Off topic - but just gotta say, WOW, Thomas Vanek DOMINATES the NHL so far!!!

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with 21 total points after tonight, he's 4 pts ahead of the next best player.

Before tonight he was tied for 1st in assists and was 2nd in goals. Now he's 1st in goals and WAY ahead in points.

He could go pointless for 2 games and still probably be in 1st or close to it.


Nice to see a former Gopher doing so well for themselves.


Well, figured since I did the research, I'd update it here


After Saturday's games

#1 in total points with 23 - Thomas Vanek

#31 in total points with 10 - Phil Kessel

#44 in total points with 9 - Blake Wheeler

#128 in total points with 6 - Paul Martin

#166 in total points with 5 - Alex Goligoski

#166 in total points with 5 - Nick Leddy

#225 in total points with 4 - Jordan Leopold

#225 in total points with 4 - Kyle Okposo

#225 in total points with 4 - Jordon Shroeder

#272 in total points with 3 - Jim O'Brien

#414 in total points with 1 - Eric Johnson

#536 in total points with 0 - Keith Ballard & Stu Bissel


I've been following former Gophers in the NHL for a long time now and I doubt that there has ever before been as well a representation of former Gophers in the NHL as there is now. And I'm not saying this just because of Vanek's being #1.

With 11 former Gophers ranking among the Top 535 players who have at least one point at this point in the season, that's right around 2%.

If all things were fair and evenly distributed, there would be one former Gopher in the Top 50, 2 in the Top 100, 3 in the Top 150, 4 in the Top 200, and so on, down to 11 in the Top 550.

But what we see so far this season is 3 in the Top 50, 6 in the Top 200, 9 in the Top 300. Including of course, an overwhelming #1, so far. This indicates that the Gophers are getting to the point of being UNDER represented in the NHL. The 13 we have sent there, are doing better than they should if all things were equal, so it seems that the NHL is probably ready for a larger representation of former Gophers. Although I personally hope the NHL doesn't get any more Gophers for at least one more year, hint, hint current Gophers.


You could almost construct an entire NHL roster, and a competitive one, with nothing other than former Gophers. At the rate things are going, I'm guessing we are 5 years away from getting to that point.

Right now the lineup would look something like this

LW - Thomas Vanek, C - Jim O'Brien, RW - Phil Kessel, D - Nick Leddy, D - Jordan Leopold

LW - Stu Bissel, C - Jordan Shroeder, RW - Blake Wheeler, D - Keith Ballard, D - Alex Goligoski


with Kyle Okposo as the 3rd line RW, and Paul Martin and Eric Johnson the 3rd line Defense.

At a minimum there would need to be another LW and C, and at least 1 goalie, but then you'd probably still be another 5 players short of a team that could survive in the NHL? But I'm not an expert, so if you disagree, that's more than fine. I figure in 5 years, most of these guys will still be playing and Adam Wilcox could be ready to start in the NHL? That is one position we've always had good luck with, at the collegiate level, but none have gone on to the NHL and been very successful, except for maybe one? And also, there should be a few more former Gophers in the NHL by that time.


Well, lets hope that these guys keep this up, its a shorter season so there's a better chance of some of these guys having more of an impact that they otherwise might, at least since most seem to be off to good starts so far, compared to their past seasons performances.
 

That's only 7 three pointers. Not that impressive. Didn't the Hoff do the in one game?
 

You do realize there's both a hockey board and an off-topic board on the Gopher Hole to post hockey related topics?
 

Agreed #1reallylongname. Vanek is one of the big studs to come out of our program in recent history and it is great to see him playing so well.
 

The thing I loved about Vanek was the fact that, when the Gophers were ever down late in a game, you always felt like you had a real good chance to tie it up when he was on the ice. Dude was so clutch. Just my opinion, but there have been very few players in college hockey somewhat recently that have dominated games like he did. Those guys that seemed like they were a couple of steps above everyone else and could dominate when they wanted to. Felt like Dany Heatley was one of those guys, and to a lesser extent Robbie Earl. Too bad they were both Badgers, they used to make me cringe when they had the puck against Minnesota.
Agreed #1reallylongname. Vanek is one of the big studs to come out of our program in recent history and it is great to see him playing so well.
 


