I agree, that comment, today, is questionable. I hope Bob shows a change in attitude about portal and roster building in the upcoming offseason. I feel about this program the same way Duke basketball fans and Ohio State football fans feel about their programs. I think anything less than competing for Big Ten titles and number 1 seeds is an "off year." Irrational, maybe, but I want one sports program where we are arrogant about our competitive expectations.The thing that nags me about Motzko is still his comments about CHL and transfer players, as well as his comments about recruiting that he "didn't like the guys [they] saw" or whatever it was last cycle--if you don't like the players you saw, you need to adapt and find guys you DO like. I feel like that's what might be putting people over the edge, but who knows.
I, too, am feeling really on edge about his tenure, but you really can't discount the last several years and that should really give him a lot of leeway, but if next year is a bomb too, I start leaning toward going another direction--one where there is support for adapting to the changing landscape. I hate where college hockey has gone and is going, but if you just hope for what was you just become irrelevant.
The amount of bob defenders on here is astounding. I guess the others and myself just have higher expectations for the program, zero titles in 22/23 years (none in the near future by the way). Unacceptable. Bob couldn't win with one of the greatest teams ever assembled. People have a short memory that bob couldn't win at st. Cloud either. Maybe we all just accept we aren't in the same tier as michigan, north dakota, Denver, BU anymore...
I think some, including me, want to see how the season plays out before making a decision on Bob's future. IF things continue on this path, then we can have a discussion on what Bob's future is. I think the lack of an organized NIL group does play into this, and that falls on the alumni and fans. Unfortunately in this era, money talks, and the U is far behind others in that category in hockey.
I will continue to support this team and coaching staff through this. I will show up as a STH, and even go on a road trip to support the team. It doesn't help the program in the long run by going on social media and constantly bashing Bob, his staff, and the Dinkytown area because some think it's a war zone. We can stand behind our team, and then at the end of the year make a decision on direction of the program.
People can continue to call us that support the program whatever they want, High Horse, Bob defenders, heads in the sand, etc, but we will not abandon this team. We see what's happening, but our love for the program outweighs the knee jerk reactions of some.
BTW, North Dakota and Michigan both missed the tourney last year, unlike the Gophers.
Waiting for the end of a season before passing judgement on a season and coach isn't blindly supporting a coach. Didn't PSU start out something like 0-9 in Big ten last year before making the FF? UND teams under Hackstol were notorious for starting poorly but building through the year. I am not predicting that it will happen with MN. But one bad start to a season seems a bit premature to say a coach should be fired. I don't personally know a coach that would seem to be clearly better than Bob who would be available. Been watching college hockey for decades and there is not a team that has not gone through ups and downs. I understand the frustration. While nothing like the last few years, the talent on this team is still high enough that they should be more competitive than we've seen in most games this year. But there is a lot of hockey left to play, so I'm willing to give this more time.
i get what people are saying in terms of the wait and see. Bob is coaching the season out unless he chooses not to so agree 100% and he should be evaluated on the season as a whole and the talent coming in the next year. Just a point on the PSU analogy as people keep bringing it up. they were also 6-9 at that point and had scored 48 goals (vs 51 against). Maybe it'll come around for us and I hope it does (and I'll be there to watch either way as its what we do as fans, stick through thick and thin), but there are some real worrying signs this is a talent deficiency on the team this year and a worry about the approach to recruiting going forward. That said, Bob is a good coach and hopefully he can figure it out. Feels like a team he's going to have to coach harder, but you also have a bunch of young guys he's going to have to learn how to push each of their buttons the right way to make them tick.
I'm still in the camp of I'd move on after this year, but that has more to do with the long approach and the wildly different world of recruiting now rather than the people who are acting like Bob can't coach (because ya know they just give you WJC golds without doing anything and pretty much every coach wins 400+ games in their career). Maybe he changes in the offseason and realizes that you're not going to lose fans if you grab some portal guys or Canadians (maybe a full team of them will get some older folks in a fit, but people stop caring if you win a title)
The amount of bob defenders on here is astounding. I guess the others and myself just have higher expectations for the program, zero titles in 22/23 years (none in the near future by the way). Unacceptable. Bob couldn't win with one of the greatest teams ever assembled. People have a short memory that bob couldn't win at st. Cloud either. Maybe we all just accept we aren't in the same tier as michigan, north dakota, Denver, BU anymore...
