pick up hockey (shinny) pet peeves

[AfftonDad 88]

I get the stitches out next Wednesday.

[mhkehoe 1]

My pet peve is when someone tries to rip your helmet/cage off so that he can punch you in the face and part of the chin piece (a little hard plastic piece on the corner) tears completely through your nose causing you to have to get six stitches. I hate when that happens.

I have to ask, what caused them to get so angry?

[AfftonDad 88]

He is usually angry.

[splitbtw 2]

When you are in a really good skate and you look up and the time is over.

[AfftonDad 88]

Or when you are in a really bad skate, for example 4on4, no subs and no goalies and you look up and there is still 45 minutes to go!

[hunt3rsean 44]

My pet peeve is the guy who takes advantage of the fact that pick up is no contact so he'll try all the dangles he knows he'd never get away with in a contact league.

I'm guilty of this myself sometimes :x

I can understand how this would bother some people...but it's never really bothered me. There are some guys who play ECHL level hockey and come to our pick-up. Nice guys and they often share the puck with us lesser folk, but will go on a dangle spree sometimes. It's not even to drive to the net but just to skate circles around the D. A little annoying, but at the same time you can't blame them. It's not often they probably get a chance to dangle without worrying about a shoulder/elbow ramming into them.

I know I love to practice stickhandling through people and toe drags during pick-up because I don't have to worry about turning the puck over. Don't do it often as I know pick-up over here is very offense only so I try not to make anyone play defense. haha.

One pet peeve that did come up the last time I played was the one guy who continues to randomally shoot a puck around once the teams have been divided and play started. There are seperate stick/puck times for shooting, stick handling, and skating practice. Pick-up is a specific time to just play an organized game of shinny. It's annoying.

[guffaw 0]

My pet peeve is the guy who takes advantage of the fact that pick up is no contact so he'll try all the dangles he knows he'd never get away with in a contact league.

I'm guilty of this myself sometimes :x

100% Agreed. It happens in shinny and no check mens league. It's really annoying when the guy thats doing it has a skill level higher than those he's playing against and keeps doing it almost making a fool of his opponents. This is when Mr. Dangles usually gets cheap shotted or just flat out checked and I have no problem with it. If you spit in someone's face expect to get punched.

Trying moves is fine. I'm talking about when it's excessive against players below his/her skill level and most times much below.

[IniNew 51]

Maybe adjust your ideas of what pick up and shinny are about.

I look at it as those are times to help work on your individual game. What other times is there to practice dangles other than in shinny? It's not acceptable by current standards to do it in organized practice--thats the time for passing and positional play.

Edit: It's also a good time to work on your body positioning outside of contact. Just because it's not hitting doesn't mean you can't push him off the puck.

[wrangler 157]

Practicing dangles so you can get better, against competition, is helpful if you have to work. The problem is when someone is too good for the rest of the group. I don't see that a guy who goes coast to coast at will, dangling around everyone, is working on his individual game. There's no challenge, and no way to really get better. Also, he has to accept the fact that he's working within the framework of a team game, and show some consideration for others who paid the same admission that he did.

[Thinkingjack 51]

the fact that the rink i love going to is trying to somehow do away with hockey adding midnight slots during the week and then deleting them from the calendar until the fall, WHY? the summer ones would be populated, it'd be perfect for some of us who do it all the time.

[Chadd 916]

Are they still busy up until that time? Our rinks have much less business over the summer and shut down early, as well as all day on Sunday.

[guffaw 0]

Practicing dangles so you can get better, against competition, is helpful if you have to work. The problem is when someone is too good for the rest of the group. I don't see that a guy who goes coast to coast at will, dangling around everyone, is working on his individual game. There's no challenge, and no way to really get better. Also, he has to accept the fact that he's working within the framework of a team game, and show some consideration for others who paid the same admission that he did.

100% Agree. The older guy that can't skate paid the same as the club level player. How about passing him the puck instead of scoring your 30th goal of the session or only passing to your buddy.

To the previous comment, I absolutely will get physical. If you want to hog the puck, have a higher skill level than me, and use body position to protect the puck then what other choice do i have? Most of the time they'll whine.

I get the work on your game part, but there is a limit. You aren't the only one who paid to be out there. There is a "fun" component to shinny and pickup. Is embarassing a lower level player fun for either guy? It shouldn't be. I've been on both sides as I played club college many years ago. It doesn't do much for my game to abuse Novice and C level players.

