First of all I'd like to congratulate Union for an outstanding season
and for really outplaying the Big Red this weekend.  Union outhustled
out skated and out smarted the Big Red all night and got a great win
for the program.  Of course, RPI outplayed Cornell more :-(
but luckily I was unable to attend that game :-|.
 
Now for my two observations of the game:
 
1)  Cornell's power play is INEPT!!!! (And I think I'm being kind).
        In the third period, Cornell was down by three and was presented
with a gift of a 5 min. major penalty to a Union player for slashing.  In
that span they generated perhaps 3 or 4 good scoring chances and a handful
of shots on goal, one of which actually went in. (Another was tipped in
from above the waist and correctly disallowed).  However, in that much
time there should have been MANY more opportunities.  The problem is
they stand around the periphery of the defensive team's box and play a
very sloppy version of patty-cake with the puck.  Hardly anyone cuts to
the net and hardly anyone shoots.  This makes the defensive team's job
easy...they just stretch the box out and wait for the inevitable bad pass
come their way and clear the zone.  I've seen two games this year
and perhaps I caught the worst of it (Bill, Greg, Paulette etc..?)
but it's so bad I couldn't bear to watch.  With the even up
play not faring much better (bad passes, players waiting too long to get rid
of the puck and being winded and slow),  I now renew my call to breath new
life into the program and get rid of the McCutcheon.  I know some will
say that it's not his fault, that he has a young team etc... but I see
the following as being the most important stats:
        Cornell's Won-Lost record has steadily declined under McCutcheon.
  They have gone from one of the better ECAC teams regularly in position
for home ice in the playoffs to one of worst teams in the ECAC (vis. last
year's 11th place finish and this years 8th and a dismal 2-4 record against
Union). This decline is directly related to the number of players on the team
recruited by the former coach (Lou Reycroft, no gem himself).  For the first
few years in the McCutcheon era the team played well and most of the players
were recruited by Reycroft. Compare those teams to those of the last two
years when virtually all the players have been recruited by McCutcheon and his
staff.  I guess the bottom line is (Just win baby OR at least be competitive).
McCutcheon must go.
 
2)  Referee's Dan Murphy and Mike(?) Noeth lost control of the game.
 
   By far the most inconsisent refereeing since the infamous 1992 NC$$
Phinal by Gallagher.  These two let a lot of hooking, clutching and
grabbing and stick holding go in the beginning of the game.  Naturally,
the more of this goes on the more chance there is for retaliatory behavior.
Sure enough, the hitting picks up and becomes more nasty.  The problem
was that the calls became inconsistent.  What was holding or boarding for
one team was not called for another and this got the players even more
frustrated. Add this to the fact that Cornell was being thrashed,
and you get stuff like the 5 min. slashing penalty by a Union player (sorry
I don't recall who) and the fight at the end of the game where Union's
Reid Simonton was checked into the open door of the Cornell bench and a
then checked again as he tried to get up.  This led to misconducts of
some kind to 3 Cornell players (I couln't hear the announcement.)  If
these were game DQ's it would be a shame for these players to miss Cornell's
first playoff game because they were clearly frustrated by their own
inconsistent play AND the inconsistent call of the refs.
 
Just my few pennies worth....
 
Eric Hoffman
Cornell '88
SUNY-Albany ??
Let's GO RED!!!!!  Princeton's in New Jersey! :*)
Go Union! (My newly adopted second favorite team.)