Top Five Players!

[BreakawayProGM]

Who are the top five players in PIHA right now....CJ, I guess would be #1. Or is there someone else who has earned top spot? What do you guys think?

Jason Toran
General Manager
Nike Team Breakaway
[email protected]

[5_hole_master]

top 5 is pretty much impossible in this league, there is a ton of talent, especially in the east division. heres a list of some top players in my opinion...

cj yoder
brain yingling
steve yingling
jay mazer
ryan holloway
jim vivona
nick demulis
sonny mincielli
bill katinsky
john pinheiro
mike cianfranni
jd davidson
matt denton

these are most of the top players in the league right now, all of them have a ton ofpoints and help thier teams win every weekend.

[dareferee25]

1. Brian Yingling ---- All heart and leadership and NO FEAR
2. CJ Yoder ----- He just doesnt look like hes having fun anymore to turn it up a notch
3. Jimmy Vivona ---- The man can flat out pass the puck
4. John Pinheiro ---- Missed half a season and is on a major tear
5. Mike Cianfrani ---- Especially if he made more games

The Whistle Blower

[SpiderRat]

What, no tenders on the list? Goalies help teams win too.

[dareferee25]

I haven't scene any goalies light the world on fire yet in PIHA. There are guys like Jason Yocum who have great games but when a GAA is over 5 it's not that impressive to me at least. Unfortunately defenses are too poor in this league and all games have total goals easily over 10.

The Whistle Blower

[yokes]

Thanks for the mention, id definatly like to have my gaa down under that. I have the last game to add in and once i finish out the rest of the season ill be up there.

Goalies do it better with their eyes closed!!

[nobody]

maybe not the best in the league but if you wanna talk mvp....the biggest difference maker in this league is john p...the kid flat out turned the growl into a threat...i mean granted cj is just cj..best bar none..but take him off there and the yuengs still get u clost to the cup

[mik3howard]

wow, good lookin' puttin' billy on that list, nobody notices all him and his brother ray have done this season for the extremes.

[5_hole_master]

best goal tending tendem is the d'alosio (sp) brothers from the extremes. kyle who is the back-up has the only shut-out this season, and league history i believe. cooper from morristown, yokes, and byrd are all great keepers and win games for their teams when they do not play well enough to win.

As for MVP, you have to wait until the season is over to decide that, there is still a shot that the growl won't even make the playoffs, they have a lot of tough games left

a player most valuable to his team would have to be jimmy V. from the minutemen.. he has a hand in like 70% of the teams goals, that is a most valuable player, the growl have other guys that can score, and do score... without jimmy v morristown is in dead last in the division, instead they are tied for first.

It's hard to get a feel for all of the teams and their potentials because rarely ever does a full team show up for anyone, i know with breakaway, extremes, minutemen, typhoon, everyone is not always there, just look at some of the scores and rosters to get a feel for this...

ie, typhoon beat shockwave with no problem with everyone, then they are missing brian ying, and lose to them

extremes destroy growl (with john p) 12-5 and then only have 6 guys and coach playing with them the next week and lose 14-6

breakaway and minutemen flip flopped 14/15-6 beatings on each other, each time one team didnt have all there guys.

the true test will be the playoffs, it's just a dog fight right now for postioning.

It's good to see though that the talent is spread out in the league this season and not one team is just running away with it, good balance of power this season, espcially in the east. first place teams are tied at 8-5, then 6-6, then 6-7... east is wide open, while west seems to belong to the typhoon

just my .02

[5_hole_master]

yah i never even seen bill play until i went up and caught an extremes game vs that nastyboys team a few weeks back, controlled the pace of the game when he was on the floor, it was interesting because it seemed he liked to slow the play down with his 'O' partner and then mincieli (sp) would come out with his partner whos as fast as he is (sorry i dont recall the name) and they would play a run and gun style, the nasty boys were down 5-1 before they new what happened... extremes in my opinion, along with breakaway are two teams that would end up in the finals if their whole teams show up for playoffs

[skater1818]

Alright, another part of PIHA is the minor league for all of those whom forgot. Any word on players there? Any future Pro Players amongst them? Just curious.

[nobody]

yea future players are all the swoosh young guys...

[nobody]

about the extrememes beating the growl wit john p..that was his first game and he had very little time on the rink wit his injury still lingering...jimmy v can fill the stat sheets but they have at least 4-5 guys that are flat out better then anyone of the growls roster besides john p...sorry i do not agree wit that point

[Db55UD02]

Since I have some insight on the Minors, let me add my players to the list.
Redstreake=didn't know who he was until the all star game
Sullivan=can take over a game, played with him and jj last year
Fichter=One of the best hands in our league
Gartszke=Always a threat when he has the puck
Not sure about the west teams (york and Reading), but the leas kid seems to be racking up the points.
Cruz from the Minutemen.
Haven't a clue about the Extremes team....
As for my former mates in Scrapperville, I would say Phillips and Sidano would be a starting D pair on any Pro roster in this league ( Miller doesn't count, played pro last year).
If there is a will and a way, I will get the Tremors in the Final Four in the minor league playoffs. The swoosh are the team to beat, but I wouldn't mind knocking off the Scrappers or Minutemen getting to the Swoosh in the Finals. Just my point of view here...

