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Why does a team like Burnsville fall off as the season progresses is a tough question and one that is often debated? I believe that it is the result of trying to be fair in the tryout process that often results in kids making the team because they showed up to just make the team. That is their goal.

At the peewee age, a good hockey player has to have more than better conditioning at tryout time. Because the kid makes team in better condition to play hockey, he has early season success. But the kid can yet to not understand how the puck moves and will have difficulty adapting to the speed of puck movement at peewee A.

If the association has PC based evaluators who lack experience, they will look at the kid that skates a drill faster and shots the puck harder as a peewee A. Then no one can argue (except the coach).

For years, ever since Burnsville had a savvy peewee A coach in the 1980’s, that is how Burnsville chose their team, but that changed. With Burnsville’s introduction of the training center and a savvy father and son coaching duo, now a kid becomes more known to the Burnsville hockey community at large.

That happened around 2006 and the first class of kids are playing as 11th and 12th graders for the Blaze this year. Burnsville High School is 4-1-1 and in second place in the South Suburban.

There has been tons of debate on the long term success of an association. A simple matrix is to look at the comparative success of the high school teams that each association principally supports over the last 5 years. Here is a list tabulating the success of the D6 high schools in the last 5 years by accumulated won/loss record (the first number is overall ranking in the 160 or so high schools, Apple Valley and Eastview just moved to D8 this year):

8. Edina (94-23-1)
10. Eden Prairie (83-22-8)
20. Jefferson (73-28-8)
34. Burnsville (68-40-3)
75. Eastview (51-49-6)
94. Apple Valley (44-56-8)
125. Prior Lake (33-64-5)
127. Shakopee (33-67-5)
152. Kennedy (11-88-5)

It will be interesting to see how these stats have changed Burnsville in the next four years. Note this information comes from Minnesota-scores.

I believe an association like Burnsville tries to be fair in their tryout process. Their method of choice of kids gives their peewee A team a good start to the season, but it peters out as the kids on the teams they compete with improve and their kids have been slower to develop.

I see signs that this has changed, but the Blaze have not yet made it to the state at the peewee level. However, this year could be the year. I also am interested in seeing if the work of the father and son (father is no longer one of the youth coaches) will pay off over the next few years at the high school level. The Blaze High School team is in the Schwan Super Rink tourney this week; they open play against Holy Angels.

frederick61 wrote:Why does a team like Burnsville fall off as the season progresses is a tough question and one that is often debated? I believe that it is the result of trying to be fair in the tryout process that often results in kids making the team because they showed up to just make the team. That is their goal.

At the peewee age, a good hockey player has to have more than better conditioning at tryout time. Because the kid makes team in better condition to play hockey, he has early season success. But the kid can yet to not understand how the puck moves and will have difficulty adapting to the speed of puck movement at peewee A.

If the association has PC based evaluators who lack experience, they will look at the kid that skates a drill faster and shots the puck harder as a peewee A. Then no one can argue (except the coach).

For years, ever since Burnsville had a savvy peewee A coach in the 1980’s, that is how Burnsville chose their team, but that changed. With Burnsville’s introduction of the training center and a savvy father and son coaching duo, now a kid becomes more known to the Burnsville hockey community at large.

That happened around 2006 and the first class of kids are playing as 11th and 12th graders for the Blaze this year. Burnsville High School is 4-1-1 and in second place in the South Suburban.

There has been tons of debate on the long term success of an association. A simple matrix is to look at the comparative success of the high school teams that each association principally supports over the last 5 years. Here is a list tabulating the success of the D6 high schools in the last 5 years by accumulated won/loss record (the first number is overall ranking in the 160 or so high schools, Apple Valley and Eastview just moved to D8 this year):

8. Edina (94-23-1)
10. Eden Prairie (83-22-8)
20. Jefferson (73-28-8)
34. Burnsville (68-40-3)
75. Eastview (51-49-6)
94. Apple Valley (44-56-8)
125. Prior Lake (33-64-5)
127. Shakopee (33-67-5)
152. Kennedy (11-88-5)

It will be interesting to see how these stats have changed Burnsville in the next four years. Note this information comes from Minnesota-scores.

