Looking for any rec hockey league that is NOT the NCHL

[CMPunk]

Originally Posted by renny

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.

What was the rule?

Nice to see the Hoser's still doing their thing

[Ironhorse]

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.

Originally Posted by Northendzone

Good grief that is some nitpicky uniform rules for rec hockey......

I like the fact that HNA have uniform rules. It instills some pride into a team, and the real name on the back also carries a bit of accountability. Other Rec sports (soccer, handball, etc) in Europe always wear matching team jerseys; when I moved to Canada, I always found it odd and a bit disappointing that most adult recreational hockey teams here were made up of a bunch of ragtag jerseys and outfits.

[renny]

Originally Posted by CMPunk

What was the rule?

Nice to see the Hoser's still doing their thing

Our Defenseman played a couple of games in net during the regular season because we couldn't find a goalie. He's never played goalie before in his life, and he just borrowed friend's pads a the last minute to play goal for us so we wouldn't forfeit the game.

Apparently because he's played in net for us to be a team guy, he's automatically our goalie. So long story short, I spoke to the league before the game and got approval from them to bring a substitute goalie (since none of us considered the defenseman a goalie). We show up, and the time keeper pulls the "he's listed as one of your goalies" card on us and says that he's not allowed to play because we brought in a substitute goalie when we have our own goalie available. I checked their website, they don't have any rule about this, the only thing is we have to get the league's approval, and I got that.

It was very bush league, but like I said, if this is how the owners (hosers) want to win a rec league championship, so be it. I just know I will never give business to these guys ever again and I'll make sure everybody I know that plays hockey knows about this.

But from the sounds of your post, this isn't the first time they've been doing stuff like that. My friends in the south division was telling me they were purposely throwing games so they wouldn't get promoted up a division.

[renny]

Originally Posted by Ironhorse

I like the fact that HNA have uniform rules. It instills some pride into a team, and the real name on the back also carries a bit of accountability. Other Rec sports (soccer, handball, etc) in Europe always wear matching team jerseys; when I moved to Canada, I always found it odd and a bit disappointing that most adult recreational hockey teams here were made up of a bunch of ragtag jerseys and outfits.

I can see where you're coming from, but from a casual rec league player's standpoint it's really expensive to completely match a team. For example if you have a blue pair of pants and a white helmet, when the team uses black helmets and black pants, that right there is a $300 investment. The ####ty part is there's nothing wrong with your equipment other than the colors.

I talked to the HNA folks today actually, they're relaxing the uniform rules going forward. Just the jersey rules are in effect, you don't have to match helmets, pants and gloves.

[K1LLswitch]

NCHL has been great for me. Their beginner program was good and I like how easy it was to form a team and get some games afterwards. In the lowest divisions E4 and E3 so it's pretty fun as we're all so bad.

Some brutal refs and often only 1 comes or 2 but no timekeeper. Pretty weak, but having done years of indoor soccer where refs were so scarce teams were mandated to send someone to the ref course every year and ref some games or the team would be penalized, I am always impressed that guys actually show up for $50 to be yelled at for 90min by those 2-3 asshats on every team that forget this is beer league hockey.

South ice times and locations were WAY worse - should have called it the Fish creek division + okatokes. North times are much better I have found.

I also did 2 seasons of CAHL, but I didn't like how they formed teams of random players with vastly different skill sets which made it tough to fit in as a newbie. The owner or league manager guy was great though, and took lots of video and photos for the website and great accurate stats.....I think he attended many of the games as timekeeper himself.

[Northendzone]

i get the uniform rules as well - and to me the right approach is that the majority of the team has matching jersies - sometimes you need to call in spares, and for whatever reason your team does not have extra jersies - if your spare has an all white practice jersey and your team is rocking the Kings road jersey, then close enough - especially if you are playing at 11 pm somewhere.

To require matching gloves, pants and socks and whatnot seems extreme and a huge burden with respect to getting spares. We are not talking the NHL/WHL here......

I can see trying to limit your roster somehow so that you are not bringing out a load of ringers - but at the end of the day how pathetic is it to bring out ringers - so your teams wins it's rec league championship - guess what, there is no parade, no rings, you don't get to meet the PResident......you are still getting up the next morning and fighting traffic on deerfoot like every other day......

[Bill Bumface]

Originally Posted by Superfraggle

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.

If you think that's reasonable, you and I have different ideas on how a well run rec hockey league works.

[valo403]

Originally Posted by Ironhorse

I like the fact that HNA have uniform rules. It instills some pride into a team, and the real name on the back also carries a bit of accountability. Other Rec sports (soccer, handball, etc) in Europe always wear matching team jerseys; when I moved to Canada, I always found it odd and a bit disappointing that most adult recreational hockey teams here were made up of a bunch of ragtag jerseys and outfits.

Jerseys are one thing, but matching helmets and pants? That's ridiculous. Do rec soccer leagues in Europe require matching cleats?

This is REC hockey, it's not the pros, there are no scouts in the stands, nobody cares about your name or who you are. Honestly this sounds like a league for people who can't accept those facts, or at least a league run by those people.

[FlamesAllTheWay]

Originally Posted by Kavy

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

Seconded. Awesome ice times almost all of which are at centennial. Hockey is good and the league itself is pretty relaxed.

Been there for a few years now without any issues.

[FlamesAllTheWay]

Originally Posted by valo403

This is REC hockey, it's not the pros, there are no scouts in the stands, nobody cares about your name or who you are.

Heheh

[drPepper1]

The NHL is pretty good, but travel can suck sometimes. I got no complaints

[meanmachine13]

Originally Posted by FlamesKickAss

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!

He is now running the Wild Horse Hockey League

[meanmachine13]

I think its funny how everyone praises the reffing in the WinSport league, when almost ALL of them are NCHL refs.

