Michigan 2, Ohio 0
Hockey dominance against the Buckeye State
The battle between the states has been most visible and heavily covered in what is likely the greatest rivalry in sports: the University of Michigan and Ohio State matchup at the end of the Big Ten football season. The evil genius Jim Tressell has put a stranglehold on that series, winning the last four in a row and 6 out of 7.
Evil Tress: At the age of 14, a Zoroastrian named Wilma ritualistically shaved my testicles — there really is nothing like a shorn scrotum — it’s breathtaking… I suggest you try it.
New football coach Rich Rodriguez gives Michigan fans hope as the Buckeyes have struggled to stop spread-based offenses. With that being said, The Game has been the focal point of what has been a pretty impressive run of state dominance by the Buckeye State of late. Or state rape as the gents over at Battle of California like to say.
Just last summer LeBron James’ star fully ascended when he made Flip Saunders his property and knocked the Detroit Pistons out of the playoffs. So long as the Cavs can keep Bron Bron they are going to be a force in the Central Division and Eastern Conference. This could become a regular occurrence during Pistons-Cavs games.
The trend continued in baseball with the Tribe claiming the Central Division title over Detroit last season. At least the Tigers have a recent World Series appearance to their credit and have re-loaded in the offseason. If they can get their bullpen squared away they are in good position to return the pecking order to its rightful state with Detroit sitting atop the division and being a serious contender to win a championship.
And then finally, of course, we have the Detroit Lions. While we can ridicule Browns fans for the fact their owner moved the team to Baltimore, in reality this hasn’t been much of a rivalry due largely to the fact Cleveland is in the AFC and the fact the Lions are a team that simply hold no trump cards over any other team in professional sports - let alone the NFL. Hell, even Los Angeles football fans can mock Detroit Lions fans and they don’t even have a team anymore!
So it was nice to see two Michigan teams come out on top yesterday, one in a fairly minor way and another in pretty impressive fashion. First the Red Wings knocked off the Columbus Blue Jackets 4-1 and while this wasn’t a huge accomplishment they did hit a couple of impressive milestones in the process.
Mike Babcock became the first coach in NHL history to lead a team in his first three seasons as coach to 50 wins in each of those seasons. He also became the first coach in Red Wings history to have three 50 win seasons. This accomplishment is impressive even with the fact teams are rewarded with “wins” when they win the shootout skills competition. In the past games that were tied after overtime ended in ties. Detroit does have four shootout wins, so in the old NHL they’d currently have 46 wins.
Pavel Datsyuk tallied two assists and a goal in the game and in the process racked up his 90th point this season. Steve Yzerman and Sergei Fedorov were the last Red Wings players to crack 90 points in a season and they hit that plateau back during the 1995-96 season. Henrik Zetterberg is on pace to put up 92 points this season so that would further cement the Euro Twins’ status as dominant players.
Bruce MacLeod takes a look at Pavel’s domination of one stat in particular: takeaways. He is nearly lapping the field with his incredible ability to steal the puck from opposing players. He also scored a pretty sick short-handed goal in yesterday’s game.
Datsyuk deserves some serious consideration for the Selke trophy for the best defensive forward. It would sure be a nice way to tell all those people who think the fact he’s won the Lady Byng means he’s soft to just STFU.
The Euro Twins have largely been paired up over the team’s three game winning streak, beginning with a third period comeback to knock off the BJs on March 19th. The thing I will watch is whether Mike Babcock keeps them together when Valtteri Filppula, Tomas Holmstrom and Dan Cleary return to the lineup. Cleary is expected back on Tuesday and Homer and Fil should be back next week.
But the bigger win of course was the University of Michgan ice hockey team knocking off #3 Miami of Ohio for the CCHA tournament championship. This Michigan squad won the regular season and tournament championships and will head into the NCAA tournament as the top seed amongst the 16 teams that will play for the national championship.
It looks like they will head out East and play Niagara in Albany, New York. It would have been nice if they would have been in the Madison bracket as I could easily check out the games since it is a short car ride for me. With the Badgers making the tournament perhaps it is for the best that Michigan was shipped out east. Hopefully the games will be televised. The Maize and Blue are on a Red Wings-like run of 18 straight playoff appearances.
The CCHA was top-heavy with four very good teams. There is a chance that three of those teams could make it to the Frozen Four. The only teams that could potentially meet one another prior to the Frozen Four would be MSU and Notre Dame in the West regional. That bracket is pretty brutal though with Colorado College and New Hampshire being sent there.
Kevin Porter has likely earned the Hobey Baker with the remarkable job he’s done captaining the Wolverines as they rebounded from a disappointing NCAA tournament appearance last season and the loss of TJ Hensick and Jack Johnson. He’s probably not the most athletically gifted player amongst the finalists but he’s one point behind Nathan Gerbe for most points in the NCAA. That would follow Porter being named CCHA player of the year. Red Berenson was named CCHA coach of the year and Max Pacioretty has claimed CCHA rookie of the year honors.
Henrik Zetterberg Kevin Porter Max Pacioretty Michigan Hockey Pavel Datsyuk Red Berenson Red Wings sergei fedorov Steve YzermanNo Comments
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