Final Assessments: Defense and Goaltending

It's that time of the year: Post-season grades for the Michigan hockey team. Note that these grades are weighted with respect to my expectations for a player, therefore a B for Jon Montville and a B for Jack Johnson don't mean quite the same thing. Got it? Let's begin:

#3 Jack Johnson: Jack was phenomenal right out of the gate, with he and defense partner Matt Hunwick putting up huge numbers in the early going. Somewhere, things went awry and the middle of the season wasn't nearly as strong for the NHL's #3 overall pick. A new-found commitment to defense late in the year led to Johnson playing some of his strongest hockey toward the end of the season, particularly in the playoff series against Ferris State.

If you remember what I said about him before the season, it should come as no surprise that he ended up breaking our single-season PIMs record, as well as our freshman defense scoring record. It also shouldn't be a surprise that he became public enemy #1 amongst Spartan fans, Miami fans, and the nation of Canada.

Overall he was outstanding offensively, outstanding at times defensively, maddeningly irresponsible defensively at other times, and was always good for the type of play that got Yost jumping, be it a big hit, an end-to-end rush, or a huge goal. And will anyone ever forget that shot in the BC game that knocked Corey Schneider's mask off?

He just announced that he's coming back for his sophomore season, and I can't wait to see what an improved Jack Johnson looks like. Watch out CCHA!

Final Grade: B, he was for sure an impact player at the college level—and is without a doubt the most talented defenseman we've had in my time around this program—but he has room to improve and needs to make better decisions about when to go for the big hit.

#4 Adam Dunlap: Barely played, didn't kill us when he did, but got beat out by another walk-on. I don't really expect to see him back next year. 2 defensemen coming in, 0 that we know of leaving. That makes 8 if they bring Montville back and leave Rohlfs at forward.

Final Grade: Inc.

#5 Jon Montville: One of the pleasant surprises of this season. He was a mainstay in the lineup for the second half of the season, and was solid enough to allow them to move David Rohlfs back up to forward, where he was needed. For a walk-on sixth defenseman, he really didn't hurt the team—he had his plays that made me hold my breath for sure, but overall was pretty solid, all things considered.

Final Grade: B-

#6 Matt Hunwick: Teamed with Johnson to make up a defense pairing that provided excitement (sometimes good, sometimes bad) every time they stepped on the ice. Like Johnson, he started the year in fantastic fashion, but quickly went downhill. Though Johnson got all the pub for taking bad penalties, Hunwick was worse in that regard in a lot of cases (e.g. at Bowling Green). Sprinkled in a few brilliant performances along the way and was still good enough to be up for CCHA Defensive Defenseman of the Year (though I don't agree with that one). Got beat to the outside far too many times for a guy of his ability and generally just looked a half-step too slow a lot of the time. Did he add too much weight in the offseason? Still ended the year second on the team in plus/minus and put in 30 points, so he must have been doing something right.

Final Grade: B-

#8 Jason Dest: Very quietly had a great season. He's a guy you don't notice all that often, and that's usually a good thing with a defenseman of his style. The +/- number wasn't what it has been in year's past, but I feel that he still had a pretty darn good year. For a decent part of the season, he was Michigan's most steady defenseman, particularly in the 1-1 tie at Munn. Though he's not going to put up huge offensive numbers, Dest did get into the offense at little bit more often, especially late in the year. He did go through a stretch (early in the season I believe) where I frequently wondered what the heck he was doing, but he got it together in time to still have a very good junior season.

Final Grade: B

#16 David Rohlfs will be covered as a forward...

#17 Mark Mitera: Mitera is the one defenseman that I don't feel should share in the blame for how poorly they played for a fair portion of the year. With the exception of a couple of games, he was rock steady the entire year and was pretty much the pure definition of a stay-at-home defenseman. Showed a great ability to block shots, and was physical enough without spending an excessive amount of time in the penalty box. I would have liked to have seen more of him paired with Johnson, as I felt like they were pretty good together and compliment each other's styles well. Pretty much exactly what I expected out of him in terms of performance except that I would've thought he would have chipped in a little more on the offensive end. He does have a good shot, he just doesn't get to unleash it very often. Maybe that's the step for next year. He's 40% of the way to Tim Cook territory in the not-scoring department.

Final Grade: A-

#25 Tim Cook: It's not fair to slap a grade on him and have it represent his entire season. Up until he scored a goal, the kid took a step back even from his disappointing sophomore year. After he scored though, he played with confidence, started hitting, was out of position less, and pretty much stopped looking like John Navarre on skates. He still had a Cook moment here and there but was by-and-large a completely different player. It was truly amazing to see what a goal could do for the confidence of a purely non-offensive defenseman. He was one of the few players that got better as the season went on, despite the struggles of the team. I'm actually kind of excited to see him back for his senior season--and to see what a whole year of a confident Tim Cook can do for this team. Mid-season I figured he wouldn't dress next year with Summers and Kampfer coming in. Now, I'm cautiously optomistic that he could be a key part of next year's team.

