Looking for any rec hockey league that is NOT the NCHL

[renny]

My team just recently had a terrible experience with the NCHL and the way they conduct business. We are looking to move to a different league and would welcome suggestions on leagues that aren't run by idiots like the NCHL.

[dubc80]

My team plays in the HNA.
No complaints thus far other than the late ice times (which most leagues have).

[East Coast Flame]

I've been playing in the Winsport league and it's been great. Way better ice times than the NCHL and we play all our games up at COP.

[Bill Bumface]

Originally Posted by dubc80

My team plays in the HNA.
No complaints thus far other than the late ice times (which most leagues have).

I've played in 4 leagues. HNA has to be by far the worst:

1) Brutal ice times
2) Brutal ice locations: Cochran, Chestermere, Indus, it wouldn't surprise me if they added Lethbridge this year
3) Dumb rules. I got kicked out of a game for having a white helmet for an 11pm ice time in Indus. You can't play unless you have your real last name on your jersey. Good luck getting spares. Matching pants was a rule then too.
4) Horrible, horrible officiating. Although I hear the massive dink with the mail order bride may finally be gone.

Winsport is the best run out of any we've been in. COP can be a bit far for some people, and the league is pricey. Very well run, divisions were re-shuffled and kept fair, ice times were great, fantastic facility.

[Swayze11]

CAHL is pretty good, ive played in that league for quite a few seasons.

Winsport is probably the best but it fills up super fast.

I also have the same feeling you do about the NCHL, especially with some of their weird rules.

[valo403]

Originally Posted by hulkrogan

I've played in 4 leagues. HNA has to be by far the worst:

1) Brutal ice times
2) Brutal ice locations: Cochran, Chestermere, Indus, it wouldn't surprise me if they added Lethbridge this year
3) Dumb rules. I got kicked out of a game for having a white helmet for an 11pm ice time in Indus. You can't play unless you have your real last name on your jersey. Good luck getting spares. Matching pants was a rule then too.
4) Horrible, horrible officiating. Although I hear the massive dink with the mail order bride may finally be gone.

Winsport is the best run out of any we've been in. COP can be a bit far for some people, and the league is pricey. Very well run, divisions were re-shuffled and kept fair, ice times were great, fantastic facility.

Wait what? They have uniform rules in a beer league? Who do these guys think they are? Christ, we're lucky if guys on my team have two matching skates.

[Northendzone]

Good grief that is some nitpicky uniform rules for rec hockey......i played in the Calgary Mens Hockey Association for 10 yrs - great league, fantastic 1.5 hr ice times ant mostly central arenas.

[guzzy]

what kind of problems do you have with NCHL?

Just curious
Thx

[Bill Bumface]

Originally Posted by valo403

Wait what? They have uniform rules in a beer league? Who do these guys think they are? Christ, we're lucky if guys on my team have two matching skates.

They run it out of Chicago, and basically have no clue. They are trying to give you the "pro experience". Because, you know, when I whiff on an open net and then fall down into the end boards in a heap, I want my pants and helmet to match those of my teammates who are still standing so that if anyone came to watch me they might mix me up with someone still standing, just like how the pros would be!

[East Coast Flame]

Originally Posted by guzzy

what kind of problems do you have with NCHL?

Just curious
Thx

Not OP, but I quit a couple years ago due to the awful ice times out in the middle of nowhere.

Playing every week at 11:30pm in Chestermere got old fast.

[EverfresH15]

http://www.albertasummerhockey.com/s...ge=news_league

NCHL is a brutal league.

[mrgreen]

Played in NCHL for several years. Brutal ice times (lots of 10:45, 11:15 etc) and loads of out of town games in Chestermere, Airdrie, Okotoks etc. Not getting to sleep until 2 and 3 am on a work night isn't much fun. Often there's no scorekeepers and only one ref turns up etc. Then some of the reffing is terrible. It's not good, everyone moans about it, but for some reason we keep going back!

[Kavvy]

Originally Posted by EverfresH15

http://www.albertasummerhockey.com/s...ge=news_league

NCHL is a brutal league.

