All things Denver XXVII: From Boonetown to Motown - It's not a Ford, it's a Chevy!

[HowardMBurgers]

Re: All things Denver XXVII: From Boonetown to Motown - It's not a Ford, it's a Chevy!

Re: All things Denver XXVII: From Boonetown to Motown - It's not a Ford, it's a Chevy!

Could have been worse...the game could have been in Grand Forks.

 

[ScottA]

Re: All things Denver XXVII: From Boonetown to Motown - It's not a Ford, it's a Chevy!

Re: All things Denver XXVII: From Boonetown to Motown - It's not a Ford, it's a Chevy!

I'm beginning to think Gwoz is a better recruiter/teacher than a coach/motivator ....as we watch yet another late-season fade. How does Hakstol get the Sue to peak at season-end every year after laying in the weeds all winter? I'm afraid a lot of our boys are looking at Wilkes-Barre bus rides and meal money rather than NHL glory. Good thing they studied hard, best of luck.

 

[Dmann]

Re: All things Denver XXVII: From Boonetown to Motown - It's not a Ford, it's a Chevy

I'm afraid a lot of our boys are looking at Wilkes-Barre bus rides and meal money rather than NHL glory. Good thing they studied hard, best of luck.

Wait, what does that mean?

 

[du78]

Re: All things Denver XXVII: From Boonetown to Motown - It's not a Ford, it's a Chevy

Wait, what does that mean?

AHL (minors) not NHL

I heard the Boston and Ottawa GMs were at the game. As far as I know all the DU players got on the plane to go back to Denver.

 

[A Shot and a Goal]

Re: All things Denver XXVII: From Boonetown to Motown - It's not a Ford, it's a Chevy!

Re: All things Denver XXVII: From Boonetown to Motown - It's not a Ford, it's a Chevy!

I'm unsuccessfully trying to recall Denver's non-conference opponents for the 2010-2011 season. I know the team opens the season on the road against Vermont. I beleive that Boston College comes to Magness Arena for a series. I believe Northern Michigan is playing two games against Denver. I can't recall which teams are playing in the Denver Cup.

If you have additions/corrections I'd appreciate seeing them.

 

[du78]

Re: All things Denver XXVII: From Boonetown to Motown - It's not a Ford, it's a Chevy!

Re: All things Denver XXVII: From Boonetown to Motown - It's not a Ford, it's a Chevy!

I'm unsuccessfully trying to recall Denver's non-conference opponents for the 2010-2011 season. I know the team opens the season on the road against Vermont. I beleive that Boston College comes to Magness Arena for a series. I believe Northern Michigan is playing two games against Denver. I can't recall which teams are playing in the Denver Cup.

If you have additions/corrections I'd appreciate seeing them.

Found it

DU will visit Vermont for a two game series.

BC will visit DU for a two game series.

The Denver Cup will feature Air Force, Clarkson & Lake Superior over Thanksgiving.

Northern Michigan will visit DU for two games over New Years.

I think DU goes to UAA next season. As such, DU still has one more OOC series to schedule due to the extra 2 games they get for going to UAA.

 

[flyund]

Re: All things Denver XXVII: From Boonetown to Motown - It's not a Ford, it's a Chevy!

Re: All things Denver XXVII: From Boonetown to Motown - It's not a Ford, it's a Chevy!

from what I've seen did DU checkout for the Year against tech in the first round? they Looked flat footed at the final five and today it seemed they didn't care they were down 2 with about five minutes to play.

 

[Cross-Czech]

Re: All things Denver XXVII: From Boonetown to Motown - It's not a Ford, it's a Chevy

I want to thank the 6 seniors who left their imprint on the DU program; Rock, Ruegs, Gifford, Glasser, Brookwell and Vossberg. Some came in as highly touted recruits and others were recruited walk-ons. They all contributed mightily to the program and won everything but a national championship. They are all champions in the classroom as well. In fact four of them have already completed their studies in the Winter quarter and area awaiting the graduation ceremony at the end of the Spring quarter. Best of luck wherever your futures may lie!!!!

