johnny beecher

Previously: Part 1

Yesterday we began our sprawling update on all former Michigan Hockey players currently playing pro hockey around the world. In Part 1 we covered the firmly established, everyday NHLers with name-brand value. Today is the more odd-ball sequel piece, where we check in on our recently departed alums, those who have retired since the 2022 update article, and all the minor league/international players, so buckle in: 

Young guys finding their way

This category is for the players who have left Michigan since the last article and haven't yet developed in the NHL to the point that they fit into one of the yesterday categories the way Beniers and Power already have: 

Gavin Brindley/Frank Nazar III/Dylan Duke: The recent signees only got into a couple games at the NHL/AHL level before the season concluded, given that Michigan's campaign went into mid-April yet again. Check back next year. 

Johnny Beecher, C, Boston Bruins: After spending a season in the AHL, Johnny Beecher finally got his crack at the NHL this season and carved out a role as a pretty generic 4th line center and penalty killer for a good Boston team. Then, in the first game of the playoffs, he scored the series opening goal against Toronto. Only seven goals and ten points in 52 games is indicative of a player who's probably never going to score much in the NHL but if Beecher can continue to hone his skills in the faceoff dot and on the penalty kill, he can perhaps grow into a Luke Glendening type career. 

Thomas Bordelau, C, San Jose Sharks: Bordeleau has played a couple seasons now in the AHL with good production and has been looking for his first full-time gig in the NHL. 27 games towards the end of this past season in San Jose was the closest he's gotten to that. Bordeleau chipped in 6 goals, most effective on the power play, during his short trial this season on a godawful Sharks team. I don't think Bordeleau has big time upside, but his faceoff abilities and skill should allow him to be a 3rd line center and hopefully he'll get a real shot to prove that next season, as he's still only 22. 

[James Coller]

Kent Johnson, F, Columbus Blue Jackets: The first of our three Columbus players in this category, KJ has had to endure the bizarre saga that is the Blue Jackets franchise, a team that fired its coach before the season started and then canned its GM midseason, while a series of embarrassing headlines continue to plague the franchise. Johnson was caught up in that, as there seems to be some conflict between the player and the team. When he's played in the NHL, his ice time has been very limited, and they sent him down to the AHL this season even though he scored 40 points in the NHL last season. Johnson put up 15 points in 10 games in the AHL, making it pretty clear that sending him down was worthless. 

I continue to be befuddled by what's going on here, as Johnson has been an okay player at the NHL level. One with flaws yes, but he needs ice time to iron out those flaws. Plus, it's not like the Jackets are a team that is so good they can't give out ice time to young players anyway. If the Blue Jackets aren't going to give it to him for whatever reason, they should do right by the player and trade him to a new team. Hopefully new management in Columbus will resolve this situation and get him back on a developmental track, because this season was a fork in the road for Johnson, with only 16 points in 42 games, receiving under 14 minutes per game on ice. 

Adam Fantilli, C, Columbus Blue Jackets: Fantilli has mostly been spared the buffoonery of Columbus, but his rookie year was unfortunately hampered by injury. He played only 49 games due to multiple ailments, scoring a decent 27 points on a pretty bad Jackets team. Fantilli played this season at 19, so there's really no cause for alarm there. Next season, if he stays healthy, should see Fantilli begin an ascension to being a top line centerman in the NHL and maybe with it, he can lead Columbus out of the cartoonish ineptitude that has submarined the team basically since inception. 

[AFTER THE JUMP: increasingly obscure players]

3/12/2022 – Michigan 2, Notre Dame 1 – 28-9-1 (16-0-5-3 B1G) 

Hockey is a sport where the flow of the game hinges on energy level. Brian called basketball "a game of runs" in a column last year, and I don't think hockey is dissimilar. The only twist is that because hockey is such a low scoring sport, the best way you can tell who is in the midst of a "run" is through watching the game. That, or tracking shot attempts on a minute by minute basis. One team will start racking up the chances, then they commit a penalty, and suddenly the other team gets a power play, and they also get the opportunity to go on a run after it ends, even if they don't score on it.

