With the upcoming season starting, many coaches, players, parents, and fans are debating on coming back to hockey this fall to see their kids, grandkids, or even visiting their old stomping grounds watching and playing hockey. Covid-19 has affected a lot of what we do currently in society. Whether or not you believe in Covid-19 is up for you to decide. But most importantly leaders do have to make decisions on how/where we start playing and I have concerns that USA Hockey’s plan is nothing more that hoping the local arenas and cities know best.
USA Hockey is requiring on people register for the upcoming season despite the health and safety concerns some people do have. But then putting the responsibility of the state of the game on the local hockey associations and cities instead. While many of these “recommendations” are fairly in line with what common Covid-19 protocol is (disinfecting, separate entrance / exit, social distancing) many of these are just recommendations in good faith that organizations will do them. Some states still have variations of lockdown orders while others barely have any protection measures at all. This is a concern because if teams from other cities or states play each other with different ways of handling Covid-19, we could easily see a spike in cases rise.
Fig. 1 - Data Count of the last 7 days from approx. Oct. 30th - Nov. 5th
USA Hockey goes on to state that, in the same paragraph, you must wear a face mask if the state requires it for on ice activity and that there are potential disadvantages of wearing on while doing high intensity exercise. If it’s not safe to wear a mask a play then advise them to not play or tell them to play without and risk the infection. We know masks do work to slow down the spread of transmission of covid-19 if you carry it. Instead of seriously weighing in on if it is safe to play hockey or not they passed the responsibility on to the hockey associations instead. In their own words they say players shouldn’t wear a mask while playing. Language that clearly contradicts itself in content published by USA Hockey.
Going into the safety questions portion of USA Hockey’s website doesn’t help either. They stress that physical activity is more important than the risk of transmission for a virus we still do not know enough about. When asked about protocol, they just defer to the CDC recommendations. When asked about locker room, they deferred again to the local arena’s and cities. If you are in another country with no form of guidelines, you defer to that countries guidelines even if you are working under USA Hockey. In other words, they have no policy to speak of. Instead of taking any kind of stand they took the middle of the road stand and just end up making both sides annoyed in the process.
Fig. 2 - Bauer Hockey's new Splash Guard
The line that keeps getting uses by USA Hockey is “Participation is a personal choice.” People are asking questions if they should even play and they keep getting this answer. Recommend something, anything. But throwing the hands up in the air and shrugging and saying it’s a personal choice is helping no one. Some of the very leagues USA Hockey is sanctioned under (Particularly USHL and other Junior Leagues) are pushing their start dates to November. You can’t tell me that these leagues at the very least didn’t call you up and ask questions regarding the safety and health concerns of their players and what precautions they should do.
Hockey has now seen it's fair share of outbreaks and issues. In June 2020, a recreational hockey game in Tampa Bay, Florida, metropolitan area, where 13 of the 21 players showed symptoms and positive test for Covid-19. In Maine, approx. 400 plus players, coaches, and staff had to quarantine as one of the referees had tested positive shortly after refereeing 8 youth games that weekend. In Iowa, Black Hawk county and the city of Waterloo shut down the first games of the USHL Waterloo Blackhawks as the county has a 20.3% positivity rate.
Fig. 3 - Waterloo Black Hawks Home Opener that was labeled as a no contest by the USHL until games are played.
USA Hockey is taking the approach of hoping that this hockey season doesn’t implode on itself with everyone doing their own thing in regard to safety due to Covid-19. USA Hockey has had no problem in the past enforcing safety measures even against popular opinions, so I find it difficult to see why now of all situations this is the case. I do hope that things go smoothly this year, I hope my concerns for my safety as well as other is for nothing. This is not a case about Covid-19. This is a case that USA Hockey is struggling to decide where to go and what to do. If things go off the rail this hockey season, USA Hockey will need to pick up the pieces of their own failure. Hopefully I am wrong.
So let’s look at some of the potential good news that can come out of this.
]]>So let’s look at some of the potential good news that can come out of this. For one, more teams are eligible for making the playoffs. Note how I didn’t say officially in as the first round of the playoffs is a play in round with a best of 5. But this adds multiple markets for TV deals to be used to get extra money so the league can stay running. It gets more fans excited that their team is playing and a shot for getting hot at the right time and running the table. Giving younger teams some playoff experience while the veteran teams may get their last push for a cup before certain players retire.
