Re: RPI Hockey 2015 - 2016 (Part II): We want more banners, not more flags
If Jericho can respond to a post from teh scores thread, I can move over here my response to the same post.
Outside of a few small disagreements, we seem to be on exactly the same page. I am not a statistician or mathematician. But 10 years is more than enough time to get a representation of the program. Pick any ten year period you want. It is not the recruits coming in, it is not the boys, it is not the injuries, it is not the bad bounces, and it is not the constant having to play against the hot goaltender. Every goaltender seems to be hot against us in the third period and in any playoff games that we are fortunate enough to play. I think that over the past decade we have had as much talent or as little as any ten year period in RPI history. And what is more telling is compare our last ten years to two other ECAC teams that changed coaches around the same time as we did. Yale and Union are a very fair comparison and I think anyone here would trade our record for theirs over that time period. Perhaps it takes a longer term perspective to really see the difference in this program and guys like me, DeepRed, and Ralph have a somewhat different set of expectations as we have seen far more years of the program.
Can I remain optimistic? Sure. But I have to keep a practical outlook. 10 years of history makes me think that we are witnessing the same thing again. Those who do not learn from the mistakes of history are doomed to repeat them (or something like that). i love this team, I love this program and I am a fervent supporter of the school. I have been and will be even when going through person tragedies. But there is nothing wrong with loving and supporting the program and the boys playing and yet still being able to be critical of what one sees as repeated failures. I do not doubt these boys are trying to be the best they can be. What i see is not the failures of our boys but the program failing the boys. These kids just deserve better and I do not think it is their fault. Just one old man's opinion (and that is all it is, an opinion) who has been following this team for a very long time. Those with other opinions are welcome to post them and they are all just as valid, but don't even attempt to try to tell me how I should feel.
Originally posted by jericho
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Outside of a few small disagreements, we seem to be on exactly the same page. I am not a statistician or mathematician. But 10 years is more than enough time to get a representation of the program. Pick any ten year period you want. It is not the recruits coming in, it is not the boys, it is not the injuries, it is not the bad bounces, and it is not the constant having to play against the hot goaltender. Every goaltender seems to be hot against us in the third period and in any playoff games that we are fortunate enough to play. I think that over the past decade we have had as much talent or as little as any ten year period in RPI history. And what is more telling is compare our last ten years to two other ECAC teams that changed coaches around the same time as we did. Yale and Union are a very fair comparison and I think anyone here would trade our record for theirs over that time period. Perhaps it takes a longer term perspective to really see the difference in this program and guys like me, DeepRed, and Ralph have a somewhat different set of expectations as we have seen far more years of the program.
Can I remain optimistic? Sure. But I have to keep a practical outlook. 10 years of history makes me think that we are witnessing the same thing again. Those who do not learn from the mistakes of history are doomed to repeat them (or something like that). i love this team, I love this program and I am a fervent supporter of the school. I have been and will be even when going through person tragedies. But there is nothing wrong with loving and supporting the program and the boys playing and yet still being able to be critical of what one sees as repeated failures. I do not doubt these boys are trying to be the best they can be. What i see is not the failures of our boys but the program failing the boys. These kids just deserve better and I do not think it is their fault. Just one old man's opinion (and that is all it is, an opinion) who has been following this team for a very long time. Those with other opinions are welcome to post them and they are all just as valid, but don't even attempt to try to tell me how I should feel.
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