I hate saying this as I do not consider myself a dinosaur or “old man yelling at clouds”; however, the game of hockey has gotten soft and USA Hockey is only making it softer. I was out of youth hockey for about 12 years before getting involved in coaching and I was appalled at what I came back to.
Don’t get me wrong, I am not some washed up beer league hero talking about how much tougher the game was in my day; however, the new rules implemented by USA Hockey are laughable.
8U playing half ice with mini nets
When I grew up, 8U played full ice so that the kids could learn the real rules of the game. You didn’t have to spend the first month of the 10U season trying to explain to a team full of kids what things like offsides and icing were.
This half ice hockey is completely and totally embarrassing.
“Well, the ice is so big and they are so small” – so what? It will teach the kids to skate. How does 4 on 4 with mini nets teach the kids anything about the sport? If anything, it hinders player development.
“But we want everyone to touch the puck” -The better kids can still skate away and hog the puck. The only difference is that now they are not having to learn to keep their heads up and worry about a teammate being offsides. How does this benefit any player?
I still have no idea how the mini nets are supposed to help besides giving goalies confidence. Can someone explain that to me? I watch and the teams with the bigger goalies tend to do better because with the mini nets, the goalies are not forced to learn angles. Everything I have seen, the 8U goalies actually pick up more bad habits. The 8U goalie I coached would drop for every shot because he could get away with it in the mini net. Want to know what happened when he went to 10U and had to play in the big net? He still dropped every shot, but all the other kids learned to shoot high and he got lit up worse than my uncle Jim at Thanksgiving. The poor kid had no clue where he was in his net and it took him over half the season to adjust and not drop every shot.
Taking checking out of 12U
Who else remembers being able to check at the peewee level? It was a good “sink or swim” moment for a lot of kids. Do you have what it takes to play a physical sport? Can you take the hit to make the play? Now you have too many pre-teens skating around thinking they are tough because they can’t get hit and may be able to lowkey drop a shoulder when the ref isn’t looking. Just wait big guy, you are going to learn that you ain’t that tough.
In all seriousness, why delay the inevitable? If a kid is afraid of getting hit, why not figure it out sooner rather than later? So what, he gets to play 12U and then quits at 14U now? Odds are 2 years will not toughen the kid up. A soft kid is going to be a soft kid, no matter the age. Taking away hitting at 12U only makes them softer. As if kids aren’t soft enough these days to begin with.
If a kid loves the game, but doesn’t want to get hit, they do have rec leagues and house leagues. Or even better go play soccer! Then you can avoid hits and roll around on the field of play when someone gets near you. If you don’t want to get hit, you do have options. Don’t ruin competitive travel hockey with this nonsense.
Removing of delayed offsides, icing on the PK, and following through on a hit
Isn’t the goal for USA Hockey to move the kids on to the next level, whether it be Juniors or College? I was fortunate enough to play both.
Again, maybe I am just an antique, but how does removing parts of the game that kids will need to know at higher levels help them make the jump to junior or collegiate rules? I highly doubt those leagues/levels will make these changes. So why would you remove it, especially at critical ages like 14U and 16U, from the game?
How does taking away delayed offsides make the game any safer? The kids are not 10U and should be able to understand how to tag up. I watched a 16U game at a AA Labor Day Tournament in Tampa that took over 2 hours to play because of these new rules. They apparently had 42 offsides calls in the game (according to a coach there – the rink had a good bar so I didn’t mind the game running long). Talk about a joke and a half of a rule!
On top of that, I get that the game is trying to promote strategy, passing, and goal scoring; however, what about defense? Shouldn’t a tired team be able to ice the puck on the penalty kill? Wouldn’t USA Hockey want to promote good defensive zone habits? Especially if they hope any of these kids will be moving up to the junior or collegiate level? I can understand if a forward tries sprinting down the ice to blow up a D-man getting the puck, but usually the forwards are exhausted and getting a line change and your goalie (if he is any good) is either making the breakout pass or setting the puck up for his defense.
Furthermore, why is the game trying to remove the hitting? Growing up, we always had a 3-step rule to finish your hits. How do teams win the Stanley Cup? They play physical! Again, this is a physical sport. If mommy and daddy don’t want to see their special snowflake get hit, go play soccer or tennis. Don’t try to weaken one of the world’s toughest sports. The kids have thousands of dollars’ worth of gear on, they will be fine. The ones who do get hurt are the ones who are scared and turn away from the hits.
When I was playing juniors, we would actually get a penalty for not removing your helmet for a fight. Now USA Hockey doesn’t want their precious babies to get hit? It is an absolute joke. Call me an a-hole, call me an antique, call me whatever you like; however, it is embarrassing if any of you so called hockey fans support what these rules are doing to our beloved game.
Just like anything else in life, a little danger makes it a lot more fun.
USA Hockey, please grow a pair and return the sport back to the game that I love and grew up playing. Let’s get rid of these ridiculous rules and make hockey a tough sport again.
Sincerely,
One Very Disappointed Former Player
PS: I am only 34 so it isn’t even like I played the best version of the game as seen in Slap Shot