RPI 2022-23: Return of the Schmidt and the Fans

[Engineers]

Jake lee as well

[Ralph Baer]

postgame
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvf...NeWcBIrFUp1L1g

[bothman]

Harvard fan here. That was your game. Great performance and you guys controlled play and set the tempo. You will win a lot of games this year playing that brand of hockey and should have won tonight. Best of luck going forward!

[Ralph Baer]

Harvard fan here. That was your game. Great performance and you guys controlled play and set the tempo. You will win a lot of games this year playing that brand of hockey and should have won tonight. Best of luck going forward!

Thanks. We have trouble playing 60 (or more) minutes.

[Ralph Baer]

postgame
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qF2kaYabH1s

[engineerhockeyfan]

Just some observations on this weekends games.
The team defense in great. Everyone is involved and they take their opponents to the boards any time they try to rush from the wing.
The team offense is less than great. Most of our goals this year are going to be of the garbage variety.
PK is awesome.
PP is awful. I don't know if it is the talent on the ice or the coaching. They did change everything from Friday night and it still didn't work.
If we want to finish in the top four this year, we are going to have to make the PP work.
Oh, and the goalie is just great.

[DrDemento]

Just some observations on this weekends games.
The team defense in great. Everyone is involved and they take their opponents to the boards any time they try to rush from the wing.
The team offense is less than great. Most of our goals this year are going to be of the garbage variety.
PK is awesome.
PP is awful. I don't know if it is the talent on the ice or the coaching. They did change everything from Friday night and it still didn't work.
If we want to finish in the top four this year, we are going to have to make the PP work.
Oh, and the goalie is just great.

Agree on all points. We have not been a strong power play team for many seasons (with a couple exceptions). In fact, I have often posted during the score threads that we should decline a penalty! We might actually be even worse when up by two men since our weakness is magnified. On the other hand, I have seen other teams be very effective with the man advantage seemingly every year, regardless of personnel. What does that indicate? As you say, if we want to be top four, or in fact, even top six, we must make the special teams emphasized. Our PK has been very good and hopefully will continue. But if we cannot score with a man advantage, and definitely with a two man advantage, we will languish as a mid to lower level team. One other point, most of our games are true nail biters that often are one goal games with minutes to play. We must learn to shut teams down when they pull their goal tender for the extra attacker. We must score a number of empty net goals to seal the game quickly when the goalie is pulled. Finally, when we put that extra attacker out there, we have to learn how to keep the puck in the offensive zone and keep incessant pressure on for the entire time. Too often we pull the goalie, get the extra skater on the ice only to see the opponent clear the puck out of their zone immediately. All part of the fundamentals (like face offs) that we seem to not do as well as we should.

[Ralph Baer]

Agree on all points. We have not been a strong power play team for many seasons (with a couple exceptions). In fact, I have often posted during the score threads that we should decline a penalty! We might actually be even worse when up by two men since our weakness is magnified. On the other hand, I have seen other teams be very effective with the man advantage seemingly every year, regardless of personnel. What does that indicate? As you say, if we want to be top four, or in fact, even top six, we must make the special teams emphasized. Our PK has been very good and hopefully will continue. But if we cannot score with a man advantage, and definitely with a two man advantage, we will languish as a mid to lower level team. One other point, most of our games are true nail biters that often are one goal games with minutes to play. We must learn to shut teams down when they pull their goal tender for the extra attacker. We must score a number of empty net goals to seal the game quickly when the goalie is pulled. Finally, when we put that extra attacker out there, we have to learn how to keep the puck in the offensive zone and keep incessant pressure on for the entire time. Too often we pull the goalie, get the extra skater on the ice only to see the opponent clear the puck out of their zone immediately. All part of the fundamentals (like face offs) that we seem to not do as well as we should.

The WRPI announcers commented several times that Ciccarello was doing well on faceoffs. He was 9-2 yesterday. Perhaps he is a solution to one of our problems. Of course, it may be that Dartmouth wasn't any good either. Dartmouth also couldn't do anything with a 2-man advantage. Hmmm?!

[vicious]

Just some observations on this weekends games.
The team defense in great. Everyone is involved and they take their opponents to the boards any time they try to rush from the wing.
The team offense is less than great. Most of our goals this year are going to be of the garbage variety.
PK is awesome.
PP is awful. I don't know if it is the talent on the ice or the coaching. They did change everything from Friday night and it still didn't work.
If we want to finish in the top four this year, we are going to have to make the PP work.
Oh, and the goalie is just great.

