2018-11-30: Dartmouth 3 Cornell 2

To 'er, lad.

Note: 7:30 start time.

If I still lived in Albany, I would've driven up to this game for sure. Dartmouth is inconsistent (as they seemingly are every year), but games in Hanover have always been thorny affairs

McGrath gets his first start. Galajda out for the weekend. Mallott back.

Trotsky
To 'er, lad.

Note: 7:30 start time.

Thanks for the above. I came here to see what was up when the live stream had not started by 7:08.

andyw2100

Trotsky
To 'er, lad.

Note: 7:30 start time.

Thanks for the above. I came here to see what was up when the live stream had not started by 7:08.

I only figured it out when the cretinous argle bargle was still polluting WHCU at 6:40.

Is anyone getting a feed on ESPN+ at 7:36? Nothing here.

Feed is fine here.

Trotsky
Feed is fine here.

I clicked on the game on the ESPN app and it says that it is upcoming and starts at 7. It is, at 7:41, an infuriating response.

Why did McGrath start over Galejda?

redice
Why did McGrath start over Galejda?

Injury. Galajda's in Ithaca.

Anyone know how serious the injury to MG is? I know he's out for the entire weekend.

djk26
Anyone know how serious the injury to MG is? I know he's out for the entire weekend.

Schafer said he will be back for the January games.

Maybe it's the camera angle but Cornell looks lifeless.

Two things:

(1) Andreev's line mates (and the rest of the team) should learn to keep their sticks on the ice at all times, particularly when rushing the net.

(2) Can we catch a break or two sometime, please? That other kind of break can't come soon enough.

All three Dartmouth goals were garbage. But I continue to be stunned by how bad this team's offensive decisionmaking is. I have to imagine that is the fault of the coaches. Does anyone coach the offense or do they just run defensive drills all practice? Dartmouth is awful and Cornell has no business losing games like this.

I just caught the game on replay and just shake my head that we lost a game where we dominated territorially as much as we did. We played much crisper than against Harvard, but as noted above can’t seem to catch a break. I think we must’ve used all those up last season.

Some years it just isn’t your year, and right now it’s starting to look that way.

BearLover
All three Dartmouth goals were garbage. But I continue to be stunned by how bad this team's offensive decisionmaking is. I have to imagine that is the fault of the coaches. Does anyone coach the offense or do they just run defensive drills all practice? Dartmouth is awful and Cornell has no business losing games like this.

Well judging by how much different our offense is than years ago, I'd say we had some coaching.

Years ago all the crap was that Schafer couldn't change and adapt to the new play. Now that he's shown he can, the complaints change.

The offense gave themselves numerous chances. Did they miss some goal scoring opportunities, yup. But the offense played good enough to win and if they keep it up, they'll be scoring more goals.

The defense was good enough. Dmth got some very good bounces for their goals, but the team didn't quit. Rather put on a good show in the third period. They controlled the play so much that I was wondering if halfway through the period, we should have pulled the goalie.

It's still very early. Let's see how healthy we are after the break. Entering tonight, we had the best win percentage in conference play in the conference. I believe we're now in 3rd.

Jim Hyla

BearLover
All three Dartmouth goals were garbage. But I continue to be stunned by how bad this team's offensive decisionmaking is. I have to imagine that is the fault of the coaches. Does anyone coach the offense or do they just run defensive drills all practice? Dartmouth is awful and Cornell has no business losing games like this.

Well judging by how much different our offense is than years ago, I'd say we had some coaching.

Years ago all the crap was that Schafer couldn't change and adapt to the new play. Now that he's shown he can, the complaints change.

The offense gave themselves numerous chances. Did they miss some goal scoring opportunities, yup. But the offense played good enough to win and if they keep it up, they'll be scoring more goals.

I don't know what you mean by this. Schafer has adapted to the changing game by recruiting faster players. How does that mean our offensive decisionmaking has improved at all? I.e., what does adapting to the new play have to do with my point? This has been a problem for years. We are completely clueless on how to take advantage of odd-man rushes. Our passes miss, we shoot too late. Our movement on offense is crap; we stand still waiting for shooting/passing lanes to magically open up (this problem is most blatant on the PP). Other than Donaldson, and maybe Andreev, who shows a ton of promise, I could write at length about the offensive ineptitudes of almost everyone on this team.

We should have won this game 2-1 or 2-0, so in a typical game in a typical year we'd just forget about our offensive woes and move on. But our injuries on D have increased our need to score, which has exposed just how awful we are at offensive playmaking. The question is whether it's a coaching issue or a talent issue (which, indirectly, is a coaching issue).

The hits just keep on coming...Vanderlaan injured at Dartmouth:

To make matters worse, senior forward and captain Mitch Vanderlaan sustained an injury in the first period and will not play tomorrow night, Schafer said.

[cornellsun.com]

The past month has nothing but misfortune. I think at this point it's safe to say ECAC championship or nothing

Iceberg
The past month has nothing but misfortune. I think at this point it's safe to say ECAC championship or nothing

We have five losses and a month off coming up. Plenty of time to rebound.

Dafatone

Iceberg
The past month has nothing but misfortune. I think at this point it's safe to say ECAC championship or nothing

We have five losses and a month off coming up. Plenty of time to rebound.

32 in the PWR now. Going to need more than just a rebound to secure an at-large bid.

The good news is, because of the injuries, it's less likely our performance thus far is indicative of our true playing level. The bad news is, if we get healthy and start playing a lot better, we've already dug ourselves a pretty deep hole. Let's just win the ECAC and not worry about an at-large.

BearLover

Dafatone

Iceberg
The past month has nothing but misfortune. I think at this point it's safe to say ECAC championship or nothing

We have five losses and a month off coming up. Plenty of time to rebound.

32 in the PWR now. Going to need more than just a rebound to secure an at-large bid.

We've played ten games. We have nineteen left, plus the conference playoffs (2-8, likely 3-5 games if we're doing well). That's plenty of time.

If we were 8-2, we'd be doing great in the pairwise. So we have to play three wins better than "normal" be-towards-the-top-of-the-pairwise play from here on out. That's very doable.

The conference is doing very well in OOC games. We have two games with Arizona State that are a big opportunity to improve our RPI.

If we get healthy and play good hockey, we'll be right in the thick of things. If we don't get healthy or don't play good hockey, we won't be. Simple as that.

1. No at large bid is coming. This season is about how we play in the ECAC RS and the ECAC tournament. If we win in Lake Placid we'll get a NC$$ game as a cherry on top. But this season is about playing well in the RS, getting to Lake Placid, and simply enjoying the hockey.

2. Our offense is fine. We had 40 shots, 21 in the third period, and a dozen > 50% chances to score. Luck happens.

3. The defense does have problems, surely in part because of injuries. Our "defense" last night was our constant offensive pressure. I'm not typically a fan of retrenchment but I'd suggest we back off a little on the Dmen jumping up into the play. A little transitional defense would fill the holes.

4. McGrath is okay. He strays too much for my taste but he made the stops he should have. None of the goals were his fault. Obviously Galajda is much better but we have a cromulent backup.

5. "It's a long season and you have to trust it." Take this year game by game and enjoy the good moments. Not every season is going to be the incredible RS dominance of last year.

6. From what I have seen there is no exceptional team in the ECAC this year. We're as good (or bad) as everybody else. Enjoy the race.

if we win like 5 of 6 we jump right back into the mix. we have played 5 ECAC games and been the best team 5 times.. that may change tonight.