Let me start by saying that Army played a fantastic game and that they
deserved the victory.  They outhustled and found open ice against RPI,
and they deserve a ton of credit, and Daryl Chamberlin was spectacular
in goal for the Black Knights.  Kudos to a great Army team, and a great
victory.
 
Now let's move on to my impressions of this RPI team.  Why is everybody
all over my case for saying that this RPI team is a ninth place ECAC
team?  I do not understand why, unless it's biasnessed that is leading
to this case.  As a member of the media I can show no bias and therefore
my predicition.  Why do I say ninth place?
 
First of all 10 freshmen.  Second of all only 1 line of scoring offense.
But a great goaltender.  RPI can not expect Mike Tamburro to be on his game
every single time.
 
What did RPI improve upon last night?
 
1) The power play.  The power play last night featured Alain St, Hilaire
centering Tim Regan and Jeff O'Connor with Bryan Richardson and Pat Rochon
on the points.  This is unit 1.  Unit 2 had Eric Healey with Matt Garver
Doug Battaglia and Pat Brownlee and Chris Kiley on the points.  Two decent
units and the first generated a lot of opportunities.  Seems Richardson on the
point was a good move by Dan Fridgen, and a lot of open ice was to be
found against Army, and as well Bowling Green.
 
2) Some better defense,  Did not allow many shots on goal as previously
(RPI averaged 50+ shots against in 3 games so far).  Only 33 towards
Tamburro last night.  RPI needs to be a little more agressive on defense
at the blue line, and that was evident last night.
 
3) The emergence of some of the freshmen.  Matt Garver came out last weekend
at Bowling Green with 3 assists, and last night Alain St. Hilaire came out
with a goal and 2 assists.  More of them need to come out.
 
What needs to be done?
 
1) MORE SHOTS.  RPI is just looking to find the perfect shot.  You
can't do this.  Take a shot and drive the net.  RPI did this a couple
of times last night and got 3 goals out of it.  Plus plenty of chances.
Only Daryl Chamberlin saved Army from a higher RPI tally.
 
2) I hate to say this, but, better line combinations, and perhaps a
breakup of the first line of Richardson, Regan, and O'Connor.
 
To be brutally honest about this RPI team, they are a .500 team when they
are on their game, and they are not that at the moment.  12 wins would be
a good seson for RPI.  And I will back this throughout the season, especially
right now because the Engineers have not shown anything more to me.
 
*****************************************************************************
* 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.