0:05 This is The GPL Podcast, sponsored by Vintage Minnesota Hockey, your exclusive source for throwback Minnesota jerseys. 0:14 Visit vintagemnhockey.com Now, here's Hammy, Vegoe, and your host, Jupiter. 0:39 Thank for. 0:40 Good evening, GPLers, and welcome to this week's GPL Podcast, number 117 on the docket here tonight. 0:50 We've got Hamme back after he was doing a little road trip on the East Coast. 0:54 Did you enjoy your East Coast trip for businesses past week there, Hamme? 0:59 Yeah, I guess it was, wanted to accomplish a bunch of things, and got those things accomplished, so I guess I can't complain. 1:05 Spent a little time in DC, I assume, maybe in the White House. 1:09 Oh, yeah. 1:10 I went to Philly for a few days, and then drove down to DC area for some work stuff, and decided I would take a little trip around the White House area. 1:20 I had been there once when I was a kid, but I hadn't been there as an adult, so what the hell? 1:25 I had a little bit of time to kill. 1:26 Yeah, Washington's a town I need to go back to. 1:28 That's just a wonderful town to visit. 1:30 I bet you, you know, mid-October, it was pretty nice there, wasn't it? 1:36 Yeah, I mean, it wasn't quite as, you know, falls, leaves changing color kind of a thing as we have here at this time of year, but it still was pretty cool. 1:46 You know, it's definitely had that kind of East Coast, you know, vibe with the trees and all that kind of good stuff. 1:53 It was kind of nice. 1:55 So we missed you on the podcast last week, and we talked about, obviously, the North Dakota series that happened since then, and Vague's like, we kind of predicted a split, maybe not kind of how we thought it would turn out to be, you know, a 2-1 win Friday night for Minnesota, a 4-0 shutout Saturday night, a lot of complaining about refereeing, a lot of complaining about TV, a lot of complaining about the specialty teams from Minnesota. 2:25 So we kind of have quite a bit to talk about tonight. 2:30 Yeah, it was a big series, you know, a lot of eyes, at least, were looking at the game and the results. 2:37 And Twitter was certainly active. 2:39 Minnesota came out on Friday and got the lead, which was important, and then they played like it. 2:46 I think it was one of those games where we saw Minnesota was pretty cautious with the puck and with their play, and they set that back and defended quite a bit. 2:56 Yeah, I mean, obviously, the refereeing, I would say, was probably worse Friday night than, well, who knows? 3:04 A lot of people were complaining about the refereeing, and I know you took a look at some of the plays that should have been called, maybe when Middlestead was cross-checked right in front of the goal and wasn't called, and then he ended up not playing the next night. 3:16 We also had a couple other controversial calls Friday night that could have cost them. 3:21 Obviously, Wally had a great time Friday night describing one of the plays when Romanco was taken down. 3:28 Wally got kind of excited. 3:30 Come back on the point for Pesky, who lost it? 3:47 Oh, boy, Wally. 3:48 What the hell? 3:49 No call? 3:50 I know you went back and looked at that Romanco thing. 3:52 I think you were kind of on the edge on that, Veegs, but classic Wally Shaver screaming how he feels the play was should have been called. 4:03 And then luckily, you know, Minnesota did survive that and scored a goal after that. 4:08 But I know the coaches were not too happy about how things were called Friday night. 4:15 Well, it's just the inconsistency. 4:17 You know, you have a lot of stuff happening after the whistle. 4:21 I think there's also some frustration probably with the Gopher players getting called for all their stick infractions throughout the weekend. 4:28 So it's a little bit of frustration with their own players and then the calls on the ice where, you know, maybe it's not impacting the play very much, but there's a quick whistle on it. 4:37 I thought the Romanico penalty, you know, was kind of one of those toss up ones. 4:42 It's one of those deals where he does get caught. 4:45 I think the North Dakota player did use some leverage to help get himself even there and definitely, you know, got in his way as he tried to get a shot off and didn't ultimately. 4:56 And then there was the Phantom Ryan Norman penalty that allowed North Dakota to get a power play goal. 5:01 That was just kind of a no contact thing there. 5:04 There was... 5:05 Yeah, what happened to the Norman thing? 5:06 Cause I didn't see Friday night's game. 5:07 I don't recall what Wally said about that. 5:10 Cause I was only listening to the audio. 5:11 What happened in the Norman, the big Phantom call that I heard about? 5:15 Yeah, but it looked like, you know, the North Dakota player tried to avoid Norman as he came through for the neutral zone and they raised their arm on it. 5:25 You know, Norman came close to making contact with them, but he ultimately didn't. 5:30 And they still got the penalty. 5:32 Oh boy. 5:33 And that did obviously cost them a power play goal on Friday night. 5:37 And then North Dakota did put on a lot of pressure at the end there, Veegs. 5:41 And thanks to a lot of guys in front of him, you know, guys blocking shots, you know, doing the things they need to do to win. 5:49 They ended up winning that game. 5:50 And the kind of game that Lucia likes for them to play, a very blue collar effort, getting out there, a good effort, good defensive posture, and obviously even making it through the bad calls. 6:03 And it's something that Lucia is trying to get them to do that they couldn't do on Saturday. 6:07 But Friday night, it was good. 6:10 Yeah, sometimes in these series, you know, you just gotta button the hatchet here and make blocks. 6:17 Ramsey came up with a huge one in the last nine seconds of the game. 6:21 He led the forwards with four blocks. 6:23 As a whole, the team had 29. 6:25 You know, it reminded me a lot of their game with North Dakota last year on Saturday when they had the two-nothing win. 6:31 You know, they didn't give up any in that one, but they played a very similar style. 6:36 They got out to a good lead, and then they managed the game and played great defense. 6:40 I think if you look at the two games, the shots and blocks are probably about the same. 6:46 Well, one thing, Hammy, is that we moved to Saturday. 6:49 Gophers lose four-nothing, and clearly what was a special teams game for the Gophers. 6:54 And I know you didn't get a chance to see the game, but people complain, oh, the refing was terrible. 7:01 This shouldn't have been a five-minute call. 7:03 But you know what? 7:05 You're not going to win unless you score, no matter how the game turns out or how many public calls are against you. 7:14 North Dakota did get three power play goals, but you know what? 7:16 They did get one even strength goal. 7:18 And the Gophers couldn't get anything, Hammey. 7:20 So Saturday was definitely not a good game for the Gophs. 7:26 Well, I mean, if you take penalties, you don't kill them. 7:29 I mean, special teams obviously is a huge thing, especially, I think we kind of knew coming into this year that there was going to be some limitations, especially on a power play unit. 7:38 We don't have like that power play quarterback that's an obvious stud back there that can run things and kind of get everybody situated and kind of just make sure that things are running properly. 7:51 We don't have that kind of a guy this year. 7:53 And, or at least we don't have somebody that's automatically slated to play that kind of a role. 7:59 They'll put guys in there, but whether or not they're going to grow into it, it remains to be seen. 8:03 So I think the special teams will be something that will get better, obviously. 8:08 I mean, there's not much, it can't get much worse, I guess. 8:12 But, you know, I think that it's something that as time goes along, some of the new guys get situated, you know, and maybe some of these guys will get a little bit more comfortable in the role that they're in. 8:23 It'll improve, but I'm not shocked just because of some of the defensive limitations that we have this year. 8:31 Well, let's talk about those special teams. 8:34 Friday night, Gophers, 0-5 in the power play. 8:38 Penalty kill, 1-6, North Dakota was. 8:40 Saturday night, Gophers, 0-6 in the power play. 8:44 North Dakota, 3-9. 8:46 VEGS, if we look at the overall weekend, really bad. 8:50 But if you look at the entire season so far, it's really bad in power play and penalty kill. 8:54 Right now, they're number 49th in the country for both of those statistics. 