Harvard Crimson 2016-2017

[critsports]

Re: Harvard Crimson 2016-2017

Yup. Don't know what it is.

Easier said than done, but if Harvard gets back on track and goes 3-0 or 2-0-1 in these next 3 (@dartmouth and then home against brown and Yale), they will be right back where I expect them (top 6 or so).

Harvard also really only has two demanding road games left (Cornell and Yale) so scheduling wise, I think they have some advantages over teams in the ecac that hey are looking up at.

I would agree with you and we are all scratching our head over this weekend. We expected you'd have a tough game with Union but the RPI thing is inexplicable. i still think top to bottom you have the most talent in the league. Many years that has been your curse rather than your blessing. On our Facebook thread for SLU we all keep wondering just how good Union really is???? They have the weakest schedule of teams in the top 20, but, in conference they seem bullet proof. We get one more crack at them at home but next weekend we are on the road against Cornell/Colgate. We are very dinged up now. We just got Pritchard back but are still minus Marnell, Bayreuther and now Garvey. I don't ever quite remember having this many injuries in a season or all at once. Count your blessings your team has stayed healthy.

 

[ADK11]

Re: Harvard Crimson 2016-2017

Last night's game had a playoff level intensity and was one of the best I've seen in Schenectady in the last couple seasons. Two excellent teams going toe-to-toe and not giving up much offensively. Harvard has nothing to be ashamed of with the effort last night. Union had a good defensive strategy of clogging the neutral zone and not letting Harvard get speed into the zone, and it worked amazingly well. I'm not sure how they did it, because up to now team defense has not been exactly U's strength. Sak was also excellent in goal - probably his best game of the year. Harvard is a very good team and will get things going again I'm quite sure. This is the time of year to have a slump if you're going to have one. Good luck the rest of the way and look forward to the rematch in Boston, hope U can give a similar effort then.

 

[Skate79]

Re: Harvard Crimson 2016-2017

I would agree with you and we are all scratching our head over this weekend. We expected you'd have a tough game with Union but the RPI thing is inexplicable. i still think top to bottom you have the most talent in the league. Many years that has been your curse rather than your blessing. On our Facebook thread for SLU we all keep wondering just how good Union really is???? They have the weakest schedule of teams in the top 20, but, in conference they seem bullet proof. We get one more crack at them at home but next weekend we are on the road against Cornell/Colgate. We are very dinged up now. We just got Pritchard back but are still minus Marnell, Bayreuther and now Garvey. I don't ever quite remember having this many injuries in a season or all at once. Count your blessings your team has stayed healthy.

We've been there with the injury bug. Too bad about Bayreuther - he's a solid player. I'm hoping this weekend was an aberration and that the team will refocus for Dartmouth on Tuesday and get back on track. We can't look past any team going forward. Hey, the Pats last night almost took it on the chin from a team with a mediocre QB when everyone was saying that their game would be a walk in the park. You just never know.

 

[Skate79]

Re: Harvard Crimson 2016-2017

Last night's game had a playoff level intensity and was one of the best I've seen in Schenectady in the last couple seasons. Two excellent teams going toe-to-toe and not giving up much offensively. Harvard has nothing to be ashamed of with the effort last night. Union had a good defensive strategy of clogging the neutral zone and not letting Harvard get speed into the zone, and it worked amazingly well. I'm not sure how they did it, because up to now team defense has not been exactly U's strength. Sak was also excellent in goal - probably his best game of the year. Harvard is a very good team and will get things going again I'm quite sure. This is the time of year to have a slump if you're going to have one. Good luck the rest of the way and look forward to the rematch in Boston, hope U can give a similar effort then.

Effort is great but if the accompanying results don't add up to points, then it really doesn't matter. It was a lost weekend where we only scored one goal with ten seconds left in the second game. Not pretty. We have to realize that every weekend will be a dog fight, regardless of where we play. Not to take anything away from Union but we should have come away with at least a point.

 

[Veritas]

Re: Harvard Crimson 2016-2017

I concur with Skate79 and Bothman that the month long time away from the game in December may have a lot to do with a January slump.

