pick up hockey (shinny) pet peeves

[rayuelo 1]

HAHAHAHAHA. Yes. I actually mix 1/2 coconut water, 1/4 gatorade, and 1/4 water. Nasty as hell but it does the trick.

Coconut water stopped working for me when one of my team mates discovered my bottle with it, and he just loves the stuff. Getting your water drained by someone else is annoying but, having to subsidize someone else's coconut water fancy is annoying and expensive!

[RadioGaGa 162]

I don't mind guys that drink from my water...we've got a pretty good group, so there's usually 3-4 on the go...grab whatever bottle is closest. It's the guys who spray it on the ground first (to clean the nozzle??? never understood that)...then takes a small sip and empties half the bottle onto his face and down his back.

Dude...c'mon...bring your own if that's all you do with it.

[jisatsu 4]

I have a pretty big list of pet peeves for pick up and shinny.

Guys who play too rough. Seriously, you don't need to slash down on a guys stick to get the puck away. There are other things you can do. You don't have to check someone every time you go into the boards with them.

Guys who trip all the time. Keep your stick out of people's skates. Don't put your stick between their legs either.

The guy who never brings a puck.

The mom who brings her 4 year old to the rink with 20 minutes left in the drop in and makes us play half ice while her 4 year old skates circles right in the middle of our game. 20 mins left.

The crybaby drop in goalie. We all know the one. He takes a deflection to his helmet and starts crying about how expensive his helmet is. The same guy who also complains about no defense in 3v3 half ice games with 1 sub on the bench.

The swarm of 10-14 year olds in the summer time who want to play the most annoying hockey ever. It's 6am. Sleep in kids.

The guy who wears only gloves and a helmet and plays recklessly. Love watching that guy get hurt, hate playing with/against him.

The 40 something guy who can't skate but thinks he has a shot at the pros. Never passes, every shot misses the net, takes clappers from 5 feet away, open ice hits, crosschecks players in front of the net, ect ect.

The guy who has been playing for a year and brags about his mako skates. Oh, they improve your skating? I can hardly tell.

This list could go on and on.

[notquitedeadyet 13]

I don't mind guys that drink from my water...we've got a pretty good group, so there's usually 3-4 on the go...grab whatever bottle is closest. It's the guys who spray it on the ground first (to clean the nozzle??? never understood that)...then takes a small sip and empties half the bottle onto his face and down his back.

Dude...c'mon...bring your own if that's all you do with it.

Yeah, I once came to the bench from my 2nd shift to find one of the new punks spraying the last of my bottle on his face then throwing it on the floor. Made him go fill it just when it was his turn to go out. After that I started putting a squirt of food coloring in the bottle before I left, so it looked like something they didn't want to cool off with.

Then there was the time I almost used my towel to dry my face but luckily saw that one of them already used it to blow their snotty/bloody nose: "oh sorry, that was yours? I thought someone left it there..."

[IPv6Freely 2093]

The guy who has been playing for a year and brags about his mako skates. Oh, they improve your skating? I can hardly tell.

To be fair, my mako skates have improved my skating dramatically. Mostly because my feet aren't in pain anymore :)

[JoeyJ0506 192]

How about Rec League Pet Peeve:

The guy that contributes nothing to the team whatsoever but has something critical to say about everything from the jerseys, how the team is run, to how the team plays on the ice. I am at the end of my rope with a player or two like this.

Start your own team from scratch, or shut your mouth.

[Cosmic 178]

(While getting geared up)

The super rich kid who holds a bag of 20 rolls of colored tape, whose eyes light up as he feels and fondles the tape, which he then gives back to the travelling accessory vendor (thus leading me to think, he must have his own tape). Twenty minutes later, the kid asks you to borrow tape (after making 30 seconds of small talk with you, for the first time ever).

-People burning garbage immediately outside the entrance to our surface, which has fans blowing all outside air directly in to us, and trapping it immediately above our surface. Burn your garbage after we leave, please! ... also, people cooking the rancid smelly "stinky fish" immediately outside the entrance.

- The guy who tells you his stat line periodically throughout the night, after he rings up every point or two.

- The guy who tells bad jokes, which no one laughs at, and then repeats them, thinking that no one must have heard his bad joke, and continues to explain the joke, as if you did not understand it the first 2 times.