I think some, including me, want to see how the season plays out before making a decision on Bob's future. IF things continue on this path, then we can have a discussion on what Bob's future is. I think the lack of an organized NIL group does play into this, and that falls on the alumni and fans. Unfortunately in this era, money talks, and the U is far behind others in that category in hockey.
I will continue to support this team and coaching staff through this. I will show up as a STH, and even go on a road trip to support the team. It doesn't help the program in the long run by going on social media and constantly bashing Bob, his staff, and the Dinkytown area because some think it's a war zone. We can stand behind our team, and then at the end of the year make a decision on direction of the program.
People can continue to call us that support the program whatever they want, High Horse, Bob defenders, heads in the sand, etc, but we will not abandon this team. We see what's happening, but our love for the program outweighs the knee jerk reactions of some.
BTW, North Dakota and Michigan both missed the tourney last year, unlike the Gophers.
Waiting for the end of a season before passing judgement on a season and coach isn't blindly supporting a coach. Didn't PSU start out something like 0-9 in Big ten last year before making the FF? UND teams under Hackstol were notorious for starting poorly but building through the year. I am not predicting that it will happen with MN. But one bad start to a season seems a bit premature to say a coach should be fired. I don't personally know a coach that would seem to be clearly better than Bob who would be available. Been watching college hockey for decades and there is not a team that has not gone through ups and downs. I understand the frustration. While nothing like the last few years, the talent on this team is still high enough that they should be more competitive than we've seen in most games this year. But there is a lot of hockey left to play, so I'm willing to give this more time.
PSU kept it close with us to start that stretch, even outshooting us at Mariucci by a large margin and only lost on a last minute fluke goal.
I don’t know where a turnaround like that is supposed to come from with this team.
I really don't think most of the people who are concerned about the health of the program are the irrational ones here, they seem to have a better overall grasp of the situation than the people who think Motzko is going to quickly turn things around devoid of any specifics.
In my opinion, you nailed it here. Unless I have missed it, those who are just assuming the team/coach will turn it around are not giving any specific reasons or arguments to why this will happen. Hence why I called it blind faith. It would be interesting to hear reasonings or arguments for how it will turn around (recruiting, coaching, NIL, etc.) other than just saying we are going to support the team regardless.
You’re missing the point. I think we can all agree it is totally justified to have some level of concern about the program (apart from being ready to jump off a cliff).
I don’t think anyone has grand illusions of an instantaneous turnaround. Some of us are just willing to give a full season before throwing in the towel on the coach.
Maybe they’ll find some better line combos. Maybe everyone gets healthy and they win a couple games, gaining confidence back. Maybe Bob finds a last minute roster guy that helps out in a big way. Maybe we get a little puck luck in some games.
None of us here are associated with the inner workings of the team, so expecting us to have answers as to what they are talking about in the locker room, who they are working on recruiting, and what Bob’s short term coaching plans are is unrealistic. What is not unrealistic is trying to stay positive and hold out hope that something *could* change for the better (nobody is guaranteeing it will), rather than constantly complaining that our coach, team, and incoming recruits are crap, can’t improve and we should just give up now.
I don’t have blind faith and do have concerns, but at the same time will support the team and program, even if I witness them lose every game I go to all year. Program criticism and hope for a better second half of the season and return to maroon and gold dominance in future seasons can coexist. 🤷♀️
Maybe they’ll find some better line combos. Maybe everyone gets healthy and they win a couple games, gaining confidence back.
Would promoting Graham Harris to the 3rd line or (less uncharitably; sorry) Moe to the 1st line really do anything to turn these games around? Every single night shots end up like 40+ vs. our 15, 20 at most. Our PK gets scored on basically at-will, and our own scoring, whether on powerplays or even strength is nowhere to be found.
