oh, I suppose you're one of those dmen that doesn't stand in the way all night or deflect shots on net, yeah right. It's guys like you that don't understand the position and appriciate how hard it is to defend the net. You should call your goalie right now and thank him for bailing your ass out every night.

You've definatly shown us, you really are a "puck head"

Well said Devil.
........................puckhead.

(I do appreciate good defencemen though. It's not an easy position either.)

Ah you're all a bunch of sieve's

Ha ha ha ha Thanks Devilsdman - I always like someone who shouts out the truth! It's really too bad in a casual league that a player just drops their commitment and has no respect for his teammates...it really boggles my mind for devilsdman you would agree that would never happen on the devils nor the Hogs, I guarantee it. #44 see you March 11th.

Hey ATG,
Congrats on the shutout on saturday night!

Hats off to both icehog and and devilsdman for making their points. Unfortunately i don't think they see the whole picture here. First of all the reason why i decided that playing in goal in this league for me was not the right choice was because i find that with the skill level of this league i get way to frustrated playing in goal. I get frustrated with the lack of defence and the fact that i couldn't decide on whether to take the pass or the shot on a two on one because i never believed my defencemen would prevent the pass. Me being frustrated in goal is not fun. I play in goal every tuesday night in scrub hockey and i play quite good because the players around me are better skill than myself and therefore it forces me to be better. You can ask the majority of the players on the hornets and i am sure the majority will tell you our team has had more fun as a team since i have been playing out. Lets not forget that fun is what this league is about. I play out because it is fun for me. Yes i like to carry the puck but if you seriously watch the games i play you will see me setting guys up and talking to them on the bench about ways we can improve our shifts. We talk about where we would like one another to be positioned and we communicate. A bigger issue in this league is more about the guys who play careless aggressive hockey and those that are to competitive. Myself i am very competitive person but one thing you will see is that doesn't translate into careless hockey or body checking or slashing or any other penalty that there are no reason for. example: i was playing a fun game the other night when a player purposely slu-footed me which caused me to wrench me knee. Game i played right after that i was simultaneously rubbed out and then hit (bodychecked). And worst of all a player on my team was hit and hurt his shoulder. All of these acts are from careless agression. Now keep in mind the hit on my teammate was unintentional but that why i use the word careless because it was wrong for the other player to skate as hard as he did without the ability to stop or prevent himself from getting in a position to hit.

On a second note,

For those who think players such as Jayme or Myself should not be playing in this league i tell you to go watch a rec league game and you will find out that hockey is not something Jayme or I could handle. You will see that most of the suspensions in that league are from fighting. Ideally a league like the over 35's would be a perfect situation for myself but unfortunately at the age of 25 they don't allow me to play. In a perfect situation there would be an intermediate league or we would see the casual league split into two divisions 1 being teams such as lucky and the other would be for the beginners or the teams that struggle.

heres what you could do that the curling rink does.

Allow the reps from each team group themselves into either group A or Group B (group A being the better players group B being the beginners). Would look something like this:

Group A Group B

team A team A
team B team B
team C team C
team D team D
team E team E
team F team F

Half way through the year take the bottom two teams from group A and move them to group B and take the top two teams from group B and move them to group A. If this was the case heres what it would like:

Group A Group B

Lucky Stickmen
Pucks Rhinos
Crushers Icehogs
Devils Hornets
Haze Nanucks
Chiefs Blue Thunder

Thanks,

Mike
Forward, Defensmen, Goalie (what would you like me to be)

wow, that must have taken you a long time to write.

The problem with your situation is this: Your team is allowed to draft a certain amount of "A" players and with you now playing out every game and picking up an "A" goalie peolple are getting upset because its called "stacking your team". Some teams do it every game and I think that it's not fair to the regular guys who deserve as much ice time as the next. Playing for almost every team, taking 8 min shifts and trying to skate throught everybody isn't helping anybody in this league and is not what the league is about. And you wonder why guys want to hit you....

If you didn't want to be a goalie in this league than you shouldn't have signed up, taking a position away from someone who really wanted to play that position. You should make a decision and live with it. You knew the quality and speed of this league from playing in it last year so you know what you were getting into and now it's even a higher level of play this year too, compared to the last two years.

If you want to play lots of hockey then find some drop in groups or pick up leagues and play that for the next ten years. Quit showing up at the rink every night, going from dressing room to dressing room to see if anyone wants you. The spare system has been a joke this year and its things like this that are making the whole league look bad.

This isn't curling!!

I agree with the Devils keeper!
As the goalie for the Rhinos, I probably face at least 5-10 breakaways, or 2 on 1's, or 3 on 1's, each game. I am still having fun. I never let it bother me, even if we get blown away. I know my defence wont stop the pass! I know Im going to get lots of breakaways on me! Thats life! This is a fun league. The other team players will joke with me after a goal, and its not a problem. We are all here to have fun and get some exercise. REMEMBER this is a casual league, which means relax, have fun, and dont be so competitive! You'll live longer.

