Packer487

So basically this was the equivalent of a "No way in hell" game on Madden. Too bad in real life ya can't rip the controller out of the system and hit reset :-D Glad I shut it off a couple hours ago. Wake me up when it's the playoffs. But wake the team up first.

Psst. Check the spelling of your handle.

And this is why I said "Wake me when it's the playoffs" about 2 weeks ago. I finally sit down to watch a game and am treated to this stellar effort. Screw it. If they don't care, neither do I. I hate this stupid ass "Play 14 straight games against our division after we've got it clinched' crap. It'd be nice to play a meaningful game once in awhile. At least it's only another week or so til the games matter again.

I was just randomly flipping through this thread and I saw this...I didn't know you were from Louisville, loo! I was born there and lived there for 3 years before I moved to Michigan. My whole mom's side of the family is still down there so I get back every Thanksgiving. We used to live around Mall St. Matthews if that means anything to ya!

What actually happened (as I understand it) was that Bryan Lerg originally committed to Michigan (and made a bunch of comments to the effect that he had always wanted to play at Michigan, this was a dream come true, he didn't mind putting it off for an extra year if he had to). His dad had played at Michigan in the past. The plan was for him to play his senior year with the NTDP and then spend one extra year in juniors (USHL probably) since we didn't have a roster spot at the time. Then if someone left (which, knowing past history, was pretty likely) he would come in. Well B. Lerg blew up with the NTDP that year. He wasn't that big-time of a recruit when he committed, but he led the NTDP in scoring and didn't want to put on entering college for another year. He de-committed from Michigan and signed with MSU, where his cousin was going. A week later, Dwight Helminen left school so we would've had the roster spot/scholarship for him. Truth be told, I can't really blame him. It was just annoying to see someone talk about how much he had always wanted to play for Michigan de-commit and end up at MSU. Especially when a week later it would've been a non-issue. So I can't really blame him, but I still like to ***** about it. Because, well, **** him!

I'm happy Benedict Lerg is finally gone. Now Abdelkader and Kennedy can join him....

What is it with Kris Draper being hurt all the time? We really should find someone more dependable for the playoffs. At least he doesn't have the flu, then I'd be really upset at him...

Very possible I'll be making the trip as well. I didn't think it would be possible, but it looks like I can get a flight from Chicago to Denver for $160 rather than the 400-600 it would cost to fly out of Madison. That makes it infinitely more do-able. Plus my girlfriend has a ton of Marriott reward points that she's willing to let me use, so free hotel helps as well.

I'm with you about Martinsville. I love the short tracks. But I'm completely disagree about the IndyCar races. The IRL traditionally has some of the most consistently close finishes in the racing world. Those guys go wheel to wheel at 230 and if they touch wheels, they're flipping. Those guys have cajones. Hell, even the championship came down to turn 3 of the last lap of the season. To each their own, I guess, but I don't see any way to classify it as boring. I guess it just depends if you've got someone to root for...

Whoa, you know who she is? Very jealous of Shieldsy on that one. She's gorgeous. Actually, at least in terms of wins, he was the best goalie the NCAA had ever had at the time of his graduation and is still #2 all time to Turco. But his backup was better. Man I'm geeked for tomorrow. SCSU/Clarkson, UNH/Notre Dame, Michigan/Niagara, CC/Spartina. Gonna be a good day. Then 6 games Saturday and 2 more Sunday. I love the NCAA Hockey Tournament (and having a satellite dish so I can watch).

Gartman signed in the same class as Ruden. He was a transfer from Cornell (I think) so he didn't have as much eligibility. So he played behind Montoya. I think he passed on returning for his senior year and went back to Cornell to finish school. Chris Gordon was the Michigan backup. Some of those guys are delusional about their own abilities. If he was better than Shields, the NHL would've found him whether he played in college or not. And Red wouldn't have started an inferior goalie. Shields made it about 250 games in the NHL. Gordon played 17 games in the AHL and that was the highest level he reached (awesome 4.05 goals against). I'm guessing Shields was better. Plus Shields dated Shiri Appleby, which makes him infinitely cooler.

That's pretty cool! My best friend used to be a billet family for USA Hockey. I know they hosted Chris Gartman (used to be a backup at Michigan) and ummm...some kid that ended up at Vermont. I think one of his guys ended up in the NHL, but I can't remember who it is. He used to drive Eric Nystrom to school, too. That CC/UNH game (if it happens) would definitely be one to watch. Maybe this is finally the year that UNH sheds the "University of No Hardware" nickname. Apparently the flu is making its way through the Michigan team. Porter didn't practice yesterday. Awesome.

