An early look at 2019-2020

[Trotsky]

The best answer I could come up with was to dump and chase a whole lot more. But they defended that well, and it is by far the least sexy way to play hockey

And when we tried they beat us back there.  Or it was so sporadic to actually clear our zone that when we dumped we had to change and not pursue.

The brief time in which we actually were starting to look like we could come back we were doing precisely you suggest.  That was also when PC had let up a little, and when Regush and Locke were making those condor-like wide sweeps around the boards and coming careening in to jam up / free up the puck behind the net.

But then the next thing you look for in those situations is the elegantly twirling oak tree rooted in the high slot to receive a pass (note to Devin Brosseau: may you burn in hell) or put the wind up the goalie, and we never had anybody out front there because Max is almost surely still hurt and Malott is in traction or something.

The guy to spring it to was probably Kaldis, but between him and our behind net puck handlers there were usually 3 black sweaters.

[Trotsky]

Anyway, since this is supposed to be the forward-looking thread, I see no reason why "more of that and bring in more depth because guys are made of glass now" won't bring us right back to Placid and the NC$$ next year, and perhaps deeper still.  I have heard our incoming frosh are studs.  If  that's true and we can by hook or crook cover for our D inexperience prior to New Years effectively enough not to kill the season before it starts, perhaps we can take the next step and kick out the jams in the Motor City.

It will be the 50th anniversary of the last title.  I've never seen one.  I'm old.  Let's fucking get it done.

[billhoward]

Anyway, since this is supposed to be the forward-looking thread, I see no reason why "more of that and bring in more depth because guys are made of glass now" won't bring us right back to Placid and the NC$$ next year, and perhaps deeper still.  I have heard our incoming frosh are studs.  If  that's true and we can by hook or crook cover for our D inexperience prior to New Years effectively enough not to kill the season before it starts, perhaps we can take the next step and kick out the jams in the Motor City.

It will be the 50th anniversary of the last title.  I've never seen one.  I'm old.  Let's fucking get it done.

If you were in Placid last year, you at least got to touch Lord Stanley's trophy. The picture of our son and me also includes my hero of dozens of the Stanley Cup finals - the guy who watches and guards over it. (I think there's two in rotation.)

[arugula]

Good breakdown of yesterday, just a bit rosy for me.   As I said elsewhere, I wish the OOC schedule were stronger.  How do we not play HE teams, except BU every other year.  No NCHC.  Rarely Big 10.  And when we do, it's Merrimack or Michigan State, and not stronger teams.  We should drop the Atlantic hockey teams and avoid WCHA.  Losses to top teams are better that beating Niagara.  We pay for that in PWR and, more important, not being ready in the tournament.  Providence isn't that good that we should've been so stymied.  Other than perhaps the team was finally just plain spent.  But hat doesn't explain past years. No problem losing to demonstrably better teams, but Providence is not 4-0 better than us.  Frustrates the hell out me, all the NC$$ losses-UNH, Ferris, Bemidji--those are games you need to win.  Wisconsin makes my head hurt, but that was Wisconsin, no shame there

[Beeeej]

Good breakdown of yesterday, just a bit rosy for me.   As I said elsewhere, I wish the OOC schedule were stronger.  How do we not play HE teams, except BU every other year.  No NCHC.  Rarely Big 10.  And when we do, it's Merrimack or Michigan State, and not stronger teams.  We should drop the Atlantic hockey teams and avoid WCHA.  Losses to top teams are better that beating Niagara.  We pay for that in PWR and, more important, not being ready in the tournament.  Providence isn't that good that we should've been so stymied.  Other than perhaps the team was finally just plain spent.  But hat doesn't explain past years. No problem losing to demonstrably better teams, but Providence is not 4-0 better than us.  Frustrates the hell out me, all the NC$$ losses-UNH, Ferris, Bemidji--those are games you need to win.  Wisconsin makes my head hurt, but that was Wisconsin, no shame there

Gee, if only we'd had the "stronger OOC opponents" suggestion and discussion before.

[arugula]

Good breakdown of yesterday, just a bit rosy for me.   As I said elsewhere, I wish the OOC schedule were stronger.  How do we not play HE teams, except BU every other year.  No NCHC.  Rarely Big 10.  And when we do, it's Merrimack or Michigan State, and not stronger teams.  We should drop the Atlantic hockey teams and avoid WCHA.  Losses to top teams are better that beating Niagara.  We pay for that in PWR and, more important, not being ready in the tournament.  Providence isn't that good that we should've been so stymied.  Other than perhaps the team was finally just plain spent.  But hat doesn't explain past years. No problem losing to demonstrably better teams, but Providence is not 4-0 better than us.  Frustrates the hell out me, all the NC$$ losses-UNH, Ferris, Bemidji--those are games you need to win.  Wisconsin makes my head hurt, but that was Wisconsin, no shame there

Gee, if only we'd had the "stronger OOC opponents" suggestion and discussion before.

