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Minnesota Golden Gopher Hockey: 2011-2012 Season Thread

brookyone

brookyone

Deport Right Wing Nuts
Friday, September 30, 2011

Union @ Minnesota East/West Showcase

Saturday, October 1st, 2011

Syracuse @ Minnesota East/West Showcase

The East/West Showcase coming up. Looking forward to seeing what the staff has come up with for initial line combos. May we see prolific production from numerous sources and little success from opponents in 2011-2012...and a path that leads to Amsoil. ;)

Or is it AMSOIL?
 
Re: Minnesota Golden Gopher Hockey: 2011-2012 Season Thread

brookyone said:
Looking forward to seeing what the staff has come up with for initial line combos.
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Based on Saturday, it looks like Erickson, Schoullis and Kessel stay together, and West joins Davis and Terry. I'd guess that there will be a lot of experimenting with the other two lines early in the year.
 
Re: Minnesota Golden Gopher Hockey: 2011-2012 Season Thread

ARM said:
...and West joins Davis and Terry...
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With the much anticipated return of #17, probably could have foreseen this with a little off season speculation. Can't recall...maybe the potential combination was mentioned. If West can return to form this could be an excellent line. I know Emily has been through a lot since she last played with surgeries and rehab. The former 9-10-11 line started well last season but had lost some spark in the latter part of last season IMO. West/Davis/Terry is a natural alternative with the return of West and has good potential for production.
 
Re: Minnesota Golden Gopher Hockey: 2011-2012 Season Thread

brookyone said:
West/Davis/Terry is a natural alternative with the return of West and has good potential for production.
Click to expand...
I wouldn't be surprised if at some point we see West and Kessel swapped, yielding all-senior and all-sophomore lines. Not necessarily as a stopping point, but coaches like to mix things up when combos get stale. I remember that there were some games where we had an 8/9/10 line, but the staff had to go away from it because nobody else clicked with Schoullis and Erickson; I think West would.
 
Re: Minnesota Golden Gopher Hockey: 2011-2012 Season Thread

Hey everyone. I've been reading your postings long enough, I thought I would finally chime in.
My initial feeling is that the Kessel/Schoullis/Erickson will stay intact throughout the season unless injury or a prolonged lack of production. West will be with Davis and Terry. They had some good things going for them in the scrimmage Sat including a great tic-tac-toe goal. The third line will be Kortum/Anderson/Bona and the fourth Brausen/Lorence with Ludwigson or Downey. Yeah, the 3rd and 4th lines are less predictable, but look for much more production from them regardless. Downey also worked some at D Saturday.
The D looks tough. Schleper is healthy after battling through many injuries last. Mira looks tons more confident. The rest looked just fine. Rachel Ramsey will turn out to be a great blue-liner...may already be their best...and I know that says a lot for watching a scrimmage situation for 90 minutes.
Nora got beat on a great shot by Erickson, but was strong otherwise. Sletta looked better than I anticipated. Stayed on her skates well and didn't do the freshman crappie-flop...although she did get schooled on a couple of the shootout attempts. She may be a servicable backup if Grogan can't go. My understanding is that Alyssa hasn't practiced yet...although I may have misunderstood.
Not much criticism other than at times still looking for the pass instead of taking the shot, or trying to make too many moves and not getting a shot off at all. But these were few.

BTW...all GWH audio if FREE this season (still have to pay for video). Please pass the word around as these events may be cut after this season unless enough interest is shown. Thanks for bearing with me, and GO GOPHERS!!
 
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Re: Minnesota Golden Gopher Hockey: 2011-2012 Season Thread

play-by-play guy said:
Hey everyone. I've been reading your postings long enough, I thought I would finally chime in.

Thanks for bearing with me, and GO GOPHERS!!
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Welcome pbp guy, enjoyed reading your comments. Pretty strong endorsement for Ramsey considering the rest of the D group...I look forward to watching her play this season. One thing you can't dispute when it comes to the Gopher blue-line crew...all can blast a cannon when the opportunity presents itself. Hardest shooting group I can ever recall for the Maroon & Gold.
 
Re: Minnesota Golden Gopher Hockey: 2011-2012 Season Thread

play-by-play guy said:
Downey also worked some at D Saturday.
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So did Ludwigson, and I thought she looked pretty good.

play-by-play guy said:
Rachel Ramsey will turn out to be a great blue-liner...may already be their best...
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I don't think she would want you saying that; she seems like a pretty humble kid.

play-by-play guy said:
Nora got beat on a great shot by Erickson, but was strong otherwise.
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That was Kessel. I thought it was Kessel live, then they announced Erickson, but later changed it to Kessel. Erickson did get her in the shootout.
 
