Game #11: Brown

We got so busy yesterday we never started the Twitter feed.

Hopefully that doesn't happen tonight, while we're all still holding our breath waiting for something good to happen.

Live tweets for both men and women today, at least.

Meantime, enjoy this. We've been doing it for much of the day.

Game #10: Yale

Short staff tonight, so we're only going to have men's live tweets tonight - though we'll have some score updates on the women during the intermissions.

Here's your twitter feed.

Always bet on black.

Game #9: St. Lawrence

It's do or die tonight for both of these teams, who have a combined record of 1-12-0. One of these teams is going to be the tonic that cures the other, I'm sure of it.

Here's tonight's chat, if you've got the gumption for it. And be sure to follow us on Twitter at 4 o'clock as the women take on a Clarkson team that lost to Union last night. Two ways to look at that. A) THEY LOST TO UNION LAST NIGHT. B) Losing to Union would make me pretty angry. Would it make you angry?

Game #8: Clarkson

Here's the live blog/twitter feed for tonight's game. Tom is pulling color duty on WRPI and Gary's out of town, but our man behind the scenes may drop in for some witty repartee.

Oooooooooone minute...

Game #7: Colorado College

Here's game two this weekend - again, just a twitter feed while we're at home, but we're certain you'll find it useful.

Game #6: Colorado College

It's a home game, so our "extra commentary" will be light (we're all at the game, after all), but feel free to enjoy up-to-the-second updates from the game and around the ECAC at our gameday live feed.

Game #5: Notre Dame

As I type this, I'm sitting in the vistor's radio box at the brand-spanking new, never before used (or seen) Compton Family Ice Arena in South Bend (I'm on the color call on WRPI tonight).

Whoa.

If you want to watch, Notre Dame is offering tonight's game for the low, low price of free on teh Interwebs.

And, as always, feel free to join in the chat as we follow the men against the Irish and the women against the Colonials, with Gary Russinko and our secret Twitter weapon providing tweets and commentary on both in the chat below live from Pack the House Night at Houston Field House, starting at 6:30 (women at 7, men at 7:30).

Game #4: Ferris State

Oy. It has not been a good weekend thus far. The women were swept out at Niagara to fall to 2-2-2 on the season. The men dropped a tough 4-0 decision last night after once again finding themselves unable to finish during the first two periods. Can we end on a high note? Maybe. We'll be right here breaking things down.

Game #3: Ferris State

Here it is - tonight's live blog, complete with all the Twitter feeds you want, plus WaP commentary.

Game #2: Minnesota State

We're back with live coverage of the second game of the weekend series with the Mavericks. Yesterday's game was a bit of a heartbreaker, but we saw a lot of good things out of the Engineers. They just need to finish!

Still working out the kinks of our live coverage, but we hope you'll come by and check it out when it gets underway at about 6pm - with the game scheduled to start at seven.

We understand that yesterday's coverage was harmed by the regular appearance of advertising - that wasn't supposed to happen and we have hopefully made a change that will keep ads from appearing.

For the time being, home games (since WaP staff is in attendance at the games) will be limited to a twitter roll, but that will change for the road games, at least the ones we're not at. We'll be there for live chat and commentary on those games.

Game #1: Minnesota State

Welcome to the official start of the 2011-12 season! Here's the place to get in-game commentary and chat with fellow fans as we follow along with the Engineers' first game that counts, their first ever game against the Minnesota State Mavericks.

The chat gets underway at 6pm!

Harder, Faster, Longer, Stronger

We're gearing up for the 2011-12 season here at Without a Peer (after all, that counter on the right side of the page is rapidly approaching zero!), and with that, as with last year, we're making some changes to the site.

First off, we've heard from you (thank you!) and we are planning to keep our podcasts going this season. Still working out the particulars - and some tweaks will be made - but we're hoping to produce a weekly podcast as we did last season.

Second, and most important... we're looking to add to our roster! We're seeking motivated individuals who enjoy RPI hockey that wish to share their talents with the fan community. Do you have what it takes to be a WaPper? Um... wait a minute...

