Iggulden = useless?

Does anyone else think that Iggulden is useless? I mean, when I watch him playing, he always just skates around in circles and never interacts with the puck. The only time he made a valuable contribution this year was against Harvard - when Naoh Welch fell down at the blue line on a two on 1, and iggulden of course passed the puck to Hornby, who buried the puck on the 2 on 0 goal.

Also, the last time Iggulden played, Cornell lost to Colgate. Iggulden hasn't played since, and we have been playing exceptional hockey ever since. Maybe Schafer has finally realized that the second Abbott is waaay better than Iggulden.

Anyone want to start an Iggulden anti-fan club?

Where's Blonde when you need her?

I can't speak in general because I haven't noticed lately, but I think somehow trying to blame him (in any part) for the Colgate loss is pretty silly. It was just one of those nights. We hit 6 posts! We could have easily won that game 4 or 5 to 1. So connected that to him kinda hurts your credibility.

As for in general, feel free to debate away.

Im not blaming him for the loss. Its just another factor in my opinion against him.

Also for proof:

Look at the pictures of the Harvard Game: Page 3, picture 5. HE IS SKATING IN CIRCLES RIGHT BY THE PUCK, LOOKING THE WRONG WAY!

I doubt he's THAT bad; I mean, he did make the team after all.

Nevertheless, he has only picked up points in six career games. And we lost 3 of those 6.

But then again, he's a +3 in the action he has seen this year. Who knows.

last year, in games played without Iggulden, we were 3-2.

this year, in games played without Iggulden, we are 9-1.

that being said, i still don't think he's as bad as you're making him out to be, as he's a much more defensive forward than the Abbotts are.

I must agree.

He seems soft in most games that I've seen and, although i don't blame him for the losses, the record does seem rather telling with him vs without him. The Hornby line does better without him and is much more exciting to watch.

PS: I went to buy a game used jersey and there were very few home whites left - guess which number still was there though (3 times - although 1 can be attributed to iggluden).

By the way, sitting in section B and hearing someone yell to Iggluden, who stands near the locker room in his swank suit, "Hey Iggluden, how are you doing?!" did make me laugh quite a bit

One more thing -

didn't Iggulden have surgery during the off-season? I seem to recall reading somewhere that he did. Perhaps that has contributed to his woes.

Also, perhaps similar complaints could be made about Paul Varteressian, who has seen even less action this year. And I believe that he too had surgery during the off-season.

Everybody has a role to play on the club. Sometimes those roles are arduous and unkind both to your stats and the way you look to the casual fan. I haven't seen Iggy this year, but as long as Mike is playing a guy it aint for sentimental reasons -- it's because he contributes to the team in a meaningful way.

OTOH, there are useless posters...

Greg wrote:

Everybody has a role to play on the club. Sometimes those roles are arduous and unkind both to your stats and the way you look to the casual fan. I haven't seen Iggy this year, but as long as Mike is playing a guy it aint for sentimental reasons -- it's because he contributes to the team in a meaningful way.

OTOH, there are useless posters...

Well Said!

HpyGlmore2-05 wrote:

HE IS SKATING IN CIRCLES RIGHT BY THE PUCK, LOOKING THE WRONG WAY!

Actually, Iggy had just stripped Cavanagh of the puck in that pic, WHICH IT CLEARLY STATES IN THE INFO.

He was very impressive last year before he broke his wrist at Princeton. Took him a while to get his game back after that injury, but he was playing well by the end of last season. He hasn't really shown the same level of play this year, IMO, but he might be dinged up or something. At any rate, he's far from useless and I, for one, hope he returns to form by the playoffs. He'll obviously be playing on Friday, but when Hornby returns, the question is where to put him. The two Abbotts seem to work together quite well.

CowbellGuy wrote:

He'll obviously be playing on Friday, but when Hornby returns, the question is where to put him. The two Abbotts seem to work together quite well.

To me, this is much more the issue than any real or perceived problems anyone may have with Iggulden. He's not a bad player by any stretch of the imagination (and certainly anyone deserves a little understanding when they've been injured), but he just doesn't fit in on that line. Iggulden's style of play doesn't match that of Hornby or the Abbotts, and when he's playing instead of Chris Abbott, the line suffers for the lack of chemistry. As someone said above, if Schafer has him on the team, then he belongs there, it's just not clear exactly where he fits right now.

