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

[5 Minute Major 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.

+1

[xrickyb86x 1]

We played a D3/D4 mixed league for the longest time. This season they're finally making D3 play D3 only and so on. It was hard to tone it down when playing D4 teams because the jump in skill was so drastic. Needless to say those games always ended up with a lot of penalties. I think there's a smaller skill gap between D2/D3.

[IniNew 53]

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.

This is a good way to lose out on money. People want to play with their friends as you stated. A rink telling them, "Nope you're friends and you are too good. We're splitting you all up." basically equates to "We don't want your money, enjoy the other rink! They have better vending machines anyway!"

[chippa13 1844]

This is a good way to lose out on money. People want to play with their friends as you stated. A rink telling them, "Nope you're friends and you are too good. We're splitting you all up." basically equates to "We don't want your money, enjoy the other rink! They have better vending machines anyway!"

Which is worse, a rink losing one team because they are too good for the competition or a rink losing all of the other teams because they are tired of getting crushed by said good team?

[Law Goalie 147]

Assumptions really are the worst.

Can't lump them all together IMO.

No, this is a different thing: it's spontaneous and it's called wit.

Or was I seriously suggesting by assumption that all young players who find themselves undermatched in competition against players decades their senior and press this advantage to the fullest extent necessarily engage in post-game mutual manual homosexual stimulation?

Yes, I must have meant that.

[interpathway 9]

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

That's the half of the comment I was responding to, that's why it is what I quoted previously.

I've been on both sides of the experience, walking through sleepy adult games, and have played on sleepy adult teams and had opponents do the same thing. Some kids don't understand at first, especially when they're nineteen years old and coming from A/AA/whatever minor hockey have you. They're young and they're learning the ropes of adult hockey, it is a different animal. Sometimes they help, and that's why these teams usually have them rostered. When it becomes too much for the team most times these kids do tone it down, or they aren't rostered anymore. Either way, they eventually get the lesson. All it takes is an eye to eye conversation with a teammate.

Like Chadd and Zebra said, there are ways to shut them down within the rules, and while chasing someone does suck, they can be stopped within the rules and frustrated to no end. That should help the OP, and I hope everyone realizes that some of these kids are just that, kids who haven't learned the roles they need to play in order to keep yourself in good grace with the team.

Either way, ringers playing down levels is pretty bad.

[jeremyp 3]

Like Chadd and Zebra said, there are ways to shut them down within the rules, and while chasing someone does suck, they can be stopped within the rules and frustrated to no end. That should help the OP, and I hope everyone realizes that some of these kids are just that, kids who haven't learned the roles they need to play in order to keep yourself in good grace with the team.

Either way, ringers playing down levels is pretty bad.

Agreed. 100%. The funny part is that I really don't mind playing with guys who are a lot better than me, young or old...I usually play better in those situations because everyone usually knows where to be at all times. I've played a lot of organized pickup games with younger, more skilled guys and they skate hard and play hard but they play the right way...And everyone has a great time. I just can't stand the few who intentionally jump down to play in lower level competition just to dominate and don't play a team game at all. I have no respect for the Johnny Puck Dangler wannabees ripping through on end to end rushes every time they get the puck or who play 'Jump the bad skater' every time they have the puck, just because they can.

[MyBoxersSayJoe 133]

I'm actually kind of bummed. My one team is dropping down a level for the summer and I think it may be a bit excessive for me to be there. I'm not a superstar or anything, but I just really don't think I belong at that level. It's not like I'm Dr. Dangle, but I can skate. I guess it's ice time and I really like the guys on the team a lot. Extremely solid, friendly, hard-working guys who have come a very long way in the few seasons I've been playing with them. I'm going to try to just work on the basics like keeping my head up at all times and decent headman passes. I'll step it up if we're down or something, but I don't want to be blowing by guys. I prefer playing up at a faster level where I struggle and actually push myself hard the entire time. We do fine in the division we're in now, we'll have 1 or 2-goal losses to the top teams but end up at the bottom of the standings as a result. I'd rather have close losses than be blowing teams out. I just want to work hard and have fun. So I guess I'll see how it goes and act accordingly.

[goblues38 0]

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.

