Cornell at Clarkson Post-game

[jkahn]

[quote Jim Hyla]

...Clarkson has been one of a few places that had some fans who knew the player on my jersey, Lodboa.[/quote]
Jim, you and your vintage jersey were clearly recognizable watching on Clarkson's free video.

[Lauren '06]

[quote Jim Hyla][quote daredevilcu]The band does its best to cut down the more offensive cheers early, but single people screaming obscenities randomly is quite hard for us to take care of.  Scott Smalling has instructed the arena staff to throw people out if they catch them in the act, I believe.  A reason the "crackdown" really hasn't happened is because our arena staff are almost all Clarkson students working for work-study jobs.  Students don't want to throw out other students and get labeled as "that jerk usher" etc... on a campus this small, it would be likely to translate to life outside hockey games.  I doubt they want that.  Not saying they should be giving people as much leeway as they do, just offering a suggestion as to why they might.[/quote]Come on, there was a group action with many cheers. How about the "S H I T, that spells ivy". If the institution really wanted to change it they could. As at Cornell it would take a major effort and your coach would need to support it. Hopefully they wouldn't take it to the extreme that I believe Cornell has.

I enjoy going to Clarkson for games, after all I did get accepted there and my brother and his wife graduated from there, the games are usually high spirited and fun. However lately the crowd has started to act more like Colgate than the Clarkson of old (don't you like how us old people can use terms like that?).

Maybe the problem is that we have dominated them in the recent past, and we can hope that since they are obviously back in the hunt, they will respond to the game more and be creative and less offensive.

Related, they and SLU need to stop playing their drums during play. I believe it's against the rules and it's annoying. You shouldn't need that to keep the beat on a cheer. But I do have to say that it's certainly nice to go to an arena that really has a good pep band. The difference between Cheel and Appleton is volumes, even when Clarkson was having down years. Keep up the GOOD WORK, but ..., well I've already said the but part.

Finally, to emphasize the positive, Clarkson has been one of a few places that had some fans who knew the player on my jersey, Lodboa. I had two people come up to me last night. One who was selling 50-50 tickets and played on Clarkson's 70 team. That was nice.[/quote]
It may be that things have changed with regards to policy in the past two years, but this was my experience at Cheel as a Cornell pep band manager (2005):

1. We, the Cornell band, were explicitly told not to play over the Clarkson band.  Since this isn't something we do anyway, that was totally fine with us.  However, the reason given was that the stacked noise would be hard on the hearing of the older fans.  Nevermind that Cheel has a giant f-ing train whistle, or that the Clarkson band promptly proceeded to play over us at least once in pregame.

2. Yes, playing any instruments (drums, cowbell, that godawful guy with the plastic horn) while play is going on is against NCAA regulations.  When I mentioned this to the rink manager up at Clarkson, he laughed and said he didn't care about it unless someone complained.  He cited his love of an exciting/fan-threatening atmosphere as his reason for not changing anything.  He was a nice guy, but he had a streak of unprofessional running through him.  Even so, man I wish we had him at Lynah.

3. Ditto the non-usefulness of student ushers.  From what I saw, their purpose was to stand there and do nothing, presumably from the reasons given.

[Chris 02]

From Cornell's official summary:

"A short-handed Cornell squad scored a tying goal in the second period as the Big Red battled to a 1-1 tie against Clarkson on Saturday night in Potsdam, N.Y. Playing without captain Byron Bitz, who became ill shortly before the game..."

Sounds like the bad pizza from the North Country a few years ago.  Haven't they learned to avoid that place?

[sah67]

Wodon's starting to count us out...from CHN:

"Clarkson played a pair of 1-1 ties this weekend, despite playing better than its opponent in both games. In this one, Cornell hang on for dear life at times. The Big Red did play better than the previous night's loss to SLU, after getting reamed out by coach Mike Schafer. But with four freshman home for the weekend for reported disciplinary reasons, and Schafer imploring his seniors to show some leadership, and the power play hurting, it's starting to look more and more like it will be a step-back year for the Red."

There's still plenty of games left, but there simply cannot be any more silly losses due to lack of discipline, offense, etc., especially at Lynah.

