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Spring 23 Hockey Update

Spring 23 Hockey Update

All right, it’s May 13th, 2023. I wanted to give you a hockey update. I know we’re just getting into spring. We had a long way till the fall, but it’s gonna be here before we know it, and there’s still hockey to be had as we speak. So first, let’s talk about that. I’m not running any drop-in sheets currently. There are a couple that are available. You can generally find them on crystalfh.com. Wednesday at 3:00 PM there’s a drop-in skate. We could use some bodies. We generally have two goalies and a dozen or more skaters. We could use some more. There’s plenty of ice time. A lot of fun. Good guys. So Wednesday at 3:00 PM there’s also a Friday at 11:00 AM for 50 and over. Yeah, I think that’s pretty well attended.

Monday nights are coming back in June, uh, the 50 and over, I spoke with Art that runs that 50 and over league. And there are only about seven spots left. And that’s gonna be full. They’re gonna have six teams for summer hockey for 50 and over. That’s June through August. Runs right up to the fall timeframe. So you can skate Monday, Wednesday, and Friday if you want. If you’re able to during the day, that is, you can schedule that time. So, hockey’s available. Uh, also Kevin Hale’s been running some sheets and he lets me know once in a while and I, I send that out.

So, we’ll talk about that, how to get onto the list, and such. But I wanted to touch on this. Mike Meyer had a serious leg injury during the alumni tournament and he’s gonna need some help for the next six to eight months. They’ve raised some money through GoFundMe. He’s got some insurance, uh, through USA Hockey. I’m assuming that’s helping him. But, he’s gonna be out of work for like six to eight months. So he’s looking for some help. And you know, some guys reached out to me. So I will donate proceeds from some t-shirt sales if anybody’s interested in any of these t-shirts. Now it’d be a good time to snag some up.

Got this, Make America Skate Again design. We have Puck Cancer. It’s a very good message. Have this new Hockey Slang T-shirt. And then I have a really simple EHL T-shirt. So they’re available in the shop at Gears Beer. So gears.beer and go to the shop, or if you want to make sure you get any updates on available ice time and updates on the league, go to gears.beer and go to e h L. So gears.beer/ehl, you can see right down here. And you can fill out this form if you haven’t done it already. And you’ll be in the know for hockey.

And just a gentle reminder, you can go and get your 2023 24 USA hockey registration. You’ll need that to get going in September. So your current registration’s good for the summer hockey. And then come fall, of course, we’re gonna have to do this again cause we do want that insurance. So that’s at, membership dot usa hockey.com.

Another item I wanted to tell you, that GoFundMe for Mike Meyer is if you wanted to find that, it’s gofundme.com. Click here to view it.

And then, if you’re in the market for some CBD products and a lot of you guys like my CBD Salve that I make, I’m gonna make another batch. 50 bucks, a tin this stuff’s magic. It really does work. It really does help. So, I have tins and I’ve pet treats and all kinds of CBD stuff, and you can find that at iHempHarvest.com so wanted to share that out.

All right, so back to the league. Let’s talk about the hockey league next year. We’re going back to 40 and over. I suspect we’re gonna have six teams. When it’s all said and done, if there are players that are looking for teams, reach out to me, let me know. We may have to pull together a six-team. So there, there may be room for some skaters. I’m really confident we have five teams at this time, and it’s gonna be competitive again. So, you know, just the nature of the sport, you know, we gotta play hard. And, that’s where it’s at.

So that is where we’re at with Hockey.

I hope to see you on the ice later.

22-23 EHL Season Complete

22-23 EHL Season Complete

The 2022-2023 EHL Season is a wrap. BC Heating earned the championship.

Other prizes were handed out as is the tradition:

  • Guzzler Prize for the most points went to Trevor Moore on Nutrien.
  • St Paulie Girl Prize for no penalties was a random draw and Chris Jedlowski.
  • The Tall Boy Prize for most shutouts went to Brian Markowicz.

Thank you to all who participated this season. 

I’ve waffled on the league setup for next season. While I enjoy the Monday night draft league and feel that a draft done correctly creates the most parity, we are not going in that direction. It comes down to time and energy, which I’m in short supply of lately. The easier path is to keep our format, but we will return to 40+ with no exceptions. 

So far, teams in for next season include Frozen Wings, Budtenders, Marauders, and Gooners Dogs. 

It was fun watching Marauders come together toward the end of the season to capture third place! Well done guys. 

Enjoy your summer. The league will be back in September. I’ll have a manager meeting in August.

Dave

Playoffs Begin & Next Season Update

Playoffs Begin & Next Season Update

Quick Personal Update

It is likely a condition of being over 60, but I’ve not been in a good state of mind these last few months. My tolerance level is at zero and I just don’t have the desire to put in the type of effort I have in the past. I’m not throwing in the towel, but I’m ready to remake things so the fun is back.

The Friday skates are now out of my responsibility. I will continue to skate and will help as possible, but it won’t be a weekly obligation. For over eight years I’ve felt the pressure to organize a skate each week. For a long time, it was twice a week. It really is easier than the beginning, but it is one responsibility that I was ready to shed. Brandon Wescott Kevin Hale has stepped up to run the Friday night skates. Our next skate is March 3rd at 7:30 pm.

Playoffs

Thanks to Nutrien and BC entering the league we got to six teams. That might not have been the wisest decision in hindsight, but it is what it is. Playoffs are similar to the regular season schedule as we work through a round-robin tournament during the next five weeks.

