Cornell-Bemidji NCAA regionals postgame

[ugarte]

With a night to digest the game and a season there isn't a lot to say that hasn't already been said. Not that that will stop me.

I was disappointed in the loss because I know that Bemidji is a team we can beat. As Al and others have said, we were handed as easy a path to the championship game as any 3 seed will ever have and we squandered it. Bemidji, while faster than us, did not beat us with speed. Bemidji beat us with precision. Their passes were crisper, their position on both offense and defense was more structured and they appeared to have more of a plan. They made, as far as I could tell, no mistakes. That is why they won.
At no point did I feel that we were getting outskated any more than usual.

And with all of that, Cornell still seemed to get scoring chances. They either squandered those by making an extra pass (badly) and or taking an extra stride and losing the puck, shooting wide or, when the puck finally went right where it should go, FANNING ON THE SHOT WITH AN OPEN NET JESUS CHRIST HOW DID GREENING MISS THAT PUCK!!! Ahem. We outworked them on the wall, won almost all of the early faceoffs and still managed to put almost no shots on goal. I don't think we tested their goalie until Kennedy shot the puck into his glove during the 6x5.

We traded cheap goals to start the game - Keir Ross's goal was more or less an accident and their first was a well-screened shot that I don't think the shooter would have expected anything more than a rebound. I wouldn't call the second goal soft. It was a seeing-eye goal that barely avoided a diving defender and Scrivens' right shoulder. The third goal was the fault of the defense, not Scrivens. IIRC, he squeezed the post and the guy banked the puck off of the outside of his leg. The puck should not have been in the defensive zone at all, but for an incredibly lazy clearing attempt right onto the stick of the defender on the point.

We lost because, as has been mentioned before, '08-'09 Cornell was not an elite team. We were a better team than our opponent (yes, RichS, I think we choked a little) but didn't play our best when we had to. So on back to back nights we won a game we shouldn't have won and lost a game we shouldn't have lost. It happens.

As I told Beeeej last night, I felt like we were playing with house money just suiting up for the regional final. The loss is disappointing but hardly shocking just two weeks after the RPI series. The opening weeks set the bar for what to expect from the squad too high and despite multiple setbacks I don't think we, collectively, properly downgraded them. They are a team that was, basically, one more loss at any time during the year from missing the tournament entirely. Given that, I'll consider an ECAC final and a first round NCAA win a successful season for this squad even if the game that ended the season "should have" gone better.

Not that anything in this tournament has gone according to the script, but BU's path to the title is going to go 4, 3, 3, 4. That's sick.

I'm rooting for Justin Milo. My animosity towards Vermont faded when they left the league.

[BCrespi]

I understand what you're saying but I think the most important point of my argument is: who has done better?  We all agree that we can't recruit on a year-to-year basis with the mega-powers, so maybe, for sustained success and several chances at the frozen four we're doing a pretty good job on that front.  Of course you try to add some finishers to the mix as much as possible, but I'd be much happier staying with the status-quo and tweaking rather than blowing it up, going with a new coaching staff or recruiting all skill types.

[Sperris]

Schafer did not bring in Knopp (was there for 1995-96 season).

[ftyuv]

[quote ugarte]My animosity towards Vermont faded when they left the league.[/quote]If you're allowed to root for UVM, I get to root for BU.

[Rosey]

As with the presidential debates, I simply want the ground (ice) to open up and swallow all four teams.  Especially BU.  But especially Bemidji.

[ugarte]

[quote ftyuv][quote ugarte]My animosity towards Vermont faded when they left the league.[/quote]If you're allowed to root for UVM, I get to root for BU.[/quote]
Wrong. Because then you have to root for someone else too.

[KenP]

Not as much for 09, but 10 will be the first year of the Casey Jones effect.  We already know about Ives but look for some strong recruiting classes and a continuation of our being a top 10 threat.

[Josh '99]

[quote HockeyMan]In each of the last four games, the Red could muster no more than one goal through the first 56 minutes of play.  Not good enough.[/quote]Much better than what Yale managed in the NCAAs, though.

[Josh '99]

[quote CUontheslopes]I have to agree. Scrivens just has not been good in big games. In fact, he hasn't been serviceable on many occasions. This season alone we had a number of big big games and he really let us down in many of them. Of course, he had some good games, but all of them seemed to come against lesser opponents. For example:

BU@MSG - terrible
North Dakota - absolutely awful
Yale ECAC Finals - abysmal
[/quote]But then, he was great in the second North Dakota game, and pretty good against Princeton in the ECAC semi, and made some big saves against Northeastern.

[Josh '99]

[quote HockeyMan]Moreover, the focus on Scrivens in a way underscores the point many of us are making: that the present system depends too much on superb goaltending in the big games.[/quote]I don't think that's true at all.  The second goal BSU scored was a pretty clear breakdown in the system in allowing an odd-man rush when Barlow (if I recall correctly) wiped out and lost the puck; Scrivens can't come out to play the angle too much on a 4x2 rush like that.  The third one was a soft goal, and one he'd like to have back, but I think that underscores the point that it shouldn't have taken superb goaltending to make that save.  The whole point of the present system is to prevent the other team from having too many really good scoring chances, thus minimizing the need for ridiculous goaltending.

[ugarte]

[quote Josh '99] a 4x2 rush [/quote]
In real time it looked like 4x0 with two trailing defensemen.

[Josh '99]

[quote ugarte][quote Josh '99] a 4x2 rush [/quote]
In real time it looked like 4x0 with two trailing defensemen.[/quote]In either case, though, it represents a breakdown of "the system", not something that "the system" expects the goalie to have to handle on a regular basis.

[Rosey]

[quote Josh '99]In either case, though, it represents a breakdown of "the system", not something that "the system" expects the goalie to have to handle on a regular basis.[/quote]
I guess I'd argue that a system fragile enough to allow a goal (say) 50% of the time a mistake is made is not ideal: even Cornell hockey players make mistakes. ;-)

I'm not arguing against Schafer's system; I'm simply pointing out that assuming it's possible for any team to execute on any system perfectly is equivalent to assuming false: you can prove anything if you assume false as your antecedent.

[CUontheslopes]

Do you think Jones will help pull in different talent? better talent? I vaguely remember someone saying he would help in Quebec because he spoke French?  Sorry, I just am not sure what effect you think he'll have if you wouldn't mind elaborating.

[KenP]

[quote CUontheslopes]Do you think Jones will help pull in different talent? better talent? I vaguely remember someone saying he would help in Quebec because he spoke French?  Sorry, I just am not sure what effect you think he'll have if you wouldn't mind elaborating.[/quote]From his announcement press release -- http://www.cornellbigred.com/news/2008/8/1/mih_080801.aspx -- "Jones spent the last 13 years at Ohio State, where he served in the same role as associate head coach for the Buckeyes. During his tenure in Columbus, Ohio, Jones served as the program's recruiting coordinator, a position he excelled at as he had five players drafted in the first two rounds of the National Hockey League Entry Draft over the last eight seasons."


There also were comments in an eLF thread shortly after his announcement that more or less said "tOSU is really going to miss him.  He's awesome and will help with your recruiting."