I not only titled this blog “Happy New Year” because of the obvious, but I am also happy in this new year because I had a lot of players return from the break happy, re-energized, focused and most importantly, HEALTHY! We went into the break with six forwards sitting in the stands watching due to injury. I am happy to say all but one is ready to go and healthy. The only downer is that Matt Colford is the one forward we won’t get to see the rest of the year as he had his knee surgery this past Friday. The other five forwards are all back and ready to go.
With all that said, we did have one tough call come in over break. Our California kid, Cole Souto came down with a bad virus over break and he is still home in California sick. He will unfortunately miss this weekend and potentially the following weekend. We felt he was better off actually seeing the sun in California and getting some good vitamin D in his system to get better, versus coming back and possibly getting the rest of the team sick. This is very unfortunate as he has been one of our best defensemen the entire season. But, as always, this gives another guy an opportunity to step up and help this team win.
Moving on from all the injury talk, the team has looked great since coming back to campus on Dec. 29. We chipped away at some of the rust after the three weeks off, and I am feeling confident moving into this weekend’s games against UW-River Falls and UW-Superior. These games come at a great time seeing that they are non-conference games and will be great to fine-tune some things before heading into the MIAC stretch the rest of the way. We plan to use these games like the showcase games in that we will see a lot of different guys in the lineup and we will give everyone a chance to earn playing time the following week against St. Olaf. We are also planning to keep a couple guys out of the game that still have small injuries with the idea of having our team 100% and healthy moving into the series against St. Olaf next weekend. Don’t get me wrong in that we are going to go out and do everything possible to win these games, but what is going to make or break this season are the 10 MIAC games that we have the rest of the season.
I am confident that it is going to be a Happy New Year and a great second half to the season. The guys have a jump in their step and are itching to get at it. I can’t tell you enough how exciting the hockey is from now till end of the season. If you get a chance, we would love to have your support at one of the games. I also love it when we have more red in the stands at away rinks than they have home fans! That is what Johnnie athletics are all about!
Have a Happy New Year!
