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Yeah, John used to switch between a full and half cage, depending on what team he was playing against, and how he thought the game was going to go.
Yeah, I’m not too concerned about elbow pads and boxes etc. People should wear them, but if they don’t, then they’re only going to hurt themselves. The cage or visor is an essential piece of equipment though, and people will copy senior players who do it.
I might need to ask you to send out the emails again. I’ll write something up if you want.
Or so it seemed last night. The SK8 Stars game was pretty rough. I think SK8 players were boxed 8 or 9 times, Stars 4 times. At one stage SK8 had three players in the box – and the refs missed when the first one came out and started skating straight away – they had too many on the ice for about a minute (4 + goalie, rather than 3 + goalie).
This was a problem with the scorers box I think – the penalties were getting too confusing for them, and they had that older guy who often helps out at the rink there, and I’m just not sure if he knew the rules once you get more than one person boxed – logically you’d assume that as a players time finishes they go back out on the rink, but with three in the box you still have four players on the rink, so the player has to stay in the box until the next boxed person’s time finishes.
Shaun Hinson was boxed at least twice, once for starting a fight (Nigel Dobson foolishly came in as third man and so although SK8 started it, Stars had two people in the box). Ryan Wick was also boxed for trying to start the argy bargy. Mostly the refs were on top of it, though they made one bad call where Shaun Hinson pushed a forward into his own (the SK8) goalie crease – after about 3 or 4 seconds of pushing, and then the goalie pushed him from behind. They never should have boxed the Stars player for that as well as Shaun, he wasn’t doing anything wrong.
Anyway, mostly they were on top of it, but it was a really rough game. Disappointing to watch. Anyway, that’s not what I was posting about.
I was goal judging, and looking at a lot of the players, lots of them didn’t have the correct gear. Shaun for example had no visor at all, and he’s 17 still I think, so he’s required to wear a full cage. Lots of other people – who should have been wearing a half visor at least, had nothing. It was concerning to me both because the game was rough, but I know the most likely reason someone will get hit in the face is a loose puck, or possibly a stick (most of the fighting that takes place out on the rink is serious handbag stuff).
I asked Phil and Matt after the game if they’d do some equipment checks before the next round of the A grade. There’s virtually no one playing in the DIHL that shouldn’t be wearing a half visor at least – you have to be born in 1974 or before. So that’s Graham, Steve, Mike, Adrian van Leeuwen, not sure about James, I think he’s just a bit too young. Larry, Phil etc would also be eligible. They said they’d be happy to do that.
We’re going to have to do another email (after tonight so as to avoid confusion) letting people know that they’ve got two weeks off. We should include a stern notice about making sure that people have the right helmet equipment, and noting that if they don’t, they’ll be required to borrow one from the equipment room.
Pah. I got a rib bruised (I never got it checked out by the doctor, so I’m not sure if it was cracked, I suspect not), playing Blackdeath up in Nelson a couple of years ago. Guy boarded me from behind. Played a game later that day. And another one the next day.
I bet Jack’ll be back after the two week break. He’s no wussy 6 week standdown man.
A Grade
The competition lined up last week, with SK8 looking like to team to beat in the early stages.
Phantoms vs Ducks: Both teams are on one win, one loss, and will looking to take a clear second place at the middle of the competition. Phantoms didn’t look horrendous last week, but need to stiffen up and put better shots on in attack, and looked like they were really missing Sam Smith. Ducks played a close game and pulled it out on the Stars 3-2. The Phantoms gave the Stars a bit of a pounding in week one, and based on that, I’m picking Phantoms to knock over the Ducks, 4-2. King, Jackson and A. van Leeuwen to net for Phantoms, Duncan and Richard Sykes to get once each for the Ducks.
Stars vs SK8: Top vs bottom here, but I’m picking the Stars to start rolling and push SK8 hard here. There’s a bunch of good players in the Stars lineup. The problem they’ll face is that there’s no real weaknesses in the SK8 team – there’s a bunch of good solid players who play good D, so scoring on them is hard work. I’m gonna go out on a limb and call it 2-2 draw. van Leeuwen and Roth the younger to score for SK8, Lamb and Benda for Stars.
