Midweek Roundup 10.19.22
A Lake State pre-scout, a check-in with Erik Portillo, reviewing Mackie Samoskevich’s hot start, a Naurato grab bag, and another reminder of what “toxic” culture looks like
After a weekend in which it showcased its offensive firepower Friday and then its inexperience Sunday, the University of Michigan men’s hockey team will get its first taste of life on the road with this weekend’s trip Up North to Lake Superior State.
When last we saw the Wolverines, they were miffed by what head coach Brandon Naurato described as a substandard performance against Boston University Sunday night. By Tuesday’s media availability after practice, the mood around the team is markedly different; disappointment and frustration have given way to optimism and satisfaction at a diligent day in the office following a Monday off-day.
As Naurato sees it, it wasn’t so much the final score that left Michigan disheartened so much as the sense that the team left something on the table for the Terriers to steal away: “I don’t judge the game by the score; I feel like I’m pretty good about that. There’s a lot of things we could clean up…It’s not that it was some disaster; I probably just expect more of them…We had a really good work day today and talked about winning wall battles and puck protection. You can do whatever offensive system or defensive system you want. If you can’t protect pucks, if you can’t manage pucks, you can’t make plays.”
Now, Michigan prepares for seven of its next eight away from Yost Ice Arena, begin with this weekend’s trip to Sault Ste. Marie, before a home-and-home with Western Michigan, and then consecutive road series to begin the Big Ten season against Penn State and then Notre Dame.
Scouting the Lakers
As friend of the newsletter Drew Van Drese noted, this weekend’s series might not have the same verve it would have in the early 90s, when Lake State appeared in three consecutive national title games and won two of them under current Notre Dame coach Jeff Jackson. (Incidentally, if you’re in the mood for exploring controversies, consider this article from Flo Hockey, which delves into the possibility that officials missed what should have been an equalizer in the final minute of a game that concluded as a 5-4 victory for Paul Kariya and the University of Maine).
It’s not as though the Lakers are lost in the wilderness, given that they did appear in the 2021 NCAA Tournament and finished last season a respectable 18-18-1 and fourth in the eight-team CCHA. Nonetheless, the years of competing for national titles now appear a long distance in the rearview mirror. Before 2021, the Lakers had not qualified for NCAAs since their streak of nine consecutive tournament berths snapped in 1996.
Lake State began its season with a two-game home set against Nebraska-Omaha. The Mavericks took a 3-1 Friday night victory, before Saturday’s game ended as a 4-4 draw.
Captain Louis Boudon returns as the team’s highest scorer a year ago, when he registered fifteen goals and twenty-nine assists in thirty-six games. Boudon—a native of Grenoble, France—is one of six Lakers who hail from Europe. Defensemen Jacob Bengtsson, Arvid Henrikson, and Sebastian Miedema were born in Sweden. Junior defenseman Artyom Borshyov comes from Vitebsk, Belarus, and sophomore forward Timo Bakos calls Augsburg, Germany home.
In net, junior goaltender Ethan Langenegger started both games last weekend, stopping fifty-eight of the sixty-four shots he faced. Those figures leave him with a .903 save percentage and 2.88 GAA entering the series against Michigan. That stat line is slightly off the pace Langenegger set a year ago, when he was a .912 and 2.65 goaltender over twenty-two starts for the Lakers.
Portillo Check-In
After a speculative review of Michigan’s towering Swedish goalkeeper in last week’s edition of the Midweek Roundup, we spoke to the man himself after Tuesday’s practice.
We wanted to hear more about the way that Erik Portillo deals with the (comparatively) light work he faced in the season’s first three games, as opposed to the challenge of a more back-and-forth affair in the season’s first loss Sunday. In the opening weekend against Lindenwood, Michigan boasted a heavy advantage in shots (55-21 Friday and 41-17 Saturday. Last Friday against BU, that narrative shifted slightly with Michigan eking out only a 34-28 advantage in shots on goal, but nearly half of those Terrier attempts (thirteen to be precise) came in the second period, by which point the outcome was beyond doubt. On Sunday, the Terriers became the first team to outshoot Michigan in a game at a 34-33 margin. Portillo explained that navigating a variable workload is “one of the big challenges with being a goalie to be able to handle those different situations.”
