The Cornell women's hockey released its schedule earlier this month, but WAFT decided it was about time to look into the opponents that the Big Red have booked for the season a little bit more closely as the season draws closer.

The Big Red opens up its schedule with two exhibition games and a scrimmage.  The scrimmage is the annual Red/White game which the women and men took part in together last year for the first time, alternating shifts in a slightly shortened 3 period game which went to a shootout.  The women's team scored 7 of the 13 goals, with the White team prevailing over the red.  Current players who scored last season included sophomore forward Emily Fulton and junior forward Brianne Jenner, while Katelyn Pippy and Lauren Slebodnick backed up their teams.

The exhibition games are both against Canadian Women's Hockey League (CWHL) teams, Brampton and Montreal.  Brampton has players formerly from Clarkson, Mercyhurst, Minnesota-Duluth, Niagara University, RPI and Wisconsin as well as players who have served for both the US and Canadian Olympic teams in various levels.  Brampton had an overall record of 18-9 on the season, falling in the championship game to the Montreal Stars.  Cornell last played the team in an exhibition game at Lynah in the 2011-12 season.  The score was 6-0 in favor of the Big Red.

That very same team, Montreal Stars of the CWHL, is the other exhibition game our women play before the season begins.  Montreal won back-to-back Clarkson Cups (the CWHL version of the Stanley Cup) in 2011 and 2012, so they are not going to be an easy team to defeat.  Former players include Canadian and American Olympic team members as well as former players from Boston University, Clarkson, Harvard, Mercyhurst, Minnesota-Duluth, Princeton, and Saint Lawrence.  There are also 3 Patty Kazmaier Award winners on their team (2 from Harvard and 1 from Princeton), an honor that has not been bestowed upon a member of the Big Red yet, since the award's inception in 1998.  The Stars had an impressive 20-5 record on the season, going on to win their third Clarkson Cup in the five times the league has given out the award.

Starting off regular season NCAA play, the Lady Rouge plays Boston University away.  The two games will be played at BU's Agganis and Walter Brown Arenas.  The all-time record against BU is 3-1-1, with the last season having our first wins against the Boston-based team.  Cornell has an interesting history against BU.  The first game played against the Terriers was in the 1982-3 season, ending in a tie.  The remaining four games are likely very sharp in the memory of the Lynah Faithful.  In the 2011 Frozen Four, BU beat Cornell in a tough 4-1 game, ending the Big Red's season in Erie, PA.  Last season the women met BU in 2 regular season games in Lynah over Thanksgiving, beating the Terriers in decisive 3-1 and 7-1 wins.  In what can only be described as an ironic twist of fate, the Big Red met the Terriers a third time that season, in the NCAA Regionals at Lynah Rink.  In what was the longest game in Cornell women's hockey history, (3OT), current senior defenseman Lauriane Rougeau scored the game-winning goal to push the Red ahead to an 8-7 victory to complete the year's sweep of the Terriers.  Current junior goaltender Lauren Slebodnick played a pivotal role in the game, playing for over 3 full periods and helping solidify our win.

Following the weekend in Boston, our women start conference play in a six-game home stretch before going on the road for the next seven games.  Before we go into our conference schedule, let's look at the rest of the out of conference teams that the Big Red has on the schedule for their 2012-13 season.

Keeping with the Boston-based theme, the Big Red will play both Northeastern University and Boston College in Boston this January.  The Big Red record against Northeastern is 8-28-1 with the first game being played during the 1979-80 season and the most recent game in 2002 with a 2-1 overtime loss.  (For those curious about what 2002 looked like for the Big Red women, the record was 6-20-2.)  Northeastern had a final record last year of 22-7-4, getting knocked out of the first round of the Hockey East Tournament by Providence, though Northeastern was the first seed in the Hockey East Tournament, narrowly missing a spot in the NCAA.  Having only lost three players from last year, Northeastern's team looks to be an interesting match for the Big Red.

When it comes to the Eagles, Cornell has been more dominant in the past.  The all-time record against BC is 15-2-1 with the first game being played in the 1974-75 season and the latest meeting being a 4-1 loss in 2002.  Boston College last year had an overall record of 24-10-3, they fell to Boston University in the semifinals of the Hockey East Tournament but went on to the NCAA Tournament.  In the NCAA last year, BC beat Saint Lawrence 6-3 and went on to lose in the Frozen Four to Wisconsin.  Much like the Big Red, the Eagles have a decent turnover in players this year, with six freshmen on the roster.  It should be an interesting match and hopefully will challenge the Red to step up their game.

Coming back to New York, the women will play Syracuse at home right after their trip up to Boston.  The Big Red record against Syracuse is 3-1-0 all-time with our first game against the Orange in 2010.  The first meeting was the only loss against the team, with the remaining three wins coming in the last two seasons including the 9-2 and 6-3 wins last season.  Syracuse ended their season 10-22-3, losing in the first round of the CHA Tournament to Mercyhurst.

Speaking of Mercyhurst, our final out of conference opponent is another one to reach the 2012 NCAA Tournament.  Cornell's all-time record against the Lakers is 4-13-1.  Our games against the Pennsylvania team began in the 2001-02 season with our last meeting being a 5-1 win against the Lakers, though we split the series with Mercyhurst being one of our 3 regular season losses.  Mercyhurst finished the season with a 23-8-3 and though they are perennial powerhouses in the CHA conference, the Lakers fell to Robert Morris in the tournament.  In what can be considered a cruel twist of fate for the Colonials and a bit of luck for the Lakers, CHA did not have an autobid to the NCAA Tournament.  Because of the high turnover in teams, the 19-9-4 team from Robert Morris did not make the NCAA playoffs, and Mercyhurst did.  (This author hopes the current six teams from CHA, Mercyhurst, Robert Morris, Syracuse, Lindenwood, RIT, and Penn State, all hang in there for a possible autobid in the 2014-2015 season.)  Mercyhurst ended up falling to eventual runner-up Wisconsin in a 3-1 loss in the NCAA Regionals.  While Mercyhurst is a perennial force, they have more turnover in their team than the Big Red women do.  There are 9 freshmen on the roster for the Mercyhurst team which could mean that it takes them a while to get their legs, or it could mean a surprise from a team who is usually dominant in their conference.  This will be an interesting game to watch.

Finally, we reach conference play.  The ECAC women's hockey programs are all around the board in terms of competitiveness.  We have teams like Saint Lawrence upsetting Cornell in the championship game, and then teams like Yale and Union who had less points combined than Cornell's top line.  This will be in a rough order of difficulty that the women's teams will face.

Union College
All-Time Record: 17-1-0
First and last games: 2003-04, 5-1 Win, regular season
Union College's men's team might have shot to the Frozen Four last year in an unlikely run, but their women's team would need more than a miracle for that to happen.  With seven incoming freshmen on a team without any history of success, Union will not pose much difficulty for the Red at all.  With a record in 2011-12 of 4-26-4, the Dutchwomen are not exactly a team to be feared.  Cornell handedly beat Union 9-1 and 5-1 last year and there is no reason to believe that they will not do the same this year.  Last year, finishing at 11th in the ECAC, was their best season, never having made the ECAC playoffs. (The women only admit the top 8 teams to the playoffs, thus having one round shorter than the men's playoffs.)

Yale University
All-time record: 48-13-1
First and last games: 1975-76, 6-1 win, regular season
Yale University seems to (at least recently) be in the same stage as the Union team.  A men's team with history and a women's team without.  Finishing off last season with a 1-27-1 record, the Bulldogs' only win came in overtime against the aforementioned Union team.  In previous years, Yale's team has not been good per se, but they have not had one-win seasons, having last made it to the ECAC Tournament in the 2006-07 season.  With six incoming freshmen, it is unclear whether Yale will benefit or suffer from losing six players.  It was a close call for who should be at the bottom, but I think that Yale will pose no challenge to Cornell in these matches either.

