The Golden Gophers @ UND- 10/17 and 10/18

[Blackheart]

6 hours ago, hawksfan12 said:

I think Denver is currently enemy #1, not Minnesota. 

You are not wrong.  DU is the Evil Empire.

[Blackheart]

3 hours ago, hawksfan12 said:

Every Gophers fans I've meant knows UND is a blue blood. They just hate our program. All I say is F them back.

I have to admit Bob Motzko does not seem like he should be a coach of a blue blood. Gophers need a young visionary polished guy running the program. Doesn't appear that Bob has any vision or striver mindset like the other big school coaches (he's no Hakstol, how Jackson sounds, Nick Saban in football if you hear them all talk). I seriously have no idea what Minnesota saw in him unless he was a transitional coach for them after Lucia. 

The guy from Auggie, Garrett Raboin, will end up being the next coach of Minny if they care about hockey at all.  Just my 2 cents.

[Blackheart]

5 hours ago, Godsmack said:

Thinking back on that overtime winner, had the one Gopher D man not bit and committed in the neutral zone, maybe Q doesn’t score on that sick two on one. Man, if that were a designed set play, kudos to Coach Pecknold and staff for drawing that up! He deserves a ten year extension simply for that one play, IMO. 

There's a video on YouTube talking about how this was a designed play...don't like Pecknold one bit but it was a pretty good call to win it obviously.

[Johnny Five]

9 hours ago, Goon said:

If I had to guess, I would bet most of us couldn't care less what some clueless Gopher fan thinks. UND is a blue-blood program. 

There's not a single Gopher fan that believes UND isn't a blue blood.  Any comments regarding so are just to poke the bear....seems to work.

[Johnny Five]

11 hours ago, hawksfan12 said:

Every Gophers fans I've meant knows UND is a blue blood. They just hate our program. All I say is F them back.

I have to admit Bob Motzko does not seem like he should be a coach of a blue blood. Gophers need a young visionary polished guy running the program. Doesn't appear that Bob has any vision or striver mindset like the other big school coaches (he's no Hakstol, how Jackson sounds, Nick Saban in football if you hear them all talk). I seriously have no idea what Minnesota saw in him unless he was a transitional coach for them after Lucia. 

The Gopher hockey program was not in a good situation when Bob took over.  He's done a great job...the pipeline is strong...alumni engagement has drastically improved...won loss record is fantastic.....making the NCCAAs Frozen Fours (let one get away for sure)....but yeah, he needs to hoist one soon.

Won't be this year however. 

Looking forward to the Ralph Saturday night...well maybe not...but you never know lol.  

[nascar99]

I expect a monster series from Dylan James. He has to be that dude every shift, both ends of the ice. Doesn't have to score 3 goals, but I expect an upperclassmen performance from him

[SJHovey]

I expect MN to be pretty desperate this weekend.  The last thing they want to do is leave GF sitting at 1-4-1 on the season, with four games played at home.  It will take a monster effort by UND to come away with a sweep, but we can hope.

[AlphaMikeFoxtrot]

I've poked fun at Motzko for not living up to expectations, but he also experienced something I wouldn't wish upon my worst enemies. Not a day goes by that it doesn't weigh on him. Had the Gophers win against Quinny I would have been happy for him.

That said, he needs to tell the boosters et al that legacy doesn't mean squat and the future of college hockey is Canadian, both players and major juniors.

[nascar99]

3 minutes ago, AlphaMikeFoxtrot said:

I've poked fun at Motzko for not living up to expectations, but he also experienced something I wouldn't wish upon my worst enemies. Not a day goes by that it doesn't weigh on him. Had the Gophers win against Quinny I would have been happy for him.

That said, he needs to tell the boosters et al that legacy doesn't mean squat and the future of college hockey is Canadian, both players and major junior.

The problem is that over half of their fanbase would have a meltdown if more of their roster was from Brandon, Estevan, Fort Saskatchewan, Maple Ridge, etc instead of Minnetonka, Chaska, Edina, Maple Grove etc. Don't know what their acceptable threshold is, but it's a weird simultaneous superiority/inferiority complex that many Minnesota hockey fans have with Canada.

[atxsioux]

The last time they were in the frozen 4, 2 of their best players were from AZ and PA haha.

 

I don't think they necessarily need to go too overboard with Canadian players, but at the bare minimum you'll need to have around 4 impact guys on defense + offense to keep up with the level of play with everyone else on a consistent basis.

[nascar99]

17 minutes ago, atxsioux said:

The last time they were in the frozen 4, 2 of their best players were from AZ and PA haha.

 

I don't think they necessarily need to go too overboard with Canadian players, but at the bare minimum you'll need to have around 4 impact guys on defense + offense to keep up with the level of play with everyone else on a consistent basis.

I think the point is that you have a new pool of 900-1000 players (85% of which are Canadian) now available to you, and a good 200-300 of those are high impact level guys. The only CHLers the Goofers have are a Canadian former USHLer who is below average and a top end American defenseman who they recruited prior to junior because he was at Shattuck. 

Teams tend to win National Championships with impact Canadians

[cberkas]

Not sure why any of us want Minnesota to have any Canadian players. Let them stay with mostly Minnesotans, that was what Mariucci and Woog wanted, and they can keep doing it. I rather North Dakota get the best CHLers and not Minnesota. 

