Spring Break
Hockey fans must look to next season
Patrick Murray
Issue date: 4/15/08 Section: Sports
I believe that it is somewhat of a duty of mine to eulogize Miami University's hockey season. I am now both a fan and a journalist bereft. As a fan I am missing the chance to see my team reach the sport's proverbial promised land, the Frozen Four. As someone who has covered this team from its first games in October, both in these pages and on WMSR, I am deprived of the story that could have and should have been.
I attempt to do this not only for the newspaper, but also for myself, so that I can close the book on what has been, for me, the most exciting and exhilarating season in recent memory. Ultimately, however, it was also a season that featured one of the most painful endings that a fan should ever be forced to endure.
Two weeks ago, Miami was taken down by two minutes of shock and awe and Joe Whitney's fantastic play in overtime. Back then, in the oh-so-distant past, the cuts seemed deeper; today, however, I can see the hope for next year beginning to take shape.
It is a common theme in sports to watch a team continue to improve and attempt to overcome obstacles, especially in the post season, only to see the door closed at the same point, often by the same opponent, four years in succession.
For the past three seasons, this team has been beaten by Boston College in the NCAA Tournament.
Depending on the viewpoint that one would like to take, the burden of this fact is either compounded or eased by the further knowledge that BC has gone on to the NCAA championship game in each of those three years, winning for the first time in that run this season.
As I wrote earlier, this theme has played out many times before. I think back to the history of the Chicago Bulls in the late 1980s and 1990. In the 1990 conference finals, the Bulls were beaten for the third straight year by the Detroit Pistons, who then went on to win the NBA title for the second year running.
Unfortunately, while the precedent is there for the RedHawks to break through to the Frozen Four next season, challenges unique to the college game will need to be addressed before they will be pronounced fit to do so. Jones is gone. So are Nathan Davis and Jeff Zatkoff. Someone, or multiple people, will need to fill the skates of each of these players on the ice, and the shoes of the departing out of the spotlight.
If one good thing came out of Davis's injury troubles this year it is that this team knows what life without Nate on the ice will be. Of course, the absence of the heart and goal-scoring ability of Jones, and the trade-off of Zatkoff for an unknown quantity between the pipes will be more difficult.
But what Miami will not and cannot lose is the brotherhood of the program that has been its biggest asset through the team's ups and downs throughout the years. For Miami, this, more than any one player, is what must take this team to the next level in 2009.
I attempt to do this not only for the newspaper, but also for myself, so that I can close the book on what has been, for me, the most exciting and exhilarating season in recent memory. Ultimately, however, it was also a season that featured one of the most painful endings that a fan should ever be forced to endure.
Two weeks ago, Miami was taken down by two minutes of shock and awe and Joe Whitney's fantastic play in overtime. Back then, in the oh-so-distant past, the cuts seemed deeper; today, however, I can see the hope for next year beginning to take shape.
It is a common theme in sports to watch a team continue to improve and attempt to overcome obstacles, especially in the post season, only to see the door closed at the same point, often by the same opponent, four years in succession.
For the past three seasons, this team has been beaten by Boston College in the NCAA Tournament.
Depending on the viewpoint that one would like to take, the burden of this fact is either compounded or eased by the further knowledge that BC has gone on to the NCAA championship game in each of those three years, winning for the first time in that run this season.
As I wrote earlier, this theme has played out many times before. I think back to the history of the Chicago Bulls in the late 1980s and 1990. In the 1990 conference finals, the Bulls were beaten for the third straight year by the Detroit Pistons, who then went on to win the NBA title for the second year running.
Unfortunately, while the precedent is there for the RedHawks to break through to the Frozen Four next season, challenges unique to the college game will need to be addressed before they will be pronounced fit to do so. Jones is gone. So are Nathan Davis and Jeff Zatkoff. Someone, or multiple people, will need to fill the skates of each of these players on the ice, and the shoes of the departing out of the spotlight.
If one good thing came out of Davis's injury troubles this year it is that this team knows what life without Nate on the ice will be. Of course, the absence of the heart and goal-scoring ability of Jones, and the trade-off of Zatkoff for an unknown quantity between the pipes will be more difficult.
But what Miami will not and cannot lose is the brotherhood of the program that has been its biggest asset through the team's ups and downs throughout the years. For Miami, this, more than any one player, is what must take this team to the next level in 2009.
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