This rink has the worst open hockey culture out of any rink I've ever played at in the greater…read morePhiladelphia area; it boils down to a lack of organization, accountability, and severe tribalism. I've skated here three times, and every time, one player named Nick who seems to culturally lead the place, has ruined it.
The first time I skated here, Nick was verbally upset and would not stop complaining about the teams. First he was upset because we suggested playing full ice to get better exercise, and then he was upset and insulted me by saying I'm just there because I "want to score 40 goals" because I was skating on a team with a friend of mine who is a good player. To stop him from complaining, my friend and I switched teams and once the teams were lopsided in the favor of Nick's team, he was content and less yappy. He clearly made snap judgments about me and I assume felt threatened because before anyone was playing, I tried to organize a game, but since I suggested playing full ice and with the teams as they were at the time, he thought I was trying to make teams unfair. I just wanted to skate and get good exercise; the last thing I wanted to do was argue with a stranger who thought he had me pegged as a sandbagger.
Today I played again and things were even worse. Everyone there was on board with skating full ice, but right before we started playing, Nick started to complain. Again, had he any ability to conflict manage, he could have suggested why we play half ice and I'm sure we could have happily reached that conclusion. Instead, it became a tiresome verbal argument.
While playing, I bumped helmets during a board battle with a player on his team and Nick immediately started verbally harassing me. A play or two later he tried tripping me along the boards and I said nothing. Later during the game, a beginner player on his team flagrantly tripped me and Nick started screaming about me and yelling at me for "going too hard." I was indignant because I was just flipped by a trip from behind and I was being screamed at for it, so I challenged Nick and yelled back. All the meanwhile, the guy who runs open hockey was on the rink. He tried to break it up, but because he has a relationship with Nick and not me, he said nothing to challenge Nick on his regular antics. While yelling back and forth with Nick, we both said mean things, and it escalated to him taking off his gloves and repeatedly punching my cage as everyone else tried to break it up.
The game stopped then and we all decided to leave. In the locker room, Nick would not shut up and continued to talk bad about multiple people there while everyone was telling him to drop it. He then looked at me and screamed, "how do you know I do not have a gun or knife in my car?" The guy who runs the rink not only tolerated this, but said "weird transition, but would you guys want to play open hockey on Tuesday night?" To the credit of the guy who runs open hockey, he tries to make it fun for all and he seems like a really good person, but every effort is ruined by Nick, his tribalism, his immaturity, his rage, his anger, and his lack of an ability to compromise and work with other people.
It's a shame: I would love to play here because it's a nice rink and a good price and I love the Sunday 9:30 to 11:00 timeslot, but if there is a culture that doesn't police itself or hold people accountable for acting the way that its regulars do, I have no interest in returning to such a horrible environment. I called the rink to give them this feedback after the incident and was told I'd be called back in 10 minutes. Still nothing over two hours later.
