Cornell 3 RPI 3 Post-game Thread

[calgARI '07]

How the hell did Romano get a star?

Anyways, first period was pretty much identical to the first Wayne State game.  Not playing with any sense of urgency and having just horrendous special teams.  PK got better, obviously killing off the 5-on-3 in the second period.  The PP is plain brutal.  Just get the puck to the net and they keep passing around.  

Happy that the team battled back but they should have never been in the hole in the first place especially when it happened six days ago.  

They carried the play in the second and third periods while RPI just sat on their lead - always a recipe for blowing the lead.  This team is not generating anywhere near the amount of chances I thought they would be or they should be.  Everyone seems scared of going to the middle of the ice.  The mixing the lines up every shift is not helping.  

Outstanding pass by Greening on the Bitz goal.  I had Greening, Bitz, and Carefoot as the team's best players tonight.  Seminoff was good too.  Scali got a lot of ice time and was very good.  Barlow had a good game as well.  Not sure why Milo gets so little ice time - he's been good when he's actually been out there.

[calgARI '07]

Team is lacking identity right now.

They have played just one good sixty minute game all season - the game at Yale.

[oceanst41]

[quote redhair34][quote oceanst41]
It was interference[/quote]

Please explain what happened.[/quote]

Sorry, I was just stating that it was an interference call according to the box score. I too didn't see the play since it was away from the puck, and Jason presumed he was preventing an RPI player from reaching McCutcheon? who was killing time with the puck.

[fullofgas]

[quote calgARI '07]How the hell did Romano get a star?

One assist, flying around on the ice trying to make things happen, effort, grit, any more reasons you need?

[Trotsky]

[quote calgARI '07]Team is lacking identity right now.

They have played just one good sixty minute game all season - the game at Yale.[/quote]

I think they actually played a pretty good game against Dartmouth.  Not a fun result, but things happen.

[calgARI '07]

[quote fullofgas][quote calgARI '07]How the hell did Romano get a star?

One assist, flying around on the ice trying to make things happen, effort, grit, any more reasons you need?[/quote]

He was alright, but Greening was a much bigger factor in this game.

[sah67]

I was very impressed with the performances tonight from Topher, Romano, and McCutcheon.  Topher just seems to have non-stop hustle, and is always looking to make things happen or scramble for the puck, even when an odd-man rush or breakaway gets shut down.

Romano was sloppy again on finishing his rushes, but he still gets the puck to the point where the entire rink "gasps" in frustration when he gets it taken away or lets loose a sloppy shot...many other players might be able to finish the play better, but Romano keeps showing an ability to get the play to a climactic point...now if only he could finish.

As far as McCutcheon, I don't think he did anything particularly spectacular tonight, but he played very solidly as he has all season.  I was actually impressed with his hustle at the end of overtime where the rest of the team seemed content to hold the puck and tie, whereas McCutcheon challenged the RPI defender behind the net, and seemed to be actually trying to pull off a last second goal.

Not much else to say that hasn't already been said...but I wasn't as impressed with Bitz as others have been.  He played better than he has in other games and the goal was definitely key, but he looked very slow a good deal of the time I watched him, and often just didn't seem to be very aware of where the puck was.  Nash also disappointed tonight with a lot of sloppy passes and playing in general, especially after having played so well in previous games.

Another thing that irked me and few others a bit: every odd-man rush or breakway of ours seems to end up along the boards instead of down the middle, and then the offense gets held up, or the puck taken away.  Perhaps these are set plays or Schafer strategies, but it seems like some different scoring chances might be created by rushing the goalie right down the middle.

Overall...very happy coming away with one point...and also very happy that we have proven our ability to come from behind with this game and and the Harvard and Dartmouth games as well...if only we could put ourselves in positions where we weren't forced to use that clutch ability.

[ebilmes]

I'll try to make this as coherent as possible.

I don't see how you could not say that Bitz had a great game. Really showed leadership, grinding it out along the boards, taking the puck behind the RPI net and trying to make things happen, leading some rushes. And, a goal. The best game I've seen from Bitz this season.

Scali was also impressive. Reminds me a lot of Hornby, a scrappy player not afraid to get physical with the opposing players.

Romano continued to show off his excellent skating skills. Even if his one-man rushes don't lead to a quality shot on goal, they are effective in either drawing a penalty or bringing the puck deep into the RPI zone.

Davenport was at least partially responsible for yet another poor first period. Yes, our PK wasn't good, but I'm starting to think he has a problem changing angles to keep up with where the puck is. Seems like a lot of the goals he's given up are back-door kinds of goals where he's just not turned around quickly enough. I still think he's a better goalie than Scrivens, but it's good to have a quality #2 option to turn to. I didn't think Scrivens was challenged much until some big stops at the end. That said, I hope Troy's injury isn't anything serious.

I'll take the way we played in the third period any night. Given our 3-0 hole, I was happy to salvage a point tonight and hope for a three-point weekend.

As a side note, the crowd just seems to be getting worse and worse as the season goes on. Lots of empty seats again tonight, and B pretty empty for lineups. Lots of annoying facetimers tonight who couldn't seem to understand why Kennedy(?) didn't touch the puck as he came out of the RPI zone (would have been offsides) and didn't undersand why Cornell didn't have 10 SOG in each PP. [/rant]

[calgARI '07]

The good news for Cornell is that Onion's powerplay is just as horrible as their's also going 1-for-13 tonight.

[mttgrmm]

yeah man, there was that one where scrivens came out and stopped it between the circles and then hit the puck far back down the ice towards a waiting RPI defenseman... like he was clearing or something but his defense was coming back to pick it up... i really didn't understand that play...

but that glove save in OT.... crazy...

