Part of the problem--worse this year--is they really lack finishers. They are a very hardworking team, but have been unable to capitalize on the opportunities they have.
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RPI 2014-2015: Goin' back to the playoffs
- Thread starter hab
- Start date
Part of the problem--worse this year--is they really lack finishers. They are a very hardworking team, but have been unable to capitalize on the opportunities they have.
Re: RPI 2014-2015: Goin' back to the playoffs
That's what I thought. I watched part of yesterday's and today's game. It looked like they could skate, and it looked like they kept playing hard all the way through.
That's what I thought. I watched part of yesterday's and today's game. It looked like they could skate, and it looked like they kept playing hard all the way through.
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hkypassion
New member
Re: RPI 2014-2015: Goin' back to the playoffs
Lack of coaching. Girls come into the program as strong players and go backwards without good coaching. Not sure how dynamic of a coaching team they can be if they have given up more goals on the PP than they've scored! In his pre game speech today he said "keeping it simple and putting pucks on net". Really? Which of the 8 shots today? 8 shots in a D1 woman's game? They finished 0-9-1 in conference play to close out last year and are starting off where they left off at 1-8-2 and they haven't even got going with conference play except for the games last weekend. They're not even showing fundamental hockey skills now - in yesterday's game they couldn't even dump it deep to get a clean line change. Tape to tape passes are abysmal! And I believe the RPITv announcer's adjective for their PP was "putrid"!! The girls are very hard working, but they need a stronger coaching staff with fresh ideas and a little more dynamic offensive knowledge than what's being demonstrated so far.
Re: RPI 2014-2015: Goin' back to the playoffs
I agree with a lot of the comments made here today. I have watched RPI women's hockey since their D3 days, and to be quite honest in recent games they have looked like a D3 team. Not to make excuses, but when your 2 best players are out with injuries it will affect your performance. That being said, with what he has to work with on this team, Burkie needs to make some changes. This is not the RPI team of recent years that was capable of outskating their opponents...they will need to outwork them to win. I would like to see Mariana Walsh (not the best skater on the team...but) on the power play. In today's game we just tried far too many shots from long range, easily blocked by SCSU. We need players who are prepared to drive hard to the blue paint and pay the price. The RPI men won a gritty game tonight and the winning goal was scored by Schroeder who said, quite simply "when you drive to the net good things happen". Too often our skilled players finish a rush by going outside and drifting a useless shot from a sharp angle or dumping the puck to a covered player in the slot. Drive to the middle, get dumped, and let your linemates put the garbage goal in the net!
I agree with a lot of the comments made here today. I have watched RPI women's hockey since their D3 days, and to be quite honest in recent games they have looked like a D3 team. Not to make excuses, but when your 2 best players are out with injuries it will affect your performance. That being said, with what he has to work with on this team, Burkie needs to make some changes. This is not the RPI team of recent years that was capable of outskating their opponents...they will need to outwork them to win. I would like to see Mariana Walsh (not the best skater on the team...but) on the power play. In today's game we just tried far too many shots from long range, easily blocked by SCSU. We need players who are prepared to drive hard to the blue paint and pay the price. The RPI men won a gritty game tonight and the winning goal was scored by Schroeder who said, quite simply "when you drive to the net good things happen". Too often our skilled players finish a rush by going outside and drifting a useless shot from a sharp angle or dumping the puck to a covered player in the slot. Drive to the middle, get dumped, and let your linemates put the garbage goal in the net!
Re: RPI 2014-2015: Goin' back to the playoffs
I've never met Brent Hill but I have heard nothing but positive things from fans and players. I am expecting that when Merrimack debuts next year with him at the helm they may surprise a few. I don't know how RPI let him get away (budget issues?) but when you attract that kind of talent you need to find a way to keep them.
I've never met Brent Hill but I have heard nothing but positive things from fans and players. I am expecting that when Merrimack debuts next year with him at the helm they may surprise a few. I don't know how RPI let him get away (budget issues?) but when you attract that kind of talent you need to find a way to keep them.
HockeyEast33
New member
Re: RPI 2014-2015: Goin' back to the playoffs
All the more reason to be surprised that RPI let him get away.