Team wasn’t doing much better with Ludtke and Thomas in the lineup. For comparison, our team in 2023 faced a top-10 OSU team without LaCombe and Chesley due to injuries, with Faber at reduced capacity, and still dominated the literally meaningless series to close out the regular season, without missing a beat. By contrast, with this team it’s unserious to think that if L.Mitts was playing hurt while Thomas and Gruba were both out w/ injuries, they could realistically manage to avoid getting swept by any mediocre-to-bad B1G, NCHC, or HE team.
If they weren’t confident enough to put up better fights against UMD and Wisco after (1) they broke the shootout dry spell vs. BC and (2) thumped NoDak 5-1 at the Ralph in back to back weekends just before, I don’t know what kind of confidence it’s going to take, or where that confidence might plausibly come from. And Mariucci is only going to get emptier at this rate, as much as I would like for that to not be the case.
Where would Bob even find any impact players to add at winter break? Not from another NCAA team, that only happens when major character issues blow up big time; if anything it’s more likely (but still extremely unlikely) that we’re the team losing players at mid-season. Phillips and/or Kvasnicka and/or Jackson Nevers are not going to ride in come January and save the day.
If a guy would be an impact player to add at the halfway point, they would already be playing in NCAA. On a Division I team, since apparently we have to specify that. But hey, who knows. Maybe with the NCAA in such a sorry state of affairs right now as far as maintaining some minimal pretense of amateurism goes, maybe we can have Knies, Cooley, Snuggerud, Faber, and LaCombe all come back and suit up for us during a gap in their NHL season. Hell, why not Nate Schmidt or Brady Skjei while we’re at it? What’s the NCAA gonna do- come up with some nonsense post-hoc reasoning about why they won’t stop it?
I said it on Thursday and I’m saying it again; this is not going to be a good season because we don’t have the pieces, before we even talk about the effort. Realistically, when a team is below a certain threshold of talent, it requires virtually impossible and unsustainable levels of effort to compete.
None of this is me saying that our current season invalidates past or future accomplishments. But I’m tired of people insisting, despite so much reality to the contrary, that we can get back on track to make this season specifically into a good or at least tolerable one. It’s okay to have a bad season and it’s okay to come to terms with just how bad it’s shaping up to be.
I really don't think most of the people who are concerned about the health of the program are the irrational ones here, they seem to have a better overall grasp of the situation than the people who think Motzko is going to quickly turn things around devoid of any specifics.
In my opinion, you nailed it here. Unless I have missed it, those who are just assuming the team/coach will turn it around are not giving any specific reasons or arguments to why this will happen. Hence why I called it blind faith. It would be interesting to hear reasonings or arguments for how it will turn around (recruiting, coaching, NIL, etc.) other than just saying we are going to support the team regardless.
I think Cowgirl nailed most of it, but it's lunchtime so I'll add my two cents. I don't see anyone predicting a 180, miracle turn-around out of this team. At most, people are arguing it is a little early to claim the wheels have completely come off and firing Bob should be a fore-gone conclusion. The point some of us are making is that you can't necessarily predict that what we saw the last couple weekends is what we will see the rest of this year and the next couple years. This team does not completely lack talent. Well below the last few years, but 2023 was probably the most talented team I have seen and last year was loaded too. I feel what they have lacked is cohesion and effort. When you don't exceed the talent of your opponent, It's tough to win a controlled, puck-possession type of game, the way the Gophers have been able to in the last few years. I feel some of them are still playing this way. Instead, you have to out-work the opponent. I haven't seen much of that this year. If they can step things up (and this isn't just about coaching if the players don't have the right mentality) they can be much more competitive. That is what is left to see this year.
As far as future years, Bob has taken portal players, so I don't know why people say he won't. Never know when a Wood or Faber will jump ship. And who knows for sure that because this year he didn't go the CHL route he won't in the future? But it is not like there are a dozen game-changing CHL players waiting to get into the NCAA annually, and with those that are, not sure MN is up to speed with NIL to compete for them. But it's not impossible. We can speculate on these things, but we don't really know until time has passed.
So call me irrational, if you want, but I know a lot can change from expectations. People were saying Bob lost it recruiting last year, but seems he got some of the bigger commits this summer. Everyone has their own thoughts on this team that we are all passionate about. I think we all have a range of opinions that can be stated and debated though without trying to judge who is correct or rational.
