Gopher Hockey Season Thread 25-26

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No Thomas and no Ludtke tonight. Get ready for another wonderful effort full of skill from Bob's squad.
 

2-5-1

Season is already toast and it's not even November. Christ

Not getting rid of Motzko already to start the rebuild this year is causing lots of damage. Gonna be lots of half empty arenas as Gopher season ticket holders know good from bad hockey and many would rather stay home than suffer through this shit
 

upnorthkid said:
considering you can call and say you were assaulted and they will put out a crime alert until they investigate it, yes it could. I still get the alerts from UPD as well as the city from being a student there.

we'll have no idea as they barely ever release any updated info. posts like the prior also add zero benefit to anyone involved, nor are even a talking point as there's really no "discussion" to be had. Dinky is dumpier for a lot of reasons. It's made worse by shit housing/shit landlords and a large audience with limited options coupled next to being in a big city. Our own news stations running this because it will get clicks and viewers (they don't give a shit about making it better; they just want your money and comments, hence why they'll release it however they want).

Campus safety versus safety of the city have some correlation, but generally campus has been vastly safer. Car jackings have been a problem. Violent crimes are actually pretty damn comparable. Sexual crimes are about the same as peers. These are all raw numbers rather than rates. The stats are all published and publicly available.

It sucks it happened to Townsend. That's really all that needs to be said and hope he has a speedy recovery and is back playing again soon.
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I hate to tell you this regarding the crime there because you will be pissy about it, but I just have to say it. You don’t know anything about what you are talking about. If you think those manipulated crime reports are accurate then you probably think Santa is still real.
 

bonin21 said:
2-5-1

Season is already toast and it's not even November. Christ

Not getting rid of Motzko already to start the rebuild this year is causing lots of damage. Gonna be lots of half empty arenas as Gopher season ticket holders know good from bad hockey and many would rather stay home than suffer through this shit
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So, I understand the Gophers are pretty average, at best, at this point in the season, but maybe UMD is pretty good. Sandelin certainly hasn't forgotten how to coach.
 


NotAFanOfBecky said:
I hate to tell you this regarding the crime there because you will be pissy about it, but I just have to say it. You don’t know anything about what you are talking about. If you think those manipulated crime reports are accurate then you probably think Santa is still real.
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Sure it’s only the U that does any manipulation of the crime reports then. That would make perfect sense

It’s why I don’t care about the year over year crap the U (or any university) tries to put out about we’re fixing issue x y z because yes they all try cheat the data (like any city does). I just compare to peers of similar size.

I agree with Bonin (and id presume you) that crime has gotten worse in dinky and around it (from a what I think anyway). That’s anecdotal as I agree it’s hard to rely on comparison data over years and how things get reported vs not and filing of reports. I’m simply saying it’s not like the U is Mexico City and you go to Madison the world is Eden
 
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upnorthkid said:
I’m simply saying it’s not like the U is Mexico City and you go to Madison the world is Eden
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I think you'd be surprised. Madison and almost every other school doesn't have the major problem dinkytown is dealing with which is one population of teens running wild with no repercussions.
 

bonin21 said:
I think you'd be surprised. Madison and almost every other school doesn't have the major problem dinkytown is dealing with which is one population of teens running wild with no repercussions.
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We just moved last year. I lived within the downtown, north loop, northeast, gold medal and dinky for the last decade in an array of apartments and houses. Yes I know what you’re talking about but no I don’t think dinky is as bad as it is around hcmc (to the pair of light rail stops a couple spots south of us bank) and in robbinsdale.
 

bonin21 said:
2-5-1

Season is already toast and it's not even November. Christ

Not getting rid of Motzko already to start the rebuild this year is causing lots of damage. Gonna be lots of half empty arenas as Gopher season ticket holders know good from bad hockey and many would rather stay home than suffer through this sh
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TNGophfan said:
So, I understand the Gophers are pretty average, at best, at this point in the season, but maybe UMD is pretty good. Sandelin certainly hasn't forgotten how to coach.
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About 1/4 way through the season and they have 2 wins. Bob has only produced 8 wins in his last 23 games. It might be time to start asking some real questions.
 
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Go4Puck said:
About 1/4 way through the season and they have 2 wins. Bob has only produced 8 wins in his last 23 games. It might be time to start asking some real questions.
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It's too late to start asking questions. It's time to move on.
 


Go4Puck said:
You know that is not how this is going to go. Bob will be given a pass this year and it will be next year that determines his fate.
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And I've said it on here, that is not acceptable for this program. New coach won't have his squad built until at least year two.

So you'd be looking at a title in spring 2029 at the earliest. 26 years. They have to cut the cord in March/April.
 

bonin21 said:
And I've said it on here, that is not acceptable for this program. New coach won't have his squad built until at least year two.

So you'd be looking at a title in spring 2029 at the earliest. 26 years. They have to cut the cord in March/April.
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Of course that’s not acceptable for this program, but the reality is that is not how it works. No program has dumped a coach with a resume/record like Bob’s after one bad year. You will just have to wait this out.
 



Go4Puck said:
Of course that’s not acceptable for this program, but the reality is that is not how it works. No program has dumped a coach with a resume/record like Bob’s after one bad year. You will just have to wait this out.
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The only hope is if he "retires" which I have hope for based on a few things
 


bonin21 said:
And I've said it on here, that is not acceptable for this program. New coach won't have his squad built until at least year two.