Colgate University
All-Time Record: 27-11-3
First and last games: 1973-74, 3-0 win, regular season
Colgate University can at least claim to have a winning percentage of over 1/4 against Cornell, something neither Union nor Yale can.  That said, it is unclear of how big a threat a Colgate team will be.  Colgate finished tenth in the ECAC last year, with an overall record of 10-21-2.  Colgate has six incoming freshmen, and seems to only recently be out of the playoff-glory.  The last year they reached the ECAC Tournament was 2009, with a loss in the quarterfinals.  They reached the semifinals in 2007, losing to Dartmouth that year.  Hopefully the six incoming freshmen will propel the Raiders to a more competitive season, but that remains to be seen.  They will be harder competition than Yale or Union, but still pretty easy for Cornell.

RPI
All-Time Record: 11-4
First and last games: 2006-07, 3-0 win, regular season
RPI is a team that Cornell has handedly beaten in the past, but RPI is a team that is resilient.  They have only been in the ECAC since the 2006-07 season, and not long after that, they propelled themselves into the ECAC Championship game, going down to Cornell 5-4.  Since the 2010 season, they have not been able to get past the first round of the tournament (losing in 2011 to Cornell in the quarterfinals), but even with 6 freshmen incoming, the RPI team seems like one that can't be kept down for long, in spite of their 9-21-4 record last season. They're someone we'll need to keep an eye on, but I feel confident that the Lady Rouge will be able to handle it.

Brown University
All-Time Record: 40-34-8
First and last games: 1972-73, 6-0 win, ECAC Tournament
Brown, like a lot of teams, has six incoming freshmen this year.  For a team which finished 8th, barely sneaking its way into the ECAC Tournament, Brown is something of a wildcard.  Finishing 8-16-7 last year, Brown possesses a 46% winning percentage against the Big Red over its 40 years of play, the best thus far.  While Brown is not historically a power when it comes to women's hockey, it is a team that could pull an upset win if the Big Red aren't attentive.

Princeton University
All-Time Record: 33-41-4
First and last games: 1974-75, 1-0 win, regular season
Princeton, as a team, is one that could be a surprise.  Another team with six incoming freshmen, Princeton comes off a season with a 12-15-4 record. While last season's record alone is not incredibly impressive, they are the first team looked at to have a winning percentage against Cornell greater than fifty percent (55% to be exact).  In the last five years, Princeton has made the ECAC playoffs every year, a feat that cannot be claimed by most teams in the league.  In fact, as far back as I can check on Princeton's website (the 2000-2001 season), Princeton has made the playoffs every year.  Only twice have they gone past the quarterfinals, with losses in the semifinals both times.  However, in 2006, Princeton did convert their play into an NCAA appearance.  While Princeton hasn't made the NCAA since then, they have also not finished outside the top eight either.  As a team with a winning record against us who always makes the playoffs?  Princeton is not a team to underestimate.

Quinnipiac University
All-Time Record: 9-3-5
First and last games: 2003-04, 5-1 win, ECAC Tournament
Quinnipiac lost seven seniors last year, which makes the team a little bit more vulnerable but not considerably.  However, since Quinnipiac has joined the ECAC in 2005, they've made quite the splash in the league.  Finishing 6, 5, and 4 in the regular season last year, the Bobcats got knocked out by the Big Red in the semifinals two years in a row.  The year before they made it to the quarterfinals, pushing two games to overtime, eventually losing in a 5OT game to RPI.  Quinnpiac in the last three years has proven that they are a force to be reckoned with in the ECAC.  Another team not to take lightly, Quinnpiac's 19-16-2 record and their enthusiasm toward winning their first ECAC championship could propel them to win.  Definitely another team to keep on the radar.

Clarkson University
All-Time Record: 18-10-2
First and last games: 1974-75, 2-1 OT win, regular season
The Golden Knights lose only 5 seniors between their 2011-12 and 2012-13 teams.  Their record in 2012 was 22-10-5, their season ending in an ECAC quarterfinal loss to Quinnipiac.  Clarkson is a team that has been toward the top of the ECAC in most of its years.  Even with their loss to Cornell in the ECAC Championship Final game in 2010, they made it to the NCAA Tournament (only to lose in overtime in the first round to Minnesota).  Still seeking an ECAC Championship, Clarkson has proven to be another team to look out for.  Though we still have a winning record against them, it is nowhere near as lopsided as, say, the record against Union.  Clarkson will certainly put up a fight this season, but it is a fight that the Big Red will be ready to handle.  Especially given that Clarkson was one of the three teams the Big Red lost to in the regular season last year.

The next three teams are hard to order.  So for convenience, we're going to approach it in an alphabetical fashion.  These three teams will be the Red's biggest in-conference (and potentially biggest overall) competition all year: Dartmouth, Harvard, and Saint Lawrence.

Dartmouth College
All-Time Record: 26-41-6
First and last games: 1978-79 1-0 OT win, regular season
Dartmouth is a team that has had quite a history of success.  There is only one year in the last 7 that they did not make the ECAC Tournament.  On top of that, in the last six years, they have made the NCAA Tournament 4 times (losing all four times in the regionals).  With two ECAC Championships in that time, Dartmouth is never a team to doubt.  They pushed us to overtime in our last game against them.  In 2011, they played a close game against the Big Red in the finals only to end up back in Lynah for the regionals where Cornell defeated them once again.  The team has no higher turnover than most of the league next year, with 6 freshmen, split between defensemen and forwards.  With none of their goalies new to the team, it seems as if Dartmouth could be poised to make another run.  This is a team that needs to be taken incredibly seriously, especially given their 61% winning percentage against the Big Red.  To top it off, Dartmouth was one of only three teams in the regular season (four overall) to beat the Big Red for the year.

Harvard University
All-Time Record: 23-50-3
First and last games: 1981-82, 2-1 win, regular season
Next comes Harvard.  Our perennial rivals, both in men's and women's hockey.  The Harvard Crimson are even more fearsome this year if we look at their summer activities.  6 current Harvard players played for the Team USA U22 along with Cornell goalie Lauren Slebodnick for the sweep of Team Canada which had 7 Cornell players.  This is big.  Harvard is the team in the league with the most wins historically, winning the ECAC four times in a row from 2003-2006.  With three of those wins, they were runners up in the national championship game.  The year before that, 2001-2002, Harvard women won a national championship before the women's hockey format was in its current iteration.  They are the team to look out for every single year, not finishing below third in the regular season in the past five years.  While recent Big Red fans might view Cornell as the power of the ECAC (much like we are for the men), Cornell women's success is relatively recent.  Last year we broke .500 for program history, and it is only the last three years that we finished atop the ECAC in the regular season, winning two of three ECAC Tournaments and making it to our first (and only) three NCAA and Frozen Fours.  Basically: while Harvard sucks, they're not someone to be trifled with in the women's hockey world.  One positive of this is that two of seven incoming freshmen are goalies.  So we can hope that plays to our advantage with a Junior, Sophomore and Freshman goalies amongst the Big Red.

Saint Lawrence University
All-Time Record: 25-32-4
First and last games: 1976-77, 3-1 loss, ECAC Tournament
Did they need to be last?  After stopping Cornell from three-peating in the ECAC Tournament, SLU upset the Big Red punching their ticket to the NCAA Tournament.  (Luckily our PWR ranking was good enough to put us there as well.)  SLU went on to lose to Boston College in a game which was tighter than the 6-3 score seems.  With a final season record of 24-10-4, SLU is a team that downed a Cornell team that looked too big to fail.  The loss, while big for SLU, was even bigger for Cornell, propelling them to go on to a triple overtime win against BU before falling to Minnesota in the Frozen Four.  SLU graduates five seniors, which is about on par with the league.  They're going to be a huge test for the Big Red this season, especially if they play like the SLU of early March.  We're playing an unorthodox three games against SLU, opening up our home season with the Saints in an out-of-conference game in addition to the two conference games later in the year.  Hopefully this will be a good move for the Red.

Cornell women's hockey has a tough schedule on the docket for this year.  Of the seven other teams to make the NCAA Tournament in 2012, Cornell has 4 booked.  Top that off with a few teams (Harvard, Dartmouth, and Northeastern) who were shades away from getting in, and it makes for a challenging schedule for the Lady Rouge who are looking to make a fourth-straight NCAA run.  Let's hope that for us, the fourth time is the charm.

