RPI 2025–26: Off the Critical List and In Recovery

[engineerhockeyfan]

Very raw post game interview from Lang: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CP0Spl1HHfI

I very much respect Lang for giving a this is how it is interview rather than everything is fine interview.

Wow, I have never heard a coach be so truthful in an interview.
Calling out his players in public like that, I can only imagine what the locker room sounds like.
It is going to be veery interesting to see how the players respond to that.

 

[rpi82]

Wow, I have never heard a coach be so truthful in an interview.
Calling out his players in public like that, I can only imagine what the locker room sounds like.
It is going to be veery interesting to see how the players respond to that.

That certainly was direct. I’m not sure I would have worded some of it the same way, but I was going to post a similar message about competing at a D1 level on home ice. This team has to work hard to have a chance at winning against any team , particularly aggressive, well coached ones like Union (much less BC, PC, etc.). They are already showing a pattern of being too passive on home ice while giving a stronger effort on the road. Lang knows he needs HFH to be a tough place to play with the loud, passionate fans of the past. Crowds continue to dwindle and an 0-5 start with non-competitive games doesn’t give them much reason to come back. How they come out in the coming weekend set against our North Country friends will be telling.

 

[RPI Hockey Guy]

RPI's Krawchuk is the well deserved ECAC Goaltender of the week after making 78 saves over two games.

Ezman, Charpentier, DiGiulian, and Krawchuk Claim ECAC Hockey Weekly Awards

DANBURY, CONN. – ECAC Hockey has selected the men’s weekly award winners for the week ending on November 3rd, 2025: Jaxson Ezman (Sr., Princeton), Eric Charpentier (Jr., Dartmouth), Giovanni DiGiulian (Fr., Cornell) and Nate Krawchuk (Fr., RPI).

ecachockey.com

 

[Ralph Baer]

RPI's Krawchuk is the well deserved ECAC Goaltender of the week after making 78 saves over two games.

Ezman, Charpentier, DiGiulian, and Krawchuk Claim ECAC Hockey Weekly Awards

DANBURY, CONN. – ECAC Hockey has selected the men’s weekly award winners for the week ending on November 3rd, 2025: Jaxson Ezman (Sr., Princeton), Eric Charpentier (Jr., Dartmouth), Giovanni DiGiulian (Fr., Cornell) and Nate Krawchuk (Fr., RPI).

ecachockey.com

Indeed, well deserved.

An interesting collection of award sponsors. Does anyone know if they are new?

 

[MikeMidd]

Agree with the surprise at the strength and emotion of Lang's post-match comments. But also agree with the points he made.

I thought Friday was exactly what I'd expect from a Lang-coached team. We were not the best set of players on the ice. We were not fastest, or most skilled, or most creative in our play. But we worked hard, took opportunities and earned that win - didn't have it handed to us. Compete.

Saturday was exactly the opposite. Too slow, lacking hard work, just not engaged in being smart at doing what we're capable of. Really frustrating to watch and not to the standard the same players set for themselves on Friday night. To do it at home, in a rivalry game, with 1,000 more fans in the building than the season average, was even worse.

Really interesting to see him be so calm and measured when speaking. Creates a clear sense of calm and control and authority, even if he was raging internally (and may've been raging in the locker room). Huge opportunity for the players to respond against an equally poor St Lawrence team and a Clarkson team that doesn't look like world beaters.

 

[tony/troy]

Very raw post game interview from Lang: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CP0Spl1HHfI

I very much respect Lang for giving a this is how it is interview rather than everything is fine interview.

Saying one of our power plays was bad and we deserved to be booed sure is different from anything in the past.

On one occasion almost four decades ago in the late 80"s RPI, though eventually winning, played a very lackluster game against a weak opponent (forgot who) and heard the boo birds a time or two.

