mygarske

Amen! Give the top lines a period, maybe half of the second, then put them in bubble wrap & let the other lines get a ton of ice time.

https://www.instagram.com/p/DRKimSbETx2/?igsh=MWJkZnpjbW04NzhkdA%3D%3D Post from a guy who only writes about college hockey. Take it for what it's worth. If you look at the other players being compared to #9 and #6 - our guys are ahead of the pack in a lot of categories. Sadly, he doesn't include #7 or #13. With the exception of Plante & Horcoff, 9 has more goals than the rest. Even ahead of the overhyped Ryker Lee, who has 2 goals on the #1 ranked team in the country?? If you look at the dmen #6 is the only 'offensive' defenseman next to Hutson. Not that he's a scoring juggernaut, But Kleber, Groenwald, & Osborn are not going to light the lamp. It will be interesting to see how Coach Bob handles this, especially with Gopher Nation not exactly rowing the boat for him lately.

100% agree with every point. Put a 10% chance any one of them happening. Sadly.

We made it easy for them to play us. All they had to do was wait for our D to bring the puck up ice, which they did all night. Pressure them, that took us out of our system, forwards are waiting for a pass, D panic, take a bad/long shot from the point, rebound comes out, D are out of position, they get a 2 - 1 or back door play for a goal. My 2 cents from the cheap seats.

Looked pretty familiar last night, big line changes, players with bad performances were not ‘corrected’, loss on the East coast. Not a surprising loss when you look at from that perspective. And now this from the GF story: But Jackson indicated more shuffling may occur for the series finale. "Didn't see a lot of playmaking that connected," Jackson said. Agree there wasn’t enough playmaking but that’s because the D were constantly sticking handling the puck. Drove me nuts watching our defensemen taking what seemed like 80-90% of the shots, PP and on the rush. Why?!?! And why the F do they feel the need to stick handle the puck for 10 seconds, doing a hot lap around the Off. zone before passing it to a forward?!?! This is like in football when a quarterback constantly throws the ball to the blocking tight end with Justin Jefferson on the field & then they are shocked they aren’t scoring enough touchdowns to win the game. 🤯🤬 It’s B.S. to blame it on the forwards. They can’t do their job, scoring goals, when the D aren’t doing their job, keeping the opposing team out of our end. I know it’s blasphemy, but the play of #4 & #2 cost us that game. They got beat, badly, on the first 3 goals & were behind the play all night. Sets a horrible tone for the rest of the team when your “leaders” make mistakes & aren’t corrected by coaches. Shuffling the D would be good. 2 second rule for puck possession with dmen. Quick f’in passes up the ice. Forwards shoot first mentality. Try that before line change bingo & see what happens.

Great way to correct that PP problem - don't have the defensemen skate a loop around the offensive zone & NOT pass the puck to a forward. Drove me nuts watching #25 and #4 do the loop, then not get a shot off, or a bad shot, or lose the puck. Trying to do it all yourself is a PeeWee level mentality. We have 5 they have 4, take advantage of the math. Quick passing. Shoot the puck! 🤯🤬

I hope the coaches don't go with the big overreaction/correction to a 1 game loss to a top 10 team (I think MN is better than UConn & Maine) and change lines, flop players around, big switches on PP units, etc. I have deep empathy & sympathy for what #21 has been through the past 2 years, and if the coaches told him, "Hit everything that moves!", that might also be clouding his judgment. But as the B.B. haters have said on here many times, "JAX is going to do it different!" and I hope they are right. But, that would mean he would have to sit #21 for the bad play & really bad penalties. Let the lines develop & build chemistry. Use the Foligno example for checking to separate a player from the puck, not skate around looking for a body to crush & skate past the puck. I love physical play when done right, but you look at Denver, BU, Michigan State, and our Sioux style under Blaise - speed kills, puck possession, quick, accurate passing, shoot first mentality, relentless forecheck. You get dumb penalties when all you are focussed on is hitting a guy, not all of those other things. Playing the speed kills style of game would definitely be different from the past 2 years. GO Sioux!!

