Hockey Links!

I may not have a lot of content, but I sure do have a bunch of interesting links to pass along!

HSR and MGoBlog break down the PWR rankings and comment on how the screw-jobs against OSU and ND might come into play.

Brian takes a look at people who are better at their jobs than Kevin Langseth is at his. I would include my Dish Network installer on that list. Douche.

The Ann Arbor News gives us some fantastic news: Mark Mitera is expected to play this weekend against Ferris State. Talk about a boost heading into the postseason. It'll be interesting to see how the team handles the "letter" situation. I gotta believe Mitera and Summers both wear C's.

Also, according to the Ann Arbor News, Piotrowski said the the officials determined that it was Vaughan's skate that created the contact with the puck. Clearly that was the wrong decision being that the goal has been credited to Severyn and OSU's official site even says the puck went in off Severyn's skate. Great group you got there, Pio.

MHNet's take on Saturday's game made me laugh. Very fitting, and a commercial that I always thought was funny.

WCH weighs in as well. I'm not sure I completely agree that all goals off skates should be allowed to count--I don't think you really want to encourage guys to start trying to kick the puck--but I 100% believe that unless there's a distinct kicking motion, the goal should count. If you're skilled enough to turn your skate and deflect it in, more power to you. It's really not that hard to figure out if a guy kicked the puck. Especially if you let them look at more than one replay that may or may not even have the puck in the frame when it's propelled toward the net. I can't say I remember ever being pissed at the NHL over a call when the puck was kicked into the net. They might be good at screwing things up when the goalie is pushed into the goal. They might not be able to get calls in the crease correct (especially when we play Anaheim). But I don't remember ever complaining too much about kicked pucks. Then again, the NCAA refs are incompetent enough that even with what essentially amounts to a no-tolerance policy on goals going in off the skate, they're still getting it wrong at an alarming rate, so maybe we shouldn't be putting trust in them to get judgement calls correct.

Dwight Helminen was involved in a scary incident over the weekend. The Albany River Rats' bus crashed, sending several team members/employees to the hospital. Ex SCSU Huskie Casey Borer broke his neck (thankfully it sounds like he'll be able to resume his career) and told his story to the Times Union. He was sleeping and woke up while he was flying through the air. Borer said Helminen was cut up in the crash. It doesn't sound like Dewey was seriously hurt though. Thank God everyone was (relatively) okay.

Jeff Lerg is about to become the all-time save king in NCAA hockey. With the way they inflate his shot totals at Munn, I'm shocked this didn't happen by his sophomore season. Regardless, congrats to him. At least something good has come out of the fact that his team can't play defense.

Last, but certainly not least, Mike Spath talked with Red Berenson about the calls Saturday night and Red is more than slightly upset about it.

He also took about five minutes to rip the hell out of the replay system and the CCHA officials. He's very aware of what the two games (ND and OSU) could end up costing his team in the long run. But while he wants to see wholesale changes to the replay system he doesn't know that it will change because enough programs (ones that don't get TV often) probably wouldn't benefit from introducing new technology.

Spath said he'll post some quotes in the near future. That should be a really good read.

Some people might view it as sour grapes, but I'm glad Red is speaking out about this stuff. The more attention drawn to what jokes the officials and the replay system are, the better the chance that something will be done about it. The conference deserves all the negative pub it gets for this one. In Michigan games alone, their officials have inexcusably stuffed up four goal calls in the last month. With the benefit of video review, albeit a flawed video review system. This goes so far and beyond missing blatant penalties, or failing to DQ someone for an attack that would eventually get him kicked off his team. These are calls directly awarding goals scored by illegal means and disallowing perfectly legit goals. It's happening way too often. It's cost Michigan two games against Teams Under Consideration and it needs to be fixed. I don't want to hear about a $50,000 replay system. All it takes is a freaking cable TV jack, a cable TV subscription, a coax cable, and a TV for the officials to get a better view than what they've got now. Hell, I don't even have that in my condo right now and I still had a better view of Severyn's kick in than what the officials apparently saw. I had a laptop, an internet connection, a Slingbox, and more than half a brain--unlike the numskulls working the game.

Edit: Oh, I meant to pass this along awhile ago. A reader wrote in with the details of what must be the ultimate place to get your Michigan jersey personalized. The hockey team gets their jerseys made at Exclusive Pro Sports in Rockford, IL and they'll do jerseys for fans as well. They've got a huge database of the lettering styles and colors. And I guess it's only like $65 plus postage to get it done (and that was for 3-colored numbers).

Also, if anyone has a team photo from this year that would be suitable for printing into a decent size (I'd guess at least 8 x 10) could you let me know? A reader wrote in looking for one. All I could find online was a tiny one from the GLI.

Edit #2: Also, Andy Baggot reported a few days ago that "All signs continue to point to the Wisconsin Badgers men's hockey team hosting Michigan in an outdoor game at Camp Randall Stadium in February of 2010." The announcement has been pushed back to March, but they don't anticipate anything jeopardizing the game. Nice to hear, since it seemed like this game fell off the face of the earth. Tickets are reported to be around $15 for the game. Bargain.