Can't get it out of my head

Living in Kansas now, I don't get to many Cornell games. Last year I took my two sons (now 10 & 15) to the NCAA regional to see the loss to the Gophers. This year we all traveled to Green Bay and deja vu.

I JUST CAN'T GET THIS WISCONSIN GAME OUT OF MY HEAD.

It's not that I have a hard time accepting the loss, it has happened before. It's just that I saw an excellent Cornell team that deserved to go the the frozen four. They worked together and produced a great performance after the hard Harvard loss. Seeing how they turned around the Colorado College game and held the "best team" to one goal in 111 minutes, I could not request a greater performance.

Our car was quiet on the way home as we stopped and had to acknowledge the Wisconsin fans. We drove right thru Madison that night but made sure we went further so that we would not have to acknowledge the loss to many more people.

In many ways, this loss to Wisconsin was the greatest Cornell hockey game I have experienced. Oh how the national title will be so enjoyable, whether next year or later, when it comes after going thru this game. I feel for the players and the coaches and know that only their hard work got the team to this point. We need to say thank you so much to the players, and to the Seniors an extra thank you. You Seniors you can only watch like me now.

I saw a great TEAM lose, and my sons and I will never forget Green Bay, and will always remember it as a positive experience that will make victory in the future so much sweeter.

All those accolades they have bestowed on Elliott and his WI teammates, could have easily gone the other way with one simple bounce. I ignore the lack of a bounce and give our players and team the accolades. Whether that has meaning to the public doesn't bother my sons or myself. Here in Kansas no one appreciates college hockey anyway. Sitting in row E, closer than any of us have ever been to the ice at a Cornell game, we saw a TEAM to be proud of. Being that close I guess we saw victory.

PROUD OF CORNELL. LET's GO RED!!!!

Hear, Hear!!!!

After watching college hockey for 20 years, the thing that I've come to realize is that great hockey teams lose in this tournament all the time. That should be obvious, but it took a while to sink in for me. It's hard, but you can't let an NCAA loss ruin an otherwise great season. When I was an MBA at Michigan in '97, it took me a long time to get over that loss to BU in Milwaukee. But now I simply appreciate a great team that didn't win it all. Same thing here. What an outstanding effort by the players and coaching staff. I was really proud of what Cornell accomplished against two strong WCHA teams.

Ditto to everything above. You absolutely cannot discount what impact a weekend like that one can have on the younger players on this team, who will not only hope for and expect the same level of success these next few years, but who will likely want the win - and want to put themselves in circumstances that permit such a win - just that much more.

As for hockey fans in Kansas, my best friend from high school is a big Sucks fan and lives with his family out in Lawrence, so I know they at least exist.

Beeeej

Beeeej
Ditto to everything above. You absolutely cannot discount what impact a weekend like that one can have on the younger players on this team, who will not only hope for and expect the same level of success these next few years, but who will likely want the win - and want to put themselves in circumstances that permit such a win - just that much more.

As for hockey fans in Kansas, my best friend from high school is a big Sucks fan and lives with his family out in Lawrence, so I know they at least exist.

Beeeej

FWIW, RPI has a women's recruit entering in the Fall, Allyson Weidner, from Topeka, although she played for Shattuck-St. Marys in Faribault, MN. So that is another one.

Beeeej
You absolutely cannot discount what impact a weekend like that one can have on the younger players on this team, who will not only hope for and expect the same level of success these next few years, but who will likely want the win - and want to put themselves in circumstances that permit such a win - just that much more.

A theory borne out by the players' reaction to the loss. They weren't heartbroken or depressed. Just pissed off.

They'll be back.

Duplicate post deleted

RatushnyFan
It's hard, but you can't let an NCAA loss ruin an otherwise great season.

Well, if 2004 was proof that one weekend can break a season, 2006 is proof that one weekend can make a season. I mean, imagine the reading on this forum had we lost to CC 4-1.


There were people starting to sweat the ups and downs of this team...oh let's say November 18. Heck, I had to talk some people down from the ledge as recently as a week ago. I think it was a very good season, and we had a very good team. I'm glad that the performance in the NCAAs will serve to cement that into people's heads instead of the "what the heck is wrong?" thread that seemed to weave it's way through this site throughout the winter. Cornell received an at-large bid (a #2 seed!!) while having what felt like an inconsistant season. That alone is remarkable to me.

In the end, I think it was a combination of the overall level of competition in the league rising (this is, after all, season #3 after the 2002-'03 season...an ideal time to assess the change in league recruiting strategy...I believe that year had a measurable effect on the way other schools think) and our own team in transition and trying to find itself as a seemingly new era dawns.

To play at this level for longer than a 4-year cycle takes a lot of hard work and committment from a lot of people. It's been said before, we are lucky.

RichH

RatushnyFan
It's hard, but you can't let an NCAA loss ruin an otherwise great season.

