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, Mego, and your host, Jupiter. 0:40 See. 0:40 Good evening, and welcome to the GPL Podcast, episode number 122, Hand Counting. 0:50 Along with Veegs and Hammeh, we have a guest tonight, and he's from the Wisconsin State Journal. 0:55 It's none other than Todd Milewski. 0:57 Todd, how are you doing? 0:58 I'm doing great, how are you guys? 1:01 We're all doing great. 1:02 Thanks for joining us again. 1:05 Last year, you joined us when the BADgers came to town, and I assume you're coming to town this weekend, I hope? 1:11 That's correct, correct. 1:12 That's good. 1:13 Veegs, should we plan a beer outing after they get one of these games? 1:17 Maybe after Saturday. 1:20 No, Todd sometimes has to get back. 1:22 We are planning on leaving right after Saturday's game. 1:25 Oh, boy. 1:26 Yeah. 1:27 Maybe we can just get Veegs to come down for a little post game on Friday night, then, huh, Veegs? 1:32 That's possible as well. 1:33 Well, that might be tough with the family life and the kids. 1:38 Well, that's just a fact of life. 1:40 When you got young kids, two days on a weekend gone is tough. 1:45 It is tough. 1:46 Speaking of tough, Veegs, boy, tough weekend for Gophers. 1:53 They play pretty good Friday night, Saturday night. 1:56 Saturday night, a little different, but either way, six points gone. 2:02 Yeah, Don Lucia keeps talking about how they played five good periods and one bad one, but it doesn't really matter when you drop all the points to Notre Dame, who is just off to a great start in the Big Ten. 2:14 They're gonna be a tough team to beat every night just because they are so defensively sound. 2:21 They just have layers to play against. 2:23 They make smart decisions with the puck. 2:25 They always get back on defense. 2:27 They keep a third man high. 2:29 Even when Minnesota had chances, they weren't really able to get second and third chances because Notre Dame did such a good job of checking their opponents. 2:39 And I think it was a tough weekend for Rem Pitlick and Casey Middlestad because they were out against defensive focus players all weekend. 2:48 Should we be concerned, Hamme, that Notre Dame might run away with the Big Ten regular season? 2:55 I don't know. 2:56 I think it's a little too early to judge something like that, especially considering they've played what, they've only had four road games in their first 16 games for the season. 3:05 And, you know, all that stuff tends to even out. 3:08 Obviously, it's gonna be a lot more difficult to be winning consistently on the road, especially with the Big Ten being improved from top to bottom. 3:16 So I think it's a little early for that, certainly. 3:18 But yeah, you can't, you certainly can't say anything bad about their start in the league. 3:23 In the meantime, while Minnesota was getting swept out of South Bend, Todd, Wisconsin played Mercyhurst over this weekend with a split. 3:33 Tell us about that. 3:34 Well, I think it was, you know, it was a Saturday, Sunday series. 3:39 Last week was a little weird because of Thanksgiving, obviously. 3:42 Damn Big Ten, I swear. 3:44 Saturday and Sunday games, oh geez. 3:46 And you know, this one was originally listed as Friday, Saturday. 3:50 And so there were actually some people that showed up to the men's basketball game Friday night thinking they were showing up for the originally scheduled Friday men's hockey game. 4:00 And there were a few people that were not too happy about it. 4:03 Let me tell you that. 4:03 That's not good. 4:05 No, I would imagine that in the future, maybe they'll just go away from having dates on the tickets at all and just go to game numbers maybe or something like that. 4:16 Because yeah, you know, if this is gonna happen, especially with basketball now playing Friday nights, apparently, I think there's gonna be some more issues like that in the future. 4:27 But so it just kind of started off as a weird week. 4:31 They were off Friday, they came back, or off Thursday, came back Friday, had a practice and it was, you know, I think at that point, they were still a little out of sorts and carried around into Saturday, the whole mess. 4:50 So Mercyhurst goalie is really good, I have to say that. 4:57 Despite that, when you play Mercyhurst in your home building and you've never lost to an Atlantic hockey team, those are the ones you normally think of that are gonna be pretty solid locks for victories. 5:11 But Friday or Saturday night, I keep confusing myself there too, Saturday night didn't happen. 5:19 BADgers were up in the third and still they gave up two goals later in the third and lost that one, which was, I think, a pretty big shock to all of them. 5:34 They were not thinking that that was going to be the way that went and I think you have to immediately start thinking, well, you combine that with a loss to St. 5:44 Lawrence earlier in the season at home and then you start wondering, ooh, is two bad losses like that going to be tough to overcome if you want to be in that large team? 5:58 It's definitely going to make the road a little bit tougher. 6:00 I can think that's safe to say for them when their record isn't tremendous to begin with. 6:10 They did come back Sunday and get a pretty solid victory. 6:15 They were pretty strong all throughout. 6:17 In that one, you just then wonder, well, where was that the night before? 6:24 Because they learned last year that one or two losses, non-conference especially, get you in a bad spot for at-large NCAA tournament stuff. 6:38 And that lesson was, for as many times as Tony Granato brought it up to us in the media, it had to be getting to the team as well last week. 6:46 And it just didn't, maybe it didn't mean a whole lot to them at the end. 6:52 Well, we definitely know what it's like to play one good game and one bad game. 6:56 We've seen quite a few of those here in Minnesota this year. 7:00 Yeah, it seems like that's been the way for a lot of teams. 7:04 It has been, but there is, college hockey is not such the big Goliaths against the tiny guys anymore. 7:12 It's much more balanced than it used to be 10 or 15 years ago. 7:16 It's even since, well, it kind of started with the old Holy Cross game against Minnesota where the little guy beats the big guy, but there is no little guy and big guy anymore. 7:28 You can lose or win any night. 7:29 It just depends on if you bring your game or not. 7:33 Veegs, we saw that Friday night against Notre Dame, the Gophers just couldn't score. 7:37 They put on a lot of shots, but boy was that Notre Dame goalie good. 7:44 Yeah, he's definitely stepped up for Notre Dame. 7:47 They had the big hole there in that with their previous goalie turning pro. 7:52 He didn't know quite what to expect, but his safe percentage has been in the high or the mid 90s all season. 7:59 And he did a good job. 8:00 I think having the defense in front of him clear out the shooting lane so he could see the puck and not having to worry so much about those second chances was probably the big problem for Minnesota. 8:11 But really the only two goals they got in the weekend were backdoor plays by Sventula. 8:16 Again, it's one of those situations where they need to put pucks on net. 8:20 They need to have guys trying to take the eyes away from the goalie and they need to pounce on rebounds when they're there. 8:26 There were a couple here and there, but there just weren't any Gophers there to pick them up. 8:30 And the guys were talking about that today. 8:32 That's something they need to do against the good goalies. 8:34 That's how they scored against Clarkson. 8:39 Other teams with really good goal-tending. 8:42 Hammy, are we still concerned about the special teams? 8:45 I thought for most of the weekend, I thought the power play was pretty bad. 8:49 Then they ended up getting a couple goals Saturday night, but still I don't think the power play has looked great at all. 8:57 Well, I think part of the problem is we don't have anybody on the blue line that's consistently performing. 9:03 In some of the ways that we've been accustomed to with the Gophers over the years, we've always tended to have at least one or two guys on the blue line that you really felt confident in as far as running the power play. 9:14 And we don't really have that kind of standout guy at the moment. 