A Kinda-Sorta Maize Out

So I spent an hour on an entry about my thoughts on the "Maize Out" controversy that was being discussed on The Fort yesterday, but Firefox decided it'd be a good idea to crash (Stupid Sharebuilder making me upgrade to Firefox 1.5!) and I lost the whole thing about a paragraph before I was set to publish it. So here's the truncated version:

-It'd be nice if people would just wear maize on their own, but some people wear what they like to wear, some people like to wear the jersey they spent at least $50 on, and sometimes it's too damn cold to worry about putting a maize t-shirt over your winter coat (and it's not like most people have a maize jacket). Also, since the Maize/Blue Outs of the past have been colossal failures, I imagine that people just figure "No one's going to be wearing Maize anyway, so I'll just wear my David Terrell throwback". It's kind of a Catch-22 in a way. People would wear maize as long as other people are doing it, but no one will do it because most people aren't doing it. What's a good way to jumpstart that? Give away shirts.

-It doesn't strike me as a very good promotion when you depend on the fans to do everything. If your entire marketing campaign for the year revolves around "Go Blue, Wear Maize" then why not try to facilitate it? It's like they're trying to do things half-assed. They'll promote it, they'll put it on the schedule posters, the press releases, on WTKA, but when it comes down to it, they're depending on the fans to make it work. Either go all out, or don't try and have the thing every year.

-A press release does nothing to get the message out to everyone. A good portion of our fanbase is, how you say, old. I'm guessing they aren't checking mgoblue.com all that often. Hell, I'm as big of a Michigan fan as you'll find and I don't even go there during the offseason (and I hardly go there for football news--non-revs and hockey, yes). They finally wised up and put it on the ticket itself as a nice reminder before you head out the door--I've only been campaigning for that for like 4 years now, amazing they didn't give me a job down there...I wasn't "ex-athlete" enough, I guess.

-It wouldn't cost anything. They'd have a sponsor in a split second to provide those t-shirts. I suppose some people could view it as "Advertising" in the stadium, but I don't think it's anymore advertising than the Chevy shirts that they were giving away for signing up for a mailing list last year, or the Nike logos that adorn pretty much everyone's clothing. It seems like a convenient excuse more than anything to me. (Side note: I don't get what the big deal is about having advertising in the stadium. It's not like we don't have it in Yost or Crisler. But God-forbid we put a Sony logo on the JumboTron so we don't have to pay for them. Does anyone consider the Dell logo on your monitor to be advertising? They made the friggin thing.)

-I believe the real reason they don't give out 111,000 shirts is quite simply, the M-Den would be pissed. Who would buy a t-shirt that day if they were going to be receiving one for free anyway?

It's too bad, too, because Maize Outs look sweet. (See Yost photo. Now imagine that times 100 or so.)

Swystun Gone

Lost in all the hoopla surrounding Junior Hemmingway's commitment and Marques Slocum being allowed to enroll at U of M is the defection of another Michigan hockey player: This time it's Tyler Swystun, who will be taking his game to the WHL next year.

Combine that with the losses of Trevor Lewis and Zac MacVoy, and suddenly the Wolverines are down to 11 forwards for next year, and are faced with moving David Rohlfs back to forward (again) or--as Mel Pearson said in an interview with Rivals--perhaps Jack Johnson?

"We have a lot of depth on defense, and I don't think it's impossible to imagine a scenario where a few of our defensemen see some time at forward," Pearson said. "Certainly, we feel that [sophomore defender] Jack Johnson could be one of the best forwards in all of college hockey, if we decided on something like that."

Now, as fun as it would be to see someone up front with Jack's speed, offensive skill (remember that move he put on Nick Lidstrom in the USA/Wings charity game?), and ability to go into the corners, I still think that for this team to be successful, they need to worry more about playing solid defense than they do about scoring goals. A better defensive effort out of everyone will go a long way toward helping Sauer's confidence. I really think that kid can be a darn good goalie if he can get some help in the early going.

As far as Swystun goes, apart from the depth issue (and the "Who the f--- is going to play for us in the GLI" issue) he's not a huge loss. I know, I know....he came in a year early and the book was that he needed one more year. But you would think that the kid would show something last year, and apart from the one weekend against LSSU, he never really flashed anything to show that he'd be more than an average player. And at this point, when it's a very real possibility that he could be a bust in college hockey, I'm sure they'll gladly take that scholarship back (and maybe try to find a couple defensemen for next year).

