CU vs Yale

Daily Sun weekend preview.

Krill Gotovets makes one of the best blocked shots you will ever see as time runs out in the third.

blecccccccccccccch

Though it really sounded like Cornell had a lot of chances to win this one against a talented team.

We had many, many chances to win.

That was a wild game. Lots of mistakes by both sides, and a very fast pace.

Just finished watching on the DVR. Painful loss, but not horribly discouraging. Yale's a damn good team, and each team had their moments. Miller missed a bunch of chances, and Iles was excellent. I don't have a lot of complaints other than the result.

I thought Ferlin was just terrific (except he should have shot on the two on one in the 2nd period), and I thought DeSewardt had maybe the best game I've ever seen him play. Espo also played well and showed nice hands on his goal.

It was a bit bizarre how Birch lost his footing on two occasions, with the second time almost costing us the game in the last minute of regulation.

Gotta bounce back against Brown tomorrow.

Agree that there was a lot of falling down in the defensive zone. Maybe something was up with the ice?

We certainly had plenty of chances and looked pretty good from what I saw. Officiating was typically miserable, with some phantom hooking calls and easy embellishments. I'd love to see what this team can accomplish with some consistent and opportunistic play down the stretch, but we're running out of time.

scoop85
Just finished watching on the DVR. Painful loss, but not horribly discouraging. Yale's a damn good team, and each team had their moments. Miller missed a bunch of chances, and Iles was excellent. I don't have a lot of complaints other than the result.

I thought Ferlin was just terrific (except he should have shot on the two on one in the 2nd period), and I thought DeSewardt had maybe the best game I've ever seen him play. Espo also played well and showed nice hands on his goal.

It was a bit bizarre how Birch lost his footing on two occasions, with the second time almost costing us the game in the last minute of regulation.

Gotta bounce back against Brown tomorrow.

Agreed on everything. I think the Mowrey horse collar, while entertaining, was ill-timed, and we probably could have done without it. The Lowry (?) embellishment should have been a penalty on us. Not to cause a potential tangent, but as much as I love soccer, diving is decidedly not one thing I'd like to see in more sports.

HeafDog

scoop85
Just finished watching on the DVR. Painful loss, but not horribly discouraging. Yale's a damn good team, and each team had their moments. Miller missed a bunch of chances, and Iles was excellent. I don't have a lot of complaints other than the result.

I thought Ferlin was just terrific (except he should have shot on the two on one in the 2nd period), and I thought DeSewardt had maybe the best game I've ever seen him play. Espo also played well and showed nice hands on his goal.

It was a bit bizarre how Birch lost his footing on two occasions, with the second time almost costing us the game in the last minute of regulation.

Gotta bounce back against Brown tomorrow.

Agreed on everything. I think the Mowrey horse collar, while entertaining, was ill-timed, and we probably could have done without it. The Lowry (?) embellishment should have been a penalty on us. Not to cause a potential tangent, but as much as I love soccer, diving is decidedly not one thing I'd like to see in more sports.

If we're going to talk about bad penalties then the Lowry slash (actually a spear) after the second Yale goal has to be at the top. At least Mowery was helping out a teammate.

scoop85
It was a bit bizarre how Birch lost his footing on two occasions, with the second time almost costing us the game in the last minute of regulation.

I wonder if there was something wrong with Birches skates because I noticed Sean was doing something with his skates during the last media time-out.

Was at the game and have not watched my recording of it yet. Does anyone know (did they speculate on the broadcast) what the cause of the review was after the second Yale goal? After it was ruled a goal Schafer had quite a lengthy conversation with one of the refs.

And related to that, just after that Arthur announced that Cornell had taken its timeout. I can understand the refs forcing Cornell to take a timeout if Schafer was stalling and refusing to send skaters out, but he was engaged in conversation with one of the refs. The time between the ref that was talking to Schafer skating off and Arthur making the announcement was a very short amount of time. I'm actually not certain Schafer heard the announcement, because he didn't react at all, and to me, at least, that seemed a ridiculous thing for the (presumably other) ref to do.

ebilmes
I'd love to see what this team can accomplish with some consistent and opportunistic play down the stretch, but we're running out of time.

