The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Sports
Friday, January 18, 2019 — 7
I
mitation is the sincerest
form of flattery, so goes the
saying.
The Michigan hockey team
currently finds itself in the mid-
dle of the pack.
Five points from
the top of the
Big Ten and,
likewise, five
points from the
bottom. Sit-
ting at 27th in
the Pairwise
rankings, the
Wolverines will
need all hands
on deck to make
a postseason push.
Last season, Michigan was
reeling heading into the second
half of the season. They were
well out of the NCAA Tourna-
ment picture and a birth in the
tournament seemed improbable.
And as if this season couldn’t
get any more similar to last sea-
son, the Wolverines are losing
one of their top offensive threats
to an injury sustained in the
World Junior Championship.
Again.
After Tuesday’s practice this
week, Michigan hockey coach
Mel Pearson said he’s a “glass-
half-full kind of guy.” Perhaps
his mind was already on the
impending absence of his star
forward, Josh Norris. Moving
forward, the
team will have to
employ that sort
of mentality.
The news
wasn’t officially
released until
this morning:
Norris will
undergo surgery
and miss the
remainder of the
season with an
undisclosed injury.
The sophomore is second on
the team in points and tied for
first in goals despite missing the
past six games. He is arguably
the team’s best pure scorer and
makes a difference every time
he steps on the ice –– see Nor-
ris’ performance against Lake
Superior State. He was having a
breakout season: Norris eclipsed
his goal total from last season
and sits just four points behind
his freshman year’s point total
in less than half as many games
played.
And now, the Wolverines
must prepare for life without
Norris. But don’t panic –– Mich-
igan has been here before.
Last season, then-sophomore
forward Will Lockwood missed
the second half of the season
after suffering a left shoulder
injury in an outdoor game
against Canada while repre-
senting Team USA. He was a
key offensive contributor while
healthy in his first two seasons
with the Wolverines. In 16
games last season, he tallied
four goals and seven assists. As a
freshman, he finished second on
the team in points with 20.
“There’s just a lot of scary
similarities with this year and
last year,” said junior forward
Nick Pastujov. “You lose a guy
in World Juniors, we come back
after Christmas with a couple
big wins against Ohio State and
Notre Dame this year compared
to a couple wins against Notre
Dame last year.”
Michigan’s season has been so
similar to last season already, it’s
almost humor-
ous.
So, if there is
any silver lining,
many of the lead-
ers on the team
have experienced
what it’s like to
find success after
losing one of
their top offen-
sive weapons.
“I think one
of the main teaching tools you
get off of it is that there’s still a
lot of season left,” Pearson said
before today’s practice on the
lessons learned from last sea-
son’s experience. “The team still
can have success even though
you might not have one of your
main characters involved, you
can still have a rewarding sea-
son, and that you can still reach
your goals.”
It’s almost as though the
Wolverines this
season are inad-
vertently paying
homage to last
season’s roller
coaster. Some
of the similari-
ties –– such as
the injuries
–– are out of the
team’s control
and, rather, are
a result of poor
luck. But others –– erratic goal-
tending amplified by the team’s
mediocrity through the halfway
point of the season and signa-
ture conference wins early in
the second half –– are a result
of player performance and give
fans and team members, alike, a
sense of déjà vu.
“We went through it last year,
I guess that’s the other thing
that we can look back upon,”
Pearson said. “It’s a little déjà
vu, same situa-
tion. We have a
player go to the
World Juniors,
gets hurt, out for
the year. We’ve
seen this act
before, and we’re
just gonna have
to follow the
same script this
year.”
Consider it an
impromptu encore of sorts.
If there is one form of consis-
tency Michigan has shown this
season, it is found in inadver-
tently following that same script
from last year. Once again, it is
losing one of its “main charac-
ters,” as Pearson put it, for the
second half of the season.
And that script that Pearson
hopes to follow was a collec-
tive effort. Last season, then-
freshman forward Jack Becker
increased his point total from
zero to eight in the second half
of the season. Another player
who must continue to make an
impact this season is junior for-
ward Nick Pastujov. He is cur-
rently tied with Norris for the
most goals on the team — more
than doubling his goal total from
last season — and has appeared
on the top line alongside Lock-
wood in the absence of Norris.
“I think all four lines need
to kind of dial it in like we did
last year where coach could
kind of put out any line against
any matchup,” Pastujov said. “I
think all the lines need to kind
of step up there.
“So, I think it’s just one of
those things where we have
to stay on the right path, don’t
really get too discouraged about
it. We’ve seen what we can do
when we play good teams. I real-
ly don’t think there’s no reason
we can’t make the same run we
did last year.”
Winning at Notre Dame
and Ohio State without Norris
showed what the Wolverines
are capable of doing moving for-
ward. Michigan already faced an
uphill climb to make it into the
NCAA Tournament.
