Opponents and Others 2023-24

[Dafatone]

I'd like to see NoDak back in the #2 slot.  That way, they get to play the CCHA autobid in Sioux Falls.  

If they're #3 (with BU #2), BU gets the CCHA in Providence or Springfield and we get UND in Sioux Falls (assuming we're still at 14).

I'm willing to get jumped by rabid NoDak fans for the cause.

I'm OK with that.  I just don't feel like hauling myself out to Sioux Falls (especially if we lose the first game).

But this bustling metropolis has an airport with 8 gates! And they're putting in a parking garage!

[Jeff Hopkins '82]

I'd like to see NoDak back in the #2 slot.  That way, they get to play the CCHA autobid in Sioux Falls.  

If they're #3 (with BU #2), BU gets the CCHA in Providence or Springfield and we get UND in Sioux Falls (assuming we're still at 14).

I'm willing to get jumped by rabid NoDak fans for the cause.

I'm OK with that.  I just don't feel like hauling myself out to Sioux Falls (especially if we lose the first game).

But this bustling metropolis has an airport with 8 gates! And they're putting in a parking garage!

Uh huh.  And?

[Dafatone]

I'd like to see NoDak back in the #2 slot.  That way, they get to play the CCHA autobid in Sioux Falls.  

If they're #3 (with BU #2), BU gets the CCHA in Providence or Springfield and we get UND in Sioux Falls (assuming we're still at 14).

I'm willing to get jumped by rabid NoDak fans for the cause.

I'm OK with that.  I just don't feel like hauling myself out to Sioux Falls (especially if we lose the first game).

But this bustling metropolis has an airport with 8 gates! And they're putting in a parking garage!

Uh huh.  And?

Sioux Falls actually has more going for it than you'd expect. Largely because your expectations are gonna be extremely low.

Better food than you'd think, some nice parks, some very cool state parks not too far off, and all the cornfields you desire for your existential crisis needs.

[Jeff Hopkins '82]

I'd like to see NoDak back in the #2 slot.  That way, they get to play the CCHA autobid in Sioux Falls.  

If they're #3 (with BU #2), BU gets the CCHA in Providence or Springfield and we get UND in Sioux Falls (assuming we're still at 14).

I'm willing to get jumped by rabid NoDak fans for the cause.

I'm OK with that.  I just don't feel like hauling myself out to Sioux Falls (especially if we lose the first game).

But this bustling metropolis has an airport with 8 gates! And they're putting in a parking garage!

Uh huh.  And?

Sioux Falls actually has more going for it than you'd expect. Largely because your expectations are gonna be extremely low.

Better food than you'd think, some nice parks, some very cool state parks not too far off, and all the cornfields you desire for your existential crisis needs.

Bottom line:  if we lose the first game, I can drive home from Providence or Springfield.  I have to stick around or go somewhere nearby if we're in St. Louis or Sioux Falls.

[BearLover]

Safe to assume Cornell is going to have to win every single game until the ECAC finals if they want to make the NCAAs.

[Dafatone]

Safe to assume Cornell is going to have to win every single game until the ECAC finals if they want to make the NCAAs.

Absolutely not safe to assume that.

There's more hockey left than people realize.

[upprdeck]

several teams around us play much harder games they can lose for sure. Need some of that to happen.

[Trotsky]

Stop measuring every breath with respect to the NC$$s.  The important fact of every season is the ECACs.  As with football and basketball, the NCAAs is a kitschy doohickey that was added to the end to make sportswriters feel important.  Yeah, it would be fun to win, but measuring a season against it is like measuring your life by the size of your coffin.

[BearLover]

Safe to assume Cornell is going to have to win every single game until the ECAC finals if they want to make the NCAAs.

Absolutely not safe to assume that.

There's more hockey left than people realize.

I disagree. Cornell is going to be 16th in the PWR after tonight. It will not be especially close to any of the teams ahead of them in RPI. Cornell has 6 games left before the ECAC final (7 if quarterfinals go to 3 games). Cornell will play zero teams in the top half of the Pairwise before the ECAC final. Therefore, any loss from now until the ECAC final will badly hurt us in the Pairwise. Assuming we lose the ECAC final (i.e., we're in the world where we need an at-large bid to get into the NCAAs), then that means another loss is probably fatal because we would be 5-2 or 6-2 against a very weak schedule.

