Merrill Goes Pro, Trouba Leaning Toward Staying?

As expected, Jon Merrill has decided to forego his senior season and sign with the New Jersey Devils. He signed a 3-year entry-level deal with them, but will play the rest of the season in Albany on an amateur tryout, so the remainder of this year will not count against the three years on the deal.

Merrill had 2-9--11 in 21 games as a junior. He missed large chunks of the two previous seasons with a suspension last year and then a neck injury this season, but proved to be a high-end player when he was in the lineup and was Mitch McGary-esque with his breakout passes. 

In his only full season he was named to the All-CCHA Second Team, the all freshman team, and was a finalist for CCHA Rookie of the Year, best offensive defenseman, and best defensive defenseman. He was also the #1 star of The Big Chill at the Big House. 

He closes his Michigan career with 11-36--47 in 82 games with a +25 rating. He took just 21 penalties for 45 minutes. Merrill's AHL career has gotten off to a good start with 3 assists and a +3 rating in his first two games for Albany. He has been reunited with Brandon Burlon, who has 1-16--17 in 48 games.

In other news, Adam Wodon from CollegeHockeyNews tweeted that he is hearing from Michigan people that Trouba is "leaning towards staying at Michigan". No analysis needed on that one. Clearly it would be huge for the Wolverines if JMFT came back for another year. 

MGoBlue has a list of the Wolverines currently in the NHL and their stats. From a fantasy hockey perspective there's no one absolutely killing it, though Pacioretty (9-17--26), Cogliano (8-10--18, +15), Cammalleri (11-14--25), and Mike Brown (107 PIMs) are all having pretty solid seasons. There have been 18 former Wolverines in the NHL this year, tied for second with BC behind Wisconsin's 19. (Jake Dowell has been recalled, but hasn't skated for the Wild yet. He'd be #20.) 

Offseason Questions

As is always the case, now that the season is over, the question has to be asked: Beside the four seasons, who else are we going to lose? There are some obvious flight risks: Merrill, PDG, Bennett, Brown, and Trouba from the incoming freshman class.

The writers from The Michigan Daily got a hold of some of those players today and here are the current statuses:

PDG: Is coming back.
Merrill: Hasn't decided what he is going to do. He'll talk with Red Berenson, amongst others, before making a decision "soon". 
Bennett: "I'm not ready to leave this place yet. I love it too much. I'm coming back for sure."

Spath says that Red believes Merrill will return for his junior season. And that makes sense. If he was going to bail this summer, why hang around all year to only play half a season? Spath also mentioned that PDG has learned from some friends in the OHL, including Lucas Lessio, that they don't really like it there as much as they thought they would. That's not the first time I've heard that about Lessio, though that may have also come from The Wolverine.

Lou Lamoriello, GM of the New Jersey Devils, who hold Merrill's rights, says that, "As far as we know he's staying in school, unless he tells us otherwise. It's his decision."

As for the guys who have exhausted their eligibility, Wohlberg has signed a tryout contract with the Devils and will head to Albany of the AHL. Montreal wanted Pateryn to sign, but he's going to finish out the school year and graduate.

Red believes that Glendening could be an NHLer someday and that Hunwick will get a shot in the AHL/ECHL. They'll also be voting on captains for next year and the smart money seems to be on Brown with Treais and Bennett wearing letters.

The Daily had an excellent article about Hunwick's career and legacy. For the record, the blog Hunwick references was not this one. Though, just for giggles, I dug up a few things that I wrote about him when he committed.

Right when Shawn committed, Bryan Hogan had been rumored to either be spending another year in the USHL or heading to Erie of the OHL. If you read the message board at The Wolverine, you'll remember that Hogan was my signature picture with a caption that said something along the lines of, "Please save us." I was really down on Sauer. (To Billy's credit, he had one helluva junior season and a solid senior year even though the team couldn't play in front of him.) So here was the initial post:

Personally, I'm still hoping that Hogan is coming and can get back to last year's form to contend for the starting gig. It appears less likely with today's development, however. Then again, it's also possible that this is more of a "I'm probably not making the NHL, so I might as well go get a great education at Michigan rather than play for a D-3 school, and maybe I can play some in practice" decision rather than a "They need a 3rd goalie for a year or two since Hogan isn't coming, so why not?" decision. Either way, best of luck at Michigan to Shawn.

Over the weekend, I was able to get confirmation that it was Steve Jakiel who was leaving and that Hunwick had put up impressive numbers in the MWEHL and got off to a good start in the NAHL before being injured. 

Before the season I broke down the entire roster in individual posts over the span of about a month--this was when I didn't have a job and could do things like that!--and I wrote the following:

Expectations: I expect him to be the third goalie, but with Hogan's illness and Sauer's problem with not stopping the puck, the goalie position has been listed as wide open. Unfortunately, Shawn came down with an illness before the Blue/White game and didn't get into the Western Ontario game, so he hasn't had a chance to show what he can do in game action.

He'll be the backup until Hogan is well again, but I don't expect him to see a lot of playing time.

It is fair to point out that, despite lesser competition, he did have the best save percentage last year out of all three of our goalies.

Level of Necessity: 3 out of 10.

Probably a higher rating than your typical third-goalie would normally get because there's so much of an unknown at that position. I don't expect him to play, but if the other two falter and he shows something in practice, you never know what can happen.

If nothing else, maybe shooting on a shorter goalie (Hunwick is 5'7") in practice will help them better prepare for Jeff Lerg.

At some point in there, I know I said that I never expected Matt to get a sniff in the NHL. I'm never doubting a Hunwick again. I still can't believe that it was 2 1/2 years before anyone realized that he could play and then he turned out to be Hobey-contender good. That truly was a remarkable story. I just wish he had gotten his Cinderella ending.

Some other good stuff I've read this week:
Hoover Street Rag goes with the Hockey Christmas thing and points out that sometimes Christmas ain't all that great. Really well-written piece.

MGoBlog has his typically excellent thoughts on the Cornell game.

Melissa from The Yost Post has her thoughts as well and seems to be just as stunned and saddened by the premature end to the season as I am.

Bob Miller's College Hockey Prospective has a fun read from Mike Bagley, firing a shot at the OHL and their recruiting practices. Bob also covered Connor Carrick in his countdown of the top NHL Draft prospects that appear to be college-bound.

In other news, Michigan commit Dylan Larkin became one of the first to sign with the NTDP for next year. (HT: Chris Peters)

Also, Travis Turnbull scored his first NHL goal the other night for Buffalo. It was the type of goal you'd expect Travis Turnbull to score in the NHL, and I mean that as a compliment. He also threw down for the first time and won that one against Nick Johnson.

Here's the goal:

Atta boy, Travis!

I think that's all I've got for tonight.

JMFJ Traded to Columbus

Jack Johnson was traded to Columbus as part of a deal that sent Harvick family-favorite Jeff Carter to the Kings. The Kings need help offensively as they are dead-last in the NHL at just a hair over 2 goals per game (125 goals in 61 games). Helluva team you've built there, Dean Lombardi!

It's a cruel fate for Johnson, who now has to live in Columbus, Ohio and play for that crappy team. On the bright side, Michigan fans will get to see him play more often and he gets away from Lombardi.

JMFJ ends his Kings career with 30-94--124 in 343 games. His numbers have been down this season, largely because it's hard to get assists when no one on the team can score. His best season was one year ago, when he had 42 points, including 28 on the power play.

Cue the haters in the comments....

Winter Classic Official; GLI Outdoors

At long last, the outdoor games over the Christmas season are now official. After the Regents voted yesterday to rent Michigan Stadium to the NHL, the NHL announced today that the Red Wings and Maple Leafs will play at the Big House on January 1, 2013 in the Winter Classic. That is, if the CBA situation is settled. #buzzkill

Additionally, a second rink will be constructed at Comerica Park. Among the games featured on that rink will be the 2012 GLI, which will include Michigan, FYS, Michigan Tech, and Western Michigan. St. Cloud State was previously thought to be the fourth team involved, but were reportedly told that the organizers wanted a fourth Michigan team.