Well, the thing about a stretch run is... you don't really run out of time until you're out of time.

I think the team is loaded with talent and creativity, and they might be able to pull it together during the tournament. The only real achievable, meaningful goal until then is to pick up a bye. Mean points for 4th place since 1987 is 26.6. 17 points over the second 11 games would be an 8-2-1 record, which seems... highly unlikely.

In those 25 full seasons, 4th has been captured:

11 times (44%) with 26 points (8-3-0) or fewer.
8 times (32%) with 25 points (7-3-1) or fewer.
5 times (20%) with 24 points (7-4-0) or fewer.
2 times (8%) with 23 points (6-4-1).

This has been a horrendous season thus far. No way around it.

Trotsky
......I think the team is loaded with talent and creativity, and they might be able to pull it together during the tournament. ........

Ya know, until I saw Yale last night, I thought the same thing about CU's talent & creativity. After watching Yale, I'm not so sure that CU's talent level hasn't been surpassed. All the statistics show that that was a close game. But, I saw Yale as a much much more talented team last night.

redice

Trotsky
......I think the team is loaded with talent and creativity, and they might be able to pull it together during the tournament. ........

Ya know, until I saw Yale last night, I thought the same thing about CU's talent & creativity. After watching Yale, I'm not so sure that CU's talent level hasn't been surpassed. All the statistics show that that was a close game. But, I saw Yale as a much much more talented team last night.

We looked spectacular in the first half of period one. Then we went into hibernation for quite a stretch. Again.
So, the second period was almost all Yale. It looked like we were playing zone defense on one long Yale power play. Standing off the Yale players, puckwatching, getting badly outhustled.
The third was much better for us. Checking again. Pouring shots on the net. I think we had a slight advantage. Several great chances. One pipe ringer.
But, the stupid penalty monkey keeps rearing his ugly banana.
And, if we can't handle the likes of Brown tonight, like we couldn't handle the pathetic RPI, we may have to admit something to ourselves.
This was one incredibly talented team that never seemed to live up to all the hype.

Oh, and can somebody ask WHCU to run a different commercial during breaks in their broadcast?
If I have to hear that stupid Pepsi Throwup ad again I may do just that!!
"Drink it good, in your mouth!!"

redice

Trotsky
......I think the team is loaded with talent and creativity, and they might be able to pull it together during the tournament. ........

Ya know, until I saw Yale last night, I thought the same thing about CU's talent & creativity. After watching Yale, I'm not so sure that CU's talent level hasn't been surpassed. All the statistics show that that was a close game. But, I saw Yale as a much much more talented team last night.

Yale clearly gets the style points, so yes they probably have more pure hockey "talent" top to bottom. But I didn't feel we were overmatched last night as I did when we lost to Yale 8 in a row prior to last year. Guys like Ferlin, Lowry and Esposito can play with anyone, and our 3rd and 4th lines do a solid job, although they don't score enough. And on the defensive end we can get the job done.

While we're surely not at the level of the early-to-mid 2000's teams, my feeling watching this year is not so much that we're in any particular state of decline, but that the rest of the ECAC has gotten so much better. No real cupcakes anymore, and for whatever reason we're not getting much puck luck at critical times. Enough of a season remaining that we can make a strong run. Given what I've seen, come playoff time, neither a run to the title nor a first round loss would surprise me.

MattS

HeafDog

scoop85
Just finished watching on the DVR. Painful loss, but not horribly discouraging. Yale's a damn good team, and each team had their moments. Miller missed a bunch of chances, and Iles was excellent. I don't have a lot of complaints other than the result.

I thought Ferlin was just terrific (except he should have shot on the two on one in the 2nd period), and I thought DeSewardt had maybe the best game I've ever seen him play. Espo also played well and showed nice hands on his goal.

It was a bit bizarre how Birch lost his footing on two occasions, with the second time almost costing us the game in the last minute of regulation.

Gotta bounce back against Brown tomorrow.

Agreed on everything. I think the Mowrey horse collar, while entertaining, was ill-timed, and we probably could have done without it. The Lowry (?) embellishment should have been a penalty on us. Not to cause a potential tangent, but as much as I love soccer, diving is decidedly not one thing I'd like to see in more sports.

