Florida hockey tournement

Off to Fort Myers in an hour. Will report what I see but I only see 2 games a year so my "hockey eyes" are not as good as they should be. Plus I do not know the players, and faces, and numbers like I should so the reportage should be mediocere, but so what, I hope to have a good time. Go Red.

Apparently no video available.

Thanks. There still is interest in the games. Probably not the widespread interest, or TV coverage (not even video), as in years past. One of the better years was when Notre Dame played (2003) because they have a strong fan base. Lucky draw for Cornell getting 3-17 Lake Superior State in the opening round.

billhoward
Thanks. There still is interest in the games. Probably not the widespread interest, or TV coverage (not even video), as in years past. One of the better years was when Notre Dame played (2003) because they have a strong fan base. Lucky draw for Cornell getting 3-17 Lake Superior State in the opening round.

Notre Dame is playing this year, Bill.

All best holiday wishes to you, Gwen, and the boys.

Miami and Notre Dame scoreless after 1 period.

I wonder if the lack of video was because lack of perceived demand or hoping to not cut into ticket sales?

upprdeck
I wonder if the lack of video was because lack of perceived demand or hoping to not cut into ticket sales?

The ECHL used to be on AmericaOne so I'd guess it was no problem to have this tournament shown. They now have ECHL TV. Maybe that was a problem? However they do have single game access, so I'm not sure.

Notre Dame scores with the extra skater with 23 seconds to go in regulation; 2-2.

Question for one of you Pairwise experts.
I was pretty sure that Notre Dame would lose to Miami... but ND upset them.
Then I figured,assuming CU beats Lake Superior tonight and pulled off a win against Miami tomorrow, that it would catapult CU to a much higher pairwise ranking.
My question...Now, if they end up playing Notre Dame tomorrow, would a win against ND not mean as much pairwise-wise?
If they lost to Lake Superior and had to play Miami tomorrow and beat Miami, would it give Big Red a better bump up in pairwise than if they play and beat Notre Dame?

Of course a loss to Lake Superior would probably kill them in pairwise anyway so maybe it doesn't make much difference...

AFAIK, you are correct, and a split vs LSSU/Miami would be better than a split vs LSSU/Notre Dame.

But let's take the risk and beat the Lakers tonight.

Neither Bardreau (flu) nor Lowry (?) tonight; Gillam in net.

We're the host school, right? For 14 years?

The Bears??? #FCHC14 pic.twitter.com/kMBmq43IY6

— Larry F Baum (@lfbaum) December 29, 2014

Looks like standing room only

0-0 after 3 periods
LSSU up 2-1 after 4 shots. LSSU thinks they've won; Cornell thinks it's a 5 shot shootout… and LSSU wins the argument.

3 posts in regulation and another in the shootout. Give me a break, guys.

Huh?

marty
Huh?

Exactly.

If the refs somehow thought the shootout was sudden death by round or something, Cornell would have lost after the first round. Once the refs let it go beyond that, how could they stop it after four rounds with Cornell down 2-1?

marty
Huh?

to what part? I was listening to the Lakers broadcast and it was genuinely unclear to the crew whether the shootout was 3 shots then tit-for-tat or 5 shots since the benches seemed to disagree.

the cornell radio was saying it was 5 rounds most of the 3rd period.. you would think that would have been decided long ago.

andyw2100

marty
Huh?

Exactly.

If the refs somehow thought the shootout was sudden death by round or something, Cornell would have lost after the first round. Once the refs let it go beyond that, how could they stop it after four rounds with Cornell down 2-1?

On the chat, it was noted that the NCAA has inserted guidelines for shootouts in the rulebook that suggests 3 rounds. Jason now saying that for the 1st game, word got to the press box that 5 rounds would be used, if needed. Obvious miscommunication somewhere.

ugarte
3 posts in regulation and another in the shootout. Give me a break, guys.

Well, one of the posts in regulation was a crossbar. If there was anybody we'd know to avoid crossbars against, it's Lake State.

RichH

andyw2100

marty
Huh?

