저번주 일요일. 국민생활 체육 협회장기배 결승전. bhs대 샐러리맨의 경기가 끝난 직후 싸움이 벌어졌습니다 아실분들은 다 아시리라 생각이 됩니다. 이에 대해 저의팀의 의견을 올리고자 합니다. 아시다 시피 저의팀 저빼고 전부 외국인으로 구성이 되어 있어서 영어로 작성이 되어 있으며 빠른시일내에 해석을 하여 올리도록 하겠습니다. 이 글은 어느 팀을 부정하는 글도 아님을 알려드리고 단지 저의 팀이 최근에 들어서 몇몇 사건으로 인하여 dirty 팀으로 오해 아닌 오해를 사고 있습니다 이해대한 해명 아닌 해명의 글이 될것입니다.

The Salarymen’s position on the incident of Sunday, May 27 and general comments about our reputation among the inline hockey community

Summary of Sunday, May 27:

As some of you may have heard, there was an incident involving the Salarymen and BHS after the final game of an inline hockey tournament.  I would like to write this letter to explain what happened.

With less than a minute left in the game, the Salarymen goalie was taken off the rink in favor of an extra attacker.  A BHS player had a breakaway and could have easily scored into the empty net.  But instead of shooting the puck in the net, he tossed the puck up with his stick and batted it over the net.  This is very unsportsmanlike conduct and shows a great disrespect to the opposing team.  For this reason, one of our players pushed the BHS player down after the game.  We realize that our player shouldn’t have done what he did.  He was wrong.  However, the reaction that followed from BHS was worse than the original crime.

After this incident, our player then skated off the rink.  He was followed by another player from BHS who tried to attack our player from behind.  Soon after, many other BHS players tried to attack our player.  The remaining Salarymen players tried to protect our player and it should be clear that nobody on our team attempted to fight.  We tried to stop the fight.  

A similar incident happened at the end of a playoff game involving the Salarymen and Liberty last year.  The incident was caused when one of our defensemen knocked down a Liberty attacker in front of the Salarymen goalie.  The entire Liberty bench entered the rink and attacked our player.  To emphasize, NONE of the Salarymen ever threw a punch during the fight.  

The Salarymen as a “dirty” team, an analysis:

The Salarymen have a reputation as being “dirty”.  Let us look at the truth of the matter.  

1.  During the game against BHS, the BHS goaltender slashed our forwards who were standing in front of the net.  Our goalie never slashes opposing players.  No penalty was called on the BHS goalie.  This is a very dirty and dangerous play.  Again, no penalty was called.

2.  At one time during the final BHS game, one of our players had a breakaway.  He was stopped when a BHS defender jumped up to crosscheck him from behind.  If the situation was reversed the opposing team would want to fight.  However, our player never complained and was awarded a penalty shot.

3.  The Salarymen have a reputation of swearing and complaining.  This is partially true and all the team members have been told to stop swearing.  However, most of the time, the player is swearing at himself or at a teammate and not at another player.  This is a language problem.  Korean teams as well swear and use bad words frequently against our team.


4.  Many of our players have played ice hockey and are used to body checking and physical play.  Sometimes this is evident in the games.  However, none of our players ever attempt to injure another player with a slash.  Stick penalties are far more dangerous but are more common to Korean-based teams.  The referees need to call tight games to ensure that the games don’t get out of hand.  Too often, the referees only call very obvious fouls and miss several incidents.  This results in a build up of bad feelings.

6.  There is no penalty that any player of the Salarymen has committed that other players from Korean-based teams haven’t committed as well.  In this context, why is it that the Salarymen are considered “dirtier” than other teams?

7.  The Salarymen have played more games that ended with friendly feelings than games that ended with bad feelings.  For any team that has played a game with the Salarymen that ended with bad feelings, ask yourself if your team wasn’t partially at fault as well

The Solution:

The best solution would be to use professional referees.  There is a huge distinction between professional and amateur referees.  Amateur referees don’t always know the rules clearly.  As well, they are prone to be biased and make obvious bad calls.  In the past the Salarymen even had goals called against them that weren’t even across the goal line during various tournaments with amateur referees.  This makes the games pointless and frustrating to play.  
I realize the issue of refereeing was discussed in several CHL meetings.  But through experience, it is our position that in order to make CHL games safer and more fun, it would be best to use experienced, professional referees.  As it is, it seems like a bad joke to have players from rival teams referee our games.

Conclusion:

The Salarymen sincerely enjoy being a part of CHL and the inline hockey community.  However, it seems that the reputation we have of being “dirty” is unfounded.  Because of this reputation, other teams become more aggressive when they are playing us.  During these games, because the referees fail to call a tight game, in other words, a game where every minor infraction is called, the games get out of hand and bad feelings result.  

I think many of the problems are caused by incorrect perceptions, which are not impossible to correct.  Win or lose, we look forward to enjoying games that are played with passion and mutual respect with unbiased, competent referees.

- The Salarymen