The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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for next year is to make the NCAA Tournament." The Maize and Blue learned how difficult that can be, with only 16 teams qualifying each season, but there are good reasons to believe that in 2013-14 the Wolverines will be back among college hockey's elite, though every offseason brings with it a level of uncertainty over who will return to school and who will leave early. Defensemen Jon Merrill and Jacob Trouba have already signed contracts with the New Jersey Devils and Winnipeg Jets, respectively, voiding their senior and sophomore seasons. Still, there is much to like about Michigan's prospects going forward. Stronger Team Unity Earlier In The Season During the postgame press conference following Michigan's loss to Notre Dame, Moffie expressed pride in his fellow seniors after they brought together what was a fractured team. Throughout the year, there were rumblings (confirmed through various sources) the Wolverines didn't like each other very much, with locker-room discord threatening team unity every day. The results supported these claims — U-M went 3-2 in October, but then went 2-6-1 in November, 2-2-1 in December and 1-6-0 in January. Moffie and fellow captains A.J. Treais, Kevin Lynch and Mac Bennett asserted greater influence in February, a malcontent was indefinitely suspended, and the urgency of a lost season brought the team together. Michigan went 4-2-0 in February and was 6-0-1 in March before falling to the Irish. "We had an off week in December, and a reporter for CBS asked if we did some team stuff together, and I almost wanted to make something up like, 'We did this and this,' but we actually didn't do anything," Moffie said. "And that was kind of a reality check. "We had a team meeting and I asked the room, 'Do you think we're a close team?' and a lot of guys said no. And after that we started doing a lot more things. Started rallying behind things together. Going bowling, playing pond hockey … a whole bunch of stuff. "I think that really helped. We knew we weren't the closest team at the beginning of the year, but we thought we were good enough that we could just play through it. But when you play college hockey, you need a full team to be competitive." That chemistry forged late in the year should carry over. "If you want to be a great team, the way to do that is to get everyone together," Bennett said. "Whether that's having BBQs or whatever we do, as long as everyone is doing it together, because it will make me want to block a shot for the goalie that much more. It will make a forward backcheck to help me as a defenseman out that much more. "The closer we can get a group of guys to buy in as quickly as possible at the beginning of the season, that'll work wonders for us." Michigan began the season with