Biting Sun Article

[melissa]

Either someone over at the sun is very pissy or Schafer put them up to today's article. It is a MUST-read. Though in part true I read it in disbelief. It might have been a little over the top. Good luck to the team at placid. The fans expect a great showing but win OR lose it has been a great season.

[RedAR]

http://cornelldailysun.com/articles/4982/

[Stewart]

Not a nice article at all...

Don't you want to enjoy the ride? Winning a national championship would be great, but seeing all the great victories this year (Yale 3-2, Harvard 6-3, Clarkson 5-3, etc.) was and is the greatest joy so far. Of course we all have high hopes, but this article is a bit out there... Bobby Knightesque in some ways... Hockey is at times a game of luck, and who knows how many posts get hit at the wrong times:`(

[Beeeej]

...and as usual, stunningly written and edited:

Having been an elite team all season, we've heard that this was one of the best assemblage of skaters Cornell's has seen.

I didn't know Gary was part of an elite team.

its time we raise the bar

Make no mistake about.

no matter how "confident," a team this is

one of the most history-rich program in college hockey

following in the likes of legends

Are "likes" anything like "footsteps"?

From a rookie defenseman who used to gaze in awe Cornell hockey from the Lynah bleachers, to a winger and the team's premiere offensive threat who once played in a backyard rink in Greece.

I'm sure there was a complete sentence somewhere in there just aching to get out.

And when it returns from Minneapolis

(Psst... the Frozen Four is in St. Paul.)

Than, we will all realize

Uh, Gary?  It's time we start expecting people attending one of the finest universities in the world, and claiming to be writers, to know how to write.

Beeeej

[finchphil]

A national championship would be wonderful, but let's not lose site of things here....let's worry about the ECAC tournament first.  Either Dartmouth or RPI will be a tough game.  Remember we haven't beaten Dartmouth this year and barely beat RPI twice.  If we can't be prepared for and win that game, the NCAA tournament might be a moot point.  The team has played well all year and has upheld the high standards we expect from Cornell Athletics.  But to think there is something to be ashamed of by not making the Frozen Four is ludicrous.  Let's go out there and win on Friday, win on Saturday and worry about the NCAAs after that!

[Melissa \'01]

agreed. to think nothing else is acceptable is ludicrous.

[dsr11]

While everyone is going to jump on me for saying this, I think the author makes a few good points.  He may not have all the facts correct, but when it comes down to it, Cornell Athletics, and especially Cornell Hockey DO need to start bringing home the trophies.  Correct me if I'm wrong, but women's polo recently won a championship a year or two ago, but polo doesn't get the visibility of the hockey program.  A national chamionship would be nice, but a 2002 ECAC championship would also be something great to bring to Ithaca.  Certainly the hockey program is the most widely known team at Cornell, and the last ECAC title was 5 years ago (1997 if I remember correctly).  I'm NOT  trying to take sides with the author or pick a fight with anyone here, but just take a step back and think before you go off and bad mouth everything this guy side.  Some of it is relevant, in my opinion, and some of it is garbage, as a few of you have pointed out.  

On that note, I hope everyone thats going to Placid has a GREAT time and cheers our team on to an ECAC title this weekend!

[Beeeej]

The women's polo team has won the last two national championships, IIRC.

Anyway, there are twelve teams in the ECAC.  Yes, Cornell has a more significant "tradition of greatness."  But winning the tournament twice in the last six years is pretty damned impressive with those odds, and winning it a third time in seven years will be freakin' amazing.

But to say that anything less than a Frozen Four appearance is unacceptable when even in our own conference we have to contend with the disadvantages of a shorter schedule and no athletic scholarships is absurd.  Yes, it would be great - but demanding it is, as has been said twice here already by other people, ludicrous.

Beeeej

[Josh '99]

Pete Mangurian was one of our "most storied coaches"?  He was at Cornell for, what, three years?  Anyway, other than George Siefert, who's storied because of things he accomplished after leaving Cornell, no post-1950s Cornell football coach can be called "storied" until he wins (outright) an Ivy Title.

As for lacrosse...  Harkness is a storied lacrosse coach.  Moran is a storied lacrosse coach.  Pietremala was a good coach, certainly, but the lax program was hardly a national powerhouse while he was there.

[Adam 04]

This sounds like a speech my soccer coach made my sophomore, junior, and senior years before each playoff game. We won 2 out of the 3 years! I guess it is a very arrogant attitude, but sometimes it is good to set high goals. Although, this type of outlook can't be very pleasant, seeing as how the majority of the time you won't meet your ultimate goal. Sounds like bulletin board material to light a fire under the players asses. It makes the Lynah Faithful sound like Yankees fans, but therein is the motivation to win. LETS GO RED!!!

[Josh '99]

Adam J. Doyle wrote:

It makes the Lynah Faithful sound like Yankees fans...

Dont ever say that again!

[mha]

Actually, I was thinking, "Gee, this could have used some editing." I wonder if the web version comes from pre-edit text files, and if today's print edition lacks some of those foibles

But isn't this, ironically, the same kind of discussion Gary said we "ladies and gentleman" [sic] should raise the bar from?

I agree with a lot of what he says in this piece. I don't think he's really saying "What you've accomplished so far means nothing." I think he's saying "Don't stop fighting for it just because what you've accomplished so far is 'good enough.'"

Amen.

[Adam 04]

[CowbellGuy]

Why, cause it might rub off and bring the hockey team some luck? ::rolleyes::

[Kenny L Parker]

Beej especially, why don't you give this author a break?

Minor grammatical and factual errors notwithstanding, there is a valid point in the article - Cornell should certainly be focusing on the Frozen Four.  The Faithful like to recount tales of long winning streaks and championships, and consider Cornell to be among the "elite" programs in the nation, one of those with great and storied "tradition" - and they are correct in that.  However, it is time to add to the list of accomplishments.  The ECAC title is nice, but that conference is getting weaker and weaker - some Western fans no longer consider it to be one of the big 4.  If Cornell wants to avoid being passed by by college hockey, it has to start making noise on the national scene, and this year is a perfect opportunity to do so.

You can only bank on 1970 for so long.