Having a Seat Over There: John Gibson and Brennan Serville

(More from MGoBlog and MHNet)

We have our stud goalie commit!

Michigan picked up a pair of commitments this week: US NTDP goalie John Gibson and Stouffville defenseman Brennan Serville.

Not to dimish Serville's commitment in any way, because he sounds like a pretty darn good player as well, but Gibson is the guy that should have Wolverines fans jumping for joy. A former OSU-verbal, Gibson is one of the top goalies in his age group and that blue-chippah that we've been waiting for since Jack Campbell decided to head for the OHL.

Kyle Woodlief from Red Line had Gibson as the #31 prospect in the upcoming draft, and said that he is one of the biggest risers on his draft board.

“His improvement has been dramatic over the course of the past 18 months,” said Woodlief of Gibson, who stands 6-foot-3, 185 pounds. “He was always a taller kid who didn’t have great lateral agility or quickness because he had grown length wise, but his body hadn’t really grown into that. As he has grown into his frame and gotten stronger in the lower half of the body, he is much quicker and more nimble on his feet.”

HT to MGoBlog for this one: One of the writers for ESPN.com had Gibson as one of three goalies who could potentially be a first-round pick. 

Some scouts thought that Gibson (6-foot-2, 205 pounds) was in and out at the NHL Research and Development camp this summer, but he has looked very solid in showings subsequently. He gets high marks for his agility in the crease and he goes post to post very well. With Campbell last year and John Gibson this winter, it just might be that the USDT is becoming what Quebec was for many years -- the leading hothouse for goaltending prospects.

Central Scouting had him as the top goalie in the USHL in their preliminary rankings.

The Hockey News liked how he looked at the NHL R&D camp:

Another American who looked good at the R&D camp, Gibson has a great new-school NHL frame at 6-foot-3, 200 pounds. He moves fairly quickly for a goalie his size and considering he was handicapped by rule changes and in facing the best offensive players his age group, fared well. Draft eligible in 2011.

So far this season, Gibson is 6-6-2 with a 2.89/.917, which is very, very good. He made 44 stops in the NTDP's 3-0 loss to the Wolverines earlier this year. He was 3-0-0 in the World Under 17 Hockey Challenge with a 1.33/.957, including a win in the championship game.

Brian made a good point that it's probably unlikely that he's headed for the OHL after flipping his commit midway through the season. It's also exceedingly rare for goalies to head for the pros at such a young age, so the chances are probably pretty good that he'll be in maize and blue for at least a couple of seasons.

He won't have to be "the man" right away, with Hunwick proving that he's a more-than-capable goalie at the NCAA level, but I'm sure Gibson will see icetime-aplenty next year. This is a huge pickup for the program, and taking him from Ohio State makes it that much better. The much-needed goalie spot has been filled.

Also committing to the Wolverines was former Canisius commitment Brennan Serville. From MHNet:

Serville plays for Stouffville of the Ontario Junior Hockey League, the same league that the likes of Louie Caporusso and Brandon Burlon came from.  The 6’3, 180 pound defenseman has eight assists in 17 games this season.  He had 3-12-15 in 43 games last season.  A former Canisius commit, USHR says Serville is “a great skating defenseman with size who is good on the breakout, has good hands and sees the ice well.”

Good size, good speed. He now has 2-10--12 in 20 games. He's currently riding a four game point streak where he has 2 goals and 5 assists. He was selected to play for Canada East in the World Junior A Challenge despite missing the evaluation camp and only playing 9 games to the point of the team being selected. Canada East won a silver medal and Serville played in all five games, but didn't register a point. He's projected as a 3rd-5th round pick in the Draft.

We're scheduled to have six defensemen coming back next year (in addition to Serville and Michael Szuma coming in), so provided that no one leaves and Jon Merrill doesn't run for President or something, we'll be in really good shape on the blueline.

Here's an article on Serville from back when he committed to Canisius. And Stouffville sure likes him.

