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Minnesota Women's Hockey 2025-26

eastcoastgopher said:
For a while, until the current crop of assistant coaches settled in I felt they were overly reliant on in-state players and were focusing, like the men's team, more on being Minnesotan than actually winning. I haven't felt too often that the Minnesotans who didn't come to this team proved to be huge misses. At least among forwards I haven't. And a number of the best ones played for Cornell, who is not the Gophers' concern most of the time.

(For what it's worth, the transfer Nelson and, depending on whether she can seize the net, the younger Hemp, are impact players on this year's team.)

The floor being transferring out is 100% a concern. But the borders expanding has made me more confident in this team than I would be had everyone from the 22-23 recruiting class and beyond stuck around and no one else came in. I have plenty of concerns with the coaching. I don't think Frost should get an extension. But last year's group of freshmen and this year's are not groups that play into my apathy with the program.

I don't live in Minnesota, but I know how the men's team has operated historically and how some of the fanbase reacts. Is the fact that over half of this team is from out of state and the majority of future recruits are as well a real cause of fan disinterest? I'm asking this because I don't know the answer, while my opinion is that it's a change of philosophy that's been a little bit overdue.
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I'm all for the good mix of players from home and abroad and bringing in the best. When you have the hotbed we typically have it's tough to swallow looking that the recent recruiting results. It might be as simple as a change of times, perhaps it's more glorious to go to the last champ or out of state. Social media has changed the recruiting game for sure.

If the top 3-5 MN high school recruits are potential D1 stars, I'd rather see at least 2-3 of them in maroon and gold. As ARM pointed out, it's pretty cool to watch them continue to grow and develop as home grown talent. Then bring in the star power around them from wherever you find the talent. However when only a minimum pan out, you're dropping the ball somewhere in either talent evaluation, recruiting, or talent development. Conspiracy theory.....some of the same talent evaluators for the Gophers provided evaluation for this fall's USA U18 tryout. Not a proven fact, but there is some interesting connections, talent omissions, and influence.... ;)
 
I thought there was a lot to like. The transfer portal folks, Paul, Nelson and Jordan all look like legit players. The frosh from Quebec, D'Alessandro, and the frosh from Czech, Plosova, both had nice debuts, big and fast, they also look like legit players. And the frosh from NY, Fanale, centered the first line and scored two goals. Last frosh with two goals in her first game was Hannah Brandt. Hannah followed that up with a hat trick in game two, it should be fun tomorrow to see what Bella can do.
 
ARM said:
For anyone familiar with how this works in NCAA programs, what is the role of a college GM?
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In some situations, e.g., Cal and Stanford Football, the head FB coach reports to the GM. The GM has hiring/firing authority over the coaching staff. And in the most extreme case (Stanford) the GM reports directly to the president. Other places, the GM is on the same level as the HC. In the case of Minnesota, the Gopher Football GM reports to the Chief Boat Rower (PJ Fleck). It's a pretty progressive step by Frost and I'm glad to see it.
Lindsay said:
It struck me as odd the college fans shoulder shrugging about losing Coach Darwitz
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Darwitz is my first choice to replace Frost if Frost leaves or isn't renewed as HC this season.
ARM said:
I'm not sure if the casual fan who goes to a game every season or two cares, but those buying season tickets (or not) do.
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FWIW I am a season ticket holder who has a significant donation history to the program. I don't give a [redacted] about where our players come from. Be it Minnetonka, Myanmar, or Myrtle Beach, I just want the best players in Ridder Arena wearing what should be the proudest uniform in NCAA women's hockey.

Or, to put it another way: I want winners. I want people who want to win!
 
StPaulSam said:
... I just want the best players in Ridder Arena wearing what should be the proudest uniform in NCAA women's hockey.
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I agree that pride in the program is important, and that's part of my concern. By my count (so take it with a grain of salt), there are 16 former women's WCHA players coaching in the league. UM is the only program without one, but there are five former Gophers on the list. A lot of what Muzzy brought to the staff in her stint was pride and passion for being a Gopher. I agree that it is important to have great players, but when you're bringing in mostly players who have never seen the Gophers play in person and coaches from elsewhere, where does that pride in what it means to be a Gopher come from?

Anyway, we now have actually hockey to talk about, so I won't sidetrack discussions talking further about nonsense.

