March Madness, I Love It!

But I ain't talking about the bouncy-ball stuff. I love that too, but I love it significantly more when Michigan is playing in a game that's remotely relevant. And being that they haven't been in one of those games in March since before I could drive by myself (note that I'm 2 years out of college now) let's shift to hockey.

Michigan gets it going tomorrow night against Sparty, and will make an attempt to not go completely winless against the Spartans in 05-06 (barring an NCAA Tourney matchup). If there's ever a game that could break Yale/Union's 5 OT game, this one is it. The Spartans come in looking to potentially grab a #1 seed in the NCAA Tournament, while the Wolverines have solidified themselves in the field, and with a good showing at the Joe could potentially grab a #2 seed and hopefully not end up in Grand Forks where they would get run.

Last weekend was Michigan's most complete weekend of the season. They played outstanding hockey for 5 of the 6 periods, the third period of game 1 being the lone exception. Jack Johnson and Matt Hunwick were absolutely awesome together, for the first time since before the Showcase. Per a surprisingly good article from a Daily writer not named Ian or James Dowd, Jack was on the ice for 7 of Michigan's 10 goals last weekend, while only on the ice for one of FSU's 5 tallies. That article also had this quote from Jack about the "Three more years!" chants:

"I was aware (they were chanting)," Johnson said. "The only way you're going to get me out of (Michigan) is at gunpoint."

Then again, Komo said he was staying four. It's looking better for a return of Jack next year though.

Anyway, I have a bigger challenge than the Michigan hockey team tomorrow night. I'm going to be at a comedy show at 7:30 (dammit!) and my goal is to make it home and watch my tape of the game without finding out who won. So off goes the cell phone, down comes AIM, and with a little luck maybe I can make it through for once without finding out the score. Or the game will still be in OT.

Some quick stats on our recruits for the next several years:

Trevor Lewis: 2nd leading goal scorer in the USHL: 51 GP, 32-38—70, +28, 63 PIMs, 12 PPG

Aaron Palushaj (89 bday): 52 GP, 10-21—31, +13, 53 PIMs,

Steve Jakiel: Since the trade 8-4-1 2.63 GAA, .914 save % (note the other goalie is 12-16-2 with a 3.69, .880). Overall he is 18-10-3 with a 3.06, .898

Tristin Llewellyn: 44 GP, 5-5—10, -5, 111 PIMs, has 2-3—5 and is +4 in 19 games since the trade

Steven Kampfer: 51 GP, 5-6—11, -5, 76 PIMs

Chris Summers: 49 GP, 5-10—15, 54 PIMs (2-7—9 in 22 games against NCAA teams)

Target Pat Kane: 48 GP, 41-39—80, 18 PIMs, 13 PPG (13-16—29 in 22 games against NCAA teams)

Matt Rust: 52 GP, 13-12—25, 56 PIMs for the U-17s

Louie Caporusso: Playoffs: 13 GP, 5-6—11, 6 PIMs, Regular Season: 48 GP, 29-44—73, 44 PIMs, 9 PPGs. Team is one game away from advancing to the semifinals.

Brian Lebler: 54 GP, 23-12—35, 11 PPGs. Team did not make the playoffs

Max Pacioretty: No stats, but his team went to the New England Finals before losing to who the coaches called maybe the top high school team in the country. It looks like he had a big play in the semifinals.

AJ Jenks: 66 GP, 26-29—55, +27, 97 PIMs and apparently never loses faceoffs.

Robbie Czarnik: 28 GP, 31-39--70, 48 PIMs, 6 PPGs. He has scored a point in 27 of his 28 games played.

David Wohlberg: 26 GP, 16-34--50, 71 PIMs, has scored a point in all but 3 games for them.

Czarnik is 1st on the team in scoring, Wohlberg is second, the next highest on the team has 35 points. Looks like our guys are doing most of the damage for them. The team is 26-1-1.

From what I've been told, Czarnik is just awesome and may in fact be too good to play college hockey. The latter three have all been invited to USA's camp so hopefully we'll get to see them play in Ann Arbor quite a bit in the future.

