Carl Racki

That is a lot of amateur teams for one rink. I guess there are three sheets of ice but you have Vengeance, Steel City, Aviators, and now Viper Stars? Name another rink with three amateur associations let alone four. Seems crazy.

Told you so, and no I have no affiliation with USC. Saw a couple of their games and when they have all their players they are a very good team. Goaltending would be my question mark for USC. If they have all their players and great goaltending, it should be a good game.

No, this monopoly is definitely not a good idea for the consumer. They never are. Notice how they buy up a bunch of rinks in an area so they have enough market control. Then, they move on to the next area. After they buy enough there they will head to the next area,.... Not good in my opinion. Seems they usually come in and raise prices. If you look at their older rinks out towards Philadelphia, they are in rough shape after years of ownership. I would rather have hockey people that care come in and buy the rinks and actually mamagi them. Great example is Baierl and Jim Black. Hockey guy came in, bought a rink that was going into shambles. He really did amazing things there and I do appreciate it. The current ownership of Frozen Pond also put a lot of time and money into that rink as well. It has come a long way. Some of the BB rinks in Philly I have been to look like they get minimum to maintenance.

So anytime a team needs a goalie they should just be able to recruit one? Get a billet ? How about develop one. That is what most other teams have to do. I know recruiting is much easier. "We don't have a goalie" is not an excuse to recruit one that is not eligible.

This is laughable.. It is a nightmare getting to Ice Castle, Lebo, or the YMCA during peak traffic time. Maybe not to bad if you have a helicopter! Not saying don't play there but those are three rinks I hate going to for early evening games or practices during the week.

Boy I really hope you are joking and I missed the sarcasm. Black Bear seems to try to monopolize the market, raise prices and control everything so they can control prices as well and make even more of a profit. Everyone gets on PPE for trying to make as much money as possible but Black Bear is no different. BB immediately raised ice costs, wants teama in their league which they profit from,.....

104 is very good considering they are playing PAHL instead of playing the rankings game like a lot of independent organizations play. You know, play independent and try to play really high ranked teams to stay ranked higher.

A lot of it is because kids/parents that have been at PPE through squirts and peewee start to wise up. If they are still in the bottom half they intelligently decide to go play somewhere else where they will get an opportunity on the top line, power play, ..... Other people decide they do not want their kids going to North Catholic and doing excel. It is SOOOOO much money to play for PPE, do excel, and go to North Catholic. They have to find new people that are willing to pay all that money and a lot of those people do not live in this area. If the goal is to make as much money as possible at the Pens rink, they have done a good job maximizing profits. Hard to argue that. If the goal was to have a local top 30 team that is affordable then they certainly failed. The sad reality of hockey is it is getting insanely expensive pushing more and more people out of the sport. Look at how many less teams there are at the midget age levels. Just my thoughts

Not anti Vengeance or Pens, just pointing out that both tend to get the top talent and both have a lot of turn over/recruiting.

I agree except the Vengeance have only done well with a couple birth years. Yes, almost any organization could have a top 20 team if they got the players that the Pens have. I don't know that they would develop them any better but they would be the top team. If the parents get most of the top players to go to a certain organization and get a truly good coach I am sure it could be as good or possibly better than the Pens. The 2006 SHAHA team is a great example. It is extremely easy when you get all the top talent and can recruit. It is a lot harder when you have to actually coach and develop the talent vs recruit it. That is why I always find it entertaining to hear organizations claim to be developing players yet they constantly get rid of their players and recruit new ones that were developed elsewhere. The Vengeance also recruit and roll through players just like the Pens.

The only problem is that it is often hard to find good coaching at the squirt and peewee level in western PA. The 2008 and 2009 Vengeance teams are pretty good but they have some pretty rough teams like the 2007 team, the 2013 team,... I guess if you are playing somewhere other than Pens at those ages you should be doing skill development with a good skills coach. My other concern with a lot of programs at the squirt and peewee level is will they actually develop/teach the forwards to be puck possession playmakers and the defense to be skilled quarterbacks or will they teach dump and chase, box and one, rim the puck, off the glass and out, never through the middle,.... I see a lot of kids ruined and passed because of poor coaching or playing at to high of a level.

