So, as people who were at the game get back, what did y'all think? Davenport let in four goals - his fault? How was our play? We outshot Q, but managed to lose. Quinnipiac leads the ECAC in points: how good are they?
I just got back from the game. If you weren't there, you missed the hideous sight of the Quinnipiac Bobcat doing the chicken dance on the ice during the first intermission, as well as the obnoxious and way-too-loud public address announcer and the irritating piped-in music. The alumni pep band did a great job, though, especially the cymbals player.
As for the game, there's no one culprit you can point to for the loss. Defensive mistakes led to Quinnipiac's two even-strength goals, the second of which gave them a 4-2 lead and really was the back-breaker. First we gave the puck away at our blue line and had the Quinnipiac player hit the crossbar with his shot. Then we immediately gave it away again in our zone, and this time the Quinnipiac player went top shelf again and scored. Our penalty killing wasn't that good, and on the second Quinnipiac power-play goal it looked like our guys were back on their heels throughout the entire power play.
Even so, the Quinnipiac goalie made a couple of great back-to-back saves on point-blank shots by us at the end of the second period. If one of those goes in, it's a 3-3 tie after two periods and we probably would have won the game. We outskated Q for long periods of play, but they were definitely the more physical team. I can't really fault Davenport for any of their goals. Those guys know how to put the puck in the net if you give them a chance, and we gave them too many.
At this point in the season, with the team we have, we have to be satisfied with splitting a pair of road games. This was a winnable game tonight, but we didn't make the plays when we had to. Romano was hardly a factor at all tonight, and the same could be said for most of our freshmen.
Harvard lost. . . again. ::uhoh:: 1-6 ECACHL, 2-6 overall, 0-4 Ivy, and at BU on Tuesday. I bet they're psyched for exams.
[quote nyc94]Harvard lost. . . again. ::uhoh:: 1-6 ECACHL, 2-6 overall, 0-4 Ivy, and at BU on Tuesday. I bet they're psyched for exams.[/quote]
Too bad they don't get to take exams until the end of January!
[quote Chris '03][quote nyc94]Harvard lost. . . again. ::uhoh:: 1-6 ECACHL, 2-6 overall, 0-4 Ivy, and at BU on Tuesday. I bet they're psyched for exams.[/quote]
Too bad they don't get to take exams until the end of January![/quote]
Well they only have one game in December (Dartmouth at Bright on 12/16) prior to the Great Lakes Invitional so they have some time to work on things. Of course, they have BU, Quinnipiac, Princeton, and Vermont before the end of November.
[quote dbilmes] The alumni pep band did a great job, though, especially the cymbals player.[/quote]
Especially since they only brought me one!
Seriously, the organizers and participants of the alumni pep band did an outstanding job. I was really only needed for "Davy," the alma mater, and a few of the regular "cheers," since a talented enough snare player can cover cymbal duty as well on most other songs, and Brian's a talented enough snare player. But I was happy to help; I sometimes feel like the free ride to Grand Rapids in 1997 is a debt I can't ever quite repay.
About the game, all I have to say about that is this: Q wanted it, and they took it, but we didn't exactly make it difficult for them. That fourth goal, the back-breaker, came complete with an engraved invitation, a silver platter, finger sandwiches, and a bottle of lube. Maybe Leneveu, McKee, or Dryden get two miracle saves in a row instead of just one, but our defense keeps hanging Davenport out to dry, and not surprisingly, that will keep resulting in goals.
The boys simply looked tired in the third, and Q was still raring to go. Seeing Q's season thus far on the way into this game, I suspected something like this would happen, and there you go. But now at least I've seen a game at the Northford Jiffy Pop Center before they move to the new place.
Let's take two from Wayne State next weekend. God knows it'll make me feel better...
sounds like we got spanked.