8:58 They've gotten three power play goals for a total of 9.68%. 9:04 The penalty kill is operating at just under 70%. 9:09 I know you've talked about a lot of problems, the structure and whatnot, but some of this does come down to face-offs, and they are doing really bad on key face-offs on penalty kill and power play situations where power play, you lose that face-off, there's another 20, 30 seconds gone already. 9:28 Yeah, it's interesting you look at the Gophers' face-offs. 9:32 You know, they're not bad five-on-five, and it seems, you know, neutral zone face-offs, they seem to be doing okay, but when they get in these key situations and their opponent is putting out their best center and the Gophers are putting out their units, they are struggling, and over a game that adds up, every time they start on the power play, they're cutting off 20 seconds as they have to go back behind their own net and go another 200 feet to gain the zone. 9:57 And on these penalty kills, it's adding up another 20 seconds of killing. 10:02 And I think on the power play, they're having a tough time getting a rhythm in these games and getting comfortable. 10:08 I think some of it could be Novak and Sheehy coming off their injuries, not feeling super comfortable. 10:15 Sheehy has been put more on the flank where he hasn't played much before. 10:19 He's been more kind of a guy around the net and coming out from the corner, a catch-and-shoot kind of guy. 10:25 And then they don't have a lot of guys at the top of the power play who are putting pucks on net. 10:30 And that's something they're missing. 10:31 And so there's a lot of pressure on the penalty kill on guys on the flanks and around the net. 10:37 And they're just really stagnant on the power play. 10:40 They're not rotating very well. 10:43 Things are real deliberate. 10:44 And then on the penalty kill, they're getting caught with some seam passes as they get a little over-aggressive trying to win pucks along the walls, failing to clear. 10:53 And then flailing, trying to block shots. 10:56 Well, one thing, Hammy, that I've noticed is that these guys are not playing disciplined hockey when it comes to these. 11:02 They know there's going to be sticking fractions. 11:05 You got the example on Saturday when they took a five-minute major from a check behind. 11:09 Obviously, a lot of us feel it should have been a five-minute major. 11:12 But you know, you put yourself in the position for a referee to call it. 11:15 They're going to call it. 11:16 And since they're struggling so much on the penalty kill, you can't be taking these stupid penalties. 11:23 Yeah, I mean, I think, you know, this is one of those years. 11:26 I think obviously up front, we have some pretty good offensive players. 11:29 But I feel like, at least right now, as some guys kind of get situated, their margin for error isn't quite, you know, as high. 11:37 And I feel like you kind of have to play smarter hockey. 11:41 You have to be a little more careful defensively. 11:45 Players, you know, they might not be able to lug the puck up ice and make the razzle-dazzle, but make the smart play. 11:51 You know, I think that that's kind of the way that this team is going to have to win hockey games definitely in the first half of the year. 11:59 And when you're making dumb plays, when you're making bad decisions, when you get yourself out of position, that's when the problems start to occur. 12:07 And I think that for a coach, you can kind of accept when you're physically beaten by another player. 12:15 If they just make a better move or a better play in some fashion, you can accept that. 12:19 But it's the mental mistakes and the things that really coaches tend to harp on and feel like they have more of an impact on that players don't execute on. 12:27 I think that's what gets more frustrating. 12:31 Well, Veegs, one thing you talked about with Lucia today is he's even thinking about moving in more face-off specialists into those specialty teams and then maybe getting them off the ice as soon as they can because they're just doing so bad in those specialty face-offs. 12:48 Yeah, I mean Tyler Sheehy's had a pretty good season in the dot. 12:52 He's had a lot of opportunities here lately with the injuries at center and then they've had some issues moving the line around. 13:00 He's a guy who might take a draw. 13:03 They try to clear the zone and then he gets off the ice. 13:06 Scott Reedy is a guy who's played center and hasn't really played much penalty kill, I don't think this year. 13:12 He's another guy who could be a right-handed center, come in and try to win a draw and get off. 13:16 So I think you'll start to see kind of that in-game strategy by Lucia to try to get this to happen. 13:23 One interesting thing that Jack Ramsey said today was, the other thing on these penalty kills is if you win a draw and you bring it around the boards trying to get out the other end and the defenseman gets the puck, you really haven't helped the team a lot. 13:38 So that's some of the mental mistakes that they're making, even when they do have wins off the face-off circle. 13:45 So you've played hockey a long time, Veegs. 13:48 What else can they do to get this power play going, to get this penalty kill more effective? 13:55 I think winning the draws is key, but the other idea is not to panic when that happens. 14:00 I think they get in trouble sometimes when they're overplaying the power plays and they're getting caught out of position. 14:07 And then, you know, instead of a five on four, you know, a three on two becomes a two on one or a three on one, because one of the penalty killers has gotten out of position. 14:17 But I think the number one thing that this team can do is just stay out of the box. 14:21 You know, go into the box six, seven times a game, even if you are kind of your average college penalty kill, still going to be giving up a goal a game. 14:29 So as long as they can stay out of the box, stop taking these five-minute checking from behind penalties, I think they've got three of them so far. 14:38 You know, that's just not a good way to play. 14:40 You know, the power play, I think, could come around here as they get some consistency. 14:46 But this penalty kill, they just got to cut down the numbers. 14:50 Now, back on the actual weekend itself, we did see Casey Middlestead did not play the second game. 14:57 Was that more of a precaution to keep him out for the entire season or could he have played? 15:03 I've heard that he wanted to play. 15:05 I think they are holding him out to protect him for the long term of the season. 15:10 He took a pretty good shot there late on the play. 15:15 And I put the screen grabs up on Twitter and I got predictable responses from North Dakota fans on that one. 15:22 Hard-nosed hockey, right? 15:24 Yeah, I mean, that's kind of a play that shouldn't be in college hockey. 15:28 It's the reason why Zach Prese just had surgery this week. 15:32 Around the net, it's just no rules apply there. 15:36 The D get a free shot at guys, and it's not really hockey. 15:40 I can see if you're getting a paycheck that maybe you can put up with that kind of stuff, but especially not in college. 15:46 It's just as dangerous to those guys as some of those hits along the boards. 15:50 But he wanted to play, they held him out, tried to keep it from becoming a long-term thing. 15:56 I know my athletic article, I talked about him putting on some upper body strength, and that's one of the reasons why he needs to do that, is build up some muscle, protecting him on plays like that. 16:10 So all in all, what did you think about the weekend? 16:12 He did skate today, though, so I think there's a chance he can play this weekend. 16:18 What about Reedy? 16:20 Reedy looks like he's back to full practice. 16:23 He was taking a regular shift today, looked fine out there. 16:26 I think they kind of also played the long term with him last weekend, and knowing it was going to be a physical season or a physical weekend, they just held him out for those two games. 16:38 Well, Hammey, I know you're not a big fan of people making a big deal in North Dakota, but a lot of the fans thought it was a big deal this weekend. 16:47 You don't sound too sad that you missed it. 16:51 And you didn't want to pay them to watch it either. 16:56 No, I mean, I don't know. 16:59 I guess I don't blame anybody else if they want to spend their money that way. 17:02 I just wasn't really going to line anybody's pockets for a couple games. 