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

[Ralph Baer]

We will be fine. Right now we’re in the crawl phase of crawl, walk, run…

How long is the crawl phase supposed to last?

 

[DrDemento]

Seems everyone posting saw pretty much what I saw so far. We are a bigger, faster, better team and coach Lang has them moving in the right direction. We have only played 3 games (2 that counted). But we have been able to see quite a few college games broadcast already this season. What i have seen is that there are many teams that have made even more progress (and in some cases, far more progress) from last year with aggressive recruitment, transfers and all the new rules governing who can now play on their rosters. BU is Bu - simply a prep team for the NHL with so many recruits it is like playing the junior Florida Panthers. But the Miami team we just saw for 2 games bears little resemblance to the Miami team from last year or, for that matter, the Miami teams of the last decade or two. They were more like what we saw 20 years ago contending for a national title. i suspect this will not be the case against every team we play, especially in the ECAC but i don't think we will know until we see them on the ice. Not sure if next week BC and Providence will be more like BU and Miami or not but I suspect they might be. In any case, I think we are going to be just fine in our own league and hope we can surprise as many folks as possible.

 

[jericho]

How long is the crawl phase supposed to last?

Lang said it might take a season.

 

[sezenack]

I don't think Miami looked as good as everyone thinks. They had one line that could score, and we had no answer for it. The rest of the team did practically nothing of note, and we consistently won those minutes. They've just played two bad teams so far in Ferris and us. Definitely some good flashes with this team, but it's not a good team. That's okay and expected in year 1. Just want to see continued growth from the team, which I believe we will get. BC and Providence will be brutal this weekend

 

[Wicked Slappaahs]

Hockey on Friday and both football and hockey on Saturday were all listed on the broadcast schedule per the WRPI website.

Reasonable guess is that the really old transmitter they use located in North Greenbush (some four miles away from campus) went on the fritz again. The thing has proven to be problematic in the past every now and then and may be rearing its' ugly head again.

This particular transmitter tower was built in 1954 next to the studio a few months after TV station WTEN first went on the air in October of 1953 (they used a temporary transmitter located elsewhere for those months). In 1966 WTEN moved to their present location in Albany and shortly thereafter arsonists burned the original studio building to the ground. Not long after the fire the station owners donated the still standing transmitter tower to WRPI Radio.

Point of the history lesson is that the tower donated to WRPI almost six decades ago most likely has some really old components that are just going to occasionally stop working without warning.

P.S. Not all that much research needed for the history as I was one of a bunch of barely into teen year neighborhood kids who jumped on our bikes and raced there to see the fire. It was a fire for the ages that took a really long time to knock down due to multiple fire departments being very limited on account of city water lines not yet being extended to the suburbs. All they had was a group of water carrying tankers that had to take turns speeding away to wherever they went to refill!!! We actually watched a lot a it from, I think?, a safe distance.

Are you sure you didn't race to "set" the fire...instead of "see" it....LOL Kidding

 

[Wicked Slappaahs]

I don't think Miami looked as good as everyone thinks. They had one line that could score, and we had no answer for it. The rest of the team did practically nothing of note, and we consistently won those minutes. They've just played two bad teams so far in Ferris and us. Definitely some good flashes with this team, but it's not a good team. That's okay and expected in year 1. Just want to see continued growth from the team, which I believe we will get. BC and Providence will be brutal this weekend

As Belicheck said long ago about one of his early season teams: "We won't know who we are until Halloween". Same goes for this RPI team. We'll know who they are come December or so. I have no expectations, so steady improvement as you mentioned would be a welcome change !

 

[Wicked Slappaahs]

Lang said it might take a season.

Completely agree.

 

[Ralph Baer]

Lang said it might take a season.

So things will be better when winter starts.

