And They’re Off!

via the Times Union

Okay, here we go. The hockey season is almost upon us and just when you were wondering (and maybe in some cases hoping!) that I had given up my feeble attempts at blogging – I’m ba-a-a-ck! I won’t promise to be the world’s most regular blogger (if you know me at all, you wouldn’t believe me if I did), but there is lots to write about, and that’s even before the Engineers take the ice tonight in their first game of the season, so I will try to hit the keyboard pretty often and keep you all up to date on what’s happening with our favorite team.

For the second consecutive year, RPI will open with an exhibition game against the Acadia Axemen from Acadia University in Nova Scotia. Exhibition games against Canadian universities appear to be Coach Appert’s preferred way to start the season and get an early look at new players, replacing in most years RPI’s traditional Red and White intersquad scrimmage. Me, I prefer the Red and White game, since we see more of our players, especially those who might not play much otherwise, and things can be manipulated to make the game exciting, with players changing sides and goalies switching in and out. Somehow it almost always ends up with overtime and then a shootout, giving us more fun and more chances to evaluate new players.

But no matter your preference, tonight is our first opportunity to see the freshmen on the ice and make our guesses as to who will contribute early, who will be a big scorer, who will throw his weight around, etc. I feel the need to offer a warning here that my early judgments rarely pan out, at least during Coach Appert’s era, but I probably won’t be able to resist offering them anyway.

Check out the complete post on RPIHockey.net.