Shortly after the game an incensed Coach Adessa had the players return to the ice in practice gear and put them through stop, turn and start drills as well as wind sprints. After that was done he then met with the beat writers and gave them a quote they could not pass up. Mr. Adessa, rest his soul, had a message for the fans who booed his team and probably him too. It was along the lines of STAY HOME, WE DON'T NEED YOU!!!

Mr. Lang took neither approach.

 

[DrDemento]

Hockey odds for next week - Our boys are 1/2 goal FAVORITE over SLU and a 1.5 goal underdog against Clarkson. Girls are a 1/2 goal favorite over Union in Troy and 1/2 goal underdog in Schenectady. Not sure how they come up with these numbers.

 

[DrDemento]

Football odds remain with Ithaca a 1 point favorite.

 

[DrDemento]

Not sure why but football odds have changed and we are now a 2.5 point favorite over Ithaca. Hockey odds remain the same as of this morning.

 

[engineerhockeyfan]

This is going to be a very telling weekend.
How the team reacts to Lang's interview will let us know what to expect for the rest of the season
I can only hope that it all ends well.

 

[Wicked Slappaahs]

As of right now RPI's statistics:
34.1 SA/G, 12th most in the NCAA
23.4 S/G, 58th worst in the NCAA
3.9 GA/G, ties for 8th most in the NCAA
1.6 G/G, ties for 57 worst in the NCAA
58.3% PK, 57 worst in the NCAA
12% PP, ties for 52 worst in the NCAA
We have been shut out twice in 8 games (1/4 of all games), 3 times in 9 games counting exhibition (1/3 of all games).
We are being outplayed consistently on all sides of the puck.
Attendance to the field house is the worst its been in years because play has been unwatchable in the field house for going on 2 and 1/2 years.

I don't mean to bring in negativity, as any team would struggle with the same hand that RPI has been delt this season. However, the team this year up to this point is borderline unwatchable. I don't care if this is a winning or losing season, I just hope Lang can get this team to the point where they at least look like their trying for 3 periods a game. Until that point, we are not off the critical list.

I didn't see the Saturday game, but Friday night RPI could not win a faceoff... I seem to recall our F/O rate was OK overall in the early going.

I keep reminding myself and will do so here as well, that this is a tear down to the studs rebuild. We will taking our lumps in 25-26. It would be nice to start hearing of some new CHL recruits coming our way, seeing as how most of our former recruits are apparently , former recruits.

 

[Wicked Slappaahs]

This is going to be a very telling weekend.
How the team reacts to Lang's interview will let us know what to expect for the rest of the season
I can only hope that it all ends well.

Agreed. He was a bit more measured in his comments in WylanD's show yesterday. I thought his Sat night comments were a wee bit dire, seeing as how it was only league game #2...but I understand he was sending a message. As you stated, it will be interesting to see how the team responds.

 

[Wicked Slappaahs]

Wow, I have never heard a coach be so truthful in an interview.
Calling out his players in public like that, I can only imagine what the locker room sounds like.
It is going to be veery interesting to see how the players respond to that.

Yup, it can definitely go either way....gonna be an even longer season than we thought if the response isn't great.

 

[DrDemento]

Agreed. He was a bit more measured in his comments in WylanD's show yesterday. I thought his Sat night comments were a wee bit dire, seeing as how it was only league game #2...but I understand he was sending a message. As you stated, it will be interesting to see how the team responds.

Having seen every coach here since 1963 - I was impressed by his responses. He shows his passion in a dead pan delivery but makes his points well. Unafraid and unabashed. He tells you exactly what he thinks regardless of what you might want to hear. Between periods, during the game itself, his interview with Dan Fridgen showed he is not above a little criticism of bad calls made by the officials but controls himself knowing not to over ruffle feathers. He is definitely his own man but I see a little bit of some of the best things from some of our past successful coaches. I see a little Harkness, Abbott, Addesa, and Powers when i listen and if we even begin to approach their winning percentages, we should be a very happy group.

