Midweek Roundup: B1G Title Edition (3.16.22)
Michigan prepares for its conference title date with Minnesota; possession as a form of defense; cathartic goals
The University of Michigan’s men’s hockey team will travel to Minneapolis to take on the Minnesota Golden Gophers for the postseason Big Ten Title on Saturday night.
Michigan’s path to this game involved a sweep of the lowly Michigan State Spartans (against whom it went 6-0 this season) before edging out the Notre Dame Fighting Irish (against whom it entered the game 0-5).
For Minnesota, a regular season conference title entitled the Gophers to a first-round bye in the B1G Tournament, meaning a 3-2 victory over Penn State last weekend was enough to solidify a spot in the title game.
A week ago, we argued that Notre Dame’s style and prolonged success against the Wolverines made that match-up about more than just a shot in the conference tournament final.
Instead, for Michigan, it was a test of postseason viability; if the Wolverines couldn’t find a way through the Irish on their fifth go-round, postseason failure in the NCAA Tournament would feel inevitable. Fortunately, Michigan won and dreams of a tenth national title in program history remain within reach.
This week, the stakes are more obvious: win and claim the program’s second ever Big Ten title, lose and enter the NCAA Tournament with a sour taste in your mouth, but enter it nonetheless.
In other words, this match-up lacks the do-or-die feel of last weekend’s, even if the ostensible stakes grew in the step up the ladder from conference semi-final to conference final.
To be frank, the B1G title this roster had in mind was the one Michigan already conceded to the Gophers when it bungled its regular season-closing series against Notre Dame.
But those results are in the past, and Michigan will have a chance to give itself a healthy confidence boost as it enters the NCAA Tournament on Saturday night at 3M Arena at Mariucci by knocking off a premier program to win the Big Ten postseason title.
Match Up and Conference Tournament History
Michigan enters the weekend having split its four previous matchups with the Gophers this season. For full recaps of those two series, follow the links below:
The two hockey blue bloods have a lengthy, and for Michigan mostly disheartening, history in conference tournament play. Minnesota took the first of these matchups back in the 1961 WCHA final and have since gone on to a 2-7 record against Michigan.
In the last two completed B1G tournaments, the Gophers have eliminated the Wolverines (in the 2019 quarters and 2021 semis).
The good news is that Michigan’s one B1G tournament triumph concluded with a 5-3 win over Minnesota back in 2016.
When last we met the Gophers back in February (the final series before Owen Power and Kent Johnson, and then Matty Beniers and Brendan Brisson, left for Beijing), we highlighted the importance of the Gophers’ “Nine Line.” Made up of number twenty-nine Chaz Lucius, number thirty-nine Ben Meyers, and number eighty-nine Matthew Knies, the line was dominant for Bob Motzko’s team, encapsulating the quick-hitting, short-passing approach in which the Gophers traffic.
Now though, Lucius has been out of action since February 12, missing five games along the way. Sophomore Mason Nevers has stepped into his role alongside Knies and Meyers, but the Gophers cannot profess to pack the same offensive punch without Lucius. We have no word as to whether to expect him Saturday night.
The reason Minnesota managed to win the Big Ten regular season title despite Jack LaFontaine’s mid-season departure has been the emergence of Justen Close. Close, a junior from Kindersley, Saskatchewan, took over LaFontaine’s crease and, after an initial wobble, turned himself into an outstanding backstop. Close has posted a sterling .933 save percentage and 1.74 GAA, more than enough to assuage all doubt as to the Gophers’ goaltending following LaFontaine’s departure.
Since the game will be at 3M Arena in Minneapolis, we are contractually obligated to remind you that the game will take place on a wide rink, giving the Wolverines plenty of space to explore.
For Michigan, our biggest question involves the three Olympic forwards: Brisson, Beniers, and Johnson. Last weekend, Mel Pearson opted to keep that trio together, despite pairing Brisson with Thomas Bordeleau on the second line for the B1G quarters against Michigan State. Whether together or split, those three forwards will need to be visible all night long.
While we have lauded the ability of Michigan’s depth to carry play and negate opposing opportunities, it will be up to Michigan’s big guns to be decisive. That was no problem for Beniers, Brisson, and Johnson against the Irish last Saturday. We’ll have to wait and see how they fair in Minny this weekend.
Midweek Notes
Defending Through Possession with Pep
Last weekend, we wrote about the way Michigan appeared to assert control of its contest with Notre Dame while retaining the attacking mindset that makes it special. For more on what that can look like, let’s switch sports for a moment.
Pep Guardiola is among the most successful European soccer coaches of the 21st century. He was the architect of the greatest club sides of the modern era at Barcelona, before a successful stint with Bayern Munich, and now has Manchester City on top of the premier league and favorites to win the Champions League.
Guardiola, the product of a decades long philosophical project at Barcelona that began with the illustrious Johan Cruyff, believes that possession and domination of the ball is the key to victory. His teams routinely own possession of the ball for 60% of a game or more, aweing spectators with their daring displays of attacking football.
While he is most closely associated with the high-powered offense associated with his possession style, Guardiola believes firmly in possession not just as an offensive strategy but also a defensive one.
Here’s the Catalan manager in an interview with Sky Sports from last February:
"The reason why [our defensive record is so good] is because 67 percent of the time we have the ball. This is the main reason. The main reason is that we have the ball. If you have the ball as much as possible then the opponent does not have the ball. Absolutely, I do not want to concede goals. And I want to score a lot. That is why we are working with good quality players who want to have the ball.”
We are all familiar with the aphorism that “the best defense is a good offense,” but Guardiola explains that phenomenon on an intellectual level. While you are building your team’s possession, you simultaneously organize your own structure and destabilize your opponent’s.
