coachKidsSports.com

A word to the wise ain't necessary - it's the stupid ones that need the advice. - Bill Cosby

They say you can take the boy out of the country, but you can't take the country out of the boy.  A hockey coach in Montreal is trying to prove that the same thing applies to hockey goons.

Clint Butler was a professional hockey player rising as high as the Ligue Nord-Américaine de Hockey, a Quebec based minor league.  While playing professionally, Clint didn't make anyone forget Gretzky, Keith Gretzky…  In 67 professional games Clint got both kinds of points, a goal and an assist, for a grand total of two professional points. 

But what he lacked in touch he made up for in touching; usually with a fist, sometimes a stick, a glove or an elbow.  In his short career, Butler managed to spend 542 minutes in the penalty box.  That's over 8 minutes a game!  That's a fighting penalty plus a regular penalty, with a minute left over.  Not included in that total is the 35 game suspension he received just two years ago for going into the stands after a fan.  To be fair it was 25 games for the fight with the fan, the other 10 was tacked on for assaulting a linesman.

Just the kind of guy I want behind the bench of my son's team…  But yet he was coaching his son's Bantam (13-14) team this year. 

Apparently the son was looking to prove another saying — "The apple doesn't fall far from the tree" — in a game this week.  During the game he threw a punch at an opposing player.  At that level a single punch is cause for immediate ejection and possible suspension.  Yet Clint didn't like those rules.  He immediately started yelling at the official, then started with the physical abuse.

When Marcotte (referee) then ejected the coach, they said Butler began throwing water bottles on to the ice before pulling plywood from the timekeeper’s bench and hurling it toward Marcotte.

So what does it take to embarass a 13 year old hockey player?

Butler’s younger son reportedly tried to stop the incident from escalating further, grabbing his father’s leg and pleading: "Stop, Dad!" 

Apparently flying construction materials do the trick in the Butler household.  I am glad to see that someone has a sense of perspective, too bad it's the kid who was throwing punches five minutes earlier.

And the award for Understatement So Extreme it Should be British:

"Other coaches have got one or two-year suspensions, but in this case it was more extreme. He amplified things. The plywood — that’s the first time we see this."

 And I hope the last.