While the Spartans just had their first practice last Saturday. They’ve already hit the ice in a game situation, when MSU knotted an exhibition shootout win over the University of Toronto Oct. 2.

“I thought it was a good quality exhibition game,” Anastos said. “I thought we were able to see guys do some fundamentally good things from a talent perspective.”

The exhibition game was a good chance for newer players to get a chance to play. MSU will be bringing in a large amount of young talent, with 10 incoming freshmen coming aboard. But with new faces comes a lack of experience, with the crew having yet to play a game of regular season hockey.

“We’re excited about the freshman group that we have here,” Anastos said. “While I’m excited and encouraged by the skill and hockey intellect that I believe we have, at the same time, what keeps me up at night is knowing that we don’t have tons of experience back there.”

One could argue the youth movement is already in full swing for the Spartans, not with just the freshmen. Among the first two lines against Toronto, underclassmen took seven of the 10 available spots.

Anastos said the youth will play a large role this upcoming season since some of them will play extended minutes on the ice. But it’s a larger issue that he felt his team didn’t have last year, that led to the underwhelming finish.

“I didn’t feel that we really embraced an identity for whatever reason,” Anastos said. “That’s important for any team.”

During the off-season, the team utilizes a program called "attack 100 percent, 100 percent of the time." Redshirt-senior Rhett Holland said it comes from the Navy Seals, where they run the players through the same training and tests they do to become registered officials.

Sophomore Zach Osburn said bringing that mindset and incorporating it on the ice will help shape the team’s identity.

“Our motto’s always been attack — 100 percent of the time,” Osburn said. “I don’t think that’s changed very much, we’re just emphasizing that a little bit more this year to have an identity that’s just attack, attack, attack.”

During their exhibition match against Toronto, the Spartans started off strong. They lead the Varsity Blues 14-2 after one period in shots on goal. But the team slowed down the pace, allowing two power-play goals in the second period.

“We’ve got to learn to build that identity,” Holland said. “Keep that first-period mentality throughout three periods. So we gotta find a way to be able to play fast for 60 minutes but I think we’re kind of on that path.”

While Holland acknowledged that the team didn’t really have an identity the past few years, he said that they’re working towards a similar one from years past.

“We want to create an identity here where teams come here they’re like, ‘aw, we do not want to play Michigan State because they’re hard to play against,'” Holland said. “I think we kind of got away from that in years past. I think this year we’re kind of starting from scratch and really, hardwiring that into our players that every night, every practice, every game, we've got to be the hardest team to play against.”

Looking at his team, Anastos said he's been pleased with the way they've looked so far. The team hasn’t been able to practice as much because of NCAA limitations, but there are other ways to see the work his players have put in.

“Our off-season was a very productive one,” Anastos said. “In my time and from records kept on our physical testing here, our team is in the best physical condition of any team that’s been here. So the standard has been maintained or established at a very high level.”

The MSU hockey team will host their annual Green-White scrimmage at 4 p.m. on Oct. 9 at Munn Ice Arena. Their first regular season home games will be a weekend set against the University of Denver Oct. 21-22.