Harvard looked to be on solid ground after Game 1 — a 5-3 win at highly regarded Dartmouth. The footing got a tad more treacherous shortly thereafter, as the Crimson fell off the map with an 0-8-2 tumble.<\/p>\n
The Ivy took three W’s in a row and tagged on a tie in mid-January, but that was the last consecutive point streak the Crimson achieved in the regular season. Harvard staggered to the finish line on a 2-9-0 skid, surrendering a first-round home series in the process and generating little optimism for the road trip to Princeton.<\/p>\n
Instead, the Crimson stunned the host Tigers 4-2 and 3-0, advancing on to Round 2 at archrival Cornell. The Ithacans promptly suffocated their Cambridge colleagues by an 8-1 two-game aggregate, leaving Harvard to ponder over what went so right, and then so wrong in the postseason.<\/p>\n
For starters, coach Ted Donato’s crew won’t have to endure a five-game road trip to open the season. This year, Harvard commences with two games at the Bright Hockey Center — albeit against Union and Rensselaer — before a four-game road swing.<\/p>\n
“I don’t think there will be that many similarities” between this year’s product and last, Donato said. “Our schedule will allow for a little bit more lead time coming into the season, and it’s a little bit more reasonable … out of the gate.”<\/p>\n
The alumnus-turned-coach also likes the roster from top to bottom, and doesn’t feel that his lineup will be too adversely affected once the inevitable bumps and bruises begin to appear.<\/p>\n
“I think we’ll have some good depth up front. We’ll have depth in offense, and our goaltending should be very solid,” he said.<\/p>\n
“I think the biggest difference [from last year] is that we’ll have a little bit more balance through the middle of our lineup as far as experience goes,” Donato added. “Last year, I think on a lot of nights we were dressing nine or 10 forwards that were freshmen and sophomores; this year, that won’t be the case. It’ll be more like nine or 10 forwards who will be sophomores or juniors, and that will certainly be helpful to us.”<\/p>\n
One thing Harvard will rely on is a breakout season or four out of a large group of slowly maturing strikers.<\/p>\n
“We feel that there’s a big group of guys that can make a step forward; we’ll need that, but we’re very excited and optimistic going into the season,” Donato said.<\/p>\n
While potential is great, it’s meaningless if it never blossoms.<\/p>\n
“We’re still very young, so inexperience is definitely a challenge for us. I think we’re counting on our freshman class from last year taking a big step forward,” Donato said. “Secondly, I think on defense we’ll have some inexperience, because we’ll [only] return three guys out of eight who have seen a substantial amount of games.”<\/p>\n
Losing your top scorer and league rookie of the year is never a good thing, either, as Montreal product Louis Leblanc elected to jump ship and sign with his hometown team, the Canadiens.<\/p>\n
“We were certainly excited at one time about Leblanc coming back, so that hurts,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Donato said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I think RPI, you could argue they lost three of their top four scorers, so I think there’s a lot of change. I think [the league is] wide open.<\/p>\n
“I like our blend, I like our level of talent, but I think it’s going to take a little bit of time to jell.”<\/p>\n
Oh, how do you solve a problem like Maria<\/strike> Harvard? The program has been undeniably disappointing for two years running, and the Crimson can’t bear a third consecutive nine-win season. The big killers have been prolonged winless streaks — both last year and the season prior — and that’s something that a consistent, diligent team will never endure. Harvard has the manpower and talent to be a threat, but fool me twice, shame on me: I tagged the Crimson as a fifth-place team two years ago, and fourth last year. Consider me a full-blown skeptic now; this is not a bye-quality team.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Last year Harvard looked to be on solid ground after Game 1 — a 5-3 win at highly regarded Dartmouth. The footing got a tad more treacherous shortly thereafter, as the Crimson fell off the map with an 0-8-2 tumble. The Ivy took three W’s in a row and tagged on a tie in mid-January, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":140328,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[322],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n