Cornell was unquestionably the better team tonight, especially early. In fact, I'll go out and say it was one of the better games they've played this year. Quinnipiac plays a much different system than any other team in the ECACHL and it made a big impact as the game progressed. Fisher made two spectacular saves in the second when it was 3-2 and that was the difference in the game. I would have been worried of Quinnipiac dominated this game but they didn't. They were very opportunistic and played well within their up-tempo system. Pecknold really tipped his hat to Cornell in his post game remarks and that should indicate something. I expect Cornell to go to Florida with a 10-2 record.
[quote "This isn't the Ivy League!" -- Quinnipiac fan, screaming, as one of the Bobcat icers drew yet another (perceived marginal) penalty, in the third period with the game in hand if not yet comfortably in hand.] [/quote]
"Don't we know it," was the immediate rejoinder.
That was about the only one-upsmanship Cornell fans could muster after the first period. The Big Red played well much of the game until a third-period snooze-a-thon starting about five minutes in that included Quinnipiac's fourth goal. The goal came immediately after a failed Cornell breakout/turnover; Davenport and the pipe made a spectacular save, only to see Cornell give it back moments later and Brendan Wong put the puck home at 7:19. But Quinnipiac played well, too. We always see things through biased eyes, and it does feel as if Quinnipiac got a few more breaks than Cornell.
Cornell's power play looked decent moving the puck around, I thought, and taking lots of shots, I thought, but the books say differently: in seven attempts, just five shots got on goal and one went in. Quinnipiac was 2 for 5 on just 4 shots, which is a pretty fair percentage (the last QU PP opportunity was with just 14 seconds left when Mitch Carefoot took exception to the evening's activities, so it was really 2x4). Quinnipiac drew more penalities early on and it looked as if that could be a difference, especially when we got a PPG on the second Q penalty just 6:46 into the game by Topher Scott.
Cornell's freshmen didn't seem quite as evident as in some other games. Which is odd, because the Northford Ice Pavilion is sort of like a low-juniors hockey rink with low ceilings, low levels of lighting, low-cost stands, and low-rent chicken wire mesh along the sides. (Not knocking it: We've all played pickup hockey in worse.) Just like home last year for the frosh, or just like away-from-home when you played at the least desirable barn in the league. One exception to the barely-visible-freshmen note: Joe Scali (#28) got in the line-up (Justin Milo was not dressed - PM Ari if you want details ) and he was flying everywhere, throwing checks and exuding energy. Alas, one of those energetic checks was from behind at the end of the first and led to QU's first goal. Ah, youth.
For the obligatory Davenport-played-great, Davenport-sucked, Davenport-went-too-far-out-of-the-crease paragraph: It appeared, looking through the mesh netting, that he was having trouble tracking the puck against the low, silvery ceiling, and with the dimmer illumination. My camera said it was half as bright (one f/stop less) as Lynah. A couple times, a moment after the crack of the shot, his head jerked in a different direction, as if he was reacquiring the puck. Four times, unfortunately, reacquiring meant reachng back with his stick to fish it out. It still feels as if Davenport is, if not to be spoken of in the same breath as, well, every Cornell goaltender of the past decade, then more than capable most nights, and not the root cause of our 6-2 record, which come to think of it isn't all that bad.
Topher was the only -2 (plus/minus) player for the night. He got the first goal but that was his only SOG. He was on for the ill-fated two-takeaways-one-goal crusher by QU in the third (not sure if was part of an aborted line change). And he got sent away for diving 5 minutes into the third when QU's Dan Travis drew the third of his four penalties. Down 3-2 early in the third and you lose a PP advantage, that hurts. That's about when it felt as if the energy was fading for Cornell. And it reached a low point 12 minutes in, now down 4-2, and Michael Kennedy gets whistled off. At that point it was pretty clearly Game Over, Cornell having already has its miracle two-goals-in-the-final-two-minutes effort against Dartmouth. I don't think you get two of those in one season.
