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Thanks everyone for your comments so far. Just some additional information on the comments made.
The number of referees who make themselves available for games is a real problem and we’ve been talking to Phil (who’s our head referee in Dunedin) about it. If we can’t get the NZIHF to run another referees course here in Dunedin before the next season, then we’ll probably run our own one in March once the varsity students get back, and those people will be DIHL qualified, if not qualified for anything else.
So anyone who might be interested in such a course, please let us know, and we’ll be in contact once we know more. We’d be hoping to encourage as many people as possible to do that course, but particularly people who we know are committed to ice hockey and making games happen, who might be available for the next DIHL. Referees, like most sports, are crucial, and we’re skating headon to a refereeing crisis as referees opt out of it (partially due to player behaviour), and no new ones come into the system.
It would be difficult to stress enough just how much of a problem player behaviour is looking like being in terms of retaining referees. I know this is a problem in lots of other sports as well. We had a referee opt out this DIHL because he didnt’ feel the need to deal with all the shit anymore, and I know that my team was one of the worst. This is a problem for players to front up to, and stop doing things like disputing referees calls, talking to referees, swearing at referees. Ice hockey does have rules about who can talk to referees, and we might have to look at having identified C and A players, so we can tell the rest of the team to shut up. It’s also an issue for referees – they’re the only ones who can punish players who dispute calls or talk back, and that requires quite a bit of confidence when you look at some of the players that we have playing.
We are extremely lucky with the people who do our scoring, gear distribution etc. Jackie, Joyce, and Rae, are an absolute godsend, and if we had the same problems with finding qualified scorers etc, the whole competition would be much harder to run. What insanity makes them turn up each week, I don’t know, but I hope they stay insane for a long period of time!
There’s probably no point revisiting the visor argument, it’s still an issue that happening on the ice, but only the referees can make any changes. The points are noted about making it more explicit from day one. We will be clearer in the registration information next time about exactly what is required, and again when players get their first emails.
As a note, there’s a draft set of rules which have been floating around the Dunedin Ice Hockey Association Committee for a couple of months which would cover tournaments such as the DIHL, but also any other Dunedin competitions that the association ran. It includes not only equipment, but also rules for making up teams, casual players, a draft system, etc. Ryan and I have basically written it, but we welcome feedback before we try and get the association to formally adopt it – so far we’ve had pretty much zero comments, which either means it’s perfect and will work fine, or there’s stuff in it which will cause problems, but people haven’t read it/mentioned it to us. So if anyone wants to read that draft, we could probably make it available and link to the document from here.
On the fairness of the teams – my ‘post-game’ analysis of the A grade is that it’s been a pretty even competition overall. There’s been a ridiculous number of draws – 5/12 round robin games were drawn. Only about three or four games got blown out to more than 3 goals apart. If you take one of those games – last night’s game between Ducks and Stars, which the Stars won 6-1. Well the Ducks (I think) were without what we regarded as their two best players – Mike Sam and Duncan Sykes. They were also missing their normal goalie, and had the backup goalie as a stand in. Stars had been missing Simon Christos, probably their best player, for much of the DIHL, and he was there last night.
Yet if you take the next game, Phantoms were missing Steve Jackson and Sam Smith from their original lineup, who were top players. They were also playing with the backup goalie. And they won 5-2.
I guess that shows that the one thing that we can’t control is who turns up for each game, and also that sometimes losing tops players doesn’t always matter. There clearly were two teams who did better, and two teams who didn’t do so well. No one had no victories at all however, and the Stars would have made the finals if they’d scored just four more goals – one in each of the games that they drew. In fact, they would have finished top of the table.
As a short explanation as to how we try and make the A grade teams even, is that every player in it is assigned a number. The grading system runs from 0 (never been on the ice) to 10 (ice black or better). As a guideline B grade players should be considered to be grades 1-5 (we didn’t grade anyone who played in B grade, except for the purpose of being confident that they really were B grade), and A grade players fall in the grades 6 – 10 (all A grade players were graded). We then take those numbers and try and make all the teams average out at the same number. Because of the significance of goalies in the game, we counted their number twice. The averages get messed up at week 1 when another three or four people turn up to sign up late, but what can you do?