It's hard to complain too much about this being another "Michigan summer" since we've lost two players from the current roster and our top recruit. We came into this last season thinking that Hunwick was gone for sure after his junior year, Hensick & Johnson were huge question marks to come back, Cogliano was a dark horse to go, and after the draft the possibility was there for Summers and Mitera. With not even 2 weeks til classes, all those guys are still here which makes me a happy camper. And if both freshmen D can come in ready to contribute, that will allow the coaches to do a lot of things as far as who they move up front. And that'll make me a happy Kampfer. Bad pun, bad pun.

Charles Woodson is looking forward to returning punts again. I am looking forward to seeing Charles Woodson return punts again.

Rivals poster PacificBlue has created a highlight reel of Michigan playmakers (Howard, Woodson, Edwards, Perry, Carter) set to the tune of Tupac's "Until The End of Time". Freaking awesome. Out of all those highlights, I gotta say that Howard's diving grab against Notre Dame is my favorite. Obviously Carter's catch has the Ufer clip, Edwards led the greatest comeback, well, ever, and Charles Woodson had the most amazing pick I've ever seen. But that Howard catch...man. When I was little and I'd play football in my backyard, I'd tell my dad to throw it jusssssst beyond my reach, so I could pretend I was Desmond Howard and lay out to make the grab. Great work out of PacificBlue. This clip is outstanding.

Less Than Two Weeks!!

The sun's taking longer to come up in the morning and that can only mean one thing: Football season is almost here!! It's getting to that point in the summer that I start getting really excited about it (My team not looking like ass in an exhibition game also helps). Less than 4 weeks until I'll be at Notre Dame, watching the Wolverines take down the #2 team in the country. Ahhh preseason optimism!

In the meantime, great friggin NASCAR race today. Harvick and Junior had some bad luck (Harvick's was self-inflicted) but both rebounded to get very good finishes, and Gordon has to be feeling a lot better about his chances now. As a happy bonus, it looks like you can stick a fork in Kurt Busch, and Greg Biffle's chances aren't looking real good either. If I can get all 3 of my favorite drivers in, and have 2 of my 3 least favorite drivers be out (Stewart would be the third on that list), I'll be a happy camper.

I really do wish that there was a better way in and out of MIS because it sucks that we've got one of the great racetracks in America in my backyard and I won't go near the place. The race has been over for 3 hours, and I bet if I went to the race, I wouldn't be close to being back in Ann Arbor yet. I hate coming out of that track.

While I'm bitching about stuff...I meant to bring this up last week and it slipped my mind: Tape delay. Note to the NFL Network: If you're scheduled to show a game on tape delay at 1:00 am, don't wait until 1:15 to put it on, and in the interim, a) Don't show the score on the bottom line, and b) don't go out to the game you're going to be showing and show the last 2 minutes of it! It absolutely drives me up a wall when networks have something they're going to be showing shortly, and then the score crawls across the ticker at the bottom.

Hell, one time I was watching an IndyCar race that was on tape delay, and ESPN showed the winner on the 28/58 ticker. That made me real happy. The NFL Network's on my shit list for that though...if I'm going to stay up til 1:00 in the morning to watch a preseason football game, I don't want to know what the final score is before you put it on.

Lastly, someone on one of the Packer message boards I post on asked if there was a way to watch NFL games online. Someone quickly replied no, but another person suggested this website might be a possibility: http://www.mytvdirect.com/index.html For $19.99 supposedly you can watch all the games live for 6 months. It seems beyond sketchy, and it raises a red flag when a site like that only registers one page worth of hits on google, but for $19.99 it might be worth a shot. Has anyone tried it? Or does anyone with more money than me feel like trying it?? ;-)

Yet Another Week in Review

Thankfully the time of the year is coming when I'll have enough to talk about that posting won't just be once-a-week give or take.

As mgoblog mentioned, Pat Kane still hasn't made up his mind. Michigan's got the edge in "distance from Buffalo" and familiarity since he's been here for a couple years already. BU has a bunch of his close friends. Here's hoping that Mark Mitera made a good impression at the WJC camp, because I'm not liking our chances a ton. But that's because it's summer and we're dealing with Michigan hockey.

