Colgate 2012-13

[red133883]

Re: Colgate 2012-13

Does anyone really think that DV is going anywhere? I don't think it is the recruiting, cause obviously the talent is there. During the last two seasons Colgate has been in the tournament at the break. I am aware that is way to early to make a great judgment but it shows that they were winning enough.

Maybe it is time to strategically rest players during the first half of the year in order to have a fresher team down the stretch. Or have a more rigorous "break" training schedule. We can't fall off the cliff so badly like we have the last two years

 

[FlagDUDE08]

Re: Colgate 2012-13

Does anyone really think that DV is going anywhere? I don't think it is the recruiting, cause obviously the talent is there. During the last two seasons Colgate has been in the tournament at the break. I am aware that is way to early to make a great judgment but it shows that they were winning enough.

Maybe it is time to strategically rest players during the first half of the year in order to have a fresher team down the stretch. Or have a more rigorous "break" training schedule. We can't fall off the cliff so badly like we have the last two years

Also a possibility is that the huge break in games over that time did you in. I believe after the UMASS series, you had basically a month-and-a-half break, only playing Sacred Heart for a pair in between, then you ran into the Capital District brick wall, and as much as you were able to get past Yale and Brown unscathed, that was the start of the meltdown; the only game won was the curse game. Obviously it's not a matter of getting opponents because you did have a full complement of games this year, but trying to get a holiday tournament can help with the schedule (maybe also if one of the Cornell games was in that time, that would have helped too). Next year you do have the Mariucci, so that will help matters.

 

[TheGreenCoat]

Re: Colgate 2012-13

stop with ********** excuses...excuses are for losers and that's what this program has been about for SEVEN years...winners don't make excuses...everyone plays on a very even playing field...the fact is ALL teams have scheduling issues of some sort...WINNING programs overcome any scheduling issues...apparently, when we made our late run in 2011, after a disasterous year, nobody mentioned exhaustion and mental fatigue...one point here folks: you can't have a team score 30 even strength goals in 22 league games (1.36/game) and have goaltender save percentage BARELY above .900 and expect to win...it's talent and depth of talent that is lacking...suck it up and deal with it...ever look at Q-Pac's or Yale's kids??? Look at their backgrounds...they are talented and they are tested...they don't recruit fourth-line talent...we do...UHhky, please chime in here, I'm losing it...

 

[Meehan Popcorn Guy]

Re: Colgate 2012-13

Want to give a final shout out to Gate Radio who does an exceptional job broadcasting. I don't know how he memorizes all those numbers and player's names so quickly; he's very good at his trade. We're lucky to have him doing 'Gate games.

+1, well said. The best in the business. I'm on the road most Friday nights and have sampled various broadcasts and concluded there's none better in college hockey than 'Gate.

 

[Rainman]

Re: Colgate 2012-13

Okay, it's time for Rainman's analysis on the 2012-13 season. No, I am not an autistic idiot savant, this is just my interpretation of how this year's season unfolded.

-April 2: Chris Wagner departs. This caught all of us off-guard, since we've never seen a Colgate hockey player forego any remaining eligibility to play professionally. This also necessitated the "early" arrival of Darcy Murphy, who was originally scheduled to begin playing at Colgate in the 2013-14 season. Keep in mind that had Wagner stuck around, we wouldn't have had Darcy Murphy this season, and this may have affected his development. Also, Chris's numbers would have probably dropped this season without Austin Smith. While we may have won an extra game or two here and there, we would have still had the same roster issues. I expect Darcy Murphy to improve next year, as well as the other freshmen from this past season.
-Sometime this past summer: Vermont drops its scheduled home game with us due to a Hockey East scheduling conflict. There is nothing we could do about it, but it resulted in a near 1.5 month break in this season's schedule: we played UMass twice on Dec. 7 and 8, then we're off until Jan. 4 and 5 but play Sacred Heart, a team that has been basically the worst one in Division 1 this season (no disrespect). Then another week off until Jan. 18 and 19 where we play the Capital District on the road. Again, nothing we could do schedule-wise but it had an effect.
-January 29: Spiro Goulakos is diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphona. Obviously, this took an emotional toll on the entire team. Spiro was out for the two Capital District games a few weeks prior, and this was probably the reason why. His not playing affected our power play, and took another hit on our already thin roster. Compare this to the Boston Red Sox losing David Ortiz in July 2012 for the remainder of the season. Lose a key player, and it will have a long-term affect on the team. I think everyone was too emotional about Spiro that it affected them on the ice.
-February 23 and March 1: We lose back-to-back overtime games with just seconds left on the clock in each instance. This took another emotional toll on the team, as they were going toe-to-toe with the teams that finished 2nd and 3rd place in the ECAC standings but ultimately get no points in the standings for these games. The players need to learn that they cannot "coast to the finish line" -- they must play with a sense of urgency all the way to the final buzzer. I emphasized this in the 2010-11 seasons where small mental lapses torched us. The team pretty much collapsed after the Yale loss and never recovered after that.

