Meet Jake Anderson, sophomore goalie for the University of Virginia’s club hockey team. Anderson is also a member of the Chi Phi fraternity, which helps explain the incident that has landed him in national headlines this week.
During a recent club game against Virginia Commonwealth, Anderson took a break from game action to chug a beer handed to him by his frat brothers set up just behind his net. One of the brothers fed Anderson a beer above the glass, then the goalie removed his helmet and pounded the brew right there on the ice. The only way it could have been any more brotastic is if Anderson left his mask on.
https://instagram.com/p/7nrn3dBKvj
This all went down just after the second intermission, when Virginia held a 7-0 lead over VCU. Maybe Anderson wasn’t entertained enough with the lack of action on his end, or maybe he just wanted to get started on his Friday night buzz a little early. Either way, the referees officiating the game didn’t find his spontaneous hydration very funny, and they handed him a five-minute major and game misconduct penalty as a result, sending him to the locker room in the middle of a shutout.
Also failing to find it funny was Doug Eisman, the team’s beat writer, who had this to say after the game:
Jake Anderson had a shutout through two periods until he was disqualified for consuming an alcoholic beverage on the ice. This selfish act drew eerie parallels to the maturity of a middle schooler desperate for attention from his crush and led to a five-minute major penalty to begin the third period, which Virginia killed off successfully.
That seems a little harsh but, then again, if I was a beat writer covering a college club hockey team on a Friday night, I’d probably write angrily, too.
I mean, seriously. It’s club hockey, not the NHL. These are college kids, most of them drink. They’re not supposed to be out there acting like role models.
I’m not saying they should all be allowed to show up and get wrecked on the ice while wearing their school’s uniform, everyone knows that’s reserved for Beer League games. Kicking him out of the game was probably fair since it’s not the best display of sportsmanship but, if anything, it probably helps the opponent’s cause. But blasting the kid in the paper and acting like he ran over your puppy with his car is a bit much.
It’s just club hockey and it’s just a beer. Jake Anderson can play for my team any day.
(Via Puck Daddy)