Re: Minnesota Golden Gopher Hockey: 2011-2012 Season Thread

That was Kessel. I thought it was Kessel live, then they announced Erickson, but later changed it to Kessel.
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Yeah, it WAS Kessel that scored the first goal...my bad.

So did Ludwigson, and I thought she looked pretty good.
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With all the influx of great talent, Ludwigson may be the odd-person out unfortunately. The senior needs to bring it big this season, or be versatile enough to plug into either F or D. I feel really bad for her being a senior and all, but I don't see her getting much ice time this season unless there are injuries. I REALLY hope she can bring it.

It is nice though that the Gophs have some depth this season.
 
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Re: Minnesota Golden Gopher Hockey: 2011-2012 Season Thread

play-by-play guy said:
My initial feeling is that the Kessel/Schoullis/Erickson will stay intact throughout the season unless injury or a prolonged lack of production. West will be with Davis and Terry. They had some good things going for them in the scrimmage Sat including a great tic-tac-toe goal. The third line will be Kortum/Anderson/Bona and the fourth Brausen/Lorence with Ludwigson or Downey. Yeah, the 3rd and 4th lines are less predictable, but look for much more production from them regardless. Downey also worked some at D Saturday.
Click to expand...
Every line needs a center. I know Kortum has lined up there some but she was a wing last year on the Davis line.

Do you see a position shift or do you think one of the frosh can move immediately into this position. Which one?
play-by-play guy said:
The D looks tough. Schleper is healthy after battling through many injuries last. Mira looks tons more confident. The rest looked just fine. Rachel Ramsey will turn out to be a great blue-liner...may already be their best...and I know that says a lot for watching a scrimmage situation for 90 minutes.
Click to expand...
Already their best?

Sorry, I just cannot agree. Playing defense in the WCHA is a job only occasionally excelled at by a freshman. Even if Ramsey is as special as we all hope I doubt very much that she is going to, for example, get the first call on the penalty kill against Wisconsin's first power play unit. That all changes, of course, if she is paired with Schleper or Bozek. If that is the case we might see her first over the boards in such a situation.

We will all begin to find out the answers to these questions very soon.
 
Re: Minnesota Golden Gopher Hockey: 2011-2012 Season Thread

ManBehindTheCurtain said:
Every line needs a center. I know Kortum has lined up there some but she was a wing last year on the Davis line.
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She played center almost all of her frosh season and started there last season until West got hurt. My guess is they start Kortum there, but Bona played C in HS, so she'll likely get a shot in the middle at some point. Of course, Brausen has played center, and I think both Downey and Ludwigson have at some point, although I'd have to go back and check box scores. We graduate one -- Schoullis -- and I assume Brandt will fill that opening next year.
ManBehindTheCurtain said:
Even if Ramsey is as special as we all hope I doubt very much that she is going to, for example, get the first call on the penalty kill against Wisconsin's first power play unit. That all changes, of course, if she is paired with Schleper or Bozek.
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Ramsey was with Schleper on Saturday; Bozek and Seeler were together as they were for much of last year. If that means a third pair of Jalosuo and Gillanders, I think we'll be okay no matter who comes over the boards. Mira has improved a ton from when she arrived, and I expect Baylee to take a big step forward this year.
 
Re: Minnesota Golden Gopher Hockey: 2011-2012 Season Thread

D2D said:
A small portion of the press conference was featured on KARE11's sports segment tonight.
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Created a little intrigue with the tid bit concerning the new assistant. Figured they've had someone hired for awhile, sans an official announcement when the job listing disappeared from the NCAA site. Hope they can get her behind the bench ASAP.
 
Re: Minnesota Golden Gopher Hockey: 2011-2012 Season Thread

brookyone said:
Created a little intrigue with the tid bit concerning the new assistant. Figured they've had someone hired for awhile, sans an official announcement when the job listing disappeared from the NCAA site. Hope they can get her behind the bench ASAP.
Click to expand...

Strong praise in the press conference for Darwitz; whoever they have coming in will have big skates to fill.
 
Re: Minnesota Golden Gopher Hockey: 2011-2012 Season Thread

brookyone said:
http://www.startribune.com/sports/gophers/130677283.html
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"That narrows it down to all the female hockey coaches in Canada."

Hmmm, now I'm really curious! Hopefully she's got connections throughout all of Canada and can use them to attract some of their top players. No doubt this is one of the objectives, to compliment the Gophers' recruiting advantage that they already enjoy in Minnesota.
 
Re: Minnesota Golden Gopher Hockey: 2011-2012 Season Thread

D2D said:
"That narrows it down to all the female hockey coaches in Canada."

Hmmm, now I'm really curious! Hopefully she's got connections throughout all of Canada and can use them to attract some of their top players. No doubt this is one of the objectives, to compliment the Gophers' recruiting advantage that they already enjoy in Minnesota.
Click to expand...
Indeed. I also hope she sticks around for awhile.
 
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