Long time member, haven't posted in years...hurricane in Florida decimated life for awhile.
Both watched and listened to both games, since that seems to matter...lol
First thought that came to my mind is unfortunately, Clemson...easy to get lost in college sports very quickly if you don't keep with the times.
No idea if we're a .500 team for F4. No one does.
I was looking forward to seeing what I had head was the new path, "hard in the corners, battles, hard to play against." Didn't see that...saw a lot of lifts/punts in our d-zone...
we are not uber talented.
goalie was good...
Sky is neither falling nor rising.
I can imagine improvement coming, but this season schedule is front loaded, better get better pretty quick...
I, like most, will never get over 2023 Q Natty game...I think a lot of my frustration with the team is really just wanting that last 3 minutes back, and that's not how life works...
besides, Minnesota is a football school now! Today is the best day of my life, Row the Boat, SKI U Mah, and go gophers! Lol
Quote: Vegas GopherI, like most, will never get over 2023 Q Natty game...I think a lot of my frustration with the team is really just wanting that last 3 minutes back, and that's not how life works...
that day I was in the rural Philippines for my cousin's wedding, watching on an iPad with a janky VPN connection and it was 9am local time for me. All my old college groupchats were buzzing, everyone I knew back home in MN and Chicago were all glued to the TV.
When OT was just about to start, my stream went into a death spiral of buffering and when I finally got it working again all I saw was Qpac celebrating. Got really confused for a minute before I realized what happened. Sat there in shock hoping it would turn out to be offsides or something. I've still never seen the actual GWG; in my mind we are still tied 2-2, waiting for the puck to drop and Knies-Cooley-Snuggerud to get to work.
Quote: Walker? I Barely Know HerQuote: Vegas GopherI, like most, will never get over 2023 Q Natty game...I think a lot of my frustration with the team is really just wanting that last 3 minutes back, and that's not how life works...
that day I was in the rural Philippines for my cousin's wedding, watching on an iPad with a janky VPN connection and it was 9am local time for me. All my old college groupchats were buzzing, everyone I knew back home in MN and Chicago were all glued to the TV.
When OT was just about to start, my stream went into a death spiral of buffering and when I finally got it working again all I saw was Qpac celebrating. Got really confused for a minute before I realized what happened. Sat there in shock hoping it would turn out to be offsides or something. I've still never seen the actual GWG; in my mind we are still tied 2-2, waiting for the puck to drop and Knies-Cooley-Snuggerud to get to work.
Funny.
I watched the regional games in the Philippines, the FF semi in Bangkok and the championship game in Myanmar. My feed also went out at the start of OT, but came back on in time for me to actually see the GWG. Not sure which version is worse. 🤣 😡
Alright I took the day to digest and think this over while hiking up in the UP (so at least I've got that going for me, which is nice).
The Good
The complete and utter breakdowns we had multiple of all last year were massively reduced. we won the xG (5.1-5), Corsi (55% share), Fenwick (55% share), all of which we got absolutely fucking pummeled in all last year (xG last year was 6.5-4.9 Tech and our Corsi was good for 4th last at 41.8% and Fenwick 5th last at 42.5%). It's not an earth shattering improvement, but Larson has mentioned using the analytics so they are going to be raging pissed at our shot on target percentage, but have to be pleased with the improvement in shot share and possession metrics despite the ass ice.
LDP saw the puck well overall and looked calm. the xG metrics are pretty bleh in college as they don't account for passing prior to the play like others do (ie a pass cross crease should have a much higher xG than a shot taken from there without a pass, same as a time after a prior shot/rebound)
Kvasnicka gets my shoutout for the freshmen. He seemed to like the physicality and has that extra bit of compete. Probably will take some time to come on the stat sheet, but he will be a great 4 year player and should be a solid PK guy
The Bad
The lack of intensity. This team should have been roaring to go with an extra day off, extra long offseason and they looked like they all spent the night before the game drinking fishbowls and eating tostada pizza. This to me was probably the most frustrating/upsetting aspect of it. I believe in this captain group and believe this has been what Larson has preached (was mentioned on multiple interviews as well). Was very disappointing to not see that be there from the drop.
The attempts on target. Watching Ziemer wide open in the slot almost shoot it out of the rink felt like the weekend encapsulated. Kudos to Tech for blocking shots on Saturday (18 of them), but 28/59 on Saturday and 18/48 on Sunday missing the net or being blocked is terrible.
The "top" line. 0 points, -6 on the weekend, minimal sustained pressure. Didn't really love either of the pairings with Ziemer and Cullen.
The Ugly
The ice. Unacceptable for a D1 program and we've heard locals talking about it for several days after how it was crazy it was that warm in the rink and that they've never seen it before. Was "better" the next day but only in the sense that the standing water was gone but the softness and unpredictability remained. Both teams had passes going very askew all game and it's why we had probably a thousand icings
The refs. Not so much about the penalties or lack thereof, but rather just doing a really poor job letting the game flow where it should (tossing one guy from the circles very randomly for infractions both teams are doing at the same time, every draw had a double pump, letting a bunch of, we'll call it hugging, go in the middle of the ice and away from the play) and just made it a bad set of games to watch. Was not the reason we lost, just made for really unfun hockey to watch
The where we go
The feet got wet in a hostile environment against an old team that has played together in that style basically since their infancy with us breaking in a lot of new faces to college and with different roles than they were used to. Sometimes you need carrots, sometimes you need sticks and this will be an epic stick to show them if they can build together as a cohesive unit. This is the exact type of team Kato smothered us with for years (20-21 and 21-22 for example).
There is untapped potential in a lot of these players. I do think we have coaches on this staff that can make it happen as if some of these guys don't tap into aspects of their game they're not using, they won't make the show. I'm not going to call those out by name as I don't really want to harp on any one guy as it's 2 games of the season
Where did you go hiking today? The colors were gorgeous this weekend! We had planned to do some biking yesterday, but we had a thing… 🏒
Was still a fun weekend apart from the game outcomes. Hope anyone that was in the Keweenaw for the first time enjoyed it!
Quote: CowgirlWhere did you go hiking today? The colors were gorgeous this weekend! We had planned to do some biking yesterday, but we had a thing… 🏒
Was still a fun weekend apart from the game outcomes. Hope anyone that was in the Keweenaw for the first time enjoyed it!
we have been trekking east but pregame Sunday we went up to Copper and Eagle Harbor (Hunter's Point, drove Brockway Mtn as well as hit Hungarian Falls and the Estivant Pines) then today we're out by Pictured Rocks but did Sugarloaf, Presque Isle, and some falls along our way. The game timing really kind of threw a jam in our plans to do Mt Baldy unfortunately. But the colors have been stunning just driving and hitting vistas along the way