The high point of the evening, other than looking around QU's Northford Ice Pavilion and thinking, "there but for the grace of good SAT scores go I," was Michael Kennedy's goal 13 minutes into the second off a drop pass from Tylor Mugford, that got the score back to a one-goal deficit three minutes after QU scored.
For the part of me that wants to watch exciting hockey, the 2006-07 team provides that in droves. If we're gonna lose games, it's better to go down 4-2 (plus the ENG) in a game that's high energy, than watch Cornell lose a 2-1 muck-it-up-in-the-corners game where you just know there's little chance the previous couple teams could get a single tying goal in the final five minutes.
Take two from Wayne State next weekend [edit: plus two from Union and RPI at Lynah Dec. 1-2] and we head into exams and Florida at 10-2. That's not bad. We get the second crack at Quinnipiac in the final homestand of the season, Friday, Feb. 16. Too bad we couldn't have Q's travel partner Princeton be the Friday game as a warmup, letting QU take its lumps at Colgate before limping into Ithaca. The other danger being we win a grudge match Friday against the Bobcats and let down Saturday vs. the Tigers.
So we lost but it wasn't a horrible loss. We outshot QU reasonably well, 29-22, and there was not glaring, fatal problems with the team other than the already known ups and downs in the defensive end.
The Big Red dismounted alumni marching band was great although there wasn't much it could do with QU's musical broadcasts throughout the game and stoppages.
[quote billhoward]Take two from Wayne State next weekend and we head into exams and Florida at 10-2.[/quote]
Kind of dangerous looking at even a home weekend against RPI and Union as a fait accompli, isn't it?
No more dangerous than hoping for McKee to complete the final 5 minutes of the game and hold on to his shutout.
We've had no problems with RPI or Union the last couple ... wait, strike that. I had to sit through the lethargic loss at RPI last year.
The oblivious Quinnipiac fan emphatically reminding us of the score was hilarious.
The only thing that would've been more hilarious than someone crowing about a one-goal lead in the second period would've been our coming back and winning. :`-(
Perhaps I'm only seeing it because I'm looking for it, but it seems like (since I arrived at Cornell for the '00-'01 season) we have a tendency to wait until every man on the ice is exactly where he wants to be before we attempt to break out of our zone. Given the trouble we seem to have doing that, I wonder if we wouldn't be better off being a little more aggressive in that aspect. Aside from our terrible defensive zone play, the most disappointing moment of the game was definitely the Bobcat chicken dance during the first intermission. I just can't understand why they didn't bring out the Skate-a-saurus to fight him for the rights to that song.
While it's an admittedly small sample size, I'm a little concerned that we came out so flat for the start of the 3rd period two nights in a row. However, I will agree that with the exception of the poor play in our own end and some questionable decisions throughout the game, we did outplay Quinnipiac for the most part.
I'm encouraged by the hustle we showed while forechecking this weekend. Sawada's hard work led to a goal the other night.
Beeeej, it was a pleasure to have you join me on the percussion last night. You did a fine job and it was nice to have somebody next to me who knows hockey. It makes the game that much more enjoyable, even in a loss.
Finally, given Colgate's slow start to the season, how will this play out for us over the remainder of the season? We've gotten used to having a very strong travel partner in recent years - can they step it up to make us a more dangerous pair? It seems like there is a lot of parity between the travel partners at this point, with the North Country trip being slightly tougher than the rest. Thoughts?
Just got back to Ithaca. First the good things, I was surprised we outshot Q considering they are one of the most offensive-minded teams in the ECAC so the defense wasn't terrible. However, we need to start going for goals from in front of the net and not the point. PP looked ok but again Bitz is being a non-factor. Did McCutcheon get a bit hurt in the 1st? He was kinda limping part of the game. The second Q goal was a beauty the screen was just perfect and Davenport had no shot whatsoever. But the 3rd goal was just horrendous it was the same types of goals that Harvard scored (back door) and Davenport was just giving out too many rebounds. It might just my opinion but whoever said Davenport's strength is his positioning, well that was not the case in this game. Fischer had great saves especially in the second he had back-to-back saves after a 2 on 0 that were just "wow". I think of all the players nobody really stood out, maybe Kennedy a little. When we took Davenport of the net with 2:32 to go my only thought was "If this didn't work against Dartmouth why would it work now?" It wasn't a blowout but Quinnipiac is a real contender and we just didn't seem to want the win. The PP and PK still need lots of work and we shouldn't underestimate Union or RPI, last year they gave us enough trouble. Now onto next weekend and beat Wayne State and improve our special teams.
