pick up hockey (shinny) pet peeves

[Davetronz 109]

I usually go to lunch hour pick up during the weekdays because my job is flexible. I have about 3 rinks with lunchtime pickup within 15 mins of my house, so I try to alternate them. The competition is usually decent. A few former Jr A, college, etc guys, a few old timers, and a few beginners. A lot of people trying out new equipment, breaking in new skates...

My pet peeves are a bit of a double edged sword...

1 - Guys who come out to pickup and play like they've still got a shot in the pros. It's usually the hoser wearing his former Jr. A jersey, or tryout jersey he got for free 10 years ago before he got cut from the team in the first ice time. If I notice that a guy is pretty new to hockey, I make a point of passing to him regardless of the play, defending him to his skill level or just slightly above, and giving him a fair chance to defend when I'm forechecking. The "super stars" will blow by these guys like pylons, usually doing some stupid between the legs deke to make a point, or aggressively defend against the weaker player to score a cheap goal. This is the same type of guy who will light up a goalie for 10 goals in the first half of pick up, and score half his goals doing "trick shots". Tone it down buddy.

2 - Usually as a result of #1, goalies end up getting frustrated and leaving halfway through the pickup game. They skate off the ice and leave everyone screwed. It's been mentioned, but a lot of tenders around here will "give up" if they don't feel that their team is defending hard enough. This happened after the first goal of the pick up yesterday, and the goalie gave up right then and there. He proceeded to step aside for pretty much 90% of the shots after that, including skating into the corner during breakaways. These goalies are usually the ones smashing their sticks, swearing up a storm, and shooting the puck out of their net after a goal at their defencemen or the guy who scored on them. Grow up.

Yeah, I think #1 contributes to #2 to a degree, but I think goalies know that guys are going to showboat in pickup, and other guys aren't going to back check hard. That's just part of the position. I've never seen a goaltender get a shutout in a pickup game. Not to sound like an ass, but if they aren't going to stay the entire length of the ice time, they should offer their spot up to someone else.

[Law Goalie 147]

I think part of it is that some goalies take full advantage of the fact that there is no-one else: it's their only chance to play the primo uomo. Even if they suck, they can still draw attention to themselves by leaving an empty net behind. It's contemptible.

I would submit that a goalie who gives up 10 in the first half hour shouldn't have been there in the first place. A goalie who doesn't at least have the potential to blank an hour of shinny should not be at that skate. You'd be better off using a shooter-tutor: it will be more of a challenge, and probably better behaved. The reason 'superstars' constantly play trick-shots is often that they get bored when everything they put on net is going in. Get a goalie who can stop a couple and they'll start playing hockey.

As a goalie, I have zero sympathy for whining, swearing, stick-slamming, skate-bailing goalies. I've shutout pickup games on good days, and I've been torched for six or seven in bad hours by the very same guys: both were fun. If you can't find the pleasure in getting beaten by a good play, or in making a mistake and recognising it, there is no point in playing. If you can't enjoy the game, no matter what your position, get the hell off the ice.

[Davetronz 109]

Well said, Law Goalie.

I think the goalies in pickup vary in skill, much like the skaters. I've played against some great goaltenders in pickup who can really hold their own. Then there's the guys who are just beginners and wanting extra ice. I play goal too, although not in the last 6 months due to knee injury, but some of my first games were during pickup. I showed up to some non-busy pickup games with two bags, let a few of the guys in the room know that I was a new tender, and that in this case, it was either me or a shooter-tutor if no one else showed up. If they had said they'd rather have a shooter-tutor, as a skater too, I would have understood and grabbed my other bag. In the end, I played with some pretty decent players my first couple times out. Never got frustrated when they deked me out of my pads, teed up clappers top shelf from the top of the circle, or ran up the score. In the end, they were out there to try out their new moves, and I was out there to try out mine.

Everyone needs an "in" into their position. It's hard to join a beginner men's league team as a goaltender or skater without any time on the ice to try things out. If it isn't Winter, or you don't have an ODR to go to, sometimes pickup is the only place you can test the waters. Unless you start setting a skill level requirement for certain pickups, everyone should be welcome, regardless of skill level, that includes goaltenders.

