"All that Matters is at the End of the Year": On Michigan's Evolution and Early Season Pain in Year Two of the Naurato Era
Why Michigan believes play without the puck and early season mixed results will feed long-term success. Plus, impact transfers, WoHo stays unbeaten, and a uniform update
Three series into the 2023-24 season, the University of Michigan men’s ice hockey team is 3-2-1. It’s a record that reflects an up-and-down start, and the individual performances only reinforce that point.
On the season’s opening weekend, it looked as though the Wolverines would be able to cruise to a Sunday afternoon win against Providence, only for a comfortable 5-1 third period lead to become a one-goal game over the course of a tumultuous two-minute-and-fifteen second run of Friar goals.
Two weeks ago visiting UMass, Michigan steam-rolled the Minutemen to win 7-2 in a Friday night rout and looked on the way to repeating that feat the following night, only to concede six goals in the third and lose.
Last weekend, in the first Big Ten series of the year, the Wolverines delivered another dominant Friday night performance, claiming a 7-1 victory. The following night, Michigan drew 2-2 and eventually fell in a shootout.
Out of those mixed results, a number of questions emerge. What has this year’s team been able to carry over from last year’s run to the Frozen Four, and what had to be re-built for the new season? What is a better reflection of this year’s Wolverines—the big wins across three difficult series or the blown leads and disappointing losses? What do we know for sure about this year’s team, and what still needs to be proven?
At this time last year, Michigan was finding its collective legs having endured an overwhelming exodus of talent to the professional ranks and doing so with an interim head coach who’d only assumed that mantle in August after a needlessly drawn out end to his predecessor’s tenure.
To be sure, there were major losses to account for entering this season as well. Adam Fantilli, Mackie Samoskevich, and Luke Hughes were all central to Michigan’s offensive brilliance in year one of the Brandon Naurato era, and Erik Portillo had been the team’s starter in net for two seasons. All the same, four freshmen this year carries with it a much different feel than twelve—many of them in starring roles—a year ago.
After Friday night’s win over the Buckeyes, Naurato said “We're still trying to find our identity. I think you can see it at times, and then we get away from it. I think that's any team; I don't think anyone's firing on all cylinders in October. But whether it's pain from the third period against UMass or we're having success tonight, you're just learning and growing through those situations.”
After Tuesday’s practice, he offered a more detailed look at that process of self-discovery for the 2023-24 Wolverines.
“I think with the puck—everything offensively—we're further ahead right when we start just because of all the returners,” Naurato said. “And then it's just getting the core details in—of how we want to play with the puck and support it and manage it and protect it—as quickly as possible.”
Sophomore defenseman Seamus Casey offered a similar picture of the team’s progression. “I think for the the coaching staff last year, they were teaching all of us, every guy, everything,” he said Tuesday. “And then this year, I think we're a lot better at it. And a lot of those concepts we understand and we can police ourselves a little bit more and coach ourselves too at times,” adding that he now feels confident enough to help out a new player who might not be as clear on those concepts.
Whether in reference to last year’s team coming up short against Quinnipiac in the Frozen Four or in explaining the inconsistencies of the early season, it’s clear that there is a greater emphasis in year two of the Naurato era on play away from the puck.
That is not necessarily to say that emphasis lies on defense but rather on being in the right place to adapt to whatever circumstance comes next.
“Defense is just mentality and working hard, but if you're not in your spots, and the puck transitions, then you don't know which spot to be in,” Naurato explains. “If it goes from offense to defense and you're not in your spot offensively, you're not in your spot defensively, right? They're both the same all the time. If you're in the right spot, and there's a breakdown, someone will back you up. If you're in the right spot, and we steal the puck from the other team, there's predictable options of who to bump it to for the first pass, the second pass, the third pass, because everyone's in their spots.”
While it can be tempting to drift toward offense (whether literally or only in your mind), that approach to the game inevitably invites more pressure in the other direction.
“You just can't cheat the game,” Naurato continues. “You may get the bounce and look for the breakaway, and it bounces over the guy’s stick. But more times than not, when you play the right way and your body position [is correct] and you're above people, they have to go through you. And then if the puck transitions and we get the puck, I just have to beat you to the next spot. So you have to work away from the puck.”
This logic applies when a teammate has the puck as much as it does when the opponent is in possession. An individual is the one who will commit a turnover, but, to Naurato, that turnover can just as easily be the product of his teammates’ support or lack thereof.
