Loach

30 minutes ago, hockeyisgreat said:

MidAm website for results and info still not working!  So annoying!  Do they even care?

The results on the home page seem all updated to me.

I was flipping through Livebarn too, and the 16U PPE team just lost to OBJ 3-1.

Just chiming in to say I feel bad for the Montour seniors. But I skimmed through that court filing and don’t see how they win. All they have is an email reply from the prez who says he has someone for them to talk to? I’m no lawyer but that doesn’t seem enough to count this as an exception to the rule.

My kid did the MidAm camp twice. First time (16s), had some really good games, played with some good kids - thought it was worth it just for that. Second time (17s), play was much more sloppy and I think a lot of the better kids were just going through the motions as they knew they were moving on. I kind of regretted doing it the second time.

There was little question that certain kids from the big dog organizations (Mission, LC, PPE) were going through no matter how they played early on. But, there were also some real head scratcher picks for the all-star game which makes me think that some are actually picked based on evaluations, but I'm not sure the evaluators are very good at what they do. This isn't some kind of jaded comment, my kid is a goalie and I'm talking about the skaters - I watched pretty much every game (as a coach knew many of the players as well) and did my own evaluations - there were a few picks for the all-star game that made no sense at all. 

I saw that twitter post the other day and was wondering if someone here was going to bring up the MidAm stat. The pool of current players is just an easy to grab metric to try and balance out a big district to a small district so it seems fine to make the general point. Basically, with this crop of freshmen, MidAm did a terrible job of developing D1 college players.

I do wonder how they calculate the home district though. If a player leaves Midam at 18U for another district, do they get counted in the new district? There's a freshman from Strongsville OH on Buckeyes. He played 15U to 18U in Michigan I believe. Does he get counted with MidAm or Michigan?

21 hours ago, Icebucket said:

Problem at u18 is that there are 2-3 top teams, then the next 5-6 are all close. Can't have a 3 team division.

 

Edit: I stand corrected as u19 girls has a 3 team division. Ugh

Who are the top 3 at 18u AA? No agenda, I don’t have a kid in this league, I was just wondering.

No question there's a similar pot at USA Hockey. I'd love to see a more thorough accounting of where all the USA Hockey registration fees go, and I know a lot goes to the national development team pot. Bugs me that fees changed this year the way that they did - very suspicious.

7 hours ago, Spear and Magic Helmet said:

I just checked the Twitter. Not a good look in some of the tweets. Probably a better way to address it than using Twitter. 

 

 

https://twitter.com/cshell371/status/1474214207398760450?t=6fCvSl_zdzjQOW_AQVOPHQ&s=19

 

 

I don't know the coach, the Board or the players. But, looking at that Twitter account, they are better off without this coach. What an asshat to air that on social media. Show some class, dude.

24 minutes ago, aaaahockey said:

That's correct - 1 min 12 or less minutes, 1:30 under 15 (13 or 14 min periods) and 15+ 2 minutes correct?  

It's supposed to now be 1.5 min for 15 min, with 2 min kicking in for periods 17 min or more. But local organizations were given the ability to over-ride those guides and PAHL apparently did for their older ages.

14 minutes ago, Danner27 said:

Team Ohio ? 

It's basically the North Royalton high school team from last year - they are going under the Team Ohio banner this year.

https://www.teamohio.com/news_article/show/1141806

6 hours ago, Saucey said:

Yeah, but those rankings are useful for teams to figure out appropriate tournaments and other teams to play. 

Exactly. I know MHR takes flak for the chest-thumping parents who just focus on which team is above who. But, those rankings are a real godsend for any diligent coach or manager trying to find appropriate competition. Even among teams well below the top 50, there is a considerable range of talent and MHR can help a lot in figuring the schedule out. Do not get rid of the rankings because of idiots.

How are the 16U AAA teams stacking up this year against each other?

25 minutes ago, Ihearthockey said:

My expectations heading into this year would be as follows:

PPE - top tier as expected

Esmark - basically the old Vengeance team plus a few.  They've played together, I expect good results from them.  Plus it looks like they got a couple Russian imports.  

Vengeance - totally new team, going to take a while to gel.  Wouldn't be surprised if they struggled this year.  I'd say the goal here is probably to get better as the year goes on and finish strong.  

Icemen - see Vengeance

Vengeance and Icemen would probably be better off playing some top AA/low AAA teams this year.  I know alot of the kids on both teams and while they have talent, there's something to be said about teams that have played with each other for years.   

 

Is there one birth year you are specifically referring to here?

I didn't know he was fighting cancer. Rest in peace, condolences to the family.

This is basically the Canadian system - no athletic scholarships. It's a big reason why the junior hockey leagues in Canada flourished as the feeder system to the pros, rather than Canadian university hockey. American college athletics is pretty entrenched but I guess if they removed D1 scholarships, you might eventually see non-academic developmental leagues become the main path to the pros for the top athletes.

So, no delayed offsides at 18U and 16U even though these kids may also be playing high school and have delayed offsides?

On 6/3/2021 at 12:44 PM, Hockey22 said:

That is a large assumption on your part and 100% inaccurate. 

Just clarifying, so there will be an 05 Icemen team this year? Are they carding tier 1 or 2?