[technophile 0]

I'm getting really tired of lopsided games, in a weekly pick-up with a regular group of guys, for some reason the guy putting the team together doesn't know how to balance it out. Or won't throughout the game.

It's annoying as hell to pay $14 to drop the puck every minute.

For pickup we always did the "everyone drops sticks in the middle, someone random tosses one stick one way, one another until there are no more" method of picking.

Letting a person intentionally pick always seems to go bad unless you are really, really smart/lucky about who's picking.

[iceNsteel 0]

From a personal POV the worst goalie is more fun that posts or a shooter tutor. The goalies just being there drives guys to play defense, which makes playing offense more fun. It speeds up the skate, and it's just more fun to play offense when there's a reason to try and make that extra pass or whatever to get the goalie out of position. Shooting on the tutor or the posts changes the dynamic of the game. With a goalie a long shot from around the face off circles would be a low percentage shot, but with you're shooting posts or the tutor that give a guy more time to aim so those become the high percentage shots. It's just more fun to have a goalie, regardless of how bad he/she happens to be.

[IPv6Freely 2087]

I would submit that a goalie who gives up 10 in the first half hour shouldn't have been there in the first place.

I don't agree. Why does he not deserve the chance to get better too? What if I, tomorrow, decided I wanted to learn to play goal... how would I learn besides strapping on pads and getting lit up in pickup? Do you have a better suggestion?

[sharks25 9]

I think law meant if they get frustrated and abandon the skate as if they're too good to be there. I've never seen anyone trying to get better act that way.

[wrangler 157]

The more I read here the more I think maybe I've just been lucky. I've never seen a goalie in pickup who didn't try the whole session. And we just split up for teams based on jersey color, and the teams end up fairly balanced. There have been one or two guys we thought could skate around anybody else any time they wanted to, but never really showed everything they've got. I respect that, as I do a defending player giving a less skilled puck carrier a challenge without just overpowering him like he's not there.

[IPv6Freely 2087]

I think law meant if they get frustrated and abandon the skate as if they're too good to be there. I've never seen anyone trying to get better act that way.

Ah, okay in that case, agreed.

[Law Goalie 147]

That was what I was suggesting: that the frustration that makes a goalie leave a skate is largely his own fault. If he shows up once and is way out of his depth, he should stick it out, laugh it off, and ask frankly if they want him back. If they say, 'Hell yes, we're always short,' he can keep showing up and trying to get better, and maybe look for a superior replacement.

I had a wonderful contrast two weeks running: one guy who gave up on plays, bitched and moaned, and generally had to be molly-coddled: don't run the score, hit him with a few to make him feel good, talk him up afterwards, etc. Made the whole group miserable and trepidatious. Then the next week the organiser's friend took over the other net: he was no better as a goalie, but he worked his tail off, and loved every second. Every time he got scored on he'd either make a crack or congratulate the shooter. Part of that is being with a group you know well; part of it is just being a good shinny goalie.

And I just want to take a second to congratulate Dave on the two-bag approach: extremely considerate.

[Jason Harris 31]

A goalie who doesn't at least have the potential to blank an hour of shinny should not be at that skate.

You really have guys who can do that? Last week, I played the best 45 minutes I've ever played as goalie, but as I joked, our pickup lasts 90 minutes....

But then I started thinking about all the pickups I've played as a skater and could only remember one time I goalie came close to shutting us out. We scored with about 15 minutes left and gave ourselves a mock cheer. Other than that, I would imagine 2 or 3 goals would be an outstanding session for a goalie with the amount of defense played at our pickups. It's hard for me to fathom a goalie even thinking of a shutout as anything other than the Holy Grail.

[technophile 0]

Yeah, a 60 minute shutout at shinny means you're playing down a division. At least. You have less dedicated defense, more all-out offense, and a lot less breaks than in a 60 minute game; if blanking a whole hour seems remotely doable your halo better be showing, IMO.

