Harvard Crimson 2013-2014

[bothman]

Slightly ahead of yourself

It's Xmas. Relax!

 

[Crimson on the Glass]

Re: Harvard Crimson 2013-2014

Slightly ahead of yourself

Hah, this I know!

 

[Kepler]

Re: Harvard Crimson 2013-2014

I asked my "why can't Harvard be ranked where I think their record indicates they should?" question in another thread. It sounds like I am supposed to root for Cornell in their Florida tournament games against western teams, for example. and I'm not sure how I feel about that.

It's almost* always in every ECAC team's interest for other ECAC teams to do as well as possible in non-conference games. That does lead to paradoxes like Harvard and Cornell fans rooting for each other in NC games.

* The exception comes down the stretch if ECAC teams are in competition with each other on the NC$$ bubble. At that point, obviously, one roots for immediate neighbors in PWR to lose, whoever they are.

 

[Dutchman]

Re: Harvard Crimson 2013-2014

..... It sounds like I am supposed to root for Cornell in their Florida tournament games against western teams ....

Yes, because its possible that Cornell's success/failure against the better western and other non-conference teams will translate into Harvard moving up/down in the pairwise even when Harvard is idle. The same is true for other ECAC teams. Last year the 12 team HE conference sent 5 teams to the NCAA tournament and just missed sending 7. One of the teams, I believe, even had a losing HE conference record. The 12 team ECAC conference sent 3. The reason for the HE success was in large part the non-conference record of HE. The best time to Cheer for Harvard vs Cornell is when they are playing for the national championship in Boston in March.

St. Lawrence vs NE
Dart/Brown - BC & Denver
Yale - NE, VT
RPI - Miami
Union - Tournament & BU
Colgate - Tournament
Cornell - Tournament
Brown - Providence
Dart & Yale - VT
Q - Merrimack, St. Cloud

 

[Skate79]

Re: Harvard Crimson 2013-2014

1) Polls are, depending on who you ask, mostly or entirely meaningless. The "best" rating to pay attention to is the Pairwise rankings, which simulate how the NCAA committee weights different things to make their tournament. Harvard is ranked #2 in the country using that metric. I say "best" because most people would agree the Pairwise is not altogether a good measurement, like KRACH, but it is designed to match the NCAA selection criteria.
As for rooting for Cornell, this is a quirk of the Pairwise system. If Cornell does well and Harvard beats them, Harvard gets some credit for the teams Cornell beat. The Pairwise also has something known as a TUC, or team under consideration. Some teams are so bad that playing them hurts your standing in the Pairwise (I'm simplifying a little here). So you can always cheer for Cornell to be so bad that they fall under the TUC cliff, and thus as a team not under consideration, their games, and any wins or losses against them, don't really matter. I couldn't tell you how Cornell being or not being a TUC would affect Harvard's Pairwise ranking.

I have a hard time rooting for Cornell under any circumstance but I get where you are coming from. Do we really think Cornell fans would ever root for us even if a national seeding were on the line for them? Hmm, not to sure about that one.

2) Harvard fans are pretty rare here (there and everywhere, to save all you wiseguys the trouble). Of the most active, you have bothman, skate79, myself and veritas, and then a few other people who chime in from time to time. Typically we do a thread for each year but no one got around to starting it at the beginning of the season. And then we started doing well and I, being a superstitious fellow, suggested we just stay in this thread.

You nailed it! You never go against karma and at this stage, we aren't changing the thread title. No way no how. Too much is going right for us so far and who are we to mess with kismet. Right?

3) Knowing where the Crimson will end up for the regionals depends on a host of factors because the NCAA has a labyrinth of rules and desires for the tournament. The relevant rules are basically - try to protect higher seeds, keep travel to a minimum, host schools get to host, have good attendance, and not necessarily in that order. If the season ended today, the teams would be:
1s: Minnesota State, Harvard, Minnesota-Duluth, Nebraska-Omaha; 2s: Miami, Michigan Tech, Vermont, Boston University; 3s: Bowling Green, North Dakota, Minnesota, UMass-Lowell; 4s: Denver, Merrimack, Yale, Penn State.
In a straight seeding, Minnesota State would most likely compete in the west, leaving both eastern sites open for Harvard. But since that site is North Dakota's host site, they have to be there. Likely, the committee would try to protect the #1 seed by moving Minnesota State out of Fargo because if they had to play North Dakota, that's a de facto home game for NoDak even though they are the lower seed. Since the 8th ranked team is BU, Minnesota State would possibly come east, meaning they would get either Providence or New Hampshire. Etc. Etc.
The point of that is to say this - the second the Pairwise rankings change, this all goes out the window. But there will likely be seats available closer to game time.

