Hanky Panky in Hockey

Back in the mid 80’s, things were different. Mind you, I’m not condoning this type of behaviour but the hockey culture really hasn’t changed much. Kit Kat restaurant in Toronto was one of the premier restaurant that attracted many hockey players. At that time, I was dealing with the assistant equipment manager of Toronto Maple Leafs and he invited me to Kit Kat. The first words that came out of these hockey players were “Who is this guy?” The equipment manager responded “He’s cool. He’s one of us.” What it meant was that I was the type of guy that can keep his mouth shut. After an hour, a couple of strippers came by, and they were all over the pro hockey players. Of course money was no object. These hockey players were fueled by alcohol and a night out. Again, I like to reiterate that this type of behaviour should not be condoned especially if you are working for a corporate organization.

When I was an assistant coach for a hockey team, we traveled to Buffalo for a hockey tournament. I was against these travel tournaments because not only were they frivolous, they simply never materialized in improving the kids hockey skills. Often the Coach would call me four days in advance that we have a hockey tournament in Buffalo or Michigan. The reason being he was having some hanky panky with one of the mothers on our team. I persuaded one of the parents to ask for the financial statements of our hockey team, I was standing right beside the parent smiling and laughing at the coach. Unfortunately thats when the coach attacked me and we got into a good fist fight. The Coach waisted my time when I could have been repairing hockey equipment and making money. I knew my time was up as an assistant coach when he took the parents out to Ruth's Steakhouse without giving an invitation to the assistant coach. When you have parents fueled by alcohol, and the kids are asleep, the parents went out to play. Unfortunately things happen. And some times, parents wake up in the next morning regretting their social interactions the night before.

The corporate infrastructure has changed dramatically, but some times it spills into a very proactive progressive world we live in. One coach told me, he had to agree to put himself into a car trunk in order for her neighbours to not jump to a conclusion. In fact, the dog was in the back seat until the car was inside the garage. Another time I had a hockey store in Thornhill, and the owner of the arena called me up to come to his office. He showed me a video of one of my employees having some hanky panky at the restaurant inside the arena. I told the owner, I will immediately fire him. However, he said no because he was a great skate sharpener. He said he’ll fire the waitress. I gave him some poetic sensibility with this type of decision. You simply cannot fire the waitress without firing my skate sharpener. I stood my ground and it was swept under the rug. Like I said I do not condone this kind of behaviour but it definitely takes place.

Hockey is a traditional game. It is a cultural milieu that breeds a type of environment that in today’s world will not be tolerated even with alcohol, passion or opportunity. Indeed, there are consequences whereby a professional hockey player's revenues could be reduced to zero.