What is also handy is the reseeding after each individual round. This can easily add some excitement as some teams haven’t seen others in the playoffs for quite a while given the more divisional matchup format of past playoffs. While it may be harder for teams to play and for TV channels to get the word out on the potential matchups going forward, I can only see this as a net win for the NHL at the moment. With people starving for hockey, and a chance to play into the playoffs, new rivalries may form from this format.
Now for the bigger picture conversation: Which teams are benefiting the most from this? In my eyes it has to be Florida, Montreal, Arizona, Chicago, and Minnesota. Florida and Arizona have been struggling markets for the NHL to keep a foot in and with the more recent ownership and general manager updates in Arizona as well as the new coaching in Florida, expect these two teams to put on quite a show during the play in. Montreal seeing a return boosts their fans moral a bit and with a very solid Carey Price in net, the Pittsburgh / Montreal matchup could be one of the more entertaining matchups. Minnesota catches a break in their tough Central Division to take on a strong but young Vancouver team and I expect this series to go the distance with goaltending being the deciding factor here. Chicago needed this for their new coach, who took over last season and hasn’t been able to do much to turn the team around just yet. But battling Edmonton could prove to be too tall of a task for Chicago unless they fire on all cylinders.
But this format has also caused some issues and headaches for other teams as well. The seeding games for the top 4 in each conference could cause teams like Boston and St. Louis to drop to a 4 seed if they lose out in the reseeding. Other teams include Pittsburgh, who have to face a well-rested Price in net. Carolina now runs into the Rangers who have a 3 deep goalie roster they have rotated and beat Carolina in all of the regular season matchups.
So do I think that this playoff format can help push the NHL into the spotlight? It is very possible. If the NHL can get some buzz around these playoffs and generate some more fans and excitement we could see a modified playoff format in the future as well as a bigger / better tv deal when the TV rights come up soon. If the NHL can get ESPN and other networks to report and push the NHL, there can be a growth spurt that would come from all of this.
So here are all my predictions for reseedings and the play in rounds for the 2020 Stanley Cup Playoffs. Note at the time of this writing no players have said yes or not to playing, so predictions are made with all players available for their teams.
Eastern Conference Reseedings: #1 Boston, #2 Washington, #3 Tampa, #4 Philadelphia. Not much of a drastic change except for Washington hopping over Tampa for the #2 seed. Boston has been solid and strong all season and I don’t expect them to be too rusty from the break.
Western Conference Reseedings: #1 Colorado, #2 St. Louis, #3 Dallas, #4 Vegas. Colorado has had a hot hand before and I can see them sneaking past St. Louis for the #1 seeding. Dallas can also move up to the #3 seed overtaking Vegas. Not knocking Vegas and how good they are but the Pacific Conference teams have been either Young or not very good this year during the regular season.
Eastern play in rounds:
#5 Pittsburgh vs #12 Montreal: Montreal healthy could pose a real problem for Pittsburgh and Crosby. Expect this to go 5 games with Montreal taking the series.
#6 Carolina vs. #11 New York (Rangers): Despite the regular season record against New York, New York didn’t get to answer who should be their starter going forward, and this could lead to some issues. Expect Carolina to win this one, but it might be a long one.
#7 New York (Islanders) vs. #10 Florida: Even though Florida got in, don’t expect them to go very far here. New York is a bit more Veteran and experienced enough with Troz behind the bench. It will more than likely be a short series but this will be good experience for Florida going forward.
#8 Toronto vs. #9 Columbus: Expect this to go 5 games. Expect this to be a trench warfare type matchup. It’s a bad draw for both teams. Toronto may have the edge with Matthews but this could go either way.
Western Conference
#5 Edmonton vs #12 Chicago: Chicago were sellers at the end of the trade deadline and weren’t expected to make the playoffs. McDavid and Edmonton will be too much to handle but it will be a 4 game series with Kane possibly sneaking a win from Edmonton.