Stupid question of the week courtesy of Eric from Ft. Collins, CO in John Buccigross's mailbag.

In your estimation, is Joe Sakic HOF worthy? Two Cups and a Smythe, Hart, Bing and a Bud Light Plus/Minus to his name. Seven 30-plus, five 40-plus and two 50-plus goal-scoring regular seasons, three 100-plus-point seasons, career average well over a point per game. He will end this season with 650 total goals & and is an all-around decent guy. Playing the homer for a minute, I think he deserves it when he is done.

Playing the homer you think he deserves it? I hope Yzerman gets in. (Note: Dino Ciccarelli scored over 600 goals and he's not in, so maybe it's not as dumb of a question as I thought. I think Dino should get in too, but Sakic is still a first-ballot guy, no question)

Jay Sharpe, whom I've mentioned on here before as a guy who is obviously tuned in to someone in the Packers organization (and who admittedly may be sending him smoke screens) posted on The Wire that Ted Thompson is expected to have a huge signing by the end of the week (no name was given). Terrell Owens' name keeps coming up, and would allow the Packers to move Javon Walker, either for more picks or as part of a deal to move up in the draft. Vinatieri is also expected to be signed.

I love what Ted Thompson has done in the first few days of Free Agency. He's locked up two of ESPN.com's top 10 free agents (Kampman and Pickett) and he's very possibly going to land another one in Vinatieri. He's avoided giving average players huge deals (Like what Brian Williams got from the Jags) and he's re-upped with a bunch of the guys I wanted to keep. Get Henderson locked up, sign another 1-2 WRs (I'm not sure how I feel about TO. If JWalk is dead set on getting out and it's a contract that protects the team if he flakes out, I'm all for it), a Kicker and a LB and we're in pretty darn good shape heading into the draft. They've got a ton of options out there, and it's nice to see them starting to make some moves.

Liveblog: NCAA Selection Show & Pistons, Thoughts on Hockey Last Night

Time for my first liveblog. We’re coming to you from a townhouse in Ann Arbor, where I’ve got two TV’s rolling, and a whole lotta sports to watch tonight. By my count, there’s the NASCAR race, the NCAA selection show, the Pistons/Bobcats, Wings/Blackhawks, the A1 Grand Prix from Laguna Seca, CA, and the MSU/UAF hockey game on CSTV.com

5:47 pm: Tony Stewart clips a cone on his way into the pits. NASCAR decides that it was improperly placed and thus he won’t be penalized. Anyone want to bet that if it was Kevin Harvick he’d be coming to the pits right now?

5:49 pm: An article on CBS Sportsline caught my eye. Basically a couple of NHL teams (The Wild, the Ducks) are bitching to the NHL about the Red Wings sitting their 5 Swedes against the Sharks. They think the Wings basically handed 2 points to the Sharks, who are in the playoff race against those two teams. Anaheim? If they would’ve taken care of business the next night (or maybe actually scored a goal?) it’d be a moot point. Minnesota? Don’t talk about the Wings playing their “B-team” against SJ. We started Osgood against you guys. That’s as much of a B-team as anything. Stop yer bitching and win some more games. If anything, blame the league for putting us 3 time zones away two days after the Olympics.

5:57 pm: Jay Bilas says we’re in. Digger says we’re out. I love Bilas. He’s been defending us all weekend. It would be such a joke if FSU gets in over us. Worse RPI, horrible SOS.

6:00 pm: Heeere we go! Prepare to be disappointed!

6:02 pm: A storm’s a-brewing in Ann Arbor. I’m going to be pissed if my power goes out as it tends to.

6:03 pm: JJ Redick is incredible. What a fun weekend of basketball. U of M has been dodging bullets all weekend. It’s my hope that this means the basketball gods are finally smiling on us. Can’t believe that guy on Utah State missed that putback last night.

6:04 pm: ESPN just announces that Duke is a #1 seed. I just realized that I was watching the wrong station here. CBS not ESPN ya idiot.

6:08 pm: Here’s the Atlanta region: GW falls all the way to an 8 seed. Holy crap. 26-2 and they’re an 8? Syracuse went from not making the tournament to being a 5-seed. Not a bad weekend for them. Texas A&M makes it. That can’t be a good sign….even though jsmirman points out that “Everyone had them in”.

