Michigan is ranked #1 in Ice Hockey
October 31st, 2022 at 12:44 PM ^
Have been in town for a wedding over the weekend and my brother and I went to the game Friday. What a fun team to watch, they just don’t stop. There is a confident demeanor that they can score whenever they want to. Of course it helps having a brick fucking wall for a goalie. The program is really humming.
Go Blue!!
October 31st, 2022 at 12:47 PM ^
Sausage Croissants with a strong showing this time of year at #18. Pollsters are starting to believe.
October 31st, 2022 at 1:01 PM ^
Their skating is buttery and and finishing is spicy.
October 31st, 2022 at 1:16 PM ^
I suspect they generate a lot of odd man rushes.
October 31st, 2022 at 1:34 PM ^
I found this comment hilarious 😂
October 31st, 2022 at 3:15 PM ^
The worst thing about this comment is that points aren't working....
October 31st, 2022 at 3:21 PM ^
Damn. Time to change my retirement strategy.
October 31st, 2022 at 10:24 PM ^
You win the internet today.
October 31st, 2022 at 10:26 PM ^
And favored over not to be found FYS.
October 31st, 2022 at 1:06 PM ^
Your battery life is nice.
October 31st, 2022 at 3:13 PM ^
It certainly says a lot when you sweep the #17 team in the country, dropping them from 5-2 to 5-4 and they fall in the rankings...to #18.
October 31st, 2022 at 3:23 PM ^
More surprised to see 8-0 Penn State ranked behind a 3-3-1 team. Still early, but record should matter a bit more than that.
November 2nd, 2022 at 5:26 PM ^
Penn State played cupcakes thus far: Canisius (.222 winning percent), Mercyhurst (.150 winning percent), St. Thomas (.292 winning percent), and Wisco (.250 winning percent). Michigan is their first team with a winning percentage Penn State will play. Maybe they are good, but this series will decide versus their perfect record.
October 31st, 2022 at 9:45 PM ^
I’m still waiting for the new goal horn to be installed at Yost that I donated to them, should be ready sometime around the Minnesota series. Hopefully we score a lot and stay on the top the standings!
November 1st, 2022 at 9:34 AM ^
Waiting for someone else to toot your horn, I see.
October 31st, 2022 at 12:47 PM ^
Getting two wins this weekend was helpful, but it's clear there is a lot of stuff that needs to get cleaned up. Agree that as improbable as it sounds, this year's team might be better than last.
October 31st, 2022 at 1:39 PM ^
This year’s team may not be as talented as last year’s, but they may win more games and be more successful. Something about the whole being bigger than the sun of its parts or something like that.
October 31st, 2022 at 4:08 PM ^
Yes, sunthing like that.
October 31st, 2022 at 12:50 PM ^
There's stuff to work on, but the fast start is really important. The profile of a team that has young talent but lost a lot of guys is a team that needs time to gel, to make everything work together, before really improving down the stretch.
If this team hasn't gelled yet, well, look out. Getting this good record down is really important for tournament purposes later.
The start is as good as we could have hoped for.
October 31st, 2022 at 12:56 PM ^
AND we don't have to worry about losing 5+ guys to the WJCs for the GLI anymore!
October 31st, 2022 at 1:04 PM ^
Speak for yourself. I hoped for 8-0-0. ;)
November 2nd, 2022 at 5:28 PM ^
I very much agree. Talent is undeniable with finishers who are not afraid to get dirty in the high danger areas to score. But, defensive zone coverage and turnovers are an early major problem 0 both at even strength and on the penalty kill. Clean that up and we have a contender!
October 31st, 2022 at 12:54 PM ^
Hell yeah
I remember in years past with Red where the team would struggle early in the Season and then turn it on at the end. Glad we're finally past that. Big series this weekend vs. Penn State
October 31st, 2022 at 3:33 PM ^
So is it fair to assume that PSU is ranked so low (at 8-0) due to a UM football-level non-con schedule?
October 31st, 2022 at 12:55 PM ^
#1 in our hearts.
October 31st, 2022 at 1:10 PM ^
Defense still has a LOT of work to clean up, but considering the general chaos that is going on in college hockey this year early with top teams, this is not a bad thing.
