"The sunshine state! Denver. Gorgeous!"

"I thought the Rocky Mountains would be a little rockier than this. That John Denver's full of ****, man."

Whenever I think of Denver, these three quotes are the first thing that comes to mind. When Gopher hockey fans think of Denver, the probably think of struggling and frustration, as the Gophs' have struggled to beat the Pioneers in the past few years. Per Dane Mizutani of the MN Daily:

The Gophers have struggled immensely against Denver in the past and are 2-8-0 in their last 10 meetings, a fact Lucia attributed to inability to score.

Minnesota has scored a total of five goals in those eight losses.

That stretch of losses happened during Minnesota's roughest years under Don Lucia (or just about anyone else, for that matter), while DU has maintained themselves as a top-shelf program during that time. The Gophers are a much better team this season, but they haven't been lighting the lamp with much frequency lately either, as they've only scored more than 3 goals in a game once in their past seven outings (the 6-2 thumping of UND). Minnesota's defense continues to be rock-soiid though, and that will help against a formidable offensive group led by Jason Zucker and Drew Shore. I'd love it if Denver wants to open it up the way UMD did, but I'm expecting another low scoring weekend.

Speaking of UMD, the Gophers lead the Bulldogs by 3 points for 1st in the WCHA, and looking at the standings, those two are the favorites in the race for the regular season crown, but a lot can happen in these last eight games. The top 7 teams have all played 20 conference games, so there's nothing to factor in as far as "games in hand" go. The top 4 are clear cut at the moment with Minnesota atop with 30 points, UMD (27), CC (25), and Denver (24). There's a 3-way battle for 5th, meaning one of Tech, UNO or UND are going to be going on the road in the first round of the WCHA playoffs. My money is on Tech falling to seventh, but then again, I thought they'd get swept by Duluth last week and didn't. I also thought they'd get swept by the Gophers and, of course, didn't. So perhaps I shouldn't underestimate the Huskies.

Denver could climb back into the race in a huge way with a sweep this weekend, or the Gophers could put them out of the title chase with a sweep of their own. I'd count on a split with the usual Friday lethargy followed by the Saturday rebound (also factor in that good ol' Mile High air could be an adjustment), but hey, the Gophs have won three in a row right now including-yes- a Friday night victory over St Cloud. So we'll see. With 8 left to play, all the games are big, and with Minnesota's remaining schedule, they need as much as they can get to keep their cushion on Duluth. After this weekend Minnesota hosts Bemidji, travels to Omaha, then finishes up with Sconnie at home to close the regular season. UMD gets North Dakota at home this weekend, then @ Mankato, home to arch-rival CC, then finish up at St Could State. Although the remaining schedules look pretty even on paper, I'd say the Gophers have a tougher remaining slate than the Bulldogs, as the two series against teams in the bottom half of the standings are Bemidji and Wisconsin, two teams that will have zero trouble being motivated to beat Minnesota.

So it's a big weekend for the Gophers in the sunshine state of Denver, as they need at least a split. A sweep? Now that would be gorgeous!

When last we left, our hero (me) was trying to figure out this crazy thing called hockey. I've been watching quite a bit of hockey since then, mostly of the high school variety, but it has helped me in a few ways.

Here are some updates:

-I now understand what cross-checking is.

-I have also learned what boarding is.

-I now think I understand what forechecking and backchecking are, but I'm not sure that I always recognize them.

So, I think I'm making some progress. Yay me.

What I've found interesting is that even though I don't know that much about hockey, I still find myself formulating an opinion about the play on the ice, or what the team I'm cheering for should be doing. I'm not sure if this is because I am a typical know-it-all blogger, or because as someone who watching A LOT of sports you tend to pick up on tendencies even when you don't know the game that well.

In any case, while watching the Gophers play Notre Dame and North Dakota, a few things came to mind that I thought I'd share here. Again, please keep in mind I'm no hockey guy. Jeffrick is the hockey guy around here.

