0:05 This is The GPL Podcast, sponsored by Vintage Minnesota Hockey, your exclusive source for throwback Minnesota jerseys. 0:14 Visit vintagemnhockey.com. 0:19 Now, here's Hammy, Vego, and your host, Jupiter. 0:40 Good evening, and welcome back to the GPL Podcast. 0:45 We've been off for over a month now. 0:47 A lot has happened. 0:49 But really, the biggest thing that's happened, Vegoe, is that they went out, they finished their first part of the season, winning two at Michigan State, and then they won their own tournament, Mariucci Classic. 1:00 So, four straight wins for the Gophers. 1:03 Yeah, I think they took care of business. 1:05 I don't think Michigan State, Mercyhurst or UMass really were the cream of the crop this year for opponents. 1:12 But you didn't see Minnesota have letdowns in any of those games. 1:16 They got good goal-tending, good special teams, and that got them through the stretch. 1:21 It definitely did. 1:22 Hammy, it had been since, well, they obviously didn't play too many series in Michigan State over the years, but it had been since the late 70s, since they had two wins back to back at Michigan State. 1:34 Obviously, Michigan State is not the greatest of teams, but two wins on the road and conference is a big deal. 1:46 Yeah, absolutely. 1:47 I mean, I think the, I mean, as you said, they're not the greatest team in the world, but it always seemed like when we traveled, you know, up there, at least when it was the college hockey showcase, that was like the one game where the Gophers, for whatever reason, just didn't play well. 2:03 So it's nice to go up there and get a few wins, even if it's against a team that is pretty weak and you sort of expect to sweep. 2:11 Nonetheless, it's nice to execute on that. 2:13 And then, of course, coming back for the Classic and having a successful weekend there. 2:20 I mean, so four straight wins, I mean, you kind of like that and hopefully it will kind of create a lot of momentum for the second half. 2:27 Well, I certainly hope so. 2:29 Veegs, none of those players had won their own tournament. 2:33 They had been to Frozen 4, they had done so many things else. 2:35 They have won league championships, but none of them had won a Mariucci Classic. 2:42 No, you kind of got the sense that that tournament was something that they tended to look past. 2:47 You know, it was a series of games where they didn't play their best game. 2:51 They weren't disciplined. 2:53 You know, they didn't play good defense. 2:55 They turned the puck over too much. 2:56 I think this year's team did a much better job of managing the puck and not really letting these teams get into the games. 3:03 You know, you didn't see a ton of turnovers. 3:06 You know, when they were on the penalty kill, they worked as a unit. 3:09 And of course, the play of Eric Shearhorn has been much better. 3:13 I found out this week that he went back to his old pads from last year. 3:17 And whether that actually is an equipment change that is helping his game or if it's just a mental thing, you know, he looked really solid. 3:24 You know, he wasn't fighting the puck. 3:26 He was controlling his rebound so he looked confident. 3:29 And I noticed one thing you mentioned on Twitter after hearing from him, you know, obviously you listen to, he was on ESPN 1500 Monday night. 3:37 But he seems to favor smaller pads and he thinks it's a good idea. 3:42 Whereas obviously pads have gotten way out of control in the last 25 years. 3:48 Well, I mean, if you're 6'6, you know, 2 pounds, you know, you're going to put the biggest pads on. 3:52 You can because then you cover up more net. 3:54 Yeah. 3:54 You know, a shearhunter can put on as big a pads as he wants. 3:57 But, you know, he's, you know, 5'11, 6 feet maybe. 4:01 And he's not a real big goalie. 4:03 So when he goes down into his drop, you know, he'll leave a lot of the net open up top. 4:08 So he's got to be more athletic. 4:09 He's got to read the play. 4:11 He's got to get square of the shooters. 4:13 I think that kind of hurt him a little bit earlier in the year. 4:15 He was trying to over read the play, you know, and he wasn't honoring the first shot. 4:19 He wasn't getting set for shots. 4:21 I think he's a better goalie when he's a little bit calmer with his positioning. 4:27 This is for either of you, but do you think we're ever going to see any major reduction in pads? 4:33 I mean, obviously the size of the keeper, but there's got to be something done, isn't there? 4:42 Well, I mean, for me, it's like you hear about all the bragging about, oh, the goalies nowadays are so athletic and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. 4:51 It's like, okay, that's probably true. 4:53 They're probably much more athletic than they were, you know, 30 years ago or whatever when scoring an NHL and whatever was so, was a much higher. 5:02 But it's at the same time, you're like, the pads are also much bigger. 5:07 And if you look at like old school, like the North Stars in the 80s, like Don Beaupre or Jules Moulache or those guys, it's like they didn't have these big leg pads. 5:19 They didn't have like their uniforms weren't like making them look like they're 300 pounds. 5:24 And you know what I'm saying? 5:26 It's like it's ridiculous to me if they're that much better in terms of athleticism. 5:32 It's like, okay, then let's reduce the size of the pads and make them prove it, make them prove that they have greater quickness with their legs or their hands or whatever. 5:42 And but instead there's allowing them to fill up 80% of the net with way too much pads. 5:48 So yeah, I would like to see them reduce. 5:50 And it's not just the leg pads, you know, obviously they got the shoulder pads that stick up higher, their blockers are huge, their gloves are gigantic. 5:58 But you know, I do think though, Hammy, that they are more athletic and these goalies are a lot bigger than they used to be. 6:06 I mean, look at Devin Dubnik. 6:09 He's like one of the tallest guys in the NHL. 6:12 He's a big guy. 6:14 Yeah, well, and that's fine, but it's like still, it's like then make their pads, you know, make them a certain width that they can't exceed. 6:24 It doesn't matter how tall you are. 6:26 You know what I mean? 6:26 It's like you just allow there to be, you know, make it more of an athletic thing rather than having them just rely on, oh, I have all this extra padding, so I don't have to play my angles necessarily as tight or, you know, some of that, you know, or I can go out and challenge you guys a lot more because I have 10 pounds of, you know, pads on one leg, you know, let alone the rest of your body. 6:52 So it's just, it's ridiculous. 6:56 Any more thoughts on pads? 6:58 I know that they were trying to do the hockey equipment changes this year in NHL, but the manufacturers themselves couldn't produce things fast enough because it's not like there's a big market for small goalie gear. 7:10 If there's no rules, the goalies want them as big as they can. 7:13 I think the biggest thing in this pad tech revolution is the weight. 7:18 When Wally Shaver was in that, you know, he had deer hair in his pads. 7:22 If he would have played out in that game in California, the outdoor game where it was a downpour, he probably wouldn't be able to go down and get back up because there would be so much water in those things. 7:33 And that's really the biggest thing that's allowed them to make these pads bigger and bigger. 7:37 But for smaller goalies, they need to be agile. 7:41 Yeah, but that's also where, you know, they say, oh, it's for protection. 7:44 Well, that's kind of BS because these days, they're lighter, they're stronger, they protect better. 7:50 There's really, I think that's a lame excuse to say for protection. 7:55 I mean, we've been hearing that for years and I just don't think that's the case. 8:00 Well, having the goalie pants that are, you know, size 55 waist for a guy who's size 32 waist is not for protection. 8:08 So, yeah, otherwise it would fit me just fine. 8:10 Stop, they're breezers, stop. 8:16 I don't know. 8:17 Well, yeah, I was just, I just noticed that, you know, he had mentioned that, that he kind of prefers the smaller pads and I just thought it would be an interesting thing to talk about because, you know, I believe it was, was it someone on Hockey Night Canada a couple of years ago did a large demonstration of, you know, how much reduced these pads could be and yet still be very effective. 8:39 And, you know, I'm not sure who did it. 8:40 I just remember seeing a video on it, you know, a few years ago. 8:42 And they could easily make the pads, you know, not as wide. 8:47 And obviously, you fix things all over the place to tweak it, to make it a little more fair because, like you say, you got Devin Dubnek in that, just his body covers enough of the net. 8:57 You have these gigantic pads and, oh boy, there's a reason why he's leading the league. 9:02 It's just not, it's hard to find a spot. 9:05 Well, I think even a guy like Devin Dubnek, he said he's liked the better fitting equipment. 9:10 He doesn't like having something that's too bulky. 9:13 Now, he's a big guy. 9:15 But Corey Hirsch was the guy who did the thing on Hockey Night in Canada. 9:18 He said, it makes a huge difference when these guys have the oversized jerseys, the big armpit connectors. 9:26 It's almost like a wing when they put out their arms. 9:29 It's just, remember when The Wild played Anaheim in that series, in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, that goalie was a Michelin man. 9:39 He'd go down with his butterfly and his chest protector would pop up, you know. 9:43 It's ridiculous. 9:45 Oh, I remember that. 9:47 And I actually remember us, when we were playing for the Roobs, there were a couple of guys on some of the adult teams that had some gigantic pads. 9:56 I mean, that were just ridiculous in size. 10:01 Oh, Beer League. 10:01 Those are the days on Veegs. 10:03 Yeah, those were. 10:04 Are you still playing Beer League? 10:06 We tried to get the manufacturers on board with that, so. 10:09 You still playing Beer League? 