Harvard Crimson 2023-'24

[Skate79]

The number of ties to start the season finally came to an end fittingly in Ithaca. Hopefully this is the start of a winning streak although the way they have played so far leads me to believe they are destined to be outside the top five or six in the conference.

[bothman]

I definitely did not see that win coming at Lynah. Credit to Harvard to evolve its play given the composition of the roster. They will have to play a different style than we are accustomed to and will have to win more 2-1 and 3-2 games to have success. Matt Coronato and Sean Farrell are not walking through that door. Like Harvard, Cornell is also young, but given UMD's performance, I suspect expectations of the Big Red should also be tempered with regards to national aspirations. This is clearly Quinnipiac's conference to win or lose.

[PullTheGoalie]

4 good seats to UMass @ Harvard today.
sec 3 row H 4 together. I can text seats.
$100.
Jjj209k@comcast.net

[bothman]

Do not read into the score. Could/should have been UMass by 5 goals. Complete men vs boys game. Umass forwards setting up shop in front of the H net and the Harvard D could do nothing. Can’t win a face off. This is just a very poorly constructed team. Lots of dumb and lazy penalties. Harvard relegated to having to flip the puck out of the zone without any meaningful breakout. You got big d that don’t play physical and you got small d that can’t break the puck out. What gives? This is a team that should be ranked 30-35. Very tough to watch.

[Skate79]

Do not read into the score. Could/should have been UMass by 5 goals. Complete men vs boys game. Umass forwards setting up shop in front of the H net and the Harvard D could do nothing. Can’t win a face off. This is just a very poorly constructed team. Lots of dumb and lazy penalties. Harvard relegated to having to flip the puck out of the zone without any meaningful breakout. You got big d that don’t play physical and you got small d that can’t break the puck out. What gives? This is a team that should be ranked 30-35. Very tough to watch.

I was there and it was worse than what it looked like on TV. Were it not for the UMass goalie blowing doors, this game would have been a rout. UMass seemed to be on a game-long power play taking up residence in the Harvard D zone and cycling the puck until they got the shot they wanted. The Crimson kept chasing the game and were so tentative that they enabled the Minuteman to control the puck without any resistance. I guess the best you could say about the game was that Harvard killed off a five-minute major which I thought would swing momentum. As you said, it was men against boys. The team had over a week to prepare for this game, yet they looked like they were shell-shocked from the five-minute mark of the first period going forward.

[Crimson Faced]

I'm not having much trouble with how they are playing this season. Like the St. Lawrence announcers said, one of Harvard's problems is losing underclassmen before their eligibility ends. I would rather see a core of players that are dedicated to four years of playing for Harvard.

Have been a season ticket holder for over 30 years and that utter debacle in Bridgeport last year changed my feelings about the makeup of the team. It soured me on players who leave early to go on to their AHL careers. The UMass game was bad, but they did not quit, like they did against Ohio State. Donato did not play Wong, who took bad penalties, but always played hard and tough; he did not play Deveaux who went into corners, took hits, a tough player who hustled. Two seniors who played hard and hustled all the time during their Harvard careers, and he doesn't play them in their last game; he played the high-scoring floaters who were protecting their future hockey careers. Enough of them.

Anyway, it was a good 2nd period at St. Lawrence.

[Skate79]

I don't know this for a fact but I believe that it was the first time in Harvard's long history that they were shut out in back to back games. Maybe not but I can't remember a time even with some truly bad teams that the Crimson failed to score over six periods. Seven if you count the third period against UMass.

[bothman]

It's going to be a very long couple of years at the Bright. This year is obviously brutal, and next year, there is not much in the way of reinforcements coming in, outside of St Louis who should come in and play right away. Harvard will likely be a little bit better next year (more experience, etc), but will still be a team that lacks any real ability to score.

This team is slow, can't win a face-off, can't possess the puck.....the list goes on and on. They were absolutely outclassed by UConn who should have won the game 8-2 if not for a stellar performance in net from Aku. The issue with this team is that even though they don't have the talent to play a finesse game, they are also incapable of taking the body and playing a physical game. They are a team that is as poorly constructed and without an identity as I can remember with zero for margin for error. It reminds me of the teams in the post Cleary years before Mazz started to bring in some better quality.

Hopefully the players can stay the course and continue to get better. Harvard will receive a massive in-flux of better talent with the kids coming in for the Fall of 2025, but until then, and I hope that I am wrong, it is going to be a very lean couple of years.

[DNAEagle]

The way forward is not too promising for Ivy schools, no portal, limited NIL opportunities and any real talent is out the door after two years. They are an anachronism in today's college sports environment as other the other Ivies. Hard to see a competitive pathway for these schools. Harvard still has the most powerful brand name in higher education and the degree is valuable however you chose to use it but if you are playing a major sport with professional ambitions there are many other schools to attend.

[CornellFan13]

The way forward is not too promising for Ivy schools, no portal, limited NIL opportunities and any real talent is out the door after two years. They are an anachronism in today's college sports environment as other the other Ivies. Hard to see a competitive pathway for these schools. Harvard still has the most powerful brand name in higher education and the degree is valuable however you chose to use it but if you are playing a major sport with professional ambitions there are many other schools to attend.

