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Minnesota Golden Gopher Season 2018-19: The Motzko Era Begins!

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Re: Minnesota Golden Gopher Season 2018-19: The Motzko Era Begins!

MSU hasn't swept the Gophers at HOME since 1973.

"We played one period out of the six,” Gophers coach Bob Motzko said. “And I wish I could sit here with an answer, because we're all completely blindsided by what we've just gone through".
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:confused: There are 12 games remaining in the regular season, so this is crunch time. Seems to me if a coach is being paid $600K/season on a 5 yr/$3M contract, he and his staff should know where the problem lies after 23 games sitting below .500 [9-10-4 (.478)]. Making changes and adjustments during the game is the best case scenario, not afterwards.

Where was the hard forecheck that worked so well against Penn St.?

Sparty literally kicked the **** out of the Gophers. Where was the physical response that was promised at the beginning of the season? Sure, a lot of blame can be placed upon the players, but there's a disconnect here that is indeed puzzling.
 
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Re: Minnesota Golden Gopher Season 2018-19: The Motzko Era Begins!

You can only do so much when players have spent up to three years putting in brutal efforts a lot of the time and still getting to play every weekend.

Mentioned it on GPL. Next year I make Walker captain and no one else deserves to even be an assistant captain until they earn it.
 
Re: Minnesota Golden Gopher Season 2018-19: The Motzko Era Begins!

SteveO said:
What I saw this weekend from the D was embarrassing. I stopped counting how many times they were out of position, standing around puck watching, failed on breakouts, gave the puck away or just threw it away. A few of those puck watching blunders led to goals.
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Honestly I thought the D looked slightly improved in terms of what they were doing in the offensive zone at least. Not saying much but seeing Sadek actually get a puck past a shot blocker into the net and actually being mobile in that zone was good to see. I think Phillips and Brinkman have shown that occasionally too and had some nice pinches.

They're still mediocre as hell in terms of defending, terrible on the breakout (to the point that the forwards are all well behind the hash marks and the transition game is non-existent), and just lack offensive talent but you can kinda see some of what Motzko's trying to do become reality.

I thought Walker looked good at least, he had a goal in the first game and a few good chances yesterday. The GPS line and Novak's are still mediocre and didn't match up well with the KHL line, I suppose that isn't terribly shocking but it's disappointing to get swept by a one line team with subpar goaltending.

If MSU had Robson yesterday the game wouldn't have even been close, two of those goals he just looked off his angle and let in stoppable shots.
 
Re: Minnesota Golden Gopher Season 2018-19: The Motzko Era Begins!

Bonin21 said:
You can only do so much when players have spent up to three years putting in brutal efforts a lot of the time and still getting to play every weekend.

Mentioned it on GPL. Next year I make Walker captain and no one else deserves to even be an assistant captain until they earn it.
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NO...that's a load of BS. So Motzko comes out of this mess with impunity and it's all the players fault? Good coaches KNOW what's happening and make changes accordingly. That's what Motzko is getting paid $600K to do...that's HIS responsibility. This isn't quantum physics.

I've been on a lot of hockey teams. I've seen good coaches take very little and win. I'm not buying it. Motzko takes some of the blame for this debacle.

Next year...earn your C? That should have happened THIS year.
 
Re: Minnesota Golden Gopher Season 2018-19: The Motzko Era Begins!

SteveO said:
NO...that's a load of BS. So Motzko comes out of this mess with impunity and it's all the players fault? Good coaches KNOW what's happening and make changes accordingly. That's what Motzko is getting paid $600K to do...that's HIS responsibility. This isn't quantum physics.

I've been on a lot of hockey teams. I've seen good coaches take very little and win. I'm not buying it. Motzko takes some of the blame for this debacle.

Next year...earn your C? That should have happened THIS year.
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Walker is earning his C for next year. Who is earning their A for next year? I'll wait.
 
