Hockey Season Snowflakes and why OT games in the tournament are the worst and they will kill me one day
Well.....that sucked
Following this evenings happenings, I needed to cope as we ended yet another season in overtime. It feels like we lose in OT every single season so I needed to go look it up to make sure my deep seated belief that we lose in OT every single year wasn't ill founded
Since 1991 when Red got us back to the tournament for the first time, Michigan has competed in 25 tournaments (made 26 but 2021 was covid'ed). In that time,
- Michigan has gone 6-13* in overtime in the tournament. So our season is ending in OT over 50% of the time...
- Since the 2008 frozen four, Michigan is 2-6 in overtime...
- Michigan's season has ended in an OT loss in 5 of the 7 last tournaments we've been in...
- Oh and 1 of the 2 seasons we didn't manage to lose in OT, it was because we got goalied to death by Air Force in 2009
So...you are justified to feel like our season ends in OT constantly
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Taking a step back from the ledge to think, it really was a great season by the guys. Essentially met their sky high expectations as much as you can really expect for tournament randomness. Except for Minnesota being awesome too, Michigan would've won available to them up to the Frozen Four. Just another brutal conclusion to the season
Now Michigan hockey summer begins, you're probably losing a huge chunk of this team between seniors and high draft picks. Best case scenario is probably getting Portillo, Hughes, Mackie, Bordeleau, and Beecher to return. I think everyone else is either an obvious gone or an obvious stay. If you can keep that core and add on another really good recruiting class, this team should compete for a 1 seed again
*I'm counting the 2018 frozen four loss to Notre Dame as a de facto OT loss since they scored with under :05 left in regulation
Might lose Mel, too. Hope not.
I suspect we'll be fine since it's been awfully quiet on that front, but the uncertainty of the situation will loom large starting tomorrow
First I heard of a delay in Mel's contract extension was this morning. No deal has been reached so this needs to be followed.
And you’re leaving our 93, 95, and 03. And 97 isn’t even in there.
I think it’s possible we traded this for the OSU game, but it’s hard to tell.
I generally categorize the losses in three categories of increasing awfulness: heartbreaking, gut-wrenching, and soul-crushing.
This is pretty easily in the soul-crushing category. Worse than 2011 for me, honestly, even though that seems contradictory.
I don’t know. This team was flat tonight from the drop. Passes were soft, defensive derps all over the place and UM allowed Denver to set the pace. I can’t say a loss is “soul crushing” when I could tell they weren’t mentally tough within the first 5 minutes.
With all the talent, this team should have been killers. Absolutely no intensity tonight. Both UM goals were more puck-luck rather than the tape-to-tape one-timers we’ve been used to
Michigan overcompensated for the Q near-meltdown in the first and focused on not making mistakes, which they made anyway. After that the game was relatively even, excepting for where the penalties in the third tilted the ice. But the team did not come out flying as they had in the rest of the postseason and seemed to be trying to change too much. I love the idea of Power and Hughes paired together, but this was the first time all hear and it never really hit its stride as a pairing.
But it’s hockey and all you need to do is score one of those chances in OT and it doesn’t matter and you’re playing a game against a team that you know you can beat because you’ve beaten them before. With this team with these stakes, this is gutting.
I agree it's tougher than 2011. That game is getting hazy but I just remember it felt like we were on the PK the entire game. This game was extremely winnable, While Denver gave it to us in the first, I thought we were the better team in the 2nd, 3rd, and OT. So so many chances to win it and of course another dumb goal ends our season in a split second.
This is the most '97 moment since '97 in my mind. I'll die believing we were the best team in the country this year
Michigan may be the best team in the country but will come up short this year. It sounds like shades of Illinois MBB reaction to the 2020-21 season and I hate to be critical.
Michigan should have won it all in hockey but it simply didn't happen.
More like shades of llinois MBB reaction to the 1988-89 season except for it to be comparable we would have to have lost to FYS.
No sugar coating this. Underachievement of the century when you look at the talent on the squad.
This was the best chance at a national title in one of the big 3 sports.
