#4

A random thought...the last few years I keep seeing Jan Pajerski on the roster, but as far as I know he's never played. Anyone know the deal? Not good enough to start?

My guess is he's good, just not good enough. But he got wrote up in the Sun a few days ago, so he can't be that bad (sportsmanship wise, anyway): [www.cornelldailysun.com]

One of the guys who got revenge on Volonnino wrote:

My guess is he's good, just not good enough. But he got wrote up in the Sun a few days ago, so he can't be that bad (sportsmanship wise, anyway): [www.cornelldailysun.com]

Can they give this guy some minutes against Vermont?

Maybe we can give him the Rudy Ruddiger treatment one day.
Pajerski... Pajerski... Pajerski...

So 2002 wrote:

Maybe we can give him the Rudy Ruddiger treatment one day.
Pajerski... Pajerski... Pajerski...

That actually happened to my freshman (and senior) roommate, Max Turkenich. He was a walk-on to the basketball team our senior year after too many recruits quit because of abrasive coach Al Walker. He was only put into games after CU got a 20 point lead or deficit (I saw him on SportsCenter when we played #1 Kansas), but there were 2 home games when the crowd started chanting "We want Max": employee day vs. Columbia and the last game of the season vs. Penn. Walker didn't start him vs. Penn even though tradition dictates starting seniors for the last game. By the last 2 minutes, the game was way out of reach, and the crowd started chanting for Max, and when he finally got put in, there was a standing O. He kept passing the ball, even though his teammates kept setting him up. Finally, he hit a 7-foot jumper at the buzzer, and the place went nuts. Penn 70 Cornell 55. There was a very nice feature about him in the Ithaca Journal, and the Sun wrote a bit about it in the game articles.

obligatory hockey content: that was also the weekend CU hockey clinched home-ice at St. Lawrence in a very exciting stretch run.



Post Edited (12-09-03 15:24)

First of all, if Shafer loves Pajerski so much and he says that he's the hardest working kid out there, then how come we haven't seen him play against such teams as the USA Development team, York U (last year's exhibition) or even ECAC teams like Vermont or Princeton?

Do we NEED to put our best players out there all of the time? I think the Red would benefit more if we put such players as Pajerski (or others that don't get any ice time) out there from time to time and giving the bigger names some time to rest. I don't mean scratching them totally out of the line up, but giving them less ice time during the easier games. A win is a win. We would've still anihalated Princeton or Team USA if Pajerski was in the lineup. The game against Team USA didn't count anyway, it wouldn't hurt Shafer to put Jan out there, just as a thank you for all the hard work that you've put in for the past 2 years.

As for the cheers, I think we should start a cheer for Jan at the end of home games to show Shafer that we want to see him in some games. He'll have plenty of opportunity to put him in as we still have home games against Vermont, Princeton, and Union next semester. I'm sure he's good enough to play against them.

IMO, Union is not a bad team (7-5-3) ... granted they lost to Princeton, a closer look at their record shows they have some quality results on their sheet.


just my $.02



Post Edited (12-09-03 16:50)

True, but I still think that Jan has the ability to play against them (Union), definitelly Princeton. If not DEFINITELLY Vermont. They're 0-11-2.

[Q]Do we NEED to put our best players out there all of the time?[/Q] Yes, we do. Or at least, if we want Cornell hockey to be the kind of program that aspires to national prominence we do. If you let up against Princeton or Vermont you are likely to have a let down and may lose some games that you shouldn't. Playing in the ECAC the team needs to win all the games that we "should" win.

Nothing against Pajerski, but he shouldn't be on the ice unless he can crack the lineup.

You wrote "We would've still anihalated Princeton or Team USA if Pajerski was in the lineup." Well maybe. Maybe Cornell would've still annihilated Princeton with me in the lineup (too bad my eligibility clock has run out though...) That's easy to say with a 7-0 final. But if you recall, Princeton had a bunch of chances to jump out ahead in that game before Vesce got rolling. What if Princeton scores a couple quick goals in the first period? It could've been a totally different game. For all of their troubles, Princeton and Vermont are Division 1 hockey teams and shouldn't be taken too lightly. I'd hate to see Vermont get their first win against us...

I'll defer to Coach Schafer on whether Jan has the ability to play or not. The Sun article makes it pretty clear that he likes Jan, so it's not one of those situations where a guy is spending his whole career in the coach's doghouse.

It should be clear from the Mercyhurst and Bowling Green games that there are no gimme's in college hockey. True, Vermont isn't good enough to be terrible right now, but I'll bet you that, when all is said and done, they'll have beaten at least one team that took them lightly, and I'd rather Cornell not be that team. (The Cats somehow managed a tie against BU -- the Terriers aren't all that good this year, but they're still no lightweight)

Coach Schafer can't just put Jan in the lineup without taking somebody out. A hockey team can't dress more than 18 skaters (and two or three goaltenders), so even if Jan sits on the bench the whole time, one of the other defensemen or forwards would have to be shelved for the night. If it's a forward, that plays havoc with the lines; if it's a defenseman, at least one pairing is disrupted. There's a part of me that wouldn't mind seeing Jan reprise the Rudy story (without the awful movie, thank you), but it's a lot easier to do that in football -- how many players do they dress, like 500?? -- than in hockey.

As for why Coach Schafer didn't dress Jan for the Team USA game, an exhibition in which you can have a couple extra skaters (Cornell dressed a seventh defenseman, Evan Salmela), I'd have to assume he wanted to see as many new guys in action as he could. He already knows what he has with Jan.