Cornell Last Weekend
 
Enough said about Cornell's outings this past weekend against Harvard and
Brown.  I went and saw ONE good hockey game:  The last period of the Harvard
game and the first two against Brown.
 
Most of us probably would agree that this year's team is an improved team from
the 92-93 edition.  However, our suspicion that this team still needs much
improvement was confirmed quickly when the team retook the ice after two
periods in the Brown game.  Maybe they simply ran out of gas.  On the other
hand, I kept searching in my memory for games-won on shots-on-goal less than 30
and I couldn't think of many.  Against Brown, Cornell could not mount much
effective offense, while the power play scoring was, well, still missing.
(Trivia:  What is the longest scoring-less power play streak for Cornell?  Does
anyone know?)  The Red-White scrimmage darling Jiri Kloboucek once again proved
to be as deadly as he was last year, which was unproductive.  Coach McCutcheon
seemed to maintain high hopes for Jiri by inserting him in the first line, when
the third line of Sancimino-Karam-Bumstead(?) has been most productive in goal
scoring.  In fact, Mike Sancimino has been quite a force to be reckoned with on
the ice with his bulk and puck-handling, and his willingness to take the shots.
Freshman Vincent Auger was constantly heard on the radio during the first
weekend, but was also conspicuously absent this past weekend.
 
The consolation here is that the Big Red normally does not play terribly well
in the first half of the season.  They tended to come off the Christmas
tournament with an overall losing record, but the team usually would coalesce
for the second half.  Will that happen given a very tough schedule coming up?
Certainly BU tonight is not easy (with only three nights of rest, even this fan
does not feel ready).  Then Maine/LSSU/Minnesota over the long holiday
vacation.  We can be in for another long winter in hockey.
 
All I can say is that after $20 worth of season tickets (for one, that is, not
counting my wife's investment in this), we're 0-2.  How much longer will it be
before I see a winning game?  Jan 7 against Union?  I can't even count on that
since the Dutchmen stole the show twice in the last two years!
 
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone  :-)
 
Tom Smith Tseng
Cornell '87 Grad '94