2014-2015 Minnesota Women's Hockey: The Maroon & Gold Strike Back!

[Eeyore]

Re: 2014-2015 Minnesota Women's Hockey: The Maroon & Gold Strike Back!

Strib on the NoDak series:

http://www.startribune.com/sports/gophers/280427922.html

I love this sentence: "North Dakota goalie Lexie Shaw stopped 46 shots, 22 in the second period, to keep the game somewhat close."

 

[pgb-ohio]

Re: 2014-2015 Minnesota Women's Hockey: The Maroon & Gold Strike Back!

I think the shootout, particularly with the current structure in Women's hockey that ARM points out, has to matter more to an underdog than to a team that is on a run like Minnesota has been on. So go ahead and celebrate, and enjoy the pain that we feel for not having won the game, just maybe grant us leeway that our pain is not greater for not having won the shootout

I can live with that.

And, frankly, letting someone else tell you when you should and shouldn't celebrate isn't a smart way to go.

But...but... he's a columnist! A NATIONALLY RESPECTED COLUMNIST!

 

[ne7minder]

Re: 2014-2015 Minnesota Women's Hockey: The Maroon & Gold Strike Back!

Welcome to the board, ne7minder

Thanks - I wish I had known of this earlier, seems to be a bunch of good people here & it is so hard finding people wanting to discuss womens hockey.

 

[ARM]

Re: 2014-2015 Minnesota Women's Hockey: The Maroon & Gold Strike Back!

Thanks - I wish I had known of this earlier, seems to be a bunch of good people here & it is so hard finding people wanting to discuss womens hockey.

Some days, it is hard to get them to discuss women's hockey on here as well. (especially in an election year)

 

[Slap Shot]

Re: 2014-2015 Minnesota Women's Hockey: The Maroon & Gold Strike Back!

Question: Should penalty shots be dropped from the rule book altogether? If the uncontested rush + one shot procedure is simply non-hockey, shouldn't it be totally taken out of the game?

This situation is part of the game and is not being asked to decide the outcome, just play a part.

And yet the rulebook contains any number of provisions that are less than ideal, and potentially conflict with important principles. When to accept compromise and when to stand on principle is an open question, and often difficult to answer.

I think you're unnecessarily magnifying the importance of the issue at hand. Principle? No one is playing the part of Custer here, it's merely a philosophical differing of opinions that would produce a completely insignificant 'result' were one side ever be deemed victor in the first place.

 

[pokechecker]

Re: 2014-2015 Minnesota Women's Hockey: The Maroon & Gold Strike Back!

Strib on the NoDak series:

How 'bout one from the Idalski play... appear on the score sheet. Then she got 2 :)

 

[Eeyore]

Re: 2014-2015 Minnesota Women's Hockey: The Maroon & Gold Strike Back!

I think you're unnecessarily magnifying the importance of the issue at hand. Principle? No one is playing the part of Custer here, it's merely a philosophical differing of opinions that would produce a completely insignificant 'result' were one side ever be deemed victor in the first place.

Well, I've pretty clearly staked out a hill I'm prepared to die on but I also think the difference between the enforcement of a penalty within the course of play and an add on solely to prevent there from being a tie is pretty clear and that attempts to conflate them miss the point.

 

[KTDC]

Re: 2014-2015 Minnesota Women's Hockey: The Maroon & Gold Strike Back!

Part of me thinks it would be good to play against Bemidji w/out Brandt, Cameranesi and Stecklein to force other players to step up, score, develop etc. It could be good for the depth of the team in the long run.

Other part of me just wants the best team out there, playing the best they can. Let's just develop our whole team, play the best we can and win every game possible.

 

[brookyone]

Re: 2014-2015 Minnesota Women's Hockey: The Maroon & Gold Strike Back!

Part of me thinks it would be good to play against Bemidji w/out Brandt, Cameranesi and Stecklein to force other players to step up, score, develop etc. It could be good for the depth of the team in the long run.

Other part of me just wants the best team out there, playing the best they can. Let's just develop our whole team, play the best we can and win every game possible.

I was, am thinking the same as your first sentiment above regarding opportunity for some to step into bigger roles...and it's potential payoff down the road. FWIW...I sincerely believe those that are available and likely to play bigger roles and get more ice time with #'s 2, 21 & 22 gone, are very capable of stepping in and stepping up. By no definition liabilities in any way.

I might just throw it out there at risk of ruffling some feathers...that ideally I might prefer a different WCHA opponent than Bemidji for said opportunity. Maybe I'm still in Sertich / Bemidji / Tomcikova mode when the Beavers could be counted on to give a full strength Gopher team a real battle. We'll see if the Beavers are still the hardest working team under the new leadership. His high school teams played that way for sure. The Beavers are not without some kids that can score up front.

 

[ne7minder]

Re: 2014-2015 Minnesota Women's Hockey: The Maroon & Gold Strike Back!

