I certainly hope so. Plus as said before Pittsburgh is rebuilding so who knows what the future holds for him. It just makes so much sense to have him come back to RPI to resurrect the program. Eric lang is another guy to watch. What he did at AIC is nothing short of a miracle. severely underfunded program more so than RPI. I was just looking at his records at AIC it’s kinda nuts. My list would be Kirk, Eric lang, Dan muse, Joel Beal.
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RPI 2025 Off-Season: HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
- Thread starter Ralph Baer
- Start date
I'm hoping that's due to some form of nagging injury. They've given him more time off lately but it's hard to tell whether that's injury or performance-based. It's just an indication of our luck that whatever is wrong seems to have coincided perfectly with his commitment to us.
Riga as well
Ralph Baer
Let's Go 'Tute!
Would he keep the Latvians?
I tend to agree with MikeMidd on this. Moving to HE 40-some years ago might have made sense but not in today’s environment. We clearly have challenges recruiting top players now. In HE it would only get worse and especially now with players getting paid. Qpac should go. Their academics are more in line with Maine than they are with the rest of the ECAC and they clearly have money to spend.
I also think people place way too much value on facilities, particularly the arena. We saw UC and Yale win national titles despite playing in crappy arenas. Yale’s whale has a certain architectural appeal but is an awful place to watch hockey. UC never had much of a following until they started winning.
Players want to win titles and most aspire to continuing at a higher level than the ECHL. Frankly, a college education is secondary for most at the D1 level. Coaches and trainers who can help them reach the higher level, playing the best competition, and the facilities fans don’t see are more important than arenas and even crowd support. Ever go to a UC away game? Except for games in Troy or Albany you could count their fans on two hands and most of them are family.
This is my list as well with Joe Dumais also on there
How well put. We all saw first hand how relatively quickly he transformed the program out of utter irrelevance to what it became in the first two months of 2020. We all know (or should know) the success he had at a previous stop once he had a basic necessity for running a hockey program. That being a freaking rink to call home. The losing years at the previous stop all happened while a home rink was whatever local rink was available on a particular date for rental!!!Dave is a great guy, and I'll forever be thankful for the time he gave me as a young student starting up with hockey blogging and podcasting. The human part of me is sad for him. As has been said by many, there was ZERO support from the previous admin. I think the majority of the problems were not his fault, but there comes a time when you just need a spark and need to get out of the rut. It's telling that we have had two different coaches fired in the past 20 years with limited success.
Marty and Kristie NEED to get this thing going. Let's get those HFH renovations and increased support. That's more important than our hire. Part of it their job will be convincing top candidates that they will be supported.
Some people have suggested that we are too late on Kirk. I'm not sure that's the case. Clarkson was able to get Houle last year. We need to show Kirk (or Dumais or Muse or Lang) that we have the resources for them to succeed. Let's get it right this time, 3rd time is the charm right?
The guy, when given a chance, can clearly coach PERIOD??? Unfortunately, here he paid the price for the failures of those around and above him in their handling of events as they transpired after March of 2020 and since.
You also mentioned 2 coaches fired in the past 20 years. You must be some kind of young whipper snapper. It is now actually 5 (out of a possible 6) over the last 46 years who were all fired. They are Salfi, Addessa, Fridgen, Appert and now Smith. Only Powers left on his own for another job. Are you going to try and convince me they all sucked while the administration is the only entity operating at a high level???
Also keep in mind that 7 of the last 8 spots in the ECAC standings this year were held by programs that shut down for the 2020-2021 season. Only Union appears to have escaped unscathed. Further, of those 7 (8 counting Union) only 1 doubled down and played the following season (2021-2022) in an empty building. Must have done wonders for recruiting!!! We all saw first hand what telling a fan base to get lost for 2 years (the "really bright" terminology used in the release was "external spectators who need to be socially separated") did for attendance. An average attendance of 2,181 per game, an all time low for indoor hockey at RPI for any year attendance figures are available. I have little doubt it is an all time low for ANY season with or without available figures.
The guy never had a chance nor was ever going to have a chance here. Fortunately, at least he has two years left on his contract so he can walk away with around a quarter million dollars or so. Frankly, whatever the amount is, he deserves to leave with every penny of it for both the success he did have and what he was put through after that.
Certainly hope that he eventually lands somewhere and has longer term success in a more positive and supporting environment. And, yes, in the few times I encountered him, he truly appears to be a very good guy.
