Cornell 1 @ Dartmouth 6 (post-game thread)

[DeltaOne81]

No, it's definitely not all McKee's fault - far from it. But I think Ithacat said it best:

[Q]I think people may be being too hard on McKee, but that comes along with being a Hobey finalist.[/Q]


It's not that he's not playing like a halfway decent college goalie, it's that he IS playing like a halfway decent college goalie, and not a very good one, or a great one, or a Hobey Baker deserving one. It's also scary that Chabot came in and made a few a big stops on breakaways that McKee has seemingly been unable to make this season.

But halfway decent is more than you can say for the rest of our team last night.

[Facetimer]

McKee was awful last night and Schafer putting Chabot was probably the best coaching move Schafer made his entire career.   McKee does not have any focus and can't play in big games.  Certainly this year he has been worse than in the past.  I hope Schafer sits McKee a game next weekend.  I also think Chabot deserves some credit and another chance.  He was certainly tested several times and only let up one goal, which was the defense's fault for not clearing the puck on a PP.  I don't entirely blame McKee for the loss (D and O were nonexistent as well) but he did give up several soft goals, something that can't continue.  Very sloppy play all around.

I say next game he sits O'Byrne as well -- how many times did he get beat and have to take a stupid penalty?

[Trotsky]

I can't believe I'm typing this, but I agree with Facetimer.  Not about sitting McKee -- if we're going to do anything nationally this year, McKee is the guy and he simply needs to reappear, period -- but about sitting O'Byrne, and maybe for a lot longer than one night.  

We have been forgiving O'Byrne for bad positioning and dumb penalties for three seasons, now.  As near as I can tell, he hasn't learned *anything* in all that time with Schafer, who has worked defensive miracles with so many other blueliners.  Either he doesn't listen, or he just can't convert potential into results, or he gets excited and forgets everything when he's on the ice, but he is often a liability out there.  Krantz also makes some really scary defensive mistakes, but he is in effect a trailing forward and so that's the price of the ticket.  But O'Byrne is supposed to be the bruising, terrifying, take you into the corner and you never come back out guy.  If he isn't being that guy, then put in the 7th D and start developing him for the future.

[Dafatone]

I thought O'Byrne was alright last night, with the exception of getting beaten on so many breakaways.  But that was the fault of the whole defense (O'Byrne included, of course.)  To me, on a night when almost everyone played awfully, O'Byrne was merely bad.

He hasn't improved as much as we might hope since his first year, but he's one of the best we have now.  That could just mean we're in a lot of trouble.

I still have faith in McKee.  None of last night's goals were really soft.  He could have stopped a few, especially if he could cut down on rebound chances, but we need the defense to help out there as well.  I think a lot of the problem is in our defense, especially in that we've lost four forwards who ranged from solid to great on defense.  We don't have enough defensive help coming from our forwards right now.  Still, McKee isn't playing as well as last year.

And, from what I noticed at the Red-White game (though McKee supposedly was tired from practicing all day, not the normal pre-game routine), Chabot is much better than McKee on shootout/breakaway situations.  McKee needs to step up on these.  Move forward a bit, challenge the shooter, stop letting him have time to make moves.

[jy3]

ouch, i was on call last night and called my wife to say hi and for the score and was shocked. let us hope they learn from this and use it as a catalyst for the rest of the season

[cmoberg]

No reason to get so down, my take is the team was just dog tired after a hard fought Harvard game.  Harvard is a FAST team and we kept up with them Friday. It could even be argued that we were faster.  Last night, our guys looked flat footed most of the night. Dartmouth was much faster than we were.

The officiating was bad, but equally bad.  Very disappointing to see us fail to get anything going on our two 5x3 opportunities.  Our PP is suspect. We rely too much on ticky tac along the boards.  Dartmouth had us scouted, and jumped in with two defenders. Very rarely did we get any kind of cycle going.

As the night progressed, we got more deliberate and slower in our passes.  The level of offensive play spiraled downward.  On defense Chabot played very well , and the defense seemed to come alive in front of him.  

Mckee should and will be back. We know he can play, and he just needs to do what he has done in past years. Our D needs to clear the puck, and keep the scrums from clogging the area in front of the net.

Dartmouth's defense rattled us on offense. We were constantly hounded and we failed to thwart the pressure through passing.


