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Minnesota Golden Gophers 2009-2010 the last year of the old WCHA

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Re: Minnesota Golden Gophers 2009-2010 the last year of the old WCHA

HarleyMC said:
Hey you're alive. The thing that really concerns me is the lack of effort last night and other nights. This is a talented team and they're not playing up to their potential. That's a coaching issue.
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My prediciton is Lucia is done after this year one way or the other. I think his health is still an issue, and it seems like a fitting time to end with his son finishing up. I really have nothing to base this on other than intuition and rumor. I think he has lost this team. Losing is one thing when you're busting your balls. Lack of sustained effort and losing is far worse.
 
Re: Minnesota Golden Gophers 2009-2010 the last year of the old WCHA

gordwiser said:
My prediciton is Lucia is done after this year one way or the other. I think his health is still an issue, and it seems like a fitting time to end with his son finishing up. I really have nothing to base this on other than intuition and rumor. I think he has lost this team. Losing is one thing when you're busting your balls. Lack of sustained effort and losing is far worse.
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Actually Lucia has stated that his health has gradually improved and he's running quite a bit again now. But I agree I think it appears at the moment Lucia has lost the ability to inspire the team to dig deeper. The under performance is definitely a coaching issue. If that can be corrected the team is capable of much better outcomes. I do wonder though whether Lucia has the same vigor and inspiration as a coach that he has demonstrated in the past.
 
Re: Minnesota Golden Gophers 2009-2010 the last year of the old WCHA

HarleyMC said:
Hey you're alive. The thing that really concerns me is the lack of effort last night and other nights. This is a talented team and they're not playing up to their potential. That's a coaching issue.
Click to expand...

I was in a place with no computer. :D
 
Re: Minnesota Golden Gophers 2009-2010 the last year of the old WCHA

For once I am not angry that the Gophers are not on TV. I am not happy, but not angry neither.

Off to Gasthof zur Gemütlichkeit & Mario's Keller Bar tonight. I probably won't remember the entirety of this season thus far tomorrow morning.
 
Re: Minnesota Golden Gophers 2009-2010 the last year of the old WCHA

HarleyMC said:
Hey you're alive. The thing that really concerns me is the lack of effort last night and other nights. This is a talented team and they're not playing up to their potential. That's a coaching issue.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I don't get it. They talk about the 20 NHL draft picks on this team and 4 of them are 1st rounders! I actually look forward to watching good college hockey anytime I can..and because of the gophers contract I'm usually able to watch more gopher games than any other team..well, until this year with Fox College Sports televising Sioux games. What the F is going on with this team? Who's that #19 who's supposed to light it up this year? Has he "checked-out" too? The gopher PP has been fun to watch in the past years (except vs. the Sioux). I see alot of heads hanging in between shifts and the players used to hang over the boards just dying to get back on the ice..don't see much of that anymore either. Lucia's future with Minnesota may be coming to and end....
 
Re: Minnesota Golden Gophers 2009-2010 the last year of the old WCHA

gordwiser said:
My prediciton is Lucia is done after this year one way or the other. I think his health is still an issue, and it seems like a fitting time to end with his son finishing up. I really have nothing to base this on other than intuition and rumor. I think he has lost this team. Losing is one thing when you're busting your balls. Lack of sustained effort and losing is far worse.
Click to expand...

I don't think Lucia will be fired if Brewster is fired. I don't think the U can take the hit of having to pay two coaches after just finishing paying two coaches off(Monson and Mason). They may not have the money and it wouldn't look good in this economic time while crying to the state about not having enough money. I could see Lucia stepping down though.
 
Re: Minnesota Golden Gophers 2009-2010 the last year of the old WCHA

Hey we won!:eek: Nice deke and upper corner shot by Schroeder on the first goal. I watched the BTN webfeed, which incidently was a very bad feed with an MSU slant, and it looked like MSU struggled a bit all night to get good scoring chances. The Gophers played fairly good defense in front of the net and kept MSU on the perimeter. Carmen had a nice shot on a screen by Birkholz for the GWG with only a couple minutes left. Patterson played very well. He stopped a breakaway early that kept Gophers in it.

Overall, the Gophers played with a lot more heart and head than against Mich. If they can keep that level of play consistent they just might end up with a decent season.:eek:
 
Re: Minnesota Golden Gophers 2009-2010 the last year of the old WCHA

HarleyMC said:
I wonder about this comment. There isn't enough scoring talent on this team to come back from a 2-3 goal deficit? Sounds very fatalistic to me.
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I'd like to know why the **** he recruited a team incapable of coming back from a 2-3 goal deficit. A few seasons ago, only Hirsch was a mental case on the team. Now the entire team has lost it upstairs. Perhaps Lucia should take a shrink with him on recruiting trips in the future to look for fragile psyches so he can avoid making the mistake of signing these players.
 
