Gophers

[30 inch eyes]

What the heck happened to this team. Now they can't score, and Briggs couldn't stop the puck if it was the size of a beach ball. It's really frustrating to see a team with this much talent, struggle soo much. Oh well at least I have some hockey to watch. (no thanks to the pigheaded NHL, and I mean both sides)

[8-Ball]

30- I think they overachieved early in the season-that is why this is so hard to take, and watch. The reality is they are an average team, at best. They don't have any real "leaders", on O or D. Briggs is decent, but not Hobey material. Judd Stevens as the captain? I don't get that choice, either. Tallackson? Who? He should be watching from the press box. They don't really have a lights out go-to-guy to put the puck in the net, either..., except maybe Potulny. I don't know where he went, either.Simply put-they are not as bad as they are playing right now, and they are not as good as they performed for the first month of the season. 8-Ball.

[superfish2]

Well they are also a young team, and the tough early season schedule may have wore them out. They just look flat and tired.

[8-Ball]

Maybe I should rip Tallackson more often-he got the winner tonight.. Anybody know why they pulled Johnson? I was away from the game for awhile and noticed Briggs between the pipes. 8-Ball.

[superfish2]

I have no idea why they pulled Johnson. He was playing really well. It happened right at the halfway mark of the game so maybe it was planned. Of course it also happened right after a powerplay goal so maybe he wanted to shake things up.

[buzzsaw]

Lucia pulled Johnson and put in Briggs to spark the team.... hmmmm I guess it worked since they won and Briggs stopped all fourteen shots that he faced.

I just got caught up on this thread and have followed Gopher puck as loyally as anybody. I believe the Gophers may have positioned themselves right were they want to be again heading into the post season. You see they did well in the first half of the season against ranked teams building up there S.O.S. (strength of schedule) January came and you saw a letdown of sorts... I mean splitting at Boston University, getting swept by the current #1 team in the country CC in two close games, getting swept at home again by Mich tech (that series hurt), splitting with Denver, UMD and Wisconsin the last three weekends was not all that bad especially considering that all of the above mentioned teams have been on fire and we didn't get blown out in any of those games. We need to win five out of the remaining six games vs AA, SCSU and at Mich tech to stay a top seed in the pairwise rankings (these are the rankings that matter as they generally mirror the NCAA selection seeding process). Here is how that looks as of today 2/7/05.

1 Colorado College 26 1 23-4-3 .8167 1 .6042

2t Minnesota 25 12 20-11-0 .6452 2 .5940

2t Denver 25 4 20-6-1 .7593 3 .5930

2t Boston College 25 2 17-3-5 .7800 5 .5824

5 Cornell 24 3 16-4-3 .7609 4 .5873

6t Michigan 21 6t 20-7-3 .7167 7 .5717

6t Harvard 21 8 14-5-2 .7143 8 .5668

8t New Hampshire 18 9t 18-7-3 .6964 9 .5640

8t Mass.-Lowell 18 11 16-6-4 .6923 10 .5601

10t Colgate 16 9t 19-8-1 .6964 13 .5504

10t Ohio State 16 6t 20-7-3 .7167 14 .5497

12t Wisconsin 15 5 20-7-1 .7321 11 .5591

12t Boston University 15 17 15-10-2 .5926 6 .5785

12t North Dakota 15 24 15-12-3 .5500 12 .5559

15t Dartmouth 14 22 12-9-2 .5652 17 .5402

15t Northern Michigan 14 18t 14-9-5 .5893 18 .5340

17 Michigan State 12 26 13-11-4 .5357 16 .5488

and the USCHO polls look like this.............

