Re: St. Lawrence Skating Saints Lake Placid Edition
Coming from someone who has been at every single tournament championship weekend that SLU has been in, including multiple in Albany and yup, I am here this year, I can tell you that you are totally off on this one! Maybe it's a case of apples to oranges, but their hasn't been a single parking problem that I have encountered and it just feel more like an event here than it ever did in Albany. Fans were around everywhere. I met and had great conversations with fans from each team in the lobby of our resort and walking up the street. Even the "SLU, SLU, SLU" chants breaking out in the lobby was a great thing to see ... Did it ever occur to anyone else that the few I see mentioning Albany over Lake Placid are the fans from far away that have to "fly" in to watch the game ... Don't think we don't get the real reason why you want it to be in Albany, we are not dumb!
I completely agree. I was there and had no problem finding parking within easy walking distance. Depending on when you tried to park, you may have had to take a shuttle bus, but I'm sure that system is well developed and implemented. Placid is a small town that's hosted many, many large international events. They know how to do it, while keeping their small village ambiance. And they did it well last night. Everywhere I walked it was team colors and discussions, and that was a real neat thing to experience, an entire village focused on one thing. For the flyers, may I suggest Saranac Lake airport.
Regarding the game, Colgate was the better team last night. Their speed and pressure created opportunities, kept us from getting into any kind of flow, made us pay dearly for mistakes. They just always seemed to be wherever we wanted to go, and they shut down lanes ferociously.
The better team except for the last 2 minutes of regulation and most of the OT. When SLU came out with the empty net, they played like a team possessed. There was no doubt, the game was going to be tied soon. Bayreuther shot 2 lasers at the goal, one that went in, and took care of the problem. They kept the pressure on until the end or regulation and came close to lightening striking twice, but just missed. I thought we were dominating OT and playing our best hockey of the game, until we let one mistake in a defensive corner cascade uncontrollably with the result----
You could see the break downs developing and getting worse. As the fan next to me observed, when that happened, you knew it was going to end badly. As Coach Carvel said, "They made us pay when we made mistakes in our game."
I also believe Hayton normally would have stopped the 1st and 3rd goals. Actually, watching him take a lot of time to get up after one scrum in front of the net made me think that maybe he's not 100% physically (as someone hypothesized late in the previous thread.) I also think we had long spans of time when we simply looked real flat, like we were just going through the motions. Tired maybe? That is a big sheet of ice.
I hate to point fingers at players, but there was one line that had a bad night and had members on the ice for the 1st 3 goals. I cringed whenever they hit the ice. Not 15 seconds after I mentioned to my neighboring fan that that line scared me, they cost us a goal. I think the refs had some issues, but I think it went both ways. And there's no way to blame them for the Keystone Kop act we did that led to our too many men on the ice penalty. Killing that series of penalties took a bit of heart and when we did, I thought we'd rallied our psyches and would go home with a W.
And an odd observation. Although the award is was earned and deserved, I wonder how much it hurt us to have Hayton receive his Rookie of the Year award right after the team introductions. If I'm Colgate watching this, I'm thinking, "Rookie of the Year? We'll see about that." More motivation for them?
It was wonderful seeing the size and hearing the volume of our rooting section. Colgate's was big and raucous, so the fans lent lots of energy for large parts of the game. And that was a blast. But, sorry Raiders, we won that match up.
But------I went home a happy man. I had a chance to root for my team in Lake Placid-one of only 4 fan bases that can say that. Pretty sweet for a team that was picked 10, 11, or 12. Throughout out the year, they were like the little engine that could-and they did. A bunch of kids who were told by the press and fans that they weren't supposed to win, but kept winning. If this is the type of team we have to look forward to, I can't wait for next year and the year after, and the year after, and the year after....
Thanks guys and thanks Coach Carvel-what a ride!!!!