6:12 pm: BBA points out the Southern Illinois is only an 11 seed and that could be an extremely good sign for Michigan. I can’t stand the guy, but he has had some really great posts over the weekend. Kind of a dick, but he knows his stuff about college bball.

6:15 pm: Some quick thoughts about hockey last night during the commercial: That was the best game they’ve played in 4 months, if not all season. I’ve watched that team too much this season to say with absolute certainty that the lightbulb has come on for them, but if they play that way the rest of the season, they’re going to be a very tough team to beat. Johnson and Hunwick had their best weekend since the start of the year when a lot of people thought they would be the best pairing we’ve ever had. Both players were defensively responsible the entire weekend, but were still able to chip in on the offensive end somewhat. Jack had just an awesome shot for the GWG. This was the complete opposite of that 2-0 game at Munn when you couldn’t say that anyone actually played well. This game, I’m not sure that you can say that anyone didn’t play well. The best part about having that bye may have been that Red got to work with that team in practice for 2 straight weeks. It’ll be either MSU or NMU in the semis. Gotta think that we’re in no matter what.

6:18 pm: Here comes the Oakland bracket. BTW, I never get sick of seeing that NC State National Championship clip. They’re talking about the Auburn Hills bracket right now. When the regional was there before, UCLA was practicing at Troy High, and they basically broke one of the rims in a dunk exhibition. We had to play a game on it the next day and basically it was impossible to score on that basket. We started the game with 4 guys, but it didn’t matter because we weren’t scoring on that basket anyway. We ended up winning because the other team didn’t score in the second half. It was good times.

6:20 pm: No Sparty in Auburn Hills. That’s unfortunate. Indiana is a 6 seed. That’s gotta be a good sign too right? I posted that on The Wolverine board, and Raleigh Blue, BBA, rrajani, southu, bluex2, Helmholdt, beardie and blueman92 all posted the same thing at the same time. We’re starting to be a hopeful bunch.

Gonzaga is a 3 seed??!! Yikes.

6:23 pm: The shots of Mateen waiving a towel never get old.

6:27 pm: Albany is a 16 against UConn. I googled them to see just how far away that hockey regional is. They’re 600 miles away? Did not realize that. UAB is in. Not good. Fuck. Utah State is in. It’s over. There’s Seton Hall. Another nail in the coffin. I bet their annoying fans will be all over our board this week.

6:30 pm: 16 teams left. We’re not going to be one of them. This sucks. We can bitch all we want about having a better resume than Air Force or Seton Hall or Utah State or George Mason, but if we won one more freaking game this would be a much more relaxing Sunday.

6:33 pm: Ben Wallace is hobbling with what appears to be a knee injury. The last 6 minutes have sucked.

6:34 pm: Blueman92 points out that Air Force and Utah State weren’t in Bracketology’s last eight teams out. So that’s what they meant by surprises in the opener.

6:35 pm: It’s a formality but here’s the last bracket. Here comes the #12 seed to play Nevada. C’mon…..Montana. Cool. 6 teams in the Big 10 are in the top half of the bracket, but the 7^th seed isn’t going to get in. That’s just super. Here’s the last few…and it’s official. No Michigan, no FSU, no Hofstra, no Cincinnati, Missouri State becomes the highest RPI ever to not get in. Michigan has only got themselves to blame I guess. And someone just lit a match under Tommy Amaker’s chair.

6:45 pm: This day is just getting better and better. Chris Osgood is starting for the Red Wings tonight, which means I’m not giving that game more than a passive look as much as I’d like to watch some hockey tonight. The Pistons have woken up and got out to a 9 point lead over the Bobcats.

6:47 pm: Another fun anecdote from last night. We talked with Jack Johnson’s dad for a good long while last night. Great guy. Very intense, you could just see the passion in his eyes when he was talking about how emotional Jack is and how all he wants is to win. He said that anytime that Jack maybe lost his head a little bit it’s just because he hates to lose so much. I’ll take a kid like that anyday on my team. Our basketball team could’ve used a few guys like that, and if TJ Hensick had half of Jack Johnson’s heart, he’d be a lock for the Hobey. Anyway, when we were talking about how great it's been having him here, he suggested that we get a chant going for him, that Jack would really appreciate something like that because he absolutely loves being at U of M and everything.

