Rockford Register Star writer Mike DeDonker wrote an good story about the IceHogs' penalty box attendents that you can read here .
It also reminded me of one I ran a few years ago about odd things that have happened in the penalty box.
What goes on after a penalty?
A stay in the Sin Bin
Players react differently to a visit to the penalty box
Date: Wednesday, February 16, 2000
``It's all bad. You do that, you go to the box, you know. Two minutes by
yourself and you feel shame, you know. And then you get free.''
- ``Slapshot'' goaltender Denny Lemieux on serving a penalty.
About 75 percent of the time when a player gets sent to the penalty box, he
sits there stewing because he's blaming someone else - either the referee who
missed the first infraction or an opposing player who may have faked an injury
to get the call. The other 25 percent of the time the penalized player is
begging God to grant him redemption.
``I just sit there praying that the other team doesn't score, because I
feel like it's all my fault then,'' Komets rookie defenseman Dan Ronan said.
``I usually end up standing up chanting, `Please don't score.' ''
National Hockey League rules say the penalty ``bench'' must be capable of
seating 10 people, but it doesn't give size requirements. It also says the
area must be protected by glass at least 5 feet higher than the height of the
boards.
There's nothing there about it being a box, but that's how the players
always refer to the ``Sin Bin.'' There are only a few times when a player
actually wants to be sent to the penalty box.
``A five-minute major for fighting is not necessarily punishment, but it is
for recuperation,'' Komets defenseman Milt Mastad said. ``Usually if two guys
have a really good fight you could just let them go back to the bench, but
they wouldn't want to. They need that five minutes to get some oxygen.''
Komets assistant coach Bruce Ramsay, the United Hockey League's all-time
penalty minute king, said he'll then ask the penalty box attendant how he did
during the fight.
``Because I've spent quite a bit of time in the box my whole career, I
pretty much know all the guys in whatever league,'' Ramsay said. ``We'll talk
about the league, different players and then they'll give me their opinion on
the fight.''
Ramsay is so well-known that earlier this year when he was recalled to
Michigan, he was serving a penalty when the attendant asked him about his
off-season passion, which is fishing.
Longtime former Komet Roger Maisonneuve has worked in the home penalty box
at Memorial Coliseum for eight years. He's a little hard of hearing, but he
still likes to talk. Defenseman Dave Lemay, who is licensed to teach languages
in Canada, practices his French with Maisonneuve.
It's rare, but sometimes opponents will talk back and forth across the
area, though within the last 10 years more Plexiglass was put up to keep the
players separate.
Ramsay remembers a fight in Thunder Bay when he and teammate Brian Wells
tore apart the penalty box to continue a fight with another duo.
Mastad said he's never fought in the penalty box, but he has a different
perspective.
``I sit there every time watching the clock come down, thinking, `Maybe
I'll get a breakaway out of this,' '' he said with a laugh. ``I know it's
pretty much the only chance I'm ever going to get for a breakaway.''
During his junior days playing for Moose Jaw, the lumbering defenseman came
out of the box one time to receive a pass and start a breakaway. With the two
defensemen chasing him, Mastad lost control of the puck and ended up crashing
into the goaltender and taking the goal with him. That's also the last time he
got a breakaway.
``But every time I sit in the box, that's what I hope for,'' he said.
Komets defenseman Dennis Pinfold had some . . . well, different hopes about
sitting in the penalty box. While playing with Birmingham in the East Coast
Hockey League a few years ago, he would sometimes get sent to the box during
games at Louisiana.
``They had a girl in the penalty box wearing this tight, little referee's
shirt and she had this big wooden paddle,'' Pinfold said. ``I liked spending
time in that penalty box.''
According to Icegators public relations director Daryl Cetnar, the club had
a promotion with Hooters, and the girls were called, rightly so, Miss Conduct.
