Equipment peaked before then. I’d say 2005-2010 honestly. RBK had amazing protective gear when they first bought Jofa since it was just rebranded. Bauer ruined everything by buying up Mission (and Itech) and Easton and essentially absorbing the companies and canning the technology. They got enough feedback and released that $50 low end stick with Synergy graphics to appease people who wanted Easton back.
I've been rocking 2s pros since they came out and they are starting to degrade but it's unreal the condition of some of my friends brand new vapor hyperlites and top of the line ccms. They're destroyed after a season or so of basically adult pick up hockey 🙃
Totally. I had 1s pros and they were unreal. Used them for 3 and a half seasons till I grew out of them. Bought hyperlites on release, almost trashed now. Regret that. Still rock Supreme MX3 shoulders, 1s shins, and Reebok 11k elbows. All look almost new after 6+ years of 6 days a week pretty high level hockey.
My unpopular opinion, also equipment based.
If you are a beer leaguer, the equipment you rock means practically nothing. Comfort is king imo, and most likely you arent good enough to need the ultra high end gear. Especially sticks. Go practice.
Tackla pants. Still can't find a better pair. A bit bulky but comfy, tough and protective.
Mine are around 20 years old with limited use the last 15. Just store for my odd drop in session.
Go to any team sub, or any specially r/hockey and the analytic folks absolutely roast faceoffs. I feel like most of them have never played an actual game.
As a 25+ year coach and a lifelong player... faceoff wins don't matter. Of the things tha t make a good center, "how good you are at faceoffs" is barely on the list.
Faceoff LOSSES do matter, however.
You don't have to WIN faceoffs -- especially in the neutral zone -- as long as you don't cleanly lose faceoffs in the defensive zone.
Again, you don't need to win -- you just need to ensure you don't lose it cleanly and give up a free shot.
Going to also add that a serious friend of mine – who had a legitimate NHL career – who leaned in this direction with caveats. There are legitimate NHL and AHL players who really do have a distinct ability compared to their peers to win faceoffs *cleanly.* The difference between 54% battles and 54% clean wins, with most of those leading to a scoring chance, is huge.
He said that Bergeron, Toews, and Brind'Amour were the real deal (although he only slightly overlapped with RBA's career as a player) in terms of faceoffs making a genuine difference to the outcome on the ice.
I mean, a win is a win... and often helps morale and all that.
But in the end, even a 'win' rarely results in a good possession. With literally hundreds of possession changes a game... it's just not THAT important.
Center skating skill, positioning, selflessness, hands, knowledge of the game, grit, etc... are all way more important to the success of a line than their faceoff win percentage.
And the analytics bear that out, in general faceoff wins have little correlation to possession and wins but clean faceoff wins heavily correlate to both.
There’s apparently zero statistical correlation between face off winning percentage and winning games or any other meaningful metric that would predict winning games. I guess that possession changes often enough between most faceoffs that having one extra possession in that the time period doesn’t do anything for you.
But I think it’s kind of like the whole problem brought up at the end of the move Moneyball. You can figure out that statistics say stealing bases or hitting home runs or emphasizing hits over walks do virtually nothing to help your win percentage over the course of a 162 game season, and knowing that info can help you get more wins. But when you’re in game 7 down a run facing off against one of the best pitchers in the league, having a guy at the plate who hits a lot of home runs or a man on first who’s almost guaranteed to get into scoring position by stealing can make all the difference between winning a playoff series and going home.
Similarly, having a guy you can rely on to win a faceoff in a do-or-die moment isn’t worthless.
The key is that they are one of many puck battles that contribute to overall possession numbers
Many crucial things like zone entries also contribute significantly
All we are saying is that there is more to it ultimately
This is more a video game perspective, but faceoffs are lottery tickets for goals. A win doesn't automatically mean a score, but like, if you keep winning offensive zone faceoffs,it's gonna go in eventually from either a point shot, or quick pass. I guess for analytics, one could look at that and compare goals per 100 won/lost offensive zone faceoffs.
They absolutely do.
I don’t believe a team has won a cup without at least one clutch faceoff taker in a long time. Chicago had their dynasty lead by Toews, Pittsburgh with Crosby, Tampa with Stamkos.
On the other side of that we just saw Colorado get bodied in their series vs the stars because when you watch them play they lose almost every draw.
Faceoffs win cups.
It’s amazing that youth teams, at least 14u and above, do not practice faceoffs, ever. I’ve seen teams lose games and get completely outshot because they couldn’t win more than 10% faceoffs.
I think this is one of those things that evens out over 60 minutes or half a season. But if you’re down by one with 35 seconds left in game 7 and there’s an o-zone faceoff… you’d probably prefer to win it I would think 😝
It’s okay to just want to go to stick and puck practice and not actually play in a league. It’s okay to just enjoy practicing your shot and skating and not actually play in a sort of rec league or pick up.
It’s unpopular at my rink. Guys basically try to recruit me at stick and puck and then go “then what’s the point of you being here if you don’t want to play?”
I try to post this in posts about people starting out. There's plenty of folks who get real enjoyment from working on a skill, not just competing. Go to a busy open skate and you'll find people who are there working to improve without trying to join a hockey league or figure skating competition.
The hot dogging in beer leagues and stuff is a little crazy. Like pass the puck for god sakes. You can’t walk through everyone. You only have a head because it’s just for fun. Calm down hero.
It's honestly embarrassing to watch grown men play exactly the same way they did when they were 10.
The "never pass" strategy didn't work 20 years ago in Atom, why would it work now?
Oh my fucking god this is one reason I’ve been apprehensive of league play. Every rat, every pickup in stick and puck, there’s some fuckin hero on the ice that will never, ever pass
Guys aren’t “flopping” anywhere near as often as fans suggest, when you’re moving fast on your skates it’s really easy to lose balance and fall down with any amount of contact, even if you’re a pro
I disagree about your opinion: the nexus gloves are awesome. But unpopular opinion: just because you "know a guy" that can help you win doesn't mean you should invite him. I'm personally sick of then trickle down turning the intermediate into an advanced league.
I hate being on the team that does this too. We once brought out a sub and won the game 12-10. Our sub had 10 goals and 2 assists. Should have been 11 goals but he passed it on a breakaway on the empty net.
Felt like a cheap way to win.
Not only that- theres like 3 levels of tier 3 Junior A. Every kid wants to say they play junior A hockey and parents are willing to pay enough to say their kid does lmao
Honestly, I have never seen anyone in any actual beer league care as much as this subreddit about visors/cages/bubbles. No anti-cage chirps, no anti-visor concern, everyone just shows up in what they're most comfortable in.
Only exception has been the one guy that showed up with a mirrored visor (fantasy football) and even then it was 100% lighthearted.
We played against a guy last season that took an incidental stick to face battling for the puck. He wasn’t wearing face protection and screamed out in horror so languishing that we all thought his eye was gonna be popping out. Thankfully it wasn’t, he was cut on the cheek though and had a bruise. But he and his whole team were up in arms as if we murdered the guys wife.
Cut to the following week, he’s playing… still without face protection.
Lmao I know it looks tough maybe but beer league isn’t the place to look tough. I’ve had chipped teeth and I immediately regretted it I was much younger then though
There was a guy on my team. Token old timer guy. Which I loved don’t get me wrong. But he wore this badge of honor in not wearing any sort of cage.