Thumbs up for your last statement only. No such thing as underachievement when you make the FF in single elim plinko hockey
I disagree its underachievement. This is just life in single elimination hockey. Denver, Mankato, and Minnesota were ever bit as good as Michigan this year. Draft talent doesn't always make the best teams
Even in hockey, this team still has a record number of talented players.
Frozen Four is fine, but it’s more in the vein of the undefeated Kentucky team losing to Wisconsin or UConn women’s more recent Final Four squads than the 2011 Michigan hockey team.
You do know that Denver was the #3 team in the country right? The teams were as close to mirror images of each other as is possible. It was all about who cashed in first in OT. We missed ours and they hit on theirs. Oh, and fuck the refs too. I'd feel a lot less bitter if it was either called consistently for both sides and/or they called at least one of those 2 obvious penalties on Denver.
You’re mistaking the potential of players with the current skill. Michigan has a ton of skill for sure, but these kids were drafted based on their potential. How good they’re going to be in 3-4 years and on, not necessarily how good they are today.
College hockey isn’t about just talent. Teams with minimal draft picks compete all the time. Minnesota State has just two draft picks, finished with the best record in the country, just dismantled Minnesota (another team with a ton of draft picks) 5-1 to make the NCAA final.
Having a record number of 18-19 year old draft picks doesn’t make you the clear cut best team. There are plenty of teams that have quality 21-22 year olds that are at a further stage developmentally that balance everything back out.
Add in the unpredictable nature of a low event game like hockey and the insane concept of single elimination on top of that and you have a scenario where the best team is pretty rarely the one named national champion. “Underachievement” isn’t a term that has any merit here. Team had a helluva season and made it to the Frozen Four. Bounces, calls, and puck luck did us no favors. It happens.
"Underachievement of the century"
I know you follow hockey a bit. Which makes the inaccuracy of this statement pretty breathtaking.
This is college hockey, the NCAA tournament. "The Best Team Doesn't Always Win" isn't a platitude; it's an axiom.
The spirit of Drew Sharp is strong in this one.
Speaking of which, the Freep had a typical bullshit article title (something like "Michigan stunned") this morning. You'd think it was MSU losing to Middle Tennessee State. The Detroit News went with something more reasonable ("Michigan loses").
It was a stunning defeat last night but not a humiliating one.
You're taking this better than me. I think we're lucky if we get any of those back, especially Bordeleau, who was far and away our best player this post-season.
I think it's possible we only get Hughes and Mackie back. I'd be pretty surprised if either of them left.
Beecher may go play pro somewhere just because he's older and he may feel it's time to cash in while he can even though he'll probably never make the NHL
Bordealeau I really don't know but I'd lean go pro
Portillo is interesting. The Sabres have sniffed around but I think they're higher on Levi and Portillo's iffy rebound control will get him killed in the NHL. It's possible he feels like he's ready to move on even if it's to the AHL for a bit
What concerns me regarding Portillo is that Levi already stated he was returning to school. Their possible thought process may be to get Portillo in their system and see how he does before deciding between Portillo and Levi (I think it’s pretty unlikely they keep both in their system long-term).
If Levi had signed, Portillo was 100% coming back in my opinion. He didn’t, so now it’s 50/50 to me
To hell with the refs.
To hell with ESPN announcers too.
Least favorite line -- " ... for the win." oh, shot didn't go in. Sheeesssh
Hot takes from a non-expert: Michigan reminded me of Ohio State's football team this year. High scoring, extremely talented, highly skilled, but more of a finesse team that could get pushed around. Michigan wasn't good at dump and chase when they were forced to, they didn't crash the crease enough, and their forechecking wasn't as strong as other elite teams. Still a great team and fun team to watch. They played hard. Heartbreaking today. I'm still looking forward to next year even with all the expected losses to the pros. I'm thinking they may even have more success.
Nah. They DOMINATED early in overtime and twice were totally boned by the refs on blatant penalties. SLEW FOOT, right in front of the ref and no call? A game that was actually being officiated would have been nice but they swallowed the whistles on penalties that they no doubt should have called.
I think they still had the win there for the taking if they kept piling on chances and avoided the big mistake, but yeah, the refs were total, complete, and unforgivable horseshit.
