Long Time Running

This is a post we always expected to make some day but never really wanted to.

For seven years, Without a Peer has been a delight for us to run. We've met new people, engaged with fans on the Internet and in person, and had the opportunity to give our opinions on matters regularly.

We're very proud of the fact that we were the first source for RPI live tweets - both for the RPI women and for the RPI men from the very beginning. No one else that we knew of was doing that in 2009 - today there are multiple places where you can keep tabs on the game in progress.

But as life has evolved for both of us, so has the site in and around that. When we started WaP, both of us were not working full-time and both of us were single. Today we're both married, both of us have full-time jobs with significantly increasing responsibilities, and notably, Tom is going to become a father for the first time in November.

You can see where this is going.

This isn't the end, and it's not goodbye. We'll still be kicking around here. WaP will continue to exist - it just won't quite be the same thing you've seen for the last seven years.

First, live tweeting will come to an end. This is tough to do, since that has been one of WaP's bread-and-butter items since the very beginning, but after seven years, it's time for us to return to simply being fans instead of guerilla journalists in the stands, informing folks on what's happening at as many turns as we can. When we're busy tweeting, we're not celebrating goals, or appreciating saves, or fully getting the fan experience that we love so much. We miss that - and we hope our fans won't begrudge us deciding to go back to it.

Second, we won't be doing weekly recaps anymore. These have always been a staple of the site since the start, always fairly-research intensive, delivering game summaries with an RPI-centric eye in an attempt to convey the fan mood, with plenty of links and insights for the reader to digest. But lately, these recaps have been less fun to produce and have felt more like a chore. In past seasons, it was always a little more difficult to write these when the team was struggling, but it never truly felt like it was being done for form until some time last season. When Tom sat down to write last week's recap for the Niagara-RIT weekend, he felt more like he was writing a recap for a difficult and heart-wrenching borefest rather than the engaging and interesting weekend that the Engineers had.

After discussing the matter, we've decided that rather than continuing on as we have, with the site starting to feel more of a chore than a source of enjoyment, we're going to cut way back on expectations by eliminating these two elements. But when there's something either of us want to say, you'll still have WaP to read it if it's substantive, and you'll still have @without_a_peer on Twitter if it's short and/or snarky - possibly including in-game tweets, which will probably assume that you're already watching, listening, or otherwise keeping tabs on things.

Certain features will continue. When the mood strikes, we'll have a weekend pumpup with cogent commentary. The yearly recruit pipeline piece every January will continue. Tom is hoping to continue the summer's "Know Your Enemy" roll, although that may be altered somewhat. Engineer Bracketology will probably make a comeback whenever it's necessary (not looking good this year, but stranger things have happened).

This was not an easy decision, and it was made only after we tossed around a few ideas. Among the bigger items was deciding against starting a Patreon account. WaP has always been free. We always wanted it to be free, and it always will be. It'll also always be ad-free. We've had a tip jar for several years, but that has always gone directly to site related costs. We've now taken that down - and we thank those who have made donations over the years to keep WaP up and running.

Through Patreon, we considered that we could allow our readership to decide how valuable the site has been to them, and that we could offer additional content (or a return of past content, like podcasts and stupid photoshops) if our readership as a whole found it worthwhile enough to voluntarily fund. But when it felt like another job even without funding, it would have felt like even more of a job with funding.

So instead of forcing our way thorough the rest of the season, we decided that the time was right to make this change right now. We hope our readership will understand.

Gary will still be seen at women's games - when he's around to attend them - and you'll still be able to catch Tom on WRPI covering men's games. Feel free to say hello if you see us, we're always up for a chat on RPI hockey.

Thank you, so very much, from the bottom of our hearts. This entire endeavor would have been nothing without you. We both feel an immense amount of pride in Without a Peer, and we hope to continue bringing some insight and analysis through WaP, even if it's no longer going to be on a regular schedule.

