It's only two weeks into the Wisconsin men's hockey team's season, and already there might be a state of panic in the locker room. Senior forward and co-captain Ben Street will miss three to six months with a right knee injury, and will have to undergo surgery to repair a ligament.
The loss of Street is a huge blow to the team. Besides being one of the team's highest returning scorers and donning the C"" on his chest, Street was an important member of penalty kills, power plays and faceoffs.
Not having Street in the lineup for three months will be hard enough for UW. But a knee injury will likely end his senior season before it even began.
Wisconsin is currently 0-4 overall and is looking at a huge series this upcoming weekend at the Kohl Center against rival Minnesota. The Golden Gophers come into Madison with a 2-0 record, winning two low-scoring games last weekend against St. Cloud State.
Since Street is gone, Wisconsin will need someone else to step up and assume a leadership role. The Badgers' other co-captain, junior forward Blake Geoffrion, is the firecracker of the two, while Street is the calming force that even hockey team needs. With that in mind, it is still unclear what UW head coach Mike Eaves will do about the vacated captain spot.
Will he add an assistant captain to give Geoffrion some much-needed help? Or will the whole team be expected to take on some sort of communal captain role? No one knows for sure, but Wisconsin needs to find a leader fast.
Over the last two weekends, UW has allowed two games to get out of hand games they should have won. Senior goaltender Shane Connelly gave up five goals in the season opener against then No. 1 Boston College, but only one of those goals was against even-strength. Of the other four, two were short-handed which doesn't help Connelly's case, and two were on Eagle power plays.
Last weekend against then No. 4 Denver, the Badgers had a 4-1 lead early in the second period, but were unable to hold off the Pioneers, eventually losing 6-5. With that said, the Badgers are definitely in need of some leadership from the top, and with Street out, who will this young squad - 16 of the 31 players are underclassmen - turn to?
Connelly seems to be the obvious choice, but Eaves has sat him the first two Saturdays to start the season, giving sophomore Scott Gudmandson the nod as the netminder. Another candidate is junior defenseman Jamie McBain, who many believed would leave for the NHL after last season. But after opening the year with a plus/minus rating of negative-five the last two weekends, McBain obviously hasn't been setting a good precedent on the ice either.
With those two out, it seems that the leadership is going to have to come directly from the top: Coach Eaves himself.
This might be one of Eaves' toughest coaching challenges yet. Wisconsin was expected to do well this year, and possibly challenge for a spot in the upper echelon of the Western Collegiate Hockey Conference among Colorado College, Denver, North Dakota and St. Cloud State.
But after a start like this and the loss of Street's no-nonsense, rational attitude, things could spiral out of control quickly for Wisconsin men's hockey.
Wisconsin's saving grace at this point is its return to the Kohl Center. The Crease Creatures will be out in full force for the season-opening series, and some home cooking is exactly what UW needs right now.
Which hockey player will step up for UW? Let Nate know by e-mailing him at ncarey@wisc.edu.