Pre-Goal Grade: D Post-Goal Grade: A- Final Grade: C+

#34 Noah Ruden: Who saw this coming 4 years ago? That Noah Ruden would be the guy to lead the Wolverines into the postseason at some point in his career? He and Billy Sauer passed the starting goaltending job back and forth like it was a hot potato this season. Once it appeared that Ruden had a firm grasp on it, he let it slip again with a piss-poor performance by all accounts at Nebraska-Omaha, opening to the door for Sauer to start on senior night at Yost. He faltered, and Ruden took the reigns for the rest of the year. He sparkled in his final game at Yost, closing out FSU and leaving to the cheers of "NO-AH RU-DEN". When NFL scouts refer to a player as "a guy" they could just as easily be talking about Rudy. He'd make the majority of the saves he was supposed to make, wouldn't make the saves he wasn't supposed to make, and was good for one bad goal a game. He had a few fine performances, a few horrible performances, and was pretty much Blah the rest of the time. It'd be easy to just slap a C on his performance, but since we're weighting based on expectations as well, he gets this:

Final Grade: B-

#36 Billy Sauer: After seeing his performance against BC and a couple of other games during the season, I was convinced that Red and Co. had struck gold once again with their choice of a goaltender. At one point during the year on the Yost Post, I stated that Sauer had earned the chance to go the rest of the way. Somewhere in there though, something went horribly wrong. The defense didn't defend, he got shelled, his confidence went in the sewer. He did show that he's an extremely talented goaltender though. He is very athletic and excels in finding the puck in traffic. He really could have used a year as a full-time starter in the USHL, as he only played about half the game last year and before that was playing high school JV hockey. He'll have some healthy competition from Steve Jakiel next year (who Billy Powers loves), and I expect it will bring out the best in both of them, rather than the goalies passing it back and forth due to poor play this year.

Final Grade: C+

RIP Paul Dana

RIP Paul Dana...Thoughts going out to his family, teammates and fans. What a horrible way to start the season....

The Sun Came Up Today

I was right. Last year when I lamented that I wish that for once Michigan could lose in non-heartbreaking fashion, because these OT losses, blown leads, etc. were killing me. Last night was much better.

Now, would I have preferred that our team actually showed the slightest bit of heart/fight last night? Sure. But at the same time, I'm not depressed this morning, I'm not thinking back to the what-ifs throughout the game. We got beat soundly by a better team...one that's probably going to end up winning the whole damn thing. I thought that analyst was crazy last week for picking UND to win it all, but he may have just hit it dead on. That's a very very good hockey team. Great goaltending, great defense corps, at least 2 great lines up front.

It was a fitting end to the season though. Leave it to that team to barely show up for a game of that magnitude. Yes we had a lot of shots on goal, but how many great scoring chances did we have? There weren't that many. They completely outclassed us in every aspect of the game, though there were segments that Michigan outplayed the Sioux, but Parise was there to shut the door.

At least this edition of the Michigan Wolverines is done for. It was hard watching games legitimately feeling like I cared more about what happened than anyone on the roster outside of Ebbett, Kal, and Johnson. Speaking of Johnson, I didn't notice it last night but he got a coincedental penalty with about 4 minutes left, which broke our all-time single-season PIMs record.

We just got off to a bad start and NoDak just kept coming at us. BTW, I thought the penalty calls that led to the first two UND goals were extremely weak. Not that it mattered. But it begs the question, is Dave Hansen any relation to TBTYB-arch-nemesis Scott Hansen of 2003 Buffalo and 2005 Grand Rapids fame? Just curious. Don't think for a second I'm blaming this game on the officiating though. Michigan could've had another 15 power plays in that game and I'm not sure it would have mattered.

I really enjoyed watching North Dakota play. Truth be told, I'd probably be rooting for them to win it all if that wouldn't put them within one title of us. That's a fun team to watch, and they're extremely talented.

Ruden had no chance on the first couple of goals, but again he didn't make the saves he needed to make to give us a chance. When it was 2-0, Parise makes a save at one in that was oh-so-close to going in, NoDak comes down and makes it 3-0 and the game is pretty much over.

I didn't think there was a great chance we'd win that game, but I at least expected us to keep it close.

At least we didn't lose to Holy Cross. Bwahahahahahaha!

Here Goes Nothing

8 ½ hours to faceoff and I’m getting “tournament stomach”. I hate not being there. I hate the fact that I’m probably not going to get to see this team in person again this year. I hate that I’m sitting in an office right now instead of in my car on a 16 hour trek across the country to watch hockey.

