11/1 vs North Dakota

[stereax]

Check the replay two minutes into the first period. You can see Psenicka go into the boards.

At the above-referenced 18-minute mark, you can see Psenicka fall awkwardly into the boards, right-shoulder-first. He actually returns for a second shift with about 15:30 to go, but clutches his right shoulder multiple times while on the ice and after that O'Brien started seeing shifts.

New member here and new STM (1L law!) who sits right behind the tunnel - yep. Psenicka (26) went down the tunnel early in the first holding that right shoulder, dropped his glove and stick and they stayed there for the rest of the period. Looked to be in pretty considerable pain. Don't know what happened exactly, though I would not be surprised if it's a broken collarbone. Also notable - Castagna (38) blocked a shot I want to say mid second period that seemed to hit his knee above the padding, was floating in and out of going down the tunnel for a bit but stuck it out. Suda (27) took a shot to the hand around that time I want to say, and was icing it on the bench too. Walsh (14) I think smashed his face somehow with like 3 minutes left and was doing that floating in and out of the tunnel thing too; the lady who I assume is the medical expert was inspecting him for a bit and I think pulled some teeth, but not completely sure.

Um. I like watching the happenings on the bench haha.

All that being said, hi, these are my first hockey games actually I've been to in person! Devils fan but never really got the chance to go to games until coming up for law school. Got men's and women's season tickets so I'm gonna be studying tort law in the seats between periods, haha, and would love to meet people who know more about the Big Red (My only college hockey friend is a BU fan who insists we're rivals, which, I think we've played them like 20 times in our existence, we have bigger fish to fry I thought - pun intended - but.) And yeah, I've been educated enough on what teams are good and what teams aren't to know these were pretty big games. Super proud of the team for pulling out four big points.

Also, if that Kunz (29) from NoDak wanted to sit and watch Cornell dog on his team that bad, he could have just bought tickets to the game instead of taking so many penalties... Surprised with how chippy the game got and how little the refs did, especially when they'd do offsetting penalties like when one or two of our guys got jumped by half of NoDak... which also reminds me of that Emery (6, NoDak) and Catalano (15) interaction at the end of the second where Emery did the, like, you're next gesture at Catalano and Catalano was close to skating over and ripping his head off... HAH. Also also (I feel I'm rambling, I just have nobody else to talk about this to) what was up with that Septimphelter guy? Wasn't he supposed to be good?

[fastforward]

I was at both games this weekend and here's my thoughts, for whatever that's worth:

-We definitely deserved both wins, despite the inconsistency in play. First weekend of actual play is often the same
-The referees were not calling much, which definitely didn't help. Get the game under control or injuries are likely to happen. We can't afford any more of those
-I was anticipating more from some of the guys-Castagna, Mack, Kovich, etc or maybe I was talking too much and missed something
-The NY contingency-Walsh, OLeary, Kraft were fast and productive - and even Major -to an extent - felt like quite a few more goals could have come from any of them-did I forget any NYers?
-Coach going off on the refs last night was warranted in my opinion
-I spoke with many visiting fans-nice group and I was surprised how many made the trip. They seemed to be having a great time
-Excited to see what comes next weekend

[BMac]

Welcome!

BU is indeed a rival- they were in the ECAC (our division) for a very long time before they left for the newly-created Hockey East in the 80s.

We restarted the rivalry with a game at MSG in 2007. It was supposed to be a short-lived thing but it was so successful that we now play them every other year at MSG on the first Saturday after Thanksgiving, on odd years. On even years we play somebody else; this year it's Quinnipiac, which is annoying since a) they're in our conference so we play them twice anyways and b) I loathe them.  Worth a trip if you're near NYC for Thanksgiving.

[Dafatone]

Man. A sweep and we dropped to 7th in the pairwise.

Can't we schedule some actual quality opposition that doesn't drag down our sos?  Wtf?  

The worst part is now we have to root for NoDak all year.

I have no problem with that as long as they stick to the green sweaters.  Go Sioux!

Ahem. Hawks.

Nope. Sioux. If there's one team where I can accept a Native American nickname it's UND.

As someone from around there, I'll just say that the Dakotas' track record on Indigenous issues leaves something to be desired.

Also, Ralph Engelstad tried to insist on no name change as a condition of leaving all that money for the arena. He threw a birthday party or two for Hitler in the 80s.

[Swampy]

People in Greek life are mostly pregaming/partying on Friday and Saturday nights. In my experience a high proportion of students who purchase season tickets are freshmen. Many of these students joins frats/sororities and don't buy season tickets in future seasons. If you're a girl who wants to get ready to go out or a guy whose frat is throwing a party that night, you can't really attend a game that night.