Now, hopefully next year brings us a clean slate with a healthy Spiro and a schedule that isn't quirky like this year's was (Cornell games in November, then 2 total games from December 9 through January 17). The freshmen class will only improve. Also, we have 9 returning forwards, 4 returning defensemen, and 2 returning goaltenders that have proven themselves in their time at Colgate so far. And we've got plans for a new hockey rink that hopefully will come to fruition.

 

[Rainman]

Re: Colgate 2012-13

Also, for those looking forward to next year, this is what the league schedule looks like (Cornell games not included, home games in CAPS):

Nov. 1 QUINNIPIAC
Nov. 2 PRINCETON
Nov. 8 at Union
Nov. 9 at Rensselaer
Nov. 15 at St. Lawrence
Nov. 16 at Clarkson
Nov. 22 YALE
Nov. 23 BROWN

Jan. 17 at Dartmouth
Jan. 18 at Harvard
Jan. 24 CLARKSON
Jan. 25 ST. LAWRENCE
Jan. 31 at Brown
Feb. 1 at Yale

Feb. 14 RENSSELAER
Feb. 15 UNION
Feb. 21 at Princeton
Feb. 22 at Quinnipiac
Feb. 28 HARVARD
March 1 DARTMOUTH

Confirmed non-conference games (7 so far, 5 still open):
-Two home games vs. UMass
-One home game vs. Vermont
-One road game at RIT (see the 2013-14 schedules thread on this forum)
-Two games at the University of Minnesota/Mariucci tournament (opponents TBD, should be around Christmas/New Year's)

Unconfirmed, but possible non-conference games:
-Two home games vs. Ferris State (they owe us for our trip out to Michigan in the 2011-12 season)
-A road game at Niagara? (since we played them at home back in October)
-A road game at Canisius? (we played them at home back in December 2011)
-Two road games at Bowling Green? (since we played them twice at home back in October)
-Another neutral site game on Cape Cod? (we've hosted this event in each of the past 3 seasons)

From a conference standpoint, this is one of those seasons where we cannot afford to have one of those November winless slides. In the 2007-08 and 2010-11 seasons, we only played 6 league games before Thanksgiving then didn't play our next conference game until January. Each of those seasons, we performed poorly in November.

Also, remember that Hockey East schools will now have 14 non-conference games, while we (along with Quinnipiac, RPI, Union, St. Lawrence, and Clarkson) will have 12 non-conference games. So maybe we'll see Colgate play these schools more frequently in the coming years.

 

[Ralph Baer]

Re: Colgate 2012-13

Confirmed non-conference games (7 so far, 5 still open):
-Two home games vs. UMass
-One home game vs. Vermont
-One road game at RIT (see the 2013-14 schedules thread on this forum)
-Two games at the University of Minnesota/Mariucci tournament (opponents TBD, should be around Christmas/New Year's)

2 + 1 + 1 + 2 = 7

 

[Rainman]

Re: Colgate 2012-13

2 + 1 + 1 + 2 = 7

D'oh! I guess that's what happens when you're a grad student writing a long paper, then takes a break and posts on this forum. So far we have 6 tentatively planned non-conference matchups, with another 6 still up in the air.

