What's new
By:
USCHO Fan Forum

This is a sample guest message. Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

  • The USCHO Fan Forum has migrated to a new plaform, xenForo. Most of the function of the forum should work in familiar ways. Please note that you can switch between light and dark modes by clicking on the gear icon in the upper right of the main menu bar. We are hoping that this new platform will prove to be faster and more reliable. Please feel free to explore its features.

RPI 2013-2014 Season

Re: RPI 2013-2014 Season

Eeyore said:
How can they have double digit wins in 8 of their 9 seasons at D1 without having done so since 2009-10? I'm pretty sure that the distinction is between overall wins and conference wins, but that's one ugly paragraph.
Click to expand...
I have to call you out on this one, Eeyore. I figured it out (though I did double-check to make sure). You can have double-digit wins without breaking the 10-win plateau by having exactly 10 wins -- which they did in 2010-11, 2012-13, and last year (2013-14).

That said, having a winning percentage under 40% is not the type of consistency I'd be promoting.
 
Re: RPI 2013-2014 Season

hab said:
I suspect that Burke's thinking was along these lines: "I have 2 senior goaltenders with full scholarships, one of whom was our team's MVP 2 years ago; I have confidence one or both will step up with a strong senior year; I have a very promising goalie coming in next year (Selander, from Sweden)."

Given the extent to which the Engineers outplayed their opponents in most games last year, with just average goaltending they would have ended up solidly in the top half of the league. I'm hopeful they will get solid goaltending this season and should be competitive for a playoff position.
Click to expand...

I was unaware there was a top flight goaltender committed for the following season. That's great news for RPI. The fact remains however that the team remains exposed at the position for 14-15 as compared to conference competition.

Looking at the 8 teams ahead of them last season, the starting goalies of all of those teams had career save percentages between .911 and .940, no doubt a big factor in those teams' successes. (..and two of the lowest save percentages in that mix include 2 goalies attending the Canadian National Women's Team fall camp)

O'Brien's best save percentage previously in conference play was only .907, bookended by seasons with under .900. She was ranked last among the 12 ECAC starting goaltenders last season. So she would really need to have a record performance in her senior year to deliver goaltending competitive with teams above RPI in last year's standing (an average of .923!). FWIW, the only ECAC starting goalies all the way back to 08-09 to have their career best year in their fourth year was Bellamy for Harvard, Lahonen for SLU, and Snikeris for Yale....coincident with significant upgrades in the teams in front of them those seasons.

It does not appear that those conditions exist at RPI, where it appears that in relative terms other teams have gotten stronger upfront while RPI may have actually declined--barring some exceptional breakout rookie seasons. That's not to say that O'Brien is not a competent D1 goaltender, just that history does not suggest she has the capability to play at a level to move RPI up in the standings from last year.

Which leads to the other big issue. I'm not sure why you think RPI outplayed most of its opponents in 13-14. Your comment that just average goaltending would have put them solidly in the top half of the league ignores the fact that 7 ECAC teams scored significantly more goals in conference play than RPI, which scored roughly the same number of goals (43) as 8th place Dartmouth and 10th place Colgate (41 each).

However, both Colgate and Dartmouth have recruited multiple incoming National U18 players, while RPI needs to replace 15 goals and 38 points in conference play from last years seniors just to hold stable with their below average offensive production last year.
 
Last edited:
Re: RPI 2013-2014 Season

Trillium said:
Which leads to the other big issue. I'm not sure why you think RPI outplayed most of its opponents in 13-14. Your comment that just average goaltending would have put them solidly in the top half of the league ignores the fact that 7 ECAC teams scored significantly more goals in conference play than RPI, which scored roughly the same number of goals (43) as 8th place Dartmouth and 10th place Colgate (41 each).
QUOTE]

When I say that RPI outplayed most of its opponents last year I mean aside from goaltending, which should have been obvious from the rest of the post. And what makes me think they outplayed their opponents is simply from watching their games (most of them). There were many games in which they controlled the puck most of the time and lost the game. Shots on goal don't always tell the story, but in this case they do: RPI outshot 11 of their 18 opponents (7 of their 11 conference opponents). Only Clarkson, Cornell, Harvard and Quinnipiac were able to outshoot the Engineers in the ECAC. And from watching the games I would say that only Clarkson and Cornell were able to dominate. When they played Dartmouth, Yale and Brown, the Engineers skated circles around the opposition, outshooting them by 2 game totals of 64-35, 68-32, and 75-42, respectively. Yet they lost both games to Dartmouth, picked up only a tie and a loss against Yale, and split with Brown.

