Bill Fenwick asks:
 
>3.  Does it strike anyone else as, well, counterproductive that the Vermont
>coaching staff seems to have let this whole incident stick in the craw so much?
> Coach Schafer pulled the same "tactic" in the game at Yale after the Elis took
>the lead with a minute left (it didn't work; Cornell still lost that one), and I
>think we're still waiting for Tim Taylor's reaction.
 
        Not to mention Colgate's Don Vaughn, illegal stick victim (in
another failed Cornell comeback) last January, who used the tactic
himself against Merrimack (with the same results) in the first round
of the Syracuse Invitational back in December.
 
        I don't really see the big deal here; I've always thought of
calling for a stick measurement as like pulling your goalie; it's a
risky gambit reserved for crunch time.  I think that the intangible
disadvantage gained by inspiring the opponents is offset by the
inspirational effect it's likely to have on your own team.  Coach is
pulling out all the stops, so why shouldn't we.  If Schafer did
anything wrong, it may have been killing the golden goose.  Gilligan
may be steamed enough to do something about changing the rule.
 
        The strange thing to me is that I've never heard of an
instance where this fails.  That would imply that a whole lot of
people are using illegal sticks, even late in the game, or coaches are
just *very* good about telling when their challenges will be
successful.  Remind me never to play Scrabble with Mike Schafer. :-)
 
        On the ECAC front, this just adds another wrinkle to the
developing Cornell-Vermont rivalry.  Two ties last year, UVM wins the
regular season and gets knocked out of the conference tournament one
game before they would have played Cornell, who win the ECACs.
Cornell then turns around and loses in the regionals one game short of
a matchup with Vermont.  A two-goal win by the home team in each of
the two regular season games this year, and the two currently tied for
the league lead.  Two rabid fan bases with diametrically opposite
styles.  A team with three senior superstars against a squad of
overachieving youngsters.  And now one coach gets honked off at the
other.  This could make for some real excitement in Lake Placid, and
I'm not talking about the between-periods mooing contest. :-)
 
        (For that matter, can you imagine a Cornell/Clarkon/UVM/RPI
ECAC Phinal Phour?  I'm hard pressed to find any pair of these teams
that don't have a "special" relationship.)
 
                                        John Whelan, Cornell '91
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        <http://www.cc.utah.edu/~jtw16960/jshock.html>
 
Cornell Men's Ice Hockey: 1996-7 Ivy League Champions
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