>>> RIT Tigers 2018/2019 - Time For The Tigers to Roar <<<

[Hockeyplayer82]

Re: >>> RIT Tigers 2018/2019 - Time For The Tigers to Roar <<<

Unless I am mistaken, until recently, almost all the coaches in Atlantic Hockey are lifers at the universities.

Bentley - Soderquist has been there since 2002
Holy Cross - Pearl was there from 1998-2014
Mercyhurst - Gotkin has been there since 1988(!)
Niagara - Burkholder was there from 2001-2017
AIC - Gary WRight from 1984-2016

Sensing a pattern here?

Which ones do you think would have tried to move on?

Pearl moved on to an assistant position at Harvard and now an assistant with BU.

AHC coaches are not leaving. AHC experience does not carry a high value in the NCAA DI world.

 

[Tom Naeger]

Re: >>> RIT Tigers 2018/2019 - Time For The Tigers to Roar <<<

You get what you pay for. AHC has the lowest paid coaches in DI. All of the coaches are just ok except Serratore. No idea how RPI went after Dave smith from Canisus..Other then Dave Smith has any other head coach moved to another league/team as a head coach? I cannot remember one and I am sure they put their resume in for open jobs. Assistant coaches seldomly leave, they can't, no one values their AHC expereince. It is what it is. So what you are saying is.. Wilson is the smartest in a room full of dumb dumbs???? Not buying it....Just OK/Average coach

You know I'd love to see one of these Schools hire you. You'd probably do a great for a dozen years before they get tired of you and show you the door. If dreams where reality...

To go with Tom's poker "good decisions", I would call this the equivalent of calling an "All-In" with J-9 off-suit. In this case, the flop came up good for the hand, but you can't count on that winning a lot in that situation.

At this point the guys want to go pre-flop with the 7-2 off suit. And then whine like Tony G... But getting torn a new one by Hellmuth would probably be a turn on for most...

 

[komey1]

Re: >>> RIT Tigers 2018/2019 - Time For The Tigers to Roar <<<

Pearl moved on to an assistant position at Harvard and now an assistant with BU.

AHC coaches are not leaving. AHC experience does not carry a high value in the NCAA DI world.

Only Serratore and Wilson have had consistent success in the conference. If the coaching is as bad as you claim, why would anyone hire these guys? And what does that say about coaches that are let go from an Atlantic Hockey program?

 

[Hockeyplayer82]

Re: >>> RIT Tigers 2018/2019 - Time For The Tigers to Roar <<<

Only Serratore and Wilson have had consistent success in the conference. If the coaching is as bad as you claim, why would anyone hire these guys? And what does that say about coaches that are let go from an Atlantic Hockey program?

I never said bad. Just ok/Average. Good maybe greener pastures for them.

 

[komey1]

Re: >>> RIT Tigers 2018/2019 - Time For The Tigers to Roar <<<

I never said bad. Just ok/Average. Good maybe greener pastures for them.

Yep. Because everyone hires ok/average coaches from bad conferences

 

[blazer777]

I'm not necessarily arguing for or against blazer or hockeyplayer, but I will say you're kind of arguing his point for him.
Within the time RIT has been in AHC and eligible the numbers are as follows:
AHC titles - AFA 6, RIT 3
Regional Finals - AFA 3, RIT 2
Tournament wins - AFA 3, RIT 3
Frozen Fours - RIT 1, AFA 0

So RIT won one game that AFA has yet to win, the regional final. The Falcons have been painfully close to winning that game all three times, losing by 1 goal each time, including a 2OT game against UVm and a loss to the eventual champs, UMD, last season. Granted a loss is a loss, but they've been right there every time in the regional finals. They've also been within 1 or 2 goals in most of their first round losses as well, usually against one of the top two teams in the tournament. All three of RIT's tournament losses were lopsided, 8-1, 4-0 and 4-0.
If you want to argue Coach Wilson's superiority to Coach Serratore, this isn't the angle to take.

No not at all, I'm just pointing out that Wilson is more than an 'okay' coach.

Opinions for everybody!

 

[Russell Jaslow]

Russell/Blazer77 and math do not get along. Just look on the RIT page on the USCHO website and you can count the 11 eligible seasons for post season play.