Team (First Place) Record Pts Last Week

1 Boston College (21) 17-3-5 579 1

2 Colorado College (18) 23-4-3 575 2

3 Denver (1) 20-6-1 517 4

4 Wisconsin 20-7-1 457 3

5 Cornell 16-4-3 416 6

6 Michigan 20-7-3 407 5

7 Ohio State 20-7-3 330 9

8 New Hampshire 18-7-3 307 7

9 Minnesota 20-11-0 293 8

10 Harvard 14-5-2 263 10

11 Mass.-Lowell 16-6-4 198 12

12 Colgate 19-8-1 161 11

13 Boston University 15-10-2 117 14

14 Maine 15-9-6 80 15

15 North Dakota 15-12-3 40 13

So give our boys credit were it is due, besides coming into the season we all knew how young they were, how much talent was lost to the NHL and we didn't expect them to be doing this well. When we get a #1 or #2 seeding you should all be feeling better. Remember next year we get:

Anderson, R.J. D 6-0, 180 Centennial

Bostrom, Justin F 5-8, 165 Sioux City (USHL)

Frazee, Jeff G 5-11, 197 USNDPT U-18

Stoa, Ryan LW 6-2, 180 USNDPT U-18

Wheeler, Blake RW 6-4, 185 Green Bay (USHL)

We lose Tallackson, Stevens, Johnson, Smaagard and MacKinnon. Thats not much to lose boys!! and supposedly alot to gain! Oh and don't forget that we are still in the Phil Kessel sweepstakes!

I see nothing but a positive bright looking future so cheer up and have a beer!

[30 inch eyes]

I hope Lucia sees more in Peltier than I do. He needs lots of work with puck handling when guys get close to him(he gets real nervous, likes to turn it over too)Potulny and Irmen stepped up nicely. It should be fun to see them get some revenge on Mich Tech in March.(hope it's televised)

[8-Ball]

Ya- I hope Donny Lou picks a more appropriate captain next year. I did'nt understand his selection this year. Ya- Peltier is pretty shaky in traffic. I guess we got spoiled by Ballard and Martin... Hagemo looks like he could be a player in the future.

[satnu]

Harrington is the one I question. Really shaky on D! The TECH series will not be on FOX!

Before the first of the year I would have said AA @ UM=sweep, Home and Home SCCU 3 of 4 points, @Tech sweep. Now I see AA swept, SCCU split, Tech split. Goph's get to SaintPaul via MSU mav sweep!

[buzzsaw]

[image]http://[/image]

Thats all you need to see...

[Wayne Sieber]

Well Said Buzzsaw!!!!! Thanks!!

[buzzsaw]

Thank you!

[30 inch eyes]

My hats off to AA, they took home ice advatage and rammed it up our backside last night. (50 some shots on goal and only 2 goals, now thats how a goalie should be)

[8-Ball]

30- Briggs gets pulled again tonight-I guess to fire up the boys. They just can't seem to play a COMPLETE 60 min. game. Like I said before, they are an average team this year. Lot's of mistakes, bad decisions in there zone, guys coming down on 2 on 1's on a regular basis, etc.. I don't think there will be any magic this playoff year. They still don't have a real leader on this team- who sets an example, goes out and does the right things on the ice, for the rest to duplicate. It aint happenin'. Yeah, they got a lot of shots on net, but that does not matter if they don't get the W.

[30 inch eyes]

c'mon gophers you're killing me here. One word,goaltending!

[buzzsaw]

I pretty much agree with 8 ball... we can't seem to execute on the power play, Goligoski can't shoot a one timer if his life depended on it, harrington USED to be a good player??? Briggs?? I don't know what to say... Too many lackidasical efforts going on every weekend. I don't think this current team is going anywhere... they will win there first round NCAA game and then lose in the game that would put them in the final four. Like I said earlier in this thread or another Gopher thread... Denver is the team to beat.

[30 inch eyes]

I was on my death bed with this team until last nights performance. That was the way I like them to play, and know they can play. Hats off to the whole team.(kudos to Justin Johnson)

[buzzsaw]

It was nice to get the sweep against SCSU! We needed it and now we need to win the Phil Kessel sweepstakes!! oh and finish ahead of Wisconsin in third place of the WCHA...

[8-Ball]

Now they need to keep the momentum going w/ a split at Tech -minimally. I am not yet convinced they are totally out of their funk. We need to see more than just one good game out of the boys (at least for me). Proof of that was the Friday night collapse in the 3rd against the Huskies... Same old nightmare, again! Sat. night was awesome, I have to agree. Let's get some consistency-that breeds confidence. Maybe it was a blessing in disguise that Briggs went down.. My concern is-who would go in if Johnson comes up lame? 8-Ball.

[buzzsaw]

The answer to that question is Brent solei... a true freshman.

[8-Ball]

Hopefully we won't need to put him in...