 

[jericho]

Not sure why but football odds have changed and we are now a 2.5 point favorite over Ithaca. Hockey odds remain the same as of this morning.

Regardless of what someone thinks of sports betting in general, if you’re gambling on Division III football, you have a SERIOUS addiction.

 

[DrDemento]

Regardless of what someone thinks of sports betting in general, if you’re gambling on Division III football, you have a SERIOUS addiction.

Agreed- most of the games are such mismatches between the top 20 powerhouses and the remaining teams that you need a calculator to keep up with the scores. It can take 50 or more points for a team to cover the spread. When you follow the listings for the top 25 teams for a few seasons you realize there is less movement of teams up or down than of the figures at the wax museum. Jenny and I are not bettors simply because we do not like to risk losing what we have. We are 45 minutes of Atlantic City and have not been there to gamble at all in over 35 years. But we do see folks who will bet on everything including some esoteric aspects of football, hockey and basketball games. But I must admit that I do like to see what those who set odds think about some games and some teams.

 

[Wicked Slappaahs]

Having seen every coach here since 1963 - I was impressed by his responses. He shows his passion in a dead pan delivery but makes his points well. Unafraid and unabashed. He tells you exactly what he thinks regardless of what you might want to hear. Between periods, during the game itself, his interview with Dan Fridgen showed he is not above a little criticism of bad calls made by the officials but controls himself knowing not to over ruffle feathers. He is definitely his own man but I see a little bit of some of the best things from some of our past successful coaches. I see a little Harkness, Abbott, Addesa, and Powers when i listen and if we even begin to approach their winning percentages, we should be a very happy group.

I don't disagree, but thought maybe it was more dire then it needed to be. But he's been at this a while and we're up in the stands....time will tell !

 

[DrDemento]

I don't disagree, but thought maybe it was more dire then it needed to be. But he's been at this a while and we're up in the stands....time will tell !

As you mention, he is in the midst of all of this. He is certainly feeling the urgency a bit more as he has been handed quite a bit on his plate. I suspect he will push this group as far and as hard as he can to try to get the desired result and only back off if he feels that approach is just not working. I am old enough to remember a baseball icon named Leo (the lip) Durocher who said very clearly that 'Nice guys finish last'. He made a lot of enemies at times but he must have known what he was doing as his teams many times did pretty well. And besides, he married a beautiful actress named Laraine Day and in my mind that was hitting a grand slam!!.

 

[MikeMidd]

On Lang's press conference, I think it's useful to set down that type of marker early on.

College hockey has fundamentally changed. The ability to transfer so easily will reshape what coaching looks like. Even if our ambition is to have four-year or multi-year players, we're going to be recruiting continually to improve our team and these players will equally be looking to showcase their abilities to others, if needed. So he's made it clear - if you think you're good, you've got to prove it, because we're ambitious about improving, getting in better guys and winning.

And he kind of has nothing to lose at this point. He's made it clear this is a ground-up rebuild. So presumably the competitive spirit means he wants to win, but he can push the players to sink or swim because he knows he's going to have to upgrade next year.

 

[Engineers]

Having seen every coach here since 1963 - I was impressed by his responses. He shows his passion in a dead pan delivery but makes his points well. Unafraid and unabashed. He tells you exactly what he thinks regardless of what you might want to hear. Between periods, during the game itself, his interview with Dan Fridgen showed he is not above a little criticism of bad calls made by the officials but controls himself knowing not to over ruffle feathers. He is definitely his own man but I see a little bit of some of the best things from some of our past successful coaches. I see a little Harkness, Abbott, Addesa, and Powers when i listen and if we even begin to approach their winning percentages, we should be a very happy group.

I agree doc. I’m a fan of the no bullshit approach. Lang is no nonsense and I love it.
He’s absolutely correct he needs more talent which will come. He inherited a mess which lang himself said is a 3 year rebuild. He was hired to rebuild the program not blow smoke