Both days of the GLI will be outdoors at Comerica Park, which means that the outgoing senior class will have played in five outdoor games by the time their careers end.

Also, of particular interest to me, the Red Wings and Maple Leafs will have an alumni game. The goalies for Detroit are rumored to be Chris Osgood, Mike Vernon, and Dominik Hasek. Hasek is my favorite player ever outside of Yzerman, and is probably the funniest player to watch that I've ever seen. It greatly excites me that there might be another opportunity to see him strap on the pads. No word on if CuJo will play and switch teams in the middle of the game.

There has been a lot of talk about outdoor games losing their appeal and I just don't see it. I get that the novelty is wearing off, but I've been to all four that Michigan has played in, and I'm going to do everything in my power to be at Comerica and the Big House this Christmas season. Having two Original Six teams playing in Michigan Stadium is special. Having the GLI outdoors is special. According to College Hockey Inc, it will be the first tournament title decided outdoors since the 1950s. It probably wouldn't be the worst idea for Michigan to give it a break for a couple of years after the GLI. That said, outdoor games in general: If they're shifting the teams around, the novelty isn't wearing off for the individual fanbases. There's something about your team participating in one of these games that really is special. I hope the trend keeps up and more clubs have a chance to host, because it really is an awesome way to engage people that might not otherwise come out, and it's a unique experience for players, coaches, and fans.

As part of the deal for Michigan Stadium, the NHL will pay Michigan $3 million and will also donate a significant amount of money (reported to be at least $250,000) to the University of Michigan for scholarships. Like it or not--and from the sound of it, most people are on board--Dave Brandon found an additional way to pack the Big House, outside of the Michigan football home slate. It's a huge amount of money for the Athletic Department, and will help with the renovations, buildings, and new sports teams. It's also a huge boon to Ann Arbor. Brandon said he expects it to generate $14 million for the local economy. I'd imagine this will be more than the Big Chill, since we'll have a bunch of visitors from across the border spending their loonies and twonies.

Gary Bettman said that they expect to have more demand for tickets than they can satisfy with the 115,000-or-so tickets that will be made available. Bettman also went on:

“Based on what we’re doing for this Winter Classic and Detroit, I’m not sure if anyone’s going to be able to top it. (That’s) both in terms of the number of events and the sheer enormity of how fans can connect to it.”

This is going to be a huge event for the city of Detroit, the city of Ann Arbor, and the University of Michigan. Anyone who was at The Big Chill knows how great the stadium can be for hockey. It was a first-class event, and the NHL has some work to do if they're going to live up to that one.

Turning attention to the Great Lakes Invitational at Comerica Park, College Hockey Inc posted a picture of a possible rink configuration. The sight-lines (at least from this spot) look great!

Other News: 
Max Pacioretty had a hat trick tonight for Montreal in a 4-2 win over the New York Islanders. It was his first career hat trick and also gave him the first 20-goal season of his career. He has 22-19--41 in 52 games to lead the Habs in both goals and points.

Speaking of Max Pacioretty, this story will make you proud that he is a Wolverine. Pacioretty started a foundation which is trying to raise money for the hospital where he was cared for after the vicious hit he took last year. 

Earlier this year, I suggested that it's time the NCAA fought back against the dirty recruiting tactics of the CHL, and it appears that they're doing just that. According to the Grand Forks Herald, College Hockey Inc. is working to enact legislation to prevent players from jumping to the CHL for one year after they've signed their National Letter of Intent. The United States of Hockey has been covering the story and explains how the transfer agreement between the US and Canada could play a role. Chris also covers some of the pros and cons. Bravo to College Hockey Inc. Here's hoping that they can find a way to make it work. I'm okay with kids changing their mind. But once they sign the Letter of Intent, it's officially too late to find anyone else if they bail. Making the LOI binding would at least allow coaches to know how committed a kid was, and recruit as if he wasn't coming if he didn't sign when he was able to. Love it.

Union 6, Michigan 3 - At Least Hagelin is Sweet

Photo credit: Bill Rapai

Yup, it gets worse. Michigan extended their losing streak to four games--and their winless streak to six--by falling to Union at Yost by a 6-3 margin. Union jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first period and a 4-0 lead early in the second. Michigan drew back to within two on goals by PDG and Wohlberg, but Union scored the next two. Guptill popped one in late.

From what I understand, it was a pretty impressive performance if you are impressed by the other team getting breakaway after breakaway. It sounded like an all-around poor performance and Union made them pay.

The silver lining--maybe--is that up next is a trip to Alaska. I know in the past, Red has said that he likes that trip because it's a good opportunity for team bonding. Maybe that's what they need. Get away for a little while, go see the pipeline, go curling, have some fun. Then get out on the ice and hopefully get back on the winning track. There's still plenty of time to fix this. It would sure be nice to see #24 back in the lineup at some point. It sounds like they could use him....

On the bright side, Carl Hagelin doesn't look like he wants to go back to the AHL anytime soon. Our super-Swede now has 1-2--3 in three NHL games. (There's still about 6 minutes left in his game tonight.) He added an assist against the Penguins tonight on a pretty drop pass. Ranger fans are impressed. Blueshirt Banter had his first-career goal as the highlight of the week. He had some nice things to say--including that his speed is unbelievable. Larry Brooks had an article about Hagelin as well. John Tortorella said that "he's not only playing fast, he's playing smart". Sounds like the Hagelin we know! Bork bork bork.

Top 50 BCHL Players, Hagelin

The BCHL ran a poll where fans could vote on the top 50 players in league history. Jeff Tambellini, Brendan Morrison, and Bill Muckalt all made the cut. Eric Nystrom's father Bob also made the cut. There are some other names of note on the list if you're a Wings fan.

Carl Hagelin did in fact make his NHL debut last night. The Rangers defeated Washington 6-3 and Hagelin got on the scoresheet with an assist, a shot on goal, and a +1 rating in 10 1/2 minutes of ice-time. The Rangers were back on the ice today and Hagelin notched his first career goal, 3 shots, and a +1 rating in almost 11 minutes of ice-time. Bork bork bork!

Michigan fell 4-1 to Northeastern last night in a game where--from the sound of it--it was probably a good thing that we didn't have streaming video. After a Travis Lynch goal to open the scoring, Northeastern put four past Shawn Hunwick. I don't really care to watch the highlights, but from following the game on Twitter, it sounded like there wasn't a whole helluva lot of defense to be had. Lots of breakaways. Apparently Northeastern soundly outplayed Michigan, despite the Wolverines holding a 34-22 shot advantage.

Michigan tries to get back in the win column tomorrow afternoon against Union.

Northeastern and Union Previews

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!

After a rough start to the CCHA season (3-5-2-1), the Wolverines return to non-conference play for a weekend. With the demise of the College Hockey Showcase thanks to Wisconsin footballifying their non-conference hockey schedule, the Wolverines have scheduled games against Northeastern (Friday) and Union (Sunday afternoon) this weekend.

Northeastern Preview:
Northeastern is 3-7-2 on the season and are just 1-5-1 away from home in Jim Madigan's first season behind the bench. The Huskies dove right into the Hockey East schedule at the start of the season. This is actually their first non-conference game of the year.

Despite the tough start to their season, the Huskies are coming off a pair of wins last weekend. On Friday night, they defeated Providence by a 5-2 score. The next night, they downed Vermont 4-1.

They've also given some good teams a run for their money. They've lost two one-goal games to Boston College (once in overtime) and in early-November they took the only unbeaten team in the country, #1 Merrimack (yes, Merrimack), to overtime on back-to-back nights, tying one and losing one.

They'll be a test for a Wolverine team that has dropped five of its past six (counting the SOL to Miami). Northeastern has struggled to put the puck in the net against good teams, however. They've scored just 8 goals in the 5 games they've played against ranked opponents.

