Seriously, Does This Happen Everywhere??

With things not looking so rosy for Michigan in RoJo land, with Maze and Finch decommitted, and rumors swirling about Watson possibly being next, it made me start thinking...does Michigan just have horrendous luck when it comes to this kind of thing, or does it happen everywhere (and I'm not just talking about football)?

Think about all the near misses (the guys we were told all along "they're coming" only to lose out right at the end), the decommits, etc. that we've had over the years and the reasons for them.

Just a partial list from the past couple of years:
RoJo possibly wanting to come here but his mom's "friend" not letting him, Maze, Finch deciding that he wanted to go be with his boys and MAYBE make a bowl game in his career, Jai Eugene not wanting to be away from his kids (how bout you just...umm...not have kids?), Al Horford, Joe Crawford, Malik Hairston going to freaking OREGON, ditto Cam Colvin, Patrick Beverly deciding that Little Rock reminds him of Chicago (riiiight), Matt Nickerson, Bryan Lerg leaving one week before a scholarship opened up, Trevor Lewis, AJ Jenks, Robbie "Benedict" Earl, Travis Johnson going to bed a Wolverine but waking up a Seminole, Sam Keller...

Seriously...does this happen everywhere else too? Or is this just the Michigan hating God getting his rocks off again?

We're a major program. We've been to 3 BCS games in 4 years. We have a pretty damn good track record of putting guys into the pros. We have a starting position available at corner. Why is it so fricken hard for us to recruit DBs?

At least basketball beat Iowa...oh wait. No, we wasted one of the few games where Courtney Sims isn't a blubbering vagina, and lost to a team that hadn't won on the road the entire season. So now, we're either stuck with Amaker, or we dump him and risk adding Manny Harris and Alex Legion to that massive list about. Frankly, neither option is real good.

I've defended Tommy for a long time. He's a great human being, and he has done some good things for this program. But losses like tonight's are completely inexcusable and they happen with alarming frequency. This one is especially damning after his comments in the media this week about how he doesn't understand the criticism.

On the bright side, Jed Ortmeyer had a career high 3 points last night on National TV (If Versus counts as National TV) and they were all assists that came from hard work on the boards. Great to see.

Michigan/Ferris Weekend Wrapup

Overall a great weekend of hockey down at Yost this weekend. The Wolverines got the sweep that they had to have against a Ferris State team that, frankly, blows.

Friday night was a really interesting game. Michigan jumped on the Bulldogs early and often, taking a 4-0 lead in the first, and a 7-1 lead late in the second, but the Bulldogs put up an incredible 24 shots on goal in the second period. Michigan pulled the old "We're up by 5 or 6 goals so we're going to stop skating" routine and almost let FSU back into the game. I can't have been the only person in the arena who was looking at the scoreboard wondering if there was still a way for us to blow that game after it became 7-3.

After it was 7-4, FSU was buzzing until Johnson put it away with another great shot...this time on a 2 on 0 with Ciraulo.

I can't believe that FSU left MacIntyre in there for the entire game. I'm not sure if they were trying to not kill O'Keefe's confidence for the next night or what, but you can't let that kid get 9 hung on him.

It's hard to play a better game than Johnson played Friday. 3 goals, 4 points, +4 on the night, 3 blocked shots...And what a move on his second goal! That deke was just not nice at all.

Despite allowing 4, Sauer was solid in net. A couple of the goals were on the questionable side, but he stopped 9 out of every 10 shots and that is perfectly fine with me. For the month of January, I think his save % topped .930. We played a bunch of bad teams this month, and as I've said before, hopefully this month raises his confidence for the stretch run.

Andrew Cogliano had the jets going the entire weekend, as he continued to play just excellent hockey. Over the last 18 he has only been held off the scoresheet one time. This is a lot more what we were all expecting when he got here.

TJ Hensick should get the Hobey. He's tops in the country in points now, he leads the nation in assists by 6 (and yikes, Kevin Porter is only 2 helpers out of 2nd place in assists and points), and now the puck is starting to go in for him. Add to it his leadership and pretty darn respectable play in his own end, and this is a guy that deserves some recognition come the end of the season.
The Saturday night game was easier to like, mainly because we didn't stop playing and give me a heart attack halfway through the third period. We also gave up 24 shots for the game. Not in a period. It was a much better defensive effort as a whole. Again, Johnson was excellent. Both his goals were just absolute rockets. The first one was especially great, mainly because I had about the best angle in the house for it. You could see the shooting angle open and if you give Jack that much room with that much to shoot at, he's not going to miss.