And on the goaltending issue, we'll just have to wait and see, but I'm betting on a better year for O'Brien and/or Piper.
Click to expand...
 
Re: RPI 2013-2014 Season

hab said:
When I say that RPI outplayed most of its opponents last year I mean aside from goaltending, which should have been obvious from the rest of the post. And what makes me think they outplayed their opponents is simply from watching their games (most of them). There were many games in which they controlled the puck most of the time and lost the game. Shots on goal don't always tell the story, but in this case they do: RPI outshot 11 of their 18 opponents (7 of their 11 conference opponents). Only Clarkson, Cornell, Harvard and Quinnipiac were able to outshoot the Engineers in the ECAC. And from watching the games I would say that only Clarkson and Cornell were able to dominate. When they played Dartmouth, Yale and Brown, the Engineers skated circles around the opposition, outshooting them by 2 game totals of 64-35, 68-32, and 75-42, respectively. Yet they lost both games to Dartmouth, picked up only a tie and a loss against Yale, and split with Brown.
Click to expand...

I fully realize you were referring to other than goaltending with regards to outplaying competition but losing anyway. My point was that, goaltending aside, you can't win if you don't score enough. Regardless of potentially superior time of puck possession or shots on goal, the fact remains that RPI was still unable to make it count in terms of scoring, which has nothing whatsoever to do with goaltending. Even if the team had Maschmeyer in net, RPI would still have been among the weakest teams in the league in terms of offence, a problem that looks to be increasing.

Whether the problem was perhaps too many shots from the outside that were not good scoring opportunities, too many players with poor shooting accuracy, or weaknesses in team playmaking, or some other problem, a better year for O'Brien and/or Piper just doesn't make much difference in RPI's prospects for 14-15 given that lack of goal scoring compounded by graduation losses.

O'Brien and Piper would need a combined .948 save percentage (matching Maschmeyer) just to limit goals against to the same number as goals for (43), based on shot totals. That resulting record of 43 GF and 43 GA still wouldn't put RPI near a top half finish most years. When RPI last finished in the top half, the team scored 56 GF (in 09-10). To replicate that "solid top 6 finish" would likely mean scoring an additional 28 goals in 14-15 from rostered players beyond what they scored last season.
 
Re: RPI 2013-2014 Season

Trillium, you are right that another of RPI's weaknesses last year was goal scoring. I made the comment at one point last year that in most games that I saw, RPI dominated play on 80% of the ice surface...just not on the most important 10% at each end of the rink :o. RPI's shooting percentage in conference play was about 9th in the conference, I think, so not good enough but not horrible. The fact that you would speculate that a problem might be "playmaking" tips me off to the fact that you clearly didn't see them very much last year. Which brings me back to the only real point that I want to make here: anyone who actually watched this team last year will know (as I am sure opposing coaches know) that this is a team with a tremendous amount of speed and playmaking ability and able to skate with (almost) any opponent. That, in my opinion, provides for much more upside potential than a situation where you are trying to make something out of a team that is just being badly outplayed, game in and game out. Whether they will improve in the areas they need to in order to realize that potential remains to be seen.
 
Re: RPI 2013-2014 Season

:eek:Yikes! Looks like Lovisa Selander is going to see a lot of rubber this winter, playing for SDE, a team that is in its first year in the Swedish elite senior women's league. With the other goalie in net the team lost its first game 11-0, allowing 93 shots on goal. The next night, with Selander in net, they lost 6-1, allowing 53 shots on net.
 
Re: RPI 2013-2014 Season

hab said:
:eek:Yikes! Looks like Lovisa Selander is going to see a lot of rubber this winter, playing for SDE, a team that is in its first year in the Swedish elite senior women's league. With the other goalie in net the team lost its first game 11-0, allowing 93 shots on goal. The next night, with Selander in net, they lost 6-1, allowing 53 shots on net.
Click to expand...

You noticed too. :D

BTW, does someone want to start a 2014-15 thread?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top