Harvard Crimson 2017-2018

[Crimson on the Glass]

Re: Harvard Crimson 2017-2018

I hope we have the band but with football away at Columbia the next day I wouldn't be surprised if we don't. Fingers crossed.

Wonder if the band still feels it has an obligation, as in my day, to dispatch a subset (Schneider's Band) to serenade Yale early on Saturday morning on trips to Columbia and other points south? That involved 4 am bus departures for the hardy souls who volunteered (and risked apprehension by Yalie campus cops).

I think the band's website still says something like for ice hockey it's all home games and Ivy games away. But that's not the reality obviously. HUB was rumored to have had its Chicago flight cancelled for Frozen Four, so if true at least they tried for that one.

 

[Skate79]

Re: Harvard Crimson 2017-2018

Some follow up thoughts from Sunday's game in no particular order.

1. We may not have Ryan or Adam for this weekend's games. There is a tournament in Germany for Olympic hopefuls and Tony Granato mentioned over the summer in a TV interview on NHL Network that he expects the leading candidates to make the squad to be present for this tournament. Jim Johansen of the US Olympic Selection Committee was present at Sunday's game. I doubt it was because he had nothing better to do with his Sunday evening.

2. What impressed me the most about Sunday's game was how effective the Crimson were in their breakouts and running their system. Granted, it was Dartmouth and they are picked to finish in the lower third of the conference but it was Harvard's first conference game and they looked in midseason form. They were strong on the puck and positionally never panicked or ran around. They kept the front of the net clean helping Madsen handle what Dartmouth threw at him.

3. Surprised that Colton Kerfoot and Vic Dumbrovsky were not in the lineup. Speaks to our depth which we will probably need in February if Ryan and Adam make the Olympic team. I'm not sure about our national ranking; seems high to me. I do expect us to finish in the top four of the ECAC - I'd be surprised if we didn't finish second or third.

4. Ty Pelton Byce was the left wing on Donato's line - he looks bulked up and more comfortable on the wing. Hope it translates into goals.

 

[alslammerz]

Re: Harvard Crimson 2017-2018

Some follow up thoughts from Sunday's game in no particular order.

1. We may not have Ryan or Adam for this weekend's games. There is a tournament in Germany for Olympic hopefuls and Tony Granato mentioned over the summer in a TV interview on NHL Network that he expects the leading candidates to make the squad to be present for this tournament. Jim Johansen of the US Olympic Selection Committee was present at Sunday's game. I doubt it was because he had nothing better to do with his Sunday evening.

Well, um... the roster for that tournament has been out for weeks now. There are 0 NCAA players and only 2 North American based players on it, and it's already featuring 29 players. So he may have been scouting them, but I doubt it was for a tournament that starts next Friday. But some alums like Dylan Reese and Noah Welch made the team. http://teamusa.usahockey.com/page/show/3721727-2017-u-s-men-s-national-select-team

What seems likely is they are going to decide on the European contingent, and then fill in as needed with NCAA players that will not get a chance to play with the team until the Olympics. Which is not an optimal strategy imo but nothing about this Olympics is optimal from a US point of view.

 

[Game0n]

Re: Harvard Crimson 2017-2018

Some follow up thoughts from Sunday's game in no particular order.

1. We may not have Ryan or Adam for this weekend's games. There is a tournament in Germany for Olympic hopefuls and Tony Granato mentioned over the summer in a TV interview on NHL Network that he expects the leading candidates to make the squad to be present for this tournament. Jim Johansen of the US Olympic Selection Committee was present at Sunday's game. I doubt it was because he had nothing better to do with his Sunday evening.

