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Harvard 2024-25: Once More Unto The Breach

So after this weekend's double dip, this much is clear. Harvard simply can't compete in the conference. They are getting badly outshot and outplayed and not even Emily Davidson and keep them in these games. The UConn and Yale wins are looking more and more like outliers. This is both a talent and coaching issue although more so on the talent side. It will take a few more seasons to right the ship if in fact that can be accomplished.
 
Losing 1-0 to the #7 Bobcats with 40 saves by a FY goalie making her second appearance sounds pretty competitive to me.

No question that Harvard may have found their goalie of the future in Tuffy. She played very well again this weekend should be in line for more work this season.

That doesn't mean the team isn't being outplayed and when I mean they can't compete in the conference, it isn't about the goaltending necessarily. It has to do with the rest of the team, particularly the forwards. They lack the skill and talent to create and finish their chances to make the other team sweat out a win. In order to be competitive, you have to at least win a few of these games and score some goals. They are doing neither. Other than the Yale and Princeton games, they have been shut out four times and scored one goal in the other two games. How is that being competitive?
 
Two broadcast booth firsts over the weekend.

1. Cornell guy mentioned by the way that Bellamy was hired after Stone was accused of (abetting) hazing over the years and, though the charges remained unsubstantiated, she elected to retire. So . . . no elephant in the room on the one hand, and no scandal mongering on the other, just plain background reasons for the new hire. Amazing.

2. On Saturday the Colgate crew managed to name a grand total of only four, maybe five, different Harvard skaters in the course of sixty minutes of hockey. Harvard's one exciting breakaway they simply ignored, or missed entirely. So these two Raider talents are the leaders in the clubhouse for my "Nay-by-Nay" game-calling trophy, having pulled ahead of even Bright's chattering class. Amazing.
 
So the first half is over and predictably I suppose, the team is no better off than last year, save for the wins over UConn and Yale. Otherwise, it's more of the same. Can't put the puck in the ocean and they spend way too much time in their D zone trying to defend. Were it not for our travel partner, we would be dead last. It would be interesting to learn how potential recruits and youth programs view Harvard as a hockey destination. The academics and facilities are first-rate; if things don't improve, coaching becomes the obvious target.
 
So the first half is over and predictably I suppose, the team is no better off than last year, save for the wins over UConn and Yale. Otherwise, it's more of the same. Can't put the puck in the ocean and they spend way too much time in their D zone trying to defend. Were it not for our travel partner, we would be dead last. It would be interesting to learn how potential recruits and youth programs view Harvard as a hockey destination. The academics and facilities are first-rate; if things don't improve, coaching becomes the obvious target.



Yes, looks familiar, but not so surprising. It’s still early days and the program will be different when the Squirts are ready to commit.

The season-ending injury to Gwyn Lapp at Cornell was a huge loss for the scant offensive power Harvard has been able to muster to date. Last year’s leading scorer as a sophomore, she currently remains tied for the lead this year, five games (and counting) into her absence. That tells you something about our lack of offensive punch.The box scores of the Friars games in particular would be different had she been on the ice. As for the North Country, Harvard should bag it for a few years and save money on bus fare. But the newbies are getting lots of ice time and carrying the play, when there is play to be carried. Where we have to look for excitement, as was the case last season, is in goal, though the rapid succession of talent, from Pellicci to Davidson to Tuffy, is a bit dizzying. This whole situation prompts me to ask a larger, off-season kind of question:

What’s the history — is there a history — of ex-goalies as head coaches (either sex, any league)? Bellamy would have learned something about handling skaters from Crowell, but what about handling goalies? Who learns that? My impression is that goalies have to be given their head, so HCs keep the reins loose. I imagine that even goalie coaches are really in the business of occasional fine-tuning. But how does a head coach who is an ex-goalie herself do this ----- that is, chill and stay out of the way, especially with a potential wealth of talent to support? Probably can’t be done.

Of course I might be completely misreading these relationships, but the wider world of goalies, their coaches and their psyches, I’ve always found to be of interest. A different breed. Perhaps there's some Still Eeyore out there able to take the narrative back from the blue line into the crease.
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A media review of this past weekend (Given our bleak world, it’s nice that we still can rely on the PR boys to entertain us.)

At Clarkson: (L, 5-1) Down 3-0 in the first, “Harvard countered with a few chances late in the period.” (One of them, a one-timer no less, “was saved”!) So now you counter your opponent’s goals with chances, not goals of your own.

At SLU: (L, 4-2) Harvard “fell short in a narrow loss.” This is their way of saying that the team narrowly missed losing by three goals instead of just two. Down 4-0 midway through the third in a real nail-biter, Harvard scored once at 9:36 and then again at 19:49.8. What that goal really meant was that SLU narrowly missed having a walk in the park.

Who says you can’t make this stuff up? They make it up all the time.
 
So the first half is over and predictably I suppose, the team is no better off than last year, save for the wins over UConn and Yale. Otherwise, it's more of the same. Can't put the puck in the ocean and they spend way too much time in their D zone trying to defend. Were it not for our travel partner, we would be dead last. It would be interesting to learn how potential recruits and youth programs view Harvard as a hockey destination. The academics and facilities are first-rate; if things don't improve, coaching becomes the obvious target.

Won't it take time to dig out of the black hole Stone created?
 
Yes, looks familiar, but not so surprising. It’s still early days and the program will be different when the Squirts are ready to commit.