17:06 I feel you. 17:08 I just wasn't going to do it. 17:12 You know, I understand the rivalry stuff and whatever. 17:16 So I'm not going to like talk it down. 17:18 But I guess I just continue to always look at the big picture of the season. 17:22 And I don't feel I know from a rivalry perspective, these games mean more to people, but they're really not all that more meaningful on a big picture perspective for a season. 17:35 I mean, because you're playing lots of different teams. 17:38 We don't know until the end of the year which games are going to be more meaningful than others. 17:42 And so I guess I don't get as worked up about that kind of stuff quite like I probably used to. 17:49 Well, Veegs, I think one good thing that will come out of this weekend is that a lot of the players on the Gophers who have not had to go to North Dakota and face that kind of crowd will have experienced it already. 18:01 So if you have to go to the regional in, you know, in Sioux Falls, which will be a heavy North Dakota fan base, they'll be at least prepared for that kind of crowd going against them. 18:14 And I think it's also good that they've seen now in North Dakota and Minnesota Duluth who will play a chippy game and something that they have to be aware of is how to handle your emotions in a situation like that. 18:26 Minnesota didn't take a lot of physical penalties. 18:29 I don't know if that's good or bad. 18:31 They didn't answer back a lot of the stuff around the net. 18:35 I think Lucia kind of doesn't want that in college hockey. 18:39 So it was kind of reflects that. 18:41 But you're going to have to put up with it when you play teams like Minnesota Duluth in North Dakota. 18:45 And they might see them in one game elimination tournament in Sioux Falls. 18:51 Yeah. 18:51 Well, we'll have to wait and see. 18:53 We have quite a few questions on Twitter tonight. 18:56 If you're listening live, if you have any questions for us, just use the hashtag GPL Podcast. 19:02 And we'll try to answer them for you. 19:04 But first, let's listen to our sponsor. 19:07 vintagemnhockey.com is a proud sponsor of the GPL Podcast. 19:12 Well, what is Vintage MN Hockey? 19:15 Well, it's kind of the place to get all of your history of Minnesota hockey. 19:19 From the pros, to the minors, to the collegiate teams, to even the high school teams. 19:25 All information about any of those teams can be found on vintagemnhockey.com. 19:30 They also have great interviews with some historical Minnesota hockey figures like John Mayessich and Lou Nani, Glenn Sanmore, some of the greats of Minnesota hockey. 19:39 So make sure you check out those interviews. 19:41 It's a really great thing. 19:42 But as I always say, I think my favorite part is the store. 19:47 You can buy a custom historical jersey from the Gophers or the Bulldogs or some of your favorite high school teams. 19:53 And if you do make a purchase, just use the code GPL Podcast, all one word, and you'll get 10% off your order. 20:00 So make sure you visit vintagemnhockey.com and follow them on Twitter at VintageMNHockey. 20:08 All right, boys, we have quite a few questions coming in for the GPL Podcast. 20:15 John Candles wants to know, thoughts on Gophers playing top 10 teams every weekend this month? 20:23 You look at, you know, when we started the season, we played, you know, UMD, which was ranked number sixth. 20:28 Penn State was kind of on the edge of 10, you know, North Dakota's four, and this weekend we've got Clarkson at number nine. 20:36 Vegoe, it seems like we got some fairly stiff competition at the beginning of the season this year. 20:42 Yeah, and I think it's great for this team to get challenged every week, because it definitely exposes you on things you need to work on. 20:48 I think if Minnesota was playing an easy schedule, we wouldn't see these struggles in the power play and penalty kill, and it's showing them that these are things they need to work on. 20:58 They need to find, you know, guys who can win face-offs against elite centermen in college hockey. 21:04 They need to figure out who their defenseman is going to be on their power play and what kind of role he's going to do. 21:10 I think we're also going to see a lot of middle-set and pit-lick together on these special teams, especially on the power play. 21:15 You know, they've looked the most dynamic of anybody on the roster so far, so I think those are encouraging things to see that you might not see if they're playing, you know, American Air National. 21:27 Hammeh, thoughts on the schedule so far? 21:30 I mean, we've talked about a few of the teams, but even in a couple weeks we've got Harvard coming into town, so the non-conference schedule and even the conference schedule, it's quite a bit notch higher than it has been the past few years. 21:42 Yeah, I mean, I think that people, you know, a lot of times after the WCHA kind of went, you know, at least the old WCHA went away, people kind of lamented if the schedule was still going to be pretty tough and whatever, and obviously we know that the conference hasn't been, you know, completely difficult from top to bottom in recent years, but I think that they've still generally maintained a pretty competitive schedule and certainly this year with the Big Ten improving and then you have Notre Dame coming in and, you know, and some of these non-conference teams that we play and, you know, NHG teams and whatever, I think that it's going to be continually getting better and I think we kind of get back to what we used to see on a relatively consistent basis and, you know, every year I look at what the strength of schedule was the prior few years and sometimes I think people tend to underestimate how the schedule has been just because the Big Ten has been a little bit down. 22:43 So it hasn't been quite as bad as I think some people say. 22:47 Okay, state of hockey has a few questions. 22:49 Let's throw this one at you at first, Tami. 22:52 How has the start to the season changed your expectations for the season, if it has at all? 22:58 Has this 500 start changed your expectations of the team so far? 23:05 I think I was hoping to see a little more improvement and effectiveness from the defensive group than what I've seen so far, especially from an offensive perspective. 23:18 So I think that has caused me to be a little bit more cautious and patient about what I expect out of them in the early going. 23:26 I kind of was expecting a little bit more of a fluid showing as far as their offense goes. 23:33 And like I said, that in part is impacted by the defensive players that don't really necessarily have some of those offensive skills, at least they're not showing it yet. 23:44 So I think that that's really the only thing for me that really has adjusted some of my expectations. 23:50 I'm not saying that I've lowered them, but I just think it's maybe be a little bit more patient. 23:54 I think in goal and in terms of the offensive, the forwards, I feel pretty comfortable with what we've seen so far. 24:02 And we'd like to see a little more of a couple of guys, like Sheehy for instance, but I know that maybe he wasn't quite 100% yet. 24:09 So I hope as the season goes on, some of these guys kind of find their legs and we'll see a little bit more effectiveness out of them. 24:16 Vegoe, have your expectations changed? 24:21 I don't think so. 24:22 You know, this team is playing a tough schedule and they're getting out of it pretty okay so far with their splits and they're beating top teams in the country and they're going to be in great shape for pairwise if they can continue this throughout their non-conference schedule. 24:38 I am a little surprised that their power play is struggling as much as it is. 24:43 I think the coaches have been a little hesitant to throw too many changes into the units and I think as we get going the next couple of weekends you're going to see some different lineups than we saw the first couple of weekends. 24:56 Well, you mentioned the pairwise and I think it's going to be good at the end of the season for their pairwise but you also look at the future games they still have to play against Harvard who hasn't even played a game yet but they're a top ranked team. 25:11 You've got St. 25:11 Cloud which is undefeated so far which is a phenomenal team. 25:16 So it's going to be a good test getting through this season folks. 