Penn State men’s hockey entered the 2025-26 season with something it wasn’t really used to: expectations. 

After the comeback season and trip to Frozen Four, along with Gavin McKenna and Jackson Smith joining the team, and a highly anticipated Beaver Stadium game, fans expected a national championship. 

Everything was there for the Nittany Lions to return to the Frozen Four, this time with a trophy. 

In reality, the season is a reminder that hype isn’t the same as identity. 

Penn State finished third in the Big Ten at 12-10-2, which would be great for most years. However, this wasn’t most years. This was the year that the Nittany Lions had a lot of pressure to deliver a national championship with McKenna at the helm.

Instead, Michigan and Wisconsin are representing the Big Ten in the Frozen Four with Penn State watching from home. Michigan and Wisconsin both proved to be the more complete and battle-tested teams.

And the numbers tell the same story.

Penn State fired 1,289 shots on net this season but scored only 136 goals, a shooting percentage of .106. That isn’t a stat of a team that is meant to dominate. This stat represents a team that thrives while being overlooked, with little to no expectations placed on it. 

Even head coach Guy Gadowsky acknowledged the weight of the spotlight after the season-ending loss. He called the year a learning experience, saying there had been “a lot of learning in handling expectations,” and “a lot of learning in handling buzz and eyeballs.” He was reflecting on the learning experience, which the team is still doing.

This team was not ready for the expectations that were thrown at it.

The outdoor Beaver Stadium game against top-ranked Michigan State was supposed to be Penn State’s coming-out party. Instead, the team lost to Michigan State in overtime, and the crowd was left disappointed. 

The Frozen Four expectations were supposed to be a natural next step. The 2024-25 team came off a losing first half of the season and still appeared in the Frozen Four.

Instead, it became a measuring stick that the team never grew into. McKenna was supposed to be the star who elevated the entire roster. Instead, he was a bright spot on a team that still struggled to score consistently and defend cleanly.

None of this is a knock on McKenna, though. His 51 points and 152 shots were legitimate, and the recognition he gained as the top freshman in the Big Ten was deserved. But he was not a one-man program shifter, and he shouldn’t have been expected to be. Penn State hockey has never been about one player. 

Gadowsky also pointed to the team’s inability to play to its true identity. He said it had been difficult to play “Penn State hockey” because of short lines and injuries, noting that the team could not always maintain the high tempo it needed. That identity is the core of the program. 

The hunger was a defining trait of last year’s Frozen Four run. Reese Laubach said it plainly when asked about expectations. He mentioned the team did not pay attention to outside noise, and he added that last year’s group had a level of hunger that pushed it to the brink of a national championship appearance. He added that the skill on this year’s roster was far ahead of last year’s, but the buy-in was not always there.

The truth is that Penn State is still at its best when underestimated. Look at the wins that felt the most like Penn State hockey. A 2-1 road win at Minnesota, a gritty sweep of Notre Dame at Peula Ice Arena, and a record-setting 10-4 blowout of Ohio State when no one expected it. Those moments were the closest Penn State came to finding the program’s identity.

When Penn State had to claw, it thrived. When it had to carry expectations, it cracked.

Penn State hockey is still so fresh that I don’t think expectations need to be placed on it yet. The team is nowhere near being blue-blooded, and it doesn’t need to be yet. It is still developing, and right now, Penn State’s defining identity is being an underdog, spoiler, and one to root for.