 

[still an empty net]

Re: Colgate 2012-13

Think I saw on the 2013-14 schedule board that Saint Cloud St is coming to gate as well

 

[UHhky]

stop with ********** excuses...excuses are for losers and that's what this program has been about for SEVEN years...winners don't make excuses...everyone plays on a very even playing field...the fact is ALL teams have scheduling issues of some sort...WINNING programs overcome any scheduling issues...apparently, when we made our late run in 2011, after a disasterous year, nobody mentioned exhaustion and mental fatigue...one point here folks: you can't have a team score 30 even strength goals in 22 league games (1.36/game) and have goaltender save percentage BARELY above .900 and expect to win...it's talent and depth of talent that is lacking...suck it up and deal with it...ever look at Q-Pac's or Yale's kids??? Look at their backgrounds...they are talented and they are tested...they don't recruit fourth-line talent...we do...UHhky, please chime in here, I'm losing it...

Where I stand is well documented here. Other people on here like to stand up for DV like there's an actual reason to and like they have first hand knowledge of how he actually runs things and how the team works. Guess what very few of you really have a grasp on what you're talking about with regards to the team let alone, in some cases, hockey for that matter. The bottom line is Done is not a good coach and his record over the last decade supports that claim. The entire argument that, "yeah we made it to the final four of the ECACs (big whoop) and lost, so maybe next year will be different" is ridiculous. Have some higher standards for ****ssake. This guy has been sitting in the mud spinning his wheels for the last half decade while schools like Yale, who blew in 05-06 are passing us. I mean seriously, how much more proof do you need???

 

[UHhky]

In the words of DV himself: "what have you done for me lately?"

 

[Rainman]

Re: Colgate 2012-13

Confirmed non-conference games (7 so far, 5 still open):
-Two home games vs. UMass
-One home game vs. Vermont
-One road game at RIT (see the 2013-14 schedules thread on this forum)
-Two games at the University of Minnesota/Mariucci tournament (opponents TBD, should be around Christmas/New Year's)

Unconfirmed, but possible non-conference games:
-Two home games vs. Ferris State (they owe us for our trip out to Michigan in the 2011-12 season)
-A road game at Niagara? (since we played them at home back in October)
-A road game at Canisius? (we played them at home back in December 2011)
-Two road games at Bowling Green? (since we played them twice at home back in October)
-Another neutral site game on Cape Cod? (we've hosted this event in each of the past 3 seasons)

Update: It appears that 10 of our non-conference games for next season has been confirmed.

Home vs. UMass (x2) - Source is the UMass Hockey Blog "Fear the Triangle"
Home vs. Vermont (single game) - they were supposed to visit Starr Rink this past season but pulled out due to a Hockey East scheduling conflict
Home vs. St. Cloud State (x2) - source is the 2013-14 schedules thread on this forum
at RIT (single game) - see 2013-14 schedules thread
at Bowling Green (x2) - also mentioned on 2013-14 schedules thread
Mariucci Tournament (at Minneapolis, Minnesota) - 2 games, opponents TBD

We also still have 2 open dates.

 

[vicb]

Re: Colgate 2012-13

Only 2 1/2 days to get your picks in on Round 2 of the ECAC Pick The Playoffs : http://board.uscho.com/showthread.php?103798-ECAC-Pick-the-Playoffs-2013
You have until 7PM Friday.

 

[UHhky]

Overall w/l:

Union- new "assoc" head coach 07-08
Yale- new coach 06-07
Qpac- new rink 07
Cornell- seeing as they're consistently at or above 500, prob good coaching

Gate- lost Dixy and SMoore, gained a Lefevre

 

[sshablak]

Re: Colgate 2012-13

I will "reiterate" one more time for you "allmighty know all naysayers". Don Vaughan is a fine coach and respected by all the coaches in D1 hockey. How "anybody" can get recruits to come play at Starr is beyond me. Colgate has the "best rink" in high school hockey. It's easy.