If we're going to talk about bad penalties then the Lowry slash (actually a spear) after the second Yale goal has to be at the top. At least Mowery was helping out a teammate.

After watching the game again this morning, I need to correct myself. While I still think Lowry's penalty was stupid. It wasn't a spear like it looked from my angle at Lynah.

We're hovering around a .500 record, and 6th place in the EZAC, but we played well (maybe) against a good team.

My God - have we sunk to THIS?

scoop85

redice

Trotsky
......I think the team is loaded with talent and creativity, and they might be able to pull it together during the tournament. ........

Ya know, until I saw Yale last night, I thought the same thing about CU's talent & creativity. After watching Yale, I'm not so sure that CU's talent level hasn't been surpassed. All the statistics show that that was a close game. But, I saw Yale as a much much more talented team last night.

Yale clearly gets the style points, so yes they probably have more pure hockey "talent" top to bottom. But I didn't feel we were overmatched last night as I did when we lost to Yale 8 in a row prior to last year. Guys like Ferlin, Lowry and Esposito can play with anyone, and our 3rd and 4th lines do a solid job, although they don't score enough. And on the defensive end we can get the job done.

While we're surely not at the level of the early-to-mid 2000's teams, my feeling watching this year is not so much that we're in any particular state of decline, but that the rest of the ECAC has gotten so much better. No real cupcakes anymore, and for whatever reason we're not getting much puck luck at critical times. Enough of a season remaining that we can make a strong run. Given what I've seen, come playoff time, neither a run to the title nor a first round loss would surprise me.

Let's see, your arguement is that we are just as good as we always were it's just that everyone else got better? We have a good team but we don't score enough? Yale has a lot of good talent but we have 3 talented players?

Your expectation is that we could end up somewhere between going out in the first round of the ECAC Tournament to winning the NCAA's?

scoop85
While we're surely not at the level of the early-to-mid 2000's teams, my feeling watching this year is not so much that we're in any particular state of decline, but that the rest of the ECAC has gotten so much better.

That is decline, decline relative to the rest of the conference. The consensus among my friends is in line with what BearLover said: this season has sucked. And I see no evidence that we'll turn it around. There's no consistency from game to game or period to period.

scoop85
I don't have a lot of complaints other than the result.

Just watched my recording this morning.

I have complaints. That 2nd period was atrocious. CU looked completely inept at simply passing the puck. Yale made some good plays throughout the period, sure, but there was a stretch where we weren't being pressured and couldn't complete 2 passes coming out of our defensive end. It took them 6 minutes to get a single standard 5x5 offensive set opportunity. Both the RPI and Yale games were winnable, had Cornell been able to play a possession-oriented game, and they didn't. They stunk at puck-possession, and that 2nd period was exhibit A. I don't know if it's because they panic at seeing any kind of aggressive fore-checking or what, but opponents know that that's what works against us, and they aren't going to stop seeing it now. They finally got their transition game going late in the 2nd period (leading to the PPG) and the 3rd was better, but where's the vaunted CU cycle? The '00s run teams played a possession game to near-perfection; this team doesn't have the offensive firepower to be successful without doing that. Possession.

The OT was fun to watch. We finally leaned on the throttle a bit, and got some great opportunities, but in the end, a more frantic pace favors Yale, and once they got our D running around, things like that happen. Ryan was the only player to see the open man, but couldn't move fast enough to stop the shot.

Mowrey is leading the "dumb penalty" race this season. By a lot.

scoop85

redice

Trotsky
......I think the team is loaded with talent and creativity, and they might be able to pull it together during the tournament. ........

Ya know, until I saw Yale last night, I thought the same thing about CU's talent & creativity. After watching Yale, I'm not so sure that CU's talent level hasn't been surpassed. All the statistics show that that was a close game. But, I saw Yale as a much much more talented team last night.

Yale clearly gets the style points, so yes they probably have more pure hockey "talent" top to bottom. But I didn't feel we were overmatched last night as I did when we lost to Yale 8 in a row prior to last year. Guys like Ferlin, Lowry and Esposito can play with anyone, and our 3rd and 4th lines do a solid job, although they don't score enough. And on the defensive end we can get the job done.

