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Would you rather have sports, businesses and restaurants opened on a limited basis while wearing a mask when you go out, or have everything closed while not having to wear a mask at all......... Everyone has choices, and if I need to wear a mask when entering / exiting a restaurant or seeing an amateur hockey game, I am OK with it. Those same businesses mandate shoes and a shirt, no?

Is this Facebook?

I am going to state this very clearly. Stop the personal attacks or your posting abilities will be restricted. Policing the content on this board is not my full time job so I would appreciate some respect of each other when posting. I will be going though this whole thread soon and purging personal attacks. have a take, state your take, rebut your take. Leave personal attacks at the door.

The problem is there are a ton of jagoffs in our society and we march to the speed of said jagoffs, not to the smart people. Why do we have speed limits on the highway? Because dumbasses speed, cause accidents or death and rules then need to be applied and enforced to protect others. You exceed the speed limit and get caught, you get a citation. As with masks, the government can suggest wearing them all they want and the Ken’s and Karen’s of the world know more than anyone else (including healthcare professionals and scientists) and will refuse to wear them because it infringes on their rights and freedoms......or it inhibits their breathing due to a bullshit medical condition they say they have. The irresponsible people on this planet ruin things for everyone. And as I have said before, a few minutes of “inconvenience” by wearing a mask so I can go to a restaurant, have a meal and drink a beer or go watch my kid play hockey is a small price to pay than to say I’m gonna do whatever the hell I want while restaurants, bars and ice rinks close down.

Torn? What would it take besides all the medical experts telling us how important it is? I just don't get it. I'm so frustrated that everyone is not on board with this. Can we just try it? Because what we are doing now is, obviously, not working.

This whole thing were we are trying to correlate youth sports and school is baffling. ”Youth sports” mostly involves roughly 35-40 kids at a time during a game, and 15-20 during practice a few times a week for and hour and half. Schools consist of 300 to 1k+ kids... 5 times a week for 6+ hours. The “risk” with youth sports barely registers when you take into consideration that some of these districts are going to pack all of those kids into a school - and all it will take is one sneeze to get into the ventilation system. People are so out to lunch on the whole school thing, but like everything else in this country - we’re just going to have to try it (knowing it won’t work) then all fall flat on our faces. Kids will be back at home by mid-September. Saw a few districts taking “parent surveys” on whether or not to reopen. Talk about letting the inmates run the asylum. Pandering and spineless. I know people have to work, but everyone knows the reality of this, and while it’s a harsh, difficult, hard to swallow reality. It is indeed, REALITY. We cannot gather in groups of more than 25, but a month from now, schools can be packed? I say close school, knowing it won’t work, and let the kids who play sports have some semblance of normalcy. Hell, maybe it will encourage others who typically wouldn’t play to get out and moving. The schools will shut the schools down, not a youth soccer league.

I saw FULL ICE “AAA” mites in Buffalo a few years back. Kids dead tired skating halfway up the ice. It’s a parent thing.

I am one of those, a healthcare worker and not a politician.... Won’t make policy statements, but I have worn a mask for my job since 2003. Now I wear one around the general public because the Governor says I have to. No opinion offered here from me as to whether I like it or not. I do it. It is analogous to the gloves I wear at work. I don’t know if you have a disease and you don’t know if I do. Until folks have a blinking red light on their body that tells me their commutable disease status, Ill wear my mask to WalMart and I’ll socially distance if I am around a hockey rink. My kid wants to play hockey this fall. I would like for that to happen. I did not attend try outs and the offer of team placement still came. I hope the season is held and not canceled, to that end I will do what is asked of me. Personally, the fight over whether to wear a mask or not is not a hill I am willing to die on. I’ll wear my mask.

Come on, which sounds better around the water cooler at work, "My kid plays Pens" or "My kid plays RMU". We both know the answer to that! Also which jersey is cooler?

