Captains' Blog

A few weeks ago, pro goalie and St. Lawrence alum Mike McKenna was tweeting about captains, during a Bruins Hurricanes game. He opined that only the players in the room can understand why a person is chosen as captain (or not), and also shared that he’s not a fan of co-captains or more. I easily agreed with the first point, but I’d never thought about whether co-captains or tri-captains are good or bad.

Shortly after that, Mercyhurst announced their captains for 2019-2020: tri-captains! For the first time in program history, three players will wear the C, and no one will wear an A. Well, now I had to ponder what I thought about co-captains and tri-captains. What I came to is this: I will defer to McKenna on his opinion about the NHL and one captain, vs two or three. But at the college level, if co-captains or tri-captains is the thing that prevents your team from winning, my opinion is there’s no way you were built to win in the first place then.

A team ends up with co or tri captains when the votes from players come in and there is no one individual that stands out from all others in the group of players garnering votes. Spin it however you want – is no one differentiating themselves as a great leader, or are 3 players differentiating themselves as great leaders? I suppose having one captain, and 2 or 3 A’s is neat and tidy and hierarchical, but I don’t see any reason to cling to it, unless there is evidence that winning requires that structure. Collaborative leadership is definitely a thing, so it makes sense that some teams are going this route.

A challenge with multiple captains is it can present a hurdle in communications, as one role of the captain is to act as liaison between coaches and players, as well as talk to the ref on the ice. The thing with tri captains will just be settling in to that pattern for the Lakers. Will the 3 C’s all act as liaisons (sharing the administrative burden of being a C) between coach and team, and coach and ref, or will one naturally settle into the role? If one naturally settles into the role, will the team roll with it, or will it spark jealousy and gossip about who is REALLY the captain, to the detriment of the team? That’s basically the extent of it as far as I can see. The 3 need to be on the same page with each other and support each other, and demonstrate to the team they are united in pursuit of the only goal that matters: winning. 

Mercyhurst chose Maggie Knott (senior), Michelle Robillard (senior), and Alexa Vasko (junior) as captains. Knott was an assistant captain this most recent year. Knott and Vasko are the top 2 centers on the team, taking the majority of draws and playing in all situations. Both have Hockey Canada experience. Michelle Robillard a second/third line winger from Orchard Park, NY, who kept plugging away this most recent season until you couldn’t help but notice her. 

Being a third liner is tough, as ice time is heavily dependent on game situations, plus there is always one or two fourth liners that the coach is trying to get ice time, that often is split with the third line. But you have to be ready to go when you do get your chance, and try to prove why the coach should keep putting you on the ice. Make the coach question whether you should actually be a top six player, should actually be out there on the power play. Michelle Robillard did that this year, and I am so pumped to see her as a captain in her senior year.

Robillard finished off the year with seven points in the last six games, and twelve total points on the season. Late in the season the Dobson, Hine, Robillard line was the best line on the team at times. Hopefully Robillard will keep leading in her senior year, showing the underclassmen one more reason why you keep grinding even when you’re not getting all the ice in the world.

Just for fun, I looked at which teams went with co or tri captains last year. Of the 35 NCAA Division I teams here’s who had co or tri-captains this past year, (per collegehockestats.net):

CHA (6 team league): Robert Morris (3C, 1A), Syracuse (2C, 1A)

WCHA (7 team league): UMD (2C, 1A), Minnesota State (2C,2A), OSU (2C, 2A), SCSU (3C), Wisconsin (2C, 2A)

Hockey East (10 team league): BC (3C), BU (3C), Holy Cross (3C), UNH (2C), Vermont (2C, 3A); Note: Merrimack didn’t list captains on college hockey stats. Northeastern was interesting in that their 1C was a goalie, who split playing time pretty evenly.

ECAC (12 team league): Brown (2C, 1A), Cornell (2C), Princeton (2C, 2A), Colgate (3C).  Harvard, RPI, Union didn’t list captains on college hockey stats.

Sixteen teams with co or tri captains, of the teams listed. 5 of these teams ended up in the 8 team NCAA Tournament, and a team with co-captains won the NCAA Championship. I’m curious if it’s like this in men’s NCAA. A part of me wonders if comfort with and natural alignment with collaborative leadership persists more often among women and that is reflected in choosing captains. 

Regardless, co-captains and tri-captains didn’t appear to prevent winning, in 2018-2019:

Conference	Regular Season Champ	Conf. Tourney Champ	NCAA Champ
CHA	RMU (3C)	Syracuse (2C)
WCHA	Minnesota (1C)	Wisconsin (2C)	Wisconsin (2C)
Hockey East	Northeastern (1C)	Northeastern (1C)
ECAC	Cornell (2C)	Clarkson (1C)