The Crucial Stretch Approacheth

Since I've been watching Cornell hockey, the weekend before the end of the semester has often been a "lost weekend." Before our recent dominance, you could count on the Big Red to mail it in and head into finals on a down note. While the 1986, 1996, and 1997 championship teams had their lost weekends and pulled it together somehow, less-than-stellar performances on the pre-finals weekend have generally been indicative of teams that don't have what it takes for a postseason run, especially on the national level.

To the record:

15-13-9 in last ECAC weekend games before the break since 1985-86
 4- 7-4 in last ECAC weekend games before the break from  1985-94
11- 6-5 in last ECAC weekend games before the break since 1995-96

My conclusions? Since taking over in 1995, Schafer has gotten this phenomenon under control to a certain extent. Part of that probably comes from more frequently playing Princeton and Yale (and now QU) than Harvard, Brown, RPI, and (snooz) Union; Schafer also seems to be able to inspire the team to solid performances amidst distractions. I see a slight correlation between dominant play in the dangerous weekend and making some national noise: compare 1990-91, 2002-03, and 2004-05 with 1995-96, 1996-97, 2001-02, 2003-04, and 2005-06. (My gut [with help from Greg's GF/GA charts] says that '91, '96, '03, and '05 have been the only years in which we've had the combination of offensive firepower and defensive strength to win it all.)

So, I'd say winning next weekend indicates that we have a bright ECAC future, while winning dominantly augers a bright national future. Extending this speculation out to the next eight games (including the 2nd WSU game, in progress), taking into account our typical struggles in the Florida tournament and the difficulty of the North Country trip, a 6-2 record (3-1 ECAC) would be fantastic and indicative of great strength.

Here's to the rest of the year...

Appendix (ow!) [compiled from TBRW's firehose of data]
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1985 Dec 8   L   3-11 Harvard
1986 Dec 7   L   3-6  Harvard
1987 Dec 4   L   1-3  Harvard
1987 Dec 9  (L)  4-5  at Colgate (midweek)
1988 Dec 4   L   1-9  at Harvard
1988 Dec 10 (W)  8-2  BU (nc)
1989 Dec 3   L   0-5  Harvard
1989 Dec 8  (L)  3-8  at BC (nc)
1990 Dec 7   W   4-2  Yale
1990 Dec 8   W   7-1  Brown
1991 Dec 6   T   5-5  Brown
1991 Dec 8   T   2-2  Harvard
1992 Dec 4   W   5-3  at Brown
1992 Dec 5   L   1-6  at Harvard
1993 Dec 3   W   2-1  at Yale
1993 Dec 4   T   1-1  at Princeton
1993 Dec 8  (L)  2-5  BC (nc) (midweek)
1994 Dec 2   T   2-2  Yale
1994 Dec 3   L   3-6  Princeton
1995 Dec 9   L   3-5  at RPI
1995 Dec 10  T   5-5  at Union
1996 Dec 6   L   2-4  RPI
1996 Dec 7   T   3-3  Union
1997 Dec 5   L   2-4  at Union
1997 Dec 6   L   5-7  at RPI
1998 Dec 4   W   5-2  Union
1998 Dec 5   T   3-3  RPI
1999 Dec 3   L   2-5  at Princeton
1999 Dec 4   L   1-3  at Yale
2000 Dec 1   W   4-3  Yale
2000 Dec 2   W   3-0  Princeton
2001 Nov 30  T   1-1  at Yale
2001 Dec 1   W   4-0  at Princeton
2001 Dec 7  (W)  2-1  Niagara (nc)
2002 Nov 22  W   5-2  Harvard
2002 Nov 23  W   5-0  Brown
2002 Nov 30 (W)  4-1  BU (nc)
2002 Dec 1  (W)  5-1  BU (nc)
2002 Dec 6  (W)  6-1  at Western Michigan (nc)
2002 Dec 7  (W)  3-2  at Western Michigan (nc)
2003 Dec 5   T   3-3  Brown
2003 Dec 6   W   1-0  Harvard
2004 Dec 3   W   6-2  Yale
2004 Dec 4   W   5-3  Princeton
2005 Dec 2   W   4-1  Princeton
2005 Dec 3   W   2-1  QU

NB Take a look at how strange 2002-03 was scheduling-wise. Schafer did a masterful job pacing the non-conference games within the ECAC framework that year.