Colgate 2/4

[Dafatone]

We gotta draw up a new penalty kill. We do this weird triangle and one thing where you have two guys down low, one in the center, and one at the point. When the puck swings out wide, it's one of the down low guys who goes to cover it, forcing everyone to shift.

Our kill gets stretched vertically, and since the top and center guys are stacked in a line, it's easier to pass across through them. Teams only need to beat one man to pass across.

[BearLover]

Um, maybe having Mike behind the bench is important.

As would be having Berard, Andreev and Haiskenan in the lineup.

Every team has injuries. Cornell has had its fair share in far more successful seasons than this one. See 2018-19 as one example. Stunning dearth of offensive talent outside of the top few guys on this team. Coupled with bad goaltending and you're looking at a team that has no shot at an at-large bid.

[Dafatone]

Dumb penalty by Malinski, and then the refs just swallowed the whistles. Incredible amounts of interference going on.

So very frustrating.

Complaining about the refs is a pretty standard thing, but oh man have they been iffy. Just clutch, grab, crosscheck to the back city these days.

[Scersk '97]

Dumb penalty by Malinski, and then the refs just swallowed the whistles. Incredible amounts of interference going on.

So very frustrating.

Complaining about the refs is a pretty standard thing, but oh man have they been iffy. Just clutch, grab, crosscheck to the back city these days.

Seems the only things getting called are a random hook here or there. Meanwhile, no one can get to loose pucks because they're being tackled or crosschecked. It's mind numbing, and I thought we were past that as a league.

[BearLover]

Ethan Manderville should have been a Cornellian... :-(

His junior hockey numbers were poor enough that I don't know if Cornell even wanted him.

[Dafatone]

Dumb penalty by Malinski, and then the refs just swallowed the whistles. Incredible amounts of interference going on.

So very frustrating.

Complaining about the refs is a pretty standard thing, but oh man have they been iffy. Just clutch, grab, crosscheck to the back city these days.

Seems the only things getting called are a random hook here or there. Meanwhile, no one can get to loose pucks because they're being tackled or crosschecked. It's mind numbing, and I thought we were past that as a league.

This is what we get for transitioning to a skilled team.

[Scersk '97]

Dumb penalty by Malinski, and then the refs just swallowed the whistles. Incredible amounts of interference going on.

So very frustrating.

Complaining about the refs is a pretty standard thing, but oh man have they been iffy. Just clutch, grab, crosscheck to the back city these days.

Seems the only things getting called are a random hook here or there. Meanwhile, no one can get to loose pucks because they're being tackled or crosschecked. It's mind numbing, and I thought we were past that as a league.

This is what we get for transitioning to a skilled team.

We get better reffing when Schafer is on the bench, through some combination of alchemy and barking.

[CU2007]

More likely to make the NCAA tourney: men's hockey or men's hoops. Who ya got

[ugarte]

Dumb penalty by Malinski, and then the refs just swallowed the whistles. Incredible amounts of interference going on.

So very frustrating.

Complaining about the refs is a pretty standard thing, but oh man have they been iffy. Just clutch, grab, crosscheck to the back city these days.

the thing is, i don't care. i'm sure the teams we're losing to do that to all of their opponents but we're the team they manage to beat.

i'm not going to be a broken record about the structure our offense ... but i hate it! as a symbol of everything i hate about it, it's when we take what seems like 15 seconds on the power play to get the puck out from behind our net with because there's someone on the other side. nobody else does this!

[BearLover]

Dumb penalty by Malinski, and then the refs just swallowed the whistles. Incredible amounts of interference going on.

So very frustrating.

Complaining about the refs is a pretty standard thing, but oh man have they been iffy. Just clutch, grab, crosscheck to the back city these days.

the thing is, i don't care. i'm sure the teams we're losing to do that to all of their opponents but we're the team they manage to beat.

i'm not going to be a broken record about the structure our offense ... but i hate it! as a symbol of everything i hate about it, it's when we take what seems like 15 seconds on the power play to get the puck out from behind our net with because there's someone on the other side. nobody else does this!

I agree. Did these crap teams like Dartmouth, Princeton, Brown, and Colgate all of a sudden learn to clutch and grab? Is this the first year Cornell has endured injuries? Stop making excuses. This is the same team that tied Alaska (twice) and Brown early in the season when Cornell was at full strength. This team hasn't been impressive the whole year. It's a shame given where the program was pre-COVID, but it's not there anymore. We were spoiled. Maybe next year.

I agree with Dafatone on the PK and with ugarte on the PP. I don't see any other teams as passive on both the PK and PP as Cornell is. I can't remember which recent opponent—it was Princeton, Dartmouth, or Brown, or some combination of them—but this opponent(s) was forechecking Cornell on 5x5 and aggressively chasing the puck carrier on the PK and Cornell had no answer for it. Maybe against Harvard, with their thirteen draft picks, you could imagine this happening. But Cornell literally couldn't beat the forecheck or cleanly set up possession in the offensive zone on the PP against freaking P/D/B, whose talent is not even in the same league as Cornell's. The fact other teams' gameplan is to play Cornell so aggressively gives you an idea of what they think of Cornell's skill level. The breakout has been a disaster.

