Cornell 1 @ Dartmouth 6 (post-game thread)

[dadeo]

[CaribRedFan]

 ::help::   i don't think any of us really know what to say...definitely a huge upset

[1970]

There seems to be a lot of discourse surrounding McKee’s play but is it plausible that the real issues for this team surrounds what might turn out to be an average college defense, truly an incomprehensible thought during the Schafer tenure.

I like the rest of the Lynah faithful wants nothing more that to see our Big Red raise another national championship banner but one has to wonder with such unconvincing victories that maybe there is trouble on the horizon?

[jimmy]

I don't think we're being to hard on McKee here.  He gave up a few soft goals against Michigan State and from what I hear (although I didn't see any of the games) he wasn't great in the 4 road games either.  He started off slowly last year, and only began to dominate in the second half of the season, but this is ridiculous.  He should start next weekend, but he should have a VERY short leash.  Chabot is gonna get some playing time this season, and hopefully he's ready for it.  Not the end of the world, but a terrible game for the Big Red tonight.

[billhoward]

The erstwhile head football coach at Michigan State, Duffy Daugherty, said something to this effect:

"Any fool can tell me the right play to send in on Monday morning. I've got 25 seconds to pick the right one Saturday afternoon."

Even more simply: Some days you're the windshield, some days you're the bug.

[DeltaOne81]

I definitely think the really issues are the D right now, and to some extent the O (couldn't even get in the zone on the 5x3 on the first). I do not mean to say that this is McKee's fault in any way. And I think that anyone who says so is overlooking other serious flaws.

However, I think it's pretty proof that this is NOT the McKee who could save a game for us. Because he would have needed to do so tonight and just couldn't. And he had opportunities in the other earier games to shut the door and hand the game to the Red, and he couldn't do that.

But for a miss on a 6x4 open net against Yale and an overtime goal against Brown, this team would be 1-1-2 in ECAC play. And but for goals in the last 5 minutes agains Harvard, 0-2-2. Now none of those are McKee's fault, but he could have handed us each game easily if he was playing like he did last year.

[Cactus12]

McKee may not be playing his "A" game... but every damn shot that he does save ends up being a rebound goal by an opposing player just standing right outside the crease. The defense NEEDS to start protecting the net...

[Scersk '97]

6-1?  Whatever.

Let's take a walk down memory lane:

1996:  2-6 @MSU, 1-7 @BU, 0-11 @CC, 1-4 @Army
1997:  2-5 @Clarkson, 1-7 @Union, 2-6 UND
1998:  1-5 UND, 2-5 @FS, 0-11 @Yale, 2-5 Dartmouth, 1-5 @Brown, 0-3 @RPI, 2-6 Pr
1999:  2-6 @Clarkson, 3-7 Providence, 1-4 Clarkson
2000:  2-5 @Princeton, 0-4 @Colgate, 0-4 Colgate
2001:  1-4 @Dartmouth, 3-6 SLU, 1-4 @Princeton
2002:  none
2003:  2-5 @Dartmouth
2004:  0-3 @Union
2005:  none

And really reaching on back:

1995:  ECAC Quarterfinal at Clarkson, 2-6, 2-7.  Now *that's* embarrassing.

or, back in the I'm really glad I had other things to do that year and had not yet matriculated department:

1993:  0-5 @SLU, 0-7 Providence, 1-6 @ Harvard, 0-3 OSU, 3-6 @Colgate, 0-3 Clarkson, 2-8 SLU, 3-6 Harvard, 2-8 @RPI

Our only ECAC wins were Vermont (twice), @Brown, Princeton, and Union.

So, is it clear why the class of 1996 contains some very stalwart fans?  And, primarily, which season would you rather have had?  1996 or 1997?  2002 or 2003?  I'll take 1996 and 2003, thanks.  Those teams may not have been as mistake free as the other ones of the set, but they sure had a lot more potential.

As has been discussed more than once on this board, defense, under Schafer, will eventually come together; offense has been more iffy.  Last night's comeback versus Harvard was encouraging, as was the comeback versus MSU in the second game.  Let's see if this year's team has more firepower than last year's.  Moulson and Scott are certainly up to their old tricks.  Bitz is playing as expected.  O'Byrne has found his shot.  Scoring is roughly the same as last year, and considering that our power play hasn't been as good, that means 5x5 scoring is up.  Barlow and, perhaps surprisingly, Mugford seem to have some potential.  McCutcheon and Carefoot are working hard and developing some chemistry on the kill.

