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This is the GPL Podcast, sponsored by Vintage Minnesota Hockey, your exclusive source for throwback Minnesota jerseys.
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Visit vintagemnhockey.com.
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Now, here's Hammy, Vegoe, and your host, Jupiter.
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Good evening, and welcome to The GPL Podcast, episode number 125.
0:50
Well, no Hammy this week.
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Hammy is in, I believe, San Antonio on business, and could not make it tonight.
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But as always, Vegoe, you're here, and everything's going well with you.
1:03
Everything's going fantastic.
1:05
Everything's great these days.
1:06
Well, that's, well, you're just happy because you now have, you know, the ice rink is open near you, and you can bring your kids outside and teach them how to skate, can't you?
1:14
Yep, we have the shortest commute on the team now to the outdoor rink.
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It used to be somebody who's a block and a half away.
1:21
We have overtaken them because we are right next door.
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So it's fun.
1:25
Well, it's a fun time.
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Young kids learning how to skate, getting out in the cold, but it's been a long time since I've even put on skates.
1:32
So I know we need to get a Robs reunion going or something and have a game sometime.
1:37
Yeah, I know there's a game in North Oaks on Saturday mornings that happens.
1:40
So if the timing ever is right with ice times, that'd be a lot of fun.
1:44
Yeah, those guys get out every while.
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We'll have to see, I guess.
1:49
Well, back to the business at hand.
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Finally, Minnesota gets a win against a quality Minnesota team.
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It didn't look so good starting the weekend.
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They get a 5-2 loss Saturday evening in St.
2:02
Cloud and then come home.
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And one thing you've been talking about this entire season in a long time is effort.
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You got to be willing to put in an effort.
2:11
And I think even though St.
2:13
Cloud was a pretty darn good team Sunday, Minnesota ended up getting the 2-0 win.
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So it's kind of up and down weekend for effort, don't you think?
2:23
Very much so.
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It was almost like on Saturday, that second period, they just kind of got off to a bad start that period.
2:32
And from then on, they just mailed it in.
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And they were just kind of saving whatever they had for the next night.
2:38
Because you saw them, they were slow retrieving pucks.
2:41
They weren't very disciplined getting through the neutral zone and gaining the offensive zone and getting to work.
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You know, the first offensive chance that presented itself, they took whether or not there was a legit scoring chance or any traffic in front of the net, they took it.
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And then on Sunday, you saw the complete reverse of that.
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You saw defensemen hustling back on puck retrievals, stamping their head up, moving the puck quickly.
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You saw pace through the neutral zone.
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You know, it was a low scoring game, but both teams are generating odd man rushes back and forth.
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I thought it was great hockey.
3:14
I think the difference was for Minnesota, they capitalized on a St.
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Cloud turnover.
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And, you know, they were willing to block a few more shots.
3:24
You know, going back to the Friday night game, one thing that I noticed, I am not a strategy guy.
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I leave that to you and Hammy.
3:30
But one thing I did notice is that St.
3:33
Cloud was not afraid to dump the puck in.
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And when they did, they chased the puck and got the puck.
3:39
No, I think they knew they had a little bit of an effort advantage there.
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Because Minnesota's defensive core this year has not shown the wherewithal to get back their tree pucks quickly.
3:50
And that's one of St.
3:51
Cloud's strengths is getting in a hard forecheck.
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And that was what they were looking to do.
3:56
Well, they certainly did it.
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I mean, if I can notice that, that means they were doing a good job of it.
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And then, like you said, it was a different game, you know, Sunday.
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But let's stick to that game Friday, you know, or Saturday, I should say.
4:09
They started out pretty well.
4:10
They get a nice goal by Smetula, get the early lead.
4:13
And it was looking pretty good at the beginning.
4:18
Yeah, you know, when you're on the road, you want to have that first 20 minutes, you almost just want to hold your ground.
4:23
You know, you don't want to give away the game early.
4:26
And Minnesota did that, you know, they played pretty disciplined hockey, hoping 20 minutes, they got lucky with the Smetula goal.
4:34
For those who weren't at the game, there was a basketball overtime game happening.
4:39
So I think a lot of people probably missed that.
4:41
But according to Drew Cove and Nate Wells and yourself, they did get off to a very good start because you guys were all there.
4:48
Yes, it was a good start.
4:49
And I didn't really know about the basketball either until actually after Spatula's goal.
4:56
I mentioned it on Twitter and someone was like, oh, I wish I could have seen it.
4:59
I'm like, uh-oh, that doesn't sound good.
5:01
Yeah, even the radio streaming cut out because the radio stations were playing NFL games that day too.
5:10
So they were blacking out the audio stream early.
5:13
So it was a bit of a mess if you weren't there.
5:16
It's that darn NCHC conference.
5:19
They can't get things going straight.
5:21
It must be, because actually, I hadn't visited St.
5:24
Cloud since 2009, but I decided to go up there Saturday and participate in the game.
5:31
And I must say, even though our team didn't win, I had a great time.
5:35
It's fun to go on the road.
5:38
St.
5:38
Cloud's a nice place to go to with their renovations and their arena.
5:42
The atmosphere is good.
5:44
The parking is free, which I think is a bonus because it's obviously not at Mariucci.
5:51
So, yeah, I had a great time, you know, like you said, Nate Wells was there and Drew Cove and even Declan was there and the whole gang was there.
6:00
I tried to see if you or Chris wanted to go, but you guys have family, so it's tougher for you to hit the road.
6:07
But it was the start that they were looking for, you know, when you're on the road, especially against St.
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Cloud.
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You know, they're down paling as well, so they're not at full strength.
6:17
I think part of the issue for Minnesota is without Lindgren in the lineup and without Middlestadt, they're losing their shutdown defenseman and they're losing their center who can just create so much offense.
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And then Tommy Novak also had that arm injury that he's picked up somewhere, that ended up in a cast.
6:35
That hurts their depth too, because center is probably the most important position outside goaltending.
6:40
And when you're down that guy, all of a sudden you've got guys playing heavy minutes down the middle, that probably impacted Tyler Sheehy's ability to contribute on Saturday, because he had to take on more defensive responsibility.
6:54
So I think as the game wore on, those started to show a bigger influence.
6:59
Well, let's talk about some of that, because when I got to the arena, I saw the starting lineups, the lineups had Middlestead and Lindgren in the starting lineups.
7:10
Yeah, they were planning on playing them.
7:13
Paling wasn't going to play.
7:14
But then right before, after warmups or something like that, I got another lineup sheet that didn't have them.
7:21
Then we started looking around and lo and behold, none of their gear made it back from Buffalo.
