The Badgers are coming off maybe their most impressive weekend of hockey this season after splitting a home series against No. 6 Minnesota. They have built up both momentum and confidence in the last few weeks, and are now set to face off against another Top 10 team for the second weekend in a row, inching toward the top spot in the Big Ten Rankings.
That alone should elicit tremendous excitement for the Badgers (4-2 Big Ten, 11-8-1 overall), but is instead only a small storyline for their upcoming weekend series against No. 8 Ohio State (3-2, 12-4-6). This won’t be an average road trip for the Badgers, as after the Buckeyes play host in Columbus, Ohio, Thursday, both teams will travel to New York for a Saturday matchup in Madison Square Garden.
“It’s special; not for me, but I think for the players to get to play in an NHL building is pretty cool itself,” head coach Tony Granato said. ”With our basketball team being there, with it being a Top 10 team we’re playing against, it being on the Big Ten network and all these other things, we also get to play at Madison Square Garden. It’s a big game to begin with, so all the extra stuff makes it that much more exciting.”
Though the players want to prepare for the matchup the way they would any other there is undoubtedly some extra excitement accompanying the chance to play in such a historic sports venue.
“It’s going to be amazing. I think I am going to be spending the good majority of the first period looking around, looking at all the retired numbers and just looking at how amazing the new arena is,” defenseman Corbin McGuire said. “It’s quite a place. It will be an amazing, amazing thing to take part of.”
McGuire, a senior from Ridgefield, Conn., played in Madison Square Garden numerous times with his youth team, the Junior Rangers, who were coached by NHL legend Mark Messier. Still, even for McGuire, the experience of playing at the Garden for his college team will be much more special.
“If you would have told me growing up as a little kid I would get to play for my dream school in my dream NHL arena, I would have told you you’re crazy, because I never thought Wisconsin would have a chance to play in Madison Square Garden,” McGuire said. “It’s going to be a pretty special day for everybody.”
For the remainder of the Badgers who haven’t had the chance to play at the Garden before, they will be stepping onto the same arena as legends like Messier, Brian Leech, Mike Richter and Rod Gilbert, let alone the current NHL stars who could some day become Hall of Fame players in their own right.
“I think that guys, you know, they all follow NHL hockey, so they’re going to know that guys like Rick Nash plays on that ice. And Lundqvist and Stepan and McDonough,” Granato said. “So I think that will be really cool for them to experience that.”
Still, amidst all the excitement of being in New York City, visiting the 9/11 Memorial, Times Square, the Rockefeller Center and, of course, playing at Madison Square Garden, the Badgers know that this is not just vacation—it’s still a business trip.
“I’ve kind of told the guys in the room that this is a great event that we’re going to be playing in,” McGuire said. “And the winning team is usually the one that remembers it the longest, so it’s important to come out of there with a win.”
