What's new
By:
USCHO Fan Forum

This is a sample guest message. Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

  • The USCHO Fan Forum has migrated to a new plaform, xenForo. Most of the function of the forum should work in familiar ways. Please note that you can switch between light and dark modes by clicking on the gear icon in the upper right of the main menu bar. We are hoping that this new platform will prove to be faster and more reliable. Please feel free to explore its features.

RPI 2024–25: Come for the Hockey, Stay for the Football

rpi82 said:
It's not so much that the fans have more or less etiquette than other places, but the ancient layout of HFH. There really is no "concourse" where fans emerge from a nearby tunnels to reach their section. On the student side the area under the stands is locker rooms and facilities space, so the fans must walk from the west end, where the entrances, concessions and some of the restrooms are located, in front of the stands. On the "Troy side" the tunnels feed a narrow hallway underneath with bathrooms, but all other traffic generally proceeds along the boards. It's usually not a major problem except early in the game, when they queue up late arrivals (often a sizeable group seemingly everywhere these days) until a break and then there's a surge of people trying to get to their seats (which may be near the far end of the rink) before the puck drops. The most annoying time, however, may be late in a bad game when the diehards, who are probably in a bad mood already, are subject to the early departees interupting their "enjoyment" of the closing minutes.
Click to expand...

Having been to games at Houston for around 35 years now, I certainly agree that the fans in Troy are just like fans everywhere else, if not a bit nicer, in my experience.

Once, we went there to see a game that featured RPI and Northeastern. We didn't exactly have a dog in the hunt, but a guy all regaled in his Engineer garb walked up to us and offered us free tickets while we waited at the box office... His only condition was that we rooted for RPI.

Well, we were more about Hockey East, and silently pulled for NU, but ended-up having a good chat with that guy all game long.

You never know.
 
Just got back from the game. The lads played Maine tough through 2 periods and it was good to see them battle back despite all the terrible Lee penalties he seems to be taking. They just ran out of gas in the third. McDermott was amazing, demanding the puck, pushing the play, great backchecking skills. Surprised so many Maine fans made the trip but good to see less empty seats because of them. RPI looks a lot more competitive this year but they still have a long way to go to get to Maine's level.
 
Engineers said:
Your thoughts on the weekend Aspy? Haha
maine with 12 goals RPI 2 goals.
Maine with an unbelievable 100 shots on goal in 2 games. I think it went well by all accounts lol
Click to expand...

Hey Engineers. Season Greetings to you. I have always been shocked on the disparity of SOG during Dave's tenure. Thought he would clog the neutral zone and try to grind it with older guys when he got the job. Back in the day, we could hang with top teams but now not so much. I feel bad for Breen who has worked thru injuries throughout his career and broke his leg Saturday night. I only watched the first period today and Maine clanked two off the posts, could have been worse..I guess. The Ecac is down and we should be better. Always enjoy your posts.
 
RPIfanNYC said:
Just got back from the game. The lads played Maine tough through 2 periods and it was good to see them battle back despite all the terrible Lee penalties he seems to be taking. They just ran out of gas in the third. McDermott was amazing, demanding the puck, pushing the play, great backchecking skills. Surprised so many Maine fans made the trip but good to see less empty seats because of them. RPI looks a lot more competitive this year but they still have a long way to go to get to Maine's level.
Click to expand...

Lads had a good weekend right. Yeah it’s weird lee seems to be taking a lot of penalties. Lol
maine fans showed up for sure.
1662 in attendance at a barn that holds 4800. Damn near a morgue
RPI looks competitive in very small doses which is a result of piss poor coaching.
RPI isn’t in the same stratosphere as maine.
 
AspyDad said:
Hey Engineers. Season Greetings to you. I have always been shocked on the disparity of SOG during Dave's tenure. Thought he would clog the neutral zone and try to grind it with older guys when he got the job. Back in the day, we could hang with top teams but now not so much. I feel bad for Breen who has worked thru injuries throughout his career and broke his leg Saturday night. I only watched the first period today and Maine clanked two off the posts, could have been worse..I guess. The Ecac is down and we should be better. Always enjoy your posts.
Click to expand...

Season greetings! I agree about Breen always tough to see that. He just came back from knee surgery over the summer. Good player
 
Engineers said:
Lads had a good weekend right. Yeah it’s weird lee seems to be taking a lot of penalties. Lol
maine fans showed up for sure.
1662 in attendance at a barn that holds 4800. Damn near a morgue
RPI looks competitive in very small doses which is a result of **** poor coaching.
RPI isn’t in the same stratosphere as maine.
Click to expand...

The attendance issue is sad. Remember nights at HFH with my late dad. Fridays and Saturdays were a Troy tradition.
 
Engineers said:
RPI looks competitive in very small doses which is a result of **** poor coaching.
RPI isn’t in the same stratosphere as maine.
Click to expand...