10:11 No, the Roobs have disbanded. 10:13 Well, yeah, I knew they kind of disbanded, but I thought you might still play here and there. 10:19 Here and there, when I can. 10:21 I need to get out and skate. 10:22 It's been so long. 10:23 Too long. 10:26 So obviously, we've got the sweep over Michigan State. 10:29 Great for the standings. 10:31 They win the Mariucci Classic. 10:35 But, Veegs, you've been keeping track of attendance these last few years. 10:40 And, you know, the number of tickets scanned, the number of tickets sold. 10:45 All through last year, I do not believe they went below 6,000 of actual scanned tickets. 10:53 They've gone below 6,000 a few times this year, and I believe the Saturday night game against UMass, it was under 5,000, it was like 4,500 people scanned in for tickets. 11:12 They better start selling the Alarm Share Veegs because it's not looking good. 11:17 No it's not. 11:18 You know, New Year's Eve was a tough ticket with the Little Juniors and the Wild going up against Columbus, so that was probably a tough game for them to sell. 11:26 You know, they did do a pretty good job on the Friday night game. 11:29 You know, they had a decent crowd in there for that. 11:33 But there is just definitely this demeanor out there that Gopher Hockey isn't what it used to be and they are having a tough time selling tickets. 11:40 It'll be interesting to see the second half of the season. 11:43 They'll have more home games going. 11:45 You know, they're probably going to be a top 10 team here for the rest of the way. 11:49 And it'll be interesting to see if the ticket buying public responds or if they'll continue to ignore them. 11:55 I don't know. 11:55 I think I heard it right. 11:56 I think it was around 4,400 scanned. 12:01 Well, when your season ticket base is under 6,000, you've got to do something to get people to go to the games. 12:08 Hopefully, Mark Coyle is paying attention to this because it's either ticket prices or marketing. 12:12 They've got to figure it out. 12:15 I don't know. 12:17 All I know is that, you know, talking to a few people after that game that we better watch out because, you know, there's a lot of excitement by what's going on in Wisconsin. 12:28 I mean, they got their new coaching staff there. 12:31 There seems to be a lot more excitement than there was there before. 12:35 And before we know it, Wisconsin is going to be right back on it. 12:37 They're going to be filling that place. 12:40 And unless we get on it now, we better, I don't know what to say. 12:46 I mean, it's just getting pretty sad, Hammeh. 12:51 No one's showing up. 12:52 I mean, I understand the concerns about you wanting to have a great home ice advantage and fans into the game and all that kind of stuff. 13:00 I don't honestly feel that that plays much of a role when it comes to what happens on the ice. 13:06 You know, I think that part of it, you know, you kind of say what drives what. 13:11 I mean, is it the fans drive the atmosphere, which drives the team, or is it the team that drives the fans to the game and creates the great atmosphere because they're a really good team? 13:21 I mean, I suppose they kind of go hand in hand, but to me, this is an issue where, you know, obviously there was a little bit of blowback with the change of leagues. 13:31 That caused a little bit of it, but I personally think the majority of it is, I mean, you've priced out a lot of the hardcore fans that, you know, are going to want to go out for some beers and then go out to the game on the weekends and stuff like that. 13:49 Now they've priced a lot of people out or they've sold tickets to, you know, corporations or whatever that just aren't utilizing the tickets the way they should. 13:57 So I don't really feel like it's, and, you know, probably some of it's a little bit of complacency with, you know, as we've seen with Gopher Football in the last week alone. 14:06 I mean, when you get somebody in there that really has that rah-rah energy and, you know, can create some buzz, I mean, it does really help with, you know, the fans and the tickets and all that kind of stuff. 14:19 And obviously, we've kind of had a coaching staff that's been around for quite a while, and Lucia is not exactly the rah-rah type of guy. 14:27 So I think that certainly plays a role in it as well. 14:30 You have to have coaches that sell a little bit of the program and create some of that excitement as well. 14:35 Well, I saw a perfect example being priced out during the Mariucci Classic. 14:42 Vegoe, you might remember our old Rube and POI skater, Rodents Rule, don't you? 14:50 Yup, I remember Rodents. 14:52 Well, Rodents was at the Mariucci Classic with his whole family. 14:57 They used to be season ticket holders, but they've been priced out for the last quite a few years. 15:02 This is the first game they had been to in a long time, and really the only reason they came, they were given three tickets. 15:08 But, I mean, he's the perfect example, a blue collar fan who loves the team and just can't afford to go anymore because the ticket price is so much, you've got a donation to have a decent seat. 15:19 I'm sure a lot of people listening to us right now have been priced out of this. 15:23 I mean, some people could still afford it, but, and then on top of that, you know, it's starting to affect the bottom line, isn't it, Vegs? 15:29 I mean, we've got, the expenses for this program have doubled, at least, because of the travel of the Big Ten. 15:36 They can't take these cheap bus rides anymore. 15:38 They're always flying pretty much everywhere. 15:41 Attendance is down. 15:44 I'm guessing the bottom line is really starting to get damaged, isn't it? 15:49 I only think the bottom line will get affected as if we see more weekends like this past one throughout the season. 15:57 Up until this point, you know, they still were selling 9,000-plus seats. 16:01 So they're still giving a lot of people to buy the tickets. 16:03 It's giving people to show up that's been the issue. 16:06 You know, when they lose a season ticket base by about 1,000, that's losing donation money. 16:11 So I only think it is this, if this becomes a trend, it will become a problem for their bottom line. 16:17 But they are aware of it and they're trying to figure out how to solve it. 16:20 Well, I think the other thing you had to remember is it's a little bit easier to tolerate some of this when your TV money keeps going up several million dollars a year. 16:31 You know, granted, it's not strictly about hockey. 16:34 I'm just talking about the Athletic Department in general. 16:38 You never like to lose, you know, be making less money in anything. 16:42 But nonetheless, you're kind of able to offset that when you're getting such significant money from the Big Ten Network and all that kind of and whatever other kind of media rights they get, so I'm sure that that plays a part in it. 16:55 But obviously, yeah, you want to be able to turn that around. 16:58 And I personally, I just think that they need to do something about ticket prices. 17:01 I'm not saying that that's going to completely solve it. 17:03 Like I said earlier, I think it's a combination of things. 17:07 But nowadays, when you think about, I mean, I remember going to old Mariucci with my dad back in the 70s. 17:15 And it's like, I mean, of course, I didn't buy the tickets myself, but I can imagine that they're not very expensive for a dad to bring his son to a hockey game. 17:24 Five, ten bucks probably. 17:26 Yeah, I mean, now you compare that to back then to now, and it's a world of difference. 17:32 And even with, you know, even with the price increases that you're going to have just from inflation, you know, it's still way higher than what it would have been back then. 17:44 So it's just gotten out of hand. 17:47 Well, as usual, Nate Wells is listening to us live. 17:49 He says UW Wisconsin had hit 10,000 to 11,000 this past weekend against Michigan State. 17:58 Students were off. 17:59 That was more than the announced for the 2016 Minnesota Series. 18:04 So they had more announced there this past weekend than they did last season against Minnesota. 18:12 When they do the announced, is that what the actual attendance is? 18:15 Or is it the ticket price? 18:17 Yeah, that's ticket sold. 18:19 They don't even announce the attendance at Mariucci anymore because they know it's going to be booed. 18:28 I don't know because I saw some of Wisconsin games. 18:32 The one strength that used to be, obviously the students are gone, but there was no, it was pretty empty. 18:38 They might have sold a lot of tickets, but it was pretty empty. 18:42 During the school session, that student section used to fill the entire end of the arena there at Wisconsin, three decks worth. 18:52 Well, the other thing with Wisconsin is their tickets are $24. 18:56 Yep. 18:57 And $20 for upper level. 18:59 You can get discounts on group tickets. 19:01 So, they've got a bigger building, and they've had a lot of issues the last couple of years. 19:05 So, I think they've taken some drastic measures to try to increase interest in their program. 19:10 Yeah, but their tickets have never been expensive. 19:11 It's just, really, I think more with them is obviously the product on the ice. 19:17 If they start doing fairly good again, they're going to fill the call center again. 19:21 Which is good for Big Ten Hockey. 19:24 The Big Ten needs Wisconsin to be good to have a good conference. 19:27 Michigan is having a down year this year. 19:30 Wisconsin looks to be on the way up. 19:32 Yeah, well, before we get on to a few more questions via Twitter, let's listen to our sponsor. 19:43 vintagemnhockey.com is a proud sponsor of the GPL Podcast. 19:48 Well, what is Vintage MN Hockey? 19:50 Well, it's kind of the place to get all of your history of Minnesota Hockey, from the pros to the minors to the collegiate teams to even the high school teams. 20:00 All information about any of those teams can be found on vintagemnhockey.com. 20:05 They also have great interviews with some historical Minnesota hockey figures like John Mayessich and Lou Nani, Glenn Sonmore, some of the greats of Minnesota Hockey. 