Javon Moore #27
Jacob Rombach #5
Beckett Hendrickson from #14 to #7
So that's everyone except the three transfers with their numbers revealed.
I remember watching Bob coach up a lot of guys at St Cloud and make some deep runs without a pile of first rounders. I hope we are pleasantly surprised by the mix of age and grit. Does it suck that we lost out on a few high end players? Sure. But the ones we have landed recently haven't brought back a NCAA Championship. I have to believe Bob is looking for the right guys to fill his needs as he sees them.
Just watched WMU vs. BU. WMU dominated. Fewer draft picks, fewer teenagers.
I think the sting of not getting West and Berchild is fuel on the fire still burning from Tampa for the sky is falling camp. I have been in this group more that I would like to admit.
This years team has a ton of talent (draft picks or point per game USHL guys) and only 2 teenagers come playoff time. Competition is stiffer but some really exciting hockey this year. Fantastic year for season tickets as every BIG team will be strong, and BC coming.
Hey drop the puck.
Let’s talk expectations for the upcoming season. I think it’s clear that most if not all here expect it to be some form of a rebuild year. I feel a NCAA tournament birth constitutes a successful season. Lowest expectations I’ve had since pre-COVID.
expectation every year is that we will contend for the title while understanding in one and done most of the time that isn't going to happen where you actually get it done. On paper the team isn't one to stack up next to BU, MSU, PSU, or even UND, UM, BC and feel "good" about being better than them.
Fun part is last year WMU was picked to finish 6th (USCHO, media) in the NCHC. Not the country, in their conference.
To me, Bob doesn't really get the benefit of a "rebuild" year and I don't think he's looking at it that way. In reality I don't think this team sniffs winning the B10, but my expectation is they get into the tournament as a 3 seed or so and are going to be a rough first round team to play against that will be old and may actually be built better for postseason hockey. If they miss the tourney altogether, Bob may not be the coach unless he absolutely crushes recruiting this fall
Two things
1. Agreed as to the random nature of college hockey, especially when trying to make predictions in the offseason doldrums. Who else remembers how, going into 2022-23, the B1G coaches' poll had Notre Dame (lol) favored to win B1G?
Another example: UConn this year, after a terrible season last year and losing Wood + others during the offseason. Good read: [UConn Hockey Hub] How a program reset led to UConn's best season ever
2. I think bubble tourney team is the most realistic outlook for this year, but I don't think the U has Bob on that short of a leash.
For better or for worse, bringing the crowds back to Mariucci with several deep playoff runs, a B1G playoff title (2021) and 3 B1G regular season titles is the kind of resume that earns head coaches a lot of grace for the inevitable down year or two.
I believe this is an NCAA tournament team and anything less is a significant disappointment.
12 draft picks.
4 more undrafted with >0.7 points per game in their last USHL season.
Jmitts a 25 year old senior with significant big game experience. Also like Finn McLaughlin.
Goaltenders will be better than last year.
Also think the coaching staff had the objective of getting older and the following scenarios played out:
Moore stay/go = Ludtke
Kurth stay/go = Pritchard
Rinzel stay/go = McLaughlin
Although I see 2 of the 3 as a big drop off, feel we got a couple of talented 3-4 year guys with size in Pritchard and McLaughlin.
This should be an NCAA tournament team. No excuses.
Well there are 2 distinctly different camps of fans coming into this season.
Main issue is the tough OOC schedule to start the year with a lot of new guys. That might not be as big a deal if the B1G does well in OOC as a conference but that's the biggest hurdle I see for making the tourney. This team is probably borderline similar to Michigan last year.
I think you're over playing this. There are some who were disappointed with last season's recruiting class. And most of us understand we know those players aren't expected on campus for two years or more.Well there are 2 distinctly different camps of fans coming into this season.
And there are some of us that are disappointed in an apparent lack of effort to go after CHL players when we found out the number of outgoing players was larger than the number of incoming players. But I don't recall too many people that were disappointed in the 2025 incoming players.
Meh. There's been plenty of concern posting about the prospects for this season. Not saying right or wrong just commenting on the spread of expectations.
I realize this isn't directly related to just hockey but wasn't sure where else to post. At first glance this seems completely tone deaf
https://twitter.com/BMTNSports/status/1947663873261072482
I had a couple friends chatting about that already and how ridiculous that is.
B1G refs... corrupt, or just incompetent?
Monster television contracts and revenue sharing should be the ticket there. Moronic decision worthy of backlash.
ETA: I am just one of those bozos who reads the headline and nothing else so open to more context if someone has it.
Read the article and if I am understanding this correctly then this is ridiculous. First off, wasn’t there already a tuition hike implemented in the past few months? Second, as an alumni this really irks me. So, they are charging students an extra $200 fee? $100 each semester. Is this just tacked on to their tuition or is it tacked on to student season tickets? Seems like the former from what I gathered. I can tell this, if they had implemented this ten years ago when I was in school I would have been livid. You want me to pay more money ($200 is a decent chunk for a college student) when I’m already taking out loans, getting what help my parents can give me, and working a part time job so that the new flashy point guard who’s going to leave to ride the bench at Florida after his freshman year and who’s already on scholarship can have more NIL money? Fat f&$king chance. I don’t care if it was a simple $20 charge, just with the simple principle of the matter it’s insulting. If I have completely misinterpreted this situation I apologize but from what I read that’s my understanding. Another disappointing move by the U.