B Grade
These teams are starting to sort themselves out in a heirarchy. Top at present are Beasts and John McGlashan, and they meet this week, so that’s going to be very interesting to see. Johnnies apparently looked pretty solid all round handing out a real thrashing to the Bullfrogs last week, but Beasts have been playing two games a week for a while now, so they’re lining up to see who’s top dog.
Bullfrogs vs Kings: Bullfrogs got well and truly shown up last week, with some beginners being welcomed to hockey reality. Kings will be looking to keep them down so they can step up into third place. My pick – you can’t learn how to play hockey in a few weeks unfortunately, and some of those ‘frogs – their skating speed just isn’t fast enough. So Kings to take it, 4-2.
Beasts vs John McGlashan: This will be interesting to see. Johnnies showed they’re the team to beat last week, racking up a dozen goals in quick succession over 45 minutes. Beasts won’t go down anywhere near as easily as the Bullfrogs did however. They’ve got a good goalie, and some players who are pushing to play A grade next year. Well for Johnnies, there’s a couple of guys there that are racking up big points. Mark Kleigl got a hat trick in the first game, and Robert McLean stacked up a massive 7 goals last week. It’ll be interesting to see how they go if they face an offence which racks up some shots, because their goalies haven’t really been troubled enough in the first part of the season. My pick: Johnnies, 4-3.
Bears vs OBHS: Couple of teams looking to get their season firing. Bears have struggled a bit, as they’re a bit of a mishmash of a team, and their goalie is new (but getting better from what I saw on Sunday night). Their main problems seems to be that they’re making some shots, but they’re really not getting close enough to the net to make it difficult for the goalie. They’d probably be better making a few more passes and trying to get closer, and making less shots, but ones which have a chance of going in. OBs are a young team, but they’ll be looking to clock up their first win of the season. They’ve played the two best teams already, and struggled, but they’re onto the easier ones now, so look for some victories up ahead. OBs to take it 4-1.
[quote:342ihiyi]
The rule book still doesn’t seem to have been voted in by the DIHA so it doesn’t apply here. Plus because it’s not official yet it hasn’t been supplied to the teams either.
What the heck’s up with that by the way? Three meetings and all I’ve seen in the minutes is that the rules will be looked at or comments made at the next meeting or something!?[/quote:342ihiyi]
I know the rulebook isn’t official. It’s in the information provided for teams though, which leaves us in the unclear situation of ‘this is a breach of the rules’, and no clear way forward as to how it should be dealt with. Precisely the situation the rulebook was created to avoid.
I went along to Monday’s meeting again. It wasn’t on the agenda. I raised it in general business, but there didn’t seem to be much point pushing it as no one had read it. Mike Sam read it while at the meeting, and indicated that it seemed pretty good.
Next month if we don’t get any feedback I’ll just ask them to vote on it, I suspect that will bring the issues to the fore.
[b:cfvpm861]A Grade[/b:cfvpm861]
[quote:cfvpm861]SK8 vs Phantoms: My pick: Phantoms to take it, 4-2. Jackson, Smith, A. van Leeuwen, and King to net for Phantoms, J. van Leeuwen and Heyd to net for SK8.[/quote:cfvpm861]
Ouch. 3-0 to SK8. Phantoms got better as the game went on, shutting out the third period, but simply unable to put anything past Tony Pasco, who stopped all 12 shots. J. van Leeuwen and Wick net for SK8, who were just too good on the day. Phantoms really missed Smith as an extra attacking weapon.
[quote:cfvpm861]Stars vs Ducks: My pick: Ducks to take it out, 3-2. Sam, D. Sykes to net for Ducks, Lamb and Benda to net for Stars. Blackett to have a big last period in goal to see his team through.[/quote:cfvpm861]
Perfect pick here, 3-2 to Ducks. Sykes brothers put away three goals, and Stars only able to grab two. Blackett stops 21 of 23. That’s a damn fine prediction if I do say so myself.
