The Ugly Side of Hockey

Bison 0 Sheffield Steeldogs 3

23/2/13

This was Tosh Redmond’s 600^th game for Basingstoke. How sad that his special occasion should be marked by a game of this type. Memorable yes, but for the wrong reasons. The Steeldogs won the game with their usual brand of pantomime villainy, dirty tactics and verbal and physical provocation. I would challenge any neutral to admire what we saw from the Dogs last night. The people I admire are the genuine hockey loving Dogs’ fans for putting up with this sort of stuff. Presumably they have to watch it week in week out because the Dogs don’t seem to be able to win any other way. 

There was an explosive start to the game. Nicky Watt called out the unsavoury Craig Elliott as soon as the puck was dropped in retaliation for a jump on Cesky which Elliott had made in the last Bison v Dogs game, according to Watty. Now…..Craig Elliott. This is the man who has "previous", not only with Bison, but with other teams as well. This is the man who plays as a forward and has scored 1 goal and 4 assists in 44 games this season. His stats for last season were about the same. There are no prizes for guessing why he is in the team. Anyway back to last night. Off came the gloves, off came the helmets. As they squared up Elliott looked decidedly uncomfortable as if he knew it was a case of impending doom. They came together and Elliott managed to drag Watty to the ice to make the officials step in. When they were all back on their feet Watty called Elliott out again. Eventually the officials stood aside. Back into the clinch they went, but not for long as Watty landed a peach of a punch to Elliott’s jaw and down he went into the turtle position with his hands over his head. Knock out win I would say. As he got up Elliott had his hand clamped to his aching jaw and looked relieved it was all over. Some may criticise Watty for being a hothead, but the guy stands up for his team mates and in this case doled out a well deserved punishment to an odious individual who brings nothing but bad feeling, obnoxious behaviour and unpleasantness to the hockey table. The sooner players (and I use the term advisedly because I can’t see any genuine hockey talent there) like him are marginalised and drummed out of the game the better. Alas that is but a pipe dream – it will never happen. 

Anyway back to the game. Sheffield opened the scoring with a power play goal after 6 minutes. A scramble in front of goal and Edgars Bebris netted with an assist to player/coach André Payette. Payette? I haven’t mentioned him yet. Ready for another Hockeybloke rant? Perhaps not. I’ll spare you that. You can make up your own mind about him. What I would say is that he is everyone’s favourite pantomime villain. However, on a scary scale of 1 to 10 with Captain Hook at one end and Widow Twankie at the other, Payette would be off the scale……..but not at the Captain Hook end. The Man with 3 Ear Rings described him very appropriately as a big wrecking ball.

The next major controversial incident in the game came close to the end of the period when Elliott (yes him again) sniped at Jaroslav Cesky and was cross checked back. This resulted in a bit of “roughing”. Suddenly in steamed Ashley Calvert, shoved Cesky to the ice and hammered away at him. It was a classic case of “third man in”. Cesky got a game penalty and Calvert a match  penalty, which seemed very harsh on, Jaro, who picked up his for “resisting the officials”. When one is assaulted in such a fashion what is one supposed to do? Grin and bear it like Greg “Chubbs” Chambers did last week against Adam Greener (see the Bison v Jets report). Not everyone can exercise that degree of self control and obviously Jaro, who seems to be targeted game after game, could not and he became the first victim of Dogs tactics on the night.

The Dogs went 2-0 ahead a minute later when Bebris and Bell set up Kohron, who 5-holed Stonewall Stevie Lyle. Enough said.

The man in the Charlestown Chiefs shirt accosted Andy Payette during the interval and told him to his face that he was “one hell of a mean bastard”. Yes I actually did. Fortunately Mr Payette took this as a compliment and there was no need for the Chiefs man to pay a visit to A & E.

On 32 minutes the Dogs grabbed a 3-0 lead. A big turnover around the blue line saw the puck shoot straight to Payette in front of the crease with Lloyd Gibson in support. It was a 2 on 0 and Lyle had no chance as Payette squared to Gibson to fire in a snapshot.

Trouble erupted again at the start of the 3^rd. Before the puck had been dropped Payette was seen barging into Joe Miller and mouthing off in typical style. Shortly after Payette was dumped to the ice with a high stick to the face. Our Widow Twankie then hammed it up in Oscar winning style and got what he wanted – a match penalty for Joe, possibly later commuted to a game penalty as Payette was OK to continue (surprised?). Blood has been spilled! Some wondered whether it was a blood capsule. Remember the “Bloodgate” scandal in rugby? To avoid the risk of getting sued for slander by Mr. Payette, I couldn’t possibly support this opinion of course. Was it a frame up? It certainly looked like a classic stitch up.

Back to the “hockey”. Could Bison find a spark from somewhere to drag them back into contention? Yes they could. On 41 minutes Coach Sheppard found himself in on goal. He rifled in a shot. On went the goal light. 1-3 surely? No. The puck came straight out and the officials didn’t give the goal. Most of us, including the goal judge, were convinced it had gone in. Some said it hit the back stanchion and came out. The officials thought it had hit the goal frame, but there was no characteristic “PING!” sound. One close observer said it was a brilliant save by the goaltender. Video highlights later showed that the puck had indeed hit the post. Good call by the officials. 3 minutes later Andrew Hirst became the second Dogs player to be chucked out of the game with a match penalty for a hit to the head on Shep.

That was it really. The game fizzled out from a Bison perspective, as spectators started streaming away halfway through the 3^rd. Despite having 11 power play opportunities they could not capitalise on one, just like on Wednesday when the same number against Slough also failed to bear fruit. There was no lack of effort from the team, but nothing seemed to click. To add to Bison’s injury woes, Alex Symonds left the game in the second and Nicky “You What?” Watt finished the game in considerable discomfort and was later seen hobbling around. The list grows game by game. Back to Sheffield went the Dogs with their 2 points, deserved on the balance of play, but hardly won in a fair and sportsmanlike manner, but then hockey always has had its ugly side.