Help a student by telling stories of "goonery" in non-professional hockey

[1Knee1T]

I have to write an enterprise story for a journalism class I'm taking, and I chose to write it on violence in non-professional hockey. I have some examples that many people have seen online recently, like the Texas State Championships and the incident in Quebec. I'm mostly looking for a player who's specific role was to do the coach's dirty work so that I can have an insider perspective, but anybody with any story to tell would be helpful as well.

Also, any coach that that has employed a "goon" or has an opinion on the matter would be a great addition as well.

Click to read more...

 

[Gman094]

I think you're going to be tough to find someone who calls themselves a "goon" in a non-professional league. You might get people who are more physical then others but not straight up goons.

 

[1Knee1T]

I think you're going to be tough to find someone who calls themselves a "goon" in a non-professional league. You might get people who are more physical then others but not straight up goons.

I'm not labeling anybody a goon, but we all know what a "goonish" act in hockey is, and those are the stories I'm looking for.

It would be naive to say it doesn't exist. My high school team had a player who was specifically kept on the team to throw big hits, slash players behind the play, and do whatever dirty work the coach asked of him, but he regrets what he did and doesn't want to be involved in the story. That's completely understandable to me and I won't mention him at all.

 

[BrentZ10]

I was playing for a pretty elite select team, think sponsors and everything. They even had a cutout poster board of our coach. Anyways, before the tournament got underway we were out at practice just having a good time, trying to stay loose. Someone even brought a beach volleyball out there, so as you can probably guess we were just having a good time in order to get loose for the tournament. All of a sudden, our big rival in the tournament came out and claimed that it was their ice time. Someone even popped our ball.

Anyways, our coach, the one who had the cutout of him, challenged the other teams coach to one on one. This was pretty big because they both had been in the minors before their careers were cut short. So they are going at it and its a real close game. All of a sudden, the other coach, whose nickname when he played was The Doctor or the Dentist or something, slashes our coach! Things got pretty nuts. Luckily someone caught it on video.

Anyways, that is probably the best example I can think of.

 

[1Knee1T]

Thanks, Conway.

 

[member 30781]

Thanks, Conway.

I really hope you use BrentZ10's story.

 

[tarheelhockey]

This reminds me of a story I heard from a guy in my beer league. He used to play in juniors back in the 80s for a pretty good team, probably could have had a future in the game if he was a little tougher. Anyway, there was one guy in his league who pounded on him every chance he got, every time they played. Finally in the playoffs they actually got in a stick fight of all things, and ended up in a pretty bloody brawl. He said the coaches were in on the whole thing, this was juniors in the 80s where you could get away with all kinds of crap that would land you in jail today.

It's kind of a shame that happened really, I wonder how it would have turned out for him if he wasn't always getting roughed up. Last I heard he was working a regular 9-to-5 for the state government.

 

[bruinsden]

I was playing for a pretty elite select team, think sponsors and everything. They even had a cutout poster board of our coach. Anyways, before the tournament got underway we were out at practice just having a good time, trying to stay loose. Someone even brought a beach volleyball out there, so as you can probably guess we were just having a good time in order to get loose for the tournament. All of a sudden, our big rival in the tournament came out and claimed that it was their ice time. Someone even popped our ball.

Anyways, our coach, the one who had the cutout of him, challenged the other teams coach to one on one. This was pretty big because they both had been in the minors before their careers were cut short. So they are going at it and its a real close game. All of a sudden, the other coach, whose nickname when he played was The Doctor or the Dentist or something, slashes our coach! Things got pretty nuts. Luckily someone caught it on video.

Anyways, that is probably the best example I can think of.

You win.

 

[Fleuryoutside29]

I was playing for a pretty elite select team, think sponsors and everything. They even had a cutout poster board of our coach. Anyways, before the tournament got underway we were out at practice just having a good time, trying to stay loose. Someone even brought a beach volleyball out there, so as you can probably guess we were just having a good time in order to get loose for the tournament. All of a sudden, our big rival in the tournament came out and claimed that it was their ice time. Someone even popped our ball.

Anyways, our coach, the one who had the cutout of him, challenged the other teams coach to one on one. This was pretty big because they both had been in the minors before their careers were cut short. So they are going at it and its a real close game. All of a sudden, the other coach, whose nickname when he played was The Doctor or the Dentist or something, slashes our coach! Things got pretty nuts. Luckily someone caught it on video.

Anyways, that is probably the best example I can think of.

They should make that into a movie or something...

