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Harvard Crimson 2013-2014

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Re: Harvard Crimson 2013-2014

Anybody care to share a thumbnail of what to expect from the Crimson Friday?

From the Big Red side:

Solid, unspectacular goaltending. Iles will make all the plays he needs to but he won't steal the game.

Aggressive, mostly inexperienced defense. Gotovets is the core stay back guy, acting as a virtual second goaltender in blocking shots, clearing the slot, and just generally frustrating the opposing forwards. Ryan is all-everything in all three zones, amazing skater, great sense of the ice, surprisingly heavy shot. The other blueliners are very young and mistake-prone, though in Willcox and Lewis we seem to have the next two outstanding defenders and Patrick McCarron is sneaky good getting into the play up front.

Talented, EXTREMELY inconsistent forwards. Ferlin everybody knows about, but John McCarron has put together a great two-way season, Lowry is less about the highlight reel playmaking he used to have and more about snippy, "instigation" kind of play -- he seems to invariably pair off with the opponent's toughest guy (not necessarily smart since that is always a good trade for the other team). A good mix of elegantly twirling oak trees (DeSwardt/Craig, Hilbrich) and pesky guys (Freschi, Knisely, Dias) fill it out.

Overall: the team is much more disciplined than last year, they play better with the lead and their power play is lethal. They are vulnerable to speed (as always) and they are hesitant when they face an aggressive forecheck. They never look dominant and never look overmatched -- as is usual with Schafer teams The System collapses talent differences, both pro and con, and drags every game into the final minutes as a nail biter.

tl; dr: Cornell is more up tempo than you're used to, but also more ragged and inconsistent at fundamentals.
 
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Re: Harvard Crimson 2013-2014

Kepler said:
Anybody care to share a thumbnail of what to expect from the Crimson Friday?

From the Big Red side:

Solid, unspectacular goaltending. Iles will make all the plays he needs to but he won't steal the game.

Aggressive, mostly inexperienced defense. Gotovets is the core stay back guy, acting as a virtual second goaltender in blocking shots, clearing the slot, and just generally frustrating the opposing forwards. Ryan is all-everything in all three zones, amazing skater, great sense of the ice, surprisingly heavy shot. The other blueliners are very young and mistake-prone, though in Willcox and Lewis we seem to have the next two outstanding defenders and Patrick McCarron is sneaky good getting into the play up front.

Talented, EXTREMELY inconsistent forwards. Ferlin everybody knows about, but John McCarron has put together a great two-way season, Lowry is less about the highlight reel playmaking he used to have and more about snippy, "instigation" kind of play -- he seems to invariably pair off with the opponent's toughest guy (not necessarily smart since that is always a good trade for the other team). A good mix of elegantly twirling oak trees (DeSwardt/Craig, Hilbrich) and pesky guys (Freschi, Knisely, Dias) fill it out.

Overall: the team is much more disciplined than last year, they play better with the lead and their power play is lethal. They are vulnerable to speed (as always) and they are hesitant when they face an aggressive forecheck. They never look dominant and never look overmatched -- as is usual with Schafer teams The System collapses talent differences, both pro and con, and drags every game into the final minutes as a nail biter.

tl; dr: Cornell is more up tempo than you're used to, but also more ragged and inconsistent at fundamentals.
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Okay, I'll take a shot. We're young and VERY INCONSISTENT. Witness the past two games where we played well against Quinny (especially Girard) and then lay an egg against Yale at MSG on national TV. Girard lets in a couple of softies and it's game over. Up front, Donato has been relying heavily on the frosh and there is talent on this team. But their mistakes and lazy play at times come back to haunt us with killer goals or stupid penalties. Vesey is our best forward with Esposito and Malone developing as solid players. Criscuolo has his moments but needs to bring it every night. Kerfoot has talent but lacks size and strength on and off the puck. Blackwell hasn't played this season and McNally and Everson have been back for a handful of games.

Girard often is our best player and Saturday just wasn't his night. Our PP has been okay, the PK pretty good and we have speed to skate with most of HE (BC being the exception).

Bottom line. We're headed for another losing season and it's getting old real fast. Something has to give and soon because I'm tired of hearing about our fabulous recruits. The results just aren't there and I'm feeling more and more that a coaching change will happen after this season if we don't make it to the ECAC finals.
 
Re: Harvard Crimson 2013-2014

There isn't much good you can say about last night's game. We got our butts kicked up and down the ice. The scoreboard is so misleading; this wasn't a game as much as a scrimmage for Colgate to run some set plays and make us look like fools. It was truly men against boys and we had nothing until the final three minutes of the game. We lost battles along the boards, in the neutral zone, pretty much everywhere on the Bright-Landry ice sheet. The Colgate goalie could have ordered out from Crimson pub because we hardly caused him to break a sweat.

It's really time to stop looking at this team through rose colored glasses. They are as bad as their record, maybe worse. I'm not sure what the cure is but I know this; these players and coaching staff aren't the solution. I lost count of how many times Harvard players stood around and watched Vesey with the puck. Like how about some urgency, some creativity, moving your feet once in a while?? Would it kill this team to show that it actually cared about winning? Because last night it looked like they simply wanted to get the game over with and go out to whatever hangout suits them. You could see it in their facial expressions. It was like "we're going to lose so why bother?" . Dispirited doesn't even come close to describing how pathetic they look.
 