Sarah Paul can rifle the puck; the next step is to get more of those shots on frame. I think she has top-line talent, but she's playing right wing, so that won't happen. Tereza Plosova looks to have more game than we saw last night, so if the lines are right, they could be a decent three-line team. Hopefully, there will be a continued commitment to developing people beyond that. We lost a lot of PK shifts up front, so hopefully people emerge there. Murphy was getting too cute on the PK, reversing it in her own zone instead of clearing; just shoot the puck down the ice and go from there. She was actually trying to hold herself back at times, but she's never been one to let a perceived slight go unpunished. Fanale wasn't shy about showing up in her defense, which will be needed with Huber gone.
 
For what it's worth, Fanale did say she grew up rooting for the Gophers all the way from Rochester, New York. I think when you're a good program, the people who are invested in the game recognize that no matter where they're from. And at this point, many kids are playing tournaments in Minnesota—and in many cases full seasons—because of the world of youth travel sports.
 
eastcoastgopher said:
For what it's worth, Fanale did say she grew up rooting for the Gophers all the way from Rochester, New York.
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That's good to hear. Maybe I'm too influenced by talking to non-Minn. Gophers from 20 years ago about their path to UM who would say, "I'd heard of their men's team, but I didn't know they had a women's team until they started recruiting me."
 
Timothy A said:
Idk, there's lots of pride in playing for UW by a roster that is usually 95% non Wisconsinites. It's a culture thing.
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Savannah Norcross, from Boston of all places, played only two years at the U and decided to live in Minnesota full-time in the offseason. I'm pretty sure Huber will as well. There are ways to be part of the culture even if you didn't grow up there.
 
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It is a total culture thing, and that's what's great about it. Makes it fun watching hockey here on all levels, especially when a local talent wears maroon and gold. Love the mix of talent from abroad, but can't allow the very top MN kids to wear red. Simple rule, right?
 
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eastcoastgopher said:
There are a few rare occasions where you win and feel bad for the other team. This is one of those times.
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yeah. I tried to make some small talk with a BC fan after the game and got told in a thick boston accent: 'go to hell.' Honestly can't blame them, that was a complete dismantling.

Timothy A said:
The rodent color guy said bc was a formidable opponent lol.
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in Dan's defense, they were the 16th team/first team out in the USCHO poll and were projected to finish a respectable 4th in Hockey East.
 
Timothy A said:
The rodent color guy said bc was a formidable opponent lol.
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I was legitimately furious when they went down this road. It started with "If you're a BC fan watching right now..." with the score like 9-0 or something followed by a long pause, and my wife and I both looked at the TV screen and I said out loud "fking WHAT could you possibly be getting ready to say right now?"

Then he went into "your team is gonna be REALLY GOOD! You're gonna have a great season! There's a lot of good young talent on your team!" And I mean... Look, I get there was no malice there, and both guys were trying to be nice, but I was really not in the effing mindset for that. Thanks but no thanks.

It was a good unintentionally patronizing reminder of how severely the league has fallen. We are at the level of the CHA now and whatever single team makes an appearance in the NCAA tournament is just going to be in Happy To Be Here mode for the foreseeable future.

I was talking to someone during the game tonight and they mentioned how telling it was that BU was talking about how great they played and how proud they were after getting their shit rocked against Clarkson in NCAAs last year. Not entirely the same thing but that's roughly how it felt getting the "there there poor little one" comments from the PBP & color guys on BTN+ tonight.
 
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I thought that BC played some decent stretches tonight. The game turning one-sided on the road this early in the season was foreseeable, but not to that extent. I suppose the coach has her reasons, but I wouldn't have made the starting goalie go back out there for the third. She deserved better than the support she got.
 
Grant get a life with your cHA comments. For starters that league doesn’t exist anymore and you know it. Your team is probably 500 against Mercyhurst over the past decade which is Hursts weakest decade, Penn State just swept St Lawrence. And it was a long time ago now that OSU blanked you guys in the NCAA’s.

Be a real fan. Find a way to make peace your shiftiness without dumping a fucking league that was doing the work to build ncaa women’s hockey while your supposed hockeh school school hung out as a club despite existing for 30 years already. Get a life. Your team would be lucky to play with half the heart of a CHA/AHA kid.

Sincerely,
Someone who never lost 18-1 to Minnesota
 
At least Reggie has the guts to say “we suck”. Grant is still out here saying “the cHA sucks” this isn’t about the CHA guy. Pour one out for her, she was a badass league.

How’s that for some culture?
 
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