[nexusrage21 1]

Sleeping through your alarm when you really wanted to play.

[bnr032 11]

I played my first drop in last week after 8 years of no hockey...

Whilst i totally agree with Nobody hogging the ice time and hate the people who coast... At these Drop ins, some genius has decided to blow a whistle were everyone changes, Every 2 minutes.. while good in practice, im finding it doesnt work, mainly because anyone who has played any organised hockey knows you go hard, then come off.. so i did this for my first few shifts, trying to come off after maybe a minute but noone would come on...

So instead of making everyone have 2 minutes or less if tired. people wont come on for you, thinking if they come on, when the whistle goes they have to come off again...

My thoery is you shouldnt need a whistle every 2 minutes, everyone should know, dont hog the ice time.. tired or not stay a max 2minutes, but come off before if your tired. and if everyone does it its fine... Anyone who hogs the ice time gets told by the organisers to knock it off or dont come back..

\end rant

[hockeymass 11]

The kids that think they can danglefest all over the place and get pissy when someone separates them from the puck or dares to touch them. I played a couple weeks ago and this kid got so mad he left because I pushed into him and lifted his stick to take the puck away. I told him to take it easy because it's just pickup hockey and he told me I was a loser and I should get a job... on the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend.

I also hate when people bring kids that are clearly way too young to be out there playing shinny with full grown adults. 12-13 and up is fine, but bringing a squirt or a peewee out there is dangerous, mostly for the kid. I'm 230 pounds, probably close to 240 with all my gear on. If a 6 year old is behind me and I don't see him and fall on him (it's happened), he could end up with a broken bone or worse. It's just irresponsible. The worst part is that my rink offers parent-child hockey hours and these dudes still bring their little ones to pickup.

[tareatingrat 4]

I played my first drop in last week after 8 years of no hockey...

Whilst i totally agree with Nobody hogging the ice time and hate the people who coast... At these Drop ins, some genius has decided to blow a whistle were everyone changes, Every 2 minutes.. while good in practice, im finding it doesnt work, mainly because anyone who has played any organised hockey knows you go hard, then come off.. so i did this for my first few shifts, trying to come off after maybe a minute but noone would come on...

So instead of making everyone have 2 minutes or less if tired. people wont come on for you, thinking if they come on, when the whistle goes they have to come off again...

My thoery is you shouldnt need a whistle every 2 minutes, everyone should know, dont hog the ice time.. tired or not stay a max 2minutes, but come off before if your tired. and if everyone does it its fine... Anyone who hogs the ice time gets told by the organisers to knock it off or dont come back..

\end rant

Sounds eerily similar to a game I played a week ago. Stupid, because people don't change when they need to, because they play to the whistle. The worst was when you were about to make a play, and the whistle went. Everybody just stopped and changed. Killed the entire flow of the game. Stupid.

[flyers10 57]

Sounds eerily similar to a game I played a week ago. Stupid, because people don't change when they need to, because they play to the whistle. The worst was when you were about to make a play, and the whistle went. Everybody just stopped and changed. Killed the entire flow of the game. Stupid.

I sometimes play in a pickup game like this. At 2 mins the benches yell change and you leave the puck where it is. The guy who formed this had 1 game a week and now due to popularity he has 5-7 a week scheduled. 10 skaters a bench with goalies guaranteed. You get about 43 minutes of hard skating ice time. It was strange at first but the game moves along fine and I like the 2 min shift change better than usual drop-in where you might sit for 10-15 mins due to ice hogs. Unfortunately I think there are more people out there that will be ice hogs than responsible & respectful players.

[Harv 86]

I also hate when people bring kids that are clearly way too young to be out there playing shinny with full grown adults. 12-13 and up is fine, but bringing a squirt or a peewee out there is dangerous, mostly for the kid. I'm 230 pounds, probably close to 240 with all my gear on. If a 6 year old is behind me and I don't see him and fall on him (it's happened), he could end up with a broken bone or worse. It's just irresponsible. The worst part is that my rink offers parent-child hockey hours and these dudes still bring their little ones to pickup.

I hate that also. Everything thinks its cute that little Johnny is out there against full grown men. Totally screws the flow of the game.