Remember, the teams we have left to play are:
StL (53)
Union (37)
RPI (56)
Someone bad
Someone bad
Someone bad

[ugarte]

Stop measuring every breath with respect to the NC$$s.  The important fact of every season is the ECACs.  As with football and basketball, the NCAAs is a kitschy doohickey that was added to the end to make sportswriters feel important.  Yeah, it would be fun to win, but measuring a season against it is like measuring your life by the size of your coffin.

Greg you are literally the only person who thinks this. It's not that I don't go absolutely apeshit over every round we advance as its own little prize, it's not that I don't consider winning the ECAC tournament a euphoric experience. i do! but not even making the NCAA tournament with as good a team as we have is a failed season.

[BearLover]

Stop measuring every breath with respect to the NC$$s.  The important fact of every season is the ECACs.  As with football and basketball, the NCAAs is a kitschy doohickey that was added to the end to make sportswriters feel important.  Yeah, it would be fun to win, but measuring a season against it is like measuring your life by the size of your coffin.

This is, obviously, a completely ridiculous take. If all that mattered was the ECACs, I wouldn't watch our non-conference games. I would stop watching the regular season once we had secured a bye because there's barely any reward for getting a higher seed beyond the top 4. Basically, the regular season wouldn't matter at all, because we're such a better program than most of the rest of the league that we can sleepwalk our way to a bye every year. Most stupid of all, the success of the entire season would ride on the few ECAC tournament games. If you root for a hockey team and all you care about are a subset of less than five games, you're going to have a bad time because hockey games have extreme variance.

Case in point: if all that mattered was the ECACs, I'd have tuned out weeks ago once it became clear Cornell was going to get a bye. I would not have watched tonight's game, and I wouldn't have cared that Cornell blew a lead with under 30 seconds to go because it wouldn't have mattered at all.

[Scersk '97]

So just win the ECACs.

A national title without an ECAC Championship would be kind of hollow anyway, in my opinion.

In my dreams, the NCAAs would just be the regular season "champs" and champions of each conference, with those who unify those crowns getting preferential seeding. A couple of prelim rounds if necessary and the Frozen Four. Would be great.

[Dafatone]

Safe to assume Cornell is going to have to win every single game until the ECAC finals if they want to make the NCAAs.

Absolutely not safe to assume that.

There's more hockey left than people realize.

I disagree. Cornell is going to be 16th in the PWR after tonight. It will not be especially close to any of the teams ahead of them in RPI. Cornell has 6 games left before the ECAC final (7 if quarterfinals go to 3 games). Cornell will play zero teams in the top half of the Pairwise before the ECAC final. Therefore, any loss from now until the ECAC final will badly hurt us in the Pairwise. Assuming we lose the ECAC final (i.e., we're in the world where we need an at-large bid to get into the NCAAs), then that means another loss is probably fatal because we would be 5-2 or 6-2 against a very weak schedule.

Remember, the teams we have left to play are:
StL (53)
Union (37)
RPI (56)
Someone bad
Someone bad
Someone bad

We were what, 11th a few games ago? Opponent quality is certainly important, but we still go up a good chunk for winning against weak teams.

It's really up to what everyone else does. Keep in mind that if two of the teams near us face off in an earlier round of their conference tournament, one of them's gonna lose twice.

[BearLover]

So just win the ECACs.

A national title without an ECAC Championship would be kind of hollow anyway, in my opinion.

In my dreams, the NCAAs would just be the regular season "champs" and champions of each conference, with those who unify those crowns getting preferential seeding. A couple of prelim rounds if necessary and the Frozen Four. Would be great.

Lol. Okay dude. Quinnipiac's title last year felt hollow because they didn't win the ECAC? Cornell winning its first national title in 54 years would feel hollow because it didn't win a league tournament it's won 12 times since then? Just mind-numbing how people think this way.

[CU2007]

Yea, enough of the "national title is a fun little desert" thing. It's the ultimate goal.