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Minnesota Golden Gophers 2017-18 Season Thread

Re: Minnesota Golden Gophers 2017-18 Season Thread

FiveHoleFrenzy said:
Minnesota has a .500 record at home.
10-0 on the road...
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Wow, how often do you see this? I'm thinking maybe the fans at Ridder should wear the opponents' colors and cheer for them, so that the players THINK they're on the road. ;)
 
Re: Minnesota Golden Gophers 2017-18 Season Thread

FiveHoleFrenzy said:
And yet, in spite all of that negative stuff you can still see the potential. 10-0 on the road and a chance to rest up and make improvements after the break.
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Based on finishing 2017 going 2 and 2 against 2 teams with a combined 17-21-3 record? Your support should be applauded, your reasoning is suspect.
 
Re: Minnesota Golden Gophers 2017-18 Season Thread

FiveHoleFrenzy said:
It's actually 2-1-1 but who needs facts when you can just claim someone's reasoning is suspect. ;)
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If the Gophers won the shootout they would have called it a win. I am little confused as to how UMD got an extra point for their tie than the Gophers did. And if you turn the binoculars around things get further away.
 
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Re: Minnesota Golden Gophers 2017-18 Season Thread

upfromtheminors said:
If the Gophers won the shootout they would have called it a win. And if you turn the binoculars around things get further away.
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Gopher fans are pretty good about not calling shootout wins 'wins'.





(i know because we had one once)

And the Ohio State fans will tell you we are not going to call a shootout loss a 'loss' :)
 
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Re: Minnesota Golden Gophers 2017-18 Season Thread

GoldyDad2B said:
It was a good way to go end first half. Question, how did people (game announcers) know UMD coaches agreed to let goalie from PA school have all the starts? That nine month stint up on the shore is strange, particularly with games like Saturday. Can't say that giving up points to team under .400 in the conference is a great weekend, but Saturday was a good last game anyway heading into break.
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Part of it is expectations. THose who were paying attention knew this was not going to be a championship season (short of a miracle) but were excited to see the kids grow and improve. Sure, there have been some rough spots and disappointing plays but we have seen the maturation and improvement and Saturday's game against a tough opponent (who is also having an uneven year what with 10 frosh on the bench). They showed a lot of heart and the sort of improvement we all hoped for.
 
Re: Minnesota Golden Gophers 2017-18 Season Thread

ne7minder said:
Part of it is expectations. THose who were paying attention knew this was not going to be a championship season (short of a miracle) but were excited to see the kids grow and improve. Sure, there have been some rough spots and disappointing plays but we have seen the maturation and improvement and Saturday's game against a tough opponent (who is also having an uneven year what with 10 frosh on the bench). They showed a lot of heart and the sort of improvement we all hoped for.
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Been hearing a lot about young players and growth of those young players, here is a quick list of young players dressing and top 4 in scoring for each team. Listed below are oldest to youngest.

Minnesota typically dresses 10 freshman and sophomores and their top 4 scorers are a freshman, junior, junior and a senior.
Ohio State typically dresses 11 freshman and sophomores and their top 4 scorers are a freshman, freshman, junior and a senior
UMD typically dresses 13 freshman and sophomores and their top 4 scorers are a freshman, freshman, sophomore and a senior
Wisconsin typically dresses 14 freshman and sophomores and the top 4 scorers are a sophomore, sophomore, junior and a sophomore

Scoring lost next year (as of today) Lowest to highest
Ohio State 11 goals 11 assists = 22 points
Wisconsin 17 goals 14 assists = 31 points
UMD 9 goals 29 assists = 38 points
Minnesota 18 goals 36 assists = 54 points

Minnesota returns 2 upperclassman along with Wisconsin. UMD 1 and Ohio State 0
 
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Re: Minnesota Golden Gophers 2017-18 Season Thread

The best part about this season is that the hypothetical award for most improved Gopher going into the break would have a lot of competition. With Emily Brown getting off to as rocky a start as she did, her growth was easy to see, but others like Skarzynski and Woken are impacting the game much more than we may have thought. I hope that the coaches don't just stick a P/P/P line out there and not try anything else, because I think that some other combinations could click very well and give the team better balance. As for the second half -- or final third, given we're 2/3 of the way through the regular season -- I hope that we don't see a lot of juggling, because it looks like Wente's line is finding something. Piazza could use more firepower with her, but she's never really centered a scoring line, so that might not be her role.
 
