Yup- they did a lot of shooting from further out than they should have instead of finding the open girl and passing. They did have a few partial odd rushes forming but seemed more intent on the simple shot from outside the circle. You and HAB have it spot on, there is more individual talent this year but a lot of work to do to get them to play as cohesive units and show some chemistry on the ice together. let;s see what one more week of play produces.
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RPI Engineers '23-'24
- Thread starter hab
- Start date
Yup- they did a lot of shooting from further out than they should have instead of finding the open girl and passing. They did have a few partial odd rushes forming but seemed more intent on the simple shot from outside the circle. You and HAB have it spot on, there is more individual talent this year but a lot of work to do to get them to play as cohesive units and show some chemistry on the ice together. let;s see what one more week of play produces.
Went to Saturday’s game and watched Sunday’s on tv. What stood out for me is the team is a consistently better skating team than in the past, they lack players who can put the puck in the net, and the passing on the pp is far too slow to allow shots to get to the net (that is they give the defense far too much time to get in the shooting/passing lanes. All that being said, I thought they were fun to watch and I look forward to going to more games this season! Go Red!
I don't follow the team that closely, but is the only women's program I'll try to catch (and right now is the only real hockey going on!) so don't know each player, but from eye test so far, here is what I see from the forwards.
To start, to create a good scoring line, it usually consists of 1 shooter, 1 set-up/passer, 1 grinder/big body for rebounds and ideally one of the D who can move the puck and flash down as a 4th attacker when pressuring the net. For personal, so far, in terms of an "offensive - defenseman" only Alexander has shown that ability so far. She had a nice attack in the last game. Other D all seem to be "stay-at-home" defense and not showing enough aggression (or lack the skill/confidence) to jump down when putting pressure in the attack zone. Without that 4th attacker when there is pressure, it is very hard to score at any level (NHL included).
Next, in terms of forwards, my take so far from just seeing parts of the two games:
pure "shooters" - Kaiser, Papineau. Both have great shots and good speed. Have not shown the puck skills to set others up yet, especially on the power play.
pure "passers" - Jahnke, Christof. Both have show great puck skills and vision but seem too small/weak to finish.
pure "grinders" - Philip, Hildner, Taylor-Walters. All have great energy (and speed) but are not going to create.
Wagner is a shooter and passer, Beaudoin is a grinder and passer, Skoda is a shooter and grinder. I'm sure I missed quite a few and may be wrong but you would hope that there are 4 combinations of "shooter, passer, grinder" that can be iced to create some pressure, and another D or two steps up to show some offensive instinct. Also, the power play is just as bad as last year with the units seeming to go through the motions of moving the puck to the point but no one creating a quality scoring chance outside of long distance shots and looking for some puck luck on a tip or rebound.
To start, to create a good scoring line, it usually consists of 1 shooter, 1 set-up/passer, 1 grinder/big body for rebounds and ideally one of the D who can move the puck and flash down as a 4th attacker when pressuring the net. For personal, so far, in terms of an "offensive - defenseman" only Alexander has shown that ability so far. She had a nice attack in the last game. Other D all seem to be "stay-at-home" defense and not showing enough aggression (or lack the skill/confidence) to jump down when putting pressure in the attack zone. Without that 4th attacker when there is pressure, it is very hard to score at any level (NHL included).
Next, in terms of forwards, my take so far from just seeing parts of the two games:
pure "shooters" - Kaiser, Papineau. Both have great shots and good speed. Have not shown the puck skills to set others up yet, especially on the power play.
pure "passers" - Jahnke, Christof. Both have show great puck skills and vision but seem too small/weak to finish.
pure "grinders" - Philip, Hildner, Taylor-Walters. All have great energy (and speed) but are not going to create.
Wagner is a shooter and passer, Beaudoin is a grinder and passer, Skoda is a shooter and grinder. I'm sure I missed quite a few and may be wrong but you would hope that there are 4 combinations of "shooter, passer, grinder" that can be iced to create some pressure, and another D or two steps up to show some offensive instinct. Also, the power play is just as bad as last year with the units seeming to go through the motions of moving the puck to the point but no one creating a quality scoring chance outside of long distance shots and looking for some puck luck on a tip or rebound.
Cornholio-Nice post with some very interesting thoughts. Also add that a couple of ladies have not seen much if any ice time as yet and might show something in your want list. The power play is abysmal and needs emergency surgery. There are teams that make their living off special teams and others where it just never seems to work. I usually feel that is coaching and practice related and honestly think we have the talent to produce far better results that we have seen in the two games thus far or most of the games last year. I hope to be able to see some of next weeks games to get a better idea about this.
One other point about this past weekend. RIT just might have been a bit more under rated than they deserved. i saw the games last year and this year's version seemed to have a lot more going for them.
One other point about this past weekend. RIT just might have been a bit more under rated than they deserved. i saw the games last year and this year's version seemed to have a lot more going for them.
Didn't see but looking at the boxscore the powerplay finally scored (twice). Scoring looks to be very balanced when it comes. Something good must be happening in the D zone as every game has been 1 goal or less. Have not lost yet. Only 6 games in and maybe not top competition but that is consistent. Expect the same vrs Cuse and then we get to see what the team is made of in ECAC play.
