Clarkson Game Thread

[ugarte]

what was really depressing was watching this on replay and noticing how much time was left in the video when the third period started. all i could think was "i hope clarkson has a long postgame show" but when they made it 4-3 i sighed deeply. my biggest problem with the meltdown was the sloppiness with the puck a man down. there were a couple of times when we could have easily skated it out and instead just gave possession back. i know that you aren't trying to put together a rush and get caught flat-footed but you do have 5 on the ice and can try to maintain any kind of possession. ugly finish.

clarkson is absolutely not a much better team. we were the much better team tonight. the 6x5 needs to be drilled better but come on we were kicking their ass. it wasn't 4-0 by accident.

[RichH]

9-1-1 at the break. Better than expected.

And hey, another 4 point weekend in the North County!

This new normal is just...rahhhhhggg.

The "Clarkson beats Cornell 4-4" collapse notwithstanding, last night I was concerned about not taking any points out of Cheel. S

[BearLover]

The first Clarkson goal was bad goaltending. You cannot give up anything from that angle.

The second Clarkson goal was a defensive breakdown. A Clarkson player was left wide open in the slot streaking to the net.

The third Clarkson goal was off a rebound where a player in the slot was again not picked up.

The fourth Clarkson goal was hard to see off the replay, but it looked like McDonald should have saved the initial shot and then a Clarkson player skated in behind him to tap in the rebound completely unimpeded.

So, a combination of bad goaltending and defensive breakdowns. But this is a team that has been prone to bad goaltending and defensive breakdowns this season.

Frankly, the #9 ranking was a joke. This team has done nothing to earn it. Coming into this weekend, they were 5-1-3 against terrible opposition. Maybe the voters felt bad that Cornell got jobbed out of a #1 overall seed two years ago?

In any event, Clarkson is a much better team. Cornell almost stole a win anyway, but they blew it. Despite the way it went down, you can't really be angry at the goaltending (Cornell's star goalie transferred), the defensive lapses (young team, didn't play last season, totally gassed by the end of the game) or the coaching (what the hell are they supposed to do, given the above?). It's an overall crappy situation that everyone is trying to make the best of. I think the fans and the poll voters were fooled by Cornell's "8-1" start, which was a figment of bad opposition and new OT rules, not an indication the team is actually good.

We're not 5-1-3. We don't have three OT losses. We outplayed Clarkson for 50 minutes. Our best goalie was out.

Deep breaths, everyone.

We are 6-1-4 now, for all intents and purposes. 6 wins, 1 loss, 4 ties. That's almost exactly how the PWR counts our record, and the PWR is what matters. (Rounding 55% to 50% for OT wins, but this difference is extremely marginal.)

Also, did we outplay Clarkson for 50 minutes? I admit I did not catch the entire game, but play was even or Clarkson was advantaged in what I saw. They outshot us 38-21.

And my understanding is that our best goalie was not out--rather, the coaches thought McDonald gave Cornell its best chance of winning, so they played him over Howe. Correct me if you've heard differently, but that was what was reported last night.

[BearLover]

what was really depressing was watching this on replay and noticing how much time was left in the video when the third period started. all i could think was "i hope clarkson has a long postgame show" but when they made it 4-3 i sighed deeply. my biggest problem with the meltdown was the sloppiness with the puck a man down. there were a couple of times when we could have easily skated it out and instead just gave possession back. i know that you aren't trying to put together a rush and get caught flat-footed but you do have 5 on the ice and can try to maintain any kind of possession. ugly finish.

clarkson is absolutely not a much better team. we were the much better team tonight. the 6x5 needs to be drilled better but come on we were kicking their ass. it wasn't 4-0 by accident.

I don't understand this at all. Cornell was outshot 38-21 but was the much better team tonight?

[Scersk '97]

Also, did we outplay Clarkson for 50 minutes? I admit I did not catch the entire game, but play was even or Clarkson was advantaged in what I saw. They outshot us 38-21.

You should watch the whole game if you're going to comment so harshly, like above and elsewhere.

On offense, Clarkson cycles well and has flashes of being dangerous when those cycles go long. We're faster, more inventive on rushes, and cycle pretty damn well too.

Schafer can coach defense, so I'm not all that worried about tonight's boneheaded play. It's a youngish group, still. Ask me again after Princeton on 1/21. All the kinks need to be worked out by then.

We need our top goalie back. McDonald is serviceable, but the team plays tight on defense in front of him.

[ugarte]

clarkson is absolutely not a much better team. we were the much better team tonight. the 6x5 needs to be drilled better but come on we were kicking their ass. it wasn't 4-0 by accident.

I don't understand this at all. Cornell was outshot 38-21 but was the much better team tonight?

yes. objectively yes. clarkson was shooting trash from the red line like a penn state team from 8 years ago. we were skating circles around them and making their goalie work a lot harder. the first third period PP (where macdonald saved our asses over and over, for all the shit he's taking over the loss) and the 6x5 were the only times that clarkson was outplaying us.

[RichH]

Was Howe on the bench? I was a bit surprised to see McDonald in tonight and to his credit, he did play well until giving up the bad-angle goal that really set things in motion.

Before the Brown game, Grady mentioned that Howe had an injury he was dealing with and we might not see him until January. Then he played vs BU. Maybe he pushed too hard to come back and tweaked something, maybe coach just didn't like what he saw, maybe McDonald's performance yesterday earned him "hot hand" status. But I think if there's a minor injury in the mix, he was given the time. Speculation here.

Edit: I didn't answer your question. I can only assume he was on the bench.

[RichH]

clarkson is absolutely not a much better team. we were the much better team tonight. the 6x5 needs to be drilled better but come on we were kicking their ass. it wasn't 4-0 by accident.

I don't understand this at all. Cornell was outshot 38-21 but was the much better team tonight?

yes. objectively yes. clarkson was shooting trash from the red line like a penn state team from 8 years ago. we were skating circles around them and making their goalie work a lot harder. the first third period PP (where macdonald saved our asses over and over, for all the shit he's taking over the loss) and the 6x5 were the only times that clarkson was outplaying us.

In this very thread, there was a comment about how CU controlled the puck for a full minute on a delayed penalty. I would be very surprised if we didn't win time of possession. Cornell controlled this game...until they didn't. If any coach can correct the closing game, it's this one.

Anyway, tip your hat to Casey's boys for the effort and not folding, be thankful that this wasn't a playoff game, and be f'ing ready for them in Ithaca.

[cbuckser]

The first Clarkson goal was bad goaltending. You cannot give up anything from that angle.

Matt Galajda gave up two goals from the opposite angle at Dartmouth in Cornell's last game of the fall 2019 semester. I find goals like that immensely frustrating, because a goaltender can easily position himself to make it impossible to allow a goal from that angle. But, goaltenders these days are taught to leave a small space over the shoulder closest to the post in order to better cover the rest of the net when the puck gets moved away from that extreme angle. Over the last couple of years, we've seen countless goals like that in the NCAA and NHL.

[cbuckser]

clarkson is absolutely not a much better team. we were the much better team tonight. the 6x5 needs to be drilled better but come on we were kicking their ass. it wasn't 4-0 by accident.

I don't understand this at all. Cornell was outshot 38-21 but was the much better team tonight?

yes. objectively yes. clarkson was shooting trash from the red line like a penn state team from 8 years ago. we were skating circles around them and making their goalie work a lot harder. the first third period PP (where macdonald saved our asses over and over, for all the shit he's taking over the loss) and the 6x5 were the only times that clarkson was outplaying us.

In this very thread, there was a comment about how CU controlled the puck for a full minute on a delayed penalty. I would be very surprised if we didn't win time of possession. Cornell controlled this game...until they didn't. If any coach can correct the closing game, it's this one.

Anyway, tip your hat to Casey's boys for the effort and not folding, be thankful that this wasn't a playoff game, and be f'ing ready for them in Ithaca.

I agree with Rich. For 114 minutes, Cornell was on the verge of earning a rare sweep of the North Country road trip. The final five and a half minutes were a disaster for anyone not wearing white, green, and gold. Prior to that, Cornell was having its best weekend of the season thus far.

[Trotsky]

I don't think we were significantly better, I think Clarkson was playing us tough and we were up 4-0 because, ironically, McDonald had made at least 3 phenomenal saves in the third period alone.  Clarkson owned the game after our fourth goal, Nate kept the lid on for a while, then it all fell apart.

It sucks but it isn't indicative of a systemic problem.  McDonald is a perfectly cromulent goaltender.  We just completely fell asleep in the third and Casey and his team are simply too good to do that with.

We're going to be fine.  This is just a shit sandwich to eat right before la petit morte.

[ugarte]

This is just a shit sandwich to eat right before la petit morte.

this is a public website i don't need to know this much about you

[jtwcornell91]

Is this the worst collapse in Cornell Hockey history or at least during Mike's tenure?

In the Schafer era, I nominate the final game in 1999.  This was game 2 of a first to 3 points QF series at Princeton.  We had come from behind to tie in the first game and had a 4-1 lead halfway through the deciding game.  Then, this.

However, tonight blows that away.  I have added it to the Pantheon.

I await the Clarkson Pep Band album featuring this game. ::bang::

[BearLover]

Also, did we outplay Clarkson for 50 minutes? I admit I did not catch the entire game, but play was even or Clarkson was advantaged in what I saw. They outshot us 38-21.

You should watch the whole game if you're going to comment so harshly, like above and elsewhere.

On offense, Clarkson cycles well and has flashes of being dangerous when those cycles go long. We're faster, more inventive on rushes, and cycle pretty damn well too.

Schafer can coach defense, so I'm not all that worried about tonight's boneheaded play. It's a youngish group, still. Ask me again after Princeton on 1/21. All the kinks need to be worked out by then.

We need our top goalie back. McDonald is serviceable, but the team plays tight on defense in front of him.

I've watched 80% of game time this season. Cornell is showing considerably worse goaltending, defensive stability, and offensive playmaking than I've seen since 2016. I watched  2/3 of last night's game. Maybe we dominated the second period, which I didn't see. We did not dominate anything else, and it was Clarkson who dominated the final minutes. Clarkson also dominated the second half of the first period, after Cornell scored its first goal.

Given how many hockey goals are off of rebounds or deflections (or bad plays by the goalie), including in last night's game, being outshot almost 2-to-1 is going to mean, almost every single time, you were outplayed. Cornell gave up 38 shots on goal, and four of them went in. Some were flukish, but 38 shots is a lot of chances for flukes to happen.

And again, one of the most worrying things is that, from what I can tell, Cornell is not missing its top goalie. Howe isn't injured. Rather, the coaches though McDonald IS Cornell's top goalie.

[upprdeck]

Howe is hurt and has been.   We may see the 3rd goalie now