Brindley Big Ten POY
https://mgoblue.com/news/2024/3/19/ice-hockey-brindley-named-big-ten-hockey-player-of-the-year
Brindley wins POY
1st Team Selections:
Brindley
McGroarty
Casey
2nd Team Selections:
Duke (Dylan)
Honorable Mentions:
Hughes
Nazar
Sportsmanship Award:
Truscott
Very cool and well-deserved.
And the NHL people last year dropped him to the second round. What a blunder by them!
According to Google, Brindley is 5' 9" and 170 lbs. which makes him undersized for the NHL game. These measurements most likely pushed him out of the 1st round, but they don't matter at the college level. His skating ability offsets his size limitations in the NCAA. In the NHL, most everyone skates like him.
That's outstanding! Schifsky made the all-freshman team with 30 points and 16 goals, I was surprised that is only good enough for 3rd place among freshman. Tough competition.
so we had 3 of the 5 first team skaters and finished 4th? Normally that would feel like a disappointment, but it really doesn't this year. It feels like the team achieved reasonably well and is rounding into form at the right time.
Minnesota has had a very good program for the last... name a timeframe. But it has been slightly irritating that Michigan hasn't won a single season conference title these last 3 years (haven't won it since the conference came into existence).
This year, I get it because they lost a lot of talent but if you look at the Big Ten leaders in goals, assists, and points, it's a TON of Michigan guys. The top 6 point getters in conference are all Michigan guys. That being said, the defense has been downright bad at times and Barczewski isn't great.
The 2 years before that, with the talent they had? Ugh. Slow starts, random losses to inferior teams, olympics/christmas roster issues. Portillo's controller disconnecting. Mel being a dick. All of that played a role, but when you look at all that talent from the 2020 recruiting class onward, it's just kind of nuts it never happened.
To counter. Chance this weekend to win third straight BT tournament championship, coming off two straight frozen fours and playing best hockey of the year heading into the NCAAs.
Would certainly have had an improved shot last year in Tampa with better D and goaltending but can’t complain much about how they’ve peaked at the right time.
O sure, can't complain about the BTT trophy and their runs in the tournament over the last 2 seasons.
Though tournament runs are more random (BTT slightly less so with the 1st round being best of 3). You'd think a program with the ceiling Michigan has had these last 3 years, one of them would have seen consistency across the entire regular season to put them 1st in conference standings.
Hail to our postseason award winners! 👍
Hopefully he can win it back-to-back next year!
Lot of parallels to '97'-98. Talented team, dropped some games early. Borderline underachievers. Finished second in the conference (to Sparty, no less). Went deep into the conference tournament. Missing a Marty Turco type, however.
I’d probably even say this team is deeper and more talented through their 4 lines a d pairings… however as you said, no Turco. Getting owned my Sparty that entire season, and then seeing them knocked out in the first round of the NCAA still makes me smile. Turco was a beast in the tournament, the absolute heart that led that young team to peak at the exact right time.
What we need is
o
z
r
a
B
That team was good but Turco put them in his backpack and walked them to the title.
Hockey goaltender is the one and only player on any given team sport that can single handedlyv win you a title. Turco was that player.
+1 for goalkeep carrying team in his backbag
If this team plays the rest of their games like they did against Minnesota last weekend, good things could happen.
That was a really impressive win.
Frozen Four on the horizon
Did Nazar fall a bit short of expectations this year?
I was expecting more from him, but that could be my own fault.
I think everyone wants to lead with positive spin, espesh since we're still heading down the pike of the season. But agreed, Nazar is too talented to be 3rd team. A big post-season would absolutely redeem him & lift the team.
Game against Minnesota was excellent.
I'm looking forward to the game against Sparty.