[evilnaturedrobot]

[quote calgARI '07]How the hell did Romano get a star?
[/quote]

because he was all over the ice creating scoring opetunities and generally causing havoc.  Romano's problem right now is that he's week and gets pushed off the puck, but even so he still created three break away opertunites and one of thise drew a penalty.

romano won't reach his full potential untill he's strong enough to regain puck possesion when chalenged physically, but as of right now he's still creating and preasuring the other team.

[Jim Hyla]

[quote ebilmes]Davenport was at least partially responsible for yet another poor first period. Yes, our PK wasn't good, but I'm starting to think he has a problem changing angles to keep up with where the puck is. Seems like a lot of the goals he's given up are back-door kinds of goals where he's just not turned around quickly enough.[/quote]Goalies aren't supposed to stop back door plays. Just like on 2 on 1 breakaways, his job is the shooter. It's the teams job to cover the other players. If the PP team executes it correctly it's a goal. If the PK team plays it correctly, there is no pass available. Yes goalies can sometimes make a save, but usually that's because  of a poor pass.  Basically the idea on the PP is that you can pass the puck faster than players can react and move. Crisp passes, where the payer doesn't have to gather the puck but can imediately pass again or shoot, are the key on any PP.

[profudge]

Bitz played well most of the time  -  but looked realy  tired end of many shifts (he was stuck out on ice  too long).   Plus  he had at least 4 missed passes 2 of which were give aways to RPI...   so loved his offensive contribution in points  -  but  there are two sides to the coin.

The team looked really GOOD! overall in last two periods  -  hope we can play like that for a full 60 minutes!

[las224]

[quote ebilmes]]As a side note, the crowd just seems to be getting worse and worse as the season goes on. Lots of empty seats again tonight, and B pretty empty for lineups. Lots of annoying facetimers tonight who couldn't seem to understand why Kennedy(?) didn't touch the puck as he came out of the RPI zone (would have been offsides) and didn't undersand why Cornell didn't have 10 SOG in each PP. [/rant][/quote]

I sit in B, and yesterday and today I have to arrive late and leave early because I'm in a show at the Schwartz. It really really sucks (especially last night, having to leave right after the second period, and still being a bit late to my call for the show), but I think it's better than not going at all.

Also, I was one of the ones complaining about SOG. Not because I don't realize the value of sometimes waiting for an opportunity and not just blindly shooting, but it seems like all we do in our PP is cycle in the same predictable patterns. I can think of several PPs where we've just cycled and cycled until someone finally loses the puck, either because it gets taken or due to sheer clumsiness, but absolutely no shots are taken. I think I posted this once in an earlier thread, but there have been times where it seems like we have a shot lined up, but decide to wait for the other defenders to get in place before actually taking it, and then are forced to cycle it to try to get a new opportunity. I forget which specific game it was recently (or maybe all of them, thinking back), but we got killed in the first period and it seemed like Schafer's only instruction in the locker room on the break was "shoot. Just shoot. I don't care what your chances are, take a shot." And then we started playing a lot better. I realize it's pretty ignorant when the players are cycling and facetimers are yelling "SHOOT!" (note that that is NOT me), but they do have a point in that you can't score if you don't ever take a shot.

[dsk1]

There are a few points that have not been mentioned so I thought I would add my opinion.  

Overall, I thought this was the most encouraging games over the past month (especially the second and third periods) with signs of work on several of the key problems.

Veteran leadership - I thought the veterans, Bitz in particular, stepped up the effort last night.  It was nice to see the older guys play with some intensity and win battles for the puck on a regular basis.

Penalty Kill - I know we gave up two shorthanded goals, but I saw some effort on the PK that I liked.  We really pressured the puck, even at the RPI point and on the RPI breakout (including deap in the RPI zone) which is something recent teams with the great PKs have done and I haven't seen out of this team yet.  The first shorthanded goal way too easy for RPI, but I think that was largely a result of having three forwards on the ice and one defenseman (probably because we only had five defense dressed and I think it was Davenport in the box).  The 5-3 goal was a great adjustment by RPI after the timeout and, as was mentioned somewhere else, if a team exeuctes with crisp plays on a 5-3 they will score some goals.  

Quality Opportunities - We were able to move the puck into quality scoring areas better than I've seen all year.  A few partial breakaways and many shots from the slot area (especially in the third).  Hopefully that is a result of a real focus on that area and not just a result RPI being tired from killing off so many penalties in the second period.

Power Play - Despite the positive signs, the power play really needs some work.  As was mentioned last week by someone, not being able to convert early in the game on the power play is really killing us.  I thought there was decent effort by the team at the start of the game, but the inability to convert on the PP is what I think led to the 3-0 deficit.  Much of our momentum was taken away after not converting on the first couple of PP opportunities and then RPI seized on this by turning the momentum in their favor and converting for a couple of goals.   Momentum is so important and the lack of ability to convert is killing it for us and giving momentum to the other team.  Not to bring up bad memories, but the UNH game in 2003 was the perfect example of this.  Cornell absolutely dominated the beginning of the game, but UNH fed off the phantom high stick call negating a goal and it was 2-0 in just a couple of minutes.  In order to have successful season, the PP needs to start clicking soon, not for the goals it will produce, but because the momentum shifts resulting from failing to convert.

RPI's 3rd goal - This was just bad.  Banging it in on a scramble is fine, but allowing the guy to skate in outnumbered behind our net, come back around into the slot to fire off a shot without being touched.  Even when the momentum has swung the other way, we can't allow that type of play.

Teams Effort to Fight Back - I like to end on a positive and the team's effort to fight back from 3-0 down is great and hopefully this result is something the team can build on.

LGR!