I believe an association like Burnsville tries to be fair in their tryout process. Their method of choice of kids gives their peewee A team a good start to the season, but it peters out as the kids on the teams they compete with improve and their kids have been slower to develop.

I see signs that this has changed, but the Blaze have not yet made it to the state at the peewee level. However, this year could be the year. I also am interested in seeing if the work of the father and son (father is no longer one of the youth coaches) will pay off over the next few years at the high school level. The Blaze High School team is in the Schwan Super Rink tourney this week; they open play against Holy Angels.

I believe the Blaze Peewee A team went to state in about 2003, same group also went to state as high school Jrs. They had the training center back then, but I believe they had a different coach.

It seems that the kids that playy AAA hockey all summer long are a bit more prepared for the begining of the season. That brings to question. How many kids on a typical Peewee A team have played AAA all summer and how many have not? Thanks Fred for the incite, always appreciate your opions

tjkhavgam wrote:

frederick61 wrote:Why does a team like Burnsville fall off as the season progresses is a tough question and one that is often debated? I believe that it is the result of trying to be fair in the tryout process that often results in kids making the team because they showed up to just make the team. That is their goal.

At the peewee age, a good hockey player has to have more than better conditioning at tryout time. Because the kid makes team in better condition to play hockey, he has early season success. But the kid can yet to not understand how the puck moves and will have difficulty adapting to the speed of puck movement at peewee A.

If the association has PC based evaluators who lack experience, they will look at the kid that skates a drill faster and shots the puck harder as a peewee A. Then no one can argue (except the coach).

For years, ever since Burnsville had a savvy peewee A coach in the 1980’s, that is how Burnsville chose their team, but that changed. With Burnsville’s introduction of the training center and a savvy father and son coaching duo, now a kid becomes more known to the Burnsville hockey community at large.

That happened around 2006 and the first class of kids are playing as 11th and 12th graders for the Blaze this year. Burnsville High School is 4-1-1 and in second place in the South Suburban.

There has been tons of debate on the long term success of an association. A simple matrix is to look at the comparative success of the high school teams that each association principally supports over the last 5 years. Here is a list tabulating the success of the D6 high schools in the last 5 years by accumulated won/loss record (the first number is overall ranking in the 160 or so high schools, Apple Valley and Eastview just moved to D8 this year):

8. Edina (94-23-1)
10. Eden Prairie (83-22-8)
20. Jefferson (73-28-8)
34. Burnsville (68-40-3)
75. Eastview (51-49-6)
94. Apple Valley (44-56-8)
125. Prior Lake (33-64-5)
127. Shakopee (33-67-5)
152. Kennedy (11-88-5)

It will be interesting to see how these stats have changed Burnsville in the next four years. Note this information comes from Minnesota-scores.

I believe an association like Burnsville tries to be fair in their tryout process. Their method of choice of kids gives their peewee A team a good start to the season, but it peters out as the kids on the teams they compete with improve and their kids have been slower to develop.

I see signs that this has changed, but the Blaze have not yet made it to the state at the peewee level. However, this year could be the year. I also am interested in seeing if the work of the father and son (father is no longer one of the youth coaches) will pay off over the next few years at the high school level. The Blaze High School team is in the Schwan Super Rink tourney this week; they open play against Holy Angels.

I believe the Blaze Peewee A team went to state in about 2003, same group also went to state as high school Jrs. They had the training center back then, but I believe they had a different coach.

Fred - Great incite and you bring up some good thoughts. fyi-the training center was around for several years before 2006 and the father/son coaches were as well (the son coached squirts several years before he moved up to PW's. He also runs the training center). I agree with your thoughts that PC evaluators can influence teams and their ultimate success. I would also add that the PC people who want all players played equal amounts of shifts can also have a big influence especially when some programs don't worry about that as much. The only other thing that I would throw in is that programs such as Edina's and EP have so much more depth in numbers that it is very difficult to overcome them with the smaller groups at tryouts to choose from. For example, BV this year has 5 PW teams and 3 Bantam. By comparison, Edina has 10 PW teams and 8 Bantam (EP has 6 and 6). With more players to choose from you typically can fill out the 3rd line with stronger players and that can make a big difference come playoff time.

