Quinnipiac 4 Cornell 1, 1/17/26

[stereax]

Here's a fun fact for the doomers before I go to sleep.

Cornell is 12-5; they have 12 wins in 17 games. (Interestingly, Fegaras also has 12 penalties in 17 games.) We have not gone to overtime yet this season. Our points percentage is at .706 (well, .70588, but rounding).

If Cornell was an NHL team, we'd be second in the NHL with that percentage, only behind the monster Avalanche.

If Cornell was an NHL team, we would narrowly lose the President's Trophy to Winnipeg last year with that P%, and win it outright against the Rangers the year before that.

I think this team may be good.

[pjd8]

Here's a fun fact for the doomers before I go to sleep.

Cornell is 12-5; they have 12 wins in 17 games. (Interestingly, Fegaras also has 12 penalties in 17 games.) We have not gone to overtime yet this season. Our points percentage is at .706 (well, .70588, but rounding).

If Cornell was an NHL team, we'd be second in the NHL with that percentage, only behind the monster Avalanche.

If Cornell was an NHL team, we would narrowly lose the President's Trophy to Winnipeg last year with that P%, and win it outright against the Rangers the year before that.

I think this team may be good.

Although, with more games, NHL teams have more opportunity to regress to the mean. And there should be more talent parity at the pro level than in college.

That said, Cornell is having an excellent season so far, especially being so freshman heavy. And the cool thing about that is that freshmen are the most likely to improve their play between November and March.

[stereax]

Here's a fun fact for the doomers before I go to sleep.

Cornell is 12-5; they have 12 wins in 17 games. (Interestingly, Fegaras also has 12 penalties in 17 games.) We have not gone to overtime yet this season. Our points percentage is at .706 (well, .70588, but rounding).

If Cornell was an NHL team, we'd be second in the NHL with that percentage, only behind the monster Avalanche.

If Cornell was an NHL team, we would narrowly lose the President's Trophy to Winnipeg last year with that P%, and win it outright against the Rangers the year before that.

I think this team may be good.

Although, with more games, NHL teams have more opportunity to regress to the mean. And there should be more talent parity at the pro level than in college.

That said, Cornell is having an excellent season so far, especially being so freshman heavy. And the cool thing about that is that freshmen are the most likely to improve their play between November and March.

For sure, there are asterisks at the college level that don't exist at the NHL level. Fewer games, more talent gap. All I'm saying, really, is I am so fucking tired of the New Jersey Devils being the way they are (utterly incompetent and downright boring besides) and watching Hockey That Doesn't Make Me Want To Gouge My Eyes Out is nice too sometimes. And for reference, I watched the 23-24 Sharks for fun. I am, for whatever reason, a fan of miserable, miserable hockey.

Anyways, the five losses:

1-2 v UMass
1-2 v Dartmouth
1-2 v BU (RHH)
1-4 v Clarkson (3rd period collapse with 3 GA)
1-4 v Q (3rd period collapse with 3 GA)

So like... score more than one goal, avoid the occasional 3rd period collapse, and we are fine.

We can win 2-1. We can win 6-4. I kinda prefer the high scoring games. More fun. But, like - fundamentally, this team is pretty good at hockey. Which is mildly surprising, because we thought coming into the season it'd be more of a rebuild year with a huge freshman class and losing a lot of important pieces, but the freshmen have had an excellent season so far and the non-freshmen have been playing incredibly as well.

I dunno. I just get sick of reading "reeeee this team is garbage" after every loss. Team's good. We lose sometimes. It do be like that. It's sports. I follow sports teams (the Indianapolis Colts) that are deeply pathetic (the Indianapolis Colts) and downright miserable (this post is about the Indianapolis Colts). I follow teams (the New Jersey Devils) that don't know how to play hockey (the New Jersey Devils) or tend the goal (Jacob Markstrom) and can't even be competent enough not to piss off key players into being almost certainly traded after the season (Dougie Hamilton) while protecting other players for no goddamn reason (Ondrej Palat).

Anyways, like. We have it good. We've been historically great. We are pretty damn good right now. It's fuckin' copacetic out here.

And a sweep of this weekend would make it cloud nine.

[fastforward]

Here's a fun fact for the doomers before I go to sleep.

Cornell is 12-5; they have 12 wins in 17 games. (Interestingly, Fegaras also has 12 penalties in 17 games.) We have not gone to overtime yet this season. Our points percentage is at .706 (well, .70588, but rounding).

If Cornell was an NHL team, we'd be second in the NHL with that percentage, only behind the monster Avalanche.

If Cornell was an NHL team, we would narrowly lose the President's Trophy to Winnipeg last year with that P%, and win it outright against the Rangers the year before that.

