ELynah Forum

Quote from: dbilmesI'm reading the new book by Jon Wertheim, Scorecasting, which uses statistics to dispel many sports axioms. One of the main premises of the book is that coaches are afraid to make controversial calls such as going for it on fourth down in football, even if the statistics back them up, because they're not commonly accepted by fans and the media (i.e. Bill Belechick). According to the book, NHL coaches pull their goalies too late (on average with only 1:08 left in the game when down by one goal and with 1:30 left when down by two). If they pulled their goalie one or two minutes earlier it would increase the chances of tying the game from 11.6 percent to 17.6 percent. His premise is that coaches are so averse to the potential loss of an ENG that they wait until the last possible moment, which actually reduces their chances of winning. Even though he studied the NHL, I would assume the statistics are comparable for college hockey. Personally, I've always felt most coaches, including Schafer, wait too long to pull their goalies. A lot of times, a coach waits until one minute is left, but has to wait even longer due to a faceoff being at center ice or in his own team's end. The bottom line is that a loss is a loss, whether it's 3-1 on an ENG, or 2-1.

Within one weekend:
Schafer pulls Underhill with >5 minutes left (down 4-1)  
Schafer pulls Burt with >2 minutes left (down 3-1)

If anyone's interested in how Ben Scrivens has played himself into the NCAA Record Book after this season (back-of-envelope calculations/estimates):

23rd in Career Wins
3rd in Career Shutouts
9th in Career GAA
7th or 8th in Career Save Percentage
1st in Consecutive Games Played by a Goalie
1st (by a country mile) in Consecutive Games Started by a Goalie
3rd in Consecutive Shutout Minutes
4th (with many) in Consecutive Shutouts
2010: 21st in Season Save Percentage
2010: Another entry at 7th in Season Shutouts

This isn't to elevate any player's performance above others.  These reflect on the team and coach as well.

Quote from: mnagowski

QuoteWOW.... this is just sinking in but doesn't this means that our women's hockey team could win the first Cornell NCAA championship for any sport in.... how many years? Anyone know? They really should get more coverage in the Sun because this is really a terrific season for these girls.

The Sun is reporting that this is the first time a Cornell women's team will ever compete for a title, let alone possibly win it.

Of course, I believe our women's crew and polo teams have won in the past, they are just not NCAA sanctioned.

Cornell women have won unsanctioned titles in not only polo and rowing, but also fencing and figure skating.  

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intercollegiate_sports_team_champions

Quote from: Jacob '06Yeah, its either UNH and Vermont in albany, or Cornell and RIT. Who knows who wins out for attendance in that one.

I don't know, but I'm pretty sure who wins out for attendance in St. Paul between Wisconsin/St.Cloud and Denver/N.Michigan (the other teams in those pods).

Quote from: RichH

Quotethe stage manager at a television show (e.g. Daily Show) "prompting" the audience to cheer coming back from commercial.  It's not as if a disinterested, bored crowd is being tricked to display fake enthusiasm.

This is similar, and to tell you the truth, I dislike that a great deal as well.  I know why they do it: because the audience has been waiting for 3 boring hours just to get in. They try to keep the energy up by using a warm-up comic as well.  Look, I'll laugh and clap if the material merits it (and it usually does for TDS), but when the producer tells me before the show to make sure I exaggerate my laughter during the taping, well, I just roll my eyes.  I prefer that my own laughter and applause be genuine, and even though this is why they even let in an audience in the first place, I'd rather not be used as a prop for some television marketing hype.  (This is where you use your zinger, Rita!)  :-)

I've been to Daily Show tapings with RichH.  His back-from-commercial cheering rates in the bottom quintile.

He did high-five Colbert once, though.

Quote from: BeeeejHere's the back page.

That's actually pretty cool, Beeeej.  Thanks.

Quote from: TrotskyGo with a scientist, a doctor, a philosopher, a humanitarian.  Leave politics out of it.

I understand this inclination, but what makes you think that the people who are stirred up by the mere presence of Nancy Pelosi won't find something to bitch about when confronted by some of the most prominent humanitarians out there?  

With few exceptions, most people given the microphone at something like this will want to talk about Something Important. A Weighty Topic.  Such subjects intersect with politics quite a bit.  When Ben and Jerry spoke at IC's graduation, people found political reasons to complain.  

Maybe a quick-and-dirty rule that nobody who's currently serving in or running for political office should be invited for convocation would be good.  But short of instructing every speaker to stay far away from anything heavy while speaking, this seems futile.

