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Colgate 2024-25 Harder Hockey

I think Rainman makes a good point that it is a small sample size for the Harder era and should be taken with a healthy dose of salt.

That said, I think the numbers are interesting. For one thing, Harder’s lowest scoring team scored more than Vaughan’s highest over that span. Of course, on the downside, we gave up substantially more goals as well. However, the big takeaway to me is the goal differential. In the Harder era we are averaging .11 GFPG more than our opponents. Even in the halcyon Spink era we averaged .03 GFPG LESS than our opponents. For the next six years we were at .26 GFPG less than our opponents.

And I think most interestingly, in the first two years of Harder’s tenure we averaged 3.28 GFPG as opposed to 2.57 GFPG for the preceding ten years. That’s almost 3/4 of a goal per game more. Which shows numerically what we could see with our own eyes: Harder hockey is more fun to watch. Albeit containing some complete meltdown nights where we just got cooked.
 
And I think all those numbers underscore the real point.

Despite the playoff disappointments of the last two years and despite random games where we just got crushed, Harder hockey is winning hockey. So, not only is it [usually] more aesthetically pleasing, but the end results are better as well.

Think of it this way. This season we ended up three games over .500, and it seemed somewhat disappointing. For over a decade we would have dreamed of a winning season. Already in year 2 of Harder, we just sort of expected it.

Which is a roundabout way of saying the program finally seems to be headed in a positive direction. Much work to be done still, but early signs are promising.
 
Comparing apples to apples…

the late Terry Slater’s two most recent full seasons behind the Colgate bench netted one NCAA tournament appearance (1990), and

Don Vaughan’s two most recent full seasons behind the Colgate bench netted one NCAA tournament appearance (2023).
 
I don’t see that as apples to apples at all. There is utterly no comparison between the 89-90 team and the 22-23 team. The latter was spunky and went on a fun run; the former was unequivocally the best squad in school history. Vaughan ran his program with honor but is not in the same stratosphere as Slater.

And to be clear, my points in the posts above were not anti-Vaughan but instead pro-Harder.
 
Congratulations to Brett Chorske for being named 1st team All ECAC. And to Michael Neumeier for being named ECAC Rookie of the Year. Great honors to both!
 
Comparing apples to apples…

Barb, how is CU13 doing?

Lake Placid was a lot of fun, despite the outcome. Even though I didn’t recognize Magoo, it was great to see him there. And thanks to Clarkson Doug, I got to meet Rejean Houle’s son Jean-Francois.

In the NCAA tournament, I am cheering for Quinnipiac and Minnesota and against Cornell. Having said that, I think the Frozen Four in Saint Louis will consist of Boston College, Cornell, Maine and Minnesota. And I will be there with Alaska Mike, Clarkson Doug, and Dartmouth Doug.

Other than that, I guess I will hear from everyone again on Shabby’s 2025-26 yet-to-be-named thread on here. he he he
 
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iowabasedtraveler said:
Comparing apples to apples…

Barb, how is CU13 doing?

Lake Placid was a lot of fun, despite the outcome. Even though I didn’t recognize Magoo, it was great to see him there. And thanks to Clarkson Doug, I got to meet Rejean Houle’s son Jean-Francois.

In the NCAA tournament, I am cheering for Quinnipiac and Minnesota and against Cornell. Having said that, I think the Frozen Four in Saint Louis will consist of Boston College, Cornell, Maine and Minnesota. And I will be there with Alaska Mike, Clarkson Doug, and Dartmouth Doug.

Other than that, I guess I will hear from everyone again on Shabby’s 2025-26 yet-to-be-named thread on here. he he he
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You think Mich St will lose to Cornell, surprised ?
 
Shabby, I do.
I have a friend that is a Spartan fan and he thinks they are too inconsistent to advance out of their Regional.
Of course, the same could be said for Minnesota.
We’ll see…
 
I guess your Spartan friend was right Iowa. Cornell 4, MSU 3.
I think the Big Red are on a magic carpet ride. My fellow Colgate fans may feel otherwise but I would like to see Cornell win it all. It would be good for our league. And I would be happy for Mike Schafer.
 
With Cornell's success in the ECAC Tournament and so far in the NCAA Regional, 'Gate's loss to the Big Red in the ECAC quarterfinals stings (a little) less. Good luck to Cornell and Quinnipiac in the NCAA tournament.
 
I play the USCHO tournament challenge and this year I invited Cornell Greg to play, too. After tonight’s Minnesota loss to Massachusetts, he successfully picked all four winners. I picked three right, as I had Minnesota winning their Regional. Tomorrow (Friday) is another day. I think BC and Maine should win their games, with the other two contests being dogfights. We shall see…
 
Magoo said:
I guess your Spartan friend was right Iowa. Cornell 4, MSU 3.
I think the Big Red are on a magic carpet ride. My fellow Colgate fans may feel otherwise but I would like to see Cornell win it all. It would be good for our league. And I would be happy for Mike Schafer.
Click to expand...
Agree with both, I despised Mike for years but hope he goes out high !
 
QuasiCosmos said:
With Cornell's success in the ECAC Tournament and so far in the NCAA Regional, 'Gate's loss to the Big Red in the ECAC quarterfinals stings (a little) less. Good luck to Cornell and Quinnipiac in the NCAA tournament.
Click to expand...
Whenever a team in the ECAC is picked to finish at the top of the standings in the preseason, then "underperforms" in the regular season only to get their act together in February, it always comes at the expense of a top-4 finisher. We were the unlucky ones this season, and both RPI and Union were the unlucky ones in 2011 when Colgate "got their act together" and played like the top-4 team they were supposed to be that season after having zero league wins on Feb. 1 of that year.

I've been taught to despise Cornell as a result of my matriculation at Colgate, but right now it's hard to do so when the team is doing everything it can to give Mike Schafer a proper sendoff.
 
sshablak said:
What an ending last night, the fans looked shocked at the end, kind of like when we beat Q-Pac in double OT at Placid in I believe 2015.
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We defeated Quinnipiac in 2OT in Lake Placid twice ! First in 2014 then again in 2023!

In 2015 we beat SLU in Lake Placid in OT as well, but that game only took 1 extra session.
 
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