Today I... (part 4)

[MullerBrotenVerbeek]

First week of the Spring season, playing on three teams.

Fri. L 8-7 (1G)
Sun. W 3-2 (OT) (1A)
Mon. Playing at 8:30, new team, first game in "franchise" history.

 

[ArcataShark]

Finally scored a shootout goal in the playoffs. Went five-hole and it felt sooo good. We won 4 - 3. To the end of our losing streak!

 

[Fremitus Borealis]

Today I.... scored 2 goals in another loss for my team. I think I actually lead the division in goals now, but I won't know until they update the week's stats. Also, "I" broke some mother****er's stick when he slashed mine tonight (as in, I was going for the puck, he two-handed me across the stick, and his $200 beauty exploded into two pieces )

Anyway, the loss is disappointing, but I am increasingly impressed with my team. We got destroyed in our first game of Winter League, but ever since, we've progressively gotten better, and it feels pretty good. Considering we're also playing in the "novice" division, I don't even really care about our **** record this season; this is pretty much all "training camp" for the "real" season that starts next Fall when my team enters the D-divisions.

 

[Ozz]

Today I.... scored 2 goals in another loss for my team. I think I actually lead the division in goals now, but I won't know until they update the week's stats. Also, "I" broke some mother****er's stick when he slashed mine tonight (as in, I was going for the puck, he two-handed me across the stick, and his $200 beauty exploded into two pieces )

Anyway, the loss is disappointing, but I am increasingly impressed with my team. We got destroyed in our first game of Winter League, but ever since, we've progressively gotten better, and it feels pretty good. Considering we're also playing in the "novice" division, I don't even really care about our **** record this season; this is pretty much all "training camp" for the "real" season that starts next Fall when my team enters the D-divisions.

Eh, losses are fine if they're good games. Good going for you, though! You did your part, haha!

The worst is when you throw away a game. Forrrrr instance, my team tonight Three defensive giveaways in our (or the neutral) zone, 2 of which led to breakaway goals and the other a 2 on 1.

At the end of the game, 3 of our guys got kicked out for erupting on some horrible penalties (we kept getting the short end of the stick and after we gave up those goals half the team lost their minds). Anyway, we were short-handed 2 guys in the final minute and a half, I was out there. One of our guys holding up the back end kept dumping it in so we had to chase it, I'd circle around and try to send it back to him to set something up...and he dumped it again. We had no idea what he was doing, then he says he didn't realize we were losing It's ok though, we probably wouldn't have gotten one as the goalie was real tough. All our goals but one were hard-fought and perfect. The other was a screened blast through almost everybody on the ice.

We lost 5-4, I had 2g2a.

 

[Summer Rose]

As a survivor of a TBI, PLEASE always wear helmets while doing any kind of semi intense skating / practice.

Always have and always will

Not wearing a helmet during public skates always feels kinda weird, but I'd also feel a little weirder wearing a helmet and visor (I would be far too lazy to take my visor off and I know it) along with normal clothes.

I can just imagine a black helmet and visor along with the floral dress and cardigan I wore to my last public skate and the picture in my head is hilarious

 

[Fremitus Borealis]

Eh, losses are fine if they're good games. Good going for you, though! You did your part, haha!

The worst is when you throw away a game. Forrrrr instance, my team tonight Three defensive giveaways in our (or the neutral) zone, 2 of which led to breakaway goals and the other a 2 on 1.

At the end of the game, 3 of our guys got kicked out for erupting on some horrible penalties (we kept getting the short end of the stick and after we gave up those goals half the team lost their minds). Anyway, we were short-handed 2 guys in the final minute and a half, I was out there. One of our guys holding up the back end kept dumping it in so we had to chase it, I'd circle around and try to send it back to him to set something up...and he dumped it again. We had no idea what he was doing, then he says he didn't realize we were losing It's ok though, we probably wouldn't have gotten one as the goalie was real tough. All our goals but one were hard-fought and perfect. The other was a screened blast through almost everybody on the ice.

We lost 5-4, I had 2g2a.

