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, Vegoe, and your host, Jupiter. 0:23 Thank you. 0:39 Thank Thank. 0:40 Good evening, and welcome to the GPL Podcast. 0:43 Back at full strength this week, Hammeh, back from a little R&R, which really wasn't R&R in Florida, but you seemed like you had a good time down there in Florida, didn't you? 0:55 Ah, well, it's not so bad being on Cocoa Beach, walking up and down the beach for a little bit. 1:05 For me, Florida- 1:06 It wasn't really that kind of a trip, but I did get to do a little bit of that. 1:10 For me, Florida is a nice place to visit, but I'd never want to live there. 1:13 Yeah, honestly, I think it's overrated. 1:16 I mean, I like being by the beach, especially, like I said, Cocoa Beach was kind of cool and whatever, but like Orlando, Tampa, I'm not impressed. 1:27 You know what I mean? 1:28 So it was like, it was all right. 1:30 Yep, I totally get it. 1:32 I've spent a few summers in Florida when I was a teenager, and it was God awful. 1:37 And every time I visit, I'm ready to leave when I'm done. 1:39 So that's just how it is. 1:42 Well, while you were gone, we had a series with the Michigan Wolverines, Hammy, and oh boy, a couple of games where they had some really nice leads and completely choked it away. 1:57 At least that's what I think. 1:57 That was just terrible finishes by the Gophers. 2:01 Yeah, I mean, it's funny because obviously I'm not at all as a fan, like happy with the results, especially when you have those kinds of leads and then you end up either tying or losing or whatever. 2:15 It sucks in that sense, but it's also from a philosophical perspective, I guess I feel like it's nice to see. 2:24 I mean, you can't have rivalries without sometimes coming up with results that you don't like, and they have to be very competitive games and there has to be drama and all that kind of stuff has to be there in order for a rivalry to really be good. 2:41 And we've kind of seen, we knew Michigan was one of those rivalries when all the conference changes happened that was gonna be important. 2:48 And it hasn't really quite been where we expected at first, but maybe this will, with a new coach and maybe this kind of a series is where it's a lot of offense and there's some drama involved. 3:01 And maybe that's what we have to look forward to. 3:02 So from a big picture perspective and a rivalry, maybe this is something that's gonna be better in the long run for us. 3:10 We can only hope so because, boy, as a fan, Veegs, that was a terrible weekend. 3:16 A three-nothing lead Friday night, you lose in overtime. 3:19 A four-nothing lead Saturday night, you end up getting a tie and getting an extra point. 3:26 We've talked about Jekyll and Hyde weekends. 3:28 These were Jekyll and Hyde games. 3:29 Starting so well and finishing so terrible. 3:34 Well, it's extra brutal as well because you worry so much about going on the road and starting off well, and the Gophers did that both nights. 3:43 They came out, had a good opening 10 minutes, had really the control play that started both games, took good leads. 3:52 And that's what you hope for on the road. 3:54 And it's so disappointing to see this team that's managed the puck so well since that UMD game to completely lose their heads and lose the self-discipline to do the right thing and to be aware of the situation in the game and the score and their teammates on the ice and just throw away points like they did this weekend. 4:19 No, I've always been of the, I guess I really don't know, but people say you get a lead, you need to kind of sit back and play a different style of hockey instead of keep going and keep doing the same type of style of game. 4:34 Apparently, the Gophers changed their game after they got a lead and it was like they were a completely different team. 4:41 I mean, I don't know if they turned to the mentality where, oh, we need to play defensive now, but it seems like it's not just that. 4:48 They're not just playing defensive. 4:49 They were playing stupid. 4:52 Well, I think that's it. 4:53 I don't think they were changing their mindset. 4:55 I think they just stopped being careful and cautious and aware of the situation. 5:01 I think they just started playing open hockey and that's something you can't do when you're playing against a really talented team like Michigan because when you do make those mistakes, you can't catch them. 5:11 If they get a step on you, they're probably gonna keep that step going the other way and that's what makes it so critical in those games is to keep your head and stay disciplined because it counts. 5:21 These aren't pickup games and these are games that come into play for conference titles and pairwise and seeding and they just didn't remember that at the key moments and then once the momentum started in Michigan's favor, they couldn't get it back and that's the other thing. 5:41 Maybe there's some calls that went the other way, but that wasn't all that got them the loss on Friday. 5:48 Definitely. 5:49 That Friday game, I know Lucia was a bit upset about the penalty calls and the lack of penalty calls and overtime or whatever it may be, but I just keep thinking, how did you even get to that position in the first place? 6:00 I mean, you're up three. 6:02 Well, it's just turnover as in puck management. 6:04 Yeah, but three, nothing. 6:07 Keep the foot on their neck, keep pushing. 6:11 The thing is, once the game gets close again, at that point, you can't change your game. 6:18 You have to play to keep scoring. 6:21 You can't totally button it up when it's a one goal game or a tie game. 6:24 You still have to create offense. 6:26 You have to carry the puck in the offensive zone and have sustained pressure. 6:30 And again, this is something that's been hurting this team all season is they get in the offensive zone and they're too quick to try to make a play that's not there. 6:38 And then that just puts them from the fun zone into the work zone. 6:41 If you listen to the coaches show on Monday, Lucia talked about that a lot. 6:45 All these players, they work so hard to get the offensive zone and then they just give it away almost immediately. 6:51 And then they have to go back, defend for 30, 40 seconds, get over the red line and get off. 6:58 I don't know. 6:59 It was really disappointing by reading the Facebook and Twitter feeds of the U of M after these games. 7:09 Boy, a lot of those fans, very angry. 7:13 Of course, they always come back to, oh, fire Lucia and this is all the Big Ten's fault. 7:16 And you know, that same bullshit we always hear. 7:19 But either way, you know, as a fan hammy, that was pretty upsetting. 7:24 You start so well and just end like crap. 7:30 Well, it's like I said, you know, big picture. 7:33 I don't, you know, you don't like it, but I like the fact that, you know, you have some drama and you have, you know, maybe the rivalry getting back on track in the sense that it's exciting and competitive and whatever. 7:46 But yes, from a fan perspective, there's nothing more frustrating than when you get a big lead, especially in hockey where... 7:54 On the road. 7:55 Yeah, it takes a big momentum shift to have that kind of a, to blow that kind of a lead. 8:05 And I just kind of feel like some guys lose sight of... 8:07 It's almost to be, like you said, they become a little too freewheeling. 8:12 They become a little bit too... 8:14 They don't maybe necessarily think intelligently because they have that big lead. 8:20 You think that, oh, well, this one play isn't going to cost us or whatever. 8:25 And sometimes, especially on the road, it's just one little thing that can really create momentum for the other team, and it can go quickly in the other direction. 8:33 So hopefully, if anything positive comes out of the series, it's that maybe they learn a lesson that it doesn't matter how big your lead is, you still have to play smart and not always take the high-risk play. 8:46 Do either of you know if Casey Middlestad is suffering from an injury because he was... 8:52 I don't know if he was shut down or he was just non-existent this past weekend, but he has been a bit quiet lately. 9:00 I don't know if he's banged up. 9:02 I haven't heard anything like that. 9:03 But I mean, I think it's just... 9:06 You know, I think it just goes to show you that sometimes we... 9:09 You know, when the hype train gets rolling on a recruit, you know, a first-year player, you still have to remember, especially with a kid, you know, he's still a young kid. 9:19 And yes, he's very, very talented, but he's still growing and learning and, you know, going up against guys that are much older than what he's been used to. 9:28 And you're going to have to give him some slack, you know, to not always be right on top of his game. 9:36 And that's going to happen, especially for a first-year guy. 9:38 And I talked to Nate Wells a little bit, who was in Ann Arbor this last weekend. 