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Hockey Banquet Report, Part 2

Charlene — Wed, 16 May 2012 02:06:08 +0000

RPI President Shirley Jackson and the Class of 2012

The highlight of the Hockey Banquet for me, and probably for everyone else, is always the speeches made by the players themselves. Jeremy Coupal led off and was the designated thanker this year – the player in charge of mentioning everyone that the players would all like to thank, in order to save time and repetition. After he took care of that business, he talked about what a terrific experience he had with the team and how much a part of them they made him feel. When he joined the team after his sophomore year, he was able to move into one of the hockey houses and he talked about how much he enjoyed rooming with Marty, Bryce and CJ. Jeremy has been involved with youth hockey coaching for a long time now and he told me a while back that he was hoping to get a coaching job somewhere after college. He will be serving as a volunteer assistant coach at Bemidji State (I think it was) next year, so he has a good start on realizing his dream.

Josh Rabbani was next and kept his remarks very brief. He talked about how much his time at RPI and especially his teammates meant to him and thanked his parents especially for letting him (a California boy!) pursue his dream of playing hockey.

As soon as Justin Smith took the podium it was obvious that he was going to be this year’s emotional guy. He opened with, “I told the guys I wouldn’t do this.” Then, even as he choked up, he grinned and said, “Here we go!” He had to stop often to gather himself and at one point Paddy Cullen even brought him a glass of water, but Justin never stopped laughing at himself through his tears. That’s so typical Justin – always ready to tell a humorous story at his own expense, to get everyone laughing AT him WITH him. He talked about what a roller coaster ride his time at RPI was and how his teammates were the best part of it all. He admitted he didn’t get to play as much as he would have liked, and wondered if all those times he nearly killed people going the wrong way in warmups was part of the reason (again, typical Justin!). He had the most trouble getting through his thanks to his parents, mentioning how his mom got him involved in hockey as a single parent, but then met his stepfather – “love you to death” – who became a big part of his life. He had us all laughing and crying too, and got the first ever (in my experience) standing ovation for a hockey banquet speech. Way to go, Smitty – we love you.

Forgive me if my remarks about the other guys are briefer. Justin just gave me so much more to work with! Every guy without exception thanked his parents lavishly and emotionally, commenting on all the driving to practices, sitting in cold rinks, and more recently traveling to RPI to be at games. Paddy Cullen said that his time at RPI gave him memories he’ll never forget, including a trip to Alaska and last year’s trip to the NCAAs – “one of the greatest experiences I’ve ever had.” He thanked his teammates too, especially Alex Goulet for “keeping me on track in school.”

Alex, in turn, thanked his teammates too, especially Paddy and Justin, and “Big Ben” Mayo, who he described as an unbelievable person. “Hanging out with him,” Alex said, “gives you a different perspective on life.” He got a laugh when he reminisced about Justin teaching Ben to skate and how, within an hour, “Ben was skating better than Rambo!” Josh was laughing and nodding emphatically, so we can assume he wasn’t insulted by the comparison!

Joel Malchuk, who redshirted in his freshman year and will be receiving his MBA at graduation next week, told his underclassmen teammates to cherish every moment, that it goes by so fast but will give you some of the best memories of your life. And Mike Bergin echoed those sentiments, saying that RPI hockey has given him lifelong friendships and has been “the best experience of my life.” Mike got a laugh when he reminisced about his first workout with his classmates at the Mueller Center, saying “York was in cargo shorts and Morrissette was in dress socks, so that gave us an idea right off of what kind of class we would be!”

All in all, it was an enjoyable and, as always, emotional evening, a last chance to applaud and cheer for these seven terrific young men who gave so much of themselves to RPI hockey for four years and gave us so many memories. I’ll write more about all of these guys some time soon, but meanwhile – thanks, class of 2012!

Hockey Banquet Report, Part 1

Charlene — Wed, 16 May 2012 01:59:46 +0000

Here – finally! – is a report on the hockey banquet that was held back on Saturday, May 5th. Sorry for the delay.