[vnderachiever 3]

How about Rec League Pet Peeve:

The guy that contributes nothing to the team whatsoever but has something critical to say about everything from the jerseys, how the team is run, to how the team plays on the ice. I am at the end of my rope with a player or two like this.

Start your own team from scratch, or shut your mouth.

We've got a guy like that. He "can't play defense, because he just can't", but doesn't score or even contribute offensively. But when I drop back on a 2 on 1 (on defense) he's yelling from the bench to step up on the guy with the puck. I'm beginning to think he just doesn't know how to play defense!

[IPv6Freely 2093]

(While getting geared up)

The super rich kid who holds a bag of 20 rolls of colored tape, whose eyes light up as he feels and fondles the tape, which he then gives back to the travelling accessory vendor (thus leading me to think, he must have his own tape). Twenty minutes later, the kid asks you to borrow tape (after making 30 seconds of small talk with you, for the first time ever).

-People burning garbage immediately outside the entrance to our surface, which has fans blowing all outside air directly in to us, and trapping it immediately above our surface. Burn your garbage after we leave, please! ... also, people cooking the rancid smelly "stinky fish" immediately outside the entrance.

- The guy who tells you his stat line periodically throughout the night, after he rings up every point or two.

- The guy who tells bad jokes, which no one laughs at, and then repeats them, thinking that no one must have heard his bad joke, and continues to explain the joke, as if you did not understand it the first 2 times.

First, travelling accessory vendor? What?

Second... BURNING GARBAGE? WTF?

[Cosmic 178]

First, travelling accessory vendor? What?

Second... BURNING GARBAGE? WTF?

1) There is no real LHS except this one place that I have never been to myself:

http://skaters-zone.com/

* So, the woman who owns it was at the rink selling gel, tape, etc.- accessories, so, I dub her "travelling accessory vendor."

2) Yea, the people burn their garbage out here, all the time. Always fires going on the side of the road, if the people even bother to collect their garbage and choose to eradicate it in this toxic way. Otherwise, people just throw their trash on the ground and expect it to find its way to wherever.

[Cosmic 178]

I use a stick bag for the purpose of protecting my car from the sticks (sliding around and dirtying up the interior). I like to keep my car clean. I agree with Chippa though that unless you have a medical condition or are a goalie, no need for a wheel bag.

How does one determine if a player wheeling a bag, has a medical condition? "Uh, excuse me, I noticed you toting a wheeled bag. I need to know if you do this because you have a medical condition, or if you just do it because it makes your trip in and out of the rink easier. Because you see, I will judge you harshly if you are doing this for ease of use, but if you have a medical condition, then it's cool."

To hear that people think about these things is beyond lame. I mean, I use a wheeled bag and I have a medical condition. I play somewhere that no one really gives a #*#$ whether the other guys' bags have wheels, so no one has ever queried the matter with me. Most guys actually use wheeled bags; no one else has medical conditions that I am aware of; no one cares.

Oh yea, I use a stick bag too. Why anyone would care as to why I use it (to make carrying my sticks easier, protect the sticks, keep wax out of my seats of my car, etc.), and determine whether my reason for using the stick bag is appropriate as per some sort of code, is beyond me. Most people use stick bags out here too, I have never heard anyone query another as to why, to determine if the stick bag user should be judged harshly, or accepted into the tribe as being "okay."

Seriously, who thinks like this? I guess there are not many hot females at your guys' rinks. We always seem to have a plethora, and thus the focus never shifts from the hockey & the puck (when we are on the ice), to the lovely women around us when we are between shifts (and occasional discussion about strategy, of course). Occasionally people notice each other's gear, but it is more in the context of, "How's that working out for ya?" rather than, "What is your justification for using that, because we may have to ostracize you if your motives are not in accordance with our Standards of Utilization."

I suppose I ought to have compassion for those meandering in these seemingly ridiculous thought patterns (under what conditions it is ok to wheel your gear, whether your use of a stick bag is justified, etc.) that I am reading about.

