I was out East this past weekend and ended up listening to some sports talk on WFAN ( I think), they were breaking down the Stanley Cup and a caller spoke up on how great Vanek was which ended up turning into a Gopher/Minnesota hockey bash.
The point being made was Minnesota players are soft, I assume they meant U of M as Vanek is not actually from Minnesota. Among the points Minnesota kids can't or won't play defense - Vanek although he has 7 points and the Sabres are +9 is only a paltry +1, Paul Martin is -4 while No Dak kids Stafford, Zajac, Carle, and Parise are all hard workers and heavily to the plus side. Basically if you're counting on a Minnesota kid in playoff time, give up now because they're soft, they also mentioned the Holy Cross debocle along with barely beating Air Force as more exhibits as to the softness of the Gopher hockey program.
Although the glaring absense of Minnesota kids in the NHL is a bit humbling it is nice to know that Minneota is still thought of as snobbish when it comes to the East Coast hockey elite. It kind of reminded me of when SI put Harvards win over the Gophers in the NCAA finals about 20 years ago as a testament to how great everyone else is and how overrated Minnesota is, because it wasn't a slam on
college hockey players, they needed to point out the flaws ofMinnesota college hockey players.
Minnesota soft?
Moderators: Mitch Hawker, east hockey, karl(east)