A Couple Michigan Hockey Tidbits

A rare second-update-of-the-day while I sit here at my desk waiting for this day to get over. The day before a long weekend always drags so bad.

Bob Miller had two good updates on the Yost Post about hockey recruiting. Basically we're 50-50 to land another stud defense recruit (whose dad happens to be ex-Tiger Dan Petry) and despite his appearance at the Plymouth Whalers rookie camp, AJ Jenks isn't going anywhere but Ann Arbor. The highlights:

The 6-3 180 pound right defenseman has seen his stock skyrocket since
joining the eventual USHL champion Des Moines Buccaneers mid-season. He posted a 1-14-15 scoring line with a +6 plus/minus and 68 penalty minutes in 48
games.

Pro scouts agree on his skating and puck movement abilities, so much so that he was ranked the 36th overall North Ameican skater by the NHL's Central Scouting Service in their final 2006 listings.

A 6'3" defenseman that can skate well and move the puck? Sign me up! Hopefully we'll land him, since we see Cook, Dest, and Hunwick leave after next year (and more than likely Jack Johnson as well). Here's more on Petry courtesy of INCH (HT: Western College Hockey)

The good news for Michigan hockey fans is that Jenks more than measured up in
his on-ice play. Although competing in a roller hockey tournament as well over
the weekend, Jenks employed his usual brand of skills to be one of the dominant
on-ice performers. His uncanny ability to find open ice in the offensive zone
allowed him frequent scoring chances and he continued to be a dominant force in
the faceoff circle.

I love everything I've read about Jenks (most of which has come from Bob Miller). Despite the fact that he looks just like Paul Davis, minus the crying, I think he's going to be awesome for us. I wish we could have him next year, even if it's just to take faceoffs, since apparently he wins like 90% of his draws.

One other very interesting thing I read this week in The Hockey News' Draft Preview (no link since it's in the print version): They have incoming freshman Chris Summers listed as a first-round pick (along with Mark Mitera). The article says that "He glides faster than most players in the NHL skate", but then it goes on to project him into the NHL as a defensive forward. Kind of interesting considering the logjam on defense this year with both Hunwick and Johnson spurning pro offers. If Steve Kampfer is good enough to earn a spot on the blueline this year, maybe Summers could see some time up front. Or maybe it was just a typo. The other oddity was that uber-recruit Trevor Lewis didn't crack their top 100, despite the fact that he's...ya know....God and all.

Can you tell it's the offseason?

Tied Headed to South Beach

It’s amazing to watch people in the media flip-flop from game to game. It brings back happy memories of the 2004 NBA Finals where at the start of the series it was “Lakers in 4, Pistons can’t score” and by the end of game 4, Screamin’ A Smith was saying “I ALREADY BOUGHT MY TICKET BACK TO PHILADELPHIA BECAUSE THIS SERIES IS OVER IN GAME FIVE”.

One bad shooting night from all four of the Pistons top-scorers, and suddenly we went from the majority of ESPN’s experts saying Pistons in 5 (!!) or 6 to “They could get blown out of this series”. Let’s just calm down a tick shall we? In game one, the Pistons had a very uncharacteristically bad shooting performance. But the difference between Game One, and some of the games in the Cleveland series was that in Game One, they were getting GREAT looks, they just weren’t knocking the shots down. And despite the fact that Wade was in foul trouble, which everyone wanted to bring up as a sign that Detroit was even more doomed in the future, the guy didn’t miss! Neither did the Miami role players. It wasn’t going to keep up. Gary Payton shooting 75%? C’mon.

Then we get to last night. Hamilton has an outstanding first half, Prince has a great game, Billups wakes up in the second half, Ben Wallace gets his dunks, Sheed’s knocking down threes, Walker starts clanging 6+ three pointers a game again, James Posey got the Flip Murray award until the fourth quarter, and suddenly, the Pistons look like they could win the title again.

To me, fans of both teams have to be feeling pretty good about their chances at this point. Both teams got a win in a game that they pretty much dominated, both teams can take solace in working hard in a valiant comeback in a game they lost (and a game where the score was probably closer than it should’ve been) and point to poor shooting as a reason for the defeat.

Make no mistake, Detroit outplayed Miami last night worse than they themselves got outplayed in Game 1. Miami made that game close thanks to some absolutely horrendous officiating down the stretch, and of course the fact that Jim Hermann’s prevent defense made an appearance on the basketball court. If they call a jump-ball instead of fouling Sheed out, and if there’s a foul on the in-bounds pass (or even if Bavetta awards the timeout that Prince clearly called) the Pistons win going-away last night. That was the type of officiating only Dick Bavetta can provide.

Just gotta get a split at worse in Miami and we’re fine.

Quick thoughts on the Indy 500 this weekend:

-Hard to go against Helio Castroneves in this one. He’s won a pair of em, he’s got a great car, and he’s a lot less likely to stuff his car into the wall than Hornish is.