When he came in here people in the hockey program thought he had a world of potential -- size, good skating and soft hands. (Check the comments about him in the player profiles in last year's program.) He lacked experience -- he played Canadian high school hockey -- and had done no weight training. Once he got into the weight room and became accustomed to Division One hockey, they felt he could be a star.

It never happened. He still does not seem very strong, he's suprisingly easy to push off the puck for a man his size. Most of the guys on the team weight train religiously, maybe Iggulden just doesn't have that drive.

Let us not underestimate lesser known members of the team. Especially this week. Remember that during the trip to Harvard in 2001, a lesser known Jason Kuczmanski scored the game winning goal!

Harvard seems to bring out the best in everybody. I distinctly recall Terry Gage (my alltime favorite player, if only because he skated about as well as I do ) netting the game winner in a game against the Crimson in the mid 80's!

For comparison, let's look at the career of one Matt Cooney:

Matt Cooney
Yr	Cl	Po	GP	G	A	Pts	PIM
1994	Fr	W	12	0	2	2	32
1995	So	W	26	7	3	10	52
1996	Jr	W	34	13	21	34	104
1997	Sr	W	23	9	9	18	45
  	  	  	95	29	35	64	233

Now, Cooney was certainly more noticeable than Iggulden--who exactly could fail to notice a guy averaging around 2 PMs/game?--but he was similarly not an offensive powerhouse over his first couple of seasons. What happened junior year? Brad Chartrand.

Chartrand, who hadn't exactly been over-acheiving in his first three years, exploded for 43 points in his senior year. Cooney and Chartrand together were the most unstoppable offensive pairing I had seen after '94 (I watched a lot before then, but I didn't pay the same attention, so leave out Derraugh, Andison, et al.) until Vesce and Bâby. To watch Chartrand and Cooney play the "power kill," as we called it at that time, was a thing of beauty. I will always remember throwing my trombone about three rows down the stands after a Chartrand shorthander at Clarkson--I was listening on the radio at a basketball game. Mmm... Grady... but I digress.

My point is that line chemistry is extremely important, and Iggulden just doesn't seem to have a place. As they say, though, past results do not exactly predict future performance. One can fill out a long list of Cornell hockey players that have stepped it up for their junior and senior campaigns. Maybe next year we'll add Iggulden to that list.

HpyGlmore2-05 wrote:

Maybe Schafer has finally realized that the second Abbott is waaay better than Iggulden.

of course the "second abbott" is better !!!

-the abbott fan

HpyGlmore2-05 wrote:

Does anyone else think that Iggulden is useless? I mean, when I watch him playing, he always just skates around in circles and never interacts with the puck. The only time he made a valuable contribution this year was against Harvard - when Naoh Welch fell down at the blue line on a two on 1, and iggulden of course passed the puck to Hornby, who buried the puck on the 2 on 0 goal.

Also, the last time Iggulden played, Cornell lost to Colgate. Iggulden hasn't played since, and we have been playing exceptional hockey ever since. Maybe Schafer has finally realized that the second Abbott is waaay better than Iggulden.

Anyone want to start an Iggulden anti-fan club?

I think it's pretty safe to say that Iggulden is not useless, after his performance in today's Ohio State game.

well...being that that post was in FEBRUARY last season!!! Completely different season sometimes means a completely different person on the ice. I believe this is one of those cases.

Man you had to dig through the archives for this one!

Iggulden's most certainly improved, and I think that's great. I would hope that all of our players are great and are really competing for playing time.

Meaningless fact:

Today Iggulden scored only his 2nd and 3rd goals of his career thus far. His last (and, therefore, first) goal was his freshman year on November 24, 2001 at Boston University. So he's still looking for his first goal against a conference opponent .

Now O'Byrne and Salmela are the two left looking for their first points of their careers.

Maybe we should just send Iggulden out against nonconference opponents, and ride his coattails to an at-large NCAA tournament bid.

Hell, just dress him for the NCAAs.

Why don't we dress him for all of the games since he has been playing well? You can't expect him to put up amazing numbers on a line with two freshmen who are still adjusting to college hockey.

Iggulden has done a great job on the penalty kill as well this season. He is skating better than in past years, and hopefully this tourney is a sign of some point production over the rest of this season into next year. Dont forget that he has had some lengthy injuries as well.

Still think Iggulden is useless after the everblades final?

All that matters, really, is that Tyhach got owned. Owned! OWNED I TELL YOU!!!