@Quinlan2020 and I'm saying this with all seriousness, you may want to speak with someone about your anxiety. I'm not telling you not to wear a mask (I do when appropriate), or to allow your children to play hockey (you should make that decision based on risk profile of your family), but your posts kind of breathe an air of anxiety that doesn't seem healthy - especially in the North Hills thread. Things have been very hard on all of us over the last few months but if I can guarantee you one thing it is that people aren't coming to this hockey forum for medical advice or to change their mind about their kids playing. As for the mask scientific nature @Eddie Shore I think a lot of the problem is that not enough real research has been done either way. Hell we are dealing with a virus that months into massive amounts of transmission we still aren't certain really transmits through surfaces or not, not sure if it transmits asymptomatically often or not, not sure how often it spreads outside or in large rooms, and are making lots of decisions by the seat of our pants (deciding what to close and when without any real evidence or contact tracing). A very serious problem throughout the entire pandemic has been making decisions on a lack of data. Even if I disagreed with the scope of Allegheny County's bar ban, on the other side, I also applauded them for actually using some contact tracing data in making the decision. It was a step in the right direction. I would agree it would be wise to pause specific youth sports if serious cases arose from a specific sport. The way I see masks is they can't hurt, so I'm willing to do it, but if someone has serious trouble breathing when doing vigorous (or any) exercise they shouldn't wear it. I'm also skeptical they are as full proof as people pretend they are just like I am skeptical of standing 6 feet apart on a piece of tape is going to do anything serious, but I still do it because how the hell would I know? Dammit Jim I'm a hockey dad not a scientist.

Even worse imagine pens elite being split into a top and bottom team. I wouldn't wanna be around some of those parents....

Your kid really has talent, reminds me of a few guys I played with in “the J”. I’m running private lessons for 6 year olds, I’d love to wrk with him.

Oh, forgive me for not knowing the ECHL is nicknamed the jungle. My kids haven’t made it that far yet, when they do, I’ll make sure they don’t end up scouring youth hockey forums for details about people’s children.. Is that common in the jungle? Frequenting youth hockey forums? Update: And this guy is full of it... no 17 year old is playing in the ECHL. He’s absolutely referring to some 18th tier Junior league in Canada, which he didn’t even play in. Final conclusion: 1&done, who turned out to be about 250&done, at our expense, is officially done. Times up clown. You had your chance. Back to the drawing board, get a new username and may I suggest easing your way in on Thursday. Let this be a lesson.

I don’t know that I’ve seen someone give up so easily. I wonder what that guys deal was? Thinking maybe he had some kind of resume in hockey that would validate his statements. Very odd.

So after going back and reading Danners post history for my evening fun, I am 99% certain he and the King are the same person.

Seriously it’s amazing when you realize that you’ve offered nothing at any time except defending a narrative that NC was built organically and owed no thanks to PPE and Excel for its success. Thanks for the useful post

Possibly the best post in the history of this site.

Let this idiot keep pretending he is a tough guy without a mask. Just remember this in January when he still hasn’t seen a youth hockey game played

You just don’t get it dummy. Nothing will be over in November and you won’t get to brag about your kids hat trick and helper patches on his jacket because your choices aren’t your own. You will comply with state mandates and you will comply with league and governing body mandates. Because you’re a coward and you would never fight back. You’ll come on here and regurgitate what you read on Facebook and pretend your a big man in front of your wife and kids. But you won’t ever do anything to actually protect freedoms and rights. Now go back to being a good boy and do as you’re told honey. Leave the hard work to the men

There is no point in arguing and attacking each other. This is what a highly contagious virus does. With kids hopping rinks, trying out everywhere and doing skills, stick times all over....you got a kid on the ice, you are somehow connected to everyone in the hockey community. We aren't playing six degrees of Kevin Bacon anymore...it's six degrees of who tested positive for Covid. 😢 Only a matter of time, particularly with the amount of science deniers out there. I want hockey. My house is happier with skates on again. Mood, exercise, socializing. But it is hard to see how this can work, particularly because we have so many people unwilling to do the smallest things to prevent spread.

Fair enough. But if also appreciate it being known that posters shouldn’t call down the thunder if they can’t take the boom.