9:18 We have some guys that either are just not built for that or they're just not quite at that level yet in the college level. 9:27 And we're just not seeing that kind of consistency. 9:30 And those guys are really important when it comes to the man advantage. 9:33 So I think that's a big part of the problem. 9:36 I also think that we've been a little too perimeter at times. 9:39 I think you kind of have to be able to crash the net. 9:42 You're not always going to get the pretty goals. 9:44 And maybe we haven't been consistently doing that enough. 9:47 We have a couple of questions via Twitter. 9:50 Remember if you have questions for us, you can always just use the hashtag GPL Podcast and we'll see them and try to answer them. 9:56 Since this is kind of related to the Gophers and we got a few BADger stuff later, but Tim Hapke wants to know, why is Leon struggling this year? 10:04 Veegs, Bristead has been just not there at all. 10:11 Yeah, as Hapke was saying, we've got a couple of guys on this team that are playing on the perimeter. 10:16 And I think Leon is one of those players. 10:18 I know last year when he was going through a stretch where he wasn't getting points is because he just wasn't finishing plays. 10:24 You know, he was one stride or just in the wrong body position to get a scoring chance. 10:30 And he had a one-on-one film session, as Grandpa told me, and that kind of showed him what he needed to do to get his game back. 10:37 I don't know if they're planning on doing one-on-one film sessions with him yet this year, but it's probably something he needs to look at at his game is, you know, what is that one extra step he needs to make to get these scoring chances? 10:50 And you look at a guy like Mike Smetula, he's around the net. 10:54 He's drawing penalties. 10:55 He's there for rebounds. 10:56 You know, that's a lesson that a lot of guys on this team can take because Bristead's got a lot of speed. 11:02 He's good on the rush, but he just needs to have that one extra step, I think, to get goals and points around the crease. 11:09 And honestly, Hamme, oh, wait, I don't think we're going to go very far unless Bristead starts contributing. 11:16 Well, you know, it's interesting because I remember back when he committed talking to Patoni very briefly about, you know, because obviously he was a kid that was from foreign soil. 11:28 So it's like we didn't really have the knowledge that we tend to do with, you know, a lot of our recruits because they're local. 11:35 And I asked him, you know, what's his game like? 11:37 And he, of course, nobody has Zach Parisi, of course, but he said he's kind of like a poor man's Parisi. 11:44 He's the guy that's willing to kind of play real kind of, you know, blue collar and yes, he's got skill and everything, but he plays hard and maybe sometimes, you know, Leon forgets his own game in that sense and he needs to be reminded. 11:59 And, you know, Vigo's example is probably, you know, something that we need to do with him is maybe sit him down and just kind of focus on, you know, what are your strengths and trying to kind of emphasize that. 12:12 But yeah, I definitely think he's an important cog and maybe he's gripping the stick a little bit tight. 12:16 You know, when you have a senior year, you kind of want to come start off real strong. 12:22 And obviously he hasn't had that kind of a start. 12:25 No, not a good start at all. 12:26 And we hopefully he turns it around starting this weekend against Bucky Badger. 12:29 But, you know, we have Todd on to talk about the Badgers. 12:32 And before we get to that, we're going to have a listen to our sponsor. 12:37 vintagemnhockey.com is a proud sponsor of the GPL Podcast. 12:42 Well, what is VintageMNHockey? 12:45 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. 12:55 All information about any of those teams can be found on vintagemnhockey.com. 13:00 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. 13:09 So make sure you check out those interviews. 13:11 It's a really great thing. 13:12 But as like I always say, I think my favorite part is the store. 13:16 The store you can buy a custom historical jersey from the Gophers or the Bulldogs or some of your favorite high school teams. 13:23 And if you do make a purchase, just use the code GPL Podcast, all one word, and you'll get 10% off your order. 13:30 So make sure you visit vintagemnhockey.com and follow them on Twitter at VintageMNHockey. 13:37 Well, let's bring Todd back in to the broadcast here, and it actually starts with a question from a listener. 13:43 Scott Johnson wants to know, this is specifically for you, Todd. 13:46 He says, what's your impression of BADgers goaltending this season? 13:51 Will we see mostly Hayton or more time for Barry? 13:57 And he's also complimenting you because he says, also from a parent, thanks for what you do. 14:03 Love the post game Facebook reports. 14:07 I know Scott and Scott, thanks for the shout out. 14:13 It's been a little bit of a hit and miss with the goaltending this season, which is not what we expected coming in. 14:20 Everything was built up when Kyle Hayton does a grad transfer from St. 14:25 Lawrence. 14:25 He's a second team All-American last year. 14:29 Everyone saw this as, well, okay, this was the position that Wisconsin was probably weakest at last season, at least in a lot of stretches. 14:42 And so here's an upgrade. 14:45 We're going to see them be able to, even on the nights when they don't get the four goals, they're going to win a couple of 3-2 or 2-1 games. 14:53 They're going to be able to be more competitive in those lower scoring games if there are any of those things in the Big Ten anymore. 15:04 But it hasn't really played out that way yet. 15:07 And I think there's just been a little bit of an adjustment period for Hayton. 15:13 I don't know how long you can fairly say that, okay, that you can let that go and say that, okay, he's still getting used to his new team and those kind of things. 15:28 We're halfway through the regular season now. 15:29 So it's gotten to a point where you're expecting, I think, a little bit more out of him. 15:40 And it hasn't gotten to a point where he's cost a team a game necessarily yet. 15:45 But he hasn't really won them, I wouldn't say. 15:49 And I think that was a thing that people were expecting him to do. 15:52 Because he did that, it seemed like for three years at St. 15:55 Lawrence is that he was winning them games that really, from what I understand, they really didn't have much business being in. 16:03 And you would think that some of that would carry over, but it hasn't necessarily done that. 16:09 And I think last Sunday they played Jack Berry. 16:14 I think that was, if I understand it right, that was kind of in the works all along. 16:20 They did the same thing the second night against St. 16:22 Lawrence, and that kind of turned into a disaster for that night. 16:26 Berry had to be pulled, and they actually put Hayden in against his old team when they were anticipating giving him the night off, which was kind of just a weird situation altogether there. 16:39 So I think this last weekend was another effort because they get Berry in, because they're going to need him. 16:44 He's going to have to be, if not the number one goal, sharing the time next season when Hayden's gone. 16:51 So they're going to need him to be playing a role here, and I know they want to get him some good experience this year so he doesn't really just have to look back on his freshman year as being the experience that he can take forward in the next season. 17:07 But I think that there's another level that Hayden has to get to. 17:12 A lot of teams have figured this out that he drops down really early like a lot of goalies do now, but everyone's been beating him over the shoulders. 17:22 And so I'm interested to see if there's any adjustments made there or if there's any tweaking to the style of play that he plays. 17:32 It's hard to do that in the middle of the season, I would think, for a goalie when you've kind of set yourself up through years now really, but through the last few months to be playing a certain way. 17:47 And so that's definitely something to watch as we go through the rest of the year is how he kind of maybe takes away more of the net in those upper corners. 