It's not often a Player of the Year is discouraged from taking slapshots or told by his coach to emulate the most gruntish of NHL role players, Tomas Holmstrom. Few top scorers describe themselves as lighting the lamp almost exclusively via ""ugly goals.""
That was the story of senior forward Blake Geoffrion, who delivered on his potential while leading his team to a majestic season. The senior captain earned his sport's highest individual honor, the Hobey Baker award, and deserves the title of top male athlete for this year.
No Badger had ever before hoisted the Hobey, with greats like Gary Shuchuk, Steve Reinprecht and Brian Elliott falling short of the honor.
Looking beyond the numbers (an impressive 28 goals and 22 assists) or the all-around impact on the ice (great penalty killer, center of the power play, monster in the face-off circle), Geoffrion reflected his team's success, and in some ways symbolized their run to the title game.
For the three previous seasons, the men's hockey team had been abundantly talented but could not bring everything together while Geoffrion was simply a nice player. In 2009-'10, he was great.
He did not have the complete offensive game he referred to only as ""the goal-scoring gene,"" but instead accepted the role of a player who fought around the crease and finished plays started by others. That was the way the team was, none of the players having earth-shattering individual games (though many were exceptionally talented) but all willing to accept roles in forming a balanced powerhouse team.
—Ben Breiner
