen a beer league fight that actually erupted out of in-game intensity - it's always stupid hack-and-slash bullcrap.

 

[Stickchecked]

Well, the thing of it is, I've never seen a beer league fight that actually erupted out of in-game intensity - it's always stupid hack-and-slash bullcrap.

Yep. I always roll my eyes at the guys getting their back up over whatever stuff is going on in the game. And these are middle aged teammates I'm talking about. Their attitude always implies that they're contributing to the conflict, always justifying their dick moves on what the other guy did.

Just keep it civil, let some **** slide and play the game.

My one story of being "in" a fight was at the end of a game against a team that had three brothers. I went along the boards with the smallest brother and accidentally cross checked him. It was a combination of him turning and me keeping my balance and just lazy play on my part to keep him along the boards. But I was in no way trying to shove him into the boards or even lay the lumber on him.

Well, I immediately got jumped by his brothers, ended up face first on the ice while they wailed on me until the refs/teammates got them off of me. No harm done but I got tossed since it was the end of the game. No biggie, the refs just wanted to defuse the situation and I was cool with that. But the guy I "hit" even came up to me after I got up and said, "geez, it wasn't even that big a hit."

 

[Lonny Bohonos]

Amazingly the biggest ****** in our league is former ECHL and was in a top level NCAA school before getting kicked off the team.

Dude throws pro level elbows when hes pissed off and goes after guys.

Like buddy your pro days are thataway.

 

[Wilch]

Amazingly the biggest ****** in our league is former ECHL and was in a top level NCAA school before getting kicked off the team.

Dude throws pro level elbows when hes pissed off and goes after guys.

Like buddy your pro days are thataway.

Maybe it's the same **** I played against in Shanghai. Those credentials sound eerily familiar.

 

[mkoivu9*]

I scrapped in my first ever game and no one has came near me since.

 

[The Tikkanen]

I scrapped in my first ever game and no one has came near me since.

It's a little like prison. I've always said if you carry yourself like you will throw down if somebody wants to and you can handle yourself you'll avoid a lot of the crap mentioned in this thread. The rec league goons usually know what they're doing and they pick easy targets. If you happen to find yourself dropping the dogs in a rec league game and you leave your opponent with a crimson mask of blood that will probably be the last time you'll have to fight. Word travels fast. Make the most of it is what I'm trying to say, lol.

 

[Stickchecked]

It's a little like prison. I've always said if you carry yourself like you will throw down if somebody wants to and you can handle yourself you'll avoid a lot of the crap mentioned in this thread. The rec league goons usually know what they're doing and they pick easy targets. If you happen to find yourself dropping the dogs in a rec league game and you leave your opponent with a crimson mask of blood that will probably be the last time you'll have to fight. Word travels fast. Make the most of it is what I'm trying to say, lol.

Mod This is absurd, hockey is a game, it's no an excuse to act like a prisoner.

Having said that, after googling "Yorba Linda" to confirm it was in California, I noticed that all of the non-wiki/trivia links belonged to news stories about violent crime. Mod