Kevin

That's a pretty cool kid that would do that and I'm sure his parents would have been on board with whatever you decided to do in that situation. You know, I actually have no idea how these kids on the 3rd line feel about this whole thing...just their parents.

This is what I have discussed, at length, with some of the other parents. Are they not watching the same thing I'm watching? One kid in particular...doesn't skate hard in practice, doesn't back-check hard in games, loses every puck battle because he can't be bothered and then gives the kid that took the puck from him a wicked two-hander as the play goes back the other way. This is a kid that should be rewarded with ice-time in crunch time? Actually this is one issue I had with our coach. This kid played with him last season, his mother is the team manager, and the kid is not a bad kid off the ice. Even though there were a couple of better kids out there during the tryout he went with this kid because I think he knows him and felt that he could bring out his best. In hindsight, this was probably a bad move considering one of the kids that was cut went to another rink, made their "AA" team, and scored the game winning goal against us in our first game on Saturday!

Believe me, in the heat of the moment, I'm ALL for this! Actually, I have no issue with the way the coach is handling the ice time at all but that might be because my son is getting a lot of the time. I'd like to think, though, that I'm realistic enough to understand that if my son wasn't as good as some others than they should be in there during crunch time. Shoot, that's most likely going to be the case next season if/when he moves up to pee-wee.

I agree with this wholeheartedly. I'm not sure if the coach was actually approached directly but a lot of shit was directed at one of the assistant's wives which is how I learned of it. Obviously I witnessed the parents getting upset but I didn't see what happened afterwords. For what its worth, during our game today, which essentially was meaningless since we basically had no chance of advancing to the playoffs, the coach started the #3 line and pumped them out there very frequently with the #1 line getting minimal ice time. I mentioned this to one of the parents involved saying it was a nice gesture and the parent (actually a way-too involved grandparent) responded "too fucking little, too fucking late". I found this to be completely over-the-top but it is what it is.

Alright, after an interesting weekend of hockey I have to throw this out here for my fellow hockey parents. During the third game of the tournament, with our team tied 2-2 in a game that we needed to win, the coach, with approximately 5 minutes left in the game, started cycling just two lines instead of our normal three lines. Let me give you a little background here...our coach doesn't change lines. He makes lines at the beginning of the season and sticks to them. I'm not sure why he does this but it is just the way it is. Initially, the first line and second lines appeared fairly even while the third line had two returning players and one new player but were lacking pace of play among other things. As the season has progressed, our #1 line has taken off and has accounted for 24 of our 32 league goals that we've scored with the second line having 7 and the third line getting the other goal. The #3 line has clearly struggled and has been on the ice for a large majority of the goals against our team. This brings me back to Saturday. The parents of the kids on this #3 line flipped out about their kids losing out on some ice time at the end of the game. Granted they were given their regular shifts throughout the game and were responsible for both goals against as well as some terribly timed penalties. The game still ended in a tie although we forced a lot of good scoring chances at the end but just couldn't put in the game winner. I'll pose the question to you guys: What is your take on this type of coaching at this level (squirt 'A' 9-10 yo's)? Do you agree with him playing the better players at the end in an effort to get a win during a tournament? His decision and then the parents reactions afterwords created a little bit of ugliness Saturday with some spillover into Sunday.

That's a bummer that he's out for a while. I know when my kid misses a game due to illness he gets pretty upset. Are you still planning on heading up to CT or are you allowed to miss it since he won't be playing?

What is a super series? And what happened to Michael?

Anyone have any tournaments this weekend? We are heading to Hershey, PA again. Lost a heart-breaker last year with my son pinging one off the post in a shoot-out loss in the semi-finals to end the game. This years draw doesn't look too promising with a AA team playing in the A bracket but you never know.

Good start to our season so far. Only two league games so far but won both of those. My son is playing a real strong two way game. Coaches are very happy with his effort which makes me happy as well. Playing at the rink attached to the rock tomorrow afternoon in a nl game.

I'm not sure how I'd feel about tryouts this close to the beginning of the season or, for that matter, this long after the last season is over. I like having my son get away from hockey for a bit (not totally, but not like in season) and play some other sports (baseball really). I think we would both feel compelled to have him play more during the summer just so he can make the team he wants. I'm sure there are good reasons for a august tryout but I'm glad ours are in April.

Mikey, the T1 team is still for the Colonials? What is the travel like for that team?

Interesting...I'll be at the rink in a little while so I'll see if I can find out where this rule rumor started.

I don't know where it started but that information was going around our rink that it was a USA Hockey rule. Also, Matt Herr, from USA Hockey, came to our rink and gave a presentation stressing the cross-ice/small area development style that USA Hockey has been promoting. He was adamant about Mites playing Mites level b/c of the size of the ice surface for young kids. I can't imagine that our program would just make it up the rule either.

It's always sad when a season comes to a close but I'm sure Michael is pumped to get some revenge. Good luck. Keep us posted.

We get slotted in the South group so we didn't play them this season and we didn't have either of them scheduled for NL games either. Those late b-days are tough. We have a couple of real late 04's and they are over-matched right now. We are wrapping up the season real soon. One more NL game on Sunday and then heading to Laurel, MD next weekend for a tourny and that's it.

He is an '05 playing up in Squirt. He had a great start to the year, then he went through a period of time where he was a little intimidated, but now he's back to playing real well again. He'll be 9 in June and some of the kids he's playing against are turning 11 already. Big size difference but he is quick, shifty, and has some real hockey sense already.

I don't think many places are actually doing cross-ice like USA hockey wants. I have seen only half-ice with either bumpers or temporary boards put up on the red line.

I agree with the no Peewees playing up just for that reason. I know your son is a goalie and may not apply as much but I don't think 12 y.o's should be checking or, more likely, receiving checks.

I thought that rule was already in effect? I know this upcoming year USA hockey is not allowing Mite level kids to play up in squirts anymore. Basically they are saying if the kids are too good for Mite create a Mite AA team. I'm not sure how this is going to work out but I know there are people complaining about it at my rink.

My life has changed so much since I had kids...I was humming a song from the fn wiggles at work the other day and one of my guys was like"what the fuck is the matter with you?"

I think its sad that I know exactly what this is from. "Running Errands with my Mom!" Pretty funny, man.

My son's team won their first league game on Sunday 3-0 in Flemington. The score doesn't quite tell the story as the team played a very individualistic game. Very little passing in the offensive zone with too many kids trying to do too much by themselves. The problem got so bad with one kid in particular (who has done it over the course of several games now) that the other two kids on the line were saying how they will only pass to each other and not the puck-hog. The coach gave them the business after the game and really gave them the business tonight at practice. Those kids were gassed at the end. I loved every second of it.

NJ Stars out of ProSkate Squirt B. He is playing up as a 2005 birth year. As a side note, the Squirt A coach is Sergei Starikov. He runs the Monday skills practice for all the squirts. He was a former Olympian from the Russian teams in the 80's. He won the silver during 1980 then golds in 84 and 88. He also played for the Devils when the first Russians started coming over. He seems like a good guy and the kids respond well to him when they can understand what he's saying...

Our guys just finished their 4th Non-League game (is that the NL you referenced?). We won three and tied one. Good start to the season for the team and for my son. He is playing a real strong two-way game and is hustling his butt off. He also picked up the offsides rule quickly.

Nolan Howe. He was at our rink all last year and still does lessons there a couple of days a week. He runs "Know Howe Hockey",