Re: Minnesota Golden Gophers 2017-18 Season Thread

ne7minder said:
Part of it is expectations. THose who were paying attention knew this was not going to be a championship season (short of a miracle) but were excited to see the kids grow and improve. Sure, there have been some rough spots and disappointing plays but we have seen the maturation and improvement and Saturday's game against a tough opponent (who is also having an uneven year what with 10 frosh on the bench). They showed a lot of heart and the sort of improvement we all hoped for.
Click to expand...

Totally agree. My expectation for this team, based on the absence of Pannek and the Potomak sisters, was pretty low. My hope was that the freshman recruits would quickly adopt to the D1 level as they gained experience, and I think this hope, especially as of late, has largely been realized. The freshman class, led by the team's top point producer, Grace Zumwinkle, is definitely starting to assert themselves.

Although my expectations have maybe increased from "pretty low" to "more hopeful", I'm now optimistic that the team can continue to improve enough over the second half to enable them to make a good run to get to the Frozen Four - at home. That would be pretty :cool:.
 
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Re: Minnesota Golden Gophers 2017-18 Season Thread

D2D said:
Although my expectations have maybe increased from "pretty low" to "more hopeful", I'm now optimistic that the team can continue to improve enough over the second half to enable them to make a good run to get to the Frozen Four - at home. That would be pretty :cool:.
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I bought my tickets. I think it's a long shot, but I am hoping!

ARM said:
The best part about this season is that the hypothetical award for most improved Gopher going into the break would have a lot of competition. With Emily Brown getting off to as rocky a start as she did, her growth was easy to see, but others like Skarzynski and Woken are impacting the game much more than we may have thought. I hope that the coaches don't just stick a P/P/P line out there and not try anything else, because I think that some other combinations could click very well and give the team better balance. As for the second half -- or final third, given we're 2/3 of the way through the regular season -- I hope that we don't see a lot of juggling, because it looks like Wente's line is finding something. Piazza could use more firepower with her, but she's never really centered a scoring line, so that might not be her role.
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And hopefully we have even stiffer competition for most improved Gopher over the final third :D

Yes, Wente's line has been showing something lately! And I think Grace has taken a step the last few games. Sidney Peters has looked more comfortable lately. But I'd like to see Gulstene again also, maybe in the SCSU exhibition and one of the Vermont games.

I wonder if he's going to continue pairing Piazza with two sets of wings when they resume play?
 
Re: Minnesota Golden Gophers 2017-18 Season Thread

D2D said:
Totally agree. My expectation for this team, based on the absence of Pannek and the Potomak sisters, was pretty low. My hope was that the freshman recruits would quickly adopt to the D1 level as they gained experience, and I think this hope, especially as of late, has largely been realized. The freshman class, led by the team's top point producer, Grace Zumwinkle, is definitely starting to assert themselves.

Although my expectations have maybe increased from "pretty low" to "more hopeful", I'm now optimistic that the team can continue to improve enough over the second half to enable them to make a good run to get to the Frozen Four - at home. That would be pretty :cool:.
Click to expand...

Unlike almost everyone else on the boards I will admit I know nothing of the reality of the other leagues. I don't know how many loses 2 - 4 would have to experience for MN to reach the top 4. If they finish 7 they need some luck to make the show (no upsets in league tourneys) if the finish under 4 but make the show their reward is a trip to Madison no matter what because I do not think MN can finish under 4 and OSU still makes it. That is a tough road. That trip to Columbus in January will tell us a lot. I am OK with this season, I had hoped for a top 4 finish but was not expecting it.
 
Re: Minnesota Golden Gophers 2017-18 Season Thread

ne7minder said:
Unlike almost everyone else on the boards I will admit I know nothing of the reality of the other leagues. I don't know how many loses 2 - 4 would have to experience for MN to reach the top 4. If they finish 7 they need some luck to make the show (no upsets in league tourneys) if the finish under 4 but make the show their reward is a trip to Madison no matter what because I do not think MN can finish under 4 and OSU still makes it. That is a tough road. That trip to Columbus in January will tell us a lot. I am OK with this season, I had hoped for a top 4 finish but was not expecting it.
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I was recently accused of trolling, which is actually 100% accurate most of the time. However, this time I have a genuine question. Every Gopher fan has made it clear how low their expectations for this year are/were. Why are your expectations so low? I would love to get some real feedback. UMD graduated 75% of their scoring and lost the probable starting Olympic goalie for the year. Wisconsin lost 245 career points to centralization in Clark and Pankowski, their top recruit Sophia Shirley did not get in, along with the Patty Kaz winner and Sarah Nurse. North Dakota's program folded. BC lost almost all their scoring and 3 girls to the Olympic team, who also return next year and Clarkson graduated a ton.