Chris

[dbilmes]

USCHO front page: "Cornell hit the breaks in a 6-1 loss to Dartmouth"

[calgARI '07]

Cornell sucked across the board.  Things that they have been bad at all season were just brutally exposed.  This is not a physical team, at least nothing near to what it has been the last few years.  Forwards have not been finishing their checks at all in the last four games.  Dartmouth is the most physically imposing team in the conference and were the only team that could match up physically with Cornell when the last four years when they have been extremely physical.  In this regard (and many others), they straight up embarrassed Cornell, dominating the physical aspect more than I have seen a team dominate Cornell in this area in a long time.  The D is nothing compared to what it was last year right now.  O'Byrne, Glover, and Gleed have been decent but Pokuluk, Krantz, and Seminoff have been awful.  I don't care if Krantz scored on Friday, he still made a handful of major mistakes in that game and a ton more against Dartmouth.  Pokuluk was a different player against Yale than he was this weekend.  McKee seems to have no confidence.  He isn't making any big saves.  Sure, he's being left out to dry, but a goalie of his reputation and ability absolutely needs to make big saves and timely saves.  He hasn't done either with any regularity so far this season.  He isn't an aggressive goalie, but particularly on breakaway and point blank situations, he never challanges the shooter, making it a lot easier for them.  Leadership, leadership, leadership.  Saw zero intensity against Dartmouth and very little frustration after they sucked in the first period and still no frustration after they sucked even more in the second period.  
Yes, it's only one loss and this is still a 4-2 team, but Cornell has not played great to this point.  I thought their best game by far was the first one against Michigan State.  They have played very inconsistently since then.  Luckily, the game at Dartmouth last year was their worst game of the season, so hopefully that is the case this year.  Even during that time (4 game winless streak last season), Cornell's defensive scheme and goaltender were very good.  I was more concerned about offense last year at this time.  Now, I think they can get the goals, but the defensive scheme is the worst it has been in several years for Cornell.  It will certainly help to get back home for five out of the next six.  I liked the old ECAC schedule when every other weekend would be home/away rather than these successive weekends.  It just doesn't make sense to do it this way with distinct disadvantages to teams who have to play four straight on the road early in the season.
Everything being said, I picked Dartmouth to win the conference before the season and even though they sucked early, they really impressed me last night.  In fact, they reminded me a lot of Cornell last season, physicall dominating, and winning every single battle for loose pucks..  They are a very good team and will be right there with Cornell and Colgate when all is said and done.  Cornell was obviously horrendous last night, but Dartmouth deserves credit because they played extremely well.  I really look forward to them coming to Lynah later in the season.

[Liz '05]

[Q]cmoberg Wrote:
As the night progressed, we got more deliberate and slower in our passes..[]..we failed to thwart the pressure through passing.
[/q]

This makes it sound like we were actually passing.  We must have connected on some passes, but honestly, we kept on whiffing, sending the puck the wrong way, the wrong speed, directly to the opposing player, not catching the pass, losing sight of the puck, ending up clueless with the puck between our feet, etc.  The (very) few times we managed to set up a power play cycle, nearly every pass would be botched - making it that much easier for Dartmouth to get in position and block the shooting lane.

I realize that they know better than me what shots are even possible, but guys, the puck has to get relatively close to the net for it to have a chance to go in.  We kept on throwing the puck into the offensive end, trying (and frequently failing) to catch it on the way out, and sometimes trying to tie it up against the boards before it went back to our defensive end.  We needed to shoot.

On the bright side...Louis was a vast improvement over Dave.  The third period was slightly better than the first two - or at least, we started catching up in SOG.

[Faithful Fan]

Better rethink sitting OB.  

Through 6 games, he leads the team in plus/minus at +4.  

Not just the D; the team.  

Next best is Cam Abbott at +2.  No one else better than +1.

OB seems good for one or two blunders/flubs/muffs/whatever per game, which are always blatant, so that even the newbies notice them.  However, he is doing FAR more good on the ice than harm.  

Happy to have him out there.  

[calgARI '07]

Haven't read everything and didn't see someone suggest O'Byrne be sat, but he has been far and away Cornell's best defenseman this season.  Glover is second and Gleed is third.  I would even venture to say O'Byrne has been the team's best player to this point.  Definitely the best he has played in his career.  If you want to sit someone, then point at Krantz or Seminoff.  Unfortunately they don't have the depth to sit any forwards.

[A-19]

i'm with ari on this one. i have never been a big OB fan before this year, but i think he is playing well for us, on D and on the PP.

most of the penalties assigned to him last night were : (1) after the game was way out of hand, (2) the result of poor officiating, in my opinion. he has managed to stay out of the box this year, i think.

