When you tell somebody somethin', it depends on what part of the United States you're standin' in... as to just how dumb you are.
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They didn’t get owned four games, they got owned one game, lost two close ones at Mariucci with like 7 forwards one of the nights, and tied today. Not great but it’s not like this team is incapable of beating them.@magic I would rather see the Gophers win the Conference tourney vs the Regular Season title. No one wants to sit for close to 2 weeks rolling into the NCAA’s and until the B1G adds an 8th team, that’s the ‘reward’ for winning the B1G Reg Season Title ✌️
I agree that the bye is not an advantage, but getting owned by MSU in 4 games is concerning for your chances of winning a title this season. It shows that you aren’t a real contender who can hang with the top tier teams.
First post, so blast me if that makes you feel better.
they got thrashed last night, and you would expect them to play better tonight.
instead they got dominated and were lucky to pull a tie.
you won’t win getting dominated on faceoffs, and they have shown they just can’t win those.
i love this team, but MSU was so much better when minnesota had all of the incentive to play better
First post, so blast me if that makes you feel better.
they got thrashed last night, and you would expect them to play better tonight.
instead they got dominated and were lucky to pull a tie.
you won’t win getting dominated on faceoffs, and they have shown they just can’t win those.
i love this team, but MSU was so much better when minnesota had all of the incentive to play better
Welcome to GPL...
I was surprised they got 1pt tonight... But I personally think that Face-off will be the eventual death of this team. Hope not, but it sure seems that way to me.
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Im inclined to agree.First post, so blast me if that makes you feel better.
they got thrashed last night, and you would expect them to play better tonight.
instead they got dominated and were lucky to pull a tie.
you won’t win getting dominated on faceoffs, and they have shown they just can’t win those.
i love this team, but MSU was so much better when minnesota had all of the incentive to play better
Welcome to GPL...
I was surprised they got 1pt tonight... But I personally think that Face-off will be the eventual death of this team. Hope not, but it sure seems that way to me.
I can't agree with others who think this was a good bounce back game. They lost too many face offs all game and clearly State was the better team through 2 periods. Souliere had a good game, but I felt too many skaters were struggling. Wood, Huglen, Kurth, Lamb...need them to lead in big games like this but I didn't think they had a good road trip.
The refs swallowed their whistles this weekend as I lost count how many times State plays cut off skaters away from the puck or had their sticks horizontal. I would think Wood and Kurth would excel in games like this.
The team just needs to move on and block this one out. They played State pretty evenly through all but one period over the course of 4 games this season. State has the best goalie in the country, and that can be the difference in close games.
I don't like that Minnesota has given up the first goal in 4 straight games and found themselves chasing to get back into games.
It will be interesting to see if they take any lessons from this weekend to improve. Faceoffs are definitely one area. We need to get better and making plays when we have the puck and the other team is aggressive. Same style that Mankato played against us for two tourneys in a row and Q beat us. Michigan State was on our puck carrier all weekend forcing us into bad decisions. Compound that with always chasing after losing faceoffs and we rarely had the puck all weekend.
Agreed on all of this and it's frustrating because teams like that just seem to nullify the speed advantage the Gophers have by holding, obstructing, slashing, and outright tackling guys when they get beat. We all made fun of Stramel when he whined about being called and rightfully so but from his perspective I can kinda see why he was confused, that same thing he did or worse probably happened a good ten times before that.It will be interesting to see if they take any lessons from this weekend to improve. Faceoffs are definitely one area. We need to get better and making plays when we have the puck and the other team is aggressive. Same style that Mankato played against us for two tourneys in a row and Q beat us. Michigan State was on our puck carrier all weekend forcing us into bad decisions. Compound that with always chasing after losing faceoffs and we rarely had the puck all weekend.
I don't pretend to know the answer other than they need to be really responsible with the puck and realize that the stretch pass game probably isn't going to work when MSU constantly keeps 3 back and play very conservatively with their D. As someone mentioned Snuggy needs to try and block the shot on that first goal or that guy in front needs to be cleared, the shot got through a screen and they got a cheap one out of it. I don't care about faceoffs as much as most people but it seemed like they lost every (gopher) D zone faceoff cleanly and it became a MSU shooting gallery some of those shifts, including the third goal where the Gophers were chasing. Also shaking up the lines might help, it's kinda weird that Moore isn't playing with Snuggy and Ziemer, I wouldn't say Pahlsson was bad on that line (faceoffs not withstanding) but I kinda wonder if he'd be better on a slower line with Wood or something.
