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Minnesota Gophers 2021-2022

Still Eeyore said:
I looked for you when the Gophers were in Madison, but didn't see you.
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That weekend was also the first weekend of NCAA volleyball tournament, and my niece and her family were in town to go to that - I'm also a season ticket holder for UW VB. I might have been up for trying 'doubleheaders' those two days, but they weren't. So VB won, and I missed the series altogether. Maybe that was a good thing!

(At my niece's hotel on Saturday, we were on the elevator with someone who was obviously a Gopher player, so I asked her - Josey Dunne. We chatted for a few minutes about how Friday had gone, etc. Nice kid. Injured, not playing that weekend.)
 
Still Eeyore said:
I lurk. I confess that I'm feeling a bit vindicated about my rant about Gopher fans writing this team off.

I also confess that I do not remember the post in question.
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I'll admit I was too hard on them early on. It has been mostly enjoyable watching this team progress as the season has gone on.
 
FiveHoleFrenzy said:
I'll admit I was too hard on them early on. It has been mostly enjoyable watching this team progress as the season has gone on.
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I should note that they have also turned out better than I expected. My position at the time was:

1) Wisconsin and Ohio State are really good teams. There's nothing especially wrong with finishing third in the WCHA this year;
2) Finishing third in the WCHA would have meant that they were the fourth or fifth best team in the country.

I stand by both positions, and even if they weren't about to win the WCHA regular season title, this would still have been a good team.

I think Minnesota fans have let the success from 2011-16 go to their heads. It simply isn't reasonable to expect that they are going to be winning titles every year. And the way that they have gone about expressing their disappointment has been dismaying. They are not terrible, and they have never even closely resembled being terrible. They are, year in and year out, a very good team. But, with Ohio State building a serious program, there are three teams in the WCHA that are, year in and year out, very good. Do the math. I think Gopher fans need to show a bit more maturity about that.

Two other observations:

1) There is a lot of criticism of Madelaine Worthington around here, both for being a puck hog and the related issue of turnovers. I think this betrays a lack of observation, first, because it ignores a lot of positive developments that come from her play. The second is that this isn't really about Worthington. Brad Frost teams always have at least one defenseman who is authorized to carry the puck the length of the ice and jump into the play in the offensive zone. Based upon skill sets, Worthington is probably the best choice for this role. She doesn't play the way she does because she's a puck hog. She plays the way she does because that's the way Frost wants her to play. The same thing is true of the stretch passes; I often find them frustrating, too, but that's about Frost's coaching, not the players. She isn't as good at it as Megan Bozek, or Lee Stecklein, or Rachel Ramsey. Get used to that, because there aren't more than about five players in the world who are as good at it as they were when they were on this team.

2) There was a lot of angst about recruiting, and some top players decommitting from Minnesota. Again, people weren't paying attention to the context. This had nothing to do with any sort of deep problems with the program. It had to do with the assistant coach who was the primary point of contact for a lot of recruits, especially those who played under him on the U-18 teams, leaving to take a head coaching position somewhere else. Anyone who thought that Joel Johnson leaving wouldn't result in some decommits was kidding themselves.

Everyone needs to take a couple of deep breaths and enjoy watching some hockey games.
 
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Still Eeyore said:
I should note that they have also turned out better than I expected. My position at the time was:

1) Wisconsin and Ohio State are really good teams. There's nothing especially wrong with finishing third in the WCHA this year;
2) Finishing third in the WCHA would have meant that they were the fourth or fifth best team in the country.

I stand by both positions, and even if they weren't about to win the WCHA regular season title, this would still have been a good team.

I think Minnesota fans have let the success from 2011-16 go to their heads. It simply isn't reasonable to expect that they are going to be winning titles every year. And the way that they have gone about expressing their disappointment has been dismaying. They are not terrible, and they have never even closely resembled being terrible. They are, year in and year out, a very good team. But, with Ohio State building a serious program, there are three teams in the WCHA that are, year in and year out, very good. Do the math. I think Gopher fans need to show a bit more maturity about that.

Two other observations:

1) There is a lot of criticism of Madelaine Worthington around here, both for being a puck hog and the related issue of turnovers. I think this betrays a lack of observation, first, because it ignores a lot of positive developments that come from her play. The second is that this isn't really about Worthington. Brad Frost teams always have at least one defenseman who is authorized to carry the puck the length of the ice and jump into the play in the offensive zone. Based upon skill sets, Worthington is probably the best choice for this role. She doesn't play the way she does because she's a puck hog. She plays the way she does because that's the way Frost wants her to play. The same thing is true of the stretch passes; I often find them frustrating, too, but that's about Frost's coaching, not the players. She isn't as good at it as Megan Bozek, or Lee Stecklein, or Rachel Ramsey. Get used to that, because there aren't more than about five players in the world who are as good at it as they were when they were on this team.

2) There was a lot of angst about recruiting, and some top players decommitting from Minnesota. Again, people weren't paying attention to the context. This had nothing to do with any sort of deep problems with the program. It had to do with the assistant coach who was the primary point of contact for a lot of recruits, especially those who played under him on the U-18 teams, leaving to take a head coaching position somewhere else. Anyone who thought that Joel Johnson leaving wouldn't result in some decommits was kidding themselves.

Everyone needs to take a couple of deep breaths and enjoy watching some hockey games.
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lol
 
ARM said:
Are you laughing at the Worthington piece? That's what made me laugh.

Michael, you have some good points; good to see you around.
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See that's the thing that would have been really funny if that was done as a sarcastic bit.

Or maybe the Wethington camp paid him to spin #5's proclivity to hang onto the puck?
 
ARM said:
Are you laughing at the Worthington piece? That's what made me laugh.

Michael, you have some good points; good to see you around.
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Worthington; Wethington. I get confused.

Much of my time at work lately has been spent dealing with problems at a site in Worthington, so I've been writing that a lot.
 
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Still Eeyore said:
Worthington; Wethington. I get confused.

Much of my time at work lately has been spent dealing with problems at a site in Worthington, so I've been writing that a lot.
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Yeah, it gave me a chuckle. It had a little of the feel of "Animal House" and Belushi saying, "Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?"
 
Who is this #5? Maybe she is Madeline Worthington. Whoever she is she was passing the puck and even did a stretch pass in the first period today...
 
Sincere Congratulations to the 2021-22 WCHA Regular Season Champions.

I'm thinking the Post-Season is going to be extremely interesting; lots of fun for multiple teams. But so far you guys are the one team that's won a title; something that can't be taken away. And in a league with this much talent, coming out on top after 5 months of games takes a lot of perseverance. Well done.
 
pgb-ohio said:
Sincere Congratulations to the 2021-22 WCHA Regular Season Champions.

I'm thinking the Post-Season is going to be extremely interesting; lots of fun for multiple teams. But so far you guys are the one team that's won a title; something that can't be taken away. And in a league with this much talent, coming out on top after 5 months of games takes a lot of perseverance. Well done.
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Very nice of you to offer your congratulations, pgb-ohio. It was a super-competitive race in our league, and the way our Gophers worked hard to improve, both individually and together as a team, in the toughest conference in the land, was super-impressive. The top of the conference - obviously including Ohio State - is so good that to finish on top is great achievement.

Now, on to the playoffs, where anything can happen!
 
Boreen came back to the bench but did not return to play. She came out for the post game hand shake line and seemed at first to be testing her knee and if I must judge from the cheap seats it looked to me like she was not too bad. She and all of the rest of us will know quite a bit more in the morning but it appears for now at least no structural damage.
 
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