20:14 So make sure you check out those interviews. 20:16 It's a really great thing. 20:18 But as I always say, I think my favorite part is the store. 20:22 The store you can buy a custom historical jersey from the Gophers or the Bulldogs or some of your favorite high school teams. 20:29 And if you do make a purchase, just use the code GPL Podcast, all one word, and you'll get 10% off your order. 20:36 So make sure you visit vintagemnhockey.com and follow them on Twitter at VintageMNHockey. 20:44 Thanks to Vintage, our old pal Kyle Owen who runs Vintage may be a guest on the podcast next week. 20:52 So we'll have to wait and see if he can come on or not. 20:55 Not quite sure. 20:57 One thing that we've been trying to do is we've been trying to get Pat McAleady on and we're finding it a little difficult to get Pat on because some of the radio gods don't feel he should be coming on those type of things. 21:10 So, though Pat would be a great guest and would love to come on, it's a little tricky. 21:19 So I'll keep working on it. 21:20 We'll see. 21:21 Got some other guests. 21:22 They're intimidated by GPL, Big KFN. 21:26 Well, when's the last time you heard Kevin Gorg on the air on KFN? 21:32 Start of the season, maybe. 21:33 Are you complaining about that? 21:35 I'm not complaining about it, but he used to be regular guest on there. 21:39 And ever since he started his own podcast, I don't believe they've had him on the air. 21:45 So I think they're kind of doing the same thing with Pat Micheletti. 21:47 They say, you want to do something else? 21:50 You're not going to be on the air. 21:51 So I think Pat wants to stay on the air. 21:53 So he's not going to risk it and I don't blame him. 21:55 Nate Wells has another question. 21:57 He wants to know, how'd the rest of my New Year celebration go? 22:01 You missed it this time, Veegs. 22:03 We actually occupied a suite after the Mariucci Classic game. 22:09 It was quite fun, quite entertaining, a lot of good stories. 22:13 You didn't miss much, Nate. 22:16 It was a good time. 22:17 How was your guys' New Year's? 22:18 Do you guys have to do anything fun? 22:21 Ami? 22:22 I did not. 22:23 I was mellow this year. 22:27 I guess I look at it as amateur night. 22:28 I'm staying off the roads, staying out of trouble. 22:33 I did plenty of the New Year's thing when I was younger, so I've got that out of my system. 22:38 It had actually been a long time since I had been out. 22:41 I don't think we left the building until about 2.20 in the morning. 22:47 I was walking, I was going to the ramp. 22:50 I'm like, why are all these people out here? 22:52 So many people. 22:53 Well, it's been so long since I've been out so late that I didn't figure that bars are just closed. 22:59 Everyone's going home. 23:01 Yeah, it's not 1 o'clock like it used to be when we were going to the bars. 23:06 Yeah, so it was a little odd. 23:08 Of course, I live out in South Dakota. 23:09 I didn't get home because I had to drop somebody off at their house. 23:12 I didn't get home till 3.15 in the morning. 23:15 Boy, it's been a while since I've been out that late. 23:17 So it was a good time, Nate. 23:19 It was nice that you could join us along with your girlfriend. 23:21 So we got to meet Nate's girlfriend, Veegs. 23:24 She's very lovely. 23:27 That's nice. 23:27 I know that Nate got some tickets from someone who just got engaged. 23:31 So someone who just got engaged? 23:33 Who could that be? 23:35 Yeah. 23:36 Brian Deutcher, congrats to him. 23:38 Brian Deutch. 23:40 He might be listening. 23:41 He's had a stressful week. 23:42 Oh boy. 23:44 Deutchie got married. 23:46 Well, not getting married. 23:46 He got engaged. 23:48 Deutch is what we'd call the old SID basically. 23:51 Basically the head media person at the U. 23:56 At least for hockey. 23:57 Looks like he proposed to his girlfriend right at Center Ice at Mariucci after Skate with the Gophers. 24:03 Looked like there was nobody out there. 24:05 So very cool, Brian. 24:07 And congratulations. 24:09 That's pretty exciting. 24:11 Don't see something like that every day. 24:12 So hopefully you're listening, Brian. 24:14 And congratulations. 24:17 A goofy question, and I'm just going to read it. 24:21 Doug Mantle wants to know, is a hot dog a sandwich? 24:27 I don't even know where that one stands from. 24:29 I don't know either. 24:31 Vego is- 24:31 It's got two slices of bread, kind of. 24:34 It's got meat in the middle. 24:35 So people like to call it a sandwich, but it's simply a hot dog. 24:38 It's simply a hot dog. 24:40 The usual lunch meat is not the dog. 24:43 That's what it's uniqueness. 24:45 Well, there you go. 24:47 I saw that. 24:48 I just had to go with it. 24:49 But more serious question, State of Hockey, he's always sending us questions. 24:54 If you always want, you can send us questions anytime. 24:55 If you're listening in live or in between, on the off days, just use the hashtag GPL Podcast, and we'll try to get it on the air. 25:04 Obviously, we've got Nate. 25:06 He tweets us all the time during the show, giving us facts and figures. 25:10 If you're listening live and have anything for us, just tweet at us. 25:14 We'll talk about your topics and try to answer your questions. 25:17 Anyway, State of Hockey wants to know, Vegoe, your second half MVP for this team will be? 25:25 Well, I think it's going to be Eric Shearhorn if this team is going to do something. 25:28 He didn't have a great first half. 25:31 His goals against is like 2-7. 25:33 His save percentage is under 90, and they still perform pretty well as a team. 25:38 If he can get those numbers above 90 and under 2.5 the second half, this is going to be a dangerous team to play against because they've shown that they can score goals. 25:48 They've got good penalty killers. 25:49 They've got great power play guys. 25:52 They've got depth this year, which is nice to see. 25:55 They've got a lot of defensemen who can move the puck and get involved in the rush. 25:59 But I think for this team to step up and be one of the top five, six teams in the country, they need better goaltime aid. 26:07 And that's going to come on his shoulders. 26:10 What do you think Cammie? 26:11 Who is going to be the MVP? 26:13 Do you have anyone besides Sheeran? 26:14 Because I think that is the perfect pick. 26:17 Yeah, well, right. 26:17 I mean, exactly. 26:19 So I was going to go, personally, I think Justin Kloos, mainly because I think obviously being the team leader, captain, a guy that, you know, certainly we've seen get very hot. 26:30 I mean, in terms of, he's had stretches over his college career where he's done very well. 26:36 And I think that he's always been, you know, he bleeds maroon and gold. 26:41 He's had opportunities to leave and stayed because, even coming into college, he had better scholarship offers. 26:48 He wanted to be a gopher. 26:49 So I have a feeling that he's going to want to go out with a bang and do really, really well and play really well. 26:55 And so if I had to say anything other than goalie, I would go with the captain. 27:01 And I think you might see a good weekend for the captain come up against Michigan. 27:08 He's been playing on a stacked line lately. 27:12 And I think we might see him with Pitlik and Burstett this weekend. 27:16 And I think that can be really beneficial for clues to have a hard worker like Burstett on his line with him and then a sniper like Pitlik who needs to shoot the puck more to be effective. 27:26 I would completely agree. 27:29 I know they've been telling on that. 27:30 But boy, ever since game one, or I think it was game one or game two when he sniped that goal, I've wanted to see more of that. 27:38 And he seems set on setting people up. 27:42 I think you've mentioned that the coaches have told him to shoot more, haven't they? 27:46 Yeah. 27:47 And they've been on him. 27:48 Maybe having the captain on the line with him will help him get that through his head and convince him to start firing the puck on that more. 27:54 But he's a player who's going to have a lot of chances this weekend if he plays with those two. 27:59 Okay. 28:00 Hammey, I got a question for you. 28:02 What's the word on the Canadian goalie coming in next year? 28:05 Do they want him to split time with Shearhorn? 28:07 That's from Tim Hapke, who's always tweeting us questions. 28:11 They bringing in a Canadian goalie next year? 28:14 Well, I think it's a matter of we've kind of seen that we don't have anything really behind him at this point that's going to make you feel with confidence in case Shearhorn gets injured or if he has a poor stretch or whatever. 28:28 You want to have something that's going to provide some competition and some opportunity for somebody else. 28:34 And so, I think obviously Shearhorn's going to come into the season being the starter. 28:42 And I wouldn't expect otherwise. 28:44 But certainly you want to have a guy that can come in and feel confident about whether it's alternating starts early in the season or coming in because of an injury situation or whatever it might be. 28:58 So I think that that's really what it's going to end up being. 29:01 I don't think unless Shearhorn completely falls on his face next year, I still expect him to be starting the majority of the games. 29:08 Of course, we'll see how the second half goes here, too. 29:11 So there's still this season to go and he's got things to prove. 29:15 Hopefully, the way he's played recently will be a good sign. 29:19 And I see you're tweeting right about it right now, Vegoe. 29:21 The Canadian goalie is Matt Robson. 29:25 Yep, Nate Wells tracked down an interview with him and his coach and got some great stuff for the Pioneer Press and it's a good background piece on him. 29:35 But I do think they need someone to come in and give him, to give Shearhorn some pressure and he can't just have a goalie out there without anybody pushing him. 29:44 Because if you have some mental issues like he seemed to have this first part of the year, you need someone to go to. 29:49 And you thought it was going to be Nick Lair, but his last two appearances have not been great and just kind of showed when Lucia put him out there and then pulled him back off the ice that putting a different guy in there is not going to solve the problem. 