Let me see if I can explain how it is that a team like Minnesota, with so
many talented players, could be in fifth place in the WCHA (I won't agree
that they would be securely in fifth, since they would be at most two
points, or one game, behind the team in fourth).
The thing to look at is the league competition. There are five teams in
the top half of the WCHA, and those five teams are:
1) Colorado College (21 pts)
2) U Minn-Duluth (20 pts)
3) Denver (19 pts)
4) Minnesota (17 pts)
5) NoDak (15 pts)
Of the teams in the top five, Minn., after this coming weekend, will have
played all four of the remaining teams. Assuming a sweep by NoDak, their
record against top five teams would be 3-4-1.
Colorado College, after this coming weekend, will have played two of the
top five (Minn and NoDak).
UMD, after the weekend, will have faced two of the top five (Minn and NoDak).
Denver, after the weekend will have played one of the top five (Minn).
NoDak, after this weekend, will have played three of the top five (UMD,
Colorado College, and Minn).
So, to put it succinctly, the other top teams have been beating up on the
lower half of the conference, not on themselves. Minnesota, without, for
example, two or four games against Northern Michigan (like the remaining
four teams in the top five), the current number ten team (In fact, Minn
only playes Northern two games this year, due to the lopsided schedule)
hasn't had a chance to get as many of the wins that it "should get".
Denver is an extreme example. Their first half schedule is particularly
favored to them. The only really tough games, already over, are two against
Minnesota in Minneapolis. To their credit, they split the series 1-1.
The true test for them, however, comes in the second half, when they
play 16 games that could be considered tough-including _two_ home and
home series with CC, playing at Houghton, St. Cloud, and Anchorage, and
hosting current top five teams North Dakota, Minnesota, and Minnesota
Duluth.
The other thing to remember is that it is still too early in the year to
place a great importance on conference standings. Colorado College, even
if they win this weekend (fairly likely, with two non-conference battles
against Air Force scheduled) could, under the proper cicumstances, end up
undefeated, yet tied for third place in the conference (with games in
hand, of course).
To get back to the main topic, how could Minnesota end up in fifth place:
well, I am not about to make excuses for two losses the Gophers don't yet
have (I would say, at the least, that a two game sweep by North Dakota in
Mariucci seems unlikely), but the three losses the Gophers have are
reasonable: One to league leader and current #1 in most polls CC, one to
Denver, a team that matches up against Minnesota well, and one in
Houghton against a Tech team that has shown flashes of brilliance as well
as inconsistancy.
The real question, if I understand correctly, is this:
How can the Gophers get swept by NoDak if they have three Hobey Baker
candidates and four All-America candidates on their team. The answer:
they can't. ;-)
That is, either they don't get swept, or the players you mention (Bonin,
Trebil, Crowley, Kraft) don't deserve the hype that Woog (and others) are
giving them.
But just remeber this: even though it is possible for the Gophers to
be fifth in the WCHA after this weekend(and even *tied* for fifth), it is
also just as possible (and, I think, just as unlikely) they could end
the weekend tied for first.
-Lee-nerd
[log in to unmask]
"It is not written in the stars that I will always understand what is
going on - a truism that I often find damnably annoying."
-Robert Heinlein
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