To put Jack's weekend into perspective: If you used his stats just from this weekend, he would be the 6th leading goal scorer and 11th leading point man on Ferris State's team.

You also have to give Mark Mitera a call. He was +11 in the month of January, and incredibly was not on the ice for a single even-strength goal against.

DC Nole pointed this out in his always-good game wrapups...Danny Fardig was a man possessed this weekend. Friday night I commented that it looked like he was trying to get ejected. The kid was just going after everything in sight.

3 great moments in the crowd for the weekend:

1) Jack Sr.'s dance shows. I don't always get to see them, because it's kind of a tradition to walk 2 laps around the rink in between periods, but he's pretty much made everyone forget that the band director is a bitch. Jake Long and Adam Kraus joined in the fun on Friday night. These dances are more fun anyway...I do miss seeing the old band director bust out the broom in the back-end of a sweep though.

2) The "Jack Bauer Wears Jack Johnson" Pajamas sign. Just brilliant.

3) The "If you get get into college go to State" song last night, which included: State, Western, Central, Eastern, Northern, Tech, Hope, Albion, Alma, Oakland, Washtenaw, Kalamazoo, Grand Valley, Saginaw Valley, Wayne State, Detroit Mercy, one school I've never heard of that drew a reaction from a girl in front of me, Ohio State, and Pioneer High School before finally getting to Ferris. I was disappointed that Spring Arbor didn't get any love.

One last moment of joy for the weekend courtesy of MSUStudent. As much as I hate Chris Osgood, at least he's never given up a goal this bad.



And he's never lost to Holy Cross.

Stuff From Around the Net

First and foremost, my favorite band of all-time (Crowded House) announced that they are reforming after 11 years. Yes they're the band that sings the "hey now, hey now" song from the 80s. No they didn't have any other big hits (in this country at least...unless you count "Something So Strong" which was Top 40 I think). But they were a friggin awesome band. I'm pretty sure my collection of bootlegs of theirs numbers in the triple digits. I never got to actually see them live. I started listening just before they broke up in 1996, so I'm stoked. It might not be the same without drummer Paul Hester--he committed suicide about a year and a half ago--but I'm sure there will be plenty of tributes to him.

Next up is an article by Wright Thompson from espn.com that has gotten a ton of links around the various boards I post on. I've seen it linked at least 3 times on The Wolverine, and it's showed up on The Packer Wire, PackerChatters, the RCMB, and one of my friends just posted a link on Facebook to it. I think the general reaction has been nothing but shock and disgust over the way this kid has been treated.

Long story short--and you really should read it if you haven't already--a kid from Georgia got charged with child molestation for receiving head from a girl when he was 17 and she was 15. If they would've had sex it would've been a misdemeanor, but for some reason it was a felony that they had oral sex--which she initiated--and he's currently serving a 10 year prison sentence with no hope of parole.

I credit ESPN for bringing this story to light. I have to imagine a good chunk of the people that have read that article were as disgusted as I was and hopefully something will be done about this. The kid put himself in a bad spot, no doubt. There were drugs and alcohol on the film, and if they wanted to punish him for that, I could totally see it. Even if they wanted to punish him for having sexual content with someone under the age of consent, I can see that. They make a lot of high school kids into "criminals", but age of consent laws are there for a reason, even if in some situations it probably doesn't make sense to enforce them. But ten years for a beej when normal sex would've been a misdemeanor? They changed the law because of this case but they won't retroactively apply it? And the State of Georgia doesn't see anything wrong with this? It's just horrible.

Despite a rumored proposal that would have moved the Atlanta Thrashers to the Western Conference and the Columbus Blue Jackets to the East, the Detroit Red Wings say that if anyone is moving to the East--either in realignment or if/when the Penguins move--it had better be them.

Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly isn't so sure.

"Detroit would clearly have a strong case," Daly said, "but by the same token, there are other teams in the Western Conference that kind of depend on Detroit being in the Western Conference, so ... there's always balancing involved that would involve a lot of debate, I'm sure, with respect to what you do with the realignment. But hopefully we never get there. At least at this point."