Athletic Director Jim Knowlton led off the evening with a welcome and some remarks. He talked about athletics at RPI generally quite a bit, pointing out that many of the spring sports teams were still in action at that time and having great success in their playoffs. He talked about the hockey team too, of course, and assured us that the program is continuing to make strides despite the challenging season. And he was lavish in his praise of all the departing seniors – as athletes, as students, and as all-around fine young men.

RPI President Shirley Jackson came next and also spoke at length about the departing class of 2012. She pointed out that their collective GPA was higher than the team’s as a whole, and the team’s in turn was higher than all other student athletes collectively. She also spoke knowledgeably about their season, pointing out some highlights and praising their determination in light of the challenging season. (“Challenging” seemed to be a recurring theme in describing the past season throughout the evening!)

Father Ed Kacerguis gave the Invocation, and then there was a break for dinner. After dinner, the festivities resumed with Coach Appert’s remarks about the season. He focused on the team’s fight and determination, saying that most teams with such a difficult first half would have just kind of slid through the rest of the season the same way, but that this year’s team refused to give up and that that attitude was directly responsible for their resurgence at the end of the season.

As I mentioned before, there were numerous awards given out. In most cases the presenter didn’t have to say anything at all – there was a short video presentation to introduce the winner and the presenter just handed off the award. A notable exception to this was Justin Smith’s award for Most Inspirational Player, presented by honorary Engineer Ben Mayo. For those who might not remember, Ben is a young man who was fighting cancer when his dad contacted the team early last season and asked if they would consider letting Ben spend a little time with the team. Coach Appert and the Engineers jumped at the chance and, as an honorary teammate, Ben is in the locker room after every game. He is, according to what we were told at the banquet, cancer-free now, and wanted to make a speech for Justin’s award. He talked about how good all the Engineers have been to him, but said that Justin has been especially great. The phrase that stuck in my mind was when Ben said “from my first hockey stick to my last MRI, Justin has been there for me every step of the way.” If any of us didn’t already know what a terrific guy Smitty is, that would tell us right there.

Also noteworthy among the awards was Nick Bailen edging last year’s winner, Alex Goulet, for the Top Scholar Athlete award by one-hundredth of a GPA point, with a 3.91 to Alex’s 3.90. Talk about a tight battle, and talk about two outstanding scholar athletes! After he picked up his award, Nick circled around to where Alex was sitting and gave him a hug, an acknowledgement that Alex is just as much a winner as Nick is (and another testimonial to what thoughtful, unselfish guys we have on our team!).

I was in total agreement with all the awards, especially the Most Improved Player for Matt Tinordi (I told my family long before the banquet how impressed I was with Matt’s development this season – he came out of nowhere to become a big part of the offense). To be honest, I was thinking about forwards in trying to choose the Most Outstanding Freshman, but if someone had mentioned defensemen, I certainly would have thought of Curtis Leonard, whose play this year was dependable and mature beyond what you would expect from a rookie. And of course Mike Bergin picked up Best Defensive Player and Team MVP, again no surprise and well-deserved.

Stay tuned for part two – the awards and senior speeches!

Hockey Banquet Team Awards

rpihockey.net — Sun, 06 May 2012 02:43:43 +0000

RPI Hockey Class of 2012

I’m just back from the RPI Hockey Banquet. I’ll have a full report soon, but for now here’s a list of the awards that were given out tonight .

Most Outstanding Freshman (presented by Scott Basiuk ’04): Curtis Leonard
Community Service Award (presented by Kevin Broad ’07): Jeremy Coupal
Top Scholar Athlete (presented, as always, by Bob Conway): Nick Bailen
(Nick had a 3.91 GPA for the year, which narrowly beat out Alex Angers-Goulet’s 3.90!!)
Most Improved Player (presented by Coach Nolan Graham ’03): Matt Tinordi
Best Defensive Player (presented by Coach Bryan Vines): Mike Bergin
Most Inspirational Player (presented by honorary Engineer Ben Mayo): Justin Smith
Most Valuable Player (presented by Allen York ’12): Mike Bergin

More to come on these awards and the banquet in general. As usual, it was an enjoyable, inspirational and at times emotional evening.

