> This is pretty much what I meant by garbage goals.  It's not derogatory;
> Phil Esposito made it to the Hall of Fame picking up the garbage.  And
> the whole strategy of digging it out of the corners requires someone in
> front of the net to bang home the pass or pick up the rebound.  Cornell
> had no one there most of the time when they had the puck in the
> offensive zone.
 
For this season, you are correct.  But it's too bad you didn't see last year's
Cornell team, which was immensely more fun to watch.  They outplayed Lake
Superior in Albany, and were on a major role at the time.  The nation was
surprised at how much they scared the Lakers, but it wasn't a surprise to me.
They came within a crossbar of winning that game, and the DING of the shot
still echoes inside me.
 
To me, it's just absolutely incredible that Cornell did what they did this
year, and they should be given a lot of credit.  They had no real SUPERSTARS
last year, but did have players like Brad Chartrand, and P.C. Drouin, who are
playing pro hockey.
 
This year's team has nothing -- I mean, not literally, but really, who do they
have?  Coaches around the league kept saying this year, "This team just isn't
that good, etc..." -- yet there they were.  It's a credit to the coaches, and
to the players who busted their rears and bought into a system that worked.
 
So basically, I just wanted to say that - don't get the impression Cornell is
always like that.  Mike Schafer worked with what he had, and rode it a long
way.  And let's not overlook the Cornell defense -- a very tough, strong, big
defense, with one of the most dynamic defensemen in the league, Steve Wilson.
 
> One, I wouldn't say that Cornell was an inferior team to Miami,
> certainly not based on what I saw this weekend.  Two, I would credit
> their success to total team defense.  They all played defense very well,
> and saved Elliot's bacon on a number of occasions.  The cost of this was
> that they were never able to generate much offense.  They only had about
> two or three good even-strength scoring chances against North Dakota and
> the power play looked absolutely brutal about half the time.
 
This is a fair assessment.  Last year the power play was tremendous, but they
lost four huge contributors, and this year had no real goal-scorers to speak
of.
 
Again, I'm just amazed they made it as far as they did.  Last year's team was
much better.  And for that, I tip my hat to them.
 
Schafer's system is not the problem -- last year, he let the team loose, and it
worked ... I thought they could play any style, and do it well ... but this
year, they just didn't have the guns.  They will again, one day.  If you add
two DECENT goal-scorers to Cornell, and they stick to the rest of the system
.. they become VERY dangerous.
 
AW
 
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