2023-24 Gopher Hockey Season

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CheapSkate said:
I wish there wasn't this narrative of Lucia driving the program down. Why people don't like him, I'll never understand.
2012: WCHA Champs and Frozen Four ... lost to eventual national champs
2013: WCHA Champs and #1 seed ... lost to eventual national champs on a bad bounce in the first round
2014: Big Ten Champs and National Runner-Up
2015: Big Ten Regular Season and Tournament Champs ... First Round loss but they were doomed by about a 5-minute stretch where Duluth scored 3 straight goals
2016: Big Ten Champs ... Conference was down and a one-bid league this year ... lost Big Ten Championship to Michigan by a goal (plus an empty netter)
2017: Big Ten champs and #1 seed ... drop a 1-goal game to eventual Frozen Four team in Notre Dame in the NCAA Tournament
2018: Miss the NCAA Tournament, but not cause it was a bad year. They finished higher in the pairwise than 4 auto-bids that made the tourney. Also, the Pairwise was so close that year, their 13th place finish was closer to the tea ranked 8th, than it was to the team right behind them in 14th.

Lucia ended his career on a seven year run with six conference titles, five NCAA tournament berths, 2 frozen fours and a berth in the Championship game. If that's a place the program "never should have been" I'd hate to see the opposite.
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I half agree with you and half agree with bonin. Lucia overall was a major success, and is deserving of a spot in gopher lore. He had a little blip from about 08-11, but rebounded very well from there. The downfall of the program was defintely heavily exaggerated by many who had an agenda to push.

The talent level on those teams from 2016-2019ish was definitely not up to gopher standards though. Keep in mind "gopher standards" is very high. Most programs would consider our down periods to be some of their better years. But keep in mind this is probably the best coaching job in the country, so standards should be high. It's unrealistic to think there will never be down periods though. Alamaba football sucked for much of the 2000's, Kentucky basketball had some bad years pre-Calipari - it happens to every program in every sport.
 

Championship runs are extremely difficult. Hockey has a worse random variation than other sports. Putting together a winning streak is tough.

The best team in the country should usually win, and yet in reality the top team may not be able to sustain a winning streak.

People need to talk about the many different ways we measure success. NCAA Championship is just one.

Player success is one. I like talking about stars.

In all sports these days, poll ranking is another. Being top 10 in any sport, like Football, is honorable.

At the same time, both hockey teams for this university shouldn't have droughts lasting many years. Both teams haven't brought home the trophy in awhile.

Last season both teams could have won it all but neither did.
 
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Want to know how to win a national championship? Put the best line in college hockey and the best defender in college hockey out at the start of OT. That part isn't rocket science.
 

And the sloppy Minnesota team has showed up. One PSU goal waived off for offsides. The goal was scored on a 2-4 for PSU.
 



Started the game full slop but have gotten it together.

Coasting now
 

Last three games against PSU, 11 goals scored with only one given up. Yeah, we like playing Penn State now.
 

If you're reading this thread you may think that the Gophers lost tonight. They didn't.

Gophers men's hockey finds right combination to beat Penn State in Big Ten tournament opener​

After coach Bob Motzko switched up line combinations, the Gophers responded quickly and pulled away for a 5-1 rout.


With his Gophers men's hockey team looking out of sorts offensively and knotted at a goal apiece with Penn State on Friday night, coach Bob Motzko figured it was time to switch things up on a couple of lines.

Motzko swapped Jimmy Snuggerud, who usually plays on a line with center Oliver Moore and left winger Rhett Pitlick, with Bryce Brodzinski, who usually plays with center Jaxon Nelson and left winger Mason Nevers.

The move paid off quickly as Snuggerud scored the go-ahead goal off a beautiful pass from Nelson at 14:21 of the second period, jump-starting the Gophers to a 5-1 victory over the Nittany Lions in the opener of their Big Ten quarterfinal series at 3M Arena at Mariucci. Pitlick added two third-period goals, including a late empty-net tally.

Game 2 is 3:30 p.m. Saturday, and Game 3 (if necessary) is 6 p.m. Sunday..
www.startribune.com

Gophers men's hockey finds right combination to beat Penn State in Big Ten tournament opener

After coach Bob Motzko switched up line combinations, the Gophers responded quickly and pulled away for a 5-1 rout.
www.startribune.com www.startribune.com
 

I was there towards the end. Looks like an overpowering win based on the score.
 



bonin21 said:
Want to know how to win a national championship? Put the best line in college hockey and the best defender in college hockey out at the start of OT. That part isn't rocket science.
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Gophers1992 said:
Dude, seek help
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He originally was stating a fact. Telling someone to get help for simply having a clear view of reality is off base.

But I get the point we all move on. I have had my own personal mistakes and appreciate moving on after it. So maybe that was the real point.

But he was right.

It is complicated because Motzko is an outstanding coach.
 

SHGopher said:
He originally was stating a fact. Telling someone to get help for simply having a clear view of reality is off base.

But I get the point we all move on. I have had my own personal mistakes and appreciate moving on after it. So maybe that was the real point.

But he was right.

It is complicated because Motzko is an outstanding coach.
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My call for him to get help goes well beyond that one single "fact".
 

Anyways, back to the Gophers.

Up to 6 in the pwr. The 4 seed is certainly in play if the Gophs can win out and Denver drops another game or two.

With the Wisconsin loss, the gophers could have a chance to be hosting Michigan next weekend
 





bonin21 said:
10% chance. https://www.collegehockeynews.com/ratings/probabilityMatrix.php#google_vignette

It's all trending toward Gophers in SF with UND as our gut told us months ago.
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I mean minus if Omaha wins again tonight and bounces und to St. Louis because they’re the host. Conversely if we lose again we’re probably the 7 or 8 and headed out east. In all honesty, most trends are now away from that unless they need to move games around for seeding as it’s getting more limited with them ending up in the 3/6 matchup. Big log jam between 6 and 9 right now
 




A. That’s a major but not a game MC.
B. Please stop hitting people in the back next to the boards. It’s 2024 and this is not new yet every game it continues to happen.
 




Big ten reffing, after years of the same trash, is actually making me not enjoy watching hockey A LOT of nights.
 

From the Parkinglot said:
The rules need to be adjusted so there is limited referee discretion. There will be a very questionable in the championship game this year and the hockey world will explode.
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Don't worry, they won't let trash Big Ten refs take the big game.
 


He's scoring like he's in Luverne playing class A farm boys again
 


From the Parkinglot said:
The rules need to be adjusted so there is limited referee discretion. There will be a very questionable in the championship game this year and the hockey world will explode.
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The NHL has a review model that seems to work. Get it out of these questionable crew's hands and have one body that reviews all plays. There is far, far too much variability crew to crew.

I used to lose my mind with Derek Shepherd. I dare say I would not mind seeing him out there compared to this garbage.
 

Brutal PP, brutal period.

Bob is so screwed having to put Fish out there. Roll 5 D...
 

A PSU line of three freshmen should not be the clear top performing line. Wake up Gophers.
 

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