RPI Hockey 2012-2013 Part 1: Pocket Protectors and Hockey Sticks

[REDaero91]

Re: RPI Hockey 2012-2013 Part 1: Pocket Protectors and Hockey Sticks

Is he a recruit I do not know about? Thought RB had them all covered.

No, sorry-he's the son of Jim Knowlton, RPI's Athletic Director, and plays for Denver.

 

[vizoroo]

Re: RPI Hockey 2012-2013 Part 1: Pocket Protectors and Hockey Sticks

Thanks. In Appert's interview he said it was a clean hit on a player in a vulnerable position, with the size differential compounding things.

BTW, Chris Knowlton had a hat trick(and an additional assist) tonight for DU. Some good news for the RPI Athletics family.

No doubt a proud Dad/AD at RPI.

http://www.denverpost.com/colleges/ci_21924585/du-pioneers-rip-st-cloud-state-6-1
http://www.denverpioneers.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=18600&ATCLID=205724833

 

[Ralph Baer]

Re: RPI Hockey 2012-2013 Part 1: Pocket Protectors and Hockey Sticks

No doubt a proud Dad/AD at RPI.

http://www.denverpost.com/colleges/ci_21924585/du-pioneers-rip-st-cloud-state-6-1
http://www.denverpioneers.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=18600&ATCLID=205724833

iIRC, Chris Knowton is a recruited walk-on at Denver.

 

[Ralph Baer]

Re: RPI Hockey 2012-2013 Part 1: Pocket Protectors and Hockey Sticks

Something is wrong about this team. I don't want to lay blame at anyone or anything specific because I am do not have the background in athletics, but there is too much talent on this team overall to lose 7-3 to anyone. There are good signs, like the performance of 9/15/39 all season, but other things seem to fall apart. That doesn't seem to happen to other teams on as consistent a basis. I was also happy to see Bubela score his first goal and Kasdorf playing 20 minutes of shutout hockey, but we lost it completely during the three minutes of the major where we had to play shorthanded.

 

[sk8tronthepond]

Re: RPI Hockey 2012-2013 Part 1: Pocket Protectors and Hockey Sticks

There are good signs, like the performance of 9/15/39 all season, but other things seem to fall apart. That doesn't seem to happen to other teams on as consistent a basis. I was also happy to see Bubela score his first goal and Kasdorf playing 20 minutes of shutout hockey, but we lost it completely during the three minutes of the major where we had to play shorthanded.

I agree with you Ralph. Plus the fact that in the last two games, they won the third period 1-0. However, I did not understand SA's comments after the first game about the team's lack of maturity. I could be wrong but by my math, the average age of RPI lineup from Friday's game was 21, and the average age of the Union lineup was 20!

 

[GRussinko]

Re: RPI Hockey 2012-2013 Part 1: Pocket Protectors and Hockey Sticks

There were several faults in RPI's game this weekend that Union exploited mercilessly.

First, Union appeared omniscient when it comes to recognizing when we had a defensive gap close to the net and got in tight for a rebound every time. It led to several identical goals and many, many more scoring opportunities over the course of the weekend. The defense has to be more aware of what's going on close to the net and by extension, keep the front of the crease clear. If you're going to let Union's scorers sit five feet out into the slot and collect rebounds all night (of which there are many as a function of how our goaltenders have been playing), you're going to get scored on repeatedly and there's not much a goalie can do to stop a 5' tap-in from the opposite side of the net than the initial shot he just saved. This is a little more understandable when shorthanded but it was allowed to happen way too much 5-on-5 to be tolerated.

On the other end of the ice, RPI's defensemen need to be more offensively aware of what they're doing with the puck. Bailen was culprit #1 but it wasn't limited to him - the defense put more than a few ill-conceived dumps toward the Union net directly into the Union players covering them, which in turn led to breakout/breakaway chances. Given that just about every player on Union's squad can outskate our defense unless we have a solid head start, this is not a recipe for success and led to a couple breakaway goals.