18:00 If he can get out a little bit farther or if he stays up a little bit longer, I don't know enough about the goaltending specifics to speak to it too much, but I know that's something that's been highlighted by other teams. 18:14 Well, Hammy, we have seen many times in the past maybe a goalie that the team we think is struggling comes in and the Gophers turn them into a superstar. 18:27 We've seen it a lot. 18:27 Do you think Hayden can come in or Hayden can come in this weekend and do something like that? 18:32 Because we've seen that a lot in the past. 18:35 Well, you know, you don't make it very difficult on a goalie when you're shooting right into their chest, right? 18:39 True. 18:39 That's part of the problem sometimes. 18:41 But yeah, I mean, you never know. 18:45 Sometimes, I mean, I haven't followed what Hayden's done enough to really understand, you know, how it's been game in and game out. 18:52 But sometimes you get those goalies where if they face a significant amount of shots, it's almost like they find their groove in a specific game. 19:00 And that can carry them, you know, on a hot streak. 19:03 And you never know when that's going to necessarily start. 19:05 So hopefully for the Gophers, that doesn't start this weekend. 19:10 But, you know, it won't surprise me, you know, given his track record and being successful on the college level in previous years, if he, you know, does turn it around. 19:19 Todd, I was just wondering, are a lot of these goals coming on shots where he's not set, looking through traffic? 19:27 Are they coming on the rush? 19:28 Are they special teams goals? 19:30 Have you noticed any trends with that? 19:32 I think I have seen a few of them that do come on rushes. 19:38 I'm kind of just going through my head of what I've seen the last few weeks here. 19:41 You know, he has been, you've got to point out that the defense is a little complicit in some of this. 19:48 There have been a lot of guys that have been left open, and I think that was a case last year too. 19:57 I think overall the defense has improved. 19:59 I think, you know, you can say that the goaltending has, if you just go by numbers, goaltending has improved that way too, maybe not to the extent that people thought it was going to. 20:11 But yeah, I don't know that there's necessarily any definitive trend there in what's happening other than over the shoulders trying to pick corners that we've seen a lot in the last few weeks. 20:29 But yeah, there's kind of been all sorts of ways goals have gone in. 20:34 Obviously, you know, when you get a guy moving side to side, that's I think one of the ones you see an awful lot and I've seen a few of those too. 20:43 So yeah, it's been a little bit of everything from what I remember. 20:48 Well, I'll tell you one thing, Todd. 20:50 One thing that Minnesota is glad about and maybe not all Minnesota fans, but I know we are, is that the BADgers have improved quite a bit the last few years after some really bad years. 21:04 And I tell you, it came at the wrong time too. 21:06 You know, when we switched over to the Big Ten, everyone's like, oh, we're going to have all this great stuff, all these great teams. 21:11 And then, yeah, it was not a good time for the BADgers to have a downtime. 21:16 But it appears that you guys have turned the ship around there. 21:20 How's it been looking for the crowds there? 21:21 Is the crowd starting to come back up because that was also took a hit? 21:27 You know, it's tough to say at this time of the year. 21:30 You know, crowds are never great during, well, football season in reality and then until January, really. 21:41 But the season ticket base was up slightly, so there was some more interest in that. 21:49 The crowds, I haven't seen any actual numbers in terms of the ticket usage or, you know, the scan numbers that I get at the end of the year, but they've been pretty thin for a lot of the games. 22:00 So I think they're still, there's a ways to go on that because they are getting better, I think, traction in the market than they were obviously in those couple of years when things kind of bottomed out and even leading up to that, there's just been kind of that erosion of deep interests. 22:22 There's still kind of the casual interests, but the hardcore fan base really slayed a little bit to a point where they were scrambling to get the kind of interest that they needed. 22:39 And I think there was one year where the program turned into a deficit, not to say the entire athletic department, but it has been one of the three money makers historically for UW Athletic Department with football and men's basketball, and there was one year, I think two years ago, that they did not make money. 23:02 So that got to that point, and they recovered last year, I think, to climb out of that. 23:08 And so you're right. 23:11 It's turning the right direction. 23:12 I think there's sometimes a little bit of frustration with the speed, not, you know, the team has improved, and I know a lot of people in the program thought that people would come back faster. 23:24 It hasn't necessarily happened, but I mean, you got to look at, it's not just here. 23:29 It's everywhere, that it's getting tougher to get people in the seats and get people to buy tickets. 23:36 So you've got to come up with creative ways of doing it, right? 23:40 50-50 raffles. 23:43 You need to do something because we've been saying here on the podcast for a while now that we understand people are angry about the Big Ten, but you know what? 23:50 It's time to support your team and get out to the games. 23:53 Right. 23:53 It's not changing. 23:54 It's not changing, but I'm guessing that might be part of it in Wisconsin as well. 23:58 I mean, there's a lot of traditional fans out there who are angry and they're still angry. 24:03 Right. 24:03 I should say, I said it's not changing. 24:06 It did change, but it did change for the better. 24:08 I think bringing Notre Dame in was a great move for them. 24:13 I'm trying to write about this for next week, actually, that Wisconsin and Notre Dame used to have a pretty good rivalry in hockey when they're both in WCHA. 24:24 I think it was probably the same with Minnesota, too. 24:27 Notre Dame was always a great team, but when they were good and when Wisconsin was good, there was some pretty good games for everything I've heard. 24:35 They played one really good WCHA second-round series, and I think 73 that people talk about as being just... 24:46 It was in South Bend, and their old barn there, the Joyce Center, whatever it was, it wasn't called that then. 24:53 It was just one of those memorable kind of series, a total goal that went down to the last minute, and it was a one-goal win for the BADgers. 24:59 I sent them to the Final Four, and it was a, you know, just a, there were those years when people looked forward to those series, you know, those series, you know, obviously not as much as Minnesota, North Dakota ones, but it was kind of in that next tier night. 25:20 Hopefully, they can bring that kind of energy back, but I haven't necessarily seen it when they played Notre Dame in the past. 25:26 It's been a huge draw. 25:28 We'll see. 25:29 It might take a little while. 25:30 Definitely might take a little while. 25:32 Veegs, you were at media availability today. 25:35 What did you hear from the coach? 25:37 What did you hear from the players about? 25:38 What's the plan this weekend to deal with this upstart BADger team? 25:45 Well, one of the differences, I think, with Wisconsin this year is they're a much deeper team than they've been in the past. 25:50 I think in the past couple years, they've just had a, you know, they're a top line or a top six that you had to worry about. 25:56 You know, this year, you know, they've got three lines you can score. 26:00 And of course, they've got the good goaltending. 26:01 So it's something where Don Lucia is trying to jumble his lines up a little bit. 26:06 He even talked about splitting up Rem Pitlick and Casey Middlestad today because the past couple of weekends, you know, they've been checked pretty hard. 26:14 So this is a weekend where maybe he might want to split them up and, you know, try to get them some more scoring chances on different lines and create more five-on-five offense. 