Anyway. If you’re anything like me and happen to be a recently-graduated, working-full-time, highly immature grownup (although even if you aren’t any of the above), you probably enjoy fun things like these to get you through the day until 99% of the population of the State of Michigan has a date with the boys wearing the Winged Wheel tonight.

There is a severe shortage of caffeine in this office today. Actually, there is NO caffeine. Sure, there’s an overflowing box of decaf coffee packets in the copy room, but there are NO MORE packets of caffeinated coffee. Which means that this girl, who doesn’t have the time or money to grab Biggby on my way into work, is thinking 9pm ET is looking pretty darned far away (although this blog post and a gigantic coffee on lunch break might help that situation).

So I’m taking quick breaks throughout the morning for hockey-related pick-me-ups that induce giggles and giddy spasms of nerves for the game tonight. Which may or may not be a good thing.

First of all. How much do we love Jimmy Howard for this? Poor guy, rendered speechless by a legend. I mean, this spry-looking old man has a statue and an entrance named after him in the Joe Louis Arena. And all he had to say was, “forwards don’t like this guy,” and Jimmy was stumbling over words and forgetting what he was going to say.

And there’s this gem of an article from one of my favorite columnists with ESPN, who lists 50 REALLY FABULOUS reasons to love the NHL. For someone who is constantly arguing with diehard, fight-you-tooth-and-nail basketball and football fans, this list is an arsenal of comebacks and things about hockey that just can’t be duplicated in any other sport.

And here’s proof of Mike Babock’s slap on the wrist to our pal Justin Abdelkader, who just can’t seem to stop taking silly, easily avoided penalties at nerve-grindingly critical times in the game. Come on, Justin. Go back to scoring in the clutch (as we all know you can do) rather than taking penalties in the clutch! How many times do I need to remind the world of THIS:

Holy moly what I wouldn’t give to see that happen again.

Random question, though. At the end of the article about Abdelkader and his penalties, Bertuzzi is quoted as saying that he’s never seen guys so excited to spend seven hours on a plane. Is a direct, chartered flight from Detroit to San Jose REALLY seven hours? How have I not known this? I would’ve said five, maybe.

Speaking of five…only FIVE…TIMES TWO more hours.

In Other News:

The Colorado Avalanche re-signed Milan Hejduk yesterday. The contract is only for one year, though. Some people were saying that they would keep doing that until he retired, because, at 35, he’s gettin’ up there. In the hockey sense, at least. Although he seems like the type who would play into his forties if you ask me. Either way, I’m glad they’re keeping him around. Now that their captain (and the last remaining Avalanche player to have played for the Quebec Nordiques before they moved to Colorado) has retired, they’re desperately short on those father-figure type players.

Hejduk aside, I already have my sights set on who I want to be the Avs’ captain next year. But I don’t really get any say in it. Hejduk would make a great captain. But so would John-Michael Liles. Laugh all you want, but he’s a Spartan and, well, you know what they say about Spartans:

“Spartans will change the course of history.”

Aside from making anybody who has called Michigan State University home for their college career feel like a total BAMF, this makes sense. After the season the Avalanche had, they need someone to turn them around. Therefore, JML, a SPARTAN, will CHANGE THE COURSE OF THE AVS’ HISTORY.

That’s supposed to be funny.

More later, folks.

P.S. A friend of mine on Twitter posted this video in regards to the outcome of tonight’s game. Watch and laugh.

This, for example:

At around 00:11 in the video, little Matty admits that might have had a little too much fun the night before.

Think of this as the equivalent of mike-ing me. Everything that suddenly pops into my head is about to get typed and posted. It makes my Twitter feed less polluted so that people who don’t like hockey won’t unfollow me for all the #hockeytweets.

So here we go. Everything you read after this point is a random in-game thought. Some of them might be intelligent. Some of them might be just plain stupid.

——

-Nick Lidstrom eye doctor commercial: how much would YOU like to say, “the same guy that pokes around in my eyes also pokes around in Nick Lidstrom’s?” Mmmmm.

-Kid in a pre-game video with a Sharks jersey with a red circle and slash painted through the logo on the chest. Question: why would you buy a jersey and then destroy it? I mean, I realize they’re a rival team….jerseys are damn expensive!

-Mike Modano is playing tonight. All I think about him when I look at him is his little cameo appearance in Mighty Ducks when they went to a Minnesota North Stars practice and game.

-FUN FACT: Mike Modano was the FIRST OVERALL draft pick of the 1988 NHL Entry Draft. I did not know this. Apparently is IS possible to be a first-overall draft pick and not have the whole universe collectively drool over you like people drool over Sindy Crosby. Oops. Did I misspell that?

-THEY’RE PLAYING LOSE YOURSELF. I can hear it over the TV.

-National Anthem: is Todd Bertuzzi chewing on his helmet or kissing it? Also, I love Justin Abdelkader. But you already knew that.

-I follow Logan Couture and Devin Setoguchi on Twitter. I have to keep reminding myself that as fun as they are to follow on Twitter, they’re the bad guys tonight.

-I LOVE replays of Kronwall hits. He’s a freakin’ monster out there.

-They say Clowe has the flu, but are skeptical over why he didn’t travel? I have to intervene here. If he had the vomit kind of flu, I wouldn’t have let him travel either. A) that’s gross B) I bet it spreads like wildfire. Wouldn’t want the whole team being sick right now, would they? Although…it’d be great for Detroit!

