Cornell 3 Maine 6 Post-Game Discussion Thread

[Ben Rocky '04]

[quote ebilmes]Seems to me that there's not a lot of new stuff to talk about. Davenport was off and had to be pulled--again. Special teams stunk--again. Maine was a better team than us.[/quote]

I don't think Davenport should have been pulled. The first Maine goal was unstoppable, and the second ME goal was from a total defensive breakdown.  Letting in two goals bad goals isn't so bad (cough cough Ben Bishop).  However, I think Scrivens is the better of the two goalies.

[Al DeFlorio]

Sometimes a coach changes goalies more for the effect it might have on the team skating in front of the goalie than for the goalie himself.

[Rob NH]

[quote billhoward]... Unless it was the way cool Maine uniforms that swayed them?[/quote]
I hope you don't mean the ones they wore this weekend.

[dbilmes]

[quote Ben Rocky 04] However, I think Scrivens is the better of the two goalies.[/quote]
I've seen five games this year, including two in which Davenport was pulled. I'm not convinced, though, that Scrivens is the better of the two goalies. Davenport has shown enough flashes of brilliance that I think his upside is higher than Scrivens'. I'm sure if Schafer thought that Scrivens was the better goalie, he'd start him over Davenport. Since Schafer sees the two goalies in practice every day, I'm trusting him on this one.

By the way, does anyone know how seriously McCutcheon was hurt? He left the UNH game with an injury and didn't suit up against Maine. His absence could be one reason our penalty kill was so poor against Maine.

[marty]

Also, this was the perfect game to make a change without it having a big effect on the team.  The team had already beaten number two and was falling behind the number five team.  

In making the change he tested Scrivens and could compare his play to Davenport's.  Even though the game turned out the way it did, it gave Scrivens experience in a tournament and let the coach see how he reacted for future reference.

[Beeeej]

[quote ebilmes][quote billhoward]Two days after the tournament and not even 30 post-game thread posts. When Cornell gets beaten fair and square, we have less to say. It's not as if one goal going the other way would have made a difference in this game. And maybe we're still happy - I am - to have taken down the No. 2 team on opening night.[/quote]

Seems to me that there's not a lot of new stuff to talk about.[/quote]

Since when has that stopped billhoward from talking?

[Al DeFlorio]

From Friday's Ithaca Journal:

"Schafer had mixed feelings about Cornell's Florida trip, loving the New Hampshire performance but being less enamored of the physical conditioning some of his players displayed in the Maine game.

"'We had a lot of guys that over the three-week (holiday and final exam) break that took some time off,' Schafer said. 'We got guys who were home eight, nine days on their own. Some guys played very well and some guys didn't. And they had a hard time getting around the second night after not playing a game for (27) days.'"

[Al DeFlorio]

[quote dbilmes]By the way, does anyone know how seriously McCutcheon was hurt? He left the UNH game with an injury and didn't suit up against Maine. His absence could be one reason our penalty kill was so poor against Maine.[/quote]
Reasonably good news from Friday's Ithaca Journal:

"Senior forward Mark McCutcheon was hurt in last weekend's first game and missed the second game as a result. He may miss the Sacred Heart game, but the injury is not considered serious."

[las224]

[quote Al DeFlorio]From Friday's Ithaca Journal:

"'We had a lot of guys that over the three-week (holiday and final exam) break that took some time off,' Schafer said. 'We got guys who were home eight, nine days on their own. Some guys played very well and some guys didn't. And they had a hard time getting around the second night after not playing a game for (27) days.'"[/quote]

As much as I agree that taking time off can hurt the team, I hate the implied criticism in Schafer's quote because the guys spent some time with their families or studied hard for their finals. Even if they go home, most of them have workout routines devised so they don't get completely out of shape. They might not be skating while they're home, but I still think it's pretty valid that they should get to go home and spend time with their families, and I don't think it's fair of Schafer to put them down for that. Yes, Schafer is the coach and ultimately knows what's best for the team, but it's not like the players WANT to lose and are trying to screw things up by taking a break.

[jtwcornell91]

[quote las224][quote Al DeFlorio]From Friday's Ithaca Journal:

"'We had a lot of guys that over the three-week (holiday and final exam) break that took some time off,' Schafer said. 'We got guys who were home eight, nine days on their own. Some guys played very well and some guys didn't. And they had a hard time getting around the second night after not playing a game for (27) days.'"[/quote]

As much as I agree that taking time off can hurt the team, I hate the implied criticism in Schafer's quote because the guys spent some time with their families or studied hard for their finals. Even if they go home, most of them have workout routines devised so they don't get completely out of shape. They might not be skating while they're home, but I still think it's pretty valid that they should get to go home and spend time with their families, and I don't think it's fair of Schafer to put them down for that. Yes, Schafer is the coach and ultimately knows what's best for the team, but it's not like the players WANT to lose and are trying to screw things up by taking a break.[/quote]

I read the implication as not everyone stuck to their workout routines while they were on break.

[Al DeFlorio]

[quote jtwcornell91]
I read the implication as not everyone stuck to their workout routines while they were on break.[/quote]
As did I.  

While this is only based on the call of the game by the UHN broadcast team, we seemed to be right on top of UHN throughout that game, regularly disrupting their breakouts and rarely letting them get any free space, I never got that same sense from the Maine announcers about the championship game.

[mttgrmm]

yeah i dont think his criticism was that kids went home, it's not like an NFL mini-camp or something where a veteran doesn't show up.  he's been a college coach for a long time, and breaks/exams and all that are a part of the landscape at any school.

if some of the team hadn't kept up on their conditioning during that time, it would really show on a second day against a top-tier team.  it seemed to me that he felt that some of the team hadn't kept up their conditioning, and regardless of if the players are in ithaca or home with their families, they should still be putting in the time to stay fit.

[heykb]

Apologies for the delay, but I finally have time to write up my observations from Estero.

Cornell outplayed UNH and deserved to win.

The PP was hopeless, of course. For the past several years, it's been "get it to the point for a one-time slappah" and that's what it continues to be, even though we don't have the guns for it and everyone who's scouted us has to know it's coming. This is a failure of coaching, imo. They need different options, especially given the smaller, quicker players on the team now.

All the frosh continue to impress. Greening played well. Milo seems to have a lot of potential.

On the weekend, Sawada looked very good, though he took a penalty or two that I would call undisciplined. He was the only real "presence" for many shifts.

Maine looked much the best team. They outhit CU and used their size in a very Cornell-2003-like manner. Their special teams are supposedly quite good, so of course they looked fabulous compared to ours. Maine is beatable, but not by us this year, at least not without drastic improvement in many parts of our game.

Bitz was virtually a non-entity. I think he was significant on about two shifts all weekend. He needed to be more Sawada and less Topher.

Tony Romano reminded us a lot of Brock Treadway. I think Romano might have better skills. Allow me to mix my sports analysis up a little. They used to say that Dean Smith was the only person who could hold Michael Jordan to 17 points a game. I just hope 3 years from now, we don't look back and say a similar thing about Schafer and Romano.

Troy made one save (against UNH iirc) that had us out of our seats in amazement. Other than that, the CU goaltending was pretty ordinary. They don't seem to handle 1-on-1's particularly well. And Troy *really* has to work on his stick-side top shelf.

Karl