All the more reason to be surprised that RPI let him get away.
hkypassion
New member
Re: RPI 2014-2015: Goin' back to the playoffs
AGREE!! Why would a promising Asst. Coach leave an established D1 program (lateral move) for an upstart (a few years away) if there weren't "issues". My guess is he got frustrated with trying to implement fresh ideas only to be shot down. His last year as an assistant was the last year the team played decent. RPI will never attract the U18 type player without some change of direction. The school academics are a challenge enough to the recruiting and add to that a coach with poor communication skills and no clear direction. There is talent there, but talent is wasted if not recognized and coached. The girls deserve better and unfortunately I see them getting frustrated with the mounting losses which will lead to bickering and finger pointing without any clear "motivation" coming from coaches.
Re: RPI 2014-2015: Goin' back to the playoffs
Brent Hill is a nice guy, agreed. His recruiting ability is sub-par at best. When he was scouting the Fall Elite, he passed on girls that ended up going D1 on much better programs. He said the girls were not good enough. Looking at the Merrimack recruits, I would suggest that there will be another Penn State style cleaning after year 1 & 2.
From what I have heard, he is excellent teaching skills and terrible at bench/ systems coaching. RPI has a variety of issues that have produced this record. Probably not an easy school to recruit girls to based on location & majors.
Brent Hill is a nice guy, agreed. His recruiting ability is sub-par at best. When he was scouting the Fall Elite, he passed on girls that ended up going D1 on much better programs. He said the girls were not good enough. Looking at the Merrimack recruits, I would suggest that there will be another Penn State style cleaning after year 1 & 2.
From what I have heard, he is excellent teaching skills and terrible at bench/ systems coaching. RPI has a variety of issues that have produced this record. Probably not an easy school to recruit girls to based on location & majors.
Re: RPI 2014-2015: Goin' back to the playoffs
Your conclusion is not backed up by strong facts. Maybe you're right, but credibility is in question with your facts.
First of all, recruiting is an inexact science. He's allowed to get some wrong. Even the NHL gets it wrong in the first round.
Secondly, passing on a girl that ends up on a better D1 program is not relevant. There are plenty of walk-ons and partial scholarship girls that are "passed on" by coaches every year. As you go lower in the talent pyramid, coaches are looking for specific needs for their teams. Or are you saying he passed on a bunch of star players? If that's the case, and he said they weren't good enough, then your point is valid (I doubt it though).
Third, if you look at a start-up program like Merrimack, you of course know that they are not going to get the best recruits until the program is established. The Penn State style cleaning is not Penn State style... it's any new program. Not sure how this backs-up your argument, and is a really weak point.
Lastly, you have no idea if he's good, bad or indifferent in practice, on the bench or with systems. You're not there. You don't know what his responsibilities are. You don't know who's systems he's coaching. He's an assistant... which means he assists the head coach.
I appreciate you trying to add to the discussion, but diminishing the reputation of someone with these facts is not fair. Most agree he is a promising, young assistant coach. Let's hope he has a great career.
Your conclusion is not backed up by strong facts. Maybe you're right, but credibility is in question with your facts.
First of all, recruiting is an inexact science. He's allowed to get some wrong. Even the NHL gets it wrong in the first round.
Secondly, passing on a girl that ends up on a better D1 program is not relevant. There are plenty of walk-ons and partial scholarship girls that are "passed on" by coaches every year. As you go lower in the talent pyramid, coaches are looking for specific needs for their teams. Or are you saying he passed on a bunch of star players? If that's the case, and he said they weren't good enough, then your point is valid (I doubt it though).
Third, if you look at a start-up program like Merrimack, you of course know that they are not going to get the best recruits until the program is established. The Penn State style cleaning is not Penn State style... it's any new program. Not sure how this backs-up your argument, and is a really weak point.
Lastly, you have no idea if he's good, bad or indifferent in practice, on the bench or with systems. You're not there. You don't know what his responsibilities are. You don't know who's systems he's coaching. He's an assistant... which means he assists the head coach.
I appreciate you trying to add to the discussion, but diminishing the reputation of someone with these facts is not fair. Most agree he is a promising, young assistant coach. Let's hope he has a great career.
