Harvard Crimson 2013-2014

[QUAlum2004]

Re: Harvard Crimson 2013-2014

Harvard came into the zone on a 3 on 2 and a Harvard player hit the post on a slapshot. The puck was covered up, and the QU player went over to the referee, said something, and was penalized. He kept talking up to the penalty box, and was tossed. I couldn't see what he was complaining about, but a friend said he though it was goalie interference, as there was a scrum in front of the net.

Great effort by Harvard last night; QU is the better team, but Harvard hung in and almost won on that shot in overtime.

We were stoned by Girard last night. Without him that game is probably 4-1 or so. He was real good. Made the huge save on Peca in the 3rd which would have made it 3-1.

[Veritas]

Re: Harvard Crimson 2013-2014

Quinnipiac has a really good team and the entire team is drawn from junior hockey. They were loosening up in Gordon Track as I passed through on the way inside and the QU players generally looked a bit older than Harvard players. No way of knowing but teams seem to have discontinued listing age/DOB in rosters (A bit like how men's teams list alleged heights and weights and women's teams only list height). Given the quality of QU's team I was very happy that Harvard was able to tie the game, coming from behind to do so.

As to the misconducts against Van Brabant, I cannot really lip read but he appeared to be saying a lot of words beginning with the letter "f" to the ref.

One of the oddest things was the initial goal call in the third by referee Chip McDonald that was rescinded on review. The puck had pinged off the corner of the net where post meets crossbar and went straight into section 20 of the stands. The goal judge did not signal a goal, the puck was not in the net, the goal judge was signalling no goal to the ref, the girl who caught the puck in section 20 was waving the puck in the air. I usually do not criticize a refs ability but it was a bad call, happily rectified by the video review.

[Dutchman]

Re: Harvard Crimson 2013-2014

No way of knowing but teams seem to have discontinued listing age/DOB in rosters (A bit like how men's teams list alleged heights and weights and women's teams only list height).

College Hockey News lists the Rosters with height and weight and birthdates. You are right about age. Looking across the ECAC, its not that QU is older, its that Harvard is younger then most.

http://www.collegehockeynews.com/rep...ter/Harvard/22
http://www.collegehockeynews.com/rep.../Quinnipiac/47

QU 5'11.79"/182.79lbs/21y9m
HU 6'00.43"/192.90lbs/20y11m

If I am reading your roster correctly you have 8 draft picks? Lots of talent. How do things look for the Beanpot? Can Harvard get in there and do some significant damage this year? Dartmouth scheduled 5 games against HE opponents this season, has played 4 and only lost once (by 1 point). Harvard always comes on strong in the second half.

[alslammerz]

Re: Harvard Crimson 2013-2014

One of the oddest things was the initial goal call in the third by referee Chip McDonald that was rescinded on review. The puck had pinged off the corner of the net where post meets crossbar and went straight into section 20 of the stands. The goal judge did not signal a goal, the puck was not in the net, the goal judge was signalling no goal to the ref, the girl who caught the puck in section 20 was waving the puck in the air. I usually do not criticize a refs ability but it was a bad call, happily rectified by the video review.

Chip McDonald made a bad call? Shocking.

[1988]

Re: Harvard Crimson 2013-2014

We were stoned by Girard last night. Without him that game is probably 4-1 or so. He was real good. Made the huge save on Peca in the 3rd which would have made it 3-1.

As of right now I would put Harvards team goaltending at the top of the ECAC. If their offense continues to improve would make for an interesting back half.

[Kepler]

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.

[Skate79]

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.

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.

[Kepler]

Re: Harvard Crimson 2013-2014

Thanks for the sketch. Despite Harvard's problems, Cornell hasn't managed to beat them in the last four meetings.

[Skate79]

Re: Harvard Crimson 2013-2014

Thanks for the sketch. Despite Harvard's problems, Cornell hasn't managed to beat them in the last four meetings.

Right but prior to this mini streak, you guys were 31-13-2 since 2000 against us. I'd say that is one healthy advantage.

[Red Hockey]

Re: Harvard Crimson 2013-2014

It seems these descriptions held true last night.

[Skate79]

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.

[J.D.]

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?

[BCeagle]

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?

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.

[CollegeHockeyRinkReport]

Re: Harvard Crimson 2013-2014

Recap with quotes from Donato and Criscuolo

http://www.sbncollegehockey.com/2014...r-charlie-finn

[Veritas]

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.

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.