7:26
All three players in the National Junior Tournament, their gear didn't get back on time.
7:32
Lucia did mention after the game that he thought it might have been a blessing in disguise because it gave them an extra night off.
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But that's a little goofy that they made it but their gear didn't.
7:42
Yeah, they were trying to get the gear shipped right to the arena, but didn't get there in time.
7:48
At a certain point, Donald Lucia said, he just sent them home.
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Lindgren got back in time to watch the whole game and Middlestad apparently got home to watch the third period.
7:57
But Cal Dietz has this thing called the Omega Wave and what it does is it reads your body's fatigue.
8:04
And I had mentioned on the podcast last week that I thought, hook them up to that.
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See what kind of readings you get just so you have a third party viewpoint of it.
8:15
And both guys checked out that they would have been good to go for Cal and Don.
8:20
And so I think they could have probably played and it could have made a difference maybe because it might have brought more effort out of the team.
8:27
But it didn't, it did save them for Sunday, which is probably a big reason they won because it took a lot of effort on Sunday though.
8:35
A lot of people on Twitter is like, don't they have a replacement gear?
8:38
Shouldn't they be prepared for something like this?
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And I keep thinking, you know, they might have certain gear, but it's just not the same.
8:46
You're going to throw a kid in a different set of skates and all this other stuff.
8:50
I don't think it's as simple as people think it is.
8:53
Well not when you expect it to get there.
8:55
Yeah, well that too.
8:56
And it's not like you keep backup skates for everybody.
8:58
If they knew that it wasn't going to be there in time, they could have made some other plans, but not a couple hours before a game.
9:05
That's true.
9:06
I mean, I'm guessing the equipment guy brings maybe a couple extra this and that.
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They might have an extra pair of gloves or an extra jersey and things like that for when they need them.
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But when it comes to the high end stuff, like the, you know, the breezers and your skates and things like that, you're just not going to have that kind of extra equipment with you on any road trip.
9:25
So that's just the way it goes, folks.
9:28
You know, and then like Lucia says, he was kind of glad that he didn't, he kind of took that decision away.
9:33
He's like, well, good, they're not going to play.
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And we'll rest him up for Sunday.
9:36
So I thought, I thought St.
9:39
Cloud played a great game.
9:40
It was a, it was a rough introduction to high pace hockey for Clayton Phillips.
9:45
It was, he got taken advantage of a couple of times.
9:49
And you know, he's a good skater, but you know, you just have to remember that all 12 forwards on the other team at this level are dangerous.
9:55
And he got caught out there with a couple of good ones and learned from it.
10:02
All right.
10:02
Well, Veegs, we've got a bunch of questions via Twitter today.
10:06
So I thought I'd go over a few of them if you don't mind.
10:10
Oh boy.
10:12
Well, we got Jan Kendall here saying, do you think we should see Lucia make a change in goalies with Robson playing a whole weekend?
10:21
So obviously, Robson played wonderful Sunday on that 2-0 win.
10:26
And I kept thinking, boy, maybe he should start this Friday against Michigan.
10:32
And he played really well.
10:34
He stopped.
10:35
They had a lot of chances, but also the team in front of him played different, but he played pretty well.
10:39
Is this something Lucia might think about doing this weekend?
10:42
Maybe start with Robson on Friday night and then see how it goes?
10:46
Well, funny enough for John, Donald Lucia mentioned today that having two goalies playing so well gives them a lot of options.
10:54
And the first thing he said is we could give one guy one weekend and one guy the next weekend.
10:59
So I think that's almost prepping everybody that Robson could get both games this weekend and then Schierhorn could get two games the next weekend.
11:08
So I think that's very much something we could see.
11:10
I don't think either goalie will sit that long.
11:14
So I think if Robson were to get this weekend, I think Schierhorn would get a chance to play the next weekend.
11:19
Maybe they alternate back and forth again.
11:21
But I think we could see that against Michigan because Michigan's kind of had Schierhorn's number the last couple of years, especially at Yost.
11:29
I'm with you on that.
11:31
I think that's a good way to go.
11:32
I mean, maybe we see Robson against Michigan and then, you know, Schierhorn gets rewarded by playing at Madison Square Garden the next weekend against Michigan State.
11:39
I mean, you know.
11:40
You very well see that.
11:41
And then, you know, it gives you something to weigh against who plays Notre Dame because that's the big game on the schedule left.
11:46
Yeah.
11:47
I like that.
11:48
I like you're thinking there.
11:48
Hopefully, well, maybe Lucia will do that.
11:52
Well, before we go back to the questions, let's go back to that Sunday game, you know, tied game.
11:58
You know, St.
11:58
Cloud gets a goal in the second period.
12:01
It's ruled too many men on the ice and it's kind of goofy.
12:04
A lot of people on the Internet watching on TV didn't see it as well.
12:08
When I went back and watched the replay, I noticed that the replay on TV was a little bit different than what it was in the arena.
12:14
In the arena, they had a nice wide shot that showed it much better.
12:19
Good call or bad call, Veegs, on that goal that would have given St.
12:22
Cloud a 1-0 lead.
12:24
Well, it certainly took long enough to get there.
12:27
It did.
12:28
But, there's too many Huskies on the ice on that play.
12:31
It's been something that I know has been brought up, at least in the Big Ten, probably across college hockey, is you can't come on the ice and join a rush and contribute to a scoring play.
12:42
You gotta wait for that guy to get to the bench.
12:45
I know that there is a video around that had Penn State, Wisconsin doing this to Minnesota, where you've got somebody coming at the end of the bench on the blue line.
12:54
There's somebody jumping off at the far red to join the play.
12:58
And it was pretty clear on the replay that they showed in the arena that that's what they did.
13:03
It took a long time, but they made the right call.
13:06
I almost wonder if someone at FSN is a Husky grad.
13:09
That's why they didn't show it on the TV.
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Because there's a lot of St.
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Cloud grads who are in that industry.
13:15
Yes, they did show a couple of angles where they just kind of counted and they showed it, but it was off scale.
13:20
But I just recall the arena having a wider shot from higher up.
13:23
It was clear as could be.
13:24
It was probably the arena cam, the high shot.
13:26
Yeah, and they don't have access to all those cameras either.
13:30
FSN only has so many inputs in their truck.
13:34
That's why when you're in the arena, you'll see the penalty box cam from inside the penalty box.
13:41
And FSN doesn't have those.
13:42
They don't have those angles.
13:43
They don't have the inputs to be able to get those angles.
13:46
So they always run the cameraman, who's usually in the corner, all the way down to the penalty box to get video because they can't pick up the internal feed that shows the players in the box.
