Jack Handey

You can have a 50-50 battle at the blue line, or you can have a 50-50 battle behind the opponents' goal line. If you want to see more offense and more scoring and just as much creativity, let them have the battle behind the goal line. The new offsides rule forces a puck carrier at the blue line to turn back and re-group into traffic. On occasion I have seen as many as 8 or 9 skaters between the blue and the red line because of the turn back. Yes some creativity will be required to keep possession. But the rule forces more play and more time spent in the neutral zone with high traffic. Is this really what we want to see and where we want to play the game?

There is a petition going around asking USA Hockey to undo the latest rule changes for youth hockey, specifically automatic offsides, icing on the penalty kill, and body checking rule change. Everyone's opinion will be different. In my case, I can live with the icing and body contact changes, but the automatic offsides does not compute. Anyone care to defend or debate the merits of the change? Here's the petition. Petition · Fixing USA Hockey's rules. · Change.org

There's a few other market forces that are driving the AAA craze aside from the AAA proprietors. These are: Tier III junior hockey - USPHL, NA3HL, etc, where there are now hundreds of teams looking to find players to be competitive. These teams are really businesses who are selling the dream of playing college hockey. Junior hockey family advisors - NCSA and the like; they are salespeople who will pitch to you a path and a plan to get your kid into college hockey. They are telling kids and their families that the only way to be looked at by scouts is to play AAA hockey at the youth level.

Hmmm... Predator fees for birth year teams are mysteriously higher than mixed birth year teams. And on top of season fees you get a bonus fee for coaching. At least you and your kid will feel special. Kind of makes you wonder who the real predator is here.

Even before the T1 15-only change, we had Pittsburgh parents running around trying to make their AA teams fit into the Detroit model or Buffalo model, both of which are based on the metro Toronto model.

Au revoir; we bid thee farewell; godspeed; good-luck. It's happened before and will surely happen again so long as there are smoke blowing coaches to drive the demand. There are hundreds of teams in PAHL and changing alignment because 2-3 minor BY teams left is tantamount to the tail trying to wag the dog. A final parting thought, we'll see your independent kids back in various Pittsburgh beer league in just a few years.

I agree, but I ain't the one doin' the equating, ace. They are.

That looks EXACTLY the way a division should look. You know if I recall correctly it was the braintrust at Allegheny that pushed for an AA Minor division. Worked out well.

Here's your MyHockey team count summarized for the last 5 years. Tell me where the trend is. Season Team Type 10u 12u 14u 2016-2017 Major Birth Year or Mixed 1091 1398 1254 Minor Birth Year 214 295 334 Minor Percent 16.4% 17.4% 21.0% 2017-2018 Major Birth Year or Mixed 1266 1539 1400 Minor Birth Year 202 285 330 Minor Percent 13.8% 15.6% 19.1% 2018-2019 Major Birth Year or Mixed 1370 1590 1350 Minor Birth Year 201 308 326 Minor Percent 12.8% 16.2% 19.5% 2019-2020 Major Birth Year or Mixed 1473 1602 1360 Minor Birth Year 199 299 334 Minor Percent 11.9% 15.7% 19.7% 2020-2021 Major Birth Year or Mixed 1287 1387 1250 Minor Birth Year 185 284 327 Minor Percent 12.6% 17.0% 20.7%

I am serious! The impetus for being birth year is to be compared to birth year teams in Tier I. What you have here is a local trend of wanna-be-PPEs.

Here is 14u AA Minor from a few years ago featuring a low participation birth year. NP and SHAHA couldn't form teams and Predators went AAA. Armstrong and Westmoreland were not pure birth year but were close. Does it look competitive? TEAM GP W L T PTS FPP TPTS GF GA PIM FOXES 235 20 13 2 5 31 17 48 93 57 178 MT LEBANON 316 20 11 7 2 24 17 41 72 59 162 RENEGADES 412 20 10 4 6 26 13 39 64 48 251 WESTMORELAND 430 20 10 5 5 25 12 37 90 69 262 SOUTHPOINTE 374 20 6 10 4 16 15 31 54 56 192 ARMSTRONG 457 20 5 12 3 13 16 29 52 75 245 ALLEGHENY 297 20 2 17 1 5 12 17 43 104 230

BY is not a national trend. It is only here because some dads see it in tier I, think that their kid belongs in AAA, and think they can build an AAA contender around their kid.

Yes, every year a part of the PAHL board is up for re-election. Families don't vote though. Your association representative votes on your behalf.

There would be 40-50 teams here, not unlike DVHL.

Yes, AA teams do tend to play a longer schedule. But they are also more likely to report their games into MHR, where the A teams are less likely to report their games.