WTKA Roundtable 4/5/2018: We Don’t Do Cups, Coach

And anybody who’s seen one hockey game in their entire life—except for one Michigan player apparently—knows that of all the sports the one that most demands the cup is hockey. Can you imagine what went through Mel’s mind when he heard this? Like he’s walking into a new program like ‘alright we’re going to really improve here, what is the current state of our roster?’

Things discussed:

• They ran into a buzzsaw. DiVincenzo reminds us of Clay Thompson.
• It should have been a game but wasn’t a game because Michigan couldn’t hit the broad side of the barn. Someone on that team was going to erupt—someone on ours had to.
• They needed a 40% shooting game to win this, 30% to be in this. That’s not too much to ask for—make their season average and that’s another 12 points.
• The defense was fine—they made Villanova shoot hard shots for all of their points; Nova just happened to make their shots.
• Will you see another Glen Rice? He was ahead of his time—the three was considered unmanly and stupid.
• Could you tell me in November that this hockey team could have been a two seed?
• ND has just one even strength goal against Michigan in four games.
• Quinn Hughes is blowing up into a Hobey-level guy, his brother might accelerate and play a year at Michigan before being the top overall pick in the draft.
• Mel calling out Brian for calling out Mel’s penalty kill.
• Notre Dame is a very disciplined team but nobody in this Frozen Four is good enough that hockey plinko isn’t in effect.
• Michigan dominated Ohio State in both recent matchups except in puck luck.
• How college hockey recruiting has changed: Snake oil was a real thing in college hockey for a long time. Coaches learned to steal each others’ guys but Mel’s not going to put up with gentleman’s agreements, living with the reality of the Canadian juniors. Have to be aggressive down the road because half your class will drift off to OHL/QMHL/JJJoJoCHL/NHL.