It’s a fairly rough and ready system, and involved a little negotiation between the three people who contributed to it (a few other people were sent it but didn’t comment at all), and was pretty arbitrary – it involved a lot of relativity, in that, we said “well here’s the 10s here, they’re all top, who is just a step below that?”, and also “right, here’s the level of player that we want to be the minimum for A grade, who else is at that 6 level?”, and then tried to arrange the 7s and 8s and 9s in between.
The idea is that we’ll retain the list, look through it next year and think about whether or not we were wrong on people, and then use it again for next season. People could get better or worse, and go up or drop a grade, and we might also decide that we set a player at the wrong level, and adjust them up – I can think of a couple of players that I watched last night that were definitely a point off where they should be.
We’d welcome comments on the system, and the list isn’t secret, we’d be happy to show it to any one who wanted to help make it better next year, or who was interested in trying to put together their own A grade team for next time around. We should note that only the Phantoms took up the option of constructing their own team for the A grade this time around, and even they had to pick up some ‘outsiders’. We’d really like it to be a system where someone can take the list and build a team based on who they want to play with (rather than who we slot them together with), and as long as the numbers work out near the average, and the money arrives, that’s their team. It also provides the opportunity for teams to stick together over more than one DIHL or season – the Phantoms are probably going to do this, depending on who is around next year.
The numbers system also doesn’t address some problems, like balance in terms of ‘top’ and ‘not-so-good’ players in different positions. We tried to ensure that each team had good defenders and forwards, but then people play in positions we didn’t expect them to.
So in short, we try.
B grade is, we recognise, pretty uneven, but that’s because we put in place a lot less control over how the teams get made up, particularly with the school teams. There’s a couple of people in the John McGlashan team, and a couple in the Beasts who would/are be OK in the A grade. It’s also a much harder grade to try and make even, because we don’t know the players that well, and they change a lot more often. The John McGlashan team in this DIHL is very different to the John McGlashan team that played in the Autumn DIHL earlier this year, as an example. It’s also a grade that takes itself less seriously in some ways. Again, hopefully as we get to know those players better, and we run this graded system for the second time, we can say to those people – ‘OK, we want to take off one or two players here and put them in another team or in the other grade, your team is too good’. We don’t however want to micro-manage each team, we just don’t want it to be wildly unbalanced.
The lack of a contact competition this year is a problem, as its something a lot of players want. It’s also a significant part of hockey, and if we want the Premieres to play well in contact tournaments against other teams, they have to play contact hockey.
There actually was a contact competition organised for July/August, by Andre, but it collapsed into a non-contact competition. The problem that Andre faced is that he had 5 teams, two non-checking, three checking. Because the people that put their name down for playing in checking teams tended to be the top players, the teams were wildly unfair. I could look at it based on our grading system, and it was teams of 8s, 9s, and 10s (contact), playing against teams of 6s, 7s, and 8s (non). It kinda fell over in the first week and revived into a four team A grade competition – very similar to what we’ve just run.
There’s some issues to do with running a contact tournament in Dunedin. One is that a lot of players have come up through playing non-checking (I’m an example), and haven’t really learnt to play contact hockey. It’s not that I couldn’t, it’s just not skills that I really have. So while some are happy to jump in and try it, others aren’t. Also some contact players don’t want to play contact with people who don’t know how to do it properly – they don’t want to get hurt or hurt someone. Maybe a training session or sessions could alleviate those problems, I don’t know.
The other is that, in its wisdom, the NZIHF (and I believe the IIHF) has banned women from playing contact. I personally don’t agree with this, and I’d suspect it’s a breach of the Human Rights Act, as its discriminating on the basis of gender – I’d much rather an assessment be made of both men and women based on something much more practical, such as size, ability, or actually knowing how to play contact hockey. But the practical implication is that there are a few women playing at the A grade level, and they wouldn’t be able to play contact hockey. This lops a few more people off our numbers (when we struggled to reach four teams in this competition), and for me doesn’t feel right – I’d like to think that we organise competitions to include as many people as possible.
That doesn’t mean that there won’t be contact hockey in the future, just that someone needs to organise it, and it’s actually reasonably hard to do. Whether or not it could be run mid-season next year, either under the auspices of the DIHL or some other name, I don’t know. If anyone volunteers to make it happen, it probably would. There certainly would be enough for three teams, and maybe if the players really got behind it, four, which is the number I consider viable for an ice hockey competition.
