Your ice hockey fun begins here!

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Feb 7 24 Update

Feb 7 24 Update

We have a great community of hockey players in the Flint area. 

This quick update covers the Sunday Eclectic Hockey League, Monday Oldtimers and drop-in skates managed on the PerfectSkate.com site. You can build your hockey list and organize skates using PerfectSkate.com

Plus, the weather is turning colder again next week. The Doan’s Winter Classic is planned for Saturday, February 17th. We hope to skate a few times before the tournament, weather permitting. Get on the list to be invited to Doan’s. Simply visit www.Gears.beer and hit the Doan’s link and scroll down to the form to join the list.

January 2024 Hockey Update

January 2024 Hockey Update

Quick update mid January about ice hockey.

In NHL action this week the Edmonton Oilers came back and beat Toronto to continue their 11-game winning streak. Matthews scored for Toronto just seconds into the game, but Edmonton came back thanks to some hard work by McDavid and crew. The Wings have been playing well and face some tough competition this week with Florida and Carolina. The Flyers drama with Cutter Gauthier will soon be forgotten if they continue their strong play. I know the NHL isn’t what it was, but it is still fun to watch!

In Eclectic Hockey League news, we have games scheduled through March 10th and the playoffs will be held March 17th and 24th. All teams will be playing both weeks. The scheduled based on seed is listed in the video. You can find all schedules and stats at hockey.gears.beer

Oldtimers Hockey Club is hosting the Flint Lapeer Oldtimers Hockey Tournament April 5-7. Registration is open for teams or individuals looking for a team. Visit oldtimershockeyclub.com for all the details, including the league scheudle and stats. The Gears Beer Hockey Team is on a heater in the Monday night league. Way to go boys! The top eight teams will compete in a playoff tournament at the end of the season.

Start at Gears.beer for all your hockey needs, including great hockey shirts and hoodies. There you will find information about Doan’s Winter Classic which is scheduled for January 28th. The rink is up and we are skating when possible each night under the lights. Get on the list from the webpage about Doan’s.

Want to build your own hockey list and organize ice time? After eight years of trial and error we have the system ready to take hours of effort away and make it easy to create the Perfect Skate. Visit PerfectSkate.com to learn about the features such as automatic reminders and tools to assign jerseys and mark players paid.

That is it for now. I look forward to seeing you on the ice. Keep your head up and stick on the ice!

Dave

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Nov 15-23 Hockey Update

Nov 15-23 Hockey Update

Opportunities to skate!

We have two goalies in for Wednesday at 3 pm, just show up.

Friday nights are hosted by Gears Beer. The skate is managed by Perfect Skate. Join the Gears Beer list on Perfect Skate and notify Dave you are waiting. Once you are approved you can join skates at your convenience.

On 12/1 there are both UM Hockey and a high school game. Plan to arrive early to find a spot to park!

 

Would you like to organize your ice hockey list and run skates with less effort?

  • The Perfect Skate system automatically reminds goalies and skaters of events they have committed to join.
  • You can push emails or text messages out to your entire list to fill your skate.
  • Assign jersey colors, or give the Coach role to a player to set up the teams.
  • Mark players paid in the system. Links on your event to your digital payment options make it easy to collect using Venmo, Cash App or PayPal Me.

Free to build your list. The only expense is a small per-skater fee to cover the expenses of messaging your players.

Get started today!

Flint Oldtimers Hockey Club

Flint Oldtimers Hockey Club Action

Get all the details on the 50+ Hockey League as well as Tournaments.

All league schedules as well as team and player stats are available on OldtimersHockeyClub.com.

Eclectic Hockey League

Eclectic Hockey League

Get all the details on the Eclectic Hockey League.

All league schedules as well as team and player stats are available on Hockey.gears.beer

2023 Doan’s Winter Classic

2023 Doan’s Winter Classic

Outdoor Ice

Doan’s Winter Classic Tournament

Doan's Winter Classic logo

The Journey

Big thanks to Jim Doan and his family for hosting our fifth tournament at his home rink.

hockey net doans rink
tarp for hockey rink
zamboni watering rag hockey rink
filling hockey rink

 

 It takes a crew of about eight guys for at least three or four sessions to put up and take down the rink. All that work is worth it for the magic of a few skates.

We got busy on December 14th to roll out the new tarp and put up most of the boards. Getting that monster rolled out and flat is a project. More work to put up kicker boards, lights, and nets and we are ready.

