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Sports
Tuesday, March 13, 2018 — 7
Marody’s moment: From student of the game to college hockey superstar
As is tradition for countless
fathers in Southeast Michigan,
Patrick Marody often took his son
Cooper to hockey games when the
boy was young.
The Marodys are a hockey family,
and in the mid-2000s, there weren’t
many better places for a hockey
family than their hometown of
Brighton, Mich. Forty-five minutes
east, Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik
Zetterberg lit lamps and dazzled
fans on a nightly basis with the
NHL’s Detroit Red Wings amid
their most recent dynasty. Twenty
minutes south, Red Berenson had
built the Michigan hockey team into
a collegiate powerhouse, then in the
middle of a legendary streak of 22
straight NCAA Tournament berths.
So it’s no surprise that Cooper
quickly fell in love with the sport. But
when Patrick took him to games, he
noticed something interesting.
“He would just stand,” Patrick
said. “He wouldn’t want to sit down.
He would stand, and he would watch
all the players. He was mesmerized
in watching them do every move.”
By nature, hockey is chaotic.
Players slam into each other at
speeds of 20 miles per hour or
more. Pucks can fly five times that
fast. It’s energetic, electrifying and
exhilarating — and for a newcomer,
especially a child, it can be nearly
impossible to comprehend.
And yet, that was all young Cooper
wanted to do. Instead of embracing
the mayhem, he dug deeper. He
was entranced by the sport’s skills,
structures and subtleties. He would
watch highlights, go to bed, wake
up and watch more. He became, in
his father’s words, a “student of the
game.”
“He wasn’t just watching the
excitement of the game, he was
watching the strategy and how the
players go and how they perform
with the puck and things of that
nature,” Patrick said. “… Some people
go to an event where they just watch
the chaos in the event. … He wasn’t
watching the chaos, he was watching
the individual players, what they do
and how they do it.”
This is how a young student of the
game became a Big Ten Player of the
Year finalist, as the best player on
the most surprising team in college
hockey.
***
Cooper Marody was born on
December 20, 1996. On its own, it’s
not a terribly consequential date of
birth.
In hockey, though, it’s a sentence
of sorts. Youth hockey is split into
different age groups based on birth
year. At an early age, those with
January or February birthdays are
often stronger, faster and farther
along in their physical development
than those born in November or
December.
Growing
up,
Marody
knew
he wasn’t going to outmuscle or
outskate anybody, at least not just
yet.
But maybe he could outskill them.
Instead of darting all over the ice
in an attempt to make an impact,
Marody let the game come to him,
eyes scanning all over the rink,
carefully
anticipating
his
next
move before incisively doing so.
His intelligence and calm attitude
allowed him to make up for his
physical disadvantages and mentally
stay ahead of his competition. Know
when to pass, know when to shoot.
Know when to lie back, know when
to go for it.
“There are players that run all over
the ice, and it looks like they’re doing
a lot, and there are other players that
strategize and they anticipate how
the game is going to go,” Patrick
Marody said. “... Cooper’s a wait-and-
then-attack type player versus run
to the front lines, attack and all hell
breaks out.”
Marody’s voracious appetite for
highlights also served him well.
Thanks to his initial exposure to
the Red Wings, he obsessed over
Zetterberg’s puck handling and
Datsyuk’s shiftiness, hoping to
emulate elements of their playing
style in his own game.
“(Zetterberg and Datsyuk) are
extremely good leaders and lead by
example,” Marody said. “Also just
puck possession is phenomenal,
the way they see each other on
the ice was phenomenal to watch,
their puck protection, the way they
work to get open all over the ice.
And just little things whether it’s
manipulating a defender’s stick so
a pass gets through, everything like
that.”
When the age differences finally
began to level out and Marody
caught up physically, he remained a
step ahead. His skills and intelligence
were what first attracted Berenson
to offer Marody a scholarship to
play hockey at the University of
Michigan.
“He’s
got
hockey
smarts,”
Berenson said. “He senses what’s
going on. He doesn’t waste his effort.
He’s not one of those players that’s
skating all over the place for nothing.
He’s an efficient player … As much
as he’s a good passer and a good
playmaker, when he gets around
the net he can snipe goals as well as
anybody.”
