Spear and Magic Helmet

The icing thing while penalty killing has been brewing for years. Would not be surprised to see that adopted in the NHL as well.

18 hours ago, sutton said:

This happened for a myriad of reasons, hazing/rookie party/making rookies pick up pucks.  It was reported by a transferring player on the way out the door.  Originally set for 2 years, was pushed to 4 years after appeal.  In the summary it states that the program has to abide by all items set forth in the suspension and the team can resume in 2024, with no players currently involved in the program (and I would assume staff?).  

Really incredible that the suspension was actually double upon appeal, seems really harsh.  What happened doesn't seem all that far fetched from what happens at every ACHA school I'm sure, not saying at all that what happened was correct especially the underage drinking etc, but hell PIHL teams make certain players carry water and pick up pucks. 

 

This process started back before covid and was put on a delay for the shutdown, I am shocked it is just getting out now. 

Agreed that it sounds like someone on the way out, but as others have noted, there were other cases logged with student government and other fairly heavy handed suspensions. I'm guessing that the alcohol thing, including the "shoot the boot" thing, was kind considered a big deal. Again, as noted by other people, there have been deaths due to extreme amounts of drinking and subsequent legal issues generated from them at other colleges. I'm guessing SRU just doesn't want to deal with anything like that and taking a bit of a no-tolerance approach.

19 minutes ago, hockeyisgreat said:

Where did they announce that?  Pretty interesting in that they are a Club Sport.  While they use the school name they don't get much funding.  They haven't even started to play this year as I believe the ACHA isn't playing till the spring.  

They probably would get blackballed by the ACHA if they tried to participate without being officially allowed by SRU. Also would likely have trouble with getting grades, enrollment info, and whatever else the ACHA would want. But beyond that, they could probably put together a men's league team or something. I wonder if Cal and IUP will benefit from the team being gone.

40 minutes ago, forbin said:

Aren't the majority of our area rinks privately owned? Can you imagine the future landscape of WPA youth hockey if even just a few of those rinks go under?  You'd have to think that those organizations would be absorbed into others, which would limit the amount of kids they could place on teams due to available ice, etc.... Yikes.

I think even ONE rink closing would have a huge impact. Just in the last 5 years or so, we've lost Airport, Planet Ice and one sheet at Bethel. We gained 2 sheets at UPMC, and now Alpha has 3 sheets instead of 2. So the net loss I guess is 1, but even then I feel like most rinks are maxed out. I feel like putting a roof over the rink at South Park would have made a lot of sense given how little ice is available.

15 hours ago, dazedandconfused said:

Nope. Not buying it. That is the Futures draft list for 99's.

Maybe I'm reading this wrong, but it looks like the USHL Futures draft in 2020 was for 2004 birth years. So if that is correct, then the 2015 draft would be the year for 1999 birth years.

11 minutes ago, hockeyisgreat said:

Time to get back to the topic at hand!  Who here really thinks we will get back to play on January 4th?  Maybe we should start a Pool and all pick dates as to when we think we might actually get back to Hockey.

My pick is February 1st 2021

 

I actually think there is a reasonable chance of Jan 4th. The vaccines are already being administered and that hopefully will have numbers down in 2 weeks. And yes, I know not everyone is following the rules with the shutdown, but a lot of people are and that will help as well.

Yeah that looks like 50% capacity. I feel bad for the people who are following the rules and kind of getting screwed on this. Speaking of following the rules, at least two rinks are still allowing private ice rentals and/or adult league hockey.

1 hour ago, Lifelongbender said:

I doubt that a particular ice rink in the South Hills will slow down at all. they hardly did the last time.

That rink will be losing a tournament, so there will be plenty of available ice. Make sure you park on the side of the building where your car can't be seen from the road. 

On 11/21/2020 at 9:51 PM, Rancho1 said:

Ok. Elizabeth Forward not listed.  Kinda my point.

