My Opinion of Cornell after the Princeton game

The first line with Bitz-Vesce-Moulson is just awesome. I read everyone's opinions on this board about Bitz before the game, and I agree, he is awesome. He has stepped in as a freshman and looks great out there. Big guy who can skate and has skill. He needs to get stronger, but he is fine as is. I just hope he stays at Cornell until he is at least a junior. That pass to Vesce for the first goal tonight was beautiful. Moulson is very good and will only get better.

The Abbott-Abbott-Hornby line is exciting to watch. They work hard on every shift and are fantastic forecheckers. Schafer puts them out after each goal.

Hynes-Iggulden-Knoepfli line is solid. Hynes appears to be much stronger this year. He needs to increase his production, but he is so strong on the puck, it looks like he is on another level at times. I am not used to seeing Cornell players like that.

Fourth line of Pegoraro-McCutcheon-Carefoot didn't impress tonight. Carefoot seemed decent, but nothing stood out. Remeinds me of a Ladouceur/Kozier type. I expected more out of Pegoraro. I thought he looked better last year. McCutcheon is OK, but has lots of room for improvement. He is a skinny kid. Legs especially are thin. Not as bad a skater as I was led to believe. He should be great in two years. However, this line did not get much playing time until the third period, partially because of all the power plays and it was tough to judge.

On defense, Cook, Wallace and Downs are solid. I love O'Byrne's size and overall package. But his penalties are going to kill us against a good team. Glover and Gleed didn't play much until the third period. Again, it was difficult to judge. I think Glover looked a little better than Gleed. They both looked OK though. They might have problems against good teams this year.

The crowd tonight was great. I love how we go to Princeton and make it a home game for Cornell. I was there last year as well. But crushing them this year was sweet.

Team will keep getting better. As the Yale coach said, our defense needs to improve. We miss Murray at the point on the power play. No big slap shot on the team. Moulson and Bitz played the point at times on the power play.

McCutcheon took a few unnecessary cheap shots tonight, and I was a bit surprised; usually Schafer's players are more disciplined. But if you like that kind of thing, you'll be happy to know he managed only to do it when Dunn couldn't see it. Seven power plays is plenty to give any team we're playing, thank you.

De-lurking for the first time since late April,
Beeeej



Post Edited (11-09-03 01:26)

I have always been, and remain optimistic about this team. We all expected growing pains and it's great to see how some parts of the Cornell we are used to seeing are coming together.

Am I alone in my opinion that Evan Salmela is a terrific point man on the power play? Since we have not had tremendous success, especially with the second PP line, I was sort of disappointed he didn't play this weekend. In addition, he played very little 5-on-5 action at Lynah last week, so I couldn't tell how good a defensive player his is.

Anyone have any thoughts on the outlook for him?

Cheers,
Mike

I haven't seen Salmela play and I would love to know what people think about him.

As a board, it would be easier if people changed the subject headings so we can follow the topics.

Also, how is Stachurski?

Salmela does indeed have a great shot from the point. It's a low laser that is on target most of the time.

BUT....remember the kind of hockey sense that Mark McRae and Doug Murray had? Well Salmela doesn't have that (yet)...at least not from what we saw last weekend. He pinches in when he shouldn't, and then he doesn't backcheck well enough. Some of those defensive mistakes against Western Michigan last week, whether or not they led to goals, were at least partially his fault. Also, I think he mishandled the puck a couple times at key moments on the power play that resulted in the puck being cleared from the zone. So I wasn't surprised at all when I saw Glover (who was solid in the Red/White and vs. the U-18 team) was playing this weekend instead of Salmela. (Don't get me wrong though; I still think Salmela will be good....a Cook-like player eventually).

As for Stachurski, I'm not sure exactly what the coaches think of him. During the red-white game, he was only played at the same time as the walk-ons.



Post Edited (11-09-03 03:15)

Good to see you post Beeeej...was asking about you tonight

Thanks, Adam. And the answer to the question you were asking is Oregon v. Elstad, 470 U.S. 298 (1985). Hope I've helped.

Beeeej

> Carefoot seemed decent, but nothing stood out. Remeinds me of a Ladouceur/Kozier type.

This really jumped out at me as to the significant strides Schafer has made. Kozier and Ladouceur were among the best forwards on the team in 98-99, finishing in the top four in scoring as freshmen. Five years later, a player of comparable ability is on the bubble for the fourth line. Wow.



Post Edited (11-09-03 12:20)

Another thought following this weekend is that I'm glad Iggulden is no longer injured and was playing instead of Varteressian. Iggulden is actually pretty good and skates better than Varteressian. Iggulden just didn't get the playing time last year because of an already loaded roster. He's one of the best penalty killers on the team, and I think he's going to end up being the most improved player on the team.