That said I thought the Gophers played much better today, they got some grinder goals by crashing the net, Souliere looked solid, and they got a tie in an unfavorable setting to say the least (road game with WWE refs against one of the best teams in the nation). You just gotta hope that if you see this team again you get refs that actually call the rulebook because otherwise it's probably gonna be another uphill battle.
It will be interesting to see if they take any lessons from this weekend to improve. Faceoffs are definitely one area. We need to get better and making plays when we have the puck and the other team is aggressive. Same style that Mankato played against us for two tourneys in a row and Q beat us. Michigan State was on our puck carrier all weekend forcing us into bad decisions. Compound that with always chasing after losing faceoffs and we rarely had the puck all weekend.
Yes, State played with an energy all weekend that had me believing they wanted it more than Minnesota.
The Gophers need a home sweep badly to purge this one.
The Gophers for the season are 47.4% on face offs. Certainly it would be helpful to be above 50% but usually there is about 55 face offs per game so on average the Gophers go 26-29 per game. Yes this weekend the face offs were really bad but usually the face offs are pretty close.
Pairwise #1 Boston College is 46.7% on face offs.
The Gophers won the face off battle in both game against Michigan State earlier this season.
You just gotta hope that if you see this team again you get refs that actually call the rulebook because otherwise it's probably gonna be another uphill battle.
This game was a playoff ref job. They just refuse to call obstruction penalties in the playoffs.
If the Gophers have three leads and give them up Gophers fans talk about needing to be better at holding the lead. This was the case for Michigan State at home. Michigan State needs to get better at holding leads if they are going to win a National Championship. 😉
Every team has some weaknesses.
This season Michigan State lost a series at home against Wisconsin giving up the first 6 goals of the series (4-0 and down 2-0).
The Gophers having so many injuries and sickness has negatively impacted their ability to build team chemistry. Every game the lineup is different today it was Hendrickson and Falloon being out hurt. Kurth and Clark played but are both playing hurt.
Michigan State has had much better health this season which has allowed them to develop and play together more.
5 of the 7 teams in the Big Ten are in the top 16 of Pairwise. They each can make each other look bad. That happened this weekend to the Gophers.
Hopefully the next two months brings better health which will allow the Gophers to build more team chemistry which is critical to a team reaching it's potential.
Thank God for Jimmy
They will have to play much better next weekend against them stinking Badgers.
Better dead than red!!!
Go Gopher's!
The Gophers for the season are 47.4% on face offs. Certainly it would be helpful to be above 50% but usually there is about 55 face offs per game so on average the Gophers go 26-29 per game. Yes this weekend the face offs were really bad but usually the face offs are pretty close.
Pairwise #1 Boston College is 46.7% on face offs.
The Gophers won the face off battle in both game against Michigan State earlier this season.
Stramel won 34 out of his 47 draws (72%) on the weekend. He took 36% of their draws on the weekend.
When we played them at home Stramel won 17 out of his 44 draws (39%) on the weekend. He took 36% of their draws.
On our side Huglen’s FO numbers were much worse this weekend compared to the December series.
I don’t know what to say about Friday. But we need to play more physical and Saturday was much better in this regard. I wouldn’t call it a bounce back, but we are still 3 in the Pairwise.
Look at every game in the BIG this weekend. Aside from ours on Friday they were 1G or shootouts. Welcome to the 2H in the BIG. Just keep putting together good practices and series and keep healthy so we can stabilize lines and we’ll have a shot.
What did folks think, we were going to walk into arguably the top team in the countries barn and not get challenged? Appreciate we have had 2 just awful stinkers in the last 6, hence the concern. But still have good vibes about their potential.
You just gotta hope that if you see this team again you get refs that actually call the rulebook because otherwise it's probably gonna be another uphill battle.
This game was a playoff ref job. They just refuse to call obstruction penalties in the playoffs.
Agree. My hope is the team learns, from this weekend and Saturday against ND, we have to play much more physical to win in the playoffs.
