Catching Up

Wolverines on the Move
Wolverines! Get your Wolverines!

The NHL's trading deadline was today and Wolverines dominated the landscape. Of the roughly 60 players moved over the past couple of days, seven were current or former Michigan players.

Steve Kampfer's rights were traded from Anaheim to Boston, where he would be reunited with Matt Hunwick.

Aaron Palushaj was traded from St. Louis to Montreal, where he could once again play with Max Pacioretty.

Kevin Porter and Chad Kolarik were both traded, and will be in separate organizations for the first time in seven or eight years. Porter will join former linemate TJ Hensick in Colorado's organization and Chad Kolarik will be off to Columbus.

Kolarik won't be the only Wolverine to join the Blue Jackets organization, however, as Matt Rust was also traded to the BJs.

Aaron Ward moved from Boston to Anaheim, and *anny Richmon* was tra*e* back to the Win*y City and the Chicago Blackhawks.

Same ****, Different Week
As you may have noticed, I haven't written anything about the Notre Dame series. I haven't watched the games and I honestly don't feel the need to. I'll probably flip through the Thursday night tilt at some point to see Hunwick's shutout, but as far as Saturday goes, why spend time watching the same exact game that I've seen fifteen times this year already?

I'm pretty sure I would have had a seizure during the second period on Friday when we went through this stretch of penalties:

ND: Kissel, slashing, 2:05
Mich: Moffie, tripping, 2:17

ND: Lorenz, roughing, 9:12
Mich: Lebler, hooking, 9:17

ND: Deeth, roughing, 15:32
Mich: Lynch, high sticking, 15:37

ND: Kissel, tripping, 17:45
Mich: Langlais, hooking, 19:35

That's four power plays that we wiped out by penalties of our own, which took away almost six minutes of power play time. That's six minutes of power play time in a period where we gave up four unanswered goals.

Notre Dame scored five seconds after Moffie's penalty, no doubt off a faceoff in our end thanks to Moffie's penalty. Instead of a 20% chance (or so) to take a 3-goal lead and a stranglehold on the game, Notre Dame gets a faceoff in our end and it's a 2-1 game.

So yet another close game where we did a better job of killing our own power plays than the other team did. How is this still happening game after game? We really have to be the dumbest team in the country. Granted I haven't compared it to past seasons or other teams in the nation, but this can't possibly be normal, right?

The big news to come out of the weekend, however, was the injury to Bryan Hogan. He was injured about 10 minutes in to the Thursday night tilt and Shawn Hunwick pitched a shutout in relief and was the #1 star. Saturday night he got his first career start and gave up five on 25 shots in the loss.

According to Red Berenson, it's about 90% that Hunwick will get the starts this weekend against LSSU in our first round playoff series. Who knows, maybe the team rallies around him and gets their heads out of their butts for more than one game at a time. Or maybe they pull the same crap they have all year and we lose a home series to a team that has scored 0 or 1 goal in 9 of their last 11 games, and been outscored 38-13 in the process. Not coincidentally, they've won two of their last 11 (one in a shootout).

Oh. Yeah. And we had another crucial video review go against us and--while the refs probably got it right based on the angle they had--it was still probably a goal that should have counted. When was the last time one of these reviews or quick whistles went our way when it shouldn't have? The game against FYS when the puck went through the net?

Silver Medal for Jack
Jack Johnson won a silver medal. I thought he played pretty well overall in the Olympics. He didn't have much to speak of in terms of stats, but he logged quite a bit of ice time and had some ridiculous rushes up the ice. The goal he assisted on was a ridiculous rush and he beat two guys before putting a shot on net that deflected over to a teammate, who batted it out of the air and in. In the gold medal game, he had another rush in the third period where I have no idea how they didn't end up scoring. Parise had a great chance on the rebound, but it didn't go. It was great to see that kid playing again.

Let's talk about the NHL
There's really a debate about if it's a good idea to shut the NHL down for two weeks in order to participate in the Olympics in 2014? I get that the ratings aren't that high if it's US/Russia for the gold medal. I get that the 2014 games are in Russia and all the good stuff will be on tape delay. I get that most of the people who watched US/Canada aren't going to tune in to your average Detroit/Columbus game.

That being said, you had 27.6 million people watching the gold medal game. Even the initial game between the countries, which was on cable up against ice dancing, drew a really solid rating.

