"Plenty of ice time" is just code for "not enough players"

[chapel 20]

I always see people selling leagues and games as giving "Plenty of ice time"

when I show up, it's normally 9-12 guys total and 2 goalies...

which is a pretty brutal amount of ice time (on Tuesday I played the entire hour without rest)

How many guys do you normally play with on your team?

[chippa13 1844]

For a regular game we go with 10 skaters. For pickup you really don't want more than 16 skaters total, 8 a side, plus 2 goalies. Any more than that and you sit too much.

[JSK81 400]

I prefer 10 a side for pick up, that way every player has a sub. Having 3 d-men usually works too.

As a forward, I hate having to switch position in every shift.

[chapel 20]

Same here. I want at LEAST a full line of subs. I hate playing forward... I'm a defenceman. I don't do well up front. I don't know how to play it.

I think 10 people per team is fine for pickup.

13-15 is necessary for competition (at least 3 Forward lines and 2 defence lines)

But 4 on 4 with 1 goalie and ONE sub for ONE team... not cool.

I'm so burned out right now

[chippa13 1844]

If I show up for a game and we've got more than 10 skaters then I'm considering going home.

[Chadd 916]

For a regular game we go with 10 skaters. For pickup you really don't want more than 16 skaters total, 8 a side, plus 2 goalies. Any more than that and you sit too much.

I couldn't disagree more. With only 8 per side, people around here tend to float and coast and the shifts get longer and longer, as do the time spent on the bench. With a deeper bench there is more pressure to skate hard and get off the ice, leading to a much more entertaining game.

If I show up for a game and we've got more than 10 skaters then I'm considering going home.

I usually volunteer to play forward when we have three forward lines and four defensemen. If we only have ten guys, I usually play D.

[badger_14 601]

People play positions at pickup? ;) Ok back on track.

Some skates here seem to think the ideal total (both teams) is 15 skaters and 2 goalies. This seems to be the case for established pickups with a core group of guys that have been running a long time, and also seems more common for A/B or B/C skates. When I ran intramural (glorified pickup) at my school we sometimes had 20 a side and 4 goalies, which wasn't so much fun, but 10 - 15 a side seems reasonable. The street hockey groups I play goal with usually figure that having at least 8 people and 1 goalie is acceptable. (although I am sure 3v3 with 1 sub per side gets old fast for the runners). I feel like games (actual organized league games), people want fewer skaters, but for an 1 1/2 - 2 hour pickup you can get away with more skaters, there's attrition, people saunter in late.

It seems to me that I'd rather roster (or be on a roster with) more players than necessary, because I'd rather there be an abundance of skaters and a little less time on ice than end up with only 1 or 2 subs and have everyone end up dragging ass by the middle of the game.

[akravetz 29]

Interesting topic as we just went through this. Our rec league team has 15 plus a goalie. The games are 22-minutes long with a running clock so optimal is about 10 to 12 guys tops. We have a bit more as we have five travel hockey dads, a cop in training and expect never to have a full bench. I will say that in the past when we rostered 12 or so, there were many games where we did "iron man" (five guys and a goalie) or would be a few guys down. The feeling on our team, at least, was to have a bit more than a bit less. Now, that said ,we are largely in our 40s or late 30s so there is that.

Andy in Peoria

[chippa13 1844]

For our team we have our roster of 10 spots. There are some guys that will split spots but we work it so that we should always have 9-10. We have a good supply of guys who will fill in so we don't usually get stuck short.

[chapel 20]

I couldn't disagree more. With only 8 per side, people around here tend to float and coast and the shifts get longer and longer, as do the time spent on the bench. With a deeper bench there is more pressure to skate hard and get off the ice, leading to a much more entertaining game.

I usually volunteer to play forward when we have three forward lines and four defensemen. If we only have ten guys, I usually play D.

Yeah, I'd rather play hard 2 minute shifts than drag ass for 6-8 minutes (or in the case of Tuesday night's game 60 minutes...)

People play positions at pickup? ;) Ok back on track.