Not a great weekend for the team but an excellent weekend for Jimmy’s Hobey race. Rinzel is kind of fading a bit which doesn’t hurt his odds of coming back next season👀
Didn’t get to watch the game last night but followed along and it sounds like at least it was a better effort and better overall game. The faceoff thing is concerning and I know it’s a stat that sometimes gets a little overhyped but to get dominated on the dot all weekend, especially when it mattered, is worrisome. Still a good month plus of the regular season and then playoffs. Is this trend going to derail the championship hopes for a squad that has all of the pieces to win a natty or is it the turning point where the leadership brings the locker room together and rights the ship? Time will tell. Like people have mentioned, a year ago DU got swept by UND so you never know. I’m optimistic that this pop in the nose will eventually be for the best. Two weeks ago they stunk it up Friday night but the game was riddled with dumb penalties and the next night they dominate OSU. So okay, maybe you can explain that one away. Last week they dominated ND on Friday and then played a tough game and lost in OT in large part because of the refs. Again, you can kind of explain that one away too. But there’s no explaining this weekend away. They’ll have to look this weekend in the eye and acknowledge that there are areas of their game that they have to work on. You can’t just out talent your way past not having puck possession because you keep losing faceoffs or out talent being soft in your own defensive zone.
If the Gophers have three leads and give them up Gophers fans talk about needing to be better at holding the lead. This was the case for Michigan State at home. Michigan State needs to get better at holding leads if they are going to win a National Championship. 😉
Every team has some weaknesses.
This season Michigan State lost a series at home against Wisconsin giving up the first 6 goals of the series (4-0 and down 2-0).
The Gophers having so many injuries and sickness has negatively impacted their ability to build team chemistry. Every game the lineup is different today it was Hendrickson and Falloon being out hurt. Kurth and Clark played but are both playing hurt.
Michigan State has had much better health this season which has allowed them to develop and play together more.
5 of the 7 teams in the Big Ten are in the top 16 of Pairwise. They each can make each other look bad. That happened this weekend to the Gophers.
Hopefully the next two months brings better health which will allow the Gophers to build more team chemistry which is critical to a team reaching it's potential.
I was going to mention earlier that illness and injuries have been a problem this year and obviously that affects play. Hope they can get that behind them.
Things that stands out to me the most about Michigan State is the tenacity they play with ---- always in the opponents face / space. No room to breath --- even when they are defending the power play. Penalty kill units between MSU and Gophers are a huge contrast in style.
Faceoff differential is an obvious issue.
Like many, I was hoping for more this weekend with a full roster based on how the Gophers played in December with a depleted roster. You saw glimpses of it in the second game, but still MSU was the better team all weekend.
Looks of work to do for sure - not looking forward to seeing Sparty down the road. But I don't really care about the Big Ten championship, so if Minny only has one victory over MSU this year, I'm good if its down the line.
Random Question: I noticed Gophers losing their skating edges all weekend. Does the ice surface vary from building to building where this is a noticeable difference, and something MSU would be used to and give them advantage? **Not an excuse for the poor play this weekend, I just don't how much variance there is between rinks**
PS - 3 vs 3 and shootouts are stupid. I thought they'd be cool. I was wrong. 5 vs 5 for 5 minutes, and then its tie.
@maroon_and_gold Thought Rinzel was noticeably absent from his typical performance. Also couldn't make that spin move inside the blue line like he does typically --- either MSU had scouted that, or he can't do it against better players.
I don’t think most people realize just how much of this team’s poor performance boils down to faceoffs. You can’t get beat 2 to 1 on draws and expect to do well plain and simple. If we can hang around 50% I like us against anyone in the country. If this team had a Jaxon Nelson they’d be the runaway best team in the country.
Not going to overreact about one game, or a tough weekend, or a touch stretch in a season. They have the tools to be a special team.
Felt like Stramel never left the ice this weekend. Yet, Begley was out there with under 5 to go. Bob’s got to shorten the bench. Snuggy should’ve been out there every other shift.
All of our bad losses have come from times when the team plays us extremely tight. We hold on to the puck way too long, and when there's any pressure we spin in a circle and throw our hands in the air and forget where we are. Unfortunately unless we fix that, it's going to be a quick out in the big one if the opposing coach capitalizes on that...
