champeen

to clarify-- the little caesars team that was there is the farmington hills LC 18uAA team, not their tier I AAA team. they really weren't any better than any of the pgh AA teams. (i think their numerical rating in MHR was like an 88.something going into the tournament. so their spot in the final was not a forgone conclusion. pretty sure they tied Armstrong (iirc), and they didn't blow anyone out. Ashburn was the only team that was clearly stronger than the rest of the pack.

SSA is a very young team this year (at least 6 freshman playing significant minutes, including the entire 2nd fwd line) AND they were missing a few of their top players. Nowhere near as competitive as last years' roster, which was dominated by a strong senior class. Even very good '05s and '06s are going to struggle at times playing against '02s. They should be strong again in a year or two.

yeah... now the livebarn feed there is COMPLETELY offline. i just called Alpha (from texas) and didn't get a very credible or encouraging answer.

ok cool. thanks.

i live out of state, but my son will be playing in the tournament. i notice your livebarn is password protected (or locked). will that be unlocked this weekend?

i live in TX, so it's possible things are dfferent there, but i have put together a couple of "tournament" teams in the past and it does require that one of your local orgs be willing to "roster" your team through USA Hockey. a couple of times, i was able to convince them to do it, and on more than one other occasion, they refused, because they wanted to be the ones to offer a tournament team to the same parent demographic and charge them for practices and whatnot. But, without being rostered through a recognized org, i think you would be SOL.

If you go back and look at the screenshot i posted, it shows 39 D-1 players from PA. I was just extrapolating to 10 per birth year, and 4 or 5 of THOSE being from eastern PA, so 5 or 6 PER BIRTH YEAR. but it's possible that the total PA number is weighted more heavily to western PA due to philly area players actually being from NJ or DE, and thus not counting toward the 39.

16U hockey is without a doubt better than 18U. Regarding college hockey: Yes, the players are spread out across more than four birth years, but they still only have 4 years of ELIGIBILITY. So, maybe only a couple of 18yrs olds are playing D-1 college hockey today, but many others from their birth year will be playing 2 years from now. By the same token, the number of 24 year-olds playing this year doesn't represent ALL of the kids from that BY who have played, since others have already finished playing and have moved on. It still makes sense to call it a 4-year component, math-wise.

This doc shows there were 39 D-1 players from PA in 2018-2019. Roughly speaking, lets say that's across 4 birth years. so approx. 10 per birth year. And let's say 5 of those 10 are from eastern Pa. So, there are maybe 5 players in the area in any given year with a legit D-1 future. At least 2-3 of those 5 are not playing in PA after 16u because they are headed to the USHL/BCHL/NAHL or possibly Prep. the other 2-3 are the TOP, TOP kids on PPE or Esmark. period. end of story.

20% on indoor venues with normal max of up to 2000. 15% for venues from 2,001-10,000 https://www.punxsutawneyspirit.com/content/gov-wolf-sec-levine-amend-guidelines-safe-gathering-limits?fbclid=IwAR06ViGkHCGie2GWZJRX4FUClJ2HBFVn6DcTzvaHWyjfPLDHrruWDibDaj8 I would like to confirm this with a media outlet a smidge more prominent that the Punxsutawney Spirit, though.

I don't believe that factor in prior year at all. At team has to have at least 5 games logged in order to be ranked, but obviously the accuracy of the rankings increases considerably as more games are played. A couple things to note: A team with an 88.00 rating might be a 91.00 with their starting goalie and a 85.00 with their backup goalie, but it is not tracked that granularly. It's a huge factor. Also- While leagues are shown to have separate rankings, all leagues under a given age group can be cross-reference by numerical rating. For instance: 18U Tier I, Tier II, New England Prep, USA Independent Prep, Canada Midget AA, Canada Midget AAA, Minnesota HS, etc..... are all actually part of the same database. A New England Prep team with a 96.00 rating should be equal to a 18U Tier I team with a 96.00 rating, even though they are listed in separate "Rankings"

I've gone from a heavy skeptic to somewhat of a believer in the rankings over the last 6 years or so. But, it's important to understand them in order to get any value from them. First off... strength of schedule IS taken into place in the formula. However, it still does not benefit a team to play teams WAY worse than they are, because there is a cap on the the goal differential in the formula as well. If PPE plays a team considerably worse than they are and beats them 12-1, they only get credit for a (iirc) 6 goal victory, so it would actually negatively impact their overall score. Another thing that is important to understand is that the numerical RATING is far more useful than the RANKING. The RATING can be used to predict the outcome of a matchup as follows: A team with a 98.32 rating would be expected to beat a team with a 95.35 rating by 3 goals, with each ratings point equal to one goal differential. Obviously, it does not always work out this way, BUT it can give an org. an idea of what teams *might* be a good matchup for them. A team with a 97.00 rating would likely be wasting their time playing a team with an 83.00 rating. All of this, of course, is highly dependent on cross-pollination of teams playing in tournaments against teams from other parts of the country. An org. that has not played outside of its own "bubble" will have fairly inaccruate ratings until they play teams from another region. As long as it's used as a general litmus and not as the source of the parents' giant egos, i think it's a pretty valuable tool.

yes, LOL, that a 29 yr old coach died. it was sleeping pills. and the Dr.s determined that COVID actually played a roll in dropping his blood/O2 levels in conjunction with the pills. but regardless, some people will not care until it affects them. i get that. carry on.

