Cornell-Harvard postgame

[Redscore]

What has Noah Welch done that has made Red fans take aim at him?  I've always thought he was a pretty good guy.  Am I missing something?

[atb9]

[Q]jmh30 Wrote:

 [Q2]atb9 Wrote:MOP McKee[/Q]
Don't you mean Cook?   [/q]

Maybe I did, maybe I didn't...  :-P :-D

Thanks!

[atb9]

[Q]Redscore Wrote:

 What has Noah Welch done that has made Red fans take aim at him?  I've always thought he was a pretty good guy.  Am I missing something?[/q]

Redscore and Welch sitting in a tree...  ;-)

I'm sure he's a great team mate and all--he really loosened the team up at practice on Thursday--but Welch is an overrated hack.  Can he stay out of the box?  He's a senior and supposedly one of Harvards best players yet he has no idea how to cut down his PIMs.

In addition to "Du-che Bag" I loved the "Welch: 100% fruit" sign at the game Saturday (top of section 110?).

[canucksfan]

[Q]Redscore Wrote:

 What has Noah Welch done that has made Red fans take aim at him?  I've always thought he was a pretty good guy.  Am I missing something?[/q]

I don't know about everyone else, but I don't like him because he stole the puck after Paolini's game-winner in the 2003 ECAC Final. Don't actually know if he kept it or if Cornell got it back somehow, but it was still a pretty classless thing to do.

Also, he's a Harvard player.

[TShen]

[Q]canucksfan Wrote:

 [Q2]Redscore Wrote:

 What has Noah Welch done that has made Red fans take aim at him?  I've always thought he was a pretty good guy.  Am I missing something?[/Q]
I don't know about everyone else, but I don't like him because he stole the puck after Paolini's game-winner in the 2003 ECAC Final. Don't actually know if he kept it or if Cornell got it back somehow, but it was still a pretty classless thing to do.

Also, he's a Harvard player.[/q]

I remember reading about this on ELF after the '03 final. Wasn't this sort of an urban myth? Let's not accuse Noah Welch of something he didn't do.  

[KeithK]

No reason to unfairly accuse Welch of something. I for one don't need a reason to dislike the guy.  He plays hockey for Harvard. That is enough. :-)

[redice]

Great weekend.   Am I the only one who thinks O'bryne has been absolutely brutal carrying the puck out of his zone lately?   He does a lot of other things well.   But, when he's standing behind McKee waiting to start up ice with the puck, I get very nervous.    And, it seems to be getting worse; like he's losing confidence.

[canucksfan]

I've done a search of the archives...some people reported that Welch gave Paolini the puck during the handshake, but there was also a pretty big rant by someone who was sure that Welch had kept it. I guess it's inconclusive...doesn't it seem odd, though, that the first thing this guy (supposedly) thought of after his team lost the championship was to retrieve the puck for the opposing goalscorer? Especially since they didn't play for the same team before college or anything.

[calgARI '07]

[Q]redice Wrote:

 Great weekend.   Am I the only one who thinks O'bryne has been absolutely brutal carrying the puck out of his zone lately?   He does a lot of other things well.   But, when he's standing behind McKee waiting to start up ice with the puck, I get very nervous.    And, it seems to be getting worse; like he's losing confidence.[/q]

Yes, he gave away the puck early against Vermont much like in Game 2 against Clarkson.  However, besides that I thought he was outstanding.  I'm pretty sure he led Cornell skaters in ice time both games.  He was steady and far better coming out of the defensive end than Krantz or Pokuluk were.

[Josh '99]

[Q]Redscore Wrote:
What has Noah Welch done that has made Red fans take aim at him?  I've always thought he was a pretty good guy.  Am I missing something?[/q]A)  Because he's flipped us off on more than one occasion.
B)  Because he's wildly overrated.  He was terrible this weekend.  Gave the puck away left and right.

[andyw2100]

Speaking of giving pucks away...

I actually have something nice to say about Donato.

A bunch of us were gathered in the Crowne Plaza lobby Saturday night, waiting for the team to arrive. Unlike 2003, the band was not present, but we were still quite a crowd. I'm guessing there may have been 150 Cornell fans there, including perhaps 20-30 young ones. Donato came in and as he passed through the crowd he gave one of the young Cornell fans a puck.

As much as I enjoy despising Harvard hockey, and anything and anyone associated with it, that little gesture made an impression on me.
                                  Andy W.

[Chief AA Bear]

I second That !!!

That was a heads-up, solid "D" play and everybody around me noticed it too!

[Avash]

[Q]Al DeFlorio Wrote:

Something fitting about all three goals being scored by seniors.[/q]

Absolutely. That's why I wrote this -

http://www.uscho.com/news/2005/03/19_010426.php

(I'm not trying to self-promote or anything. It's just that the article got sort of hidden on USCHO, and I definitely wanted to credit the senior class.)

[JasonN95]

Random belated thoughts on the Championship game after being there in person and watching the rebroadcast on CSTV:

- G-M played an impressive game. The only thing he misplayed was the third goal. Cook’s shot went right into the heart of the net b/c G-M’s lateral move was excessive. But Cornell had been peppering him for a while by then and the Cornell pp was working like a well oiled machine so G-M can’t be faulted much for finally being out of position. If the score had stayed 2-1, I would have probably given G-M the outstanding player award.

- Geez, Harv came so close to scoring on the pp that immediately preceded Cornell’s first goal. That moment --Harv being denied on the pp and then Cornell getting the 2-on-1 goal-- was the elixir that the team and crowd needed. After that, Cornell was an unstoppable force.

- The crowd situation was so horribly unbalanced, I wish that any recruit that was entertaining both Cornell and Harv could be teleported back in time to that game and experience it.  Scanning around in my section (and I was not in one of the school specific sections, I was in the upper tier), I saw exactly one fan wearing Harv apparel. The scattering of other people rooting for Harv near me were converted ‘Gate and UVM fans.  

- The “Doc” and Jaffe were fine on the championship broadcast, but I would have rather had Adam and Bob Norton; those two did a very good job for the semis broadcast and just clearly love and know the college game.

- This game was just as satisfying but not as exhilarating as the 2003 championship (for fairly obvious reasons). There seemed to be a “taking care of business” attitude coming from the team --confident and determined to win.  Their celebration was relatively subdued I thought. Did anyone else notice that Downs did a little fake like he was going to the do the sprint lap with the trophy a la 2003?

- Maybe time is playing tricks on me, but I feel that this team is every bit as potent as the 2003 squad. One-and-done is always a crap shoot, but I’m cautiously optimistic about the NCAAs.

- If Hobey voting occurs now before the NCAAs start (I believe it does), I think McKee has made about as strong of a case for a goalie as you can: top gaa, top save % (tied), 10 shutouts with most coming in the latter part of the season including two in the playoffs, giving up only 3 goals total in 4 playoff games, played every game for his team and never had a “meltdown” or anything that even seemed like an off night. Of course, my bias may be clouding my judgement...

[Tom Lento]

I heard Welch retrieved the puck and gave it to Paolini himself, either in the handshake line or immediately afterwards, and it was actually a really classy thing to do.  I don't know if they'd played together outside of the NCAAs at some point or if it was just a mark of respect for a rival, but it really doesn't matter.

Having said that, people dislike him because he takes a ton of penalty minutes, mixes it up with the fans, and plays for Harvard.  Playing for Harvard is probably the biggest mark against him.  If the guy played for Wisconsin or even Yale nobody would care about him.