Exactly.

If the refs somehow thought the shootout was sudden death by round or something, Cornell would have lost after the first round. Once the refs let it go beyond that, how could they stop it after four rounds with Cornell down 2-1?

On the chat, it was noted that the NCAA has inserted guidelines for shootouts in the rulebook that suggests 3 rounds. Jason now saying that for the 1st game, word got to the press box that 5 rounds would be used, if needed. Obvious miscommunication somewhere.

LSSU radio guy definitely thought it was 3, then was apparently corrected to 5. LSSU jumped over the boards when they scored on 4, so they obviously thought it was over. Play by play guy found the whole thing vexing but was pleased with the result.

Sanctuary! Sanctuary! I still hear the bell-like ring of PC's shot like it was yesterday.

If someone who knows how pairwise calculations work better than me, please weigh in. I doesn't seem like the LSSU 0-0 tie affected CU much in Pairwise. If I recall, before tonight's game I think CU was tied for 25 and are now tied for 26th. At this point, Would a win over Miami in the consolation game tomorrow actually be a better Pairwise boost than if they had won the LSSU shootout and were to play and beat Notre Dame in the Championship game?

At the rink, it was announced that the shootout would be 5 players for each team. As soon as Miami got the goal in the bottom of the fourth, Matt Buckels jumped on to be the fifth Cornell shooter. Cornell clearly thought it was five shooters, LSSU thought it wasn't, as they started to celebrate when they scored. Regardless, it's a tie. The game was very ragged, with little tspe-to-tape passing by either team, until the third period which Cornell dominated. Let's turn that shortened shootout into a break for us and beat Miami.

upprdeck
the cornell radio was saying it was 5 rounds most of the 3rd period.. you would think that would have been decided long ago.

The military has a term for this. It involves some kind of cluster.
One more footnote to a (so far) very frustrating season.

SIGH!!!!!

2 of our good guys scrathed, and it showed.

The game recap is very accurate but does not convey the skill level in the game. Both teams were primarily using dump and run because neither were consistntly able to carry the puck into the zone. It was frustrating to see.
Goal tending was superb. Their guy owned the 1 and 4 hole so we attempted to go 2 - 3 and were just not accurate at all. The ten minute flurry to open the third was wonderous to behold but in hindsight it was just whacking and hacking away with few good opportunities. Our shooters appeared to just shoot at the center of the mass or went wide of the net.

Not sure why CU was befuddled about the shoot out. They won the same thing here last year. 3 shots then sudden death. We had our fourth shot and failed, they did not. Into the record as a tie, but still a loss.

Maybe everyone is suited up tonight. They will need it. Miami consistently carried it into the zone and cycled very well. Captain Austin Czarrnik went end to end half a dozen times in a display of stickhandling that was a joy to watch.

CU alumni group purchased 48 tickets, Notre Dame over 100. After their game the place emptyed. They will own the building tonight. Lot of Miami fans here also, both teams will be red a white.

Hoping for the best. The guys had a lot of energy fo 55 minutes but both teams became leg weary fom the long layoff.

Off to play in the city, will log in again tomorrow, 82 today and sunny.


PS, Missus both us tickets to the Panthers - Rangers game New Years Eve. Bless her heart, last time I saw the Rangers in person Phil Esposito was at center.
A three day hockey festival for our household. My gal is a Hartwick grad but she has gotten into hockey.


Tom from Vero Beach on the road in Fort Myers.

You'd probably be astonished at how much an upper bowl ticket goes for at MSG nowadays. Think body parts.

tominvb
Maybe everyone is suited up tonight.

Cole was out due to "flu-like symptoms," so I wouldn't expect him back today. I never did catch why Lowry was out.

Cornell's national rank after LSSU:

Defense: 1.50 GPG, #1 out of 59
Offense: 1.83 GPG, #51 out of 59

Trotsky
Cornell's national rank after LSSU:

Defense: 1.50 GPG, #1 out of 59
Offense: 1.83 GPG, #51 out of 59

It's the system.

