What If?

So... after this weekend, we're going to have a little bit of time to kill. The men will be off until just after Christmas, when they make their second trip to Minnesota in three months, and the women will be off until after the New Year, when they pick up with a the last four games of a six game homestand that begins tomorrow night.

No hockey for 19 days, and only four games involving ECAC teams during that stretch, none of which are worth getting excited over. What to do, especially since our podcast has been silent this season?

How about a little walk through history?

Without a Peer is proud to present, as our Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa/Saturnalia gift to you, an 12-part series of essays titled "What If?" This series focuses on 12 different turning points spanning the modern era of RPI hockey, describes what happened with them in real life and why they were important to the evolution of the program, and offers a few suggestions of how things could have potentially happened differently, either to the benefit or the detriment of the program.

If you're a relative RPI noob, we hope this series will help you learn more about the program's storied past. If you're a long-time fan, perhaps we'll evoke a few memories and get you thinking about how things could be different today if certain things had failed to take place.

It's one part history, one part nerdy counterfactual history, but this is RPI, and we wouldn't have it any other way. The essays will be presented in chronological order of the events they discuss, and each has been the subject of a significant amount of Internet and library research to ensure as much accuracy as possible in the description of events. The first essay, next week, touches on events at the Institute during World War II.

And, just for a little fun and ambiance, and since this is Without a Peer, each essay will be accompanied by a musical embed featuring a song that was popular around the time of the event in question to enjoy as you read. We've spared no expense!

If you have any input, all feedback will be more than welcome! If you think events would have unfolded in a different manner than they are portrayed, or if we've gotten any of the facts wrong, please let us know.

Enjoy!