There was a very interesting article in the Windsor Star that seems really premature, but is surely fun to think about for those of us that root for the Wings and Wolverines: Bob Duff says that he has heard rumblings that the Rangers will not sign Carl Hagelin after the seasons and that he could be headed for Motown:

Currently the property of the New York Rangers, who selected the 5-11, 176-pound left-winger from Sodertalje, Sweden with the 168^th pick of the 2007 National Hockey League entry draft, word around the NHL is that the Rangers won't be signing Hagelin, who would then become a free agent Aug. 15, 2011. “I wouldn't be surprised to see Detroit sign him,” said one NHL scout at Saturday's game.

That would be awesome. Ranger blogs aren't buying it, however. The Prospect Park says:

If Carl Hagelin does not sign with the New York Rangers, it would be because Hagelin did not want to sign not because the Rangers did not want to sign him. We know that last summer that the Rangers made a serious attempt to sign Hagelin and get him to leave school early.

Hagelin (who had been named captain of Michigan's hockey team) turned them down, whether it was because he wanted his degree or he wanted to win the Hobey Baker this year we can not confirm. But what we do know is that the Rangers tried to sign him and that they will try again as soon as Michigan's season ends.
...
The Rangers do want Carl Hagelin end of story, if he does not sign it will be because of Hagelin not because of the Rangers.

Canyon of Blueshirts points out that just a few weeks ago, Glen Sather mentioned Hagelin as a prospect who has an opportunity to be a good player.

This report doesn't seem to pass the smell test. There's a direct, positive quote from Sather about Hagelin from just a few weeks ago, and it seems pretty early to have made up your mind that you're not going to make an effort to sign one of the better prospects in your organization. That being said, it sure is nice to think about. It'd be nice to finally have a Wolverine back in a Wings jersey. And I wouldn't have to stop yelling "Bork, bork, bork!" at every opportunity. Dinky doooooooo!

Perfect

I'll have something more up later, when (if?) I am ever able to plow through the ice and snow and make my way back to Madison and a residence that has a WiFi connection.

Yesterday was absolutely perfect. It started with the shockingly beautiful weather, continued on with Michigan absolutely jail-sexing the Spartans, the presentation-making it into an event-was fantastic, and the day ended with rekindling some old friendships and sharing a lot of laughs at Ashley's and Frazier's since it might as well have been Homecoming with all the people that came back.

Shawn Hunwick wrote another chapter in a pretty incredible story. Ironically, it was another Bryan Hogan groin injury that paved the way for Michigan's miracle run to the NCAA tournament last year. This time, he was thrown into the fire minutes before the game and was admittedly scared to death. MSU may not have had a ton of great chances, but Hunwick made at least 6 or 7 really nice stops, controlled rebounds on a lot of chances with people in front, and knew when to shoulder the goal post off its moorings.

But it was a freshman defender who was the #1 star of the day. Jon Merrill, who has lived up to every ounce of the hype, got Michigan going with a great shot on an early power play (with a little help from a defender's stick) and followed it up with another goal on a nice feed from Matt Rust.

That play was horribly defended. Rust brought the puck up with two Spartan players back and Merrill following, but at the end of a shift. Rust went to the outside and the near defender slid way to his right, Rust cut middle and the far side defender came over as well, leaving Merrill completely alone going down the middle of the ice. Rust fed him, Merrill put in a great shot and it was 2-0 good guys.

MSU never really recovered from a waived-off goal and a subsequent Michigan tally on a goal by Carl Hagelin, who had a huge cheering section over from Sweden. Hagelin would later add a second goal on another sweet no-look feed from Rust.

David Wohlberg put the icing on the cake, by batting a shot out of midair into the net and nearly drawing the first excessive celebration penalty in hockey history (at least in games I've seen) by having Burlon act as the holder and kicking a PAT. Hilarious, though I would have been pissed if someone did that against my team.

The hockey gods smiled down as an MSU shot hit the crossbar with .1 second on the clock, preserving Hunwick's shutout and cementing this as arguably the most memorable of the nearing 600 sporting events that I've attended.

Absolutely perfect....