For a non-expert this isn’t a bad take. Michigan plays a more euro style of hockey. DU knew it couldn’t get into a pissing match so they played a trap. Clogged the neutral zone and forced everything outside. Just needed more of a physical presence. As you said crash the net and create some traffic.
Yeah, IMHO, this team relied too much on initiating offense from the Defense in transition, which is hard to do when the opponent traps and clogs the middle like you say, even with Defensemen as good as Power and Hughes. There wasn't enough offense generated from the forecheck, and there weren't enough opportunities for "dirty goals." This team lacked balance. That their skill was enough to get them to the final four says a lot.
Not sure I agree here. Denver played a deep, aggressive forecheck, just as Michigan expected them to play. A trap sits four guys back; that’s not what Denver did. It worked because Denver is good. This is a highly skilled Denver team that posted the highest scoring offense in the country this year; they knew that they *could* go pass for pass with Michigan, and they did.
Postseason tournaments should at least attempt to determine the winner based on who the best team is. Hockey doesn’t even try.
Quick math help… if we are 6-13 in OT games, that means we lose over 67 % of the time, which I guess is over 50%, but not what you were actually trying to say.
Sorry, I’m pissed too.
I meant it as 13/25 since every OT loss is obviously a season ender, so 52% of our 25 tournaments have ended with an OT loss.
Also important to note that we have a pair of national championships in there, so you could even narrow the stats down to 13/23 in seasons where we lost a tournament game
I thought Harbaugh underachieved in his first 6 years here, but Mel is really impressing me in that department. When was the last time there was a college hockey roster this good?
I’m hoping Mel will break through eventually but this is frustrating. Of course the open investigation might close the door on that, but I hope not.
Is your name Steve Deace?
It's still hard to call winning the conference and making the Frozen / Final Four in anything an underachievement.
Yes, but Wichita dude is an opportunist for these type of moments. Either Steve Deace or some other dude whose acceptance letter was less than favorable.
My BSAE begs to differ.
We won the conference? I must have missed that.
We did, and it was outstanding. You were the one making comment about Mel underachieving - so get a pair and pick a side. I support Mel and this outstanding championship team.
While still an achievement winning the conference tournament is not "winning the conference".
It’s true, we won the conference [long pause] tournament
I took my 4th grade son and his friend from school (who is also the son of a UM grad) along with my 6 yo. It was brutal. My son melted down at the end, and thought that he had "lost his friend" because his friend was quiet and didn't talk all the way out of the stadium.
It gave me some real perspective tbh. It was my son's first "gut punch" loss, especially since he knew it would be the last time this special team was together. I felt so bad for the kids and knew that nothing I could say to him would make him feel better. But there is a tomorrow and I think on some level he realizes (or will realize soon) that friendship is just as much about taking losses together as are wins.
As for the game, UM looked spooked from the start. DU trapped really well in the neutral zone and basically let Michigan make mistakes, which they certainly did.
On one level, DU deserved to win with their gameplan, etc. but at the same time it was so clear that Michigan was the better team, which made everything that much worse.
The last goal was so maddening, a turnover due to sloppy play and you could see the game/season/everything ending on something so stupid.
The refs sucked as well. The Canadian neutral next to me on more than one occasion treated the refs calls (once replay was shown) like I might consider hieroglyphics. That isn't why UM lost, but it did p*** me off that they didn't call a single penalty on DU.
niels, what does this mean in english: The Canadian neutral next to me on more than one occasion treated the refs calls (once replay was shown) like I might consider hieroglyphics.
Oh sorry. It meant that he was a typical Canadian (nice guy, really knew hockey) and that for many of the calls (on UM) and non-calls (against DU) he looked bewildered because (in his words) "for the life of me I don't understand what they (the refs) are seeing on the ice"
ty. i thought that might have been it.
A disappointing way for the ride to end. This team not winning feels an awful lot like the fab 5 not winning it all. It will be fun to see all these kids in the NHL!
Fab Five sophomore season all over again except hockey version... Ever since the Fab Five this program has become a perennial bridesmaid in all major sports. Hockey, basketball, baseball, football. Like 0-10 in the last 15 years or something in national championship games... Too pissed to research the math... Wish that would end soon.
The Fab Five was before 2 hockey championships and a football championship. So "ever since" is false.