2003-2004 Men's Schedule

2003-04 Cornell Men?s Hockey Schedule
As of April 29, 2003

  October
Saturday	18	Red and White	Home	7:00 p.m		.
Saturday	25	Exhibition	Home   7:00 p.m.
		(US Under 18 Team)			
Friday	31	Western Michigan	Home	7:00 p.m.
  November
Saturday	1	Western Michigan	Home	7:00 p.m.
Friday	7	Yale		Away	7:00 p.m.
Saturday	8	Princeton		Away	7:00 p.m.
Friday	14	Clarkson		Away	7:00 p.m.
Saturday	15	St. Lawrence	Away	7:00 p.m.
Friday	21	Bowling Green	Home	7:00 p.m.
Saturday	22	Ohio State	Home	7:00 p.m.
Saturday	29	Mercyhurst	Home	7:00 p.m.
  December
Friday	5	Brown		Home	7:00 p.m.
Saturday	6	Harvard		Home	7:00 p.m.
Saturday	27	Florida Everblades College Classic @Estero,FL 
                  Cornell vs. Notre Dame and Ohio State vs. Maine
Sunday		28	Consolation and Championship
  January
Friday	9	Harvard		Away	7:00 p.m.
Saturday	10	Brown		Away	7:00 p.m.
Friday	16	Union		Home	7:00 p.m.
Saturday	17	RPI		Home	7:00 p.m.
Friday	23	Vermont		Home     7:00 p.m.
Saturday	24	Dartmouth	         Home     7:00 p.m.
Friday	30	Colgate		Home	7:00 p.m.
Saturday	31	Colgate		Away	7:00 p.m.
  February
Friday	6	Dartmouth	         Away     7:00 p.m.
Saturday	7	Vermont		Away	7:00 p.m.
Friday	13	Princeton		Home	7:00 p.m.
Saturday	14	Yale		Home	7:00 p.m.
Friday	20	RPI		Away	7:00 p.m.
Saturday	21	Union		Away	7:00 p.m.
Friday	27	St. Lawrence	Home	7:00 p.m.
Saturday	28	Clarkson		Home	7:00 p.m.
  March
Fri.-Sun.	5-6	ECAC First Round Playoffs (best two of three, on campus of higher seed)
Fri.-Sun.	12-14	ECAC Quarter Final Playoffs (best two of three, on campus of higher seed)
Fri./Sat.	19-20	ECAC Championships   Albany, NY  TBA

This by email from Sue Detzer. Minor flip-flops of teams, I'm told. (I didn't yet compare it to prior ones) Now someone smarter than I can tell me why preformatting doesn't always turn out the way it's typed. I started with her Word document and had to change some rows after I previewed it. Many thanks to Age for putting that feature in; at least I could make it reasonable.
What's worse when I came back to it later, it had changed. So I "fixed it".



Post Edited (04-29-03 22:01)

Over half the weekends have the order of the games flipped, including the two weekends we care most about, the Brown/Harvard weekends. The earlier version, at least the one I had stored away, listed the home weekend with Harvard Friday and Brown Saturday, now it's the other way around. On the other hand, the away weekend went from Brown Friday and Harvard Saturday to Harvard Friday and Brown Saturday. The conspiracy theorists can ponder the potential attempts to manipulate attendance at The Games.

Also, the Everblades dates are listed.

Well, the "flip flops" of Harvard-Brown games from the earlier schedule actually make it a bit more easier for those of us who have to fly in and out of Providence Either way, we will be there.

Southwest Airlines, here we come!

this schedule really sucks for students

-home harvard game at the tail end of study break, right before fall finals
-away garvard game during winter break, which decreases the chance that groups of students from around the country will spend the $ to fly to boston and fly home
-home rpi/union games occur during rush week, since spring classes begin later this year. these games traditionally have low attendance

i'm not saying that student attendance should be the #1 concern (obviously alumni out there must be happy about the probable extra tickets), but it seems like this year's (2002-2003) schedule did alot of engineering to assure that everything went right, including moving the notorious dartmouth home weekend to a week when classes are in session, and sending the team on longer road trips to prevent any home games from being held during winter break

also can't say i am happy with the selection of out of conference opponents, though i do understand that we want to give other conferences like MAAC some respect (just as we want respect from HE, etc) and it helps our OOC ratings (can't see how this particular selection would help our RPI very much). i'm disappointed that none of the traditional big name teams who have supposedly feared and respected us in the last 2 years are on the schedule. where's minnesota, michigan, unh, (stupid that we have a year off on the BU deal), BC, UND, etc? we aren't even playing them in away games.

if cornell has gained so much national respect, why can't our scheduling work out better? do you think teams like unh bother to schedule bowling green, or minnesota puts its biggest weekends in difficult academic times for students (if such exists at minnesota?)

i'm psyched and all, but comeon.

