| by the CMM.com Editorial Staff (posted 10/23) – The first thing that popped into my mind when deciding what to write in this preview was the time ole Gunny Breckenridge sat me on his knee when I was a kid and said sonorously, “Let me tell you son, about how things were done in the Old Corps”. The Gunny, you see, was totally old school and not akin to newfangled ideas. Now I’m as high tech as the next guy but while perusing the long list of CAHA games already played – all which don’t count – I can’t help but feel nostalgic for the good ole days when every game after September 1st meant something. Now they are as relevant as pay phones and the print media, or as the Gunny would say, “teats on a boar hog”. Back to the present – Everybody is back to zero wins, zero losses, zero ties. The season begins on Friday night when the Jr Ducks face-off against the SoCal-Hockey.com Jr Ice Dogs. Finally, a game that counts! While we’re all anxious to get started, this piece is an event preview so reluctantly, we have to take a step back….. Anaheim Jr Ducks 7-0-0 against CAHA 16AA teams; 8-4-0 Overall Signature Win(s): 6-3 over the Jr Kings on Oct 11th and 11-1 over the Lightning 93s on Oct 12th Weekend Schedule: Jr Ice Dogs (Fri), Jr Kings (Sat) Gulls (Sat), Jets (Sun), BCL93 (Sun) The Jr Ducks begin the season as the new power in the CAHA 16AA universe. They return an impressive twelve players from last season’s 5th Place finishing Jr Ducks 16AA playoff team and has been consistently dominant in winning all seven games against its peers, outscoring the competition by a 45-8 margin. Their four losses came over Labor Day weekend in San Jose against AAA competition, all very close, competitive games. This weekend, the Jr Ducks will be one of a handful of teams to play five games. They’ll be sorely tested on Saturday when they take on the Kings and Gulls. However, look for the Ducks to start its quest for a Pacific District championship with a perfect weekend. Beach City Lightning 93s 5-5-2 against CAHA 16AA teams; 5-6-2 Overall Signature Win(s): 4-3 over the Heat on Sep 14th Weekend Schedule: Heat (Fri), Cougars (Sat), Stars Red (Sat), Wave (Sun), Jr Ducks (Sun) The BCL93s this season are essentially sitting where the Jr Ducks were in 2007-08. The roster of sixteen 93s and four 94s has talent, but it is very young in this division. 12 players return from last season’s Lightning Bantam AA, of which seven were together at Bantam A and Peewee AA under the same coach. As can be expected for a young, talented team, the road has been a bumpy one. Nice wins against second division competition offset losses against the upper echelon. Like the Ducks last season, look for the BCL93s to finish somewhere around the .500 mark, and grabbing one of the final playoff slots. They draw a tough lot this weekend: 3-2-0 is the best case scenario, 2-3-0 likely and 1-4-0 if the kids fold under the pressure. Beach City Lightning 92s 1-7-0 against CAHA 16AA teams; 2-8-1 Overall Signature Win(s): 5-3 at Titans on Sep 14th Weekend Schedule: Wild (Sat), Heat (Sat), Stars Black (Sun), Saints (Sun) The BCL 92s (actually only two-thirds are 92s) are the United Nations of the league, represented by players coming from not fewer than eight SCAHA clubs. Eleven players moving up from Midget 16A (7 from BCL) make up the core of the team. The balance comes from a sprinkling of Bantam A, Bantam AA and a couple of Wild 16AA. The BCL92s’ biggest challenge will be melding this diverse talent base into a 16AA unit. This might be a tall order considering the number of players tasting Tier II action for the first time. But that’s not the same thing as saying it cannot be done – they’ve played very competitive games throughout the season, even against the top teams. This past weekend, they dropped a 5-2 decision to the Jr Ducks just a week after the same opponent spanked the pedigreed BCL93s, 11-1. The 92s will have a tough time this weekend, drawing a fairly hefty schedule – they’ll keep most of the games close but will probably have to beat the Saints in the last one to keep from going 0-for-the-weekend. California Cougars 3-2-1 against CAHA 16AA teams; 3-3-1 Overall Signature