9:44 And he said that Mel Pearson really focused on that line and shutting them down. 9:48 He was sure to have a, you know, a checking line attitude out up against them. 9:54 He wanted fresh defense for every chance he could get out against those guys. 9:59 And if you'd noticed during the series, you know, they were given Middlestad a lot of extras. 10:04 You know, a lot of extra sticks, a lot of extra checks. 10:07 You know, they were trying to get into his kitchen a little bit. 10:10 I think that's one of the reasons why you saw Novak and Sheehyab at our weekends, is the focus wasn't on them. 10:16 It was on the RPM line. 10:19 Well, yeah, if you talk about Sheehyab, it was nice to see him start to build his game because, you know, he got a goal Friday night, you know, Saturday, he, you know, scored the winning goal, I guess, in the shootout to get that point. 10:35 And he did score earlier in the game as well. 10:37 But on the positive side, it is nice to see Sheehyab starting to get his game going because we need him to be on top of his game, Veegs. 10:49 Yeah, well, six points in a weekend against Michigan is going to help you get healthy. 10:52 But I think he looked the best skating that he's looked all season. 10:56 You know, I thought you saw the effort and I thought you saw him skating through checks and fighting through defenders a little bit more. 11:03 That's something you hadn't seen much earlier this season. 11:06 So he either is finally got his conditioning under him or his back is feeling better or that other injury they picked up is feeling better. 11:14 But I think this is the first game he was able to do that. 11:16 And you saw similar stuff from Novak. 11:19 He also fought through some checks, which you hadn't seen so much. 11:22 And just, you know, Lucia talked today about them improving their pace of play. 11:25 And I thought that was a big difference in their game. 11:28 Yeah, I'd agree that that that's definitely one of the, even though the outcomes were a little frustrating, that it was definitely good to see some of these guys kind of really start to hit their stride offensively. 11:41 And, you know, for those two guys in particular, I think that it bodes well moving forward, because, you know, Sheehee, we all know, was going to be very important coming into this year. 11:52 And hopefully this is the kind of series that really gets him rolling. 11:57 And if we can maintain some of these other guys' performance early on as far as offensive production, I think it's, you know, very beneficial to the team. 12:07 I saw some power play unit with Sheehee, Pitlick and Middlestadt and Johnson looked a lot better than it has early in the season. 12:14 You know, they looked a little more comfortable, you know, rotating through positions, getting some shots from the point. 12:21 Johnson hit a pipe. 12:23 I thought just overall they looked better in the zone. 12:25 That other unit still having some issues, and I think that's why Lucia spent a lot of today working on power play personnel and different, you know, configurations and strategies. 12:37 Well, I noticed you were tweeting about some things that were going on today at practice. 12:40 What else did you see at practice? 12:43 Well, just a lot of special teams work, a lot of penalty kill work, a lot of power play work. 12:48 I think, you know, with this short week, you know, they don't want to do too much to tire their lights out because they're going to be needed against a good skinny Harvard team. 12:56 But they're just trying to find, you know, some different combinations and different looks to maybe get things going because they've got so many left-handed shots. 13:03 You know, you don't want to have guys in the wrong spot on the power play if you can help it. 13:08 So they're just trying to figure out different ways to set guys up. 13:12 I mean, I can't remember the last time I saw the Gophers rely on an overload power play, but that almost looks like what they're going to be doing with that top unit. 13:22 Well, hopefully a lesson is learned after this weekend that how to finish a game, for one thing, because I think they left a lot of points out there that could come back to haunt them in the end. 13:34 We've got Notre Dame kind of undefeated so far, games in hand. 13:38 Michigan also has games in hand. 13:41 And, you know, if they win those games in hand, you know, you've got Notre Dame, it will be way ahead and Michigan will be just ahead. 13:49 So these points could come back to haunt them later in the season. 13:53 Points they should have had. 13:55 I think two points after how both those games started is pretty disappointing, Hammy. 14:01 It is, but I mean, I think as far as the way I look at it with Notre Dame, we still have to play them. 14:07 So we have plenty of our destiny in our own hands with regard to that lead. 14:12 And then, you know, we'll have Michigan coming to our rank. 14:16 So I mean, yeah, you don't like to see that. 14:20 But at the same time, there's so much left to play for that. 14:24 I don't get too concerned this early on about that kind of stuff. 14:28 Earlier this season, or actually for the whole season, Mr. 14:31 Sheerhorn had been playing very well at Veegs. 14:35 It was a bit of a struggle for him this past weekend. 14:39 Yeah, after looking back at Saturday's game, I don't think it was as big of a struggle as some people are making it out to be. 14:47 I think there were a lot of plays that got Michigan going in transition. 14:50 There are clearly two or three goals that Sheerhorn usually makes the save on. 14:55 There's a long shot from the point that he just didn't see. 15:00 I think he was kind of pressing as the goals piled up. 15:02 He's like, you know, I got to press to make a nice save here. 15:05 And when he does that, he kind of loses his game a little bit. 15:08 He's been better when he's calmer. 15:11 He's following the puck and he's in position. 15:13 I think when he gets into some of these games, you know, the head starts rushing and you get away from what makes you successful. 15:21 So not his best game. 15:24 We're used to seeing him bail out the team when they make mistakes and he didn't do that as much this weekend. 15:29 But I don't think it was all on him. 15:30 You look at some of the goals, you know, they're just backdoor tap ins. 15:34 You know, there's guys just walking right in from the wall by two players. 15:39 You see guys, you know, taking too long a shift. 15:42 There's a lot of things that contributed to all the goals. 15:46 One very good positive from this past weekend that we hadn't seen for the entire history of Big Ten play for the Gophers, Hammy, is that they finally won that extra point in a shootout. 15:58 After all this time they had, you know, a lot of people don't like the shootout, but it's even worse if you don't like the shootout and you keep losing the shootout. 16:08 Yeah, well, there's no doubt about that. 16:10 I mean, I guess there's some consolation, you know, the fact that you get the extra point, certainly. 16:17 But, you know, when you have those kinds of leads, I suppose for everybody it's a little bit of a... 16:22 You know, it's fine, but you kind of think of, you know, we really shouldn't have gotten to that point, so you don't really get too excited about it. 16:30 But, yeah, it's certainly better than losing the shootout. 16:33 Good to get that monkey off the back, Veegs? 16:38 Well, it's kind of interesting. 16:38 I don't really ever see them practice shootouts in their availability when we see them on the ice, so it's probably not something they care about too much. 16:47 Just they've got some really talented guys in Pitlick and Sheehy. 16:50 You can fire the puck, and they delivered. 16:53 So I think that point could come in handy. 16:55 Two is better than nothing. 16:57 That is true, but I guess we should go back to talk about Middlesead's attempt. 17:04 Could he have gone back for the puck after it bounced on him? 17:07 Or did he already know that he was done? 17:10 I heard some conflicting reports on that. 17:12 You can't go backwards. 17:14 So you can't back up. 17:15 You have to have a continuous forward motion. 17:17 This is why the spinorama is a little bit controversial. 17:23 So once it's behind you, you can't go back. 17:26 It was basically a bad luck thing. 17:28 It looks like the puck just kind of bounced on him and that was it. 17:33 It looks like there's some bad ice out there in the third period. 17:36 A lot of bouncing pucks. 17:37 I did notice there was quite a bit of bouncing pucks. 17:39 It was very unfortunate. 17:41 You got this kid who was going to be a superstar. 