Hey Clownlover, the sky isn't falling: this year's team is last year's team.

[abmarks]

Because numbers talk and clownlover shouldn't.

Clownlover has been all over the place; beside himself that the team is blowing their opportunity in what he declared to be a year where we're supposed to legitimately contend for the national title.

Let's get a little perspective here and look at what we did last year. Did we make a deep run?   Yes.   But arguably we overachieved last year after going on a quite unlikely tear.


11 games in we were 6W-3L-1T-1OTL.

In 2023-2024, The day after our 11th game, our pwr rank was 25th with 40 comparison wins and an rpi of .5239

Including all playoff games, we improbably went 16W-3L-5T the rest of the way.

Now let's compare to this season.

After our 11th game on 12/7, out record stood at
4W-3L-3T-1OTW.

In 2024-2025 The day after our 11th game, our pwr rank was 25th with 39 comparison wins and an rpi of .5231

I don't know what happened last year to get the team on track after the holiday break, but something tells me it was part coaching and quite a bit of run good to over achieve.  Basing expectations for this year on where we finished last year and not looking at how we got there is  a mistake.   So far, this year's team and last year's team are effectively the same.

[Dafatone]

I think given the ECAC title and the decent showing in the NCAAs, it's easy to forget that we weren't amazing last year.

Going into the ECAC tournament, we were right on the bubble. We wouldn't have been in had we lost in the finals, if I remember.

[Jeff Hopkins '82]

Going into the ECAC tournament, we were right on the bubble. We wouldn't have been in had we lost in the finals, if I remember.

You are correct.

[abmarks]

Going into the ECAC tournament, we were right on the bubble. We wouldn't have been in had we lost in the finals, if I remember.

You are correct.

Data.

Our first ECAC tournament game was 3/15/2024.  Here's the PWR from 3/14

[chimpfood]

I will never understand why the quality win bonus exists

[Tcl123]

.

[ugarte]

idk if "last year's team was also bad" is the flex on bl you think it is.

his primary point has been that we're playing badly and will need to win ECAC to go to NCAAs again, which appears to be true based on last year.

his secondary point, that casey jones was a mistake, is still too soon to tell and a frustrating specific thing to harp on.

can't clown on him for the first point at all.

[Dafatone]

idk if "last year's team was also bad" is the flex on bl you think it is.

his primary point has been that we're playing badly and will need to win ECAC to go to NCAAs again, which appears to be true based on last year.

his secondary point, that casey jones was a mistake, is still too soon to tell and a frustrating specific thing to harp on.

can't clown on him for the first point at all.

I think he's jumping to a bit of an early conclusion on that.

Basically, we've played a third of the season so far. If this turns out to have been our worst third of the season, we'll be in the hunt for an at large.

[BearLover]

idk if "last year's team was also bad" is the flex on bl you think it is.

his primary point has been that we're playing badly and will need to win ECAC to go to NCAAs again, which appears to be true based on last year.

his secondary point, that casey jones was a mistake, is still too soon to tell and a frustrating specific thing to harp on.

can't clown on him for the first point at all.

Just to be clear, I think it's too early to say if CJ was a mistake. I think there are signs the coaching so far this season has been lacking. Also, the fact Clarkson has improved and Princeton has vastly improved on its standing from last season, while Cornell has regressed, is a bearish indicator that we made the right choice. But I'm well aware it's too soon to say. It could also be that this two-head coach structure just doesn't work very well and CJ will be fine once he's the only head coach.

(I'm back from my week-long self-imposed exile and will respond to the original post momentarily.)

[BearLover]

Because numbers talk and clownlover shouldn't.

Clownlover has been all over the place; beside himself that the team is blowing their opportunity in what he declared to be a year where we're supposed to legitimately contend for the national title.

Let's get a little perspective here and look at what we did last year. Did we make a deep run?   Yes.   But arguably we overachieved last year after going on a quite unlikely tear.


11 games in we were 6W-3L-1T-1OTL.

In 2023-2024, The day after our 11th game, our pwr rank was 25th with 40 comparison wins and an rpi of .5239

Including all playoff games, we improbably went 16W-3L-5T the rest of the way.

Now let's compare to this season.

After our 11th game on 12/7, out record stood at
4W-3L-3T-1OTW.

In 2024-2025 The day after our 11th game, our pwr rank was 25th with 39 comparison wins and an rpi of .5231

I don't know what happened last year to get the team on track after the holiday break, but something tells me it was part coaching and quite a bit of run good to over achieve.  Basing expectations for this year on where we finished last year and not looking at how we got there is  a mistake.   So far, this year's team and last year's team are effectively the same.

This is an embarrassing post even by your standards.

1. Trotsky started an ad hom thread in the miscellaneous forum. If you're going to name-call me, why not do it there?

2. If you're going to name-call, can you at least make up an insult that actually makes sense? What is a clownlover? Someone who loves clowns?

3. You claim "I" declared that we're supposed to compete for the national title. Really? How about this season preview article, titled in relevant part "Men's Hockey Eyes a National Title"?
https://cornellsun.com/2024/10/29/season-preview-in-schafers-closing-chapter-no-9-mens-hockey-eyes-a-national-title/
How about being #5 in the national poll before we played a game?  How about being a goal from the frozen four the past two seasons? Everyone thought we could compete for a national title.

4. Your argument that this team has a good opportunity to turn things around relies on...last year's team? The one that went on an incredible second-half run which STILL wasn't enough for an at-large bid? My entire point is that it's going to take another incredible run, and thanks to your astute analysis I see that this run is going to have to be EVEN BETTER than last year's.

5. The fact we went on a run last year really doesn't mean much in general. There were many years our second half was no better, or worse, than our first half. There were years with bad starts and bad finishes.

6. Last year we had 10 freshmen and low expectations. The weak first semester was entirely understandable. Our turnaround also made sense, because of the 10 freshmen coming into their own. Quite the opposite from this year's team: we have one freshman who receives regular playing time and return last year's entire roster minus Seger and a backup goalie.

7. This is Schafer's last season. Schafer only gets one last season. This is the big one. We all want to see him win on his way out, and from that perspective what would normally be a very frustrating start to the season feels (at least to me) many times more disappointing.

This has been, by far, the most disappointing start to a season in my 16 years following Cornell hockey. Maybe others here who have been following for longer can cite some other examples. Honestly, I'd guess this one is the worst. Given the expectations and it being Schafer's last season, this is the most frustrated I've ever been following Cornell hockey.* And knowing me, that's really saying something.


*aside from the 2020 postseason getting canceled. But that was just sad, not frustrating.

[chimpfood]

We're not in a completely bad spot, we're 22 in the pairwise right now and I see a whole bunch of teams above us that I do not believe can keep up the level of success that they have had. Also I think the ECAC has some more pairwise juice than it did last year. If we go down to Tempe and win this tournament after the break we should be right near a spot to get a bid.

[Tcl123]

I don't get the bearlover hate. I'm sure I'll get slammed for it, but his opinions almost always seem spot on with mine.

[BearLover]

I don't get the bearlover hate. I'm sure I'll get slammed for it, but his opinions almost always seem spot on with mine.

I do complain too much. But I have good opinions

[LGR14]

I don't get the bearlover hate. I'm sure I'll get slammed for it, but his opinions almost always seem spot on with mine.

Agreed.

[Trotsky]

1. Trotsky started an ad hom thread in the miscellaneous forum. If you're going to name-call me, why not do it there?

"Of course, the whole point of a Doomsday Machine is lost, if you keep it a secret."