Blue White Illustrated

| F rom the outside looking in on the dy- namic of Penn State's preseason preparations for the 2020-21 men's hockey season, things couldn't have seemed any more di8erent. The coronavirus pandemic had forced the Nittany Lions into using three di8er- ent locker rooms to provide space for so- cial distancing. They were holding all their meetings over Zoom. The only time a seven-man freshman class spent inter- acting with the rest of their teammates was during the short time they were al- lowed to spend on the ice as a group. Every college hockey team across the country was dealing with those types of limitations in November with the season looming. Somewhat unique to Penn State, though, was a massive exodus of key play- ers from the previous season and a subse- quent shi: in perception. A year a:er the Nittany Lions won their 6rst regular-season Big Ten title, the con- ference coaches picked them to 6nish last, following the departure of many of the players who had helped carry the pro- gram for years, like Cole Hults, Liam Folkes, Evan Barratt, Peyton Jones, Nate Sucese and Brandon Biro. Clearly, Guy Gadowsky's coaching peers have new expectations for his Penn State team. But, speaking to the media via Zoom prior to the season opener, Gad- owsky insisted that his own expectations haven't changed. "They're the same," he said. "Obvi- ously, it's re7ected in the polls... that we've lost a lot of great players and a lot of great leadership. But I think that when they do vacate, someone 6lls that in and there are going to be guys who we feel great about who are now going to be given more opportunity than they have in the past. Because of that, the objectives stay the same. As far as our identity or how we play, we're not changing." For Gadowsky and the Nittany Lions, in a year that most think will look di8erent in just about every way imaginable, the mission is to resist change on the ice and 6nd familiarity in safe ways o8 of it. And it will be challenging. Playing a sport that has only a niche fol- lowing at many schools across the coun- try, the Nittany Lions regularly pack Pegula Ice Arena and can count on one of the most raucous home ice advantages in college hockey. That is gone. So is Jones, who owns almost all of Penn State's goalkeeping records a:er spending four years as the starter between the pipes. Sucese, the program's all-time leading scorer, is gone. Barratt, Penn State's high- est-ever dra: pick, le: a:er his junior season to join the Chicago Blackhawks. There will have to be new standard bearers, new point producers, new lead- ers. And they'll have to come from a group that has had very little time to blend together all of its new parts. Gadowsky knew during preseason practice that he was jamming what would be considered a di9cult transition during a normal o8-season into a window that was a fraction of the size. And so his goal was to keep things sim- ple. There would be no large-scale dis- ruption of the system, he said. Only slight tweaks to what his veterans already knew and his newcomers needed to learn. Despite the coaches' e8orts to maintain as much continuity as possible, the tran- sitional nature of Penn State's season was readily apparent in the team's 6rst two series. In their Nov. 19 opener at Min- nesota, the Nittany Lions fell to the Go- phers, 4-1, and they dropped the rematch the next day, 3-2. A two-game series at Wisconsin the following week didn't go much better, as Penn State was swept again, 6-3 and 7-3. The Nittany Lions were scheduled to play their home opener Dec. 2 against Michigan, and a:er the two-game series vs. the Wolverines, the season is slated to continue later this month with a pair of nonconference games against visiting Arizona State. Through the team's early-season strug- gles, Gadowsky has been able to turn to a familiar face in Alex Limoges, the only player le: from the Limoges-Barratt- Folkes line that set the Big Ten on 6re for two seasons. Limoges likely had pro suitors during the o8-season, but he chose to stay. He's wearing the "C" on his chest this year, and he knows part of that job will be to help create a sense of familiarity for his teammates at a time when little exists. "That's something that's been a battle," Limoges said. "Just getting together with di8erent guys, going out to breakfast with them. Just trying to catch up. Now on the ice, and now that we have a season, things start to feel normal again, at least at the rink." ■ BREAKING THE ICE Penn State's players were still getting to know each other as the ice hockey season began VARSITY VIEWS ALEX LIMOGES Ryan Snyder

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