13:56
So FSN doesn't have all the angles, folks.
13:59
Whereas the replay officials have all the internal arena, and I believe they get the FSN feed stuff, too.
14:04
So they can go to anything they want.
14:07
And when the crowd really reacted, because the crowd got to see that wide shot, and the people on TV didn't get to see it.
14:14
So I tried to mention that on Monday when that happened, because I distinctly remember that wide shot, and people on TV were really complaining, oh, this happens all the time, blah, blah, blah.
14:26
Sorry, folks, too many minutes.
14:27
Even Motskow agreed in the postgame that it was the right call.
14:32
He didn't like it, took as long as it did.
14:34
But at the same point, he wouldn't want that call to go against him at the end of the year.
14:39
If he's in a regional and there's a team that gets an early line change to get a goal, he would hate to see their season end on a goal like that.
14:46
So he swallowed his pride on that one.
14:49
So we moved to the third, and we've got somebody we've talked about recently, the famous number 26 is that don't score.
14:56
And he ended up scoring.
14:57
Darian Romanko gives the Gophers the lead.
15:02
Yeah, he picked off Jay Cox under pressure and picked the corner like a goal scorer.
15:08
He said in the post game that he just knew he was going to shoot on the right side.
15:13
And he picked one very nicely and got his fourth career goal.
15:17
And that was enough because Minnesota really bared down after that.
15:23
They blocked ten shots in the third period, including a bunch of them at the end.
15:27
Ryan Lindgren had four blocks in that game.
15:30
I think a bunch of them came at the end of the game.
15:32
It was a good performance out of them.
15:34
And I think that video review gave the boost to the arena, to the fans and to the Gophers and kind of picked up their energy.
15:41
And really it comes back to what you've been talking about all this time.
15:44
Effort, putting an effort in that game.
15:47
Effort, making smart decisions.
15:49
I mean, you've been talking about that for years, Vegs.
15:52
And the coaches have been talking about it.
15:54
We hear about it every game.
15:55
It's our effort.
15:56
Our effort wasn't there.
15:57
I heard it Saturday night after the St.
16:00
Cloud game.
16:00
Just a terrible effort.
16:01
We just didn't have anything going.
16:02
And then Sunday, they had the effort and it paid off.
16:06
And they need to learn that you give this kind of effort, it's going to pay off.
16:09
You're going to be successful.
16:12
And the funny thing is, I still saw on Twitter, I still see on some message boards like Gopher Puck Live, that people are now complaining that they didn't gain the zone enough under possession.
16:24
You know, they dumped the puck too often.
16:25
They were too cautious in their game.
16:27
It's like, if you want to win these big games, if you want to win NCAA Tournament games, sometimes this is the style you have to play.
16:35
If you're going to play against a really talented team, this is sometimes what you have to do.
16:40
And it was impressive to see them stick to it.
16:42
You know, in the series against the in-state schools, they have not shown that kind of discipline.
16:47
But they were able to execute on Sunday, and that's why they ended that streak against St.
16:51
Cloud and UMD.
16:53
Well, hopefully they keep these efforts going.
16:55
So we're going to get to more questions in a second here, but first we need to hear from our sponsor.
17:02
vintagemnhockey.com is a proud sponsor of The GPL Podcast.
17:07
Well, what is Vintage MN Hockey?
17:09
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.
17:19
All information about any of those teams can be found on vintagemnhockey.com.
17:24
They also have great interviews with some historical Minnesota hockey figures, like John Mejcic and Lou Nani, Glenn Sanmore, some of the greats of Minnesota hockey.
17:34
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17:35
It's a really great thing.
17:37
But as I always say, I think my favorite part is the store.
17:41
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17:48
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17:55
So make sure you visit vintagemnhockey.com and follow them on Twitter at VintageMNHockey.
18:02
Okay, back to the Twitter questions.
18:04
Members, do you have a Twitter question for us?
18:06
You can just use the hashtag GPL Podcast anytime, you know, even if it's earlier in the week, we'll try to get back to it and try to read it.
18:13
Or if you're listening live, you can send us Twitter questions as well.
18:18
We've got Suffering Soda Fan here, Veegs.
18:20
Does this season so far remind you of any past Gopher teams?
18:26
Boy, nothing that I can remember.
18:28
I've never seen a team like this that hasn't been able to score in the power play.
18:32
And I haven't seen a team as disciplined with the puck.
18:36
This is kind of an unusual style for Gopher hockey.
18:39
There aren't defensemen who routinely join the rush.
18:43
So it's pretty unique from a Gopher hockey standpoint.
18:46
It's almost more like a wild team from some aspects.
18:50
You know, a Jacques Lemaire wild team where they manage the puck and get good goaltending and a strong penalty kill.
18:59
Boy, I thought there was a question.
19:01
Oh, here we go.
19:02
Yeah, Tommy Everson wants to know, what do you think the Gophers should do to ignite their power play?
19:07
Speaking of power play, it seems like their only play is to set up a sharp angle one-timer by the dots and too often resort to dump and chase on their zone entries.
19:19
What can they do, Avice?
19:20
Because the power play is just pathetic.
19:23
Well, the zone entry is a lot...
19:25
It's going to be determined by the penalty kill you're playing against.
19:28
You know, if they're a real passive penalty kill that's holding the red line, blue line, you're not going to be able to gain the zone as easily.
19:36
And if you are, you're going to have to do that drop pass through the neutral zone and try to draw somebody out of their positioning.
19:42
So, there's not a lot of choices really on that zone entry, what you're going to do, depending on who you're playing.
19:48
In the zone, it's hard to know what they're going to do going forward.
19:53
Lucia keeps talking about, you know, put some guys in familiar spots, put some guys in different spots, you know, add Clayton Phillips.
20:01
I think the best they've looked all season is when they had Middleset and Pitlick on their off wings, you know, in the corner working out.
20:10
You know, you can put Sheehee on the back door, and then you got to find, you know, somebody up top and maybe somebody in the middle, and just kind of run a true overload.
20:20
It's not something that we've seen a lot of, Gopher Hockey, one reason you don't is because on the Olympic ice sheet, when you, you know, restrict yourself to, you know, basically half the rink, you know, you're giving away ice that you could use if you ran kind of the more traditional Gopher umbrella, you know, 3-2 look.
20:39
But it's the positioning that made them look the most dangerous.
20:44
You had Middlestadt, Pitlick, Johnson, all looking comfortable, changing positions, creating two-on-ones, creating movement, and that's really when they looked the best.
20:55
So maybe they'll go back to that, but it's hard to tell.
20:59
Back to John Candles, he wants to know, is there a program in college hockey that has been an Alabama-like in college hockey?