26:22 Is that something that this Gover team is struggling with right now, is trying to score goals even strength? 26:27 The other interesting thing was he gave Eric Shearhorn Monday off. 26:32 He came out for the 15-minute warm-up and then went in and got a bike ride and a shower. 26:36 So try to get him refocused for this weekend because I think Minnesota is going to need a good goalie this weekend as well. 26:43 Definitely going to need a good goalie. 26:46 Hammey, what do you want to see from the Gophers this weekend? 26:52 Well, I mean, it's kind of like I talked about earlier. 26:55 I'd like to see them be a little bit more aggressive around the net. 26:57 Certainly, you know, trying to bang in some of those rebounds and not always necessarily going for some of the pretty plays, but, you know, trying to get a little bit more blue-collar. 27:06 So some of that effort, certainly I'd like to see the continued improvement on special teams. 27:12 You know, like you talked about earlier, there's been some ups and downs in that regard, so you kind of want to see a little bit of that. 27:19 And certainly we talked about goaltending. 27:22 Shearhorn has, I think, done relatively well, but I mean, he's certainly had his moments where he hasn't been at the top of his game. 27:29 And certainly we know looming around the corner, he's going to have some competition. 27:33 So I would hope that that's going to start to spur him on to a little bit more consistency. 27:40 We can only hope so because, you know, you tend to perform a little different when there's a little pressure coming on. 27:46 And, you know, he has played over 90 games straight or started over 90 games. 27:50 And I believe that streak is going to be in jeopardy pretty soon here unless he really steps it up. 27:58 But, you know, they're going to get Robson in there sometime, whether it's the next couple of weeks or against Army at the end of December. 28:05 So, you know, we'll just have to wait and see. 28:07 Another question from the Twitterverse, Tim Hapke again. 28:11 He wants you guys to tell me, what's your favorite Gopher Badger memory? 28:16 Let's start with you, Todd. 28:16 What's your favorite Gopher Badger memory, whether it was a fan or if you were covering the team or if you were a kid, what's your favorite memory? 28:25 Well, I think, you know, there are two of them that I remember. 28:31 I think I'm going to go with one. 28:34 There was a game, I'm trying to think of the year, I think it was 96 or 97. 28:38 It was at the Coliseum here in Madison. 28:44 Still when I was there as a fan, I remember that. 28:48 But it was just a, I don't remember the particulars of the game, but I just remember walking away from it and thinking, you know, because this was before I was really covering college hockey and before I knew that was what I wanted to do for a living. 29:02 But walk away from that game thinking, man, that's what college hockey should be. 29:07 It was just, you know, it was intense. 29:10 There were those scraps after the whistle that you always get in these games. 29:14 There were guys that clearly didn't like each other. 29:17 And it just felt like, man, that's, you know, if every game was like that, this would be, you know, easy to sell out every night. 29:25 I really need to go up and look up the particulars of that game, but I'm pretty sure it was a, oh, I think it was one of the Spiehar games when the crowd really would get against him here and get on him pretty good. 29:48 Spiehar was opposed quite a bit. 29:52 Well, everywhere, right? 29:55 Everywhere. 29:56 Yes, it was. 29:57 Pretty easy targets. 29:59 And I mean, you really can't not remember the Phil Kessel game here at the Coles Center, can you? 30:08 I was there for that one. 30:09 That was good. 30:11 When you think about these two teams, I mean, just in terms of the quality that there was on the ice in that game and in that series, the quality of the players that those two teams had, the number of guys that went on to play in the NHL, I mean, man, that was pretty fun to watch that weekend. 30:31 It's, I still would have liked to see, you know, because that was right after Brian Elliott got hurt. 30:38 He didn't play in those games. 30:40 And that was obviously, there was a difference there in the BADgers in that stretch. 30:46 I don't know if that necessarily changes outcomes, but boy, I would have liked to see them play with a little bit more, you know, online, because they played in that third place game in the final five that year. 31:01 And it just didn't, you know, it was a third place game. 31:05 So I would have loved to have seen that be the championship game that year, because they haven't played a championship, they haven't played a game against each other for a championship since... 31:14 Bradley Center? 31:15 Bradley Center? 31:16 That wasn't a championship game. 31:18 Wasn't, was it? 31:19 Oh, that's right, it wasn't. 31:20 That was my final game that went to overtime and... 31:23 Checo. 31:25 No, that was, I think that was a final. 31:28 I don't think it was. 31:30 I got to look it up when I... 31:31 I just remember Checo catching it with his hand and dropping it to a stick. 31:35 Because when you were going to ask me what my favorite member, that was going to be one of the ones that I was going to mention because I remember vividly Eric Rasmussen coming out of the corner and kind of flipping that pass up the center ice and Checo kind of catching the puck and going in on the breakaway and what was it, Dobbins-Speck was it? 31:54 I can't remember. 31:54 That would have been a Dobbins-Speck year at the pressure. 31:57 Yeah, I mean, I just remember that Wisconsin was kind of down that year. 32:00 They were under 500 that year, but they were kind of they were kind of fighting to stay alive and in the playoffs. 32:06 It was a great run in the playoffs. 32:07 They beat North Dakota, swept North Dakota on the road in the first round. 32:12 A couple of overtime. 32:13 Looking this up right now, it was 96 and it was three and over time in the semis. 32:17 Okay, so it was semis. 32:18 Okay. 32:19 So, yeah, I just remember that game because I just vividly remember it being a well played game and we all know that Checo was kind of big in those March playoff games. 32:29 And so that's definitely one that stands out for me. 32:32 And I also would say that the penalty shot goal with Danny Erman at Mariucci back, I don't know how many years it's been now, but certainly the crowd was very boisterous after that goal. 32:46 So it was probably one of the loudest crowds that I've heard at Mariucci, at least moments. 32:50 So certainly that one stands out as well. 32:53 How about you, Veegs? 32:54 What's your favorite memory? 32:56 It would have to be the Danny Erman penalty shot goal. 33:00 I was coming off of my ACL surgery and I was in the student section for that one. 33:05 And it was just a fun game to be at. 33:07 Just the great atmosphere, it was loud, might have been the percocet for post ACL, but I had a great time at that game and it was a lot of fun to see. 33:17 I was right there for the penalty shot, which was a lot of fun. 33:20 So there were some people that obviously from the Wisconsin side were not too happy about that penalty shot call, which I think ended up being the right call. 33:28 But the story I've heard about that, Baron Bruckler was the goalie for the BADgers that night. 33:36 And he said, and this came second or third hand, so believe what you want out of it, but he said Derek Shepard was a referee that night. 33:43 And so he comes in to give them the instructions on don't leave your crease until whatever, whatever, just before the penalty shot happens. 33:50 And the crowd's loud, you can barely hear him, but he swears that Shepard said something about, I don't know if the call was right, just stop the puck. 34:03 Oh, you know, add that a little bit to the dynamic of all that. 34:07 So, you know, I would say that's one of my memories, too, because that the video of that I posted, you know, there was no YouTube at the time I posted on my website and the University of Minnesota and Fox News got ahold of it. 34:23 And we're not too happy about it. 34:26 Got a cease and desist letter in the mail from their lawyers from Fox out of Los Angeles. 34:34 Well, this is long before YouTube and people were just throwing stuff up on the Internet. 