Hockey Schedule Cards Rant

[McConvey]

My posts have nothing to do with trying to tear down you rabid hockey fans. Not in the least am I trying to do that. Just trying to insert a little realism and all. I understand you guys are proud of hockey like there's no tommorow, no need rip me for being a observer and posting my opinons and comments , that is what we do here. You guys for some reason think that I'm not a fan of falcon athletics becuase I can take off the brightly coloerd glasses once in a while. Us being picked 8th BTW is right about were we derserve to be at this point until we prove other wise , besides its good motivation for players and coaches like someone said in the other thread.

Forget the hockey team's record or their level of success relative to any other sport at BGSU for just a moment and let's focus on something else that's entirely wrong about the whole pocket schedule debacle:

From a purely chronological standpoint, it makes sense to do the hockey schedules before the basketball schedules. The season starts a month and a half earlier, why not get those schedules done first? I suspect that if the basketball ones weren't done by say, Nov. 15, but they were handing out baseball schedules at Frickers, the basketball fans would be angry. And they'd have every right to be.

And just to toss this out there: the marketing department did pocket schedules for every fall sport except cross country. Why was that team singled out as not special enough to get a pocket schedule? Either make schedules for all the sports, or make them for football only. Or here's a novel idea, make football ones and then separate fall sports ones which include all the teams.

[BGFan]

Us being picked 8th BTW is right about were we derserve to be at this point until we prove other wise , besides its good motivation for players and coaches like someone said in the other thread.

Let's see....we finished 5th last year and are returning about 83% of our scoring. We've landed another top 15 class with a blue chip defenseman on it and a top ranked goalie.

What did we lose....one great goalie and his brother and some senior leadership.

The big question is did we gain as much or more than we lost? From my POV, yes. The goalie will be the biggest question mark but I think that we'll be fine in that position and the rest of the incoming class speaks for itself.

If you feel that we'll finish 3 spots lower than last year, that's certainly your opinion. I suggest, however, that you come to more games than what you deem is worthy of your time. The only time you've seen us play is against the top ranked teams in the league. That, alone, is not enough to make a fair assessment of how far the program has come in the last 3 years. The only teams that "dominated" us last year were UM, OSU, and NMU who finished first, second, and third in the league (and even then, except for a couple of those games, the scores were close). The large majority of the remaining games were close, hard fought contests where the outcome wasn't decided until the final buzzer and more often than not we ended up on top.

You can have your opinions but you had better back up your reasoning with facts. To say we deserve to be there until we've proven otherwise doesn't cut it because I think that we proved otherwise last year.

[Falcon Fanatic]

This is the MOST hockey chat we have had in a LOOOONG time on this forum!! It's awesome, even if it started with a well place rant!!! ....*takes a bow*

I love the passion I see here and Falconboy....well...others have said enough, I don't need to say anymore. I REALLY hope he comes to a lot of games this season and tries to get a real clue about this game and this team. I was actually HOPING we wouldn't get ranked too high this year, as I know that it will be plenty of motivation for this team to show what it's got!! There is a TON of excitement and enthusiasm by players, coaches and fans heading into this season!!! Top Four, Home Ice, The Joe!!!

TIME TO ROCK THE RINK, BABY!!!!
DROP THE PUCK!!!!

[Falconboy]

My posts have nothing to do with trying to tear down you rabid hockey fans. Not in the least am I trying to do that. Just trying to insert a little realism and all. I understand you guys are proud of hockey like there's no tommorow, no need rip me for being a observer and posting my opinons and comments , that is what we do here. You guys for some reason think that I'm not a fan of falcon athletics becuase I can take off the brightly coloerd glasses once in a while. Us being picked 8th BTW is right about were we derserve to be at this point until we prove other wise , besides its good motivation for players and coaches like someone said in the other thread.

