B1G Semifinal: Gophers Host Michigan (3-16-24)

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beatles said:
So 2 seeds or worse never make the Frozen Four? Or win it? What about UMD, Yale, Providence? It happens all the time.
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Enjoy this hope because the Gophers just set themselves up to be in the region of the best team of the last 10 or more years.
 


Lackluster performance last night. Took in the game. Packed house. They definitely have the talent but the defensive lapses have to get corrected. Nothing that can't be fixed, though. Gophs had chances but couldn't find the back of the net. Bob needs to light a fire under their asses going into the tournament.
 

PMWinSTP said:
Lackluster performance last night. Took in the game. Packed house. They definitely have the talent but the defensive lapses have to get corrected. Nothing that can't be fixed, though. Gophs had chances but couldn't find the back of the net. Bob needs to light a fire under their asses going into the tournament.
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I am convinced that they have enough talent to beat any team in the country if they play their best. I am equally convinced that they lack the discipline, focus and consistency to play at the level long enough to win four games in a row.
 

2nd Degree Gopher said:
I am convinced that they have enough talent to beat any team in the country if they play their best. I am equally convinced that they lack the discipline, focus and consistency to play at the level long enough to win four games in a row.
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Don't know if it is the line pairings, getting caught with the wrong match-up or what...it did seem like Bob was mixing them up at times. Much cleaner game from the penalty perspective. I would think playing for a championship at the X with a huge home crowd would be enough motivation. They are healthy so hoping it's head's down and working smart and hard from here on out.
 


PMWinSTP said:
Lackluster performance last night. Took in the game. Packed house. They definitely have the talent but the defensive lapses have to get corrected. Nothing that can't be fixed, though. Gophs had chances but couldn't find the back of the net. Bob needs to light a fire under their asses going into the tournament.
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I was actually more concerned about the offense. In particular, the lack of a forecheck and the lack of faceoff wins. In my opinion, this led directly to the lack of goal scoring. You aren't going to beat Michigan (or any talented team) very often if you don't score once in the first 58 minutes. Part of that was Michigan's discipline (no time in the penalty box really). All that is harder to see on TV but that is what it looked like to me.
 

Crosby said:
I was actually more concerned about the offense. In particular, the lack of a forecheck and the lack of faceoff wins. In my opinion, this led directly to the lack of goal scoring. You aren't going to beat Michigan (or any talented team) very often if you don't score once in the first 58 minutes. Part of that was Michigan's discipline (no time in the penalty box really). All that is harder to see on TV but that is what it looked like to me.
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From my perspective, Gophs had enough opportunities on offense, just couldn't put it on the net enough. They had some serious lapses in coverage in the defensive zone. The number of times guys were uncovered in front of Close was surprising...Gophs getting caught up and out of position in Michigan's play rotation when on offense.
 

The whole team was basically brutal lately in the last two games, other than Close probably. If they don't learn to win faceoffs it's going to bite them in the butt at some point, beyond just the general bad play.
 

PMWinSTP said:
From my perspective, Gophs had enough opportunities on offense, just couldn't put it on the net enough. They had some serious lapses in coverage in the defensive zone. The number of times guys were uncovered in front of Close was surprising...Gophs getting caught up and out of position in Michigan's play rotation when on offense.
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I don't disagree with the lapses I guess. But if you give up only 2 goals, on your own ice, that should be a 'W.' If we think the D was the problem, it means we think we should have won that game 1-0.
 



Crosby said:
I don't disagree with the lapses I guess. But if you give up only 2 goals, on your own ice, that should be a 'W.' If we think the D was the problem, it means we think we should have won that game 1-0.
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Or you give up only 2 goals because the goalie saves your ass after poor defending.
 

Don;t di
bonin21 said:
Or you give up only 2 goals because the goalie saves your ass after poor defending.
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Don't disagree. Justin was terrific and there were some defensive lapses. But the fact is that we lost that game because we did not score enough goals. Period, end of story.
 

Crosby said:
Don;t di

Don't disagree. Justin was terrific and there were some defensive lapses. But the fact is that we lost that game because we did not score enough goals. Period, end of story.
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Good defensemen start the offense. The D unit was the biggest problem of this year.
 

bonin21 said:
Good defensemen start the offense. The D unit was the biggest problem of this year.
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Again, I don't necessarily disagree. But that is different than "defensive lapses" which is the subjet we were addressing. If we want to say that we didn't score in large part because we could not execute a breakout, that's maybe a fair argument. But sorry... it is ridiculous to say we lost that game due to "defensive lapses." We lost because we only scored one goal. No matter whose fault it was, we scored one goal. I repeat, we scored once.
 



Crosby said:
I don't disagree with the lapses I guess. But if you give up only 2 goals, on your own ice, that should be a 'W.' If we think the D was the problem, it means we think we should have won that game 1-0.
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The lapses in defense led directly to those goals. Agree, they didn't convert on their offensive opportunities, but those opportunities were definitely there.
 

Yep, and th
PMWinSTP said:
The lapses in defense led directly to those goals. Agree, they didn't convert on their offensive opportunities, but those opportunities were definitely there.
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I think I am talking to myself so it will be my last post on this subject. Yes, there were some defensive lapses. But we only gave up two. That is absolutely not the reason we lost the game. If you don't score 3 against a team like Michigan you are generally going to lose. You score by capitalizing on opportunities. As you correctly point out, we didn't. Kind of my whole point. Gophers can make a run in the NCAA tourney. Goaltending in last game was good enough for that. D has to be better. And offensive productivity has to be MUCH, MUCH better.
 

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