34:37 So that's intellectual property. 34:39 You cannot reproduce that stuff and they were not happy about it because, you know, it went kind of viral because it was the only place because there was no YouTube. 34:49 Like I said, it was just a little MPEG video I captured and threw up on the Internet and it became a little too popular and I got busted for it. 34:57 So if you haven't rattled the cage of the man for a while, you haven't lived. 35:03 Yeah, you know, the university came down on me too because at the time, you know, GPL, I had a hand drawn, you know, goldie gopher on the site and they didn't like that. 35:12 I'm like, oh, geez, so to cease and desist, different things in the mail from the U and from Fox, which is wonderful. 35:20 But that's why it's a good memory for me. 35:22 But I was also at that game as well and I was at the Phil Kessel game at Cole Center. 35:28 And I think that might have been my first game ever at the Cole Center. 35:31 So definitely some good memories. 35:37 Any other thoughts, guys? 35:38 Let's talk about the actual games this week. 35:40 And what do we think is going to happen? 35:42 I mean, we've got this, you know, the Gopher team have not gotten what? 35:47 Two points in the last two weekends. 35:49 And, you know, we've got the BADgers who were just right behind them in the standings and have a couple of games in hand, you know. 35:55 It's looking good for your BADgers, Todd. 35:57 Well, you know, I guess I don't know how the Gophers have been in this kind of situation. 36:03 But the BADgers haven't been a very good team in coming from behind this season. 36:07 The game on Sunday against Mercyhurst was the first time they've won in any time when they've trailed this season. 36:14 So, you know, it's a cliché. 36:18 But getting that first goal, I think, is probably pretty big for the BADgers. 36:23 Maybe even not getting the first goal. 36:24 But, you know, not playing out of sorts early in the games, like I think we've seen happen to Wisconsin at Mariucci a lot of times where the first couple of shifts are like, oh boy, this could go downhill for them pretty fast. 36:41 But if they can get out and, you know, dictate a little bit of the way the game is going to be played and, you know, get some, you know, they have some guys that have been doing pretty good job getting out there and getting hits and, you know, forcing turnovers and if they can do that early, that I think would be a key for them to put their stamp on the game a little bit. 37:04 Well, Veegs, you know, he talks about the BADgers have struggled from coming from behind, but the Gophers, at least against Michigan, they definitely let the team back into the game. 37:16 Yeah, the Michigan series, the real hiccup for the Gophers is the situation where they went on the road and they played pretty much perfect opening segments of the game. 37:26 They controlled the pace, they got the lead, big leads, and gave them both up. 37:30 The four-goal lead on Friday and the five-goal lead on Saturday, not something you typically see out of this gopher team. 37:38 But I feel like this season the Gophers have played pretty well pretty much every game except for the North Dakota second game and that first game against Penn State. 37:49 Other than that, I think Minnesota's had pretty good energy and been in pretty good charge for most of their games this season. 37:56 So I don't think this is a team that goes out and lays eggs too often. 38:01 I think they'll be playing pretty well this weekend. 38:04 Don's looking at the numbers that Cal Deitz gives them from their catapult and the MegaWave stuff, and he says the players are fresh and it's showing on the ice. 38:13 It's just kind of the mental mistakes that have really cost them in those games. 38:17 What do you think the crowd's going to be this weekend, Veegs? 38:20 Well, you know, the Saturday Harvard crowd was really good, I thought. 38:25 I think attendance was almost 9,000, and I felt like they were probably close to 7,000 there. 38:30 Wisconsin is usually one of the big draws at Mariucci. 38:34 I don't think there's a whole lot else going on this weekend, so it could be good crowds. 38:39 I know the players and coaches are hoping for one, and Wisconsin has been able to travel to Mariucci in the past, and there are tickets for sale. 38:46 And I'm actually going as a fan Saturday night, just going in full Rube mode, so it's been a while since I've bought tickets, so I just went ahead and did it. 38:55 Fans, quit your bitching about the old pass, the WCHA, blah, blah, blah. 39:00 Get some tickets and get down there this weekend. 39:03 It'll be good. 39:04 And for everyone, they've got the $15 standing room all season this year. 39:09 So for visiting fans coming from Madison, $15 gets you in, and if history is any indicator, there's going to be some open seats to fill. 39:18 There's usually plenty of open seats. 39:19 And one thing you did mention, if there's other stuff going on this weekend, well, there is actually some other stuff going on. 39:25 You know, both Friday and Saturday, you know, you've got the women's hockey playing around the same time, but you've also got the NCAA tournament for the volleyball team. 39:34 The volleyball, at least Friday night, they are scheduled to play at the same time, 7 o'clock. 39:39 So that's another thing. 39:40 You know, they've been filling out that place, are pretty close to it, so you're going to have an extra 5,000 people trying to find parking, at least. 39:48 You know, probably another couple thousand with the hockey team, the women's hockey team. 39:52 So just a warning, get down there early if you want to get parking, because it could be a bit of a madhouse, especially Friday night, you know. 40:01 And you know, if they go for women's volleyball win, which they probably will, it will be the same case Saturday night. 40:07 So get down there early. 40:08 You've been warned. 40:10 It's going to be crowded. 40:12 It's just going to be... 40:14 Hammy, what are your thoughts? 40:15 What would you like to see this weekend? 40:17 Do you think the Gophers can get at least maybe a win and a tie or maybe a sweep? 40:23 What do you think? 40:25 You know, I think it's really... 40:27 It'll be very competitive. 40:28 We know that from past years that even if one team is down, you know, it's usually pretty hard-fought series with a few exceptions. 40:36 Obviously, the one blowout in Madison is something that we all kind of remember not too long ago. 40:42 But, you know, I think that, you know, it's going to be a well-thought series. 40:48 I would expect, you know, the Gophers to kind of be a little bit crusty after this last weekend, feeling a little bit ticked off after, you know, getting swept on the road. 40:57 And obviously, there's nothing like having, you know, one of your top rivals coming into town to kind of get everybody focused. 41:04 And I think it's kind of hard to predict sweeps and rivalry series like this. 41:08 But I wouldn't be surprised if it's one of those where you get a win and that goes into a shootout and the other night. 41:14 So that's kind of what my expectation would be. 41:17 OK, Todd, let's hear what you got. 41:21 I'm going split. 41:22 I'll say BADgers win Friday, Gophers win Saturday. 41:28 I feel like, you know, Wisconsin hasn't had a sweep this season other than they won at BC and at Merrimack and back to back night. 41:39 So, you know, kind of a sweep, but not really. 41:42 And so that's out of the picture for me to even consider picking something as outlandish as that happening this weekend. 41:54 But I do think Wisconsin's, you know, maybe they're not at the same level that Minnesota is, but I think they can be, you know, shift to shift, if you want to look at it that way. 42:07 I mean, not necessarily as a whole roster, but I think they can put out, like Veegs was saying, I think, before, that they can put out three good lines, all of which can hit and all of which can score. 42:21 And if they're able to do that, and like I mentioned before, if they can get a first goal and maybe get a lead or a two-goal lead, they've been pretty decent, especially on the road, ironically, playing with leads. 42:37 So that's my guess. 42:42 Who knows? 42:45 Go back to my old Austro columns and I'll tell you how I was usually wrong. 