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RPI 2015 Off Season Thread: Another Long Spring and Summer :(

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Re: RPI 2015 Off Season Thread: Another Long Spring and Summer :(

Today is 14 April 2015. There are 172 days until RPI's next game.


This is based upon 3 October 2015 for the start of next season.
 
Re: RPI 2015 Off Season Thread: Another Long Spring and Summer :(

Ralph Baer said:
But they are playing Rensselear Poly. ;)
Click to expand...

They will learn in time. ;)

The good news is, though, that they have 23 NCAA D-I games, so they will qualify in terms of tournament consideration.
 
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Re: RPI 2015 Off Season Thread: Another Long Spring and Summer :(

DrDemento said:
On paper it sure looks like we adding more possible offense up front than what we are losing. But that often is the case for us, on paper. As far as any early departures, i would guess it would have to be either for academic reasons or lack of playing time. Almost certainly no one looks to be turning pro. I think 16 forwards would be nice considering we always seem to have two or three hurt or sick. I would like to see 9 defensemen on the squad, but I think it looks more like 8 will be here. Personally i think it matters more what we can improve upon between face offs and special teams. Otherwise it is simply more of the same. High hopes dashed by inconsistent fundamental play. We have some great kids with talent levels that a lot of other teams would take any time. But when you watch the teams that qualified for the NCAA tournament, they just put it all together better and you do not see them making as many poor choices on the ice.
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I've been thinking about this for awhile and need to get it off my chest. The Frozen Four is over and once again we have a new national champion. Providence, Union, and Yale have all won in recent years. Not all that long ago I would have considered RPI competitive year in, year out, with all these programs. Now I am not sure.

Wisconsin had a dreadful season and they fired two assistants. They said they did it to show they don't tolerate bad seasons and to send a message to the fans that they're serious about winning. So what message does our coach want to send? I don't know that I've ever heard him talk publicly - not since his first year or so - about where he sees this program going or what his expectations are. Now we seem to have settled into a pattern of some optimism at the start of the season, followed by a reality check midway through or thereabouts, and then a dose of real disappointment to end the season. The problems/mistakes many have discussed seem to be repeated over the course of multiple seasons. We hear things like "we need to be tough to play against," "we need to learn how to play the Engineer way," or "we just need to play harder" (or learn to play full 60 minutes) but these always seem elusive...

After watching the last several seasons, is there a commitment to win here? Where is this program headed? What are the goals? If the last several seasons have been unsatisfactory, what's being done to change the direction? I think after a pretty rough past decade, the fans are owed some answers.

I know the huge commitment these players make to compete at the D-I level. This isn't on them. But I have followed this team for 40 years and seen a lot of ups and downs, as many people on this board have. I'm in for the long haul. But nothing has been tougher than these last couple seasons, especially with a big rival down the road grabbing the headlines, attention, and trophies.
 
Re: RPI 2015 Off Season Thread: Another Long Spring and Summer :(

Today is 15 April 2015. There are 171 days until RPI's next game.


This is based upon 3 October 2015 for the start of next season.
 
Re: RPI 2015 Off Season Thread: Another Long Spring and Summer :(

vicious said:
Wisconsin had a dreadful season and they fired two assistants. They said they did it to show they don't tolerate bad seasons and to send a message to the fans that they're serious about winning. So what message does our coach want to send? I don't know that I've ever heard him talk publicly - not since his first year or so - about where he sees this program going or what his expectations are. Now we seem to have settled into a pattern of some optimism at the start of the season, followed by a reality check midway through or thereabouts, and then a dose of real disappointment to end the season. The problems/mistakes many have discussed seem to be repeated over the course of multiple seasons. We hear things like "we need to be tough to play against," "we need to learn how to play the Engineer way," or "we just need to play harder" (or learn to play full 60 minutes) but these always seem elusive...
Click to expand...

Perhaps they are "elusive" because they are so nebulous?

One essential criteria of any meaningful goal is a concrete, objective measure of what success looks like.

It might be something like "our power play will score xx% of the time" or "our penalty kill will stop the other team yy% of the time" or (hats off to DrD) "we will win zz% of the face-offs in our own zone." Then you can measure your progress relative to your goal and make appropriate adjustments if/as needed.
 
Re: RPI 2015 Off Season Thread: Another Long Spring and Summer :(

FreshFish said:
Perhaps they are "elusive" because they are so nebulous?

One essential criteria of any meaningful goal is a concrete, objective measure of what success looks like.

It might be something like "our power play will score xx% of the time" or "our penalty kill will stop the other team yy% of the time" or (hats off to DrD) "we will win zz% of the face-offs in our own zone." Then you can measure your progress relative to your goal and make appropriate adjustments if/as needed.
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He did say earlier in the season PP needed to be north of 20 percent. It finished 11.4 percent overall. It has been over 20 percent just once - 2012-13 season, when it was 20.4 percent overall. It has been close - 17, 18 percent - a couple of other times. Some other seasons it has been horrific - e.g. 7.1 percent (12/170) in '07-'08.

I think by any reasonable standard most of the team metrics suggest areas where "appropriate adjustments" are needed (and in some cases, have been needed for some time). It's those long term patterns that led me to ask what the expectations are and where the program is headed.
 
Re: RPI 2015 Off Season Thread: Another Long Spring and Summer :(

last I checked, competitive sports is the least nebulous activity going for differentiating who is better and what success looks like.