-- Tom and Gary

Ain't Nothin' But a G Thang

Delaying the usual weekend recap by a day - in part because the mid-season break is upon us, but also to mark a special occasion here at WaP.

We weren't really sure what we were getting into when we started this place up six years ago, but we're still pretty psyched that we did. It's a labor of love, and even though those labors have changed (our lives make it pretty difficult these days to do the podcasts and goofy/cheesy/awful photoshops that we used to have more or less on a weekly basis, and the number of editorials have sadly decreased), we're still here, and still cranking away. Still recapping weekends, pumping up, offering occasional words of wisdom, and cracking wise on Twitter between live tweets.

And this post is something of a mid-season thank-you note to our readers: it is our 1,000th post on the blog. We wouldn't have gotten this far if nobody read us. We're nothing without you.

So, in honor of this milestone, a hearkening back to the "old" WaP, which included goofy/cheesy/awful photoshops. And the winner is... a three-goal weekend by Jesper Ohrvall, finally getting the monkey off his back (and earning ECAC Rookie of the Week honors for his efforts).

Be gone, monkey. Be gone.

Five Year Plan

Wow. It's honestly hard to believe that it's been five full seasons that we've been at this here at WaP. Congratulations to all you Archies who were freshmen when this whole thing got underway on your impending graduation, and we forgive you for never having had the time to read us in the first place.

A few years ago, about this time, whether the Engineers were still alive or not - and it was only one season in four that they were - we'd be running down the NCAA Tournament and making our selections and providing some additional coverage beyond our core RPI hockey mission. Of course, back in those days, it was a lot easier for us to spend time writing for free. We've already gone over all the life changes that Gary and I have been through in the last five years, but we've always tried to stay true to the core mission, if nothing else.

WaP isn't as wacky as it once was. Founded in the vein of Yankees blog NoMaas.org, to which nothing is sacred, everyone's skewerable, and which tries to offer an alternative viewpoint while still puffing out its chest as much as possible (whether it's warranted or not), we've gone a couple of seasons without any really regular photoshop jobs during the season - our only output this year was to slap Mike Schafer's head on a turkey's body while wishing everyone a Happy Thanksgiving.

Through promotions at work, marriages (present and future, as it is), new homes, and other things that get in the way of delivering as much content as we have in the past, we've still pushed forward to at the very least bring you breaking news on Twitter, feature pieces that you've come to know and love, weekly updates, and analysis without discretion or favor. (There's frequently even less discretion on Twitter, where we've only got 140 characters to make a point.)

But we press on nonetheless. Neither of us know exactly how long we're going to stay in the game, but we're not done yet.

Barring something worth commenting on from the NCAA tournament which starts tomorrow, we'll go ahead and enter our yearly hibernation now, at least as far as the blog is concerned. We'll drop schedules when they're released, and we'll be back in late May or early June with the start of the annual Know Your Enemy feature. We're also cooking up a special treat that we're hoping to unleash upon an unsuspecting world this summer, so stay tuned for that as well. In the meantime, make sure you're following us on Twitter so you're the first to know when something stupid pops into one of our heads.

We can't thank our readers enough. Without you, we're just opinionated dopes talking to ourselves. Some would argue that's exactly what we are anyway, but we are thankful for every single person who reads what we have to say about everything from the power play to pop culture references. WaP was, is, and will always be free to read. If you want to hit our tip jar over on the right hand side of the site, 100% of the donations go toward defraying what costs we have that are associated with running the site. Don't feel that you have to give a dime, though. We appreciate you just as much if you're just a casual reader.

So until we meet again, friends... have a great couple of months.

Here's to old Rensselaer. She stands today without a peer.

-TR

A Fifth of WaP

It's hard to believe, but we're approaching Without a Peer's fifth season of existence. The Engineers - both the men and the women - officially look 100% different from the teams we started covering back in the dying weeks of 2009.

