Colgate postgame

First game I've watched in a while, but I'll throw out some general observations...

The good:
-The offense seems to know how to generate chances-
They are relatively efficient with the puck down low in the offensive zone and the third forward/defenseman moves nicely into the slot for quality shots (need to get them on net though).
-Greening and Nash are real strong with the puck and Scrivens makes the big stops
-The defense is actually clearing rebounds! (something that IMO has been plaguing these cornell teams, even when mckee was putting up great numbers, and perhaps more so in recent years)

The not so nice:
-Possession in the defensive zone (the giveaways were absolutely terrible)
-Blue line on the PP (no good chances coming from the point... also. we seem to have the size to set up in front of the net, but we don't for reasons unbeknownst to me, and haven't really since Hynes in 04-05?)
-The breakout is slow (seemed to work ok against Colgate, won't work against a team that doesn't fall back so readily into their own zone)

Overall, we looked good though and outplayed colgate. Probably should've came away with a win in regulation. Nevertheless LGR in 09!

Cactus12
Overall, we looked good though and outplayed colgate. Probably should've came away with a win in regulation. Nevertheless LGR in 09!

From the audio it sounded like we would win 9 times out of 10 if you assume entering the third period tied, but OTOH it may have been a bit of a gift to reach the third tied in the first place.

I'll take the tie.

Trotsky

Cactus12
Overall, we looked good though and outplayed colgate. Probably should've came away with a win in regulation. Nevertheless LGR in 09!

From the audio it sounded like we would win 9 times out of 10 if you assume entering the third period tied, but OTOH it may have been a bit of a gift to reach the third tied in the first place.

I'll take the tie.

I watched via B2, and I definitely came away disappointed with the tie. Both of Colgate's goals were gifts off of defensive gaffes in the first place. Fortunately, we didn't lose our composure, battled back, and earned the tie - but, oh, to have one of Colgate's goals back or to bury one more of the great chances we created in the third...

Also, we hit REALLY hard - wow. Compleletly clean, but when our guys would line someone up they'd almost double over at the hip and then absolutely drive their shoulders up and through their man. Ouch.

First, let me say that it was great to see so many of the eLynah regulars down there; it's definitely a lot more fun with a large cheering section.

(I blogged about some shout-outs we got in the local media if you're interested.)

It's hard to walk away from this weekend disappointed. The Saturday game was the big one, and it's great to get a win against a WCHA team. I don't think it mattered too much whether we tied or beat Colgate last night. This team knows it can beat 'gate and it's not going to have pairwise implications later in the season.

Catcus12 had a good analysis of the negatives:

-Possession in the defensive zone (the giveaways were absolutely terrible)
-Blue line on the PP (no good chances coming from the point... also. we seem to have the size to set up in front of the net, but we don't for reasons unbeknownst to me, and haven't really since Hynes in 04-05?)
-The breakout is slow (seemed to work ok against Colgate, won't work against a team that doesn't fall back so readily into their own zone)

The breakout has been a lot better this year than last, and it seems to be improving.

The powerplay issue has been ongoing (Bitz and McCutcheon in previous years would also just camp at the point and telegraph shots), but that option seems to create some opportunities to clean up junk in front of the net. I agree that we need to put some more size down low.

The defensive problems were by far the most troubling for me. Seminoff seemed to get his game back this weekend, so that was encouraging, but some of the breakaways and odd-man rushes we gave up this weekend should not happen in a Schafer team. B. Nash did not deserve to be on the all-tournament team, as he was directly responsible for some of those breakaways. [[url=http://albums.phanfare.com/1388773/2961991_3480199#imageID=56721241]This picture[/url] by Bill says it all.] Taylor Davenport had some similar issues in the defensive zone.

I'm hoping we can write most of these problems off to some rust (3 weeks off), since we've been solid defensively for most of the season.

On the plus side, Scrivens continues to show that he can carry this team. He didn't have a superb game either night, but he played well enough to give us a chance to win both games. He made some big saves on Sunday to keep us from falling further behind.

This team looks ready to have a monster second half. Hopefully we won't have a letdown against UMass or Niagara, but I don't think that'll happen if the defense shows up.

See you Sunday in Amherst.