Thought RPI played much better tonight, but you are right, RPI very inconsistent within games and Maine demonstrated the gulf in talent by punishing mistakes. The defensive breakdowns on the 3rd period goals were concerning for an experienced group; lots of puck-watching and people out of position. Bad things are likely to happen for your goaltender when you give up 44 shots, but Watson looked rusty from the lack of recent game time.
 
AspyDad said:
The attendance issue is sad. Remember nights at HFH with my late dad. Fridays and Saturdays were a Troy tradition.
Click to expand...

Awful. Saturday was first game all season I was able to make. I remember the Yale game in 11, the QPac game in 16, the Blackout game in 19 and obviously many others as time goes back where the place was rocking. The general apathy around the program these days is just sad to all of us who miss what it was
 
AspyDad said:
The attendance issue is sad. Remember nights at HFH with my late dad. Fridays and Saturdays were a Troy tradition.
Click to expand...

I remember them too and long after anybody was bringing me there.

The reasons for it no longer being so are so plentiful that it would be impractical to list them all here. However, there is really no need to thanks to the outstanding Times Union editorial writer Chris Churchill who captured all those reasons in just a few sentences of a rather lengthy editorial he wrote on October 9, 2022. The relevant sentences are:

"Now I would never suggest that athletics should be a top priority of a university president. Far from it. But sports are a way that schools build ties with their communities, as used to be the case with RPI. The hockey team, in particular, was something Troy celebrated".

"In recent years, though, in part because of COVID-19 restrictions that felt excessive, the community hasn't felt welcome at games and RPI certainly hasn't generated buzz fot it's teams"

The operative terms are in bold red. There is little to add. Mr. Churchill captured it all and did so simply and eloquently. When people don't feel welcome somewhere they just won't go as often, if they even bother going at all.
 
CMcGarvey said:
Awful. Saturday was first game all season I was able to make. I remember the Yale game in 11, the QPac game in 16, the Blackout game in 19 and obviously many others as time goes back where the place was rocking. The general apathy around the program these days is just sad to all of us who miss what it was
Click to expand...

I agree that the state of the field house is sad, but it's not surprising. This weekend's game were both over RPI's Thanksgiving break, so the majority of students were nowhere near campus, likely knocking out 1000 to 3000 potential RPI fans. That's not to say non event games (Blackout, Mayor's Cup, and Freakout) have had good attendance. This boils down to RPI's lack of an ability to win at home. Between last season and this season, RPI has won 6 games at home. Of those, 2 were exhibition games, one was during finals week, and one was right at the end of winter break. In other words, for games that mattered that the average student would actually be able to attend, in the past season and a half, RPI has only won twice, both of which against SLU. Due to the rigger of an RPI education, RPI students have limited time when they are not studying. Why would they spend it watching RPI lose?
If RPI starts reliably winning in the field house when students can attend games, attendance should rise, as the potential value of going to a game during a student's free time increases. If they continue to lose at the field house, I would not be surprised if turnout to games continues to fall.
 
CMcGarvey said:
Awful. Saturday was first game all season I was able to make. I remember the Yale game in 11, the QPac game in 16, the Blackout game in 19 and obviously many others as time goes back where the place was rocking. The general apathy around the program these days is just sad to all of us who miss what it was
Click to expand...

Maine was pretty much the same before Barr came along..first year he was there with the previous (late Red Gendron) coaches groceries the attendance was bad and there was no interest in the program. It's gotten better each year he's been here.

Now its hard to get a ticket regardless of the opponent and we have donors lining up upgrading the facilities left and right. Winning and a charismatic coach that cares about the program will do that. And no I'm not rubbing in anyone's face here that you guys didn't hire him..but..maybe it's time you guys got your own Barr and got a new coach?
 
The reasons go on and on and on, you are right though, by far the biggest reason has been an unappealing product for way too long. Have to view this program as a complete and total rebuild right now. They have absolutely no momentum and need to build it back from the ground up
 
Good night for Woman's hockey, as they shutout Assumption University 6 - 0. Great to see after a bad weekend for Men's hockey. As I have said earlier, Maine likely was our hardest weekend of the season unless by nothing short of a miracle we make it to he national tournament. I do hope that RPI used this weekend to learn what it takes to take on the best the NCAA has to offer, and I hope coach Smith uses this week to tune the team up to get some wins this upcoming weekend where it really matters, in league.
- Qpac vs. RPI should be a hard game vs another top team. That being said Qpac is NOT Maine, and this game is definitely winnable if we play our best for all periods. Qpac has sort of been hit and miss this season, sometimes looking like a top 10 team, sometimes not. In addition, I'm hoping to see some added motivation from the veterans, as the whole team seemed rather upset to lose both playoff games there last year. Still, Qpac has the skill to make any little mistake RPI makes hurt. In addition, RPI has only one once at Qpac according to the RPI athletics website.
- Princeton vs. RPI should be interesting. Princeton should be much easier then Qpac and Maine. Still, this game can go either way, but I think if RPI plays 60 minutes of good hockey, they should have a solid chance.
We need ECAC points badly, so I'm hoping RPI brings their all this weekend. Lets go RED.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top