aaaahockey

I mean this also begs the question if they could keep their program and sell the ice rink at the same time. Im assuming a lot of this has to do with the rink itself not being profitable.

I think it's really hard to find time to go to these games with older kids. The travel/game/practice schedules suck every second out of our lives during hockey season (true of the Pens too but they are drawing from a much larger probably more casual fan base). Not sure what RMU could do about it - try to feature local clubs with discounted tickets or something?

Trump wasted plenty of money too. Who said anything about him? Touchy aren't we? ❄️ Government waste knows no party bounds. The Hunt Armory rink looks like it is also going to be bound up in some sort of government waste too.

If people are foolish enough to keep giving you money you can do what you want. Ask governor wolf ?

I'm pretty sure we are on the same page. I've been an effective dad coach and the best coach my oldest ever had was a dad. I was using the term in the parody sense.

I agree that's why I put it in quotes. Easy way to summarize but in that discussion we were talking about coaches who never played and don't really know the game. Often their strategy turns into telling one or two of the top skaters to go score and they start teaching really bad habits really early. Being a dad or not is irrelevant, as I guess is playing if you don't have a coaching sense.

Unfortunately that's because a majority of coaches have a win now attitude instead of a developing hockey players attitude. Some of this ties into our "dad coaches" discussions. This also ties into the kids who excel at mites and squirts (and peewees sometimes) and fall off the map as they get older.

I paid $5. I learned three things : 1) people are really frigging whiny and I see how they teach their kids to be the same way. 2)I started to think this was a vengeance promo video. I am no Pens apologist but Brian Mueller is a fantastic coach and it's sad you acted like that pens checking clinic was bad. 3) roller hockey exists as does an RMU non checking league. Check it out.

That's what I want to know. I've heard a lot of Preds parents bitching year after year about the practice times, the fact they don't want to play independent, the fact As don't matter, but they keep signing up year after year. Something doesn't add up. I'm guessing most of them still want that extra A but get sensitive when you call them out on it.

There is still a charging penalty I believe. That's not what I mean though. I'm saying when a kid 2/3 the weight of the puck carrier skates full speed across the ice to hit a larger kid carrying the puck and bounces off them into oblivion. Refs will often call the puck carrier just because he is big. It's insane.

Don't underestimate this comment. Remember for the vast majority of kids, playing AAA is for their parents pride (Dad had very little if any success in athletics and he can now live through little Johnny) and for water-cooler talk. The average Joe knows the Pens (in my opinion hence why the black teams did so well for so long until people saw thought he ripoff) and MAYBE the Vengeance but not the other teams floating out there. What good does it do to say my kid plays AAA preds if Jim in the cubicle next to me says his kid plays preds too (even if it's B!!!). That would be a big blow to the go too much to take. Rebellion? No way. Pens (even if it was a B team with little chance of winning games) - ABSOLUTELY

Go big or go home. Find a AAA program and don't waste your time in PAHL. There is a list of all 500 in one of the threads here. When you get serious (next year) come back and give us some things you are looking for in a program and I'm sure someone can help.

Agreed with you totally. Also the referees don't help. I've seen 75 lb kids run into 100 lb kids at the peewee level and get larger kids called for a penalty when the larger kid is CARRYING THE PUCK.

I have not seen your film yet but will. I am still a firm believer that waiting until boys start to turn into men to allow checking is a terrible mistake versus teaching and allowing checking fundamentals at least at squirt minor.

I, for one, loved Backcheck's satire and he thoroughly linked some fun backup

Yep - baseball, lacrosse, soccer all have equivalents. Some sports even have national brands that make pens look like small peanuts.

The weather

I might get flamed for this but honestly more south hills options for decent hockey teams would be good especially if they move and don't try to do an additional tier 1 team. I think Pittsburgh could support (at least at some ages) 2 tier one teams, one in the north and one in the south. If they were really creative.they could create tournament teams that combined the top half of each.

Capitol Raiders

Rinkrats ?

The independent ice rentals will always be more. Think about it from your own business perspective - if someone comes in and says here I'll buy out 75% of your available ice for the season you would certainly cut them a better deal than Johnny Hockey's dad trying to squeeze in some extra skate time for Johnny just because of the sheer amount of ice the organization is renting. Someone should develop ice rental software that operates like airlines do and adjusts the price according to the demand (time of day and season along with other rentals) in order to always set the optimal price and you would probably be able to rent everything you could staff.

What is your goal? This goes back to the comment that we would be better off having many more rec teams and many fewer travel teams. For the vast majority of hockey players (everywhere and in western PA) the goal is to have fun.

And again wtf does it matter? I mean looking at my youngest playing rec baseball a couple years ago - he played 14 games and had 4 practices and had a great time. What are we trying to do? Let kids have fun for gods sake.

This is an underated idea - we should have half the travel teams and 10 times the rec teams.

I think you are making a lot of good points here. One caveat I think you should also remember, however, is that parents who are invested enough to run for a board are probably already getting their kids outside development opportunities or paying for the extra As somewhere. Often I've seen kids, especially at the minor level but even at the lower A major level completely checked out and the parents don't want to spend the extra $ for skills coaching or development even WITHIN the organization. They are just having fun.