February 7th and we are only a week away from Valentines Day. So much love in the air, chocolates and flowers being ordered, and of course, the love is being spread in the Junior Hockey world as well.
Speaking of love being spread, how about the players who are living with the coach as a billet. Great stuff having your coach there and being able to talk systems and things after practice and the games. It is really great though when the coach walks in on you banging his wife! Yep, definitely not seeing any PP time because the wife saw enough of your PP all season.
Its not junior hockey when your team that has been taking a coach bus all year suddenly has to start driving to games in their own vehicles. That is until you find out your bus driver is in jail for drunk driving.
Its not junior hockey when you just lost your 35th game by a score of 15 to 0 and people keep saying that there is a goaltending problem. But you are out shot 82 to 17. Yep, goaltending is an issue. Or maybe coaching, recruiting, and developing players is an issue and a team shouldn’t be on the ice that is such a disaster? Nah, lets blame it on goaltending.
Its not junior hockey when your goal differential looks more like the United States national debt with numbers like -210, -165, -123, -113, -151, -169, -203, and so on. And some of these teams have been around for years, consistently putting up these kind of embarrassing numbers. WTF are people doing even signing with these programs? Oh yeah and I am not talking about just one league, and there could be a lot more sets of negative numbers on that list.
Its not junior hockey when you are on the road, and the team pre game meal is being cooked in microwaves in the motel lobby. When you find out its cup of soup and process cheese slice sandwiches, you come to understand there might just be some financial issues with the team.
Its not junior hockey when its February and your billet parents tell you that unless the billet for the last three months is paid next week you are going to have to leave. Then you find out the team has been collecting billet money and not paying any of the billet families for the last three months, and everyone got the same message on the same day. Yep, might be an accounting issue.
Its not junior hockey when your team is on its third head coach this season, and the owner keeps saying there is a problem with coaching. Yep, might want to look at the guy who keeps hiring the coaches.
Finally its not junior hockey when you get home from a road trip and find your car has been impounded by the police after being found illegally parked by your billet sister and her friends while out boozing with the guys who were “injured” and stayed home. Yep, they tried to get it out of impound but since they didn’t own the car they couldn’t and now your parents have to make a trip to see you because the car is in your fathers name. Oh, and they are from Western Canada and you are on the East Coast. Yep, that’s going to be an interesting conversation with Dad.