Brandon Thomas of The Ithaca Journal broke last week which numbers each incoming freshman for Cornell chose to wear. Stoick chose the number that Jillson wore for four years previous. Tiitinen did the same with Whitney's number. Roeszler from the Class of 2011 wore Hilbrich's chosen number last. It was the choice of Willcox that should have gained most notice because the most significant player to have worn that number on his sweater was current head coach Mike Schafer.

Schafer's antics while a player are the stuff of legends. We know that the Broad Street Bullies chose Willcox in the 2012 NHL Draft, but does that make him of stern enough stuff to live up to the reputation of Schafer?

Schafer was a player who famously broke a hockey stick emblazoned with "Harvard Sucks" on it over his head before a game against the Crimson in Lynah. A showman who shot a puck at Harvard's Cleary for elements of his sportsmanslike attitude toward the Big Red. A defenseman whose competitiveness and tenacity was so great that the Faithful felt obliged to propel him onward with chants of "kill, Schafer, kill." A leader who donned the captain's C and led his program to its seventh ECAC Championship in program history and in so doing overcoming the doldrums of 13 years without a title. Then, because his role as player was not sufficient somehow in his mind, he returned to his alma mater and resurrected a program that had begun to fall asunder to the cheers of "thank you, Schafer" in Lake Placid as Cornell claimed its first ECAC Championship in a decade.

Schafer is known to make new players learn the histories not only of the Cornell hockey program but the players who wore their chosen numbers before them. Willcox will learn shortly, if he has not already, that he has quite the sweater to fill.

The first metric by which Willcox can be compared to Schafer is through his statistics as a player for Cornell. Schafer amassed 70 points over 107 games during his time as a student-athlete for Cornell. His pace of 0.65 pts/game was earned with 10 goals and 60 assists over his collegiate career. This record might not seem entirely overwhelming in itself but if one compares those statistics to current senior defenseman Nick D'Agostino who is regarded often as an offensively minded defenseman the achievement becomes more apparent. D'Agostino has averaged 0.56 pts/game during his first three years. Schafer might be best remembered for his defense-mindedness, but his offensive contributions as a player were considerable.

It is no surprise that a player memorialized for stick-breaking and tenacity has another statistical claim to fame. Schafer's aggressive play has him occupying two of the top 25 records for penalty minutes served in a season for Cornell. His times served of 91 minutes and 72 minutes from his senior and junior seasons respectively rank seventh and twenty-third. D'Agostino served the greatest number of penalty minutes of any defenseman from last season. His total penalty minutes served during his junior campaign was 26% of the total that Schafer served his senior season and 33% of the time that Schafer occupied the sin bin his junior year. Willcox has much to live up to at both ends of the ice.

Foremost, it must be noted that Willcox has displayed the character already that should make the Lynah Faithful very proud that in a few short weeks he will don the carnelian and white. The Portland Winterhawks of the Canadian major junior Western Hockey League drafted Willcox in 2009. He decided that he would not want to forsake the college hockey route by suiting up for the Winterhawks so he chose to wait for other opportunities. He hoped still that college hockey would be in his future. Such an opportunity arose in the form of being offered a position on the Merritt Centennials of the Junior A BCHL. Willcox joined the Centennials and the rest is the most recent chapter in his hockey career until he takes the ice in Lynah Rink on October 19, 2012.

Willcox had a successful career in Merritt, BC. He played in 105 games in the BCHL. His stat sheet indicates that he scored 10 goals and 27 helpers over his BCHL career which amounts to an average of 0.35 pts/game. His 42 penalty minutes over his BCHL career amounts to 0.40 PIM/game.

Statistically, the comparison between Schafer's Cornell numbers and Willcox's BCHL numbers seems lopsided. Schafer's numbers outpace those of Willcox by 186% for pts/game while Schafer's rate of penalty minutes served per game during his senior year eclipses the time served of Willcox by a margin of  710%. Yes, Schafer's earning of penalty minutes are greater by more than a 7:1 margin to a future Philadelphia Flyer. That is eye-opening for anyone who could not imagine what Schafer was like on the ice as a player. So, the statistics are fairly one-sided. It appears that stastitically that Willcox has much room for improvement to carry the mantle of the number 3 that Schafer wore.

Statistics are not everything. Schafer brought far more than statistical contributions to the Cornell hockey program. This is not to say that Willcox will not meet or surpass the precendence of Schafer during his tenure at Cornell because he has unquestionable upside. However, this leaves far more ways that Willcox will be able to rise to the challege of carrying the mantle now accustomed with wearing number 3 for the Big Red.

Schafer's greatest contribution to the program was a change in outlook and attitude. Schafer inspired faith in a program both as its captain in his senior year of 1986 and as a coach from 1996 until the present. This attitudinal shift that Schafer inculcated is for what the Lynah Faithful should be most grateful to the coach. It is in this respect that Willcox can and has shown the propensity to be Schaferian.

Willcox did not serve in any formal leadership role on the Merritt Centennials, but he did play on Team Canada West and assisted in their attainment of a gold medal in the 2011 Junior A World Challenge. Furthermore, his choice to turn down a path in major junior hockey for the dual rigors of hockey and education on East Hill can scarcely be overstated as a barometer of character. It is this strength of character and resolution that shows his potential to become a great leader like the most famous Cornellian to wear 3 in carnelian and white.

Willcox will have one season to develop, but his development arc may be required to be steeper than those of previous defensemen. Cornell graduated two key defensemen last season in captain Keir Ross and workhorse defenseman Sean Whitney. They will leave a void undoubtedly that will need to be filled and that will be difficult to fill on a defenseive core that now has a high representation of youth. The exodus of defensive talent was exacerbated when a less-played defenseman chose to depart from Central New York early to pursue his fortunes in professional hockey.

The younger defensemen, including Willcox, will be able to rely upon the skills of seasoned and reliable veterans in the defensive core like Ryan, Gotovets, Birch, and D'Agostino. However, the quick loss of Birch and D'Agostino after the 2012-13 campagin will require freshmen like Willcox to occupy leadership roles and it is in this respect that the character and intellect that Willcox has shown through his accolades (winning the Merritt Centennial's Academic Scholar Award) and choices that he can prove that he is more than worthy to wear the number of Schafer. Expectations on the program this coming season are exceedingly high and new talent, like Willcox, can give the Faithful more reason to believe.

Schafer is a figure who will continue to rise in the esteem of those who follow the program. He is the ninth-ranked active coach in college hockey in terms of number of wins and the seventh-ranked active coach in college hockey in terms of winning percentage. He is the winningest coach in terms of total wins in Cornell hockey history. He has meant so much more to Cornell hockey and the Cornell University community than any numbers can capture. His sweater will likely someday hang from the rafters alongside Dryden's number 1 and Nieuwendyk's number 25. It deserves to be there.

Willcox can carve out a niche within the history of the number-3 sweater at Cornell. He can prove that with his leadership and skills, both of which seem ample, that he deserves to be respected as a historic wearer of number 3 in his own right someday. We hope that Willcox's tangible, statistical, and intangible contributions to Cornell hockey become so great that Cornell hockey is left with the same dilemma that plagues other programs, that revere their history no less than does Cornell hockey its own, when an integral figure to a program and a noteworthy player wore the same number while playing for that program.

Willcox has given himself a large sweater to fill. It does not mean that he will not achieve that goal. His past indicates that he likes challenges and often rises to meet them. There is no reason to doubt that he will do the same this time.

If Willcox finds the opportunities and the ability to make the Cornell hockey community believe in itself and its greatness even more than it does currently, he will prove that he is more deserving to wear Schafer's number than any statistical comparison ever could bear out. We wish him much luck in the pursuit of such proof.

This past week was somewhat uneventful compared to how events will be in a few short weeks when the college hockey season begins in earnest on October 6. Nonetheless, there were a few key stories to which this week's post would like to draw your attention.

The new members of the Big Red hockey family made their trek up East Hill as students two Saturdays ago. This last Saturday, the famous, or infamous, conditioning test for Cornell hockey players awaited them. The twitterverse erupted when the men's ice hockey team discovered who would joined their ranks during the post-conditioning test scrimmage. I will let senior Greg Miller and freshman Christian Hilbrich tell you themselves:

Locke Jillson from last season's senior class will join the ECHL's Wranglers in Las Vegas for their upcoming season. The Wranglers are coming off of a successful season in which they appeared in the Kelly Cup Final but lost eventually to the Florida Everblades. Had last year's senior class graduated but one year earlier, Cornell's Jillson and Whitney would have faced off for the ECHL's championship cup as Whitney will join the Florida Everblades this coming season. Jillson will be missed at Lynah Rink. He was a great asset to the team over his four years and was the only player to score both times that he appeared at Madison Square Garden. The Big Red will miss such consistency when it faces the Wolverines on November 24.