30:04 So they've got to get Shearhorn right and hopefully next year if they have any similar issues they'll have someone they can go to. 30:10 Well we're only four games into the Big Ten season. 30:13 Obviously in the first half of the year you've got tons of non-conference games and obviously we'll have the North Star Cup coming up in a few weeks. 30:21 But Hammy, we're finally getting into the heart of the Big Ten schedule. 30:28 Right now it's pretty much Wisconsin winning Minnesota and Penn State all at the top, all with nine points, four games. 30:38 But our opponent this weekend, Hammy, Michigan, one and three in the Big Ten and they are struggling. 30:46 And this is something we haven't seen out of Michigan in a long time. 30:52 Yeah, I mean, usually, you know, Michigan's, you know, they've always lost players early, but they've usually done a pretty good job of filling those spots in with some young, you know, talent that's really high level types of blue chipper types of guys. 31:06 And they just really haven't got that this year. 31:09 They haven't had those guys that are really those breakthrough studs that are scoring at a pretty high clip. 31:15 And, you know, as soon as they get into college and they lost, obviously, a ton of last year's team. 31:21 So it's just one of those things where, you know, we used to talk about it. 31:26 If you get that high end talent, you know, it's one of two things. 31:30 Because you better either capitalize on that small window that you have it, or you better reload very well. 31:37 Because if you don't, you're going to find yourself in trouble. 31:40 And the Gophers, you know, ran into that for a few seasons. 31:42 And that's kind of what we're seeing here with Michigan this year. 31:48 Do you think Red's going to retire? 31:51 Is the rain going to come to the end here, Veegs? 31:55 Well, it's kind of tough. 31:56 You know, he's getting up there in age. 31:58 He and Lucia are some of the longer tenured coaches. 32:01 But Red's got a few years on him. 32:04 It's tough when you lose a CCM line like that to the NHL and have to replace that many players on your team. 32:11 The surprising thing, though, is that their special teams have been pretty good this season. 32:15 You know, they're top 15 and both nationally. 32:18 They're just probably not scoring enough, playing well enough 5-1-5, and getting good enough goal-tending to be consistent. 32:25 So I think Minnesota needs to take advantage of that this weekend. 32:29 Michigan's gonna be without one of their leading scorers, Will Lockwood, with a shoulder injury from the GLI. 32:34 So that's a big miss for Michigan, is they don't have a lot of adept this year. 32:41 Well, I'm gonna say flat out, Minnesota needs to sweep this. 32:47 Obviously, I predicted that in the past. 32:48 Ooh, they got a sweep, but this Michigan team's down. 32:51 And like you said, Veegs, they need to take advantage of this. 32:54 They need to get the full six points this weekend, put Michigan behind us for good for the year, and keep building on this momentum. 33:02 But they started, you know, starting in December, Veegs. 33:07 Yeah, definitely. 33:08 It looks like Michigan's gonna be one of the bottom half teams in the Big Ten this year. 33:11 And when you get a team like that in your home rink, you gotta take advantage. 33:15 You know, Penn State did the same thing early in the season. 33:19 Wisconsin split with them. 33:20 So I think to separate yourself in the Big Ten, you can't give away points to a team like this. 33:26 You think in sweep? 33:30 Yeah, I think a sweep is the expectation. 33:33 You know, Minnesota played well with their power play on the rush. 33:37 I think for them to really separate this weekend, and you'd like to see a little more in-zone time. 33:43 I'd like to see Tommy Novak get back on the score sheet. 33:45 I think he's gone pointless in six games. 33:48 I think part of that is, you know, they may be out thinking themselves on the power play, putting him in a spot with four other guys rather than starting the power play with Novak. 33:58 You know, he is such a dynamic player on that off wing when he has the threat to put it towards the net or pass it to one of the guys on the umbrella. 34:05 I think when you put him on the other side, you're just handcuffing him and limiting the options of probably one of your best playmakers on the team. 34:13 So it would be interesting to see if they can put him back on that off wing this weekend and get him going again. 34:18 Because I think he is an important player in the second half. 34:20 I don't really see him as an MVP type player, but I see him as an important piece. 34:26 Veegs, you've got your degree, correct? 34:29 Yep. 34:31 St. 34:31 Olaf College. 34:32 Can you be the next coach at University of Minnesota? 34:35 I don't think so. 34:38 Not going to happen. 34:39 I don't know. 34:39 You seem to have some pretty good solutions here. 34:42 Yeah. 34:43 It's a little bit harder to tell people what to do and to get them to do it. 34:47 Of course. 34:49 I don't know. 34:50 A lot of times you see a lot of things that maybe the coaching staff is not seeing, but who knows? 34:56 I don't know. 34:57 I think sometimes if you get too close to the situation, you think Novak can do so many things well. 35:04 You feel like you're not handicapping yourself by putting it on the other side. 35:08 But when he goes pointless in five, six games like this, put him in a position to do what he does well. 35:14 I know that's one of the things Potomaly talked about with the World Junior Team, is he wanted to put guys in positions where they were comfortable and they could do well. 35:22 That was the priority there. 35:25 You're building this Gopher team to be really good at the end of the season. 35:29 You got to find ways to put guys in positions to do what they're comfortable. 35:33 Yeah. 35:34 Definitely do. 35:36 Hammy, what do you think of Sweep, I hope to? 35:39 Yeah. 35:39 I mean, the Gophers, even when Michigan's got some pretty good talent, always seem to play in pretty well. 35:45 They do. 35:45 The styles match up pretty well. 35:47 And we kind of like that wide open type of game. 35:51 And Michigan type tends to play that over the years. 35:54 And I just think that we match up very well. 35:57 We have a better team than Michigan. 35:58 We'll be at home. 36:01 Shearhorn seems to be riding the ship. 36:04 It's a little early. 36:05 It's held full time yet. 36:06 But it seems to be in that direction. 36:09 So I expect a sweep this weekend. 36:12 I'd be disappointed if we don't get that. 36:15 So six points, folks. 36:17 Bank it right there. 36:19 You've heard it from us first. 36:22 Bye. 36:26 Veegs, I think a lot of people are still missing out on probably what is the best tournament in hockey. 36:31 And that's the World Juniors. 36:32 And obviously, Team USA brought home gold again. 36:37 It was, they were a great team. 36:40 They went 7-0 in the tournament. 36:43 And obviously, people in the United States don't care. 36:45 But my goodness, is this a great tournament? 36:50 It's a spectacular tournament. 36:52 I got to talk to Matsukawa before the team was announced. 36:55 And he said, one of the reasons it's so great is because when players make mistakes, the opposing team always has talent to capitalize. 37:03 If you see somebody turn over the puck, the other team has skill to finish and threaten the goalie. 37:09 And that makes every game exciting from start to finish. 37:13 Three goal leads aren't safe in the World Juniors because you'd make three turnovers, you have a tie game again. 37:18 And you have all these guys who are trying to impress all the NHL brass that's there, impress their teams that they've been drafted by or improve their draft stock. 37:27 And they're trying to make things happen. 37:29 And it's a lot of fun. 37:31 I think one of the best things about this US team was they just had so much talent. 37:36 A lot of times, USA Hockey has gone to these tournaments where they have two scoring lines and two checking lines. 37:41 That wasn't the case. 37:42 I mean, Troy Terry was I think on their fourth line for much of the tournament. 37:47 And he was spectacular. 37:49 Stone cold, jeez. 37:52 They showed that talent wins out. 37:55 And they played really great. 37:57 They played a lot of possession hockey. 38:00 You saw them cycle the zone a lot, even against Russia, you know, a team who probably created possession hockey. 38:06 They did. 38:07 They brought the game right to them. 38:09 It was fun to watch. 38:09 And I'm so glad that it's on TV. 38:12 And it was great to have it in Canada with good game times. 38:15 Just a spectacular tournament. 38:17 Hammeh, do you follow that tournament at all? 38:21 You know, I'm not a diehard about it. 38:23 I guess, you know, I like, much like college teams, I kind of like to take a break over the holidays. 38:31 And so I didn't watch it carefully. 38:33 And I honestly don't generally watch it carefully. 38:37 Maybe when it starts getting more into, you know, the late rounds, so the semifinals and the final stuff, I might get more involved in it then. 38:46 But yeah, I mean, obviously, I understand it's a... 38:49 And I've watched enough to know that it's very high skilled and exciting. 38:54 But for me, I don't know what it is about it. 38:56 It just, I've never, you know, I just never have gotten into it to the level that a lot of other people do. 39:02 So just a personal thing, I guess. 39:06 I think it kind of started building up, you know, when you had that one, you know, that one junior tournament where you had somebody like, you know, you had a Sidney Crosby and an Ovechkin and all of those. 39:16 What we see as superstars now. 39:19 We're in this tournament. 39:20 And then it started being on TV more. 39:22 We'd see it more. 39:24 For me, it's just a Team USA thing. 39:26 You know, I love the Team USA. 39:30 It's like bringing guys together. 