• Registration is disabled due to constant spammers. Email [email protected] and we will temporarily re-enable registration for you.

Irishman's rec league ice hockey dynasty thread

My old ass just signed up to play in a summer Men's hockey league - first organized hockey in 30 years. Here's hoping I don't embarrass myself. :thumbsup:
Today was the first day for the summer league and it went well. I have a lot of work to do on my edges and balance, but it was a great session. We finished with a controlled scrimmage. I found that a lot of my defensive skills came back pretty well and we needed them, ha ha! Our group won 3-1 and I had the 3rd goal - a nice wrister from inside the right circle that beat the goalie high glove side.
 
Last edited:
I made a huge mistake...I tried on a Bauer RE-AKT helmet. It fit like a glove. I'm sure I'll own it about 14 hours from now.

I never did this with golf. I have two wooden woods and my irons are 20 years old. Why can't I just be the same for hockey? Hockey shit is expensive.
 


Here's hoping this Facebook link actually works. :thumbsup: Practice and scrimmage #2 today. Yes, I bought the Bauer helmet (I have the white helmet in the pics). I was really pleased with my defensive play on all of my shifts. I had a few shots but no great chances.

I had a reality check moment in this one. I had a partial break down the left middle...the puck was ahead of me to the left. I tried to pull the puck across my body and make a power move to the net. The defenseman on my tail quickly reminded me that power moves don't work when you weigh 130 pounds. :laughing:
 

Reel

Off dem Milds and dat Yak
Community Liaison
somebody @ me when Irish posts his version of this

FaintEquatorialHippopotamus-max-1mb.gif
 

Travis7401

Douglass Tagg
Community Liaison
My father in law and brother in law play in an old man hockey league and it sounds great. Last season some goon checked father in law (no checking allowed) so brother in law took offense and checked that guy and everyone involved ended up in the penalty box for a great photo opportunity.
 
Yeah, this league I'm in is supposed to be a no check league, but I suspect there's going to still be plenty of contact. As long as people aren't dicks about it, I don't care. I won't be able to line anyone up along the boards for a well-timed hip check, however. :laughing:

The pick-up 3-on-3 last night was great though. I had to work my ass off to stay with these younger guys (they were highly skilled/competitive), but I was able to make a few sweet defensive plays. It was a blast. I did get myself all twisted up and fell right on my side. I was reminded of how little hip padding there is in standard hockey pants (or on my skinny-ass frame). :thumbsup:
 
Today was my best day so far. We worked a lot on passing and stick handling, which was good. My team played well on the scrimmage,winning 3-0. I was +3 with 1 G (en, breakaway) and 1 A.

The assist was on our first goal. I was playing C. The puck was free along the right boards and I had a partial breakaway, but I needed to sweep it all the way back to the middle. I used a double deke to beat the goaltender, but just lost the puck a bit right as I went to my forehand for the shot. I recovered the puck and passed it backhand behind my back to my LW, who buried the shot from just left of the crease.

I played my first shift at D and they never got possession in the offensive zone. I was stoked. My remaining shifts were all at C I had a couple of blocks and won 3/4 faceoffs. It was a great game.
 
So I have this recurring issue of falling on my right hip during practices. It's really awesome. :thumbsup: I did it again tonight. It's always because I'm doing a lot of edge work and I just need to slow it down. Anyway, we had the weekend off last week, so I'm looking forward to getting out there this Sunday.

On the positive side things, I really pleased with my backhand.
 
Played last night and skated my ass off. :Sleeping: I played all but one shift on defense, but as one of the few guys with speed, I found myself on more than a handful of odd-man rushes. I managed to get a secondary assist on our only goal (we won 1-0) by making a nice clearing pass out of our zone to my right wing along the boards, which led to a 2-on-1 (and a nice goal). We won 1-0. I felt like my defensive play was solid aside from a couple of non-critical mistakes. I won the only two faceoffs I took on my one shift at C. Can't complain.