So the Johnsons were getting in on the chant too. After the game I talked to Mr. Johnson again and he asked if I was going to the Joe. And I said probably to which he replied "ALRIGHT! We're going to the Joe then!". I said something along the lines of "We're going to MILWAUKEE!" and Jack Sr. goes "Yeah f--- the Joe, we're going to Milwaukee!!" Good times.

One of my buddies talked to Jack's mom and she said that if she was a betting woman, they'd be seeing us next year. It’s obvious what side of the fence his parents are on. Hopefully he’ll listen to Mom and Dad. He’s really matured down the stretch, whether anyone wants to admit it or not. In the biggest weekend of the year, he was defensively responsible, scored the series winning goal, and didn’t take a penalty in either game. He also became UM’s all-time leader in freshmen defense scoring and is one assist from tying for the lead in freshman defense assists. Andrew Ebbett has scored a point in 7 straight games down the stretch. He’s moving into Jed Ortmeyer territory IMO.

They asked Jack about the chant after the game last night and he was slightly embarrassed that his parents were joining in, and according to Mike Spath, they asked him if he’d like to be apart of the atmosphere next year and he said “Yeah, and the year after that too”.

6:55 pm: I’m going to cut this off now. I’m not watching the Red Wing game because of Osgood, I’m probably the only person in the US that’s going to be watching the A1 Grand Prix, and the Pistons? They’re playing the Bobcats. Tony Delk is looking to be a pretty nice pickup. Anyway, it’s up to hockey now to salvage something out of this awful sports season at U of M. Thankfully it looks like they finally got the message. I still don’t have real high expectations for them, but they could end up with a nice season yet. Two dangerous scoring lines, a defense corps that might have finally gotten the message, which includes a rejuvinated Tim Cook who was just killing people this weekend. The big question mark is in net.

Michigan 6, FSU 4

God if that game wasn't our season in a nutshell....get out to a real fast start, look like world beaters, and then forget how to play defense and make me want to pull my hair out.

Ebbett, Porter, Kal and Hunwick were great tonight. Thank God for Andrew Ebbett...that kid has just put this team on his back despite an incredible lack of support this year, but he just keeps getting it done. Jed would be proud.

I don't care how many points that anyone else had, Travis Turnbull should have been the #1 star. He may have saved our season with the shift of the year. Single-handedly kills off about a minute of the remaining time, then he keeps at it and scores a goal, even at the end of a long shift. Just absolutely outstanding.

Berenson threw the 4th line out there after it was 5-4 and Digger was doing everything he could to get the boys fired up. It might have worked.

Through two periods, that was as sound of a defensive game as we played all year. Jack and Hunwick wouldn't go in past the blueline, and the 2 occasions Jack did, he got his butt back as soon as he got rid of the puck. Johnson was in control of himself the entire game. It was really nice to see.

Funny moment on our 3rd (I believe) goal. Cogliano broke his stick and wasn't happy about it. So he turned to go toward the bench, so his back was to the play when the puck went in. The crowd went crazy, and you could see the exact moment it registered we scored, then he spun around and threw his arm up in the air.

I also yelled down to Molina that we miss his moustache. Ian, the equipment guy relayed the message and they both had a good laugh over it.

Ruden was solid when he needed to be. Hard to fault him on most of those goals. I have no problem with him getting the nod tonight, which he will. He looked VERY shaky in the first five minutes, and I was surprised we got out of it without giving up a goal. After he settled down he did ok though.

Tim Cook actually laid 2 people out. Very nice job getting physical. The one bad play was when he was out there with Mitera when they got split--that simply can't happen. Just haul the guy down if you're going to get beat like that.

I'd like to think they'll complete the sweep tonight, but I've watched this team too many times this year to expect it to actually happen. Here's hoping though. A win has to make us almost a lock for NCAAs....especially if Denver loses again.