No sarcasm here, what am I missing that nobody had expectations? What happened to them that the other top programs did not experience? I look forward to hearing any feedback.
 
Re: Minnesota Golden Gophers 2017-18 Season Thread

My expectations as a Gopher fan weren't as low as they should have been, but they weren't terribly high. It starts with the fact that their margin just to reach the Frozen Four last year was razor thin; Wisconsin, BC, and Clarkson had more of a buffer to play with from the start. After that, Wisconsin just didn't lose as much as Minnesota did, despite losing a lot, though that's as much to do with my not having confidence in the Gophers' current senior or junior classes even before the season started. (Actually, the junior class has been a lot better than I expected with Schammel looking more like the player she was as a freshman in Mankato and Skarzynski turning into a very nice forward. Unfortunately, that's pretty much where the junior class ends, as the rest make up the 4th line and the 4th goalie.)

I expected Minnesota to be higher ranked than they are right now, but some of that is down to Ohio State and Cornell being better than I had thought they would be.
 
Re: Minnesota Golden Gophers 2017-18 Season Thread

upfromtheminors said:
I was recently accused of trolling, which is actually 100% accurate most of the time. However, this time I have a genuine question. Every Gopher fan has made it clear how low their expectations for this year are/were. Why are your expectations so low? I would love to get some real feedback. UMD graduated 75% of their scoring and lost the probable starting Olympic goalie for the year. Wisconsin lost 245 career points to centralization in Clark and Pankowski, their top recruit Sophia Shirley did not get in, along with the Patty Kaz winner and Sarah Nurse. North Dakota's program folded. BC lost almost all their scoring and 3 girls to the Olympic team, who also return next year and Clarkson graduated a ton.

No sarcasm here, what am I missing that nobody had expectations? What happened to them that the other top programs did not experience? I look forward to hearing any feedback.
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The main reason why most fans had modest expectations was they lost so much of their scoring PLUS defensive standouts Lee Stecklein and Megan Wolfe. Looking at the stats from last season, they lost 65% of their goal and 68% of their point production to either graduation or centralization. Their power play was also severely impacted as just 3 of 25 goals were scored by players still with the team this season. In addition, arguably their top recruit (Amy Potomak) was centralized with Canada and therefore is not on the team as most originally expected.

The good news now is that the team is showing improvement, having gone 10-1-1 in their last 12 games. Hopefully they can carry their momentum over the break and continue to get better throughout the 2nd half.
 
upfromtheminors said:
I was recently accused of trolling, which is actually 100% accurate most of the time. However, this time I have a genuine question. Every Gopher fan has made it clear how low their expectations for this year are/were. Why are your expectations so low? I would love to get some real feedback. UMD graduated 75% of their scoring and lost the probable starting Olympic goalie for the year. Wisconsin lost 245 career points to centralization in Clark and Pankowski, their top recruit Sophia Shirley did not get in, along with the Patty Kaz winner and Sarah Nurse. North Dakota's program folded. BC lost almost all their scoring and 3 girls to the Olympic team, who also return next year and Clarkson graduated a ton.

No sarcasm here, what am I missing that nobody had expectations? What happened to them that the other top programs did not experience? I look forward to hearing any feedback.
Click to expand...

We had 4 championships in 6 years so down was the only way to go. In addition to losing the seniors we knew we would lose top talent to the Olympics. So expectations were learning and growth not championships. Given that OSU and UMD have become tougher competition in the last couple of years and the Badgers talent it seemed logical to me this would be a year of struggles. And that's OK.

Additionally, Frost set a standard a few years back that a successful season does not have to include a championship. A lot of fans have bought into his philosophy.
 
Re: Minnesota Golden Gophers 2017-18 Season Thread

ne7minder said:
Additionally, Frost set a standard a few years back that a successful season does not have to include a championship. A lot of fans have bought into his philosophy.
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"Natty champs or bust" is the express train to crazy town :D

I hope they win a postseason tourney though because I'd love for them to get to hang a banner!
 
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