“We talked with our team earlier today and yesterday, but you watch it live as a player, as a coach, as a fan and you see Brandon or player X, turn the puck over,” Naurato offers. “But what you don't see is what were his options. Maybe two people were wide open, and he just turned it over. Or maybe he turned it over, because no one was open and in their spots and then, you know, it's still on him, but you need support. So I think that was a big thing for us that we got away from in the first period on Saturday is being an option for our teammates and working away from the puck to do so.”
When asked directly whether defense is a bigger priority for the team this year than it was last year, Naurato says “we've talked about it more just because we have to get our goals against down.
“I thought last weekend was good; we gave up three goals in two games, and [only] two of them were even strength. We didn't take as many penalties as we normally do, so it allows our five-on-five to go but still all the chances against in my head come from some type of puck management. It's not them beating us. It's a turnover, and then there's open space and then they’re attacking, whether it be off the rush or in the D zone.”
To Naurato, the early season has brought both glimpses of promise and reminders of work that still needs to be done. “I don’t think we’ve proven anything, because we’re not doing it all the time,” he says. “There’s been glimpses of how good we can be when we just play the game the right way. We’re just trying to find ways to do that for sixty minutes.”
He believes the path to “doing it all the time” requires growth with what he describes as “emotional maturity.”
“When you’re up two-nothing, regardless of how many penalties we’ve taken or the good calls or the bad calls or how tired we are because we’ve played hard minutes, you need to change your game,” Naurato argues.
“If you don’t have the legs or you’ve played three games in three nights, you have to play differently. Say you’re an aggressive team. Well if you play five games in a row at the World Junior tournament in seven nights, you can’t be that aggressive the whole time, because you don’t have the legs to do it. You have to change your game to slow it down at certain times. Still play the way you want to play at other times. Shift length is huge, puck management, there’s just so many little things.”
He wants his team to have the ability to change rhythms within games—recognizing the right moments to push the pace and attack as well as the times when a more methodical approach is more appropriate.
“We’re gonna play this up-tempo with the puck, without the puck, we’re forechecking, we’re attacking, and then depending on what time of the game [it is], now we may slow it down,” Naurato says.
There can be little doubt of Michigan’s attacking upside. Players like Casey, Rutger McGroarty, Gavin Brindley, and Frank Nazar are proven scorers against elite competition. Naurato wants to make certain that on nights the scoring touch isn’t quite dialed in, every player on the roster still has a way to make life difficult on the opponent.
“Say you’re a scorer, and you’re not creating your scoring chances,” he says. “What else are you doing to add value to the team? You can be good on the forecheck, you can get pucks into the zone and out of the zone, you can break up plays, you can be physical. It’s just being hard.”
As much as Naurato sees room for improvement, particularly when it comes to consistency, he also believes that early season struggles are often a prerequisite to the kind of success a program of Michigan’s station in the sport is after—specifically, a tenth national championship banner to hang in Yost’s rafters.
“I would say we’re in a better spot at 3-2-1 then we were last year when we were 7-1 going into Penn State,” Naurato argues. “We’ve played tough teams, we’re learning quicker, we’ve done a lot of good things, and that was kind of the message to the guys after Saturday. We could be 5-1, and you guys think we’re really, really good because you win in the shootout or you hold the lead at UMass or whatever.
“Am I upset that we’re this instead of that? All that matters is at the end of the year. We need to get into the tournament and be playing our best hockey at the end of the year. Because if we’re 35-0 going into the tournament and we’re just better than other people, you’re not gonna win. Because it’s one game and anything can happen.” He adds that he believes the long lay-off in December means a single season is really two smaller seasons.
At a personal level, Naurato has been focused on the season’s end point since before it began. “I watched the Denver game and the Quinnipiac game right before the season,” he says. “Structurally, all these teams are good, but every player to a man was just gonna win every race and battle. It’s not that our guys aren’t trying to do that, but you win 7-1 you get comfortable versus coming back and understanding that you won 7-1 because you won so many battles, and it kept the puck in the zone or got the puck out of the zone versus the alternative.”
To him, the central takeaway was obvious: “We just have to be the hardest team to play against.” That won’t happen in any one weekend, and it won’t matter until March and April.
So, for now, as Lindenwood heads into Yost for a Friday-Saturday set this weekend, the process of self-discovery will continue.
Odds & Ends
Eernisse & Duke: New Faces & New Elements
At an individual level, two players I want to dwell on a bit more are sophomore transfers Tyler Duke and Josh Eernisse. I’ve touched on this already, but with both players, I think it’s already clear six games into the season that in their own ways they bring something different than Michigan has had in the past.