25:20 If they could stay high in the pairwise it means they're beating some of these really good teams. 25:24 So I still have a pretty positive outlook myself. 25:28 And I think the other thing you're going to see with the pairwise is the Big Ten is number two right now in out of conference play. 25:35 And so that's something that they will benefit from that they haven't in years past. 25:39 Hockey East has really struggled so far this season and the Big Ten is right behind the NCHC for non-conference records. 25:48 Another question from State of Hockey. 25:50 He wants to know, do we have any offensive D recruits coming soon? 25:55 This team is lacking that. 25:58 Veegs, do we know about any Riley type of defensemen who can play pretty good defense but also sparks the offense? 26:08 I think including Riley, we weren't even sure what we had there. 26:13 Clayton Phillips is probably the highest profile guy coming in. 26:15 He just got traded from Margot to Muskegon, the USA gel. 26:20 He's a pretty high pick by Pittsburgh and I know they're excited about his future playing for the Gophers and think he has some good offensive talent. 26:30 Hammy is probably the recruiting expert though. 26:33 Well, Hammy, what do you think? 26:35 Well, I think, obviously, definitely, Phillips is going to be the one that's coming in the soonest as far as guys that I would say are offensively gifted and can contribute in that realm. 26:48 They have some other guys, Brinkman is another guy. 26:53 Some of these guys are still a couple years away, so you can't really, you kind of have to take a little bit of a cautious perspective with them and see how they kind of develop in the next year or two. 27:04 But they certainly have some of the skills that you would expect would translate to be in those kinds of guys. 27:10 And, you know, certainly that's the one thing that I think in recent years has been a little bit disappointing for me is just I would like to see, you know, when I think to some of the best Gopher teams, I think of teams that had, you know, maybe two or even three of those kinds of guys in the lineup. 27:26 And, you know, it's funny, I think about some of the players that were kind of criticized when they were in school, like an Aaron Ness or a Ben Marshall or, you know, some or Chris Harrington or some of these guys. 27:40 And it's like, you know, quite honestly, we'd be fortunate to have, you know, a couple of those guys right now because they had some of those skills and maybe they had other flaws in some respects. 27:51 But, you know, they were able to kind of contribute offensively and really make some nice plays with the puck. 27:58 And I don't know that we are seeing enough of that quite yet. 28:01 And hopefully, like I said earlier, a couple of these guys, as the season goes along, will get more comfortable in their roles and feel more confident and start making some of those kinds of plays. 28:11 Suffering Soda Fan wants to know, thoughts on allowing beer sales at Mariucci. 28:16 Seems silly not to. 28:19 Hammy, do you care about beer sales at Mariucci? 28:21 Do you think that's really going to change the atmosphere is getting people drunk? 28:26 Well, I mean, I don't know. 28:28 It doesn't usually hurt, you know what I mean? 28:30 But I guess it really depends on, you know, I think it depends on really what the crowd is like, right? 28:38 I mean, the fact is, is that if you have a younger crowd, you have maybe a little bit more of a, I don't know, kind of a blue collar kind of guys, you know, sometimes those are the ones that get rowdy when you're, you know, they don't drink in and whatever, but then you don't really see, you know, certain types of people that are more likely to kind of go that route. 29:00 So I don't know. 29:01 I mean, it's hard to say if that's really going to contribute heavily or not. 29:04 I don't know. 29:05 I don't have anything against them doing that. 29:07 And Veegs is the beer expert, so I will defer to his expertise. 29:13 Well, I think Veegs is the expert on the kind of beer, but Veegs can... 29:17 No, he's probably an expert on drinking. 29:19 Well, no, that's you. 29:22 You're the one with the harder. 29:23 That's the hard. 29:24 Oh, careful there. 29:28 Veegs, can beer sales help the apathy that's happening with this program right now? 29:35 Well, it might encourage people to take their seats and come to the arena to watch the games. 29:41 You know, this is kind of an interesting litmus test year for the fan coming to Mariucci. 29:48 Season tickets have been declining. 29:50 You know, it's a tough schedule. 29:52 The attendance wasn't great for Penn State. 29:55 I'm not sure how they're looking this weekend for Clarkson, but for most people in Minnesota, this isn't a big series, even though it's a top-ten team coming. 30:03 So I think we might see beer sales at Mariucci sooner than you think. 30:07 You know, they already have it in the club room. 30:09 You know, I think at TCF Bank Stadium, it's been a pretty good experience for everybody. 30:15 I don't think there have been huge problems there. 30:18 So maybe it's something we'll see at Mariucci here soon. 30:23 Well, speaking of the team coming in this weekend, Clarkson is a hockey fan. 30:30 Clarkson has been a decent team for a long time. 30:33 You know, we went out there last year. 30:34 I believe they beat them in overtime after a late comeback. 30:41 But Clarkson is a ranked team this year, Veegs. 30:44 They're number nine in the USCHO poll right now. 30:48 But unfortunately for the regular common fans, Clarkson is just not a sexy opponent. 30:57 Yeah, it's a good hockey school with a long history, and they're going to be a tough test this weekend. 31:01 Last year, the Gophers fell behind three-nothing in the first period and had to score four goals, getting one of them in overtime to get the win. 31:09 And Clarkson looks like it's going to be a tough out this year. 31:14 They play a real tight defensive structure. 31:16 I think their goalie has like a 1-3-2 goals against. 31:19 He's an Eden Prairie kid, so he's really good. 31:22 And they've played some decent teams this year. 31:24 They've played Penn State, Michigan, Providence, UMass Lowell, and Mass Lowell is the only loss. 31:31 So it's going to be an interesting game. 31:33 It's going to be a tough one for Minnesota to get their offense going, you know, playing against a veteran older team like this that values defense. 31:41 You know, it's going to be a tough test, especially coming off the atmosphere last weekend at North Dakota, where you're playing in such a rabid building. 31:49 Who knows what it's going to be like this weekend? 31:53 That's what concerns me. 31:55 It could be another empty house like it was for Penn State, and that's just not what the team needs right now. 32:01 But Vig's, have you seen any different lines in practice? 32:05 I mean, what did you see today when you were at practice? 32:08 Different combinations or what's the plan for Lucia? 32:14 I think they're still kind of waiting to see if Middlestadt's going to play before they get too set in their lines. 32:20 Yesterday, they just did a maroon and gold skate where they didn't really do lines. 32:25 Today, they did a lot of flow stuff. 32:27 It wasn't really a lot of system stuff. 32:30 Sheehy was taking draws again. 32:34 Norman was taking some draws. 32:36 There's just a lot of face-off emphasis work there. 32:40 Reid is probably going to be back and could place some center. 32:44 I think we won't really know until we get close to the weekend and we find out Middlestadt's status. 32:50 I hope they're practicing special teams. 32:53 I really do because I saw a question earlier this week that was meant for the podcast, I believe. 33:00 They were wanting who coaches these special teams because right now they just flat out stink. 33:06 I didn't look at Clarkson's numbers to see how they're good on the penalty kill and the power play, but they just need a little bit of life. 33:15 It could be just confidence too, but they need something to happen positive on the specialty teams this weekend, Veegs. 33:22 Well, I think they were a little indecisive at North Dakota, and North Dakota plays a real aggressive penalty kill, and they're going to jump you, and they're going to get you behind the net, and they're going to force you to make decisions whether you're ready to or not. 33:34 And I think when they lost Middlestad for Saturday, that threw things even off even more, because they rely on him and Pitlick so heavily to get stuff going on their power play. 33:47 So this weekend will be a tough test to get that going, but they need to try to find some flow, do some rotation, quicken it up. 33:56 It's a concern. 