The Polls...

... don't matter. But here's how the past week's top 10 did.

01 WW NODAK
02 WL UNH
03 WT MAINE
04 LT BC
05 WW CC
06 LL DENVER
07 WW CORNELL
08 LL MICHIGAN
09 LW FERRIS
10 WW MINNESOTA

I could see some movement in next week's polls, with the Red perhaps moving up a notch (past Denver) or even two (past BC).

We have to move past Denver at least. They got swept by CC this weekend. Moving past BC is possible as well, as CC is bound to move up a notch.

As Greg said, they don't matter so here's my guess for next week. . .


North Dakota stays in first; CC moves into the second, Maine should hold steady at number three, UHN will fall to forth, BC slips a notch to fifth, we move into sixth, Denver drops a couple to seventh, while the Gophers climb into the top eight, After that ir's anyones call as #'s 8-15 were a mess.

any thoughts???

I'll be interested to see if Cornell picks up any more first place votes, though I think the Red will move up no farther than 5th (and probably just to 6th). This week there's been a lot of discussion on various boards about the early PWR, RPI, and KRACH, and Cornell is #1 across the board. Cornell is also an unheard-of (for an ECAC team) 7th in schedule strength -- only two other teams in the top 10 in PWR are in the top 10 in schedule strength, and North Dakota is something like 44th.

Readin' the USCHO board lately??? Man-o-man those boys in the WCHA and CCHA need to manufacture a new excuse other than the EZAC. . .WoW!!!

The only thing that matters is that we keep winning and all of our opponents will keep saying they didn't bring their "A game," no one will take us seriously, and you all know where that might lead. . .

Note to Hockey gods: no woofing took place in this post. . .it's just one guys humble opinion.

Ben, I think you're safe.

But we all should continue to be careful of offending the woofing gods. It's unseemly, too.

I wish we could ban discussion on polls. Theres no point to polls or discussion on them at all. Just play and win and enjoy the games.

littleredfan, you're not obligated to read every thread on eLF. Given your dislike for conversations regarding the polls, you might want to avoid clicking on threads with suggestive titles, like, say "The Polls...".

The allure of 'new' posts on a slow Sunday after a hockey weekend is just too much

I wish we could ban discussion on banning discussion on polls.

Beeeej

Me too. Let's supress discussions of all things we don't like.

If there is one thing you are for, ex-long die guy, it's for not being for anything

We could start a Davey Francis tribute post instead, seeing as "Yo Momma" has made a return to the boards....

I'm just psyched that someone else is still calling New Hampshire "UHN" - my roommate at the time, who didn't even go to Cornell, actually spotted those tiniboppers at the game holding the cards the wrong way, which led to our section starting the chant. He's now a Cornell hockey fan for life, and he can't wait for the game at Lynah East on 2/15...

But that might have been the funniest thing I've ever seen at a game - I don't think I'll ever be able to refer to them as UNH again...

Actually, they weren't teenieboppers. They were in their mid-thirties. I was sitting in the row in front of them. I went to UNH as well as Cornell but we all held our tongues to see how long the whole thing would last.

-J

Oh, my bad. It was kind of hard to see from where we were, but I thought they looked younger. I must have been thinking of that 14-year old girl who was sitting behind me shrieking every time we started chanting "Let's go Red."

I would definitely rank that in the top 5 funniest things I've seen at a Cornell game. The thing that made it truly hillarious was that 300 of us all saw it and the people holding the signs remained clueless for at least half a period. But hey, it made things exciting....I mean, at the QU game the day before, the most exciting thing that happened was when the slushy man came around with those delicious lemon ices....

Age, maybe you can put up a poll of 'funniest fan moments?'

Might suggest: a) UHN sign holders
b) Ugly sweater guy
c) Super Mom/JR's Mom
d) The Colgate pep band leader

Maybe put this open for nonimations in another thread and then do a poll of the top 5? What do you all think?

I would have to add Erasmo Sartarelli, old Princeton goalie, fully acknowleding the Cornell crowd. First, as the crowd was chanting "Drink", he grabbed the waterbottle, brought it to his mouth, then shook his head and put it back. Then, after several goals had been scored on him and the crowd was chanting, "MVP", him nodding his head in agreement.
Then there was the entire Weder incident.....

-J

Adam,

Are you refering the the Yale band leader??? He definitely seemed to be doin' his own thing over there in section O.

edit: double post

I feel stupid for asking this, but...what happened with the Colgate pep band leader?