There's been a huge issue this year on Friday night's for the Gophers. It's like they become a completely different team between Friday night and Saturday night. I'm not well versed enough in the game to know specifically what they are doing well on Saturday's that they aren't doing on Friday's, but it just seems to me that they come out slow and flat on Friday nights.

I have a couple of theories on that which other people probably picked up on a long time ago.

First, just about anytime the Gophers play they are going to be the favorite, the Goliath if you will. It's like in baseball, no matter who you are, you want to beat the Yankees. So the team they are playing against has spent an entire week pumping themselves up to play one of the most storied hockey programs in the country, and that means that Friday night they come out with guns a-blazin'. They bring everything they have, every effort they can muster, to beat the big guys.

Second, and this is the one I really want to talk about, is coaching. Now again, I don't know hockey very well, but to me if you have a week of practice, a week to prepare, and you come out flat and uninspired, that's about coaching. You've got an entire week for your team to get healthy, an entire week "rest," and an entire week to learn about your opponent and get your squad fired up to play on Friday night in some of the best atmosphere's that sports has to offer. Shouldn't you be able to light a fire under your team in that amount of time, or at least maybe in a pre-game speech?

There are good practice coaches, and there are good in-game coaches, and the coaches that are the best at what they do are pretty effective at both. The Gopher hockey team seems to need the bright lights and hitting of Friday night to get pumped up to play, but by then it's often too late. Thankfully for the most part they've been able to carry whatever fire they acquire on Friday nights into Saturday night.

Lastly, is there anything more exciting in hockey than a short-handed goal? I think a short-handed goal gets me more fired up than anything. I was watching a high school game last week and one guy on the team I was watching scored TWO short-handed goals in the span of 22 seconds. It was unbelievable. Really fired me up, you guys.

Just another wild weekend in the Gophers/Sioux rivalry; UND wins a low-scoring, hard fought battle 2-1 Friday night (I know, I know, I was as shocked as you that Minnesota lost a Friday game. When was the last time that happened? Oh right- it happens EVERY Friday! Or so it seems), only for the Gophers to rally with a fast and aggressive style Saturday night that overwhelmed North Dakota for a 6-2 victory. Minnesota jumped out to a 4-zip lead, and UND responded in their usual classy fashion by starting fights and taking cheap shots. Of course they did. If only to defend their honor and manhood, the Gophers responded with some bad penalties and fights of their own. But again, all entirely in self-defense (wink-wink-nudge-nudge).

The topper was the end-of-game handshake where 6'4, 226 pound senior UND defenseman Ben Blood tried to make himself feel like less of loser by taking a shot at 5'8 173 pound freshman Kyle Rau. You stay classy, Ben Blood! That moment pretty much epitomizes the Sioux and their fan base for me: sore losers. UND played well in their win Friday night (and played very well in both close losses at Mariucci before Christmas), but when Minnesota started romping on Saturday, that's when UND lost their cool and showed their true colors.

Another sign of their sore-loser ways? Before Friday night's game Gopher radio play-by-play man Wally Shaver and analyst Glen Sonmor both made light of the fact that UND is no longer allowed to use the Fighting Sioux nickname or logo, but you sure couldn't tell being at The Ralph. The giant logo and words "Home of the Fighting Sioux" is still at center ice, and it's also still prominently displayed on their jerseys. They fought long and hard to keep their name and logo and lost, but instead of taking it like a man and taking the logo and nickname off the ice surface and jerseys (which be VERY easy to do), they basically responded like this. Not that I'm surprised.

UND used some excuse saying their new jerseys were on "back order". Apparently in Grand Forks, "back order" either means "sitting in boxes unopened at the back of a storage room in the bowels of the Ralph" or "being used for kindling to stay warm on those long North Dakota winter nights when you have nothing else to do but obsess over the fact your team is 7th in the WCHA and the Gophers are better than you".

Come to think of it, maybe we've found UND's new nickname to replace the Sioux? The University of North Dakota Fighting "Sore Losers". Or, as they'd spell it in Grand Forks, the Sore Lioux-sers. Just a thought.