Yeah, I feel ya. We lost 3-2; I had the 2 (this also happened two games ago). Actually forgot to mention that my second goal was actually probably the first one of the season that I "felt good" about afterwards, in that it wasn't just a garbage goal by the crease. We were on the PK and the center chipped the puck out of our zone perfectly. I'm decently fast, so once I got the puck I was pretty much in home free, because the other team was pinching in really hard. Decided not to deke or anything, and just shot the damn puck as hard as I could, and it ended up going in above the goalie's left shoulder

There was lots of talk during and after the game about a ringer on the other team (who wears #99... I mean wtf...), but my guys were joking that I'm our ringer. My response was something along the lines of "if I were a ringer, I wouldn't be falling down as often as I do"

 

[pz29]

Played drop in with a group of insanely good young players from the A league. Myself and a couple of other guys like me (I play in a "rookie" league, though I am, technically, not a rookie), struggled to keep up with just about everything. I touched the puck a handful of times but completed a few decent breakout passes and won some 50/50 pucks. Then, on the bench, the guy who was the best player on both teams, told me that I should go up a league because I do not look or play like a rookie and that I would only improve playing with and against better players. Besides stroking my ego a bit, this conversation made me appreciate the friendliness of the hockey community yet again.

 

[keysersoze98]

Tonight I was reffing an adult league game where one team only had 5 skaters and the other had 7. Some time in the second period, with the team with 7 leading 6-1, I raised my arm to call a tripping penalty against the team with 5. It wasn't exactly blatant, but it was still fairly clear. Clear enough to call, anyway. The tripped player got up and said "don't worry about it" as play went the other way. One of his teammates on the bench nodded in response to this. I put my arm down. No one seemed to care, and no one else said anything about it (thought my partner told me he noticed I did this at the next intermission). The game finished with 0 penalties being called as a result.

While I'm sure everyone was happy with me not calling the penalty (or didn't even notice that I put my arm up for it then put it down), I'm not really sure how I feel about doing that.

What do you guys think?

I think if I was the guy that you were calling the penalty on, I would have been pissed that it wasn't called. I NEED A BREAK!

On a serious note: I've done my share of adult games and agree with your decision.

 

[Gigantor The Goalie]

I play in an indoor co-ed ball hockey league. Last night only one female showed up for our team, my gf who doesn't even play hockey. She just likes coming along to cheer and watch. In our league you can only have 2 males on the floor at a time because it's 4-on-4 hockey. So we ask the official if we can just have three guys and one girl on the floor rather then the 2/2 split due to the fact we only had one girl available.

Official goes to talk to the other team and they flat out say no. Which was a little surprising because my team was on the other side of one of these situations and we let the other team run a 1/3 guy favoured split. The team that we were playing though obviously wanted to win so they said no which left us with two choices: play with at most 3 players on the floor (only 2 being guys) or play 4-on-4 and forfeit both games in the standings.

We opted for 3-on-4 and my gf played in her first league hockey game ever. I didn't expect much from her but she battled as hard as she could. She communicated well and in the 2nd game helped us score a goal by providing a little bit of a screen. Last night's game has made it into my top 5 hockey moments. It was a lot of fun playing with her on defense, a dream come true.

After this morning though it will take a lot of convincing to get her back out there on the floor. She has a massive bruise on the back of her leg plus her back is on fire.

EDIT: We won both games even though for probably 20 minutes out of the hour we only had 2 players out there as my gf needed to take a break.

 

[ElijahR92]

Always have and always will

Not wearing a helmet during public skates always feels kinda weird, but I'd also feel a little weirder wearing a helmet and visor (I would be far too lazy to take my visor off and I know it) along with normal clothes.

I can just imagine a black helmet and visor along with the floral dress and cardigan I wore to my last public skate and the picture in my head is hilarious

Haha I always feel weird at public skates. Skating without a stick is awkward.

 

[Fremitus Borealis]

Haha I always feel weird at public skates. Skating without a stick is awkward.

Agreed! I always feel awkward like my balance is completely off and I'm about to fall over

 

[Summer Rose]

Agreed! I always feel awkward like my balance is completely off and I'm about to fall over

I've reffed so much without playing that I've almost forgotten how to skate with a stick. Just for fun after a game last week I borrowed a friend's stick, tried to take a slapshot, whiffed and fell down. Whoops!

 

[BM14]

I think that's great refereeing. The ability to interact with the players, think on their feet and exercise a little discretion is important for a referee. All you want from a referee is that they be consistent, unbiased and that they don't call everything that they could or look for reasons to blow the whistle. If the other team is happy to decline a penalty in those circumstances, then why wouldn't you let it slide? If the players just wanna play then they should be left to play. Of course if there's any aggro or friction going on, then you'd be a little firmer to try and de-escalate things.

No need to add to someone's PIM + possible suspension in a scenario like that.

