Your 2007-08 Ivy League Champion Princeton Tigers

Second title ever, first outright.

Goddammit.

I think a little part of my soul just died.

Ah, the Ivy League hockey title. That and five cents will get you...

Give My Regards
Ah, the Ivy League hockey title. That and five cents will get you...

another banner on the rafters.

That's a pretty cheap banner. They must be using unregistered immigrant labor in Jersey.

Considering that it's banner that I like to have I will not disparage it.

All six contenders have now won within a five year period.

I like winning the Ivy League title also. In the Dalmatian Spectrum (TM) it ranks ahead of any Belts, right behind the Cleary and well behind the Whitelaw.

We're returning to childhood. Nothing makes you covet a no-longer favored toy as when your sister wants to play with it.

Well, unlike most of the posters here, I've never cared about the Ivy League title. Paraphrasing what I've posted before, I'll start caring when all 8 Ivy League schools have D1 hockey teams.

Kyle

krose
Well, unlike most of the posters here, I've never cared about the Ivy League title. Paraphrasing what I've posted before, I'll start caring when all 8 Ivy League schools have D1 hockey teams.

Kyle

My sentiments exactly. The ECAC title (and beyond) is the only thing that matters to me.

scoop85

krose
Well, unlike most of the posters here, I've never cared about the Ivy League title. Paraphrasing what I've posted before, I'll start caring when all 8 Ivy League schools have D1 hockey teams.

Kyle

My sentiments exactly. The ECAC title (and beyond) is the only thing that matters to me.

Which reminds me of a quote from Ken Dryden on his recruiting by Harkness. Maybe someone has the exact quote, but it goes something like "Princeton (where he was supposed to go) told me they were building for the Ivy (or ECAC) title, Harknes said he was going for the NCAA."

I should probably clarify my point from above, especially since I never actually made it.

I would certainly prefer that Cornell win the Ivy League hockey title rather than incur the losses that come with not winning it. Plus it's another banner, and it does come with a pretty nice trophy. But unlike in, say, basketball or lacrosse, winning the Ivy League title in hockey has absolutely no bearing on the postseason, ECAC or NCAA. So I tend not to attach any real significance to it, sacrilegious though that may be.

Case in point: what do you remember from the 2003-04 season -- that Cornell won the Ivy title (shared with Brown), or the Quarterfinal Series That Never Happened?

Give My Regards
Case in point: what do you remember from the 2003-04 season -- that Cornell won the Ivy title (shared with Brown), or the Quarterfinal Series That Never Happened?

I smile every time I see this.

Jim Hyla
Which reminds me of a quote from Ken Dryden on his recruiting by Harkness. Maybe someone has the exact quote, but it goes something like "Princeton (where he was supposed to go) told me they were building for the Ivy (or ECAC) title, Harknes said he was going for the NCAA."

Ned once told me that when he was recruiting Dryden he told Krn that if he went to Princeton he'd become the best goalie in the country at reaching around to pull the puck out of his net. I'm guessing it's apocryphal, but it was funny when Ned said it. It really is a joy to hear them all talk about those wonderful days when they get together at July's hockey reunion.

OK, but then, does the ECAC title really "matter"? Does even the NCAA title really "matter"? They're all nice things to say your team did, and clearly those two are more "important" than the Ivy title, but Cornell winning championships isn't going to cure AIDS or solve global hunger or enrich us personally (quite the opposite, in fact - I'm about $200 poorer thanks to merchandise I've bought since a football team I root for won a recent championship).

When it comes down to it, they're ALL ceramic dalmatians. That being the case, I don't see any reason to denigrate a small one merely because there are bigger ones out there that we'd all rather have. And that being the case, I stand by my original reaction to Princeton winning the Ivy title: Goddammit. "Hobey is ashamed" makes a whole lot less sense now.

The way I see it, winning the Ivy title means that Cornell has played well against a large portion of the conference. I'm not sure if it would mean more or less if the Ivy teams were split into different conferences (sorta like the beanpot but not?). I'm not going to lose any sleep over the chance of winning, but there's definitely a school-pride aspect there that I can identify with. They're pretty much the only schools in D1 that have the same recruiting and scheduling restrictions so it's a nice way to see how we could compare if everyone had similar restrictions (yes I know that's a stretch, I don't really care).

ugarte
I like winning the Ivy League title also. In the Dalmatian Spectrum (TM) it ranks ahead of any Belts, right behind the Cleary and well behind the Whitelaw.

I put it ahead of the Cleary. Of course, I also put the Ned Harkness Cup ahead of the Cleary.

I liken it to who wins more regular-season games between the Yankees and the Red Sox. You can engrave a cup, call it a trophy and award a title, but I still put more weight on regular-season championships and post-season series wins.

KenP
I liken it to who wins more regular-season games between the Yankees and the Red Sox. You can engrave a cup, call it a trophy and award a title, but I still put more weight on regular-season championships and post-season series wins.

The Ivy title totally different from an invented "who won more games between two teams" cup. It's a championship that has been awarded between (more or less) the same group of teams for over seventy years. It predates the ECAC championship. Heck, it even predates the NCAA championship. Now I'm not saying that it's more important than either in today's world just because of longevity. But it's not meaningless and it's a lot more than a made-up head-to-head cup.

Princeton is 9-1 against Ivies and 5-5 against the "other" ECAC teams (with games remaining at Clarkson and St. Lawrence). Cornell is 4-3-1 against Ivies (with home games remaining against Dartmouth and Harvard) and 7-5 against the "others."

Maybe winning the Ivy League is useful after all.

Al DeFlorio
Princeton is 9-1 against Ivies and 5-5 against the "other" ECAC teams (with games remaining at Clarkson and St. Lawrence). Cornell is 4-3-1 against Ivies (with home games remaining against Dartmouth and Harvard) and 7-5 against the "others."

Maybe winning the Ivy League is useful after all.

But then Clarkson is 9-2 with Ivies and 4-2-3 others. So good teams can beat the Ivies?

Jim Hyla

Al DeFlorio
Princeton is 9-1 against Ivies and 5-5 against the "other" ECAC teams (with games remaining at Clarkson and St. Lawrence). Cornell is 4-3-1 against Ivies (with home games remaining against Dartmouth and Harvard) and 7-5 against the "others."

Maybe winning the Ivy League is useful after all.

But then Clarkson is 9-2 with Ivies and 4-2-3 others. So good teams can beat the Ivies?

More weird stuff: Dartmouth is mired in the bottom four of the ECAC and lost their first eight Ivy games before beating Yale Saturday, yet they are 5-1-1 outside the ECAC with wins over Hockey East's top three--New Hampshire, BU, and Vermont--and Northern Michigan.