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

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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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!

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.

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 18^th 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.

2022-23 EHL Season Registration

Fellow hockey enthusiast

It is my pleasure to introduce the 2022 through 2023 Eclectic Hockey League Season.

Our first games will be held on September 25^th. We have game times of 10 am, 11:15, and 12:30 pm.

Teams committed are Budtenders, Gooners Dogs, Marauders, and Frozen Wings. A fifth team is being built and we are considering dropping the age to 35 to bring in the sixth team.

Frozen Wings won’t be as dominant as the last few years due to changes in their roster to adapt to our league.

Should we not get to six teams we will drop a sheet and have a by-week with five teams on the schedule.

Jeff Dennings is back at the registration table. We are sourcing some performance-enhancing products at the table – nothing too scary like Russian gas? Some electrolyte hydration and topical pain relief.

Since the start of the EHL in 2015, the costs have gone up over 20%. The team fee this season is $5,350 with a $100 back if paid before the mid-December deadline.

We will be registered through USA Hockey this season. You will need to get your USA Hockey number for the fall season. You can register now.

Please visit Gears dot Beer forward slash EHL to make a payment and to get any updates.

I’ve rented the ice from 1 to 2 pm on Sunday the 18^th with a meeting and networking afterward. Come join the fun. Those who make an initial ice time payment will skate free.

A big thanks to Cooper Goalie – Charles Partridge for printing some cool EHL decals for our cars. They will be available on the 25^th.

Last item. I’m ordering a few jerseys and socks from Just Hockey Jerseys. If you want some cool hemp socks or a jersey, order on Gears.beer.

Looking forward to seeing you on the ice!

Keep your head up!