Advice on skating and playing hockey

[North Buffalo]

I still play once a week in Brewster NY and drop during the winter in Katonah... I too am too old and slow to deal with BS.... but both are friendly... good skates.

[Wyldnwoody44]

I am now incapable of hockey stopping on my off side, no clue why, but I'm at the age where I don't care to fix it lol. 

[PromoTheRobot]

2 hours ago, North Buffalo said:

I still play once a week in Brewster NY and drop during the winter in Katonah... I too am too old and slow to deal with BS.... but both are friendly... good skates.

2 hours ago, Wyldnwoody44 said:

I am now incapable of hockey stopping on my off side, no clue why, but I'm at the age where I don't care to fix it lol. 

I had to give up playing goal in 2019 when my knees had prosthetics installed. Then to make sure I don't get any stupid ideas they put me on blood thinners. (Bruising is not a good idea.) So now I'm a pickleball fiend.

A terrible photo of me in net.

[ska-T Palmtown]

22 hours ago, #freejame said:

Found it! 

Recently moved back to the area from the South, so there’s many more options for skating. I’ve been on the ice a couple times a year over the last 5-6 years probably, but nothing consistent. Signed up for 30 weeks of games starting after Labor Day. It’s going to be a brutal adjustment but I’ll get there. 

Anyone else skating these days?

I know you were probably talking about peeps in WNY - but I finally got on the ice at the age of 35 and have been stinking up Chicago-area beer league hockey going on 10 years now! Thanks to the Kane/Toews Cup runs, beer league hockey in Chicago is amazing. I am on 5 teams at 4 different rinks and could probably play more if I clone myself. 

The thing that took me way too long to realize is that you don't really get that much better playing in games. I found a good partner to go to stick-n-pucks pretty regularly about 18 months ago and have definitely improved more in that time than the 8 1/2 year before that. The Blackhawks' practice facility is required by the city to be available for public use when the 'Hawks are not using it - lots of drop-in chances and two sheets of REALLY nice ice.

Playing hockey is just so much effing fun!! 

[bob_sauve28]

19 hours ago, Taro T said:

Good for you getting back into the game.

Not sure where you're based out of but if you're in a place like WNY you'd be able to find a league for any skill level / age.  And for the most part, if you're willing to drive a little ways you can pick which night you want to play at that skill level for the most part.

And there are pickup/drop in leagues at all sorts of times and days too.

Still play once/ week in the winter.  Haven't played in the spring or summer in a couple of years; just too darn busy.

 

 

Yup, living in WHY and if I could probably play five days a week if I wanted to. Did that during 2008, would just play really hard, go home, relax, drink beer, wake up relax, go play hockey, rise, repeat. The good old days!

 

You got me thinking about playing in the leagues. Boy was that an experience. Did ice hockey  from 2006 to 2018 before that I used to play floor hockey at Milsher, out on Mineral Springs and at UB. Fun. By the end the Good, Bad and Ugly of playing in the league had really turned towards the ugly. But before that it had been a lot of fun.

The Good: We had a really fun, close knit team that won games, championships and played a passing, puck possession game in the B league. Good for our league. I did not ice skate until I was 39 years old, so we were not the super skilled people. We would hang out with each other at times, had parties, always drank in lockerroom after games. We won a lot and were rolling but then it all went down hill and the time it started going bad was marked by an event where BEFORE a game--we were easily in first place--we went to a brewery and got wasted. We didn't play the game very hard and got destroyed. One of our players was too drunk, kept falling down but refused to leave the ice and the ref called the game. The guys girlfriend--also really drunk--started screaming at the ref from the stands. It was crazy. We were never the same after that. Still, loved that team and had a lot of fun while it lasted.

The Bad: There were a lot of frustrations with the leagues though. Some of us really wanted to win and there would be some players  just wanted to be there and could really care less about actually playing hockey well. We had this one guy that was terrible, couldn't really play and then he would show up really drunk on top of it! We had this other guy who no teams wanted and he just shuffled around to different teams, like we took turns with him. There was also more than a few straight up psychotic people. It's funny to think of them now, but at the time you always watched out for them. Then there came times when so many people would join the teams that there were too many players. You just couldn't get enough ice time and that was just it for me. I wasn't going to show up and not play. The cheating, stealing ice time, friends setting up friends to get more ice time, etc, was annoying. Finally, the players that refused to pass, unless their friends were open. Ugh! We had one dude, super nice guy, so you didn't want to confront him, but he was Mr. Stick handle, and that was it. Never passed. Just dicked around with puck until he lost it or whistle blew. It was useless being on ice with him.