If you're wondering where the champagne corks have been this summer in-between the usual Know Your Enemy series, there's a pretty good reason for it all... life for your humble editors has continued to become busier and busier.

Gary, our women's correspondent, passed his professional engineer's exam earlier this year, and his work and travel schedule has picked up considerably since then. I've also been promoted at my position with the NY Senate, which makes for a touch more work for me as well.

Both of us have recently purchased new homes in Troy, mine closing early this month. On top of everything, I'm getting married in October... just in time for the start of the hockey season, in fact, the ceremony should be concluding around the same time the puck drops for the men's first non-exhibition game. A week and a half in the Caribbean follows.

Great timing, right? Well, for my professional life, it does make sense.

Fortunately, there hasn't been a great deal to talk about this offseason, at least from RPI's perspective. Other than the departure of a sophomore-to-be who played in just a few games last year, there hasn't been any major news to break. For the second year in a row, the offseason has been pretty mellow, even with the realignment that had us reporting every other week two summers ago now going into effect.

But have no fear. WaP isn't going away, not by a longshot. We'll continue to have full coverage of both men's and women's hockey this season with assistance from some of the many people who make WaP work, and we have a couple of new features that we're hoping to add in the coming weeks.

In the meantime... HOCKEY ON SUNDAY!

The Art of War

So it is said that if you know your enemies and know yourself, you can win a hundred battles without a single loss. 

If you only know yourself, but not your opponent, you may win or may lose. 

If you know neither yourself nor your enemy, you will always endanger yourself.

--Sun Tzu

Without a Peer returns to life on Wednesday.

Hibernation Mode: Active

In case you haven't already noticed, we're into our usual April/May slumber here at WaP. We push posts 10 months a year around here, which surpasses a lot of other blogs which basically just operate from September as the season ramps up until March or April when their team's season ends.

We try to stay on top of all news RPI, most news ECAC, and the big news on the national level. In order to keep the batteries charged, we typically don't post much from the end of the Frozen Four until late May unless something huge happens.

Now that Seth Appert has another contract extension and is definitely staying for what we hope should be a very exciting 2013-14 season for the Engineers, it's time for hibernation. While yearly renovations get underway on the secret underwater lair, we're going to be incommunicado here for the next few weeks, as per usual.

We'll still have updates on Twitter - and, if you're not following us there yet, get with the program - as they are warranted. Unless a post is warranted sometime in the next month or so, we'll see you again on May 22 as we crank up our yearly summer cooler series, "Know Your Enemy," a weekly look at the RPI men's 2013-14 opponents. From time to time during the summer, we'll have other stuff as it comes up.

Juggling Chainsaws

A lot can change in 3 years.

Back in October 2009, when I launched Without a Peer, I was a recently returned from deployment veteran who was suddenly unemployed, still single, and for all intents and purposes living at home out of necessity. Needless to say, I had time on my hands. Lots of it. It's one of the reasons I started this blog, to be quite honest.

Today, I'm quite settled back into civilian life, employed, seeking a new home while renting, and engaged to be married. On top of that, I'm now a semi-regular commentator on WRPI for Engineers hockey. Whew. Quite a difference.

Don't worry, this isn't an elaborate goodbye speech. Without a Peer isn't going anywhere, and neither am I. But the reality is that there are certain things that I just am not going to have time for in the near future - which, hopefully, is an opening of opportunity rather than a closing door.

In 2010, when I added podcasts to the list of services WaP provides, I was basically still largely stuck in the same situation I had been a year earlier, only now I was living on my own. I had plenty of time to produce podcasts, scheduling guests, setting up content, and the like. Last year, now gainfully employed, I had a lot less time to do that. This year, beset with all kinds of planning to do for a new house and a wedding, I seriously doubt I'll be able to set aside time to put together a quality product - and rather than produce something that isn't worth listening to, I'd rather open the opportunity for others to take on a role.

I'm willing to help produce a weekly podcast, but I will be quite unavailable to host it this season - so if there's any interest out there, do drop me a line. Check out the link in the bar to the right.

