ECAC Awards

[www.uscho.com]

Individual Awards

Coach of the Year: Stan Moore, Colgate
Player of the Year: Yann Danis, Brown
Co-Rookies of the Year: Brian Ihnacak, Brown and David McKee, Cornell
Ken Dryden Award (Goaltender of the Year): Yann Danis, Brown
Best Defensive Forward: Jon Smyth, Colgate
Best Defensive Defenseman: Scott Ford, Brown

All ECAC First Team

F Jon Smyth, Colgate
F Lee Stempniak, Dartmouth
F Brady Leisenring, Vermont
D Ryan Glenn, St. Lawrence
D Grant Lewis, Dartmouth
G Yann Danis, Brown

All-ECAC Second Team

F Kevin Croxton, Rensselaer
F Hugh Jessiman, Dartmouth
F Joe Zappala, Yale
D Rob Brown, Colgate
D Scott Basiuk, Rensselaer
G Nathan Marsters, Rensselaer

ECAC All-Rookie Team

F Brian Ihnacak, Brown
F Kyle Rank, St. Lawrence
F Oren Eizenman, Rensselaer
D Grant Lewis, Dartmouth
D Mike Campaner, Colgate
G David McKee, Cornell

All-ECAC Honorable Mention

F Rich Peverley, St. Lawrence
F Ryan Vesce, Cornell
F T.J. Trevelyan, St. Lawrence
F Matt Moulson, Cornell
D Scott Ford, Brown
D Noah Welch, Harvard
D Jaime Sifers, Vermont
D Joe Callahan, Yale
G Steve Silverthorn, Colgate
G David McKee, Cornell

Marsters gets second-team over McKee????

Not a single player on either of the first two teams...WOW

do they consider performance in the playoffs at all, or is it based purely on the regular season?

McKee had a better save percentage, better GAA, better win percentage than Marsters....and did it with a team that scored 17 fewer goals in front of him (ECAC play). Perhaps the only game the committee watched was the 2-0 drubbing RPI gave us at home.

Also, I think it should be some sort of rule that the best defensive defenseman must at least make the 2nd team. After all, that is the primary responsibility of being a defenseman.

And I'm fairly certain that my thought that Moulson should have been at least on the 2nd team, is home team bias.

From the USCHO article:

The Bears' Yann Danis became only the second player in ECAC history to be honored as Player of the Year and receive the Ken Dryden Award as the league's best netminder in the same season. St. Lawrence's Eric Heffler turned the trick in 1999.


I seem to recall someone doing that last year too....

And one more thing....

We had the BEST defense in league play this season (1.45 GA per game). Brown was second with 1.82 allowed. Yet our defensemen, like Downs, Wallace and Cook (who is 8th in the nation in points per game for a defenseman), aren't given any credit. Last season, people talked about how Lenny's numbers were great simply because of the defense in front of him, and this season, the choice of Marsters over McKee suggests that the same excuse of a good defense is being used, EXCEPT there's no Cornell defenseman even mentioned, not even the one who actually racked up a lot of points this season! What a load of garbage.

Missing the forest for the trees here, guys. Congrats to McKee, our first ECAC ROTY since 1996 (Kyle Knopp).

I can deal with Marsters making second team over McKee. The ECAC has shown a tendency to favor seniors in the selection of these awards, and McKee will have three more years to prove how good he is. Honestly, I'm just happy Marsters got it and not Silverthorn.

Honestly, though, I agree with Avash that it's kind of a snub seeing *none* of our players on either of the top two teams. We all saw firsthand how valuable a player Vesce was to the team last weekend, and I'd take him on my team in a heartbeat over any of the forwards on the first or second teams. Instead, it pretty much looks like they took 5 of the top 6 conference scorers and threw in Zappala for leading the conference in a meaningless stat. Yeah, this is just frustration talking, but knowing what we know, that Vesce was playing through injury all year and *still* was as important to the team as he was, I would've liked to see him honored. Cook, Moulson, Hynes, Downs, they'll get their chance next year.

Been pointed out before, but these awards mean nothing. They are selected by people that have definitive biases and more importantly have not seen most of the players eligible for the awards on a regular basis. They are thus based on politics, reputations, and stats. Were there Cornell players more worthy than others that were rewarded? Sure. But it makes no difference in the end. In the last two years, Cornell received plenty and I'm sure a lot of the voters felt it was other team's turns. This does not justify snubbing worthy candidates for awards, but I am sure it factored in to their thinking.
It sucks not having a good showing on awards, but I would have much rather had an ECAC Final Four bid over any awards what so ever. I think you would get the same response from any one of the players and coaches. Just about everything is leaving a bitter taste in our mouths following a disappointing finish. All the more reason to shift into a much higher gear next year and show the ECAC and the NCAA that Cornell is blooming into a perennial powerhouse.

