Each week during the season, we look at the big events and big games around Division I men’s college hockey in Tuesday Morning Quarterback.
Ed: Dan, it was great to see you in person over a snowy weekend in Waltham, Mass., as we were in adjoining broadcast booths at Bentley Arena for two really hard-fought games.
And I wish we were only discussing things that happened on the ice in this week’s column. Sometimes the news outside the rink ends up intruding though.
I know you’ll join me in being saddened by the news of Rick Bennett’s resignation last week as head coach at Union. This came after nearly 17 years with the program, first as an assistant and then as associate head coach under Nate Leaman, and then as head coach since 2011.
Union’s 2014 Frozen Four win in Philadelphia surprised the college hockey world and was an even greater achievement without athletic scholarships.
Then the news came on January 20 that Bennett had been placed on administrative leave, and eight days later, he submitted his resignation.
My interactions with Bennett were few, mainly as a podcast host and reporter, but everyone I’ve talked to around the sport who knows him well has spoken highly of him while also acknowledging his intensity.
This ended up happening quickly, and unfortunately also happened as Union was given the opportunity to award D-I financial aid by NCAA D-III.
Were you as saddened by this as I was?
Dan: I’m with you, Ed, and I think I want to recap things as clearly as possible.
What I will say is that on the ice, I watched Union from a 30,000-foot level, and what the Dutchmen were able to do in turning around a moribund program is nothing short of remarkable. It genuinely dated back to the late 1990s when Kevin Sneddon took over a team that won three games in his first year and continued through a steady rise, first to .500, then to Nate Leaman’s teams that hosted a first round series and finally to the top-four finishes and Nate Leaman’s NCAA tournament appearance before leaving for Providence.
Bennett was an architect of that build as an assistant and associate head coach, and he was the beneficiary when he advanced to two Frozen Fours in his first three years. He was behind the bench for Union’s national championship, a title that shocked literally everyone in Philadelphia because, quite frankly, the Dutchmen were the team that punched well above their weight class when they knocked out Boston College and Minnesota as part of a foursome that included North Dakota.
More recently there’s been a bit of regression to the mean by Union, and it saw an eight-win season in 2019-20 before spending last year on the sidelines, but it doesn’t make this any less surprising. What we learned through Union’s investigation is that there was an allegation pertaining to Bennett’s coaching style and practices that was substantiated by the college’s investigation, and while this looks like it’s the best resolution for all parties involved, I’m still going to be saddened by what happened.
Sometimes we want to believe in our fairy tales in sports, but sometimes we aren’t allowed those fairy tale endings. In this case, Union’s only national championship-winning coach’s tenure ended in a manner that nobody wanted to see, but it does feel like this is the first step in the Dutchmen moving forward into a necessary new day.
Unfortunately, Union wasn’t the only team making headlines, and this weekend, a news report broke by the Ann Arbor News and MLive.com that the University of Michigan’s program is under investigation for a number of allegations.
This is obviously a much more fluid situation, and I still don’t really understand much of what I read. As a result, I don’t want to break it all down to line items. I think it’s more prudent for us, at this time, to admit that college hockey has a number of things that we should analyze introspectively until we can read and learn the full findings. It’s a difficult conversation, but I think it needs to be handled with some tact for everyone involved.
Ed: Now that the presence of an investigation has been revealed, I think it is incumbent upon the University of Michigan to be as transparent as possible. If the accusations about a toxic environment and sexual misconduct within the program and the athletic department prove to be true, they are devastating. If they prove to be false, then I hope the entire proceeding will have been conducted on the level and transparency will help that.
In addition to the allegations I mentioned, there is also a separate question about being truthful in COVID-19 reporting. That’s a different matter, but no less serious.
There is no place in college hockey for the sorts of things alleged. Maybe this can be a catalyst for all programs to take a look at how they conduct themselves and get to work on fixing issues that may exist.
Back to the ice.