As for Pegoraro not being as impressive this year, I think that's only because he's centering a line with two freshmen (the only line with two freshmen). I think just the fact that Schafer put Pegoraro with Carefoot and McCutcheon shows that he thinks highly of his ability.

From the netcast of the WMU games, I thought Pegoraro looked very good. Can't speak to this week.

Was it my imagination, or did Mike deploy Stealth Hornby (i.e., rarely mentioned) this past weekend?



Post Edited (11-09-03 12:38)

Hornby played plenty against Princeton. As I mentioned, his line was out after every goal. But with all of the power plays for both teams, perhaps he didn't get on the ice as much as he normally would.

He is also a pretty big guy on the ice. A good presence to have. Cornell once again has a good sized team. I love not being the ones who get pushed around.

Scott Goldsmith wrote:

He is also a pretty big guy on the ice. A good presence to have. Cornell once again has a good sized team. I love not being the ones who get pushed around.

Speaking of big, seeing Bitz and O'Byrne for the first time was pretty amazing (especially Bitz). Those are two big fellas. That was a great game to watch last night.

By the way, McKee has his first shutout, and not a word in the thread. And it makes some sense. That was some great defense in front of him, and he didn't have to make many impressive saves.

I disagree - McKee had plenty of tough saves to make last night, and made them - including a couple of breakaways and a couple of nasty scrambles in front of the net. Yes, the defense was certainly better this weekend than last, but McKee did a great job, especially once Princeton started to find their power play and moved the puck to the net better. Vesce's ridiculously absurd career game is the main reason people aren't talking about McKee...

...but it's also a tougher mental leap to treat the goalie as a hero because of his shutout, when the offense scored seven goals.

Beeeej

Jeffrey "Beeeej" Anbinder '94 wrote:

I disagree - McKee had plenty of tough saves to make last night, and made them - including a couple of breakaways and a couple of nasty scrambles in front of the net. Yes, the defense was certainly better this weekend than last, but McKee did a great job, especially once Princeton started to find their power play and moved the puck to the net better. Vesce's ridiculously absurd career game is the main reason people aren't talking about McKee...

...but it's also a tougher mental leap to treat the goalie as a hero because of his shutout, when the offense scored seven goals.

Beeeej

Wow, Beeeej. When you stop lurking, you come back with a vengeance. I don't disagree with anything you wrote. But while McKee certainly had some tough saves, every goalie makes some tough saves in every game. Leroux certainly did. His night was impressive, but certainly nothing that shows signs of greatness. LeNeveu gave up one goal in NJ last year, but I thought his game was spectacular. This shutout was good, but less impressive. (And of course the lack of offense in last year's game put more pressure on Lenny.)

In any event, it was a great game to go to. (Where were you sitting, Beeeej? I looked but didn't see you.)

I was standing on the back row, right above the end of the Cornell bench closest to the band - near Age, et al.

Beeeej

Princeton ain't exactly a NC$$ Tourney Contender. I expected Cornell to put it to them and they did. Should be a much more even series this weekend up North. Not Saying Clarkson or SLU will win but I think the game will be much closer. Those of you going up should be seeing some great hockey.

There was some earlier discussion of Evan Salmela.

I think he is a potentially great Power Play point guy because he wants the puck, likes to shoot, and I thought, has a good shot. Not a Doug Murray -- less power, but potentially more accuracy.

However, he is not a great point guy because he doesn't yet show the hockey sense it takes to make that snap decision of when to pinch or not, or when to pass on the shot, so it doesn't get blocked and become a breakaway for the other team.

I wouldn't be surprised to see him eventually end up back in the power play point spot. He seemed to be making a few freshman mistakes. No doubt, those will get worked out in a hurray.

I'll add my 2 Cents.

It was not the game I expected. After our slow start last weekend, and Leroux's press, I expected a game more like last year's. We have great size, and can counterattack with the best of them. Our lack of depth on defense is going to be an ongoing theme for a while. And good thing the announcer learned how to pronounce "Vesce."

Definitely a different style of offense than last year. I didn't see a lot of heavy cycling like we got out of Bâby. I actually think Princeton outhit us. But this is a fast, counter-attacking team, that can turn the play in the opposite direction on on odd-man rush damn quickly. They struck me as more in the "western" mold than last year's team.

One key observation: O'Byrne needs to stay out of the box. While I think some of the calls were borderline, he's likely to develop a reputation among the refs, leading to more calls. And I'm not overly impressed by our PK.

