First, I owe Marcus Hudgins an apology. I thought he was a great transfer, a good player, but ultimately just that. Obviously, he was a lot better than good. Because hot damn, do the Buckeyes look much, much worse without him.

Before we get to the calamitous, let's recount the good. And there was some good. Ohio State had a much better offense than last year. The Buckeyes got 69% of their shots on cage. That is a phenomenal improvement from last year. Ohio State was one of the worst in the country last year at hitting net. I think they improved 12 points over last year's average.

Also, Ohio State scored 33% of their shots. That is good! The 13 goals scored were two more than last season. Also, an improvement. And, it appears Garrett Haas is a player. Unfortunately for everyone, the bad far outweighed the good today.

Utah absolutely dominated the faceoff dot. I said in my season preview that if Jack Oldman didn't make a step, Ohio State was in trouble. Oldman didn't make a step. In fact, he may have regressed. Because Oldman, Kraske, and Magtoto all got utterly annihilated today.

Utah won 67.6% of the draws. That's absurd. Ohio State is going to get utterly rocked all year if they continue to get that level of production from the faceoffs. This is ludicrous. Myers and co. HAVE to win the faceoff game to win games. And they're on the verge of being sent packing because they've not addressed it properly for years.

Defensively, Ohio State is bad. Really, really bad. Utah had an absurd number of shots on goal. Great teams get to 60%. Utah got 79% of its shots on the net. That's borderline statistically impossible.

Most DI guys won't get 80% of their shots on cage in the shooting room, let alone in a game under duress. And yet here we are. Just jaw dropping levels of poor today.

Which leads to the goalie decision. I don't know what is going on. I don't know why Myers decided to start Blake. But Henry Blake allowed 13 goals in 33 minutes and Ohio State was utterly cooked before last year's starter was allowed to come in. Blake's save percentage was .381. Even with how bad Ohio State is on D. To start and stick with a goalie who gives you saves on under 40% of shots faced is criminal.

Utah had 10 goals and 4 assists from its starting attackman. Ryan Stines, the known threat, had 2 goals and 3 assists. Luke McNamara scored 5 goals on 12 shots.

By contrast, Ohio State was close. Garrett Haas had 4 goals on 6 shots. Alex Marinier had 4 goals on 8 shots. Ben Mayer had 2 goals and 2 assists in midfield. The established, experienced players for Ohio State just didn't do anything. Dillon Magee had zero points, and zero shots. Ed Shean, who I am pretty comfortable saying was Ohio State's best offensive player last year, had neither a point nor shot either. Transfer Griffin Turner contributed 3 assists, which is pretty solid.

Overall, this program has simply lost its way. The 2017 magic was born out of a ton of Canadian talent on offense and gritty, hard nosed defensive play, with utter dominance at faceoff. Ohio State has none of those traits anymore. The team has gotten less talented, less tough, and less cohesive with each passing year. I think it's no surprise Ohio State and Rutgers have struggled the most since going so transfer heavy.

And even Rutgers won today. Making me look even worse, TTUN held Marquette to a single goal. One. Without overreacting too much, Ohio State at 2 conference wins is looking like it's generous.

Today was a bad, bad performance. There's nothing to spin. I don't think any team will get 80% of their shots on goal again. But I don't know if Ohio State can hang on defense with anyone once they start playing non-ASUN teams. The season is not mathematically over, not by a long shot, but the Buckeyes are down bad. Luckily, or not, Detroit Mercy is up next on Tuesday.

Hopefully Ohio State can wash the horrible taste of today out of their collective mouths and get right.

Brutal start.

Go Bucks.