RPI 2023-24: In Our 200th Year, We're Getting It Right

[Ralph Baer]

Was looking at the stats according to USCHO. And some of the numbers are downright appalling:
Out of 64 teams…
Team Offense 35th (middle of the pack)
Team Defense T-62nd (with Army)
Power Play percentage 64th (dead last)
Penalty Kill percentage 57th (and dropping)
Goaltending- Cherepak 71st, Watson 80th (out of 81)

How this team managed to win 2 games is astounding.
Or as Charlie Brown once said to Lucy, tell your statistics to shut up…

But Army is part of the Department of Defense. ;-)

More seriously, I wonder if Cherepak has become number one. He played well in both games.

 

[DavidNardolillo]

More seriously, I wonder if Cherepak has become number one. He played well in both games.

In the Times Union article I posted last week, Coach Smith indicated he was not satisfied with the goaltending. And with Watson out for an indefinite period (at least as of last week), it's Cherepak's job.

“I would like our goaltending to be better so there is competition there” Smith said. “It is more than wins and losses. Right now, not real relevant but Watson is injured, still to be determined how long. Right now, it is Cherepak and (Brett) Miller. I don’t know when he got hurt but he told me after the game something wasn’t right.”

 

[Engineers]

I agree...but I hope he's not in any hurry to jump to the NHL. That's a meat grinder world ...as Woodcroft just found out. Seth has done a great job and clearly has the support of the Sabres brass. It's worth noting that they've stacked a lot of young talent in Rochester with Seth's assignment being development....but he's won a ton of games while doing so. Losing his AC Michael Peca to the Rangers is a blow ....I was surprised BUF didn't elevate him to the Sabres as an AC...which may have been why he departed for greener pastures.

Yeah it’s a meat grinder 4sure. He might just stay in Rochester and develop young talent for them.
Seth is well liked inside sabres brass. He’s developed some really good players for sabres. He’s done his job well! Amazing what happens when you have full support.

 

[Engineers]

Seth brought in some top players. However, his win-loss record didn't reflect that, and the successful seasons during that time came when he had a goaltender that wound up logging NHL minutes (York, Kasdorf). Historical debates on this board show that reasonable people can disagree what conclusions may be drawn about him and RPI at that time.

I am glad Seth is enjoying success on the pro level; always a good guy, I think he's grown as a coach.

Seth is a good guy. He’s grown as a coach being in good organization getting full support. Good for him!

 

[Engineers]

Was looking at the stats according to USCHO. And some of the numbers are downright appalling:
Out of 64 teams…
Team Offense 35th (middle of the pack)
Team Defense T-62nd (with Army)
Power Play percentage 64th (dead last)
Penalty Kill percentage 57th (and dropping)
Goaltending- Cherepak 71st, Watson 80th (out of 81)

How this team managed to win 2 games is astounding.
Or as Charlie Brown once said to Lucy, tell your statistics to shut up…

Jesus Christ that’s ridiculous. All this with a veteran team. We’ll get your tin foil hats on boys we’re in for a wild ride i guess.

 

[DrDemento]

For those who follow the football team. Apparently the season is not quite over as we will be hosting Widener this Saturday in Troy in a post season Bowl game. Glad to see as our boys deserve one more game to try to obtain one more victory this season after finishing up with two losses. I have no information about Widener except that they were also a 7-3 team and we have had no common opponents this year.

 

[tony/troy]

For those who follow the football team. Apparently the season is not quite over as we will be hosting Widener this Saturday in Troy in a post season Bowl game. Glad to see as our boys deserve one more game to try to obtain one more victory this season after finishing up with two losses. I have no information about Widener except that they were also a 7-3 team and we have had no common opponents this year.

Weirdest damned pairings (Brockport at Carnegie Mellon, Utica at Hobart, Merchant Marine at Washington and Jefferson and Widener at RPI) I have ever seen at least on what appear to be sensible "seedings" based on won lost records with ties broken by strength of schedule. It appears the committee simply paired "seeds" one and two, then three and four, then five and six, then seven (RPI) and eight against each other with the lower "seed" always traveling. Looks like they punished the higher achievers with a tougher game and rewarded lower achievers with easier games. What sense does that make???

Were these weird pairings done to save money?? Nope!!! The way they did it results in 1,040 miles traveled lasting a total of 16 hours (longest trip 6:20) requiring three overnight of hotels and meals for a traveling party of 70 or so.

Instead, pairing Brockport at Carnegie Mellon (same), Washington and Jefferson at Hobart (or vice versa), Widener at Merchant Marine (or vice versa) and RPI AT Utica (or vice versa) would have only resulted in 860 miles traveled lasting a total of 13 hours (longest trip 5:00) requiring only two overnight of hotels and meals for a traveling party of 70 or so.

Point is if any of these guys on this committee are in the financial planning and advising business, absolutely do not hire them to handle your money!!!

Other than that point I have no reason to complain as I get another game just 4 miles from my home. Needless to say, I saw no logical way that could ever happen.