Merriam was hung out to dry last night. While I'd love to see Kasdorf start a game and see what he can do, last night's game was a failure on the entire team, not just Merriam. Your goalie is only going to stop so many breakaways and point-blank tap-ins - did Merriam look off his game? Yes - but he got zero help from the rest of the team. By the time Kasdorf came in for the third period, Union was playing keep away in the neutral zone and he was not seriously tested. On that note, it was pretty depressing to watch Union play keep away in the third, knowing that we weren't a threat and they didn't need to keep trying. One shot on goal for RPI between Union's 2nd and 3rd string goalies in the final 10 minutes, which included a late RPI power play.

This team has to get its head on straight and it needs its captain to not take 27 minutes of penalties over two games against its chief rival. It was like we literally watched the team implode this weekend and there are few teams out there better at capitalizing on such a thing than Union.

I didn't see Curadi's hit, just the huge scrum that resulted, but both Appert and Bennett commented after the game that it wasn't dirty and was a case of big guy vs. little guy with his head down. I don't expect the league to do anything about the automatic suspension that now seems like it was an overreaction by the officials so it looks like we'll be seeing Bokenfohr or Hampton on Friday night. I do expect we'll continue seeing calls like this as once the officials notice a pattern of penalties it tends to become a self-fulfilling prophecy (see Eric Burgdoerfer). And a side note to the league, get linesman Brown some training on how to get out of the way of the game. Must have been no fewer than a dozen times last night that he either deflected the puck or got tied up in the middle of a rush along the boards because he wasn't able to see where the play was going and get out of the way. One was a dump down the boards that deflected off his skate up into the air from the blue line and ended up on goal requiring Kasdorf to make a save.

 

[Ralph Baer]

Re: RPI Hockey 2012-2013 Part 1: Pocket Protectors and Hockey Sticks

I agree with you Ralph. Plus the fact that in the last two games, they won the third period 1-0. However, I did not understand SA's comments after the first game about the team's lack of maturity. I could be wrong but by my math, the average age of RPI lineup from Friday's game was 21, and the average age of the Union lineup was 20!

I will say that maturity doesn't always go hand in hand with chronological age, but averaged over about 20 players it should. I don't know any of the players personally, but reading some of their Twitter accounts and hearing some of them interviewed, I don't think immaturity is a major cause of concern.

 

[GRussinko]

Re: RPI Hockey 2012-2013 Part 1: Pocket Protectors and Hockey Sticks

I agree with you Ralph. Plus the fact that in the last two games, they won the third period 1-0. However, I did not understand SA's comments after the first game about the team's lack of maturity. I could be wrong but by my math, the average age of RPI lineup from Friday's game was 21, and the average age of the Union lineup was 20!

Age and maturity do not necessarily go hand in hand.

 

[rsfs04]

Re: RPI Hockey 2012-2013 Part 1: Pocket Protectors and Hockey Sticks

An interesting observation I've noticed this weekend is our power play. These are the first games I've been able to watch this year, but its been going on from the get go looking back at the plus/minus in the box scores. We play 4 forwards and 1 defenseman on the advantage. Neal tends to take a place at the point. This directly led to the SH goal for Union yesterday, as Neal was out of position allowing for an odd man break. This worries me as an obvious sign of the inability of the defense to move the puck minus Bailen. Besides Bailen, defense has a total of three points this year. Has this happened in years past (this is only my second year watching) or is this new for this year (The 4F/1D PP)?

 

[Beman]

Re: RPI Hockey 2012-2013 Part 1: Pocket Protectors and Hockey Sticks

Frustrating, at he end of last year I thought SA had this ship turning in the right direction. Now I am not so sure. Ugh cant believe I am saying this but I hope Union is that good 7 goals.
Seth complains he has a young team. Own it you are doing the recruiting.