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Big Chill Preview: Michigan vs. Michigan State

First and foremost, the ice is really good. I got to play in the media game last night. We skated straight through for an hour and a half. Even though there was quite a bit of snow out there by the end, the ice was still good. I didn't have the benefit of skating on new ice at Wisconsin, but once it was skated on for awhile, it was really choppy. Everyone in attendance who had skated at Wrigley said that this ice was better. There were a couple of iffy patches behind the north net, but aside from that it was really awesome.

The other thing I noticed is that there really isn't very much jump in the boards. I've never played hockey at Yost, so I'm not sure how it compares, but I know a few times last night there was a decently hard shot that came in off the end boards and it just died. It certainly was nowhere near the bounce that they have at Joe Louis--those things really are every bit as springy as they look on TV...if not more so. I know Merrill has taken to going all Nick Lidstrom and intentionally missing the net on some shots, so that could come into play as well.

I didn't have any trouble blocking out the fact that I was playing in an iconic football stadium, or that it was really cold out. Once the game started, it was just like any other game. The only time I really looked around was before a faceoff. I'm sure it'll be different with 113,000 people going crazy, but the adjustment really might not be all that big. And Michigan has an advantage in a few ways: One, the crowd is on their side. Two, a pretty good percentage of the players have played in an outdoor game already. Three, we've had a lot more icetime at the rink than MSU has had.

Reminder to everyone coming to the game: The golf courses will NOT be open for parking due to the wet conditions.

MGoBlog (Michigan, natch) and The Only Colors (MSU) have already written solid previews.You can check out some more detail over there.

A few things of note:

The Spartans come in 6-8-3 overall, and 3-7-1-0 in conference. As their record indicates, in conference they've been pretty crappy. Out of conference, they've been solid (3-1-2 against a fairly tough schedule of two against Maine, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and two against Huntsville). They were unbeaten (in regulation) in their first six, won one of the next seven, and have split the last four. They're just 2-5 away from Munn, but did win their latest road tilt, up in Big Rapids.

One player has more than 5 goals on the Spartans: Brett Perlini. After scoring 9 goals in his first two years (46 total games), he has exploded for 11 in the first 17 this year to rank 17th in the country in goals per game. Torey Krug has popped in 15 points from back on the blueline, putting him tops in the CCHA and #8 in the country amongst points per game by defensemen. Derek Grant is right on pace to match the 30 points he scored as a freshman, though his goal total is down.

Brian made a good point that Daultan Leveille might be someone who could take advantage of the big ice. He hasn't really lived up to his first-round draft status to this point, but he can definitely fly. If I remember right, he was thought of as quite possibly the fastest player in the draft. I know Red really liked the idea of Olympic ice, because it theoretically should be an advantage to his team. Leveille is the big Spartan hope to have that come back to bite us in the butt.

Drew Palmisano, who if you haven't heard is from Ann Arbor (and yes, I will continue to make that joke as often as we get "DREW PALMISANO IS FROM ANN ARBOR HEY GUYS DID YOU KNOW DREW PALMISANO IS FROM ANN ARBOR" stories), has played most of the minutes for the Spartans in net. He's 6-7-3 with a 2.44/.914. He had a ton of success against Michigan in the early part of last season, but that's been about all he's had against the Wolverines. After giving up 2 goals on 50 shots in a weekend sweep, and then making 22 stops in a third win, he gave up 5 on 35, 5 on 25, and 2 on 8 shots in the final three games, including the playoff sweep at Munn. In 08-09, the Wolverines put 6 goals on 56 shots past him over a game and 8 minutes. He has a 3.72/.889 against Michigan overall.

If the game goes to overtime, we might be in for a long one since neither team seems to want to win in the extra session. The Spartans are 0-2-3 in the extra period this year, while Michigan...I forget what the number was that someone posted on The Yost Post earlier in the week, but I think we were into double-digit OT games since we've won one.

Dustin Gazely has 3-5--8 in 15 games against Michigan. Leveille has 1-4--5 (11 games) and Krug has hurt us with 5 assists in six games. No other Spartan has more than 2 points against the Wolverines, and every player that has scored a point has played in at least 6 Michigan/MSU games.We've done a good job against Grant. Despite putting up 30 points as a freshman, Michigan held him to just one goal and he was -7 in six games.

