Cornell vs Dartmouth 1/25/25

[The Rancor]

...I'm genuinely puzzled, why has the team so underperformed this season?  Did we expect too much, losing only Seger?

I think expectations were way too high, yes...

in our defense, after a smoking hot spring semester, we beat maine and damn near took out denver. that said, if we were over our skis in expecting a top 5 team, what we've seen has been disappointing even if we had more realistic expectations of being a clear 3-4 seed band squad.

I agree that this season to date has been disappointing relative to any reasonable pre-season expectation. I also contend the gap between pre-season expectations and where they are isn't really a mystery - they've been crushed by injuries. Personally, I'd put season to date on the disappointing end of the injury-adjusted expectation spectrum, but well within what's normal.

Citing injuries as the number one reason seems incorrect. This past weekend we got Penney back and lost at home to Dartmouth 6-1. Yes, we have injuries. So does every other team. Are ours worse than average? Yes, but not by so much that they come anywhere close to fully explaining our struggles. Shane has been (apparently) healthy the whole season, and the first PP unit (until Major's recent injury) as well. Yet those are by far the two biggest weaknesses of this team.

I suspect you grossly underestimate the knock on effects injuries have in terms of practice time and fitness. Penney is back, but did he look like his old self Saturday, or maybe like a guy who was a step slow despite limited minutes? What does it tell you that he was out there instead of another player in mid-season form? Fegaras has been back for what, 4 games? And he's finally looking like himself now, two weeks after being cleared to play? Again, why play him instead of someone who isn't still recovering from a broken wrist? The answer is that these guys at less than 100% are better than the alternatives - the same alternatives who were forced into unfamiliar roles in their absence.

Also, yes, every team has injuries. Not every team loses their senior captain for nearly half the season, one of their top young defensemen for 1/3 of the season, and several other regular shift players - mostly upperclassmen - for ~1/4 of the season. That kind of thrash causes absolute havoc with lines, and makes it all but impossible to focus adequate practice time on such niceties as power play configurations and breakout sets.

I don't envy the coaches or the players. This has been a rough season to date. They should, nevertheless, have won a few more games. Splitting with Dartmouth and taking maximum points from Yale and Brown was well within reach even accounting for the injuries. But that's within normal variance in a sport like hockey.

In the end, it kind of doesn't matter - the regular season is likely a bust. The thing to hope for is they get healthy and get it together in time for a big playoff run. Absent that, this will be a short season, and Schafer's tenure will go out with a whimper.

And with all the flu/norovirus/crud going around, which lingers trust me, who knows who's playing at 70% because of a cough that stuck around a month or the general toll that can take- even on a 20 year old, it can really take it out of you.

[Iceberg]

TBH Fegaras looked like one of our better players as soon as he returned. Fair enough on the rest of your post—I really don't know. In the 2018-19 season we had even worse injury luck but still made the NCAAs as a 3-seed and would have won the ECAC if not for several blown calls by the refs and freak injuries in the ECAC final.

That team was more talented than this one, especially on defense (Green, Kaldis, Nuttle, Smith, and McCrea are much better than the current D corps) and in net (obviously Galajda). Also, the conference was better overall. My point being that that team was in a better position to overcome the injury plague that season.

[BearLover]

TBH Fegaras looked like one of our better players as soon as he returned. Fair enough on the rest of your post—I really don't know. In the 2018-19 season we had even worse injury luck but still made the NCAAs as a 3-seed and would have won the ECAC if not for several blown calls by the refs and freak injuries in the ECAC final.

That team was more talented than this one, especially on defense (Green, Kaldis, Nuttle, Smith, and McCrea are much better than the current D corps) and in net (obviously Galajda). Also, the conference was better overall. My point being that that team was in a better position to overcome the injury plague that season.

I don't think most of us would have said this year's team was less talented before this season started. Comparable, maybe. Also, the conference being better is a wash for Pairwise purposes and actively hurtful for conference standing purposes.

[VIEWfromK]

Ow.

Sorry, I went to school on the other hill.

Mons Capitolinus?

Not even close

[stereax]

Interesting to consider what would have happened 30 years ago or so. Does the league just go with whatever the refs gave? I assume no video to watch to lengthen the suspensions.

One of the Cornell-affiliated ladies said the league is going to review it before anything official is said. I'm assuming they have some video to watch. HIGHLY doubt their video feed would cut off the second the game ends. I know the coaches told the media guys not to turn off the camera until the refs came back out to announce the penalties, which they never did. Hold on, I got ESPN+, let me rewatch from last night.

