How long has it been since we launched our redesign? Like three months? And I’m just now getting ready to waste Internet bandwidth here. My fear was that the stuff I wrote would either read like an old Larry King column from USA Today full of pithy non sequiturs (“Nothing makes a salad pop like Bac-o’s … Christian Bale’s OK, but Ryan Seacrest would make the best Batman) or a rambling manifesto. I promise that neither will happen, but like Nick Saban, I reserve the right to completely renege on that or any other deal.
Michigan State goaltender Jeff Lerg is good. His team is not. Therefore, if you have a vote in either of the two college hockey polls, please refrain from including MSU. Thank you.
Michigan State received votes in a national polls this week: I’m not making this up. The Spartans, less than three weeks removed from the end of an 11-game winless skid, got seven votes (intentional, I assume) in this week’s USCHO/CBS College Sports poll. Last week, MSU got two votes in the USA Hockey Magazine/USA Today poll (in which INCH casts a weekly ballot) and six votes in the USCHO/CBS College Sports poll.
Sure, MSU beat a slightly-above-average North Dakota team in front of 450 people at the Great Lakes Invitational and beat a feisty Alaska team in East Lansing. But the Spartans are seven games below .500! They’re 11th in the run-of-the-mill (at best) CCHA. Here’s an indication of how anemic MSU is offensively — they’re 6-1-3 this season when scoring two or more goals, and their overall record is 6-13-3. This is a bad team, people. Stop voting for them.
The U.S. finished fifth at the World Junior Championships: There are 350 million people in this country, and that’s the best goaltending we can summon? INCH’s Joe Gladziszewski summarized the U.S. netminding situation nicely, calling it “Cloutier-esque”, a reference to the talented but maddeningly erratic ex-Ranger/Lightning/Canuck/King.
New Hampshire’s James van Riemsdyk scored a “highlight-reel goal” — the USA Hockey press release’s description, not mine — in overtime of the U.S. team’s win over the Czech Republic in the fifth-place game. Which begs the question: If the game isn’t televised, can it be a highlight-reel goal? Mitch Hedberg would’ve had an answer.
Boston University standouts Kevin Shattenkirk and Colin Wilson joined JVR as the U.S. team’s top three players of the tournament as selected by the coaches of the other WJC participants. All three turned in fine performances, but Minnesota’s Jordan Schroeder, the team’s leading scorer, deserved one of those spots. I’m no scout, but Schroeder’s got to be a lock to go in the top 10 in this year’s NHL Draft.
Merry Christmas, boys. Now start packing: The National Hockey League has its holiday roster freeze banning player movement around Christmas and New Year’s Day. Two ECHL franchises, the Augusta Lynx and the Fresno Falcons, did the opposite, freezing their entire rosters out of a paycheck by going belly up last month.
Naturally, both clubs blamed the economy for their financial woes. The Lynx — Augusta, home of the Masters Golf Tournament … Lynx. Get it? — pulled the plug on Dec. 3. For the most part, the players left in the lurch by the their demise have found new homes. Some have remained in the ECHL, like ex-Wisconsin Badger Matt Auffrey, now with the Florida Everblades. Others, like former Minnesota State player Joel Hanson, had to take a step down to find work. He’s now playing for the Central Hockey League’s Wichita Thunder. Erstwhile Michigan defenseman/financier Kevin Quick landed on his skates, first earning a spot with the American Hockey League’s Norfolk Admirals and this week getting a summons from the Tampa Bay Lightning. Still others, such as ex-Providence skater Chase Watson, are still looking for a gig.
Then there’s Fresno, whose coach discovered that his employer was going belly up through phone conversations with other ECHL bench bosses. The Falcons’ 40-year run in the Raisin Capital of the World (look it up) ended three days before Christmas, when they were in first place in the Pacific Division standings. Most Fresno players have found new homes — familiar names ex-Vermonter Kenny MacAuley and former Boston College skater Brian O’Hanley among them. Forward Dan Travis, who played at both New Hampshire and Quinnipiac, took the Falcons’ demise as a sign. Fresno marked his third ECHL stop in this, his rookie season, following stints in Florida and Trenton, N.J. Rather than pack up for parts unknown, Travis retired.