#6 Nashville vs #11 Arizona: Nashville hasn’t really impressed me despite their record. This could be an upset alert with Taylor Hall now with Arizona. Don’t be surprised if Hall helps Arizona steal this series from Nashville.
#7 Vancouver vs #10 Minnesota: Another slugfest alert here. Vancouver is a young team with weapons and Minnesota is a battle tested veteran team. If the rumors are true, Minnesota could bring their AHL goalie of the year from the Iowa Wild up and cause a great goaltending matchup between Kaapo Kahkonen and Jacob Markstrom. 5 games and Minnesota squeaks out of the qualifying round.
#8 Calgary vs #9 Winnipeg: Interesting Canadian matchup that could see some sparks fly in this matchup. Despite the close seeding between teams, Winnipeg if their goaltending is on, can take this series in 3 games if they show up. Giving the edge to Winnipeg despite the star power on Calgary.
Who do you think makes it out of the qualifying rounds? Will the teams being reseeded like where they eventually land or do you think there could be a bad matchup for a lower top 4 seed? Love to hear your thoughts.
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We all know that hockey is considered primarily a winter sport. But more and more we are seeing summer travel leagues, select hockey, and showcase teams all playing summer hockey all in an effort to show off the talent of their respective child. These teams aren't just playing summer hockey, their traveling 2x, 3x, or 4x farther to practice and play with a vast majority of these teams being centralized in cities like Omaha, Denver, Chicago, etc. Adding to the regular scheduled hockey season and that's a lot of ice time for some kids.
Combine that with the travel time to all these events and it can easily get exhausting to drive or fly to every major city for a hockey weekend. Hockey is already considered one of the longer sports seasons out there running anywhere from August/September through March/April (Not including playoffs or championships). Then adding in AAA / Select hockey in the summer just adds to the already exhausting travel plans for many parents and kids.
According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, they have recommended that kids 13 and under not specialize in 1 sport before that age, having a minimum 2 months off, and only participating on one team per season.* But many organizations start as early as the 10u level to get kids in early to attempt to find out if they have any special talent, ignoring the fact that kids develop over time and the majority of the time are not natural born athletes like how we perceive players like Ovechkin, Crosby, Mathews, etc.
When it comes to kids losing interest in any sport, five reasons usually come up including loss of interest, not having fun, too much time required, coach was a poor teacher, and too much pressure.** With hockey, there can be an issue with all of these with a parent pushing a child to create interest due to equipment / travel costs, keeping the kid in the sport hoping they gain a liking for it, the additional or required travel time needed, poor coaching from a positivity and educational standpoint, or feeling the pressure to win from friends and family.
When we get kids to specialize early in a sport, we take them away from other experiences they may want to enjoy or have with their friends. Having a child participate in multiple sports may be a daunting task for many parents as well. But it's important to look at where the child's engagement is at and where their interest is drawn towards.
Many kids at an early age are simply out there to just have fun and enjoy the game. While we always have the best intentions of having our kids gain an athletic scholarship or becoming a pro athlete, most kids will never reach the professional level in any sport. It's about listening to the kids and seeing how they are feeling about what's going on and their participation in the sport.
This all boils down to two key things: the enjoyment of the child in the sport and the parents involvement in a positive light. Listen to your child about his or her needs when it comes to playing any sport, especially hockey. You may be afraid of throwing money down the drain if a child decides they may not be enjoying hockey as much as they should, but continuing something the child maybe burnt out on can lead to a disinterest in any physical activity. If a kid needs a break, let them have it if and when possible.
Also, be active as a parent. Not from the stands through. Before games and after games with positive enforcement on how the child is doing, interacting and building relationships with the child's friends and parents, and participating in events like team snacks or travel prep for the kids. Positive engagement helps any kid see the fun in sports.
Overall, listen to your kids body language and emotions. If they seem like they love the sport and want to play all year long and you can afford to, let them. If they feel exhausted after a season, give them a break or find a team with an easier schedule to work around / with. If we do our best to monitor our kids health and enjoyment in the sport of hockey we can grow the fan base and participation at all levels of hockey.
