***OFFICIAL MINNESOTA VS MINNESOTA STATE FROZEN FOUR IN-GAME THREAD!!!***

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You would think by now they would have learned how to adjust when playing a team like MSU.
 

Complete worked from the drop of the puck. 🤦‍♂️
 




What a pathetic showing. One team came prepared to play.
 


GoldGoldGold said:
And per a screen shot, MN State only has 1 NHL draft pick vs 14 for MN.... Are the NHL teams truly that bad at scouting talent??
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I think you discount the impact of a team that keeps their roster together....compared to a team that cycles players through every year.

The Mavericks should have been in the title game last year too. They completely outplayed the SCSU Huskies......but managed to lose.

That's just a good team. Really well coached.
 

stocker08 said:
I think you discount the impact of a team that keeps their roster together....compared to a team that cycles players through every year.

The Mavericks should have been in the title game last year too. They completely outplayed the SCSU Huskies......but managed to lose.

That's just a good team. Really well coached.
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The old geezers won today. Good for them. I hope Denver pummels them.
 





Look, the AD messed up when he hired Motzko over Hastings. Unless Hastings turned the job down, I have no idea why you wouldn’t of hired him. What he did at Mankato is superior to what Motzko did at SCSU. Hastings took Mankato to national prominence in a short time, Mankato! In hockey! He surpassed Motzko in half the time at Mankato than what Motzko accomplished at SCSU. And SCSU was much more than Mankato was when each of these coaches took over their respective programs.
 

Just caught up on DVR.

Really just a sad showing overall. Got one lucky goal but couldn't generate any offense - swarmed before the shot could even get off.

As our motto goes...Maybe next year! 😭
 
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Some Day...Maybe said:
Look, the AD messed up when he hired Motzko over Hastings. Unless Hastings turned the job down, I have no idea why you wouldn’t of hired him. What he did at Mankato is superior to what Motzko did at SCSU. Hastings took Mankato to national prominence in a short time, Mankato! In hockey! He surpassed Motzko in half the time at Mankato than what Motzko accomplished at SCSU. And SCSU was much more than Mankato was when each of these coaches took over their respective programs.
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This is hindsight. At the time of his hiring Motzko had SCSU as the one of the best teams in the country for a couple year stretch, at what was once a no-name program. Motzko had been to a frozen four whereas Hastings had not even won a tournament game at that point. Motzko took SCSU to national prominence, that's pretty impressive too.

We're all emotional after this loss, but if you relax and take a step back you'll see that Bob has made fantastic progress here, and by the way he is bringing in the top recruiting class in the country next year.
 


GoldGoldGold said:
And per a screen shot, MN State only has 1 NHL draft pick vs 14 for MN.... Are the NHL teams truly that bad at scouting talent??
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No, this gopher team will have more NHL players. That's not the only factor that goes into winning at the college level.
 

MSU is the best team I've seen this year, and I saw Michigan twice in person. You can't point to any individual as the guy that beat the Gophers. They were all basically interchangeable. Smith was their best player, but it's not like he was the reason the Mavs won, unlike Gostisbehere for Union in '14. It didn't matter who was on the ice for the Mavs or in what situation, they just did their jobs superbly and choked the life right out of the Gophers. Once again, we didn't get to see if McKay is actually any good. He barely had to stay awake to get the win.
 





Thunderlips said:
If thats all it takes, why don't the Gophers just do the same & recruit better "geezers?"....Seething about it for 20 years has produced exactly zero titles
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The Gophers coach will be crucified if he does not recruit the state's top players. It isn't even an option. There's an expectation that kids like Mittelstadt, Lucius, Walker, Rau be wooed by the Minnesota coach.

Always surprises me that so many people don't understand college hockey. Lake St. was in 4 championships in 7 years, winning 3. The game was forever changed.

For all the hype when BU, Wisconsin, or whoever lands the top NHL draft picks it almost never translates to a title. Yale, Union, Massachusetts, etc... Lucia, Motzko are in a can't win situations with "fans" (actually detractors).
 

You guys are acting like these 25 year old teams are just dominating college hockey. Denver is one of the youngest teams in America. 3 of the 4 frozen four teams were "young" teams with several NHL draft picks. Mankato has won zero national titles to this point. UMD and North Dakota won titles with young NHL draft picks in the last handful of years. It's not as black and white as you all want to make it.
 

Doing some quick analysis on the rosters:

1649441160914.png
If you look at the raw stats, they look fairly evenly matched. But it is not until you bucket the players where you see the difference. In the 22-24 year old range, which would typically be considered "upper classmen" (assuming come from high school, redshirt, 4 years of eligibility), Mankato has 20 players in this cluster, compared to just 13 for Minnesota.

If you look at the "traditional" Jr/Sr ranks, Mankato has double the numbers. For men in their early to mid 20's, 2 years difference in age is significant in terms of physical size, strength and overall experience.

That is 2 full lines difference. You could clearly see it on the ice. Imagine if we had 2 full lines of Ben Meyer's level players.

26 and still playing college hockey? Enjoy it while you can, because you are probably at the pinnacle of your career.

I'm happy for Mankato, but let's be realistic about this stretch they are in. It is a combination of a perfect storm of the transfer portal, Covid extension and recruiting older players that have put them in the ideal position to dominate right now. Yes, their coach is also very good. Is it sustainable? Time will tell I guess.
 


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