Red Hot Hockey, 11/25/17

[Swampy]

Vanderlaan and Baron are so impressive at carrying the puck, passing, and not getting knocked off the puck. One is 6'3, the other is 5'7, but they both fit the system well and the best creators on the team.

Kaldis seemed to play 30+ minutes last night, which was possible with the many TV timeouts. He rebounded from an error-prone outing on Tuesday.

My guess is that Stewart would be playing if he were healthy, maybe in a goalie platoon with Galajda. Galajda has been very good for a freshman but a .914 save percentage is low by Cornell standards and he's let in a few he should have stopped lately (though I don't think any of the three last night were his fault).

Galajda was generally terrific last night, but the 3rd goal was a softie that he would certainly want back.

From what I could see (Cornell section but other side from where the goal was scored), there was only a split second between the initial shot from the corner hitting Galadja's pad and the streaking goalscorer chipping the rebound over his pad. But in the postgame interview Schafer did indicate he thought Galadja should have had it.

How did you view the postgame interview? I haven't found the video.

[Beeeej]

10. Funny note: just as that last Cornell penalty was called my daughter (ILR '17) began the "winning team-losing team" chant.  I immediately shut her down and gave her some serious side eye.  When BU scored their 2nd and then 3rd goals more side eye followed. After we held on I told her that had BU come all the way back, her inheritance would have been in serious jeopardy ;-)

Your daughter started winning team / losing team at 13:17?!

That is very sketchy parenting.

Well, she was probably on her 3rd or 4th beer by then. But regardless, I agree she needs to go to a Cornell hockey fan reeducation camp.

And get this--she and lot of the other new alumns were drinking their beer with a straw.  Is that a new thing?

I'm officially old. Thanks.

It's a Madison Square Garden thing. They now hand you a straw with each beer because the cap on the cup cuts down drastically on the amount of spillage the staff has to mop up later.

[Swampy]

In one of the recaps Schafer was asked how satisfied he is with the team so far this season. He replied with something like, "If someone had offered me being 9 and 1 with a team having 10 freshman, I'd have felt like I'd won the NY lottery."

But I wonder how rare this really is. BU & Clarkson both list 9 frosh on their rosters. Of course, being on a roster and playing are two different things. It seems this year our frosh are not only getting extensive ice time, they're also acting as leaders on the ice. I'm looking at you Morgan Barron and Matthew Galajda (whose name should be added to the Speling Guide).

[BearLover]

Vanderlaan and Baron are so impressive at carrying the puck, passing, and not getting knocked off the puck. One is 6'3, the other is 5'7, but they both fit the system well and the best creators on the team.

Kaldis seemed to play 30+ minutes last night, which was possible with the many TV timeouts. He rebounded from an error-prone outing on Tuesday.

My guess is that Stewart would be playing if he were healthy, maybe in a goalie platoon with Galajda. Galajda has been very good for a freshman but a .914 save percentage is low by Cornell standards and he's let in a few he should have stopped lately (though I don't think any of the three last night were his fault).

Galajda was generally terrific last night, but the 3rd goal was a softie that he would certainly want back.

From what I could see (Cornell section but other side from where the goal was scored), there was only a split second between the initial shot from the corner hitting Galadja's pad and the streaking goalscorer chipping the rebound over his pad. But in the postgame interview Schafer did indicate he thought Galadja should have had it.

How did you view the postgame interview? I haven't found the video.

I gleaned it from this article.

[billhoward]

We love our goalie, but BU's Jake Oettinger was the first goalie taken in the 2017 draft. To light the lamp on him 4 times is an accomplishment. As a freshman in the spring he made 56 saves in the NCAA OT win over defending champ North Dakota and for the year had a 2.1 GA average. I was about to type GPA not GA. But maybe that, too. He's in BU's College of General Studies, CGS being a catch-all for some underclassmen unsure of where they're headed. BU students sometimes refer to CGS as "Crayons, Glue, Scissors." Cruel.

[Trotsky]

We love our goalie, but BU's Jake Oettinger was the first goalie taken in the 2017 draft. To light the lamp on him 4 times is an accomplishment. As a freshman in the spring he made 56 saves in the NCAA OT win over defending champ North Dakota and for the year had a 2.1 GA average. I was about to type GPA not GA. But maybe that, too. He's in BU's College of General Studies, CGS being a catch-all for some underclassmen unsure of where they're headed. BU students sometimes refer to CGS as "Crayons, Glue, Scissors." Cruel.

Similar for west coast schools with Department of Unclassified Studies.  "DUHHHHHHS..."

I'm sure Jake is a very nice boy.

[margolism]

Not only is their goaltender a 1st round draft pick, but their defensive corp consists of a 1st round draft pick, a 2nd round pick, and multiple 3rd round picks.  You would think that they should be leading the nation in defense with that group.