I agree, normal "winter" B league is very competitive. This is summer, and the A, B, C, D skill structure is much less defined since teams dont stay in tact in summer.

And again, regardless of skill level. It's not cool being an ice dancer just because you know the refs will call a penalty if anyone tries to stop you. I have been playing almost 30 years, I understand, how, why, and when to stand a guy up or angle him to the boards. But the comes a point when this BS needs to go because we were all taught in real hockey to play the body. And if you play the body, not the puck, this type of ice dancing cant happen.

But, our refs here (st. louis) tend to call everything. To them, no check = no contact. Which is wrong.

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.

Hockey North America (HNA) has an mandatory evaluation skate before new players can join the league. Problem is, if I want you to play on my B level team, but you are too good. You just sand bag it at the eval. (just to clarify, i dont condone this, but it happens)

I have known people who show up to the eval with skates left untied, or sanded down the edges on the blade just to make them look bad.

[nexusrage21 1]

My brother's team is made up mostly of guys in the 35-50 range. He's 25, but out of shape, and has never consistently played hockey. They played their first few games and were destroyed every game, scoring 1 goal through four games. People got discouraged, guys stopped showing up, and they ended up forfeiting a couple games in a row, so my brother asked me to play for them. I haven't been 19 in quite a while, but I'm in much better shape than the majority of the people in this division, and play in the B division for the same league while this team is in E. I thought I was going to just come out mostly set guys up just to help make it more competitive, the problem is, every team has at least one player that falls in the category of 19 year old gretzky.

And these guys do not let up in the E division. I don't know if these are guys who have trouble scoring in higher divisions, but they all keep pushing it even when the game is out of hand. We played two games without a goalie, and in both the other team's superstar would try to score every chance they got.

I really don't mind people playing below their skill level, because you never know why they are actually playing on that team, but I think their is a level of etiquette that needs to be established if you are going to do so.

[Axxion89 32]

Generally, players in lower leagues have less respect for the rules and etiquette than higher leagues. In D i always get more high sticks, games out of hand, and trash talk than in lower levels. I've played in D and A and I had more fun being skated around in A than even match in D. I believe in you play to the competition and that's why I usually try and play up higher if I can.

As an addition, I always love to heckle the "superstar" and mess his game. Nothing pisses them off more than telling them they suck too much to play against better players, big fish small pond, tiny body part syndrome, etc and just shut them down =)

[beth 0]

I'm playing on a summer league that is about half old ladies like me and half teenage girls. And lemme tell you, those teenagers are FAST! I've been wanting to improve on my speed, and this is probably the best way to do it! lol! We play with a Gretzky rule that one person can only score 3 times, so it keeps things from getting too embarrassing. Nobody's keeping stats anyway, it's just for fun. I'm hoping by the end of the summer season I'll be a little bit faster than when I started. :)

[Jason Harris 31]

I may have written this in another thread years ago, but one of my fondest memories of hockey came from playing a team that had a few 19-year-old players on their team. They were mostly an over-40 team, so we presumed these were their sons or nephews; what really bothered us were the kids were the only ones doing the scoring, plus the roster of younger players seemed to be rather fluid, because I could have sworn different guys wore the same number the few times we played them.

Anyway, the playoffs ran into mid-August, which seemed to coincide with the time most of these kids had to return to college, because when we played them for the championship, none of the kids were there. However, we only had seven players and I believe they built a two-goal lead with about six minutes left. I'm sure they were giddy they were going to win, because we were noticeably exhausted, yet we managed to tied it up before going ahead with 20-30 seconds left, and even went ahead by two on the next face-off, since they had pulled their goalie.

It was so great during the handshake at the end, because most of them had such morose looks on their faces, after being somewhat arrogant going undefeated during the regular season.

[DarkStar50 679]

Every player, including 19 year old Gretzky, has tendencies. They always go to the right, they always do this, they always do that. A few years ago, we had 19 year old Gretzky in our Friday night old timers game. He would play defence just so he would act like he wasn't dominating every play, every shift. After a few weeks of him rushing down the wing on me at defence, I figured out his consistent move every time was to my left, outside by the boards. Well, I surprised the crap out of him the week he came down on that rush and I had already stepped left to where he was going before he got there and stopped him. He chirped a bit and I threw back a few F bombs too but he knew that I knew his move from then on. Find the guy's one and only move and be there before he does it. Very effective.

