OK, OK, this makes three email messages in thirty minutes, but I've been
away for a month and anyway they've all had legitimate college hockey
content  :^)
 
 
In some ways, this season looks like a step backwards for the rebuilding
Cornell hockey program.  After improving 3 places to 8th in the ECAC
last year they slipped back to 9th (although ticking up their points total
from 19 to 20 in an unusually competitive league).  Despite losing just 2
players and having a large plurality of their players make the critical
jump in experience from sophomores to juniors, they still fared poorly in
non-conference play (going 2-3 against perhaps the weakest NC
schedule in team history), and failed to advance farther than last year's
two game QF exit against the league's top team.  So what were the best
and worst points of this team, and what do we have to look forward to
next year?
 
Biggest strength:  the centers.
 
Jake Karam, Brad Chartrand, Ryan Smart, and Matt Cooney all greatly
improved their play both from last season to this and also as this season
progressed.  Cornell consistently won faceoffs, set up good scoring
chances, and even capitalized on other team's organizational
breakdowns.  The loss of Karam (team leading scoring) certainly hurts,
but the remaining three players are all of high caliber, with Smart
especially coming off one of the most promising freshman seasons in
recent Cornell history.
 
Biggest weakness: special teams.
 
And oh man were they ever bad.  I don't have the final numbers in front
of me, but I wouldn't be shocked to see the Big Red near the bottom on
powerplay and perhaps dead last on the kill.  The latter is an especially
revolting development, because McCutcheon teams have traditionally
had very effective penalty kills.  The powerplay has always sucked;
we've practically come to expect it.
 
Biggest surprise: Eddy Skazyk.
 
As in, "..hey, he isn't awful anymore".  And this was very important to
what success the team had, considering Andy Bandurski's one-man
work stoppage and Jason Elliott's unforeseen visit to SieveWorld in the
middle of the season.  Cornell was solid in net all the way between the
twin Twin Troughs: Colgate in January and Clarkson in March, and
that work was done by the EdMeister.
 
Biggest disappointment: Bill Holowatiuk.
 
The Really Big Disappointment was, of course, the loss of the team's best
player, Vinnie Auger, for the season and quite possibly forever, but I put
that more in the God's Clever Little Tricks category.  Holowatiuk was
the best defenseman on the '93 team, and when we heard he'd return
after losing an entire year to injury we rejoiced.  But Bill was nothing
special on the blueline; I'd call him the 5th most effective of the 6
regulars, and that's a shame.  It took Joe Dragon awhile to recover his
promised form after a nasty injury, and I hope Holly (and for that
matter, Auger) is just around the corner from comeback kid.
 
Biggest questionmark: who the hell's the coach?
 
Remember the scene in Apocalypse Now under the surreally glowing
bridge: "Who's in charge here?"  "Ain't you?"  Brian McCutcheon is sure
to be unseated as coach after three very poor seasons and reports of
severe criticism by players, their families, and alumni, right?  Well,
maybe.  If new A.D. Archie Moore is on top of the situation, McCutcheon
should either have been replaced or have received an explicit vote of
confidence already. To the best of my meager knowledge, nothing is
happening one way or the other, and that is Not Good.  The fact remains
that McCutcheon couldn't get a favorite to win a title, couldn't get a
terrible team to qualify for the prelimiary round, and couldn't get an
average team to avoid the preliminary -- the eight year history is
peppered with underachievements relived solely by the drive to a title
game loss by the unheralded '92 squad.  His teams are a combined
108-105-something, despite scheduling weak NC opponents and playing
in what until this year was a subpar league.  Ick.
 
Biggest wish: new coach.
 
The real big wish is for a large, talented freshman class -- hey, who
doesn't have this wish  :^) -- but that's contingent on getting a new
coach, given the recent spate of small, substandard or both recruiting
efforts.  This next class is probably going to be Brian's no matter what,
but we'll have 10+ seniors next year, and the replacement of them will
be extremely important.  Afterall, the abyssmal fall of the program (from
an ECAC Final Four four-peat to eleventh place) came when the last
huge senior class departed.
 
 
Greg R. Berge
Chapel Hill
Let's Go Red!