"Elite" Minor Hockey

[Coach]

Too bad Northendzone, was looking forward to some CP minor hockey trash talk this season. Was your son a first year Bantam player?

[Northendzone]

^ mattyc yes this is his first year of bantam.

As a spectator it is going to be tough to watch community hockey especially if he plays on team 3 or lower.....

[Derek Sutton]

Originally Posted by Northendzone

^ mattyc yes this is his first year of bantam.

As a spectator it is going to be tough to watch community hockey especially if he plays on team 3 or lower.....

I quite enjoyed reading about the try out process and the updates, as a first year goalie, there is not a harder spot to earn. It is quite a stressful time but it no doubt has made your son a better goalie and has given him a taste of where he should be next year. The worse part is that the coaching especially for goalies really drops off once you get out of the AA levels.

Please keep an open mind and be positive as the community hockey season begins. There is nothing worse then a parent complaining about the quality of hockey and insisting that their child is "above this", or that this is "rat hockey". This is also a huge opportunity for your son to be a leader on his team and you can challenge him to be the best goalie in his tier.

I'm kind of excited as the ambhl starts off this week end and the team down here in Lethbridge should be one of the strongest in the province. This year is what these kids have been working for for the last 4 years. The '01 group is the strongest age group this city has has since the 1992 kids were second year bantams. They are a little undersized but work their tales off, are well coached and have been playing together, for the most part, since atom.

[Coach]

Originally Posted by Northendzone

^ mattyc yes this is his first year of bantam.

As a spectator it is going to be tough to watch community hockey especially if he plays on team 3 or lower.....

How far into the community tryouts are they at this point?

I would venture to guess his age was a significant factor in the process. Each team can only carry 8 first years maximum, so it can be tough to use that spot on a goalie if they aren't a good level above the next guy. Sometimes coaches also don't realize how many they are going to end up wanting to keep until later. What type of feedback did he get? I know for any kids that found themselves in this situation for us (ie, good enough to play, but can't keep them due to age) we tell them straight up that it's largely to do with the age rule.

[undercoverbrother]

hockey is fun

[Northendzone]

^ matty - our assocition has two pahses for the goalie evaluations. phase one involves a night of movement drills and then three nights of skills where they face shots, phsae two involves the players and is a series of four 5-5 games.

we start the games on monday. He has been to all of the community sessions so far.

sounds like he may be asked to affiliate with the quad team; however, they have not yet sent me any paperwork. I also understand that in order to affiliate, he has to play on team one (seems like a silly rule to me).

Our association had five golaies tryout for quad - all were drafted; however, only four were put onto training camp teams and in the end all four were released - so the competition amongst these boys should be epic. As mentioned my son could easily find himself on team 3 - which I hope is not the case because he has been chasing these boys for a few seasons now and I think he has caught up to them - but he will really need to prove it.

[Coach]

If he's been to all the community sessions thus far that's a good thing for him, if the other guys hadn't it probably looks better for him as well.

Our affiliation process is that the kids get sent the request after they've made a team in community. And it will come from the association, the coach puts in the request and the association sends them ll the stuff. How long that tends to take, I'm not really sure.

That team 1 stuff is BS, particularly for a goalie, and seems like just an association rule. We've never had that.

Good luck to your boy in the community tryouts and don't let him hang his head!

[Northendzone]

^ good insight matty - really appreciate it.

i should have noted that my son is a first year, and one of the other goalies they kept was also a first year (the third goalie they kept was a second year who wans an affiliate last year - so the only way it could ahve been a numbers thing was if they wanted to keep two first years.

after being all over the map emotionally the otehr night, my son has realized that the sun did come up the next morning and he has said he is motivated to try and contend for a aaa spot next season and he now has a better understanding of the commitment level required.

the coaching staff did not really articulate why they cut him - for the record, i thought my son was better, or at the least similar than the fist year they kept - but my son was bigger and he could play the puck, where the kid they kept could not right now.

i am impressed with the fact my son realized that extra work is required and he started to do some running/weights

[Coach]

^ Did they have any goalie that dropped back from AAA tryouts? Was he a first year? If they had a first year-goalie who was the best of everyone, it's highly unlikely they would take 2 first year goalies.