21:07
Maybe a Boston College?
21:10
Even when Boston College is doing it, they're not doing it like Alabama.
21:13
No, they're not.
21:14
I think a big reason is in college hockey, you have that one-game elimination tournament, so it's harder for the top team to always get to the championship game.
21:24
I mean, even with Alabama, they have to lose probably at least two games to not make the playoff right now because of the history of success they show.
21:33
If you look back and just say, who are the top two teams in college hockey at the end of the regular season and put them there, you could probably have an Alabama-like situation.
21:42
But in hockey, when you have to go through three goalies to even get there, it's a lot harder to do.
21:49
It is, and there's obviously a lot of backroom dealing or something that's going on in college football that makes it quite a bit different than college hockey.
21:56
I mean, Alabama won it this year, but they were right on the cusp of not even being in the final four.
22:03
So I mean, there's a strong debate with them in Ohio State, because Alabama didn't even get to their championship game for their conference.
22:11
So is that something that you want on one of your four participants?
22:15
We don't have to worry about that in college hockey.
22:17
We've got the pairwise.
22:19
That determines who goes where.
22:21
If the committee starts seeing something funny with a quality win bonus or something, then you get your arms up in the air.
22:26
But otherwise, it's pretty cut and dry, and then you just got to win and play play tough.
22:31
Uncle Beardo wants to know any chance that 21's physical development will keep him out of the NHL longer than expected?
22:40
I think Casey needs to develop more physically.
22:42
I don't think he does.
22:45
Well, the one thing that would help him is probably just putting on a little more weight to protect himself.
22:51
Because when he gets to the upper levels, it's going to be even more physical.
22:57
That nanny hit that was a penalty on Sunday is not a penalty in the NHL.
23:02
He's going to have to be able to take those hits.
23:04
He's a guy who probably hasn't put in a ton of weight room time because he hasn't batted it to this point.
23:12
It's probably something he needs to accomplish at some point, and playing college hockey is the best way to do it.
23:18
The other aspect of his game is probably face-offs.
23:23
He's not great in the dot right now.
23:26
I'd have a hard time seeing him playing center in the NHL.
23:30
I bet he looked great on the power play.
23:31
I bet he looked great on the rush, but I don't think he's ready to go right to the NHL.
23:37
I talked to somebody and when you get to the NHL, you hop over the boards, it's not smearing off and sterts hopping off the other side.
23:45
It's Crosby and Malkin.
23:47
It's a big difference.
23:49
So, Buffalo is not in a great spot right now.
23:53
They just had a big fight between Vander Kane and one of their defensemen.
24:01
Oh, boy, that's not good.
24:03
So, things aren't going well there either.
24:04
They lost ten in a row.
24:07
I don't think it would hurt him to stay another year, but it could hurt him to leave too early.
24:13
We'll just have to wait and see.
24:14
You know, Hapke was kind of, Tim Hapke, asked questions often, he's asking something similar.
24:19
He asked about Casey.
24:20
He's wondering about Lindgren possibly turning pro after this year.
24:25
You know, I almost think Lindgren would be better for the pro game right away than Casey would be, just because of the style of game he plays.
24:32
But again, I don't think it hurts him to stay.
24:36
And he's a pretty young guy, too.
24:38
He's, you know, pretty much right out of high school into college hockey.
24:42
So he's a young player.
24:46
Dennis Nelson wants to know, can we get an organ installed for when the band is missing?
24:51
He misses the Met Center sounds.
24:54
That would be great.
24:56
I like the college hockey atmosphere.
24:57
So why not get an organ in there and spice it up even more?
25:00
Unfortunately, I think that that ship has sailed.
25:03
You know, they've gone to the in-house music, and I think we're going to be stuck with it.
25:09
You know, we talked to Frank and Doug, or not Frank and Doug, Frank and Wally, how they love the Michigan atmosphere, how there is no pump-typed in music.
25:19
It's just the band.
25:21
Minnesota got away from that in the last 10 years, and it's pretty sad because now all that pumped in, it's like they're trying to make an NHL in the atmosphere, and the fans don't want that kind of atmosphere.
25:33
Well, I think right now you have an administration that's open to ideas.
25:38
If you have ideas that will get 10,000 people in the building excited and loud, and it works, they will go to it.
25:45
I think they're open for ideas.
25:48
That's why they have a fan advisory board.
25:49
I talked to somebody on that this week, talking to their marketing person later this week.
25:55
They're open for ideas from their season ticket holders and past season ticket holders.
26:00
So if you're a fan and you have ideas and want to have your voice heard, email Mark Coyle.
26:07
Email the marketing people.
26:09
They want to hear from you.
26:10
They want actionable data to make decisions on.
26:14
Looks like you had a little bit more time with Coyle this weekend on Sunday, did you?
26:18
Yeah, a little bit.
26:19
He was at the game on Sunday talking to a bunch of the media members.
26:25
He's a guy who was here when the hockey program was humming.
26:28
Yes.
26:29
He understands that something needs to change to energize the program a little bit.
26:34
So he's looking for it to be a little more successful and we'll see what happens.
26:40
Yeah, Coyle is definitely there.
26:41
I mean, we see him several times a year.
26:43
Last year, he was there a lot.
26:45
He'll go to the post-game interviews and watch the players talk to the media.
26:50
He's involved.
26:52
Never saw Norwood Teague once and if you go before that, Joel Maturi still hangs around Minnesota.
26:58
He's still at the game.
26:59
So some people care, some people are at the game, some people are not.
27:04
One thing you talked about, the marketing and whatnot.
27:08
We're starting to see television commercials for tickets.
27:10
We're starting to hear radio ads.
27:14
Some people heard it on K102, come get your tickets for Gopher Hockey.
27:18
That's something we would have never heard 10, 15 years ago, Veegs.
27:24
Yeah.
27:24
I think you're going to see something happen with their ticketing to make it a little more, kind of like a flash seats that the Tim Wools do on your mobile phone, to make it easier to transfer seats to resale of tickets, that whole process.
27:39
I think you're going to see some changes coming to that stuff because they would like to have more atmosphere in the building and he truly cares about that.
27:47
Well, let's hope so because well, we've said, you know, winning does help some of that, but yeah, boy, you're playing an in-school at state school who is a number one team in the country and I want to say the scan tickets was still in the 6,000 range on Sunday.
28:07
Yeah, they didn't even sell 8,000 tickets for this one.
28:10
Oh, boy.
28:11
Which is pretty amazing.
28:15
We've talked about it.
28:18
We've talked about it for a while now.
28:21
We're kind of out of suggestions, I think.
28:23
They need to try something.
