homer’s heroes took down the red menace on sunday night by a score of 8-4 bringing us to 5-5-0-0 on the season.

i want to say it was a great, fun time, but, frankly it was not.

the game was rough from the start — which, honestly, is fine.by.me. as long as the game is called fairly. and, certainly NOT to my credit, i blew my stack at the refs in third period.

one of our guys — danny — is pretty dang fast, has amazing stick skills and a great finishing ability. he tends to get rocked every game we play — partly because other teams have no other way of stopping him and partly because he’s a damn hot dog. after three or four “non calls” in the first period, danny was again whacked in the offensive zone. he certainly took some retribution license on that and was assessed two minutes. slamming the penalty box door got him another ten. and so begins my witty report with the refs.

fast forward to the third period… danny is on a semi-break to the net, moving fast, with an opposing player behind him. the opposing player jumps up, wraps his arms around danny and tackles him head first into the goalpost. the opposing player got two minutes. begin.bitching. i’m yelling up and down about “intent to injure”. i’m still yelling when i get to the faceoff circle and the ref tries to toss me from the faceoff. i tell the guy that i’m the home team and i get to put my stick down last — which does NOT go over well. he tosses me and i can’t keep my mouth shut using some choice words that my mother would not be happy about.

now i’m in the box. i’m not sure for exactly what or for how long, but i’m there nonetheless.

i ask the other ref what the penalty is for and how long it is. he, in turn, does not give me that information and uses similar “non mom” choice words to indicate that.

i ask about the penalty assessed on the “intent to injure” play. i indicate that some people need to go to work the next day and that i think the call was bs. he, in turn, uses choice words.

then i turn to my bench and indicate that i must not have brought enough money this week.

which gets me tossed.

whatever.

we pay over $8000 a SEASON to the rink for these games. the refs make upwards of $65 a GAME. i have been in a bad mood plenty of times, but if they don’t love the game and they are not able to explain themselves… i have no tolerance for that. this is, effectively, beer league. this is not my job. (as much as i would like it to be!) letting a game get out of control is both senseless and dangerous.

anyway. we won. woo.