Change to Minnesota Hockey

[elliott70]

If you could change one thing, what would it be:

Fill in the blank
_______________________________________________

[CHI-TOWN HOCKEYDAD]

If you could change one thing, what would it be:

Fill in the blank
_______________________________________________

One thing that comes to mind is tag up offsides at all levels.

[Deep Breath]

Without question, bringing in Tier 1 hockey during the winter season.

[jancze5]

-I would make all district games a home and home each weekend.
You play Saturday at one place, Sunday at the other. All weekend ice is game ice, you have Sunday night through Friday to schedule practices or scrimmages. Doing so may allow you to have that one extra night a week for schoolwork and other stuff.

A D2 monthly schedule for say WBL may look like this

1st at Stillwater
2nd H Stillwater
7th H FLake
8th at FLake
14th at Roseville
15th H Roseville
21st tournament Duluth
22nd tournament Duluth
28th at Mahtomedi
29th H Mahtomedi

[hockeynut11]

Set requirement criteria for how many A teams need to be fielded at an association based upon year to year enrolement for a particualr level.
For example, if you have greater than 120 participants at PeeWees, you would be required to field two equal/balanced A teams. 4 to 1 ratio as a guideline. Most small to mid size associations field an A team when they field a total of 3-4 teams per level.

Similair crieria for B1 and B2 teams..

[frederick61]

Establish regular season leagues with North and South Dakota, Wisconsin, and Iowa to reduce travel costs in Districts 4, 11, 15, and 16. Regionalize the Minnesota State Tournament by letting associations in those leagues participation in the district playoffs.

Put a multiyear plan together to focus on maintaining and growing hockey, particular supporting those communities who have made commitments in new facilities.

Keep the regional tourney format and kill AA hockey. AA Hockey is a threat to Minnesota community based hockey and serves only the pleasure of a few highly competitive coaches. In a time of concern for kid’s safety on the ice, a move to AA reinforces the idea that Minnesota Hockey is about competition not about development. Most people understand that more severe injuries happen under highly competitive circumstances.

Establish an “unusable seed” policy that helps a district who can’t use their seeds at given level to regional tourneys to benefit and grow that District’s level of participation

Streamline the “no checking” rules. Current approach is a collection of rules and regulations over the past twenty years and they need to be integrated

Review and re-assess rules that associations/districts operate under with the purpose of maintaining a balance among associations that participate in a district. Need to eliminate any impression that the larger associations can dominate district policy to their benefit.

These are off the top of my head, I may have more later.

[Deep Breath]

-- Not only bring checking back at the peewee level, introduce at the squirt level. The sooner kids are taught not only how to deliver a hit, but how to protect themsleves along the wall, the better off they will be.
-- Get rid of the automatic offiside rule, does nothing but slow the game down. When you have to play with some idiotic non-game clock ticking down on the wall, let's try to keep the pace of the game moving along.
-- Get associations to streamline the waiver process. Right now it is easier to get a judgement heard in front of the U.S. Supreme Court rather than to get a waiver from an association for a player/family that doesn't want anything to do with it for whatever reason. If a kid/family wants to drive 25+ miles to try out for a different team, let them. If assocaitions start to see an exodus of kids, maybe that will lift the fog and they will have to answer the question "why do kids want to leave?".
-- Institute a rule where associaitons can have Absolutely NO parent coaches at the "A" level for Peewees and Bantams.

[hockeyover40]

Agree, all good points. If an association can't find a qualified non-parent A coach for PW's or Bantams, they might want to look in a mirror and ask themselves why don't coaches out there want to coach in our association.

-- Not only bring checking back at the peewee level, introduce at the squirt level. The sooner kids are taught not only how to deliver a hit, but how to protect themsleves along the wall, the better off they will be.
-- Get rid of the automatic offiside rule, does nothing but slow the game down. When you have to play with some idiotic non-game clock ticking down on the wall, let's try to keep the pace of the game moving along.
-- Get associations to streamline the waiver process. Right now it is easier to get a judgement heard in front of the U.S. Supreme Court rather than to get a waiver from an association for a player/family that doesn't want anything to do with it for whatever reason. If a kid/family wants to drive 25+ miles to try out for a different team, let them. If assocaitions start to see an exodus of kids, maybe that will lift the fog and they will have to answer the question "why do kids want to leave?".
-- Institute a rule where associaitons can have Absolutely NO parent coaches at the "A" level for Peewees and Bantams.

[QuackerTracker]

-- Not only bring checking back at the peewee level, introduce at the squirt level. The sooner kids are taught not only how to deliver a hit, but how to protect themsleves along the wall, the better off they will be.
-- Get rid of the automatic offiside rule, does nothing but slow the game down. When you have to play with some idiotic non-game clock ticking down on the wall, let's try to keep the pace of the game moving along.[/b]

These are not MN Hockey rules. These are set by USA Hockey.

[old goalie85]

Get out of USA hockey.

[bringbackchecking]

If you could change one thing, what would it be:

Fill in the blank
_______________________________________________

#1 Start checking at the squirt level - and have it in A levels only going up.
#2 Get rid of B1/B2 C1/C2 levels and don't have A/AA - just play A B C
#3 Get rid of instant offsides for all levels of play
#4 Go back to 2min CFB and Boarding calls

[Deep Breath]

[quote="QuackerTracker"][quote="Deep Breath[b]"]-- Not only bring checking back at the peewee level, introduce at the squirt level. The sooner kids are taught not only how to deliver a hit, but how to protect themsleves along the wall, the better off they will be.
-- Get rid of the automatic offiside rule, does nothing but slow the game down. When you have to play with some idiotic non-game clock ticking down on the wall, let's try to keep the pace of the game moving along.[/b][/quote]

These are not MN Hockey rules. These are set by USA Hockey.[/quote]


Individual State's can vote to go agianst rules set by USA Hockey, correct?

