Hello 8U Families,
As we move forward in our season with the South Shore Conference, I wanted to share a few important updates. Our challenging start is finally winding down, and we truly appreciate everyone’s patience and support throughout the parity round.
Parity can be a great experience for some teams, but as many of you have seen, it has required extra flexibility and understanding for our 8U half-ice teams. I’ve always believed that patience, positivity, commitment, and teamwork are the qualities that define strong hockey families — and that’s exactly what we’ve seen from all of you.
Hockey teaches players more than skating and scoring; it builds discipline, respect, and resilience. What matters most isn’t the size of the rink, the game score, or the look of the uniform — it’s the desire and effort to improve, to be a good teammate, to trust your coaches, and to grow together with a positive attitude. Your coaches are deeply committed to creating that environment, and we want to thank all of our families for being part of our hockey community and supporting that mission.
South Shore Conference Update
The South Shore Conference parity round is scheduled to conclude on November 8th. While it’s typical for teams to remain in their assigned divisions until parity ends, the league has been working with us — recognizing that this is our first year in the SSC and that some of their recommended placements were not accurate.
As of this weekend, our Red 2 team has been moved down to a more appropriate division, and we are still working with the league to reassign Red 1. We hope this will be finalized soon. In the meantime, we are working to add a few additional games against lower-division teams to ensure our players have more balanced, competitive experiences. These games will be in addition to the regularly scheduled SSC matchups. Stay tuned.
Team Structure and Practices
At the coaches’ recommendation, the Devils organization has restructured our 8U teams by age to better align players for long-term development.
Our focus at practices this season is skill development — a decision made by the Devils leadership after observing the range of player abilities. The coaches have all done an excellent job leading these sessions.
Starting the week of December 1st (after Thanksgiving), we’ll add a full-ice practice to provide more team-focused opportunities.
Your practice schedule beginning that week will be:
-
Mondays, 6:15 PM – Studio Rink
-
Fridays, 5:30 PM – Secondary Rink
Providence Bruins Games
We’ve also made some adjustments to create a better experience for the Providence Bruins events. Players will still attend the P-Bruins game with their originally assigned teams, since many families and friends already purchased tickets.
Please review the updated P-Bruins game schedule below — some teams have new dates or opponents:
-
8U Red 1 – Sunday, December 7th vs. Plymouth U8B (rescheduled for a more balanced matchup)
-
8U Red 2 – Sunday, October 26th vs. South Coast Panthers (now a 15-minute warm-up skate vs. a lower SSC division team)
-
8U White – Sunday, November 2nd vs. Tri-County (a different lower-level TriCounty team, moved to 1st intermission slot)
The following two games will be canceled. In addition, there will be no 8U half-ice games scheduled for December 7th. This should avoid all game conflicts.
-
CANCELLED Mite – Devils 6U-8U White 1 (Visitor) @ KP Walpole Red (Home)
Date: Sunday, October 26, 2025 | Time: 1:10–2:00 PM | Location: Canton Sportsplex
-
CANCELLED Co-Ed Mite Tier 4 – Tri-County (Visitor) @ Devils 6U-8U Red 2 (Home)
Date: Sunday, November 2, 2025 | Time: 12:00–12:50 PM | Location: Canton Sportsplex
If any player would like to help another team and play in an additional P-Bruins game, we’d love to have you join! Please contact me directly if interested.
Thank you again for your commitment and support for your children and our program. We’ recognize the efforts to embrace the season so far, are grateful for your support and we look forward to the remainder of the season to finish stronger.
Patti McTernan
Director of Hockey Operations, Mass Admirals / Devils
📞 508-507-1952
