It is a bit discouraging. Seems like a waste of time, actually. If the other teams aren't going to be serious and put forth any real effort, why are we even playing the games? Perhaps it would be better to do it like the guys up north and let teams make their own schedules outside of the CAHA weekends. By doing this the teams could only schedule games with teams that do things the same way. Teams that want to mail it in could play like-minded teams. Those that want a real game can limit their ice time to teams that want to compete.
A couple weeks ago our team won a game against a flight 2 team. After the game the parents on the other side made sure we all knew the coach had benched their star player for the first two periods. "Obviously, our team would have won if he had played. It's just a meaningless SCAHA game so the coach decided to teach the kid a lesson," they explained.
The following week the opposing team simply cancelled. My kid had no game. Just a SCAHA game. No big deal.....
Next, it's off to Yorba Linda and we get all this. Team plays a scrimmage right before they play us. Others chime in an discredit our kids' efforts. Just a SCAHA game. Nobody cares. Coach approaches it differently.
That's OK, though. I bought my plane tickets, have my hotel booked in Vacaville and a rental car waiting for me in Sacramento. Our guys will finally play games that count. Of course, they will be against three other SoCal teams, but at least we'll have an excuse-free weekend. I hope
Awesome season. Just loving it. Super duper.