What's worse for MSU is that if they get past Colorado College somehow, they likely get UNH, who also plays their home games on the Olympic-sized rink. It's a lot harder to play that B****-A** trap with so much extra space. UNH's goalie is very good. He's a Hobey Finalist. Kind of crazy, in one regional, you've got 2 Hobey Finalist goalies, another goalie that was the WCHA Player of the Year as a freshman (Cujo is the only other person who has done that), and the fourth won the CCHA goaltending title if I'm not mistaken. I wouldn't look past Niagara. In the last 3 years, there have been six games between a one-seed and one of these "weaker" opponents from College Hockey America or Atlantic Hockey. In those six games, five have been decided by a single goal, three went to OT, and Holy Cross beat Minnesota in one of those overtime games. I'm happy we aren't playing Air Force. I like Miami as a team, but I think Air Force has a real shot at winning that one. Good question! I suppose a link would be pretty appropriate in this thread. If anyone else is reading and would like to check out my Michigan Hockey blog, it's: http://yostbuilt.blogspot.com You and me both, buddy. It's bad enough that they left Kolarik out of the final ten....if they find a way to not give it to Kevin Porter, I'm done with that award.

San Jose lost in overtime. 8 points up and the Sharkies have 6 games left to play. 5 points in our last 5 games clinches it I can't wait for the playoffs to get here. As much as I love the Wings, I've had no desire to watch a game in about 2 weeks. I'm sick of playing these s***ty Central teams. I'm ready for a game to matter again. I seriously want to know what the heck they did to Franzen. That guy is a beast!

A) Not so much. We're still 2 or 3 weeks away from the playoffs. They aren't going to be able to get away with saying "Boy, Dom's flu is really hanging around!" if he stays out of the lineup. I would be more concerned if they were like "He's going to be out 2 weeks with a shoulder injury" or something. And it's not like teams can go after an injured goalie the way they can another player. If you know someone's foot is hurt, maybe a little slash or two. What's another team gonna do if Dom's groin is injured? Make him go post-to-post, like you don't try to do that anyway? Shy of this turning into the mysterious illness he got right after we traded for him, it's a non-issue. B) He played consistently well for 3 1/2 flipping months. He's been dinged a few times this year, but the fact is, with the lead we've had for most of the year there's no reason to take chances with anyone. Especially not Hasek, with the way Osgood has played. Why risk anything? For all we know, he could've played if they had really needed him during the time he was out. They said that was the case during one of his injuries. Also, by all accounts (which honestly shocked me), he was brilliant in his last two starts. I didn't see either game so I can't comment on what I saw, but when Hasek can give up 3 goals and people on this board are still talking about how he played out of his gourd, you know he was amazing. Yes it sucks that he's out when he could be getting on a roll heading up to playoff time. But really, he's going to miss like 1 game, assuming the flu is the flu and not "Dom had his arm amputated and we're not telling anyone." It's not like Osgood wasn't going to play again the rest of the year. It's not a gamble to start a guy in the playoffs who might get hurt. If he does, you go with the backup. And this backup would do just fine. But I don't see the logic in saying "Dom's been hurt a couple times this year, so it's a gamble to start him." Unless he gets hurt during a play and it costs us a goal (unlikely), there's not really a downside. If he gets hurt, the other guy comes in and he'll do fine. If he doesn't get hurt, sweet! He didn't get hurt! I'm much more concerned with Flip and Holmstrom than I am about Dom having the flu.

Twas a home game. There's absolutely no reason to stick someone with the flu onto a plane with 25-or-so other people that you would prefer not get the flu, especially if he's not going to play because of it. Curse Dom and his immune system! Ozzie's immune system is far superior! Start him!

Yeah but that was bulls***!

Porter won CCHA Player of the Year. Red won Coach of the Year. Pacioretty won Rookie of the Year. And Porter was named a Hobey Finalist (shocker there). Pretty good night if you're a Wolverine. I really can't believe Jeff Lerg was one of the ten finalists for the Hobey. I appreciate that he had an amazing season last year and was basically the reason they won it all, but he hasn't been all that great this year. MSU was projected to be 1st in the CCHA in one poll, 2nd in the other (by 1 point). They finished 3rd and got beat in their first playoff series at home. Lerg was 3-3-2 out of conference and didn't beat a team worth a damn in their OOC schedule. He was like 17th in goals against and 11th in save percentage. But somehow he's one of the top 10 players in the country and one of the top 3 goalies? I don't have a problem with him being First Team All CCHA in net because they only take conference stats into account. But if you look at the whole season, you could make a pretty convincing argument that he was only the third best goalie in the conference (Zatkoff and Sauer). Absolutely no way he should've gotten the nod over Zatkoff (2nd in goals against and 2nd in save percentage nationally). If you're only taking 3 goalies, it's absurd that Lerg was named over Bachman from CC, who was the WCHA Player of the Year (and only the second rookie to win that award and the Rookie of the Year in the same season---Curtis Joseph was the other) and was 3rd in the country in goals against and tops in save percentage as a freshman. The most glaring omission in my eyes was Chad Kolarik. FIRST IN THE COUNTRY in goals per game, 3rd in goals, 6th in points, 7th in points per game, 1st in game winning goals, and he's arguably Michigan's best defensive forward (though Porter got the nomination) and penalty killer. How you leave him off in favor of TJ Oshie (25th in the country in points, 28th in points per game, 37th in goals per game) is beyond me. Then again, these are the same people that left TJ Hensick out of the Hobey Hat Trick last year when he was the nation's leading scorer by a fairly wide margin and gave the award to a guy who was the third best player on his own line....

