TBRW Statistical Reflections on the 2003 RS

[Greg Berge]

Cornell's 29 GA in 22 GP is the best defensive performance in the history of not only Cornell but the entire ECAC: http://www.spiritone.com/~kepler/records/ecac_gaa.html

Cornell had 8 4-point weekends out of 11 weekends in ECAC play: http://www.spiritone.com/~kepler/games/4ptWeekends.html

LeNeveu's 7 shut-outs have set Cornell's alltime single season record; all 7 were in ECAC RS play.  His 31 saves were the most by a Cornellian in a shut out in more than 7 years: http://www.spiritone.com/~kepler/games/shutouts.html

At 11-0-0, Cornell completes the most successful ECAC RS home slate in its history: http://www.spiritone.com/~kepler/cornellHistory/lynahRS.html

Cornell's 24 wins are 6th on the team's all-time list: http://www.spiritone.com/~kepler/cornellHistory/20WinSeasons.html

Cornell wins back-to-back ECAC RS titles for the first time in 30 years: http://www.spiritone.com/~kepler/cornellHistory/cornellRSBargraph.html

Cornell's 39 ECAC RS points are the second-most in team history: http://www.spiritone.com/~kepler/cornellHistory/cornellPtsAbove500.html

Cornell's defense has now improved in ECAC RS play for the past 5 seasons: http://www.spiritone.com/~kepler/cornellHistory/cornellDBargraph.html

Cornell broke 4 goals per game in ECAC RS play for the second time in 11 seasons: http://www.spiritone.com/~kepler/cornellHistory/cornelOBargraph.html

Cornell wins their first game at Yale since Coach Schafer's first season: http://www.spiritone.com/~kepler/ecac/ecac_h2hbyteam.html

Cornell was 5-1 against the #2 through #4 teams.  Last year they were 3-3: http://www.spiritone.com/~kepler/ecac/ecac_h2hbyyear.html

Coach Schafer is now over .500 against every ECAC team in RS play except for being just a single game under .500 vs Dartmouth and SLU.  Overall, he is a combined 47 games over .500 in 8 seasons: http://www.spiritone.com/~kepler/cornellHistory/schaferOppsECAC.html

Cornell's back-to-back Ivy championships move them to within 7 of Harvard's record 24, despite Harvard having had a 28 year head start, during much of which 4 or fewer teams could qualify for the title: http://www.spiritone.com/~kepler/ivy/ivyChampsIcon.htm

Cornell's 7 ECAC RS championships are third place all-time, 1 behind Harvard and 3 behind Clarkson's record of 10: http://www.spiritone.com/~kepler/ecac/ecacRSChampsIcon.html

Cornell wins the Ivy League title by a remarkable 5 point margin out of 10 games, possibly the largest margin ever: http://www.spiritone.com/~kepler/2003/2003IvyResults.html

Cornell has now been a top 4 RS seed for 4 consecutive years for the first time since the 1966-75 run: http://www.spiritone.com/~kepler/ecac/ecacRSTop4Icon.htm

For the first time in a while, no place in the ECAC standings set either a min or max record for points: http://www.spiritone.com/~kepler/ecac/ecacPtsByPlace.html

Princeton's 46 goals in 22 games ties for the 7th worst offensive performance in ECAC RS history: http://www.spiritone.com/~kepler/records/ecac_worstgfa.html

[DeltaOne81]

[Q]Cornell's defense has now improved in ECAC RS play for the past 5 seasons: http://www.spiritone.com/~kepler/co... [/Q]
Shouldn't the bar extend one higher? Rounding up like everything else? Or are you just *that* enthused about this year's team that you feel they deserve the benefit of the doubt

[Greg Berge]

That enthused.  ;-)

Fixed.  Lenny needs to shoot for 0.99 next year.  Plenty of room for improvement.  ;-)

BTW, if you just take out the one Dartmouth loss (with 2 eng) and the Harvard game at Bright, in the remaining ECAC RS games started by Lenny, Cornell's GAA was 17/18 = 0.94

[JordanCS]

Very cool info there, Greg....it's hard to believe our offense was more inept than this year's Princeton squad just 2 years ago.   (oh, and either your GA or the GAA for 2002 is way off...I think it's the GA, since I know our team D was incredible last year too)

[Greg Berge]

> either your GA or the GAA for 2002 is way off

Fixed.  It was 34 GA for a (correct) GAA of 1.55.

[Give My Regards]

This is also the first time since before the Great Divorce that Cornell has posted at least one RS win against every ECAC opponent.  The closest the Big Red had come to this feat prior to this season was Coach Schafer's first year behind the bench, 1995-96, when Cornell beat every ECAC opponent at least once in the regular season except for RS champ Vermont, whom the Big Red tied twice.

[Give My Regards]

And it appears that Lenny is closing in on another milestone...

From an earlier thread, Ken Dryden appears to hold the Cornell record for most times allowing one goal or fewer in a season, with 17 in 1967-68 (6 shutouts, 11 one-goal games).  Dave is currently sitting at 16, with 7 shutouts and 9 one-goalers.

