I found this blog article to be interesting. You have to wonder if Lucia is feeling the heat? Most fans in Gopher nation are not happy, their team almost has to run the tables and win the Final Five to make the NCAA tourney which is in their back yard. Their remaining games on the schedule are brutal as well. In my weekly pool that I am in with my friends I have picked the Gophers being swept by the Pioneers this weekend.
The Gophers play at Denver this weekend and Lucia is hoping for at least a split to give his team a chance to make a run for home ice.
"We still have that opportunity," Lucia said. "Obviously, we are going to have to get some points this weekend against Denver. If we get a couple [two] points, then all of a sudden you are only five back [of Colorado College] and you have them in your own building for two games.
"CC still has Minnesota, North Dakota and Denver, so they don't have an easy go of it as well."
Clearly, the Gophers have their sights set on overtaking North Dakota, one point ahead of them, and CC, a deceivingly seven ahead. The Tigers are tied with Wisconsin for fourth place with 25 points but are idle this weekend.
So if the Gophers can get two points or more, they can reel the Tigers in the following weekend at Mariucci if they can sweep CC.
"You still want to continue to play well and to finish as strong as you possibly can," Lucia said. "And then whether you are home or on the road, you are going to have to win that first round matchup no matter where you are. The fortunate thing for us is, we have played pretty well on the road all year long.
"I still think with eight games left, we can still do some damage. And that's our goal." [Goal Gophers]
What they fail to mention is the fact the gophers still suck and they would still have to find a way to win games for any of those scenarios to take shape. Look's great on paper but it will never happen. Maybe after Denver runs them out of Magness arena they will have a better understanding of what's to come.
ReplyDeleteDid anyone else read Ryan Lambert's post on Yahoo's Puck Daddy last week about the failing Gophers? It was a good read and explained a lot about the situation and Lucia playing his favorites over and over with less than stellar results.
ReplyDeleteI thought the Ryan Lambert article was interesting.
ReplyDeleteClown's comment is priceless and made me laugh. It might be a bit harsh, but its true. Goldy has been absolutely abysmal against any teams in the WCHA not Tech or Anchorage. In fact, their one quality win on the road this season in conference play is at Wisconsin way back in November. Other than that, they have done very poor against the likes of Denver, UMD, and SCSU (0-6 I believe). Denver came into Mariucci last October and shut them out both nights 3-0. That may very well happen again. I think the top and bottom 4 are set in the WCHA. The 5th and 6th is yet to be determined, its just a matter of where it will be played...in the Springs or Grand Forks.
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