olympics

The heartbeat of a new line, and a future Olympian [James Coller]

It's been close to a month since our last Hockey Weekly, and Michigan Hockey is fully back in the swing of things. Since we were away, the hockey team caused a college hockey-wide controversy over canceling a game against Western Michigan, the World Juniors crumbled before our eyes, the NHL pulled out of the Olympics, meaning that Michigan players could be headed to Beijing in a few weeks, and the team swept UMass at home this weekend. It's been busy, despite only three games being played, and so we've got plenty to talk about. 

 

The beginning of the annual Mel Pearson Second Half Improvement?

Last Hockey Weekly we talked about how Michigan consistently improves under Mel in the second half of the season. We saw some early signs of that this weekend as Michigan bulldozed a good UMass team on consecutive nights, winning 3-1 and then 4-2. Those scores are comfortable, yet possession was more lopsided, with the Wolverines posting 60%+ Corsi at even strength both games, and it was the stellar play of Minutemen goalie Matt Murray (not that one) who kept this from being the kind of beatdown that UMass' football team suffers each Saturday in the fall.

Michigan skated circles around a decently talented UMass team, dominating possession, suppressing chances against and generating chances for in gobs, suffocating the Minutemen on the forecheck. The Maize & Blue men on ice haven't looked this sharp since October in Duluth. The version of the Michigan Hockey team we saw this weekend is the favorite for the national title... we just haven't seen it enough.

The biggest revelation from this weekend was the emergence of the Kent Johnson-Matty Beniers-Brendan Brisson line. I've been decently critical of how Pearson has routinely fired up the line blender week after week, but this seems like one line that cannot be broken up. They tilted the ice in their favor every time they were out there and generated five of Michigan's six non-empty netter goals on the weekend. Yes, they benefited from UMass' sloppy zone exits, but they were also the group turning them into goals: 

Johnson's passing, Beniers' puck retrieval (and shooting), and Brisson's finishing ability is a combo made in heaven. If they could do that against a team as good as UMass, it's worth pondering what they can do against the mid-tier B1G teams. There will be bumps in the road against a more physical team like OSU (UMass plays the kind of game Michigan wants to play), but this line needs to be cohesive. 

David remarked to me that Michigan needed more offense this weekend from forwards not on that line. That's probably true, but being without Thomas Bordeleau for ~undisclosed~ reasons is a big deal because he's your #2 engine. Leave the KJ-Beniers-Brisson line together, then build a second line of Samoskevich-Bordeleau-Pastujov and I think you'd have legit scoring depth. Then some combination of Morgan-Beecher-Duke and Moyle-GVW-Estapa or something in the bottom six. That's how I'd build it at least. But keep the big boys together. 

Erik Portillo also deserves a shoutout since we last did this column for allowing just three goals in 185 minutes of hockey, two of which coming after Michigan had a win locked up on Sunday. With a massively shorthanded roster facing Michigan Tech on Dec. 29, Portillo had a marvelous game to keep it scoreless, including stopping a penalty shot in OT to force a tie. Michigan's team defense has been improved the last three games, but Portillo continues to do his part on Grade-A chances against. You need that to win in the postseason, and you'll probably need it to win the conference regular season crown given the pieces you're gonna lose to the Olympics, but more on that in a second. 

[AFTER THE JUMP: Olympics and Cancelation Controversy]

A fitting image for the state of the Olympics [Reuters]

At long last the 2020 Summer Olympics* will finally be held, one year too late, and they officially kick off this Friday in Tokyo, Japan (some events have already begun). They are set to be one of the stranger games in Olympics history given COVID-19 restrictions, but it's important to remember that this is the same event that didn't have any problems making the 1936 games a pedestal for Nazi propaganda, so "strange" is par for the course for the Olympics. Regardless, I'm 99% sure this is the first games in recent memory where no fans will be allowed in, due to the punishing state of COVID-19 in Japan

(* side note = it really bothers me that this is still being called the 2020 Olympics. It's not 2020 anymore, it's 2021. Call them the 2021 Summer Olympics. Same thing with the EURO which just ended. It's taking place in 2021, stop trying to confuse me by calling it 2020. There is no rule of nature that the Olympics have to be in even years. Stop with this nonsense.)

But, what won't be unusual is the representation of Michigan athletes at the summer games. The University of Michigan regularly places current and former students in the Olympics (you might recall someone named Michael Phelps winning a bunch of medals), and this year is no exception, with 28 athletes competing for 13 different countries, in addition to several coaches participating for various countries. Thus, with the Tokyo Olympics right around the corner, I thought I'd put together this handy watching guide for a Michigan fan who is eager to watch the games and wants to find out when Michigan athletes will be competing, and which ones have a good shot at getting medals. Let's go event by event: 

[AFTER THE JUMP: Lots of sports that don't get talked about much on this site]

If you're invested in ice dancing outcomes, stop. A couple other bullets to space it out.  We have heaping helpings of OH-LOL to do that.

Detroit doesn't even have an NFL team. I mean, this is just an appalling lack of knowledge about geography, professional sports, and the Ford family.

