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  1. My son played in the AHF. I'll say that the league does a much better job of managing their website. Live scoring, stats, players of the week, all-star teams are all pretty cool and certainly add to the experience. I'll also say that the level of competition in that league is absolutely not worth the 10-12 hours of driving you'd do for a weekend, even if you do get 4-6 games. If you're in PAHL already there's no point in adding that amount of driving and hotel stays to play teams that are equal to the competition out here (at best). If you're an independent team you can easily find equal or better competition within 2-3 hours (Ohio, Buffalo) and not take that long trip on the turnpike.
    6 points
  2. I feel bad for the 18u teams. It's the last year of youth hockey for most of the players. They battled hard all year to earn a trip to beautiful Delmont, PA.
    5 points
  3. I think more than one thing can be true here. Do teams typically get screwed over at Belmont? - Yes Was Armstrong the strongest 18AA PAHL team by a good margin? - Yes
    5 points
  4. 100% - publish them anytime possible, but once published they're final. Parents F off. Don't get me wrong, so do I enjoy seeing my kid's accomplishments where others can see them on web pages such as the PIHL and others as they progressed. However, having watched any of those games I will also know which kid won important face-offs. Blocked shots, hard fore-check, positioning and all the other things nemesis mentioned are what create good hockey players and better teammates. I can leave the rink knowing his stats, if any but more importantly acknowledge the little things that few people notice. Sort of like Lindsey Horan said about US soccer fans, this really does apply to a lot of hockey parents. For the 14 and under crowd on here, don't get so caught up in the skills training as there is far too much of that. Find Coaches who will teach your kid how to play the game and they will be successful not only in hockey, but in life.
    5 points
  5. I’m sure Black Bear would be very quick to buy the facility and keep it operational.
    5 points
  6. If we need more time for the game to be completed before the curfew clock expires, how about allowing players at 16U AA and 18U AA levels to touch up on off sides and also allow them to ice the puck on the PK. Less stoppages of play will allow more time for OT or a shootout. That way we kill two birds with one stone.
    5 points
  7. The reason we have a shortage of officials around the country is due to the post calling out the official by name. I have done games for 20+ years and the behavior of coaches, players, and fans has gotten progressively worse over that time period. Please DO NOT take this as me "calling out" everyone. There are some coaches and players who simply want an explanation and, agree or not, are respectful during the conversation. There are also players, and coaches that decide that they know the game better than everyone involved and thus refuse to have any kind of discussion and simply resort to shouting and swearing until the official has not choice but to impose a penalty for the behavior. That is on the coach and player, not on the official. Unfortunately, this behavior has led to the situation where you have no choice but to take whatever official you can get because no body else will do it. Also, this also isn't exclusive to just hockey, there's a shortage of officials across all sports because of the behavior exhibited by parents, coaches, and players. The simple answer to this is to say "if you think it is so easy, do it yourself", but the earlier post indicates to me that LGP13 probably wouldn't have the temperament to successfully cover a game. There is not a single official in any sport at any level that can say they have never made a mistake on a call or a rule interpretation and that is called being human. I would suggest being appreciative that these men and women are willing to get up at 6AM on a Saturday/Sunday morning so that little Stevie or Sally are able to play their 7AM 10U B game after working their "real job" all week or cover your adult league game at 11PM on a Wednesday night and then get up to go to said job. Always remember, if the officials don't show up, nobody plays.
    5 points
  8. The Pittsburgh area is great for tourneys - just not there in Delmont. Alpha, Baierl, UPMC and Neville have plenty of hotels and restaurants nearby and all are close enough where multiple facilities could co-host together.
    4 points
  9. The bottom line is that hockey is the sport with the most variables during the course of a game. In any ONE game, between teams that are anywhere even close to skill, either team can win. Bouncing pucks, stunning goalie performances, how penalties are called or not called, kids being focused or not that particular day, momentum swings at opportune times (or not).... in one single game anything can happen. It happens all the time in hockey at every level. Ever wonder why professional gamblers mostly stick with basketball & football? Less variables.
    4 points
  10. Congratulations to all the teams that won their Divisions this weekend. Too bad all we get is scores! No game sheets to see how the games went! Or for that matter any coverage at all. Does PAHL have a facebook or Twitter site? It's ashamed how far behind Black Bear Tier 2 they are. Hopefully we will be able to find the MidAms on Score Sheet this weekend. If PAHL is not going to recognize their top AA players, I would suggest all those teams Join the Atlantic Hockey Federation and have their own Western PA Division.
    4 points
  11. People who are so fascinated and caught up in stats are almost 100% of the time the ones living vicariously through their kids because they NEVER accomplished anything in their athletic lifetime.
    4 points
  12. Top 5? Armstrong is the gold standard for homerism, and hearing the Armstrong faithful parents attempt to say it isn’t so is comic relief.
