This is a frustrating team to figure out.  I see many fans out there
writing about their own team trying to figure out why they are not
as good as they seem to be.  I feel that way about this Cornell team
and I think I am beginning to understand them.
 
The goaltenders and defensemen are good, not great but good
enough for a winning team.  The defensemen are young, not really
big enough and have depth problems if there are injuries but they
are not the team's problem.
 
The problem lies with the forwards.  Only about 6 of them are good
enough to play on a good team.  The further problem is that these
six would be on the 3rd or 4th line of a good team.  For instance
freshman Vincent Auger reminds me a lot of Ted Drury when he was
a freshman.  However, (Harvard fans jump in here and correct me if
I am wrong) Ted was mostly on the 3rd or 4th line as a freshman
and I don't think he played on the power play.  The addition of one
or two forwards with quick releases and accurate shots could
transform this team into a good (not top 10 but good) team.
 
What makes the team deceptive to analyze is the dozen (at least it
seems like a dozen) different forwards that have skated as the other
6 forward positions.  All of them look like they could be regular
division one forwards but they are all really 3rd or 4th line players
for mediocre teams at best.
 
An obvious problem is the youth of the forwards  When the present
sophomores are seniors, if they have two excellent recruiting years
and if they some how find or develop some legitimate scorers they
could have a good team.  That is two years away and a lot of ifs.
 
A less obvious problem is the size, strength and reach of the
forwards.  They get bumped around, knocked off the puck, can't
check effectively and can't get to the puck a lot.  The fixes for this
are for them to grow, spend a lot of time in the weight room or for
recruiting to relegate some of them to the junior varsity.  A good
Div. 1 hockey player will add weight, strength and some times
height in addition to improving they skills between their freshman
and senior year.
 
This is a much better team than last years.  They can really shut
down weak teams with good defensive play on goaltending.  They
are good enough defensively and have good enough skills and speed
to play competitively with good teams (while loosing).  I suspect at
year end this team will not be in the bottom ten like last years team
but it will be a mediocre team at best unless one or two forwards
catch fire and start taking a lot of shots and scoring a lot of goals
(don't hold your breath).  I see the problem as strictly determined
by the talent on the ice.  Superb coaching could improve the
performance of what we have but we really do not have enough to
do too much.  Of course, recruiting is a primary measure of a
coaches performance especially without athletic scholarships and
where the players have to meet the same admissions standards as
the rest of the student body
 
(Sorry, I just could not resist a cheap shot at Maine, Michigan Tech
and Alaska-Fairbanks for recruiting that guy.  Lets not paint two of
them white just because they stopped recruiting when they found
him to be Prop. 48--they would have taken the kid if he scored 701
on the SAT or they decided he was worth the one year wait)
 
Also sorry for the long post boring some and offending others.  At
least I did not name the 6 forwards other than Auger I felt were
"good" if I had I would have been attacked by other Cornell fans for
not choosing their favorite forward.
 
Steven Rockey
Mathematics Librarian
115 White Hall
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY              14853-7901
E-Mail:  [log in to unmask]
Office:         (607)255-5268