"Girls"

This is the first season we haven't played with or against women. The first rec team I joined played in the beginner division. We had about five women. All of the women on that team were effectively beginners. One decided to practice a slapshot against our teammate's face during the warm-ups for a playoff game. The victim (with whom I still play) skated past the blue-line towards center ice when the slapper ricocheted off his eye socket. Twenty stitches and 5% of his vision later, he wears a cage.

We moved up a division and didn't have any women on our team, but still played against several. Then we moved up another division and we only played against a handful. In this league (an intermediate or, if I'm being kind to myself, advanced-intermediate league) there were two women on one team, and maybe one more on another? That was when the division had ten or eleven teams. With new management taking over and some personnel shake-ups on various teams, this season the team with a pair of women moved down a division, leaving our league estrogen free.

Last summer, with still -- I think -- one woman playing for a team now in the lower division, another woman subbed in for one of the other teams, then for us for a game or two. I met her playing pick-up hockey one Friday night. She's a solid skater, handles the puck well, and plays pretty solid position. On the other hand, she's about 5'2" and not built heavy. Her skill set and size play well in a pick-up game, but playing competively with a bunch of men? We played our summer league with a short bench. A very short bench. I asked her to join us for a game or two. She showed off some skill -- definitely better than a bunch of the guys in our league -- and helped us out.

Turns out she plays NCAA Div-III hockey. This season she was an alternate captain for her team, did her part, leading the team in scoring, and made the all-conference team. The team won their division, and will play in the NCAA Div-III tournament that starts this coming weekend. So she's pretty good in a competitive, if not the top, women's league.

What does this all mean? Several of the guys on our team would've been stars if they were women (or underwent "gender reassignment" surgery . . .)

More thoughts:

Women in the culture? We'd likely have to cut down on the off-color humor in the dressing room or the parking lot. Most hockey-playing women probably don't mind, but the men do. Got to pretend there's a minimum level of decency (there isn't).

Women in the locker room? I've played with some that changed in the locker room, going all the way down to the birthday suit. Most came dressed in some form of underclothing that they could keep on. There was the "turn to face the wall" when changing bras. Not sure how effective that was. Yeah, it's not a full frontal shot of "the girls," but it's not like you don't see them. The men? Try to be a little more subtle when stripping down for the shower, but still took showers, leaving it up to the women not to get caught staring. Never saw a woman hop in the shower in a co-ed locker room. On the other hand, they don't sweat, right?

Playing against women? Our team is pretty agressive along the boards for a "non-checking" league. Any different when playing a woman? Got to say yes. Maybe we shouldn't be, but the chivilrous (chauvanistic?) part of me says to pull up rather than grinding the woman out on the boards. If you do take her out, you answer for it on the bench. Then, when a woman beats you, especially if it's by going through you, you never hear the end of it. Good times.