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also heard a lot of complaints from there this year.

01's were a complete mess with the 11-1 and 17-0 scores counting as goal differential tie breakers...uggh...if your going to let teams in for free you should at least find a better method of seeding.

Had three of the four semi-final teams from last year in one pool...i guess the name changes were too much to figure out...and they were probably three of the best four teams there this year too.

whats nice is they keep messing it up too as the site now shows the Manitoba Jr. Bison getting third when they were an 8 seed and never even got to play in the semi's.

summerisforbaseball wrote:Was disappointed at the overall quality at S&S. Despite easier schedules for the Made teams, they had little success. The exception is the behemoth that is the 2000s. There is a reason they are nationally recognized.

That's a pretty funny thing to say. The most disappointing bracket may have been the 2000s precisely because there was no match for the Machine.

99 Machine won easily as well.

01 bracket had a lot of great games, and the Machine had three very competitive games against Northern Elite (6-4), Jr. Bison (3-2) and the 'chip against SSSelects (7-4). Agreed, there were some pretty sad blowouts too, though. There was a pool's worth of teams that probably should have been in the open tournament, not the elite.

The younger Machine teams may have disappointed you, but the competition was obviously there. All in all, that's a very confusing post, Summer. You seem to have gotten it exactly backwards: The Machine teams with "easy schedules" won; the ones with tough ones either won or they didn't, but the games were competitive. Did you want tough schedules for each group, and then have them win at all levels?

To me, this tournament answered a few questions.

-The 2000 Blades have slipped vs. the 2000 Orange even more than last year; 00 Orange just get stronger each year. Blades seem to lack purpose or confidence or something.

-The 2003 Blades seem to be head-and-shoulders above all other teams so far, being a Brick year they've consolidated a LOT of talent (some of it poached from the Machine).

-If the 01 Machine can find consistency, they can beat just about any other team out there a la 00 Machine. Probably they can even the 01 Blades -- that will be a good matchup in Winnipeg or Caribou later this summer, the way the 00 Blades and Machine were on a crash course two summers ago.

-Legacy and Icemen have A LOT of work to do at almost every level they play if they're taking aim at Elite tournaments.

-Miracle Gold as a program is having trouble finding consistency across age groups

-Canadian kids are bigger than American kids.

My final post to the S&S is up. I take a few more liberties at AAA than I do with association hockey.

I'd say the tournament was a 3.5 stars out of 5 (no pun intended). It's not the TD fault if teams enter and pay...they are trying to make money. I found their brackets to favor the home team a little (not out of this world), that comes back to haunt you long term as more and more tournaments emerge.

http://www.youthhockeyhub.com/aaa-stars ... e-updates/

Enjoy,

TS

PS 5 of 6 picks right and my only loser was leading going into the third...curses to the '01 Machine.

Was the 02 Euro team their full lineup all weekend? Saw them twice and didn't look like what I expected to see. Missing kids?

Was the 03 Miracle team the same lineup on Sat. and Sun.? The were 2 seconds away from winning vs. Machine Orange, then were blown out on Sunday. I assume they iced a different lineup.(?)

I've followed the 02 Euro Red for a bit now as our team has played them often..they were a bit off their game this weekend as this was their first checking tournament....ever. They are a young team and it took them awhile to get get used to the physical play. In time, they will figure out the physical aspect of the game. They did play some very good hockey this weekend too...

03 Blades are BEASTS!!!! Nice team....

Shinbone_News wrote:

summerisforbaseball wrote:Was disappointed at the overall quality at S&S. Despite easier schedules for the Made teams, they had little success. The exception is the behemoth that is the 2000s. There is a reason they are nationally recognized.

That's a pretty funny thing to say. The most disappointing bracket may have been the 2000s precisely because there was no match for the Machine.

99 Machine won easily as well.

01 bracket had a lot of great games, and the Machine had three very competitive games against Northern Elite (6-4), Jr. Bison (3-2) and the 'chip against SSSelects (7-4). Agreed, there were some pretty sad blowouts too, though. There was a pool's worth of teams that probably should have been in the open tournament, not the elite.

The younger Machine teams may have disappointed you, but the competition was obviously there. All in all, that's a very confusing post, Summer. You seem to have gotten it exactly backwards: The Machine teams with "easy schedules" won; the ones with tough ones either won or they didn't, but the games were competitive. Did you want tough schedules for each group, and then have them win at all levels?

To me, this tournament answered a few questions.

-The 2000 Blades have slipped vs. the 2000 Orange even more than last year; 00 Orange just get stronger each year. Blades seem to lack purpose or confidence or something.

-The 2003 Blades seem to be head-and-shoulders above all other teams so far, being a Brick year they've consolidated a LOT of talent (some of it poached from the Machine).

-If the 01 Machine can find consistency, they can beat just about any other team out there a la 00 Machine. Probably they can even the 01 Blades -- that will be a good matchup in Winnipeg or Caribou later this summer, the way the 00 Blades and Machine were on a crash course two summers ago.

-Legacy and Icemen have A LOT of work to do at almost every level they play if they're taking aim at Elite tournaments.

-Miracle Gold as a program is having trouble finding consistency across age groups

-Canadian kids are bigger than American kids.

-Canadian kids are bigger than American kids.

Really? How about Canadian born youth hockey players are bigger than US born youth hockey players. Not many big Canadians choose basketball. For every Leo Rautins there are 100 hockey players.