RPI Handily Swept, Drop set with Harvard/Dartmouth
Recapping an ugly weekend out east
I have spent a few days trying to figure out what exactly went wrong this past weekend and what the best way to write this article is. Over the prior 3 weekends against Canisius, Yale/Brown, and SLU/Clarkson, many of RPI’s metrics that were concerns over the difficult first half had begun to trend in the right direction. Brendan highlighted this quite a bit in his recap last week. Corsi, xG against, goaltending and special teams all were improving, and things appeared to be moving in the right direction for RPI. Granted, they had not played stiff competition in those games, but nonetheless the numbers began to paint a prettier picture.
We tend to keep an optimistic outlook on the blog for a few reasons. The first being, this is a college team, which does not require the same level of scrutiny as a professional one. And second, we are all diehard fans, who watch every single game and want what is best for our program, and we look forward to Friday night to watch the team again. With that being said, I do not have any other words to describe this weekend other than incredibly frustrating and an extreme letdown. There have been many reasons for us to believe that team performance would get better as the season went on, but February is looking us in the eyes, and it is no longer early. Let’s take a look at what happened in each game, and see what can be cleaned up as we head into the Mayor’s Cup.
Friday: 6-3 Loss to Harvard
Friday’s game was undoubtedly the better game of the two, as you can see here RPI was actually the better team. They significantly out chanced Harvard and won the Corsi and Fenwick battle. Unfortunately, as has been the story of the season, the goaltending let the Engineers down on this night. Jack Watson had been playing quite well after his return from injury, but it was not his night and RPI could not overcome it. Everyone is entitled to an off night; it is just frustrating seeing as goaltending collectively has held RPI back this season. All 3 goalies have struggled to take command of the net, and unfortunately this theme continued against the Crimson. This would be a forgivable loss if RPI was able to bounce back with a strong effort on Saturday night, which was not the case.
Saturday: 6-2 Loss to Dartmouth
As I said with Watson’s struggles on Friday, everyone is entitled to an off night, but RPI was dominated start to finish in this one. The problem with this game is twofold:
This has happened too many times. RPI was dominated by Maine, lost 6-1 to BC, 5-1 to Union, 9-2 to Northeastern, and 5-1 to Quinnipiac prior to this game.
Dartmouth is not much better than RPI. They were beaten handily by Hockey East teams and are 11th in the conference after beating us.
I am cautious to throw around the idea of lack of effort, but there is not a talent disparity to justify this type of loss the way there was against Boston College. Prior to this game, Dartmouth averaged just 2.05 goals per game. This is not the type of team that should dictate play to you for the entirety of the night. The continued theme of flawed penalty killing, which is last nationally, is something that is becoming difficult to justify, seeing as there is adequate personnel on the roster. Being out chanced 32-7 and losing NxG by 4.7 is incredibly troubling. At this point, the numbers are what they are, seeing as the sample size is over 20 games. Allowing over 4 goals per game and last in PK% simply does not cut it to compete at the level we want to. RPI fell to 12th in the league after the sweep this weekend.
RPI will need to bring significantly more effort in their defensive zone in the Mayor’s Cup against a Union team that is firing on all cylinders. To make matters worse, Union has scored 6, 6, 6, and 5 in their last 4 games against RPI. This team has the talent to play a very competitive brand of hockey, and the time is now to deliver the commitment and execution that they are capable of. There is no better opportunity to put this weekend away from them than with a Mayor’s Cup victory over rival Union. I apologize for the bluntness of this post, but as a fan I am incredibly frustrated by the product from this weekend. I still believe that there is good hockey ahead of this team, and luckily for them your most important hockey is played in February and March. It is time to buckle in for the stretch ride and fight, because it is getting late early.