Colgate 2016-17 A New Beginning

[FlagDUDE08]

Re: Colgate 2016-17 A New Beginning

Why can't Union stream their games? RPI gets a shout out from me for an excellent video feed and funny announcers. Union? No excuse for asking for a buck for these ECAC games. They have enough deep pocketed alumni...they don't need to charge those who tune in once a year for a game....Yuk!

They probably know Messa is such a dump that they think people won't want to go to the games. Same reason the EC$$ demands PPV during the playoffs.

[TheValleyRaider]

Re: Colgate 2016-17 A New Beginning

Also, tonight's game is being streamed on ESPN3, free of charge (provided you have a "participating" Internet provider)

Most excellent

To Ithaca! Let's Go 'Gate!

[TheGreenCoat]

Re: Colgate 2016-17 A New Beginning

If I may I'd like to provide a quote from Douglas Hunter's book "Yzerman: The Making of a Champion"..."In the opening round of the 1977 draft, the Islanders had been debating whether to choose Bossy, a scorer who wasn't much of a checker, or another player, a checker who wasn't much of a scorer. Get me the scorer, Bill Torrey had instructed Devellano. I can always teach a scorer to check. I can't teach a checker to score." The next time I hear that we're bringing in several forwards who are good two-way players I am going to puke. Cornell will be welcoming two of the highest goal scorers in the BCJHL next year. I find no such talent among incoming forwards to The Gate. I thought our new facility would improve recruiting. It's a $38 million wager that looks pretty bad right now. I pray I am proved wrong, but you're not going to win a lot of games by scoring one or two goals a game...

[Marmot]

Re: Colgate 2016-17 A New Beginning

Even less when you score no goals.

[FlagDUDE08]

Re: Colgate 2016-17 A New Beginning

If I may I'd like to provide a quote from Douglas Hunter's book "Yzerman: The Making of a Champion"..."In the opening round of the 1977 draft, the Islanders had been debating whether to choose Bossy, a scorer who wasn't much of a checker, or another player, a checker who wasn't much of a scorer. Get me the scorer, Bill Torrey had instructed Devellano. I can always teach a scorer to check. I can't teach a checker to score." The next time I hear that we're bringing in several forwards who are good two-way players I am going to puke. Cornell will be welcoming two of the highest goal scorers in the BCJHL next year. I find no such talent among incoming forwards to The Gate. I thought our new facility would improve recruiting. It's a $38 million wager that looks pretty bad right now. I pray I am proved wrong, but you're not going to win a lot of games by scoring one or two goals a game...

You're also not going to see a night-and-day change with a new facility in its first year; that's going to take some time. Plus, you can have all the talent in the world you want, but how that talent is used to better the team determines its success.

[Rainman]

Re: Colgate 2016-17 A New Beginning



I'm not one that likes to complain, but I'm going to rant right now. About our recent schedule. We had to play 3 league games in 5 days, ALL on the road. That is not fair. Last year, we lost a league home game, resulting in our having to play 6 of our last 9 league games on the road. Is the ECAC out to get us? Surprisingly, Harvard also had this "misfortune" of playing 3 road league games in 5 days a few weeks ago, and they also went 0-3 in those games. But on the other hand, the league "made it up" to them by only allowing them to play one game last weekend and this upcoming weekend due to the Beanpot. I do hope the league is aware of this.

One can say that we were gassed last night with having played twice in the prior 4 nights and all the travel mileage logged. However, going back to the 2005-06 season, we are 4-19-6 against our travel partner from Ithaca. And we're taught to think of them as our biggest rivals? Pathetic. To add insult to injury, we made up our "games in hand" that we had on other teams near us in the standings, and gained ZERO points. Had we earned 3 pts out of a possible 6, we would have been in a good position to at least finish 8th. Now it's less likely. Meanwhile, Cornell also made up their games in hand and was a perfect 6 (points) for 6.

Even worse, we've only scored 9 goals in our last 7 games, getting blanked twice. Correct me if I'm wrong but I think we're on a collision course for worst won-loss record in school history.

['Gate Radio]

Re: Colgate 2016-17 A New Beginning

I'm not one that likes to complain, but I'm going to rant right now. About our recent schedule. We had to play 3 league games in 5 days, ALL on the road. That is not fair. Last year, we lost a league home game, resulting in our having to play 6 of our last 9 league games on the road. Is the ECAC out to get us? Surprisingly, Harvard also had this "misfortune" of playing 3 road league games in 5 days a few weeks ago, and they also went 0-3 in those games. But on the other hand, the league "made it up" to them by only allowing them to play one game last weekend and this upcoming weekend due to the Beanpot. I do hope the league is aware of this.

Been pretty quiet here all year but I just want to jump in to play devils' advocate. Cornell also had three games in five nights with the third of the three games being home. In terms of the travel, Cornell and the Capital District are Colgate's shortest trips of the season checking in at around 2 hours give or take. For the Capital District trip, there was no travel in between games and Colgate played a strong game at Union on Saturday night. The league sets the block schedule well in advance and then travel partners decide when to play their games. When the block schedule was announced, it didn't include a free weekend for both Colgate and Cornell in the second half. With no weekend dates available due to academics and non-conference games, other arrangements had to be made and this year, much like in 2009-2010 resulted in a pair of games on Tuesdays. Side note, I'm not a fan at all of Tuesday games whatsoever but that's purely from a selfish perspective of having time to prepare. The good news is that next year, the Colgate/Cornell games will be on the same weekend in the second half. Also will drop in here that in late November, Colgate played four games in eight nights with a cross-country plane trip and closed that stretch with a dominant 40 minutes in a 3-2 win against a tough Arizona State team.