Re: Minnesota Golden Gophers 2009-2010 the last year of the old WCHA

Bakunin said:
I'd like to know why the **** he recruited a team incapable of coming back from a 2-3 goal deficit. A few seasons ago, only Hirsch was a mental case on the team. Now the entire team has lost it upstairs. Perhaps Lucia should take a shrink with him on recruiting trips in the future to look for fragile psyches so he can avoid making the mistake of signing these players.
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That was my sentiment in reading the comment as well. If you don't believe your recruits can comeback from a 2-3 goal deficit, why recruit a group of players like that in the first place? Ironically a lot of these players did score a lot of goals before joining the Gophers. Secondly, I've always understood that a coach's responsibility is to inspire, motivate and develop your players and the team to step up and overcome obstacles like that at all costs (i.e. Herbie). That's what I've always understood Gopher hockey was to represent. Telling a team you have inherent ceiling on your performance level doesn't seem right to me. So if an opposing team is ahead by 2-4 goals, I guess the Gophers should just hit showers then. Comments like that make me wonder about whether Lucia has the ability and/or desire to motivate.
 
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Re: Minnesota Golden Gophers 2009-2010 the last year of the old WCHA

I've been thinking that since Tubby Smith is a really great motivator maybe Lucia should ask him to speak to the hockey team.

Thay did beat #8 Michigan Sate last night though.
 
Re: Minnesota Golden Gophers 2009-2010 the last year of the old WCHA

HarleyMC said:
Hey we won!:eek: Nice deke and upper corner shot by Schroeder on the first goal. I watched the BTN webfeed, which incidently was a very bad feed with an MSU slant, and it looked like MSU struggled a bit all night to get good scoring chances.
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Yeah I watched the feed as well and the MSU color guy was such a homer he kept yelling every time MSU would get close to scoring or if it looked like there was a penalty committed against them funny stuff.

The goal by Schroeder was awesome I think the D had to get a new jock after that one.:D Decent game and I agree we played much better in front of Patterson than we did the night before keeping most of the play to the outside.
 
Re: Minnesota Golden Gophers 2009-2010 the last year of the old WCHA

Driftryder said:
Yeah I watched the feed as well and the MSU color guy was such a homer he kept yelling every time MSU would get close to scoring or if it looked like there was a penalty committed against them funny stuff.
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"That's it!"
"Go, GO, GO!"
"Oh MAAAAN"
"Set it up, boys!"
"Wow, Scott"

Hey, we love'm :D
 
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Re: Minnesota Golden Gophers 2009-2010 the last year of the old WCHA

Larch said:
He is for doing, but I've seen so many pros do the same thing. It's really ridiculous, let's leave the temper-tantrums to my three-year-old.
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Hit their goaltender in the back of the head with their stick...I don't think I've seen that before...
 
Re: Minnesota Golden Gophers 2009-2010 the last year of the old WCHA

Pulled these quotes from an article on Notre Dame firing Weis. I couldn't help relating them to my favorite hockey team:

With the exception of Pittsburgh, none of the four teams that beat Notre Dame in November and sent Charlie Weis packing had more talent on defense than did the Irish. And certainly none of them, not even the Cardinal with the amazing Toby Gerhart, had more talent on offense.

The error is in believing that talent matters so much more than chemistry, or motivation or strategy, all intangibles upon which a coach must deliver.

Talent matters, but not as much as determination and discipline. Not in college football. In the next two to three years you are going to see more players from Notre Dame taken in the NFL draft than from Navy, Connecticut or Stanford. Even from Michigan. If talent were the most important element, Notre Dame would be far better than a .500 outfit the past two seasons because to be a .500 program would mean that the Irish were right at the median, in terms of talent, of their opponents. That simply was not the case.

In the past five seasons Notre Dame was all about schematic advantage and five-star recruits and not enough about plain old grit. As this program moves forward, its principles might want to acquaint (or reacquaint) themselves with the aforementioned classic Sinatra tune. Or, to go a little more, but not much more, contemporary, they could view the final moments of the 1989 Cameron Crowe film "Say Anything".

Diane: "Nobody thinks it will work, do they?"

Lloyd: "No. You just described every great success story."
 
Re: Minnesota Golden Gophers 2009-2010 the last year of the old WCHA

Apparently ESPN got ahold of Lucia about the Ballard incident and here is part of what he had to say (emphasis mine):

"There's no pretense, there's no arrogance, there's no cockiness at all," Lucia said. "He comes from the Minnesotan border from parents who are great people ... This one incident shouldn't impact him as a player and a person in a negative way. Something that was so unintentional. Because I'd take a team of Keith Ballards any day."

God isn't that the truth. Find some more Ballards coach!
 
Re: Minnesota Golden Gophers 2009-2010 the last year of the old WCHA

MinnesotaNorthStar said:
Hit their goaltender in the back of the head with their stick...I don't think I've seen that before...
Click to expand...

No, break their stick over the goal when they get scored on. It was one of those things I looked at and thought; "Sooner or later that's going to end badly for somebody, worse than the actual goal".
 
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