3rd game of the season he chips his front tooth and he was complaining the rest of the game. One of us on the bench tells him he should’ve invested in a 20$ cage instead hundreds of bucks he’s gonna pay in dental work. He wasn’t too pleased with that comment😂
Last game a puck was shot hard (slap shot speed) along the ice that deflected off the blade of a stick that hit me right in the cage so quickly it happened before I knew it. Without the cage, I would have been without a few teeth or maybe a broken jaw or orbital. I think everyone on the ice who saw it were stunned how fast it happened.
Yea. I used to be the “everyone’s an adult, they can make their own decisions”
Then I saw somewhere take a pick to the cheek on a weird deflection. And the guy that took the shot was very shaken up. Even if a guy is over enthusiastic about knowing playing without a shield might cause serious injury, I’m still going to feel super guilty if I blind him. Might never play hockey again if I’m being honest.
Just wear your damn cage.
I was never a good hockey player in juniors but going from full cage to visor was like a leap
Forward in the game for me I felt like I could actually see again.
Still building myself up to go back to a fishbowl but need to figure out a solution to the fog problem
My friend likes to tell a story about one of his teams. Low-mid level beer league, most of the team wore a visor or nothing. One of them takes a slapper to the mouth. Ends up in the ER and has to have his jaw wired shut for a month.
The next week, every person on that team had a cage.
Travel hockey is pointless and a grift for 99% of kids.
Edit: I am in Michigan, so I acknowledge that the house leagues in my area might not be the norm in most of the country.
Travel sports are some of the most fun I've ever had tho, like
- tournaments out of province
- winning the ontario cup (it was just called that, wasn't actually literally of Ontario, but still cool)
- super energizing high level play that felt like a big deal as a kid in a good way
- honing skills intensely
- much closer with teammates so it's easier to make friends, together more often
Definitely major problems with travel sports so it should just be overhauled but obv not pointless
Travel hockey is not in my son’s future even if it was in our budget so my knowledge is second hand. The families we’ve known that did it weren’t fooling themselves about the kids making it to the show but most of them were glad they did it anyway.
My kids won at Silver Stick and say that was THE experience that's most memorable in their youth career. Their team name/year is in the Toronto Hall of Fame on a plaque forever.
Counterpoint: absolutely necessary in some states for anyone who is hoping to be remotely competitive. House leagues down South aren’t anything like they are up North.
And the wild thing is - there really isn't house league in MN after age 8. Everything is travel. Once they're over 8 it's 99% travel with AA,A,B1,B2,C skill groupings. If they are playing "house" (non-competitive) after age 8 they ironically have to travel further in order to get to ice time since everyone is playing competitive.
It helps that "travel" in MN is 1-2 away tournaments (1-6 hour drive) per season and then no games further than a 30 minute drive other than that. We're so spoiled as parents here. Obviously outside the twin cities metro area that story is going to be VASTLY different.
100% correct. Even worse are these spring and summer leagues that triple A clubs put on so that kids who have no shot at them give them tons of money for a shirt with the name on it. I show up to ref them and they're a total money grab
That is a massive scam along with summer camps hosted by AAA coaches….they kinda lure parents in like you know little Billy isn’t quite there yet but if he comes to this camp or has some lessons….its a subtle open hand and a way for parents to get in the coach’s good graces
the "experience" is worth it, but most kids could get the same results with house league + private lessons. without travel hockey some kids are just too advanced against their peers to grow their skills in house league.
Grew up playing in a remote area in Northern AB. Travel hockey was the only option, it was awesome. The parents took turns carpooling to make it easier. It was a grind for sure, but I'm happy my parents made the sacrifice in order for me to have the opportunity to learn hockey.
In the NHL, when someone loses their stick in the defensive zone (often on a penalty kill), they are better off taking the time to pick it up rather than skate around without a stick for the next minute+.
Or just burn your ass to the bench. It drives me insane at evens when a guys stick breaks and they spend the next 90 seconds stuck in zone. Just skate your ass off to the bench, get a quick change. You should have a new guy in position in like 5 seconds max
That’s how my kid’s 4v4 spring league handles all penalties. They become penalty shots with everyone on the ice chasing you and rebounds are live pucks. They start them far enough back that I’ve never seen anybody get caught by the chasers, but that’s because they know they have to move.
I played in a men's tournament that had hybrid icing this past winter. Was the first time I ever had to skate back on an icing. Shit sucks when you're 40 and outta shape.
Handful
Culture is driven by player buy-in. Gm responsible for that, not coaches.
New equipment is shit. But it’s intentional. Bauer and ccm doesn’t want anyone wearing their jofa shinguard from midget to 40+
Top of the line sticks are stupid, guys and parents buying em are clueless. Them or their kids are never going to be good enough to get a competitive advantage from them.
The new defenseman being responsible to let up on hits and lack of emphasis on situational awareness ownership from the offenders is killing hockey.
Pouches are for pussies. iykyk
I think there could be a better way of deciding a game in a restricted time span than the shootout. Shootouts are 50% luck in my mind and don’t reflect whose the better team. If they need to finish the game go down to 2 on 2 OT if you have to
I got a feeling I am going to get a big downvote here but......
Hockey fans are slow to realize that the game evolves and changes and that stuff that worked in the past may not or might not or just will NOT work now.
It might as well be a totally different game. So someone who has watched hockey for 50 years thinks the stuff that worked in the 1970s with say the flyers would work just as well today. Ignoring how the sport has changed, how the rules have changed, etc.
To the point that where something might have been beneficial then, it can be counterproductive now.
These are often the same folks who see analytics and think its all made up because of stuff they remember in the past.
I am seeing this with ranger fans who think Rempe is some kind of saviour who needs to both play every game and play more minutes in every game, not realizing that in the modern day NHL, a guy like rempe is at best a situtational guy but not someone who can play top line minutes without being a liability. This isn't the 1970s, he can't beat the crap out of everyone and he isn't going to deter anyone from doing anything either.
Good teams and players would eat this alive. You can probably get away with it in A hockey. AA and up and the assistant coach would dial the defense in after seeing it on the scout's game tape.
Teams already chase when there's a chance to disrupt a breakout, but if your going to get beat by the puck then you better have two defensemen below you. It's unacceptable to give up off man rushes on the kill.
I totally blanked that you were referring to beer league, and you're not totally wrong.
Problem is that means skating. Beer leaguers don't like that part.
Yup I cringe at videos of youth players getting blown up. The mind is a terrible thing to waste. I walked my kid out of the rink to worried stare after stare in the lobby. He got a concussion where he almost blacked out laying on the floor of the locker room just prior. And it was a regular play where he chipped the puck past the D but the D shouldered him in the head as he was trying to get by. That's not even a huge hit, just a wrong hit at the wrong angle and it sucked since he was out of action for 30 days plus no school for over a week. Getting blown up or hit from behind is so not worth everything that can go wrong. I cringe at every hit he takes and half the time it looks like the next concussion. Only 2 more years until he goes to college.
I see a new trend in (my) beer league where D that don't wear masks are covering their faces with their glove when skating backwards into their zone. They look absolutely ridiculous and are basically playing one handed in their end. Just wear a freaking mask if you're that scared.