42:49 Are you working on anything special for the Wisconsin State Journal this weekend? 42:53 I have a story coming in Friday's paper about Targ Baker, who was originally committed to the Gophers. 43:00 He's a Madison area kid. 43:04 When he was 16, he committed to the Gophers, and things kind of fell apart from there. 43:08 He's a kid with his sixth team in seven years. 43:15 He was traded twice in the USHL. 43:18 But he's been a really pleasant surprise for the BADgers this season. 43:22 He's got six goals, which is tied for second on the team. 43:29 He's played just a kind of heavy role. 43:32 Sometimes he goes out there and throws his body around in a controlled way, not necessarily saying he's taking heads off or anything like that. 43:42 But he's good at doing that. 43:43 And he's been kind of one of the guys that they maybe necessarily weren't counting on to produce like he has. 43:52 But he has done that so far. 43:56 So they're happy with what they've gotten out of him. 43:58 And he's got an interesting journey to it. 44:00 So that's what I've got coming for Friday. 44:03 Sounds great. 44:04 Are you still doing anything for USCHO? 44:06 Not very much on the writing side. 44:08 Well, not anything so far on the writing side this year. 44:11 I've been kind of busy enough. 44:12 But I've been doing a lot of the back end stuff and coordinating some things. 44:17 And we're still knock on whatever, hopeful to get a redesign out before we all get the internet taken away from us at some point. 44:30 Then they're just like, whatever it's going to be. 44:35 But you know, we've discussed this in the past. 44:41 Yes. 44:42 Our favorite president over there. 44:43 I'd just love to give him a hard time. 44:45 It's there. 44:46 It's happening. 44:47 It just needs some fine tuning. 44:49 We don't want to throw it out there before it doesn't work completely. 44:58 It's a giant website. 44:59 There's just so much there that has to be built on. 45:03 People don't really realize that. 45:05 That's kind of the problem. 45:06 Every time we think, oh yeah, we've got this covered, it's like, oh, we forgot about this whole section of things that we need to retrofit. 45:13 But it's been a labor of love for all of us for all these years. 45:17 Nobody's obviously getting rich or anything off of it. 45:21 Really getting, you know, I'm not going to go there, but I think we all know what that's like. 45:31 It's something we do because we like the people and we like being involved in college hockey. 45:40 It's the same thing with GPL. 45:42 It's a love. 45:44 On the side, you've got somebody like Veegs right in front of the Athletic. 45:47 Veegs, you working on anything this week for the Athletic? 45:52 Yeah, I'll have a story coming on Friday on Rem Pitlick. 45:55 He's the leading scorer for this year's team and has really just blossomed into a dynamic player for the Gophers. 46:01 I've talked to some of his teammates who saw him at Shattuck and saw him in the USHL and kind of seen him transform from a 25-pound recruit into a 5'11, 205-pound forward. 46:16 It's an interesting journey for him and should be some fun stuff in there. 46:20 Oh, can't wait to make sure you check that out, people. 46:24 It's a great new site. 46:25 And I tell you, him and Nate covering a lot of the college hockey stuff for the athletic. 46:32 You're seeing stories that you're not seeing in the other rest of the media, folks. 46:35 So make sure you check that out. 46:38 Any other final thoughts for this weekend, Hammy? 46:42 Nope, I'm not writing anything other than things that I actually get paid to do. 46:48 Hammy, I get paid. 46:49 Come on now. 46:50 Well, okay, yeah, okay, fine. 46:51 But I mean, is that your, like, main job or? 46:54 No. 46:56 Exactly. 46:56 It helps pay for my golf trips. 46:59 Exactly. 47:01 So I will not be writing, I will just simply be watching. 47:04 You know, I think we should have Hammy take over the GPL Twitter one night and just have you go crazy. 47:11 Would it be as good as my drunken ones? 47:13 I don't troll like you do, though. 47:15 Yeah, I do troll a little bit, it's fine. 47:17 Not anymore. 47:18 I mean, if this was back in the PRIDE on ICE days, I'd definitely be trolling. 47:23 But they didn't have Twitter back then, so then I couldn't have done it back then. 47:26 But nonetheless, no, I will. 47:29 I mean, yeah, if you want me to do it sometime, I will, but I probably won't be quite as trolling as you will be. 47:35 Yeah, I cause trouble. 47:37 It's just fun to do sometimes. 47:39 Well, thanks for coming on, Todd. 47:40 It's great to have you on again, and I think we should make this a normal thing when the Gophers are playing the BADgers, if you don't mind. 47:46 Absolutely. 47:47 That sounds great to me. 47:48 I'm thrilled that you let me be a part of this. 47:52 We enjoy having you on. 47:53 It's always nice to get some perspective from some other people. 47:57 Next week, we're hoping to have Dan Kelly on from the Big Ten Network. 48:02 We'll be doing the show a little early to accommodate him, so if you're listening live, it's probably going to be closer to 6 p.m. 48:08 instead of 9 p.m. 48:09 We just need to accommodate him. 48:10 He needs to get his beauty rest, apparently. 48:12 So we're hoping to get that worked out. 48:14 I haven't got full details yet, but we're hoping to have him on next week. 48:17 Obviously, we're trying to have more guests come on as the show keeps going here. 48:24 That's all we've got this week. 48:25 I'm just looking forward to another fun weekend of Gophers and BADgers, guys. 48:30 Veegs, you're covering probably Saturday night, aren't you? 48:33 Correct. 48:33 I'll be there Saturday. 48:35 See what I can do about Friday postgame. 48:37 No, there you go. 48:38 If you can do Friday postgame, we can get Todd, and we'll get Todd drunk and have him give us all the BADger secrets. 48:44 Oh. 48:47 Well, first of all, it wouldn't take much because I don't drink, so that would go fast. 48:51 Yeah, I guess it wouldn't take. 48:53 There you go. 48:56 Veegs, what's the beer of the week? 48:59 Modest Brewing in the North Loop has come out with a Mexican dark chocolate stout called Ritual Night, which is outstanding, and that'll be open here pretty shortly. 49:09 All right. 49:09 Well, we'll be seeing a picture of that on your Twitter in just a little bit. 49:14 Well, thanks for listening, folks. 49:15 We'll be back next week, and we're going to recap this BADger series and see how it goes. 49:21 You know, we're hoping for a good return for the Gophers, but the BADgers are back, folks, so gotta be careful. 49:28 And then we'll obviously get into Ohio State and hopefully have Dan Kelly on next week with us. 49:32 So until then, thanks for listening. 50:09 These are strength goals? 50:10 Well, they were different today than yesterday. 50:12 So we're throwing it in a big pot of soup, but we don't know what the ingredients are going to be. 50:18 But hopefully, it'll turn up with being able to score some goals. 50:22 I mean, I like so many things about our game. 50:24 I think that was the disappointing and frustrating part, is that five of the six periods last week we played really well and probably deserved better. 50:32 But Notre Dame's a good team and a veteran in so many ways, and their decor made it hard. 50:36 But we generated a lot of chances. 50:38 Now we're just finding a way to get some of those in the back of the net. 50:43 That's probably been the biggest surprises from an offensive standpoint, how often we've struggled to score goals during the course of the season, five on five. 50:51 What goes into creating those second and third chances? 50:54 Well, one of them, if you just look at the metrics early on, we were only getting 24, 25 shots in a game and nothing from our back end. 51:02 And all of a sudden now where those shot totals have drastically increased, our scoring chances are going up, our D have been more involved in the rush, we're getting more shots from the back end, we're creating more from the offensive zone, the things that we talked about. 51:18 So, I mean, you see that happening and we just, we didn't get rewarded this weekend for a lot of good things that we did. 51:25 Do you think some part of that might be shot selection, getting the pucks and get through the right lanes to the net? 51:31 Well, we had some good chances. 