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The Fox Chapel Falcons are continuing to go "old school" with two recent additions to the team. Two former players, Kahle Lenz and Karan Bajwa have been signed to the Falcons. Lenz will be added to the active roster while Bajwa will be a reserve for now. The team has also added Andrew Nichols to the active roster. The Falcons expect to announce another additional signing or two by the end of the week as they look to add more players to their active roster for the Fall tournament season. The Falcons have allso announced that they will return to their old format of having a "training camp" in November. Around the same time the team expects to host a tournament in the NPHL's fall circuit.

The first OFFICIAL NPHL tournament, featuring all 8 of the 2005 teams will take place on November 13, 2004 at Hampton. The tournament is being hosted by the Fox Chapel Falcons and will be a huge event. The games will begin at 11AM and continue all day. Games will take place on both of Hampton's courts and the tournament will consist of pool play and playoff games. Each team will play 3 pool play games, and the top 4 teams will advance to the playoffs of the tournament. The winners will likely be awarded a tournament trophy and home court advantage in the Holiday Shootout Classic. The Falcons have announced their "training camp" for November 8th through the 12th. The Falcons skipped camp last year but are resuming the tradition of training camp in time for the NPHL season.

The NPHL is putting a great deal of planning into the first tournament set to take place in November. So far, the host Falcons along with the Cuddy North Stars and Irwin Demons have confirmed spots in the opener. Rosters are being added to in order to make teams ready. The playoff teams from this tournament will likely be invited to the Holiday Shootout Classic, in which the winner will be deemed 2004 NPHL Champion. These tournaments should work well to determine strengths and weaknesses to make the first full NPHL season a successful one.

McHenry, Md has entered a team into the North Pittsburgh Hockey League. Because of the length of travel to Maryland from Pittsburgh, the team will likely play out of Cheswick while keeping the McHenry name. In the future when league expansion occurs into parts of the Ohio Valley, McHenry will have a chance to play at their own home court. The team is fully ready to play and will take place in the Falcon Invitational on November 13. McHenry is the 4th and final Eastern Conference team for the 2005 Spring/Summer Season.

The NPHL is preparing for the 2005 season and is releasing some details about the upcoming season regarding format. There will be 4 teams in each of the conferences for a total of 8 teams in the league. Each team will play 4 games (2, 2 game series) against the other conference opponents. Games against non conference opponents will be played in 2 tournament style game days. One of these will be held in Pittsburgh and the other will be held in Maryland. In these events, each team from one conference will play all 4 from the other one time. This schedule will lead to a total of 20 games, 12 being conference and 8 being non conference. The conference games will be weighted more in the standings, likely with 4 points going to a conference win, 3 points going to a non conference win, 2 points going to a conference tie, and 1 point going to a non conference tie. The regular season will begin in mid May and last until the end of July. Playoffs will begin in the first week of August. The divisional series (Quarterfinals) will be played as best of 3, 1 day series at the home court of the higher ranked opponent. In the second week of August, The winners will meet in a best of 3 series which will take place at the home of the higher ranked team. In the third week of August, a champion will be crowned from another best of 3 series in a similar format.