Those runs are driven by energy level, when one team's skaters just have a little more jump in their step than those on the opposing team. They start winning more puck battles, look more tenacious on the walls, and seem a bit faster on the rush. When the other team is strangling your team, it's up to your skaters to pick up the energy level to try and match them. I've been writing about hockey strategy on this site for over a year now, and have studied it for far longer, but one thing I've learned is this: you can study the strategic and systematic component to the sport all you want, but the X's and O's only matter so much if your energy level as a team isn't matching your opponent's. That's why if you ever watch clips of hockey coaches mic'd up behind the bench during a game, they rarely are saying "you know what guys, we need to adjust our neutral zone forecheck to have F1 go a little lower towards the goal line" with a whiteboard out. Instead they're barking things like "we're dragging now! They're kicking our ass! Wake the fuck up and COMPETE." Energy level, baby. 

Michigan rose their energy level on Saturday night. They came out guns blazing in the Friday game against ND back in late February, but that game saw ND quickly tie it and then things went sideways. In the second game of that series, Michigan's energy level was middling as they were committed to playing a tight, mistake-free game. That worked okay for awhile, until they made a mistake in the second period. Neither of those formulas were the right one to crack the Irish code, and so Saturday they came up with a new plan: just outwork Notre Dame for nearly the entire 60 minutes. Right out of the gate, Michigan was competing at a higher level than they had at any point previously in the season against the Irish.

[James Coller]

The Wolverines were winning nearly every puck battle in their own zone throughout the entire first 25 minutes of the game. They disrupted Notre Dame's flow through the neutral zone, won the battles when the dump ins came, and were able to force play in the Notre Dame half of the ice. They seemed much more prepared for this sort of game than the last time around, knowing that they had to shoot more often, even if many were going to be blocked by Notre Dame's defensive positioning. Michigan was willing to do so, because they had the jump in their step to win a good amount of the ensuing puck retrieval battles. Energy level. 

The result was a 1st period that saw Michigan dominate the shot attempts tally. Notre Dame got one good look on net, and Portillo made the save. Otherwise, it was all Michigan. They did the same thing early in the second, looking faster and more determined than their opposition, like they wanted it more. The Wolverines finally got the goal to go up 1-0 off a brilliant rush chance finished by Matty Beniers and Brendan Brisson. But that's when the energy level shifted, as it often does. Notre Dame picked their level up, and started battling. They got some generous help from the Puck Luck Gods and were able to cash in a chance off a long cycle possession that was extended by Michigan's clearing effort going off the referee and staying in the zone. 

But Michigan came right back. Notre Dame had found a way to match the Wolverines' energy level, and Michigan responded by finding a way to want the victory more. Their play and compete level found a new notch, and pummeled Notre Dame in the third period. Shot attempts were as lopsided as the first period, Michigan got the go-ahead goal, and then the Irish got nothing the entire rest of the way. Needing to put away a game, the Wolverines continued to skate circles around Notre Dame and suffocated the Irish offense until there was no time left. Shot attempts in the third period were something like 20-4 in favor of Michigan, and for the game they were 84-37 at even strength. 

[AFTER THE JUMP: More narrative, HockeyBullets, and PWR]

CLICK HERE for Game Recap from Kristy McNeil and other pertinent information and HERE for current Pairwise Rankings.

FINAL CORSI NUMBERS (www.collegehockeynews.com)

Forward Notes.

-This game was never close. Both Michigan State goalies gifted the Wolverines soft goals in the opening eleven minutes and before one could utter "Little Brother," it was 4-0. Thomas Bordeleau, Mike Pastujov, and Kent Johnson all tallied in the early going. That was pretty much it. The truth is that Michigan is just a very good hockey team and Michigan State is not. The Wolverines overwhelmed the Spartans in every way, shape, form, and part of a hockey game. We're running out of ways to describe the differences between these two teams.

-Johnny Beecher was the man of note on Saturday evening. He finally broke his 2022 scoring drought on a 2v1 deposit...breaking his stick in celebration. Beecher has been having quite a second half, especially since lining up with Mackie Samoskevich and Dylan Duke. While Duke and Samo have been scoring, that is the one area of Johnny's game that hasn't clicked. He also tallied a power play goal during Michigan's Five Minute Rampage in the second period. Don't be surprised if Beecher takes this line to even higher heights now that he's gotten the monkey off of his back.

[SO MANY GOALS after THE JUMP]