-DID CLEARY HIT HIS HEAD?! He’s lookin’ a little spaced out. Or maybe he always looks like that? No…he’s just got some crazy eyes.

They look like lasers.

-There should’ve been a goal there.

-WHOAAA. So the shot from the blueline should’ve gone in.

-I’m trying to decide what’s better: putting a lot of pressure on the Sharks in their zone so early in the first…or getting a lot of pressure in our own zone during the first and then coming back to apply pressure to THEM later. What tires a team out less? Applying pressure, or fighting it off?

-Wait. Are Cleary’s eyes Photoshopped in that picture? Because they definitely weren’t that blue in that interview clip they just showed.

-Kronwall just…really likes to knock people to the ground. It’s kind of awesome.

-I’m starting to talk to the TV screen. #ohboy

-Penalty kill after the commercial break.

-The Motor City Casino commercial is really cool. It’s one of those things that makes me hope that 50 years down the road Detroit is a sparkling mecca of awesomeness like Chicago or New York. But it’ll probably take longer than 50 years. And I do think that even if it does become a sparkling mecca of awesomeness, it needs to keep some of the grit and abandoned car factories. They’re so beautiful in such a derelict, urban kind of way. I’ll stop now. #easilydistracted

-WOOO! 4-on-4!!

-13 seconds of powerplay? Get itttttt.

-I only like Devin Setoguchi because we have the same name. Minus that one pesky letter “I” that should be an “O.” That’s why I liked Devin Thomas on the MSU football team so much my freshman year, too.

-Sharks being outshot 17-5 and took 9.5 minutes to make their second shot after they finally made their first one. Like I said…this might be a good thing, provided the Wings have the stamina tonight to keep applying pressure like this and the Sharks don’t have a second wind.

-Don’t touch Datsyuk!!!!!!! Jerk.

-I love Brian Rafalski. And I also wonder if media coaches teach players to always say the same things. This is a legitimate question. If I ever meet an NHL player, I will be asking him that question.

Second Period

-Someday, I want to be cool enough to stand in that little gap between the benches. I’d be way less annoying than Pierre McGuire is when he stands there.

-I’m surprised at how many empty seats there are. Is it because it’s a Tuesday night? Or because people are still in line for the bathroom? If I weren’t poor, I would’ve totally helped out with the empty seat situation by going to this game.

-If Drew Miller had been five inches back from where he was when he made that shot, it might’ve gone in. Rats.

-Twitter just told me that there’s a livestream of the Glendale City Council meeting that will decide—

-Oh wait. A fight! I can’t decide who did more damage in that one.

-Anyway. The city council meeting in Glendale, AZ that decides whether the Phoenix Coyotes stay or move back to Winnipeg next season is being livestreamed tonight. Might watch that. Because I’m legit interested.

-CLEARY…how in the WORLD did that not go in?! I was already starting my goal celly!

-The Wings have had Niemi beaten SO many times in this game and just can’t seem to get it in! Weird! Come on, guys!

Anyway. Welcome back.

Some people read the New York Times while they drink their coffee every morning. Not me. I scroll through NHL.com and The Hockey News online, get Bleacher Report sent to my email inbox, and follow NHL teams on Twitter.

And now that I’m a Real Person, I can do things like spend hours and hours after my 8-5 job (professional internship is my preferred description of it, as it is only a continuation of my internship from the past year, filling time until I move away in July and get my dream job sometime in August) staring into space and thinking about things like the NHL Draft, how I’m going to afford hockey tickets next season to the pro team in whatever city I end up in, and other silly things like whether Claude Giroux and Danny Briere are in love and whether David Koci will ever read MY book once it’s published.

So. Just to ease y’all back into What I Think About Hockey, I’ll start small.

I am a Colorado Avalanche fan. How? Long story. Involving a solo trip to Denver last winter to research for my book, $35 eleventh-row seats to the right of the goal, John-Michael Liles (like I said, I was traveling alone, so seeing another Spartan was like seeing a friend), an exciting OT win over the Senators, and the thinner air in the Mile High City causing my brain to go haywire long enough to fall in love with the team that happens to have (or perhaps HAD) the most bitter rivalry ever with my home team, the Detroit Red Wings.

Oopsie.

Don’t worry. I sat on my hands in front of the TV when they played each other in January. I didn’t root for either team. I wear my Red Wings sweatshirt over my Avalanche t-shirt (hideous color combo, by the way, but I never said I was a fashion expert). And next year, when Denver is my hometown (hopefully) and the Avalanche play the Wings at the Pepsi Center, I’m going to wear an MSU hockey jersey to the game instead. Because both teams have Spartans, and Spartan hockey is where it all began for me anyway.

So.

Last night, the Nashville Predators were knocked out of the playoffs at the hands of the Vancouver Canucks. The Canucks have been pretty interesting this year. For awhile, they seemed like some kind of maniacal powerhouse lead by the scientific anomalies named Henrik and Daniel Sedin, who clearly share a brain, can’t function without one another, and are kind of creepy (a friend of mine of Twitter actually said they were the reason he’s wanted Vancouver to lose since the beginning). The thing is, in the playoffs, Vancouver hasn’t been that impressive. If they were REALLY impressive, they would’ve swept Chicago then swept Nashville (who wasn’t even supposed to make the playoffs anyway). But they didn’t.