Forget the hockey team's record or their level of success relative to any other sport at BGSU for just a moment and let's focus on something else that's entirely wrong about the whole pocket schedule debacle:

From a purely chronological standpoint, it makes sense to do the hockey schedules before the basketball schedules. The season starts a month and a half earlier, why not get those schedules done first? I suspect that if the basketball ones weren't done by say, Nov. 15, but they were handing out baseball schedules at Frickers, the basketball fans would be angry. And they'd have every right to be.

And just to toss this out there: the marketing department did pocket schedules for every fall sport except cross country. Why was that team singled out as not special enough to get a pocket schedule? Either make schedules for all the sports, or make them for football only. Or here's a novel idea, make football ones and then separate fall sports ones which include all the teams.

BTW , I happen to agree with everything you've said above. Just so you know.

[Falconboy]

Us being picked 8th BTW is right about were we derserve to be at this point until we prove other wise , besides its good motivation for players and coaches like someone said in the other thread.

Let's see....we finished 5th last year and are returning about 83% of our scoring. We've landed another top 15 class with a blue chip defenseman on it and a top ranked goalie.

What did we lose....one great goalie and his brother and some senior leadership.

The big question is did we gain as much or more than we lost? From my POV, yes. The goalie will be the biggest question mark but I think that we'll be fine in that position and the rest of the incoming class speaks for itself.

If you feel that we'll finish 3 spots lower than last year, that's certainly your opinion. I suggest, however, that you come to more games than what you deem is worthy of your time. The only time you've seen us play is against the top ranked teams in the league. That, alone, is not enough to make a fair assessment of how far the program has come in the last 3 years. The only teams that "dominated" us last year were UM, OSU, and NMU who finished first, second, and third in the league (and even then, except for a couple of those games, the scores were close). The large majority of the remaining games were close, hard fought contests where the outcome wasn't decided until the final buzzer and more often than not we ended up on top.

You can have your opinions but you had better back up your reasoning with facts. To say we deserve to be there until we've proven otherwise doesn't cut it because I think that we proved otherwise last year.

Okay now, first of all I NEVER said we'd finish 3 spots below what we did last year. I fact I would expect us to finsish atleast the same spot or a a spot or two better than last years. But we did finish quite badly to end the season losing to a what would be called the Buffalo of hockey in Alaska Fairbanks twice by near blowouts with our best goalie in years(albeit suffering from a strength robbing disease) in Sigalet at the helm. So I think the Hockey media doesn't see a reason to rank us to finish 4th or 5th when we lost our best goalie in years and a good player in his brother. Your maybe right , we didn't lose that much and maybe we will overcome breaking in a new starting goalie this year. If we can get to the Joe and advance to more round and not lose to bottom dwellars at the end of season then I'll be convinced we've turned the corner.

[BGFan]

FWIW - UAF (your Buffalo of hockey) finished second in the playoffs. We're not the only ones they ran over at the end of the season last year.

[Bleeding Orange]

UAF was by no means a bottom dweller by the end of last season. They were roughed up quite a bit by injury at the beginning of the year, but that young coach of theirs did wonders with them down the stretch. They finished second in the conference at the end of the playoffs.

Again - "UAF is the Buffalo of the CCHA" = assclown statement.

[Falconboy]

UAF was by no means a bottom dweller by the end of last season. They were roughed up quite a bit by injury at the beginning of the year, but that young coach of theirs did wonders with them down the stretch. They finished second in the conference at the end of the playoffs.

Again - "UAF is the Buffalo of the CCHA" = assclown statement.

Are you honostly telling me UAF is as good as Michigan St. or OSU? Come on guys , please tell me you kidding. If UAF was alot better than their regular season record, it just shows what an awesome coach they must have to finish as strong as they did. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that if our football team lost two straight home games by blowouts with one of the losses ending with somebody like Central or Western Mich. some of us would be asking for Coach Brandon's head. Am I not right? Just saying. Not that we should'a asked for Paluch's head after those 2 straight losses anyway, that would've been ridiculous.