Number 9 for my original list of questions is:
9. How would you feel about playing competition hockey on Saturday nights? Either regularly, or once or twice in the course of the DIHL. This might be an option that we might look at in the future if we invite an out of town team (eg, Gore, Alexandra) to play in our Dunedin competition.
My, what a long rant. Call me Mr TMI.
KyleA grade played a big finals night last night. There was a hum in the air, the crowd was about four times its normal size (that’s maybe, 40 people!), and absolutely no Channel 9 at all (some sort of wrong day confusion seemed to afflict the entire evening).
Stars played the Ducks for 3rd place. Ducks were well in it until about half time. Backup goalie Mark Dudley played a blinder in goal for the first period, stopping a bunch of really good shots, and kept his team in it. The Ducks even took the lead briefly early in the second period, before the Stars finally started to find holes in the Ducks goalie, and the floodgates started to open, leaving it as a final score of 6-1. The Stars had a devastating line of Peter Lamb, Simon Christos, and Aaron Benda, who were causing all sorts of havoc. The Ducks not having Stampede player Duncan Sykes on defense didn’t help either, and I’m not sure I saw Mike Sam there as well. Anyway, well done to the Stars for clocking up their first victory of the DIHL.
The big final was up next, but there was chaos in the changing room with half the SK8 team not there, including goalie Tony Pasco. Some sort of confusion about what day the final game was on. A flurry of text messages were sent, and gentle persuasion kept Stars goalie Aaron Bryant in gear to cover for goal, and both squads spent a good six or seven minutes off the rink waiting for the ice to freeze – and when we went on there were still puddles. A long warm-up – the referees and scorekeepers were clearly taking this game with utmost seriousness. Phantoms lineup had been strengthened not only by the addition of Larry Wheeler, but also a second Larry, who’s recently moved here from Queenstown and mysteriously appeared on the ice in a Phantoms top. SK8 picked up Rane Phipps-Black who changed over from his Ducks top to help out an SK8 team who were looking like being short.
The game was played at a really high tempo, and Phantoms let in an early goal when Dudley failed to cover up a stopped shot, and an SK8 forward skated through and knocked it between his pads. A second goal went in later in the first period, by more traditional means. Phantoms had plenty of shots in the period, but consistently found the centre of netminder Bryant’s chest pads.
Phantoms came out firing in the second period, with van Leeuwen netting while in the process of falling down on the breakaway, off an assist from Matthews. The floodgates really started to open when the Phantoms went on powerplay however, and Hodge netted.
Third period the Phantoms stacked up three more goals, all to Hodge, at least one again with the man advantage. There was some really good puck control and heaps of pressure in the SK8 zone, which eventually led to goals. SK8 had a couple of good attempts at getting one back, but were unable to, including a penalty shot taken by Hey, which was called off as he lost control of the puck. Some big saves by Dudley, who found true A grade form in net.
The game got pretty ugly in the final period, with Wheeler and Roth the younger set off for roughing in front of the SK8 net, and a second SK8 player put in for five minutes for being the third man in. Then Wick and van Leewen tussled at a faceoff, and it was all fists flying as they both really went at it. Both were deservedly sent from the rink with a match penalty, and missed the end of the game and the post-match celebrations.
After the handshake, the referees were thanked and given beer, the scorekeepers were thanked and given chocolates and wine (unfortunately a puck shortly afterwards reduced one of the bottles of wine to rubbish), and the Phantoms were awarded the DIHL trophy for winning the competition.
Well done to all the teams, and all the players who managed not to get sent off, and we’ll be back next year with more DIHL fun.
Based on these two pieces of information I’m going to reverse my decision. Bullfrogs 4-2.
PS: Phantoms!!!
"Ryan":1q0ce79p wrote:"Kyle":1q0ce79p wrote:geek.[/quote:1q0ce79p]Look who’s talkin![/quote:1q0ce79p]
Shush! Don’t tell everyone.
Yeah that’s right Stefan. I know you’ve been sitting there at the shop hitting refresh all afternoon waiting for ’em!