While we're surely not at the level of the early-to-mid 2000's teams, my feeling watching this year is not so much that we're in any particular state of decline, but that the rest of the ECAC has gotten so much better. No real cupcakes anymore, and for whatever reason we're not getting much puck luck at critical times. Enough of a season remaining that we can make a strong run. Given what I've seen, come playoff time, neither a run to the title nor a first round loss would surprise me.

I agree most with the underlined portion of your post... Think about it. CU's "talented" team is sub-.500 in the ECACHL, residing in the middle of the pack. IMO, Yale was clearly the more talented team on the Lynah ice Friday and Yale is significantly behind Q.... That says to me that CU's talent level has been surpassed by Y & Q.... I can't speak for the 3rd, 4th, & 5th place teams. I think there are players with potential who are not producing at the level expected of them. If that could suddenly & consistently change, across the board, it could be said that CU is as talented as anyone. But, undisplayed potential does not equate to talent.

Playoff possibilities for CU? We can always hope.......

redice

scoop85

redice

Trotsky
......I think the team is loaded with talent and creativity, and they might be able to pull it together during the tournament. ........

Ya know, until I saw Yale last night, I thought the same thing about CU's talent & creativity. After watching Yale, I'm not so sure that CU's talent level hasn't been surpassed. All the statistics show that that was a close game. But, I saw Yale as a much much more talented team last night.

Yale clearly gets the style points, so yes they probably have more pure hockey "talent" top to bottom. But I didn't feel we were overmatched last night as I did when we lost to Yale 8 in a row prior to last year. Guys like Ferlin, Lowry and Esposito can play with anyone, and our 3rd and 4th lines do a solid job, although they don't score enough. And on the defensive end we can get the job done.

While we're surely not at the level of the early-to-mid 2000's teams, my feeling watching this year is not so much that we're in any particular state of decline, but that the rest of the ECAC has gotten so much better. No real cupcakes anymore, and for whatever reason we're not getting much puck luck at critical times. Enough of a season remaining that we can make a strong run. Given what I've seen, come playoff time, neither a run to the title nor a first round loss would surprise me.

I agree most with the underlined portion of your post... Think about it. CU's "talented" team is sub-.500 in the ECACHL, residing in the middle of the pack. IMO, Yale was clearly the more talented team on the Lynah ice Friday and Yale is significantly behind Q.... That says to me that CU's talent level has been surpassed by Y & Q.... I can't speak for the 3rd, 4th, & 5th place teams. I think there are players with potential who are not producing at the level expected of them. If that could suddenly & consistently change, across the board, it could be said that CU is as talented as anyone. But, undisplayed potential does not equate to talent.

Playoff possibilities for CU? We can always hope.......

Exactly. We've played worse than we'd like, sure. But the ECAC has gotten better, too. Put those together and here we are.

redice

scoop85

redice

Trotsky
......I think the team is loaded with talent and creativity, and they might be able to pull it together during the tournament. ........

Ya know, until I saw Yale last night, I thought the same thing about CU's talent & creativity. After watching Yale, I'm not so sure that CU's talent level hasn't been surpassed. All the statistics show that that was a close game. But, I saw Yale as a much much more talented team last night.

Yale clearly gets the style points, so yes they probably have more pure hockey "talent" top to bottom. But I didn't feel we were overmatched last night as I did when we lost to Yale 8 in a row prior to last year. Guys like Ferlin, Lowry and Esposito can play with anyone, and our 3rd and 4th lines do a solid job, although they don't score enough. And on the defensive end we can get the job done.

While we're surely not at the level of the early-to-mid 2000's teams, my feeling watching this year is not so much that we're in any particular state of decline, but that the rest of the ECAC has gotten so much better. No real cupcakes anymore, and for whatever reason we're not getting much puck luck at critical times. Enough of a season remaining that we can make a strong run. Given what I've seen, come playoff time, neither a run to the title nor a first round loss would surprise me.