I love Mike and I love The System (TM), but when he retires in 2030 I want to bring in a coach who wants to win every game 9-7. Just for the fuck of it.

didnt we have that in the late 70's and have an even worse record?

upprdeck
didnt we have that in the late 70's and have an even worse record?

No, we were still pretty competitive in the late 70's. It wasn't until the 80's that things started to skid.

I see we didnt have room for goals in our luggage to florida. took us about 10 games to figure out how to score lets not go thru that again now.

upprdeck
didnt we have that in the late 70's and have an even worse record?

'78 was pretty close. 195/27 = 7.22 GF/GP. 100/27 = 3.70 GA/GP. That year featured such games as a 7-6 loss at Brown, a 7-6 win over Princeton, and a 10-8 win at Northeastern.

We were 20-6-1 so, hey, I'd take it.

Al DeFlorio
Apparently no video available.

In hindsight a good thing

I don't know what will get this team on the right track. Any suggestions for this year?

Interesting stats in the final "lives stats ".

                Miami  Cornell
Shot Attempts    44     39
Those blocked     9     11
Shots through    35     28
Shots on goal    26     15

One of the best things about the 78 season was that most of the 20 wins came after Christmas. We can only hope.

Jim Hyla
Interesting stats in the final "lives stats ".

                Miami  Cornell
Shot Attempts    44     39
Those blocked     9     11
Shots through    35     28
Shots on goal    26     15

Very good find. The damning statistic, to me, is the ratio of shots on goal to shots attempted. 38% for Cornell vs. 59% for Miami. I will be interested to hear some eyewitness reports, but the numbers seem to suggest that we don't have a puck possession problem, we have an offensive ineptitude problem. Poor cohesiveness and unfocused playmaking, perhaps. (Sorry if it sounds like I'm stating the obvious. We've been talking about this problem for years.)

Is there a way to hide this thread from TimV? He must be on a cruise in the Caribbean.

Tim has been bitching about our lack of shot accuracy for the past few years (rightfully so).

***sigh*** I'm here, Marty. I'm here...

Lake Superior State beats Notre Dame 2-1 for the title. Who saw that coming?

Cornell game story notes this is the first back to back shutout suffered by Cornell since December 1963. Fidel wasn't even 40 then.

Anyone in attendance: What was the attendance like yesterday and then today?
[edit add:] Title game attendance was listed as 3,149, Sunday first round as 3,529. Hockey capacity at Germain Arena is 7,082.

Only good note: Gillam is now #1 in the nation in GAA and Sv%.

I have a suggestion. When Ned was the lacrosse coach, he wouldn't let anybody shoot in practice standing still. You had to be moving, and the closer to full speed the better.

Set up the skating treadmill so that it's a medium distance from a goal- maybe the same distance as the top of the faceoff circles at most, and the slot hashmarks at the least, maybe 10 feet or so to one side or the other. The goal should be wide open to begin with. After the player improves to the point where he can hit the goal with a shot in stride on the treadmill, start to hang one of those boards with the cutouts to gain some sniping ability. And use that sucker every freakin'day.

Bring a paintball gun to practice. The moment a player stops skating,...

#1 in nation in defense, #55 in scoring, 30th in PWR.
Stats don't lie. This just isn't working.
Acknowledging that we are the host team in Florida annually and the trophy is named after Ned Narkness, it might be time to consider playing one of the
two allowable exhibition games after break instead of preseason replacing this tourney. These games mean too much Pairwise to continue.
Maybe even host a holiday tourney as was the case in years past.

TimV
I have a suggestion. When Ned was the lacrosse coach, he wouldn't let anybody shoot in practice standing still. You had to be moving, and the closer to full speed the better.

Set up the skating treadmill so that it's a medium distance from a goal- maybe the same distance as the top of the faceoff circles at most, and the slot hashmarks at the least, maybe 10 feet or so to one side or the other. The goal should be wide open to begin with. After the player improves to the point where he can hit the goal with a shot in stride on the treadmill, start to hang one of those boards with the cutouts to gain some sniping ability. And use that sucker every freakin'day.