39:32 It's for the United States. 39:34 It's really the only time I watch soccer is when Team USA is on. 39:37 I don't follow all these other soccer leagues and stuff like that. 39:40 But when it's like World Cup or anything, it's, you know, US based. 39:43 I don't know. 39:43 It's just maybe it's my patriotism gets out there. 39:46 I'm not really sure. 39:49 But I think the thing for me that I don't like is just I can't stand deciding games, especially gold medal games, important games on shootouts. 40:00 I just can't take it seriously. 40:02 I just, you know what I mean? 40:04 I know that that's how, you know, it's not like the US is one. 40:06 I mean, Canada is one that way. 40:07 US. 40:08 So I'm not trying to, you know, spew any kind of thing because of one reason or another like that. 40:14 It's just I don't, I don't like, it's one thing if it's a regular season game or maybe even the non, you know, the early round games or something like that. 40:23 Fine, whatever you need to do. 40:24 But to me, when you get a game like that, you need to finish it off with the way the game is supposed to be played, not with, you know, kind of a skill competition. 40:35 I just don't agree with that. 40:36 And that's the one thing I hate about international play, whether it's Olympics or whatever, I cannot stand deciding important games. 40:44 But with that, I just, I think that's part of my discrepancy. 40:48 I completely agree. 40:49 And when you see somebody like a Mike Modano tweeting out how terrible a way it is to end a tournament, there's definitely something to it. 40:59 Obviously, maybe in the previous rounds or even, you know, in the semifinal, I don't mind. 41:03 Since they're going to be playing the next day, at this, like in this tournament, I think a semifinal, you could go to shootout to determine champion. 41:09 But when you're in the gold medal game, you're in a championship game, uh, Veegs, shootout sucks. 41:16 Sure, it might be exciting, blah, blah, blah, but it's just not the same. 41:21 It's not the same, but at the same point, you know, these international tournaments aren't the same thing either. 41:26 You know, all these players belong to other teams. 41:29 You know, Tyson Yost came back and played two games this last weekend. 41:33 Luke Cunning came back and decided he couldn't play Friday, and so he just played one game on the weekend. 41:38 You know, I get the point where I'd love to have that gold medal game just be five on five until somebody wins, but it's just not the way these international tournaments are run. 41:47 You know, they don't have the control over these players, and, you know, you might see more players get held back out of the World Junior, you know, if they went to these long over times and players got hurt or something. 41:58 They do have investments in these players, and, you know, it's just a one-off tournament. 42:03 And, you know, for all the things that are awful about shootouts, you know, you have these great moments like Jocelyn Taves had for the Canadian team against the US or Peter Forsberger in the Olympics when he made that postage stamp shootout goal or Troy Terry this year for the US. 42:18 You know, you do get these situations, and, you know, it's not great for a sport that we all watch and follow, but I understand it at the same time. 42:27 You can only play so much over time. 42:29 Yeah. 42:29 Well, for me, for me, though, I get that. 42:32 But for me, if you're going to call it a world championship and you're going to hype it to that level and you're going to make it a big deal, an important thing among the hockey community or whatever, then finish it off with the actual game. 42:46 I mean, if you just want to say shootouts up until the final, fine, but to me, when you're battling that hard or whatever, to have it come down to that kind of a situation, to me, it cheapens the whole experience. 43:01 I want to see the game settled by actual gameplay, not some kind of a skill competition, one-on-one kind of a thing. 43:10 It's like to me, it's like having a free throw contest be what decides a basketball game if you don't win it in the first overtime, or a one-on-one battle and basketball, to settle a basketball game. 43:25 I don't know. 43:25 I just think it's a joke. 43:29 Well, no matter what, it was entertaining. 43:32 Obviously, Terry, who plays for Denver, he went five hole every time. 43:38 One of those five holes against Russia, he had to sauce that shot. 43:45 He had to lift it up about three inches off the ice to get it over the stick. 43:49 That kid's got ice in his veins. 43:53 He was unbelievable. 43:54 Just unbelievable. 43:56 Even TJ. 43:57 Oshie gave him a little thumbs up on Twitter after that one. 44:01 Just go nutmeg every time is pretty amazing. 44:04 Most guys, they have a move where they want to shoot, they want to deke, or they want to go upper left on the backhand or something. 44:11 But he's just amazing confidence. 44:15 And then you have the fact that Parsons stopped five Canadians from scoring. 44:21 Not one single goal by the Canadians in that gold medal shootout. 44:26 Obviously, the last one was easy stuff, but he had some tough saves in there. 44:30 And when you're going against Canada, these kids have a lot of skill. 44:34 And the fact that he shut them out is quite the feat. 44:39 Yeah, he had a really impressive tournament. 44:41 You know, I thought USA Hockey had three good goalies. 44:44 And they obviously picked the right one for the big games, because he was really solid. 44:49 A little surprising to see a CHL guy get that nod there, but he came through. 44:54 He was big for them all game against Canada. 44:58 Well, like I said, people, if you're not watching it, make sure you tune in next year, because it's always good stuff. 45:05 It'll be in Buffalo, New York next year, so you're still going to have a ton of Canadian fans there, screaming like crazy. 45:11 Unfortunately, you'll have an outdoor game between USA and Canada. 45:14 Don't get me started. 45:17 Hopefully, it doesn't rain. 45:19 Yeah. 45:21 These outdoor games, I'm kind of sick of them, but I hope it won't. 45:24 Oh, well. 45:25 Veegs, you sent me some audio today that we're going to put on the back end of the podcast. 45:29 What are we going to hear? 45:34 Did we lose, Veegs? 45:37 I don't know. 45:38 Did we? 45:38 I think we lost. 45:39 Did you lose to me? 45:40 I'm here. 45:41 There you are. 45:42 We didn't hear you for a second there. 45:43 I was just asking you. 45:45 You captured some audio today from the media day, and what are we going to hear at the end of the podcast? 45:51 You'll get Don Lucia talking on a variety of subjects from what his team needs night in, night out from Shearhorn, congratulating Grant Petone winning his second gold medal of Team USA's four World Junior medals. 46:07 You'll also hear him talk a little bit about Tracy Clay's and how coaches these days have a lot more to deal with than they used to, which I thought was interesting. 46:17 We'll get Grant Petone talk about the World Junior Tournament, how the Wild have the best prospects in all the tournament with Greenway and Cunnington and Ericssonac and Kirill Kaspersov. 46:30 He thought that guy is just incredibly electric and Wild fans should be looking forward to having him come. 46:37 You'll hear about Bischoff, talk a little bit about what this team needs to do on the second half, shutting teams down, grinding pucks, and complimenting Ryan Lindgren on his game. 46:48 And it was actually Bischoff who let us know that Lindgren was in the hospital when he came back from Canada and had to be in there for a couple of days because he lost about 10 pounds and wasn't able to keep anything down and had a strep throat. 47:02 So a lot of good stuff in there. 47:04 As always, we appreciate you getting that audio. 47:07 Obviously our live listeners won't hear it, but you can always just download the podcast after I post it here in a little bit. 47:14 I always put all that extra audio that Vegoe captures on the end so you can have a listen to the coach and the players. 47:19 So any other final thoughts this week, Hammeh? 47:25 No, I mean, I think it pretty much captured earlier. 47:27 I just think that we have a good chance to sweep. 47:30 I think we should sweep, and hopefully the guys will execute. 47:34 Veegs? 47:36 Yeah, it'll be interesting to see what they do with the lineup. 47:38 I'm not sure how many guys have gotten this illness that's been going around the team. 47:42 Zoldorf and Lindgren are two of the guys who, Don and she had talked about, she he mispracticed today. 47:50 So they've been juggling the lines. 47:51 Looks like Luke Noderman will get another shot in the lineup. 47:54 So things to watch there. 47:55 A lot of competition for spots in the forwards and the D. 48:01 All righty then. 48:02 Well, as usual, you could follow Hammy on Twitter, at Hammy Hockey, EV. 48:07 Go on Twitter as well. 48:10 We'll be back next week. 48:11 We'll recap what I think is going to be a sweep of Michigan. 48:14 We'll have to wait and see. 48:15 And then we'll preview heading out to Bucky Badger and the Badgers in Wisconsin. 48:21 Until then, thanks for listening. 48:48 How does it feel to get back playing games again, and like you like it? 48:50 You know, I was thinking about that walking in today, that we've had two games in almost a month. 48:55 You know, it's such a long break. 48:57 We're always gonna have our break for final exams in Christmas, but the first time we've ever had an off weekend, you know, this quickly, the first weekend of January, you know, part of it came at a good time, because, you know, we didn't have Lindgren, and he ended up being sick anyway, and couldn't play in that gold medal game, and then Zulfdorf was sick last weekend, so we had some flu go through us. 49:17 The negative is that we don't have another off weekend the rest of the year. 49:19 It would be nice to have it sometime in February, where we maybe get a couple of nicks, and you could use a week off, but we're anxious to get back to playing games. 