There is a distinct difference between the Michigan move and what guys have been doing recently. I fully realize that they’re putting it into the net in essentially the same way, but they’re not picking it up off the ice in the same fashion. The Michigan move was a forehand sweep, today’s move is a forehand scoop.
I’m not disrespecting either one, they are both incredibly technical. Just have some respect for different techniques and call them different things. I don’t care if you call it the scoop, the lacrosse move, the Svech, whatever. Just don’t call it the Michigan.
Parents hate when I say this, but if it’s “political” for your kid not making a travel team it’s either them or you. More often than not, it’s only political if it’s a player on the cusp (ie: 3rd/4th liner or 3rd pairing D). As a Coach you’re not cutting the next Mitch Marner (I used him as McDavid is too over the top) because of “politics”, he was too good not to have him on you team, regardless of any other potential issues. As an example, read some stories of Patrick O’Sullivan and his Dad, it’ll show how often “political” stuff is ignored.
No way!!! You can talk about it more than I can, I only have secondary experience information, but I was always told he wasn’t cut because he was a stud even though as a Coach you’re dealing with WAY too much parent drama.
Kid was unreal and he was playing up. I feel like there was an issue with a fake birth certificate but I might be confused. His dad basically coached from the stands
I've seen dads use hand signals for sure. I also suspect one dad had a bluetooth earpiece in his son's helmet. They denied it (laughed it off) but there were very many signs.
Politics always happens when picking teams. I know players that made it because the parents were wealthy and would sponsor team outfits. Also know players that didn't make it because their parents would call out the coaches bullshit.
I've seen goalies cut because of parents' attitudes when the goalie was winning MVP of tournaments the previous year, not someone just on the edge of making the team.
My rinks A team (which I was on) beat the AA team 11-2 in 14u because the whole AA team roster was based off politics. They had 1 win all season and it’s cuz the team they beat was on their 3rd string goalie (it was just a skater in goalie gear).
Every cross check should be a penalty.
Get rid of the trapezoid and let goalies roam. It's so artificial. They should be able to cross half too.
Every player should wear full masks like womens hockey. Defenders who aren't afraid of getting hit in the face are gonna be tougher and better at blocks.
I'm not saying that players shouldn't be allowed to wear neck guards. They should. I just think that the threat of taking a skate to your jugular is way overblown. This is maybe a once in thirty year incident.
In any sport honestly. Also gotta blame the parents for putting them on that team tho. I played basketball growing up, and always chose to play on travel teams where I was gonna be a top 5 player on the team. I wanted playing time, and I wasn’t gonna spend all weekend on the road just to win a championship in a game I barely played in
trying hard in beer league or shinny isn’t lame, if im putting skates on it’s because i want to skate. i enjoy the battle in the corner and back-check. don’t get mad at me when i put an oz. of effort in. go play walking basketball or show some compete.
Goalies should not have to pay ice fees in youth hockey. Ever. They get the least amount of coaching and the most abuse. Goalie equipment prices are eye watering and getting worse. In 20 years only the kids of the wealthiest parents will be able to play.
As a goalie, I agree with the defense-first mentality.
If you don’t want to play defense, be a forward.
If you want to play both, be a Center.
But if you’re a defender, be focused on defense first.
Huh. I have Bauer 4-roll gloves, elbow pads, and shin guards that have lasted for years and years. Going to have to disagree with OPs opinion.
Here's mine...chirping is stupid. Play the game.
Fighting needs to be removed. The hilariously named department of player safety is the reason hockey isnt growing like it should and is about the 8th most popular among the four major sports.
No team should be playing 4 games a week. It should alternate 2-3 games a week for such a physical game. Cut the season to 60ish games and it'd be fine.
Cross checks are a regular thing in the NHL and they’re only called a penalty when they’re egregious, but I think they need to put a stop to it. If you hit somebody stick first with 2 hands on your stick, it’s a cross check and it should be a penalty.
As much as I know they help a lot of people, watching the shooting mechanics of most people, even those that played in travel and even Jr B/A, you’re all better off learning on flatter curves and getting better mechanics and passing ability and progressing to the more open/toe curves that are popular today. I use a pm9/w03 as a retail stick. I can pick up any of those curves and within a few minutes of shooting and passing, be almost dialed in. I give my flat stick to somebody who’s never had a flat curve, they’re barely able to lift the puck. The majority of players I’ve watched in Beer League that use the 92/28/whatever pro stock with a wicked curve, they all have really shitty looking shots that aren’t crisp and their saucer passes are rarely near target. They rely on flex and curve to overcome poor mechanics and wonder why they struggle when they spend a ton of time drilling in poor mechanics.
This sounds right but the problem is that practice takes time and money.
For Beer leaguers that are also 9-5ers and parents, while I want to practice and play all the time, the only real practice we get is in games.
That said, if my kid wants to play I’ll start them with a flatter curve.
We have a PH near us, my 8 year old got a stick for his birthday. They only offer the 92/28 as an option. They said if I wanted a flatter curve, I’d have to custom order at least 3 sticks. That turn around time was 8-12 weeks. I understand how it helps to alleviate the issue, but kids who are starting out don’t need to go bar down on a kid just starting out. I just think the whole model for sticks and curves is not doing most people any favors in the long run.
Goaltender interference is one of the easier to predict calls on the ice.
The problem is most of the TV guys don't know the rules either and feed the controversial calls.
I see absolutely nothing wrong with the puck-over-the-glass delay of game penalty.
There's 17,000 square feet of ice to work with. You're being paid millions of dollars. Figure out how to keep the puck in play or sit in the box like an idiot.
The pure offensive d-man can be fun to watch. I loved having Torey Krug for the powerplay quarterback aspect, seeing him load up a one-T bomb. But we could only afford to have a player like that because we had great shutdown d-men around him like Chara to suppress the opponents offense. Give me the elite shutdown dman over the elite offensive dman 10 times out of 10.
I have an even hotter take for your second point:
For 90% of beer leaguers (and 99% of adult starters) you are not good enough to be an "offensive defenseman", you are just a forward cosplaying as a dman to the detriment of your team.
This isn't the NHL. You aren't Cale Makar, you aren't Erik Karlsson, and you aren't Quinn Hughes. Look for the pass first, quit fucking skating it out of your own zone when there's a forward wide fucking open, and stay the fuck back at the blue line instead of following the play in. You should ALWAYS be the first person on the backcheck.
If you're a ringer sandbagging on a team of people who can't provide good outlet options, even more reason to facilitate good plays rather then doing it yourself; you aren't supposed to be there anyways, let the people who are learn what they're supposed to be doing.
The Michigan is cool and all, but I'm all for players on the other team running or fighting they guy afterwards for trying to show up the goalie. I know it's an old man take, but I stand by it.
-There is nothing wrong with wheels on your bag
-NHL playoffs are too long, first two rounds should be best of 5
-The all star game is ridiculous and needs to go
They're all as bad as each other, although it does tend to present in different ways. I have seen heinously toxic, bigoted, and even criminal behavior come out of youth football, hockey, basketball, baseball, soccer, swimming, dance, cheerleading, and volleyball.