[daredevilcu]

The Cornell band that was there deserves a LOT of credit.  They sounded really quite good and quite loud despite having only 15 people, I was really impressed.  I thought we worked well together this year, even playing a song together during the second intermission.  Hopefully we can do the same thing at Lynah and just blow everyone's minds

[Jim Hyla]

[quote sah67]Wodon's starting to count us out...from CHN:
 it's starting to look more and more like it will be a step-back year for the Red."[/quote]
Actually that's rather a silly statement on his part. Losing the players we did, it looked like a "step-back year" right from the get-go. After all, did Adam think we were going to get to being one overtime win from the Frozen Four, like we did the last two years? If so, I want everyone, especially the opposing teams, to be smoking the same stuff.

Look, like I said at the beginning of the season, a top four ECAC (I don't think I'll ever be able to add that HL) standing and a decent chance to win the ECAC Tourney, then getting an NCAA bid, is about all we can expect. If the team, young as it is (including the senior leaders), can start to put it together we could do better.

Staying on top is tough and I think our coaches have done a great job in maximizing the output from our talent, year after year. One only has to look at Colgate and Harvard to be reminded of how it could be.

That said, I was not as down on the team yesterday as others seem to be. I thought we played a good game, especially considering who we had on the ice. We certainly could have lost, but we also had chances to win. I don't think we hung on to the tie or other such. I reserve that for how we won Schafer's early ECAC (we don't need the HL for those, right?) titles. Icing the puck can be wonderful at times.

[JDeafv]

[quote daredevilcu]... but single people screaming obscenities randomly is quite hard for us to take care of. [/quote]

No, it's really not.  The shallow bowl of the Cheel seats makes it very easy to identify specific individuals who are yelling f&*k you and giving the finger to the players and referees, nevermind the *occasional* ones towards the opposing fans.  See 20 seconds into the video below.

[quote daredevilcu] Scott Smalling has instructed the arena staff to throw people out if they catch them in the act, I believe.  A reason the "crackdown" really hasn't happened is because our arena staff are almost all Clarkson students working for work-study jobs.  Students don't want to throw out other students and get labeled as "that jerk usher" etc... on a campus this small, it would be likely to translate to life outside hockey games.  I doubt they want that.  Not saying they should be giving people as much leeway as they do, just offering a suggestion as to why they might.[/quote]

I totally agree.  The "usher" at the top of 14A actually did his best to keep Clakrson students out to the visiting section at the beginning of the game, but not after the game started.  The "ushers" along the GA student sections showed total apathy towards the actions of the students.

For those who would like to see some of the "fans" from last night.  Warning, do not play with loud volume at work.  

Ivy envy, clap, clap, clap-clap-clap.

[calgARI '07]

Cornell outplayed Clarkson and had more scoring chances.  Was impressed with the Clarkson students.  Because they are general admission, their sections are filled an hour before the game.  As someone else said, I wish the enforcement of NCAA rules was the same at Cornell as it is at Clarkson.  

In all, I was underwhelmed by what I saw in both St. Lawrence and Clarkson. Clarkson in particular wasn't anywhere near the team I expected.  

Cornell has some real soul-searching to do.

[Dpperk29]

my take on the game was that it was incredibly close because Tech played down to cornell's level. several times we tried to get too fancy or make one to many passes. Both goalies played well, with a slight edge to davenport.

with regard to the crowd at cheel, yes it is obscene. no I don;t like it. I am trying to be vocal and clean, sort of as an example, but as a freshman it is hard. Another problem is the student ushers, they don't want to be "that guy".

The crowd as gotten cleaner as the year has gone though. The Bullshit chant is nearly extinct. which is a positive. I thought "S H I T spells Ivy" was funny, and really not all that bad. I have heard the choir-boy like Lynah Faithful chant far far worse.

Jim, please don't take the candy being thrown back personally. it was sorta wrigley-esque

[Jim Hyla]

[quote JDeafv][quote daredevilcu]... but single people screaming obscenities randomly is quite hard for us to take care of. [/quote]

No, it's really not.  The shallow bowl of the Cheel seats makes it very easy to identify specific individuals who are yelling f&*k you and giving the finger to the players and referees, nevermind the *occasional* ones towards the opposing fans.  See 20 seconds into the video below.

