McGill game thoughts?

Started a new thread so we didn't have to weed through 50 different people posting that Cornell scored the first goal. Anyways, I'd have to say that Topher Scott was the best player on the ice tonight, and not just because he scored 2 goals. He was all over the ice, made great passes, protected the puck well on the boards, had a great shot block and showed amazing composure for a freshman playin in his first game. Based on what I saw tonight, I think he'll finish top 4 or 5 on Cornell in scoring, after maybe Moulson, Cooke, Knoepfeli, and Hynes. Wasn't particularly impressed with cornell's shooting tonight. Apart from Moulson's lazer off the crossbar and Knoepfeli's top corner shot that somehow wasn't stopped, most shots were with weak or hit the goalie right in the logo. First period was sloppy in general and the game wasn't really all that exciting until there was about 10 minutes left in the 3rd when it really opened up.

Chabot also made a couple nice saves in those final 10 minutes. Overall, I agree - Scott was terrific. He really won over a lot of the fans with that second goal; had the place chanting his name...

They played well but it was clearly their first game and first week of practice. All the freshmen played well. I am not a McCutcheon fan, but I thought it was the best game he's played at Cornell. Pegoraro is getting every opportunity to redeem himself. The fourth line of Varteressian-Abbott-McCutcheon got more ice time than any other line and did pretty well constantly generating pressure.
I know it was the first game, but I saw a lot of similarities to last year's team in that they struggled mightily to find the back of the net. Hynes had a near open net and the goalie made the save. I feel like that happened a lot last year. That all being said, I think this team is much better balanced offensively and have the capacity to be a dominant two-way team like they were two years ago.
McGill is probably the worst team Cornell will play this year.
The biggest decision Schafer has to make is who will be the 7th defenseman. All of them looked good tonight, but I would say Krantz's stock went up as the night went along with Pokuluk's dropping a bit.

The Good:
- Topher Scott. Nuff said. The heir apparent to Vesce.
- All three goalies did well in the time they were given.
- Pegs was a hell of a lot better tonight than he was all of last season.
- Cam Abbott seemed even more amazing than usual tonight.
- All the other usually good players did fine tonight--Moulson, Cook, Iggulden, etc.

The Bad:
- I agree with Ari. It seemed like too many good scoring opportunities went to waste.
- Cornell seemed to take a few stupid penalties throughout the night. Luckily McGill couldn't capitalize.

We should have a good team this year.

McCutcheon did a good job of getting in the right places but his lack of strength still causes him to get bumped off the puck too much.. Scott played really well and really good at keeping moving. Cam abbott played a solid game throughout. Moulson althouth he didnt score generated 5-6 quality chances. Towards the end McCutcheon & chriss abbot &Varteressian really controled play. Mckee while not getting much work did make 2-3 really nice saves including one nice toe kick. I thought Hynes picked up his play as the game went on. O'Bryne made one really nice move at the blue line to create a chance. It was a game where quality shooting would have netted 8-9 goals but the Mcgill goalie did come up big on several good shots. the only good thing about shooting into the goalie was at least they got them on goal which has always been a problem.

the game opened up once they got Mcgill tired after the power play. What is clear is they need to get the puck handling undercontrol and keep the giveaways down as the few the committed might be converted by better teams..

all in all a pretty good effort and by the shots you can tell just how much the controlled the game..

[Q]McGill is probably the worst team Cornell will play this year. [/Q]

Did you know that Yale lost to McGill Last night?

I think that Cam Abbott played a great game and showed some real maturity more than I expected. I didn't really expect ot see the Abbotts split up, I wonder how long it will last. Topher Scott was also a great suprise. Forget the goals that he scored, he handled the puck like a vetran of the league, not once did I see him panik with the puck under pressure. However, the best part of the whole night was the first goal: Scott, from Sawada, and Krantz.

Two questions:

1) Why are they announcing Downs' hometown as Newfield, it used to be Syracuse?