I'm sorry I haven't memorized every chat over the last 20 years.  In any event, doesn't make it less relevant.  And what was your solution then?

[Trotsky]

The precis is that Schafer has a longstanding rule to schedule teams which will do home-and-homes.  Some HE and most western teams do not do this for economic reasons.  Minny isn't burning a precious NC game at Lynah when they can put 15k or whatever into Mariucci and soak them for soda, brats, and what not.

Another problem is the most convenient slot for NC games is the early November week before the ECAC season starts, but that would be putting us with 0 GP against a power team that already has played one or more weekends.  Michigan State swept us at Lynah this year, then went on to finish dead last in the Big.

The gist is that it is hard to get non-suicidal NC matches with quality teams.

[Beeeej]

Good breakdown of yesterday, just a bit rosy for me.   As I said elsewhere, I wish the OOC schedule were stronger.  How do we not play HE teams, except BU every other year.  No NCHC.  Rarely Big 10.  And when we do, it's Merrimack or Michigan State, and not stronger teams.  We should drop the Atlantic hockey teams and avoid WCHA.  Losses to top teams are better that beating Niagara.  We pay for that in PWR and, more important, not being ready in the tournament.  Providence isn't that good that we should've been so stymied.  Other than perhaps the team was finally just plain spent.  But hat doesn't explain past years. No problem losing to demonstrably better teams, but Providence is not 4-0 better than us.  Frustrates the hell out me, all the NC$$ losses-UNH, Ferris, Bemidji--those are games you need to win.  Wisconsin makes my head hurt, but that was Wisconsin, no shame there

Gee, if only we'd had the "stronger OOC opponents" suggestion and discussion before.

I'm sorry I haven't memorized every chat over the last 20 years.  In any event, doesn't make it less relevant.  And what was your solution then?

I'm not suggesting you should've memorized every chat over the last 20 years, I'm suggesting it's crazy for anyone to think that Coach hasn't thought of this and tried his damndest to make it happen. Basically, the same 40 teams want to schedule the semi-perennially stronger 20 teams all the time, and only a small handful of those 40 - e.g., Schafer - require the teams of whom they're asking a favor they don't have to grant to commit to home-and-home series in order to make it happen. That puts us at a disadvantage, and yet Schafer has still managed to schedule some pretty big firepower to host us and then visit Lynah (or vice versa) over the past several years. The last two seasons have been rough OOC-wise, but we still had a pair against Arizona State while they were ranked, and it should have benefited us to host Michigan State (but boy howdy, did it not); but the previous several years, if you include the Florida tourney, we played UNH, Merrimack (when they were pretty good), Miami, Colorado College, Providence, Ohio State, BU, Omaha, Penn State, Denver, Lake State, Maine, Michigan, Ferris State...

Getting rid of the Florida tourney also seems to make it tougher to schedule OOC, but good riddance anyway.

Other than dropping the home-and-home requirement that makes, e.g., Wisconsin fly to Ithaca in November when we're not really ready to play a strong team five games further into their season anyway, do you have any suggestions for getting stronger opposition onto our schedule? You want it to happen, what steps would you take?

(Last note - suggesting our NCAA regional loss to Ferris State was problematic in some way is ridiculous. It was essentially 2012-style Cornell playing 2012-style Cornell, and it went exactly like everyone knew it would, a one-goal game where the team that had a couple of better bounces won.)

[arugula]

Got it.  So assuming that's the case, getting MSU to do the home and home was an anomaly, yet Colorado College came a few years back, North Dakota too so it's not impossible.  I just don't get the dearth of HE teams.  Is it just the long bus ride?  I guess, as Brown, Yale, Dartmouth, Princeton all play HE teams, not to mention Harvard's cross town games with BC and BU, plus the Beanpot.  

I know the holiday tourneys are a mixed bag, but it usually got at least one decent opponent in a NC$$ like setting-ie. half empty "neutral site" arena.

[Beeeej]

Got it.  So assuming that's the case, getting MSU to do the home and home was an anomaly, yet Colorado College came a few years back, North Dakota too so it's not impossible.  I just don't get the dearth of HE teams.  Is it just the long bus ride?  I guess, as Brown, Yale, Dartmouth, Princeton all play HE teams, not to mention Harvard's cross town games with BC and BU, plus the Beanpot.  

I know the holiday tourneys are a mixed bag, but it usually got at least one decent opponent in a NC$$ like setting-ie. half empty "neutral site" arena.

Colorado College hosted us for a pair in 2012, visited us for a pair in 2013.
North Dakota hosted us for a pair in 2009, visited us for a pair in 2010.
New Hampshire hosted us for a game in 2010, visited us for a game in 2011.

Those were home-and-homes, not anomaly one-off visits.

