Doug Woog, the former Gophers hockey coach, is trying to stir up a little more interest in his old team.

His idea is a weekly gathering — before the remaining series at Mariucci — at Stub’s and Herb’s, a watering hole a few blocks away from the arena. The first such event, called Puck Chatter, was Thursday night.

I got an invitation to go and, since I don’t get many to anywhere, I went. The turnout was small but this was a new idea. Woog, now an analyst on Gophers hockey games for FSN, was there. So was Wally Shaver, the voice of the Gophers on the Gophers Radio Network.

Also there was Mark Bahr, the Hockey Operations Director, and two daily newspaper reporters including me.

Ex-Gopher Brian Bonin was the special guest. He talked about his playing days at Minnesota and in the NHL, in Europe and in the minor leagues.

There was also aquestion and answer session, a door prize for everyone, some talk about Gophers’ TV coverage, and a lot of jokes.

A good time was had by all, as they say. Other Puck Chatter events are played on Jan. 31 before the North Dakota series, March 6 before UMD and Feb. 21 before Wisconsin. Those are all Thursdays. The puck drops at 7 p.m. I plan on attending, so you can grief about what I write on this blog if you want.

MORE ON BONIN

Someone in the crowd actually had a Gophers jersey with Bonin’s name on it. Must have brought back for him.

He said he was in the mortgage business — but you know what happened there. Now he is pharmecuticals, has three boys. “I get to some games,” he said, referring to the Gophers. “It’s fun to be a spectator. You don’t get beat up so much.”

He saidhe was draftedby the Pittsburgh Penguins andone of his career highlights was playing in Wayne Gretzky’s last game.

Playing in the minor hockey leagues, he said, was a tough life. One season he would get 15 goals,the next 40 goals and all because he was playing with better players.

He said,despite what New York Islanders GM Garth Snow says, Kyle Okposo will not develop in the Islanders’ system. Hesaid minor league teams play so many games, there is not much time for practice. When they are not playing, those players often just rest.

And, on a minor league team, Bonin said, there could be two, three first-round picks, all fighting tomake it to the NHL. The competition is tough.

One other tidbit: Gophers hockey usually has between a 2 and a 3 rating, meaning 32,000 to 48,000 households in the Twin Cities watch the game. Until this season, the ratings for Gophers hockey were usually the same or better than thosefor the Wild. This season, the Wild’sratingsare better.

But the Gophers have some big series coming up with big rivals. So the ratings for their games could climb if Minnesota starts winning.

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 10th, 2008 at 9:22 pm and is filed under Gophers men's hockey. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.