Thursday practices

I was able to make it for Colgate, Harvard, and Cornell. Fred and his girlfriend Emily were there with me for the Cornell practice. About a dozen people were in the runway to the bench watching the Cornell practice.

As a primer, each team was given an hour for practice and the clock was very methodical in counting down everything...practice times and ice cleaning time.

Colgate was working very hard on their power play and they were focusing on hitting the back door. Their point play was really weak and the entire team seemed low energy. I found Stan Moore's coaching techniques very interesting...instead of telling the players what to do he kept asking "What do you see?" He also said, "We don't care how you do it, it's the result that matters."

Harvard was a pain in the arse, as usual. Donato came out in sweats and skates when Harvard was supposed to take the ice and he skated around the ice for 20 minutes, by himself, testing how the pucks traveled along the boards and glass. The team finally came out 30 minutes late at 3:30. Once the team was filing out of the locker room, Donato made them all wait in the bench area until everyone was out of the locker room. When the first player hit the ice, the practice clock was reset giving them a full hour to practice on top of the 20 minutes Donato took to chop up the ice and learn the boards. Yet another reason to cheer against Harvard tomorrow.

Juan Martinez was hanging out at the Harvard bench the entire time, and was only present for the Harvard practice. Unlike me, Juan is nothing but a homer. In fairness to Juan, he writes much better than me and I'm sure he proof reads too

I was specifically watching Dov the entire practice (McKee, holding his goalie stick the entire time, watched Dov for about 20 minutes). He's very confident with his glove to the point where he wasn't getting his body in position; he was completely relying on his glove. Another thing I found interesting was that he doesn't angle his stick when he is trying to redirect rebounds into the net or glass like Lenny and McKee are so good at. Instead, he sweeps the puck aside and is very susceptible to an opponent crashing the net on the stick side, IMO. Dov absolutely amazed me when he was down on the ice. He has great control of his legs and stick, allowing him to make some incredible saves while having his stomach on the ice. The guy that seemed the most loose and joking around was The Hack.

Two things surprised me about the Harvard practice. There was not a lot of discipline to the practice. Donato never had a whistle. On one of the drills they did--a forward took a close shot on net and then stood in front of the goalie to attempt a deflection on a shot from the blue-line by a d-man--Donato had to show the team how to do the drill twice and then the team completed the drill. That was weird. Maybe Donato is used to relaxed NHL practices, I don’t know. Another thing that surprised me was the entire team got very excited any time someone scored...it didn't matter if it was on Dov or the two scrubs with black goalie helmets.

Because Harvard basically had an hour and a half practice, Cornell got to the benches at 4:30 and literally sat on the benches for 30 minutes while the ice was cleaned and dried.

I always love watching a Mike Schafer practice. Unlike Colgate or Harvard, he was working the whistle the entire time and as a result, the practice was extremely efficient. It seemed professional. Schafer was hammering the guys for playing too cute. He told the guys to keep their eyes on the puck at all times because the ice is so choppy and the boards have huge seams. I won't say what they were specifically working on but Schafer went through special teams and even strength, always saying how important it is to get used to game situations on that crappy surface. I love the shootout Cornell always does in the middle of the practice as a break. OB has a great wrist shot; he scored a goal and hit the post on his two shots, never making a move. Didn't he score a goal like this in 2005? Mitch Carefoot won the shootout and the entire team came over to give him hugs...very interesting. McKee looked loose, comfortable and strong. I guess I should have expected it but I was watching carefully because this is his first trip to Albany. Unlike, Vaughn or Donato, Schafer gave a passionate speech at center ice before the practice ended; the hairs stuck up on the back of my neck.

That's my report...see ya tomorrow! LGR!

Adam,
Excellent report, and thanks for writing it, but why won't you say what Cornell was working on? If any of the other teams really cared, they would have watched the practice and found out.

[Q]mjh89 Wrote:

Adam,
Excellent report, and thanks for writing it, but why won't you say what Cornell was working on? If any of the other teams really cared, they would have watched the practice and found out. [/q]

Because teams were watching Colgate but most left when Harvard was late; I assume for the ECAC Awards Ceremony at the hotel. The only guy watching the Cornell practice was the Harvard assistant coach with the huge chin. And he was resting after a hard workout at the end of the practice with Donato, the other assistant, and the cratches...Bruce Irving? He left after about 20 minutes.

[Q]mjh89 Wrote:

Adam,
Excellent report, and thanks for writing it, but why won't you say what Cornell was working on? If any of the other teams really cared, they would have watched the practice and found out. [/q]

Okay, okay, I thought about it and how about this little nugget that our opponents must know by now...Sasha practiced and looked comfortable. He wasn't wearing blue (the scratches) so I bet he plays.

Thanks, this is what makes eLynah fans great.

Is Martinez a Harvard guy? For some reason, I thought he was a Clarkson guy.

Nope. He's Harvard through and through.

Oh, if that's true, you just made my night! I've been praying he'd be back.

And I'm an atheist.

Martinez is definitely a Clarkson guy. Why he loves Harvard so much, we'll never know.


Here RichS calls him out for being anti-clarkson, and he responds..

