McKee is the real deal

[Trotsky]

Seeing only 5-6 games per season, evenly spaced throughout the season, is a little like wathcing the team develop in time lapse photography or under a strobe light: continuous changes that gradually reveal themselves over the course of the season might become radical, unmistakable shifts when you cut out 4 of every 5 frames.

I just saw the tape of the Hamilton game and something has happened to Dave McKee.  He's gone from being a competent, admirable backstop of a smothering D to an oustanding, spectacular goaltender in his own right.  I've seen other Cornell goalies make that jump -- Elliott and Underhill are the poster child cases.  A few are great right out of the box -- Lenny was one, I'll go out on a limb and assume Dryden was another.  And there have been other solid, skilled goalies who never made the jump -- D'Alessio and Crozier come to mind (maybe it's no accident that the two who alternated didn't radically improve).  Only just past the midpoint of his sophomore season, McKee's already playing like an entirely different goaltender than he was just last season.

The statistical improvements aren't so dramatic because even a B+ goalie can crank out shutouts behind a Schafer D.  But watching the Colgate tape impressed me that Cornell has one of those goalies who, if he plays his A game, can shut down *anybody*.  Maybe this will be a special post-season.

[DeltaOne81]

Agreed. Sometime after Princeton (at Lynah) and before @Brown/@Harvard, McKee went from being a solid goalie who plays well enough behind our D to win, to being an excellent goalile who can steal a few games - he nearly did steal @Harvard afterall, as well as probably stealing away SLU and @ Colgate.

[jeh25]

[Q]Trotsky Wrote:
  I've seen other Cornell goalies make that jump -- Elliott and Underhill are the poster child cases.  [/q]

Question in my mind is whether Underhill would have put up McKee-like numbers with the defense McKee has playing in front of him.

To be clear, I'm not saying that Dave hasn't done a great job backstopping the team. To shoulder the entire load so early in his collegiate career shows the maturity and will Dave possesses. And to have the success he's had shows the talent he possesses.I don't for a minute believe that the Schafer system deserve all the credit as have suggested.

All that having been said, I wonder if McKee might just be an Underhill/JMP caliber goalie with a better D, rather than the 3rd coming of LeNeveu and Dryden.  

[billhoward]

Underhill-caliber goalie still gets you All America status by senior year.

It is fascinating to go through the season's posts (plus Ari's column) and note the he's great / he's good / he's lucky / he was great this game / he's got a good defense / he stole that game comments.

[Jim Hyla]

[Q]Trotsky Wrote:  A few are great right out of the box -- Lenny was one, I'll go out on a limb and assume Dryden was another. [/q]Well, that's a pretty strong limb that you've decided to go out on.;-) Yes he was strong right out of the box, if being a great goalie on the freshmen team, and then being great forever more counts.:-}

[billhoward]

Maybe we should get McKee elected to the student senate to he can match Ken's electoral career.

[puff]

My $.02
Mckee was always very solid. I watched all his home games last year, and then the first half of this year. Since then i've watched the home games online. I have to say in my opinion he did make that jump midway this year. In the past he would make a few poor choices, zone out or whatever and give up a goal when he wasn't getting much action. But from what i'm seeing online, i don't think those mistakes are happening now. He seems much more confident and relaxed (always has kinda been relaxed), but now its a more confident and prepared form of being relaxed, not from being for lack of better words lazy.
From what i saw of Leny, he was a more agressive goalie, who used that to shut down his oponents, sometimes getting caught by it. Mckee just seems to stay back and be the important brick wall.

Anyhow, just my $.02.

[Ben Rocky '04]

As best as I can determine, the NCAA record for career shutouts is 17, currently held by MSU's Ryan Miller. Is that correct?

[billhoward]

Another source says 26 for Miller's career (three seasons).

[billhoward]

So, what is McKee's highest-saves game ever - that he played, that he won, that he got a shutout in?

[Lauren '06]

[Q]billhoward Wrote:

 So, what is McKee's highest-saves game ever - that he played, that he won, that he got a shutout in? [/q]
I'm not going to look it up, but my guess is Notre Dame.  That was an amazing game for him.  I remember being impressed by his ability to catch the second and third rebound more than once.

[ben03]

"Ryan Miller joined the Sabres organization after a stellar collegiate career with the Spartans… He posted a career 73-19-12 record, a 1.54 goals-against average and an NCAA record 26 shutouts… He was twice nominated for the Hobey Baker Memorial Award (2001 & 2002), given to the best player in Division I hockey… He won the award in 2001, becoming only the second goalie to win the award… Over his three-year career with the Spartans, he set numerous school, conference and NCAA records… He owns the Michigan State career records for goals-against average (1.54), save percentage (.941) and shutouts (26)… He also holds the single-season record in all three categories… During the 2000-01 season, he set the CCHA single-season marks for goals-against average (1.24), save percentage (.950) and shutouts (9)… Nationally, he stands as the NCAA career leader in shutouts and single-season save percentage (.950)."[/B]

http://www.amerks.com/PlayerProfile.aspx?ID=10

[billhoward]

Me neither. Sometimes I look stuff up for others, sometimes they look it up for me. I continue to be blown away by the amount of information that's on TBRW http://www.tbrw.info/ and hope it's all automatically fed by USCHO data extracts, because if someone is hand-compiling the info, he's not getting more than 4 hours sleep a night.

[Trotsky]

http://www.tbrw.info/games/cornellShutouts.html

It's hand-compiled.  Everybody needs a hobby.

The most saves in a McKee shut out is 27 vs, as Banshee guessed, Notre Dame.  The highest save total in a Cornell shut out that I know of is John Vandermark's 47 vs RPI on 1/20/76.

[ganderson]

Official NCAA compiled stats available at http://www.ncaa.org/stats/icehockey/

There's also a PDF of the NCAA Icehockey record book (through the beginning of this season) available around there somewhere...