This Week's Column Up

[calgARI '07]

Along with last week's:
http://www.elynah.com/?editorial&id=21

This week's:
http://www.elynah.com/?editorial&id=22

[atb9]

3-0 at Union?  Come on Ari, you're looking like a homer!  ;-)

[calgARI '07]

I had em losing at Harvard didn't I?

[atb9]

Yeah, but it's crazy because we lost 3-0 at Union last year.  And I'm pretty sure you were sitting with me at that game!  ;-)  And the last time we won 3-0 on the road was at Yale in 2003.  That's all I'm trying to say...homer  ;-)

I kid, I kid!

[calgARI '07]

uch, don't remind me about that game at Union last year.  

[Al DeFlorio]

The Topher Scott situation is interesting.  Earlier in the season he appeared to be the best face-off guy on the team, and it seems we lose a lot in that regard playing him on a wing.  He also doesn't have much size to work the corners like a Baby or Hynes.  We'll see how this sorts out, I suppose, over the next few weeks.

I may be wrong, but it struck me that Cook lost control of the puck a number of times playing the point on the power play, completely disrupting puck movement around the perimeter.

[calgARI '07]

I'm pretty sure Pegoraro was moved to the wing last weekend when Scott was moved to that line in the absence of Cam Abbott.  Regardless, Scott holds his own on the boards when he's there just because he battles so hard out there every shift.  He really struggled on faceoffs against Harvard, both even strength and on the powerplay.  
Against Maine when Cook was moved back to the first powerplay, he really seemed to be the missing link.  He moved the puck really well and shot it better than he ever has.

[Al DeFlorio]

[Q]calgARI '07 Wrote:

 I'm pretty sure Pegoraro was moved to the wing last weekend when Scott was moved to that line in the absence of Cam Abbott.  Regardless, Scott holds his own on the boards when he's there just because he battles so hard out there every shift.  He really struggled on faceoffs against Harvard, both even strength and on the powerplay.  
Against Maine when Cook was moved back to the first powerplay, he really seemed to be the missing link.  He moved the puck really well and shot it better than he ever has.[/q]
Seemed to me Scott was on left wing while Pegoraro took face-offs.  I kept asking whether Scott might have hurt a hand or something preventing him from drawing face-offs back.

Edit:  Gametracker shows Scott at left wing with Pegoraro at center in both Brown and Harvard games.

[French Rage]

[Q]calgARI Wrote:

  uch, don't remind me about that game at Union last year.[/q]

Like how their only cheer was "Let's go U!".  Which they never started themselves, but only yelled "U" over "Red" in our cheer.  Or the guy with the mullet in front of all of us.  Gah.

[Steve M]

Good column as usual Ari.  I'll defend your prediction in the Union game.  Union is near the top of the ECAC, but only one of its 10 wins has come against a TUC in 9 tries!  They've beat the cupcakes, but lose consistently to better competition.  Their record at home is almost the same as on the road.  I don't think they are as good as Brown, in spite of their spot in the standings.  Upsets can happen, but we should be able to beat Union without too much trouble, as well as RPI.

[billhoward]

[Q]calgARI '07 Wrote:

 I had em losing at Harvard didn't I?[/q]

You did, but on a bunch of systems, whatever character goes after the score reads as question mark, so it was like Cornell 1 ? Harvard 2 ?

[Jacob '06]

I didn't notice until late in the third period against harvard, but on 3 or 4 shifts that I watched, scott took 1 faceoff and pegoraro took the rest.

[atb9]

I think I proved with the picture that he isn't a guy...  ;-)

Oh wait...

[Greg Berge]

Scott was moved to wing as a domino in the line shift caused by Cam sitting out.

In many cases, freshmen who look good early then regress for a while -- if not in skills, then in results.  Opposing coaches start to pay attention to them, they get a few college-level hits and need time to adjust, and the early game excitement gives way to routine.  It's still early, but Pokulok and especially Sawada actually seem to be contributing more, and more obviously, each weekend.  That's unusual.

[CowbellGuy]

That's fixed. MS Word loves to use non-ASCII characters like fancy quotes, every kind of dash except the right one, strange line breaks, etc. I obviously didn't get them all and since I use a web browser that's smarter than all of MS's programmers put together, I didn't notice the problem.