The season-ending injury to Gwyn Lapp at Cornell was a huge loss for the scant offensive power Harvard has been able to muster to date. Last year’s leading scorer as a sophomore, she currently remains tied for the lead this year, five games (and counting) into her absence. That tells you something about our lack of offensive punch. The box scores of the Friars games in particular would be different had she been on the ice. As for the North Country, Harvard should bag it for a few years and save money on bus fare. But the newbies are getting lots of ice time and carrying the play, when there is play to be carried. Where we have to look for excitement, as was the case last season, is in goal, though the rapid succession of talent, from Pellicci to Davidson to Tuffy, is a bit dizzying. This whole situation prompts me to ask a larger, off-season kind of question:

What’s the history — Is there a history — of ex-goalies as head coaches (either sex, any league)? Bellamy would have learned something about handling skaters from Crowell, but what about handling goalies? Who learns that? My impression is that goalies have to be given their heads, so HCs keep the reins loose. I imagine that even goalie coaches are really in the business of occasional fine-tuning. But how does a head coach who is an ex-goalie herself do this ----- that is, chill and stay out of the way, especially with a potential wealth of talent to support? Probably can’t be done.

Of course, I might be completely misreading these relationships, but the wider world of goalies, their coaches, and their psyches, I’ ve always found to be of interest. A different breed. Perhaps there's some Still Eeyore out there able to take the narrative back from the blue line into the crease.
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A media review of this past weekend (Given our bleak world, it’s nice that we still can rely on the PR boys to entertain us.)

At Clarkson: (L, 5-1) Down 3-0 in the first, “ Harvard countered with a few chances late in the period.” (One of them, a one-timer no less, “was saved”!) So now you counter your opponent’s goals with chances, not goals of your own.

At SLU: (L, 4-2) Harvard “ fell short in a narrow loss.” This is their way of saying that the team narrowly missed losing by three goals instead of just two. Down 4-0 midway through the third in a real nail-biter, Harvard scored once at 9:36 and then again at 19:49.8. What that goal meant was that SLU narrowly missed having a walk in the park.

Who says you can’t make this stuff up? They make it up all the time.

You have to give it up to the media/PR people who have to strain to come up with one or two positives from each weekend. I imagine they will have to come up with Hemingway-type material with Lapp out for the season. Horrible break for a team that is so offensively challenged.

Your question about ex-goalies as head coaches is interesting. My take is that Bellamy can assess the technique and possible problems such as not playing the angles and offer guidance to help her goalies. Other than that, stay out of their way. What is more puzzling is why she has gone away from Davidson to Tuffy? Is Davidson hurt? Does Tuffy give them a better chance to win?
 
Shari Dickerman (Mankato), Robb Stauber (Team USA 2018 Olympics) and Patrick Roy (Islanders) are three goalies turned head coaches I thought of.

Are the Ivy League standings tracked anywhere ?
 
Won't it take time to dig out of the black hole Stone created?

Yes, it will. Especially when the ongoing lawsuit (which I was never to refer to again but already did) continues to hover over the program like a black cloud. It's hard enough to recruit as an Ivy these days w/o the stench of what has been revealed continuing to swirl around Bright Landry. That is why I found it curious that Harvard decided on Bellamy as the next coach. She played under Stone and I would have thought the athletic department. would want to distance themselves from any association with the former coach. I'm not disparaging Bellamy here in any way. It's more a matter of timing and wanting to make a clean sweep to start fresh.
 
Well, it's official. We are the worst team in D-1 college hockey. At this point, I doubt we could compete in D-II. Losing twice to Dartmouth which was heretofore the worst team pretty much puts the nail in the coffin. I hope the Athletic Department is happy with what has transpired in the past few seasons. We've become the laughingstock of women's hockey.
 
Not trying to put lipstick on a pig, but neither Dartmouth nor Harvard are the worst D1 teams - not by a long shot. They are at worst a push with multiple Hockey East teams, both better than 2 AH (former CHA) teams, and all of the NEWHA.
 
Well, it's official. We are the worst team in D-1 college hockey. At this point, I doubt we could compete in D-II. Losing twice to Dartmouth which was heretofore the worst team pretty much puts the nail in the coffin. I hope the Athletic Department is happy with what has transpired in the past few seasons. We've become the laughingstock of women's hockey.

I don’t think that a tie and an OT loss in two predictably tight games with an evenly matched foe throws Harvard into a nosedive. They are still comfortably within the rebuilding window, after all. I prefer to focus on the positives: a five game point streak from one FY (Lucia), and a 43-save game from another (Tuffy). I was sorry not to get to Bright to see Bellamy behind one bench facing Crowell behind the other, and also sorry to miss the post-game handshake between two friends taking on equally thankless tasks.
 
I don’t think that a tie and an OT loss in two predictably tight games with an evenly matched foe throws Harvard into a nosedive. They are still comfortably within the rebuilding window, after all. I prefer to focus on the positives: a five-game point streak from one FY (Lucia), and a 43-save game from another (Tuffy). I was sorry not to get to Bright to see Bellamy behind one bench facing Crowell behind the other, and also sorry to miss the post-game handshake between two friends taking on equally thankless tasks.

The nosedive has come and gone. When you lose twice (shootout and OT) to the worst team in the conference, that makes you the worst team. I realize they are missing their leading scorer. As a famous coach once said, you are what your record says you are. And right now, Harvard is a mess. I want to look on the bright side but I don't see one for the foreseeable future.
 
So with the close of another regular season, here are some numbers to chew on for those who think the program is headed in the right direction.

Harvard's record over the past two seasons combined: 7-47-4
Total # games where Harvard was shut out: 13
Total # of games that Harvard scored one goal: 25

If Draft Kings put odds on the over/under of Harvard scoring a goal next weekend at Quinnipiac, I'd take the under.
If Draft Kings put odds on the over/under of Quinnipiac scoring 6 or more goals, I'd take the over.

That's how bad it is. There is just no sugarcoating it.
 
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