The following is lifted from an interview with Guardiola as part of Marti Perarnau’s Pep Confidential (an essential read for anyone with a remote interest in the tactical underpinnings of any sport), with Pep explaining why he believes in a fifteen-pass build-up sequence before his team actually begins to attack:
“The percentage of possession a team has…is irrelevant in itself. What’s crucial is the reason they are doing these things…what the team plans to do when they have the ball…
“Having the ball is important if you are going for fifteen consecutive passes in the middle of the field in order to maintain your shape, whilst at the same time upsetting the opposition’s organization. How do you disorganize them? With fast, tight, focused passing as part of this fifteen-move sequence. You need most of your men working as a unit…And whilst you make those fifteen moves and organize yourselves, your opponents are chasing you all over the park, trying to get the ball from you. In the process, without realizing it, they’ll have lost all organization.
If you lose the ball…, then the player who takes it will probably be alone and surrounded by your players…it’s these fifteen passes that prevent your rival from making any kind of coordinated transition.”
By taking the time to build up without rushing, a team is able to build a structure that is multi-functional.
On the one hand, it allows the team that has built it attacking options. It has allowed the team to control the central part of the field, freeing up that team’s top attacking players to attack into the most dangerous parts of the field for its opponent. In the case of the Bayern teams described in the book, that was Franck Ribery and Arjen Robben. For the 2021-22 Michigan Wolverines, that might be Kent Johnson and Thomas Bordeleau (though there are numerous other candidates).
On the other hand, by building that structure through possession, you have also created a mechanism that minimizes risk when you do lose the ball. Your opponent, weary from chasing your attempts to build possession, might have the ball briefly, but they will take it in harmless areas and with minimal support.
All of this could be used to explain Michigan’s success against Notre Dame last Saturday night. By building up possession slowly, Michigan freed its attackers to receive the puck in maximally dangerous areas, while minimizing the counter-attacking options for the Irish.
At different points, Michigan might even attempt a lengthy stretch pass, only to recycle possession back to its own blue line, before breaking the puck out again. In so doing, the Wolverines tired the Irish while also destabilizing the stout defensive structure that has become the hallmark of Jeff Jackson’s program.
Of course, the frantic pace of hockey combined with the confinement of an ice rink makes a true possession style (like the one employed by Guardiola) untenable. Nonetheless, Guardiola’s principles hold.
For Michigan to find success next weekend in Minneapolis (and beyond), it would do well to maintain that approach. While they are more aggressive and attack-minded than Jackson’s Irish, Bob Motzko’s Golden Gophers make hay on their ability to attack in transition.
The Wolverines would be well served playing a similar game to last weekend’s, relying on patient build-up play to set up quality opportunities for their stars while neutralizing the Gophers’.
Yost Last Saturday
At Gulo Gulo, we believe that the most interesting way to cover hockey is by discussing on-ice performance more than anything else. This is not to say we want to ignore the sport’s unsavory off-ice stories, but rather that, except when necessary, we want to focus on what happens on the ice during games.
As such, we’ve come to fear that we have forsaken an essential element of Michigan hockey: its beloved setting. Since Saturday night’s win over the Irish will be the final home game of the year for the Maize and Blue, we thought we’d take a brief moment to celebrate Yost Ice Arena and its fans.
One of the great things about Yost is that, even on the rare occasions when it isn’t full, it remains rowdy. When the NTDP paid a visit to Ann Arbor in early February, snow in Ann Arbor limited the crowd to well South of the 5,800 person limit. Nonetheless, that crowd made itself heard throughout the game, even if it was only an exhibition.
Last weekend, there were no such capacity concerns, and a sold out Yost rotated between boisterous and euphoric.
Notre Dame coming to town gave the Children of Yost the opportunity to share their views on Catholicism, indulgences, and unreasonable tuition at a certain parochial Indiana university.
By game’s end, the crowd reached a deafening din, jubilant at its beloved Wolverines’ triumph.
While it might not have the grandeur of the Big House on an autumnal Saturday afternoon, Yost puts Michigan Stadium to shame in terms of sheer volume.
The Children of Yost have a number of bits, ranging from the juvenile to the delightful. My personal favorite is when the students offer thanks to the arena’s PA announcer after he has declared that there is one minute remaining in a period. The rare occasions when that voice of god responds with “you’re welcome” are as loud as I’ve heard the arena, and I mean that as a wholehearted compliment.
The humble brick building, packed to capacity, is a spectacular place to watch a hockey game, and we at Gulo Gulo were thrilled to do so all year, especially on the heels of a year and a half of watching games with only dismal empty seats as a setting.
Vrana’s Cathartic Goals
Early devotees to this newsletter will recall our “Cathartic Goal of the Week” as a staple of the first iterations of the Midweek Roundup. We haven’t returned to the bit in some time, but that will have to change after the week Jakub Vrana has enjoyed.
Vrana, one of the few exciting young players on the Cup-winning Washington Capitals, endured a frustrating 2021-22 season. First, despite sterling numbers, he was inexplicably ostracized by his coach in Washington, only to be stunned by a deadline move that sent him to Detroit. He exploded out of the gate with the Wings, only for an injury to prematurely end his season.
Last Tuesday, in an otherwise heinous 9-2 loss to the Coyotes, Vrana finally returned. In the game’s lone bright spot for Detroit fans, he scored.
Though the game was already out of hand, the Czech winger couldn’t contain his excitement and relief, resulting in a double fist pump that left no doubt as to what the goal meant for him.
Two night’s later, Vrana scored two more—both of them gorgeous—against Minnesota.
Here’s to catharsis and Jakub Vrana. Hats off to you, V.