A Major Setback

After a disappointing weekend in Estero, Fla, the Cornell team must regroup.

Before the start of the 2009-2010 season, all the talk about the Cornell mens hockey team was the potential for a great season.  Cornell retained its core of key players from last year’s round-of-eight loss to Bemidji State.  The starting goaltender, top pair defensemen, and offensive leaders all returned.  The team was returning to the ice in October with a lot of skill and experience, and the healthy return of key players who were out or playing hurt during the playoffs last season.

Then the season started.  Losses to only Yale (the reigning ECAC champions, who returned most of a team that we were unable to solve in any of 3 games last year) and Quinnipiac (a team on the rise, who made their first-ever appearance in the top-10 on the national polls shortly after beating us) left us in a strong position in the ECAC rankings.  Expectations were still high for the season, yet now tempered with the reality that even a good team needs to work through the regular season.

On November 28, Cornell saw a great opportunity slip through their fingers. In the second Red Hot Hockey game at Madison Square Garden, Cornell faced off against Boston University, the defending national champions.  The Terriers came to MSG boasting a horrendous start to the season, going 2-6-1 to tie for last place in Hockey East.  Cornell had an opportunity to crush a struggling team on the national stage.  At the start, they looked ready to do just that, jumping to an early 2-0 lead.  A diminution of intensity, and a 6-on-3 penalty kill late in the 3rd period contributed to the team only skating away with a tie.

While the tie was disappointing, fans were already looking ahead to the Florida College Hockey Classic tournament, which featured a first round matchup of #3 Colorado College against #4 Cornell.  Instead of rising to the challenge, Cornell’s team never returned from Winter Break (at least not mentally).  They were outshot 25-8 over the first 2 periods (21-3 in the second alone) and looked lost against the speedy team from the west.  Harsh words from the coach in the Ithaca Journal did not spark the team, as the next day Cornell was unable to beat the much lower-ranked Princeton (Cornell beat Princeton 5-2 in November, and should be able to win that game in their sleep). To say the least, this tournament was a major setback.

More than half the season remains, and Cornell still has an opportunity to live up to its high preseason expectations.  However, after this Sunday’s game at the University of New Hampshire, the team has only one weekend off before they hits the marathon part of the schedule.  Starting on January 15, the team plays every weekend for seven consecutive weeks, until the regular season ends.  It will be difficult to make many significant changes during the stretch.  Changes need to be made to keep this season on track, and they need to happen now.  Here are the most pressing problems that need too be addressed, as evidenced  by the College Hockey Classic:

DISCLIPLINE

Just 2 minutes and 8 seconds after Cornell returned to the ice from Winter Break, they were killing off a 5-on-3 penalty.  Ten seconds later, and Cornell was already behind 0-1 on the scoreboard.  When the day was done, Cornell had taken 22 minutes in minor penalties, including a penalty within the first minute of every period.   As they learned in Florida, dumb penalties give good opponents the opportunity to take the lead and keep it.  As they learned in MSG, dumb penalties give good opponents an opportunity salvage a game that otherwise would have been in the bag for Cornell.

Cornell was in the box for 22 minutes against CC, and 14 minutes against Princeton..  In both games, Cornell was more penalized than their opponents.  If they want to turn this season around and return to form as a national championship contender, they must reduce their time in the penalty box.  Over 10 minutes in minor penalties per game is unacceptable.  Being the more penalized team is unacceptable.

EFFORT

Hockey teams take penalties when they are being outworked.  An opponent skates faster, forechecks harder, and you are left with no way to stop them legally.  You grab them to slow them down, hit them from behind because you couldn’t legally, slash them in frustration, and then you sit for 2 minutes.  It is no coincidence that in the Colorado College game, Cornell took their fewest and Colorado College took their most penalties in the 3rd period.  This was the only period of the game where Cornell outworked CC, boasting a 19-9 shot advantage after being outshot 8-26 in the first 2 periods combined.

When Cornell was having success early this season, it was because they started the first period with jump and energy.  They outplayed their opponents for the first 10 minutes of the game, and were often rewarded with at least a 1-goal lead early.  Even when it didn’t result in a lead, this effort set the pace for the game.  Immediately, it is the opponents who are back on their heels, who need to change their game to generate offense.   Maybe in Florida, the team was still relaxing from winter break, maybe their minds were still out on the beach instead of thinking about hockey.  Whatever the reason, they did not bring the same effort that lead to quick goals against BU, and success throughout the start of the season, and the result was striking.

LEADERSHIP

In the second period of the game against Colorado College, Captain Colin Greening took a penalty while Cornell was on the powerplay, negating the powerplay and forcing the team to kill off yet another penalty as CC’s previous one expired.  As if to atone for this, Greening lept out of the box as his time expired, received a pass in the neutral zone,  skated hard down the side boards, cut across the top of the crease, and flipped the puck behind the goalie.  This beautiful goal, Cornell’s second of the period on only three shots, cut the deficit to only one goal going into the intermission and energized the team.  They came out much stronger in the 3rd, and embarrassed themselves less during the final 20 minutes.

When a team is having a rough night, it usually takes a big play to give the team some hope and turn the momentum around.  While any player can generate this spark, it is the role of the team leaders to actively look for this spark and bring the team together.  The captain did this, late in the second period when it was already too late to prevent the embarrassment that was the first 37 minutes of hockey.

Hockey teams are always going to have stretches of time when things are just not going right.  It is during these times that strong leadership is needed the most.  Cornell is expected to have strong leadership; this contributed to the high preseason expectations.  Forwards like Greening, Blake Gallagher, and Riley Nash have the skill, the intensity, and the experience to spark the team.  Leadership does not necessarily come from just goals, and a leader can send a negative message as easily as a positive one.  Brendan Nash, a senior defenseman, is also expected to be a leader on this team with his strong, responsible defensive play and his breakout pass.  Instead, he contributes more than most to the penalty problem the team is facing.  Coach Schafer proved he was aware of this by benching Nash for the game after the BU meltdown, reportedly as a punishment for his untimely penalty.

 

Cornell plays again tomorrow against the University of New Hampshire, after only a 3-day break.  It is unreasonable to expect too see much of a change in conditioning between the Florida tournament and this game.  If the team did slack off over break, we will have to wait for the Jan. 15 game against Clarkson to see an improvement in their fitness.  However, discipline, effort, and leadership all have a mental component.  Look for these aspects tomorrow night.  They will be the key to recovering from this setback, and will be vital for living up to the expectations the team is facing as they enter 2010.