[bringbackchecking]

-- Not only bring checking back at the peewee level, introduce at the squirt level. The sooner kids are taught not only how to deliver a hit, but how to protect themsleves along the wall, the better off they will be.
-- Get rid of the automatic offiside rule, does nothing but slow the game down. When you have to play with some idiotic non-game clock ticking down on the wall, let's try to keep the pace of the game moving along.[/b]

These are not MN Hockey rules. These are set by USA Hockey.

Individual State's can vote to go agianst rules set by USA Hockey, correct?

Yes and no
Yes - you can vote to make a rule stronger (like the 2 min pen increased to 5 min for boarding or checking from behind)
No - you cannot vote out something in place as a minimum rule (like the checking rule being taken out of peewees)

[Deep Breath]

How do the summer tournaments get around it then? Whatever they're doing in the summer, let's just move that over to the winter.

[elliott70]

-- Not only bring checking back at the peewee level, introduce at the squirt level. The sooner kids are taught not only how to deliver a hit, but how to protect themsleves along the wall, the better off they will be.
-- Get rid of the automatic offiside rule, does nothing but slow the game down. When you have to play with some idiotic non-game clock ticking down on the wall, let's try to keep the pace of the game moving along.[/b]

These are not MN Hockey rules. These are set by USA Hockey.

Individual State's can vote to go agianst rules set by USA Hockey, correct?[/quote]

No

[jBlaze3000]

1.5 hour games for Squirts and above. I'd also like to see bigger tournaments. If association hockey wants to consider themselves legit and avoid winter AAA then I think this needs to happen. I heard a lot of grumbling this year about the 8 team, 3 game tournament format and how you spend more time getting to and from the rink than you do actually playing the game. With the rise of AAA I think the parents and players have spoken. Longer games and more of them!

[Chuck Norris Fan]

Full year district level advanced 15 teams

[edgeless2]

1.5 hour games for Squirts and above. I'd also like to see bigger tournaments. If association hockey wants to consider themselves legit and avoid winter AAA then I think this needs to happen. I heard a lot of grumbling this year about the 8 team, 3 game tournament format and how you spend more time getting to and from the rink than you do actually playing the game. With the rise of AAA I think the parents and players have spoken. Longer games and more of them!

Any idea why PWA periods are 14 minutes and lower levels are 12 minutes?

[Deep Breath]

[quote="jBlaze3000"]1.5 hour games for Squirts and above. I'd also like to see bigger tournaments. If association hockey wants to consider themselves legit and avoid winter AAA then I think this needs to happen. I heard a lot of grumbling this year about the 8 team, 3 game tournament format and how you spend more time getting to and from the rink than you do actually playing the game. With the rise of AAA I think the parents and players have spoken. Longer games and more of them![/quote]

Correct you are jBlaze: Chi Town Shuffle is only 10 weeks away.

[goaliewithfoggedglasses]

How do the summer tournaments get around it then? Whatever they're doing in the summer, let's just move that over to the winter.

Summer teams are not part of USA Hockey.

Anyone can form their own independent winter team. Good luck finding someone else to play though.

[goaliewithfoggedglasses]

Require closed tryouts with independent evaluators from outside the Association.

[Deep Breath]

[quote="goaliewithfoggedglasses"][quote="Deep Breath"]How do the summer tournaments get around it then? Whatever they're doing in the summer, let's just move that over to the winter.[/quote]

Summer teams are not part of USA Hockey.

Anyone can form their own independent winter team. Good luck finding someone else to play though.[/quote]

You're kidding yourself if you think you wouldn't be able to find teams to play. At the peewee level, the Fire teams always found associaitons that wanted games. Not so much at the Squirt level ('00), although they found a handful of local games as well, but the peewees didn't have an issue. They also were able to compete in some association tournaments.

[goaliewithfoggedglasses]

How do the summer tournaments get around it then? Whatever they're doing in the summer, let's just move that over to the winter.

Summer teams are not part of USA Hockey.

Anyone can form their own independent winter team. Good luck finding someone else to play though.

You're kidding yourself if you think you wouldn't be able to find teams to play. At the peewee level, the Fire teams always found associaitons that wanted games. Not so much at the Squirt level ('00), although they found a handful of local games as well, but the peewees didn't have an issue. They also were able to compete in some association tournaments.

The Fire was affiliated with USA Hockey. As I understand it USA Hockey affiliates are not allowed to play non-affiliated teams.

[bwemn3001]

First thing is get rid of fair play point system. Why are we punishing the teams when it is usually a player or two. If you really want to curb penalties, reduce the number of penalties for an ejection to three.

Second, to make the officiating more constistant, have the referees be judged themselves by the coaches as in high school in each game and other officials(from out of that association) rate them at least once if not twice a season, so the officials have to improve and be more consistant.

I like the rules as they are in Pee Wees, but we do need consistancy. A good clean rubout is NOT a check! Also, just because a player is weak on his feet he should not be punished for checking nor should a solid player that is playing the puck on a weak player that falls down be punished either. It is sad to see a player play the puck through the hands of another and a opinionated official puts him in the box when it is done correctly.

[Deep Breath]

To say that the officiating at the Peewee level this year has been a joke is like saying the Titanic was a minor boating accident. No consistency. Every one of them has his own idea as to what a check is or isn't. Put checking back in the game where it belongs and call the penalties that are already on the books. Tick tock, tick tock. The summer season is almost here.