Season Review

[css228]

The Michigan game ranks right up among the greatest CU hockey sagas.

Senior players: good luck to you all in your careers and family lives, and thank you so much for all the dedication and fortitude you showed throughout your years on the hill.  

Senior fans: thank you and your class for holding the torch and passing it along.  See you next year in the Alumni Senility Waiting Room.  

Agreed. It'd be great if someone could cut up and preserve the highlight footage of that game. If people are willing to cut up the videos, I'll be glad to aggregate them into one easy YouTube page to find all the great Cornell Hockey moments/all Cornell Hockey moments people are willing to put on YouTube

I will be sure that I take such aggregation, set it to a catchy soundtrack, and arrange it in an inspiring motivational video for next season.

Anything to make those great videos easier for you Aaron!

[marty]

For this now-Coloradan, it was a pleasure to see our Big Red live in the Springs this year, a Saturday game where they totally outclassed the (then highly ranked) local boys.  Come back soon (preferably to visit DU).  And seeing them beat Michigan was wonderful.

Thanks, seniors, for four years of quality Cornell hockey, and for the underclassmen, we look forward to 2012-2013.  Let's go Red!

Tom H, BS '85, Ph.D. '97

PS:  Our new car (Prius C, 50+ mpg's), in "Carnelian Red" I like to think.

Looks more like Harkness Red than Carnelian but it fits the Red we know and love as most of us (or all of us?) are from after the change.

And I found an example to illustrate the change which may be less than accurate, but once I found it I fell in love.....






I own a vintage red C that is the shade next to the mascot here and which is I think true Carnelian":

[French Rage]

See you next year in the Alumni Senility Waiting Room.  

When I was a student, the campus was all orange groves.

[TimV]

Outstanding.  Great, Dave::banana::

[css228]

I have started the archive page on YouTube. I have prelims this week so it'll be pretty incomplete for a while, but I plan on having a pretty good collection of videos as soon as possible. Until then enjoy!
Cornell Hockey Archive

[BearLover]

If you follow the players on Facebook/Twitter, it's pretty apparent that they're buying into the Big Red tradition and really appreciate Cornell hockey's history and following.  While they are bummed out over the loss, all of them have posted about how great their run has been and seem more proud than upset, as they should be.  Most of all, they are very sad to have to say goodbye to the seniors.  

Two thankful seniors:
http://twitter.com/#!/tWHITter19
http://twitter.com/#!/Whougunacollins

Two thankful underclassmen:
http://twitter.com/#!/lowse_17
http://twitter.com/#!/wiincyones

[billhoward]

One thing that annoys me slightly is announcers and writers running on about how disappointing it was for this team or that to have their seasons end with a loss.  Come on!  There really aren't many choices.

...

P.S.  I can't find a smiley that succinctly expresses how far from serious I am.

There are more choices in announcers than in season outcomes. Our two announcers have probably never been more than 100 miles from Grand Rapids in their lives other than that big choice in whether to drive up and over and down and under the lake to get to Green Bay.

There's a smiley down below for everything other than a royal funeral.

[Larry72]

See you next year in the Alumni Senility Waiting Room.  

When I was a student, the campus was all orange groves.

I believe you're referring to a certain university on the left coast!!  Either that, or I have forgotten the orange groves on the hill in my youth!  LGR - next year will be here before we know it!::rolleyes::

[sockralex]

A great season for a relatively young team.  The upperclassmen were strong, but I cannot recall a team with so much potential.  The results of the season really reflect the youth and when put in perspective, underscore how successful this team was.

A resounding win at Yale at the start of the season straddled by two disappointing losses embodied the rollercoaster that was to come.  A heartbreaker at MSG and a loss to UMass in Estero followed by a performance at Colorado College that gave hope for the rest of the season.  A tough ECAC winless stretch that made us question if we have a full 60 minutes of hockey in us.  A must-win against Union to compete for league title achieved only to be squandered the next night at the hands of a lesser team.  Two hard-fought battles in the playoffs only to be embarrassed by our biggest rival in Atlantic City.  Locking an NCAA bid with a win against Colgate - a team with nothing to play for - was reassuring, but the fear of drawing Michigan rasing doubt as to which Cornell team will show up on the national stage.  Finally, the win against a better Michigan team showing our potential only to be followed by a loss the against a well-deserving, but less intimidating Ferris State exposing our youth.

