Hockey team's culture

[dbilmes]

Schafer had some interesting comments in Cornell Sun season preview:
Head coach Mike Schafer '86 attributes last season's second half struggles to the coaching staff's failure to build a strong foundation in the fall.
"We as a coaching staff made some mistakes early on in building the building blocks for our season," Schafer said. "You can't go back in January and February when things are going wrong if you haven't established the proper culture, the proper way we want to play."
Now, on the eve of the 2022-2023 campaign, the Red is ready to learn from last year's struggles and, it hopes, leave them in the past.
"We went back to the drawing board this summer and said we're going to take over the program like it's my first year," Schafer said. "We're going to make sure we establish the necessary things to have success."

[Trotsky]

I have no idea what that means.

[Al DeFlorio]

I have no idea what that means.

As long as Mike does.

[ugarte]

I have no idea what that means.

Last year we didn't win, however this year I will focus on winning.

[djk26]

It's not a surprise that we have such a strong fan culture...check out how old our rink is!  ::crazy::

Since its first season in 1899, the Cornell Ice Hockey program has brought crowds of students, faculty and alumni to Lynah Rink.

[adamw]

his first year, they were bad until January -- then went bonkers -- so ...

[upprdeck]

the covid thing still made it hard last year to get the team to be a team in many ways. even on campus they couldnt do everything they wanted as a team.

[BearLover]

Schafer can take the blame if he wants, but I'm pretty sure the bigger reasons for last year's lackluster season were (1) their prior season had been canceled, (2) many of their best players from '19-20 graduated or transferred, and (3) they were playing against 5th year players every night with a team where almost everyone was in their first or second year of college hockey. Those factors are interrelated, of course.

[Dafatone]

Schafer can take the blame if he wants, but I'm pretty sure the bigger reasons for last year's lackluster season were (1) their prior season had been canceled, (2) many of their best players from '19-20 graduated or transferred, and (3) they were playing against 5th year players every night with a team where almost everyone was in their first or second year of college hockey. Those factors are interrelated, of course.

Yup. Young, inexperienced team, got tired down the stretch. Frankly, given what they were dealing with, I think last year was a pretty whopping success, even if it ended a little earlier than we would've liked.

[Trotsky]

I have no idea what that means.

Last year we didn't win, however this year I will focus on winning.

That's pretty controversial.