Sounds like a good time was had by all tonight! I'm sorry I missed this one. Nothing like Dom going buck on someone and jawing with the other goalie. He's off his rocker and I love him for it. Whatever they started feeding to the Mule, they need to keep it up. It's amazing how sometimes the light bulb just goes on...Franzen, Kronwall, (Billy Sauer)...they all seem to have gotten it this year. Now if we can just get healthy and stay healthy. Lock up the #1 seed (even if I don't think it's actually that big of an advantage this year) and let's get the playoffs going already! I'm in :-D

Holy crap! That's uncanny.

I'm surprised this story hasn't received more pub, because it's really funny and it resulted in a ton of money going to a great cause. I think Stewart is a real ****** for the way he acts around the media, but at the same time, he really doesn't get enough credit for the time and money he gives to charity. He and Harvick made a bet last year that if Harvick could raise $100,000 for the Victory Junction Gang camp, Stewart would agree to get his body waxed. Apparently he looks very much like Andy in 40 Year Old Virgin. Well the fans on Kevin Harvick's message board (myself included) donated almost $40,000 and Harvick picked up the rest. Stewart, true to his word, agreed to have his body waxed and tonight was the night. They broadcast it on Stewart's radio show on Sirius. Unfortunately, I couldn't hear it (I have XM) but someone on Harvick's message board had a running thread about it, basically giving play by play. It was hysterical. I guess Harvick spent most of the broadcast just laughing his ass off. It didn't sound like a pleasant night for Mr. Stewart, but it sure was an entertaining read. I'm hopeful that the audio will eventually surface. The son of Bowyer's crew chief (he's 12) was walking around the garage asking various drivers what they thought about the situation--if Stewart would cry, how much weight will he lose, etc. A lot of them had really funny answers--it's linked in the thread on Harvick's board. The coolest thing was that Ford Martin asked Jimmy Johnson how much he'd pay to rip off one of the strips and he said "Well, I'm going to be unavailable that day but I'll donate $10,000 if you get to rip off a strip." So Ford got to tear off a strip and another ten grand went to charity. JD Gibbs kicked in $15,000 to have them wax the strip right on the back of his neck. Originally, Stewart had said that if Harvick came up with the $100,000, he would donate $100,000 of his own money for Harvick to shave his head. I don't think that happened tonight, but after the pain it sounds like Tony went through and the on-track incident, it wouldn't shock me if that's not too far down the line. So even though I'm never going to like the guy--I think he's a drama queen who complains too much and throws a lot of stones for someone who lives in a glass house--I respect the hell out of him for enduring that much pain so a bunch of less fortunate kids can go to camp...and for living up to his end of the bargain. And I'm happy I was able to contribute to the Wax Smoke Fund and help to inflict a little pain on him :-)

They reseed so we're playing Northern. I'm pretty confident any coach in the world would rather play Notre Dame at this point, but we'll deal with it. And due to attendance concerns with MSU not being there, Michigan has to play the late game Friday, even though they're supposed to get the early game as the #1 seed. Last night was a happy night for Miami hockey. Dynasty. I would imagine that Vaughan will be back this weekend. Someone posted that they heard Rust is probable, which would shock me if it's true. Pacioretty is out for Friday night due to a fighting DQ. If Michigan loses to NMU, I want the Wildcats to win the CCHA title, have Notre Dame beat Miami, and then have Michigan beat Notre Dame in the consolation game. 5 CCHA teams in the tournament. 5 WCHA teams in the tournament. It'd be hilarious after all that talk about conference superiority coming from west of Michigan. It's looking more and more likely that Michigan will be the #1 seed in the Madison regional and the Badgers will not be in the tournament. Good news for me!

Ask your "source".

Biiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitch! Holy crap. 10-1? I only saw the first two periods. I wasn't expecting that. I thought it would be pretty close if Marshall played and maybe not so much if he didn't (he didn't) but geezus. Have some pride. BTW, that Jeramie Dupont is like the worst goalie ever. Hopefully we don't go Michigan and lose tomorrow. Seems to always be the case when we blow someone out. I remember beating Alaska about 8-0 my freshman year and then losing 5-2 the next night. Then we beat ND 10-1 in the playoffs a couple years back and had to go to OT to win 1-0 the next night.

I do like that Jon Kitna was on the Huge Show, talking about how they've upgraded in a lot of areas, then went on to talk about how Tatum Bell was a huge signing for them. He does realize that he was on the roster last year right....and carried the ball like 40 times when he wasn't getting splinters in his ass? I also enjoy that Millen just cut yet another of his first round picks. The funny thing is that I'd take a chance on either KJ or Kalimba Edwards given the way guys tend to play after they get out of Detroit.