17:45 He's in the NHL or going to be in the NHL and blah, blah, and his first shootout and it bounces on him. 17:50 I felt kind of bad for him because he hadn't had the greatest game and he kind of redeemed himself. 17:57 Then literally a bad bounce happened to him, so I felt bad for him. 18:02 It just kind of rolled my eyes. 18:03 I'm like, this is just that kind of night. 18:04 Luckily, we did have Sheehy bail them out and get their first extra point in the history of the Big Ten. 18:12 That's the one positive, guys. 18:14 It's not so bad. 18:17 I don't know. 18:18 You're reaching, but fine. 18:20 We have to reach for something because it was a pretty negative weekend. 18:25 The team had been made fun of not being able to get an extra point. 18:30 If I recall, the only other shootout they won was for what about four years ago for the North Star Cup against Duluth. 18:38 That was the only time they ever figured it out. 18:41 It's kind of nice that they finally did get that extra point. 18:47 Speaking of overtime and whatnot, we got Jess on the Mixler chat wondering, is there any noise out there about the Big Ten going to a four on four overtime? 18:58 I haven't heard anything. 18:59 Have either of you heard anything about that? 19:01 Or is the Big Ten just kind of happy with how it is? 19:05 I haven't heard anything. 19:06 I mean, I do like the concept. 19:09 I really like how it has worked in NHL. 19:12 So I wouldn't complain if they went to that route. 19:15 What do you think, Veegs? 19:16 Three on three? 19:17 Four on four? 19:19 Well, I know Don Lucia is very vocal about having that first five minutes be five on five, because that's how it would be in the NCAA tournament, is you're going to have that situation where, you know, there's no loser points or ties there, so you want that experience of that five on five hockey. 19:38 I think if you're going to go past it, you know, four on four, three on three is a lot more fun to watch than a shootout. 19:45 So I'd be in favor, I like it, but at the same point you want to keep that five on five situation so they get the experience. 19:52 So maybe go with the NCHC row. 19:54 I believe they play five on five and then three and three, or do they go right to four on four? 19:58 I don't really recall. 20:00 I know they do something weird like that. 20:04 Anyone know? 20:06 I think it's four on four. 20:07 Okay, so they do four on four for five and then they do three on three for five. 20:12 And then they would go to a shootout. 20:16 Then if it ever got there after 15 minutes of bonus hockey. 20:22 Yeah, I guess so. 20:23 So any other final thoughts on this weekend at Michigan, Hammey? 20:28 No, I mean, I think it's just one of those things where you kind of have to learn your lessons from the mistakes that you've made and hopefully in the long run, you know, you grow from it and the team learns. 20:42 So, you know, you just never know in the big picture of a season, we all get upset about certain things that happen, but sometimes those can be growing experiences for a team and for certain players and you just expect that they are going to learn from that and not make the same mistakes again. 20:58 What about you, Vegoe? 21:00 Any final thoughts? 21:03 Well, I think we saw another weekend where Minnesota took a couple bad penalties, you know, just situations where you have no business taking the penalty, whether it's face-off interference and overtime or nothing interference on the rush where it's already been defused. 21:19 Those aren't penalties you want to take. 21:22 Luckily, Minnesota's penalty kill has looked pretty good all season here since those early struggles. 21:29 I was really impressed with the way they were able to handle Quinn Hughes in the second game. 21:33 You know, one of his things, he's going to be a top 10 draft pick. 21:37 He's really good at rushing the puck. 21:38 But I think Minnesota, after that first game, when they kind of saw his speed and especially his lateral agility, they were able to angle him and, you know, limit his ability to break the puck up on the ice. 21:48 And that's an important skill for this unit to learn. 21:52 And they're going to have another challenge this weekend with Harvard. 21:55 Adam Fox is a great power play quarterback for them, and they'll see a very similar player. 22:01 Well, we're going to get into the Harvard talk in a little bit. 22:04 And also, we're going to talk about some recent recruiting and signs that Gophers have just done the last week. 22:12 But before that, let's have a listen to our sponsor. 22:16 vintagemnhockey.com is a proud sponsor of the GPL Podcast. 22:21 Well, what is vintage MN hockey? 22:24 Well, it's kind of the place to get all of your history of Minnesota hockey, from the pros to the minors, the collegiate teams to even the high school teams. 22:34 All information about any of those teams can be found on vintagemnhockey.com. 22:39 They also have great interviews with some historical Minnesota hockey figures like John Mayessich and Lou Nanny, Glenn Sanmore, some of the greats of Minnesota hockey. 22:48 So make sure you check out those interviews. 22:50 It's a really great thing. 22:51 But as I always say, I think my favorite part is the store. 22:55 The store, you can buy a custom historical jersey from the Gophers or the Bulldogs or some of your favorite high school teams. 23:02 And if you do make a purchase, just use the code GPL Podcast, all one word, and you'll get 10% off your order. 23:09 So make sure you visit vintagemnhockey.com and follow them on Twitter at VintageMNHockey. 23:17 Well, we had a couple players say they were going to attend the University of Minnesota this week, you know, in the last few weeks, and then we had some, probably some freshmen for next year sign their national letter of intent. 23:31 It's been kind of a busy couple weeks, hasn't it, Veegs? 23:36 I think you've seen Minnesota take maybe a softer approach with the NLIs, only signing three this year. 23:46 Obviously, Clayton Phillips is probably going to be their most impact guy coming in next year. 23:51 Real good defenseman, having a great year in the USHL. 23:55 Blake McLaughlin staying in the USHL instead of going back to Grand Rapids. 23:59 Really dynamic player, a lot of offense. 24:02 Mature guy. 24:03 And then Sammy Walker staying in high school this season for Udina. 24:08 Be a fun player for people to watch. 24:11 Plus, we've had a lot of commits these last few weeks, huh, Hammy? 24:14 We just had a goalie commit this afternoon. 24:18 Yeah, I mean, it's kind of interesting how it kind of goes through these stages where sometimes you go through long stretches where you don't get any activity whatsoever. 24:27 And of course, fans kind of, you know, what's going on and whatever, they don't realize that it's just a matter of kind of the ebbs and flows of recruiting and not everything's going to... 24:37 Sometimes they happen in little stretches of bunches of guys. 24:41 And other times there's long stretches of nothing. 24:43 So I think after you see things with Elite League, you know, in high school and then you also have the early season USHL and you kind of get a better feel for, you know, how players are kind of progressing, you know, makes you a little bit more willing to kind of put those offers out there. 25:02 So, you know, it's definitely exciting when, you know, I think that, you know, the goalie, it's going to be good. 25:11 I think he's a really good player. 25:13 He's started off the USHL very well. 25:16 And I think that he's got some really good size and there's a lot of opportunity for him to continue to improve and grow. 25:23 And I think that we are pretty good shaped despite what we saw with Shearhorn this last weekend. 25:28 I think, you know, our current goalie situation is in pretty good shape. 25:33 So to have this kind of in your back pocket now, you know, a few days, three years down the road, that's going to be good for the program. 25:45 We still have the concern about some of these kids being super young. 25:48 I know we've discussed that previously. 25:51 Any concern about that, Hammy, still about, you know, going after these really young guys? 26:00 Well, I mean, I guess it's sort of a, you know, sign of the time, so to speak. 26:06 And so I guess I don't like it. 26:08 I certainly have never liked it. 26:10 And I've made this well known many times. 26:12 I don't ever like when they go after goalies that are really young because to me you can find goalies, you know, 18, 19, that are uncommitted, that are going to turn out to be really good players in college. 26:25 I don't think you really have to do that for goalies. 26:29 I understand doing it to a degree with some of the position players, but I just feel like you kind of have to have a balance. 