There's this guy that plays with me once a week for pickup.
He's no more than 5'3", and, you guessed it, is a loudmouth all-star on the ice (gotta love those guys with "short man syndrome"...)
Anyway, he's got some skills, no doubt about it. Probably the best guy out there. (skating-wise anyway)
BUT, what he'll do is hang back in the opposing teams zone ALL game and wait for the pass, which usually ends up as a breakaway. He'll circle around yelling for someone to pass him the puck, and when they don't, or the pass gets intercepted, he'll swear very loudly or tell them to "come on!". He gets really irritable if someone doesn't get the puck to him.
Plus he'll yell at the guys who come out to play who are on the "lacking skills" side of things, like he expects everyone to be as good as him.
He doesn't have a hard shot, he's predictable when it comes to his moves, and I usually stop him. But when he gets one past me, he'll make no secret of how good of a move he thinks he just pulled off.
I have to admit (sheepishly), that this past Sunday I was in no mood for his ****. Whenever he'd come in on one of his patented Pavel Bure "hang at the blue line for the outlet pass" breakaways, I'd lay up and just let him score. On two seperate occasions I actually stood up in my crease and moved out of the way.
In retrospect, I'm sure I looked like a downright jackass for pulling that, but you know what? We're all here for fun, including all the guys on his own team, and if I can somehow ruin a little bit of the "fun" of his style of play, then I couldn't pass up the opportunity.
I know, I'm a baby, but hey, it kind of ****ed up his afternoon and he didn't seem to be having as much fun as he usually did, making everyone look like *******s. I mean he spent an hour basically just sitting on our side of the rink waiting for the puck to come to HIM, then skating in on a virtually empty net. And he paid $12 to do it. Hopefully he'll re-think his lack of involvement in the game from now on.
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