Sport: Punks who can dish it but can't take it

I love the rough stuff....grinding hard along the boards, causing traffic in front of the goalie, killer hits; it's very rare that I come home from a hockey game without something bloodied or bruised.

I think it stems from growing up in a 'neighbourhood' (really just a country road with a couple of houses on it) where most of the kids were a few years older than I. It was either play outside with them, or sit inside all day. Add to this that I was a big kid growing up, I was the same size as a couple of the other boys who were 5 years older, and they didn't treat you any different, a tackle was a tackle, live with it, take the pounding, and get up and do it again. It was fun, toughened you up, and made me the goon I am today...lol.

Growing up, I'd fatten up, then hit a growth spurt, then fatten up, then another growth spurt, but they day I fattened up and didn't get that growth spurt, was the day I realized how I could use my size to excel at hockey and football. My stats changed from about 50 pts a year and maybe 20 mins in penalties, to 12 pts a year and roughly 300 mins in penalties, and I loved it. It was fun, even when I was skating off the ice with a face full of blood from a busted nose, there'd still be a smile under there. I was never a dirty player, just an effective enforcer.

Now that I play non-contact leagues, I have lost some of that, and although I have to deal with the body penalties I get for people falling when we collide, for the most part the only thing I have left that I can do is stand in front of the net, screen the goalie, tip pucks, grab garbage rebounds, and push and shove with the defencemen who try and fail to move me.

And if you try, and you can't, and you resort to two-handed slashes to the back of my knees, expect an answer. If it wasn't for the $50 fine you get for fighting in this league, there would have been quite the tilt. Instead, there was everything short of dropping the gloves, and although there was a triumphant slam of the sin bin door, deep down, it was fun, I loved it.