Want To Play – Post A Bond!!

Recently the WLA has been engrained with controversy and depending on who you ask, everyone has their own idea or feeling of who win’s this battle.

It seems to stem from a game played at Planet Ice in Maple Ridge in a WLA game where the home team the Maple Ridge Burrards hosted the Burnaby Lakers.

The game was hard fought from the start and as the third ended the game was tied and headed to overtime with the game tied at four.

The game turned explosive at this point and the game officials, of which there are only two (don’t know why) tried to separate more than one altercation, which proved challenging.

Following this there has been banter from various individuals as to who started the altercation first and who was first off the bench.

A major fight erupted in the final 25 seconds of the 3^rd period which some say was instigated by Burrards’ defenceman Daniel Amesbury.

According to the referee’s report, Amesbury repeatedly punched bleeding Lakers’ player Peter McFetridge in the face and head, despite the referees efforts to stop him.

The League “Brass” had to deal with this and finally came up with a decision of who would be sitting games and as one can imagine it wasn’t an easy call.

According to the league (WLA) at the time the decision was made, the Burrards have had seven games dating back to 2013 that have seen players suspended for fighting or unsportsmanlike conduct, and five of those involved incidents within the final five minutes with the end result likely determined.

Instead of promoting the product, we get a boxla boardroom brouhaha that sees the Maple Ridge Burrards, via a press release on Friday, threatening to “seek action through the B.C. Registrar of Companies or through legal means,” against the Western Lacrosse Association.

That’s a result of the WLA demanding that the Burrards post a $25,000 “surety bond,” which would be tied to the Burrards not receiving any fines or suspensions for the remainder of the Senior A season from fighting-related incidents.

Violating those conditions would see Maple Ridge lose the cash and have their season ended immediately.

The Burrards have until Sunday to come up with the money or risk being suspended immediately.

The league’s other six teams voted to take action against Maple Ridge and to sum it up – it’s quite simply a mess!

The Burrards will tell you that they’re being unfairly singled out and might mention the fact the Victoria Shamrocks and Langley Thunder combined for 122 PIM’s (Friday) in a 13-3 Shamrock win.

Another discussion is how the Thunder brought Chris Hackel (98 career games, 622 PIM’s) out of retirement to play two seasons ago, and that the New Westminster Salmonbellies last year featured Broedie Birkhof (nine games, 145 PIM’s).

Interesting that either player/enforcer is playing in the league this season, or could they be brought in at a later time.

Representatives from other teams in the league won’t deny going over the line, but maintain the Burrards are the ones going farthest and most often these days.

They’ll focus on things situations like Kevin Reid pummelling a horizontal Karsen Leung of Victoria during a line brawl in the 2014 playoffs.

And they’ll look at the last 25 seconds of the May 29 game that featured the Burrards and the visiting Burnaby Lakers.

Burrards Daniel Amesbury landed several uncontested punches to the face of Burnaby Laker Peter McFetridge after a scrum near the Maple Ridge net. McFetridge never got his gloves off.

Amesbury received the maximum five-game suspension that Commissioner Ernie Truant could hand out under the league constitution.

In 26 career regular-season games with the Burrards, Amesbury has accumulated 247 penalty minutes, which works out to 9 minutes per game.

It’s interesting that some see the league as a manner in which to help promote lacrosse at the minor level, while others see it as a business and nothing else. Perhaps people will be

Simply put the league doesn’t need this type of play as the players are extremely talented and skilled. It would be better for them to focus on improving themselves, spending their time to read the guide of the top rated lacrosse gloves and other equipment.

While fighting is seen by most leagues as a thing of the past, others have failed to get the memo!

It would seem something drastic is required, possibly not only a midseason rule change but also getting the officials to enforce the rules or maybe on the third trip to the box, it’s a game ejection to the player.

It’s seemed to have worked for the National Lacrosse League, where each team uses 16 runners a game, compared to 18 for the WLA.