Added his current coach Mel
Pearson: “There are some things that
are God-given that I think you’re
born with. … Just being able to see
the ice and hockey IQ. You can get
better, you can watch the game and
learn the game, but some of that is
innate. You just have that, you just
understand it and he’s got it.”
Pearson compared Marody to a
quarterback in football or a point
guard in basketball with his feel for
the game, a la Tom Brady or Chris
Paul in skates.
“You understand the game so
well, you’ve got a real good feel for
what’s going on and what’s going to
transpire,” Pearson said. “That feel
or that sixth sense, that’s what makes
the great players special.”
***
It didn’t take long for Cary Eades
to notice what made Marody special.
In 2014, Eades, then the head
coach and general manager of the
USHL’s Sioux Falls Stampede, had
just acquired Marody in a trade with
the Muskegon Lumberjacks.
Marody had requested the trade
himself. Muskegon, he said, just
wasn’t a good fit. The numbers bore
that out — just 30 points in 58 games
during the 2013-2014 season, and
nine in 14 games a year later.
Sioux Falls offered not only a fresh
start, but a glimpse of the player that
Marody had the potential to become.
“He came down the right wall
on the power play on a breakout,
entered the zone and just a cross-
ice pass, backdoor tap in for
(current
Portland
Winterhawks
forward) Kieffer Bellows,” Eades
remembered. “I looked at that and
said to my assistant, ‘We haven’t seen
that kind of a play in a while.’ ”
From there, Marody blossomed.
In 38 games with the Stampede,
he scored 20 goals and assisted on
29 more — a per-game figure that
ranked second in the USHL behind
only future Michigan superstar Kyle
Connor.
With
talented
linemates
in
Bellows (52 points) and current
Denver forward Logan O’Connor
(36), Marody and Sioux Falls tore
through the USHL Playoffs on their
way to a Clark Cup sweep over none
other than Muskegon.
“We had instant chemistry, which
is great,” Marody said. “Team really
bought in, everybody played their
role… and that’s an experience I’ll
never forget and I learned so much
from.”
Marody stepped on Michigan’s
campus in the fall of 2015 after
having proven what he could do at
the highest level of junior hockey. But
it didn’t take long for new challenges
to arise in Ann Arbor.
“Guys were just bigger and
stronger,” Marody said. “Guys like
(JT) Compher, Boo Nieves, Justin
Selman, they were huge, strong guys
and it’s like, ‘Geez, these guys are like
grown men.’ ”
Again, though, Marody grew
up
quickly,
practicing
daily
against future professionals on the
Wolverines’
talent-laden
roster.
While he didn’t explode onto the
scene the way Connor — a Hobey
Baker Award Finalist in 2016 — did,
his 24 points in 32 contests ranked
fourth among Big Ten freshmen in
points per game.
It was easy to envision a bright
future ahead.
“We had him on a line with Tony
Calderone and Brendan Warren and
there were nights where that was our
best line, and Cooper was one of our
best players,” Berenson said. “Now
that didn’t happen every night, but it
happened enough that you saw that
this kid’s going to be a good player.”
***
Soon after Michigan’s 2015-2016
season ended with a loss to North
Dakota in the NCAA Tournament,
the attrition began. Nieves and
Selman? Graduated. Connor? Gone.
Compher? Gone. Michael Downing,
Zach Werenski and Tyler Motte? All
gone as well.
All of a sudden, Marody was
the
Wolverines’
second-leading
returning scorer. There was no
hesitation about his role this time —
Michigan needed a new offensive
engine, and Marody had the talent to
fit the bill.
There was one slight problem.
The
aforementioned
attrition
involved Marody.
A January 2016 bout with
mononucleosis forced him to miss
six games. The consequences ran
deeper than just hockey — the
illness set him back academically,
to the point where he was ruled
ineligible for the first semester of his
sophomore year.
“Obviously he wasn’t as happy as
he usually is,” said junior defenseman
Joseph Cecconi. “He’s a pretty happy
guy, and when he can’t play for pretty
much a whole year out of two years
being here it’s really frustrating.”
But the time in which Marody was
unable to play revealed something
else about him.
“He wanted to play so bad, and he
was our best player in practice every
day,” Berenson said. “He was playing
on our fifth line with a couple of
lesser players, but he made that line
really good, and he made our team
better even though he wasn’t in our
lineup.”