I won't be playing again until the 29th, though, as I'll be too busy rippin' and tearin' next Sunday. :emo:
 
Well, I returned from vacation not having skated in 9 days and ended up playing my best game. I played about half the time at D and half at C. Aside from running into my own man on one shift and spending one of my left D shifts forgetting which side of the rink was 'left', I did pretty well despite the layoff. I had a goal and an assist on consecutive shifts, which put our team up 2-1. The goal was pretty unreal, even for me. I was going in 1-on-1 against a D man and made a half spin to protect the puck (about a 170-degree turn), shook off the D man, faked to my forehand, before slipping a backhand shot past the goalie. The defenseman and goalie were all twisted up. The assist came on a cross-crease feed to my winger for the easy goal. I was bummed though because I had another almost breakaway where I just could not corral the puck in time to get a real shot off. That would have put us up 3-2. Instead we lost on a last-minute goal, 3-2. I was still +2 for the game, but it sucked losing. One of the other lines was not terribly interested in playing defense, which led to way too many odd-man situations against. That line was -3 for the game - woof.

On a positive note, it sounds like we'll be putting together a pretty fun group of guys from this summer session to get into the fall leagues. :grin:
 
This week we started to get our team together for the fall league. I was worried we'd have insufficient interest and I'd have to join a team as a free agent. We have 15 players including a goaltender plus some guys that can sub on occasion. We're going to play in a C league and it's a 20-game regular season. We're having to order jerseys, so I'm getting in touch with my inner @BearDownUofA. :thumbsup:

We're still trying to narrow down choices, but I'm hoping we opt for a nice design based on the Ottawa 67s template.

467727827.0.jpg


Anyway, played again today and had a blast. I played the entire game at C. We won 4-1. I scored the first two goals. The first came after I lost a defensive zone faceoff. I was able to challenge their left D at the blue line managed to chip the puck into center ice. Took it all the way in on a breakaway and beat the goalie by slipping it under his catching glove elbow. Second goal came on a 2-on-1. My left wing was breaking in and fed me a pass in the low slot and I beat the goalie 5-hole. I was on the ice for the opponent's only goal as we had trouble getting back at the end of a long shift. Anyway, it was a strong game overall, but especially for our line (all of whom are on the fall league team).
 
Amateur sports cracks me up. Some dudes we've never met, but got connected to through another teammate, were asked about their interest to join. They agreed to join the team, but only if they can have the #11 and #13 already claimed by players that already joined. Those have been their numbers for 25 years. "It might be a deal breaker. Sorry." Also, one of them will only play C.:laughing:

 
Last edited:
Well...today sucked. :laughing:

Today was the first time I didn't feel comfortable out there. I don't know what to attribute it to aside from not sleeping well this weekend and having some allergy symptoms. I was tired when I took the ice and it showed throughout. I alternated defense and wing and did not play well. Our team lost 2-0 and I was -2. I definitely stepped on my dick on both goals, so I was not loving it. Ffffuuuu. :thumbsup::laughing:

I had a nice breakaway at the end of the game, but did not convert on the shot. Oh well, fuck it. Some days are just going to suck. I still had fun, but I can't wait to get out again and forget about today.
 
I got out and skated today and realized that I have been ignoring a pretty key fundamental the last two times I had been out - staying low. So much of what goes right in hockey is due to proper hockey positioning, balance, and staying low. Everything was going right tonight after that realization.

Edit: To everyone who is reading along, thanks. I am enjoying the experience of playing; writing down how things are going has been helpful for benchmarking my progress. It's also fun coming in to post an update here and there just because amateur athletics are...interesting. :thumbsup:
 
Last edited:
Well my life just got a lot busier in the fall. I volunteered to be an assistant coach in my son's rec league. I'm looking forward to helping the kids as much as I can. Pre-season practices were yesterday and today; back at it Tuesday night.

We had our second to last summer hockey session today. Our squad was short by 4 guys. We had some subs fill in, but we were not cohesive. Lots of good individual plays were made, but we could not consistently possess the puck. We paid for it with a 3-0 loss. We had fun though, and I'm looking forward to finishing out next week and getting ready for fall league. :thumbsup:
 
Skated 3 times with the Pee Wees this week and that'll be my Wednesday night. Today was our final summer session. It was a good way to finish. I scored on the first shot of the game - wrister from the top of the slot. Everyone played pretty decently We won 6-5, with their 5th goal coming with less than a minute left.

I'm really digging my new stick (got one with a heel curve). It'll be good to get a few weeks off to practice before our season starts up. The first time using it on Thursday in a 3-on-3. I ripped a backhander over the goalie's right shoulder from between the circles.

