BU Postgame

[billhoward]

The Cornell hockey fan base has its A-game on sooner and better this season than the team on the ice.

Once we got the Jared Seminoff PPG 3 minutes into the third, our group all breathed a sigh of relief. That made it 5-2 and there was enough time to make it 5-3 before the game ended, so the line score wouldn't be so embarrassing to the outside world. It wound up 6-3 with the empty net goal, but 6-3 isn't as bad a 3-goal margin as 4-1 or 3-0, and it almost wound up 5-4 which would have been unfair to BU in capturing the one-sidedness of the game. Boy, were we outplayed.

BU had two soft, goalie-should've-had-them goals (plus the ENG) that were killers and made it impossible for us to crawl out of the 3-0 we wound up in during a 3-minute span at the midway point of the first. Maybe Seminoff's goal seemed that way to the BU fans. But Scrivens got hung out to dry by a defense that left someone alone on the other side of the net for a rebound or deflection; must have been a dozen like that. Had Krueger not been DQ'd, would it have made a difference? Probably not to the final outcome. Plus we had Brendon Nash back. [Edit add: If what I called soft goals were deflections or redirections, then they weren't soft goals.]

There were some things to like:

Scrivens showed he's capable of stopping 35 shots in game. It's too bad that BU showed itself capable of putting 40 shots on goal against him.

Cornell didn't take many penalties (3, allowing 1 PPG) although some might feel that made us too gentlemanly. And our PK was pretty fair.

The power play was awesome to watch when we switched to the points booming shot after shot on goal. Even if we don't score, it is immensely satisfying. As it was, we were 2x7, a reasonable outcome.

Riley Nash continues to impress. And for those who say Cornell has reached a bottom from which we'll never ascend, RN proves Schafer can still recruit quality players.

The "Red!" during the anthem wasn't just noticeable, it rocked the Garden. Fears of dilution were unfounded.

However:

Scrivens' status as No. 1 goalie seems less secure. Also, BU's goalie, Brett Bennett, had a strong stick and did a good job pushing the puck up ice on the power play (mini-Brodeur) while Ben seemed content (coach's orders?) to just push it off to the side and one or two times when he tried to move it more than a few feet, it seemed really weak.

Boy, do we need to improve close-in defense around the net.

The offense generates excitement more than goals.

The breakout from our defensive zone could be, ah, more confidence-inspiring.

This was not an optimal, show-Cornell-at-its-best game for national TV.

Bottom line: This was a great event for Cornellians marred by a rebuilding or mediocre (take your pick - glass half-full or half-empty) team that had an off-night running into a BU team that was well-prepared and playing its best game.

Most of the BU fans seemed friendly and exuberant. Just not the half-dozen drunken louts in front of us. My wife was fearful when they leaned far over the balcony rail to jeer the Cornell fans below (earning a loud "flip our burgers") return); I was hopeful when they leaned over. And fearful only that it wasn't that much of a drop. It distressed me greatly that in a few short years they'll be reproducing unless through divine providence they're holding hands while one pees on the third rail attempting his own segment on Myth Busters.

Did anyone else notice the in-house video of the BU fan in the team jersey who, several times when she was on camera, grabbed, extended, and shook the part of her jersey that said "BOSTON"?

It was nice, after the first period, to see members of the 1967 and 1970 Cornell championship teams honored and incredible to see Ned Harkness out there, too. BU won that mini-competition of hockey alums on parade by trotting out, after the second period, Dave Silk, Jack O'Callahan, and a well-fed Mike Eruzione: only unbeaten/untied team in college hockey history vs. key players in the upset of the century.

I'm reminded of the line used by a friend about Cornell versus the rest of the Ivies: So many of the people who go there really enjoyed the experience, not just getting the degree and moving on. What a great night except for the scoreboard.

[HeafDog]

[quote Beeeej]We may very well not have a national championship during our lifetimes, because in addition to a great team, you need the bounces to go your way, too.  But I believe that under this leadership, we will legitimately contend for it for two years out of every ten, and for an Ivy to do that is a spectacular achievement.  This ain't gonna be the year, but I like what I see coming down the road.[/quote]

Beeeej, I hear ya. And I sincerely hope you're right.