I think this team may be good.

I appreciate this post, great analysis

[fastforward]

Here's a fun fact for the doomers before I go to sleep.

Cornell is 12-5; they have 12 wins in 17 games. (Interestingly, Fegaras also has 12 penalties in 17 games.) We have not gone to overtime yet this season. Our points percentage is at .706 (well, .70588, but rounding).

If Cornell was an NHL team, we'd be second in the NHL with that percentage, only behind the monster Avalanche.

If Cornell was an NHL team, we would narrowly lose the President's Trophy to Winnipeg last year with that P%, and win it outright against the Rangers the year before that.

I think this team may be good.

Although, with more games, NHL teams have more opportunity to regress to the mean. And there should be more talent parity at the pro level than in college.

That said, Cornell is having an excellent season so far, especially being so freshman heavy. And the cool thing about that is that freshmen are the most likely to improve their play between November and March.

For sure, there are asterisks at the college level that don't exist at the NHL level. Fewer games, more talent gap. All I'm saying, really, is I am so fucking tired of the New Jersey Devils being the way they are (utterly incompetent and downright boring besides) and watching Hockey That Doesn't Make Me Want To Gouge My Eyes Out is nice too sometimes. And for reference, I watched the 23-24 Sharks for fun. I am, for whatever reason, a fan of miserable, miserable hockey.

Anyways, the five losses:

1-2 v UMass
1-2 v Dartmouth
1-2 v BU (RHH)
1-4 v Clarkson (3rd period collapse with 3 GA)
1-4 v Q (3rd period collapse with 3 GA)

So like... score more than one goal, avoid the occasional 3rd period collapse, and we are fine.

We can win 2-1. We can win 6-4. I kinda prefer the high scoring games. More fun. But, like - fundamentally, this team is pretty good at hockey. Which is mildly surprising, because we thought coming into the season it'd be more of a rebuild year with a huge freshman class and losing a lot of important pieces, but the freshmen have had an excellent season so far and the non-freshmen have been playing incredibly as well.

I dunno. I just get sick of reading "reeeee this team is garbage" after every loss. Team's good. We lose sometimes. It do be like that. It's sports. I follow sports teams (the Indianapolis Colts) that are deeply pathetic (the Indianapolis Colts) and downright miserable (this post is about the Indianapolis Colts). I follow teams (the New Jersey Devils) that don't know how to play hockey (the New Jersey Devils) or tend the goal (Jacob Markstrom) and can't even be competent enough not to piss off key players into being almost certainly traded after the season (Dougie Hamilton) while protecting other players for no goddamn reason (Ondrej Palat).

Anyways, like. We have it good. We've been historically great. We are pretty damn good right now. It's fuckin' copacetic out here.

And a sweep of this weekend would make it cloud nine.

I appreciate this post even more

[Trotsky]

I just get sick of reading "reeeee this team is garbage" after every loss.

Every sports forum has a few guys who are on perpetual Suicide Watch.  It's not the team.  It's them.  They are using the team to distract themselves from the failure they have made of their lives, and when the team loses it's too on the nose.

If you have a strong stomach, come to a Mets gamethread on Amazin Avenue sometime.

[pjd8]

Totally agree with where Cornell is at. If you look at the losses, only Clarkson is disappointing. Every other one is against a comparable team. All the first three needed was one more bounce that went our way. As for the last one, Q has the offensive talent and speed to wear down teams. They've also been pushed to OT by Brown and Holy Cross. They have their weak moments, and I think as Cornell matures over the season, they'll be better prepared to exploit those moments.

It's pretty cool to be sitting at 11 in NPI and have real optimism for the second half of the season being even better.

[Trotsky]

It's pretty cool to be sitting at 11 in NPI and have real optimism for the second half of the season being even better.

It has also been a nice steady rise in the polls through the year.

20 11/10
19 11/17
17 11/24
14 01/15
13 01/12
12 01/19

It gets harder as we go deeper (phrasing?) but we also have greater protection in body of work from 1 or 2 freak outcomes.

[The Rancor]

12th feels about right.

[Trotsky]

12th feels about right.

With the ECAC looking stronger this season I would hope the top 2 conference teams will be safely in the NC$$ if they make Lake Placid despite black swan events.

[stereax]

Dear Stereax,

We had a big weekend at home against two of the top teams in the ECAC in Princeton and Quinnipiac. It was a bit of a mixed bag for our group, as we played a very complete game on Friday night in a 2–1 win over Princeton, followed by our first home loss of the season on Saturday against Quinnipiac, falling 4–1. Both games provided valuable lessons as we continue to grow as a team.