 

[DrDemento]

Re: RPI Hockey 2012-2013 Part 1: Pocket Protectors and Hockey Sticks

Just checking back in-we had no power until this late last night and no cable or internet of any kind until about 2 hours ago. Not sure if either will remain on. Jenny and i are fine. We burned about 3 cords of wood in the fireplace for warmth and pioneer Jen cooked in the fireplace (to tell the truth the food was phenomenal that way). We were totally prepared for the storm and were fortunate to not get flooded (we moved all the cars a day before to higher ground). The water did come to within 20 feet of the house. Honestly, do not understand the long outages since the highest gust we measure was about 65mph and only about 3 inches of rain but this area was totally out and only 1/2 recovered. Biggest problem is gasoline. There just plain isnt any and if you wait on line for 4 hours you burn up more than the 5 gallons they will let you have. We would have packed up the cats and gone to the Adirondacks but they do not travel well, we were not sure if we could get enough gas to get back, and the alarm system battery back up here quit after about 12 hours.

On a worse note-two hockey friends saw both the Union games and reported back to us. Thoroughly disgusted with results. Not seeing them myself i have no clue where to lay the blame but I must say that it certainly is not the talent level. Laliberte, Neal, Haggerty, Kasdorf, Bailen, Curadi, Leonard, Bubela, and several others could play for any NCAA team in the country. Union is a very good team-but they are not an 11-5 goals better team than us in two games. Once again special teams determined these games. Union had 4 PP and one SH Saturday. You cannot ever give up 5 special teams goals in a game just like you cannot lose 2 consecutive 2 goal third period leads as we did before. I am not smart enough to know the answers but i sure see what problems exist. Jen and i are RPI fans forever. Hopefully someone has some answers since we both believe this team has just too much talent to get beaten this way. Go Red!! and it sure is great to be back here with all you guys.(Not sure for how long as there is a noreaster predicted this week

 

[REDaero91]

Re: RPI Hockey 2012-2013 Part 1: Pocket Protectors and Hockey Sticks

Just checking back in-we had no power until this late last night and no cable or internet of any kind until about 2 hours ago. Not sure if either will remain on. Jenny and i are fine. We burned about 3 cords of wood in the fireplace for warmth and pioneer Jen cooked in the fireplace (to tell the truth the food was phenomenal that way). We were totally prepared for the storm and were fortunate to not get flooded (we moved all the cars a day before to higher ground). The water did come to within 20 feet of the house. Honestly, do not understand the long outages since the highest gust we measure was about 65mph and only about 3 inches of rain but this area was totally out and only 1/2 recovered. Biggest problem is gasoline. There just plain isnt any and if you wait on line for 4 hours you burn up more than the 5 gallons they will let you have. We would have packed up the cats and gone to the Adirondacks but they do not travel well, we were not sure if we could get enough gas to get back, and the alarm system battery back up here quit after about 12 hours.

On a worse note-two hockey friends saw both the Union games and reported back to us. Thoroughly disgusted with results. Not seeing them myself i have no clue where to lay the blame but I must say that it certainly is not the talent level. Laliberte, Neal, Haggerty, Kasdorf, Bailen, Curadi, Leonard, Bubela, and several others could play for any NCAA team in the country. Union is a very good team-but they are not an 11-5 goals better team than us in two games. Once again special teams determined these games. Union had 4 PP and one SH Saturday. You cannot ever give up 5 special teams goals in a game just like you cannot lose 2 consecutive 2 goal third period leads as we did before. I am not smart enough to know the answers but i sure see what problems exist. Jen and i are RPI fans forever. Hopefully someone has some answers since we both believe this team has just too much talent to get beaten this way. Go Red!! and it sure is great to be back here with all you guys.(Not sure for how long as there is a noreaster predicted this week

Glad you're back and everything's okay!

