Next Cornell 30-goal scorer

Wondering what are the odds Matt Moulson will score 30 goals next year? Or 25? It's been a long time since a Cornell player has gotten a goal a game. I think there's been one 25-goal season in the past decade.

Not that defense isn't great, but when you're down 1-0 late in the game, who do you turn to? Maybe I got spoiled seeing Ryan Vesce put up 7 points against Princeton early in the season and started thinking, "Damn, this is what we've been waiting for. Stifling defense and a potent attack."

Maybe it's just the fates. We must have led the nation in crossbars hit. And we have to have the longest man-short-goal drought among top twenty teams. I can hardly wait for fall.

There have been no 25-goal seasons in the past 10 years, although Brad Chartrand had 24 in 1995-6. The last 25-goal and 30-goal season was Doug Derraugh in 1990-91 (the "HAD-a-goal" line of Ryan Hughes, Trent Andison and Derraugh). The last "goal-a-game" season was Joe Nieuwendyk in 1986-87.

FWIW, I would be surprised if Moulson, or anyone on the team, posted 30 goals next season. One reason is the loss of Vesce, who was so key in the puck possession game through winning faceoffs, skating and passing. The other is that Schafer seems to want to really give all four forwards lines significant ice time.

I agree. While it is nice to see us clamp down hard defensively, it'd also be fun to see us light up the opponents' goalies on a more regular basis. "1, 2, we want more. Sieve, sieve, sieve..." doesn't have quite the same ring at 16:40 of the 3rd period as did "1, 2, 3, 4, 5, ..." somewhere in the 2nd.

Love those 2-1 games, but I wouldn't complain about a few 6-2's either.

[Q]CUlater 89 Wrote:
FWIW, I would be surprised if Moulson, or anyone on the team, posted 30 goals next season. One reason is the loss of Vesce, who was so key in the puck possession game through winning faceoffs, skating and passing. The other is that Schafer seems to want to really give all four forwards lines significant ice time. [/Q]
Moulson could always try for more breakaways. <g>

Excellent point about Vesce's puck control. That will be missed.

Also a good point that Schafer wants to give all four lines significant ice time, which has the effect of wearing down a team that only skates three lines regularly and then one of the four Cornell lines, any line, can break through with a goal in period three off an opponent mistake. (See where a couple college basketball times now work in two minute shifts?) OTOH, if no line has breathtaking goal-scoring tendencies -- Cornell scoring may be balanced because it's not very high across the board -- then that's also a reason to skate all your lines evenly.

And the odds are that the the odds are low of an opponent making a leads-to-a-third-period-goal-mistake thirty games running.

BH

Re-reading my post, I realize I'm playing what-if. The 2004 hockey season isn't over yet, and already I'm dying for 2004-2005 to start. I'm assuming that the lacrosse team will do well but may not win the Ivies this spring; it could make the NCAAs but it's not going to be in the final four; and the football team, well, good luck to them, and let's hope in about 2007 we've had two good recruiting classes. I don't see much excitement happening otherwise in the meantime on the hill unless, say, at convocation Clinton has an hour free and wanders into one of the women's dorms.

Cornell 20 goal scorers: [members.cox.net]

So there was one 20-goal scorer, in the first year of Mike Schafer's tenure (Brad Chartrand, 1996, 24G), and having gotten that out of his system, Mike's moved on.

OTOH, had Vesce been healthy all season long, he would have set up Moulson (18G, 17A on the season) a couple more times, and had Cornell gotten another round or two into the playoffs, Moulson would have 23, 24, 25 goals and this discussion would never have happened.

As has been discussed before, this is equal parts the Cornell defensive system, the lack of a true blue chipper marksman, and the general decline of scoring hockey-wide.

Shrug. Just win, baby.

Cornell has had success mixing great defense and ferocious offense. The 1976 lacrosse team in the playoffs won by:

14-0
12-6
16-13

I'm not sure if that still stands as fewest goals allowed in the NCAA lax tournament (series) but it will stand for all time as fewest goals allowed (game).

Those were good times. As I recall, the Maryland game didn't offer much effective defense either way, though they were doing a number on us in the first half. Quite a comeback to win it.

The one I really remember was the 1977 pasting of Johns Hopkins in the championship game. Who'd have thought that any team could go up by 9 goals before a team as good as Hopkins could even get on the board. That was some serious domination on both ends.

Those were indeed good times because the lacrosse team had more studs coming back to replace French and then McEneneaney (in 78 I believe Cornell got to the title game before losing) and we also thought the hockey team would be right back in the final four any year now.

You're right. In '78 we were riding a 44-game winning streak, poised to beat Hopkins again. Something went wrong. Never could figure that one out.

[Q]billhoward Wrote:


OTOH, had Vesce been healthy all season long, he would have set up Moulson (18G, 17A on the season) a couple more times, and had Cornell gotten another round or two into the playoffs, Moulson would have 23, 24, 25 goals and this discussion would never have happened. [/Q]

Absolutely. In fact, I remember thinking at the end of February, when Moulson had 18 goals, that he would surely get to 20. Oh well....

Vesce, who by the way ended his career with 128 points, of course had 19 goals in 2002-2003.