They've been led offensively by freshman Ludwig Karlsson, who has 6-4--10 in 10 games. He had three goals last weekend and was named Hockey East Player of the Week. Justin Daniels has 5 goals and 4 assists in 12 games. Vinny Saponari, formerly of the USA NTDP, has 8 assists on the year to lead the team.

They don't get a ton of offense out of their blueliners. The whole crew has only accounted for 14 points on the year. They're very young on defense. Junior Drew Ellement is the only upper-classman. Beyond him, they've got 3 sophomores and 3 freshmen on the roster. Junior Drew Daniels is listed as a forward but has played the entire season back on D. Last weekend they dressed 2 freshmen, 2 sophomores, and 2 juniors.

In net, all but one decision has gone to three-year starter Chris Rawlings. The junior is 3-6-2 on the year with a 2.59 goals against and a .927 save percentage. Very solid. He's improved both of those numbers each season. Last year he had a 2.68/.920. One strange note: Last year, he faced either BC or BU eight times in a 10-game stretch. He's a big dude, listed at 6'5", 207. He also just recently tied Brad Thiessen atop Northeastern's career shutouts list (9).

Northeastern has always played Michigan tough. Back in the 06-07 season, they gave up a tying goal to Chad Kolarik with 5 seconds left in regulation before falling in overtime. They rebounded the next night by knocking off Michigan at Yost. They also beat the Wolverines in the Left McFadden tournament to kick off the 2004 season. If I remember right, we were ranked #1 at the time. I definitely remember that I was working at the Michigan Union Bookstore at the time, heard the score as I was leaving for the day, and was pissed. It's amazing that I can't remember what I had for lunch yesterday, but I can remember where I was when we lost a hockey game seven years ago.

Motivation:
From Northeastern's game notes:

Michigan is led by the junior duo of A.J. Treais and Lindsay Parks with 13 points apiece while nine skaters have registered double digits.

Oops!

Random:
They have seven players who have been drafted. Three of them have been picked by San Jose.

Sophomore Cody Ferriero is the brother of Benn, a former standout at Boston College.

Union Preview:
On Sunday afternoon, the Union Dutchmen come to town. The #13 team in the country is 6-3-3 on the year and have been excellent on the road, boasting a 5-1-1 record away from the Achilles Center. There are two caveats to that: 1) They play in the ECAC, so they automatically get an asterisk. Blame Yale for that. I made that rule after the NCAA Tournament last year. 2) This kind of goes along with #1, but the quality of competition is a question mark. To their credit, they tied WMU twice. Aside from that it's been Army, Niagara, RIT, UNH, American, St Lawrence, Clarkson, Brown, Yale (a 4-0 loss), and RPI.

Their prowess away from home isn't limited to this season. They're 12-1-1 in their last 14 road contests.

They have been rather stingy on defense as of late. Outside of the four goals that Yale scored, they haven't given up more than 2 since Oct. 21. That's 8 goals in 7 games (or 12 in 8 games if you include the contest against Yale).

Between the pipes has typically been sophomore Troy Grosenick. For the year, he has a 5-2-2 record with a 1.62 goals against and a .935 save percentage, good for third and fifth nationally. Last year he only recorded one decision. Against Yale, he was chased after just 22 minutes.

Offensively, senior Kelly Zajac leads the way. He is 5th nationally with 13 assists, and has 16 points on the year. He's also the brother of NHLer Travis Zajac, formerly of North Dakota. Kelly had 42 points last season.

Mat Bodie has 10 helpers from back on the blueline. Putting those pucks in the net are Jeremy Welsh (7, including 5 on the power play) and Wayne Simpson (6). Daniel Carr has 5-5--10 on the year, but three of those goals came in their last outing, a 5-1 win over RPI. Carr-Zajac-Simpson make up a dangerous top line.

Their power play is clicking along. Union ranks 5th nationally, scoring on 26.2% of their power plays. They've notched 16 goals with the man advantage this season, which works out to 1.33 power play goals per game. Staying out of the box would be nice. Their PP accounts for 42% of their offense.

They've also been really strong on faceoffs this year, at 56.2%.

Common Opponents:
We've actually played a surprising number of common opponents so far this season. Based on the results, they would point toward Michigan having an edge in this game.
They tied Niagara 3-3. We beat Niagara 5-0.
They tied WMU 2-2 and 3-3. We lost 3-2 and won 5-2.
They beat SLU 2-0. We beat them 10-3.

History:
This is the first time that Michigan and Union have ever faced off. They are the only ECAC team that Michigan has never played.

Some Love:
Some love to their athletic department for linking to my site in their official blog's preview of the weekend.

Final Thoughts:
Michigan looks to rebound from 3 tough weekends. After being unbeatable at home for nearly a full year, they've now dropped 3 of the last 4 at Yost. Northeastern has played good teams tough, but has struggled to put the puck in the net against them. Union has a better record, but has some question marks as to the quality of the competition. They're not intimidated playing on the road, however. Their road record is proof of that.

I'll take Michigan with two wins this weekend, though I think both of them will be closer games than you might typically expect, or that Red would want.

In Other News:
In other news, the Rangers have called up Carl Hagelin and he may make his NHL debut tomorrow night. Hagelin leads the Connecticut Whale with 7 goals and is second on the team with 13 points. He's also second in the entire AHL with a +12 rating. That's the player we know! Bork bork bork.

USA Hockey had a feature on Al Montoya, who hopes to make the 2014 US Olympic Team.

Michigan officially received Letters of Intent from Jacob Trouba, Boo Nieves, Justin Selman, Daniel Milne, Connor Carrick, and Jared Rutledge. Michigan Hockey Net has updates on a lot of our recruits in his weekly recruiting roundup.

Also, Bob Miller has started College Hockey PROSPECTive, a blog covering college hockey recruiting. It's very much a work in progress for the time being--he's targeting a true launch in January of 2012--but Bob is one of the best at covering the game and I very much look forward to reading his thoughts moving forward. That site will definitely be one to bookmark!

Lastly, don't forget to badger Dave Brandon about bringing back streaming video for hockey games! One again, unless you're at Yost, you won't see the games this weekend. (I'm going to keep on about this.)

Vote JMFJ For All-Star

Alright folks, on a happier note, it's time to support one of my all-time favorites! The Vote For Jack Johnson campaign is on for the NHL All-Star Game. His numbers aren't gaudy (4-5--9, -3) but JMFJ is sixth in points on the Kings, has played 20+ minutes in every game, and is a top-pairing defenseman on a team that is 7th in the league in goals against as is tied for the lead in their division. He's also managed to only take six penalties in 20 games. He's also third in the league in game-winning goals (3).

Vote for JMFJ by pointing your browser to http://vote.nhl.com. You can vote 30 times online, 30 times on a SmartPhone, and 30 times by texting "Jack Johnson" to 81812. I don't think texting "JMFJ" will work, though it should.

Make it happen! I just voted my 30 times online and it took roughly 7 minutes. I was hoping "JMFJ" would come up in the Captcha form, but no such luck.

Also, Max Pacioretty has 9-8--17 in 20 games. He'd be a good write-in candidate.

(Also it was fun to see that my site is on the first page of Google search results for "Jack Johnson" and is the first hockey result.) 

Links

There's not a whole heckuva lot going on right now, but there have been some good articles out there over the past couple of weeks. It won't be too much longer until things start to ramp up. The kids have moved back to Ann Arbor, football season is just a few hours away, and we're closing in on the month-to-go mark until the Wolverines drop the puck for real against Niagara. I'm especially excited because I'm going to be able to attend the home-opener thanks to a well-timed career fair that my company is sending me to. I think this will only be the second or third game at Yost that I've been to since I moved back in 07.

First up, this might not be new, but it's the first time I've seen it. CBS Sports did a feature on Yost. I love that the C-Ya chant made it in there in full. (HT to Goon for that link)

John Bacon had a great article about Steve Kampfer's road from a broken neck to Stanley Cup Champion.

Speaking of, Kampfer brought the Cup to Yost and raised some money for charity while he was at it.

