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z1ggy

How Chippy/Chirpy does it get during pick-up/ beer league?

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Sometimes I don't know what's acceptable anymore during my games. It's like this weird limbo between just friendly fun hockey, and ultra competitive where people get offended if you even look at their goalie wrong. Last night, my mostly team of young 20 somethings, played a team of mainly 50s+ guys. Either they didn't like us or they were all in bad moods, because there was tons of shoving all over, and a few legit scrums in front of the net after a whistle. I don't think either team was playing particularly dirty, but it was more physical than usual.

I know that stuff is really only acceptable in the NHL, etc, but I was wondering if this is common in your guys lower level leagues, too?

As an almost 50 something who plays in a league with a bunch of 20 somethings, you need to realize a couple things. 1) it's very frustrating as an old guy to lose a race/battle simply because he's old. 2) being old means you get tired more easily and the battles are harder on the old guys 3) for most, the combination of 1) and 2) leads to physical manifestation of the frustration, just like when 20 somethings play each other and one team is outmatched, the losing team starts getting chippy.

I didn't play for 20 yr and came back ~ 2 yr ago at 46. That first year back, I was pretty physical. I remembered being pretty fast and winning many races to the pucks when I was 20 yr younger. I'm competitive and don't like losing, but just couldn't keep up. As things have progressed, I've just come to realize I'm old and I'm not going to win a race with a 20 something. That being said, now that I have my skates under me, I play a smarter game and don't need to get into as many battles. Still, when I'm gassed, I still revert to grabbing, pushing and occasionally worse. It's hard to stay completely level headed when competing at something as hard as hockey. Anyway, next time, just give the old guys some room. I'm sure you can still skate around them and beat them to most pucks, just don't engage.

I also play a lot of pick up with young elite players AAA Midgets, high school, former junior and college players. In that context, it's clearly just for fun and I always have a smile on my face even though I'm getting beat a lot. Make it a true competition and the dynamic changes.

My 2 cents.

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it does get out of hand for sure , but I would not want the other team to "backoff" play till the clock runs out , nothing wrong with giving a full effort no matter what the score is , if someone cant handle losing a game weather its by one goal or ten goals then maybe they shouldn't play in a league , we all want to have fun that's why we should be there , but that does not mean you should have to lay down so to speak, our team has won by a bunch of goals and we have lost by a bunch of goals as well and so far the guys in the adult league have acted like adults as far as that goes , if it wasn't competitive then they wouldn't keep score

Competitive is one thing and busting ass to take the lead from 7 to 8 late in the third is another.

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we lost 6 to 2 lastnight and they played all the way to the buzzer , I was on the ice for the last shift digging behind the net to get it out of our end , they played hard and competitive there should be no problem with that no matter what the score is , if one team is going to so called let up then why finish playing the game , we have been on the losing side of lopsided scores and on the winning side of them as well , I know I wouldn't want them to just mail it in and when the situation is reversed im sure they wouldn't want us to just mail it in either , I wouldn't call that being "chippy" or out of line , the only time I have or anyone I know have had any problem is when people are trying to take your head of for no reason , has happed many times this season even when the opposing team was winning , for some reason all they wanted to do was fight , the team we played last night trash talked until the very end , even the goalie was chirping the whole time the play was in our end , there team had a bit of poor sportsman ship as far as that goes but I would not expect them to back off and not try and score another goal is they could .

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for some reason all they wanted to do was fight , the team we played last night trash talked until the very end , even the goalie was chirping the whole time the play was in our end , there team had a bit of poor sportsman ship as far as that goes but I would not expect them to back off and not try and score another goal is they could .

we have one team in our division that is like this

our best player was constantly being shadowed - I mean the puck wasn't near him and there was always one guy looking him right in the face

they finally got called for interference and we popped one

they tried it again and we scored again ... finally they backed off, but it took TWO penalties and goals on them to figure it out

this kind of crap isn't needed in beer league, but I guess each team has a prerogative

to boot there was a ton of chirping from their team and it got the best of a few guys on our team

they are all young kids, 25 and under ish and this is how they play all the time

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We had a playoff game last Sunday. The first of three. We were slotted to play the last place team. By mid second period we were up five goals. Third period starts and the other team starts slashing and checking. They get penalties, we keep our cool. After those were served, a blatant trip occurs by them, and then a fight starts by them on the guy tripped (Our team). Thankfully we kept our heads clear and only received a minor roughing. The initiator kept mouthing off on his way to the penalty box and got tossed from the box out of the game.