DavidNardolillo
Active member
I hear what you are saying about facilities, but I think HFH is a little bit of a liability for the program right now. It has a lot of character, but there's a ton of deferred maintenance there and you don't have to look very closely to see things that are out of place/dirty/not working/not maintained. It's just not a great look for the program. You don't really see that at other rinks. The facilities guys are busting their tails to keep it working, but there needs to be a serious renovation.
FWIW, I actually really like watching games at the Yale Whale, but can see why others don't. Union has to be the worst rink from a spectator's perspective. Those bleachers are awful and I always gravitate to the standing areas to watch the game.
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Not to mention, in all my years of watching and broadcasting hockey, both at the Field House and other rinks, I’ve only ever had to evacuate once due to a fire alarm. At least they and the smoke detectors work.
Ralph Baer
Let's Go 'Tute!
I received this email a couple of minutes ago. It doesn't seem private.
Have not seen this much action and interest on a thread in a long time. I just hope they come up with a solution fairly quickly as i find it difficult to keep up when I have to read 3-6 pages of posts at a time. i am hopeful this works out well and I actually think it will since the administration that was here for the last 2 searches and hiring was abysmal.
Just support the next guy. That’s all we ask. Our worn out fans will come out in droves once the team is good again. it’s time to built the next generation of fans for this program and that starts with connecting on this hire and giving him resources to succeed. Everyone on this forum “roots for the laundry” and can’t wait to get behind a resurgence of RPI hockey. Now is the chance, perhaps the final one, to get this right once and for all
I have read all the thoughts here since the end of season. Smith’s departure was not a surprise. I think the history of this program and the change in support over the last several years left RPI no choice. I will admit I know little about the candidates mentioned here, but I think we can speculate all day about recruits and such, but at the end of the day no new coach worth hiring is going to take the job unless RPI assures them the facility will be addressed. Why would anyone want the job if the program is skating on thin ice both figuratively and literally.
Did you at least get any popcorn before you evacuated?
No. Burnt popcorn is disgusting
Here is the bottom line of what needs to be done to excel at the NCAA D1 level. It has been done often in multiple D1 sports before and most recently for the FOURTH TIME with the very same guy (obviously still the right guy) even past the age of 70. Virtually all of those sports always were and still are more competitive than college hockey.
It involves little more than institution #4 (St. Johns) simply asking how much do you wish to be paid to make our operation successful and profitable Mr. Patino?, how much of an operating budget do you need to succeed and make a profit Mr. Patino? and, finally, what practices or procedures do you need us to change or eliminate to succeed and make a profit Mr. Patino?
Institution #3 to do that was Louisville and it resulted in a national championship. Institution #2 to do that was Kentucky with the very same results while institution #1 to do that was Providence and those results were a "mere" final four. Yes, the right guy led Providence to a final four!!!
Yes, there will be a scandles along the way with guys like this. In fact, the national championship for institution #2 is presently vacated pending appeal via litigation.
Regardless, the questions that need to be asked at the D1 level are as follows: Question 1 is do you want to be irrelevant or do you want to be good??? Next question is do you want to be good or do you want to be elite???
If those answers are yes then hire the right guy, pay him whatever the hell he wants, give him the resources, facilities and support he needs and, most important of all, leave him the hell alone and get all the institutional bureaucrats the f--- out of his way!!! No, I do not know who the hockey version of the right guy is. Knowing that is what the administration is paying people to know.
If those answers are no then just stop wasting everybody's time hoping to catch lightning in a bottle with a bunch of candidates hardly anyone except college hockey junkies have ever even heard of. Instead, just drop hockey to D3 where there at least the hope of actually competing for a prize,
Bottom line is if those answers are no and there is no intention of hiring the right guy, then it really don't matter who the hell is hired. The guy will have about as much chance of succeeding here at the D1 level as an Oriental gal has of getting the guy at the end of a Hallmark movie!!!
Ralph; As a valued member of the RPI community and alumnus, thank you for sharing this with us mere and lowly "external spectators who need to be socially separated". I most definitely did not receive it. If that gem wasn't that reason why it did not arrive here, maybe it was the later gem that referenced an unknown future date when us trolls and mutants would be allowed to return. It read "management of spectators- to be determined".
Most definitely very "productive" disparaging and insulting comments directed at as loyal a fan base as there ever was. Probably contributed to the present average attendance of 2,181 per game, believed to be an all time low. Sure looks like a lot of the folks decided to give them more "social separation" than they ever wanted and also show them just who it is that manages and determines who. Stands to reason that many of the folks really no longer even care whether they got this message or not.
Nonetheless, thank you for passing it along Ralph.