Back to the games on the ice, Rau and Bjugstad were once again the stars of the weekend for Minnesota with three points each. The third line also chipped in nicely in Saturday's win with three assists for captain Taylor Matson, two goals and an assist for Nate Condon, and we had a Seth Ambroz sighting with a goal and an assist. Maybe they should become the new second line as Erik Haula and his linemates struggled again, with a combined one assist the entire weekend. Kent Patterson continued to be his brilliant, wonderful self in net stopping 48 of 52 shots in the series, and the penalty kill looked like its league leading best allowing just one UND goal in nine tries.

In my never-ending quest to figure out why Minnesota continues to struggle in Friday night games, my new theory is aggression- or a lack there of. They took less penalties but also didn't seem as aggressive Friday night and lost, while Saturday night they were flying and aggressive. It led to more penalties (a whopping 10, but a lot of that was after they took the four goal lead and UND started acting like, well, UND) but also a win. Handing the opposition power play opportunities might not be the best strategy, but with a PK as good as the Gophs, I'll take the trade off of living on the edge a bit if more aggression means more penalties but more physical and more offensive opportunities.

All gloating aside, here's hoping these teams meet again at the Final Five in March at The X. The best rivalry in college hockey needs as many new chapters as we can get before 2013 when the schools will go their separate ways and the uncertainty of playing annually begins. Here's also hoping the Gophers come to their senses and don't abide by the ridiculous rule that Minnesota can't play "out of conference opponents with offensive nicknames" so that the Gophs and Sioux can keep playing at least a regular season series per year.

The split over the weekend keeps the Gophers tied atop the WCHA with Duluth, who split with UNO in Omaha. Both schools have 24 points, four up on third place CC, and five points ahead of Denver and UNO. UND? They currently sit in 7th with 16 points. If the playoffs started today they would travel to the UP to play Michigan Tech in the 6 v 7 matchup. I can't wait to see what the Sore Lioux-sers reaction would be if that scenario plays out.

If you follow the Gophers, you know by now how things went against the Irish last Saturday: thoroughly outplayed for the better part of two periods putting them in a 4-1 hole with 5 minutes left. As the fans start heading for the exits, Nick Bjugstad and Zach Budish score 31 second apart to make it 4-3 with about 3 minutes to go. Time would run out on a furious Gopher rally, which had to leave folks wondering- where was that effort for the first 55 minutes?

Good question, and one of a few this loss raises as we head into the second half of the WCHA schedule this weekend on the road...in Grand Forks. Don't look now (and I tend to look or think or speak of the Sioux as little as possible) but since being swept by the Gophers and then splitting with Bemidji State in early November, UND is 7-1-1, with the loss in OT to Nebraska-Omaha, and the tie against Harvard. Two months ago they were struggling, but they've started looking very much like the Sioux clubs we always hate. But more on them later in the week.

For today, a few questions surrounding your varsity hockey club from Dinkytown. I wrote a pretty glowing review of the first half of the season, so I'm not about to say a one goal loss to one of the top teams in hockey (that would be Notre Dame) means it's time to panic or that the sky is falling or that the second half it going to be a slide back down the slippery slope to mediocrity. But it does raise a few issues to ponder (and I don't mean Christian Ponder)...

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Merry Christmas- and Happy Boxing Day! Let's talk some Gopher puck with a look at the positives, and a very few negatives, from the first semester. When the expectations were as low as they were to start the season, and the Gophers currently sit in first place in the WCHA and second in the national rankings, there's not going to be much to complain about in the mid-season review. In fact, let's just get the few negatives/disappointments/need work on I can find out of the way first...

Friday Curse continues

After a stellar first month and a bit when the Gophs won 10 of their first 11 games, their Friday Night Funk returned, as they've lost four of their past five Friday night games. I wrote an entire post on how the past five seasons Minnesota have played worse on Fridays than on Saturday or Sunday, so I'm not going into it all again. The Friday Funk still makes me nervous, but people much smarter than me have assured me it's nothing to worry about, so I will try not to.