LGR!
PS I took video of the Bobcat doign the chicken dance, omg was that awful!
Here are some nice photos from the game.
http://athleticsmedia.quinnipiac.edu/athletics/photos/MensIceHockey/Cornell-2006/index.htm
I'd be curious to hear more opinions of the substitution of Scali for Milo last night. How did Scali look? Does he seem to be an improvement over Milo?
[quote redhair34]I'd be curious to hear more opinions of the substitution of Scali for Milo last night. How did Scali look? Does he seem to be an improvement over Milo?[/quote]
He clearly made his presence felt on the ice and was very aggressive on the forecheck. Unfortunately, his aggressiveness resulted in a totally unnecessary hitting-from-behind penalty in the last minute of the first period that led to Q's go-ahead goal, and we never managed to dig ourselves out of that hole.
[quote redhair34]I'd be curious to hear more opinions of the substitution of Scali for Milo last night. How did Scali look? Does he seem to be an improvement over Milo?[/quote]
Milo got hurt Friday night. Maybe he would have come out anyways, but he couldn't play last night because of the injury. He and Scali are totally different players. Not sure why Scali was with Scott and Romano but he didn't get much ice time anyways. He was decent but the guy hasn't played a real hockey game in over six months so it'll take him some time. Skates well and is agressive but he was tough to notice mainly because of the lack of ice time as well as that line's general ineffectiveness. It'll be interesting to see who plays Saturday. I think it will be Milo though.
[quote redhair34]Here are some nice photos from the game.
http://athleticsmedia.quinnipiac.edu/athletics/photos/MensIceHockey/Cornell-2006/index.htm[/quote]
Imagine that. Pissant Quinnipiac can post 90-plus photos a few hours after the game, all in focus, some even color-corrected. How many does Cornell post after a home game at cornellbigred.com?? Too bad nobody at eLynah has photography skills and access to an elevated photo stand. Age, you know anyone like that?
Anyone else notice Bud's weird five hole pads? I've never seem something like that before.
(http://athleticsmedia.quinnipiac.edu/athletics/photos/MensIceHockey/Cornell-2006/images/JDH_6756%20(1)_jpg.jpg)
http://athleticsmedia.quinnipiac.edu/athletics/photos/MensIceHockey/Cornell-2006/pages/JDH_6756%20(1)_jpg.htm
[quote Omie]PS I took video of the Bobcat doign the chicken dance, omg was that awful![/quote]
This dance intrigues me. Could you put it up on youtube?
It does sound like this Q team may be pretty decent (I know, that's really profound to say when they're at the top of the ECAC rankings). While a loss is never fun, it'd be nice to have one more ECAC team in the NCAA tourney. I wish to congradulate them on their new rink, and I know they'll do very well. And good luck to them -- as best as their interests don't conflict with our interests.
Lynah Faithful should know in advance that RIP is very different than last year. They play a more disciplined defense than they have in years. The new coach seems to have made them watchable i.e. they seem focused on the ice and therefore the games are more like real hockey. For most of the games I have seen they seem in it for the entire 60 minutes.
That said they were outskated by Princeton and Q Pac for long stretches. But they did not give up. Add to this the fact that they have a history of getting psyched up for Cornell and the outcome is not assured.
They have only two losses - one to Denver.
No woofing allowed for that weekend.
[quote Omie]Just got back to Ithaca.LGR!