There is also a good chance that Marc Cheverie, Joe Colborne and Patrick Wiercioch may be leaving early for the pro ranks. If they decide to leave I want to wish them well but I would not be adverse to them returning.

I'm trying to think of what to say...but this captures it perfectly

 

[vizoroo]

Re: All things Denver XXVII: From Boonetown to Motown - It's not a Ford, it's a Chevy!

Re: All things Denver XXVII: From Boonetown to Motown - It's not a Ford, it's a Chevy!

Disappointed.

 

[Jori_DSF]

Re: All things Denver XXVII: From Boonetown to Motown - It's not a Ford, it's a Chevy!

Re: All things Denver XXVII: From Boonetown to Motown - It's not a Ford, it's a Chevy!

Disappointed.

Yep, makes the entire weekend a downer

 

[vizoroo]

Re: All things Denver XXVII: From Boonetown to Motown - It's not a Ford, it's a Chevy!

Re: All things Denver XXVII: From Boonetown to Motown - It's not a Ford, it's a Chevy!

I read the comments on the LetsGoDU blog tonight and they made me angry! I have come to think that we support our team in good times and bad. So I posted the following.

March 26, 2010

Our Great Expectations for the 2009-2010 DU Hockey season ended today.
And I'm sad and disappointed, but surely not as disappointed as 27 student/athletes and the coaches and staff.

And I'm really disappointed in some pseudo DU fans and the venom they spewed about our team and coach. Yes, some of those venomous anonymous comments came from other teams fanatics, but these were mean spirited attacks on young men, our boys, The same boys we've cheered for whenever they took the ice wearing the Crimson and Gold.

At times we've criticized them for what we believed was a lack of focus or effort, for not playing 60 minutes of their best hockey, for coming out flat. But how many times did Chevy, Rakhshani, Colborne, Ruegsegger, the 2nd line or the 3rd line or Weircioch or Donovan or an unheralded player pick up the team with a timely goal or save or hit which put the Pioneers on the way to victory. We praised their grit and character. Now some are questioning these very attributes.

DU fans and supporters were called smug and elitists. Well maybe we were or are. But I tend to think we are proud of our University and our team.

We are proud of :
60 years of DU Hockey history
The Pioneers' 27 wins this season inluding 6 shutouts
19 WCHA All Academic Team selections
8 WCHA Scholar Athletes
2 Hobey Baker Award Finalists
6 selections to the All WCHA Teams
WCHA Player of the Year Award
WCHA Coach of the Year
WCHA Goaltending Champion
WCHA Scoring Champion
2 CHN All Americans
1 CHN All Rookie Team Selection
2 College Hockey 247 All Americans
CHN Team of the Week
National Player of the Month
2 National Player of the Week
9 WCHA Red Baron Player of the Week
4 Seniors who have completed graduation requirements
Finalist for Lowe's Senior CLASS Award
Finalist for Hockey Humanitarian Award
World Juniors Gold Medal winner
Olympic Silver medal winner
4 NHL regulars from DU
14 players drafted by the NHL
10 game winning streak
Sweeping UND 4-0 in the regular season
Sweeping Minnesota 4-0 in the regular season
Winning the MacNaughton Cup
Winning the Gold Pan Trophy
Winning the Denver Cup
Being ranked # 1 or 2 in the polls for basically the whole season
Being # 1 or 2 in the Pairwise
Getting a # 1 seed in the NCAAs
7 NCAA Hockey Championships

Yes, I am disappointed we didn't win the game, but take nothing away from RIT they played hard and blocked the scoring lanes effectively. Their goalie made save after save. They won. Congratulations to RIT

 

[du78]

Re: All things Denver XXVII: From Boonetown to Motown - It's not a Ford, it's a Chevy!

Re: All things Denver XXVII: From Boonetown to Motown - It's not a Ford, it's a Chevy!

I read the comments on the LetsGoDU blog tonight and they made me angry! I have come to think that we support our team in good times and bad. So I posted the following.

