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
____________________________________________
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
Fair but regardless, the pattern of coming up just short on the national stage in major sports is there and needs to end soon.
I still think the '93 loss to UNC (good team, but inferior overall talent) is one of the most painful I've seen as a Michigan sports fan.
its fine, totally fine. no big deal, another OT loss in the frozen four. pfff, like water off a duck's tail....
Dang, is that Bob Wiley? World class reference XM
bill murray. ground hog day. another frozen four, another soul-crushing OT loss.
Phil Connors
“I am A god, not the God”
Well I've attended Michigan losing in OT twice and with less than :10 left once in the Frozen Four alone. And then let's include a couple Final Fours and a CFP. We can't buy a break on the big stage. This hockey team is the one that should've had the strongest chance, but hey single elimination hockey is absurd and random. Dominated OT, but a giveaway (skate over puck X2) did is in.
Michigan hockey is Fed/Rafa/Djoker, without the national trophy for >20 years. It is weird and painful.
Wow, hits close to home.
But have had better luck on that front as I attended 2017 epic 5 set Roger over Rafa victory in Australia!
Wow, that’s awesome. I knew your were a huge tennis guy from those threads!
We can't buy a break on the big stage.
Right? Like, just one little thing--and I know it was the correct call--but Portillo's mask coming off to cancel a 3-on-2 going the other way is just one of those throw your hands up and sigh kind of bad breaks. That stuff piles up, man. It does.
Should have played Denver in a best 2 out of 3 series last weekend. Two weeks off then a single elimination final four is absurd.
I’m eagerly awaiting the apology from the NCAA regarding the malfunctioning whistles in OT.
Is there another program in all of college sports that has more apologies from the NCAA / Conference officials about bad Ref calls than Michigan?
At this point we have so many of these, we should be allowed to trade them in for a championship.
As much as this one stings tonight, I’m going to wake up tomorrow excited for next season. Assuming Hughes is coming back, he’ll be worth the price of admission as he runs away with the Hobey Baker.
Well said, Michigan hockey is a great program, with more hardware than any in the whole country. Mel P is a great coach, and our future is bright. 😎 Go blue
He had a couple questionable (reckless) moves as last D back at the O blue line tonight. But agreed, going to be fun to watch no doubt.
My main takeaway from the game tonight was Michigan made a lot of questionable decisions with the puck in their own end. There were a heavy handful of clean breakout opportunities that ended up in turnovers where Denver nearly scored, and probably should have scored if not for a lucky whiff, puck deflection off a skate or a Portillo bail out. Michigan did not look like the team I expected to watch tonight. The nail in the coffin was indeed a breakout opportunity turned giveaway in OT. The ole "I got it you take it" mistake that Mickey Redmond often says on Red Wings telecasts.
Unfortunate ending but I will say that Michigan deserved at least ONE power play against Denver's three. Denver played a pretty clean game but there were a couple easy calls in the third period where the refs swallowed the whistle.
4 power plays for Denver
0 for Michigan
That's all you need to know.
You give Michigan the 4 - 0 PP advantage, and the game would never even make it to overtime.
Some of us were at the 3-27-1977 OT loss to Wisconsin at Olympia.
Let's go, Mavericks!
Not a banner frozen four for the conference as Minnesota proceeded to get hamblasted by Minny St. 5-1.
It sucked to end the season like this, but hockey is designed to be as nerve-wracking and unpredictable as possible. Denver is a really good team and UM just didn't cash in on their chances. On to next season.
I really like it better when we win
Keep the faith. We had a series of overtime losses in the tournament that seemed like an unbreakable curse, until we finally broke through and won the NC in '96.
Then we should have won it again in '97, but then we did win it in '98 in a big surprise.
Yes there is a lot of randomness to it all, but we will be in a position to win it almost every year.
It's a numbers game, but we'll be able to play it most seasons.
It *felt* like a curse, but actually the Red Berenson tournament record leading to 96 was: quarterfinal loss to BU in a road series in 91; semifinal loss to Wisconsin in 92; OT semifinal loss to one of the greatest teams in college hockey, Paul Kariya-led Maine, in 93; OT quarterfinal loss on a flukey goal to Jeff Jackson-led LSSU 94; triple OT loss to Maine in 95. That’s 5 tournament losses, the first two of which were plateaus Red hadn’t reached before and the third of which was OT but a long way from a let-down given the opponent. Only the last two were really gut-punch injustices. Since the 98 title, Michigan has entered 18 NCAA tournaments. We have been eliminated in OT in 8 (edited, forgot the '99 loss to UNH went to OT; not counting the last-second loss in 18) and made it to the FF without winning 7 times. We’ve been robbed by a horrible call in Fort Wayne and prevented from even playing a game last year. And we’re closing on the same ~30 year title drought the 96 team faced.
It felt bad in 96. It’s worse now, tbh.
tl;dr don’t read this
That's a harsh reality there. I still think of '96 as about 10-15 years ago. It feels so recent but we're on a 24 year drought now
The days are long but the years are short as they say...
IDK, they were a good team, and they had plenty of challenges this year in a weird olympic year, but I'll say this: whatever the opposite of this gif is:
They came out and played like it last night. Especially in the 1st period. And the turnover that lead to the loss was a travishamockery. Just fucking soft, tail between their legs performance for upwards of half the game.
Here I thought that "travishamockery"* only pertains to the trial of Fielding Mellish, the one-time president of San Marcos for fraud, inciting to riot, conspiracy to overthrow the government and using the word "thighs" in mixed company.
* It's probably not a travEsty that you didn't spell it as travEshamockery, but your comment still might be appropriate.
the other non-OT season was ND scoring with 5 seconds left. i am sick.
You missed that I counted that ND game as a de facto OT loss since that essentially ended the game. The other non-OT season was 2016 which I somehow barely remember. We beat ND 3-2 in OT and then lost 5-2 to eventual champion North Dakota. I honestly don't remember either game at all
edit: I just watch WD's highlights of the Notre Dame game and I do not remember that game at all
I actually do remember that one - they outskated us. This oddly makes me feel better?
Still, until 2021 I thought of Harbaugh as kinda the hard luck coach at Michigan - so many close games that are supposed to be coin flips that we lost. A good program that isn't dominant enough to be great and isn't brady hokey enough to have a great season.
But after yet another OT loss to end the season, the hockey team does feel the most snakebit of the major sports. Basketball is a revelation that seems to play better come March, going thru their best year-over-year stretches for both men and women. Football is who they are after 2021 - top 10, not top 5. Baseball is a scrappy, mid-major program that had a memorable season. Softball is consistently very good but hasn't quite been as crazy good as hockey. And hockey. Hockey is probably one of the 2-3 best, most consistent programs in the country over the last 25 seasons. And doesn't have the natty to prove it. And they've not been embarrassed. Just....it's just playoff hockey, isn't it?