So you'd be looking at a title in spring 2029 at the earliest. 26 years. They have to cut the cord in March/April.
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i agree missing the postseason consistently is not. Sporadically (like once every ten years), sure. The bigger issue to me is that he has been unwilling to more aggressively lobby for NIL and recruit Canada (part of that is we historically have made it extremely easy fodder for coaches recruiting against us in this regard with prior coaches' stance on this as well). These ones coming are the lean 2 years he has talked about for multiple years (as evidenced by bonin's linking of the MN recruits and the lack of them in the upper echelon of the rankings). Either he was grossly off on how good some of these guys would be or he was good eating the couple years to rebuild from the bottom. in theory, on paper this team "should" be quite good in 2 years when Zeimer/Hendrickson/Whipple are seniors and this years' class are upperclassmen provided guys continue to develop, given there really are not any flight risks as they look right now with the draft rights changes.

Removing him depends on a couple things. First, I do believe Bob has been pretty up front that he's nearing the end of his career and would assume he has been with the guys' he's recruited. If that's the case, i'd imagine most of the recruits he has (particularly those in state) are coming for the M rather than for Bob. That makes it easier.

So given that, you need to decide if you want him to oversee the rebuild or figure out who you think can do that better. To me, if you're fine with Bob it's pretty damn clear you need to decide we're hiring a GM, regardless of what Bob wants as you also need to prep for the future, especially given you're recruiting for 2+ years out. If you're moving on, do you think the replacement is going to rebuild better than Bob (he did rebuild the team pretty god damn well IIRC based on our last 5 year run).
Bonin loves Ben Barr and he's fine. I'd assume he'd come here for the money and I guess to come back to MN, but he has zero recruiting ties to MN and has never coached in the state. His current roster has one MN and one ND kid on it both of whom were NAHL caliber players and 3 current MN kids committed none of whom are drafted and several left early. Maybe that works out well but you also are probably going to become more Canadian
Potulny will get run as a MN kid/player and long time assistant, but his tenure at NMU was meh but its a damn tough place to win. Do you want to hand him the keys?
Rabion has the MN checkbox and has built up Augstana pretty well, but he's only been a HC for 3 years. Lot of resources and responsibility to throw at him real fast.
Fersch, Carle, Nightengale are all pipe dreams imo who seem very happy where they are at. Maybe they take a run at Leaman or I'm sure people will throw out Sandelin, but the options are not outstanding in terms of MN coaching pipeline.

I'm not in love with any of the options that are out there tbh. Barr seems like the best of them that is realistic but is not without its risks in a guy in his 5th season as a HC and who's never won an NCAA tournament game. Personally I like my first option best of them to help address that this team needs to plug some holes for next year and set it up for the future. But if Bob wants to move on, I'm hopeful that the GM concept is one that is part of the plan given our financial resources should not be a problem here and if you're signing any of the realistic guys, it should be for less than you're currently paying Bob so there should be salary left over
 

The absolutely pathetic coaching pipeline is reflective of the kind of players/people that ended up getting recruited and coming here under Lucia and the ways of leadership they were taught (and maybe the leading edge of the Motzko era but most of them are still young).

Hoping for these borderline scrubs (by Gopher standards) to be very good in two years is nice... but those other teams are going to reload with first round talent every year so you'll still be at a talent disadvantage.

Gophers will be fucked from the NIL perspective too which is why I've said between CHL (no relationships/reputation in Canada) and NIL, Gopher hockey is in major trouble in the mid to long term.
 

bonin21 said:
The absolutely pathetic coaching pipeline is reflective of the kind of players/people that ended up getting recruited and coming here under Lucia and the ways of leadership they were taught (and maybe the leading edge of the Motzko era but most of them are still young).

Hoping for these borderline scrubs (by Gopher standards) to be very good in two years is nice... but those other teams are going to reload with first round talent every year so you'll still be at a talent disadvantage.

Gophers will be fucked from the NIL perspective too which is why I've said between CHL (no relationships/reputation in Canada) and NIL, Gopher hockey is in major trouble in the mid to long term.
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way too much of this is way too hyperbolic.
you can't really control who chooses to go into coaching or scouting.
there's zero reason to think we can't compete for 1st round talent given we have recruited it both in state and out of state under Motzko. Denver also has no currently rostered 1st rounders nor any in the pipeline (I believe; could've missed someone but Berchild looks like a 2nd/3rd rounder)

your last part on Canadian relationships can change in a literal instant depending on who you hire and in what place (whether HC or GM or even just a scout). NIL to me is a big bugaboo with Bob and one I wish he'd embrace and bang the drum for, both to fans as well as to his NHL alumni who care a hell of a lot about the program. He either needs to change that (and his recruiting of Canada) or yes he will be gone. As far as his recruits going into coaching, yeah its still way too early for any/many of them to be at that phase from his time at MN.

either way its frustrating to be at this point and rebuilding after how good a run we had that ended in no hardware many of us care most about.
 


I am sure we will get a public apology from you and the rest of the crew who were impressively wrong

feels like this should take next to no time to figure out who this is, though would also say one should be cautious in attributing it directly to being TTs possible attacker given we just don't know that definitively
 


Go4Puck said:
About 1/4 way through the season and they have 2 wins. Bob has only produced 8 wins in his last 23 games. It might be time to start asking some real questions.
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Is this correct? I know the 2nd half seemed rough last year, but if this is true it is absolutely brutal.
 


GopherPete said:
Is this correct? I know the 2nd half seemed rough last year, but if this is true it is absolutely brutal.
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yeah last 23 are 8-12-3 with 4 OTL (3 in the 3x3, 1 5v5 vs UMass)

they've actually lost or tied their last 9 OT games, which is also a very wild streak with how much talent last years team had
 

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