[splitbtw 2]

I've never seen this in pick-up. I've rubbed out teammates/friends along the boards, but (like you mentioned) I know them. They also give it back so it's fun. But an open ice check in pick-up? Uncalled for.

Other than one teammate I play pickup with sometimes, I had never seen it before either. I happened to sidestep it but the intent was certainly there as even other guys on the bench were making comments.

[Jason Harris 31]

I have a scar across my nose because some dick unexpectedly checked me in open ice during a pickup. And the best part is I was wearing a full cage!

I picked up a loose puck just outside my team's zone, and saw the nearest defender was at their blue line, so I bent lower to try to build some speed. After two or three strides, I was just past the red line, so I looked up to see what options were available. At the very least, that defender was now two feet away from running into me, and he may have even been launching himself at me, so I immediately tried to turn my head so he'd crash into my shoulder. He hit me with such force that my helmet, which I realized later had loosened slightly, rotated forward so the edge of the plastic sliced into the bridge of my nose.

I have no idea why he did this. This was a pickup run by a guy I knew who played at a lower level, and there's no doubt I was better than most of the skaters that night, but I think I may have taken one shot. Most of the time I would get into the offensive zone, curl around, and wait for someone to pass to. Maybe this guy thought that was showboating.

I was so pissed at the guy. I kept waiting for an opportunity to launch myself at him and tell him we were even, but it never happened.

[IPv6Freely 2087]

Yeah, a 60 minute shutout at shinny means you're playing down a division. At least. You have less dedicated defense, more all-out offense, and a lot less breaks than in a 60 minute game; if blanking a whole hour seems remotely doable your halo better be showing, IMO.

What is this "division" thing you speak of? :P

[Davetronz 109]

I have a scar across my nose because some dick unexpectedly checked me in open ice during a pickup....

...He hit me with such force that my helmet, which I realized later had loosened slightly, rotated forward so the edge of the plastic sliced into the bridge of my nose....

Haha I have the same scar across the bridge of my nose from a collision a few years back when the same thing happened, but with my own teammate.

[KABAROV 0]

My pet peeve is guys chewing on their mouthguard with it hanging out of their mouth. mouthguard is meant to be in your mouth. You don't look any better with that thing hanging out like a douchebag. Yeah yeah i know patrick kane does it, but he's a douchebag too! and sam gagner does it, but the last time i saw him finish a check was at joey tomatos!

[technophile 0]

What is this "division" thing you speak of? :P

Notionally. Obviously there's no divisions in shinny, but generally it seems like word eventually gets around that the Friday morning shinny tends to be the top-tier guys, Wednesday morning is mostly newbies, etc.

[IPv6Freely 2087]

Notionally. Obviously there's no divisions in shinny, but generally it seems like word eventually gets around that the Friday morning shinny tends to be the top-tier guys, Wednesday morning is mostly newbies, etc.

heh yea, I stick to tuesday nights because its an hour of drills and an hour of shinny. Nobody but noobs usually goes to those. I went on a Wednesday night once... two shifts and I left. I was clearly wasting my time just skating around while the superstars skated around me.

[iceNsteel 0]

The guy that brings his cell phone to the bench and takes calls on the bench at every skate. That's bad enough, but add to it getting pissed off if he's on a call, some comes off, and the guy behind him jumps out because he's on the phone. Dude literally expects that we skate short handed until he finishes up his conversation.

