2022 Takeaways

[Al DeFlorio]

We've been talking about how few Ivy teams have won the NCAAs since 1970. We're in the ECAC as well as the Ivy League and there's also RPI and Union, neither of them academic slouches, who've won titles. I would like to see Clarkson win Saturday over Quinnipiac and both go to the NCAAs. (Clarkson may have to win both games to go.) Q has a chance to go all the way. We may not like Q but they are in our (athletic) league and an NCAA title benefits all 12 schools. I'd root for Q every step of the way until the point they come against Clarkson. You want another title for North Dakota or Minnesota?

Correct. I'd much rather North Dakota or Minnesota win. I don't want our direct rivals winning championships. Cornell has been good for song long (during which time teams like Q and Clarkson have largely wallowed in mediocrity) that it would absolutely suck if yet another one of our rivals won it all before we did.

::doh::Mind-boggling logic.  We saw this same bizarre thinking when Yale won it all.  How dominant they've become since.::rolleyes::

Go ECAC!  Always.

I didn't say anything above about programs becoming dominant. I said it's excruciating to watch your biggest rivals, who are nowhere near as deserving, win it all before you do. Also, sports fans root against their rivals. It's pretty simple logic (to the extent sports fandom is logical) that carries over to most other fandoms. Do Giants fans root for the Eagles, Cowboys, and Washington Commanders after they've been eliminated? No, they obviously do not do that because they are normal sports fans.

Though, since you brought up dominance, maybe we should revisit the "rising tide lifts all boats" theory that everyone on this forum was positing when Yale won. Has Cornell won more ECAC championships and NCAA games before, or after, the rise of Yale, Union, Q?

You made that impassioned speech about Yale at the time.  It was bullshit then.  

It's not about "raising all boats."  It's about the perception of your league.  I want our league to do well.  Always.  That makes our program look better.  I don't indulge myself in petty, envy-driven resentments.  There is no downside to an ECAC team winning on the national scene.

[billhoward]

It's not about "raising all boats."  It's about the perception of your league.  I want our league to do well.  Always.  That makes our program look better.  I don't indulge myself in petty, envy-driven resentments.  There is no downside to an ECAC team winning on the national scene.

In the Ivy League, the rising tide lifts all yachts.

[Trotsky]

We've been talking about how few Ivy teams have won the NCAAs since 1970. We're in the ECAC as well as the Ivy League and there's also RPI and Union, neither of them academic slouches, who've won titles. I would like to see Clarkson win Saturday over Quinnipiac and both go to the NCAAs. (Clarkson may have to win both games to go.) Q has a chance to go all the way. We may not like Q but they are in our (athletic) league and an NCAA title benefits all 12 schools. I'd root for Q every step of the way until the point they come against Clarkson. You want another title for North Dakota or Minnesota?

Correct. I'd much rather North Dakota or Minnesota win. I don't want our direct rivals winning championships. Cornell has been good for song long (during which time teams like Q and Clarkson have largely wallowed in mediocrity) that it would absolutely suck if yet another one of our rivals won it all before we did.

I can see what you are saying, I simply don't agree.

I rooted like hell for Harvard over Minnesota in 89, and for every ECAC team in the NC$$ since.  The wogs begin at Calais.  Go ECAC.

[Dafatone]

We've been talking about how few Ivy teams have won the NCAAs since 1970. We're in the ECAC as well as the Ivy League and there's also RPI and Union, neither of them academic slouches, who've won titles. I would like to see Clarkson win Saturday over Quinnipiac and both go to the NCAAs. (Clarkson may have to win both games to go.) Q has a chance to go all the way. We may not like Q but they are in our (athletic) league and an NCAA title benefits all 12 schools. I'd root for Q every step of the way until the point they come against Clarkson. You want another title for North Dakota or Minnesota?

I think it's just a matter of personal preference. Some people hate rooting for rivals, some people prefer rivals winning to other teams we have no connection to.