And as gimmicky as Nashville is…

(quick tangent: don’t even try to tell me they wanted Mike Fisher because of his mad hockey skillz. That trade had Carrie Underwood written all over it. And the close-ups of her up in the stands during the brief ten minutes I actually managed to catch of the game last night solidified that)

…I love a good underdog story, and it would’ve been cool to see them keep going, especially if they could’ve beaten Vancouver and the Creepy Sedins in the process. Not to mention the fact that if I were a team that wasn’t supposed to make the playoffs and I suddenly found myself facing the Red Wings (who are going to tie the series, win it in Game 7 and advance to the conference finals. Confidence!) who have made the playoffs for 20 consecutive seasons, I would shrivel up in intimidation and let them take me in four games. Unfortunately, that’s not going to be the case. Blame it on the Sedins. The Western Conference final is going to come down to Vancouver and whomever wins the SJS/DET series.

I will be in front of the TV tonight, mark my words.

More later.

Pause for celly.

It's even better because it's after a win against UofM. (DEB/2011)

Once I finally forced my eyes to recover from the burning they suffered from looking at the hideous yellow Michigan jerseys that kept walking in the entrance at which I was working, I was able to get down to business and focus on this game that had me in fits of anticipation, nerves, and hysteria all day. But seriously, let’s just talk about this Michigan thing real quick. First of all, that yellow color of the replica jerseys that every Walmart Wolverine apparently owns is definitely NOT maize. Maize is corn, right? Shouldn’t it be like, a nice corn color? Newsflash: it’s not. Also, for a school that claims to be superior to us in every way, shape, and form, and who undoubtedly mocks us for getting our start as a “Farming School” (Michigan AGRICULTURAL College, anyone?), they are certainly obsessed with their corn. They snub their noses at our agricultural-ness, but we’re not the ones who chose one of our school colors to be CORN.

Anyway. On a hockey-related note, in case you missed it (although I don’t know how you could), they slaughtered us a month ago. I don’t know WHAT happened at the Big Chill on December 11. Actually, at this point, it’s a distant memory and I’d like to keep it that way. Someday, I’ll look back on it and say, “oh yeah, cool, I was part of the world record attendance at a hockey game in college.” But for now, gah, it’s just painful to reminisce about.

Either way, what more of a confidence killer could you ask for? Losing 5-0 (a shutout at that) in front of a record-shattering crowd comprised primarily of rival fans on the field that Dick Rod and Denard call home? Vomit.

Poor team, probably went home, cried themselves to sleep, and spent all of Finals Week (which they had off from practice) cursing the day they first put on hockey skates, fell in love with the sport, became good enough to play in college, and subsequently set themselves up for such a heartbreak.

Okay, that might be taking it to the extreme. But seriously. It was obvious that something needed to be done. We needed changes.

Changes were made. There were a few surprising (and strange) lineup swaps to start the game out. The first was the new man in the  net.

We love Drew Palmisano. Don’t get me wrong. To  me, he’s kind of a last connection to the greatness that was Jeff Lerg. He came in during Lerg’s senior year and was his student, of sorts. He learned the ways of Lerg and he idolizes Ryan Miller. What a great combination. Right?

Well. Sort of. There’s something he lacks. And I don’t pretend to be an expert on hockey, hockey players, and the subconscious science of hockey, but I think he lacks CONFIDENCE.  He makes saves. But are they solid, brick-wall, snap-’em-out-of-the-air like it’s second nature saves? Not always.

Will Yanakeff, the freshman who took Palmisano’s place last night, can do it. And after his impressive performance in goal during the GLI game against Michigan Tech last week with 22 saves and a victory to boot, I think it was only right of Comley to give him a chance against a rival that…well…you remember the Big Chill.

Aside from having a #37 in net instead of a #29, there were a few tweaks to the starting lineup and to the second and third defensive pairings. Comley stuck with his typical Grassi/Krug pairing on defense, but threw out two semi-unfamiliar forwards to start: Lee Reimer and…wait for it…Joey Shean (who, I’ve decided, should be a spokesperson on an infomercial for some product called “Benched to Starter in Just One Month!” as he’s spend the majority of his career watching from the stands. Not anymore.)

Anyway. Once the game started, one thing was certain. We outplayed our opponents.

There were points during the game when I looked into the penalty box to see which Michigan player was in there and was surprised to see that there WEREN’T any Michigan players in there, we were playing even strength, and we had the puck on their end for minutes at a time. We were playing like we had the man advantage. And we didn’t. It was impressive.

The game was tied at 0-0 going into the first intermission.

The second period brought the first goal, a pretty slapshot from Torey Krug that found its way past all the nonsense in front of the net and dropped neatly inside, right where it needed to be. It happened. Spartans scored first. What a confidence-booster.

Michigan tied it up on a power-play goal while Brock Shelgren was in the box for roughing.

Which, by the way, there was an awful lot of during this game.

How much do we love hockey fights? (DEB/2011)

Between goalies sucker punching MSU players in the face (Shawn Hunwick might be about four feet tall, but that doesn’t stop him from liking to push people around. He took a double-minor for that one), Dustin Gazley just getting really pissed off all the time (he was. No lie. He was even tellin’ the refs what was up. Which got him a minor and a ten-minute misconduct), and everybody hooking, holding, and elbowing one another, there was a lot of action in the penalty boxes.

