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Minnesota Gophers 2022-23

Congrats to the Gophers on the win, it was quite a game! Your women knocked off our #1 hockey team and our men's team did the same to you so I'd call it even money and I
can't wait for tomorrow's games!
It was also great meeting Still Eeyore!
 
ManBehindTheCurtain said:
Interestingly enough, the Ohio State announcing team on BTN+ spent a lot of time talking about what they perceived as Vetter's shakiness, particularly harping on failure to control rebounds. Maybe they were right or maybe they were seeing her performance through scarlet sunglasses.
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What they missed was that Vetter was good at kicking rebounds out to her own players.
 
Great game. Feels like the rebounds could be problematic if OSU actually had players there, which they rarely did. Vetter played well regardless. Anyway really enjoyable game and nice to meet folks from here. All six goals scored at the same end of the rink… I picked the right spot to sit.
 
Who is going to Las Vegas (Henderson) right after Thanksgiving to watch our gals?
I'll be there, my grown sons are going to visit their mom in TX, and I haven't been to Vegas in years! Should be fun!
 
The Gophers looked good this weekend. The difference between the two games is that Vetter wasn't as sharp on Saturday. Still, going into the home of the #1 Defending National Champions is nothing to sneeze at.

The one real weakness they showed this weekend was that they weren't good in front of their own net. All six goals OSU scored came on shots from five feet or less, most of them after a pileup. Vetter didn't seem to deal well with traffic, and the skaters in front of her didn't do a good job clearing pucks. That said, I'm not sure how big of a flaw this actually is. I don't think that other teams will be able to take advantage of it to the extent that the Buckeyes did. OSU is a big, very physical team that is pretty much the prototype of a squad that can push you around in front of the net. Until some other team demonstrates an ability to do damage like this, I'm not worried about it. Minnesota will need to get better at front of the net coverage, or come up with another solution, since they are probably going to have some big games against Ohio State later this year, but, if other teams aren't able to do what OSU did, they have until February to figure it out.
 
Still Eeyore said:
All six goals OSU scored came on shots from five feet or less, most of them after a pileup. Vetter didn't seem to deal well with traffic, and the skaters in front of her didn't do a good job clearing pucks. That said, I'm not sure how big of a flaw this actually is. I don't think that other teams will be able to take advantage of it to the extent that the Buckeyes did.
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My opinion after only watching the Saturday game, and that through the net that seems designed to obscure as much of the sightline as possible. Thus, I could be wrong -- shocking, I know. There looked to be at least three opportunities for improvement: a) Vetter could improve her rebound control, if it is in fact an issue; b) the skaters could start either winning or getting a stalemate in more of the one-on-one battles in front of her; or c) the skaters could reduce the number of turnovers that led to most of the attacks in the first place.

For a), I didn't think the goaltender was the problem, at least the biggest one. The first time tOSU put the puck in the net, albeit one that didn't ultimately count, Vetter stops a shot that was redirected a few feet in front of her. On that, you're just asking your goalie to stop it somehow. She did, and tried to squeeze it under her arm, holding it but not securely. Long enough to get the whistle, but not long enough for any of her teammates to show up and move Rosenthal out of the net front or tie her up. The D had inside position initially, but didn't deny the attempt on the rebound. That seems to be a recurring theme vs the Buckeyes; Minnesota has players there, but they don't make a play. When Webster scored minutes later, Vetter makes an athletic play to keep the puck out of the net, but is unable to cover it. Part of that is her form with her skates up in the air meant that she wasn't blocking the optimal amount of the net. However, her teammates are losing one-on-one battles all around her. From what I saw, the team needs to do a better job of b), or they will be in danger of giving up additional goals against most quality opponents.

As for c), many editions of GWH haven't been fond of playing on the rink in Columbus, dating back to the days when almost all of the trips there produced sweeps. Is the ice surface soft, chippy, or otherwise problematic? Could be, but it is what it is. If the ice produces strange bounces, then you have to emphasize being stronger on the puck. You can't have a couple senior forwards reaching behind them for the puck while continuing to skate away from it, even as it is being stolen. In a game where you lead, securing the puck is everything. If necessary, stop, gather the puck, dump it in, and go forecheck. It isn't pretty, but they have squandered so many leads to tOSU in recent years, that something has to change. The push is going to come. Stay out of the box, or at least avoid going there four times in a row. Once shorthanded, the PK does a good job up until the Buckeyes get possession in the O zone. At that point, identify Jaques. I get that great players make great plays, but it doesn't seem like they are even aware that she needs additional focus. How many times do you want to lose to the same play?

You're not wrong about the officiating, but I'm not holding my breath waiting for that to change. All Minnesota can do is be ready for the contact, because that is going to happen both offensively and defensively. The Buckeyes run a lot of interference on the PP, so try to fight through it.

Imagine how much complaining I'd be doing if the Gophers had actually lost.
 
