Why do Gophers stink so bad this year?

Donate To GopherHole
M

Mick Turition

Piss 'On Wisconsin'
Joined
Nov 21, 2008
Messages
1,144
Reaction score
161
Points
63
I am not a hard-core hockey fan but I do watch all televised Gopher hockey games. Nice road sweep of OSU but it won't get them within a sniff of the Tournament. So..... the question is Why Do the Gophers Stink So Bad? It's supposed to be one of the premier programs in the nation but is a (very) distant 4th place program in their own state of Minnesota. For the love of Pete, even Arizona State is going to make the Tournament. Arizona State!!

Coaching??
Lack of talent??
Administrative failure??
 

In case you haven't heard, the current coach is in his first year. It will take even a perennial power like the U a year or two to get back on track. Also, to be fair, the Gophers are tied in the Pairwise with NoDak, and ahead of Michigan, BU, & BC. In some regards, the times have changed.
 

The old coach was kept for multiple years too many. By 20-21 this team should be contending as the Lucia guys will mostly be gone.

I believe I predicted this would be a 20-30 team this year with the potential to climb up around 15. Next year may be similar because of the goaltending question, but with more upside. I'd say a 15-30 team with the potential to climb around top 10.
 

Bonin, you seem much more plugged in than I am. I used to follow recruiting much, much closer, but with the demise of the USCHO website I just don't anymore. Are there recruit(s) coming next year that have the potential for the Gophers to really start building with? I'm really hoping we don't have to wait another 2-3 years for the next Wheeler/Okposo type player to arrive.
 

Start building and Wheeler/Okposo are very different things. Bob has put together a good forward class, that could become great with even one unexpected late addition. There are no first rounders in there. Currently, the "next great Gopher" with the highest NHL potential lined up is a kid in ninth grade, Chaz Lucius. He has the highest upside but because of his age also the most unknown.

Coming in you have:
-One of the best scorers in the USHL Ben Meyers. An SCSU flip from a non west metro school like we've become too used to
-Soon to be Mr. Hockey Bryce Brodzinski. An SCSU flip from a non west metro school like we've become too used to that may be the best Brodzinski brother yet.
-Jaxon Nelson, a guy from the middle of nowhere that we were excited about in HS because he wasn't from a west metro school... Hasn't turned into what we hoped but should be a solid 4 year player
-Blake Perbix: a drafted flip from Notre Dame that has ramped up production in the USHL and could turn into a very good three year player
-One or two others TBD from the pipeline or soon to commit.

Combine that with Mike Koster (the hopefully next Mike Reilly type), Ben Brinkman (the hopefully next Brady Skjei), and Ryan Johnson (extremely high potential) on the back end.

Then you have the impressive BMW freshmen line we've seen this year.

Put all that together and that's why I expect 20-21 to be a VERY GOOD team.
 



I'm optimistic. The team is up and down- as young teams tend to be. Give Motzco a few years. I'm confident they will contend for a National Championship. Also look at SCSU- Motzco left that program in pretty decent shape.
 

DougMN said:
Also look at SCSU- Motzco left that program in pretty decent shape.
Click to expand...
Painful for Gopher fans but I'd say there is a 50% chance SCSU or UMD wins it all this year. 60-65% when you add in Mankato.

We can't get back on top of the state soon enough.
 

bonin21 said:
Painful for Gopher fans but I'd say there is a 50% chance SCSU or UMD wins it all this year. 60-65% when you add in Mankato.

We can't get back on top of the state soon enough.
Click to expand...

Please let SCSU win it this year before the Gophers retake their rightful place as college hockey royalty. And hopefully the Huskies continue to be a major factor even though Motzko is gone.
 



Mick Turition said:
I am not a hard-core hockey fan but I do watch all televised Gopher hockey games. Nice road sweep of OSU but it won't get them within a sniff of the Tournament. So..... the question is Why Do the Gophers Stink So Bad? It's supposed to be one of the premier programs in the nation but is a (very) distant 4th place program in their own state of Minnesota. For the love of Pete, even Arizona State is going to make the Tournament. Arizona State!!

Coaching??
Lack of talent??
Administrative failure??
Click to expand...


Yeah, you obviously don't pay much attention. Not to college hockey in general or to the Gophers.


Go ahead, genius, look at the Top TWENTY ranked teams this year, there isn't a Blue Blood school ranked ahead of Minnesota, who is in 20th place, so not a single blue blood school among the Top 19 teams right now.


And your remark about being 4th in our own state? lol Not hard when SCSU, UMD & Mankato are all ranked among the Top 4 in the country right now.