So, who needs to start stepping up to the plate?  Pegoraro needs to start scoring goals and leading that second powerplay unit, and, well, McKee...  He's not on.  He didn't look good at Red/White, and has looked alternately iffy and brilliant thus far.  Let's hope he settles down... ::worry::

[Brian Deerr '04]

Well said, Cactus.  It's been a while since I've seen our defense do such a poor job of moving people out from the front of the crease and clearing loose pucks.  Sadly, it's also highly reminiscent of the first period of the drumline's first intramural hockey game a few years back...

Admittedly, I turned off the game after 2 periods and went back to grading essays, but it looked like we were having a ton of trouble with Dartmouth's aggressive PK.  Resorting to a dump and chase while on a 5 on 3 is just ridiculous.  

As other people have already mentioned, the lack of hustle is a concern, but my guess is that Coach will fix that immediately.  ("Hard work beats talent unless talent works hard.")  The freshmen sound like they have some good potential and it may take some time before the team gels and begins to play the more defensive style we're all used to.

Let's hope this serves as a wake-up for the team and we can come back strong at Lynah next weekend.

[DeltaOne81]

[Q]Cactus12 Wrote:

 McKee may not be playing his "A" game... but every damn shot that he does save ends up being a rebound goal by an opposing player just standing right outside the crease. The defense NEEDS to start protecting the net... [/q]


Oh, absolutely true. But keep in mind that saves wouldn't turn into shots if there weren't rebounds. Neither end is doing their job.

[BMac]

When the game went to "commercials," the Darmouth announcers were still audible on the web feed. They were commenting on how they couldn't believe how "lackadaisical" and "slow" Cornell was playing.

This kind of seems as if after hahvahd the whole team ate something bad or had a fight in practice or something, and played like hell the next night. I think when they come back to play Union friday they can come out strong, beat them up, and be back to old form, just like that.

Here's hoping.

[proof of concept]

I noticed that.  It contrasted rather violently with their on-air analysis, which consisted of Dartmouth being the "best team evar," but what can you expect from the opposing team's announcers?

The other thing that caught my attention was when they heard the Cornell fans cheering, and wondered aloud on the air why they were cheering when they had so little to cheer for.  That seemed a bit unprofessional to me, but again, you can't expect stellar treatment from the opposing team's announcers.

[CaribRedFan]

I think we're all agreed that tonight was not the Big Red we're used to, defense, offense, goaltending, everything.  I guess every team should be allowed one "bad night"  

I have every confidence in the world that this won't be the same team hitting the ice come friday against Union.

[DeltaOne81]

[Q]BMac Wrote:
This kind of seems as if after hahvahd the whole team ate something bad or had a fight in practice or something, and played like hell the next night. I think when they come back to play Union friday they can come out strong, beat them up, and be back to old form, just like that.

Here's hoping.[/q]

The term "Harvard hangover" is not unknown. It's just that we used to play Brown afterwards and could get away with it (athough two years ago we did lose to a definitely inferior Brown team in OT at Meehan). The Harvard/Dartmouth weekend is gonna be a hell of a weekend for quite a while. We're gonna have to learn to get over that, or beg to have Harvard scheduled on Saturday (although maybe then we'll be talking about "Dartmouth hangover", see Colgate tonight).

[jtwcornell91]

[Q]DeltaOne81 Wrote:

The term "Harvard hangover" is not unknown. It's just that we used to play Brown afterwards and could get away with it (athough two years ago we did lose to a definitely inferior Brown team in OT at Meehan). The Harvard/Dartmouth weekend is gonna be a hell of a weekend for quite a while. We're gonna have to learn to get over that, or beg to have Harvard scheduled on Saturday (although maybe then we'll be talking about "Dartmouth hangover", see Colgate tonight).[/q]

Friday/Saturday scheduling flips with home and away, and tends to alternate every two years.  So for example the home game against Hahvahd is on a Saturday (Senior Night, in fact) this season.