March 26, 2010

Our Great Expectations for the 2009-2010 DU Hockey season ended today.
And I'm sad and disappointed, but surely not as disappointed as 27 student/athletes and the coaches and staff.

And I'm really disappointed in some pseudo DU fans and the venom they spewed about our team and coach. Yes, some of those venomous anonymous comments came from other teams fanatics, but these were mean spirited attacks on young men, our boys, The same boys we've cheered for whenever they took the ice wearing the Crimson and Gold.

At times we've criticized them for what we believed was a lack of focus or effort, for not playing 60 minutes of their best hockey, for coming out flat. But how many times did Chevy, Rakhshani, Colborne, Ruegsegger, the 2nd line or the 3rd line or Weircioch or Donovan or an unheralded player pick up the team with a timely goal or save or hit which put the Pioneers on the way to victory. We praised their grit and character. Now some are questioning these very attributes.

DU fans and supporters were called smug and elitists. Well maybe we were or are. But I tend to think we are proud of our University and our team.

We are proud of :
60 years of DU Hockey history
The Pioneers' 27 wins this season inluding 6 shutouts
19 WCHA All Academic Team selections
8 WCHA Scholar Athletes
2 Hobey Baker Award Finalists
6 selections to the All WCHA Teams
WCHA Player of the Year Award
WCHA Coach of the Year
WCHA Goaltending Champion
WCHA Scoring Champion
2 CHN All Americans
1 CHN All Rookie Team Selection
2 College Hockey 247 All Americans
CHN Team of the Week
National Player of the Month
2 National Player of the Week
9 WCHA Red Baron Player of the Week
4 Seniors who have completed graduation requirements
Finalist for Lowe's Senior CLASS Award
Finalist for Hockey Humanitarian Award
World Juniors Gold Medal winner
Olympic Silver medal winner
4 NHL regulars from DU
14 players drafted by the NHL
10 game winning streak
Sweeping UND 4-0 in the regular season
Sweeping Minnesota 4-0 in the regular season
Winning the MacNaughton Cup
Winning the Gold Pan Trophy
Winning the Denver Cup
Being ranked # 1 or 2 in the polls for basically the whole season
Being # 1 or 2 in the Pairwise
Getting a # 1 seed in the NCAAs
7 NCAA Hockey Championships

Yes, I am disappointed we didn't win the game, but take nothing away from RIT they played hard and blocked the scoring lanes effectively. Their goalie made save after save. They won. Congratulations to RIT

Great post Viz, the body of work put togther by this team and this year's senior class is exemplary both on and off the ice.

 

[ScottA]

Re: All things Denver XXVII: From Boonetown to Motown - It's not a Ford, it's a Chevy!

Re: All things Denver XXVII: From Boonetown to Motown - It's not a Ford, it's a Chevy!

The sun did indeed come up today, even the hangover is is subsiding.

I only saw a couple of games in person this year; two sorry, lackluster, uninspired efforts against Bucky in Madison. Was this DU or was it the league-leading, giant-killer, #1 ranked steamroller praised by praised by foes, press and pundits alike?

I drank the Kool-Aid.

Now I'll never be able to watch Jack Benny again......ROCHESTER!

 

[A Shot and a Goal]

Re: All things Denver XXVII: From Boonetown to Motown - It's not a Ford, it's a Chevy!

Re: All things Denver XXVII: From Boonetown to Motown - It's not a Ford, it's a Chevy!

In case you haven't seen them yet, here is a link to a front page USCHO story which includes video postgame comments by Coach Gwozdecky, Rhett Rakhshani and Joe Colborne after yesterday's game. Scroll to the bottom of the article to see the video segments.


http://www.uscho.com/recaps/20092010/m/03/26/rit-du.php

 

[Puck Swami]

Re: All things Denver XXVII: From Boonetown to Motown - It's not a Ford, it's a Chevy!

Re: All things Denver XXVII: From Boonetown to Motown - It's not a Ford, it's a Chevy!

Great season, tough ending once again.

