Labor Day Check-In 9.5.22
Coach Nar talks getting started with Jon Jansen, Jenna Trubiano talks past, present, and future of women’s hockey at UM, and a few not-so-late breaking news items
Labor Day Weekend might not carry the same heft as a calendar marker in the world of college hockey as it does in that of collegiate football, but the turn toward a changing of the seasons leaves hockey well within sight on the horizon. We are inside of a month until the University of Michigan men’s hockey team kicks off its season with an exhibition game against the University of Windsor on October 1st, with the first series of the regular year the following weekend against Lindenwood. Meanwhile, the women’s team will travel to Michigan State to open its campaign on the same night as the Windsor game after an intrasquad scrimmage on September 25th. If like us, you spent your Saturday baking your skin at the Big House, be not afraid: cool temperatures inside and out of Yost Ice Arena beckon. We only have to wait a little longer.
To wrap up the summer, we have a delightful medley of goings on in the world of Michigan hockey for you—ranging from podcast appearances from new interim men’s coach Brandon Naurato and women’s coach Jenna Trubiano to a new leadership team on the men’s side and an outdoor game announcement.
Coach Nar Does Some PR
In his first notable press appearance as Michigan’s head coach, Brandon Naurato joined Jon Jansen’s Conqu’ring Heroes podcast for a fourteen-minute interview. Conqu’ring Heroes (along with Jansen’s football-specific show In the Trenches) is a production of the Michigan Athletic Department, which is to say we were never going to get a hard-hitting investigation into the circumstances surrounding Naurato’s takeover from Mel Pearson. Instead, we got some insight into the hiring process from Naurato’s perspective and his early vision for the program.
Naurato began the interview by joking that he’s been “drinking from a firehose” in the weeks since the August 7th announcement that he’d be taking over. In explicating that observation, the first-time head coach noted that he is “starting to build [the program] the way that we want it.” It was just a passing comment, but the idea of a rebuilding/re-envisioning of this program is noteworthy. It would have been easy to assume that Naurato had little intention of dramatic deviation from the blueprint of the Mel Pearson era, but instead the new interim coach has already expressed a desire to put his fingerprints on the program. We don’t yet know what that will mean or even whether those changes will be tactical or stylistic on the ice or something more behind the scenes. Nonetheless, distinguishing between Naurato’s Wolverines and those of his predecessor will be an interesting narrative to monitor as the season progresses.
Naurato also told Jansen that becoming Michigan’s head coach “was always the goal,” dating back to his time as a player for the Wolverines in the late aughts. He described pacing around his house as Warde Manuel and company deliberated on an interim hire, before fielding a Zoom call in his car during which he received the good news. Naurato described being too excited to tell his wife and brother in words, instead just offering a thumbs up.
After the excitement subsided, Naurato’s work started with the task of assembling a staff. Bill Muckalt, an assistant at Michigan since 2017, would remain in place, but Naurato needed another assistant, along with a new head of hockey operations. To fill the former void, Naurato brought in Rob Rassey, who has served alternately as an assistant coach and scout with the Youngstown Phantoms of the USHL, Harvard, and the Detroit Red Wings. The hire—like Naurato’s—is clearly one oriented toward player development. For the hockey operations role, Naurato tapped Topher Scott, who has assistant coaching experience at Miami and his alma mater Cornell but spent the last six years working with teams of varying levels at building culture through his organization The Hockey Think Tank.
As for his message for his team, Naurato told Jansen that he wanted to emphasize that “just because you have the best players doesn’t mean you have the best team” and that emotional connection and vulnerability would prove essential to a successful season. He added that “it’s their team” and expressed confidence in the leadership that exists within his locker room, both from its veterans and the twelve incoming freshmen,
Jenna Trubiano Talks WoHo at UMich with the MiSHEgan Podcast
In a longer and more wide-ranging interview, women’s hockey coach Jenna Trubiano spoke with the MiSHEgan podcast about the state of women’s hockey at Michigan.
Trubiano’s team is coming off a season in which it finished third in the ACHA’s Division 1 playoffs, despite breaking in fifteen new players. The season came after the team missed the entire 2020-21 campaign, during which COVID restrictions forbade the team even from practicing. With just three players graduating from last year’s team, and eight to nine newcomers (including a D1 transfer and a former D3 player), Trubiano expressed optimism about her team’s prospects for the upcoming year.
Beyond those personnel developments, there are more rudimentary reasons for excitement surrounding the ‘22-‘23 season. Trubiano has previously called attention to the fact that her team is forced to pay handsome fees for ice time at Yost and even then it is relegated to undesirable practice times and frequent reminders that the rink is not their own. This year, for the first time, Trubiano’s team is slated to actually play all of its home games at Yost.
