Hobey Watch - USCHO blog

[ajh258]

http://www.uscho.com/blogs/hobey-watch/elliot/20100316/making-the-call.html

The author mentioned Scrivens as a finalist for Hobey Hat Trick:

Ben Scrivens, senior, goaltender, Cornell – Scrivens made a great "closing statement" in the Big Red's ECAC quarterfinal series against Harvard, stopping 42 of 43 shots in a two-game sweep of Harvard. That leaves him No. 2 in the country in both goals-against average (1.89) and save percentage (.933), and that should be enough to make him a finalist, regardless of whatever doubts exist about goalies who thrive in Cornell's system.

He also picked Polacek, and I though his reasoning was intersting:

When I sized up the contenders a couple of weeks ago, I listed two ECAC Hockey players as "On Solid Ground." One was Polacek, the other was Yale's Broc Little. Well, a couple of things happened since I wrote that. One, Both Polacek and Little saw their teams eliminated from the ECAC Hockey playoffs by Brown. Two, Ben Scrivens solidified his hold on a spot. I don't think there will be three finalists from ECAC Hockey, so somebody's got to go, and I think it's Little. Yale's quarterfinal loss to Brown made a strong case that the absent Sean Backman, not Little, is the key player for Yale, and given that Backman was injured under circumstances that can be charitably described as "ill-advised," it's not like he'll be picking up the votes. On top of that, Little is one reasonably equal part of a very balanced Yale attack, where Polacek was clearly "the man" for RPI, both in terms of overall scoring and in terms of his clutch performance.

So, I guess on a side note, it wouldn't be surprising if Polacek win POTY as well.

[Jeff Hopkins '82]

Cheverie of Denver has a better saves percentage, more shutouts in essentially the same number of games, and plays in a higher scoring conference (by reputation if not by fact).  He's only weaker than Ben by 0.005 in GAA.  The only thing is that Cheverie is a junior and Ben is a senior.  Add to that the burden of "The System" and Scrivens has a bunch of things going against him.

At best, he might get to the three finalists because he's a senior, but I doubt he'd win it all.

[ajh258]

Cheverie of Denver has a better saves percentage, more shutouts in essentially the same number of games, and plays in a higher scoring conference (by reputation if not by fact).  He's only weaker than Ben by 0.005 in GAA.  The only thing is that Cheverie is a junior and Ben is a senior.  Add to that the burden of "The System" and Scrivens has a bunch of things going against him.

At best, he might get to the three finalists because he's a senior, but I doubt he'd win it all.

Ya I know he won't win but it's just something I read that I thought was worth mentioning.

[Trotsky]

Raise your hand if at the beginning of the season you thought Ben might be considered for HHT.

Me neither.

[Josh '99]

Raise your hand if at the beginning of the season you thought Ben might be considered for HHT.

Me neither.

Why not?  Among returning goalies*, in 2008-09 he had the best GAA and the third-best SV% (and only .003 back of the guy who had the best SV% among returning goalies), and was the undisputed starter for a team with a defense-first system that was one of the favorites in its conference and had NCAA aspirations.  Plus a couple of rising senior forwards who might have been favorites (Ryan Stoa and Viktor Stalberg) left early.  Doesn't seem unreasonable to have thought he might be in the conversation.

* I.e., not counting last year's seniors or underclassmen who went pro last summer, most relevantly Brad Thiessen.

[ugarte]

Raise your hand if at the beginning of the season you thought Ben might be considered for HHT.

Me neither.

Why not?  ... for a team with a defense-first system ...

That's why not. Goalies are rarely considered, and goalies from defense-first systems even less.

[Josh '99]

Raise your hand if at the beginning of the season you thought Ben might be considered for HHT.

Me neither.

Why not?  ... for a team with a defense-first system ...

That's why not. Goalies are rarely considered, and goalies from defense-first systems even less.

True, but as Ryan Miller and LeNeveu demonstrate, they sometimes are, especially when there are other factors working in their favor, like the ones I mentioned above.

[KeithK]

Raise your hand if at the beginning of the season you thought Ben might be considered for HHT.

Me neither.

Why not?  ... for a team with a defense-first system ...

That's why not. Goalies are rarely considered, and goalies from defense-first systems even less.

True, but as Ryan Miller and LeNeveu demonstrate, they sometimes are, especially when there are other factors working in their favor, like the ones I mentioned above.

