At the start of each of the games this weekend, as the refs skated onto
the ice to the Brown Band's rendition of Three Blind Mice, I saw
something I'd never seen before. The refs winked at us and waved.
Only last night in game three did I understand why.
Period 1 was a penalty-fest, seeing as many as nine men in the box at once
(4 brown, 5 princeton). (Question for you gurus: What is the NC$$ record for
men serving penalties at once). In my opinion the reasons for some of these
calls weren't at all clear, especially in light of several non-calls,
most notably a lack of penalty assessment after a Princeton player clearly
intentionally shoved a referee after a stoppage of my play. (and another double
mugging of a bear by two tigers in the princeton zone). I have no guess about
what happened later in the game to end this referee rampage, except for perhaps
the usual speculation of fear of being responsible for the game's outcome.
I believe that all of the penalties called in OT were off-setting, including
some calls which probably should have been more one sided, one way or the
other.
 
DISCLAIMER: What follows is obviously in part a product of my being upset about
the outcome of last night's game, and I fully agree that I probably wouldn't
be saying this if we had won:
On the subject of overtime formats, which I know has been discussed to death:
Although I'm no big fan of the penalty shot contest (particularly following
last year's World Cup soccer championship game), I'm starting to wonder if
the infite overtime format may be just as bad. It seems a shame that a three
games series and an entire season can come to an end based on one goal at
a point when both teams are dead tired from 80 minutes of skating that night
and over 200 for the weekend and hence making mistakes. Now of course the
argument can be made that the better team will be the one that doesn't make
the mistake. But regardless, don't we want these decisions to be made
by comparing both teams playing at their bests. Whereas anybody can
make a mistake in double overtime, a mistake which is not in any way
necessarily indicative of level of play during a "normal" game.
Oh well, just my 2 cents.
 
Anyway, my hats off to the bears and what was a magnificent season
none-the-less. I'm proud to have played my part in the arena that is
Brown hockey.
 
Greg Friedman '96
Conductor - Brown Band
 
 
NOTE: The views expressed above do not necessarily reflect the views
of the Brown Band or its administration.
 
P.S. Now I have to figure out who to root for at placid. I suppose whoever's
playing RPI...