{"id":28343,"date":"2006-04-09T10:50:50","date_gmt":"2006-04-09T15:50:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.uscho.com\/2006\/04\/09\/four-guys-youre-going-to-miss\/"},"modified":"2010-08-17T19:56:35","modified_gmt":"2010-08-18T00:56:35","slug":"four-guys-youre-going-to-miss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/2006\/04\/09\/four-guys-youre-going-to-miss\/","title":{"rendered":"Four Guys You’re Going To Miss"},"content":{"rendered":"
At the end of every season, college hockey fans across the country say goodbye to seniors they’ve known for four years, young men whose careers and lives they’ve followed into the early stages of adulthood.<\/p>\n
Among college hockey fans, there is a certain snobbery regarding “our” players, the arguable assertion that guys who play hockey are better kids than those who play other popular college sports, that hockey players are good people, character people who would never embarrass their programs, parents, and the sport itself with their behavior.<\/p>\n
That’s why, when I caught up with Ohio State’s Dave Caruso at the Frozen Four Skills Challenge, I was thrilled to hear him utter these words:<\/p>\n
“I’ll tell you something about Brandon Kaleniecki. He was wearing Ohio State underwear. I saw it with my own eyes.”<\/p>\n
Ah, there’s nothing like a graduating senior whose eligibility is finished to give you the real scoop on college hockey. Well, given the source and the context, perhaps real<\/i> is a slippery concept.<\/p>\n
Mike Walsh, Notre Dame<\/b><\/p>\n
I caught up with Caruso along with two other CCHA seniors, Notre Dame’s Mike Walsh and Michigan State’s Colton Fretter, at the Frozen Four Skills Challenge in the Bradley Center Friday in Milwaukee. Actually, I met Walsh for the first time the night before at our hotel. It was about 1 a.m., and he was exiting an elevator that I was entering. Loyal to the end, I was wearing my CCHA logo sweatshirt. This is how the conversation went.<\/p>\n
Walsh: “Hey! CCHA!”
\nMe: “Hey! Notre Dame! Who are you?”
\nWalsh: “Mike Walsh!”
\nMe: “Paula Weston!”
\nBoth: “Hey!”<\/p>\n
After we exchanged a very hearty handshake, I realized that I was meeting for the first time a player I wish I’d known better for the past four years. Walsh, a tall, charismatic, upbeat native of Northville, Mich., began his career at Notre Dame with a freshman campaign hampered by injury and illness. Like many graduating seniors, Walsh said he’ll miss nearly everything about Fighting Irish college hockey.<\/p>\n
“Just the whole experience of getting up and going to the rink each day, having a chance to go to Notre Dame. I really loved it there. It was just a rocky four years.<\/p>\n
“Personally, I didn’t get my feet wet before I broke my jaw and then I had mono right away, so it was a lot of uphill battles, and I’m very grateful for the whole experience.”<\/p>\n
After a two-point freshman season, Walsh registered 25 points his sophomore year (12-13–25), but slumped along with the rest of the Fighting Irish during Notre Dame’s incredibly lackluster 2004-2005 season, leading to Dave Poulin’s removal as Notre Dame’s head coach.<\/p>\n
This year, Notre Dame improved under Jeff Jackson to the point of being competitive. Walsh finished his senior year with 10 goals and seven assists.<\/p>\n
“I think it was a culmination of just the bad getting worse the year before,” said Walsh. “It’s change, maybe? Guys who were dedicated were expected to perform to their highest levels in practice, and that translated into a different team that you saw on the ice.<\/p>\n
“I think everyone was kind of anxious for a fresh start, with all due respect to Coach Poulin. Just a breath of fresh air.”<\/p>\n
Colton Fretter, Michigan State<\/b><\/p>\n
As was the case with Walsh, I’d never really talked to Fretter with the exception of postgame press conferences. And — just like Walsh — he said he’d miss the interactions with his teammates the most, now that his career at Michigan State is over.<\/p>\n
“Going to the rink every day, being around the guys, joking around with them and hearing the stories,” said Fretter. “Going to the locker room is the best part of my day.”<\/p>\n
And like Walsh, Fretter played for a team in transition, a team and a legion of loyal Spartan fans becoming accustomed to the post-Ron Mason era and the new Rick Comley reign. Under Comley, the Spartans struggled their first couple of seasons and many folks in East Lansing made it known they were unhappy with the direction of the team.<\/p>\n
“We had sellouts my first two years, but our arena has never been known since I’ve been there … to be very loud, so we did lose some fans and that hurt,” said Fretter, “but to the guys in the locker room, it was still the same atmosphere.”<\/p>\n
Fretter, Comley, and the Spartans answered all their critics this year by making a phenomenal 16-3-3 second-half run en route to becoming the 2006 CCHA playoff champions.<\/p>\n
“It did feel good, since a lot of the media — even at our own school — was all over us, especially last year,” said Fretter. “To have it come out like it did at the end of the year this year was really nice.”<\/p>\n
Fretter, who hails from Harrow, Ont., ended his collegiate career a CCHA champion with 43 career goals and 69 assists, but admitted that as much as he loved Michigan State and loves hockey, he has a passion that can nearly compete.<\/p>\n
“My favorite sport’s badminton. I love badminton. It’s a high school sport in Ontario, and I played all the time. I went to tournaments in high school and grade school growing up, and I actually joined the MSU badminton club and I go and play badminton with a couple of people a couple times a week.”<\/p>\n
“At least it isn’t volleyball,” added Walsh helpfully. Walsh, a genuinely friendly guy, proved invaluable to conversations with both Fretter and Caruso.<\/p>\n
Fretter said he truly enjoyed participating in the this year’s Skills Challenge. “I came here and I didn’t really know anyone. I kind of knew [Brandon] Kaleniecki and didn’t really know this guy” — he pointed to Walsh — “all the guys here get along. Everyone’s joking around and having a good time.”<\/p>\n
Said Walsh, “He’s got a nasty toe pull. And he practices sitting on blocks of ice. He’s a battler.”<\/p>\n
Dave Caruso, Ohio State<\/b><\/p>\n
Perhaps the biggest jokester and fiercest competitor in the bunch is Caruso, a player I’ve come to know in the last two seasons since I live in Columbus.<\/p>\n