Then look at us - seems like, with few exceptions, most of our core players are not NHL draft picks.  

Seems like recruiting (pretty good) kids that have experience playing with one another may have more value.

[Trotsky]

Seems like recruiting (pretty good) kids that have experience playing with one another may have more value.

Is the Eng school up for building a hyperloop between Ithaca and Powell River, British Columbia?

[Dafatone]

Not only is their goaltender a 1st round draft pick, but their defensive corp consists of a 1st round draft pick, a 2nd round pick, and multiple 3rd round picks.  You would think that they should be leading the nation in defense with that group.

Then look at us - seems like, with few exceptions, most of our core players are not NHL draft picks.  

Seems like recruiting (pretty good) kids that have experience playing with one another may have more value.

Draft picks are not always the best players right now. Sometimes an 18 year old drafted freshman will be behind a 20 year old undrafted freshman, but have more potential down the road.

That being said, I'm not seeing much of this looking at our roster ages.

[Trotsky]

Draft picks are not always the best players right now. Sometimes an 18 year old drafted freshman will be behind a 20 year old undrafted freshman, but have more potential down the road.

Perhaps this is the royal road for us competing nationally perennially.  We will never get the true blue chippers who go to Minnesota and North Dakota because, now how can I put this delicately?, because they're rock stupid.

But those guys are also just using the NC$$ as a quick stop before moving on to become inevitable NHL stars.  They are being drafted by the NHL for who they will be at 25.  Right now they may be kinda a mess.

We, on the other hand, can make our living in the top 10 with guys with the admissions scores (well, at least for Hotel) who are wonderful players at 21 but won't be developing much more if at all.  They are leveraging their hockey skill to get an education to avoid going back to Ma and Pa Kettle's dirt farm in Manitoba, and hey, that's what we can provide.

[CU2007]

Draft picks are not always the best players right now. Sometimes an 18 year old drafted freshman will be behind a 20 year old undrafted freshman, but have more potential down the road.

Perhaps this is the royal road for us competing nationally perennially.  We will never get the true blue chippers who go to Minnesota and North Dakota because, now how can I put this delicately?, because they're rock stupid.

But those guys are also just using the NC$$ as a quick stop before moving on to become inevitable NHL stars.  They are being drafted by the NHL for who they will be at 25.  Right now they may be kinda a mess.

We, on the other hand, can make our living in the top 10 with guys with the admissions scores (well, at least for Hotel) who are wonderful players at 21 but won't be developing much more if at all.  They are leveraging their hockey skill to get an education to avoid going back to Ma and Pa Kettle's dirt farm in Manitoba, and hey, that's what we can provide.

Basically got Qpac to the national championship a few years back.

[George64]

Similar for west coast schools with Department of Unclassified Studies.  "DUHHHHHHS..."

Back in the day, Cornell had a Division of Unclassified Students, a sort of limbo "designed to assist the poten­tially able student whose basic interests and aptitudes lie outside the course in which he originally enrolled."  I know, I spent a semester as an "unclassified" student between Architecture and Arts and Sciences.  BTW, it all ended well, as I graduated as an applied math major, and eventually got a PhD, ironically through the College of Architecture, Art and Planning.  And, I got to see two national championship hockey teams!

[Jim Hyla]

Seems like recruiting (pretty good) kids that have experience playing with one another may have more value.

Is the Eng school up for building a hyperloop between Ithaca and Powell River, British Columbia?

No, but Elon Musk might.

Anyone know if he's a hockey fan?:-D

[RichH]

Not only is their goaltender a 1st round draft pick, but their defensive corp consists of a 1st round draft pick, a 2nd round pick, and multiple 3rd round picks.  You would think that they should be leading the nation in defense with that group.

Then look at us - seems like, with few exceptions, most of our core players are not NHL draft picks.  

Seems like recruiting (pretty good) kids that have experience playing with one another may have more value.

I mean...that's something I always pointed out w.r.t. Harvard. Throughout much of the first 10-15 years of fandom, Harvard constantly was praised for all the blue-chip talent they could attract, and often had 7-9 draftees on their roster in an era where college draftees were somewhat rarer than they are today. Our teams in the early-Schafer era pretty much had their way with them featuring maybe 2-4 draftees.  I quickly learned to discount the talk of "number of NHL draftees" data when doing a tale-of-the-tape comparison. Sure, talent is talent, but so is the way you put it to use.

[RichH]

3. As I've said a few times this season, what separates this team from most recent CU teams is balance among all the lines. Every line is now a threat to score, and that puts a lot of pressure on the other team's defense.

So much this. I looked at the lines prior to the SLU game and was floored at the legitimate threats throughout the lineup. This is a huge difference compared to having the feeling that we have 1 scoring line, 2 mucker/checking lines, and then that one line whose job is to just give the others a breather and rely on the top D pairing.