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Bentley Falcons 2013-2014: No offseason. No excuses.

Re: Bentley Falcons 2013-2014: No offseason. No excuses.

eXcSports said:
I catch the vibe that the CC will never really let the school take away what makes them great, but I still fear them being pushed back from the ice (jesus they're on top of everything at Ritter) or being policed. I know the BU student section still retains some of their charm from the older days at WBA, but the crowd itself got neutered by the building's sterility. It became totally different.

I have complete faith in the RIT fan base because it's so loyal that they will fight changes to their game experience. I just really hope the school is smart enough to recognize that and keep them involved.

I do find it funny that attendance at the AHA Championships is ludicrously affected by when RIT isn't in.
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Certain people have been trying to police the corner crew for as long as I have been there. It has gotten worse since all home games have been televised too. Some things will never change.
 
Re: Bentley Falcons 2013-2014: No offseason. No excuses.

I have not been to Ritter, but I do not get Dan's analogy with WAB and Agganis. As he notes himself, soon after Agganis was built, BU won a NC. Who cares whether WAB was a hostile place to play if the Terriers were not getting to the FF? Ditto for UNH; Snively had a loud fan base, but the Cats had been horrible for years until the Whitt was built, when within three years they began a run of four FF appearances in six years. Better facilities generally mean better recruiting, which means better results, IMHO.
 
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Re: Bentley Falcons 2013-2014: No offseason. No excuses.

Snively65 said:
I have not been to Ritter, but I do not get Dan's analogy with WAB and Agganis. As he notes himself, soon after Agganis was built, BU won a NC. Who cares whether WAB was a hostile place to play if the Terriers were not getting to the FF? Ditto for UNH; Snively had a loud fan base, but the Cats had been horrible for years until the Whitt was built, when within three years they began a run of four FF appearances in six years. Better facilities generally mean better recruiting, which means better results, IMHO.
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Everyone is more than welcome to their own opinion. I just think if you go to a BU game now, there's nothing special or unique about it. It's just another arena built to be the best addition to D1. I mean, that's a pretty good tradeoff, and I'd love to have that for Bentley. I'd love to be in a position where I say, "You know what? This is great, but I want something to get recruits." BU's team simply outgrew WBA. The actual atmosphere of a game changed, though. Now it's a pampered crowd. It's like Rocky at the start of ROcky 3 - "You got domesticated!" In the process, their identity changed and they became what they used to abhor.

As for RIT, the only reason I say they "had" to build that arena was to get to that next level. The last 5 years has changed college hockey so much; there's such a build up and arms race between schools that they changed the entire conference realignment in the process. The talent level on the ice has gotten much more parity due to the growth of the sport in general (we're seeing the 2nd generation of hockey players grown in non-traditional hockey markets, strengthening of the regular hockey markets, etc. - Chris Peters has a fantastic piece on the stats of registered hockey kids in the US) that the lower schools are catching up to the bigger schools (although this year the AHA is awful, last year is a testament to that point). If you look at the arms race in college hockey with all the rinks that were built, you either had to get on that train or not get on that train. It's not a small sport anymore.

RIT could very easily be the best "mid major" but the growth of the team and the opening of the new rink puts them on the lower level of the big time programs. It separates them entirely from the Bentleys, the Sacred Hearts, and even the Armys or Mercyhursts of the world. It's a case study that I've seen down at Quinnipiac and, honestly, I could write a dissertation on this whole thing in terms of business haha. That's my hypothesis, and I don't have the characters or time to put into the reasons why I would back that up. I welcome the disagreement because it's totally an opinion. But to strike when the iron was hot after the Frozen Four allowed them to potentially break through to the next level. I'll be interested in 7 years to see if RIT is ready to jump through with a second wave of realignment (believe me - it's not done, and I know that for a fact) or if they're a mid major team with a big building they shouldn't have built.
 
Re: Bentley Falcons 2013-2014: No offseason. No excuses.

eXcSports said:
The actual atmosphere of a game changed, though. Now it's a pampered crowd.
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I think college hockey is very affordable, for those that have the passion to actually go to the games. BU suffers, I believe, from an apathetic fan base...not a pampered one. How many games have they sold out? BC had close to 8,000 last night against Providence, but I realize that the two programs are on different trajectories. BU is sliding into mediocrity (a la Maine), while BC simply 'reloads' each year. I'm old enough to remember when those roles were completely switched.