Club correspondent: Although we like to delve into the goings on around the ECAC and around the college hockey world (in part so our readers can be well versed and stay among the most knowledgeable in the country), WaP focuses first and foremost on RPI hockey. This year, we've decided that we should not be ignoring the men's club team, which represents the Institute well with much less fanfare. They deserve a bit more attention.

We are seeking a writer whose main focus would be on club hockey, especially current or recently graduated students. All we'd need would be one update a week on how the team is doing, who they've played, and who they're playing next.

Artists: You may have noticed that WaP didn't have as many lame photoshops last year. Oh, the photoshops we had were still plenty lame, but there weren't nearly as many of them. Since we do so love the satire around here, we want to make a double change - more photoshops, and less lameness! Are you more handy with photoshop than I am? The answer's probably yes. If you'd like to take a stab at being a regular artist, drop us a line!

In-game chats: We tried them at the start of last year, and it was pretty obvious from the get-go that they weren't exactly lighting the world on fire. However, our "Judgment Day" chat, moderated by Gary and myself, did pretty well. We've decided that we want to give in-game chats another go, and we're planning to bring on board some volunteer moderators to add running commentary (and sarcasm, where necessary) to the chats, along with automatically updating Twitter feeds bringing in scores from around the college hockey world instantaneously. We think this will work much better than the empty cocktail parties that our attempts last year became.

If you are interested in helping with any of these fields, please do drop a line... the address is tomyousieve [Shift+2] gmail [period] com.

We're looking forward to an awesome season. Let's Go Red!

Trial and Error

As both the men and the women continue to search for their first win of the season - and not for lack of trying - we're starting to see how some of our new toys here on the site are being used.

First, the good: listenership continues to rise for our weekly podcasts. Hearing you loud and clear on our internet radio show, you like the podcasts. Hopefully, we'll be able to continue to bring you commentary from interesting and relevant guests on a weekly basis, every Wednesday night (schedule permitting).

Now, the bad: we were rather excited about offering a free chatroom environment for RPI fans who couldn't make it out to the game, but after the first few showings, it's apparent that our excitement wasn't quite reflected by our readers. Maybe it's because they're all already at the game! But for whatever reason, our live chats during the games just haven't been used enough to justify spending our donors' funds on them. We want to make sure our fantastic donors are getting as much bang for their buck as they can.

But fret not! Our first moderated chat is right around the corner in just a couple of weeks. Who would you like to see as a guest for readers to submit questions to? Do you have any ideas for new innovations you'd like to see at WaP? Leave us a comment by clicking on the comment box below.

Northeastern/UNH In-Game Chat

Since the men's and women's games are going to be simultaneous, you can follow along with both of them right here at Without a Peer!

Blogger Chat

Saturday Night in Colorado In-Game Chat

Night two! Chat it up!

Blogger Chat

Friday Night in Colorado In-Game Chat

As promised, we're bringing you the first ever dedicated real-time chat environment for you to interact with your fellow fans if you can't make it to the Field House. Listen along on WRPI or simply follow our Twitter updates during the game. Or, if you can't do either of those, you can just enjoy this chat with your colleagues who ARE getting updates. At any rate, it's certainly easier than hitting refresh 2,000 times a game!

This is the second trial run for our in-game chats. We will have at least three more - tomorrow night's game in Colorado, and the Northeastern/Bentley away and home week next weekend. If they're successful, we'll extend the throughout the whole season!

To chat, all you have to do is choose an option for signing in - you can choose to sign in as a guest (with an option to choose your handle du jour), you can sign up with Chatroll and have a designated name, or you can even choose to sign in with Facebook if you like.

Blogger Chat

New Brunswick In-Game Chat

It's the season you wait for all year... the time is now... the place... is Houston Field House.