As the Engineers start their ECAC conference schedule tomorrow, what can we reasonably expect from the team this year? The Coaches poll has them finishing tenth, but that poll usually just reflects the previous year's standings, it seems, so I usually ignore it. More concerning, USCHO columnist Nicole Haase picks RPI to finish dead last 
.
Here are a few positives and negatives:
Positive:
.Here are a few positives and negatives:
Positive:
- much of the strength of last year's roster is returning, some as grad students, including MVP Rampado. Hard to see how the team could be weaker than last year
- team will be tough defensively again. Tons of blocked shots in pre-conference play; 1.1 GAA while giving two of the back-up goalies full games (including shutout by Keating).
- Looks like rookies will add some (sorely needed) punch to the offence. Points in first 8 games: Trnkova 5; Skoda 3; Bailey 3; Hardy 2; Cioffi 2; Rathwell 1.
- Record going into conference play is 4-1-3.
- that 4-1-3 record comes from a pretty weak schedule which may not be great prep for the rough and tumble of ECAC
- Where is Erbanova? Injury?
Difficult to predict how this team will perform until we see some ECAC games. i certainly do not expect them to be a top 6 team in the league but anything below that is possible. I think they have as much talent as they have ever had and the freshmen that HAB listed are all high quality players. It will be tough for any team to deal with them. I saw virtually all the games so far and this team plays best when they are physical. Even taking those few body checking penalties helps their effectiveness. I had a coach when i was quite young who always felt you have to hit them enough so you let them know you are there! The 8 games may not have been against the toughest opponents but they only lost one and that was with several of the first line players sitting out.
Just my opinion but this team will go as far as the coaching gets them. Coach Vines has got to make the right moves, play the right girls, match up lines and defensive pairings that work and get the ladies to play their way. They have speed and size and seem unafraid to make the necessary contact and sacrifice themselves to make play. The fundamentals seem to be there. They have played well with special teams and they win face offs. I do have a concern that the coach seems to rely on his first line for too many minutes in the early parts of games which does seem to limit their effectiveness later when he shortens the bench. Hopefully with all the new girls and some extra depth he can keep rolling lines longer into games. We could learn quite a bit this weekend with 2 road games against that we might play well enough against to show we are not going to be the doormat of the league. Go Red!!
Just my opinion but this team will go as far as the coaching gets them. Coach Vines has got to make the right moves, play the right girls, match up lines and defensive pairings that work and get the ladies to play their way. They have speed and size and seem unafraid to make the necessary contact and sacrifice themselves to make play. The fundamentals seem to be there. They have played well with special teams and they win face offs. I do have a concern that the coach seems to rely on his first line for too many minutes in the early parts of games which does seem to limit their effectiveness later when he shortens the bench. Hopefully with all the new girls and some extra depth he can keep rolling lines longer into games. We could learn quite a bit this weekend with 2 road games against that we might play well enough against to show we are not going to be the doormat of the league. Go Red!!
Apparently, Erbenova is still out with the injury sustained during warm up before a game last January. Hope we see her back soon.
very nice comeback win for the Engineers tonight vs. Dartmouth.[/QUOTE]
And fun to watch most of it. those high numbers on the ice, 91 and 89 are going to make a big difference this year and in the future. I saw the first period and although they fell down 3-0 it never felt that they were being out played badly and you just had the feeling they could get a couple goals back. Now, on to Harvard and an attempt for an ECAC sweep on the road which is just not been a common occurrence for us.
Played two teams with totally different styes but games went almost in an identical fashion. Fall behind, never stop, come back and win. It is just too early to tell how this will play out for the rest of League play coming up but so far this is a fun team to watch and we have some young ladies who could make this program very competitive with all those power house schools in the ECAC.
I have watched this team a LOT over the years, and I think I already know what this year's team is made of: some good hockey talent, good coaching, and most important of all....they seem to enjoy playing with and for each other. There is a clear divide in the ECAC (one of two dominant conferences, unlike in the men's game): there are 7 ECAC teams that comprise half of the top 14 in the country, and then there are the other five. The bottom five in the ECAC have all improved (Harvard the exception) and on any given night can compete with the top seven....but there is still a divide and at the end of the year I would be surprised if any of the five break through into the top seven. But if any of them have a chance to do that, I would put my money on RPI. But you are right, the coming weekend will be a test: has RPI improved to such an extent that they can challenge the top seven?
That is of course the important point- the quality of the competition. But we have to note something. This team has shown that they can come back from adversity. They were down 3 goals in the first 20+ minutes of both games this past weekend and found ways to get back in the game and eventually prevail. That shows something i wish would see from the boys' team - character. Could it be the coaching staff? Maybe but that has not changed all that much. The last 2 recruit classes are adding a dimension we have not had in some time. They have added depth so that the top line does not have to play most of the first 40 minutes only to show some fatigue late in games. They have added some tough consistent defense. And, although this is women's hockey and supposedly non contact, they have shown that they can dish out the physical play against just about anyone. I agree with everything said. We have not cracked the top 7 in the ECAC (yet) but we just might be knocking on the door. On an every day basis could not compete evenly with the top echelon like Colgate and Cornell etc. But on any given day, we could surprise anyone. I am hoping that next weekend will conists of 2 of those any given days. And if not, well, at least they are a whole lot of fun to watch.