    4 points
  13. PAHL wants to charge the money and do the least work possible. Basically they run an organized in-house league that travels to play. I can see it getting to where they're being challenged with a competitor now and will probably end up rolling over and giving up as they continue to lose players and teams. However, I'll add that the AHF/THF groups on Facebook have an awful lot of complaining about "my kid faced 60 shots but the scoresheet only said 58", "they totally missed my kid's secondary assists 3 time this weekend", or any different incarnations of that you can think of. So I can see where PAHL doesn't want hounded week in and week out with those kind of complaints.
    4 points
  14. ECHL average pay is somewhere in the 700/week range. Minimum is like 500-something and up to around 1000. Very few if any players around here would have the ability to make a team. It might be a "lower" league but when it comes down to it those guys are closer to nhl players than the best players around here are to the ECHL.
    4 points
  15. well aren't you just a ray of sunshine. I did some research : The Colonials got off to their best start in program history in 2021 at 11-3 and saw themselves ranked within the USCHO Top 20 for much of the season, reaching a program-best #17 in January. At 15-9 overall and 10-5-0 in AHA play, the Colonials earned a West Division title while boasting the AHA Coach of the Year as well as conference MVP, Rookie of the Year, and Defenseman of the Year. The top offensive team in AHA and one of the most prolific in all of college hockey, RMU's 85 goals was one of the highest totals in all of NCAA DI, and their 25% success rate on the power-play was tops in the conference. - this happens to be the SAME year the program was ended by the President. Schooley's team has reached four AHA title games and raised three championship banners since the start of the decade. After making the program's first-ever trip to the NCAA Tournament via an AHA postseason title in 2013-14, the Colonials ruled the league during the grueling regular season in 2014-15 and 2015-16, winning 24 games in each of those years. Additionally - several players from RMU have gone on to play professional hockey on some level. Then let's talk about the women's program - 4 women played in the Olympics - 2 earning medals. 3 banners for winning CHA and several women drafted into Professional Women's hockey.
    4 points
  16. If I am not mistaken, one of the things that RMU doesn't like about the Island facility is that it is off campus, and therefore not as easy for resident students to attend games at. This was one of the stated advantages that the on campus basketball arena had over the hockey arena. So I assume they hope they'll get more spectators at an on campus arena.
    4 points
  17. That's called equity. If one goes, they all should be invited so as not to make anyone feel inferior.
    4 points
  18. A coach can ask all kinds of questions, but that doesn't mean that he will always get a response or an explanation. The game needs to be kept moving, so taking time to have a conversation every time a coach has a question or wants an explanation for a call is impossible to have. The majority of questions coaches have are not of the "why did you make that call" sort of thing, they are of the "the other team just did the same thing a period and a half ago and didn't get called, so why are you calling us for it now" type of question. That is a conversation where there's no good outcome for either the coach or the official. No one is going to get an answer that they like in that situation.
    4 points
  19. Lowering the amount officials are being paid would only make the ref shortage worse. I don't think you are going to find people to take time out of their day to do games, especially at the hours many of these games occur. For me to do a 7AM game, I need to be at the rink no later than 6:30 to get ready, and then we add in travel time, I'm probably getting up at 5:30 to do that 7AM game. The amount of money officials make is to give them an incentive to do the games. I would venture to say that by lowering what officials make, would lead to no coverage for games with start times before 9AM and as I stated before... If the officials don't show up, nobody gets to play.
    4 points
  20. Well I do have to admit I don't want to spend 4000 dollars + travel to spend 8 months with a bunch of loud jack******. It makes the entire experience miserable and I'd rather my kid have fun and the parents have fun too.
    3 points
  21. Agreed. Need to figure out a host org and a coach. I think pens, one North hills and one south Hills team would be fine. Same with 08s.
    3 points
  22. 3 points
  23. Based on that, MHR is pretty spot on.
    3 points
  24. Honestly to me that's a very successful season.
    3 points
  25. Pitt 4 Jamestown 1 # 4 Seed goes down - Awesome Win for the program !!
    3 points
  26. Maybe they should just all play for fun and not keep score! But then why even have PAHL? Just let all the kids play pickup at their home rinks! I just think if you are going to do something do it the best possible way. There will always be parents who complain about something. That's life! I admire the kids who play outside of PAHL and have their stats published!
    3 points
  27. If the stats are published or not, parents and coaches already question scoring decisions. I still officiate games, and at the younger age groups I get questioned more about awarding secondary assists than I do about getting calls right in a lot of games. As far as shots goes, that has always been arbitrary even at the NHL level (I can remember the stories about the way NJ was legendary for some of the shot totals they came up with in the 2000's), so that will never be agreed upon. I disagree with the idea of giving out awards for scoring accomplishments because we already see players (and parents) who are ONLY concerned with how many goals their little player scores and that would only perpetuate selfish play. The bare minimum should be that the stats should be published and updated each week during the season. At the very least, this would provide a single source regardless if people are satisfied with the accuracy. People aren't always happy with the accuracy of the stats the NHL publishes, that's the cost of doing business.