Anyone know when was the last time that they had a tournament in December? I do recall that back in the late 50's and first half of the 60's when Cooney Weiland was coaching that they always seemed to have a tournament around Christmas time. The ones I recall were at Boston Garden and also involved Colorado College. Maybe some sort of non league tournament would keep them sharp for the the league season resumes.


Can anyone remember the the last time the Harvard Band actually came to play at Bright-Landry. It is sort of sad when the visiting teams bring their band but the Harvard band is nowhere to be found. Back a few years ago there was always a good student presence at hockey games. The band helped get people into following the games.

The same situation prevails with WHRB. They apparently no longer broadcast any hockey games. I was badly snowed in on January 7th game with Princeton and could not get to Bright and there was no radio coverage. This past weekend I was at the women's games and tried to listen to WHRB for the men's games on my drive home and discovered that those games were not broadcast either. All I could do was watch the "live stats" feed from the Harvard website.

 

[Crimson on the Glass]

Re: Harvard Crimson 2016-2017

I concur with Skate79 and Bothman that the month long time away from the game in December may have a lot to do with a January slump.

Anyone know when was the last time that they had a tournament in December? I do recall that back in the late 50's and first half of the 60's when Cooney Weiland was coaching that they always seemed to have a tournament around Christmas time. The ones I recall were at Boston Garden and also involved Colorado College. Maybe some sort of non league tournament would keep them sharp for the the league season resumes.


Can anyone remember the the last time the Harvard Band actually came to play at Bright-Landry. It is sort of sad when the visiting teams bring their band but the Harvard band is nowhere to be found. Back a few years ago there was always a good student presence at hockey games. The band helped get people into following the games.

The same situation prevails with WHRB. They apparently no longer broadcast any hockey games. I was badly snowed in on January 7th game with Princeton and could not get to Bright and there was no radio coverage. This past weekend I was at the women's games and tried to listen to WHRB for the men's games on my drive home and discovered that those games were not broadcast either. All I could do was watch the "live stats" feed from the Harvard website.

I'm not sure it's a simple as a long December break. Many teams do this as well, and the Crimson have had some excellent early January game performances, after all.

The band situation is intolerable. HUB's stated policy just a couple of years ago was that they attend all home and Ivy League men's hockey games. Now the language says they perform for football and "can be seen" at men's/women's basketball/hockey. I agree that they in fact can't be seen because they simply don't come. So we have a sixty piece band that has made the long drive from Ithica and HUB can't be bothered to walk across the bridge.

WHRB also not long ago traveled to places like South Bend to cover the Crimson. No more. I like classical music, but when I tune it at game time, I still expect coverage.

The general lack of support from the student body is one thing, but the band and radio coverage situations are due to deliberate decisions as to the value and importance of the men's hockey program within the broader university. When the Crimson briefly visit the top 4 pairwise, it is especially sad.

 

[bothman]

Re: Harvard Crimson 2016-2017

I'm not sure it's a simple as a long December break. Many teams do this as well, and the Crimson have had some excellent early January game performances, after all.

Here are some stats for Harvard in January:

2015-2016 season - 6-3 (Two wins at Minnesota tourney, Jan 1 and 2) vs overall record of 19-11-4 (so better in January than overall)
2014-2015 - 2-4-0 vs overall record of 21-13-3 (so worse in January than overall)
2013-2014 - 2-4-1 vs overall record of 10-17-4 (so worse in January than overall)
2012-2013 - 1-7-0 vs overall record of 10-19-3 (so worse in January than overall

So generally worse in January though I have not controlled for quality of opponents for each year above as well as home vs away.

 

[bothman]

Re: Harvard Crimson 2016-2017

That was about as bad a defensive and goaltending performance as I have seenagainst a very average Dartmouth team.

Two things:
- Anderson needs to sit a game
- Donato may have lost this game for Harvard by not pulling Madsen when it was 4-4.