It sounds like he got the proper message though. It is definitely not an easy transition from community to quadrant, and sometimes the best thing for a kid is developing at a lower league, rather than pushing to keep up with a higher league (although that can be beneficial as well). Really, what I've learned is that as a goalie parent, you have to be prepared to have some tough situations and BS decisions get in the way. Like I've mentioned before, there is only two spots. Some coaches may know kids from the year before, some may not see certain qualities. If you're not a goalie, it can be difficult to see the differences between guys who are relatively even at keeping the puck out. Playing the puck and talking to teammates tends to be an area thatwe loook at for tie-breakers, but really, it's tough to see the deficiencies (they all have them) that are coachable, and those that are not, compared to players.

If he was on the cusp this year, and spends his winter working hard and having fun, and then has a productive summer, he gives himself a good chance for sure. That's all he can do. Just make the best of it and have a fun year, I'm sure he'll end up playing with friends and enjoy himself after getting over the hurt of being cut. It's all about fun at the end of the day.

[Northendzone]

they kid that came back from trips played aa last year, one of he the triple a goalies played community hockey last year.

i was never a goalie playing hockey; however, over the past few years, I beleive i have developed to the point where i find it much easier to assess goalies than players.

my son is good at playing the puck, but he was also vocal on teh rink, so i thought these little things would add up in his favour.

[GioforPM]

Originally Posted by Northendzone

^ mattyc yes this is his first year of bantam.

As a spectator it is going to be tough to watch community hockey especially if he plays on team 3 or lower.....

From experience I can tell you that lower tier hockey is absolutely fun to watch (and at the risk of generalizing, the parents can be a lot more fun, because they aren't obsessed with placement and ice time).

And, as tell my kid - if, playing your best, you can be the worst player on the higher team or the best player on the one below, which do you choose?

[Street Pharmacist]

Originally Posted by GioforPM

From experience I can tell you that lower tier hockey is absolutely fun to watch (and at the risk of generalizing, the parents can be a lot more fun, because they aren't obsessed with placement and ice time).

And, as tell my kid - if, playing your best, you can be the worst player on the higher team or the best player on the one below, which do you choose?

My son hated Rep and loved House hockey once he went back for the reason you cited

[Northendzone]

Just a quick update on this story.....my son's team has played two seeding round games and an exhibition game and so far he has been perfect and not given up a goal.....he is bored to tears because he is getting 12 or so shots per game. He is the only goalie on his team, so he plays every minute.......

I had to do a little begging, but despite the fact he did not make team 1 in community, they finally agreed to affiliate him.

Last week he was a fill in goalie at a aa practice and I was worried he was going to struggle a bit with the speed and power of everything, but he was just fine....as fate would have it, one of their goalies was hurt over the weekend, so he was called up for practice and will be on the bench for thier game Tuesday......I really struggled with what the right thing to do because his community team practices Tuesday night and it appears they will have no goalies for a full ice practice (I am trying to line up something) and he will likely sit the bench for the aa game......

[Coach]

Originally Posted by Northendzone

Just a quick update on this story.....my son's team has played two seeding round games and an exhibition game and so far he has been perfect and not given up a goal.....he is bored to tears because he is getting 12 or so shots per game. He is the only goalie on his team, so he plays every minute.......

I had to do a little begging, but despite the fact he did not make team 1 in community, they finally agreed to affiliate him.

Last week he was a fill in goalie at a aa practice and I was worried he was going to struggle a bit with the speed and power of everything, but he was just fine....as fate would have it, one of their goalies was hurt over the weekend, so he was called up for practice and will be on the bench for thier game Tuesday......I really struggled with what the right thing to do because his community team practices Tuesday night and it appears they will have no goalies for a full ice practice (I am trying to line up something) and he will likely sit the bench for the aa game......

Good for your boy, glad to hear he's having a successful start. Sounds like the team he's on is pretty good for their division if he's getting that few shots.

That's a tough one, but on the off chance that he might get in the game, I'd say it might be a good idea to go. I can't speak for everyone, but as a former community coach I would have no problem with a kid missing a practice for a call-up. How do they only have one goalie? At least he'll get a lot of play time.

[Northendzone]

^ yeah, we are team 3 playing in div 5 - I am hopeful that we will move up.

Our association had a bit of a bantam goalie shortage, and there is a real talent gap between my son and the two team 4 goalies, our associations team 5 also only has one goalie.

If I can't lineup up at least one other goalie for the practice my son will miss it will really disrupt our practice.

