Y'know the "Kids in the Hall" skit: "don't put in
salt in my eyes / don't... put salt in my eyes /
aaaahhh!!!" ?
 
That's how Anne and I felt stuck outside Barre in
the ice storm on Friday.  I mean, couldn't we have
thought of some better way to spend a weekend
than impersonating the Donner party?  And all
this on the off-chance that we'd actually survive
long enough to get to the North Country and
watch Cornell get hammered by SLU and
Clarkson.
 
Eleven hours later, we got to Appleton barely in
time to see Cornell sleep-walk through the first 22
minutes and fall behind 2-0 to a team that'd lost 9
of 10 games.  Situation normal.  Cornell had their
little two goal spurt to tie, then promptly gave the
lead right back, 3-2, on a horrendous error in the
defensive zone.
 
And then the Red scored three straight goals to
win, despite having to kill four minutes of
penalties in the last eleven of the game.
 
So, what're we to make of THAT, especially in
light of a weak-except-for-a-brief-comeback
(doomed) performance against Clarkson the next
night?  What I make of it is the following:
 
1.  Cornell is legitimately mediocre again.  They
have enough of a balance of competent
goaltending and occasional offense to beat bad
teams.  They have enough spirit and heart to play
with slightly better teams (see Clarkson).  They
haven't nearly enough ability to play in the same
building as substantially better teams (see
Minnesota, Maine, Brown).  But the very good
news is that they aren't going to be anywhere
near 5-16-1 in conference again.  In fact, they are
apporximately as strong as the team which took
fifth place in 1991.  The difference is that there is
no Parris Duffus, and thus there will be no
Cinderella drive to the championship game.
 
2.  We can stop holding our collective breath
every time Ed Skazyk gets in goal.  He's been
consistent for ten or so starts now - he'll make a
couple fantastic saves, go into vapor-lock on a
couple of soft goals (usually early in the game),
and be strong enough down the stretch to hold a
lead - IF his defensemen help a little (the way
they did in Canton) rather than hinder (the
way they did in Potsdam).
 
3.  Contrary to popular belief, the whole offense
isn't impotent ("and if I'm gonna be impo-tent I'm
gonna look...").  Vinnie Auger won the SLU game
like Joe Nieuwendyk won games in '87 - single
handedly.  Geoff Bumstead is one of the most
dangerous scorers in the conference.  Stop
laughing, dammit.  Steve Wilson is going to be
among Cornell's career blueline scoring leaders.
He also has a nice family and a cute girlfriend.
Jason Zubkus is not a bad defensive defenseman
at all.  Chris Felli still hasn't figured out how to
handle the puck.  P.C. Drouin looks like Doug
Derraugh when he plays with Auger; he looks like
Phil Noble when he doesn't.  Jake Karam stopped
scoring goals as suddenly and inexplicably as he
started.  Joel McArter looked a lot better on the
Auger line than did Geoff Lopatka.
 
4.  The powerplay still sucks, but at least the Five
Horsemen (Karam, Sancimino, Auger, Drouin,
Bumstead) haven't given up a short-handed goal.
Yet.
 
5.  The kill is still excellent.
 
Anyway; think about the games that Cornell has
coming up.  Home (not that that helps or
anything) against Vermont, Dartmouth, Clarkson,
St. Lawrence, Princeton, and Yale.  On the road at
Brown, Harvard, RPI, and Union.  Granting that
three of the road games are immediate write-offs,
Cornell has a very soft home schedule in
February against teams they went a combined,
in my view disappointing,  3-1-2 against on the
road.  I think it is perfectly reasonable to hope for a
.500 conference record, sixth place, avoidance of
the preliminary round.  Given Brown, Harvard,
Clarkson, RPI, and Colgate's large advantage in
the standings, sixth is probably about as high as
this team can go.  And who is their principle
competitor for sixth place?  UVM, the Friday
opponent; a hot team off a tie with RPI and a
shutout of Union, which conversely enjoys
shooting itself on the road.
 
Call that the first crucial game in two seasons.  It's
nice to give a damn in February, again.
 
One last observation: Cornell skated 2 seniors
(Bumstead, Hannah) and 4 juniors (Bandurski -
who didn't play, Ettles - benched the next night,
Felli and Karam) in the win over SLU.  I believe
that left 7 sophomores and 7 freshmen.  They're
only going to get stronger, and better.  With one
or two more recruiting classes like this year's, this
team is on the way back in a hurry.
 
Greg
Somerville
Let's Go Red!