From the "This is great news as long as they don't replace him with Josh Vernier" Department: Rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrryan MaGuirrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrre is leaving WTKA. Good riddance. Maybe I'll start listening to the afternoon show again, depending on who they replace him with. That guy was just awful.

Keep your fingers crossed for Jed Ortmeyer. TSN is reporting he's out indefinitely with a pulmonary embolism. Tough break for one of my absolute favorites. On the plus side, those things can be life threatening, but the article states they don't believe it's life (or career) threatening at this point and that Jed was only in the hospital for tests.

Also today, as part of a continuing effort to not only bring back as many former Red Wings as possible, but also rebuild the pre-lockout Nashville Predators, the Wings signed familiar face Greg Johnson to a one-year deal today. I have mixed feelings about this one.

For the money and for what he brings to the table, this was a great signing. Johnson is a good faceoff man, good penalty killer/defensive player, good leader and historically at least he's had pretty good speed.

But at the same time, if there's one thing the Wings didn't need, it's another center, let alone another center on the small side. This makes eight centers on our roster (counting Zetterberg & Hudler, not counting Hussey). Not to mention the fact that--assuming the Wings sign that 20 goal scoring forward that Holland keeps saying he wants--that fills up our roster pretty well: Zetterberg, Datsyuk, Williams, Holmstrom, Lang, Samuelsson, Cleary, Franzen, Johnson, Draper, Maltby, 20-goal scorer. That's 12. Meaning there's not a lot of room for those AHL forwards that can't clear waivers this year.

We'll see what the rest of the offseason holds, but barring a trade, this seems like kind of a waste to me.

I haven't watched the ChampCar series a whole lot since most of the good drivers bailed for the IRL, but in the 3 or so years I've missed, at least one thing has stayed the same: Paul Tracy is still a douchebag. Back-to-back races he's gotten into a shoving match for wrecking someone pretty blatantly. Then he followed it up by basically admitting he did it on purpose and insulting all French people. Smart move when the next race is in Quebec, jackass.

Kevin Harvick is looking like he just might sweep the Busch and Nextel Cup championships this year. The Busch one is almost a formality at this point. Over in NNC, he's had 5 straight top 5 finishes, including a win yesterday at Watkins Glen. He's definitely gearing up for The Chase, and with the way he's going right now, just making it might not be enough.

The Packers looked pretty bad in their preseason opener, but it's not time to panic just yet. Going up against San Diego's line wasn't a good matchup for a young offensive line making their first start as a group--and their first start in a new system. Plus San Diego blitzed an awful lot, and the Packers played it pretty vanilla on their defensive side of the ball.

Favre and Rodgers looked good. Woodson didn't give up a completion while he was in there (Ahmad Carroll took care of that). Jon Ryan pretty much won the punting job. Mike McCarthy already has won more challenges than Mike Sherman did. Greg Jennings showed flashes of why they're hyping him so much, and AJ Hawk looked much better than he did during the scrimmage. The big downer was that Marviel Underwood was lost for the season. He was really coming on at safety, and the Packers have now lost 3 of their top backups (1 safety, 2 OL) for the year already.

They've still got almost a month to get things together on the OLine, and when you're starting two rookies, that's an eternity. If they don't get it fixed, however, Favre ain't gonna make it to the game I'm attending in December.

Finally, a quick story in honor of the ChampCar talk earlier: A few years back, I was in a fantasy CART league. It wasn't anything horribly elaborate...basically you picked two drivers at the start of the year and kept them the entire season. This one guy in the league took Jimmy Vasser and Gil de Ferran as his drivers. His team name? The Vas de Ferrans. I laughed for about ten minutes when I saw that.

Family Night Scrimmage

You can't get too high or too low during these scrimmages. If the offense does something well, should you be excited because they made a play, or upset because the defense didn't do well? If the defense creates a turnover, is that a cause for celebration or alarm?

The one thing that is definite however, is that it is damn good to have football back. I got chills seeing Favre run out of the tunnel. I'm beyond happy that he came back for another season.

Thoughts on the scrimmage:

-Cory Rodgers is fast. You might say he's as fast as a speeding bullet shot into the air. There's not a lot of things in football that are prettier than a WR catching a slant and pulling away from the defense for a big gain.