Suda took a run at a Dart after the horn sounded... then Dart goes to celly in front of the student section... and then Cornell goes to beat em up. I think first man in is O'Leary simply due to height. Penney gets in it too. Catalano is def scrapping. There's DeSantis flipping a Dart over. Dart's starter and Keopple havin a chat, unaffected; ditto Katz, Shane, and the backup. Ondrej Psenicka is very tall. I think that's Schafer walking over. (I've been spelling it Schaefer this whole time. Fuck me.) Penney still shoving. O'Leary and Pennet helmetless. O'Leary still complaining. And then they're off, Penney and Casty share their post-game hug and scatter.

You can definitely tell who's scrapping because they WANT to (O'Leary, Penney, Catalano, DeSantis, Walsh, Stanley, Kempf, Kraft, Rego, Rayhill...) and those who are mostly there because everyone else is (Fegaras, Castagna, Robertson, Kovich, Psenicka, O'Brien...) as well as the mixed-bag guys (Suda, Mack, Bancroft...) And this is just off the ESPN feed. I'm SURE the NCAA has more cameras.

I don't agree with your assessment of the guys WANTING to fight. I just rewatched everything twice (ESPN+ and the video you posted). It appears that some of those you listed were each holding back along with a Dartmouth player. I see things differently than you and would hate to give someone a bad rap unjustly-that's my take

I don't mean the guys wanting to fight is a bad thing; au contraire, I think it's a good thing when you're sticking up for your teammates and team like that. Not saying the guys who were less enthused (to my eyes) are doing anything wrong either, though, because there's definitely a value in staying level-headed even when others on your team are going off. The first four were 100% getting their licks in, I saw Walsh scrumming it up to the right along with I think Rayhill, Rego was shaking a ref off him to try to go after someone, I don't remember off the top of my head the other three.

[stereax]

...I'm genuinely puzzled, why has the team so underperformed this season?  Did we expect too much, losing only Seger?

I think expectations were way too high, yes...

in our defense, after a smoking hot spring semester, we beat maine and damn near took out denver. that said, if we were over our skis in expecting a top 5 team, what we've seen has been disappointing even if we had more realistic expectations of being a clear 3-4 seed band squad.

I agree that this season to date has been disappointing relative to any reasonable pre-season expectation. I also contend the gap between pre-season expectations and where they are isn't really a mystery - they've been crushed by injuries. Personally, I'd put season to date on the disappointing end of the injury-adjusted expectation spectrum, but well within what's normal.

Citing injuries as the number one reason seems incorrect. This past weekend we got Penney back and lost at home to Dartmouth 6-1. Yes, we have injuries. So does every other team. Are ours worse than average? Yes, but not by so much that they come anywhere close to fully explaining our struggles. Shane has been (apparently) healthy the whole season, and the first PP unit (until Major's recent injury) as well. Yet those are by far the two biggest weaknesses of this team.

I suspect you grossly underestimate the knock on effects injuries have in terms of practice time and fitness. Penney is back, but did he look like his old self Saturday, or maybe like a guy who was a step slow despite limited minutes? What does it tell you that he was out there instead of another player in mid-season form? Fegaras has been back for what, 4 games? And he's finally looking like himself now, two weeks after being cleared to play? Again, why play him instead of someone who isn't still recovering from a broken wrist? The answer is that these guys at less than 100% are better than the alternatives - the same alternatives who were forced into unfamiliar roles in their absence.

Also, yes, every team has injuries. Not every team loses their senior captain for nearly half the season, one of their top young defensemen for 1/3 of the season, and several other regular shift players - mostly upperclassmen - for ~1/4 of the season. That kind of thrash causes absolute havoc with lines, and makes it all but impossible to focus adequate practice time on such niceties as power play configurations and breakout sets.

I don't envy the coaches or the players. This has been a rough season to date. They should, nevertheless, have won a few more games. Splitting with Dartmouth and taking maximum points from Yale and Brown was well within reach even accounting for the injuries. But that's within normal variance in a sport like hockey.

In the end, it kind of doesn't matter - the regular season is likely a bust. The thing to hope for is they get healthy and get it together in time for a big playoff run. Absent that, this will be a short season, and Schafer's tenure will go out with a whimper.

And with all the flu/norovirus/crud going around, which lingers trust me, who knows who's playing at 70% because of a cough that stuck around a month or the general toll that can take- even on a 20 year old, it can really take it out of you.

