Cornell 3 RPI 0 Postgame

[heykb]

You know, I don't expect them to sweep the next 12 games. It could certainly happen, of course.

Though I have only seen the team twice this year, one of them was at Princeton, where I watched the Red eke out a win and I will not be surprised at all if the Tigers take the rematch. The NJ boys are a good team.

OTOH, the Red have probably improved and they are playing great hockey. If they can continue to capitalize on scoring chances, they will be really hard to beat.

Karl

[Trotsky]

One mark of a very good (or, I guess, very bad) team:  no difference between the effort or results at home, away, and neutral sites.

The game against Yale is doubly significant.  The Eli are arguably the second-best team in the conference, they're angry after a poor weekend, and they are still an unknown as one of just 2 conference opponents Cornell has not met yet.  And, importantly for some of us, the Ivies are a 2-team race this year, and Cornell has not hoisted that banner since 2005.

[lynah80]

[quote Beeeej] Does anybody doubt that a hot Yale, a frustrated Harvard, an unusually stifled Clarkson, and half a dozen other ECAC teams seeking revenge for their first tastes of Cornell this season will present an interesting challenge over the remaining twelve regular season games?

I saw some great stuff from this Cornell team this weekend, but I for one am not expecting them to enter the conference tourney at 25-1-3.[/quote]
One game at a time.

Yale's top goalie has a muscle strain.  

Ryan Rondeau, So:    239 min GAA 1.51 save% 0.939

There's no word as to how bad it is or when he will be able to play.

Their other two sieves:

Billy Blase, Jr:         244 min GAA 2.71 save% 0.911
Alec Richards, Sr:    538 min GAA 2.90 save% 0.882

Further, they are not a big team (average weight 186 lb without goalies), vs Cornell (193 lb) and they may not hold up especially well in the Cornell end.

Unless half the Cornell team comes down with the flu, I'm picking the Big Red to beat Yale at Lynah.

[Robb]

[quote Trotsky]One mark of a very good (or, I guess, very bad) team:  no difference between the effort or results at home, away, and neutral sites.

The game against Yale is doubly significant.  The Eli are arguably the second-best team in the conference, they're angry after a poor weekend, and they are still an unknown as one of just 2 conference opponents Cornell has not met yet.  And, importantly for some of us, the Ivies are a 2-team race this year, and Cornell has not hoisted that banner since 2005.[/quote]
And (in case you skipped my long ramble on TUCs in the PWR thread), Yale is flirting with becoming a TUC, and we definitely don't want any losses to TUCs.  Just playing us may raise their RPI enough to become a TUC by Saturday - beating us almost certainly would.

[Chris '03]

[quote lynah80][quote Beeeej] Does anybody doubt that a hot Yale, a frustrated Harvard, an unusually stifled Clarkson, and half a dozen other ECAC teams seeking revenge for their first tastes of Cornell this season will present an interesting challenge over the remaining twelve regular season games?

I saw some great stuff from this Cornell team this weekend, but I for one am not expecting them to enter the conference tourney at 25-1-3.[/quote]
One game at a time.

Yale's top goalie has a muscle strain.  

Ryan Rondeau, So:    239 min GAA 1.51 save% 0.939

There's no word as to how bad it is or when he will be able to play.

Their other two sieves:

Billy Blase, Jr:         244 min GAA 2.71 save% 0.911
Alec Richards, Sr:    538 min GAA 2.90 save% 0.882

Further, they are not a big team (average weight 186 lb without goalies), vs Cornell (193 lb) and they may not hold up especially well in the Cornell end.

Unless half the Cornell team comes down with the flu, I'm picking the Big Red to beat Yale at Lynah.[/quote]

Yale also takes a TON of penalties. However, given this Cornell team's propensity to turn the puck over in its own end and Backman and Arcobello's ability to find the back of the net, I'm not ready to hand it to the Red just yet. I'd be mighty impressed if Cornell shuts down the Yale offense all together. It'll probably take 3 to win either of the games with Yale.

[imafrshmn]

[quote amerks127]
From what I've heard and witnessed, it almost feels like Schafer is taking a Herb Brooks style approach to coaching this season.  He's really forcing the team to work hard in practice, emphasizing physical strength and stamina, as well as focusing on team chemistry.[/quote]

I wonder whether this year's coaching approach has been spurred on in any way by Assistant Coach Jones's arrival.  Does anyone know anything about Jones's coaching style or philosphy, or what his roll is for our program?

[Trotsky]

[quote Chris '03]Yale also takes a TON of penalties. However, given this Cornell team's propensity to turn the puck over in its own end and Backman and Arcobello's ability to find the back of the net[/quote]And Broc Little leads the nation with 5 shorthanded goals.