Basketball, Hockey, JWalk, and the Wings Nastiness

I’m not talking about Michigan basketball. They might still get in. I’ll be thrilled if they do, but frankly they don’t deserve it. When you’ve got two games: one at home against Indiana, one on a neutral court against a team you’ve smoked twice, and a win in either game makes you a lock for the tournament and you choke away both of them? And when you can’t bring better than your C-game in either of them? You don’t deserve to be in the tournament. Blame Amaker if you want, blame Hunter for jacking up threes, blame Courtney Sims for taking over for Jimmy “Butter” Carson as the definition of soft, blame Horton for running his mouth about how “We’re in” after the Ohio State game. There’s plenty of blame to go around. And it’s too bad that they’ve let a 16-3 start pretty much go to waste. Enough about them.

Hockey is heading down the same road as the basketball team. Great start, collapse down the stretch, now we need to get some wins to get in. They’re going with Noah Ruden tonight. I would’ve gone with Sauer myself, but I can’t disagree with the choice. They’re both the same goalie for all intents and purposes. I’ve got a pretty good feeling about this weekend, hopefully I’m right. I think we’ll learn pretty quick if this team has any kind of run in them. They’ve had two weeks of practice, so whatever Red wanted to ingrain in this team he should have been able to.

The MSM agrees with me that the Avs trade for Theodore was completely idiotic. Now they’re saying that he might not even be back until the playoffs start (more for salary cap reasons than anything—which is just unbelievable that they could be that stupid to have to keep their starting goalie on IR to not go over the cap). Couple that with Svatos being out for the year, and they’re just not getting in. If they don't, this will just look like a colossal blunder by LaCroix, especially since Sakic is a FA this offseason and they're not going to be able to tell him to take less money than Theodore.

I went to the Red Wings game last night. God is that a fun team to watch. Datsyuk and Zetterberg are just incredible. Datsyuk had a move last night that I won’t even attempt to describe, but let’s just say that if he scored, it would’ve been right next to Ovechkin’s goal from his back on the top plays of the year. Lidstrom has to go down as the best defenseman of this era doesn’t he? He’s going to win his 4th Norris this year, he was in the running for 3 more. That guy is just never out of position, and with his four points last night, he became the highest scoring Swedish defenseman of all time. Chelios amazes me. He single-handedly killed off a long 5 on 3 in the first period. The guy looks like he could still play another couple of years. What a freak of nature. Lang/Williams/Yzerman looked like a real nice line. I don’t get all the people that were calling for Lang to be traded.

I like the move for Cory Cross. That was just the type of move that they needed. They got a big stay-at-home dman and they didn’t have to give up a high pick or a prospect to get him. It’s an upgrade over Jamie Rivers, who was moved, and that’s all they were looking for. They’ll probably trust him in the playoffs over Ledba or Woolley if he plays at all well down the stretch.

Horribly officiated game last night. Babcock didn't take the bait (probably since they still won by 4 goals) but I have no idea what those guys were doing last night. Holmstrom got called for diving on a high-sticking penalty (that was also called) negating a 5 on 3 chance, the Kings got two really cheap 5 on 3s (the Kings fan next to me agreed that those calls were horrible), and on a Wings PP in the first period, they ignored a blatant hit from behind right in front of the ref. I thought Brian Aaron was calling that game.

Javon Walker decided today that the best response to his failed demand for a new contract would be to not only burn his bridges in the Packers organization, but to blow up the bridge, set it on fire, drop his pants, and piss on the remains of the bridge. Strong comments (by him, not his agent this time) on ESPN.com this morning:

Some of the most choice quotes:

"I really have no interest in being in a Green Bay Packers uniform or playing
for Green Bay again."

"If I had to go back there, I'd retire," he said. "I don't have to play."

The rift is so deep and his animosity toward Favre so great that, Walker said,
he is even willing if necessary to repay the Packers the prorated portion of his
signing bonus, which amounts to around $850,000.
"Why should I risk another
year of getting beat up playing for a team that I don't want to play for? That's
stupid," Walker said.

