Post-Harvard musing II

Here are some of my thoughts and observations from the Brown-Harvard (well, mostly Harvard) weekend:

(1) As my friend Nora would attest: Coach Schafer angrily banged the glass behind him (and startled Nora, who was standing directly behind the glass) when Harvard scored its first goal, spoiling yet another potential shutoff by David LeNevue.
(2) As others have observed: Cornell totally controlled the tempo of the first period, especially the first 8-9 minutes. The Lynah East crowd was positively and thoroughly boisterous. Then, the Crimson stormed out of the gate in the second period and made the evening highly, highly, and almost unbearable for the Big Red. Things were so tense down the stretch that the Lynah East Faithful did not even get to do the "Which team is the winning team" chant at the end. (Well, if it were done, it was certainly lost in the exiting crowd.)
(3) The key difference clearly was that Harvard managed to get back playing Cornell-style hockey, with a lot of forechecking and simply a lot of hustle. We were downright dis-organized for much of the 2nd period, and Harvard took advantage of it.
(4) Harvard's Dominic Moore was quoted saying "I feel fine about this game, because we learned our lesson.'' Well, I hope the Big Red also took away the lesson that a 3-goal against this explosive team is never a comfortable margin. Also, in the final minute, when Harvard pulled its goalie for the extra attacker, Cornell dumped the puck for icing at least three times, when a couple extra steps would have meant the other side of the red line and no icing. Little things like that could have hurt us badly.
(5) My friend and former boss at Harvard, Roger, brought his nine-year-old son to the game. Little John wore an oversize Harvard at-home jersey and sat in Section 4, in the safe confine of other Harvard fans (yes, they actually showed up). Roger reported that John was having a great time yelling "Safety School, Safety School." Roger said, "he did not know what it meant, but he was having fun saying it."
(6) After the game, Coach Mike Schafer showed up at the Dillon Field House, where the Cornell Club of Boston had hosted a pre-game reception and a couple dozen alumni were gathering for an after-glow. Mike, in a brown leather coat, graciously thanked the alumni and supporters for showing up for the game and cheering on the team to victory. Matt McRae, in street clothes as he did not suit up, accompanied the coach. They did not stay for very long afterwards. As we were leaving the sports complex, we noticed that several players were heading into Cambridge with their girlfriend. My guess is that the team bus was not leaving until 11:00 pm.
(7) The game was a fast one. It ended before 9:15 PM. Referre Hansen pretty much swallowed his whistle in the second half of the 3rd period.
(8) Per Boston Globe: "..a sellout crowd of 2,776." Wow, I had no idea Bright was that small. I dare say that a good 1,000-1,200 of Cornell fans were on hands on Saturday night. You really wouldn't know Harvard fans were present until the first Crimson goal was scored.
(9) The Harvard band made a respectable showing for a change.
(10) On Friday night, we had the pleasure of being the guests of a Cornell friend who now works at Brown and watched the game from the new "luxury box" in Meehan Auditorium. The box is situated directly above the home goal, giving us an excellent view when Cornell scored at this end of the ice. Yann Danis, the Brown goalie, had an outstanding night. The score would have been 4-2, as the Big Red did hit the post at least a couple of times. But, the puck luck was on the Brown side, as that second Brown goal slowly trickled past the goal line behind LeNevue, who thought he had caught the puck.

[Q]Things were so tense down the stretch that the Lynah East Faithful did not even get to do the "Which team is the winning team" chant at the end. (Well, if it were done, it was certainly lost in the exiting crowd.)[/Q]
Yes, it was done...right after the buzzer at the bottom of the aisle between Sections 14 and 15 (near the band). And it was mostly lost in the noise of the elated crowd, as I was in Section 14 and still had trouble following it.

My observations:

What a game! As Cornell forward Sam Paolini said in the Cornell Daily Sun write-up, "It's always great playing in this rink...It had to be the greatest game to watch. It was a great game to play in; I can't imagine how it felt to watch it from the stands, and the fans must have reacted. It's so nice having our fans here." Cornell fans were into it before the teams came out, and Harvard's fans made some noise as well as the game went on. That was a great example of why I love college hockey. Terrific atmosphere, and that was what having a rivalry is all about. Lots of fun. And no matter where you went in Cambridge before or after the game, you ran into Cornell fans asking or talking about the game.

The score could've been 6-5 either way. CU missed some good opportunities (Vesce alone at the far post lofting the puck over an open side of the net is still fresh in my mind...and Age's picture captured that moment), and LeNeveu came up huge several times in-tight.

HU had a great game plan late in the 3rd. CU's defense usually tries to work pucks to the corners where the size advantage often results in possession. HU would purposely take the puck near the corner to draw defenders, and then slip out to right behind the net and flop the puck to the slot, creating an advantage for the forwards out in front. It happened about 5 times, but either the CU defense was able to control and clear or Lenny was up to covering holes down low. Pettit in particular was great in chipping the puck over the net to land right in the crease.

