Thursday, October 10, 2019 // FACEOFF 2019
3B
What it takes to win a championship
M
el Pearson woke up Fri-
day morning reeling from
a vivid dream.
It was a sight. The team and him,
standing in Little Caesars Arena,
hosting a trophy for all to see.
“I had a dream that we won
the national
championship
in Detroit in
front of 22,000
Michigan fans,”
Pearson said,
“and how unbe-
lievable that
would be, and
how awesome
it was.”
But dreaming is not a new con-
cept for Pearson. Becoming the head
coach of Michigan Tech. Winning
a championship with the Huskies.
Coming back to coach the Michigan
hockey team.
And he did just that.
Pearson went out and became
a six-year head coach at Michigan
Tech. He won a Western Collegiate
Hockey Association and WCHA
Tournament title. And he came back
and became the eighth head coach in
Michigan history.
Pearson knows better than
anyone that it takes more than just
wishful thinking to make a dream a
reality. When asked last year, former
player Quinn Hughes made sure to
emphasize the process it takes to
win a national championship.
“At the end of the day, as much as
we talked about winning a national
championship, you gotta think day
to day,” Hughes said. “You can’t win
a national championship today. It’s
going to take six, seven months.”
And it’s true. You can’t build a
national championship-winning
team overnight. No one regular-
season game will make or break the
team. It’s a long process that spans
months, and it’s contingent on a lot
of multiple different factors. Pear-
son, having been there before when
he assisted Red Berenson in winning
two titles, knows exactly what it
takes to get there.
He broke it down, and here’s what
it takes to win it all.
Luck
Luck is a large part of the winning
equation no one likes to mention.
Partly because it’s hard to measure,
and partly because it detracts from
the result. But it is a factor.
Especially in a game like hockey,
where there can be so many lucky
bounces that decide a game, or lucky
puck placements that swing momen-
tum. You can see it during broken
plays, like in Sunday’s exhibition
against Windsor, when freshman
defenseman Cam York tripped over
himself and lost the puck in the
defensive zone — a turnover that led
directly to a Windsor goal. All he
could describe it as was, “fluky.”
But the type of luck, or lack
thereof, that the Wolverines strug-
gled with most of all over the last
two seasons was keeping everyone
healthy.
In the 2017-18 season, the season
Michigan made an unexpected
Frozen Four run, Will Lockwood
was forced to sit the second half of
the season after obtaining a shoul-
der injury at World Juniors. As a
high-impact player until that point,
his absence hurt — even though
the team made a deep run. Senior
forward Jake Slaker believes if Lock-
wood was healthy, a national cham-
pionship was a serious possibility.
The following year, a similar inju-
ry occurred, again, at World Juniors.
This time, it was then-sophomore
forward Josh Norris who was forced
to sit due to a shoulder injury — at
the time, leading the team in points.
Additionally, then-junior defense-
man Luke Martin broke his arm
against Michigan State.
Injuries are a topic that not too
many players like to linger on.
Even Lockwood was skeptical to
talk about his return to full health,
knocking on wood to ward off any
chance of jinxing it.
But again, you have to be some-
what lucky to have a fully healthy
team. The season spans seven
months. With all the physicality and
wear-and-tear of hockey, it’s hard to
predict who catches the injury bug
and who doesn’t.
“I know it’s the next man up,”
Pearson said. “But sometimes you
just can’t overcome that.”
Growth
And part of staying healthy plays
into growth. You can’t grow as a
player if you’re sitting on the side-
lines, nursing an injury.
But you also can’t expect to have
success if your players aren’t playing
up to par. Pearson believes all the
pieces of a championship team are
there. Now the problem is just get-
ting the pieces to fall into place.
“We have everything we need to
have a chance,” Pearson said.
But he continued to stress the
importance of his players’ growth
as a key component of reaching
championship potential. With the
veterans, it’s easy to tell what you
have or what you will eventually get.