I don't know about the Yale guy, but feel free to nominate it.

The Colgate story is actually pretty mean. There was a very overweight guy who was conducting the Colgate band a few years ago. Sections A & B were all over him all night because of the way he conducted and such. If Gary (Colgate '02) is reading this board (I know he posts here sometimes) he can fill us in with more details.
But now that I think about it, it was more spiteful/hurtful than funny and probably shouldn't even be discussed anymore.


But I am definitely still nominating Super Mom, JR's Mom, Ugly Sweater Guy, and the UHN sign holders.

A & B were making fun of him just because he was a big guy? Kind of mean, I guess, but the fans made fun of that short BU player as well a few weeks ago. Maybe that was wrong too? I don't know. I wasn't there, so maybe I shouldn't criticize one way or the other.

Yeah, the Colgate band leader was pretty bad. I was in section A that year, and Colgate brought their whole band and was playing over chants and such from sections A and B. I think the last straw was when they played over the tubas (not once, but twice - they moved over into section O after they were drowned out the first time). Anyway, the conducter was a little on the portly side, and he did this weird little bouncing thing when he was conducting from the front of section O, which was funny and annoying at the same time.

Anyway, earlier in the game, the Colgate band chanted "Hey Cornell, we found Waldo!" a terribly unimaginative reference to the band's red and white striped shirts, and one of them actually spelled out "WHERE'S WALDO?" on his tuba. So section A started a "Fatty ate Wal-do (clap, clap, clap-clap-clap)!" chant that brought the house down. It was pretty funny at the time, but in hindsight, a little harsh.

But that wasn't even the best chant of the night. Colgate was really good that year - I think they finished 2nd in the ECAC behind Clarkson - and they had beaten The Red the night before in Hamilton. We ended up losing the home game 4-2, and also lost to them in the consolation game in Placid. But as the game was going on and our band heckled their band, they started chanting things at us. Section A brought their, um, "A" game that night, though, and always had a great response.

This was the season where they really tried to crack down on foul language and fish throwing and everything, so after we chanted "Section O sucks!" they came back with "Section A swallows!" We, of course not being able to say "swallows" without being ejected, countered with "Kick them out! Kick them out!"

When we chanted "Safety school," they came back with "SU-NY Cor-nell (clap, clap, clap-clap-clap)!" which we countered with "SU-NY re-jects (clap, clap, clap-clap-clap)!"

When they chanted "Score-board!" we chanted "Board scores!" - stuff like that. Probably the most fun I've had at a loss (other than the UHN game).

But I can't beleive I forgot about JR's mom - that's up there with the UHN fans, I think...

"SU-NY re-jects"...heh, that's gold.

> when they played over the tubas (not once, but twice - they moved over into section O after they were drowned out the first time).

Colgate started this a few years ago at the ECACs. They've decided to take Swanee personally. Nobody else in the ECAC seems to mind, but they've drawn their line in the sand or something. I'm hoping it was just one particular class or conductor and it's over now. It's self-defesating anyway, I've never seen the tubas play with such gusto or the Faithful do the cheers as well.

First rule of fandom: never, ever let someone know that a cheer bothers you.

Several years back at a UVM game at Gutterson, the UVM student section started chanting, "Where's Waldo?" The Cornell pep band chanted back, "With Your Mom!"

North Dakota, after 16 total games, has yet to face four TUCs (considering St Cloud was TUC before this weekend). And there is no way that two teams from the third strongest confrence should be no. 1 and 2.

Following strength of schedule, there is no way that NoDak is mentioned in the same sentence. As Maine and Cornell, yet.

Maine should be the new #1 in both polls. After that, there is no telling what happens. It may be very mixed up, I wouldn't be surprised if Cornell slips all the way up to third. But, thats mostly just wishful thinking.

Either way, it is all based entirely on opinion and that don't win championships.

Just a thought, NoDak overrated? Maybe. We'll know better, once they have played a top caliber team, which, right now doesn't look to be till after new years!

So the Yale band leader was the one with the disturbingly rythmic hip movements, right? The ones so bad that you couldn't look away... kinda like a car crash?

EXACTLY!

Have you been over to the USCHO boards recently? Those North Dakotans have it stuck in their head that NoDak is a top ranked team (1-3), while Cornell hasn't played anyone, Cornell should be maybe a #9 team.

I'll admit, I've been getting a bit over-zealous in the discussion over there, but, man, it's frustrating trying to have a discussion with people who are as stubborn as a stone.