As for the game itself, we get an opponent from a much lower ranked conference (13th while the Liberty League is 6th out of 28). Personnel wise they only average 2.9 per carry on the ground against our good but not great against good teams run defense that allows 3.3 per carry. Passing wise, their all year starter only completes under 52% of his passes in a lesser league while RPI's learning on the job freshman QB is just under 60% in the Liberty League.

While games are played by people on fields and not on paper or computers, this does appear to be a made to order opponent that a win should be expected against assuming the home team is motivated for what is generally considered a secondary bowl.

 

[Waite21]

For those who follow the football team. Apparently the season is not quite over as we will be hosting Widener this Saturday in Troy in a post season Bowl game. Glad to see as our boys deserve one more game to try to obtain one more victory this season after finishing up with two losses. I have no information about Widener except that they were also a 7-3 team and we have had no common opponents this year.

For those who remember Billy "White Shoes" Johnson, Widener is his alma mater. The school was known as Pennsylvania Military College when he started out in the early '70's, but changed its name to Widener while he was there. They were a football powerhouse in those days, but haven't been as successful in recent years.

As long as I'm talking about football from 50 years ago or so, I'll comment that watching the live stream Saturday was the first time I'd seen a game at Union College since my student days. Back then, Union's field was called Alexander Field. They had bleachers on both sides of the field, but the front row of the bleachers on the visitors' side was only about two yards from the sideline. I don't think anybody ran a play toward that sideline all game long. Perhaps they had a gentleman's agreement to prevent anyone pushed out of bounds from crashing into the bleachers.

Apparently Union has addressed that problem. Now they have no bleachers at all on the visitors' side. Fans on that side stand on a ridge behind yellow police tape.

 

[engineerhockeyfan]

With all our complaining, mine included, we are 2-2 in the ECAC and so far as the standings go are in the middle of the pack. Wonder where we might be if our special teams and team defense was playing even partially well? We have a couple weeks now to figure some of this out. The numbers posted by RPI Fan for Life are simply appalling and have probably never been worse since perhaps 1965 yet we are a .500 ECAC team that just had a chance at a North Country trip sweep. This may be my first bit of optimism this season but I am trying to look for anything positive at this stage. or perhaps I am just desperately trying to get in the holiday spirit?

Doc, I think that you are looking at this through cherry colored glasses. Don't feel bad, I have done just that for the last thirty years.
We will get better when the players get serious about defense. I have never seen a team with no defensive minded players like this one.
We have no one we can rely on in our defensive zone, and we have no one we can put out there on the penalty kill that actually kills penalties.
I hope we can make the adjustment before the new year and maybe then we will be able to compete with the top half of the league.

 

[Wicked Slappaahs]

In the Times Union article I posted last week, Coach Smith indicated he was not satisfied with the goaltending. And with Watson out for an indefinite period (at least as of last week), it's Cherepak's job.

I honestly wouldn't know how to properly access our goaltending....there were large chunks of the SLU game especially where there was simply NO team defense....much like the Union series, there were several opponents in front of our net with nary a sign of a cherry colored helmet. That needs to change ASAP or it won't matter if there's pillowcases in net for RPI.

On another note, Muzzatti is often the biggest player on the ice, but he does not skate like he is, at least not last weekend. He had several opportunities to take pucks down the middle of the ice entering the zone, but chose to throttle back and swing wide. If he starts playing with an edge with a stronger north-south game he WILL a) draw more penalties and b) bury more pucks......just my opinion.

 

[DavidNardolillo]

I honestly wouldn't know how to properly access our goaltending....there were large chunks of the SLU game especially where there was simply NO team defense....much like the Union series, there were several opponents in front of our net with nary a sign of a cherry colored helmet. That needs to change ASAP or it won't matter if there's pillowcases in net for RPI.

I could not watch much this weekend due to personal obligations, but I think you are right that poor team defense has been a component and the goalies have been hung out to dry for the majority of the goals. The TU article didn't probe the details of the goaltending deficiency, but I think Coach Smith might have been reacting to some goals conceded in prior weeks from above the top of the faceoff circle where the goaltender had a clear view of the shooter.

Your observation about Muzzatti is an interesting one. Hopefully the coaching staff is diagnosing that and encouraging him to be more assertive. The team needs a spark to up the intensity level. The north-south play you describe might be that catalyst.

 

[DrDemento]

I could not watch much this weekend due to personal obligations, but I think you are right that poor team defense has been a component and the goalies have been hung out to dry for the majority of the goals. The TU article didn't probe the details of the goaltending deficiency, but I think Coach Smith might have been reacting to some goals conceded in prior weeks from above the top of the faceoff circle where the goaltender had a clear view of the shooter.

Your observation about Muzzatti is an interesting one. Hopefully the coaching staff is diagnosing that and encouraging him to be more assertive. The team needs a spark to up the intensity level. The north-south play you describe might be that catalyst.