 

[Summer Rose]

In rec league hockey, I don't think any penalties should be called unless something is deliberate, blatant, dangerous or it directly affects the play or outcome. In that regard, a lot of tripping, interference or 'checking' penalties ought to slide, because they are either accidental or inconsequential.

You want as few stoppages as possible and to be at full strength as often as possible. You're paying to play and if it's running time, you lose a bunch off the clock with every stoppage and penalty.

Refs control the game and let if flow. It's okay not to call stuff, as long as you're consistent with both teams.

You're not wrong at all actually. In our USA Hockey officiating manuals, we get taught to call penalties in 4 situations:

1) The infraction resulted in a change of possession
2) The infraction resulted in a scoring opportunity being lost
3) The infraction was blatantly obvious
4) The infraction carried a potential for injury

Furthermore, penalties are divided into two categories: "restraining" fouls and "aggressive" fouls. We're taught to "manage the game" because nobody ever wants everything to be called by the book. Truth be told, a close game will often result in a relaxation of enforcement on both restraining (i.e. hooking/holding) as well as aggressive (i.e. roughing/slashing) fouls. A blowout will usually result in the trailing team having a lot of leeway in the restraining area, the leading team having none, and aggressive fouls being adamantly called. If it's 8-0 and someone hacks somebody, you can **** off and sit down. Do I make that call in a 1-1 game? Really, no. I don't. As a referee I'm there to keep things fair and safe. I'm not there to help decide the game.

That's jusssst a bit of an over reach.

I agree with the decision not call the penalty given the circumstances. The only thing I take issue with is that her arm had already gone up. In this case no one saw that apparently. However, if your team was about to get a power play, you're about to hop over the boards as an extra attacker, and then the official puts their arm down, I really doubt you would say "Great call; I applaud your common sense." You'd probably be on the Beer League Frustrations thread right now instead of this one.

I've actually had a situation like that happen before which I tried to just use common sense to resolve. I had my arm in the air in a 2-man system for an icing infraction. I was on the opposite side from the benches, so they thought it was a penalty and pulled their goalie. Once I saw that, I just blew the play dead and restarted play with a neutral zone faceoff (which is where the puck was when I stopped play). Nobody complained.

Did I need to throw them a bone? Perhaps not, but I'm not going to have an idiotic goal against on my hands if I'm being misinterpreted as an official. Just stop play, admit any mistakes or misinterpretations, and move on with the game.

 

[leftwinger37]

I've actually had a situation like that happen before which I tried to just use common sense to resolve. I had my arm in the air in a 2-man system for an icing infraction. I was on the opposite side from the benches, so they thought it was a penalty and pulled their goalie. Once I saw that, I just blew the play dead and restarted play with a neutral zone faceoff (which is where the puck was when I stopped play). Nobody complained.

Did I need to throw them a bone? Perhaps not, but I'm not going to have an idiotic goal against on my hands if I'm being misinterpreted as an official. Just stop play, admit any mistakes or misinterpretations, and move on with the game.

I remember this happened when I was in high school. It was a really tight game (1-1 or 2-2) and the opponent was a team I really hated. The arm went up on a delayed icing and they pulled their goalie. Our school put the puck in the empty net. Game winner. Couldn't have happened to better group of guys.

 

[Summer Rose]

Today I got hit with a puck one inch below my elbow pad and broke my right wrist, 3 months after I had the same thing happen to my left wrist. ****.

At least I didn't break my dominant wrist this time...

 

[leftwinger37]

Today I got hit with a puck one inch below my elbow pad and broke my right wrist, 3 months after I had the same thing happen to my left wrist. ****.

At least I didn't break my dominant wrist this time...

Oh, that sucks. Sounds like you're having quite a streak of luck. Hopefully that heals up quickly for you.

 

[Summer Rose]

Oh, that sucks. Sounds like you're having quite a streak of luck. Hopefully that heals up quickly for you.

X rays tell me it's a 2-inch fracture on the ulna bone in my right arm, but it's several inches away from the tip (last break was right on the tip - I could call this a "broken arm" instead and not really be wrong but whatever). It's more easily protected of a break than my left wrist fracture and I don't even need a fiberglass cast for it if I'm careful (my insurance would cover one, but I really don't want one since I recall quite freshly how annoying they are to wear).

It almost doesn't even hurt at all (and I'm even typing while wearing a brace the ER gave me) so it might even be healed up in 3-4 weeks.

