Another interesting weekend in ECAC league play, brought another weekend that teams made statements. Quinnipiac continues to win, it has now won six games in a row. Yale swept Harvard and Dartmouth over the weekend on the road. Brown, Cornell and Princeton continue to struggle. Rensselaer continues to sit atop the ECAC standings, but it is now tied with Quinnipiac for the top spot. Again it is still early to really pay attention, but now into the second week we are starting to see some trends.

As an ECAC fan, we don’t want to look at the Pairwise yet because they are hardly being kind in the early going. Despite having three teams in the top 15, all three of those teams are on the bubble from positions 12-15. Yale looked good over the weekend, I was able to see them twice thanks to a last minute change in my schedule on Saturday. It was the smarter team and it looked the part of being a team that is just a year removed from being a national champion. I will speak more to this below, but also expect a feature in the coming days on why they were so consistent. But for now here are the three things I think after the second full week of conference games.

Brown’s struggles are chronic

It seems as though some members of the media figured that raw talent would lead Brown to promise-land in the preseason, without realizing how young the Bears really are. That youth is coming out in full force, the Bears have been pummeled in three of four of its league games thus far. The problem for Brown has not been finding secondary scoring from its fabulous three freshmen,  it has been receiving good production from those three but rather the defense and goaltending has let it down. In its four games in league play, Brown has been outscored 19-5. It lost all four of those games and have dig itself a whole in the standings.

Brown’s sacred seven is really young. On a nightly basis, it has three freshmen defensemen in its lineup with a sophomore. Its starting goaltender, Tyler Steel is also a sophomore. So to say Brown is young is an understatement. Defense is by far the toughest position to learn and it is showing with the results from night to night. Giving up near five goals a game is concerning for a team that usually prides itself on the hard working nature of its defensive systems.

But as is usually the case, the struggles are deeper than just defense. For Brown to be successful, its top three of Matt Lorito, Nick Lappin and Mark Naclerio need to be the guys to score often. This season that has not been the case. Both Naclerio and Lappin have been held off the scoresheet in four games, while Lorito has scored a mere two goals for the Bears. Lappin was suspended last weekend, for a hit against Cornell the previous weekend and his loss was felt immediately. The fact others are scoring is a good sign, but the three need to be a part of the offense from Brown to be competitive and that has not been the case. Bears fans need to realize the upside of this particular team is incredible and it could be one of the best near the end of the season and  definitely next season.

Cornell’s struggles are unexpected but scoring will happen

I had Cornell third in my ECAC to begin the season. I felt as though the scoring could recover with Brian Ferlin being gone and I felt as though the goaltending would be strong. The goaltending has been strong, nicking the biggest question mark the Big Red had coming into the season, but the offense has been non-existent. Last weekend was a step in the right direction, as it picked up its first win against Clarkson and it scored four goals on the weekend

1-4-1 is hardly the record that Cornell faithful expect coming into the season and it is hardly what I expected of this team. It has scored a meager seven goals in its six games and has yet to score more than two in a game, it did it twice over the weekend. Its quarterback, Joakim Ryan on defense, has been out with an injury and his loss has been a huge one but there are still skaters that can score goals consistently. Joel Lowry, Patrick McCarron and Cole Bardreau all have the ability to light the lamp regularly but it has not happened this season. To have seven goals at this point on the season is concerning.

Cornell has proven that it can stop great teams, it has done so but it won’t mean anything if it can’t light the lamp. For Cornell to be successful, it will need guys that are expected to score to step up. If not the current pace of scoring just won’t lead to wins. It could be a monumentally bad season in Ithaca, which I just don’t think it will happen. There is way too much talent up front and on the blue-line to continue at its current pace. Look for Cornell to start scoring soon.

Yale’s Grit was on display

I wasn’t too high on Yale coming into the season,but watching them this weekend turned a believer out of a hater. Yale just looked the part of a good team. It gritted out a win against Harvard and it outsmarted Dartmouth. It was able to capitalize on its mistakes and it battled through a key injury. Its goaltending is phenomenal which is not unexpected. and I think it is receiving the best play in the league on defense and in goal. Though, I worry about consistent scoring, it doesn’t seem, much of an issue.

Yale struggled for consistency last season and battled the national title hangover, ya it is a thing. The talent was there to do great things, but the constant struggle to find consistent play was its undoing. Keith Allain rebuked a question when I asked about it, but I could see the difference on the ice. Yale looked like a team that had won a national title in recent years and it looked like the same hungry Yale the nation saw during its national title run. Both Harvard and Dartmouth are good teams, but Yale was the better team in every facet of the game over the weekend. As Keith Allain said, the road trip brought his team together, which was clearly evident in the play.

Yale’s performance over the weekend was one that winning teams have. It used grit and just outwited two really good hockey teams. I guess the schooling at Yale is better right? Ya not exactly the case, but on the ice the smarter team one. It handled every and all situations that it was presented with, and passed a flyig color. It impressed even its coach, who said “he couldn’t be disappointed in any players’ performance over the weekend.” Those are pretty telling words from coach Allain, who hardly says things of the such because of his businesslike approach. Look for Yale to pile up more wins in the coming weeks.

Monday, November 17th, 2014 - 7:24 pm | Blogs, ECAC, Notes, Thoughts, Ramblings