Penn State Hockey: Time Will Only Help Still Young Program

ALLENTOWN, Pa. With 120 minutes in the books between Penn State and Denver, the difference between the two programs has been well established. There is little in the way of ambiguity when trying to decide which team is better, or in the very least, which team has an elite roster.

It’s Denver. It was Denver last year and it was Denver on Saturday night.

Of course the question for Penn State is how to change that. And in reality the answers -all of them- require the same thing.

Time.

Penn State is six years into its existence, a span that has showcased how far it has come -two NCAA appearances to its name- but has also been a reminder that true progress is a slog. There is no shortcut to becoming a great team in any sport. There is no way to circumnavigate the need to establishing yourself as a program players want to be a part of.

And it is true that Guy Gadowsky and his staff have done their best to try and do just that. Eamon McAdam and Peyton Jones are both solid recruiting victories. Evan Barratt not far behind. The talent is coming, a drip by drop process.

But there is a reason why Penn State has targeted goalies at the top of its recruiting wish list. Keep the puck from going in the net, lose some games, steal some games, look competitive, develop what you have and the rest will take care of itself. The benefits of Penn State will make the program look more appealing and sooner rather than later it will all fall into place.

As Denver coach Jim Montgomery mentioned on Saturday night though, a plan is only as good as its players. And as everyone could see on Saturday, the Pioneers have some of the best in the nation. Denver has played that way all season, and could do that on the way to a second straight national title.

‘Players win championships. I mean, it’s that simple,’ Montgomery said. ‘If you don’t have the horses you don’t win. Your schemes, your coaches prepare and your players buy in and that’s where you get championship teams. But they’re the ones that are going to go out and make plays. I can’t go out and make the plays that you saw Troy [Terry] and [Henrik] Borgstrom and everybody else made today.’

That’s the challenge Penn State hockey faces now. A chicken and egg race between building a program with ‘good’ players in order to move forward with a program of ‘great’ players. It’s not an insult to state the obvious: Penn State hockey is still waiting on its Troy Terry. It’s still waiting on that Saquon Barkley program-changer.

Sooner or later it will happen, it seems impossible to imagine it otherwise, but in the meanwhile the Nittany Lions will make their money through effort and toughness rather than elite finesse. There’s nothing wrong with that, it’s a style of play that won a Big Ten Tournament and scored 10 goals on Union.

In the meanwhile Penn State will test out the max of its current formula, and judging by the last six years you could do a lot worse.

However it will take something the Nittany Lions don’t have just yet to take the next step. There’s nothing wrong with that, but Denver was a reminder that there’s work left to be done. Penn State may have arrived on the national stage, but staying there will take a bit more.

Then again, not having to play the best team in the country every year might help too.