Win(s): 6-3 over the Jr Sharks on Sep 28th Weekend Schedule: BCL93 (Sat), Titans (Sat), Jr Sharks (Sun), Stars Black (Sun) CalMidgetMinor.com is admittedly a SoCal based entity. That caveat means anything we say about NorCal teams probably has as much credence as that repellent stream of air propelled from a certain posterior orifice. But we’ll try. Hopefully the Cougars have been practicing a lot because there hasn’t been much game action. They split four games at Labor Day, earned a win and a tie against its NorCal neighbors in September, then lost all four games played in October, three to 16AAA squads and one to a 16A. The core of the team comes from last season’s Cougars 16A. If you held a gun to my head, I’d say this weekend holds perhaps a win, two at the most for the Cougs. California Heat 7-3-0 against CAHA 16AA teams; 9-5-1 Overall Signature Win(s): 7-2 over the Jr Kings on Sep 1st to win the San Jose Labor Day tournament, and 4-2 over the California Stars Black on Aug 31st Weekend Schedule: BCL93 (Fri), BCL92 (Sat), Ice Dogs (Sat), OCHC (Sun), Stars Red (Sun) Thirteen returning Wolves 16AA players make up the core of the Heat roster, eleven from the AA2 team and the only two 92 birth year players from the AA1. We’re not really sure why they didn’t just call themselves the Wolves this season – not exactly sure what the Express contributed to this venture besides the nicer crib. After a dominating performance in San Jose at Labor Day, it appeared the Heat would aggressively challenge the Ducks for control of the CAHA pond. Since then however, heat exhaustion appears to have set in – heavy sweating, tiredness, dizziness, nausea – losses to the BCL93s, Wild and Jr Kings, two of the three they previously beat. After beating up the Stars Red this past weekend, the Heat hope CAHA #1 will show they are cured and not slipping into heat stroke. They play five games this weekend, but are playing at home against a relatively cushy schedule – there is no reason the Heat should not sweep the weekend; anything less and somebody better call in a corpsman. California Stars (Black) 5-2-1 against CAHA 16AA teams; 6-2-1 Overall Signature Win(s): 5-3 over the Wave on Sep 13th, and 3-1 at the Wild on Sep 27th Weekend Schedule: Saints (Fri), OCHC (Sat), BCL92 (Sat), Ice Dogs (Sun), Cougars (Sun) The Midget Minor Stars will be an interesting field experiment, as they have four 16u teams, including a AAA and an A. The Stars AA Black team fits in as the second child of this family. They are a melding of Inland Empire talent, 10 from either the Wild or Stars Bantam AA (both CAHA final four teams last season) with a sprinkling of local 16A returnees. This is obviously a group looking for a little midget seasoning with the intent of going AAA next year. Look for a bit of youthful inconsistency, but talent winning out at the end. This will be a playoff team and the results from CAHA #1 will get them off on the right foot – look for a minimum of four wins this weekend. California Stars (Red) 0-10-0 against CAHA 16AA teams; 0-10-0 Overall Signature Win(s): none Weekend Schedule: Jr Sharks (Sat), BCL93 (Sat), Titans (Sun), Heat (Sun) Ontario, California is located on the eastern edge of the greater Los Angeles basin and thus cannot easily draw players as a Club more centrally located like LAHC or LAJK. To think that the 41st through 60th best players in a Club on the fringes of the San Bernardino National Forest can successfully navigate through the CAHA 16AA league is looking more and more like a pipe dream. The Stars Red lost its last four games by a combined score of 45-1 and already sports a combined -75 goal differential on the season. Fortunately, the beauty of the current system in place is that everybody starts from scratch this weekend. The Reds drew a relatively competitive schedule and could find success if things come together. However, nothing in their current play indicates such a turnaround is coming – look for the trend to continue. California Wave 3-3-0 against CAHA 16AA teams; 6-6-0 Overall Signature Win(s): 8-0 at the Saints on Sep 28th and 6-3 over the Titans on Oct 19th Weekend Schedule: Titans (Sat), Jr Sharks (Sat), BCL93 (Sun), Saints (Sun) If Tier experience is the coin of the realm, then the Wave should be the richest team in the league. They return eight from the 2007-08 Wave 16AA playoff team, another five 16AA players from other teams and four Wave Bantam AA. Their cup runneth over. But all that wealth has yet to translate into 2008-09 wins. They’ve handled the second division teams with relative ease, but haven’t won a game against a contender yet. The Wave don’t have to worry about that at CAHA #1, as they’ve drawn a pretty cozy schedule. If they don’t take care of business at Valencia in convincing fashion, we’ll really have to consider devaluing their currency. They don’t appear to have the juice for a clean sweep, so look for a 3-1-0 weekend. Inland Valley Wild 4-1-0 against CAHA 16AA teams; 6-7-0 Overall Signature Win(s): 3-2 over the Heat on Sep 20th and 6-4 over the Wave on Sep 6th Weekend Schedule: BCL92 (Sat), Jets (Sat), Jr Kings (Sun), Ice Dogs (Sun) The Wild have a wealth of players with Tier experience, but most of it comes from Bantam AA. Mix in five returning 16AA players and a sprinkling of 16A players moving up, and you’ve got a nucleus that could develop over the course of the season. They got off to a rough start at Labor Day, losing five games before finally pulling out the last one in Arizona. Since then, the Wild went 4-1-0 against its CAHA peers, including impressive wins over the Wave and Heat. CAHA #1 should be a good stepping off point for this group – three wins, possibly four is not out of the question. Los Angeles Jr Kings 9-2-1 against CAHA 16AA teams; 13-3-1 Overall Signature Win(s): 5-2 over the Stars Black on Sep 1st, 7-1 over the Heat on Oct 12th, and 5-3 over Arizona Hockey Union 93s to win the Arizona Ice Breaker tournament on Oct 5th Weekend Schedule: Jr Ducks (Sat), Wild (Sat), Gulls (Sun), Titans (Sun) In the briefing about the California Stars, we mentioned the inherent problems of being a AA team in a Club that also fields AAA at your level. The Jr Kings are such a team, though one that has the luxury of being able to draw from a much wider pool of available players. The core of this team is the 11 players that moved up from Bantam AA(1), with the balance from other Bantam AA, 16AA and 16A. Like the Stars Black, the objective is to move the group up to 16AAA in 2009-10. The Jr Kings rolled right out of Bantam AA into the summer league, into the 16AA season. They’ve pretty much been a step ahead of the competition since the opening face-off. The mission will be to keep the competition at bay as everyone improves over the course of the season. They’ve got a tough road to hoe at CAHA #1. In fact, I cannot help but draw a parallel between this team and last season’s LA Hockey Club. Both teams rolled through the first two months and looked like world beaters. Both teams step up to the first CAHA and face murderer’s row: LAHC had the Gulls (Final 4), Jr Kings (playoffs), Wolves 1 (Final 4), then the Mariners; the Jr Kings this weekend face a similar task (see above for schedule), with again, the Mariners (err Titans) waiting to clean up the scraps at the end of the weekend. Of course, this is a different team, a different mission, a different circumstance – but funny things happen at CAHA weekends. Back to reality, look for the Jr Kings to split their 4 games this weekend (Note: LAHC went 0-4-0 at CAHA #1 and never recovered – stand by). Orange County Hockey Club 4-3-1 against CAHA 16AA teams; 5-6-1 Overall Signature Win(s): 3-1 over the Wave on Oct 12th Weekend Schedule: Gulls (Fri), Stars Black (Sat), Saints (Sat), Heat (Sun) The Yorba Linda Blackhawks shed its Indian logo for a citrus-enhanced letter “O” when it remade itself as the OC Hockey Club. Last season’s YL Blackhawks tried to be coy by not playing at Labor Day, then sneaking out of town for a couple of September tournaments. They postponed SCAHA scheduled games until later in the season. In the meantime, they did nothing but practice, practice, practice. Everybody seemed to beat them early on, but somehow, some way, the got things together at the CAHA weekends and eventually made it to the District championships. Interestingly, that team went 