12 hours ago, mrfreeze said:

I heard at the 15u they cut 4 d, 1 goalie and 2 forwards, now I belive in addition 1 d and 2 or 3 forwars did not tryout. They took kids from LA, Dallas, Little Ceasers and a goalie from British Columbia. They also added 1 kid also from Pittsburgh, that went to play in the ccm 68 a year ago. The team has 3 kids from Pittsburgh if you count the 2007 that will play up with them most of the year, but not at mid am or nationals, the new kid they added, that never played there ever and 1 kid that has played on the team since first year squirts. The team will be good, some additions maybe better then some that did not make it, some won't. Some where guaranteed spots and the parent/s may be new staff members or skill instructors. Some of these kids have agents or influnce that helped them out. With this being said, it is hard to say they are great at development if you have 1 kid left after starting with this team from first year squirts, I would love to see if they are tracking any of this and any relitive data.

Thanks for the reply. Regardless of one's stance on player development at PPE, this is pretty sobering information for parents of kids getting started in the program. 

On 5/11/2021 at 9:46 AM, fafa fohi said:

You must be new here.

There are a lot of people on this forum that firmly believe western PA rivals other hotbed hockey markets, which clearly it doesn't.  Have you looked at a PPE roster lately?  More and more kids are imports from out of state and word is with recent PPE tryouts many local kids from last years teams got cut and are looking at other options.  Vengeance, Lebo, Preds are all comprised of local players yet those teams can't compete with PPE...........I wonder why? 

I am not salty about anything, just stating facts.   

I'm curious about the statement that local kids were cut for out of town kids regarding this year. 15u, 16u and 18u had their tryouts last week. Does anyone have a more definitive (or at least approximate) number on how many new kids from out of state made those midget teams? 

I decided to stick this in here rather than start a new thread. MidAm development camp for 2004s and 2005s held this past weekend in Sylvania.

10 2005s going on to Team USA main camp: 6 forwards, 3 defense, 1 goalie. 5 of the 10 total from PPE, none from other Pittsburgh teams. (I do not have a kid on PPE, just stating the numbers)

10 2004s going: 5 forwards, 3 defense, 2 goalies. I don't know this birth year as well and I'm too lazy to look up their teams.

Link: https://www.midamhockey.com/page/show/4649558-home

As an interested outsider, I'm just curious for how many 16u independent teams there will be. I think I saw tryouts for the following that were at least listed as AAA:

Pens, Esmark, Predators, Mt. Lebanon, Icemen, Vengeance

Wow, that's a lot - are there enough kids for 6 non-PAHL teams? Plus, I imagine Steel City will be a strong AA team again that plays low-end AAA tourneys.

I can see both sides of the tryout timing. When I was growing up, tryouts were always in the fall right before season kick-off. There was always a surprise or two, some kid who grew a foot or put on 20 pounds of muscle over the summer. It may have been wishful thinking, but it felt like tryouts were more wide open with more spots up for grabs.

Now, the system is set up more for the status quo. Coaches know going into spring tryouts who they want to keep from their team, who are the bubble kids. Everything is fresh in their mind. But, as others mentioned, I think the advantage of having spring tryouts are really two-fold: 1) families don't have to deal with the arms race all summer of having to do all these summer skates to keep your spot; 2) coaches can use the time for the odd team gathering to start team gelling but with less stress than the pre-tryout skates. I think we are past the point of no return and it actually would be worse to go back to fall tryouts now, even though I liked it as a kid.

Agree with the OP. 

With respect to whether your kid should play for a 'faux AAA team' versus a comparable PAHL AA team: if you are choosing the former just because of the third 'A', you are making the decision using the wrong criteria - it may work out, and it may not.

But, if you are choosing to play on that team because you like the coach, you feel it is a good fit for your kid, the other players and families seem good, then you are likely making an informed decision and the odds of it working out are greatly increased.

I mentioned the small area games as the best way to increase hockey IQ, and it's true that many teams follow the same model (and they should!) and employ these during practices.

An inference of my post above, which Saucey picked up on, is that kids in northern areas of the continent have the advantage of just so much more time to participate in these small area games on an unorganized level. Whereas kids in WPA/OH, etc may get 15 minutes of this every practice, there's kids up north that might spend hours a week playing these games on outdoor rinks. I grew up in Northern Ontario, lived on a river and myself and the neighborhood kids probably met on the shared rink we had at least 5 times a week, playing shinny hockey from when we got home from school until late at night. You can't replicate that here.

I guess when I hear people complain about the ADM model as to why the kids in this area don't develop hockey IQ, I don't really agree. I personally think the ADM is good and maximizes development with respect to the amount of icetime that is available. I think the bigger difference is that kids here don't have access to near unlimited free outdoor ice where they can try whatever moves they want, with little adult instruction, and figure out for themselves what works and what doesn't. Just my opinion as a Canadian now living in the US

There is nothing that teaches hockey IQ like small area games, even just something as simple as cross-ice 3 vs 3 hockey. When I was coaching, we'd run a variation of 3 v 3 cross-ice to end almost every practice. Small-area games are basically what is played on the ponds many winter weekends across Northern Canada and Minnesota, and that is where kids develop and hone their creativity and instincts.