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Minnesota Gophers 2022-23

Timothy A said:
Goaltending a push until we have data?
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Until we have data? At least UM has goalies who have played before. As for coaching, it isn't like you have Muzzy. Speaking from experience, Johnson is too busy sorting through Medicare options to spend any time figuring out how to fix a powerplay.
 
ARM said:
Until we have data? At least UM has goalies who have played before. As for coaching, it isn't like you have Muzzy. Speaking from experience, Johnson is too busy sorting through Medicare options to spend any time figuring out how to fix a powerplay.
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Ouch! Is this pile on Timothy week? What next? Nadine Muzerall demonstrating illegal stick tactics on a Timothy A. voodoo dummy? What about it Timothy? How does the head feel?
 
Here is some pre-season ranking of goalie, defensemen, and forwards of (my) top 4 teams in the WCHA. Those 4 Teams in alphabetiacal order are Minnesota, Minnesota-Duluth, Ohio State, and Wisconsin.

Goalie:
1. OSU
2. UMD
3. UM
4. UW

Defensmen:
1. UW
2. OSU
3. UM
4. UMD

Forwards
1. UM
2. UW
3. OSU
4. UMD

Minnesota has 15 forwards and 2 swing players in Dunne and Franco. I honestly am at a loss as to how to set up lines (fortunately I don't have to figure that out). Do you keep last years first line intact with Heise, Skaja, and Boreen? That was a very dynamic line or do you put Heise with better finishers like Zumwinkle and/or Murphy. Is Peyton Hemp or Ella Huber your second line center and do the freshmen Bouveng and Kaiser have a shot at top 6 playing time? What kind of improvement, if any, might we see in Emma Conner and Sadie Lindsay?

So many questions that will be interesting to see how they get answered.
 
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FiveHoleFrenzy said:
Here is some pre-season ranking of goalie, defensemen, and forwards of (my) top 4 teams in the WCHA. Those 4 Teams in alphabetiacal order are Minnesota, Minnesota-Duluth, Ohio State, and Wisconsin.
Click to expand...
These teams are deep. When you start looking at teams that you have 3rd or 4th for D & F, UMD gets Bell and Flaherty back on the blue line. OSU adds Maltais and Webster to forwards that won the title and gets a lot of the key contributors back. Not saying that any of your rankings are wrong, but they are competitive rosters.

Is Murphy a better finisher than Boreen at this point? More sizzle, for sure, but I'm not sure she has demonstrated an edge at burying pucks. The key at UM for F will be how does Frost react when somebody who should be producing doesn't early on. Does he blow up combinations that click to try to jumpstart a big gun who is struggling? It's like trying to solve one of those slide puzzles when much of it is right but the last row is all backwards.

Even more important for the Gophs will be how he handles the goalies. Personally, I would rotate the top two until the NCAA Tournament or it becomes impossible to do so based on results. Let them determine who the starter is and stay out of the way. He's had teams in the past where the early goalie decisions didn't work out, like making the choice too soon, and poor goaltending ultimately contributed to the season ending.
 
Super excited for the season to start. Hope the players have worked hard during the off-season to build strength and endurance. They certainly have the talent to make this season a very memorable one. One that someday the players will fondly look back on, with great pride.

Can't wait! Drop the puck!
 
ARM said:
These teams are deep. When you start looking at teams that you have 3rd or 4th for D & F, UMD gets Bell and Flaherty back on the blue line. OSU adds Maltais and Webster to forwards that won the title and gets a lot of the key contributors back. Not saying that any of your rankings are wrong, but they are competitive rosters.
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The top of the WCHA for this year is even better than last year so yes, very competitive rosters. Not much difference between 1 and 4.

ARM said:
Is Murphy a better finisher than Boreen at this point?
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Yes. But maybe she is not the right fit with Heise. She played with Huber at Chicago Mission so could that be a possibility?

ARM said:
Even more important for the Gophs will be how he handles the goalies. Personally, I would rotate the top two until the NCAA Tournament or it becomes impossible to do so based on results. Let them determine who the starter is and stay out of the way. He's had teams in the past where the early goalie decisions didn't work out, like making the choice too soon, and poor goaltending ultimately contributed to the season ending.
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I would guess that is how he handles them.
 
For the forwards, it seems like one of the key decisions will be whether or not Heise and Zumwinkle are reunited. If they are, then maybe Boreen completes that line. Personally, I'd be tempted to leave Heise's line from last year together, and see if Zum can find chemistry with other linemates like she did with Wente and Schammel. That's the best chance of creating 4 lines that can do damage, like what they had for most of 2018-19. Deep as they are, they're a little thin at center, in terms of whom was playing there most recently. If someone from Huber, Hemp, Murphy, or Bouveng can play in the middle, that gives them more options. AWeth seems like a versatile kid who can do anything that you ask her to do, but that would seem to be more of a checking line. Heise, Oden, and a bunch of question marks. Boreen used to play center, but that was a long time ago.
 
