U-M Hockey @ OSU Sat Open Thread

Submitted by I Bleed Maize N Blue on January 12th, 2019 at 6:00 PM

Last night's win put us at 18 pts, tied for second place with MN, 2 pts behind OSU. PSU has 4th with 17pts, WI 5th with 16, ND 6th with 15. FYS is in last with 10 pts.

Another win would be great and leapfrog us into 1st.

Time: 7PM ET

Watch: BTN    (No, really!)

Listen: MGoBlue Audio


Let's Go Blue! Sweep OSU!

And stay out of the damn box!


FYS @ PSU and MN @ ND also at 7. US U-18 @ WI later.

stephenrjking

January 12th, 2019 at 7:20 PM ^

A weekend two-game series at one location has been the standard for college hockey scheduling for teams that aren't near-neighbors for a long time. It used to be even more common, but Big Ten scheduling occasionally throws in games on Thursday or Sunday. 

The Friday-Saturday series is one of the great features of the sport, each weekend practically a miniature playoff series. A sweep is great, a split is meh (we've had a ton of those) unless it's against a really good team and/or on the road, and getting swept is the pits. 

Series that feature close neighbors are occasionally Friday-Saturday home-and-homes, which is also a blast. Michigan doesn't do consecutive night home-and-homes with OSU (though they have done it with Ferris, which is a similar drive time) so you get this and then a different series in Ann Arbor. 

 

xtramelanin

January 12th, 2019 at 6:06 PM ^

thank you for being the guy who takes the time to keep the rest of us informed.  tonight's game being on BTN being the exception, they might as well be playing in outer space and without you updating us, i think most of us wouldn't have the foggiest idea what was going on with the maize and blue hockey team. 

I Bleed Maize N Blue

January 12th, 2019 at 6:14 PM ^

You're welcome. Yeah, the amount of U-M hockey on TV is pitiful nowadays. Having Big Ten hockey was bad in this respect, especially when there's a fucking network. And I forget what schools (probably CCHA) had free streams (not sure about nowadays), but it was galling when you think about the money U-M has in comparison and never did that. And now we have BTN Plus, which fuck that.

stephenrjking

January 12th, 2019 at 7:22 PM ^

"This powerplay has struggled in the last five games mightily." Then he says it's surprising, since they have Quinn Hughes...

But Michigan hasn't had Quinn Hughes. He's been at World Juniors. Only got him back yesterday. 

stephenrjking

January 12th, 2019 at 7:48 PM ^

It's January, which means it's time for heavy-duty pairwise watching.

Michigan is mired at 23, one of 3 B1G teams between 23 and 26. 3 other teams are in the middle of the tournament range, and MSU is 37th. 

It's going to take some heavy lifting for Michigan to make the tournament this year. Just haven't been able to get any traction at all--every encouraging win is followed by a disheartening loss, basically. 

Hard to overstate how much they need a weekend like this to get the ship moving in the right direction, especially with a week off ahead. 

stephenrjking

January 12th, 2019 at 7:57 PM ^

Quinn kind of responsible for that OSU breakaway chance. He's just dynamite with the puck... but he makes way more than his fair share of mistakes. 

Zach Werenski is the last great creative defenseman we had, and while Quinn has more speed and agility with the puck, Werenski made far fewer mistakes.

If Quinn can finish this season strong it would be huge. Werenski was really the lynchpin of the CCM line Michigan team, especially late in the year.