Gopher Men's Hockey troubles

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Slim Tubby

Slim Tubby

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Things are not looking good for The Don and his troops so far this season. I know it's early, but I can't remember a Gopher team that looked as outclassed as this year's team does. They are struggling at all phases of the game and they don't even appear to be able to compete at times. I'm sure things will improve but I fear Lucia might be missing the boat on grabbing the right recruits by getting commitments too early while allowing late bloomers to go elsewhere. Should we be worried long-term?
 

Slim Tubby said:
Things are not looking good for The Don and his troops so far this season. I know it's early, but I can't remember a Gopher team that looked as outclassed as this year's team does. They are struggling at all phases of the game and they don't even appear to be able to compete at times. I'm sure things will improve but I fear Lucia might be missing the boat on grabbing the right recruits by getting commitments too early while allowing late bloomers to go elsewhere. Should we be worried long-term?
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Overall, I would categorize things as completely perplexing. In his interviews, Don seems to be comfortable with the team and the effort that's being displayed, which is what concerns me most. He keeps saying things like "if we just do {blank, blank and blank}, we'll be fine." What worries me is that this is starting to sound like a broken record. The team consistently gets outworked, out-executed and out-coached, and the refrain remains "we'll be fine." Well, things aren't fine. This is Minnesota hockey. Mediocre won't cut it. And right now, it seems like everybody in the program is embracing and reinforcing mediocrity at every turn. In other words, too much talking and not enough results.
 

I didn't see the game Saturday night, but on Friday there were a bunch of empty seats at Mariucci.
 


I'm not going to hit the panic button just yet as I'm going to chalk up the struggles so far to playing series against 2 of the top teams in the country and it still being very early in the season (still figuring out the best line combos). However, I am a little worried about our power play thus far and the fact that we've been shut out in 3 out of 4 games. I will be even more worried if we don't sweep UAA this weekend.
 


As said above, tough way to start the season, at ND and then Denver with no warm up games.

But still...ouch.
 


Jike Spingleton said:
I think we're already in the long-term, since this is looking like the third straight year of uninspired play.
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Good point, Jike...do we dare say that Lucia could be on the hot seat if this season is another disappointment?
 

Honestly, Yes. If the Gophs struggle this year, I think we seriously need to re-evaluate who the head coach should be. The past few years, I've chalked up our performance to losing guys to the NHL and not having any senior leadership (team being made up of a lot of freshman). This year, with no NHL defections and only 4 incoming freshmen, there really aren't a lot of excuses other than recruiting the wrong guys or bad coaching (barring injuries/illness). Either way, both of those aspects fall on the head coach.
 



Things aren't looking good right now but we did play the best team in the country and the Sioux are always tough. Let's see how things look after the new year. Hopefully we can start slow and come back with a vengeance like the Sioux did last year.

Of course if we miss the NCAA tournament or don't secure home ice for the playoffs, tDon could very well be gone. We should have a clearer picture by December/January. Also we get to play both of these teams again so it will be a good measure of our improvement (or lack thereof).
 

Well, the Gophers finally got off the schneid tonight, downing Alaska-Anchorage 5-1 at Mariucci. Now, all they have to do is win a whole bunch more games and everyone (including me!!!;):p) will stop complaining.
 

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