ITHACA, N.Y. – What began as a normal game day in Bridgeport, Connecticut on Saturday turned into a night to remember for
Cole Bardreau '15. The former Cornell men's hockey captain was hastily summoned by the New York Islanders to make his NHL debut that night in a game against the Columbus Blue Jackets.
To say the process of getting him to Ohio in time for the game was rushed is a bit of an understatement. Bardreau had to get to New York for a flight out of JFK airport. According to reports, he was a little too late for his originally scheduled flight before catching another one late in the afternoon. He arrived at Nationwide Arena less than two hours before faceoff dressed in sweatpants and a blazer he had to borrow from a staff member of the American Hockey League's Bridgeport Sound Tigers.
A short time later, he was the first one onto the ice for warm-ups to take a lap before the rest of the team joined him – which has become a rookie tradition in the NHL.
"I didn't have time to think or worry about anything or play scenarios in my head," Bardreau told NHL.com. "I just threw my stuff on, went out here and played. … It was a pretty emotional experience. Especially taking that first lap out there by myself was pretty emotional."
The fact that it all ended up happening so fast is actually pretty ironic for Bardreau, who has had an arduous road to get to The Show. Long considered a heart-and-soul leader for the Big Red, he posted 53 points over 103 collegiate games on East Hill.
He was also remembered for being at the middle of a harrowing story about when two vertebra in his neck were broken during a game in at 2013, a story told in detail by Kristi Fulkerson of TV2 Sports in Allentown, Pa.
At the conclusion of his collegiate career, the undrafted Bardreau was pursued by several NHL teams. He eventually chose the Philadelphia Flyers, who kept him exclusively in the AHL with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms. While he was always seemingly on the cusp of getting the call to the NHL, Bardreau never got that call – in part because of continued misfortune with injuries. In all, he was able to play just 211 games over his four full seasons with Lehigh Valley.
"He had some bad luck with all sorts of injuries in the minor leagues the last couple of years," said
Mike Schafer '86, the Jay R. Bloom '77 Head Coach of Men's Hockey. "He really had to persevere through that, and then he got a new lease on life with a new organization. It's really a testament to his character."
Around ECAC Hockey
While Cornell and the other five Ivy League programs have yet to drop the puck on the regular season, ECAC Hockey's other six teams have been in action for a couple weeks now.The league has a cumulative record of 9-10-2, but it was just 4-7-1 over this past weekend. Quinnipiac mustered just a home split with Maine, and Providence earned a sweep through the North Country with wins at Clarkson and St. Lawrence. The gold star went to Colgate, which earned a 4-3 overtime win and scoreless tie on the road against UMass Lowell – a squad that went on the road and topped two-time defending national champion Minnesota Duluth the weekend prior.
"It was a hard fought game with great effort by our guys against a very good team," Colgate head coach Don Vaughan said after Friday's win. "I am just very happy that the team gets rewarded for the hard work they have put in this fall. We had some excellent individual efforts and we played to our structure, executing the game plan we wanted."
As a result, Colgate's Mitch Benson was named the ECAC Hockey Goalie of the Week. Rensselaer's Patrick Polino was named Player of the Week after a four-point effort in the Engineers' thrashing of Canisius on Saturday, and Clarkson's Anthony Romano was named Rookie of the Week.
Polls Prose
Despite a dearth of games, Cornell moved up two spots to third in the USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine poll and one spot to fourth in the USCHO.com poll this week. While Denver (6-0) and Minnesota State (3-0-1) were a fairly obvious 1-2 for the voters, the field quickly became jumbled after that. Massachusetts, Penn State, Clarkson and Quinnipiac all had losses. Wisconsin rocketed up to sixth with a home sweep of Minnesota Duluth after being 17th in the USCHO poll and unranked in the USA poll last week.
Off The Crossbar is a weekly notebook about the Cornell men's hockey team that runs Mondays or Tuesdays on CornellBigRed.com.