-mike 04

Actually, Mike... according to the academic calendar, the home Harvard game is listed for December 5, which is the last day of class for fall semester, that's actually really nice scheduling in my opinion...

and the fact that we have 17 home games! wow! any word if this means season tix prices will go up?

Actually, if they keep the same selection criteria, playing Mercyhurst should help us. Because of their high winning percentage against a still mostly-MAAC schedule, the Lakers were the 15th-toughest opponent according to RPI's strength-of-schedule measure, right between #14 Michigan State and #16 Denver. Plus, if they happen to get the MAAC autobid, they become a TUC and give us a chance for an easy TUC win. (Maine benefitted from this this season, having scheduled both Mercyhurst and Quinnipiac just to be on the safe side.)

Not only are the RPI and Union home games during winter break, but the Mercyhurst home game is during Thanksgiving break. That plus the Harvard away game being over winter break as well makes for a really student-unfriendly schedule.

It's listed for December 6, which is the day after classes end, but your point basically still holds.

I understand some concern, but the BU games have been over Thanksgiving before, so what's wrong with Mercyherst then. The W. Michigan(2) and Ohio State are at home. Give them a break. They can't schedule all out of conference games at home, have no winter break home games, none over Thanksgiving, and make the away Harvard game at the best possible time!

Ok, ok, before someone comes up with a schedule that does all that, I know it could be done. But I doubt the rest of the ECAC would all be happy with it.

[Q]It's listed for December 6, which is the day after classes end, but your point basically still holds.[/Q]
Actually, no, as a (continuing ) student, I think his point is b.s. I always hated it when the Hahvahd game was earlier in the semester. When it was the first ECAC home game, it just sucks. The crowd's not built up, there's less anticipation, and the Sun has to mix the Hahvahd game coverage in with the football season. Come on, it's the beginning of study week. If it's Saturday night then it's the FIRST DAY of study "week", and that's the worst case. You have 4 days after to study, what the hell's the problem?!? Do you leave town on study week?? I never have. If so, don't - suck it up.

Also, I think the away Harvard game being over winter break is great, though maybe it's just cause I'm from Ct . I think there are a good portion of Cornell students from New England or NYC or Long Island or Albany which are closer to Boston than Ithaca. Plus, I plan on trying to bring my family and friends from my area who may not have traveled from Ithaca. Seriously, when would you rather make a 4 - 8 hour weekend trip... in the middle of the semester with prelims and homework and sleep deprivation to worry about, or over winter break with nothing to do for a whole month. Yes, it would be a shame for the people who live in other parts of the country, but overall I think you'll get more Cornell people there.

RPI and Union aren't "during winter break", they're right at the end of it / right at the beginning of time to come back. It was amazing that there weren't any winter break games this year. In previous years there had always been two (usually Vermont / Dartmouth ). Last year I took a weekend to come up to Ithaca and stayed in the East Hill Plaza Best Western with my dad and a friend. Other than that I had always missed a game or two, and those games were January 11/12. 16/17 is a whole week better. You were probably gonna come back up to Ithaca Monday or Tuesday anyway, so come back two or three days earlier. Big deal.

Mercyhurst being over Thanksgiving does suck. It was worth it to come back for BU, but Mercyhurst I dunno. Though it is Sat *night*, so it's only like 20 hours earlier than I'd come back anyway. I'm definitely considering it. It'd be nice it was Sunday afternoon, but oh well.

Overall I think you guys are spoiled from missing no games over breaks this year. Even if you miss Union/RPI AND Mercyhurt, you still get as many home games as we had this season. Past seasons it was generally 15 games with 2 smack dab in the middle of break, so it's actually still *better* than usual. Cry me a river .

