I saw in the paper that Coach Schafer was satisfied with Cornell at 6-2-1
considering the injury situation and the closeness of the league and I
guess I concur.
 
Last year after 9 games we 5-2-2 and had been in OT 4 times.  In the losses
to BU and Michigan State we were thumped 7-1 and 6-2.  I won't add up the
numbers but it looks to me like we had allowed more and scored fewer.
 
I do believe that the ECAC is stronger (compared to the other leagues) and
better balanced than it has ever been.  By my quick rough calculations in
non league play the ECAC is 25-19-5 which is better than past years.  In my
glance at the computer rankings of teams only Brown consistently appears in
the bottom dozen while Harvard just barely makes the bottom 12.  In past
years the ECAC might have 3 or 4 teams in the bottom of the bottom 12 some
on the very bottom.  This year Brown seems to be about 6 up from the bottom
on the rankings.  The top dozen show the ECAC with two or three in the top
twelve which we did not have most of last season.
 
I wonder how this can be?  I think we saw the beginning of this last year
where the ECAC teams did just fine in the NCAA's instead of the humiliating
first round thumpings.  There is only one coaching change in the league at
Union and that has certainly made a dramatic difference.  Cornell and RPI
have relatively new coaches which could impact their recruiting and play.
 
I'll conjecture that more of the top shelf (ie potential NHL all star type)
talent is going to Major Junior in Canada instead of to selected high
profile college programs.  With the expansion of the pro's (NHL and Minor
Leagues) and changes in the NHL draft procedures maybe more kids think
Major Junior is the best route to the pro's.  It may be that NCAA rules on
academic standards and limiting the number of hockey scholarships have also
had an impact sending some players to Major Junior.  Some people on hockey
list have voiced the opinion that top talent is not going to Div. 1 as in
the past.  The ECAC did not get many if any of these players so this would
have no significant impact on the ECAC.  It may also be that the ECAC is
better focused on getting, developing and playing with the more average
college talent pool players.  Mike Schafer was also probably used to
working with the same talent pool at Western Michigan.  Perhaps if a team
is used to getting NHL 1st or 2nd round draft picks their style of play may
be focused on getting the puck to those guys or counting on them a lot.
 
This is all just conjecture and we may only be seeing anomalous variations
in the data and nothing has changed.
 
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