Re: Minnesota Golden Gopher Season 2018-19: The Motzko Era Begins!

trixR4kids said:
Honestly I thought the D looked slightly improved in terms of what they were doing in the offensive zone at least. Not saying much but seeing Sadek actually get a puck past a shot blocker into the net and actually being mobile in that zone was good to see. I think Phillips and Brinkman have shown that occasionally too and had some nice pinches.

They're still mediocre as hell in terms of defending, terrible on the breakout (to the point that the forwards are all well behind the hash marks and the transition game is non-existent), and just lack offensive talent but you can kinda see some of what Motzko's trying to do become reality.

I thought Walker looked good at least, he had a goal in the first game and a few good chances yesterday. The GPS line and Novak's are still mediocre and didn't match up well with the KHL line, I suppose that isn't terribly shocking but it's disappointing to get swept by a one line team with subpar goaltending.

If MSU had Robson yesterday the game wouldn't have even been close, two of those goals he just looked off his angle and let in stoppable shots.
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That's not what I saw. You need to watch the tape again. I'm a university professor and know what student-athletes go through to do what they do. So normally I don't like calling them out publicly. In the D zone there were three goals that were DIRECTLY the fault of Dmen being out of position much less all of the other poor decisions some of them repeatedly made.
 
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Re: Minnesota Golden Gopher Season 2018-19: The Motzko Era Begins!

SteveO said:
The Gophers forecheck AND backcheck were totally weak and ineffective. I could drive a car through some of those open shooting lanes in front of Robson, which was where the KHL line helped bury 60% of Sparty's 10 total goals scored. Overall, D zone play was a disaster.
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Yeah... as much as the GPS line has put up points and what not their forecheck is just garbage and Novak's line is the same thing. Not surprisingly the one line that does it consistently is all new guys who never played under Lucia. I think what you said about the toxic culture is probably the best explanation for that.

Motzko told the press they were concerned about the team's "demeanor" going into Saturday's contest.
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I'd be curious to know what they mean by that. Were they cocky from the previous weekends or something? If so I wouldn't be shocked though they really shouldn't be with how they were getting some of those wins.
SteveO said:
That's not what I saw. You need to watch the tape again. I'm a university professor and know what student-athletes go through to do what they do. So normally I don't like calling them out publicly. But there were three goals that were DIRECTLY the fault of Dmen being out of position.
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I didn't say they looked good in the D zone lol, the part you bolded I was solely talking about their offensive contributions.

And yeah, I can't recall every goal against but the one where Zuhlsdorf let that back door pass across I just laughed, Robson had no chance and RZ had one responsibility on that play. There were plenty of other blown coverages too.
 
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Re: Minnesota Golden Gopher Season 2018-19: The Motzko Era Begins!

trixR4kids said:
I didn't say they looked good in the D zone lol, the part you bolded I was solely talking about their offensive contributions.

And yeah, I can't recall every goal against but the one where Zuhlsdorf let that back door pass across I just laughed, Robson had no chance and RZ had one responsibility on that play. There were plenty of other blown coverages too.
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I didn't see much substantive offense from any of the D.
 
Re: Minnesota Golden Gopher Season 2018-19: The Motzko Era Begins!

Let's not let the forwards off the hook when it comes to defending in the D zone. Just like the defense is instrumental in generating good offense it's critical that the forwards do their job in preventing goals against. All too often you see one of our D trying to gain possession behind the net or in a corner, while the forwards are standing around waiting for the breakout, leaving just the other D to cover two or more opposition players, one of which is left wide open in a prime scoring area.
 
Re: Minnesota Golden Gopher Season 2018-19: The Motzko Era Begins!

That that I am sure this season deserves the first page.....but.......bump.
 
Re: Minnesota Golden Gopher Season 2018-19: The Motzko Era Begins!

Koho said:
That that I am sure this season deserves the first page.....but.......bump.
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I'm worried that they'll take our own page away and lump us into the Bottom Feeders thread. :eek: ;)
 
Re: Minnesota Golden Gopher Season 2018-19: The Motzko Era Begins!

