Cornell vs Denver, NC$$ First Round, 3/27/26

[BearLover]

[

A reminder this is the first time Cornell had gone to the NC$$s 4x in a row since 1967-70.

All these underclassmen are a year older next year.

This team is going to get better.

Cornell went to the tournament 4 times in a row from 2017 to 2020 also. They were locked for a 1 seed in 2020.

Next year is going to be very rough if Walsh and Castagna aren't back, and realistically we need both back to be nationally competitive.

I'm hopeful today left a bad enough taste in their mouth that they won't want to go out this way.

We lost a lot more in talent last season than we will this season, even if both Walsh and Castagna go. Kempf, O'Leary, Rego, Bancroft, Kovich, Mack, Robertson, Penney, Psenicka, Suda, Shane.

That's two whole entire lines and d-pairs and a goalie.

We can recover from losing two star centers and a few fringe players (no offense, Keopple, Donaldson, DeSantis, Wallace, and O'Brien).

Do we have centers coming in this year? Hopefully at least one good one.

Gio, Charlie, buds, time to step it up if both Walsh and Casty go.

I don't expect any to come in. Could be Major, DiGiulian, Devlin, Catalano, Arsenault as the center depth next year, which would be rough.

Time to start looking ahead to 2027-28?

[stereax]

Jones on how Cornell responded after Denver dominated the first period:

"We certainly had a chance in the second period to get that game close. It didn't help that they had a little puck luck with them tonight, to add to the fact that they played really well."

[BearLover]

Thank you to Casey Jones, the athletic department, hell, the whole team for embarrassing ourselves like this on a national stage.

You signed up to post this crap?

I, and I'm guessing most here, are proud of this team.

Oh, well, some people have higher expectations than two losses to your former assistant coach and a blowout in the NCAAs. Sorry! See you next year for our scheduled loss to BU in the NCAA regional.

What makes you think this team will make the NCAA next year?

Probably the fact we've made it 8 of the last 9 years.

[stereax]

Time to start looking ahead to 2027-28?

nah next year we win the natty going like 37-0-0 with all our wins being 1-0 shutouts. trust the process.

[andyw2100]

I prefer the Russian bots...

[stereax]

I prefer the Russian bots...

I was gonna say can we lock the forums again 😂

[BearLover]

I prefer the Russian bots...

I think these people are fans of some of the abysmally bad teams in our conference and decided to register here to troll when they saw Cornell's season was ending. Which is totally fine IMO, I have plenty to chat with them about.

[chimpfood]

[

A reminder this is the first time Cornell had gone to the NC$$s 4x in a row since 1967-70.

All these underclassmen are a year older next year.

This team is going to get better.

Cornell went to the tournament 4 times in a row from 2017 to 2020 also. They were locked for a 1 seed in 2020.

Next year is going to be very rough if Walsh and Castagna aren't back, and realistically we need both back to be nationally competitive.

I'm hopeful today left a bad enough taste in their mouth that they won't want to go out this way.

We lost a lot more in talent last season than we will this season, even if both Walsh and Castagna go. Kempf, O'Leary, Rego, Bancroft, Kovich, Mack, Robertson, Penney, Psenicka, Suda, Shane.

That's two whole entire lines and d-pairs and a goalie.

We can recover from losing two star centers and a few fringe players (no offense, Keopple, Donaldson, DeSantis, Wallace, and O'Brien).

Do we have centers coming in this year? Hopefully at least one good one.

Gio, Charlie, buds, time to step it up if both Walsh and Casty go.

I don't expect any to come in. Could be Major, DiGiulian, Devlin, Catalano, Arsenault as the center depth next year, which would be rough.

Time to start looking ahead to 2027-28?

Nah, the centers will be by far our weakest position group (assuming Walsh and Castagna go) but everything else should be improved from this year.

I know you said that in jest but I just want to say that I am pretty optimistic about next year.

