Icebucket

You can also make the argument of, why isn't every PAHL championship a penguin cup? Is D2 really any different from PAHL amateur play where it's players from a variety of schools?

I think PIHL does a great job of giving these players a place to play despite them not actually being school teams. But people are never satisfied and always want more than the gift they were already given.

5 hours ago, Rewster said:

Does Tenband.tv cover/stream any of the north hills schools games (or anywhere else)? I honestly don’t know.

I have to believe that there’s sponsorship & advertising dollars involved. Naturally, that would dictate what games/schools get covered through  their online streaming platform.

They had their own direct broadcast or an affiliate’s broadcast of all of the Penguins Cup games and Pennsylvania Cup games. In fact, they have been streaming PIHL games for several years.
It’s just like any other live sporting events that I’ve seen broadcast or streamed. The primary games that are covered are the ones that receive the sponsorship & advertising dollars.  
 

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

7 minutes ago, hockeyisgreat said:

Wow!  I'm just wondering what your High School Hockey Coaching record is over the last 3 years?

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

1 hour ago, Overqualified said:

That coach s terrible he should sit his seniors in the 3rd period in there last year of high school hockey or have them pass 5 times before shooting you must watch CNBC!

3 loses in 3 years and went to Nationals 3 years in a row

Who would want there kid to experience that

 

 

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

5 minutes ago, Overqualified said:

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.

3 minutes ago, PUCKCOVID19 said:

ii am willing to bet and, and they are losing most of their fire power this season. as they are mostly seniors 

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.

53 minutes ago, Rewster said:

Meh, now you could very well be right about the 16U AA PAHL hockey quality being terrible. I have not kept close tabs on the skill level disparity across the board, or the coaching levels, competition, recent history, etc.

I know that this year’s PAHL 18U AA hockey was honestly some of the best Midget Major hockey that I have seen as a conglomerate in this region. Armstrong is obviously the best as they have gone toe-to-toe with just about every reputable Tier 2 18U AA league in the nation; and either won, or tied. Considering that Armstrong was this year’s PAHLs 18U AA measuring stick. There were 4 or sometimes 5 league teams in the PAHL that could have been legitimate players in Tier 2 18U Nationals.

Maybe this is the culmination year for PAHL and the entirety of their divisions and organizations. It could be the brilliance of the bright flame going out in PAHL 18U AA…never to be rivaled again. I’d argue this season was …possibly/probably the best “ever” that came together in the history of the league’s apex age classification.

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

16 minutes ago, RJUSHL said:

What makes “sense” has very little to do with it. The top tournaments/showcases and increasingly more leagues (AHF) all have 15U divisions. And parents have spoken with their wallets. The best players want to, and currently do play on birth year teams. It’s just reality. PAHL is too principled (old school) to understand this. 

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?

38 minutes ago, RJUSHL said:

Well there will be six Tier 1 09 teams next season. Compared with four this season. Esmark is really going to have to work some magic to put together a good team. We'll see. Tier 1 will be a bit watered down I think. PPE may start to bring in non-locals and that always shakes things up. And a few of the top top kids will look at prep schools.

For Tier II, the better 09 AA players are going to gravitate towards the teams that are putting together a 15U team. Any 09 team that stays together will probably play A Major if they play in PAHL. Playing against older but less skilled kids than they are used to. I would guess that Allegheny and South Pitt will have 15U teams to match AHF 15U AA division. They don't have much choice but to play in that league.  And I'm guessing those two teams will not be playing PAHL and then just schedule a lot of independent games. Those two teams will probably pick up a lot of PAHL AA kids from other organizations that are putting together 16U mixed teams. Kids from Foxes 09 and North Pitt 09 will probably seek out other 09 teams since they won't have a birth year team option anymore. I think SCIR is the only 09 team that will try and compete in 16U AA PAHL. Preds will no longer have an 09 AA team so those kids will look around to find an 09 team. I'm not sure about Lebo, but if they keep their 09 team there is no way they can play AA next year.

 

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. 

3 minutes ago, zam said:

The 6th seeds at the 15u and 16u divisions both made it to the finals on the backs of heroic goaltending.   Both of these teams faced 50 shots against per game but their goalies were nearly perfect and they mustered up enough offense to get to the final.  It's nearly impossible to rely on that over the course of a season especially with a 2 goalie rotation, but in a 3 game round robin, an elite goaltender can make all the difference.  

It's only fair that USA hockey awards a few at large bids to account for these sorts of situations.  You could have a wagon of a team get knocked off in a district playoff game and miss out on nationals and a 50 or 60th ranked team be the lone representative of the district. 

The 18u division was won by a goalie that only gave up a total of 3 goals over the course of 4 games. Several teams had legitimate chances to win that division but were on the wrong side of close 1 goal games.

13u and 14u were each won by the superior team and faced very little adversity.

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.

6 hours ago, Rewster said:

Right. Or just form a new team that’s in Pittsburgh and in the same league…only run it ethically and legitimately. I mean, how much can the franchise fee actually cost? $250?

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.

2 hours ago, Rewster said:

So, looking at all of the AAA schools in Eastern Pennsylvania playing for the Flyers Cup…all of the schools listed are private schools. They don’t have one public school with a delineated line that separates one school district from another. I think that I even read some names on the school rosters with birthplaces/hometowns that are not even in Pennsylvania. 
It’s weird because when you look at the Western Pennsylvania AAA school rosters, you don’t see where their hometowns are located…because (with the exception of only 2 schools—Cathedral Prep and Central Catholic), it’s already known where they live.
 

 

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.

2 hours ago, Overqualified said:

I saw that on live barn

Preds coach called timeout with 38 seconds left in 3rd shorthanded with face off in their zone

Drew up a perfect play to score then shortly after win it in overtime 

Here to find out Lebo coach left after 2nd period to watch his other kid play

I heard Lebo parents were pissed

The championship was a 0 to 0 tie after 2 overtime periods 

They should have went to 3 on 3 overtime to decide a winner 

Hate to see a championship go to a shoot out 

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?

1 minute ago, RJUSHL said:

This is exactly right. A lot of the better teams in the AHF and THF are the western PA team. But it's probably just a matter of time until AHF has entire "west" divisions in Pittsburgh.

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.

2 minutes ago, Icebucket said:

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.  

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

8 minutes ago, hockeyisgreat said:

They had the same point total and split in the regular season. I think it went to the penalty minutes tie breaker!  But I could be wrong!

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.