28:24
We've suggested things, but nothing's changing.
28:28
A lot of times what people say, hey, Lucia is a good coach, but maybe they do need to do a change at the top just to reinvigorate the program, whether if he's doing well or not, or if he's done well in the past, it may end up coming down to something like that, Veegs.
28:45
Yeah, I think time will tell what's going to happen next year.
28:47
I think they're looking at everything.
28:50
But the move to the Big Ten and the scholarship seeding happening at the same time and re-seeding the lower bowl, that was just a big mess for everybody.
29:02
And so, as Mark Hoyle's fond of saying, he gave everyone a reason to cut them.
29:08
And so now he's got to win them back.
29:10
And, you know, they might be talking to the current season ticket holders and people coming to the games.
29:16
But I believe you mentioned in the past that maybe they should be talking to people who gave up their season tickets, who no longer are coming, because there's thousands of those people who have given up their tickets.
29:26
They should be talking to them and saying, what can we do differently?
29:31
Yeah, but I think that's something you'll see here in the off season when they when they get on their season ticket drive again.
29:37
So they're going to reach out to those people and try to find out why they aren't buying tickets anymore and what would bring them back.
29:45
All right.
29:45
Well, we've got the Michigan Wolverines coming in this weekend.
29:49
Earlier this season, Minnesota had great starts against this team, got up three or four goals, lost one night and tied the next night.
30:00
Disappointing finishes, demons for Eric Schierhorn at Yoast Arena.
30:04
But those games started well, finished terribly, Veegs.
30:10
Yeah, it was just one of those situations where you left the steak on the table and the players just went after it.
30:16
They just started turning pucks over, taking on disciplined penalties.
30:20
They just did all the things that this team has done in those in-state rival games to put them behind.
30:28
This is the only weekend all season that they've done that, which is surprising.
30:34
They've been pretty disciplined the rest of the year, but it was just something about those two nights in Yoast that they couldn't stop it.
30:43
It was hard to watch because the mistakes were so clear and glaring.
30:49
Yeah.
30:49
Well, now the Wolverines come to Michigan, come to Minnesota this weekend.
30:55
Friday, Saturday games, all the games are on FSN Plus this weekend.
31:00
Red Berenson is gone, so something new.
31:02
Mel Pearson is now running the show there at Michigan.
31:05
We all kind of thought that was going to happen, and now he gets his first taste of Minnesota.
31:12
Was he coach at Tech for a while, but I don't think they ever made a trip when he was coached there, was he?
31:19
Yeah, I don't think Tech made a trip here while he was there, but he made plenty of trips when he was with Michigan.
31:23
Yeah, he would have made trips to Michigan.
31:26
So what can we expect this way?
31:28
I mean, we know we can score on Michigan.
31:30
We didn't have too many trouble scoring when we're at Yoast.
31:33
It's just going to be that effort of closing them down, isn't it?
31:37
Yeah, it's just being smart with the puck.
31:39
This is a team that hasn't gotten very good goaltending all year.
31:42
I think their safe percentage as a team is right around that 900 mark.
31:47
So this is a team that Minnesota should just be able to play their game, play sound, try to possess the puck a little bit more, limit mistakes, and they should be able to come out on top.
32:00
Notre Dame only needed two goals each night to beat Michigan because they play that style.
32:05
They kind of sit back and wait for you to make mistakes and they capitalize on them.
32:10
Michigan has shown that they are a team that will make mistakes.
32:14
Yeah, and really the goal right now is just getting points and just winning.
32:17
I mean, you're not going to win the Big Ten.
32:19
That's done.
32:20
I should say Notre Dame has got it locked up.
32:24
They're not going to, I really doubt they're going to lose that.
32:27
And really, right now, your three game is about 500.
32:30
It's just getting wins right now and not maybe worrying so much about the standings and trying to catch somebody.
32:37
Even Don said today that for the second half, they've pretty much given away the title to Notre Dame as a league.
32:44
And so now they're playing for a home seed in that opening weekend of the Big Ten playoffs and maybe getting an easier game to get to the final.
32:54
It looks like the Big Ten final is going to be at Compton Family Ice Arena.
32:58
So everybody's just playing to play that last game there.
33:03
Right now they're tied with Wisconsin for fourth place.
33:07
Penn State and Ohio State are ahead of them.
33:10
Ohio State comes here and I believe we still need to go to Penn State.
33:13
And Notre Dame is coming here in three weeks or something like that.
33:17
So they could put a dent, I think, boy.
33:23
I think second place is not out of the question, Veegs.
33:26
No.
33:26
Everybody plays everybody another time here.
33:29
It's just you flip your home and road location for the game.
33:33
So they've got room to make a run here and get to that position.
33:38
I think they're in great shape for the pairwise right now.
33:41
They have so many wins against teams that are doing well.
33:44
The Clarkson sweep splits with St.
33:47
Cloud and North Dakota.
33:52
They'll get a chance here at Notre Dame here.
33:54
They'll get a chance at Ohio State, who's fifth in the pairwise.
33:58
There's some good teams to play.
33:59
Penn State's 12th in the pairwise.
34:02
So they're going to be in a very good spot.
34:04
They could be playing maybe to get themselves into a top four still for a pairwise position, number one seed somewhere.
34:11
That would probably keep them out of Sioux Falls, which might be a good thing right now because it could be St.
34:17
Cloud and North Dakota are going to be in that region.
34:20
Oh, boy.
34:21
That makes for a tough out to get to St.
34:23
Paul.
34:25
To say the least.
34:27
So Minnesota either wants to get into that top four or maybe try to get to five so they can avoid St.
34:35
Cloud, Notre Dame and North Dakota.
34:39
Well, I'm thinking regardless of where Minnesota finishes or in the Big Ten, I think this series is more important about just getting wins.
34:48
So I'm going with a sweep.
34:50
They need to get a sweep.
34:51
I mean, none of this, you know, split crap.
34:55
They need to get a sweep this weekend.
34:56
They need to show that they're better than these teams.
34:59
Because Michigan's second to last place.
35:02
They're not great this year.
35:04
I think they've got three Big Ten wins themselves.
35:07
It's time to show that you can be a good team.
35:11
Otherwise, you're going to keep people saying, Fire Lucia, he can't play, he can't win anymore.
35:17
Really, this is a good chance for the team to kind of shut people up.
35:20
They could start putting together some wins here.
35:24
This definitely feels like a weekend Minnesota should sweep.
35:27
That's what I'm expecting.
35:29
The one thing I'm worried about Casey Milstad, not only is fatigued from the World Juniors, but he missed two days of practice this week with illness.
35:39
He's been held out.