I’m curious how you work on getting better on the draws when nobody on the team is good at them? Bring in a face off specialist? Is there an assistant coach who has the technique down to demonstrate? I’m just saying corners in football get better every practice if they’re going against an all pro receiver. Maybe a dumb question I donno.
Last nights game felt like a postseason game. The good news is they were outplayed, trailed 3 times & still remained tied after OT. I think everybody got excited how fast they started in October & how deep they are. They certainly have the talent to make a playoff run. But with that said, they clearly lack the top end talent of the 2O23 team. If they can get to St Paul though…anything can happen . At this point I’d rank BC -#1, MSU - #2, Denver - #3, Gophers - #4. If these 4 teams somehow advance to St Louis, 😉…it will be an epic Frozen Four in April.Im inclined to agree.First post, so blast me if that makes you feel better.
they got thrashed last night, and you would expect them to play better tonight.
instead they got dominated and were lucky to pull a tie.
you won’t win getting dominated on faceoffs, and they have shown they just can’t win those.
i love this team, but MSU was so much better when minnesota had all of the incentive to play better
Welcome to GPL...
I was surprised they got 1pt tonight... But I personally think that Face-off will be the eventual death of this team. Hope not, but it sure seems that way to me.
I can't agree with others who think this was a good bounce back game. They lost too many face offs all game and clearly State was the better team through 2 periods. Souliere had a good game, but I felt too many skaters were struggling. Wood, Huglen, Kurth, Lamb...need them to lead in big games like this but I didn't think they had a good road trip.
The refs swallowed their whistles this weekend as I lost count how many times State plays cut off skaters away from the puck or had their sticks horizontal. I would think Wood and Kurth would excel in games like this.
The team just needs to move on and block this one out. They played State pretty evenly through all but one period over the course of 4 games this season. State has the best goalie in the country, and that can be the difference in close games.
I don't like that Minnesota has given up the first goal in 4 straight games and found themselves chasing to get back into games.
Last nights game felt like a postseason game. The good news is they were outplayed, trailed 3 times & still remained tied after OT. I think everybody got excited how fast they started in October & how deep they are. They certainly have the talent to make a playoff run. But with that said, they clearly lack the top end talent of the 2O23 team. If they can get to St Paul though…anything can happen . At this point I’d rank BC -#1, MSU - #2, Denver - #3, Gophers - #4. If these 4 teams somehow advance to St Paul, it will be an epic Frozen Four in April.Im inclined to agree.First post, so blast me if that makes you feel better.
they got thrashed last night, and you would expect them to play better tonight.
instead they got dominated and were lucky to pull a tie.
you won’t win getting dominated on faceoffs, and they have shown they just can’t win those.
i love this team, but MSU was so much better when minnesota had all of the incentive to play better
Welcome to GPL...
I was surprised they got 1pt tonight... But I personally think that Face-off will be the eventual death of this team. Hope not, but it sure seems that way to me.
I can't agree with others who think this was a good bounce back game. They lost too many face offs all game and clearly State was the better team through 2 periods. Souliere had a good game, but I felt too many skaters were struggling. Wood, Huglen, Kurth, Lamb...need them to lead in big games like this but I didn't think they had a good road trip.
The refs swallowed their whistles this weekend as I lost count how many times State plays cut off skaters away from the puck or had their sticks horizontal. I would think Wood and Kurth would excel in games like this.
The team just needs to move on and block this one out. They played State pretty evenly through all but one period over the course of 4 games this season. State has the best goalie in the country, and that can be the difference in close games.
I don't like that Minnesota has given up the first goal in 4 straight games and found themselves chasing to get back into games.
I just hope they make it to St Louis for the Frozen Four.
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All I know is that teams rise and fall through the season. I was impressed by State this weekend, will it be the same team in March? We’ll see. The Gophers could be the team we saw earlier this season. Lots of tough Big Ten play left to get better.
Felt like Stramel never left the ice this weekend. Yet, Begley was out there with under 5 to go. Bob’s got to shorten the bench. Snuggy should’ve been out there every other shift.
I meant to comment on this also.. what is Begley doing on the ice with 4 minutes left in a tie game?