HockeyEast33
New member
Re: RPI 2014-2015: Goin' back to the playoffs
There are a lot of reasons that a coach might "pass" on a player in the recruiting process regardless of talent level (not sure what you mean by pass - didn't recruit them or turned down their interest?). Three reasons that could be relevant that I can think of in RPI's case:
1. Academic focus - If you're not focused on science or engineering (or maybe business), then RPI is NOT the place for you. Lots of players aren't (or don't have the grades/test scores to get into RPI). This rules out a lot of players for RPI.
2. Already committed or have a short list - Lots of players are committed or have a short list but it isn't public knowledge yet. You could argue this is a recruiting failure, but no scout catches everyone.
3. Head coach philosophy - Know for a fact that a few years ago RPI was VERY focused on getting bigger, especially on defense. You could argue that was right or wrong, but the assistant coach has to follow the path set for him/her in recruiting. So he may have passed on smaller players that were good because of the path set.
There are a lot of reasons that a coach might "pass" on a player in the recruiting process regardless of talent level (not sure what you mean by pass - didn't recruit them or turned down their interest?). Three reasons that could be relevant that I can think of in RPI's case:
1. Academic focus - If you're not focused on science or engineering (or maybe business), then RPI is NOT the place for you. Lots of players aren't (or don't have the grades/test scores to get into RPI). This rules out a lot of players for RPI.
2. Already committed or have a short list - Lots of players are committed or have a short list but it isn't public knowledge yet. You could argue this is a recruiting failure, but no scout catches everyone.
3. Head coach philosophy - Know for a fact that a few years ago RPI was VERY focused on getting bigger, especially on defense. You could argue that was right or wrong, but the assistant coach has to follow the path set for him/her in recruiting. So he may have passed on smaller players that were good because of the path set.
Re: RPI 2014-2015: Goin' back to the playoffs
In digging through box scores, it appears that 8 shots was the fewest we've taken as a D-I team. I did find a game from 1999 where we managed only 5 shots in a 7-0 shutout loss to Middlebury. collegehockeystats.net's archives end there and the RPI almanac doesn't have shot totals for the previous seasons.
All of this is to say that we witnessed a historically bad effort from the team this Saturday. So we have that going for us, which is nice.
In digging through box scores, it appears that 8 shots was the fewest we've taken as a D-I team. I did find a game from 1999 where we managed only 5 shots in a 7-0 shutout loss to Middlebury. collegehockeystats.net's archives end there and the RPI almanac doesn't have shot totals for the previous seasons.
All of this is to say that we witnessed a historically bad effort from the team this Saturday. So we have that going for us, which is nice.
Re: RPI 2014-2015: Goin' back to the playoffs
You guys remember those lovely season simulations I did last year that got more and more depressing as the season went on? Well, here they are again! The program uses KRACH to simulate the ECAC schedule one million times. It outputs how many times each team finishes in each position, along with how many points they earned on average and how often they made the playoffs. It also puts out the likelihood of each playoff matchup, but it's too early to be posting that. As you probably could have predicted, things don't look great right now. Don't go too crazy, as it's early. KRACH will vary wildly for the next few weeks as teams play more games.
Mean Point Total: 11.70
Range - 4th-12th
Mean Rank - 10.16
Median Rank - 10th
Mode Rank - 10th
Playoffs - 11.6%
Most likely opponent - @Quinnipiac (4.5%)
The only team expected to do worse than us is Union, so there's that. I wouldn't put too much stock in these right now as Cornell is expected to earn just 0.17 more points than us and unless something has gone horribly wrong in Ithaca, that just doesn't sound right to me.
You guys remember those lovely season simulations I did last year that got more and more depressing as the season went on? Well, here they are again! The program uses KRACH to simulate the ECAC schedule one million times. It outputs how many times each team finishes in each position, along with how many points they earned on average and how often they made the playoffs. It also puts out the likelihood of each playoff matchup, but it's too early to be posting that. As you probably could have predicted, things don't look great right now. Don't go too crazy, as it's early. KRACH will vary wildly for the next few weeks as teams play more games.