49:26 I think the continuity of, you know, Monday through Thursday practice, playing Friday, Saturday, the rest of the year. 49:32 This has been a fun get together, too, in the annual get together this weekend. 49:38 Yeah, I mean, I really enjoy playing Michigan. 49:40 They're always good games. 49:42 You know, they're going to play an uptempo game. 49:44 They don't sit back. 49:44 They're going to attack. 49:46 They got a younger team, and they got hit hard by, you know, five guys leaving last year, some outstanding guys that are playing in the National Hockey League this year. 49:54 But we know how important the games are. 49:56 I mean, we're sitting in a pretty good spot, but, you know, like anything, you got to continue to win. 50:00 You win games, and everything else takes care of itself. 50:03 So we got a four-game stretch here with Michigan, and then Wisconsin, then two more non-conference games, and then we're back in the conference. 50:09 So, you know, the way I look at it, we have four-game segments here within the conference play. 50:14 We're three-and-one in the first one, and hopefully we can do the same in the next four. 50:18 Shearhorn had such difficulty with consistency early on, but you got two very solid starts from him here in Mariucci Classic. 50:24 Do you see anything different from him, like Benino? 50:26 Well, I mean, I kidded him today. 50:28 He looked like a goalie again in practice, and he had two good games against Michigan State before break. 50:33 I think the break was good for him. 50:36 I thought he played well. 50:37 To me, that was the biggest bright spot of the Mariucci, that he had two real good back to back ends, where he only led in one, but it wasn't like he had 15 shots and he had 30 shots each night. 50:47 And he looked square, he looked strong, he looked comfortable, and that's what we're going to need from him. 50:53 I think he's going to have a big say in what we do here the second half. 50:56 Special teams have been really good lately, both power play and penalty kill. 51:01 What's made that come around? 51:02 Well, I think we've worked on it a lot. 51:04 I think we've worked on our penalty kill this year more than probably ever before. 51:08 Mike does a really good job with that. 51:10 I know he was frustrated, and we put in a lot of time, two or three days a week. 51:14 We're working on it the same way with the power play, and that was a point of emphasis when the year began, is to make sure that we have good specialty numbers and no power play sitting 24% or so on the season. 51:25 We've killed off the last four games, every power play, and I think that coincides with Eric playing better, because your goaltender is always your best penalty killer. 51:33 And if he plays strong in that situation, it's going to go a long way to help our penalty kill numbers. 51:41 So, some good stories with Grant and with Ryan? 51:44 You know what? 51:44 I just saw Ryan for the first time today, when he walked in right before practice, because he was down and out pretty good here for about four or five days. 51:53 And obviously, shared stories with Grant, and it's a special honor for Grant. 52:00 The US has won four gold medals, and he's got two of them, which is really special. 52:04 And he knew, we talked this summer about, they had a good couple of birth years, they knew this was going to be a good team, but you still got to go into Canada and try to win. 52:11 And being involved with USA Hockey on a number of teams, there's nothing better than sitting, playing Canada and listening to your national anthem at the end of a game. 52:20 And so it was an honor for those guys. 52:23 I'm really happy for the staff. 52:25 Grant and Lingo, even though he didn't play in the gold medal game, he was obviously a key defenseman for their team throughout the tournament. 52:34 How would you assess your team defense, Don? 52:36 You like the kind of support the guys are getting there? 52:38 Yeah, well, to me, the first thing I look at is shots against. 52:42 And we're 25, 26, so that's the number we want to be at. 52:47 Scoring chances, they've gone in the right direction recently. 52:51 The big thing we have to make sure we do a good job of is with our forwards of our reload game, our back check game, identifying who we have and not getting caught. 53:01 Hockey's become so much a game of trying to beat people up the rink, especially with maybe the defensemen getting up into the tack. 53:07 So, you know, it's just not the first forward's job to get back anymore. 53:11 I mean, the second, third forward have to make sure they don't get beat up the rink by the D. 53:15 And, you know, that's happened to us a few times early in the season. 53:17 I think we did a better job of that recently. 53:20 And that has to be a point of emphasis from here on out. 53:24 The long periods of time that you haven't had games, how do you make sure you continue that momentum that you kind of had? 53:29 Well, I mean, it's hard to. 53:30 I mean, it really is. 53:31 And that's always the worry that first game back are going to be a little bit rusty. 53:36 You know, we went down to Mankato and didn't play very well that Friday after a couple of weeks break. 53:40 It took us a while to get our legs in the Christmas tournament. 53:42 But I thought we practiced well. 53:45 Last week, we took one of the days off. 53:47 We practiced on Saturday. 53:48 I think we changed our practice. 53:50 We had a special team practice. 53:51 We did a lot of small games. 53:52 We're getting into some of those small games. 53:54 They start to compete with each other, which is important. 53:57 And this week, we've tried to go hard but shorter. 54:00 And all of a sudden, you know, when we look at the back half of the year, we're trying to keep our practice around 75, 80 minutes so our guys are fresh and have good legs on the weekend. 54:08 Is everybody healthy and ready to play this weekend? 54:10 Yeah, I mean, we still got some question marks with some guys that are sick. 54:15 We missed one guy at practice today, so we'll see whether, you know, how he's doing tomorrow. 54:19 You know, again, this is Lindgren's first day on the ice since, you know, playing Russia way back last Thursday. 54:26 So you know, it took him about five days to get over it. 54:29 So we'll see where we're at with that. 54:32 But other than, you know, if somebody's got a bout with a flu, then I mean, everybody else is physically healthy. 54:38 Is that guy missing flu related or? 54:40 Pardon? 54:40 Reporter- 54:40 Is that guy missing flu related injury? 54:42 Oh, we don't have anybody injured. 54:44 So it's Gopher Puck. 54:45 Yeah. 54:47 Reporter- 54:48 Norman didn't get a lot of ice time in his first game. 54:50 But do you see him being part of your four? 54:52 Yeah, I do. 54:52 I think that, I think he did a good job. 54:55 I mean, unfortunately, you know, for the first time since probably the first couple weeks of season, there was a lot of penalties in the game. 55:01 And I don't know if they got a new letter that say, start calling it tight again. 55:07 But it was a pretty tight standard in the games in our tournament. 55:11 And all of a sudden, you know, we're killing off six and we're getting six power plays. 55:15 So a lot of the game was specialty. 55:16 So he didn't get a lot of minutes. 55:19 He got an assist, he made some plays. 55:21 But he just, right now he needs reps and he needs minutes. 55:24 And, you know, he's still got to, you know, press for ice time. 55:27 But we like what we're seeing in practice. 55:29 We think he's getting better. 55:31 And so he's going to continue to get opportunities. 55:33 I'm not saying he's going to play every night, but he will continue to play. 55:36 When the letter sent to referees like that to call it tighter, did they communicate that to you as well? 55:40 Are you in on that when they say they're going to, you know, call this? 55:43 Well, yeah, well, I mean, yeah, we were included. 55:46 But like when the year began, you know, you don't realize what the standard was going to be. 55:50 I mean, I remember we were playing up in Alaska and waiting for our game to start. 55:56 And with the time change, I start looking at box scores. 56:00 And I was like, oh my gosh, there's 10 power plays, 15, I got to remind our guys right before the game. 56:06 But you know, this is what's going on around the country. 56:09 And I did talk to the referees before the game. 56:12 They said, yeah, we've been instructed to call it tight. 56:14 And I don't have a problem with that. 56:17 But you know, I don't know if the standard starts to ease back during the course of the season. 56:22 I mean, you see that in the NHL or the big question mark always becomes, is the standard different in the playoffs than the regular season? 56:30 And I think you could probably say that in all sports as the game get magnified, maybe they let a little bit more go. 56:35 With such a different Michigan team this year, is there anything different you've done in prep this week? 56:39 No, I mean, so much of it is all about our team playing with pace and how we're going to play and how we want to play and what we need to do to improve. 56:47 We just got to get back into the rhythm of our season. 56:50 And I think that's the big thing right now that, I mean, when you have two games in a month, you're just you're not in rhythm. 56:55 And just the rhythm of even go back to school next week, we get back in the class on Tuesday. 57:02 And so it's just you have more normalcy where you have your class, you have your studies, you go to practice, you play your games on Fridays, Sunday, you take a breath and then it begins again on Monday. 57:13 And we just, we got to get back in that routine. 57:16 We got to get back in the routine of Friday, Saturday of playing and continue the evaluation process of, we've got 70 that have played a lot, 14, 15 forwards that have played up front. 