26:38 But I also realize that, you know, especially a Gopher coach, you're kind of in a tough spot because there are certain fans that, you know, they focus all their attention on, you know, who the top prospects are at certain ages. 26:52 And if we, you know, it's ironic to me that some of the fans, it's like they will bitch about stuff when we don't get them. 27:01 But then when we do get them and they don't necessarily, you know, kind of progress the way that we expect, they bitch about that. 27:08 And it's kind of like, you can't win with these people. 27:10 You know what I mean? 27:11 And so it's like, it's tough. 27:15 Recruiting is, you know, it's tough. 27:18 And it's not just something that we see here. 27:20 You know, some, every program has guys that they project to be, you know, pretty good at a younger age. 27:27 And some do end up, you know, panning out in that direction. 27:31 And sometimes they don't. 27:33 And it's not just something that we deal with here. 27:35 It happens all over. 27:37 Veegs, do we know anything about this goalie who signed a name? 27:39 His name is Jared Moe. 27:40 Apparently he played for Holy Family, now playing for Waterloo. 27:46 Do you know anything about him? 27:50 Not much other than his stats and history. 27:53 You know, he's a big goalie, which is something we might be seeing a different trend here with Gopher Hockey. 28:00 Robson's a big goalie as well. 28:03 Shearhorn's more those athletic guys like Wilcox was. 28:08 So, you know, he's definitely proved himself early in this USHL season, but goalies are hard to know. 28:14 Until they start seeing the elite shooters from everybody, you're not really sure how they're going to project. 28:20 It's always risky. 28:21 You always want to wait as long as you can with the goalies. 28:25 Hammey. 28:26 Oh, go ahead, Hammey. 28:27 Oh, go ahead. 28:28 Well, I was going to ask you, you know, Scott Bell loves to tweet out, we got a big fish today. 28:34 I'm kind of curious, are there any other big fish still out there that Minnesota is pursuing? 28:42 Well, there always is. 28:43 Yeah, there always is. 28:43 It's kind of like, what age group do you think they're in? 28:48 You know, I think right now, you know, I see fans talk a lot about, you know, defensively, what are they going to do in the short term. 28:55 And, you know, the trick is, is that you kind of have to balance out that short term need with, you know, if you see kids that are maybe a couple years down the line that you really, really like, that you feel like you have a good chance to get. 29:10 And it's kind of like if you commit to that short term thing, that might take away from that long term opportunity a couple years later. 29:17 And so you kind of have to balance that out. 29:19 And of course, you have a roster that you have to, you know, you have to fill out. 29:23 And so it becomes, all right, well, do we look for that, you know, kind of low cost, low scholarship cost guy that maybe doesn't have, you know, some of the elements in the short term that you would really like to have, but it gives you an opportunity to kind of really go after somebody two years from now that you really, really do like. 29:43 You know, so there's that balancing act between the short term and the long term. 29:47 And that's kind of why it's a little bit trickier, I think, than some fans kind of think about. 29:54 It's not just sort of like playing fantasy football, and you just collect as many good players as you can. 29:58 And you kind of have to balance out all that scholarship and need and all that kind of stuff. 30:05 So it's trickier than I think fans kind of realize. 30:10 We've got Tony Newell has a question in the Mixler chat. 30:13 He was wondering, was Wilcox highly thought of coming in? 30:16 If my memory serves me right, he was supposed to be the backup his freshman year and ended up winning the job early and never looking back. 30:23 What do you remember about Wilcox there, Hammy? 30:28 Well, he was definitely well thought of coming into college. 30:34 He was drafted. 30:36 It wasn't like he was some schmo out of nowhere. 30:40 He was a pretty good player in his younger days and he did play very well in the USHL prior to Gophers. 30:50 Whether or not you expect a kid to come in and start right away or not, you don't always know that part of it, but I definitely think that they were counting on him coming in and being an impact goalie for them for many years. 31:03 I don't think that that was a shocker. 31:06 Speaking of goalie, Veegs, it has been a very long time since we've had a goalie actually play in the NHL as a normal goalie. 31:15 Yet a lot of teams around us have had goalies come and go and go on to the NHL and have successful careers. 31:24 Why can't Minnesota get one of these goalies? 31:30 Well, there just haven't been a lot of elite goalies coming out of Minnesota. 31:33 I mean, when was the last time you saw a Minnesota-produced goalie? 31:36 Lindgren! 31:38 I mean, he's playing for Montreal right now. 31:41 The kid's pretty damn good. 31:44 But if you read the story on Lindgren in the Athletic this week, here's a guy who, again, didn't make his select 15 age group, didn't make his select 16 age group, made his select 17 and he had a lot of ties to St. 31:57 Cloud. 31:59 Goaltending is a hard thing to develop. 32:00 It's something I think that's improving in Minnesota. 32:04 You're starting to see the mega-goaltending and the stopper goaltending schools improve that development. 32:11 But it's a hard position to project. 32:15 I don't know. 32:15 I just have the impression that we rely on the old Scobber who was a mediocre NHL goalie, but then you look around the league and boy, there's a lot of former, what we'd like to say, the old WCHA goalies playing in the NHL. 32:32 Boy, we had a hard time scoring against when they were, whether it's Elliott at Wisconsin or even like I said, the newer, you know, with Lindgren at St. 32:40 Cloud State. 32:43 Why can't we get one of those goalies, guys? 32:46 Well, I'll be honest, Steve, for me, I don't really care about that, mainly because it's like we've had effective goalies here. 32:54 I mean, there's been stretches, you know, little periods here or there where we haven't. 32:58 But to me, it's not, I don't get caught up in that, you know, if they're NHL, first of all, you got to remember that there's only so many goalie spots available at NHL. 33:08 It's not a big number. 33:09 I mean, that's a small number of opportunities in the first place. 33:12 But there's a lot of good goalies out there that can do a really good job in the college level and it's just a matter of identifying them and making sure that as they progress their college career, that they continue to improve. 33:29 And I don't really think that that's been, you know, a weak spot for the Gophers, you know, for the most part over the course of Lucia's time as a head coach. 33:40 And I kind of feel it's a little bit overrated to talk about, you know, how good we have an NHL guys, you know, there's not that many of those positions. 33:51 And, you know, it's kind of like when people talk about, you know, well, this recruits an NHL draft pick and he's this and that. 33:58 It's like, I really don't care because we've seen plenty of guys just in clues, for instance, that weren't even drafted, that were very good college players. 34:06 I just care about how they do in the college level. 34:09 Don't get me wrong, it's nice to see these guys move on and play well at the pro level, you know, and have alums that are in NHL. 34:17 But I don't get as caught up in that kind of stuff as other people do. 34:22 Well, that's fair enough. 34:23 I'm just, you know... 34:24 I do think, though, after talking to Andy Kent for my Sherhorn story last week, that I think you're going to see the development of goalies at Minnesota improve. 34:33 I think Sherhorn's kind of laid out the blueprint for how goalies, if they want to take themselves seriously, will have to train year-round to push themselves to reach that level where they can play NHL. 34:50 There you go. 34:52 Well, I've just always been kind of a wondered thing, you know. 34:55 Minnesota kinds of... 34:56 Well, I guess there was, you know, there was John Blue as well. 34:58 I believe John Blue played in the NHL. 34:59 But it's been a long time since we've had a goalie that played at Minnesota, that played well here, that went on to play in the NHL. 35:07 We've got all those great defensemen and great forwards that have gone on. 35:10 But in the goalie position, it's been a bit quiet for about almost 30 years now. 35:17 Well, I do agree that with leagues, that to a degree, you know, it's about facing elite shooters. 