Friday night was a classic ECAC hockey game — physical, intense, and played at a high pace. I was pleased with our preparation and felt we got better as the game went on. Princeton scored early in the first period off an offensive-zone faceoff loss on our part, something that showed up a few times over the weekend and will certainly be an area of emphasis moving forward. Ironically, we currently rank second in the country in faceoff win percentage, likely why this area has not been tested as often, but it's something teams will look to exploit.

We came out flying in the second period and tied the game at the 11:46 mark on a power-play goal by Chase Pirtle. Chase has moved into the lineup regularly and has been a real asset with his skill and poise, particularly on the power play, so it was great to see him get rewarded. Princeton was fortunate to escape the period tied, as we dominated play and outshot them 17–5. We eventually found the game-winner with just under four minutes remaining on a great individual effort by Hoyt Stanley, his first goal of the season, and we closed the game out the right way.

Saturday brought a different challenge. Quinnipiac is the deepest and most complete team we've faced to date. Against a team like that, puck management and composure are critical, and unfortunately, we struggled in those areas. We mismanaged pucks, made unforced errors, and Quinnipiac made us pay. Despite that, we were only down 1–0 heading into the third period and had some quality chances earlier in the game. Ultimately, we earned the result we got, but it has already served as an important teaching tool for our young team. We're just past the midway point of the season, there is plenty of runway left, and it's worth noting we still rank second in the country in goals-against average — though you wouldn't have guessed it from that night alone.

This weekend we welcome Dartmouth and Harvard to Lynah for our Alumni Weekend. Both teams are right there with us near the top of the league, and these games will be critical. We dropped a tight 2–1 game at Dartmouth earlier this season after beating Harvard 3–1 the night before — it feels like a long time ago, but these points matter just as much now. We are also excited to recognize our 1986 and 1996 championship teams during the intermissions on Saturday night. Lynah should be rocking, and we're looking forward to a great weekend.

Thank you, as always, for your continued support of our program. We hope to see many of you back in the building.

Let's Go Red!

Weekly email, for those that don't get it. Glad to see Casey had mostly the same takeaways as most of us did. Take the lessons from the Q game and move forward. And glad to see Pirtle get his flowers! He's played really well recently.

Also, we're only halfway through the season? And there are only five home games left (barring playoffs)

[imafrshmn]

Dear Stereax,

...

Let's Go Red!

Weekly email, for those that don't get it. Glad to see Casey had mostly the same takeaways as most of us did. Take the lessons from the Q game and move forward. And glad to see Pirtle get his flowers! He's played really well recently.

Also, we're only halfway through the season? And there are only five home games left (barring playoffs)

When I read an email like that from Coach Jones, it makes me so glad that Schafer made a Cornellian his successor. The Cornell Hockey DNA was in place before Lynah Rink even existed. Its origins are practically mythological. Once upon a time, it was just scrappy young men playing shinny on a pond for the joy, thrill, and entertainment of their classmates. We have to cherish every darn thing that is special in this world.

[pjd8]

Thanks for sharing! I continue to be impressed with how well-written his weekly emails are. He goes into key specifics rather than giving the more generic summary that many coaches give. He's honest about where the team fell short while celebrating the good efforts and keeping the focus positive throughout. It shows a deftness of communication that I'm sure carries over to his interactions with the players as well. We've managed to pass a brightly burning torch to someone who can keep it shining.

We are indeed fortunate.

[Trotsky]

Its origins are practically mythological. Once upon a time, it was just scrappy young men playing shinny on a pond for the joy, thrill, and entertainment of their classmates.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IsJH6gXWvGg

Well... kinda.  In the Beginning they were Upper Class Twits of the Year.  Silver spoon adrenaline junkies and cameos from a Fitzgerald story who couldn't bring themselves to face Pater's 11-to-2 Wall Street gig as the kicks of the war wound down, finding final solace in a Sidecar, a pox-ridden 14-year old Picardie barmaid, and a deliberate stall above some Flanders field.  Dulce et decorum est.

But the Letterkenny boys elbowed their dainty asses out of the sport, and the rest is history.

_{(Also, Grantland Rice was a POS.)}

[andyw2100]

Thanks for sharing! I continue to be impressed with how well-written his weekly emails are. He goes into key specifics rather than giving the more generic summary that many coaches give. He's honest about where the team fell short while celebrating the good efforts and keeping the focus positive throughout. It shows a deftness of communication that I'm sure carries over to his interactions with the players as well. We've managed to pass a brightly burning torch to someone who can keep it shining.

We are indeed fortunate.

I definitely agree with all of this.

I did think a minor omission this week was not giving the actual score of the Quinnipiac game. I'm sure there are some people who are keeping up with the team largely through these email updates. (Not anyone here, of course, but...) I imagine at least some of those people were left wondering.