Tier 2 Rankings for PAHL Teams

[fafa fohi]

17 hours ago, Lifelongbender said:

I agree entirely. The varsity teams practice practically every day, and still their systems play tends to be weak, and basic positioning concepts are absent. It's really disappointing.

"Systems" - go to any HS game and count how many times the puck handler enters the offensive zone on a rush ( F1 ) and goes down the middle to try and stick handle through two D to score.  Then count how many times F1 enters the O-zone and goes wide, F2 crashes the net and F3 goes high slot.

You would need three hands or more to count how many times  F1 goes up the middle and one hand to count those taking the puck wide.  The F1,F2,F3 "system" is taught since U12 and you will find many HS players playing selfishly to pad their own stats by dangling through the middle.  It is painful to watch.  I have watched those same players that do this in their HS game, yet play to the "system" on their AA and AAA level teams.  Not all, but many.

 

Edited January 28, 2022 by fafa fohi

[Spear and Magic Helmet]

20 hours ago, Danner27 said:

I haven’t seen much varsity this year but what I did see last year definitely was not as good as the past. The pihl to me, looks like it’s been on a steady decline year over year for sometime. That’s probably a different topic. 
 

ACHA is a mixed bag. I’ve seen very weak M1 teams.  I’ve seen M2 & M3 teams that would beat up on a good amount of our area M1. Sometimes ACHA classification doesn’t make much sense. 

Agree HS is worse, but that's often due to the fact that many of these teams are barely hanging on. Most of them don't cut anyone, they just take whoever they can get.

In the ACHA, the M1/M3 designation is really more about how organized the club is than anything. The local M1 teams are, at best, middle of the pack in M1. They often get blown out when they send a team to nationals. The M3 teams, at least the good ones, are among the best M3 teams in the ACHA and have decent showings at nationals. Now, if these teams played each other, they are probably about the same quality, though Cal had some teams around 2005-2010 that would have blown out the local M1 teams.

[Lifelongbender]

2 hours ago, fafa fohi said:

"Systems" - go to any HS game and count how many times the puck handler enters the offensive zone on a rush ( F1 ) and goes down the middle to try and stick handle through two D to score.  Then count how many times F1 enters the O-zone and goes wide, F2 crashes the net and F3 goes high slot.

You would need three hands or more to count how many times  F1 goes up the middle and one hand to count those taking the puck wide.  The F1,F2,F3 "system" is taught since U12 and you will find many HS players playing selfishly to pad their own stats by dangling through the middle.  It is painful to watch.  I have watched those same players that do this in their HS game, yet play to the "system" on their AA and AAA level teams.  Not all, but many.

 

100% yes. This is entirely correct.

And this may the greatest example of coaches failing players. So many of these kids learn the wrong lessons when they're young because coaches encourage them to do this, because at that age (ie, before hitting) they're able to beat a couple D and score. And they just learn to do it because the teams win games and everyone tells them how great they are, when in fact they're not getting good fundamentals. Then you get to high school and the phenom tries to put the puck between the D's legs, only to find that at that level the D doesn't really care much about the puck. They simply play the body and the rush is broken.

It drives me nuts to see that. But play a team from Detroit, or Boston. They don't do that.

[Law]

Spear, not entirely true about all local ACHAM1 teams. PITT is ranked 14th in M1 and finished ranked 20th 2 years ago. Didn't play last year. Think you would be surprised if you went to watch them.

[Danner27]

3 hours ago, Spear and Magic Helmet said:

Agree HS is worse, but that's often due to the fact that many of these teams are barely hanging on. Most of them don't cut anyone, they just take whoever they can get.

In the ACHA, the M1/M3 designation is really more about how organized the club is than anything. The local M1 teams are, at best, middle of the pack in M1. They often get blown out when they send a team to nationals. The M3 teams, at least the good ones, are among the best M3 teams in the ACHA and have decent showings at nationals. Now, if these teams played each other, they are probably about the same quality, though Cal had some teams around 2005-2010 that would have blown out the local M1 teams.

I’ve heard Cal has a pretty good acha program, unfortunately I’ve never seen them play due to where they are located. Looking at their history it appears they had a pretty long run of high caliber teams. Why were they never moved up to m1 ? 
 

it does appear our local m1 teams are mediocre in compassion to other areas but rmu, pitt & iup looked pretty decent from what I’ve seen this year. I caught a Duquesne m1 game out at alpha earlier in the year. They looked like a pihl team, it was pretty bad. 
 

[Danner27]

5 hours ago, Law said:

Spear, not entirely true about all local ACHAM1 teams. PITT is ranked 14th in M1 and finished ranked 20th 2 years ago. Didn't play last year. Think you would be surprised if you went to watch them.

I’ve seen two PITT games this year, They looked decent but they wouldn’t be able to hang with the top dogs. If they win the region and goto nationals I guess we will find out. @Spear and Magic Helmet is pretty spot on with his assessment. 
 

rankings for the acha seem strange, some teams don’t have all their games reported from what I’m seeing. 66 total M1 teams ? Pitt being ranked 14th in m1 is probably comparable to esmark being ranked 20th in AAA (impressive but) still can’t get past ppe and if they do, they get blown out at nationals (see last year when they got an at large bid). I wish my kids decided to play in college but they are both at colleges that do not have hockey. Maybe following local acha will give me something to do in my free time ? no politics or general bs to discuss, it’s over when college is over. The acha is the end game. 

Edited January 28, 2022 by Danner27

[Spear and Magic Helmet]

4 hours ago, Law said:

Spear, not entirely true about all local ACHAM1 teams. PITT is ranked 14th in M1 and finished ranked 20th 2 years ago. Didn't play last year. Think you would be surprised if you went to watch them.

You are right. I was being overly general. As @Danner27 mentioned Pitt, RMU and IUP are stronger than the rest of CHMA, The lower teams in there are not great. A #14 ranking for Pitt is pretty impressive actually. I hadn't noticed that before and there are some good teams below them in the rankings.

Cal is perfectly happy to the the big fish in a small pond. I think that helps their recruiting as well. Cal has kids who go to school just to play hockey. I haven't seen them play in years, but they would have won the CHMA in their heyday and then probably gotten crushed at M1 nationals.

[Pa Hockey]

Great Game last night between RMU and IUP and should set up an Interesting CHMA Playoffs. Pitt is the Favorite and IUP, RMU, John Carroll, Kent State are all in the mix. WVU is a darkhorse after they clinch the playoff spot soon, 

League represents a Tier 2 of ACHA M1 Schools and great place for local student Athletes to get an education and play some  good college hockey.

 

Edited January 29, 2022 by Pa Hockey

[BeaverFalls]

You can thank usa hockey making small area games the only answer - not just a part of the equation. Majority of these kids aren’t getting any system knowledge all the way through their playing days.