My name is Rick Middleton, and I'm currently the President and Head Coach of the New England Bruins Sled Hockey Team. The Bruins recently returned from the Disabled Hockey Festival that took place in Fraser, Michigan. Even though I think everyone really enjoyed the experience, and the overall design and organization was good, some of the same old problems resurfaced once the playoff round started. What has happened too many times in the past, and happened again in Detroit, is that the best players end up playing most of the game, and the rest of the players just sit on the ice and get cold. I'm not pointing my finger at any team or players, I'm just trying to point out that until some rules and guidelines are put into place, and every team that wants to play in a tournament is required to follow them, then you're always going to have teams that only bring 7 or 8 players, most of them National Team members, and end up playing them the majority of each game. As a coach, if I'm playing against a team that is keeping their top 4 or 5 players on the ice for the whole game, then I feel compromised into thinking that I need to do the same thing in order to be able to compete, and I think it's wrong!

I held a meeting in the dressing room after our last game, and apologized to the players that I didn't play, and told them that it would never happen again. I didn't volunteer to coach the New England Bruins to have players sacrifice their time and money in order to come to every practice and travel to tournaments as part of our team, to not play them once they got there. Our philosophy with the Bruins is an inclusive one, whether you're able-bodied or disabled, or whether you're a National Team member or a first year player. As far as we're concerned, hockey is a TEAM SPORT that is made up of more than 5 or 6 players. Our policy is to always take a minimum of 10 players and a goalie to each tournament. The thing is that since all the teams in the Detroit tournament brought at least 8 players and a goalie, then why in future tournaments couldn't they be asked to bring 10 and a goalie? Of course teams could bring 10 players, but it doesn't do any good unless they all play. I was told that some teams don't have 10 players in their organization and they have to bring players in from other teams. The majority of the time when players are added to a team from another organization they're National Team members. If a National Team player can be added, then other players can be added as well to make up an 11 man roster.

By requiring all teams to adhere to this standard, more players would be able to play in these tournaments, and each team would be more evenly balanced. The only requirements would be that both the 1st and 2nd lines play a regular shift, and National Team members can only play on the 1st line.

Even though I've only been involved in sled hockey for 4 years, hockey has been my life for over 40. I love both the game of sled hockey and it's players and sincerely believe that in order to make the game more fun for more players, new guidelines must be put into place. It's time to get rid of the old frustrations that players have been feeling for years. The definition of insanity is "doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result". Well, I don't know how you feel, but I'm not going to let this game drive me insane. There's more player's playing sled hockey than ever before and it's time some structure was put into these tournaments to make it a more level playing field for ALL players and ALL teams.

I would certainly like to hear your thoughts on this and where you feel we should go from here. Please feel free to e-mail me at nifty6teen@yahoo.com or call me @ 603-303-0308.

Rick Middleton

Rick Middleton (www.rickmiddleton.net) is President and Head Coach of the New England Bruins Sled Hockey Team.

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