Cornell-BC post mortem

[BCrespi]

I have extraordinarily mixed feelings after watching the game last night.  All have been said here except:

Where was Moulson?  I honestly can't remember a single shot on net, but I may be confusing things in my head.  Either way, he was certainly not a presence and the power play was not fluid enough to get him a quality chance.

Being down 5 on 3 so early in the game really hurt and didn't allow the Red to get into an offensive flow until later.  Also, the fact that Downs and O'Byrne, 2 of our better defensive defensemen, were in the box together in that situation hurt as well.

Lastly, what does everybody think about pulling McKee with the penalty.  Hindisght is, of course, 20/20.  I thought it was probably the right move at the time, but was wondering what everybody thought about it.

[Steve M]

It was  the right move, but it obviously would have been better to wait until we had control of the puck in the offensive zone, given the problems Cornell had moving the puck up the ice.

[Jim Hyla]

Although I had some reservations about the announcers, one point that was made early-on deserves being mentioned. After a long layoff, one part of the play that takes a hit is the pp. It takes awhile to get back into the groove, as opposed to the pk, or even strength.

Not counting the 10 min misconduct there were 57 min of penalties, in a combined 120 min game. That doesn't allow anyone to get their flow going. So I don't know how much we can project from this. Today will hopefully be a more normal game.

Ari, I'm not sure what you mean by the timing of the penalty calls being "brutal and uncalled for". If the calls were legit, as you said, then the timing is, pure and simple, when they occurred. Now, if you mean they disrupted the flow, I couldn't agree more.

[atb9]

That was Topher, a freshman, and he didn't get the puck deep--Fundamentals that are forgotten by a rookie during crunch time.

"This is where leaders step up."

Our leaders didn't step up.

Unfortunately, I don't think the consolation game is going to be on TV.

[KeithK]

[q]Ari, I'm not sure what you mean by the timing of the penalty calls being "brutal and uncalled for". If the calls were legit, as you said, then the timing is, pure an simple, when they occurred. Now, if you mean they disrupted the flow, I couldn't agree more.[/q]Most of the calls looked "legit" from the telecast, although Hunt called the game a little too tight for my taste.  He was certainly consistent.

[ben03]

[Q]atb9 Wrote:
... I thought their players would pass out by the third period...they tired significantly (haunched over, begging for subs) but maintained their intensity even after losing Alberts.[/q]
maybe this is stating the obvious ... TV games do not help our style of play. too many stoppages and too much recovery time.

just a thought :-)

[KeithK]

[q]2) unforced errors on the breakout. We looked petrified when there were any forecheckers in our own zone. Sloppy, indecisive, and unconfident passing. Yes, they were fast, but sheez. When we were playing lights-out the first few games of the season, the standout part of the game was the efficiency CU got the puck through the neutral zone.[/q]I've now seen three games so far this season (MSU and BC) and in all of them the breakout was very tentative and slow.  Looking smooth and efficient in the neutral zone may be easy against Sacred Heart and Army.  It takes a little more effort against top teams.

[atb9]

Yeah, definitely.  The first time I was really struck by this was in Buffalo at the Final Four.  The TV timeouts--not to mention the review of our goal--were brutal.

[atb9]

The CSTV announcers for the BC/SCSU game said that they heard the ref had to ice his arm down after last nights BC/Cornell game in which there were 28 penalties called.  :-D

[ben03]

1-0 SCSU on a v. soft goal

[ben03]

 1-1 late second on a BC pp goal  ::yark::

so after watching almost three complete CSTV games from Florida ... is it just me or were/are the anouncers HEA homers??? every penalty against Maine or BC was a marginal call but somwhow they believed (or rationalized) just the opposite for those called (or not called) against Cornell and/or SCSU.

OTOH, the U Maine radio call was v. good, glad it was free and would listen to those guys anytime (hoping Maine loses of course) :-P

EDIT: One is U Mich '91 and the other is Ithaca '88 ... that said i still think they sound like HEA homers :-)

[BCrespi]

I swear in his interview just now Alberts said "Cornell's got a really good defense and is keeping us to the perimeter" (or something to that effect) when asked why they haven't had too many shot attempts.  Pretty funny.  We must have really got in their heads, hehe.  Too bad we couldn't pull it out.

> Just confirmed by announcer from IC.

[BCrespi]

Quick question:

With the score 1-1 with 4 seconds left in regulation, what are we rooting for here?  We want BC to win as many games as possible (except games against ECACHL teams) from here on out right?  I guess I don't have a firm grasp of how the schedule strngth/success of the teams we play affects us.

Thanks

[atb9]

Definitely rooting for BC as much as it hurts to do so.  SCSU is 8-9-2 so if they beat BC, that would mean that we lost to a team that lost to a .500 team.  After they finish their league play, SCSU could be below .500

[billhoward]

You root for BC to beat SCSU because you'd rather lose to a team that's climbing back to #1 rather than a team dropping to 6, 7, or 8. In other words, even though it's quality wins that get measured, you're less stung by quality losses to really good teams.

Plus BC is an eastern team.

(One of the reasons the announcers seemed to be homers was maybe it was all those spots for Hockey East last night and none (that I saw) for the ECAC.