dazedandconfused

That's a hell of a payday for the Coach. I say more power to him. If he can convince those people to pay him $16,000 good for him. That's why they call it Capitalism. You CAPITALIZE on an opportunity. In this case, that opportunity is provided by delusional parents.

Received an email today from a local outfit trying to solicit orders for their "knock-off" high level stick. They are looking for "pre-orders" that will take 8 weeks for delivery. In this world of instant gratification how is this type of business model sustainable? And does the disappearance of the Bardownski clowns prove that it simply isn't sustainable?

1 hour ago, HereWithPopcorn said:

Hell, the Black team is equivalent to PAHL AA.

Is it? At the 05 level, it may even be A Major. Maybe.

Oh, thank goodness. A meaningless August event will be heading to our area for 3 years. Presumably in the confines of the UPMC Center which means the West will be loaded at all age groups and the South and East will now be limited in numbers and the Central will bring up the rear as usual. That's awesome.

I believe drinking water falls into the basic and necessary category. But that's just me.

Basic, necessary improvements. Certainly not huge improvements. My understanding is that most of the remaining HS teams can't wait until their contracts expire so they can bolt. BV has been shaken down to what, half of what it was before the purchase? Pretty soon they'll have exactly what they wanted which is a rink all for themselves. Just the two of them. Take it away, Grover Washington..................

Say it isn't so, people aren't flocking to that dilapidated old barn?

23 hours ago, BeaverFalls said:

Mustangs are a hot mess right now. They’re under new mismanagement (another dad) and I’ll be shocked if they field more than a couple teams this year.

They'll never get it rebuilt. Makes you wonder if something like this could put the ice facility in peril. That would suck for everyone.

https://www.pittsburghpenguinselite.com/news_article/show/1018471

This is where those "Superstars" will be playing. Did they have a contest for the "Elite mites" to name this new league?

So I don't know if it included any of the players that Yuri was counting or not but apparently his and Kosick's former Coaching assistant Si Bishop took a big bite of out of the 03 age group. The Foxes had upwards of 75 players attend their U16 tryouts compared to less than 40 last year. It seems as though it definitely killed the 03 Icemen team. Karma. What a bitch.

21 hours ago, EsmarkStars said:

A LOT did NOT leave for the Barons.  Players were cut.  It happens.  The majority of the core remains. 

And there you have it. ONE of these has to be incorrect.

2 hours ago, whome87 said:

Esmark U16 (2003) had 16 2003 birth year players at tryouts. That’s it. 12 forwards 4 defenseman. 

I can come up with a few possible answers. They didn't want to play for Yuri. They were replaced by a Russian import. They don't want to waste another 20K traveling to Minnesota for 4-5 days at a time.

I guess they just aren't lining up to play for the guy who gets tossed in the first period of the first game of a tournament. Hard to believe. The other great one is the 07 Coach, the PAHL has implemented a new rule because of his antics at the U18 Viper Stars team last season. Note to coach, if one of your player gets suspended, don't let him continue to play and then forfeit 10 games (of which 9 were losses anyhow).

Nice. The former hierarchy there always used to say that they'll always come back at Midgets. Maybe that mentality is starting to hold true again.

Where did this take place? It's good to hear because 18 is always so difficult to get committed players who will actually commit to a team without playing games.

Low compared to their usual turnout but they'll field teams. The 05 folded up although the website lists tryouts as completed. It should say complete joke, just as the alleged 06 tryout tonight.

That's completely false. The EHL and 3HL are both pay to play leagues. The 3HL is the pay to play "feeder" for the NAHL and the USPHL Premier is the pay to play "feeder" for the NCDC. Up until this year the Vengeance were in the 3HL. The only US Leagues which are "tuition free" are USHL, NAHL and NCDC.

I think all Jr Hockey in the US is now tiered numerically and not alphabetically.

USHL - Tier 1

NAHL and NCDC - Tier 2

All others - Tier 3

Regardless, wellthen was correct in pointing out the use of the word exclusively.

16 minutes ago, HereWithPopcorn said:

Apparently there must have been a lot of action in the bedroom after the Pens won the Sidney lottery in 2005 to have all of these 2006's out there.

Basically now too, we have jumped everyone up by a letter to get the extra "A".  You have an influx of AAA teams with the Predators, SHAHA, Vengenance and Esmark to go with the Pens, and then will have countless birth year teams to fill the PAHL faux AA Minor division.

Doing the math at 15 skaters and 2 goalies per team, that is basically saying that Western PA has 204 AAA/AA players (6 AAA and 6 AA teams)

I guess the only question now is when does AAAA get created???

Predators team on life support if it exists at all. Big thanks to Brad Michalski on that one

Esmark if it happens will be no better than Viper Stars

SHAHA and Vengeance will both be stronger than PPE Black

17-18 USA hockey registration number for 11-12 year olds in Western PA was 1742. For simplicity, we'll assume that it was half and half so that's 871 at the 06 age. USA hockey uses 15% of the total players as their criteria for how many AAA teams there should be. That's 130 players or more than enough players for 7 teams.

There is no 15U division at the Tier 2 level.

I actually used the word success. You can't put them in the same sentence of big wins with two teams that actually did win. What they ended with was a tough loss in a highly successful run at Nationals. Big difference. You are right about the hockey here, it's a lot better than many people give it credit for being.

5 hours ago, The Tank said:

Congratulations to the Pens boy and girls & Burrell on their big wins!! Congratulations as well to all the other local organizations that competed in the USA Hockey National Championships! Way to represent!!

Burrell? Am I missing something here? I know society is changing dramatically, but is runner-up now considered a big win? It's a success, but by definition it's not a win.

A lot of great action today. Tier 1 14 and 16 QF's about to start. Tier 2, Arrows and Lebo both have do or die RR games this afternoon and evening. All games are on Hockeytv.

Tier 1 round robin play is complete. PPE 14U and 16U advance to QF round. PPE 15U and Esmark 18U eliminated at 1-2.