Overall a pretty interesting first CAHA weekend in Valencia... Hope all teams/kids had a safe and injury-free tourney. Since my kid is in Flight 2, I speak mostly for Flight 2 games but looking at Flight 1 results and speaking to Flight 1 kids/parents, my early observations are as follow:
- Only thing that CAHA's flight system proved to me is that 13 & 14 yo kids are as inconsistent as they come. Judging by all scores, teams that some wrote off stepped up while the supposedly cream of the crop teams had subpar showings...
Flight 1:
- IMO, it's crystal clear and not too early to say Bears are the team to beat and anything short of state champs would likely be considered a failure of a season.
- GSE1 and GSE2 were likely hoping to have fared better this past weekend as:
--- GSE1 went 2-2, managing to barely beat Kings1 (a team that most assumed didn't belong in Flight 1) and Wave1 (most definitely will finish last in Flight 1 if they don't change their stupid brand of hockey and stop perpetually collecting endless penalties... See game vs Ducks1...)
--- GSE2 went 1-1-2, losing to a Sharks team that most didn't see coming, tying Empire that most probably thought they should've won against but managed to tie Bears (GSE2 seems to give the Bears the most trouble in Flight 1...)
- Empire proved once again that they can bring it against anyone and are edging closer to the top teams. Tying GSE2 and beating Blackhawks were impressive. I'm a fan of Empire but going 1-3 was a real possibility but instead they proved me wrong going 2-1-1.
Flight 2:
- Just when I thought Mariners looked great vs Kings2 and Reign, and about to crown them the team to beat in Flight 2, they lose big to Flyers 6-1...
- Then I start thinking Flyers may be the team to beat, then they somehow tied Kings2, a team that some thought didn't belong even in Flight 2. Personally I've always thought Kings2 belonged and would only get better as they can all skate and when you have a team of solid skaters, you will compete. Kings2 are definitely looking better. Tying a mostly 03 Flyers team was impressive for the all-04 Kings2.
- Thought Wave2 would go 3-0 but went 2-0-1 instead, salvaging the game vs OCHC2 after falling behind by 2 goals. OCHC2 played hard and brought it. It was a fun game to watch and teams shouldn't sleep on OC... Game vs Saints was another fun one. Saints beat Wave2 recently in a preseason game 4-0 and any games vs Saints will always be nailbiters... Big test next week for Wave2 vs Mariners. Overall, Flyers and Wave2 were the only teams in Flight 2 that finished the weekend without a loss.
- Reign and Ducks2... I thought I saw one of the Ducks2 leading scorer sitting in the stands vs Mariners? Anyhow, I can't say much about Ducks2 but they looked to be struggling a bit. Reign seems to have trouble scoring but not a terrible team as they do have a few solid players.
Overall, season off to a pretty interesting start!
