Matt Wickey writes... John Haeussler writes: >>RE: The media >>Agreed. The media is VERY pro-Michigan...for everything >>but hockey. When it comes to hockey, Michigan State is still >>the beloved. Recently, I think Lake Superior has been the >>biggest Detroit area media darlings. > >John, you're going to have to prove this. First, we all know that >the Detroit media doesn't cover college hockey, which sheds a little >light on the "Hockey Hotbeds" thread of a few weeks ago. But what >have you seen that would lead you to call Lake Superior "Detroit area >media darlings"??? ... > >Most of the college hockey news in Detroit in some way concerns MSU >or UoM. Which of these gets the most coverage is really a matter >of who is doing better. Lake Superior is a small school and Sault Ste. >Marie is a long way from Detroit so I don't expect Detroit media to >follow the Lakers rabidly. However, it takes a real stretch for me >to think of them as "media darlings". Actually, I don't have to prove anything. The real proof (my subscription to The Detroit Free Press for the past several years) has already been recycled. Granted, the Detroit papers RARELY cover college hockey other than a couple of paragraphs with Friday's scores in the Sunday edition. But, when they do, more often than not it has been a story on the Lakers. Deservedly so. The Lakers have been featured following their recent NCAA successes. Most notably, any college hockey preview article usual centers around LSSU. I've seen articles in the Detroit papers on the Laker tradition/mystique, on Jeff Jackson replacing the Laker victory bell, on why Dean Hulett was referred to as "Pumpkin Butt" by his teammates, etc. Enjoyable stuff. Unfortunately, I haven't seen other schools (I'm primarily thinking of UM and MSU) get the same amount of ink. Lake Superior certainly isn't without ties to the Detroit area. Jeff Jackson is from Roseville MI and concentrates a lot of recruiting in the Detroit area. Take a look at the current Laker roster... Keith Aldridge/Bloomfield Hills MI Dan Angelelli/Roseville MI Joe Blaznek/Allen Park MI Brian Felsner/Mt Clemens MI Dave Lambeth/Clarkston MI Scott McCabe/St Clair Shores MI Jason Trzcinski/Clarkston MI Rob Valicevic/Mt Clemens MI All kids from the Detroit area. The Lakers get as many players from SE Michigan as UM or MSU...usually more. (The Lakers have one player, Gino Pulente, from Sault Ste Marie.) Some (probably not much) of the press can be attributed to LSSU having so many Detroiters. Likewise, it doesn't hurt the Laker recruiting to be mentioned more often than the locals in the Detroit papers. Lake Superior played Notre Dame in Auburn Hills MI earlier this season, and will face Ferris State in Fraser MI in March. A damn fine move on LSSU's part to get in a couple of Detroit area games. If anything, I see the Lakers sticking their foot farther in the door around here than the reverse. (I don't have any numbers to substantiate it, but I've been told that LSSU has a relatively large number of alumni in the Detroit area. This is one of the reasons for playing the above games here. And, again, they're making themselves visible to prospective recruits.) John H U Mich