As well, NCHL refs often do other leagues as well, so dont think just by switching leagues you will get better refs. I timekeep for many leagues in the city and run into the same refs everywhere.

And the WinSport league is run by a guy who used to work for NCHL.

Its crazy how interconnected all the leagues are in regards to past employees switching to other leauges and so forth.

[meanmachine13]

Originally Posted by renny

Our Defenseman played a couple of games in net during the regular season because we couldn't find a goalie. He's never played goalie before in his life, and he just borrowed friend's pads a the last minute to play goal for us so we wouldn't forfeit the game.

Apparently because he's played in net for us to be a team guy, he's automatically our goalie. So long story short, I spoke to the league before the game and got approval from them to bring a substitute goalie (since none of us considered the defenseman a goalie). We show up, and the time keeper pulls the "he's listed as one of your goalies" card on us and says that he's not allowed to play because we brought in a substitute goalie when we have our own goalie available. I checked their website, they don't have any rule about this, the only thing is we have to get the league's approval, and I got that.

It was very bush league, but like I said, if this is how the owners (hosers) want to win a rec league championship, so be it. I just know I will never give business to these guys ever again and I'll make sure everybody I know that plays hockey knows about this.

But from the sounds of your post, this isn't the first time they've been doing stuff like that. My friends in the south division was telling me they were purposely throwing games so they wouldn't get promoted up a division.

Many of the Hosers teams are actually in last place in their divisions.

The reason they have 'ringers' is because they are a club team, and as a club team you can use subs from any other club team (aka any other hosers team). They added a new rule this season where they arent allowed to do this with lower division teams.

And by being in the finals, it sounds as though you were in playoffs. If that player had only played as a goalie and didnt meet the minimum game requirements for a player (1/3 of the season games) then he wouldnt be allowed to play in playoffs as a player.

[Tron_fdc]

ASHL is good. I ran a team in their div 2 the last 4 years, and it's pretty competitive. I think it's hard to get into though, because they have the good ice times and a lot of teams wanting to play in it. It was kind of pricey though from what I recall, although you do get 30 games. They have some really really good refs, and the odd bad one. For the most part they're pretty consistent though, and don't cause problems on the ice.

NCHL is terrible as the op has pointed out.

I might try Calgary Summer Hockey League this year. They only have one division though, and brand it as "Junior B level or better". Anyone ever played it?

http://www.calgarysummerhockeyleague.com/

[The Ditch]

Mainly hated the NCHL because of the brutal ice times, after having countless 11:30pm games one season in Chestermere, had enough of that. Ice times in Winsport are much more reasonable.

Still hate club teams and the idea, you'd play competitive games with a team than at the end of the year and the playoffs you'd just get creamed by them as all these players who maybe played one game on the team at some point come out. Like thanks you went from a C team to an A team that's real fun and fair, and they'd always whoop it up as well.

[Phaneufenstein]

Our Hounds IV team left the NCHL this year to join HNA.

Don't know how that's going to be, but it can't be any worse than NCHL, I am certain.

Brutal refs and sub-par organizational functions are my main complaints.

For example - our only playoff game this year:
We were short guys. Only 7 skaters plus goalie = 2 subs on the bench, which is pretty bad.
One guy played 20 games of the season, but according to timekeeper's paperwork he only played 10 or something. According to league rules, the player has to play at least half the season to be eligible to play in the playoffs, so they kicked him out. Played with one sub due to a clerical error.

Another example of incompetence.
First 5-6 games are supposed to be seeding round. We lost first 8 games and never got moved down a division or anything. Proceeded to get destroyed on a regular basis, winning only 2 games the entire season. Just disheartening..... couldn't wait for it to be over.

Just a bad experience with that league.

[WinnipegFan]

I have played in a number of leagues in the city from Heritage to the Alberta Insurance League. NCHL has been by far the worst, refs, league reps, ice times, even down to their stats tracker cheating for the owners. It is a league run by egos and it is designed to feed those egos.

This year I joined a team in the WRAHL, link is below. This league is run by a guy who plays hockey and is very open to input. We had a few incidents throughout the year and the league was great. We lost aplayer due to his own stupidity and the league was understanding that he did not represent our entire team and allowed us to have input. Down to I took a highstick in a semi-final and the player would have been suspended for the final (we lost) but with my email in explaining how apologetic the guy was and that it was accidental the league reversed the order and let the guy play. They truly have players interest at heart. I fully recommend them.

http://www.wrahl.com/sites/3333/page...ge=news_league

[FLAMESRULE]

Play WRAHL as well...actually ended up winning our div this year. It is a very open and receptive league to new ideas. The guy who runs it actually plays in our div and we've never had an issue with refs playing favourites or anything like that.

All refs suck. Anyone who's played sports knows that.

HNA is decent. The ice times are getting better, it is fairly well run (always have refs/timekeepers, etc.) They did drop the pants/helmet matching rule for this year, and have never had that rule for summer. If anyone can afford it, i HIGHLY recommend going on there tourney team from Canada to Amsterdam.

[renny]

Originally Posted by meanmachine13

Many of the Hosers teams are actually in last place in their divisions.

The reason they have 'ringers' is because they are a club team, and as a club team you can use subs from any other club team (aka any other hosers team). They added a new rule this season where they arent allowed to do this with lower division teams.

And by being in the finals, it sounds as though you were in playoffs. If that player had only played as a goalie and didnt meet the minimum game requirements for a player (1/3 of the season games) then he wouldnt be allowed to play in playoffs as a player.

I guess I should clarify, our defenseman has played 20 of his 22 games as a defenseman. He strapped on borrowed pads so that we wouldn't forfeit and so the opposing team could play too as a favor to the team. So he met the minimum game requirements.