It’s finals week. Yes, 7 weeks of competition, bits of paper, money, gear, referees, every second of ice time, penalties, goals, face offs, comes down to two games. SK8 takes on the Phantoms tonight (with Channel 9 there filming it for their news!). Beasts take on John McGlashan tomorrow. For both grades, the teams that have been looking the business all DIHL are playing each other for the trophy. Let’s pause a moment and check out the teams.
Phantoms
Phantoms started with a hiss and a roar, two big victories, but also a 3-0 loss to SK8 first time around when they just couldn’t find the back of the net. Since then a couple of draws and a tight victory last week has seen them skate into the finals in second place on eight points. Last time they played SK8 it was a 2-2 draw, but heartbreakingly close to being a Phantoms victory with the puck finding the back of the SK8 net just as the buzzer went.
Phantoms have been hit hard by a loss of players. Sam Smith only turned up for one game, so they’ve been short since then. Ryan Hellyer’s out with a broken ankle, and after last week they’ve lost top player Steve Jackson and hard working Kim Hellyer, who are out of the country. No commitment I tell ya. Rostered goalie Nick Metzger has been absent more than he’s been present, and tonight they’ll have backup goalie Mark Dudley between the sticks for them. They’ll be well short on two lines however, and are probably looking at eight plus goalie for the final.
On the positive side of the ledger, they’re looking to draft in Larry Wheeler tonight just so that they have some subs. Larry’s getting on a little, but he’s a solid defender, and they’ll be needing him as Steve Jackson leaves a big hole in their defensive line. And a couple of players have been racking up some big points so far this DIHL. Stefan King has 9 goals and 2 assists, Brent Hodge has 8 goals and 5 assists (top point scorer for the DIHL, despite missing a couple of games). Look for the two of them to continue to work hard on the same line, causing all sorts of problems for the defense, and watch out for Hodge’s fake to get around a defender, it’s really good.
Key for the Phantoms, picking up their defense, which looked weak against the Sykes brothers last week, and shutting down those SK8 players and stopping them getting to the Phantoms goalie. Mark Dudley is coming along in leaps and bounds, but he’s only been playing goal on ice for a few months now, so Phantoms need to keep the shots far out, to the sides, and stop the SK8 players getting through to shoot at the goalie.
SK8
SK8 managed to kick clear of Phantoms last week with a draw against the Stars. SK8 have looked dangerous all competition, with a solid base made out of the Dunedin Juniors team, but with a couple of senior players stacked on top to harden them up. There’s no big weak points in this team, they’re fairly solid all the way through. The star undoubtably is James van Leeuwen, on 8 goals and 2 assists in the competition so far, he’s a complete player. Big slap shot from the blue line, strong defense, and causes all sorts of problems on the rush taking it to the net. Phantoms are going to have to work hard to shut him down and keep down his shots, because otherwise he will score.
There’s other dangerous players in the lineup however. Ryan Wick is fairly aggressive, but does good work in front of the net, putting away rebounds. Paris Hey and Liam and Jesse Roth are all dangerous junior players, probably only weakened by their lack of a passing game. And SK8 will have Tony Pasco in net, who’s been putting up the best numbers all DIHL, yet to lose a game. He’s really good down low on the pads, and Phantoms are going to have to put on heaps of good shots to rack up big numbers of goals.
Key for SK8. Phantoms can probably field the best forward line in the competition, with Hodge, King, and A. van Leeuwen all big goal scorers. They’re all capable of scoring 1 on 1 on the goalie, or working together and notching up assists to go with their goals. If SK8 can keep their shots down, and stop the breakaways, then they’re in with a big shot at this.
Kyle’s pick. I think this game is going to go to the wire, it’ll be tied up 3-3 at the end of regulation, and then I’m picking Phantoms to take it in extra time, shortly after the puck drops. Hodge to get the gamewinner, but King, van Leeuwen, and Honore to score the early goals. For SK8 van Leewen, Wick, and Hey to net.
John McGlashan
Johnnies have looked the form team of the B grade competition since the get-go, including a 3-1 victory over the Beasts in the round-robin. Johnnies have some good players in their lineup, including what looks like the two top goal scorers in the competition (Robert McLean, 11 goals after four rounds, Mark Kliegl, 9 goals after four rounds). The 3-1 victory over Beasts was the closest that anyone has come to toppling them, and they’re certainly coming into Wednesday as the favourites. There’s weaknesses though. Their goalie has never really been tested by more than a dozen shots in a game, and if Beasts put up pressure on net, it’ll be interesting to see how many go in.