We aren’t the best team in the country. We’re probably not in the top 10 best teams in the country. But that’s the beauty of a single-elimination tournament, especially in a sport like hockey where a couple of guys can change the game so easily (namely the goalie)…anyone in this tournament could get hot and win it (with the exceptions of the two small conference teams—though Bemidji did come within inches of knocking out the eventual national champion last year).

The thing that I like about Michigan—the one area where they’ve got an advantage of North Dakota—is senior leadership. To be fair, I don’t know a ton about NoDak. But I do know that they don’t have Andrew Ebbett and Brandon Kaleniecki. Those guys are doing their best Jed Ortmeyer impressions, and I would be shocked if they don’t have a huge impact on the game tonight. Jack Johnson seems like a player made for the post-season. We’ll get our first (and last??) look at him in a one-and-done situation tonight. He’s the kind of player I was talking about earlier when I said that a single player could change the game. TJ Hensick, Andrew Cogliano, even Matt Hunwick, Chad Kolarik, and Kevin Porter…these are the guys that we need to be at their best tonight. We can’t have any of Hensick’s disappearing act, Cogliano’s Robbie Earl/Paul Kariya impressions, Hunwick’s penalties, Kolarik’s temper, or Porter’s missed empty nets the rest of the way.

We have the horses to get it done. If they can contain Parse and Thomas (like they did at Yost), they can contain Toews and Stafford. I just named off eight guys that are potential game-changers. That’s almost half of our skaters. Someone (preferably a few of them) needs to make a play, or this season (and for several guys, their Michigan careers) is over.

Yes, this was a disappointing season. But none of that matters anymore. Get out of the weekend, and nobody’s talking about that loss on Senior Night anymore. Make the Frozen Four, and it doesn’t matter that we got swept in the Showcase again. The tournament is what it’s all about. The last chance at redemption. 4 games. Get hot for the length of one pro playoff series, and you can call yourselves the champions.

It’s time for playoff hockey. Can you feel it in the air? I can. And I love it.

Let’s Go Blue.

Revenge is a Dish Best Served 8 Years Later

So the committee decided to keep Michigan and CC in the West, rather than ship BC out and thus the Wolverines will be playing in Grand Forks, in a region that they really don't stand much chance of coming out of.

Sweet revenge for North Dakota fans for 1998, as the Wolverines will now be taking on NoDak in their own barn. One fan on USCHO said that this doesn't make it even, since Michigan isn't coming in as a big favorite. To that I say that they're still probably going to get a higher-ranked Minnesota team in their own arena, so stop yer bitching.

The people that complain that Michigan gets to host all the time just crack me up. As if MSU, Wisconsin, Minnesota, CC, and now NoDak haven't gotten to host. Just because Michigan has managed to take advantage of it all three times they've hosted doesn't mean that they should be singled out as having an advantage, when so many other hockey powers have had the same opportunity. Plus there's that little thing about how Michigan bid for 2 regionals, hoping to get one a few years back. Nobody else bid, so the Wolverines got to host both times. Sorry bout your friggin luck Denver and CC. Put in a bid next time.

To the game itself, NoDak comes in having won the WCHA Tournament. The guy on ESPN2's selection show picked them to win the whole tournament, and I believe he stated that Parise is the best goalie in the tournament. Elliott, Schneider and the Miami goalies might have something to say about that, but there's little doubt that UND has a huge advantage over Michigan in goal.

Apart from in net, we'll have to see. UND has a ton of talented youngsters, just like Michigan. Michigan probably has the edge in upper-classmen leadership with Ebbett and Kal, especially if Drew Stafford isn't back in the lineup.

On the bright side for the Wolverines, North Dakota hasn't been overwhelmingly good at home this year, posting a 13-9-0 record. That includes 5 straight losses at home earlier in the season. Then again, the Wolverines haven't exactly ripped shit up on the road this year....

If Michigan is fortunate enough to beat the Sioux, they'll more than likely run into nemesis Minnesota, who has--as Brian would call it--a functional bye (though CC thought they had a functional bye against Wayne State a couple years ago, and Michigan probably thought the same about Mercyhurst). If Minnesota isn't in this edition of the Wolverines' heads yet, they're definitely in mine. I'm pretty much convinced that we're never going to win a big game against that team again, just to piss me off. Though Minnesota seems like they're having as bad of issues with their goaltending as we are (they gave up 12 in 2 games last weekend) so maybe we'd actually stand a chance. Actually, it'd be fitting for this year to have Minnesota strike the deciding blow into our hearts. It wouldn't be nearly as much fun if we weren't getting pwn3d by various Big Ten teams in all 3 sports.

I will not be making the 16 hour trek to Grand Forks. That Friday/Saturday thing is just killing me. All in all though, it'd be pretty tough to make a 1000 mile drive when there's probably a 90% chance that I'd be coming home disappointed.