Statistically, Underhill amassed respectable numbers at Cornell that include a GAA of 2.30, a SV% of 0.913, and six shutouts. He was a recipient of the ECAC's prestigious Ken Dryden Award. His records compare favorably with those who have defended the twine at Lynah with both his GAA and SV% ranks eighth, just above Garman and Duffus respectively, and his number of shutouts ranks sixth among Big Red goaltenders tied with Cropper who led the 1969-70 team to its undefeated, untied season. Current netminder Andy Iles is tied with Cropper's and Underhill's record of six shutouts presently.

Thank You Terry (TYT) does a great job at capturing how the game between the USHL's Waterloo Black Hawks and OHL's Sudbury Wolves captured the imagination and attention of what are often described as two competing value sets and systems. Some might find his framing overwrought, but I think it is appropriate and represents what even the Russian broadcasters knew they had captured. A clash between the USHL-NCAA route of players and student-athletes, and the Canadian Major Juniors route of athletes. It is a conflict that is often oversimplified into one between Hockey Canada and USA Hockey. The dimensions of the game could not have been overstated in my mind.
           
            "To many, this was a referendum on junior hockey. A Canadian major junior team and an NCAA team will likely never              meet in any kind of meaningful context, but this was just about the next best thing, with college hockey's biggest                      feeder league, the only Tier I league in the United States, standing in."

The Black Hawks lost ultimately 2-0 to their OHL opponent. Nonetheless, the closeness of the game indicates how the USHL has come of age and can compete with what has been regarded as an athletically superior league of hockey players in the past. This clash was of importance to Cornell as well as Cornell's 2012-13 roster includes seven players who gained experience in the USHL. Among those seven players is sophomore Brian Ferlin who even injured for a significant portion of the season amassed the third-highest total of points for the team behind only senior Sean Collins and junior Greg Miller last season.

The Line has been a rite of passage for most generations of the Faithful. I waited in The Line while I was a student and I have waited in a spontaneous line for tickets to specific games as an alumnus. This dedication is what sets the Lynah Faithful apart and it is The Line that binds each generation to the generations previous. Most trace the creation of The Line back to the 1962 game against Harvard that saw Lynah Rink face its first over-capacity audience. The trend continued organically and institutionally until 2009 when because of the fear of H1N1, the athletic department decided that having hundreds of students camped out in confined quarters indoors was not a good idea. Some from the previous generation saw this as the loss of a grand tradition that defined the Faithful. In some part it was, but traditions must evolve with the times.

Cornell announced yesterday its plan for purchase and distribution of hockey season tickets. There are a few interesting features, but first, I will provide a synopsis of the information contained within the release. Graduate students and undergraduates who have purchased tickets two or more times before will be able to purchase their tickets on September 4, 2012 at 6:00-7:30 am until 12:00 pm on September 5. Undergraduates who purchased tickets only once before will be able to purchase tickets from 6:00-7:30 am on September 6, 2012 until 12:00 pm on September 7. Freshman, transfer students, and those who have not purchased season tickets in the past will be able to purchase tickets online currently. All groups other than those who are first-time buyers will need to appear at the seat selection event on Friday, September 7 in Bartels Hall where the doors will open at 6:30 pm. The groups will choose their tickets based upon the general timeslots of 7:00 pm, 7:30 pm, and 8:15 pm (in the order of decreasing number of times of having tickets previously with graduate students choosing with those who have had tickets in three previous seasons). The timeslots of individuals within those broad timeslots groups will be announced here at 4:00 pm on Thursday, September 6, 2012.

The distribution of tickets seems to be somewhat different than the approach taken in years past. First-time purchasers will be situated in Section E. Sections A, B, and D will be filled with students who are return buyers or graduate students. There is no mention in the formal release of tickets available to graduate students in Section G like there was for the 2009-10 season. The release omits notably if general admissions tickets will be available within Sections E and F as they have been in the past and as was noted in the release for the 2011-12 season. The last comment is more self-interested because as an alumnus and fan, typically I obtain tickets in those sections. However, if student demand is up it is a great thing for the program even if it means that it is more difficult for other alumni, fans, and me to obtain tickets. Students and alumni are the soul of college hockey and typically it is the former that has more zeal as a general rule.

Some will criticize this approach as abridging or abandoning the heritage of The Line at Cornell. I think that comment might be shortsighted. The above outline indicates how Cornell's process is certainly one different than the past, but it is still one riddled with idiosyncrasies that fans must be invested enough to navigate and what that still accomplishes the ultimate goal of The Line in the mind of Schafer. Schafer has said that the primary purpose of The Line is to ensure that the most loyal and rabid fans among the Faithful have the choicest seats (are they seats if they are not used for sitting?). This process ensures that still. So, while some may criticize the form as a product of a softer era that will be less dedicated to Cornell hockey, I contend that those arguments are too obsessed with the form rather than the effect, and the effect of the system as outline above is one that still honors the legacy of The Line as Schafer and others understand it.

This ignores the one current trend in ticket selection that alarms a few others and me within the Cornell hockey fanbase. That is to favor revenues over zeal. Season tickets for this season are $234.00 or approximately $13.00 per game. Happily, this represents no increase in the cost of student season tickets from last season. These prices represent a decrease in the price tag of student tickets from the $247.00 of the 2009-10 season which approximated a charge of $13.72 per game. This compares with the $215.00 that the student members of the Children of Yost will be expected to pay for their student season tickets that amounts to $10.23 per game. The athletic department should be given credit for keeping the price of tickets the relatively the same over time even if they are still too pricey for many on East Hill. I wish that tickets were cheaper, but annual maintenance of the same cost is the step in the right direction.

The change in policy that alarmed me and sacrificed zeal for revenue was the choice for the 2011-12 season to allow undergraduates to purchase up to two tickets. Such a choice invites empty seats and ensures that those with greater funds can control a greater percentage of the student section. The policy continues during this year. The release cited above states that "[s]tudents may purchase either one or two season tickets apiece." I find this to be a horrible mistake that will cost Lynah actual, rather than reported attendance. In an era when older alumni and fans criticize the student section for being "empty" by Lynah standards, it is foolish to allow undergraduates to purchase more than one ticket. It either invites one seat, or both to remain empty, or allows one to purchase tickets for another without enduring the minimal sacrifice asked of the current generation of fans.

Wealth does not correlate with zeal and passion. Most of the Faithful realize that. Cornell is an Ivy League institution that is among the upper echelons of elite education within its own conference while having the heart and dedication common of Big Ten universities. It is this dualism that has led professors and coaches to describe Cornell both as an Ivy League institution with a Big Ten heart or the working man's Ivy League. To Cornellians, Ezra's and A.D.'s mission of "any person" is not a hackneyed cliche. It is sad that the ticketing policy for undergraduates does not realize this fact and instead chooses to allow possibly those who can afford more to control a greater percentage of the student section than they might otherwise need and some with likely little display of dedication. That is about what The Line is. It is a manifestation of our dedication and pride. It will not be long until Colorado College knows how proud we are.

The path from the summer plans and responsibilities of many of the student-athletes at Cornell to Ithaca is never short nor common. It is no surprise that there was no difference for the members of the Cornell women's ice hockey program. The Big Red had ample representation in the U22 clash between Team Canada and Team USA. Fortino, Jenner, Campbell, Cudmore, Saulnier, and Poudrier joined Team Canada and Slebodnick tended the net for Team USA. Fortino and Jenner had the additional honor of serving as alternate captains on their national team.

Team USA shocked the international hockey community when it completed a sweep of Team Canada. The United States had a 2-10-0 record against Canada in U22 competition since 2004. Canada's dropping of all three games was unexpected.

Cornell's Campbell assisted on Canada's first goal of the series. Saulnier joined her teammate with a helper during the second period of the third game in the three-game series.