Agree with most of this too.

Offense is definitely a concern. 6 games into the league schedule and we've scored a grand total of 8 goals in those 6 games. And in those games, we have not put up more than 2 against any opponent.

That said, some positives: nice response last night after Dartmouth went up 1-0. The team noticeably stepped it up and played with more energy and intensity. Watson turned in another very strong performance. And the PK is a definite strength. Killing the 3rd period 5x3 was the turning point in the game. And taking 4 of the 6 points on the weekend is good.

League opponents we've faced so far seem adept at taking away passing lanes, blocking shots, and just bottling up the offense. But the Harvard game was their best game to date. Play like that and we'll give anyone a run for their money. Harvard's speed and skill just overwhelmed with all the open ice in the 3x3 OT.

[DrDemento]

Football note- RPI has been selected to host a bowl game for this coming Saturday. They will play Morrisville State at 12 noon here at home in Troy. Well earned and the boys deserve this posting a 7-3 overall record with perhaps the best defensive effort for a season ever by an RPI team. With slightly better luck they could have easily been at least 9-1 and an NCAA III participant. All 3 of their losses were by only 3 points each!! I would imagine they will be listed as a slight favorite for this upcoming game.

[Wicked Slappaahs]

Smitty's weekly with Wyland:

https://1045theteam.com/hear-what-rp...s-team-so-far/

[DavidNardolillo]

Football note- RPI has been selected to host a bowl game for this coming Saturday. .

Not just any bowl, the name of the game is the "ECAC Scotty Whitelaw Bowl". Hopefully, it is not RPI's only chance to lift a Whitelaw cup this academic year!

[tony/troy]

Football note- RPI has been selected to host a bowl game for this coming Saturday. They will play Morrisville State at 12 noon here at home in Troy. Well earned and the boys deserve this posting a 7-3 overall record with perhaps the best defensive effort for a season ever by an RPI team. With slightly better luck they could have easily been at least 9-1 and an NCAA III participant. All 3 of their losses were by only 3 points each!! I would imagine they will be listed as a slight favorite for this upcoming game.

Team has has allowed 82 points all season, an average of 8.2 a game!!! That includes a pick six and extra point against Buffalo the defense could not do very much about. Defense has really only given up 75, an average of 7.5 per game. Wow!!!

Regardless of how the points were given up, they would have to allow 17 to raise their points allowed per game average up to 9 and 28 to raise it up to 10. The most they allowed in any one game all year is 14!!!

Oddity on the Morrisville roster is a total of nine guys that are 300 pounds or more. They range from 300 on the button up to 370. Add in another guy that checks in at a slim, trim 296 and you have ten. Hopefully, these guys are all more along the lines of The American Dream Dusty Rhodes, The Adorable Adrian Adonis and Playboy Buddy Rose rather than athletic football players!!!

[Waite21]

Not just any bowl, the name of the game is the "ECAC Scotty Whitelaw Bowl". Hopefully, it is not RPI's only chance to lift a Whitelaw cup this academic year!

For those looking for a favorable omen, RPI played in the Scotty Whitelaw Bowl once before, back in 2016. They defeated SUNY Maritime, 38-6, at Franklin Field in Philadelphia.

[DrDemento]

Team has has allowed 82 points all season, an average of 8.2 a game!!! That includes a pick six and extra point against Buffalo the defense could not do very much about. Defense has really only given up 75, an average of 7.5 per game. Wow!!!

Regardless of how the points were given up, they would have to allow 17 to raise their points allowed per game average up to 9 and 28 to raise it up to 10. The most they allowed in any one game all year is 14!!!

Oddity on the Morrisville roster is a total of nine guys that are 300 pounds or more. They range from 300 on the button up to 370. Add in another guy that checks in at a slim, trim 296 and you have ten. Hopefully, these guys are all more along the lines of The American Dream Dusty Rhodes, The Adorable Adrian Adonis and Playboy Buddy Rose rather than athletic football players!!!

TT- From looking at every roster each week we played - we have been outweighed, some times by a large margin, in almost all the games. Our defense may not be as big as many others but they swarm and get to the ball quickly. They seem to be able to make individual tackles far better than our teams of the past. having followed RPI football for 59 years, this is without question the absolute best defense we have fielded. We have had some very potent offensive squads in the past and this year our offense was certainly not in that group. The rushing game was very good but our passing offense would never elicit fear in an opponent. With a more potent passing offense and a kicker like Andrew Frank from the past - we would have been a top 4 team for sure.