[drs48]

I too was at the game and,unfortantely, agree with all the neagatives. The game was uglier than the score....BU could have sored nine or ten goals. Nearly every BU rush resulted in a shot on goal...rarely did we cross the -offensive blue line in control of the puck. When a 3-7-2 team beats so skillfully and decisively a 4-3-0 team, the issue of conference strength must be reopened.Last night was an eye opener, I (naively) thought BU was low hanging fruit. Unless and until recruiting becomes far more successful I think I will hold out for the occasional Ivy Championship.

[Doug '08]

The game was lost in the first period, obviouslly.  That was perhaps the worst period of hockey I have seen Cornell play in my 4 years here... to be honest I thought we were lucky to just be down 3-0.  Cornell just did not come to play.

[sah67]

I'll echo the sentiments of disbelief about Schafer playing Roeszler over Fontas.  Unless there was an injury or disciplinary issue we don't know about, we really could have used Fontas's size, defensive prowess and faceoff ability.  We got killed on faceoffs if I remember correctly.  Perhaps Schafer thought this was going to be a run-and-gun shootout, and put Roeszler in to have another small, fast, sniper...well it was a shootout for BU, but we definitely needed more size and defense.

Please, Topher...you played fine, but shoot the puck every once in a while!  I know he's gotten a reputation as a play-maker rather than a scorer, but it was disheartening to watch the little guy zoom up the boards, and then instead of making a move to the middle, or wristing one towards the goalie, he either waits for a trailing player to pass it to and gets muscled off the puck in the process, or tries to wrap around the net looking for a pass, and gets muscled off the puck in the process.

Krantz, as others have mentioned, has really taken a step back this year.  Is it time to give Johnston a shot?  Or maybe move Fontas back to D as he's done a couple times?

Berk has a lot of energy out there, and I really like him on the pp.  Fewer of those mistakes he was making at Harvard/Dartmouth also.  With a little more muscle on him, he's going to be a great Cornell defenseman in another year.

The Devins really seem to have dropped off the radar since the first couple of games.  They're not doing anything noticeably bad...but when was the last time Mike Devin let fly one of those blasts from the point?  And Joe Devin really doesn't stand out all that much.  Speaking of blasts from the point, was that Riley taking slap-shot after slap-shot rapid-fire on that powerplay in the 2nd period?  Or was I imagining him on the point?

Sawada really needs to step up his game and get to where he was at the end of last year.  At least he's finishing his checks now (and he made some good ones last night), but he needs to be more of a scoring threat.

Greening, Mugford, and Seminoff also played an excellent game as can be expected from those three at this point.  Would have really been nice to have Krueger out there though, and probably Scali too.

It's really nice to have Brendon Nash back...he looked solid out there.  Not quite up to last year's standards yet, but then again, it's his first game back from a major injury; I'm sure he'll be fine.

Scrivens was OK.  Not terrible.  The first three BU goals were not really softies, but he's made plenty of stops on those kind of shots in the past, especially Yip's breakway shot that went top-shelf.  Usualy Scrivens seems to get beat by the low/five-hole shots.  I was personally surprised that Schafer had the confidence to keep him in there after the 3 goals in 3 minutes.  I'm glad he stayed in there (I don't think Davenport would have saved our butt), but it seemed like Schafer yanked him and Davenport for much less last season...I'm particularly thinking of the two difficult PPGs Davenport allowed at Colgate, and then got pulled for rather surprisingly.

The 4th goal seemed like it was just a dump-in from the BU player, and it deflected off a Cornell skater standing to Scrivens's side, right past Scrivens.  Then again, I was all the way at the other end of the ice, and watching MSG's video screens.  Can anyone confirm that it deflected off a Cornell skater into our own net, or was Scrivens just not ready for it?

The 5th goal seemed like it was sliding right for his 5-hole, which he shut down, but then suddenly hit a weird bounce (maybe an edge on the ice?) and skipped right over his pad.  Definitely want to watch that again when I get home to my DVR.

This reminded me of last year's game against Maine in Florida.  We got outclassed by a better Hockey East team with a lot more individually talented players, who may not have been the #1 team in the country, but certainly came ready to send Cornell a message, while Schafer simply had the boys way too complacent.  A few of us kept wondering to each other during intermissions last night, how Schafer was going to fire up the boys between periods...I saw almost no instance of anyone on our team being "fired up", except mayyyybe after Nash got us on the board, and the pp started clicking.