35:26 And, you know, when a lot of the kids in Minnesota grow up and spend the majority of their time in Minnesota high school, I mean, you're not going to get that. 35:37 And so until these kids kind of get off to the junior hockey, you know, in USHL, for instance, you're not really going to see, you know, the consistency of high-quality shooters. 35:47 And you kind of have to think, like, to some extent, that's going to play a role in the development. 35:54 And so considering we spend, you know, pretty much the vast majority of our time recruiting within the state, that's probably going to play into it. 36:03 And you're right, hopefully with some of these, you know, goaltending kind of focused development opportunities that we see with, like, stoppers, you know, businesses and whatever, I mean, you kind of hope that maybe that's going to continue to get better in this state and maybe we do reap some of the benefits from that. 36:23 Well, plenty of the other state schools have had some excellent goalies. 36:27 One of them is playing for the wild right now. 36:29 So I'd like to, I don't know, it would be nice to have someone to hang our hat on because, you know, we've got plenty of other pros out there doing really well. 36:38 But, boy, a goaltending position we just haven't been able to figure out in a long time. 36:46 We had decent goalies. 36:47 I'm not saying we had bad goalies. 36:49 I'm just saying we just haven't had that superstar goalie that can really lead you to a championship. 36:57 Go ahead. 36:58 Most really athletic 6'3, 6'4, guys don't end up playing goalie in Minnesota. 37:03 You know, those are the guys you're going to play, you know, center, defense. 37:08 You know, most Minnesota players, when they're coming up, you know, the coaches find the biggest, best skaters and put out defense. 37:14 And that's why we've had so many great defensemen come through Minnesota. 37:17 So I think that's part of it too. 37:18 You know, when you have your community model like Minnesota does, that's what's going to happen with your best athletes. 37:25 Well, I think, you know, the other, I honestly don't think for me personally that goaltending has been what has held back the Gophers. 37:34 You know, to me, when I look at a Wilcox, I thought Patterson played relatively well, you know, in his college career. 37:42 You know, maybe they didn't have great finishes, you know, especially Wilcox didn't have as great as last year. 37:51 But I mean, I think that generally speaking, some of these guys have played pretty well. 37:55 When I think of what's kind of held us back some is just some of the, I think, personally defensive depth. 38:02 When I think of the great Gopher teams, we think those title teams, there was a lot better high end guys on the blue line, and we had better, I think, depth one through six. 38:13 And I feel like that has not quite been as strong for one reason or another in recent years. 38:19 And I think if anything, that's kind of what's cost the team as much as we've had good offensive players. 38:25 I don't have any problems with the goaltending on the whole. 38:29 I'm not saying it's been great the entire time, but I think it's been more some of the defensive players not having that depth than maybe just having one guy that's really the elite offensive defenseman, overall defenseman, rather than having two or three of those guys. 38:44 And I think that more than anything, that's what's kind of held the team back. 38:48 Don't tell the casual fans that though, because boy, they were going after Sheerhorn this weekend. 38:54 Well, I mean, it's not going to be great all the time. 38:56 I get it. 38:57 Sheerhorn hasn't always been great. 38:59 I mean, we all know that he didn't have, it wasn't like last year was a fantastic year throughout the entire season for him. 39:08 But I guess I just don't want to read too much into any one series or any one little stretch of time. 39:15 That's just kind of looking at the big picture. 39:18 I'm just kind of feeding into the irrational fans. 39:21 Go ahead, Veegs. 39:25 Well, you can just look at Dubnick with Wilde. 39:28 He had kind of a shaky start and then he's had three shutouts in a row. 39:30 I think goaltending is one of those things that can kind of go up and down a little bit. 39:34 It's why you kind of want to have a backup option to turn to so you can let your number one guy figure things out from time to time. 39:44 Tony Newell, he's actually asking, will Lucia give Robson starts after the break? 39:50 We kind of talked about this before. 39:52 I'm thinking it's almost guaranteed, don't you think, Veegs? 39:54 I mean, I think we're going to see Robson. 39:57 If he's not, let's say Minnesota even struggles at Ohio State that Friday night game, I wouldn't doubt if he threw Robson in Saturday just to get him in there. 40:05 But if we don't see him then, I think we'll definitely see him against Army, won't we? 40:09 I think it all depends on how Shearhorn responds here. 40:14 Shearhorn finds his game right away. 40:16 I think Lucia is going to be a tough decision for him to turn away from him. 40:22 I think what you might see, though, is Robson might get half a game or something like that, one of those Army games, or come out on a relief if Shearhorn doesn't play well. 40:33 We'll just have to wait and see. 40:34 It's good to have an option, though, to press guys. 40:38 I asked Shearhorn a little bit about that, if that's why he had such an intense summer, and he didn't want to directly answer it, but I think it definitely motivated him to take his offseason a little bit more seriously and make sure he came into the season playing well. 40:53 I'm kind of curious. 40:54 What does happen once Robinson comes in? 40:56 Does essentially one of those other goalies become a practice goalie only? 41:02 I mean, that's four goalies on the roster. 41:05 That's a lot. 41:09 I think we already have two practice goalies. 41:15 That may be true. 41:15 I just think it's odd if we're going to have four goalies on a roster. 41:23 I don't know which one kind of gets demoted because they do dress three goalies quite often. 41:27 I guess we'll just have to wait and see. 41:30 But hopefully, like you said, the presence of Robinson and the thought of him being right there will hopefully kick and keep Shearhorn on his toes, huh, Veegs? 41:46 Yeah, I mean, he's a big athletic goaltender. 41:48 He came here thinking he was going to play. 41:50 He didn't come here to ride the bench. 41:52 He came here to compete for a job. 41:53 He's a big athletic goalie, so he's definitely pushing Shearhorn. 41:58 That's exactly what we want because we want these guys to be battle-tested by the end of the year. 42:06 Well, let's move on. 42:07 We've got Harvard coming in this weekend from out east. 42:10 It's nice to have some of these eastern schools come in. 42:13 Before they even played a game, they were ranked as high as three in the nation, two or three in the nation. 42:20 Their team maybe hasn't quite come together as they wanted to, Hammy, but Harvard is kind of projected to be one of the top teams out east this year. 42:30 Yeah, I mean, it's funny because they do start later than other schools do, so it's kind of hard to get a feel for. 42:40 Did they maybe get over-hyped early on, or is it just that they're kind of facing the early season situation where you're trying to find your way and figure out who's doing what and getting a feel for your team that a lot of teams go through? 42:55 So it'll be interesting to see as the season progresses what they actually end up as, but I think that certainly being non-conference and being the fact that they're going to be a team that likely is going to be good in their conference and be a contender out east, that you would hope to do well this weekend and for pairwise purposes down the line. 43:17 Well, that's exactly it, isn't it Veegs? 43:19 This could be some critical numbers come pairwise comparisons later on the year because if somebody like a Harvard does go off and win their league, a couple of victories over them would be really big at the end of the year. 43:34 Well, if you do well against Harvard, you just win so many comparisons in the pairwise. 43:38 It helps separate you from other teams that you're competing with. 43:41 So it's definitely a huge weekend. 43:43 Harvard, probably a rough start. 43:46 All those Ivy League schools start later than the rest of college hockey, so I think it's hard for them to kind of get going. 43:52 And one of the things with Harvard is they're looking to replace so much scoring up front. 43:56 They return some key pieces, but they're looking for scorers right now. 44:02 Well, what do we know about Harvard other than they're kind of hyped to be good this year and have had a bit of a slow start? 44:08 Hammeh, do we know much about Harvard? 44:11 I personally can't say that I do. 44:14 Just because, I mean, how many games do we really have to see, you know, from the perspective of ECAC? 44:20 I mean, you see a little bit here or there or whatever. 