Icebucket

I wasn't trying to imply that they don't do a good job, because I think tenband is great for the PIHL. It just seemed clear that he personally followed the South hills teams a little closer based on the picks

I haven't coached in 10+ years, but have won plenty of league championships. And I'm sure the world hasn't changed that much and the players would much rather win it all, vs being given the opportunity to put up 9 points in a 15 goal win. Maybe develop someone other than your top 5 when games are in hand and it will pay off in those big games where depth comes into play.

And to go a step further since you love he coach so much. He's a coach who can run it up against bad teams, but can't coach well enough to win tough games when it matters. "3 losses in 3 years", but zero championships

Went to nationals... it's not like that's an earned spot at the HS level

Safe to assume this is someone who lives in the South hills?

It actually kind of makes you question the BC coach. At some point you have to have a little bit of an understanding how wide spread the level of ability at the D2 level is. Do you really need to have your top line racking up points late in the 3rd when you are already up by 13?

I have no confirmation that this price is true, but it does seem like a very vengeance thing to do. That whole alpha group is very well known for always choosing money over integrity.

While it wasn't the most vicious spear, when the player makes the spearing motion especially after the whistle he opens himself up to a spearing call. Downside here is if you call it spearing he has to get tossed. Giving the player a 2 and 10 for unsportsmanlike conduct probably send the same message without putting the team shorthanded for 5 minutes and tossing the player from a big game.

One of the the top TJ players took a 5/game for spearing halfway through. Seemed to be a huge turning point as they gave up two on that kill, then didn't have their leading scorer for the back half.

That seems to be what happens every few years. A team dominates and gets moved up as all the players who got them there graduate Hopefully TJ can hang if they get moved up. Can't imagine they would be any worse that the bottom AAA teams this year, even if they lose their top players.

I'll agree on this one. Over the last 5 or so years, 18U has had 2 or 3 good AA teams. This year, there were 5 who easily would have been in the top 3 of any of those seasons

Seems like this thread turned into a teenage girl spat

Maybe I just don't buy the "all the best tier 2 first year midgets play 15U". Even just using this year as an example, Armstrong and NP had about 15 08s on their 16AA teams. You think those players weren't capable of making a tier 2 15U team?

I think it is crazy that the 09s would all want to play as a u15 tier 2 team, especially considering that level technically doesn't exist. Tier 2 should just be U16; show up to tryouts and take the top 18-20 whether they are 08 or 09.

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.

It's not like the 18u PPE team was a powerhouse team all season. They were comparable to esmark and lost to the better team in culver. Why would they deserve an at large over the truly elite teams at 18u?

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

While it's certainly a bad loss, I was shocked to see that Purdue Northwest was an 11 seed. I watched them earlier in the year and it's a legit team. Not trying to excuse IUP as 11-3 shouldn't happen, but certainly a significantly tougher matchup that 11/22 should be. Best of luck to Pitt today. Hopefully they can pull it off.

I get guys wanting to continue to play, but it's really just not needed. The level of play is not as strong as the better mens leagues around here. This is essentially faux AAA for adults.

Yea that is how they do it out east. All private schools must play AAA. It pushes all the large public schools down which is why you get the massive disparity between east and west at the A level. Typically the top A teams out east are schools are as big or bigger than some of the AAA schools here.

I watched both Armstrong games online as my son has a few friends who still play there. They have a very solid team top to bottom, but they were certainly pushed. They topped NP 3-1, but it was probably the closer game. NP had a lot of good chances, but Armstrong goalie is very big with good positioning. He makes alot of tough saves look easy. For the Armstrong/Predators game, it was one of the greatest showings from a goalie I've seen in a while. Armstrong outmatched them pretty heavily, but that goalie stood on his head and stopped all 45+ shots through 3 periods and 2 OTs. Regarding the Mt Lebanon coach. If it's true that he bailed after the second period that's a shame and the parents should be angry. I believe it's the club president and long standing family tied with the club right?

Which makes it even more pathetic that PAHL doesn't do anything. The hardest part is getting quality teams. PAHL already has the better teams, and they are losing them because they do nothing to improve things year after year.

Nevermind this. I just looked it up and SF and TJ did not split. SF took 3 of 4 possible points.

In almost any league, the first tiebreak after head to head is wins. But based on SF getting the 1 seed, seems like PIHL uses something else.

I most certainly agree hockey isn't quite he same as football or basketball where smaller schools mostly don't have a chance. However, the three programs you listed with recent success were all led by top notch coaches. Not sure RMU is capable as they are currently constructed