Aihl festival: Nov 7-8

[GROWL]

Looking to start some chatter about the festival this weekend. By far the largest single event in elite/pro inline hockey for as long as I can remember. 12 elite and 12 minor teams, each schedule to play 6 cross division games each. Food for thought:

Any games that stick out to anyone? Pitt/LI rematch? Boston/Scottdale ect...

How will the new Beantown Braves elite make out?

Potomac Mavericks join AIHL, how will they fair?

Scottdale is now infused with players from their minor league championship team, how much better will they be?

Which division will win more games; minor/elite?

Over/Under number of OT/Shootout games?

What players will standout?

Will anyone go 6-0?

Also a few additional games this weekend in Atlantic Division. Brawlers @ Nightmare & Surge @ Grizzlies

[Ronnie Williams]

Great job Anthony and AIHL for bringing this many teams for one weekend to one location. If it wasn't 13 hours away of hard driving I'd be there watching some of these games!

Good luck to all,

Ronnie Williams
GM - The Georgia Syndicate

[DCbullets14]

events like this are in my opinnion the best way to build the league and sport. This is the perfect venue to pull in sponsors.

Potomac Mavericks have some great players if everyone is there they should be competitive.

im excited about our rematch with long island. We are hungry for a win after last years playoffs.

Scottsdale is a very strong team with one of the top Powerplays in the league anyone who takes penalties against them will not be successful.

I did not know that we were doing shootouts this year. that is awesome. hopefully every game goes to a shootout.....sorry goalies

I think the large number of games may give our division (colonial?) an advantage because most team have younger kids with a little more energy. young teams like Richmond can skate solid in all 6 games and should have plenty of energy.... some of the old guys... i guess we will have to wait and see...

[usahockey9]

Also a few additional games this weekend in Atlantic Division. Brawlers @ Nightmare & Surge @ Grizzlies


Who will win these games?

[Jon Mosenson]

I'm definitely looking forward to this weekends games. I'm looking forward to seeing how our team handles the injuries of 2 of our elite d-men and how the minor players that will be getting elite time will fair out. We are pulling up some youngsters as we will not only be missing our 2 injured d-men but also will be missing 2 of our top forwards on saturday. Sunday we will have the 2 forwards back but will still be short on D.

I'm definitely looking to play against the maryland goalie again because if he's even half as good as he was during last years playoffs he will be putting on a show.

495ers vs Pitt as always should be an interesting game. Im sharpening the butt end of my twig as we speak for that Roux kid.

All in all it should be a great event and I am definitely excited to see a lot of the people I haven't seen in months since I missed all the national tournaments this summer. Good luck to all the teams this weekend.

[CraigBrodz]

This weekend Should be a lot of fun. I am looking forward to seeing, playing against, and hanging out with some of my old teammates from college. There should be some really good games, that will be fun to watch. I am sure there will be some shootouts which will be fun to watch as well. I know it was fun to watch our minor team go to a shootout with Suffolk. I can't speak to those teams we will be playing but I know from playoffs last year games were really tightly contested, and after reading about all the improvements that teams have made on these boards, I am sure it will be an interesting weekend of hockey.

And DC don't apologize to goalies for wanting shootouts we love them just as much as you.

Best of luck to all this weekend.


Craig Brodmerkel #31
Long Island 495ers

[njstampede12]

Good luck to all this season.

[DCbullets14]

here is my llist of stand out players from this weekend. Theres alot of guys I dont know so Im sure I will miss a few.

Maryland Knights
1. Mike Gardner - makes his first AIHL apperarance (finally) and should be dominate on both ends of the floor.
2. Matt Beam - possibly the best goalie in the league. If your watching a knights game you do not want to stand by our offensive end because you will miss the show.

Richmond
1. Kevin Colombo - another increadible goalie. One of the quickest gloves you will ever see.
2. jordan Snead - sniper, sniper, sniper

Scottsdale
1. CJ King - will be all over the rink... expect him to take alot of shots and score alot of goals.

Potomac
1. Pat Giesecke - some of the quickest hands in the league.
2. Kevin Donovan - way to much hustle. will make alot of plays just because he is going to out work everyone else.

495ers (based on the playoffs last year)
1. Jon Mosenson - unfair size advantage, great shot, patient player. Thankfully he will be sitting in the box for half the day

Bandits
1. Dustin Roux - Will he be there? Controls the puck better than almost anyone. Amagzing on the penalty kill.
2. Brock Wilson - all around talent. Makes plays on both ends of the rink. Does great work on the powerplay.

Theres my scouting report Im pretty interested in seeing the other teams play. Sorry if I left anyone off this list who deserves to be on it.

[hockeymum]

is there a fee for spectators?

[Mlrhnorthfan]

I believe it is 10 for a day and 15 for a weekend pass.

[hockeymum]

what about kids?

[Jon Mosenson]

Hey dc, I resent that. My penalty minutes this season is a 4 (i think) for this season so far tot his point, Im on track for only 604 penalty minutes this season. Thats a big improvement I just wonder how long its gonna last.

[DCbullets14]

at least your leading the league in one of the stats categories.... the league has to have someone willing to take penalties in the all star game...

[towson9]

speaking of new things in the AIHL...

what else besides shootouts has changed from last year?

whats the format now: 5 min OT, followed by a shootout (also how many shooters each team)??

is there an allstar game this year?

[GROWL]

Overtime is in fact 5 minutes (3 on 3) followed by a 3 man shootout.

While we'd love to have an all-star game, we are just not prepared for it this year. The AIHL is a work in progress. We make no claim to be a final product. I expect many great results to come from our 2nd Annual owners meeting in Vegas this year. I'm sure an all-star game is on the agenda to be discussed for 2010-2011. This league has accomplished a lot in just 1 year and we hope for even bigger and better down the road.