ARM said:
You can't have a couple senior forwards reaching behind them for the puck while continuing to skate away from it, even as it is being stolen. In a game where you lead, securing the puck is everything. If necessary, stop, gather the puck, dump it in, and go forecheck. It isn't pretty, but they have squandered so many leads to tOSU in recent years, that something has to change.
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I think it's important to differentiate between changes that would make them better against Ohio State specifically, and changes that would make them better generally. A stop, dump, chase approach would probably do the former, but fast transition play likely increases the chances of beating most of the teams in the league. (This is obviously a matter of degree; you're going to dump and chase on some plays in every game; the question is how aggressively you try to have possession entering the zone). When you debate how they should play, it's important to remember that you can't make wholesale changes in your approach against a single opponent. You've trained players to react reflexively, and you can't just override them. To a large extent, you have to live with the choices you make at the start of the year.

There are cost/benefit calculations here that are not immediately obvious. I think that Brad Frost has made some suboptimal decisions in this regard, but you have to keep in mind what you would give up to make the changes you suggest.
 
Still Eeyore said:
... you're going to dump and chase on some plays in every game; the question is how aggressively you try to have possession entering the zone).
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Exactly. Note that I wasn't speaking of the general case, and saying, "Why not try being a dump-and-chase team across the board." I'm saying that when a rush is breaking down, and you now have two of your forwards caught on the wrong side of the puck nearing the offensive blue line, IMO, you've reached the point of it being one of those plays. Maybe if you're trailing, you take the chance that this rush that's going badly will somehow still lead to a goal for. Even then, I think you first need to make sure of possession. I've heard Frost speak often enough about being strong on the puck to know his first choice isn't for his players to be reaching behind in traffic in the hope of fishing a puck through opposing skates. And to me the biggest problem ... while skating away from it. Sure, that's advantageous if you gain control, but players have to recognize when the odds aren't on their side.
 
Offsides Guy said:
I’ve been looking for Muzz’s regular post game comments on the Twitter feed but don’t see anything. Oh, that’s right, the Buckeyes lost…
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Not sure what you are talking about. There were twitter post game comments made by Coach Muzerall. Maybe give them a reasonable amount of time to get the post up.
 
Sure would love to see video replay of each OSU goal. The long distance/stationery/low resolution camera taking standard def video - through the rink-long net no less - made it very difficult to see exactly what led to each goal against. All I know is that whenever the Buckeyes worked to get the puck close in, while outnumbering the Gopher defenders, it was almost inevitable the puck would somehow find its way to the back of the net. Something I'm sure they're working on this week in practice.
 
Did let the early 2-0 lead slip away to a 2-2 Regulation tie, but #9 scored 15 seconds into the OT session on a nice feed from #12 for the 3-2 OT win. #9 and #12 playing together on a line is an intriguing duo...
 
FiveHoleFrenzy said:
#9 and #12 playing together on a line is an intriguing duo...
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They did for the most part during the Covid year, and from what I can remember, at least part of the 2019-20 season (although I could just be remembering a PP unit -- too lazy to look). I don't think that all of the lines we see now will still be intact at the end of the season, but I worry that they'll load up on one line to the detriment of others.
 
ARM said:
They did for the most part during the Covid year, and from what I can remember, at least part of the 2019-20 season (although I could just be remembering a PP unit -- too lazy to look). I don't think that all of the lines we see now will still be intact at the end of the season, but I worry that they'll load up on one line to the detriment of others.
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With the depth of scoring this team has, I'm not sure that they can load up on one line to the detriment of the others. I also think you'd have to be nuts to break up Heise/Boreen/Skaja.

On a different subject, Vetter likes to kick rebounds out hard, either to empty space or to a teammate. Most of the time, this works out well. Occasionally, she pops on straight up in the air that goes an inch wide when it lands.
 
Still Eeyore said:
With the depth of scoring this team has, I'm not sure that they can load up on one line to the detriment of the others.
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What I don't want to see is 9, 12, and 18 for half the minutes in the game. A minute at the end of a period, or the odd shift to show to the other team, but not a steady diet.
 
Still Eeyore said:
With the depth of scoring this team has, I'm not sure that they can load up on one line to the detriment of the others. I also think you'd have to be nuts to break up Heise/Boreen/Skaja.

On a different subject, Vetter likes to kick rebounds out hard, either to empty space or to a teammate. Most of the time, this works out well. Occasionally, she pops on straight up in the air that goes an inch wide when it lands.
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They showed an overhead replay on the video board a couple of minutes later and the puck was actually SEVERAL inches wide of the post. I am not saying that she made a good play, I am only saying that it wasn't quite as bad as it looked from the penalty bench side of the rink. But I agree, in live action from where I was sitting that was a horrifying moment.
 
ARM said:
What I don't want to see is 9, 12, and 18 for half the minutes in the game. A minute at the end of a period, or the odd shift to show to the other team, but not a steady diet.
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I found it very interesting that the overtime line-up included Laitinen as the D on the ice with the big two star forwards where even as recently as last week in Columbus it was MWethington in that role. Obviously this week they got the result they wanted. Going forward they obviously have options.

I thought MWethington played very, very well.

UMD was particularly dangerous when they had Bell and Flaherty out as a defensive pair. They started the game with the Hughes line but it seemed to me that after that they were out at least as often with the second line. Those two logged a lot of ice time and the Bulldogs were always good when they were out there.
 
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