Leaderboard

While I'm not familiar with the US league system, I've experienced fast skaters across a few beginner leagues. My advise to them usually is: be aware of your potential speed, and use it when it makes sense. Imagine a TV camera catching your game, all players should always be in the same frame - a pass to a person half-ice up shouldn't be attempted. So don't sprint "away" from your team, don't go full speed all the time. Come back to your hashmarks, assist your puck-carrier, it is _your_ job to be open for passes as the man without the puck. Use your speed by _changing_ your speed - you always can go faster, while your opponents might not, if you use this as a deception this can be your greatest weapon. When you get the puck, use your speed to buy a few seconds to find open players, read the game. Being fast is a great base, but once you move up and others are as fast as you, but they are stronger on the basics (stick, positioning, etc) it gets very hard not to get frustrated. Use the novice league for gaining skill, so that you can be the type of player that assists you on those 1-3 C-D level pickups for the people in the novice league. This will further your skills and understanding way more. Side-note: Imho games don't build skills. Practice does. In a game you have <10 shots, in a practice you have that within a few minutes. Same for almost any other skill 🙂

I would say it is what it is, that is what you are going to find in E league. Probably time to give D a try and see how you do. Even if it's a little fast at first you will benefit and probably get better faster.

Ok I spoke to "the experts"... my 9yo son likes them, likes the colors and thinks the design on the reverse side is cool (has no idea who Beiber is). My 12yo daughter thinks they're lame (she's 12 and is VERY opinionated so this was an emphatic "lame!" 🤣), she has heard of Justin Beiber but doesn't know who he is or why he's famous. I mean maybe it's more aimed at local Toronto kids so maybe the rest of us are out of the loop but if it's aimed at kids I think more colorful and fun designs might be better (looking at you Dallas Stars with the obnoxious green on black that I absolutely hated at first but have come to realize it actually really works well... of course both of my kids loved it from the get go lol, I clearly wasn't the target demographic there either).

I’m an open minded and progressive guy in most of my life. But, every time a new next gen type jersey comes out I am a belligerent old man yelling about “kids these days” and “hell in a hand basket.”