Maybe this is all a giant exercise in the concept of “if” versus ”when,” and of late, “when” is beating out “if.”
Every time Penn State men’s hockey has been met with one of those ifs since January, it’s turned that opportunity into a “when,” and now all of those “whens” have added up to two last ifs – the biggest ones left.
If Penn State can continue to do what it’s done since January this week in St. Louis, it’s a matter of how and when, not if, they can win a national championship.
Maybe that’s what the tear that Penn State men’s hockey has been on is all about. Maybe it’s been about stringing together all of these little moments into a big moment in fashion that’s about putting itself in the best possible position to achieve whatever comes next. That’s what will be put to the test this week in St. Louis because there is nothing that comes next after that.
All that’s left is the Frozen Four. All that’s left is a real chance at a national championship.
It’s the theory that when Penn State ties all of these pieces together, it’s put itself into the best possible opportunity to not just reach a Frozen Four but to win a national championship.
After all, Penn State is there. That’s still possible because all Penn State has done since January is to put itself in the best position to turn “ifs” into “whens.”
So often this year – and maybe this program – has been about turning “ifs” into “whens.” It’s how they got to this position and while there is an inherent cosmic-like quality to believing in “ifs,” it’s no fluke either.
Guy Gadowsky has been building his program for a moment like this. When leading scoring and Hobey Baker hopeful Aiden Fink went relatively quiet on the scoresheet in the postseason, guys like JJ Wiebusch, Dane Dowiak and Matt DiMarsico picked up the weight. When UConn shortened its bench against Penn State in overtime, the coach ran all of his lines. It was a fascinating decision that as the game ticked deeper into overtime may have ultimately pushed his squad past the Huskies.
Those collective efforts in the Allentown Regional speak to the tenet of Gadowsky’s teams during his tenure, which have never been built around one guy – but rather their sum. All of that happened by design, by belief and by faith in those principles that the coach has ardently and patiently stuck to since coming to Hockey Valley.
And that team — the one that has embodied those principles better than any of his others — now stares squarely into the biggest opportunity ever for the coach, for its players and most of all for the program as the justification for those principles.
It’s also hard to not be caught up in the “if” of it all.
There are those who thought if Penn State could one day get a Division I program, it could be in these types of moments. And when they reality happened, that hope of “if” carried the promise of “when.”
It looked like 2020 may have been that first moment, too. Of course, a global pandemic derailed much of that but when that lost ground would be regained, it’s no surprise it’s clicked in this result.
The “ifs” of yesteryear are now becoming the “whens” of now, happening right before our eyes.
But back in December, when Penn State had lost those nine conference games in a row – and even needed a club hockey goalie to save the day against a non-conference opponent – the “when” that will happen by just appearing in St. Louis this week was the most immediate and improbable “if” of them all.
It, in so many ways, is not normal that Penn State is here right now or that Penn State is one of the four teams left standing this season after that losing streak. That is, of course, the result of those “when’s” but the fashion of how those “ifs” became this “when” is what’s so impressive and almost stunning about this run.
From the if of getting Arsenii Sergeev back and the if he stays healthy to if they can turn things around when he comes back to the if of saving the season against Ohio State to the if of the PairWise shaking out with how it did to the if of beating Maine and the if of finally making a Frozen Four, by simply and inconceivably changing all of those moments from if to when — that’s how Penn State got here.
It’s also how Penn State can do something beyond just getting here.
Of course, the last ifs are massive ones — or rather the massive collective one. Winning a national championship in a sport not designed for single-game elimination is one of the game’s hardest tasks, and it will take two more wins to get there.
But if Penn State can turn its final set of “ifs” into “whens” whenever they show up much like Gadowsky’s team has done time and time again, there’s a real reason to believe it’s a matter of when, not if, they’ll be raising a trophy on Saturday night.
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