None of this is me saying that our current season invalidates past or future accomplishments. But I’m tired of people insisting, despite so much reality to the contrary, that we can get back on track to make this season specifically into a good or at least tolerable one. It’s okay to have a bad season and it’s okay to come to terms with just how bad it’s shaping up to be.
Fair points.
I think we all understand this year is going to be a rare down year; but I also don’t think it unreasonable that our young team may learn and grow, and get healthy and make it at least a tolerable season…don’t fault those who cling to some shred of hope before the towel is thrown in!
Strange things happen in college hockey. A little positivity can’t hurt.
I really don't think most of the people who are concerned about the health of the program are the irrational ones here, they seem to have a better overall grasp of the situation than the people who think Motzko is going to quickly turn things around devoid of any specifics.
In my opinion, you nailed it here. Unless I have missed it, those who are just assuming the team/coach will turn it around are not giving any specific reasons or arguments to why this will happen. Hence why I called it blind faith. It would be interesting to hear reasonings or arguments for how it will turn around (recruiting, coaching, NIL, etc.) other than just saying we are going to support the team regardless.
I think Cowgirl nailed most of it, but it's lunchtime so I'll add my two cents. I don't see anyone predicting a 180, miracle turn-around out of this team. At most, people are arguing it is a little early to claim the wheels have completely come off and firing Bob should be a fore-gone conclusion. The point some of us are making is that you can't necessarily predict that what we saw the last couple weekends is what we will see the rest of this year and the next couple years. This team does not completely lack talent. Well below the last few years, but 2023 was probably the most talented team I have seen and last year was loaded too. I feel what they have lacked is cohesion and effort. When you don't exceed the talent of your opponent, It's tough to win a controlled, puck-possession type of game, the way the Gophers have been able to in the last few years. I feel some of them are still playing this way. Instead, you have to out-work the opponent. I haven't seen much of that this year. If they can step things up (and this isn't just about coaching if the players don't have the right mentality) they can be much more competitive. That is what is left to see this year.
As far as future years, Bob has taken portal players, so I don't know why people say he won't. Never know when a Wood or Faber will jump ship. And who knows for sure that because this year he didn't go the CHL route he won't in the future? But it is not like there are a dozen game-changing CHL players waiting to get into the NCAA annually, and with those that are, not sure MN is up to speed with NIL to compete for them. But it's not impossible. We can speculate on these things, but we don't really know until time has passed.
So call me irrational, if you want, but I know a lot can change from expectations. People were saying Bob lost it recruiting last year, but seems he got some of the bigger commits this summer. Everyone has their own thoughts on this team that we are all passionate about. I think we all have a range of opinions that can be stated and debated though without trying to judge who is correct or rational.
I agree with much of what you say. On the CHL side, really strong last couple of cycles for them, but there are a good number of these guys and there's zero reason to think you can't be in play for 1-2 of the blue chip guys each year. They aren't all going to come in and put up 50 points year one like they're Hobey candidates, but some will and an even larger number will be compentent upper 6 guys. Just quick list off top of my head who are all playing big roles for locals or have a local lean (Ritchie is a Wild draft pick) are Reschny (UND), Verhoeff (UND), Mckenna (PSU), Smith (PSU), Misa (lesser extent, PSU), Mews (MI), Spence (MI), Lindstrom (MSU), Martone (MSU), and Ritchie (BU).
Some situations the juice isn't worth the squeeze, but if this is a NIL/dollar amount thing that's the only limitation, we have a large enough alumni and fan base who would be happy to donate to hockey exclusively that it's just going to take getting out and motivating/hand shaking to get it rolling (this is part of why I really have hope for the golden helmet collective; maybe if anything they can become a wing/liaison of DTA but I agree we really need to do better in this realm).
The CHL pipeline I think will really depend on how the above guys feel their year goes but you 1000% want to be in on the ground floor now as its not like a kid who played for Medicine Hat and knows Mckenna is going to get steered to MN over PSU if he loves his experience there.