1) Win more than you lose
2) Be the first team to win 4 (or 6) games in the ECAC playoffs.
3) Be the first team to win 4 games in the NCAA playoffs.

All the other paradigms ("Play the engineer way" for example), sound nice, but what do they mean? Hockey is fantastic in that it's the ultimate team sport, that relies on achievement and execution, not style, not statistics, and there's no guaranteed recipe for winning except scoring more than the bad guys. When we get back to focus on executing simple hockey fundamentals and get off the "Engineer way" shtick, the team will be much better off. For my money, Appert has killed the "Engineer Way" in pursuit of it. This used to be a proud and relevant program, and while you really can't lose the pride, I'm struggling to see how it's relevant anymore. That part sucks.
 
Re: RPI 2015 Off Season Thread: Another Long Spring and Summer :(

ServinisScores said:
last I checked, competitive sports is the least nebulous activity going for differentiating who is better and what success looks like.

1) Win more than you lose
2) Be the first team to win 4 (or 6) games in the ECAC playoffs.
3) Be the first team to win 4 games in the NCAA playoffs.

All the other paradigms ("Play the engineer way" for example), sound nice, but what do they mean? Hockey is fantastic in that it's the ultimate team sport, that relies on achievement and execution, not style, not statistics, and there's no guaranteed recipe for winning except scoring more than the bad guys. When we get back to focus on executing simple hockey fundamentals and get off the "Engineer way" shtick, the team will be much better off. For my money, Appert has killed the "Engineer Way" in pursuit of it. This used to be a proud and relevant program, and while you really can't lose the pride, I'm struggling to see how it's relevant anymore. That part sucks.
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It sounds like you and I substantively agree. I was pointing out possible sub-goals that one needs to achieve in order to achieve larger goals: in order to score goals, you first need to shoot the puck, and then you need to shoot the puck on net. So if a goal is to score 4 goals per game, for example, you might need to take xx shots per game with yy% of those shots on net. That is something that can be measured.
 
Re: RPI 2015 Off Season Thread: Another Long Spring and Summer :(

FreshFish said:
It sounds like you and I substantively agree. I was pointing out possible sub-goals that one needs to achieve in order to achieve larger goals: in order to score goals, you first need to shoot the puck, and then you need to shoot the puck on net. So if a goal is to score 4 goals per game, for example, you might need to take xx shots per game with yy% of those shots on net. That is something that can be measured.
Click to expand...

No such thing as "sub-goals." Win more than you lose; make the playoffs; win a couple of playoff series; make the NCAA Tournament; win at least one NCAA tournament game. Those are the goals fans want to see established and reached. How you do it doesn't matter. They don't give points for style. it doesn't matter if you win 20 games 1-0 or 7-6. Just get this program off the mat, and back to being relevant again. Losing a couple of guys early last year and then getting hit so hard with injuries this season really set the program back. If they can stay relatively healthy next winter they should be a factor in the ECAC. If not, then everyone will be justified in saying, "we have a problem (in) Houston."
 
Re: RPI 2015 Off Season Thread: Another Long Spring and Summer :(

Jasma said:
No such thing as "sub-goals." Win more than you lose; make the playoffs; win a couple of playoff series; make the NCAA Tournament; win at least one NCAA tournament game. Those are the goals fans want to see established and reached. How you do it doesn't matter. They don't give points for style. it doesn't matter if you win 20 games 1-0 or 7-6. Just get this program off the mat, and back to being relevant again. Losing a couple of guys early last year and then getting hit so hard with injuries this season really set the program back. If they can stay relatively healthy next winter they should be a factor in the ECAC. If not, then everyone will be justified in saying, "we have a problem (in) Houston."
Click to expand...

John Kennedy, former captain, put it best: "They don't ask how, they ask how many." Nail on head.
 
Re: RPI 2015 Off Season Thread: Another Long Spring and Summer :(

Over New Years (2-3 January), we're headed to Oxford for a return weekend.
 
Re: RPI 2015 Off Season Thread: Another Long Spring and Summer :(

FreshFish said:
Perhaps they are "elusive" because they are so nebulous?

One essential criteria of any meaningful goal is a concrete, objective measure of what success looks like.

It might be something like "our power play will score xx% of the time" or "our penalty kill will stop the other team yy% of the time" or (hats off to DrD) "we will win zz% of the face-offs in our own zone." Then you can measure your progress relative to your goal and make appropriate adjustments if/as needed.
Click to expand...
Fish: i have been a big fundamentals guy forever. When we started slipping in the standings each year, that was what I kept talking ab out because my focus has always been that this is the ultimate team sport and you have to do certain things as a team well. i could list them all but truthfully we do very few of them well. We have great kids and they change every year and yet we have played the same hockey for years. I do not expect to get the Eichels of the world to RPI. But we have had enough talent to win and at least get to the final four of the ECAC several times and perhaps a couple of NCAA tournaments. But we have not. I am not asking for too much, at least I do not think so. But, fundamentals like winning face offs, making good line changes, keeping the puck in the offensive zone when you have a man advantage either with the power play or when pulling the goalie, taking the same number or less penalties than the opponents, etc. These are just mandatory and we have paid the price for not doing them. Very frustrating to be an RPI fan these days. I can imagine it might be also very frustrating to be an RPI player. Most of these kids could have gone to lots of other programs and played in the national spotlight that they are not getting in Troy. I echo you rthoughts completely and truly wonder where this program is headed.
 
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