If I’m Ted Thompson, you know what I say? Alright jackass, have it your way. You have permission to seek a trade, but if you want to be paid like Randy Moss, then the compensation that we’re asking for in a trade is in line with what you would get for trading a top 5 WR. Namely a starter and a high first round pick. Like the Vikings got for Randy Moss. Otherwise, give us back our $850,000 and retire you ungrateful piece of crap. Because you're totally going to walk away from $15 million.

I’m sowwy that Bwett Fawve huwt his wittle feewings when he said that JWalk should get his ass into camp and stop holding out, but at the same time, Favre didn’t hold a gun to his head. If he was that unhappy, who cares what Brett Favre thinks? Brett Favre didn’t turn the state of Wisconsin against him. Drew Rosenhaus and Javon’s attitude turned Wisconsin against him. Favre didn’t have anything to say to the media about Sterling Sharpe or Antonio Freeman and everyone still hated the two of them after they held out.

I didn’t see him in any hurry to pay the Packers back any money when he had a shit year his first year. Unless I’m mistaken, it’s extremely unusual for rookies to get new contracts before they are into the last year of the deal. I believe the Vikings waited until the last year of his contract to pay Moss, so why should JWalk have been any different? Moss had actually had more than one good year at that point too.

If he would’ve just shut up, come to play, and performed like he did 2 years ago, the Packers would have taken care of him. He might not like the way the organization is run, but you know what? Until last year, they were the only team in the league to not have a sub-.500 season in the salary cap era.

Did he really think that a brand new general manager (which Ted Thompson was last year) was going to come in and throw money at him when the team had no cap space whatsoever? Yeah Javon, we can’t afford to keep either of our Pro Bowl guards and actually protect our Hall-of-Fame quarterback, but we’ll get right on giving a new contract to a WR who—albeit very talented—has 2 years left on his deal, has a bad attitude, and has only had one real good season. If he came to play, showed he was back from his injury, and got off to a good start this year, they would’ve broken the bank for him. They have the money to do it. Instead he pulls this crap.

Trade him to Baltimore and see how he likes Kyle Boller throwing him the ball (unless they’re the ones trading for Culpepper, in which case he can go to Cleveland and see how he likes Charlie Frye).

It adds an interesting wrench to the Packers’ offseason though. Do they try and trade Walker for TO and swap malcontents? Do they trade him for John Abraham and then take AJ Hawk with the #6 pick? Do they use him as trade bait to move up in the draft to get Reggie Bush? Truth be told, if someone’s willing to give up a 1 or a high 2 for him, I take it and move on. The only problem is that Ferguson is probably gone, Murphy’s career is probably over, Chatman isn’t coming back. With Walker gone, they need to find 2, if not 3 receivers this offseason (depending on if they keep Rod Gardner).

Hahaha! Stupid Avs

The Avs just made a trade that makes less sense than the Joseph to Ottawa to back up Hasek trade that CNNSI speculated about.

They moved David Aebischer, who actually had started to play pretty well as of late, to the Canadiens for Jose Theodore. Straight up. The same Jose Theodore who has been doing his best Jim Carey Post-Vezina-winning impression for the last two seasons.

Now that right there is iffy enough, but then when you take into account that they just traded their starting goalie for a goalie that won't be healthy for at least two more weeks due to a broken heel, the trade looks even worse. The Avs are in a major playoff fight. They're up by 6 points on 9th place Anaheim, but the Ducks have 3 games in hand. LA and Edmonton just got better. They're both behind Colorado. And the Avs are starting.....Peter Budaj coming down the stretch. Don't they almost have to make a trade for another goalie now?

Not a real good day for Michigan hockey alums. Tambellini got moved to the Islanders and Hilbert got waived. Good thing he went pro early.

Good thread on The Wolverine board about who everyone thinks should start in net this weekend. I'll go with Sauer. Even though it was a long time ago, he was great against BC and he's been a lot better at home with the students than he has been on the road. I think the chances of him getting hot and leading us to a title are better than the chances of Ruden doing it. Plus the experience will help him next year. But they're both pretty much the same at this point. And if the team doesn't improve their overall play, it wouldn't matter if we had Ken Dryden in there...