I agree most with the underlined portion of your post... Think about it. CU's "talented" team is sub-.500 in the ECACHL, residing in the middle of the pack. IMO, Yale was clearly the more talented team on the Lynah ice Friday and Yale is significantly behind Q.... That says to me that CU's talent level has been surpassed by Y & Q.... I can't speak for the 3rd, 4th, & 5th place teams. I think there are players with potential who are not producing at the level expected of them. If that could suddenly & consistently change, across the board, it could be said that CU is as talented as anyone. But, undisplayed potential does not equate to talent.

Playoff possibilities for CU? We can always hope.......

Realistically, we have one shot at getting into the NCAA tournament, that is to win the ECAC tournament. That in turn requires us to play consistently well during the ECAC tournament. Consistency has not been our strong suit to date. One can hope.

Dafatone

redice

scoop85

redice

Trotsky
......I think the team is loaded with talent and creativity, and they might be able to pull it together during the tournament. ........

Ya know, until I saw Yale last night, I thought the same thing about CU's talent & creativity. After watching Yale, I'm not so sure that CU's talent level hasn't been surpassed. All the statistics show that that was a close game. But, I saw Yale as a much much more talented team last night.

Yale clearly gets the style points, so yes they probably have more pure hockey "talent" top to bottom. But I didn't feel we were overmatched last night as I did when we lost to Yale 8 in a row prior to last year. Guys like Ferlin, Lowry and Esposito can play with anyone, and our 3rd and 4th lines do a solid job, although they don't score enough. And on the defensive end we can get the job done.

While we're surely not at the level of the early-to-mid 2000's teams, my feeling watching this year is not so much that we're in any particular state of decline, but that the rest of the ECAC has gotten so much better. No real cupcakes anymore, and for whatever reason we're not getting much puck luck at critical times. Enough of a season remaining that we can make a strong run. Given what I've seen, come playoff time, neither a run to the title nor a first round loss would surprise me.

I agree most with the underlined portion of your post... Think about it. CU's "talented" team is sub-.500 in the ECACHL, residing in the middle of the pack. IMO, Yale was clearly the more talented team on the Lynah ice Friday and Yale is significantly behind Q.... That says to me that CU's talent level has been surpassed by Y & Q.... I can't speak for the 3rd, 4th, & 5th place teams. I think there are players with potential who are not producing at the level expected of them. If that could suddenly & consistently change, across the board, it could be said that CU is as talented as anyone. But, undisplayed potential does not equate to talent.

Playoff possibilities for CU? We can always hope.......

Exactly. We've played worse than we'd like, sure. But the ECAC has gotten better, too. Put those together and here we are.

I still believe that with our backline talent we should be 2-3 in the league. Q has been exceptional, but Princeton isn't that much better, U is worse than last year, and we are somehow significantly worse despite losing only four seniors. Personally I think these guys came in thinking it would be easy after all the success they had freshman year to find the league got better, and they weren't ready. Hopefully they take that lesson to heart the next summer. As for the stupid penalties, I stand by my claim Schafer needs to start benching guys. Anyone who commits a penalty while in the offensive zone on a power play should be benched for the next game. You can't be 1st in the country in penalty minutes with a kill that's near dead last. Dear God these players go to Cornell, I would hope they are smart enough to understand that.

I'll tell you another thing that Schafer needs to do.... Get Wilcox off the power play!! This is a defenseman who shows a serious reluctance to shoot the puck at the goal. Now, why in the world, would the Coach leave a D-man in place on the power-play, all season that does not like to shoot the puck on goal? This is especially frustrating when one considers that the PP is not producing. There are other D-men who would be much better point-men on the PP.

Don't get me wrong. Wilcox is a real asset to the team. But, he's in the last part of his frosh season and he's not yet established himself as a high-scoring D-man. It's probably not going to happen this year. Later? Maybe. Get him off the PP, Coach!! Opposing coaches/players have to know that he's not a threat to shoot on goal. That means they can cheat in other directions... Not good!!

redice
I'll tell you another thing that Schafer needs to do.... Get Wilcox off the power play!! This is a defenseman who shows a serious reluctance to shoot the puck at the goal. Now, why in the world, would the Coach leave a D-man in place on the power-play, all season that does not like to shoot the puck on goal? This is especially frustrating when one considers that the PP is not producing. There are other D-men who would be much better point-men on the PP.

