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Minnesota Gopher women's hockey off season thread for summer 2014

Re: Minnesota Gopher women's hockey off season thread for summer 2014

Hockeysbest said:
Another one bites the dust. In true Gopher fashion, they get a great transfer and give her some $$$ so she thinks she will play, doesn't play and then take the money away the following year and plays a little bit. She quit now because she wasn't playing. Another case of womens hockey losing to Gophers chewing up players and then spitting them out.
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I haven't been a fan for that long, so I don't know the history. I liked Jordyn Burns and was disappointed to hear she's gone. I hope the bad feelings aren't too extreme.

But she played in all 41 games didn't she, on the best team in the country (-sorry, I know I can't say that anymore-). Her playing time was on the lower part of the roster, but somebody's got to be in the lower part of the roster. It doesn't look like she was that abused from this angle. If it was only because of playing time that she quit, she may regret it. Passing up the chance to be a part of another excellent team.
 
Re: Minnesota Gopher women's hockey off season thread for summer 2014

Indeed...this development leaves me slightly delusioned.
 
Re: Minnesota Gopher women's hockey off season thread for summer 2014

I read a countdown of XX number of days 'til the start of the 2014-2015 season...somewhere. I assume they'll be getting started around the last weekend of September? Sound about right?
 
Re: Minnesota Gopher women's hockey off season thread for summer 2014

brookyone said:
I read a countdown of XX number of days 'til the start of the 2014-2015 season...somewhere. I assume they'll be getting started around the last weekend of September? Sound about right?
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I saw one that said it was "officially" 100 days to the start of the season. It was posted June 25, I believe, on Facebook. At the time, I calculated the first weekend of October as the opening weekend (the Penn State/BU/SCSU tourney at Ridder). Haven't seen anything since then, but an exhibition that last weekend in September probably wouldn't count toward "official".
 
Re: Minnesota Gopher women's hockey off season thread for summer 2014

play-by-play guy said:
I think the schedule is online, but not under the GWH page. Try this:
http://www.gophersports.com/scoreboard/?sport=w-hockey
Also, if you try to download it, you will still only get last years schedule. I hope that gets corrected soon.
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Non conference schedule then is:

Penn State and Boston U at Ridder Oct 3 and 4
at Princeton Nov 29 and 30
Saint Lawrence at Ridder Sunday Jan 4 and Tuesday Jan 6

Conference schedule includes after the opening non-conference at Ridder Gophers at UMD and then at Wisconsin before then home to UND.
 
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Re: Minnesota Gopher women's hockey off season thread for summer 2014

Okay...then we need a Maroon vs. Gold contest with rookies, current and former Gophs to get 'em loose at the end of September. I'm not counting on it...but those were great fun to watch back in the day.
 
KTDC said:
I haven't been a fan for that long, so I don't know the history. I liked Jordyn Burns and was disappointed to hear she's gone. I hope the bad feelings aren't too extreme.

But she played in all 41 games didn't she, on the best team in the country (-sorry, I know I can't say that anymore-). Her playing time was on the lower part of the roster, but somebody's got to be in the lower part of the roster. It doesn't look like she was that abused from this angle. If it was only because of playing time that she quit, she may regret it. Passing up the chance to be a part of another excellent team.
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Well what I see when I see great HS players going to college is girls that want to play. Obviously not everyone can but the "great" ones certainly think they will. Jordyn was a great D at Benilde. When transferring to Minnesota I'm sure she didn't think she was gonna be playing on a regular line, but I'm sure she didn't think she wasn't gonna dress half the time and the other half not play. Then I'm sure she thought she might play more in an Olympic year but that didn't happen so much either with a Forward (Megan Wolf) playing D more so than her a more experienced D player. So I can only think the experience wasn't what she thought it would be and some players wanna play not be benchwarmers.
 
Hockeysbest said:
Well what I see when I see great HS players going to college is girls that want to play. Obviously not everyone can but the "great" ones certainly think they will. Jordyn was a great D at Benilde. When transferring to Minnesota I'm sure she didn't think she was gonna be playing on a regular line, but I'm sure she didn't think she wasn't gonna dress half the time and the other half not play. Then I'm sure she thought she might play more in an Olympic year but that didn't happen so much either with a Forward (Megan Wolf) playing D more so than her a more experienced D player. So I can only think the experience wasn't what she thought it would be and some players wanna play not be benchwarmers.
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I'm sorry that it didn't work out better for her. Still, it wasn't quite as bleak as you paint it. If it was all about playing time, she could have stayed at Syracuse. She could have looked at the rosters and known that the Orange offered more opportunity in that regard. She didn't get much of a shot her sophomore season; that is true. But Burns did have the chance to play last year. All of the D did. A couple of things that worked against her were a) being left-handed on a team that had a surplus of left-handed D; and b) being a junior competing with a sophomore and three freshmen for the three spots that were available. The sports world loves the potential of youth.