Let's hope this is the low point because as bad as Harvard was against RPI, this was worse!

 

[paulfb]

Re: Harvard Crimson 2016-2017

Older BC fan -- now living in New York -- checking in here. Having long respected Harvard's program and what it has brought to the college hockey table, I'm sorry to hear about spotty band attendance at home games and no games on WHRB. Shame on those responsible on both counts.

 

[BIG Green]

Re: Harvard Crimson 2016-2017

That was about as bad a defensive and goaltending performance as I have seenagainst a very average Dartmouth team.

Two things:
- Anderson needs to sit a game
- Donato may have lost this game for Harvard by not pulling Madsen when it was 4-4.

Let's hope this is the low point because as bad as Harvard was against RPI, this was worse!

I would have to agree with you on pulling Madsen earlier; clearly it was not either of the starting goalie's night and sadly/ironically the team who pulled their goalie first was probably going to win if the shootout continued. Go figure!

 

[kdiff77]

Re: Harvard Crimson 2016-2017

The band situation is intolerable. HUB's stated policy just a couple of years ago was that they attend all home and Ivy League men's hockey games.

This implies to me that they would travel to all Ivy away games, in addition to attending all home games. I've been a Brown season ticket holder since the early '90s and can't recall the Harvard band ever showing up to a game at Meehan. In fact, they've only been at one or two of numerous Harvard-Brown games at Bright that I've been to (and I don't expect to see them on Friday).

It's a shame that one of the perennial best teams in the east doesn't have better student support. What more does the program have to do to make people care?

 

[alslammerz]

Re: Harvard Crimson 2016-2017

That was about as bad a defensive and goaltending performance as I have seenagainst a very average Dartmouth team.

Two things:
- Anderson needs to sit a game
- Donato may have lost this game for Harvard by not pulling Madsen when it was 4-4.

Let's hope this is the low point because as bad as Harvard was against RPI, this was worse!

This nose dive has been awful. I didn't think they'd led their poll ranking get to their head this bad, but they need to wake up and quickly.

Older BC fan -- now living in New York -- checking in here. Having long respected Harvard's program and what it has brought to the college hockey table, I'm sorry to hear about spotty band attendance at home games and no games on WHRB. Shame on those responsible on both counts.

HUB is killing me - I went to the Cornell game and having the road team provide the only band is just horrific form, esp. when it's those guys. I'm sorry, but if the band must choose between Harvard/Columbia football and Harvard/Cornell hockey they should choose the latter.

As a WHRB alum - I don't know the situation but it's probably economic. Our revenue streams were all on the decline five years ago and I can't imagine they are any better now. I think they may do some online only broadcasts? But I honestly don't know. Unfortunately I think what advertisers there were for men's hockey (and we were down to just the COOP at one point) would probably rather spend the money on an ILDN commercial than a radio broadcast commercial. And often the sales team are the students who are not part of the sports team and so sports broadcasts always struggled to sell ads.

That said I did the math today and I think you could become a sponsor for a season of hockey on WHRB for approx. $3000... Two or three people step up with that type of financial commitment and I bet hockey comes back. So if any of you have a business in the Cambridge area... Joking aside, I do agree it's unfortunate, both for Harvard fans and for the undergraduates. I wouldn't trade calling the games of some rather bad Harvard teams for anything, except maybe the chance to broadcast Harvard during better seasons.

 

[Crimson Faced]

Re: Harvard Crimson 2016-2017

Thanks for explaining why the games are not on WHRB; it's a shame that Harvard is so poor they cannot afford to put the games on the radio. I remember about 10 years ago (probably longer) the games were also on AM, broadcast by a local guy, sponsored by the long-gone Bickford's Grille in Brighton. They had a shuttle bus to the games from the Bickford's Grille.

They should bring back that band of local people wearing Harvard shirts who were at the games last year. They were better than the Harvard band

I don't get high or low about this team until I am sitting by myself in the cold Garden for the early game the first Monday of February and they lose, as they usually do.

Then you will read some complaining.

