UW men's hockey: How to shake off the rust? For Eaves, it's doing push-ups, too
Experience isn't always a cure, but the University of Wisconsin men's hockey team hopes it has found the root of a recurring ill.
If not, its stay in the NCAA tournament might be a short and bitter one.
The three times this season that the Badgers have returned from a break, they haven't won their next game. Most recently, UW opened the Western Collegiate Hockey Association playoffs with a 3-0 loss at St. Cloud State, a game in which it lost most of the small battles that make up the overall result.
With the suspected cause identified, the Badgers started the week of practice leading up to Saturday's Midwest Regional opener against Denver at the Kohl Center with a telling drill.
Players paired up Monday and battled for possession of the puck for a set amount of time. Whoever didn't have the puck at the end had to drop to the ice for push-ups.
In short, UW coaches wanted to make sure their players are ready to go to work.
"The lesson that we learned is that maybe we have to do more battle stuff this week," Badgers coach Mike Eaves said. "And that's what we did today in an attempt to help us make sure we don't have that same start that we had two weeks ago."
Eaves didn't escape the consequences. Twice, he lost the drill and did the punishment.
Players weren't caught by surprise by the tone of the practice; Eaves gave them a heads-up on Sunday.
"He gave us forewarning that we're going to get after it this week and we're going to battle a little bit and get some of that rust off," UW captain Davis Drewiske said. "Because I think that was a big issue for us the last time we played St. Cloud on Friday is we didn't win a lot of battles. Our legs were good. I think we felt good energy-wise."
Wisconsin opened the WCHA season after a bye weekend and lost the Friday night game to Michigan Tech at home. After returning from a two-week break after Christmas, the Badgers tied Colgate in the Badger Hockey Showdown, losing a shootout to fall into the third-place game.
There might not be a common theme in the three games after breaks, but the general premise is that the Badgers have to do a better job of making the transition from spectators to participants.
"It's just so important to make sure that we're ready for contact since we've been off the ice for so long," UW winger Ben Grotting said. "Coach has been talking about how the other teams have been playing games and we've just been sitting back and watching. I think it's really important to have these battle drills all week long."
Moving forward?
There may again be a place in the UW lineup for freshman defenseman Brendan Smith, who has recovered from a back injury. It just might not be as one of the six defensemen.
Smith dressed as a forward for Monday's practice, and the Badgers are mulling whether to put him in the lineup as a utility player. He could dress as part of the fourth forward line but be insurance to make sure UW has a full complement of defensemen if senior defenseman Kyle Klubertanz continues to be limited by a leg injury.
"There's a lot of variables there," Eaves said. "We've got some flexibility."
The back injury has kept Smith out of the last 17 games. He started his hockey career as a forward, once playing on a line with current NHLer Sam Gagner and projected 2009 No. 1 NHL draft pick John Tavares with the Toronto Marlies Minor Midget AAA team.
"I'm excited just to play," Smith said. "I don't even care where it is right now because I just want to get in the lineup and just play."
Lodging question
Familiarity or focus? That's one of the issues the Badgers are weighing in deciding where to stay during the regional.
Even though they're playing on their campus, in a venue that's across the street from the dorms in which some of their players live, the Badgers have hotel rooms reserved for them just like the other three teams in the regional.
"There are really two strong cases," Eaves said. "A, sleep in your own bed. Or B, get away from all the distractions and have that focus. You have to weigh one against the other."
Eaves said the team hadn't made a final decision as of Monday.
Keep it red
It's a moot point, but if Wisconsin wasn't in the Midwest Regional, the top seed would have been assigned the Badgers' locker room at the Kohl Center to use for the weekend.
North Dakota in the UW locker room? Eaves admitted that the thought briefly crossed his mind Monday before he moved on.
"I didn't need to go there," Eaves said.
Would the Badgers have stripped their room of whatever they could? We'll never know, but Grotting noted that the Badgers try to make their road locker rooms feel like home by putting up Wisconsin banners.
"That would definitely hurt to see green all over the walls in there," Grotting said.