[McDugan 89]

Stick bag here, to keep my new car clean and make it easier to carry 3 sticks when i want to try different curves, and I just switched to the 20k bag. Don't give a damn what anybody thinks. Not having to take my gear out of the bag to dry and then put it back and squeeze it into my closet is worth the price of admission. Now I can just walk in , turn on the fan, open the bag, maybe take out my shoulders and hang them up to give the pants and shins room to breathe, and I'm done. Everything's sitting there ready to go for next time and isn't going to make me think there's a dead animal in the walls.

[IPv6Freely 2093]

Stick bag here also, to keep the wax off my seats. Planning on getting a 20k bag also.

[JoeyJ0506 192]

The guy that complains every time someone dares hit him in the shins/pants with a shot, attempted pass, clearing attempt, etc. "I HAVE TO GO TO WORK IN THE MORNING!"

Usually followed by him hooking/holding/interfering/cross-checking/slashing the "offender".

[Law Goalie 147]

I've seen a few guys bring stick-bags in the car for cleanliness/organisation, but take the sticks out and leave the bag in the car for the game.

Even as a goalie, I sometimes get crap about the wheel bag. I usually just pick it up, knock a few children down, and then ask, "Wouldn't these 250L be safer on the ground?"

[Cosmic 178]

I've seen a few guys bring stick-bags in the car for cleanliness/organisation, but take the sticks out and leave the bag in the car for the game.

Even as a goalie, I sometimes get crap about the wheel bag. I usually just pick it up, knock a few children down, and then ask, "Wouldn't these 250L be safer on the ground?"

I do not men to belabor the point, but I would think that keeping backup sticks in the stick bag might decrease the chances of someone with poor etiquette deciding that a naked stick is an available stick, and deciding to take your naked stick out for a little excursion on the ice. I read about the guy who noticed some random kid was skating around using his backup stick. When I leave my gear bag behind and go out on the ice, I make sure to stow all my spare parts (sneakers, extra stick, etc.) "on the other side" of zippered pockets (not locked, just at lease out of sight), to decrease the chances of the nosy/ touchy people investigating my stuff.

Funny story- the goalie who usually drives me asked why I carry my wheeled bag by the handle that is fixed to the end, instead of the extender handle that slides in and out. I told him that I always break those handles on luggage, so I just leave them be and just use the exposed handles to carry the bag. He seemed disappointed that I was not maximizing my ease of use, and expending too much effort by slightly compromising the integrity of my posture to wheel my bag by the bag handle. I guess that is the difference between the traditionalist type communities and the one I am in- here, we are just looking for better, more efficent ways to do things. As Armand Assante said in "Gotti, in reference to morons who are always looking to make things more difficult than they need to be: "Hard time is for hard-ons." I attempt to make my life as easy as possible in all aspects, as hard-ons have been making things difficult ever since as long as I can remember (taking away my nap in kindergarten, coercing me into sitting in desks and feeding me mind-numbing nonsense since about 1st grade, withholding basic life necessities (water, food, shelter) and telling me I need to waste energy to collect funny pieces of paper to then trade for the basic life necessities, etc.)

[ktang 34]

Cosmic, I share your observations.

In the '70s (when I started) there were coaches and players against curves in blades; they had to be "straight as a ruler", or else it wasn't proper. Ballistic nylon skates and gloves would never be as good as all-leather ones. Those Bobby Orr plastic Tuuk holders would never be as good as the metal tube blades.

In the '90s sticks had to be "wood" to be "good".

When I started using a wheeled bag for beer league, it was the (by far, the) worst players on the team that were against it. Joined a second team, same thing; it was the worst player again (the only one, he was horrible, useless, and hopeless). Joined another team, same thing (the two "apple turnover" machines). Joined a better team, everybody used wheel bags. Current team: everybody uses wheel bags.

A lot of players get into traditionalist mindsets during high school, when people are afraid of standing out. So when they play their high school game as adults, it's understandable that they regress to this kind of mindset.

Look at the serious young players today; unless they need to (because their coaches are traditionalist? or because their equipment managers have carts that, themselves, have wheels? or they're using an elite team bag with the elite logo, even though they were cut?), if they're transporting their own bag, that bag has wheels.

[Cosmic 178]

Cosmic, I share your observations.