    3 points
  28. There was a glitch in the reporting of the game scores this season for most of the year. You actually could click on the individual games and have access to the digital game sheets and summaries. Nobody complained about it. It was actually pretty nice to see something other than just the final score of each game. Once the league caught wind of their loophole of their statistical lockdown; they sewed it up for good. If there was any one person that complained about the score sheets being open to the public…well, it was the PAHL (obviously). Someone who monitors these boards and has the ability to remove the players’ individual competitiveness. The player statistics were obviously being tabulated and recorded. Why not be transparent about it? Hockey is a team game where keeping score is important. The Fair Play Points make a big difference down the stretch and sometimes it’s what makes teams more or less competitive depending on how aggressive they can be. The game sheets also show these penalties, minutes, and tabulations of the FPP. Without transparency, corruption has a haven.
    3 points
  29. I'm hoping this was a typo and you meant were not changed. I can't imagine having every game in an amateur league have stats challengeable what a nightmare.
    3 points
  30. Icemen charge about $4400 for the season. Does not include coach fee or team fees. Also does not include jerseys, socks, shell, jackets, etc. The AHF is a low level “AA” league at best and traveling 5+ hours to Philly and NJ? Not great value for the competition.
    3 points
  31. Sure would be nice to see the score sheets and have the PAHL name an all tournament team!
    3 points
  32. Wouldn't it be nice if the PAHL had a social media presence and actually did more to recognize the players in their league! You would have the best of both leagues here at home!
    3 points
  33. thats too much work for the paid " Executive Administrator " to handle - What do we pay for again?
    3 points
  34. Just wait...... because you know it can't be far away. Every other female sport basically has had and maybe hockey already has too, the transgender athlete playing in the female division and the risk/probability of that causing injury. This sport is so f'd up from the top of USA hockey down through every level. Somehow the fun and enjoyment of this game needs to be placed back at the top of the priority list ahead of all of this other bullshit.
    3 points
  35. I agree with that. Plus it's not like the rink will come up in a month. It's a years-long plan to get the rink built.
    3 points
  36. I think this is absolutely true. You can see from the discussions on this forum that girls hockey is unimportant to many. And it's obvious to anyone who pays attention at any organization that, even at the orgs that really care to try to make girls hockey work, the girls are less than a second thought. It was only a year or two ago that basically every organization was giving their girls only one practice a week - at some orgs, every other week - and often they were on Sunday nights. Or late Friday night. The reason for allowing girls to roster on an extra team is simple - to promote girls hockey in the region. And for many orgs the only way to make girls teams happen is to dual roster the maximum number of girls. The proposed rule justification says that it "could cost us a small number of girls teams". It surely will do that. What's hard to understand is why PAHL thinks that's not a big deal as implied by that wording. Of the 25-or-so organizations listed on PAHL's website, only 11 have even one girls team. And every season some teams fold while others arise, so that it's never possible to predict who will have a team or how many teams will be in a division. Because of the small number of teams, almost all girls divisions play reduced schedules - that is, the girls teams don't get the same 20 game seasons the boys teams do. The 19U division this season, for instance, had 12 game seasons. A girl who dual rosters on two girls teams won't end up playing 40 girls games on top of whatever coed schedule they have because girls teams normally don't get that many games and also because they probably won't get to every game for both girls teams either. As for girls missing coed games, I've coached both girls teams and coed teams that had girls who missed games for their other team. As long as everyone is up front about it, that situation is what it is. Normally you are either prioritizing one of the teams over the other all the time, or you make a case-by-case call depending on the opponents and/or the importance of the game. It's not ideal, but it's something teams have been working with for a long time. I'm not going to get into arguments about whether girls can or should play coed hockey at any level. I've long believed that girls should play coed at least through 12U because they get exposed to more players and more teams and there are more games in PAHL for coed teams as well as more tournament opportunities. I've known plenty of girls who handled 18U coed just fine. My experience is that as the players get older teams expect more and more from their players and I cannot imagine that most 16U/18U coed teams would tolerate players missing games because of their "other" team, whether the "other" team is a girls team or another coed team. So honestly I don't think that allowing girls to roster on both girls teams and boys teams is a big deal, because at the 16U and 18U levels girls tend to play for only one or the other anyway. PAHL has to make a choice between parents complaining that their male player is getting discriminated against on the one hand and the viability of girls hockey as a thing on the other hand. Personally I think this whole argument is a waste of air because nobody is really hurt by the current rule. Regarding the Tier 1 rule, it's really not that significant. I agree with it in principle, but in practice I understand that the primary Tier 1 organization in our area generally tries to keep players from also playing on PAHL teams anyway.
