Clarkson v. Brown/Harvard (11/26 & 27)

[MikeR]

Well, started a thread for anyone wishing to post comments. No Blight, Porter, Kolu, or Genovy last knight.

Team seems to be finding a way to lose every game, something different each time, but still no offense. :mad:

2 tonight?

[CU on the ice]

Thanks for starting the thread Mike, Where's all the posts? I thought for sure people would have things to say about this game. Brown is the only home game I will see this year I am so bummed we lost. 

The second period was best. The team seemed more determined chasing after loose pucks with new energy. Perhaps the fluke goal in the first nine seconds may have shaken the young team, being that there was 8 freshman in the line up. I suppose Roll was trying to give the young ones a start against a fairly evenly matched team (in the standings)? Be interesting to see what happens toknight.

Traylen looks better than last year, very focused and the movements look fluid and fast. Here’s wishing the team beats Harvard, and “Crushes the Crimson”.

[Chaz]

Well I for one am tired of hearing and seeing the lack of effort by this team. It seems as though this team feels it can win without putting forth an effort. That talent will get them wins. WRONG!
My suggestion is that they sit down and watch a game tape of an SLU game. Seriously! Now there is a team with very similar talent, if not less, but guts out wins with a hard work ethic. Their wins are a result of hard work and good defense. Period. Maybe a good look at how their arch rivals are getting it done will wake them up.
In my 30 + years of watching Clarkson hockey I've noticed a considerable decline in the work ethic department the last 4 or 5 years. What gives? In my eyes Clarkson hockey always prided itself with a commitment to hard work. Almost never being outhustled by an opponent. I think maybe it came from a sense of pride. Of wearing the Clarkson uniform. Now, I'm not so sure that some of these kids quite understand what it means to wear the Green & Gold.
For their sake(and the sake of the program) I sincerely hope they take a good hard look inside and decide wether or not they want to play college hockey for the sake of just playing or wether they want to play as a Clarkson Golden Knight and restore this program's tradition to where it belongs.
Sorry to vent my frustration folks but I feel it's time for a major gut check.

[MikeR]

Sorry to vent my frustration folks but I feel it's time for a major gut check.
Chaz, I agree with your statements.


Coach Roll quote from the wdt (http://wdt.net/editorial/20041127/168507.asp)

If we don't win (tonight), we have a long road ahead of us in the second half. We just have to play better. We can't worry about who we're playing. We just have to have a solid effort for 60 minutes."

[Stemmer]

Well said Chaz. I have neither heard nor seen a game since the ECACs in Albany in March but it's a shock that a team that really busted it down the stretch and in the playoffs is not giving max effort so far this year. When I think of work ethic, I think of Ceglarski's teams, all of Billy O's teams and Moriss's teams up until the last 2 years. The saying is "hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work hard". Us coaches love that one.

Is Blight hurt or was he benched to send a message? On the one hand I hope he had a minor injury because if a senior needs to be benched, that's the worst sort of news we can hear.

Tech owes the Cantabs a whole pot full of beatings for all the big games they've won against us over the years, most recently last March in Albany.

ToKnight is a great time to start to even the score!

LETS GO TECH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[vicb]

It was a great Thanksgiving weekend until I got home and saw the latest debacles. ZERO POINTS ON A HOME WEEKEND IS UNACCEPTABLE!!!!!!

Gonna have to stop treating this team with the old "that's OK guys you will get them next time" refrain. IT AIN"T ALL RIGHT ANYMORE!!!!!

Where the heck has the offense gone??? Where is our power play??? Where is the penalty kill????? Both instances this weekend the lack of pp scoring and penalty kill effeciency cost this team another 2 games. Tryalen can't be expected to shut out teams or hold them to 1 goal every game.

[RSTuthill]

It would be interesting to know if the men's team still has all 18 rides or if a few have been secretly siphoned off to the women's program. That is what this feels like.

If the Knights still have all 18 scholarships, it is scary. It says that Clarkson's competitiveness has been seriously eroded in a long term manner. Time to do a root cause before all vestiges of a great program are lost.

On the other hand, fairer treatment of the other sports programs is something I am in favor of.

[Todd '86]

Well urging patience on the part of us fans isn't going to cut it -- a lot of us have been patient for a very, very long time -- whether the program is in a transition period or not.

