CC 4, Cornell 2 (Florida Classic) postgame

Was this an off night by Cornell or an outstanding performance by Colorado College in the 2009 Florida Hockey Classic? I saw both. Other than

• Being outskated by a quicker team
• Taking dumb penalties (CC came close to matching us late in the game)
• Having to watch camera work that made you long for the Lynah broadcasts circa 2006
• Hearing the CC announcers
• Once again not having a replay camera avaialable when it would have benefited us and couldn't have hurt (4th CC goal)
• ... and more

... Cornell did look decent in the third period. If not for that fourth goal, I thought we had a chance to pull it out.

Q's for those who were there: Was anyone behind the net besides the goal judge (it looked kind of empty) and was it goal or no goal on the shot that dented the crossbar? What was the attendance in a building that holds 7,500? How big of a Cornell crowd?

Let's hold our heads up and look forward to crushing a Princeton team rated much lower than us ... so there's no chance the Princeton fan(s?) will point to the Cornell bench and chant, "Zero Point Midweek," right?

If Cornell isn't going all the way in the NCAAs and it has to be a WHCA team that wins, I'd like to see Colorado College hoist the trophy.

I agree with Bill. No doubt that CC is a very fast, skilled team. They looked like the best opponent Cornell has faced this year. Their puck control for the first two periods was excellent on both ends of the ice and they won some big faceoffs, especially during Cornell powerplays. Some of Cornell's 1st period penalties seemed to be a reaction to CC's speed; some could have also been a lack of confidence on the part of younger Big Red players. It's hard to say for sure because the video resolution was not very good. Also, the camera work was really bad. Fortunately, Cornell looked great during much of the third period. The soft ice probably wore down both teams and maybe Cornell is better conditioned.

Cornell is going to have to beat Princeton and UNH to maintain their ranking. Also, the UND games will now be much more important from a pairwise point of view. I hope those games are called the way tonight's game was, with no tolerance for contact to the head. UND leads the nation in PIM and Cornell doesn't need to get all bruised up.

Kalemba gave up 6 goals tonight to a normally high-scoring Maine team (3.78 g/gm). Let's hope Cornell can do the same tomorrow.

One last thought: I think J. Devin should be put back on the Greening/Gallagher line. Gallagher was completely shut down tonight and I didn't see him take any good shots from his best spots. It's unfortunate that Riley Nash doesn't have linemates who can set him up more often, but the Greening/Gallagher/J. Devin line has been very successful.

One option:

Greening/Gallagher/Kennedy
Kennedy/Nash/Jillson
Scali/Collins/Nichols
Esposito/Miller/Roezzler/Kary?

Cornell is 2-3-2 against teams with winning records this season.

and Yale is only 3-2-2 against teams with a winning record.

If you beat all the teams at or below 0.500 and split with all the teams above 0.500, you will end up with a winning percentage of over 0.750. That's not too bad.

Coach Schafer (Ithaca Journal)
"We couldn't have played any worse in the first two periods," Cornell coach Mike Schafer said. "Tonight really showed that a lot of our guys went home from break and didn't get a lot of work in."

From ECAC box score Attendance 6,315. I'm guessing that as in the past, this game is part of the Everblades season ticket package, but that number?

Congratulations to Collin Greening. The goal tonight gives him 100 career points: 46, 54, 100

billhoward


Q's for those who were there: Was anyone behind the net besides the goal judge (it looked kind of empty) and was it goal or no goal on the shot that dented the crossbar? What was the attendance in a building that holds 7,500? How big of a Cornell crowd?

From our vantage point on the opposite end of the rink, the fourth CC goal looked like a shot that hit the back of goal, just inside the right post, and bounced back out right away. None of us had any problem with the goal being allowed.

As for the crowd, I'm not sure what the announced crowd was, but the Cornell contingent was definitely smaller than in the past. For the first time since we've been going to the tournament, the local Cornell Club did not host anything in the hospitality area. There was no raffle for Cornell hockey gear, no buffet for the fans to nosh at, and no official place for Cornell fans to gather together between games and between periods. Instead, all there was were a few Cornell banners hung on the back of the arena wall in front of the area where the Cornell Club usually had its hospitality suite. It didn't appear that an email was sent out to area Cornell alums publicizing the tournament, etc., and if that was the case, it definitely had an effect on the size of the Cornell crowd.