33:58 Well, I think there's a concern there, Hammeh. 34:00 The concern is you lose one guy like Middlestad, the whole thing shouldn't fall apart. 34:04 Somebody else needs to step up, and we're just not seeing that right now, Hammeh. 34:10 Well, yeah, I mean, you don't want to have to rely on one guy to be kind of lynched kind of something, you know, of your success essentially. 34:18 And I don't know that maybe we're overrating that a little bit with him. 34:23 I mean, I think certainly he's obviously going to be a key contributor this year, but I think they have enough where they'll be successful without him. 34:29 But going back to, you know, who coaches the special teams and whatever, I always feel like the fans automatically go to that as if, like, there's some magic elixir that the coaches have that can, you know, automatically fix things. 34:42 And it's like, you know, they can, these guys know how to coach. 34:45 They know how to coach special teams. 34:47 They've had success in the past. 34:49 But the fact is, is you got to have players that execute on whatever the game plan is. 34:54 And if they're not executing, you could be the greatest coach in the world, and it's just not going to matter. 34:59 So I do get, you know, when I hear that, I kind of roll my eyes a little bit because I think that there's this assumption that it's about the coaches, and it is to a degree, but ultimately it's about players executing. 35:12 The one thing I'll be interested about this weekend, you know, we talked about Clarkson and, you know, being on the big ice sheet, I mean, that's not what they're typically playing on, and it'll be interesting to see, you know, how they adjust, because, you know, we sometimes see that it's not easy to adjust from going the big rink to the small, but I think in some respects it's even more difficult to go from, to the bigger rink just because you have that extra space, and, you know, it takes probably a little bit more time. 35:40 I think a lot of these players know how to play on regulation rinks because that's what they spend most of their time on over the years, but Olympic rinks are a little bit different. 35:49 And it shouldn't help to go for power play to have that extra space, you know, a little extra room to escape. 35:55 You know, we saw in the North Dakota Series, one of the problems was once they got under pressure, you know, they turned over the puck pretty quick. 36:02 When you have that extra space on the Olympic sheet, that extra 10 feet really comes in handy when you're trying to relieve pressure. 36:11 Well, it looks like Nate Wells is listening to the podcast, but watching House Hunters. 36:16 He wants to know, is this House Hunters episode the worst? 36:21 I'm not really sure what you're talking about, Nate. 36:25 Is that House Hunters on like TLC or something like that? 36:28 I'm not really sure. 36:31 And the silence you hear is Lambeau Field. 36:35 Oh, sorry. 36:36 I hit the mute button. 36:36 That was my fault. 36:40 Just letting it breathe. 36:43 Yeah, sorry about that. 36:45 My bad. 36:46 I'm just trying to get, it would be nice. 36:48 After all this bragging about your new equipment, you don't even know how to operate. 36:51 I literally just touched a little button on the computer. 36:56 And it muted while I was talking and I didn't even know it. 37:00 Perfect for you guys. 37:02 Nice. 37:03 Yeah, I know. 37:04 Oh, another question just came in. 37:06 Dan Hogan, Lucia mentions playing five man game. 37:11 How does he envision that looking when in the offensive zone? 37:15 Seems like the D are pretty stationary. 37:18 Veegs? 37:20 Well, I think the biggest thing that the defenseman can do in the offensive zone is relieve that pressure. 37:25 And so when a forward is on the half wall or the corner, they can work it up top. 37:31 What that does is it forces the wings to spread out and cover the shot threat from the point. 37:37 And once you have that, you can go back down low. 37:40 I think earlier in the year, you saw a really nice play between Pitlick, Nanny and Milstead for an easy goal by doing that low to high to low passing. 37:50 And so that's something that can really help your offensive zone, you know, stretch the D. 37:56 The other thing is defensemen coming down on the wall when there is that post pass by the opposing team. 38:02 The teams can get real predictable, you know, going D to the wing on the wall. 38:06 And if your defenseman is jumping that play right there, you know, that can be real effective for extending zone time and then tiring out the other team. 38:15 Because if you can get a long shift and get fresh bodies out there while the other team is, you know, working to break out, you know, mistakes happen, you can draw penalties. 38:24 And that's something that we've seen over Gopher Hockey for the last 20 years as real active defensemen in the zone. 38:32 Well, there you go, Dan. 38:33 Hope that answers your question. 38:34 Biggs knows his stuff. 38:38 This weekend, boys, I'm thinking if the Gophers want to be taken seriously, I think they need to sweep. 38:45 Obviously, Clarkson is a tough school, but the fans have big expectations for this year. 38:54 You know, the Frozen Four is here. 38:55 We think we can get there. 38:56 We think we have the team to get us there. 38:58 I think expecting or wanting a sweep this weekend is not that far-fetched, huh, Biggs? 39:08 I don't think it's far-fetched, but I think it's going to be a tough task. 39:11 I think, you know, with the energy in the building and the style of play that Clarkson puts out there, it's going to be tough to get back-to-back wins, especially with the way the power play has been performing so far for the Gophers. 39:24 I think it's going to be, you know, another split for them this weekend. 39:27 It's going to be tough to score goals. 39:29 And you're just looking for that positive momentum where the team doesn't go back to one that turns over the puck too often, forcing something to happen. 39:37 I think the two highlights coming out of North Dakota, where Shearhorn played pretty steady again, you know, he put out two pretty good performances, and the Gophers probably managed the puck for two games the best they have all season. 39:50 I think the only reason the game got away from them on Saturday was because they were taking so many penalties. 39:56 But actually managing the puck, they were pretty good with it. 40:00 Pammy, is a sweep a must this weekend? 40:05 Well, I mean, I don't know if it's a must. 40:07 I think what I would like to see is just to see them get off to good starts both games. 40:12 When they've gotten off to a pretty good start, they've been successful this year, but when they haven't, that's where the struggles have been. 40:20 So I think it's going to be important both nights to have good first periods and kind of set the tone for the rest of the game and hopefully build some confidence among the players, defensively in particular, and maybe kind of play a little smarter hockey and not necessarily put themselves into difficult positions. 40:42 I think when we see this team struggle, it's usually when they don't really get off to a good start and things are a little sluggish and maybe they make a few bad decisions and take a penalty or two early in the game and kind of kill some of that early momentum. 40:58 So hopefully both nights they'll start off pretty strong and they'll come out with a couple Ws. 41:03 Well, that's what I'm hoping for too. 41:05 I want some more positivity. 41:06 I mean, after these splits on the weekend, we need a good sweep. 41:09 We need a good home sweep. 41:11 We need to start building some momentum here. 41:14 Veegs, you were at media availability today, captured some audio that we'll put at the end of the podcast. 41:20 Who spoke to you and what did they say? 41:22 Yeah, you'll hear from players Jack Ramsey and Mike Szmatula. 41:28 We were kind of asking them about, you know, the penalty kill was a big concern. 41:33 You know, what do they need to work on? 41:35 The loss of Lutary and Clues for how it's impacted their performance in the faceoff circle and things they need to prove on there. 41:45 Ramsey also tuned in to watch Clues play last night for the Wild. 41:49 Just in time to see Clues get a holding penalty. 41:51 So he was happy to see him there. 