Here's a blast from the past to occupy Friday night's for the boys:

100% agree with all points. My only add, the horrible ice quality. Just like blaming the refs, I hate it as an excuse, but, when you can see it during the game several times, it's a factor. Especially on scoring opportunities. One clear example, 5 minutes into the 3rd, it's still 2-1 game, DJ/Jets & the Bubble Bros. (trying out line names 😉) are in the zone for a solid 60-90 seconds, crowd is fired up & cheering, Zellers takes a shot comes off the goalie's pads hard in the slot, just like previous games, but instead of Jets (#26) or Bubble 1 (#29) chipping in the rebound, puck bounces like a super ball & no quality shot. Then they run out #8 & #21 and it's turnover city, Goofs score & we lose that momentum. Never recovered. I love physical hockey when done right. But when all they do is run around & try to kill guys, and don't end up with the puck, or worse with a ton of penalties, it's just stupid & it costs us the game. My 2 cents, more of line 1 and 2, less of 3 and 4.

We look at those 2 PP units now, admittedly after a very small sample size, and holy crap!! Other teams are going to watch tape on both & have a serious pucker effect. Which unit do opposing teams put their top PK unit up against?? 🙏 that production continues, which it should as the boys get more familiar with each others tendencies, passing, etc.

Exactly!! It would be a full mutiny. Not to bring up a dog whistle trigger for some on this board, but I was here during the Potunly boys recruitment. The Goofer nation fan base completely lost their marbles. I can't remember the recruit that Lucia "missed in leu of Potunly" that year, but until they won the Natty, it was a 500 lb. monkey on his back. I have had two kids go through the "Minnesota model", it's great, the ice time & coaching they got was like nowhere else. But there is something in the psyche of native Minnesotans where they are just so hell bent that it is perfect & will be forever - they can't see the world changing around them. But I repeat myself, as a Sioux Hockey fan, please MN, continue with your current strategy!! 😉💚👍

100% agree! Reporting from behind enemy lines in MN (like many others on here) the Gopher fans I talk to who actually know AND understand hockey look at Bob as someone they thought was going to be a great choice, but has never really been able to deliver. The rest of the hockey world saw it first hand with the World Juniors tryouts, if you could call them that. A friends kid was on last years team, he said it was a complete 180 degrees difference from Coach Carle last year. I watched tryouts with that dad one day and Kleber tried to rush the puck end to end, 5 times, lost it 4 times, and there was no correction from Bob, or the B.C. coach on the bench. Last year Carle sent guys to the locker room immediately for that kind of stupid selfish play. Looked even worse when see Brody Ziemer and James Hagens standing on the blue line waiting for a pass. But as a Sioux Hockey fan - please, continue with your current strategy Minnesota!! 😉

Bruins faithful are chatting up this clip, bigglie. Zellers was up against Blanar, the d-man who has been the surprise standout at camp.

👆 With Howard & Augustine coming back, they get a massive 6'4" 230 lbs. dman in Colin Ralph from St. Cloud State (good news for us), add in Shattuck alum, USHL Rookie of Year & #1 round pick Ryker Lee - I am willing to put them in the Frozen 4 right now. They are going to boat race the F out of a depleted & soft Gopher team.

Posted this in the 2025-26 team thread too. First Team All-USHL announced. https://ushl.com/news/2025/4/29/general-league-announces-all-ushl-teams.aspx Laurila & Zellers on the first team. Spunar named to Third Team. Interesting that Lee & Martino also on First Team. Both thought of as good on the offensive side, but do not have good 200 ft. game. Gunderson, tied or traded with Zellers for the league lead for most of the season, was named to the Third Team. Hopefully this bodes well for Laurila & Zellers to be named DPOY & POY tomorrow.