The ice was finally ready Tuesday, Jan. 31st for a nighttime skate. Charles Partridge and Lars Patterson played goal while Jim Doan, Cooper Partridge, and I skated around with some back-and-forth offense/defense until Steve Ragge showed up and we played two-on-two until we couldn’t.

A serious cold snap hit the northeast for a couple of days leading up to Saturday, February 4th making the ice hard, ready for some ice hockey.

Eighteen skaters and three goalies showed up early Saturday morning for ice hockey.

Each year we attempt to rank skaters and perform a blind shuffle to make even teams. It never works.

I asked for help and got none, so the blame is on me for the draft. I thought that this was as equal as I could make it. So, I miss calculated a litter perhaps as my team went undefeated. To be fair, Larry O is over 59 and I’m over 60 – not like I was a decision-maker! But if we score teams based on age we would certainly top the scale. 

Look at the team pics and rosters below and let me know how you would stack it up different. You might get a job next tournament:)

 

Stout Bros (1) played Team Porter (4) the first game.  Porter won.

Doan’s High Life (2) played Lagermen (3) and Lagermen squeaked out a win.

Lagermen then beat Stout Bros.

Team Porter then beat Doan’s High Life.

By now the legs are warmed up but the  food and beer are looking good.

Lagermen vs Porter for the championship.

Lagermen wins the 2023 Doan’s Winter Classic Championship.

So, volunteers are needed to help draft teams next year:)

Meet The Teams

Stout Bros Hockey Team

Stout Bros

Doug Druin
Jeff Rouse
Billy Campbell
Steve Ragge

Stout Bros Hockey Team

Doans High Life

Jim Doan
Cooper Partridge
Tom Hall
Tom Murray

Stout Bros Hockey Team

Team Porter

Mike “Eddie” Edwards
Tim Bartlett
Scott Polisky
Sean Fountain

Lagermen-champs

Lagermen

Larry O of All Black Hockey Sticks 
Rob Bartlett
Sean Robinson
Steve Topoliski
Dave Crabill

Join the Invitational List

2024

Outdoor Ice Hockey

What makes it special?

You connect with your youth when you step on that hard ice with the chill of the air. The sound and the sight are all different. Nighttime is a blast under the LED lights with the stars shining down on a crisp clear night.

Stanly Keg Champion 2022 60+B

Stanly Keg Champion 2022 60+B

2022 Stanley Keg Champs

Senior Class 60 B Team

The call came late in the evening less than two weeks out from the tournament. “Rob Bartlett refered me to you. I’m looking for some old guys that love hockey to play in a tournament,” said Stu.

I’m in. First time in a long time that I’ve been invited to a tournament.

We came together from all around southeastern Michigan and played hard and won the 60+ B!

Friday night was the first time we had met. Stu had an idea of how would play where. He stratigized and told us not to worry about this first game, it would be tough. This is likely the team to beat in the finals. Let’s work on figuring out the chemistry and plan to win on Saturday.

We organized lines and rotated Stu through as an extra winger and beat Super Pac 9-0! I even got a couple!

Saturday morning we changed our strategy and rotated wingers off the bench and got behind early. We tied it up at the very end and won in OT. Whew!

The Flint Old Timers were up Saturday afternoon and I was worried. I knew the team and knew they wouldn’t take it easy. We changed strategies again and went with two centers and three sets of wings and it went a lot smoother. Despite a few mistakes on my part that felt like I was helping them, we won the game.

Super Pac managed to make it to the finals and they had a different goalie. Their Super Man goalie was legitimately hurt, bum ankle. They got two in our net, but we scored six times to earn a place on the Stanley Keg!

What a fun weekend of hockey. Can’t wait to get the Senior Class back together. We have our eyes on the Flint Oldtimers Tournament in April.

Dave

 

 

Hey, us old guys need some CBD Salve to help those sore joints and muscles. We offer a few choices of remedies.

Nov 15-23 Hockey Update

Friday Night Skates return!

Friday’s at 7:30 PM starts this coming Friday, August 5th at Crystal.

Join the skate list through Perfect Skate. A button below will take you to app.PerfectSkate.com where it is setup. A new and improved booking system is under development and is planned to launch this month. I’ll be posting just one skate at a time in the current system.

Use the coupon code “cash” if you want to pay at the rink with the current system.