Can’t Help It – Still More Yorkie!

Charlene — Sun, 01 Apr 2012 05:25:42 +0000

For those who are getting tired of reading about Allen York in post after post here… well, sorry. Here – go watch some You Tube videos of just-for-fun interviews that RPI TV did with the Engineers recently while the rest of us ooh and aah over Yorkie’s latest performance.

I can’t help it – what’s happening for Allen right now is just so exciting for all of us who know what a terrific guy he is, who know how hard he works and how talented he is, and who saw how he has struggled throughout this season. Fifteen changes of assignment this year – from the AHL to the NHL to the ECHL, etc., etc. – and by his own statement no win anywhere for four months prior to his first NHL win this week.

And now – what a turnaround! Tonight Yorkie took on his toughest assignment yet, backstopping the Blue Jackets as they tackled the Western Conference-leading St. Louis Blues, who previously had only lost four games at home all season. That number became five, courtesy of Allen York and his teammates, and Allen won his third straight NHL game. He stopped 34 of 36 shots in Columbus’s 5-2 win, for a .944 saves percentage and first star of the game once again.

While the numbers might suggest that last night’s game against the Florida Panthers was his best performance to date (30 saves on 31 shots for a .968 SP, with a shutout going until well into the third period), I watched all three games and in my opinion he’s getting better game by game and tonight was far and away his best outing yet. He made some seriously super saves, especially late in the game, and helped the Blue Jackets’ league-worst penalty kill totally shut down St. Louis’s power play over five attempts. You can watch highlight videos of some of Allen’s saves here (the one on Chris Stewart was particularly good).

After the game I checked out the Columbus Blue Jackets Facebook page, where the Jackets had posed the question, “Who is your first star of the game?” Yorkie was the top pick by far (although Derek Dorsett, a fan-favorite tough guy who scored a goal also got lots of votes) and some of the comments were very nice to read. “Could we have found our goalie of the future?!”, “Allen York should get the rest of the starts, regardless of whether Mason returns in time,” “Columbus loves Dorsett but it was York, let’s be honest,” “York was amazing!”, and the simple but appropriate, “YORK!!!! Holy goalie!”

Allen improved his overall NHL stats once again and is steadily increasing his lead over Steve Mason and Columbus’s third goalie (also out with an injury), Curtis Sanford. Columbus has just three games left to play this season, so here’s hoping we get three more opportunities to see Yorkie play!

Yorkie Does it Again!

Charlene — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 04:39:55 +0000

There may not be hockey at Houston Field House these days, but Allen York is making sure RPI fans still have something to get excited about!

Allen was in net for the NHL Columbus Blue Jackets for his second straight start Friday night and earned his second straight NHL win. He stopped 30 of 31 shots, including six that came during 1:40 of 5-on-3, and earned high praise from the commentators over and over again. Okay, they were Blue Jackets commentators this time, and impressing them is probably a bit easier than impressing the NBC announcers was on Wednesday night, but I think Yorkie would have gotten high marks no matter who was doing the talking this time.

They spoke often of how calm and steady he was in net, but when the final buzzer went he definitely abandoned the cool and collected pose. He was shaking his fists in the air and smiling like a kid in a candy shop as his teammates surrounded him. These games don’t mean anything in the standings for the Blue Jackets, who have already locked up last place in the entire NHL by a wide margin, but they clearly mean something to Yorkie, and I think he is inspiring his teammates to care a little more as well.

He had a .968 saves percentage for this game and now has a .952 SP and a 1.40 GAA during the four games of this most recent call-up. Tonight’s performance pushed his season NHL stats to .915 and 2.42 and gave him the best saves percentage, goals against average AND winning percentage of any of the three goalies Columbus has used this year, although admittedly in far fewer games.

Columbus has just four games remaining in their season. Their usual starting goalie, Steve Mason (who has been either inconsistent or pretty awful this season, depending on how generous you want to be) is out at least temporarily with a possible concussion and his usual backups are both out with season-ending injuries. All of this combined with Allen York’s “stellar” (according to the NHL website recap) performance tonight would suggest that he will get more starts – maybe even all four of them.

