From: The Capital Times by Todd Milewski
(left) Wisconsin star player Kyle Turris at the NHL Draft Keg Party last summer. Don't ask where the ping pong ball has been.
Three of the players coach Mike Eaves calls difference-makers are returning to the University of Wisconsin men's hockey lineup, but there's no way of knowing what the Badgers will get out of them this weekend.
For starters, centers Kyle Turris and Blake Geoffrion and defenseman Jamie McBain will have had only five days off between the end of the World Junior Championship in the Czech Republic and Friday's opener of a Western Collegiate Hockey Association series at No. 3 Denver.
They've been through an intense international competition, with Turris playing seven games in 11 days for gold-medalist Canada and McBain and Geoffrion skating in six games in the same time for the fourth-place United States.
Their winter break was shorter than everyone else's. Turris left for Canada's camp right after the Badgers closed the first half of the season; the Americans met up a week later.
With that in mind, Badgers coach Mike Eaves has given those players a few days off. Geoffrion and McBain will rejoin the team on Wednesday. Turris can't get a flight back to Madison in time for Wednesday's practice, so instead of burning one of his prescribed days off, he'll meet the team in Denver on Thursday.
"They need to back off mentally probably more than physically and just gather themselves," Eaves said. "That's what this is about."
"I've seen it where you do have a seamless transition," Eaves said. "I've seen where it's taken a week and a couple games and then another week before things finally get back to where you'd like them."
The 17th-ranked Badgers are about to embark on two of their longer road trips of the season. In going to Denver and Anchorage, Alaska, in the next two weeks, they'll rack up about 7,300 miles in the air.
Add that to the return from Europe for Geoffrion, McBain and Turris, and it's a lot of time in airports and on planes.
The need to have those players fresh for the second half of the UW season makes their time off important.
"I think getting them back, a lot of it will depend on how they recover here -- do they have any nicks and bangs? -- the travel that they've had," Eaves said. "How are they feeling? That will have a large part to do with how quickly we come back together as a group."
For starters, centers Kyle Turris and Blake Geoffrion and defenseman Jamie McBain will have had only five days off between the end of the World Junior Championship in the Czech Republic and Friday's opener of a Western Collegiate Hockey Association series at No. 3 Denver.
They've been through an intense international competition, with Turris playing seven games in 11 days for gold-medalist Canada and McBain and Geoffrion skating in six games in the same time for the fourth-place United States.
Their winter break was shorter than everyone else's. Turris left for Canada's camp right after the Badgers closed the first half of the season; the Americans met up a week later.
With that in mind, Badgers coach Mike Eaves has given those players a few days off. Geoffrion and McBain will rejoin the team on Wednesday. Turris can't get a flight back to Madison in time for Wednesday's practice, so instead of burning one of his prescribed days off, he'll meet the team in Denver on Thursday.
"They need to back off mentally probably more than physically and just gather themselves," Eaves said. "That's what this is about."
"I've seen it where you do have a seamless transition," Eaves said. "I've seen where it's taken a week and a couple games and then another week before things finally get back to where you'd like them."
The 17th-ranked Badgers are about to embark on two of their longer road trips of the season. In going to Denver and Anchorage, Alaska, in the next two weeks, they'll rack up about 7,300 miles in the air.
Add that to the return from Europe for Geoffrion, McBain and Turris, and it's a lot of time in airports and on planes.
The need to have those players fresh for the second half of the UW season makes their time off important.
"I think getting them back, a lot of it will depend on how they recover here -- do they have any nicks and bangs? -- the travel that they've had," Eaves said. "How are they feeling? That will have a large part to do with how quickly we come back together as a group."
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