The refs predictably swallowed the whistle in the 3rd...and they let both teams slip in a few early players during line changes when "Too many men" penalties could've been called, IMO.

Basically, this game had all the makings of Deja Vu for last year's meeting at Bright (HU tying goal with :40 left, win in OT). CU kept taking bad icing calls in the last minute, as Tom mentioned above, but this year we got our satisfaction after some tense, tense times.

The crowd was good all around. The half-dozen Harvard meatheads in costumes showed up after it was already 2-0. As the Cornell crowd raged on, the Crimson fans finally decided to make some noise in response. We did the "We can't hear you" chant after a weak "Let's go Harvard," and they did the same chant to us in the 3rd, to which we responded with one of the loudest "Let's Go Red!" chants of the night. They did "Jump off the bridge" chant twice, and we did "Grade inflation" twice. Eh. Their band has abandoned the Blazers for band hockey jerseys (all have #1 and an "H" bass drum on the shoulders) and they all were giving the middle finger during our Alma Mater. This was the first time I heard Harvard give the "Harvard rejects" chant...usually it's non-ivies. We responded with a simple "rejects!" chant. "Hotel Management" and "Cow College" made their usual appearances, but briefly. Fun night, capped off by a great win.

Rich Hovorka '96 wrote:

This was the first time I heard Harvard give the "Harvard rejects" chant...usually it's non-ivies. We responded with a simple "rejects!" chant.

Oh come on! They're Yale rejects!

I was also shocked to hear them chant, "We beat Colgate." The "We Beat Harvard" was a decent reply. Fun that it could have been Harvard, Princeton of BU at the end of our reply.

-J

Ooh, I didn't hear that one. I would've replied with "You lost to Princeton", personally, but "We beat Harvard" is good too.

I was surprised by how readily the Harvard band resorted to profanity. Besides the near constant middle fingers, they swore all the way through our Alma Mater.

Also, it was nice of them to show up on time. They didn't even try to get there for the warmup and several of them weren't even there for the opening faceoff. They just aren't very good fans!

Of course, there was no "Oh Canada." It was a valiant effort by some of you to sing it, but we just couldn't quite hear it well enough to join in all the way over in Section 9.

Another amusing story: As the group I was with was winding our way out of the Athletic complex towards the Cambridge bars to celebrate, we encountered an old Harvard salt. As he passed us, he bitterly muttered, "Have you gotten any Americans on your team yet?"

I guess he thought that was an insult, but if the old guard of Harvard doesn't want bright international talent on his team or at their school, I'm happy to have them on mine. Isn't his remark also insulting to the Canadians who happen to don the Crimson?

Wow... profanity in an Alma Matter... So much for my earlier comment on Harvard having classy fans.

I take it you haven't heard the alternate lyrics to the Hahvahd alma mater? I don't hear too many Cornell fans singing it anymore, but I bet the pep band members still know the words.

I've been reading a lot of USCHO.com today...

Kenny Parker posted the link for ESPN's college sports front page which highlights the Cornell-Harvard game this past weekend:

[sports.espn.go.com]

Pretty cool.

Yeah, I haven't heard that since Lynah in 2000 and that was only a handful of people during the pregame warmup...those lyrics were pretty bad.

Christine says:

[Q]I take it you haven't heard the alternate lyrics to the Hahvahd alma mater? I don't hear too many Cornell fans singing it anymore, but I bet the pep band members still know the words.[/Q]

Nor does he know of the exploits of the freshmen up at Yale.

[Q]Nor does he know of the exploits of the freshmen up at Yale. [/Q]
...or their lack of exploits, that is.

[q]But the Big Red and Crimson will likely meet again with much more at stake -- like an NCAA Tournament berth for Harvard.[/q]

The best part of the teaser with the link is that it assumes that Cornell is getting a bid regardless of the tournament results, but that Harvard is going to have to win.

Oh, please provide alternate lyrics for the Harvard alma mater

The one I'm familiar with is Tom Lehrer's "Fight Fiercely, Harvard"

The "alternate lyrics" many know are not to their Alma Mater, but to the de facto Harvard Fight Song, "Ten Thousand Men of Harvard." Some quick research says that Harvard's Alma Mater is "Fair Harvard," and I'm not aware of a satirical version of that.

Rich Hovorka '96 wrote:

...or their lack of exploits, that is.

Of course, that lack of exploits is more than made up for during their junior year.

The worst part is the photo from the Beanpot against BU.

Writing alternate lyrics for an Alma Matter is fine as long as you don't sing it over them during the hockey game I think....

I don't know I guess I just think that that's one part where you stop the insults. When I was a freshman I turned to face the other way as Yale was singing their Alma Matter and I was quickly rebuked by my fellow faithful.

Plus, raising your middle finger in unison is just plain stupid and unimaginative. It makes the "Harvard Rejects" cheer look creative.

Any photo of Noah Welch looking pissed is OK by me.

OTOH, the Clarkson band holding up lighters and swaying during the Alma Mater cracked me up.