sagard

If he keeps doing this for another 5-10 years you all are REALLY going to hate the Gophers!

If you are referring to my quotes on another board, I was pointing out that Hauser is having a statistically better season (so far) than recent college greats Dubielewicz, Miller, LeNeveu, and Goehring. He isn't the number one guy on his team, but Hauser is 7-0-0 with a .949 save percentage. It is a fact that Hauser is obviously a lot better now than when he was in college.

Amazing. I feel the same way for totally different reasons!

No way. Travis Weber was outstanding for one period against Michigan in the semi-finals. I'm sure KG must have played at least a decent game or two right?

I would be shocked if Lee doesn't play alot. If I were coaching I'd probably play Suter and Likens every game and rotate out the others for freshness. I also don't like to think of the US talent pool is so shallow that it needs a 17 year old to fill the roster. I like to think that the 17 year old must be something extraordinary. We will see soon enough. Anything lower than a second place finish to Canada will be a disappointment in my book.

There is a lot of truth to this. Also as much as Ballard is missed offensively, he made more mistakes defensively per game than any of the three Gopher freshmen are currently. If those three freshmen keep playing as well as they are Briggs will indeed enjoy a fine season.

So assuming that Anderson and Niskanin round out the top five, do any decent players go to non-WCHA schools any more?

Keep in mind that six of the players you mentioned took up 13 of the 40 slots. That leaves roughly 33 players qualifying over 22 years. You have to admit that whether or not there is bias, it is a lot tougher to make the Canadian U-20 team if you choose to go the NCAA route. It stands to reason that if two players were even during tryouts, you would lean towards choosing players you know from the MJ leagues. The same thing could easily (and may have happened in reverse with the US) with an American playing MJ hockey.

This is pretty good. As much as I'd like to see the Gophers get this guy, I won't lose sleep over his picking his home town team. If he wants substandard competition (and empty rinks) then he can go play with Michigan or some eastern wimps. Knowing that there are five WCHA teams as good or better than every other team in the nation would tell be to play in that league.

As a long time Gophers fan I have always appreciated the seasons where they have made the semi-finals more than winning league titles. The MacNaughton is great in it's own right and it is thrilling to watch the chase week in and week out. However, little compares to the excitement of watching your team play for the NCAA titles.

I like "golden" rats.

So I'm kind of a stats nerd, but here goes anyways. Using Krach (Bradley-Terry) rankings one can calculate odds of a team beating another team. By extending that one can then calculate how many points a team would "expect" to earn over that team and if calculated for all the WCHA teams one can calculate the amount of points you would "expect" for that team in WCHA play. Then by imposing another teams schedule on the first team, one can approximate the amount of points the unbalanced schedule is costing them. This table shows last years Gophers would have expected to earn three points more had they played the UW schedule. Coincidently they did in fact finish 3pts back of UW. Currently, this year the Gophers (and UND) would expect to earn one less point had they been playing the UW schedule. If UMD turns it around that one point gap would likely widen to two or possibly three points. As for fixing the problem, I don't think it will happen. Two or three points isn't enough for the WCHA care. If it were me I would live with the unbalanced schedule but modify the playoff format. The 4 vs. 5 game would be Tuesday at the higher seeds rink. Short rest for both teams instead of getting only 15 hrs rest before taking on the WCHA #1. If anyone wants the spreadsheet I used or further explaination send me a PM or an email.

I won't be happy with a split. I'll settle for it, but won't be pleased. CC may be missing a couple of key players according to their fans on USCHO and the Gophers should take all the points. I expect Friday to be very close going to the team who's goalie plays better and the Gophers winning Saturday.

Using statistical methods based on predicting outcomes based on KRACH, I strongly believe the difference of UND and UM's schedule vs. UW will be about 2-3 points. I'll demonstrate it in late January when Krach becomes fairly stable.

It's still early season until the MacNaughton is awarded.

The biggest problem with the WCHA regular season is that the unbalanced schedule may come into play in a close race. UW has only two with MSU, MTU, SCSU and CC. UM has only two with UND, UMD, DU, MTU. Lets hypothetically (even though it won't happen) say the Badgers sweep the Gophers in Madison, but finish second to the Gophers by a single point in WCHA play. The only reason for that would have been the schedule. Of course I wouldn't shed a tear for Bucky because a similar schedule discrepency is what allowed them to finish third last year. This is my absolute biggest problem with the WCHA. When playoff seeding means so much (playin game participants have no chance), the WCHA should either balance the schedule, have the playin game mid-week, or drop the bottom two teams from the playoffs.

This is going to be a very special season in the WCHA. Though not as prestigous both the McNaughton and the Broadmoor will be certainly as hotly contested as the NCAAs. Due to Michigan's weak conference and BC being the only decent eastern team, we are going to see three WCHA number one seeds in the NCAAs. Rediculous. Why recruits would want to play anywhere else right now is beyond me. While Michigan is a fine team and will likely adjust by playoff time, they did not appear to be the least bit prepared to deal with the speed they would see at least three times a month in the WCHA.

I would guess they would each stick around for three years, but with the way Ryan is lighting it up who knows. Both have been drafted and won't get any lucritive free agent money. I think both came to college directly after high schools as well so they will both likely grow a little and get a lot stronger. The main thing that this continues to prove is that it would have been extremely foolish for RP to try for a redshirt last season.

A simple note to visiting POI members and exhalted siouxsports veteran members. Please leave the fighting and smugness to USHCO. The admins of POI and siouxsports put in plenty of work supporting these sights and deserve better. As for the original content of the thread. I'm hoping the Gophers can parlay the Virg Foss mid-season excellence award (does that officially get awarded in January or can I claim it now?) into a McNaughton Cup. Then have the team take their shots for the post season prizes. It is a very nice start, but the '00-'01 Gophers had a stretch where they went 15-2-0 and didn't finish strong.

I think we should consider ourselves lucky if this kid plays at Mariucci for a season. He is scoring over a point a game against D1 opponents right now as a 16 year old.

A poster on POI has stated the USHCO article is flat wrong about the UW and UM being the only remaining teams. This kid must be awful darn good as a 16 year old to be generating this much excitement.

Karl, Zach, Brandon, etc... I'm going to need more than a recruit per year to settle this ledger. Though it seems we have started a good thing.