Don't get me wrong. Wilcox is a real asset to the team. But, he's in the last part of his frosh season and he's not yet established himself as a high-scoring D-man. It's probably not going to happen this year. Later? Maybe. Get him off the PP, Coach!! Opposing coaches/players have to know that he's not a threat to shoot on goal. That means they can cheat in other directions... Not good!!

He does move the puck faster than most of the other D men on the power play and at least when he has the puck he's never stationary, but you're absolutely right, he's gotta shoot when he has a lane. He should hit up Kimmo Timmonen to see what a good point man on the power play does (at least that's what I'd try to do if I were in the Flyers org)

Dafatone

redice

scoop85

redice

Trotsky
......I think the team is loaded with talent and creativity, and they might be able to pull it together during the tournament. ........

Ya know, until I saw Yale last night, I thought the same thing about CU's talent & creativity. After watching Yale, I'm not so sure that CU's talent level hasn't been surpassed. All the statistics show that that was a close game. But, I saw Yale as a much much more talented team last night.

Yale clearly gets the style points, so yes they probably have more pure hockey "talent" top to bottom. But I didn't feel we were overmatched last night as I did when we lost to Yale 8 in a row prior to last year. Guys like Ferlin, Lowry and Esposito can play with anyone, and our 3rd and 4th lines do a solid job, although they don't score enough. And on the defensive end we can get the job done.

While we're surely not at the level of the early-to-mid 2000's teams, my feeling watching this year is not so much that we're in any particular state of decline, but that the rest of the ECAC has gotten so much better. No real cupcakes anymore, and for whatever reason we're not getting much puck luck at critical times. Enough of a season remaining that we can make a strong run. Given what I've seen, come playoff time, neither a run to the title nor a first round loss would surprise me.

I agree most with the underlined portion of your post... Think about it. CU's "talented" team is sub-.500 in the ECACHL, residing in the middle of the pack. IMO, Yale was clearly the more talented team on the Lynah ice Friday and Yale is significantly behind Q.... That says to me that CU's talent level has been surpassed by Y & Q.... I can't speak for the 3rd, 4th, & 5th place teams. I think there are players with potential who are not producing at the level expected of them. If that could suddenly & consistently change, across the board, it could be said that CU is as talented as anyone. But, undisplayed potential does not equate to talent.

Playoff possibilities for CU? We can always hope.......

Exactly. We've played worse than we'd like, sure. But the ECAC has gotten better, too. Put those together and here we are.

That is really my outlook. We are playing below where we should be, but the better competition accross the board leaves us little margin for error -- and we keep paying the price for our errors.

As far as my reference to winning the title, I was referring to the ECAC title. A national title seems out of the question.

Ben
The consensus among my friends is in line with what BearLover said: this season has sucked.

This is why "suck" should be retired.

It has been a .500 season where the team has been in almost every game. It's disappointing compared to pre-season NCAA ambitions. Every game is a nail-biter. It's far more exciting to root for the team this year than during the Silver Age in the '00's.

This team can be appreciated for other things than dominance. They are playing critical games every night now, rather than March. Enjoy it.

Towerroad

redice

scoop85

redice

Trotsky
......I think the team is loaded with talent and creativity, and they might be able to pull it together during the tournament. ........

Ya know, until I saw Yale last night, I thought the same thing about CU's talent & creativity. After watching Yale, I'm not so sure that CU's talent level hasn't been surpassed. All the statistics show that that was a close game. But, I saw Yale as a much much more talented team last night.

Yale clearly gets the style points, so yes they probably have more pure hockey "talent" top to bottom. But I didn't feel we were overmatched last night as I did when we lost to Yale 8 in a row prior to last year. Guys like Ferlin, Lowry and Esposito can play with anyone, and our 3rd and 4th lines do a solid job, although they don't score enough. And on the defensive end we can get the job done.

While we're surely not at the level of the early-to-mid 2000's teams, my feeling watching this year is not so much that we're in any particular state of decline, but that the rest of the ECAC has gotten so much better. No real cupcakes anymore, and for whatever reason we're not getting much puck luck at critical times. Enough of a season remaining that we can make a strong run. Given what I've seen, come playoff time, neither a run to the title nor a first round loss would surprise me.