Chris from The United States of Hockey had a look at the players that will make up the NTDP's U-18 team this year. Here's the article about the goalies and defensemen, which includes Michigan-commit Connor Carrick and target Jacob Trouba. He also has some thoughts on the U-17s, including Evan Allen (who needs to get into a Twitter-battle with Bacari Alexander someday), JT Compher, and Tyler Motte. He also did commentary at the Five Nations event in Ann Arbor and had some thoughts on the team, including Michael Downing. Chris Dilks chimed in on Downing's play as well. The Observer interviewed Downing as well.

Not hockey-related, but I have to link to this M-Zone article, just because it's too damn funny not to. Say it with me: O-H!

NorthJersey.com talked with Justin Selman, who will spend this season with the Sioux Falls Stampede in the USHL.


There have also been a couple of articles about Zach Hyman since I last posted. The Florida Panthers official site did a feature on him, as did ShalomLife.

Ryan Kennedy highlighted Boo Nieves. Just ignore the first part of the article where he talks about the goalie that was supposed to play for us this year. Kennedy also talked with Drew Cogs. CBC was impressed with Nieves when they saw him as well.

Lastly, yesterday's Inside The Fort ($ link) contained the names of five potential goalie recruits as well as a look at some potential lines.

Michigan Maize had an early preview of the team.

Also, congrats to one of my favorites--Mike Cammalleri--on the birth of his daughter.

Our New White Jerseys are Turrible

The Michigan Hockey twitter account linked out to pictures of the new jerseys today. The blue jersey is basically unchanged. We get a solid block M on the shoulder instead of the hockey-stick M. The M on the shoulders looks really nice. That's a solid looking jersey, even if I'm disappointed they didn't go for a blue version of the whites that they've worn the past few years.

We're back to the maize jersey with a blue M, which, okay, it's nice to have that one every few years.

The whites though? Ugh. After a couple of years with the modernized throwbacks, which I think are the nicest looking jerseys they've had since I've been following the team, they've tweaked them. It looks very similar except the M in "Michigan" is now a block M.

 

Dislike Button

Un-fan. HSR points out that it could be somewhat based on a jersey from 1976 and that it's somewhat reminiscent of basketball jerseys past. I see it. And maybe I'm being somewhat inconsistent between my views on this jersey (ugh) and my views on the fairly-ugly football "throwbacks" for the Notre Dame game and the Big Chill jerseys (love both of them). I guess my philosophy is that ugly works for a throwback if it's a one-off. If it's the jersey the team is going to wear night-in and night-out, I'm less of a fan of ugly. The old whites were sweet because they were an old design modernized, but more than anything else, they looked sharp. The block M just makes it look kind of lopsided. I feel like something looks off about the arch. Not a fan.

HSR has a post breaking down all three jerseys. I'll echo the sentiment. More than anything else, the change to the whites was unnecessary. The whites of the last couple years were classic. It feels like it loses something with the block M.

That said, Moffie and Spencer Hyman are fans. If not liking one of the three new jerseys is the biggest problem we've got, that's pretty good.

A school with bigger problems: Western Michigan. After coach Jeff Blashill pulled the team from the ashes and brought them to the NCAA Tournament last year, his stock went through the roof. Too much if you're a Bronco fan. Blashill left today to take an assistant coaching position with the Detroit Red Wings. As a Wings fan, I absolutely love the hire. As a college hockey fan who wishes good things for the CCHA teams that aren't FYS, OSU, or Miami, it kills me. I loved seeing Western get it together last season. Hopefully they can land a good coach and keep up their momentum, but man, that's going to be tough....

...especially given the new uncertainty in college hockey. So everyone knows by now that the Big Ten is only a couple of years away. Now it appears the breakup of the CCHA and WCHA will be right behind it. According to reports, Colorado College, North Dakota, Denver, Minnesota-Duluth, Nebraska-Omaha and Miami are set to break away and form a "super conference" of sorts. Western Michigan and Notre Dame have also been rumored, but are less uncertain.

MGoBlog and MHNet have takes on the situation. Western College Hockey chimes in from a national perspective and CHN has a couple of good takes as well.

Me? I'm just going to stick with what I've said all along, ever since talks of the BTHC started: I'm excited about more games on TV, more games on TV in HD, more exposure for the sport, more games against Minnesota and Wisconsin, and the possibility of re-opening college hockey to expansion due to the conferences having some open slots. But if it causes any of the smaller schools to fold their team, I don't like it at all. It also makes me kind of sad that the CCHA and WCHA entities are possibly going away. I felt the same way when it looked like the Big 12 was going to disband.

With this, I still think we just have to wait and see. There's a lot of uncertainty and depending on scheduling agreements it might still work out. If BGSU still gets some games with the schools that draw well and play in a conference that's down Michigan/FYS/Miami/ND, maybe it's more realistic that they get back to the NCAAs someday. It's hard to not enjoy being a "have" and just think HDGAMESHDGAMESHDGAMESHDGAMESHDGAMES but anything that results in a former national champion folding isn't a good thing. They need to find a way to keep these programs around. If that happens, then I'm all for the Big 10 and whatever Super Conference they can come up with.

Other stuff:
Jeff Tambellini signed a deal to play in Zurich for the next three years. He's a third-generation player for the team, which is kind of cool, but man. I'm not joking about this: Out of all the players that have come through the Michigan program in the past decade, aside from JMFJ, there's not a player that I was more convinced was going to make it in the NHL.

Maybe this will work out for him. He'll get a ton of ice time on a scoring line (instead of playing a 4th-line role that he's not really suited for) and according to the linked article, he'll actually likely be receiving a pay bump. He said that he had other opportunities in the NHL. Hopefully we'll see Tamby back here someday.

His West Qua* roommate, *anny Richmon*, just signe* with the Washington Capitals.

Andrew Ebbett signed with the Canucks and Jed Ortmeyer signed with the Minnesota Wild.

Wiseman, Muckalt, Hyman, and More

Now that the AHL Playoffs are finally over, Michigan has officially announced Brian Wiseman as the new assistant to Red Berenson. He replaces Mel Pearson who took the Michigan Tech head coaching job after much debate.

Wiseman was most recently an assistant with the Houston Aeros of the AHL, who just fell to Binghamton Senators in the Calder Cup Finals. He played for four years under Red Berenson, racking up 248 points. He remains 3rd on Michigan's all-time scoring list.

He also has experience as an assistant with Princeton and was the video coordinator for the Dallas Stars. From 2005-10 he wasn't actually working in hockey, instead working as an account manager for an oil supplier. He said that he would have stayed in that job, but he didn't want Michigan State trying to hire him away to be their head coach after Anastos gets fired.*

When the job was originally open, Bill Muckalt was one of the names mentioned as a potential replacement for Pearson. As it turns out, he didn't replace Pearson. He joined him. Muckalt was named as an assistant at Michigan Tech, coaching under Pearson. Muckalt was a head coach in the NAHL and WSHL. He was also Head Coach of the Eastern Michigan club team. Can I make another Tom Anastos joke in the same article? No. Alright, fine.

In other news, Zach Hyman was honored with the BJ Monro award by the OHA. This award is given to the OHA's top professional prospect. Mike Cammalleri and Nathan Horton are previous winners of the award. Hyman's jersey will also be displayed in the Hockey Hall of Fame during July.

Brandon Burlon has officially signed with the New Jersey Devils and won't be returning to school. I think the writing was probably on the wall after Mike Chiasson committed. Burlon denied that the decision to leave him as a scratch for the National Championship Game had anything to do with his decision. It sounds like he got "the speech" from Red about not leaving, but he indicated that he intends to finish his degree.

Best of luck to Brandon! I don't think it was unreasonable for him to head to the pros. I wish he had come back for his senior season, but this shouldn't be a shocker to anyone, and I don't think it's a head-scratcher either. He's a talented kid and I think he can probably play in the NHL. The Devils have struggled, so now is probably a good time to head that way. Just so long as he doesn't go trying to bring any of his teammates (Merrill, Wohlberg) along with him!

