First off, I have my own mail running again, and downloading the 1690
messages all of us posted in the 34 days it was kaput was not a chore I
want to repeat soon.
 
Now some observations of the weekend
 
Cincinatti Ice
   I don't know if we need to talk about it, but someone needs to remember
so that the NCAA doesn't book the tournament into any more stadiums that
don't do hockey.
 
Vermont
   I most heartuly apologize for badmouthing Vermont a while back.  I
didn't realize they had played their game against Duluth earlier this year
without St. Louis (I hope the Blues own his NHL rights).  It probably
wouldn't have made a difference in my opinion, but it gives me an excuse.
Not only are he and Perrin the best combo I've seen together in a long
time, but I kind of fell in love with the whole team, though not enough to
keep me rooting for my conference brethren.
   What no one had beat into my head was that the whole was so fast.  They
play hard and move well; the only thing none of the rest of them can do is
actually shoot (kind of like watching a whole team of John Brills).  In the
first period, most of UVM's good chances came from the other lines, who set
the whole thing up and then produced clunky shots.  I love watching guys
like this.  (If Tim Brule still isn't convinced that John Brill is my all
time favorite Gopher, I don't know what else I have to do to convince him.)
   I'm really hoping this team makes it to Milwaukee next year, unless
certain seedings get in the way.
 
CC's Winning Goal
   No  comment.  I was at the other end of the ice.
 
Hockey-l Dinner
   C'mon, Carol.  Couldn't you have arranged for more than one bartender to
be on duty?  You're to good at this; I now expect perfection.  Dad sends
his thanks as well as the one's I actually mean.  Besides, you found the
only worthwhile restaurant I discovered in Cincinatti.
   It was nice to meet a bunch of you finally.
 
Michigan/BU
   This is now three out of the last four years that BU has exited from the
tournament in a blowout.  Since I've only really seen them in Final Four
games, I'm only throwing the following out as a point of discussion.  It
seems to me that if a team can come out of the box and dominate the
Terriers early, BU has a tendency to fold.  Michigan played outstanding
defense, but Bu didn't seem to come out of the dressing room for the second
period.  The same thing happened in St. Paul two years ago; Lake State may
have owned the first period, but the score was only 1-0.  They didn't have
to play hard again, though they did.  Part of the explanation this year
might have been the delay of the start.   Berenson has been criticized in
the past for not getting his troops fired up (though that seems to have
been less of a problem lately); in this case it might have worked to their
advantage and BU might have been a different team at 8:00.  Nevertheless, a
17-1 shot edge is pretty striking.
   My favorite play of the game was from a BU power play in the second
period.  Their man on the point held onto the puck a bit too long and
Luhning bounced him out to center ice and grabbed control, prompting me to
turn to the person next to me and say, "You have Warren's puck, and he
wants it back."
 
The Championship Game
   This was an outstanding game and if there is anyone left who keeps
saying, "CC keeps choking in the big one," I'm hereby calling them an
ignoramus.  I had said that if Michigan played like they did on Thursday,
it was going to be tough to beat them.  They played well enough that CC was
tough and still didn't beat them.  After recent history, all my father was
rooting for was a blowout and when the game went into overtime, he was
prepared to concede defeat right there.  It was very nice to finally win
one of those playoff overtime games.
   My favorite guy to watch on the ice (see earlier comments about Vermont)
was Mark Sakala.  He tripped coming off the bench when it was over, and
that was the first bad footwork I saw out of him all weekend.  During the
big CC flurry in the second, there was a moment when the puck popped free
to McNeil in the face off circle and he tried his whole arsenal of moves
and Sakala stayed right with him, preventing any sort of opportunity.  I
thought that he was equally impressive in last year's semi-final.  I'd have
had him on the all-tournament team instead of Halko, even though Halko made
the key play on the final goal (when he kept the puck in at the point, it
was the first time in OT that either team had done so).
 
What a Wait It's Been
   Those who have only started following Michigan hockey in the last five
years or so can't really appreciate how special this championship is.  All
of the close calls recently are only half of the story.  I can only liken
what has taken place with the way folks at LSSU talk of having watched
their program grow from infancy.  It may be hard to believe now, especially
considering which scholl it's at, but the Michigan hockey program had truly
fallen that far.  When we started attending games in the fall of 1980,
there was no indication that it had been only three years since the
Wolverines had been in the championship game.  The Giordano era saw things
get even worse.  Those who only see it now have no idea how dead Yost was
back then, unless State was in town and it was a sea of green.
   We still talk about the day in 1984 when one of the professors my mother
worked for at the time rushed into her office and informed her that we had
to get season tickets because they had just hired Red Berenson and they
were going to be worth something someday.  As accurate as that has turned
out to be, for a long time it was a different sort of joke.  But each year,
Red's teams took a small step forward.
   Two of the four season tickets we had are gone, after my sister and I
left home, but I've still been following from afar.  The feeling of finally
not just beating State at the Joe, but absolutely wiping them out (I think
it was about 1991) was a huge thrill even though I was stuck watching it on
a small screen in a corner of Fowl Play that they let me use even though no
one else even knew what teams were playing.
   A couple of the current Michigan players have talked about winning the
championship for the players that came before them and couldn't quite win.
I'm thinking back farther and hoping that the players who never came even
vaguely close can still feel an appreciation for this.  Rest assured that
there are still some of us who remember Warren Sharples and Brad McCaughey
and Todd Brost and Myles O'Conner.  After Red, the proudest of all might be
Billy Powers.  He was one of Red's earliest players and his last season on
the ice was the first in which they reached .500.  Now he's one of the
assisstant coaches and I feel wonderful for him.
   Nevertheless, this is a time for farewells as well.  The rebuilding of
the Michigan program is now definitively finished.  Now comes a new era
and, for me at least, it won't be the same.  It's not just that the
struggle to maintain excellence isn't (for me at least) isn't as compelling
as the quest to achieve it.  Simply put, I will no longer feel as if I'm a
part of Michigan hockey. I've been away from Ann Arbor for a decade now,
and am getting married this summer.  I think the Wolverines have passed me
by.  I'll always like them and if they're back in Milwaukee next year,
you'll most likely see me in my Rick Willis jersey again.  But I won't be
cheering quite as enthusiastically.
   The positive side is that there will no longer be a part of me that
isn't disappointed when Michigan beats Minnesota.  When Michigan won the
quarter-final this year, I said, "They have a better chance to win it all,
anyway," to cover up the part that wasn't disappointed about the outcome at
all.  From now on, they'll be the team I want Minnesota to beat most of
all.
   I don't think I was ready to give up being a Michigan fan yet.  It will
be strange when I talk to my father and describe Michigan as 'his' team and
truly mean it at last.  So it's been a little bit of a sad week for me.
   But I wouldn't trade that win for the world.
 
J. Michael Jackson (Eeyore again)
 
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