Hockey Lives! at World Pond Hockey Championships

[KurtNYC]

It was about beer caps, not salary caps. There were no referees, no face-offs, no helmets, no boards, no goalies, no painted lines, no heated dressing rooms for spoiled players and no seats for cashgouged fans. For anyone sick of NHL noodling, last weekend's nofrills, big-chills, all-thrills World Pond Hockey Championships was just the thing to set the sport straight.
...
"If the puck winds up in a snowbank, the first player to dig it out gets to go with it," explains Trapper captain Dave Smrta, adding that a volunteer holding a bucket of pucks was on hand to award goals for penalties. "It's really about a good time, the camaraderie is what's so great."
...
Not surprisingly, after playing with snow stinging their faces, frozen toes and a seven-hour road trip home, these guys are fed up with pro-league season shenanigans. "It's too bad, I mean, when it comes down to it, it's a sport," Smrta muses. "I know a bunch of guys who'd gladly replace any of those players for one-10th of the price." But the upside is that the pond hockey championships got more attention, Tanguay notes. "The competition is getting stronger. It really is becoming a world-class event."

http://www.montrealmirror.com/2005/022405/news2.html

[underpants]

1. I just hope they don't get swept up by Atlanta's pitch to host next year

:bounce: