Re: Brown Hockey 2015-16: (s)Lappin' around the competition
Naclerio and Lappin will be sorely missed next year, but I was very encouraged by the play of Lafferty, Willman, Bird, Brink and Corcoran (in that order) over the past month or so, and especially this weekend. Coupled with the season-long success of Marchin and Gottlieb, the underclassmen look impressive. If the freshman goalie can hold his own and the young defensive corps can continue to improve, the team could be better next year.
On a more sour note, I'm beginning to wonder when I'll be able to stop saying "well, at least next year can't be any worse" at the end of each season. A five-win season is simply unacceptable, no matter how many close calls (of which there were MANY) we had. Too many blown leads, soft goals and mental mistakes that lead directly to opportunities for our opponents.
See you all in November.
I was really not planning on reply again this season on this board, since I admittedly don't have very much positive to say about the state of Brown hockey, or athletics in general. That said, I want to avoid the "ifs" for next year and offer what I think the core issues were.
1. Honestly, the first game of the season gave us a preview of coming attractions, a refrain that became all too common for the Bears this year. In that game, Brown allowed the first goal of the season about three minutes in, with a half minute left in the second, and with two minutes left in the third. Brown allowed 107 goals this year... after some research, more than half of them - an astonishing 58 of them (!) - came within three minutes of the start of a period, three minutes before the end of a period, or three minutes after a prior goal was scored, including one by the Bears. In some of those games, they were the difference, including the games @ Dartmouth, Princeton, Yale (2x), @ St. Lawrence (4 of them, count 'em), UConn, Harvard, Dartmouth (again), Harvard, @ Cornell, and then the last two against RPI. Erase the empty netters, and it's still 53 of 102 goals. That speaks to either not being ready coming out of the locker room, not being able to close out periods or games, or clock watching. Unacceptable. That is a pattern that needs to change... I didn't realize how pervasive that problem was until I actually looked at the numbers.
2. Secondary scoring didn't occur until the final game of the season, when Corcoran and Willman, at times, were the best guys on the ice. Lappin, Marchin, and Naclerio accounted for 36 of the 75 goals Brown scored this year. Pryzbek showed flashes, at times, but there was no depth. I blame Ruth Simmons, in part, for the lack of depth, particularly after Tim Lappin went down and there was hardly anyone left to replace him. Bird, Willman, and Lafferty have combined for 48 career points. Add in Corcoran, the total jumps to 63. If those numbers were even 50% better (another 7-8 points per guy), and we've got a different team.
3. I can't figure out the defense. Dennis Robertson was the best D-man I've seen at Brown since Scott Ford. Since then, we've had some guys who have been ok, but no jump-on-my-back d-men that can carry a team. Maybe Gottlieb is that guy. Every mistake a Brown player made in terms of defensive or PK coverage led to a goal against. When you're already in a -2 hole because of your play in the first or last three of a period, and your offense is only good for 2.5 goals per game, well, there's the difference. I keep waiting for the next guy to step up. I hope Scherer or Schoo is that guy, and that Cooper and Tegtmayer can regain their health.
4. I'm a big Brendan Whittet fan. I have long thought he was the right guy for the job, he exudes enthusiasm for Brown, and he has found a way to attract some incredible talent to Brown. I truly believe that if admissions and financial aid could do their part, Brown would be on the rise. We can look at countless examples of the past decade: Cornell and Yale basketball, Columbia basketball, Cornell baseball, Dartmouth football. (I've tried to leave Harvard off the list, but when they decided to be good at basketball, look at the past few years). Brown needs to do the same. If that means revisiting the Ruth Simmons admissions policies on athletics, please do so.
5. I think what bothers me most about this season was how far south it went considering the optimism we felt following the trip to Ireland, or even after the PC win. How did the ECAC give Brown a weekend off in the middle of the exam break? At least we opened with a couple Ivy foes, which is different than years past, when Brown was playing Quinnipiac or SLU/Clarkson, teams in games 7-8 while Brown is on game 1. But that stretch after the PC game killed momentum, which turned into the Yale sweep, which started the slide.
On to next year. To whomever starts the new thread, nothing witty. Maybe someday we'll be more than a tough out. Which, after all, still makes us an out.