As for the Wolverines, given that a lot of our scorers played against MSU during the "AVERT YOUR EYES!" season a couple years ago, we've got a lot of big point totals. Caporusso has 7-6--13 in 15 games. Hagelin has 6-6--12 in the same number. Wohlberg has 5-7--12 in 11 games. Rust has 5 goals and 10 points in 14 games. Burlon has 8 points in 11 games. Winnett (!!!) has 3-4--7 in 12 games--for his career as a whole he averages .3 points per game. He's at .58 against MSU. Treais, Brown, and Pateryn also average more than a half-point a game. The one guy that is surprisingly absent from that list is Chad Langlais. He has just 3 assists in 15 games against MSU.

Hogan gets the nod in net for Michigan. He's 6-3-0 against MSU with a 2.46/.893. He hasn't won in his last 4 starts against the Spartans, however, and has given up 3 or more in four of the last five.

Final Thoughts:
The Wolverines look to have an edge in this matchup. They're at home, they're playing in front of 113,000 fans, it's on Olympic ice which should favor their speed, MSU has been terrible in conference. There are a few "Yeah but"s in here though.

The teams split six matchups last year. The Wolverines looked pretty bad in the first three before waking up and finishing the season strong. Unfortunately, the play this year so far has been strangely reminiscent of the earlier part of the season last year--maddening losses, a lifeless power play, etc.

It really could go either way. I've had too many special events turn out poorly for the team I'm rooting for to get over-confident about this one.

Outdoor hockey is something special. I don't understand anyone who argues that the novelty is wearing off or that it shouldn't be a semi-regular occurrence. We should be playing MSU outdoors at least once per class (i.e. kids that stay four years get to play in an outdoor game). The fans absolutely love outdoor games, the players absolutely love outdoor games, Red was actually smiling when talking about the outdoor game. The open skate at Camp Randall put ridiculous smiles on the faces of everyone there, and I'm sure the one at Michigan Stadium will be no different. Michigan went one step further and invited what? 50 high school and junior teams to play on the rink? All of those kids had an experience they'll never forget--and you never know, maybe we did a little recruiting in the process.

It's going to be an amazing day tomorrow, and hopefully we'll finally see the Wolverines win one of these damn things!

10 Things to Know About Ohio State

Sorry for the lack of content over the past few weeks. My laptop died and it was more of a problem than I originally thought it was. I bought a new laptop last night, so I'm back in business!

Michigan comes into a classic "trap" weekend against Ohio State this weekend. It would be easy to look ahead to The Big Chill next weekend--Lord knows I am--but there's some business to attend to first: A pair of games down in Columbus, where we'll hopefully avoid the "Just Like Football" chant, and instead get a "Just like life!" chant going.

Friday's game is on the Big Ten Network, while Saturday's will be streamed on BigTenNetwork.com

1) Michigan enters play this weekend two points behind Miami for first place in the conference (we have 2 games in-hand) and one point behind Notre Dame with the same number of games played. The Buckeyes are in 10th at 2-5-1-1 in the CCHA and 5-7-1 overall. They're really not very good. In this young season, they've lost to Quinnipiac and Bobby Mo. They have won four of the last six, however.

2) Coach Mark Osiecki is in his first year at OSU. Previously he was an assistant coach with North Dakota as well as Wisconsin. Hopefully, for our sake, he didn't bring the Badger power play.

3) The Bucknuts are heavy on seniors. Their five leading scorers--and six of their top seven--are in their final year with the program. Sergio Somma--who it feels like has been there for about ten years--has 6-7--13 on the season. John Albert and Danny Dries each have double digits in points, and Dries has matched Somma's six goals. They've got three defensemen who have more than 1/2 a point a game. Shane Sims has 1-8--9 to lead the blueliners.

4) In goal, it's been Cal Heeter all the way. He has a 2.57/.909. Last year he was 9-6-2 with a 3.19/.897. He played against Michigan twice last season, stopping 42 of 45 shots in a win, and giving up 2 on 36 shots in a loss. He also gave up 4 on 16 shots against us in half a game back in 08-09, when he was a freshman.

