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

DavidNardolillo said:
Part of this is local media economics, and college hoops generates more interest. Accordingly, freelancers cover college hockey on an episodic basis; the full-time employees cover Siena and UAlbany basketball. That said, the ECAC apparently can't afford much of a sports information presence to promote what happens; the press releases on the ECAC site are minimal and I could find no statement about any disciplinary action from the weekend.

Beyond this situation, RPI needs to devote more resources to sports information. Ever since they stopped posting the pre and post game press conferences on YouTube, the amount of information about the team that's publicly released to the fans has slowed to a trickle.
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The departures of Kevin Beattie and Sashi Vines has left a void .... which they don't appear to be in any hurry to fill. Not good vibes coming out of Troy, as others have said. The silence is deafening from leadership .... AD and Prez. Absolutely ZERO public discussion re: a campaign kickoff for renovations to HFH, which the AD was all too excited to discuss when we broached the topic with her at the ticket pickup event. But we've got granola and chocolate milk...so there's that to be thankful for. LOL
 
Originally posted by DavidNardolillo View Post
Part of this is local media economics, and college hoops generates more interest. Accordingly, freelancers cover college hockey on an episodic basis; the full-time employees cover Siena and UAlbany basketball. That said, the ECAC apparently can't afford much of a sports information presence to promote what happens; the press releases on the ECAC site are minimal and I could find no statement about any disciplinary action from the weekend.

Beyond this situation, RPI needs to devote more resources to sports information. Ever since they stopped posting the pre and post game press conferences on YouTube, the amount of information about the team that's publicly released to the fans has slowed to a trickle.


Wicked Slappaahs said:
The departures of Kevin Beattie and Sashi Vines has left a void .... which they don't appear to be in any hurry to fill. Not good vibes coming out of Troy, as others have said. The silence is deafening from leadership .... AD and Prez. Absolutely ZERO public discussion re: a campaign kickoff for renovations to HFH, which the AD was all too excited to discuss when we broached the topic with her at the ticket pickup event. But we've got granola and chocolate milk...so there's that to be thankful for. LOL
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And don't forget Perry, Karen, Scott and Norris too. Among this six pack is probably the person who should have been running the department for much of this century. Somehow, someway never got there and now never will. Instead, after the retirement of the all time GOAT AD we got two back to back here today gone tomorrow resume builders, a yes man figurehead potted plant athletic director emeritus. Then it was let's try some doctor with a PHD and see if that works like some consulting firm thought and said it would. To collect their fee they probably would have told you that any of Stephanie, Michael, George, Chester, Jim, Officer Shiflets, Larry, Daryll & Daryll from the Newhart Show would have worked!!!

Bottom line, whether in a hurry or not, is that the chances of ever adequately replacing the above named people of this calibre are about the same chances the Oriental gal has of ever landing the guy at the end of a Hallmark movie!!!
 
While you are right about the lack of information, what difference would it make if we had some coverage.
What do we have to offer a recruit other than a great education.
We are 30 years away from out last championship (ECAC). A program with a losing record going back to 2000. An old building.
What can you say to a top recruit to get him to come here. And we would need more that one talented recruit to turn this program around.
And now with NIL and the portal, even if we could bring in a couple of top notch players, how long could we keep them.
We need something or someone to draw them in. A well known charismatic coach, a new building, something that will bring in talented players.
Until then, I will continue to follow this program and enjoy every game.
LGR
 
I'm a natural cynic, so giving the benefit of the doubt isn't my normal style, and I do think the general silence about ambitions, plans and progress on them (or anything else) is worrying - but -

My one hope is that behind the scenes the discussions are about how to put all the pieces together. If there's a real desire for change, investment and advancement across the hockey program, it's a big undertaking.

Because you'll need to understand what can be done to the Field House from a technical standpoint or what a new arena would entail, have a degree of financial commitment to renovate/build, want to have those plans be tangible enough that if you were recruiting a new head coach that it was part of the sales pitch, perhaps be thinking about fundraising more broadly for the hockey program, etc.

If you were going to replace the head coach for example, you'd be sensible to do it with some of these other things in a tangible enough state that you'd be able to take advantage of them.

I have zero insider-knowledge, no idea what's actually happening, but would like to think there's something more strategic going on here.
 
DavidNardolillo said:
...l.

That situation aside, I'm more concerned that RPI is an experienced team but is doing things that experienced teams don't normally do, i.e. take a lot of penalties and be so weak on the penalty kill. Impossible to win at this level with that combination. Injuries are an issue again this year, but these are some principles of play that every member of the team has to abide by.
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Spot on observations and two long standing issues with Smith coached teams. Clearly he either a) doesn't know how to fix it and/ or b) doesn't have the guts to sit guys and send a message.
What exactly does he have to lose at this point in his RPI tenure ??? But somehow Smith keeps running Lee and Caron out there to keep the seat warm in the sin bin. Asinine. Things in the room can't be all that great if the rest of team is busting their humps killing off 4-5 penalties on any given night....who would look forward to that ??

Heck, Monty sat Marchand and Pasta and Lindy Ruff sat Power and Peterka the other night for the better part of a period for being disinterested in competing.
 
