Category: Fred Pletsch
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Pletsch: Getting you ready for the inaugural Big Ten tournament
By Fred Pletsch – Big Ten Hockey’s inaugural regular season is in the books and the focus shifts now to the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, where all six teams get a shot at becoming the first to hoist the league’s championship trophy. Four of the teams involved need to win three games in…
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Pletsch: Berenson and Anastos discuss their in-state rivalry
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By Fred Pletsch – The best sports rivalries are personal in nature. The current head coaches in the Michigan/Michigan state hockey rivalry have tremendous professional respect for one another but their combined 87 years of involvement in a school-fueled feud mean fans should make sure this weekend’s games are prominently highlighted on the calendar.…
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Pletsch: A hat trick of observations, including Mac Bennett’s musical alter ego
By Fred Pletsch – A hat trick of observations and anecdotes as Big Ten Hockey heads into the stretch run of its inaugural season. And the award goes to… Mac Bennett might be the league’s MISA (Most Interesting Student-Athlete) if there were such an honor. On the ice, the Michigan defenseman is flourishing with…
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Pletsch: How about a little shoutout for the shootout?
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By Fred Pletsch – It’s fashionable among self-professed hockey ‘purists’ to decry the tie-breaking procedure used at every level of hockey (except for the holdouts at the NCAA Men’s Division I level) as a glorified skills competition akin to deciding a baseball game with a home-run derby or a golf tournament with a putting…
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Pletsch: Rule changes necessary for the NHL moving forward
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By Fred Pletsch – The NHL needs a safety net of common sense to ensure the integrity of the on-ice administration of the game. As an exercise in predictability before their post-game comments, I pre-selected one word for each coach to use (‘breaks’ for Mike Babcock and ‘embarrassing’ for Darryl Sutter) following Detroit’s shootout…
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Pletsch: Michigan names to keep an eye on during B1G second half
By Fred Pletsch – There are 33 Michiganders rostered on Big Ten men’s college teams this season. The Kris Draper-numbered allotment is led by Michigan State (18) and Michigan (12) with Penn State contributing a pair and Ohio State a single skater. Here’s a projection of the players that will have the biggest impact as…