Look, it's a hockey league rulebook!

This kind of cracked me up: an official rule book posted on the internet for adult hockey leagues at the Toyota Sports Center in El Segundo.

Don't get me wrong. I think it's great the league has a rulebook. That makes sense. There should at least be rules trying to thwart cheap shots and the use of ringers. (I have no idea how much they're enforced or not).

If there's a rulebook for the Pasadena house league, I've yet to see it. I'm guessing it probably doesn't exist, considering the Pasadena rink has a scoreboard that rarely functions (penalties are three minutes or thereabouts or anyone's guess), a first aid room that resembles the inside of a germ incubator and a generally all-around crappy condition.

And in our house leagues -- there's two divisions, "intermediate" and "upper" -- there are certainly no rules on the books about ringers. At this time, pretty much anyone can play at whichever level they choose. Meaning my "intermediate" division team regularly encounters players than could be playing in the upper division but choose to play lower for whatever reason. I suppose if I was any good, it would be fun to skate around chaps like me and score at will.

After stick time last night, I stuck around to watch one of our house games that pitted a team that has gone 16-1 since joining the league against an out-manned team that brought in its own ringers to compete. When I left -- midway through the game -- the 16-1 team was up by six goals and a couple of players were rolling around on the ice trying to settle their differences. Or perhaps mate.

Rules? Ha!

--S.H.