TJK - you are correct that there was a group that went to state as PW's and that same group were sophomores and juniors when BV went to the H.S. state tourney. It was also one of the last large groups (total numbers) to go through BV. They were coached at PW's by someone different but at Bantams by the father of the coaching duo. For what it is worth, I also don't think that AAA hockey matters as much as how great is the desire of a kid to improve. Quite often, AAA hockey players have a strong desire to improve so it looks like it correlates but ultimately it comes down to the players who work hard whether it is in private clinics, on a AAA team or in their driveway with their buddies.

I agree with you Fred that it will be exciting to watch this batch of kids coming through right now. PW's is a huge transition year for hockey players and there have been several good groups that have gone through BV in the last several years under this PW coach. They have always been very competitive and most of the seniors and juniors at H.S. right now were coached by the son for 4 years at squirts and at PW's and then by the father for 2 years at bantams.

STMA 6
Sartell 0

Fred your are right about the father/son coaching duo. they have been a great asset to the Burnsville community, even if the father is no longer coaching his presence is felt in the training programs run at the club. The lack of depth, as someone pointed out, is a tough issue for Burnsville, a non-growing program to continue to overcome.

The senior group in high school has done a number of things to improve over the years. Early on we went to Toronto, Winnipeg, and Brandon for major tournaments in the summer to play the best teams in Canada.

After that, i just checked the roster, 6 of the 9 seniors on Varsity now played lacrosse on the Burnsville Lacrosse Youth State Championship 2007 team. Simple said these are athletes who can play any sport well. Also 5 of these 9 seniors played on the Varsity high school lacrosse team in 2010. So i agree with Shoot its not all about AAA hockey. But those trips to Canada to play against the best teams are some of the best memories.

Thanks Fred and the rest who weighted in. Seems like there is alot of views. I have seen that training facility and what they do there. That might be the single biggest factor in what is keeping B'vlle competitive with declining #'s. Keep up the good work.

Prior Lake 4
Rosemount 3

Fast paced Pee Wee A game

Champlin Park - 3
Lakeville North - 5

Lakeville with an empty netter to seal the victory. Good game.

Rogers-3
Centennial-0

Maple Grove 3
St. Cloud 2

Champlin Park - 2
Prior Lake / Savage - 4

Champlin Park - 0
Rosemount - 2


Extremly fast well played games!!!!

Prior Lake / Savage 5
Lakeville North 1

Bemidji 1
Moorhead 1

Champlin Park - 7
Apple Valley - 4

Spring Lake Park vs.:

• Bloomington Jefferson 1-5
  Roseville 4-6
  Arvada, Co. 2-2
  Arvada, Co. 11-1

grand rapids 10, duluth east 3
rapids has a very nice team, first line is very good, 2nd is not to bad either, it will be interesting to see how far they can go

Champlin Park - 5
Irondale - 2

Spring Lake Park - 3
Andover - 1

No Buddy points for both teams
Interesting calls both Ways...

Prior Lake / Savage 5
Burnsville 3

Elk River - 3
Champlin Park - 0

D10 Tonight

Champlin Park - 4
Rogers - 1

Brainerd Tournament

Brainerd 0
Hudson 2

Eagan 0
Grand Forks 6

Grand Rapids 6
Blaine 5

Duluth Lakers 2
Rochester 4

1/4
Eden Prairie - 3
Bloomington Kennedy - 1

1/8
Eden Prairie - 5
White Bear Lake - 2

Grand Rapids 6 SO
Rochester 5

Brainerd Tournament - 2nd Round

Brainerd 5
Eagan 2

Blaine 4
Duluth Lakers 2

Hudson 3 OT/SO
Grand Forks 2

Grand Rapids 6 OT/SO
Rochester 5