{"id":105527,"date":"2020-03-22T10:00:25","date_gmt":"2020-03-22T15:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/?p=105527"},"modified":"2020-08-24T10:32:39","modified_gmt":"2020-08-24T15:32:39","slug":"this-last-week-in-big-ten-hockey-with-season-cancelled-early-coaches-want-to-move-on-slow-down-a-little-bit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/2020\/03\/22\/this-last-week-in-big-ten-hockey-with-season-cancelled-early-coaches-want-to-move-on-slow-down-a-little-bit\/","title":{"rendered":"This (last) Week in Big Ten Hockey: With season cancelled early, coaches want to move on, ‘slow down a little bit’"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"29<\/a>
Minnesota hosts Michigan in a B1G matchup at 3M Arena at Mariucci in Minneapolis, Minn., back on Feb. 29, 2020 (photo: Jim Rosvold).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Among the many ways to process a season ended by a global pandemic, perhaps the most unexpected is with optimism.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like we\u2019re all living in a movie. This is crazy. But what can you do? I\u2019m always a glass-half-full guy,\u201d said Michigan coach Mel Pearson. \u201cWe\u2019ll move forward and we\u2019ll get everybody through it, hopefully. Maybe it\u2019s nice to slow down a little bit. We\u2019re so busy. We\u2019re so caught up in everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

Five days after learning that the season was over for everybody, the Michigan coach was putting things into perspective.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am more encouraged by being around the people that we have and even in all of college hockey,\u201d said Pearson, who emphasized how much he\u2019s enjoying coaching this current generation of players.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t speak for other sports,\u201d said Pearson, \u201cbut in college hockey in general, the young people we have that are going to grow up and be leaders in our communities and all over \u2013 we\u2019ve got some very special, special, special people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Minnesota\u2019s Bob Motzko said, \u201cIn the big picture of it, our guys are great. The real question is, what do we do now? I think over the next two weeks, we\u2019re all going to have to figure that out. It is going to pass. Life is going to get back to normal at some point, but what do we do now until then? That\u2019s what we\u2019re all trying to figure out.\u201d<\/p>\n

The what-to-do-now part of it is something that propels the four coaches of teams still viable in the Big Ten tournament when the NCAA announced that the season was over. Penn State was set to host Minnesota and Michigan would have traveled to play Ohio State.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got to take this thing seriously,\u201d said Ohio State\u2019s Steve Rohlik. \u201cThe better we do that, the sooner we can, hopefully, get back to normality, whenever that might be.\u201d<\/p>\n

And whatever \u201cnormal\u201d might be. There is so much that cannot be planned right now.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything\u2019s on hold \u2013 recruiting, everything,\u201d said Pearson. \u201cWe\u2019re just trying as much as we can to talk about the year, keep the players informed of what\u2019s going on. There are still so many questions. Just try to come up with a plan for spring and summer, given the information we know.\u201d<\/p>\n

Coaches are cautioned to practice the same social distancing that the rest of us are encouraged to do.<\/p>\n

\u201cI haven\u2019t seen my staff now in three days or four days,\u201d said Motzko. \u201cI\u2019m starting to see my family all the time. That\u2019s different \u2013 not only different for me, but I\u2019m sure it\u2019s very different for my family as well. Every week, we\u2019re all going to have to circle back together to see how everything\u2019s going. It\u2019s going to be new and different for every one of us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Motzko said that everyone\u2019s really waiting for direction.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur leaders above us \u2013 whether it\u2019s in our university, NCAA, Big Ten office \u2013 they\u2019re going to have to take a break and follow this and we\u2019re going to take direction from them,” said Motzko. “In the meantime, it\u2019s make sure all our players are safe, they\u2019re at a place where they\u2019re comfortable. Last week was Week Zero. This is Week One.\u201d<\/p>\n

This ability to move forward doesn\u2019t mean that recent events haven\u2019t been, as one coach put it, crushing. Both the Wolverines and the Golden Gophers were on the bubble of the PairWise Rankings, but Penn State and Ohio State were certain to advance to the NCAA tournament.<\/p>\n

For the Nittany Lions \u2013 a team with 10 seniors \u2013 the ending was particularly keen because Penn State was anticipating a return to play after earning a first-round playoff bye and after their regular season ended with a bye week.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were just really excited and looking forward to playing for everything that the Big Ten tournament was going to bring,\u201d said Penn State coach Guy Gadowsky. \u201cWe were fortunate enough to know that we were already going to be in the NCAA tournament, so boy, every day was great because it was just very, very exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gadowsky said that his senior class is \u201cvery, very close\u201d and that they were wanted to end their time at Penn State by making a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cTheir freshman year, they won the Big Ten tournament when, at the time, Penn State was still supposed to be not very good,” Gadowsky said. “I think they wanted to prove that that wasn\u2019t a fluke. They all stayed together and they\u2019ve worked extremely hard to get back to the tournament and to go a lot further, and they really thought they could do that. I really feel for them.\u201d<\/p>\n

The eight-member Ohio State senior class was poised to do something that no other class had done in Buckeye hockey history — make a fourth consecutive trip to the NCAA tournament. This class also is the second in history to have earned 20 or more wins each of its four years.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey believed in us enough here to come to Ohio State, to believe in what we\u2019re doing here and believe in our culture, to believe that we can compete and win on a night in-night-out basis,\u201d said Rohlik. \u201cThis group blended in, carried on the culture from their freshman year on to leading this year. I give them credit for carrying on what we thought we could do here and the program\u2019s in a better place now than when they got here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pearson said that telling his players that their season was over without getting to play another game was one of the hardest things he\u2019s ever had to do as a coach.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was an emotional room,\u201d said Pearson. \u201cWe have nine seniors. The thing is, they felt really good about where we were and our chances and our opportunity. It\u2019s not like you\u2019re going in there telling a team that\u2019s got no chance or talking to a team whose season was already over. It\u2019s totally different. It was hard.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll you can do at that point is thank them, tell them that you love them, and that when they look back this will be a minor setback in the big picture of things for them. I told them to stick together and that\u2019s about it. Still, I think the words ring shallow.\u201d<\/p>\n

Motzko said that once it was revealed that Rudy Gobert of the Utah Jazz had been diagnosed, \u201ceveryone expected\u201d things to change rapidly but that \u201cwhen the final word came down, I only have three seniors, but it was really the look on their faces that was the hardest. I think the rest of our team is so young and their time, I think they know their best time is to come that they\u2019re more able to handle it.\u201d<\/p>\n

All four coaches talked about getting caught up on hockey-related things that they\u2019ve been putting off, like reviewing tape, tweaking systems, gathering information and consulting with others \u2013 from a safe distance.<\/p>\n

\u201cLike a lot of coaches, I\u2019ve got all these little projects that I\u2019ve wanted to work on for about 10 years,\u201d said Motzko. \u201cI\u2019m actually now going to hold myself accountable. There\u2019s a lot of professional development things we can do, and we all have them. We all talk about them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Motzko added that there are projects at home, too. \u201cOh, that list has already grown, too. I\u2019ve already been informed of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pearson said that his daughters are happy to have him around to spend time with his three grandchildren, all under the age of five. On March 16, he posted a video of a little family quality time.<\/p>\n

\n

At this time last night we should of been in Columbus Ohio beating Ohio State ! Bus ride 3 hours , game time 2.5 hours singing the \u201cVictors \u201c awesome . Being at home with my 3 grandkids playing the piano ….Priceless ! ?
\u303d\ufe0fGoBlue ??? pic.twitter.com\/9YCucH0KGV<\/a><\/p>\n

— Mel Pearson (@CoachPearsonUM) March 16, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n