Game 2 Of The Minto Cup (Junior Box Lacrosse National Championship) Was Cancelled After The Refs Walked Out And Refused To Call The Game
Photo via Dave Fryer
Alright so if you’re familiar with major junior hockey in Canada, then you know what the Memorial Cup is. The Minto Cup is the same exact thing but for Jr A Box Lacrosse instead of hockey. You take the winners of the 3 junior leagues in Canada (OJALL, BCJALL & RMLL) as well as the host team, and have them play for a national championship. Actually–that’s the best way to describe it. It’s the Canadian Jr. A box lacrosse national championship. So now that you understand what the Minto Cup is, let’s catch everyone up to speed here with what’s been going down in this year’s Minto Cup.
The Brampton Excelsiors (Ontario) and the Coquitlam Adanacs (British Columbia) are playing in this year’s Minto Cup Final. Playing for Brampton is Jeff Teat. He’s like the Connor McDavid of lacrosse both in the sense that he’s absolutely nasty and the future of the game, and that he’s a good ol’ Ontario boy who the meanest thing he’s probably capable of doing is tying somebody’s shoelaces together but then apologizing before the person even takes a step. He had 99 points as a sophomore last year at Cornell. He played for Team Canada at the World Championships this summer. And he currently has 28 points in 3 Minto Cup games so far this summer. But apparently both he and his dad Dan Teat, who is a legend himself and coach of the Jr Excelsiors, weren’t huge fans of the refs after game 1 of the final that Brampton ended up losing 11-9, and had something to say to them at the end of that game. The refs, in turn, apparently weren’t huge fans of the Teats either and from there, I’ll let our good pal from up north Jake Elliott give the breakdown considering he’s had a front row seat to the absolute circus that has unfolded before game 2 was scheduled for last night.
So according to this, what both Jeff and Dan Teat said to the refs after game 1 must have been enough to warrant both of them getting hit with match penalties. But here’s where things get tricky–absolutely nobody besides the people involved here have any idea what was said. For some reason, the refs or the Canadian Lacrosse Association feel like that’s not pertinent information for everybody to assess the situation and don’t feel like publicizing what was said. So while everybody is arguing about which side is in the right here and which side is in the wrong, nobody knows the most important detail to the entire thing–which is what exactly was said. But every and anybody who has ever played at least one second of lacrosse with Jeff Teat has come out and said the only time the kid ever talks is if he’s saying sorry and that he doesn’t have a mean bone in his body. So until the refs actually put out what was said here, nobody is going to believe it was anything that was worthy of a match penalty. Regardless, the penalties were assessed and the suspensions were handed down.
Advertisement
Now the biggest issue here is that the rules state that you cannot appeal the suspension. Which seems like a rather large plate of bullshit because now you’re just handing over this autonomous power to the refs without being able to have any checks or balances there to keep them from overstepping their role. Think about it. You’re in the finals of the national championship. Obviously tensions and emotions are going to be high, especially late in the game. If Jeff and/or Dan Teat actually said something to the officials that warranted the match penalty, it would have been because the emotions got the best of them and then sure, they deserve the penalty. But who is to say those emotions and tensions can’t go the other way? What if the refs were just losing control of the game and decided to go on a power trip at the end of the game and suspend the best player because they’re salty and got their feelings hurt? There should be an appeals process in place to make sure shit like that doesn’t happen because just as players can let emotions get the best of them, so can refs. But apparently they just get to make whatever decision they want and there’s nowhere to go from there? Seems pretty fucky to me. And apparently it seemed pretty fucky to others as well because right before Game 2 was supposed to start last night, some moves were being made.
BAH GAWD! THAT’S JEFF TEAT’S MUSIC!!!
But wait a minute… what was with all that “non-appealable” talk from earlier? He was suspended 5 minutes ago but now he’s allowed back out on the floor? It simply cannot be this easy for Jeff Teat to just return, right?
But wait! This shit show somehow managed to get even better…
Haha holy shit they actually did it. And in the end…
So just to run it all back for everybody. Jeff and Dan Teat were each given a 3 game suspension after game 1. Just before game 2 was about to start, it looked like the suspension for Jeff Teat was about to be overturned and that he was going to play. The refs then got super ass hurt that their precious little autonomous power had been compromised, threw a fit and just walked out of the building refusing to call the game. Listen–nearly 100% of the time I am going to take the player’s side in this type of situation over the ref’s. Because it’s the players like Jeff Teat that people go to watch the game for, not the officials. Unless Jeff Teat said some ungodly ruthless shit to those refs, suspending one of the best players in the world for 3 games in the final just because you got your feelings hurt is absolutely asinine. I understand the refs wanting to protect themselves and I understand that they don’t want to feel like they can’t do their jobs out there. But come the h*ck on, guys. This is a national championship game and you’re letting your “pride” get in the way here just because you didn’t get the ridiculous 3-game suspension you handed down? Give me a break. You want to make the game about yourself? Do it some other time. This is pretty much lacrosse terrorism right now. The refs think they can just use fear to take the Minto Cup hostage and make sure that Jeff Teat stays suspended for those 3 games. But it doesn’t seem to be working.
Advertisement
Either get over yourselves or they’ll just find some replacement refs. Hell, they should really just play the game without any refs at all the way the Creators had intended the game to be played. You can’t bitch at the refs if there aren’t any refs to begin with, right? Christ, what a shit show.
P.S. – If Jeff Teat called the refs a hoser then he 100% deserves the suspension and should probably be forced to quit playing lacrosse immediately. We can’t just be allowing people to throw hard “H’s” out there all willy nilly. I don’t care how good you are. You don’t call another man a hoser.