"Armstrong" has been a co-op at certain points. For example, in the early 90s, there was an "Armstrong Central" that combined Kittanning and Ford City. 

Meadville had, for years, used students from Cochranton, which is in the same school district. They had to move to co-op status for a while, partly because of that. 

Keystone Oaks is a co-op and has been for the last 10 years or so.

Churchill was a co-op and got a court order to allow them to play in the playoffs one year.

That's just what i see in scanning quickly. Plenty of co-op teams over the years, both officially and under the table. 



 

Unfortunately, schools are going full-remote left and right, so the argument about masks will probably end up being moot. Don't have to wear a mask to not play 

I'm having trouble keeping up. Masks mandatory now but what about spectators?

1 hour ago, hockeyisgreat said:

I looked at it.  Doesn't seem very user friendly.  I would like to know who the top 18U, & 16U players are in Western Pa.  Ranked 1-20 in both divisions and who they play for. Maybe they all play for Pens Elite. Do other organizations have anyone in the top.  Is there a scouting service that does that? If not someone should start it. Maybe Pittsburgh Hockey Digest. They probably see most of the top players in western pa.  Are the PIHL all star games a good indicator of the top players?  Not to hard to get a list of the top Football and Basketball players in Western pa.  Ugh just thought about the fact that maybe a lot of the top 18U players move away to play.

A friend of mind officiates a lot of AAA hockey, mostly for PPE. He said 16U AAA is by far the best hockey. Not that 18U is bad by any stretch, but it is considerably thinner b/c a lot of the best players are playing Jr rather than 18 U. Also this could get worse if that split season stuff ever gains a foothold around here since Jr isn't bound by split season rules. Anecdotally, the best hockey games he officiates are PPE games, but I don't know of any scouting services like what you describe.

Also I see a lot of people are saying college is 4 birth years, but I might argue it is 5 or 6 birth years. It's getting more rare, but there are still a decent amount of 24 year old seniors who are playing NCAA after aging out of junior.

1 hour ago, hockeyisgreat said:

Thanks for the input guys! Would it be safe to say that we would be wasting our time and money in AAA for anybody but Pens Elite and possibly Esmark?  These Faux AAA teams aren't going to help you get exposed to College Coaches?  Is there any other way to get exposed to College Coaches?  Any idea how many kids out of Western Pa get College Hockey Scholarships? Someone should keep stats on that. I know football and wrestling in Western PA seem to do pretty good in advancing kids to D-1 & D-2 programs with some type of Scholarship.

You have to remember that football especially is totally different. There are what, 85 scholarships per team in football? and around 120 D1 programs at the top level (never mind 1-AA and any other level that grants scholarships). I don't know much about wrestling, it might be closer to hockey after all of the programs seemingly getting axed year after year, but it's still very different from hockey. 

Hockey has, in a good year, 60 D1 teams. Each team is capped at 18 scholarships. Most of those teams have 25-30 players, and many of them only grant a total of 8-9 scholarships, so a lot of those scholarships are split up among several players. I haven't seen the latest stats on this, but in looking quickly at local NCAA rosters, it is probably still at least 50% of those scholarships going to foreign students, mostly Canadians. So the odds are pretty tough for anyone, not just Pittsburgh area players. 

The players from this area who even played D1 (let alone got money) have all ended up on a USHL or NAHL roster at some point, usually before they were done with high school. What they did before that varies, but yes, a good number of them played PPE, some played Esmark. 

Honestly, if you're good enough, they'll find you. One bright spot in so many players doing NCAA hockey for just a year or two is these coaches are constantly looking for talent because they need new players all the time. 

I saw an email recently that made it sound like Mt Lebanon is not going to allow spectators at first anyhow, may be some time for them to change their mind.