The second win for Team USA was propelled by the stellar play of Junior goaltender Lauren Slebodnick who defended Team USA's net while Picard and Gedman of archrival Harvard helped the United States to a 4-2 victory. Slebodnick made 22 saves in the victory for Team USA in which she tended the crease. Historically, it is not uncommon to see Harvardians help lead Team USA to an international victory, but it is somewhat anomalous for a Cornellian American goaltender to be backstopping their charge.

After the last game between Team Canada and Team USA, the seven members of the Cornell Big Red women's hockey team began their return to East Hill. They put aside the national hockey cultural differences between their home countries along the way and returned recently to our campus nestled far above Cayuga's waters. They will join eight freshmen who have dubbed themselves "fr8 train" recently. One of those freshman, Anna Zorn, tweeted a glimpse of Lynah Rink. We are glad to have her and welcome her to the Big Red family. Zorn joins five other fellow Upstate New Yorkers on the rosters of Cornell hockey. Let's hope that the Lady Rouge with this insurgence of talent and youth can keep the momentum of the last three seasons going full steam ahead.

The main news that captured the attention of the ECAC Hockey community Thursday morning was the announcement from Colgate Athletics that 'Gate hoped to raise $37 million to construct a new ice hockey arena to replace Starr Rink. The Colgate community is expected to raise the $37 million through private donations without contribution from general University funds. The envisioned facility would be 97,000 square feet. The release neglects to mention if the $37 million would fund the creation of better training facilities, and mentions only locker rooms and showers explicitly.

The situation should sound familiar to those who have been among the Lynah Faithful for more than about seven years. Cornell was at a similar juncture with Lynah Rink not too long ago. So, for the newer members of the Faithful or those who want to look back on the choices that our collective fanbase made, I thought it appropriate to analyze why in the great debate between building or renovating, we chose to renovate. I conclude with what I believe that choice reveals about the self-conceived identity of the ECAC.

The conversations that occurred around 2004 about whether Cornell should renovate or build a hockey rink began and ended, as is the case with most things surrounding Cornell hockey, with tradition. The conversation began when historic rival and former ECAC foe Boston University began constructing Agganis Arena in 2003 that would serve to replace Walter Brown Arena. Brown Arena was the site of many famous BU-Cornell clashes and was where BU alumni Dave Silk, Jack O'Callahan, Mike Eruzione, and Jim Craig of the 1980 Team USA roster played during their tenures at BU.

It was a keep-up-with-the-Joneses mentality that drove Cornell to consider building a new rink to replace historic Lynah Rink, but what the process triggered was delving into what mattered to Cornell hockey as an institution. Cornell considered what was needed for the program and what the fanbase wanted. Opinions of the Faithful, as is expected from a group infamous for its vociferousness, were not in short supply.

The renovate-or-rebuild debate focused upon how Cornell could gain the resources needed to compete with other large and historic NCAA Division I programs, and Canadian major junior programs for recruits. Was a new barn needed? The argument was not one-sided but the voices of the renovate crowd overwhelmed the few calling for a modernized facility that would forsake Lynah much like the Terriers men's ice hockey team forsook Brown Arena and began anew in Agganis.

Many who favored renovation trusted Schafer's discretion. He was instrumental in giving Lynah its current feel and look. Fans who experienced Lynah Rink before the completion of renovations agree generally that the altered Lynah still maintained the hallowed confines of the historic arena and preserved the envirnoment that made Lynah Rink both loved and loathed.

The renovations and modernizations that were envisioned and realized between 2004 and 2007 were revolutionary and respectful of tradition. A quick summary of the changes makes the renovation seem entirely transformative, but the essence of the Lynah experience that had developed since the first over-capacity crowd in 1962 remained the same. Lynah Rink before the renovations had standing-room only seating. The rink had concourses within the current walls that circumnavigated the U-shape of the inner arena within the current concourses outside of the arena proper. The end of the rink near Section A had no walkway or seating that traversed the gap between the southern and northern ends of the U.

The renovations included the addition of the current atrium to Lynah Rink, the walkway with premium seating that bridges Section A to Section O, box seating that extended to the outer walls of the former arena, more seating benches, an external cooridor that serves now as the concourses, new locker rooms, study rooms, and enhanced training facilities. These new training facilites included the addition over the renovation period of the skating treadmill of CSTV fame, warm-up and cool-down facilities and tubs, and the fitness room that now looks out on Campus Road among others. Over the objections of some new locker rooms were added for both the men's and women's program that were at a level that required that the tunnel for the Big Red onto the ice requires the players to navigate a set of stairs.

The desire to keep Lynah as much like its original incarnation while augmenting appeal to recruits and capacity resulted in the balance being struck between closing the final end of the U-shaped interior to make a complete bowl and leaving the interior arena as it was entirely. The compromise was the red walkway that holds several premium seats above the opposing goaltender. This allowed Lynah to look and feel remarkably similar to how it would have in its purely original form, but added signfiicant seating.

The project to renovate Lynah Rink was funded entirely from private donations of alumni and fans. The University was reluctant to invest extensively in renovating Lynah Rink after it had invested $1.0 million within the decade to modernize elements of the Rink including the cooling system below the ice surface. The final total of the 2006 renovations amounted to $7.3 million. These alterations modernized the facilites, increased the competitiveness of Cornell hockey in attracting recruits, and added 464 additional seats. These great strides were achieved with a relatively modest amount of money compared to some investments made in the college hockey world recently.

Penn State will join the ranks of NCAA Division I programs this Fall. It will play its first season at the NCAA Division I level in the previous home of its successful ACHA club hockey program. Penn State's Ice Pavilion holds 1,350. The facilites are unable to be modernized or expanded like Lynah was able. Furthermore, the historical incentives according to many, are far less than those that weighed upon the calculations of Cornell during its build-or-renovate debate. In many ways, Penn State is attempting to celebrate the history of its ACHA programs while still beginning anew. Pegula Ice Arena will be the new home of Penn State hockey beginning in the 2013-14 season. Pegula Ice Arena will contain state-of-the-art training facilities and two sheets of ice. The central arena will be a complete bowl that can seat 6,000. Terry and Kim Pegula alone donated the $102 million that will fund the construction of the Arena and transition of Penn State's programs to NCAA Division I. $88 million of that donation is to fund the construction of the building.

The Rochester Institute of Technology announced that it thinks that it has outgrown the confines of Ritter Arena and will seek to build an expanded hockey arena in the near future. Initial projections had the rink's completion in 2013-14, but with the slower pace in starting as compared to that of construction of the Pegula Ice Arena, many, including WAFT, think that the project should not be rushed and should be expected to be completed for the 2014-15 season. The RIT Tigers bursted onto the national hockey scene in 2010 with a Frozen Four appearance just five years after the program transitioned to NCAA Division I. Ritter Arena before and since this rise is filled beyond capacity commonly. The facilities at Ritter were not deisgned for long-term use and have begun to deteriorate to a level that needs repair. The Polisseni Foundation and B. Thomas Golisano donated a combined $4.5 million. This gift resulted in the naming of the future facility after Polisseni. The expected value of the facility that does not claim to nor shows in architectural renderings increased training facilities is $30 million. RIT expects to raise only half of that value from private donations with the Institute expected to contribute the remainder. The $30 million is what the expected cost of the arena proper without any additional training facilities to lure recruits. The renderings of the Polisseni Center are beautiful, but it leaves one wondering how much can an internal venue do, no matter how noteworthy, if there is not an associated proportional increase in a program's ability to develop its student-athletes in the athletic realm? Colgate seems bound to take the same tack as RIT and for less clear reasons.

Current Michigan State head coach Tom Anastos emphasizes often that programs must put their rivalries or disagreements aside to do what is best for their conferences, their student-athletes, and college hockey. It is with this mindset that I will conclude with an appeal to 'Gate and its fans to reconsider its plans to replace Starr Rink with a $37-million facility. Putting the we-are-or-we-aren't-rivals banter between Cornell and Colgate aside, I would like to implore 'Gate students, fans, and alumni to demand that the administration that makes decisions that will affect them for generations consider heeding the lessons of Cornell's choice to renovate historic Lynah Rink rather than replace it.