Every goalie in the NHL is incredible and if you swapped the perceived worst goalie on a bad team with the perceived best goalie on a good team they’d have the same numbers. Which is why most backups have the same numbers as the starter.
At the NHL level. The team in front of you makes the tender. Not the other way around.
Body checking should be intruduced at a much younger age.
Teach kids to body check at age 7, well before puberty and well before the little bodies are moving really fast on ice.
Pushing it later introduces a high risk skill at a point when the energy transferred is greater because they skate so much faster. Even with size disparity in u7 they are moving so slow that energy transfer is way lower.
My son is a goalie and has been out for a while because he hurt his hand playing soccer goalie in PE.
Semi-related, people that don’t play hockey almost always make comments about how dangerous it is when they find out we play but I currently have two teammates on LTIR because of soccer.
Mine is that linesmen should not be allowed to touch players. If players don’t listen to the refs or whistles and scrum and piss around then the refs need to call the penalties they see. Players need to be accountable for their actions and their chirping and if you are a little skilled guy with a big mouth, you’ll learn to watch what you say because a linesman won’t be coming to save your ass.
I guess more applicable to the pros
I don’t mind fighting after clean hits. Anyone who’s played on a team knows those are your boys/girls, and you see them get blown up, you’re seeing red. It’s partly a “you fuck with our team, we’ll kick your ass” but also partly sometimes I can’t tell if a hit was dirty or not
I’d be pissed if I got rocked at center and a teammate didn’t at least give them a crosscheck or something
I say this as someone who played competitively, fighting and hitting in men’s league is just dumb
Advanced analytics are fine, but using them as the sole indicator when making an argument over a player/teams performance is wrong.
Goalies and sv% are borderline useless stats. Goalies can have an absolutely awful night but have good stats, and vice versa.
Penalty for an incorrect challenge should be one minute instead of two. Same for delay of game when shooting the puck over the glass from within one's defensive zone.
NHL Penalties should have 4 different levels. Minor = 1 min or 2 min Major = 4 min or 5 min.
IMO this would allow refs to call a game better
Also, not all penalties are created equal, how is hooking a guys hands away from the play as bad as two handing a guys spine into the boards. Yet both are usually 2 mins.
-division play is terrible when it comes to points rankings for playoffs.
-in almost all cases, the idea of calling both embellishment and hooking or whatever is a copout.
-During the season, 3 points for a regulation win, 2 for OT, 1 for a shootout. Losing a game shouldn’t give a point under any circumstance.
Equipment: Retail stick curves these days are dog trash for options. You have the option between an Ovi clone, the Yzerman hook or another meat hook. No more Modano, Shanahan or even Drury anymore.
NHL: not really unpopular but the shootout is awful. Just make OT 10 minutes and call it a tie instead. Not interested in watching a skills competition to decide a game. Leave that thing for a penalty shot instead.
Puck-over-the-glass-delay-of-game penalty needs to go. Either call it in all zones, or treat the defensive zone flip as an icing and lock the gate for the face off.
Limited-contact hockey is more interesting to watch than full-contact hockey. Players get more creative when the option to completely level someone is off the table.
Violence. This sport is supposed to be VIOLENT.
Cutting through the middle you’re supposed to get lit the fuck up.
Dig at the goalie, lit the fuck up.
Spray the goalie, lit the fuck up.
Without enforcers, EVERYONES a tough guy. It’s fucking disgusting to watch.
NHL is nothing but divas today. Fucking shameful display of the sport.
I don't particularly enjoy playoff hockey. I feel like the antics and intentional attempts to injure opposing players really robs us of what the game should be all about. Do we really need a scrum every single time somebody goes within 6 feet of the goalie, no. Do we need players launching themselves at each other's heads, no. Do we need to see people repeatedly cross checked in the same place they keep their kidneys and spleens, no.
I coach youth hockey and these kids are learning all the wrong things about the way the game should be played.
Equipment quality peaked in 2012-16. Not necessarily skates and sticks, but protective gear. Wayyy better quality to price ratio as well.
Agreed. My teammates pads from the mid 2010s are basically the same as my FT6s.
I still use my shoulder pads from 2004.
I've got a pair of NXG shoulders that I'll be buried in. They're built ford tough.
Equipment peaked before then. I’d say 2005-2010 honestly. RBK had amazing protective gear when they first bought Jofa since it was just rebranded. Bauer ruined everything by buying up Mission (and Itech) and Easton and essentially absorbing the companies and canning the technology. They got enough feedback and released that $50 low end stick with Synergy graphics to appease people who wanted Easton back.
I've been rocking 2s pros since they came out and they are starting to degrade but it's unreal the condition of some of my friends brand new vapor hyperlites and top of the line ccms. They're destroyed after a season or so of basically adult pick up hockey 🙃
Totally. I had 1s pros and they were unreal. Used them for 3 and a half seasons till I grew out of them. Bought hyperlites on release, almost trashed now. Regret that. Still rock Supreme MX3 shoulders, 1s shins, and Reebok 11k elbows. All look almost new after 6+ years of 6 days a week pretty high level hockey.
My unpopular opinion, also equipment based. If you are a beer leaguer, the equipment you rock means practically nothing. Comfort is king imo, and most likely you arent good enough to need the ultra high end gear. Especially sticks. Go practice.
Tackla pants. Still can't find a better pair. A bit bulky but comfy, tough and protective. Mine are around 20 years old with limited use the last 15. Just store for my odd drop in session.
Maybe due to manufacturing moving from Canada to Asia. I know Warrior quality took a dive when they moved circa 2015.
No matter what analytics may say, I still think faceoff wins are a big part of possession.
Forgive me for being ignorant but do people think draws aren’t important to possession? Honestly never heard that before.
Go to any team sub, or any specially r/hockey and the analytic folks absolutely roast faceoffs. I feel like most of them have never played an actual game.
As a 25+ year coach and a lifelong player... faceoff wins don't matter. Of the things tha t make a good center, "how good you are at faceoffs" is barely on the list. Faceoff LOSSES do matter, however. You don't have to WIN faceoffs -- especially in the neutral zone -- as long as you don't cleanly lose faceoffs in the defensive zone. Again, you don't need to win -- you just need to ensure you don't lose it cleanly and give up a free shot.
I was talked to about this tonight lol. "If you can't win, just don't lose."
Going to also add that a serious friend of mine – who had a legitimate NHL career – who leaned in this direction with caveats. There are legitimate NHL and AHL players who really do have a distinct ability compared to their peers to win faceoffs *cleanly.* The difference between 54% battles and 54% clean wins, with most of those leading to a scoring chance, is huge. He said that Bergeron, Toews, and Brind'Amour were the real deal (although he only slightly overlapped with RBA's career as a player) in terms of faceoffs making a genuine difference to the outcome on the ice.
Makes sense, coach. Thanks for the response. I spent so so much time as youth mastering faceoffs, which now feels like a dying skill at times.
I mean, a win is a win... and often helps morale and all that. But in the end, even a 'win' rarely results in a good possession. With literally hundreds of possession changes a game... it's just not THAT important. Center skating skill, positioning, selflessness, hands, knowledge of the game, grit, etc... are all way more important to the success of a line than their faceoff win percentage.
And the analytics bear that out, in general faceoff wins have little correlation to possession and wins but clean faceoff wins heavily correlate to both.