Penalties

For the glass half full people, Minnesota has the second best penalty-kill in the WCHA (83.7%) and arguably the best goalie in the land. For the glass half empty people (...raises hand...) those elements are being tested far too often, as Minnesota has been a man short 92 times this year, second only to Minnesota State's whopping 105. The Gophs are committing too many penalties right now, at an average of 15.8 PIM per game. They've gotten away with it thus far, but I'd love to see less penalties and more disciplined play. I feel like too many of these are because they get out-hustled and reach or clutch or grab.

Nick Bjugstad

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Friday is one of those days that's hard not to love: last day of the work week (for most people), the beginning of the weekend, and during the school year it means Gopher sports are happening or about to happen. Friday is a great day, don't get me wrong, but I've found two things I don't like about it: one, obviously, is this Rebecca Black video. It's horrible (I also had to click on it to link to it and now have that stupid song stuck in my head. So whatever you do, don't click that link! Don't do it!).

The other would be Minnesota Golden Gopher hockey, or at least the way they play on Fridays. The Gophs lost last Friday in OT to Michigan Tech, which was their fourth loss in their past five Friday games. Tech's a solid club, especially defensively, but this is not a team Minnesota should lose to at home. They scored the first goal before giving up the next two, having to rally late to tie and then lose in OT. Saturday night? They blew the Huskies right out of the building, which has actually been a typical weekend series for Minnesota not just this season, but the past five. Struggle in the opener (almost always on a Friday) and then settle the score in the second game (almost always on Saturday).

Yeah the Gophers started this season hot winning 10 of their first 11, including 5 straight Friday night victories. Then things turned, as Minnesota is just 5-4-1, including the aforementioned 1-4 Friday skid. And while I'm not here to say the sky is falling or the season is in serious trouble, I would just like to point out that this has become a trend under coach Don Lucia the past five seasons (including this one). Just look at these numbers which compare Friday games vs Saturday/Sunday games going back to the 2007/08 season...

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This weekend the second ranked Gophers play one last series before the Christmas break as they host Michigan Tech. Tech's had a Jeckyl-and-Hyde first semester with two wins over Wisconsin (both in OT) and a win and tie vs #13 Denver. However, since the shocking result with Denver they're just 2-5 with splits against Mankato, UAA and something called St Lawrence, and last weekend they were swept by UMD 5-3 both nights (There's no shame in losing to UMD, I just mentioned it so I could point out that in the latest USCHO rankings has Duluth as the new #1 team in college hockey while the Gophers are second- which makes sense because Minnesota swept UMD in Duluth. Of course, this is not college football so these teams will get a chance to settle things on the ice both in the WCHA tourney and the NCAA's. Look at that- mentioned playoff hockey for the Gophers without even thinking about it. Such a nice change from the past three or four seasons).

So in comes Tech looking to upset the Gophers, and they'll try to do it using some ugly defensive hockey that'll make the Jacque Lemaire Wild clubs look downright offensive- ok maybe not that bad, but after an ugly series last weekend vs the Mavs we could be in for another one this weekend. There's few teams in the conference or the country who can skate with Minnesota, and Tech certainly isn't one of them. They're struggling a bit offensively this season at 3 goals per game, but have ramped up their defense, allowing just a shade under 3 per game at 2.92, which is third best in the WCHA. The Huskies will try and clog the lanes and neutral zone as much as possible, hoping to limit the Gophers chance to skate with the puck and force them to play a dump and chase game. Keep them and their shots to the outside, limit their own mistakes, and try to capitalize on the power play when it comes- and considering Minnesota has taken the second most penalties in the conference, those opportunities for Tech WILL come.

For Minnesota the key is to not get frustrated and stay patient. With this much speed and ability, the opportunities will come, and they need to capitalize when they do. Forecheck like crazy, pounce on mistakes, and staying out of the box would be nice. Nick Bjugstad hasn't score for- gasp!- three whole games so he's due, and scoring early would help negate the, um, "strategery" of the defensive-minded Huskies.

Minnesota eeked out a 4-2 win last Friday, and before that dropped their past three Friday games. It'd be great to see the Gophers come out firing in their last series before the Christmas break, and pick up four points this weekend to stay ahead of UMD, who travel to the Kohl Center to play the not-so-Bucky-Badgers. Tonight's game is at 7 on FSN, while Saturday the puck drops at 8 and is available on FSN's alternate feed.

