LGT LGT LGT

I am surprized no posting yet on the Clarkson - Cornell tilt this Saturday. Even though the RED are way ahead, I expect the Knights to give them a good close game. I will be listening on the net. May the best team (or Clarkson ) win .

This should be an excellent game with stellar defense. (No watch it turns out to be 7-6 )

Who is Morris tormenting these days in net?

Greg Berge wrote:

Who is Morris tormenting these days in net?

Mike Walsh. And if the numbers are any indication, he hasn't been tormented at all... I don't know if he's been pulled at odd times, but the fact that he's played more minutes than any other ECAC goalie speaks to the fact that he's definitely the guy, which as far as I've noticed, has seemed rare at Clarkson since Dan-o graduated.

Correct me if I'm wrong but I think the goalie uncertainty at Clarkson since Dan-O has more to do with the less than stellar goaltending than with Morris. No one ever really stepped forward and grabbed the job. Looking at the numbers it appears that Walsh has stepped up this year (also judging from the game at Cheel).
Now the tendency to pull the goalie at odd times is purely a Morris thing though it's not always as half baked as it seems.

. . .Tap, Tap, Tap, Tap, Tap, Tap, Tap, Tap, Tap, Tap, Tap, Tap, Tap, Tap, Tap, Tap, Tap, Tap, Tap, Tap, Tap, Tap, Tap, Tap, Tap, Tap, Tap, Tap, Tap, Tap, Tap, Tap, Tap, Tap, Tap, Tap, Tap, Tap, Tap, Tap, Tap, Tap, Tap, Tap, Tap, Tap, Tap, Tap, Tap, Tap, Tap, Tap, Tap. . . boy we are gonna have a blast with Mikey this weekend!!!

p.s. tap, tap. . .I think he might need to see someone about that?

so are the rest of the people in the various sections know to continue remot control goalie with "tap tap tap tap tap tap" (i think it's 6...it's hard not to count when he keeps doing it) instead of jumping straight to "bend over"?

That's pretty much correct. Walsh has played pretty well this year and his stats how it. He allowed a few softies early in the season. The much bigger problem has been that for most of the year, the PK was terrible...and the PP was no great shakes either.

After Murphy and Bernard graduated, Shawn Grant did step up and take the job...remember he backboned the team to the '99 LP title as a freshman...but he got hurt part way through last season and his career ended.

I think Walsh has been pulled only a couple of times this season, and from what I heard, it was the right move.

Morris is not the first to pull a goalie and put him back in later...and he surely will not be the last!

I guess Greg has not been paying attention. Though with Clarkson's mediocre season to date, I guess I can understand that.

At any rate, I hope Walsh "torments" cornell Saturday night...just for Greg's benefit!

You are too young to remember this but Bernie Parent of the Phila Flyers used to go through the same tapping of the posts before each faceoff. I'm guessing Mike may have picked it up from watching old tapes of Bernie since he's from the Philadelphia area.

I've seen other college goalies do that as well in the past 30 years...don't ask me to name one now though....please!

Many lacrosse goalies tap the sides of the cage. Any chance Mike played lax in the springtime?

I'd forgotten Grant and guess I didn't realize that he had a career ending injury.
If you're down a bunch of goals midway through the third, pulling the goalie may give you a chance to get back into it, by closing the gap and giving your team a confidence boost after scoring. But it's a big risk. I don't think Morris is crazy for doing it - just unorthodox.

I thought Morris was more notorious for switching goalies than he was for pulling them for the extra skater.

Beeeej

You're right.... sorry I just got got up and am not really remembering correctly.

Damn west coasters. :-{)}

Beeeej

> I thought Morris was more notorious for switching goalies than he was for pulling them for the extra skater.

It's both.

Morris pulls the goalie to set up 6x4's and 6x3's from the mid point of the third on in games in which Clarkson trails by at least 2. I don't have any trouble understanding that, and I wish Schafer would use the strategy. (But then again, I also think the goalie should be pulled early in a 1 goal game, rather than with just 1 minute on the clock. Losing by 2 is the same as losing by 1, and I'd much prefer to risk the extra goal for the big chance of setting up the tie.)

Where Morris loses most of us is his quick and somewhat spastic hook -- he seems to yank goalies for punitive reasons, or to shake the team up, more than any other coach. After a while this just looks like flailing, and many has been the time that the removed goalie has looked very, very pissed off (more at Morris than himself), and the replacement goalie has looked a little bewildered (which can't be a good thing).

Everybody has his foibles (Cahoon's melt downs, Gaudet's hystrionics, Gilligan's dumb post-game comments, Marsh's "I will freeze you where you stand" icy stare). Morris' is the goalie circus.

Hmmm... remind anyone of Bertrand?

I thought Dick's foible was just that his entire team hated him.

Greg,

I would not call it a "circus". Only looks that way because others dont do it much in the ECACs. It worked pretty well in that wild '99 title game with Princeton.

Have you ever played goal? I have and though I wasn't happy to get pulled, my play usually warranted it when I was yanked. Goalies have to be thick skinned...more so than any other position.

Lots of coaches pull their top goalie when he's getting shelled when its the skaters' fault and not their's...as if to say..."If you guys are gonna play like crap, I'm not letting Roy/Richter/Bodeur, etc...stay in there and suffer.

Its an attempt to "shake em up" as you said...does it work? Probably not usually...

I like the fact that Morris is unconventional at times...playing "by the book"' is overrated!

That said...I hope Walsh plays 60:00 on Saturday!

Actually, that wild 1999 Clarkson-Princeton game was the semifinal. (I still have the chat transcript of the Princeton equalizer and Wille Mitchell's improbable gamewinner.) Tech beat SLU in the final. Princeton beat Clarkson in double OT in the 1998 ECAC title game. I've actually got a recap by Greg at [slack.net]

Of course you are right John...I must have had a brain cramp as I was packing for the trip. And of course I still feel the pain of the '98 loss!

The '98 and '99 playoff games added a lot of juice to the Tech-PU "rivalry"...and the games are still intense.

I was trying to refer to Grant's great game against SLU in the '99 final.

Thanks again...about to make the 45 min drive to Ithaca now from Bingo.

Hmm....I hear Walsh played well at 'Gate last night...could we have a tight one tonite? That seems to be Morris's game plan from last night's comments...

LETS GO TECH!!!