44:22 So, you know, so from an actual visual watching them perspective, I can't say I know a lot about them. 44:30 Certainly, they, you know, have done a good job, I think, getting talented kids, considering they don't, you know, have the scholarships, you know, that's different than, you know, for those Ivy schools and it is for everywhere else. 44:43 And so they do a pretty good job, all things considered, that they don't have to, they don't operate like the Gophers or North Dakota or some of those other schools with scholarship offers and, you know, they kind of have to deal with certain things that other programs don't. 45:00 So they do a good job of collecting talent. 45:03 Obviously, with such a great academic institution, it's not like they don't have anything to offer hockey players. 45:09 So, but as far as, you know, how good they're going to be this year and, you know, individual talent, I mean, I don't know a lot about Harvard because I just don't see them. 45:19 They're not in the radar in that sense. 45:21 Vegas, I know you scouted him, didn't you? 45:25 Well, you know, they did go to the Frozen Four last year, so there was an opportunity to see a few games with the Crimson on the ice. 45:32 And, you know, Adam Fox is a real dynamic defenseman for them. 45:36 He's probably going to run on the power place with the Wolf Junior team in Buffalo this year as an NT DP guy who played with Lindgren. 45:46 Ted Donato is another boss draft pick who has been an impact player in the past, and he knows Lindgren very well from the Gophers. 45:55 So those are two names to watch, and Madsen's a big goalie for them. 45:58 He's like a 6'5, 6'6, guy drafted by Arizona. 46:03 You know, a lot of experience, maybe a guy that the Olympic team might be looking at. 46:08 Along with Donato, he might be an Olympic guy that Granado is looking at. 46:13 So we've got some talent. 46:14 I think one of the things Ted Donato has done with his team is he's incorporated some more of those NHL prospects in the Harvard program, something they haven't had for a long time. 46:24 They used to not do that, but I think they have seven or eight drafted players on their roster this year, and that talent level is pretty impressive for Harvard with the no scholarships. 46:35 So Veegs, we obviously want to see the Gophers get a couple of good wins this weekend and do well for their pairwise, but what's kind of those intangibles that you would like to see this weekend? 46:45 Is it improving the power play or maybe the penalty kill or certain situations? 46:50 What would you like to see from the Gophers this weekend? 46:54 Well, I'd like to see them stay out of the box, just the discipline factor. 46:58 Don't take those stupid penalties away from the puck. 47:03 You're not making a physical play. 47:06 If you're going to take a guy down because he's got a scoring chance, that's fine. 47:09 If you're laying a big hit, sometimes that's okay. 47:12 But when you're taking these interferences or these trips or these hooks through the neutral zone or behind the play or after a rush has already been defused, that's just not smart hockey and you can't do that against elite teams. 47:25 Usually when you do that, you're going to be facing good power plays and there's going to be a good one this weekend they're up against. 47:31 So you can't do that kind of stuff. 47:33 The other thing I'm going to look for is what does Lucia do with the power play? 47:37 I think he's got a pretty good unit with Pellick Middlesat, Sheehy and Johnson, who he puts out there with them is important. 47:47 Then what does he do with that second unit? 47:48 Because everything they've done has been real stagnant and hasn't looked very good on the ice. 47:54 Sammy, any of those intangibles you'd like to see from the Gophers this weekend? 48:00 For me, what I want to see is just individuals, and maybe even from a certain team perspective, just learning from mistakes. 48:08 I want to see guys being more disciplined in their responsibilities. 48:14 Just making the smart plays, because I really feel like, we talked about earlier in the season, especially from a defensive perspective, we don't have a Mike Riley, Nate Schmidt, Keith Ballard, those kinds of guys. 48:29 We don't really have that this year. 48:31 At least we don't have it in an obvious way right now. 48:35 I think that defensively, it's just really important to play positionally sound, making the smart play with the puck when you do have that opportunity, not trying to do too much, not getting yourself out of position. 48:48 Of course, from an overall team defensive perspective, just playing smart and supporting each other and not always taking the high risk play. 48:57 It's just some of those learning those lessons from the mistakes that you have made and then supporting each other out there on the ice. 49:04 That's what I want to see. 49:06 Sounds good to me. 49:07 Actually, a lot of that sounds good to me, guys. 49:11 This is those weekends where we'd like to see some improvement in different areas, and hopefully we'll get to see that. 49:16 Veegs, you went to availability again today, captured some audio that we'll put at the end of the podcast. 49:23 What did you hear from the players and Coach Lucia today? 49:28 Yeah, Ryan Lindgren, you'll hear him talk about his familiarity with some of the guys in the Harvard roster. 49:33 He's pretty good buddies with those guys and stays in touch with them. 49:38 And Ryan Zuhlsdorf also talked about the Dyna connections. 49:41 There's two Dyna players who play for Harvard. 49:44 So there's some history there with all those guys and maybe a little extra curricular stuff that could happen. 49:50 You're always tougher on your friends than people you don't know. 49:53 So we'll see some of that. 49:54 And then you'll hear Lucia talk about Harvard coming to the rink. 50:00 This is a team that plays a good style hockey. 50:03 It's not like a trap and sit back kind of team. 50:07 It's the team that wants to produce offense. 50:09 So it should be fun for the fans if they show up at the arena. 50:13 Now, do we know, is this a special agreement? 50:15 Are we going out to Harvard next year? 50:16 Or do we know that whole arrangement? 50:21 I don't think we know it right now. 50:23 Yeah, because I hadn't really heard anything. 50:25 Usually we've got these agreements. 50:28 We had the agreements with St. 50:29 Lawrence and Clarkson and whoever. 50:32 We went out there and they're coming back here and things with Northeastern in the past. 50:37 But this Harvard one, I didn't really hear any buzz. 50:39 Also, they're coming here for two and similar to Army. 50:42 All of a sudden, Army's here for two games. 50:45 We don't know if there's anything reciprocal going on with that like we usually hear. 50:49 I was just kind of curious if you'd heard anything. 50:52 Part of me wonders if this was going to be the Mary G Classic and they just couldn't find another team. 50:58 Because I know Harvard's come to the Classic in the past. 51:01 I think that's the last time Minnesota played them. 51:03 When Jimmy Bessie came and almost single-handedly beat the Gophers in overtime, he had some help, but it was mainly him. 51:10 So I think it might have been something to do with that. 51:13 So they might not be going back out there. 51:16 Could be. 51:18 Maybe we should ask them about that this weekend when they're there. 51:20 Because I hadn't even thought of that. 51:23 Anything else, guys, for this weekend? 51:24 Any predictions or any thoughts on the weekend, Hammy? 51:30 Well, I'm kind of expecting to sweep this weekend. 51:32 I'm not saying it's going to be easy, but that's kind of the expectation I have. 51:36 I think that I want to see the guys really kind of rebound from a disappointing weekend where they really should have come out of it with two wins. 51:43 And hopefully a little bit of that bitter taste in their mouth will result in a couple of really good efforts and two wins. 51:52 Veegs, come on. 51:53 Sweep? 51:55 I'm seeing a sweep too after this offensive output from last weekend and getting Novak and Sheehy going. 52:02 You know, they look a lot better. 52:03 I think that's going to help Minnesota. 52:05 They can be deeper than just a liner or line and a half. 52:09 That's really going to help. 52:10 So I think we'll see a sweep here and it should be some entertaining hockey. 52:16 It will definitely be entertaining hockey. 52:17 One thing to look for as well as if Lucia keeps doing this 11 forward, 7 defenseman thing, he's been talking a lot about it, how much he likes it because he can play some of his high end players more and add work. 52:30 We're seeing the end a little bit. 52:32 There it is. 52:33 That's the end of the show. 52:35 Thanks for listening. 