I have to believe most of the players are in favor of the NHLers in the Olympics--the guys who play get to play in the freaking Olympics and the guys who don't get to have a break for a couple of weeks before the playoff run. The fans love it because it's the best hockey you're going to see. It's an all-star game where the players care. And even though the NHL isn't operating for a couple of weeks, it's one of the few times when HOCKEY can steal the spotlight.

Why would you want to do anything that actually draws huge ratings? Clearly it would be far better to keep slogging through the regular season and having games on Versus that draw minuscule ratings. Let's put it in perspective: The gold medal game drew 42.6 times more people than game four of the Pittsburgh/Washington series last year. (A series with arguably the three best forwards in the game.) That's a lot of eyes on the best possible product hockey has to offer. Hard to see how that's a bad thing.

Recruiting
How about some updates on commits and targets?
Mac Bennett and Derek DeBlois's Cedar Rapids Roughriders currently sit in second place in the USHL's Eastern Division, well behind first place Green Bay. They're one point behind Fargo for third in the league. DeBlois is sixth on the team in scoring with a 10-19--29 line in 43 games. He's also +13 on the season, good for third on the team.

Bennett is 8th in scoring and second amongst defensemen with an 8-12--20 line in 41 games. He's fourth on the team--and tops amongst defensemen--with a +11 rating.

Jacob Fallon's Indiana Ice is three points behind Cedar Rapids in the East. Fallon has a 1-5--6 line in 13 games since joining the Ice. He's -4.

Luke Moffatt has 5-8--13 in 22 USHL games. Jon Merrill has 1-5--6 in 16 games in the league. Kevin Clare has 2-3--5 in 16 games.

Potential goaltending prospect Jeff Teglia is 26-10-2 for the Omaha Lancers with 4 shutouts, a 2.27 goals against average and a .920 save percentage. He's second in the league in goals against and tops in save percentage.

Alex Guptill's Orangeville Crushers were eliminated in the first round of the CCHL playoffs. Guptill only played two of the playoff games and had a 0-1--1 line. He had 13-13--26 in 19 games after getting traded to Orangeville. It was a disappointing exit, given that they had beaten their opponent in all four regular season contests.

Lucas Lessio ended the regular season with 30-42--72 in 41 regular season games for the St. Michael's Buzzers. He had three assists in five playoff games, as St. Michael's was eliminated 4-1 by Newmarket.

I can't find a whole heckuva lot about Boo Nieves, except that he had 4-4--8 in 7 games at the Toronto Marlboro's Holiday Classic Tournament.

Lastly, potential goalie prospect Joel Vienneau finished the regular season 27-4-1-2 for the Kingston Vees. He had a 2.16/.928 and three shutouts. In the playoffs, the Vees won their first round series 4-1. Vienneau had two shutouts in the series and currently has a 1.80/.937 in the postseason. They will take on the Trenton Golden Hawks in a second round series that begins Sunday. The defending champs finished 24 points ahead of Trenton in the regular season, so they will have home ice.

Michigan/Notre Dame Preview

The Wolverines and the Fighting Irish faceoff tomorrow in the front-end of a Thursday/Saturday series to determine who the biggest underachievers in the conference are. If you're a masochist, the game tomorrow night is on Fox Sports Detroit and Saturday's game will air on the Big Ten Network.

Michigan sits in 7th in the CCHA, 5 points behind Alaska and 4 points behind UNO. Both of those teams have finished their CCHA slate of games. We're also two points behind NMU, who has LSSU at home. So basically we need two wins this weekend--even if one is in a shootout, we would have more regulation wins than Alaska and I'm pretty sure that's the first tie-breaker--as well as a non shootout loss by NMU. If they lose in a shootout and win in regulation, then we'd need to win both our games in regulation. Got that? If all that happens, the Wolverines take fourth place and don't have to play next weekend. Otherwise we're playing in the first round of the CCHA tournament and could face a second-round trip to Alaska.

The Irish are worse off. They sit in TENTH in the CCHA, with an 8-11-7-2 conference record. They need two regulation wins and help this weekend to not have to go on the road in the first round of the CCHA Tournament.

Calle Ridderwall is the only player on the team with more than ten goals. He has a 17-8--25 line. A whopping ten of those goals have come on the power play. Ryan Thang, in his seventh year, has 9-11--20. They have three defensemen with 17+ points.

Freshman Mike Johnson has gotten the majority of the time in net. He's 8-10-5 with a 2.47/.915. Brad Phillips hasn't played a full sixty minutes since Thanksgiving. He's gotten yanked in his only two starts.

ND is only the #49 offense in the country at 2.41 goals per game. They give up 2.47 a night, good for 12th nationally.

So yeah, hopefully the televised games this weekend are actually watchable.

NMU 3, Michigan 1

I need a macro to write this posts a little quicker. It's the same thing every week.

Hogan plays really well for the most part, gives up an unspeakably bad goal. We take several mind-numblingly stupid penalties. The offense can't put the puck in the net.

Tonight's version: Brian Lebler plowed Brian Stewart and took his 42nd goalie interference penalty of the season. It took NMU all of six seconds to score. Backhand shot from down by the goal line, closer to the corner than the net. Somehow it sneaks in. Remember that list I was talking about of the 10 worst goals Michigan has given up this decade? That'd be a candidate. Oh, let's not forget that we lost another defensive zone faceoff that directly led to the goal.

NMU made it 2-0 shortly thereafter on a wrist shot from the blueline that got tipped right in front of Hogan. Four--FOUR--Wolverines chased the puck-carrier out to the point on that one, leaving Chris Summers in no man's land in front of the net. Fox was wide open to tip the puck in.

Hagelin made it 2-1 late in the first when he centered the puck and it deflected in off a NMU defender and Stewart.

That would be all the scoring until NMU added an empty-netter very late in regulation off a Michigan turnover. Josh Langfeld...errr...David Wohlberg threw a blind pass to the right point and it was intercepted. Steve Kampfer kept backing up like he had no clue the goalie was out and NMU was able to ice the game.

In the meantime, what else happened? We were 0 for a gajillion on the power play, including 3 in the first ten minutes of the hockey game when it was still 0-0. We had a 5 on 3 late in regulation and had a few good chances, then Kevin Lynch took a boarding penalty to wipe out the last 1:01 of the power play. Yes, another 1 goal loss (essentially) where we wiped out more than a minute of power play time by taking dumb penalties.

Louie Caporusso took another goalie interference penalty.

Fred Pletsch had a bad mistake, saying that the only 3 Swedes in the CCHA were playing in this game. As nice as it was of him to not mention the name Calle Ridderwall to Michigan fans, he's a Swede and a pretty damn good one.

Hogan made at least 5 stops to keep us in the game, including a breakaway off a turnover by Chris Brown and a stop on Olver off a Hagelin turnover. He's not getting a lot of help offensively. He's actually played pretty well as of late, but this team just can't overcome at least one horrifically soft goal a night.

That being said, we've gone 131:06 since we've scored a goal that wasn't by accident. In the NMU game and the second game of the series against UNO, the only goals we've scored have been centering passes that ended up in the back of the net.

I really don't like Winnett running the point on the power play.

As much as I hate watching this team sometimes (or a lot of the time), I love watching Rust, Hagelin, and Glendening play together.

That's all I've got.

Lost 3 of 4: CRHC, BGSU, Swept by UNO

Coming into this weekend, in the history of the UNO program they had beaten the Wolverines 4 times in 31 games. They hit 50% of that total this weekend. It's time to stop watching the Pairwise, folks. You probably should have done that already, but if you hadn't, now's the time. There's no point. The Wolverines aren't going to the 2010 NCAA Tournament unless they win CCHAs, and to paraphrase Clark Griswold, if I woke up tomorrow with my head sewn to the carpet, I wouldn't be more surprised than I would be if the Wolverines pulled that one off.

Let's start with Friday night because that game was actually watchable. Highly entertaining as a matter of fact. The Wolverines came out flying and looked like, ya know, a team that actually wanted to be on the ice. Glendening, Lebler, and Sparks all had great chances in the opening minutes but were held off the board.

UNO took a silly penalty and the Wolverines had a great looking power play. The first shift was fantastic and early in the second part, Langlais got a shot through traffic that Chris Brown got a stick on and the Wolverines were up 1-0.

It didn't last long, however, as Steve Kampfer turned the puck over in a terrible position and Martin was able to slip it by Hogan to tie the game up.

A couple of minutes later, Martin made it 2-1 UNO. He centered the puck and Tristin Llewellyn shot it into his own net like his name was Paul Coffey. Shots at one point were 9-3 Michigan, but the score was 2-1 Omaha.

Omaha's forecheck gave the Wolverine fits. After creating the first goal, the forecheck caused a Michigan turnover which led to a power play, which Omaha would capitalize on to go up 3-1. Chad Langlais stepped up on a cross-ice pass but couldn't intercept and it led to numbers for the Mavericks. They found Broadhurst coming late and he one-timed one into an empty net.

In the second, Hogan made a gorgeous stop on a two-on-one to keep the game 3-1 and Caporusso put one in just a second later. That was a potential game-changing save and Caporusso beat Faulkner with a wrister from between the dots.

Hagelin's speed created a chance for Lynch, who got a tip on a shot right at the top of the goal mouth.

Llewellyn then turned the puck over, Kampfer took a penalty because of it, and the Mavericks scored again. A shot from the point deflected over to Broadhurst on the far side and he buried it before Hogan could get across. 4-2 Mavs. Hogan made three saves to keep the game at 4-2, the third of which was just HUGE. A great pass sprung Kemp and Hogan robbed him. He made another stop--this one on Hudson--at the start of the third.

Hudson took a 5-minute major for hitting from behind and it looked like the Wolverines might have a chance to get back into the game. True to form, however, they wiped out an incredible four minutes of the major due to penalties of their own--offensive zone penalties to boot. They did score 4-on-4, however, to get back within one. If you're counting, that's something like 16 1/2 minutes of power play time we've wiped out with penalties of our own in one-goal losses to BU, FSU, OSU (that one was a loss by 2 with an ENG), and UNO.

The 4-on-4 goal was a really impressive play. After Rust turned it over in the UNO end, Kampfer and Hagelin combined to steal the puck back and hold it in the zone. Rust chipped it to Hagelin, who dug it out of the corner. He somehow found Kampfer across the ice and sent him a fairly hot pass. Kampfer one-timed it in.

Michigan had a couple of chances the rest of the game, but nothing of note. The Mavericks rode their strong first period to a 4-3 win.

As entertaining as Friday's game was, that's how unwatchable tonight's game was. We missed the first nine minutes due to women's basketball. I missed the last 10 minutes because I got fed up and fast-forwarded, only stopped to see the replay of Caporusso's fourth in three games--this one from behind the net.

In the meantime we saw more of the same reasons this team isn't going to the NCAA tournament: Way too many penalties, terrible defense, yet another ridiculously soft goal, and--incredibly--nothing resembling an offense despite 37 shots on goal.

Omaha found the late man for a one-time goal on two more occasions, which brought the total to what? 4 this weekend? They actually seemed like they had an idea about what to do with the puck on the power play. I forgot what that was like.

I don't have a whole lot to say about this debacle. Hogan was stellar, last goal aside. He gave up 8 goals this weekend, but the final goal tonight is the only one that he gets blamed for. The team gave him absolutely no help on defense. And they really didn't give him a ton of help on offense either. I've been rough on the kid, but he was in no way the problem this weekend. He held Michigan in the game Friday by making at least 5 spectacular saves with them down by a pair of goals, and he made several more big-time stops tonight, most notably at the end of the second period.

Glendening was good this weekend, despite taking the 42nd (or so) goalie interference penalty of the season for the Wolverines. Kampfer played pretty well too, and I say that knowing that he turned the puck over for the initial Mavericks goal Friday and took a penalty that led to the game-winner as well.

We looked like mini-mites on the second UNO goal, chasing the puck...

There's just not really anything enjoyable about watching this team. They play stupid hockey, the effort is questionable on a lot of nights, and they're going to be the first Michigan team in two decades to watch the tournament on TV. Though we basically did that last year too.

A few very belated thoughts about the Camp Randall Hockey Classic, because I didn't get to talk about it:
-Really great event. The open-skate the night before was absolutely fantastic. Everyone looked like they were having a blast. We had a great time, took a ton of pictures...hopefully Michigan will do something similar for the Big Chill at the Big House.

-Outdoor games rule. Maybe the ice sucked, and maybe the game was boring for the first couple of periods, but I love watching outdoor hockey in front of a huge crowd.

-I wasn't impressed with the Wisconsin fans at all. They were silent up until the string of power plays late in the game. Our section of Wolverines represented. I had my binoculars out and there were several times that people at field level were turning around to see where the pro-Michigan chants were coming from. That said, the Wiscy fans treated us shockingly well.

-The first goal Wisconsin scored was ridiculously soft. Pretty sure I participated in calling Hogan a sieve after that one. Holy crap. If you're making a list of the 10 worst goals that Michigan has given up in the past decade, wouldn't he be on the list at least 4 or 5 times? #1 would still be in the 00-01 season against UAF when we shot the puck into our own empty net during a delayed penalty.

-Awesome goal crease. Not that it mattered, but I thought the teams usually switched ends halfway through the third in outdoor games.

