Thursday, March 28, 2024

Column: Spartan hockey should focus on improvement

February 24, 2014

It might sound weird to hear, but winning shouldn’t be the number one priority for MSU hockey in its final three weeks of the regular season.

I know, as former NFL head coach Herm Edwards famously said, “You play to win the game,” but save me the “Hello” Herm, and hear me out.

For MSU, improving from day-to-day should remain the point of emphasis from head coach Tom Anastos and his staff.

It’s no secret that winning the inaugural Big Ten Tournament in late March is the only way MSU can advance to the NCAA Tournament this year. Three games in three days to continue its season.

It might sound like a tall task for a team that hasn’t scored more than three goals in any of its Big Ten games, but if this was a year ago, the road would be a lot tougher for MSU.

The newly formed Big Ten offers a single-elimination tournament, not multiple three-game series before single elimination that the Central Collegiate Hockey Association had in place a year ago. So instead of having to win the six games needed last year to earn the automatic bid into the NCAA tourney, MSU only needs three.

Like I said, three games in three days to continue its season, something the team will have to emphasize.

This brings us back to my statement of winning taking a back seat to simply improving in the next three weeks.

Now obviously, MSU still is playing to improve its seeding for the conference tournament — currently they are the No. 5 seed — but after dropping both games last weekend at No. 6 Wisconsin, it’s looking like the Spartans won’t be climbing too far up the seeding ladder.

Especially because its final four games come against that same Wisconsin team, and No. 13 Michigan, the only other team in the conference to sweep the Spartans in a weekend series.

Here is the format for the Big Ten Tournament: The top two teams get first-round byes, with the third seed taking on the sixth seed and the fourth against the fifth. From there, the winner of the four-five seed game plays the regular season champs, and the winner of the three-six seed game plays the season runner-up. The winners of those games will meet in the championship game.

It appears No. 2 Minnesota and Wisconsin are going to lock up the first-round byes in the tournament. Both teams have proved to be the best teams in the conference.

The battle for the third seed currently is between U-M, Ohio State and MSU. The Spartans are only four points back of third-place U-M and still in the race for the third spot. But with both U-M and Ohio State having two games in hand, MSU would need to finish with at least three wins in the final four games, if not all four, to give the Spartans a fighting chance.

The fourth seed seems as the most realistic ceiling for MSU, but there is no noticeable difference between the fourth and fifth seeds because they ultimately play each other in the first round.

It also should be noted MSU is 12 points ahead of last place Penn State, and shouldn’t have to worry about getting caught by the Nittany Lions.

So after adding it all up, it looks like MSU will be in the No. 4 versus No. 5 seed game on March 20 in St. Paul, Minn.

With that being said, it makes sense that improvement has to be the ultimate goal. MSU has been resilient this year, fighting injuries and frustrating finishes, and has shown continued improvement.

MSU has three more weeks to continue growing, so come those three days in late March, hopefully that means the green and white is playing its best hockey. Even if that means a few more losses before then.

In this case, even Herm might agree winning in the next few weeks isn’t everything for these Spartans.

Robert Bondy is the State News hockey reporter. Reach him at rbondy@statenews.com.

Support student media! Please consider donating to The State News and help fund the future of journalism.

Discussion

Share and discuss “Column: Spartan hockey should focus on improvement ” on social media.