Oh yeah, the powerplay isn't abysmal this year!  One less thing to bitch about!

[bothman]

Faithful,

That was a tough game.  BU is very good and was similarly, very good against Harvard as well.  They are fast, tenacious, and do a great job in the neutral zone.

However, BU is undisciplined and can play unfocused at times and to beat them, you need to capitalize on those opportunities.  After watching BU play twice now, it amazes me that their record is so abysmal with the talent they can throw out there.  

There is a fairly large talent discrepancy between BU and teams like Cornell and Harvard right now.  Goaltending can often alleviate the disparity, but Cornell has the worst goaltending it has had in a long, long time.  Scrivens isn't horrible, but he's not going to win a game for you and I think that prevents Cornell from playing the game it can and wants to play.  When you have a shut-down goalie, it allows everyone to play a much different style.

Good luck.

[Scersk '97]

[quote sah67]Oh yeah, the powerplay isn't abysmal this year!  One less thing to bitch about![/quote]

What is abysmal, however, is the penalty kill, which is hanging around the high 70s (78.1 after last night).  For a team that seeks to play a physically aggressive style, a shut-down penalty kill (a "power kill") is essential.  An  "average" Cornell penalty kill in the high 80s lets in three fewer goals this season, and I don't think I need to pile on the pedantry to indicate what a difference that would've made.  (Goodbye bad losses to RIT and Princeton.)

Confidence in the penalty kill leads to confidence in other facets of the game, allowing a team to play aggressively and go for small "advantages" that  can make all the difference.  I hope Schafer can find the right mix to make-over this year's substandard kill.

EDIT:  Of course, as bothman indicates above, part of the problem lies in goal.

[redhair34]

We played poorly and BU played well.  Neither the future of the program or the season is in doubt because of the outcome of the game.  This was a different team than the one I saw improve over the last two weekends.  They  just made mistakes they weren't making 7 days ago.  And as Ari said, I had a feeling one team was coming out with the deer in the headlights look and it was us.  This team has enough talent and work ethic to compete for the ECAC Championship.  


By the way, I commented after the Dartmouth game that towards the end of the third period Fontas could barely skate off the ice and never saw the ice again.  I'd be pretty surprised if he was a healthy scratch.

[Al DeFlorio]

[quote bothman]Faithful,

That was a tough game.  BU is very good and was similarly, very good against Harvard as well.  They are fast, tenacious, and do a great job in the neutral zone.

However, BU is undisciplined and can play unfocused at times and to beat them, you need to capitalize on those opportunities.  After watching BU play twice now, it amazes me that their record is so abysmal with the talent they can throw out there.  

There is a fairly large talent discrepancy between BU and teams like Cornell and Harvard right now.  Goaltending can often alleviate the disparity, but Cornell has the worst goaltending it has had in a long, long time.  Scrivens isn't horrible, but he's not going to win a game for you and I think that prevents Cornell from playing the game it can and wants to play.  When you have a shut-down goalie, it allows everyone to play a much different style.

Good luck.[/quote]
Thoughtful posting, bothman.  Agree on all counts.

Regarding BU's fourth goal toward the end of the second period that sah67 described above as a "dump-in" that deflected off a Cornell player, the Ithaca Journal had this to say:

"Riley Nash got the Big Red on the board in the second period, deflecting Blake Gallagher's point shot past BU goalie Brett Bennett, but the Terriers answered with Pete MacArthur's waist-high deflection to restore the three-goal lead heading into the third period.

Schafer said that goal was essentially the turning point.

"'The kid knocked it out of mid-air,'" he said. 'That really took the wind out of our sails.'"

I couldn't see that on the telecast, and I don't recall the awful CSTV announcers describing it that way.  That broadcast may have hit an all-time low for quality.  The graphic showing NCAA tournament statistics had the two schools reversed, giving Cornell four NCAA championships and BU two.  Same with frozen four and tournament appearances.

It also tried to hype the game by saying that between the two teams they had sixteen championships, then showed the ECAC totals for the two teams, saying nothing about BU's twenty-plus years in Hockey East and their success there.  Simply dreadful preparation work.

[Jim Hyla]

[quote Al DeFlorio] That broadcast may have hit an all-time low for quality.  The graphic showing NCAA tournament statistics had the two schools reversed, giving Cornell four NCAA championships and BU two.  Same with frozen four and tournament appearances.