[Oat]

[quote amerks127]It's apparent that as this club hits its stride, each and every player is now buying into Schafer's system.  From what I've heard and witnessed, it almost feels like Schafer is taking a Herb Brooks style approach to coaching this season.  He's really forcing the team to work hard in practice, emphasizing physical strength and stamina, as well as focusing on team chemistry.  Schafer's a relatively classy coach, willing to take a fish to the face from Section B to protect the Harvard players, and if he wanted his team to shake hands with RPIcing at the end of the game, it would have.  Instead, the team makes a cohesive stand, protecting their own, before exiting as one.  At the end of the season, when you want to take a look at where the teamed gelled and came together, this may very well be an important factor..[/quote]

So according to this article it was the officials, not Schafer, who instructed the team to exit the ice without the customary post-game handshake line.

http://cornellbigred.com/news/2009/1/17/MICE_0117090616.aspx

I don't know how reliable this information is though. From the video feed, it seemed to me that Schafer definitely told everyone to skate out to Davenport and help him off the ice.

[amerks127]

Elie was making of an article from the Sun last semester.

http://elf.elynah.com/read.php?1,134245,134302#msg-134302

About a month after the fact she realized her mistake and fixed it on the website...

[Joe09JD]

[quote Oat][quote amerks127]It's apparent that as this club hits its stride, each and every player is now buying into Schafer's system.  From what I've heard and witnessed, it almost feels like Schafer is taking a Herb Brooks style approach to coaching this season.  He's really forcing the team to work hard in practice, emphasizing physical strength and stamina, as well as focusing on team chemistry.  Schafer's a relatively classy coach, willing to take a fish to the face from Section B to protect the Harvard players, and if he wanted his team to shake hands with RPIcing at the end of the game, it would have.  Instead, the team makes a cohesive stand, protecting their own, before exiting as one.  At the end of the season, when you want to take a look at where the teamed gelled and came together, this may very well be an important factor..[/quote]

So according to this article it was the officials, not Schafer, who instructed the team to exit the ice without the customary post-game handshake line.

http://cornellbigred.com/news/2009/1/17/MICE_0117090616.aspx

I don't know how reliable this information is though. From the video feed, it seemed to me that Schafer definitely told everyone to skate out to Davenport and help him off the ice.[/quote]

Ithaca Journal's live blog also says that it was the officials' decision to cancel the handshakes and that the info was verified by both coaches.

Link to Blog

[Beeeej]

[quote Oat][quote amerks127]It's apparent that as this club hits its stride, each and every player is now buying into Schafer's system.  From what I've heard and witnessed, it almost feels like Schafer is taking a Herb Brooks style approach to coaching this season.  He's really forcing the team to work hard in practice, emphasizing physical strength and stamina, as well as focusing on team chemistry.  Schafer's a relatively classy coach, willing to take a fish to the face from Section B to protect the Harvard players, and if he wanted his team to shake hands with RPIcing at the end of the game, it would have.  Instead, the team makes a cohesive stand, protecting their own, before exiting as one.  At the end of the season, when you want to take a look at where the teamed gelled and came together, this may very well be an important factor..[/quote]

So according to this article it was the officials, not Schafer, who instructed the team to exit the ice without the customary post-game handshake line.

http://cornellbigred.com/news/2009/1/17/MICE_0117090616.aspx

I don't know how reliable this information is though. From the video feed, it seemed to me that Schafer definitely told everyone to skate out to Davenport and help him off the ice.[/quote]

Those of us who were there quite clearly saw the officials stridently direct both teams to leave the ice in opposite directions without the customary handshake.

[amerks127]

I saw RPI line up for the customary handshake, and plenty of trash talking as Cornell skated by, which is why I assumed Cornell balked...

[cth95]

This weekend, the style of play reminded me much more of the '03, '05, and '06 teams than I saw each of the last two years.  Cornell bent a few times, but they never really broke.  Despite some good possessions by both Union and RPI in the Cornell zone, I didn't see either team get many clean looks at Scrivens.  In '07 and '08, it seemed like we saw more odd-man rushes and breakaways in any given game then we saw in nearly any of those earlier seasons.  I even noticed Roeszler block two shots in a row during one RPI possession.  When tiny forwards are playing great "D", things look good.

As far as the team not shaking hands, I thought that might have been a smart move by Schafer and not just a diss to RPI.  With both teams pretty fired up, maybe he didn't want someone on either team saying something smart, and then punches being thrown.  The last thing we need is to lose 5 or 6 players next weekend.

[Beeeej]

[quote amerks127]I saw RPI line up for the customary handshake, and plenty of trash talking as Cornell skated by, which is why I assumed Cornell balked...[/quote]

They did line up for the customary handshake.  Then the officials made several unmistakable gestures to each team to skate off to their respective exits immediately.

[ugarte]

[quote Beeeej]Those of us who were there quite clearly saw the officials stridently direct both teams to leave the ice in opposite directions without the customary handshake.[/quote]
Not everyone who was there.