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Minnesota Gopher 2012 offseason thread

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Re: Minnesota Gopher 2012 offseason thread

William Blake said:
You can't honestly be disappointed in a team that hadn't even made the NCAA tourney in 3 years both winning the WCHA and making it to the FF (by beating two very good teams). I would have hoped for a better last game but the NC or bust after a number of bad years is just moronic.
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So its OK to lower expectations by having bad years. Got it.

No wonder the Twins lost 99 games last year. They didn't want people to start expecting them to win in the playoffs. Now they are only expected to go .500 and that will be some huge success. :rolleyes:
 
Re: Minnesota Gopher 2012 offseason thread

So do you view the Gopher program as having five successful seasons and something like 85 failures? :p
 
Re: Minnesota Gopher 2012 offseason thread

JF_Gophers said:
So its OK to lower expectations by having bad years. Got it.

No wonder the Twins lost 99 games last year. They didn't want people to start expecting them to win in the playoffs. Now they are only expected to go .500 and that will be some huge success. :rolleyes:
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I was just gonna edit my post to say that "moronic" might have been a bit harsh, guess not.
 
Re: Minnesota Gopher 2012 offseason thread

Bakunin said:
So do you view the Gopher program as having five successful seasons and something like 85 failures? :p
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I don't really view seasons prior to the NCAA as success/failure since I don't really know anything about the structure of hockey in those days.

But as far as the NCAA years, yes they have failed. All those other trophies are nice, but if you play for the Gophers then you play the season to win the national championship. We aren't #26 Union.
 
Re: Minnesota Gopher 2012 offseason thread

JF_Gophers said:
but if you play for the Gophers then you play the season to win the national championship.
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By this logic, MN could go undefeated and then lose in quadruple OT in the title game - and have a failure of a season.

I refuse to accept that a single bad game/outcome determines an entire season's value.

To put it another way:
- the MacNaughton is awarded to the best team as judged by their record over a five month period against conference foes
- the Broadmoor is awarded to the best team as judged by who manages to win 2-3 games in a row in mid-March at the X
- the NCAA title is awarded to the best team as judged by who wins four in a row against the top 16 as stipulated by the pairwise.

Winning the first requires consistent solid effort over several months. Winning the second and third require catching fire at the right time and not being unfortunate enough to have a bad game from your goalie or be victimized by a particularly good game by an opponent's goalie - among a litany of other factors that determine the outcome of individual games.
 
Re: Minnesota Gopher 2012 offseason thread

Bakunin said:
By this logic, MN could go undefeated and then lose in quadruple OT in the title game - and have a failure of a season.

I refuse to accept that a single bad game/outcome determines an entire season's value.

To put it another way:
- the MacNaughton is awarded to the best team as judged by their record over a five month period against conference foes
- the Broadmoor is awarded to the best team as judged by who manages to win 2-3 games in a row in mid-March at the X
- the NCAA title is awarded to the best team as judged by who wins four in a row against the top 16 as stipulated by the pairwise.

Winning the first requires consistent solid effort over several months. Winning the second and third require catching fire at the right time and not being unfortunate enough to have a bad game from your goalie or be victimized by a particularly good game by an opponent's goalie - among a litany of other factors that determine the outcome of individual games.
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So you are saying you prefer that we don't play playoff games to determine a champion, but that we somehow base it on results of the regular season since thats a more accurate representation of the teams quality. That's fine. We still wouldn't have won the title in that comparison most years either. Meaning we still failed to achieve or goal.
 
Re: Minnesota Gopher 2012 offseason thread

JF_Gophers said:
So you are saying you prefer that we don't play playoff games to determine a champion, but that we somehow base it on results of the regular season since thats a more accurate representation of the teams quality.
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If the NCAA wanted to award the title to the best team, each round would be a best of three or some such similar format - a modified version of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. With a sixteen team field, this is impractical, however - so we are left with an entertaining single elimination tournament fraught with upsets.
That's fine. We still wouldn't have won the title in that comparison most years either. Meaning we still failed to achieve or goal.
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Winning the national title is just one of many goals. I imagine each season that MN has five goals: win the MacNaughton, win the Broadmoor, reach the NCAA tournament, advance to the Frozen Four, and win a national title. MN accomplished three of those which isn't too shabby. In comparison, only the '03 team accomplished more of these in the past decade.

