The Truth Hurts

Since I’m horribly late due to the fact that I haven’t had internet in my apartment, anybody reading this already knows that Michigan forward Jeff Tambellini signed a deal with the Los Angeles Kings. I couldn’t be happier for him and wish him the best of luck in the NHL. He should have a great career.

Since I’m way too late to post anything too newsworthy, I figured I’d just share my two favorite Jeff Tambellini stories.

The first of which comes from the first time I ever saw Tambellini play in a game against Merrimack at Yost. Tambellini immediately caught my eye for his style of play. It seemed as though any time he got the puck on his stick, he would shoot it. It didn’t matter if he was in good position, bad position, behind the net, center ice, whatever. If he got the puck, he was shooting it. It was that style of play that led me to nickname him “The Truth” after former Michigan basketball hack Willie “The Truth” Mitchell, who also loved his own shot, though rarely had the success with it that Tambellini had.

Midway through that season, Tambellini appeared on the radio for an interview. The host of the show, Dennis Fithian, had posted on the Michigan Rivals message board the previous day asking for questions he could ask, as well as possible nickname suggestions for Tambellini. I threw out “The Truth” as a joke, and Dennis ended up mentioning it on the air to him as a possible suggestion. While I don’t think Tambellini ever adopted the nickname, the guys on Dennis’ show, the Sportsbeat, occasionally referred to him as The Truth, which always gave me a good laugh, as the creator of the nickname, and one of the only people who understood the reference.

My second favorite Jeff Tambellini story happened this past September. Tambellini was coming off a rough season where his numbers were far lower than his freshmen season. He suffered a tough stretch in the middle of the season where his play was very untruth-like. Towards the end of the season though, he got back to his old ways and finished strong. That was all I needed to see to be confident that he would have a great junior year.

In my fantasy hockey draft that September, I decided to draft Tambellini in the second round of my draft. I knew it was a bit of a stretch, but I wanted to make sure he was on my team. I was immediately mocked for the pick. Someone asked me why I wasted my second round pick on a guy that finished something like 163rd in the NCAA in scoring the previous year. I quietly informed them that only the points for that season, and not the prior season mattered.

Of course, I got the last laugh when I ended up finishing first in the fantasy league, in large part to Jeff Tambellini finishing in the top 5 in the country in scoring.

I’ll missing getting to watch Jeff Tambellini play college hockey, because he was a great player, but he’s definitely ready for the next level of play and I think it’s great for him that he got the deal that he wanted.

A couple other defenseman have left college for the pros. One of them was North Dakota defenseman Matt Greene. Greene’s departure isn’t a bigger story only because it was so expected. North Dakota had already made plans for Greene’s departure. The same is true for Colorado College defenseman Mark Stuart who made his departure to Boston official.

The biggest surprise of the bunch was Bowling Green defenseman Jonathan Sigalet leaving school to sign a contract with the Boston Bruins. I had speculated in an earlier post that Sigalet might leave BGSU for the WHL. Instead, he signed a contract with Boston, which would allow him to be with his brother Jordan again. I don’t think Jonathan is quite ready for the NHL yet, though, so he could still technically end up in the WHL, which would make me technically correct.