No mention of either in this Atlantic article on "top collegiate Olympic candidates," but there were some good scouting notes from this weekend on a couple of other Harvard players and a Harvard commit: https://theathletic.com/138612/2017/10/31/pronman-dylan-sikura-troy-terry-top-collegiate-olympic-candidates/


Beantown Fall Classic
Jack Rathbone, D, Vancouver: Rathbone was the Canucks fourth-round pick in 2017, and returned for another season of prep hockey where I watched him in a tournament this past weekend. Rathbone’s skating stands out immediately, as he can explode out of his first few steps and create offense with his combination of speed and skill. His coach for the Cape Cod U18 Whalers Andrew Orpik (and yes, he’s the brother of Washington’s Brooks Orpik) sees a guy trying to harness his natural ability: “He’s able to elude and get out of trouble with his feet, but he can get himself into trouble with his feet too. He’s been so reliant on always being able to beat guys 1-on-1 that, as he gets older, he finds out that guys are better and can skate with him, and we’re working on having him get rid of the puck a little bit quicker.”
Rathbone is an interesting guy upside-wise, but he’s not a dominant player yet in his age group, and you see there are still things he needs to work on, such as his decision making and defensive play. “His skill level is advanced, our focus with him is what he’s doing without the puck on his stick,” Orpik said.


Other prospect notes:
Jack Badini, C, Anaheim (Harvard): The Ducks third-round pick from last summer is making himself a likely candidate for the U.S. junior team. He’s a fantastic skater who showed in his game against Dartmouth a willingness to attack the net. He can be a solid two-way center at the World Junior level.


Reilly Walsh, D, New Jersey (Harvard): This was my first live viewing of Walsh, and while his game against Dartmouth became a blowout quickly, I was generally impressed by his skill level. He made a lot of quality offensive plays, including a great pass to set up one of Harvard’s goals. He could be a little all over the place defensively, which he’ll need time to improve, but the offense in his game makes him an NHL prospect. “He has real high-end offensive instincts,” said Harvard’s coach Ted Donato.

 

[Crimson on the Glass]

Re: Harvard Crimson 2017-2018

I'm not sure about our national ranking; seems high to me.

Well, it clearly is a ranking with a lot of uncertainty behind it this time of year. A poor proxy for the eventual pairwise, of course. That the Ivies allot more time in the fall for their athletes to be students and thus play a shorter season means this #3 ranking seems particularly sketchy when all the other top 15 teams have at least 5 games behind them for Harvard's 1 - not too different from last week's 0. I think the Crimson were #2 pre-season at some point, but slipped due to, you know, not playing.

But looking at the records of the 7 or so teams below Harvard, the #3 slot seems not unreasonable to me. You know they will drop substantially if they have the misfortune to lose to a team like Yale or Brown, and conversely I doubt they would be placed any higher even if they put together a long winning streak, given their schedule. The outlook at this point has them playing no one higher ranked than 10 except for Minnesota, and that series is key. Of course all this will change. And naturally for pairwise success, much will depend on how the rest of the ECAC does.

 

[Skate79]

Re: Harvard Crimson 2017-2018

Well, um... the roster for that tournament has been out for weeks now. There are 0 NCAA players and only 2 North American based players on it, and it's already featuring 29 players. So he may have been scouting them, but I doubt it was for a tournament that starts next Friday. But some alums like Dylan Reese and Noah Welch made the team. http://teamusa.usahockey.com/page/show/3721727-2017-u-s-men-s-national-select-team

What seems likely is they are going to decide on the European contingent, and then fill in as needed with NCAA players that will not get a chance to play with the team until the Olympics. Which is not an optimal strategy imo but nothing about this Olympics is optimal from a US point of view.

I was going on what Granato said this summer in an interview on NHL Network. He clearly stated that this upcoming tournament in Germany was going to include players who would be given strong consideration for the Olympic team. And that Donato was included in that group. Just going on what the coach stated publicly.

 

[Skate79]

Re: Harvard Crimson 2017-2018

No mention of either in this Atlantic article on "top collegiate Olympic candidates," but there were some good scouting notes from this weekend on a couple of other Harvard players and a Harvard commit: https://theathletic.com/138612/2017/10/31/pronman-dylan-sikura-troy-terry-top-collegiate-olympic-candidates/

I spoke to the advance scout for the NE area for the LA Kings on Sunday who told me that Johansson was at Harvard to look at Ryan and Adam. I don't believe that there were other kids under consideration in the game (other than Badini for the World Juniors as your article points out).

At this point, it's a crapshoot as to who makes it and who is left off. I'm glad that we'll have both players until at least February. What happens after that is anyone's guess at this point.