The Blue Jackets play again tomorrow night at 8:00, facing a tough St. Louis Blues team that is just one point behind the Rangers for the NHL’s top spot. It will be interesting to see if Allen gets the start and if he can hold his own and inspire his teammates again.

Let’s go, Yorkie!

And More Yorkie

Charlene — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 04:58:22 +0000

Allen York celebrates his first NHL win (photo from Yahoo!Sports)

I just discovered a nice article about Yorkie’s win on Yahoo!Sports, complete with pictures and quotes from Allen:
http://sports.yahoo.com/news/york-earns-1st-nhl-win-023708775–nhl.html

If I’d seen this earlier, I could have save myself a lot of math time figuring out his past and present stats. Congrats again, Yorkie – we’re proud of you!

Allen York’s First NHL Win

Charlene — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 04:41:18 +0000

I just watched Allen York get his first NHL win as the Columbus Blue Jackets defeated the Detroit Redwings 4-2. He did a terrific job, stopping 29 of 31 shots and earning first star of the game!

Early on it didn’t look like Allen was going to be tested too much, as Detroit managed only five shots on goal in the first period and eight in the second, few of which were quality shots, but they ramped it up considerably in the third and put another 18 shots on net. NBC’s commentators, Mike Emrick and Pierre McGuire, largely ignored Yorkie in the early going, focusing instead on the Blue Jackets’ surprising dominance of the Redwings offensively. As the game wore on, though, there were moments when he caught their attention with big saves and in the waning minutes, especially after Detroit pulled their goalie for an extra attacker, he was pretty much the focus of their attention and praise. A highlight video of some of his saves can be seen here.

It would be hard to overstate how important Yorkie’s performance tonight and in his two relief appearances in the last few days might be to his future career. I got the sense from the commentators’ early remarks and even from his coach’s post-game remarks that Allen had pretty much fallen off the radar as far as serious NHL consideration goes. And it’s not really surprising because he has literally been all over the place this season, both geographically and performance-wise. He started in the AHL with the Springfield Falcons, then got called up to the NHL and appeared in four games, but then was sent all the way down to the ECHL. His track record for the season reads like this: AHL, NHL, ECHL, AHL, ECHL, AHL, ECHL, NHL, ECHL, NHL, with eight NHL games, five AHL games and eleven ECHL games. And his stats are equally all over the place, with ECHL saves percentages as low as .786 and NHL saves percentages as low as .600 and .750 (both in relief appearances), but also with ECHL saves percentages of .958 and .974 and an NHL relief performance early in the season where he was a perfect 1.000.

In this most recent call-up, however, Allen has been much more consistent – and consistently good! He made relief appearances on March 25th and 26th, putting up another perfect 1.000 SP in the first and a .909 in the second. He was given the start tonight on an emergency basis when usual starter Steve Mason was injured, and rewarded his coach with a .935 saves percentage. Over these last three appearances, Yorkie has a .943 SP and a 1.62 GAA – much, much better than the .837 and 3.79 that he put up in his first five NHL games!

Here’s hoping that this is enough to make the Blue Jackets organization take notice and decide not to write Allen York off too soon. We RPI fans know what he is capable of and I believe the Columbus Blue Jackets are starting to see it now too. Go Yorkie – congratulations on your NHL win tonight, hopefully the first of many!

Alumni Updates on Andrew Lord, Peter Merth, Bryan Brutlag – and Patrick Cullen!

Charlene — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 04:18:14 +0000

I’ve done a dismal job of keeping up with our RPI alums in the pros this year, but I’m going to try to catch up a little bit now that the Engineers have hung’em up for the season. In fact, one of those same Engineers has skated off to start his pro career already. Patrick Cullen signed with the South Carolina Stingrays of the ECHL on March 13th and has played six games for them so far. He had a two-goal game in just his third game for the Stingrays and an assist in the following game. Paddy will be back at RPI for graduation, and we wish him all the best in his pro career.