-I can see what the hype of Greg Jennings is all about. He runs nice routes, has good speed, catches it with his hands. They've been raving about him all week.

-Abdul Hodge is a beast. I still can't believe he was there in the third round. He had 9 tackles during the scrimmage tonight and he absolutely popped the 90th string running back behind the line of scrimmage.

-AJ Hawk was quiet. I'm sure he was still getting his head around things, and he obviously has a nose for the ball, but he didn't make any plays of note that I can recall.

-Aaron Rodgers throws a really nice ball. He was victimized by drops early on, but he had one absolutely gorgeous touch pass that he dropped in over the DB. I also don't see what the concern over his arm strength is about. He looked like he threw with some pop.

-Noah Herron is really fast too. Wouldn't surprise me a bit if he makes the team over Poop Davenport. Gado looked good as well.

-Really happy that Nick Collins didn't hurt himself. He slipped on some concrete on the sideline by the stands and went feet first into the metal railing and landed hard on his tailbone. Thankfully it looked a lot worse than it was.

-My big concerns are with Left Tackle and Kicker. LT is fine with Clifton in there, but with Kevin Barry and Adrian Klemm already out for the year, the depth on the line is suspect. Junius Coston played out there tonight. Baring in mind that he has only had 2 practices at LT, if he plays like that, he's going to get Brett Favre killed. KGB just abused him. Both the kickers missed FGs they need to make, especially being that conditions at Lambeau won't get better than they were tonight. Edinger was in for a workout this week, and neither Cundiff or Rayner did anything to keep the GM from looking at other kickers.

-Disappointed that Woodson didn't play because of a hip flexor injury, but it sounds like it's a very minor injury so I'm not worried about it.

Overall I was impressed with the increase in team speed on defense. They looked a lot faster than a year ago--though that could also be that I haven't seen football in awhile. If they get anything out of the offensive line, I think that they could be a surprising team this year. The defense was pretty good last year and they've improved all three position groups.

I can't wait for the season to get going.

Congrats Reggie

Today, one of my all-time favorites was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Reggie White, the Minister of Defense. The man who set the trend of Green Bay being a place that it was ok for free agents to go to. The man who was an integral part of the win in Super Bowl XXXI, one of the happiest days of my life.

I still can't believe he's gone. When my girlfriend woke me up with a call to my cell to tell me that he was dead, I thought she had to have made a mistake.

He signed in the days before I could check espn.com roughly 217 times a day, so I didn't find out about the signing until one of my classmates informed me of it the next day. My immediate reaction was simply, "Holy crap! We got Reggie White???"

The memories are still vivid, dating back to the days of him being an absolute terror to play against in Tecmo Bowl: Helping hold Barry Sanders to -1 yard in a playoff game, his miraculous recovery from an arm injury that was supposed to leave him on the sidelines for the rest of the year, running at the Dallas bench to cuss them out for calling a timeout so they could kick an unnecessary field goal, the Super Bowl record 3 sacks killing any hope of a Patriots comeback, and of course the image of him running off the field with the Super Bowl trophy which meant so much to him (and Packer fans everywhere).

Congrats, Reggie. Thank you for six great seasons and for giving me one of the happiest moments of my life. May you rest in peace. You won't be forgotten.

New Hockey Verbal!

As first reported in the Wisconsin State Journal, Ben Winnett, a recruit for the class of 2007, has picked the Wolverines over the Wisconsin Badgers. He comes from the same team in the BCHL that produced Andrew Ebbett. He's not very big, listed at 6'0" 170, but an article linked below suggested he was playing last year at about 158 lbs.

He was sixth on his team last year with 18-31--49 in 60 games played, but those are considered pretty good numbers for someone his age. Bob Miller has since posted several times that the folks down at Yost are very much looking forward to him joining the team.

Also linked on the Yost Post was Paul Shaheen's excellent article about the commit. Ben sounds like an outstanding young man, who is willing to work hard to make himself a better hockey player.

Some choice bits from the article:

But at only 158 pounds, he wasn't necessarily fond of the physical side of the
game--something he knew had to change.

"I wanted to add strength, and
put on more weight," says the 17 year-old from New Westminster, BC, "so I hired
a full-time trainer, and he's helped me put on 12 pounds over the summer. I'm
working out daily, and eating six meals a day."

