ITHACA, N.Y. – It's known as The City That Never Sleeps. Frank Sinatra intended New York's label to be complimentary, but the sociological sword that New York wields surely has two edges. Manhattan's seemingly unlimited options and excitement at all hours come with drawbacks. After all, sleep's most common enemies are certainly prevalent in the city – bright lights and a dearth of silence. And for as cosmopolitan a small city as Ithaca is, it remains as the popular bumper stickers declare – 10 Square Miles, Surrounded By Reality.
Cornell has brought the two municipalities and all of their idiosyncrasies together for more than 100 years. But the men's hockey program's direct involvement started 12 years ago with the first rendition of Red Hot Hockey at Madison Square Garden. The dichotomy of the Big Red's normal hockey world of an inner circle and regimented schedule versus its whimsical home-away-from-home in the Big Apple presents some challenges.
"It's quite a bit different in just that there are a lot of families in town," said junior forward
Morgan Barron, who was perhaps busiest of all with all the extra time requests that come with being a New York Rangers draft pick playing in the organization's home rink. "Obviously, New York City is a little bit different than most places we play games. … The practice week looks a little bit different. Obviously, it's a lot of fun to come down here, but we've got to get used to those things."
For example …
- Everywhere else, the team arrives the night before a road game and unpacks its gear and sets up the locker room so it's ready in the morning. In New York, the team isn't even allowed in the building when it arrives. Its gear sits a back hallway until the day of the game – sometimes just a few hours before faceoff.
- Everywhere else, the team skates in the morning before a game. In New York, there's usually an NBA or NHL matinee – so the Big Red ventures a few blocks from its midtown hotel for a team stretch in Central Park (though the team did, indeed, have a morning skate this year).
- Everywhere else, the team arrives to the rink two hours before faceoff after a dead quiet, uneventful bus ride. In New York, the team takes the bustling subway from its hotel to Madison Square Garden.
- Everywhere else, all meals are with the team. In New York, the team is on its own for its dinner on Friday and post-game meal on Saturday.
Some of the changes are logistically necessary. But others are made to afford the student athletes the opportunity to embrace the special nature of the event. After all, it's about more than just a hockey game for many attendees – shouldn't it be that way for the participants, too?
For this season in particular – with the team off to a 9-0 start for the first time in 50 years – it was also a litmus test. All of the nuances of the annual New York trip aren't all that different than the possible distractions faced in day-to-day life the rest of the season.
"We talk about it: Ignoring the noise; manage expectations. We obviously want to be good, but they've got to ignore all of those things that are happening around them," said
Mike Schafer '86, the Jay R. Bloom '77 Head Coach of Men's Hockey at Cornell. "This is a great training ground for that. Coming to New York City, being with their parents, taking care of tickets. It's about growing up and coming down here and enjoying this experience, but it's also about managing your day and managing your expectations with your family around."
The results have been mixed for Cornell in the Madison Square Garden games over the last 12 years – but Saturday was an undeniable success. While the first period wasn't exactly up to snuff, the team soared ahead with two goals in quick succession in the second period before an efficiently uneventful third period to ride out the victory.
So start spreadin' the news: The Big Red's ability to pass the New York test may bode well for similar challenges down the line.
Around The League
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ICYMI, junior Matthew Galajda was named the ECAC Hockey MAC Goaltending Goalie of the Week on Monday. His 28-save shutout over BU in Saturday's Red Hot Hockey did the trick.
It's amazing to think if a goalie with a 9-0 record, but with the success of the team's offense, its power play and three freshman defensemen shouldering everyday roles, Galajda's performance has been overlooked at times. But he's had no trouble establishing that his sophomore season was the outlier – not his All-American performance as a freshman.
"He got off a slow start (last year), and he rectified that," Schafer said. "He came back this summer and his attitude in practice was, 'Guys aren't going to score.' You talk about the great (goalies) we've had –
Ben Scrivens, Dave LeNeveu, Dave McKee – they absolutely can't stand getting scored on in practice. They're unbelievable on everything, and that carries over for them in games."
ECAC Hockey is expected to announce its monthly awards for November before this weekend's games.
• Friday's match-up between Cornell and Harvard – the last two teams in the nation without a loss – has lost a touch of its luster after the Crimson fell to Boston College, 4-2, on Friday. The streaking Golden Eagles scored three times in the a span of two minutes later in the second period to turn a 2-0 deficit into a 3-2 lead. That put Harvard in an unfamiliar position – playing from behind.
While the Crimson and Big Red tangle this weekend, Harvard first has another crosstown match-up when BU visits on Tuesday night. It's a stretch of the schedule that head coach Ted Donato said is challenging his inexperienced squad.
"When you play against good teams, there are more momentum shifts. … We hope to be in those types of situations where we're playing against good teams with a lot at stake and good crowds," Donato told The Crimson, perhaps alluding at least in part to Friday's game against the Big Red. We're a young team, and I thought (BC) pushed us in some areas that we needed to be pushed to get better."
• All has been quiet with Cornell's other opponent this weekend – Dartmouth – but that's nothing new for this time of year. The Big Green has been idle for the last two weeks for final exams in its trimester schedule, meaning the team will be shaking off a bit of rust when it resumes play Friday against Colgate.
Alumni Update
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Beau Starrett '19 scored 16 goals in 118 career games with the Big Red, but he already has seven in his first 21 professional games with the ECHL's Wichita Thunder. Starrett ended up signing a one-year contract with the AHL's Bakersfield Condors in advance of this season before being sent to Wichita to start the year. Despite originally being a third-round draft pick by the Chicago Blackhawks, he already had some familiarity with the Condors and Thunder – who are affiliates of the NHL's Edmonton Oilers.
"I had a brother who played here two seasons ago, Shane, and he kind of told me all about pro hockey and to just focus on one day at a time and keep improving every day, and all the other little things will take care of themselves," Starrett said in an interview on KFH Radio in Wichita.
It turns out, the former connections didn't stop there.
"Even before I came here with the Thunder, I grew up being coached by Johnny Gurskis," said Starrett, referring to Wichita's assistant coach. "He also grew up (near Boston), he coached me I believe my freshman and sophomore year of high school (with the South Shore Kings), and I've always known him around the rinks in Massachusetts. It's definitely nice having Coach Gurskis around."
The entire segment can be accessed online here.
• Starrett and teammate/classmate
Brendan Smith '19 were busy Monday helping distribute Teddy Bear Toss donations at Children's Mercy Hospitals and Clinics.
Polls Prose
• The Big Red inevitably remained second in both the USCHO.com and USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine national polls this week, actually losing a little ground despite winning its only game of the week. That's because the lone team it sits behind, Minnesota State, rattled off a pair of impressive road victories against two-time defending national champion Minnesota-Duluth over the weekend.
While Cornell was able to return to its home base despite inclement weather over the weekend, Minnesota State has not. The Mavericks remained in Duluth as of Monday afternoon with no immediately plan for when a safe departure can take place, according to Shane Frederick of the Mankato Free Press.
• My, how quickly things change. In this space last week, it was pointed out that Cornell ranked second in the country with a .0116 Quality Win Bonus component of the Pairwise Comparison Rankings. Just to prove how fluid some of those values can be, the Big Red fell well back to .0033 in just one week's span.
How? First and foremost, the rest of ECAC Hockey managed just a 2-11-1 record last week. In terms of Cornell's non-league opponents, Michigan State was swept by Ohio State and Northern Michigan was the victim of Alabama-Huntsville's first victory of the season.
The Big Red will have a more direct role with these numbers' movement this weekend with games against Harvard (eighth in the Ratings Percentage Index) and Dartmouth (24th).
Off The Crossbar is a weekly-ish notebook about the Cornell men's hockey team written by assistant director of athletic communications Brandon Thomas, who is in his ninth season as his office's primary contact for the team following a stint as the team's beat writer at The Ithaca Journal. He can be reached at brandon@cornell.edu.