Um, the point I said that basically still holds was Dave's about how the Harvard game scheduled on December 6 is NOT really a problem, which I think is what you were saying as well. So we agree there

You're right about everything else you said, but how are the RPI and Union games right before the time to come back? They are 10 and 9 days, respectively, before the beginning of classes for the spring semester. Unless this academic calendar I have is wrong.....(someone else check)....

you're right, it's a significant amount of time to come back early, even if you're just a few hours away

i wasn't saying our schedule was the worst thing since the spanish inquisition, i was only commenting that it is obviously not student-centered, and this year's obviously was (with the only exception being BU which actually draws people back from thanksgiving unlike mercyherst).

people on this board bitch that the cheers aren't done right anymore, and they don't like little additions, and make it seem like this is some sort of travesty. in comparison, my comment about the schedule seems pretty reasonable, doesn't it?

also i didn't see anyone refute my claim that i was disappointed that we are not playing more big-name teams, even if we have to do it away. at this point, we aren't going to get respect if we play harvard (who went 0-7-1 against ranked teams this year) twice, maine once in estero, rpi et al. all season, and then choose our few precious out of conference slots with bowling green and the massive crowd draw mercyherst.

just my thoughts. like i said it's not like i'm not excited for the season. i assume the point of jim posting the tentative schedule was to elicit comments, of which this is one.

-mike 04



Post Edited (04-30-03 03:03)

Rather than look back at the dozen or so schedules in the past 25 years that were less advantageous to Cornell and its students than this one, it might be more productive to note that the ECAC does not construct its league schedule with one group of fans' interests in mind. It is not, after all, the Cornell League -- we are only one (albeit the coolest one) of twelve members. We usually get more than our share of breaks because of draw and tradition. The idea that we're somehow getting reamed is... in the interests again of civil politeness... is not informed by a particularly long perspective on such things.

My advice is that if you want to see games over break, stay over break. The bars are less crowded, and so -- if it comes to the last resort -- are the libraries.



Post Edited (04-30-03 04:45)

I think you should all be more concerned about winning then about who we play. If Cornell loses against all these teams that you claim aren't big-name, than what's the difference who they are playing?

Okay, I looked at the Registration/Course Exchange dates, saw it was a Thursday and thought Thurday = first day of classes, cause it does in the fall. I stand corrected on that one. Maybe I'll make the trip just for the weekend though, we'll see .

All I'm saying is the schedule doesn't "really suck for students". The only bad thing is the Union/RPI and maybe Mercyhurst, and when you eliminate those, we STILL have as many games as we had this year. Two years ago we had Quinnipiac AND Vermont/Dartmouth over winter break. And that year, if my quick math was right, we had a total of 13 (maybe 14) home games, only 10 or 11 of which were makeable. This year we have 17 home games! Believe me, this schedule is friendly to just about everyone in the Ithaca area.

As for strength of schedule, I agree that I was a bit disappointed too. It would have been nice to see a big name on there - like, a real big name, but I think the two lesser teams people may not like are Mercyhurst and Bowling Green. Mercyhurst I won't even discuss because I completely understand and agree with playing lesser teams sometimes. It's just the spirit of cooperation in college hockey. Bowling Green I can kinda explain. I noticed on the USCHO message boards that Ohio State / Bowling Green are pretty much doing a traveling partner thing with us/Colgate that weekend. Ohio State for us, Bowling Green for Colgate .

It happens. We'd have a been with the schedulers if we didn't see a Maine, UNH, UND, Minn type team on there for several years straight, but then again, I think Schafer would have a bigger beef and a louder voice .

-Fred

P.S. That @ BU, @ Lynah, off pattern was, as far as a I know, just a guess. We can only hope it's right.

I tend to think that this schedule is really in favor of OUR TEAM! All of the out-of-conference games (except the Florida tournament) are at home. Given our spectacular home record this past season (and over the course of Cornell hockey history), I think the team has to look at this with a great bit of optimism. So there might not be a full Lynah for the Thanksgiving weekend game against Mercyhurst, but do you think it will be quiet?

Also, last season the team played 8 straight games on the road WMU, Florida, North Country, Capital District. This year, our longest trip is 4 games which occurs twice. That's got to a lot easier on the team.

All in all, people will go, they will cheer, and the Red will do their best!