Some clarifying points
The U has said this is going to athletic facilities, not athletes. Yes its coming at a time that there is a budget shortfall and they're trying to figure out how to afford this. The U has to disclose what they're using the money for. It rolls right on into the $1500 in random fees they already pay, which I do not believe have changed (I could be miscalculating). If you want to complain about anything, the overall cost of attending the U is egregious. The fee is nowhere near one of the more ridiculous things that students pay for that no one bats an eye at (housing costs are ridiculous, their standard health insurance is more than I pay for my current health insurance through my employer, and every "college" has an additional tack on fee).
If you think the quality of your facilities and sports teams doesn't matter to kids, tell that to Colorado who saw their applications go up 20% after Deion Sanders was hired. This whole outrage is classic MN fanbase (and i'm lumping myself in here). We want to be competitive. We complain about not being able to afford NIL, our facilities not comparing to our peers (in sports outside of hockey; how long have people been complaining Williams needs an update? or that we needed to update the sheet at Mariucci to be normal sized), and that we want to compete for titles, not just be in the league. But then we complain about the price of doing business. i'm sure they're irate all over the SEC for the same (and many places higher) fee they're seeing for this coming year. Look no further than us being 48th in athletic donations nationally (almost $200mil behind WI, 250 behind MI St, $280mil behind iowa, almost 300 behind michigan and like 350 behind OSU). Add that to we play in a pro sports town and yeah what did you expect? Unless we're all going to open up the books and start donating like our peers, this is what you're going to see or we're going to go back into oblivion of sucking.
Personally I'd be fine if we said fine we can suck at basketball and be mediocre at football and shunt our money into hockey where we historically have a huge pipeline and could bid more easily while still collecting our TV revenue. But people want those teams to be good (students included). If you don't want the students to pay, then buck up and stop freaking out when they raise the cost of season tickets, single game tickets, your TV package, etc. and shell out some money to the athletic dept and get all your friends to do the same. We did this to ourselves
Edit: and to be clear, this is not directed specifically at you in any way. I'm just as guilty as anyone as a STH who was annoyed when ticket prices went up, atmosphere was meh, etc. Personally yes I think it sucks and would rather they go ahead and do what needs to be done gutting certain programs/offerings that lose excess sums of money, but we all saw the anger when that happened with non-revenue sports. It's the further joy of how much money you need to dump into a single athlete (go look at the expenditure for each sport and divide it by the number of players at the U) to try be competitive in the current B10 and with our society dumping so much time, effort, and money into athletics (imagine how much some hockey parents could do for their kids if they spent half of what they do on hockey on their education and educational resources). Personally I'd rather they made a way where those who were already at the U (or if this wasn't transparent as students were selecting the U) could opt out of paying the fee given the difficulty of credits transferring, etc. For the rest, it's part of the calculus in selecting a school.
Thank you for clearing that up! You make a lot of good points. I also agree that I would like to see the U’s money and efforts going into hockey because one, I’m biased and the hockey team is what’s most important to me, and two, because of the reasons you stated yourself. It’s what we’re known for and what have the greatest chance at being successful at. That being said, and I’m sure you’re aware of this so it’s not directed at you just more stated in general, there’s no shot that any AD in the country wouldn’t put football first on the priority list with basketball second. If they didn’t they would be fired immediately. Even at a place like Minnesota. It’s too bad but it just is what it is.
Thank you for clearing that up! You make a lot of good points. I also agree that I would like to see the U’s money and efforts going into hockey because one, I’m biased and the hockey team is what’s most important to me, and two, because of the reasons you stated yourself. It’s what we’re known for and what have the greatest chance at being successful at. That being said, and I’m sure you’re aware of this so it’s not directed at you just more stated in general, there’s no shot that any AD in the country wouldn’t put football first on the priority list with basketball second. If they didn’t they would be fired immediately. Even at a place like Minnesota. It’s too bad but it just is what it is.
agreed 100%. B10 would be interesting as there's no way they would kick anyone out, but football clearly has the biggest following and if we suck, that is going to be the biggest decision point on if Coyle gets fired from a performance standpoint (and Fleck's success is probably one of the few reasons Coyle still has a job at this point given his hiring track record)
No one objects to the fact the university needs to increase revenues, but placing this specific increase on the backs of students who already arguably over-charged is ridiculous. And it doesn't matter that no one supposedly "bats an eye" at other exorbitant fees - both can be wrong at the same time.
I wonder how much this type of mindset turns off donations later in life. I remember being at the U and paying a fee for Coffman Union. The facility was closed for renovation during my time there so I paid the fee but never got to use it. That's one of the reasons I soured on donating back to the U. I'll donate to direct causes I care about, but when they call I tell them I paid enough already.
