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Minnesota Golden Gopher Hockey: 2011-2012 Season Thread

Re: Minnesota Golden Gopher Hockey: 2011-2012 Season Thread

Just an FYI... The Gopher women's hockey blog has just a bit more information regarding Gophers participating in the USA Hockey Winter Training Camp. I don't think any of it is new news.
 
Re: Minnesota Golden Gopher Hockey: 2011-2012 Season Thread

Wishing all my fellow Golden Gopher fans a very MERRY CHRISTMAS!

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Re: Minnesota Golden Gopher Hockey: 2011-2012 Season Thread

I got a look at the Finnish roster for the Meco Cup. Seeing as Noora didn't participate in the 4 Nations Cup, it's probably not a surprise that she is not at the latter tournament. But Mira is not going to the Meco Cup tournament either, despite playing at Four Nations.
 
Re: Minnesota Golden Gopher Hockey: 2011-2012 Season Thread

From Pioneer Press sports columnist Charley Walters, I'll include the bit regarding Justin Morneau since most Gopher fans are likely familiar with him and the concussion topic has seen frequent discussion lately. The excerpt from Shooter's column goes on to discuss the condition / situation of GWH goalie Alyssa Grogan as well.

Justin Morneau is still recovering from post-concussion syndrome but is improving, he told MLB Network in an interview that aired the other day.

"Most days, I wake up (feeling) pretty good," the Twins first baseman said in the interview. "Usually after I get done - I really exert myself, really working out hard - after a long day, your brain gets tired and everything gets so worn down. It's not functioning the way it's supposed to be, and you kind of get done with the day and you go, 'Something's not right.' And you end up going home and taking a nap for a couple hours or whatever it is, and you wake up and the headache's still there and you kind of grind through it.

"But it's been a lot better lately."

Morneau said he's been doing extensive balance exercises and drills to help him get used to tracking the baseball as well as catching it over the shoulder.

"Making the eyes work, trying to reset the brain a little bit," he told MLB Network. "You get hit and the brain gets knocked off a little bit, you feel like you're half a second off. It's not registering properly. When you're trying to hit, it almost makes it impossible to hit. You feel like the ball's behind you by the time you recognize the pitches."

The 2006 American League MVP suffered a concussion in July 2010 and then another on Aug. 28, 2011. He said he is "way ahead" of where he was at this time last year.

"I hope to be ready to start spring training," he said.

Morneau, 30, has two seasons (2012 and '13) guaranteed at $14 million each remaining on an $80 million, six-year contract.

Alyssa Grogan knows what Morneau is experiencing. A star goaltender since she was a youngster in Eagan, Grogan has been forced to the sidelines with the Gophers women's hockey team since suffering a knock in the head in practice early in her junior season.

Grogan, 21, who has played goalie since she was 8, never had experienced an injury of any sort on the ice until she took a knee in the forehead while another player fell on the back of her head in a collision of players racing for a puck during a drill. Grogan was diving for the loose puck.

"I got up and tried to do the next drill, and the coaches stopped it because things weren't right," she said. "I couldn't see anything."

That was 14 months ago. The first six weeks after her injury, Grogan slept about 22 hours a day.

Grogan, an honor-roll student majoring in business marketing, has had to drop three semesters of classes. She still gets headaches. She takes medication for motion. She still undergoes balance and vision therapy. She has visited a leading concussion research institute at the University of Pittsburgh, the same one that Morneau and Pittsburgh Penguins star Sidney Crosby have visited seeking help.

"We've pretty much covered all our bases and we're definitely moving in the right direction," Grogan said. "We've made some big improvements. Right now my focus is to get back to being a normal person and normal college student, and not necessarily a Division I athlete at this point. That'll come, hopefully; maybe later on.

"The doctors have told me, given time, I should be able to fully recover from this."

She has been able to retain her scholarship. Playing hockey, though, seems unlikely.

Meanwhile, Grogan does volunteer work through the Gophers athletic department and does her rehab during Gophers' hockey practices. She is getting to travel with the team and does some analysis on radio broadcasts. She hopes to graduate in spring of 2013.

"It's just so different because you're taken out of everything that you love to do," she said. "My faith has been a big part of my rock in staying positive and optimistic through this."

Grogan has become somewhat of an expert on concussions.

"I didn't want to know this much, but now I do," she said.
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Re: Minnesota Golden Gopher Hockey: 2011-2012 Season Thread

Some news on the Gopher front from the Women's World U-18 Championships...

Gopher recruits MaryAnne Menefee and Lee Stecklein are playing with the U.S. squad, with each having 3 assists through the first two games.