And yeah, many of the other strong teams were Florida tourney appearances.

No, it's not impossible, it's just not easy. So how would you make it happen?

[arugula]

I know those were home and homes, that was my point, though I may have been less than clear.  I still don't get the lack of HE teams.

How would I do it?  Now, it's my job?  How I would do it is irrelevant, aside from the fact that I'm not in that business, that's for the program to figure out.  My job is to drive 8 hours round trip in the rain (well the rain was only about 5 hours) to see lousy hockey.  

However they managed to get it done the previous times sounds like a good template.  Other Ivies manage it, we've managed it, so why can't it be done?

[scoop85]

I think we are out playing out talent.. we dont have the top end talent guy but we have loads of solid players.  if we could get that big time player thru admissions one of these years it would help.. being solid means maybe not the highest high, but we seldom fall back too far.

Hockey is a game where 1-2 plays makes a game if you are staying close.. sometime you make the play sometimes the other teams missed the play.  prov was the better team yesterday but 2 goals scored on just good puck bounces and our 2 best chances went the other way.. it was still a game of inches

A hot goalie helps too.. ask RPI

This is how I see it too.  We have lots of B+ talent but don't get the highest level guys. Of course the blue bloods who have all the 1st and 2nd round draft picks (BC, BU, UND, Minn) did not do so well this year, likely because they have had too much turnover with early departures. Teams like Providence and Duluth have found the right balance with plenty of high level guys but "system" players too, and UMASS this year caught lightning in a bottle with Makar being one of the best college players in a decade.

[upprdeck]

Had we beat MSU, or brown we get a 2 seed not a 3 and probably end up in the same place, the schedule isnt hurting us in PWR, winning is.

as to whether its helping or hurting us in the long run.. NE finished ahead of Prov and we handled them well.. who knows how much not having the ability to watch film and prepare hurt us..  we played fine the 3rd period so maybe the figure it out..  just needed our puck luck to go in and their skate luck to not too..

[adamw]

Good breakdown of yesterday, just a bit rosy for me.   As I said elsewhere, I wish the OOC schedule were stronger.  How do we not play HE teams, except BU every other year.  No NCHC.  Rarely Big 10.  And when we do, it's Merrimack or Michigan State, and not stronger teams.  We should drop the Atlantic hockey teams and avoid WCHA.  Losses to top teams are better that beating Niagara.  We pay for that in PWR and, more important, not being ready in the tournament.  Providence isn't that good that we should've been so stymied.  Other than perhaps the team was finally just plain spent.  But hat doesn't explain past years. No problem losing to demonstrably better teams, but Providence is not 4-0 better than us.  Frustrates the hell out me, all the NC$$ losses-UNH, Ferris, Bemidji--those are games you need to win.  Wisconsin makes my head hurt, but that was Wisconsin, no shame there

It's demonstrably untrue that losing to top teams is better than beating Niagara. Entirely false. There is no magic formula. Win games, that's it.

If Cornell didn't have a crazy home tie to QU, a crazy home OT loss to Colgate and RPI, a crazy tie at Brown, and two bad home losses to Michigan State - they'd have been a No. 1 seed.

[Swampy]

Good breakdown of yesterday, just a bit rosy for me.   As I said elsewhere, I wish the OOC schedule were stronger.  How do we not play HE teams, except BU every other year.  No NCHC.  Rarely Big 10.  And when we do, it's Merrimack or Michigan State, and not stronger teams.  We should drop the Atlantic hockey teams and avoid WCHA.  Losses to top teams are better that beating Niagara.  We pay for that in PWR and, more important, not being ready in the tournament.  Providence isn't that good that we should've been so stymied.  Other than perhaps the team was finally just plain spent.  But hat doesn't explain past years. No problem losing to demonstrably better teams, but Providence is not 4-0 better than us.  Frustrates the hell out me, all the NC$$ losses-UNH, Ferris, Bemidji--those are games you need to win.  Wisconsin makes my head hurt, but that was Wisconsin, no shame there

It's demonstrably untrue that losing to top teams is better than beating Niagara. Entirely false. There is no magic formula. Win games, that's it.

If Cornell didn't have a crazy home tie to QU, a crazy home OT loss to Colgate and RPI, a crazy tie at Brown, and two bad home losses to Michigan State - they'd have been a No. 1 seed.

And this year, at least in two regions, being a #1 seed didn't get you a patsy. There's parity.

But the ones playing next weekend are a bit above the rest, at least this time of year.

Remember we were missing three key players, when going into the finals at LP we were almost back to full strength. This takes its toll as others have to play harder.

Looking ahead, we're losing some great senior leadership and esp. three strong defensemen. But we've a strong class coming in, one that's larger than what we're losing. If there's one position I'd trust Shaffer to bring along, it's D. If the incoming frosh can develop the way the current sophomores have, we should more than reload.