51:33 We had a lot of scoring chances on Friday night. 51:36 Probably not quite as many on Saturday as what we did on Friday. 51:39 But, you know, even the power play, one of the things we talked about is getting more shots. 51:42 And we had 16 each night in the looks and a lot of good looks, too. 51:46 And, you know, the goaltender played well. 51:48 He's the one stat of breaking on the video Sunday. 51:51 I didn't realize it. 51:52 What 90 straight saves he had at one point. 51:55 And that's a credit to him. 51:56 And, you know, they're getting in shot lanes and making it difficult. 51:59 But we've got to get in the bloody nose alley a little bit more. 52:02 A few more second chance opportunities. 52:04 That will be important for us. 52:06 But, you know, the bottom line is, you know, whether you win two to one or four to three, the objective is to win the game. 52:12 And, you know, that was a disappointing part of, you know, losing those two games. 52:16 Moving forward to this weekend, what are you expecting to see from Wisconsin? 52:18 They're a better team. 52:19 They're a deeper team offensively. 52:21 I think that's one thing, my takeaway. 52:22 You know, they got a– their goaltender transfer from St. 52:26 Lawrence, he was an All-American. 52:28 So that should help solidify that position for him a little bit more. 52:31 And up front, they have three lines that can score, and I don't think they had that last year. 52:37 So they don't do it with any one guy. 52:39 They do it with them. 52:41 And, you know, we think we're a little bit made up that way as well. 52:45 So we want to continue to play well defensively. 52:48 We've done a good job at home, not giving up much, not giving up many shots or goals against. 52:53 And as you move forward, as much as you want to continue to create offense, it's how you defend and how many goals you give up. 53:02 Ultimately, you're going to tell the tale. 53:04 I mean, if you had told me we were going to go in and give up one on Friday night, I said, you know, I'll take that in a heartbeat. 53:09 And fortunately, we didn't score any. 53:12 You mentioned on your radio show you might give Sheer Horn a day off of practice this week. 53:15 Did you do that? 53:16 How is he doing this? 53:17 He's good. 53:17 I mean, he was out with our goaltender on Monday. 53:21 Coach, before practice, he did a 15-minute, you know, just to warm up with our guys, and I'd send him to the showers and just get a bike right in because, you know, we haven't had that break this first half. 53:32 And we have four more games to go. 53:34 You know, I think he's had a real good first half of the season. 53:38 And we just, like all of our guys, we probably practiced a little bit shorter this year than we have in the past because we haven't had the week off. 53:46 And, you know, even this week we haven't, you know, we've gone more than 75 minutes. 53:50 And, you know, whereas maybe the past would be an hour and a half, or an hour and 45, so we really have tried to shorten up. 53:55 And, you know, talking to Cal did, our strength coach, you know, the numbers are good and the guys seem pretty fresh. 54:00 And I like the fact that it really hasn't been many games where I say, God, we just have dead legs. 54:05 You know, we're just not playing very well. 54:07 We really haven't had any of those. 54:09 And, you know, we've got to get through four more games and a little more stressful time as you get close to finals in December and, you know, a lot more academics that they start to get worried about. 54:19 So that creates more stress too. 54:21 So, you know, we just want to make sure we continue to watch their energy. 54:26 We're going to start on Casey. 54:28 Just want to say about him, both as a player and a person, these bails are just this quick. 54:33 Well, I think it helped, you know, playing in a pretty high-profile school in the Prairie, you know, playing state tournaments. 54:39 And also his time in Green Bay. 54:41 You know, he's played at the, I think, the spring before he played at the World Under-18s. 54:46 That was good for him. 54:47 Just to be exposed to some of these high-level events, you know, being exposed to the World Junior Camp last two summers. 54:53 Playing in Green Bay and USHL before and after the season. 54:56 I think all those things helped his transition. 54:59 At what point did you realize, I guess this year, that he had some of that earlier experience in the high-profile level playing? 55:04 Pardon? 55:04 I guess at what point this year did you realize he had some of that higher-level experience? 55:09 First day of practice. 55:09 I mean, not experience-wise, but ability-wise. 55:12 I mean, it didn't take long to see that. 55:15 My wife could go to the game and say, that guy's good. 55:18 Your job's not very hard. 55:21 It looks like Rem and Casey are getting a lot more attention from opponents. 55:24 How do they adjust their game to overcome that? 55:27 Well, I mean, we've separated them at times at practice this week, and we may do that this weekend. 55:33 They're both really good offensive players, and they like to play together. 55:37 But the most important thing they have to understand is you've got to continue to be heavy on pucks. 55:46 When you're elite players, they have the matchups. 55:49 Notre Dame, guess what? 55:50 They're going to see their top defensemen. 55:52 You can control some matchups a little bit more when you're at home, but when you're on the road, they're going to make sure they get the guys that they want out against you. 56:00 So they saw Steady helping their top line and their top pair of defensemen. 56:04 But that's what good teams will do, especially teams that have depth. 56:13 No, we do it at home. 56:14 We don't have the ability to do it on the road. 56:16 Did you do it last season? 56:17 Yeah, we've done it for a number of years. 56:18 What about the courseie numbers? 56:20 We have in the past, but I don't know. 56:23 I mean, I'm more into scoring chances. 56:25 I mean, you can take a shot on goal and when you start worrying about my courseie number and I've got to take five bad shots, but it's a courseie number. 56:34 So in some ways, it can be a meaningless stat. 56:38 I'm more into, you know, what we track is... 56:42 and we've kept them in the past, but we haven't the last couple of years, is scoring chances. 56:47 I mean, what's your scoring chance plus minus? 56:49 You know, great. 56:51 If your courseie number is good, but if you're not creating any chances off that, it really doesn't do you any good. 56:57 I mean, you can look... 56:59 some of it's the eye test, too. 57:00 I mean, the last number of games, I mean, I felt we played a lot in the offensive zone. 57:04 You know, we went through a stretch earlier in the year. 57:05 We didn't spend much time in the offensive zone. 57:07 And going from the 20s to the 40s overall, Todd's kind of indicated that. 57:12 And do you use that time on ice information during the game? 57:16 Yes. 57:17 Yeah, we get them after every period. 57:18 Yeah, I want to know when we're at home how much guys are playing. 57:21 You know, especially when we had some of those games playing 11 forwards, you know, so it could have been some guys' ice tolls might have been a little high, not so much on the defensive end, but as a forward end of it. 57:34 Defensively, you can play 24, 25 minutes. 57:36 You know, forwards, you start getting 20 minutes, 21 minutes. 57:40 That's a lot of ice time for a forward because there's so much more skating, but you know, that's what I like to use it for. 57:46 And am I getting our key guys enough ice? 57:48 You know, we had key guys sitting with 15 minutes at the end of the game, and you know, I've done a poor job of getting them out there. 57:56 What about the scoring chance information? 57:58 Do you use that in making line changes or shifts during the game? 58:02 No, we don't really have that right game time. 58:06 We'd have to go through every scoring chance during the course of the game, so we don't so much use it during the game. 58:12 I think when we played 11 and mixed our lines up a little bit more, it's more of there are certain guys you're going to use in certain spots, like I can, you know, if Ram doesn't kill penalties, I can use him more five on five, whereas if she he's on the power play and killing penalties, you know, I can't double shift him quite as much because he's picking up ice time in other areas of the game. 58:34 As you mix up the lines, do you look back to the Saturdays where you've played 11 forwards to see who looks like they pair well together? 