But it gave MSU plenty of time on the man advantage. Torey Krug’s second goal of the night (ANOTHER pretty slapshot from way out) came on an MSU 5-on-3. He banged another one in about five minutes later when Michigan’s Chad Langlais was in the box for interference (an interference call which was actually rather hilarious, as he threw himself in front of a fast-skating Torey Krug, sending Krug flying through the air towards MSU’s net. Yanakeff somehow hurdled Krug’s body as it sailed across the ice and crashed neatly inside our net. Sorry, Langlais, I know Krug is small, but putting HIM in our net does not count as a goal for your team). It was Krug’s first hat trick. And he’s a defenseman. And we decided that he definitely took some 98-mile-per-hour slapshot lessons from Jeff Petry before Petry left for Edmonton and started tearing it up in the NHL. Because every single one of his goals were absolute rockets.

But, of course, Michigan couldn’t just give up and say “YOU WIN.” We had somehow managed to stuff three players into the penalty box (Gazley with his ten-minute, Chris Forfar for hooking, and Tim Buttery for a fabulous holding penalty that caused a Michigan player to crash to the ground). Buttery was on his way out of the box when Michigan scored and made everybody in the building nervous.

With just a couple minutes left in the final period, Michigan pulled their tiny goalie and used their extra man to tie up the game, much to the hysterical dismay of the now-rowdy Michigan State crowd.

Nothing like five minutes of free hockey.

The win came with three minutes left in OT, a tip-in from Daultan Leveille on a fast shot from Matt Grassi. Then all hell broke loose. Everyone in the crowd jumped on the person next to them, the team exploded from the bench and jumped on Grassi (who, I think, thought the goal was entirely his), and all the Michigan fans went home crying to the tune of “Little Sister!” and “Rich Rodriguez!” chants from the MSU student section.

The bottom line here is that we needed that. We needed that going into tonight (when we play UofM in their yucky home arena in Ann Arbor) and going into the whole rest of the season. We beat Michigan.

I’ll be radio-ing the game tonight, as we only get seven TV channels here. But I’ll write something afterwards, I’m sure. Stay tuned. GO GREEN.

I’m coming off a BUSY semester that was SO filled with academic writing and work on my romance novel that spending the time to stalk various NHL games on Icetracker, take notes at MSU hockey games and turn them into something tangible, and sort through files and files of pictures to accompany everything just ended up taking the back burner.

But a few things have hit me over this disgustingly relaxing Winter Break.

Well, one thing, really.

I miss pontificating about hockey.

I realized it at the two Avalanche games I attended on my trip out to Colorado (see www.devonebarrett.com for THAT story). I realized it as I was tweeting (@devonbarrett) obsessively as I watched the Spartans in the Great Lakes Invitational at the Joe Louis Arena the past two days. And I am continuously reminded of it as I catch up with the hockey world day in and day out, taking time to read all the articles and blogs that I didn’t read as I worked diligently on school stuff last semester.

I have opinions. Things catch my eye that don’t necessarily catch other people’s eyes. I have thoughts. Sometimes, I even think I could coach a team better than the coach. And I really love being able to write it out when that happens.

So I apologize. For being one of those bloggers, who swears she’s serious about something, swears she LOVES something so much, and goes all out on it for a little while then fizzles out. I’m not that person. I just…had to re-prioritize.

But I miss this too much for it to not be a priority anymore. So I’m coming back.

Pause for celly. Because I know you’re thrilled.

Now. A few reminders.

• These are just my opinions. Sometimes, they might be kind of dumb. But that doesn’t mean I’m dumb. I’m just…idealistic. Roll with it. It’s entertaining.
• I don’t have press credentials. So I do the best I can as someone who is basically forbidden from talking to any athletic figure in an interviewish capacity.
• I have crushes. Sometimes. But that doesn’t make me any less legit as a writer. Some hockey men are good looking. I have eyes. But I’m not a jersey chaser, nor do I ever intend to use my writing as an excuse to be one. I love hockey, dammit.
• All the photos on this blog, unless otherwise noted, are mine, taken by my camera, with my lens that I’ve cleverly smuggled into every professional sporting venue I’ve been in since I got it. Don’t steal my pictures. If you want them, either ask me for them nicely, or buy a camera like mine so you can take your own pictures like mine.

I think that’s all for now.

Get ready for exciting things, everybody.

P.S. I’m always looking for freelance and/or permanent employment in the sportswriting (or ANY writing) field. If you know of anything, feel free to share it with me or put in a good word.

P.P.S. I’m also ALWAYS looking for people to interview. My lack of press creds makes this difficult. But if you ARE somebody in the hockey world, or KNOW somebody in the hockey world, that would like to have an easygoing, semi-hilarious conversation with me as material for my blog, let me know! I’m not a journalist, so any interview I conduct will be out of pure interest rather than sketchy journalistic agendas.

The Boys are back in town, rockin' the new sweaters, no less. (DB/Two Minutes for Embellishment)

Finally.

Yesterday afternoon, the Spartans took on the…uh…Spartans. In an intra-squad scrimmage game. Due to the disgusting number of people in East Lansing who do NOT know how to operate a motor vehicle, I rolled in just in time for starting lineups. Let me tell you, it was SO good to hear the Munn Ice Arena announcer again.

My camera and I got to work early (learning a few lessons along the way about adjusting the ISO so the ice doesn’t look too white and making the camera focus on the players, rather than the scratches on the glass that stood between me and them), snapping away. It’s going to take a different vantage point and a LOT of practice to get as many decent shots as I’d like, but just like shooting practice makes a hockey player more likely to get goals, shooting practice makes an aspiring sportswriter more likely to get pretty pictures for her blog.