"fans" from last night.  Warning, do not play with loud volume at work.  [/quote]Thanks for posting that; a video is worth alot more than my words!:-P

[Lauren '06]

[quote JDeafv][quote daredevilcu]... but single people screaming obscenities randomly is quite hard for us to take care of. [/quote]

No, it's really not.  The shallow bowl of the Cheel seats makes it very easy to identify specific individuals who are yelling f&*k you and giving the finger to the players and referees, nevermind the *occasional* ones towards the opposing fans.  See 20 seconds into the video below.[/quote]
Isn't it more the point that it shouldn't be the Clarkson band's job to police the behavior of other spectators?  The bands of any school can serve as a kind of rallying point, because there's more year-to-year consistency and leadership within a band than within a crowd.  And bands can do their share of yelling "don't say/throw that, you idiot."  But even so.

[ugarte]

[quote Jim Hyla]How about the "S H I T, that spells ivy". [/quote]Don't blame them, Jim. That is how they spell at Clarkson.

[Rich S]

[quote ugarte][quote Jim Hyla]How about the "S H I T, that spells ivy". [/quote]Don't blame them, Jim. That is how they spell at Clarkson.[/quote]

Spelling at cornell is no better given the words I heard directed at us Tech fans at the playoff game I attended at Lynah last March.  :-D

[Rich S]

I'll be at HFH next Friday for the first time since '74 so I'
ll keep an ear open for this.  As of one could miss it, eh?

[Rich S]

Jim,

Many good points above.

I do think that Tech's recent lack of success (except for the '04 playoffs which a lot of you guys still say "never happened" :-}) has brought about some of this poor behavior.  It could also be that they're responding to some of what they've heard or heard about as visitors at Lynah over the years.

Last March at the playoff game I attended at Lynah, there were many profanities directed at Clarkson fans, albeit far fewer than in the early Schafer years.  So let's not portray the Lynah crowd as choir boys. Fair enough?

I don't like the foul behavior at Cheel and never have.  It has been several years since I've been able to get to a game while school was in session but there wasn't any bad behavior that weekend.  Admitedly, the oppostion was Princeton and Yale.

I was there for two games this year, post-Thanksgiving, and since the students were on break, there was no objectionable behavior.  I know Scott Smalling very well and spoke with him about it and he said they are trying to eliminate it and do eject the offenders when identified.  The idea that the ushers are students and are uncomfortable being the "ejectors" makes sense but if that's the case, a more effective plan has to be adopted.

My standard for judging behavior at Tech is my student years at Clarkson Arena in the early 70s when the place rocked with cheers, jeers, and the Pep band in that cold tiny barn.  By today's standards we were very well behaved while still being raucous and intimidating.  Profanities were rare, just as they were in '72 when I saw my first game at Lynah. Of course, that home crowd was relatively quiet as Clarkson ended Cornell's long home ice unbeaten streak.

Regarding band behavior, I agree they should comply with whatever the rules are, and be respectful of each other's efforts but will also add that at Lynah in March, BOTH bands were playing over each other.

Nice to hear that some folks recognize your Lodboa jersey.  There are at least three Tech alumni living in the North Country from Tech's '70 team that would recognize it...Steve Warr, Alf Maki, and Bill O' Flaherty, assuming he's in town that weekend.  In the 4 or 5 times I've worn my Clarkson "Taylor" jersey at Lynah, I had one Cornell fan comment on it.  A couple of others, asked "Who's he?"  And they looked to be 45.  Go figure.  :-)

Cornell always seems to be able to minimize Clarkson's quality scoring chances.  As I've said since late last season, The Golden Knights have plenty of skill players; they need more GRIT both on the top 3 lines and on D!  The lack of it plays right into Cornell's strengths and the Red usually shut down Clarkson's finesse-style offense and wins the battles in the corners and on the boards.  From the little I saw and heard last night, it seems they did that again.

Hope to get to Lynah next month for the next installment in this rivalry.  It should be a good one!