Mean Point Total: 11.70
Range - 4th-12th
Mean Rank - 10.16
Median Rank - 10th
Mode Rank - 10th
Playoffs - 11.6%
Most likely opponent - @Quinnipiac (4.5%)
The only team expected to do worse than us is Union, so there's that. I wouldn't put too much stock in these right now as Cornell is expected to earn just 0.17 more points than us and unless something has gone horribly wrong in Ithaca, that just doesn't sound right to me.
If the mean, median and mode place RPI 10th, how is there only 1 team (union) doing worse? Wouldn't there be 2 in a 12 team league? from what I've seen so far, I'd put Union and Colgate behind RPI.
Could you share the information for the other ECAC teams? I'd agree with you that Cornell can't possibly be as bad as their results suggest and are undoubtedly largely due to rust.
Re: RPI 2014-2015: Goin' back to the playoffs
I unfortunately already did away with the raw information. Basically, no teams are "averaging" 11th or 12th place. I don't remember exactly what the numbers were, but I think Colgate and Cornell were also both around 10th (but slightly ahead of RPI) and Union was closer to 11th. Sorry I can't be more specific.
I unfortunately already did away with the raw information. Basically, no teams are "averaging" 11th or 12th place. I don't remember exactly what the numbers were, but I think Colgate and Cornell were also both around 10th (but slightly ahead of RPI) and Union was closer to 11th. Sorry I can't be more specific.
Livinhocky
Registered User
Re: RPI 2014-2015: Goin' back to the playoffs
Was at the game on Saturday. Granted, RPI has alot to improve on, but the shot totals were misleading (as stats often are). There were a slew of blocked shots throughout the game. Yes, they were outplayed, and yes, every team has shots blocked during the game, but just posting the shot totals is still a bit misleading. RPI created several shot "opportunities", but were just stymied by the number of blocks. I thought St. Cloud was particularly adept at getting into both passing and shooting lanes, and played a strong defensive game overall. Doesn't mean there isn't plenty of room for improvement on RPI's part, though!
In digging through box scores, it appears that 8 shots was the fewest we've taken as a D-I team. I did find a game from 1999 where we managed only 5 shots in a 7-0 shutout loss to Middlebury. collegehockeystats.net's archives end there and the RPI almanac doesn't have shot totals for the previous seasons.
All of this is to say that we witnessed a historically bad effort from the team this Saturday. So we have that going for us, which is nice.
Was at the game on Saturday. Granted, RPI has alot to improve on, but the shot totals were misleading (as stats often are). There were a slew of blocked shots throughout the game. Yes, they were outplayed, and yes, every team has shots blocked during the game, but just posting the shot totals is still a bit misleading. RPI created several shot "opportunities", but were just stymied by the number of blocks. I thought St. Cloud was particularly adept at getting into both passing and shooting lanes, and played a strong defensive game overall. Doesn't mean there isn't plenty of room for improvement on RPI's part, though!
Re: RPI 2014-2015: Goin' back to the playoffs
Oh, I was there too. SCSU blocked a ridiculous number of shots. I was just saying that from the standpoint of pucks on net, that was the worst RPI had ever done. I've also seen the team get beat by Clarkson 10-0, which I think most would agree was probably a worse game (though against a stronger foe on enemy ice).
Oh, I was there too. SCSU blocked a ridiculous number of shots. I was just saying that from the standpoint of pucks on net, that was the worst RPI had ever done. I've also seen the team get beat by Clarkson 10-0, which I think most would agree was probably a worse game (though against a stronger foe on enemy ice).
Livinhocky
Registered User
Re: RPI 2014-2015: Goin' back to the playoffs
I agree, it looks really bad when you see it in the boxscore, blocked shots or not! Definitely alot of room for improvement. The team needs to get back to the relentless hustle and opportunistic play they showed last season in wins over Harvard and Quinnipiac, and the BU tie. That's the kind of effort they'll need when playing teams of arguably superior talent. Hopefully they can recover that........
I agree, it looks really bad when you see it in the boxscore, blocked shots or not! Definitely alot of room for improvement. The team needs to get back to the relentless hustle and opportunistic play they showed last season in wins over Harvard and Quinnipiac, and the BU tie. That's the kind of effort they'll need when playing teams of arguably superior talent. Hopefully they can recover that........