53:03 Are they cliché to say Harvard plays smart hockey? 53:06 Well, they should. 53:08 No, they play annotating hockey. 53:12 They're going to get up and down the rink. 53:13 They're a really good skating team. 53:14 Played in the Frozen four years ago. 53:17 Donato is a special player up front. 53:19 Ted Son, Fox on the back end, will be on the World Junior team this year and quarterback in one of the power plays. 53:27 Goaltender's really good. 53:29 Big, what is it, 6'6, covers a lot of net, and they don't give up many goals. 53:33 I think they're trying to replace some top-end offensive guys from last year's team, but they were picked to be certainly one of the top teams in the ECAC again and should be a really good entertaining style. 53:44 I don't expect a ton of goals scored. 53:46 I expect it to be more low scoring and grinded out type of games. 53:50 Not a ton of history between these two programs, but some pretty significant games if you go back. 53:54 Yeah, there is. 53:55 I mean, we ended up losing to them a year ago or a couple years ago in overtime, and I think it was our tournament, and it was a really good game. 54:04 And that's why we want to play teams like Harvard. 54:08 I mean, they're good. 54:08 They play the game the right way. 54:11 You know, I have a lot of respect for Ted, you know, with the job he's done there at Harvard. 54:16 He's been there a long time and, you know, built the program. 54:18 And so it's fun to play teams that, you know, want to mirror us a little bit and play an up-tempo style. 54:26 Samercini's gotten into just a few games here, but he's made an impact on the stat sheet for goals especially. 54:32 But what's your mindset putting him in? 54:33 Well, we've played some 11 and 7. 54:37 And, you know, from a defensive standpoint, it allows us to get one of the freshmen involved in the game with the comfort of knowing that one of the veterans is still available to us. 54:47 And from a forward standpoint, you know, it allows us to mix and match. 54:52 And we scored the most goals when we played 11 instead of 12. 54:55 And it allows us to get our top end guys out a little bit more. 54:58 And even just talking to them this past week, they like the fact that all of a sudden they're playing with different guys throughout the game, too, so it's not static lines. 55:07 But Sam, what we need from Sam, I mean, the goals are a bonus. 55:09 I don't think, you know, we expected him to, you know, lead our back end in goals at this point in the season. 55:15 We need him to defend, be a hard guy to play against, be a good penalty killer more than anything else. 55:21 But, you know, he has two nice goals from the shorthand of jumping up into the plate, and then certainly with the two cracks out of that Michigan scoring on the second one, you know, getting a puck through. 55:31 I mean, that's an arc for defense, we'll be able to get a puck through to the net. 55:34 Where are the guys' heads at right now after last weekend? 55:37 Well, they're fine. 55:37 I mean, I think our guys are good. 55:39 I think they've... 55:41 I'm glad that some guys broke out from an offensive standpoint. 55:44 You know, Tyler Sheehy came alive last weekend. 55:46 Milback came alive last weekend. 55:48 So from that standpoint, it was good. 55:51 Yost has been a very difficult place to play more than any other probably place for us in the league. 55:58 You know, the negative is obviously, I mean, I guess after 31 years, you see it all. 56:02 And, you know, I've had a team where we've been down four in the third period and come back and win over time. 56:08 But, you know, when you're up 3-0 and 4-0, those should be salted away. 56:12 But, you know, the lesson on Friday was just, you can't turn the pucks over to the neutral zone and shorten the rink. 56:20 And on Saturday, I thought we did a lot of good things, but some pucks went in that don't normally go in. 56:24 And, you know, Eric will bounce back from that. 56:27 He always does. 56:28 You know, last weekend I said we should have won two, could have lost two, and should have tied two, you know, with the way the game went. 56:37 And I don't think I've ever experienced that before where, you know, all the scenarios could have happened each night. 56:44 I'd probably be more concerned if, you know, on Saturday that, you know, we got our ears pinned back, and the shots were 20 to 5 in the third period. 56:50 But, you know, the disappointing thing is, you know, you're in a good spot to win a game. 56:54 You know, some freshman mistakes, you know, contributed to that. 56:58 But, you know, that's, you got to have them out there in those situations so they learn and grow from those experiences. 57:03 It looked to me that Sheehy and Novak found their skating legs. 57:06 Is that something that just took them a while to get into? 57:10 Well, both coming off some, you know, injuries from the offseason. 57:14 Certainly Tommy, last weekend is the first time I really saw him, you know, playing at a little higher pace than what he played at. 57:23 And even the same with Tyler. 57:24 I thought Tyler played at a better pace than what we've seen so far from him this year. 57:29 And that's what has to happen. 57:32 You know, going in, you know, we scored 10 goals, which is a positive. 57:36 Our penalty killer is improving. 57:41 We had a lot of good looks on our power play. 57:43 We only scored one in the weekend. 57:44 And instead of our penalty killer, I mean, the only one we gave up was that face-off that, you know, ultimately we ended up getting tripped on the play and down to two men, essentially. 57:55 And so from that standpoint, it was a positive. 57:58 But hockey is a funny game. 58:00 I mean, we've given up, what, 10-5 on five goals on the year, and obviously we give up nine on a weekend. 58:06 But it's going to happen. 58:07 I mean, the week before, Denver is out at Western, and they're out 4-2 in the third and give up five. 58:13 I mean, who would have think it? 58:15 But momentum is a funny thing, especially at home. 58:17 And I think probably Michigan and Yost, they feed off their momentum as well as anybody does in a home rink. 58:26 Don, it's not practice today. 58:27 You're trying a couple different looks in the power play, one unit at five forwards, another at two D. 58:31 Is that something you might employ this weekend? 58:33 Yeah, today is the first time we looked at it. 58:35 I mean, it was a shorter practice week. 58:38 We didn't skate on Monday. 58:39 It had to be because we traveled on Sunday. 58:41 We had to take Monday off too, which was probably good for our guys with the grind of going right through and off weeks the first half. 58:48 So we're just experimenting with different looks. 58:51 I'm not sure we'll keep that tomorrow. 58:53 But we want to have some options, you know, as we head into the weekend. 58:57 Because I don't think we found the chemistry we're looking for yet in our groups. 59:02 And so we'll just keep searching. 59:03 What are the points of emphasis for your team against Harvard? 59:10 Much like what we talked about with Michigan, is that transition hockey becomes really important. 59:15 You know, we've got to be disciplined, not take penalties. 59:19 I mean, they can throw five guys out there pretty darn good in the power play, especially those defensemen with the auto. 59:28 And at home, we want to get off to good starts. 59:31 We scored a few more goals last weekend, but then they were cracking the dike somewhere else. 59:37 So now we've got to work, put some mud on that and fix it, get back to where we're kind of clicking on all cylinders. 59:43 It's kind of funny how kind of this whole year, and we're still early, but you know, whether the goaltenders rock solid, then they're a little late this weekend. 59:52 And penalty kill struggles, now the penalty has been good. 59:55 We weren't scoring goals, and now we scored a ton. 59:57 You know, so part of it's who you play, when you play, and how the game unfolds. 1:00:05 And they told Eric after, you know, he's won some games for us two to one, and we got six to help him out on Saturday nights. 1:00:13 But now we've got to get back to giving up two goals a game. 1:00:15 When you give up leads like that, though, do you have to kind of rebuild these guys and make sure there's not that creeping doubt that sets in? 1:00:21 No, I don't, because we've been so darn good at it all year long. 1:00:25 And, I mean, how good we've been. 1:00:28 I mean, I think it was a couple years back we couldn't, how many times we got scored on a pulled goalie situation. 1:00:33 And now it seems like forever since we've been scored on it in that situation. 1:00:37 I mean, you're confident when you're out in that. 1:00:41 As I said, if we would have been getting our urge pinned back, you know, then a little bit more cause for concern. 