[Q]jmh30 Wrote:

I can deal with Marsters making second team over McKee. The ECAC has shown a tendency to favor seniors in the selection of these awards, and McKee will have three more years to prove how good he is. Honestly, I'm just happy Marsters got it and not Silverthorn.

Honestly, though, I agree with Avash that it's kind of a snub seeing *none* of our players on either of the top two teams. We all saw firsthand how valuable a player Vesce was to the team last weekend, and I'd take him on my team in a heartbeat over any of the forwards on the first or second teams. Instead, it pretty much looks like they took 5 of the top 6 conference scorers and threw in Zappala for leading the conference in a meaningless stat. Yeah, this is just frustration talking, but knowing what we know, that Vesce was playing through injury all year and *still* was as important to the team as he was, I would've liked to see him honored. Cook, Moulson, Hynes, Downs, they'll get their chance next year. [/Q]
As you said, the ECAC has a strong tendency to honor Seniors in the awards. For that reason, I suspected that Marsters would win the ECAC 2nd team goalie. Besides that, I think that he is very deserving of the honor. McKee will have three more chances to be selected for the All-ECAC team, and I pick him for the 2nd team each of the next three years. All of us RPI fans are giving Jordan Alford the first team award the next four years, assuming that he stays around.

It does surprise me that neither Vesce nor Moulson was selected to either team.

jmh30 Wrote:

Honestly, though, I agree with Avash that it's kind of a snub seeing *none* of our players on either of the top two teams.

Also don't forget that last year's ECAC Awards might as well been could be summarized as "Cornell etc." Even if all those awards were legit (and I think they were), there's always a desire to spread the wealth around.

Bottom line is I agree, our boys were dissed.

[Q]Avash '05 Wrote:

do they consider performance in the playoffs at all, or is it based purely on the regular season? [/Q]

The awards are voted on at the end of the regular season, so playoff performance is not a factor.

[Q]Avash '05 Wrote:

From the USCHO article:

The Bears' Yann Danis became only the second player in ECAC history to be honored as Player of the Year and receive the Ken Dryden Award as the league's best netminder in the same season. St. Lawrence's Eric Heffler turned the trick in 1999.


I seem to recall someone doing that last year too....

[/Q]

Lenny was co-Player of the Year last year, along with Yale's Chris Higgins. Danis and Heffler were solo POTY winners.

[Q]McKee will have three more chances to be selected for the All-ECAC team[/Q]
and
[Q] Cook, Moulson, Hynes, Downs, they'll get their chance next year.[/Q]

I dunno... I thought Lenny would have more chances for the Hobey...

[Q]dss28 Wrote:
I dunno... I thought Lenny would have more chances for the Hobey... [/Q]SHHHHH! You'll spoil my optimism.

I'd bet that spreading the wealth around is/was a big factor. No Cornell player, other than McKee, was a clear standout for an award this year, no matter how valuable those of us who followed the team know guys may have been. So the voters decided to give awards to other teams this year.

McKee could easily have been 2nd team All-ECAC, but since he was already going to be on the rookie team they again opted to spread things around. We see this all the time with the weekly awards too. I suspect if David was a Soph he'd have been 2nd team over Marsters.

[Q]We all saw firsthand how valuable a player Vesce was to the team last weekend[/Q] While I agree that Vesce was extremely valuable to our team and will be greatly missed, you can't give out awards based on "replacement value". Awards of this sort should be given for performance on the ice. If a guy is in the stands wearing a suit, he's not performing on the ice and shouldn't get credit for might've beens.

This doesn't mean that Vesce shouldn't be the team MVP, but that's a different kind of award.

The printed ECAC tournament program allowed four players - one from each school attending - to answer 20 Questions.

Question #5. Best all around opposing ECAC player?

Harvard's Rob Fried: Ryan Vesce
Dartmouth's Lee Stempniak: Ryan Vesce
Colgate's Paul Kelley: Ryan Vesce
Clarkson's Rob McFeeters: Lee Stempniak, Dartmouth

Lynah was picked as toughest ECAC Arena to play in by all of the above except Stempniak who picked Bright.

Fried and McFeeters picked Cornell as their toughest opponent.

[Q]marty Wrote:

Lynah was picked as toughest ECAC Arena to play in by all of the above except Stempniak who picked Bright.

[/Q]

Let's change his mind next year

Matt Moulson:

#26 ppg nation-wide 1.09
#15 gpg nation-wide 0.56

#2 goals 0.64 gpg 14g ECAC
#3 gwg 4 in ECAC
#11 (3-way tie) ppg 1.05 ECAC

fairly stand-out play to me.