Columnist's note: Yes it's almost March Madness, yes the column name has changed but somehow it's about hockey. Well here's the thing, the Dance has been analyzed and overanalyzed with most points of view being taken. This column could throw out something outlandish with the hope it would grab attention or move over already traveled ground and get lost in the noise. Instead, it's about hockey. Enjoy the column and the most wonderful two days of the sports year.
There is always a need to find a point of reference for greatness.
Everything in sports must be compared to something that came before, usually shoehorned into some archetype based on physical characteristics or even just the uniform a player or team wears. Every prolific shooting guard could be the next Michael Jordan (especially if he is 6'6"" or inconsistent from 3-point range), every strong Packer team will inevitably be compared to the 1996 Super Bowl winners.
In this unfortunate vein, the current incarnation of the Wisconsin men's hockey team is now being compared to, well, the only champion of recent memory, the 2006 squad that earned the Badgers' sixth national title.
Even at the start of this week, head coach Mike Eaves had to field the question: ""With the success you guys have had this year, do you ever look at this team and see any comparisons or draw any comparisons to your national championship team? Do they remind you at all?""
But when it's all said and done, there is no comparison.
It is not simply that these are different teams with different players (except for one). Stylistically they are near opposite and their journeys were far different.
Eaves' title team was built around defense, specifically the goaltending of Hobey Baker-finalist Brian Elliott. The current Senator goalie allowed an absurd 1.55 goals per game, stopping nearly 94 percent of the shots he saw.
To put it in perspective, this year's squad has already allowed 95 goals. In 2005-'06, Elliott and backup Shane Connelly let through 79 all year.
In contrast, this year's squad is a bit more offensively oriented. The champs had prolific scorers like Joe Pavelski and Robbie Earl, but they pale in the face of the depth of the current team.
Four Badgers have surpassed 40 points this season and the team is second in the country scoring nearly four goals per game.
At the blueline one also finds a gap in the character of the teams since Tom Gilbert was really the defensive core, filling the role of leader and best scorer. Juniors Brendan Smith and Ryan McDonagh form a yin-yang combination for the 2010 defensemen as McDonagh supplies all the little things, along with some of the biggest hits any Badger can dish out.
Smith is hardly a physical presence, but does his work on the offensive end with adept puck-handling and a powerful slapshot which produced 15 goals this year.
This year's team has been steady, rarely stringing together long winning streaks but never losing two in a row. The title team lost exactly two games before Jan. 20, but swooned for a few weeks when Elliott was injured.
Only one player has had the chance to play for both teams, fifth-year senior Ben Street, so maybe he could enlighten the world on how the two incarnations are linked.
""I think the fact that people are comparing them is just ‘cause we're doing well, we're high in the rankings, stuff like that. We're both older, upperclassmen teams,"" Street said. ""The similarities kind of stop there.""
And that is the point.
The only way they're the same is that both are/were good. This year's team should be allowed to be itself, not some poor reflection of champions past.
They deserve the right to carve out a new path toward what could be Wisconsin's seventh title, not just a chance to follow the trail traveled by the previous six.
They deserve at least that. Nothing more, nothing less.
Feel like this is all incredibly presumptuous since the Badgers could lose at any point in the NCAA tournament? Tell Ben how he's jinxing everything at breiner@wisc.edu.