Union just seems to get in our heads. However, before Curadi's major and our implosion yesterday I did notice that it was mainly Union starting stuff after the whistle, and we were doing a better job than on Friday of not retaliating. After their first breakaway goal Saturday, we seemed to panic whenever one of their players had a bit too much time and space, and just leave him up to the goalie. Their fourth or fifth (ouch) goal deflected in off Merriam's arm-he got a piece but not enough. I think we need better communication between the skaters and the goalie-regardless of who was in net yesterday there were too many times where no one knew who was going to play the puck and no one seemed to want to touch it, so Union would take it and the goalie would have to scramble to make a save.

Our powerplay strategy seems a bit different this year. I think the 4 forwards-1 d is fairly typical, though I haven't been watching RPI long enough either to tell definitively. We seem to be trying to cycle more to start the powerplay, however we still inevitably fall back into guys picking their spots and trying to find the perfect shot. We need to keep the puck moving, keep the other team from being able to set up an effective kill. Also, if I've picked up on how we're running the PP (and I noticed the trend after maybe the second Ferris State game) other teams probably will as well-need to keep it sharp.

 

[engineerhockeyfan]

Re: RPI Hockey 2012-2013 Part 1: Pocket Protectors and Hockey Sticks

Just checking back in-we had no power until this late last night and no cable or internet of any kind until about 2 hours ago. Not sure if either will remain on. Jenny and i are fine. We burned about 3 cords of wood in the fireplace for warmth and pioneer Jen cooked in the fireplace (to tell the truth the food was phenomenal that way). We were totally prepared for the storm and were fortunate to not get flooded (we moved all the cars a day before to higher ground). The water did come to within 20 feet of the house. Honestly, do not understand the long outages since the highest gust we measure was about 65mph and only about 3 inches of rain but this area was totally out and only 1/2 recovered. Biggest problem is gasoline. There just plain isnt any and if you wait on line for 4 hours you burn up more than the 5 gallons they will let you have. We would have packed up the cats and gone to the Adirondacks but they do not travel well, we were not sure if we could get enough gas to get back, and the alarm system battery back up here quit after about 12 hours.

On a worse note-two hockey friends saw both the Union games and reported back to us. Thoroughly disgusted with results. Not seeing them myself i have no clue where to lay the blame but I must say that it certainly is not the talent level. Laliberte, Neal, Haggerty, Kasdorf, Bailen, Curadi, Leonard, Bubela, and several others could play for any NCAA team in the country. Union is a very good team-but they are not an 11-5 goals better team than us in two games. Once again special teams determined these games. Union had 4 PP and one SH Saturday. You cannot ever give up 5 special teams goals in a game just like you cannot lose 2 consecutive 2 goal third period leads as we did before. I am not smart enough to know the answers but i sure see what problems exist. Jen and i are RPI fans forever. Hopefully someone has some answers since we both believe this team has just too much talent to get beaten this way. Go Red!! and it sure is great to be back here with all you guys.(Not sure for how long as there is a noreaster predicted this week

Welcome back Doc. Glad to hear that you avoided a flood and any personal injury.
This team needs a "shrink", simple as that. I was at the Friday game and it was easy to see that Union is in their heads.
They want so badly to show that they can beat the dutchmen that they forget to play as a team. And once Union scores, it takes them at least three shifts to get back on track. They can't relax when they play Union, and the only way they will ever beat them is when they relax.(can you say catch 22).
I look for a big bounce back next weekend when they can play their game and not worry about a team that they haven't beaten in the last 10 tries.
Dartmouth and Harvard won't be easy, but we will play them tough. JMO

 

[Dutchfan]

Re: RPI Hockey 2012-2013 Part 1: Pocket Protectors and Hockey Sticks

Just checking back in-we had no power until this late last night and no cable or internet of any kind until about 2 hours ago. Not sure if either will remain on. Jenny and i are fine. We burned about 3 cords of wood in the fireplace for warmth and pioneer Jen cooked in the fireplace (to tell the truth the food was phenomenal that way). We were totally prepared for the storm and were fortunate to not get flooded (we moved all the cars a day before to higher ground). The water did come to within 20 feet of the house. Honestly, do not understand the long outages since the highest gust we measure was about 65mph and only about 3 inches of rain but this area was totally out and only 1/2 recovered. Biggest problem is gasoline. There just plain isnt any and if you wait on line for 4 hours you burn up more than the 5 gallons they will let you have. We would have packed up the cats and gone to the Adirondacks but they do not travel well, we were not sure if we could get enough gas to get back, and the alarm system battery back up here quit after about 12 hours.