More stuff I haven't commented on!

Louie Caporusso did end up signing with Ottawa. While Caporusso never quite got back to the level (offensively) that he reached during his sophomore season, he did give us four very-good seasons and I think he became a much better all-around player by the end of his career. I mean, he ended up being a freaking penalty killer! He'll likely end up joining the Binghamton Senators, who just won the AHL Championship. Again, it would be great to see the Love Guru in the League someday. I'm really going to miss Louie.

Carl Hagelin was given the Big Ten's Medal of Honor for his success in the classroom and on the ice. The New York Rangers site just did a profile of him for their "20 Prospects in 20 Days" series.

"He's an elite skater," Jeff Gorton, the Rangers' Assistant Director, Player Personnel, said of Hagelin. "He's evolved from maybe what people thought of as a role-type player to a guy that's shown some skill and been very productive at the college level with speed and tenacity.”

It was a really great article (and a really LONG article!). There are quotes from Carl and all sorts of people in the Rangers organization. And it turns out we've been saying his name incorrectly all along. Whoops! Sorry about that, Carl. That kid is going to make everyone who loves Michigan hockey proud. What a find he was...

NHL.com has a feature about the two top-ranked goalies named Gibson. John is the top-ranked, and Chris is the second-ranked heading into the Draft, which is in a couple of weeks.

*He didn't actually say that.

Comings and Goings

In addition to Andrew Sinelli's commitment, there have been several bits of news related to personnel that have come up in the past few weeks.

The first is that, after a seemingly-serious flirtation with alma-mater Michigan Tech about their head coaching job, Mel Pearson has opted to return to Michigan. It was serious enough that all indications were that he was going to be taking the job. Tech fans were convinced and it had been reported as a done deal on a variety of sites, and the word was that Tech had an announcement scheduled. In the end, Pearson opted to remain with the Wolverines as an assistant. The Tech job remains open.

One who won't be back with the Wolverines next year is forward Jacob Fallon. Both The Wolverine and Go Blue Wolverine have confirmed he won't return. Not a whole lot of information has come out about that one other than at some point it was in play for him to be back next year. Spath had mentioned that it's an extremely sad situation and that we should be rooting for him. Best wishes to Jacob for him to sort out whatever issues he has going on in his life. I had hoped that he could become a poor man's Dwight Helminen of sorts.

Next up, our trio of Devils prospects: David Wohlberg, Brandon Burlon, and Jon Merrill. There have been way too many rumors that Burlon is gone, and Mark Burns from The Daily has talked to several people that say he's out of here. Several commenters have echoed the same thought.

There were rumors swirling that Wohlberg was outta here too, but things have been extremely quite on the Wohlberg front as more people seem to be hearing about Burlon being gone. You'd think Wohlberg would have come up as well if it was a sure thing. For what it's worth, a Devils blogger mentioned that he expects Wohlberg back at Michigan next season. He also ranked the NJD prospects and had Merrill #1, Burlon #5, and Wohlberg #11.

It's been all quiet as far as Merrill and Phoenix prospect Chris Brown are concerned.

Next up, some other interesting Tweets from Mark Burns, who was absolutely killing it on Friday. One name to watch for the future as a recruit, and one name to watch as a potential future coach? Both are named Mike Babcock. I feel like a Notre Dame fan for even bringing it up. Burns even acknowledged that he'd be shocked if it happened. But as the story goes, Babcock and Red each have two years left on their deals, Babcock's daughter is starting at Michigan in the Fall, and his son was just drafted in the 5th round of the USHL Draft and Michigan could have some interest. A source told Burns that the possibility of Babcock to Michigan is out there, and that neither Powers nor Pearson want the head coaching job. Again, I'm not going all Notre Dame fan here, because I acknowledge that it's highly, highly, highly (is that enough highlys?) unlikely that would play out. But I did think it was interesting--and it's awesome to think about the possibility even if I feel like Lloyd Christmas ("So you're telling me there's a chance......."). I guess crazier things have happened, especially if the Wings win another title in the next couple of seasons. I don't want to read any LOLZ! THE WOLVERINES THINK THAT BABCOCK IS GOING TO LEAVE THE WINGS TO COACH THEM!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! comments. Pretty sure no one thinks that it's actually going to happen.

Other stuff:
Max Domi was dominant at the NCAA Showcase and mentioned that he's "pretty confident that most OHL teams know I'm leaning toward Michigan". The cynics will take hold of that word "most" to mean "All but the team I actually want to play for." We should know before too much longer as the OHL Draft is May 7. The OHL site has a brief writeup on Domi.

The USA won their third-straight World Under 18 Championship with an overtime win over Sweden. They ended the tournament 6-0. John Gibson picked up all six victories and had a 2.34 goals against and a .926 save percentage. He clearly won the award as the top goaltender in the tournament. He was also named one of the three best USA players, along with JT Miller and Robbie Russo. The Americans are the first squad in history to win three straight golds at that tournament.

More from international play: The IIHF World Championships are ongoing and there's a definite Michigan theme to Team USA. Al Montoya, Mike Brown, Jack Johnson, and Mike Komisarek all made the team. Former commit Jack Campbell is also on the roster. The Americans won their opening game 5-1 against Austria. Montoya made 12 stops in the victory and Johnson had an assist.

CCHA Quarterfinals: BGSU Preview

Last weekend, Bowling Green went up to Northern Michigan and became the first lowest-seeded team ever to win a CCHA playoff series by upsetting the #6-seeded Wildcats. Their reward is a trip to Yost and a second-round series with the Michigan Wolverines.

NMU took a 1-0 lead in the series, but BGSU advanced after 2-0 and 2-1 (2ot) wins. In doing so, they won two games in a row for the first time since October 22nd and 23rd against Alabama-Huntsville. (They did win and then pick up a shootout win in late January.) For the regular season in the CCHA they were 3-21-4-2, so to pick up a pair of wins on the road was pretty impressive. They actually did pick up a win against Notre Dame. They also knocked off NMU and LSSU in conference.

The Falcons were far and away the last place team in the CCHA. They scored 15 points on the season. Michigan State was 10th with 35. They were also a distant last in goals scored. Their 41 in 28 games was a full 18 behind Ferris State. They were also tied for last in goals allowed with NMU.

The offense is really, really bad. They didn't score more than three goals against a team not named Alabama-Huntsville this season (though they did have 5, 4, and 5 against UAH). They scored exactly three goals on seven occasions, but it's worth pointing out that three of those were against ND and Miami. The first game of the series against NMU (a 6-3 loss) was the only time they've scored more than two goals in 2011. Since then, they've gone 1, 1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 1, 1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 1, 0, 3, 2, 2. That's ugly. They currently rank dead-last in offense at just 1.85 goals per game.

That said, they've been playing pretty decent defense. For a team that was last in the CCHA in goals allowed, they've only given up 28 goals in their last 12 games. That's not too bad, especially considering 11 of those were over 2 games. In the other 10 games, they've only given up 17. They're 34th in team defense at 2.92 goals per game.

They're led up front by sophomore Jordan Samuels-Thomas, who has followed up his 25 point freshman campaign with 9-12--21 in 34 games this year. Freshman Brett Mohler has 7-10--17 on the year. Nobody else has more than 6 goals or 15 points.

They've gotten absolutely nothing offensively out of their defensemen. No defender has more than nine points and their blueline as a whole has 7-23--30 (along with 1 PPG).

In net they had a time-split for a good chunk of the season, but senior Nick Eno has given way to sophomore Andrew Hammond. Eno did get in during Game 1 of the NMU series after Hammond got the hook, but Hammond played games 2 and 3 and allowed just one goal on 74 shots in helping the Falcons to advance. Despite playing 8 of his last 9 on the road, Hammond has given up just 17 goals over that stretch (and just 19 goals in his last 11). For the year, he is 6-15-3 with a 2.50/.918. He's solid, though the Wolverines did touch him up for 4 goals on 20 shots earlier in the year. For his career against Michigan he's 0-2-0 with a 4.98/.833. Eno has been better, 1-5-0 with a 2.64/.914, but I don't expect to see him this weekend unless it's in a relief role.

