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Re: Minnesota Gopher Season Thread: 2014-15 (Continued)
(Ok- brain fart - maybe it will come to me by end of typing post...) The former Gopher doing color had a couple interesting comments last night for those of you not watching on TV:
First, when talking about Senior night he mentioned how that is an opportunity many players don't experience when they jump to the pros early. He said players need to look at all the costs when considering a jump, not just the monetary gain and reaching the goal of making the NHL, but the cost of missing out on some of life's great memories in another year of college. This is point Trent Klatt likes to make regularly, both for the kid who wants to leave HS early and the collegiate players. He wishes he could have played another year at UM. This day in age, career ending injuries are really rare, with all the knee surgery advances, so it isn't as big of a risk as say 15-20 years ago. You could tell the Seniors were fired up to play last night and I am sure guys like Leopold didn't regret a return (not that everyone will return for an NC). (So if our two Junior defensemen and Junior goalie decide college is really fun and came back, I just want them to know I would be fine with it.)
The other comment he made 2 weeks in a row when talking about Woog and how tough he was on the players. He said he realized that once he got to the NHL, and saw how much coaches demanded there, that he realized Woog was prepping them well for their future by being so hard on them. So much so that he wrote a letter to Woog after his career was over to thank Doug. There have been lots of comments about Lucia and how a lot of players feel about him this year and whether that would play into how much longer he should coach, but I was wondering if the comments about Woog's toughness were meant to support and justify how tough Lucia apparently is on his players.
(Ok- brain fart - maybe it will come to me by end of typing post...) The former Gopher doing color had a couple interesting comments last night for those of you not watching on TV:
First, when talking about Senior night he mentioned how that is an opportunity many players don't experience when they jump to the pros early. He said players need to look at all the costs when considering a jump, not just the monetary gain and reaching the goal of making the NHL, but the cost of missing out on some of life's great memories in another year of college. This is point Trent Klatt likes to make regularly, both for the kid who wants to leave HS early and the collegiate players. He wishes he could have played another year at UM. This day in age, career ending injuries are really rare, with all the knee surgery advances, so it isn't as big of a risk as say 15-20 years ago. You could tell the Seniors were fired up to play last night and I am sure guys like Leopold didn't regret a return (not that everyone will return for an NC). (So if our two Junior defensemen and Junior goalie decide college is really fun and came back, I just want them to know I would be fine with it.)
The other comment he made 2 weeks in a row when talking about Woog and how tough he was on the players. He said he realized that once he got to the NHL, and saw how much coaches demanded there, that he realized Woog was prepping them well for their future by being so hard on them. So much so that he wrote a letter to Woog after his career was over to thank Doug. There have been lots of comments about Lucia and how a lot of players feel about him this year and whether that would play into how much longer he should coach, but I was wondering if the comments about Woog's toughness were meant to support and justify how tough Lucia apparently is on his players.
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