-Of the Andretti-Green cars, I like Kanaan and Herta (shocker there). Marco’s got a good car, but he’s a rookie and he’ll probably do something dumb, since it’s his first 500 mile race. Franchitti’s been slow for most of the month, and he’s not as good at taking care of equipment as Kanaan and Herta, and it wouldn’t be Indy without hearing “Andretti is slowing down on the backstretch!” with regard to Michael. Herta hasn’t been fast, but this is his best starting position ever in the 500 and in his previous starts he’s been 9th, 4th, and 3rd. He’s good at staying out of trouble. Kanaan has been faster, albeit not as quick as the Penske or Ganassi cars, and he too takes care of equipment. He’ll probably be right there at the end.

-Danica won’t win. I think Yahoo had it right today when they referred to her as the Anna Kournikova of racing.

-Wild ass guess at the top five: 1. Castroneves, 2. Wheldon, 3. Kanaan, 4. Dixon, 5. Herta

The Heat is On!

Bring it Miami.

The Pistons did it again with their backs against the wall, shutting down LeBron in the second half, and...well....everyone on the Cavaliers the rest of the game to advance to the Eastern Conference Finals for the fourth straight year. Cleveland was held to the least points in the history of NBA Game 7s, breaking the record previously set when the Pistons held NJ to 68 a couple years back.

Lots of credit to Detroit for pulling that series off, even if it shouldn't have taken as much time as it did (we'll see if that comes back to bite them against Miami). LeBron was unreal in the first half, but Detroit did a great job shutting him down in the second. Maybe Nike's new shirts should say "Witness Protection Program", because he disappeared down the stretch.

It wasn't pretty--especially when Detroit was at the free-throw line--but they got it done and now they move on to take on the Heat. You have to believe that Billups needs to be a bigger part of the offense next series. Miami's got Jason Williams and Gary Payton to guard him. Neither one of them can handle him...and if they try to move someone else over there, then Williams or Payton will be on Hamilton, which works too. I'm looking forward to it!

One thing which I forgot to mention after game 6, but has to be brought up: Did anyone see Matt Shepard's interview with Usher? Outkast's "Hey Ya" was playing in the background while Shep interviewed Usher, and at the end of the interview, he said something along the lines of "Hey, they just got done playing your song too." He couldn't be more white.

Congrats to Michigan Baseball on winning the Big 10 Title, despite their facilities and to softball for advancing to the Super Regional. Ritter is amazing. 19 strikeouts today out of the 24 outs in the game? Only one walk--and that on a hit batter? Unbelievable.

Whew!

Y'all Sheed Sheed Sheed Sheed Sheed Sheed!

Great game, and I was completely correct when I told my buddy Kevin that we'd probably get a more fair whistle in this game if they just let Mike Brown & LeBron James call fouls. Because even they wouldn't have had the audacity to call some of the crap that the refs whistled in that game (the best example was Rip's second foul....he touched LeBron on the shorts. And the shorts weren't even touching his body at the time). But the Pistons overcame the officiating and some horrendous free throw shooting to send it back to the D for Game 7. The home-court edge might be offset by the fact that it's obvious the NBA wants LeBron v. Wade (get it? Like the court case?) in the Conference Championship, but you still have to like the Pistons' chances.

One point that I wanted to make after the last game, but held off because I wasn't sure if it was appropriate to say: If you're Larry Hughes...how do you miss four playoff games? It's just horrible what happened to him and his family, and I'm trying to not be crude about this, but how do you miss four playoff games? That's almost two weeks. My dad even agreed with me on this one, so I knew I wasn't just being an insensitive ass. If that's what he needs to grieve, then I'm sure the Cavs don't have a problem with it, but I find it really, really odd....

Time for my own hockey game so I'm out.

And great work by Ritter striking out 15 and pitching a no-hitter for the Wolverines. Way to open up the title defense in the NCAA Tourney, girls!

One More....

And we can officially close out the worst year in the history of sports.

But, it's LeBron vs. Wade, like everyone (read: The NBA and its officials) want to see, so that's cool.

Anyone wanna know how many times Chauncey Billups fouled out this season? Twice before tonight. Twice. And once was in a double-overtime game. He averaged two fouls a game this season. Just saying....It's not like he's an MVP candidate or an All-Defensive team member or anything.

And Ben Wallace? I know the wrist is hurt and all. But sack up. 0 for 7 at the line? Are you kidding me? 0 for 7? I can do better than that, and I'm not gonna be making $10 million anytime soon.

I'm beyond sick of it when the best play the Pistons come up with in a late game situation is to flail around and pretend they got fouled. Billups does it all the time. They're not going to bail you out with 2 seconds left in the game.

The best play of the night was the no-call on James for pushing Billups to the ground to get after a loose ball and the subsequent technical on Flip Saunders. No sir, can't put the King in a position where he might have to come out, nope. But 6 on the MVP candidate, all-defensive team member? Why not.

