The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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michigan hockey "For us, we're not outscoring our mistakes right now. Until we're able to do that, Red is going to keep harping on us to be better defensively." Michigan's schedule has not done the hockey program any favors; in the first eight weeks of the season, Mich‑ igan played 14 games (including an exhibition contest). In the most recent six weeks, U-M has played six total games (including another exhibition). Since U-M played Ferris State Dec. 11, it played just four games in 41 days before meeting Michigan State Jan. 23. "When you're playing a lot, it helps you get in rhythm and provides struc‑ ture for your week," sophomore al‑ ternate captain Andrew Copp said. "When you don't play as much, you end up with more time on your hands than you know what to do with, and I think having all this time off, especially coming at the same time as having three weeks off from school, you can develop bad habits. "You end up being way too leisurely away from the rink, and I think that carries over to the rink, too." The youth of Michigan's team can exacerbate the problem. "You give a young team the time off this team has had over the last six weeks, that momentum halts, and I think you're seeing that young, inexpe‑ rienced team trying to figure out how to recapture the momentum it had in the first half of the season," TheWol‑ verine.com analyst Noah Ruden said. "They've only played four games in the past six weeks, and that's tough for any team, but especially a young team, to come back and play at the same in‑ tensity and urgency you have when you're playing every weekend. "I think once the season gets going again, they have a pretty steady sched‑ ule, I think you'll see them come back to the way they were." The good news is that a lot can change in one weekend's time. And with four games remaining against No. 1 Minnesota (in both the polls and Pairwise) and two against No. 10 Wis‑ consin (Pairwise), the Maize and Blue can jump back into a comfortable posi‑ tion quickly. If Michigan was to go 11-5 or even 10-6 down the stretch, getting to the 20-win mark, it should be an NCAA Tournament team and a Big Ten title contender. "As frustrating as it is for the team to come off a hot start and lose all four games after that, we're just starting the core of the Big Ten schedule," said Ruden, Michigan's starting goalie in 2005-06. "Every game moving forward is a Big Ten game and it will pick up pretty quickly. They'll have plenty of time to make up for this poor stretch here. "All is not lost because of one week‑ end or one bad stretch," he said. "You're not OK with being swept, but you have to realize that the season hasn't ended either. It's Jan. 13, and they've played four of 20 Big Ten games. The schedule hasn't been kind to them, and they're out of rhythm, but this team didn't just become a bad team overnight. "The players that were beating all those good teams in the first half of the year are still here. They just need to get back in rhythm."