“[In a game like those against Lindenwood, where you face very few chances], you just got to work to stay focused. They were good when they got their chances, so just got to stay focused and really be tough mentally…Against BU it’s a little different. You’re in it all the time, so just trying to stay sharp, but it’s a little easier when you have more to do”
Often on a hockey broadcast, analysts will suggest that testing a goalie by firing on goal at even the faintest opportunity to provide an early challenge is an optimal strategy, but Portillo explains that for a goaltender the opposite is often true: “It’s nice to get a feeling for it early…You don’t want to stand there, and it’s like any performance I think you want to get that start going and then you go from there.”
Two of Portillo’s other strategies for staying engaged when the Wolverines’ are dominating a game’s chances are through communication and playing the puck.
The good folks behind @UMichHockey were kind enough to put a microphone on Portillo during practice, offering definitive evidence that, despite a soft-spoken manner off the ice, the goaltender is perhaps the most vociferous Wolverine on it.
Even without a microphone and over the din of Yost on gameday, Portillo’s instructions to his teammates are audible from the press box.
The netminder explains that his communication can sometimes be as much about maintaining his own focus as advising his teammates, saying “It’s about a lot of technical small things, so I’m just trying to talk all the time to stay engaged. It helps me as well to really think over the game as it goes on.”
Portillo also points out that his vantage from the crease affords him a perspective that his teammates can’t otherwise tap into: “I can see the whole thing develop from a completely different angle to them, so I’m just trying to help them be smarter and get a better understanding of what’s going on.”
When he’s not communicating (or perhaps as he’s communicating), Portillo may turn to playing the puck as an alternate strategy for maintaining engagement.
“Through the years, I’ve always wanted to be an active goalie, and I know, with all the D I’ve played with, they really liked that as well.”
From a preparation perspective, Portillo explains that his primary focus is on ensuring his own game is sound, rather than over-emphasizing his opponent. The goaltender explains “it’s not too often we look at [opposing] players. We usually look at their way of setting up…In power play situations, we do look at players sometimes, but I think a lot of it is just me feeling comfortable before the game…I can’t focus too much on the other team, either. It’s got to be about me and got to be about our team playing our way and forcing them to make decisions based on that.”
Portillo is remarkably generous with his time after practice, and the conversation eventually drifts to his new pads for the season. Functionally, the pads are nearly identical to those of last season, except he has reinforced a “knee block” on the interior of each leg pad to make them more “rigid” and “balanced” when he pushes across his crease.
When we express our disappointment that he no longer wears pads and a blocker bearing the sailor “Wolverbear” logo, Portillo informs us that he loved that set (shown below from a game against Wisconsin last fall) but was forced to retire it because it was not an official logo. Evidently, the pads were one more casualty of the NCAA’s war on fun.
When asked about Portillo, Brandon Naurato says that while he may be a partial adjudicator, he believes Portillo is the best goaltender in college hockey but doesn’t want that to become a crutch for his team defensively: “We don’t want to just expect him to be great…we want to be great in front of him.”
WoHo Wednesday
The University of Michigan women’s ice hockey team extended its winning streak to three games last Thursday, with a two-to-one victory over Utah at Yost. Maria Di Cresce and Cara Kolwich scored for the Wolverines, while Sandrine Ponnath stopped twenty-four of twenty-five Ute shots.
Before the season, Jenna Trubiano told us that Ponnath could be the best goaltender in the ACHA. Through five games, that prediction looks prophetic; the sophomore from Dana Point, CA has posted a sterling .957 save percentage and 1.29 goals against average to date. Whether it’s on the men’s side or women’s, it is not an easy time to be a goalscorer visiting Ann Arbor.
Trubiano’s team returns to action this weekend with a home-and-home against Indiana Tech. Friday’s game will be at Yost, before the Wolverines travel to Fort Wayne to take on the Warriors at Parkview Ice House.
Ascendant Samoskevich
Perhaps slightly lost amongst the disappointment at Sunday’s result and the excitement surrounding the novelty of a robust freshmen class has been Mackie Samoskevich’s lethal start to the campaign.
Before the season, we wrote that a leveling up from Samoskevich after a promising freshman year in a complementary role would likely be a prerequisite for the Wolverines’ building on last year’s Frozen Four appearance.