I noticed last year that with the loss of time last season, not to mention the tough year both teams had on the ice, the frequency of crappy photoshops decreased significantly. I never intended for WaP to be a 100% straight-faced news and insight blog - I wanted to be sure to be making biased and humorous opinions as well. It's certainly not as easy to find the humorous side when the team's struggling and we never want to kick our guys and gals when they're down anyway. So in the future, I don't expect to be focusing as much on trying to put up zingers - unless, of course, the opportunity and inspiration arises.

You can, however, continue to expect the same type of analysis and coverage of both men's and women's hockey that we've offered in the past. We're still planning to have our groundbreaking live tweets (something which we pioneered for RPI hockey) as in the past, and don't forget to like us on Facebook, too.

Finally, I would like to thank you, our readers, for your continued support over the last three years. Gary and I couldn't have done it without you, since otherwise, we're just rambling to ourselves on the Internet. 

We don't often mention this, but we do have some relatively minor costs associated with running the site - WaP will always be free and free of outside ads, but if you want to help out, feel free to hit the tip jar on the right.

The season's right around the corner, and we can't wait.

Awakening

Wow! A whole month gone by and nothing to report! We did have two items of note which were covered by our Twitter feed - the men's hockey banquet in early May and the new commitment of Andrew Commers last week.

But all in all, it's shaping up to be the quiet summer we had hoped it would be. Commencement was this past weekend, so the Institute itself is now in full summer mode as well.

Tomorrow begins the first installment of our yearly summer cooler series known as "Know Your Enemy," a semi-comprehensive look at the programs and squads that the men's team will take on in the coming season. We kick off with the national runners up and will end the week before the season starts with the Engineers' oldest rival.

Here is this year's publication schedule, in case you're wondering when to expect which team:
Ferris State - May 30
Minnesota State - June 6
Mercyhurst - June 13
St. Cloud State - June 20
Sacred Heart - June 27
Boston University - July 5 (the only Thursday edition)
New Hampshire - July 11
Union - July 18
Dartmouth - July 25
Harvard - August 1
Princeton - August 8
Quinnipiac - August 15
Yale - August 22
Brown - August 29
Colgate - September 5
Cornell - September 12
St. Lawrence - September 19
Clarkson - September 26

Hibernation

You've probably noticed (or not, if you're taking a break like us) that our post-season hangover period is pretty much in full swing. We haven't had an official wrap-up post yet, so... here it is. It's late partially because I wanted to be sure that the season schedule was front and center for a couple of weeks, and partially because dating to before that - right before the Frozen Four, in fact - I had a health issue that was being taken care of. On the mend and doing much better now.

Anyway, here's a little bit of the tidbits that are out there.

Pat Koudys departs
Probably the biggest news since the end of the Union series in RPI's corner is the early departure of junior-to-be Pat Koudys. We occasionally see players who aren't getting much playing time leave the program and turn up elsewhere: Jordan Cyr left and eventually ended up at Holy Cross, Jordan Watts departed and became a solid player at D-III Adrian, for instance.

Neither of those guys were potential impact players, however, and that's where Koudys' departure does hurt a little bit. It could be argued that the team got along fairly well without him down the stretch as Luke Curadi developed into a dependable asset on the blueline and Pat appeared in only four games after the month of January, none of which came during the playoff run.

Koudys came to RPI with a lot of upside potential, but did have a rough sophomore year defensively after a solid freshman campaign.

It doesn't do us much good to speculate about underlying reasons for the departure. Seth Appert told the Troy Record that it was a decision that Koudys himself made in part because of a lack of playing time. Why Koudys was a healthy scratch down the stretch is unknown and will likely remain that way. He was not injured this season, which means he was a healthy scratch on 12 different occasions this year on a team with only seven defensemen.