Personally, it varies by team. Despite recent crushing losses, I have no hard feelings towards Clarkson. Storied hockey history, good fan support. Q is annoying and I might root against them, depending on who they play. Harvard... tough pill to swallow. Would root for them over NoDak and their stupid arena (where we swept them] named after a guy who threw birthday parties for Hitler. Dartmouth? No way. Rooting for just about anyone over Dartmouth.

[Weder]

If you'd like to support the team financially:

Please read below for the opportunity that exists for Cornell Hockey today.  If you have never given to Cornell Hockey, you can have a huge impact by starting today so that we can meet our donor challenge.  Thank you to the Oliver family for their generosity and this tremendous opportunity for Cornell Hockey.

Bill and Carole Oliver `64, their daughter, Jill `88, along with Rick `69 and his daughters, Kim `91 and Carrie `94 have offered a last minute Giving Day Challenge.  They will match all gifts 2:1 up to $25,000 for a total of $50,000.  Additionally, if we get 125 donors, they'll give another $50,000 for a total gift of $100,000 if both challenges are met.

Thank you to one of the great Big Red Hockey Families!  Your support is appreciated.  Let's crush these challenges!!!  I hope you'll stay tuned to follow our progress.  

Click here to make your gift.

https://givingday.cornell.edu/campaigns/cu-mens-ice-hockey

There's a $10,000 match challenge for the women's team as well.

[upprdeck]

you want to see some interesting numbers look at the money each sport is pulling in.

rowing squash at the top of the list with sprint football and baseball

[BearLover]

People can root for whomever they want. If you want to root for Quinnipiac or Harvard, for whatever strange reason, be my guest. The success of other ECAC programs clearly isn't helping Cornell, though.

[margolism]

Getting back to the original topic...

What strikes me as interesting is how similarly this team fared compared to the 2018-2019 team, the team right before #1 ranked 2019-2020 team.

This team went 18-10-4, the 18-19 team went 21-11-4, with a 4-3 record in the playoffs.

This year's team went 12-6-4 in ECAC action, the 2018-2019 went 13-5-4.    

Other key comparisons
PP conversion .169 vs .222
PK 81.2% vs 85.3%
GPG 3,1 vs 3.0
Shot Percentage .108 vs .102

Key differences between the two teams was that the 2018-2019 team was better on special teams, and I would guess that our goals per game is probably skewed slightly due to the RPI game.  

I think our key areas to address moving forward is special teams and increasing our shot percentage.  Goaltending, the big question mark coming into the season, was not really an issue. Given that talent returning and coming in, I am quite optimistic about the future.

[upprdeck]

We had like 75+ shots vs colgate game 3 missed the net too many times and got too many blocked in addition to the killer that led to the breakaway.

thats a lot of puck control to not even get 2 goals and we did it multiple times vs that team.

[osorojo]

I can't bring myself to root for a league, let alone an opponent. Harkness said it best one night at Colgate when Cornell was clobbering the home team. The coaches were walking side-by-side behind the teams between periods through a gap in the bleachers leading to the dressing room. Seated on the bleacher above this gap I clearly heard the Colgate coach suggest Ned should tell his players to "ease up", to which Harkness replied. "Go **** yourself! THAT's the kind of hockey spirit I appreciate, and save the statistical analysis for tea parties.

[BearLover]

Getting back to the original topic...

What strikes me as interesting is how similarly this team fared compared to the 2018-2019 team, the team right before #1 ranked 2019-2020 team.

This team went 18-10-4, the 18-19 team went 21-11-4, with a 4-3 record in the playoffs.

This year's team went 12-6-4 in ECAC action, the 2018-2019 went 13-5-4.    

Other key comparisons
PP conversion .169 vs .222
PK 81.2% vs 85.3%
GPG 3,1 vs 3.0
Shot Percentage .108 vs .102

Key differences between the two teams was that the 2018-2019 team was better on special teams, and I would guess that our goals per game is probably skewed slightly due to the RPI game.  

