As a long time Michigan fan & hockey-l "lurker," I will try to take on the
role of reporting my views on Michigan Hockey.  I can speak for a good
friend of mine (a friend who is known by most of the people on this
list)--who no longer posts to Hockey-L because of the personal attacks he
has consistantly received in recent times.  If those folks (which I hope
to believe are a small number of Hockey-L readers) continue this trend of
personal attacks & insentivity, you can expect that my posts will cease
also.  I do feel that to help return Hockey-L to it's former state of
objective comments, objective & thoughtful responsives, and fun threads, I
will do my part to post objective and thoughtful posts.
 
Now, onto Hockey.  I apologize as this first report will seem rather
general.  For future games I will attempt to note more specifics.  These
reports was not a role I had decided on taking until this morning.
 
THE MICHIGAN SEASON, SO FAR
I have attended every Michigan game so far this season (and a special
thanks to Jeff Partnow for the gracious hospitality he showed us in
Fairbanks--just keep an eye on those "Fairbanks Hockey Tonight" signs,
Jeff ;-) ).  To date, I have yet to see a Michigan team that resembles the
National Champions of March, 1996.
 
Why?  Well, they have not yet accomplished precision hockey. Their passes
are not crisp, they have not been able to control the puck, and their
defense shows their youth.  In a move that presumably is meant to help the
young defenseman mature and grow, Red Berenson has consistantly paired
the elder defenseman with the newcomers.  For example, a pairing I have
seen often this year is senior captain Blake Sloan with freshman Sean
Peach.  The younger defenseman are learning, but in the meantime, there
have been many defensive lapses.
 
**** MICHIGAN 6 NOTRE DAME 3 ****
The first period in this game resembled what a Michigan fan would call a
"typical" UM/ND hockey game--with UM scoring 5 goals.  The Michigan team
seemed relative sharp here, and the power play was working well (2 power
play goals).  For the first time this year, the Wolverines did not have
Matt Shegos calling the penalties. Steve Piotrowski called a good game,
but caused minor controversy with a Major Checking from Behind call on
Harold Schock late in the first period. In this morning's Michigan Daily,
both Schock and ND's Dhadphale, the recipient of the check, were quoted as
saying that the call was inappropriate.  However, ND was able to get one
goal during the 5 minute pp.
 
Notre Dame rallied from behind to score thrice in the Second, with
Michigan's offense seemingly fast asleep on the bench.  It figures, as we
were sitting in the corner--heaven forbid any action could take place in
the end that I was sitting in ;-) ...  Muckalt's goal, Michigan's 5th, at
14:03 of the second seemed to put ND's rally into neutral and the
Wolverines played "please don't score on us" (this is my term for let's
just dump the puck rather than make a play) defensive hockey for the
remainder of the game.
 
 
**** MICHIGAN STATE 5 MICHIGAN 4 ****
If you're going to give up 5 goals, don't place to much money on winning,
IMHO. This was a back-and-forth hockey game, close all the way to the end.
The game was either tied or MSU was 1 up on the Wolverines until Morrison
put UM up by one at the 7:54 mark of the third.  The Spartans consistantly
checked and poked the puck away from the Wolverines--while the Spartans
could control the puck in the Wolverine zone, UM could not control the
puck in front of MSU's Chad Alban.  The Wolverines seemed to only be able
to play the puck down the ice and take one shot.  There was very little
passing and puck control--and most Wolverine passes were intercepted by
players not wearing Blue sweaters.  I'm anxious for the rematch in two
weeks at Yost Ice Arena--but the Wolverines will need to practice their
passing and puck handling skills if they want to even up the season
series.
 
Believe it or not, referee Mark (Don't call me Matt) Shegos actually
called a good game.  Linesmen Dobrzelewski and Nowosatka, however, had an
off-night, missing quite a few offsides for both teams.  This is unlike
the usually very right-on Dobrzelewski.
 
 
**** UP NEXT: ****
See ya next weekend, as the Wolverines host Ohio State and Bowling Green.
Friday's game against OSU is the home opener for the Wolverines, now that
Yost is finally ready for hockey.  In a celebration of 75 years of
Michigan Hockey, the Athletic Department has replaced all of the previous
7 NCAA Championship banners and will re-raise them alongside the 8th
banner this friday night (at least, as the rumors have it).  Rumors have
also stated that the old banners were given to a selected member of that
year's team (a nice touch, IMHO, as it seems the usual Athletic Department
practice is to auction things of this nature off).
 
Yost Ice Arena has undergone major renovations and in the process lost
some 1100 seats.  For those of you who wish to venture to Ann Arbor to see
a game at Yost, good luck.  Every ticket in the place this year was sold
to season-ticket holders, and over a thousand hopeful season ticket
holders were turned away.  Thus, there are no game tickets available.
Your only two hopes are scalpers and a seat from your team's visitors
allotment.
 
 
From the Top Row,
Roger:)
 
*** The opinions above are mine and, of course, do not necessarily
represent the opinions of any other person, place, or thing. ***
 
--------------------------------------------
Roger L. Spurgeon              [log in to unmask]
Assistant Director
Univ of Michigan Dept of Recreational Sports
--------------------------------------------
      http://www.recsports.umich.edu/
 
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