Agree with each of the last 2 posts. I graduated professional school from the U and the week after I graduated (with a very substantial amount of debt) they were asking for donations. I don’t know who runs the alumni and donation wing nor who sits on the committees making these choices, but they’ve seemed less than stellar for quite some time in how they’ve tried to approach making money and access.
there are much better perks/ways to try generate money (you could try simply having better guaranteed access/perks for big level donors for simple starters rather than bleeding people). Think much of this is the price they’re paying now for 40+ years of being shit and losing generations of fans
Agree with each of the last 2 posts. I graduated professional school from the U and the week after I graduated (with a very substantial amount of debt) they were asking for donations. I don’t know who runs the alumni and donation wing nor who sits on the committees making these choices, but they’ve seemed less than stellar for quite some time in how they’ve tried to approach making money and access.
there are much better perks/ways to try generate money (you could try simply having better guaranteed access/perks for big level donors for simple starters rather than bleeding people). Think much of this is the price they’re paying now for 40+ years of being shit and losing generations of fans
I worked for the alumni center for parts of my freshman and sophomore years. Hand up, I was that student who always seemed to call you right when you sat down for dinner and yes I’m aware of how annoying we were. Let me apologize for that lol. But one of the reasons I really disliked that job was for the reasons stated above. We were trained to not hang up until someone hung up on us or swore at us. Like some stock broker selling crummy penny stocks they had us dialing for hours straight and gave us this script of how to ask “the four asks”. For example, after our little pitch and first ask of, let’s say $50, you would have heard me say “totally understand, Mr. Smith (I don’t. I’m 19 and just trying to get through freshman writing and figure out if Sarah from down the hall in my dorm would be interested in going to my fraternity’s date party with me. You have a mortgage and two kids and they just made cuts at work) everyone can donate in different ways. But would $25 be possible for you?” and then you would inevitably hang up in disgust. It was brutal! I can remember having to pitch that way with single moms living paycheck to paycheck, elderly people who were just trying to keep what little savings they had left for their grandkids, and recent graduates who just got their first paycheck and already are straddled with thousands in debt. We would go back in meetings and tell the “professional” adults, our bosses, how this wasn’t working and all we were doing was frustrating alumni and turning them away. It didn’t matter. In fact, they added another ask to the script. Like sociopathic Field Marshals from WW1 they kept telling us to just keep going. “Stick to the script”! I eventually got let go because management could listen in on your phone calls without us knowing and they overheard me not continue with the four different asks when I was on the phone with this nice single mom who told me she loved the U but just couldn’t afford making a donation at that time. The reason for this long rant, and I don’t blame people for not reading it lol, is while I’m not an expert on the way all of the donations work at the U I did work there for a year and I can tell you first hand that they don’t give a rip about the average alumni or student. They’re like SecDef Bob McNamara in Vietnam. It’s just a giant numbers game to them and they refuse to listen to “the guys on the ground”.
The U has said this is going to athletic facilities, not athletes.
I think this is what they say to make it seem more palatable but I guarantee you it will be used in part for paying athletes.
The U has said this is going to athletic facilities, not athletes.
I think this is what they say to make it seem more palatable but I guarantee you it will be used in part for paying athletes.
I agree in entirety. More just providing clarification that it’s not directly a student paying another student. Reason it’s happening is so they can pay the players then have funds for facilities. You’re 100% right it’s happening because of rev sharing though.
Interestingly students already pay “athletics facilities” fee in the past. Was much smaller prior but this is a way for the bean counters to drum up a couple million without sweating as it’s a captive audience and they don’t give an f about joe or Jill schmo
@rau4skiumah2-0 well this is about exactly what I expected and super depressing. They’ve always been nice when I’ve talked to them, but you can tell it’s a student with a Rolodex just trying to get through their allotment of the day. You would hope the university is smart enough to realize this is not sustainable and they need to sit down with average alums and talk through what stops or leads to people donating. Seems like they continually miss the mark and must’ve watched Jordan Belfort speak with the tactics you’ve mentioned above
@rau4skiumah2-0 well this is about exactly what I expected and super depressing. They’ve always been nice when I’ve talked to them, but you can tell it’s a student with a Rolodex just trying to get through their allotment of the day. You would hope the university is smart enough to realize this is not sustainable and they need to sit down with average alums and talk through what stops or leads to people donating. Seems like they continually miss the mark and must’ve watched Jordan Belfort speak with the tactics you’ve mentioned above
100%. Whenever I get the phone calls now I’ll kindly tell the student that I completely understand where they’re coming from. I’ve been in their shoes and, if I can, I’ll donate like $15 because I know even that little bit will keep the bosses off of their backs. But to your point, the overall culture and approach from the department at the U is pretty depressing.
Main issue is the tough OOC schedule to start the year with a lot of new guys. That might not be as big a deal if the B1G does well in OOC as a conference but that's the biggest hurdle I see for making the tourney. This team is probably borderline similar to Michigan last year.
Couldnt agree more they project to be like Michigan last year only I hope they’re able to squeak in the tourney instead of being the last team out. Michigan lost McGroarty, Nazar, Brindley, Duke, Casey and their goalie so of course they were gonna take a step back.
We lose Snuggerud, Wood, Moore, Kurth, Huglen, Nevers, Rinzel, Koster, Chesley & Souliere so imo obviously we’ll be taking a step back.
Ludtke 11 and Di Pasquo 31, per the team. I think only Harris among the newcomers hasn't been specified on this forum.
Would assume 10, it’s what he wore at Augsburg. Wore 9 at Tonka but that’s occupied by Falloon.