 

[Skate79]

Re: Harvard Crimson 2017-2018

Well, it clearly is a ranking with a lot of uncertainty behind it this time of year. A poor proxy for the eventual pairwise, of course. That the Ivies allot more time in the fall for their athletes to be students and thus play a shorter season means this #3 ranking seems particularly sketchy when all the other top 15 teams have at least 5 games behind them for Harvard's 1 - not too different from last week's 0. I think the Crimson were #2 pre-season at some point, but slipped due to, you know, not playing.

But looking at the records of the 7 or so teams below Harvard, the #3 slot seems not unreasonable to me. You know they will drop substantially if they have the misfortune to lose to a team like Yale or Brown, and conversely I doubt they would be placed any higher even if they put together a long winning streak, given their schedule. The outlook at this point has them playing no one higher ranked than 10 except for Minnesota, and that series is key. Of course all this will change. And naturally for pairwise success, much will depend on how the rest of the ECAC does.

Agree on all points. Especially how the ECAC plays out this year. In conference needs to be strong as compared to other conferences and we need to do well at Minnesota and the UVM tournament.

 

[bothman]

Re: Harvard Crimson 2017-2018

Not sure how this game vs Yale will end, but Madsen has been horrendous!

 

[northeastern]

Not sure how this game vs Yale will end, but Madsen has been horrendous!

..bad as Madsen has been.. you have one team that wants to get the W & one that just 'expected' to show up and win. Hopefully your team can put in a decent final 15 mins.

 

[northeastern]

Happy for Luke Stevens.. local (Mass) kid. Nice showing.

 

[LTsatch]

Re: Harvard Crimson 2017-2018

How Tucker doesn’t get the Taylor award is a joke. Nice game by Demontis but 38 saves should beat 1g1a.

 

[bothman]

Re: Harvard Crimson 2017-2018

Some take-aways from the game:

1) As I said earlier, Madsen was horrific. He gave up 5 goals, and on 4 of them, he was burned short side. Madsen was way too deep in the crease all night which helps to make someone who is 6'4'' appear a lot smaller. He was not aggressive and did not cut down angles. It may have been his worst game as a Harvard goaltender and I was surprised that he played the 3rd
2) Both of Yale's first goals were on bad, lazy giveaways by Donato and Fox - both were lazy passes through the middle in their own zone allowing Yale to intercept and go straight to the net
3) I thought the offense struggled to get flow. Harvard had a lot of chances, but too much 1:1 and too much from the perimeter. Harvard made Tucker look better than he is.
4) The PP also struggled to even get the puck out of their own zone. Flow was really off, even for the first PP
5) Faceoffs remain a concern. The tally in the end was close, but I feel like Yale won all of the meaningful ones
6) Harvard did not play the 4th line much. Harvard has really been a 4 line team recently, so this was a change.

I expect this team to rebound against Brown (and would not be surprised if there were a few lineup changes). This was a tough and frustrating game to watch.

 

[Game0n]

Some take-aways from the game:

1) As I said earlier, Madsen was horrific. He gave up 5 goals, and on 4 of them, he was burned short side. Madsen was way too deep in the crease all night which helps to make someone who is 6'4'' appear a lot smaller. He was not aggressive and did not cut down angles. It may have been his worst game as a Harvard goaltender and I was surprised that he played the 3rd
2) Both of Yale's first goals were on bad, lazy giveaways by Donato and Fox - both were lazy passes through the middle in their own zone allowing Yale to intercept and go straight to the net
3) I thought the offense struggled to get flow. Harvard had a lot of chances, but too much 1:1 and too much from the perimeter. Harvard made Tucker look better than he is.
4) The PP also struggled to even get the puck out of their own zone. Flow was really off, even for the first PP
5) Faceoffs remain a concern. The tally in the end was close, but I feel like Yale won all of the meaningful ones
6) Harvard did not play the 4th line much. Harvard has really been a 4 line team recently, so this was a change.

I expect this team to rebound against Brown (and would not be surprised if there were a few lineup changes). This was a tough and frustrating game to watch.