Until then, I would be shocked if this team played consistently for a whole season, but then again, I don't expect the Cincinnati Bengals to either, as long as they are coached by Marvin Lewis.

 

[alslammerz]

Re: Harvard Crimson 2016-2017

Thanks for explaining why the games are not on WHRB; it's a shame that Harvard is so poor they cannot afford to put the games on the radio.

Unfortunately it's not even as simple as that. WHRB used to do the athletic dept. feed, which provided an extra incentive for WHRB to broadcast the games, but now with ILDN that no longer happens. And the station itself receives no money from the school, so everything is advertising dependent.

I don't get high or low about this team until I am sitting by myself in the cold Garden for the early game the first Monday of February and they lose, as they usually do.

I'll be with you in spirit - I turn the heat off in my house and sit alone watching NESN National so that I can have that same feeling.

 

[bothman]

Re: Harvard Crimson 2016-2017

I'll be with you in spirit - I turn the heat off in my house and sit alone watching NESN National so that I can have that same feeling.

Death, Taxes, and the Harvard Beanpot Flop

 

[Skate79]

Re: Harvard Crimson 2016-2017

Hey guys. Sorry for the radio silence. Had a death in the family. Have been off the grid this week. I'll try and recap some thoughts on the posts I missed. It really helps to get my mind refocused.

1. About the Dartmouth game. From the looks of the stats, yeah, Madsen should have been pulled. How we gave up 5 consecutive goals is mind boggling. This team is really off kilter at the moment. Perhaps the condensed schedule will get them back on track. We need four points this weekend.

2. About 'HRB. As a ghost and a former hockey announcer, it is sad that coverage has all but disappeared. Perhaps it is not a total surprise given the ILDN and ESPN3 coverage. The University provides zero support and it has been that way forever. I think when we were kicked out of the basement of Mem Hall, Harvard offered no financial support for the move. We had to raise money through alumni donations. Really sad.

3. The Band. It's beyond pathetic and someone really needs to take them to task. Okay, the hockey program has suffered for a while but that's no excuse not to support these student athletes for at least a few games a season. Basketball has been the 'in' team to support and I'm happy for the hoops team but not at the expense of hockey. We have always been a hockey school and the declining support from students and the band is simply unacceptable. Not to mention embarrassing when opposing teams bring their bands and students.

I'm hoping to be at tomorrow night's game. Just not sure what my availability will be this weekend. Let's hope for the best.

 

[bothman]

Re: Harvard Crimson 2016-2017

Be very interesting to see which Harvard team shows up tonight and what impact (if any) a few days of practice and some very underwhelming performances have had with regards to the mettle of this team.

I think Donato will maintain the status quo, but it would not surprise me to see a change in net and a change in defense, especially if guys did not properly respond in practice this week.

 

[bothman]

Re: Harvard Crimson 2016-2017

Solid game. Gripping sticks too tight on offense, but got back to basics. Good positioning, little to no Brown scoring opportunities, good communication, and a solid lunch-pail effort. Just what the Dr ordered.

Bring on the Elis....

 

[Skate79]

Re: Harvard Crimson 2016-2017

Solid game. Gripping sticks too tight on offense, but got back to basics. Good positioning, little to no Brown scoring opportunities, good communication, and a solid lunch-pail effort. Just what the Dr ordered.

Bring on the Elis....

Missed last night's game but will be at tonight's game. It's also on NESN. Hoping that we can continue to pull ourselves out of this mini slump. From the roster, looks like the shakeup happened up front.

 

[alslammerz]

Re: Harvard Crimson 2016-2017

2. About 'HRB.[..]The University provides zero support and it has been that way forever. I think when we were kicked out of the basement of Mem Hall, Harvard offered no financial support for the move. We had to raise money through alumni donations. Really sad.

Sorry to hear about the death in the family Skate. I do believe you are right about that. And most of my time there was spent preparing contingency plans for if they kicked us out of Pennypacker, which they really wanted to do as well. Grr...

At least we beat Brown. Beat the Elis tonight and I'll feel better about last week's blip.