I play in ASH, good league fairly played back, this year most hockey at flames arenas (formally centennial).

[Nyah]

My boyfriends biggest issue with NCHL is the refs. Apparently they're terrible. That and the 10:45pm Sunday icetimes in Okotoks.

[sec304]

We quit the NCHL a while ago because of brutal ice times mixed with awful referees.

We moved to AllCal and it was way better until Winsport came along and took all of their ice times from COP.

We play All-Cal for winter

Winsport for summer

[Nammer403]

CAHL is what Ive been playing for a few seasons
Im hit or miss with the league someweeks we will have games at 1115 out at Edge/Springbank during the winters
sometimes itll be early at NESS or Cardel
Their scheduling for CAHL needs to be way better we had playoff games recently and the site wasnt updated till the very last day before our game
Also the Refs are a hit and miss as well. One ref has it out for us he wont call anything, against the other, miss goal calls etc.

[FlamesKickAss]

Originally Posted by hulkrogan

4) Horrible, horrible officiating. Although I hear the massive dink with the mail order bride may finally be gone.

Garnet???? Some great stories about that guy! I remember a former ref cameto the rink to start a fight with him once!

One of my teammates saw it unfold and after that he was great for us!

[CMPunk]

Another vote for Winsport, but then I'm bias as I work for the league

[renny]

Originally Posted by guzzy

what kind of problems do you have with NCHL?

Just curious
Thx

This is basically what happened:

We were in the finals, playing against (the league owners, we find this out after the fact).

So we show up to play and the time keeper out of nowhere claims that one of our guys can't play because of some bogus rule that's not even on their website or in their rulebook. Taking one of our better defenders out of the game. While I was talking to the time keeper one of our guys went and asked the other team if it's Ok for our guy to play, they agreed, the refs agreed so we started to play.

Shortly into the game we score a goal while our guy was on the ice. The timekeeper suddenly sounds to buzzer calls the refs over and says "he's not allowed to play, I said he's not allowed to play," so she takes away our goal.

Then throughout the whole game the refs didn't give us a single penalty call even though we would get upended right in front of them. While our guys would get called when they other team grabs our players' stick and tosses it aside.

Finally the last straw was they (i'm assuming the league owners) brought in these crazy ringers to play on their team who dominated us pretty hard. So we lose the game by 1 goal (which we wouldn't have, had the time keeper not taken away our goal).

I tried to talk to the league about these issues, then I just get a big FU, cause I wasn't aware the owners were on that team. In the end, our team decided we pay a huge amount in league fees, why should we be subjected to this type of treatment? If the owners want to win so bad they're willing to stack their team and have crazy biased officiating then that's fine, they can have their little game. We'll just take our money elsewhere.

[Superfraggle]

Originally Posted by hulkrogan

I've played in 4 leagues. HNA has to be by far the worst:

1) Brutal ice times
2) Brutal ice locations: Cochran, Chestermere, Indus, it wouldn't surprise me if they added Lethbridge this year
3) Dumb rules. I got kicked out of a game for having a white helmet for an 11pm ice time in Indus. You can't play unless you have your real last name on your jersey. Good luck getting spares. Matching pants was a rule then too.
4) Horrible, horrible officiating. Although I hear the massive dink with the mail order bride may finally be gone.

Winsport is the best run out of any we've been in. COP can be a bit far for some people, and the league is pricey. Very well run, divisions were re-shuffled and kept fair, ice times were great, fantastic facility.

2)Actually, HNA stopped going to Indus this winter. I've never had a game in Cochrane. Chestermere is pretty common, though.

3)We haven't had much problem with spares. You just need to know who might spare for you at the start of the year. Get a couple spare jerseys with velcro for removable name tags.

4)Officiating is a little hit or miss, but I found it mostly good this year. Worst officiating I ever had was in the NCHL, where they put my team down 5 on 3 for the first 10 mins of the game on phantom calls until they managed to kick out the three guys they were specifically targeting.