Never Question Our Heart

In a piece about BG being embarrassed and in disarray, Ryan Satkowiak wrote the following:

And where was that fire Saturday? Did BG just assume it would run over Huntsville? Has it learned that its still is not a team that can look at anyone as an “easy win”? Huntsville entered Saturday’s game with 13 goals in 15 games. That’s .86 per game. BG proceeded to allow more than FOUR TIMES their season total. Huntsville increased their season goal totals by 30 percent. With one game.

I mean, seriously. The last time Huntsville beat a Division-I team, I was still a college student. And not in that farewell, applying for jobs not really paying attention to school phase. It was last November, specifically Nov. 16 against Lake Superior. In the time since, Huntsville had lost 26-straight D-I games.

But if you’ve read anything I’ve written the last two months, you’d know how bad they are. I’ve been sure to let you know. In fairness to them, I exaggerate for effect. They’re like BG in 2009-10. Most nights they’ll lose handily, but every third game or so they’ll put out a good effort and give the opposing team a scare. This season they’ve had one-goal losses to Bemidji, Ferris, St. Cloud and Western Michigan.

To quote Bill Parcells, you are what your record says you are.  At 1-15-0, I think that it’s fair to say that we’re just not that good of a hockey team this season.  Stakowiak’s second paragraph makes that case pretty clearly.  Some people were wondering if we’d go winless.  Everyone on the message boards always said that that first win would happen, but it was clear that no one wanted to be the first.

BG was the first team to lose to us in 2013-14.  You are what your record says you are.

What I’m really mad about, though, is this one sentence, which I’ll quote again for effect:

Most nights they’ll lose handily, but every third game or so they’ll put out a good effort and give the opposing team a scare.

I went round and around with Satkowiak about this on Twitter.  Here are two important pieces in that discussion — but please, click on that linked sentence to see the whole thing for yourself.

@Ryan_Satkowiak you implied that our guys don't work every night, which is wrong. If you want to imply that we're bad, we'll take that.

— UAHHockey.com (@weloveuahhockey) December 11, 2013

@weloveuahhockey OK, that was poor wording on my part. By "put out a good effort" I meant, "have a result similar to that SCSU series."

— Ryan Satkowiak (@Ryan_Satkowiak) December 11, 2013

I believe that the following people have a right to question our heart: our coaches and our players.  They’re the people that really know what’s going on.  If you want to say that we’re not very good, that’s factual.  If you want to say what Inside College Hockey’s Mike Eidelbes said:

I saw UAH play Notre Dame a couple weeks ago. You guys know the talent’s not there. That’s a byproduct of being in college hockey limbo for two years. But the effort and attention to detail are there even on nights they know they’re going to be outmanned. To me, it seems like everyone has bought in to what Mike Corbett’s selling. It might be 2-3 years before the program turns the corner, but it appears that day will come.

… then you’re welcome to say that, too.  There’s a big, big difference between what Satkowiak stated and what Eidelbes stated.  The following are paraphrases of the arguments.

Satkowiak: “UAH is not good, and some nights, they don’t put forth the effort to win.  Some nights, they do, and you can see what that’s gotten them.  BG is not a program that can afford to ‘assume it would run over Huntsville’.”  While Satkowiak states that it’s poor wording (see above tweet), he then said:

@weloveuahhockey being angry about something I wasn't implying. Seeing as I don't see this evolving past this circle of "you said this," …

— Ryan Satkowiak (@Ryan_Satkowiak) December 11, 2013

@weloveuahhockey "No, I didn't," then no, I really don't have anything to add to that.

— Ryan Satkowiak (@Ryan_Satkowiak) December 11, 2013

Eidelbes: “UAH is not good, but they work hard and have great attention to detail.”  Since Eidelbes said nothing about whether BG should or should not have lost to UAH, it has to stop there.

I am never going to question our players’ heart and effort.  I will let the coaches do that.  I will let the players police that on their own.  I’m not going to do it myself, and like hell I will sit by and watch someone else do it.

But guess what, Ryan, you did say it.  Your words are there.  You even admitted that you used poor wording, so I’m not sure why you’re back-pedaling from that if you really meant it.

@Ryan_Satkowiak but thanks for the locker room bulletin board material!

— UAHHockey.com (@weloveuahhockey) December 11, 2013

See y’all Friday.  I’m sure that the effort will be there to match those who doubt it.