I'm sure the Red Wings really care. It would cut their travel at least in half to move to the Eastern Conference--which I have to believe would make a difference come playoff time. They'd get to play against more than one team in their own time zone. Their fans--like myself--wouldn't have to suffer through playoff games lasting until 1:00 in the morning (without overtime).

He says that some of the teams in the West depend on the Red Wings (I assume he's referring to a team like Phoenix who only really sells out when the Wings come to town). That's all the more reason to get rid of this stupid unbalanced schedule and let all the teams play each other at least twice a year.

Bob Miller mentioned that there will be a couple of recruits on hand for the games this weekend. Both from Toronto (one is a Buzzer), and both were born in the 90s. I'm old. Hensick was dinged up in Alaska, but both he and Kampfer--who didn't make the trip--should be available for the games against Ferris. The rumors are swirling pretty much anywhere you look that the Wings are interested in picking up Peter Forsberg. I think I just threw up in my mouth. Great player when he's healthy. He'd be a huge addition. But some guys just shouldn't be Red Wings. Then again, I now own a Chris Chelios jersey. It's amazing what a new colored jersey can do to your opinion of someone. I friggin hate that guy though.

Michigan/Alaska Weekend Wrapup

What a huge sweep for the Wolverines! I don't know how many of us would've predicted that one. A team that's got a ton of problems with putting together a weekend going all the way across the country and then some to take on a team that's good at home and coming out with 2 wins--on the big ice to boot? Didn't expect it but man is that a nice treat.

I'm still trying really hard not to get too excited. After all, we're in the stretch of games that we should be winning, and to this point we've thrown away a few points. But I would've been happy with a sweep of Northern and a split at Alaska, so we're coming out the same in terms of points.

Billy Sauer had another good weekend, and while I'm happy to ride the wave while it lasts, I'm still going into each game with the same look of trepidation that Bears fans have going into games with Rex Grossman at QB. It's great that he's playing well against the weak sisters of the poor in the CCHA, but I need to see it against a good team before I'm willing to believe this team has a shot at winning more than 1 game in the NCAA Tournament.

The TJ Hensick For Hobey train needs to be picking up steam. His first career hat trick and he's now just 4 points out of the nation's lead (but realistically, nobody from Air Force is winning the Hobey). Not to mention his excellent play in his own zone and outstanding 56% faceoff percentage (not that those will get looked at).

Andrew Cogliano is also showing that last year's Post-WJC hangover won't be repeated. He now has points in 15 of his last 16 games. He could be gearing up for a HUGE junior season if he doesn't make the leap to pro hockey.

Also, one stat that has been completely overlooked--only because it goes completely against everything the media has told us--is that Jack Johnson has only committed 11 penalties this year. 10 minors, 1 major (and 1 ten minute misconduct and 1 game misconduct in there). That's 45 PIMs total, with 20 of those coming from misconducts. Last year at this time he had 38 penalties for 106 minutes. He deserves a lot of credit for toning it down, staying on the ice, and still playing with the edge that makes him a great player. Who would've believed that he'd have an average of 1 penalty per weekend.

We now sit 1 point behind MSU for 3rd place in the CCHA with one game in hand, and 4 points behind Miami for 2nd place with 2 games in hand. Miami takes on Notre Dame this weekend in what will be a HUGE series to decide the CCHA. A Miami sweep along with a Michigan sweep of Ferris would make things really interesting!

It's nice that Sauer is playing well against the teams he should play well against. Build up some confidence before the stretch run. The next 5 games should be more confidence builders. There's absolutely NO excuse to take less than 8 points over these next 5 games, and if we're going to make a run at the CCHA title, they really need to get 10. Can't throw away more points against the Westerns of the world.

Something to keep in mind next week against Ferris that Western College Hockey pointed out, Dan Riedel--second on the team in points per game--is no longer with the team. He was a solid player for them and that's a big loss. Ferris's offensive stats really are ugly. Their leading goal scorer has 7. Their leading point man has 20 and the next highest has 13. To contrast, we've got 7 players with at least 7 goals, and 5 guys with more than 20 points. No excuse to lose to this team boys. Especially at home.

One stat that'll make you go hmm--Derek McIntyre, FSU's backup goalie, has a 4.38 GAA and a .862 save percentage...but he's 3-0-0. Mitch O'Keefe, the starter, has a 2.95 GAA and a .888 save percentage--much more respectable numbers--but he's only got 1 more win, posting a 4-15-3 record.