-Didn't see the first penalty Summers took, but the second one was a horrendous call. That's a call you hate to see at any point during the game, but to call it with 2 minutes left in a tied hockey game screamed of not wanting to see overtime and catering to the home crowd. With 8 minutes left in the game, though, was there any Michigan fan who didn't think we'd take a penalty before the end of the night? I would have bet on Llewellyn, but I knew one was coming.

-Then again, it's not like our penalty kill came near clearing the puck on either of the power plays where the puck ended up in the back of our goal. You could tell from Wisconsin's first power play--where they didn't score--that it was going to be an adventure all night if we got down a man. Luckily the refs kept the whistle in the pocket most of the night, which made it all the more puzzling when they brought it out for two pretty marginal calls late (going off what I heard about the first call on Summers).

-Losing 6 straight faceoffs (mostly by Geoffrion beating Rust) on the two power plays didn't help. Prior to the game-winning goal, I'm pretty sure we lost 5 defensive zone faceoffs in a row.

-The two late Wisconsin goals were carbon copies of each other. We don't have a guy with a shot like Smith, though I'm not sure who does. I'm happy that he'll be wearing red and white in the pros too, though, because that kid is a baller.

-So many missed chances. Outside of the first period, Michigan pretty much carried the play. But just like a lot of games this year, despite a lot of shots, not much offense. The first goal was a really nice play by Vaughan (who I thought played a really strong game as a whole), but the second goal was brutal. It still almost held up.

-Kind of fitting to take a goal interference penalty to wipe out any hope of a comeback.

At least we beat BGSU again. Hogan shutout, Cappy two goals. Yay.

7th place in the CCHA, now. Before we pooped the bed this weekend, a first-round bye seemed all but assured. Now we're 2 points back of UA with 2 games in hand so we'll probably pass them. We're two back of Northern, now, with a big series against them at Yost next weekend. And we're now 4 points back of UNO with two games in hand. Six back of FSU and MSU for 2nd and 3rd. Not impossible but not likely, though they play each other next weekend so if one of those teams sweeps and we sweep NMU we're right back in the mix for a top 3-4 seed.

But that's assuming we can play well for a couple of games in a row next weekend. Turnovers, penalties, bad goals, no offense, terrible defense, shaky goaltending. There's no way this team belongs in the tournament, though it's completely inexplicable how they can possibly be this bad.

On the bright side, ESPN LA contributed two more entries in their story about JMFJ's experience at the Opening Ceremony and it sounds like a good time was had by all.

"This is, bar none, the coolest thing I've ever done in my entire life. It'll probably be the coolest thing I'll ever do in my life. I'm still kind of downloading and remembering it all."

Johnson kept up his promise to be ready for the Kings' game tonight, by contributing 2 assists in a 3-0 win over Colorado.

BGSU 4, Michigan 2

This is worse than Panic! at the Disco.

Things were going well, Michigan was up 2-1 in the third period and with Lee Moffie in the box, Steve Kampfer took as dumb of a cross-checking penalty as you're ever going to see. Michigan goes down two men, BGSU scores just before Moffie's penalty ended. They stay on the power play, score again. Then Hogan leaves a juicy rebound and gives up his token soft goal another minute or so later. It's suddenly 4-2 bad guys, and a previously 1-8-1 hockey team who got blown out by the effing NTDP was skating out of Yost with a win.

Not to say there weren't positives. Louie Caporusso woke up offensively with a highlight-reel goal, where he split two defenders, danced around a diving defenseman, and then slid it into the net while he was falling to the ice. Robbie Czarnik had a freaking laser into the top corner to put us up 2-1. The two of them also did some great work on an first period penalty kill. The power play showed signs of life and even scored a goal (!) (Caporusso's). Even Hogan made some big stops in the first couple of periods.

But none of it matters. Too many odd-man rushes given up. Too many penalties--and stupid-ass penalties to boot. Too many rebounds. Too many soft goals. Not enough offense.

Five losses in a row. Four losses at home in a row. 4-7-0 on the season. 11th place in the CCHA, 14 points out of first. 28 goals in 11 games. This is a complete disaster. There's still time to fix this (again, I'll bring up that North Dakota seemingly does this every year) but the margin of error in order to make the tournament is slipping away. We've already got seven losses (more than we had in the Frozen Four season two years ago, by the way). Miami squeaked into the tournament last year with 12 losses. This can get fixed, but it needs to get fixed quickly, or this will be the first Michigan team in two decades to be sitting at home come tournament time.