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ARM said:
If someone from Huber, Hemp, Murphy, or Bouveng can play in the middle, that gives them more options.
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Bouveng was listed as a C in the Olympics and certainly took enough faceoffs to justify the listing. You could have the PKaz line (Heise, Skaja and Boreen) and the Olympian line (Bouveng, Zumwinkle and Murphy) to start, with nine more forwards to fill out the last two lines.
 
It is hard to believe that anyone learned very much from that exhibition. For myself it reinforced some things that I already knew. For example, the Gophers have too many forwards. And Grace Zumwinkle has very high level offensive skills.

Even without learning much I thought it was fun to see hockey. And I had my first lesson in proper pronunciation of Josefin Bouveng.
 
Pretty sure the Whitecaps will put up way more resistance next Friday than what the U of Manitoba managed in a lopsided exhibition loss later today. Not to look too far ahead, or look past anybody in the WCHA/D1 schedule, but IMO this Gopher team has the potential to obviously do great things this season. Hard to draw any conclusions this evening from one game, one in which the teams were so mismatched (by a 0-13 score) in talent level. Who knows what the coaches were able to learn from one game in which the opposing team (Minnesota) was so dominant.

https://fanforum.uscho.com/forum/co...1-minnesota-gophers-2022-23/page7#post3758030
 
D2D said:
Pretty sure the Whitecaps will put up way more resistance next Friday than what the U of Manitoba managed in a lopsided exhibition loss later today. Not to look too far ahead, or look past anybody in the WCHA/D1 schedule, but IMO this Gopher team has the potential to obviously do great things this season. Hard to draw any conclusions this evening from one game, one in which the teams were so mismatched (by a 0-13 score) in talent level. Who knows what the coaches were able to learn from one game in which the opposing team (Minnesota) was so dominant.

https://fanforum.uscho.com/forum/co...1-minnesota-gophers-2022-23/page7#post3758030
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Feels like you could get stuck in a loop with the link in the above post...

I think the coaches will be happy with scoring a couple of touchdowns but not so pleased with missing an extra point.

They probably would have been better off breaking the large roster into 2 teams and having a intrasquad scrimmage.
 
FiveHoleFrenzy said:
Feels like you could get stuck in a loop with the link in the above post...

I think the coaches will be happy with scoring a couple of touchdowns but not so pleased with missing an extra point.

They probably would have been better off breaking the large roster into 2 teams and having a intrasquad scrimmage.
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That's good!
 
D2D said:
Gophers take on the Minnesota Whitecaps in their final exhibition tune up, tonight at 6:00pm at Ridder. Admission is free.

https://gophersports.com/news/2022/9/29/womens-hockey-gophers-to-host-familiar-foe-in-whitecaps
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This is what I found for a current Whitecaps roster:
https://www.spotrac.com/phf/minnesota-whitecaps/

If that is accurate, it has quality players on it, although not much for depth on the back half. What stood out to me is that there are four former Gophers on that roster, but none of them are forwards.
 
Don't think this was mentioned but it was announced a week ago that the Gophers filled the vacant assistant coaching position inhouse with their direction of hockey operations Jessica Scott. Good move in my opinion.
 
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ARM said:
This is what I found for a current Whitecaps roster:
https://www.spotrac.com/phf/minnesota-whitecaps/

If that is accurate, it has quality players on it, although not much for depth on the back half. What stood out to me is that there are four former Gophers on that roster, but none of them are forwards.
Click to expand...

The article that D2D posted mentions that their are 21 on the Whitecaps roster so maybe there is more D depth than what is posted in the linked roster.
 
6-0

lines were Heise, Boreen, Skaja
GZumwinkle, Oden, Murphy
Huber, Bouveng, Hemp
AWethington, Norcross, Kaiser

The fourth line saw the most action that any 4th line has seen for the Gophers since, well, probably since ever.

D started Ostertag MWethington
EZumwinkle Laitinen
Hengler Norton

Pahl in goal

Connor was the extra skater, she saw a few shifts.

Nicholson was the glaring absentee.

2 goals each for Boreen, Hemp and Murphy.
 
This team is going to score an enormous number of goals this year. I'm higher on the defense than others are. It's not the strength of the team, but it's going to be perfectly adequate to put them in serious national title contention, given the quality of the offense.

Of the newcomers, Norton is going to be a welcome addition on the blueline. Both Europeans impressed me tonight. Bouveng had three Grade A chances. She didn't finish any of them, but, if she keeps getting to those spots, the goals will come. Laitinen made some very nice passes. Her assist on Murphy's first power play goal, delivering the puck right to Murphy's stick as she cut in front of the net, was gorgeous.
 
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