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Minnesota Golden Gopher Season 2018-19: The Motzko Era Begins!

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  • Re: Minnesota Golden Gopher Season 2018-19: The Motzko Era Begins!

    Originally posted by Hockeybuckeye View Post
    Wow! All I can say is how many power plays can you give your opponents and still get the win?
    Gophers have been begging that question most of the season

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    • Re: Minnesota Golden Gopher Season 2018-19: The Motzko Era Begins!

      Originally posted by Hockeybuckeye View Post
      Wow! All I can say is how many power plays can you give your opponents and still get the win?
      Six. Between their undisciplined play and the Gopher defense struggling most of the game to clear the zone, Gophers certainly gave Michigan all the ammunition needed to win the game. Not sure if it's a record, but Michigan attempted 98 shots tonight. Credit Robson, who stood tall in net and stopped 50 of them for a season high.

      If there was a highlight for the Gopher D, they laid out and blocked 24 shots to Michigan's 11 and the PK unit was good enough to leave Michigan with a goose egg on their PP.

      Great effort by Brent Gates Jr. to literally fight his way in front and get his stick down to tip in the GWG. The tie and win this weekend puts the Gophers at 4-3-3 in their last 10 and only 4 pts. back of first in the Big Ten. Let's keep it positive!
      Last edited by SteveO; 12-08-2018, 11:03 PM.

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      • Re: Minnesota Golden Gopher Season 2018-19: The Motzko Era Begins!

        Originally posted by SteveO View Post
        Six. Between their undisciplined play and the Gopher defense struggling most of the game to clear the zone, Gophers certainly gave Michigan all the ammunition needed to win the game. Not sure if it's a record, but Michigan attempted 98 shots tonight. Credit Robson, who stood tall in net and stopped 50 of them for a season high.

        If there was a highlight for the Gopher D, they laid out and blocked 24 shots to Michigan's 11 and the PK unit was good enough to leave Michigan with a goose egg on their PP.

        Great effort by Brent Gates Jr. to literally fight his way in front and get his stick down to tip in the GWG. The tie and win this weekend puts the Gophers at 4-3-3 in their last 10 and only 4 pts. back of first in the Big Ten. Let's keep it positive!
        Well said, SteveO, spot on. However regarding blocked shot numbers, the Gophers SHOULD have easily won that stat, given the wide disparity of attempted shots and zone time. We are still having a terrible time of breaking out cleanly, and allowing our opponent WAY too much unnecessary zone time.

        But overall, considering the Gopher's very poor play in most of their recent games, I'm seeing progress, and that's encouraging.
        Minnesota Golden Gopher Hockey

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        • Originally posted by Stauber1 View Post
          As absurd as it may seem, this might be the blueprint for success for this team - take risks offensively and rely on Robson to stand on his head and bail the team out and keep them in games.
          It really isn’t a recipe for success but I’m glad it worked last night.

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          • Re: Minnesota Golden Gopher Season 2018-19: The Motzko Era Begins!

            Originally posted by SteveO View Post
            The tie and win this weekend puts the Gophers at 4-3-3 in their last 10 and only 4 pts. back of first in the Big Ten. Let's keep it positive!
            Sure doesn't feel like that has been their record, with the tiebreaker rules and the way they got outplayed for a good portion of those games. I am glad they finally pulled out the win before the break. Between their play and the Wild's recent downward spiral, my hockey world was feeling pretty bleak. (Not to mention, I am having trouble adjusting to my new skates, so feel like my own play has regressed considerably.)

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            • Re: Minnesota Golden Gopher Season 2018-19: The Motzko Era Begins!

              Originally posted by Koho View Post
              Sure doesn't feel like that has been their record, with the tiebreaker rules and the way they got outplayed for a good portion of those games. I am glad they finally pulled out the win before the break. Between their play and the Wild's recent downward spiral, my hockey world was feeling pretty bleak. (Not to mention, I am having trouble adjusting to my new skates, so feel like my own play has regressed considerably.)
              I went with Super Tacks for a few years, but for the most part I've always been a Bauer Supreme guy. Supreme's are a good power skate and it seemed like I could break in the boot quicker than Tacks. Vapors are a good speed and agility skate, but I never liked the boot fit. What kind of skates did you get?

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              • Re: Minnesota Golden Gopher Season 2018-19: The Motzko Era Begins!

                Originally posted by trixR4kids View Post
                It really isn’t a recipe for success but I’m glad it worked last night.
                Well, depends on expectations and definitions.
                I agree it's not a way to put together a long win streak, but I'm not sure I see any recipe for that with this team currently.

                Yes MI put up over 50 shots, but the Gophers managed 28 while spotting MI a 6-1 advantage in PP attempts.
                Seems to me this team needs to be taking some risks and putting more of an emphasis on creating offense over preventing it if they want to scrape together some wins wherever they can.
                Do that while slowly plugging away on improvement in the defensive end and preventing giveaways, and maybe things will start evening out by the end of the year. Until then roll your dice on Robson keeping the Gophers in games where they are outchanced.

                I like Robson as a 3-2 or even a 2-1 favorite over most the netminders out there.

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                • Re: Minnesota Golden Gopher Season 2018-19: The Motzko Era Begins!

                  Junior Gates nailed it: "We need more blue collar attitude to be successful". Sounds a lot like "Hard work beats talent, when talent doesn't work hard". His GWG was huge for this team going into the break.

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                  • Re: Minnesota Golden Gopher Season 2018-19: The Motzko Era Begins!