As promised, we're bringing you the first ever dedicated real-time chat environment for you to interact with your fellow fans if you can't make it to the Field House. Listen along on WRPI, watch on RPI TV (on campus), or simply follow our Twitter updates during the game. Or, if you can't do any of those, you can just enjoy this chat with your colleagues who ARE getting updates. At any rate, it's certainly easier than hitting refresh 2,000 times a game!

This is the first trial run for our in-game chats. We will have at least four more - this weekend's games in Colorado, and the Northeastern/Bentley away and home week next weekend. If they're successful, we'll extend the throughout the whole season!

To chat, all you have to do is choose an option for signing in - you can choose to sign in as a guest (with an option to choose your handle du jour), you can sign up with Chatroll and have a designated name, or you can even choose to sign in with Facebook if you like.

Blogger Chat

Now With 30% More Fiber!

We mentioned at the top of the summer that we would be looking to expand our coverage here at Without a Peer. We're a fan blog, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't be able to drop in on us for most of your RPI Hockey needs. We'll still be bringing you the news, opinion, live tweets and juvenile humor you've come to expect, but there's so much more potential out there than just weekly roundups and oddball photoshops. So we've got a whole slew of new features that you should be able to look forward to as we creep up on the start of a brand new season.

The Without a Peer podcast: This one is already underway, in fact, we conducted a dry run last night. It was an hour long presentation in which we touched on some of the key things to watch for around the men's and women's college hockey universes and chatted with NBC Sports' Joe Yerdon (also an occasional WaP contributor) about the outlook for the men's ECAC this season. It wasn't advertised ahead of time because we wanted to get a dress rehearsal in before committing to doing regular podcasts - but it turned out very well, so we're proud to offer it to you right now. We still haven't landed on a regular schedule for the near future, but we'll have another one before the men's schedule gets underway and we'll let you know well in advance what the schedule will look like.

You can already check out the Without a Peer podcast homepage at Blog Talk Radio: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/withoutapeer/ (We'll have a little widget over to the left eventually). From there, you can play the podcast from last night on demand.

In-game chats: Can't make it to the game? Well, you've got options. Old and busted: Message board game threads. New hotness: Live in-game chatter with your fellow fans! Seriously, it's 2010, who has time to hit the refresh button 200 times an hour to see what your RPI compatriots are saying about the game in progress? Early in the season, we're planning to do a test-run over the course of the first five games - the New Brunswick exhibition, the Colorado College games, and the Northeastern/Bentley weekend - to gauge whether to make this a regular feature. We think you'll enjoy the instant gratification that'll come with being able to interact with other members of Puckman Nation more easily.

Mid-week chats: Want to know how your favorite Engineer feels about upcoming opponent? Want to ask him or her about something that happened in another game? Dying to know what their favorite color is? Need to needle a member of the media on a recent opinion piece? Well, look no further than Without a Peer. With the cooperation of the RPI athletic department, we are planning to bring you occasional moderated chats with players, coaches, personnel, and local media figures (when it can be fit into their busy schedules) to give you some first-hand insight into the Engineers, the ECAC, and the NCAA.

More interviews: We've already brought you a handful of interviews last season and a couple of media interviews this offseason, but we plan to pick even more brains in the near future - occasionally in conjunction with the podcast, but if there's someone out there who doesn't have the time to appear with us on the air, we'll be sure to get their thoughts regardless.

A sparkly new logo! Keep your eyes peeled - as with any product upgrade, there's always going to be at least some minor rebranding.

While all of these features will be offered to you, our dear readers, for the low, low price of FREE, not all of them will be free to us, the site administrators. In an effort to keep advertising away from WaP as much as possible, we are instead going to put a donation button at the top of the page on the right. If you enjoy Without a Peer regularly, we'd like to ask you to consider hitting the tip jar to help us offset some of the costs of operating a modern website. Don't worry, you won't be contributing to expensive dinners or the beer fund - 100% of the proceeds from the donation button will be put directly into Without a Peer. Anything you can offer will be much appreciated not only by Gary and myself, but other readers as well.

I know exactly what you're thinking - what would legendary pitchman Billy Mays have to say about all of these new WaP features? Well... I think he'd approve.