Lifelongbender

47 minutes ago, RJUSHL said:

Yea that's true. And then you travel to Buffalo or somewhere for a tournament and play all the same PAHL teams again.

Ain't that the truth? My kids have gone to many tournaments, in one case as far as Annapolis, only to face three PAHL teams in a tournament more than once.

There is a committee that meets, but maybe not today, exactly. They look at the results of the games. Most teams will remain where they are, but some teams will be moved either because of the outcomes of their games, or because they appealed and demonstrated through extra games that they do not belong where they were placed. Initial placements are based on a combination of proposed placement (from the organization) and a database of players they keep for reference. Then discussion occurs at the meetings about teams that had unexpected placement game outcomes.

To be honest, I agree with those who have said on this discussion board elsewhere that PAHL generally does a good job on placements. There are always teams that either don't get placed right, or for whom there really wasn't a good place to put them, but by and large the system works as well as it can given the huge number of moving parts.

1 hour ago, Wondering aloud said:

Quick question: When does the regular high school hockey season start and end? And, can you play club hockey and do high school hockey?

Both begin and end in October and, say, late February or early March. Many, if not most, players do both school and amateur.

Amateur games are on weekends, and PIHL games are on weekdays, so it's generally manageable.

9 hours ago, sadday4hockey said:

I don't think it can be referred to as "left" when you are banned from the place of business where the team practices and plays. Why the desire to bury the truth may I ask? Karma finally came calling as it always does.

sigh. No desire to bury the truth at all. If you look back to the discussion we had about this topic when it happened, I'm sure you can discern my opinion on it.

My desire was to avoid this silly discussion, which literally has nothing to do with the St. Margaret Tournament.

3 hours ago, PUCKCOVID19 said:

yes left. no need to bring up the past.....if your aware of what happened fine if not o well 

Right. That has been discussed elsewhere.

On 9/8/2021 at 5:51 PM, BeaverFalls said:

Didn’t they get a new coach?  

Sort of. Mort, the longtime BP coach, left the organization. He was replaced by a longtime BP assistant coach.

11 minutes ago, Jack Handey said:

and Bethel Park falling 8-3.  What is going on?

 

Yeah, what the heck is going on?

The Quest battle camps are a great investment. Both of my kids loved them.

I don't remember a second collapse in the 2010s, no. But stranger things have happened.

Well, that is hilarious on so many levels.

You do have to appreciate their sweaters, though. Always been a fan of their uniforms.

2 hours ago, Corsi said:

I know that some of the people that were giving private lessons in Delmont have been having a hard time getting access to the ice schedules.  In the past the schedules were released at the start of each month, but now it seems like it is only a week or two at a time, which is making it more difficult to get students scheduled.

I have a friend who does some teaching out there who has had issues with both the rising cost of ice and the ice schedule issue. I think this is entirely correct.

1 hour ago, Spear and Magic Helmet said:

Don't they already have the former Iceoplex at Southpointe? Or is there another rink in the South Hills you're referring to?

I'm just riffing here, but Black Bear could be the best thing that ever happened to Rostraver.

I'm not saying anyone is talking about that. I am saying they should be.

1 minute ago, Saucey said:

It was explained to me as an update to language only. Body contact and checking were being used interchangeably. So now body contact is competitive contact. Competitive contact should happen at all levels, checking at 14u up.

You know, this all sounds dangerously like USA Hockey moving in the right direction for once. I'm not sure how to process this.

8 hours ago, carroll81 said:

It was put in to clarify what they tried to eliminate in the last go around.

Two guys battling in the corner, third guys comes in and checks the opponent off the puck - Penalty.

Two guys battling in the corner, third guys comes makes a play on the puck (can use body positioning)  - No Penalty.

 

They also clarified the body contact while two players are chasing the puck.  Just because there is contact prior to getting to the puck does not mean there is a penalty, even if one player ends up on the ice.  As long as it's a battle for position, no penalty.

Nothing here is really new since the previous rulebook, at least in terms of how they want it called.

Yes, @carroll81 and @Not Gam, that's exactly how they were calling it back a few years ago. I wasn't very precise with my language.

7 hours ago, GrumpyOldPucker said:

Heard that EVERYONE that enters the rink has to sign a waiver..... players, coaches, fans, everyone.... 

Are you saying that they're having people sign waivers at the door? But no masking or other measures?