41:54 Unfortunately, they didn't get the win, but all the players and coaches were happy that he got the chance to play an NHL game at home. 42:02 I think I was as well. 42:04 Clues is a hard worker. 42:05 You know, he was a kid who didn't make the HP 15s, and there he was last night at Excel playing in the NHL. 42:11 So it was a good story there. 42:13 Don Lucia talks a little bit about how the team has to stop taking penalties. 42:19 I posed the question to him, was it more of a problem, the volume of penalties and the amount of time they're spending on the penalty kill, or is it something wrong with the system? 42:29 And I think he kind of agreed with me that the volume is the big thing. 42:33 You know, if they're only taking two or three shorthand situations a game, this isn't as big of an issue as it is when they're killing for, you know, 11 of 15 minutes in a row and having to sit, you know, a pet lick and some of their other guys who mostly are skill guys. 42:50 You know, when they're throwing out their killers that often, it has an impact in their play throughout the game. 42:57 I don't know. 42:57 The system is still not that great when you're only operating at, you know, just under 70% kill rate. 43:03 So I mean, some of that's skewed when you when you give up that many power play goals and five minute majors. 43:09 If it's only a two minute penalty, you know, you can only give up one in that case. 43:14 So it's a little skewed that way. 43:16 You know, I'm not seeing a lot of system issues other than losing the draws. 43:22 And they're not getting out of position that often. 43:25 They're playing pretty tight. 43:26 I thought North Dakota did a really good job of holding the puck that extra second as some of the Gophers got a little overzealous trying to block pucks. 43:35 And then I came back to bite them. 43:36 But I think, you know, it's mostly the volume of penalties they're taking. 43:43 Yeah, well, I can't really disagree with you there. 43:46 Any other final thoughts on the weekend, guys? 43:48 You know, we've got the Clarkson coming in and then we've got Michigan State next week that we can worry about next week on that podcast. 43:53 But any other thoughts, Hammy, for this weekend? 43:58 No, I mean, like I said, I just really want to be able to see the team kind of get off to good starts both nights because I think that, you know, this isn't a team that at this point is showing a lot of, you know, high-powered skill, you know, especially on the power play, as we've talked about a couple times. 44:16 So you kind of just want to see them get off to a good start, get some momentum in the game, gain some confidence and just hopefully that carries them through for the, you know, the final two periods. 44:27 So it's really for me just getting off to a good start both nights and hopefully Shearhorn continues to play well. 44:32 Veegs? 44:34 Yeah, I'll be interested to see where Shehe ends up on the power play this weekend. 44:38 I know he likes to be a little bit lower and closer than that. 44:43 I think that's something we might be seeing this weekend. 44:47 All right, well, I think that's all we've got for this week. 44:50 You can always follow Hammy on Twitter at Hammy Hockey and you can follow Vego on Twitter at eVego. 44:57 We'll be back next week to recap this series with Clarkson and preview the series of Michigan State coming into town. 45:05 Until then, thanks for listening. 45:41 It's a beautiful fall day, it doesn't get any better than that, does it? 45:44 Blue sky, wait till Friday. 45:48 Although, I put it in perspective, my last year in Fairbanks, I took our kids trick or treating, 27 below. 45:56 My wife handed out the candy. 45:59 How fun is it to see Steve Johnson score a big goal? 46:02 Yeah, well, you want anybody to score a big goal in that situation, but he's got to elevate the offensive part of his game, and he's a guy that can join the rush. 46:12 He's got to run one of the power plays, which he did a year ago, and that's how he scored a lot of his goals. 46:18 You know, when he's been here is by joining the rush, and that's what we want our defensemen to do, and obviously an important goal when you're nursing on one goal lead in the third period. 46:27 Ahead of this weekend, is there a difference between Eastern hockey and Western hockey? 46:30 It comes up in the postseason more often. 46:31 No, I think that those days are long gone. 46:34 You know, now you have kids playing so much intersectionally. 46:39 Eastern kids are in the USHL, you know, those kids, you know, the USA hockey festivals, so, you know, you can maybe make an argument 20 years ago, 30 years ago, but, you know, that's long gone. 46:52 I mean, Clarkson's a good team. 46:53 We saw them a year ago. 46:55 We beat them in overtime. 46:56 They jumped out to a 3-0 lead. 46:59 They're 4-1-1 on the year, beat Michigan, Penn State, Providence, won and tied at Western Michigan, so they've played a good schedule. 47:09 I knew, talking to Casey, they were building something, and I think they're a team that certainly has a great chance to make the NCAA tournament this year. 47:17 How much do you have to sell your team on that, especially coming off the environment from last weekend? 47:21 Well, I mean, there's some things we have to get better at. 47:25 I mean, there's no question that, you know, we've done some things well. 47:29 You know, from an offensive standpoint, we haven't done what I hoped or what we need to be able to do, and, you know, certainly playing Clarkson, that's not going to help because they're a good defensive team. 47:38 Their goaltender is off to a great start with his save percentage. 47:41 They don't give up much, but we've got to find a way to score a few goals and, you know, win games. 47:47 And, you know, hopefully we've had a good week. 47:50 I like our attitude this week at practice, but, you know, this is how they've been all year long. 47:54 But from a defensive standpoint, what we've given up five goals in six games, five on five, so that's been a real plus, but the specialties haven't been where they need to be at this stage. 48:04 And obviously the big thing is our discipline, something we've talked about, you know, with the amount of penalties we're taking, whether it's the majors or whether it's the, you know, the hookings and the reach penalties, we have to eliminate that if we're going to take another step as a team, because you just can't continue to give teams, you know, in North Dakota's case, I think we went through a stretch and towards the end of the first period to in the second period, we played 11 minutes short-handed out of less than 15, and that's just not a recipe for success, whether you're home or on the road. 48:35 How do you maintain physicality while keeping this discipline? 48:37 Well, our penalties are stick penalties. 48:40 I mean, they're not, I mean, whether it's the hookings or the cross-checks, you know, a check from behind, I don't call that a physical penalty. 48:50 You know, it's hard. 48:51 I mean, you got to hug them into the boards. 48:53 You can't, you know, have your stick out or hit them directly in, and, you know, we show the majors when the guys take one and they have to continue to understand that it's called tightly. 49:02 It's a safety issue. 49:04 So for me, it's not the big hit. 49:07 When we try to coach physicality, it's just the little one-on-one puck battles that you can win with your stick or your body or body positioning. 49:14 That's more what we're looking for. 49:16 You know, you're not going to get a lot of big hits in a game, and this day in agent hockey, if there's a big hit, most of the time the ref is going to call a penalty on it, whether it is one or not. 49:24 So it's just those small area battles that we're trying to concentrate on right now. 49:29 Jack mentioned that he noticed that they've been more consistent calling stick penalties this year. 49:33 Is that a discussion that kind of happened over the last year? 49:35 Well, it's a point of emphasis that, you know, usually it gets called more early than late with our sport, and you have to move your feet. 49:45 You defend with your feet. 49:46 You don't defend with your stick. 49:47 I mean, obviously you want stick on puck, but I mean, when you quit skating and you start reaching, then you're going to be susceptible, or you get your stick into a guy's hands. 49:56 That's when you're going to get a penalty call there. 49:58 So, you know what? 49:59 You've got to keep your feet moving when you defend. 