I hate 19 year olds who think they are Wayne Gretzky when playing 35-50 year olds...

[goblues38 0]

Tonight was the 1st game of the summer session. B league with mostly 35-50 year old guys. This team we played had a group of 30-40 year olds, btu they had 1 kid who was maybe 19. Btw, I am a solid 6-2 230 pounds. I used to play A leagues, but just recently decided to step down to B leagues because hell, I am almost 40 and I can't keep up with the kids for 3 periods.

All this kid did was try to go end to end by himself and try and deek everyone to score a goal. I give the kid credit, he has skill. But in a no check B league with a bunch of older guys, playing like that just isn't cool. You can,t correctly defend a guy like that if you can't play the body. Pass the puck and play a team game.

Anyway, by the 3rd period he had a hat trick by doing this crap. I decided it was time to stop the insanity. He started to do an end to end rush, and when he came at me at our blue line I was backing up as he came at me, I stared at his chest, as he tried to side step me, I stepped up, and planted my shoulder in his chest and knocked him on his butt. As soon as the whistle blew, I nodded to the ref and went straight for the box. I told the ref, i was tired of the kid making our team and goalie look bad, and he needed to be taught a lesson. The ref laughed, and said "I know, you needed to do it in the 1st period".

Anyway, the kid calmed down a little after that. He then knew that we were done just letting him figure skate around everybody. That's the problem with a no check league. If someone is an obvious better skater and tries to play a game like that, you can't defend it properly without getting a penalty.

Thoughts on how to deal with this the next time.

[automorph 0]

no check league doesnt mean you can't rub him or stand him up

problems occur when people dont know how to do this

nothing wrong with letting him skate into you, and cutting him off along the boards

[Axxion89 32]

Play deeper defense so the kid doesn't pass your defensemen, tie him up, put 2 men on him, many things you can do.

Also be forewarned if you check the kid, be prepared to be checked back. He may not do it but just from experience I had some games turn ugly because other players check to send a message and they check back and it gets out of hand.

[jds 20]

I stopped playing in my league for the exact same reason. Just got tired of it.The nineteen-year-old hot shot I rubbed out into the boards started screaming all sorts of crap at me when he got up. Tried to dipsy doodle through the 12" gap between me and the boards and I just closed it. My league doesn't even allow that so I took a penalty. Was well worth it but I would also love to hear advice on how to defend this type of player (why are you even in this division) without geting physical.

[Law Goalie 147]

All you can really do is finish your check quietly in a way that keep him upright.

I had a defenceman a couple of years ago who had been a bit of a bruiser in the AJ, and had some difficulty adapting to limited contact hockey, let alone non-contact. He eventually figured out that he could rub guys out with impunity as long as A) he didn't make a big noise going into the boards, and B) they didn't go down. Those are two things that force a ref to make a call: a big crash into the boards that rattles the stanchions, and a guy going down from body contact. What he'd do was to engage softly (minimal impact) with the torso, control the guy with his hands for a split second as they went into the boards, and make sure that he went into the boards before the other guy did so he could control the impact there. It's not holding because the hold doesn't impede the player's movement - the body position does; the hold is just there to keep the opposing player upright.

This does require a fairly large but subtle degree of defensive skill: you've got to control the gap extremely well (to a much greater degree than a full-contact defenceman, in fact), make every move with excellent timing, have the strength and balance to hold the other player upright, and it generally only works against a player between you and the boards, so you have to try to force outside position. It is possible to do it in open ice, but you're far more likely to get a holding call against you.

Now, the 17/18 year olds he was playing against (bloody frosh) would still get pissy about it, but he rarelygot called, and they rarely did more than chirp - although that may have been because he was a bit of a giant.

Oh, and get really good at snapping one knee down to block shots. It'll drive the toe-draggers (as opposed to knuckle-draggers) nuts, and your goalies will love you. Volchenkov is brilliant at this.

[coryroth24 15]

Tonight was the 1st game of the summer session. B league with mostly 35-50 year old guys. This team we played had a group of 30-40 year olds, btu they had 1 kid who was maybe 19. Btw, I am a solid 6-2 230 pounds. I used to play A leagues, but just recently decided to step down to B leagues because hell, I am almost 40 and I can't keep up with the kids for 3 periods.