I liked Burns as a D. Wolfe won a spot fairly early on; the competition for the other two spots went into the new year, and I really didn't see a big difference between those four. The staff likely felt roughly the same, and that's why it took them so long to settle on the top six. Coach Johnson pointed out to me that the staff sees things in practice that the fans don't see. That could have factored into the decision made.
 
Re: Minnesota Gopher women's hockey off season thread for summer 2014

ARM said:
I'm sorry that it didn't work out better for her. Still, it wasn't quite as bleak as you paint it. If it was all about playing time, she could have stayed at Syracuse. She could have looked at the rosters and known that the Orange offered more opportunity in that regard. She didn't get much of a shot her sophomore season; that is true. But Burns did have the chance to play last year. All of the D did. A couple of things that worked against her were a) being left-handed on a team that had a surplus of left-handed D; and b) being a junior competing with a sophomore and three freshmen for the three spots that were available. The sports world loves the potential of youth.

I liked Burns as a D. Wolfe won a spot fairly early on; the competition for the other two spots went into the new year, and I really didn't see a big difference between those four. The staff likely felt roughly the same, and that's why it took them so long to settle on the top six. Coach Johnson pointed out to me that the staff sees things in practice that the fans don't see. That could have factored into the decision made.
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There is this whole "seeing things" in practice angle that could have fractured into the staff's decision-making protest. However, it appears they have missed out on the opportunity to have consumpted with certain posters on this forum who clearly know who should receive playing time.
 
Re: Minnesota Gopher women's hockey off season thread for summer 2014

Article on incoming frosh Kelly Pannek, taken from her school's "Crown & Shield" magazine:

Twenty-two seconds. That’s all it took for Kelly Pannek to score a hat trick (three goals) during a hockey game, making the feat a state record. That was also probably the maximum amount of time needed for BSM coaches to decide on Kelly as the 2014 Athena Award recipient.

A star hockey and soccer player for the Red Knights during her four years at BSM, she was named Class A Ms. Soccer for the state of Minnesota and was a Class AA Ms. Hockey finalist. For soccer, Kelly also captured six All-Conference awards, three All-State honors, four All-Tournament spots, an All-Metro award, and an All-American title. As a center midfielder, she joined the 100-Point Club and became BSM’s second all-time leading soccer scorer. On the rink, she has five All-Conference awards, three All-State titles, two All-Metro honors, and an All-Tournament post to her credit.

Her activities weren’t limited to these two sports, however. This spring she picked up a lacrosse stick and finished the season with a number of honors: All-Conference, All-State, and Conference MVP. Kelly was a National Honor Society member for two years and a National Language Honor Society member for three. She was also involved in Link Crew.

K-Pan, as nicknamed by James Cave during her freshman year in varsity soccer, says that “winning back-to-back state titles for soccer my junior and senior years,” under coach Scott Helling-Christy, was a high-school highlight.” Similarly, she notes that making it to the state championship in hockey this year, with coach Dave Herbst’s leadership, avenged previous setbacks.

The third of four children, landing between sisters Allie and Amy (’12) and brother Billy (’18), Kelly began playing both soccer and hockey when she was 4. As a young soccer player, she played for Minnesota Thunder Academy, also securing a place on the Elite Clubs National League. She grew up playing hockey in the Armstrong Youth Hockey Association on the boys’ side until eighth grade, when she switched to girls’ high school hockey. She explains, “I have had the opportunity to play in the Midwest Girls’ High School Elite League as well as be involved with USA Hockey, traveling to Finland for the Junior World Championships last year and to England this past summer for an international camp.”

She’ll soon be packing her suitcase for the University of Minnesota, where she will play hockey and attend the Carlson School of Management. Along with earning her degree, Kelly hopes to win a national championship and make the Olympic team sometime in the future. Already, she has plenty for which she is grateful. “I am most proud of being on teams that became families to me and we had every success together. I [can] look at each of my teammates after every season and know that I will never forget what happened that season and who it happened with.”

