Locked Out Nhl Players Skate In The Beer Leagues
The most recent entry of an NHLer playing adult recreationalhockey is Benoit Hogue, having fun in the beer-league in LongIsland. He joins others including; Matt Cooke, Joey Kocur andCliff Ronning, who are also featured in this ever expandingarticle.

NHL players are all locked out. They are not allowed to play orsign for any NHL team. They are, however, free to play for anyother team in any other league that they choose. Some have goneto Europe and Russia, some will play in the minors, but manyaren’t playing anywhere. Or are they?

As Tom Cochrane once crooned “My boy’s gonna play in the BeerLeague.”

Benoit Hogue Benoit Hogue, a former New York Islander whose nameappears on the Stanley Cup, is just one of the boys. After 15years in the NHL Benoit is now playing for the fun of it.

As reported in the Long Island Press, Benoit Hogue, 38, hasjoined with his friends on three different teams. One of themthe Rinx Ratz of the no-hitting Midnight Hockey League. “I havea good time. I love to get on the ice. I love to play, ” he says.

By all reports he’s a class act on the ice, using his skill tomake the others around him better, rather than taking over thegame for himself.

Matt Cooke In February of 2005, Matt Cooke played for the AdtekRockets out of Burnaby 8 -Rinks in British Columbia. No pointsin a 5-2 loss but he did manage to get a body checking penalty.Called in as a spare to give the Adtek Rockets 12 skaters on thenight, Matt Cooke was playing in a Div 3 game out in Burnaby,BC, Canada.

But as usual the stats only tell half the story. Apparently thedifference in quality of hockey between him and the balance ofthe players was very noticebale, and as for his bodycheck, well,let’s just say that when you are an NHLer playing the beerleagues, theres always one in the crowd that tries to provethemself against you.

Most people would say the open-ice hit was justified.

Joey Kocur This 2004/05 lockout isn’t the first one where NHLplayers ended up playing in the Beer-Leagues. The Al Dittrichrecreational hockey team out of Pontiac, Michigan added JoeyKocur to their line-up during the NHL lockout in ‘92.

Later that season he joined another Detroit team, the Red Wings.Two years later he returned to the Al Dittrich dressing room andbrought with him a token of appreciation - The Stanley Cup.

This isn’t the only time an NHL’er has joined the beer leaguesto keep in shape. Its just one of the rare instances that it hasmade the press.

Cliff Ronning Another instance of note comes from Cliff Ronning.”I was skating with beer-league players — guys who play thegame for the love of it,” he says. “I was paying $10 a night togo and skate — it shows how much I still wanted to play.Playing with guys who were 40 and 50 and never got the chance toplay in the NHL was a fun experience. You get back to whathockey really is, where you’re playing for the love of thegame.” The 38-year-old Ronning, signed with the Islanders Jan 9,2004 as a free agent after sitting out the first half of theseason… playing beer league hockey.

Cliff was also seen playing pick-up hockey in Vancouver lately(February 2005) as a goalie. The impression he gave was, as aformer professional he didn’t want to take over the game, so hechose to play goal where he could let his competitive natureflourish.

About the author:Glen Trainor Communications Major, Online Publisher, and AdultHockey Enthusiast. http://www.beerleaguehockey.com

adtek apparently beer league benoit hogue burnaby 8 rinks burnaby bc canada half the story joey kocur nhl players one in the crowd open ice rinx thegame tom cochraneadtek apparently beer league benoit hogue burnaby 8 rinks burnaby bc canada half the story joey kocur nhl players one in the crowd open ice rinx thegame tom cochrane

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