To be clear, none of the above describes my own experience at Cornell (or the experience of most on the forum, probably). But I do think that's part of what's going on. Unlike at a football or basketball school where social life during football/basketball season revolves around the school's biggest sport, at Cornell social life conflicts with the school's biggest sport (hockey).

There was a time when a number of frats had quite large seating blocks. (Certainly in the late 80s).  Not that I could remember the names of those houses.

"If you remember the Eighties, you weren't part of them."

[JasonN95]

NoDak ran into the "Dream-Crushing, Soul-Devouring Juggernaut" of college hockey this weekend. :-D I was in section O for both games, which was a mix of Cornell and NoDak fans and had pleasant conversations with a few of the NoDak fans. I tip my cap to them for traveling so well; there was a healthy amount of green in O and F. Much better cohesion for the team's first two games than I feel we've seen at the start of past recent seasons. The injuries are however troubling. As someone mentioned earlier, the team was fortunate how healthy it was throughout last season.

[Beeeej]

Welcome!

BU is indeed a rival- they were in the ECAC (our division) for a very long time before they left for the newly-created Hockey East in the 80s.

We restarted the rivalry with a game at MSG in 2007. It was supposed to be a short-lived thing but it was so successful that we now play them every other year at MSG on the first Saturday after Thanksgiving, on odd years.

We really restarted the rivalry with home-and-home pairs, two at Walter Brown in 2001-02 that we split, and two at Lynah in 2002-03 that Cornell dominated, Jack Parker describing it afterward as "boys playing against men." I think MSG was more of a natural next step that just took a few years to put together.

[chimpfood]

Welcome stereax, seems like you're in for a great season. Seats behind the bench are great, I can remember sprinting over there as a kid as soon as the game ended to high five the players and try to get a puck. Castagnas soak actually was on Bancroft clapper, he was on the ground and couldn't get out of the way but I was glad he played through it.

[stereax]

Welcome!

BU is indeed a rival- they were in the ECAC (our division) for a very long time before they left for the newly-created Hockey East in the 80s.

We restarted the rivalry with a game at MSG in 2007. It was supposed to be a short-lived thing but it was so successful that we now play them every other year at MSG on the first Saturday after Thanksgiving, on odd years.

We really restarted the rivalry with home-and-home pairs, two at Walter Brown in 2001-02 that we split, and two at Lynah in 2002-03 that Cornell dominated, Jack Parker describing it afterward as "boys playing against men." I think MSG was more of a natural next step that just took a few years to put together.

I see, I see! I've been thinking about biting for Frozen Apple tickets this year, I think a few other law students will be there, but unfortunately I don't yet know my Thanksgiving plans (as in, there's a decent chance I'm headed to Europe for decently important reasons) so I haven't yet pulled the trigger. Def want to try to get to Red Hot next year, considering what I've heard.

What's the deal with Quinnipiac? I know the Harvard rivalry, I know the Colgate toothpaste thing, I know maybe 50% of the chants going on because I'm just far enough away from Section B that I can't clearly hear things single people are yelling... I know (according to my BU friend) that NoDak is a good team whose fans are full of "racists" and "terrible people" (he regales an anecdote where a NoDak fan threw a beer at the BU goalie's mom??? is this a thing in college hockey, wtf???) (me: apparently it's anti hate day when we play NoDak next week, him: tell the NoDak fans that) (sorry for the parentheses I am RAMBLING now ::burnout: Quinnipiac is in that same bucket with Cornell where they're good in the ECAC partially because the ECAC is pretty terrible, right? From my understanding.

[stereax]

Welcome stereax, seems like you're in for a great season. Seats behind the bench are great, I can remember sprinting over there as a kid as soon as the game ended to high five the players and try to get a puck. Castagnas soak actually was on Bancroft clapper, he was on the ground and couldn't get out of the way but I was glad he played through it.

Hoping for a good season! I'm definitely too far behind to do the high-five/puck thing, plus I feel I'm a little old for it HAHAHA, especially when I see all the little kids crowding the bench area during the women's games I'd just feel bad about it, haha. But I do love to watch the guys chatting on the bench and the equipment manager running the entire show, re-hoofing players, getting them new sticks, and all that. For women's games I tend to sit closer to the glass and stairs, so less of that for those games.