With as much praise as BC is getting now, bear in mind entering the '08 tournament, York had just one title with them and an ***load of runner-ups. Even the model program of the past decade couldn't get it done every time they got there.
 
Re: Minnesota Gopher 2012 offseason thread

I guess to each their own on definition of failure. We all want to win the NCAA title but I personally wouldn't use that as the sole measuring stick of success or not during a year. Far too narrow a measure for me. Using that measure, BC would be considered a failure 2/3 of the time since 2001... and I think most people would say they have been the best program over that time frame.

I feel this was a successful year for the Gophers. Some of it is based on where they had been in prior years. But some of it is simply the reality that a pretty young team won their league, earned some valuable NCAA playoff experience/wins, and gave the fans something to be excited about again. Maybe not as successful as they can be but still a pretty good season. :)
 
Re: Minnesota Gopher 2012 offseason thread

JF_Gophers said:
So you are saying you prefer that we don't play playoff games to determine a champion, but that we somehow base it on results of the regular season since thats a more accurate representation of the teams quality. That's fine. We still wouldn't have won the title in that comparison most years either. Meaning we still failed to achieve or goal.
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Regular season is DEFINITELY a better representation of a teams quality. Larger sample size is nearly always better. We play the playoffs for entertainment, or to sell tickets. In fact, thats why we play games period. There is nothing magical about winning a championship, other than only one team gets to do it each year. Otherwise, its just another accomplishment, like a Hobey Baker, or a perfect season, etc.

There are plenty of 'goals' in the course of a season, plenty of accomplishments, and plenty to enjoy and celebrate. This Gophers team exceeded expectations. Most evidence suggests that you get more joy out of exceeding expectations than anything else. I'd say it was an entertaining, enjoyable season.
 
Re: Minnesota Gopher 2012 offseason thread

I think if you can't enjoy a season in which your team wins the conference title and is one of the last four standing, you can't enjoy anything.

Maybe scooby hacked into jf's account. :D
 
Re: Minnesota Gopher 2012 offseason thread

In many other years, Minnesota is national champs. BC just had an unbeatable team this year.

With this type of team going forward...we'd be the ones with the dynasty.
 
Re: Minnesota Gopher 2012 offseason thread

Bakunin said:
...or perhaps some of us indulged him because it's the offseason, and we are very very bored.
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Maybe. I don't quite understand why you'd troll your own fan base though. It's us against them so we don't need this kind of stuff. But alas the offseason and we've got nothing better to do.
 
Re: Minnesota Gopher 2012 offseason thread

Hoping Bjug and or Haula return, although even if they do one can never rule out the possible depature out of nowhere. If what I've heard is accurate however, the return of Guentzel and Lucia's recovery has combined to make the locker room a better place which if correct should reduce the unexepected transfers.

We shall see...
 
Re: Minnesota Gopher 2012 offseason thread

Slap Shot said:
Hoping Bjug and or Haula return, although even if they do one can never rule out the possible depature out of nowhere. If what I've heard is accurate however, the return of Guentzel and Lucia's recovery has combined to make the locker room a better place which if correct should reduce the unexepected transfers.

We shall see...
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It looks like Lucia's health troubles played a much bigger role than many of us understood. His mood swings and difficulty engaging would seem to explain some of the mind-set issues that getting in the way in recent years. Good thing that's behind him.

Funny thing about this year. As much as we NoDak boneheads love to see UND beat the Gophers and gloat, it was more fun having the Gophers back in it this year. You fans were back to being as vile and loathsome as we remember you . . .
 
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