OS Fall League Schedule

[OntheEdge]

On the Edge wrote: "Unlike summer AAA where it seems that stacking teams is the preference, the point of this league is to make it as close and challenging as possible. ... I think the OS structure is better from a develpmental standpoint than our summer AAA."

Please explain to me the difference between AAA summer hockey and the "OS structure" when this year all OS did was take pre-existing AAA hockey teams and form a league with them.

You make a good point but I do think OS is different summer in that Winny and Ronda attempted to match up teams in the apppropriate level. In the summer you had a lot of teams playing up which made for uneven competition.

[Hux]

The only difference I see in the U19 from summer to now, is in the teams that were loaded with college players arn't in the league, or have a lot of new faces. Riley ice cats, pink panthers, wild Duffy, Walser White, all tops players went off to college. The teams that had all high school players are the same as summer. Like the Jr white Caps, Ice Cats (Perushek,Press), Walser Blue. Not sure about the blues, their roster changed from tournament to tournament, but i'm sure their college players are gone also.

The NEWHL takes applications from individual players, and then forms teams based on where that player ranks based on ability. No more than three players that are on a regular team, can be together on an NEWHL team.

The league has been running for almost ten years, and the guy who runs it knows all 300 plus girls , and their parents, by name. He spends a good week putting together the teams. Obviously this isn't something that everyone can do, but the result is balanced teams and highly competitive games.

[jumpstart]

The only difference I see in the U19 from summer to now, is in the teams that were loaded with college players arn't in the league, or have a lot of new faces. Riley ice cats, pink panthers, wild Duffy, Walser White, all tops players went off to college. The teams that had all high school players are the same as summer. Like the Jr white Caps, Ice Cats (Perushek,Press), Walser Blue. Not sure about the blues, their roster changed from tournament to tournament, but i'm sure their college players are gone also.

The NEWHL takes applications from individual players, and then forms teams based on where that player ranks based on ability. No more than three players that are on a regular team, can be together on an NEWHL team.

The league has been running for almost ten years, and the guy who runs it knows all 300 plus girls , and their parents, by name. He spends a good week putting together the teams. Obviously this isn't something that everyone can do, but the result is balanced teams and highly competitive games.

Sounds like an efficient, fair and inclusive way to run things. It also sounds like it gives the girls a chance to play with different girls, which I think is very important. As I am fairly new to this, can you tell me what NEWHL stands for and where it is located? What would it take to make something like NEWHL happen here?

[spr air 210]

This league has been very balanced since the high school only teams are playing each other. A good example of is this weekend games and yesterday, Ice cats beat White Caps by a goal, Walser Blue Beat the Ice Cats 4-2, and the White Caps beat Walser Blue 2-0. All three teams went 1-1. So far the league looks like a success. Nice job by OS again.

[Hux]

Sounds like an efficient, fair and inclusive way to run things. It also sounds like it gives the girls a chance to play with different girls, which I think is very important. As I am fairly new to this, can you tell me what NEWHL stands for and where it is located? What would it take to make something like NEWHL happen here?

Northeast Women's Hockey League, and it is located in Boston.

Basically take all the players in BAGEL and create enough teams with 17 player rosters to account for everyone. Now take the names of all those players, put 'em in a hat and start drawing names and filling in the rosters across the board. No Ice Cats, no Whitecaps, etc, just teams with a mix of players from the various AA teams (I refuse to use the auto club designation) and what not.

And if a team seems to have an edge against another team, you take the best player from the winning team and put her on the losing team. If a bunch of players don't show up for a game for whatever reason, you let the girls from the game before skate again to fill in, or you pull players from the team with the biggest bench etc.

Here we play two 25 minute, stop time halves, and make ice at half time.

[Thunderbird77]

Agree that the OS league appears to be shaping up well. The next challenge, as I see it is to address the issue of what happens when two teams show up so unevenly balanced. If the purpose is developmental, shouldn't skaters prefer to get the ice time versus sit the bench? To only have two girls out of 19 be willing to play for the other team seems crazy. What was up with this? Why would the other 17 girls prefer to sit the bench versus play? There must be more team rivalry going on than anyone anticipated.

[MNHockeyFan]

To only have two girls out of 19 be willing to play for the other team seems crazy. What was up with this? Why would the other 17 girls prefer to sit the bench versus play? There must be more team rivalry going on than anyone anticipated.

It was the first game for the team with the most players, and I suspect that they wanted to get established. Or some of them were maybe a little shy about jumping to the other team.