Time to play.
Here is an update on team rosters and game times.
Good evening all.
Great news! After careful consultation with all the head Coaches and reviewing league play-to-date, it has been decided that there is good balance in our league. This means that our teams are considered set in terms of rosters for the 2014/15 season.
This decision was actually fairly easy to arrive at for a few reasons:
- No one knows our teams better than the coaches. All coaches expressed that they felt that each team could win on any given night. And all would eventually win their “fair share” of games.
- The games have been balanced. In 15 games, there has only been one game with a 5 goal differential, and one game with a 4 goal differential. This means that 87% of our games finished within a 3 goal differential! Better yet, 60% were “down to the wire” with 2 goals or less between winning/tying/losing the game.
- Goal scoring has also been balanced; all teams are within a few goals of the 12.8 “goals for” league average.
I would like to thank Phil H, Chris G, Mike M, Jeff K and Jeff H for their patience, accommodation and honest feedback regarding league play to this point. As I alluded to before, they are the most sensitive to the nuances of game play. They want what is best for ALL the kids in OUR league and are the biggest advocates for fun and fair play.
While we do not expect to finish in a 5 way tie at the end of the season, it was hard to argue against the perceived balance in game play. Let us hope that this competitive balance continues and each child has a positive and memorable year with CMHA. I think we can all agree that it has been exciting!
Game times
Just a reminder… we are running 10-10-12 minute runtime games that are curfew-ed on the hour. This is regardless of who or what is happening in the adjacent time slots. This is a directive from CMHA. We are to stop games on the hour. I apologize for not reminding the referees of this criterion, this resulted in us being advised, by them, to continue on or go to run time.
Leaving time on the clock serves a couple key purposes.
- It can communicate lost opportunity. Being ready to drop the puck @ the end of the 3 minute warm up, hurry-up face offs and reducing between period huddles can result in helping get full play time in. Being cognizant of lost opportunity can alert us to be more efficient in our pregame and between whistle ritual.
- It alerts us to trends. If play starts to “slow down”, we can revert back to 3 ten minute periods.
- It is fair. A fair policy, with consistent application, ensures that players, coaches and parents know what to expect regarding the end of a game. The turn of the hour is the end. The application of penalties is also fair, running the clock late in a game can change the actual served time of a penalty.
I must admit that I was originally a strong advocate for running the clock when play time = time left in the hour. Unfortunately, with different timekeepers, referees, game situations (injuries causing long delays) and the application of penalties, it is very difficult to come up with a simple and consistent policy to ultimately come out to the same result… ending the game on the hour. Furthermore, the Association has very clear direction to curfew all games on the hour.
That is all for now…
See you at the rink!
Eric