9-1-2 in CAHA weekend games and only 11-10-1 in all other games, the total opposite of LA Hockey Club. But I digress….. This year’s OCHC is a real mixed bag, in fact I bet they had real concerns about making PDR. Add seven miscellaneous Bantam AA players - mostly from LAHC, toss in a few returning Blackhawk 16u and a pinch of this and that, and you’ve got the current roster. Look for a real bumpy road for OC until it can meld this group of gypsies into a team. A microcosm of its pre-season are two games played against the Jr Ice Dogs – a 3-0 win and a 1-2 loss – not really sure how to analyze that. OC pulled a real tough opening weekend but have the benefit of spreading the 4-game action over three days (what a luxury!). It probably won’t help much – look for a 1-3-0 weekend. Future CAHA weekends should go a lot better for the OC than this one will. San Diego Gulls 3-0-2 against CAHA 16AA teams; 7-1-2 Overall Signature Win(s): 6-2 over the BCL93s Weekend Schedule: OCHC (Fri), Jr Ducks (Sat), Jets (Sat), Jr Kings (Sun) The CAHA Bantam AA runner-ups have migrated to 16AA, at least about half the team did. The balance of the roster mixes in a handful of returning 16u players for leadership and a couple of up and comers from the Bantam A ranks. This is a young team, but the kids all know each other since they’ve almost to a man, played Gulls hockey for multiple seasons. They’ve been very successful so far, but did it against a cupcake schedule in September. October has been more impressive with a convincing win against BCL93 and a tie with the Jr Kings last Sunday. CAHA #1 will be an excellent test for the young Gulls. The Saturday game with the Jr Ducks and the Sunday rematch with the Jr Kings should provide the intelligence we need to determine in which formation this team will fly. We like their chances of picking up three wins. San Diego Saints 2-6-0 against CAHA 16AA teams; 4-6-0 Overall Signature Win(s): 5-2 at the Ice Dogs on Aug 30th and 2-1 at the Ice Dogs on Sep 20th Weekend Schedule: Stars Black (Fri), Ice Dogs (Sat), OCHC (Sat), BCL92 (Sun), Wave (Sun) The Saints return to the 16AA ranks this season with a team built from within, ten from last season’s 16A and Bantam A, and bolstered by assorted SDIA 16A and Bantam AA. They’ve had a tough go at it against CAHA 16AA competition to date, winning two of eight games, both against the Ice Dogs. The Saints were probably happy to see the JID on the docket this Saturday. At this point, we point out that our expertise on Saints hockey equals our knowledge of NorCal teams – zip and zippo. It took us until well into September to even figure out who coached the team. Now back to our regular programming. Look for the Saints to pull out a win this weekend, but not against the Ice Dogs. San Jose Jr Sharks 2-4-1 against CAHA 16AA teams; 4-7-1 Overall Signature Win(s): 8-2 over the Lightning 92s on Aug 30th and 2-1 over the Jets on Sep 13th Weekend Schedule: Stars Red (Sat), Wave (Sat), Cougars (Sun), Jets (Sun) Did I mention that having seventeen teams in this league is just killing me? This preview drags on and on – where will it end? Oh great, another NorCal – did I mention that all I know about the NorCal teams can be written in a matchbook with a grease pencil? Those of you familiar with this site from last season remember our correspondent from the northern waters Big Mouth Billy Bass. I got him on the fish fone long enough to find out that the Jr Sharks are smallish team, several 93's from last year's Bantam AA team and a few from the 16A. Their game results have certainly been all over the map and it appears they will struggle this season – let’s chalk San Jose up with only one win this weekend. Interestingly, the scheduler stuck the Sharks with two games on Sunday against their two brother NorCal teams. They lost to both teams on the same day at home a month ago – no reason to think it won’t happen again. SoCal-Hockey.com Jr Ice Dogs 2-4-1 against CAHA 16AA teams; 5-5-1 Overall Signature Win(s): 2-1 at OCHC on Oct 5th Weekend Schedule: Jr Ducks (Fri), Saints (Sat), Heat (Sat), Stars Black (Sun), Wild (Sun) I really don’t know what to make of these guys. Generally speaking, a