LETTERBOX
I guess some might need to rescind their predictions/statements that North Dakota is going to is going to finish seventh in the WCHA. — Eric, Grand Forks, N.D.
Nice wins this past weekend for the Fighting Sioux. Of course, they are just three weeks removed from scoring a total of two goals in consecutive losses to the 11th-place team in the CCHA (Michigan State) and the last place team in the WCHA (Michigan Tech). Just something to bear in mind.
In his Hockey East midseason review, Jeff Howe neglected to mention Vermont. Which is probably a good thing, because everything remotely associated with Jeff ends in tragedy.
I just read Jeff Howe’s midseason report card on Hockey East. Why is it that Vermont was not even mentioned? They get no respect around the league and in print. — Ken, Boston
The Catamounts are a steady, unspectacular bunch. Just about every one of their games is close — nine one-goal games (UVM has lost just two of them) and three ties. Winning seven of nine one-goal games is pretty impressive. Big series this weekend at Northeastern. Of course, you all had Vermont-Northeastern circled on the calendar as the biggest Hockey East series of the season back in September.
Michigan and Ohio State are tied for fifth place in CCHA with 18 points. In your Power Rankings, Michigan gets ranked no. 7 and Ohio State no. 12. Alaska is tied for third place and gets knocked out of the rankings. What’s wrong with this picture? — Bob, Fairbanks
This e-mail was sent prior to the Nanooks’ series at Notre Dame, but the author’s argument still holds up. And, yeah, Alaska is having a fine season after a summer of turmoil with regard to the coaching situation and player defections. If we came out with a top 25 each week (which will never happen) the Nanooks would likely be ranked no. 23 or 24. But …
I just don’t have a lot of confidence in them. This probably won’t strike you as the most logical reasoning, but don’t you get the feeling that UAF is doing it with mirrors? The question we ask ourselves as a staff when trying to evaluate two teams is, who’d win a best-of-seven series on neutral ice? Would the Nanooks win against Dartmouth, Wisconsin, North Dakota, Yale, or Nebraska-Omaha, the bottom five teams in this week’s Power Rankings? I’d say, in order, no, no, no, no, and maybe. This week’s bubble teams are Quinnipiac and St. Cloud State; UAF wouldn’t beat either of them in a best-of-seven, either.
I’M JUST SAYIN’ …
• Compiling the Hobey Tracker piece for INCH, which I do every week, is a cinch most of the time. Not so this season. If there was ever a year in which a goalie could win without putting up ridiculous, Ryan Miller-esque numbers, this is it. The across-the-board mediocrity — that might be too harsh a term; let’s say slightly-above-average-ocrity — among non-goalies is dismaying. Seriously, I’m a week or two away from blowing up the Trackler and starting from scratch.
• Why were we deprived of a Michigan State-Michigan Tech confrontation at the Great Lakes Invitational? MSU had to screw it up by beating North Dakota. Unforgivable. A Spartans-Huskies tilt would’ve had an over/under of zero.
• Nice hat you wore at the Winter Classic, Mike Babcock. Did you come to the rink after smuggling an illegal shipment of rum into the country on a banana boat?
• As a native Minnesotan, I know the difference between minor-nuisance cold weather and drive-a-nail-into-a-board-with-a-banana cold. And, yes, it can be done. Anyway, it strikes me as hilarious when the weather guessers on local TV here in the land of INCH World Headquarters talk about wind chills in the single digits above zero or bitter cold temperatures near zero.
The point is, there should be a universally recognized standard of what constitutes bitter cold or dangerous wind chills. My starting point for air temperature would be minus-20; I’m stuck on the cut line for wind chill, however. But seriously, this must happen.
• Pearl Jam is celebrating its 20th anniversary by re-releasing its classic album “Ten.” Pearl Jam formed in 1991 — seems the group is building up to its actual anniversary with the reissues. Don’t get me wrong, I like Pearl Jam, but do we really need 24 months to ramp up to this? INCH’s 10th anniversary is less than four years away. We better get busy.