[stereax]

Casey Jones on his team's play down the stretch:

"I thought we might have peaked maybe a month too early. I'm not sure if we hit a wall a little bit with our youth. I'm not sure. ... But we were trying to find our A-game down the stretch. We were really trying."

[andyw2100]

Casey Jones on his team's play down the stretch:

"I thought we might have peaked maybe a month too early. I'm not sure if we hit a wall a little bit with our youth. I'm not sure. ... But we were trying to find our A-game down the stretch. We were really trying."

Unlike some other coaches in our league, Casey is never going to throw our guys under the bus.

[Scersk '97]

"They're an extremely talented team. Their goalie played well. They got Pohlkamp back there. They're a really deep team, right? They're going four lines all night."

There was a time when we were the really deep team, but I feel like it's been while since we had three dangerous, wear-em-down lines and a checking line, if that's a thing anymore. I'd like to see us get back there.

As far as I'm concerned, the weakest part of our play this year was puck possession by forwards in the offensive zone. Sure, when we win a lot of face-offs our possession numbers are good. But we lose the puck a lot on rushes, and we haven't seemed to have a lot of cycling time; hence, we don't have the dwell time necessary to force in "greasy" goals when we need them. It's the difference between 22-11-1 and 31-5-1.

[stereax]

Casey Jones on his team's play down the stretch:

"I thought we might have peaked maybe a month too early. I'm not sure if we hit a wall a little bit with our youth. I'm not sure. ... But we were trying to find our A-game down the stretch. We were really trying."

Unlike some other coaches in our league, Casey is never going to throw our guys under the bus.

And thank God for that.

[Chris H82]

Post game observations:

There was a really nice pre-game get-together hosted by the CC of Colorado. Alumni and parents. Dr Moore was there - she spoke briefly and eloquently about what she's working on in the Athletics department. She also spoke highly of the young men on the team.

She said that the band's flight out of Rochester was delayed, and so they would end up missing their connection to get to Denver today, as somebody else had noted previously.

Between being at the pre-game event and in walking to the arena, I spoke with a couple of sets of parents. Really solid people - travel challenges over the course of the season and especially for getting to Denver by game time today.  These folks really care about their kids, and are walking that parental "fine line" of encouraging them while letting them make their own decisions about school choices (both where to start and where to continue)

My actual in-game observations probably won't add anything different from what you all saw in the broadcast. I didn't grow up with the game, and this was the first live hockey game I've been to in 25 years.
We were chasing from the gun. Couldn't get a forecheck to control the action into DU's end.  But it also seemed that we couldn't settle the puck - it just seemed to skitter on and off of our sticks much more than for DU. And boy, was DU fast (and skilled). Not obnoxiously more than us, but enough so that we couldn't turn the game in our favor.

The sound system was F#^$(@ING OBNOXIOUS. EVERY time there was a stop in play, they immediately started playing music etc. Maybe it was just as well that our band didn't make it - they would have been drowned out.  This is an AHL arena - are NHL games that bad?

I watched the Cornell guys after the final horn sounded. You could sense the disappointment. I'm pretty sure that Jack O'Brien led the handshake line - he seemed to take his time in acknowledging each player from Denver; definitely not the desultory handshakes we think of.  He and DeSantis and a few others really lingered - even though it was a loss, they (probably especially as seniors) didn't want to let go of being part of this team, of ending this season with these guys.  Alexis was also on the ice until the end, taking time to acknowledge and hug guys.

All I can take from this is that our underclassman are gonna have a bad taste in their mouths this offseason.  We'll see if they can use that for motivation for next year.

Fitting song came up on my music as I typed this - "One Step up", by Bruce.

[BearLover]

These folks really care about their kids, and are walking that parental "fine line" of encouraging them while letting them make their own decisions about school choices (both where to start and where to continue)

Can you offer some color on what this means? Particularly the part about "where to continue."

[Big Dingus]

If you want to see a Cornell team that was an actual national contender go watch 2020. The team this wasn't even close