Only 2 of the 8 teams in their year's Junior Gold "B" State Tournament also fielded "A" teams. Several of the teams in the tourney even had two teams playing at the "B" level.
What are people's thoughts on this?
I personally believe that programs that field at least two teams at the Junior Gold level should need to have an "A" team and teams that only field one teams should be strongly encouraged to play at the "A" level.
No "A" Teams? Discuss.
Moderators: Mitch Hawker, karl(east)
Part of the problem is that the clubs must commit to A or B level in August. Most programs do not know what skaters they will have at that point. It seems like an A team needs at least 2 lines of skaters with high school experience to be competitive. I don't think most B teams have that kind of talent depth.
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puckhead77
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wingman15 wrote:Part of the problem is that the clubs must commit to A or B level in August. Most programs do not know what skaters they will have at that point. It seems like an A team needs at least 2 lines of skaters with high school experience to be competitive. I don't think most B teams have that kind of talent depth.
"A" teams DO NOT need skaters with high school experience. Wayzata, who just won state in Jr. Gold A only had TWO skaters with JV experience. None of them have ever played Varsity. That statement couldn't be further from the truth. I realize programs don't know what skaters they will have, but they should have an idea of how many skaters they will have. I agree that if they can field two B teams, they should have one playing at the A level. The programs that only have one Jr Gold team should be allowed to choose.
the problem is that some association's don't have the numbers even after the high school teams make their cuts. and also there are suprises after high scool's make cuts because ther are kids that should maybe play varsity and then would get cut unexpectdly their senior year, playing with c level kids with no jv or varsity time. basiclly speaking its about numbers.
In my opinion if anything, teams should err on the side of playing up a level. Otherwise it takes away from the teams that have two teams and the players that maybe aren't that calibur but still put in the effort.
Look no further than this years state champion for "B"., Inver Grove Heights Red. They were by far the best team we (EP) had played this year. All three of their lines were solid and talented. Then we look at the other IGH team. They were at the bottom of the league. We played them in a tournament and they were horrid. If your going to put both your teams at the "B" level, at least split them evenly.
I am not trying to taint in anyway IGH's State Title, it was well deserved. I am merely trying to offer some insight into the team and why they were so good this year.
Look no further than this years state champion for "B"., Inver Grove Heights Red. They were by far the best team we (EP) had played this year. All three of their lines were solid and talented. Then we look at the other IGH team. They were at the bottom of the league. We played them in a tournament and they were horrid. If your going to put both your teams at the "B" level, at least split them evenly.
I am not trying to taint in anyway IGH's State Title, it was well deserved. I am merely trying to offer some insight into the team and why they were so good this year.
A vs B
Iceman 99 - We at IGH had 2 teams this season and could of played one at U16, but we did that last season and boys quit because they didn't make the B team. We made 2 B teams this season in hopes that no one would quit and no one did. Both clubs had a lot of players 20 for Blue and 18 on Red(too many players) We thought about going A, but we only had about 7 players that could maybe play A and six 10th graders who were not ready for A at the start of the season. We at best maybe could of played with the lower teams, but would get killed by the top teams in A. If I'm not mistaken you only beat IGH-Blue 3-2 in the EP tourney!
IGH Coach
IGH Coach
If that was the case and you knew both teams would play "B", why not split the teams evenly? Had you split them even, possbily like WBL did, both teams would have had a great shot at making the playoffs.
And in my opinion you guys would have done fine in "A". All three of your lines seemed tough and our top line had a hard time keeping up with them.
The final score did not dictate the type of game it was when we played them in the EP tourney. We outshot them about 50-10 and our goalie had an off-night.
And in my opinion you guys would have done fine in "A". All three of your lines seemed tough and our top line had a hard time keeping up with them.
The final score did not dictate the type of game it was when we played them in the EP tourney. We outshot them about 50-10 and our goalie had an off-night.
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bladesofsteel
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SticksandStones
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All teams in D8 make playoffs, so they did make playoffs. Also, we did not split them making one team better then the other, we split the IGH kids in half, and the other coach was from SSP and wanted the SSP kids, so he took half the IGH kids, and all the SSP kids, then all the Rosemount boys who had played together all along, and were crapped on by the high school coach wanted to play together, so we took them, and the other half of the IGH kids. Kids that get screwed over their senior year want to play together and we respect that. We could have made cuts this year, but did not have the heart to do it, and if we really wanted to dominate, there are a few kids from the other team that we would have taken, and gotten rid of a few from our team. Our 3rd line is not that strong, our first line had over 50% of our goals scored this year. We were very lucky to get the team we did. As of January 6th we were 6-4, we didn't know how we were going to do, but the boys came together as a team and pulled it off.
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MooseJawGuy
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This has to be the 5th or 6th time this has been addressed by you or at least someone. Is it just not registering in everyone's heads? I mean, how many times does it need to be explained? Its pretty simple IMO.SticksandStones wrote:All teams in D8 make playoffs, so they did make playoffs. Also, we did not split them making one team better then the other, we split the IGH kids in half, and the other coach was from SSP and wanted the SSP kids, so he took half the IGH kids, and all the SSP kids, then all the Rosemount boys who had played together all along, and were crapped on by the high school coach wanted to play together, so we took them, and the other half of the IGH kids. Kids that get screwed over their senior year want to play together and we respect that. We could have made cuts this year, but did not have the heart to do it, and if we really wanted to dominate, there are a few kids from the other team that we would have taken, and gotten rid of a few from our team. Our 3rd line is not that strong, our first line had over 50% of our goals scored this year. We were very lucky to get the team we did. As of January 6th we were 6-4, we didn't know how we were going to do, but the boys came together as a team and pulled it off.
S&S, you mine as well start a thread just to explain how it went down so its not brought up; again!
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SticksandStones
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