It's not outside the realm of possibility that the Washington Capitals weren't satisfied with his development in Troy (or just his playing time) and wanted him elsewhere, but Koudys plans to return to juniors rather than sign with the Oshawa Generals, the OHL team that has his rights. That means he's looking to use his last two years of NCAA eligibility in 2013-14 and 2014-15, and in most cases an NHL team leaning on a player to leave school would result in a bee-line for major junior.

Where he ends up from here is a bit of a mystery, but given that he majored in civil engineering at RPI, that might narrow it down a bit if he maintains his field of study. It makes Clarkson and Yale likely potential landing points, and would put Union out of the running, though he does have a connection there in Josh Jooris, who he played Junior A hockey with in Ontario.

At any rate, it's tough to lose a guy with as much potential as Koudys, but hopefully he lands on his feet. He's a good kid and his father, Jim, is a great person. Unless we see him across the ice at any point down the road, best of luck to him in the future.

What does this mean for RPI? Well, for the time being, they're back to being stuck with only seven defensemen, which is where they've been ever since Bryan Brutlag was moved up to forward midway through the 2009-10 season. Chris Bradley and Craig Bokenfohr are coming in, now replacing Mike Bergin and Koudys. Options include Bergin returning for his redshirt season (seen as unlikely), bringing in a last minute replacement (Koudys leaving almost certainly frees up a scholarship), or sticking with seven for a third straight season.


UConn applies to Hockey East
We have been keeping a close eye on the shifting sands in Hockey East, hoping that a spot could potentially be open for the Engineers to move there at some point. That door appears to have closed with the news that UConn has applied to become the 12th member.

From the outset, we have been pretty clear that UConn would be the best fit for the league, if only they showed significantly more interest in their program. Well, much to our chagrin, it appears that they are now moving in that direction, as they likely would not have made their application if they were not ready to do what it takes to compete in Hockey East.

This will mean a major upgrade for the UConn men's program, likely at the expense of other sports in Storrs as the school will need to offset the scholarships they will need to offer the team in order to stay in compliance with Title IX. The team may play its home games in Hartford until a new, Hockey East-worthy building is done on campus. Word is that Gov. Dannel Malloy, a big hockey fan, was one of the top people pushing for UConn to step up, and when the Governor is pushing something, frequently it manages to get done.is

For RPI and the ECAC, this really means that nothing has changed about the league since the beginning of the sea change, the only league left untouched by the birth of the Big Ten and NCHC and the demise of the CCHA (which will have its final season this year). In July or August, however, I'm probably going to talk about the ECAC's place in the brave new world that gets underway in 2013-14.


Fingers crossed for a quiet summer
Since Without a Peer launched in the fall of 2009, we haven't had much in the way of downtime with the exceptions of the April/May periods immediately following the Frozen Four.

Two summers ago was the NHL exodus in which the Engineers got caught up when Jerry D'Amigo and Brandon Pirri left in August, which went along with a summer of change at RPI as renovations were underway at the Field House and a shifting situation with which recruits were coming in when.

Last year was a double whammy as the very foundation of college hockey shifted with teams jumping from conference to conference, not to mention a veritable coaching carousel which kept us on our toes.

This year, not so much, or at least we hope. Minnesota State and St. Lawrence will have new coaches (both already determined), the teams that will move conferences have moved (hopefully), and there doesn't seem to be an exodus this year. So we're hoping to get a couple of months of peace and quiet before we get underway with our annual "Know Your Enemy" series, which will kick off with Ferris State on May 30, running every Wednesday through the beginning of the season.

I Shall Call Him... Mini WaP

For your reading pleasure (or pain - we make no judgments here about your lifestyle), you can now take Without a Peer on the road with you.

We are delighted to announce that WaP can now be viewed with relative ease on your mobile device. Simply surf on over here with your smartphone and it'll automatically appear in a mobile friendly format.

Lookin' out for the little guy.

Also, not much has happened lately worth blogging about. Shoot us an email if you've got any ideas or news, or maybe if you're just bored... tomyousieve (at) gmail [dat] com.

