Opponents and Others 2023-24

[Dafatone]

Different people value different things.

If I had to choose, personally, I'd take the national title. But I understand people who think the ECAC is what matters and the NCAAs are just a fun bonus exercise.

[BearLover]

Different people value different things.

If I had to choose, personally, I'd take the national title. But I understand people who think the ECAC is what matters and the NCAAs are just a fun bonus exercise.

It's not just about what you value, though. Well, I guess it ultimately boils down to that, but it's just so silly to watch a 35-game season and only care about how a couple of the games go. Whether we make the NCAAs is a function of our entire season. How we do in the ECACs is just a couple of games that invariably come down to a few random events. If we make the NCAAs, we had a good season, because over a large sample size we were one of the best teams in the whole nation.

[Scersk '97]

Different people value different things.

If I had to choose, personally, I'd take the national title. But I understand people who think the ECAC is what matters and the NCAAs are just a fun bonus exercise.

Basically my position. This ECAC drought is killing me.

The national "drought?" Whatever. I'm glad we've been legitimate contenders a few times. Super rare for other teams to even have that. We're not North Dakota and never will be.

[Scersk '97]

Well, I guess it ultimately boils down to that, but it's just so silly to watch a 35-game season and only care about how a couple of the games go. Whether we make the NCAAs is a function of our entire season.

Creeping into the NCAAs as the 14th team in is not a great season either. That's why I like going to the extra show with hardware in hand. Anyone who wins a championship is a contender.

[ugarte]

I do not mind the national title drought. We punch above our weight and get to the NCAAs a lot and win plenty of R16 games. If we win a natty I will go emotional supernova. I do mind the ECAC drought, despite the emergence of Quinnipiac, because it has felt more than attainable plenty of times since our last win.

It is still a big deal to miss the NCAA tournament because we can't take care of business against teams like Yale and Clarkson and Dartmouth. As a second-tier conference we simply don't have that margin for error and I can't shrug it off.

Well, I guess it ultimately boils down to that, but it's just so silly to watch a 35-game season and only care about how a couple of the games go. Whether we make the NCAAs is a function of our entire season.

Creeping into the NCAAs as the 14th team in is not a great season either. That's why I like going to the extra show with hardware in hand. Anyone who wins a championship is a contender.

obviously getting in with an ECAC trophy cures all ills. but if we have to win the conference title to make the tournament, history is mostly unkind.

and i watched yale skate with the big trophy after getting in as an at-large with a 4-seed. it looked fun.

[CU2007]

Right but NoDak fans think they should win the national championship every year (delusional / entitled). I think most of us just think we need ONE asap because we have had really good teams a lot over the past 30 years. Also exacerbated by Yale/Union/Qpac.

[Dafatone]

We can't be hyperventilating over every single game's Pairwise impact.

Western Michigan tied up St. Cloud! Cmon Western Michigan!

[Scersk '97]

It is still a big deal to miss the NCAA tournament because we can't take care of business against teams like Yale and Clarkson and Dartmouth. As a second-tier conference we simply don't have that margin for error and I can't shrug it off.

If I remember correctly, Bearlover hates it when the ECAC is full of strong teams. He's never been part of the "rising tide" faction.

But, as you rightly identify, that small margin for error is what we get.

[marty]

It is still a big deal to miss the NCAA tournament because we can't take care of business against teams like Yale and Clarkson and Dartmouth. As a second-tier conference we simply don't have that margin for error and I can't shrug it off.

If I remember correctly, Bearlover hates it when the ECAC is full of strong teams. He's never been part of the "rising tide" faction.

But, as you rightly identify, that small margin for error is what we get.

To be fair to BL, he hates the rising tide unless Cornell is at the crest of the wave and a bit better than the rest of the league.

[ugarte]

If I remember correctly, Bearlover hates it when the ECAC is full of strong teams. He's never been part of the "rising tide" faction.

But, as you rightly identify, that small margin for error is what we get.

i take no position on whether the rising tide is good or bad for us. i have no idea. what i know is that right now we're at low tide and at risk of running aground.

[Scersk '97]

If I remember correctly, Bearlover hates it when the ECAC is full of strong teams. He's never been part of the "rising tide" faction.

But, as you rightly identify, that small margin for error is what we get.

i take no position on whether the rising tide is good or bad for us. i have no idea. what i know is that right now we're at low tide and at risk of running aground.

Absolutely agree. No matter how much I enjoy Harvard's dysfunction, they're a symptom of a really weak league this year.

[ugarte]

If I remember correctly, Bearlover hates it when the ECAC is full of strong teams. He's never been part of the "rising tide" faction.

But, as you rightly identify, that small margin for error is what we get.

i take no position on whether the rising tide is good or bad for us. i have no idea. what i know is that right now we're at low tide and at risk of running aground.

Absolutely agree. No matter how much I enjoy Harvard's dysfunction, they're a symptom of a really weak league this year.

one thing i'll say for the rising tide: we get to watch better hockey week to week, and if you consider watching a game more than just a scoreboard race until the clock says 0:00, good hockey > bad hockey, win or lose. If i'm killing time and flipping through ESPN+ I watch BC, not Canisius.

[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.

Greg you are literally the only person who thinks this

Apparently not.

[Jeff Hopkins '82]

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

And Clarkson is 36.  So we just tied/lost to "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

Apparently not.

based on what? the closest support i think you got was "don't condemn him, there is more than one way to like things."

to the extent that anyone else focuses on the conference over the natty it is because the conference is reasonably attainable (and impressive and thrilling). the national championship is the stretch goal, and we are blessed to root for a program that can realistically dream of it.

we have a banner that says 1967 and 1970 on it hanging in the rafters. it isn't there because of ncaa greedheads, it's there because every good team in the country wants to prove that they're the best, whatever conference they play in.