Fast Tube by Casper

We see it time and time again on the ice, poor sportsmanship after giving up a goal. This time it proved to be costly for Florida Panther’s goaltender Thomas Vokoun. Panthers defenseman Keith Ballard pulled the dumbest stunt yet this season while attempting break his stick over the crossbar after Atlanta’s goal midway into the first period, struck his own goaltender in the head.

Vokoun suffered an ear laceration and was alert when taken off the ice on a stretcher. Although there is not a rule of high sticking your own player in the NHL, the Florida Panthers management needs to address this with either a fine or a suspension with out pay to Keith Ballard. This type of behavior should not be tolerated at any level of hockey period. Ballard is lucky that all Vokoun suffered was an ear laceration, this could of been a hell of  a lot worse. GROW UP.

Florida GM Randy Sexton said. ”There was no internal ear damage, just a laceration. They stitched him up, took a CAT scan and there’s no additional injuries.”

For all the youth players out there; I watch you kids do similar acts of banging sticks against the boards, over the net or on the ice and you look stupid. Parents pay a whole lot of money for hockey, never mind the $200.00 sticks you “have to have” and by breaking them in an act of frustration or poor sportsmanship is a total disrespect to your parents, teammates and coaches. Everyone makes mistakes on the ice, deal with it and move on. Unlike the NHL, there are penalties that go along with your broken stick and usually you will sit for a unsportsmanlike or a misconduct. Acting like a fool after a mistake doesn’t take it back, it only makes it worse. Play safe and stay positive.

Stick to Hockey takes a look at College Club hockey

In this series, we want to recognize the smaller colleges across America. If you or someone you know would like to brag about your hockey club, send it to us here and we will be glad to introduce your school to our readers. Today’s article comes from Steven Daly Jr. who plays for The  Methodist Monarchs, a school that is known for their golf team finds time to play hockey as well.

Here at Methodist University in Fayetteville, NC we are just a bunch of golfers who like to play hockey. We practice weekly and once season starts we have games roughly once a week. 

Being that we are in the south it is difficult to always get games but we manage. Fort Bragg is a large military base in Fayetteville who has their own hockey team so we play them at our home rink in Fayetteville called the Crowne Arena.  We also play small colleges in the area like Fayetteville Tech, North Carolina Community College, and Pinehurst Technical Institute.

The USA Southern Club Conference is a great way for us to set up games even though it is a very small conference. I must admit it is difficult to step on the ice with confidence when you know you are playing guys who just returned from Iraq but playing other schools makes it a little easier.  These military guys are super nice guys off the ice but on the ice they are very strong and have great endurance so it makes for a great game.  Although we have just begun skating this past week we already look promising.  We have a few new freshmen who will be a good addition to the team as well as a few keys returners who will help as well.  We are excited to start playing games even though we aren’t in the most ideal condition yet.  We will continue to practice once a week until second semester when we begin practicing twice a week with one game a week also.

Teams on our schedule this season include:  Fay. Tech Eagles, NCCC Warriors, PTI Panthers, Fort Bragg Dragons