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I’m movin’ to Canada next month and was wondering: does anybody out there have any idea about what level “premier grade(NZ)” would be in Canada?
"Scotty":2ipnosh1 wrote:I’m movin’ to Canada next month and was wondering: does anybody out there have any idea about what level “premier grade(NZ)” would be in Canada? ???
[/quote:2ipnosh1]It’s pretty much going to be houseleague. If you are under 18, there may be a competitive team for midgets that you may be able to make. If you are skilled and “hockey smart” relative to your premier mates, you may be able to make a junior development team (Jr D). The NZIHL is like Junior C and maybe Jr B. Over 18 and you are into the beer leagues with only premier level. All the provinces have different levels so where you are going in Canada makes a difference too. Most of what I quoted is relevant for Ontario. Wee bit different out west. From what I remember (I’m getting old), many highschool teams would put a real good spanking on premier teams here.
I’ve played a bit of recreational level senior hockey in Calgary. I competed in the University of Calgary Intramural Hockey League B-grade (they had A, B, C and a contact grade). Christchurch premier grade teams would have slotted in nicely into their A-grade and Christchurch A-grade teams would be around their C-grade although they have a wider range of players. Peoples definition of “recreational” is a bit different to New Zealand’s “recreational” hockey. Recreational teams in Canada are often a lot more serious than teams here, so don’t be put off by the tag “recreational”, the players have usually played to quite a high level in the past and aren’t training as hard anymore, but that doesn’t mean they don’t take it seriously. NZIHL teams would be above the level of most actual recreational level teams there. If you are heading to Calgary, then definitely let me know as I can hook you up with some teams/leagues to contact and let you know roughly what level you’d want to be playing at.
As Vince said though, it’ll depend on where you are as to what level you’d be playing at. There’s leagues everywhere though and you should be able to find a team to play for. The trick is to actively look for a team, even advertising for one may be necessary as you usually need to know someone to get on a team. I played in a social scrimmage at lunch times for a while and met heaps of people from that and eventually managed to wrangle my way into a couple of different teams that way.
[b:2dlz9oga]Off-topic:[/b:2dlz9oga] The pic below is where I played most of my hockey in Calgary. It’s the Olympic Oval where the 1988 Olympic speed skating was held. There’s two international sized rinks in the middle surrounded by a long track speed skating oval. It’s also where I met Jenel Bode and where she asked me the question “So, yer from New Zealand eh? Do you have any idea how I’d go about getting a job there?” – and that’s how we got a coach in Dunedin
” title=”Cheesy” />[align=center:2dlz9oga][img:2dlz9oga]http://ryanhellyer.net/wp-content/uploads/2007/07/olympic-oval.JPG[/img:2dlz9oga][/align:2dlz9oga]
Ryan,
Thanx for the help. BTW how do you get to the ice rinks with out having to walk over the speed skating rink?
"Scotty":3r9tzqj3 wrote:Thanx for the help. BTW how do you get to the ice rinks with out having to walk over the speed skating rink?
[/quote:3r9tzqj3]Lol, that tricks a lot of people
” title=”Tongue” /> There’s a tunnel which runs underneath the rinks and you pop out between the two hockey rinks. You have to go through the tunnel to use the speed skating oval too as they don’t like people hopping over the barriers.Ryan,
[align=center:3m00ivwo][size=4:3m00ivwo][b:3m00ivwo]Some videos of recreational level hockey in Canada[/b:3m00ivwo][/size:3m00ivwo][/align:3m00ivwo]
Here’s some clips from the University of Calgary Intramural hockey league. This is basically the social grade for the university. They had A, B and C-grades for non-checking and a contact grade. The contact grade was about the same level as the B-grade although there was a larger range of players competing. I’ve only got footage of the B and A-grades though. C-grade was pretty crappy, I would have been one of the stronger players in the league (top 20% maybe) if I’d competed, I’d guess it’s somewhere between Christchurch’s A and B-grades, but with a broader range of playing skill.[align=center:3m00ivwo][size=3:3m00ivwo][b:3m00ivwo]Team Group Velocity vs some random team | B-grade[/b:3m00ivwo][/size:3m00ivwo]
Team Group Velocity was the team I played for. It was actually
the physics and astronomy departments team, but they were short
players so let me and my friend Janay (yellow socks) play for them.
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Team Group Velocity[/url:3m00ivwo][/align:3m00ivwo][align=center:3m00ivwo][size=3:3m00ivwo][b:3m00ivwo]Stubble Jumpers vs some random team | B-grade[/b:3m00ivwo][/size:3m00ivwo]
I played with most of the stubble jumpers at lunchtimes.
This video is from them winning the B-grade finals.
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Intramural Finals[/url:3m00ivwo][/align:3m00ivwo][align=center:3m00ivwo][size=3:3m00ivwo][b:3m00ivwo]Individuals Team vs some random team | A-grade[/b:3m00ivwo][/size:3m00ivwo]
This video is from the finals of the A-grade. I played with a
bunch of these guys as well including Janay (yellow socks) and
the guy Rick who scored the winning goal at the end of the video.
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Intramural Finals[/url:3m00ivwo][/align:3m00ivwo]Ryan,
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