Some skates here seem to think the ideal total (both teams) is 15 skaters and 2 goalies. This seems to be the case for established pickups with a core group of guys that have been running a long time, and also seems more common for A/B or B/C skates. When I ran intramural (glorified pickup) at my school we sometimes had 20 a side and 4 goalies, which wasn't so much fun, but 10 - 15 a side seems reasonable. The street hockey groups I play goal with usually figure that having at least 8 people and 1 goalie is acceptable. (although I am sure 3v3 with 1 sub per side gets old fast for the runners). I feel like games (actual organized league games), people want fewer skaters, but for an 1 1/2 - 2 hour pickup you can get away with more skaters, there's attrition, people saunter in late.

It seems to me that I'd rather roster (or be on a roster with) more players than necessary, because I'd rather there be an abundance of skaters and a little less time on ice than end up with only 1 or 2 subs and have everyone end up dragging ass by the middle of the game.

I try to play position. I'm useless as a forward. I'm decent as a centre because I'm rather good on draws and because I get to play defensively in the defending zone.

I wouldn't want to play with 20 a side. the most a team should be is 12 forwards and 6 defence and 2 goalies. there's no good reason for 4 full lines.

I want to play, not try to find ways on ice to sandbag so I can get my legs.

[IPv6Freely 2082]

We've been getting 11 fairly consistently lately which can be a pain for actual lines but at our level where lines don't matter we just go with three centers and two sets of wings.

Some captains try to rotate that extra person around but that just gets confusing especially during PK situations. Our centers (one of them being me) are completely fine with three short shifts.

[badger_14 601]

Yeah, I'd rather play hard 2 minute shifts than drag ass for 6-8 minutes (or in the case of Tuesday night's game 60 minutes...)

I try to play position. I'm useless as a forward. I'm decent as a centre because I'm rather good on draws and because I get to play defensively in the defending zone.

I wouldn't want to play with 20 a side. the most a team should be is 12 forwards and 6 defence and 2 goalies. there's no good reason for 4 full lines.

I want to play, not try to find ways on ice to sandbag so I can get my legs.

20+ a side was definitely not fun, but the administration eventually noticed the interest and gave us additional ice time (so we had two 2-hour blocks during the week) and numbers evened out a bit. The 4 goalies worked out because they could swap after an hour.

Mostly at pickup I would say people play the one-on-one-off style rather than set positions. It's New England after all and we like things that eliminate or mitigate the need for actual conversation with other people. Less than a certain number of people in games and you have to anyway, since you can't have two subs and one be like 'o I'm defence I can't sub in for you'.

When I played in a 4v4 league, 10 was the maximum for a team (+ goalie), and 8 was just fine.

[wils5150 4]

for pick up what ever we get we get but for league play we play our best with 3 foward lines and to set s of d men. nobody complains about ice time. we had a game 2 weeks ago where only 7 skaters showed up we hung in untill the 3rd period then ran out of gas and lost 5-3

[flyers10 57]

For my organized pickup we run 10 skaters a side. Line 1 is higher skilled and line 2 is usually C-D level. Each line skates 2 minutes and then changes. Each person gets solid 45 minutes of skate time. Always have 2 goalies. No worries about guy taking 10 min shifts or having too many or too few wanting to play.

[hunterphfr 12]

We shoot for 9-10 skaters per game on both our Sunday and Tuesday team. We carry 11 paid players and a goalie. Currently one paid slot is 2 half season players. I have a handful of players that bitch to no end if we're over 10 skaters. I've had guys walk in, take a head count and turn around and walk out. I send out a group text with game info and ask who's in and who's out. We make adjustments from there.

[chapel 20]

per game PER team or TOTAL?

I just don't have fun skating the entire hour.

I have to play at like 30-60% all game. I know I can be doing better if I had a rest.

[Tech1208 27]

We carry 13 plus a goalie. I prefer 10-11 plus goalie. Fair amount of ice and rest.

[MarsB 33]

Either 10 or 13 skaters is best, since you can keep the forward lines together. 9 can work if your D-men don't mind only 1 sub. Anything else is kind of annoying.

[chapel 20]

you guys are talking per side?

[wrangler 157]

For league play 13 - 15 seemed OK, and was just fine for a 2-hour pickup. That's with everyone skating hard, and coming off regularly.