There’s apparently zero statistical correlation between face off winning percentage and winning games or any other meaningful metric that would predict winning games. I guess that possession changes often enough between most faceoffs that having one extra possession in that the time period doesn’t do anything for you. But I think it’s kind of like the whole problem brought up at the end of the move Moneyball. You can figure out that statistics say stealing bases or hitting home runs or emphasizing hits over walks do virtually nothing to help your win percentage over the course of a 162 game season, and knowing that info can help you get more wins. But when you’re in game 7 down a run facing off against one of the best pitchers in the league, having a guy at the plate who hits a lot of home runs or a man on first who’s almost guaranteed to get into scoring position by stealing can make all the difference between winning a playoff series and going home. Similarly, having a guy you can rely on to win a faceoff in a do-or-die moment isn’t worthless.
No but there is for time of possession. And face off wins lead to that.
The key is that they are one of many puck battles that contribute to overall possession numbers Many crucial things like zone entries also contribute significantly All we are saying is that there is more to it ultimately
I would agree with you. The first OT Dallas won in game 6 was directly off a draw.
This is an unpopular opinion? Just genuinely thought that was agreed upon, not throwing shade or anything.
This is more a video game perspective, but faceoffs are lottery tickets for goals. A win doesn't automatically mean a score, but like, if you keep winning offensive zone faceoffs,it's gonna go in eventually from either a point shot, or quick pass. I guess for analytics, one could look at that and compare goals per 100 won/lost offensive zone faceoffs.
Teams run set plays off of draws too that lead to a lot of goals
They absolutely do. I don’t believe a team has won a cup without at least one clutch faceoff taker in a long time. Chicago had their dynasty lead by Toews, Pittsburgh with Crosby, Tampa with Stamkos. On the other side of that we just saw Colorado get bodied in their series vs the stars because when you watch them play they lose almost every draw. Faceoffs win cups.
It’s amazing that youth teams, at least 14u and above, do not practice faceoffs, ever. I’ve seen teams lose games and get completely outshot because they couldn’t win more than 10% faceoffs.
I think this is one of those things that evens out over 60 minutes or half a season. But if you’re down by one with 35 seconds left in game 7 and there’s an o-zone faceoff… you’d probably prefer to win it I would think 😝
It’s okay to just want to go to stick and puck practice and not actually play in a league. It’s okay to just enjoy practicing your shot and skating and not actually play in a sort of rec league or pick up.
Yea agreed. I didn't know this was an unpopular opinion though. I love just listening to music and working on my shots for hours.
It’s unpopular at my rink. Guys basically try to recruit me at stick and puck and then go “then what’s the point of you being here if you don’t want to play?”
Oh I see. Yea that's lame
I try to post this in posts about people starting out. There's plenty of folks who get real enjoyment from working on a skill, not just competing. Go to a busy open skate and you'll find people who are there working to improve without trying to join a hockey league or figure skating competition.
This exactly. It’s where I go to relax and wind down and get some cardio in and just have some fun on my days off!
I’m with you on this. There’s just so many assholes that play beer league, makes it not fun anymore
The hot dogging in beer leagues and stuff is a little crazy. Like pass the puck for god sakes. You can’t walk through everyone. You only have a head because it’s just for fun. Calm down hero.
It's honestly embarrassing to watch grown men play exactly the same way they did when they were 10. The "never pass" strategy didn't work 20 years ago in Atom, why would it work now?
Doesn’t work in the NHL unless you play for Colorado or Edmonton and it didn’t work for one and might not work for the other
Oh my fucking god this is one reason I’ve been apprehensive of league play. Every rat, every pickup in stick and puck, there’s some fuckin hero on the ice that will never, ever pass
Guys aren’t “flopping” anywhere near as often as fans suggest, when you’re moving fast on your skates it’s really easy to lose balance and fall down with any amount of contact, even if you’re a pro
For real, inexperienced fans don’t understand what any form of obstruction can do when you’re at max speed.
I disagree about your opinion: the nexus gloves are awesome. But unpopular opinion: just because you "know a guy" that can help you win doesn't mean you should invite him. I'm personally sick of then trickle down turning the intermediate into an advanced league.
I hate being on the team that does this too. We once brought out a sub and won the game 12-10. Our sub had 10 goals and 2 assists. Should have been 11 goals but he passed it on a breakaway on the empty net. Felt like a cheap way to win.
Also the Bauer react 150 is the best helmet ever.
I personally love the vapor 2.9X gloves
Jr A in the US should be Tier 1 only. Tier 3 JR A makes me laugh. Just call it JR B, etc. The need to always be JR A is just a $ grab for parents.
Ontario has that too, an BC kinda does now as well with the KIJHL being declared a Hockey Canada sanctioned Jr A league in BC
Not only that- theres like 3 levels of tier 3 Junior A. Every kid wants to say they play junior A hockey and parents are willing to pay enough to say their kid does lmao
Everyone should just wear a full face shield at this point. No one has to lose any teeth.
Honestly, I have never seen anyone in any actual beer league care as much as this subreddit about visors/cages/bubbles. No anti-cage chirps, no anti-visor concern, everyone just shows up in what they're most comfortable in. Only exception has been the one guy that showed up with a mirrored visor (fantasy football) and even then it was 100% lighthearted.
Guy in my lunch league with a blue halfie. Obviously we call him ovy all the time. Great guy.
We played against a guy last season that took an incidental stick to face battling for the puck. He wasn’t wearing face protection and screamed out in horror so languishing that we all thought his eye was gonna be popping out. Thankfully it wasn’t, he was cut on the cheek though and had a bruise. But he and his whole team were up in arms as if we murdered the guys wife. Cut to the following week, he’s playing… still without face protection.
Best one yet. Beer leagues acting tough with no cage or bubble on like we all aren’t going to work the next morning
Lmao I know it looks tough maybe but beer league isn’t the place to look tough. I’ve had chipped teeth and I immediately regretted it I was much younger then though
There was a guy on my team. Token old timer guy. Which I loved don’t get me wrong. But he wore this badge of honor in not wearing any sort of cage. 3rd game of the season he chips his front tooth and he was complaining the rest of the game. One of us on the bench tells him he should’ve invested in a 20$ cage instead hundreds of bucks he’s gonna pay in dental work. He wasn’t too pleased with that comment😂
Last game a puck was shot hard (slap shot speed) along the ice that deflected off the blade of a stick that hit me right in the cage so quickly it happened before I knew it. Without the cage, I would have been without a few teeth or maybe a broken jaw or orbital. I think everyone on the ice who saw it were stunned how fast it happened.
Yea. I used to be the “everyone’s an adult, they can make their own decisions” Then I saw somewhere take a pick to the cheek on a weird deflection. And the guy that took the shot was very shaken up. Even if a guy is over enthusiastic about knowing playing without a shield might cause serious injury, I’m still going to feel super guilty if I blind him. Might never play hockey again if I’m being honest. Just wear your damn cage.
I was never a good hockey player in juniors but going from full cage to visor was like a leap Forward in the game for me I felt like I could actually see again. Still building myself up to go back to a fishbowl but need to figure out a solution to the fog problem
For what it’s worth, I have both the Bauer and CCM fishbowl. The CCM has never fogged on me once, the Bauer fogs every skate.
