This Week's Column Up

"Powerplay Carries Offense" with analysis on the line combinatoins, 3 stars, burning questions, and upcoming weekend outlook.



[www.elynah.com]

I think I disagree a little bit with the assesment of the powerplay. Yes, a lot of the goals have come from Moulson firing a wrister from the point. However, I think they've been pushing just as hard for that cross-crease pass or deflection shot. There were at least two times against vermont that they had the cross-crease pass perfectly set up, but fanned on the shot, and it happened at least once against dartmouth also.

The article implied Cam Abbott will be back this weekend. Has he recovered from his injury?

SLU is good, but our defense has been solid lately and no one has scored 4 non-EN goals on Cornell all year, not even BC.

Thanks for writing these articles. They're always a good read.

[Q]Steve M Wrote:

The article implied Cam Abbott will be back this weekend. Has he recovered from his injury? [/q]
He was back this past weekend, and looked really good. Lots of energy on Friday, especially.

Yeah, Abbott looked good but was definitely out of game shape.

Some thoughtful insights especially

[q] The power play has totally carried the offense, with 26 of its 63 goals coming on the man advantage. . . . It is cause for concern when no Cornell player has scored more than four even-strength goals this season. ... It is becoming obvious how to play defense against Cornell: shut down Moulson on the power play [10 PPG]. [/q]
Could somebody maybe help Matt with his spring term paper load if he agrees to play attack for the lacrosse team alongside Sean Greenhalgh? Maybe just for man-up situations. As a student, third-party help with term papers is cheating; as an adult, it’s called teamwork. He could join Bob Rule in winning both NCAA hockey and lacrosse titles.



[q] You might be thinking, "How can you complain about the offense of a team that is twelfth in the NCAA in total offense?" The answer is relatively complex. First, any good team needs a healthy balance of scoring. That means a consistently efficient power play that can convert different ways from both units, and a deep, well-balanced offense. There was a time this season when the Big Red met these standards and were seemingly scoring at will. Of late, the offense has hardly been multi-faceted. [/q]
Amen.



[q] Upcoming Weekend Outlook
Clarkson 0 - Cornell 5 [/q]
Can you spell M-O-T-I-V-A-T-E-D? Let’s hope motivated doesn’t turn into Game DQ for an overmotivated skater.



However, ahem:


[q]Scoring three goals will almost always be enough for Cornell to win games the way their defensive scheme is executing. [/q]
But enough to win the NCAAs? (Enough to win the ECACs? Make the Frozen Four?) Remember UNH two years ago. Cornell allowing 1 or 2 goals a game will knock off somebody higher ranked. But eventually somebody will put three into the Cornell net, which means we have to score four to beat them. (I checked the math.) And that four-goal Cornell outburst has happened how many times this year against a top ten team? How about against a team with a winning record that's going somewhere in the postseason? The key thought here is “ALMOST always enough...to win games.”



[q]Moulson could very well have the best shot in the NCAA.[/q]
Then maybe Matt should take more of them. Moulson is at 1.00 PPG. These guys are cranking along at 1.25 or better.

Name	GP	G	A	Pts.	Pt./GM
Marty Sertich, Jr, F, CC	26	19	26	45	1.73
Brett Sterling, Jr, F, CC	26	20	20	40	1.54
Colin Murphy, Sr, LW, MTU	23	8	30	38	1.65
Brent Walton, Jr, RW, WMU	22	16	20	36	1.64
T.J. Hensick, So, F, UM	23	16	19	35	1.52
Barret Ehgoetz, Sr, F, NIAG	23	12	21	33	1.43
Evan Schwabe, Sr, C, UMD	26	15	18	33	1.27
Andrew Murray, Sr, F, BSU	22	12	20	32	1.45
Preston Callander, Sr, F, UNH	23	15	17	32	1.39
Sean Collins, Sr, F, UNH	23	10	22	32	1.39
Bill Thomas, Fr, F, UNO	24	12	20	32	1.33
Scott Mifsud, Sr, F, UVM 	25	15	17	32	1.28
Jeff Tambellini, Jr, F, UM 	26	13	19	32	1.23
T.J. Trevelyan, Jr, W, SLU	24	16	15	31	1.29
Danny Irmen, So, F, UMN	27	18	13	31	1.15
Ryan Potulny, So, F, UMN 	27	20	11	31	1.15
Jared Ross, Sr, C, UAH 	19	16	14	30	1.58
Bruce Mulherin, Jr, C, UAH	20	19	11	30	1.50
Brett Hemingway, So, F, UNH	23	15	15	30	1.30
Scott Parse, So, F, UNO	24	13	17	30	1.25

krantz 3rd star??????