57:28 And there's pressure to perform for our guys that we have some depth and people are getting pushed and nobody's entitled to a spot on a line or entitled to a spot in the power play. 57:39 It's you execute, you perform and you get to keep your spot. 57:43 This new football coach in town, have you met him yet? 57:45 No, I have not met him. 57:47 I have not, I didn't see any of the press conferences or you know, I didn't even read any of the art because I don't get the paper so, sorry. 58:00 Maybe I'll, I usually read it more in the off season than during the season. 58:05 Yeah, that's safer. 58:07 You watch Channel 4? 58:08 Yeah, I do watch Channel 4. 58:10 I'll do a shout out for Channel 4. 58:11 Yeah. 58:12 Especially the morning show. 58:15 But you know what? 58:17 I feel bad for Tracy with what we do and it's such a hard profession. 58:22 It's what we do becomes more complicated each year. 58:26 I don't know if there's a handbook on how to handle some of these situations that we're faced with today. 58:33 That's something that's ongoing. 58:34 I know that those are issues that we talk to our team about all the time, and we actually had Ryan Westrom was a former player and he came in and spoke. 58:45 It was set up in November, so the timing was right because he has his PhD in that area. 58:51 And I did a nice talk for 35, 40 minutes. 58:54 And the guys have to understand what the expectations are and just reinforce. 59:00 I always tell our guys, don't do anything you wouldn't want your mom and dad to know. 59:04 And somebody asked me, what are our team rules? 59:05 I said, that's kind of our team rule. 59:07 Just don't do anything you wouldn't want mom and dad to know. 59:09 Because mom and dad know what you're doing and you're okay, then I'm okay with it. 59:12 If you're doing something you don't want mom and dad to know, you probably shouldn't be doing it. 59:17 The money just blow you away in five years, close to 19 million? 59:20 I said, I think his wife loves him four times more. 59:28 Thanks, college, you did a great job. 59:33 How did it evolve? 59:35 What's it like now to play in the juniors? 59:37 Because now people watch it because it's on TV and we used to just get the box score and find out a day later. 59:43 But I would imagine now it's viral to you and the text and everything else say it must have been a surreal experience. 59:48 It was outstanding. 59:49 I think after the game, I had 137 text messages. 59:53 The good thing is USA Hockey right now is in a great place. 59:56 You think back 10, 15 years ago, the kids on the team were from Minnesota, Michigan and Massachusetts. 1:00:01 Now we got guys from, we had kids from St. 1:00:04 Louis, we had kids from New York, we had some kids from Texas. 1:00:06 So USA Hockey is in an outstanding place. 1:00:09 And I think the expectations have changed that now we expect them at all. 1:00:13 So going into it, I think there's a different feel, not only in the room, but hopefully within the country. 1:00:18 What was it like to work with Mott? 1:00:20 Bob was great. 1:00:21 We had a lot of fun. 1:00:22 He was just very calm. 1:00:24 The whole time, you know what, he never had any moments where he let anything show to the guys and everything that he was selling, they were buying. 1:00:32 So it was fun. 1:00:34 Are we to the point where US is right there neck and neck with Canada? 1:00:37 Or is this just one of those unique years? 1:00:38 I mean, you think about Bess are not even playing or Chuck not even playing. 1:00:41 Yeah. 1:00:42 Or is it to the point, year in and year out, US talent at that age level is comparable to Canada? 1:00:47 I think definitely. 1:00:48 I think we go into that now with the expectation of winning. 1:00:51 And the one thing that we talked about with our guys is we're playing against men. 1:00:57 So we had 20 kids playing college hockey that had played against men all year. 1:01:00 So that for us is, we need to use that to our advantage. 1:01:03 And I really think that our guys did a nice job, especially our forwards, just trying to wear people out and wear people out and wear people out at the end of the tournament. 1:01:13 I think that we had kind of ground down some of those teams in the end. 1:01:17 What kind of benefits can the college game see from the success in the tournament and this intense interest in it? 1:01:24 I think one for sure is I think it gives the American player and the college player a little bit of a spotlight on them. 1:01:31 And I think the NHL has taken notice. 1:01:34 You think you get the draft and you look at, we're guys with free agents now, have been a hotter commodity. 1:01:41 So I think it's almost kind of pulling the curtain back a little bit on how great the college game is and what we can expect going forward. 1:01:49 What do Wilde fans have to look forward to seeing the number of the US players in and around the world coming to Minnesota? 1:01:58 And I'm not just saying this because I'm a Wilde fan and we're in Minnesota, but they had the best prospects in the tournament, bar none. 1:02:04 The two guys that we had, Greenway is NHL ready. 1:02:07 He's an NHL body. 1:02:09 He's a big man. 1:02:10 I think you might see him next year. 1:02:13 I think Luke Cunning is NHL ready. 1:02:16 He's a leader. 1:02:17 He plays 200-foot game. 1:02:20 He's kind of a guy. 1:02:21 He can plug anywhere. 1:02:22 And then the two Europeans, Eric Sinek is somebody that the Wildfens have already seen. 1:02:28 But the Kappershoff, the Russian, was electric. 1:02:32 He's the guy that we haven't had. 1:02:35 Maybe coming through here, you look at Teresenko or some of these other guys. 1:02:38 He has that skill set and that ability to just break a game open. 1:02:42 I was nervous when he was on the rink. 1:02:43 I can promise you that. 1:02:44 You think Greenway, he's ready right now, I guess, physically 6'5. 1:02:48 Yeah, yeah. 1:02:50 I think he's physically ready to play in the NHL. 1:02:53 Can he do it consistently over eight games? 1:02:55 That will be the question. 1:02:57 But he's an outstanding prospect. 1:03:00 We were talking about the fact that he got him in the second round, which you think now, you look back through that, he's a guy a lot higher now. 1:03:08 Mots told me he walked over to the bench, I don't know if it was Russia or Canada, just said I'm going to be here all day, boys, and it's kind of like the tough guy in the NHL and real comforting to a coach. 1:03:18 Oh, it was the whole time we played Canada, he was talking to their team. 1:03:23 He had them off their game, and not only to get them off their game, the first time we played him, he scored a goal and an assist. 1:03:29 So he can make a hockey play too. 1:03:31 So he's kind of more, you think back, he's like the old flyer legion of Doomline. 1:03:37 He's that kind of guy that can make a play, but he can also hurt you. 1:03:41 What was the biggest challenge in so many games in such a short time for you guys as coaches? 1:03:47 Rest. 1:03:48 How do you manage the rest? 1:03:49 And we were, we wanted to make sure we kept practicing because we felt we were playing at a high level. 1:03:55 So we wanted to get on the rink and keep that push going and that pump going. 1:04:00 But how do you give you guys a break too? 1:04:03 That was the biggest challenge. 1:04:05 Where are you off? 1:04:06 In what days do you take off? 1:04:08 How do you structure practice? 1:04:10 Some of those things. 1:04:11 Is there anything that you kind of take away from that experience that you can bring to Minnesota for the second half? 1:04:20 I think it's a different, you know that tournament is all about what's next. 1:04:25 You know, I think in a college program you're coaching for the end of the year because that's what you're judged on and that's what your guys are hoping to get to. 1:04:33 But in that tournament you're just trying to figure out what's next and get your guys prepared to play next for what's next. 1:04:40 And I think some of that mindset can be healthy at times and park what's happened and just worry about what's next. 1:04:50 You know, and kind of more live in the moment I think it can be something that we could take out of that. 1:04:54 With you here in Monsaco at St. 1:04:57 Cloud, how does that help recruiting to get guys to come to Minnesota? 1:05:03 I think for the most part our recruiting base has always been Americans and we do have in the past had a couple of Canadians, but for the most part that's our recruiting grounds. 1:05:16 So the more that you can be around USA Hockey and be part of USA Hockey, it gives you an opportunity to touch some of those special players. 1:05:23 So I think it's something that definitely both programs will try to capitalize on. 1:05:27 Even though you primarily were at the forwards, did you see any big strides made by Lindgren at the tournament? 1:05:33 Ryan was outstanding. 1:05:35 You know what, he played an outstanding tournament. 1:05:37 He was, at the end of the game, he was out there with McEvoy trying to shut other people's best players down. 1:05:42 And he did a great job in the penalty kill. 1:05:45 And if you would have told me that, you know, when we were to play Canada for the championship, when you're not going to have Ryan Lindgren, then you're going to take six penalties, I would have been really nervous. 1:05:54 I mean, when you think about, you know, he's built for that game. 1:05:57 Like, he's on the team to stand up to the big bully. 1:06:00 And, you know, not having him in that championship game was a big blow for us. 1:06:05 Ryan was outstanding, you know, I was really happy for him. 1:06:08 And I think people got to appreciate his game a little bit more. 1:06:12 You know, you see him in an environment like that. 1:06:14 And not in Minnesota people, but just, you know, hockey people in general. 1:06:18 I think you can appreciate him when you see him in those type of games going, wow, he can shut people down. 1:06:23 Hey, Sean, ready? 1:06:26 After three more years of college. 1:06:30 Anything else? 1:06:32 Thanks, Coach. 1:06:33 Thank you. 1:06:35 I'm guessing it's a little easier. 1:06:37 This is a year to prepare defensively against Michigan up the CCM line. 1:06:41 Yeah, you know, obviously they lost those guys. 1:06:44 All three of those and their whole team last year really was definitely really skilled offensively, so a little more preparation. 