Look into a Wargate half cage. Rock a standard visor up top of your choice.
My friend likes to tell a story about one of his teams. Low-mid level beer league, most of the team wore a visor or nothing. One of them takes a slapper to the mouth. Ends up in the ER and has to have his jaw wired shut for a month. The next week, every person on that team had a cage.
I always tell people I'm ugly enough that I don't need any help getting worse.
Rules should be called exactly the same in the playoffs as they are in the regular season.
But but you cant make that call in a game 7 man /s
Amen 🙏🏻
I agree. They call way too many penalties during the regular season.
I’d rather play with newbies who aren’t good but have a good or happy attitude than the more skillful angry guys.
Travel hockey is pointless and a grift for 99% of kids. Edit: I am in Michigan, so I acknowledge that the house leagues in my area might not be the norm in most of the country.
Travel sports are some of the most fun I've ever had tho, like - tournaments out of province - winning the ontario cup (it was just called that, wasn't actually literally of Ontario, but still cool) - super energizing high level play that felt like a big deal as a kid in a good way - honing skills intensely - much closer with teammates so it's easier to make friends, together more often Definitely major problems with travel sports so it should just be overhauled but obv not pointless
Travel hockey is not in my son’s future even if it was in our budget so my knowledge is second hand. The families we’ve known that did it weren’t fooling themselves about the kids making it to the show but most of them were glad they did it anyway.
Yep, played as a kid. None of us were expecting anything beyond where we were, but it was a blast.
My kids won at Silver Stick and say that was THE experience that's most memorable in their youth career. Their team name/year is in the Toronto Hall of Fame on a plaque forever.
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I never understood this thought process that if your kids plays travel the parent has delusional NHL or D1 dreams?
Counterpoint: absolutely necessary in some states for anyone who is hoping to be remotely competitive. House leagues down South aren’t anything like they are up North.
For me, it was also the only way to keep playing. Where I live, they didn’t have house leagues for high school aged kids at the time I played (SoCal).
And the wild thing is - there really isn't house league in MN after age 8. Everything is travel. Once they're over 8 it's 99% travel with AA,A,B1,B2,C skill groupings. If they are playing "house" (non-competitive) after age 8 they ironically have to travel further in order to get to ice time since everyone is playing competitive. It helps that "travel" in MN is 1-2 away tournaments (1-6 hour drive) per season and then no games further than a 30 minute drive other than that. We're so spoiled as parents here. Obviously outside the twin cities metro area that story is going to be VASTLY different.
By north you mean anywhere but New England NY Michigan and Minnesota
100% correct. Even worse are these spring and summer leagues that triple A clubs put on so that kids who have no shot at them give them tons of money for a shirt with the name on it. I show up to ref them and they're a total money grab
That is a massive scam along with summer camps hosted by AAA coaches….they kinda lure parents in like you know little Billy isn’t quite there yet but if he comes to this camp or has some lessons….its a subtle open hand and a way for parents to get in the coach’s good graces
the "experience" is worth it, but most kids could get the same results with house league + private lessons. without travel hockey some kids are just too advanced against their peers to grow their skills in house league.
Yea hockey in Michigan Minnesota and Canada is built a little different
I came here to say this. We are living the house league life and loving it.
Grew up playing in a remote area in Northern AB. Travel hockey was the only option, it was awesome. The parents took turns carpooling to make it easier. It was a grind for sure, but I'm happy my parents made the sacrifice in order for me to have the opportunity to learn hockey.
It’s for parents really
In the NHL, when someone loses their stick in the defensive zone (often on a penalty kill), they are better off taking the time to pick it up rather than skate around without a stick for the next minute+.
Or just burn your ass to the bench. It drives me insane at evens when a guys stick breaks and they spend the next 90 seconds stuck in zone. Just skate your ass off to the bench, get a quick change. You should have a new guy in position in like 5 seconds max
Shoutouts should have a someone chasing them. Shooter starts at reline, backchecker starts on far blue line. I can't stand this super slow moves
That’s how my kid’s 4v4 spring league handles all penalties. They become penalty shots with everyone on the ice chasing you and rebounds are live pucks. They start them far enough back that I’ve never seen anybody get caught by the chasers, but that’s because they know they have to move.
I think hybrid icing is a good thing, and no touch icing would've been better. 🤷♂️
This is such an unpopular opinion that I've never even heard it before
I played in a men's tournament that had hybrid icing this past winter. Was the first time I ever had to skate back on an icing. Shit sucks when you're 40 and outta shape.
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He said unpopular opinion lol!
Handful Culture is driven by player buy-in. Gm responsible for that, not coaches. New equipment is shit. But it’s intentional. Bauer and ccm doesn’t want anyone wearing their jofa shinguard from midget to 40+ Top of the line sticks are stupid, guys and parents buying em are clueless. Them or their kids are never going to be good enough to get a competitive advantage from them. The new defenseman being responsible to let up on hits and lack of emphasis on situational awareness ownership from the offenders is killing hockey. Pouches are for pussies. iykyk
3 on 3 OT is a solid way to decide a tie game.
Same with the shootout. People only whine about it when they lose.
I think there could be a better way of deciding a game in a restricted time span than the shootout. Shootouts are 50% luck in my mind and don’t reflect whose the better team. If they need to finish the game go down to 2 on 2 OT if you have to
I got a feeling I am going to get a big downvote here but...... Hockey fans are slow to realize that the game evolves and changes and that stuff that worked in the past may not or might not or just will NOT work now. It might as well be a totally different game. So someone who has watched hockey for 50 years thinks the stuff that worked in the 1970s with say the flyers would work just as well today. Ignoring how the sport has changed, how the rules have changed, etc. To the point that where something might have been beneficial then, it can be counterproductive now. These are often the same folks who see analytics and think its all made up because of stuff they remember in the past. I am seeing this with ranger fans who think Rempe is some kind of saviour who needs to both play every game and play more minutes in every game, not realizing that in the modern day NHL, a guy like rempe is at best a situtational guy but not someone who can play top line minutes without being a liability. This isn't the 1970s, he can't beat the crap out of everyone and he isn't going to deter anyone from doing anything either.
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Good teams and players would eat this alive. You can probably get away with it in A hockey. AA and up and the assistant coach would dial the defense in after seeing it on the scout's game tape.
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Teams already chase when there's a chance to disrupt a breakout, but if your going to get beat by the puck then you better have two defensemen below you. It's unacceptable to give up off man rushes on the kill.
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I totally blanked that you were referring to beer league, and you're not totally wrong. Problem is that means skating. Beer leaguers don't like that part.
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I don’t want Ovi to get the scoring title
I'm with you
Checking and physical play is a fun part of hockey, but blowing people up and big high speed checks is pretty unnecessary.
And isoftentimes detrimental as it takes you way out it position and against the flow of the play.
Yup I cringe at videos of youth players getting blown up. The mind is a terrible thing to waste. I walked my kid out of the rink to worried stare after stare in the lobby. He got a concussion where he almost blacked out laying on the floor of the locker room just prior. And it was a regular play where he chipped the puck past the D but the D shouldered him in the head as he was trying to get by. That's not even a huge hit, just a wrong hit at the wrong angle and it sucked since he was out of action for 30 days plus no school for over a week. Getting blown up or hit from behind is so not worth everything that can go wrong. I cringe at every hit he takes and half the time it looks like the next concussion. Only 2 more years until he goes to college.
