I caught most of Saturday's game and am not sure I remember a game with more "ham-handedness" by a Gophers team. So many fanned shots, mis-received passes, poor passes, pucks rolling off sticks. It was both very noticeable and simply weird to see from this squad.
Hopefully a one off that's just one of those nights...where they were lucky enough to prevail in the end.
The puck was bouncing a lot both nights and for both teams. Methinks the ice was average at best both nights and caused some of this.
“When your best friend is the son of God, you get tired of losing every argument.”
― Christopher Moore, Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal
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Good call, I totally forgot about that interview.Paul Kariya might have an opinion here.The guy was definitely a dirty player who was trying to severely injure people.Scott Stevens was a stud but he was also a bit of a predator and maybe even dirty. He made a career out of blasting unaware players.
Thankfully, the NHL has cleaned up that stuff about hitting vulnerable players.
He wasn't dirty. He took advantage of the rules as they were written at the time. Keep your head up, and you won't get those hits a majority of the time. Did Stevens look for those hits? I would say yes. Dirty? No.
I caught most of Saturday's game and am not sure I remember a game with more "ham-handedness" by a Gophers team. So many fanned shots, mis-received passes, poor passes, pucks rolling off sticks. It was both very noticeable and simply weird to see from this squad.
Hopefully a one off that's just one of those nights...where they were lucky enough to prevail in the end.
The puck was bouncing a lot both nights and for both teams. Methinks the ice was average at best both nights and caused some of this.
There were multiple times during last weekend's games where I was tempted to bring this up and ask if people at the game were noticing anything in particular about ice condition but once in awhile I don't post every thought I have even though the number of posts I have in certain threads may say different. 🤣
We saw the same thing. It happened both nights where neither team could really seem to hold onto or control the puck. It seemed to be causing trouble for both teams but of course I am watching, and expecting, more control for the gophers
We saw the same thing. It happened both nights where neither team could really seem to hold onto or control the puck. It seemed to be causing trouble for both teams but of course I am watching, and expecting, more control for the gophers
Yeah this is one of the reasons I didn't end up bringing it up. In the end both teams are playing on the same ice and Saturday Penn State did a better job then we did. I did start to wonder/think some of sloppiness (especially the fanning on the puck) could have been ice related since I was noticing it from both teams.
Was the ice bad or the pucks not cold enough? Or both? On tv it looked pretty rutted already which surprises me. I was hoping it was a trick the lights were playing.
It seemed slow to set up as a period started.
“When your best friend is the son of God, you get tired of losing every argument.”
― Christopher Moore, Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal
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Possible but from my perspective it seemed like an issue with the pucks. They just seemed to be reacting unpredictably and either sliding off sticks or not really sure I guess. Both teams seemed to be fighting it though. Of course more noticeable with the gophers as I am watching that more but even then I think because they move the puck well typically and it just wasn't happening. No excuses. Penn played hard and had a great game plan both nights. Lucky to come away with the sweep but proud the boys just kept playing. That has not always happened in the past
I think a big factor on Saturday was even though the Gophers only had 12 shots on goals they were able to hold Penn State down to 28 shots on goal.
The attempted shots don't get included in the final box score on the College Hockey News website even though they are included during the game (in game box score). I'm not sure why this is. During the game from keeping in an eye on the in game box score I noticed that while yes Penn State had an advantage in attempted shots on Saturday it was not as one sided as the shots on goal. What I take from this and from watching the game live is that while Penn State was controlling more of the game overall their advantage wasn't as one sided as the shots on goal would indicate. There were certainly points in the game where the Gophers struggled to get the puck up ice/out of their zone but there were quite a few times where the Gophers were getting shots but they were struggling to get their shots on net.
Often times when you see one team get only 12 shots on goal it results in the other team getting close to 40 shots because it is a completely one side game but since the Gophers played a good game defensively there were able to limit Penn State chances/shots on goal and in doing so stayed in the game.
Obvious as fans it is more fun to see your team playing well offensively but it is great sign that they can win different ways. In this case by playing good defensively.
As we all know often times Championships are won by playing well defensively and finding ways to win close games.
Gophers D solid both nights. As a team, they got beat to too many pucks Saturday, but they kept the PSU shots to the outside.
That was the type of game that ends with a tipped- shot goal. Minnesota was the lucky team that got it, but it might just as easily been PSU. They deserved it more.
I have to give props to Brody Lamb. I thought he played huge during the 5 minute PK and his other PK shifts last night.
He keeps improving each year and each game. Really impressive
It seemed slow to set up as a period started.
We all had this discussion last year. The 12 minute intermissions do not give enough time for the ice to set up. They’re still standing water when the period starts. I sit on the Zamboni end and they spend a good 2-3 minutes after the Zamboni is off the ice walking around with a cloth squeegee trying to spread out the water. It helps minimally.
It seemed slow to set up as a period started.
We all had this discussion last year. The 12 minute intermissions do not give enough time for the ice to set up. They’re still standing water when the period starts. I sit on the Zamboni end and they spend a good 2-3 minutes after the Zamboni is off the ice walking around with a cloth squeegee trying to spread out the water. It helps minimally.
was going to say the same thing about the 12 minute intermissions. I noticed a lot of stripes of water after the Zamboni was done as if it was not laying down the water evenly. I wonder if the still relatively warm outdoor temps may still be a factor too.
The attempted shots don't get included in the final box score on the College Hockey News website even though they are included during the game (in game box score).
The box score stuff is automated and doesn't include the 'metrics.' CHN puts out a separate link for that one.
https://www.collegehockeynews.com/box/metrics.php?gd=100965
It is interesting that it's separated though, because the TOI data goes into the regular box score later. Gophers leaned heavy with Rinzel/Koster/Chesley on Saturday without Thomas, Whipple had 12:14 and Begley was timed at 3:19 for TOI.
https://www.collegehockeynews.com/box/final/20241102/psu/min/
@vegoe thank you for sharing this
Shot on goal
Penn State 28-12 so 70% to 30%
Shot attempts
Penn State 52-40 so 57% to 43%
Shot attempts can be a good indication of which team has the puck more in the offensive zone. Puck possession and offensive zone time were certainly closer than the shots on goal would seem to indicate.
Only getting 30% (12 of 40) of your shot attempts on goal is really low. Obviously the team needs to be better in this area then they were Saturday. Credit to Penn State they play really well defensively in their zone. This is not something the Gophers have had an issue with in the first 7 games of the season so I see it more as blip than a problem.