Beasts
Beasts are a solid team, with a big lineup, and some players there that can put the puck in the back of the net. Mitchell, Li, Sedgwick are all players capable of playing A grade, and they’ll really be wanting to use their speed and skills to put good shots on the Johnnies goalie, work hard for rebounds, and try and rack up some points. Probably their real strength though is their goalie. Mark Dudley comes to us from field hockey, and he’s still making the transition, but learning fast. He’s got a top glove, and he’s gotten better as the competition has progressed. He’s playing for two teams in the A grade competition on Tuesday night as the backup goalie, and Beasts will be looking for him to keep out Johnnies as much as possible. Besides, the 3-1 loss in the round robin, two of those goals were right near the end of the game, so it was all tied up after 40 minutes.
Kyle’s pick. I’m sticking with the favourites, but close. 4-3 by the final whistle to Johnnies.
Other Games
Those aren’t the only two games going on this week, just the only game in which a trophy is being given out.
At 8pm the Ducks take on the Stars in the playoff for 3-4 in the A grade. Neither have had the happiest season this DIHL, Stars have 2 losses and 4 draws (surely a record!), and Ducks have 1 win, 4 losses, 1 draw. Stars will be pumping for a win – a couple of well-placed goals in those drawn games would have seen them playing in the final. And Ducks certainly have the talent, but while they’ve been playing well as a team, it hasn’t seemed to work out for them this season. Kyle’s pick: Stars to grab it, 4-3.
And in the B Grade, at 6pm Bullfrogs take on the Bears, in what should be a friendly game. Bears have come close a couple of times this DIHL, but haven’t really had it to mix it up with the big boys. Bullfrogs are probably going to struggle unless they find a replacement for Hellyer. I’m picking Bears to get a second win, 4-2.
OBHS take on Kings, who are backing up from what sounded like a pretty rough game last week, after a bit of a scrap broke out after the final whistle. OBHS haven’t had a happy season at all, and I’m picking that to continue to Kings roll over on them a bit, taking it 6-1.
Best of luck everyone.
Kyle
Phantoms[quote:3c064ags]Phantoms vs Ducks: Kyle pick: Phantoms to take it 3-2, van Leeuwan and Hodge to score for Phantoms, Gilchrist and D. Sykes for Ducks.[/quote:3c064ags]
Roll on the high scores! 52 shots in total in the game, 13 finding the back of the net, 7-6 to Phantoms, who hold tight after a couple of late Duck goals put some real heat on. Hodge gets a hat trick, King a double, and Honore murders another open net, but picks up two assists in compensation. D. Sykes causes a heap of trouble for the Phantoms goalie (Dudley with Metzger gone for the tournament) and picks up four.
[quote:3c064ags]SK8 vs Stars: Kyle’s pick: I’m going for an upset, Stars to take it 4-3, Lamb to get a double, including the game winner, Roth the elder and van Leeuwen to net for SK8. Big game by Bryant to keep SK8 out in the end.[/quote:3c064ags]
3-3. Stars really are going for the record number of drawn games! If they’d scored four more goals, one in each of the past four games, they’d be leading the competition! Lamb gets a goal, Benda picks up two, Lang and Roth the younger net for SK8. Only 31 shots in this game, Pasco not up to his normal standards, letting in 3/12.
So there endeth the round robin for the big boys. Next week the finals, starting an hour late. Stars take on Ducks for 3-4 at 8pm, Phantoms and SK8 skate at 9:10 in front of Channel 9 cameras for the trophy.
Yay for the stats, for the A grade at least. Lets see how Kyle picked in week 5.
[quote:1d0diny8][b:1d0diny8]Phantoms vs SK8[/b:1d0diny8]: Kyle’s pick: I can’t pick against my own team, but it’s going to be tight if we get it. Phantoms 3-2. Matthews to net to celebrate the birth of his daughter last Thursday (photos![/url:1d0diny8]). Wick and van Leeuwen for SK8.[/quote:1d0diny8]
2-2 draw. Matthews fails to get the goal, but sneaks a pass through to van Leeuwen who nets. The van Leeuwen of the SK8 variety causes heaps of problems for the Phantoms, getting both goals. Plenty of heat in the game, this time with SK8 on the wrong side of the penalty count. Tony Pasco again on top of a big shot count, up over the 90% again keeps his team in it under some big Phantoms pressure at times. Phantoms got to be gutted as King puts it in the net a microsecond after the buzzer off a quick faceoff.