Goalies win when they post eye-popping numbers and there are no skaters with impressive goal/point totals in the same year.  Only 2 of 29 winners have been tenders.

[Josh '99]

Raise your hand if at the beginning of the season you thought Ben might be considered for HHT.

Me neither.

Why not?  ... for a team with a defense-first system ...

That's why not. Goalies are rarely considered, and goalies from defense-first systems even less.

True, but as Ryan Miller and LeNeveu demonstrate, they sometimes are, especially when there are other factors working in their favor, like the ones I mentioned above.

Goalies win when they post eye-popping numbers and there are no skaters with impressive goal/point totals in the same year.  Only 2 of 29 winners have been tenders.

Yes, and coming into the season there were reasons to believe both of those things could potentially have happened this year.

[RichH]

Raise your hand if at the beginning of the season you thought Ben might be considered for HHT.

Me neither.

Why not?  ... for a team with a defense-first system ...

That's why not. Goalies are rarely considered, and goalies from defense-first systems even less.

True, but as Ryan Miller and LeNeveu demonstrate, they sometimes are, especially when there are other factors working in their favor, like the ones I mentioned above.

Goalies win when they post eye-popping numbers and there are no skaters with impressive goal/point totals in the same year.  Only 2 of 29 winners have been tenders.

Yes, and coming into the season there were reasons to believe both of those things could potentially have happened this year.

Well, I'll say it. At the beginning of the season, I didn't have enough faith in Ben's skills to fathom that he would be HTT worthy.  His numbers have been a pleasant surprise, and he will definitely get my vote for TBRW's "career improvement" award.

[ugarte]

Raise your hand if at the beginning of the season you thought Ben might be considered for HHT.

Me neither.

Why not?  ... for a team with a defense-first system ...

That's why not. Goalies are rarely considered, and goalies from defense-first systems even less.

True, but as Ryan Miller and LeNeveu demonstrate, they sometimes are, especially when there are other factors working in their favor, like the ones I mentioned above.

Goalies win when they post eye-popping numbers and there are no skaters with impressive goal/point totals in the same year.  Only 2 of 29 winners have been tenders.

Yes, and coming into the season there were reasons to believe both of those things could potentially have happened this year.

I'd say that there were reasons to think he'd be a good goalie - even an All-American goalie. I still say that there was no reason to think he'd have the kind of historically significant numbers that it takes for a goalie to be in the conversation for Hobey. I think Keith, Rich and I are arguing that the circumstances it takes for a goalie to be in the conversation are much narrower than the ones you outlined. Not because of anything Scrivens did or didn't do, necessarily, but because of an extreme anti-goalie bias in MVP discussions.

[Trotsky]

I think Keith, Rich and I are arguing that the circumstances it takes for a goalie to be in the conversation are much narrower than the ones you outlined. Not because of anything Scrivens did or didn't do, necessarily, but because of an extreme anti-goalie bias in MVP discussions.

Coming into the season, IMHO, Ben was a solid, dependable, workmanlike, lunchpail, your-blue-collar-cliche-here goalie.  Then he came out and blew away all the competition.  Welcome and greatly appreciated, but expected?

[Trotsky]

Finalists

Bobby Butler, New Hampshire
Marc Cheverie, Denver
Blake Geoffrion, Wisconsin
Gustav Nyquist, Maine
Mark Olver, Northern Michigan
Chase Polacek, RPI
Rhett Rakhshani, Denver
Cody Reichard, Miami
Ben Scrivens, Cornell
Brendan Smith, Wisconsin

[Rita]

Finalists

Bobby Butler, New Hampshire
Marc Cheverie, Denver
Blake Geoffrion, Wisconsin
Gustav Nyquist, Maine
Mark Olver, Northern Michigan
Chase Polacek, RPI
Rhett Rakhshani, Denver
Cody Reichard, Miami
Ben Scrivens, Cornell
Brendan Smith, Wisconsin

We get to stuff another on-line ballot box for this correct?

[Trotsky]

Finalists

Bobby Butler, New Hampshire
Marc Cheverie, Denver
Blake Geoffrion, Wisconsin
Gustav Nyquist, Maine
Mark Olver, Northern Michigan
Chase Polacek, RPI
Rhett Rakhshani, Denver
Cody Reichard, Miami
Ben Scrivens, Cornell
Brendan Smith, Wisconsin

We get to stuff another on-line ballot box for this correct?

Oh Danny, this isn't Russia.  Is this Russia?  This isn't Russia.