They're middle of the pack in penalties at 14.0 minutes per game. Their penalty kill is 29th at 81.9%, and they've had to kill off 35 more penalties than Michigan has. Their PP, as you would expect, sucks. They're 56th at 10.9%. They're -19 on special teams this season.

Michigan has won 5 in a row in the series. Caporusso has 4-7--11 in 8 career games against BGSU. Chris Brown has 5 points in 6 games. Hagelin (10 games) and Wohlberg (8 games) have identical 2-6--8 lines, and Matt Rust has scored 4 times. Shawn Hunwick won his only appearance against BGSU. He has a 1.00 goals against and a .944 save percentage.

We should do pretty well on draws this weekend. BGSU has one guy who has taken almost 500 faceoffs and has won fewer than 40%. David Solway is their top regular faceoff man at 52.2%. Out of the three guys who have taken 400+ faceoffs, only one is higher than 45% and he's at 50.2%. We're going to have the puck a lot.

Samuels-Thomas has had a fair amount of success against Michigan. He has 2-3--5 in 6 games. Solway has 5 points as well. The team as a whole has a 6-11--17 line in 140 career man-games.

The bottom line: We're much better than this team. They've had a terrible time putting the puck in the net. They were able to win a couple of games last weekend by keeping NMU off the scoreboard. Hammond is a solid goalie, but Michigan has gotten to him when they've played him, granted he's been really good in the second half of the season. Unless Hammond absolutely stands on his head, this should be a sweep and a fairly easy one if Michigan plays their game.

Sickness:
Red Berenson (Coach), Jon Merrill (Freshman, Offensive Defenseman, Defensive Defenseman), and Carl Hagelin (Player of the Year, Best Defensive Forward) were named finalists for various CCHA awards. Gotta say, that's kind of gross that Merrill is a finalist for both awards for defensemen as a freshman. Please come back for one more year. Please?

The Hunwick Snub:
Carl Hagelin was named to the All-CCHA First Team and Merrill was named to the Second Team (in addition to being on the All Rookie team). Brandon Burlon was an honorable mention. I think there are a couple of snubs there. I know Krug was the leading scorer amongst defensemen, but if a kid is named one of the three best offensive defensemen and one of the three best defensive defensemen in the conference--and only took four penalties the entire season--how is he not one of the top two defensemen in the conference? Sorry, that's a snub.

The bigger one though, in my opinion, is no postseason hardware for Shawn Hunwick. Four goalies in the CCHA got more votes than him (Nagle, Greenham, Reichard, and Kapalka). I have no problem with Nagle. I'm pretty sure I mentioned either here or on The Wolverine that I thought he would be a great choice. He got Ferris State a bye despite getting just a tick over 2 goals per game in support. He ran away with first-team honors. To be fair, the difference between Hunwick in 5th and Greenham in 2nd was 3 points.

You want to vote for Nagle, I've got no problem with it. But Cody Reichard? Come the f*** on. Hunwick had him in wins (14 to 9), goals against (1.94/2.04) and killed him in save percentage (.931 to .914). Oh, and Miami scored 11 more goals during conference play. It's not like we were winning games 5-4. Give me some rationale for picking Reichard over Hunwick. Reichard outplayed him head to head. That's it. For the course of the conference season it wasn't even close. I suspect Shawn doesn't care that much, but it's ridiculous that a guy with a 1.94/.931 for the conference champions finished 5th in the voting. That's turrable.

Having a Seat Over There: Alex Talcott
Nice find by Jason at MHNet, who has been killing it lately. Alex Talcott, a 5'11", 180 lb forward for Detroit Honeybaked has committed to Michigan, likely for the incoming class of 2013. USHR had him as the #7 forward in the Select 15 Tournament last year. There's lots of good stuff over in the linked article if you want to read more about him.

This is a couple years old, but here's what his high school coach had to say about him:
"For lack of a better word, he's a freak of nature, and in a very good way. He's mature, strong, and naturally very athletic, complemented by the fact that he's a great kid with a good work ethic who does the things that he needs to do to get better."

He has 8-13--21 in 37 games this year.

Future NTDPers?
Tyler Motte and JT Compher were invited to the NTDP evaluation camp.

Cappy's Back?
According to an article in The Wolverine, Billy Powers said that "the impression he gets" is that we could have Caporusso back for the CCHA Semifinals, should we advance past BGSU. That's great news given that the initial prognosis was 3-6 weeks, which could have knocked him out for the year.

Keep Patch in Your Thoughts:
Former Wolverine Max Pacioretty was injured on a hit by Zdeno Chara the other night. Pacioretty suffered a concussion and a broken vertebrae. You be the judge. Chara was not suspended for the hit, but did receive a five minute major and a game misconduct.

10 Things to Know About Alaska

1) The Alaska Nanooks come into Yost this weekend 10-8-4 (7-7-4-2 in the CCHA) on the season. They're 4-4-2 on the road, and are coming off a split at CCHA-leader Notre Dame last weekend. They lost 2-1 on Friday night before winning the second game by a 4-1 score.

2) As you can probably expect with Alaska, they don't score a ton of goals and they don't give up a ton of goals. They've given up more than 3 goals on the season just four times this season. They've scored more than three just six times. Three of those have come in the last seven contests, however.

3) For the season, they ranked 50th in offense (2.32 goals per game) and they're 5th in the country in defense (2.14 goals per game allowed). Scott Greenham ranks 8th in the country in goals against (1.97) and 10th in save percentage (.926). Greenham has played every second this season for the Nanooks.

4) The Nanooks have four players tied for the team lead in goals with 6 (Cody Kunyk, Kevin Petovello, Nik Yaremchuk, and Carlo Finucci). Kunyk leads the team in points with 16. They've also gotten 16 points from Joe Sova back on the blueline (3-13--16). All three of Sova's goals have come on the power play.

5) Their power play is 38th in the country at 15.8%, but it generates almost a third of their offense. Michigan's power play is closer to a quarter of our offense. The PK is 84%, which is 18th.

6) Last weekend, Michigan faced one of the top goaltenders in the country and yet, despite Pat Nagle's fantastic numbers, we've always had great success against him. Things have been a little more hit or miss against Greenham. He's played against the Wolverines on 5 occasions. He's blanked Michigan twice, and in the other three games he's given up 3 (on 11 shots before being yanked), 3, and 4 goals. Those are, however, the only two times in history that Michigan has been shut out by Alaska.

7) Despite the fact that Alaska traditionally is pretty good defensively, the games between these two schools aren't usually close. I don't mean that in a negative way toward Alaska, because Michigan is just 4-3-1 in the last eight. But going all the way back to our 4-0 win on 11/3/01, just two contests have been decided by 1 or fewer goals. There have been just 5 one-goal games in the 49 game history of the series. In fact, Alaska's shootout win last season was the first time in history these teams had even gone to overtime.

8) Michigan leads the all-time series 39-9-1. We're 20-3-1 at Yost against Alaska.

9) Louie Caporusso has 4-5--9 in 10 games against the Nanooks. Carl Hagelin hasn't scored, but has 6 assists. Chris Brown has 6 points in just five games. Shawn Hunwick has never faced Alaska.

10) Alaska currently sits in a tie for 18th place in the PWR rankings. They're in a tight battle in the CCHA. They currently sit two points out of a bye in the first round, and yet they've only got home ice in the first round by 8 points over an LSSU team that has two games in hand. In terms of winning percentage, they're in a four-way tie for 5th. These are as big of points for them as they are for us.

Friday night's game will air on FSN Plus. Saturday's game will be online at bigtennetwork.com. 