Marody seemingly has a gift for
making the most out of any situation,
for creating something from nothing.
He developed a skilled, cerebral
playing style out of his late birthday.
And while being held in hockey
purgatory, he made the weight room
into a temporary home.
“He just worked really hard off
ice, making himself stronger, and on
the ice in practice too, as well as in
the classroom,” said senior forward
Dexter Dancs. “... It was a good time
for him to get stronger physically, so
he utilized it.”
Even Marody’s ice vision and
feel for the game — already his
best attributes — only got stronger.
Watching his teammates from Yost
Ice Arena’s press box, five levels
above the rink, he could process the
game in a different and valuable way.
But maybe most importantly, his
desire to suit back up never wavered.
“I think you realize once you’re
not playing that long, just for
anybody how much you love it, or
how much you miss it,” Calderone
said. “He sat out there for a while
(due to) unfortunate events, but I
think he really built up the passion
again.”
That was clear from the moment
Marody returned to the ice in
December 2016, as he instantly
breathed life into the Wolverines’
stagnant offense. In his second game
back, the third-place game of the
Great Lakes Invitational, he dished
out three assists in a 5-4 win over
Michigan State. One month later, he
recorded his first career hat-trick —
in just the second period alone — to
power Michigan to an upset at No. 11
Ohio State.
For the second half of the season,
Marody’s 15 points were by far the
most on the team. His return was
everything the Wolverines hoped it
would be.
Now he just had to prove himself
over a full season.
***
Michigan finished third-to-last in
the country in Corsi percentage and
averaged just 2.6 goals per game in
2016-2017. The Wolverines’ leader
in points — then-freshman forward
Jake Slaker — registered just 21.
This year, however, Marody’s
emergence
has
catapulted
Michigan’s offense into the upper
echelon. With 14 goals and a
whopping 32 assists, he currently
leads the Big Ten in points with 46,
and ranks second in the country in
assists.
“He’s always had the skill, even
back when I recruited him back
in the day, he’s always had the
skill,” Pearson said. “It’s just the
consistency, doing it game in and
game out. Anybody can have a decent
weekend here or there, but when you
put it together and you’re averaging
more than a point per game, I think
that’s a measure of a pretty good
hockey player.”
Even considering all the questions
surrounding Michigan before the
year, ask anybody in the program if
they anticipated this kind of a season
from Marody, and the answer is
matter of fact.
“Yeah, pretty much,” junior
forward Brendan Warren says. “I’ve
always known he’s super skilled, and
we did a lot of skating in the summer,
and I saw how much work he put in.
He was looking really good coming
into this year, so I knew he was going
to have a big year.”
Adds Dancs: “He’s one of the big
talents in the Big Ten … if not the
NCAA, so (I’m) not surprised at all.”
Marody, for his part, credits
everyone around him for his
breakout season. His teammates —
especially his linemates Dancs and
Calderone.
Michigan’s
coaching
staff. Team culture. And so on and
so forth.
“I really like the chemistry with
my linemates,” Marody said. “Dexter
and Tony, I’ve said many times all the
great things they do on the ice. Our
power play’s really starting to click
now. And just the overall structure
of our team, the coaching staff has
been really great implementing the
new system.”
You could simply chalk that up
to traditional hockey humility. Until
you watch Wolverines’ “DMC” top
line at work.
On one wing, Dancs, the bruiser
on the boards and in front of the
net, scraps for pucks and wins
battles of grit. On the other lies the
senior captain Calderone, the lethal
assassin with a laser shot who can
fire from anywhere.
And in the middle there’s Marody,
the heartbeat of the offense, coolly
surveying the ice and threading the
puck to Dancs and Calderone from
any angle.
“He’s a passer, and I’m a shooter,”
Calderone said. “He does all the skill
stuff, and will slide it over to me, and
I shoot. That’s my strength, and it
plays to his strength too.”
For a player with Marody’s gifts,
it’s a perfect set-up.
“You’ve got to be teamed with
the right guy, right teammates,
linemates,” Eades said. “He needs
a finisher, he needs someone who’s
going to do the dirty work in the
corners and get in front of the net.”
That formula has worked wonders
this season, taking Michigan from
the nation’s 42nd-highest scoring
offense to seventh, from 13 wins
to an almost-guaranteed NCAA
Tournament bid in a single year.