5) The Buckeye offense scores 2.92 goals per game, which is good for 26th in the nation. The defense gives up 2.69 goals per game, 23rd in the country. Not as bad as you'd expect in either account. To be fair, they've played a schedule that their school president would probably consider to be the weak sisters of the poor: Quinnipiac, Bobby Mo, Ferris, NMU, Huntsville, FYS, and Alaska. They lead the CCHA in shots on goal per game with 33.3 a night.

6) Their power play is very middle of the pack at 18.3% (they have given up 3 shorties) but their PK has been pretty awful, ranking 43rd in the country at 78.6%. Then again, we made the Gophers 56th ranked PK look like world-beaters.

7) Michigan leads the all-time series 65-30-11. In Columbus we're 28-15-5.

8) Interesting stat: Ohio State is unbeaten this year when they score 4+ goals, but have yet to win a game (and have only tied once) when scoring fewer than four times.

9) I had a feeling that Somma was kind of a Wolverine-killer. He has had 8 points in 8 games against Michigan and is +8. Sophomore defenseman Devon Krogh had two points and was +6 in the two games last season. Junior defenseman Sean Duddy hails (see what I did there?) from Ann Arbor. He's a traitor like LeBron.

10) Louie Caporusso has 3-7--10 in 6 games against Ohio State. Chad Langlais has 8 points in 8 games. Chris Brown has 4 in 2. Bryan Hogan is 4-2-2 against OSU with a 2.01/.918. Hunwick has never faced the Buckeyes.

Other stuff:
Michigan announced an open skate for the day after the Big Chill. There are 8 30-minute sessions. Admission is $15 a person and you can buy tickets the day of the event, cash only. That seems really pricey, but some of the proceeds are going to Mott's, which is nice.

Also, for the lead up to the Big Chill, Michigan posted a poll for the ten top moments in Michigan hockey history. I'm disappointed that the Molly game isn't in there.

10 Tweets to Know About Notre Dame

Computer troubles so it's a lot harder to write a full preview. I'm doing this from my phone so I apologize in advance for any embarrassing auto-corrects.

Here are ten tweet-style things to know about whoa oh whoa oh whoa Notre Dame:
1) 6-2-1 on the season, 4-1-1-1 in the ccha. Split with BGSU last weekend.

2) They currently reside 1 point ahead of the Wolverines in the standings and this is the only regular season series. With both games at Yost, it is a huuuuuuge weekend.

3) Win over BC, impressive. Loss to BGSU, tie against WMU, not as much.

4) Their three senior forwards have combined for 7-23--30 this year. Ridderwall is second on the team with five goals. Frosh Anders Lee has 7.

5) There goes my shirt up over my hea......whoops, wrong Tweet-style. Mike Johnson is 4-1-1 with a 2.15/.925

6) #10 offense, #23 defense.

7) Power play bad. 13.8%. PK exceptional. 88.9%. They have given up 5 ppgs and have scored three shorties.

8) Friday is on bigtennetwork.com we hope. Saturday is on Comcast.

9) Louie, Rust, and Hagelin have combined for 11-9--20 in ten games against the Irish.

10) The teams have split the last four but Michigan is just 5-8 in the last 13 against ND.

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10 Things to Know About Alaska

1.

2. They come into this weekend 5-2-1 on the season (2-1-1-1 in the CCHA). They're unblemished in their home rink, however, having won all four games on the big ice at the Carlson Center (and they're unbeaten in their last 11 home games). They swept BGSU, lost to FYS and beat them in a shootout, beat CC, Union, and Air Force, and lost to North Dakota. They're #15 in both polls.

3. Despite the solid record, they've struggled a little bit to score goals. They beat BGSU twice last weekend by 4-1 margins, but only scored 7 goals in their previous five games. That said, they've given up more than one goal just one time in their last 6. That team always has a friggin' goalie.

