Pick-Up Is Back

The season is starting to change. There is football on TV, the weather is getting cooler, and some of the ice rinks around D.C. are bringing back pick-up. Yes sir, pick-up hockey is back so I have to get my schedule down so I can make some time to hit the ice and stretch out the old legs.

While looking up some of the areas rinks to get the times and dates many of them will have for pick-up, I came across the Gardens Ice House's website and thought I would look around. They are the only ones, that I could find that have pick-up on Tuesdays and Thursdays, I am normally at Mt. Vernon on Wednesdays and Fridays. Hockey four times a week, I can hardly stand it!

Anyway, I came across the league play on Gardens' website. That led me to and tempting link that was titled, Suspensions. This should be interesting. Just look at some of the infractions listed for their adult league:

• "Match Penalty- Deliberately inflicting physical harm to a Game Official (Rule 601g1, League Rules)"


• "Match Penalty - Kicking an opposing player (Rule 623b)"


• "Game Misconduct - Using a racial slur towards an opponent (Rule 601f2) Probation and indefinite suspension applied under Rule 410, Supplementary Discipline"


• And my favorite: "2 Game Misconducts - continuing to dispute an official's decision after being assessed a misconduct (Rule 601a, League Rules) Match Penalty - Attempting to inflict physical harm to a Game Official by throwing his broken stick shaft at the Official (Rule 601g(1), League Rules) Match Penalty - Attempting to inflict physical harm to an Off-ice Official by breaking his stick in the vicinity of the Score Keeper and almost hitting her with the blade (Rule 601g(3), League Rules) (assessed under Rule 410, Supplementary Discipline)"

That last one you heard right, the guy broke his stick in half and threw half at the referee, and the other half at the scorekeeper. The poor girl is just running the scoreboard. Not to mention that it's assault and you can get some serious jail time, I have seen cops get involved and it's not pretty. Guys sober up real quick.

It really makes me think of what kind of game some of these guys were playing. In the next column is the duration of the some of them, which includes permanent banishment from playing at the Gardens Ice House at all.

I know from playing in an Adult league, how easy it is for someone to lose their cool. But some of these infractions are just uncalled for. I have only been in a fight once on the ice, a full throwing punches and pulling the jersey. I got a 5 game suspension for doing so and regretted ever getting involved. It made me approach the game in a totally different way.

So for now I am going to stay away from that adult league, and just attend a pick-up game or two a week. It is not worth getting a stick thrown at you.