Speaking of bad luck though I swear this rink (in Chandler, AZ) is bad luck for me. This wrist break happened there. My wrist break 3 months ago happened there. My broken collarbone in May 2015 happened there. Maybe that place is trying to tell me something?

 

[Ozz]

Damn, is stay away from that place!


Tonight one of the rink admins is having me sub on a low level team, but I have to play with an off-hand stick. That ought to be fun...

 

[Sean Garrity]

Got a 10 minute misconduct for asking, "why am I going to the box".

So, scrum in front of the net and my teammate and opponent hacking each other/pushing each other. I'm next to the opponent, so I wrap him up from behind and skate him away from my teammate. I let him go once we're at a safe distance, and he turns around jawing at me. Being my ******* self, I jaw back with simple lines like, "get the **** out of here", all the while sticking my chin out. He eventually hits me, and I think I've done a wonderful job drawing a penalty, but then reality sets in and penalties are assessed to the original two and me(he got an extra 2 for hitting me). I ask the ref "why am I going to the box", and am met with yelling, "go to the box." At this point, I'm like **** that, you're not going to yell at me to do anything especially after not answering a simple questions. So he continued to yell and i continued to ask the simple question until he gave me a 10 minute misconduct for not going to the box. Once he gave me an explanation of what I got a penalty for, which was BS but I didn't want to argue that, I went to the box. It's quite simple, just answer the question and the situation didn't have to escalate. One of the first things that you learn in crisis prevention is to answer information based questions. This entire situation could've been avoided, but some young jerk off ref wants to act a fool and situations escalate.

 

[STC]

Got a 10 minute misconduct for asking, "why am I going to the box".

So, scrum in front of the net and my teammate and opponent hacking each other/pushing each other. I'm next to the opponent, so I wrap him up from behind and skate him away from my teammate. I let him go once we're at a safe distance, and he turns around jawing at me. Being my ******* self, I jaw back with simple lines like, "get the **** out of here", all the while sticking my chin out. He eventually hits me, and I think I've done a wonderful job drawing a penalty, but then reality sets in and penalties are assessed to the original two and me(he got an extra 2 for hitting me). I ask the ref "why am I going to the box", and am met with yelling, "go to the box." At this point, I'm like **** that, you're not going to yell at me to do anything especially after not answering a simple questions. So he continued to yell and i continued to ask the simple question until he gave me a 10 minute misconduct for not going to the box. Once he gave me an explanation of what I got a penalty for, which was BS but I didn't want to argue that, I went to the box. It's quite simple, just answer the question and the situation didn't have to escalate. One of the first things that you learn in crisis prevention is to answer information based questions.

I don't think men's league refs get to the crisis prevention seminar till level 4.

 

[Summer Rose]

I don't think men's league refs get to the crisis prevention seminar till level 4.

Crisis prevention is certainly not part of the curicculum. Part of it is how to de-escalate situations before they start, and ignoring someone who's asking why they're going to the box doesn't sound like a good idea.

 

[Fremitus Borealis]

Yeah, as long as you weren't being mouthy from the start, I think the ref owed you an explanation. Sending guys to the box *while* giving them preemptive attitude is not a recipe for trustworthy officiating.

Luckily I haven't seen anything like this in my league yet, knock on wood. The refs are a lot more like coaches, if I'm honest, in that during stoppages they'll explain what happened, tell how it could be avoided, and so on.

 

[PIMking]

first game back last night, first game in over a year and only the third game in two years due to 4 surgeries.

had three shots
1. was a terrible attempt, RW came down the right side saw me back door with no one around and passed it, however the Centre didn't see me and tried to get it thus tipping it and I had to deal with a deflection and couldn't get anything on it.

2. Second shot was right into the goalie.

3. Third shot was a nice wrist shot from between the circles by the blue line, the puck bounced against the boards and came to me, I just grabbed it, turned no look and snapped it as hard as I could. Beat the goalie but didn't beat the post, top right corner I thought it went in for sure.

Had one more attempt on a cross ice one timer that was real tight and I just remember thinking I should just re-direct it but then thought, "nah, lets blow the net off with a sick one timer from your knee" and I missed, looked good doing so but I laughed so hard.

legs felt amazing, just groin muscles a little sore and need to get my hockey legs back.

 

[STC]

Crisis prevention is certainly not part of the curicculum. Part of it is how to de-escalate situations before they start, and ignoring someone who's asking why they're going to the box doesn't sound like a good idea.

Not as bad of an idea as continuing to ask a ref a question when he/she clearly has no intention of answering you and you're already on your way to the box.