Big news to start us off in what will be mainly a clean-out-the-notebook type of entry.
The World Juniors were canceled Wednesday afternoon, after two more games were deemed forfeits due to COVID issues within teams inside a not-very-well-constructed bubble in Alberta. Actually, based on the reporting done by many, including Chris Peters, Bob McKenzie, and Scott Wheeler, it seems to have been a very poor bubble, if it’s even fair to call it a bubble.
To be blunt, the IIHF did a horrendous job, and event co-hosts Hockey Canada and the Edmonton Oilers are not without responsibility here, either. Players at the Red Deer location, which included the United States team, were bumping into members of the general public, including a group set to attend a wedding reception at the facility this week.
That’s not a bubble. It’s the exact opposite of a bubble. Best-case scenario, the organizers put this all together before the Omicron variant blew up, and there wasn’t sufficient time to make any major adjustments to the existing plans for lodging and protecting players. Worst-case, they tried to make this happen for as little cost as possible, crossing fingers that the virus wouldn’t infiltrate the teams during the tournament. As we’ve learned time and time again, hope is not a strategery.
With the event ending a week early, now attention turns to the resuming college hockey season. UMD sophomore defenseman Wyatt Kaiser and freshman forward Dominic James were on Team USA, and now they’re free to rejoin the Bulldogs. Even in normal times, it would be a tough ask to get them from Alberta to Mankato in time for Thursday’s series opener against No. 1 Minnesota State (7pm on KDAL). Throw in the flight issues plaguing airlines around the world, and there’s no telling if it’s even possible for Kaiser and James to get back to Minnesota in time.
(Saturday seems pretty realistic, by the way, provided both players remain cleared from COVID protocols in Canada and are able to return to the States.)
Selfishly, it’s great to get them back. But from the perspective of someone (me) who has adored this tournament for more than a decade and looks forward to it every year, this absolutely sucks. I’m gutted for all the athletes and staff who left home for the holidays hoping to have the experience of a lifetime and chase a gold medal, only to spend most of their time quarantined in hotel rooms, probably stressed out awaiting test results that reportedly were taking entirely too long in some cases.
Watch Thursday around 5pm, maybe a little before, for definitive lineup news.
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Big series this weekend. UMD is healthier, with fifth year senior Louie Roehl back on the blue line after a three-game absence. We’ll see — assuming Kaiser and James can’t get to Mankato — how Scott Sandelin sets up the blue line in Kaiser’s absence. Guessing it’s similar to his last absence, when Darian Gotz filled in on the second pair and Owen Gallatin saw some increase in minutes as well.
Sandelin said Tuesday that only goalie Zach Stejskal (testicular cancer) and forward Luke Mylymok (preseason injury) are still out. Both players have been skating with the team (in fact, forward Kobe Roth said Mylymok started skating before the Denver weekend), but Sandelin said they’re both still out indefinitely. I’m sure it’s a lift for everyone involved to see them on the ice again, though.
Minnesota State enters the second half at 16-4, with losses to Michigan and St. Cloud State in non-conference play, then Ferris State and Lake Superior State in league play.
Veteran head coach Mike Hastings is pleased with what he has seen so far.
“It was a good first half,” he said. “It was a good finish up in Bemidji. They’re a tough out. But now we’re starting back up against a very good hockey team (in UMD).”
Hobey Baker candidate Nathan Smith has 11 goals and 27 points in 20 games. Junior Ryan Sandelin has 12 goals. Goalie Dryden McKay should be on the Olympic list now that the NHL isn’t going. He has six shutouts this season to bring his career total to 293 (possible exaggeration).
“I just hope we’re going to get a few more of those down the road,” Hastings said of McKay’s shutouts. “I thought Dryden did a good job. He controls his demeanor, his work ethic, and our guys really enjoy playing in front of him. We’re going to continue to lean on him over the second half.”
“We just want to stay consistent in our game,” Sandelin said of helping McKay finish shutouts. “Him breaking the record, it’s obviously special. We want to do everything we can to help him extend that record as often as possible.”
Sandelin’s dad, the longtime boss at UMD, is impressed by this weekend’s adversary.
“They’re solid from the net out,” said Scott Sandelin of MSU. “Their D-corps is their strength. They’ve got some talented forwards. They have a really good demeanor. They’re never too high or too low. They just play. They don’t give you a lot of room on the rink, they don’t beat themselves, and you’ve got to find a way to get pucks by McKay. It’ll be a hard series.”
The Mavericks finished the first half with a strong sweep in Bemidji, while UMD split with Denver the same weekend. Sandelin was blunt when asked how much better he felt going into break after the 6-2 win on Dec. 11, versus the 5-0 loss one night earlier.
“A hell of a lot better than we would have been after Friday,” he said. “It was a good learning lesson for our guys. I don’t know what we were Friday. I don’t know if we thought getting Kaiser back and Fanti back (from COVID protocols) that we were just going to be that team again. But we weren’t, and I did like how we responded. It’s the difference of how we need to play and how we can’t play.”
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Thursday will be the third time the Sandelins have clashed, with Ryan and Minnesota State 2-0 against Scott and UMD. The Mavericks swept the Bulldogs by 4-1 and 3-1 scores Thanksgiving weekend of 2019 as a blizzard descended upon Duluth.
Both player and coach talked this week about facing each other.
“It was good to get the first one out of the way a couple years ago,” Scott Sandelin said. “I didn’t like the results that weekend, and I’ve heard about it from him a little bit. He’s worked hard to get where he’s at, and he continues to want to be a better hockey player every day. I think you’re seeing that more and more as his career goes on.
“He’s pretty far along in school. He’s going to graduate in the summer, and then he’ll work on his masters next year. He’s a good student, which my wife (Wendy) and I are very proud of him for. The hockey part’s the bonus. Maybe he’ll have a chance to play beyond college.
“I’ll get into the game and focus on our team, and after the game we can have the dad/son moment like we did last time. Hopefully, it will be with us winning games, not losing games, but it’ll be fun again to play them.”
Ryan talked about the 2019 meeting, saying he had a ton of family and friends at the games.
“It was interesting,” he said of the series. “I didn’t know what to expect going in. I had so many friends on the other bench, too. It would be silly to say it was another game. There’s so much else going on. It’s nice to have that experience and kind of know what to expect. In the same token, it’s special to look across the bench and have my dad there and have my family in the stands. It’s great for everyone to have us going against one another.”
Ryan Sandelin is off to a great start this season after a strong finish to the truncated 2020-21 season. He scored the overtime goal against Quinnipiac that gave MSU its first-ever win in the NCAA Tournament, ensuring “Ryan Sandelin” would be the answer to a trivia question in Mankato forever.
“It’s pretty special,” he said. “It’s tough to put into words now, but looking back on it in 20 or 30 years, it’ll be a special moment. To be a part of the team that pushed the needle for the program, it’s something that I’ll remember for the rest of my life.”
I asked Sandelin if the players felt the weight of that streak, even though most of them weren’t around for any of the actual games.
“I think so,” said Sandelin. “For some of the guys who had been there previously, guys like myself, we hadn’t experienced any NCAA Tournament games. It was a breath of fresh air for a lot of us. For the older guys, we went in with a fresh mindset. It wasn’t on our minds too much. But it’s there, people talk about it. Fortunately enough, we were able to win a couple games and get to Pittsburgh.”
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With NHL players not going to the Olympics, we’re two weeks out from finding out who will be on Team USA. Under the direction of GM John Vanbiesbrouck and head coach David Quinn, the team will be comprised of pros from Europe and the AHL, along with some college players.
One has to assume Smith and McKay will be considered from Minnesota State, and the same for Noah Cates of UMD.
Hastings said it’s on his mind.
“I’m proud of what we have here and our program,” Hastings said, “and there’s maybe Nathan Smith and a couple others. But I’m a huge, huge Noah Cates fan. I had the opportunity to coach him on a World Junior team. He’s a guy who brings it every single day, and I have a lot of respect for him.”
Hastings believes both Smith and Cates will be under serious consideration for the U.S. team.
“I’ll be honest, I have mixed feelings about it,” said Scott Sandelin. “Just given, not about playing for your country, it’s just the same situation with COVID. Maybe the same reasons NHL guys had doubts about going over there. It’s maybe a little different for us than the pro guys because they were planning that break.
“You’re coming down the stretch, and you might be losing some good players, and that’s tough. It’s one thing to plan for it. We’ll see what happens. You’re not going to deny kids that opportunity, but you have to look at the long-term results, if something goes wrong over there and they get it (COVID). They might miss more than just the time that they’re over there playing games.”
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6:30pm pregame Thursday from Mankato, with the great Dan Myers of Wild.com joining on commentary. Kraig will be with me Saturday night in Duluth for a 5:30pm pregame.
I encourage you to check out my Hastings conversation, which is split into the first and second intermissions Thursday. I talked to Ryan Sandelin for about 15 minutes this week. You can hear that on my radio show Thursday at 10:35, and a portion of it will run Saturday night.
I’ll post both conversations in full on my show podcast page at some point this weekend.
Travel day Thursday. I’ll chat with you from the rink with lines and any other news.
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