Other Stuff:
Lucas Lessio was named to Team Ontario for the World Under 17 Challenge.

McKeen's just spoke with Mac Bennett. They offered up this glowing assessment:

Bennett has already impressed by displaying a level of puck poise rarely seen by defensemen in their rookie USHL season, even if his 1 goal and 3 assists in 8 games prior to playing for Team USA at the 2009 World Junior A Challenge weren't on pace to match those of his RoughRider predecessors Donovan and Phillips. However, the Montreal Canadiens prospect's future looks every bit as bright, if not more so, than the New York Islanders' Donovan or the Chicago Blackhawks' Phillips.

NTDP Coach Kurt Kleinendorst offered up his assessment of his players that were ranked highly on the CSS list, including Jon Merrill and Jack Campbell. He said he's never seen a goalie his age handle the puck so responsibly. He also said you could make a case for Merrill as the #1 defenseman on the list, instead of the seventh spot where he's currently ranked.

Jed Ortmeyer is Amazing

Check out this article from the New York Times about Jed Ortmeyer and his battle with a blood disorder that makes him prone to clotting. It's kind of an amazing story about what he's fought to keep living his dream of playing in the NHL. The article says doctors have urged him to stop playing, but he's still going strong and having a nice season with San Jose.

Ortmeyer wears extra padding on the ice and compression socks when he travels. He must monitor his diet. To check for clots, he has monthly ultrasound examinations on his legs and abdomen. He times his injections so the medication, which is legal in the N.H.L., is theoretically out of his system when he plays, a plan Morrissey said was not guaranteed to be safe.

Best captain ever.

Speaking of captains, the team voted on alternates. The winners: Carl Hagelin and Luke Glendening. Hagelin isn't a surprise. I've had him pegged as a future captain for awhile now. Everyone says he's a great kid and he's probably the best case of leading by example since Ortmeyer. Glendening is a surprise, but it makes sense if you think about it. Recruited walk-on, plays his way into a major role on last year's team, works his butt off. That's a pretty great honor to get voted as a captain, especially as a sophomore. The MGoBlue release that's linked above indicates that he's the first sophomore to wear a letter since David Harlock in 90-91.

Jack Campbell was named the top goalie prospect in the USHL by the CSS (PDF file).

"He's got good size, doesn't beat himself, his positioning is very good, great butterfly style -- a blocking-style goalie," Jensen said. "Good quickness in recovery, but he's not all over the place. He'll make the saves."

Jon Merrill is the #7 ranked skater in the USHL, Luke Moffatt is #13, and Derek DeBlois is #24.

FYS 2, Michigan 0

I don't know what to say about this. We're awful. The power play is pathetic and we keep shooting ourselves in the foot with turnovers. The only reason we don't shoot ourselves in the foot with penalties is that the penalty kill is stellar, but it doesn't matter when you can't put the puck in the net.

We're 4-6-0, we're 13 points out in the CCHA already (though with 2 games in hand), and there's a pretty good chance that we're 0-6 against teams that will be under consideration.

They have to get the power play fixed. 0-11 on the weekend, which makes them an abysmal 7/57 on the season (and six of the seven PPGs were against LSSU, Alaska-Anchorage and Niagara).

To his credit, it sounded like Hogan played very well tonight--making a few huge stops in the third period to at least give Michigan a prayer of coming back. But Palmisano made a few good saves at the other end, getting the shutout.

I've got nothing. This is frustrating. I can deal with football being down in the dumps, but hockey is supposed to be the consistently good team that I don't have to worry about losing four friggin games in a row, including three at home.

We get Bowling Green next week in a crucial series. We have to get six points and "get healthy" against the Falcons. Anything else is a disaster.

FYS 3, Michigan 2

Here's what you need to know: We suck right now.

The penalty kill is the only phase of the game that's solid. Probably because they're getting so much practice.

I've only seen 5 periods of this season so far (this game and 2 periods against Niagara), and I'm yet to be impressed. The goaltending has been sub-par, the defense has been shockingly careless with the puck, the power play sucks per usual, and we don't do anything on offense.

I'm going to talk about certain guys, but I'm certainly not singling them out. I don't think there's a single player on the team would can say that they played a good-to-great game tonight. But just a few comments:

-We have to play smarter hockey. I mean, right out of the gate, Llewellyn drills a guy who never touched the puck. You're playing a team with the best power play in the conference. You can't be taking penalties left and right. Llewellyn took two, neither of which were necessary (though the second one was weak). Sparks hauled a guy down in center ice, Summers had a cheapie but he still slashed the guy for no reason, Caporusso got too close to the goalie and took him down....just things you can't be doing. Even though the penalty kill was fantastic tonight--the only reason this was even a game--you're still costing yourself time where you could go try to get a goal. I thought most of the calls against us were legit.