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Schott's recent column mentions Smith's one game benching...clip below....which of course the league nor the school could confirm nor deny. LOL

SMITH SUSPENDED?


Apparently RPI men’s head coach Dave Smith wasn’t behind the bench for the Engineers’ 6-2 loss to Princeton last Saturday at Hobey Baker Rink. Smith was apparently suspended by the conference for allegedly abusing the officials the previous night at Quinnipiac.



An RPI fan reached out to me this week inquiring about Smith’s status. I emailed both ECAC Hockey Commissioner Doug Christiansen and RPI sports information Adrian Donnelly about a possible Smith suspension. They sent me the same statement. It read, "ECAC Hockey holds all student-athletes, coaches, officials and league partners accountable for maintaining the highest levels of conduct. ECAC Hockey reserves the right to administer discipline when deemed appropriate. Any disciplinary actions taken by ECAC Hockey will remain confidential per league policy."

To me, that’s a confirmation without confirming it.

Several years ago, the conference decided to keep suspensions under wraps. Honestly, this is unfair to the fans who follow the conference. We have a right to know who was suspended and why. Some suspensions are easy to figure out if a player gets a game disqualification. But to hide suspensions from the fans and the media is wrong. I don’t know of any other college conference that does that.
 
Not sure that his is in any way more positive -We are only a 1/2 goal favorite for each game this coming weekend against Mercyhurst. This season is beginning to look like we took a trip from someplace and made a U-Turn into last year.
 
Per the Erie Times-News, the city of Erie, PA received 39.1 inches of snow on Nov. 29-30 and has gotten another 17.6 inches so far in December. Hope they've been able to clear a path for RPI's bus to get to Mercyhurst's rink.

Now if our team can just get off the bus and be ready to play by game time, maybe they can beat the spread. :)
 
MikeMidd said:
I'm a natural cynic, so giving the benefit of the doubt isn't my normal style, and I do think the general silence about ambitions, plans and progress on them (or anything else) is worrying - but -

My one hope is that behind the scenes the discussions are about how to put all the pieces together. If there's a real desire for change, investment and advancement across the hockey program, it's a big undertaking.

Because you'll need to understand what can be done to the Field House from a technical standpoint or what a new arena would entail, have a degree of financial commitment to renovate/build, want to have those plans be tangible enough that if you were recruiting a new head coach that it was part of the sales pitch, perhaps be thinking about fundraising more broadly for the hockey program, etc.

If you were going to replace the head coach for example, you'd be sensible to do it with some of these other things in a tangible enough state that you'd be able to take advantage of them.

I have zero insider-knowledge, no idea what's actually happening, but would like to think there's something more strategic going on here.
Click to expand...
Well said! I would like to think the same thing. Get your ducks in a row then try and land a higher profile coach.
 
Wicked Slappaahs said:
Schott's recent column mentions Smith's one game benching...clip below....which of course the league nor the school could confirm nor deny. LOL

SMITH SUSPENDED?


Apparently RPI men’s head coach Dave Smith wasn’t behind the bench for the Engineers’ 6-2 loss to Princeton last Saturday at Hobey Baker Rink. Smith was apparently suspended by the conference for allegedly abusing the officials the previous night at Quinnipiac.



An RPI fan reached out to me this week inquiring about Smith’s status. I emailed both ECAC Hockey Commissioner Doug Christiansen and RPI sports information Adrian Donnelly about a possible Smith suspension. They sent me the same statement. It read, "ECAC Hockey holds all student-athletes, coaches, officials and league partners accountable for maintaining the highest levels of conduct. ECAC Hockey reserves the right to administer discipline when deemed appropriate. Any disciplinary actions taken by ECAC Hockey will remain confidential per league policy."

To me, that’s a confirmation without confirming it.

Several years ago, the conference decided to keep suspensions under wraps. Honestly, this is unfair to the fans who follow the conference. We have a right to know who was suspended and why. Some suspensions are easy to figure out if a player gets a game disqualification. But to hide suspensions from the fans and the media is wrong. I don’t know of any other college conference that does that.
Click to expand...

Since I was behind the bench I'm quite sure there was no conflict with the referees during the Q game. My guess is that Smith saw the replay of the phantom goal afterward and belatedly blew his top.
 
Smith said he expects to dominate mercyhurst. 3-3 tie tonight. Tingling scored with 5 minutes left in the 3rd to tie it up. Yeah
 
Does anyone know about the injury situation regarding Bourgault (sp?) and Tonelli? Are they practicing with the team or are they just being redshirted? Not sure if Tonelli can even be redshirted considering he’s a graduate transfer….
 
RPI fan 4 life said:
Does anyone know about the injury situation regarding Bourgault (sp?) and Tonelli? Are they practicing with the team or are they just being redshirted? Not sure if Tonelli can even be redshirted considering he’s a graduate transfer….
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There's been no public mention other than obtuse mentions by Smitty on Wyland's radio show. You should forward your question to Rodger...perhaps he could ask Smitty. Honestly, he doesn't know a thing about the team or the sport for that matter...so you'll need to spoon feed him. LOL
 
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