[Jacob '06]

A couple thoughts. O'byrne has definitely been much better this year, and a lot more disciplined. I still get nervous every time he skates the puck up from behind the net after that goal last year, but from a defensive perspective I feel more comfortable with him on the ice. Seminoff seems to be the second coming of O'byrne, stupid penalties and stupid mistakes.

On the subject of McKee, I was watching him during the warmups before the game last night and he just looked very uncomfortable out there. There were several routine saves that he just blatantly missed. At one point he went for a glove save and the puck went right below his glove and he looked at his glove as if it had a hole in it. When I saw that I had a bad feeling about his play in that game, and I guess I turned out to be right. I don't think hes playing terribly, but I don't think he is feeling his best out there in net. Also, there are way too many times that we have blocked a shot right in front of Mckee, or he made a save and the puck just sits there in the middle of a scrum and our defense just looks totally lost. No one has any idea where the puck is, and the other team ends up finding it first and scoring. We need to work on clearing the loose pucks in front of the net, and clearing the opponents from the front of the net. I think we miss downs and cook a whole lot more than hynes this year.

[calgARI '07]

[Q]Jacob '06 Wrote:

 A couple thoughts. O'byrne has definitely been much better this year, and a lot more disciplined. I still get nervous every time he skates the puck up from behind the net after that goal last year, but from a defensive perspective I feel more comfortable with him on the ice. Seminoff seems to be the second coming of O'byrne, stupid penalties and stupid mistakes.

On the subject of McKee, I was watching him during the warmups before the game last night and he just looked very uncomfortable out there. There were several routine saves that he just blatantly missed. At one point he went for a glove save and the puck went right below his glove and he looked at his glove as if it had a hole in it. When I saw that I had a bad feeling about his play in that game, and I guess I turned out to be right. I don't think hes playing terribly, but I don't think he is feeling his best out there in net. Also, there are way too many times that we have blocked a shot right in front of Mckee, or he made a save and the puck just sits there in the middle of a scrum and our defense just looks totally lost. No one has any idea where the puck is, and the other team ends up finding it first and scoring. We need to work on clearing the loose pucks in front of the net, and clearing the opponents from the front of the net. I think we miss downs and cook a whole lot more than hynes this year.[/q]


Right now, I think we miss all of the guys lost after last season.  The forwards have not been remotely physical, so we miss Hynes, Varteressian, Iggulden, and Knoefpli.  The defense has been soft and brutal coming out of the zone s so we miss Downs and Cook.  The losses of each player have not been replaced and that right now is the difference.  In particular, the leadership and character of those players has been a glaring deficiency.

[kaaren]

[Q]calgARI '07 Wrote:

 
Right now, I think we miss all of the guys lost after last season.  The forwards have not been remotely physical, so we miss Hynes, Varteressian, Iggulden, and Knoefpli.  The defense has been soft and brutal coming out of the zone s so we miss Downs and Cook.  The losses of each player have not been replaced and that right now is the difference.  In particular, the leadership and character of those players has been a glaring deficiency.[/q]

Okay guys, indulge me to share my thoughts, if you will.  I too feel the frustration of last night's loss and am searching for the same answers that you all are.  What Ari wrote above is true, but in those 6 names...excluding Hynes who would have been a senior this year... ALL were SENIORS with 4 years of Cornell BIG RED hockey under their belts and with 4 years of Coach Schafer's training and discipline as well.

How often did we hear last year that it took Charlie several games at the beginning of the season before he got his "A" game going?

How often did we speak about how much improved Varteressian, Iggulden and Knoefli had become from their freshman and sophmore years?  Some of these players saw very little ice time til their junior and senior years.

How much if any have the new NHL rules impacted the thinking and playing of the D, especially in front of the net?

Most importantly, I think what we're losing sight of is the fact that we're referring to all of the players as individuals.  As far as I'm concerned, hockey is a TEAM sport and the TEAM is comprised of 5 players + a goalie.  Six individuals will not win any game but these same 6 individuals who train, practice, play and gel together over time as a TEAM will win most games.

We still have a lot of young blood out there who have not had the luxury of 4 years of maturing together as a TEAM.  We can not make the mistake of continually comparing this year's team to last year.  Last year...as well as every prior TEAM, is history...and will never repeat itself.  Let's continue to have confidence in the coaching staff's decisions and selections.  The season is still very young and given time, I'm sure we'll see the TEAM come together this year as they've done in the past.

Having said that, for those of us who will be fortunate enough to attend next weekend's games, let's make rafters at Lynah shake like never before in support of the BIG RED TEAM.  


LGR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!