-We have to get better goaltending. Again, I haven't seen very much hockey this year, but the impression I'm getting from reading/listening/history is that Hogan is good for at least one soft goal every game. It's even worse when it's a deflating goal. It's one thing to give up a bad goal when you're up 3-0. It's another entirely when the crowd is into it and it's still a 0-0 game. Just like against Air Force last year--a weak goal just kills the momentum. Tonight, he had the puck behind the net, went to move it to Llewellyn, and he fired the pass in by Llewellyn's feet. Tristin got a stick on it, and I don't actually know who would be "at fault", but I know if I was the defenseman, I would've been expecting it closer to the boards. Though no one ever accused me of knowing anything. I know that I'm losing confidence in our goaltending even though Hogan did make some really huge stops to keep us in the game. I'm not at all convinced that he won't get Billy Sauered next season once Campbell is here.

-I don't have a problem with the third goal counting. I know it's probably viewed as "controversial", but assuming it went in, I'm fine with it. Fox's feed never showed the puck in the net, but we never saw the overhead cam and that would've told the tale. I know their guy hit Hogan before the puck went in the net, but our guy created that contact by tripping him. There's no way Leveille could have stopped himself. Assuming that went in before the net was off, I'm fine with it. One interesting note: Yost now has the technology to allow the refs to see all available camera angles in the replay booth. From what I understand, it's the only arena in the CCHA that has that capability. To Michigan, bravo! And to the CCHA, bravo for allowing it. There was talk last year that it would be "unfair" for some arenas to be more equipped than others, and I never understood that. Michigan doesn't have an advantage by having extra video in their replay booth. It's just as likely to hurt us as help us. But it means at our home games, there's a better chance that the calls will be the right ones. And there's nothing wrong with that.

-What the hell is our power play doing? Yet again, it's worth pointing out I haven't seen much hockey this year, but early in the game we threw out Sparks and Winnett on the second unit. Chris Brown was running the point on the first unit. He's one of our biggest players. Shouldn't he be crashing the net? It doesn't seem like we have anyone on the team that can take a one-timer, so we just look for the perfect pass and it's never there. Here's a question: Why doesn't anyone ever screen the goalie in college? I was thinking about this during the game: When was the last time you saw anyone go to the front of the net and park himself there? Michigan game or not. I honestly can't remember the last time I saw it and there's no good reason why. I was thinking about crease violations, but they don't let you go in the crease (or within 2 feet of the crease if you're Tomas Holmstrom and/or playing the Anaheim Ducks) in the pros either. They don't blow the play dead, but they don't count the goal. I find it very strange.

Other Stuff:
-Fox Sports, I love you for showing the game, but did we really need two "Drew Palmisano is from Ann Arbor" features? 1 in each intermission? Thankfully the feed cut out for the second one and I got commercials instead.

-I still love watching Hagelin and Rust.

-Paging Louie Caporusso! Honestly, if it weren't for his penalty, I'm not sure I would've known that he played tonight. I'm sure he'd be the first to tell you that one goal and 11 shots in 9 games is not good enough. He's got plenty of company though. Wohlberg has one goal, Czarnik didn't do much of anything tonight (no shots)....

-You can't let Corey Tropp score that goal. I don't care that it was an amazing shot. I don't care that it was a nice toe-drag. You can't let that guy score against you in that arena. It's like letting Brett Favre walk into Lambeau and throttle you. You can't let it happen.

-I'm not panicking just yet. We're still only a quarter of the way through the season. North Dakota seemingly pulls this every season, where they have a rough first half and go gangbangers after Christmas. But the margin for error is getting smaller. Assuming FYS doesn't come back to Earth, we're 0-4 or 0-5 against teams that will be under consideration at the end of the year. That's not good for the tournament. We're 8th place in the CCHA 10 points out of first. That's not as bad as it seems, with wins counting for 3 points and us having 2 games in hand on the leaders, but we still can't keep tossing away points. Especially at home, where we've lost 3 straight now.