Frozen Wings will be skating with an ineligible player and will forfeit. Ty and I have spoken about it and it was his decision to skate with his friend and not be concerned about the championship. The player has been skating but missed the necessary 8 games to health reasons.

The rosters of eligible players have been sent to each team manager.

Jeff will be out for the balance of the season. Please work with the scorekeeper prior to the game to check in your players. While all but one team routinely checks in with Jeff, I felt that we were adults and could manage to make it to our locker rooms and police our rosters without Jeff’s help. Giving him a break.

Big thanks to Jeff and his hard work in keeping us organized. I will still have his help with some details and he will be involved.

 

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Playoffs Begin & Next Season Update

Christmas Break Coming Fast

Thanks to BC & Nutrien joining the league, we have six teams this season. Ideally, we would have eight teams. Help get the word out for next season.

A big thanks to the team managers. It takes time, patience, and money to run a hockey team. Ty Burt, Chris Green, Eric Schauwecker, Jeff Rouse, Tim Jankowski. 

Next week is the final week to get the annual fees paid to avoid penalties. Big thanks to Ty of Frozen Wings for paying the fee off at the start of the season. Gooners Dogs is fully paid and the other teams are very close to fully paid. 

The regular season ends on February 19th and we will be skating at Dort Event Center on that day starting at 1 pm for the first game. Big thanks to Jeremy Torrey for opening up the facility for us to host our games. Now we will be able to get the season completed in March. Our last game of this season is March 26th. The playoffs will be a round-robin.
 
I realize that there isn’t parity in the league this year. BC ran up the score on Marauders last Sunday and I’m hearing grumbling. We will adjust the schedules as possible to make the balance of the year as fun as possible, but we need to tough out this season and come up with a plan for next season. I appreciate everyone’s patience as we work through the challenges. I’d prefer to move the age back up myself, or even make it a higher age:)
 
Don’t hesitate to reach out if you have suggestions or comments. Thanks for playing!
Playoffs Begin & Next Season Update

EHL Season Start

Managers Meeting

The board directors for the Eclectic Hockey League met in Skaters Bar on Sunday, Sept. 18th. We voted to stay with the six teams as they have strong rosters and adding the seventh would require cutting the number of games to get the season completed before the Alumni Tournament. As it is, we are scheduled through April 2nd, which could cause an issue with Old Timers Tournament.

In an effort to get to six teams we lowered the age to 35. Only a few teams have skaters under 40. We decided that a player must be 35 by November 15th to qualify and a roster can not contain more than 5 players under 40.

Further player restrictions include prohibiting any player who has skated in 18A in the last year from joining our league. 

We will have a competitive season. Please remember that this is a recreational league. Try to keep the ego’s in check and have fun:)

Regarding registration. We have collected most teams’ rosters and USA hockey numbers. I’m emailing managers with rosters as we have currently. Be sure to check in at the registration table on the way in.

 This season is starting without one of the easiest-going guys and great skaters in the league. We will open each game this week with a moment of silence to remember Chris “Swell” Wellman who lost his battle with Cancer.

See you at the rink!

Dave

Larry is bringing his trailer up and will be on-site selling sticks this Sunday. As always, just $89 for a great stick! Check out his new offerings of a custom logo bags, hockey gloves, and more on www.AllBlackHockeySticks.com

Big thanks to our sponsors. Friends who have stepped up to help support the program. This last year has been challenging and it is my friends, including the hockey community who has helped me keep my head up.

Huckleberry Junction Playhouse Theater
Ultimate Turf
Playoffs Begin & Next Season Update

Breaking News!

Fellow hockey enthusiasts

We are just over two weeks away from the start of the 2022 season.

This week has brought some surprises and caused some sleepless nights making tough decisions.

Our struggle began when Hurley backed out to skate Wednesday nights. Lockhart then decided to back out because they didn’t want to skate against Frozen Wings.

Work began to recruit teams into the league or form a new team from free agents.

The challenge with the free agent team is the talent pool to create a competitive team. As I’ve learned in running the weekly skates the weakest skaters have as much effect on the teams’ competitiveness as the best skaters. The free agent team was going to struggle to win a game.

Michelle from the rink was wanting one of my sheets back and the pressure was on. Would we have four or five teams?

Also, the 40 A league was at five teams and she suggested that we might bring a team from there to our league to balance things out. I didn’t see that as a good plan.

Just this week Tim Jankowski approached me to bring much of the Old Fokkers team back into the league. Their roster is strong and should compete well with the rest of the teams.

That changed things. All of the teams’ rosters looked competitive. Even the Marauder’s lineup looked good and they had great confidence in their goalie.

As most of you know, Jeff Rouse has helped over the years with my weekly skate. He approached me to come back into the league with a revised roster to better suit the 40 B league. He has a few skaters who have been off the ice for over a decade. They still have a strong lineup and we now have six teams ready to compete in the fall.

The challenge is that we have about eight players left out in the wind and team rosters are full to over full.

Should a seventh team appear we could build the eight, but I’d have a tough time finding the ice time as the rink is quite busy.

I apologize to the free agents for not finding a place for them. Big thanks to Rich Jolly and Michael Williams for offering to run the new team. Unfortunately, we don’t have a spot now.

That is the update.

The team managers’ meeting will be at 3 pm on Sunday 18th in Skaters Bar. We will review rosters and discuss options.

One option would be to go to seven teams which creates a bye-week and extends the season duration to get the 25 games in.

Let me know what you think. This is going to be some competitive hockey this season.

Keep your head up and stick on the ice.