-Mitchell
* Merkel, Donna L. “Youth sport: positive and negative impact on young athletes” Open access journal of sports medicine vol. 4 151-60. 31 May. 2013, doi:10.2147/OAJSM.S33556
** Perkins, Daniel Francis. “Parents Making Youth Sports a Positive Experience: Role Models.” Penn State Extension, College of Agricultural Sciences / The Pennsylvania State University, 28 Jan. 2019, extension.psu.edu/parents-making-youth-sports-a-positive-experience-role-models.
]]>We are now starting to grow up in the age of automation and a hands off approach to many things in our lives. In regards to hockey the latest thing to be automated is the skate sharpener. The main company that comes to mind is the Sparx. The Sparx ES100 Skate Sharpener comes in at around $900 before taxes and other accessories. $195 less than the Blade Master brand bench model used by many sharpeners.
But while you save early on, the cost resides in the maintenance of the Sparx machine. With the Sparx it's the grinding wheels and air filter. You get one free wheel with purchase, with each additional wheel costing around $60 per ring. In addition there is an air filter that needs to be replaces every 200 sharpens at $16 a piece. Roughly a $1.08 sharpen before factoring in the cost of the machine. So 3 wheels and 1 air filter per year is $196.
Sparx carries a 1 year or 10,000 cycle warranty. Not 10,000 sharpens, 10,000 cycles which makes a difference in a second. They do carry a 2 year / 20,000 additional cycle warranty (3 year / 30,000 cycle total) for $219 if you want to fork up that extra cash.
Cycles are important for this machine because 1 pass up and down a skate blade is considered 1 cycle for a machine. 4 cycles equals the average a Sparx machine needs to sharpen a blade.
So what would be the actual break down of cost for the Sparx vs a Blademaster Portable bench model? To note: A wheel on a Blademaster is much larger and can last an estimated 200 skate sharpens and requires no air filter.
So even if you know how to properly sharpen a skate, you could save an average of $2 - $3 per sharpen or $104 - $156 per year doing them by hand. Which is a significant cost savings. Sparx factors in multiple time factors including driving, waiting, and sharpening time into their "cost savings" factor seen below.
So the machine is too expensive? Not necessary. While the cost per sharpen is higher than a standard machine the main factors will be is there someone to sharpen the skates and how far you have to drive outside normal conditions to get skates sharpened. Sparx shares their own chart as well explaining the other "Costs" of getting skates sharpened.
Since they factor in driving time, distance, and costs of sharpen they say you can save an estimate of $600 over the lifetime and over $150 annually. They calculate a .15 cent/mile average and an average of $10 per hour to cover time cost (babysitters, meetings, work coverage, etc).
And for some their time may be more valuable. Also If you have multiple kids that play hockey in the household then the long term cost to savings ratio changes. Or you could even be a business that needs to do multiple skates at a time and having the Sparx could save time and earn extra money for the store.
With the exception of cross grinding (depending on if you do it once to shape the blade or prep the blade for every new sharp) the decision is up to you. Hand sharpening will still be necessary for years to come until they can refine the machines better and the cost drops on the machines themselves and even then people still have a preference on having skates hand sharpen.
The Sparx machine has it's place in the hockey community as a quick sharpen solution for those who's time is valuable to them. Also, with more hockey stores adopting the machine, skate sharpen times will drop dramatically for people waiting at the store.
Back to my original point about maintenance of the machines. Computerized sharpeners will always have more moving parts and things that can go wrong. If you do go the Sparx route, be sure to maintain the machine at the manufacture specs if possible and go over the machine every so often. Both Hand and Sparx machines require maintance but the likeliness of a Sparx failure will be much higher if not properly maintained.
Final notes: Both have a place in the modern age of hockey. Hand use machines tend to have more of a human touch while the Sparx has more reliability in a consistent sharpen. I'd love to see more shop run a mix of both to give a consistent mixture of the two ways to do skate sharpening.
-Mitchell
]]>The World Juniors Hockey Tournament is just getting underway as of the writing of this blog post. The IIHF (International Ice Hockey Federation) decided to implement the new Late Hit Rule, or Rule #153, into its first major contest with the World Juniors. Many people who play and referee have pointed out the concerning language from the new Late Hit Rule.
