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Just win. That's all it takes in Minnesota.Gophers men's hockey program and fans are all the way back as the big chill ends
A loaded lineup and a sold-out arena — this is a great comeback for Minnesota hockey. And there's no reason to think the new momentum will die off anytime soon.
A loaded lineup and a sold-out arena -- this is a great comeback for Minnesota hockey. And there's no reason to think the momentum will die off anytime soon after the sparse crowds of a few years ago.
Sid Hartman said that so many times I am surprised it is not on his gravestone. (May not see eye-to-eye with everything he reported, but in this instance could not agree more.)
Never called it a good thing. Simply saying it was premature to say that it killed our program, which was a popular thought 5-6 years ago.
Pretty simple concept
Correct. That's all it takes anywhere.
I have really come around on this. I was really against the move to Big Ten Hockey when it happened. But I like it more each year. As hockey becomes more of a national sport, I think Big Ten Hockey will continue to grow and get better, and it will hurt the other conferences a bit. Ultimately, when some of the top recruits in Minnesota are regularly choosing Ohio State and PSU over St. Cloud or Mankato... Big Ten Hockey will have officially "arrived."
Agreed. Seems to me that Rutgers, Nebraska, Illinois, or Purdue could field teams if they wanted. Maybe even Iowa. But it is hard to imagine the Hawkeyes having hockey. Just seems counter to the rules of the universe.
Indeed it did. I miss it too and wish we could resurrect it. But I know those days aren't coming back. And I have to admit that I now care much more about beating the Big Ten rivals, than I do about beating, or even playing, UMD, Colorado College, Denver and other schools like that. I don't even feel the same level of dislike for our friends in Grand Forks anymore. Well... maybe I shouldn't get carried away.
Absolutely loved when UND came here. Yeah they have some dick fans like any other school but the games were always playoff type intense. Yeah those days are long gone but damn I miss them
Yep. No real reason for Northwestern, Illinois, Rutgers, and Maryland not to have men's and women's teams. All are in regions with very good HS hockey. Love to have ASU for road trip weekends. That gets B1G to 12. Heck, maybe USC and UCLA could look at it.
Yep. I am amazed so many people recite this idea as if it was some novel concept that Sid discovered or that it is somehow unique to this market.
I miss the wcha too but we still play UND every year and at least a couple of SCSU MSU UMD
It’s because a lot of people wanted to use the big ten as the boogeyman for everything that went wrong. No doubt that played a part but more than anything people want to see a winner. Had we been competing for titles in 2018 attendance would have been fine
Doesn’t feel the same though
The thought that they haven't been a winning team since the conference started is just not true. Almost won it all in the first year of the conference. A couple Frozen four appearances. No doubt Motzko has injected more buzz and they play a more exciting type of game.
Yes I know. We went to the title game the first year of the big ten. And attendance wasn’t awful that year. I’m just saying there’s a crowd out there with an agenda that has tried to blame every shortcoming of this program on the big ten.
Agree.
Pretty much the same with me. I basically boycotted for a few years and returned a couple years ago. U of M students now don’t really have that WCHA connection, it‘s mostly us older graduates.
The older graduates remember when Michigan, Michigan State, Wisconsin, and Notre Dame were part of the WCHA.