Other Stuff:
In addition to picking up a commitment from Travis Lynch today, there were a few other things of note for Michigan fans:
-The Regents approved $20 million for new HD scoreboards for Michigan Stadium, Crisler Arena, and Yost. The goal is to have them in place by next season. So enjoy the days of "GO! FIGHT! WIN!" while you can, because soon we'll actually have, you know, replays.
-Chris Summers played in his first NHL game tonight, and Chad Kolarik picked up his first career NHL point.

A Statement Sweep

When I was doing the breakdown of this past weekend's games, I had a hard time figuring out if we had more in our favor or going against us on Friday night. We had the positives of playing at home, our success against Pat Nagle, and the fact that we've done really well against FSU at Yost in the past going up against our abysmal Friday record, Ferris's solid record on the first night of a series, and Zach Redmond against our track record of defending offensive defensemen.

Wouldn't you know it. Early in the second period, we were down 2-0 and a defenseman (Chad Billins) had himself a power play goal. Positively shocking, I know. But Michigan rebounded. Lee Moffie slid one through off a Matt Rust face-off win just a couple of minutes after Billins made it 2-0 and it was game on. Burlon was able to slip one through as well and it was a new hockey game. Late in the second period, Hagelin worked his butt off and was able to feed Chris Brown in the slot for what would be the game-winner. Hunwick made 29 saves in the victory.

The next night was some high-quality Saturday Michigan hockey. The Wolverines got out to a 2-0 lead behind goals from Hagelin and Wohlberg 16 seconds apart, stunning the crowd at Ewigleben. I had a feeling the Wohlberg goal was coming a few seconds before it happened, courtesy of the "AWWW COME ON!!!!!!!!" yelled by the FSU fan who was right by the radio mic.

Lee Moffie added his second of the weekend en route to CCHA Defenseman of the Week honors. Vaughan added his eighth of the year short-handed in the second period, which chased Pat Nagle from the net. After Filinger made it 4-1 in the early third period, Derek DeBlois notched his first career goal and David Wohlberg scored on a 5-on-3.

Hopefully we'll look back on this as a statement weekend. Playing a home-and-home against a team right behind us in the standings, with our "home" part of the weekend on the night where we've typically struggled, Michigan came from behind to win one night and then thumped the #1 defensive team in the country the next night.

Putting up 8 goals on a team that gives up under two a night is no small feat. Rendering Zach Redmond completely ineffective when you're a team that has struggled to defense the points is even better. Redmond was -5 on the weekend with no points and 4 shots on goal.

The Hagelin, Rust, and Brown were pretty great this weekend. Rust won 14 of 18 faceoffs in the win on Friday night and assisted on the first goal of both contests. Hagelin had the effort-play of the game, which led to Chris Brown's game-winner, and kicked things off Saturday.

Moffie, of course, had a 2-1--3 line on the weekend and as I mentioned was CCHA Defenseman of the Week. Not a bad weekend, considering that it wasn't too long ago that he had completely fallen out of favor.

I actually thought the power play was pretty decent on Friday night, despite going 0-for-6. They didn't score, but the chances were there. Sparks and someone else (Brown I think?) fanned on wide-open nets. Those were both sure goals. I want to say out of the six power plays, there was only one where it really felt like we got nothing going. The setup was there, we had chances, but none of them found the back of the net. The next night, we cashed in on 2 of 7. Overall, a pretty good effort against the #3 PK in the country.

This puts us back just one point behind Notre Dame in the CCHA with a game in hand. Best of all, the team has won 7 of their last 8 games since the debacle against Minnesota followed up by that heartbreaking overtime loss to OSU. Pucks are starting to go in (we've scored 3+ goals in each of the last 8 games) and they are starting to stay out of our net for the most part. In conference, we're the only team giving up fewer than 2 goals per game.

The stretch run is fairly difficult--out of our final 11 conference games, only FYS is below .500 in the conference. (To be fair, there are only 3 teams in the CCHA below .500 in terms of points.)

Brian has some nice thoughts on the weekend, including a mini-breakdown of the PWR considerations. I echo the thoughts on Merrill. It's unreal that he's this good this soon, and that he never seems to take penalties.

MHNet has a couple articles you should see about our former defensemen: Steve Kampfer is having a nice run since he's been called up to the Boston Bruins and JMFJ tells his story.

John Gibson was ranked 46th in TSN's midseason draft rankings, which come from the opinions of 10 NHL scouts.

Merrill not Drafted in Round One

The first round of the NHL Entry Draft concluded tonight and Jon Merrill did not hear his name called. He should go very early tomorrow.

De-commit Jack Campbell was selected 11th overall by the Dallas Stars, which is interesting because in addition to Turco, they also drafted the last goalie to commit to Michigan and end up in the OHL instead (Jason Bacashihua). And, come to think of it, they drafted Michigan de-commit Matt Nickerson as well. Things didn't work out so hot for the last two. Hopefully things go a lot better for the goalie formerly known as JMFC. I suppose I have a thought as to where Jared Knight will end up tomorrow.

Also mentioned was that the Oilers were looking to get back into the first round and offered up Andrew Cogliano for the 15th pick, but were turned down.

Improvements to Yost Coming?

An article on AnnArbor.com from a couple of days ago mentioned that Michigan's revenues for the 2011 fiscal year are projected to top $100 million. What are they going to do with that money? AD David Brandon indicates that some improvements to Yost might be coming:

“We’re looking at some updates and enhancements to Yost ­- bleachers, the concession areas, the circulation space, lighting,” Brandon said. “And we’re looking at some real interesting things as it relates to the scoreboard and technology in all of our venues, including the football stadium.

“We’re in a situation where one of the things we have to attend to at some point in the future would be update the technology because there’s HD technology, bigger screens and higher resolution that our fans would really enjoy.”

Mmmmm...video screen at Yost that does more than say "Go! Fight! Win!"

The hockey schedule is out, and it's on starting October 2nd! It's kind of interesting that we play a real game (Mercyhurst) before our yearly beatdown of a Canadian team. You've got the one-game trip out East (to play UNH, which could be fun). You've got the potential for four games against FYS in a month's span. (The Big Chill, GLI, and an early-January home-and-home. 

The College Hockey Showcase is a Friday/Sunday series this year, with our game at Minnesota coming on Sunday. 

No midweek games outside of the GLI and our exhibition game against the NTDP. 

We've got UNO coming to Yost for a non-conference series, as the Mavericks slide to the WCHA. 

It's kind of interesting that we go to BGSU for a series, rather than the usual home-and-home, but we have a pair of home-and-homes against Ferris. You could about walk to BGSU. Ferris? Not so close.

The evaluation camp roster for the 2010-11 USA World Junior team has been released as well. Chris Brown, Kevin Lynch, and Jon Merrill are on the list. So is the goalie formerly known as JMFC, who has to be a lock.

USCHO had a very nice writeup about Jon Merrill. Red Berenson had some lofty praise, comparing him to a Nick Lidstrom-type. Merrill said that he'd like to be drafted by the Wings, as if we ever take players from Michigan. He would also like to marry Miley Cyrus.

TJ Hensick was traded to the St. Louis Blues for Julian Talbot. He is an RFA and there have been rumblings about him heading to the Swedish Elite League, but hopefully he'll finally get a shot in St. Louis. Kevin Porter signed a two-way deal with the Avs.

Lastly, Coach isn't going anywhere! Red signed a three year extension, which would carry him through the 2012-13 season. It's a good thing Ted Thompson isn't our AD. He'd be getting tired of the retirement questions and would push for the coach of the future to take over. 

Back

There hasn't been a ton going on lately, but it's been so long since I've written that I suppose a few things have piled up. So I give you some new stuff, some old stuff that I still want to comment on, and probably a few things that you don't care about.

First up, The Daily had another great article--this one about the evolution of the student section at Yost. I don't just say it's great because it has a few quotes from yours truly about the shining moment of the decade at Yost--the Molly game. All five pages of it are a great read. It's really well-researched and Mike has quotes from people that attended games in several different eras. The best part, however, is how the story goes full circle--from the Spartan fans filling up Yost to the "Children of Yost" packing Munn at the end of last season.