The Ugly: I'd be interested to hear if anyone else had this experience at hockey. I'm not Mr Social exactly, but in the circle of people at hockey I knew, there were more than a few that went off to jail! Sex crimes and financial crimes seemed to be way more prevalent than I would have expected. This one guy I knew from another team and summer hockey was just not around anymore, and I did not even notice. But I went to where he works--I had an appointment--and I asked his friend, "Hey, where's so-ands-so.?" He said, "Oh, he is working with father in law now." And I took that at face value. But then I started hearing rumors, and the story sort of got out, child porn on line or something and a year in jail. Yikes! This other guy who had pissed me off for pushing me into the boards for no reason--I hurt my wrist--was arrested and convicted of running a Ponzi scheme on his in-laws, lol. I guess he took all their money and got seven years in the slammer. That one guy on our team that had been too drunk to play stole a bunch of money from the league and got kicked out. Then we got this one dude on our team, who played but did not pay--that pissed me off!!!--and took all the ice time--he was friends with the captain, was caught targeted young girls on the internet. I left the team before he was arrested, but it was a big story on local news, they tracked him down in Texas and dragged him back to NY in chains and is probably still rotting away in jail.

So I don't think I can handle the drama anymore of being in a league, but I admit I still think about doing it.

[Stoner]

20 hours ago, Pimlach said:

Very old thread. 

 

Did @PASabreFan ever learn to skate and master the hockey stop (both directions)?  Is he now a men's league enforcer down in Erie, Pa?  

Skate yes. Stop no. It was fun and I really want to get back into skating. It's great exercise.

I can say I played hockey. I even scored a goal. But where I live it was never going to work. The Never Ever League would have been/would be perfect.

20 hours ago, Pimlach said:

Very old thread. 

 

Did @PASabreFan ever learn to skate and master the hockey stop (both directions)?  Is he now a men's league enforcer down in Erie, Pa?  

Skate yes. Stop no. It was fun and I really want to get back into skating. It's great exercise.

I can say I played hockey. I even scored a goal. But where I live it was never going to work. The Never Ever League would have been/would be perfect.

[Pimlach]

On 9/7/2020 at 7:36 PM, PromoTheRobot said:

I had two Conformis knees installed. They call it a total knee replacement but really it's only the cartilage surfaces get ground down and covered with a 3D-printed prosthetic, plus a plastic meniscus.  The rest of the knee is intact: patella, ligaments, etc. You can be walking pretty quickly but doing anything stressful might take a year for things to feel right. One knee is 15 months and the other is 9. The 9-month knee still gets twinges if I make a false move.

Obviously I can't take a shot off the knee but my shin guards protect me well. Goaltending is out of the question with the up-and-down. Covid has reduced the number of leagues around here. Most are C/D level. Still too much for me to risk. I did find one novice/beginner league near Boston, about 45 minutes drive from me. Still deciding.

This is very interesting.  I just had my second full knee replacement in January 2024 (the first knee was in Jan 2018).  It was almost 100% bone on bone.  I was surviving on gel shots for the past two years.  The recovery has been good.  I was putting weight on it immediately and walking without help of a walker or a cane in about 2 weeks.   I golfed 18 holes after the 8th week of PT.  I still do some PT on it at home, lots of stretching (bending and straightening of leg to get range of motion), plus working all the leg muscles with weight training.  

Never heard of Conformis and I doubt I was a candidate.  I have the full replacement, they kept the original patella and all  the ACL, MCL, stuff.  

No more hockey for me.  Too risky.   

I could hockey skate ever since I was kid.  Was pretty good too, for learning on my own, no money to take lessons or go to hockey camps.   Learned on ponds and local rinks and from playing (coaches and other players taught me the techniques and drills).  

Not gonna risk these knees playing hockey which is a shame because I am in good physical shape to play non check men's league hockey.    

[ska-T Palmtown]

23 hours ago, bob_sauve28 said:

Yup, living in WHY and if I could probably play five days a week if I wanted to. Did that during 2008, would just play really hard, go home, relax, drink beer, wake up relax, go play hockey, rise, repeat. The good old days!

 

You got me thinking about playing in the leagues. Boy was that an experience. Did ice hockey  from 2006 to 2018 before that I used to play floor hockey at Milsher, out on Mineral Springs and at UB. Fun. By the end the Good, Bad and Ugly of playing in the league had really turned towards the ugly. But before that it had been a lot of fun.

I spared everyone full quote 🙂

The Bad around here is league parity. B-Leagues and above in and around Chicago are dominated by ex-Div 1 college players or higher. Fine, you can have your B-Leagues and your Elite A's (usually featuring several ECHL alum and sprinkling of former-AHL guys). The bad comes in when the "older" (like, late 20's) guys from that league don't want to have to skate as hard as they need to in order to keep up with the fresh crop of 23 yr olds and they drop down to C.

We are not talking 4-yr starters at a major program, but 28 year old NCAA D1 guys who played a year or two at decent programs are now out there skating around with true beer leaguers and potting 6 goals in the first period before they have to leave because everyone wants to fight. 6'-3" D-men taking 80+ mph clappers from the blue line and laughing as they skate up to you to see if your leg is still attached after you accidentally blocked it. Total D-bags. Other than that - holy crap do I love playing!!