Yale @ Cornell, Saturday November 15th

[VIEWfromK]

Also realized, no more stupid Tompkins Trust Shuffle. Or the skibbedy-dibbedy-doo guy. Woot.

I was certain they were going to have to pull Kyle Betts' "Jump Around" from the archives to get through the delay

[stereax]

To be fair, it's 50º outside right now and pouring.  So that's going to warm things up inside the rink.  And it was pretty warm inside.  But somebody is going to have to do a serious job of reconditioning the ice in the next week.  Because there are a bunch of things that need work.

Ice NEEDS to be thicker...

Yeah that's one thing. 

Also, there's a big grey patch between the circles at the G/H end, and the crease at that end has lost a lot of it's blue color.

Both sides have nasty grey patches. So does the middle of the ice lmao.

Three cheers for Extinguisher Guy.

[andyw2100]

I'm wondering why there needs to be any vinyl that can cause problems if the ice winds up too thin. Why not just go old school and just use paint or dye or whatever it is that used to be used before the vinyl?

The other thing I was wondering last night was if they thought there was a decent chance that redoing the ice (presumably without scraping) was going to help, when they realized it hadn't helped enough, why not just do that again, and again if necessary? For a long time it looked like they may just throw up their hands and not continue.

[VIEWfromK]

The pattern continues.  Feel things out in the first and then get to work.  That was the process for a lot of the early 2000s teams.  Kraft was their best player last night.  It's a good sign that on any given night a different player or a different line can be the driving force.  What a difference having Wallace and Devlin back. The team did not hit much last season.  That doesn't seem to be an issue now.  They made changes to the two power play units.  Stanley was on the top unit with Fegaras dropping down to unit two.  There were one timers attempted Saturday night which they did not do to my recollection on Friday night.  As Pierre would say, "I was right on the sight line" of the Walsh ripper.  Far side against the grain.  Two more freshman goals.  This is an incredible crop of talent.  These early games have showed some glimpses of the team's potential while also offering plenty of aspects by which to improve on.  I expect that some of these one and two goal games will turn into one or none after the calendar turns.  I think it's tough to judge them on that third period last night.  Cornell lost any momentum that they may have brought into that period.  Even if it wasn't your typical adversity they still overcame it.  Split on the road and take care of business at home.  If they follow that through the end of the semester they will be putting themselves in a terrific position for the second half.

The band deserves a lot of props.  They took back Lynah Rink last night.  They played in pretty much every stoppage and it carried through during the intermissions.  The radio music was significantly at a lower volume thankfully (except for one song during the delay).  If the band can continue to beat back that noise they will regain what helps make Lynah unique.  Thank you guys.  Great work. 

[The Rancor]

Ever since they brought in the new generation laser-guided Olympia ice resurfacer, they thought they could get away with having a thinner ice layer, which ideally improves its performance if proper refrigeration temperatures can be maintained. But the thinner ice means less margin for error: the paint layer is not as protected from scraping off and the decals are closer to the surface, raising the risk of breakages. But hey, we got to enjoy some redneck improvisation: who knew that fire extinguishers could be so useful? The mild embarrassment this caused our corporate administrators can only be a good thing.

There was a great Mythbusters episode about ways to chill beer the fastest, and fire extinguisher was the winner. Science.

[Trotsky]

I'm wondering why there needs to be any vinyl that can cause problems if the ice winds up too thin. Why not just go old school and just use paint or dye or whatever it is that used to be used before the vinyl?

For that matter, why not remove all the derp from the ice except the lines, circles, and dots.

[Trotsky]

The band deserves a lot of props.  They took back Lynah Rink last night.  They played in pretty much every stoppage and it carried through during the intermissions.  The radio music was significantly at a lower volume thankfully (except for one song during the delay).  If the band can continue to beat back that noise they will regain what helps make Lynah unique.  Thank you guys.  Great work.

Two cheers for them.  They also did their interminable Jeopardy during the stoppage.  That is something they do only for themselves.  It's as selfish and irritating as Karoline Leavitt.

But other than that they came across very well on the broadcast and the crowd was more up, probably not coincidentally.  They are our biggest weapon in the fight to the death against Jock Jams.

[VIEWfromK]

They also did their interminable Jeopardy during the stoppage.

But they did show some restraint in not continuing through the remainder of the delay.  That's something, right?

[VIEWfromK]

I think that Castagna is their best through the neutral zone.  In the past we have seen him try to go one on three or one on four to no avail.  There were two plays this weekend that caught my eye.  Once in each game he came out of the zone one on one.  This is where I can't decide how I think about both instances.  Instead of using his incredible speed to beat his defender, he instead slowed up to wait for others to catch up.  On Friday he had his defender twisted all up and instead of taking advantage of it and blowing by the guy he waited and Brown was able to recover with numbers and there was no scoring chance.  Last night his defender was well positioned so as Castagna waited, Kraft beat his guy up the ice and had a terrific chance on the door step.  I'm not sure if this is a concerted effort to better manage the puck but it stood out to me none the less

[Trotsky]

They also did their interminable Jeopardy during the stoppage.

But they did show some restraint in not continuing through the remainder of the delay.  That's something, right?

That is fair.  40 minutes would have cleared the building.

[Trotsky]

Kraft had an Energize Bunny night, like Devin has been.

Is DeSantis a lot stronger this year?  Hitherto it has always seemed like he finds the perfect spot to be but then gets muscled out the second he receives the puck.  Now everything is the same except... he holds his ground.  He isn't getting pushed around as much.

Ryan may turn out to be one of our best point producers in forever.  He is starting to look like a point-per-game guy, which was an endangered species under The System (TM).

[The Rancor]

Overall, a great effort this weekend. I like the plucky, exciting transition game, and the speed. First and second period the Big Red had a relentless fore-check which I loved to see. They gave Yale no quarter.
Stanley hoisting the Yale player with the broken skate blade up by his jersey was hilarious- and that first Yale goal really seemed to piss off Cornell. The third period- as noted by everyone, just wasn't a complete effort, but wasn't terrible either. I'll take any 4 point weekend, even if it's now 6 points.

[VIEWfromK]

that first Yale goal really seemed to piss off Cornell.

Well, the Yale guy did make a point of skating past his teammates to bang into the Section A glass. 

[VIEWfromK]

Ryan may turn out to be one of our best point producers in forever. 

And yet I like even more the things he does that don't show up on the scoreboard.  He had another one of his soft high arching outlet passes that landed right on the tape of the intended target.  He clearly knows how to wield that stick like a magic wand.  His two tip ins were crossing in front of the net as opposed to being stationary.  That can't be easy to do yet he's now done it twice.  Hang on, I guess I do like the things he does that show up on the scoreboard!

[Jeff Hopkins '82]

that first Yale goal really seemed to piss off Cornell.

Well, the Yale guy did make a point of skating past his teammates to bang into the Section A glass.

Yeah, that was a dick move.