I don't understand. How does that improve our defense?

Towerroad

TimV
I have a suggestion. When Ned was the lacrosse coach, he wouldn't let anybody shoot in practice standing still. You had to be moving, and the closer to full speed the better.

Set up the skating treadmill so that it's a medium distance from a goal- maybe the same distance as the top of the faceoff circles at most, and the slot hashmarks at the least, maybe 10 feet or so to one side or the other. The goal should be wide open to begin with. After the player improves to the point where he can hit the goal with a shot in stride on the treadmill, start to hang one of those boards with the cutouts to gain some sniping ability. And use that sucker every freakin'day.

I don't understand. How does that improve our defense?

SIGH, again.

Attendance for first game about 1000. Monday, work day. I had another engagement for the evening so left. Missed the upset, man I wish that I had stayed.

The good news. The boys played with heart, speed, toughness. Not afraid of the corners, not afraid in the slot. Often carried the puck in, not the dump crap of the night before.

The bad news. The comments above sum it up. They cannot hit the side of a barn with a puck. They lug it in but carry it behind the goal and one of two things happen - they lose it or they pass to the slot and no help was there. The big issue is they shoot blindly.

During warm up the Miami players all, and I mean all, shot 90% of their attempts to the two and three hole. And they were very good at it from every distance.

Stewart seemed a tad sluggish. The first goal was from a scrum and I being at the opposite end really did not see it. The second was a thing of beauty if you were a Miami fan, or just a hockey fan, and a disaster as a Red fan. A semi break a way - one skater with puck one d man skating backwards as he should be. To Stewarts left between circle and red line, d man about 4 feet in front of attacker. Attacker snapped a wrister of such beauty that it popped past the d man and past Stewart before he even reacted. Their shooter made the perfect play - using the d man as a screen. Coach I think lost confidence in Stewart and replaced him with Gilliam at the beginning of the second. Maybe his try out is over.

Gilliam was just getting warm when their shooter in the left circle, hardly harassed, shot toward the 4 hole. Gilliam got the pad on it but the puck was two to four inches off the ice and hit his pad and caromed into the net. He was brilliant the rest.

The REALLY bad news. A man came out of the Cornell locker room - a man very much in the know but not a member of the team community. When I asked about Lowry he stated that it was a back issue. Then went on to say that it had the potential to be season ending. No more detail than that so please don't ask. When I mentioned that I would be putting this out into the blog o sphere he begged for confidentiality. Again. He stayed that it MAY BE.

Yes his cred is impeccable.

So boys and girls I am off to the home place, will check in later in the day.

Tom from Vero Beach on the road in Fort Myers

What is somewhat upsetting is how we are wasting the nation's top goaltender and defense.

If our offense was simply middle-of-the-pack, say 30th in the country (out of 59), that would equate to one more goal per game.

Add one goal to each of our games, holding our defense constant, and instead of being 5-6-2, we would be 7-3-5. Possibly better, since we probably would not have needed to add an extra attacker in one or two instances, which led to ENGs we gave up.

We seem to have a stellar defense and we are squandering it due to offensive ineptitude.

margolism
What is somewhat upsetting is how we are wasting the nation's top goaltender and defense.

If our offense was simply middle-of-the-pack, say 30th in the country (out of 59), that would equate to one more goal per game.

Add one goal to each of our games, holding our defense constant, and instead of being 5-6-2, we would be 7-3-5. Possibly better, since we probably would not have needed to add an extra attacker in a few instances, which led to a few ENGs we gave up.

We seem to have a stellar defense and we are squandering it due to offensive ineptitude.

I don't think that's quite right. The System stifles both offenses. If we were scoring 3 goals a game we would not be giving up 1.5 goals per game.

The car up on blocks in the front yard doesn't use much gas.

The question with Mike's teams has always been, if we were willing to give up x more goals per game, could that give us y more goals per game, where y > x?