This is giving me a popsicle headache. Enough already. Look, we haven't turned the calendar yet so let's not worry about who goes where. We'll get there eventually. Harvard doesn't travel well, we haven't been in the national tournament for a while and I'm sure the committee will factor that in and keep us here in the East. The school will make tickets available according to their allotment. For the Frozen Four, there's always StubHub if you can't get them through the school.

 

[Crimson on the Glass]

Re: Harvard Crimson 2013-2014

This is a great thread, and thanks for the replies on rankings, brackets, and way-out tickets for this newbie. Just got a new jersey and am contemplating a 3 month subscription to the Ivy Digital Network. Next up live is RPI, naturally.

 

[bothman]

Re: Harvard Crimson 2013-2014

Great that Harvard has an exhibition warm up with the Russia Selects before RPI to get the rust off and the Christmas girth!

 

[alslammerz]

Re: Harvard Crimson 2013-2014

I have a hard time rooting for Cornell under any circumstance but I get where you are coming from. Do we really think Cornell fans would ever root for us even if a national seeding were on the line for them? Hmm, not to sure about that one.



You nailed it! You never go against karma and at this stage, we aren't changing the thread title. No way no how. Too much is going right for us so far and who are we to mess with kismet. Right?


This is giving me a popsicle headache. Enough already. Look, we haven't turned the calendar yet so let's not worry about who goes where. We'll get there eventually. Harvard doesn't travel well, we haven't been in the national tournament for a while and I'm sure the committee will factor that in and keep us here in the East. The school will make tickets available according to their allotment. For the Frozen Four, there's always StubHub if you can't get them through the school.

Yeah I don't root for Cornell either - I'd prefer them to be under 500 and not a TUC. As for the who goes where, it was just to show that there's no point buying tickets for a hypothetical regional appearance yet, both because of the question of location and because it's very early in the season.

This is a great thread, and thanks for the replies on rankings, brackets, and way-out tickets for this newbie. Just got a new jersey and am contemplating a 3 month subscription to the Ivy Digital Network. Next up live is RPI, naturally.

Is it an authentic new jersey or a Coop/Fanatics version? If the former, where did you get it?

 

[Crimson on the Glass]

Re: Harvard Crimson 2013-2014

Is it an authentic new jersey or a Coop/Fanatics version? If the former, where did you get it?

It is nothing special, mesh, made in Canada. I have not come across anything that looks remotely authentic, other than actual game-used examples.

 

[Skate79]

Re: Harvard Crimson 2013-2014

Great that Harvard has an exhibition warm up with the Russia Selects before RPI to get the rust off and the Christmas girth!

I checked the Crimson's web site and couldn't find anything about Alex Kerfoot. Hoping he is back in the lineup although they really don't need him tomorrow night. The Red Stars are probably missing a few players because of the World Juniors. Good time to play them.

Here is an interesting stat I found while perusing the site: Harvard boasts a 1.92 scoring margin, the largest such gap in Division I college hockey. We are averaging 3.75 goals per game, tied for fourth nationally, while limiting opponents to 1.83, the eighth-lowest total across the country.

 

[Crimson on the Glass]

Re: Harvard Crimson 2013-2014

As for the who goes where, it was just to show that there's no point buying tickets for a hypothetical regional appearance yet, both because of the question of location and because it's very early in the season.

Yes, what got me thinking about regional tickets already is that I noticed one series (West) is already showing as sold out, and the couple near me have sold a lot of tickets as well. Maybe the Fargo fans are more confident of home team assignment than is possible for a Crimson fan (with two nearby regional sites) to be at this stage. Or maybe they are happy to see those games regardless of which teams end up playing them.