The choice to preserve Lynah Rink for future generations while making Cornell more competitive for college recruits struck the correct balance. The interior does not look identical to what it did with the original 1957 plan for Lynah Rink, but it is the same atmosphere. I knew as I sat behind Cornell's net late in the third period during the 2010 regular-season clash against Yale that would decide who earned the first seed in the 2010 ECAC Tournament that Scrivens occupied the same crease that Kennedy, Hayward, Eliot, LeNeveu, and Dryden had occupied during their times on East Hill. Last season, I took a friend from graduate school who is an alumnus of a university with its own respectable hockey tradition, Michigan, to watch the clash between Cornell and archrival Harvard. He spent the majority of the beginning of the game in awe that he was standing where just a few decades before members of the Lynah Faithful had stood to watch hockey legends Ken Dryden and Joe Nieuwendyk on the ice in Lynah. Andy Iles knows that he neither serves only in the same position as nor draws artistic inspiration for his helmet from Ken Dryden because for all intents and purposes he defends the same pipes. It is this continuity between the past and present that blurs lines and fosters a deep connection with history when one enters Lynah. Why would Colgate or its administrators elect to deprive its fans of the same sense of tradition and belonging?

I know not Colgate hockey history well enough to draw the perfect analogies to their rich hockey history, but I know that as a program that alleges to have great reverence for its history that 'Gate fans, students, and alumni will find much that they desire to preserve in Starr Rink. Colgate hockey began in 1915. Colgate, much like Cornell and most members of the ECAC, has great respect for its heritage as one of the oldest programs in college hockey.

Colgate's situation is more akin to Cornell's situation before renovations than the situations of either Penn State or RIT. Colgate has a longer history in its building than either program. Colgate has none of the size constraints that plague Penn State and RIT as they confront or anticipate crowds that are beyond capacity on a regular basis. Colgate University is a respectable liberal arts institution of 2,837 students. Part of its attractiveness and charm is in its size. However, its size must temper expectations that it can fill a rink much larger than Starr. The draw of fans, students, and alumni to Colgate hockey games is not so great that Starr cannot contain all those interested in watching 'Gate hockey comfortably. It is not a venue that faces sell-out crowds typically. Starr Rink has a capacity of 2,600. A university as rich with diversity as Colgate is cannot expect that it needs a hockey arena that is much larger than the one it has that can accommodate 92% of its student body because, as alien as it sounds to many reader, not all students are interested in college hockey.

WAFT encourages Colgate to reinvest in its hockey programs, but it should not be at the expense of history. Starr is not beyond repair and its capacity is not too small for the crowds that it encounters typically. The University and 'Gate hockey community should invest in improving training facilities. It will be cheaper and at a lesser cost than the current plan.

Colgate's proposal for an arena to replace Starr is notoriously lacking any provision that includes improvement in training facilities. Modernization of facilities through renovation should be celebrated. The fans of all ECAC teams should celebrate improving the facilities at Colgate because it increases the profile of the league and its attractiveness to recruits. However, the proposal released does not include such modernization and deprives our league of a part of its history.

Our league is proud of the history of its programs as the oldest in college hockey. We should not allow one of our historic venues to disappear without question or criticism. Colgate's current proposal does little to improve its hockey program or increase its stature while sacrificing history, one of its most salient selling points. If Colgate can lure a player of such talent and character as Austin Smith to don the maroon sweater and play at Starr, should its administration truly be worried about its ability to attract top recruits to its barn? Our league prides itself on recruits of character and ethic. If a superficial new building will draw recruits instead of laudable history, do those recruits deserve to represent the institutions that are members of our proud league?

I assert that the answer is no.

Some fans from other programs or ECAC fanbases will use this opportunity to mock Starr Rink, the enivornment therein, or their experiences there. These comments might be acceptable or pithy in intraleague banter before contentious games, but I think they are ill-advised when the question before the 'Gate hockey community is one that strikes at the question of what is the indentity of the ECAC?

Our history defines our league. Colgate hockey and Starr Rink is a crucial part of that collective history. Our league is home to seven of the ten most historic hockey barns. The ECAC is the only league with more than two representatives on such a list. Unsurprisingly, Starr Rink joins Meehan Auditorium, Hobey Baker Rink, Houston Field House, Appleton Arena, Ingalls Rink, and Lynah Rink on the list. The loss of such a venue would be costly to college hockey in general and 'Gate hockey in particular.

It matters not what others think of Starr Rink or even what it looks like to loyal Colgate fans, students, and alumni. What matters is how the Colgate community, especially those members most invested in Colgate hockey culture, feels about historic Starr Rink and its ability to unite past, present, and future generations of the 'Gate community. I hope that Colgate will err on the side of preserving its history for the sakes of college hockey and the Colgate hockey community.

I had the privilege of interacting with a family of four at the 2012 ECAC Championships in Atlantic City, NJ. The family was Colgate fans. I believe that both the mother and father were Colgate alumni who, judging by their comments and a hat that the father wore, attended their alma mater during the Raiders's first ECAC Championship and run to the national championship game in 1990. They had traveled down from Central New York to New Jersey with their children to watch their beloved Raiders play for another ECAC Championship. I could tell immediatly that love for Colgate hockey and Colgate University had transcended generation and emerged in the passions of both little boys.

This made me look to the future when I hope to take my chlidren to Lynah Rink and tell them of the dazzling feats of not only Nieuwendyk and Dryden, but Gallagher, Greening, Scrivens, Whitney, D'Agostino, and Iles among many others who all put their skills on display in those hallowed walls. It is a privilege as a Cornellian and member of the Lynah Faithful to be able to share these memories and experiences across generations. It unites us all. This deep, personal, and passionate institutional history is what sets college hockey apart from most other sports.

I am indebted to those who were vocal and in positions of authority who made the correct decision to preserve Lynah rather than replace it. As an alumnus and fan, I will ensure that if the history at Lynah is threatened, I act to preserve it as those before me had. I hope that leaders and members of the community at Colgate make the same choice in the near future so that generations of the family that I met in Atlantic City can share and make memories at Starr as I will do the same with my family at Lynah.

The prospect that the ECAC announcement that was rumored to occur on Tuesday would be streamed or televised were fairly bleak considering the league's inability to secure a network to broadcast the league's marquee event. However, around midnight last night (12:00 am Tuesday), the ECAC page added a splash image as its intro to the men's ice hockey page. The image, for those who are unfamiliar with the Lake Placid facilities, is that of the outside of the Olympic Center facility that is attached to the much more famous Herb Brooks Arena.

The formal ECAC announcement came at around 11:10 am on Tuesday. The ECAC formalized that the league had come to a three-year agreement with Lake Placid under which the ECAC would crown its champions for the 2014, 2015, and 2016 seasons in Herb Brooks Arena. ECAC Commmissioner Steve Hagwell sung the praises of the bond between the ECAC and Lake Placid, and stated that "Lake Placid has a special bond with ECAC Hockey."

Considering the news, I thought that it was befitting to take a more extended look at where the ECAC will host its championships and where Cornell will seek additional ECAC Championships in the near future. I feel that the pros and cons, and hopes and fears have been discussed extensively. If you missed WAFT's take, it's here. Thank You Terry, a blog that focuses upon Penn State hockey and one of the best blogs dedicated to college hockey (TYT is a blog that college hockey fans should read if they are not already), mentioned and complimented WAFT's analysis in a much-appreciated shoutout to this new blog in his Three Stars. Adam Wodon offered similarly extensive analysis back in April. Needless to say, Wodon and WAFT are solidly in the pro-Lake Placid camp. That is firmly established. So, this post continues with the different angle of looking at what members of the Faithful can look forward to when Cornell seeks its fourteenth ECAC title in 2014 (wishful thinking, I know).