1:00:46 But you just got to play situational hockey sometimes a little bit more. 1:00:53 And freshmen have to learn and grow from, you know, some of the mistakes and turnovers that they made. 1:00:58 You've seen, like, the goad of every of these small things. 1:01:01 How do you put everything all together? 1:01:03 Well, that's the million dollar question. 1:01:05 That's what makes coaching so great. 1:01:07 You keep playing whack-a-ball or something. 1:01:09 You keep playing whack-a-ball. 1:01:10 Yeah, I mean, it's just the way it is. 1:01:13 I don't care what you coach or what level. 1:01:15 It's all the same. 1:01:16 I mean, how can you, probably more than anything else in sports, you have more emotion into the game and you're into it and the next weekend the team's flat. 1:01:25 Well, how the heck does that happen? 1:01:28 Somebody could patent that. 1:01:29 They'd win the lottery because everybody would want to read the book. 1:01:33 You know, we just want to, as you go in, we want to have our guys make sure they have their likes this week and play with pace and play against a good opponent. 1:01:43 These are non-conference games. 1:01:44 We've talked many times how good our non-conference schedule is. 1:01:48 We're in good shape non-conference with what we've done so far, but now we have six more games to go non-conference. 1:01:54 They're important games. 1:01:56 You only have so many hours each week to practice. 1:01:58 Is power play the one you want to focus on trying to figure out? 1:02:02 No, I don't know. 1:02:03 If you look at the trending, we only had one against Michigan, but I think we hit the post and had some good looks. 1:02:10 I think we had like seven or eight shots on goal on the power play on the weekend. 1:02:14 I think we want to keep growing on our penalty kill, which we've done a good job. 1:02:19 I think the last six games we've only given up one goal. 1:02:23 That goes a long way. 1:02:24 I mean, they're going to give up five on five goals a night. 1:02:28 It's just one of those fluke things this weekend. 1:02:30 And for the most part, we've been one five on five goal a game. 1:02:34 So if we can continue, I still don't like some of the penalties we took. 1:02:37 I still think we've taken some untimely penalties so far this year, whether it was in overtime on Saturday or Friday, and then even the late penalty with 30 seconds to go in the game, giving them a power play heading into overtime, those are the ones to make. 1:02:53 But where we're at, we've got some guys play good one night, and then they don't play quite as well the next night. 1:02:59 And that could be a forward, it could be a D or anybody. 1:03:02 And when we've got everybody playing consistent and smart, we're a pretty good team. 1:03:08 And then when we don't, then it becomes a little bit more of a struggle. 1:03:10 But that's everybody's in that boat. 1:03:13 Everyone healthy to play this weekend? 1:03:15 Yeah, we're healthy right now. 1:03:20 A lot of offense last weekend, what do you take away from it? 1:03:23 Yeah, we knew that going into the weekend that Michigan and ourselves are highly offensive teams and play off the turnover. 1:03:31 So, I mean, it was expected that the games were going to be high scoring, but not as high as we wanted. 1:03:38 When it gets kind of in that flow, is it just, you know, you see the opportunities more than holding back? 1:03:44 Yeah, I think there's a huge momentum theme with hockey. 1:03:50 We saw us go up 3-0, then 4-0 consecutive nights, and then they piled on their goals. 1:03:56 So a lot of offense just kind of has to do with guys getting in their groove and finding that momentum. 1:04:03 What is your major takeaway from the weekend? 1:04:06 We got to buckle down on defense. 1:04:08 If we want to make it to the later rounds and playoffs, we can rely on our offense, but our defense needs to step up and be able to shut down those offensive weapons. 1:04:20 What situations come up in film to emphasize that? 1:04:24 We just go over every small little detail and really harp on it and go out, practice it, and hopefully we can memorize it and figure it out. 1:04:37 What's your mindset going into this weekend? 1:04:39 We've got to clean up our defense. 1:04:41 Our offense is in the groove and just buckle down defensively and shut down Harvard. 1:04:48 You see Harvard brings two down opponents back in time with them. 1:04:51 What's it like being on the ice with those two guys again? 1:04:53 Yeah, Henry Bowlby and Ben Foley. 1:04:55 I know those guys pretty well, back to the high school days and youth days, so you might see me give them a little poke or shove after the whistle. 1:05:07 No, I haven't talked to them yet, but I'll for sure see them when they travel over here. 1:05:13 You mentioned the defense having to buckle down a little bit. 1:05:16 Is that part in bringing some guys in, like we've seen you saw some time this weekend, and do you think that any shakeups there, what do you see out of his play as well? 1:05:25 I mean, whenever we bring a freshman or whoever into the lineup, you have full confidence in that player. 1:05:32 He's only played about four games, but we have full confidence in his play. 1:05:39 There's been a lot of personnel moving around in the power play. 1:05:41 What are the keys for you when you're out there on the point? 1:05:45 I just got to give it to those skilled guys. 1:05:48 Give it to them and let them work their magic, and then if I need to shoot the puck, I'll shoot it. 1:05:54 That's about it for me. 1:05:57 From my standpoint, that's what I'm doing. 1:05:59 You guys have been playing six, seven, eight straight weekends now. 1:06:06 The grind is... 1:06:07 we've been part of the grind for a very long time, so we're used to it. 1:06:12 We just got to manage our bodies, sleep, do your usual routine, and you should be good. 1:06:17 Those kind of things that the coaching staff are kind of harping on you? 1:06:22 I think at this point of our lives, I don't think the coaches need to harp that on us. 1:06:28 It's kind of the individual who needs to take care of their own body. 1:06:37 It's exciting. 1:06:38 We've been talking about it for a while now. 1:06:44 He's really one of my best friends. 1:06:45 We talk all the time. 1:06:46 If I get to play against him, it will be a lot of fun. 1:06:49 Have you talked to them all about Harvard having their late start and trying to find their legs while you guys have gotten the head start? 1:07:00 Yeah. 1:07:02 He says it's going to be tough starting a little late and not playing games for a while. 1:07:07 Most teams already played eight games by that point or something like that. 1:07:11 I'm sure it can be tough for them, but they're obviously a really good team and really talented. 1:07:16 I think they might be off to a little bit of a slow start, but we know how good they are and we've got to be ready for them. 1:07:28 I just know, I mean, I know obviously Foxy really well. 1:07:31 We know what kind of player he is. 1:07:32 He was an All-American last year as a freshman. 1:07:35 He's just dynamic. 1:07:37 He's good on the power play, he's good at five on five, so we've got to watch him. 1:07:41 I know Ryan Donato pretty well, too. 1:07:44 He's a boss of Bruins Pick, so I went to camp with him a couple of times now. 1:07:49 He's a great guy, but obviously a really good player, really talented. 1:07:52 Besides that, I don't know a lot of the players. 1:07:54 I don't check them all some old bit, but obviously they're really skilled. 1:07:58 They froze the four last year. 1:08:00 That wasn't an accident. 1:08:01 They were a good team the entire year, so we expect the same thing. 1:08:05 I think they have a return in goalie, and I think he's really good. 1:08:08 So yeah, we've got to be ready, and it will be a fun weekend. 1:08:12 What are the keys for your team to improve going forward? 1:08:15 You had such good defense going in, trying to coax offense, and then last week in the offense, not as much defense. 1:08:21 What do you take away from that? 1:08:25 Yeah, I think it shows we got a little bit of both. 1:08:28 At first, we didn't get much offense, and we had really good defense. 1:08:33 Now, obviously, last weekend, we had really good offense, not good defense. 1:08:36 So we're just thinking if we combine those two, we're going to be a pretty good team, a pretty tough team to beat. 1:08:41 So yeah, we had a little bump in the road last weekend with our defense, and we'll figure that out. 1:08:49 We know Eric's going to figure it out and have a big weekend this weekend. 1:08:53 So yeah, we'll be ready to go, and we're going to just keep working, moving forward, keep working on all assets of our game, and we'll be better because of it.