Postgame thread: Cornell 2 at Harvard 4

[lynah80]

I think it's interesting that the new line, Greening-Gallagher-Devin, has been so successful with 4 goals in 2 games.  Gallagher has developed into an excellent face-off man and play maker.  Greening took 12 shots in the Harvard game alone.  There are other advantages of splitting up Greening and Nash.  It encourages Nash to shoot more, rather than try for the perfect assist and opponents will have to decide which of the lines is a bigger threat when setting up their lines.  In fact, if Jillson can be the play maker for the first line, both Nash and Barlow can do more shooting.  Unfortunately, Jillson is so small, he is going to get banged up a lot as he did against Dartmouth.  Also, without Greening on the first line, teams can hound Nash, as did Quinnipiac.  Sean Collins could be a good physical presence on the first line, but obviously he will need to develop more before he becomes another Byron Bitz.  That would move Barlow into the role of play maker, which he can certainly handle, but it's not his favorite.  However the lines are set up, someone is going to have to feed Nash with pucks because under pressure he is still the best shot on the team.

When M. Kennedy comes back, will Schafer go back to:

Greening-Nash-Barlow
Jillson/Roeszler-Kennedy-Kennedy
Collins/Kary-Gallagher-Devin
Scali/Nicholls-Punches-Mugford

or will he try something like this:

Nash-Barlow-Jillson/Collins
Greening-Gallagher-Devin
Kennedy-Kennedy-Roeszler/Jillson
Mugford-Punches-Scali/Nicholls

I'm not giving up on this team.  They could easily go 3-1 and end up with 29 points in the ECAC.  (I'm not conceding the Yale game, just being a little conservative.) That gets them a week off, home ice and a likely trip to Albany.  Last year's team had 25 points.

[TShen]

[quote Scersk '97]
NCAAs?  Pffft.  Better start looking for an ECAC championship.[/quote]

Agreed, especially since the team has not won ECAC since 2005.

[cbuckser]

[quote CU at Stanford]0-7 in power play vs. Harvard
That don't make us look like a contender for ECAC[/quote]

Despite not scoring, I thought Cornell moved the puck very well on the power play.  Not scoring is disappointing and frustrating, but I don't think the power play needs a lot of work.  The first power-play unit created a bunch of scoring chances.  Despite not hitting the back of the net last night, if Cornell continues its great puck movement and crisp passing on the power play, the goals will come.

All in all, I see no reason to panic.  The team has played well in each of its three recent losses.  Frankly, the team wasn't playing appreciably better during the 13-1-3 start.  The team had plenty of defensive lapses during those first 17 games and sometimes had trouble lighting the lamp.  Cornell was fortunate to lose only one of those games, and has been unlucky to lose the last three.

[Scersk '97]

Replying to myself, I notice that I didn't calculate particularly well last night.  Quite obviously, we need 5 points of the last 8 to assure ourselves of a bye.

If we were to win 2 and SLU to win 4, we would be tied with them for points and total wins.  The next tiebreaker, record vs. top 4, turns out badly for us.  Assuming Dartmouth able to win a couple of games, the tie with SLU would likely be for 4th, and, therefore, we would end up 5th.

Sorry, my bad.

[ebilmes]

I can't really add too much to what people have already said.

I will make one point, though. We can beat the team up over missed offensive opportunities -- Greening could have had 5 goals this weekend, Riley missed a breakaway on Friday, etc. However, don't forget that the team gave up 8 (non-ENG) goals this weekend. It's hard to win games when you give up 4 goals, especially for a team like ours which is used to winning games when scoring 1-3 goals.

It's the small things that kill us. I don't know how Scrivens let that terrible goal in against Dartmouth. On Saturday we should have cleared the puck before the 3rd H goal. I think Punches had it on his stick and couldn't get it out of the zone.

The defense concerns me, because that was definitely a strength during the first half. Between the 8 SLU goals, the meltdown against Princeton and our mistakes this weekend...I don't think we have confidence in our D or Scrivens.

I see us sliding into a top-4 spot, much like in 2007 when we got zero points at D and H during the last weekend of the season yet secured a bye. And we know how that season ended.

I still think we can make a run in Albany and have a strong showing at NCAAs. We just have to get back on track, and hopefully Schafer will have an easier time figuring out how to do that than he did two years ago.

[Al DeFlorio]

[quote ebilmes]
It's the small things that kill us.[/quote]
Mental as well as physical:  Penalties taken in the offensive zone (see Joe Devin at Harvard) that negate power plays;  unnecessary, serving-no-purpose penalties in the neutral zone (see Barlow at Harvard and Krueger at Dartmouth) that lead to goals against; flagrant penalties that serve no purpose (see Greening's cross-check in the last 30 seconds at Harvard).  When you have limited offense, especially on the road, you can't hand the other guy man-advantage opportunities to score.  There are times when taking a penalty is the smart choice, but we're making too many dumb choices.  At Dartmouth and Harvard that killed us.

[CowbellGuy]

[quote Chris '03][quote Beeeej][quote CU at Stanford]How come the Cornell Pep Band did not play the love theme from Love Story last night?  We were at Harvard, on Valentine's Day, so it would have seem perfect.[/quote]

They did, twice.[/quote]

Why not three times? (this is actually a serious question)[/quote]
They play it at the beginning of periods after Davy. They're busy playing other stuff at the start of the third.