    3 points
  37. You don’t seem to be a fan of RMU hockey.
    3 points
  38. Yes, they probably will be behind the programs that I mentioned (except maybe Niagara) but as was pointed out by other members, D1 hockey is the one sport that is not as divided into "have's and have not's". The Michigan's, Minnesota's, BU's, and Denver's are going to be the programs that recruit the 18 year old's that get drafted in June, but because of the role of junior hockey, teams like Quinnipiac, Union, and Providence can compete and win by bringing in players that are 20-21 years old and compete at a championship level. RMU could and can compete with those teams, and having better facilities would help with attracting better players.
    3 points
  39. I think you have the right as a coach to ask the question, but the referee doesn't have to respond. I have seen plenty of respectful and productive conversations result from a question, but I have seen plenty that are not. At the end of the day, blaming the calls or the officials is like blaming the YMCA rink for painting the goal lines too close to the end boards. I mean, yeah, it can affect the game, and the home team has a better idea of what will happen, but both teams are still playing by the same rules.
    3 points
  40. Yes, an official has the authority to tell a team that he is only going to talk to one of the designated captains or only the head coach. In my coaching days, I had a number of officials tell me and my other coaches that they would only be speaking with the head coach. This was their way to keep the amount of grief they heard from the benches to a minimum. To answer your first question, a ref has NO obligation to explain a call to a player. I've had coaches get on me because "I didn't explain the call to the player". My response back to him was "that is called coaching and that is what you are here to do, I'm just here to call the game". I will always clearly say what the call was, but I'm not going to have a 5 minute conversation rehashing the play and why I made the call. I'll also only discuss calls if the coach is doing it in a respectful way. If they are screaming at me or my partner, I just ignore them and tell them that we will have conversation when they can do it at a "normal volume".
    3 points
  41. Does a referee truly "owe" an explanation for a call? My gut says no. If you had to explain every single call, you would never finish a game. I feel like people who say that a call wasn't "explained" really just want to yell at the referee to either get the call overturned or intimidate the official into not making the next call. That's not to say that there aren't officials making terrible calls, but, let's be honest, there are plenty of players making terrible plays too and they don't have to hear about it from everyone else in the rink. I haven't looked at a rulebook in years, but when I did, I remember reading something along the lines of the referee only has to talk to the team captain who is marked with a "C" on the scoresheet. The official can talk to other people as courtesy, but the official only has to talk to the officially designated captain.
    3 points
  42. HAHA, try to find some stats! Especially in the PAHL. Kids nominated by Coaches! Teams can make up whatever stats they want for independent team players! MidAm tryouts a total joke! Coaches kids nominated most often!
    2 points
  43. Yeah, this may have played a part but the ultimate decision was made by an overzealous egomaniac named Chris Howard looking to fast track himself.
    2 points
  44. Last night's news article on the owner hahaha https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://www.wpxi.com/news/local/car-dealership-owner-accused-selling-unsafe-vehicles-appears-court/N2SNW3YHQRGU7BLADEAREKEG4I/%3FoutputType%3Damp&ved=2ahUKEwi9vMHtyMKEAxVzKFkFHdSPCCMQFnoECCYQAQ&usg=AOvVaw1n_oHY4S0qFqr59l7eJ9xt
    2 points
  45. Right, it's called asking for consistency which is a fair ask.
    2 points
  46. To see the dumbest rule in all of youth hockey ( and there are a lot of them ) in the fair play point system potentially going away would be a good thing. Then they can take another look at ties as there is no OT or shootout which is a joke.
    2 points
  47. No, I helped ref adult leagues for my local rink like 15 yrs ago.
    2 points
  48. Well said. This falls in the hands of USA Hockey and MidAm, two organizations that are run by incompetent people and good old boys. The incident report portal is archaic and very difficult to navigate, which is why many officials avoid calling penalties that require a report. Often, player and/or coach names cannot be located or a team is not properly listed. Right or wrong, this is a fact. I know some officials who take pride in what they do--few, but there are some. These are the people who when seen hitting the ice, the coaches, players, and parents breathe a sigh of relief. Then, there those who when seen hitting the ice, the coaches, players, and parents say, "Oh no--not this clown."
    2 points
  49. What a classless post by another angry parent trying to live vicariously through his kid. Calling out an official while hiding behind a message board handle, nice. Who are you to question a call? A missed call? Gimme a break. If you are such a knowledgable hockey person, why not start officiating so you can give back to the game. You would most likely no be able to handle even a 10U B game.
    2 points
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