This Pioneer team brought home some great achievements which will soften the pain of the ending over time, but for right now, the hurt is a deep one.

When I look back at this year, I saw a league champion DU team win the toughest trophy to win in college sports, (the MacNaughton Cup), wrestled the Gold Pan back from CC, sweeping other rivals and played around the top of the national rankings for much of the season. Setting academic records and reaping personal accolades was a lot of fun, and we fans certainly got our money's worth in the joy department for much of the season.

That said, this DU team showed many signs over the course of the entire
season that there were often some issues in terms of sporadic effort level, and, when combined with some key injuries and other teams' honing their own focus levels, it was simply too much for this DU team to end the season with a quality playoff drive.

A lot of great players likely played their final game in Crimson and Gold, and they leave with their heads held high, with trophies, championships and achievement in their wake, as well as great educations, high GPAs and many happy memories of their times as Pioneers. While some may bristle at the "lost opportunities" in NCAA play, the reality is that only 1 team in 58
really ends the season with that level of happiness. The rest of us need to be happy with our annual hockey oddessy that takes us from fall to winter and deposits us into the spring with a new bunch of memories of a mostly well-played season of a game we all love.

Thanks, Pioneers, for a wonderful season.

We can't wait for October, 2010.

 

[Dmann]

Re: All things Denver XXVII: From Boonetown to Motown - It's not a Ford, it's a Chevy

What a lousy day!! I'm trying to watch the Alaska/BC game right now but it's tough. So many "what ifs" We definitely got bit by the injury bug at the worse possible time and in the last few games I think we had some terrible puck luck. Like I said last night, early in the game against UND, Ostrow hit the post!! I believe if that had been a goal we would have skated with confidence throughout the rest of the game and carried that momentum into the NCAAs. Obviously it is futile to continue this train of thought. I don't have all the stats in mind, but I know since 2005, we have had a terrible time in the post season. This one hurts more than the others for me just because of the expectations we all had at the beginning of the season. I know people are going to be questioning Gwoz, just like they did last year. You should hear how the fans get on Whithead here. Talk about futile!! Both are great coaches and need to stay for as long as possible. So now we go through the waiting game of who signs the big contracts and leave early. That was a great senior class, we'll miss 'em. Colborne and Weircoch are probably gone, maybe Chevie, but have you seen the class coming in? Holy reload Batman!!! We've got lots to look forward to. Thanks for listening!!

 

[Puck Swami]

Re: All things Denver XXVII: From Boonetown to Motown - It's not a Ford, it's a Chevy!

Re: All things Denver XXVII: From Boonetown to Motown - It's not a Ford, it's a Chevy!

Ask players and coaches about the effects of lost players during the season and they'll say it's part of hockey, it can't be an excuse and is something that needs to be overcome. They are right of course, but what other option is there for them to say?

For Denver fans looking for answers to second-half declines for the Pioneers in recent years, there is there is cerainly a second-half correlation which hurts DU's ability peak at the right time.

Two year ago, losing Brock Trotter destroyed the teams' second half peak, and basically killed offf a great season.

Last year, losing Tyler Bozak threw off the second half peak and DU never really recovered, either.

This year. losing both Nutini and Maiani were huge blows for the Pioneers.

Now, a special effort could overcome the loss of players, but in Denver's case, Bozak and Trotter were the offensive keys to success. Nuntini was the best stay at home D-man on the Pioneers, and Maiani was key to DU's second line and one of the two hottest player on the team when he got hurt. Those players are harder to replace than a third line grinder or a sixth d-man.

Every team has some roster issues. The Pioneers though, always seem to have them in the second half, when consequences are more devastating....

These losses, when paired with sporadic effort level, doomed the Pioneerstthis year.

 

[Pablo]

Re: All things Denver XXVII: From Boonetown to Motown - It's not a Ford, it's a Chevy!

Re: All things Denver XXVII: From Boonetown to Motown - It's not a Ford, it's a Chevy!