Whoops-Fingers and toes end at ten........

Well, a guy can count up to 21...

Based on blazer's post, I’m blaming him. That’s my story, and I’m sticking to it.

 

[blazer777]

Re: >>> RIT Tigers 2018/2019 - Time For The Tigers to Roar <<<

Well, a guy can count up to 21...

Based on blazer's post, I’m blaming him. That’s my story, and I’m sticking to it.

I'll take full responsibility for whatever they said! You forgot wo things!

 

[Downstate_RIT_Fan]

Re: >>> RIT Tigers 2018/2019 - Time For The Tigers to Roar <<<

One of the average coaches from the terrible Atlantic Conference just beat North Dakota.

 

[RIT Winters]

Re: >>> RIT Tigers 2018/2019 - Time For The Tigers to Roar <<<

Meanwhile Drackett started tonight (good) but we continued to not win (bad). Although a tie is at least not a loss, being 1-5-1 in our last 7 still is pretty terrible.

I think the more important component of Wilson's success that we don't discuss is how good the scouting of his assistants is, as they are the ones typically travelling to go look and guys and making the pitches. I'm convinced that any dumb idiot in AHC or probably even on this forum could have managed to win back to back titles with the Garbowsky/McCowan/Mitchell line. Heck, Garbo went to the ECHL, became a Captain, and won back to back Championships there too. I'll pause here to let you go look at what McCowan has done in Europe. The numbers would make my created star in NHL 18 blush. It didn't take a brilliant coach to put his 3 best guys on a line and then ride them like crazy for a couple years.

In 2010 he had some great players as well, including (by far) the most skilled and accomplished player to ever play in the conference, Chris Tanev. The fact is that Tanev went straight from RIT to the NHL and has been a top pairing defenseman there for the better part of a decade. That is talent at an individual level better than lots of teams even outside the AHC have, and certainly better than anything in the league. I'm sure coach made some good line change calls or ran some good drills in practice that year, but it all starts and ends with having a bonafide superstar.

So I will give Wilson some credit on bringing in assistants who have a pretty decent track record finding diamonds in the rough, although I am still waiting for this supposed boost in both higher top end quality and better overall quality of recruits that we were supposed to get as a windfall from opening GPC...

 

[komey1]

Re: >>> RIT Tigers 2018/2019 - Time For The Tigers to Roar <<<

Meanwhile Drackett started tonight (good) but we continued to not win (bad). Although a tie is at least not a loss, being 1-5-1 in our last 7 still is pretty terrible.

RIT is 1-0-1 in their last 2. Positivity my friend.

I think the more important component of Wilson's success that we don't discuss is how good the scouting of his assistants is, as they are the ones typically travelling to go look and guys and making the pitches. I'm convinced that any dumb idiot in AHC or probably even on this forum could have managed to win back to back titles with the Garbowsky/McCowan/Mitchell line. Heck, Garbo went to the ECHL, became a Captain, and won back to back Championships there too. I'll pause here to let you go look at what McCowan has done in Europe. The numbers would make my created star in NHL 18 blush. It didn't take a brilliant coach to put his 3 best guys on a line and then ride them like crazy for a couple years.

The MGM line only one the first of the back to back NCAA tournament appearances. Then pulled off the only 16 seed to beat a 1. Only Mitchell was around for both years. The 2 years prior were some pretty bad years. I agree that assistants are important to scouting to get recruits, though.

In 2010 he had some great players as well, including (by far) the most skilled and accomplished player to ever play in the conference, Chris Tanev. The fact is that Tanev went straight from RIT to the NHL and has been a top pairing defenseman there for the better part of a decade. That is talent at an individual level better than lots of teams even outside the AHC have, and certainly better than anything in the league. I'm sure coach made some good line change calls or ran some good drills in practice that year, but it all starts and ends with having a bonafide superstar.

I would agree about most accomplished with Tanev. It's great to see someone who played at RIT to have that kind of success at that level. Not sure I would say most skilled ever, though. Tanev was helped to the NCAA by his measurables. Guys like Burt, Favot, Lambert, Ringwald, and the MGM line were very skilled players as well.

