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RPI Off-Season Thread 2011 Part II: The Bryce is Right

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Re: RPI Off-Season Thread 2011 Part II: The Bryce is Right

knsmith said:
What do you think we will see for defense pairings?

I'd imagine something like:

Bailen-Leonard
Bergin-Leboeuf
Dolan-Koudys

with Curadi rotating in to play with Bailen and Bergin.
Click to expand...

Just looking at the names for next years defense does not give me a warm and fuzzy feeling.
Only three experienced defensemen return, and two of those are more offensive than defensive defensemen. (Dolan and Leboeuf were part time players).
Last year, York was great, but he will tell you that the defensive improvement from the year before had a lot to do with his own improvement.
There were very few of those no look passes in our defensive zone setting up goals for the opposition.
The offense this year looks very good, but they are going to have to play team defense as well.
This defensive corp comes up way too short in experience.
As for pairings,

Bailen-Leboeuf
Bergin-Dolan
Koudys-Leonard
Curadi can fill in anywhere.
There will be a lot of competition for ice time, and rookie mistakes will give all of the defensemen plenty of ice time.
I kind of hope that we spend a lot more time in the attack zone and give the defense a lot of rest. :)
 
Re: RPI Off-Season Thread 2011 Part II: The Bryce is Right

engineerhockeyfan said:
Just looking at the names for next years defense does not give me a warm and fuzzy feeling.
Only three experienced defensemen return, and two of those are more offensive than defensive defensemen. (Dolan and Leboeuf were part time players).
Last year, York was great, but he will tell you that the defensive improvement from the year before had a lot to do with his own improvement.
There were very few of those no look passes in our defensive zone setting up goals for the opposition.
The offense this year looks very good, but they are going to have to play team defense as well.
This defensive corp comes up way too short in experience.
As for pairings,

Bailen-Leboeuf
Bergin-Dolan
Koudys-Leonard
Curadi can fill in anywhere.
There will be a lot of competition for ice time, and rookie mistakes will give all of the defensemen plenty of ice time.
I kind of hope that we spend a lot more time in the attack zone and give the defense a lot of rest. :)
Click to expand...

This is interesting - I am not nearly as worried about the guys we lost as many it appears. While they demonstrated great commitment and hard work in their 4 years here, I personally did not think that their skills translated to effective defensive zone play. Foss and Kennedy were routinely (essentially always) unable to effectively move the puck out of the zone. That is certainly not a problem with Bailen, Bergin, and Koudys. Leboeuf showed lots of room for improvement in this regard, and it does not appear to be Curadi's strength coming in. Dolan's play moving the puck out of the zone was a very pleasant surprise and I am optimistic that Leonard will develop a skill set much like that of Bergin (though, admittedly, his junior statistics were not as good as Bergin's).

Bottom line: to me the problem with our defense last year was not their defensive abilities, but rather their ability to move the puck. I think that we will have substantial net gains in that area for next season. Time will tell.
 
Re: RPI Off-Season Thread 2011 Part II: The Bryce is Right

My.02 cents on the Defense. I look for continued improvement in defensive zone breakouts. With a years [albeit} not regular playing time I can forsee Koudys and Dolan making huge strides in that department. I also hope to see improved reads at the offensive blueline and neutral zone from all the returnees. IMO opinion major improvement is needed in that department. I would also like to see alot more of standing up the opponent around the net after the shot. I felt the entire D was weak at protecting York after the shot and he was bumped constantly and it got him off his game on more than one occasion.

I agree with the sentiment that the D needs overall improvement. If you look at the tapes of 2 of our big wins Yale and BU York, not the Defense, pretty much thwarted the attack until we could snipe a few. I hope Bryce is working his butt off this summer as he also needs to improve some areas of his game. One area I think Bryce is better at than York is handling the puck which should also help with the breakout.
 
Re: RPI Off-Season Thread 2011 Part II: The Bryce is Right

Hello friends of ECAC hockey,

My name is Kevin McNamara, and I will be a senior on Colgate's hockey team this year. I've had an idea for a charitable project for the past few years, and I wanted to make sure I implemented it before I finished playing for Colgate and in our league. I’ve spoken with Commissioner Hagwell, and this season the teams of the ECAC are going to join together in a project called Goals for Good.
It will be a campaign relying on the competitiveness of the teams, fans, and alumni bases of the teams in the ECAC. "Goals for Good" will be based out of a website, and on the front page, there will be a standings table, much like the one on the ECAC site, except it will rank teams by money raised. Each team will pair up with a charity or cause close to their university or community.
The front page on the website will have a link to each team/partner charity page which will explain the relation. There will also be a donate button on that page. There will be different options for donations. A donor could donate by the amount of goals that a team will score over the duration of the season (example: John Smith will donate $1 for every goal that Colgate University scores this season), a donor could donate by the amount of goals that a team will score over the course of a weekend series (example: John Smith will donate $1 for every goal that Colgate University will score this weekend against Harvard University and Dartmouth College), or a donor could donate a one-time amount (example: John Smith will donate $5 to Colgate University and Charity XYZ).
As of now, we are working on finishing the website. I am also trying to spread the word of the initiative as much as possible to build a fan base for the start of the season and the launch of the website. Goals for Good is trying to build its fan base through a Facebook Fan Page. You can find the Fan Page at www.facebook.com/goals4good. It would great if you could “Like” the initiative and spread the word. I am also new to this process, so all comments and suggestions are appreciated. Sorry for breaking your thread, and thank you very much for your time and support.