1:06:51 But I mean, we can't, this year we still can't take anything lightly, you know. 1:06:54 We still gotta prepare just like we would for any other game. 1:06:58 Did you have a time off good, bad, indifferent that you didn't play for a while? 1:07:02 Um, yeah, you know, I think the rest was good. 1:07:04 I think obviously Christmas we were able to go home and spend some time with the families, and then Mariucci Classic, then another week off. 1:07:12 I know, just get arrested, I think that's what I mean. 1:07:15 Mindset, just get rested and get ready to go. 1:07:18 It's gonna be a long holiday. 1:07:19 We play nine weeks in a row here coming up, so, yeah, I think the rest was good. 1:07:25 How do you continue momentum that you guys had, you know, before the break and into these next few games? 1:07:32 Um, yeah, you know, it's tough. 1:07:33 I mean, obviously, with all the time off, I think momentum maybe dies a little bit, but we just need to stick with it, you know, and almost, you know, start over, build off of what we had, and then come ready to go this weekend. 1:07:45 I think we've had good practices, and we've been working hard, so just build off of that, and hopefully have a good weekend this weekend. 1:07:54 You guys have worked so hard on special teams this season, but your five-on-five play has been pretty even, plus-minus-wise. 1:08:01 What's it going to take for you guys to get over the hump on that, play better in zone? 1:08:05 Yeah, you know, I think, obviously, lots of things, but I think we just need to work, keep working on the offensive zone, you know, we need to keep getting pucks behind the DA. 1:08:14 I think that's huge when you can wear down other teams defensemen, get the puck down low with the forwards, and obviously get the D involved with the play, but if you can wear out their D, I think that helps a lot 5 on 5 once they start getting tired. 1:08:30 Justin Leeds, the Nation in shorthand goals, what does that speak to about his, just the type of player he is? 1:08:36 Yeah, I mean, he's an unbelievable player, I've been lucky to play with him the last four years, and obviously good friends with him too, but just being able to watch him play, it's something special, that's for sure. 1:08:46 He's such a great player, he'll take hits and just keep going and keep going and keep going and put the puck in the back of the net, just more than often than not, I guess, but yeah, he's fun to watch, that's for sure. 1:09:00 How did you spend the off weeks? 1:09:01 You watch any games or anything? 1:09:03 Yeah, just, I mean, we're not in school right now, so the last couple weeks have been pretty laid back, and yeah, just watch hockey games, hang out with the guys, guys go shopping, that kind of stuff. 1:09:17 Did you guys watch the World Junior together? 1:09:18 Yeah, we did. 1:09:20 It was a great tournament. 1:09:21 It was obviously fun to watch and fun to see, and USA win, and obviously Petone and Lindgren, too. 1:09:27 Has Lindgren been under isolation since he's been back, or you guys get to talk to him about the experience? 1:09:33 Today is the first day he's actually been with us. 1:09:35 He's been under the weather, obviously, you know what we did in playing the championship game there, so obviously must have been pretty serious to keep him out of that, but I mean, I think he's been in the hospital the last couple of days, but today we got to see him, and obviously congratulate him in person and stuff, so it was pretty cool. 1:09:51 What did you see in his game during the tournament? 1:09:56 You know, sort of the same stuff I see here with him, playing with him every night, you know, he's such a great player and just works so hard, especially in the defensive zone. 1:10:04 He was telling offensively too, but I think obviously the strong part of his game is just shutting people down and he'll, in the defensive zone, if you're more than one against him, you're not getting the net and you could just see that even at the World Juniors. 1:10:17 He shut people down, he was great blocking shots, you know, playing the body, that kind of stuff. 1:10:22 He's definitely really hard to play against if you're forward on the other team. 1:10:26 You don't want to go against him. 1:10:28 Eric Sheerhorn has put together a couple of pretty good weekends here in your last couple of series. 1:10:32 How much of a boost do you guys get when he's on top of his game? 1:10:36 Yeah, you know, obviously when he's playing well, it helps the rest of our confidence too, you know. 1:10:41 I mean, knowing that he's back there and, you know, giving back us up when we can't handle a play is great to know as a defenseman especially. 1:10:51 But yeah, I'd just like to see him keep going. 1:10:54 Obviously, he's been playing really good lately, so if he can keep that up, that'd be awesome. 1:10:58 Thank you. 1:11:00 Bishop, you were in the hospital the last couple of days? 1:11:03 Yeah, I was pretty sick. 1:11:06 I went off a trip from Montreal and Toronto, so yeah, I spent a couple of days in the hospital. 1:11:11 I mean, what was going on? 1:11:12 I mean, how tired was it? 1:11:14 I mean, it was, you know, I had a virus that, you know, caused me to be, you know, throwing up and I had strep throat. 1:11:23 And, you know, I just wasn't really getting any better. 1:11:26 So just, I think they wanted to keep me there just to, you know, watch me a little more and make sure I was getting better. 1:11:33 So, you know, I'm feeling good now. 1:11:36 What was the experience like being able to be on the ice and represent the World Juniors? 1:11:40 And it may not have been the best way you want to be celebrating on the ice after not playing, but what was that like? 1:11:46 Yeah, it was unbelievable. 1:11:48 You know, being back in that USA sweater was really special. 1:11:53 It was a tournament, you know, growing up, I always watched and I always wanted to play in. 1:11:57 It always seemed like a really fun tournament to play in. 1:12:00 And for us to win gold in the end was pretty awesome and pretty special, even though I wasn't able to play in the game. 1:12:08 I was still able to go in the locker room after the game and celebrate with the guys and celebrate with my teammates. 1:12:13 So, you know, it meant a lot and it was pretty special. 1:12:19 Grant thought it was kind of an advantage for college guys to be playing in the World Juniors, playing against the older players here and then getting younger guys. 1:12:25 Did you notice a difference from the college game to the World Junior game? 1:12:30 Things you're going against? 1:12:32 I don't know if I noticed a difference. 1:12:34 You know, maybe college helps me, you know, be ready for a competition like that, because, you know, obviously playing in the World Juniors, it's the best players in the whole world, under 20. 1:12:47 So, you know, playing in such a great league, you know, with college hockey, I think it just kind of helps you be ready and kind of know what the competition is going to be like when you get there and play at World Juniors. 1:13:02 How much did the illness take out of you? 1:13:04 Do you feel like you might have some issues this weekend with your conditioning? 1:13:09 You know what, I'm not sure. 1:13:10 You know, I practiced today. 1:13:13 You know, I felt all right. 1:13:14 I'll practice tomorrow and, you know, I guess we'll make the decision after that. 1:13:19 I'll probably be ready to play this weekend. 1:13:23 But, you know, I feel like I should be ready to go. 1:13:26 Did you lose a few pounds with the illness? 1:13:27 I did, yeah. 1:13:28 I lost about ten. 1:13:29 Did most of it back yet or? 1:13:31 I haven't weighed myself in a while, so I'm not sure, but I'm working on it. 1:13:37 Can you go back to the national team, the junior team? 1:13:42 It was a really cohesive group, and some would find that kind of surprising, given that you don't spend that much time together. 1:13:51 How did that come together? 1:13:52 How did that team come together, and did it all go back to summer when you first had your first camps? 1:13:58 I think it goes back to, you know, a lot of us played with each other at, you know, NTDP. 1:14:04 So, we knew a lot of each other from them. 1:14:06 And, you know, even the older guys, you know, we were there a year when they were there. 1:14:10 So, you know, we knew a lot of them. 1:14:13 And, I don't know, it's just a close group when you get there. 1:14:15 You know, you're all working hard for one common goal. 1:14:18 So, I think, you know, everyone buys in. 1:14:20 And, you know, you're there with each other for so long. 1:14:23 I think, you know, you get to know everyone. 1:14:25 So, you know, I think we matched pretty well, you know, pretty quickly. 1:14:29 And it was, you know, a really great group of guys. 1:14:31 You know, there was no, you know, outsiders or no clicks or anything like that. 1:14:35 So, I think that helped us out a lot. 1:14:36 But, yeah, I mean, it was just a great group. 1:14:39 So, I think it was just easy for everyone to, you know, just kind of mesh together. 1:14:45 You had gotten a lot of compliments from coaches. 1:14:48 And did your play suffer from being sick? 1:14:53 And could you have been better in the tournament? 1:14:58 Well, I think I got, you know, I started feeling sick. 1:15:01 Like the night before the Russia game. 1:15:04 And then, you know, throughout that day, I could just tell I wasn't feeling great. 1:15:07 The trainers were trying to help me out and help me with fluids and taking different meds and stuff like that. 1:15:14 And that Russia game, you know, I don't think I was at my top form. 1:15:19 I wasn't feeling my complete best. 1:15:22 But I did everything I could to give it my all. 1:15:27 But, yeah, and then after that game, I could just tell, you know, I wasn't able to play the finals. 1:15:33 You know, that's when I started throwing up and stuff like that. 1:15:35 But, yeah, I don't think I was 100% that last game against Russia. 1:15:40 But before that, you know, it was my best.