sadday4hockey

HPHL is very good due to strength of teams, regional location and limited to 3 Chicago and 3 Detroit.

T1EHL tried to get too big and too widespread plus let itself get diluted. PPE leaving definitely hurt the league at the 14, 15, 16 and 18 levels but at the same time they hurt themselves at the younger age groups with no league to play in.

Time will tell on these new leagues. Little Caesar's has left the T1 and the HPHL within the last 10 years but the 4 Clubs is more of a scheduling agreement than an actual league.

The Northeast Pack? Who knows? The people at Mount St Charles people are the ones who up and left Selects Academy at South Kent. If someone offers them more $$$ they may leave there although I'm not sure any could offer more. The other 4 teams are all amateur organizations, so all Prep/Academy doesn't make sense.

The NAPHL? It sucks. Period.

On 10/17/2019 at 9:43 PM, twoleftfeetd said:

I read a article last year Penn State alone has 60 “committed” players at the 2002 -2003 birth year.

Another "commitment" for PPE announced yesterday. They continue to roll in but if most of the information on this thread is correct, you have to wonder how many of these will actually come to fruition. There are SOOOO many people making SOOOOO much money on hockey players all the way until they are 20 years old in many cases, that it really seems that it may never be worth the expense. Which means that it's better to make sure that they learn to love the sport and the competition of the game.

Negative. Just know at least one left and others are leaving. And since it's a 15 team, the only option to add players is 2004 BY players.

15's

All 3 "AAA" teams played in the JV bracket and while Esmark may have fared well on the ice this past weekend, things are not nearly so rosy off the ice. Multiple players have already either quit or have requested their release and the team will more than likely not exist through the end of the month.

Exactly, look at the original post. MS Mustangs and NHL are the only things mentioned. I simply pointed pointed out that there were many other steps in between.

Like I stated previously, it's always made to fit your narrative.

It is a phenomenal story but why must you always twist things to fit your narrative?

He played 3 seasons of Prep hockey at Deerfield Academy and during that time I would be willing to bet that he barely practiced with MS Mustangs and only participated in pre-season games and the USA Hockey playdowns with them.

It is a story of his hard work and determination but an educated hockey person would realize that the foundation was set in youth hockey - 14U and younger, cultivated at a High level Prep school and finalized at Brown University and the AHL.

You try to make people believe that he went straight from Mid State to the NHL.

https://www.eliteprospects.com/player/259043/sam-lafferty

Wow

MidAm screening is only the tip of the iceberg for not only coaches, but also for team managers, locker room attendants and every board member at every association. The list in PA includes:

MidAm Screening

FBI fingerprint check

PA HHS Child abuse

PA State Police criminal background check

At this point in time, I don't think anyone with any documented history is going to try to coach and if they do, will probably fail one of these checks. On the other hand, as evidenced at Penn State and Michigan State, some people certainly know how to cover their tracks.

A 10U Coach for PPE was also suspended for a year roughly 18 months ago.

That too was driven by a parent with a grudge. And while I'm not excusing whatever behavior caused these suspensions I will tell you that this era of bull-dozer parenting, yes it's no longer helicopter parenting, will cause a large number of the qualified coaches to decide that it simply isn't worth the aggravation nor the possible life-altering consequences that come with Coaching.

The news is not so good out of Armstrong county. Nothing "official" but it could still be months away from being fixed. An update is supposed to happen later today or tonight.

This is why.

12U is still considered a training age so the schedulers will normally give those anyone with a badge. Plus, the "better" guys won't bother with a $35-40 game.

The parents are the root cause of 90% of the problems. Do you think at 12U or younger player A decided on his own that player B shouldn't be on his line or did he hear it so often in the car and at home that he actually believed it? The answer is B.

17 hours ago, fafa fohi said:

Props to the ownership groups at Frozen Pond and Baeirl for making significant improvements in their facilities.  Both rinks have gone through major changes while other rinks continue to rake in funds while their owners put nothing back into the rink from an improvement standpoint.   

Frozen Pond, yes. However, it is also an old barn and while there were many cosmetic improvements you have to wonder about the age of the ice making machinery there as well.

As far as Baierl, I was there about 10 days ago and the bathrooms were closed down so there were Port O' Johns outside that were so disgusting I almost vomited. They were so full the urine was backed up into the side urinal of the one that was "open" and the other one had an out of order sign on it so I assume that one was worse. I'm guessing that this was a planned renovation which begs the question why not do it in the off-season?

Belmont was renovated what 3-4 years ago and they did a great job. Same with Kirk Nevin probably 8 years ago.

The bottom line is that if the sport continues to grow as we all hope it will, a shortage of ice will always be a concern.

It now sounds as though both are short term issues with the Ice Garden to be ready by Monday and Belmont soon thereafter.

It does however, illustrate just how crucial every rink is to the survival of the game locally. The worrisome part is that both of those barns are old along with some others and ice rinks are not highly profitable businesses so it certainly raises some concerns in the future.

NA against Canon Mac and PR against Bethel in the semis. Looks like a solid final 4.

The local hockey community is currently experiencing at least a short term ice crisis and possibly a season long one. The Rostraver Ice Garden was/is having issues making ice and over the weekend the Belmont had some sort of issue that is going to keep it down a minimum of two weeks and potentially the season. Hopefully these issues can both be resolved quickly or else PAHL and PIHL may be forced to consider some changes to the end of their respective seasons.

But the Icemen are an Elite AAA organization, why are their u18's planning for States instead of trying to qualify for Districts?

Does anyone know WTF is going on with these new rules that they are using in the St Margaret's Tournament?

2.Icing Infractions:Icing situations shall be initiated only from a team’s defensive zone, making the defensive blue line the delineation for icing (instead of the center red line).Icing shall only be waived if the initiating team is shorthanded, if the puck first makes contact with a non-offending player, if the puck does not cross the far goal line, and/or if the puck goes into the opposing net. Icing shall not be waived based on a determination by an on-ice official that a non-offending player could have touched the puck prior to the completion of the icing scenario.

3.Neutral-Zone Face-Offs:All face-offs prescribed by the playing rules to take place in the neutral zone shall be conducted only at the center-ice face-off dot. As such, only the 5 face-off circles on the ice surface shall be used for face-offs

12 hours ago, PAhockey said:

Esmark 15u played the U16 AA arrows and lost 6-0 tonight 

Are you sure it wasn't Viper Stars 15U? There's an old tie-in between that team's coach and Armstrong. If it was Esmark, buckle up for a long season.

On 8/9/2019 at 4:39 PM, HSFBLJ said:

PPE

Preds 05 Timmons

Mt. Lebanon

PPE #2

Foxes

Viper Stars

Allegheny

North Pitt

Renegades

Westmoreland

 

top 10 14U teams in the area

Is this your predicted order of strength?

Upon further review, Aviators may only have one team. Website shows a full roster for one of the two 16U teams but no roster for the other one and a 10 player roster for 14U.

Huskies 2 teams. The folks who held that organization together for many years, their player aged out so who knows what will happen moving forward.

Aviators 3 teams and no rink. They should probably fold the organization or have it folded for them.

Isn't there also someone at the Preds, a prominent person, that is being sued for slander/defamation due to false accusations/statements made during the tryout time period?