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West Regional: Minnesota vs Yale

Re: West Regional: Minnesota vs Yale

Why?

All of these players grew up playing on an NHL size sheet, I think the rink size meme gets way overblown by the media and elsewhere. If anything it would be much harder to go from NHL size to olympic size, it should be easier for some of our not so fleet of foot bigger guys (Budish Ambroz Helgeson)to get around the rink.

guys like hankinson and ben clymer have talked on the broadcast just in the last couple weeks about how the gophers have needed to adjust to playing the smaller rink. i think those two have an idea as to whether it takes adjusting being that they are former pros. i bet they'd laugh if you told them "these kids played high school hockey a few years ago on a small sheet, they should be used to it"

i never understand why people reference "well these kids all played on small sheets growing up". at this point in their lives they have played the majority of their games and practices over the last couple years on an olympic sheet of ice. cut 15 feet off the side and that is going to take some getting used to.. how good have the gophers done when their opponents have clogged up the neutral zone? well its only easier to clog up the neutral zone on a smaller sheet of ice, so how can you even argue that its a factor? i dont think its an excuse, but i think the guy above is right in saying it could be a factor
 
guys like hankinson and ben clymer have talked on the broadcast just in the last couple weeks about how the gophers have needed to adjust to playing the smaller rink. i think those two have an idea as to whether it takes adjusting being that they are former pros. i bet they'd laugh if you told them "these kids played high school hockey a few years ago on a small sheet, they should be used to it"

i never understand why people reference "well these kids all played on small sheets growing up". at this point in their lives they have played the majority of their games and practices over the last couple years on an olympic sheet of ice. cut 15 feet off the side and that is going to take some getting used to.. how good have the gophers done when their opponents have clogged up the neutral zone? well its only easier to clog up the neutral zone on a smaller sheet of ice, so how can you even argue that its a factor? i dont think its an excuse, but i think the guy above is right in saying it could be a factor

It's like the argument that someone said when we played Wisconsin. "These kids grew up playing outside..." As if this somehow doesn't change the game. As far as rink size, I think there's a reason why Lucia has them practice at Ritter before non-Olympic sized sheets.
 
Re: West Regional: Minnesota vs Yale

They've been practicing at Ridder all week and last time I checked the ice sheet on which they won a regional last year was NHL size. Oh same thing for the regional and FF in 2002, the FF in 2003, the 2004 regional (won a game)...
 
Re: West Regional: Minnesota vs Yale

Was at Van Andel today for practice! The block Ms on the ice and on the boards look great. Great sense of pride seeing those. Especially in Grand Rapids where former captain Luke Glendening plays for the AHL's Grand Rapids Griffins.
 
Re: West Regional: Minnesota vs Yale

Was at Van Andel today for practice! The block Ms on the ice and on the boards look great. Great sense of pride seeing those.


You can go ahead and count this year towards your consecutive NCAA streak, with those M's on the ice and all.

Congrats!
 
Re: West Regional: Minnesota vs Yale

They've been practicing at Ridder all week and last time I checked the ice sheet on which they won a regional last year was NHL size. Oh same thing for the regional and FF in 2002, the FF in 2003, the 2004 regional (won a game)...

they practice on ridder every week leading up to a series on a small sheet. so you cherry picked a few times they found success despite the small ice factor. i could just as easily name pitiful performances on small ice sheets over the years, such as their series at michigan state last year. the fact that they bother practicing at ridder in the first place goes to show it is a factor.

that being said they don't have any excuse if they lose any of the next 4 games in my mind, because when the gophers bring their best i think they are the best team in the country this year.
 
Re: West Regional: Minnesota vs Yale

You can go ahead and count this year towards your consecutive NCAA streak, with those M's on the ice and all.

Congrats!

You don't know how true I wish this was.

It wasn't gonna last forever though. I rather them lose the streak going down swinging like they did than having a single digit win season.
 
Re: West Regional: Minnesota vs Yale

they practice on ridder every week leading up to a series on a small sheet. so you cherry picked a few times they found success despite the small ice factor. i could just as easily name pitiful performances on small ice sheets over the years, such as their series at michigan state last year. the fact that they bother practicing at ridder in the first place goes to show it is a factor.

How many bad/less than great performances did they have on Olympic sheets this year? @MSUM, UAA, CC, SCSU, home against UNO, MSUM, UMD and DU. And how of many of the bad performances on NHL sheets were also road/neutral site games? Last time I checked it's hard to win on the road period.

And I didn't cherry pick anything - fact is this team has been successful winning NCAA games on NHL sheets because they were good/lucky enough to win those games. This team is also good enough, whether or not they will play well enough and get lucky enough remains to be seen, but bringing up the ice sheet is chicken s**t.
 
Re: West Regional: Minnesota vs Yale

I hope to see Tommy Fallen with the winning goal against his home state.
 
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Re: West Regional: Minnesota vs Yale

Allain recruited a new third-goalie should Malcolm get injured and Maricic...be Maricic.

hockeymonkey_2251_66366481
Probably an improvement.

Jeff Malcolm has started most of the year and will start Friday
Ah. Well then. Someone stuck!

That was a one-time special for Boston College. ;)
and so UND could avoid them :)
 
Re: West Regional: Minnesota vs Yale

guys like hankinson and ben clymer have talked on the broadcast just in the last couple weeks about how the gophers have needed to adjust to playing the smaller rink. i think those two have an idea as to whether it takes adjusting being that they are former pros. i bet they'd laugh if you told them "these kids played high school hockey a few years ago on a small sheet, they should be used to it"

i never understand why people reference "well these kids all played on small sheets growing up". at this point in their lives they have played the majority of their games and practices over the last couple years on an olympic sheet of ice. cut 15 feet off the side and that is going to take some getting used to.. how good have the gophers done when their opponents have clogged up the neutral zone? well its only easier to clog up the neutral zone on a smaller sheet of ice, so how can you even argue that its a factor? i dont think its an excuse, but i think the guy above is right in saying it could be a factor

They have also played a big chunk of their Hockey playing careers (like from ages 3 to18 or more) on the NHL size sheet,they will be fine. And of course Lucia has them practice at Ridder, why wouldn't he? That still doesn't mean that adjusting to a NHL size sheet is OMFGJFJG!!!! tough.

This Gopher team is actually built for an NHL size rink anyway.
 
Re: West Regional: Minnesota vs Yale

I'll just say that I'm looking forward to watching MN on Saturday. tArrogance has spoken.
 
Re: West Regional: Minnesota vs Yale

Just wondering. Is it NCAA regulations that all tourney games are on NHL sized sheets? I don't recall ever seeing one on a big sheet.
 
Re: West Regional: Minnesota vs Yale

Just wondering. Is it NCAA regulations that all tourney games are on NHL sized sheets? I don't recall ever seeing one on a big sheet.

I don't think the NCAA cares. It's $$$$$. Give them a bid, with a big arena (which will most likely be an NHL sized rink/arena) and they're happy.
 
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