Although her fond memories likely took longer than 22 seconds to create, they will undoubtedly last a lifetime.

http://www.bsmschool.org/upper/alumni/crown-and-shield/
 
Re: Minnesota Gopher women's hockey off season thread for summer 2014

FiveHoleFrenzy said:
There is this whole "seeing things" in practice angle that could have fractured into the staff's decision-making protest. However, it appears they have missed out on the opportunity to have consumpted with certain posters on this forum who clearly know who should receive playing time.
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you must have the same spell checker as hockeybest :p

ARM said:
Coach Johnson pointed out to me that the staff sees things in practice that the fans don't see.
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Hopefully they see things in games that fans don't see
 
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Re: Minnesota Gopher women's hockey off season thread for summer 2014

It'll be interesting to see what they do with Pannek, in terms of the people they surround her with at the outset. All this assumes that everyone is back and healthy ... but I'd think you have to start with Kessel and Brandt being together. That should provide a safety blanket offensively while waiting for other units to gel. That line could be finished off with a left wing they've played with before: Menefee or Lorence; or they could load up offensively and add Bona or Pannek. My guess would be the former and maybe Bona and Pannek start out together, and could add somebody like Schipper to get some more speed and defense while Pannek learns the defensive side of the college game. I'd bet Cameranesi inherits the Terry role of centering the shutdown line, and there will still be very strong options left for wings.
 
Re: Minnesota Gopher women's hockey off season thread for summer 2014

I think you're right about all of that, especially about Cameranesi as the successor to the Terry role. I would be pleased on opening weekend to watch the pairings you suggest: Kessel-Brandt-whoever, Bona-Pannek-whoever and Cameranesi-whoever-whoever. There's lots of ways those combinations could work out. I am also very interested in seeing the Chicago kid Piazza to find out if she is, as suggested by IllinoisDad, as good as Bozek and Coyne.

I would only append that I think Rachel Bona has shown enough that she has to be considered as a force on her own merits, not just as supplementary to the Kessel-Brandt-whoever line. I think that any line that has Rachel Bona on it is going to be a major big time offensive force.

Anticipation.
 
ManBehindTheCurtain said:
I would only append that I think Rachel Bona has shown enough that she has to be considered as a force on her own merits, not just as supplementary to the Kessel-Brandt-whoever line. I think that any line that has Rachel Bona on it is going to be a major big time offensive force.
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I agree about Bona, and if it seemed that I was implying she was an afterthought, that wasn't my intent. Certain people just seem to naturally click. I think Brandt and Bona showed flashes of that a couple of years ago, but it seems like there might be too many eggs in one basket if 7/8/22 were together. Schipper seems to still be trying to figure out her offensive game at this level, so I think she makes a nice wing with Bona, because she can at a minimum keep up with Bona and add additional hustle. If it turns out that Bona suddenly looks to be in synch with someone else like Cameranesi, then there would be other directions to go, although the three-line balance may not be quite as even. Bona is able to create offense individually, but at the same time be a playmaker when called to do so, so I think she could be the missing ingredient on a lot of lines.
 
Re: Minnesota Gopher women's hockey off season thread for summer 2014

ARM said:
I agree about Bona, and if it seemed that I was implying she was an afterthought, that wasn't my intent. ... Schipper seems to still be trying to figure out her offensive game at this level ...
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You probably didn’t intend to make it sound like Schipper had a less than satisfactory freshman year either. :)

Her “problem” last year was simple: Freshmanitis
That is to say, her scoring was typical of a freshman (Look at UW’s Nurse or UND’s Tapani who made the WCHA all-Freshman team for example, or Bona in her freshman year) Maybe given the outstanding season a few freshman have had at MN we have grown to have unrealistic expectations.

The subject of lines is always an interesting one. There seems to be 2 different camps: Pick players whose skills complement one another (they bring different skills, the whole will be greater than the sum of the parts) or pick lines where the players are similar ( a triple dose of WhoopAss). Last year Frost seemed to indicate he was looking for similar, and he said as much in his “if it ain’t broke fix it comment” about lines.
 
Re: Minnesota Gopher women's hockey off season thread for summer 2014

Interesting that the women's team has garnered some recent posts on the Men's Forum (Minnesota Gophers Offseason Thread 2014 - Quick, Reload!). High expectations for both Gopher teams this season! :cool:
 
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