ELynah Forum

[Q]nyc94 Wrote:

 18th century?[/q]


Well, Morrill *looks like* it was built in the 18th century...   ;-)

I figured this thread was going to be about Harvard doing the ECAC proud, yet again, in the Beanpot.

Coach McCutcheon started out with talented rosters when inheriting Coach Reycroft's teams -- the only "undisciplined team" was the '87 mess; prior to that they had been an extremely strong, competitive team which had only needed the arrival of Dadswell to turn them into a conference contender.  At first he built on them with a couple strong classes of his own, aided immeasurably by the recruiting talents of a certain heralded assistant coach.  For whatever reason, his style acquired a negative reputation among the traditional sources of Cornell's talent.  He then attempted to go elsewhere but was essentially trying to build a network from scratch, and so it's hardly a knock on him that he was unsuccessful.

The Disappointment of '91 was the late season conference collapse, which had nothing to do with Cornell's status relative to other conferences.  However, you should not allow the subsequent divergence of the ECAC and HE in talent and style to obscure the fact that at the time the two conferences were similar in talent, especially at the top.  Colgate had beaten BU in the SF en route to the NCAA title game the previous season (one of 5 ECAC squads to make it to the final in a 6 year period), and while Cornell was pulling off the Manderville Miracle in Ann Arbor in game one, Clarkson was methodically working their way through Wisconsin and Lake State en route to the Frozen Four.

Likewise, many fans and Cornell people far older and more knowelgeable than I were touting Schafer as the first choice as the next Cornell coach as early as '93.  If legend serves correctly (and only Mike knows for sure), he was at this time offered but turned down another ECAC coaching position.  He had been a very highly thought-of assistant coach with Cornell, known for his rapport with the players.  In fact he was so highly thought of by Bill Wilkinson at Western Michigan that he was promoted to "associate coach," a quasi-co-coaching position, in '94.

Finally, there was a very strong and admirable personality tie at the highest level of the Cornell sports establishment which kept Coach McCutcheon at Cornell for longer than his coaching record would have warranted.  Considering his subsequent success at other levels, this was to his detriment as much as to the program's.  However, given that situation, it's ridiculous to blame the players.  These were in fact the same "grousing" malcontents who miraculously became Harvard Slayers who bled Carnelian red from the moment Mike got them polishing trophies.  And while there was some talent on those early Schafer teams, they were hardly prima donna -- they were lunch pail teams playing out of their minds and above their heads for a guy for whom they'd skate through walls.

[Q]billhoward Wrote:

 If you were a dedicated fan in the early 1990s, when did you start to feel that maybe something wasn't clicking and since you can't fire the whole team, maybe a coaching change was in order?

Or was it always a yearly hope-springs-eternal feeling? Sort of like the NFL house ad Sunday night showing all the smiling Jets and Falcons and etcetera players and the tagline at the end says, "Tomorrow, we're all unbeaten."

There were, what, four straight ECAC final four appearances 1989-92, and since you didn't know the outcome until the end (no ECAC titles any of those years), you were hopeful during the season and hopeful next year would be one level better?

One would think that circa 1993-95 and the two or three seasons well under .500 would be a negative leading indicator.

Not trying to make fun of anyone being a fan then. But what suffering. And was there a sense of deja vu all over aqain when Schafer followed his two ECAC title years with a couple really mediocre (losing record) years? Makes you think what a precarious perch it is. [/q]

I remember my "a new approach is needed" moment distinctly.  On 2/27/93, we had just lost game 10 of the infamous 11-game losing streak, at Union.  I was driving Anne and a noted Cornell hockey personality over to the hotel to drown our collective sorrows, and as we passed a guy trudging through the snow outside Achilles, said personality remarked, "you just missed a chance to run down Brian McCutcheon."  To which I responded, "want me to go back"?

In retrospect, a lot of The Horror that we had for Coach McCutcheon was unfortunate.  He meant and still means a great deal to the program, is undyingly loyal, and has done much to promote Cornell hockey even after his days as coach.  But at the time... oh, it was bad.  You hafta remember that Brian was not a particularly popular coach even at his zenith.  His teams were *very* hard to watch, the '91 team was a talent-laden disappointment, and the '92 team's late run obscured what was a pretty mediocre season.  By '93 we were praying for Schafer but not daring to talk about it for fear it would somehow jinx it.  I remember when I found out about it in the summer of '95, I literally couldn't believe it.

There was no sense of deja vu during the '98-00 run.  The only real disappointment during that entire period was blowing the third period lead and the series at Princeton in the '99 QF: http://www.tbrw.info/boxScores/box19990313.html  But we knew we had the best coach this side of Scotty Bowman and that good times would be back.

A true New Yorker cuts the line.

[Q]Beeeej Wrote:

 A bit of further explanation:

Although it would be nice to win the Ivy title, it's not something we tend to care about.  Since only half the ECACHL teams are Ivy, it's not that difficult or unusual for an Ivy to win the ECACHL regular season and/or tournament titles while still losing just enough Ivy games not to win that title.  And since the tournament titles are what we really care about, since that's what NCAA bids are based upon - and the Ivy title is just a round-robin thing - nobody gives it too much thought.

Basically, in the context of college hockey, the Ivy title is what we used to refer to, in the heyday of Hockey-L, as a "ceramic dalmation" - an award that's pretty and nice to have, but means nothing.  If the Ivies split off as their own hockey conference and got an auto-bid to the NCAAs, it'd be different.

Beeeej[/q]

Careful with that "we" there, son.  Plenty of us care about winning the Ivy title (and the ECAC RS title).  The NCAA Tourny is not the sole criterion for value.

They're also accessible off the TBRW 2005 Index Page: http://www.tbrw.info/2005/2005Index.html

John, when I display the ECAC Race in a Nutshell, it contains the message "an error occurred while processing this directive" at page end.

Reading over the post-game thread concerning the out of town scores, I will say this about PWR: it has led to an explosion of interest in and knowledge about the other teams around the country.  Prior to PWR, even those of us who were obsessed with bracketology were vastly ignorant of the non-ECAC hockey world.  At best, fans would have a hazy notion of the teams ranked around us in the polls.  And of course, for the most part, the only way to follow the results was to wait for the afternoon edition of the papers, which would carry the previous day's CCHA and WCHA scores, if we were lucky.

Since crumudgeons such as I often embarrass ourselves by publicly pining for the glory days, it doesn't hurt to acknowledge that today's college hockey fans, particularly the students, are much more aware and appreciative of the game's universe.  It adds a great deal to the fun of following the game, especially for those who only see a handful of games in person.

Well, if Sasha really is gone for the rest of the season, then O'Byrne really has to begin to mature as a player and become not only not a liability, but a big asset.  That's not a lot to ask of a 3rd round draft pick.

[Q]KeithK Wrote:

 Look what you did Greg! You really should know better than to post this kind of thing...  [/q]

Sigh.  Yep, I know, I know... :-/

[Q]CornellChris Wrote:

 PS: Is TBRW your site? I just discovered that site too (via an ELynah link) and have already spent an insane amount of time there. Needless to say, I love it!

Take Care,
Chris '03
[/q]

Thanks, Chris.  Yes, TBRW is my site.  I have spent an insane amount of time there, too. ;-)

Game tied.  3 point weekend.  I will take it.

Now Pegs blocks on the other end, he's everywhere.  Lots of action now.

Pegs deflection JUST wide.

Downs deflectes Mitchell shot in Cornell end; now Abbott and Downs trying to clear but Gate has the puck.   1:16.