To start with Duke, he is an NTDP alumnus, and you can’t play for that team as a defenseman if you aren’t skating and moving the puck at a high level. However, what stands most about the younger Duke brother isn’t the skill so much as the intensity.
At one point last Friday, Duke crashed into the end boards in the offensive zone chasing an opportunity to score, then sprinted the full length of the ice on the back check and eventually crashed into the net in his defensive zone. It’s not a matter of poor skating or being out of control; it’s a reflection of the ridiculous motor Duke brings to the Michigan blue line.
When asked about Duke’s contribution, Naurato lauded the sophomore’s “ultra physicality.” “We talked about winning the races and battles and getting the puck in or getting the puck out, killing plays.”
“It’s not [just] the defense,” he continues. “It’s offense too, just hard, super hard…it gets other people going.”
Meanwhile, Eernisse is listed at 6’2”, 205 pounds on Michigan’s official roster, but in watching him play, I would take the over on both those figures without a moment’s hesitation, but it’s not just brawn that makes the St. Thomas transfer an impact player.
Naurato describes him as at once a “linebacker on skates” and “a guy that makes the coach look good, because when you tell him to do something, he’s going to do it.”
He’s been a frequent line-mate of Frank Nazar’s in the season’s early going, and while they haven’t necessarily lit up the scoreboard together, there are already positive signs that they will be overwhelming opponents before too long. Nazar looks a much more confident player in the offensive zone than he did a year ago, and Eernisse’s combination of speed and power is a natural complement to him.
To Eernisse, sophomore year as a transfer brings with it a sense of comfort at what college hockey will demand of him but also echoes of freshman year in adjusting to a new environment.
“It’s my second year of college hockey, so last year, I was able to understand it’s a little bit more structured than juniors,” he says Tuesday. “Guys are more tight, less mistakes, and so I went through the rough patches with those last year but was able to learn some of that stuff. But then it also feels like freshman year again, just having all the new classes, new systems, getting used to a new environment.”
Lindenwood will bring with it to Ann Arbor a line-up featuring six skaters listed at 6’4” or taller, and against that towering line-up, Duke and Eernisse’s physicality will pay dividends for Michigan. And that’s a match-up Eernisse is looking forward to.
“I haven’t looked at the roster, but I guess we’ll do a battle of the big guys this weekend,” he says with a smile.
WoHo Looks to Extend Unbeaten Start Against Niagara
The Michigan women’s hockey team will return to game action and put its undefeated start to the season on the line Sunday afternoon against Niagara University at Yost Ice Arena.
The Wolverines last played on Friday the 13th, knocking off Grand Valley State by a 3-1 scoreline on home ice at Yost. After a scoreless first, the Lakers took the game’s first lead on a Melanie Scram goal in the final minute of the third period.
However, the Wolverines scored three unanswered—the latter two on the power play—in the third to stay unbeaten. Lucy Hanson scored the first to tie the score five-and-a-half minutes into the game’s final frame. Then, Samantha Carr gave Michigan its first lead seven minutes later with an assist from Kelsey Swanson. Less than a minute later, Swanson provided an insurance marker with assists from Julia Lindahl and Katie German, again on the power play.
In net, Sandrine Ponnath delivered the kind of exemplary performance that has become her standard, stopping 33 of the 34 Laker shots that came her way. On the season, Ponnath is 4-0 in four starts and has given up just five goals for a 1.25 goals against average. She has also posted a phenomenal .961 save percentage.
Niagara enters the weekend at 2-2, having swept Miami Ohio on the road and been swept at home by Indiana Tech. The Purple Eagles will take on UM-Dearborn on Friday and Saturday evenings before Sunday’s matinee at Yost.
Uniform Design
In the early season, a central point of conversation amongst Wolverine fans has been the new-look uniforms, harkening back to the sweaters the team sported in the 80s and early 90s. The team has debuted its new home whites and traveling blues, while also offering a glimpse at the new maize thirds via some of the images that came out of the team’s media day.
What you might not know about the new uniforms is that associate head coach Rob Rassey led the charge on their design. Per Naurato, Rassey mocked them all up a year ago, and “he’s gotten a lot of love mail and a lot of hate mail” regarding his handiwork.
Source: @umichhockey on Twitter
In addition to drawing inspiration from some Michigan uniforms of yesteryear, the team’s new home whites are also inspired by the St. Louis Blues jerseys of the late 60s that Red Berenson wore during his time as a player there.
Source: Michigan Athletics
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