Totally off topic for the current off season thread but I just watched the official Gopher Sports YouTube channel highlights of that win over UND back in October of 2022. The 3-2 win with Knies getting the winner in overtime. As awesome as the OT goal was the tying goal from Nevers as the extra skater with less than two minutes to go was sick! You watch the highlights and the camera is shaking after he scores because the arena is going absolutely nuts! Man, what a fun game. Even with the loss the next night that was still one of the most fun weekends of college hockey I’ve ever gotten to witness in person. It had everything! Electric atmosphere, huge turnout from both fan bases, full and raucous student section, back and forth play, Knies in OT, Pitlick stick toss, and Cooley getting kicked out for face washing a North Dakota player lol
Totally off topic for the current off season thread but I just watched the official Gopher Sports YouTube channel highlights of that win over UND back in October of 2022. The 3-2 win with Knies getting the winner in overtime. As awesome as the OT goal was the tying goal from Nevers as the extra skater with less than two minutes to go was sick! You watch the highlights and the camera is shaking after he scores because the arena is going absolutely nuts! Man, what a fun game. Even with the loss the next night that was still one of the most fun weekends of college hockey I’ve ever gotten to witness in person. It had everything! Electric atmosphere, huge turnout from both fan bases, full and raucous student section, back and forth play, Knies in OT, Pitlick stick toss, and Cooley getting kicked out for face washing a North Dakota player lol
That Knies OT winner was the loudest I’ve ever heard Mariucci. We sweep easily if we don’t play a NAHL backup goalie the next night
The U has said this is going to athletic facilities, not athletes.
I think this is what they say to make it seem more palatable but I guarantee you it will be used in part for paying athletes.
in some way shape or form, absolutely- money is fungible. Money coming in and defraying one expense category frees up money for a different line item.
Totally off topic for the current off season thread but I just watched the official Gopher Sports YouTube channel highlights of that win over UND back in October of 2022. The 3-2 win with Knies getting the winner in overtime. As awesome as the OT goal was the tying goal from Nevers as the extra skater with less than two minutes to go was sick! You watch the highlights and the camera is shaking after he scores because the arena is going absolutely nuts! Man, what a fun game. Even with the loss the next night that was still one of the most fun weekends of college hockey I’ve ever gotten to witness in person. It had everything! Electric atmosphere, huge turnout from both fan bases, full and raucous student section, back and forth play, Knies in OT, Pitlick stick toss, and Cooley getting kicked out for face washing a North Dakota player lol
That Knies OT winner was the loudest I’ve ever heard Mariucci. We sweep easily if we don’t play a NAHL backup goalie the next night
i don't even think Barto was the weak link there. 1 or 2 goals UND scored on him in that 3-goal flurry were total flukes; I distinctly remember one pinballed strangely off Ryan Johnson into the net. It just happens to us every so often where the Gophs outshoot a team by a margin of 20+ SOG but still can't get enough pucks past.
A few weeks later we swept then-#3 Michigan @ Yost with Barto in net for both games, and we won both by 3+ goals. That was the moment I knew for sure that year's team was special; honorable mentions include Snuggy's hat trick vs. Mankato and that 7-1 beatdown of Wisconsin.
Totally off topic for the current off season thread but I just watched the official Gopher Sports YouTube channel highlights of that win over UND back in October of 2022. The 3-2 win with Knies getting the winner in overtime. As awesome as the OT goal was the tying goal from Nevers as the extra skater with less than two minutes to go was sick! You watch the highlights and the camera is shaking after he scores because the arena is going absolutely nuts! Man, what a fun game. Even with the loss the next night that was still one of the most fun weekends of college hockey I’ve ever gotten to witness in person. It had everything! Electric atmosphere, huge turnout from both fan bases, full and raucous student section, back and forth play, Knies in OT, Pitlick stick toss, and Cooley getting kicked out for face washing a North Dakota player lol
That Knies OT winner was the loudest I’ve ever heard Mariucci. We sweep easily if we don’t play a NAHL backup goalie the next night
i don't even think Barto was the weak link there. 1 or 2 goals UND scored on him in that 3-goal flurry were total flukes; I distinctly remember one pinballed strangely off Ryan Johnson into the net. It just happens to us every so often where the Gophs outshoot a team by a margin of 20+ SOG but still can't get enough pucks past.
A few weeks later we swept then-#3 Michigan @ Yost with Barto in net for both games, and we won both by 3+ goals. That was the moment I knew for sure that year's team was special; honorable mentions include Snuggy's hat trick vs. Mankato and that 7-1 beatdown of Wisconsin.
Just went back and watched the highlights of the game against Mankato where Snuggy got his hat trick. After that game I distinctly remember thinking, “alright, we might have something special here”. Not to open up this old can of worms but it’s just really too bad that they couldn’t have put the finishing touches on it with a natty.