At least if there's any team that knows how to come back, it's the Pistons. But I think they'd get a more fair shake in Game 6 if the NBA let Mike Brown and LeBron have whistles. It's gonna be hella-fun.

Story Time

Alright, since I've got absolutely nothing to talk about today (Pistons off day, Wings still piss me off, pretty much a dead day for Michigan news) I think it's story time.

One quick comment before the story though: At this point, is there really any reason to continue having the Challenge Cup? Pontiac pulled out earlier this year as title sponsor, I believe Fox Sports has trimmed back coverage, and honestly it's not so much a competition. The Challenge Cup has been around for 3 years now, and Michigan has held possession of the Cup for all nine seasons that it has been awarded. Sparty, you suck at life. Deal with it.

Now to the story:

I take you to Columbus, Ohio (BOOOO!) in January of 2005. Michigan hockey was in town to play the Buckeyes (and coincedentally, the women's club hockey team--which I have several friends on--was playing down there as well). So me and several of my friends decided to make the trip and catch 4 hockey games in a 3 day span.

Well, Shawn Crable's girlfriend at the time worked in the media relations office, and with Shawn being from Ohio and all, they decided to make the trip as well and their seats were right next to ours for one of the men's games.

It happened right away that some Buckeye fans behind us noticed Shawn's Big 10 Championship ring, and started to taunt him about how the Buckeyes had beaten us that year. Shawn turns around, points at his ring, and says "I got two of these! You guys can keep on going to the Motor City Bowl or whatever. That is not a good bowl. Unless you're making $13 million, that's not a good bowl!" Shut them right up...

So the game continues, and Crable had obviously never been to a hockey game before. The Buckeyes get a power play, and it's pretty quiet in our section. All of a sudden, he looks at the ice and just yells, "WHY WE ONLY GOT FOUR GUYS???!!!!!"

Pretty much floored all of us. That was good times.

One other note from the trip...we went to the women's game that night and made the decision to get plastered before the game. In addition, we brought a liter water bottle into the game filled with our drink of choice. By the end of the first period we weren't feeling any pain. So this girl on the Buckeyes (and I use the term very very loosely), decides that it'd be a good idea to run Michigan's goalie (who happened to be one of our good friends) a full 3 seconds after the play. The official gives her five and a game for charging and we got the "Ooooooooh CYA" chant going. She had to walk right behind us to get to the locker room, and as she walked by I turned around and said "Drive home safely!"

The girl flipped out. She pulled her stick back like it was a baseball bat and yelled at us "YOU PUSSIES GONNA BRING IT????" She was met with lots and lots of laughter and an "Are you serious?" comment from my buddy Scott. She then stormed into the locker room.

That was good times.

Lost in the Shuffle

Lost in my week of simmering after the Wings sucked it up in the first round yet again were two very important happenings.














Awwwwww yeah.

Favre's coming back, which kept a smile on my face even as I watched the Wings go down. And Woodson a Green Bay Packer?? HAIL YES!

There really weren't too many people that had a better week that week than Ted Thompson. Favre came back, he landed one of the prizes of the free agent class (coupled with signing Ryan Pickett and keeping Aaron Kampman earlier in the offseason), then he had what was by all accounts (apart from John Clayton and the guy from the Dallas Morning News who stated they got themselves 5 starters on Day 1 then gave them a C- overall) an outstanding draft.

Abdul Hodge in the third round? Yes please.

I'm trying to not get myself too worked up over Green Bay's draft since it seems that every time people like their draft (e.g. 2001) it's horrible, and every time people hate their draft (e.g. 2000) it ends up being great. But I have to admit that I'm getting pretty excited about their defense. They were in the top ten in the league last year (and somehow had the #1 pass defense), and they've added Pickett, Woodson, Ben Taylor, AJ Hawk, Abdul Hodge, and Marquand Manuel in the offseason. A linebacking corps of Barnett, Hawk and Hodge sounds great, and having Woodson and Harris on the corners is going to make it pretty difficult to throw on them.

If they find someone to catch the ball, this team could actually be pretty good next year. And Favre did make Bill Schroeder into a 1,000 yard receiver. I'm ready for football.

But in the meantime, I suppose there's still an NBA title to win, eh? And to that, courtesy of the RCMB:


I guess that I should mention this since this is a college hockey blog and all....Zac MacVoy left to go to the USHL and hopefully earn a scholarship to another school. I'm going to miss Zac. He didn't do much here, but I still think he's going to be a solid player for someone. The good thing is that it helps to spread out that big class a little bit.

Lastly, even if this is true, doesn't it make you chuckle a little bit to see in print?

If there's a question mark, then it's probably in the goal, but Justin Tobe played well in spot duty behind John Daigneau last year.

Yes Spartan fan, that Justin Tobe. Put it this way, if he's starting for Harvard next year, I don't like their chances very much. That guy was BAD.

And one more time, because it looks so nice....


Fuck yeah.