35:41
They need him, I think, to get their power play kickstarted.
35:45
In a weekend against Michigan, you might need a power play goal or two.
35:48
That's my only fear is that they make a couple of mistakes.
35:52
Michigan does have offensive talent to take advantage of those mistakes.
35:56
We saw it happen last time they played.
36:00
I'm hedging my bet here.
36:02
I think they'll sweep.
36:03
They should sweep.
36:04
But Michigan is the kind of team that can score enough goals to get one out of you.
36:10
Now, Tom says a good point here via the Mixler chat window.
36:12
He says that Pearson must have been attacked because didn't Bill McCultin and Mr.
36:19
Patoni get in a little bickering match across the benches and wasn't McCulta Pearson's assistant coach at the time?
36:29
Do you remember that?
36:30
Could be.
36:31
I remember the McCultin.
36:32
I remember the McCultin too.
36:35
I don't remember.
36:36
He's looking up the year apparently when it happened.
36:39
I definitely remember the McCult Patoni thing across the benches there.
36:45
That was entertaining.
36:46
So Vig's media day, what do we hear from Lucia and the gang for audio today that we'll put on the end of the podcast?
36:55
Well you'll get Lucia talking a little bit about his goaltending situation that he has and what he wants to do there.
37:03
He'll talk a little bit about the power play and his thoughts there.
37:06
They need to get more one-timers and they need to find the right spots and it's hard to do that when you don't have Casey Middlestad who's obviously going to be on your top unit.
37:16
He also talked a lot about Ryan Lindgren and what a battler he is and what a big difference he made on Sunday's game.
37:23
You'll hear from Lindgren himself talk about that, a little bit about Wold Juniors and then you'll hear from the two goalies.
37:30
So you'll hear from both Robson and Schierhorn ahead of this weekend.
37:35
Now, I had another thought in my head and it just lost it.
37:40
I'm getting old.
37:41
Oh, I know what I was going to say.
37:43
What do you got coming up for your other writing gig?
37:48
The next piece for the athletic will be Ryan Lindgren.
37:52
So that's coming up here soon.
37:53
And then eventually here we'll get a stay in the program article on there.
37:58
That'll talk a little bit about attendance issues, revenues, contract situations, and things that the athletic department wants to do with the program and kind of the future.
38:11
So that'll be out sometime this month.
38:13
Okay, remember, you just go by the athletic people, you're going to get a lot of hockey coverage and a lot of other sports coverage.
38:20
But you're going to get the, you're going to get the Veegs here.
38:24
You're going to get Russo on the NHL side.
38:26
You're going to get, you know, you're going to get a bunch of stuff.
38:30
So, yeah, if you're a hockey fan, it's probably the best value out there because they have so much media in Canada covering the game.
38:39
They've got so much prospect coverage.
38:41
They're going to be coming up with their top 50 prospects here pretty soon.
38:45
So you'll be able to see all these feature stories on the future stars of the NHL.
38:50
We'll have a bunch of Hockey Day in Minnesota stuff coming up here when it's in St.
38:54
Cloud.
38:55
So a lot of great coverage there.
38:57
So I highly recommend it.
38:59
And one thing if people didn't notice is that the Star Tribune actually did assign somebody to cover the games.
39:04
We've got Randy Johnson, who's covered Gopher football over there covering the games.
39:08
He was actually at St.
39:09
Cloud.
39:09
He was at the game on Sunday at Mariucci.
39:12
So it looks like they've got someone also covering the games as well.
39:16
He was at availability today.
39:18
And he'll probably be having a feature on Matt Robson this weekend based on my intuition of reporters asking questions.
39:28
Well, there you go.
39:29
Anything else, Biggs?
39:32
No, it should be a good weekend.
39:33
Quinn Hughes didn't have the best world junior.
39:37
You know, the Michigan player who's a defenseman.
39:40
He's such a dynamic skater.
39:42
He's maybe a little undersized.
39:44
And he didn't quite find his step there at the world junior.
39:47
He even played forward in the bronze medal game, which was interesting.
39:52
But he's probably a first round talent for the draft this summer.
39:57
So he's young.
39:58
That's the big thing with him.
40:00
But he'll be a player to watch this weekend.
40:03
There you go.
40:04
Well, hopefully, it's a nice sweep for the Gophers.
40:06
Because at the Marriott, you could use a good sweep at Michigan.
40:09
It always feels good to beat Michigan.
40:12
And remember, $15 standing room tickets.
40:14
I have a good feeling there will be some seats available.
40:18
Yeah, I think I'm going to push that on Twitter myself.
40:21
People, you're not going to get those standing room tickets online.
40:24
So don't even try.
40:25
Just head down there, find a parking spot, go to the ticket office and buy a standing room ticket and sit wherever the heck you want.
40:33
Well, my advice is also to log on to the ticket site when you get to the game and look for to buy seats and see which seats are empty and go sit in those.
40:42
There you go.
40:43
You're the smart guy, Veegs.
40:45
There you go.
40:47
Remember, you can follow Veegs on Twitter at eVegoe and at Hammy Hockey.
40:51
He'll probably be back with us next week.
40:52
He's on vacation.
40:54
But we'll be back next week and we'll recap the series with Michigan and then we'll start talking about Michigan State.
41:02
We've got an early game with Michigan State next week and then a game at Madison Square Garden.
41:08
Until then, thanks for listening.
41:36
Back to Big Ten play.
41:38
How's that feel this week?
41:39
Well, it's time to get back after, right?
41:42
The non-conference games are over.
41:44
Now it's just Big Ten play the rest of the year, and because of what we did, the last few series of the first half, we put ourselves in a bit of a hole, now we have to try to climb out of that hole.
41:58
I think we practiced well.
42:01
Ryan's back in, in case he's been out this week.
42:04
We were gonna get him a couple days off, but then he got sick, so.
42:06
But he's feeling a lot better today, and he'll practice tomorrow.
42:11
And then we can have that continuity in our lineup.
42:13
Hopefully Tommy won't be out too long.
42:16
Another week or two, he should be able to hopefully be back.
42:19
And then we can hopefully set lines and set how we want to play from here on out.
42:25
What do you kind of want to see from your team in this return to Big Ten in those last 12 games?
42:29
Well, I think a couple things, obviously.
42:32
You know, our power play has to improve.
42:34
You know, we've moved some guys around and we've actually looked, since Christmas, pretty good in practice.
42:40
It hasn't necessarily translated in the games and hopefully we can translate that into the games.
42:47
Now, it hasn't helped that Casey is a key guy and he really hasn't practiced at all or not practicing this week and then he gets thrown into it.