USA Today/American Hockey Magazine
Men's College Hockey Poll - Dec. 9, 2002
No. Team Total Points
(1st-place votes
in parentheses) Overall
Record
Last Rank
1. Maine 237 (5) 11-1-2 1
2. North Dakota 236 (7) 14-1-1 T-3
3. Colorado College 226 (4) 13-1-2 5
4. Cornell 199 (1) 10-1-0 7
5. New Hampshire 181 10-3-2 2
6. Boston College 172 9-3-2 T-3
7. Denver 154 12-4-2 6
8. Minnesota 119 9-4-4 10
T-9. Ferris State 108 12-4-0 9
Michigan 108 11-4-1 8
11. Harvard 99 9-3-0 12
12. Ohio State 79 10-4-1 14
13. Miami (OH) 41 12-5-1 11
14. Northern Michigan 30 9-5-1 NR
15. Boston University 21 8-6-2 13
Others receiving votes: Yale 12, University of Massachusetts 7, Providence College 7, Dartmouth 4

USCHO.com Division I Men's Poll
December 9, 2002

Team (First Place) Record Pts Last Week
1 North Dakota (28) 14-1-1 574 1
2 Maine ( 7) 11-1-2 555 3
3 Colorado College ( 4) 13-1-2 529 5
4 Cornell ( 1) 10-1-0 461 7
5 New Hampshire 10-3-2 449 2
6 Boston College 9-3-2 399 4
7 Denver 12-4-2 320 6
8 Minnesota 9-4-4 284 10
9 Ferris State 12-4-0 279 9
10 Michigan 11-4-1 234 8
11 Harvard 9-3-0 223 12
12 Ohio State 10-4-1 197 14
13 Miami 12-5-1 88 11
14 Boston University 8-6-2 67 13
-- Northern Michigan 9-5-1 67 -

Others receiving votes: Yale 31, Massachusetts 18,
Dartmouth 10, Providence 7, Alaska-Fairbanks 2,
Notre Dame 2, Quinnipiac 2, Brown 1, Minnesota-Duluth 1

I actually liked the "Board scores..." line better, but maybe that's because I somehow didn't get into Colgate...

Actually, Wisconsin, Mankato, and St. Cloud are all TUCs despite having losing records, because their RPIs are above .500.

Don't feel bad; SUNY Binghamton wait-listed me.

Beeeej

SUNY-B outright rejected me. So did Colgate for that matter. Cornell told me to try again in later, and that's what I did. I still chant "safety school" at 'gate because they were a safety school for me. I clearly vastly overrated my college prospects.

So, I didn't want to jinx our meaningless polls and be too "I think that Cornell is superior to your shit hockey program" with my liberal poll predictions, but after sunday's games I came up with where I thought that everyone should be ranked:

01 NODAK
02 MAINE
03 CC
04 CORNELL
05 UNH
06 BC
07 DENVER
08 MINNESOTA
09 HARVARD(SUCKS)
10 FERRIS
11 MICHIGAN
12 OHIO ST
13 MIAMI
14 (SCREW)BU
15 N MICHIGAN

Others: Providence, Massachusetts, Yale, Dartmouth, Minn-Dul, St. Cloud, Quinnipiac

With the exception of Harvard and a couple of "others", I was dead balls on the money. Usually I think that we're extremely underrated and I think the the poll people need to spend more time licking my nut-sack, I believe that this time Cornell really got the respect that it deserved and I congratulate the pollers on being able to suck it up and be able to admit that Cornell is a national hockey powerhouse that's not to be reckoned with.

woot,
ass

dudes, I'm absolutely trashed right now, so if that made no sense at all, I apologize in advance.

Congratulations on making incredibly accurate predictions that nobody's in any kind of position to verify or believe you actually made prior to Monday's polls. )

Beeeej

I predict that the 43d President of the United States will be George W. Bush. It is going to be a very close election.

A-hole,
Sorry to hear about your dead balls. Maybe letting all those stangers lick your "nut-sack" was the culprit.

ugh........what a disgusting visual

I predict my extra at Harvard tickets will go to someone else.

ouch...

Even their coach disagrees with them. From [uscho.com] :

The consensus belief was that it would take another year before York and Blais were competing for any championships, but a check of the latest polls would find North Dakota sitting at No. 1 and Boston College five spots behind at No. 6.

"I think a more accurate ranking would have us at 12th or 13th," Blais said. "I don't think there's a dominant team in the country, though, so we have as good of a chance as anyone."

Beeeej