hockeyisgreat

Anybody know when the PAHL will start? No info on their homepage! I know there teams are playing games. Are they all exhibition so far?

I saw that they had meetings for Varsity over the weekend. Anyone care to share what is going on and when the season might start?

Wow, that's pretty good for U14 teams. I hope they put the league schedule and standings out. Do you know if they intend to play all games at Alpha?

Anybody know if this has gotten off the ground? How many teams are involved and where do they play? Games were supposed to start the 12th.

I looked at it. Doesn't seem very user friendly. I would like to know who the top 18U, & 16U players are in Western Pa. Ranked 1-20 in both divisions and who they play for. Maybe they all play for Pens Elite. Do other organizations have anyone in the top. Is there a scouting service that does that? If not someone should start it. Maybe Pittsburgh Hockey Digest. They probably see most of the top players in western pa. Are the PIHL all star games a good indicator of the top players? Not to hard to get a list of the top Football and Basketball players in Western pa. Ugh just thought about the fact that maybe a lot of the top 18U players move away to play.

Seriously awesome advice! The more I look at it the more I know you are right. Combine that with the fact that the kid needs to have the goal and not the parent. Still it would be interesting for someone to set up a Database of players from Western Pa and where they are playing now. Is the talent in Western Pa getting better or worse? Is the creation of all the AAA teams actually making the overall talent better or worse?

Thanks, that does explain a lot. I had no idea that D-1 Hockey teams only have 18 scholarships total and really less than 5 a year to give out and really didn't think about all the foreign players getting in on them. So do you think maybe 10 kids per birth year make it out of western PA to play at higher levels after High School?

Why is PAHL so terrible? Don't they have AA teams? Why is playing 100% independent so much better? Where do you find teams to play? Isn't it harder to find games? More Travel more expense?

Thanks for the input guys! Would it be safe to say that we would be wasting our time and money in AAA for anybody but Pens Elite and possibly Esmark? These Faux AAA teams aren't going to help you get exposed to College Coaches? Is there any other way to get exposed to College Coaches? Any idea how many kids out of Western Pa get College Hockey Scholarships? Someone should keep stats on that. I know football and wrestling in Western PA seem to do pretty good in advancing kids to D-1 & D-2 programs with some type of Scholarship.

Wow! So you are saying there are maybe only a handful of true AAA players in Western PA? At all age groups? Seems the Pens Elite and sometimes Esmark Stars are competing on a National level pretty often.

OK so maybe the question I should be asking is who would you take your kid to for an assessment as to if they are AAA talent? How many real AAA teams are there in Western Pa as opposed to how many declare AAA? Do all of the AAA teams in Western PA have at least a few AAA kids? At what age should AAA be important? It looks like My Hockey Rankings don't separate Tier 1 & II till 14U. Are all those teams that are AAA under 14U just adding an A?

Ok so I am trying to understand all of this. The complaint is that Organizations have AAA teams with AA talent. They say they are AAA to get peoples money who want an extra A for their kids. Who is the evaluator for AAA talent? Seems to me there should be someone or someway to determine true AAA talent and if there are say 60 kids at that level in WesternPa then have 4 teams. If there are only 30 then have 2 teams. Is someone getting Rich by promoting so many AAA teams? It is expensive to play hockey period. Why is AAA more expensive than AA? Travel? More practice? Better Coaching? Really just trying to understand as a newbee to Hockey.

People on this board complain about all the teams. I guess there should only be one AAA team in each division for WPA and let the parents fight it out to see who gets to play!

Wolf needs bashed! Lebo rink is community owned. They don't have to worry about keeping the lights on. The community will bail him out. I just can't believe that Wolf and his cronies didn't think this through. Makes new mandates effective Friday instead of immediate. The Friday thing to fit High School Football. What was different for 3 days. I have to believe that Wolf is done running for office and just doesn't care. I have nothing good to say about Wolf and the way he handled this whole shutdown and nothing can convince me differently.

Maybe when organizations start canceling ice at Met Lebo they will change their mind, Although it is community owned so they don't care nearly as much about fans.

You need to look at again! The Ref did not put a hand on him. He was signaling to the guy that he was ejected. Swatted? Looks more like a punch to me. Ref grabbed his stick because he lost his balance trying to avoid the SWAT. You want the ref to skate away? I bet the guy would have gone after him. Funny how 2 people can watch the same thing and see it so totally different.

You need to look at the whole thing. Took teammates to pull him off. He pushes the refs head down several times to make him let go of his stick. No excuse for knocking a guy a whole head smaller than him to the ground. Can't believe you would defend that.

I don't think it is the rink rule. It is the PIHL rule. They are making the schools play by those rules so that it will be USA Hockey sanctioned. Hopefully this is all over at 12:01 tonight. Still doesn't help the people who play at MT Lebo tonight.

Wow, that guy needs to be prosecuted and banned for life. No excuse for that in any sport. Refereeing is never a fun job for sure. I do admire the guys that put on the stripes. Never enough pay for the abuse they take.

Shouldn't they be putting the schedule out soon? Games start November 7th?

Isn't that a total team price? If so it's a good price at 240.00 per kid for 20 players on a roster.

PIHL PRESIDENTS MEETING TO DISCUSS RECENT STATE OF PENNSYLVANIA ANNOUNCEMENT REGARDING INDOOR SPORTS This meeting was last night. Anybody care to share what was discussed and when it might take effect? Thanks in advance!

Also is it true that the more games you play the less your ranking should be affected? I'm going to take snap shots of rankings every week to see what kind of movement occurs!

Very interesting. So if you have a decent ranking right now would your best bet be to play teams with a higher rank to hopefully keep games close and win a few as opposed to playing teams with a lower rank and beating them by 3 or 4 goals?

Pretty sure the 10U, 12U girls at PPE are just a big money maker. Remember they cut some of the boys teams this year.