Pre-Harvard Info

[billhoward]

Brian Delaney has this in his piece in today's Journal:

"Steve Donahue had given Cornell off on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday as a reward for their strong play down the stretch of the season. They got back at it today with a tough practice. Jeff Foote sat out with a stomach virus, and freshman Miles Asafo-Adjei stayed at home with similar symptoms. Apparently it's a bug going through the campus at the moment."

Let's hope it doesn't hit either hockey team.

No chance it would affect Harvard. Their system is immune on account of their blood. You play sports at Harvard, your blood is automatically A positive, never worse then A-.

[CowbellGuy]

There's no choosing any more. The top seed always plays the early game. Probably just made it easier to plan since the top seed always picked the early game anyway.

[Travis 02]

Brian Delaney has this in his piece in today's Journal:

"Steve Donahue had given Cornell off on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday as a reward for their strong play down the stretch of the season. They got back at it today with a tough practice. Jeff Foote sat out with a stomach virus, and freshman Miles Asafo-Adjei stayed at home with similar symptoms. Apparently it's a bug going through the campus at the moment."

Let's hope it doesn't hit either hockey team.

No chance it would affect Harvard. Their system is immune on account of their blood. You play sports at Harvard, your blood is automatically A positive, never worse then A-.

I lol'd.**]

[sah67]

From the IJ game preview article:

"I think we play our best when we're forechecking hard, hitting and playing physical," Massachusetts native Mike Devin said. "So that makes us a good match for them because they don't like to get hit and we like to play physical.
They are a team that really thrives on transition play and rushes," Devin said. "And that's where we really need to play well, in the neutral zone and forechecking. If we don't give them rushes, we really break down their offense."

"We need to put them on their heels early and just kind of set the tone for the whole 120 minutes that hopefully we have to play them," junior forward Riley Nash said. "If it comes down to a third game then you need to kind of make sure they're not wanting to go back to get pucks, not wanting to get the puck, and make sure they're on the defense the whole time.

They like to hit us a lot. I'm not sure they're too fond of us going after them," Nash said. "We're a pretty big team, so we know we can play with any team down low and dominate them there. That's one of the areas we have to focus on is physically taking it to them the whole series because that's kind of what our strength is and not necessarily their weakness, but that's how we have to play."

[Jordan 04]

What exactly is the AD's reasoning behind not offering video of home quarterfinals game as part of the Redcast package?  I'd love to hear it.

[Rita]

What exactly is the AD's reasoning behind not offering video of home quarterfinals game as part of the Redcast package?  I'd love to hear it.

This one we cannot pin on Andy and the Cornell Athletic Department (at least not directly**)  . This one is on Steve Hagwell ECAC commissioner. This is the ECAC's money grab and have contracted video rights to the ECAC quarterfinals and championship rounds out to B2. ::cuss::.


** If the AD actually cared about RedCast hockey people (and we know they don't) then you'd think Andy would have been tell Hagwell that he wasn't going to make the Cornell fans shell out more money to watch hockey, and if anyone else wanted to see the games, then they can pay the Redcast going rate.

[JasonN95]

What exactly is the AD's reasoning behind not offering video of home quarterfinals game as part of the Redcast package?  I'd love to hear it.

This one we cannot pin on Andy and the Cornell Athletic Department (at least not directly**)  . This one is on Steve Hagwell ECAC commissioner. This is the ECAC's money grab and have contracted video rights to the ECAC quarterfinals and championship rounds out to B2. ::cuss::.


** If the AD actually cared about RedCast hockey people (and we know they don't) then you'd think Andy would have been tell Hagwell that he wasn't going to make the Cornell fans shell out more money to watch hockey, and if anyone else wanted to see the games, then they can pay the Redcast going rate.

Eh, I think this is unduly harsh on the AD and athletic dept. I think the switch to Redcast was largely due to the athletic dept. caring, since we were getting atrocious support from the prior vendor.  And do you have any reason to believe that the power balance b/w Andy and Steve w/r/t video rights is such that Andy could (or that it would be prudent in the big scheme of things) to take that tact? I presume the ECAC membership has agreed to give the conference preemption over the individual schools' video  distribution and there isn't any ground for Andy to stand on to make such a demand.

[Rita]

What exactly is the AD's reasoning behind not offering video of home quarterfinals game as part of the Redcast package?  I'd love to hear it.

This one we cannot pin on Andy and the Cornell Athletic Department (at least not directly**)  . This one is on Steve Hagwell ECAC commissioner. This is the ECAC's money grab and have contracted video rights to the ECAC quarterfinals and championship rounds out to B2. ::cuss::.


** If the AD actually cared about RedCast hockey people (and we know they don't) then you'd think Andy would have been tell Hagwell that he wasn't going to make the Cornell fans shell out more money to watch hockey, and if anyone else wanted to see the games, then they can pay the Redcast going rate.

Eh, I think this is unduly harsh on the AD and athletic dept. I think the switch to Redcast was largely due to the athletic dept. caring, since we were getting atrocious support from the prior vendor.  And do you have any reason to believe that the power balance b/w Andy and Steve w/r/t video rights is such that Andy could (or that it would be prudent in the big scheme of things) to take that tact? I presume the ECAC membership has agreed to give the conference preemption over the individual schools' video  distribution and there isn't any ground for Andy to stand on to make such a demand.

Harsh, maybe. Probably. However, I still think the schools that offer pay for view video feeds for their home games could have made a stronger case for their fans about how they are already paying a fee for the games. If a school with a video service is hosting  a QF series they already have the technology in place. No need to bring in a third party (if they aren't already on the B2 platform) and charge their fans again because it is now "tournament action".

What is the market for ECAC QF hockey? Probably the same people who already subscribe to their team's internet feeds. Maybe a few more "friends/family" type people and the die-hard league fan whose team got knocked out (Engineers, Knights). How much money is the ECAC really making off these games? Granted, it is only $16-24 dollars this weekend, but given what I paid for Redcast, it ticks me off. It just feels like I'm being charged twice for the same product.

[CowbellGuy]

That's all basically irrelevant. ECAC playoffs, from the first round on, are an ECAC gig. They get the money (which is probably why the playoff tickets are an opt-in for nonstudents), they control the rights, etc. Andy doesn't really have jurisdiction over it.

[Jordan 04]

Thanks for the explanations.

[Trotsky]

Anybody know why the First Round isn't included under the league's rights monopoly?

[Chris '03]

[billhoward]
For eight bucks a game, it better be in HD.
[/billhoward]

Confident that the quality will not make it worth the $8, I'll watch the women and listen to the men tonight and reconsider the options tomorrow...

[Rita]

Anybody know why the First Round isn't included under the league's rights monopoly?

Maybe not enough time to work out the logistics? With the top 4 teams getting a bye and home ice, it gives B2 more time to set up (hopefully for Bill Howard ;-) ) the HD cameras and other things needed for the broadcast.

[Al DeFlorio]

[billhoward]
For eight bucks a game, it better be in HD.
[/billhoward]

Confident that the quality will not make it worth the $8, I'll watch the women and listen to the men tonight and reconsider the options tomorrow...

That's my plan, too, Chris.

[Tom Lento]

[billhoward]
For eight bucks a game, it better be in HD.
[/billhoward]

Confident that the quality will not make it worth the $8, I'll watch the women and listen to the men tonight and reconsider the options tomorrow...

That's my plan, too, Chris.

That's what I'm doing. Don't tell my boss. Women's feed is pretty crisp. I'm impressed.