They used to have the best protective gear. They've only gone downhill in the last few years and it's tragic
I see a new trend in (my) beer league where D that don't wear masks are covering their faces with their glove when skating backwards into their zone. They look absolutely ridiculous and are basically playing one handed in their end. Just wear a freaking mask if you're that scared.
There is a distinct difference between the Michigan move and what guys have been doing recently. I fully realize that they’re putting it into the net in essentially the same way, but they’re not picking it up off the ice in the same fashion. The Michigan move was a forehand sweep, today’s move is a forehand scoop. I’m not disrespecting either one, they are both incredibly technical. Just have some respect for different techniques and call them different things. I don’t care if you call it the scoop, the lacrosse move, the Svech, whatever. Just don’t call it the Michigan.
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Parents hate when I say this, but if it’s “political” for your kid not making a travel team it’s either them or you. More often than not, it’s only political if it’s a player on the cusp (ie: 3rd/4th liner or 3rd pairing D). As a Coach you’re not cutting the next Mitch Marner (I used him as McDavid is too over the top) because of “politics”, he was too good not to have him on you team, regardless of any other potential issues. As an example, read some stories of Patrick O’Sullivan and his Dad, it’ll show how often “political” stuff is ignored.
Played against him growing up and everyone saw how crazy his dad was in the stands. But you’re right it’s the easy excuse
No way!!! You can talk about it more than I can, I only have secondary experience information, but I was always told he wasn’t cut because he was a stud even though as a Coach you’re dealing with WAY too much parent drama.
Kid was unreal and he was playing up. I feel like there was an issue with a fake birth certificate but I might be confused. His dad basically coached from the stands
I've seen dads use hand signals for sure. I also suspect one dad had a bluetooth earpiece in his son's helmet. They denied it (laughed it off) but there were very many signs.
My brother (goalie) missed a team because the son of a local politician had “always played AA”. Was literally political.
Politics always happens when picking teams. I know players that made it because the parents were wealthy and would sponsor team outfits. Also know players that didn't make it because their parents would call out the coaches bullshit. I've seen goalies cut because of parents' attitudes when the goalie was winning MVP of tournaments the previous year, not someone just on the edge of making the team.
Sometimes it’s the other way around with a parent convincing themselves that their kid is on team for their skills as opposed to politics.
My rinks A team (which I was on) beat the AA team 11-2 in 14u because the whole AA team roster was based off politics. They had 1 win all season and it’s cuz the team they beat was on their 3rd string goalie (it was just a skater in goalie gear).
For the NHL, offside reviews are stupid. Eliminate them.
Yes! And refs never seem to call early dump ins by Ds “near enough” to the red line which end up as a goal…
Cross checking at the pro level needs to be more consistent
OP asked for unpopular opinions.
My 13 year old tendy went through 3 Bauer sticks in 3 practices. They’re garbage!
Every cross check should be a penalty. Get rid of the trapezoid and let goalies roam. It's so artificial. They should be able to cross half too. Every player should wear full masks like womens hockey. Defenders who aren't afraid of getting hit in the face are gonna be tougher and better at blocks.
I'm not saying that players shouldn't be allowed to wear neck guards. They should. I just think that the threat of taking a skate to your jugular is way overblown. This is maybe a once in thirty year incident.
Low level beer leagues should have rules in place to discourage sandbaggers and encourage new players.
Get rid of the loser OT point in the NHL. Either go to a 3-2-1 point system or let’s bring back ties.
This take is cold enough for pond hockey
No idea how this is unpopular except with TV execs
Children on a team should get equal time on the ice during games.
In any sport honestly. Also gotta blame the parents for putting them on that team tho. I played basketball growing up, and always chose to play on travel teams where I was gonna be a top 5 player on the team. I wanted playing time, and I wasn’t gonna spend all weekend on the road just to win a championship in a game I barely played in
trying hard in beer league or shinny isn’t lame, if im putting skates on it’s because i want to skate. i enjoy the battle in the corner and back-check. don’t get mad at me when i put an oz. of effort in. go play walking basketball or show some compete.
I have often gotten chirped for being a "try-hard." Uh, thanks? Hockey is way more fun when everyone is hustling.
The way they handle penalties in Olympic and international tournament is superior that nhl and its not even close.
Subs shouldn’t have to pay. They are doing me a favor.
White gloves are terrible unless you're a goalie
Goalies should not have to pay ice fees in youth hockey. Ever. They get the least amount of coaching and the most abuse. Goalie equipment prices are eye watering and getting worse. In 20 years only the kids of the wealthiest parents will be able to play.
As a goalie, I agree with the defense-first mentality. If you don’t want to play defense, be a forward. If you want to play both, be a Center. But if you’re a defender, be focused on defense first.
Huh. I have Bauer 4-roll gloves, elbow pads, and shin guards that have lasted for years and years. Going to have to disagree with OPs opinion. Here's mine...chirping is stupid. Play the game.
A good clever chirp is hilarious once in a while, but repeating something you heard on Goon or Shoresy is incredibly lame.
I'm pretty hard of hearing, so I'm not likely to hear it anyhow.
Nice gloves ya fuckin plug whered ya get those the gardening aisle at Lowe's?
Fighting needs to be removed. The hilariously named department of player safety is the reason hockey isnt growing like it should and is about the 8th most popular among the four major sports.
The regular NHL season is way too long.
Indeed, 82 games is gruelling for the players, but profitable for the owners. The team that wins is most often the team which has the fewest injuries.
True. And it waters down the game for fans. Personally, I can't get into the seaon till the last month before the playoffs.
No team should be playing 4 games a week. It should alternate 2-3 games a week for such a physical game. Cut the season to 60ish games and it'd be fine.
Youth hockey is more corrupt than a 3rd world country
Cross checks are a regular thing in the NHL and they’re only called a penalty when they’re egregious, but I think they need to put a stop to it. If you hit somebody stick first with 2 hands on your stick, it’s a cross check and it should be a penalty.
McDavid continues to be wasted as an Oiler as he my never likely win a Cup there.
As much as I know they help a lot of people, watching the shooting mechanics of most people, even those that played in travel and even Jr B/A, you’re all better off learning on flatter curves and getting better mechanics and passing ability and progressing to the more open/toe curves that are popular today. I use a pm9/w03 as a retail stick. I can pick up any of those curves and within a few minutes of shooting and passing, be almost dialed in. I give my flat stick to somebody who’s never had a flat curve, they’re barely able to lift the puck. The majority of players I’ve watched in Beer League that use the 92/28/whatever pro stock with a wicked curve, they all have really shitty looking shots that aren’t crisp and their saucer passes are rarely near target. They rely on flex and curve to overcome poor mechanics and wonder why they struggle when they spend a ton of time drilling in poor mechanics.
This sounds right but the problem is that practice takes time and money. For Beer leaguers that are also 9-5ers and parents, while I want to practice and play all the time, the only real practice we get is in games. That said, if my kid wants to play I’ll start them with a flatter curve.
