Monday, November 26, 2007
Site news and the week ahead...
The sidebar for our little site has become rather busy, with tons of new info and links we hope you will enjoy. Of special note is our list of this week's broadcasts, which will be updated weekly so that you can remain up to date on what's going on in Crimson sports. Also, we proudly present the complete halftime interview series with Harvard football's Steven Williams.
Saturday, November 24, 2007
Hockey Blog, Women's Hockey Edition: Harvard destroys, deconstructs St. Lawrence 5-1
Harvard is really good this year. That doesn't properly describe the quality of this team, but I don't want to start making up words. Let's just say this: if that's how they play the second or third best team in the nation, what chance does anyone else have?
1. Coach Katey Stone is a big fan of depth and passing finesse. She saw some of the latter but a whole lot of the former, as the third line stepped up huge tonight, playing the Saints extremely tough and adding a goal or two. Going in Zak and I suspected St. Lawrence had a slight speed advantage, but that was pretty much completely neutralized by the Crimson's ability to constantly refresh itself and send another strong, rested line out there.
2. Caitlin Cahow gets penalized quite a bit. One of the two Olympians on the team, she's probably the Crimson's best defenseman, but she definitely skates that tightrope* between aggressive and illegal. Some nights she does it well, but tonight it must be said was not one of her better outings, as she got sent to the box three times. Of course, when you rack up as many points as she does, I guess I shouldn't make too big a deal out of it.
*How's that for mixed sports metaphors?
3. Credit Coach Stone for showing a little creativity on the strategic front, having Sarah Vaillancourt line up in the left defense position to start the second period. She and Cahow instantly connected on a series of crisp passes and, twenty-four seconds later, the Crimson had scored again. I don't know how much control a coach can really have over the movement of a hockey game as once the puck is dropped the flow of the game mostly dictates the action, but she made an interesting move there that paid off big.
4. Anna McDonald, the sophomore transfer from Boston College who actually beat the Crimson in 3OT in the Beanpot last year, has tremendous ability and can really lead an offense. Getting her to come over to our side was a huge coup for this team, and she's right up there with Liza Ryabkina as an immediate contributor to the team in their first season at Harvard.
5. Huge, huge shoutout to Christina Kessler for going almost four hours of gametime without giving up a goal. There isn't much more you can say. Just kudos to her, I guess.
My thanks to Zak Kline, Nick Crowne, and Saul Gorman for making the broadcasts of the games possible, and of course thanks to everyone who listened in. Men's hockey resumes November 28 at 7:30 as the Crimson take on the Yale Bulldogs. As always, Nick Crowne and Ben Weintraub have the call.
1. Coach Katey Stone is a big fan of depth and passing finesse. She saw some of the latter but a whole lot of the former, as the third line stepped up huge tonight, playing the Saints extremely tough and adding a goal or two. Going in Zak and I suspected St. Lawrence had a slight speed advantage, but that was pretty much completely neutralized by the Crimson's ability to constantly refresh itself and send another strong, rested line out there.
2. Caitlin Cahow gets penalized quite a bit. One of the two Olympians on the team, she's probably the Crimson's best defenseman, but she definitely skates that tightrope* between aggressive and illegal. Some nights she does it well, but tonight it must be said was not one of her better outings, as she got sent to the box three times. Of course, when you rack up as many points as she does, I guess I shouldn't make too big a deal out of it.
*How's that for mixed sports metaphors?
3. Credit Coach Stone for showing a little creativity on the strategic front, having Sarah Vaillancourt line up in the left defense position to start the second period. She and Cahow instantly connected on a series of crisp passes and, twenty-four seconds later, the Crimson had scored again. I don't know how much control a coach can really have over the movement of a hockey game as once the puck is dropped the flow of the game mostly dictates the action, but she made an interesting move there that paid off big.
4. Anna McDonald, the sophomore transfer from Boston College who actually beat the Crimson in 3OT in the Beanpot last year, has tremendous ability and can really lead an offense. Getting her to come over to our side was a huge coup for this team, and she's right up there with Liza Ryabkina as an immediate contributor to the team in their first season at Harvard.
5. Huge, huge shoutout to Christina Kessler for going almost four hours of gametime without giving up a goal. There isn't much more you can say. Just kudos to her, I guess.