Lastly, a great article by Chris, the author of Western College Hockey. He has a new blog called Sports Writers Journal. This article about Steve Yzerman was just absolutely outstanding. As soon as I started reading it, I was thinking "Crap, I need to write something about Stevie Y", but after reading this, pretty much anything I have to say would be redundant. He did a great job.

Curiosity in the Sports World

If anyone needs an indication that people in the CCHA offices just aren’t paying attention, check out their weekly release with the award finalists.

“Best Defensive Defenseman:

Andy Greene, Miami
Matt Hunwick, Michigan
Nathan Oystrick, Northern Michigan”

What dude, what dude, what dude??? Matt Hunwick? Why don’t we go ahead and give Tim Cook the Offensive Defenseman award, or Jack Johnson the Lady Byng Trophy? Put it this way, with Jack being up for best Offensive D-man, if Hunwick was truly one of the best defensive defensemen in the CCHA, we would have without a doubt the finest pairing the country. Instead, most people want to see the two of them split up. And there’s no doubting Jack’s offensive ability……..

Ebbett should be a lock for best defensive forward.

Osgood really makes me laugh. By all accounts, he was outstanding the 2-0 win over Anaheim earlier in the week. I wouldn't know. I don't watch games that he starts. But check out the campaigning after the game:

"That was the key for me. Just go out there and play and not make a big
deal out of it. Obviously it would be easier if I played a little more."

"Manny is going to play the majority of the games," Osgood said. "But it
would be nice to play a little more."

Calm down a little bit there, tiger. Let's start with going back to back games without getting yanked (which he hasn't done since 12/31 and 1/3) before we start talking about consistent PT eh?

The other curiosity this week comes from Allan Muir from CNNSI:
In his column, he lists 10 potential NHL Deadline Deals that would be “Matches Made in Heaven”. Some of them do in fact make sense. McCabe to Carolina, Jokinen to Ottawa, even Samsonov to Detroit I could see. But then there was this:

Phoenix deals Curtis Joseph to Ottawa for 2006 second-rounder.
The Sens have too much on the line to risk going into the playoffs with Ray Emery as their starting netminder. With no concrete timetable for Dominik Hasek's return from the groin injury he suffered in Torino, Ottawa needs a capable veteran
presence.
Phoenix might want a prospect as well as a pick in return for CuJo, but the market for goaltending has cooled off considerably.

Now, I may not be an NHL guru or anything like that. But I will go out on a limb here, and say that there are two teams that you will not see Curtis Joseph play for. One is the Detroit Red Wings (and as bad as they treated him, I don’t blame him a bit). The other is the Ottawa Senators. There is just absolutely no way that he is going to play second fiddle to Dominik Hasek again. There is no way that a team is going to invite that circus to come back to town.

Maybe Vancouver could sign Steve Moore to play on a line with Bertuzzi. Maybe Terrell Owens will sign with whatever team Jeff Garthia ends up going to. Maybe Chris Kunitz and ‘anny Richmon’ will sign with the Wild because they like playing defense so much. Yes Ottawa probably wants a backup goalie. I would be absolutely shocked if that goalie is Curtis Joseph though. It’s just not going to happen with Hasek already there.

This isn't a curiosity but it made me very happy when I read it in the Detroit News today, especially the last sentence.

The Griffins, Detroit's minor league affiliate in Grand Rapids, is duplicating
the Wings' red-hot season. Forward Donald MacLean scored a franchise-record 47th
goal in Sunday's 6-1 victory over the Rochester Americans. The Griffins lead with
the American Hockey League with 43 victories and 91 points (43-16-1-4). Griffins
goalie Jimmy Howard is 16-4-2, and has helped the Griffins earn points in 14 of
his last 15 starts (12-1-1-1).

Doesn’t Howard have to be Detroit’s back-up next year at the very worst? That was an absolute blessing that he fell to the Wings in that draft.

