Saturday Night Fight

Last night my dad and I went to see the local junior hockey team play. Going to a hockey game in this area is entertainment as punishment. It's freezing, the bathrooms are horrible, the food is horrible (they changed the french fries! I don't even like those anymore), the soda machine costs a quarter more than other places. The guys doing the P.A. announcements are the worst the facility has had in years. They play very loud music, and they play it during every single stoppage in play, even if it's five seconds. They play a different song each time play stops. Sometimes they don't get the song stopped when play resumes. It's extremely annoying.

The above is not why I wanted to post. I wanted to post about the game itself. Our team won 9-2. There are usually great numbers of two things during these games - goals and fights. Last night was no exception. At least three players on the other team (Puget Sound) were kicked out of the game. The last ejection came during the last few minutes of the game. One of the Puget Sound players got into a fight with one of our guys. The officials broke it up pretty quickly. I don't know what the referee said to the Puget Sound kid, but he did not like it. He shoved the ref! The crowd let out a gasp when he did. We all knew he'd be kicked out for sure. The kid must have known too and didn't care, because a half a minute later he threw his glove at the referee too. When he left the ice, he hit his helmet against the glass.

I've seen some wild hockey, but that story is one of the wildest. I've never seen someone get out of control like that, and I've never seen anyone physically abuse an official. I can only wonder what kind of hell the coach gave the kid after the game was over. I'm also wondering if the officials didn't go in the locker room and give him hell themselves. If I were the coach, that kid would be sitting out the next game for sure.