Although there has only been one week of practice, the Michigan hockey team will play its first game tomorrow night.
But if the players have gotten sick of seeing the same faces in practice, then maybe tomorrow won't be very exciting.
And if they can't wait to deliver a big hit, then maybe they should hold back for a few more days.
The only opponent the Wolverines will have tomorrow is themselves in the annual Blue/White scrimmage. Due to the continuing renovations of Yost Ice Arena, the game will be held at the Ann Arbor Ice Cube, off Scio Church road south of I-94, at 7:30 p.m.
"I don't get too excited (about the scrimmage), because you go round and round, and you really don't want to hurt anybody on your team," junior right wing Bill Muckalt said.
Assistant captain Blake Sloan echoed Muckalt's desire to square off against a real opponent.
"It's getting old after a while going after the same guys," the senior defenseman said.
Michigan can release any inhibitions Tuesday when the Wolverines meet Waterloo in an exhibition game.
But there is a point to the intrasquad scrimmage.
"We're trying to go over everything (in practice), but you don't have a lot of time for repetition," Michigan coach Red Berenson said. "We need time to get into doing other things - faceoffs, defensive zone coverage, dumping the puck in. We need some game situations.
"And, of course, you look at the freshmen - how are they going to show up in a first-game environment."
The Wolverines have three new fresh faces this year. Freshman Andrew Merrick, who can play either center or left wing, is expected to see a lot of ice time this year. Freshmen defensemen Kevin Magnuson and Sean Peach will be brought along slower than Merrick, according to Berenson.