Minnesota Gophers Season Thread 2015-16

[HarleyMC]

Re: Minnesota Gophers Season Thread 2015-16

I just checked Pairwise for the first time and was shocked we are now #44. Have the Gophers ever been this far down?

The PWR is not too statistically significant at this time of the season. With an intrastate rival like MNSU with an equally rough start to their season, anything can happen this weekend. But clearly the Gophers need at least an NC sweep these next two weekends for some traction in the PWR when it does come crunch time.

The 2009-10 season has been my comparison marker for this team. In similar fashion, they are on the verge of seeing their chances for the NCAA tourney dip even lower if they get swept either this weekend or against SCSU and also split a series. That would be a serious dagger sinking them below the boys of 2009-10 at this point.

As it stands now with 4 of the remaining 8 NCs left these next two weekends before conference play, if they split against MNSU and SCSU, they'll be below .500 (5-6-0) after 11 games but slightly better than 2009-10 (4-6-1) which was rock bottom so far during Lucia's tenure. Of the 6 teams played in both seasons after 11 games, 5/6 were ranked in 2009-10 compared to 3/6 this season.

Hopefully, Lucia will either juggle the top line with Kloos again this weekend or they'll finally find some chemistry because they've been basically ineffective this season. Kloos has wheels but has been far too much a perimeter player and he's getting hammered on the walls. He needs to move inside the high or low slots more often for better scoring chances. C. Reilly, who has the capability to score goals, has been totally ineffective and has not entered into the dirty areas enough for better scoring chances. This team needs to be willing to work into the dirty areas with the puck and they'll start winning more games.

I'll be at both games this weekend. Haven't been to the Verizon in a couple years, but the last time we went an old Mav fan was swearing at us throughout the game and threatened to beat me with his cane. The line from Waynes World 2 came to mind, "So I had to beat him to death with his own shoe". Go Gophers!

[D2D]

Re: Minnesota Gophers Season Thread 2015-16

The PWR is not too statistically significant at this time of the season.

My thought was that we have a LOT of ground to make up. I couldn't agree more when you say how important the upcoming NC series are with Mankato and St. Cloud.

[D2D]

Re: Minnesota Gophers Season Thread 2015-16

Moving on, the schedule gets even tougher this coming week...that dammmm Bye team again. Hope the Gophers are doing all they can to prepare. It's never easy.

[D2D]

Re: Minnesota Gophers Season Thread 2015-16

P.S. After that heart-wrenching loss to MS-M, playing BYE next weekend may be just what the doctor ordered.

[gopher wes]

Re: Minnesota Gophers Season Thread 2015-16

Another bye?! ***.....

[D2D]

Re: Minnesota Gophers Season Thread 2015-16

I thought this quote from Justin Kloos was pretty much spot on: "It's brutal. Going into [a bye week] and giving up a lead with four minutes left, a two-goal lead, it stinks bad right now. We're a good team when we want to be. So I guess that's what we can take away from it. When we don't want to play hard, we're less than average."

[Jockstock]

Re: Minnesota Gophers Season Thread 2015-16

The boys need to come off the cycle and into kill zone. It's a learning curve with Coach, but they'll get better. Oh and Dirty Rules.

[D2D]

Re: Minnesota Gophers Season Thread 2015-16

Sad, but true I'm afraid.

http://www.startribune.com/patrick-p...ost/352823411/

Oh well, not much they can do at this point, just have to deal with it.

[Koho]

Re: Minnesota Gophers Season Thread 2015-16

Sad, but true I'm afraid.

http://www.startribune.com/patrick-p...ost/352823411/

Oh well, not much they can do at this point, just have to deal with it.

And the alignment along with the poor Gopher start seems to have the Gophs in a pairwise hole they might not get out of. With a very strong SCSU team next, which they are unlikely to sweep, the Gophs are already looking like a team that will need to win the BI6 tourney to make the show. OSU and MSU are even lower in Pairwise than MN, with WI is barely a step ahead (and not likely to climb much). MI is only team in top 16. So even a pretty healthy winning percentage in the league can't help too much. That last minute overtime loss is looming pretty large. I realize league strength will probably prove cyclical, it sucks to be at the absolute bottom to start.

[D2D]

Re: Minnesota Gophers Season Thread 2015-16

After St. Cloud's totally impressive thrashing of the Formerly Fighting Sioux I think it's safe to say that the Gophers are huge underdogs going into the coming weekend. In fact, I don't recall the Huskies having such a talent advantage over our Gophers. Safe to say I think that we'll need most all of the bounces to go our way in order to come away with a split...at home no less.

[RL3AO]

Re: Minnesota Gophers Season Thread 2015-16

Gophers hockey was a staple of my childhood on FSN every Friday and Saturday. Over half their schedule was against teams capable of winning the national title. Now many of the games aren't on TV. They play in the 4th (5th? WCHA?) best conference now. Hope the Penn State program was worth it because it changed college hockey at the U of M. Thankfully SCSU, UND, UMD, etc. were able to come out of the shakeup.

[Hammy]

Re: Minnesota Gophers Season Thread 2015-16

Gophers hockey was a staple of my childhood on FSN every Friday and Saturday. Over half their schedule was against teams capable of winning the national title. Now many of the games aren't on TV. They play in the 4th (5th? WCHA?) best conference now. Hope the Penn State program was worth it because it changed college hockey at the U of M. Thankfully SCSU, UND, UMD, etc. were able to come out of the shakeup.

I don't have a huge issue with opinions on what is or isn't "as good" as it was (though I do think it is very premature to judge anything when we are only a little over 2 years into the changes... league strength has always proven to be cyclical). But it does tend to annoy me when people talk about the TV schedule now vs. the past and act as if it was so much more robust back in the WCHA days. It may not all be on the same network every weekend like it used to be but the team is on TV pretty similarly in numbers to what they were in the WCHA days (games at MTU and UAA were often not broadcast in those days, we didn't always get every non-conference series back then, and we didn't always get Colorado games either). Pretty close to the same broadcast numbers to what we will see this year.

[Hammy]

Re: Minnesota Gophers Season Thread 2015-16

Sad, but true I'm afraid.

http://www.startribune.com/patrick-p...ost/352823411/

Oh well, not much they can do at this point, just have to deal with it.

If they had more reasonable prices, they would have a more rabid crowd because more of the "average Joes" would be in attendance. They are going to need to start treating hockey a little less of a revenue maker at some point. They can still make money but they need to get a grip on the pricing aspect.

[D2D]

Re: Minnesota Gophers Season Thread 2015-16

If they had more reasonable prices, they would have a more rabid crowd because more of the "average Joes" would be in attendance.

I know several long time season ticket holders who gave up their seats due to the mandatory seat license fees, not the tickets themselves. Add the two together and it becomes unaffordable for many folks.

[5mn_Major]

Re: Minnesota Gophers Season Thread 2015-16

Now many of the games aren't on TV..

Being done with Notre Dame should help.