The Minnesota Gophers were picked in the top half of the WCHA; currently the Gophers are again sitting in seventh place of the WCHA with four games remaining. There is a good chance that the Gophers could end up on the road again for the first round of the WCHA playoffs. Gopher fans are already worried that their team will do the unspeakable and end up missing the Final Five and the Midwest regional as well which is at Marriucci Arena. These fears are very realistic and could very well happen. Playoffstatus.com give the Gophers a 17% chance of getting home ice for the WCHA playoffs. If this happens it could get very ugly in Minneapolis. (Stay tuned folks)
As the Gophers season goes poorly and the loses continue to pile up there will be more and more calls from Gophers fans for the head of Gopher's head coach Don Lucia. It is only natural, as a Viking fan I have been calling for Brad Childress to be fired since season two. The questions are already starting to mount, what went wrong with the Gophers? While there have been many distractions that could lead to some of this season's failures, there has also a plethora of excuses and silly statements to come out of Gopherville. It’s been like a train wreck in slow motion. Here are some of the excuses we have seen so far; the Gophers are too young, the WJC players are tired, coach excuse. I even heard the lovable Doug Woog utter a jersey excuse in case the Gophers had managed to lose to SCSU.
No easy road to home ice
Two weeks ago during the Wisconsin series I heard Doug Woog mention to “the Rug” that Minnesota’s schedule is much more favorable the rest of the way. After the statement the Gophers proceeded to get three points out of a possible eight in their last two series. You gotta love the Wooger.
Fast forward to this weekend the Gophers the gritty and determined UMD Bulldogs, let me just say the Bulldogs are no cup of tea and I can personally think of seven other teams I would rather face right now. If the Gophers continue to play like they have the Gophers will get run out of building by Scott Sandelin’s team. Being a rivalry series UMD is going to be all over the Gophers.
Moron of the week
Here is my candidate for the Moron of the week; this is some classic stuff folks. I like how Gophers fan always refer back to the Fighting Sioux as being a bunch of hacks when their teams is ranked a lot higher nationally in penalties in minutes (PIMS) than the Sioux. I also like how this posters mentions UND’s 4 trips to the frozen four, yep UND has come home empty handed the last four years but the Fighting Sioux also finished ahead of the Gophers.
NMGo4
DU has 8 Colorado players on its roster, Wisky has 9 in-state kids, CC only two. But Tammyloud is right. The amount of in-state talent has nothing to do with how obnoxious the fan base might be. That comes, in large part, from the coach. Some coaches flip the bird and encourage otherwise thuggish behavior, and that manifests itself in fan behavior. I am afraid we just have to get used to it, but can also take comfort in the fact that even the most obnoxious fans get very, very quiet when they get punked out year after year after year after year in the Final Four. Sue fan, try channeling your energy into winning a national title with Hackstol at the reins. Maybe that will help.
Check out some of these comments from fans on the various web boards and newspaper web sites.
Gophers fall to 7th place in the WCHA.
Loss has Gophers on the road for the playoffs.
Is it time to move on without Lucia?
Even Gopher's beat writer Roman Augustoviz has an article on Lucia and the Gopher's struggles this season. Roman's article is more careful and dances around the edges but it is interesting and does ask a few questions that might be on Gopher fan's minds.
It's been a rough last month or so to be a Gopher fan, thats for sure! I think Bostrom and Lucia said it best post-game Saturday that they are finding ways to lose games instead of finding ways to win games. Kangas has been exposed, you shoot high on him and there is a darn good chance you're going to score. I honestly see the Bulldogs sweeping this weekend and Splitting with Tech. Could very well end up in Grand Forks for the first round!!!
ReplyDeleteAs much as I would like to see the Sioux take down the Gophers UND will be playing UAA or MTU.
ReplyDeleteRemember, this is the WCHA. It is a 28-game grind that no team can endure without having ups and downs. This isn't the Cup Cake Hockey Assocation, aka the CCHA, where half or more of the league teams are garbage. It just so happens that Goldy's up was back in November and the Sioux's up is currently still going. Look at Wisconsin: they started 0-6-1 for the first time in school history yet less than a month ago they were in first place in the WCHA. Goon is right though, Minnesota won't be in Grand Forks for the playoffs because the Sioux will finish in either 1st or 2nd and Goldy will not finish in 9th or
ReplyDelete10th.
The "Pride on Ice" is history for now. The Gophs have become the worst thing a team can become, an outfit that can accept losing. They are getting better and better at rationalizing the losses and worse and worse at doing what it takes to win a game. The Bulldogs will be smelling blood.
ReplyDeleteGoon...I'm not so certain you want to meet the Gophers in either round one or the F5. As you're aware, even when the Sioux are down, they can rise up and stick it to the Gophers; the converse is also true; throw out the records when those two get together.
ReplyDeleteThe Sioux aren't playing the Gophers in the WCHA playoffs unless they get lucky and get to MPLS and then win the play in game.
ReplyDeleteWell I dont' know what schedule Lucia was talking about them having the favorable schedule. I talked about it recently, (looking at the same schedule as Lucia) UMD had the best schedule of the three (UMD, UMTC, and SCSU) remaining for the #5 spot in the league.
ReplyDeleteThey all had Tech left to play, but:
SCSU also had to play at DU and a home and home with Mankato.
UMTC had UAA, UMD, and also at CC.
while
UMD had at UMTC and UAA.
Pulverized Concepts:
ReplyDeleteI think your concept was indeed pulverized; apparently the bulldogs must have been catching a whiff of their own blood (Stallock in particular).