It's kinda telling that there isn't a border battle thread, I don't think either fanbase is all that happy with their team or excited to watch them right now.

I'll probably watch unless I hear of something better to do tomorrow night, I've kinda been in the same place all year, mostly just watching to see the third line and how they play/improve from week to week and see if anyone or the team as a whole shows any improvement etc. Not seeing a whole lot of evidence of the latter, they still get outshot every game, the freshmen line seems to be the only one that forechecks hard and buys into what the coach is preaching, the D on the whole look more or less like they did a year ago, the even strength offense is still puttering along for the most part. I kinda hoped that there would be more signs of improvement by this point in the year but maybe that was an unrealistic expectation when most of the former regime's players are still here.
 
Re: Minnesota Golden Gopher Season 2018-19: The Motzko Era Begins!

trixR4kids said:
I've kinda been in the same place all year, mostly just watching to see the third line and how they play/improve from week to week and see if anyone or the team as a whole shows any improvement etc. Not seeing a whole lot of evidence of the latter, they still get outshot every game, the freshmen line seems to be the only one that forechecks hard and buys into what the coach is preaching, the D on the whole look more or less like they did a year ago, the even strength offense is still puttering along for the most part. I kinda hoped that there would be more signs of improvement by this point in the year but maybe that was an unrealistic expectation when most of the former regime's players are still here.
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You could paste this in the UW thread and you would be spot on with your analysis.
 
Re: Minnesota Golden Gopher Season 2018-19: The Motzko Era Begins!

Timothy A said:
You could paste this in the UW thread and you would be spot on with your analysis.
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I haven't followed you guys too closely but yeah, I can imagine. Though the main difference is that Granato is in year 3 now and Motzko is in year 1, are you guys getting concerned with the direction he's taking the program? Or is next year likely to be when the team sees some progress?

It seemed pretty obvious to me during the first border battle that neither of these two teams was likely to be a playoff team this year and fast forwarding to now that's become even more clear.
 
Re: Minnesota Golden Gopher Season 2018-19: The Motzko Era Begins!

Jim Dahl's PWR Prediction model for the Gophers to the end of the season is: 9 wins and the Gophers land at #14-#15 in the PWR before the BTHC tourney.

<img src="https://media.giphy.com/media/ToMjGpKniGqRNLGBrhu/giphy.gif" class="irc_mi" style="margin-top: 6px;" height="220" width="340">

That means this weekend is a MUST sweep over the bad news BADgers.
 
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Re: Minnesota Golden Gopher Season 2018-19: The Motzko Era Begins!

Gameday!!

Questions, questions, questions...

Given their inconsistency, do the Gophers as a whole actually suffer from bipolar disorder?

Will the Gophers make sure not to bump into any BADgers on the ice?

Who ripped the Forecheck page out of the Gopher playbook?

Will the seniors take the night off and go for a "glide"?

In the mold of John Hill, will Bob "encourage" his players to do better?

Will the D continue to act like living pylons in a skating drill?

Will the D launch another materials testing of the opponent's shin guards?
 
Re: Minnesota Golden Gopher Season 2018-19: The Motzko Era Begins!

trixR4kids said:
I haven't followed you guys too closely but yeah, I can imagine. Though the main difference is that Granato is in year 3 now and Motzko is in year 1, are you guys getting concerned with the direction he's taking the program? Or is next year likely to be when the team sees some progress?
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Some BADger fans have jumped off the bridge. The PK is terrible 56th out of 60, their faceoff win % is 60th out of 60, these items seem to be coaching issues. TG's 3rd year but only 2 recruiting classes.....Forwards....TG's all freshman line has been the most consistent line, The So's are a decent group, love Weissbach, there is only 1 Jr on the team, who has been benched, the Sr's just aren't showing up on the scoresheet. UW does rank 16th in scoring despite my narrative. The D is improved but underperforming considering they all are draft picks, goaltending is better with Lebedeff, but it kinda couldn't get any worse. Next year's recruiting class could be one of the best ever, but many fans will not care by that point.
 
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