Lifelongbender

Easier access to the link: https://cdn4.sportngin.com/attachments/document/844b-2168647/MAHA_Return_to_the_Game_2020-21_-_V3.pdf#_ga=2.28090490.732783428.1592404452-1746626322.1592404452

So, this is from the MAHA website. In this document they list three scenarios of modified play, to be used in various conditions up to fully open. Note that they are planning to limit teams to ten skaters, one goalie, and one coach AT ALL LEVELS. One referee at a game. Even at 18U. Hell, there's even a theoretical scenario in there where the state allows splitting the ice and 25 people per half, in which games up to and including 18U would be played 4x4, cross ice. (Which is fun sometimes for a holiday practice at that level, but for league play?) I'd heard that Michigan might not be allowing out of state teams to travel there for tournaments and/or games. I didn't find that specific restriction in this document, but as a friend pointed out, who would want to go there to play by those rules anyway? I figured some conversation on this topic might prepare us all for what might be coming. Strange days, indeed.

Where my kids are currently skating there are, for all practical purposes, no restrictions at all already. I think you are right.

Given the state of affairs at the rinks in the South Hills, I would say that hockey people, as a whole, aren't concerned about it. Time will tell about what will happen if an actual resurgence in cases ever happens. I don't see things ever shutting down again for this particular issue, but I've been wrong before.

LOL. Don't forget the wonderful Rupps! Now that was a hockey store.

hehe. Fair enough. Thank God my kids are old enough to dress themselves and tie their own skates nowadays.

Seriously, who in their right mind leans over and takes a whiff of any item AT ALL in a hockey arena! You're not wrong, I'm just saying...

In Western PA, there is generally a place for everyone to play. PAHL has B level brackets at every level - well, it's more like A minor for midgets, but that's a distinction without a difference. What wester PA does NOT have, for the most part, is house leagues. If you're playing, you're playing on a team that plays all around the metro area.

While entertaining, this isn't very informative.

I've heard a number of people who are more or less respected in the hockey community around here express doubt about whether there will be a season at all this year. I, on the other hand, agree 100% with the logic here.

What provisions are organizations around the city making for letting the players get some ice time before tryouts resume? I'm curious about how the hockey community in general is addressing this for players who haven't skated in literally months. I've heard through friends that one organization in the region is allowing each registered player one on-ice session for free before tryouts. This seems a little light to me. Are there other organizations making their plans public yet?

I don't see how these repeated sarcastic posts are moving this discussion forward. I'm afraid that the question of whether social distancing and shut down or operational restrictions of various services and facilities is necessary and the question of whether those shut down/operational restrictions are the law of the land are two different, and, it appears, increasingly unrelated, questions. The various restrictions on our daily lives may or may not have been necessary. We can never know whether they were or were not necessary because it is not possible to know what would have happened if they had not been enacted. For my part, I suspect they were not necessary, as I have stated elsewhere on this board. However, that question is not relevant to the question of whether rinks/coaches are permitted to operate outside the rules laid down by the government. The various requirements to operate are clear, if not clearly scientific, and operating otherwise is risking official action. There can't be any question about that. It is up to the various rinks to decide what level of exposure they can accept.

YMCA did not take out their ice, but they have made it abundantly clear that they won't permit anyone to use it until the County is green and restrictions are raised.

I imagine this is exactly right. I know I count myself among them.

There are rumors about a number of potentially national-bound teams and teams from several organizations outside the Renegades organization practicing there from the South Hills.

He's right about this. Without sanctioning from a body like USA Hockey, you don't even have the fiction of coverage at a rink.

I know of one that has definitely been selling private ice the entire time on the down low.

Yeah, it has been. You're 100% correct about that.

This last sentence. 100%. I wonder if people will notice how the time off affects their players for the positive instead of merely focussing on the slight and temporary decline in skating and stickhandling skills. The only caveat is that there are surely MANY players - admittedly mostly likely not AA or AAA players - who are sitting on their couches playing video games rather than staying in shape. The first couple weeks back on the ice will be fascinating, and the players who cared to stay active will be obvious.

It has definitely been happening at the Ice Castle.

This sounds just right.

It's true that the Y doesn't want the ice, but I understood that the contracts had several years left.

Eddie, I agree with your assessment. I was just thinking out loud.

Any chance there's an element of being ready to house the bodies from other localities as well? That rink has the virtue of being a little out of the way. One could imagine that scenario.

Some discussion of this over on the "Tryouts?" topic, too.