Yeah, I recall Castagna got hit by a teammate during I think the powerplay, couldn't remember who though. Looked like he was 50/50 on continuing or calling it a game, happy he stuck it out but also hopeful it's nothing actually serious. (Don't know how well NCAA regulates player health, just going off NHL scares where you hear about players playing half a season on one leg...)

[arugula]

Man. A sweep and we dropped to 7th in the pairwise.

Can't we schedule some actual quality opposition that doesn't drag down our sos?  Wtf?  

The worst part is now we have to root for NoDak all year.

I have no problem with that as long as they stick to the green sweaters.  Go Sioux!

Ahem. Hawks.

Nope. Sioux. If there's one team where I can accept a Native American nickname it's UND.

As someone from around there, I'll just say that the Dakotas' track record on Indigenous issues leaves something to be desired.

Also, Ralph Engelstad tried to insist on no name change as a condition of leaving all that money for the arena. He threw a birthday party or two for Hitler in the 80s.

Correct.   Hawks.

[RichH]

NoDak ran into the "Dream-Crushing, Soul-Devouring Juggernaut" of college hockey this weekend. :-D I was in section O for both games, which was a mix of Cornell and NoDak fans and had pleasant conversations with a few of the NoDak fans. I tip my cap to them for traveling so well; there was a healthy amount of green in O and F. Much better cohesion for the team's first two games than I feel we've seen at the start of past recent seasons. The injuries are however troubling. As someone mentioned earlier, the team was fortunate how healthy it was throughout last season.

From my memories of a bunch of us traveling to Grand Forks in '09, I remember walking into some local thirst parlors and getting the *record scratch* effect. I didn't know if it was the kind of place where "how dare you wear the opponent colors in here" or "I hear Cornell is in *gasp* NEW YORK,...are you gonna be callous east coast bastards?" but once we broke the ice (so to speak) with some of the locals, they were all cool with us and we were with them. From my experience at all the Frozen Fours I've been to, North Dakota fans are by and large (and I mean large in several ways) some of the more friendly and easy-going yet intensely loyal hockey fans you'll come across and like us, they'll travel anywhere.  They're generally pleasant folks if you like hockey. And they REALLY want to hear what you think of their A R E N A.

[RichH]

Welcome!

BU is indeed a rival- they were in the ECAC (our division) for a very long time before they left for the newly-created Hockey East in the 80s.

Definitely welcome to Stereax!  

More than that, before 1980, the NCAA tournament was only made up of four teams: two Eastern, and two Western. From about 1965-1975, BU and Cornell were the most dominant and successful Eastern teams and kept butting heads in the ECAC and NCAA tournaments. The old-timers still hold and feel it. To this day, there's a Cornell cheer that ends with "Screw BU.... too."  BU has gone on to have more success as the sport has grown, while Ivies have kept old restrictions on Athletics.

[Beeeej]

What's the deal with Quinnipiac? ... Quinnipiac is in that same bucket with Cornell where they're good in the ECAC partially because the ECAC is pretty terrible, right? From my understanding.

The short version is that Quinnipiac is often viewed around here as barely a step above a community college in terms of acceptance rate, in a conference otherwise comprised of six Ivies and five historically strong liberal arts and STEM institutions, that basically bought their way to athletic greatness. Not to say that any coach could've accomplished the same thing that Pecknold has with what was a mediocre D-III-then-D-II team when he took over thirty years ago just by spending money. But it has left an especially bad taste in some Lynah Faithful mouths because over the same thirty years, Schafer has accomplished *nearly* as much, and somewhat more consistently, with no scholarships, much higher admissions standards, and a culture that doesn't encourage individual stars, but no national title, and only one Frozen Four appearance.

That's the short version. ::banana::

[VIEWfromK]

Welcome!

BU is indeed a rival- they were in the ECAC (our division) for a very long time before they left for the newly-created Hockey East in the 80s.

We restarted the rivalry with a game at MSG in 2007. It was supposed to be a short-lived thing but it was so successful that we now play them every other year at MSG on the first Saturday after Thanksgiving, on odd years.

We really restarted the rivalry with home-and-home pairs, two at Walter Brown in 2001-02 that we split, and two at Lynah in 2002-03 that Cornell dominated, Jack Parker describing it afterward as "boys playing against men." I think MSG was more of a natural next step that just took a few years to put together.

I like to believe that after the way the Big Red pasted BU that weekend that they would not be setting foot in Lynah again during the Parker era so neutral site was the only remaining option.  Cornell did play that one off at BU two seasons ago so I'm curious if there will be a reciprocal trip to Ithaca in an upcoming Red Hot Hockey off year?