Four Point Weekend

Team plays "well enough to get by", jumps to #3 in polls, #1 PWR and RPI

I know it was a four point weekend. I know Scrivens got a shutout, and nearly got another one. I know the powerplay seemed to click with 3 goals, that the PK seemed to click by keeping the other side off the board, that Nash and Greening found their way onto the score sheet plenty enough. Most people are happy with this. Five coaches think that we are the #1 team in the country, according to polls, and everyone else thinks highly enough of us and this weekend to bump us up to 3. But, blame my bad seats for both games if you'd like (worse for RPI than Union, but pretty bad for both), blame a bout of pessimism, blame whatever, but I do not see things as peachy. In my opinion, the team played just well enough to come out with the wins; they did not play the quality of hockey that can bring a team to the Frozen Four.

We were outplayed physically all weekend, in both games. If you look beyond the scorecard, look at the actual hockey, yes, both Union and Rensseaer outplayed us. In Schenectady, we were being bounced off the puck all game. Even big guys like Kreuger looked like they were Topher Scott out there. Our hits were for the most part uninspiring, while on the other hand, when we were the ones getting hit, we were being pushed all over the ice. And in Troy...Scrivens got bumped. At least FOUR TIMES. The last time gave me a bit of a scare, he was slow to get up, and took a few seconds to skate it off. He ultimately seemed to be ok, but he is our star player, he is the reason why we are in every game, he is the reason we have not had a loss in the ECAC yet, he NEEDS TO BE PROTECTED. RPI is not a good team, yet they were able to drive to the net repeatedly. The defense should be able to keep them out. That's what they are supposed to do. Our coach is known for shut-down defense first teams. This year is supposed to be "classic Schafer", but let me tell you. A shut-down defense does not allow opponents to drive to the net. They do not allow the other team's forwards to come anywhere near their goalie, let alone get hit or bumped.

I know that shots-on-goal records are sometimes misleading. We recorded less than 20 each game this weekend. While that is great for our shooting percentage and bad for the Milan's and Lange's save percentage, getting outshot is not a good habit to get into. Especially against the weaker teams. If we cannot control play for 60 minutes against the Engineers, if the 8th place team in the "EZAC" can outplay us physically and outshoot us, what happens when we see the Terriers of BU? For perspective, the highest ranked teams we've faced this year have been Princeton (currently 9 and falling, and we squeaked out a 1-0 shutout), and North Dakota (sitting at 15, and they shellacked us one night, even if we got even the second night). Eventually we will need to see a top-4 team...

I am the most dissapointed because of what we have shown in the past this season. Harvard-Dartmouth weekend this past fall was still the best hockey I've seen from our boys in Red in all my time watching them. We played physically, we controlled the play, we exploited the weaknesses of our opponents. In short, we made ourselves look good and the other guys look bad. We are capable. We just need to be able to do that every week, whether our opponent is Union, Boston U, or Brown.

The Bright Side: I do not mean to sound like I am all negative about this weekend. Obviously, winning makes me happy, and obviously the team did something right to come out with a combined score of 7-1. First (as usual), Ben Scrivens played spectacularly. What impresses me the most about his play, as I have said before, is how calm he is. No matter what traffic is in front of him, how many deflections the puck takes on the way in, how many rebounds sit in the crease that his defensemen cannot get out, he just does what needs to be done. He makes the everyday saves, and then he makes the spectacular saves, and he makes them all look effortless.

Brendan Nash had a decent weekend. In fact, on the defensive side of the puck, he had a strong weekend. One beautiful breakup of a 2-on-1, a few key blocked shots. A good weekend for him, after getting the 2nd night off vs Niagra (as mentioned last week), and some less-than-stellar performances earlier in the season (as also mentioned). Brother Riley lit up the scorecard, which is what he needs to do. Effortwise, could have been greater, the Nash-O-Meter seemed to read 3.5-4 ish range, but he put the puck in the net, and that is what our top line needs to do.

Scali is a great penalty killer. In Union, he carried the puck, while shorthanded, deep into the offensive zone, controlled despite being surrounded by four Union players, killed a good 15 seconds in this way, and then drew a penalty. Penalty killing does not get better than that. I'm slightly unsure why he and Nicholls were benched for Jillson and Punches. Punches in particular did not show me anything special, why he should win Scali's spot. I can only assume that the lineup decisions of this weekend were made to let Schafer see what he has and what the normally-scratched guys can do. [Nicholls also had a pretty good game Friday night, hustling to the puck and and contributing in the offensive zone]

Lastly, best wishes to Davenport. I could not see the play well from my seat, but from people who saw the game on TV, it was an awkward fall, bad luck. He seemed to be down on the ice for a while. We all hope that he is ok, you hate to see anybody on any team get injured. Hockey is stil only a sport, and these are real people playing them. I have not seen or heard any report of if he is injured or how badly. He skated off the ice, supported by two teammates, hopefully he is not hurt.
[Also, the guy who hit him, got a DQ for hitting Scali late in the game last year, and apparently was kicked out of another game a few weeks ago...Even if it was not his fault, I believe there is a difference between playing to the buzzer no matter the score, and going for the hard hit with 2 seconds left when it is obviously meaningless to the outcome. One is admirable, the other unnecessary, dangerous, undisciplined, and stupid].

Come back later in the week for a section of "Stuff People Have Asked Me", and also for my opinion on the 4th aka checking aka Mugford line