Since the beginning of the season is upon us (and for some teams it has
already arrived), this is a good time to ask people to please hold back the
urge to throw things on the ice - and please encourage others around you
not to do it either.  It's dangerous and in many cases it can be
detrimental to your team.  I don't think we need to rehash all of the cases
where things have been thrown on the ice, but this specific point needs to
be made.
 
The question was asked about the East, so I'll add that Hockey East
officials have been very strict about the rule (no throwing things on the
ice).  One of the things I have railed against is the occasional tossing of
tennis balls on the ice by some Merrimack fans.  Several times over the
last couple of years, this has occurred and resulted in delay of game
penalties for Merrimack - four in one game against BU two years ago, a one
goal loss.  It's hard to imagine that the fans didn't get the hint after
the first penalty, but they didn't - nor when players went over and
demonstrated their disgust with the way the fans were hurting the team by
throwing tennis balls after each Merrimack goal.  Fortunately that incident
hasn't been repeated often.
 
The only situation where I condone throwing something on the ice deals with
the fish tradition at UNH - for those who don't know, a fish gets tossed
out there after the first UNH goal.  Only one, by a specially designated
fish tosser who was located behind the benches at Lively Snively, and the
rink crew is ready and quickly removes it with no delay to the game.  No
one seems to mind, although a then-assistant coach for Yale may have taken
exception about six years ago when the fish tosser slipped and wound up
dropping the huge fish on the coach's head.  Whoops.
 
The UNH folks have a wonderful sense of humor, too.  Back about 7 years ago
when I was a manager for Northeastern, we went to load the bus after a game
at Snively to find that the fish had been deposited in the cargo
compartment underneath the bus where the gear goes.  It was funny, but boy
did it smell.  All the way home.  Coldest bus ride I have been on...it was
the middle of a chilling winter and we had to leave the windows open just
to breathe...
 
(something tells me I should not have relayed that story, given that we go
to UNH on Nov 17 and March 2...oh heck, I don't ride the bus up there
anymore.)
 
---                                                                   ---
Mike Machnik                   [log in to unmask]            *HMM* 11/13/93
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