I think our key areas to address moving forward is special teams and increasing our shot percentage.  Goaltending, the big question mark coming into the season, was not really an issue. Given that talent returning and coming in, I am quite optimistic about the future.

This year's team went 13-10-9, counting OT and SO outcomes as ties. The record you've citing counts OT wins as regulation wins. (Not your fault, CHN/the media keeps doing this for some reason.) In the ECAC, the team went 10-8-7, including the ECAC playoffs. Our save % this year was .911, lowest since 2006-07.* I'm generally optimistic about the future too, but this year was a big dropoff.

*technically, the 2012-13 team had a .909 sv%, but discounting backup goalie Omar Kanji getting shelled by Q in relief in a 10-0 loss, it was .917.

[jtwcornell91]

We've been talking about how few Ivy teams have won the NCAAs since 1970. We're in the ECAC as well as the Ivy League and there's also RPI and Union, neither of them academic slouches, who've won titles. I would like to see Clarkson win Saturday over Quinnipiac and both go to the NCAAs. (Clarkson may have to win both games to go.) Q has a chance to go all the way. We may not like Q but they are in our (athletic) league and an NCAA title benefits all 12 schools. I'd root for Q every step of the way until the point they come against Clarkson. You want another title for North Dakota or Minnesota?

Correct. I'd much rather North Dakota or Minnesota win. I don't want our direct rivals winning championships. Cornell has been good for song long (during which time teams like Q and Clarkson have largely wallowed in mediocrity) that it would absolutely suck if yet another one of our rivals won it all before we did.

I, on the other hand, will root for Clarkson, Colgate, and even Harvard against everybody else in the NCAAs, but I will root hard against Quinnipiac in any game they play.  The year they played Yale for the title, I learned more than I wanted to know about the institution, which is a corporate marketing experiment disguised as an institution of higher learning.  I don't consider them a rival, and I don't want them in our league.

[billhoward]

People can root for whomever they want. If you want to root for Quinnipiac or Harvard, for whatever strange reason, be my guest. The success of other ECAC programs clearly isn't helping Cornell, though.

RPI and Union winning national titles, ditto Harvard and Yale, tells recruits it's a strong league and worth playing in. And I think the Quinnipiac rink is pretty nice.

[marty]

We've been talking about how few Ivy teams have won the NCAAs since 1970. We're in the ECAC as well as the Ivy League and there's also RPI and Union, neither of them academic slouches, who've won titles. I would like to see Clarkson win Saturday over Quinnipiac and both go to the NCAAs. (Clarkson may have to win both games to go.) Q has a chance to go all the way. We may not like Q but they are in our (athletic) league and an NCAA title benefits all 12 schools. I'd root for Q every step of the way until the point they come against Clarkson. You want another title for North Dakota or Minnesota?

Correct. I'd much rather North Dakota or Minnesota win. I don't want our direct rivals winning championships. Cornell has been good for song long (during which time teams like Q and Clarkson have largely wallowed in mediocrity) that it would absolutely suck if yet another one of our rivals won it all before we did.

I, on the other hand, will root for Clarkson, Colgate, and even Harvard against everybody else in the NCAAs, but I will root hard against Quinnipiac in any game they play.  The year they played Yale for the title, I learned more than I wanted to know about the institution, which is a corporate marketing experiment disguised as an institution of higher learning.  I don't consider them a rival, and I don't want them in our league.

Thanks. I needed that.

Fuque Queue!

[ugarte]

it's all just vibes. but i tend to agree with bearlover that having a rival win while i'm waiting bothers me whereas i don't give a shit at all when a non-cornell team i don't spend much time thinking about wins. similarly, i want ivy hoops teams to win a first round game once in a while but i don't want any team that isn't us getting to the sweet 16.