The University puts a silly limit on twenty four players on the roster, high academic standards must be met in recruiting, a good turnout is 2000 fans mostly sitting on their hands, and a rural village of 3000 in the middle of nowhere ! How the H does he get anyone to come here ?

If you are blind to the facts, show your ignorance of what he is limited to "every dam year". He's not a magician, what do you expect with what "assets" he has to work with, or I should say "lack of assets".

Look at what he has to deal with...Q-Pac with a state of the art facility, twelve to fifteen recruits every year, hopefully our new rink will bring in better prospects in a few years.

If you want to "Judge Don" first put him on a level playing field with other ECAC coaches. Give him a new rink, easier recruiting with less stringent requirements, and a roster of 25-28 players like other schools. After you do this...If he fails to produce, maybe he's a bad coach!! Otherwise get your heads outta your ! I feel sorry that people criticize him even with all his "limitations!!!

 

[czeckthebody]

Re: Colgate 2012-13

The number of players is a non-issue. Lots of teams with 28 players do poorly and the extra players actually hurt morale as kids hope ther teammates get injured so they can get into the lineup. The rink is a bit of an issue. The town is NOT. UMASS Lowell just won Hockey East and I guarantee every player they have would have gone to BU, BC, Maine, UNH, UVM, PC,Yale, Harvard,Dartmouth, Cornell and probably Colgate if they had been given the chance. Hamilton may be remote, but Lowell is plain tough. Canton and Pottsdam are not exactly Paris. Neither is Troy. Recruiting--do you have any idea how many players there are in the junior leagues, every one of them would do anything to play D1 and there are only 30 or so D1 schools. So it's not a matter of how hard it is to recruit, it's a matter of how smart you recruit. These kids just want to play D1--they don't care if the rink is small, what the attandance is, or how big the town is. Maybe a few top recruits care about these things but most do not.Actually Colgatehas an advantage in recruiting over most scholls becasue it is a great school academically, it is in a very nice town, it is reasonably close to Montreal and Toronto, and it is in a great league.Absoluelty no reaosn Colgate can't be a top 4 ECAC team on a regular basis (they were last year)

 

[UHhky]

Shabby, what's your excuse for always making excuses for Don?

 

[UHhky]

For the last decade he isn't even .500 at being above .500.

This guy is a loser.

 

[FlagDUDE08]

Re: Colgate 2012-13

I will "reiterate" one more time for you "allmighty know all naysayers". Don Vaughan is a fine coach and respected by all the coaches in D1 hockey. How "anybody" can get recruits to come play at Starr is beyond me. Colgate has the "best rink" in high school hockey. It's easy.

The University puts a silly limit on twenty four players on the roster, high academic standards must be met in recruiting, a good turnout is 2000 fans mostly sitting on their hands, and a rural village of 3000 in the middle of nowhere ! How the H does he get anyone to come here ?

If you are blind to the facts, show your ignorance of what he is limited to "every dam year". He's not a magician, what do you expect with what "assets" he has to work with, or I should say "lack of assets".

Look at what he has to deal with...Q-Pac with a state of the art facility, twelve to fifteen recruits every year, hopefully our new rink will bring in better prospects in a few years.

If you want to "Judge Don" first put him on a level playing field with other ECAC coaches. Give him a new rink, easier recruiting with less stringent requirements, and a roster of 25-28 players like other schools. After you do this...If he fails to produce, maybe he's a bad coach!! Otherwise get your heads outta your ! I feel sorry that people criticize him even with all his "limitations!!!

Q-Pac already tarnished the league GPA by joining the ECAC, don't you guys start too. It still could be worse, though. Would you prefer stringent academics, zero scholarships, a salt barn for a rink, and an administration that is overjoyed to see the team with a .400 record?

You'd think that DV would have taken care of some of that in his AD capacity, yes?

 

[UHhky]

Some of your favorite Gate players of recent years have had sub-1000 SATs so that's def not an excuse. DV has an endowed chair, what more does this guy need? Maybe we can petition the NCAA to allow us to pay AHLers, use some endowment money to field a new lineup and start offering post-grad years. I'm sure Don could Find A Way to do something with that.