Totally off topic for the current off season thread but I just watched the official Gopher Sports YouTube channel highlights of that win over UND back in October of 2022. The 3-2 win with Knies getting the winner in overtime. As awesome as the OT goal was the tying goal from Nevers as the extra skater with less than two minutes to go was sick! You watch the highlights and the camera is shaking after he scores because the arena is going absolutely nuts! Man, what a fun game. Even with the loss the next night that was still one of the most fun weekends of college hockey I’ve ever gotten to witness in person. It had everything! Electric atmosphere, huge turnout from both fan bases, full and raucous student section, back and forth play, Knies in OT, Pitlick stick toss, and Cooley getting kicked out for face washing a North Dakota player lol
That Knies OT winner was the loudest I’ve ever heard Mariucci. We sweep easily if we don’t play a NAHL backup goalie the next night
i don't even think Barto was the weak link there. 1 or 2 goals UND scored on him in that 3-goal flurry were total flukes; I distinctly remember one pinballed strangely off Ryan Johnson into the net. It just happens to us every so often where the Gophs outshoot a team by a margin of 20+ SOG but still can't get enough pucks past.
A few weeks later we swept then-#3 Michigan @ Yost with Barto in net for both games, and we won both by 3+ goals. That was the moment I knew for sure that year's team was special; honorable mentions include Snuggy's hat trick vs. Mankato and that 7-1 beatdown of Wisconsin.
Just went back and watched the highlights of the game against Mankato where Snuggy got his hat trick. After that game I distinctly remember thinking, “alright, we might have something special here”. Not to open up this old can of worms but it’s just really too bad that they couldn’t have put the finishing touches on it with a natty.
regardless of how the very last play of the very last game of that season went, it was still an unreal year just watching it all unfold. aside from one-off duds vs. ASU and @ Wisconsin late in the year (and I always re-surprise myself when I remember those Ls even happened) every single night that team ran like the most well oiled machine I've ever seen. For much of the year it really seemed like they'd never lose a game ever again. Easily a better team than BC's squad the year after.
I think the tOSU series to close out that regular season is underappreciated too. Mariucci was packed to the rafters for those "meaningless" games. Knies/Cooley/Snuggerud, also Koster out of nowhere all dominated that weekend, scoring nearly at will. I had such a sh**-eating grin on my face when Koster did that eagle celly on his 2nd goal in one of the games. No playoff nerves yet, just a full weekend of crushing then-#7 OSU.
Totally off topic for the current off season thread but I just watched the official Gopher Sports YouTube channel highlights of that win over UND back in October of 2022. The 3-2 win with Knies getting the winner in overtime. As awesome as the OT goal was the tying goal from Nevers as the extra skater with less than two minutes to go was sick! You watch the highlights and the camera is shaking after he scores because the arena is going absolutely nuts! Man, what a fun game. Even with the loss the next night that was still one of the most fun weekends of college hockey I’ve ever gotten to witness in person. It had everything! Electric atmosphere, huge turnout from both fan bases, full and raucous student section, back and forth play, Knies in OT, Pitlick stick toss, and Cooley getting kicked out for face washing a North Dakota player lol
That Knies OT winner was the loudest I’ve ever heard Mariucci. We sweep easily if we don’t play a NAHL backup goalie the next night
i don't even think Barto was the weak link there. 1 or 2 goals UND scored on him in that 3-goal flurry were total flukes; I distinctly remember one pinballed strangely off Ryan Johnson into the net. It just happens to us every so often where the Gophs outshoot a team by a margin of 20+ SOG but still can't get enough pucks past.
A few weeks later we swept then-#3 Michigan @ Yost with Barto in net for both games, and we won both by 3+ goals. That was the moment I knew for sure that year's team was special; honorable mentions include Snuggy's hat trick vs. Mankato and that 7-1 beatdown of Wisconsin.
Just went back and watched the highlights of the game against Mankato where Snuggy got his hat trick. After that game I distinctly remember thinking, “alright, we might have something special here”. Not to open up this old can of worms but it’s just really too bad that they couldn’t have put the finishing touches on it with a natty.
regardless of how the very last play of the very last game of that season went, it was still an unreal year just watching it all unfold. aside from one-off duds vs. ASU and @ Wisconsin late in the year (and I always re-surprise myself when I remember those Ls even happened) every single night that team ran like the most well oiled machine I've ever seen. For much of the year it really seemed like they'd never lose a game ever again. Easily a better team than BC's squad the year after.
I think the tOSU series to close out that regular season is underappreciated too. Mariucci was packed to the rafters for those "meaningless" games. Knies/Cooley/Snuggerud, also Koster out of nowhere all dominated that weekend, scoring nearly at will. I had such a sh**-eating grin on my face when Koster did that eagle celly on his 2nd goal in one of the games. No playoff nerves yet, just a full weekend of crushing then-#7 OSU.
The Ohio State home game at the end of the year is very under appreciated. They got down early 2-0 due to Knies and Snuggy taking 5 minute majors. They methodically came back and won the game. Was awesome.
Totally off topic for the current off season thread but I just watched the official Gopher Sports YouTube channel highlights of that win over UND back in October of 2022. The 3-2 win with Knies getting the winner in overtime. As awesome as the OT goal was the tying goal from Nevers as the extra skater with less than two minutes to go was sick! You watch the highlights and the camera is shaking after he scores because the arena is going absolutely nuts! Man, what a fun game. Even with the loss the next night that was still one of the most fun weekends of college hockey I’ve ever gotten to witness in person. It had everything! Electric atmosphere, huge turnout from both fan bases, full and raucous student section, back and forth play, Knies in OT, Pitlick stick toss, and Cooley getting kicked out for face washing a North Dakota player lol
That Knies OT winner was the loudest I’ve ever heard Mariucci. We sweep easily if we don’t play a NAHL backup goalie the next night
i don't even think Barto was the weak link there. 1 or 2 goals UND scored on him in that 3-goal flurry were total flukes; I distinctly remember one pinballed strangely off Ryan Johnson into the net. It just happens to us every so often where the Gophs outshoot a team by a margin of 20+ SOG but still can't get enough pucks past.