42:54
But we've kind of moved some guys around and see if we can find better fits in some different areas of the ice and start to generate more.
43:03
And with that hand-in-hand is that the five-on-five offensive part of it too, that we can consistently get to three on a given night.
43:11
We've talked, for the most part, our goaltending has been solid.
43:13
For the most part, our penalty kills really improved since the first month.
43:18
We've cut our goals against down by a half and then from last year, but it's those offensive numbers that have to improve if we're going to take another step.
43:27
How'd you come across Matt Robson in the herding process?
43:31
He was out in Penticton and I know Fred and coach there and we talked.
43:39
He thought he was a really good goaltender.
43:41
He made the comment he thinks he's the best one he's had since he's been at Penticton.
43:46
We went through the recruiting process and I think he was flying back for a visit somewhere else and he got stuck in Minneapolis.
43:54
So we got him to come to campus and take a look and then we brought him back.
43:57
I mean that was just real brief to meet him and then he came back in for his official visit and liked everything that he had seen and you know wanted to play in a big program and I went and watched him at the end of the year in the Western Regionals for the Canadian playoffs in Penticton and he was really good and I think they had three or four straight elimination games and they weren't a high scoring team and they were winning the games two to one and you know kind of how it was for us on Sunday night but I just he you know he plays such a quiet game he's steady you know he he never gets too rattled and I think he's showing that in the three starts he's had so far.
44:42
You're starting them on Friday or Saturday?
44:43
We don't know what we're going to do yet you know the old adage don't make a decision until you have to but I think that right now we feel that we have two good goalies that can play and it's nice to be in a situation where they can push each other and you know if somebody gets hot then we may ride them for a while and you know kind of go back and forth so we're not necessarily in a situation where we'll split every weekend somebody might play a weekend somebody else might play the next weekend so it'll be kind of from here on out more you know merit-based like like it is for everybody but it just it gives us a little bit more at ease that you know you know in years past when Eric would hit a rough stretch that you know he still had to keep battling and fight and now we know that you know if we continue to split that you know they got to concentrate in the one game and and and just play well in the one game and you know turn it over the next guy the next night.
45:39
Eric has got a great attitude I mean he's such a team guy the players love him so I don't worry about that at all you know it's just it's nice to know that at times you can ease somebody's workload.
45:55
I know that was always a concern we had you know even the first half we didn't have an off week and that was a grind for the first half and I thought I thought he handled it pretty well I mean you look at the first half other than you know the Michigan weekend you know he played very well the first half and you know gave us opportunities to win games and and I know they'll continue to do that so you know we just have to you know get better in some areas we have to get better on you know in the offensive zone of keeping possession and you know we can learn some things out St.
46:24
Cloud how they flooded the area and did a nice job in the offensive zone and recovered pucks and you know so we're working on it and we're in the back third so the next we got a six game segment and then a week off and then another six game segment so I kind of like the way it plays itself out now within the Big Ten.
46:44
As we've talked about you know Notre Dame's won the league you know now it's that battle for for home ice in that first round and you know we have a lot of teams that are pretty pretty close together but it's all going to be about winning games from here on out.
46:59
You came in we were talking to Ryan about his address emotional address to the team on Sunday.
47:05
Can you elaborate?
47:06
Well it wasn't I mean I just it was more about you know after we we watched the video on Sunday morning I just you know Ryan you did you get a chance to watch a game yeah and he just gave us a couple sentences and what he thought and you know Casey kind of echoed it and I think he only saw the third period and but I think you know the way Ryan plays the game you know he's such a he's such a soldier I mean the old adage if you're in a foxhole I mean you want Ryan Lindgren right there with you because you got a better chance to to make it out and getting him back in and you know just the way he plays and eat a puck and plays heavy defensive minutes and he's not one of those guys that gets the limelight you know he's not a guy that's you know leading the charge offensively but he is the guy that we need to play you know 24 minutes 23 minutes a night the heavy minutes when I say you know he's not getting four minutes a night on the power play he's getting a lot of penalty kill minutes he's getting a lot of matchups against other people's best players and when you're ahead by a goal late you know I mean there's no doubt he's going to eat a puck I mean I just who he is that's why he's a captain as a sophomore.
48:22
So, have you talked to your family after the St.
48:24
Cloud game on Sunday?
48:27
No, I mean I talked to Charlie a little before I talked to him yesterday but yeah I mean obviously excited that we at least I won I don't know if you excited that the Gophers won but yeah he's happy that we won and that was a little rivalry there which is fun.
48:43
He's got an M on his mask, right?
48:45
Yeah, he does.
48:46
Does he get a lot of flack for that from his St.
48:48
Cloud?
48:49
Not that I know of.
48:50
I think it's pretty small in the back so I don't know if a lot of people see it but no, not that I know of.
48:58
What kind of conference did you guys take out of that St.
49:00
Cloud save win on Sunday?
49:01
Yeah, it was huge.
49:02
It was a really big win for us.
49:05
Obviously, I didn't play Saturday night but it didn't look like we played very good at all.
49:09
It looked like I was watching it home from the TV and it just didn't look very good.
49:13
It looked like we were chasing mostly game.
49:15
So that Sunday game, we had a lot of guys doing whatever it took to win.
49:19
And those are games you need to win later in the season.
49:23
So it was big for us.
49:23
I mean, obviously Robson played great.
49:26
I think our whole team as a defensive unit played really well.
49:29
And we got some big goals.
49:30
You know, Romanko getting one was big for us.
49:33
So all in all, I think it was a great team I've heard.
49:35
And it was hopefully something we can build off of.
49:37
What was your timeline on that Saturday?
49:38
Were you going in expecting to play before the equipment?
49:41
Yeah, me and Casey were expecting to play.
49:43
And then our gear didn't show up.
49:47
And then it was supposed to get shipped to St.
49:50
Cloud.
49:51
It just never showed up.
49:52
And we got it at Mariucci Sunday morning.
49:54
What time did you find out that you weren't, or did you find out the equipment wasn't there?
49:58
Coach Lucia kind of said that if it wasn't going to show up, at like a certain time, we were going to just kind of pull the plug on the whole thing.
50:05
And that time eventually came and we never heard anything.
50:08
So we just went back home and watched the game on TV.
50:13
Don said that Cal took a reading of your fatigue levels and that you were ready to go.
50:18
What was that like, how did it compare to your normal readings?
50:23
You know, I'm not really sure.
50:25
Cal does something with like an Omega.
50:27
He hooks it up to your forehead and in your hand.
50:30
You just lay there for 10 minutes.
50:31
So I didn't like see what the results were.
50:34
He just said that we were both ready to go.
