GRAHAM COUCH

Couch: MSU hockey needs a fun season, where offense isn't so hard

Graham Couch
Lansing State Journal
MSU is hoping touted freshman forward Patrick Khodorenko can help jumpstart its offense this season.

EAST LANSING – Michigan State’s hockey program has reached the show-me stage.

Folks don’t want to hear about Tom Anastos’ vision any longer. They want to see it on the ice.

They want to see hockey that doesn’t look like a struggle, that’s fun to watch. They want to see goals scored — in bunches once in a while. They want to see wins on back-to-back nights.

MSU badly needs that sort of hockey season, one that creates a buzz. A Big Ten title isn’t required. Nor is an NCAA tournament appearance. But the Spartans should be in the hunt for a postseason bid. They should be relevant and entertaining. You shouldn’t need two Advil just to drive home from the rink.

There is hope this season — for real this time — a sense that MSU finally has the horses to make this sport with skates, sticks, a puck and two nets look like a worthwhile endeavor again.

MSU has been waiting a while for defenseman Mitch Eliott and this heralded incoming class.

“The group we have this year, from an offensive productivity perspective, it’s probably the best we’ve had at least in my time here,” Anastos said Wednesday, during MSU hockey media day, his sixth as MSU’s coach.

That includes a touted and, in some cases, long-awaited freshman class, 11 new players in all. In college hockey, recruits commit to a college as soon as they’re born, and arrive on campus as soon as they turn 21. It’s not quite that ridiculous. But sometimes close.

Forwards Taro Hirose, Logan Lambdin, Patrick Khodorenko, and defensemen Mitch Eliot, Damion Chrcek and Jerad Rosburg are a few names you’ll likely know sooner rather later, if you don’t already. At least, if MSU’s season goes as hoped.

“The freshmen we have coming in this year, they’re very talented,” senior forward Thomas Ebbing said. “They can score for sure. I mean you can look at their points last year in the USHL and everything, they can produce.”

The last four MSU hockey seasons have been a grind. The Spartans haven’t averaged 2.5 goals per game since since Anastos’ first season in 2011-12, when he coached a veteran team to the NCAA tournament.

Last year’s mere 2.49 goals per game were the best since ’11-12, and it resulted in 10-23-4 record. By comparison, Michigan, which led college hockey in scoring, averaged 4.76 goals per game. When MSU won the national title in 2006-07, it netted 3.26 per game, and, in Ron Mason’s final season as coach in 2001-02, the Spartans scored at a rate of 3.17 per game.

“It’d be really nice to have that,” Ebbing said. “Obviously, the last couple years, we were just kind of hoping pucks would go in.”

The sense that this might be the dawn a new day is mostly tied to the last two recruiting classes and what MSU saw from them in a 2-2 draw in an exhibition against Toronto Sunday. Ebbing said it was the best he’s seen MSU look in its annual exhibition in his four years. MSU outshot Toronto 34-15 on just one day of official practice.

“With our new freshmen, we’ve got a lot of skill, a lot of forwards that put the puck in the net,” said sophomore defenseman Zach Osburn, a bright spot for MSU a year ago. “We’ve got a lot of good defensemen that can create opportunities and move the puck up the ice for the forwards to go get good, smart scoring opportunities.”

The Spartans are hoping players like incoming freshman Logan Lambdin can make life a little less difficult around Munn Ice Arena.

Anastos is a tad wary of his team’s youth, projecting it as one of the youngest teams in college hockey. He said he and his staff are going to have to be patient early, letting his top young talents play through mistakes. Pair this group with what Anastos has committed coming down the pike and ...

“I’m as optimistic as ever before,” he said. “But we want the culture to be a winning, championship culture, and, to do that, you have to prove it. So all of us feel motivated, and we always have, to do that as soon as possible.”

Long-term optimism has never been Anastos’ issue. It looks like he might finally have the offensive skill to give short-term buzz a chance.

“I think it sells the game,” he said. “I think it gets people excited, it gets people entertained, it gets people enthused about the team. It’s fun to play. It’s way more fun to score a goal than backchecking.”

Contact Graham Couch at gcouch@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @Graham_Couch.

Green & White hockey game

When: 4 p.m. Sunday

Where: Munn Ice Arena

Admission: Free