NWT premier gets three-game suspension for dropping the gloves
ANDY BLATCHFORD
THE CANADIAN PRESS
January 14, 2009 at 4:18 PM EST
Few will mistake him for Dave “The Hammer” Schultz, but opponents may think twice before dropping the gloves with Northwest Territories Premier Floyd Roland.
The hulking Roland, who spends evenings patrolling the blue-line for a “B” division hockey team in Yellowknife, squared off Sunday with a feisty forward on the opposing squad.
The Yellowknife Rec Hockey League had no choice but to come down hard on the territorial premier — it handed him a three-game suspension.
“The game got a bit aggressive,” Mr. Roland admitted to The Canadian Press in an interview from Edmonton on Wednesday.
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Enlarge Image Northwest Territories Premier Floyd Roland (left) is greeted by Prime Minister Stephen Harper before the provincial and territoral first ministers meeting in Ottawa on Friday, Jan. 11, 2008. (The Canadian Press)
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“I did my job as a defenceman, separated a fellow from the puck a couple of times and he took exception to that. He got aggressive with me.
“I kept playing my game, which means when things got a little more heated, I stayed in the battle.”
Mr. Roland, 47, who joined the Black Knights at the start of the season, thinks of himself as more of a puck-moving defenceman rather than a goon.
Still, he's never been afraid to dance.
He rumbled on occasion during his days in the chippy men's senior league in Inuvik, but said this was his first fight in more than a decade.
In fact, Mr. Roland, who stands nearly 6-4 and tops 200 pounds, said this was his first hockey bout since being elected to the territorial legislature in 1995.
“I've been into the heated discussions and the shoving going back and forth, but this is the first time that I've actually dropped the gloves,” said Mr. Roland, who doesn't plan to appeal his mandatory three-game suspension.
“It's the rules of the game.”
The modest premier tried to play down the clash and wouldn't say if he won the dust-up.
“I didn't come away with any bruises, it wasn't much of a fight, it was more of a skirmish,” said Mr. Roland, who was en route to Ottawa for this week's first ministers' meeting.
He also doesn't think his antics will intimidate his rivals in the political arena.
“It may get a few laughs at my meetings coming up,” he said. “I don't think it will cause any more than that.”
The president of the local referees association said Mr. Roland's tussle has been the talk of the town in Yellowknife, which is home to about 20,000 people.
“Being the premier, everyone's surprised that he did drop the gloves, but he's a hockey player, so it's not a problem,” said Greg Cameron, who filed the official suspension request to the league.
“It was just a little hockey fight, that's all.”
Mr. Cameron didn't see the fisticuffs, but said he heard Roland won the decision over his smaller, younger opponent.
The last-place Black Knights (1-13) will have to take to the ice without the premier until at least Jan. 28, but that doesn't mean the league hasn't given the premier some preferential treatment.
The league's website lists the names of suspended players, but instead of Roland's name, officials typed in “#66.”
“He's the premier, they're just giving him a little bit of a break there, I guess,” said Cameron.
“But everyone knows about it. It's a small town, word travels pretty quick. It's hockey, that's all it is.”
The suspension list named Roland's opponent as Jeremiah Donahue of Talbot's Maple Leafs.
The Canadian Press contacted Maple Leafs captain Dean MacInnis for the team's side of the story.
In an e-mail response, Mr. MacInnis said he didn't want to comment on the fight.
“What happens on the ice — stays on the ice,” he wrote.
