A few thoughts in the aftermath:
1. The Thompsons are special. Have to give credit where credit is due. I chatted with Army coach Joe Alberici at halftime and he was in awe of what he was watching. That trio went on some amazing runs in scrimmages against Colgate and Cornell. Whether the Thompsons are enough to carry them to greatness remains to be seen, as the rest of the team is average at best, but they are all that.
2. The backside slide by Megill was not the right play. Bad decision by a senior captain, although understandable in the heat of the moment.
3. I wouldn't put too much into what John was overheard saying at one point in OT. They ran at least four different sets in the first one from what I saw, and each produced a very good scoring chance. I think he was telling them to simply stick with the same sequence. As good as JoJo was - and face it, he carried the team from the midfield, no easy task - he should have felt the double slide in the second OT, as it came very, very early. Somebody - probably two teammates - had to be wide open. Again, easy to second-guess in hindsight. Best game I've seen from him ever, though.
4. Marr said in the postgame there were no instructions given to the Thompsons in the second OT other than to give Lyle the ball. He laughed when asked about what play he had in mind.
4. SU could be in big trouble down low this year, as other coaches will surely duplicate Marr's strategy and shut off Derek Maltz. The loss of Galasso is HUGE in that regard, as he has Kenny Nims kind of vision and passing ability and also can create himself. I didn't see any of that in his absence.
5. Wardwell made 7 saves and yielded 16 goals, so you want to say he was bad, but the fact is other than the giveaway to Mil es on the doorstep I can't honestly say he did anything wrong. Those goals were all inside of 10 yards.
6. In a one-goal game SU simply had too many unforced errors. Several faceoff wins were followed by errant passes or missed passes that gave the ball right back to Albany. That negated SU's edge at the X. From my vantage point Albany played a cleaner game, much cleaner, in that regard although the final clearing stats don't prove it. Maybe that's because SU rode the Danes into mistakes at times, while the Orange miscues were simply unforced.
7. Despite the disappointing outcome I loved the up-and-down action and overall pace. Only two "keep it in" calls the entire game. Kudos to Desko and Marr for playing the game the way it should be played. I'd like to say it was due to the rule changes but will reserve judgment on that, as it is still too early to tell. Both teams wanted to run and would have done so regardless of the rules imo, but it was fun to watch even if it was exasperating for SU fans.
:bang:
