Sports: Men's Hockey

McBain shoots for Hobey Baker Award

Junior leads all defensemen in assists; torrid pace earn assistant captain prize for top player in college hockey

With six national championships, three WCHA regular season titles and 11 WCHA tournament championships, it is an obvious understatement to claim the Wisconsin men’s hockey team has an impressive history.

Despite all those accolades, however, the storied program has never seen a Hobey Baker Award winner.

With junior defenseman Jamie McBain leading all WCHA blue liners in points this season, that surprising anomaly might change soon.

“People know [McBain’s] offensive ability, but they don’t see how good he is defensively,” sophomore defenseman Brendan Smith said. “He has always got the puck — you don’t really see it all the time, but when you see him in practice he is great. I think he is a Hobey Baker for sure.”

Since 1981, the Hobey Baker Award has been given annually to college hockey’s top player, including WCHA players 12 times. With only five of the 28 winners manning the blue line, McBain finds history stacked against him a little bit.

Not that the Badgers’ assistant captain is thinking about it.

“It’s in the back of your mind,” McBain said of the Hobey Baker Award. “But obviously after the week I got nominated and after it was a big deal — since then I haven’t focused too much on it. Obviously you know and it’s there, but for the most part I just focus on each game each weekend.”

Coming into the season, McBain — like most athletes — set some individual goals for the year. Although the award wasn’t his top goal, the Minnesota native admits it was somewhere on the list.

“I felt I had a chance coming into the season,” McBain said. “Coming into the year my goal was about 40 points, and I am right in the range, right where I wanted to be. Hobey nominee is such a huge deal — 40 points was just kind of the marker I was shooting for.”

Watching McBain play, it doesn’t take long to realize why the junior has been so successful. With superb vision on the ice, McBain has racked up 22 assists in 22 conference games — better than any other defenseman or forward.

“We always joke as a team which guys have sick vision and sick hands,” junior captain Blake Geoffrion said. “[McBain] definitely has unbelievable hands, unbelievable vision, he’s got a great stick. He doesn’t get beat a lot, but every once in a blue moon someone will beat him and he will come back right back with his stick.”

Head coach Mike Eaves — the leading scorer in Wisconsin history — might be even more complimentary of McBain.

“He is one of those guys that has a combination of understanding the game,” Eaves said. “He can see the game, and see what needs to be done. From a skill standpoint he has the package to get those things done. A quarterback can see a receiver being open, but does he have the arm to get it there? Jamie has that arm to get it there and he sees it too.”

This season, McBain has found a lot of his success on the power play. With McBain recording 20 points on the man advantage, UW ranks second in the WCHA, converting 21.9 percent of their chances.

“I just have to do one thing — just shoot it,” Smith said. “He does everything. He has got great hands, and he can find everybody, so he makes everybody better, and that is why he has so many points.”

Though McBain became a Hobey Baker finalist with his offense, the second round pick from the 2006 NHL draft isn’t a liability on the defensive end. If anything, his uncanny vision on the ice aids him in the defensive zone as well.

“Probably his defense is his ability to read plays, have position and have a great stick,” Eaves said. “His stick is as good as anybody’s taking away passing lanes, shooting lanes and those type of things.”

Right now, the biggest hindrance to his Hobey Baker candidacy is a -9 goal differential when McBain is on the ice. While McBain is deferential when asked about it, his teammates and coaches flare up at the mention of the statistic.

“That stat in hockey is one of the worst I think,” Geoffrion said. “A guy like Bainer logs at least 29 to 32 minutes a game. In every situation he is playing against the other team’s top lines. … I think that stat is not necessarily accurate, I would say.”

Though successful in his first two years as a Badger — recording 18 and 24 points, respectively — his team has seen improvement in a less tangible area: leadership. Donning the assistant captain badge since the beginning of the season, McBain was thrust into a more prominent leadership role when senior captain Ben Street went down.

“We talk about what makes a good leader, what are the key factors?” Eaves said. “And in our estimation, it’s do you make people better around you? And that is what he has done in spades this year.”