Great (and necessary) win by the Falcons. After last weekend, you could just 'hear' the rolling of the eyeballs as everyone saw another 2nd half swoon coming along.

Now, my son and I will see how much of this 120 minutes of hockey they end up playing today at 'Semi-Frozen Fenway.' I'm thinking they play the first game and postpone the second.
 
Re: Bentley Falcons 2013-2014: No offseason. No excuses.

What a game the boys did what needed to be done last night. They played some decent defense and the offense was great! It was nice to see some of the other boys get some action at PP and certainly nice to see some other names on the score sheet. That first line is pretty good I hope they can keep it up!
 
Re: Bentley Falcons 2013-2014: No offseason. No excuses.

Nice sweep by the Falcons this weekend. Bentley now 10th in Div 1 with 3.48 GPG and 3rd in PPG with 25.3% conversion. Weinstein leads TvR at UNH in offense by D-men with 1G-27A-28 pts to 4-19-23, in three fewer games. If a D-man makes the Hobey 10 shortlist, he is the leading candidate at the moment, me thinks. First line has been awesome, with very good production from second line, as well. Good to see Fitzstephens get his first goal of the season; he has worked hard the past four years, primarily on the fourth line.
 
Re: Bentley Falcons 2013-2014: No offseason. No excuses.

Here's the storylines from the game.

http://jarpride.com/2014/01/13/storylines-rit/

Honestly I thought this weekend was good for Bentley but an outlier in some respects. Friday's game was all Falcons; Saturday's game was horrible. I thought Bentley was the recipient of some poor officiating that turned a 2-1 game into a 4-1 game. The ice conditions were brutally bad due to the 50 degree temps, and the poor officiating made for a bad game. I don't think we're likely to see one like that again the rest of the year.
 
Re: Bentley Falcons 2013-2014: No offseason. No excuses.

I am sure you really have a better view than the people watching the game over the internet. The team has an important weekend series coming up and the need to pick up at least 2 pts as they are extremely important....of course 4 would be better. The weekend that is most important is the Erie trip! This team has been good much of the year even when they were losing the non conference games as they looked better than the results. I hope they can keep it together as what would be better than a trip to the AHA finals!!!!!
 
Re: Bentley Falcons 2013-2014: No offseason. No excuses.

wwjg1158 said:
I am sure you really have a better view than the people watching the game over the internet. The team has an important weekend series coming up and the need to pick up at least 2 pts as they are extremely important....of course 4 would be better. The weekend that is most important is the Erie trip! This team has been good much of the year even when they were losing the non conference games as they looked better than the results. I hope they can keep it together as what would be better than a trip to the AHA finals!!!!!
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Before we start saying "trip to the AHA Finals," I'd rather just worry about a trip to Buffalo and a win over a sneaky good Canisius team that has some really tremendous goaltending this year. Asmundson and Capobianco are two of the best goalies in the league, let alone together as a unit.
 
Re: Bentley Falcons 2013-2014: No offseason. No excuses.

schiegs said:
Props to AIC for taking down UMass tonight.
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One of these days someone will need to explain this to me. Apparently the AHA has Hockey East's number this year. 58 shots for UMass! They outshot AIC 30-2 in the 2nd peirod and GAVE UP 2 goals.

I love it when this happens.
 
Re: Bentley Falcons 2013-2014: No offseason. No excuses.

Humanoid said:
One of these days someone will need to explain this to me. Apparently the AHA has Hockey East's number this year. 58 shots for UMass! They outshot AIC 30-2 in the 2nd peirod and GAVE UP 2 goals.

I love it when this happens.
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That was awesome last night. I love what happened with the AIC Yellow Jackets. it's games like that that make me love college hockey.

In case you've missed the assault on the history books, Bentley's closing in on major individual accomplishments. Speaks volumes to the type of season the team is having this year when everyone is doing something and doing something well.

http://jarpride.com/2014/01/15/chasing-history-canisius/
 
eXcSports said:
That was awesome last night. I love what happened with the AIC Yellow Jackets. it's games like that that make me love college hockey.

In case you've missed the assault on the history books, Bentley's closing in on major individual accomplishments. Speaks volumes to the type of season the team is having this year when everyone is doing something and doing something well.

http://jarpride.com/2014/01/15/chasing-history-canisius/
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Nice summary on your blog, Dan. Do you have access to overall AHA stats to compare where the five Falcons you reviewed fall overall in the AHA history? And, retired Falcons, too?
 
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