 

[DrDemento]

I don't think Miami looked as good as everyone thinks. They had one line that could score, and we had no answer for it. The rest of the team did practically nothing of note, and we consistently won those minutes. They've just played two bad teams so far in Ferris and us. Definitely some good flashes with this team, but it's not a good team. That's okay and expected in year 1. Just want to see continued growth from the team, which I believe we will get. BC and Providence will be brutal this weekend

Sez: Ferris may indeed be a bad team but for one night they were good enough to beat Western Michigan. And they did score 4 goals the second night in a losing effort. A bit early to make much of a statement about Miami but they have been at the bottom of the heap for almost as many years as we have but look very much different starting this season 4-0. I agree with your evaluation of our guys and expect to see us be much more of a problem to play against as the season progresses. I reserve judgement about us until we see a few ECAC contests. We are not QU, Cornell or Clarkson - but I am hopeful that we can hold our own against much of the rest of the league.

 

[tony/troy]

Are you sure you didn't race to "set" the fire...instead of "see" it....LOL Kidding

We're clean!!! The only time we ever set foot in the place was when a long time station kitty show host who lived in our neighborhood arranged a tour of the facility for the kids that lived nearby. We were probably the only kids in the entire Capital District viewing area who knew the guy's real name.

 

[RPI_9293]

I attended the Saturday night game. After reading everyone's comments - I feel like I watched a different game than the rest of you. I did think the team looked good in the first period. But after that, they slowly fell apart. I felt that 2 of the goals allowed were the result of poor fundamentals on our part - the first one (a couple of minutes into the game when our defense basically centered the puck for Miami with a sloppy pass) and the one that was scored as our power play expired. The forums' consensus seems to be that we don't have any stars but that we have a lot of depth. If this were an accurate assessment and i was coaching this team - i would focus on fundamentals. Cut out the sloppy play, hustle to the puck, be in shape so that you can compete in the 3rd period. I have to say - i just didn't see it. I hope you are all correct and that this team will be fine and improve as the season progresses, but I actually left the field house feeling pretty down - even from my pregame low expectations.

 

[rpi2004]

I think everyone is a little quick to make big declarations about everything that is immediately fixed / remains broken. They have 19 new players, a lot of which weren't their first choice of player given the portal timeline, and a lot of them are quite young. Year 1 we should be looking for systems that seem to work (historically Eric's have) as we possessed the puck well and generated chances this wknd, we should be looking for exciting young players that we can retain and become a first core of guys here for EL... so far Sobieski, Sitar, Buckley, Scherzer (hurt), VanDamme (a little older), Rullers & tapper could be the makings of that. Look for some recruiting wins ( so far gosselin looks great) and more to come... let's build out the pipeline... and finally a team that fights hard and plays for their coach. that will all translate as EL gets comfortable and the right fits for the team. Big picture, big picture...

 

[engineerhockeyfan]

JMO but the team came out ready to play in all the games the last two weekends. Unfortunately, they were play teams that were better than them and pressed them for the remainder of the games and they were back on their heels for the rest of the games.
This weekend should be more of the same, but maybe they can come up with an answer.
I too saw some good talented players and hopefully they will continue to grow as the season goes on.
We are just playing teams that are better than us right now.
I hope that it doesn't kill any confidence we may have had when the games started.

 

[Engineers]

I think everyone is a little quick to make big declarations about everything that is immediately fixed / remains broken. They have 19 new players, a lot of which weren't their first choice of player given the portal timeline, and a lot of them are quite young. Year 1 we should be looking for systems that seem to work (historically Eric's have) as we possessed the puck well and generated chances this wknd, we should be looking for exciting young players that we can retain and become a first core of guys here for EL... so far Sobieski, Sitar, Buckley, Scherzer (hurt), VanDamme (a little older), Rullers & tapper could be the makings of that. Look for some recruiting wins ( so far gosselin looks great) and more to come... let's build out the pipeline... and finally a team that fights hard and plays for their coach. that will all translate as EL gets comfortable and the right fits for the team. Big picture, big picture...

Well said!

 

[Engineers]

JMO but the team came out ready to play in all the games the last two weekends. Unfortunately, they were play teams that were better than them and pressed them for the remainder of the games and they were back on their heels for the rest of the games.
This weekend should be more of the same, but maybe they can come up with an answer.
I too saw some good talented players and hopefully they will continue to grow as the season goes on.
We are just playing teams that are better than us right now.
I hope that it doesn't kill any confidence we may have had when the games started.