But I digress.

Rick Comley’s starting lineup for the Green Team didn’t surprise me in the slightest except for one little piece. He had sophomore Derek Grant, junior Daultan Leveille, and senior Dustin Gazley (Gazley and Leveille have ALWAYS meshed well together, since the very beginning when Comley had them together on a line with Andrew Rowe-I think it was Andrew Rowe…two years ago?) in the forward spots and Torey Krug as the first defenseman. But his choice on the second defenseman was a really fabulous surprise. I’d been waiting for the surprise of who he’d put up there with Krug in place of Jeff Petry, who played defense with Krug ALL SEASON last year.

The anticipation was well-rewarded. Junior defenseman Tim Buttery got the start for the Green Team. After a season of on-and-off ice time for him last year, (he and Brock Shelgren pretty much evenly split the season, taking turns being paired with Matt Crandell or Zack Josepher) it was quite a beautiful sight to see him on the ice.

The white team’s starting lineup was predictable too. The “Blood Line” is what they call it, consisting of sophomore Dean Chelios, junior Trevor Nill, and sophomore Brett Perlini, whose daddies are all big-deals in hockey (Chelios is obvious, Nill’s dad is Jim Nill, the assistant GM of the Red Wings, and Perlini’s father, Fred, played for the Maple Leafs for awhile before bouncing around the AHL and finally the BHL over in England). This was the line that was responsible for a percentage of the explosiveness that was the uber-high-scoring GLI Championship last season. On defense, Comley chose sophomores Matt Grassi and Zack Josepher, who have always had good chemistry as defensive partners.

Junior goalie Drew Palmisano started out with the Green team, Kyle McMahon started with White. They switched at the game’s halfway point, only with newbie freshman goalie Will Yanakeff taking over for Green and Palmisano changing into White. No matter the confusion of the situation, ALL the goalies looked good and kept the whole game to just four goals total, between both teams (one was an empty-netter).

After the game, every player on the team had the chance to try a shootout goal. Some of them tried some pretty ridiculous moves. Dean Chelios’ fancy bit of work paid off, he put in a nice top-shelf goal after a pretty snazzy fake-out. He had a nice little wraparound goal during the game too. Interestingly, during the game itself, he was the only person to score on Drew Palmisano. Perhaps his ability to put ‘em away yesterday is a sign of good things to come?

Other than that, I noticed a few interesting things about this game. Whether you want to hear them or whether you don’t, here they are:

• Jake Chelios has never played a game as a defenseman, and yet he looked pretty impressive out there. They recruited him from the Chicago Steel, where he was a forward with a RIDICULOUS scoring line (12-22-34 in 52 games) and the title of “second leading scorer.” So now, he’s a defenseman for Michigan State…a defenseman who knows how to score goals, but is big enough (at 6-2, 185) to do some damage if he needs to.
  

  Tim Buttery tries his shootout skills on Drew Palmisano. Palmisano obviously knows him too well. (DB/Two Minutes for Embellishment)

• Drew Palmisano knows every players’ shots. It was really interesting to watch him during the shootout contest after the game. Before a player even approached him, he knew how far from the net to be, which directions to turn to follow them as they approached, and whether they were going to make a high shot or a low shot. He had to make a few silly diving saves, and a few shots just failed altogether and he didn’t have to do much, but most of his saves were calm, cool, collected, and obviously predicted. I thought about this for awhile and realized that OF COURSE he knows what everybody’s shootout shot looks like. They shoot on him in practice ALL THE TIME.
• Will Yanakeff is huge. I mean, comparatively. I think I’m still experiencing post-Lerg-ism. Every goalie looks huge compared to Jeff Lerg. And yet Jeff Lerg’s shoes were WAY bigger than any other goalie’s in the world and everyone is STILL scrambling to fill them. But seriously, he’s 6-2, which even makes normal-sized Drew Palmisano seem tiny.
• Dustin Gazley. That’s all. It’s so funny, he’s always been a GREAT player. He’s small, but he’s SO fast and SO physical, and he really does have a special scoring touch, but he’s always lived in the shadow (pun intended, because they’re tall and he’s…well…not) of Corey Tropp, Jeff Petry, and Andrew Rowe, his now-departed linemates. Not that that’s a bad thing, but it’s definitely Gaze’s time to shine.
• Torey Krug is a GREAT captain. When I think of a spark-plug, it has Krug’s face on it. He’s only the second captain in MSU history to wear the “C” as a sophomore, but he wears it well. He’s enthusiastic, charismatic, AND good at the sport.

Although the pace was somewhat laid-back and the players obviously found it incredibly weird to be playing against one another (there was one post-goal celly where I thought maybe they didn’t know who to hug because they’re all, technically, on the same team), it was SO wonderful to be back in Munn, hearing the sound of bodies being smashed against the boards. I even missed the sound of the horn that goes off when they score. It was particularly loud due to the lack of people at the game, but it was good to hear all the same.

T-minus four days and counting until MSU hits the ice again, in an exhibition game against Western Ontario. Let’s see if their successes yesterday carry over against real opponents. And let’s see what they have up their sleeves line-wise. Interestingly, in a postgame interview, Comley mentioned that he was happy with the top lines on both teams. Does that mean we’ll be seeing more of these lines? Will Tim Buttery be a regular defensive partner next to Torey Krug, helping fill the shoes of Jeff Petry? Stay tuned. I can barely stand the anticipation. This is why I love hockey.