"No portal" -- yes, but with the end of fifth-year COVID eligibility, the impact of this will be considerably reduced as compared to past years. Also, while the Ivies rarely take players from the portal, they also lose fewer players to the portal than other programs (at least this is true for Cornell and Harvard), perhaps due to the value of the degree.
"Limited NIL opportunities" -- have other NCAA hockey programs seen much of an impact of NIL money? To my knowledge, thus far the impact has been very minor.
"Any real talent is out the door after two years" -- definitely not true historically; it is very rare for even the best Ivy players to leave prior to the end of their third year. Harvard did lose many players last year, but all were rising seniors with the exception of Coronato (rising junior and first round pick). Almost all of Harvard's best players have stayed three or four years (eg. Vesey, Fox, Killorn).

The Ivies will continue to be disadvantaged as they've always been, due to lack of scholarships, a later start to the season, and administrations unwilling to commit resources to athletics (though not true for Harvard, which is extremely wealthy). But I don't think your points hold much water going forward. The Ivy programs were all ravaged by COVID but these effects will lessen over time.

[DNAEagle]

The open portal is just a beginning so its impact is still somewhat uncertain but whatever its effect it won't be good for the Ivies. We are in the early stages of the NIL and it is going to affect FB and BB more than hockey but I can imagine that the elite hockey players will be encouraged by NIL opportunities at the Blueblood programs although no one is come out and announce they are going to the school for the NIL money. It is hard to find high draft picks staying for four years these day, there are always exceptions but I am pretty sure coaches are planning their rosters with two or three year timeframes for the high end talent. Vesey stayed largely because he didn't like playing for the team that drafted him and wanted to make his own choices. College sports are going through a sea change and while it will have less of an impact on hockey we are at the very beginning of all of this. It is not going to be for the better.

[CornellFan13]

The open portal is just a beginning so its impact is still somewhat uncertain but whatever its effect it won't be good for the Ivies. We are in the early stages of the NIL and it is going to affect FB and BB more than hockey but I can imagine that the elite hockey players will be encouraged by NIL opportunities at the Blueblood programs although no one is come out and announce they are going to the school for the NIL money. It is hard to find high draft picks staying for four years these day, there are always exceptions but I am pretty sure coaches are planning their rosters with two or three year timeframes for the high end talent. Vesey stayed largely because he didn't like playing for the team that drafted him and wanted to make his own choices. College sports are going through a sea change and while it will have less of an impact on hockey we are at the very beginning of all of this. It is not going to be for the better.

At BC the top players are maybe staying two years on average, but that hasn't been true at the Ivies, where at least three years is the norm for the top prospects. Over at least the last decade, aside from COVID-related departures, I believe Coronato is the only Harvard player to sign a pro deal before his third year out of the dozens of NHL prospects Harvard has had. At the moment, very few players are transferring into the Ivies, but very few players are transferring out (other than graduating seniors, but that's only allowed because of the temporary fifth year eligibility rule).

I agree that the changes to college sports are extremely bad for competitive balance.

[Lemonade]

It's going to be a very long couple of years at the Bright. This year is obviously brutal, and next year, there is not much in the way of reinforcements coming in, outside of St Louis who should come in and play right away. Harvard will likely be a little bit better next year (more experience, etc), but will still be a team that lacks any real ability to score.

This team is slow, can't win a face-off, can't possess the puck.....the list goes on and on. They were absolutely outclassed by UConn who should have won the game 8-2 if not for a stellar performance in net from Aku. The issue with this team is that even though they don't have the talent to play a finesse game, they are also incapable of taking the body and playing a physical game. They are a team that is as poorly constructed and without an identity as I can remember with zero for margin for error. It reminds me of the teams in the post Cleary years before Mazz started to bring in some better quality.

Hopefully the players can stay the course and continue to get better. Harvard will receive a massive in-flux of better talent with the kids coming in for the Fall of 2025, but until then, and I hope that I am wrong, it is going to be a very lean couple of years.

Harvard has 9 drafted NHL players....talent is there. What's the issue with the team this year? Time for a new coach? 1-7-3 is awful. The are below Long Island in the Pairwise and are ranked 51st out 60.

[CornellFan13]

Harvard has 9 drafted NHL players....talent is there. What's the issue with the team this year? Time for a new coach? 1-7-3 is awful. The are below Long Island in the Pairwise and are ranked 51st out 60.

Harvard has 11 drafted NHL players.

[Skate79]

It's going to be a very long couple of years at the Bright. This year is obviously brutal, and next year, there is not much in the way of reinforcements coming in, outside of St Louis who should come in and play right away. Harvard will likely be a little bit better next year (more experience, etc), but will still be a team that lacks any real ability to score.

This team is slow, can't win a face-off, can't possess the puck.....the list goes on and on. They were absolutely outclassed by UConn who should have won the game 8-2 if not for a stellar performance in net from Aku. The issue with this team is that even though they don't have the talent to play a finesse game, they are also incapable of taking the body and playing a physical game. They are a team that is as poorly constructed and without an identity as I can remember with zero for margin for error. It reminds me of the teams in the post Cleary years before Mazz started to bring in some better quality.

Hopefully the players can stay the course and continue to get better. Harvard will receive a massive in-flux of better talent with the kids coming in for the Fall of 2025, but until then, and I hope that I am wrong, it is going to be a very lean couple of years.

I don’t think you are wrong. The team has major problems defending in their own zone, they can’t forecheck, and they have trouble putting the puck in the ocean. That adds to up to their current record. I’m not letting the coaching staff off the hook either. They recruited these kids and they haven’t done a good job getting them assimilated to the college game. my senior year at Harvard we won a total of seven games. I have a hard time seeing this team beating that record.