I keep thinking that somehow last year's playoff run is working against them, rather than acting as the catalyst we all hoped it would be. Did it send the message that cruising through the regular season is OK as long as they turn it on in March? Here's hoping not.

To me the problem starts in the defense. On the more recently successful teams our goalies only faced in the neighborhood of 20 shots-per-game. Right now they are seeing a fraction under 30. Yes I know there are lots of freshman on the team and I know stats don't tell the whole story, but I think it was indicative of how those earlier teams worked together as a unit to win, and how now it doesn't. Based on what others have said and what I saw in the SLU game, its just not there. Throw in that there STILL doesn't seem to be anyone who can finish in front and you've got....what we have now -- a 3-9-1 record. BLEKKK. :(

Looks like Coach Roll's honeymoon as head coach is over, despite the great run last spring. The patience is wearing thing -- we need to see some W's.

[oldtimehockey]

.... despite the great run last spring. The patience is wearing thing -- we need to see some W's.
The run wasn't that great. Basically 2 (Two) games. Beating Union, an eigth place team, was not unexpected, especially since Tech was supposed to finish higher than ninth anyway. So the "run" was a game against Cornell, and a game against Colgate. Many times in past years a middle-of-the-pack team managed to get by a round or two early in the ECACs.

[placid]

Strongly disagree! Yes, Union was not that good of a team, so beating them, even on the road, wasn't that big a shock.
However, Cornell WAS quite an accomplishment and it *wasn't* 'a game', it was TWO games in a building where the senior class had been 0-5 before picking up those victories. AND it was two wins over a program which was in the Frozen Four the year before AND the first time in decades that anyone had beaten Cornell in a playoff series at Lynah Rink.
How can anyone say that wasn't quite a run?

[Todd '86]

Not to mention beating #1 seed Colgate in the semis. The point is that there was a strong feeling that some pretty big positives would come from last spring. Obviously it hasn't translated like many had expected.

[Brett Gobe]

I'm not ready to give up on this team just yet. But the lack of special teams is discouraging.

Hockey is too versitile a game to judge any team 13 games in.

[vicb]

I'm not ready to give up on this team just yet. But the lack of special teams is discouraging.

Hockey is too versitile a game to judge any team 13 games in.

I'm not giving up either on the team or the coaching staff. Someone has to provide a wakeup call and if it has to be us fans so be it. Special teams is just killing this team in every game. Giving up one less PP goal and scoring just one more PP goal per game and this team would have a stellar record.

As to your second comment, in an 81 game NHL season I'd agree but in a 34 game NCAA season 13 games is more than 1/3 of the season. Right now this is not a good hockey club. Particularly discouraging to me is the fact that Blight and Faulkner have disappeared as offensive threats. These are the guys that need to be scoring for this team to be successful.

[yooper]

going to be in milwaukee for the games over new years any one else coming to watch??

[Brett Gobe]

going to be in milwaukee for the games over new years any one else coming to watch??

Myself and Ron Ayers are thinking about it. It's about a 10 hour drive from Rochester to Madison. Right now I'd say we're 50-50 on the idea.


As to your second comment, in an 81 game NHL season I'd agree but in a 34 game NCAA season 13 games is more than 1/3 of the season. Right now this is not a good hockey club. Particularly discouraging to me is the fact that Blight and Faulkner have disappeared as offensive threats. These are the guys that need to be scoring for this team to be successful.

I was going to post this last night but held off. Here are the starts for the past 6 years after 13 games and the way the team finished the ECAC tourney.

1998-99: 6-6-1 Tourney - 1
1999-00: 3-7-3 Tourney - 5
2000-01: 5-5-3 Tourney - 10
2001-02: 4-6-3 Tourney - 4
2002-03: 4-8-1 Tourney - 12
2003-04: 6-4-3 Tourney - 2
2004-05: 3-9-1

I post the tourney results cause winning the ECAC regular season is pretty much worthless now. Aside from 2 years of UVM losses the team has advanced to the final 4 or 5 4 out of the 6 years and every year seems to be the same. Start real slow, learn the system and play well in February and go to Albany.

