“We’ll be defending against shots coming off the backboards, and maybe we can use that to our advantage, too,” he said. “They practice there a lot, and they play there a lot, so they know what the boards are like. If we see them running any type of plays where they’re shooting it intentionally off the backboards, we have to make sure we defend against it.”

Aside from any set plays, the boards certainly play into the Bears’ defensive, trapping style.

“There’s a lot of play in the neutral zone and along the wall, and they know those bounces a lot more than you do,” Leaman said. “If they read a bounce right, and you read a bounce wrong, they’re behind you. And with their good team speed, that obviously helps them out a lot. That can put you on your heels a little bit.”

TIGERS HUNTING...FOR A COACH

Princeton’s record against Harvard this season: 2-0-0.

Against everyone else this season: 3-24-2.

Princeton’s record after defeating Harvard on Dec. 16: 5-9-0.

Princeton’s record since: 0-15-2.

All those numbers added up to Princeton’s firing of head coach Len Quesnelle on Monday morning.

“I’m trying to figure out where to go from here,” Quesnelle said when reached Tuesday. “I don’t really have much to say.”

“It was a change they had to make,” said one source with a connection to the program. “He lost the players. It’s too bad.”

Quesnelle had been a Princeton hockey lifer. He began as an assistant in 1988, the same year he graduated from Old Nassau, and became head coach following the departure of Don “Toot” Cahoon.

But up against considerable institutional adversity—a low priority for men’s hockey with respect to basketball, football and lacrosse; lack of two full-time assistant coaches; and a stingy admissions department—he finished with a four-year record of 29-84-11.

According to the source, alumni pressure was a primary reason for Quesnelle’s dismissal. “Oddly enough, considering a lot of those alumni complaining were here with him or played for him,” the source said.

The official review process will not likely begin until early April, since athletic director Gary Walters serves on the NCAA men’s basketball committee.