My thanks to Zak Kline, Nick Crowne, and Saul Gorman for making the broadcasts of the games possible, and of course thanks to everyone who listened in. Men's hockey resumes November 28 at 7:30 as the Crimson take on the Yale Bulldogs. As always, Nick Crowne and Ben Weintraub have the call.
Friendly Reminder: Women's Hockey vs. St. Lawrence today at 4:00
Alasdair Wilkins and Zak Kline have the call as the Harvard Crimson look to improve to 6-0 on the year against the eighth-ranked St. Lawrence Saints. Drop of the puck is at 4:00 with our coverage beginning around 3:45.
Listen to it here.
Listen to it here.
Friday, November 23, 2007
Hockey Blog, Women's Hockey Edition: Harvard routs Clarkson 5-0 to improve to 5-0
Welcome to this special guest edition of the hockey blog, as I step in to comment on the Harvard women's hockey team's play this Thanksgiving weekend.
1. The two goals by Katharine Chute is as good a testament as any to the interchangeability of this Crimson squad. Not to take anything away from the freshman center, but it's fair to say she's one of several players who could have been on the receiving end of Sarah Vaillancourt's passes. And that's what is so dangerous about this Crimson team - it doesn't really matter if a lot of players are having off-games, as the team only needs one or two to be a scoring threat.
2. Christina Kessler has now not given up a goal in 3 hours, 26 minutes, and 13 seconds of play (that's right, I looked it up). By any standards, that's a superlative shutout streak, although the Crimson defense made her job easy tonight by limiting shots on goal and largely keeping Clarkson in the neutral zone. Expect that shutout streak to end sometime tomorrow when they take on the potent St. Lawrence offense.
3. The Clarkson defense played surprisingly well considering they let up five goals. Well, I'm adjusting my standards considerably here, but considering how poorly you might have expected them to play from that final score, they in fact did quite a bit better than that. Harvard didn't have a ton of opportunities, but they took advantage of them masterfully. I'm not sure how repeatable a skill that is, but that's ultimately nitpicking what was a total deconstruction of what was supposed to be the tenth best team in the country.
Well, that's all for this one. Congratulations to Harvard women's hockey as they improve to 5-0 on the year on the strength of their most dominating performance yet. Special kudos go to Sarah Vaillancourt, Caitlin Cahow, Katharine Chute, and Christina Kessler.
Zak Kline and I will be back tomorrow to call the St. Lawrence game at 4:00. Coverage will start around 3:45. Thanks again to Nick Crowne for his excellent work producing tonight's game.
Listen to it here.
1. The two goals by Katharine Chute is as good a testament as any to the interchangeability of this Crimson squad. Not to take anything away from the freshman center, but it's fair to say she's one of several players who could have been on the receiving end of Sarah Vaillancourt's passes. And that's what is so dangerous about this Crimson team - it doesn't really matter if a lot of players are having off-games, as the team only needs one or two to be a scoring threat.
2. Christina Kessler has now not given up a goal in 3 hours, 26 minutes, and 13 seconds of play (that's right, I looked it up). By any standards, that's a superlative shutout streak, although the Crimson defense made her job easy tonight by limiting shots on goal and largely keeping Clarkson in the neutral zone. Expect that shutout streak to end sometime tomorrow when they take on the potent St. Lawrence offense.
3. The Clarkson defense played surprisingly well considering they let up five goals. Well, I'm adjusting my standards considerably here, but considering how poorly you might have expected them to play from that final score, they in fact did quite a bit better than that. Harvard didn't have a ton of opportunities, but they took advantage of them masterfully. I'm not sure how repeatable a skill that is, but that's ultimately nitpicking what was a total deconstruction of what was supposed to be the tenth best team in the country.
Well, that's all for this one. Congratulations to Harvard women's hockey as they improve to 5-0 on the year on the strength of their most dominating performance yet. Special kudos go to Sarah Vaillancourt, Caitlin Cahow, Katharine Chute, and Christina Kessler.
Zak Kline and I will be back tomorrow to call the St. Lawrence game at 4:00. Coverage will start around 3:45. Thanks again to Nick Crowne for his excellent work producing tonight's game.
Listen to it here.
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