The reason that so many wanna be AAA teams exist is because a lot of parent want to say little Jimmy or Johnny play AAA hockey. As it was said above, PAHL could be great. They referenced the 2007 Badgers who lost in the AA national championship game by a goal. All the games during Mid Am's with the 2007 group were two goal games. There was one team out of the 8 that got blown out every game but their spot could have easily been fill by the "AAA" Vengeance team that would have been middle of the pack. The AHF league/teams are no better than PAHL and probably worse. BB just wants to Monopolize the rinks, the leagues, where you get your uniforms,.... Do you really think BB wanted the rink in Rostravor? No, it is just in the same geographical area as two other rinks they own. The AHF league will most likely cost more than PAHL, not be as good as PAHL (I know that may be hard to believe), and have you traveling more to play lower quality teams. When BB bought their first rink in the area and some people were excited I warned that they won't be good for hockey in this area. They clearly like to buy enough rinks to push up and set ice prices, create their own money making league, ......

What rink and time did this happen?

I think the league is pretty wide open for the taking but USC is definitely in the mix. I would bump Baldwin for USC. Those five teams all have a great shot this year and to me it seems any of them could do it. CC is the one I think is least likely of the five. Just think USC is a real sleeper that can sneak up and get you.

Personally I see no advantage with the AHF. It would probably just mean further travel and higher costing league for the same level of play in PAHL The thing I hate about BB is it seems they are trying to create Monopolies and set the prices they want. Every rink they purchased so far in the area has raised the cost of ice time.. Definitely not good for the consumer. How many rinks in the area do they need to buy/own before they are considered a monopoly?

They started building younger teams by recruiting the Pens black kids once Pens did away with their teams. That is where the vast majority of the 2008, 2009, 2010 Esmark kids came from. Those teams have started to drop off the last year or two.

Sounds like you are the spokes person for Esmark. Not too sure about how well they develope kids at the younger ages. They started praying on the Pens black kids when Pens decided to do away with their older #2 teams. Those teams were good for a year or so and seem to fade. The older birth years at Esmark (Midget) tend to be better as they get the older players that are tired of Pens (not the Pens #2 players) plus the imports. SHAHA and Preds have an advantage as I believe there are a lot more ice hockey players in that area. Esmark, SHAHA, Preds AAA teams look better in the rankings because they play higher ranked teams. If they all played in PAHL they would most likely drop in the ranking and hey, isn't the ranking the most important thing about youth hockey!! ( That's sarcasm). Gotta work the system. Just play really high ranked teams and hang in there so you go up the ladder!!

Guessing the 2007 player they picked up helped a bit!

Not sure the monopoly they are building is "great news". Ice prices have skyrocketed since they started buying up rinks in the area and raising prices.

Wow a lot of teams really dropped in the rankings week 2. That was a real surprise (Hahaha). It is great to see the the 2006 SHAHA team doing so well!!! They should be proud of themselves to build such a solid legit AAA team out there. They are the only AAA team at SHAHA but the 2008 team keeps trying to build as well. I hope the 2006 SHAHA team keeps it up!

If this were to happen it would just kill PAHL further and create even more independent teams.

The fact that you don't understand rankings this early mean next to nothing tells me all I need to know about how knowledgeable your are. They will change significantly by the end of December. I don't know who is better SHAHA, Preds, Esmark,.... Don't really care. I will say none will be in the top 40 by December and are not legit AAA in my opinion. You must have kid on one of these faux teams and actually think they are AAA

My only problem with the Vengeance is other than the 2008 birth year what teams are good?????? The 2009's are ok and it's down hill from there. PS both Pens and Vengeance play the rankings games as do most of the faux AAA teams. Just play highly ranked teams and stay a lot higher in the rankings than they really would be. If you kid isn't a 2008 I am not sure the Vengeance is a great place either. There is no perfect place.

Yes this is hilarious ?. It is the first week. A lot of these teams will drop a lot! Check back at the end of December. Now back to the 2008 Pens and Vengeance fighting that no one cares about except those parents. Both good teams with their own issues. Just kidding. Please drop it. I thought we finished the blah blah of both two years ago. Let it go people!

Yes and No. They probably wised up and decided to go for a AA National Championship their last year.