See you Friday…if not before.

I was also reunited with the city of Detroit which, if you read my lame, silly little article on THW yesterday, meant quite a lot to me. Because of my strange Detroit love affair. There’s a story here, actually.

So I have this fabulous camera (I’ll spare you my gushing over how much I love my camera). I was stoked to be taking it to the Wings game and testing out the telephoto lens. Just outside Detroit, I saw this car with a mural of the city of Detroit airbrushed on the back of it. Not even kidding. So as I’m cruising down the highway in bumper-to-bumper traffic at about 45 miles an hour, I whip out my camera to snap a picture. Snap. Perfect. Then I glance down at the view screen and see the horrible message. The message no photographer wants to see: “NO MEMORY CARD IN CAMERA.”

Long story short, I ran around Detroit for 45 minutes before the game (in 50 mile per hour winds, on the phone with my mom, who was freaking out about me wandering around Detroit IN BROAD DAYLIGHT alone) looking for a corner store that sold memory cards. I failed. I gave up. Then I went to The Joe.

I learned this: preseason games are kind of weird, no matter how you look at them. The Joe was NOT packed, the crowd was NOT as loud as it has been, and a few of my favorite guys were NOT on the ice. But it’s hockey, after a long summer of NO hockey, so I wasn’t complaining. Everyone there was happy to be there. People were skipping down the sidewalk on the way into the Joe. All over the concourse, people were smiling at being reunited with their team.

My notes from the game (like I said: I’m THAT girl, with the notebook) are a little bizarre. I only wrote them 28-ish hours ago…but I’ve already lost the capability of translating them into something that resembles English. I do remember a few distinct things I wanted to talk about, though.

PEOPLE ON THE ICE:

Justin Abdelkader and Drew Miller (my Spartans!) weren’t playing…nor was my favorite defenseman Brian Rafalski. But let me tell you, not having to worry about watching them gave me the chance to really watch Brendan Smith. Smith is a defenseman who left behind the chance at a potentially amazing senior year at Wisconsin to join Detroit this season.

Pause for a massive digression: I’ve encountered him before, as he spent three years at University of Wisconsin. I attribute a large percentage of the reason MSU has lost to Wisconsin in the College Hockey Showcase for the past three years to Brendan Smith (although MSU hasn’t beaten Wisconsin since the 2004 Showcase…so with or without Smith, Wisconsin has just had the better team). He’s one of those incredible defensemen that can be a defenseman, score goals, AND rough people up, and he transitions between those roles without missing a beat. MSU needs more of those.

Anyway. Smith wow-ed me. Detroit knew what they were doing when they picked him up in the first round of the 2007 NHL entry draft (27th overall). Friday night was definitely the first night he’s ever skated in a professional game (PRESEASON professional, but professional nonetheless) and I wouldn’t have guessed it if I wasn’t familiar with him.

I mean, I’ve heard plenty of defensemen being called “smooth-skating” (in fact, I’m pretty sure I expressed my love for that label in a previous post at some point). Brendan Smith could be the poster boy for a “smooth-skating” defenseman. Everything he did just flowed. Changing directions, checking, pushing his way past a Blackhawk in front of the Red Wings net, intercepting the puck, shooting the puck…it was seamless. He may not have been as fast as he could’ve been, but he looked comfortable and he made everything look easy. I don’t know whether Detroit plans on keeping him in Detroit or shipping him off to Grand Rapids for awhile (he has the potential to do big things there), but either way, I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s a regular on the Wings roster sooner rather than later. I’m thinking his transition to the pros will look a lot like Justin Abdelkader’s did.

THE GOALIE THING

I can’t think of any other way to describe this situation, other than “the goalie thing.” It was pretty cool.

So it was late in the 3rd, we were ahead, the Blackhawks WISHED they were ahead, so they were scrambling around on our end trying to make something happen. Somehow, Joey MacDonald, the new goalie (who was put in for Jimmy Howard at the start of the third) (and who, also, as I just discovered, has a pretty interesting history of being bounced around the NHL) lost his stick. The stick flew right out of his hands and ended up way the heck across the ice, almost in the corner to his right. So here he is, in the goal, without a stick.

Out of nowhere, one of our skaters (Cleary, perhaps? It happened so fast!) flies past MacDonald and hands him his stick! So here’s our dear goalie, in goal with a non-goalie stick, during a frantic scramble of Blackhawks trying to score. Finally, the Wings cleared the puck and MacDonald found a suitable time to skate out of the net and into the corner to retrieve his own stick.

Bad idea. The Blackhawks came tearing back down the ice towards our now empty night. The crowd started yelling. MacDonald grabbed his stick and high-tailed it back to the net, where he threw Cleary’s stick behind him, into the net, and was re-set in his place with his own stick by the time the Blackhawks managed a shot. Which he blocked. Without missing a beat.

I don’t know why this business fascinated me so much, but it just never occurred to me that another skater would have the presence of mind to say, “dude, my goalie doesn’t have a stick, better skate by him and hand it off to him so he can block shots with it!” Actually, it never occurred to me that such a thing was even allowed. But it was further proof that hockey requires a disgusting amount of multitasking and the ability to think about approximately a hundred different things at once.

Speaking of multitasking and thinking about approximately a hundred different things at once, I am drowning in homework. Hence this long post. I hope you’re enjoying the results of my procrastination.