I agree most with the underlined portion of your post... Think about it. CU's "talented" team is sub-.500 in the ECACHL, residing in the middle of the pack. IMO, Yale was clearly the more talented team on the Lynah ice Friday and Yale is significantly behind Q.... That says to me that CU's talent level has been surpassed by Y & Q.... I can't speak for the 3rd, 4th, & 5th place teams. I think there are players with potential who are not producing at the level expected of them. If that could suddenly & consistently change, across the board, it could be said that CU is as talented as anyone. But, undisplayed potential does not equate to talent.

Playoff possibilities for CU? We can always hope.......

Realistically, we have one shot at getting into the NCAA tournament, that is to win the ECAC tournament. That in turn requires us to play consistently well during the ECAC tournament. Consistency has not been our strong suit to date. One can hope.

Given how well the ECAC is doing, I bet that making the finals (or winning the consolation game, ideally against a pretty highly-ranked team) would be enough. But, that's a long ways away.

Trotsky

Ben
The consensus among my friends is in line with what BearLover said: this season has sucked.

This is why "suck" should be retired.

It has been a .500 season where the team has been in almost every game. It's disappointing compared to pre-season NCAA ambitions. Every game is a nail-biter. It's far more exciting to root for the team this year than during the Silver Age in the '00's.

This team can be appreciated for other things than dominance. They are playing critical games every night now, rather than March. Enjoy it.

Talk about Rose Colored Glasses.

Speaking for myself, I found rooting for the '00's a lot more fun than this year. I'd much rather be worrying about playing critical games in March than worrying about being able to get into March.

Jim Hyla
I'd much rather be worrying about playing critical games in March than worrying about being able to get into March.

No shit, Jim. Has the Bostonification of the fanbase really proceeded to where I have to explain the point?

The second line can't get back on defense. The 3rd and 4th lines can't do anything. Iles has been getting beaten way too often. I have never seen so many stupid penalties in my life. And the freshman class has really not contributed. These are classic problems that have not been in any way corrected as the season has progressed. The players are trying; at this point it has to be bad coaching. This is a hugely disappointing year. Sports is a zero-sum game, and everything is relative. If the other teams have gotten better, we have gotten worse.

Trotsky

Ben
The consensus among my friends is in line with what BearLover said: this season has sucked.

This is why "suck" should be retired.

It has been a .500 season where the team has been in almost every game. It's disappointing compared to pre-season NCAA ambitions. Every game is a nail-biter. It's far more exciting to root for the team this year than during the Silver Age in the '00's.

This team can be appreciated for other things than dominance. They are playing critical games every night now, rather than March. Enjoy it.

I was not aware that Harvard was going to retire.

Trotsky

Ben
The consensus among my friends is in line with what BearLover said: this season has sucked.

This is why "suck" should be retired.

It has been a .500 season where the team has been in almost every game. It's disappointing compared to pre-season NCAA ambitions. Every game is a nail-biter. It's far more exciting to root for the team this year than during the Silver Age in the '00's.

This team can be appreciated for other things than dominance. They are playing critical games every night now, rather than March. Enjoy it.

I agree with Ben. Perhaps "suck" is too strong a word and I know Cornell has had worse seasons, but as BearLover pointed out, "everything is relative." 8-8-2 is a good season when you finished the previous season with just 6 wins. However, when you're coming off an NCAA regional final appearance, only graduated 4 seniors, and were a national preseason poll top 5, but now you're in danger of finishing outside the top 4 in the conference for the first time in 5 years and just the 2nd time in 14 years because you're making the same mistakes over and over again, can't string together 2 good games, and have not beaten a team with a pairwise ranking better than 18, 8-8-2 sucks.

Bummer of a result last night. Agreed with the really dumb penalties from Lowry and Mowrey. From my angle, it looked like Lowry straight up whacked the Yale guy in the groin--should've learned from Gostisbehere in the World Juniors. You probably shouldn't do that right in front of the refs after your opponents just scored.

Nevertheless, here's Ferlin converting early:

Trotsky

Jim Hyla
I'd much rather be worrying about playing critical games in March than worrying about being able to get into March.

No shit, Jim. Has the Bostonification of the fanbase really proceeded to where I have to explain the point?