Michigan hockey landed a second round date with Ferris State. I say bring em on! If there’s one team that I want to see back at Yost, it’s the Bulldogs. They’re a solid opponent, and they have just as much to gain/lose as Michigan in this series (don’t believe me, check out the PWR…they’re right on our butts), but Michigan has to be pissed over the way the regular season ended. They’ll be ready to go against FSU. The question is can they put a solid weekend together for the first time since December. I’m fully counting on being at Yost all 3 days this weekend. I think this is a pretty reasonable estimate of how I think this series will go.
Michigan wins in 2: 30%
Michigan wins in 3: 40%
Ferris wins in 3: 20%
Ferris wins in 2: 10%

I’m not going to dig the post out, but an FSU fan on USCHO before the regular season series between these two teams posted that Mitch O’Keefe had a scholarship offer from Michigan contingent upon Al leaving. Al took too long to decide, so O’Keefe went to Ferris instead. Does anyone know if that’s true or not? My BS-o-meter was beeping away when I read that because I had honestly never heard O’Keefe’s name until 2 weeks ago (Ferris is an irrelevant program to me when they’re not playing Michigan or in a battle with Michigan for seeding). I have a hard time believing that I wouldn’t have heard him mentioned by Bob Miller or Mike Spath if the Wolverines were recruiting him—let alone if they offered him a scholarship and they wanted him to be their goalie of the future. I had heard of Sauer, I had heard of Jakiel. We even heard about Jimmy Spratt. I don’t recall hearing O’Keefe’s name ever brought up.

Lastly, RIP Kirby Puckett. He was around back when I still actually liked baseball, and even though I wasn’t a Twins fan, you could tell that was one of the truly good guys in sports.

Black Thursday

Quick hitters:

Someone has uploaded to Google Video a wonderful highlight reel of Alex Ovechkin's young career. It's not fair some of the things this kid does. Personal favorites: The shot up under the bar in a shootout against Calgary, the goal from his back which may have been the best goal since Mike Legg, and the play against Nashville where he skates into a guy trying to check him, he knocks the Predator player over, and doesn't miss a stride. Just sick. It's almost a crime that he's wasting away in Washington. Can you imagine if he was in a major NHL market like Detroit, Toronto, or Montreal? It's sad because I really would love to see him play more often.

I downloaded the Measly Penny song that the Michigan football players recorded and Frat Boy Missionaries so graciously hosted (HT: MgoBlog for linking it). Sadly it is nowhere near as good as its Miami counterpart. No classic lines like "Multiply that bitch up dawg, you get my dick size", the intro wasn't as funny as "This song in its entirety is not meant to disrespect any women in its entirety", no arguments about if a rubber was worn or not. Granted the 7th Floor Crew is a lofty standard to hold anyone to, but the Mean Team doesn't measure up at all.

Black Thursday is already underway in the NFL with name guys like Stephen Davis and Lawyer Malloy amongst the early cuts. Basically no deal is good news for the Packers (at least for this upcoming season) as a fair number of the teams are over the cap and will have to cut some pretty talented players in an effort to comply with the cap by tomorrow. The Packers are one of about 5 teams with significant cap space--enough to make a major splash in free agency if they choose.

Jay Sharpe, a regular poster on two of the Packers boards I frequent, hosts a radio show out in California and attended the combine. According to this post, he was told by Reggie Bush that the Packers are one of the teams showing the most interest in moving up for him. Whether it's a smokescreen or actually true remains to be seen, but Sharpe is one of my favorite posters on those boards, and I believe that he was told what he says he was told. At this point though, I'm not so sure that I wouldn't prefer Green Bay to just stay where they're at and take Mario Williams, because he sounds like the second coming of Julius Peppers. 6'7" 295 and he's got a 40 inch vertical and runs a 4.7 40? Sign me up. This article is just glowing about his combine performance.

Tomorrow is going to be very interesting with all the cuts going on. Reading what the NFL writers from ESPN are saying, there could be some real big names let go. One thing that won't be happening is this:

Packers | Favre could be cut
Wed, 1 Mar 2006 15:11:10 -0800

Jarrett Bell, of USA Today, reports Green Bay Packers QB Brett Favre could possibly be cut Friday, March 3.

Yeah, I guess Favre could be cut. And tomorrow could start the next ice age. And Michigan hockey could learn how to play defense. And Spartan fans could not have an inferiority complex starting Friday....Buuuuut I bet they won't.