I really need to go now. Homework is calling, and this thing is over 1100 words. Ridiculous.

One week and three hours until I’m reunited with Michigan State Hockey. I miss it.

The bottom line here is that tonight, I will be reunited with Detroit hockey. The Red Wings play their first home preseason against the Blackhawks tonight, and I WILL BE THERE. After not watching hockey live-in-person since late March, it is about freaking time.

So yes, I’ll be THAT girl. The one sitting with friends in section whatever-the-heck-it-is, with a notebook balanced on my knee and my DSLR camera hidden away in my bag ready to capture the amazing. Then I’ll jump out of my ancient red vinyl seat and go crazy any time Justin Abdelkader or Drew Miller touches the ice and people will judge me when I yell, “SPARTANS REPRESENT!” and do my interpretation of a fist-pump.

So stay tuned. Follow me on my newly created hockey Twitter (@DEBwriteshockey), because I’ll be tweeting from the game. Then look for a photo album, because this is my first foray into shooting hockey with my new camera. We’ll see how this works.

Go Wings. That’s all.

The bottom line here is that I’ve been busy and I’ve had a lack of hockey inspiration (save for the occasional sighting of Justin Abdelkader, running around on campus–yes, RUNNING–preparing for preseason camp with the Red Wings. And trust me, I was NOT going to blog solely about Justin Abdelkader. I’ve done that before and it just ends badly because I have an unreasonable crush on the man and I just end up sounding like an idiot. Like right now. Enough already.)

Justin Abdelkader aside, things are starting to pick up again. The Spartans have started their official practices, NHL teams are starting to put together rosters, rookies are playing in tournaments, and in just FIVE DAYS, the Red Wings will be playing at Consol Arena against our favorite love-to-hate team, the Penguins.

Speaking of rookie tournaments, apparently they stream them live online. I didn’t know this until Wednesday night when I was procrastinating on homework and happened upon a link that led me to Edmonton rookies versus San Jose rookies. I wasn’t too familiar with many of the players, and those are the two most random teams I could ever picture myself watching, but it was hockey, there were lots of fights, and I fell in love all over again. And, for what it’s worth, it was pretty crazy to finally see Taylor Hall play after hearing nothing but talk about him June and July during the draft mania. He’s kind of a badass.

But anyway. This season is going to be pretty interesting. MSU plays eighteen games at home, which is an outrageous amount. But they also play games in some pretty weird venues. Like The Big House. I’ve never been to UofM’s stadium before, but that’s where I’m going to be on December 11th as the Spartans and the blue and yellow demons down the road take to an ice rink smack dab in the middle of a football stadium. They’re re-creating the Cold War, played in Spartan Stadium in 2001, that broke the record for the largest crowd at a hockey game. As much as I hate to admit it, this game in the Michigan Stadium (being called The Big Chill–which makes me think of a Biggby Coffee beverage, not a hockey game) is going to blow the Cold War right out of the water. Because, again, as much as I hate to admit it, Michigan Stadium’s capacity for spectators is kind of massive.

But we have a few months to come to terms with that sad realization.

In the meantime, the Spartans start off their season in two weeks and one day with their annual inter-squad scrimmage, the Green and White game. The crowd for this game is usually pretty boring, but if you love hockey as much as I do, it’s like a refreshing drink of water after an eight mile run. Because it’s hockey. After five months without hockey.

The highlight of the Green and White game, without a doubt, is the shootout contest afterwards. The entire team gets a chance at a shot and the theatrics some of them add to their attempts to make a goal are absolutely ridiculous. You get bizarre fakeout moves, failed puck-flipping attempts, and things that look like they belong in a figure skating routine. I mean, hockey players doing ridiculous things? I’m so there.

Then the season starts out in earnest with one final exhibition game against Western Ontario, and a full, busy string of weekends after that with a two-game home series against Maine (who we split with last year) and a CCHA home series against Alaska.

Want to know something fabulous about the Alaska game on Friday, October 22? You heard it here first, just remember that. That Friday night is MSU’s annual MSU Basketball Izzone Campout for lower-bowl ticket eligibility. It’s truly a you-had-to-be-there kind of tradition that MSU outsiders most definitely don’t understand. Either way, as MSU Hockey is warming up on the ice in Munn, two-thousand students will be out on Munn Field partying all night in the name of MSU Basketball. Those two-thousand students are all invited, free of charge, to the hockey game.

That’s right. And whose idea was that? Oh, you know, it was mine. Everybody said “no” initially, and the concept was bounced around and convoluted so much that people have probably forgotten that it was my idea. But it was mine, all the same.

I have absolutely no idea how the heck they’re going to fit Izzone Campout into Munn, but it’s going to be a quite a sight to see.  Even if just a quarter of those students show up, the energy level inside Munn is going to out-energy just about any crowd that’s ever been in there. Win against Alaska? Simply because of their sheer terror of MSU’s most dedicated student basketball fans? It’s a pretty good possibility. But I won’t jinx it.

That’s as far into the future as I wish to look for now, but expect more from me in the coming weeks, especially once the Red Wings start getting serious.

For now, though, I need to focus my attention on my second-favorite MSU team. It’s football Saturday.

Go Green.

My second-favorite MSU team. (Image copyrighted 2010, all rights reserved)

Don't even try to tell me I'm not witty. Or that I'm not a master at Adobe Illustrator.