Here is something funny, I heard that same Minnesota HS story about 15 years ago. I’d bet it has happened but it’s folk lore. look at the kid who’s parents sold their house and lived on a house boat on Lake Erie so their kid could play junior hockey.

For anyone requesting to see their org's income statement, be sure to check in with the board members who set pricing, and ask them why tryouts are so high. Most orgs will be honest and set the record straight. Prices are inflated to right size the candidate pool. This is Econ 101 and a technique that most boards use to ensure high acceptance rates of placements. It will be up to you to judge the character in their response. And by the way, yes, the tryout fees get chalked up on the balance sheet as revenue. Is the intent to gouge their own members or fundraise? No. It's a weed-out play, plain and simple. I'll go ahead and predict the king will come back with the same old song and dance and say that you can't trust board members because they are lying and covering up some payoff or immoral behavior. Does it happen? Yes. Is it typical? No. But it is clearly the king's anecdotal experience, and it has poisoned him. That and/or he's feeling the sting from a hand slap by some regional affiliate. Whatever. Spare us your overdone broken record response.

This "was their mantra" as the original news release attached states. However, it wasn't long after that first season that people in charge realized that their was a shit-ton of $$$$$ to be made, but I digress. The big point that I want make is this, the PPE also claim to be this bastion of player development and they convince all the Little Super 66'er "Elite mites" that they have to play there if they want any chance of becoming the next star 12U player. Then came 2020 and the elimination of the 14U Major and Minor BY Black teams as well as the 12U Major Black team. So, now you have 15 skaters and 2 goalies who have been "trained by the best staff anywhere" for 5 years(06) 4 years(07) and 3 years (08) being dumped back into the AA and Faux AAA tryout pool participants. I don't know what the results are officially, but I have heard stories and they don't back up the development theory. I've also seen some of the on-ice sessions and the only thing that makes most (not all) stand out are their beautiful yellow buckets along with the fact that they never pass the puck to anyone without the same helmet and even then a pass is rare. But they're determined to show their superiority over these vagrants from AA PAHL teams, or worse yet (gasp) an A player. I'm so superior to this peasant, mom told me so. So' I'll continue to make bad plays and turn the puck over to these lowly players because this yellow helmet is on my head. And because of it, I am destined for greatness on my new mPens Team With Pittsburgh Hornets.docixed year A-Major team.

...and that's we we have high tryout fees. Tryouts are not an intentional money maker as some have speculated. Most youth orgs are 501(c)3s and aren't in place to make money. Tryouts HAVE to be painfully expensive to prevent the tune up mentality and the constant shopping that goes on. It also wastes of a lot of people's time when you do this.

AAA Hockey is a scam. If PIAA would have some balls and bring Hockey In PIAA Let the High School share the costs then there wouldn’t be Club Hockey AAA holding all the Cards. Look how MN and WI do it High School is NO #1 and you have to stay in your Zip Codes until death. High Schools buy the rinks and pays for Hockey. NCAA recruits those High Schools Hard. Look how many make it to NHL. Very few PPE kids get drafted to USHL and parents paid all that money. If they do Excel, North Catholic and PPE you are looking at $32,000 to $34,000 a year with Travel. When was last time PPE put someone into NHL? Not the PGH Hornets. It is all because PPE brought these clowns in from the Midwest all they did was raise the costs according to Chicago Price. I give the U16 Coach Credit he good the others are terrible Coaches.

How cold is it in the rink is important haha. I'd also go with a specific question about watch ability of games, such as if the stands give a good view without instructions, glass isn't fogged up, etc.

I have been thinking about doing something like that. Let me think about it a little more.

KDKA reports 2 North Hills school players are positive for Covid-19. They allege it may have spread at the school's tryout. https://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2020/07/02/two-north-hills-students-test-positive-for-coronavirus-after-attending-unsanctioned-hockey-tryouts-families-warned-of-potential-outbreak/ One question: why is the tryout on June 27 considered to be "unsanctioned"?

