sagard

The team is by no means a lock to make the tourney. Wins over UNH and NE will help with some eastern comparisons, but if they don't start taking care of business this weekend they will drop like a rock. The teams goal differential in league is only +4 which is a pretty good indication they are not at the same level as DU/UND/UW even though we are only three points back of UW. On the bright side there is still plenty of hockey to be played and if they put some good hockey together for a couple weekends they will have home ice for the regional.

Keep repeating it and the Oshie bit will come true.

I didn't see the game, but if Stoa or anyone thought a borderline CFB wasn't going to get called they were nuts.

Things happen. Both Shack and Radke threw some shots that if they would have landed could have led to tragedy. Luckily they didn't. If the WCHA comes down on Shack, I'm fine with it. If the "U" comes down on him sending the message that all hockey players must act like a princess I'll be very disappointed.

Doesn't matter what his intent was. Didn't matter what Anderson was trying to do to Oshie at the horn before last years melee at Mariucci. As long as everyone who rips Shack was ripping your guy Radke for pounding on that DU guy with his helmet off it's all good. Bottom line is that a Gopher finally stood up for himself and a teammate. Now if they could just figure out that defense is a six man effort and things will get better.

Don't consider it an excusal. The Gophers have been soft and let other teams push them around for far too long. The Lucia incident in GF was just another example. He would have been far better to fight and lose vs. not fight at all. I've seen our guys turtle and resort to face washes and chippiness vs. settling it. If Shack would have held off after the MSU guy was defenseless it would have been a lot better, but you take runs when your up 6-2 you have to be prepared for immediate retaliation. I'm in agreement with the poster who pointed out all the refs issues. However they are put in bad spots by the league by getting inconsistent messages on how to officiate games.

I think I'm the only guy in the world that has no problem with Shack. Sure it would have been nice if he would have not gone for the MMA finishing move on him, but something had to be done. Those two teams really seem to hate each other. There was a ton of stuff in that playoff series that has been brewing for quite a while. I'm sure there will be more tonight. Call us hacks and goons, that's life. I'm sure my feelings will be hurt just like yours are when the Sioux are called names.

I'm with you on some issues. No mercy on the bottom finishers. Out. No soup for them. Six teams would make the Final Five more fun. Minnesota didn't have a great season, but they weren't even the least deserving at-large team in the field. A vile squad who was an OT goal away from the Frozen Four had that honor. Eleven teams and twenty league games would be perfect. Forget the extra games that simply would make the schedule non-balanced.

Your analysis is the best on the net. Simply outstanding!

Nice analysis Jim. For your prediction are you actually running all possible outcomes (skipping ties) of every other game and running the PWR for each or are you doing some expected results using KRACH or something similar? Either way it's pretty impressive.

Nobody in the WCHA is a lock for the tourney this year. The best way to make the tourney (without the autobid) is to finish top three in league and win at least one game at the X. The third place game at the X could easily be a tourney entrance deciding game. As long as the Sioux don't go belly up some weekend, I think they will play well enough to make it.

That was a big time game last night. Your guys responded very well to a strong team who brought their "A" game. For me it was a perfect result. Neither team got too far up the road.

I think the Sioux will blow one of the games out, but will have a tough one that could go either way in the other. DU has that nasty knack for scoring of turnovers from what I've seen them on TV against multiple opponents. With the Gophers taking the weekend off to rest up from the WJC, this should be fun to watch.

The super powers of the WCHA should agree to reduce the quantity of league games. As a trade off for allowing expansion and less share of the Final Five proceeds, I'd much prefer the Gophers to get three extra non-conference series per year. With my three extra weekends, I'd schedule an extra pair with UND, UW and have a mini-state tourney as well. Nobody emphasizes the McNaughton cup anymore either, why throw away extra weekends with all these late arrivals. The difference between a 28 game league schedule and a 22 game league schedule just doesn't matter enough to me.

True enough, but I was trying to be a nice house guest. We'd do it too on GPL, but we are forced to move on by the admins.

Exactly. I can usually log into this site at midnight on a game night if there are a ton of pages, the team lost and people are complaining. If the thread is short the Sioux have won and people move on. Of course this Gopher thread is the obvious exception to my rule.

I'd like to see the league drop to 20 games or 22 games if there ends up being twelve teams. One series vs. each team in the league. Us heavyweights can schedule each other to fill in our remaining games to ensure the proper amount of message board fodder.

Don't believe everything you hear from those INCH guys.

I recall nothing from that Omaha Trip.

Under Lucia: @BC in '98-'99. @BU in '04-'05. @Maine in '99-'00. @UNH in '02-'03. Your point about the Gophers not traveling is still on point, just a bit exaggerated. Nice to see mostly fond wishes for Coach Lucia.

I'd say freaking out and losing his composure was a bit silly and stupid, mainly because of how well the rest of the weekend went. Sticking up for teammates, challenging, taunting and intimidating are part of the game.

I'm guessing you didn't actually hear it. He mentioned that playing physical is a "talent" and the Gophers have been severely lacking in that department for quite a while. Nanne was pretty much spot on in this interview specifically mentioning if you can't or won't respond to a physical challenge in the beginning of a weekend you are pretty much done for. He also corrected the KFAN guys on their assessment that the Gophers were talented but too young, stating that almost all the players go through juniors now. The host likes to make fun of people who makes excuses, but Nanne wouldn't give the Gophers any. As for Nanne's Wild judgment, I'm with you.

That would be fine, but he has been pressed into action as a 2nd line winger vs. 3rd or 4th line/PK/antagonist role.

I think the Strib said he was going to practice today. I'm guessing there was 25+ guys who needed their @$$es kicked and he wanted to do some kicking.

Thanks for the explanation on Lucia. I think Frattin/Lucia and Jones/Shack would have been far more entertaining than simply watching Jones go nuts.