Even with all that has happened, home ice in the playoffs is still very much a possibility with four of the last six games at home and not a lot of points separating teams eight through 12. Sure, last night's result stinks but there's a lot of hockey left to be played.

[turk181]

Re: Colgate 2016-17 A New Beginning

If I may I'd like to provide a quote from Douglas Hunter's book "Yzerman: The Making of a Champion"..."In the opening round of the 1977 draft, the Islanders had been debating whether to choose Bossy, a scorer who wasn't much of a checker, or another player, a checker who wasn't much of a scorer. Get me the scorer, Bill Torrey had instructed Devellano. I can always teach a scorer to check. I can't teach a checker to score." The next time I hear that we're bringing in several forwards who are good two-way players I am going to puke. Cornell will be welcoming two of the highest goal scorers in the BCJHL next year. I find no such talent among incoming forwards to The Gate. I thought our new facility would improve recruiting. It's a $38 million wager that looks pretty bad right now. I pray I am proved wrong, but you're not going to win a lot of games by scoring one or two goals a game...

Well, you did get a committ today from a player who’s listed as a D/F......is that the 2-way you’re looking for http://www.eliteprospects.com/player.php?player=303605

[TheGreenCoat]

Re: Colgate 2016-17 A New Beginning

appreciate comments from Rainman and turk181, I really do...objectivity is a necessary curse - I've suffered from it my entire life...BTW the most successful senior class in the history of 'Gate hockey graduated in 1989-90, posting a record of 91-36-7...they didn't do it by simply have one year of studs in a recruiting class (the incoming class of 1986-87)...perhaps the second best graduating class in our history occurred in 2016, even with the early defections of Baum and Johnston to the professional ranks...guess what folks? Their four-year record was BELOW .500...the Slater years were marked by bringing in real talent year-after-year, even during the two down years of 1984-85 and 1985-86 (14-18-0 and 15-15-2)...without a Cornwall connection, in part due to Jesse Winchester, one wonders how bad this four-year record would've been...if you think the approval and subsequent completion of our new arena was the ultimate goal for the program, then root away...everything's great...for those of us who think that SOME kind of improvement in recruiting should've occurred AFTER the approval, during construction, whatever, then think again...the jury is still out and, as I have said several times, I will wait until next December or so to see if we're making tangible progress. I know I'm not exactly popular with some of the ever-optimistic souls out there, but I've paid my dues, both financially and emotionally. Believe me, I would much rather be proved wrong than right, but right now I have serious doubts that this program (and those who govern its success) are 100% committed to anything better than mediocrity.

[TheGreenCoat]

Re: Colgate 2016-17 A New Beginning

I would be remiss in omitting one more comment...GateRadio is among the best in the business in college hockey...you know he's a Gate fan, but he's objective and is a necessary adjunct to watching the game...it's gotta be tough, especially this year, when things are not going in the right direction (and your team doesn't score goals)...we are lucky to have him and, personally, I look forward to listening to his coverage game after game...the Cornell guys were pretty good as well (as were the Union boys)...but he's been great and i wish him the best going forward...

[sshablak]

Re: Colgate 2016-17 A New Beginning

I have a question, doesn't Harder do most of the recruiting ? When would Don have the time during the season, between running practices and Games most weekends ? Just asking as I really don't know and I've never seen this addressed here.

It's not fair to judge Vaughan against Slater. Slater had WHA and NHL connections and the promise was four years at Gate and you at least got a "look" above. He also had the "Ontario Pipeline" along with Clarkson and Ceglarski etc.

[Marmot]

Re: Colgate 2016-17 A New Beginning

Totally agree with GreenCoat on Gate Radio; I utterly love the way he calls a game. He has a unique ability to subtly let you know he wants Gate to win while contemporaneously calling the game in a very fair manner.

[Marmot]

Re: Colgate 2016-17 A New Beginning

And as for GreenCoat's doubts about the program, they are completely rational. In fact, I would think that if we didn't have doubts about a program that is an aggregate 39 games under .500 over the last 11 years, we are delusional. Keep in mind that over that same time frame Yale and Union have won national championships and Quinnipiac has been to two national championship games. These programs were near the bottom of the league at the start of that 11 year period.

So, I think questioning the direction of a program that averages almost 4 games under .500 a year over a decade when other programs in our league have made tremendous strides over that same time frame is well warranted.

[TheGreenCoat]

Re: Colgate 2016-17 A New Beginning

PLEASE beat Brown...

[LTsatch]

Re: Colgate 2016-17 A New Beginning

And as for GreenCoat's doubts about the program, they are completely rational. In fact, I would think that if we didn't have doubts about a program that is an aggregate 39 games under .500 over the last 11 years, we are delusional. Keep in mind that over that same time frame Yale and Union have won national championships and Quinnipiac has been to two national championship games. These programs were near the bottom of the league at the start of that 11 year period.

So, I think questioning the direction of a program that averages almost 4 games under .500 a year over a decade when other programs in our league have made tremendous strides over that same time frame is well warranted.

It took Yale 4 years to win the National championship after the Coaching and facilities upgrade. Union did it with a coach that was thought to be a downgrade from the previous guy, and God knows that facility had nothing to do with it. The Assistant Coach point is spot on also, Yale has not been the same since they lost Muse and Gendron.