"So many people around me said I was a Michigan type player," says Winnett, a
high school senior and one of the most well-spoken young men his age. "With my
skating, offense and awareness, many guys branded me a Wolverine. I was
flattered by that."

"My favorite NHL player is Darcy Tucker," Winnett explains. "One day, the phone
rang, and it was Darcy Tucker on the other end of the line. I couldn't believe
it. He played under coach Don Hay in Kamloops in the early 90's. The Vancouver
Giants hold my WHL rights, and that's where Hay coaches now. So coach Hay called
in a favor to Darcy and asked him to call me. It was really a thrill," Winnett
reflects. "He wasn't necessarily trying to talk me out of college, he just
encouraged me to at least consider the option of Major A. I appreciated that,
but playing hockey and preparing for the world thereafter is very important to
me."

His coach was also extremely complimentary of him. It sounds like he'll start flashing more of that offensive talent this year.

He joins a recruiting class that already has some talented forwards in it: Matt Rust from the NTDP, Louie Caporusso from St. Mike's, Aaron Palushaj from Des Moines (hopefully that one works out better than our other Des Moines recruit), Max Pacioretty who will be playing for Sioux City next year, and perhaps even Robbie Czarnik who isn't scheduled to be in until 2008. Czarnik was mentioned as a 2007 recruit in Shaheen's article, which could mean he's thinking about accelerating this year. Or he could've just been off by a year.

Regardless, there are some high-end forwards coming in in 2007 (not to mention uber-recruit Tristin Llewellyn, Chad Langlais, and goalie Bryan Hogan bolstering the back end). Looks like Red and Company have already nailed down a great class in 07. If they can somehow make that Pat Kane's first full season in college hockey as well, we'll be shittin' into tall cotton as my boss would say (I have no clue what that means).

Just don't let the LA Kings draft him.

Elsewhere, some very odd (and scary/sad) news out of the ChampCar World Series. 2002 Champion Cristiano Da Matta was testing his car at Road America in Elkhart Lake, WI when a deer ran onto the track and was struck by Da Matta's car which was going over 100 mph. Da Matta was knocked unconscious and at the moment is in critical condition, having had surgery to remove a subdural hematoma. He's going to be in a medically-induced coma for at least a couple of days, and here's hoping and praying for a full recovery of a darn good driver. You don't see too many things happen that are freakier than that.

Funny moment in the Tigers/Devil Rays game the other night. The announcers were talking about this Devil Rays player that is a "switch-hitter" but only hits .064 from the other side of the plate. My question is this: If you're only batting .064 from the opposite side, do you really qualify as a switch-hitter anymore? Couldn't pretty much any major league hitter step across the plate and get a hit 6 times out of 100? Moreso, if you're batting that poorly when you switch-hit, shouldn't you just keep hitting from the usual side? Are you really reaping any benefits from hitting from the right side against left-handed pitchers if you're only getting on base 8 times out of 125? Couldn't you probably do better just hitting from the left side?

Just curious.

I'd also like to join others in tipping my hat to Mr. Brian Cook from mgoblog for his performance at the World Series of Poker. Despite the horribly unlucky outcome, that was a great run and here's hoping you qualify again next year.

Hasek's Back and so is Football!

Two of my favorite things returning this week. Yesterday--in a shocking move being that the week before they stated he was no longer an option--the Red Wings re-signed goaltender Dominik Hasek. I give Ken Holland a lot of credit for making this move, though part of that is tainted by the fact that it seems he picked Belfour over Hasek, Eddie just wanted more in bonus money. Belfour would've been a huge mistake. Thankfully he's in Florida and we got the guy I've wanted for over a month.

I wrote this on July 1st:

It sounds crazy, I know. But what about tour #3 for Dominik Hasek in Detroit. Think about it. A 2 year deal for Osgood seems to indicate to me that they may only offer a 1 year deal to the guy they want to start. Belfour & Hasek would fit that category. That would then set up either Liv/Osgood or Howard/Osgood for 07-08.