Re: Harvard Crimson 2013-2014

ted donato can't coach at this level. it's that simple. the question is, can an ivy actually pull the trigger and fire a coach?
 
Re: Harvard Crimson 2013-2014

J.D. said:
ted donato can't coach at this level. it's that simple. the question is, can an ivy actually pull the trigger and fire a coach?
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But doesn't this start with the AD first ? We didn't see any hope for our programs until GDF was gone. GDF's only legacy left is the basketball program. I don't see Donato as the problem until there is an AD to hold his feet to the fire. I don't have a horse in this race because I'm a BC fan and only worried about our varsity programs. But apathy has set in and even their fans are discouraged to the point that opposing fans outnumber their fans at home games sometimes. The expectations are not there and the standards are low now in a place like HU which expects excellence in its academic programs.

GDF was so bad that I heard a story he even tried to fire York, the winningest coach in the NCAAs. The problem with GDF is his ego and his desire to have control over every little thing when he has no business to do so. I see a complete turn around in attitude with Bates in here now. He's even had town meetings for each sport at Walsh Hall to get fan input on how to make things better and to win the fan support back especially in football.

Grant it BC and HU are different institutions and have different philosophies as schools but look at what the correct hire did for hockey and football at BC so far. Hopefully the football program will continue to progress in the right direction in a tough ACC but in 1 season going from 2 wins to 7 wins is significant when the talent was the same and not much depth.
 
BCeagle said:
But doesn't this start with the AD first ? We didn't see any hope for our programs until GDF was gone. GDF's only legacy left is the basketball program. I don't see Donato as the problem until there is an AD to hold his feet to the fire. I don't have a horse in this race because I'm a BC fan and only worried about our varsity programs. But apathy has set in and even their fans are discouraged to the point that opposing fans outnumber their fans at home games sometimes. The expectations are not there and the standards are low now in a place like HU which expects excellence in its academic programs.

GDF was so bad that I heard a story he even tried to fire York, the winningest coach in the NCAAs. The problem with GDF is his ego and his desire to have control over every little thing when he has no business to do so. I see a complete turn around in attitude with Bates in here now. He's even had town meetings for each sport at Walsh Hall to get fan input on how to make things better and to win the fan support back especially in football.

Grant it BC and HU are different institutions and have different philosophies as schools but look at what the correct hire did for hockey and football at BC so far. Hopefully the football program will continue to progress in the right direction in a tough ACC but in 1 season going from 2 wins to 7 wins is significant when the talent was the same and not much depth.
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A really excellent post as to Harvard's AD problem. The AD clearly does not care about hockey at all. There are some big money donors pushing basketball so basketball is clearly the big winter sport to him, (not many years ago Bright would be filled for every game and basketball would draw 50-100 people)

The Harvard band used to do a decent job boosting spirit at the games. Nowadays the Harvard band rarely comes to games and they have taken to providing an occasional faux Harvard band. At the Cornell game the band was actually the Medford High band who were given Harvard Jerseys.

They seem to forget that hockey fans occasionally like to talk about hockey and the audio system is constantly blaring crap music at very high levels. The also constantly bombard the fans with ads for Crimson Pub, basketball games, etc. Once upon a time they would show scores on the million dollar scoreboard of other games so you could see what was happening elsewhere and see how the women's hockey team was doing at away games. I did not see any women's scores this weekend and had to use the iPhone to find out that the women's two wins had moved them from 2nd place in the ECAC to 1st place. Well done ladies!!

I would suggest looking at the rosters of the teams that Harvard plays. Many of the teams have a a majority of players arriving from USHL, BCHL, QMJHL etc. Harvard's roster shows players arriving direct from high schools. This cannot be entirely due to the Ivy league rules regarding the Academic Index of varsity athletes vis a vis the overall Academic Index of the school. I am sure that the AI plays a role in the fact that the top four teams in the ECAC are non-Ivy right now.
 
Re: Harvard Crimson 2013-2014

J.D. said:
ted donato can't coach at this level. it's that simple. the question is, can an ivy actually pull the trigger and fire a coach?
Click to expand...
Can't believe it was already 18 years ago, but Cornell fired Coach McCutcheon in 1995 following two seasons with a combined record of 14-36-6 (.303) and many other statistics too depressing to contemplate. In the last two seasons, Harvard is 15-29-6, so they would need to drop their next 9 contests in a row to achieve that level of futility - something to strive for!
 
Re: Harvard Crimson 2013-2014

My two cents. It's all about coaching. Look what Union has done with Leaman and Bennett. From laughing stock to an elite program. You come to Union and you play Union hockey or you don't play, in fact you don't even get admitted. Recruit talent and character and kids who are coachable. No big egos and no big "NHL" watchlist names, no draft picks, (Ghostisbehere a notable exception) whose baggage include egos that match supposed talent.
 