He was Cornell's best defenseman both nights, IMO. He made almost no mistakes and frequently rushed the puck wit success. I think he'll turn out to be a top pair, top powerplay defenseman. Him and Pokuluk will run the powerplay next year.

Until Matt Moulson Graduates he will run the power play.

I meant they will be on the points.

To go a step further, the points and the "QB" run the power play for Cornell...right? Here's what I see: Moulson and the guy blocking the sight lines of the goalie (Hynes) are just the recipients of the point play (more so for Hynes and the deflections or rebounds, which is why I'm disappointed he's only scored 4 goals) and the QB (Vesce, now Pegs and Topher it seems either find Moulson or work it back to the point)...Yeah, Moulson works to get open in the slot--and Hynes gets his back broken every night--but he doesn't determine when he gets the puck for an open shot.

I never played competitive hockey (I don't count a few fraternity IM games because the guys quickly noticed I was more valuable on the bench in a suit with my hair slicked back than on my back on the ice) but I love Cornell and I love sports and thus have worked really hard over the past six years to learn hockey. Outside of eLynah, I never get a chance to talk hockey.

I really don't think Hynes is a front of the net guy; he's much more of a corner guy and half-boards guy. He would be far more effective garnering the puck in the corner or the boards and driving to the net. Carefoot is by far the guy that fits best in front of the net with Chris Abbott and Mike Iggulden being others that would fit well there.

[Q]billhoward Wrote:

Then maybe Matt should take more of them. Moulson is at 1.00 PPG. These guys are cranking along at 1.25 or better.
[/q]

I don't think anyone disagrees that the Red would be well served to have more shots snapped off Moulson's stick but you have to take the statistics with a grain of salt. I would be interested to see those names you cited playing in Cornell's defense first, unimaginative offense second, style of hockey (I'm not complaining, just stating the situation. Whatever works. Coach knows better than me and hopefully it'll keep working deep into March).

Let's Go Red

The two point men run the click-click-click part of the play but as defenses get better at blocking shots from the point, one wonders if the guy along the boards doesn't have a tougher job because he's being challenged by a defender more than the point men, he has a chance to score (maybe) through traffic, and he can pass to Moulson as he's about to break free.

Sometimes I wonder what hockey would be like if there was a real playing area behind the net, as in lacrosse. The Olympic rinks are a little better in that regard. It would not suit Cornell's style, and some argue we lost the 2002 title game to Harvard because it was on the Olympic sheet in Placid, not the normal rink in Albany.

Whatever, it's an incredible ballet when it works and it's so frustrating when it doesn't. Here we are one of the nation's best at PP and still we don't convert 3 of 4 times, plus there are times like the 5 minute major over the weekend where we got off, what, two or three shots?

[Q]BCrespi Wrote:

billhoward Wrote: Then maybe Matt should take more of them. Moulson is at 1.00 PPG. These guys are cranking along at 1.25 or better.
[/Q]
I don't think anyone disagrees that the Red would be well served to have more shots snapped off Moulson's stick but you have to take the statistics with a grain of salt. I would be interested to see those names you cited playing in Cornell's defense first, unimaginative offense second, style of hockey (I'm not complaining, just stating the situation. Whatever works. Coach knows better than me and hopefully it'll keep working deep into March).[/q]

Sometimes we do forget that Cornell is at just 4 in the loss column two-thirds of the way through the season.

I'm not a Yankees fan, but there was a lot of wailing and teeth gnashing this year in the New York media about how the Yanks were well suited to win lots of RS games but not so well set up to win a playoff series. Our strength is our flaw: a great defense and a defensive mindset means Cornell wins lots of big games by one goal, and that's just one bad bounce of the puck away from it being a game tied and headed for OT.