ncaa hockey tournament

Learning Hockey, a Summer Series: Previously College Hockey 101, Nuts and Bolts 1: Transition Play, Nuts and Bolts 2: Forechecking, Nuts and Bolts 3: Power Plays, Nuts and Bolts 4: Penalty Kills, How to think like a Hockey Scout

Welcome back to the final addition of my 2021 summer series on teaching the finer points of hockey and its strategy. Over the course of this series we've covered the basics of NCAA hockey specifically, looked at strategy when it comes to transition play, forecheck alignments, PP's, and PK's, in addition to talking about how to scout players and what skills scouts look for. For this final post, I've assembled a mailbag by soliciting questions from readers, both through comments on some of my past pieces, as well as this post I threw up on the MGoBoard a week ago. I can't say I got to every question that was asked, but I did my best to respond to the ones that were either most frequently left, or the ones I found most interesting. I've also cited the usernames of who each comment was from (directly quoting in some cases, sometimes paraphrasing). I hope you all agree I did my best to get to as many questions as I could, and that my answers satisfy your desires: 

"How do line changes work?" - Sue 

Let's kick it off with this question. Teams are organized into lines and pairs of skaters: four lines of three forwards and three pairs of two defensemen. When a line or pair goes on the ice, it is referred to as a "shift". Any given shift is only going to last 45 seconds to a minute, typically, and line changes happen during the play in a free flowing manner. Players are rarely called back to the bench by a coach, but rather they have a general sense of timing in their head of when it's time to go for a change. After a long defensive sequence, players are going to be inclined to want to go for a change as soon as the puck leaves the defensive zone. Whenever there's transition play, with the puck either going from the DZ to the OZ or the OZ to the DZ, it's an opportunity for the teams to change. Typically the team with possession will go for a change, with one forward skating it up ice, allowing his defensemen and fellow linemates to go off, and after reinforcements arrive, he, too, will go for a change. 

The coaches keep track of who is on the ice and will let the players on the bench know who is set to go on the ice next when the impending change comes. The best players are going to get more shifts than the lower caliber players as a general rule. When a line change happens during a play, the player exiting skates over to his bench and the player entering the game hops over the bench and onto the ice. However, that exchange can only happen when the player coming off is within five feet of the bench, which gives a little bit of leeway, and there will be a moment when both players are on the ice. The trick is, that neither the player coming off nor the player coming on can touch the puck while the other is on the ice, or that is a too many men on the ice penalty. This is why a warning bell goes off in the head of a hockey coach when the puck caroms towards the bench of his team while the team is in the midst of a change, because if any of the players touch the puck while the mass of bodies are switching, a penalty will be called. 

[AFTER THE JUMP: A lot more questions and answers]

Three years ago, Michigan made an exciting run to the Frozen Four. Then…they finished sixth in the Big Ten. Last year, the Wolverines were on the Bubble and poised to make a run into the Tournament, again, when the postseason was canceled. Now, we’re back…to 2011? 2018? Maybe pick and choose and have a celebratory 2021? Let’s see…
 

The Field

Michigan’s Regional (Fargo, ND)

(1) North Dakota, (2) Michigan, (3) Minn-Duluth, (4) American International College: What the…death. I said on the HockeyCast last week that the two teams I wanted to avoid for their seed levels were North Dakota at 1 and Duluth at 2/3. Well…here they are! Michigan drew the Mammoth Beast, the Tournament Magicians, and…Notre Dame American International. NoDak and Duluth are also playing a few hours from home. This seems similar to 2018 when Michigan drew Northeastern and BU in Massachusetts. Hopefully, they get the same results. Still, I would prefer we do one of these instead: one, two, or three. Maybe one day.

(2) Michigan vs (3) Minnesota-Duluth

Deeeeeeeeeeeeep Breaths………sigh [James Collar]

Things Michigan Needs to Do Against Minnesota-Duluth:

1. Get shots. Michigan is near the best in the country on even strength attempts on net. Duluth isn’t ranked a lot lower in even strength corsi, but I would expect the Wolverines to be able to control the puck for stretches of this game. The Bulldogs have alternated goalies, but it doesn’t seem like they have completely settled their competition in net…probably because neither Fanti nor Stejskal have completely claimed the crease. With a couple of notable exceptions, Strauss Mann has been extremely dependable. If Michigan can force whomever the Bulldogs start in net to try to win them the game, my money is with Mann. To top that off, the Duluth Kill looks like something that Michigan should be able to take advantage of.

2. Push the Puck to the Blue line. Duluth’s defense has scored 4 goals and 37 total points. The Bulldogs get the bulk of their scoring from their depth of forward lines. In the defensive zone, Michigan needs to stay tight inside and put the pressure on the Duluth defensemen to do the play-making and shooting.

3. Hope Duluth’s Tournament Luck Changes. Starting with their victory over Michigan in 2011, Duluth has won 6 straight NCAA Tournament games if they reach OT.  They are also 8-1 in one goal games in their last three NCAA Tournaments. On top of that, they are back-to-back defending National Champions. I’m not trying to take anything away from the program that Scott Sandelin has built nor that talent he has brought in and developed over the last decade+…but at some point you can’t win every coin flip…can you?

Final Thoughts: Duluth has mostly similar numbers to Michigan, but they are slightly worse on the Kill and in net. Their draft picks are also mostly mid-to-low round choices. Against NoDak and St Cloud (the top two teams in the NCHC), Duluth is 3-6-1. This doesn’t appear to be one of Those Duluth teams, either. Michigan has a little more high end talent, is steadier on the back end and in net, and seems a notch better on each side of special teams. Is this the time to exorcise some demons? It might just be.

Alex Drain’s Take: If you renamed Duluth "Idaho State", I think most Michigan fans would feel very good about this matchup, as good as you can about a 2/3 game in a one-game, single elimination hockey tournament. But instead this team is Duluth, and with it comes the associated mojo, be it from 2011, or their back-to-back championships. However, as David mentioned, things have changed in the Iron Range. Goaltender Hunter Shepard, who was an assassin in the tournament, has moved onto the AHL. As has Scott Perunovich, Mikey Anderson, Riley Tufte, Dylan Samberg, Justin Richards, and Parker Mackay. They've still got some talent and a great coach, but they lack the obvious signs of a team that could cause trouble in this type of tournament, most notably the absence of a rock in net. Across the board they come off as a largely unimpressive middle-tier NCHC team. That's still probably a good hockey team, and one that could very easily take down the Wolverines, but I think Michigan is favored. You don't get many power plays in playoff hockey, and so it's imperative that Michigan converts when they get them. And maybe stick a pin in the Duluth voodoo doll while you're at it, too. 

[AFTER THE JUMP: All of the games that don't involve Michigan]

If you had money on Michigan Hockey being the lone team to lose to Ohio State among Hockey, Men's Basketball, and Women's Basketball last weekend, especially when the OSU team they were playing was by far the worst of the three opponents, come collect your prize. Alas, that's what happened, as Michigan procured an annoying split with the Buckeyes and now emerge from the weekend 12-8 on the season and #7 in the country. With (likely) just five games left in the regular season, we're now into the last bits of hockey before the postseason.