[moreoutdoor 6]

I sometimes play in a pickup game like this. At 2 mins the benches yell change and you leave the puck where it is. The guy who formed this had 1 game a week and now due to popularity he has 5-7 a week scheduled. 10 skaters a bench with goalies guaranteed. You get about 43 minutes of hard skating ice time. It was strange at first but the game moves along fine and I like the 2 min shift change better than usual drop-in where you might sit for 10-15 mins due to ice hogs. Unfortunately I think there are more people out there that will be ice hogs than responsible & respectful players.

eek! don;t think I;d like that, there is a flow to the 'game' and the rare times it seems to come up in pickup - we'll you;d hate to let it go because of a whistle.

nothin really to hate about pickup... it is what it is - pond hockey - which is really pure fun. That is as long as there isn;t anyone doing NHL tryouts...

the pickup I've done we barely have 3 subs per side. Means I'm on the ice more often and longer than I can really handle at this point... My shifts get shorter and shorter as the session goes on. An us old guyz, you know, we gotta go to the john more often...

the youngsters really have a good laugh from my histrionics...

one thing which did smack me in the face - fact that I'm 25 yrs older than the last time I smacked the biscuit... - the age/fitness/skill disparity thing can really put things into the twilight zone. Last pickup session, somehow the rotation on my side ended up where the wheezers (like me), campers, and guyz who only know the offensive zone, were on the ice at the same time as the other side had all it's 'stars' on the ice...

happened three times, last session - good god I was wrung out and spun out....

here's the scenario... one guy on our side, barely skates in a straightline, camps on the offensive blue, another camps on the red, that leaves 3 of us old wheezers to somehow defend against a swarm of young Killer Bees - nightmare I tell you!

...but, I guess what doesn;t kill you makes you tougher...

the ice seems incredibly huge compared to how large it was, 25 yrs ago...

[Jason Harris 31]

At these Drop ins, some genius has decided to blow a whistle were everyone changes, Every 2 minutes..

While I love that concept for the majority of players, I would hate it for myself. I'm well known for taking 45 second shifts, but no one gets angry because I generally go all out. One guy, who usually gives me grief, gave me a nice complement when he said I hopped onto the ice and he turned to the other three and said, "You watch. Jason will be back before any of those four will." And I was.

The only way I could play two minutes would be to slow down my game.

I also hate when people bring kids that are clearly way too young to be out there playing shinny with full grown adults. 12-13 and up is fine, but bringing a squirt or a peewee out there is dangerous, mostly for the kid.

I've been looking forward to the time my daughters can join us. They're 13 and 15 but only recently hit triple digits in weight. I'm pretty sure the owner of the rink wouldn't let them play, so I won't bother asking unless our summer numbers dwindle to three a side.

[bnr032 11]

The only way I could play two minutes would be to slow down my game.

That is exactly my point... i find i go hard for 45sec-1min and then no one will come off so i either have to coast around stuffed... or by the end of it play the whole 2 min shift at 60%....

[Jason Harris 31]

I finally realized my one true pet peeve.

Summertime. I don't know where people are, but they're not at the rink.

Our numbers have dropped from 16-20+ to 8-12. No goalies have been showing, so I've played goalie at least five of the last six times. The one time I played out, I was completely gassed because only one guy was on the bench, plus I find my skating muscles go away slightly when I haven't been skating in a while.

[hunt3rsean 44]

A new pet peeve is "guy who slashes everyone". He some part "guy who tries to hard" as he slashes very hard to seperate you from the puck. In league play...whatever because he'll get a penalty. But in pick-up this doesn't happen.....duh. Normally, most guys will apologise if they end up slashing or feel they lifted your stick a little excessively (at least around here). And I'm fine with that. But, this guy doesn't apologise and knows he is doing it. Drives me insane because when you bring it up he has no idea why you're upset. My guess is he doesn't normally play in a league and is trying to be "competitive".

[chk hrd 164]

One good hard slash that breaks his stick will give him some thought. Go hard into the corner and chop it, when it breaks just appologize and say you were playing the puck, like he's been

[tmw1582 6]

My guess is he doesn't normally play in a league and is trying to be "competitive".

My pet peeve kind of relates to this. The overly physical guy who will hurt you to win the puck in rat. I think it is for sure the guys who don't play in any other league so this rat is their Stanley Cup. If someone is willing to do anything to get the puck in rat they can have it as far as I'm concerned. Sometimes I'll toss in a little chirp like, "What are they giving away if you win this thing today?"