50:01 Do you think it's the volume of penalties you're taking that's hurting you more than the penalty kill itself? 50:07 Well, I think it's a combination. 50:11 Just three of the penalties we've, the goals we've gotten up have been extensive, you know, two men down, and not like there were 22nd ones. 50:18 They're like close to two minutes, and we've actually done a decent job of hanging in there for a minute or so of it, but you're just playing with fire there. 50:27 And then just some losing some scrums on the board. 50:30 You know, one time we go to retrieve a puck and a guy falls down, and then they throw it out, and then we go diving, and he just walks around them. 50:37 So it's just, I don't think it's one thing. 50:39 It just seems like we've been caught by a number of different things. 50:42 But, you know, instead of giving a team six or seven a game, maybe if we give them three or four, you know, maybe eliminate a percentage of those goals, too. 50:50 I think I had a chance to watch the video. 50:52 What kind of did you see a difference in blocking shots Friday versus Saturday? 50:57 Well, I mean, we didn't spend as much time. 50:59 Part of it's the game. 51:01 Every game is unique, and even shots on goal can be deceiving based on the scoreboard. 51:05 I mean, when you're ahead, you can play a little bit more conservatively. 51:09 I thought we had a little bit more energy on Saturday than what we did on Friday. 51:13 I don't think, you know, North Dakota had quite as much. 51:15 I mean, it stands to reason we hadn't been there since January of 2012. 51:19 They came out with unbelievable energy, and, you know, so we made sure that, you know, we were defending and had guys back. 51:25 Didn't want to give them the odd man rushes. 51:26 So, you know, if we did make a mistake, we blocked our mistakes on Friday night. 51:31 On Saturday, you know, what, gave up 18 shots, and not that many as many attempts. 51:37 But some of it was, you know, once they got the lead, you know, you don't have to play, take unnecessary risk either with a lead like that. 51:45 So just lessons to be learned. 51:48 I mean, the positive, I mean, you go up to Grand Forks, you can't complain too often when you split. 51:53 The disappointing part for us is that maybe without the major, maybe we had a chance to do more. 51:58 Maybe not, but we'll never know. 52:00 And that's the disappointing part of Saturday night. 52:03 But, you know, hopefully the guys will start to understand that, number one, you can't beat yourself. 52:08 And if we continue to take penalties, we're just going to beat yourself. 52:12 What's Casey Sanders going to do? 52:13 You know what? 52:14 He practiced today. 52:16 He'll skate tomorrow. 52:17 I would say he's 50-50. 52:19 We'll, you know, see where he's at come Friday night. 52:22 But he's obviously, I just talked to him on that. 52:24 He's made a lot of progress. 52:25 He wants to play, but we want to make sure that, you know, he can play. 52:30 You were a kid on a pond with a dream at one time, I imagine. 52:33 And there he gets old seeing Justin Cluse. 52:35 No, it's great. 52:36 You know what, all these guys and, you know, the thing with Justin is, and I've known Justin since he was, you know, 10, 11 years old. 52:46 But for Justin, it's just always been the relentless work ethic he's had. 52:49 And that's what we talked about even to our team. 52:52 I love those lessons that, you know, Vinny is the same way, that both of those guys were undrafted. 52:58 But, you know, signed NHL contracts because of, not because they're 6 foot 3 or anything, but because of the relentless work ethic. 53:04 And for Justin, you know, he came back his senior year, got a little bit older, put himself in a good spot, had a really good senior year, and was signed and, you know, took advantage of the situation. 53:17 So really happy for Justin. 53:18 I texted him yesterday, you know, to congratulate him and respond right back. 53:23 And, you know, great for his mom and dad. 53:25 And, you know, great for our program that a guy can come in and, you know, just continue to work to get better and put himself where he got an opportunity to play in the National Hockey League. 53:33 What do you expect out of Jack Ramsey's role? 53:35 Jack's is expanded. 53:38 I mean, I think he was interesting because he didn't have a great September. 53:43 And he got a little dinged up with some injuries. 53:46 And then, you know, but once the games have begun, I think he's played extremely well, certainly better than he's, I believe he's ever played here. 53:54 Looks a lot more confident, more confident offensively. 53:58 He's playing a good, aggressive, forechecking game, heavy on the body. 54:03 And that's what we need from him. 54:05 He's got the one goal assist. 54:07 So he's going to chip in offensive. 54:08 Obviously, we're not expecting him to lead our team in scoring or anything like that. 54:11 But if he can do his job of being reliable defensively, chip in a little bit offensively and play a heavy game, that's going to help our team. 54:20 You move Tyler to center, give you a right-handed guy in the dot. 54:24 How important is it for him to continue? 54:26 Well, part of it is with Casey's situation, but that doesn't mean he couldn't take some draws. 54:31 Same thing with Reedy. 54:32 Reedy has played a lot of center and other right-handed. 54:35 It's winning draws. 54:38 We didn't do that bad against North Dakota, considering how well they had done. 54:41 But it hasn't been our five-on-five draws as much that have hurt us as our specialty draws. 54:47 When you're starting in the D zone on a penalty kill or you're starting in the offensive zone on a power play, and when you lose the draw in your own zone, then they start on a power play. 54:58 When you lose the draw in the offensive zone, now you've got to go 200 feet, and you've just lost 20 seconds of your power play just because of a face-off. 55:05 So that's an area we've talked about, it's an area of emphasis that winning draws is critical in those specialty situations. 55:12 And it might be we have to use a couple of guys that are winning more, and then if we win it on the defensive side, they have to get off and put somebody else on. 55:21 But we've got to find some guys that can take those critical draws because when you lose some guys that did that for you a year ago, you've got to find replacements and grow into that role. 55:31 How much do you have to worry about letdown? 55:38 Clarkson is a good hockey team, but with the environment you guys played in last weekend, coming to play a team that you're maybe a little less familiar with, how much do you have to protect against maybe a little bit of a letdown? 55:46 Yeah, I mean, going to Nodak was fun and the emotions were high, but I think for us we didn't play as well as we wanted to play, so that's been the focus this week. 55:56 To be honest with you, it's not really about the opponent, we just want to make sure we get our game where it needs to be. 56:02 Clarkson is a really good team, off to a really good start. 56:04 We played them last year, they played us really tough, so it's going to be another great test, but we're looking forward to it. 56:09 What do you think your game is through six, playing just a team in the ring so far, and kind of opening with a tough schedule? 56:18 Yeah, I don't think we're where we need to be at all, but that's the great part. 56:21 You don't want to be ready right now, you want to be right at the end of the year. 56:25 We've had a couple of tough games. 56:27 Guys aren't gelling or not forwards, aren't playing as hard as we need to play, but I think everyone in that room is looking forward to the challenge and the adversity. 56:35 There's no panic in there. 56:37 It starts with the older guys too, and we're just going to keep working, keep getting better. 56:42 We know it's going to come together and click, so we're just hoping we work hard to get things together, and it's this weekend, so we're looking forward to a great weekend, great effort. 56:49 What are you guys taking away from film this week? 56:52 I think we need to play harder, pull the goal. 56:55 We saw North Dakota did a really good job of having all three guys offensively get in on the puck, sporting the puck and kind of wearing us down defensively. 57:03 And I don't think we're where we need to be offensively, sporting the puck, sporting each other. 57:08 So that was what we've been taking away. 57:10 And obviously we need to be more disciplined. 