So I will give Wilson some credit on bringing in assistants who have a pretty decent track record finding diamonds in the rough, although I am still waiting for this supposed boost in both higher top end quality and better overall quality of recruits that we were supposed to get as a windfall from opening GPC...

Was that part of the promise? Another way to look at it is that since so many other teams making improvements to their facilities, RIT would be worse off in recruits if they were still at the Ritter.

 

[Ed Trefzger]

Re: >>> RIT Tigers 2018/2019 - Time For The Tigers to Roar <<<

We need a thread on this forum for players to talk about the poor performance of RIT's fans. They used to be the best in the league. Now they're mostly OK/average. Teams from other leagues certainly wouldn't want them. We haven't seen higher top end quality fans that we were supposed to get as a windfall from opening GPC. </sarcasm>

 

[RIT Winters]

Re: >>> RIT Tigers 2018/2019 - Time For The Tigers to Roar <<<

The MGM line only one the first of the back to back NCAA tournament appearances. Then pulled off the only 16 seed to beat a 1. Only Mitchell was around for both years. The 2 years prior were some pretty bad years. I agree that assistants are important to scouting to get recruits, though.

Fair, though Garbowsky spent one of those prior two seasons out for most of the year with that hand/wrist injury.

I would agree about most accomplished with Tanev. It's great to see someone who played at RIT to have that kind of success at that level. Not sure I would say most skilled ever, though. Tanev was helped to the NCAA by his measurables. Guys like Burt, Favot, Lambert, Ringwald, and the MGM line were very skilled players as well.

Not saying those guys aren't talented, but most of them washed out of the North American pro scene pretty quickly after leaving RIT. If they were comparably skilled as hockey players to Tanev they should have been able to hang in at least the AHL, if not the NHL. Instead, those guys you listed have combined for 0 NHL and only 50 AHL games and none of them still play in the States. Meanwhile Tanev (who left before Burt and Favot and the same year as Ringwald) has 429 NHL games under his belt. So while they are all skilled, only one of them is at least at a high NHL skill level.

Was that part of the promise? Another way to look at it is that since so many other teams making improvements to their facilities, RIT would be worse off in recruits if they were still at the Ritter.

Well of course there wasn't a formal promise, but it was something Wilson and others mentioned to the press during the process and certainly something that many of us (myself included) believed would happen and spent a lot of time on here discussing. If the fancy new building doesn't help build the program by making it more appealing, what's the point? We're certainly much less dominate in GPC than we were in Ritter and ticket sales, while slightly higher, are far from blowing the doors off Ritter most nights these days. Occasionally we even dip below 2100 in GPC which almost never happened at Ritter! If a $30 million dollar building, the supposedly rising profile of AHC, and having allegedly the best coach in the league can't bring the boys to the barn...what else is there? (Besides scholarships of course)

We need a thread on this forum for players to talk about the poor performance of RIT's fans. They used to be the best in the league. Now they're mostly OK/average. Teams from other leagues certainly wouldn't want them. We haven't seen higher top end quality fans that we were supposed to get as a windfall from opening GPC. </sarcasm>

I understand your position as an RIT Hockey broadcaster gives you an inherent and severe bias and it would be inappropriate for you to be remotely critical of the team in a public setting. The team has sputtered for months, is way below expectations both on the ice and in the standings, and after several similar seasons in a row the fans have earned the right to be ornery. If we weren't upset right now, it would be because we just didn't care enough about the team. I'm pretty sure if you asked any player on the team off the record if they were happy where they are right now, they would say no. And if you asked any upper classmen if they were happy how the last three have gone, they would not paint a picture any better than OK/average, and frankly I'd be concerned if they tried to go that high with their praise. You want the fans to come out, you gotta ice a team worth watching!

But you're welcome to open up a new forum here for players to comment on fans. They could clearly use additional distraction from practice and game prep.................

 

[Ed Trefzger]

Re: >>> RIT Tigers 2018/2019 - Time For The Tigers to Roar <<<

I understand your position as an RIT Hockey broadcaster gives you an inherent and severe bias and it would be inappropriate for you to be remotely critical of the team in a public setting.

My position as a national college hockey journalist for two decades gives me a perspective on the game overall.