[www.goldenknightshockey.com]

[Q]atb9 Wrote:

I was able to make it for Colgate, Harvard, and Cornell. Fred and his girlfriend Emily were there with me for the Cornell practice. About a dozen people were in the runway to the bench watching the Cornell practice.

As a primer, each team was given an hour for practice and the clock was very methodical in counting down everything...practice times and ice cleaning time.

Colgate was working very hard on their power play and they were focusing on hitting the back door. Their point play was really weak and the entire team seemed low energy. I found Stan Moore's coaching techniques very interesting...instead of telling the players what to do he kept asking "What do you see?" He also said, "We don't care how you do it, it's the result that matters."

Harvard was a pain in the arse, as usual. Donato came out in sweats and skates when Harvard was supposed to take the ice and he skated around the ice for 20 minutes, by himself, testing how the pucks traveled along the boards and glass. The team finally came out 30 minutes late at 3:30. Once the team was filing out of the locker room, Donato made them all wait in the bench area until everyone was out of the locker room. When the first player hit the ice, the practice clock was reset giving them a full hour to practice on top of the 20 minutes Donato took to chop up the ice and learn the boards. Yet another reason to cheer against Harvard tomorrow.

Juan Martinez was hanging out at the Harvard bench the entire time, and was only present for the Harvard practice. Unlike me, Juan is nothing but a homer. In fairness to Juan, he writes much better than me and I'm sure he proof reads too

I was specifically watching Dov the entire practice (McKee, holding his goalie stick the entire time, watched Dov for about 20 minutes). He's very confident with his glove to the point where he wasn't getting his body in position; he was completely relying on his glove. Another thing I found interesting was that he doesn't angle his stick when he is trying to redirect rebounds into the net or glass like Lenny and McKee are so good at. Instead, he sweeps the puck aside and is very susceptible to an opponent crashing the net on the stick side, IMO. Dov absolutely amazed me when he was down on the ice. He has great control of his legs and stick, allowing him to make some incredible saves while having his stomach on the ice. The guy that seemed the most loose and joking around was The Hack.

Two things surprised me about the Harvard practice. There was not a lot of discipline to the practice. Donato never had a whistle. On one of the drills they did--a forward took a close shot on net and then stood in front of the goalie to attempt a deflection on a shot from the blue-line by a d-man--Donato had to show the team how to do the drill twice and then the team completed the drill. That was weird. Maybe Donato is used to relaxed NHL practices, I don’t know. Another thing that surprised me was the entire team got very excited any time someone scored...it didn't matter if it was on Dov or the two scrubs with black goalie helmets.

Because Harvard basically had an hour and a half practice, Cornell got to the benches at 4:30 and literally sat on the benches for 30 minutes while the ice was cleaned and dried.

I always love watching a Mike Schafer practice. Unlike Colgate or Harvard, he was working the whistle the entire time and as a result, the practice was extremely efficient. It seemed professional. Schafer was hammering the guys for playing too cute. He told the guys to keep their eyes on the puck at all times because the ice is so choppy and the boards have huge seams. I won't say what they were specifically working on but Schafer went through special teams and even strength, always saying how important it is to get used to game situations on that crappy surface. I love the shootout Cornell always does in the middle of the practice as a break. OB has a great wrist shot; he scored a goal and hit the post on his two shots, never making a move. Didn't he score a goal like this in 2005? Mitch Carefoot won the shootout and the entire team came over to give him hugs...very interesting. McKee looked loose, comfortable and strong. I guess I should have expected it but I was watching carefully because this is his first trip to Albany. Unlike, Vaughn or Donato, Schafer gave a passionate speech at center ice before the practice ended; the hairs stuck up on the back of my neck.

That's my report...see ya tomorrow! LGR![/q]

Geez, could you be more of a homer?

Coaches all have different styles. A Harvard fan might say Schafer over-coaches during practice and could leave his team tight come game time. Can you really argue with Donato's approach, given his success (a loose practice is probably quite a contrast for the team from when Mazz was in charge)?

[Q]CUlater 89 Wrote:

Geez, could you be more of a homer?

[/q]

Yes. And I'm pretty open about being a homer. I've said this many times: I didn't grow up watching hockey. I learned hockey by watching Cornell hockey. Can you really argue with Mike Schafer's approach?

If you're slamming me on eLynah for my USCHO post, fair enough.

But Donato taught them a drill during an hour skate after he delayed Cornell's practice and bought himself 30 extra minutes of learning the ice surface by skating alone. But hell, why would he want to maximize his teams skate through when you can significantly increase your ice time? Stan Moore and Don Vaughn know how to run a loose, efficient practice. From the one practice I saw (mind you, this is a tournament and they only had an hour so it's barely a practice) Ted Donato does not. He does know how to give himself a great workout, though.

edit: oh and thanks for quoting my entire post. I have not been editting thoughts, I've been editting spelling mistakes and awkward sentences I catch on this festive St. Patty's Day. Happy St. Patty's Day, btw...er, what is left of it.

[Q]pfibiger Wrote:Here RichS calls him out for being anti-clarkson, and he responds..[/q]I, for one, think it is awesome that in RichS's post ... he used the rolleyes!