Princeton Post-Game Chest Thumping

[Lauren '06]

Aside from Too Many Men, they played a period like they should have at Brown and Mercyhurst. Shut the other team down first and take what you can. I'm really impressed at how well the team seems to take to Schafer's instruction. These last 3 games should have shown them that they can still generate offense and more importantly win, by playing good defense first.

I agree. Additionally, you can tell the players have a much better read of each others' tendencies and abilities, which is why their play has been more consistent and fluid in the last few games.

I think Schafer should allow the team to take more chances early on, so that players can work on generating turnovers in the neutral zone and creating scoring opportunities with more complex passing. I think we fall short in these two areas during March, because defense alone is not enough to win championships.

Given that we have yet to score less than 3 goals in a game yet I think the offense is lower on the totem pole of concerns right now. The penalty kill's inability to kill penalties 200 feet from their own net worries me. It didn't hurt us last night, but we need to be able to clear the zone far more often on the PK and not just into the neutral zone. I know it's early and stats for us are really not representative, but we're not even in the top 40 PK units which is pretty bad considering there are only 57 D-I programs. The 74.1% PK (and that's after Princeton's 0-fer last night) needs to get better.

Even Ivies use "less" instead of "fewer" now? :-/

Apparently on forums I do. In papers, I make sure that I do not.

That's actually a fake rule. Both less and fewer have been used with plurals since the time when people were still using Old English.

[ajh258]

Aside from Too Many Men, they played a period like they should have at Brown and Mercyhurst. Shut the other team down first and take what you can. I'm really impressed at how well the team seems to take to Schafer's instruction. These last 3 games should have shown them that they can still generate offense and more importantly win, by playing good defense first.

I agree. Additionally, you can tell the players have a much better read of each others' tendencies and abilities, which is why their play has been more consistent and fluid in the last few games.

I think Schafer should allow the team to take more chances early on, so that players can work on generating turnovers in the neutral zone and creating scoring opportunities with more complex passing. I think we fall short in these two areas during March, because defense alone is not enough to win championships.

Given that we have yet to score less than 3 goals in a game yet I think the offense is lower on the totem pole of concerns right now. The penalty kill's inability to kill penalties 200 feet from their own net worries me. It didn't hurt us last night, but we need to be able to clear the zone far more often on the PK and not just into the neutral zone. I know it's early and stats for us are really not representative, but we're not even in the top 40 PK units which is pretty bad considering there are only 57 D-I programs. The 74.1% PK (and that's after Princeton's 0-fer last night) needs to get better.

Our scoring is adequate for the ECAC, but that doesn't mean the offense is OK. With the exception of Dartmouth, most teams we've played have mediocre defense at best. If we play one of the better WCHA/CCHA teams tonight instead of Quinnipiac, we'll score one or two goals and they will score three to five. Look at what happened to Yale last year — stats aren't as meaningful if the sample is taken from an unrepresentative subset.

This is the same with the PK, the numbers are against us but I think the PK teams did a great job last night even though the puck wasn't always cleared. I don't mind Princeton passing back and forth around the blue line because that means our guys are in blocking positions and they can't get a clear shot (plus they're killing time).

On the flip side, the power play definitely needs work because our passing is slow and we're afraid of walking the puck in. If we rely too heavily on systems on the power play, the other team simply needs to stay in their formation because we are not generating opportunities on our own.

[Ben]

Even Ivies use "less" instead of "fewer" now? :-/

Apparently on forums I do. In papers, I make sure that I do not.

That's actually a fake rule. Both less and fewer have been used with plurals since the time when people were still using Old English.

Strunk & White would beg to differ.

[Lauren '06]

Even Ivies use "less" instead of "fewer" now? :-/

Apparently on forums I do. In papers, I make sure that I do not.

That's actually a fake rule. Both less and fewer have been used with plurals since the time when people were still using Old English.

Strunk & White would beg to differ.

I'm sure a lot of style manuals do. But if you look at the historical use of language in references like the OED, both were used more or less interchangeably for hundreds of years, and the proscriptivism cropping up around the two is relatively recent.

[imafrshmn]

Even Ivies use "less" instead of "fewer" now? :-/

Apparently on forums I do. In papers, I make sure that I do not.

That's actually a fake rule. Both less and fewer have been used with plurals since the time when people were still using Old English.

Strunk & White would beg to differ.

I'm sure a lot of style manuals do. But if you look at the historical use of language in references like the OED, both were used more or fewer interchangeably for hundreds of years, and the proscriptivism cropping up around the two is relatively recent.

FYP ;p

[css228]

Aside from Too Many Men, they played a period like they should have at Brown and Mercyhurst. Shut the other team down first and take what you can. I'm really impressed at how well the team seems to take to Schafer's instruction. These last 3 games should have shown them that they can still generate offense and more importantly win, by playing good defense first.

I agree. Additionally, you can tell the players have a much better read of each others' tendencies and abilities, which is why their play has been more consistent and fluid in the last few games.

I think Schafer should allow the team to take more chances early on, so that players can work on generating turnovers in the neutral zone and creating scoring opportunities with more complex passing. I think we fall short in these two areas during March, because defense alone is not enough to win championships.

Given that we have yet to score less than 3 goals in a game yet I think the offense is lower on the totem pole of concerns right now. The penalty kill's inability to kill penalties 200 feet from their own net worries me. It didn't hurt us last night, but we need to be able to clear the zone far more often on the PK and not just into the neutral zone. I know it's early and stats for us are really not representative, but we're not even in the top 40 PK units which is pretty bad considering there are only 57 D-I programs. The 74.1% PK (and that's after Princeton's 0-fer last night) needs to get better.

Our scoring is adequate for the ECAC, but that doesn't mean the offense is OK. With the exception of Dartmouth, most teams we've played have mediocre defense at best. If we play one of the better WCHA/CCHA teams tonight instead of Quinnipiac, we'll score one or two goals and they will score three to five. Look at what happened to Yale last year — stats aren't as meaningful if the sample is taken from an unrepresentative subset.

This is the same with the PK, the numbers are against us but I think the PK teams did a great job last night even though the puck wasn't always cleared. I don't mind Princeton passing back and forth around the blue line because that means our guys are in blocking positions and they can't get a clear shot (plus they're killing time).

On the flip side, the power play definitely needs work because our passing is slow and we're afraid of walking the puck in. If we rely too heavily on systems on the power play, the other team simply needs to stay in their formation because we are not generating opportunities on our own.

This debate will be settled soon enough. We have BU and CC on our schedule and possibly a tilt against Maine, so we'll get to see how we are against the big boy conferences.

[Al DeFlorio]

Our scoring is adequate for the ECAC, but that doesn't mean the offense is OK. With the exception of Dartmouth, most teams we've played have mediocre defense at best.

Yale hasn't been scored on since Cornell left town.

[Lauren '06]

Even Ivies use "less" instead of "fewer" now? :-/

Apparently on forums I do. In papers, I make sure that I do not.

That's actually a fake rule. Both less and fewer have been used with plurals since the time when people were still using Old English.

Strunk & White would beg to differ.

I'm sure a lot of style manuals do. But if you look at the historical use of language in references like the OED, both were used more or fewer interchangeably for hundreds of years, and the proscriptivism cropping up around the two is relatively recent.

FYP ;p

Well played.