The team gets criticized during our broadcasts when bad plays are made. A bad pass and a bad penalty last night were the difference and we called those out.

You want the fans to come out, you gotta ice a team worth watching!

You've just defined a fair-weather fan and made my point.

 

[komey1]

Re: >>> RIT Tigers 2018/2019 - Time For The Tigers to Roar <<<

I remember many a night where RIT wasn't selling out the Ritter. When RIT was a dominant team, people came. Otherwise - not so much. These are the average attendance figures from USCHO.

2001-02 1149
2002-03 1105
2003-04 1255
2004-05 1610
2006-07 1573 - First year of DI
2007-08 1869 - first year of Atlantic Hockey
2008-09 1821
2009-10 2071
2010-11 2548 - includes Blue Cross game
2011-12 2329
2012-13 2307
2013-14 2266
2014-15 3307 - first year of GPC?
2015-16 3359
2016-17 2859
2017-18 2600
2018-19 3326

My point in this is that the Ritter was not always selling out, and based on how the team had played the last couple years, we would not likely have been selling out it out.

 

[komey1]

Re: >>> RIT Tigers 2018/2019 - Time For The Tigers to Roar <<<

Not saying those guys aren't talented, but most of them washed out of the North American pro scene pretty quickly after leaving RIT. If they were comparably skilled as hockey players to Tanev they should have been able to hang in at least the AHL, if not the NHL. Instead, those guys you listed have combined for 0 NHL and only 50 AHL games and none of them still play in the States. Meanwhile Tanev (who left before Burt and Favot and the same year as Ringwald) has 429 NHL games under his belt. So while they are all skilled, only one of them is at least at a high NHL skill level.

I also mentioned Tanev's measurables. He really filled out by the time he got here. Dan Ringwald was the best defenseman RIT has ever had in the DI era. However, he didn't have the body type that plays well in the NHL. The only forward who really had an NHL type body was Pizzozzotto (sp), and he did get to play NHL eventually but spent a lot of time in minor leagues. I can't imagine the pay is great for minor league players so several players probably just don't stick with it if they don't feel they can move up.

 

[Scott Biggar]

Re: >>> RIT Tigers 2018/2019 - Time For The Tigers to Roar <<<

The team has sputtered for months, is way below expectations both on the ice and in the standings, and after several similar seasons in a row the fans have earned the right to be ornery.

The pre-season AHA coach's poll placed RIT in 7th. The USCHO columnists picked RIT to finish 7th or 8th.

RIT is currently in 7th place at the mid point of the season.

Can you explain to me how that "is way below expectations both on the ice and in the standings, "?

Maybe it "is way below" your personal expectations, and is certainly "way below" what most RIT fans hoped for, particularly after a good start to the season.

But to say they are "way below expectations both on the ice and in the standings" is just not supported by the facts.

 

[blazer777]

Re: >>> RIT Tigers 2018/2019 - Time For The Tigers to Roar <<<

The pre-season AHA coach's poll placed RIT in 7th. The USCHO columnists picked RIT to finish 7th or 8th.

RIT is currently in 7th place at the mid point of the season.

Can you explain to me how that "is way below expectations both on the ice and in the standings, "?

Maybe it "is way below" your personal expectations, and is certainly "way below" what most RIT fans hoped for, particularly after a good start to the season.

But to say they are "way below expectations both on the ice and in the standings" is just not supported by the facts.

But the sticker on my mirror says "Your expectations may be greater than what they should be!"

I suspect that it is our 'hopes' on a nightly basis are greater than what the writers and the coaches perceptions of the team were.

Please god, tell me I didn't just prove HockeyPlayer82's point again!

 

[blazer777]

Re: >>> RIT Tigers 2018/2019 - Time For The Tigers to Roar <<<

And in case nobody noticed, the Tigers were on the road last night and walked away with a tie! For most teams and their fans, that's an okay outcome!

 

[komey1]

Re: >>> RIT Tigers 2018/2019 - Time For The Tigers to Roar <<<

And in case nobody noticed, the Tigers were on the road last night and walked away with a tie! For most teams and their fans, that's an okay outcome!

The problem is that it could have been a win. Still, it's important to keep some momentum for the last game before break to the first game after.