On a worse note-two hockey friends saw both the Union games and reported back to us. Thoroughly disgusted with results. Not seeing them myself i have no clue where to lay the blame but I must say that it certainly is not the talent level. Laliberte, Neal, Haggerty, Kasdorf, Bailen, Curadi, Leonard, Bubela, and several others could play for any NCAA team in the country. Union is a very good team-but they are not an 11-5 goals better team than us in two games. Once again special teams determined these games. Union had 4 PP and one SH Saturday. You cannot ever give up 5 special teams goals in a game just like you cannot lose 2 consecutive 2 goal third period leads as we did before. I am not smart enough to know the answers but i sure see what problems exist. Jen and i are RPI fans forever. Hopefully someone has some answers since we both believe this team has just too much talent to get beaten this way. Go Red!! and it sure is great to be back here with all you guys.(Not sure for how long as there is a noreaster predicted this week

Glad to hear you and Jen are safe!

 

[rvd5star69]

Re: RPI Hockey 2012-2013 Part 1: Pocket Protectors and Hockey Sticks

Union barn is a joke
Idiots left Zamboni door open whole second period
It was nice to meet 1 of without a peer bloggers
5-5 we can play with any team I believe
Schroeder has a fractured wrist bad news





refs are bad and it's not gonna get better
Play kasdorf, this better not be Lange over York round 2
We need assistant captains if our captains going 10 min misc every game
Good dinner at Katie obyrnes after game

 

[Ralph Baer]

Re: RPI Hockey 2012-2013 Part 1: Pocket Protectors and Hockey Sticks

Schroeder has a fractured wrist bad news

That is bad news indeed.

 

[AspyDad]

Re: RPI Hockey 2012-2013 Part 1: Pocket Protectors and Hockey Sticks

Just checking back in-we had no power until this late last night and no cable or internet of any kind until about 2 hours ago. Not sure if either will remain on. Jenny and i are fine. We burned about 3 cords of wood in the fireplace for warmth and pioneer Jen cooked in the fireplace (to tell the truth the food was phenomenal that way). We were totally prepared for the storm and were fortunate to not get flooded (we moved all the cars a day before to higher ground). The water did come to within 20 feet of the house. Honestly, do not understand the long outages since the highest gust we measure was about 65mph and only about 3 inches of rain but this area was totally out and only 1/2 recovered. Biggest problem is gasoline. There just plain isnt any and if you wait on line for 4 hours you burn up more than the 5 gallons they will let you have. We would have packed up the cats and gone to the Adirondacks but they do not travel well, we were not sure if we could get enough gas to get back, and the alarm system battery back up here quit after about 12 hours.

On a worse note-two hockey friends saw both the Union games and reported back to us. Thoroughly disgusted with results. Not seeing them myself i have no clue where to lay the blame but I must say that it certainly is not the talent level. Laliberte, Neal, Haggerty, Kasdorf, Bailen, Curadi, Leonard, Bubela, and several others could play for any NCAA team in the country. Union is a very good team-but they are not an 11-5 goals better team than us in two games. Once again special teams determined these games. Union had 4 PP and one SH Saturday. You cannot ever give up 5 special teams goals in a game just like you cannot lose 2 consecutive 2 goal third period leads as we did before. I am not smart enough to know the answers but i sure see what problems exist. Jen and i are RPI fans forever. Hopefully someone has some answers since we both believe this team has just too much talent to get beaten this way. Go Red!! and it sure is great to be back here with all you guys.(Not sure for how long as there is a noreaster predicted this week

Best news all weekend. fantastic

 

[REDaero91]

Re: RPI Hockey 2012-2013 Part 1: Pocket Protectors and Hockey Sticks

Idiots left Zamboni door open whole second period

They did that for the third period last year in our second playoff game there...they have to get the ice to freeze somehow!