I didn't think McKee was called on to make too many tough saves, but I think the defense made his life a little tougher than it needed to, especially on the PK. The defenders were not especially aggressive checkers. It seemed like the box tended to collapse in on him, and led to a lot of screened shots, and all the scrambles in the slot. Princeton always had two men on either side of the goal, and our defenders didn't make much of an effort to displace them. If their outside men on the powerplay were any better, they'd have eaten us for lunch.

Our first goal just deflated Princeton. And after the first period, when they didn't score on all the powerplays, you could see that Princeton just wasn't going to make a game of it. I almost turned to my friend after the first period to say "This game's over", but thought I wouldn't antagonize the woofing gods.

Nice work by our point men on the powerplay, especially Cook. Pinched at the right time, and kept the puck in well. Nice to see Charlie get a goal for his effort.

Hornby/Abbott/Abbott played a good workmanlike game. Once they got to play, they kept Princeton on their heels. Actually, my companion noted in the second period that she wasn't aware that there were two Abbotts (since they hadn't played together much with all the early penalties). I also found it somewhat cute that the bench minor was served by Hornby.

And where was Hynes? He didn't seem to be a presence.

JH

That wasn't Stachurski during the Red-White game despite the fact that his jersey said "Stachurski" on the back of it. I've seen Stachurski play a little bit in practices and in the Red-White game. He is certainly well behind the top seven defensemen. His skating is very suspect and makes bad decisions. Some of this could be attributed to the fact that he has been playing on olympic ice in Finland for the past couple years. I was surprised that he was not better, however, considering he came from a very good league and Schafer spoke pretty highly of him last season after he had committed. Unless there are a lot of injuries on the blueline, I would be surprised if he ever played.

And lest anyone get down on Salmela for those "freshman mistakes", keep in mind Murray made his share of those when he was a freshman too, and he turned out OK.

My favorite quote from the USCHO recap:

[q]"It could have been 7-0 after the first period, said Princeton coach Len Quesnelle. "There was a point in the first period when we were looking at each other around the bench in sheer frustration."[/q]

Reminiscent of Parker's quote about boys skating among men after last year's Cornell-BU series at Lynah.

Jason N '95 wrote:

My favorite quote from the USCHO recap:

[q]"It could have been 7-0 after the first period, said Princeton coach Len Quesnelle. "There was a point in the first period when we were looking at each other around the bench in sheer frustration."[/q]

Of course, I disagree with him. We spent so much time down (at least) a man in the first. And I actually thought Princeton kept the puck in our end a lot. We weren't scoring off of constant pressure. 3-0 was pretty much where it should have been. Maybe 3-1. Quesnelle should give his squad more credit.



Post Edited (11-10-03 17:59)

Well Murray had his share of penalties as a Freshman. However, I remember him having a huge shot on the power play and seemingly would lay out at least one guy a weekend. I don't remember anyone on Cornell really plastering a princeton kid. So as long as O'byrne gets in a couple nice clean hits I'll take 6 PIM a weekend (that's a bit much for a single game though). He can't be afraid to use his size. Will he get whistled just because he's bigger than the litte twerp he flattened, most likely. Also I didn't see him take any slap shots, so can't judge. Can't argue with his size. Remember that Bâby had a lot of PIM too until he learned to skate at a D1 level.

Also on McKee, he did get a shutout, which is a feat no matter who you play especially with the amount of PP time for Princeton. Although more than once I recall thinking: 'good thing these bums can't shoot'
He seemed to give up a lot of rebounds, but more often than not on Sat. he seemed to direct them away from the slot. I seem to remember our previous goalies giving up rebounds, but our D-men would always be the two closest guys to the puck, so it looked very controlled. The current crop is still learning their positioning.

Hey if Cornell can score 13 goals/wknd they'll win plenty (not going to hold my breath on that)
I think we are all a bit slanted as we are trying to recall what last year's top players were like as freshman. Remember when they were freshman Cornell was not a national contender and I'm not sure they were faced with the same expectation of winning every game and allowing less than 2 GAA. So let them learn. Might there be a loss or three because of freshman mistakes? probably, but there is a reason all these Frosh are here and playing: Coach believes they will produce. For now that's good enough for me.

Sarli wrote:
So as long as O'byrne gets in a couple nice clean hits I'll take 6 PIM a weekend (that's a bit much for a single game though). He can't be afraid to use his size.

8, actually.

Beeeej

About the rebounds...Lenny was a master at redirecting shots into the corners with his stick...I noticed McKee trying it a few times during the Saturday game against WMU but he seemed uncomfortable doing it (and I was uncomfortable watching him do it). He's still learning.

I agree. We were somewhat outplayed in the first period, hence all the penalties. It could very easily have been 2-1 Princeton.

JH

Consistent with reality or not, it's still a good quote.