Agreed! I thought Fridays game we really came out hard in the 1st period against Miami. 2nd period was not as good but we rebounded in the 3rd. You’re right I just think we’re playing teams with more high end skill. Miami is decent but the 1st line is really good. I came away from the weekend feeling good even with the losses. Our tenacity and forecheck are good. We will be fine.

 

[Wicked Slappaahs]

Sez: Ferris may indeed be a bad team but for one night they were good enough to beat Western Michigan. And they did score 4 goals the second night in a losing effort. A bit early to make much of a statement about Miami but they have been at the bottom of the heap for almost as many years as we have but look very much different starting this season 4-0. I agree with your evaluation of our guys and expect to see us be much more of a problem to play against as the season progresses. I reserve judgement about us until we see a few ECAC contests. We are not QU, Cornell or Clarkson - but I am hopeful that we can hold our own against much of the rest of the league.

Exactly right Doc. Too early to judging any teams at this point, especially this RPI team that is literally learning EVERYTHING together at the same time.... teammate names, systems the coachers are teaching, where their dorms are, where academic buildings are, where the Sage girls are, etc.. LOL

 

[DrDemento]

Exactly right Doc. Too early to judging any teams at this point, especially this RPI team that is literally learning EVERYTHING together at the same time.... teammate names, systems the coachers are teaching, where their dorms are, where academic buildings are, where the Sage girls are, etc.. LOL

In my case you should replace Sage with Skidmore. BC and Providence will present us with a lot of talent and highly rated teams and players. I do not see our boy shrinking away from that challenge. As some have mentioned, we have already seen that we have a few (perhaps even more than a few) fellows who are not afraid to go into the tough places or try to make the difficult play. It is disconcerting that Miami score the last 9 goals consecutively against us but at this stage the score does not mean nearly as much as what we are seeing as the play on the ice. We have been "out goaled" by a wide margin but not "out played" by as much as the scores indicate. i do not mind at all at this early stage of the season facing the likes of these teams with so many draft choices (some who already will most likely no longer be on these teams next season) but I would not like to have a steady diet of them for the entire season just yet. The games are entertaining and we are at least showing promise.

 

[jmhusker]

Still waaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyy too early to judge what this team is going to be this season. That said, it is not too early to draw some conclusions on their style of play and the coaching impact. Those two things look like real improvements to my eyes after seeing them at BU and watching most of the first Miami game. I have a slight concern with goaltending after watching Miami highlights but again, as others have said, that team has a couple of snipers. I'm eager to see how they do against BC, who are more or less a Boston Bruins farm club at the moment.

 

[Wicked Slappaahs]

Some brief notes from Lang's weekly spot on Wyland's radio show (Every Tuesday at 12:00).

Friday Night:
-Lot of good in how they played, took a bad penalty after the whistle that gave Miami life (PPG). Need to learn the hard lessons..

Saturday Night:
-Despite the score RPI had more Grade A&B chances, out shot them. Started freshman goalie -- good experience

Overall:
-Solid Effort. Odd man rushes have been an issue - need to clean that up. Take better care of the puck.

BC/PC
-"We're in the deep end of the pool" vs. two top programs.
- These games are experiences being used to gain readiness for league play vs. Union at the end of the month.

 

[RPI67]

Some brief notes from Lang's weekly spot on Wyland's radio show (Every Tuesday at 12:00).

Friday Night:
-Lot of good in how they played, took a bad penalty after the whistle that gave Miami life (PPG). Need to learn the hard lessons..

Saturday Night:
-Despite the score RPI had more Grade A&B chances, out shot them. Started freshman goalie -- good experience

Overall:
-Solid Effort. Odd man rushes have been an issue - need to clean that up. Take better care of the puck.

BC/PC
-"We're in the deep end of the pool" vs. two top programs.
- These games are experiences being used to gain readiness for league play vs. Union at the end of the month.

Bad after whistle penalty Friday - May be why #2 sat on Saturday - Good response