Hell, we don't even know if Shane is playing at 100% or if Schafer and co are trotting him out because they don't trust Keopple or Katz.

I swear, I've been trying to keep up with lines but it feels damn near impossible with the amount of people out and the shuffling that's been going on. It's impossible to form chemistry when you're getting thrown on the ice with anyone in the coach's line of sight.

At this point I just want to see the guys start to get it together in time for the playoffs. If it's more games than we "should have" been playing, so be it. Not having a bye isn't the end of the world. Just get back to your game, get healthy, and set your sights on the next thing.

[arugula]

Will the ECAC ever get around to announcing supplementary discipline?  Or will we find out Friday night when the teams hit the ice.

[ugarte]

since we don't know if anyone is sick, and we also don't know if other teams are dealing with illnesses, please work out the "what ifs" with your therapist and maybe stick with what you see and let yourself be disappointed by losing. you don't have to bemoan it but you also don't need to rush to excuse it. sit with it. sometimes bad things happen.

[George64]

Abridged email from coach Schafer:

This past weekend I saw the highs and lows of coaching. It was a fantastic win on Friday against our rival. We played hard and well most of the night. This is always a tough weekend because Harvard and Dartmouth are complete opposites.  What one team does is completely different than the other one

On Friday night, we came out flying and played hard and well most of the night against our rival. We had the usual festivities by the fans before the game, but the rink crew did a super and quick job in clearing off the ice.  They were well-prepared and so were we. Harvard did not get a shot on goal until five minutes into the game.  . . .

And now for the ugly. I don't understand how you can play so hard most of the night, and then come out the next night and play so poorly. We lacked the execution and tenacity to win back to back.  It was a chippy game all night, and ended with a brawl after the final whistle. . . .

Our guys were frustrated and unfortunately let their frustrations show at the end of the night.   We will have some suspensions and will need to rally in the North Country. We take on St. Lawrence on Friday night, and Clarkson Saturday evening.  . . .

As always, the guys appreciate your support on the road.

[stereax]

Will the ECAC ever get around to announcing supplementary discipline?  Or will we find out Friday night when the teams hit the ice.

Wheel of Suspensions at it again.

[adamw]

Will the ECAC ever get around to announcing supplementary discipline?  Or will we find out Friday night when the teams hit the ice.

Sadly, the ECAC stopped announcing suspensions years ago. I've railed about this for many years.

Here's one such screed:

https://www.collegehockeynews.com/news/2019/03/06_Commentary-ECAC-Blunders.php

[billhoward]

"Team was gassed [vs. Dartmouth"? Perhaps: emotionally drained from the Harvard high, perhaps. Or perhaps if we check the playing time per player, we'll see a heavier load on the first two lines on account of lines 3 and 4 played relatively fewer minutes, since they have less 2024-25 game experience. That's my guess.

[arugula]

Will the ECAC ever get around to announcing supplementary discipline?  Or will we find out Friday night when the teams hit the ice.

Sadly, the ECAC stopped announcing suspensions years ago. I've railed about this for many years.

Here's one such screed:

https://www.collegehockeynews.com/news/2019/03/06_Commentary-ECAC-Blunders.php

Fascinating. Positively Soviet.  So we'll have to figure it out Friday night.  I'm available if needed at left wing.

[fastforward]

"Team was gassed [vs. Dartmouth"? Perhaps: emotionally drained from the Harvard high, perhaps. Or perhaps if we check the playing time per player, we'll see a heavier load on the first two lines on account of lines 3 and 4 played relatively fewer minutes, since they have less 2024-25 game experience. That's my guess.

I would tend to agree with your assessment

[Tom Lento]

TBH Fegaras looked like one of our better players as soon as he returned. Fair enough on the rest of your post—I really don't know. In the 2018-19 season we had even worse injury luck but still made the NCAAs as a 3-seed and would have won the ECAC if not for several blown calls by the refs and freak injuries in the ECAC final.

That team was more talented than this one, especially on defense (Green, Kaldis, Nuttle, Smith, and McCrea are much better than the current D corps) and in net (obviously Galajda). Also, the conference was better overall. My point being that that team was in a better position to overcome the injury plague that season.

Looking at the stats from that season and this one they may have been a bit luckier with who missed most of the games and how the injuries were distributed. IIRC Andreev had the worst luck with injuries that year, and that's why he only played 2/3 of the season, but he was just a freshman and it seems like most of their top players were available and productive for the dominant majority of the games.