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D1 Coaching Changes

From digging around her bio on various sites she doesn't seem that engrained in MN as she was born in Canada and post rodent playing career coaching was out east, though she did coach for the rodents as an assistant for a good number of years.

Winny's Best Friend and former roommate
 
zambonidriver said:
From digging around her bio on various sites she doesn't seem that engrained in MN as she was born in Canada and post rodent playing career coaching was out east, though she did coach for the rodents as an assistant for a good number of years.

Winny's Best Friend and former roommate
Click to expand...

In my humble opinion websites don't give you the inside story on how she's actually perceived among girls in Minnesota looking for a college career. I think if a girl there is contacted by Muzzy she would be like OMG OMG OMG to all her hockey friends.
 
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Hockeybuckeye said:
In my humble opinion websites don't give you the inside story on how she's actually perceived among girls in Minnesota looking for a college career. I think if a girl there is contacted by Muzzy she would be like OMG OMG OMG to all her hockey friends.
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No doubt she's a great recruiter, and still has inroads into the state, but she doesn't get them all, including the two most highly recruited forwards in the state this past year:

https://www.mngirlshockeyhub.com/roster_players/43433411?subseason=697635
https://www.mngirlshockeyhub.com/roster_players/43456042?subseason=697635

Plus one of the most, and probably 'thee' most, high recruited defenders who will be joining the Gophers in 2022-23:
https://www.mngirlshockeyhub.com/roster_players/43456056?subseason=697635

I believe that long term Muzzy's influence on aspiring D1 players in Minnesota will gradually recede, and this trend may in fact have already begun.
 
D2D said:
No doubt she's a great recruiter, and still has inroads into the state, but she doesn't get them all, including the two most highly recruited forwards in the state this past year:
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Even the best coach in the state or any sport doesn't get them all, but it doesn't mean Muzzy is a coach who has to be satisfied with the leftover crumbs either.
I've told this story before, when years ago a highly ranked Ohio kid committed to Michigan in football over Ohio State and a reporter seemed distressed about it and asked Coach Tressel how could he let that kid commit to Michigan and Tress looked at him and calmly said "You can't recruit them all."
 
D2D said:
No doubt she's a great recruiter, and still has inroads into the state, but she doesn't get them all, including the two most highly recruited forwards in the state this past year:

https://www.mngirlshockeyhub.com/roster_players/43433411?subseason=697635
https://www.mngirlshockeyhub.com/roster_players/43456042?subseason=697635

Plus one of the most, and probably 'thee' most, high recruited defenders who will be joining the Gophers in 2022-23:
https://www.mngirlshockeyhub.com/roster_players/43456056?subseason=697635

I believe that long term Muzzy's influence on aspiring D1 players in Minnesota will gradually recede, and this trend may in fact have already begun.
Click to expand...

Conner is redshirting as are the majority of the incoming recruits.
The best D in the state is going to Cornell.
Frost is falling into thetypical gopher problem of recruiting the same type of player He hasn't had a good goalie since Lev. He may be fixing that with Vetter this year remains to be seen.
Hasn't won a national championship in 6 years and didn't even get to the tournament this year (yes they were screwed). Lucia syndrome is setting in on the gopher women's side. This is his ifrst decent recruiting class since Zummy was a Freshman. Because of Covid most will set out. Conner decomitted from Penn State where she would have played. Would have been fun to see her on a line with Heising and Zanon. Oh well.
 
What’s Lucia syndrome?

I think Frost is fine, outsider looking in I like his kumbaya vibe, doesn’t seem too different than MJ, but maybe someone fiery is needed in one of the other roles, even if it’s the captain on the team.

I don’t think they need to win a natty to keep him, only winners since last gophs title are wisc, Clarkson and coronavirus, but it seems like it’s been a while since the gophs hung a league champ or conf tourney banner. Olympic/Covid year coming up, maybe next year is their season.

If anything the gophs “struggles” of late highlight how dumb it was of Berlo to fire Miller for not making the tourney. It’s all easier said than done, especially in that league . If it was time for her to go, fine, my point is just that winning it all, or even emerging from that meat grinder league into the NCAA tourney is a mighty challenge. Luckily Berlo was found a work around for that, but still.
 
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I am interested in seeing how fast the Tommies gain ground in D1, and whether they suffer from losing players to the transfer portal etc. The last team to make the leap to D1 and
achieve some success was Penn State. With their resources, it took 9 seasons (I think) to get a winning season, and hang a banner. RIT won two conf tourneys but is struggling badly in general. Lindenwood, Holy Cross, Merrimack continue to struggle. I don’t know much about the NEWHA teams. Is there reason to believe the Tommies will be different? Certainly one hopes all the teams mentioned make the leaps in competitiveness.

differentiating their programs from the teams I mentioned, and how fast they can get to 5th in the WCHA will be measures of that programs success in the early years, I imagine. Do people have thoughts on the likelihood of that happening?
 
Lindsay said:
I am interested in seeing how fast the Tommies gain ground in D1, and whether they suffer from losing players to the transfer portal etc.

I don’t have any insider knowledge but I would think the transfer portal could be a big help for St T grabbing some experienced D1 players. A lot could depend on how much scholarship money they have to offer right away.
Click to expand...
 