From the IIHF Rulebook:
A late hit constitutes a bodycheck to an opponent who no longer has control or possession of the puck. The opponent may have been in control or possession of the puck when the defending player committed to making a bodycheck, but the checking player risks a penalty if the flow of the game is such that the opponent is no longer in control or possession of the puck and has completed his action with the puck by the time the bodycheck is made. A late hit can be delivered to an opponent who is either aware or unaware of the opponent making the late hit.
i. A player who is not in the immediate vicinity of an opponent in possession or control of the puck and still delivers a check to that opponent, who is aware of the impending contact, will receive a minor penalty.
ii. A player who delivers a late hit to an unsuspecting opponent will receive a major and automatic game-misconduct penalty.
iii. A player who recklessly endangers a vulnerable opponent by a late hit will be assessed a match penalty.
The wording I would like to point out is aware or unaware. While this might seem to help clarify a few things, those words make this rule a very hard judgement call to make on the part of the referee. While judgement calls are a part of the game (Checking from behind, head contact, etc.) in theory two of the exact same hits could be called differently depending on if the referee feels he's aware or unaware.
According the video posted here by the IIHF and the IIHF Rulebook, If a player is aware of the impending hit and gets rid of the puck before the hit takes place and the opposing skater is not in immediate vicinity of the player about to be hit, a 2 minute minor for a late hit shall be called.
Image: Screenshot from the IIHF Late Hit Video
So according to their own video, using the net as a reference (Nets are approx. 6ft wide) if you are within a body length of a player, that can still be a late hit. Playing for over 12 years and refereeing just at long, that is a very small window as the hitting player to pull up and to avoid the hit.
Do I personally think that's late? I don't think so at all. By the time the teammate receives the puck they are within a couple feet. There's no pulling up at that point. especially at junior level hockey speed let alone professionals. Something to point out as well, most rule books have some form of a blatant late hit penalty anyways usually in the form of Interference, Roughing, or any of the checking penalties depending on the situation.
According to their new rule, the Major + Game Misconduct should be called when a player is unprepared and vulnerable position to be hit.
Image: Screenshot from the IIHF Late Hit Video
No one would be in disagreement that this at the very least is a poor hit at best. White is completely unaware of any impending danger to him. But for the sake of this post let's say we had to call a penalty here and we don't have the Late hit option. What could we use?
We could use the Boarding rule #119, stating that the player was violently thrown into the boards given he was hit by the bench and his back bent in a weird direction. Interference rule #149 could be use also. Specifically section V which states: A player who checks an opponent who is not in possession of the puck will be assessed a minor penalty for interference.
There is also a Match option as well, but their 3rd example is not only late, but an argument could be made possession was already changed by the time that his was delivered.
Going back to what was mentioned earlier about other rules being used like Boarding or Interference, there are multiple calls that could be used to discourage bad, poor, or late hits. So why make the new rule?
My theory is that they are over correcting an issue instead of instructing officials to be tighter with their calls or be more accurate with their calls. USA Hockey did some similar a while back to correct officials from calling other penalties besides Checking From Behind by using other penalties in their rule book. USA Hockey tightened up their rules by adding Misconducts to 4 other penalties to prevent referees from avoiding calling the Checking From Behind penalty. While I personally disagreed with the original decision to do so, the correction is this case may have helped.
So here's my issue on why I personally feel the IIHF is overstepping with this new rule. Unlike USA Hockey where there is a variety of experience across the board and the rules are meant to be tighter to protect kids, referees in the IIHF are more than enough experienced to make the right and necessary calls during the game. The rule also leaves just enough ambiguity that coaches and fans would argue why one hit was penalized but the next hit wasn't.
The point of the hit in hockey is to separate the player from the puck. If the hit is within the appropriate time window and the player does get rid of the puck, finishing the hit still did it's intended job, to separate the player from the puck. It is generally understood if you have the puck, you can get checked at anytime.
We need to stop punishing good clean hard hits on players and focus on using the existing rule books we have to punish players who make poor or bad hits. Most of the major sports have some physical aspect to the game and we need to make sure that while we are protecting players as best we can, to not lose the things that make the sport what it is: a fun, physical, fast hockey game.
-Mitchell
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