Opening night of the Expectations Era for the Penn State men’s hockey team felt like most other season openers at Pegula Ice Arena — energetic, loud, raucous.
An amped Roar Zone student section, a fairly full arena (6,249) and an offensive-minded team with plenty of talent produced entertaining, albeit sometimes sloppy hockey.
Nobody told Clarkson it was supposed to be part celebration, part coronation, though.
Or maybe they’d heard enough.
Clarkson muscled and persisted, getting a 6-4 decision and dropping fourth-ranked Penn State to 9-4-1 in season openers — while the Golden Knights earned their first-ever victory in Hockey Valley.
In terms of expectations, the home team’s star turn came not from Gavin McKenna, the heralded freshman and presumptive No. 1 NHL Draft pick next spring, but from sophomore standout JJ Wiebusch, who scored a school-record four goals in the first 27-plus minutes. (McKenna did have the primary assist on two of those goals.)
A brief pregame ceremony led to the unfurling of an updated banner listing the program’s four NCAA Tournament appearances and a separate banner commemorating the program’s first Frozen Four appearance.
Those highlights from last season, and the offseason additions of McKenna and fellow freshman Jackson Smith, a first-round pick in the most recent NHL Draft, helped launch the Expectations Era.
In addition, Penn State had two preseason all-Big Ten selections, forward Aiden Fink and transfer defenseman Mac Gadowsky. Overall, the roster includes six NHL Draft picks. Not long ago, more than two of those at a time was unusual for a Penn State team.
It’s the same Penn State hockey as before, just a little different. Still cold and cozy inside the arena. Still a put-pucks-on-goal mindset.
Still, frustratingly inconsistent and sloppy on defense at times.
It’s also a little more corporate and a little higher profile.
The game was televised by Big Ten Network — the first of what will be 11 Penn State games on the network this season. And the media in attendance included NHL.com and The Athletic, as well as four local TV stations.
Inside the arena, the transformation of gameday experience was subtle but also stark — all the result of necessary corporate creep. Penn State needs all the additional sponsors, on the dasher boards, on ribbon boards on the Zambonis and more, to cover the pay-for-play costs of competition these days.
And it’s been gone for a couple seasons but the old-school power-play sponsor approach — offering a free something to fans if Penn State scores — seems quaint by subtraction. Oh, there’s still a sponsor, but there’s nothing in it for the fans, which kind of typifies the corporate gameday change in general.
There’s more but not necessarily more for the fans, and certainly not anything free.
Sure, the student section offered free advice, with brief “Fire Franklin” chants at the start of each period, but on the ice Penn State ultimately paid for its lack of defensive consistency.
It was not an auspicious start to the Expectations Era. That said, it was familiar for longtime fans, and for a program that went through almost the first third of last season without a meaningful victory, it’s not the end of the world either.
Sometimes it takes a bit for a team to meet its expectations, or make the most of a new era.
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