Granted this year has been painful to watch, but Traylen is the type of goaltender who can get real hot, real fast. Faulkner and Blight will come around, Weller has the talent to be a super star, so does Zalewski, it's just a matter of getting the system down and executing. That's what's been missing so far this year, execution. There were 3 times against Harvard where a big rebound was there and wasn't capitilized on. When the system is learned I think you'll see Weller, Zalewski and LaTulippe cashing in on alot of those second chances.

As UVM has shown, putting a 10-11 game win streak behind a hot goalie is definatly possible. I still say it's just a matter of time til we start seeing a string of wins and a rise in the standings.

[vicb]

going to be in milwaukee for the games over new years any one else coming to watch??

I am going to be there. Already have ordered my tickets. Hopefully the 2nd set of tickets will be at the will call window. The first set of tickets they sent to my house but those never arrived :eek: . My wife and I will be staying in Appleton at my wife's niece's house prior to the Friday game and then on Sat we have booked the Marriott in Madison to stay after the Sat night games. Keeping my fingers crossed that the weather will be decent for the drive.

[Stemmer]

I post the tourney results cause winning the ECAC regular season is pretty much worthless now. Aside from 2 years of UVM losses the team has advanced to the final 4 or 5 4 out of the 6 years and every year seems to be the same. Start real slow, learn the system and play well in February and go to Albany.



A focused and talented team should NOT need 13 or more games to "learn the system" especially the returnees. Ask any coach at any level.

That's what last year's experience, practices and exhibitions and early NC games are for.

[oldtimehockey]

A focused and talented team should NOT need 13 or more games to "learn the system" especially the returnees. Ask any coach at any level.

That's what last year's experience, practices and exhibitions and early NC games are for.

Exactly correct. Lacking quality players, systems are nearly useless and coaches are all but helpless.

[joecct]

I think I see a trend here

1996-97 38 T. White 36 T. White 74 T. White
36 J.F. Houle
1997-98 18 C. Clark 21 C. Clark 39 C. Clark
21 B. Maidment
1998-99 22 E. Cole 23 M. Ollila 41 E. Cole
1999-00 19 E. Cole 17 D. Evans 30 E. Cole
17 K. Ellis-Toddington
2000-01 17 M. Poapst 28 K. Huskins 35 M. Poapst
2001-02 14 K. O'Flaherty 24 K. Ellis-Toddington 33 K. O'Flaherty
2002-03 13 R. Jones 20 R. Jones 33 R. Jones
K. O'Flaherty
Goaltending:
1996-97 D. Murphy .917 (37) D. Murphy 2.33 D. Murphy 27
1997-98 D. Murphy .907 (23) D. Murphy 2.27 C. Bernard 13 (13-0-1)
1998-99 S. Grant .905 (36) S. Grant 2.61 S. Grant 25
1999-00 K. Mattson .901 (17) K. Mattson 2.74 K. Mattson 10
2000-01 M. Walsh .922 (21) M. Walsh 1.86 M. Walsh 15
2001-02 M. Walsh .911 (38) M. Walsh 2.39 M. Walsh 16
2002-03 M. Walsh .910 (23) M. Walsh 2.42 M. Walsh 6
D. Traylen 6
Records:
1996-97 37 27-10-0 17-5-0 154 91 +63 4.16
1997-98 35 23-9-3 16-4-2 128 87 +41 3.66
1998-99 37 25-11-1 18-4-0 131 95 +36 3.54
1999-00 35 17-15-3 9-8-3 111 116 -5 3.17
2000-01 35 21-11-3 15-5-2 123 91 +32 3.51
2001-02 38 17-15-6 11-6-5 109 97 +12 2.87
2002-03 35 12-20-3 9-10-3 96 99 -3 2.74 We don't have any goal scorers. Your leading scorer averages about one point per game?!?! and your goals/game has dropped by almost 1.5 GPG. You are not going to win the close ones and you're putting enormous pressure on your goaltender to keep the score close. Our defensive effort has not really changed, but the offense gang is killing us.

[RSTuthill]

... and they are quite impressive, actually. They just beat Merrimack 4-1 in the UConn Toyota Classic. D'Alba is the real deal, their regroup is lightning fast, and their breakout was crisp all game long. Pretty good team. No disgrace that Clarkson lost to them, but the Knights simply have to raise the level of their game. Tomorrow will be a good measuring stick.