Nieuwendyk to be honored Saturday at Lynah

FYI: [www.theithacajournal.com]

I hope people spread the word tonight about the ceremony for Joey and arrive EARLY on Saturday to honor and thank him for all that he has accomplished in his career.

I never got to meet him in person, but by all accounts he is one of the classiest and nicest people, nevermind one heck of a hockey player.

From the article that Ben referred to above:

“He could be the best athlete ever to come through Cornell,” said head coach Mike Schafer, who played with Nieuwendyk at Cornell.
“The amount of respect he has had in the professional world speaks volumes of him,” Schafer added. “Cornell couldn't have a better ambassador in that arena. It's great to have him back here, and read his accomplishments, which could take some time. For the average fan, maybe the students that don't realize the extent of the impact he has had as a future Hall of Famer, and obviously our longtime fans who were fortunate enough to see him play here, hopefully it will be a special moment on Saturday.”

/

Just a bump to remind people.

Can't he wait for the P/Q weekend when some of us will be in town?

There were a few comments last night on the webcast to the effect of Joe being a "voluntary assistant" coach. Anyone (Ari?) have any insights on that? Joe was the absolute best on the power play.

I've thought for a couple years that Nieuwendyk will be the next head coach of Cornell hockey whenever that happens. Upon his retirement, Nieuwendyk was saying that he has a lot of options, most of which are in hockey, though he didn't elaborate. I assume one of those options is to come back to ithaca and be involved with the program on a day-to-day basis. If anything, he would really help with recruiting. I would imagine potential recruits would be even more drawn to the program if they met Nieuwendyk during their visit. In terms of hockey, Nieuwendyk seems to be a perfect type to be a coach. He was always very calm and patient as a player and had spectacular hockey sense. He was strong in virtually every area of the game.

Anybody know what time this thing starts at?

johnny923
Anybody know what time this thing starts at?

I was told that it would start after the National Anthems. Can anyone confirm or deny this?

The presentation is right at 7:00pm after the national anthems. The game will start a few minutes late.

French Rage
Can't he wait for the P/Q weekend when some of us will be in town?

Seriously.

Beeeej

French Rage
Can't he wait for the P/Q weekend when some of us will be in town?

Seriously.

They announced during the ceremony that his number would be retired in the fall. Perhaps you can arrange your schedules to be there for that game.

ebilmes

Beeeej

French Rage
Can't he wait for the P/Q weekend when some of us will be in town?

Seriously.

They announced during the ceremony that his number would be retired in the fall. Perhaps you can arrange your schedules to be there for that game.

If they tell us in advance, yes, perhaps.

French Rage
Can't he wait for the P/Q weekend when some of us will be in town?

If that suggestion came up, the right answer on his part would have been, "Nah, that weekend is about the seniors. Let's not make it about me."

One question on Nieuwendyk. I missed him at Cornell (I was '88-'92) but saw him play quite a bit in the NHL. How on earth did NCAA teams hold him to <70 goals in 3 years? I know he only played something like 75 games in 3 years, but how did they do it? Was it a case of just a tremendous amount of defensive focus on him, to the benefit of other Cornell players?

Consider:
Niewendyk (first 2 pro seasons, '87-'89) - 102 goals
Gretzky ('87-'89) - 94 goals
Hull ('87-'89) - 73 goals (just before he started pouring them in)
Gartner ('87-'89) - 91 goals
Messier ('87-'89) - 70 goals
Yzerman ('87-'89) - 115 goals
Lemieux ('87-'89) - 155 goals (ok, at another level)
Robitaille ('87-'89) - 99 goals
Andreychuck ('87-'89) - 58 goals (injured part of '89 but played 56 games)
Kurri ('87-'89) - 87 goals

My goodness Joe. Similar analysis will hold probably for first 4 years of his career (192 goals). Joe was instantly among the best, no transition!

RatushnyFan
One question on Nieuwendyk. I missed him at Cornell (I was '88-'92) but saw him play quite a bit in the NHL. How on earth did NCAA teams hold him to <70 goals in 3 years? I know he only played something like 75 games in 3 years, but how did they do it? Was it a case of just a tremendous amount of defensive focus on him, to the benefit of other Cornell players?

In his junior year (1987), Cornell hockey basically was Joe. I've never seen such a talent difference between one player and the entire remainder of his team, in any sport, at a level above middle schoolers. Even as a marked man he managed to score a lot of goals (including memorable back-to-back hat tricks in his farewell weekend). However, he had no help at all that year.

The other years, Joe played with some very talented forwards (Gary Cullen, Duanne Moeser, Pete Natyshak), so teams couldn't totally key on him. Cornell played up-tempo then (no, really!) so it's actually a little surprising that eye-popping numbers weren't there. I don't recall him having any injury troubles at Cornell. He wasn't helped by the loss of Moeser for a significant interval during the stretch in 1986.

As I've said before, Joe's the only guy who ever convinced the Lynah crowd from his first shift in the red-white that he was a Towering talent. He was so damn good there's pretty much no way to describe it if you didn't see it -- miles and miles beyond anybody (on offense) I've ever seen from Cornell (I just missed Lance and Brock), and among the best college players of all time.

Remember the length of the college hockey season v. the NHL season....If you are playing less than 30 games a year, even a prolific college goal-scorer isn't likely to have 100 points.

RatushnyFan
One question on Nieuwendyk. I missed him at Cornell (I was '88-'92) but saw him play quite a bit in the NHL. How on earth did NCAA teams hold him to <70 goals in 3 years? I know he only played something like 75 games in 3 years, but how did they do it? Was it a case of just a tremendous amount of defensive focus on him, to the benefit of other Cornell players?

Consider:
Niewendyk (first 2 pro seasons, '87-'89) - 102 goals

My goodness Joe. Similar analysis will hold probably for first 4 years of his career (192 goals). Joe was instantly among the best, no transition!

Two thoughts:

1. "No transition!" Joe went from Lynah direct to the Flames and scored five goals in the nine NHL games he played that spring.

2. At the time, he was one of only two players to score 50 or more goals in each of his first two full NHL seasons. The other? Mike Bossy. He made the All-Star team as a rookie.

dag14
Remember the length of the college hockey season v. the NHL season....If you are playing less than 30 games a year, even a prolific college goal-scorer isn't likely to have 100 points.

But you would think his per game scoring would be through the roof in college given what it was his first two years in the NHL. Heck, he had five goals in only nine games for the Flames immediately after his junior year season. If you put 1988 Gretzky in college back then he'd get three goals a game right?

Pete Godenschwager
But you would think his per game scoring would be through the roof in college given what it was his first two years in the NHL. Heck, he had five goals in only nine games for the Flames immediately after his junior year season. If you put 1988 Gretzky in college back then he'd get three goals a game right?

Guys in the ECAC who overlapped Joe at least somewhat like Lane MacDonald and Scott Fusco from Harvard (loaded Harvard squads though), Peter Lappin from St. Lawrence and Randy Wood of Yale seemed like equal or more prolific collegiate scorers but didn't do much in the pros (I personally think that Lane would have been a solid NHLer if he didn't have concussion problems), which is why I asked the question.