D2D said:
No doubt she's a great recruiter, and still has inroads into the state, but she doesn't get them all, including the two most highly recruited forwards in the state this past year...
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Don't want to put words in anyone's mouth. But if anyone is suggesting that the Buckeyes are going to consistently out-recruit the Gophers for Women's Hockey talent in Minnesota, that's just silly talk. Ohio State needs to recruit throughout the hockey world, and will continue to do so. At the same time, getting "more than our fair share" of the top talent from MN is very doable, especially with Coach Muzz.

Also keep in mind that assistant coaches do a lot of the recruiting, and our assistants are well connected in MN.

Just stating the obvious, but we're going to have a better shot with kids who are already interested in going away to school. We have a brand name Department of Athletics, and a comprehensive world class University to offer. An opportunity to go to Ohio State should be extremely tempting to any athlete in this category.


I believe that long term Muzzy's influence on aspiring D1 players in Minnesota will gradually recede, and this trend may in fact have already begun.
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If you mean players that grew up watching Nadine play for the Gophers, that's already happened. Enough years have gone by. If you mean players that grew up watching her coach for the Gophers, OK: That "generational replacement" may be starting.

But relationships with high school coaches can be long term. If a high school coach respects an out-of-state program, that coach's players may very well give you a more serious look.

Perhaps most important of all is simply having a comfort level with the territory. When you have tons of places and people in common with a recruit, that gets your foot in the door. You have the knowledge; you speak the language. Of course you have to do a lot more to close the deal. But her MN ties give Coach Muzzerall a resource that won't fade.
 
pgb-ohio said:
Don't want to put words in anyone's mouth. But if anyone is suggesting that the Buckeyes are going to consistently out-recruit the Gophers for Women's Hockey talent in Minnesota, that's just silly talk. Ohio State needs to recruit throughout the hockey world, and will continue to do so. At the same time, getting "more than our fair share" of the top talent from MN is very doable, especially with Coach Muzz.

Also keep in mind that assistant coaches do a lot of the recruiting, and our assistants are well connected in MN.

Just stating the obvious, but we're going to have a better shot with kids who are already interested in going away to school. We have a brand name Department of Athletics, and a comprehensive world class University to offer. An opportunity to go to Ohio State should be extremely tempting to any athlete in this category.


If you mean players that grew up watching Nadine play for the Gophers, that's already happened. Enough years have gone by. If you mean players that grew up watching her coach for the Gophers, OK: That "generational replacement" may be starting.

But relationships with high school coaches can be long term. If a high school coach respects an out-of-state program, that coach's players may very well give you a more serious look.

Perhaps most important of all is simply having a comfort level with the territory. When you have tons of places and people in common with a recruit, that gets your foot in the door. You have the knowledge; you speak the language. Of course you have to do a lot more to close the deal. But her MN ties give Coach Muzzerall a resource that won't fade.
Click to expand...

Well thought out and well said.
 
Lindsay said:
But it seems like it’s been a while since the gophs hung a league champ or conf tourney banner. .
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Looked this up for my own knowledge. I’m sure WCHA fans already knew, but Minnesota won their conf tourney in 18, reg season in 19 and national runner up in 19. So not really a while.
 
Sieve1 said:
I don’t have any insider knowledge but I would think the transfer portal could be a big help for St T grabbing some experienced D1 players. A lot could depend on how much scholarship money they have to offer right away.
Click to expand...

oh wow. I was thinking they’d possibly be a program that gets preyed upon and loses players (in future years). I suppose the reverse might also be true initially.
 
Timothy A said:
Hemp has a 70.8 scoring percentage? I can't stop laughing...Do they use live goalies in MN girls HS hockey?
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Nope, cardboard cut-outs. Wink ; ;) But most players have much lower scoring percentages, like around 25. Hemp is special. Double Wink ; ; ;) ;)
 
D2D said:
Nope, cardboard cut-outs. Wink ; ;) But most players have much lower scoring percentages, like around 25. Hemp is special. Double Wink ; ; ;) ;)
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Not as special as Zumwinkle who was 76%. At least now I have a reference point.
 
Timothy A said:
Not as special as Zumwinkle who was 76%. At least now I have a reference point.
Click to expand...

No you don't...Look a bit deeper into the numbers and think about who the schools have keeping stats that get relayed to the Star and Tribune's Hockey Hub. Most stat keepers at high school hockey games will do a pretty good job of keeping track of the total number of shots but attributing them to individual players? Not so much.

Case in point...Andover in 23 games had 1172 shots on goal for an average of roughly 51 shots per game. Hemp's stats show in 23 games she only had 48 shots on goal? Roughly 2 shots on goal a game? Playing first line minutes? Are you kidding me. Andover scored 194 goals on those 1172 shots for a shooting percentage of 16.6%. It is more likely the range where Hemp would fall into is around 20 to 25 percent would be my guess.

Something else on closer inspection...The total number of shots on goal listed under the individual player's stats for Andover is 291. Compared to 1172 shots under the team stats for Andover. Seems to be a little bit of a gap between those numbers, eh?
 
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