Re: Quinnipiac Bobcats '10-'11
Weighing in on this argument after considering both sides. Minni I totally get what you saying and it does seem as if we have become a stagnant team in terms of moving up or down in the conference. Yanks, I too, agree that making a run in the playoffs means the most.
That being said, if this program is going to rise like it should it needs a top four finish. I worry because I don't see this happening any time soon. I attribute most of this to Rand's recruiting, the general positive vibes around the program and the lack of remembering our roots. I tackle the recruiting in a second, but the Bank has become a morgue. I understand that with winning comes fans, but we started the season 7-4-1 with the four losses coming to respectable opponents and there was still nobody coming in. To boot, this isn't just a problem this season, the last 2 have been brutal attendence-wise as well.
I look back at the pictures that Black posted and to see the empassioned faces that himself and his fellow original Crazy Bobcats had behind the goal anticipating Mookie to score, brings on bittersweet feelings. I was a late joiner to the Crazy Bobcats but I still consider myself one, really joining on my Freshman year of 05. Heading to Ingalls for those supposed "home" games and watching from behind the net at Northford. I recall beating Cornell and watching the highly partisan Cornell crowd leave with their heads down. There was something about the NIP that inspired the underdog story and really carried us through the playoffs that initial year and then to the Championship the following year. Since we started a FULL season at the Bank, the small town story has disappeared with the emergence of the Palace on the Hill, which is quickly becoming a village. Don't get me wrong, the expansion helps recruiting, sponsorship and all the other glamour that comes with that. But heading up to Albany my sophomore year with a car full of Bobcat fans that would show up to games two hours early was a very proud moment for me, A: being a Hamdenite and B: being a devout fan of an up and coming team. Where am I going with this...who knows? But the fact of the matter is the culture of the fan has changed. There are a few guys left down there who have expressed the same sentiment that myself, Seth, Black, Roz and even Kevin once had and may still have. When you create a larger than life, borderline minor league atmosphere you lose alot of the heart and pride that was the cornerstone to building this program. People still laugh at me in the area when I tell them of my devotion to Quinnipiac hockey... The fact that I haven't missed a home game dating back to the NIP days, the fact that I would shell out $95 bucks in order to have every different jersey or the fact that I still need to get to the game well before the 40 minute skate around. But it's part of the culture that myself and a very small few have adopted. In order for Quinnipiac to be more successful they need to create an environment that brings back the old NIP feel. After being to a few league and non league rinks I do feel that pride when I see opposing fans staring at the Bank wide-eyed, but that pride is strictly appearance based because once the game starts their fans, in their smaller numbers, tend to out shout, cheer and chant our seated on their hands crowd. It was no more evident than Saturday night against Clarkson. School was in session, the student section was pathetic and the traveling Knight's fans embarrassed the home town crowd ultimately culminating with their Knights giving them a stick salute on our ice. That's another story...I wouldn't have minded seeing our boys drop the gloves right there and risk forfitting the Harvard game for a whole team brawl. However, we don't have this, as a fanbase, right now. We did once.
I don't know how it's rectified. Do you possibly consider hosting one game each year at the NIP against a Uconn or a Holy Cross just to bring back old feelings? It's 2010, maybe it's time for the athletic department to bring back to the Bank an All Decade Team.
As far as recruiting...look at the next few senior classes since the Wong, Marshall clan departed...
2011: Hansen, McGann, Liimatainen, Coughlin
2012: Bouharevich, Bui, Clarke, Glaicar, Heichman, Zurevinski
2013: Arnt, Barron, Currie, Dalhuisen, Davies, Goodman, Hartzell, Harvey, Langlois, Oakes, Rolheiser, Tyson
2014: Dunbar, Hibbeler, C Jones, K Jones, Robinson, Tolkinen
None of these classes come close the classes that have gone before them. Let's not forget the Nelson/Bates class either. Rand was finding and producing professional level players. This is not the case with guys with the exception of the Joneses and possibly Zurevinski. We're talking whole classes whos collective point total may not equal that of individual players who've come before them. Something changed here too, the reassuring part is the recruitment of the Joneses who have a chance to do great things.
My main point with this is that recruiting classes who began their careers being recruited for Atlantic Hockey play and had no right even keeping up with ECACHL competition put up obscene numbers while these classes which were recruited with ECAC in mind aren't doing anything. Something is wrong there.
Something needs to be done because the arena has lost its initial buzz, recruiting talent is down, basketball is doing well and looking to win the league and could easily outdraw hockey on any given night and they are losing the student body, a student body, mind you, who has no idea what the NIP is.
I always believe they can win every game. I... just... can't... pick... against... them... 