Other part of me just wants the best team out there, playing the best they can. Let's just develop our whole team, play the best we can and win every game possible.

I'd like to see more of the 4th line throughout the year - but then again its not my career as coach at stake. I think the 4th line would has enough talent to be used more & that increased playing time for them would pay dividends late in the season. Not only would it give them experience but it would provide little rests over time.

 

[OldDave]

Re: 2014-2015 Minnesota Women's Hockey: The Maroon & Gold Strike Back!

I'd like to see more of the 4th line throughout the year - but then again its not my career as coach at stake. I think the 4th line would has enough talent to be used more & that increased playing time for them would pay dividends late in the season. Not only would it give them experience but it would provide little rests over time.

Brad's problem is that he does not have a center for a fourth line. He could double shift a center from another line, but they are already pulling PP and PK duties in addition to their regular shifts. It looks like the best he can do on a regular basis is to slot the two extra skaters in on another line to give a player a rest for a shift or two. I did notice that everyone on the bench played Saturday, and we saw some players on the PK and PP for the first time this year.

 

[pgb-ohio]

Re: 2014-2015 Minnesota Women's Hockey: The Maroon & Gold Strike Back!

I think you're unnecessarily magnifying the importance of the issue at hand. Principle? No one is playing the part of Custer here, it's merely a philosophical differing of opinions that would produce a completely insignificant 'result' were one side ever be deemed victor in the first place.

Sure about that?

Well, I've pretty clearly staked out a hill I'm prepared to die on ...

Last Winter in Minneapolis, the Buckeyes won a couple of standings points. The conversation that followed on USCHO didn't go well. My reaction was that no one could hate shootouts that much, and that a number of posts were just petty attempts to spoil OSU's moment.

But as Eeyore's colorful comment reflects, the current conversation has taught me that at least some Gopher posters sincerely do hate shootouts that vehemently! Now that little insight isn't going to win us the Nobel Peace Prize. But it does put a number of posts, then and now, in a different light. A bit of progress.

 

[OldDave]

Re: 2014-2015 Minnesota Women's Hockey: The Maroon & Gold Strike Back!

The game notes are up for this weekend: http://www.gophersports.com/sports/w-hockey/spec-rel/102914aab.html. According to the "Gophers and Beavers by the Numbers" box, the Gophers are averaging 346.2 shots on goal per game. Talk about fun with numbers, that comes out to about one shot on goal every 10 seconds if my math is right, and they are averaging one goal every 79 shots. I'm guessing we have an error in the stats.

 

[FiveHoleFrenzy]

Re: 2014-2015 Minnesota Women's Hockey: The Maroon & Gold Strike Back!

The game notes are up for this weekend: http://www.gophersports.com/sports/w-hockey/spec-rel/102914aab.html. According to the "Gophers and Beavers by the Numbers" box, the Gophers are averaging 346.2 shots on goal per game. Talk about fun with numbers, that comes out to about one shot on goal every 10 seconds if my math is right, and they are averaging one goal every 79 shots. I'm guessing we have an error in the stats.

A little different fun with numbers...Minnesota has up-to-date record of 120 wins, 7 losses, and 4 ties since the 2011/2012 season.

In the last two season the Gophers have lost the following players to graduation or other reasons:

Amanda Kessel
Megan Bozek
Mira Jalosuo
Nora Raty
Lee Stecklein (one year)
Becky Kortum
Samantha Downey
Katie Frischmann
Bethany Brausen
Kelly Terry
Sarah Davis
Baylee Gilanders

That is a lot of star-power. The record since losing these players? 45-2-2. Not likely any other team is able to maintain the level of wining with those losses.

So as much as people want the "heyday" of the gophers to be over and claim this is a "one" or "two" line team that has been "outplayed multiple times" this year, the Gophers just keep winning.

 

[Steve_MN]

Re: 2014-2015 Minnesota Women's Hockey: The Maroon & Gold Strike Back!

We have been going to Women's D-1 games since the late '90's and in those early days there were some pretty awful teams. I never saw a team dominated in the way ND was yesterday. Sure,I saw worse beatings but they were teams that did not have the talent ND is supposed to have. Neither night was as close as the scores.

I haven't been to quite as many games, but I've gone to a couple Women's games a year for quite a while, the closest I remember to what this sounded like was actually also against NoDak, but back in 2004/05 when they were just getting started. MN won on a 7-0 shutout, and it was nearly the end of the 2nd period before NoDak had as many SOGs as the Gophers had goals. The Gophers had 2 goals before UND got their first shot, and that continued through the next 30 minutes or so of game time.

The obvious difference is that it was UND's 2nd full year of competition and they were still getting the program up and running, as opposed to now, where they have a solid program that's expected to do much better than what happened this past weekend, regardless of how good the Gophers are.

 

[KTDC]

Re: 2014-2015 Minnesota Women's Hockey: The Maroon & Gold Strike Back!

