Ice Hockey - guys falling down

The ice hockey game was a rather informal affair. Basically, a bunch of guys chipped in to rent the ice and play pretend hockey as a prelude to the season. Most of the players knew each other from the local amateur league so, even without referees or much structure, there was an understanding that there would be no rough play.

I thought this all sounded rather jolly, but the players were quick to do some expectation management. What had initially been described as a hockey game (never match) was rapidly downgraded to "scrimmage" when I produced my camera. The promotional language reached rock bottom when one player decided that scrimmage was too good a word and described the planned activity as "guys falling down."

There was surprisingly little falling down, despite the rusty players and dull skates. Overall, I was impressed with the level of skill. It doesn't look easy, but it does look like fun.

Here is Ducati Kevin in full "guys falling down" kit. He told me at the soccer game that he only plays soccer for something to do during the summer while he's waiting for hockey to start. He obviously meant it. He really likes hockey.

Just look at that smile. He also turned out to be quite the amateur league star.

Here we see Ducati Kevin attempting to jam a puck through the goalie with a combination of bodyweight and sheer determination.

In this one, a member of the other team is forcibly pulling him away from the puck and the goalie. Kevin's a strong-willed little Robocop, but he couldn't quite get the puck over the line that time.

He got it in the next time. The photograph above is, unfortunately, an example of a particular type of happy snap that captures the moment fractionally after something interesting happens. A heartbeat before this picture was taken, Kevin scored and the goalie spectacularly failed to block. The photo, taken just milliseconds later, shows everyone kind of standing around afterwards.

I did get a few cool action shots, like this one of flying ice. Snow cone anyone?

This was a nice puck chase in the corner. The corners are fun because the puck ricochets so quickly around the edge of the rink, and because there's a fair chance one or both players will crash, deliberately or accidentally. I try not to pass judgement.

Ice hockey is a fast moving sport characterised by rapid changeover of players. They went back onto the bench maybe every 2 to 5 minutes in this friendly game. Ducati Kevin assures me that in professional games it is often even less. They skate very hard for a short period, then break to catch their breath. In between their bursts of activity, these hockey stars rested and drank beer from enormous cans called tallboys. Each tallboy is the size of two regular cans stacked on top of each other. I suppose an ice hockey arena is the perfect setting for this kind of thing. Even if it goes flat, the beer will still be cold.

The goalie didn't have an opportunity to rest except when he was lying on top of the puck. I thought on a few occasions that perhaps he laid there a little longer than was strictly necessary before releasing the puck back into play.

I almost became an unwitting part of the action myself at one point. I had been helpfully installed on a ladder from which I could take photographs over the barriers onto the action below. This is the ladder in question. You can see the barrier behind it. I remember having the fleeting thought that this precarious position might actually be dangerous, but I comforted myself with the knowledge that this was an amateur game. How hard and high could the puck stray?

As it turns out, it could stray plenty hard enough to hurt and high enough to take my head off my shoulders and my entire body off the ladder. As the rogue puck rushed towards me I swayed nimbly backwards out of its path, to the echoing sound of Ducati Kevin's hockey friends urgently saying "Ooooh."

Ducati Kevin was on the bench when it happened, but he told me later that his friends seemed fairly amazed when they told him that a puck nearly killed his friend.

It all ended well enough. The puck wound up lying non-threateningly near some garbage bins while my head lived to peer over barriers another day.

Thank you to Ducati Kevin and all his friends for making me feel so welcome, for providing such high quality entertainment and for not killing me. I'm grateful. Honestly.