Edit: One more comment. I was very impressed with Colgate this weekend. During the first 30 minutes of their first game (vs. Maine) they looked awful, but they really turned it up that game and continued to play pretty well overall during the championship game. It was great to have an all-EZAC final.

ebilmes
This team knows it can beat 'gate and it's not going to have pairwise implications later in the season.

I'm not ready to draw that conclusion quite yet. There's a long way to go and 1-0-2 isn't going to help in COP with teams like Princeton, CC, DU, UML, DC and even QU (all TUCs and all perfect vs. the Raiders to date).

There's not much I can add to the previous posts about the Florida tournament, except to say this year's team seems to have a knack, so far, for doing what it takes to get a win (or at least a tie). While it would be nice to be 3-0 against Colgate, in both of our ties against them we had to rally from two-goal deficits. We also fell behind against St. Cloud State and came back to win that game.
The one item of note about this year's tournament is that attendance was way down. The title game attendance was listed as 4,561, which had to be a low for the tournament's nine years. It's nearly 3,000 fewer than the single-game tournament record when we played BC in 2004. I'm sure the Everblades' season ticket sales are down due to the economy, and neither Colgate nor St. Cloud State drew many fans.
The field wasn't as strong as it's been in the past, when we've often had three teams ranked in the top 15, but I don't think that makes that much difference as far as the tournament. There aren't too many college hockey fanatics in Southwest Florida who decide to head in from the beach early to watch Cornell play Maine! It's more of a combination of Everblades season ticket sales and the fan base of the participating teams.
As an aside, the Cornell women's basketball team is playing tonight (Tuesday) at Florida Gulf Coast University, which is only a few miles from the rink. It's too bad the game couldn't have been scheduled to coincide better with the hockey tournament. It would have been fun to have a contingent of Lynah Faithful cheering on another Big Red team.

ebilmes
This team knows it can beat 'gate

Coming from 2 goal deficits to eek out ties in the last two games isn't exactly Canada vs Kazakhstan. Cornell is a better team, but Colgate knows how to play them.

ebilmes
(I blogged about some shout-outs we got in the local media if you're interested.)

From your post:

However, that same story also had this:

It wasn't upstate New York, and rowdy college students didn't crowd the stands shouting: "Go Big Red" or "Go Raiders!"

Where were they? I led at least three "Let's go red" cheers in the game.

Well, if you want to be literal, it's true; you weren't shouting "Go Big Red" because that's not actually what we say.

dbilmes
There's not much I can add to the previous posts about the Florida tournament, except to say this year's team seems to have a knack, so far, for doing what it takes to get a win (or at least a tie). While it would be nice to be 3-0 against Colgate, in both of our ties against them we had to rally from two-goal deficits. We also fell behind against St. Cloud State and came back to win that game.
The one item of note about this year's tournament is that attendance was way down. The title game attendance was listed as 4,561, which had to be a low for the tournament's nine years. It's nearly 3,000 fewer than the single-game tournament record when we played BC in 2004. I'm sure the Everblades' season ticket sales are down due to the economy, and neither Colgate nor St. Cloud State drew many fans.
The field wasn't as strong as it's been in the past, when we've often had three teams ranked in the top 15, but I don't think that makes that much difference as far as the tournament. There aren't too many college hockey fanatics in Southwest Florida who decide to head in from the beach early to watch Cornell play Maine! It's more of a combination of Everblades season ticket sales and the fan base of the participating teams.
As an aside, the Cornell women's basketball team is playing tonight (Tuesday) at Florida Gulf Coast University, which is only a few miles from the rink. It's too bad the game couldn't have been scheduled to coincide better with the hockey tournament. It would have been fun to have a contingent of Lynah Faithful cheering on another Big Red team.

I also noticed a drop in attendance. The sections behind both goals were pretty much empty; i.e. if you were wearing sandals, you had enough digits to count them out .

There didn't seem to be too many fans from Maine there and I wonder if the ice storms that they had in northern New England in mid-December was another factor (besides the tanking economy).

It was great seeing the "Everblades tourney regulars" as well as meeting a few more members of the Lynah Faithful. It was fun seeing the Big Red live instead of on the computer.

I hope everyone has a happy and safe New Year!

They are replaying the cornell-colgate game right now on B2cable.com for free.

dragonfan
They are replaying the cornell-colgate game right now on B2cable.com for free.

Thanks! Just tuned to catch the last few seconds of OT. Now onto the shootout...