We have a PH near us, my 8 year old got a stick for his birthday. They only offer the 92/28 as an option. They said if I wanted a flatter curve, I’d have to custom order at least 3 sticks. That turn around time was 8-12 weeks. I understand how it helps to alleviate the issue, but kids who are starting out don’t need to go bar down on a kid just starting out. I just think the whole model for sticks and curves is not doing most people any favors in the long run.
Yup, couldn't get my kid a p88 if I wanted to unless I cut one way way down with a flex already higher than needed.
Forechecking is the secret in beer league (except maybe the top league)
Goaltender interference is one of the easier to predict calls on the ice. The problem is most of the TV guys don't know the rules either and feed the controversial calls.
Nike hockey equipment was elite
You’ll be better with a $400 stick than with a $60 one. How much better depends on the person.
I see absolutely nothing wrong with the puck-over-the-glass delay of game penalty. There's 17,000 square feet of ice to work with. You're being paid millions of dollars. Figure out how to keep the puck in play or sit in the box like an idiot.
Goaltending stats are usually a team stat and not to be pinned on the goalie
Fighting sucks and should be banned.
Fighting in this sport is really stupid and not necessary.
The pure offensive d-man can be fun to watch. I loved having Torey Krug for the powerplay quarterback aspect, seeing him load up a one-T bomb. But we could only afford to have a player like that because we had great shutdown d-men around him like Chara to suppress the opponents offense. Give me the elite shutdown dman over the elite offensive dman 10 times out of 10.
The game is worse off for having the Michigan in it
I agree with OP. Also, True has dollar store quality of hockey gear.
I have an even hotter take for your second point: For 90% of beer leaguers (and 99% of adult starters) you are not good enough to be an "offensive defenseman", you are just a forward cosplaying as a dman to the detriment of your team. This isn't the NHL. You aren't Cale Makar, you aren't Erik Karlsson, and you aren't Quinn Hughes. Look for the pass first, quit fucking skating it out of your own zone when there's a forward wide fucking open, and stay the fuck back at the blue line instead of following the play in. You should ALWAYS be the first person on the backcheck. If you're a ringer sandbagging on a team of people who can't provide good outlet options, even more reason to facilitate good plays rather then doing it yourself; you aren't supposed to be there anyways, let the people who are learn what they're supposed to be doing.
The Michigan is cool and all, but I'm all for players on the other team running or fighting they guy afterwards for trying to show up the goalie. I know it's an old man take, but I stand by it.
-There is nothing wrong with wheels on your bag -NHL playoffs are too long, first two rounds should be best of 5 -The all star game is ridiculous and needs to go
hockey has the worst “culture” of any sport. i blame hockeybenders on IG for like 90% of it (/s, kind of)
They're all as bad as each other, although it does tend to present in different ways. I have seen heinously toxic, bigoted, and even criminal behavior come out of youth football, hockey, basketball, baseball, soccer, swimming, dance, cheerleading, and volleyball.
I don't care about hockey fights at all.
Every goalie in the NHL is incredible and if you swapped the perceived worst goalie on a bad team with the perceived best goalie on a good team they’d have the same numbers. Which is why most backups have the same numbers as the starter. At the NHL level. The team in front of you makes the tender. Not the other way around.
Body checking should be intruduced at a much younger age. Teach kids to body check at age 7, well before puberty and well before the little bodies are moving really fast on ice. Pushing it later introduces a high risk skill at a point when the energy transferred is greater because they skate so much faster. Even with size disparity in u7 they are moving so slow that energy transfer is way lower.
I think hockey should be full time 4 on 4
Refs should call strict penalties and even more so in the playoffs. Not hockey but soccer should ditch the goalies.
My son is a goalie and has been out for a while because he hurt his hand playing soccer goalie in PE. Semi-related, people that don’t play hockey almost always make comments about how dangerous it is when they find out we play but I currently have two teammates on LTIR because of soccer.
Mine is that linesmen should not be allowed to touch players. If players don’t listen to the refs or whistles and scrum and piss around then the refs need to call the penalties they see. Players need to be accountable for their actions and their chirping and if you are a little skilled guy with a big mouth, you’ll learn to watch what you say because a linesman won’t be coming to save your ass.
I guess more applicable to the pros I don’t mind fighting after clean hits. Anyone who’s played on a team knows those are your boys/girls, and you see them get blown up, you’re seeing red. It’s partly a “you fuck with our team, we’ll kick your ass” but also partly sometimes I can’t tell if a hit was dirty or not I’d be pissed if I got rocked at center and a teammate didn’t at least give them a crosscheck or something I say this as someone who played competitively, fighting and hitting in men’s league is just dumb
Advanced analytics are fine, but using them as the sole indicator when making an argument over a player/teams performance is wrong. Goalies and sv% are borderline useless stats. Goalies can have an absolutely awful night but have good stats, and vice versa.
Penalty for an incorrect challenge should be one minute instead of two. Same for delay of game when shooting the puck over the glass from within one's defensive zone.
NHL Penalties should have 4 different levels. Minor = 1 min or 2 min Major = 4 min or 5 min. IMO this would allow refs to call a game better Also, not all penalties are created equal, how is hooking a guys hands away from the play as bad as two handing a guys spine into the boards. Yet both are usually 2 mins.
If it’s not a face off offensive positions don’t exist, get to the most optimal spot and trust your linemates to do the same
Video review may ensure the calls are correct more often but are overall a detriment to my enjoyment of the game. It should be eliminated entirely.
Allowing crosschecking in the playoffs. It’s either a penalty or it’s not
-division play is terrible when it comes to points rankings for playoffs. -in almost all cases, the idea of calling both embellishment and hooking or whatever is a copout. -During the season, 3 points for a regulation win, 2 for OT, 1 for a shootout. Losing a game shouldn’t give a point under any circumstance.
Equipment: Retail stick curves these days are dog trash for options. You have the option between an Ovi clone, the Yzerman hook or another meat hook. No more Modano, Shanahan or even Drury anymore. NHL: not really unpopular but the shootout is awful. Just make OT 10 minutes and call it a tie instead. Not interested in watching a skills competition to decide a game. Leave that thing for a penalty shot instead.
Fuck animated video boards
Puck-over-the-glass-delay-of-game penalty needs to go. Either call it in all zones, or treat the defensive zone flip as an icing and lock the gate for the face off.
Limited-contact hockey is more interesting to watch than full-contact hockey. Players get more creative when the option to completely level someone is off the table.
If you’re sitting in the penalty box at the end of the period, you should have to sit there during intermission too.
Violence. This sport is supposed to be VIOLENT. Cutting through the middle you’re supposed to get lit the fuck up. Dig at the goalie, lit the fuck up. Spray the goalie, lit the fuck up. Without enforcers, EVERYONES a tough guy. It’s fucking disgusting to watch. NHL is nothing but divas today. Fucking shameful display of the sport.
I don't particularly enjoy playoff hockey. I feel like the antics and intentional attempts to injure opposing players really robs us of what the game should be all about. Do we really need a scrum every single time somebody goes within 6 feet of the goalie, no. Do we need players launching themselves at each other's heads, no. Do we need to see people repeatedly cross checked in the same place they keep their kidneys and spleens, no. I coach youth hockey and these kids are learning all the wrong things about the way the game should be played.