[interpathway 9]

Every player, including 19 year old Gretzky, has tendencies. They always go to the right, they always do this, they always do that.

Not to pick, but if they have a typical tendency they're not 19 y/o Gretzky. There are plenty of beer-leaguers I've played against who are good enough with the puck to surprise you each and every time. You favor the left, and the good ones with their heads up exploit the defender's tendencies.

[goblues38 0]

Generally, players in lower leagues have less respect for the rules and etiquette than higher leagues. In D i always get more high sticks, games out of hand, and trash talk than in lower levels.

I have always found B to be the worst. It has the players who are not good enough(or young) to play A, but think they should be. And they think they are better than the C and D guys.

Generally, the younger B guys are fresh from high school or maybe a low level college. They have just come to the realization they will not be advancing their hockey "Careers" and it is their first rec league experience. Thus, they dont know how to act.

[wrangler 157]

Not to pick, but if they have a typical tendency they're not 19 y/o Gretzky. There are plenty of beer-leaguers I've played against who are good enough with the puck to surprise you each and every time. You favor the left, and the good ones with their heads up exploit the defender's tendencies.

I think we're looking at players who are Gretzky only in their own minds.

Valid point, though, that they may not be totally predictable.

[interpathway 9]

Valid point, though, that they may not be totally predictable.

The good ones aren't predictable, that's why they're good.

The "in their own minds" point is a good one to consider though. Unfortunately with ringers, when playing down a level or two, these kids can often run the entire game much like Gretzky did.

[Chadd 916]

None of them think they're Gretzky, as a 19 year old was 7 when Wayne retired. They all think they're Sid or OV now. Just in case you didn't feel old before, you're welcome.

[goblues38 0]

None of them think they're Gretzky, as a 19 year old was 7 when Wayne retired. They all think they're Sid or OV now. Just in case you didn't feel old before, you're welcome.

It could be worse. You could have called out Bobby Orr. Then we would feel real old.

[Chadd 916]

It could be worse. You could have called out Bobby Orr. Then we would feel real old.

I was four when he retired from the Hawks.

[wrangler 157]

None of them think they're Gretzky, as a 19 year old was 7 when Wayne retired. They all think they're Sid or OV now. Just in case you didn't feel old before, you're welcome.

I was four when he retired from the Hawks.

I already felt old, thank you very much. I was in my twenties then.

[Vinny_R 1]

I'm 27, a little out of shape and I had a 7-8 years without playing so when I have to play against those kind of player, it's a challenge for me. I'm good at stopping those guys by playing the men and let them outskate me by the board but cutting the goal, so their only option is passing behind the net wich is hard for them to score. I like playing those guys except when they throw out those danglings between the skates and hot-dogging things. When it happens, I told them that I only played 'til 12 and they are not even able to pass me. Their ego take over and they starts to really play hockey and the fun continue.

[pittu 15]

I got a first row seat at one of these gretzky man boy deals last night. I skated a novice pickup at the local rink even though I'm a pretty solid intermediate player... but its a good night for a skate that works into my work schedule. I usually spend the night just tooling around setting novice folks up with the puck and just getting a bit of a leg stretch.

There were about 2 or 3 young gretzky's there last night and even though I'm a "decent" player, I could see how much it sucked for the novice guys. Being a pylon all night that people skate and stickhandle around isnt much fun I'd imagine.

At one point I was rooting for someone to stand one of them up and put a hit on em. Wasnt going to be me, I dont like to make enemies...and no one else did either. Everyone is too friendly and laid back to do that.

It's hard for me to imagine how a good skater gets a rise out of dipsy doodling the puck around defenseless defenders all night while performing the "coast to coast". I kind of felt sorry for them. I know most of them would get stopped cold in an advanced skate...

[HattrickSwayze 3]

It's hard for me to imagine how a good skater gets a rise out of dipsy doodling the puck around defenseless defenders all night while performing the "coast to coast". I kind of felt sorry for them. I know most of them would get stopped cold in an advanced skate...

I think you might've answered your own question.