Perfect assessment. Too many mistakes made, and the 5 on 3 penalty kill with 8 minutes left, including a 5 minute major, sealed their fate

 

[Skate79]

Re: Harvard Crimson 2017-2018

Perfect assessment. Too many mistakes made, and the 5 on 3 penalty kill with 8 minutes left, including a 5 minute major, sealed their fate

Agree. Regarding the major against Horton, is he out for tonight? I keep forgetting if a major plus misconduct equals a sit down for the next game. Either way, it was a stupid play on his part. As a senior, he should know better.

Yale wanted this game more than Harvard. That was evident throughout. The Crimson looked like they were in love with their ranking instead of showing up and taking the game to the Eli. That plus the gaffes proved costly.

Oh well, on to Brown. Teddy now has a boatload of ammo to use to get his team's attention. I expect a far different result tonight.

 

[bothman]

Agree. Regarding the major against Horton, is he out for tonight? I keep forgetting if a major plus misconduct equals a sit down for the next game. Either way, it was a stupid play on his part. As a senior, he should know better.

Yale wanted this game more than Harvard. That was evident throughout. The Crimson looked like they were in love with their ranking instead of showing up and taking the game to the Eli. That plus the gaffes proved costly.

Oh well, on to Brown. Teddy now has a boatload of ammo to use to get his team's attention. I expect a far different result tonight.

Horton has to be more careful there, but i’m Not sure that penalty gets called at next level. Was a bang bang play and take player turned back at last minute. Yale player can not put himself in dangerous position at last second.

I expect a big rebound tonight and a very very tough week of practice. Team needs to learn how to work cohesively, both on offense and defense. Too little awareness of where linenates are on both sides of the puck.

 

[HUCrimson#1]

Re: Harvard Crimson 2017-2018

Horton has to be more careful there, but i’m Not sure that penalty gets called at next level. Was a bang bang play and take player turned back at last minute. Yale player can not put himself in dangerous position at last second.

I expect a big rebound tonight and a very very tough week of practice. Team needs to learn how to work cohesively, both on offense and defense. Too little awareness of where linenates are on both sides of the puck.

I agree with all commentary on last night's game against Yale. With respect to Jake's penalty I am quite certain he is eligible for tonight's game. His was not an intentional penalty, which would invoke a major 5mins. plus misconduct and a suspension. I think Ted will do all he can to make sure last night was a timely lesson that hopefully informs the rest if the season.


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[bothman]

Re: Harvard Crimson 2017-2018

Solin in for Perrault and Baughmann in for Foley for the Brown tilt tonight.

 

[HUCrimson#1]

Re: Harvard Crimson 2017-2018

Solin in for Perrault and Baughmann in for Foley for the Brown tilt tonight.

Interesting choices, I was thinking Baughman might have been paired with Dombrovskiy as these experienced veterans might provide ballast for a young team.


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[Skate79]

Re: Harvard Crimson 2017-2018

I guess the best thing you can say about tonight's game was that we won. It wasn't pretty and for stretches Brown actually cycled in our zone and got some chances especially in the second period. We were sloppy, a bit lazy and not exactly playing as a team. Too much individual play - sort of "I want to be like Ryan" and try and do it individually. Not a recipe for success.

When they did pass the puck efficiently, it was mostly on the PP where Reilly Walsh got his first two collegiate goals. First one early in the second on a nice feed from Donato where Reilly roofed it over Nieto (who had a good game for the Bears). The second came a little more than midway through the third on a blast from the top of the left circle. Nathan Krushko finished off the scoring with a wrister that deflected off the shoulder of the Brown defenseman past Neito.

Harvard is most definitely not the #3 ranked team in the country. Not even close. The team needs to play harder on the puck and do a much better job transitioning from their D zone to the offensive zone. Some of it has to do with talent issues up front. Our skill level isn't what it was last season and it is noticeable. Hopefully more practice time will translate into better finish and more goals.

Baughman hardly played tonight although some of that had to do with PK and PP time. Still I wonder why he dressed if Teddy was only going to go with five guys. We can't do that for an entire season. Is there a confidence problem with some of the players? Why doesn't Dumbrovsky dress? Maybe the coaches don't trust some of these players? Puzzling.

Big trip out west looming and right now, I don't have a whole lot of confidence going forward.