Men's Hockey | 10/18/2017 7:26:00 PM

College hockey aficionado and Pittsburgh media personality Mike Prisuta contributes regular commentary on the RMU men's hockey team. This is his latest:

Pittsburgh, Pa. -  Slow starts aren't unprecedented for Robert Morris University men's hockey, but it's the context of this season's 1-2-0 break from the gate that's bothersome.

"We started off slow last year," head coach Derek Schooley remembered. "The difference from last year to this year is we're older this year. Last year nothing was expected of us, so 1-2-1 wasn't a horrendous start. When you're older and you have almost everybody returning and you start off 1-2-0, it's a disappointment."

As a result, RMU's overtime loss at Niagara to open the season and a split last weekend at Canisius have conspired to add an element of urgency to the anticipation of this weekend's home-opening series against Army West Point.

"We have some work to do," Schooley continued. "We have not been as sharp as we've wanted to be. We have to make sure our effort level is high in every game, every period, every shift. We need to tighten up a lot of things in our game from our forwards to our defense to our goaltenders.

"We've been average, and our expectations as a program are not to be average."

To extract more than average, Schooley and his staff have been doing some early-season tinkering with the lineup and with the line combinations and defense pairings.

It'll be up to the players, Schooley emphasized, to remember what's expected from them regardless of how they're deployed.

"Everybody has to remember what makes them successful," he said. "You can't change who you are. You can take steps in your game but you are what you are."

"We have to remember what our roles as players are, what our systems are and not deviate from what has made us successful in the past."

The Colonials turned last season's initial 1-2-1 stumble into a 22-12-4 overall record and a second consecutive appearance in the Atlantic Hockey Conference Championship Game.

So time is on their side and they know it.

But they also know it's time to begin showing more signs of eventually becoming the team they intend to be than they're shown so far.

"We still have 31 games left," Schooley said. "We still have 25 conference games left. And we've played all on the road (through their first three games). Can you take some positives out of those experiences? Yes, but only if you learn from those experiences."

"We have not lost confidence. We have not wavered from our belief in our team. We just need to do some things better. When you do those things better and you get better as the year goes on like we always do, then we'll be right where we want to be at the right time."

Robert Morris vs. Army West Point
Friday and Saturday, Oct. 20-21, 7:05pm at the RMU Island Sports Center
For tickets, call 412-397-4949 or visit RMUtickets.com

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