THIS GUY GETS IT. 100%. Side note- Here in TX, rinks are pretty much wide open and I know of 3 teams that have had COVID outbreaks already and a 29 yr old 16UAA coach died from a drug OD trying to fight it on his own. Got an email yesterday that one of the teams my son played against this past weekend now has positive tests. If things continue like this, hockey will get shut down here, believe me. When one of these kids' grandmother dies, it's going to be really sad. So, our Republican Gov. is opening shit up and believe me, our hospitalization numbers and our daily death count are way higher than PA. Does that mean I think a 25 person cap, regardless of Sq Ft. is reasonable? Of course not. You should totally fight that. My kid played this past weekend, despite the risks I'm well aware of. But, don't assume that the legislators just have it out for you. The reason you don't know of many cases up there is likely BECAUSE of the restrictions. To say "nobody is even getting it, why all the rules?" is actually backwards in this case.

this may not be a popular idea, but i read something pages and pages ago about how the scorekeeper isn't part of the 25 because they are sequestered in their own area.....has anyone thrown out the idea of temporarily putting up plexi at the benches (players would have to use the doors to get on/off the ice) in order to create additional pods. 25 on each bench, 25 on the ice? just a thought.....

if you're talking Div I, then yes- those are the 3 jrs leagues developing those players. but there are lots of NCAA D-III players playing in the EHL, which is tier iii pay-to-play.

i love this macho internet guy thing. i've been around hockey long enough to know that 'big boy' hockey differs from squirt and peewee hockey a great deal. i've seen plenty of mite and squirt rock stars turn out to be nothing by the time bantams rolled around. that's not the issue here, though, dude. if you are comparing '09s to '09s, then it reasonable to say "go watch these aaa kids on this night. they can really skate. if you think your kid can hang, then sure... let him tryout and see what happens."

I live in Tx, so I have no skin in this... but, yeah...i've got a 2008 who can 'flat out fly.' and he could flat out fly last year, too. I've got an '06 who cannot fly and never has been able to. it's all relative, and i think the advice of going to watch some aaa kids skate so that he can get an idea of the speed and edgework at that level compared to his own son is pretty decent advice.

thanks for this info- my wife grew up in aspinwall/fox chapel area, but it seems like Renegades are the only conveniently located program to that part of town. not that a little driving would scare me off too much, but commuting to something south like the Panthers might be too much of a pain in the ass, and vice versa if you live down there. Austin literally only has 1 organization, which is terrible if you aren't happy with the situation for whatever reason (coaching, fees, other parents, etc.) because it's either suck it up, or quit the sport. Having options is a totally foreign concept for us!

Ok... thanks again. Our boys have 3 practices a week + games, so over the course of the season maybe we are getting, and paying for, a bit more ice. Still doesn’t justify us paying double the amount you guys do! Fafa Fohi- yes, my son’s two best friends play for the Dallas Stars Elite AAA and will easily pay 10k (actually a fair amount more, i expect) this season after all is said and done. I am not assuming an equivalence between AA here and AA there- my boys might be A players up there- but getting a sense for that would be a big part of why we want to come check things out. OH WAIT- one more question! What is your opinion of middle school hockey? Is it something kids do in addition to PAHL? Is it competitive at all or is the skill level lower than the league?

Thanks for your reply. One other question: My research shows that season fees for most PAHL teams are FAR less than what we pay here. On the one hand, I know energy costs for the rinks are higher in Texas, but the discrepancy still seems crazy. FYI- we pay $4300 per kid for practices, a 20 game regular season + Playoffs, and team entry fees for a couple tournaments. Travel/Hotels to games and tourneys are of course extra. We live in Austin and the majority of our games are in Dallas or Houston, and sometimes OKC or Tulsa, so we spend a fair amount of extra dough on gas and hotels. Some of the PAHL orgs I've looked up have league fees between $1800 and $2200. SO, my question is this--- how many hrs of practice/week do your kids' teams have and is it shared or full ice? Total practice time is the only variable I can imagine driving the relative programs costs. Thanks again!

Ok... I'll kick this thing off I guess. Currently living in TX and have two sons playing -- 12UAA and 10UAA. My wife is a Pittsburgh native and we are considering a move there sometime before 2019-2020 hockey season. In the meantime, we'll probably make a couple of trips up there and we'd like to catch a few different games and/or practices to get a feel for how the scene there differs from Texas. Is there a specific weekend that is better or worse in terms of the sheer volume of youth hockey activity around town? Which organizations should we try to prioritize observing? I'd be equally interested in seeing what constitutes AAA talent up there, as well as AA and A--- not because I believe my kids are AAA, but purely as a reconnaissance mission. Thanks in advance!