WCHBlog: "What's Wrong with Michigan" Hockey?

Submitted by denverblue on

Check out this good article written by Chris Dilks over at Western College Hockey Blog (who comments around these parts from time to time) attempting to explain how the Michigan hockey team could start the year ranked #3 and end up in the present downward spiral. He comes to four main conclusions to explain this:

1) Early departures to the NHL and defections to the CHL

2) Hitting a recruiting bubble

3) Poor goaltending, and

4) Poor special teams (which is related to #3, which in turn could be argued is also related to #1, damn you CHL for stealing our goaltenders)

He also predicts that the tournament streak will be broken unless the team wins the CCHA tournament (i.e. there will be no at-large bid).

http://www.westerncollegehockeyblog.com/2012/12/6/3736456/whats-wrong-with-michigan-hockey

Thoughts?

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Hockey

Lionsfan

December 7th, 2012 at 3:14 PM ^

Yeah, if we had Gibson/Campbell in between the pipes, with Brownie and Merrill taking the ice every night, I bet we would be a lot better than we are now. Damn defections...

Joined: 06/03/2011

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pkatz

December 7th, 2012 at 3:44 PM ^

.... and our best player looks to be out for months, and we have frosh goalies and miss Tiny Jesus, so yeah, not such good times at Yost.

Joined: 01/22/2010

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UMMAN83

December 7th, 2012 at 3:45 PM ^

And stare are the wall. No hockey this year. Even if the try to recoup their losses, the fans should boycott.

Joined: 11/26/2009

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Sac Fly

December 7th, 2012 at 5:03 PM ^

I don't think anyone expected Chiasson and Serville to struggle like this in year two. Merrill's injury, Carricks departure, Moffie is struggling, it's a mess.

Joined: 04/03/2010

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lhglrkwg

December 7th, 2012 at 5:34 PM ^

I don't think it's a recruiting bubble. We probably have the top 1-2 recruiting class every single year in the CCHA. It's probably more of people not panning out or poor coaching leading them to not reach their potential

And we really haven't lost many guys early to the NHL lately. There's Chris Brown and....?

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lhglrkwg

December 7th, 2012 at 5:38 PM ^

Also, I just never agree with people when they cite Michigan having a down year recruiting. Michigan's awful year recruiting is equivalent to an amazing recruiting class for probably 6-10 other teams in the CCHA. On any given year, I am certain we're more talented straight up than all of the non-FBS hockey schools

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Brodie

December 7th, 2012 at 5:39 PM ^

I think it's just injuries and poor play and even coaching combining into one bad season. This kind of thing happens in hockey, look at the Wings a few years ago. I still have hope that we'll storm to the CCHA tourney crown if we can turn things around in the new year. 

Joined: 11/19/2008

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stephenrjking

December 7th, 2012 at 5:39 PM ^

I don't think it's a recruiting bubble, either; I really believe the talent is there for this team to play well, but they're not doing it. Other than that, WCHBlog makes good points. FWIW, Chris of WCHBlog, who makes the occasional post here, is a sharp guy who cut his teeth as a Michigan fan (we used to have spirited conversations on USCHO back in the day when USCHO was a bit livelier) and now lives in Minnesota. One of the best reads in college hockey.

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