Ohio State versus something called Middlebury versus Ball State, and the questions are apparently Celebrity Jeopardy level. That's a slap in the face to Ball State.

Final Jeopardy: HOW MANY FEET DO YOU HAVE? JUST LOOK DOWN. COUNT 'EM. IT'S NOT HARD.

Answers:

  • What is feet
  • How are seven
  • -IO

Ain't come here to play spell. On the one hand, I'm actually glad that Marcus Hall can leverage his double-bird flip into cold hard cash. I felt strongly positive about that activity. On the other, they're using the split M logo and can't spell:

I mean, if you're going to make bootleg plaques get 'em right. This isn't 'Nam. Hm.

Actually, bootleg plaque-making might be 'Nam. Carry on.

WhiteDavis_crop_north[1]

Go Blue gold. Ice dancing couple Charlie White and Meryl Davis are Olympic gold medalists:

Congratulations, and may the apparently infinite stream of Michigan ice dancing supremacy continue with the Shibutani siblings.

Now. If I had a late night talk show, I would have White and Davis on and ask them if they could put something together for, oh, I don't know, C&C Music Factory. Some variety of 90s hip hop. Just to see them kill that, too.

My other fantastic idea: Jamaican Ice Dance Team. Imagine the possibility. Shabba. Does anyone need a fantastic idea consultant? Because there's my CV. Boom.

It was all a Saban/Bielema plot. Man, the whole ten-seconds thing did not go over well.

Is this real?" one coach texted shortly after the news broke. "I thought it was a joke. No way that passes."

It's not a joke. But it would compel officials to call delay of game on a team for moving too fast.

"It's crazy," said Texas Tech coach Kliff Kingsbury. "College football is the pinnacle of success right now. How do you even mess with that? It would slow the game down. It wouldn't be as fun for the fans."

"The 10-second rule is like asking basketball to take away the shot clock - Boring!" Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy tweeted Thursday. "It's like asking a blitzing linebacker to raise his hand."

Your cynicism level should ramp up even further once you are informed that this is supposed to be a "no change" year and that you can only propose something if it affects player safety.

The proposal is being billed solely as an issue of player safety, and in fact, because this is a "non-rule change" year for the committee, the only way it can put something forward is if it's a tweak to an existing rule (like targeting) or if there's an athlete safety concern.

It's nice to see actual coaches calling out the Think Of The Children reasoning here. Given the blowback, the chances of this thing passing are approximately zero, you'd think.

Oh, please. As part of their institutional mission to try too hard, OSU played some juvenile crap on their scoreboard before their recent ten-point home defeat. As described:

As expected, the video featured Ohio State guard Evan Turner’s 37-foot game-winning 3-pointer at the buzzer of the 2010 Big Ten quarterfinals. It was included among other great Buckeye moments in a rivalry dating back to 1909.

But then there were some added clips, unrelated to Ohio State. One featured Ohio's 65-60 upset of Michigan in the second round of the 2012 NCAA tournament. That's the Ohio Bobcats, not the Ohio State Buckeyes. Another segment highlighted Chris Webber's infamous timeout call in the waning moments of the 1993 national championship game. …

The video wrapped up with an unflattering picture of a Michigan fan, followed by the words, "Pure Michigan," a nod to the state's tourism slogan.

Beilein was asked about it, said he hadn't seen it, and then said

"I hope Michigan never does that," Beilein said. "I don’t want to ever do things like that."

We've blown some of the high ground there with the chicken dance and the skywriting, but there are still many more levels between pure sin-free Domerdom and trying to dredge up painful moments totally unrelated to you 20 years on and making fun of some innocent dude's appearance. (Especially because glass houses, man. Glass houses.) 

But this pissed some OSU fans off because someone from Michigan adding columns in a spreadsheet pisses them off. So when Bacari Alexander tweeted a generic "we are going to beat you" thing, perpetually aggrieved DJ Byrnes at 11W tried to make a big to do about it. If you can't tell the difference between institutionally-authorized "this guy looks dumb lol" and that, you probably think Detroit is in Wisconsin. I look forward to the next time an OSU crowd sings about not giving a damn about the whole state of Michigan unironically.

Whatever, I guess. A ten million dollar gift has induced Michigan to name their head coaching position after the donors. I continually fail to understand why rich people want their name on stuff. If I was rich I would want, like, Zack Novak's name on stuff. Tom Brady. Denard. Dennis Norfleet. What's so great about you, guy? What did you do that was at all relevant?

If I was AD I'd try to crowdfund these things so I could name things after guys who gave the program something.

Etc.: Urban Meyer apparently got in a recruiting battle with South Carolina. Michigan brought in a monster soccer recruiting class. One of the guys is an Ann Arbor native who was on the U17 team and is bigger than Mark Zuckerberg. Burke/Sullinger BFFs again. Bilas interviewed on payin' guys. Saban attempting to adjust to the new world order of spread offenses. See also: wrong side of history.

Don't expect Mitch back.