[BGFan]

Nobody freaking said that UAF was better than UM or OSU....we said that, at the end of last season they came on strong and plowed through a lot of teams that many felt were too good for them to beat. We just happened to be in that path of destruction. Hockey is like that. You get on a streak and are almost unbeatable.

After beating us in the quarterfinals they beat NMU in the semis who finished third in the regular season. They then lost to UM 3-1 but beat MSU 3-2 in the consolation. I was wrong...they finished third in the playoffs, but it was still an impressive run.

There is a hell of a lot of parity in the CCHA right now starting at about fourth place down to ninth. All of those teams beat up on each other on a regular basis. Case in point at the end of last season only 8 points seperated the 4th and 9th place teams. One point seperated us from the 4th place team (UNO)! As a result, you can juggle those teams around in the pre-season predictions and still come up with a close result at the end of the season. It's all available on the internet. Look it up and figure it out.

MOST OF ALL, DON'T ASSUME THAT BECAUSE UM, OSU, AND MSU ARE IN THE BIG TEN THAT THEY'RE UNBELIEVABLY BETTER THAN THE REST OF THE LEAGUE! Name recognition doesn't work in college hockey. Ever hear of Ferris State University? Didn't think so. It just so happens that they finished FIRST in the CCHA in 2003. They're division 3 in all other sports. Something tells me that you wouldn't have bothered coming to a game if you saw that name on the schedule. Your loss. How about Lake Superior State University? They won 3 national championships in the early 90's and are also DIII in all other sports. Northern Michigan of late has resided near the top of the league (3rd last year)....DIII in all other sports. Oh, and believe it or not, OSU and UM used to be the cellar dwellers in the league. Shocking, I know.

What you need to do is STOP comparing hockey to football. There is absolutely NO correlation between the two sports. Good in football doesn't mean good in hockey.

Personally, however, I'm getting kind of tired of trying to educate you. Come to all of the games and figure it out on your own if you're truly interested. Coming to a few (and only those you deem worthy of your time) will not give you a genuine feel for the game and the team. I'd also suggest that you go to web sites such as www.inch.com and www.uscho.com to give you a better understanding of college hockey in general. It's a great game with a great atmosphere.

[Falconboy]

Nobody freaking said that UAF was better than UM or OSU....we said that, at the end of last season they came on strong and plowed through a lot of teams that many felt were too good for them to beat. We just happened to be in that path of destruction. Hockey is like that. You get on a streak and are almost unbeatable.

After beating us in the quarterfinals they beat NMU in the semis who finished third in the regular season. They then lost to UM 3-1 but beat MSU 3-2 in the consolation. I was wrong...they finished third in the playoffs, but it was still an impressive run.

There is a hell of a lot of parity in the CCHA right now starting at about fourth place down to ninth. All of those teams beat up on each other on a regular basis. Case in point at the end of last season only 8 points seperated the 4th and 9th place teams. One point seperated us from the 4th place team (UNO)! As a result, you can juggle those teams around in the pre-season predictions and still come up with a close result at the end of the season. It's all available on the internet. Look it up and figure it out.

MOST OF ALL, DON'T ASSUME THAT BECAUSE UM, OSU, AND MSU ARE IN THE BIG TEN THAT THEY'RE UNBELIEVABLY BETTER THAN THE REST OF THE LEAGUE! Name recognition doesn't work in college hockey. Ever hear of Ferris State University? Didn't think so. It just so happens that they finished FIRST in the CCHA in 2003. They're division 3 in all other sports. Something tells me that you wouldn't have bothered coming to a game if you saw that name on the schedule. Your loss. How about Lake Superior State University? They won 3 national championships in the early 90's and are also DIII in all other sports. Northern Michigan of late has resided near the top of the league (3rd last year)....DIII in all other sports. Oh, and believe it or not, OSU and UM used to be the cellar dwellers in the league. Shocking, I know.

What you need to do is STOP comparing hockey to football. There is absolutely NO correlation between the two sports. Good in football doesn't mean good in hockey.