 

[bothman]

Re: Harvard Crimson 2013-2014

I checked the Crimson's web site and couldn't find anything about Alex Kerfoot. Hoping he is back in the lineup although they really don't need him tomorrow night. The Red Stars are probably missing a few players because of the World Juniors. Good time to play them.

Here is an interesting stat I found while perusing the site: Harvard boasts a 1.92 scoring margin, the largest such gap in Division I college hockey. We are averaging 3.75 goals per game, tied for fourth nationally, while limiting opponents to 1.83, the eighth-lowest total across the country.

We all know that Kerfoot has had some shoulder issues (both when he was in the BCHL and last year at Harvard) that caused him to miss some fairly significant minutes. Harvard has had 3+ weeks off, so if he is not in the line-up, the injury is like significant.

A healthy Kerfoot and Blackwell will do wonders for Harvard in the 2nd half as playing time will be that much more competitive and depth will be bolstered.

Be interesting to see how Yale does with the Russians tonight.

 

[Ronnieb]

Re: Harvard Crimson 2013-2014

What happened to recruit Mcrea? He committed to cornell.

 

[turk181]

Re: Harvard Crimson 2013-2014

What happened to recruit Mcrea? He committed to cornell.

Didn’t he de-committ about the same time Bracco did?

 

[bothman]

Re: Harvard Crimson 2013-2014

What happened to recruit Mcrea? He committed to cornell.

Not sure. Originally committed for 2014 and when he did not show up, it was likely open season. Could be any 3 of reasons:
1) Preferred Cornell
2) Could not get in to Harvard (Cornell has lower AI)
3) Odd man out (Harvard originally had Plant & Fortunato coming in this year which is probably what pushed Mcrea out a year and looking at Harvard's incoming recruits, tough to see a lot of playing time for Mcrea)

Regardless, best of luck to him going forward!

 

[Skate79]

Re: Harvard Crimson 2013-2014

We all know that Kerfoot has had some shoulder issues (both when he was in the BCHL and last year at Harvard) that caused him to miss some fairly significant minutes. Harvard has had 3+ weeks off, so if he is not in the line-up, the injury is like significant.

A healthy Kerfoot and Blackwell will do wonders for Harvard in the 2nd half as playing time will be that much more competitive and depth will be bolstered.

Be interesting to see how Yale does with the Russians tonight.

In a recent article in the Crimson on the team, Kerfoot indicated that his shoulder problems are a thing of the past. I'm hoping it isn't serious as we really need him to anchor the first line. Having Blackwell back for the second half would also be a plus. Would give us some serious offensive options on the second and third lines and create havoc for opposing teams.

 

[bothman]

Re: Harvard Crimson 2013-2014

Yale beat the Russian Selects 2-1 last night in what seemed to be a fairly competitive game. Will Donato roll the 4 main lines? Will he let some new guys get into the mix? Will we see Blackwell and Kerfoot?

 

[Crimson on the Glass]

Re: Harvard Crimson 2013-2014

Yale beat the Russian Selects 2-1 last night in what seemed to be a fairly competitive game. Will Donato roll the 4 main lines? Will he let some new guys get into the mix? Will we see Blackwell and Kerfoot?

With the team's success so dependent on its senior goaltender, would tonight be a rare chance to give one of the other two fellows some game time experience before next season?

 

[bothman]

Re: Harvard Crimson 2013-2014

With the team's success so dependent on its senior goaltender, would tonight be a rare chance to give one of the other two fellows some game time experience before next season?

Would like to see Madsen get a period in. Assuming that current commits stay that way, Harvard has 2 of the better tenders in the country coming in over the next few years in Lackey and Foulem.

 

[Skate79]

Re: Harvard Crimson 2013-2014

Yale beat the Russian Selects 2-1 last night in what seemed to be a fairly competitive game. Will Donato roll the 4 main lines? Will he let some new guys get into the mix? Will we see Blackwell and Kerfoot?

Good questions. I'd rather avoid injury and sit the first line tonight along with McNally and Everson if possible. Take the Patriots approach and let some of the benchwarmers play some meaningful minutes. See what Madsen looks like between the pipes in game conditions. It can only help down the road.