Hastings' MSU debut 25 years in the making

Pat Christman/The Free Press

A little Sunday-morning reading on the first gameday of the hockey season ...

Mike Hastings will make his debut behind the Minnesota State bench tonight. It's a moment that's been 25 years in the making, starting with an injury suffered while playing for St. Cloud State in 1987. The career-ending broken back turned into a student-assistant coaching position, thanks to then-Huskies coach Craig Dahl.

Dahl is one of several influential personalities who helped shape Hastings' coaching career, including Herb Brooks, Don Lucia, Dean Blais, Frank Serratore and Mike Guentzel. But Dahl said Hastings still had to make the most of those opportunities.

"The thing he's got is aptitude for coaching," Dahl said. "He's got the work ethic. He's got the passion. He's got the personality you have to have to be able to recruit. ... I don't take credit. I have him an opportunity. He still had to have the want-to."

Read the entire story on The Free Press website here.

There is also an MSU outlook on the website, although I plan to expand on that this week on the blog.

As for tonight's game, the new Cover It Live pay system has forced us to look for other ways to do live chats.

As of right now, there will be no chat. However, I will be posting updates on Twitter, as well as on the blog. Look for a You Want Answers Q&A blog post — your opportunity to ask me questions about this year's team (or any other pressing matters) — later this week.