PS I took video of the Bobcat doign the chicken dance, omg was that awful![/quote]
Youtube link please!
Edit: Sorry, I didn't read ftyuv's post asking for the Youtube upload before I made mine.
[quote calgARI '07]Pecknold really tipped his hat to Cornell in his post game remarks and that should indicate something.[/quote]
I saw his comments on USCHO recap which were nice, but this quote from Quinnipiac's site is even more laudatory:
"It's an exciting win for our young program. I'm proud of the way that the guys played. After tonight, I've seen all of the teams in our league either live or on tape and Cornell is the best team in the league. They are always a top 10 program in the nation. We took another step forward tonight with a win."
[quote redhair34][quote calgARI '07]Pecknold really tipped his hat to Cornell in his post game remarks and that should indicate something.[/quote]
I saw his comments on USCHO recap which were nice, but this quote from Quinnipiac's site is even more laudatory:
"It's an exciting win for our young program. I'm proud of the way that the guys played. After tonight, I've seen all of the teams in our league either live or on tape and Cornell is the best team in the league. They are always a top 10 program in the nation. We took another step forward tonight with a win."[/quote]
Great to see those comments. Have to say that I pretty much agree. Cornell has been a lot better than I thought they'd be in their first eight games but I sitll think they have the potential be far better. I think they'll stay in the top four and have a better chance than I originally thought to finish first.
[quote Omie]When we took Davenport of the net with 2:32 to go my only thought was "If this didn't work against Dartmouth why would it work now?"[/quote]
I don't think I've seen a Schafer-coached team down by fewer than three or four goals not pull the goalie toward the end for the extra attacker, and it's absolutely the right thing to do, every single time. Even if you probably don't have an icicle's chance in hell of actually pulling it off, it sense the message to the players that you never give up, period. And sometimes, occasionally, it actually works. If nothing else, maybe you pull out a tie, and that's always better than a loss.
[quote Beeeej][quote Omie]When we took Davenport of the net with 2:32 to go my only thought was "If this didn't work against Dartmouth why would it work now?"[/quote]
I don't think I've seen a Schafer-coached team down by fewer than three or four goals not pull the goalie toward the end for the extra attacker, and it's absolutely the right thing to do, every single time. Even if you probably don't have an icicle's chance in hell of actually pulling it off, it sense the message to the players that you never give up, period. And sometimes, occasionally, it actually works. If nothing else, maybe you pull out a tie, and that's always better than a loss.[/quote]
It darn near worked against Dartmouth. If you get back even one of two, it helps your confidence a lot more than the ENG goal hurts it.
[quote billhoward][quote Beeeej][quote Omie]When we took Davenport of the net with 2:32 to go my only thought was "If this didn't work against Dartmouth why would it work now?"[/quote]
I don't think I've seen a Schafer-coached team down by fewer than three or four goals not pull the goalie toward the end for the extra attacker, and it's absolutely the right thing to do, every single time. Even if you probably don't have an icicle's chance in hell of actually pulling it off, it sense the message to the players that you never give up, period. And sometimes, occasionally, it actually works. If nothing else, maybe you pull out a tie, and that's always better than a loss.[/quote]
It darn near worked against Dartmouth. If you get back even one of two, it helps your confidence a lot more than the ENG goal hurts it.[/quote]
When you are down two and pull the goalie, it also can give you experience that can't be duplicated in practice. The ability to score against Dartmouth might give the team an edge to tie a game some time later this year. How can that experience of scoring two quick goals with the advantage, work against the team?
[quote billhoward][quote "This isn't the Ivy League!" -- Quinnipiac fan, screaming, as one of the Bobcat icers drew yet another (perceived marginal) penalty, in the third period with the game in hand if not yet comfortably in hand.] [/quote]
"Don't we know it," was the immediate rejoinder. ...
