Having completed five games and facing a long layoff before a pre-Thanksgiving clash against BU, the Harvard men’s hockey team has not yet hit its stride. For a team that was ranked in the top 10 nationally and was predicted to win the ECAC, the stumbles the Crimson has taken thus far against Brown and Princeton have raised concerns and questions about the team’s ability.

“Right now we’re an average team,” Harvard coach Mark Mazzoleni said. “We’re 2-2-1—we’re an average team.”

Though there are many potential causes for the Crimson’s struggles thus far, including the better than expected play of Brown, the primary reasons behind Harvard’s early struggles seem to be a new penalty-killing system and a reduced scoring threat along the forward lines.

Just in Time

Assistant coach Gene Reilly took the place of departed coach Nate Leaman and has been in charge of implementing a new penalty-killing system. Reilly takes over a unit that was the third best in the ECAC a year ago, killing off nearly 85 percent of the opportunities against it.

This year’s unit has struggled, or it did through the season’s first three games. Right now Harvard’s penalty killers have finished off 22 of the 27 advantages against them, but before this weekend that tally stood at a far less impressive 12 of 17.

“I think the penalty kill is coming along very well,” said junior goaltender Dov Grumet-Morris. “We were very successful in the Yale game and in the Princeton game, as well.”

During those two games, the Crimson played well with a man in the box, stopping all 10 of the chances against it. Much of the credit, according to Reilly, goes to Grumet-Morris and sophomore goaltender John Daigneau.

“Your best penalty killer is your goaltender,” he said.

While that might be true, the fact that the other four men in Crimson jerseys have been getting quickly acclimated to Reilly’s approach is encouraging.

“You try to implement something [the players] might not be used to and then you’re away for five to 10 days [on recruiting trips], and the continuity is not there,” Reilly said.

“It’s not the same as being there and being hands on, handling the small details,” he continued.

But those details, which Grumet-Morris says is more about approach than positioning, appear to be progressing well.

“It’s a slightly different theory of how to play the penalty kill,” Grumet-Morris said. “It’s not necessarily different mechanics of where the players move, but rather a different theory of where to move the puck and when to jump.”

The true test of whether Harvard’s penalty kill has regained all of last year’s potency will come Nov. 25 when hockey fans can see if will contained the power play unit of nationally-ranked BU.