[ice]

Vachon started the trouble with Locke that led to the 4x4.  He pushed Locke down and then stayed on top of him.  Locke may have grabbed him in retribution but Vachon was clearly the instigator.

[upprdeck]

we took 2 penalties in places we had no reason to take them and both led to goals and we continue to not score from good spots on the ice. the energy for large stretches was great we limited almost all the solid chances for Colgate but twice the rebounds went to uncovered guys and it went in.. our PP had that happen  and as usual it didnt or we shot poorly or it just hopped over our sticks

a strange rut of 2 goal games..

and still we maintain 4th place..

[Dafatone]

Dumb penalty by Malinski, and then the refs just swallowed the whistles. Incredible amounts of interference going on.

So very frustrating.

Complaining about the refs is a pretty standard thing, but oh man have they been iffy. Just clutch, grab, crosscheck to the back city these days.

the thing is, i don't care. i'm sure the teams we're losing to do that to all of their opponents but we're the team they manage to beat.

i'm not going to be a broken record about the structure our offense ... but i hate it! as a symbol of everything i hate about it, it's when we take what seems like 15 seconds on the power play to get the puck out from behind our net with because there's someone on the other side. nobody else does this!

I agree. Did these crap teams like Dartmouth, Princeton, Brown, and Colgate all of a sudden learn to clutch and grab? Is this the first year Cornell has endured injuries? Stop making excuses. This is the same team that tied Alaska (twice) and Brown early in the season when Cornell was at full strength. This team hasn't been impressive the whole year. It's a shame given where the program was pre-COVID, but it's not there anymore. We were spoiled. Maybe next year.

I agree with Dafatone on the PK and with ugarte on the PP. I don't see any other teams as passive on both the PK and PP as Cornell is. I can't remember which recent opponent—it was Princeton, Dartmouth, or Brown, or some combination of them—but this opponent(s) was forechecking Cornell on 5x5 and aggressively chasing the puck carrier on the PK and Cornell had no answer for it. Maybe against Harvard, with their thirteen draft picks, you could imagine this happening. But Cornell literally couldn't beat the forecheck or cleanly set up possession in the offensive zone on the PP against freaking P/D/B, whose talent is not even in the same league as Cornell's. The fact other teams' gameplan is to play Cornell so aggressively gives you an idea of what they think of Cornell's skill level. The breakout has been a disaster.

This Cornell team gets outmuscled more than most. We're big, but we're young, or at least inexperienced. Plus a whole year off. So "weaker" teams that are lacking in skill players push us around.

Also feels like they're lacking a bit in morale lately. Hit a run, lack of veteran leadership because the veteran leaders left (I don't blame them. I blame COVID and the ivy league for waiting so long to extend eligibility). No coach goes a long way, too.

And we're not making adjustments to beat teams, but I think that comes down to coaching. Not a knock on Ben Syer, exactly, but I imagine a lot of the tactics boil down to "stay the course til Schafer gets back." Or maybe not, it's not like I really know what I'm talking about when it comes to hockey Xs and Os.

We all knew this was going to be a rebuilding sort of year. We've had some big wins and some big losses. Hopefully, the team gets healthy and ends the year strong.

[ugarte]

Dumb penalty by Malinski, and then the refs just swallowed the whistles. Incredible amounts of interference going on.

So very frustrating.

Complaining about the refs is a pretty standard thing, but oh man have they been iffy. Just clutch, grab, crosscheck to the back city these days.

the thing is, i don't care. i'm sure the teams we're losing to do that to all of their opponents but we're the team they manage to beat.

i'm not going to be a broken record about the structure our offense ... but i hate it! as a symbol of everything i hate about it, it's when we take what seems like 15 seconds on the power play to get the puck out from behind our net with because there's someone on the other side. nobody else does this!

I agree. Did these crap teams like Dartmouth, Princeton, Brown, and Colgate all of a sudden learn to clutch and grab? Is this the first year Cornell has endured injuries? Stop making excuses. This is the same team that tied Alaska (twice) and Brown early in the season when Cornell was at full strength. This team hasn't been impressive the whole year. It's a shame given where the program was pre-COVID, but it's not there anymore. We were spoiled. Maybe next year...

At least against Alaska, Brown and Harvard I thought it was clear that we were by far the better team running into bad puck luck. The last few weeks of struggle we've shown flashes of how good we could be but mostly are fumbling the puck for no reason or trying to Kitty Pryde through the defense. Puck movement is aimless and every time it looks like we've actually maneuvered our way to an open man for a clean shot, the pass is offline enough (into the skates or to the backhand) that the puck can't be handled or one-timed cleanly. It's infuriating.

[Trotsky]

At least against Alaska, Brown and Harvard I thought it was clear that we were by far the better team running into bad puck luck. The last few weeks of struggle we've shown flashes of how good we could be but mostly are fumbling the puck for no reason or trying to Kitty Pryde through the defense. Puck movement is aimless and every time it looks like we've actually maneuvered our way to an open man for a clean shot, the pass is offline enough (into the skates or to the backhand) that the puck can't be handled or one-timed cleanly. It's infuriating.

After a snap pass around the umbrella we do seem to wait for the opponent to regain possession of the lane before shooting because otherwise it wouldn't be sporting.  And as somebody said during the game thread, Malinski has now reached Doug Murray levels of heavy but wild slappers.