Trotsky

margolism
What is somewhat upsetting is how we are wasting the nation's top goaltender and defense.

If our offense was simply middle-of-the-pack, say 30th in the country (out of 59), that would equate to one more goal per game.

Add one goal to each of our games, holding our defense constant, and instead of being 5-6-2, we would be 7-3-5. Possibly better, since we probably would not have needed to add an extra attacker in a few instances, which led to a few ENGs we gave up.

We seem to have a stellar defense and we are squandering it due to offensive ineptitude.

I don't think that's quite right. The System stifles both offenses. If we were scoring 3 goals a game we would not be giving up 1.5 goals per game.

The car up on blocks in the front yard doesn't use much gas.

The question with Mike's teams has always been, if we were willing to give up x more goals per game, could that give us y more goals per game, where y > x?

Our system can allow for a good offense.

Case in point - the 2002-2003 team. Looking at the stats Cornell led the nation in defense, giving up 1.36 goals per game, while still scoring 3.69 goals per game. That's a full goal more than I suggested in my original post, while giving up even fewer goals per game.

Trotsky
The question with Mike's teams has always been, if we were willing to give up x more goals per game, could that give us y more goals per game, where y > x?

Perhaps. But I would add the following two questions:

Could we get y more goals per game if our shots were more likely to hit net (specifically GOAL net) than glass or wood?

Could we get y more goals per game of our big guys could post up in the slot and bang in some feeds?

The System has nothing to do with pathetic shooting.

tominvb
SIGH, again.

Attendance for first game about 1000. Monday, work day. I had another engagement for the evening so left. Missed the upset, man I wish that I had stayed.

The good news. The boys played with heart, speed, toughness. Not afraid of the corners, not afraid in the slot. Often carried the puck in, not the dump crap of the night before.

The bad news. The comments above sum it up. They cannot hit the side of a barn with a puck. They lug it in but carry it behind the goal and one of two things happen - they lose it or they pass to the slot and no help was there. The big issue is they shoot blindly.

During warm up the Miami players all, and I mean all, shot 90% of their attempts to the two and three hole. And they were very good at it from every distance.

Stewart seemed a tad sluggish. The first goal was from a scrum and I being at the opposite end really did not see it. The second was a thing of beauty if you were a Miami fan, or just a hockey fan, and a disaster as a Red fan. A semi break a way - one skater with puck one d man skating backwards as he should be. To Stewarts left between circle and red line, d man about 4 feet in front of attacker. Attacker snapped a wrister of such beauty that it popped past the d man and past Stewart before he even reacted. Their shooter made the perfect play - using the d man as a screen. Coach I think lost confidence in Stewart and replaced him with Gilliam at the beginning of the second. Maybe his try out is over.

Gilliam was just getting warm when their shooter in the left circle, hardly harassed, shot toward the 4 hole. Gilliam got the pad on it but the puck was two to four inches off the ice and hit his pad and caromed into the net. He was brilliant the rest.

The REALLY bad news. A man came out of the Cornell locker room - a man very much in the know but not a member of the team community. When I asked about Lowry he stated that it was a back issue. Then went on to say that it had the potential to be season ending. No more detail than that so please don't ask. When I mentioned that I would be putting this out into the blog o sphere he begged for confidentiality. Again. He stayed that it MAY BE.

Yes his cred is impeccable.

So boys and girls I am off to the home place, will check in later in the day.

Tom from Vero Beach on the road in Fort Myers

The past few years have been too large a sample to conclude anything other than that our offense is horrible year-in and year-out and something NEEDS to change. Being sound defensively and being offensively skilled are NOT mutually exclusive; look at Q or BU or the Bruins or the Kings (or practically any good team). If Lowry is out for the season, then this team is not going to average more than 1.5 goals per game.

tominvb
Gilliam was just getting warm when their shooter in the left circle, hardly harassed, shot toward the 4 hole. Gilliam got the pad on it but the puck was two to four inches off the ice and hit his pad and caromed into the net. He was brilliant the rest.

