Wednesday was media day for Gophers’ hockey. Coach Don Lucia, his captain Ryan Stoa, the two newly named assistant captains Ryan Flynn and Justin Bostrom and goalie Alex Kangas, the team MVP last season, sat behind a long table and talked about the season.

In his opening remarks, Lucia said his team was real young, but real talented.

“We have a lot of new players this year with a dozen freshmen and Ryan Stoa returning off of his injury last year,” Lucia said. “In reality, basically half our team is new this year. So it is going to take some time to develop the chemistry and figure out who should be playing with who.”

(Look below for Wednesday’s line and defensive pairings. We got ‘em by watching practice.)

“But at the same time, I think we have a great corps of leadership with Ryan Stoa as our captain,” Lucia said, “and certainly with Justin and Ryan as assistant captains.

“I am really looking forward to this year. The one thing I have seen with this group so far, I think we have a pretty high skills based on what I have seen so far in practice.

“We’ll try to play a little more pressure hockey. We want to get up on our toes, be skating more. Last year we tried to protect our defensemen and play a little more conservative style than we played in the past. I think we want to get back to playing what Gopher hockey has been historically. We are in a better position to do that this year.

“And that may take some time, that may mean some mistakes early in the season with guys getting caught but at the same time, in the long run, this team will be better suited to that style of play. At least we hope so.”

Lucia, in this speech as in previous conversations, also tried to take some pressure off his 12 freshmen. “The young guys have been very welcome additions,” he said. “More than that I think I have seen a change in some of the older guys, the juniors and seniors. They look more confident, they had a great summer in the weightroom. They come in in very good shape.”

Lucia likes the physical condition his 27 players are in, too. “Based on 10 practices, when you look at those six one-hour practices we had, I think we made some good progress,” he said.

(NCAA rules permit a certain number of one-hour practices with coaches before official practices began Oct. 4. In the U’s case, they had six.)

“I think we can skate pretty well,” Lucia said. “I think it will be a fun year with this group. There doesn’t seem to be many egos. We really seem to be a team this early in the season which is great to see.

“As we all know, the WCHA will be as good as ever. The one thing when you look at, we have a good schedule, 20 of our 34 games are against teams that were in the NCAA tournanment a year ago, but that is the kind of schedule we should have at the University of Minnesota. [We have] not only a great league schedule within the WCHA [which had a record six NCAA tournament teams], but certainly with our non-league schedule with games against UNH [Hockey East champion New Hampshire] and Michigan and Michigan State.

“I wish we had a few non-conference games to begin the year, but we don’t and that’s just the way the schedule is this year.”

The Gophers begin the season with a home-and-home series with St. Cloud State on Oct. 17 and 18, then travel to Wisconsin on Oct. 24 and 25.

LINE RUNDOWN

Here are Wednesday’s lines:

Maroon, the top line: Highly touted freshman Jordan Schroeder centers juniors Ryan Stoa and Jay Barriball. … Stoa is the team captain and a left wing. Barriball was the Gophers leading scorer as a freshman with 20 goals and 43 points but slipped to six goals and 21 points last season. … Last season the Gophers opened the season with Kyle Okposo centering Stoa and Barriball but that line was broken up in the second game when Stoa suffered a season-ending knee injury.

Gold, probably the second line if these alignments don’t change: An all-junior line, with Mike Carman, who was academically ineligible the first half of last season, centering Tony Lucia, the coach’s kid, and Ryan Flynn.

White, probably the third line: Freshman Nico Sacchetti center sophomores Mike Hoeffel and Patrick White. Lucia expects Hoeffel and White to become much bigger contributors to the offense this season. Both showed glimpses of their skills last season, especially late.

Green, probably the fourth line: Freshman Tyler Matson centers senior Justin Bostrom and freshman Jake Hansen. … This line often kills penalties and is a checking line.

Blue line, everybody else: Four players mix in and out on this line. Junior Drew Fisher was the fourth-line center most games last season. But freshman Nick Larson on this line can also play center. It also had two freshmen wings, Joey Miller and Michael Dorr.

Lucia said he has spots for 12 forwards every game, but has 16. So four are going to be unhappy every game. But more than 12 will certainly get a chance, Lucia said, because injuries are almost inevitable.

He said forward Evan Kaufmann, who was a senior last season, didn’t play a game as a freshman until Thanksgiving. But then he got his chance, played well and by his senior season was an assistant captain.

Oh, almost forgot about defense.

These were Wednesday’s pairs most of the practice, although sometimes they switched around:

Probably the top pair: senior R.J. Anderson and freshman Aaron Ness. An experienced player with a highly touted kid.

Another talented pair: Freshman Cade Fairchild and junior Dave Fischer. Lucia expects a lot from both of these player. Fairchild started out real strong last season, especially offensively but stopped getting points the second half. Fischer is a former Mr. Hockey. He came into Division I hockey a little lean but now is 6-3, 203.

Promising pair: Sophomore Kevin Wehrs and freshman Sam Lofquist. Lucia said Wehrs is much improved over last season. Lofquist has a lot of offensive potential.

A developing tandem: Junior Brian Schack and freshman Grant Scott. The Gophers’ version of the Bash Brothers in the Mighty Ducks movies. Schack is 6-2, 225. Scott is 6-3, 220. Schack was the odd-man out in a lot of games last season. Grant is making a switch from forward to defense. He might be the next Stu Bickel, a player who will dish out punishment and lead the team in penalties. … One of these players gave Stoa a push in the back after a play in front of the net, and Stoa responded with a light swing of his stick. Nothing serious, just a quick message from the captain that he won’t be pushed around.

All three goalies played in the practice. I expect sophomore Alex Kangas to start Friday’s exhibition game against the University of British Columbia and play a half. Then freshman Kent Patterson will come in and finish.

But I could be wrong. I didn’t predict who would be named assistant captains right. I missed on both. Senior wing Justin Bostrom and junior wing Ryan Flynn were named Wednesday as the players who will wear the ‘A’.

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