The high point of the evening, other than looking around QU's Northford Ice Pavilion and thinking, "there but for the grace of good SAT scores go I,"
[/quote]So two "Quinnipiac is stupid" comments in this thread and one in another. You realize that this isn't like chanting "safety school," right? The cheer gets a pass because it is in the middle of the game and all's fair in war and trash talk.
You took a reflective moment to gratuitously call our hosts morons. As far as I can tell, their only crime was beating us on the ice. Classy.
[quote calgARI '07]Cornell has been a lot better than I thought they'd be in their first eight games but I sitll think they have the potential be far better. I think they'll stay in the top four and have a better chance than I originally thought to finish first.[/quote]
Schafer seems to have achieved critical mass for the program. This is the second time in the last 4 years (Fall '03, Fall '06) he lost a staggering amount of talent without the team cratering. Every instinct from a quarter-century of watching Cornell hockey told me this was a rebuilding year, but it looks more every weekend like it could be far more than that. If they can string a few wins together, they will be that much more confident heading to FL.
First off, not sure if you're aware of it, but that's not their official athletics site. They may link to it, but that's not the CSTV site, so I'm sure if anyone gave a rat's ass about Quinnipiac, CSTV would shut them down in a second - it's happened before at other CSTV schools. Secondly, not sure if you want to check out "Me's Ice Hockey vs. Cornell" photos... Finally, that POS school has half the athletic teams Cornell does. I think they're doing a fine enough job given the few people working and the large number of sports.
Plus, Bill, I'm shocked you're not bitching about them not having live video of the games. I mean, come on, EVERYONE is offering free live video, right? It's just Cornell that's holding you back, isn't it?
Umm, not sure where you're getting your information, but it's wrong (gee, why am I not shocked?). Milo was a healthy scratch on Saturday. That was a planned move to play Scali on Saturday night, barring injury to another player.
[quote bandrews37]Umm, not sure where you're getting your information, but it's wrong (gee, why am I not shocked?). Milo was a healthy scratch on Saturday. That was a planned move to play Scali on Saturday night, barring injury to another player.[/quote]
Not correct. Milo was hurt Friday. Maybe it was planned that Scali would play Saturday night, but Milo was by no means healthy.
Comments were more like a celebrity roast or retirement speech. Before you say nice things about the guy, you make fun of the guy. Quinnipiac (we're forgetting to call them the Fighting Deer Ticks) appears to have better fan support than say Princeton or Harvard or Brown, among our competitors.
[quote bandrews37]First off, not sure if you're aware of it, but that's not their official athletics site. They may link to it, but that's not the CSTV site, so I'm sure if anyone gave a rat's ass about Quinnipiac, CSTV would shut them down in a second - it's happened before at other CSTV schools. Secondly, not sure if you want to check out "Me's Ice Hockey vs. Cornell" photos... Finally, that POS school has half the athletic teams Cornell does. I think they're doing a fine enough job given the few people working and the large number of sports.
Plus, Bill, I'm shocked you're not bitching about them not having live video of the games. I mean, come on, EVERYONE is offering free live video, right? It's just Cornell that's holding you back, isn't it?[/quote]
Photos linked by the site, easily accessible from the site, with the school mascot/logo on them ... how close do you want them to be to official photos? As for allegedly shutting down CSTV-hosted websites because they, gasp, provide more sports informaiton, such as photos, see the discussions of recent days about Cornell's quality of site and the note that Cornell signed off on the contract, so the fault is not all that of CSTV if the site is poor. Adults bear some responsibility for the juveniles the associate with.
I'm not sure I follow the argument that a school with half as many sports has an easier time doing a good job publicizing them. The bigger school hires more people (maybe not as many as needed) and gets the job done. Princeton is half or a third Cornell's size with about as many sports and does a pretty good job on its site, including some really fascinating profiles of current and former students, and not just the puff pieces.
