MGHA Evaluations – October 24

Announcements

TL;DR: Evaluations are this week. You MUST sign up by FRIDAY! Link is below! Please read this entire announcement for important information.

Hey all!

The time has come for evaluations. Please read this entire announcement for information on how this will work this season.

First point of order: The MGHA does not cut players. You will all be put on a team.

Now that that’s out of the way, here we go.

ACTION ITEM: Sign up for a slot based on your skill level.

  • Please do your best to sign up for the level that best matches your skills.
  • Each slot is limited to 20 skaters (and 2 goalies, who will organize themselves)
  • Only skaters who feel they can safely skate in L2 (higher level) should sign up for the 6:50, 7:20, or 8:30 slots
  • Sign up by FRIDAY, October 22 because we need to print rosters!
  • https://www.madisongayhockey.org/evaluations/

Off-Ice Gameplan:
We need to know who is on the ice to effectively evaluate skaters. An evaluation rep will gather information and provide it to the evaluators.

  • Arrive early and be dressed by the start time listed
  • Check in with the evaluation rep (will be near the rink doors somewhere and will likely have a clipboard) before stepping on the ice and provide them with the following
    • Your name
    • Jersey number (if your jersey doesn’t have a number, use hockey tape and create one on the back of the jersey)*

On-Ice Gameplan:
The on-ice portion will be split between drills and scrimmage. We need you to skate to the best of your ability while staying IN CONTROL. We need to know who is able to score at-will. We need to know how fast you are. Please play to the best of your ability while skating safely. We will have brief on-ice demonstrations, but below is the breakdown of the drills we will be doing.

  • 5 minute warmup
    • Use this time to stretch and skate around
  • 7 minute skating drills (subject to change)
    • Forward skating and stopping
      • Form 6 lines at the goal line
      • First group of 6 goes and they skate at their top speed (safely, in control) from goal line to center ice then fully stop (we need to see if you can stop)
      • That group then continues to other goal line, stopping again
      • The next group of 6 goes when the last person from the first group reaches center ice
    • Backwards skating
      • Repeat the forward skating drill but backwards (don’t worry too much if you can’t skate backwards)
    • Skating circles
      • All players line up in the corner to the goalie’s right
      • Skate around the circles, essentially creating figure 8s up the ice
      • Skaters will finish to the other goalie’s right
  • 12 minute rainbow drill
    • Standard rainbow
      • Split into two groups with half on one side of ice and half on the other
      • On each side, half of the players are in the corner to the goalie’s left while half are on the goalie’s right
      • One person from the goalie’s right skates forward up around the cone and starts coming back into the zone toward the goalie
      • The person next in line on the goalie’s left passes a puck to the incoming skater who then catches the puck and shoots it on net
      • The shooter goes to the opposite line
      • The passer now goes up and around the cone and the process repeats with the person on the opposite side now passing the puck
    • 2-on-0 rainbow
      • Same setup as last time but all pucks go to the corner to the goalie’s right
      • One player from each line skates up and around the cone
      • As they come in, they receive a pass from the next person in line to the goalie’s right
      • The two coming into the zone may pass back and forth then one player takes a shot
      • After the shot, they switch sides and the next skater in each line goes
  • Scrimmage
    • Scrimmage-style hockey is in effect
      • Half of the players on each bench
      • 5-on-5 hockey
      • Change when you’re ready (please keep shifts short)
      • When changing, LOUDLY call out the position you were playing
      • Next person in line takes your position on the ice
      • Reminder: Please play to the best of your ability (safely) to help us estimate skill levels

*Flair Points:
While you don’t get any official points, wearing distinctive jerseys (or other forms of flair) will help show your personality while helping us off-ice evaluators recognize you. Feel free to be creative and have fun with it as long as the flair is not too distracting or unsafe.

Recap:
Remember, we’re using these evaluations as a means to balance teams both for team creation and for subbing later in the season. We get that everyone has an off night and sometimes your best one day isn’t equal to your best another day. It’s all good! Don’t stress about it. Go out there and do what you can do! Oh, and as always, have fun!

In case you didn’t do it yet, go sign up now. Please do this by Friday!
https://www.madisongayhockey.org/evaluations/

Oh, and the deadline for play-with requests is this Sunday…
Play-With Requests (Optional – Due October 24)
https://www.madisongayhockey.org/play-with-requests/

I think that’s it for now.
I understand that this is a lot.
If you have questions, please reach out!

Thanks!
Tim
(on behalf of HOps)