[quote:1d0diny8][b:1d0diny8]Ducks vs Stars[/b:1d0diny8]: Kyle’s pick: 3-2 to the Ducks, Blackett to have a good game in net.[/quote:1d0diny8]
Another draw, 4-4. Stars spread them all around, while Ducks top dog Sam nets two for his team. Stars working hard at spending an entire season never winning a game!
Ryan,
The web page (temptingly) says that rounds 5 and 6 A grade stats are available. And yet the file is just the old round four pdf file.
I suspect anything that stuck on would would quickly become wrecked. And I’ve never seen anything made out of stick tape last a whole game.
The club could, for sets where there’s enough tops, simply choose three tops and put permanent C and A labels on them. If there were no such people, then those wouldn’t need to be used, but it’d be a good habit to get into of always having those people identified in games – it’s another thing that we’re slack on here in Dunedin.
Match penalty? For hitting Jack? We need a fuller report I think. I’m sure people have been tempted before!
Was he wearing non-matching socks?Oooh! Inter-team snarkiness. And on the day of a big semi-final too. It’s all falling apart in beast-land.
We’re in the final stretch, there’s light at the end of the tunnel. A grade is in the final week of round-robin, but the final spots have already been decided by the points table. B grade are already onto the semis, and the heat will be on to see who makes it through to the finals.
[b:1cx9wd1x]A Grade[/b:1cx9wd1x]
Phantoms vs Ducks: Everyone came off a draw last week, so things have really evened up in the competition. Phantoms know they’re going to be facing SK8 in the final next week, but will be looking to steady things nicely against the Ducks to get the roll on. Ducks will be hoping for a second victory, it hasn’t been the happy DIHL they’d been hoping for. SK8 again without regular goalie Nick Metzger, Mark Dudley filling in between the pipes, Hellyer out with a broken ankle from badminton. Kyle pick: Phantoms to take it 3-2, van Leeuwan and Hodge to score for Phantoms, Gilchrist and D. Sykes for Ducks.
SK8 vs Stars: SK8 are clear on top of the table, but they’ll be looking for one more win to make sure that first spot is theirs – currently they’re 2 points ahead of Phantoms, and 3 goals ahead on goal differential, so Phantoms would need to win, and pick up a four goal deficit for there to be any problems. Stars have been the eternal drawers in the competition, with 3 draws, no wins so far. They’ll be looking for a victory, just to see their names in lights. Kyle’s pick: I’m going for an upset, Stars to take it 4-3, Lamb to get a double, including the game winner, Roth the elder and van Leeuwen to net for SK8. Big game by Bryant to keep SK8 out in the end.
[b:1cx9wd1x]B Grade[/b:1cx9wd1x]
OBHS vs Bears: Both these teams are out of finals contention. OBHS pushed Kings hard last week, but fell one short, which means Bullfrogs sneak into the fourth spot. This game is technically the playoff for 5th and 6th. Neither team has had a happy season, but both will be looking to finish on a high note (they both have a friendly game against the losers of the semis next week). I’m picking OBHS to take it 4-2.
John McGlashan vs Bullfrogs: Bullfrogs are really up against it in the semis. Johnnies have been looking the business all season, including a big whalloping of Bullfrogs earlier on. Bullfrogs won’t be so bad this time around, but they’re already missing Hellyer, so they’ll continue to suffer. Kyle’s pick: Johnnies 6-2.
Beasts vs Kings: This might be a closer game, Kings are a bit of a dark horse in the competition, and thought they lost pretty well to Beasts first time around, I’m picking that they’ll come closer this time and put some heat on the Beasties. All the same, the Beasts are clearly ahead of the rest of the pack in 2nd place, and I’m going for 5-3 final score.
Off Ice: Helmets. My life of helmets.