Oh... one other thing... the podcast for yesterday's Slap Schotts (featuring WaP's Tom Reale) is available on demand at this link.

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!

Répondez s'il vous plaît (We Appreciate Input)

First off... an apology on the lack of updates in the last couple of weeks. A number of factors to blame - an extended stay in California combined with what finally looks like a little bit of national calm (relatively speaking) making for very little to update.

A while back, we asked for opinions on our podcast series that we had last season. A few SNAFUs notwithstanding - perhaps most famously, the ghost in the machine keeping us from having a successful chat with CC beat writer Joe Paisley on two different occasions - they seemed to go very well and we were able to have some outstanding chats with coaches, players, and members of the media.

There's a bit of work that goes into a podcast - there's pre-production, finding guests, looking at topics of discussion, etc. It does cost money as well (which, thankfully, we were able to defray with the generous donations to our tip jar that we received over the course of the year, and we don't thank you enough for those).

Last season, the amount of time available for that pursuit was in great supply, since I was, erm, seeking employment for much of the season. Thankfully, that's no longer the case, but my awesome 9-to-5 cuts down on the ability to put in that extra work and still be able to maintain WaP's main element - the website.

When last we asked about how people felt about the podcast, we got... well, we didn't get any response. Which is OK, it was kind of asked in an "oh, by the way" manner. But now, we'd really like to hear from you. Did you love the podcasts and want to see them kept somehow (perhaps, in a different format, or with a different host with more available time)? Did you dislike them and avoided them like the plague? Were you indifferent?

Please, do comment... there are plenty of ways to do so: hit us up on Twitter... leave a message on our Facebook page... hit the comment button below... heck, send an email (tomyousieve [Shift+2] gmail [dawt] com).

I did enjoy the podcasts, personally, and would love to be able to continue to offer them, but ensuring that they're something people actually want... well, that's fairly important, too.

Social Media - Helping RPI Students and Alumni Have A Social Life Since 2004

Just a quick and friendly reminder... if you're only following us here at the blog, you really aren't getting the full Without a Peer experience - social media plays a big role. Our Twitter and Facebook presence isn't just superfluous, but rather, it enhances our ability to get news out to you, our loyal readers, on a timely basis.

We try to update three times a week (Monday-Wednesday-Friday) during the offseason, at least, after the hangover from the previous season wears off sometime in June. We try to update at least once a day during the season.

However, when news breaks, we aren't going to quickly blog about it unless it's something worth going into detail about. That's why we've got Twitter and Facebook as integral parts of WaP.

Follow us on Twitter for the latest, most up-to-date news on RPI, the ECAC, and the college hockey world. If it's news and you're reading it here on the blog, chances are pretty good we may have mentioned it on the Twitter feed already. Tweets occur on an as-needed basis. During the offseason (if it ever starts), there could be weeks without tweets. During games, there will be regular updates on what's happening on the ice as we live tweet the action. Got a comment? Tweet to us! If it's something we can answer or is more than just snark or trash-talk, we'll probably tweet back.

Like us on Facebook (which you can do by clicking the "like" button over there on the right side of the page), and get updates when WaP has a new blog posting worth checking out, get (mostly) exclusive multimedia like video and pictures, and participate in poll questions about RPI hockey.

Then of course, there are the podcasts. We tried to bring on guests we thought you'd like to hear from once a week throughout the season. We'd hoped to be able to continue them through the summer on a monthly basis, but unfortunately the time required to put into them hasn't been readily available over what's been a very busy summer.

What are your feelings on the podcasts? Did you get anything out of them last year? Would you like them to continue or would you not miss them if you went away? They are a bit time consuming to put together, so if there's not much demand for continuing them, it might be a case where we could put our time to better use improving other parts of the site. Please, comment below.

Thanks again for your loyal readership through the summer and into the 2011-12 season... let's go Red!

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.