Re: Minnesota hosts Wisconsin: March 2-3 - MacNaughton in the house
Poor passing? Poor passing was the least of their concerns. Getting beat to pucks, pushed off pucks, having no puck support, establishing no fore check, not back checking, and looking overall lethargic were problems tonight. Absolutely brutal effort by the Gophers.
I actually do think poor passing was the biggest of their issues. While the effort was anything but good, it was
good enough to at least earn a tie if the passing wasn't so god awful. Sure, they would have given up a couple from losing battles in front of their net. But they also would have hit at least 1 of those WIDE open nets during the game, been able to have some semblance of offensive zone possession and avoided ridiculous turn-overs that lead to goals.
WI buried MN in that 2nd period, and they deserve credit for that. Because even though it was one of the worst periods I have seen MN play this season, the opposition still has to make them pay, and UW did.
Zengerle made Helgeson look absolutely foolish.
I'm still trying to wrap my head around Boyd skating in between Rau and Budish. Nothing against Boyd, but the kid has only played 75% of the games and he was on the 4th line for all of those. What kind of message does it send to put a 4th liner/healthy scratch on the top line?
Maybe in a month when Boyd is scoring goals against 3rd and 4th liners in the NCAAs I'll look back and say it was a good decision. But right now? That **** just didn't make sense. And not just because
that line was completely ineffectual.