Flying Pucks
Ah, it's Friday, and just before the Hockey-L Happy Hour, let me relate a
couple of puck stories.
 
1) At Colgate on the  18th of January, during the game, someone deflected a
puck which went high toward the end of the rink where the radio announcers were
located.  The puck landed in the Colgate raio booth kind of gently.  One of the
radio announcers did a one-hand grab,juggling the puck a couple of times but
managing to have the puck firmly in hand, all without losing his poise on the
air.
 
2) I heard this second-hand:  Last year when Kent Manderville was playing for
Cornell, he had a habit of turning the face-shield up when he was on the bench.
 In one game, an errant puck flew up and hit him on the mouth.  He was taken
into the dressing room and received (I guess) 20 stiches.  His girlfriend and
her friends were sitting behind the team bench.  One of them asked the trainer
over the glass, how was Kent?  Was he all right?  Someone answered, yeah, he
was all right.  No, the girl said, we wanted to know if he could still smooch.
 
Lastly, speaking of low glass:  Most of the time I have no problem with the
height of the glass at rinks.  When I went to Union a month ago, I realized
that pucks could be dangerous to your health.  Not only does Union's Achilles
Rink have VERY low glass (I sat on the second row and I must admit worrying
about being hit by an errant puck), they also have a three-man EMT crew with
oxygen tank at ready to administer first aid to any injured spectator.  Now
that's efficiency!
 
Tom Tseng'87
Go Big Red!!