Wes

Off Topic, but I went to Mario's very first Pens practice at Mt. Lebanon. That was a really cool experience. When the Pens practiced at Southpointe, all the big wigs would sit in the restaurant along the glass and watch practice.

You make a lot of good points here. Especially with the jump right to 2 & 10's as opposed to 2x2 min penalties. 16 minutes in PIM limit for FPP is ridiculous at 16uAA let alone 18uAA. Hockey is so fast and aggressive at that level. 2 months left of the PAHL. Thank God, and good riddance. = So Grumpy, given that the younger guy called literally 95% of the calls on the Huskies and many were questionable, is there EVER any evaluation for referees that will review this sort of a game and help them to fix their game? From the team perspective there NEVER seems to be any punishment to refs for blowing up a game like this. The officiating this year at 18uAA has been ALL OVER THE PLACE. in one prior game a week or 2 back, literally every scrum was a 2 on both players. in other games, its a no call or take one kid. I just don't see any consistency among refs.

#11 was slashed in the hand/fingers late in the 1st period in the corner. He pulled off his glove and was bleeding. The ref came over to him and he said something to the effect "they fucking slashed and cut my finger". Ref gives him a 2. Kid goes to PB and says to the ref something close to "why am I going to the PB, they fucking cut my finger?". Ref gives him a GM. I heard it, I was there. I've never heard a 2 minute let alone GM called when someone was injured and bleeding, but this started the dominos of 2 & 10's that the younger ref was handing out. It was a disgrace.

The game was out of hand way before the brawl with 2:30 left. Halfway through the second period it was 42-2 in PIM and you could feel the anger building from the Huskies Parents (due to the lack of calls on preds and excessive calls on Huskies), the tension building in the players and the coaches. I've been to a thousand youth hockey games and I've never witnessed a game where the PIM were like this 20 minutes into a game, where 99% of the calls were against 1 team. All those calls were made by the ONE ref. It wasn't until one of the Huskies coaches (not the HC) chirped the younger ref about all the penalties going one way, that the OLDER ref chimed in and called a few on the Preds the last few minutes of the second. That coach got a 2 min. unsportsman like penalty but it obviously woke up the older ref and he called a few so the scoresheet wouldn't look so bad. The fact of the matter there was something going on there with the younger ref and the Huskies. Right before the brawl the penalties were around 60-10. When a ref singlehandedly calls 55+ of the 60 PIM and only ~4 PIM on the other team, it's going to cause hostility no matter what. No way to avoid that. Everyone on the one team is going to be boiling. And at that point the players already know they've lost their FPP plus lost another FPP point, so who cares anymore about taking penalties.

I was there when the pens were doing training camp a Long time ago. Ok so I guess it was the 90's ?

Scoresheet of the Preds/Huskies game. The times are in reverse, so you have to subtract the time shown from 15:00 to get the actual game time. https://www.pahockey.com/game/game_sheet/29564172

The PAHL games are entered online into SportsEngine (post game) by the manager of the home team.

That's great to hear that Southpointe is opening the second sheet of ice. I really like that rink. First visited there in the 80's to watch pens training camps.

The prior worst experience I had was I believe in 14u. Also happened at PICE at LONG time ago when two very "veteran" referees let a 13 & 14 year old brawl ensue after a blow out game where Altoona was still trying to score with 1 second left on the clock. The "vets" just stood there and let the young kids have at it. A parent yelled from the stands and told them to go break up the brawl instead of standing at the scorers booth and chatting, and instead they threw out that parent who was trying to protect the kids!! Zero class from Altoona. The coaches almost fought on ice in that one post game. It is a shit show all around.

Roller Hockey and Dek Hockey are really good alternatives for kids who really like hockey. Lots of hockey kids also play Lacrosse.

We had a really bad experience with him in a summer tourney team years ago, during "tryouts". That was in the past and I haven't said a word to him since, nor would I spend any money on a program that had his name on it. I've dealt with a lot of coaches over the years and there are only 2 that I won't ever deal with ever again, one was this dude and the other was A.L. who was also at the same rink.

All 10 skaters got 2 minutes each for roughing. The Preds kid who started it got an extra 2. How that hit from behind wasn't a 2 & 10 I have no idea. In over 1,000 youth hockey games, that was easily the worst officiated game that I've ever watched. This game started off bad and got worse. 14:02 First period. Preds kneeing a Huskie, NO CALL 9:05 (roughly) First period. Preds player #17 hitting a Huskie kid to the head and and then skating a loop and taking a blindside cheap shot on #61. The kid leaves his one skate, pulls up his shoulder and hits #61 in the head. NO CALL. That's a suspension in the NHL. Why is that NOTHING in youth hockey?? I could go on and on but the officiating was AWFUL and the one ref called 90% of the penalties. At one point in the second it was 42 PIM for Huskies and 2 for Preds. Ended 72 PIM Huskies 20 for Preds. FYI the Huskies have been over 16 PIM only a few times all season, never north of 20 PIM. So how one team goes from averaging 10 PIM a game to 72 PIM you'd need to ask that referee crew.

I just wanted to read a story about it, that's all. I haven't seen any public story but I have overheard AHA parents discussing it.

Brad Posey - that says it all.

I'm guessing tourneys are still shut down up there??? anyone know?

What's the big damn deal? Playing teams in the top 5 is different than in the top 30-40, when your team is in the 70-100 range. We all have our own opinions, if my team was ready to compete with a team in the top 5 I'd play them. We're not, so I won't. BFD.

No, I haven't considered an Avatar change. Yes, I requested to change screen names months ago. I find it pointless to enter a tourney with a team in the top 5 when the balance of the teams are 60-100+. Others are welcome to have their own opinion on how they evaluate tourney competition, and I've clearly stated mine. I believe that in 25 games where teams in the 60-100 range plays a top 5, they may TIE or perhaps win once. So like I said it's 99% forgone conclusion who will win a tourney when a 5 goes against a 60 or 90.

I am always salty. Like the Salty Cracker on Youtube.

In the last tourney that Alpha did at 18uAA, they had an "SSA" team that was loaded with high end players and they were all wearing random jerseys, not SSA jerseys. It was NOT the same "SSA PREP" team that was at this MLK tourney. Half the kids were 6-3 or taller on the prior tourney and that team was vastly superior to any other AA team in the bracket and it was coached by a guy (Darren) who had coached PPE before (might still be with PPE for all I know).

I predicted before the first puck was dropped Ashburn would be in the final with Little Caesars. It's a waste of time when the champ game is a forgone conclusion like this. You can shine it whatever way you want, but when you have teams that are vastly superior in MYR to the bulk of the teams in the tourney, you know which way the tourney is going. I am glad you got paid to ref the tourney. I am glad we didn't waste our time at the tourney. Have a nice day!

It will likely be a cluster in the future for sure. We'll be gone from youth hockey by then so it doesn't make a difference to me. Given that Center Ice had just renovated, put new ice in all sheets, expanded their parking lot and was adding outdoor Lacrosse, I do find it interesting timing. But this COVID likely will cause multiple rinks to sell off.

That's a real shame that a privately owned rink is selling off, but I totally get it.

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Post a link to the source article on this please. Who is BBS??

Glad we didn't waste our money on this one. One local AA team, a high School prep team, an 18uAAA team and a top 5 18uAA team in the 18uAA final 4. Wow, what a shocker!