I was pretty bummed yesterday. But as ScottA says below, the sun is shining, and the hockey hangover is receding. Time to look back with pride at the WCHA championship. That is nothing to sneeze at.

I don't care too much about what happens the rest of the tourney. I would prefer that North Dakota didn't win it all, so that DU doesn't fall behind in the NCAA title race. But aside from that, may the best team win. Maybe the Badgers would be a good team to root for.

Gwoz has obviously got some issues with his post-season approach. It's time for him to re-examine what he's doing, and make some adjustments. Three early exits in a row as a high seed is not right, and he needs to fix it. That's why he gets the big bucks. Don't get me wrong...he's still pretty much the man. But he's somewhat less of "the man" at this point, and his line of credit for the back to back titles is starting to run out.

The talented players have been great to have around. But our three-peat of crap-outs on the national stage have left me nostalgic for the players on the 04 and 05 teams who knew who to win when it mattered. Caldwell & Fulghum immediatly come to mind.

Much credit to the seniors for their great efforts. We'll be depleted next year, but maybe that will help our chances on the national stage. We don't seem to do well as a favorite, so let's try our luck as an underdog.

Sigh...

 

[Old Pio]

Re: All things Denver XXVII: From Boonetown to Motown - It's not a Ford, it's a Chevy!

Re: All things Denver XXVII: From Boonetown to Motown - It's not a Ford, it's a Chevy!

You're all right. And I can't really add anything. It was a great season, with extraordinary accomplishments, that ended far too soon. My favorite statistic? DU 8 WCHA Scholar Athletes--Minnesota 0.

Injuries? Why do they seem to affect us so dramatically? I understand the players we've lost in recent years were key performers. But North Dakota lost Genoway and. . . Speaking of the Sioux I wish we could figure out a way to get our mojo going at the end of the season. For us it was two lack luster performances against Tech, the twin debacles at the WCHA playoffs and then yesterday. Not a pretty picture.

Gwoz is a smart guy who knows the game. It's not likely he's unaware of three straight collapses. Maybe there's no "reason" for it, nothing that can be "done" to correct it. Maybe there is. Frankly, I don't know.

Collectively these young guys did a great job all season long on the ice and in the classroom. They have earned our respect and admiration and, yes, sympathy. They're hurting more than any of us.

 

[A Shot and a Goal]

Re: All things Denver XXVII: From Boonetown to Motown - It's not a Ford, it's a Chevy!

Re: All things Denver XXVII: From Boonetown to Motown - It's not a Ford, it's a Chevy!

Several times late in the season I listened to George Gwozdecky's comments in the weekly DU press conferences available online. In each of the press conferences, Gwozdecky referred to the MacNaughton Trophy as the most difficult [regular season] trophy to win in college hockey.

For the sake of discussion let's say he's right: it is the toughest trophy to win in the regular season. Perhaps winning the trophy is, in essence, a Pyrrhic Victory: Denver wins the battle, but loses the war. Specifically, Denver expends too much energy in winning the trophy rather than perhaps saving some emotional and physical energy for the post-season.

Gwoz has never spewed mindless platitudes by saying "if we beat so and so we've had a successful season and nothing else matters." Sure it's nice to win a WCHA title. It's nice to win the Gold Pan. It's nice to place players on the all-conference team and win individual conference accolades. Speaking only for myself, all these accomplishments represent "winning the battle." They are milestones rather than objectives. Denver's program is such that winning a national title on a periodic basis should be its primary, on-ice objective, because in seasons the team is good enough to do that other accomplishments will be achieved.

Gwozdecky and his staff have built the Denver program into one which is competitive every season in the WCHA. Denver's program is strong enough that more years than not the Pioneers will earn a berth in the NCAA tournament. Gwozdecky has been at DU for sixteen full seasons. I hope he stays for many more seasons. I also hope he examines his own, oft-repeated contention that the MacNaughton Trophy is the most difficult regular season trophy to win and assesses the option of refocusing on the 'bigger' picture===> preparing the team for post-season success rather than expending too much energy to win a regualr season trophy.