The most striking element in the above pictures is the intimacy of the Arena. I'm very much of the opinion that what distinguishes college hockey from professional-level hockey is the physical and personal connection between the fans, teams, and the players. That is why even sold-out college hockey events at NHL arenas strike me as somewhat off. They do not feel like college hockey events. Red Hot Hockey is a superb event that I hope continues into the future and I plan to attend the clash between the Wolverines and Big Red in November, but the ill-defined sterility of pro arenas remove certain elements of the college hockey experience. I leave each of those great events lacking the sense of belonging that games at college hockey barns provide even though ~14,000 Cornell fans reliably make The Garden much louder than any Rangers game. Admittedly, the connection to the building between fans is lost at any neutral site, but the aesthetic feel and the size of Herb Brooks Arena makes the viewing experience more akin to the experience offered at other college hockey rinks and Lynah than the experience afforded fans if the event were held in an NHL arena. I think this is an often overlooked aspect of college hockey that the Herb Brooks Arena does not sacrifice while TD Garden, Joe Louis Arena, and Xcel Energy Center do.

An odd fixation of some is the desire that the host of their league championship repaints the ice to commemorate the championship series. Albany did no such thing in 2010. Atlantic City, in its characteristic and respectable devotion to promoting the ECAC Championships in AC, did. The primary issue with AC was not what laid beneath the ice, but the ice itself. The scheduling of events at Boardwalk Hall forced AC to produce and maintain ice at the beautiful facility far too late to have hockey-worthy ice. Lake Placid will present no such challenges with a figure skating- and hockey-devoted arena. The benefit with Lake Placid and Herb Brooks Arena is that I think that if the above insignia appears instead of the ECAC logo, few fans would be irked because Lake Placid is as much of or, perhaps, more of a marketable brand than what the ECAC is currently.

The ECAC appeared not to make any revelatory statements about the main concerns of many fans including television coverage or hotel policies in Lake Placid according to early reports from the conference. WAFT will keep you appraised of any information as it arises. Adam Wodon asked the questions that matter most to fans. In summary, his article has Commissioner Hagwell stating that "more and more networks say, '[y]ou produce the games and we'll air it.' So I don't see any obstacles in terms of production, because we can hire a crew." Director of Events at the Olympic Center Jim Goff added that several production companies are based in Lake Placid and have experience producing broadcasts that are syndicated internationally.

The league made it clear that the 2013 ECAC Championships is the last that will be held in Atlantic City in the near future and that 2014 will mark the return of the ECAC Championships to Lake Placid. WAFT is excited about this announcement, its potential to help the league, and looks forward to joining members of the Lynah Faithful in the most historic arena in United States hockey history. Let's hope that Lake Placid has a few miracles in store for the ECAC and Cornell this time around.

Before the 2012-13 season is underway, some of Cornell's players will already have been playing hard.  Six Cornell Women's Hockey Players have been named to Team Canada's Under-22/Development Team for a three-game series against Team USA on August 16-19.  The women who will be representing Canada will be senior defenseman Laura Fortino, junior forwards Brianne Jenner and Jessica Cambell, junior defenseman Hayleigh Cudmore, sophomore forward Jillian Saulnier, and incoming freshman defenseman Cassandra Poudrier.  All six of these women have represented Canada before in international play either on the U18 or U22 team.  Given the Cornell Women's excellence in the college hockey world, including three-straight NCAA Frozen Four appearances (the only ones in program history), it is no surprise that 6 of our players were named to this elite team.  Not only is it an honor for them to represent their country, but it will be exciting for fans of the Big Red to see how the five returning players work with promising newcomer Poudrier.  Other schools represented on the team include opening Big Red opponent Boston University, Ivy League foe Harvard, ECAC members Colgate and Clarkson, January opponent Mercyhurst, University of Minnesota (against whom our women were defeated in the Frozen Four last season), and the University of Minnesota-Duluth.

Not to be missed as well is Cornell goalie Lauren Slebodnick's attendance at the USA Hockey National Team Camp in Blaine, MN this month.  She split time last season with 2012 graduate Amanda Mazzotta.  Slebodnick posted a save percentage of 0.924 with five shutouts in the 2011-12 season. 
Finally, rounding out the international play is men's hockey players, sophomore defenseman Joakim Ryan and sophomore forward Cole Bardreau who were invited to the National Junior Evaluation Camp.  Bardreau was named to the team which went on to international play against Finland and Sweden. Bardreau joined BC phenom Gaudreau who helped his program to its fifth national title just months ago and Gostisbehere who is a key defenseman for the Union Dutchmen on the finalized roster for the U20 contingent for Team USA.

Bardreau skated against Finland in the United States' first game. The game would end in a 5-2 victory for the United States. Bardreau would appear on the scorecard for slashing in the third period. The Big Red sophomore was a healthy scratch for the 10-2 rout of Sweden on Thursday. The Fairport native donned the stars and stripes again for Team USA's game against Finland that the United States went on to force into overtime behind two goals from Miami's Biggs, but lost ultimately 3-2.

In addition to spending time in Lake Placid, where Bardreau will hopefully play again next year when the ECAC Tournament moves back there for what many believe will be a three-year cycle, it seems as if Bardreau had a bit of fun interviewing people for USA Hockey.  Video One. Video Two.

Edited to add:
As was announced Monday afternoon, Lauren Slebodnick was named to the US Under-22 team which will be facing off against her teammates in August.  She is joined on the team by ECAC players from Harvard, RPI, along with players from the University of Wisconsin, the University of Minnesota, Northeastern University, the University of North Dakota, Boston College and 2 from Canadian Women's Hockey League team the Boston Blades.  She is the only American woman from the Big Red representing the US and her inclusion will make for an even more thrilling game.  Some may recall Slebodnick's performance in the longest game in Lynah history where she relieved then-senior goalie Amanda Mazzotta to play five periods against Boston University in the NCAA Regional game to put the team on its way to the Frozen Four.  As far as high pressure games, Slebodnick seems well-suited to perform.

The ECAC community was intrigued yesterday with the early announcement from Ken Schott that the ECAC had decided that its league championships would be held in Lake Placid, NY once again. The reports were echoed in releases from College Hockey News and USCHO.com. The consensus appears from most college hockey media that the ECAC entertained bids from Providence, Albany, and Lake Placid, but concluded that a return to the North Country for its weekend league championships series had more to offer. Reactions have been mixed. Here's what WAFT thinks the Cornell perspective should be.

The Venue
Herb Brooks Arena would host the ECAC Semifinals and Finals for the 2013-14, 2014-15, and 2015-16 seasons. The capacity of the Arena is 7,700. The capacity pales in comparison to the capacities of Boardwalk Hall (10,500) and the Times Union Center (14,236) where the championship tournament has been held since it left Lake Placid in 2002. This is where perspective is important. The 2012 ECAC Championship game between Harvard and Union drew at most 4,131 in Atlantic City. The 2010 ECAC Championship game between Union and Cornell drew 6,505 in Albany. Both attendance values fit comfortably within the capacity that Herb Brooks Arena provides. The draw of the ECAC is not one that can presently demand that its league championship game be held in a venue like Madison Square Garden, especially when attendance values tend to plummet when Cornell and the Lynah Faithful are not involved. That is a reality. The ECAC may have begun in March 2012 to dispel rumors that it represents a sub-par brand of hockey with Union's Frozen Four appearance and Cornell's upset of Michigan, but it has not overcome its established history as a small draw. Concerns about the arena size are unfounded because the ECAC has not proven that it can fill an arena the size of Herb Brooks Arena. Furthermore, even if the ECAC begins to fill Herb Brooks Arena in the near future, a full medium-sized arena presents a better and more marketable image than the same volume crowd in a larger venue like Boardwalk Hall or the Times Union Center. The attendance capacity should be of little concern to ECAC fans generally and the Lynah Faithful in particular.

The recurring issue that has emerged and one that has been rumored to be an issue of contention among the few ECAC programs that did not approve of the move to Lake Placid is the fact that Herb Brooks Arena has an Olympic-sized ice sheet. Historically, the ECAC justified that playing on an Olympic-sized sheet was advantageous to the league members going on in the season because under previous iterations of the NCAA tournament venues with Olympic-sized sheets were included or even preferred for selection for NCAA tournament game sites. The change of the NCAA tournament structure to its current form eliminated this advantage. The NCAA selection committee now chooses venues that have NHL-sized ice sheets exclusively. The fact that the surface at Herb Brooks Arena is one different than those played on earlier in the season causes each program to adapt its game to a larger ice surface without any identifiable benefit in return.

