Eddie Shore

On 3/24/2023 at 7:38 PM, Happy Hockey Fan said:

Until local ACHA team fill their rosters with kids that played juniors and come in as 21 year old freshmen and offer free or close to free hockey it will be tough for them to compete against the top teams that do. 
 

Local teams have more and more kids that aged out in juniors. But the top teams are filled with kids that have aged out of juniors, and some of those kids have played in some of the higher level junior leagues. The maturity of those teams make a difference. 
 

If it cost $2000 to play at one university(what I believe is what the average local ACHA player pays), but another university with comparable educational qualifications and tuition says they want you to go to their school and play hockey for free it obviously gives a big advantage to one of those schools. 
 

Local teams are very good in my opinion. But it will always be tough for them to compete at nationals until they can recruit like the top ACHA schools can. And in until they can fill their rosters with 21 year old freshmen, it will be hard to compete as well. 

Wow, great point.  Never thought of it that way.  Yes, Pitt and others have some Junior players but most freshmen are 18 year old AA/AAA players.

On 3/18/2023 at 12:21 PM, Overqualified said:

 

What do the pens do for high school hockey 

Nothing 

they do nothing for any youth local hockey compared some other pro clubs

20 hours ago, miked said:

exactly, so why isn't picking a school based on hockey vaild? with all the twists and turns that life is going to throw at an 18 year old what do they know? as another poster wrote, they found the school that was the best fit for them. what made it the best fit? for some kids and their family, the hockey might make it the best fit. it might not. whatever is going to make your kid comfortable and happy is most likely going to lead to a better chance of success. 

Pick a school that will provide a good education and look good on a resume.  College is for an education, even club hockey coaches will tell you that.  Any club player will tell you they are playing for the brotherhood, to stay in shape and the joy they get from playing.  At the end of the day you will do what you want, just saying that after graduation hockey pretty much ends, for college play for the enjoyment but grade’s always come first 

Do yourselves a favor.  If you kid winds up playing ACHA, have them focus on grades first and hockey second.  Even the coaches will tell them that.  Club hockey is for fun, friends and exercise.  And a little bit of competition.  It will be done before they know it and the grades will taken them farther than hockey will. Just trying to give some serious advice 

14 hours ago, miked said:

YES someone does, for their own GD safety!! WTF does making the NHL have to do with child safety? because the likely hood of them making the NHL is basically nil they should just do whatever the heck they want on the ice? Why not just forget hockey altogether and just have a U8 Thunderdome?

 

and dear lord, how much clearer could pucks11 be that they were referring to GAMES not practices. but here we go, posts about it being a coaching problem if kids are standing around during practice. 

no wonder kids today can't listen worth a crap

Sarcasm……..

Looking at potential NHL while still in Mites?  

I guess I am really going to have to mark all my posts when I am being sarcastic.

Sarcasm starts here:
Plus, everyone knows you really can’t judge good NHL potential until kids get to Pee Wee’s.  Sarcasm ends here ?

1 hour ago, Pucks11 said:

Unless he was swearing at them, who cares. I coached Mites and some of the nicest parents I know would HAVE to scream at Mite kids because they don't listen for crap. You have little Johnny skating doing whatever he wants, Timmy going to the boards to wave to Gma and Gpa, Danny riding his stick like a horse, Sammy picking his nose, Alex squirting other kids with a water bottle, Mikey sitting down in the middle of the ice (where he can get hurt), Joey playing rock paper scissors with a kid from the other team with his gloves off, Collin skating in the middle of the ice trying to get other kids to see his new trick he learned at practice the other day and little Brandon swinging his stick everywhere but at the puck

Yep, with behavior like that these kids are never going to get to the NHL.  Someone needs to keep them in line.

Looks good

On 12/16/2022 at 10:21 AM, dazedandconfused said:

Who are "they"?

I see that's what Forbin said but I didn't realize that Forbin was the Commissioner of the USHL either.

The USHL website has nothing on it about future expansion so if you know where there is something other than Forbin's opinion then please enlighten us instead of being a massengale's product.

It was sarcasm.  Next time I will try to be more clear 

13 hours ago, dazedandconfused said:

It seems like a lot of premature excitement about something that's at best a long-shot. Has the USHL announced any expansion plans? I can't find anything on the website about any expansion plans.

Really?  You did see where they said, “hey let’s put an expansion team in an area where an NCAA D1 program just folded, but our model will be successful because we will put our team 15 minutes up the road where all the rich people live”.

I’m being told this will make is a huge success……….

On 12/2/2022 at 11:30 AM, forbin said:

This smells a lot like the start of building room for the rumored USHL expansion team….

A USHL expansion team?  The area doesn’t support the Junior Team, the ACHA club teams or the NCAA D1 & D3 organizations.  Guess they want to play in front of a bunch of empty seats ?

On 7/5/2022 at 4:06 PM, PUCKCOVID19 said:

now we have resorted to discussing beer league teams. wow summer time sure is slow 

 

Might as well start now as that’s where they will end up

don’t worry though I have the utmost faith that the parents who ruined youth hockey and now are starting their way through club hockey won’t be satisfied there, and in 4-8 years will destroy beer league next ?