Boltsprospects.com release their mid-term prospect rankings, and Kevin Quick was listed as the #14 prospect in the organization, and the 5th best defenseman. Here's what they had to say about him:

Chad- "The future Michigan Wolverine remains a source of excitement for the Lightning organization because of his skating and all-around game. Perhaps because of this, Quick's modest 0-3-3 numbers at the high school level are viewed as somewhat underachieving thus far."

Pete- "Made an excellent decision choosing Michigan as his destination for when he makes the jump to the NCAA next year."

I like the love for U of M!

Giving Credit Where It's Due

I've cracked on Peyton Manning as a choke artist for years. I was a fan of doing it even before the media decided it was fun.

But to be fair, I've got to give credit where credit is due. Coming from 18 points down after you threw a pick 6 to put up 32 in the second half and win the AFC Championship is a pretty huge accomplishment and Manning deserves a lot of credit, because he was dealing in the second half.

I still think that if you give a guy with that much talent and that much talent around him enough chances to win a "big game" eventually it has to happen. But for tonight, he deserves a ton of credit (not that it changes the fact that the Colts should've probably won a couple by now).

And he probably just won the Super Bowl. Here's hoping the Bears pull a Gators. I'm probably the only Packers fan out there rooting for Chicago in this game. But with Grossman against Manning, even if Manning doesn't play that well, the Colts still probably have the edge at that position.

Congrats to both teams, and I'm really just hoping for a good game Super Bowl Sunday, even if the thought of Manning winning one makes me puke. And an extra big congrats to Tony Dungy, who is definitely one of the good guys in the NFL.

Story Time -- Titus Sucks Edition

After reading commentor Jeremy's story about the Bowling Green player who had the same name as himself, I feel compelled to tell my "Titus Sucks" story as another example of how you never know who is listening to the chants.

I take you back to February of 2002. The Michigan students were away on spring break. I was not, since I'm a big nerd and I'd rather attend hockey games. As such, we didn't have our usual seats and there actually weren't all that many Michigan students in the crowd. We had a small group right around us however.

Sometime in the first period of Friday night's game, Buckeye defender Scott Titus took a cheap shot at Michael Woodford. For whatever reason, that set off our group of students. We started chanting, "Ti-tus Su-ucks" for his entire shift, whenever he was on the ice the rest of the game. Then as soon as he would step off the ice, the chant became "We Want Ti-tus!". It was probably funnier at the time than it actually was--it certainly wasn't all that creative. But we had fun.

Things escalated a little bit when an older woman came storming over to our section. She demanded that we stop the chant because "he's my son, Dwight Helminen's my nephew and I know Bill Martin, so if you don't stop I'll make sure that your season tickets get revoked!"

Our BS-o-meters were beeping heavily at that point--not to mention the fact that it was a game that we had to buy separately, so we weren't using our season tickets--so the chant kept going. There was lots more yelling.

That night, I did a little research. I talked to a buddy of mine who was semi-decently close to the USA program. He said to his knowledge Titus and Helminen weren't related. Which meant that she was full of crap (we think....) and the gloves could come off again the next night.

We got to the rink Saturday night, and as we were walking to our seats, the usher called us over. We figured, here it comes. We're gonna get yelled at. We walked over there and the usher says to us, "Guys.......I want more Titus cheers tonight. That woman yelled at me for 10 straight minutes. Call him every name in the book!"

So the chants started up again. The lady freaked out again, and she did something to get herself ejected from the arena. Around us, the other fans were wondering "What do you have against Titus??" We explained, and the chant grew and grew. Eventually it was a decent amount of our section.

Classy? Not at all. But next time, don't take a cheapshot at our player, you Buckeye trash.

Things got even better when I opened up Paula Weston's CCHA Preview for the next weekend only to see this:

Thank the hockey gods, however, that someone remembered something at Yost. Whenever Buckeye defender Scott Titus was on the ice, a small but enthusiastic group of Michigan fans chanted, "Titus sucks! Titus sucks!" When he was off the ice, the group chanted, "We want Titus! We want Titus!"

It's shocking that this group would even deign to use the junior's real name. After all, in the Michigan Daily, the student newspaper, Titus was known as "The Villain" — never a name, though sometimes his number (five) was mentioned — after a Michigan-OSU series two years ago in Columbus.