If you're in a position where either Ed Belfour, Mike Dunham, Chris Osgood, Manny Legace or Dominik Hasek is going to be your starting goalie for the 06-07 season, why not take a swing for the fences with Dominik Hasek? Split time with Osgood for the regular season, try to keep him healthy, then let him take a run at it in the playoffs. Injuries shouldn't be a huge concern, because if they're so confident in Ozzie that they want to give him a 2 year deal (????????!!!!!!!!!) then they should be confident enough that he can carry the load should Hasek go down.

I didn't even consider him until today. But with options going by the wayside, it looks like good ole Kenny is backed into a corner once again if he doesn't want to trade for anyone. Hasek, not Belfour is the right choice for this team. If he decides to go the trade route, Biron and Giguere are the most realistic options unless Dallas puts Turco on the market. I believe Nabokov's no trade clause kicked in at midnight this morning. Not a lot of good options out there, so why not take a one year chance on a guy that when healthy can still be the best goalie in the league?

It's really a brilliant move. The best part of this signing is how much the Osgood fans absolutely despise it. The linked thread is long, but it's worth it, if for nothing more than to see Eva Unit Zero's post that says that Osgood was better in the 98 playoffs than Hasek was in 02, and that Osgood is the better goalie now. Stuff like that is just priceless.

If he gets hurt, the money doesn't count against the cap and we can make a move at the deadline (As of right now, Anaheim, SJ, Buffalo and Montreal all have guys they'd like to move) and even if we don't, we're no worse off than we were yesterday morning. In the meantime, Howard is going to get to start a bunch of games in the AHL and he'll be ready next year when Hasek will theoretically be gone. If he stays healthy, this team is fully capable of making a run at the Cup.

Suddenly, the Red Wings are once again a team that no one wants to play. According to Hasek, he doesn't care if he only plays 40-50 games. He's just interested in staying healthy for the playoffs. That's great to hear from a guy that in the past has wanted to be in net every single game. Ottawa overplayed him and he ended up getting hurt. Plus, there's no Olympics this year, which means the schedule won't be as compressed.

I like the Markov signing as well. Again, he's an injury risk, but he's just the type of defenseman that we needed. And on a one-year deal, there's not a whole heckuva lot of risk. It's alarming that he's on his 5th team in five seasons, and that he doesn't put up the offensive numbers that a guy like him probably should...but he'll lay licks on people. He actually sounds very similar to Kronwall. Gotta stay healthy though. That sures up the defense corps, and may actually give them some flexibility if they decide they want to move Schneider. Once again, the Wings will have one of the absolute best groups of defensemen in the league. Only this time, they've got an elite goalie behind them.

I went from about a 2.2 on the "excited for next year" scale to needing a Spinal Tap scale that goes to 11 in one day. We just got the best goalie of all-time again, he's coming for a tenth of the price of his first stint in Detroit, and most importantly, we have outs should we need them.

Football is also going finally, and the Packers have already lost two of their backup offensive linemen for the season: Kevin Barry and Adrian Klemm. Not a great way to get things rolling, but football's back and I'm geeked. The NFL Network is showing Green Bay's intrasquad scrimmage this weekend, and it's going to be just amazing to see those green and gold uniforms again.

Favre called this the "most talented team" he has ever played on. He clarified that the 96 team was obviously better, but that was more because of experience rather than talent. Still, I think I'll take a team with Reggie White, Sean Jones, Santana Dotson, and Gilbert Brown in their front four. The 1996 team was the first team since the undefeated Dolphins team to lead the league in points for and fewest points allowed, and I want to say ESPN had a study that showed they were the most dominant team in NFL history.

I do agree with Favre that they're going to be a lot better than people think. The linebacking corps went from a weakness to a strength with the additions of AJ Hawk, Abdul Hodge (He really could be the steal of the draft), and Ben Taylor. They led the league in fewest passing yards allowed, and added Charles Woodson and Marquand Manual back deep.

I'm really looking forward to this season, and even if things fall apart again, I'm still going to just enjoy watching Brett Favre for one more year. There's never going to be another Favre, and it's time to just savor watching him while I still can. And December 21st I'll be at what could very well be his last game at Lambeau Field.

Football!!!

One last thing: We haven't heard too much about Pat Kane's upcoming decision, but Bret from GBW says that he's heard about some potentially positive factors that are in Michigan's favor. At the other end of the spectrum, the Evilanche have been in contact with Hensick. That'd be bad.