As for the game itself, I can never remember watching Cornell take a penalty in the first minute of each period. Scrivens kept us in the game, but you can't beat a good team playing only one solid stretch of hockey.

dbilmes
As for the game itself, I can never remember watching Cornell take a penalty in the first minute of each period. Scrivens kept us in the game, but you can't beat a good team playing only one solid stretch of hockey.

So...we have a range of opinions from "Scrivens kept us in the game" to "he's just abysmal."

Cornell consolidated ["closed"] its regional offices except NYC. The fairly recent grad who ran the Florida office was moved back to Ithaca. But with e-mail, phone, usually cheap air tickets, there's nothing to stop a local Cornell Club from putting on an event and getting (seeking) help from Alumni House. Same thing with tailgates and tents at away football games: The local club decides if it wants to do an event and then how much it wants to invest. Sometimes Cornell kicks in money if the event has an overarching purpose that benefits CU, such as showing off the new Cornell president at the at-Yale game.

If the attendance was 6315 and most Princeton / Maine fans left after game 1, I could see the blurry stands being 3000. I think that almost certainly counts tickets bought but not used for the game; don't know if that includes Everblades season ticket holders who have free admission to games such as this, but how many can there be - 500? We've had this discussion before as to whether the more correct number to announce is tickets sold for the game, or bodies actually in the stadium. Ghost attendees won't be using the concession stands.

lynah80
Kalemba gave up 6 goals tonight to a normally high-scoring Maine team (3.78 g/gm). Let's hope Cornell can do the same tomorrow.

Impossible. We don't play Maine and therefore can't give up six goals to them.

It sure looked like a holiday hangover.

They really didn't skate with CC at all, and as a result took so awful penalties. Lots of "reaching" for checks from a trailing position. A couple of the trips looked like a case of tangled feet rather than stick-to-skate, but they originated from being out of position in the first place. The wosrt one I can think of was D'Agostino hooking the CC player down on a delayed call rather than allow him to take control of the puck to start the Cornell power play. Just no need for that. They finally found their legs in the 3rd, but another CC blocked shot led to a tough bounce by the Cornell D and the effective GWG.

Definitely one of the more undisciplined Cornell games I've seen in a while, one in which they really didn't offer Scrivens too much help. There weren't a ton of odd man rushes, but there were clear advantages for CC forwards that Scrivens bailed out the Cornell D on. And then there were all the power plays he had to contend with.

This year we have so much trouble being on top of our game from the beginning. I don't know why. You can even look back to some games late last year, although we had as many last year, like this year's BU game, where we let up in the third. Normally you might wonder if the coaches aren't getting them going, but there is only so much they can do. We have shown we can skate with every team we've played, just not for 60 minutes. That often happens in BB games, but you can more easily make up for lapses in BB. Not so easy in hockey. Hopefully we can get it figured out, as we could still go a long way if we do.

It was difficult for me to even see players numbers, but it seemed like the third period took off when Nash was skating with Greening.

Jim Hyla
It was difficult for me to even see players numbers, but it seemed like the third period took off when Nash was skating with Greening.

Nash hasn't done much this year without Greening. Maybe the experiment of splitting them up should be declared a failure.

Axell and Kary in for Nicholls and Espo. Ross in for Whitney.

ebilmes
Axell and Kary in for Nicholls and Espo. Ross in for Whitney.

I think this is the first time Espo sits this year, correct? I thought we might see a Chris Moulson sighting this game, but guess not.

dbilmes
As for the game itself, I can never remember watching Cornell take a penalty in the first minute of each period.

I'd have sworn we took a penalty in the first and last minute of every period we played during the 1986-87 season.
Sounds like of all the Estero tournies I have missed (all of them), I am most glad to have missed this one.

Schafer in IJ Article
We're right back to ground zero. It's like training camp is going to be starting here as soon as we get back to Ithaca and start to get back to the basics of a hockey team and start to build all over again.