Re: Harvard Crimson 2013-2014

Veritas said:
The Harvard band used to do a decent job boosting spirit at the games. Nowadays the Harvard band rarely comes to games and they have taken to providing an occasional faux Harvard band. At the Cornell game the band was actually the Medford High band who were given Harvard Jerseys.

They seem to forget that hockey fans occasionally like to talk about hockey and the audio system is constantly blaring crap music at very high levels. The also constantly bombard the fans with ads for Crimson Pub, basketball games, etc. Once upon a time they would show scores on the million dollar scoreboard of other games so you could see what was happening elsewhere and see how the women's hockey team was doing at away games. I did not see any women's scores this weekend and had to use the iPhone to find out that the women's two wins had moved them from 2nd place in the ECAC to 1st place. Well done ladies
Click to expand...

Actually, they did show the women beating Cornell on the big scoreboard. You had to look fast - it was during intermission between the second and third periods. It wasn't up there very long.

Between former players and alums like the Landry family, I can't believe there isn't enough support to go to the AD and push for accountability and more effective recruiting. And getting a coach who commands the respect of the players and can create and implement a system that allows us to compete against HE as well as the top programs in the ECAC. Maybe that's wishful thinking on my part but I really care about this program.

And I'm not buying into the fact that the AD doesn't care about hockey; otherwise, how do you explain the run of success with the women's program? They get less resources than the men yet Katey somehow manages to pull together a winner year after year. They have their issues but they are entertaining and play a system that for the most part works.
 
Re: Harvard Crimson 2013-2014

Wholin1 said:
My two cents. It's all about coaching. Look what Union has done with Leaman and Bennett. From laughing stock to an elite program. You come to Union and you play Union hockey or you don't play, in fact you don't even get admitted. Recruit talent and character and kids who are coachable. No big egos and no big "NHL" watchlist names, no draft picks, (Ghostisbehere a notable exception) whose baggage include egos that match supposed talent.
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Very well said. And Union has tough academic standards so we can't use that as an excuse. What hurts about Leaman is that he was an assistant here under Mazzoleni and yet never received consideration I don't believe as the next head coach. We need someone like him to take over and get the program back on course.
 
Re: Harvard Crimson 2013-2014

The silence in here is deafening. Looks like you'll be stuck with the 'good ol' boy' program for a while.
 
Re: Harvard Crimson 2013-2014

FiveHole12 said:
The silence in here is deafening. Looks like you'll be stuck with the 'good ol' boy' program for a while.
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I hope you're wrong. If the AD cares about men's hockey, he'll do something about it at the end of the season. 20 years and counting since our last Frozen Four appearance. Time to reverse course.
 
Re: Harvard Crimson 2013-2014

Skate79 said:
I hope you're wrong. If the AD cares about men's hockey, he'll do something about it at the end of the season. 20 years and counting since our last Frozen Four appearance. Time to reverse course.
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I know it's been a long time since Cleary was HC but when I used to go to Bright, it was packed and very enthusiastic crowd. I was a young adult but HU was a very good team year in year out before winning it in 1989. I remember Cleary asking me to tone it down so he can speak to his players as I was cheering loudly for BC. A coach does not have to be a Cleary as it is not fair to compare him to a new coach. But the new coach has to have the respect and support of the players, fans and administration and show actual results and progress. It's so bad now that HU does not even make it out of the 1st round in the Beanpot.

There's something wrong when supposedly you get good recruits each year, yet it does not reflect it on the ice.
 
Re: Harvard Crimson 2013-2014

BCeagle said:
I know it's been a long time since Cleary was HC but when I used to go to Bright, it was packed and very enthusiastic crowd. I was a young adult but HU was a very good team year in year out before winning it in 1989. I remember Cleary asking me to tone it down so he can speak to his players as I was cheering loudly for BC. A coach does not have to be a Cleary as it is not fair to compare him to a new coach. But the new coach has to have the respect and support of the players, fans and administration and show actual results and progress. It's so bad now that HU does not even make it out of the 1st round in the Beanpot.

There's something wrong when supposedly you get good recruits each year, yet it does not reflect it on the ice.
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Harvard recruits basically prep players and to me that is killing them on the ice. While the the majority of the rest of the ECAC has more mature junior players that have more seasoning, Harvard does not have one player on their roster that is from junior hockey whether its the USHL, BCHL, AJHL, USPHL, etc. To me that is a huge difference. Compare that to a roster like Quinnipiac where the entire team played junior hockey or transferred from another university and there lies the difference. While Harvard has talent the key is seasoned talent. They would be better off sending some of these prep kids to play juniors for 1-2 years and maybe the results would be much different.
 
QUAlum2004 said:
Harvard recruits basically prep players and to me that is killing them on the ice. While the the majority of the rest of the ECAC has more mature junior players that have more seasoning, Harvard does not have one player on their roster that is from junior hockey whether its the USHL, BCHL, AJHL, USPHL, etc. To me that is a huge difference.
Click to expand...

Simply not true...Vesey, Kerfoot and Criscuolo all played juniors, USHL, USPHL, BCHL. Malone played for USNTDP. There are others too.
 
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