Through four games, the Wolverines could hardly ask for more from the Connecticutian winger, who has four goals, two assists, and seventeen shots already. Samoskevich has emerged as a key weapon for Michigan on the power play and also taken on added responsibilities as a penalty killer for the Wolverines this season (something we never saw from him a year ago). With Samoskevich on the ice short-handed, opposing power plays must live in perpetual fear of fast-breaking counterpunches from the Wolverines.
Meanwhile, the forward employs a short stick (styled after that of Auston Matthews for better close control) and makes frequent use of a lacrosse-like cradle to send defenders in the wrong direction and free up space for himself. In transition and in the wide areas of the rink, Samoskevich has been the nightmare for opposing defensemen we hoped he could be with a bigger role as a sophomore.
Meanwhile, Michigan’s two five-on-three goals from last Friday begin to illustrate his versatility.
As you can see in this goal from last February against Michigan State, Samoskevich loves to score by moving straight down the “funnel” of the outer recesses of the slot.
Attacking through the center lane of the offensive zone affords the winger the perfect launchpad for his lethal wrister, but it’s hardly the only place where Samoskevich can pose problems for opposing defenses.
On the first of the four Wolverine 5-on-3 goals Friday night, Samoskevich showed a veteran’s awareness of space to find open ice and convert. When a pass from Adam Fantilli along the left flank to Dylan Duke at the goal line pulled all three Terrier killers toward Duke, Samoskevich swam against the grain to settle into a soft pocket in the BU coverage and whipped a shot that left little chance for Drew Commesso.
On the second of those 5-on-3 tallies, Samoskevich shows a different side to his game: that of a relentless two-hundred-foot competitor. We love Samoskevich for his fast hands and feet, but he helped create Michigan’s third goal of the game through his effort.
The play begins with a full-length BU clearance, and the Terriers appear to have at least decent offensive prospects short-handed. However, Samoskevich, albeit through unconventional means, wins the puck free for Luke Hughes thanks to his hustle. Hughes snaps a quick headman pass to Adam Fantilli, who is able to ease his way into the offensive zone with several BU killers caught up ice at what they thought might be an offensive chance. Because of his defensive efforts, Samoskevich arrives a moment later than he otherwise might, but that actually affords him more room with which to release his fearsome wrist shot. Even if Commesso makes the initial save, he cannot control the puck, leaving a juicy rebound for T.J. Hughes to deposit.
Samoskevich’s form through four games suggests that, as we hoped, his talent would only blossom with a bigger role as a sophomore. By adding new layers to the high-flying transition game he showed a year ago, the slick Connecticutian appears a key piece to one of the nation’s top lines alongside Adam Fantilli and Dylan Duke and deserves more than passing consideration as the nation’s top player
Miscellaneous Nar Nuggets: Youth Sticks, Handedness, and Nazar Recovery
After Tuesday’s practice, Naurato explains that, before he returned to Michigan as a coach, he had a future lined up in the world of youth hockey sticks: Bauer “was going to come out with a ‘Naurato curve,’ where it’s gonna be universal for kids to use…It’s got a bigger toe curve, but it’s straight [along most of the blade] so it’s better for handling pucks and your backhand and stickhandling, but you can still shoot. I feel like some kids have way too big of curves, and it takes away from the rest of their curve.”
Naurato adds that his prospective youth stick (which he has a few of for personal use) resembled that of Thomas Bordeleau, before elaborating on his thinking: “The bigger the curve, the more you lose your backhand and your hands in general, so most playmakers and stick handlers have a straight stick versus Ovechkin [where] it’s like a banana curve…My whole thought process was that if you lower the lie and you can straighten it and then just wedge it at the end, then you’re gonna have the best of every world.”
We also inquire with Naurato about the import of handedness up and down his lineup. Notably, offensive catalysts from the blue line Luke Hughes and Seamus Casey both play on their “off” sides (Hughes is a left shot playing on the right, and Casey is a right shot playing on the left).