It sounds like, over the next few days, it's not going to be much fun to play varsity men's ice hockey at Cornell....

as a charter member of the lynah faithful back in 1958 who now is volunteering in the CC press box, i'd be happy to forward any pointers you have for the CC play by play guy.

Be aware of what should be common knowledge about internet game broadcasts: 1.) during breaks the microphone is often open, 2.) fans from the opposing teams are listening too, try not to antagonize them. Much. ie:"If this is the top team in the East, I hope we come east in the NCAAs."

redice

Schafer in IJ Article
We're right back to ground zero. It's like training camp is going to be starting here as soon as we get back to Ithaca and start to get back to the basics of a hockey team and start to build all over again.

It sounds like, over the next few days, it's not going to be much fun to play varsity men's ice hockey at Cornell....

Probably more fun playing than practicing.

TimV
Be aware of what should be common knowledge about internet game broadcasts: 1.) during breaks the microphone is often open, 2.) fans from the opposing teams are listening too, try not to antagonize them. Much. ie:"If this is the top team in the East, I hope we come east in the NCAAs."

Maybe Cornell should have played better.

ugarte

TimV
Be aware of what should be common knowledge about internet game broadcasts: 1.) during breaks the microphone is often open, 2.) fans from the opposing teams are listening too, try not to antagonize them. Much. ie:"If this is the top team in the East, I hope we come east in the NCAAs."

Maybe Cornell should have played better.

No doubt. Happy New Year.

imafrshmn

Coach Schafer (Ithaca Journal)
"We couldn't have played any worse in the first two periods," Cornell coach Mike Schafer said. "Tonight really showed that a lot of our guys went home from break and didn't get a lot of work in."

I think it was mental more than physical. The last 12 minutes of the CC game, starting with a great shift by a Greening-Nash-Jillson line, who had been playing on three different lines, were played by Cornell with great intensity. I noticed the shots on the scoreboard at 32-9 before that, and we outshot them 18-3 the rest of the way. Unfortunately, 12 intense minutes out of 120 is not enough.

jkahn

imafrshmn

Coach Schafer (Ithaca Journal)
"We couldn't have played any worse in the first two periods," Cornell coach Mike Schafer said. "Tonight really showed that a lot of our guys went home from break and didn't get a lot of work in."

I think it was mental more than physical. The last 12 minutes of the CC game, starting with a great shift by a Greening-Nash-Jillson line, who had been playing on three different lines, were played by Cornell with great intensity. I noticed the shots on the scoreboard at 32-9 before that, and we outshot them 18-3 the rest of the way. Unfortunately, 12 intense minutes out of 120 is not enough.

This is a veteran team. These guys should know how easy it is to lose peak physical condition with only a few days of not working out. I'm sure Mike warned them, but the upperclassmen should have also warned the underclassmen. So even if it weren't mental during the game, in the larger scheme of things it was mental.

This discussion reminds me of something that has bothered me since the summer of 2009. I ran into Ben Scrivens on campus. During our discussion, I asked who else (from the team) stayed on campus for the summer. He impression gave me the impression that he was the only one around campus....

I couldn't help but think back to the summer of (I believe it was) 2002. That would be the summer before the record-setting 2002-03 campaign. That summer, I heard that the entire team stayed on campus to work out & better prepare for what was to be a great season. A very strong committment, indeed.

Many of us thought, going into this season, that the 2009-10 team has some real possibilities of making a serious run at an NCAA title. Especially, when we learned that Scrivens, Greening, & Riley Nash were returning.

To find that they weren't committed enough to stay around Ithaca last summer and work on things together, was a disappointment to me....

I know some will scoff at my suggestion that the team is anything but totally committed. But, the performance in Florida and the following comments (by Schafer) about how the team conducted themselves during the break, would make one wonder.

Any news/random rumors on which teams are being invited to Estero next year?

For those of you wondering whether the team might look any better at UNH:

Cornell left Florida at 4:30 a.m. Thursday, was scheduled to practice in Ithaca on Friday before leaving Saturday morning on a six-hour bus ride to Durham, N.H. Although this week's travel schedule has been hectic, after Sunday's game Cornell has another two-week break. That's when many of the Big Red's problems exposed at the Florida College Classic will be addressed.

