John U. Bacon on Red Wings’ slide, UM’s Frozen Four fizzle, and hope for women’s hockey

The Purple Wings have been in a race for an NHL wild-card playoff spot for weeks. The Penguins are additionally in that race and Thursday evening in Pittsburgh, they beat the Wings 6-5 in additional time.

Additionally on Thursday, in males’s faculty hockey, the Boston Faculty Eagles blew previous Michigan 4-0 of their NCAA Frozen 4 semifinal matchup in Minnesota. The loss ended the Wolverines’ season.

Michigan Public sports activities commentator John U. Bacon joined Morning Version host Doug Tribou to speak about all of that and extra from the world of hockey.

DT: Let’s begin with Michigan. This was the Wolverines’ third straight journey to the Frozen 4 and their fourth within the final 5. They’ve now did not get to the title sport in every of these appearances. What’s retaining them from making that final leap to a championship?

JUB: I must say maturity. That is nonetheless a younger workforce in some methods. Thursday evening they took a dumb penalty at a dumb time. That they had an influence play. They have the very best energy play [offense] within the nation. An influence play is when the opposite workforce will get a penalty and now you’ve got bought 5 skaters versus their 4 skaters — an excellent probability to attain.

After which on their energy play, they took a dumb penalty. So then, after all, Boston Faculty goes down and scores. So they have all of the items. Their goaltending is just not fairly the equal of their friends proper now, however every part else they’re loaded for bear.

DT: And Boston Faculty has top-of-the-line offenses within the nation. Powerful to match that, regardless. Within the different semifinal sport, Denver beat Boston College in additional time. BC and Denver will play for the nationwide title on Saturday evening.

John, sticking with faculty hockey, a few weeks in the past the Ohio State girls’s workforce gained the nationwide championship. You hear a lot much less concerning the girls’s Frozen 4 right here in Michigan, as a result of there aren’t any Division I girls’s hockey groups within the state. Once I moved right here from New England, I discovered that stunning.

In Boston, there may be the well-known in-season event often known as the Beanpot. Harvard, Northeastern, BC and BU play in it yearly. Effectively, the ladies have had their very own Beanpot there since 1979. The NCAA has had a girls’s Frozen 4 for greater than 20 years.

Now, U of M has lately introduced it is taking a look at including a girls’s hockey workforce. Why have not universities within the state added one but?

JUB: Nice query. The quick solutions are cash, time, and energy, and hockey needs to be about the costliest sport on the market. Having stated that, Doug, there are [seven] universities within the state of Michigan which have Division I males’s hockey and 0 girls’s.

Minnesota, Wisconsin, they have nice girls’s groups who win nationwide titles. Ohio State does now, and Ohio State is lengthy after Michigan in males’s hockey. So, there is no query the state of Michigan has been behind the occasions.

It isn’t easy and it is not straightforward. And it is not going to be fast since you are inclined to should both rebuild your facility, which is pricey, or you must construct a second facility to accommodate what it is advisable do for Title IX.

That stated, so what? If you wish to be leaders in greatest and also you’re claiming that, effectively, this is able to be an excellent probability to take action. And for no matter the price of girls’s hockey, it is peanuts in comparison with the nice advertising you get by saying, “Look, we lastly did this, and we are the first one within the state of Michigan to do that.’

And there’s a ton of girls’s hockey expertise within the state of Michigan that goes — guess the place — to Ohio State and Minnesota and Wisconsin … the place there are applications. So, Michigan could be a powerhouse nearly instantly if they begin one.

DT: Okay, let’s flip to the Purple Wings, whose playoff hopes should not lifeless however should not precisely wanting nice. This week, Detroit misplaced two key video games towards groups who’re additionally making an attempt to earn a wild card spot — Washington and Pittsburgh. The Purple Wings have three video games left within the common season. What do they should deal with to shut issues out?

JUB: Look, these are playoff video games for them. Regardless that it is not the playoff. They should win all three, principally. They’re in a four-team hunt for one spot, so there is no wanting again. You need to block each shot. You need to play it just like the playoffs. And the final couple video games they’ve been, but it surely’s been slightly late.

They misplaced seven in a row, as you and I’ve mentioned, in March. So it is the rabbit and the tortoise. Effectively, the rabbit was sleeping in March, and that is once they misplaced it. They are not lifeless but, they usually’re enjoying with some grit. And Lucas Raymond scored a pleasant hat trick Thursday evening.

Having stated all that, man, I can not recall the final time Detroit was even within the hunt for a playoff spot. So that is a minimum of attention-grabbing.

DT: Up subsequent, the Purple Wings will face the Maple Leafs in Toronto on Saturday evening.

Editor’s notice: Quotes on this article have been edited for size and readability.

John U. Bacon is the writer of a number of nationwide bestsellers.  He’s additionally featured in a brand new ESPN quick documentary movie about essentially the most well-known shot in College of Michigan hockey historical past and the way the gravity-defying transfer has influenced NHL gamers for greater than 20 years. The documentary is named “The Michigan” and it’ll premiere at 8:00am Sunday on ESPN.