Fitting,
perhaps,
that
the
Wolverines’ biggest win of the
season — and maybe their ticket
to the dance — was sealed with a
quintessential DMC goal.
On Feb. 18, with the second period
winding down in a scoreless game
against Notre Dame, Dancs closed in
hard on Fighting Irish defenseman
Dennis Gilbert, forcing an errant
pass. Marody grabbed the loose puck
and skated forward, and as two Notre
Dame defenders closed in on him, he
dropped it off for Calderone, wide
open in the high slot. Michigan’s
captain made no mistake, firing the
puck just above Cale Morris’ glove
for the game’s only goal, and a sweep
over the nation’s No. 1 team.
“Usually, when we need someone
to take over a game,” Warren said,
“Him and maybe Tony or his line, or
the power play even, will find a way
to do it.”
That’s exactly what happened
in Michigan’s Big Ten semifinal
matchup against Ohio State. The
Wolverines hadn’t beaten the sixth-
ranked Buckeyes in four meetings,
and had yet to even come close.
Marody had registered only a single
point against them.
But with the road to a Big Ten
title threatening to end in Columbus,
Marody did exactly what Warren
said he would.
In the second period, Marody
caught the puck in the Ohio State
crease and dropped it down just in
time to finesse a chip shot over Sean
Romeo. A period later, he unleashed
a tornado-esque spin from the top
of the slot to tie the score at two,
where it would stay until the end of
regulation.
Marody’s performance, however,
wasn’t enough to win the game for
his team, as the Buckeyes scored the
winning goal in overtime.
But it was enough to show, if it
hadn’t been shown already, that
Cooper Marody — college hockey
superstar — had arrived.
***
On March 7, Marody, along with
Morris and Ohio State forward
Tanner Laczynski, was named one
of three finalists for Big Ten Player
of the Year.
“You don’t necessarily say I want
to do this and that, or get this many
points or get this honor,” he says.
“You just play to be the best player
you can be, and whatever happens at
the end of the season is a result. But I
think if you would have told me that
this team would be seventh in the
country… I think that would mean
more to me.”
Still, it should give Marody
some more things to think about
once the season is over. While
he’s focused solely on Michigan
and the postseason right now —
understandably, of course — almost
everyone around him agrees that
his professional future is bright. The
Philadelphia Flyers selected him in
the sixth round of the NHL Draft in
2015, and Marody’s play this season
might convince them to take the leap
on him.
“Coming out of his year with us
… (he had) abilities to make it to the
National Hockey League one day,”
Eades said. “Those are not things
that you say lightly.”
Those are strong words, indeed
— strong enough to make you forget
that Marody has still only played one
full year of college hockey.
“I really hope he stays as a college
player and graduates and is over-
ready when he gets (to the NHL),”
Berenson said two weeks ago. “... For
me, it’s an easy decision. You stay at
Michigan, you continue to grow.”
Added Pearson: “I always think
if you can continue to improve
here, there’s no rush. You want to
make sure you’re ready physically,
emotionally, spiritually, every way, to
handle the grinds of pro sports.”
Pearson states that the decision on
going pro after the season likely will
ultimately come down to Marody
and his family. But right now, they
can afford to take their time.
“His dream was to go to Michigan
his whole life since he was a little
boy,” Patrick Marody said. “... We
didn’t talk about Michigan hockey
until we got offered, so then you start
talking about it. Right now you got
your job to do and just try to focus,
and I believe that’s the best way. You
don’t want to get ahead of yourself.
Stay in the moment.”
And Cooper Marody has waited
his whole life for this moment.
No, not waited — studied for it.
Meticulously prepared for it. Worked
as hard as he can for it.
A winding road of starts and
stops, of illness and ineligibility, has
produced a confident ice general,
who knows every inch of the rink
and can make magic happen at any
given time.
Finally, the student of the game
can show off everything he has
learned.
EMMA RICHTER/Daily
Junior forward Cooper Marody leads Michigan in assists with 32, a mark that’s good for second-best nationally.
ALEC COHEN/Daily
Junior forward Cooper Marody has used his interest in the details of hockey to develop himself into the best player on the Michigan hockey team.
JACOB SHAMES
Daily Sports Writer