[goblue9280 33]

More of a stick and puck pet peeve, but adults who show up to stick and puck and try to turn it into a drop-in session. Over winter break our rink (the only one for 45 miles) had a daily noon stick/puck for all ages and a drop-in for adults later in the day. I took my 8-year old up for stick and puck as a few of his friends were going to meet us up there. Well, his friends didn't show up, and I didn't go out because I had hurt my knee the day before. He ended up being the only kid under 12. I send him out there and all is fine for the first 5 mins... at which point a group of adults decided to play a pickup game on half the ice. Doesn't bother me. I stick one of the mite goals out there for him to use in the neutral zone as I don't want him hanging out by the other net while the rest of the adults are shooting. That lasted about 5 minutes until a couple of the adults waiting to sub in to the pickup game decided to use the mite goal my kid was using as a seat. A couple minutes after that, the rest of the adults/teens decided to join the game and make it full ice. So after 10 minutes, my son is now standing on the bench watching some 40 year old benders huff and puff up the ice. I went to complain to the front desk, but they weren't too concerned since 3 or 4 of the guys out there were rink employees. They gave me my money back and my son and I left... out gas money and time. The thing that killed me was there was a adult drop-in just a couple of hours later that day.

[hockeymass 11]

More of a stick and puck pet peeve, but adults who show up to stick and puck and try to turn it into a drop-in session. Over winter break our rink (the only one for 45 miles) had a daily noon stick/puck for all ages and a drop-in for adults later in the day. I took my 8-year old up for stick and puck as a few of his friends were going to meet us up there. Well, his friends didn't show up, and I didn't go out because I had hurt my knee the day before. He ended up being the only kid under 12. I send him out there and all is fine for the first 5 mins... at which point a group of adults decided to play a pickup game on half the ice. Doesn't bother me. I stick one of the mite goals out there for him to use in the neutral zone as I don't want him hanging out by the other net while the rest of the adults are shooting. That lasted about 5 minutes until a couple of the adults waiting to sub in to the pickup game decided to use the mite goal my kid was using as a seat. A couple minutes after that, the rest of the adults/teens decided to join the game and make it full ice. So after 10 minutes, my son is now standing on the bench watching some 40 year old benders huff and puff up the ice. I went to complain to the front desk, but they weren't too concerned since 3 or 4 of the guys out there were rink employees. They gave me my money back and my son and I left... out gas money and time. The thing that killed me was there was a adult drop-in just a couple of hours later that day.

Mine is kind of the opposite of that. The one guy who shows up to public hockey (really supposed to be more like drop-in than stick and puck practice) and refuses to join the game. Everyone else ends up on half ice while this other plug is bending it all over his own half sheet. Practicing with your kid is one thing, but a 50 something dude just taking weak shots at an empty net while everyone else is trying to play a game is pretty annoying.

[empirehockey 1]

I hate the kids that come out and only pass to each other, I remember one time I ended up having to steal the puck from them over and over again and we were on the same team. Conversely I hate the uber ripped jack ass that thinks that because he's in good shape that means he's a good skater. All that he ends up doing is putting his head down and get three strides down the ice before the other team walks up and picks his pocket.

[Law Goalie 147]

Yeah, a 60 minute shutout at shinny means you're playing down a division. At least. You have less dedicated defense, more all-out offense, and a lot less breaks than in a 60 minute game; if blanking a whole hour seems remotely doable your halo better be showing, IMO.

That is why I said "potential." Naturally, if a goalie is blanking a skate on a regular basis, it's no different than a skater who shows up and constantly runs the table: nobody else is having the fun they should. What I meant by the potential to shut-out the skate was simply that the goalie should be capable of holding all game-like situations to around the .900 mark, and be able to hold his own in non-game-like situations, such as the ones you imply above -- the standard shinny fare of extra breakaways, no backcheck, no D, etc. In my experience (and that of several credible others) a reasonable goals-against tally in a competitive shinny game fluctuates between 2 and 6 per hour, meaning that a goalie at that level only needs to make a handful of saves or force a few missed shots on those ridiculous shinny scoring chances to potentially blank the game. You're quite right that an actual shutout rarely happens, but if the potential isn't there, the goalie is in the wrong game. Giving up, say, 5 to 12 goals per hour isn't necessarily unreasonable, but if you have one goalie at that level and one goalie in the 2-6 range, the ice is going to feel pretty tilted even if they play is even. That kind of imbalance can really change the flow of the skate for the worse, even if the goalies are switching ends every 5, say, or the organisers are trying to unbalance the teams to match the goaltending.

[technophile 0]

Ah, I get what you mean.