In the '70s (when I started) there were coaches and players against curves in blades; they had to be "straight as a ruler", or else it wasn't proper. Ballistic nylon skates and gloves would never be as good as all-leather ones. Those Bobby Orr plastic Tuuk holders would never be as good as the metal tube blades.

In the '90s sticks had to be "wood" to be "good".

When I started using a wheeled bag for beer league, it was the (by far, the) worst players on the team that were against it. Joined a second team, same thing; it was the worst player again (the only one, he was horrible, useless, and hopeless). Joined another team, same thing (the two "apple turnover" machines). Joined a better team, everybody used wheel bags. Current team: everybody uses wheel bags.

A lot of players get into traditionalist mindsets during high school, when people are afraid of standing out. So when they play their high school game as adults, it's understandable that they regress to this kind of mindset.

Look at the serious young players today; unless they need to (because their coaches are traditionalist? or because their equipment managers have carts that, themselves, have wheels? or they're using an elite team bag with the elite logo, even though they were cut?), if they're transporting their own bag, that bag has wheels.

That's interesting, and fills in the gaps a bit as to why I just don't get this mentality, as I have mostly not experienced it. I played one year of organized ice hockey in 7th grade (1987-88 I think) on a team where the players mostly did not like each other, nor talk to each other much- neither in a positive nor negative manner. We just always lost, and on occasion the best player would rant about how everyone was p#*($@s for not going into the corners. Aside from that though, no one ever spoke with anyone about anything. And then for the 3 months I played when I was 20 (1995-1996), just drop in, no one seemed to care about the gear the others were wearing. I just recall this one guy who thought he was really cool for not wearing face protection, and seemed to really get a kick out of when he got to spit out his teeth when he caught an inadvertent high stick to his face- he was like 20 years old, IQ slightly above a rock, and actually a decent player.

So, having never stepped out on the ice during my high school years, nor having played for a coach other than that one (who never commented on equipment, and who was a pretty pleasant guy), I guess I have been fortunate in evading these mentally challenged folk.

I am actually all for discussion of which equipment is best for what (I recently heard an interview of Gretzky saying that the graphite shafts are compromising Crosby's handling, even though his shooting is helped), but I would not take well to someone telling me I need to do things the "hard-on" way. And those who just ignorantly balk at any advances (plastic holders, curved paddles, etc.) have not really surrounded me, as I never lived anywhere that bred hockey purists and traditionalists.

[IPv6Freely 2093]

I just figure "because I'm a lazy bastard" is a good enough reason when asked about it.

[iceman8310 106]

my biggest pet peeve is guys who constantly complain during pick up

[SirJW 207]

Here in So Cal, unless you have an old nasty team bag, many elders have some sort of rolling bag or backpack and some of us w/ nice cars use stick bags.

[bunnyman666 445]

I got tripped today. It was 150% INTENTIONAL. I wanted to cross check the offender in the head.

What is the shinny protocol for dealing with a person who tripped you?

[yrhmblnr8r 69]

I got tripped today. It was 150% INTENTIONAL. I wanted to cross check the offender in the head.

What is the shinny protocol for dealing with a person who tripped you?

A crusty look and a "WTF, Man, it's shinny" is usually enough. Although I understand the desire to hit back. It IS only shinny, you weren't going to win the Cup if you'd scored.

[splitbtw 2]

There's only one guy I've ever wanted to light up in pickup and he conveniently is involved in those "iffy" cheap or dangerous plays so many times it isn't a coincidence. He's good enough to not be involved, but when he takes your legs out near the boards time after time, or slashes a stick in half or out of your hands over and over, it's too much to be a coincidence.

I've told him it will happen, and when it does (a clean shoulder to chest in open ice during league play when his head is down), I wont feel bad in the slightest.

It's probably been said before, but I'll add it anyway... The excessive stick work. No need to slash and hook hands in pickup. If you get beat, you beat. Please don't add the tomahawk or hook on the hands. If it's someone I know, I don't mind being held, but those two I could do without.

[AIREAYE 248]

I got tripped today. It was 150% INTENTIONAL. I wanted to cross check the offender in the head.

What is the shinny protocol for dealing with a person who tripped you?

To calm down, perhaps consider some anger management exercises.

Or just let him know that it's not appreciated, yeah, better than attacking the guy don't you think?