[www.theithacajournal.com]

ebilmes
For those of you wondering whether the team might look any better at UNH:

Cornell left Florida at 4:30 a.m. Thursday, was scheduled to practice in Ithaca on Friday before leaving Saturday morning on a six-hour bus ride to Durham, N.H. Although this week's travel schedule has been hectic, after Sunday's game Cornell has another two-week break. That's when many of the Big Red's problems exposed at the Florida College Classic will be addressed.

[www.theithacajournal.com]

From the same article:

"On Sunday at the University of New Hampshire, the Big Red skates against the 16th-ranked Wildcats. The game will be televised nationally on ESPNU, with former NHL coach and announcer Barry Melrose serving as the analyst."

Will the Redcast audio be in sync with ESPNU's video? The thought of listening to Barry Melrose is not very appealing.

Rita
Will the Redcast audio be in sync with ESPNU's video? The thought of listening to Barry Melrose is not very appealing.

What, you don't want to hear more about "Jackie Parker" in a game not involving BU?

ebilmes
For those of you wondering whether the team might look any better at UNH:

Cornell left Florida at 4:30 a.m. Thursday, was scheduled to practice in Ithaca on Friday before leaving Saturday morning on a six-hour bus ride to Durham, N.H. Although this week's travel schedule has been hectic, after Sunday's game Cornell has another two-week break. That's when many of the Big Red's problems exposed at the Florida College Classic will be addressed.

[www.theithacajournal.com]

Hopefully, the team won't have "bus legs" by the time the game starts.

The article doesn't say anything about practicing on a big sheet during the week.

I'll trade you Barry Melrose for Chico Resch. Having Mike Emrick do Devils games and some key NHL games is great. His Devils sidekick Resch is proof that excellence in hockey doesn't always extend to the broadcast booth. On second thought, I'm not sure it's a good trade. Melrose is fun in small doses but on a daily basis, maybe not. Resch you can get used to and tune him out, sort of.

The one thing that bothers me, though, about Schafer's criticism of the players' commitment to staying in shape is that still doesn't explain our ill-advised penalties. It's hard to blame the fact that we took a penalty in the first minute of each period against Colorado College on our lack of conditioning. After a 15-minute rest in the locker room, I'm sure the players who took those penalties weren't out of gas yet. We were taking ill-advised and ill-timed penalties before the exam break, too.

ebilmes
For those of you wondering whether the team might look any better at UNH:

Cornell left Florida at 4:30 a.m. Thursday, was scheduled to practice in Ithaca on Friday before leaving Saturday morning on a six-hour bus ride to Durham, N.H. Although this week's travel schedule has been hectic, after Sunday's game Cornell has another two-week break. That's when many of the Big Red's problems exposed at the Florida College Classic will be addressed.

[www.theithacajournal.com]

Color Elie pleasantly surprised?

mnagowski

ebilmes
For those of you wondering whether the team might look any better at UNH:

Cornell left Florida at 4:30 a.m. Thursday, was scheduled to practice in Ithaca on Friday before leaving Saturday morning on a six-hour bus ride to Durham, N.H. Although this week's travel schedule has been hectic, after Sunday's game Cornell has another two-week break. That's when many of the Big Red's problems exposed at the Florida College Classic will be addressed.

[www.theithacajournal.com]

Color Elie pleasantly surprised?

I guess I shouldn't be surprised that the team decides to play (what sounds like) its best game of the season when I'm not there.

ebilmes

mnagowski

ebilmes
For those of you wondering whether the team might look any better at UNH:

Cornell left Florida at 4:30 a.m. Thursday, was scheduled to practice in Ithaca on Friday before leaving Saturday morning on a six-hour bus ride to Durham, N.H. Although this week's travel schedule has been hectic, after Sunday's game Cornell has another two-week break. That's when many of the Big Red's problems exposed at the Florida College Classic will be addressed.

[www.theithacajournal.com]

Color Elie pleasantly surprised?

I guess I shouldn't be surprised that the team decides to play (what sounds like) its best game of the season when I'm not there.

What do we have to do to keep you away from games the rest of the season?

One of Cornell's PP's