[quote:2y8t8tig]Kyle’s timing was definitely pretty shocking though, best to leave stuff like that till when you’re not the one playing them.[/quote:2y8t8tig]
If it wasn’t clear from my post, I approached the referees during the SK8 game the week before, when they were playing the Ducks, and asked the referees to remind the SK8 players who weren’t wearing visors then that they should be. Why there were people not wearing visors the week after, I don’t know.
I don’t think it’s an ideal situation to have people running tournaments as well as playing in them, but if we applied that rule then the last three DIHLs (and several at the big chill), the A grade tournament that Andre ran earlier this year, and last years contact tournaments all wouldn’t have happened. If anyone knows anyone who doesn’t play ice hockey, but wants to devote a whole pile of time to enabling other people to do so, please sign them up. I’ll happily do something else with my time.
Failing that, if there were any serious concerns that people had, they could take them to either the DIHA President, or to the committee. I’d be entirely happy to listen to any rulings they made on matters.
Always good to get criticism from anonymous sources! Encourages people to continue to volunteer their time to organising hockey tournaments for you to play in, honest.
Anyway, in answer to your question – I’ve been asking the referees to enforce the helmet rule for several weeks now, and they said that they would do this, and we discussed how players could simply get legal helmets from the gear room if they didn’t have one available. There’s no ‘last week it was going to be let go’. Players were emailed after game three and reminded about helmet rules, and the referees were asked to chase up players during game four who still weren’t complying.
The referees hadn’t done this, so I approached them in the intermission and asked them to enforce the rule. I asked them to tell the other team of this, and said that I was happy for us to pause the game so that the people affected could go get helmets – a referees time out.
Anyway, the referees indicated that they weren’t going to tell the SK8 team (and as it turned out weren’t going to enforce the rule, but that’s another issue). So I went over the SK8 huddle and told James that I had asked the referees to enforce the wearing of visors. It wasn’t (and still isn’t) my preference for players to have minor penalties assessed against them, I just want players to be wearing proper safety equipment. If the referees weren’t going to give the other team time to do this, I wanted to give them the time to do so. Anyway, James and the SK8 team chose not to do anything about it, and the referees chose not to enforce it last week, so it’s a moot point.
As to why I’m pushing for the helmet rule to be enforced. There’s two reasons. I (along with other people) run a tournament in a sport in which people can get seriously hurt. Sometimes that’s just the nature of ice hockey. However I don’t want to see someone get a puck or a stick in the eye, when they should have been wearing a visor. Almost all the serious, permanent injuries which arise from hockey (affecting the brain, eyes etc) arise from hits in the area covered by the helmet and visor. Legs, shoulders, ribs etc, all heal fine. Eyes and brain often don’t. I would feel personally responsible for having run a tournament at which the players weren’t wearing the correct equipment, and they suffered a serious injury.
Secondly, the equipment rules under which we operate are there for good reason. They provide a framework (both national and international) at which other players, referees, tournament organisers, the Dunedin Ice Hockey Association, and the Dunedin Ice Rink can point and say ‘here is what is ‘safe’ for playing ice hockey’. This is the basis on which ice hockey players qualify for Accident Compensation, and the basis on which the various people and organisations listed above can be considered to have been acting responsibly.
A few years ago the organisers of a bike race in Christchurch faced criminal charges because they had failed to do enough to ensure the safety of participants in the sport – one of the riders was killed by an oncoming car. While the chances of something like that happening are pretty slim, the risk is still there. If someone suffered a serious injury during a game, and the crown pursued legal action against the club then the club would most likely have to close, and there just wouldn’t be any ice hockey in Dunedin. I don’t want to think about what would happen if they pursued action against an individual such as the referee or a tournament organiser. Players could also face problems getting ACC because they weren’t wearing the correct protective equipment for their sport, etc.
I’m not really sure how approaching James in the intermission and telling him that I’d asked the referees to enforce the visors, would in any way help us win the game. But y’know, whatever. I don’t really see it as an issue between the two teams, as I was continuing a discussion that I’ve been having with the head referee as coordinator of the A grade tournament. I understand there’s also a Star player who is non-compliant. When the referees decided not to do anything about it, I left it as an off-ice problem, and took it up with the head referee the next day.
I believe the referees are going to be stricter on the equipment rules from tonight onwards, so I’d recommend all players bring correct helmets, mouthguards etc.
