Monday, July 09, 2007

Went to a hockey game

Insert all the bad jokes here. They were true.

My cousin's son is a hard core hockey player in his home state south of the Mason Dixon line. His parents decided to send him to a camp up here, in a state where hockey is wicked intense.

Over the weekend I brought the boys to the rink 7 miles from our house for the 9:40pm game, the team's second in a tournament that followed the camp. They played against a team from Montreal. Within five minutes of the game, a Canadian player repeatedly hit and kicked a player from the home team. The beaten player ended up with a broken ankle. The aggressor was never penalized, I guess because the referees didn't see it

That led to a game with 16 year old boys constantly tripping, hitting, slamming, and other aggressive acts. I'm familiar enough with hockey to know that is part of the tactic. However, even seasoned hockey parents told me this was going too far.

It did go too far. The game was called because the players were fighting too much. We literally went to a fight and a hockey game broke out.

But this was great. A blessing really. One of my guys has been nagging me constantly to let him take up hockey. This is a kid, who along with his brother, plays (deep breath) soccer, basketball, t-ball, and tennis along with starting on a swim team this week. Aside from the ridiculous number of sports he plays there is no way in hell I will


  1. pay the outrageous costs for hockey equipment (I learned one of those sticks alone can cost up to $150)

  2. deal with 4:30am practice times or tournament games ending at 11:30 at night

  3. encourage my children to participate in a sport that expressly endorses fighting
So there we were in the dark parking lot past midnight and I told him never to bring up playing hockey again. Because if he does, I'll ask him which part of that evening he enjoyed.

8 comments:

jodifur said...

I'm sorry, did you actually say wicked? I mean, I know you are from Boston and all, but people stillsay wicked?

One of my friend's husbands coaches youth hockey. And yeah, she cals herself a hockey widow.

soccer mom in denial said...

How wicked is still used at hockey games -

"That was a wicked awesome shot!"

"See that girl over there (or the-ya)? She's wicked hot!"

or my personal favorite -

"Ref? Ya didn't see that? What ah ya? Wicked retahded?"

Adventures In Waitressing said...

LMAO that was Wicked Funny

Alex Elliot said...

I so hope that my boys don't want to play hockey. Otherwise I'll be a wicked mommy and say "no". There's plenty of wicked cool sports out there for them to choose!

Jenn in Holland said...

That was Wicked Funny SMID! And I mean funny in that totally sympathetic commiserating with your pain kind of way.
I am sooooooo glad I haven't had a kid (yet--touch wood) who wants to play hockey. There was some passing interest in field hockey which is a big sport (oh, sorry a wicked big sport) here. But other than sharing the ridiculouly high equipment costs (just think about buying that stuff in EUROS rather than DOLLARS) the sport isn't fraught with the violence that dominates ice hockey.
Wicked smart of you to steer them away from organized agression!

Fourier Analyst said...

I can't believe how unsportmanlike behavior is supported/ignored by the coaches in many sports these days. My DDs were fortunate to play in an all-girl soccer team (very few here in Holland where "football" is the national macho sport). But during the season they played against boy or mixed teams. I was appalled at the antics and language that was coming from 7-10 year olds! While it's nothing compared to what you experienced, it is all part of the same trend. Whatever happened to playing sports for fun? It's a wicked shame...

Gunfighter said...

*Snicker* She actually said wicked!

Wicked funy post, SMID... even though I understand the seriousness of the problem of youth sports violence.

One of the girls on my soccer team this year told me that her father told her to elbow the other players to keep them off of the ball. The dad wasn't happy when I told the girls that real athletes don't need to resort to that sort of garbage.

Wicked good post, though.

Wicked GF

Anonymous said...

hehe it is always one of the wicked Canadians eh?