[b:cfvpm861]B Grade[/b:cfvpm861]
[quote:cfvpm861]Kings vs Bears: Kings to take it 5-3.[/quote:cfvpm861]
Well I got the Kings score right, but Bears again struggle, unable to net on Wednesday. Kings pick up their first win, and Bears unfortunately look destined for the wooden spoon. Alexander Griffin with the big shutout.
[note to the statistician, Kings have won 1, lost 1, the stats say they’ve won 2]
[quote:cfvpm861]OBHS vs Beasts: Final score, 4 – 1 to Beasts.[/quote:cfvpm861]
Beasts finish well ahead of the line, 6-1 over the ‘Boys. All six goals spread around, but no assists – where’s the passing in the B grade?
[quote:cfvpm861]John McGlashan vs Bullfrogs: I’m calling it a draw, at 2-2.[/quote:cfvpm861]
Woah. And blowout of the week goes to Johnnies, who rack up 12 goals to a solitary 1 goal from the ‘frogs. Bullfrogs really struggle against some top offense, McLean knocks in 7 goals in one game. A prospective A grader possibly? Bullfrogs only able to put 5 shots on the opposition goalie, so no chance of winning there.
It’s not a matter of what grade Antony is when he plays in A grade, it’s a matter of him being a graded player, which you knew, because you were sent the grading list for consultation. He was a 7 when you received it, and he was a 7 when you sent it back, so unsurprisingly, he’s a 7 now. Every player in the A grade is graded, that’s how we make it up.
The B grade is an ungraded (1-5) league. Anyone who is graded (6-10) needs dispensation to play in it.
I don’t think Beasts were necessarily advantaged at all. You’ve already probably got the best goalie in the grade in Marc. It’s rule 9.14 in the rulebook however:
9.14 Any teams which compete with illegal players will be considered to default their game. For statistical purposes a score of 0 ? 5 will be recorded.
You can’t just bring in an A graded goalie, in much the same way that you couldn’t bring in any other A grade player to play out. If you need a different goalie, you need to find another non-graded goalie. Anyone who told you that Antony could play in goal was giving you misinformation.
[quote:211wpxda][quote:211wpxda]Last night I line/refed the first game with sean, are there actually suppose to be set refs comming each week?[/quote:211wpxda]
Yep, the refs/linesman are organised by the club. Except for the first week of the B-grade when Phil left for a few days and I sourced some refs.
Ryan,[/quote:211wpxda]
Yes, Phil emailed me on Wednesday and said he had refs covered. His email said Shaun was going to do all the games, and:
Blake is going to come down tonight anyway. I can’t be there as I’m teaching but will try to make the last game – which should also have Andre ready to ref.
If Blake wasn’t there, then let me know and I’ll chase it up with Phil.
If you did cover, you’re owed $10, so make sure you get it, or you get a free game on a Sunday night.
Yeah you can’t do that. Antony is graded in goal (as a 7), hence you need permission to play him there, you can’t just throw him in. He was accepted into the B grade as an out player, where he’s graded much lower.
The information for teams was quite clear on this. “Players with a grade of 6 or above will need special permission to enter the B grade.” We’ve granted that for a couple of people – Ryan for example. We’ve never agreed to do so for Antony. It’s totally unfair on the other team to have to shoot on an A grade goalie.
Did Beasts play Antony Blackett in goal last week or Marc? Antony can’t play in goal in B grade, so I’m hoping that’s a scoring error.
ps: at the top of the stats (B grade), you’ve got round-robin two, when it’s round-robin 1.
My biggest thing about moving up from being a beginner to actually playing hockey is skating speed. I remember that three team tournament you organised at the Big Chill in 2002 – that was the first time that I realised that I could skate fast enough to get around people, and I racked up a bunch of goals. You simply can’t play hockey if you can’t skate fast, it’s like trying to play soccer by only walking when everyone else is running.
I’m not aware of the beginners session doing much work on skating speed – certainly not in the 10 or so times I’ve been there. My biggest comment that I make to people on Sunday nights is that they need to bend their legs when they skate. They do puck handling and skating through cones, but a lot of hockey is picking up off a mark, skating hard and fast, and then stopping and doing the same thing back the other way. Only one person ever has the puck, and as often as not it’ll be the other team.
That’s what I would target those beginners with. Get them more towards that fast, knees bent, head forward skating style.
