Halfway Home: Analyzing the Icemen

Exams over yet? Going anywhere for intersession?

The Harvard men's hockey team isn't so lucky. Exams finish for everyone done on Thursday, but with a date at Princeton coming up on Friday, the Crimson's first practice skate comes tomorrow afternoon.

But the team has got to be fairly happy to get back on the ice. With the memory of a sloppy three-point weekend at home against Vermont and ECAC patsy Dartmouth lingering and a Beanpot date on the horizon against second-ranked Boston University, it's time to lace 'em up and get back at it.

To a man, the Crimson is happy with its performance in the first half of the season, and indeed the record bears the players out. Harvard is 11-3-2 overall, and its 9-2-2 conference mark gives it first place in the ECAC at the halfway point--just like last year.

"I'm very pleased," Coach Ronn Tomassoni says. "Considering the number of road games [nine of the first 12], with the number of injuries we've had early on, and especially addressing the question before the season of whether or not we could score any goals, I'm pleased with where we are. But I'm not satisfied; you get complacent that way, and I see this team getting much better before it's all over."

It's hard to compare this unit with last year's squad (at midseason, the 1992-93 edition had but one loss and a tie), but in retrospect, maybe that team got complacent in its early-season revelry. This year, there is clearly room for Harvard to mature and improve as February and March approach, and the year of experience gained by most of the Crimson's front-line skaters may prove most telling when the NCAA Final Four convenes in St. Paul, Minn.

With that introduction, and having let the sting of Harvard's dismal performances against Dartmouth and Vermont games die down (more pressing tests than the Big Green and the Catamounts on the players' minds, perhaps?), we present our mid-term analysis of the team as a whole:

Offense: A-. As the main question mark coming into the season, the guys up front have done an unbelievable job filling the hole caused by Ted Drury's departure. A balanced scoring attack is led by Cabot House roommates Steve Martins (12 goals-18 assists-30 points) and Cory Gustafson (15-4-19), and senior Brian Farrell (16-8-24) has been consistently making his presence known in the opposition's crease all year.

Exceptional in creating opportunities, Harvard's one occasional offensive weakness has been finishing them; the scoring slump around the first of December makes it clear that putting shots on net doesn't automatically lead to goals. But a 5.25 goals-per-game average is among the best in the country, and Tomassoni has to marvel in his forwards' talent.

Defense: A. Like the offense, the defense is first in the ECAC, surrendering only three goals per game and keeping much of the toughest rubber away from the Crimson net. Go-get-'em captain Sean McCann (10-9-19) leads the excellent backchecking of the blue-line corps, but as often as not it's been the forwards' forechecking skills that has kept opposing offenses struggling to cross center ice.

And if things get out of hand, junior Bryan Lonsinger (1-3-4) is there to help straighten them out--his consistent hard hitting has shown league clubs that the Crimson can do more things than simply skate rings around them. You win with defense, and so far Harvard has done so on a regular basis.

Goaltending: B+. Aaron Israel has been one of the pleasant surprises of the year; his 2.51 GAA is in the nation's top five, and his penchant for conceding the occasional soft goal has disappeared almost entirely from last year. He looks in top form nearly every time out, and his work ethic in practice has been a main reason.

Tripp Tracy's play has been difficult to pinpoint; perhaps his style looked so effortless last season that anything else must pale by comparison. But his GAA has risen to 3.68, and his wild, get-me-the-Maalox style has backfired on several occasions. In fairness to Tracy, on some weekends the Crimson defense hasn't given him as much support as it has Israel, and his form has been better of late. But Harvard needs two top-notch net-minders if it wants to make any significant playoff noise, and Tracy will admit that he's got some work to do if he's to find that old magic (circa Beanpot, 1993) again.

Special Teams: A. These guys can cook, scoring goals on fully one-third of their power play chances and conceding man-down goals less than one-eighth of the time. With McCann and hard-shooting Derek Maguire (4-17-21) gunning away from the point and guys like Farrell and Kirk Nielsen (3-3-6) mixing it up in front of late, only the occasional bout of over-passing can derail a power-play unit for which superlatives fail.

And the penalty kill is equally solid, with the usual culprits--McCann, his defense partner Peter McLaughlin (0-5-5) and freshman standout Ashlin Halfnight (1-4-5)--keeping Tracy and Israel safe in the back. Fundamentals are never lacking on both units; the players know their specialized roles and perform them with consummate skill.

Discipline: C-. The sole problem with the penalty kill unit is that it is pretty winded by now, having had to kill a surplus of stupid penalties. Time and time again, Tomassoni has justly criticized his players' lack of discipline in crucial moment--as the RPI loss showed most dramatically, a couple of foolish lapses of concentration can undo the good minutes of effort surrounding them.

The disturbing part about this trend is Harvard's collective failure to nip it in the bud; the efforts of Tomassoni and leaders like McCann have yet to sink in. Martins' retaliatory hook to Mike Larkin at the end of the Vermont game (costing the Crimson a chance at a game-winning power-play opportunity) may prove to be the crucial blow in the battle for discipline--if Tomassoni's benching of Martins fails to illustrate to his players the importance of not taking stupid penalties, it's hard to imagine what could. No matter what, Tomassoni's point that the truly great teams don't break down like that is well-taken. College hockey's upper echelon is reserved for teams that can control themselves emotionally and not be irritated by the taunts of lesser teams; it's hard to imagine Harvard advancing to St. Paul with such petty retaliations continuing to be so common-place.

Coaching: A-. Off all our midterm grades, this one must be the most incomplete, for we have yet to see the full effects of Ronn Tomassoni's two most crucial maneuvers. The Martins benching is so important in the Crimson's immediate future: did Tomassoni wait too long to take such drastic action? Will Martins' considerable skills be affected by any perceived slight from his coach? Stay tuned.

The other important development concerns Tomassoni's preseason thought to cut down on practice time over the course of the season to try and prevent a repeat of the ignominious March of last spring. Harvard is much more focused on the postseason this year, and as the season goes on, it's looking more and more like the wise move in saving some energy and avoiding a premature peaking.

Of the tangible, Tomassoni has done a great job in marshalling his oft-injured talent and forming makeshift lines that get the job done, and his refusal to give Tracy a quick hook from the goalie rotation after his tough November shows his evolving maturity as a full-fledged collegiate head coach. It's only his fourth year on the job, and the more he learns, the more you have to like his performance. Men's Hockey Report Card

Subject  Grade Offense  A- Defense  A Goaltending  B+ Special Teams  A Discipline  C- Coaching  A