4. Said friggin' goalie is still junior Scott Greenham. He has played every minute for the Nanooks so far this year and has a 1.73 goals against (7th nationally) and a .928 save percentage (19th nationally). Our Bryan Hogan is actually top 5 in goals against and 7th in save percentage. Last year, Greenham shut out the Wolverines in the season opener, but gave up three goals in each of his other two appearances. In the first of those two, he got the hook after twenty minutes.

5. The offense is led by senior captain Kevin Petovello, who has 5-5--10 in 8 games. He has already exceeded last year's point total and is well on his way to establishing career highs in goals, assists, and points. (He had 6-12--18 as a sophomore.) Freshman Cody Kunyk has four goals. Joe Sova has chipped in six assists from the blueline, to lead the team.

6. They're tied for 36th in offense in this young season, with 20 goals in eight games. Defensively, they're #2, giving up just 1.75 goals per game. BC is the only team that has been better.

7. They're #16 overall in penalty minutes, averaging 16.5 a night. Michigan has actually fallen back into the teens. We're at 19.9 minutes per game now, #4 nationally. Woot! The power play is middle of the pack at 18.2%. Actually, for as good of a defensive team as they are, they're middle of the pack on the PK as well--28th at 82.9%. They've only given up 14 goals all season, but half have been when they are short-handed. Their PK was actually at 77% before they went 10 for 10 last weekend against BGSU. Their power play has 6 PPGs on the year, but four game last weekend against the Falcons. They were languishing at 9% prior to that series.

8. Defenseman Aaron Gens was CCHA Defensive Player of the Week last week, and Kunyk was Rookie of the Week. Gens had 1-2--3 including a GWG. Kunyk had 1-3--4. The Nanook special teams really were the story last weekend. It sounds like they dominated both games, but really took it to the Falcons when they weren't playing 5 on 5. Even shorthanded, at one point they outshot BGSU 2-0 when BGSU had a five minute power play.

9. Not gonna lie, I really like their yellow jerseys. I really like BGSU's throwback look too, actually. The games will be shown the B2Network this weekend. Each game is $7. They'll faceoff at 11:05 pm EDT.

10. Michigan is 39-8-1 all-time against the Nanooks, We're 16-4-0 at Alaska's home rink. The last meeting between these teams was the first time a game has gone to overtime in the 48 game history of the series. This will be just the third series where both teams have come into the weekend ranked. The last time was in 2005. In both cases, the teams split the series. Michigan won the first 18 meetings. Since then, we haven't won more than 4 in a row. Michigan is 3-2-1 in the last six. Louie Caporusso has 2-5--7 in eight games against Alaska. Rust has five assists. Bryan Hogan has gone 3-1-1 with a 1.58 goals against and a .923 save percentage.

I'm expecting a couple of low-ish scoring games, though only three games in the history of the series have featured fewer than three goals. Prior to Greenham's shutout in the opener last year, you have to go back almost a decade. Alaska has never gone back-to-back games without losing to the Wolverines, so that bodes well for Friday night since we tied the last contest.

Did We Know This About The Big Chill?

I was bumbling around the web and came across the following release from Salisbury Prep:

Crimson Knight fans--mark your calendars! The Salisbury School Varsity Hockey Team will travel to Ann Arbor, Michigan, to take on Kent School in an outdoor game played in historic Michigan Stadium. This game will take place on Friday, December 10, 2010 at 10:00 a.m. No pre-purchased tickets are necessary for the Salisbury vs. Kent game.

The following day, Saturday, December 11 at 3:00 p.m., the University of Michigan Hockey Team will play Michigan State in front of a potential record-breaking crowd of 110,000 fans. (Please note that tickets for varsity hockey team members and their parents have already been reserved.)

I'm not sure if this is news or not. That's the first I've heard of it, though. It's relevant to Michigan fans because Kent is coached by former Wolverine Matt Herr. Salisbury is the school that gave us "Other". I'll refrain from the obvious "Hide your credit cards, hide your wives" joke.

I wonder if there are any players that we might be, ya know, recruiting that weekend. That'd have to be the most impressive recruiting visit of all time.