With the younger players with big
roles, you’re betting a lot on where
you think they’ll end up.
“Even Beecher and York, as high
as they’re rated and everything like
that, it’s a grind in the college hockey
season,” Pearson said. “And you
gotta make sure they continue to get
better.
“But I believe your best players
need a lot of coaching too, you just
can’t ignore them.”
Trying to foster a competitive
environment, the team has the type
of depth where not every player
will get to play, even if they deserve
so. The cutthroat competition will
inspire each player to work harder in
practice, stay longer, be better.
And part of the process is going
through Michigan’s tough non-
conference schedule. Pearson’s been
asked if he really wanted to start
off the season having to face such
loaded teams. But he wouldn’t have
it any other way.
He believes it’s a measuring stick.
One that shows where you are, and
an indicator for where you need to
go.
Accountability
To Pearson, it doesn’t matter what
your role is. You can be a top-line
forward, a top-pairing defense-
man or the last player on the list of
undressed players.
But the players have to show up
every day or be held accountable.
“If you show up and have a lousy
practice or a lousy week, you’re let-
ting your teammates down,” Pear-
son said. “You have to make sure you
come and bring it every day. I don’t
care if your our best player or maybe
our 17th forward on the depth chart,
you have something to come and
push guys every day.”
Games will be lost. It’s inevitable
unless a miracle occurs. But the abil-
ity to understand what went wrong,
accept it and move on is what makes
good teams great.
Last year, when Quinn Hughes
committed two turnovers that lead
directly to opposing goals against
Penn State January 26, he pointed
to himself and claimed responsibil-
ity. It was the first time all season he
had publicly declared his faults, and
the team, soon after, found any sem-
blance of success — winning three of
their next four games and losing the
fourth by one.
“I think that’s the biggest thing is
you have to have the accountability
and that consistency on a day to
day, week to week, month to month
regardless of how the games are
going,” Pearson said.
Heart
You hear it all the time. You have
to want it, to get it.
Last year, Hughes talked about
how the team discussed the pros-
pects of a national title, but that his
decision to come back ultimately put
himself first, making sure he was
ready for the pros. The team last
year had individuals that put them-
selves above all else, and it showed.
And all the preseason hype, the
top-five national ranking, the high
expectations, was for naught as the
team disappointed, finishing with a
sub-.500 record.
And the players, this year, took
last season to heart.
Lockwood couldn’t even think
about making a decision on whether
to return or not after the season-
ending loss to Minnesota. And when
the time came around to decide, he
listened to his heart.
“My heart was always here,”
Lockwood said. “And it’s kind of
hard to turn down decision of some-
thing you dreamt of your whole life,
but my heart has always been at
(Michigan). Been in Ann Arbor.”
The team heard the criticism and
kept it in the back of their minds.
They had goals, ones they weren’t
willing to share. But their expecta-
tions of what the team would be was
important to them. And to make
whatever they had in mind happen,
every individual has to buy in. No
one around the locker room cared
where the other was from, where
they were drafted, how touted they
were.
“I can stand you up and measure
how tall you are,” Pearson said.
“And I can put you on the scale and
measure what you weigh but a lot
of times, you can’t measure a guy’s
heart.”
***
If it was as easy as to just have
those factors, every team would
have a chance to win. But Pearson
believes it doesn’t take the best team
to win. It just takes playing the best,
on any given night.
So when Pearson recalled a
Thursday night’s sleep, he saw his
team, maybe not the best in the field,
but the one that played the best.
“You always dream about things.
What you want. What’re you trying
to achieve.” Pearson said. “Maybe
it’s a dream, but dreams do come
true.”
Le can be reached at tntle@umich.
edu or on Twitter @tientrle.
ALEXANDRIA POMPEI/Daily
Michigan coach Mel Pearson had surprising success in his first season in Ann Arbor, but struggled in his second.
TIEN LE