Next Season

To put it simply, this past season was rough for me with all of the ups and downs - blown games against very weak teams (Ex. @ Princeton), very good play against top teams like (Harvard, Yale, and Denver), and then the ultimate low point of getting drowned 0-7 by a team we had beaten 5-1 earlier in the season. Many people will pull the common "injury" card to account for these incidences and not to discount their affect, but I'm a bit certain there were other factors this past season that had a large impact.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but somewhere I recall hearing that Cornell's roster had the most line changes throughout the season of any Division 1 hockey program. Many injuries occurred at the beginning of the season and after that, there were significantly fewer injuries. Lack of chemistry is what was evident to me in the games that we blew against weaker teams. How is chemistry supposed to develop and thrive if it's continually being changed? I would also like to point out one thing that seemed relatively consistent throughout the year: the penalty kill, which ended up ranked 3rd in the country. Another small bit worth noting is that as the season progressed, there were notably more and more penalties that tallied up. This was a downfall of our's (Cornell's) that really showed despite having one of the best penalty kills in the country.

I felt like in many cases the "Dump and Chase" play style that Schafer likes to run is not ideal for the personnel present. I understand that it's central to Schafer's method of coaching over the past years, but maybe even a small change might reap large benefits? Cole Bardreau for example is a player that I believe has an impressive ability to skate into the attacking zone and maintain control of the puck (who unfortunately won't be here next season). Another player that comes to mind is Alex Rauter, who had the team best rating of +3. Comparatively he is slightly smaller than the other forwards on the team, but from what I remember has explosive speed on the ice, has some pretty good puck handling, and unfortunately only played in a handful of games this season.

What will this upcoming season bring? It's been noted that Schafer ran things differently this season and he said, "I did one thing a certain way for 19 years, then I changed something this year, but I’m going to go back to it next year." Do you guys believe there will be more consistency with the lines? Will the play style change even slightly to accommodate the personnel?

On a side note, how much do people know about the incoming freshman class? Any interesting things worth noting?

There's a saying. "A truly great coach will beat your team with hers, and her team with yours."

Implicit in this is one of two possibilities. Either the coach adjusts the style of play to fit the team or gets the team to fit the style of play he favors.