I guess so. Maybe I'm just too old to understand.

Jim Hyla
Speaking for myself, I found rooting for the '00's a lot more fun than this year. I'd much rather be worrying about playing critical games in March than worrying about being able to get into March.

Agreed. It feels like Greg's seeing a 90% empty glass as 10% full. There is no way to polish this turd: Cornell's performance has been terribly disappointing in all but one game I've personally witnessed this season.

If anyone wants to see "highlights", the ECAC site has it up on their Hockey Playback video. Their first goal was a defensive breakdown, the second was somewhat lucky in that the Yale shooter got nothing but air on the first attempt and a screened goal on the second. The game winner was our typical scramble around, with Yale passing and shooting till it's in. Yale has been our Achilles for years. We still cannot solve their deep two man forecheck. After all these years, you would hope we could breakout through it.

Jim Hyla
If anyone wants to see "highlights", the ECAC site has it up on their Hockey Playback video. Their first goal was a defensive breakdown, the second was somewhat lucky in that the Yale shooter got nothing but air on the first attempt and a screened goal on the second. The game winner was our typical scramble around, with Yale passing and shooting till it's in. Yale has been our Achilles for years. We still cannot solve their deep two man forecheck. After all these years, you would hope we could breakout through it.

I have a burning question. How does a team this big lose net front battles with such amazing consistency?

Kyle Rose

Jim Hyla
Speaking for myself, I found rooting for the '00's a lot more fun than this year. I'd much rather be worrying about playing critical games in March than worrying about being able to get into March.

Agreed. It feels like Greg's seeing a 90% empty glass as 10% full. There is no way to polish this turd: Cornell's performance has been terribly disappointing in all but one game I've personally witnessed this season.

Greg is doing nothing of the sort. He is distinguishing "fun" from "excitement" and suggesting that we've become so spoiled by finishing at the top of the conference, we rend our garments and whine like babies when we have a middling season. Of course this season has been a disappointment but that isn't the end of the discussion.

Greg's spin - and even though it is a coping mechanism it is useful spin - is that when your team is dominant the games are fun but it isn't really tense when winning is a foregone conclusion. A team like this gives you agita but that agita makes the games themselves more exciting (as opposed to the relaxed revelry of the final four squad).

Iles has been getting beaten way too often.

He's stopping 91% of the shots and giving up under 2.5 a game. I don't know how you pin any of this on Iles.

ugarte
He is distinguishing "fun" from "excitement" and suggesting that we've become so spoiled by finishing at the top of the conference, we rend our garments and whine like babies when we have a middling season. Of course this season has been a disappointment but that isn't the end of the discussion.

That is what I was saying.

Of course, they didn't do that premise any favors with tonight's performance, which was neither fun nor exciting.

ugarte

Kyle Rose

Jim Hyla
Speaking for myself, I found rooting for the '00's a lot more fun than this year. I'd much rather be worrying about playing critical games in March than worrying about being able to get into March.

Agreed. It feels like Greg's seeing a 90% empty glass as 10% full. There is no way to polish this turd: Cornell's performance has been terribly disappointing in all but one game I've personally witnessed this season.

Greg is doing nothing of the sort. He is distinguishing "fun" from "excitement" and suggesting that we've become so spoiled by finishing at the top of the conference, we rend our garments and whine like babies when we have a middling season. Of course this season has been a disappointment but that isn't the end of the discussion.

Greg's spin - and even though it is a coping mechanism it is useful spin - is that when your team is dominant the games are fun but it isn't really tense when winning is a foregone conclusion. A team like this gives you agita but that agita makes the games themselves more exciting (as opposed to the relaxed revelry of the final four squad).

Iles has been getting beaten way too often.

He's stopping 91% of the shots and giving up under 2.5 a game. I don't know how you pin any of this on Iles.

NEVERMIND

TheMatrix
Bummer of a result last night. Agreed with the really dumb penalties from Lowry and Mowrey. From my angle, it looked like Lowry straight up whacked the Yale guy in the groin--should've learned from Gostisbehere in the World Juniors. You probably shouldn't do that right in front of the refs after your opponents just scored.

That's exactly what he did. I was pretty surprised he didn't get tossed for that.