After 16 regular season games and 2 scrambles, the league is at the midway point. My hope is that everyone is having a great season, and the 2nd half is just as good as the first. Since we have some new players in the league this year, I thought I'd give my usual comments about league play.
After playing in adult leagues for many years, I have come to realize the following is always true. There will be a team that has a majority of the wins and a team that will have a majority of the losses. For our season, our top 3 teams are within 4 points of each other. In a perfect world, every team would be .500, but that is never the case. There are too many variables that can effect the outcome of a game.
- Are your best player's missing during certain games?
- Do you have less players show up for the 10 PM game?
- Was there a mis-match in lines during some shifts where their best players were against your lesser skilled players?
These are just a few of the factors that can affect the outcome of a game and in turn affect the standings. The goal of our league is to get as close to league parity as possible. We try to do this by creating teams that "on paper" are as even as possible. If we list every team's players from most skilled to least skilled and put these lists side by side, we'd like to see an even distribution all the way down the roster.
We also play a sport that is very competitive and most players in the league play hard and play to win. There is nothing wrong with this as long as it does not come at the expense of sportsmanship or over aggressive play. Too often, I see players that think they have to play "angry" or "physical" in order to be competitive. It's these players that end up being reviewed at the end of the season and possibly asked to not return. We have players in our league that are very skilled (I'm sure everyone knows who these are) and I never hear a complaint about them. These players play with the right attitude and can still play competitive.
At the same time, we have players that play with an attitude that may rub others wrong. These players believe that an extra shove or push in a necessary part of hockey, but they don't realize that this only puts them on the radar and doesn't help them. We are not the NHL and we play in a non-contact, recreational adult league. This doesn't mean you won't get bumped or have any contact, but I see times where players want to take this to another level and flex their muscle or show their hockey toughness. This will only get you suspended and possibly banned to play in the future.
In the end, I'm just asking players to look at their own style of play. Ask yourself if your actions are interpreted as "malicious" or unnecessary. Look at other players around you. Are their players you know who are very skilled, but you enjoy playing against? The idea is to have a good time, but to also have those around enjoy playing with you. This is a primary reason for our scramble games... to get to know those that you may not know.
Hope everyone has a great rest of the season!