Michigan is one of several NCAA D-I teams to lose players to the Olympics. I’m interested in seeing how teams will be affected – and who is the next man up – as well as cheering on Team USA and its roster of NCAA players, including 15 current and 10 former college players. Who do you think will be impacted the most by the departure of top players?
Dan: I hit Minnesota pretty hard a couple of weeks over its potential roster losses, and I’m going to hold firm on that. Michigan is in good enough shape to clinch a berth, and even if it loses every game the rest of the way, I don’t think it’s enough to drop it out of the tournament field.
Minnesota is currently 11th in the PairWise and is losing enough of its roster to be in a precarious and delicate position given its remaining schedule. Eight games are left, and two of them are at Ohio State, the team ranked directly ahead of the Gophers in tenth. The other remaining games are against Penn State and Michigan State, but while neither of those teams are in a position to seal up an at-large bid, losses to either of those teams – or both – would hurt the Gophers’ shot at the tournament.
On the flip side, the biggest thing for Minnesota happened this weekend when it beat Notre Dame. The Fighting Irish are right behind the Gophers in 12th in the Pairwise, and that means the collective strength of the Big Ten should be good enough to keep all of those teams afloat, even if they lose games along the way.
I will say this, I am beyond excited for the Olympics right now. It took a little while to really settle, but I think this is going to be one of the most intriguing fields in a long time. The USA roster is loaded with some top talent, and the Canadian roster is a wonderful cross-section of players who have both NHL and NCAA experience.
The thought of an NCAA all-star style team going up against the KHL all stars from the Russian Olympic Committee will have me waking up in the middle of the night or staying up late because this is the only time we’ll see something like this. It’s like if the World Juniors collided with an old school Olympics to take on the European professionals.
And that doesn’t include the women’s tournament, which I would argue is better than the men’s tournament. The number of players who starred in college before heading into the national programs is staggering, and there are a number of players who continue to shine for their respective homelands.
Throw in the national pride aspect to it all, and it’s going to be an absolutely awesome tournament, even if the circumstances surrounding it weren’t the most orthodox, considering that we thought the NHL would be involved as of a couple of months ago.
Ed: I am with you when it comes to the Olympics. I can’t wait to watch both the men’s and women’s teams from the U.S., and I’ll root for the Canadians when they aren’t playing Team USA.
I’m all for anything that can bind us together when so much seems to wedge people apart.
We were reminded over the weekend about how even fierce opponents can team up for what’s most important. I saw some great photos and a video clip from the end of Saturday’s Army-Air Force weekend, a tradition that I first saw at the Atlantic Hockey Championship on St. Patrick’s Day in 2007 when Air Force defeated Army for the league title.
After the game, the two teams stood together around the center ice faceoff circle and raise sticks to salute the fans. I’ll admit that it was a little emotional to watch, especially when you think about what careers lie ahead, and especially when you think of a player like Derek Hines who gave his life in service to his country.
Dan: Look, hockey is a sport, and we measure success in that sport through wins and losses. How teams look between the lines is exactly why we talk, analyze, ask questions and answer each other.
In that respect, Air Force and Army aren’t any different, but once the games are over, their lives have very different purposes that only they understand. I feel like I have this conversation more and more, but I’m reminded of their purpose when I see the teams on the ice. The way they carry themselves is just different, but it’s always striking.
I readily admit that I’m not one to run things up the flag, and I don’t come from a military family. But recognizing their service, in some cases the ultimate service offered by Derek Hines or Tom Kennedy, is a contrast against the typical discussion about wins and losses.
Seeing those images, especially how they honor their seniors, hits home in that respect, especially since my extended family has family members dotting the different branches of the military.
Army head coach Brian Riley likes to say that hockey is the ultimate team sport and that the Army is the ultimate team.
Taking that a step further, if hockey is the ultimate team sport, then I can’t think of anything better than watching those teams battle each other for two nights before they salute each other as brothers. Given everything we need to do at times to improve ourselves, we can look to their totems of honor and duty to guide us through the link between the purity of sport and the way we can stand together, as one, to do right by each other, even if we’re trying to compete on a nightly basis.