It seems that common sense has prevailed in Massachusetts. Hockey is labeled as high risk (as it should be.) Practices will focus on non-contact workouts and individual or socially distanced group activities for a while. This is a good compromise rather than shutting it down completely. This will keep the kids in shape for a while with hope that we can get Covid under control before the end of the year. Hopefully games can start around the New Year. Although I'm not too confident in our country to get a handle on this virus. It thrives on stupidity and we have a large portion of our society acting like idiots. It's pretty clear that masks & social distancing are the key, but all the knuckle draggers are still ending up at crowded bars & parties. https://www.masslive.com/coronavirus/2020/07/massachusetts-phase-3-reopening-plan-for-youth-adult-amateur-sports-labels-football-basketball-soccer-as-too-high-risk-to-resume-games.html

Oh man can you imagine the backlash over that!? Maybe a rotating schedule and a reduced fee (that's a joke obviously)

Oh I know his type, the wife constantly making eye contact with a guy like me. Look of despair, mixed with “I’ll let you if you ask”... while he sways around the rink talking about his Tier 19 junior days to some unassuming group of mite parents he’s looking to con.

Reading the FAQ I am not too worried about it. Unless it's changed since yesterday you do not need to wear a mask while actively participating in sports only when you come off the field (or I would assume ice). I think this can be adjusted fairly easily for hockey to be face shields count. I would pity coaches having to try to mask up every mite kid when they come off for a shift but luckily I'm too old to have to worry about that now haha.

Again, if I had to pick one rink, and one demographic of parents (south hills; area not program) that was going to draw everyone’s COVID attention to youth hockey... I would have been right.

Where did you go? Asked for some qualifications and you melt and click your heels in the other direction? Thought you were laying claim to the board? Can’t handle a simple request for current qualifications in hockey? Not asking for your social security number. Awfully sensitive after showing all that bravado. next.

@forbin seems to be right here. This is definitely some kid who stands to lose some money if rinks close. This explains why this idiot is so hot on @Danner27 and his kid. Another failed player trying to bring the pack down to his level. Nothing to see here. Lots of wasted time and thread space. And only a kid would allow people to live in his head for so long. Obsession is a youthful trait.

I would think @The King Is mark madden before myself. Because he and I agree on some issues ? Probably know some of the same higher ups in hockey ? I guess it’s hard enough if one person tells you guys the truth let alone two.

True. You're right, not a lot separates many of those kids.

Yeah let’s go with that. I like that. And let’s just assume @Danner27 and I are related. That works for me. Good job Serpico. There’s no fooling you!

No but I’m sure yiur significant other is currently cruising Facebook while you came back in here after being shamed off in the spring trying to defend the watered down Tier 2 nationals. I guess this is your way of deflecting the conversation away from Ice Castle.

I never said a damn thing about a bubble, not going out. I’m taking about common sense if you people want to see youth sports this year! You can keep being a imaginary American freedom fighter. Just so you know, I am a republican. I don’t think covid is much different than sars or the swine flu but guess what ? I’m not a doctor or a health expert, I’m just a father that knows hockey pretty well who happened to make a lot of connections, friends and people I consider extended family though out the journey. go back to being a freedom fighter, I want to see hockey this year, youth and pro. I don’t give a crap about your freedoms or politics. The virus is real and spreads easy, That is fact. Two Pittsburgh pirates just tested positive. Will they die ? Probably not, they will probably have flu like symptoms for a few days but every once in awhile for some unknown reasons, this virus does kill healthy people. Look at the 41 year old actor who died today. 3 months in the hospital from covid, completely healthy, no underlining issues. His wife can’t even explain it. Ask dr wecht to explain that, maybe he will give you some jfk info while he’s at it.

From the email I got just now, Ice Castle is open at least on Tuesday.

it's called contact tracing. When someone is tested positive for Covid-19, the protocol is to identify the places and the other people whom he/she has come in contact with. Those people will then need to get tested.