Holy crap. You guys got cleaned up.
Be interesting to see Johnnies play Beasts then, see who’s tops.
Ding ding! Round two! That’s right. Get that bikini-clad woman off the ice with the sign. Play some hockey.
[b:2xsvjnks]A Grade[/b:2xsvjnks]
SK8 vs Phantoms: Both winners in round one, this is a big game, with the winner well on the way to securing a finals berth. Phantoms thrived last week with the steadying influence of Steve Jackson at the back, where he played a massive role. This enabled the forwards to cut up the ice, putting 7 in the back of the net. They’ll be looking to keep on trucking. SK8 were without a number of players last week, who all had other commitments, but they’ll be expecting them back and making up some serious numbers. Watch for James van Leeuwen on defense, firing some big shots from point and cutting up the ice when he gets the chance. Phantoms are going to have to stick to him hard, and chase him if they want to win. My pick: Phantoms to take it, 4-2. Jackson, Smith, A. van Leeuwen, and King to net for Phantoms, J. van Leeuwen and Heyd to net for SK8.
Stars vs Ducks: Both teams will be disappointed with last week’s effort – Stars with some missing defense, letting the Phantoms through for too many good shots on their goaltender, Ducks with an offense that had a bunch of shots, but only got one through the SK8 goaltender. Ducks have definitely got the players to rack it up – Sam, the Sykes brothers, and Gilchrist can all score goals. Stars had some good offense last week, but let too many Phantoms players right up the middle – they’ll need to shut this down with some bigger commitment. My pick: Ducks to take it out, 3-2. Sam, D. Sykes to net for Ducks, Lamb and Benda to net for Stars. Blackett to have a big last period in goal to see his team through.
[b:2xsvjnks]B Grade[/b:2xsvjnks]
Kings vs Bears: Both teams struggled last week I understand, but I’m just waiting for the Bears to click. Once this mish-mash team starts to get the passing and defense going, I think they’ll be a threat. Kings have played here before, and they’re a team that will probably struggle to make the finals, but they’re sure to pull down a couple of teams who think they’re easy beats. I think that might be this week, with Kings to take it 5-3.
OBHS vs Beasts: Beasts came into the competition looking like the class outfit, and that is probably set to continue, as goalie Marc is only get better once he gets used to sliding around on the ice rather than the field hockey pitch. Watch for manager Mark on forward as well, his game is moving along nicely and he might be looking for an A grade berth next year. OBHS come in with a good coach, and he’ll be looking to put some heat on the Beasts, but they’ll fall short. Final score, 4 – 1.
John McGlashan vs Bullfrogs: Bullfrogs had a good week last time, with a couple of their goal scorers making hay with the Bears. John McGlashan might be a different prospect however, as rookie goaltender Rhys Leask is building up a heap of experience, culminating in him playing for Southern Region at nationals, so the shots won’t just go in as easy this week. I’m picking this to be close, with both teams struggling to score to much, so I’m calling it a draw, at 2-2.
[quote:3r3i0xg5]Game 1: Phantoms vs Stars: First game will be a bit loose, my picks: Phantoms 4-3.[/quote:3r3i0xg5]
Well I’ve picked the result, and one half of the scoreboard right, but Phantoms step up and knock up a pile of goals, 7 in all. King and Adrian van Leeuwen get hat tricks, and Matthews picks up a goal and two assists (3 points in the first night! stoked!). Phantoms keep the shots down to 12 on goalie Nick Metzger, while putting 27 on Bryant. Stars defense will be disappointed with that. Good work from Peter Lamb to pick up a double for the Stars however.
[quote:3r3i0xg5]Game 2: Ducks vs SK8: I’m picking a tight game, not so many goals, taken out by the Ducks 3-1.[/quote:3r3i0xg5]
Interesting. Ducks struggle against SK8, with Tony Pasco only letting in 1 off 15, and despite racking up 10 penalty minutes, SK8 takes it out 4-1. A hat trick to James van Leeuwen sees them through. There’s some good Ducks players in that line up, and they’ll be looking to do better than a solitary unassisted goal to Gilchrist.
