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RPI Hockey 2012-2013 Part IV: Not A Finished Product Yet

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Re: RPI Hockey 2012-2013 Part IV: Not A Finished Product Yet

EHF: Do not forget-this is the first time EVER that we have won all 4 League contests against Clarkson and St Lawrence in one year. No RPI team has done it-not even 83-84 or 84-85. It has been since then that I can now say this-I think we do not have to worry about who we play next in any game-I think that opponents now have to worry about having to play RPI. Sure we have to prepare-to not do that is sheer folly. But we just present a major problem for teams that cannot stop 4 lines that just keep coming and 3 sets of defensemen that support each other and can play with finesse or play with brute force. Then of course any team that can get by our backchecking forwards and building sized defensemen has to find someway to beat a huge presence in goal who just covers as much of the net as possible and moves effortless from side to side with great refelexes-and exhibits a calmness and control that I have never seen in a freshman tender. We have become a force again in college hockey. Case in point-we took 8 penalties last night against 2 for a good SLU team (a TUC team that has been top 20 most of the season). We outshot them and outscored them with hard work and an extremely effective penalty kill and concerted forecheck that did not let up for 60 minutes.
What i did not quite understand though-is how do we win this game and actually fall in the PWR? The system must have some obvious flaws.
 
Re: RPI Hockey 2012-2013 Part IV: Not A Finished Product Yet

Ralph Baer said:
IMHO, SLU's powerplay was in dissarray without Flanagan. We would have been in trouble had he been there.
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No doubt he was missed. And a valid point. But he was in the line up and extremely on his game in Canton-and we still handled them. We have solidified over the past 12-14 games. My biggest worry is that we are just an injury or two away from problems as we will need a little extra depth on the bench for the coming run. I would like an extra forward back and a defenseman from the wounded. The chemistry on any team is fragile-and although we are playing like a well oiled machine-we could still have a lot of hockey left to play against only the elite teams and will need every able bodied player at 100%
 
Re: RPI Hockey 2012-2013 Part IV: Not A Finished Product Yet

DrDemento said:
No doubt he was missed. And a valid point. But he was in the line up and extremely on his game in Canton-and we still handled them. We have solidified over the past 12-14 games. My biggest worry is that we are just an injury or two away from problems as we will need a little extra depth on the bench for the coming run. I would like an extra forward back and a defenseman from the wounded. The chemistry on any team is fragile-and although we are playing like a well oiled machine-we could still have a lot of hockey left to play against only the elite teams and will need every able bodied player at 100%
Click to expand...
In Canton we didn't have an 8-2 powerplay imbalance.
 
Re: RPI Hockey 2012-2013 Part IV: Not A Finished Product Yet

We have slipped to #15 in the PWR. I should wait until WaP analyzes whom we should root for next weekend, but I would think that we would like Brown to beat Clarkson to keep them as a TUC. We would probably also like to see Colgate beat Clarkson if that would get them back as a TUC.
 
Re: RPI Hockey 2012-2013 Part IV: Not A Finished Product Yet

DrDemento said:
What i did not quite understand though-is how do we win this game and actually fall in the PWR? The system must have some obvious flaws.
Click to expand...
The major flaw is probably the TUC cliff with teams entering and leaving. We lost our 2-0 record vs. Colgate which must have hurt. That problem and ways to fix it have been discussed ad nauseum this year and in the past on numerous threads including here recently.
 
Re: RPI Hockey 2012-2013 Part IV: Not A Finished Product Yet

There's only 5 teams we can possibly face: Brown, Princeton, Cornell, Clarkson, or Colgate. I don't like most of those. Brown's a team you never bet against in the playoffs, at least given recent happenings. We've yet to beat Princeton. You only beat Cornell if you throw a new goaltender at them. Clarkson's probably the most desired of the five, and Colgate, even though we beat them twice, they've had a LOT of one-goal games that could go either way, not to mention one of our games went to OT. We may just see the Union Rule curse pop up again.
 
Re: RPI Hockey 2012-2013 Part IV: Not A Finished Product Yet

Fdude; They are all very decent teams-but I still remember Kepler's 2nd Law. My preference would be to just not face Cornell. But truthfully, I think any of these teams have far more to worry about than we do. They have to face us, in Troy. The advantage of last change may be significant against some or any of these teams. Let them all play tough 3 games series this coming weekend and let's hope we get back one or two form the injured list.
 
Re: RPI Hockey 2012-2013 Part IV: Not A Finished Product Yet

Ralph Baer said:
In Canton we didn't have an 8-2 powerplay imbalance.
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But never forget it WAS in Canton-and our record over the years there is dismal-almost as dismal as in Potsdam. And I believe all their goals were Power PLays that night. I need to sit down and do a comparison most of our 996 wins if possible and see what our record is in HFH versus on the road against each of the teams. I would probably only go back to the 1950's since i have this feeling that way back, the games were just called so much differently in different venues. Being the home team in hockey has far more advantages than in many other sports simply because of being able to match up your lines and defensemen. Being able to get your best defensive line out there against the opponent's top line after every face off-can often be a huge advantage. Even just getting the right face off man out there to take the draw against specific players can make all the difference in a game.
 