Kevin McNamara
 
Re: RPI Off-Season Thread 2011 Part II: The Bryce is Right

Went past the fieldhouse tonight, and spotted a couple interesting things behind it - snow piles and stage pieces! http://a.yfrog.com/img620/6971/w8tas.jpg

Looks like the ice is already down, and the stage could potentially make its return in the fall (though given that the supports are all rusted and the pieces don't really appear to line up level, who knows how safe/useful it will actually be).
 
Re: RPI Off-Season Thread 2011 Part II: The Bryce is Right

JCrawford said:
Looks like the ice is already down, and the stage could potentially make its return in the fall (though given that the supports are all rusted and the pieces don't really appear to line up level, who knows how safe/useful it will actually be).
Click to expand...

I wouldn't get your hopes up about the stage. I know it was set up for Sage's commencement, but it is odd that they would just now be taking it down. I just know that the stage will most likely not be making a reappearance in the fall. Here's hoping though!
 
Re: RPI Off-Season Thread 2011 Part II: The Bryce is Right

lugnut92 said:
I wouldn't get your hopes up about the stage. I know it was set up for Sage's commencement, but it is odd that they would just now be taking it down. I just know that the stage will most likely not be making a reappearance in the fall. Here's hoping though!
Click to expand...

It's been sitting outside the fieldhouse since after RPI's commencement. One would think that if it were going away completely, they wouldn't have brought it outside fully assembled after they were done with it.
 
Re: RPI Off-Season Thread 2011 Part II: The Bryce is Right

Today is 2 July 2011. There are 91 days (13 weeks) until RPI's next game.


This is based upon 1 October for the start of next season.

That is the day that an exhibition game is supposedly scheduled.
 
Re: RPI Off-Season Thread 2011 Part II: The Bryce is Right

Agree with all that has been said about D corps. We will be better because Bergin and PK IMO will have break out years. KSmith is right, we will be better on the breakout and this will be aided by Bryce's ability to handle the puck. This will help our O because the forwards will not have to come back and help the D out of the zone. I am also expecting a big year out of Johnny Rocket (cue the youtube video :p:p).
 
Re: RPI Off-Season Thread 2011 Part II: The Bryce is Right

AspyDad said:
Agree with all that has been said about D corps. We will be better because Bergin and PK IMO will have break out years. KSmith is right, we will be better on the breakout and this will be aided by Bryce's ability to handle the puck. This will help our O because the forwards will not have to come back and help the D out of the zone. I am also expecting a big year out of Johnny Rocket (cue the youtube video :p:p).
Click to expand...

This is the second reference to Bryce's puck handling ability for the coming year.
And yet all I can remember about his freshman season was people in the stands screaming for him to stay in his net.
I am a great believer in goalies handling the puck if they have that ability, and I was all for him going out to play the puck that year.
I just hope that they work hard on communications in practice so that his defensemen know where to go when he comes out.
Bryce will need support when he comes out to play the puck or else he will be setting up the opposition.
I have faith in the coaching staff that they will be working on getting everything they can out of Bryce Merriam.
 
Re: RPI Off-Season Thread 2011 Part II: The Bryce is Right

engineerhockeyfan said:
This is the second reference to Bryce's puck handling ability for the coming year.
And yet all I can remember about his freshman season was people in the stands screaming for him to stay in his net.
I am a great believer in goalies handling the puck if they have that ability, and I was all for him going out to play the puck that year.
I just hope that they work hard on communications in practice so that his defensemen know where to go when he comes out.
Bryce will need support when he comes out to play the puck or else he will be setting up the opposition.
I have faith in the coaching staff that they will be working on getting everything they can out of Bryce Merriam.
Click to expand...

As usual agree with you-I get very nervous when our goalies stray from the crease. It is important to get behind the net and stop those round the board passes-but we have rarely had goalies who were very adept at playing the puck. We've had a few-Mike Tamburro comes to mind, but lately not so much. If bryce can do it, we will have just one more reason to be optimistic. As far as the defense, I think we have a net gain-what is coming in is an improvement over what we lost for the style of play SA wants to implement. Just my 2¢:)
 
Re: RPI Off-Season Thread 2011 Part II: The Bryce is Right

I sure hope our Athletic director and coach are paying attention to the goings on with the confrence changes that are in the works. I have a feeling that this realignment business is like a game of musical chairs where the timid and slow will lose out.
 
Re: RPI Off-Season Thread 2011 Part II: The Bryce is Right

jstadts said:
I sure hope our Athletic director and coach are paying attention to the goings on with the confrence changes that are in the works. I have a feeling that this realignment business is like a game of musical chairs where the timid and slow will lose out.
Click to expand...

I am sure that they are, but they don't have the final say so.
 
Re: RPI Off-Season Thread 2011 Part II: The Bryce is Right

DrDemento said:
As usual agree with you-I get very nervous when our goalies stray from the crease. It is important to get behind the net and stop those round the board passes-but we have rarely had goalies who were very adept at playing the puck. We've had a few-Mike Tamburro comes to mind, but lately not so much. If bryce can do it, we will have just one more reason to be optimistic. As far as the defense, I think we have a net gain-what is coming in is an improvement over what we lost for the style of play SA wants to implement. Just my 2¢:)
Click to expand...

I agree that we have a net gain on defense. I don't think that the freshmen will start off as better than those who graduated, but a combination of that and improvement elsewhere should really help.
 
Re: RPI Off-Season Thread 2011 Part II: The Bryce is Right

JCrawford said:
It's been sitting outside the fieldhouse since after RPI's commencement. One would think that if it were going away completely, they wouldn't have brought it outside fully assembled after they were done with it.
Click to expand...

That's interesting...... I dunno. I haven't talked to anyone at the HFH in a while now. Maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised come August.
 
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