During the third period of the second game of that series, Mike Comrie — remember him? — cross-checked Titus near the right boards in the OSU end, and a brawl ensued. The only player who did not participate was Josh Blackburn, content to watch it all from his net at the other end. Jeff Jillson — remember him? — and J.F. Dufour went at it the best, dropping gloves and exchanging slugs. Buckeye goaltender Ray Aho mixed it up with someone a foot taller than he, but memory fails as to whom. However, both Aho and the Wolverine quit their small brawl by mutual consent, both smiling when it was over.

Titus — whom the Michigan student reporters blamed for the fight — was triple-teamed during the melee, hardly causing any damage.

After the game, Mark Kosick said that the Buckeyes were always cheap and dirty, and Eric Meloche responded by calling the Wolverines "weasels." The Michigan Daily called Titus "The Villain" in every subsequent issue.

Ah, those were the days.

Now, we only started the chant because of the cheapshot at Woodford. I had no idea about the back-story there. But it doesn't make it any less funny to me that we were mentioned on USCHO.

Those were the days....

Webber and the Wings

Thoughts on the Chris Webber signing:

Purely from a basketball point of view, I don't see how this is a bad thing for the Pistons. The guy averaged 20 and 10 last year, he claims that this is as healthy as he's been in several years, and we got him for less money than we're playing Ronald Dupree. Even if he doesn't have anything left, it was worth the gamble. If he's telling the truth about being healthy, suddenly the Pistons add a HUGE force to the middle of their lineup. He's also one of the best passing big-men in history, which should get Chauncey, Rip, Tay, and Sheed some open looks.

From a fan's standpoint, I'm not sure how I feel about it. I realize that this was the best move that we could make in an effort to bring another title to Detroit. But Chris Webber? Man. Honestly, I wouldn't have a problem with the guy if he'd just say that he's sorry. Sack up, admit you made a mistake, and apologize to the school, your old teammates, and the fans that have suffered because of it. I can't honestly say that I wouldn't have taken the money if I was in his position. I'd like to think that I wouldn't, but at the same time I realize that it's easy to say "No way!" when you don't actually have $200,000 in front of you.

But he made a mistake, and it doesn't make me think much of him as a person that he's not man enough to admit it. And at least he tried while he was here unlike some people that took money ::cough::Mo Taylor::cough:: and essentially said he'd do it again.

To his credit, Webber does do a ton of charity work and is by all accounts a pretty darn good guy. Here's hoping that he is healthy, he is determined to rebuild his reputation in this city by doing things the right way on and off the court, he brings another title here, and then once the 10 year waiting period is up, he makes good at Michigan. While we're at it, I want a pony.

Onto the Wings, where Dominik Hasek got screwed out of a spot on the Western Conference All-Star team. I realize that Luongo got voted in and he probably wouldn't have made it otherwise, and I realize that Turco got in because they had to have a Stars player on the team. And I realize Kipper is an outstanding goalie in his own right, but for the NHL's leader in goals against average to not make the team is ridiculous. He's been awesome for us this year, and he should be on the team.

That said, I'm glad he didn't get in. The Wings have taken every precaution this season to make sure he doesn't get hurt, even going as far to keep The Joey MacDonald Experience on the roster so that Hasek rarely even has to dress as the backup goalie for games. Luongo was voted in as the starter, so that means that whenever they put Dom in, he'd be coming into the game cold, which is the last thing we want. Plus as fun as the "Slinky as a spine" thing could be during the skills competition, it's probably not great for his groin.

Michigan traveled to Alaska today in preparation for their weekend against the Nanooks. I don't know about all of you, but if I was a hockey player who left the rink at 7:00 in the morning and arrived in Alaska about 9:00 pm Eastern Time, I'm pretty sure that the last thing in the world that I would want to do is have practice even before going to the hotel. But that's the agenda. Ouch. I guess it's good to practice around the time you'll be playing though.

Alaska has lost 7 in a row, but to be fair 6 of those were on the road. Unfortunately, they're 6-2-2 at home this year. Our team on the big ice, general inconsistency, a long trip....even though they're really not that good of a team, I think a split is about all we can hope for in this one. Anything more than 2 points is a bonus. And that's depressing to say.