DN: it must be hard for him to become too assertive as it appears he is smitten with the Luke Curadi problem. Any time someone runs into him or you hear a loud noise near the boards, the ref puts his arm up and calls him for a penalty. it is certainly not his fault he is 6'6" and his shoulders are head high against many opponents. But I have seen him shaking his head after some calls when he has barely touch someone or had them run into him and he gets 2 or even 5 in the box. I do agree, however, that he has to use that size advantage a bit better than we have seen so far this season.

 

[DrDemento]

Doc, I think that you are looking at this through cherry colored glasses. Don't feel bad, I have done just that for the last thirty years.
We will get better when the players get serious about defense. I have never seen a team with no defensive minded players like this one.
We have no one we can rely on in our defensive zone, and we have no one we can put out there on the penalty kill that actually kills penalties.
I hope we can make the adjustment before the new year and maybe then we will be able to compete with the top half of the league.

Have always felt that hockey is truly a team sport and perhaps the part of the game that shows it best (or worst in our case) is defense. Sometimes one offensive player can have a huge impact in scoring but it takes more than one defense man to be able to protect against an opponent. As you mention, it takes team defense and has to include all the pairings of defense and some good defensive work from forwards coming back to cover. We are failing miserable in that regard. I don't think we can fault any single player or pair of players. It is all 5 players on the ice at any given time. I had said before the season even started that we will go only as far as our special teams and defense will allow and as of now, I am amazed that we even have been able to win the 2 league games that we did. Obviously I cannot offer any sort of solution and can only hope our coaching staff can.

 

[sezenack]

DN: it must be hard for him to become too assertive as it appears he is smitten with the Luke Curadi problem. Any time someone runs into him or you hear a loud noise near the boards, the ref puts his arm up and calls him for a penalty. it is certainly not his fault he is 6'6" and his shoulders are head high against many opponents. But I have seen him shaking his head after some calls when he has barely touch someone or had them run into him and he gets 2 or even 5 in the box. I do agree, however, that he has to use that size advantage a bit better than we have seen so far this season.

You're totally right. Addamo had the same problem 2 seasons ago

 

[sezenack]

Good interview on 1045 today. Actual substance. Coach Smith called the special teams and power play specifically "atrocious". He seemed happy that they split on the road but wanted to get the sweep. He also mentioned Watson will be out for an extended period of time and will be relying on Cherepak a lot while he's out. They talked about some specific players like Tinling and Muzzatti. He thinks Tinling has played well but been snakebit. He thinks Muzzatti keeps playing better and better

 

[DavidNardolillo]

DN: it must be hard for him to become too assertive as it appears he is smitten with the Luke Curadi problem. Any time someone runs into him or you hear a loud noise near the boards, the ref puts his arm up and calls him for a penalty. it is certainly not his fault he is 6'6" and his shoulders are head high against many opponents. But I have seen him shaking his head after some calls when he has barely touch someone or had them run into him and he gets 2 or even 5 in the box. I do agree, however, that he has to use that size advantage a bit better than we have seen so far this season.

That's a great point, but maybe he'll get the benefit of the doubt from the referees when he does it carrying the puck!

 

[Ralph Baer]

That's a great point, but maybe he'll get the benefit of the doubt from the referees when he does it carrying the puck!

We almost never get the benefit of the doubt from the refs.

 

[rpi82]

DN: it must be hard for him to become too assertive as it appears he is smitten with the Luke Curadi problem. Any time someone runs into him or you hear a loud noise near the boards, the ref puts his arm up and calls him for a penalty. it is certainly not his fault he is 6'6" and his shoulders are head high against many opponents. But I have seen him shaking his head after some calls when he has barely touch someone or had them run into him and he gets 2 or even 5 in the box. I do agree, however, that he has to use that size advantage a bit better than we have seen so far this season.

I agree, but he also has to recognize the issue and be smart about it. He picked up a boarding call in the SLU game that I thought was ridiculous. He gave a nudge (the kind of mini-crosscheck or shove to the back that you see dozens of times in any game without penalty) to a guy about 3 feet from the boards near the blue line and I thought the response was a bit over-dramatic but the ref bought it. However, it was also completely unnecessary. The puck had been dumped behind the net and that SLU player was not a threat. Muzzati is just going to have to adjust or he's going to draw that call repeatedly throughout the year.

 

[DavidNardolillo]

Good interview on 1045 today. Actual substance. Coach Smith called the special teams and power play specifically "atrocious". He seemed happy that they split on the road but wanted to get the sweep. He also mentioned Watson will be out for an extended period of time and will be relying on Cherepak a lot while he's out. They talked about some specific players like Tinling and Muzzatti. He thinks Tinling has played well but been snakebit. He thinks Muzzatti keeps playing better and better

Does the station post recordings anymore? I usually can't listen to the radio live at work.

 

[DrDemento]

We almost never get the benefit of the doubt from the refs.

And i thought I was the only one who felt that way!