Before the blog begins, here's a reminder this weekend's series is Saturday/Sunday. Minnesota and St. Cloud State do not play tonight. This is due to Huskies head coach Bob Motzko also being the US World Juniors head coach and both teams having players in the tournament.
Don't worry. I'll remind you again at the bottom.
It wouldn't be another snap decision. According to head coach Don Lucia after Saturday's 3-1 win over Arrmy, the only way Tyler Nanne would be playing forward this weekend is if he spent the week practicing as a forward.
That's exactly what Nanne has been doing.
The sophomore defenseman has been practicing on the right wing in preparation for Minnesota's series against St. Cloud State. Known for his offense from the blue line, he had been a forward at Edina until his junior year of high school.
"We'll never know until the weekend, but wherever I end up come the weekend I'll play it and play hard," he said.
Slotting Nanne up front rather than as a seventh defenseman is a decision Lucia does not take lightly. With the addition of offensive-minded Clayton Phillips midseason and Sam Rossini earning more playing time on the blue line, Minnesota's head coach hopes using Nanne will help jumpstart a struggling Gopher offense that is 40th nationally in goals per game.
"We have enough D where with Ryan (Lindgren) coming back, can we afford to put him up? Does it make our team better? I think that's the question that we have to ask because we need some more scoring up front," said Lucia. "We have not scored consistently as an offense at this point.
"We need our best players on the ice. Byfuglien played forward, he played D. Burns played forward, he plays D. It's almost sometimes nice to have a utility guy that can go back and forth with an injury in a game as well."
Over the last eight games Minnesota forwards scored a total of 13 goals averaging 26.75 shots per game. That's 46th out of 60 teams despite only five more teams averaging more shots during that stretch.
Listed as a forward earlier this season in games against North Dakota (prompted by Casey Mittelstadt being injured and unable to play) and Ohio State, Nanne had not practiced as one until this week.
With Mittelstadt (and sophomore defenseman Ryan Lindgren) missing again due to the World Juniors, playing Nanne at forward worked Saturday. After making a physical hit on Army's Tyler Pham on his opening forward shift, Nanne continued to be effective. He went on to score his third goal of the year by tipping a Rossini shot in front of the net.
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Nanne, who played Saturday with Ryan Norman and Jack Ramsey, has been practicing with a variety of different forwards. He's not alone. Due to injuries and illness, Minnesota's lines are in flux for the Saturday-Sunday series against the top-ranked Huskies.
"We probably won't know until Friday for the availibility of a couple guys," said Lucia.
Three players were out with the flu earlier in the week, but have returned. Minor injuries struck other Minnesota forwards. The combination of injury, illness and players gone for World Juniors left the Gophers to a point where redshirt forward Connor Hurley was used as an extra body on defense during Wednesday's practice.
As far as Mittelstadt and Lindgren go, they are scheduled to come in around noon Saturday. The United States plays Friday afternoon in the bronze medal game and it'll be up to them if they want to play against St. Cloud State on Saturday.
Whether or not they play in limited minutes or are held out, the fact remains Saturday and Sunday will be the third and fourth games for the duo (as well as SCSU's Ryan Poehling) in as many days. That's on top of a 10 day tournament.
"There's obviously the fatigue factor," Lucia said. "They'll be running on adrenaline obviously this weekend with what's going on (at the World Juniors)."
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Minnesota would be happy with getting back the Casey Mittelstadt who shined at the World Juniors, leading the tournament with 10 points in 6 games and showing his elite skill against players in his own age group. (Corey Pronman of The Athletic named Mittelstadt his WJC MVP.) The Gophers would certainly be happy if Mittelstadt can join the countless examples of freshmen putting their game into the next gear after Christmas and do the same against players older than him.
(In a way Mittelstadt has been as he's leading all players his age in points while transitioning to college; one reason a Mittelstadt at the next level is such a tantalizing idea.)
More importantly, Minnesota would be happy getting back the power play. The Minnesota man advantage was anything but last weekend with the Gophers going 0-9 against Army. The 13.5% success rate is 53rd in the nation and by far the worst among Big Ten schools.
"Hopefully we can get one and break the seal. It's been tough not getting the goals, but it's important that we go out there and get the momentum and carry it on throughout the rest of the game," Minnesota captain Tyler Sheehy said. "That's something we're going to work on this weekend and throughout practice this week. Hopefully it works."
Lucia mentioned that he was going to try some different players on the power play (i.e. a Jack Sadek and a more comfortable Clayton Phillips, who Lucia said "has some things you can't teach" about his PP skills and was the catalyst for bringing him in midseason) and move others back to where they had previously had success last season, where the Gophers had a top-5 PP unit.
"We have to get better on that side of the puck because that's what has cost us. We've lost games giving up one or two goals and that's unheard of for us," he said. "This year it's been a struggle to score."
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In milestones: Mat Robson earned his first win and weekly award by being named the Big Ten's third star of the week. Don Lucia earned his 450th win at Minnesota on Saturday. Minnesota alum Vinni Lettieri got his first NHL goal in his NHL debut Friday night with the New York Rangers.
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This weekend marks the only two-game series for Minnesota against an in-state opponent in a a year where the team has less games against Minnesota schools. With the North Star College Cup done for now, the Gophers only face two of the four Minnesota schools this season. Minnesota opened the year against Duluth in the Ice Breaker tournament.
Along with the North Star's demise, Notre Dame being a Big Ten member has added four more conference games to further Minnesota's balancing act of playing its in-state and regional rivals with new opponents. In the future Minnesota State, Bemidji State and St. Cloud State will be regulars on the schedule, something Lucia made a point to say.
"Whether it's Bemidji or St. Cloud, Duluth or Mankato, they have to be on a rotation that we play them," he said. "We're on a pretty good rotation now with North Dakota just about every year, and then we want to rotate some teams in and out and have the flexibility to go out to the East Coast and play some of these teams we may not normally get to play."
Minnesota does have UMD on the schedule 4 of the next 5 years. The Gophers play North Dakota every season during that stretch. The Gophers will travel to Boston to face Harvard in the near future along with a trip to St. Lawrence and Clarkson next season. Lucia also hopes to bring back the Mariucci Classic, which was not played this season after being unable to get 3 other teams.
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Minnesota's home-and-honme series against the Huskies marks the first time Minnesota plays the #1 team in the USCHO poll since Janaury 2015.
If it seems like every week the Gophers face a top team, that would be the case. Playing SCSU means Minnesota has played each of the top 3 teams in the USCHO poll and 5 of the top 9. (The Gophers are 10th.) Only three series have been against unranked teams.
Minnesota has had a top-5 toughest schedule based on two metrics. According to RPI, the year is the fourth-toughest schedule of any team. KRACH sees the Gophers having the toughest schedule in the nation by far.
However, it's not like St. Cloud State has been facing cupcakes, either. The Huskies, unbeaten at home, are 2nd (RPI) and 7th (KRACH) with its schedule. Including this weekend, only one future opponent is unranked.
Now that you've completed reading the blog, first off, congratulations!
Second, remember that the Gophers do not play Friday. The series is a Saturday-Sunday series with Saturday's game in St. Cloud (a 6:30 pm CT start) being on CBS Sports Network. Sunday's game in Minneapolis (6:00 pm CT start) is being broadcast on Fox Sports North.
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