Remember Spartan Nation Legend Jeff Lerg as a Champion, Not For The Collapse Around Him this Season of Spartan Hockey

Jeff Lerg: I really feel for Jeff. He deserves to go out on a much higher note than the one that has befallen him. This year he has a 92% save percentage and

Jeff Lerg: I really feel for Jeff. He deserves to go out on a much higher note than the one that has befallen him. This year he has a 92% save percentage and two shutouts, yet, just a 9-17-3 record to show for it. However, that hardly begins to address the adversity this kid faces on a nightly basis.  In the mere nine victories he has to his credit this year, he usually gives up one goal or less. In the losses, there he is, keeping the Spartans in the game. By the way, you might think he is not peppered in net in those wins, but just the opposite is the real truth, as the shot differential against MSU is often astounding. MSU opponents usually keep the play in the Spartans end of the rink, and Jeff not only continues to make the routine stops, but often the spectacular ones, time after time, after time.Â

 

Unfortunately for Lerg, the Spartan offense is less than anemic it is invisible at times. The power play is ranked near dead last in all of college hockey. In fact, after the game Friday against Notre Dame (a game Jeff did not appear in), opponents had a whopping 415-shot advantage over MSU for the season. Opponents had an almost twelve shots more than MSU per game as Spartan defenders struggled to clear the puck. Yet, there is Lerg, not complaining and just going about his business. That has to be frustrating. I ask you, how would you have handled that? Especially after you have reached the summit and pinnacle of college hockey? Lerg handled it by “standing on his head,” as they say in hockey, and keeping the puck out of the net as much as he could this year. He publicly was just thankful and wearing the Spartan jersey with pride.

 

You just have to love Jeff Lerg he is the Spartans version of Rudy, except the difference being that Jeff has immense talent. Let me paraphrase the scene when Rudy quits the Notre Dame football team and meets the stadium worker who says, “You’re five foot nothing…and playing every day with one of the best teams in the land.” That to me is Lerg, who is 5’6” and a mere 155-pounds, and has battled illness along the way. Yet at one point, was named USA Hockey College Player Of The Year. It was he who was the best in the land and not his supporting cast.  That’s Jeff, he always battles, and he never gives up. He is a fighter who never backs down from a challenge. In fact, it almost a crime to have such a brilliant goaltender and yet have your team not be able to put the puck in the net to support you. The dismal failure of Spartan hockey in the 2008-2009 season will overshadow for many what was one of the most brilliant hockey careers in a once proud program.

 

The real reason the Spartans won the National Championship a couple of years ago? Jeff Lerg. He stopped 58 of 61 shots in the Frozen Four and was brilliant all year when the Spartans caught fire. Sure, they got help from other key players, but they couldn’t have won it without him. Ask anyone who follows Spartan hockey and they will tell you that is probably an understatement. Oh, did I tell you he is not only a hockey All-American but

an Academic All-American? Sometimes you get the end of the bench guys who are not long on talent, or vice versa, an immensely talented kid barely keeping himself afloat with the books. With Jeff, you get both, a real student-athlete. Which is what college sports is all about.

 

In fact, the measure of a champion is not how he performs when all the breaks are going his way, but rather how he picks himself up off the mat, or should I say “crease” in this instance and responds to challenge and adversity. In that sense, Jeff Lerg is one of the greatest champions that ever graced the campus of Michigan State University. Jeff, each and every Spartan fan owes you a debt of gratitude for your performance both on and off the ice, and …especially when things didn’t go how you probably hoped or expected them to go. All we can say is thank you. You will not be forgotten.

 

Spartan hockey failed Jeff Lerg he never failed it. He may be small, but he has the heart of a champion and the greatness of being elite. As Spartan fans watched the dismal collapse and eventual embarrassment of the program he was the bright spot. He was the warrior.

 

Jeff Lerg is leaving, but will NEVER be forgotten. A poster on the Phalanx this week suggested retiring his jersey immediately. We at SpartanNation.com totally agree. He has earned it and deserves it. Just like we encourage people to remember what he did and not how the program fell apart this season, please Jeff remember what the program was and not your senior year.

 

Thanks Jeff.