| A Season Not Lost |
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| Written by Jawa | ||||||||
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Having watched a lot of Gopher hockey in my life I find myself wanting to write a little about them. If an outside observer were to look at this season one would say that this was a season of disappointments. I don't look it at that way. Yes there have been a few more losses than usual. Yes the talent is quite what it used to be. And yes it has been frustrating. But not disappointing.
At the beginning of the year things for the Gopher Hockey team looked somewhat bright. They had lost a couple key players including defenseman Erik Johnson and Alex Goligoski. Immediately our blue line was depleted. However, we had many returning talented players...among them Kyle Okposo, Blake Wheeler and goalie Jeff Frezee. Just like always, Don Lucia brought in a nice class of freshmen to replenish the ranks. Expectations were a little limited compared to other years but there were still some expectations.
I watched about 75% of the games this year. Even with the talent the Gophers had, they underachieved. For a while they had accrued a losing record. A nice run in the end got us out of the hole but we were still saddled with a 7th place finish, our lowest in years. There were factors out of their control that allowed this to happen. Towards the start of the year one of our best players, Ryan Stoa, was lost to a knee injury. Then in the middle of year Kyle Okposo decided to sign with NY Islanders, the team that had drafted 7th overall the year before. He was one of our scoring leaders. It was a devastating blow.
What I have seen noticing in the latter part of the year is the team's resolve. They have really pulled it together. There has been leadership everywhere. Of course Don Lucia has been steadfast as always. His son Tony has been awesome. Blake Wheeler has been providing the scoring. Alex Kangas has taken over the goaltender duties. He has stopped just about everything shot at him. It has been a great season to me. They are truly a team this year rather than a collection of stars waiting to go pro. This is the best "team" I have seen since our NCAA championship years in 2002-2003.
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