Quote from: phillysportsfanI think your right on the coin flip because in 2007-08 Cornell,Harvard,Dartmouth womens teams all finished with the same record and all the split their season series so they had some kind of a drawing and Cornell got the first round bye to play the winner of Harvard,Dartmouth for the NCAA bid. They played all the games at Columbia.

I dont know what the exact rule is but that seems kind of dumb to flip a coin to get a first round bye.

The rules called for a coin flip, but with a lack of three-sided coins on hand they used a drawing involving state quarters.  A NY state quarter, NH state quarter, and MA state quarter were placed in a bag and one was drawn out.  That lucky Cornell team got the "bye" in the mini-playoff for the NCAA bid.

Quote from: KeithK

Quote from: RichHI think the one thing I believe in that staunch Sabermetricians don't is "streakiness." Timing, muscle memory, and physical well-being can come in and out of sync, I've felt that feeling where the ball seems like a beach ball, or I know I'm hitting the sweet-spot every time.  I believe in "streakiness" more than I do "clutch."

I totally agree with you.  There are times when you are physically or mentally out of whack and you play poorly for a time and conversely there are times when you are locked in and play extremely well. I find it hard to believe that anyone who plays sports would doubt this. Someone who only looks t stats could miss this by assuming that it's just natural variability of the random variable, a matter of sample size.  But life isn't just a random variable sampling even if lots of things can be modeled pretty well that way.

I buy that there are times when players are doing well and "feel" it's because they have the touch...

I'm not quite convinced players "feelings" tell us much:

http://www.psych.cornell.edu/sec/pubPeople/tdg1/Gilo.Vallone.Tversky.pdf

Quote from: RichHAnyone know what the bag policy is for MSG?  I suspect that we can bring in small bags or backpacks and the like, but some confirmation would be good.

Don't know if you saw this yet:

QuoteBag Searches

Madison Square Garden asks all guests to arrive early and travel light. All persons and bags are subject to search. Bags that have passed inspection must fit comfortably under your seat. Oversized bags are prohibited. MSG does not provide an area to check bags, coats or any other personal belongings. We are not responsible for any property that is lost, stolen, or damaged.

NYDailyNews gives some coverage to the family Ugarte's recent venture.

[quote KeithK][quote Jacob 03][quote KeithK][quote sah67]I was at the Sharks-Rangers game last night, and what was particularly interesting about Vesce's placement on the top line with Thornton and Heatley, was that they had Vesce taking many of the faceoffs, even without Thornton being tossed out beforehand.  Vesce won the majority of them IIRC.[/quote]
According to the ESPN box score, Vesce was 4-3 on faceoffs.[/quote]
NHL.com has different numbers.  It seems more thorough, but I'm not positive it actually is more accurate.[/quote]
No, NHL.com has the same numbers just stated differently.  Vesce took 7 faceoffs and won 4 of them.[/quote]
You're right.  I couldn't make it through all four columns without getting confused, it seems.

[quote KeithK][quote sah67]I was at the Sharks-Rangers game last night, and what was particularly interesting about Vesce's placement on the top line with Thornton and Heatley, was that they had Vesce taking many of the faceoffs, even without Thornton being tossed out beforehand.  Vesce won the majority of them IIRC.[/quote]
According to the ESPN box score, Vesce was 4-3 on faceoffs.[/quote]
NHL.com has different numbers.  It seems more thorough, but I'm not positive it actually is more accurate.

[quote JasonN95][quote RichH][quote oceanst41]If that doesn't get you fired up for hockey you better check your pulse. ::rock::

It's got just about everything you could want, outer space, a polar bear riding a rocket propelled hockey stick, and the complete destruction of Anchorage (not to mention the moon). [/quote]

Having youtube blocked at work only means that this will be a letdown, compared to what's happening in my imagination.[/quote]

I think there's a good chance that even your wildest imagination will fall short of what you'll see in the video.[/quote]
A polar bear...correction...a space polar bear spontaneously explodes thirty seconds in.  So, just your average hockey arena intro video.

[quote andyw2100][quote Oat][quote andyw2100]
I am really impressed with how easily UND is moving the puck around on the powerplay. I don't recall seeing nearly as many clean passes on powerplays in quite a long time. We --REALLY-- need to not take any more dumb penalties, because we're playing with fire playing these guys a man down.[/quote]

UND passes only look easy because they're playing on Olympic-size ice surface. So there is more room for them to move the puck around.[/quote]

Nope, not true.

The games were played on a 200' X 85' surface, just like the one at Lynah.

http://www.collegehockeynews.com/almanac/arenas.php[/quote]The Olympic Ice Surface must be UND's version of Dryden/1970.