Brian Sullivan: Schafer Knows Treacherous Postseason

[ajh258]

http://www.uscho.com/2011/03/10/second-half-surge-has-cornell-in-place-to-make-a-postseason-run/

The game at Yale was arguably the worst game we've played this year. ... We weren't physical, we didn't stick to any type of system, we were all over the place, we let one of the best transition teams in the country run rampant all over us.

First, I think it is a great interview with Schafer - I'm glad Brian chose to cover us and I'm always interested in hearing what the coach have to say about our performance.

However, I think, and I believe others who have seen the game will agree, that we did very well during the first period against Yale at the away game. If anything, it was the Brown game that we were "all over the place" and "didn't stick to any type of system."

In any case, Schafer recognizes these problems, but how are we going to fix them in the upcoming days? Only two wins to AC and two more for the Whitelaw.

[Trotsky]

Excellent article.

This quote in particular:

When facing adversity in a game where you give up a lead, or you give up a bad goal, you're behind, learning — as a team — to overcome that and having the confidence that you are going to overcome it, I think that that was the difference from the first third of the season to the last part.

That confidence has made the difference for so many teams over the years.  It's the difference between highly talented but tentative squads like 1991 and 2007 and band of brothers teams that are "too dumb to know they should lose" like 1986 and 1996.

[Chris '03]

However, I think, and I believe others who have seen the game will agree, that we did very well during the first period against Yale at the away game.

If by "they" you mean Mike Garman and the post, then I agree. Yale dictated tempo and possession in the first and Cornell spent most of the period watching Yale buzz and getting some B quality chances in transition. Shots were 14-5 and the score could have been 3-0 but for the efforts of Garman and the post.

[JasonN95]

The article also mentions the goalie rotation. I suspect that it'll continue however long the playoff run is, but do others (perhaps those who saw the last few games in person) think either goalie has risen a bit above the other to get tapped by Schafer for the playoffs?

[Trotsky]

Another way of putting it is, when was the last time the goalie actually won (or lost) the game for us?  Hard to tell via video, but it doesn't seem to me that there is a lot to choose between them.  They each seem solid -- not stellar but by no means inadequate.

[dbilmes]

However, I think, and I believe others who have seen the game will agree, that we did very well during the first period against Yale at the away game.

If by "they" you mean Mike Garman and the post, then I agree. Yale dictated tempo and possession in the first and Cornell spent most of the period watching Yale buzz and getting some B quality chances in transition. Shots were 14-5 and the score could have been 3-0 but for the efforts of Garman and the post.

I'm not sure which game ajh was watching, but I agree completely with Chris. I was sitting at the end of the rink that Cornell was defending during the first period, and the puck was down in our end virtually the entire period. Garman "stood on his head" (to quote an old hockey cliche) to keep Yale off the scoreboard. Otherwise, we could have easily been down a few goals.

[ajh258]

However, I think, and I believe others who have seen the game will agree, that we did very well during the first period against Yale at the away game.

If by "they" you mean Mike Garman and the post, then I agree. Yale dictated tempo and possession in the first and Cornell spent most of the period watching Yale buzz and getting some B quality chances in transition. Shots were 14-5 and the score could have been 3-0 but for the efforts of Garman and the post.

I'm not sure which game ajh was watching, but I agree completely with Chris. I was sitting at the end of the rink that Cornell was defending during the first period, and the puck was down in our end virtually the entire period. Garman "stood on his head" (to quote an old hockey cliche) to keep Yale off the scoreboard. Otherwise, we could have easily been down a few goals.

Maybe I remembered differently, but I felt like we had some good scoring chances although Garman got peppered. I was at the other end near the Yale goal.

[billhoward]

The rotation switched for the Brown-Yale weekend, which had a winnable game Friday, an unwinnable game Saturday. This weekend in a rotation, perhaps the Friday goalie is the Sunday goalie if needed. Next weekend if the team advances to Atlantic City, it would be an overachieving accomplishment to make the title game, so maybe you put your best effort into the first night. I think Iles gets the start Friday and Schafer can say that once he flipped the rotation, he didn't want to switch back.