Go %*#@ yourself

Macomb (AP) - Team Guinness skated away from Saturday night with a tough fought 4-1 virctory over the Lugnuts, but that did not spoil at least one gem from Nick Buckler who is earning his chops as team "heel".

Tom Gorzelski scored the game winner and backup goalie Jake Gorzelski stopped 23 in route to a win Saturday night.  Alex Barile, Nick Buckler, and Lance Miller also scored, but none of this was the highlight of the night.  No, that would all take a backseat to the shenanigans that ensued midway into the first period.

After going on the penalty kill, Team Guinness needed to reduce the players on the ice and Nick Buckler took it upon himself to skate back to the bench.  The referee at the circle dropped the puck to resume play, but Nick had not made it all the way to the bench yet and wouldn't you know it, the fucking puck made a "b line" straight to Nick and hit his skates and as a result the second referee whistled for a minor penalty for too many men.

"In 10 years of playing, I have never seen this happen", Captain Scott Jakey said, "it is such a rare occurance that the play would end up like it did, and for Nick to react like he did, took everyone by surprise as he is usually so soft spoken on the ice."

What happened was the referee motioned Nick to the box, and Nick said "No".  The entire Team Guinness bench said no, the fans in the stand said, "No".  Players from the game prior (who were watching) said, "No".  Mickey Redmond poked his head into the arena and said "Hell No", the zamboni driver who wasn't even in the building anymore said "He wasn't sure".  Basically EVERYONE else saw it the same way and said "No".  But... the referee that called it saw things differently before conferring with his partner Tomaszewski, and before the call was reversed (a fucking first by the way, I have NEVER seen a call get reversed once it was made on the ice), but whatever.  Before the conference between both referees the ref made a comment to Nick and Nick told him in so many words to... (refer to the headline).

This prompted the referees to request tea and crumpets with team captain Scott Jakey in front of the scorer's box at center ice.  After a rousing verbal exchange, everything was just grand and the weekly cricket match was back in full swing.

So bottom line, I get it.  It was a bad call, they made the switch, the ref took offense to the fact Nick told him to %*&# himself, but this is hockey, and to make matters worse, it's beer league hockey, oh and BTW it was a late game, the last of the night, and the league was running behind, so it was really late.  Am I making an excuse for what happened, not really, I actually understand the referee's POV, but come on, does skin grow that thin these days?