I was going to send a message about my opinion of the Quinnipiac or
Q-lose-ipiac debate, but I don't want to join Bob Stagat on Wayne's
"persona non grata" list, and I remember that deluge of email that I
received from the parent of an Army hockey player after a remark that
I made back in about 1993.  ;-)   So, I will ask something else.
 
I was shocked to hear that Brandon Dietrich won the ECAC ROTY award
over RPI's Matt Murley.  Now, admittedly 1) I am biased, 2) I still
haven't got over the fact that Daren Puppa lost this award to John
Cullen back in 1984, and 3) I have only seen Dietrich play once vs
Clarkson on TV.  Well, I really wasn't shocked because I was
expecting it since Dietrich won the most ROTW awards this year.
 
What bothers me is that I have several times seen two things being
mentioned as the reason that Dietrich would win the award over Murley
or now being the reason that he won the award.  1) Murley plays in a
lineup with many other scorers and Dietrich doesn't.  2) Dietrich has
many game winning goals.
 
1) The first may be true, but as I write this Murley is second in
scoring for RPI (third in points per game) while Dietrich is fourth
in scoring for SLU.  This doesn't indicate to me that Murley is
benefitting more from his teammates than Dietrich is.  Although I
have seen Murley play only five times (twice in person and three
times on screen), I have been more impressed with Murley's puck
sense than with any engineer since Adam Oates.  Does anyone
remember the assist that he got while on his back vs Dartmouth?
 
2) Game Winning Goals?  Is this statistic computed in College Hockey
the same way that it is in the NHL?  There, if team A beats team B
by a score of M to N, it is awarded to the player of team A who
scores the N+1 goal, no matter when it is scored in the game.  The
score is 7-5, so it is given to whomever scored the sixth goal.  I
would have a hard time picking a statistic in any sport that seems
more meaningless.
 
Well, I will get another chance to see both Murley and Dietrich this
afternoon assuming that my VCR is working.
 
 
Ralph Baer
RPI '68, '70, '74
 
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