team returning eleven players from a playoff Bantam AAA roster would be rated among the favorites entering a 16AA season. I don’t think anyone considers the JID as a threat to run over the midget minor competition. That over half of the players filling out the balance of the roster came from the Bantam A ranks just adds more mystery to this equation. Responses to our requests for information about the Bantam AAA Ice Dogs ranged from “Bay Harbor on steroids” to “just because you call yourself AAA doesn’t make it so”. At 5-5-1, the Ice Dogs are off to a fine start and their recent wins over the OC and the BCL93s point out that last season’s AAA experience didn’t go to waste. They added one returning 16AA player – a solid goalie who will keep this bunch of youngsters in a lot of games. Unfortunately, the JID drew the toughest schedule of anyone at CAHA #1. They better jump on the Saints on Saturday morning because the rest of the weekend is littered with things that go “boo” in the night. Southern California Titans 2-8-1 against CAHA 16AA teams; 2-9-1 Overall Signature Win(s): 7-4 at Jr Ice Dogs on Oct 11th Weekend Schedule: Wave (Sat), Cougars (Sat), Stars Red (Sun), Jr Kings (Sun) Going into the season, the Titans coaches knew they had two months to get their charges up to speed – Tier II speed; two-thirds of the roster is playing AA hockey for the first time. The entire team is home grown, coming from some Mariners team last season (you’d think Ventura County was somewhere isolated like Fresno or Calexico given the lack of club-hopping activity), 4 from 16AA and 3 from Bantam AA. Since three-fourths of the players are second year midgets, all of whom have known each other for years, the feeling was that as time went on, things should begin to fall into place. Once the Titans got used to the added speed at AA, familiarity should lead to some success. It’s been a slow process as their 2-8-1 record indicates and the two-month clock will toll midnight this weekend; no more boot camp – time to deploy. The Titans get a nice mix of games at CAHA #1 and should really give an indication of whether this group will be contenders or mere pretenders. Look for them to split their four games leaving everyone with more questions than answers. Vacaville Jets 1-1-1 against CAHA 16AA teams; 3-2-3 Overall Signature Win(s): 3-2 at Jr Sharks on Sep 28th Weekend Schedule: Wild (Sat), Gulls (Sat), Jr Ducks (Sun), Jr Sharks (Sun) I can’t believe it – we finally made it to the last review – as I wrote to socalmxcool in a midnight cry for help, “SEVENTEEN TEAMS ARE KILLING ME!!!” According to the MS-Word word count feature, we're at about 3,500 words right now. Last season, the Vacaville Jets got screwed by politics and by its own association (I.e. NORCAL). They assembled a very nice team, one that would have made a deep playoff run if given the chance. Unfortunately, the REMFs at Division told these fine foot soldiers that they would not be allowed to play in reindeer games, and cancelled their right to fight. They played the season as an independent and gave many of the CAHA 16AA teams a good beating in exhibition games. This season, according to Big Mouth Billy Bass, this is a very different roster than last year's team, with only three forwards and three defensemen returning. New players come from a variety of NORCAL 16A teams as well as SJ Bantam AA, and a SJ 18AA kid who played up. The Jets get sorely tested this weekend at CAHA #1. What happens on Saturday against the Wild and Gulls will go a long way to determining where these guys fit into the scheme of things. I have no prediction; remember? – match book and a grease pencil. That’s it – we’re done!!! This effort physically drained me – and I’ve got a headache. Time for a short vacation, maybe it’s not too late to catch that plane to Hawaii with Obama – he’s taking today and tomorrow off from the campaign trail. As for CAHA #1, I’ve got a 4am wake-up call all set up for Saturday. We’ll try to get the scores posted in a timely manner, but what the hell for? Everyone is going to be at the rink all weekend anyway. Drive safely and hope for no brush fires. |
| CAHA Tier II Weekend #1 - Preview |