58:40 Yes, I mean, I think like any game, you know, I still, you know, you can reflect back in Reja Clamara's comment that he spends the first seven, eight minutes of a game looking at his own team, who's going and who's not. 58:51 And it can change from night to night. 58:52 I mean, hey, we're all athletes, and you're going to feel better some nights than you are others. 58:57 And so the nights that certain guys feel it, you probably should feed them a little bit more ice time. 59:04 In the last few games, what are you doing in practice to sort of fix that? 59:10 I think it's just focusing on still shooting pucks and all that sort of things. 59:14 That's kind of what hockey season is about. 59:15 There's ups and downs, and I think that's a low. 59:19 There's only one way up in her one direction, and that's up. 59:21 So I think we're all ready to go this weekend, and it's not going to be an issue. 59:26 Ryan, what is it about Wisconsin when they come in here to play? 59:30 It's obviously going to be a fun weekend. 59:31 Everybody likes to board a battle. 59:33 We know they're a good, deep team, better than what they kind of have been in the past, so we're ready for a battle, and it's going to be a fun one. 59:38 How have you been adjusting to the extra pressure that the defenses have been putting on you? 59:43 It seems like they've been giving you a lot more attention lately. 59:46 I think that's just, you know, it's a game of hockey. 59:48 You've got to play through it, whether it's, you know, getting more shots or passing more or whatever. 59:51 You've just got to adapt to what's thrown at you, and that's kind of my mindset, and I think that's everyone else's as well. 59:58 Going against Notre Dame, they kind of eliminated those second chances despite the number of shots. 1:00:02 You guys have got to be working on that this week, or what do you think you need to do to just get a little bit more scoring going? 1:00:08 Yeah, Notre Dame is obviously a really good team. 1:00:10 They had a strong defensive core, and yeah, they were eliminating second chances, so obviously we just got to be a little bit hungrier, and that's what the coaches have been stressing on this weekend. 1:00:18 You know, we've been battling in practice, focusing on getting those loose extra pucks, so hopefully it translates into this weekend, and it'll be fun. 1:00:27 You faced Kyle Hayden before last year when you guys were out in St. 1:00:30 Lawrence. 1:00:30 What do you remember about him, anything? 1:00:32 I don't really remember much. 1:00:34 I know he's an All-American goalie, and obviously that's a big deal, so he's going to be a good goaltender in there, so we're going to have to have that same mindset, get a lot of shots, and some are going to go in if we get a lot, so that's our mindset. 1:00:46 You guys have faced a stretch, a really good goaltending lately, and have another one coming up. 1:00:50 As a shooter, when you're up against a hot goalie, what are you looking for? 1:00:54 Just getting a number of shots, but I think it's just as a shooter, you've got to change the angle of the shot, or a guy's got to screen for you to take away his eyes, or that sort of thing, but I think it's the quantity. 1:01:05 We really got to get a lot of shots, and some are going to go in. 1:01:08 Can it get frustrating sometimes when you guys feel like you're getting some quality shots on, but they just can't seem to get past them? 1:01:13 I think, yeah, human nature is frustrating. 1:01:15 You want something to go in, but like I've been saying, it's the game of hockey, and that happens, and they're going to go in eventually, so that's the way you've got to look at it. 1:01:25 Talented forward group. 1:01:27 Good goal. 1:01:27 I know they got a good transfer from last year. 1:01:29 It's going to be a battle. 1:01:31 See the same thing out of them. 1:01:33 It's just going to be a grind. 1:01:34 We've got the maroon team and the red team going at it. 1:01:38 Does it matter from the simple fact that, you know, Coach Kind of alluded to that they've been kind of a little bit down, but I'm guessing when these two teams get together, it probably doesn't matter, does it? 1:01:46 Yeah, no, that's the thing. 1:01:46 I don't think it matters at all. 1:01:48 You know, no matter who it is, I think, like I said, maroon and red, they're going to get up and they're going to be going after us. 1:01:55 We're going to be going after them. 1:01:55 It's going to be a heat again, so heat series. 1:01:57 You faced Kyle Hayden last year when he was at St. 1:01:59 Lawrence. 1:02:02 He was good. 1:02:02 He stopped a lot of shots. 1:02:03 I think we put up like 40-something on him and didn't score until we had, I think, the goalie pulled in the last minute or so. 1:02:09 But good goalie. 1:02:11 I think he comes out of the net pretty far, so hopefully get the puck in the ice, get some rebounds, and try to crash in that. 1:02:15 You faced a really good run at goalies lately, especially over the last one. 1:02:20 Have you been putting in, have you been putting in extra work or really at least having any thought or mindset into just having to put that extra work in to beam them? 1:02:27 Yeah, for sure. 1:02:28 I mean, I think, you know, you scout teams, you preview teams, you preview their best players, their best defensemen, you got to preview their goalie as well. 1:02:34 You know, if you know it's a good goalie and that he likes to come out and you got to put pucks on that, got to keep it low, try to get rebounds. 1:02:40 Like I said, I think it's good that we've been facing a good string of goalies that prepares us for the end of the year when you're playing the top teams with the best goalies. 1:02:47 Has it been tough to kind of continue on the stretch? 1:02:50 Coach mentioned that, you know, you guys haven't really had a week off this long, especially with finals and everything. 1:02:54 Is that been tough on you guys? 1:02:56 I don't know. 1:02:57 We really like playing hockey, so I don't think it's that big of a deal. 1:03:02 You know, we got breaks coming up, but we're focused on the week ahead, so. 1:03:05 What do you do to kind of just prepare and keep yourself in shape and just not get over exerted? 1:03:12 I think that's what the summer's for. 1:03:14 You know, Cal D, it does a great job with us in the summer, and we put a lot of effort. 1:03:17 I mean, pretty much everyone stays here and trains every single day in the summer, so that's where we put our preparation, and you know, we still work hard during the week. 1:03:25 We have good stamina and whatnot, so we'll see how it is this week. 1:03:34 I'd say keep it in between the whistles. 1:03:36 You know, post-whistle, you don't want to be throwing punches and stuff like that, and if you're exerting energy after the whistle, if you're throwing punches and stuff, so keep your energy, you know, skate hard, forecheck, hit guys between the whistles. 1:03:47 What's the biggest takeaway from Notre Dame? 1:03:51 I think we have to be patient with our game. 1:03:53 Obviously, Friday we put up a good amount of shots, and I think we played a really good team game, and tough bounce for us. 1:03:59 They scored that goal. 1:04:01 Saturday, we were in the game, going into the third period, and I think we got a little frustrated that things weren't going our way, and then we started taking bad penalties and started kind of broke down as a team. 1:04:09 So be patient with our game. 1:04:11 I think it's going to come. 1:04:11 You look at the Harvard game a couple weeks ago, exactly like that. 1:04:15 It paid off in the end. 1:04:17 Notre Dame kind of did a good job of shutting down those second chance opportunities, rebounds. 1:04:23 Yeah, for sure. 1:04:23 They had a lot of guys. 1:04:24 They all came back to the house in the slot and six on the ice. 1:04:27 So that's an emphasis that coach put on us personally, that we need to do that and guys need to come back. 1:04:33 Little details, little habits like that. 1:04:35 And that sticks on the eyes.