Brown

is the color of dead ivy. They will not win the ECAC regular season or tournament titles. And Yann Danis will not win the Hobey Baker. If Lenny did't get it last year, what sense would it make to give it to Danis?
I still can't believe he had to split the ECAC player of the year award with Chris Higgins. Chris Higgins? He didn't lead the league in scoring and he barely led his own team in scoring. I still don't understand...
Our team is so young, but most the league still fears us. It amazes me how quickly our team has earned respect. We can lose a game or two and not slip out of the polls. Can you imagine next year, when we lose all of three seniors?

MNetravali wrote:
Can you imagine next year, when we lose all of three seniors?

Strange, that sounds like what Harvard was saying last year. Let's not get overconfident, eh?

Exactly. Not the time to start thinking we're almost invincible, and it's definitely not time to think about next year. And those 3 seniors we're losing are Vesce, one of the best centers in all of college hockey, Hornby, who is in many ways the heart and energy of the team, and Wallace, a seasoned defensive defenseman. But like I said, that's next year ....

Avash '05 wrote:

Exactly. Not the time to start thinking we're almost invincible, and it's definitely not time to think about next year. And those 3 seniors we're losing are Vesce, one of the best centers in all of college hockey, Hornby, who is in many ways the heart and energy of the team, and Wallace, a seasoned defensive defenseman. But like I said, that's next year ....

Actually, we're losing four, including Marr, who performed well when called upon in four games last season. Having basically lost Marr to injury the first half of the season, we're lucky that McKee has risen to the challenge of playing full-time as a frosh.

In light of that, I hope Schafer's recruiting another goalie. I don't think we want Chabot as McKee's back-up, and I get the sense that neither would Schafer.

JH

With all due respect to "Do I make you" Hornby and Wallace, the biggest loss will be Vesce. Any hockey coach will tell you how important the first line center is. He wins faceoffs and he's a leader. Let's just hope that the loss of Vesce will not be as bad as Harvard losing Dom Moore. And I can't stress it enough: Who is going to take the critical faceoffs that this system needs to win in order to function?

Sure Vesce will be a hard man to replace. But I'm not too worried about the "Dom Moore" factor. It seems to me that Harvard's problems have more to do with the caoching and the team as a whole than the loss of one player. I'm not too worried about that happening here.

I think our success so far this season points out that hopefully the program is getting to the point where we don't really have to play the "wait till you see us next year" game. The top programs don't rebuild, they reload (yes, a sports cliche). I think we can do that in terms of the league anyway, even if it's unlikely we'll be on top of the national polls year in and year out.

What about a team like Boston University? They certainly have been a top notch program. Though this year I'd say is a rebuilding year for them with their .500 overall record and their 3-5-2 HE record.

Perhaps RPI or Clarkson is a better example of what we want to be (though neither if the past two seasons). Both programs are typically fighting at the top of the league...and every couple of seasons they make enough noise in our league to find their way into the NCAA's. Though now with the expansion of the tournament, ECAC teams might find their way into the tournament a bit more often. I think the low point probably has to be 2001 when only St. Lawrence made the tournament.

Exactly. I want us to be consistently successful like Clarkson was (RS anyway ) before the recent troubles. I think that's very possible. I hope we don't have to suffer through regular boom-bust cycles.

[Q]Chris '02 wrote:

Perhaps RPI or Clarkson is a better example of what we want to be...[/Q]Let's forget looking around. Schafer showed all of the players where he he wanted them to be, when he made them do research on past players and understand where the program was coming from.

I find this silly, since I believe that all other ECAC programs would probably look to us as a program to shoot for. Sure Harvard, Yale, Clarkson, and RPI (God, how did they ever get mentioned?), would deny it, but I'm sure they would all like to have had the success we have had.

So, I say look no further.

North Dakota, arguably the best program in college hockey, was .429 in conference in 2002, and had back-to-back-to-back 20+ loss seasons in the early 90's. Busts do happen.

Cornell, consecutive seasons > .500

1964-81 (18)
1983 (1)
1985-86 (2)
1988-92 (5)
1996-97 (2)
2000-present (4 and counting)

[Q]Sure Harvard, Yale, Clarkson, and RPI (God, how did they ever get mentioned?), would deny it, but I'm sure they would all like to have had the success we have had.[/Q]
From [www.boston.com]
[Q]"We got beat by a team that's better than ours," said Mazzoleni. "They are a tremendous example for our league. They set the tone for us."[/Q]

It also helps to get the financial and infrastructure boost that North Dakota recently received. I don't see anyone in the near future receiving the kind of support that North Dakota got from a single booster.

Is that a hint?



Post Edited (01-15-04 15:49)

Well, Schafer's position is tenured.

I can see it now..."The Jeff Hopkins Chair of (Hockey) Management"

JH

True Greg. Likewise BC had some lousy years in the early 90's. Bad seasons will happen. What you want to avoid is regular cycles of boom-bust, especially since our booms are less likely to result in NC$$ titles.

Jeff Hopkins '82 wrote:

Well, Schafer's position is tenured.

I can see it now..."The Jeff Hopkins Chair of (Hockey) Management"

JH

Better yet, "The One of the guys who got revenge on Volonnino Dean of Hockey Operations." Yeah, I'm a little demented.

[q]Well, Schafer's position is tenured.[/q]

Tenured? Or do you mean endowed?

Vesce is certainly one of my favorite players -- he's smart, fun to watch, and provides more "bang for the buck" than most would expect from a player his size.

However, I think Chris Abbott has been demonstrating some prowess in winning faceoffs. In fact, I have occasionally noticed him out there when I would have expected Vesce to take the draw. Perhaps this is a reflection of Coach's confidence in the entire "checking line," or the fact that even Vesce can't play every minute of every game, but I'd be interested to see Chris's game-by-game and overall faceoff numbers.