Good point about why Q'pac doesn't have a video feed, even if you meant it sarcastically. At some point, it's going to be a necessity because it's cheap to implement, you probably have to videotape the game anyhow for scouting/coaching purposes, it's cheap to overlay the radio feed ... and if you don't do it, you annoy your distant alumni and parents who can't make the game. Assuming a coaching video would be more wide-angle than viewers might want, your cost is, what: one student with one video camera on a tripod, and the Internet feed which is, what, free, plus rights to the radio, which might be free if it's a student station or if you convince the station they're getting more exposure for their advertising.
I don't follow CU Hockey nearly as closely as I used to, but I did get to the QU game this past weekend. My thoughts? Davenport did not play well. In fact, he was outright awful. Every shot, he was always looking behind him, like he knew the puck was going to get by. Now, I know the lighting was dimmer, the ceiling was silver, but those are just excuses. He needs more confidence. He doesn't need to look behind him on EVERY save attempt. If it gets by him once in a while, that's life, it's going to happen. But don't expect it to happen on every shot.
Also, for someone who posted that CU was unquestionably the better team vs. QU, what game were you watching? For the first period, yes, Cornell was a better team. But for the last 40 mins, Cornell was outskated, outhit, and generally outplayed. You can make excuses all day about the officiating, the rink, Cornell being tired...it doesn't matter. On Saturday night, Cornell just got outplayed, and they lost. In previous years, I remember when we were the team outskating and outhitting teams, but that certainly wasn't the case against QU.
I'm not saying the team is bad this year, but come on guys, we lost a game to a better team. There is no need to sugar coat everything.
[quote billhoward]Comments were more like a celebrity roast or retirement speech. Before you say nice things about the guy, you make fun of the guy. Quinnipiac (we're forgetting to call them the Fighting Deer Ticks) appears to have better fan support than say Princeton or Harvard or Brown, among our competitors.[/quote]
I know I'm going out on a limb here, so correct me if I'm wrong, but... I'm reasonably certain that the part of the roast where you make fun of the guy is supposed to be not just insulting, but - well, also funny.
[quote bandrews37]Umm, not sure where you're getting your information, but it's wrong (gee, why am I not shocked?). Milo was a healthy scratch on Saturday. That was a planned move to play Scali on Saturday night, barring injury to another player.[/quote]
I was at both games and can confirm the Milo injury. Scali skated well, but didn't really stand out in his short ice time. He also took a pretty undiciplined penalty late in the first.
Furthermore, you can curb the snide sarcasm with those "ums" and "gees". A lineup change may or may not have been planned, but the Milo injury did occur. And unless you're on the coaching staff, I don't know how you could postulate that your assessment of the situation is in any way reliable. There's no reason for anyone here to make up an injury, and even less of a reason for that kind of arrogant, defamotory reaction.
[quote dsr11]I don't follow CU Hockey nearly as closely as I used to, but I did get to the QU game this past weekend. My thoughts? Davenport did not play well. In fact, he was outright awful. Every shot, he was always looking behind him, like he knew the puck was going to get by. Now, I know the lighting was dimmer, the ceiling was silver, but those are just excuses. He needs more confidence. He doesn't need to look behind him on EVERY save attempt. If it gets by him once in a while, that's life, it's going to happen. But don't expect it to happen on every shot.
[/quote]
How is looking behind him a measure of how well he plays? A save is a save regardless of what the goalie does after the fact. If Davenport doesn't want to take it for granted that the puck he stopped is in his equipment and looks back to make sure it's not trickling into the net, I've no problem with that. I used to play goal and if after a shot I couldn't see or feel the puck, I was scanning for it, including behind me.
All I see is that he has his knee lifters very loose so they are not tight up against his leg like the calf protectors. The knee lifters allow the goalie to drop onto the sides of his knees when going into the butterfly. The number of them (anywhere from 1 to 4 are stacked) is based on personal preference, but. generally, more lifters makes it easier to reach the legs out further and more squarely when in the butterfly. Bud is wearing Itech Prodigy 11.8's by the look of them, so feel free to go to the Itech website under the goalie section to see pictures of all sides of the pads.
www.itech.com