Schroeder has a fractured wrist bad news

Yikes...when did that happen? I didn't particularly notice him not on the ice at any point...although honestly by the third I kind of stopped paying attention to who did what, I was just praying we wouldn't do anything else stupid.

refs are bad and it's not gonna get better

Was kind of surprised no penalties were handed out for a few of the scrums there at the end...sure, they would have mostly evened out between the teams, but it got bad and people should have been sent to the box.

Play kasdorf, this better not be Lange over York round 2

Wouldn't be surprised to see him get a start this weekend...although he hasn't faced super heavy competition, he's done well so far

We need assistant captains if our captains going 10 min misc every game

Maybe the team knows who they are, they just aren't publicly wearing letters? People have obviously been designated, someone had to talk to the refs when CJ was in the box...

 

[Beman]

Re: RPI Hockey 2012-2013 Part 1: Pocket Protectors and Hockey Sticks

Let us assume Union is a top 10 team. MSU just beat the number two team in the land. The Engineers out shot MSU in the first game. RPI out shot Union in the first game and ran into a great goalie. Tied and lost to MSU scored one goal less in their house on a weekend far from home. Engineers were 2 for 6 on power plays in the first game at MSU.
RPI played one really bad game in these four.
By the way when Seth talks about maturity level he is talking about a players experience in competition at this level. Age has nothing to do with it. The way a player carries himself off the ice and with the press is not an indication of what a player will do when they face a certain situation on the ice.
A mature player takes the slash and watches his opponent go to the box. He doesn't follow him in. A mature player plays the same way for the whole game. He doesn't loose focus for 2 or 3 shifts. That,s what SA is dealing with right now.

 

[Wicked Slappaahs]

Re: RPI Hockey 2012-2013 Part 1: Pocket Protectors and Hockey Sticks

Just checking back in-we had no power until this late last night and no cable or internet of any kind until about 2 hours ago. Not sure if either will remain on. Jenny and i are fine. We burned about 3 cords of wood in the fireplace for warmth and pioneer Jen cooked in the fireplace (to tell the truth the food was phenomenal that way). We were totally prepared for the storm and were fortunate to not get flooded (we moved all the cars a day before to higher ground). The water did come to within 20 feet of the house. Honestly, do not understand the long outages since the highest gust we measure was about 65mph and only about 3 inches of rain but this area was totally out and only 1/2 recovered. Biggest problem is gasoline. There just plain isnt any and if you wait on line for 4 hours you burn up more than the 5 gallons they will let you have. We would have packed up the cats and gone to the Adirondacks but they do not travel well, we were not sure if we could get enough gas to get back, and the alarm system battery back up here quit after about 12 hours.

On a worse note-two hockey friends saw both the Union games and reported back to us. Thoroughly disgusted with results. Not seeing them myself i have no clue where to lay the blame but I must say that it certainly is not the talent level. Laliberte, Neal, Haggerty, Kasdorf, Bailen, Curadi, Leonard, Bubela, and several others could play for any NCAA team in the country. Union is a very good team-but they are not an 11-5 goals better team than us in two games. Once again special teams determined these games. Union had 4 PP and one SH Saturday. You cannot ever give up 5 special teams goals in a game just like you cannot lose 2 consecutive 2 goal third period leads as we did before. I am not smart enough to know the answers but i sure see what problems exist. Jen and i are RPI fans forever. Hopefully someone has some answers since we both believe this team has just too much talent to get beaten this way. Go Red!! and it sure is great to be back here with all you guys.(Not sure for how long as there is a noreaster predicted this week

Doc -- So VERY glad to hear you, Jennie and the animals are OK !!! Having seen coverage of the damage in your area, I was worried. Thanks for checking in. By the way, you missed a VERY good weekend not to have power. Uggh.