The local Minneapolis Paper had an article in Tuesday's paper titled "UND's
Blake gets in digs against Gophers" where "he took exception to the
Gophers' tactics in a series that often turned chippy and contentious"
according to the article.  See
http://www.startribune.com/cgi-bin/stOnLine/article?thisStory=45142160 for
full story.
 
The common thing I pick out, however, is this comment "he suggested the
Gophers might have fared better had they talked less and worked more."
This is NOT the first time this has been heard from an opposing team.
Some of the gophers seem to be more interested in shooting their mouth off
than playing the game.  If Rassmussen worked as hard at creating plays as
he did at shooting his mouth off, maybe the gophers top line would be doing
something.
 
When Rassmussen was at the Junior's the gophers played as well, if not
better than now.  When Rassmussen came back Woog broke up the line that had
been playing well together (Berg, Hankinson, Spehar) just because
Rassmussen was back.  does this make sense?   I don't think so.  Why break
up a line that's doing so well just to fit in one of your top players and
ruin the chemistry they had developed.  But that's been Woog's style from
Day 1 -- the lines change so often a person has to pay attention at EVERY
single game.
 
I have to disagree that since Rassmussen's been back the only thing he's
been looking for is "THE BIG HIT"  He's been standing around doing to much
of nothing to hit anyone!  Yes, Sat he finally started hitting and making
some plays - but that quickly dwindled. (evident from the how bad they were
outscored in the 3rd period).  I fully agree that since Rass has been back
from the Jr's that he's been a non-factor, actually -- he's been a negative
factor.   I guess he figures he did well enough over there that it doesn't
matter what else he does for the gophers.  Maybe it's time for woog to do
as he's done with others like that - BENCH HIS A**.   Make a statement to
him.
 
In reference to the recruiting policy - I don't see the problem with
Minnesota recruiting from only Minnesota.  If they win any titles
(WCHA/NCAA) that only makes it that much more special (see video -
Minnesota:Pride on Ice).  Of course that means they may not have the #1
player in the country(countries).  But none of the players being recruited
are failures either.  Yes, the gophers didn't get Blake, Matt Cullen, Mark
Parrish BUT the recruiting policy had nothing to do with that -- if the
gophers expanded their recruiting range they wouldn't have been choosen
either.
 
 
The gophers have talent but it seems the work ethic is lacking.
Inconsistent play for 3 periods of ANY hockey game.  I can hardly think of
4 games the whole years where they played solid the whole game.
 
The Only game that comes close to a grand effort has to be the 4-3 loss to
Michigan in Overtime.  Only a handful of teams have managed to play
Michigan as tought this year.  The talent is there -- if they could only
implement it consistently  *sigh*
 
***********GO  HOCKEY***********************
 
Brett
 
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