Midweek Roundup: January 26, 2022
Previewing Wisconsin; Brendan Brisson as you’ve never seen him; another Olympic update
This weekend, the University of Michigan men’s ice hockey team travels to Madison, where it will reacquaint itself with the Wisconsin Badgers for a Friday-Saturday set.
It will be the final series before Matty Beniers and Brendan Brisson travel to Beijing to represent Team USA in the Olympics, and Owen Power and Kent Johnson are already overseas and unavailable for this series. As such, there is an added pressure on the Wolverines to take care of business against a Badger team that sits fifth in the B1G standings.
Entering the weekend, Michigan is tied with Ohio State atop the conference, with each team earning thirty-three points from its sixteen conference games to date.
Editor’s Note: the original version of this newsletter erroneously suggested that Power and Johnson would be available
What’s New with Wisconsin?
In what is by now clearly established as a rebuilding season for the defending regular season Big Ten champs, Wisconsin is off to a 2-2-1 start to the new year. The Badgers began 2022 by losing first in regulation then in a shootout to Ohio State, before sweeping Michigan State at home. Last weekend, Wisconsin traveled to Penn State and lost twice by a combined score of eleven to three. In other words, Michigan won’t be facing a red hot Badger team when it travels to the Kohl Center this weekend.
On the bright side for Wisconsin, defenseman Corson Ceulemens is in the midst of a productive freshman season for Tony Granato’s team, scoring seventeen points in twenty-three games (a 0.74 points/game pace).
The Badgers also appear to have found a dependable goaltender in junior Jared Moe. Moe, a New Prague, Minnesota native, arrived in Madison this season as a transfer from his home-state Gophers. In two years in Minneapolis, Moe posted a solid .907 save percentage over twenty appearances, but, with just four of those appearances coming in his sophomore year, the netminder hit the transfer portal in search of ice time.
Moe found that ice time with the Badgers, and he has made the most of it. In twenty-two appearances, Moe has posted a sparkling .920 save percentage, establishing himself as the clear starter for Granato.
If Wisconsin wants to hang with the Wolverines this weekend, Moe will have to lead the charge.
When Last We Met the Badgers
Michigan opened its B1G season with a matchup against the Badgers in Ann Arbor all the way back in October. Michigan dominated the Badgers on Friday, posting a 3-0 victory in which it exerted complete control over play. The following night, a lackadaisical Michigan side fell into a hole from which it couldn’t recover, ultimately falling 2-4. That Saturday loss wasn’t all bad though, as Kent Johnson did score a delightful between-the-legs goal.
For a full recap of that series in vivid detail, follow the link below.
Brendan Brisson: Decisive Certainly, Jedi Possibly
Amidst Michigan’s hot start to the new year (five wins in six tries with the lone exception last Friday’s OT loss to Minnesota), the Wolverines’ stars have shouldered near the entire scoring burden. It’s not that Michigan’s depth players have played poorly; rather, their effective play has manifested in maintaining control of play more than in putting goals on the scoreboard. No Wolverine skater has been more consistent in 2022 than Brendan Brisson.
At the moment, the two surest things in Michigan hockey are Brendan Brisson goals and taken major penalties. The Californian winger has five goals in 2022’s six games, along with four assists.
We’ve said it before, but Brendan Brisson has the potential to offer a major impact come the postseason for the Vegas Golden Knights, a team sure to benefit from the addition of a gifted forward on what would be an entry-level contract.
Knowing that I would be profiling Brisson in this week’s roundup, I took to YouTube to watch some compilations of his play. What I found instead was a phenomenal “trick shot” video, reminiscent of Wolverine Emiratis Dylan Larkin’s alter ego D-Boss.
In a glorious 1:42 second clip posted to YouTube by user BrendanBrisson22, a nine-year-old Brendan Brisson showcases the silkiest of hands in what appears to be a miniature backyard rink in Southern California. The video is set to Fort Minor’s “Remember the Name,” a detail that hardly merits mention because what other song would it be set to? BrendanBrisson22, whom Gulo Gulo Hockey cannot confirm is in fact Brisson, writes in their caption “Hope you enjoy watching it as much as I have fun practicing it.” It is the best possible caption for such a video.
If you talk to former NHL players, especially players for whom some time around 2010 saw the twilight of their careers about today’s NHL player, they will always mention that the youngest generation of professional hockey players brings with it a level of puck skill that vastly outpaces those who came before it. Whether it is composite sticks or the decline of body contact at all levels of hockey, today’s young hockey player has grown up attempting stickhandling tricks that would have gotten you tried for heresy in North America hockey in the 70s, 80s, or 90s.
At an NHL level, you’ve seen this manifest in Trevor Zegras’ “Dishigan.”
And, of course, it brought with it a backlash from the man who has replaced Bryan Burke as mainstream hockey media’s chief defender of some mythic code of conduct, albeit amidst a crowded field.
Finally, you’ll note the scare quotes around “trick shot,” when I introduced the video. I offered those because strictly speaking Brisson looks more as though he is training to be a Jedi than shooting. Then again, when force push comes to shove, who else would you rather have on your hockey team than a Jedi?
More Big Ice
For the second consecutive weekend, Michigan will compete on an expansive ice sheet, with the Badgers’ Kohl Center rink twelve feet wider than the standard eighty-five feet. It would seem to follow that playing under similar conditions last weekend in Minneapolis would be a boon at puck drop on Friday night.
Minnesota outplayed Michigan for prolonged stretches during last weekend’s series, but that seemed to have more to do with their skilled forwards and sound neutral zone defense than the width of the rink, even if Michigan did take a period or two to get a feel for the big ice.
When Michigan was successful against the Gophers, that success came from both forwards and defensemen carrying the puck out of the defensive zone, before initiating a sequence of horizontal passes. I suspect the Wolverines will want to be more consistent in that approach in Madison this weekend.
Another Olympic Update
For what feels like the dozenth time, we’ve had the list of four current Wolverines representing the U.S. and Canada this February in the Olympics, with Canada formally announcing its roster earlier this week. Owen Power and Kent Johnson were tapped by Canada to compete with Matty Beniers, Brendan Brisson and Team USA.
There was a bit of a twist though, when Kent Johnson was named as an alternate rather than a full-on member of Team Canada. It appears he would only play if an injury or COVID-positive required a fresh player in the lineup.
To be frank, it’s hard not to feel as though this scenario at least has the potential to end up the worst of both worlds, with Johnson missing a number of Michigan games while not even dressing for Canada. By no means do I intend to question Johnson’s choice to accept the invitation. Alternate or not, Hockey Canada and the Olympics offer an irresistible opportunity here.
I do hope—both because I hope he gets the opportunity and because I want to watch—that KJ does end up playing meaningful minutes for Canada in Beijing. I have no doubt he would flourish if given a chance.