Lynah East Postmortem

I was getting tired of the 100-post thread.

I'm going to sleep off my day of travel in a minute, but I'll say this was the best Harvard crowd I've seen to date. They had two solid sections (with a strip of Cornell fans in between), and were vocal and active. They started cheers at times other than after a goal, which is more than can be said for a lot of fan bases.

Certainly better than the two juvenile delinquents who seemed to make up the entire Brown fan base the night before.

I don't know if we should have won the game, but we shouldn't have lost it that way either. The Harvard goal came after an obvious penalty on a Harvard player who decked Sawada in our offensive zone. It was at the faceoff circle and the ref was on the other side. After Harvard scored Sawada complained, to no avail.

In case some Harvard fans think it's just sour grapes, when I was listenning to the recap on WIBX, the Harvard announcer described the takedown and that the ref never saw it. If that had been a penalty, then no score. Having said that, some of our best hockey was after they scored. If we had that intensity all game, no contest.

So much for the wireless text messaging score service from the CU athletics website. Had to be at a swim meet Saturday night, and my phone announced that the final score was Cornell 1, Harvard 0. Imagine my surprise...

[Q]Jim Hyla Wrote:

Having said that, some of our best hockey was after they scored. If we had that intensity all game, no contest.[/q]
Agree. One almost wishes Harvard had scored early in the game.

Harvard definitely had a much larger crowd this weekend compared to the previous three years I have attended... but the band was weak and you wouldnt have known the crowd was almost 50% Harvard fans until the goal was scored.

This is the only game I have caught in person (saw the BC game on TV). Despite the Harvard "good winners" club on USCHO comments about fair officating, I thought that particularly in the 1st and 2nd there was some home ice advantage for the Crimson from the officiating squad (both penalties being called and an obvious offsides call that led to a quality scoring chance).

I will repeat that I though Schafer made some good in game adjustments to the defensive zone breakout (Harvard had 4 men in the offensive zone frequently on the forecheck, Schafer countered with a breakout that began with 5 men on the endline) However the Cornell forecheck was almost non-existant and I thought Bitz had a lot of trouble making decisions bringing the puck out (cant comment on whether this is common or a one night deal as this is the only game I have seen). On the flip side, I thought O'Byrne played a great game and STAYED OUT OF THE PENALTY BOX which is going to be key for the Red to have success down the road. The shot that beat McKee was very well place above the shoulder on the stick side.... he didnt really have a chance, the defense had trouble clearing pucks out from rebounds and deflections all night.

This is getting long, final question, anyone want to comment on the boarding penatly in the 1st, I was surprised it was a 2min call as the standard has seemed to be a 5min and often a GM?

[Q]Cornell95 Wrote:
... final question, anyone want to comment on the boarding penatly in the 1st, I was surprised it was a 2min call as the standard has seemed to be a 5min and often a GM?[/q]
i can say from where i was standing it looked like the hit was from the side and i thought the call was weak. Dupree had his head up his a$$ all night long and looked off many should be penalties and called some marginal ones.

that said, our breakout & forecheck need some serious work or we're in for a long second half.

[Q]Jim Hyla Wrote:
I don't know if we should have won the game, but we shouldn't have lost it that way either. The Harvard goal came after an obvious penalty on a Harvard player who decked Sawada in our offensive zone. It was at the faceoff circle and the ref was on the other side. After Harvard scored Sawada complained, to no avail.[/q]Adding insult to injury, the same guy who knocked Sawada down from behind scored the goal.

The unofficial eLynah pager service I used - thank you Adam - was speedy, accurate, and passionate in reporting the Harvard penalties and the near scoring opportunities. If eLynah was non-profit charity, maybe I'd mention it in my will.

You may not have done Adam any favors here. Where does the line form to sign up?

[Q]ninian '72 Wrote:

Does "informal" mean that this service isn't broadly available? [/q]

Unfortunately, yes

Kudos to the Cornell alum at the brown game who got the ushers to escort the juvenile delinquents to the other side of the rink. The true funny moment would be when the one with the horn ran up the aisle chanting 'I need ritalin! I need ritalin!'

[Q]Ben Rocky 04 Wrote:

Kudos to the Cornell alum at the brown game who got the ushers to escort the juvenile delinquents to the other side of the rink. The true funny moment would be when the one with the horn ran up the aisle chanting 'I need ritalin! I need ritalin!'[/q]
Apparently that might not be what he said, because as the guy next to me was relating the story, the kid stopped and said "Hey, that guy thinks I need ritalin!" like the idea hadn't occurred to him earlier. Or maybe it was a different kid.

The (very gracious and helpful) rink staff was already familiar with the kids... apparently they've been regulars for years, and with the onset of puberty came general disruptiveness. But fortunately they were already being escorted out by the time I got to an usher. It wasn't me.

Now, if that had happened at Colgate....


-Lauren
2005 Pepband Manager