When you’re discussing your choice as opposed to state mandating stay at home orders, you’re making it political. I would draw the line at conducting tryouts during this time when the result of non attendance is a lack of a roster spot. Basically if a kid refused to attend tryouts this past month, they are blackballed. It was bad judgement and in poor taste to hold the tryouts. Yes it sucks to not have hockey as usual. But boy the result of not taking it serious is slapping everyone in the face with reality right now. And it’ll only get worse because it seems this generation (anyone that considers restaurants and ice rinks closed to the public “living their life”) just can’t handle the hard work. I’d like to go out too. But until idiots allow the spread to subside and a vaccine is developed, we all have to pay for it. That’s an arrogant and intrusive attitude that younger folks have. Social lives are privileges not rights. Seems we need to re learn that

Review the breaking news that @Jack Handey posted in an effort to try and discredit on this board but has now turned into a firestorm for these folks. It’s all common sense. @Danner27 has proven his sources are good on many occasions. Mark my words, he’s right and it’ll all be shut down soon enough. Hopefully the people that forced their way into the crowd don’t have their places of employment find out they willingly put themselves into a situation where they would contract it.

Says the guy that created his account to defend the average statistics of the lower ranked 18U team at this arena. Some of us are trying to help the community at large. Judging by the panicked response after a long absence I will make a few guesses- your kid was at the amateur tryout in question you were one of the parents that had to be there and watch (this is one of the saddest traits of any of today’s “man”) you are now a carrier yiur family, your place of business and anyone you’ve come in contact with is now at risk because you needed to cast your eyes on an amateur tryout that you don’t have any experience to actually understand or evaluate how close did I get? Either way, as @Danner27 keeps saying, the truth will be exposed and all the money and time you wasted casting your families well being aside to appease your ego will be a waste. No matter what anyone thinks, it’ll all be shut down without you even knowing it

With all due respect, the economy and our way of life does not require amateur hockey. Ice rinks are Petrie dishes for bacteria. Viruses will spread and find every area to survive in that environment. Tryouts for this season were not at all necessary other than to collect seed money. Sure rinks need to survive and I’ve spent lots of time and money in them for 40 years but I cannot support the notion that it’s a critical business. And if this was spread at the rink in question at that organizations tryout, please realize that it would have most likely been heavily attended and came no where close to the recommended numbers and spacing. What I will say is that, the notion to pit on these events and force compliance is intrusive and wrong. Until people are willing to work together with full disclosure on a plan of action and leave politics out of it, get used to the idea of no youth sports. This generation may have just killed it for good.

You'd really get a kick out of when they show up for dek hockey and get smoked.

I personally don't believe that the masks are going to help us average citizens. I try to avoid wearing them as much as possible. Also with the huge amount of testing going on it's no surprise "new" cases continue to show up.

I guess I'm just one of the jerks who thinks this whole thing is a load of garbage. Up until 2020 every article on the spread of diseases and viruses said masks didn't work. Go look it up if you don't believe me. Plus take a look at some of the new packaging that is coming out, where it says right on the box, does not protect against the spread of COVID-19. Then, we were told, "this is going to kill you"! Now you have all these people telling me I could have it and don't even know it, and I could be infecting people without realizing it. Then, they could get it (and not know it) and spread it to others. So what. To tell you the truth, I really don't care if I get it or not anymore. I guess it's because I don't know of anyone who has gotten it, nor do I know someone who knows someone who has gotten it (please don't tell me you stories about your mother or uncle who has it and had rough time, I don't "know" any of you, and can guarantee I have never met any of you either). Now we have to "rush" to get a vaccine, and just wait until a year or so from now, when they find out that there is some side effect to this, and every ambulance chaser in the business will have ads during Wheel of Fortune saying, "did you wear a mask during COVID-19 now have this issue"? "Do you get a COVID-19 vaccine, now your pee is green"? Quick call our law offices now and we'll get money for you! Or, the next great pandemic that the oh so trustworthy news will come up with. I think I am just going to but stock in the mask companies, Lexan barrier builders and retire. I guess in the end we'll just agree to disagree. I haven't been in an ice rink in close to 2 years and to tell you the truth I couldn't be happier. I'll just stay in my house, send the wife to the store and not have to put up with any of this nonsense. I will however respect y'alls opinions. Hopefully, one day things will get back to normal, but I have little faith in that.