Today is Tuesday, July 20th, 2010. As of right now, there are 63 days until the Red Wings open up the preseason in Pittsburgh against the Captain Crosbitchby (oops…typo?) and his gang of short-legged flightless aquatic birds. Sidenote: you all know how much I LOVE Merriam-Webster. I used it back during playoffs, to describe the San Jose Sharks (and ended up using words like conniving and rapacious, per the suggestion of my dictionary). Today is no different. It was high time I looked up the exact definition of a penguin. Too bad they’re defined as something utterly dorky sounding and not the least bit ferocious or competitive. At least the Sharks sounded dangerous. The Penguins just sound like…short legged flightless aquatic birds. Hah.

But I digress. Sixty-three days until the pros start. EIGHTY until my true love–college hockey–starts up. MSU begins their season with the ritual exhibition game against Western Ontario on October 8th.

The bottom line here is that for another 63 days, I am hockeyless.

And it’s starting to get REAL old REAL fast. There are only so many blog posts I can write about MSU’s recruits or NHL draft picks. And I have NO interest in writing any more depressing eulogies to MSU players who have decided to ditch the green and white before their eligibility is up (ahemJeffPetryAndrewRoweCoreyTropp) and take a shot at the pros (hint hint: NO MORE MSU PLAYERS ARE ALLOWED TO LEAVE. I DON’T CARE HOW MUCH MONEY THE NHL IS OFFERING YOU OR HOW GOOD THE OPPORTUNITY IS–okay, sorry, I’m exaggerating a little. But seriously).

There are a few pieces of slightly dry, mundane news to come from the depths of Munn Ice Arena. And by dry, I don’t mean boring or stupid…I just mean…not game-related and therefore simply just…news-y. I always hate reading news and then regurgitating it back to you, because in that case, you might as well just read what I read in the first place and save me the effort of reading it, processing it, and presenting it to you with a tinge of my sardonic humor and ridiculous opinionated-ness. But I’m bored enough that I’m going to do it anyway.

So. Piece of news number one: Damon Whitten, the wonderful director of hockey operations for MSU announced a little over a month ago that he was leaving to accept an assistant coaching position with Michigan Tech. He was a pretty great guy…really interested in making the team look good, getting them out in front of fans, and helping out with just about any student section-related matter we could possibly think to ask for help with. He was a great face for MSU hockey, having played here some years ago. He was still young enough and close enough to his college experience here to know how to cater to young fans and young players. Needless to say, I was sad to see him go.

He'll be a good face for MSU hockey. Pun intended.

BUT, a replacement has been found. Another former MSU player. Named Adam Nightingale. He played here for two seasons, in 67 games, and played in the ECHL for awhile, too. He, like Whitten, isn’t too far removed from the college days and, according to Rick Comley in an article on msuspartans.com, will be greatly relate-able  to the players because of that. I always did notice that when Damon Whitten and the players happened to be together, they were amiable, treating each other like friends rather than having an authority figure versus subordinate-type relationship. I can see where that would be REALLY beneficial, so it’s nice to know Nightingale can fill that position in the same way.

Anyway. The second piece of news I have to share with you is along the same lines: something entirely NOT game related, but interesting nonetheless. College athletes are most definitely overtaxed. They hit the ground running the minute they sign their NLI, practicing, working out, getting acquainted with their teammates. They move in on campus, start college, study, take exams, stress out, go to class, go to practice for hours, play in games, deal with the results of games (celebrate until all hours after a win, or pick themselves back up try and get over a loss), travel, go to more classes, and take more exams. It’s like, the college experience on steroids (but not real steroids. Steroids in the figurative sense. Thought I’d clear that up, considering that we’re talking about athletes and all).

Can he please be a model for blue dress shirts? Ahem. I mean...uh...he clearly studies a lot. Oy.

Brock Shelgren is always getting mentioned for his good grades.

Anyway. I can’t help but wonder how in the world they handle it all. But some of them do. And with flying colors, apparently. A trip to msuspartans.com (I have the site bookmarked, okay?) reveals a really neat featured story about all the MSU student-athletes that were named Big Ten Distinguished Scholars. There were fifty one of them. I think that’s amazing. Two of those fifty one happened to be members of the MSU hockey team. Soon-to-be junior defensemen Brock Shelgren and Tim Buttery were both given this honor…and in order to receive it, the student has to have had a 3.7 GPA or higher during the past academic year.

Um, hello?! I know some people who AREN’T athletes, who study tons and are GREAT students but who STILL don’t hit the 3.7 GPA mark. No offense to them, of course (there are semesters when I haven’t hit it), but to be a student AND an athlete in a Big-Ten university and balance everything and STILL get grades like that? That takes a little dedication. And a lot of knowing how to manage your time.

I mean, they’re not even taking easy classes (you know, like Bowling 101 or whatever the heck that one class is that everyone takes to get an easy 4.0). They’re finance majors. So they probably take classes like accounting and management and all those horrible things that involve numbers and laws and rules and ROIs and whatever other random business-y principle I couldn’t ever hope to comprehend. I mean, maybe they don’t comprehend them either, but they sure as heck comprehend them long enough to rock out on exams and get fabulous grades.

Also…Tim and Brock are both finance majors? Maybe they’re study buddies. If so, that’s adorable.

And on that note, it’s definitely time for me to stop talking. Sorry to bother everyone with this ridiculous, all-over-the-board post. It doesn’t have “desperation” in the title for no reason. I need hockey in my life.