What a rollercoaster ride!  Great season.  Thank you seniors and here's to an even better 2012-2013!

[Trotsky]

A great season for a relatively young team.  The upperclassmen were strong, but I cannot recall a team with so much potential.

That's the great feeling that we're left with.  Not only did we watch some very exciting (not always in a good way :-}  ) hockey, but we have a huge returning percentage, dominated by the freshmen-->sophomore maturation which tends to be the most significant of the three in-team transitions.

And there's already evidence of improvement,  Lowry always had skills but he was playing well within the system by the end.  Mowrey came out of nowhere to become a significant force.  Craig showed how he can be used: plant that 6-5 oak tree in the goalie's way.  Axel-Mihalek is a solid containment line.

The younger guys got in trouble in the middle of the year by trying to win with individual bursts of skills and force, things which always served them well before at lower levels when they were so much better than their peers.  In a flatter league, playing as a team is how you win.  By the end of the year they'd learned that eternal lesson, and that's something they won't have to relearn.

[RichH]

I had to remind myself several times yesterday how fortunate I am to follow a team that delivers this kind of hurt as often as it does.  Big thanks to this team for the effort this season and for exceeding my expectations.  Beyond all the ups and downs, I'm most proud that they found ways to win against several opponents that I felt were more talented.  All I wanted out of this postseason was for them to gain valuable NCAA experience.  Instead, they got me dreaming again.

And now, one of my favorite off-season feelings is back...that feeling that your team is at the beginning of an upswing. Really excited for next season.

[underskill]

I had to remind myself several times yesterday how fortunate I am to follow a team that delivers this kind of hurt as often as it does.  Big thanks to this team for the effort this season and for exceeding my expectations.  Beyond all the ups and downs, I'm most proud that they found ways to win against several opponents that I felt were more talented.  All I wanted out of this postseason was for them to gain valuable NCAA experience.  Instead, they got me dreaming again.

And now, one of my favorite off-season feelings is back...that feeling that your team is at the beginning of an upswing. Really excited for next season.

Let's just hope for no early signings.  Also, does anyone know much about the incoming freshmen and how they might fit in?

[heykb]

My reaction to the season is that the team has raised the bar on what success will be next year.

I expect the team to work on being more consistent. I do not expect to see very many outings like the flat effort against Harvard in AC.

[Trotsky]

I had to remind myself several times yesterday how fortunate I am to follow a team that delivers this kind of hurt as often as it does.  Big thanks to this team for the effort this season and for exceeding my expectations.  Beyond all the ups and downs, I'm most proud that they found ways to win against several opponents that I felt were more talented.  All I wanted out of this postseason was for them to gain valuable NCAA experience.  Instead, they got me dreaming again.

And now, one of my favorite off-season feelings is back...that feeling that your team is at the beginning of an upswing. Really excited for next season.

Let's just hope for no early signings.  Also, does anyone know much about the incoming freshmen and how they might fit in?

Here's the list.

Big Red Puckhead does a great job of introducing the players as they commit.  Seems like a balance between finesse players (Knisley, Tiitenen), monsters (Hilbrich, Stoick), and a mix of both (Willcox, Sade unless he has deferred)

[Trotsky]

that feeling that your team is at the beginning of an upswing.

That is a really, really good feeling, and it's going to be great savoring it all summer.  Not only has the team as a whole taken big strides, but they are being led by this freshman class.  There was a similar feeling in the Summer of 2007 (Greening, Gallagher, B. Nash had just completed their freshman year along with, ahem, a couple guys we won't mention, Riley Nash was incoming as the most heralded prospect since... maybe ever), the Spring of 2000 (after a three year absence we were on our way back to Lake Placid; Murray, Baby and the McRaes were knocking everybody over as freshmen), and of course the Fall of 1995 (the Return of Schafer, breaking the streak at Fish and Fowl, and all the excitement as the program was accelerating from zero to 60).