Add Todd Marr's one-goal game against Ohio State, and the Big Red is currently one short of the team record of 18 one-goal-or-fewer games in a season, set last year.

Wowzers.

[Greg Berge]

Mike Schafer also achieved a milestone tonight, with his 150th win at Cornell.

Mike is now 150-87-25 for 325 points in 262 games = .620 percentage.

[Greg Berge]

And another fun stat: Cornell scored 89/(89+29) = 75% of the goals in their ECAC RS games.  This was the 5th highest percentage in their history: http://www.spiritone.com/~kepler/cornellHistory/cornellECACGPct.html

[Jim Hyla]

Great stats, but not trying to throw a blanket on the party, there is still that little matter of the Real ECAC Championship.   ::worry::

[Al DeFlorio]

Greg wrote:

Cornell's 7 ECAC RS championships are third place all-time, 1 behind Harvard and 3 behind Clarkson's record of 10...

It has to be said that until the NCAA put in place the infamous "Colorado College rule" sometime in the 90s, no one gave a hoot in hell about any so-called "ECAC regular season championship."  

It never ceases to amuse me when SIDs now write things like Cornell's did last year about "Cornell's first regular season championship since 1973."  Having very much enjoyed the 1972-3 season, I'll tell you that no one made any reference at the time to a "regular season ECAC championship."  In the early days of the ECAC, some teams played 13 or 14 games against ECAC Division I teams and others played 19 or 20.  There was no consistency in common opponents.  How meaningful could a "regular season champion" have been during the period when the ECAC was divided into three divisions, where teams played different schedules depending upon which division they were in.  No one touted themselves as "ECAC regular season champions."  Until a point in time which I can't recall, unfortunately, winning percentage was not even the sole factor used by the ECAC to determine tournament seedings.  

Teams played the regular season to position themselves for the tournament.  That meant winning regular season games, sure, but it also meant working promising sophomores into the lineup (and then freshmen, when they were given eligibility) in order to prepare them for the post-season, even if that meant a mistake or two might cost you a regular season game.  You just didn't worry that a loss in November might drop your computer-generated ranking just enough come March that you'd be left out in the cold.

Measuring "regular season titles" before the institution of the Colorado College rule is like measuring what percentage of shots Cornell's Chuck Rolles made from beyond the three-point line back in the 50s--when there was no three-point line.  Even if one knew from what spot on the floor each of his shots was taken, it just didn't matter at the time.

Greg, I don't mean in any way to be picking on you with these comments.  No one looks forward more than me to your regular posting of statistical insights like those above.  But this extension of "regular season champions" business back into an era when no one paid any attention to it just sticks in my craw.  

End of rant.

[Greg Berge]

Al,

I can tell you that I gave a hoot in hell that we hadn't earned the #1 seed in the ECAC tournament during my first 19 years as a Cornell hockey fan.   I didn't evaluate ECAC results with respect to NCAA ramifications at all -- I just envied Clarkson and Harvard for their seemingly unerring ability to seal the deal on the #1 seed.  The NCAA was a reward at the end of the *real* struggle -- to win the ECACs and hopefully embarrass Harvard along the way.

This emphasis on NCAA consequences of RS actions is actually the new thing that didn't exist before.  Up until a few years ago you did what you could to win the ECAC tournament, and otherwise hopefully the guys in the smoke-filled room had been plied with drinks and girls sufficiently in favor of your team that year if you finished just short.

Depressingly, just as in basketball, we now see such a devaluation of the conference tournaments that fans care more about an uptick of one or two PWR slots than they do an uptick of one or two places in the conference standings.  Heresy, I say! :-( ;-)

[Jim Hyla]

Greg said[Q] I just envied Clarkson and Harvard for their seemingly unerring ability to seal the deal on the #1 seed.[/Q]But, I rather liked the ECAC tourney where we could beat those supposed #1 seeds. Al is right, it just didn't mean the same then. Do you suppose that's why they chose to call it the Cleary trophy, so they could be happy while we forgot about it and won the real trophy? Most teams don't say anything about the regular season, unless they didn't win the tourney. Just look at us last year, do you think we would have talked about the regular season if we had won our 10th tourney?

Well, just like Al, I'd better shut-up before I stir up those Clarkson fans.;-)

[Greg Berge]

Hey, a few more Cleary Cups and we'll have tied Clarkson -- though of course we'll have a few more real titles to show for it all.  :-D

[schoaff]

Well, I admit I'm a bit of a contrarian in this. I find more satisfaction in winning the regular season title which is based on your ability to perform at the highest level over the course of the entire season. Cornell has proved in the past when they won the tourney as a #8 seed that anyone can have a couple good nights and get lucky. In my mind rating the tournament over the regular season is the same as saying UM-Mankato is the best team in the country right now because they beat CC.

That being said you don't have to even bother telling me I'm wrong because I *know* I'm about the only one on the planet who feels this way, and I don't need any help to feel like a Yankee's fan at Fenway. ;-)