Conventional wisdom dictates that players line up with their stick blades to the outside of the rink, the theory being that such an alignment better facilitates possession because it makes it easier to pick up pucks along the wall. Naurato, never one to blindly defer to conventional wisdom, explains that using those two players on their off sides is a matter of experimentation:
“I’m just trying to put guys in different spots and see who takes the ball and runs with it…Luke Hughes playing the left side versus the right, because who knows where he’s gonna play in New Jersey or even this year with us, it puts him in different spots. It’s not right or wrong…so you could put them in different spots from a development standpoint, and now they appreciate new situations, and they’re kind of learning through that.”
He explains that fidelity to lefties on the left and righties on the right gives way to “trying to get guys with certain people so they can have the most success.” With Casey in particular, Naurato says the process was simple: “I asked Seamus ‘you ever played the off wing?’ and he said ‘Yeah, I loved it.’ I’m like ‘perfect, you’re playing left D,’ and then we can walk through video and see what situations he puts himself in or what his options are.”
On the injury front, after a Scott Powers piece in The Athletic revealed that Frank Nazar will soon undergo surgery, Naurato emphasizes supporting the freshman through the rehab process, which can too often become a lonely one. Naurato compares injury recovery to a kid going away to college and being away from his family for the first time, since Nazar will not travel with the team, nor will he able to practice for some time. For Naurato, the most important thing is to “make sure…his mental health is good” and “just trying to be there for him” throughout the strenuous process of rehabilitation.
Another Clarification on “Toxic Culture”
Last Friday, the website Tech Hockey Guide published an interview with former Husky star David Johnstone, who played at Michigan Tech between 2011 and 2015 under Mel Pearson.
Though the interview is difficult to read, it is also remarkable to encounter the grace with which Johnstone (one of the most productive players to ever pass through Tech’s program who did not play one game of professional hockey) describes the way his hockey career was derailed by a combination of injury and bullying by his then-head coach.
It is of course worth noting that the interview is Johnstone’s account of events, rather than a document like the WilmerHale report about Michigan’s culture under Pearson (which relies on multiple sources and extensive independent investigation). So with the caveat that these are allegations, we should first name the tremendous courage shown by Johnstone in telling this story at all.
For the full story, please do read Matt Cavender’s piece in its entirety, but as a brief summary, Johnstone first saw signs of trouble in the way Pearson (whose first season in Houghton was Johnstone’s freshman year) dispensed with upperclassmen whom he deemed unworthy of his roster. According to Johnstone, at least one such teammate had to recover their belongings in trash bags left outside the Husky locker room. Johnstone also alleges that Pearson was hostile toward any Husky who demonstrated interest in pursuing a professional career, and, most disturbingly, tells Tech Hockey Guide about repeated instances of Pearson pressuring him to play through various injuries including multiple concussions as a junior.
Johnstone explains “Mel called me into his office after that, we were on a losing streak or something along those lines and Brian Brewster, who was the athletic trainer at the time—thank God for him because I think he saved my life—but we went into the office and it was like a pissing match. He was like, ‘You need to get back out there and play,’ ‘Maybe if you just start working out you’ll feel better’ and Brew was like ‘No, he can’t do it. He’s not passing his tests, he’s not doing this.’ [Mel replied] ‘I don’t believe it.’ I would leave the rink crying from there on out, I did not feel safe anywhere on that whole campus. I haven’t even taken a step in the SDC since I left, isn’t that gnarly?”
Pearson, privately and publicly according to Johnstone, challenged Johnstone’s masculinity and toughness. Those instances of deliberate attempts to embarrass a player in front of all of his teammates seem to resemble the pattern of abuse Akim Aliu has described in explicating hockey’s culture of racism from youth hockey to the pros.
Amazingly, Johnstone wishes no ill-will toward Pearson and instead hopes that his former coach might one day acknowledge his errors. He explained that Pearson and he “don’t see eye to eye and [Pearson] caused [him] a lot of pain and trauma. I don’t know why he did the things he did, but I have to forgive him. I know he was under a lot of pressure. I just think he owes an apology to a lot of people out there and it’s unfortunate that he can’t see that he owes people an apology. Maybe one day, he will.”
Again, we don’t wish to dwell on this story forever, but if you have previously held any uncertainty as to whether “toxic culture” really was a problem during the Pearson era, Johnstone’s portrayal of a vindictive, bullying coach fits clearly into the behavior described in the WilmerHale report.
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