This Week is Tom Gorowsky Week

I was going to make this "Everbody Hates Minnesota Week" or "Say Something Nice about Minnesota Week", but then I thought "duh" and "why bother?".

Instead, in anticipation of Tom Gorowsky's likely making the lineup this weekend, I have deemed this "Tom Gorowsky Week". Accordingly, I plan on having a little TG post each day this week. And although the week was not officially designated as such yesterday, we kicked things off with "The Next Man In", discussing the likelihood of Tom's taking the ice this weekend.

Today we have some comments from #15 himself, as he was kind enough to chat with me a bit.

Having not really seen Tom play yet this season (outside of the Hockey Night at the Rink scrimmage in which he scored a Tom-tastic shootout goal), I asked Tom what aspects of his game he worked on during the offseason. He answered, "I focused on my skating and being more explosive." That's good to hear, as Tom's skating was previously one of the weaker aspects of his game. He said he spent less time on the ice this summer so that he could clear his head of last season's frustrations and enter this season with a renewed enthusiasm for the game. He continued on to say, "I'm in better shape than I have ever been and feel like when given an opportunity I can have a huge impact."

Clearly Tom is hopeful for this weekend and excited about what he can contribute to the team. He emphasized that he has a strong hunger and desire to win, and he hopes to showcase that, along with his goal-scoring ability, in the upcoming series v. minnesota. Sounds good to me!

Tom also commented on the change in the pace of the game with the officials calling the game tighter. He said the new game benefits skill players, saying, "It's a great time to play if you're a skill player, especially since there is so much more special teams." He further acknowledged the new game is exciting from a goal-scorer's perspective, but he said he misses the "old game" where players had to be "tough".

I tend to agree with Tom -- I can't believe some of the ticky-tacky calls made last weekend, and there were a number of times when I just wanted to refs to let the boys play. But, as Mike Eaves pointed out in his Monday presser, it makes sense to call the college game similarly to the NHL game. And I'd like to point out that you can still make huge hits on guys, as long as the hits are clean. Gandalf indicated that McDonagh had some huge hits this weekend, and on Saturday I saw PJ make a huge open ice hit on somebody. So Tom, feel free to show your toughness this weekend against the gophers -- just make sure your hits are clean so you don't end up in the box!

Thanks again to Tom for his graciousness in sharing his thoughts with us. Here's hoping that Tom does in fact make the lineup this weekend and is able to take full advantage of the opportunity. Good Luck, Tom!

(Photo courtesy of Redheat15. Note to Redheat -- please get some new pics of TG this weekend so I can stop using this pic from 2006-07!)