All this kid did was try to go end to end by himself and try and deek everyone to score a goal. I give the kid credit, he has skill. But in a no check B league with a bunch of older guys, playing like that just isn't cool. You can,t correctly defend a guy like that if you can't play the body. Pass the puck and play a team game.

Anyway, by the 3rd period he had a hat trick by doing this crap. I decided it was time to stop the insanity. He started to do an end to end rush, and when he came at me at our blue line I was backing up as he came at me, I stared at his chest, as he tried to side step me, I stepped up, and planted my shoulder in his chest and knocked him on his butt. As soon as the whistle blew, I nodded to the ref and went straight for the box. I told the ref, i was tired of the kid making our team and goalie look bad, and he needed to be taught a lesson. The ref laughed, and said "I know, you needed to do it in the 1st period".

Anyway, the kid calmed down a little after that. He then knew that we were done just letting him figure skate around everybody. That's the problem with a no check league. If someone is an obvious better skater and tries to play a game like that, you can't defend it properly without getting a penalty.

Thoughts on how to deal with this the next time.

I would have done the same thing. If you're that good, you have to recognize who you're playing against. You'll make enemies real quick by pulling that BS that that kid did. Its like when I play open hockey some Friday mornings. Sometimes, we get a good mix, other times, there's only two or three guys, including myself, that can move. While I know I could probably rush the puck every time and get a shot on net, I don't. I'll gain the blue line then try to move the puck around. Gotta get the rest of your team involved, makes the morning much more fun that way...

[Too Old 1]

Same thing some of us deal with. IMO it's more difficult to play no-contact.

[gerbe3:16 19]

Generally speaking, I find that the refs allow a lot of stickwork on these types of players. Some of the good defensive teams in my league basically all bunker in and force you into a maze of 3-4 players in the middle. With a good goalie you'll never score from beyond that area. When you get in there, they hook, slash, trip, etc. A lot of it is let go. The good players won't fight through it but have a tough time scoring. That's how my team's best players get shut down.

My advice, put a shadow on the kid and have a few other guys back in deeper than normal and go after his stick until he fumbles it and you can get a body on him quietly.

[Chadd 916]

Any time you have a league created for less than top level talent, you have problems like this. Someone always plays at a level below where they should. If the guy refuses to pass, it makes things easier. We have a couple teams in our league with guys like this and we try to change to have our best D pairing against him and make sure at least one forward is helping out against him at all times. Pretty sad when you need to go to lengths like that in a beer league, but the guy will score 4 or 5 every night if we don't do it. If we shut him down, we win. It takes a lot of fun out of the game for everyone, but it sure beats losing to one guy.

[xrickyb86x 1]

There's a lot of older guys in my league that play the way Law Goalie suggested. I love it. You can tell they were probably top notch skaters back in the day who just adapted to competitive beer league hockey. I get stood up at blue lines and rubbed out on boards a lot by these guys and I never complain. In fact, I watch them and admire their play because I want to learn exactly how they initiate contact and make it look like there's no contact. It's a great skill.

[goblues38 0]

we were stepping up on him, and pushin him very deep / wide to the corners, and he would still try and carry the puck out of the corner to the front of the net. I understand the no check vs no contact argument, problem is our refs fall more on the no contact side, and tend to be whistle happy.

this kid was angled out of the play to the corner several times. normal play dictates, time to pass. but he was taking advantage of his skill, and the fact that refs would call anything with more than incidental contact.

thats when we as a team decided the message was needing to be sent.

[Scotty 8]

It really depends on the refs in games like that.

I play inline, which is inherently no checking, but it depends on what level you play at (and again, the refs) as to how much is allowed. In playing college hockey with/against Lindenwood, we could pretty much check all we wanted because of the level we played at.

However, now while playing just rec leagues, some of the refs will get you for interference if you so much as try to stand a guy up or rub him off the puck.

[goblues38 0]

It really depends on the refs in games like that.

hockey with/against Lindenwood,

you in the Lou?

me too.

[Scotty 8]

you in the Lou?

me too.

Yep, St. Charles County.

