nemesis8679

Locker room issues are really easy to avoid when a coach is present.

I'm hearing they got 6 or 7 games. Not sure if that's legit.

They can drag it out pretty long if they want. I'm guessing an abuse of official charge, it'll be drug out as long as possible.

100%. I also think people need to remember also that in most cases there are 2 refs and 12 players in the ice. Anything more than 2 players involved becomes a problem when there's only two officials to break it up and not have anybody get injured.

Right, because police are 100% beyond reproach. All are saints. Just like referees.

Not saying you're wrong about the game... but this is a hockey forum. Why the obsession to keep bringing up the police?

No idea, but what other benefit would there be to not have sound on?

I'm assuming so that if there's a complaint of harassment or language by players or spectators, you can't go to livebarn for evidence. I can't imagine any other reason to do that.

If you're lucky, you can get some game used diapers after the game. They'll be worth a lot when they go pro.

This has just created a market for Quadruple A...

I'm pretty sure his tournaments are more determined by MHR than what letters the teams call themselves. He even will watch some livebarn to see where to place teams when there's any question. Good tournaments.

Let's be real. Virtually everybody is going no further than ACHA or club. I don't care how many skill lessons you have. It boils down to having multiple choices for a play, picking the right one in milliseconds, and doing this over and over and over consistently. The stickhandling helps but if you can't process the game at the speed as it gets faster and faster you aren't getting anywhere. And I don't know that that can be taught. If you can think the game that fast, by all means lots of skills lessons will be a good thing. But genes and a mind for hockey come first. So do the skill lessons, but don't think it's make-or-break to do more than one a week. And maybe once a month is fine, just to break bad habits that can be picked up at practice when no one is paying attention. If you're a regular kid, as 99.99% percent are when it comes to moving up the hockey ladder, do whatever is most fun and enjoyable and what can be afforded. And if you do at least 2:1 ratio of skating lessons to stick work, you'll be way far ahead of most. I'll take the better skaters any day, skating is the number 1 thing.

It's a good way to learn how to stickhandle and shoot the puck (usually at an empty net or shooter tutor). Also great to learn how to skate and stick handle through cones. Good for endurance. Good for looking great at tryouts and not as great in a game. I will say I think skating lessons are worth 10x what general skills lessons are worth. And be wary of coaches who give paid skills lessons to their own players.

It looks like if they would've just scrapped one of the A's, they'd be having a somewhat competitive season. 🤷‍♂️

Pretty sure a ton of teams have no JV teams.

I thought they were doing A Gold and A Blue, a top half and bottom half for the A division. At least that's what I thought the Gold and Blue designations meant.

Honestly if teams cut down on the traveling so much, it would be better because more kids would play. Plenty of kids of high school age don't want to be running around every weekend when they want to be with friends and just would rather be home than running around. Also, if you are that committed (really, honestly committed) and want something beyond AAA hockey and you can't make the Pens, you may as well leave. Because if you're playing for Icemen or Vengeance or whatever, nobody of any importance as far as reaching the next level is looking at your games beyond local schools looking to fill their ACHA and club teams. And if you go that route you'll be playing against a bunch of lowly AA and A players anyway.

Just a month or so in, and already 65 suspensions in PIHL. And 16 of them,of coaches. Maybe it's the same every season, just seems like a lot to me.

You didn't notice strength of schedule is much easier, and they're still lower than Pens? It's not an apples to apples comparison between all those schedules.

Agree, but just call the teams the level they are.

Nothing wrong with high school hockey. It's fun to watch and fun for the kids to play with their friends and represent their schools. That's what it should be about. AA division should be good this year, lots of good teams. When you have some schools being able to fill a varsity team with juniors and seniors and some schools scrambling to fill a roster, you potentially get 14 year olds playing against adults. You get teams with a full 23 man roster and teams with 12 kids. It's bound to be, at times, all over the place. While I guess they have some secret formula they use to place teams and mostly seems to work out, I'd like to see PIHL have placement games and take scrimmage into account like PAHL does. I think that would help the skill and structure improve, at least relative to the divisions. It seems they are also calling some of the more dangerous plays this season than they have in the past, which is a good thing. The games I've watched so far have been focused on the hockey. I like physical hockey as much as anybody but I think PIHL has previously been too lenient with late hits, charging, head shots... and besides being unsafe it contributes to the perception of high school hockey being non-structured. It turns into a free-for-all. I think if they can consistently get away from that, that'll improve the skill and structure of the games beyond what it's been in prior years.

What's going on is that other than the Pens, they all have an extra A that they threw on the name of the team. If they dropped that extra A, they could compete with other teams that only have 2 A's instead of 3. Maybe if you took the most talented kids with the most hockey sense off of those teams you could form one more AAA team in the area that could compete with Pens. But as it sits, with the exception of Pens, you have multiple teams of AA and A players playing with a phantom extra A, with a few AAA caliber players sprinkled in. Like it or not, like Pens or not, it is what it is. Hockey is very watered down here because of these extra letters. On top of having too high of a ratio of teams to the population of the area calling themselves AAA (or AA, for that matter) at all age groups, you don't have enough coaches to coach at that level in this area. Some of the coaches really aren't of the caliber to be at that level. Also, go to some PIHL games. This is a good way to see "AAA" players playing among other "AAA" players. As well as against "AA" and "A" players. In most cases, you'd be hard pressed to guess a player's travel level. Yeah there's some obviously good players and some that can't hardly skate. But the difference isn't THAT big generally speaking, and in a lot of cases you wouldn't see much difference. But a real AAA player that had a chance to go anywhere meaningful would be blowing the doors off of everybody else in a league like PIHL. And would be doing it in 9th or 10th grade in the AAA division. And 18u AAA? Where is that realistically going to lead? I'll tell you. Pay-to-play 'juniors' or D3 or club. Most anybody that has a sliver of hope to play D1, Major Junior, USHL, NAHL, or WHL is already doing that at 16u. Not to say it can't happen. But nobody is seriously scouting any of these local teams besides Pens. If you're one of the best 3 players at Pens, maybe it could lead somewhere or even to get a tryout somewhere. You could hands-down the best player for the Preds or the Icemen... and no one is even going to notice. But some people will get on here to say I'm full of shit, I'm a curmudgeon who is no fun, I don't know what I'm talking about, etc. I'll just say that the numbers don't lie. BUT. If the kid is having a good time, the cost isn't a concern with the parents, the kid doesn't mind missing out on doing kid things over the weekends, and everybody has a realistic expectation of what's going on, then that's fine. Otherwise, just play wherever and have a good time. You're only young enough to do this stuff for a short period of your life. It may as well be fun, however you decide to do it.

If that's true, then he should make sure they have them. He better hope nobody comes forward that was part of his training around here. Massive liability.

No kidding. I was just replying to the guy who said he didn't make a statement, that yes, he did make one.

His comment to the news was that he no longer works for him. That was it.