If you look at where our team is in the standings you will see we are far from a stacked team we have been depleted from the start of the year. our team has never had more than 5 A players playing in a single game (Jayme, Neil or Carl, Joel, Dean, and Myself). I believe the league gives 6 to each team. As for playing time if you were to calculate how much time each of our A players spends on the ice it would be the same as any of our C players. one thing to realize is that because players such as myself can skate faster than some in this league it makes us stand out and seem as though we are on the ice for long periods of time. As for playing hockey i do play in lots of pick up leagues i usually play 5-7 games of hockey each week and only 2 maybe max 3 of those are league games. Myself i had never been a goalie anyway prior to playing in this league and in fact i have only been playing in goal since Jan 2008 and only been playing out since Nov 2006. Your are right i do like to play a lot but i go to the room and ask teams if they need an extra player and because of times of 10:30, 10:45 and 11:00 a lot of teams can only get 10 players out and having an extra body can help them from getting over tired. One thing i forgot to add as something that this league is about is that it is about fun and about developing players. One thing is each person is definately entitled to their own opinion and the reality is no league will ever be perfect but in order to have fun on the ice there needs to be respect for other players and i agree long shifts are not signs of respect but you will not see those long shifts amongst our team. The lack of respect is from careless aggression from players hitting one another or intentionally doing something such as slu-footing. You are definately right to say i should expect that and i do but to be honest it only makes me play harder, skate faster, and attempt to piss the other team off even more because it is not what this league is about. If you were to check my league stats you would see that i have not a ton of goals and that i actually spend most of my time when in the offensive zone passing the puck. As for vinnie i think it is awesome that you have fun out there and i find you actually enjoyable to play against because you are unpredictable but each of us is different in what we find fun. Me playing goal in this league was not fun but i didn't know that prior to playing this year i would not have known that. I think one thing that this league needs to do is what i suggested in my last posting but also each team should be given days of coaching to help develop the players in this league so that we can play better and have fun

See you guys on the ice

Mike

Mikes not the only rink rat in this league. There are lots of players who play two games a night. On some nights if it weren't for these guys, then teams would only have 9 or 10 players; I don't even think that's enough to make the game official. Pretty much after every game someone from another team comes into our locker room looking for players for the late game.
BUT! I agree, as far as individual teams go, you just never know who you're facing from game to game. And that doesn't seem right. I think if this league counted for anything besides bragging rights, then it would be a problem. But I don't think it matters that teams are grabbing anyone they can at the last minute to play. It's all about fun!! Go ahead Mikey, play your guts out. Just don't score on me.

ps. Has anyone else noticed that really good hockey players are often 'punished' for being too good? No-one wants to play with them etc. Why is that? What the hell? What's the point of becoming good if you can't find a league to play in?
's crazy man....

Yes this league has a lot to learn. I encourage anyone that wishes to help out to talk to your team rep. Maybe encourage them to attend some of the meetings or even better yet.... volunteer to attend when they cannot! Unfortunately the league cannot run on it's own so a few individuals have stepped forward in order to ensure that the season and the league continued.

Over this past year many lessons have been learned. Next year respect for players, and officials will be strictly enforced. All on-ice incidences will be documented and the offending players will be dealt with quickly. Officials will also be given rules specific to the NCHL. One of the biggest complaintes this year was the two tiered system of reffing. Very good players were open targets. That system will be fixed and everyone will be governed by the same system and rules.

The method of using spares was indicative with many of the problems within the league this year. That will be one of the main issues that will be dealt with during the off season. One piont I'd like to make..... The over used (and rink rat) players should not have had the opportunity to spare as much as they have. Why are teams so short? Maybe some of the regular players should move to the spare list and give those that want to play an opportunity. Too many players in the NCHL do not have enough commitment to their teams. In order for a team to play a game they need 9 skaters. Players like Mike and Jamie allow many teams to play when otherwise they would forfiet.

I also agree that most of the A+ players in our league younger than 35 would be killed in the Rec league. Rec is mostly for ex-junoir plus. The 35+ is better suited but even there they would only be average. If Nanaimo gets another rink then the NCHL will probably increase in size split into an A and B division. Until that happens players with some skill need a place to play. They should however be encouraging and leading by example those of us that have very little experience.

Now that this thread has gone off topic I would request that this coversation be moved to another thread. This thread is for all things goalie... Lets get back to the subject.

Goaies......

Would you prefer the dman to take out the pass lane and leave the shot or...... Take the shooter?

As a dman I usually angle off the shooter when working with the other dman. If it's a two on one I try to take out the pass lane and give the shooter (and goalie) a clear view.

Pucks