A few weeks later we swept then-#3 Michigan @ Yost with Barto in net for both games, and we won both by 3+ goals. That was the moment I knew for sure that year's team was special; honorable mentions include Snuggy's hat trick vs. Mankato and that 7-1 beatdown of Wisconsin.
Just went back and watched the highlights of the game against Mankato where Snuggy got his hat trick. After that game I distinctly remember thinking, “alright, we might have something special here”. Not to open up this old can of worms but it’s just really too bad that they couldn’t have put the finishing touches on it with a natty.
regardless of how the very last play of the very last game of that season went, it was still an unreal year just watching it all unfold. aside from one-off duds vs. ASU and @ Wisconsin late in the year (and I always re-surprise myself when I remember those Ls even happened) every single night that team ran like the most well oiled machine I've ever seen. For much of the year it really seemed like they'd never lose a game ever again. Easily a better team than BC's squad the year after.
I think the tOSU series to close out that regular season is underappreciated too. Mariucci was packed to the rafters for those "meaningless" games. Knies/Cooley/Snuggerud, also Koster out of nowhere all dominated that weekend, scoring nearly at will. I had such a sh**-eating grin on my face when Koster did that eagle celly on his 2nd goal in one of the games. No playoff nerves yet, just a full weekend of crushing then-#7 OSU.
The Ohio State home game at the end of the year is very under appreciated. They got down early 2-0 due to Knies and Snuggy taking 5 minute majors. They methodically came back and won the game. Was awesome.
We know the team was special when half of the threads devolve into a discussion about them. Just had so much juice.
In all honesty, I didn’t miss a Gopher hockey game growing up during the Woog years and went most nights as a student ‘03-‘07. Life happened during the end of the Lucia era and lost track of them.
Started watching again intermittently with Motzko, but the ‘22 team will always be responsible for bringing me back full tilt. Regardless of how hard it was in Tampa.
Yeah... Let's try to keep the discussion more in the direction of the current team.
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Get your own board!
♃
Not ideal but I get it. Don’t want one or two of Moore, Moe, Pritchard, Townsend in the stands every night. Honestly recruiting a 14th forward in the current landscape is near impossible. You want them to be good, but not too good where they portal out to a place where they can play more. IMO Strobel was the ideal 13th forward (even though he still transferred)
Let's not act like this is amateur student athlete program any more. This is a business. Bob is not doing the things that other programs are doing to make this team better. If any of the guys named above get pushed out of the lineup because we bring in some top players, so be it. I'd rather fill the last spot with a first liner and have everyone else shift down a spot, than bring in a D3 player to sit in the stands.
Then have your whole bottom 6 transfer out and do the whole thing over again the next year? Not a fan of the revolving door method but I’ll admit you have a point. Nothing should be handed to you at a program like Minnesota. Problem is kids that fight through adversity instead of finding greener pastures are a dying breed. This had turned into an old man yelling at a cloud rant but I hope you understand my point.
The issue I have with that mentality is you are not going to bring in an elite player because you are worried about protecting your bottom 6?
Yes because you need your bottom six to be consistent as elite players now transfer every year. If you don't have some continuity you risk a very steep falloff year to year. The basketball team saw this under Johnson. If the "glue" players start transferring because they aren't getting time then you are in full rebuild mode every year which is not where even helmet schools want to be.
You can't just have all elite players...you may get one decent season out of it but you will have nothing to build off of when they all leave. You have to have a foundation. So yes, you have to protect the bottom 6.
Thank you for clearing that up! You make a lot of good points. I also agree that I would like to see the U’s money and efforts going into hockey because one, I’m biased and the hockey team is what’s most important to me, and two, because of the reasons you stated yourself. It’s what we’re known for and what have the greatest chance at being successful at. That being said, and I’m sure you’re aware of this so it’s not directed at you just more stated in general, there’s no shot that any AD in the country wouldn’t put football first on the priority list with basketball second. If they didn’t they would be fired immediately. Even at a place like Minnesota. It’s too bad but it just is what it is.
Hockey is definitely not what the U is known for. You way overestimate how many people even know college hockey exists. Even in this state hockey isn't what the U is known for.
No one objects to the fact the university needs to increase revenues, but placing this specific increase on the backs of students who already arguably over-charged is ridiculous. And it doesn't matter that no one supposedly "bats an eye" at other exorbitant fees - both can be wrong at the same time.
On the backs of students? Come on the rhetoric around this is beyond ridiculous.
I would be willing to bet that 99.9% of the students have zero idea what fees they are paying. I would bet the majority of their parents don't either. There are much worse fees on the bill and this is a drop in the bucket to the real things being put "on the backs of the students" and outside of the yearly article in the Daily no one even bats an eye at them.