Lets Go Flyers

[dareferee25]

Yokes,

You are a hell of a player.....I have officiated many of your games and I would say there are nights when you have carried your team to a victory with great goaltending. I would love to see somebody with a goals against average that is that low meaning the 5.00 mark. Unfortunately for every goalie there is a ratio of 2 great offenseman to defenseman on every team in the league. Roller Hockey is designed for High Scoring and thats why more and more youth are playing it. The problem is coaches do not teach defense and once these players get the Pro Level (PIHA, MLRH, etc.) Defense is not really discussed amongst teams other than a penalty kill. The leagues have turned into run and gun and basically who can outscore who on any given night. I do give you guys a lot of credit for hanging in between the pipes each night. You just got to wonder when you see 50 to 60 shots a game are you guys going home with nightmares of pucks flyin at you because a forward or two got lazy and now you have a 4 on 2 with 3 or 4 shots at you before one will finally go in. Anyway to the rest of the PIHA goalies keep up the good work, and remember just because your not top on anybody's list doesn't mean you aren't a guy who can carry a team on any givin night ie. Shutouts that have been pitched in the minor league.

The Whistle Blower

[GROWL]

If your gonna list players like Holloway, Mincelli, Katinsky, & Demulis to that list, then you best add Fischer and Lenza from the Growl to that list, not to mention a whole list of other good players in the league. Sonny Kim, Justin Leas, Bobby Beauchamp ect... Those are all good players, but the top five is not tough to list. The first list had them all right in my opinion, maybe not in that order, but easily the top five. You could argue that denton and mazer are worthy, but past that its all second tier players, who i am taking nothing away from. If you paid a tiny bit of attention All-Star weekend you could see that Jasn Cieselski of the Buffalo Wings could also be amongst the leagues best.

[GROWL]

Let's follow that up by pointing out that the Growl roster is completely different, not just with the arrival of Pinheiro but with the departure of some players which give the team's top players more rink time and they have proven that they are a better team this way. I also predict that by the end of the season, everyone will start to recognize that the Growl goaltending is under-rated and it was a year and a half's worth of spotty defense that troubled them, not goaltending.

[5_hole_master]

sean sullivan is amazing, when hes 18 hes going to make an impact at the PRO level, next season look out.

[5_hole_master]

actually mincelli (sp) is far better then most in this league, first player to 20, 30, and 40 goals this season, sure lenza and ficher are good team players, but do not stand out... they work well in your system... John P stands out, you notice him in most games he plays, whether hes on or off that game. as for the rest of the guys on your list, denton and mazer are far better then 97% of the league if not more, demulis is one of the most natural scorers in the league, if hes off his team is off, if holloway or katinsky are off their teams are out of it, thats all im saying, if lenzxa or fisher are off you have johnny P that can make up for both of them in a quarter if he wanted to. dont take it personal, they are amazing team players, arguably tyhe best in the league, they are both players who should win a "ladybing" award for this league.

again just my .02

[5_hole_master]

goaltending underrated? no, your defense is just better now that has nothing to do with your goaltending

[SpeedDemon]

Well, after reading this whole thread, I've got an idea ... how about we all just wait until the end of the season to start bickering about who is the best and who sucks ;)

[nobody]

coming from a guy who has watched every game ...and by your comment i can see you have not...kalesh stole the breakaway and shockwave game...ask any player from nike who the best player on the rink was and they will tell you the growl between the pipes...make sure u dont just read box scores before you make comments.

[DannyG]

from a total outsider, who has only seen a handful of the guys bantered about below, this is fascinating...

It is a further sign of legitimacy that such a back-and-forth discussion can be stirred by this question...

Perhaps the PIHA is becoming a quality product in the professional ranks a lot more solidly than some would have us believe?

My dos centavos: Way to go guys, keep up the good work, you appear to be producing results!

<font color=purple>DannyG</font color=purple>

[GROWL]

Fischer was last season's leading scorer, but I guess that doesn't stand out. The Tour Growl was always a competetive team, even before Johnny P arrived. He is the piece of the puzzle that we were missing, but Catalano and Fischer were always are bread & butter and can play with anyone in this league. Lenza has proved that he is a pure goal scorer this season. I am not claiming that any of these guys are top 5 material, obviously John P is, but my point was that the rest of those guys weren't either.

[GROWL]

This is absolutely true! As the General Manager of our team, I know where we are strong and where we are weak. We have two or three solid d-men, but after that we've been using forwards like Braun and Pinheiro as defensemen because we have no depth there. Our defense only got better because of the departure of the sub-par d-men we bagan the year with, not because we improved it by adding anyone. Our goaltending has improved dramatically and Kalish has stepped up to the plate in a big way.