I sat and wondered why anyone would let this get this far. This is not an NHL, AHL, ECHL tryout. All of us have jobs to go to in the morning. All of us are well over thirty years old. If anyone lives or dies by the amount of loses and wins at this point in a recreation league, you really need to look at yourself in the mirror and see what's going on. Competitiveness is one thing, acting out to the point of a fight is ridiculous.

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The league I'm in, I don't want to call it beginners hockey...it's adult hockey without all hot shots that make regular leagues (like ASHL etc) unplayable for many. They call it "Hockey for Dummies"

They keep a pretty tight leash on stuff. No deliberate contact at all...and incidental contact is often called as 'checking' well. So, chippyness is not much of a factor.

But, in an attempt to keep the hot headedness to a minimum...They also call lots of unsportsmanlike for stuff like slamming a stick into the boards, or slamming a bench door. They tossed a guy last week for something he said to the ref after we scored (goal was legit...not sure what his beef was). I missed a wide open net on a crossing pass last night and let out a pretty audible expletive...thought for sure they'd call that too. They didn't.

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I haven't been able to get onto the ice for the last 12 months due to torn spinal ligaments around my neck/shoulder area and 5 bulging discs from a low level rec league injury. Basically I was on a team and they brought in a new player who would yell at everyone on the team constantly for not being good enough. I finally left for a new team and first time we play each other he blindsided me on the way to the bench (no penalty called by the way and I didn't have the puck nor was I expected to be checked from behind). TO make it worse he actually leaned over me on the ground and said if I see you in the parking lot I'm taking you out. Needless to say I am a bit disillusioned with both the level of chippiness and the poor officiating especially in such a low division. Hoping to be back in the next 6 months.

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I haven't been able to get onto the ice for the last 12 months due to torn spinal ligaments around my neck/shoulder area and 5 bulging discs from a low level rec league injury. Basically I was on a team and they brought in a new player who would yell at everyone on the team constantly for not being good enough. I finally left for a new team and first time we play each other he blindsided me on the way to the bench (no penalty called by the way and I didn't have the puck nor was I expected to be checked from behind). TO make it worse he actually leaned over me on the ground and said if I see you in the parking lot I'm taking you out. Needless to say I am a bit disillusioned with both the level of chippiness and the poor officiating especially in such a low division. Hoping to be back in the next 6 months.

I stopped playing in beer league about 6 months ago because of stuff like this. The league had a few new teams added into it and these teams had guys who thought every game was game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final...they tried picking a lot of fights and the league didn't and hasn't really done anything about it other than suspensions here and there. It costs a lot to play and it just wasn't worth it to keep playing in that environment. I may eventually try to find another league but for now I'm enjoying coaching my kids team.

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I haven't been able to get onto the ice for the last 12 months due to torn spinal ligaments around my neck/shoulder area and 5 bulging discs from a low level rec league injury. Basically I was on a team and they brought in a new player who would yell at everyone on the team constantly for not being good enough. I finally left for a new team and first time we play each other he blindsided me on the way to the bench (no penalty called by the way and I didn't have the puck nor was I expected to be checked from behind). TO make it worse he actually leaned over me on the ground and said if I see you in the parking lot I'm taking you out. Needless to say I am a bit disillusioned with both the level of chippiness and the poor officiating especially in such a low division. Hoping to be back in the next 6 months.

Wow, thats terrible! I'm sorry to hear that happened. Knowing the rink, I'm not surprised the refs missed something that bad. I feel like its been getting worse and worse there. This past week I scored, ref blows the whistle/plays over, I didn't celebrate at all so there was no show-boating involved....I get smoked from behind with a cross-check to the lower back that drops me. In my mind that should be enough to get you tossed from a REC league game. They gave him two minutes and when I skated over to the box to "chat" with the guy he explained I needed to "pay a price for going to the net".....unbelievable! There is no place for mindsets like this in rec level hockey. I was unaware Wednesday night no-check/beer leauge in Southern California had become "The Show" and there are prices to be paid on top of the expensive league dues.

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