The thing I loved about Vanek was the fact that, when the Gophers were ever down late in a game, you always felt like you had a real good chance to tie it up when he was on the ice. Dude was so clutch. Just my opinion, but there have been very few players in college hockey somewhat recently that have dominated games like he did. Those guys that seemed like they were a couple of steps above everyone else and could dominate when they wanted to. Felt like Dany Heatley was one of those guys, and to a lesser extent Robbie Earl. Too bad they were both Badgers, they used to make me cringe when they had the puck against Minnesota.

That's exactly how I remember him too. If you needed a goal late in a big game he was who you looked to. One of my all time favorite Gophers.
 


coolhandgopher --

Yes, I do realize that there are separate forums for hockey and basketball and football and all other sports.

But do you realize that some people have lives, and don't have the time to go and check each and every forum to see if there are any new posts of interest. So maybe one of those people who only had a limited time to come to the forum and so chose to spend the whole time in the bb forum, appreciated that the info about Vanek was here for them to see, IF they wanted to see it.


Me, personally, I'm interested in lots of sports, and love following gopher bb and hockey games on twitter, and one of the things I like about this is so that I can see how the Gymnastics team is doing that night, without having to go off somewhere else and find the info separately, or I can get score alerts when the women's team is playing at the same time as the men's team.

I love the women's hockey team, but if the men's team is playing #10 SCSU at the same time, I'm going to follow THAT game. I hate to prioritize that way, but I'm human, and I just happen to prefer men's hockey to women's hockey, not by a lot, and I'd probably switch my priorities around if the Men's team was playing as badly as Michigan is this season, for example, lol.

SO, my point is that when I come to the Gopherhole, at this time of the year, the bb forum is by far the most active, and I treat people the way I want to be treated, and I'd like it if all that I was looking for was at the same place. So if I came to the bb forum and found a thread that highlighted how all the former gopher hockey players are doing in the NHL, or how former Gophers are doing in the WNBA, I'd like that, then I wouldn't have to go off to another site and look it up myself. So when I do go look stuff up and find something very significant that I think other Gopher fans would be interested in, like how Thomas Vanek is dominating the NHL right now, I may post it in the bb forum.


I mean, there are NINE different Gopher sports teams competing right now, that are RANKED.

#1 Mens Hockey
#1 Women's Hockey
#4 Mens Wrestling
#7 Mens Gymnastics
#8 Mens Indoor Track
#13 Women's Gymnastics
#13? Women's Swim & Dive
#15? Men's Swim & Dive
#18 Men's BB

And Men's Baseball and women's Softball and Golf and Tennis all are just starting up.

AND, the NHL is going right now and fully NINE former Gophers rank among the Top 225 in total points right now. That's very good. 3 of them are in the Top 50.

It would be nice if we had several Gophers in the NBA right now, like we have had in years past, but there are only like 2, and Pryz is on his last season I believe?


But my point is it can take ALOT of work to follow the Gopher's these days, and I personally think it helps when people make efforts to help consolidate all the relevant stuff in one place.



I'd understand if every 3rd thread was an off-topic thread, but when its one off-topic thread for every 50 bb threads, probably, then I can't see how that would be a problem?!



Also, the chances that the people who DO go to the hockey forum already know the info I'm bringing up here, is pretty good, I'm guessing.
 

Just for clarification purposes, and to keep the peace...

#1nHkyCfbBsbDncSolarDebat, I don't think CoolhandGopher was referring to you with their comment. I believe they were commenting on Tubtastic's basketball related comment.
 



Paul Martin had a good night, scoring 3 assts to bump him up to 12 pts total, for 56th place in the NHL in total points. Not bad for a defenseman. He's actually tied for 3rd in total points among defenseman. Vanek is obviously #1 among LWers, and Phil Kessel is 8th among RWers in scoring.
 




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