If 700 is Lebo's capacity, then that is 140 for max occupancy. If you figure between 2 teams there are 50 people - including coaches, officials, scorekeepers, emt, etc - and then another 50 people - including rink employees and teams who are either getting ready to play next or who just got off the ice - that's already 100 people. And that's just 40 left for spectators. I kind of think Lebo's capacity is higher than that, but even if it is 1000, that means 200 total people. So maybe parents are OK but not grandparents, siblings, etc. Knowing Lebo, they will follow whatever the rules are to a T, and probably UPMC, RMU, Baierl, and Brady's Run will as well.

14 hours ago, Danner27 said:

You guys should start a varsity league, it’s about time someone kicks PIHL to the curb! 

I agree. The PIHL kind of started off bad, with a one-size-fits-all approach and never really recovered. It's worked out well for some teams for sure, but a lot of others have folded.

It is an interesting idea, and I think it will be as useful to hockey as that rink in PPG Plaza, but it's probably one of the first things to get cut when they go over budget. I like their ideas and energy, but unfortunately downtown feels like it's going the wrong way with everyone working from home. 

On 9/30/2020 at 2:01 PM, fafa fohi said:

We think we have it bad here?  Be thankful you don't live in Quebec.  And I am told Ontario may be next if case counts do not subside.

https://globalnews.ca/news/7363360/quebec-coronavirus-red-alert-montreal/

I didn't see anything about restricting hockey in this article - are they taking any steps like we are with the 25 people limits? It's probably too early to have outdoor hockey up there.

10 minutes ago, forbin said:

Who is enforcing these restrictions? Do the police have the power to come in and shut down a hockey game if its over the 25 capacity limit?

I think the majority of the rinks are fed up with this BS and will allow full roster games to be played. Most likely still without spectators, and making sure the players follow the protocols. 

 

I think that if some of the rinks are enforcing 25 and some are not, then someone whose home rink is enforcing 25 will tattle on the rinks that are not.

I know there's been a lot of discussion about COVID and the season, but this is a pretty big deal in HS hockey.

https://thealmanac.net/sports/mcvay-out-as-bethel-park-hockey-coach/article_a04cc9b2-f316-11ea-a992-3bb230062fb6.html

I would think it would be better to categorize rinks like gyms. My gym has been open for a couple of months now I think. Many school districts around me are either limited in school or no in-school at all. That would not be good for the rinks near me if the schools could close them.

4 minutes ago, Quinlan2020 said:

I hear a lot of "kids will go" & "players leaving" talk. You should swap the words "kids" & "players" with "parents". Kids will be fine with any option unless the parents tell them that they shouldn't be. When push comes to shove, most of the parents won't go anywhere anyway. How many people do you think will actually opt to drive an hour or more 3 - 4 times a week over "suffering" through this for what might only be a few weeks or months? It could go on longer and then we can talk about those out-of-area options that may or not have spots/ice time available anyway.

Depends where they live. Cranberry to Youngtown isn't that far, and I bet that rink in Youngstown would love to sell a lot more ice. Wheeling/Morgantown are not that far from Washington County.

But you are right, I think kids will surprise some of the parents and make do with 4 on 4 or whatever they're offered, if it's that or no hockey at all.

I've been around hockey a while, but have never coached youth hockey. However, never heard of any kind of drug testing. Safesport training, yes. Drugs/alcohol, no.

There was a case a few years back where a Bethel Park High School assistant coach had some issues with drugs, but I believe his trouble came to light when he was arrested.

https://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2014/01/17/hockey-coachs-arrest-raising-questions-for-pa-interscholastic-hockey-league/

No need to really "debate" this here.   As the president said, it is what it is. If you want to change anything, vote and contact your local representatives. An anonymous message board argument just makes everyone angry and accomplishes nothing.

Just now, Danner27 said:

They don’t. It’s how rink owners interpret. Lebo is community owned paid for by tax dollars. Baierl is privately owned. 

I think that some of the "interpretation" might be a little loose. Also I can pretty much predict that if some rinks are going to have regular games and some won't, there will be some anonymous complaints to the Commonwealth, which will result in everyone getting screwed.