And finally, UMn's gone 5-1 in their last 6 games, the loss being only a 1 goal loss, outscoring their opponents 22-13, with all 6 games being vs a Top 16 ranked team, 4 of the 6 games being vs Top 8 ranked teams. Those are the types of teams UMn would have to play in the 1st and 2nd round of the NCAA tournament. If they get to the FF, consider that they never lost to UMD in their 2 games vs them this year and only lost to Mankato, in Mankato by 1 goal.


Throughout the whole season, Minnesota's only 2 losses to Top 8 ranked teams, were vs Mankato, otherwise they went 5-0-3 vs the rest of their Top 8 ranked opponents, outscoring them 30-18.


So? How is it they play so well vs Highly ranked teams and yet still rank so lowly? I'm not sure if Gopher players only get fired up to play good teams, or maybe those good teams take the Gophers too lightly, same as we seem to take our lowliest opponents who we have let beat us far too often.


But like has been said by another, its a new 1st year coach, maybe you should give him another season or two?
 

Hey genius Denver is a blue blood college hockey program.
 

Gophers had a good finish this year and the 2nd season is getting started. Not sure why they struggled badly in the beginning however I always had faith in the new coaching staff. Mick you need to look at the circumstances as to why AZ is rated 12th or so. If they played a much tougher schedule they wouldn't be a top 20 team.
 

KillmeNow said:
And finally, UMn's gone 5-1 in their last 6 games, the loss being only a 1 goal loss, outscoring their opponents 22-13, with all 6 games being vs a Top 16 ranked team, 4 of the 6 games being vs Top 8 ranked teams. Those are the types of teams UMn would have to play in the 1st and 2nd round of the NCAA tournament. If they get to the FF, consider that they never lost to UMD in their 2 games vs them this year and only lost to Mankato, in Mankato by 1 goal.
Click to expand...

Did you intentionally ignore the existence of the 1-5 loss to Mankato @ Mariucci?
 



bonin21 said:
Hey genius Denver is a blue blood college hockey program.
Click to expand...


Yeah, your right, I missed ONE team. Mick missed EIGHTEEN!!!

My point is still valid and has been for years. Non-blue bloods have a huge advantage and have had an advantage for many years now and it's unlikely that is going to change anytime soon.
 

stocker08 said:
Did you intentionally ignore the existence of the 1-5 loss to Mankato @ Mariucci?
Click to expand...


LOL. Of course. It was the ONLY bad performance in TEN games vs Top 8 rated teams. Hence, it was the exception, the outlier.
 

KillmeNow said:
Yeah, you obviously don't pay much attention. Not to college hockey in general or to the Gophers.


Go ahead, genius, look at the Top TWENTY ranked teams this year, there isn't a Blue Blood school ranked ahead of Minnesota, who is in 20th place, so not a single blue blood school among the Top 19 teams right now.


And your remark about being 4th in our own state? lol Not hard when SCSU, UMD & Mankato are all ranked among the Top 4 in the country right now.


And finally, UMn's gone 5-1 in their last 6 games, the loss being only a 1 goal loss, outscoring their opponents 22-13, with all 6 games being vs a Top 16 ranked team, 4 of the 6 games being vs Top 8 ranked teams. Those are the types of teams UMn would have to play in the 1st and 2nd round of the NCAA tournament. If they get to the FF, consider that they never lost to UMD in their 2 games vs them this year and only lost to Mankato, in Mankato by 1 goal.


Throughout the whole season, Minnesota's only 2 losses to Top 8 ranked teams, were vs Mankato, otherwise they went 5-0-3 vs the rest of their Top 8 ranked opponents, outscoring them 30-18.


So? How is it they play so well vs Highly ranked teams and yet still rank so lowly? I'm not sure if Gopher players only get fired up to play good teams, or maybe those good teams take the Gophers too lightly, same as we seem to take our lowliest opponents who we have let beat us far too often.


But like has been said by another, its a new 1st year coach, maybe you should give him another season or two?
Click to expand...

I would like to add that a lot of it has to do with work ethic, smart play and effort. The freshman were typically Lucia's best players, then they got into some lazy hockey habits. The current team has a good deal of talent, but they still get into those spells of watching, not moving their feet and making stupid passes. Motzko has the reputation of having hard working teams so the hope is the players will continue to develop as we reload with new freshman classes.
 

alchemy2u said:
I would like to add that a lot of it has to do with work ethic, smart play and effort. The freshman were typically Lucia's best players, then they got into some lazy hockey habits. The current team has a good deal of talent, but they still get into those spells of watching, not moving their feet and making stupid passes. Motzko has the reputation of having hard working teams so the hope is the players will continue to develop as we reload with new freshman classes.
Click to expand...

Huge bingo on this. Not sure why Lucia didn't grab hold of his upper class-men on their bad habits. You would think that this would affect the team's chemistry. Perhaps Lucia got more lazy as time went along as well.
 

You must log in or register to reply here.



Top Bottom