I would assume that the chances of my son playing any meaningful minutes are very low.

[showtime]

Originally Posted by Northendzone

^ yeah, we are team 3 playing in div 5 - I am hopeful that we will move up.

Our association had a bit of a bantam goalie shortage, and there is a real talent gap between my son and the two team 4 goalies, our associations team 5 also only has one goalie.

If I can't lineup up at least one other goalie for the practice my son will miss it will really disrupt our practice.

I would assume that the chances of my son playing any meaningful minutes are very low.

Talk to the coach of the AA team. Ask him what the chances are that your son will get into game action. I know myself and a few other coaches who that if they call up a goalie and sit them on the bench they will make an effort to get them some game time later in the season. As all teams make the playoffs in AA playing a goalie one game that came and sat on the bench for you shouldn't be a huge deal.

[Lubicon]

Northendzone, one question is how can you son play for the AA team if he is affiliated with the Div 1 team in your community? My understanding is you can only be affiliated to one team and you cannot play on a team unless you are affiliated (or receive special permission, which is a boatload of paperwork). Coaches can get in a ton of trouble (starting with an indefinite suspension) for playing a kid who is not eligible to play so a word of advice is to make sure you know for sure who you boy is officially affiliated to and if he is playing for another team then ensure all the paperwork BS is in place. My advice if you have to make a choice is to keep practicing with the AA any chance he can, and skip the Div 1 team. He likely wont play for them anyhow if they have two goalies so may as well get the better work with the AA team even if it is practice only. Hopefully he does get into a game for them at some point but again there are bizarre rules about whether he can play or not. If he dresses as the second goalie for AA due to one of their regulars not being available he technically is still not allowed to start the game if one of their regular goalies is available to play (apparently you cannot start an affiliate ahead of a regular roster player). Seems like s stupid rule to me but one of my goalies ran afoul of that one a couple of years ago. They affiliated to a AAA team that only had one goalie so would practice with the team and often dressed for games if there was no conflict with our ice times (another rule BTW). At the end of the season the AAA coach wanted to start our goalie (in a meaningless game) but the regular goalie protested and cited the rule. Stupid rule, and if I was the coach I would have been tempted to start the regular and then switch after a minute or two.

Anyway, hope your boy has a good season and things work out.

[Northendzone]

^ sorry lubicon, my post was not clear - currently my son is only affiliated to the aa team. He is not affiliated to team 1.

the initial requirement for him to be affiliated with the aa team was that he be placed on team 1 in our community - this did not happen as he was placed on team 3.

in retrospect, i likely should ahve said, no he can't make it to the game as he has his own practice - i guess i am just trying my best to give him every opportunity possible.

[Coach]

Originally Posted by Northendzone

^ sorry lubicon, my post was not clear - currently my son is only affiliated to the aa team. He is not affiliated to team 1.

the initial requirement for him to be affiliated with the aa team was that he be placed on team 1 in our community - this did not happen as he was placed on team 3.

in retrospect, i likely should ahve said, no he can't make it to the game as he has his own practice - i guess i am just trying my best to give him every opportunity possible.

Are you the (or one of) his regular coaches? As I said, as a coach who moved from community to quadrant (showtime is my coaching partner BTW), that we would have had no problem with a kid going to a call up, even if he was going to be on the bench, even if it left us goalieless for a practice, as long as they weren't missing a game. And even then, if we had two goalies we might just call up one from a lower team and play our other goalie.

Lots of drills to fill an hour practice with that don't necessarily need goalies. Most arenas have shooter tutors on hand if you just ask the rink rats. Most quad coaches will recognize that calling up to sit on the bench isn't exactly fun and may call him up at a later time to actually play. Basically, if your boy wants to make that move for next season, and it sounds like he was pretty close this year, it can only help to be on coaches' radars.

We had a lot worse reasons for missing practices than being called up when coaching community, I wouldn't worry about it too much.

[TimSJ]

Hey all,

Question for those of you with Novice 07-08 aged kids across the country

Are you guys playing full ice or half ice. Our local minor hockey association has changed things this year without announcing to anyone. Actually they still haven't officially said anything yet. To all games for novice 1 (08) will be cross ice and next year will expand to novice 2 next year as well.


We also have no tiering here in novice all teams are balanced so you have all skill levels together on each team.

How does Novice work in your local minor hockey?

Thanks
Tim


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