[TeamHonda401 54]

I fall on the younger side (22), but I love playing against hot dogs in beer league or pickup. They are some of the easiest players to defend because you know exactly what they are going to do every time they get the puck. All I do is try to keep my shoulders in front of his. He can deke the puck between my legs as much as he wants, but it won't matter if he can't get past me. I rarely get called for interference for such a play, but my league allows contact like that, just no straight up checking.

[GoBucky 0]

Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do, even if that means you take a penalty. Taking a penalty and sending that kid a message is better than just putting up with it and letting him think he can skate all over everyone.

[dw91 0]

if the kid was just skilled and wasn't a hot dog I have a feeling that it would be slightly more tolerable. I fall into the younger age group as well, playing in a rink that only has one league, and i usually turn down the intensity to the point where its almost boring. The only time where said end to end rushes are attempted is if were playing a really mouthy team, or were down by quite a bit.

[zebra_steve 11]

There's a lot of older guys in my league that play the way Law Goalie suggested. I love it. You can tell they were probably top notch skaters back in the day who just adapted to competitive beer league hockey. I get stood up at blue lines and rubbed out on boards a lot by these guys and I never complain. In fact, I watch them and admire their play because I want to learn exactly how they initiate contact and make it look like there's no contact. It's a great skill.

This is just basic, sound angling and gap control. It is the basis for teaching the proper way to body check.... in comparison to the stuff that passes for body checks these days..... For the most part what Law Goalie suggests is perfectly legal as you are forcing the puck carrier to try to go through a space too small or just pinching them into the boards. Won't speak to whether my brother officials have a clue on if\how to call this in Adult leagues... I'm just not opening that can of worms.

[jeremyp 3]

The timing of this thread couldn't have been more perfect. I play in a weekly pickup game on Thursday nights and in a league on Sunday nights. The league is a C/D level and one of the teams brought in a few teenagers who are pretty skilled and don't belong there at all. We played them Sunday night and it was the same thing as the OP described.... and the way they played was pretty disgusting. If one of our worst puck handlers got the puck, these two kids would jump them to take the puck away. Not sure if they get their kicks from stripping a 45 yr old guy who could barely move at half the speed, but whatever. By the end of the game most of our guys just wanted to give them a little 'lesson' on hockey etiquette. I'm totally fine with them being there and playing in the league and all, but the hot dogging and other stuff is just not accepted well by any of the other teams they play against. And, of course, these two kids have by far the two highest point totals in the league. But hey, they're all-stars in their own minds when they go home and jerk off to the memories of deking out a 50yr old guy in a non-checking men's league game.

[Law Goalie 147]

Jeremy, I would suggest one small change: "... they're all-stars in their own minds when they go home and jerk each other off to the memories of dekeing out a 50yr old..." This, I think, reflects both the reality and the perversity of this kind of player.

[jeremyp 3]

Haha! I stand corrected then!!

[interpathway 9]

This, I think, reflects both the reality and the perversity of this kind of player.

Assumptions really are the worst.

Can't lump them all together IMO.

[Joshison 1]

I don't know where your from but our B league is pretty competitive and A is reserved for people that have played college and such. I can understand this complaint if you're in a C or D level but B is suppose to be competitive. I don't expect anyone to take it easy on me in our B league. Jeremy should definitely be pissed though in a c/d league you shouldn't have to deal with that.

Also when is it a crime to have good hands and deke someone I see numerous people "teaching lessons" and hitting people in pickup/non hit leagues, think a few people are overreacting.

[5 Minute Major 1]

I hate that. It could be worse though. I signed my team up to a c+ league (which I thought was the lowest experience of play) but in actuality it was an advanced league. All of the other teams are young and really good. My whole team is on the older side and haven't played in YEARS. We thought we'd be able to just get our legs back in this league and then join a more advanced league next season. Needles to say, we're 0-6 so far. lol Thank god most of us are just having some fun with it. I actually joined another c league which is definitely for beginner to intermediate and that team is 2-1 so far.

[_RH_ 1]

The real problem that I see at my local place is that most people want to play with their friends/coworkers, etc. Obviously this puts all the good players together and all the bad players together. Everyone interested in playing should come out for a sort of tryout. You'd be assigned a level of play, and teams would be picked by the rink manager. Problem solved.