The Role of Hockey

Last night I found myself in an unfamiliar position while I was playing hockey. I had to be the agitator/enforcer. I have never gotten a single penalty since I started playing. But we're one game away from the championship and the other team started to get chippy. Actually they got really chippy a week prior.

The last game one of their players took me out hard with a slash followed by a charge because we were kicking their ass on the scoreboard. This play really damaged my thumb and I found it really hard to grasp a guitar the next day.

So this week I even looked back at two of my team mates on the ice and said that as soon as one of their guys sticks me I'm going to retaliate and make something of it. I couldn't risk one of our good players being kicked out for the championship final. It was a risk I was going to have to take.

As soon as one of their players sticked me I retaliated and it was on. I had no intention of fighting or anything but I guess the referees didn't know that. Once the perpetrator and myself started tussling I dropped my stick so I wouldn't hurt him. Apparently that's not a wise thing to do and I was warned that if I dropped my gloves there were repercussions.

But it worked.

The other team was focused on swearing at me the whole game. The refs were focused their attention on penalties, and when I explained to the official why I did it, they were cool.

And nobody got hurt.