As sports resumed amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, I've reminded myself of the reality that even though the games are being played, the circumstances are so different that you shouldn't really care about the results. Enjoy the games we get, hope the players develop in spite of the virus and don't take away much from what happens. So many things happened different out of necessity that hopefully won't be the case in future seasons. In many respects, it was merely an exhibition season with trophies awarded. The games will count in the record book, but the results on paper won't show the games that were cancelled or rescheduled or played with incomplete rosters as players were quarantined.
So what to take away from UNO hockey's surprise run to the NCAA tournament in this pandemic year? Well, I've tipped off my answer by using the words "surprise" because, quite frankly, I didn't see it coming until the tournament committee released the brackets. And when UNO went down with a whimper in a 7-2 shellacking by Minnesota, I wasn't terribly surprised either.
Did UNO hockey improve in this pandemic season? Yes.
That's one conclusion I feel pretty strong about, but that's because UNO hockey has been pretty awful the last few seasons. When the pandemic ended the 2019-20 season, I could only roll my eyes at the talk of "momentum" coming out of the last few games of that season. Yes, the Mavs had an exciting 4-1 victory over North Dakota in the second-to-last game of the season. But bookending that single game were three games where UNO didn't score a single goal.
You cannot say you have anything resembling "momentum" when you were shut out in three of your last four games.
I would have said that much louder a year ago, but with the pandemic beginning to rage, there wasn't much of a point to it. There were far more important things to worry about.
So yes, UNO hockey was improved from a rather mediocre 2019-20 team.
But was UNO any good? Some would say yes, because they received an NCAA tournament berth. Some would say yes, because they finished in fourth place in the NCHC.
However, I simply can't dismiss that UNO played 17 games on their home ice, versus nine elsewhere. The NCHC started their season with a controlled pod at Baxter Arena to minimize travel and exposure of players and coaches to the virus. UNO did very well playing all of these games on their home ice (though using the visitors bench in several of them), ending the pod in 2nd place. For the season, UNO finished in fourth place as St. Cloud State and Minnesota Duluth passed the Mavs in the second half of the season. So some of that improvement could simply have been playing in familiar circumstances almost all season long.
It's worth noting that both St. Cloud and UMD are heading for Pittsburgh and the Frozen Four. So any criticism of UNO hockey needs to be tempered by the fact that the Mavs play in the strongest league in college hockey by far. There's no shame in finishing fourth in this league.
(Of course, tell that to the "better fans than me" that perpetuated the myth of "Swoontober", because merely finishing in the upper half of the NCHC was cause for outrage. Or maybe that was simply a facade to cover for hating the most successful coach UNO has ever had in hockey.)
Two years ago, I thought I'd give Mike Gabinet until now to really gauge where his program is at. But the disruption of COVID-19 says to wait another year. Gabinet's program showed some improvement this season, to be sure, but it's far from saying that Gabinet is a "great success" thus far at UNO.
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