carroll81

3 hours ago, hockeyisgreat said:

How do you know that going into tryouts?  Very tough decisions to make when your kid really wants to play AAA. How do you know which team is a good investment. I guess maybe limit tryout to the top 3 and if you don't make it move on to a good AA team?

Ask the players.  As much as the parents like to think they know who the really good players are, they usually look at the players and teams through a colored lens.  The players know who belongs on various teams and who does not.

Wes, is this the right bracket format, or am I finding the wrong tournament?

https://cdn1.sportngin.com/attachments/document/7322-1586068/PLAYOFFS_Seeding_Charts_ODSETs_9_Team_Format_rev_1.pdf

18 hours ago, aaaahockey said:

I guess that's part of the question - if I can teach you IQ as a lacrosse or a basketball coach why can't a hockey coach?   Serious question too - I don't have the answer. 

That is a great question.  My thoughts on it are that the movement of lacrosse, basketball and even soccer are similar - move to space, setting picks, set plays, fast breaks, slow breaks, etc.  These are all concepts that are taught in those sports that directly contribute to on ice awareness.  You get to see those things in different spaces, with different numbers of players, taught by different coaches. 

1 hour ago, nemesis8679 said:

Too much emphasis on skills drills. Everyone can be Pavel Barber with an empty net and some practice. 

Once there's opposition, less space, and someone in your face everytime you touch the puck, then it's a different story. 

Knowing what to do in tight space and when you have pressure is still a skill.  You teach it using small area games.  If they are not doing small area games at your practices, then there is a problem.   Doing these types of drills will also help with IQ, or what I think Denis was referencing as the IQ that coaches want to see.  But, it is more than space and opposition.  It is awareness, pattern recognition, seeing the ice, knowing where the play is going.  That is much harder and many/most can't get there.

It is hard to coach IQ. 

There are lots of coaches who can run drills out of the Coaching Manual.  There are fewer coaches who can actually coach proper skills.  There are fewer that can coach IQ.

If you want to increase IQ, play other sports.  Basketball, soccer and lacrosse.

Even with great coaching, many kids will never develop IQ.

31 minutes ago, Jack Handey said:

Yes, for Tier I.  Tier II playoffs are a few weeks out yet.

That seems crazy.  Nationals are not for another 7 weeks.  You can get another whole season in before then.

Is this your district tournament to determine who goes to Nationals?

8 hours ago, nemesis8679 said:

Everyone will be lucky to play ACHA, in the end. 

ALL roads lead to mens league.

12 hours ago, GrumpyOldPucker said:

SadDay4Hockey you passed the exam! THANK YOU! I really wish there were more like you to shout down the mobs with the torches and pitchforks..... 

Everyone on that list has to do their part. Sometimes - and I do mean sometimes - a really good ref can keep the lid on a shit show when the first 3 fail in keeping up their end. Then again, some games are preordained to be a shit show no matter who is wearing the bands.

I call them "mediocre days and bad nights".  Sometimes it is just what is going to happen.

1 hour ago, Pucks11 said:

So according to your standards if you play even just 1 AA team then you are not playing a AAA schedule. Therefore the Vengeance played Birmingham which is the 63rd ranked team and also a AA team eliminates the Vengeance from being a top team and shouldn't be considered a AAA team. 

The Pens have played all AAA teams so according to YOUR standards they should be considered the ONLY AAA around here then. 

 

So because I am listing FACTS while you just say nah uh the whole time I look foolish. I bet if the Vengeance told you to jump off a bridge you would just ask which one without questioning them. 

I bet your kid gets cut next season, you don't see the GOOD kids parents on here slurping down the Vengeance juices. 

Studying Pee-wee rankings?? It takes 2 min to look at the rankings???. 

I guess I should just be happy that we are playing and back to arguing over which 12 year old are the best in the world.

Do you two even understand how the scores are reported and how the rankings are calculated?

1 hour ago, GrumpyOldPucker said:

This is an example of why I retired. I witnessed this (the officiating, the players lack of respect for each other, the belligerent coaches, and in general the parents)  way too many times over the years across six districts and a couple Canadian provinces.