I suspect I'll be playing C for the team once we start. My positioning for the wings is so bad. I had a few shifts at wing today and wasn't comfortable I'm so much better with at C or D because I want to play down low in the defensive zone.
 
Well, the schedules are out and I will be missing my team's first game thanks to being in London next week to see Kylie Minogue (insert tiny violin). I'm definitely bummed to be missing the game, but I'm excited that the season is finally here. The worst part is that our second game comes after a bye week. The additional wait for me is going to suck. :laughing:
 
We got fucked up 11 - 1... We had a blast but Holy holy shit they ran us right out of the building. I think I was -3.

It's about what I expected since most of us have not played together before, and the league director recognized it too. He's going to bump us to a lower division in a couple of weeks, which is just fine. We just had fun skating, but it would be nice to not get boat-raced.
 
Truthfully, I am not surprised that we lost. I am surprised at how much lower our overall skill level was in comparison. We just misjudged which division we should be competing in. It'll be better when we're in the lower division.
 

goblue96

Disney and Curling Expert
We got fucked up 11 - 1... We had a blast but Holy holy shit they ran us right out of the building. I think I was -3.

It's about what I expected since most of us have not played together before, and the league director recognized it too. He's going to bump us to a lower division in a couple of weeks, which is just fine. We just had fun skating, but it would be nice to not get boat-raced.

-3....now to wait for that phone call from the Flyers.
 
Thankfully, about half of our team have texted or called our captain and expressed concerns about their chosen position, how they can better help the team, etc. I think we'll be fine in a few weeks We're got going to be great, but we'll pull our shit together.
 
Our next game is this Saturday at 11:45 PM. :thumbsup:I've been asked to move back and play defense, which I was hoping to do. Defense and center were both my natural positions when I was young. I think I'll be a bigger help to the team playing the back end. I am looking forward to the game.
 
We lost 9-6, but we were significantly better in this game. That said, we committed 8 penalties (opponents had none), surrendering 2 power play goals and one where the penalty had just expired. I felt pretty comfortable on D, but I know I can have a better game. I was on the ice for 2 of our goals for and 4 against (including those two PPG and recently expired PP). Anyway, we had fun. Next week's game is Fri night at 7:15, which will be much better than 11:45.
 
This is an update. We've been playing in the D league at the rink now for 2 years - two seasons each winter and summer league - and we finally have our shit together. Capped off the summer season last night with a 3-2 OT win in the championship game. I scored our first goal of the game and assisted on the GWG in OT. It was nice to finally win the league title and see how far we have come in those couple years.
 
I'm SO proud of U 4 facing down UR own SZN DEATH n Playing SUCH a HUGE role in the SHAMPSHIP. 4 a performance like that, U must have REC'D the FINALS MVP TROPHY.

Didn't, you?
My captain told me if I would have been his MVP vote if we had such a vote, but I'd have given it to our wing who scored the 2nd and 3rd goals and assisted on mine. I played a complete game - lots of defensive highlights (including a glove save - ouch) and about a dozen (legal) check/hits*. I am just glad we hung tough and got the W.

*body checking is against the rules, so checks and hits are permitted when you're playing the puc and have good positioning when contact is initiated. Since I'm coaching bantams in a no body check league, I get all the instruction on how to do this correctly without ending up in the box.
 
This is an update of sorts. Last night on my first or second shift, I laid out some dude while we were going for a loose puck and I just blew him up. It was a clean play, but the other guy was down for a few seconds before getting himself up. I played the rest of the game, which we ended up losing 3-1 (following an empty net goal). This team has only lost once, so we felt pretty good about it.

Anyway, I'm fairly certain I partially dislocated one of my upper ribs with that hit. I woke up sore as fuck and couldn't take deep breaths. Good times.

Thanks to some excellent YouTube tutorials and stretching exercises, I think I got it back in place. I couldn't take deep breaths this morning without level 7 pain, but after a few hours of manipulation, I only have lingering soreness and no breathing difficulty.

I am not nearly as indestructible/gumby-like as I thought, but popping it back in myself...I can't say I'd recommend it. That popping may be a sign that I did it correctly, but hearing that made me want to hurl. I'll see if I can pull a clip of the hit and upload it here.
 
Top