2) I remember hearing something on the forum last year about the home teams now wearing their dark jerseys. Is that why we wore red last night or did McGill only have there white jerseys with them?

The Downs' family just built a house in Newfield this past summer. They had previously been living at a friend's guest house on Cayuga Lake.

Game was typical opening game, with some mistakes and missed passes, but we were much further along than I had expected. Kroontz stepped in offensively impressive for a freshman D'man, Topher was great fun to watch and cool under pressure and a big plus on the face-off. The team played well and I thought all four lines looked good!

Looking forward to watching the Big Red improve as a team over this season - - Teamwork is key to success and I saw impressive signs of this throughout the game - Topher's play has already been adequately lauded - Sawada made some excellent decisions and good passes several times. The penalty kill looked reasonably strong (although was not impressed w/ McGill's pp most of the time - they would move it around quickly then goof up the 4th or 5th pass ).

Go BIG RED!

he is so cute

[Q]profudge Wrote:


Looking forward to watching the Big Red improve as a team over this season - - Teamwork is key to success and I saw impressive signs of this throughout the game - [/q]

I think that pretty much sums it up. I can't think of one aspect of their game that didn't look better than last year, especially their teamwork.

Notwithstanding the first game rust, I think the real question is: Were we that good or were they that bad?!

ps: The rookie cowbell was good, but the band sounded a bit rusty.

[Q]dodger916 Wrote:

I think that pretty much sums it up. I can't think of one aspect of their game that didn't look better than last year, especially their teamwork.
[/q]

Agreed. I would say that at the beginning of last year, the teamwork was lacking. It appeared that the higher number of new people created an atmosphere of a lot of people trying to stand out on their own, except that Schafer's system is really to be heavy on the teamwork and not to rely on a few superstars. For whatever reason, that was different at the beginning of this year. Maybe Knoepfli is a better captain than Vesce was? Maybe all the non-freshmen collectively realized the problems at the beginning of last year and wanted to avoid that this year? Or maybe I'm just full of crap?

The band had a few slip-ups including the drummer sleeping through the after penalty thing they play. Cowbell was much better although the ending was a little different than its been in years past, anybody else notice that?

Full of Crap!!!... but then arnt' we all?

I was much more impressed walking out after the game this year than last year. Yeah, errors were made, but there were times last year i saw more mistakes much later in the season.

Agree with everything said about teamwork. There's no doubt in my mind that this year's team has the ability to produce more offense than last year.

I was really hoping to watch Davenport in action, but he didn't even face a shot. Anybody think he might get some ice time next weekend?

[Q]mjh89 Wrote:

The band had a few slip-ups including the drummer sleeping through the after penalty thing they play.[/q]

The marching band followed our football team to Brown this weekend, leaving pep band smaller than usual and with more freshmen than usual. Actually, every single drummer was a freshman, so if you think about it, they did a really good job picking things up as the game went on.

[Q]KP '06 Wrote:
I was really hoping to watch Davenport in action, but he didn't even face a shot. Anybody think he might get some ice time next weekend?[/q]
Davenport seemed to have trouble... uh, skating out with the team. Not that I suppose that matters too much for a goaltender.
[Q]The marching band followed our football team to Brown this weekend, leaving pep band smaller than usual and with more freshmen than usual. Actually, every single drummer was a freshman, so if you think about it, they did a really good job picking things up as the game went on.[/q]
Also, like every semester, conductors change. There are always a few kinks to iron out as people adjust to hockey timing. That means you, KP.

Great Game. Focus on following through on scoring chances and controling the pace of the game. lots more speed than i expected, and can i say that Chabot made 4 key saves? way to go.

[Q]KP '06 Wrote:

The marching band followed our football team to Brown this weekend[/q]
Someone might tell the band that a Cornell tune or two would be appreciated by alumni at road football games. In particular, what happened to the alma mater at halftime?

If we wanted to hear a drum-and-bugle corps, we could go to a DCA event.