INCH / ESPN Poll

Doesn't Look Good

[www.insidecollegehockey.com]

Thanks, I was looking for something to wipe my ass with.

"Now I know why human beings wipe their ass!"

if nothing else, the incredible volatility (teams routinely moving up or down 5-10 spots or greater from week to week) of the INCH Polls indicates that their polls are pretty much useless.

Though to be honest, with the way we've played, even though we may know we're better than that #16 is about what we deserve at this point.

[Q]RedAR Wrote:

if nothing else, the incredible volatility (teams routinely moving up or down 5-10 spots or greater from week to week) of the INCH Polls indicates that their polls are pretty much useless.[/q]

Well, they're not polls. They're just someone's off-the-cuff rankings.

I suppose I should have been clearer. I wasn't disparaging our placement on their rankings, but rather the rankings themselves. As utterly useless as polls are, this thing is doubly so.

[Q]CowbellGuy Wrote:

I suppose I should have been clearer. I wasn't disparaging our placement on their rankings, but rather the rankings themselves. As utterly useless as polls are, this thing is doubly so.[/q]

But their note makes such a clever reference to people jumping into gorges. Certainly you can forgive something that's so witty and original.

I think that Power Rankings are a little different than polls as they weigh the teams recent performance much more than do the polls. Polls are more of a judgment as to who's a better team while Power Rankings are more into who's a better team RIGHT NOW.

If you really want to know where the team stands look at the Pair Wise Rankings, [siouxsports.com]., that are used to determine NCAA at large bids and seeding. USCHO doesn't publish these until January, when they first become statistically significant, but they provide a better bearing than any poll as to how the Cornell hockey team is doing so far, i.e. not good.

Cornell needs to sweep the 3 upcoming games against cupcakes at Lynah, and then more importantly have a solid performandce at the Everblades in order to get back into the only Top 15 that matters.

[Q]Steve Marciniec Wrote:

If you really want to know where the team stands look at the Pair Wise Rankings, ., that are used to determine NCAA at large bids and seeding. USCHO doesn't publish these until January, when they first become statistically significant, but they provide a better bearing than any poll as to how the Cornell hockey team is doing so far, i.e. not good.

Cornell needs to sweep the 3 upcoming games against cupcakes at Lynah, and then more importantly have a solid performandce at the Everblades in order to get back into the only Top 15 that matters.[/q]

Although I do agree with almost everything you said, I'm not so convinced that Princeton is a "cupcake." Point taken though.

Is there something below "cupcake"?

Yeah there is, but what does that have to do with Princeton being a cupcake?

I'm not convinced they're even at cupcake level. Their only win of note is, perhaps, Dartmouth. And they got that because Leroux made 37 saves. That was the game Jessiman was hurt, so Dartmouth's first line was not particularly useful for almost the whole game.

Guess we'll find out in a couple weeks, but beating Dartmouth and RPI tells me that they're decent, not to mention Vermont barely slipping by them (2-0 with an EN).

Ah yes, the mighty RPI that lost to Merrimack and tied UConn, but did manage to beat powerhouses like Yale and Mercyhurst. If there's someone below cupcake in the ECACHL other than Yale, it's probably RPI.

Based on the current KRACH data, [siouxsports.com], I think I'll side with Ari and retract classifying Princeton as a cupcake. Otherwise we have to call Dartmouth one as well not to mention that we would be pretty close to being considered one.

For now I'll call the bottom dozen (keeping with the bakery theme) cupcakes. That keeps Brown out of the category, which they probably deserve after beating UMD. No question that Canisius and Yale are cupcakes though.

[Q]CowbellGuy Wrote:

Ah yes, the mighty RPI that lost to Merrimack and tied UConn, but did manage to beat powerhouses like Yale and Mercyhurst. If there's someone below cupcake in the ECACHL other than Yale, it's probably RPI.[/q]

Although, to be fair, RPI *does* own the WCHA.

[Q]CowbellGuy Wrote:
Is there something below "cupcake"?[/q]
"Twinkie."

Beeeej

[Q]Steve Marciniec Wrote: If you really want to know where the team stands look at the Pair Wise Rankings, ., that are used to determine NCAA at large bids and seeding. USCHO doesn't publish these until January, when they first become statistically significant, but they provide a better bearing than any poll as to how the Cornell hockey team is doing so far, i.e. not good.[/q]Uh, excuse me, but if they aren't published until January, because they aren't statistically significant, then how are they so much better than polls. Neither mean a hill of beans, at this point.

The polls are completely arbitrary. Even though the PWR are still highly volatile at this stage, they do give some indication where a team stands based on results. Cornell has to improve its play and results if we want to get an at large bid. Another 8 games like the first 8, and our poor standing in the PWR will be statistically significant, and the only hope the Big Red will have at the NCAAs will be an ECAC title in Albany. Sorry if you don't like the bad news, and I wish it were different, but it is what it is. I hope the team is capable of playing better than it has the last 2 weeks and I would like to see it happen. Come on Cornell, start scoring some goals, and not just against the cupcakes.

[Q]Beeeej Wrote:
"Twinkie."[/q]
What about the Twinkie?

Kyle

My personal opinion is that we shoul be around 15 or maybe even lower in the polls right now. The 0-2-2 road record with only scoring 4 goals in those games does not look impressive. The Michigan State series is going to hurt us in the long run on the PWR and KRACH rankings. If we win the Florida Tournament and start playing better on the road, we could move up significantly. If those things dont happen, I see us having to win the ECACHL to make it into the tournament realistically, because the ECAC is not one of the stronger conferences. But I guess if the ECAC teams pull off more upsets (Harvard over BC and Brown over UMD) our conference will look stronger than the past years.

Circus Peanuts are below both Twinkies and Cupcakes, but I don't think fans of a team that has run off four straight without a win should be tossing cookie aspersions.

Let he who is without sin cast the first scone.

So deep-fried Princetons are covered with powdered sugar served at the ECAC championships in Albany?

Care to retract that retraction now that they lost to Air Force?

I think you mean the loss to Yale, which is even worse. It's only one game though, and their KRACH rank is 41st, just one behind Dartmouth. So I won't retract it, at least not yet. How about Vermont's big W tonight over UNH. The NC wins from them and Sucks will help quite a bit in the PWR.