Re: Americans-Canadians
Trillium.....Give me your best assessment of the PWHL this year, as compared to previous years. If you have any other comments you would like to make on the state of hockey in Ontario, please do. I know the gap is tightening in many circles, so let us figure out why, and how good it is for hockey. I wish OnMAA would get get back to us on those stats.
Sorry for the delayed response.
I think in many ways, the PWHL as a whole was better this year than it has ever been--the top teams were better than ever, and the middle teams were much stronger through the ~top 10-12 teams, making for very highly competitive games from #3-12. Unfortunately, there are probably 4-6 too many teams in the league, and there has not been enough high end talent for the bottom 6 teams to be sufficiently competitive with the rest.
The Toronto Aeros and Mississauga Chiefs were a significant step above the other teams in the league. Both had probably the best teams from top to bottom than they have had in many years, if ever. Every game between the two was a nailbiter. Aeros won the Provincial and PWHL titles, as well as the Stoney Can-Am, rolling their lines evenly all year, in all situations. Aeros placed 11 in D1.
Mississauga won Bronze at Provincials, Silver in the PWHL, and won the Stoney Showcase plus a couple other tourneys and placed 4 in D1. These two teams would have matched well versus most D1 teams. Early in the season, the Aeros actually beat Brown and Harvard, and tied Cornell. Both teams return 6 players next year.
Bluewater, Stoney Creek and Ottawa are typically among the top 5-6 teams in the league every year, along with the first 2 teams noted, and this year was no exception. Bluewater won Silver at Provincials and 4th in PWHL, and placed 5 at D1. Stoney Creek won Bronze in the PWHL and placed 7 at D1. Ottawa placed 6 at D1. The biggest difference between these teams and the top 2 is depth, and these 3 each relied much more heavily on their top line players with disproportionate ice time for each to produce. These teams, plus Cambridge and Whitby, had great games versus top US teams including Little Caesars, Chicago Mission, SSM, NAHA, LA Selects in the Can-Am Series' .
The biggest difference this year versus some previous years was that games versus the #6-12 teams weren't "gimmes" this year against the top 5--the usual drop off around that point didn't really exist as much as in the past. Windsor, Cambridge, Kitchener, Whitby, Aurora, London...and even Etobicoke and Brampton at times... gave most of the top end teams many good games.
Durham, which had been a perennial top 5 contender in the first 5 years of the league, dropped to the cellar due to large scale graduations last year, and resulting defections of their few remaining players elsewhere. They are now in a rebuilding phase. Oakville, Hamilton, Burlington, Markham and Etobicoke have had consistent difficulty competing over the past few years and this year was no exception. Many wish these teams would be folded or merged, as there are just too many teams in the Greater Toronto Area too close together. Unfortunately, the PWHL executive lacks the balls to make that happen. The bottom end teams would actually have difficulty beating the top Midget AA teams (Aeros, Stoney Creek, Thunder Bay, Willowdale, Brampton etc) consistently. However, too many players/parents egos won't let them choose Midget over weak PWHL teams.
Many, including myself, are questioning what the impact will be in the PWHL next season. The 89-92 age groups were all strong talentwise, with the 92s the best of the bunch in depth. So the PWHL as a whole will not likely be nearly as strong. I would expect both Mississauga and the Aeros to be favoured to challenge for the title again, but neither will be anywhere nearly as strong as this year...and it drops down proportionally from there. Bluewater is likely the next best, and the weakest few will yet again be cellar-dwellers.
The interesting question is what will happen with recruiting next season--both from the PWHL and overall. It appears that the 93 birth year may not be as strong as the 92s across all of North America. By the looks of the list, is certainly possible that D1 programs foresaw this and "overrecruited" this year to compensate, suggesting there might be an even bigger drop there than might otherwise be expected as a result.
How does the 93 group look in your part of the world?