And assistant coach Joel Johnson is with the team as well, so he'll probably be missing this coming weekend vs. Wisconsin (seeing as the tournament runs through the 7th).
 
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Re: Minnesota Golden Gopher Hockey: 2011-2012 Season Thread

I went out on this limb back in October and didn't get completely sawed off so I am going to venture there again.

Minnesota has better goaltending and a better defensive corps.

Wisconsin has some scary good forwards but not as many as they have had at times in the past. Minnesota has some scary good forwards as well.

Minnesota is good enough, they have nothing to fear. Drop the puck and play the games.

It is Wisconsin though, after all. I do not foresee a Gopher sweep. Splitting the points in Minneapolis would duplicate the October results in Madison (Game 1 box, game 2 box). Perhaps Wisconsin has too big a lead in the current standings to be overtaken for the regular season championship and perhaps the Gophers will stumble again. But going forward these two teams seem very likely to meet again, perhaps twice more. If either team gets 4 or 5 of the 6 points available this weekend then in my opinion that is the team that has to be favored in any game or games that they play later on in Duluth.
 
Re: Minnesota Golden Gopher Hockey: 2011-2012 Season Thread

play-by-play guy said:
Emily West and Sam Downey both out for the series this weekend for Minnesota.
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...and the hits just keep on comin'...:(

No Davis and no West is very troubling for a series of this magnitude. With Downey being someone who would undoubtedly play a key role in filling those holes...also warrants a frown. :(
 
Re: Minnesota Golden Gopher Hockey: 2011-2012 Season Thread

Surprisingly uninspiring and choppy first half...but maybe it's just an adrenaline hangover from the World Junior Gold Medal Game last night and/or rust from the Christmas layoff.

But then it started shaping up with some flow. UM's defence often seemed quite porous in front of their net with unmolested and several times even uncovered red jerseys floating in front with impunity, space and time. It's too bad the rosters weren't full.

I still say, while being a tremendous team, UW is tapping their horseshoe warehouse and the inventory must be down to the last pallet. You can't dodge bullets forever and walk away only grazed. Johnson's calling that time out in the second period showed that they are not infallible...they were panicing under the steady pressure in their end and mentally starting to implode. I wonder how their mind set would respond to a couple of loses especially from teams that wouldn't be expected to accomplish same. That is always an interesting excercise after winning becomes an unconscious assumption by virtue of becoming a habit...a nice position to be in. Their next five games, however, are against teams who can be expected to accomplish same. Two or three losses might really shake up the status quo, mind set wise and cause a "surprise" in the NCAA Quarter Finals if enough pressure is brought to bear by their opponent.

And I still say, that while being a very solid goaltender, Rigsby is very beatable. Her side to side movements/slides are often laboured if you watch her closely...sometimes even slow/late or short...and at times she looks more mechanical than natural. Things to exploit.

And it still amazes me how often shooters (on any and all teams) while in close and the pad is down flat along the ice almost always try to stuff the puck through a space they usually can't see but hope is there. How about the novel idea of raising it over the pad? This is beyond surprising since dropping down into the butterfly is standard operating procedure with virtually every goaltender on virtually every shot...they've just committed themselves in a major way. No Ken Drydens here. So why not make it a point in such circumstances to zag when the goaltender is expecting you to zig like every other shooter does? The laws of physics haven't been repealed...pucks can't travel through pads! Such might have turned a couple of those first few shots in the shoot out into markers.

If done enough it might also get goaltenders to question the wisdom of dropping down into the butterfly on virtually every shot thereby adding another dimesion to the game while at the same time making the game somewhat more tolerable on goaltenders' bodies. The more things change the more they remain the same.
 
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Re: Minnesota Golden Gopher Hockey: 2011-2012 Season Thread

ManBehindTheCurtain said:
Minnesota has better goaltending and a better defensive corps.
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While I wouldn't trade Noora for anyone, I think that Rigsby has improved a lot over a year ago. How many times did she stop Kessel in close last night? There were about four in a row late in the second period.

I'm not sure how telling today's game is for a future meeting. Both teams have several people out, so the lineups would be different in March. Worried about Seeler, though, because this looks like something that's going to keep recurring. In hindsight, they probably shouldn't have played her against OSU, and she'd likely be better by now.

Saw a few good things last night. Anderson/Bona/Brausen looked as good as any third line we've had this year. With their speed and quickness, their forecheck can cause headaches. Kortum played her best game in forever. Maybe she is 100% recuperated after mono. And I thought that Mira played very well. Obviously, you need your horses in a game like this, and for the most part they were huge, although both of our captains started slowly. Maybe trying to do too much.

I hope we play as hard again today, and let the chips fall where they may.
 
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