As I said elsewhere...if the U wasn't forced to disclose this publicly not one person would have noticed because when you have a 38K+ yearly bill this barely counts as a rounding error. Hell lets go back to before tuition got nuts. When I was at the U it was like 6-8k a semester. (or worse QUARTER!) Even then its a .0125% increase per semester and hardly noticeable unless you specifically look for it. (even when I looked at my bills I couldnt have told you what the fees were nor did I really care like most students) Now run the numbers for tuition now...
People are acting like students have to go to the ATM and take out $200 bucks and walk to the registrar and pay it out of pocket after they already paid their bill. No, it is just another line item on a long, way overpriced bill that most people never even look at. I mean if your bill in September goes from $13,100 (right around the cheapest in state no housing tuition before books and such) to $13,200 ($100 per semester) you telling me you are going to be outraged if no one told you it happened? (hell come October none of them will even remember) Yeah right. This is just people looking for reasons to be upset. Hell $200 bucks wouldn't cover the cost of a semesters used books.
I get what you are saying, but this is like saying because my water bill went up $3 a year (roughly the same percentage) that the City of Crystal is putting their projects on my back.
TO BE CLEAR:
The price to go to the University is stupid and I think adding more to it is moronic but an athletic fee doesn't even rank when compared to how dumb housing costs are, books, tuition, food, tickets and probably half the fees being charged are. The U is hardly the worst when it comes to this but they are making it harder and harder for in state people (not to mention out of state) to justify going there. I mean a basic college education should not put you six figures in debt and that is what the U will do if you dont live with your parents for 4 years. That is beyond stupid.
And college sports in general is just ridiculous and looking to kill itself with the money being thrown around and the rules in place. The fans are expected to buy tickets (with licenses) and merch, donate to NIL collectives, give to scholarship funds and so on. This makes the sport professional which means you have fans wanting the Athletic Department to contract so that more resources can be funneled to the Rev Sports...which basically screws hundreds of student athletes out of scholarships and opportunities. I would personally rather a fee go to that to keep them alive than adding to the facilities fee but that is not where we are anymore. And we as hockey fans are going to see how bad this gets, because the sport is too expensive and only a handful of teams can afford to keep it on the books.
Sorry my phrasing was a trigger. My overall point that it's a stupid excuse to add more fees to students stands.
No one objects to the fact the university needs to increase revenues, but placing this specific increase on the backs of students who already arguably over-charged is ridiculous. And it doesn't matter that no one supposedly "bats an eye" at other exorbitant fees - both can be wrong at the same time.
On the backs of students? Come on the rhetoric around this is beyond ridiculous.
I would be willing to bet that 99.9% of the students have zero idea what fees they are paying. I would bet the majority of their parents don't either. There are much worse fees on the bill and this is a drop in the bucket to the real things being put "on the backs of the students" and outside of the yearly article in the Daily no one even bats an eye at them.
As I said elsewhere...if the U wasn't forced to disclose this publicly not one person would have noticed because when you have a 38K+ yearly bill this barely counts as a rounding error. Hell lets go back to before tuition got nuts. When I was at the U it was like 6-8k a semester. (or worse QUARTER!) Even then its a .0125% increase per semester and hardly noticeable unless you specifically look for it. (even when I looked at my bills I couldnt have told you what the fees were nor did I really care like most students) Now run the numbers for tuition now...
People are acting like students have to go to the ATM and take out $200 bucks and walk to the registrar and pay it out of pocket after they already paid their bill. No, it is just another line item on a long, way overpriced bill that most people never even look at. I mean if your bill in September goes from $13,100 (right around the cheapest in state no housing tuition before books and such) to $13,200 ($100 per semester) you telling me you are going to be outraged if no one told you it happened? (hell come October none of them will even remember) Yeah right. This is just people looking for reasons to be upset. Hell $200 bucks wouldn't cover the cost of a semesters used books.
I get what you are saying, but this is like saying because my water bill went up $3 a year (roughly the same percentage) that the City of Crystal is putting their projects on my back.
TO BE CLEAR:
The price to go to the University is stupid and I think adding more to it is moronic but an athletic fee doesn't even rank when compared to how dumb housing costs are, books, tuition, food, tickets and probably half the fees being charged are. The U is hardly the worst when it comes to this but they are making it harder and harder for in state people (not to mention out of state) to justify going there. I mean a basic college education should not put you six figures in debt and that is what the U will do if you dont live with your parents for 4 years. That is beyond stupid.
And college sports in general is just ridiculous and looking to kill itself with the money being thrown around and the rules in place. The fans are expected to buy tickets (with licenses) and merch, donate to NIL collectives, give to scholarship funds and so on. This makes the sport professional which means you have fans wanting the Athletic Department to contract so that more resources can be funneled to the Rev Sports...which basically screws hundreds of student athletes out of scholarships and opportunities. I would personally rather a fee go to that to keep them alive than adding to the facilities fee but that is not where we are anymore. And we as hockey fans are going to see how bad this gets, because the sport is too expensive and only a handful of teams can afford to keep it on the books.
excellent rant. and no that's not sarcasm.