Well, if 2004 was proof that one weekend can break a season, 2006 is proof that one weekend can make a season. There were people starting to sweat the ups and downs of this team...oh let's say November 18. Heck, I had to talk some people down from the ledge as recently as a week ago. I think it was a very good season, and we had a very good team, and I'm glad that the performance in the NCAAs will serve to cement that into people's heads instead of the "what the heck is wrong?" thread that seemed to weave it's way through this site throughout the winter. Cornell received an at-large bid (a #2 seed!!) while having what felt like an inconsistant season. That alone is remarkable to me.

In the end, I think it was a combination of the overall level of competition in the league rising (this is, after all, season #3 after the 2002-'03 season...an ideal time to assess the change in league recruiting strategy...I believe that year had a measurable effect on the way other schools think) and our own team in transition and trying to find itself as a seemingly new era dawns.

To play at this level for longer than a 4-year cycle takes a lot of hard work and committment from a lot of people. It's been said before, we are lucky.

Excellent post, all the way through.

RichH
In the end, I think it was a combination of the overall level of competition in the league rising ... and our own team in transition and trying to find itself as a seemingly new era dawns.

My great frustration is not with our team, which I think remains ahead of the curve in the ECAC(HL) and NCAA, but with the other ECAC teams. You and I both have been tracking a seeming recruiting change and the undoubtedly growing strength of the other programs, but when is this going to translate into out-of-conference wins and three or four teams in the 16-team field?

There's little question in my mind that the 2006 Cornell team would have run roughshod over the 2002 league, but the league this year seems better. Teams are bigger and have better talent. So far, though, this change seems to have translated into teams just taking it out harder on us instead of taking it out on the rest of the NCAA. It may sound like whining, but I don't care.

There were flashes of it this season--SLU early on, Harvard in the fall, and a couple surprises from RPI and the others--but it trailed off. And, great, Harvard continued to tank the Beanpot. I'm tired of it. Hopefully, the coaching changes at RPI and Yale will make a difference and coaches like Roll and Gadowsky will start realizing their potential. I hope next year is the year the ECAC finally asserts itself for an entire season and re-solidifies its position in the "Big 4."

Man, that'll make it easier on us.

Scersk '97
And, great, Harvard continued to tank the Beanpot.

I love making fun of Harvard's awful record in the Beanpot - check in next year when I will inevitably do it again - but when the third best team finishes in third place I don't know if 'tanking' is the right word.

They just repeatedly fail to rise to the occassion. Maybe if the 6 fans could convince some friends to come, the team would perform better. Frankly, I'm surprised that they can't get better attendance; it isn't like their grades will suffer.

ugarte
They just repeatedly fail to rise to the occassion. Maybe if the 6 fans could convince some friends to come, the team would perform better.

I hear 2 of 6 are graduating, and they only have 1 hockey fan recruited for next year.

RichH

ugarte
They just repeatedly fail to rise to the occassion. Maybe if the 6 fans could convince some friends to come, the team would perform better.

I hear 2 of 6 are graduating, and they only have 1 hockey fan recruited for next year.

With honors, no doubt.

RichH

ugarte
They just repeatedly fail to rise to the occassion. Maybe if the 6 fans could convince some friends to come, the team would perform better.

I hear 2 of 6 are graduating, and they only have 1 hockey fan recruited for next year.

How many are turning pro early?

jtwcornell91

RichH

ugarte
They just repeatedly fail to rise to the occassion. Maybe if the 6 fans could convince some friends to come, the team would perform better.

I hear 2 of 6 are graduating, and they only have 1 hockey fan recruited for next year.

How many are turning pro early?

Are Harvard fans good enough to turn pro? Do they have the dedication and requisite craziness?

rouls78
Living in Kansas now, I don't get to many Cornell games. Last year I took my two sons (now 10 & 15) to the NCAA regional to see the loss to the Gophers. This year we all traveled to Green Bay and deja vu.

I JUST CAN'T GET THIS WISCONSIN GAME OUT OF MY HEAD.

I know how you feel. It's a strange feeling. On the one hand is it possible to feel any better about a loss than after that game? I didn't think they had any chance at all of advancing out of that bracket going in to the weekend, and then to play so well against a great opponent.

On the other hand there is deep deep disappointment because if Cornell had managed to get the open shot instead of Wisconsin it would have been a greater win for them than it was for the Badgers. We'd be talking about the time McKee made 60 saves en-route to a triple (or more) overtime win literally for decades.

When the game ended I was phlegmatic. I didn't expect them to win going in so it wasn't initially gut wrenching when they lost. About 24 hours later though out of nowhere I started flashing on the end of Rocky of all things and lost it.

I agree that I did not expect them to get out of that region. That would have been a great victory and we would have talked about it for a long time as you said. Thanks for your comments.