God that paper has come a long way. Today they have articles like this one during the offseason. We got season previews that picked Dan Ellis as CCHA Player of the Year after he had already friggin' left school.

The comments section on that article is bringing back a lot of good memories. "Mrs Cockburn", going through every college in Michigan (and some high schools) before getting to "If you can't get into X go to Ferris"....God I miss Yost.

Other stuff:
Jeff Jillson was a member of the HC Pardubice team that Dominik Hasek led to the Czech league title.


Talk that the CHL teams were going to be in NHL 2011 spawned some talk about if that would lead to a recruiting advantage for the Canadian junior teams. But fear not! It looks like the NCAA teams might be in the game as well, which would be AMAZING. In the era of downloadable rosters, it wouldn't be too hard for some enterprising souls to turn C 12 into Hagelin. And it would save me from having to make rosters made up of college alumni teams, like I do pretty much every year. That would turn the NHL 2011 release date into the way I used to feel about the NCAA football games.

Hagelin and Glendening will wear Cs next season, while Rust and Caporusso will be alternates. Good choices, all of them.

MGoBlog had a detailed look at the forwards, defense, and goaltending for next season. I think I already commented on the forwards part. A commenter in the goalie article says that our third goalie for next year will be a walk-on named Adam Janeck. I had heard that Summers wouldn't be back. I ran a quick Google search, and there's a goalie named Adam Janecyk that is from Michigan and played for Sioux City in 08-09. Worth mentioning....

DeBlois is for sure coming. Lessio attended Oshawa's camp, but the smart money is still on him ending up in Ann Arbor.

NHL Home Ice on XM runs little draft previews during commercial breaks, and I swear the Jack Campbell one eats a little bit of my soul every time I hear it.

Deadspin is a couple of years behind the times, but Charles Clinton's "Back to you, guys!" finally went mainstream.

Rules changes may be coming to a rink near you! MGoBlog, MHNet, and WCH had their takes on it. The rules committee will be meeting for the next four days in Indianapolis. On the docket:
-Half-shields vs. full cages. I vote keeping the full cages. I know people think that it causes a lot of shots to the head, but you see a guy like Yzerman get hit in the eye with a puck, and you wonder why everyone isn't wearing the full cage. 

-Various options for overtime:

Those options for games tied after regulation, in addition to the current format (five-on-five for five minutes): five-on-five for 10 minutes; four-on-four for five minutes; four-on-four for 10 minutes; five-on-five for five minutes, then four-on-four for five minutes; five-on-five for five minutes, then a shootout; and four-on-four for five minutes, then a shootout. The last is the method used by the NHL.

Gotta say, I kind of like the 5-on-5 for five minutes and then 4-on-4 for five minutes. I think you'd get a winner more often than not. I think I like watching shootouts more than I actually like the fact that they exist. 

-Officials: Don't care, but I'd like some that are competent. 

-Icing: Kind of like the idea of a hybrid icing rule. If a forward is clearly going to win the race, then it can be waived off, otherwise, it's no-touch icing. I don't care one way or the other about the attainable pass rule. They call it so randomly anyway. 

-I love the idea of making a team clear their zone on a delayed penalty in order to get a whistle. Sadly, apparently there's not much support for that one.

-I also really like the proposed change to not allow a team to change players if they shoot the puck over the glass in their own end. The automatic delay of game for that is the worst rule in hockey aside from the trapezoid, but treating it like an icing? I'm ok with that.

Western College Hockey also covered Jon Merrill and Jacob Fallon in their annual draft preview.

Alex Guptill is going to get a Top Prospect award from the OHA. Mike Cammalleri, Andrew Cogliano, and Jeff Carter are among the past recipients. Where will Guptill play next year?

Already committed to play for the University of Michigan in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) either this year or in 2011, Guptill said his immediate future, including where he might play come winter, will become more clear at the end of June.
“It is all up to — if a (NHL) team takes me — what their stance is and then Michigan’s,” Guptill said. “It will go from there.”

I think part of me is still pissed about the way the season ended. After Galarraga's should-have-been perfect game, and the reaction of the Detroit fans after Joyce's apology, the thought that immediately jumped to mind was how that was the perfect way to handle the situation, and how it was the exact opposite of what happened in the wake of our loss to Miami. Show contrition. Admit you blew the call. Apologize. People are forgiving. Don't make the ref available for comment and have some asinine explanation that he got the call right because he lost sight of it....ERRRRRR the guy touched the puck? People stay pissed. Can you imagine what the reaction of the Detroit crowd would have been the next day if Joyce had said, "I got the call right because in my mind the guy beat the throw?" There wouldn't have been cheers, I assure you.

I can't promise this site is going to be updated with any consistency for the rest of the summer, but I'll try to not go another month between posts.

Mike Legg Revisited

Really, really cool article on ESPN today about Mike Legg's goal. They talked to all the players and coaches involved and crafted it into a "Behind the Highlight" piece about the greatest goal ever scored.

The Past and the Future

Add another Wolverine alum to the list of guys who have played in the NHL. One of my all-time favorites, Chad Kolarik, made his NHL debut for the Columbus Blue Jackets tonight. Congrats to Chad on what is probably the best night of his young hockey career. He becomes the 23rd Wolverine to play in the NHL this season. (It would be 24, but Mike Van Ryn has missed the whole year with an injury.)

Chris Summers and Steve Kampfer both signed entry-level deals with their NHL teams. Summers has played two games for Phoenix's top affiliate, the San Antonio Rampage. Kampfer has gotten into three for the Providence Bruins.

I didn't have a chance to mention this when I got the email because we were getting into the heart of the tournament, but a reader passed along some information about Timmy Miller. Apparently he's gotten to be extremely popular with the fanbase of the Gwinnett Gladiators. They had a jersey auction and his fetched $3,000, which I'm told was far and away the highest amount.  And it turns out, he can throw. Or at least drive someone's head into the ice with his forearm. Miller's actually seen quite a bit of time in the AHL this year too.

Now looking toward the future a little bit:
NHL.com had a feature on Jon Merrill. Central Scouting compared him to former Hobey-winner Jordan Leopold. The scout they talked to had Merrill going somewhere between 14-24 in this year's draft. Hands up, who wouldn't take a career like Leopold's out of Merrill? Four years, one championship, a Hobey, 164 games and a 45-99--144 line. Yes please. Let's shoot for that.

MHNet may have dug up another potential prospect that the Wolverines would have some interest in. He would be the next in line of Wolverines with famous fathers.

Ace from The Wolverine Blog has a look ahead to next year along with a mention of what Hagelin had to say when he talked with Mike Spath earlier in the week. I think that post has already cycled off of The Fort.

Red's pissed. And rightfully so. I really do try to not complain about individual penalty calls/no-calls. People commented that Miami got held a lot in the third period and I don't doubt it. Miami fans would definitely notice those. I can remember at least 5 bad ones off the top of my head two weeks later--two blatant too man men infractions, a hit from behind, Hagelin getting hauled down about 20 seconds before Miami tied the game, Hunwick getting run (again). Unless you're talking a game like us against Bemidji, they're going to balance out for the most part. Even the worst penalty call is only going to bite you for a goal maybe 20% of the time. More often than not, you're going to kill it off. But a call that directly denies a team a goal (or awards a goal that shouldn't count)? That's big. A call that directly denies a team a game-winning goal? That's worse. A call that denies a team a game-winning goal in a one-and-done tournament scenario? That's completely and utterly inexcusable. What's even more infuriating is that this is the second time in eight seasons that our tournament run has come to a premature end largely because of a quick whistle for no reason on a goal that should have counted. We're not talking a puck under a guy's pad. We're talking pucks that the goalie was nowhere near. I can only imagine how frustrating it must be for the guys who actually put on the jersey.....

Mac Bennett and Derek DeBlois will take on Jacob Fallon in the first round of the USHL playoffs as Cedar Rapids will play Indiana. Game One is Wednesday night. This is the fifth time in six seasons the teams have met in the playoffs.