Hockey Drama

Sunday night my son played in a hockey game with his high school varsity team.  Sure the games get a little rough when the crowd / fans / friends egg the players on.  Yes, it is the job of the referees to make sure the games do not get out of hand.

Last night the game DID get out of hand. Why?  I blame the referees. Once in awhile you do get a bad referee. It happens.  However, when a game gets out of hand: players start checking dangerously, kids are getting hurt, tempers are heightened and fists are flying.  This is when I have a problem!  During this game the referees didn't make calls that should have been made, and when they did call a penalty it seems as if they penalized our team and favored the opposing team.

Our team suffered injuries that caused two players to leave the game.  Brandon was checked into the boards and his head bounced off the wall.  He got up dazed and confused. You could tell he didn't even know where his own bench was.  (After the game he was walking around as if he was drunk).  The player who did the checking should have been called for interference because Brandon didn't have the puck.  Nothing was called.  It took everything I had not to jump over the glass and kill throttle yell at the ref.

After another period with putting up with this nonsense, our coach went off on the referee.  The referees kicked him out of the game.  The teens in the stand went nuts and were throwing out words that even I didn't know existed!

• A woman in the stands made an offhand remark about our coach not being a good example to our players.  He had every right to do what he did!  He was protecting our kids!  A job that the referees should have been doing all along. 

Within the last few minutes of the game a fight broke out.  I mean a fight!  The referees just stood there and didn't make a move to try to break it up.  My son left the bench, jumped the wall, went on the ice and tried to pull back his teammate.

I wasn't too surprised when Brandon was ejected from the game.  Brandon had a different reaction.  He got into the refs face (not one of his finer moments) and screamed at told the referee that his skills as a referee were lacking. (This version has been edited towards a PG13 audience).

• To top it off, this same woman was cheering when the fight broke out and encouraged her son to "kick his ass".  
• I was about to loose my temper (which really isn't that hard to do).  I left the bleachers before I punched that big mouth woman to go stand by the glass.

Even though my son had the right intentions, by leaving the bench during a fight is a major no-no in the hockey world.  He was given a misconduct penalty and 3rd man in penalty.  (Third man in means he jumped into a fight between the two players).  Depending how the penalties are reported to USA Hockey, Brandon could be facing up to a 30 day suspension. This includes his travel team, not just his high school team.

This may even be a mute point. We are taking Brandon to the doctors for his concussion.  Mostly likely we will be headed to the ER for a MRI and Cat Scan.   I will keep everyone updated on Brandon's condition.