will lockwood
2/14/2020 – Michigan 5, Michigan State 1 – 9-8-2 Big Ten, 14-12-3 overall
2/17/2020 – Michigan 4, Michigan State 1 – 10-8-2 Big Ten, 15-12-3 overall
Will Lockwood burst out of the zone with the puck by himself, chased by three defenders. None could catch up but the best-positioned had enough of an angle to push Lockwood a little wide and force a shot. John Lethemon, amongst the national leaders in save percentage with a .942 before this series, was able to come out and cut the angle down.
It was a decent chance; it was Michigan's second shot. It squeezed through Lethemon somehow. Goal.
Michigan hockey's twitter account is pretty good about posting videos of all goals no matter how obscured they are by student camerawork—looking at you, unnamed Penn State sophomore—and this one didn't make it to the internet, because… eh… I mean, MSU scored immediately afterwards and it wasn't the kind of goal that absolutely had to get up. Michigan's third was in a similar vein and did get up:
Nick Blankenburg with his 4th of the season from Cam York and Jake Slaker!
— Michigan Hockey (@umichhockey) February 18, 2020
U-M 3, State 1 #GoBlue〽️ pic.twitter.com/bPNJxqAFWk
Clever play by Blankenburg to see Lethemon looking to the wrong side of the very small person trying to screen him. Also not a .940 goalie play.
On the other end of the ice, Strauss man flung a desperate stick at a shot headed for an otherwise empty net. The deflected puck spun wildly, plunking first one post and then the other before Nolan Moyle swept it off the goal line on an incredibly improbable return trip along the goal line. If Moyle wasn't there the puck might be pirouetting from one post to the other still. It was one of the damndest things you'll see in a hockey game, but it was not a goal.
It's worth exploring how in the hell Michigan has gone from dead in the water to an 8-1-1 surge that is two-thirds of the way towards one of the more unlikely postseason bids in Michigan history. What changed? A fair chunk of the answer is that stupid crap stopped happening to Michigan and started happening to the other team.
This series transpires twice a year. The first edition was another weird schedule event—a Thursday-Saturday home and home—but otherwise completely different. In the first outing Michigan was up 3-1 in the last minute of the second period, then gave up three straight goals to lose. On Saturday Michigan had a 5-1 edge in power plays and outshot MSU 35-26; they did not score in a 3-0 loss. Since I noted that Michigan's even strength shooting percentage was an absurdly low 5.8 they've started flinging in one or two long-rangers per game; they're up to 7.1.
Pucks bounce.
[After THE JUMP: the other half of the equation is scoring rad goals]
It's time to check in with hockey after a 3-0-1 road start to the back half of the season. Michigan swept Notre Dame 3-0 and 3-1 two weeks ago and then got an old-fashioned three point weekend from Penn State, blitzing them 6-0 on Friday and coming a minute away from the sweep in what was eventually a 4-4 tie.
One point to the Daily's Bailey Johnson for getting the headline right after the Saturday Penn State game:
Michigan ties No. 6 Penn State, 4-4, gets extra point in double overtime
College hockey's increasing byzantine overtime system is confusing. For Pairwise purposes—the only ones that matter—anything that happens after 5v5 is over is between you and your conference. Even so, Michigan's weekend in Hockey Valley was productive.
[After THE JUMP: snakebit]
That sounds good! Oh. This tweet has a very Ben Mason twist in it:
UM players say Ben Mason comes off the ball SCREAMING. Cesar Ruiz: "I only went against Ben maybe once or twice, but I remember the reps vividly because there was so much yelling and grunting and I almost didn’t believe it. I was like, 'He’s really yelling at me right now.'" lol
— angelique (@chengelis) March 30, 2019
Literally screaming at people is probably not as good as having an explosive first step. Mason's dalliance at three-tech is a wee bit alarming since he's listed at 254 on the roster. While that's not updated, there's no way he's able to get to reasonable DT weight in a year. It's going to be a rough year at DT.
Harbaugh's having a presser right now in which he's detailing various position groups, and there's an open practice Saturday.
This actually sounds good. Gattis offering glimpses into Michigan practices and his approach to routes:
Some times in order to teach you must show! If you know me you must master the details on 2nd level releases!
— Josh Gattis (@Coach_Gattis) April 1, 2019
Head/eyes/hips ✔️
Inside foot stays in the ground✔️
Re-stem snap the head pin the shoulder on the out✔️#Crafting101
ft: young @MikeSainristil pic.twitter.com/IA92zbJKVL
At the very least he should be a top-tier WR coach, and the idea of a guy who cut his teeth under Joe Moorhead getting Patterson, Black, Collins, and DPJ… could be good.
There's a real easy explanation. Insane article from Dennis Dodd in which a suit working at Virginia Tech looks at college football's attendance problem and concludes that facepaint is the solution:
"I wasn't an athlete. For me, at least, the fundamental [way] how you run an event is the way KISS runs a show."
Wurthman went to describe the anticipation built by the band's introduction hype video on the jumbotron -- KISS walking from dressing room to stage -- and the same old songs that are the foundation of classic rock radio.
Yeah, they rock the house. They could also lead a morning athletic department staff meeting.
"It is," Wurthman concluded, "quintessential sports marketing."
The article is full of people dancing around the real issue, because they are prohibited from realizing what the real issue is. USF's AD:
"The reality is that the national attendance numbers are going to continue to go down," Bulls AD Mike Kelly said, "mainly due to the comparative social and leisure experiences that can now be had outside the football stadium even if those experiences still center around the game itself."
Read that again. This is USF's athletic director saying attendance is going to go down because the in-stadium experience sucks. That's the problem. If a KISS concert had six commercial breaks in its first half hour, people would stop going to KISS concerts.
[After THE JUMP: NBA draft items]
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