Bill writes:
 
> (Hammond and Vogel) felt the Big Red had turned the corner this
> weekend
 
This was definitely Cornell's most consistent weekend-long effort of
the season - it would have been nice for them to get the payoff of an
unexpected sweep, but perhaps this way they're even hungrier for
revenge against Colgate.
 
> it looked like the team's morale was better
 
Hope so - for a while there it looked like it couldn't be worse. I was
especially heartened to see Scollan 1) return to the lineup, 2) join
his "old" line, and 3) pay immediate dividends. He has A LOT of
trouble in his own end, though. He just isn't a very good two-way
player, yet.
 
> the Big Red should win two of those games (at 'Gate, Yale, Princeton)
 
I doubt they'll even be in the Yale game, so that leaves them zero
degrees of freedom in choosing their victims. One thing that strikes
me is that the team's performance seems unconnected to the involvement
of the crowd - they seemed to get themselves fired up at times last
weekend when the crowd was quiet, and vice-versa. Anyway, being "home"
or "away" doesn't appear to matter much this year. Since there's no
realistic chance of home ice (unless you believe in miracles), this is
not necessarily A Bad Thing.
 
I'm hoping for ever-improving play, getting up to sixth place
(conceivably, given this year's weird ECAC power distribution, with a
losing record), and shocking RPI, SLU, or none of the above on the
road. It's not as if there's a yawning gap in quality between the
third place and tenth place teams in the conference this year.
 
Half-way (hopeful) prediction: 1. HVD, 2. YAL, 3. RPI, 4. CLK, 5. SLU,
6. COR, 7. UVM, 8. BRN, 9. DRT, 10. COL, 11. PRN, 12. UC.
 
Looking at it dispassionately, 6th is about the highest Cornell could
finish, and the floor's the limit.
 
Greg
Somerville, MA
Let's Go Red!