Cornell vs. Sacred Heart Postgame

[CowbellGuy]

http://db.elynah.com/opponent.php?opp=55

[Beeeej]

[quote Jim Hyla][quote ugarte]Doesn't a former Cornell player coach Sacred Heart? I wonder why we never schedule those guys. As far as I know, Cornell has never played Sacred Heart.[/quote]Yes, Shaun Hannah '94, and we've played them twice at home. Not trying to be an **shole or anything, but these things are very easy to look up before posting.::rolleyes::[/quote]

Guess you were a little too subtle on that one, u.

[ugarte]

[quote Beeeej][quote Jim Hyla][quote ugarte]Doesn't a former Cornell player coach Sacred Heart? I wonder why we never schedule those guys. As far as I know, Cornell has never played Sacred Heart.[/quote]Yes, Shaun Hannah '94, and we've played them twice at home. Not trying to be an **shole or anything, but these things are very easy to look up before posting.::rolleyes::[/quote]

Guess you were a little too subtle on that one, u.[/quote]Nope. Jim was. :-)

[Harrier]

Scott was every bit as absent as Bitz or moreso.  His usual knack of winning battles for the puck in the corners and in traffic (despite being obviously outsized) was not there.  When he wins those loose pucks and curls off the boards it generates space and offense for his line.  It was not happening Saturday.  His usual ability to find the open man was also below par - maybe partly due to fewer people being open - but some of the other lines were getting better looks for the open guy even if they had trouble handling the puck or converting.
Seems all too often the only guys we are getting open for a shot are on the blue line.  I think tonight I saw three players below the goal line in the offensive zone more than perhaps ever.  Tough to score from there.  Milo and Seminoff were two players most consistently providing effort to spark the offense.

[plrd78]

All of us agree...In Florida Bitz did nothing, all year he does not shoot, pass even HIT, the biggest player on the team. He plays great in the corner. . A Montreal Canadian Scout was at the game and stood right behind us. We asked him between the 3rd period what he thought of our team. These are his comments.  They seem to make alot of sense.
The team needs to start moving the puck better. Get some odd man rushes.
Sawada, Scott and Romano are the only three players who seem to be playing and can create plays with speed and skill, they can beat one two three players by themselves. They should be playing together because they are similar stlyes plus they are all really smart and have good hockey instinct. They would be able to move the puck effectively and put some in the net. He also liked Milo, because he showed agrressivness and speed.  This is coming from a Professional, we are just passing this along to the troops. This is also the 5th time he has watched the team. We askek who he is interested in and would not comment.

[redice]

[quote Dpperk29]I just remembered something else.

does anyone else think that cornell got robbed of a goal by the refs in the third period? I cant rememeber who shot it, but it came from mid circle on the section 0 side and looked like it went top right corner in and out. Could have hit the post/crossbar but it didn't make a sound. I couldn't really tell from where I was in B, but I would be interested to know if anyone else thought it found the net.[/quote]

Apparently Mike agrees.   From today's Ithaca Journal:  "We hit crossbars. We had a goal that we thought was in (Tony Romano appeared to score early in the third period, and the goal light went on, but Binda, who was positioned on the line, ruled the puck did not cross the line)."

[Dpperk29]

[quote plrd78]
Sawada, Scott and Romano are the only three players who seem to be playing and can create plays with speed and skill, they can beat one two three players by themselves. They should be playing together because they are similar stlyes plus they are all really smart and have good hockey instinct. They would be able to move the puck effectively and put some in the net. [/quote]

though this is a good theory... it clumps all your offense together, making it easier for a team with only one good lockdown line to stop it

[calgARI '07]

Sawada says that he maybe they took Sacred Heart too lightly.  Considering they were 11-4-4 heading into the game, that is ridiculous and unacceptable.

[Beeeej]

[quote calgARI '07]Sawada says that he maybe they took Sacred Heart too lightly.  Considering they were 11-4-4 heading into the game, that is ridiculous and unacceptable.[/quote]

I think it's always ridiculous and unacceptable.  I've often wondered if Schafer has a standard "this is no pushover, you need to play like it's the national championship game" speech for before games like these, and I'm beginning to think he doesn't.

[calgARI '07]

[quote Beeeej][quote calgARI '07]Sawada says that he maybe they took Sacred Heart too lightly.  Considering they were 11-4-4 heading into the game, that is ridiculous and unacceptable.[/quote]

I think it's always ridiculous and unacceptable.  I've often wondered if Schafer has a standard "this is no pushover, you need to play like it's the national championship game" speech for before games like these, and I'm beginning to think he doesn't.[/quote]

You would think after losing to Wayne State, no speech would be necessary.