Re: RPI Hockey 2012-2013 Part IV: Not A Finished Product Yet

DrDemento said:
Fdude; They are all very decent teams-but I still remember Kepler's 2nd Law. My preference would be to just not face Cornell. But truthfully, I think any of these teams have far more to worry about than we do. They have to face us, in Troy. The advantage of last change may be significant against some or any of these teams. Let them all play tough 3 games series this coming weekend and let's hope we get back one or two form the injured list.
Click to expand...
I agree, Cornell is the team I would least like to face. Since any team we face will have won two games next weekend, we will have to be on our A game in any case -- Beware the Ides of March.
 
Re: RPI Hockey 2012-2013 Part IV: Not A Finished Product Yet

Trivia of the day: According to a recent tweet by Perry Laskaris, Matt Neal is the only player in D-I hockey with 25+ points that has yet to take a penalty this season.
 
Re: RPI Hockey 2012-2013 Part IV: Not A Finished Product Yet

Ralph Baer said:
We have slipped to #15 in the PWR. I should wait until WaP analyzes whom we should root for next weekend, but I would think that we would like Brown to beat Clarkson to keep them as a TUC. We would probably also like to see Colgate beat Clarkson if that would get them back as a TUC.
Click to expand...
We do not want Colgate to win. If Colgate sweeps then SLU falls below the TUC line. If Colgate wins 2/3, SLU stays above but Gate is still below - and they would need to win 2/3 on the road against either Q or Us to stay a TUC. Root for SLU.

In fact, I suggest an ideal outcome for us would be DC, SLU, Brown and Cornell to win with DC going 3 games while the other 3 sweep. That should keep SLU, Brown and Cornell all as TUC's if they then go on to lose the following week (as I hope they will). It also means that all 8 teams in the conference quarters will likely finish as TUC's which is good for us as our record against those bottom 3 is 4-1-1. And if we then sweep Brown in the quarters we end up 6-1-1. The only variance I would root for in any of this would be for Harvard to knock off DC but then we end up playing Cornell instead of Brown. It depends on your preference. I think I'd prefer Brown as it's less likely that they would goon it up and injure someone.

If I could control the future, this is what I would want to see:
1st round
DC in 3 games
SLU in 2
Brown in 2
Cornell in 2

Quarter Finals
Q in 3
RPI in 2
Yale in 3
U in 2

Finals: RPI over U
Consolation: Yale over Q

That might get 4 ECAC teams in
 
Re: RPI Hockey 2012-2013 Part IV: Not A Finished Product Yet

Just posted our chart of first round matchups and what the resultant second round matchups would be: http://www.withoutapeer.com/2013/03/2013-playoff-matchups.html

Fortunately Doc, only 3 out of 16 possible outcomes result in us playing Cornell. Unfortunately, those three scenarios are all relatively plausible, although the one that requires a Harvard win over Dartmouth not so much.

Overall odds of our second round opponent (strictly by the number of outcomes that result in this matchup, no simulations or KRACH or anything like that to determine what outcomes are actually likely):

Colgate: 4/16
Clarkson: 4/16
Princeton: 3/16
Cornell: 3/16
Brown: 2/16
 
Re: RPI Hockey 2012-2013 Part IV: Not A Finished Product Yet

Thanks, jmhusker. Now why did I think that Colgate was playing Clarkson? :o
 
Re: RPI Hockey 2012-2013 Part IV: Not A Finished Product Yet

jmhusker said:
We do not want Colgate to win. If Colgate sweeps then SLU falls below the TUC line. If Colgate wins 2/3, SLU stays above but Gate is still below - and they would need to win 2/3 on the road against either Q or Us to stay a TUC. Root for SLU.

In fact, I suggest an ideal outcome for us would be DC, SLU, Brown and Cornell to win with DC going 3 games while the other 3 sweep. That should keep SLU, Brown and Cornell all as TUC's if they then go on to lose the following week (as I hope they will). It also means that all 8 teams in the conference quarters will likely finish as TUC's which is good for us as our record against those bottom 3 is 4-1-1. And if we then sweep Brown in the quarters we end up 6-1-1. The only variance I would root for in any of this would be for Harvard to knock off DC but then we end up playing Cornell instead of Brown. It depends on your preference. I think I'd prefer Brown as it's less likely that they would goon it up and injure someone.

If I could control the future, this is what I would want to see:
1st round
DC in 3 games
SLU in 2
Brown in 2
Cornell in 2

Quarter Finals
Q in 3
RPI in 2
Yale in 3
U in 2

Finals: RPI over U
Consolation: Yale over Q

That might get 4 ECAC teams in
Click to expand...

I know that everyone here loves this conversation, and that is what being a fan is all about, but I will say it again. If we win out, the conversation is moot.
We are capable of beating every team in our league, and we have made it very difficult for any team to come into the field house and win.
I like our chances no matter what our pwr ratings are.
 
Re: RPI Hockey 2012-2013 Part IV: Not A Finished Product Yet

Ralph Baer said:
Trivia of the day: According to a recent tweet by Perry Laskaris, Matt Neal is the only player in D-I hockey with 25+ points that has yet to take a penalty this season.
Click to expand...

Astonishing-Neal plays such a hard nose game up front and against the boards i would have guess that one of the zebras would have called him for something at sometime.
 
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