{"id":129879,"date":"2021-10-28T07:00:23","date_gmt":"2021-10-28T12:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/?p=129879"},"modified":"2021-10-27T08:02:38","modified_gmt":"2021-10-27T13:02:38","slug":"this-week-in-ecac-hockey-half-dozen-ivy-league-schools-gearing-up-for-first-games-in-more-than-18-months","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/2021\/10\/28\/this-week-in-ecac-hockey-half-dozen-ivy-league-schools-gearing-up-for-first-games-in-more-than-18-months\/","title":{"rendered":"This Week in ECAC Hockey: Half dozen Ivy League schools gearing up for first games in more than 18 months"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Mitchell Gibson is back between the pipes this season for Harvard (photo: Harvard Athletics).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Anyone taking a government course at one of the six Ivy League schools is no doubt familiar with the concept of a \u201cblank slate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Developed by the English philosopher John Locke, it\u2019s the idea that humans are born with an empty mind that is filled up with knowledge and ideas as they move through life. It\u2019s also something that many of the Ivy League\u2019s hockey coaches have likely experienced firsthand this fall as they worked with their teams in preparation for the start of the season.<\/p>\n

This weekend will be the first time that the six Ivy League hockey schools \u2013 Brown, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Princeton, and Yale \u2013 play a meaningful hockey game in over a year and a half. That long layoff started when the sports world shut down at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020 and continued when the Ivy League canceled all sports last season.<\/p>\n

As a result of graduations and transfers, many of the Ivy League teams start the season with a drastically different look compared to the last time they took the ice.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really feel like we\u2019re starting over and building from the ground up again,\u201d Cornell coach Mike Schafer said.<\/p>\n

The Big Red were the No. 1 team in the country in March 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic ended the season, but enter this year with only 13 players with collegiate experience.<\/p>\n

None of Cornell\u2019s three goalies have played in a NCAA game. It\u2019s the first time Cornell has entered a season with no collegiate experience in goal since 1984 \u2013 when Schafer was a sophomore defenseman for the Big Red. Senior Nate McDonald and freshmen Ian Shane and Joe Howe will compete for the starting goalie job this season.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne thing that is consistent over time, when you\u2019re involved in the game long enough, you know that somebody will step up,\u201d Schafer said of the Big Red\u2019s goaltending situation. \u201cYou just don\u2019t know who it is going to be. We have three great kids that are working really hard to prove themselves and I\u2019m sure one of them will rise to the occasion.\u201d<\/p>\n

Like Cornell, Yale also enters the season with a large group of newcomers. Only nine of the Bulldogs\u2019 24 players have appeared in an NCAA game.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t have a choice,\u201d Bulldogs coach Keith Allain said. \u201cThe past is the past and we\u2019re looking forward. This is the first time in my career that I\u2019ll have 13 freshmen and sophomores, guys that have never played in a college hockey game.\u201d<\/p>\n

The opening of the season is an extra challenge for first-year Dartmouth coach Reid Cashman, as all 28 players on the Big Green are new to Cashman and his staff.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will take baby steps, we\u2019ll put in our base, and then we\u2019ll just build as the year goes. There\u2019s just no way to incorporate everything you want to be as a team from Day 1.\u201d<\/p>\n

Harvard is one of the few Ivy teams that wasn\u2019t entirely gutted entering this year, as the Crimson return Mitchell Gibson in goal along with four of its top seven scorers from 2019-20. Even with a lot of familiar faces back, there\u2019s still more excitement than usual entering this season for Harvard.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, we\u2019re all understanding of the circumstances that led to that situation,\u201d Crimson coach Ted Donato said of not playing last year. \u201cI think for us, were just very excited to be back in school full-time and be around the team and to be back playing the game we love. There\u2019s a certain energy and excitement around the team early on that had been a really breath of fresh air.<\/p>\n

“Everybody is really excited to kick the season off.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Anyone taking a government course at one of the six Ivy League schools is no doubt familiar with the concept of a \u201cblank slate.\u201d Developed by the English philosopher John Locke, it\u2019s the idea that humans are born with an empty mind that is filled up with knowledge and ideas as they move through life. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":129880,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[5,4,1],"tags":[812],"coauthors":[846],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThis Week in ECAC Hockey: Half dozen Ivy League schools gearing up for first games in more than 18 months - College Hockey | USCHO.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Anyone taking a government course at one of the six Ivy League schools is no doubt familiar with the concept of a \u201cblank slate.\u201d Developed by the English\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129879\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"This Week in ECAC Hockey: Half dozen Ivy League schools gearing up for first games in more than 18 months - 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