I remember my first time going to play on the reserve. Wasn't as a youngster, I was early twenties, my team played in the Calgary Industrial Summer league or something. I think it was a tournament. When we played the host team, I remember in the locker room beforehand all the other players sharing horror stories.
Eg "Our whole team got beat up after the game, and that was by fans outside" excetera.
Didn't build the confidence.
We lost 3-1, I scored our only goal and got laid out about 5 seconds after scoring. The only real incident on ice was a scuffle my line was involved with. Typical on ice pushing glove punches, and then my centre said,
"F you Hiawatha"
That wasn't recieved well.
The players were very nice after the game, seemed like great guys after. Is it because they won? Maybe. Our team (all white guys) had some real jerks on it, and I know what some other teams thought of us.
Anyway, the only crazy thing was these ladies who lined up behind our bench. They yelled all sorts of stuff, and kept trying to reach over and hit us. I dont think any of us sat on the bench the whole game because if you sat down they could reach you. We leaned forward over the boards.
I think to a man, we were all content with losing that game.
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