On 7/2/2022 at 4:59 PM, Danner27 said:

Im not talking about beginner beer league or over 40  - have you watched the top division at ice castle ? A lot of guys that made it to pro leagues outside of the nhl, minors, small ncaa etc. maybe this division is no longer around, this was pre covid. Some nhl guys would join in the games from time to time. There was a viral video from one of these games - a guy put another guy through the glass. I’m sure it can still be found on social media somewhere. 

Top divisions at UPMC and Ice Castle, Delmont etc, have a lot of Pitt players as well.  I think the team that won it all last summer at UPMC was all Pitt

Is Marc the guy who teaches power skating out of the Bairel rink in Cranberry?

So, what is the definition of a “high-level” for a female coach?

Yep, as far as Pitt goes the administration and the school doesn’t like the hockey club and sticks it to them whenever they can.  Tryouts used to have 100+ kids at it every year for two teams. Now it’s about 35 for just one team.  This is not how an organization gets treated in a “hockey town” ?

8 hours ago, HSFBLJ said:

We should start by having hockey recognized as a sport and not a club activity.  Once we have that we can have schools provide transportation to the games.  Once schools start to provide transportation to the games you could fill the bus with students who want to go to the game.  Possibly add a second bus if needed.  If you have ever been to Div 1 game most schools also have a band at the game, at least a Pep band.  Why don't schools send a Pep band to the games at least the playoff games?  I can tell you the local High School band director was sent an email about doing this and we heard cricketts back.  

PPG is a great venue but unless you can fill the place some of the atmosphere is lost.  It would be really cool if Pitt had a D1 team with an on campus arena.  Maybe Pegula would be a great venue for the State Championship depending on who is playing.  Smaller venue would be better IMO if you can fill it up and get the place rocking.

All of what you said backs up the claim that Pittsburgh is not a hockey town.  Schools don’t support it, the area doesn’t support it.  Pitt won’t have NCAA because there is no support for club (by the area or the school).

2 hours ago, forbin said:

Without derailing this thread to oblivion. I loved going to those games. That was pre Crosby era and I think a NAHL team would do better in Pittsburgh now. Make the tickets cheap, make it accessible, make a youth program that "feeds" into it and name it the same as the team like  Jr. Forge or something and people would be ALL about it. Pittsburgh may not be a "hockey town" by other standards, but something like that would generate a good amount of buzz for the sport. UPMC already hosts the USHL Fall classic. I am positive some conversations have been held about bringing a junior team here. 

It will go bust in less than 4 years due to lack of support 

2 hours ago, fafa fohi said:

I am like a fine wine, an acquired taste.  

Let’s not over do it……….  ?

On 11/12/2021 at 8:17 AM, fafa fohi said:

Anyone notice the empty seats at PPG and how cheap tickets are now on sites like StubHub and Seat Geek for Pens games?  I went to last nights game - two seats, lower bowl for under $90.  Is it because Sid and Geno are not on the ice?  If so, imagine what its gonna look like when they are gone.

True hockey towns have high attendance and interest when their teams are good or bad.  Not here, and when the boys are retired and gone youth hockey will take a huge hit here. Do I want to see it happen?  No, but reality is coming soon.

As far as the Pens helping to develop youth hockey in western PA, I recall PPE was founded on that concept.  Not anymore, and as many have said on this thread the Pens are all about the dollar and its brand, nothing more.  Just look at any of the U14 and above rosters to see how many imports are holding roster spots.  

OMG, I know you and I don’t see eye-to-eye on most things, but this post was spot-on.  Perfect examples of the state of hockey in Pittsburgh, well said.

On 11/10/2021 at 11:15 PM, Pa Hockey said:

5 Stanley Cups for the Pittsburgh Penguins doesn't mean much does it?  Wow ............Really?

No it doesn’t.  Pittsburgh is not a hockey town.  It’s a Penguins town or maybe a Crosby town, but not a hockey town.  It’s lack of support of youth, college and junior hockey shows.  If you think Pittsburgh is on par with Minnesota, Boston, Chicago etc, you may not have spent enough time there to understand the difference.  Sorry 

15 hours ago, Saucey said:

Who do you root for?

Who ever is playing against them

1 hour ago, nemesis8679 said:

Mars HS hockey team guests at Pens game tonight. 

Hasn’t this team been punished enough!

This is just cruel. ?

On 10/29/2021 at 4:21 PM, hockeyisgreat said:

I might agree with that except Ringgold got beat by Elizabeth Forward last night and it wasn't close.  So I will go:

Carrick

BishopCanevin

Burrell

Avonworth 

Elizabeth Forward

For now. Big game Monday night Avonworth vs Burrell We will see how that goes.

 

Elizabeth Forward?  What’s their record? 2-2?  Let me guess your kid plays for them right?

15 hours ago, Ynot02 said:

https://www.nhl.com/penguins/community/hunt-armory-rink

Lots of programs listed on there, plus CC using it as well seems like most of the ice slots are already full.  Wonder where they are going to squeeze in the time for the diversity and inclusion programs?

On 10/17/2021 at 7:30 AM, hockeyisgreat said:

Any word on this project?  Is it still on schedule to be open in November?  Haven't heard or seen anything!

November of this year?