If I'm calling it here is what I would have:

First of all, there would have been a bench minor and then maybe someone tossed from the Huskies bench log before the altercation. You simply do not get to act that way from the bench in a game I'm skating. You respect me and I respect you... you don't and you get to leave and call me bad names in the lobby.

As for the altercation itself I would have: 

Preds - boarding 2+10, three players get fighting 5+G, every player in the pile gets an unsportsmanlike minor

Huskies - two players get high stick\head contact 2+10, three players get fighting 5+G, every player in the pile gets an unsportsmanlike minor

One of the two Huskies players that started the mess with the high sticks was fighting would get assessed second GM for 5 penalties. the other I cannot tell exactly where he is in the pile.

End result is both teams down a full line for the rest of the game, everyone yells at me and calls me rude names, says my calls were wrong or too tough (on their team). Finally, nobody makes their own players\coaches take responsibility for their actions. Thus another reason that I hung up the stripes.

 

Nomex undies in place - flame away!

Fair enough. 

My only question, if you were on the ice, do you think you would have come up with the same penalties?

I lied, second question, does the kid who got boarded get an unsportsmanlike minor?

Wes, do you have a link to a scoresheet?

If I get a chance I'll go back and watch the first.  Agree that there should have been at least a 2/10 for the hit that started it all  (check from behind or board). 

Watched the 2nd and 3rd periods.  Video kept cutting out.  Do you guys posted scoresheets in the west?  Would like to see what they called at the end.

Looks like they restarted with 5-4 man advantage for the dark team.  That looks right. 

Honestly, in a 2 man system,  as long as they got the board/check from behind which started the scrum, I would be OK with it.  The officials seemed to get in pretty quickly and protected the guys down on the ice.  They can't see who else did what.  Looks like they put everybody on the ice in the box with at least roughing calls.  Not sure what else you can expect them to do with only 2 guys.

Just had the Bishop Kearney (Rochester) go through.  Really nice team.  They were on day 7 of a road trip.  Headed back to NY.  4 more days/games to go.

13 hours ago, Rancho1 said:

Same level. Have their own divisions and don't cross over. Co -ops are done after their playoffs,  apparently no co-ops in East to play for state championship, or nobody cares co-ops in the East either.

Thanks.

You are correct about co-ops in the East.  They play regular season games against teams in their division as well as league.  They have divisions playoffs, but do not advance to Flyers Cup.  With the exception of AAA, divisions here roughly match up to PIAA leagues and have teams of different sizes (AA, A).   AAA is the good, no-boundary schools and they play themselves as well as other size schools.

Glad the teams are back on the ice.

On 1/25/2021 at 5:27 PM, Rancho1 said:

Not over here in West. They have some weird competitive formula. Unless you are a co-op, you can move up divisions. I know, it makes no sense. 

Do they then only play teams in the same level?  Are co-op teams eligible for Penguins Cup?

They have been buying rink here in the East pretty regularly.  They recently joined other rinks that operate the teams in their rinks to form their own league.   I've seen this business model in other sports and it is very effective - for the rink owners.

http://www.blackbearsportsgroup.com/news/black-bear-sports-group-partners-with-ice-arena-owners-to-form-the-atlantic-hockey-federation

6 hours ago, hockeyisgreat said:

I really don't want to argue.  I just want to give all divisions their due. I actually have no dog in the race. I just know there are divisions for a reason. AAA should be the best teams.  A & B shouldn't be able to compete with AAA but they should get respect for being good in their division.  Some people can only see the big dogs and everyone else is not worth playing.  Anyone in any Division should be commended for playing the game to their skill level.  That's my point......

This is a high school thread isn't it?  AAA, AA and A all reference school size, not competition level.  The State Champions in A the last few years can skate with and beat just about any other teams in the state.  The recent Flyers Cup champions in AA and A are in the same ICSHL division and regularly play each other.

1 hour ago, Wes said:

Had the call with MidAm last night.  They aren't changing the date of the MidAms...  

