Yes folks, we are now in the patsy category.
 
RPI last night fell in all functions of the game.  And they fell miserably
from the second period on.  After a decent first period, in which RPI
held off an early Clarkson rush, they managed to end the first tied at
1.  Then 5 minutes into the second everything fell apart.
 
2 goals in 16 seconds, and then 3 more, 1 4x4 and 2 ppg's, the last with 30
seconds left, and it was over.
 
Clarkson played a great game, and deserved the win.  I am not knocking
Clarkson's win, I am just going to comment on what I see went wrong.
 
Goaltending
 
The strength of the Engineers is no longer there.  Mike Tamburro looked
horrible last night, as he (IMHO) let in 7 softies.  The first goal
went off the post and then off of his back.  One goal hit him dead in
the right shoulder and then went in.  One goal went short side on a bad
angle.  One went right over his shoulder as he didn't have the angle cut,
one goal was a HUGE rebound that he flopped on the ice for way too
early.  And then there's Masotta.  He of the 31 GAA.  Nuff' said.
This is a situation now where with both goaltenders struggling, Dan has
no options as to who to play.  he has to live with it for now.
 
Defense
 
I do not know if the word exists.  Nor do I know if Pat Rochon if the word
exists.  Yes he has put points on the board, but he is a defenseman right?
Pat Rochon pinching at inopportune moments last night led to at least 3
odd man rushes that I can think of.  Chris Aldous did this twice last
night.  Pirrong once, which led to a short hander.  Murray did not play most
of the evening, Tapper spent more time in the box than anything else, and
the only defenseman that had a decent game was Brownlee.  To take some
of the Engineers individually, Rochon has got to make up his mind and make
smarter decisions as when to pinch and when not to.  He has been caught way
too many times in the last few games, and it has cost.  He is now a -9 on
the season.  Jon Pirrong, who I thought was the most improved player last
year wins my Best Regression this year.  He is a non-factor.  Does not
rush well any more, nor pass, nor hit, nor anything.  What has happened
to Jon?  Chris Adous has improved tremendously, and I liked what I saw
early on, but he has made some bad decisions lately.  Bryan Tapper has
spent too much time in the box, and his temper has gotten the best of
him.  Pat Brownlee is the steadiest, but he can't do it alone.  Chris
Kiley, while talented offensively, has not done it defensively.  Chris
needs some jelly to go with the toast. Cory Bilodeau has not made an impact.
Chris and Cory are now 2/3's of the 4th line.
 
Forwards
 
One word.  Selfish.  There are exceptions yes, but for the most part,
each engineer looks to make the play, to be the hero.  Most notably,
guys like Eric Healey and Tim Regan.  While I like them both, they seem
to looking for glory rather than to help the team get on the board.  And
we start to see it in other places as well.  Bryan Richardson is fantastic,
but he can only do so much alone.  He will draw the hardest assignments, and
will be shut down, someone has to pick it up offensvely so that Richie can
be set loose.  Matt Garver has impressed, but is getting tossed around.
He needs to strebgthen up physically or else he is a dead man.  Jeff O'Connor
has probably played the most consistently of all the forwards, and has done
well, but has made some bad penalties at inopportune times.  The two frenchmen
St. Hilaire and Gosselin have impressed as well, but St. Hilaire went down
last night with a broken wrist, so he's out for awhile, and Gosselin can not
play defense well yet.  -6 going into last night's game.  Dan Riva
has impressed, but needs to get going offensively, the same with mark Murphy.
Chris Maye is steady, but is never out there as he has been 4th lines.
Doug Battaglia needs the offense to pick up, he has been a disappointment
so far.  As for erick James and Stephen Fukes, who knows, they haven't played
enough yet.  Are we waiting for Kyle Ferguson to get in?  What kind of impact
is he going to make?  Tough to tell.
 
Power Play
 
Yes they were operating at 27.6% coming into last nights game.  but then
went 1 for 11 last night and allowed 2 shorthanded goals.  That is now 4
shorthanded goals in the last two games.  I see 2 things which are severely
wrong with the power play units, and I addressed them last night on the air.
1) They do not shoot.  RPI does not shoot on the power play.  They hold and
wait to make the pretty pass.  It does happen for them, as evidenced by the
27.6%.  But it should happen more, and shooting should happen more.  They
piled up the power play goals against Air Force and in late situations where
it did not make a difference.  Why don't the men on the point shoot?  See
point number 2.
2) The RPI players do not move!  If you watched the wings, they did not move.
What happens then?  The point men have a wide open lane to the goalie, and
can not shoot because the goalie will just knock it down with the clear
view.
 
Coaching
 
The one mistake I think Dan made was not experimenting wih different line
combos during the first few games of the season.  He remained with the same
lines, which was not working as RPI went 0-4, and changed them when the ECAC
season began, and he got results.  The lines are not working now.  He needs
to come up with some sort of combination.
 
I also think some of the timimg of time outs as been questionable as well.
 
One thing that someone suggested to me, the last time the Engineers had a bad
season was 91-92 when Ivan Moore was captain.  Ivan is now back as an
assistant coach.  Coincidence?
 
Well, I can't say that I did not expect a bad season out of RPI this year,
I did.  But it is very frustrating to see a team with potential not use it
to the fullest (gee I sound like my dad now).
 
Well enough for now.  Time to go back and prepare for Appleton tonight.
 
*****************************************************************************
* Jayson Moy  RPI '89 '93  *  One of the Voices of Rensselaer Engineer      *
* [log in to unmask]             *  Hockey, Baseball, Football, and Basketball    *
* The "Asian Invasion"     *  on Crystal Clear 91.5FM  WRPI, Troy *EASM*    *
*****************************************************************************
* Check out the WRPI Sports Web Pages on:                                   *
*           http://www.rpi.edu/~stuttk/wrpispts.html                        *
*****************************************************************************
 
HOCKEY-L is for discussion of college ice hockey;  send information to
[log in to unmask], The College Hockey Information List.