Spring is here, another 5 months of rink food has been partially
metabolized, and the Denise Austin tape is queued at "workman's
compensation crunches".  I don't have a clue to what a young man's thoughts
turn, but mine are now fixated on the EIGHTH (yeesh) annual TBRW? Cornell
hockey awards.
 
Anne and I had the Awards banquet last night, letting somebody else cook
for a change, and annointed this year's team in the spirit and likeness of
our mid-to late 80's favorites, I want to hear from the world at large.
 
 
Here's how to play:
 
1.  Please only vote once, unless you can prove you're a Cook County
Democrat.
 
2.  Please include the number of Cornell men's varsity games you attended
this season, at the top of your ballot (approximate if necessary).
 
3.  Rank players 1-2-3 for each award according to *this year's*
performance.
 
The awards:
 
Leading goaltender.
Career improvement.
Determination in a supporting role.
Transcendent beauty and skating prowess.
Scrappiness and effort.
Leadership and passion.
Most respected opponent.
Worst referee.
Most valuable freshman.
Most valuable player.
 
 
Here are the awards, with a brief description of the player remembered in
each case and last year's winner.  Note the first two awards are
deterministic.
 
 
The Duanne Moeser Award - leading scorer
 
Duanne scored 81 goals in 106 games, but to quote Ms. McGill, "you
remembered every one of them".  He won the most exciting game I've ever
seen with his ICBM blast in double o.t. in the '86 Garden semifinal, and
played most of the '86 season with badly damaged knees.
 
'96 winner: Brad Chartrand
'97 winner: Kyle Knopp
 
 
The Chris Norton Award - leading scorer, defensemen
 
Chris amassed 118 career points from the blueline, and by the end of his
career was one of Cornell's most devastating offensive weapons.  Cornell
has tended to have either 0 or just 1 impressive blue line scoring force at
any given time in the last 10 years -- first Norton, then Dan Ratushny, and
lately Steve Wilson.  Of these, the stats argue that Chris was the
most productive.
 
'96 winner: Steve Wilson
'97 winner: Chad Wilson
 
 
The Brian Hayward Award -- leading goaltender
 
Hayward had a long and successful NHL career after graduating from Cornell,
but his accomplishments in the NCAA were also worthy of note.  Team MVP/
All-American as a senior, he restored Cornell's goaltending tradition after
an era of 7-6 (and 6-7) games.
 
'96 winner: Jason Elliott
 
 
The Peter Natyshak Award - career improvement
 
Peter was a 5 foot 7 wing with middling skills who scored 29 points in his
first two seasons... and then 95 over his last two.  More than anybody I've
ever seen, he seemed to take his game apart and rebuild himself into a much
better player.  This award usually goes to a senior, though juniors are
also eligible.
 
'96 winner: Andre Doll
 
 
The Terry Gage Award - determination in a supporting role
 
I'm not exactly sure how to describe Terry -- he was more than a grinding
defenseman, he was a state of mind.  There will always be "role players" in
hockey, and usually they are guys who would prefer to be on the first line
or on the power-play but just didn't have the ability.  But in Gage's name
we honor those players who escel in their support status -- the famous
"seventh players".
 
'96 winner: Jeff Oates
 
 
The Randy MacFarlane Award - transcendent beauty and skating prowess
 
The name says it all.  Randy skated circles around his would-be checkers
(and sometimes his teammates).  I have memories of doubtful likelihood of
him ragging entire penalities never losing contact with the puck -- but
anyway he was one of the best.  He was small, he didn't check well, and he
had no shot, but he was the most graceful skater I've seen in Carnelian.
 
'96 winner: Mark Scollan
 
 
The Dave Shippel Award - scrappiness and effort
 
Dave was a transfer who worked his way onto a very competitive squad, and
often seemed to find himself in just the right place.  Especially at
Bright.  :-)
 
'96 winner: Geoff Lopatka
 
 
The Mike Schafer Award - leadership and passion
 
Had you heard that before he coached Mike was a pretty good player?  :-)
To save superfluous verbiage (too late...), Schafer displayed as a player
many of the characteristics he now does as coach; hence the award.
 
'96 winner: Matt Cooney
 
 
The John Carter Award - most respected opponent
 
Carter was Adam Oates' linemate on the best college hokey team I've ever
seen, the '85 RPI NCAA champs.  "Respect" here denotes equal measures of
fear and the wish that we had recruited the player.  It doesn't have much
to do with an evaluation of the player's character.
 
'96 winner: Martin St. Louis and Eric Perrin, Vermont
 
 
The Pierre Belanger Award - worst referee in Cornell games
 
Ever watch a Pierre game?  It's fun, unless you have an interest in the
outcome.  Pierre is either retired or on a very limited schedule these
days, but in his time he inspired incredible crowd reaction and wild
stories of his alleged hatreds of, in no particular order, RPI, Clarkson,
Cornell, Cornell fans, and French Canadians.  Whatever the truth, he lives
on in cheers of "We Want Pierre!" and inevitable comparisons whenever a
particularly bad call is witnessed.  In a way, this isn't really fair,
because Pierre knew the rules and the game, and he wasn't even particularly
inconsistent (is John Gallagher listening..?), just a royal pain...
 
'96 winner: Michael St. Louis
 
 
The Doug Dadswell Award - most valuable freshman
 
Dadswell burst onto the scene in '85 and changed Cornell from a pretender
to a contender.  OK, so he had a little help from the other guys on this
roll of honor, but his freshman contribution was nothing short of
extraordinary -- one of the few times I would number a freshman among the
top 3 three finalists for MVP.
 
'96 winner: Kyle Knopp
 
 
The Joe Nieuwendyk Award - most valuable player.
 
Simply the best.
 
'96 winner: Brad Chartrand
 
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