Some who are more familiar with Herb Brooks Arena than I have stated that the locker room facilities are below the current standard level of facilities at the NCAA Division I level. I cannot speak to the accuracy of these statements, but the negatives with the venue seem to be limited to the ice surface and possibly the locker rooms. However, it must be noted that the Team USA U20 Development Program has been using the facility during the week before and weekend of this leak, and there have been no discernible complaints about the facilities even during the summer months. It appears that any shortcomings in locker room facilities in any respect during the ECAC's previous tenancy in Lake Placid have been addressed. The lingering issue is the ice surface size.

The Host
Some fans familiar with the ECAC's previous era in Lake Placid from 1994 to 2002 remember that the resort community was one that clung to its arcane hotel cancellation policies that made it difficult for fans who booked hotels before their teams advanced out of the first-round or quarterfinals of the ECAC Tournament to cancel their reservations at all or without severe penalty if the fans's team did not survive to the ECAC Championships. I was neither a Cornell hockey fan nor an alumnus during this era, so I cannot speak to how the hotel industry in Lake Placid functioned before the ECAC played its last tournament game in the resort town in 2002. However, a cursory inspection of most hotel sites with cancellation guidelines and policies indicates that hotels in Lake Placid, like many in the industry, have abandoned these practices and do not cling to the criticized practices any longer. The practices, platforms, and presence of hotels on online fora have changed markedly with the development of Web 2.0, an advent that has occurred since 2002, and it seems unreasonable to conclude that Lake Placid is behind the times until proven otherwise. It appears that the hotels in Lake Placid will not present such challenges to traveling members of the Lynah Faithful.

The relation between setting and television coverage has been discussed. The 2011 ECAC Championship Final between Cornell and Yale was broadcast on the hard-to-find CBS Sports Network. The 2012 ECAC Championship Final was covered on no major television-based platform. RPI TV did an amazing job with its coverage. It was higher quality than most college hockey games broadcast all season from any network. However, the ECAC needs national television coverage to build upon its recent national successes. While the Michigans and Notre Dames of the college hockey world can point to their coverage on the Big Ten Network and NBC Sports, the ECAC and Cornell cannot boast of any similar deals. Even for their championship series. Last season's coverage from RPI TV if syndicated to a national or regional network would have been an ideal situation. It would have demonstrated the accomplishments of a member school while celebrating the athletic programs of those competing. No matter the means, the ECAC must use the brand that is Lake Placid and Herb Brooks Arena to gain coverage of the ECAC Championship Final, if not the entire Championships series.

The now-defunct Empire Sports Network broadcasted the ECAC Championships when they were hosted in Lake Placid. Geographic seclusion would seem precluded as an argument against broadcasting from Lake Placid considering the success of doing such for the same tournament a decade ago. The MSG Network acquired the regional presence of the Empire Sports Network. MSG has high viewership in Upstate New York and broadcasts regionally specific programming through the year (Sabres coverage in Upstate New York, Rangers and Islanders coverage in Downstate New York). Its geographic footprint could broadcast it to the former market of the Empire Sports Network or decide to include the Downstate New York region as well where many alumni of ECAC institutions live and work. MSG claims that it enjoys covering college hockey and has respectable viewership numbers when it broadcasts the biannual BU-Cornell Red Hot Hockey games. This could be another event that it carries, even if it chooses to syndicate RPI TV's spectacular coverage or places it on a peripheral MSG Network station. The history of the Empire Sports Network in broadcasting the ECACs from Lake Placid, the greatest density of ECAC fans, the MSG Network market, and the branding of Herb Brooks Arena seems to support the conclusion that Lake Placid and Herb Brooks Arena should increase the likelihood that the finest teams of the ECAC face off against one another in the ECAC Championship Final in prime time.

The natural splendor of the host of the 1932 and 1980 Olympic Games scarcely can be overstated. The resort town sits in the shadow of Whiteface Mountain in the Adirondack Mountain Range. Many who can remember the ECAC Championships in Lake Placid remark about how the community focuses upon hosting an event of the caliber of the ECAC Championships. It is unfair to claim that Atlantic City neither focused upon nor catered to the ECAC Championships. The City was very welcoming and promotions were distributed widely within and without AC. However, there is an air about the ECAC Championships playing in New York State (the home of half of the ECAC member schools) and the winter feel of the Adirondacks in mid-March that makes Lake Placid feel more the appropriate setting for the ECAC Championships than Atlantic City. What sets Lake Placid and Herb Brooks Arena above the other interested communities and venues is history.

The Aura
No American hockey fan needs explanation as to the significance of 1980, Lake Placid, and Herb Brooks. The players, including Cornell sophomore forward Cole Bardreau, at the Team USA U20 Development Camp during this leaked announcement, remark how amazing it feels to play on such a historic stage with such rich history. It was the ice on which an image was taken that inspired the only cover of Sports Illustrated that ran without caption. It is where a player from BU began the unthinkable and put the United States ahead of the Soviet Union, and endeared himself to many of the Lynah Faithful as shown with their thunderous applause at each Red Hot Hockey that Mike Eruzione attends.

Many worry that the appeal and emotion of the 1980 Olympic game between the Soviet Union and the United States is lost on the current generation of players and fans who were born well after the miracle. I am such a fan and I can attest that it is not. There is palpable excitement about watching a game in Herb Brooks Arena. Most of the 2010 Team USA hockey roster could not remember the 1980 miracle, but it rang no less significantly for them. Ours is the generation of Miracle, the film, not the event, but the ethos, legend, and investment is not lost on us. Herb Brooks and the 1980 team are more legend than men, and for this, perhaps we venerate Lake Placid, the coach, and the team more than even the generation who witnessed it because they have become truly larger than life.

It is for these reasons that Lake Placid will help recruiting, especially in the United States. It is a historic site. It is hallowed ground for American hockey. American athletes will thirst for the opportunity to hoist an earned and respected championship cup above their heads in the same arena where Jim Craig draped an American flag around his shoulders. Cornell's roster has become noticeably more American in recent years and this will help maintain Cornell's recruitment of American players to play on East Hill.

Some worry that the effect upon recruitment is overwrought for a league that recruits heavily in Canada. This oversimplifies realities. Objectively, Canadian hockey players know that a defeat of the Goliath that was Soviet hockey is significant and respectable. They need look only to their own defeat of the Soviet Union in the Summit Series to realize the importance for Canadian hockey culture. This misses noticeably the personal connection that many American players feel with the history at Herb Brooks Arena. Cornell stands advantaged in this respect.

Lake Placid hosted the ECAC Championships nine times. Cornell was 6-4-0 at Lake Placid over that span including winning the ECAC Championship twice under Schafer. However, those statistics are not the most salient point for a program that values its history so highly. It was in Lake Placid that John Hughes, Brian Cropper, and Ned Harkness completed the unprecedented and still unequaled feat of completing an NCAA Division I season undefeated and untied with a 6-4 win over Clarkson in 1970. Cornell players and Cornell recruited players of all national origins should feel a connection to the achievement of that goal in Lake Placid. Lake Placid is where the greatest miracle in United States hockey occurred and where Cornell hockey achieved a level of play to a level that no other program has attained.

The ECAC will make Lake Placid its home while Cornell will be home in Lake Placid already.

Cornell hockey is an institution like few others in sports. It is a program that is dedicated as much to the celebration of its past as it is to continuation of the greatness born during previous eras. It may have neither the national championships of Michigan nor the pro-scale arena of North Dakota, but stands apart from many of its celebrated peers in the unbroken connection that exists between those players who don the carnelian and white at Lynah Rink, all those who did the same before them, and generations of fans who have supported the history and culture of hockey at Cornell University. This unbroken connection and continued zeal is why Cornell is recognized as having the most zealous fanbase in all of college hockey. Ned Harkness, former Cornell hockey coach and the winningest coach in college hockey in terms of winning percentage, upon arriving at Cornell from RPI, a fellow member program of the ECAC, quipped memorably that he wanted the intimidation and the home ice advantage at Lynah Rink to be so severe that Lynah would become "a place where angels fear to tread." It is from this quote (and a few heated rivalries) that the Lynah Faithful sprang. This blog hopes to add to the great culture that the Lynah Faithful have created and add yet another forum to the sizable electronic presence that exists already for the most storied program in the ECAC.