                    Originally posted by Stauber1 View Post
                    As absurd as it may seem, this might be the blueprint for success for this team - take risks offensively and rely on Robson to stand on his head and bail the team out and keep them in games. Slowly plug along on cleaning up play on the defensive side and eliminating turnovers/opportunities in transition. Maybe by the end of the year they will be more complete and in a position to make a run.
                    I don't think it's absurd. You have to game plan for your team's strengths or, in the Gophers' case, weaknesses.

                    I truly believe that is what Lucia did last year and was getting ripped for it. I think he realized the didn't have much for D that could transition the puck well and they were going to be offensively challenged. So they took chances when they were there and relied heavily on Robson. Sounds familiar doesn't it?
                    "It ain't over, baby! And that took only six seconds!"

                    USCHO gives me another reason to not do work while I am at work.

                    Everything is Hill's fault.....

                    "Hakstol you hack!!!!"

                    Comment


                    • Re: Minnesota Golden Gopher Season 2018-19: The Motzko Era Begins!

                      Originally posted by Hockeybuckeye View Post
                      Wow! All I can say is how many power plays can you give your opponents and still get the win?
                      In fairness, some of those calls were weak IMO.

                      I am not a fan of refs evening up calls just because one team has taken the bulk of penalties in a game. Those refs definitely didn't fall into that category on Saturday, but I just really kept feeling like they were going to throw one the Gophers way sooner or later and it never happened.
                      "It ain't over, baby! And that took only six seconds!"

                      USCHO gives me another reason to not do work while I am at work.

                      Everything is Hill's fault.....

                      "Hakstol you hack!!!!"

                      Comment


                      • Re: Minnesota Golden Gopher Season 2018-19: The Motzko Era Begins!

                        Originally posted by SteveO View Post
                        Junior Gates nailed it: "We need more blue collar attitude to be successful". Sounds a lot like "Hard work beats talent, when talent doesn't work hard". His GWG was huge for this team going into the break.
                        I'm seeing a lot of posts over on GPL questioning this Gopher team's effort, care, and compete level. You can question talent all you want with this team, but the celebration on the bench after Jr Gates scored sure looked like a team that cares and wants to win, to me anyway.
                        "It ain't over, baby! And that took only six seconds!"

                        USCHO gives me another reason to not do work while I am at work.

                        Everything is Hill's fault.....

                        "Hakstol you hack!!!!"

                        Comment


                        • Re: Minnesota Golden Gopher Season 2018-19: The Motzko Era Begins!

                          Originally posted by gopher wes View Post
                          I don't think it's absurd. You have to game plan for your team's strengths or, in the Gophers' case, weaknesses.

                          I truly believe that is what Lucia did last year and was getting ripped for it. I think he realized the didn't have much for D that could transition the puck well and they were going to be offensively challenged. So they took chances when they were there and relied heavily on Robson. Sounds familiar doesn't it?
                          I guess IDK how either version of the team is "taking chances", they don't typically have a hard forecheck or pinch a lot. Lucia's team dumped the puck more often as well if I had to guess.

                          I get that they want to rely on Robson but that's not gonna work forever as we saw after the first Duluth series.

                          Comment


                          • Re: Minnesota Golden Gopher Season 2018-19: The Motzko Era Begins!

                            Originally posted by trixR4kids View Post
                            I guess IDK how either version of the team is "taking chances", they don't typically have a hard forecheck or pinch a lot. Lucia's team dumped the puck more often as well if I had to guess.

                            I get that they want to rely on Robson but that's not gonna work forever as we saw after the first Duluth series.
                            I agree that it's not a recipe for success, like you said in your previous post. I just think with the current state of the program and these recruits, it is what it is. It's not gonna be pretty most of the time.
                            "It ain't over, baby! And that took only six seconds!"

                            USCHO gives me another reason to not do work while I am at work.

                            Everything is Hill's fault.....

                            "Hakstol you hack!!!!"

                            Comment


                            • Re: Minnesota Golden Gopher Season 2018-19: The Motzko Era Begins!

                              Originally posted by gopher wes View Post
                              I agree that it's not a recipe for success, like you said in your previous post. I just think with the current state of the program and these recruits, it is what it is. It's not gonna be pretty most of the time.
                              No argument there. I guess for me I'm just failing to see the part where they're "taking chances" because right now it looks like a team that still plays very cautiously. Nobody on this team really forechecks hard outside of Walker, the D still stand around at the blue line in the O zone and panic when they get the puck, they also seemingly never pinch or do anything to keep the play alive offensively. Maybe Motzko is doing this out of necessity and Lucia did the same but it just doesn't seem like much changed since last year.

                              Comment


                              • Re: Minnesota Golden Gopher Season 2018-19: The Motzko Era Begins!

                                Originally posted by gopher wes View Post
                                I'm seeing a lot of posts over on GPL questioning this Gopher team's effort, care, and compete level. You can question talent all you want with this team, but the celebration on the bench after Jr Gates scored sure looked like a team that cares and wants to win, to me anyway.
                                IMO there are some issues that arise when they are ahead, and when they are behind by 2+ goals. They either think they have the game won already, or they think they have lost the game. When winning, they just coast, thinking "we've got this." When down, it's like quicksand and they kind of give up and go through the motions.
                                Never really developed a taste for tequila. Kind of hard to understand how you make a drink out of something that sharp, inhospitable. Now, bourbon is easy to understand.
                                Tastes like a warm summer day. -Raylan Givens

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