But they’ve been here before.
“We don’t know, we don’t
know what the ending is going
to be,” Pearson said. “We have
a choice to make sure we do
everything we can to make it a
storybook ending.”
Cazares can be reached
at jcazares@umich.edu or @
jcazares98 via Twitter.
Behind Enemy Lines: The Daily sits down with Wisconsin’s Ethan Happ
On Saturday, the Michigan
men’s basketball team (17-0
overall, 6-0 Big Ten) will face
one of its biggest challenges
in Big Ten play when it takes
on Wisconsin (11-6, 3-3) at the
Kohl Center in Madison.
The Badgers were among
the conference’s
most impressive
teams
early
in the season,
notching
non-
conference wins
over Oklahoma
and
North
Carolina
State,
and
opening
Big
Ten
play
with a win at
Iowa. They have
encountered a rough stretch
since
then,
dropping
their
final game of 2018 to Western
Kentucky before losing three
of four to start the new year
—
including
home
losses
to
Minnesota
and
Purdue.
They also fell just short in a
comeback attempt at No. 19
Maryland on Monday.
Still, though, it’s a marked
improvement from last season
for Wisconsin, who went 15-18
in 2017-18 and missed the
NCAA Tournament for the first
time in 20 years. If the Badgers
return to postseason play this
season, it will be on the back
of fifth-year senior forward
Ethan Happ, a two-time All-
Big Ten selection. The Daily
sat down with Happ at Big Ten
Media
Day
in
October.
The
Michigan
Daily: Is there
a
different
attitude in the
team this year
coming off the
down year than
there was last
year or the year
before that?
Ethan Happ: Yeah, we know
how far away we were. It’s not
like we were right there at the
NCAA tournament mark, we
were far away, and we know
how much we have to improve.
And last year, it’s not like
we expected to be good, but
we almost took for granted
the little things that made
Wisconsin so good every year,
year in and year out. So, I think
this year, we’re not taking
anything for granted and we’re
just gonna grind in practice and
try to make the season the best
one that we’ve had in a while.
TMD: So how do you close
that bigger gap between where
you were last year compared to
the years before that?
Happ: Defensively is the
biggest thing. You could tell, for
the last five years or whatever,
we were a great defensive
team, except for last year. Even
within the season, the whole
first half of the season, we
weren’t good. Then, we got a
little bit better, and then when
we started actually winning
games toward the end of the
year, that’s when we really
locked in and became a pretty
good defensive team. So that’s
just a major — it goes hand in
hand with us being in the win
column more often.
TMD: How has the program
changed since the first half of
your freshman year when Bo
Ryan was here?
Happ: The program itself
hasn’t changed. We still have
the same principles, the same
selfless attitude that you need
in any Wisconsin program.
But there are differences from
coach to coach. But I think the
main thing is with the players,
that
we
just
want to preserve
the
culture
that’s
been
at
Wisconsin.
To
answer
your
question, I don’t
think there has
been a lot of
change. We just
need to get back
to
where
we
have been.
TMD:
What
led you to eventually take your
name out of the NBA draft last
year?
Happ: A couple of things.
One, the feedback I got from
teams, they thought I’d benefit
from another year. But also,
just the way we ended last
season, I didn’t
want that to be
my last season
at
Wisconsin.
So hopefully we
end this on a lot
better note and
go out the right
way.
TMD:
What
feedback
did
they give you?
Happ:
The
most unanimous
things
were
free
throw
percentage has to improve and
then, being able to space the
floor with, like, a 15-foot jump
shot. Those are big things for
teams to move me higher up
on their boards. They said I
was an elite ball handler for
my side, finisher, passer. They
just need to see that to move up
higher on their boards.
TMD: Have you used that
feedback to help you mentor
the younger guys on the team
on what NBA teams are looking
for?
Happ: Not especially on
what NBA teams are looking
for. I’m just more putting the
NBA in the background right
now, just trying to focus on
how Wisconsin can be the best
team. Luckily, there are things
that can be mutually beneficial
for myself making it to the next
level, but also for Wisconsin.
Michigan has been here before
KATELYN MULCAHY/Daily
Sophomore forward Josh Norris’ injury at World Juniors parallels that of fellow forward Will Lockwood last season for the Michigan hockey team.
“All four lines
need to kind of
dial it in like we
did last year.”
“You can
still have a
rewarding
season.”
JORGE
CAZARES
KATELYN MULCAHY/Daily
Wisconsin fifth-year senior forward Ethan Happ is averaging 19.4 points per game, ranking second in the Big Ten.
“We almost
took for
granted the
little things.”
“I’m just more
putting the
NBA in the
background.”
THEO MACKIE
Daily Sports Writer