[Q]Also, I think the away Harvard game being over winter break is great, though maybe it's just cause I'm from Ct . I think there are a good portion of Cornell students from New England or NYC or Long Island or Albany which are closer to Boston than Ithaca.[/Q]

Are you willing to trade this convenience for having the Harvard game at Lynah the following season ('04-'05) on January 7? This is the one point that I'm really upset about. This is the biggest game of year for us, and everybody knows that. To schedule it so it'll fall when the students aren't on campus is awful. Outrage.

The biggest disadvantage of the schedule is that we're done with Harvard after only 7 league games in a season during which it is reasonable to assume that we will start out disorganized and feeling out new combinations, and will get better as the season goes on.

Dividing the season into 15/14 halves separated by students returning the week of 1/16, you get:

(1st half - second half, opponent)

2-0 Western Michigan
1-0 Bowling Green
1-0 Ohio State*
1-0 Mercyhurst
2-0 Brown
2-0 Harvard
1-0 Notre Dame
1-0 Estero second game, either Maine or *Ohio State
------------------------------------------------------------------
1-1 Yale
1-1 Princeton
1-1 Clarkson
1-1 St. Lawrence
------------------------------------------------------------------
0-2 Union
0-2 RPI
0-2 Vermont
0-2 Dartmouth
0-2 Colgate

The second-half "doubles" are in the main weaker than the teams we will meet in the first half at least once. Obviously, the NC games all fall within the first half as well, but there's nothing that could have been done about that.

It may mean nothing or, if we struggle early, it will mean those early poorer performances tending to come against top ECAC and NC opponent. We may very well pull a Jack Parker Special -- spend a couple of months screwing around trying to find out what works and losing a lot of games and league points, but then having it together for a ferocious stretch run.



Post Edited (04-30-03 14:44)

[Q]Rich wrote:
Are you willing to trade this convenience for having the Harvard game at Lynah the following season ('04-'05) on January 7? This is the one point that I'm really upset about. This is the biggest game of year for us, and everybody knows that. To schedule it so it'll fall when the students aren't on campus is awful. Outrage.[/Q]I didn't know that the 2004-2005 was set yet, if you do please post it.

If what you are saying is that the schedule flip-flops each year, well that's not quite accurate. This year we had Harvard at home in the fall and away in the spring, just like next year. They are at different dates, but the sequence is the same. So, let's not complain about something that we don't know yet.

[Q]Are you willing to trade this convenience for having the Harvard game at Lynah the following season ('04-'05) on January 7? This is the one point that I'm really upset about. This is the biggest game of year for us, and everybody knows that. To schedule it so it'll fall when the students aren't on campus is awful. Outrage.[/Q]
Of course not, and I know that the ECAC has occassionally done the "same schedule as last year but home/away flipped", but I have to believe they won't be as stupid as to do that. They know that the Harvard @ Cornell game is probably the biggest event of the year in the ECAC, and they're not gonna do it over break.

If they do schedule it that way, you can bet that everyone in Cornell athletics will throw a fit. I really think the chances of it are slim.

So, is the schedule listed above, more set in stone than the previous schedule? (ie before the flipflops, etc).

RBL

Jim Hyla '67 wrote:

If what you are saying is that the schedule flip-flops each year, well that's not quite accurate. This year we had Harvard at home in the fall and away in the spring, just like next year. They are at different dates, but the sequence is the same. So, let's not complain about something that we don't know yet.

Nope, you're right. I went back a few years, and it seems they stopped having dual-year flops in '99 or so. And even then, it wasn't rigorously followed. My bad.



Post Edited (05-01-03 02:27)

I really like the schedule. We're going to lose a lot of talent and when Schafer was putting the schedule together there were probably a lot of question marks in his head about next years team. He has given us a schedule that a young team should be able to compete well with, especially with all of the home games.

When our incoming freshmen are older, maybe he'll think about scheduling a "big-name" opponent.

my only complaint is the away hahvahd game. wish it was saturday. friday makes a trip impossible - damn i wanted to go this year. besides that it is all the same to me

If the rumors about home-and-home pairs every third year are true, then we'll have 2 BU games in '05 and again in '06 during a time when BU ought to be one of the best teams in the east.

Greg wrote:
If the rumors about home-and-home pairs every third year are true, then we'll have 2 BU games in '05 and again in '06 during a time when BU ought to be one of the best teams in the east.

And we may even get to play two of the last games at Walter Brown, assuming they open Cheel East during the 2004-2005 season.