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RPI 2022 Off-season: Surely, We Deserve Better

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25+years said:
I appreciate and am humbled by my second selection of my thread title. And I hope next year’s offering from me will be: Surely, we did do better.
As to the future. I watched all 3 games. A great hockey match up and I think the better team won. That we matched up against a team with 12 NHL draft picks says a lot about the program.
A couple thoughts: Linden’s skates will be hard to fill. If he doesn’t get a chance in the pros, I would be surprised. He reminds me a lot of Patrice Bergeron.
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out when visiting campus without ever meeting the coaches or the team that this is a place that isn’t interested in D1 sports. For years people have pleaded for a better facility. And now, apparently, the ice making surface is a mess. Try competing with BU or Wisconsin for recruits (Wisconsin has 2 rinks- one each for the men and the women). So start there. If you build it, they will come. Invest in good coaches and you will be putting one foot in front of the other rather than dancing in circles and wondering why you aren’t getting anywhere.
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So why do we have a better record than Wisconsin? :-D Granted they play a harder schedule.

Whom were referring to as having visited the campus without meeting the coaches. etc.?

Hopefully, we will have forgotten "Surely" when we start a thread a year from now. :-D
 
Is it just my rapidly aging eyes, or are the markings under the field house ice almost impossible to see? how about using some of that 20 million allocated from the administration for a couple buckets of paint??
 
25+years said:
I appreciate and am humbled by my second selection of my thread title. And I hope next year’s offering from me will be: Surely, we did do better.
As to the future. I watched all 3 games. A great hockey match up and I think the better team won. That we matched up against a team with 12 NHL draft picks says a lot about the program.
A couple thoughts: Linden’s skates will be hard to fill. If he doesn’t get a chance in the pros, I would be surprised. He reminds me a lot of Patrice Bergeron.
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out when visiting campus without ever meeting the coaches or the team that this is a place that isn’t interested in D1 sports. For years people have pleaded for a better facility. And now, apparently, the ice making surface is a mess. Try competing with BU or Wisconsin for recruits (Wisconsin has 2 rinks- one each for the men and the women). So start there. If you build it, they will come. Invest in good coaches and you will be putting one foot in front of the other rather than dancing in circles and wondering why you aren’t getting anywhere.
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Having spoken with many of the folks involved in college hockey, there has been a big change in the outlook from parents and advisors for possible hockey recruits. Ones who want to advance themselves academically and also love to play hockey and use it for scholarship money certainly consider coming to RPI. Those highly rated recruits with real aspirations to continue after leaving college level competition to advance to the upper echelon of hockey leagues (AHL or better) almost without exception will seek to play at a school that gets the national publicity and the notoriety of playing in the NCAA tournament and/or gaining some sort of national award or all American status. RPI simply does not offer that for them at this stage and has not for some time. 27 years without winning the ECAC championship and only, 11 years since the last NCAA appearance, 37 years since scoring a goal in an NCAA tournament game, virtually zero national media coverage, etc. does not exactly entice most highly regarded recruits to even consider, let alone visit, Troy.
Years ago, although perhaps not the number one choice for many boys, RPI was at least on the list as a second or third or even fourth choice. Facing the problems I listed above, I think it is amazing that we have been blessed with some of the talent we have had. Some of these boys could have played on some of the top recruited teams in the country. We just fought Harvard toe to toe for 3 games (perhaps should have even beaten them in 2 games) and they have as many NHL recruits as just about anyone. Will we ever see the talent that we had in the mid eighties again? Doubtful. But if we start to gain some of the success and some of the respect that winning brings, we most likely will start to be thought of as a place to play by those 4.0 and higher rated young boys. Coach Smith has done a lot to turn things in that direction. I have no clue how long it could take or what level of success is necessary, but I think we are starting on that move up now. I only hope that continues with next season.
 
Wisconsin would trade granato for Dave smith in about 3 seconds. Wisconsin Is struggling. We have the right guy for the job.
 
The series loss is very painful. We could have won all 3 games, we were in each of them start to finish. Always going to wonder "what if" for the Friday game. I think if they close that out, we're not in the offseason right now
 
sezenack said:
The series loss is very painful. We could have won all 3 games, we were in each of them start to finish. Always going to wonder "what if" for the Friday game. I think if they close that out, we're not in the offseason right now
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I think that had we won the first game, we would not have had as much motivation in the second game to come back after trailing.
 
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Engineers said:
Dave smith contract expires in a few weeks. wondering why RPI has not offered an extension to coach smith? He’s proven himself a very good coach that gets the most outta his players. Considering what the program has endured the past two years with RPI’ stupidity Dave has done a fine job. Theirs likely 4-5 head coaching jobs opening up very soon. Seems crazy they would wait this long? Also coach Weber has interviewed for the union job. RPI better do the right thing and lock up Dave smith for years to come or he could say bye bye.
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I agree with your assessment of Smith he deserves huge credit for what I'll call enduring the current regime and Covid. Not to mention losing his top AC and several players not the least of which was his starting goalie.