Does anybody feel like recollecting/commenting on what it was like when the Lams transferred out? It was before my time. I was looking at the 2008-09 stats and they were just dominating as freshmen. They are in the single season top 10 of a lot of lists of GWH history (not just penalties).

Obviously, it turned out great for Minnesota and NDak. They really don't seem like Minnesota type players to me. I read an interview where they said they left because they were NDak's at heart and when the school made a coaching change they liked, they wanted to go there. It seems one must ultimately think it was good for women's hockey they went to North Dakota and helped to build that program.

Was it like a crisis, "oh my God the sky is falling", or "Frost is losing control of the program" kind of thing?

 

[ne7minder]

Re: 2014-2015 Minnesota Women's Hockey: The Maroon & Gold Strike Back!

The Gophers had 2 goals before UND got their first shot, and that continued through the next 30 minutes or so of game time.

The Gophers seemed to run around a lot in Duluth but did have a a period where they played like that. They had 3 periods across 2 games in Madison where they dominated but nothing like what happened Saturday at Ridder. Eeyore thinks ND quit, I am not completely convinced. Yeah, they didn't get cheap & chippy like they usually do (but then the Lameroo kids are gone) but I didn't feel they stopped trying. I think they just ran into a buzzsaw. I think ND will finish behind Wisconsin & UMD again this year because they don't have the horses to outrun them. They are 1-1 against UMD but they will have to play a lot better to beat them twice in Duluth I think.

 

[ne7minder]

Re: 2014-2015 Minnesota Women's Hockey: The Maroon & Gold Strike Back!

Last Winter in Minneapolis, the Buckeyes won a couple of standings points. The conversation that followed on USCHO didn't go well. My reaction was that no one could hate shootouts that much, and that a number of posts were just petty attempts to spoil OSU's moment.

I was not here last year but I will admit I leave at the end of OT - I hate shootouts that much. Had the OT ended in a tie in Madison I would have walked out then & not been impressed had MN won a shootout. Why if a ball game is tied at the end of 9 don't they go to a home run derby? Basketball to a 3-point shootout? Football a field goal kick off? The reason is that none of those things provides the better team with the best chance of winning. By the rules OSU deserved that extra point, I just think the rules suck & would say so if the Gophers had won.

 

[ne7minder]

Re: 2014-2015 Minnesota Women's Hockey: The Maroon & Gold Strike Back!

Brad's problem is that he does not have a center for a fourth line. He could double shift a center from another line, but they are already pulling PP and PK duties in addition to their regular shifts. It looks like the best he can do on a regular basis is to slot the two extra skaters in on another line to give a player a rest for a shift or two. I did notice that everyone on the bench played Saturday, and we saw some players on the PK and PP for the first time this year.

I noticed that too but was speaking more in general, I don't think the 4th ever gets enough ice time. Given they are shorthanded this year it is more important. Hopefully we can see more of this.

 

[brookyone]

Re: 2014-2015 Minnesota Women's Hockey: The Maroon & Gold Strike Back!

Was it like a crisis, "oh my God the sky is falling", or "Frost is losing control of the program" kind of thing?

No...I don't think so and didn't at the time. It was a surprise. Maybe some were shocked and I think Frosty mentioned being caught off guard. That was about the extent, or intensity for the most part. I suppose some fans might have been more upset. After that freshman season they had I believe most GWH fans were not real happy about their departure. Far from despondent though.

Myself, I've been more unhappy with other departures. Departures of players who genuinely wanted to wear the Maroon & Gold.

I have no problem admitting that under those circumstances...it was especially sweet ending NoDak's and the twin's season a time or two. Too bad for them they ended their careers minus any hardware while the team they left collected a few pieces themselves.

I ultimately have quite a bit of respect...or came to have respect for Mo & Jo. I think they knew full well what they were risking as far as being a part of a team with a better chance at a NCAA championship and sacrificed that in order to help build a program that they cared about and wanted to be a part of making it better...putting it on the map. They both mentioned that, and I believe them. Pretty selfless...IMO. GWH did alright without them. If you never watched them play as Gophers...they often had one rather glaring issue during that time. It seemed anyone that played on their line was often invisible to them. They put up the points anyway.

There were some aspects I found amusing as well. When they committed to Minnesota folks in Grand Forks were none too happy and didn't hide the fact. First trip to The Ralph and there were "Traitor Twins" signs. The online disgust...like in the Sioux Sports Forum was pretty brutal and after a couple games at The Ralph there was a lot of talk about how fans were glad they didn't commit to UND because they were "dirty" cheap shot artist" "hacks" etc. etc. The twins were the target of quite a bit of abuse among NoDak faithful at the time. Then the transfer...and the same people in the Sioux forum were thrilled...they're the greatest players on the planet and anyone who said otherwise was torn a new one. There was a quick attitude adjustment in Grand Forks and the Traitor Twins signs were swiftly discarded.