All-Ivy Teams

[jeh25]

Yeah. He went 7 games without a goal and 5 without a point. Of course, 2 of those double goose-egg games were against streaking Cornell and Colgate and he did tally 3 assists against Dartmouth and 1 assist against SLU.

By way of comparison, Paolini also had a 7 game stretch with a single goal (v. Yale) and a single point (Clarkson).

So I'm guessing it is just a statistical quirk that shouldn't be over analyzed.

USCHO has a neat stats page I've never noticed before:

Chris
http://www.uscho.com/stats/gamebygame.php?player=5921&team=127&season=20012002&details=x

Sam
http://www.uscho.com/stats/gamebygame.php?player=2118&team=28&season=20012002&details=x

(Rereading my original post it came across as much more of a rah-rah Higgins post than I intended. My bad... )

[Keith K]

But LeNeveu didn't go 9-1-1 for Cornell.  He went 4-1-1.  Or at least that's what his record was in Ivy games.

You can also think in terms of replacement value (though I don't know if the voters did this).  Higgins may have been Yale's best player.  Without him their offense might have been a lot worse than it was.  Without LeNeveu Cornell would.... probably have been right in the same place with Underhill in net (albeit a lot more worried about next year).

[rhovorka]

John, I agree, "Chris had an impact night in and night out," but can it also be argued that Dave's 9-1-1 conference record put more meaningful "points" on the board than any other freshman in the ECAC.

Also keep in mind that this is the Ivy League award.  The only stats that count are the Ivy stats, so the 9-1-1 record is moot for this award.  (Keith beat me to this point as I was composing) Higgins was far and away the leading scorer in Ivy games as a freshman.  

But don't be surprised if the ECAC ROTY goes to Higgins also.  Lenny split games and people can point to Cornell's vaunted defense as a nice thing to play behind as a freshman.  Higgins was pretty much the reason Yale made the playoffs.  Off the top of my head (and not knowing much about Yale's season), Higgins scored the goal that tied Cornell at Yale, and scored 2 to beat Harvard last Friday.  In addition, Higgins finished 3rd in the ECAC in scoring and was #2 in goals (13-14-27) as a freshman.  There isn't another freshman in the top 20 in scoring.

Offensive numbers are big when determining post-season awards.  Lenny would probably be ROTY almost any other year, but Higgins had a monster year.  Although Lenny got 19 points, how many of those would you say Underhill would've gotten?  (OK, Keith beat me to this point as well) For Yale, there was nobody else to put the puck in the net.  Lenny will definitely get G on the All-ECAC Rookie team, with Underhill and Danis getting 1st and 2nd team.

I predict Danis gets the Dryden award, Higgins gets ROTY.  Cornell will more than likely score the Defensive Defensman and Defensive Forward awards and (I hope) Coach of the Year.  (I have a feeling RPI will take home the POTY).  And I'll gladly trade individual awards for a Whitelaw cup.

[Give My Regards]

The stats on the Ivy League page are updated, except they still have LeNeveu with 6 goals allowed on the GAA page, rather than 8.  Oh well, at least the GAA is right, and Lenny still leads the league.

Wouldn't mind a single-malt scotch, especially if it were LeNeveu's age (and maybe even more so if it were mine :-)  )

And Beeeej... go away, or I'll smack you with my cane :-P

[Beeeej]

I'll smack you back with mine!  Of course, mine's only temporary.  :-))

Beeeej

[Ben Doyle 03]

Now this is what I'm talking about. . .I'm glad my oversight has started a productive discussion.;-)  I realize that this award is just for Ivy play. . .I love it when we can get into a friendly debate. You have all made valid points though I still disagree with one.

    "In addition, Higgins finished 3rd in the ECAC in scoring and was #2 in goals (13-14-27) as a freshman. There isn't another freshman in the top 20 in scoring. "

Other than Quinnipiac freshman goalie Jamie Holden in 10th (playing in the extremely weak MAAC) Dave finished the season statistically as the number one collegiate goalie in the country as a frosh (.936 SV% & 1.50 GAA). If that's not impressive I don't know what is. Yes, our defense is surely responsible for some of that, but you have to give credit where credit is do. HE is a Damn good goalie!!! I am not trying to make an argument against Higgins more than I am simply making a "pro" Leneveu pitch. So please forgive me for putting this under the Higgins thread. Generally, goalies get passed over for these kind of awards for this exact reason (scoring goals is somehow more important than stopping them). . .but that's just my opinion. Let's just send the Eli back home to New Haven and worry about the awards when they reeeeaaaaallllyyy matter in about two weeks. :-D

[cbuckser]

If the award were for Most Valuable Rookie, then I think replacement value should be the guiding factor for choosing the award winner.  Because it is Rookie of the Year, I believe that quality of play is more important.

[ugarte]

I guess I will weigh in with my actual opinion. I think Higgins deserved the award since Lenny was a platoon goalie.  I am still surprised that not a single voter disagreed with me, or let Lenny's non-Ivy stats weigh in his favor.

[Keith K]

Unless the Ivy web site specifically defines the term ROTY, I think the distinction between ROTY and MVR is rather fuzzy.  MVP is always something that's hard to define.  I see your point though Craig.