-I'm not complaining about the officiating, because I think they're strangely competent tonight (minus Sparks getting hauled down in the slot when he was going to have a great scoring chance) but does anyone else think it's strange that we've played Miami and FYS in the last two weeks and we've had Brian Hill, Keith Sergott, Barry Pochmara, and Dan Brown? I'm not asking for Shegos or Hall or Aaron or McInchak by any stretch of the imagination, but those are the guys we usually see. It just seems strange to have a Michigan/FYS game without Shegos or Hall pissing me off.

-Honest to God, I think we had 1 scoring chance tonight and I'm fully aware we scored twice.

-Lucas Lessio: Are you sure you're not interested in accelerating to....ohhh....say.....2009?

That's all I've got. Time to get some sleep and wake up to go to the Michigan/Wisconsin game tomorrow. I'm not holding my breath that it's going to end well, but never underestimate the ability of the Wisconsin Badgers to lose to bad Michigan teams. Either way, it's the first sporting event I'm going to since Valentine's Day weekend. That's gotta be a new record for me....

Big game tomorrow at Munn. Games in hand or not, three-point wins or not, dropping 13 points back in the standings this early in the season is not the hole you want to dig for yourself.

Schedule Released; The Rich May Get Richer?

The 2009-2010 hockey schedule is out (and it's only out a week earlier than last year, folks)! 16 home games out of 37 does seem like a low number, but last year we had 36 regular season games with 17 at home, so it's not that different from usual. The Wolverines open with an intrasquad scrimmage--or at least that's what it will seem like when they play the USA U-18 team. The first regular season game is up in Anchorage against the Nanooks. Another trip to BU is the highlight of the non-conference schedule. Hopefully that'll go better than last year.

The regular season closes with a Thursday-Saturday home-and-home against the Fighting Irish, with the Thursday game being at Yost. Fantastic. While I like the idea of playing ND the last weekend of the season, I don't like the fact that it will more than likely be over the students' Spring Break. I haven't confirmed that, but it seems like Senior Night is almost always sans students. FYS, Notre Dame, and BGSU are in our cluster this year. Advantage: Miami.

MHNet provided some thoughts on the schedule in a couple of posts.

The other news is that we might be adding another high-profile name to the ridiculous Class of 2010. Mike Spath posted that Lucas Lessio, a first-round pick in the OHL Draft, may become a Wolverine. He would then play at St. Mike's (The school that produced Caporusso, Cogliano, and Burlon) next season. His source told him that Lessio would be the best player to come to Michigan out of Ontario in the last decade (which includes the names listed above as well as Mike Cammalleri). Lofty praise. He's been compared to Rick Nash in the past, according to that thread.

He's 16 years old and currently stands 6'1", 178. He was named MVP of the OHL Cup this past season after scoring 11 points in 7 games. He had a 53-60--113 line with 123 PIMs in 72 games for the Toronto Marlboros.

Thoughts from his current coach:

“He’s got great skill, great hands and great speed,” said Marlboros coach Ken Strong. “He really handles the puck well. As a left shot, he’s probably one of the best I’ve seen beating the defenseman wide and cutting in on the left side, which is really hard to do because your body wants to go the other way.”

Here are some quotes from the Niagara GM, who picked him in the OHL Draft:

“He’s a big time sniper,” Brown said. “He reminds me of Luca Caputi in his 19th year, but I think he’s far advanced as to where Luca was when he came into the league. He’s definitely 100 per cent the best player available with that selection.”

Brown sees Lessio as an immediate impact player.

“We’re going to put him in position to succeed. I’m real excited about the future with him joining our young forwards,” Brown said. “He’s got natural savvy. He goes to the net with his stick on the ice and in the lane all the time. He’s deflected more meaningless pucks toward the middle more than anyone I’ve seen in the draft in six or seven years.

“I don’t want to say he’s a highlight guy, but he’s a real high-end offensive player.”

Michigan's interest is mentioned in a number of the articles about him. Pretty clearly he'd be a HUGE get for a class that seems to only be getting better and better.

The Cedar Rapids Roughriders have set their preliminary 30-man roster for the upcoming USHL season. They'll have to trim to 25 later in the summer, but at the moment, both Derek Deblois and Mac Bennett are on the roster. If they both decide to go the OHL route and make the team, when Cedar Rapids plays the NTDP, all currently-committed members of the 2010 recruiting class would be on the ice at the same time. I smell road trip. To Iowa. (No link, accidentally closed the window...take my word for it.)

Ticket sales for the Camp Randall Hockey Classic pretty much suck. Just over 18,000? I wonder how many tickets they have to sell for the game to turn a profit? They're still hoping for 40k.