Personally, however, I'm getting kind of tired of trying to educate you. Come to all of the games and figure it out on your own if you're truly interested. Coming to a few (and only those you deem worthy of your time) will not give you a genuine feel for the game and the team. I'd also suggest that you go to web sites such as www.inch.com and www.uscho.com to give you a better understanding of college hockey in general. It's a great game with a great atmosphere.

Okay....all good points. :-\

[Falcon Fanatic]

Nobody freaking said that UAF was better than UM or OSU....we said that, at the end of last season they came on strong and plowed through a lot of teams that many felt were too good for them to beat. We just happened to be in that path of destruction. Hockey is like that. You get on a streak and are almost unbeatable.

After beating us in the quarterfinals they beat NMU in the semis who finished third in the regular season. They then lost to UM 3-1 but beat MSU 3-2 in the consolation. I was wrong...they finished third in the playoffs, but it was still an impressive run.

There is a hell of a lot of parity in the CCHA right now starting at about fourth place down to ninth. All of those teams beat up on each other on a regular basis. Case in point at the end of last season only 8 points seperated the 4th and 9th place teams. One point seperated us from the 4th place team (UNO)! As a result, you can juggle those teams around in the pre-season predictions and still come up with a close result at the end of the season. It's all available on the internet. Look it up and figure it out.

MOST OF ALL, DON'T ASSUME THAT BECAUSE UM, OSU, AND MSU ARE IN THE BIG TEN THAT THEY'RE UNBELIEVABLY BETTER THAN THE REST OF THE LEAGUE! Name recognition doesn't work in college hockey. Ever hear of Ferris State University? Didn't think so. It just so happens that they finished FIRST in the CCHA in 2003. They're division 3 in all other sports. Something tells me that you wouldn't have bothered coming to a game if you saw that name on the schedule. Your loss. How about Lake Superior State University? They won 3 national championships in the early 90's and are also DIII in all other sports. Northern Michigan of late has resided near the top of the league (3rd last year)....DIII in all other sports. Oh, and believe it or not, OSU and UM used to be the cellar dwellers in the league. Shocking, I know.

What you need to do is STOP comparing hockey to football. There is absolutely NO correlation between the two sports. Good in football doesn't mean good in hockey.

Personally, however, I'm getting kind of tired of trying to educate you. Come to all of the games and figure it out on your own if you're truly interested. Coming to a few (and only those you deem worthy of your time) will not give you a genuine feel for the game and the team. I'd also suggest that you go to web sites such as www.inch.com and www.uscho.com to give you a better understanding of college hockey in general. It's a great game with a great atmosphere.

WELL DONE, MY DEAR, WELL DONE!!!

[McConvey]

Just an addition to what BGFan said:

The CCHA is not the only league where half the schools are D II or III but D I in hockey, nor is it the only league where the smaller schools are successful.

North Dakota (D II) and Colorado College (D III) are perineal powerhouses in the WCHA. Both teams participated in the Frozen Four last year and North Dakota has won two national championships in the past 10 years (1997, 2000). Both teams are almost always atop the WCHA standings and North Dakota especially competes for the top recruits in the country.

That's just two examples off the top of my head. Every league has at least two DII/III schools and more often than not those smaller schools have had success in hockey.

[Bleeding Orange]

Colorado College and Denver would be another two good examples. Unlike your utopian d-line, and kind of like what your girlfriend tells you on a regular basis, Falconboy, size doesn't matter in college hockey.

[PGY Tiercel]

Colorado College and Denver would be another two good examples. Unlike your utopian d-line, and kind of like what your girlfriend tells you on a regular basis, Falconboy, size doesn't matter in college hockey.

You're assuming an awful lot some where in that statement.

[Bleeding Orange]

Colorado College and Denver would be another two good examples. Unlike your utopian d-line, and kind of like what your girlfriend tells you on a regular basis, Falconboy, size doesn't matter in college hockey.

Your assuming an awful lot some where in that statement.

I was trying to give him the benefit of doubt, but perhaps my intentions were misguided...