It is certainly very possible that his agent has been in talks with the school and he may have already received an offer that they are mulling over. This is not something that would be public information. He may have wanted to wait until the season was over to turn his attention to it. For whatever reason, I don't think he will leave.
 
DrDemento said:
Is it just my rapidly aging eyes, or are the markings under the field house ice almost impossible to see? how about using some of that 20 million allocated from the administration for a couple buckets of paint??
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I've been commenting on the HFH ice for some time now. I was told by a reputable source (that I can't divulge) that there were/are major issues with the refrigeration at HFH....I haven't been able to confirm this. But your thoughts on the paint are spot on !! I guess we'll know soon enough if we start seeing refrigeration company trucks out back of the rink.
 
Engineers said:
Fwiw Shirley Jackson stated 20 million would be invested in the program at the time of Dave’s introduction presser. I highly doubt any of that has been made available to the program. It’s not a admissions problem it’s a lack of caring from the higher ups.
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Agreed. There will be no progress until she is gone. Period.
 
engineerhockeyfan said:
We have quite a few seniors and grad students on this team. If they all decide to leave the program, it will be starting all over again.
As for Dave Smith, he is in limbo. We don't have a new AD yet, and we may not until July which would really put us behind the eight ball going into next season no matter who the coach is.
I would like to see this all taken care of before graduation. (but I doubt that the current administration cares).
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Why do you think we are getting a new AD ?? I haven't heard that MaElroy is departing ??
 
Wicked Slappaahs said:
Why do you think we are getting a new AD ?? I haven't heard that MaElroy is departing ??
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I think some people are assuming (hoping?) that a new president will make a change here as part of the general turnover when an administration changes. This chatter has been around for a while because Dr. McElroy had already came out of retirement to jump in as interim AD when Jim Knowlton went to Air Force. But, like you, I am not aware of any concrete information that Dr. McElroy is leaving.
 
If Coach Smith is leaving today would be the day to announce it. In the absence of that I'll bet he has something in hand (short or long-term) and he is busy recruiting and scheduling end of season meetings with the players. Unless we get surprise return decisions from some of the 11 announced Senior Night departees we still have some holes to fill, perhaps from the portal.
 
rpi82 said:
If Coach Smith is leaving today would be the day to announce it. In the absence of that I'll bet he has something in hand (short or long-term) and he is busy recruiting and scheduling end of season meetings with the players. Unless we get surprise return decisions from some of the 11 announced Senior Night departees we still have some holes to fill, perhaps from the portal.
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Including a third goalie which has nothing to do with weather any of the seniors will/won't return.
 
https://fanforum.uscho.com/forum/co...urely-we-deserve-better?p=3724595#post3724595

Whst I meant when I referred to not meeting the coaches or the team was if a recruit stepped on campus without meeting coaches or players, they could see how much an investment the school makes in the program by looking at the facilities. And that new facilities, regardless of what academic qualifications you have to get in or the academic program offered here, would certainly help seal the deal for some and generate interest. If you were visiting with your son and the facilities were new, don’t you think the parents would be impressed? It certainly won’t hurt.
As to Wisconsin. They have been slipping for a few years. They have had some great players of late. They got rid of Mike Eaves and now have Granato, but are no better. Why? Who knows? But they have nice facilities. The womens program is top notch.

One thing is certain. If we dont upgrade, Union will and that will be another program we won’t match facility wise with a good academic program.
 
Ralph Baer said:
Sunday postgame interview https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NmVzUlBdnnA
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Great interview; well worth watching. Smith says the team wanted to salute fans at the end of game 2, but a league rule prohibits visiting teams from saluting fans... so they did it in game 3 (with the possibility of a penalty assessed at the start of next season.

He also said the Harvard series showed they became a team. I couldn't agree more.
 
vicious said:
Great interview; well worth watching. Smith says the team wanted to salute fans at the end of game 2, but a league rule prohibits visiting teams from saluting fans... so they did it in game 3 (with the possibility of a penalty assessed at the start of next season.

He also said the Harvard series showed they became a team. I couldn't agree more.
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I noticed the salute last night and thought it was a great gesture. So, reading the above, I first thought it's a stupid rule. However, then I remembered the salutes I wanted to give the home team fans at some of our road games. OK, I get it, but I think the ECAC will have completely lost sight of the essence of sport if the Engineers get punished for their classy move in Allston.
 
Today is 15 March 2022. There are 200 days until RPI's next game. There are 108 days until RPI has a new president.


This is based upon 1 October 2022 for the start of next season and 1 July 2022 for the end of @#$%^.
 
Wicked Slappaahs said:
Why do you think we are getting a new AD ?? I haven't heard that MaElroy is departing ??
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I have no inside information on McElroy. But he was taken out of retirement by Shirley, and with her out of the picture and a new administration coming in, it makes sense that they would want their own people in places of authority.
Of course, if the new administration has the same attitude towards the athletic department as the old one, McElroy could keep his job.
 
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