Beyond the appeal of a stable home rink, this year’s team will also enjoy new uniforms for the first time in ten years. The outgoing kits were in use when Trubiano played for the Wolverines between 2013 and 2017, and she joked that the crispness of the home whites had given way to what could charitably be called a “maize” hue over their years of service.
Beyond talking about the upcoming season, Trubiano fielded more existential questions about the future of women’s hockey at Michigan. She pointed out that in the late 90s (around the time women’s Division 1 hockey arrived at Big Ten rivals like Wisconsin and Ohio State), there was a serious push to upgrade the club team (founded in 1994) to Division 1. Instead, women’s hockey was passed over for women’s water polo, a choice that came down to budget and a reluctance to house men’s and women’s D1 teams at Yost.
In many ways, the same (tired) logic is restricting women’s hockey to the club level today. As Trubiano puts it, the number one concern remains money, with the athletic administration suggesting to her that if someone came along with a cheque for $5 million, it might be time for a different conversation.
While Michigan’s administration drags its heels, schools like Wisconsin and Ohio State are reaping the rewards of the investments they have already made in the sport. In many ways, Wisconsin is the model program in women’s hockey. Trubiano pointed to the presence of their own facilities (rather than sharing with a men’s team), full stands on game day, and robust coaching and training staffs as illustrations of their success. Badgers like Hillary Knight, Brianna Decker, and now Abby Roque have long headlined the U.S. women’s national team, and the program has pulled in six national championships over its time in Division 1. Ohio State might not have achieved that level of success, but the Buckeyes are defending national champions themselves and enter the season with realistic aspirations at defending their crown.
For Trubiano, the “challenging” and “frustrating” thing is thinking of the young girls hockey players throughout the state of Michigan who don’t have the opportunity to stay home and play major college hockey. Roque—a native of the Upper Peninsula and the scorer of the lone American goal in yesterday’s 2-1 gold medal game defeat to Canada at the World Championships—is a perfect example. She appears poised to emerge as the face of Team USA as Knight and Decker’s generation ages out of the program and grew up playing hockey in the state, but when it came time to play college hockey, she had no choice but to look elsewhere. Michigan is home to seven Division 1 hockey programs, but they are all men’s. The state’s flagship university would seem a natural choice to begin to solve that glaring problem.
Trubiano did express some optimism that incoming president Santa Ono might begin to right that wrong, mentioning that she had received “very cordial communications” from him as he settles into his new role.
Captains!
At the conclusion of the 2021 season, it appeared Nolan Moyle was off to the transfer portal and a new destination to play out his COVID-induced year of bonus eligibility. Flash forward a few months and Moyle will instead serve as captain of the ‘22-‘23 squad, making him the 104th player to wear a “C” for the Wolverines.
Moyle is coming off a career-high fifteen-point season in which he played a key role on the Wolverines’ fourth line alongside Garrett Van Wyhe and Jimmy Lambert. Though he earned a career high in points, Moyle’s primary contribution to the squad came in the form of his adept forechecking and penalty killing, two areas where he figures to loom large once again in Naurato’s debut season. A player of Moyle’s versatility and experience will be invaluable for the first-year head coach, and the fifth-year senior appears a natural choice for the role of captain.
Moyle will be backed up by a triumvirate of veteran defensemen wearing “A”’s for the Wolverines this year in Keaton Pehrson, Jacob Truscott, and Luke Hughes, all three of whom could have made a legitimate claim to the “C” themselves. As much as Naurato’s team will depend on a talented crop of incoming freshmen, it will be anchored by an accomplished cast of veteran leaders.
Outdoor Hockey (in Ohio)
The other big news to emerge from Michigan hockey in recent days is that of an outdoor game, with the Wolverines set for a February 18th date with Ohio State at the Cleveland Browns’ FirstEnergy Stadium on the frigid shores of Lake Erie.
In his interview with Jansen, Naurato expressed his excitement for the tilt. Naurato missed out on The Big Chill at the Big House clash with Michigan State during his time as a player.
The outdoor game will also provide an opportunity for the young Wolverines to lean on their newly minted captain’s leadership as Moyle is the only player on the current roster to have laced up in the team’s last outdoor game. In that 2019 clash with the Fighting Irish at Notre Dame Stadium, Moyle bagged the game-winning goal.
Better Late than Never: KJ Wins WJC (for Canada)
Whether it was the general malaise of WJC hockey in August or bitterness at the U.S.’s ignominious exit, we never took the time to cover the conclusion of this summer’s bonus edition of the World Juniors.
However, we couldn’t altogether write off the tournament as a meaningless summer gimmick, and that, of course, is because the and only Kent Johnson buried his own rebound three minutes and twenty seconds into overtime cinch victory for the Canadians.
Once again, wherever high level men’s hockey takes place, the University of Michigan makes it presence felt.