No club hockey anymore...

So I was all excited to watch some NHL action this fall…then that went down the tube over this past month. My backup plan? I was really looking forward to it too; I was hoping to attend a majority of Central Michigan’s club hockey home games, at the ICE Arena in Mount Pleasant. They had always played weekend games, free to get in with your student I.D., so this season I was going to follow them religiously. I planned to recap every game I attended in a blog post. (Good way to find something to write about!)

CM Life article from Friday, September 21.

Then a week ago this article showed up in the paper. Right before I saw it I ran into a player on the team, who coincidentally is in one of my classes. I asked him if he was excited for the team’s first two games of the season, on the road that weekend against U of M Dearborn. He told me that the team was “going through some stuff” and they weren’t playing those two games. I thought, well okay, I’m still looking forward to the home openers against Northern Michigan. Of course, I could only assume what was going on with an investigation by the Office of Student Life.

Then I saw the article on the CM Life website on Friday. “Club hockey team dealt five-year ban for violating alcohol policy, hazing.” I literally started yelling at my computer. Nothing could pierce my heart better than realizing CMU no longer had a men’s club hockey team. All the games I looked forward to seeing, all the games I had wrote down in my planner, they no longer exist…

I’m heartbroken. Honestly, I can’t believe I would get left in the dark like this as a fan. No local team, no NHL. What is the hockey world coming to? A five-year ban for CMU club hockey? Not on probation for a couple years? I doubt the club hockey team did something Penn State/Jerry Sandusky related, why such a harsh punishment? Oh well, I guess I’ll visit CMU someday as an alumnus and go see a hockey game…in 2017…

To read the full CM Life article, click herehttp://www.cm-life.com/2012/09/28/club-hockey-team-dealt-five-year-ban-for-violating-alcohol-policy-hazing/