Not ideal but I get it. Don’t want one or two of Moore, Moe, Pritchard, Townsend in the stands every night. Honestly recruiting a 14th forward in the current landscape is near impossible. You want them to be good, but not too good where they portal out to a place where they can play more. IMO Strobel was the ideal 13th forward (even though he still transferred)
Let's not act like this is amateur student athlete program any more. This is a business. Bob is not doing the things that other programs are doing to make this team better. If any of the guys named above get pushed out of the lineup because we bring in some top players, so be it. I'd rather fill the last spot with a first liner and have everyone else shift down a spot, than bring in a D3 player to sit in the stands.
Then have your whole bottom 6 transfer out and do the whole thing over again the next year? Not a fan of the revolving door method but I’ll admit you have a point. Nothing should be handed to you at a program like Minnesota. Problem is kids that fight through adversity instead of finding greener pastures are a dying breed. This had turned into an old man yelling at a cloud rant but I hope you understand my point.
The issue I have with that mentality is you are not going to bring in an elite player because you are worried about protecting your bottom 6?
Yes because you need your bottom six to be consistent as elite players now transfer every year. If you don't have some continuity you risk a very steep falloff year to year. The basketball team saw this under Johnson. If the "glue" players start transferring because they aren't getting time then you are in full rebuild mode every year which is not where even helmet schools want to be.
You can't just have all elite players...you may get one decent season out of it but you will have nothing to build off of when they all leave. You have to have a foundation. So yes, you have to protect the bottom 6.
Besides Broz and Pitlick (which was a weird situation) have we had any other high end players transfer?
Barto was really good last year for Lindenwood and as someone else mentioned, he was pretty unlucky that night. Idk about NAHL backup, I won’t name names but there are Gopher backups from previous years that more closely met that criteria.Totally off topic for the current off season thread but I just watched the official Gopher Sports YouTube channel highlights of that win over UND back in October of 2022. The 3-2 win with Knies getting the winner in overtime. As awesome as the OT goal was the tying goal from Nevers as the extra skater with less than two minutes to go was sick! You watch the highlights and the camera is shaking after he scores because the arena is going absolutely nuts! Man, what a fun game. Even with the loss the next night that was still one of the most fun weekends of college hockey I’ve ever gotten to witness in person. It had everything! Electric atmosphere, huge turnout from both fan bases, full and raucous student section, back and forth play, Knies in OT, Pitlick stick toss, and Cooley getting kicked out for face washing a North Dakota player lol
That Knies OT winner was the loudest I’ve ever heard Mariucci. We sweep easily if we don’t play a NAHL backup goalie the next night
Regardless with what happened against the sue in 22-23, I had an absolutely blast watching those games. Kevin Gorg did a great job on the call game 1. Though I felt he used the word "biscuit" one too many times. It was my first time seeing the gophs play the sue in person. I went to the second game. Then the year after, my family and I went to the dreaded place of grand forks for the first time. That somehow even topped the series with faber and company. I was so gosh dang happy that the gophs got the shut out!
Onto the 25-26 season, I am unfortunately unable to make the trip this year. But at work this week, I spent so much time thinking about those two games. I already got nerves. The green team should always be on the gophs schedule. I also expect alot of holy cross merch in grand forks as it is the 20th anniversary of that lose.
Thank you for clearing that up! You make a lot of good points. I also agree that I would like to see the U’s money and efforts going into hockey because one, I’m biased and the hockey team is what’s most important to me, and two, because of the reasons you stated yourself. It’s what we’re known for and what have the greatest chance at being successful at. That being said, and I’m sure you’re aware of this so it’s not directed at you just more stated in general, there’s no shot that any AD in the country wouldn’t put football first on the priority list with basketball second. If they didn’t they would be fired immediately. Even at a place like Minnesota. It’s too bad but it just is what it is.
Hockey is definitely not what the U is known for. You way overestimate how many people even know college hockey exists. Even in this state hockey isn't what the U is known for.
the U is known as a football program? I get the revenue part of it but other than that if I were to talk U of M sports to a group of 10 average sports fans from around the country I would be shocked if they said, “hell of a football team, do they have hockey?”
Barto was really good last year for Lindenwood and as someone else mentioned, he was pretty unlucky that night. Idk about NAHL backup, I won’t name names but there are Gopher backups from previous years that more closely met that criteria.Totally off topic for the current off season thread but I just watched the official Gopher Sports YouTube channel highlights of that win over UND back in October of 2022. The 3-2 win with Knies getting the winner in overtime. As awesome as the OT goal was the tying goal from Nevers as the extra skater with less than two minutes to go was sick! You watch the highlights and the camera is shaking after he scores because the arena is going absolutely nuts! Man, what a fun game. Even with the loss the next night that was still one of the most fun weekends of college hockey I’ve ever gotten to witness in person. It had everything! Electric atmosphere, huge turnout from both fan bases, full and raucous student section, back and forth play, Knies in OT, Pitlick stick toss, and Cooley getting kicked out for face washing a North Dakota player lol
That Knies OT winner was the loudest I’ve ever heard Mariucci. We sweep easily if we don’t play a NAHL backup goalie the next night
I only said that cause he literally was an NAHL backup in 23-24 lol. He had a nice bounce back year for Lindenwood and will be coming to Mariucci in early October with Michigan Tech!