Ah, yes, I see on their website that they are requiring an online waiver before entering the facility.

16 hours ago, Not Gam said:

You can also no longer check someone who is in a battle with someone else for the puck, 640e: "A minor penalty shall be assessed to any player who delivers a body check to an opponent who is physically engaged for possession of the puck with one or more other players.", and you have to keep your stick down whenever you check someone, 640d: "A minor penalty shall be assessed to any player who delivers a body check with no effort to gain possession of the puck and the blade of the player’s stick is above the knees.", there is also "with no effort to gain possession of the puck" in that rule, so you still technically can, under specific circumstances.

A couple years ago some officials were enforcing this, at least in the preseason. They were penalizing the third man into a battle. It will be interesting to see if this gets widespread enforcement this season.

1 hour ago, sadday4hockey said:

They should add copper or aluminum so everyone gets a medal. It's shameful that one team gets excluded like that!!

Everyone's a comedian!

Well, I was just wondering if we could get updates about the current policies at rinks around the region. I'm not interested in anyone's opinions about masking or vaccines here, or political views. Just wanting to understand the policies of rinks in the area.

It's my thinking that we are going to be in the same boat as last season - coaches wearing masks on benches, players not required to wear them on the ice, and possibly restrictions on parents in rinks. I don't see this season evolving any differently than last season.

I thought that starting a conversation would give us all a place to note rink restrictions and policies as they are revised and released.

I heard yesterday that Mount Lebanon is requiring masking inside the rink building for everyone starting today. Masks are not required on the ice. They are required in lobby, stands, locker rooms, and bathrooms.

I figured this would happen again as the season started up, and it's worth noting that Lebo is a municipality-owned rink, and was probably the most restrictive of all rinks last season.

Has anyone heard of similar requirements at other rinks? I'm betting YMCA won't be far behind on this. The Y just released a policy for their summer campers at the Y building requiring masking.

22 hours ago, RJUSHL said:

Did PAHL assign the three digit code that is used by My Hockey Rankings?

I just went to MHR's 2020-2021 rankings and selected a random team in PAHL for this example. I am not affiliated with the Badgers. In the listing 

Allegheny Badgers (#757) 16U AA (PA)

the three digit number 757 is the team number assigned by PAHL to that team. If that is the question you are asking the answer is yes.

All, if we take a look at the top of the page ay MHR, it includes this note:

Quote

2021-22 Rankings will be Released Wednesday September 29, 2021. Prior to this release, you can find the pre-season team listings and/or previous season rankings below.

Lord knows where the data that's up there actually came from, but I'm guessing that it's legacy data for the most part.

14 hours ago, Saucey said:

No. There are more teams listed for 16uAA than played last year, for instance. I doubt PAHL sent any thing, divisions haven't been set. My guess is self reporting or people looking at organization websites.

 

@Saucey is right on this. The divisions haven't been set yet at PAHL. 

That data is, as far as I can tell, entered by volunteers. I do not believe that PAHL does anything with MHR.

34 minutes ago, aaaahockey said:

I mean this also begs the question if they could keep their program and sell the ice rink at the same time.   Im assuming a lot of this has to do with the rink itself not being profitable.  

Yeah, these two questions are why I think you'd have to be nuts to play there at this point.

8 hours ago, GrumpyOldPucker said:

Yeah, except where would the basketball team practice every day? Remember that both are winter sports and it costs a whole lot less to just turn on the lights than it does to keep a 17,00 square foot ice cube frozen.

All of which is why it seems so likely that closing the D1 hockey program has been on their minds - or officially part of their plan - since the arena was in the planning stage. I still believe that they probably already had an interested buyer for the ice center when they broke ground on the basketball arena.

17 hours ago, Spear and Magic Helmet said:

Recruiting will definitely be tougher, but keep in mind there are only around 60 NCAA D1 teams, period. It's not like football, which has something like 120 teams at the top level, plus 1-AA and so on, or basketball, which has something like 350. On top of that, something like 30% of NCAA D1 rosters are Canadian players. If your choices are play NCAA D1 at RMU or don't play D1 at all, then you might just go to RMU and worry about what happens in the future when it happens. There is a huge supply of US born players for NCAA D1 Hockey.

Will the team they do end up fielding even really be D1? In the end, no matter what happens with the program, there's no real sense in which whatever team takes the ice for them this season will really be a D1 RMU hockey team.