[Jordan 04]

[quote CU at Stanford]

How come the Cornell Pep Band did not play the love theme from Love Story last night? [/quote]

I was more curious as to why the Hahvard band twice went back-to-back songs during the 2nd intermission. Left us sitting on our hands for most of the break.

[sah67]

[quote Jordan 04][quote CU at Stanford]

How come the Cornell Pep Band did not play the love theme from Love Story last night? [/quote]

I was more curious as to why the Hahvard band twice went back-to-back songs during the 2nd intermission. Left us sitting on our hands for most of the break.[/quote]

I don't know but it was pretty fun to watch the Harvard band conductor freak out when our band kept playing (can't remember which song) while play had resumed on the ice.  She was literally shaking in her Uggs with rage, screaming over at our band, waving her arms around...I seriously thought her head was going to explode.

Not that it was ok for the Cornell band to play during action (can't remember the last time that happened, or if it was accidental or purposeful in this case)...but the Harvard girl's reaction was still priceless

[Chris '03]

[quote CowbellGuy][quote Chris '03][quote Beeeej][quote CU at Stanford]How come the Cornell Pep Band did not play the love theme from Love Story last night?  We were at Harvard, on Valentine's Day, so it would have seem perfect.[/quote]

They did, twice.[/quote]

Why not three times? (this is actually a serious question)[/quote]
They play it at the beginning of periods after Davy. They're busy playing other stuff at the start of the third.[/quote]

They're not busy playing other stuff when warmups start.

[ebilmes]

[quote sah67][quote Jordan 04][quote CU at Stanford]

How come the Cornell Pep Band did not play the love theme from Love Story last night? [/quote]

I was more curious as to why the Hahvard band twice went back-to-back songs during the 2nd intermission. Left us sitting on our hands for most of the break.[/quote]

I don't know but it was pretty fun to watch the Harvard band conductor freak out when our band kept playing (can't remember which song) while play had resumed on the ice.  She was literally shaking in her Uggs with rage, screaming over at our band, waving her arms around...I seriously thought her head was going to explode.

Not that it was ok for the Cornell band to play during action (can't remember the last time that happened, or if it was accidental or purposeful in this case)...but the Harvard girl's reaction was still priceless [/quote]

Our band (at least the low brass) kept playing Hey Baby after play had resumed.

[Chris '03]

[quote ebilmes][quote sah67][quote Jordan 04][quote CU at Stanford]

How come the Cornell Pep Band did not play the love theme from Love Story last night? [/quote]

I was more curious as to why the Hahvard band twice went back-to-back songs during the 2nd intermission. Left us sitting on our hands for most of the break.[/quote]

I don't know but it was pretty fun to watch the Harvard band conductor freak out when our band kept playing (can't remember which song) while play had resumed on the ice.  She was literally shaking in her Uggs with rage, screaming over at our band, waving her arms around...I seriously thought her head was going to explode.

Not that it was ok for the Cornell band to play during action (can't remember the last time that happened, or if it was accidental or purposeful in this case)...but the Harvard girl's reaction was still priceless [/quote]

Our band (at least the low brass) kept playing Hey Baby after play had resumed.[/quote]

Uh oh. I hope Jim keeps donating. :-P

[CowbellGuy]

Good point. Forgot about warmups. I was in the building but working my way around at the start of warmups. Did they definitely not play then?

Also--and trust me, this is painful for me to say--I think, musically, Harvard's Pep Band is now the best-sounding band in the league. They certainly lack pep and there is strength in numbers--they fill a whole damn section--but their arrangements (except Shipping Up To Boston and New World Symphony) are good, and the lot of them are clearly competent musically.

They're also creative. In the third, they did a pseudo-bagpipe rendition of Scotland the Brave that pretty well blew me away. The lower brass took on the drones and clarinets and flutes (not sure if the trumpets participated) played the melody. I could have done without the dancing that accompanied it, but damn, it sounded amazing. Meanwhile, we still have to hear Macho Man at every game.

Now, I wouldn't trade our band for any other. I'm sure Harvard's band is swimming in resources, while Cornell's instruments are held together with bubble gum and chicken wire. They do an amazing job with what they have. My annual Cornell donation is always earmarked for the Pep Band, and I'd encourage you to do the same, but it would also be nice if they blew me away from time to time, too.

[Jacob '06]

The band did play love story when Harvard came out for warmups. They also definitely played it when they came out before the start of the game, but I didn't really pay attention when they came out for the 2nd period.

[Beeeej]

[quote sah67][quote Jordan 04][quote CU at Stanford]

How come the Cornell Pep Band did not play the love theme from Love Story last night? [/quote]

I was more curious as to why the Hahvard band twice went back-to-back songs during the 2nd intermission. Left us sitting on our hands for most of the break.[/quote]

I don't know but it was pretty fun to watch the Harvard band conductor freak out when our band kept playing (can't remember which song) while play had resumed on the ice.  She was literally shaking in her Uggs with rage, screaming over at our band, waving her arms around...I seriously thought her head was going to explode.

Not that it was ok for the Cornell band to play during action (can't remember the last time that happened, or if it was accidental or purposeful in this case)...but the Harvard girl's reaction was still priceless [/quote]

She didn't have the moral authority for the reaction, either - her low brass kept playing after play had resumed on a number of occasions.  They played somewhat quietly, but it's still playing and still against the rules she was apparently so dander-raised about Cornell breaking.  Their cowbell player is also a member of the pep band, and only played during game play, whilst ours plays only during breaks.