The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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the quintessential power forward as it is known today because of his ability to excel in all areas of the game — offensively, defensively, and on special teams — and he was a physical presence at 6-2, 217 pounds that did the dirty work on a line that included a pair of 30-goal scorers in seniors Kevin Porter (33 goals) and Chad Kolarik (30). "Twenty years ago, it was a heavy guy that was more of a physical checking forward that could create space and punish some defenses, and now it's a guy that has to have a scoring element to him," Wiseman said. "He'll go to the net and pay the price to score goals, but also has the weight and wherewithal that he is good defensively, and hard to defend because of his size and skill set." Power Forwards Are A Must Have While Guptill possesses the size and can play a power forward's game, he admittedly grew up a skill player and often plays the game of a playmaking centerman, not utilizing his physical potential. Michigan recruited and signed Dancs in large part because of his ability to add an element of strength to the U-M front line. The Wolverines have also landed a 2016 recruit, James Sanchez, who — at 6-2, 180 pounds as a 15-year-old — is poised to mature into a bruising winger capable of fulfilling the power-forward role. "This whole game is about getting the puck and keeping possession of the puck away from the other team," head coach Red Berenson said. "Guys like Guptill, when they get the puck, they're hard to take it away from." "Because guys are bigger, stronger and faster than 15-20 years ago, goals are harder to score because of how well people defend and how polished goalies are," Wiseman added. "You look at a lot of goals and they are gritty, front-of-the-net, secondchance opportunities. "You hear a lot of coaches talk about generating second-chance goals, and someone has to be willing to go into the area around the crease and pay the price to get his nose over the puck. "There is a certain individual that thrives on that. It's not for everybody, but if your team wants to be successful, you need someone, or a few guys, like that." Knuble found that his big body and gritty game proved even more valuable in the playoffs, when goal scoring traditionally dipped — in 2013, regular-season scoring in the NHL was at 5.3 goals while postseason scoring was at 5.0 goals per game, and the data at quanthockey. com over 80 years consistently shows a decline. Knuble tallied 14 goals and had 16 assists in 65 NHL playoff games. "When you get into a multi-game series, the heavy bodies weigh on defensemen, and especially in a six- or seven-game series, that grind starts to wear the defense down," Knuble said. "In the first half of the season, the skill guys take center stage, but the power forward tends to be the MVP in Feb-