Youngsters didn’t back down
PITTSBURGH — Alexander Wennberg didn’t hide his disappointment in the visitors’ dressing room Thursday night after the Blue Jackets’ season ended in playoff defeat to the Pittsburgh Penguins.
The top-line center offered a sobering selfassessment of his first postseason experience that generated one assist and a minus-3 rating in a five-game series setback.
“I’m proud of the guys, but I’m not too happy about my playoffs,” said Wennberg, the thirdyear pro who enjoyed a breakout regular season with 13 goals and 46 assists. “I have to be better. There are a lot of things I need to improve on. I’m supposed to be an offensive guy so I have to produce, and that’s not what I’m doing. I have to look at this, learn from it and be better the next time I get a chance.”
Wennberg was one of 10 Blue Jackets who made his playoff debut against the defending Stanley Cup champions. The Swedish forward can take solace in the fact Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Marc-Andre Fleury — stars of the series — were humbled 10 years ago in a five-game, firstround defeat against the Ottawa Senators.
“They were overwhelmed,” former Penguin and current team radio analyst Phil Bourque recalled.
Neither Wennberg nor his fellow Blue Jacket first-timers looked out of place in a series dominated by the Penguins’ top-six forwards and marked by the struggles of Blue Jackets goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky.
The Jackets received quality performances from playoff neophytes William Karlsson, Zach Werenski, Josh Anderson and Markus Nutivaara. Defenseman Gabriel Carlsson, 20, who appeared in two regular-season games, played better as the series unfurled. Nutivaara and Carlsson, who formed the third pairing, had plus-3 ratings in two elimination games.
“I’m not going to the ‘young and inexperienced’ stuff,” coach John Tortorella said. “I don’t want to go there at all. I thought our guys had no fear, playing against the Stanley Cup champs.”
The legend of Werenski, an NHL rookie-of-the-year finalist, grew in the postseason despite suffering a series-ending broken cheekbone in Game 3. The 19-yearold defenseman scored a goal, played like a veteran and returned from the gruesome injury for one period before his right eye swelled shut.
His courageous display inspired at least two T-shirts, one including Tortorella’s “(A heart) as big as the building” comment. Tortorella actually referred to another part of the anatomy.
Karlsson, 24, scored two goals and in Game 4 was part of a line with Anderson and Matt Calvert that held Crosby without a shot attempt for the first time in 128 playoff games, according to Penguins historian Bob Grove. Anderson, 22, a broad-shouldered, 6-foot-3 wing with good speed, registered a goal and an assist, and was noticeable throughout the series.
Nutivaara, 22, might have been the most pleasant surprise with his poised, offensively aggressive approach, recording a goal and an assist despite being a healthy scratch in the first three games. Even Wennberg had his moments and went hard to the net on the controversial goalie interference call in Game 5 that nullified a potential tying goal in the third period.
“We have to lick our wounds and learn from some of the things that went on in the series,” Tortorella said. “But I can’t wait to get going again with them. I’m proud of them.”
ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Jim Harbaugh presented players on the University of Michigan football team with an opportunity, putting them a compelling essay away from being close enough to possibly shake the hand of Pope Francis at the Vatican.
Salim Makki and Grant Newsome were the chosen two.
Makki, Newsome and most of the Wolverines will travel to Rome this weekend for a unique, weeklong trip. Some players will stay on campus a little longer to take final spring exams before joining their teammates.
There are practices planned at the home of soccer club AS Roma, but there is plenty of sightseeing, too, along with a meeting with refugees, including some who have fled Syria. And then there is the trip to the Vatican. While the entire team can look forward to a visit to St. Peter’s Square, Harbaugh, his wife, Sarah, and two players are going to get a closer look at the pope.
In his essay, Makki, a defensive tackle who described himself as a devout Muslim, wrote that he grew up learning the importance of religions coexisting.
“His Holiness Pope Francis is sincerely one of my heroes,” Makki wrote. “In a time where Muslims have been scrutinized and wrongly identified with violence, Pope Francis has defended Islam and stated that not all Muslims are violent.”
Newsome, an offensive lineman who had a season-ending knee injury last season, wrote that his hospital stay taught him to appreciate God’s love and mercy.
“The Pope is the closest mortal being to God, so by shaking the Pope’s hand and by telling him ‘thank you,’ I feel that I could truly show God how appreciative I am of him,” Newsome wrote.
The entire trip was dreamed up by Harbaugh, who said he also has plans to take his teams to South Africa, Japan, Israel and either England or New Zealand in upcoming years. The envelope-pushing coach has taken his team to Florida for spring practice and his staff all over the country for summer camps, prompting complaints from other schools and NCAA rules limiting some of the efforts.
But nothing Michigan did before is anything like this big and expensive trip to Italy’s capital, more than 4,000 miles away.
The visit is being funded by a donor, who has requested and maintained anonymity, and the school has kept many details private. The Associated Press filed a Freedom of Information Act request for the proposed budget for the trip and the school turned it down and denied an appeal.
Harbaugh hopes the source of the generous gift chooses to come forward.
“I would love to shout from the rooftop who it is,” Harbaugh said in an interview with The Associated Press. “And, hopefully I’ll have the opportunity to publicly thank him. I want him to know it means to me, how much it means to our guys and their families.”