CC vs. RPI - Battle of the Bookworms

[Summerzzzoff]

Heres a video preview of this weekends opener from the local rag in Colorado Springs. Just a quick interview with Tiger Goalie Joe Howe.

http://www.gazette.com/video/?videoI...39274&play=now

RPI is a solid team - should be a good indicator for the CC Tigers of how prepared they are for the upcoming season!

[DrDemento]

Re: CC vs. RPI - Battle of the Bookworms

Playing 2 games after a long flight and having played a very tough UNB team in Troy tuesday night may leave us with a little jet lag. I just hope we are fresh enough to give a decent accounting of what we have. Several new faces expected to see considerable ice time for RPI. This could be a very good 2 game set.

[Rich]

Re: CC vs. RPI - Battle of the Bookworms

Normally I have some idea of what to expect, but CC is so young this season that it's tough to know what they'll look like. Here's what I'll be watching for:

1. The RPI defesemen's mobility - this is often the deciding factor on Olympic ice.
2. CC's Pk - they graduated almost everyone who had a regular penalty killing role.
3. CC's defense - graduated players Fredheim and Prosser played the majority of minutes against their opponents' top lines.
4. CC's freshmen - Jaden Schwartz is expected to be one of the top freshmen in the country, but some of the other guys should be strong players as well.
5. Polacek - he should be one of the best players to visit CC all season.

[DrDemento]

Re: CC vs. RPI - Battle of the Bookworms

Normally I have some idea of what to expect, but CC is so young this season that it's tough to know what they'll look like. Here's what I'll be watching for:

1. The RPI defesemen's mobility - this is often the deciding factor on Olympic ice.
2. CC's Pk - they graduated almost everyone who had a regular penalty killing role.
3. CC's defense - graduated players Fredheim and Prosser played the majority of minutes against their opponents' top lines.
4. CC's freshmen - Jaden Schwartz is expected to be one of the top freshmen in the country, but some of the other guys should be strong players as well.
5. Polacek - he should be one of the best players to visit CC all season.

Polacek is indeed fun to watch. If he gets any room, he can put the puck in the net. I would guess the large ice surface will help him get a little space. RPI returns only 3 defensemen from last year. One of the new faces, Nick Bailen, however is experienced having played a year at Bowling Green. The other defensemen are freshmen and will be a work in progress. RPI has a number of unanswered offensive questions-can Helfrich and Cullen return to the form they showed before having poor years last year? What can be expected from the freshmen up front? I suspect we shall find out quickly whether Rojic and Higgs will be able to step right in or not. This all hold be a lot of fun. No question in my mind that RPI will have some talent-the big question in my mind is whether they can put it all together and how long this process will take?

[Summerzzzoff]

Re: CC vs. RPI - Battle of the Bookworms

Listened to last nights game on the radio. Heading to the arena shortly to catch game two. Sounded as if CC was not so good with 5 on 5. RPI played tough and threw 31 shots on Joe Howe. Can the Tigers sweep?

[Rich]

Re: CC vs. RPI - Battle of the Bookworms

Listened to last nights game on the radio. Heading to the arena shortly to catch game two. Sounded as if CC was not so good with 5 on 5. RPI played tough and threw 31 shots on Joe Howe. Can the Tigers sweep?

Some of it was CC not generating much 5 on 5, but a lot of it was RPI playing very well. It was the slowest game I can remember seeing at the CSWA - and I've seen almost all the games there since it opened over a decade ago. It seemed as though RPI did everything they could to just slow things down, clog things up, and make it as difficult as possible for CC to have any room for creativity. The upside for CC is that they had a huge number of chances on the PP. The more penalties the better for CC based on what I saw last night.
Then again, it could be that it was the first game of the year with just 1 week of coached practice.

[Wicked Slappaahs]

Re: CC vs. RPI - Battle of the Bookworms

...It seemed as though RPI did everything they could to just slow things down, clog things up, and make it as difficult as possible for CC to have any room for creativity.

It's called finishing checks...

Good battle last night...save for the homer no-goal call and CC skating with too many men on the PP in the 3rd. JUST KIDDING ....two good young teams battled it out. RPI will have to dig deep to match their effort tonight...we're gonna find out just how in shape they are.

[engineerhockeyfan]

Re: CC vs. RPI - Battle of the Bookworms

Some of it was CC not generating much 5 on 5, but a lot of it was RPI playing very well. It was the slowest game I can remember seeing at the CSWA - and I've seen almost all the games there since it opened over a decade ago. It seemed as though RPI did everything they could to just slow things down, clog things up, and make it as difficult as possible for CC to have any room for creativity. The upside for CC is that they had a huge number of chances on the PP. The more penalties the better for CC based on what I saw last night.
Then again, it could be that it was the first game of the year with just 1 week of coached practice.

ONce again, good defensive play gets blasted. When did it become a sin to play defense? Are we supposed to get out of the way and wave as the opposing team tries to score.
Lets get real, defense is part of the game.

[Rich]

Re: CC vs. RPI - Battle of the Bookworms

I had no intent to "blast" good defense. I was simply trying to comment on CC's struggles 5 on 5. Much of it was due to RPI, IMHO.