 

[ponder]

I was playing for a pretty elite select team, think sponsors and everything. They even had a cutout poster board of our coach. Anyways, before the tournament got underway we were out at practice just having a good time, trying to stay loose. Someone even brought a beach volleyball out there, so as you can probably guess we were just having a good time in order to get loose for the tournament. All of a sudden, our big rival in the tournament came out and claimed that it was their ice time. Someone even popped our ball.

Anyways, our coach, the one who had the cutout of him, challenged the other teams coach to one on one. This was pretty big because they both had been in the minors before their careers were cut short. So they are going at it and its a real close game. All of a sudden, the other coach, whose nickname when he played was The Doctor or the Dentist or something, slashes our coach! Things got pretty nuts. Luckily someone caught it on video.

Anyways, that is probably the best example I can think of.

No way, I was on this team too! I was actually partying with coach's brother the other weekend, man, that guy has gone completely nuts, his nose redefines the word "vacuum." Like his brother, though, he's all about winning.

 

[mfd1068]

I'll tell you a goon story when I was young in the all Ontario playdowns . We were playing a hated rival town(this was AAA hockey)at there rink. We are up 3-2 with about 50 seconds to go. I'm in the box for fighting(yes a different era..lol). Now the box has me, the time keeper(he's in his 50's) and the other player,all in a row,no glass separating us. So,they drop the puck and the homer time keeper does not start the clock! My coach see's this and is screaming at the referee to no avail. He then yells at me to get him(time Keeper) to start the clock. So I tell him to start the clock and he is looking straight ahead ignoring me. So, (the Goon part..lol) I just pound him,knock him of his stool and try to start the clock. Meanwhile, the other player(the real goon!) jumps me and we star going at it in the penalty box...lol with me still trying to start the clock! It was chaos as you could imagine....lol ( and we did win!)
Later, that week the coach and I had to explain our actions and our love for hockey to the league commish. I got a couple games and the coach got 4...lol

 

[izzy3]

I'll tell you a goon story when I was young in the all Ontario playdowns . We were playing a hated rival town(this was AAA hockey)at there rink. We are up 3-2 with about 50 seconds to go. I'm in the box for fighting(yes a different era..lol). Now the box has me, the time keeper(he's in his 50's) and the other player,all in a row,no glass separating us. So,they drop the puck and the homer time keeper does not start the clock! My coach see's this and is screaming at the referee to no avail. He then yells at me to get him(time Keeper) to start the clock. So I tell him to start the clock and he is looking straight ahead ignoring me. So, (the Goon part..lol) I just pound him,knock him of his stool and try to start the clock. Meanwhile, the other player(the real goon!) jumps me and we star going at it in the penalty box...lol with me still trying to start the clock! It was chaos as you could imagine....lol ( and we did win!)
Later, that week the coach and I had to explain our actions and our love for hockey to the league commish. I got a couple games and the coach got 4...lol

that's an awesomne story, kinda like a scene from Slapshot...

 

[MeltingPlastic]

This reminds me of a story I heard from a guy in my beer league. He used to play in juniors back in the 80s for a pretty good team, probably could have had a future in the game if he was a little tougher. Anyway, there was one guy in his league who pounded on him every chance he got, every time they played. Finally in the playoffs they actually got in a stick fight of all things, and ended up in a pretty bloody brawl. He said the coaches were in on the whole thing, this was juniors in the 80s where you could get away with all kinds of crap that would land you in jail today.

It's kind of a shame that happened really, I wonder how it would have turned out for him if he wasn't always getting roughed up. Last I heard he was working a regular 9-to-5 for the state government.

Since no ones called it out... whats up Rob Lowe

 

[ssgjeff7]

Since no ones called it out... whats up Rob Lowe

Ya think he had "tea with Ms McGill"?

 

[Wooty]

This reminds me of a story I heard from a guy in my beer league. He used to play in juniors back in the 80s for a pretty good team, probably could have had a future in the game if he was a little tougher. Anyway, there was one guy in his league who pounded on him every chance he got, every time they played. Finally in the playoffs they actually got in a stick fight of all things, and ended up in a pretty bloody brawl. He said the coaches were in on the whole thing, this was juniors in the 80s where you could get away with all kinds of crap that would land you in jail today.

It's kind of a shame that happened really, I wonder how it would have turned out for him if he wasn't always getting roughed up. Last I heard he was working a regular 9-to-5 for the state government.

Balancing the budget is hard work.

RIP Dancing Teammate