It also tried to hype the game by saying that between the two teams they had sixteen championships, then showed the ECAC totals for the two teams, saying nothing about BU's twenty-plus years in Hockey East and their success there.  Simply dreadful preparation work.[/quote]

I'll agree that these were terrible, however the announcers seemed to know the players on the teams, and not just what prep schools they went to. I actually enjoyed their talk. they had good discussions on the 4 official format, and could fill in the times in the third period where we were all just waiting for the end. All in all, I think better than other college hockey announcers we can get.

[Jordan 04]

I've got to say I'm a little surprised at all the the negativity.

I'm not one for drawn-out post-game analysis, but as someone said earlier, it would be hard not to expect at least one of the sides to come out and be a deer in headlights given the atmosphere.  And that was us.  BU was flying around, had odd-man rushes to their hearts content, was ridiculous sharp with their passing, seemed to find every loose puck on their stick in the slot, and blitzkrieged us for 3 goals in 3 minutes.

I guess I prefer to look at the fact that we kept working, kept playing hard, and tried to scratch back into the game.  BU was just better last night, and a better team at the moment. It doesn't portend doom for the future of Cornell hockey. It was a bad night for a talented, young squad that we have. If there is one thing that I have confidence in Schafer doing, it is improving a team off of a let-down like last night.

Atmosphere obviously was incredible. It's a shame the Cornell side was effectively taken out of the game 15 minutes in, but it was still a great showing of support. I think doing this every year would take the steam out of the incredible buzz that was in the arena last night, but once every 3 or 4 years would be a fantastic idea. And maybe by next time the MSG crew will nix the piped in music and mic the bands.

LET'S GO RED!

[Oat]

[quote redhair34]...This team has enough talent and work ethic to compete for the ECAC Championship...[/quote]

No. I'm sorry but this team does not have enough talent. They also do not have enough speed, size, and strength to wear down the opponents. If they are going to compete for any championship, they will need to make up for the lackings in some other ways (perhaps by being more organized and cohesive, perhaps by taking less risks, perhaps by focusing more on tactics). I don't know what the magic formula is, but team talent is just not there this year.

[Jim Hyla]

Man, I can't believe how negative almost everyone has been. It's sad when Ari is the most positive. :-D No we're not a Frozen Four team, but we have shown that we can do well in the ECAC. We could win it and get an NCAA bid, but not having seen Clarkson I'm doubtful.

The game announcers showed a good stat of how slowly BU teams have started and how well they can finish the season. We played a very good team, one that will finish with a much better record than now.

Now everyone is talking about how good our PP looks, well a few weeks ago we were all talking about how awful it looked. Another stat they showed on TV was how we are getting about 40% of our goals from our freshman and another sizable chunk from sophs. It takes time for them to jell and be a consistent factor. Maybe that's why our PP looks so much better. If so, the team could look a lot better as the year progresses.

None of our defensemen are producing as I'd like, but I'm willing to give them some time. Scrivens worries me in net, but he came in with a .922 save percentage. He maybe the best we'll get. McKee was great, but he had his bad spells when we all complained; too much athleticism and not enough technique for me.

All in all, the best I hope for is that they use these next few games to play more solidly together and put a strong ECAC run together.

As I and others have said before, the best we can expect is contention for Albany each year, contention to win 30-50% of the time, NCAA bids about half the time and Frozen Four every 4-8 years. Get that and I'm happy.

Think about the other ECAC schools, any that can expect better than that? And what about those Hockey East powerhouses, Maine and BC, where are they now? I expect they will be around at the end of the year but their fans must be pulling hair now. So let's see about UMass and the rest of the season..

[underskill]

I think the failure to land either Thiessen or Bachman as McKee's heir is coming back to haunt us now.  Scrivens/Davenport was clearly plan C or D and it shows; Garman can't come fast enough

[KeithK]

[quote Jim Hyla]Man, I can't believe how negative almost everyone has been. It's sad when Ari is the most positive. :-D No we're not a Frozen Four team, but we have shown that we can do well in the ECAC.[/quote]
I'm with you Jim.  Yes, it was a frustrating game to watch.  Yes, we got outplayed.  Yes, we have the same weaknesses that we've been talking about for a month and took advantage.  It looks and feels worse because of the big stage.  But it's still one game in November.