October 31st, 2022 at 1:14 PM ^
They sure do look good so far. And doing it without Frank Nazar, their 2nd most high-profile recruit in this class. If he can come back in February he'd add some serious punch to a lineup that already has a lot of punch to begin with.
October 31st, 2022 at 1:17 PM ^
Very fun to watch but woof Michigan defense is work-in-progress to be diplomatic.
Hopefully they can clean it up over the next few series. Lots of potential!
October 31st, 2022 at 1:30 PM ^
Penn State will be a test this weekend. We’re on the road and they’re 8-0.
October 31st, 2022 at 4:10 PM ^
What a surprise that it's the Nittany Lions hockey team that first reached 8-0 in 2022.
November 2nd, 2022 at 5:29 PM ^
As noted earlier, Penn State's record is good but that means nothing since their competition is the bottom of the barrel: Canisius (.222 winning percent), Mercyhurst (.150 winning percent), St. Thomas (.292 winning percent), and Wisco (.250 winning percent). Michigan is their first team with a winning percentage Penn State will play. Maybe they are good, but this series will decide versus their perfect record.
October 31st, 2022 at 1:34 PM ^
The D still scares me a little but sweeping WMU knowing how much that team and entire fanbase circled that Saturday game on their schedule is impressive. I've been around M hockey long enough to see a lot of talented teams lose at Lawson. Still remember the '96 team being shutout 5-0 there...and things turned out pretty good that year.
October 31st, 2022 at 1:46 PM ^
I am quite surprised to find us here at this point in the season as I was prepared for a sluggish start with all the new blood. It feels funny to be #1 now as it felt like we had a good claim to it for the longest time last season before finally getting there, whereas this year it feels like it fell into our laps a bit while this team doesn't feel as good as last year's (yet)
Lots for the team to improve upon, but if they're looking this promising this early, they might be really really good after a few months of playing together. Fantilli looks every bit a Hobey favorite and Fantilli-Samo-Duke might be next in the proud lineage of dominating Michigan top lines following Porter-Kolarik-Pacioretty and CCM in recently memory
November 2nd, 2022 at 5:34 PM ^
A happy surprise indeed! And with the Big10 success in non-conference games and Michigan's excellent non-conference showing, this may bode well for pairwise later on if we can claim a 1 or 2 spot in the Big10.
Upsets around college hockey abound so far (heck, Wisconsin sweeping Minnesota Duluth??? ASU beating NODAK???), which has been good for Michigan thus far. But I think that is a demonstrative reminder that any team can win any game in college hockey. I think Penn State is super overrated, but hey, they can likely pull wins against any team at any time (like any hockey team). A good reminder for Michigan to remain focused and continue to clean up their game. It's going to be a fun year for certain.
October 31st, 2022 at 2:14 PM ^
Looking good early. Let’s finish this year with a natty
October 31st, 2022 at 2:22 PM ^
Agree with the multiple posts that say we have to clean up the defense. D is out of position too often and too many DZTOs/sloppy attempted exits. On the other hand, there are a lot of reasons to have high expectations for this team:
- They likely still have upside based on their age/NCAA experience level
- A large portion of the freshman class (beyond the first rounders) are meaningfully contributing - TJ Hughes, Brindley, Hallum, etc.
- Strong special teams - where I think Naurato's methodologies have a huge impact
- Luke Hughes has not been a major part of the scoring, yet
- Eric Portillo is (again) playing at a very high level
It's a long season and there are plenty of challenges ahead, but it could be a special year.
October 31st, 2022 at 2:56 PM ^
This is so awesome.
Get some trophies boys!
Go Blue!
October 31st, 2022 at 8:23 PM ^
Guys - I absolutely love the enthusiasm for this team shown in the comments…but you don’t give up 9 goals in a single weekend and claim to be #1. Lots of people voted that way in the polls, but my guess is none of them actually watched both of the wins against WMU (or maybe even looked at the scores). This is an exciting team, for sure. But they are currently a MESS on defense. Playoff hockey is about limiting time and space. Right now, they give up far too much of both.