Then got an email from Darcee and the PAHL- they aren't changing their playoff dates either.

So good luck to all of you rescheduling your games at the AA level.

We have 16 games to play between now and 2/22, and 6 to reschedule. 

A big thank you to these entrenched orgs.

Wes, did they give their reasoning?

3 hours ago, Spear and Magic Helmet said:

While I agree that it is absurd to rank teams that haven't played yet, there are certainly other equally absurd rankings. For example, Penn State was a top 25 team in preseason rankings and they went on to lose their first five games. Things would have been different in a regular year (they would not have played their first five games vs big ten opponents), but my point is that other ill-informed opinions are out there. 

 

Also the point may be moot as it doesn't look good for Philly reopening anytime soon. While there is probably no limit to how ridiculously long they can make the high school hockey season, it might be a tough sell to have a high school championship after Usa Hockey nationals. 

As of right now, InterCounty and Atlantic Prep are scheduled to start 1/8 and the Suburban is scheduled to start 1/10.

Have not seen any adjustment to Flyers Cup, based on the new dates for USA Nationals, yet.

The change to the Icing rule is useless, since they defeated the change to prohibit the line change on icing.  

8 hours ago, Lifelongbender said:

That article was interesting, and I'd seen the merger plans before, except that it seems to explicitly state that Slippery Rock isn't suffering for students as much as the other schools. I'll concede this point though - it's not really part of my argument, anyway, about this, although I may have been wrong when I made that statement.

Regarding your last paragraph, if you are an athlete hoping to continue your playing career, sports are a critical part of choosing a college. While this doesn't happen for hockey players a whole lot anywhere, and certainly not at schools where hockey is a club sport, obviously scholarships are a part of the equation for some players. You can bet that the guys who were playing for Slippery Rock probably would've taken a Big 10 (or whatever other conference) placement if they had been recruited for it. Why wouldn't they? It's just not realistic to suppose that players won't go to a school where they can play, if that's important to them. Choosing a school for that reason is perfectly rational if continuing to play is important to you. 

None of this may apply to many of those guys, who may have been Slippery Rock bound no matter what, and simply decided to play club hockey on top of that. Most kids aren't being recruited for college hockey, and for them a good club program is probably attractive as part of a college's total package. Again, that's a perfectly rational thing for those who want to play.

Yes, sports could be part of the decision.  But, if you choose your school using sports as your priority, you are setting yourself up for disappointment.  What happens when you get hurt, get cut, the school drops the sport, or there is a pandemic.  Every college coach that is worth their job will tell you the same thing. 

All roads lead to men's league.

4 hours ago, Lifelongbender said:

It's more likely that it's more important to them to make an example of the students involved than it is to worry about students not coming to the school. I'm not sure what you're saying there about the razor thin margin. What does that matter to a state-owned and operated school? Slippery Rock is not, nor will it ever be, hurting for students.

And honestly I'm not sure why these actions would cause them to lose students, unless you mean the 25 or so a year who would've played hockey for the school.

Slippery Rock and other State Schools are hurting for students.  It is mostly due to demographics.

https://www.mcall.com/news/pennsylvania/mc-nws-pa-state-colleges-20200716-uptvrbh3wrcnjf4oowfvlt2hqi-story.html

This, plus what is happening due to Covid, is a great example of why kids looking at colleges should not choose a school based on sports.  They should love the school first, and the sports is a kicker.

1 hour ago, HereWithPopcorn said:

Just last night, Nationals just got punted to April 29th - May 3rd

This is going to make coordination with Flyers Cup, Penguins Cup and PA State quite a but tougher now.  Flyers Cup had been pushed to go after the original USA nationals.  They were going to go 4/5 - 4/20, so States could be the 24th.  That may now conflicts with district tournaments.

This is the rinks shutting themselves down.  Call of 23 rink at Penn is also closed.

There was a shutdown/pause of all the rinks in Montgomery County a few weeks ago that was at the request of the Health Department, due to contact tracing linking the rinks to some cases.  They were closed for 2 weeks and are now open again.