[Trotsky]

[quote calgARI '07][quote Beeeej][quote calgARI '07]Sawada says that he maybe they took Sacred Heart too lightly.  Considering they were 11-4-4 heading into the game, that is ridiculous and unacceptable.[/quote]

I think it's always ridiculous and unacceptable.  I've often wondered if Schafer has a standard "this is no pushover, you need to play like it's the national championship game" speech for before games like these, and I'm beginning to think he doesn't.[/quote]

You would think after losing to Wayne State, no speech would be necessary.[/quote]

Isn't assuming that the only reason you lost to a 11-4-4 team was your own lack of preparation the same error as assuming an 11-4-4 team is a pushover?

There are, in fact, two teams on the ice, not one team in either "normal" or "unacceptable" mode.

[KeithK]

[quote calgARI '07][quote Beeeej][quote calgARI '07]Sawada says that he maybe they took Sacred Heart too lightly.  Considering they were 11-4-4 heading into the game, that is ridiculous and unacceptable.[/quote]

I think it's always ridiculous and unacceptable.  I've often wondered if Schafer has a standard "this is no pushover, you need to play like it's the national championship game" speech for before games like these, and I'm beginning to think he doesn't.[/quote]

You would think after losing to Wayne State, no speech would be necessary.[/quote]During Schafer's tenure Cornell has lost a bunch of games against teams that we really should beat.  There have also been a number of stretches where we've seemed to play down to the level of weaker opponents.  Given this, maybe motivating his team to play its best against weak teams is just not Schafer's strength as a coach.  If so, it's not something to comdemn him for.  No coach is going to be perfect in all aspects.  I'm quite happy with the overall picture.

[KeithK]

While losing to Sacred Heart sucks (big time), isn't this kind of what we expected from this team in October?  A young team with lots of talent that is inconsistent. The important thing is how the team reacts to these set backs, both in the short and long term.

[ebilmes]

I agree with the comment about playing down (or up) to the level of our opponents. It seemed like we played the same way last year, when we played down to the level of opponents like Niagara and up to the level of opponents like CC and Wisconsin. This year, we're playing down to the level of Wayne State and Sacred Heart and up to the level of UNH. It's frustrating that while we can always seem to play at a high enough level to compete with any team on the schedule, we can never seem to play well enough to dominate the teams we should defeat handily. It's been great to see exciting wins over Sucks and UNH this year, but you question why we keep losing to Sacred Heart and Wayne State.

[Trotsky]

[quote KeithK]During Schafer's tenure Cornell has lost a bunch of games against teams that we really should beat.  There have also been a number of stretches where we've seemed to play down to the level of weaker opponents.  Given this, maybe motivating his team to play its best against weak teams is just not Schafer's strength as a coach.  If so, it's not something to comdemn him for.  No coach is going to be perfect in all aspects.  I'm quite happy with the overall picture.[/quote]

Me too, and I don't think a purely statistical analysis of Schafer's tenure would bear out the hypothesis that his teams have lost to weaker opponents any more regularly than one would expect from such a quality program.

Here is a table summarizing Cornell's head-to-head performance against the ECAC during Schafer's tenure (and for some years prior to it), sorted by the opponent's final ECAC placement: http://www.tbrw.info/cornellHistory/ecac_h2hbyyear.html

A team that underperformed against poor teams would have a surprising amount of crimson (losses) against teams well below their slot in the standings.

Let's take an arbitrary figure of > 4 places below in the standings (one third of the league).  Here are Schafer's records against "teams we should beat":

1996: 6-0-2
1997: 9-1-2
1998: 0-0-0
1999: 2-0-0
2000: 4-1-1
2001: 6-1-1
2002: 12-0-2
2003: 13-1-0
2004: 9-1-2
2005: 14-0-0
2006: 7-2-1

Total record: 82-7-11  .875
Current squad: 30-3-3  .875


If the figure is > 6 teams (half the league), here is Cornell's record:

1996: 3-0-1
1997: 5-1-2
1998: 0-0-0
1999: 0-0-0
2000: 1-0-1
2001: 3-0-1
2002: 8-0-2
2003: 9-1-0
2004: 7-0-1
2005: 10-0-0
2006: 5-0-1

Total record: 51-2-9  .895
Current squad: 22-0-2  .958

Now it is possible that the "overconfidence effect" is only displayed in NC games.  But I think from the standpoint of the hard evidence above, Schafer's teams have performed fine against weaker opponents, with very few let downs.