Re: Golden Gopher Women's Hockey 2009-2010
ARM, no fair jumping ahead like that!!
Probably not. But it is pertinent to this discussion in that last season the Gophs had 5 players with 40 points or more. At the end of the year, one graduated and 2 transferred. A fourth needed surgery over the summer and missed the season. West was the fifth, and now she's out as well. Next year St. Cloud will find that having players miss a series or two will have a bigger impact than it might have this season.
I'm thinking the Gophers are better than two players, right? ...and I think you all agree.
Yes, Minnesota has other quality players. As they lose some of their top-end players, their talent advantage over teams like St. Cloud is just not that big. And less has to go wrong (or right from their opponent's perspective) for an upset to occur.
St Cloud did play well this weekend - Nixon was outstanding...
And hockey is a game where if you don't get at least a push in the goaltending battle, you have to have a wide edge somewhere else, and I don't think the Gophers were able to do that. After the tie Friday with it being Senior Day on Saturday, one could figure it was important for Minnesota to get out of the gate well. It didn't happen, thanks to inspired play by the Huskies.
And there are those nights where everything just goes your way (or not) - when the puck bounces right to a player waiting to put the puck in the net. Another day it bounces in a different direction.
I think that was never more evident than on the first goal Saturday. It was similar to a tennis ball hitting the top of the tape and dropping on one side of the net or the other. Roberts attempt bounced off the pipe, spun along the goal line, and then curled in just a tad. Counts the same as some of the more emphatic shots the Huskies put home later.
Another way to say that is a few years back the Gophers would have beaten St Cloud even on a bad day for them; now it’s not quite as easy to do that.
During the first couple of seasons I watched the two teams play, the question wasn't who would win but how quickly Minnesota would get their 10-goal lead. This isn't a slight against those Husky teams, because they only had about six scholarships then.
Do you ever hear rumors of Grogan transferring? Out east somewhere maybe where she wouldn't have to sit a year, or do you think she's content to stay a Gopher even if she doesn't play much in the next few years?
If there are such rumors, I haven't heard them. I don't know her parents, so I wouldn't be in the loop on such things. I think at this point the focus is on the rest of this season. There will be time during the offseason in another month for developments such as player migration.
I also liked this quote:
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