As someone else mentioned (CHA I think) they’re not bad on the season, they just got owned this weekend in that department. Their overall numbers are similar to BC. They definitely need to learn something from this weekend though, seems like they just try to win them all clean only to lose them all clean. Faceoffs are kinda like rock paper scissors in some regards where there’s different approaches to winning them and maybe they just need to vary it up more, but that’s just a guess I’m no expert in that area.I’m curious how you work on getting better on the draws when nobody on the team is good at them? Bring in a face off specialist? Is there an assistant coach who has the technique down to demonstrate? I’m just saying corners in football get better every practice if they’re going against an all pro receiver. Maybe a dumb question I donno.
Also you have center depth on this team because in theory they could put Clark back at center if they want.
As someone else mentioned (CHA I think) they’re not bad on the season, they just got owned this weekend in that department. Their overall numbers are similar to BC. They definitely need to learn something from this weekend though, seems like they just try to win them all clean only to lose them all clean. Faceoffs are kinda like rock paper scissors in some regards where there’s different approaches to winning them and maybe they just need to vary it up more, but that’s just a guess I’m no expert in that area.I’m curious how you work on getting better on the draws when nobody on the team is good at them? Bring in a face off specialist? Is there an assistant coach who has the technique down to demonstrate? I’m just saying corners in football get better every practice if they’re going against an all pro receiver. Maybe a dumb question I donno.
Also you have center depth on this team because in theory they could put Clark back at center if they want.
it’s also taking draws at home vs the road
True I know the rules are different based on that as well.As someone else mentioned (CHA I think) they’re not bad on the season, they just got owned this weekend in that department. Their overall numbers are similar to BC. They definitely need to learn something from this weekend though, seems like they just try to win them all clean only to lose them all clean. Faceoffs are kinda like rock paper scissors in some regards where there’s different approaches to winning them and maybe they just need to vary it up more, but that’s just a guess I’m no expert in that area.I’m curious how you work on getting better on the draws when nobody on the team is good at them? Bring in a face off specialist? Is there an assistant coach who has the technique down to demonstrate? I’m just saying corners in football get better every practice if they’re going against an all pro receiver. Maybe a dumb question I donno.
Also you have center depth on this team because in theory they could put Clark back at center if they want.
it’s also taking draws at home vs the road
They need to do like Mikko Koivu. He said if you're not cheating, on face offs, you're not trying.
Felt like Stramel never left the ice this weekend. Yet, Begley was out there with under 5 to go. Bob’s got to shorten the bench. Snuggy should’ve been out there every other shift.
I meant to comment on this also.. what is Begley doing on the ice with 4 minutes left in a tie game?
Why play Begley when you have Whipple sitting on the bench. I have to think Whipple could be more effective at forward than Begley. Not like Whipple was playing a regular shift on D.
Felt like Stramel never left the ice this weekend. Yet, Begley was out there with under 5 to go. Bob’s got to shorten the bench. Snuggy should’ve been out there every other shift.
I meant to comment on this also.. what is Begley doing on the ice with 4 minutes left in a tie game?
Why play Begley when you have Whipple sitting on the bench. I have to think Whipple could be more effective at forward than Begley. Not like Whipple was playing a regular shift on D.
Whipple has not practiced at forward, as far that I know of, so throwing him out there may have been asking for trouble.
I don't want to be accused of being a Begley family member, but I really don't think he is a liability when he plays his limited shifts on the 4th line. I actually like him better at forward than defense. He certainly isn't going to score, but he knows that he needs to play smart and not allow anything. The 10 minutes or less a game is about the right amount for him. Maybe Bob sensed the other lines were fatigued and he wanted the "energy" line out there for a quick minute. Again, that line may not score, but Bob probably felt that that line could hold its own against the line that Sparty had out there, which wasn't their top line.
I know Snuggy had a great game, but his line was on the ice for 2 of the 3 goals against on Saturday. The 1st one was after a Pahlsson lost draw, but the 2nd one Snuggy had a chance to clear the puck but didn't.
The announcers didn't pick up on it, but it appears Souliere had cramps late in the game. They thought he had an equipment issue. He skated over to the bench and drank some sort of fluid and was trying to stretch his calf. Kudos to him for gutting it out. I certainly think that he should get the start on Friday, maybe just to shake it up a bit.
I was recently informed by a GPLer that I'm related to Airey