Youth Hockey Digest: Rink Links

A survey of what's happening in Youth Hockey this week

Ahhhh the fresh smell of cellophane and polyester fibers has made its way to a rink near you.  And not a moment too soon! This year we paid over $300 for beautiful stitched jerseys from JOG. And, I must say they look incredible. But, I was also ok spending $150 for jerseys last year that had the colors embedded into the fabric with no stitching. But, hey, what can you do, it is what the club wants, right? Still, it is good to be back on the ice, back in the barns and back throwing some thoughts out on this haphazard newsletter I am trying to do! 

Youth Hockey is growing in Seattle. They will need goalies.
It is so crazy thinking about how much youth hockey growth lies ahead in the Seattle area. If you are around youth hockey all week and weekend like I am, reading these articles can be eye-opening. It is as if Youth Hockey was non existent in the Seattle area until the Kraken popped up. I don’t believe that is entirely true, but what I have seen from my years in North Carolina is that a new hockey team, like the Hurricanes were for years, makes all the difference in interest and in investment. The Kraken's Chris Driedger is putting his time in to get goalies on the ice. Because as we all know, without goalies, there are no games. (Yakima Times)

More criminals are coming out of the woodwork in Youth Hockey. It is not a good look. Maybe it is time that clubs do background checks on people to avoid this kind of issue.
How hard up do people have to be to steal $6000 from a youth hockey program? These rinks sometimes are barely running well enough to keep the pretzels warm, much less operating the refrigeration for the ice, or hiring staff to keep the rink open. Worst of all, it was an inside job. (Shore News Network)

Another study on the affects of checking on our kids. I am pro checking, but I can recognize why there needs to be more thinking about how the strategy can impact our kids.
If, like me, you have a 14U player giving and taking checks for the first time, the news of the study that came out advising hockey to start checking at age 18U got my attention. I have also heard some say that starting them checking at 8U would be better because their bodies are not large enough, or fast enough, to do any real damage. Debatable, but with more years of checking correctly under their belts, as their bodies continue to develop, the theory reasons that there would be less injury. Something to think about. (Yahoo News)

The Toronto Star is weighing in on brain injuries as well. It is welcome.
If you have ever had a child suffer from a concussion as I have, you know that your interest in the head and the helmet become sky high. My son took a bad check from a hot headed kid and paid a price. Not a severe price as it was —thankfully— not a severe head injury, but one that certainly took my breath away for a few seconds. We rushed him to the emergency room and fortunately he had minor concussion from what I would consider a serious hit from behind. This was years ago now, first year of bantam, when no one is very good at hitting or skating, so it was just a bad day. But neither my son, nor the kid who hit him wound up in the NHL, so what is the point of such violent checks. How do we protect the head, the heart, and the mind, so our kids can enjoy the game at a fast pace, with appropriate hitting, and still be healthy children after they get off the ice? These kinds of articles keep the awareness up, and the conversation going. (Toronto Star)