I’ve been trying for a while now to figure out what happened to Andrew Lord this year. He signed an AHL contract for 2011-12 with the Oklahoma City Barons after finishing the previous season with them, and is on their roster but doesn’t show up anywhere in their stats. The mystery is solved – Andrew suffered a concussion in his first pre-season game for the Barons back on September 30th and has been sidelined ever since. According to this article I found, though, Andrew started skating with the team again in January and is hopeful of making a comeback. The article is a lengthy interview with Andrew and an interesting read.

A couple of other RPI alums also saw AHL time this season. Peter Merth, who has been playing for the ECHL Wheeling Nailers, spent over a month with the AHL Wilkes-Barre Penguins (Wheeling’s affiliate) earlier this season. He played in ten games during that time and had two assists, 22 penalty minutes and a +3 rating. Hopefully Wilkes-Barre liked what they saw and will keep Peter in mind for the future.

And Bryan Brutlag, who spent most of this season with the ECHL Gwinnett Gladiators, has had three call-ups now to the AHL Norfolk Admirals. He was called up on March 8th and played three games before returning to Gwinnett on March 11th, was called up again on March 18th for one game, and yet again on March 22nd. He’s been in two games so far this call-up and seems to be one of Norfolk’s go-to guys whenever they need a fill-in – good news indeed for Bryan! He’s playing as a forward, by the way, and though he has yet to score a point he is a +2 with three shots to date.

There, that’s a start. I hope to be back with more alumni updates soon.

Helmet Sticker Final Tally

Charlene — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 02:53:25 +0000

I did my best to count and take pictures at the second Union game, which of course turned out to be the last game of the season, and CJ Lee appears to be the hands-down winner in sticker-collecting for the season.

CJ Lee in the last game of the season

Of course, it’s possible that more stickers were handed out after the last game, but if they were we aren’t likely to see them. In that last game, CJ’s helmet was sporting a whopping 23 stickers. His closest competition was Nick Bailen with 18 and Joel Malchuk and Bryce Merriam tied with 16. This seems to support my theory that they are “take one for team” stickers, since CJ is probably the most physical player on the team and Nick and Joel are right up there too. Bryce is not, of course, a physical player in the usual sense but going the extra mile and giving up the body to stop shots is right up his alley.

I didn’t see any player who didn’t have at least a few stickers and many guys had a large collection after the very physical play of the last three weekends of the season. There’s no question that the Engineers gave it everything they had down the stretch and put their hearts – and their bodies! – into every game. They gave us lots to cheer about as they finished the season strongly. Thanks, Engineers!

Post-season Thoughts – First Take

Charlene — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 19:16:11 +0000

Okay, I’m over it. Well, not over it – it always takes a while to accept that the season is really over and our seniors have played their last game in cherry and white. But I’m over that first raw disappointment – over it enough to put some thoughts down here.

It was a difficult season and in some ways a disappointing one, but there’s no question that the boys gave us an exciting and upbeat finish. Upsetting Clarkson in the first round to advance to the ECAC Quarterfinals was sweet, and certainly the most exciting accomplishment for the team this year. And losing to a super-tough Union team was nothing to be ashamed of, especially since the Engineers gave them two hard-fought battles and gave their fans lots to cheer about along the way.

Does the strong finish (the road sweep of Colgate and Cornell, the series win at Clarkson and a good showing at Union) negate what came before and make it a good season overall? I don’t think we can go that far. I’m certain that no one, including Coach Appert, who termed the early part of the season “disgusting”, would prescribe a 3-16-0 start as a recipe for a good season. But the strong finish does give the team something to build on and us fans something to pin our hopes on. That, and a freshman class that performed very well in difficult situations this year. If next year’s incoming class is equally well able to contribute early, we’ll see RPI start to climb the standings again for sure.

Meanwhile, we have to say goodbye to a senior class that gave their hearts and their bodies to motivate this year’s team and keep them believing in each other and what they could accomplish. My usual senior farewells will be up in a week or two. Meanwhile, here’s a big thank you to the class of 2012 for all their hard work and accomplishments, and to all of this year’s Engineers. Thanks, Red – we’re proud to be your fans, as always.