57:13 It doesn't help when you're killing half the game. 57:15 But yeah, I would say offensively it's just puck support, and then we've got to be more disciplined. 57:20 You know, the power play's got to do what the power play's got to do, so we've been working on it. 57:25 How do you feel as an upperclassman with all the penalties that have been taken? 57:28 What's your perspective on that? 57:30 Oh, I mean, you know, you just can't have it, and it's no guy in particular. 57:34 It's a reflection of everyone, so it's as much my fault as anybody else. 57:40 You know, but I think it just happens when you're a little bit tight, you're out of position, guy gets a step on you, and then you make a reaction to make a hook or a slash. 57:49 But I think that just is going to come around with our game. 57:51 When our game comes around, we start, you know, reacting to situations, not being hesitant, and we've just got to be smarter because, you know, 5 on 5 we're trying to get better and you can't really get anything going when you're killing the whole game, so we've got to be more disciplined. 58:03 The adjustment period with some of the new emphasis penalties that they are calling, I'm not trying to give you an excuse, but to get out. 58:10 Are some of the increased penalties kind of because there's maybe more emphasis or maybe calling some stuff that you didn't this time last year? 58:15 Yeah, I mean, that might be it. 58:17 We're just taking a lot of stick penalties, and I think that, you know, it's been six games, so if there is a trend like that, we've got to be able to say, hey, this is what's going on. 58:26 We've got to watch the sticks, and we've got a couple major penalties, too. 58:31 So, yeah, I think overall it's just we need to be able to adapt, and we just need to be smarter, because, like I said again, it's tough to get stuff going, you know, when you're killing, and you have to work like that for a lot of the game. 58:45 How much you guys have to guard against a potential letdown? 58:50 When you go to North Dakota, you know what you're going to get. 58:52 You're going to go home against a non-conference, regional opponent. 58:55 You have to be careful about that. 58:59 I don't think it's something that you really should be focusing on. 59:02 I guess you should be focused on the internal stuff as your team, and as long as you come out there and play your game, I don't think that's going to affect anything. 59:10 How tough has this stretch been? 59:11 I mean, I think it's what, this will make eight straight games against ranked teams. 59:15 Is it good to start the season that way, or maybe we should have a little bit more time to get your feet under here? 59:19 No, I mean, I think it's good throwing us into the fire right away, and just going at it. 59:24 It's, every single night is a learning curve and an experience to, you know, pick up some things to learn off of and just week by week get better, and as the season progresses, as long as we're trending upwards, you know, that's a good thing, so. 59:37 What would you say the impact of just inclusive and the military being gone now for the BK? 59:42 It's pretty good because they're pretty big. 59:45 They ate up a lot of minutes for sure, and they were leaders on and off the ice, you know, in the locker room talking to guys about breakdowns on the PK and stuff like that and just organizing stuff. 59:56 But we have veteran guys. 59:57 I mean, I'm a junior, a Romanko. 59:59 We've been on the kill since freshman year, so there's no excuses for us. 1:00:03 And the seniors, sophomores, freshmen, it doesn't matter, you know. 1:00:06 Everyone's got to step up and do their job. 1:00:07 Now that you two aren't on the PK together, is there a little bit different of a dynamic there? 1:00:12 Yeah, I'd say so. 1:00:13 I mean, I killed with Romanko for two years, so you kind of know what the other guy's tendencies are. 1:00:19 You know where he's going to be if you push out. 1:00:20 You know where he's going to push back. 1:00:22 I've been switching around with a couple of guys. 1:00:24 Been with Romanko a little bit, Szmatula a little bit. 1:00:26 But as long as you're communicating, there shouldn't be any problems. 1:00:29 What are the keys to this year's third year killing penalties? 1:00:32 What are the keys to success? 1:00:34 Communication, the D, the forwards, goalie. 1:00:37 A lot of people might think about it, but Eric, he has to communicate a lot back there. 1:00:41 He can see the whole thing, so he's kind of the quarterback for a penalty kill. 1:00:45 His willingness to block a shot, and you gotta be hard on the puck and get those clears. 1:00:50 That's something we've kind of struggled on this year, is getting the puck out on the first attempt to clear it. 1:00:54 So that's something we're looking at to try to figure out moving forward. 1:00:57 A lot of face-off intensity drills lately. 1:01:02 Yeah. 1:01:02 What's the key for you guys there? 1:01:05 Everyone helping out. 1:01:06 You're talking PK specifically? 1:01:08 Yeah. 1:01:09 I mean, the winger has to get in, he's gotta block his guy center, he's gotta win the draw, hopefully, and it's not all up to the center. 1:01:15 The winger can get in there, fish the puck out, get it to D, and you gotta hold your guys and you gotta clear it. 1:01:21 Like I said, if you win the face-off and you wrap it to the far side and D gets it, that does nothing for you. 1:01:26 So you just gotta be hard on those bucks to get them out. 1:01:29 What do you expect to see from Clarkson this weekend? 1:01:32 I mean, they're off to a good start this year, so I know they got good goaltending. 1:01:37 Like I said, I like to focus on our team internally mostly, and if we prepare the right way, and if we come out with a good start on Friday night, I think we'll be fine. 1:01:45 It seems to come up more in the postseason, but is there a difference between Eastern hockey and Western hockey? 1:01:50 Yeah, sure. 1:01:51 I mean, refereeing is different a lot. 1:01:53 You know, out East, the tiki-taki stick penalties, they call it a lot more. 1:01:57 But I mean, as a collective NCAA hockey group, we've seen that they're all over the stick penalties this year, so you just gotta keep your feet moving, keep your stick down the ice. 1:02:07 Is there kind of a point of emphasis to be disciplined for the Clarkson even though it means here, but at the same time? 1:02:13 Yeah, 100%. 1:02:14 Obviously, we had penalty troubles last weekend. 1:02:16 We've had, I think, three or four majors penalties this year, so whenever you get put down that much during a game, it takes the energy out of your defensemen, your forwards that are killing all night long, and it takes some of your skilled guys off the ice. 1:02:28 So, you know, we gotta keep it to two or three penalties a night, at least, and now that'll give us more five-on-five, give us more of a chance to produce offensively, too. 1:02:37 Did you get a chance to watch Justin play last night? 1:02:39 I did. 1:02:40 I caught the third period. 1:02:42 I saw him take a hole in penalty in the third period, but they didn't get the win, but it's good to see someone that works so hard. 1:02:51 It's just a go for great to get called up. 1:02:55 Black shots has been something of emphasis, especially since last week, and you had 29 on Friday. 1:02:59 You had the one in the last second of the game. 1:03:01 Can you run through what that play was like? 1:03:03 Yeah, for sure. 1:03:04 I mean, they had the pulled goalie. 1:03:06 I knew there's A and B kind of going to a face off. 1:03:10 A, if we win the face off, who do I have to kind of box out? 1:03:13 Where do I have to go? 1:03:13 And then B, if we lose the face off, where am I going? 1:03:16 So I knew I had to get out there. 1:03:18 I knew I was probably going to go D to D for that one-timer and try to get a little big and get my feet in the way, and luckily I did. 1:03:24 I want to give you an English assignment. 1:03:26 Compare and contrast first line versus fourth line. 1:03:30 What's the difference and which do you like better? 1:03:34 I mean, I try to bring the same style of play to any line. 1:03:38 I don't think it really matters for myself personally. 1:03:41 I try to be hard on pucks. 1:03:42 I try to get down there in the forecheck. 1:03:43 I try to block shots. 1:03:45 And if I keep that core together, I don't think it really, really matters to myself. 1:03:50 It affects my teammates, my line, and it's around me the same. 1:03:52 All right.