So UberHubby went up to St Michael with me for last night's Hot Flash hockey game. We won 2-1 by the way, thanks to ME scoring the game winning goal by simply being in the right place at the right time. There was the usual scrum in front of the net, somehow one of their defensemen ended up laying there next to the goalie trying to freeze the puck, which only the goalie is allowed to do. If she'd been smart, she would have knocked the puck as far away as possible when she had to move her hand off of it, but thankfully for me she didn't. I was standing there next to her, positive that the ref was going to blow the whistle at any second, but instead I noticed that he was just staring down at the ice. I looked down, & lo and behold there was the puck, just laying next to the goalie's foot, nobody being the wiser because they all thought it was underneath her somewhere. Since the ref seemed to be waiting for something to happen, I decided to oblige him by poking my stick in there and shoving the puck into the net.
GAME WINNING GOAL FOR ME! It wasn't pretty, but I'll take it.Mass drama ensued...As the ref skated over to report my number to the scorekeeper, the opposing team's coach started an argument with him and ended up getting ejected. I didn't hear all of it, but according to UH (who had graciously agreed to be our volunteer time clock dude) he was screaming at the ref for not blowing the whistle and stopping play (which he would only have had to do if the goalie had actually had control of the puck). At one point I believe their coach actually threatened to meet the ref out in the parking lot, presumably to settle the matter with a 5th grade style fistfight.
This is the bargain basement C3 division of an all women's recreational hockey league, people. Many (if not most) of our players are well over 30 and none of us are headed for the Olympics anytime soon. We're out there for some good fun and exercise. USA Hockey hands out stickers that say "Relax, it's just a game" for a reason, but apparently this guy didn't get the memo.
The drama didn't end there, however. In the locker room, I found out that their goalie had also threatened to meet one of our players out in the parking lot. See a pattern here? I'm headed up the hallway to meet UH, come across their coaches and goalie discussing the play, and the goalie says she had no idea where the puck was. I stopped and told her exactly what had happened, and when confronted with the facts they acted all innocent and nice and then lied to my face about what the argument with the ref was all about. Whatever, people. I moved on up the hallway, found UH, and left the building. THEN he tells me that while he was waiting, he witnessed one of their angry players dropping F-bombs left and right within earshot of small children. He spoke up and said it was unacceptable to speak that way when kids were around, and she turned on him and said "What? You wanna take this outside?" The kids' mom was also a member of their team, and clearly jumped into contention for Mother of the Year by saying "They're my kids, I think it's ok." Excuse me? You think it's cool to drop F-bombs in front of your small ones? Really?
So...Grand total of at least 3 people from this team threatened various people with parking lot ass beatings. Clearly the attitude flows downhill from the coach, who was also overheard berating his players on the bench for making mistakes out on the ice. This is not the NHL, dude...Get a grip. I like my coach's style much better. When we make mistakes (not if...This IS C3, after all), he finds a way to tell us how to think and do better on the ice without cutting us down. Thanks, Doug.
Still, I think UH is contemplating whether or not he should have let Angry F-Bomb Chick punch him, so then he could have sued her for enough money to wipe out our credit card debt and pay for another European cycling trip. Tough choice, I know.