Michigan 3, NMU 2

We're dancing.

It sounds (yes sounds. FSD decided they would rather show Wisconsin/Minnesota in the WCHA Consolation Game than Michigan/NMU) like the Wolverines actually played a pretty darn good game today, with the fire from the outset that was missing last night. We outshot the Wildcats by something like 41-25 and dominated the play for most of the game. They had some trouble getting the puck past Zaniboni, who was WTKA's #1 star of the game.

Hunwick made up for his awful performance last night with 2 goals in the win, including the GWG in the third period. Hensick had a goal and an assist, and it sounded like Kal/Ebbett/Kolarik were awesome once again.

Noah Ruden was outstanding in net, coming up with several big saves per the Michigan broadcast. I didn't get the impression that NMU had a ton of chances (and I don't recall more than maybe one odd-man rush--the first goal was a 3 on 1) but Ruden was big when he had to be, and it sounded like the defense--particularly Dest--kept the Wildcats at bay, with a lot of time spent on the perimeter.

Where does that leave us? We're in for sure. It's probably going to be as a 3 seed. The question is where. I came up with one scenario that puts us in Green Bay and playing Harvard in the first round, but a lot of the ones that I ran have us as the #9 seed, with #8 Cornell. Theoretically we'd be in Green Bay taking on Wisconsin (who just Minnesota for the #1 seed by beating them 4-0 today), but there's a conflict with #7 NoDak playing #10 CC in the first round, and I'm not sure if the committee is more likely to flip CC with us at #9 or BC at #11.

We should know a lot more once a couple other games get over. Colgate is making it interesting with Darmouth (3-2 Dartmouth with 2 minutes left) despite being outshot 42-22. If Colgate comes back, that throws all the scenarios I ran out the window, b/c I assumed Dartmouth would win once they took a 3-1 lead.

Overall it seems like Michigan played 4 1/2 good periods out of 6 this weekend. Last weekend it was 5 out of 6, and before that it wasn't close to that. They are improving, even though State has their number. Ruden is looking like he'll be reliable enough for us, even if he is probably good for at least one bad goal a game, and the defense is starting to play really well in front of him. The goal-scoring troubles came back this weekend though. That's never a good thing when you've got a goalie who could give up 3 on 4 shots at any given moment.....

MSU 4, Michigan 1

Another strong effort from the Michigan team that we're accustomed to seeing. It blows my mind how dis-interested this team seems when they go up against Michigan State. I think we had 4 shots on goal halfway through the second period. Credit MSU though, that's a good hockey team and they know how to play against us. Michigan found their skating legs with like 8 minutes to go in the second, but they couldn't bury any of their chances the rest of the game and MSU scored two late ones. Don't be fooled by the margin of victory, that was pretty much a one-goal game.

That being said, faceoffs were again a problem for the Wolverines. Guys not named Andrew Ebbett were 12 out of 40 on faceoffs, and 3 of MSU's 4 goals came off of offensive-zone faceoff wins. How many games over the last few years can we say that we lost almost solely because we couldn't win a draw? BC in the OT NCAA tourney game, MSU in the 1-0 game a few years back, OSU in the CCHA Championship a couple years ago, last night...that's off the top of my head.

Matt Hunwick was awful last night. He took two pretty bad penalties, one of which led to a goal, another negated a power play that was coming up for us. There were 3 or 4 other instances where I yelled "Hunwick, what are you doing?" at my computer monitor.

It was a typical game out of Ruden. He made some saves, but then he gave up a horrifically weak goal (MSU's 2nd one) that simply has to be stopped. Has to be.

Kolarik/Ebbett/Kal were good but the rest of the lines weren't really. Hensick isn't making the big plays that he's made throughout his career, and some of that is that teams just aren't letting him get into one-on-one situations anymore.

That said, we hit the goalpost late in the third period. If that goes in, the game is tied and we're probably looking at overtime. Instead MSU scores off of Michigan pinching, they get a late faceoff win and score a "Kessel" as Western College Hockey would say. It's just hard to watch that team come out with absolutely no fire, not only against the arch-rival, but in a conference semifinal nonetheless.

It's still looking very good for an at-large bid to the NCAAs. Apparently there's a scenario where we don't get in, but Michigan can make that irrelevant by simply winning their game that starts in about 25 minutes. By the way, Fox Sports, thanks for showing the WCHA Consolation game instead of ours today. That's super. On the bright side, I don't have to listen to Matt Shepard call Rohlfs "Tyler Howells" for 30 seconds, and hear him talk about how Kevin Porter is a Freshman (A freshman Canadian being captain of the WJC team....we're lucky to have him!). I can't handle listening to him and Pletsch.