If this is the Monday consolation game, I thought Stewart gave up all 3 Miami goals and then was replaced early in the second. (box score: [cornellbigred.com] )

The Miami game was disappointing but Cornell just as easily could have been playing Notre Dame for the title had one of the three (more?) pipe strikes gone in against LSSU. What are the odds of shooting 0 for 39?

Sunday-Monday is a poor combo for getting attendance. Christmas in 2015 is Friday. A Saturday-Sunday series would be nice. Let's hope the tournament keeps going. Or Monday Tuesday or Tuesday Wednesday.

Ouch

My bad, this 68 year old missed the goaltender switch. Thought Gillam came on in he beginning of the period. After the score we had a group discussion looking away from the ice. Again gujys my bad. My statement that Stewart's try out may be over still stands.
Thanks for the correction.

tominvb
Ouch

My bad, this 68 year old missed the goaltender switch. Thought Gillam came on in he beginning of the period. After the score we had a group discussion looking away from the ice. Again gujys my bad. My statement that Stewart's try out may be over still stands.
Thanks for the correction.

One other point which, due to no video can be debated, is that the second goal was deflected in by a Cornell player. It wasn't quite as beautiful as explained in a prior post in this thread. ( According to Jason on WHCU )

My takeaway from the Penn State game is that the team is good defensively and stocked with decent skaters but they seem confused about why the coach makes them carry a stick everywhere. They are basically figure skaters who enjoy violence.

marty

tominvb
Ouch

My bad, this 68 year old missed the goaltender switch. Thought Gillam came on in he beginning of the period. After the score we had a group discussion looking away from the ice. Again gujys my bad. My statement that Stewart's try out may be over still stands.
Thanks for the correction.

One other point which, due to no video can be debated, is that the second goal was deflected in by a Cornell player. It wasn't quite as beautiful as explained in a prior post in this thread. ( According to Jason on WHCU )

From my angle, top row opposite face-off circle - with pretty much a direct line of sight following the shot- it appeared to hit Stewart just below the left shoulder and then as he tried to catch it, it flipped over his shoulder. I did not see any deflection, but if there was one, it would have been right at the point of the shot, as there was no one in front of the goal.

imafrshmn

Jim Hyla
Interesting stats in the final "lives stats ".

                Miami  Cornell
Shot Attempts    44     39
Those blocked     9     11
Shots through    35     28
Shots on goal    26     15

Very good find. The damning statistic, to me, is the ratio of shots on goal to shots attempted. 38% for Cornell vs. 59% for Miami. I will be interested to hear some eyewitness reports, but the numbers seem to suggest that we don't have a puck possession problem, we have an offensive ineptitude problem. Poor cohesiveness and unfocused playmaking, perhaps. (Sorry if it sounds like I'm stating the obvious. We've been talking about this problem for years.)

I think we did have a puck possession problem. Much more of Miami's shots were from close range, whereas we were firing from further out, unable to work successfully for better opportunities. Miami was clearly the better team last night. Gillam had to make a lot of big saves vs. Miami, propbably his 5 or 6 best saves of the tournament were in those last two periods.

Since no one posted the lineup changes from Sunday to Monday, here they are;
LSSU game only: Weidner, Yates, Tiitinen, P. McCarron, with Gillam starting in goal
Miami only: Rauter, Stoick, Bardreau, Anderson, with Stewart starting in goal but replaced after the 3rd goal by Gillam.

What a great quote!

ugarte
They are basically figure skaters who enjoy violence.

Now THAT is niche porn I would watch.

Trotsky

ugarte
They are basically figure skaters who enjoy violence.

Now THAT is niche porn I would watch.

Big Tonya Harding fan, eh?

ACM

Trotsky

ugarte
They are basically figure skaters who enjoy violence.

Now THAT is niche porn I would watch.

Big Tonya Harding fan, eh?

The V or the P?

From Coach Schafer's email about the Florida Tournament:

We played Friday night's game without our top scorer, senior forward Joel Lowry, who will be out for awhile with an injury

Did anyone hear about which teams will be invited next year?