President’s Message August 19, 2024

Time to get back on the ice!

Our administrator, Dean, and the Executive have worked hard to plan for this season.

Based on feedback received last year, Dean has tried to balance the schedule to reduce the large gaps some teams had between games in their schedules last year.

It sounds like we have a full complement of referees and timekeepers to start the season. A reminder to everyone that although the referees and timekeepers are paid, they are not signing up to get abused nor are they professional referees. Please remind your fellow players of this if you see one of them making inappropriate comments to the referees. Many of the timekeepers will be new this year so please be patient as they get used to running the clock and putting penalties up on the scoreboard.

If you or your teammates have issues with a referee, we request that you voice those concerns to Dean or the Executive and not directly at the referee in question. We will provide appropriate feedback to the referee. We will continue to issue hefty suspensions for abusive behavior.

Our focus again this year, as it has been for many years, will be to continue with the crack down on stick work and other unnecessary hacking and whacking that takes the fun out of our recreation hockey league. We will continue to use the red penalty system as this system has reduced stick work and unsportsmanlike penalties considerably over the past several years.

We will continue to hand out lengthier suspensions for repeat offenders to punish behaviour that the majority of the players in the league want to see eliminated.

As noted in communication to all team reps prior to league dues being paid for this season, we moved two teams from the B division to the C division and have prepared a schedule that has the remaining six B division teams playing two games against each of the four A division teams. The Executive made this decision after many discussions and feedback. We feel that this change will provide the A division teams some variety of competition and will challenge the top B division teams. Our feeling is that the skill level of the A division teams and the top B division teams is narrowing as the younger B division teams settle into our league and the A division teams are getting older. We ask that the B division teams put forward their best lineups for these games and that the A division teams not stack their teams for these games. The Executive will monitor the results of the games, but are not committing to making any changes to the schedule for this season.

Have a great season!

Doug Tyce

President of NAHL