ALBANY, N.Y.—Without Magic, Bird wouldn’t be Bird. Without Woody, Bo wouldn’t be Bo. Without the Yankees, the Sox wouldn’t be the Sox.

History remembers rivals together. Players and teams may get lost in the collective consciousness of sport, but if your name clings to another like statically-charged boxers from the dryer, then congratulations: You’re immortal.

That’s what has made the Harvard-Cornell hockey hate-fest so much fun. The animosity was always there for them—the Big Red awards the “Crimson Cup” annually to the player with the best performance against Harvard—but it’s grown on our side too.

Big games will do that to a rivalry. The teams have met in the ECAC playoffs for four straight years, including the last two championship games, both overtime epics.

But there will be no similar renewal this weekend. Cornell was stunned by Clarkson in the quarterfinals, only the third and fourth playoff losses in Lynah Rink history.

From Harvard’s perspective, there are two ways to look at the Big Red’s Big Absence.

First, there’s the disappointment that there will be no chance at redemption after last season’s ECAC title game, when a would-be championship evaporated in the final minute.

“I was kind of hoping they’d make it, that we’d maybe get some revenge for last year,” admitted Harvard defenseman Noah Welch.

Senior Tim Pettit said: “There definitely was an excitement that we’d play them in a third championship game.”

But on the other hand, as Welch and Pettit also acknowledged, no Cornell in Albany means…well…no Cornell in Albany.

“We’re not going to complain too much,” Pettit said. “They’re a great team.”

Asked for his thoughts on a Big-Red-less bracket, Harvard coach Mark Mazzoleni provided a standard coach response: “I don’t care…We’re there, and we have to worry about Dartmouth.”

Do you mean to say you won’t buy a ‘Wishing You Were Here’ card at the Crowne Plaza gift shop for Cornell coach Mike Schafer?

“Think he’d send me one?” Mazzoleni responded with a laugh.

Point taken. This is a rivalry we’re talking about. While there is plenty of respect between the two programs, there isn’t much love. And that’s the way we like it.