Hockey Coach in a Pickle
THUNDER BAY, ON — Chaos erupted at a Thunder Bay rink yesterday as Minor Novice hockey coach Randy Bouchard, 42, was escorted off the bench for loudly demanding that referees “let my kids fall like men” after catching them helping his players get back on their skates. Witnesses say Bouchard became visibly agitated as officials attempted to stabilize his team’s more wobbly players.
“This is hockey, not ballet class,” said Bouchard, now facing a possible two-game suspension. “If my players need to go down to the ice eight, nine, even ten times a game, that’s their journey. It’s my job to help them wobble back up. Not the refs’. They don’t need an official in their faces every time they do a face plant.”
The referees, who said they were just following league guidelines to assist young skaters, described the outburst as “regrettable.” Head ref Kyle Maddox, 28, tried to calm Bouchard by suggesting he “take a little breather,” a suggestion that only led the coach to pull down his team’s strategy whiteboard and yell, “You think Wayne Gretzky had people propping him up?”
Meanwhile, the audience was split on the incident. While most parents shuffled awkwardly, longtime spectator Doug Fields, 53, who openly admitted he doesn’t have a kid on the team, was unfazed. “That Randy guy’s got a point,” he told reporters. “I’m here for some raw, unfiltered hockey. Not a synchronized skating routine.”
As the final buzzer sounded, Coach Bouchard was still stewing in the lobby, promising he’d “be back next week” and demanding “ref interference” penalties be added to the league rulebook.