[GDPritch]

1 hour ago, nascar99 said:

The problem is that over half of their fanbase would have a meltdown if more of their roster was from Brandon, Estevan, Fort Saskatchewan, Maple Ridge, etc instead of Minnetonka, Chaska, Edina, Maple Grove etc. Don't know what their acceptable threshold is, but it's a weird simultaneous superiority/inferiority complex that many Minnesota hockey fans have with Canada.

Funny, isn’t it, Gofer nation has no issue with U Minn recruiting football and basketball players from outside the state of Minnesota. 

[sioux rube]

Let’s Go!!!!

[Dustin]

40 minutes ago, nascar99 said:

Teams tend to win National Championships with impact Canadians

Besides Minnesota, what other schools only recruit American players?  Air Force and Army, I suppose.  I mean, chances are there are going to be at least a few Canadians on whatever team wins the Natty.

Not that geography has so much to do with recruiting anymore, but Minneapolis (and Madison) are a lot further from Canadian hockey hotbeds than Grand Forks.  Plus, Minneapolis is at the epicenter of its own hockey hotbed, so I think they just got used to recruiting players from around Minnesota, and then it just kept feeding on itself.  I respect what they try to do, but I think that model is too outdated in the current landscape of college athletics, especially now with the recent Major Junior decision. 

[nascar99]

12 minutes ago, Dustin said:

Besides Minnesota, what other schools only recruit American players?  Air Force and Army, I suppose.  I mean, chances are there are going to be at least a few Canadians on whatever team wins the Natty.

Not that geography has so much to do with recruiting anymore, but Minneapolis (and Madison) are a lot further from Canadian hockey hotbeds than Grand Forks.  Plus, Minneapolis is at the epicenter of its own hockey hotbed, so I think they just got used to recruiting players from around Minnesota, and then it just kept feeding on itself.  I respect what they try to do, but I think that model is too outdated in the current landscape of college athletics, especially now with the recent Major Junior decision. 

Boston College was 90%+ American for decades as well.

 

Minnesota's recruiting was convenience bias, regionalism/tribalism, and a weird superiority/inferiority complex they have. They could have recruited more Canadians for decades, just decided to not leave their bubble

[dustnyou]

The Rodents will have more CHL recruits as time goes on considering more and more MN kids will opt for the CHL over the USHL going forward.. 

[Dustin]

3 minutes ago, dustnyou said:

The Rodents will have more CHL recruits as time goes on considering more and more MN kids will opt for the CHL over the USHL going forward.. 

Other than one being Canadian and one being American, is there really any difference between the two now that both leagues are eligible to send players to the NCAA?

[nascar99]

5 minutes ago, dustnyou said:

The Rodents will have more CHL recruits as time goes on considering more and more MN kids will opt for the CHL over the USHL going forward.. 

They'll need to have more Canadians to win the one thing that matters

[UND69er]

55 minutes ago, GDPritch said:

Funny, isn’t it, Gofer nation has no issue with U Minn recruiting football and basketball players from outside the state of Minnesota. 

My brother and I have been saying this for 50 years, we are old!!  Also, was attending a Gopher UND game a few years ago at Mariucci and one guy was yelling and screaming at Joe Finley to go back to Canada!  LMAO, .....Joe was from Edina.  Another well informed Gopher fan!

[dustnyou]

1 minute ago, Dustin said:

Other than one being Canadian and one being American, is there really any difference between the two now that both leagues are eligible to send players to the NCAA?

There seems to be a lot of USHL bound players opting for the CHL instead, not the other way around. 

[Blackheart]

1 minute ago, UND69er said:

My brother and I have been saying this for 50 years, we are old!!  Also, was attending a Gopher UND game a few years ago at Mariucci and one guy was yelling and screaming at Joe Finley to go back to Canada!  LMAO, .....Joe was from Edina.  Another well informed Gopher fan!

I wonder if most Gofer fans realize the season has actually started.

[Johnny Five]

Here's why.  Fans follow these kids from youth to HS hockey to the state tournament to the USHL, etc.  Has been that way forever.  Then all we hear about St. Thomas is how they're the program to watch out for because of their geography....well it's the same as UMN...    

This is a fictional point, but any program who could win National Titles with a majority of their players from right in their back yard would do it if they had to resources to do so.  I used Grubb as an example a few weeks ago....imagine if Marto keeps trending high and doesn't end up at UND.  Most schools just don't have a plethora of studs available.  MN schools do.  UND can get the best of both worlds.  Protecting back yards first and foremost in recruiting is important to every single college sport.

Also I imagine a sasky farm boy doesn't necessarily have dinkytown on their radar.

It's year one of the new college hockey landscape.  I don't think anyone is saying he won't adjust, he just didn't this year, and seemed content with what he had for whatever reason.  It's not like he doesn't have a nice NHL pipeline going either, which is every Canadians dream.  Time will tell.      

 

 

 

[Johnny Five]

Perhaps 17 and 18  for UND pound sand up Bob's rear this weekend and it opens his eyes a bit more.

[tnt]

21 minutes ago, nascar99 said:

They'll need to have more Canadians to win the one thing that matters

A first round pick from Minnesota is presumably the same as a first round pick from Canada.