I grew up in the State of Hockey. Hockey is a sport that I like, but I don't really understand, which can make it pretty difficult to follow.

Here's what I think I know...

-I think I might understand what icing is, but sometimes I see the goalie put his glove up before the ref calls it, and I don't know how that's related.

-I mostly feel like I kind of understand what off-sides is.

-I know I like to watch the little black thing bounce around on the ice skaters sticks.

-I know what it means if a goalie is "standing on his head."

-I know what a "line" is.

-I know that if there is a penalty on a player whose team doesn't possess the puck that the ref will hold his hand up and the penalty won't be assessed until the team of said player touches the puck... I also know that because of this, the team that isn't going to get penalized may pull their goalie and send in another player.

-I know a win in regulation is worth 2 points, and a win in overtime is worth 1, but I'm not sure what happens when there's a tie.

Here's what I know I don't know...

-I have no idea what cross-checking is.

-Nor do I know what constitutes boarding.

-I almost never understand, in a non-penalty situation, why the ref blows the whistle and calls for a face-off.

-I have no idea how the players know when to substitute, or who is substituting for who... but I find the coordination of it to be fascinating.

-There is something, I believe it's some kind of strategery or something, called "the backcheck" (I think), but I have no idea what it is.

Every year for the past few years I've made a declaration that I was going to try to "get into" hockey. The nice thing that I've found, for me anyway, is that following college hockey is a bit easier than following the pros because college hockey is only played on the weekends (I think).

So I've been trying to watch more Gopher hockey, and I've been trying to keep up on some of the developments. I read Gopher Puck Live, and follow them on Twitter, as well as @GopherState.

When I watch Gopher Hockey one of the things I like best is that most of the team is from Minnesota, including three of the more exciting players on the team: Kent Patterson (Plymouth), Nick Bjugstad (Blaine) and Kyle Rau (Eden Prairie). Bjugstad and Rau are the top two goal scorers on the team, while Patterson already has the most shutouts in a season for a goalie in Gopher Hockey history.

Here's something else I don't quite understand. Somehow Bjugstad and Rau have both already been drafted by an NHL team (the Florida Panthers), so that team owns the "rights" to them when they enter the NHL, but they don't have to enter the NHL right away. As a fan, should this concern me? Not because I have a problem with them already being drafted by an NHL team, but because doesn't that mean they could leave at any time?

Rau is only a freshman, while Bjugstad is a sophomore, and while I'm not a great hockey mind by any means, it seems to me that both of them could do well in the NHL almost right away. I realize that players leaving early is simply part of college sports, but as a fan of Gopher football, I'm not exactly used to having to deal with the fact that our best player might be a short-timer.

The other thing I've been hearing a lot about is how the B1G is adding hockey to the conference slate because Penn State is adding hockey, so the Gophers will no longer be in the WCHA. As I've said, I don't have as much history with the Gophers as a lot of you, so I don't have any emotional attachment to the WCHA. But, I do think it's a shame that it sounds like we won't be playing teams like UND, UMD, St Cloud and Mankato quite as much, if at all. Those are some fun and heated games.

Having said that, I think it will be kind of cool to be able to build stronger rivalries with the other B1G schools. We already have a good hockey rivalry with Wisconsin, but adding yearly, conference rivalries with Michigan, MSU, Ohio State, and possibly someday Illinois, will be fun.

In any case, these are my very elementary thoughts on Gopher Hockey as a man trying to learn to understand the sport. What I know without question is that I like to see Gopher teams win, and the Gopher Hockey team does a fair amount of winning.

I may give more hockey thoughts throughout the season, but I'm no Jeffrick. Jeffrick is a 10-foot tall beast man who grew up in Canada and still plays "shinny" to this day. I'm just a guy who likes sports, who loves the Gophers, who appreciates college athletics slightly over pro sports, and who wants to do a better job of filling the void that college football is about to leave in my life.