50:36
So that's all I needed to hear.
50:39
And they told Lucia and so we were ready to go.
50:42
Do some special breathing to try to pass the test?
50:45
No, no.
50:46
I mean, honestly, you just lay on your back.
50:47
You just kind of close your eyes.
50:49
And it just, I really don't know what exactly it says.
50:54
And all he said is we're good after ten minutes.
50:55
So that's all.
50:57
That's about it.
50:58
What did you take out of your role during this experience?
51:00
It was unbelievable.
51:02
You know, obviously, coming back from last year and winning the gold, you know, I was assistant captain there.
51:08
So, you know, I was kind of looked at.
51:10
There was a leader and this guy has been through it before.
51:12
And, you know, we had such an unbelievable group.
51:14
You know, it was really easy for us to, you know, come together and, you know, allow us to play together before.
51:21
But that whole tournament is just so fun in general.
51:24
You know, obviously losing to the Slovaks hurt us a lot.
51:28
And that game against Sweden was tough as well.
51:30
But, you know, we were able to bounce back and get that bronze medal.
51:32
And, you know, it was three straight medals for the US which we had never done before.
51:36
So that was really special.
51:38
And it was just, I mean, it was great.
51:40
And obviously the way Casey played, he was unbelievable.
51:42
So it was great watching him do as good as he did.
51:45
And it was just, it was a ton of fun.
51:48
What do you see out of Michigan?
51:49
Do you guys owe them a couple?
51:50
Yeah, we do.
51:52
Yeah, that weekend we had with them earlier was probably the craziest hockey games I've ever been a part of.
51:58
You know, 3-0, half through a game and then 4-0.
52:00
And I ended up losing the first night and winning a shoe on the second.
52:04
But they're a good team.
52:05
They're a really good team.
52:06
And one of my best friends, Will Locke, was on the World Junior Team too.
52:10
He ended up hurting his shoulder.
52:12
So he's going to be, I think he's out the rest of the season now.
52:14
So that hurts Michigan a lot.
52:16
But besides that, they have a lot of tremendous players.
52:20
You know, a couple of other kids on the World Junior Team, that Norris and Hugh is, they're great hockey players, so we got to be ready to go.
52:27
Don said you were pretty vocal with the team on Sunday morning.
52:30
What was kind of your message to them and what made you decide to speak out?
52:35
Yeah, I mean, just, you know, before Christmas break was, it was just a really tough time for us.
52:41
You know, getting swept to Ohio State and Notre Dame.
52:45
We got swept there too, obviously.
52:46
That was a couple of weeks before.
52:47
But it just wasn't going very good for us.
52:51
And, you know, then I even heard against Armory.
52:53
We didn't play that great.
52:54
And that St.
52:55
Cloud game was, I mean, it was tough.
52:58
It was embarrassing to watch.
53:00
And it was just, so when Don asked me that the next morning at video, I thought I'd, you know, express how I felt.
53:07
And I know we got such a great team in there with a bunch of great players.
53:10
So I mean, we got to expect more, more out of each other.
53:13
And, you know, that game just looked like, you know, we didn't really care.
53:18
And there wasn't a lot of, a lot of heart in that game.
53:21
So, you know, that's something we got to change and we did Sunday.
53:24
So, you know, hopefully we keep doing that moving forward.
53:27
And I think we will.
53:29
Michigan this week, revenge time?
53:33
Yeah, yeah, definitely.
53:36
We played well against them in our building last, this time last year.
53:39
And that's, that's kind of when we started to go.
53:41
So I think that's what we're looking for too, building off a good win last Sunday.
53:46
And we need to start stringing some together here.
53:49
So, you know, whether it's revenge or just getting our team going in general, we're looking to start stringing a few together.
53:58
You know Matt Robson longer than we have, given that he's not just a player.
54:02
Yeah, yeah.
54:03
What's it mean to you to have him on the team?
54:05
Oh, it's good.
54:05
I mean, you always welcome competition and, you know, another guy that's, we're going to push each other.
54:10
And he's a good guy and a good person.
54:14
I mean, and that's really all there is to it, is, and he works hard every day and, you know, we like having him.
54:21
Do you guys trade tips, secrets, techniques at all?
54:25
I don't know about tips, secrets, but sometimes, you know, they'll be, hey, on this play, what do you like to do here?
54:31
What do you see here?
54:32
And he kind of gives me my, his perspective, or I'll give him my perspective.
54:37
It's kind of like, you know, sharing information, so you know everything possible and then make the decision on that play.
54:44
So that's, you know, sharing information.
54:47
Has it been an adjustment to sitting on the bench and watching games, like starting in the 94 in a row?
54:53
Yeah, yeah, it's different.
54:56
But I think you learn some, too, sitting on the bench, just, and Matt's about as calm as they get in the net, and so you kind of realize even more so, you know, you don't have to move that much, and you don't want to make it more difficult on yourself than it already is.
55:10
And so it's kind of nice to kind of see it from that perspective.
55:14
What was it like playing a team that was that aggressive like St.
55:17
Cloud?
55:17
Do you expect that out of Michigan, too?
55:18
Yeah, Michigan, I mean, every year since I've been here, they're not shy to take chances and they like odd man rushes, and they got some high-end skill.
55:27
So, you know, maybe they're not producing like St.
55:31
Cloud, but they're capable of it.
55:34
Second half hopes for this team, what do you want to see improve?
55:37
Oh, I mean, it's just a little bit of everything.
55:40
We need to get our, keep going on our penalty kill.
55:43
It's been good ever since the first couple weeks of the year and keep bringing that goals against down.
55:48
It's been down compared to past years, but, you know, if we do our part on the back end, good things will happen.
55:57
How'd you end up in Minnesota?
55:59
The whole story.
56:00
The whole story?
56:01
It's kind of a long one, I guess.
56:02
I kind of, I started off playing major junior when I was 16, you know, being in Toronto, they have a pretty big pull from that whole area.
56:09
So I ended up going to Peterborough.
56:11
Two years injuries, just things just didn't sort of work out and then ended up getting traded back home from, from their tier two team, which I started out in Lindsay for two years, got traded back to the Patriots, ended up going to Clarkson, wasn't a spot for me, ended up going back to Penticton last year.
56:26
And then obviously Minnesota found me out there.
56:28
And obviously getting to play with Sam and hearing all the good things he has to say about Minnesota.
56:33
And then being able to come down and see the facilities, it was kind of a no-brainer for me.
56:38
And obviously I'm pretty happy with my choice.
56:40
What do you think the difference has been so far at this level versus in junior season?
56:44
I mean, like I've talked about in past interviews, I mean, everyone at this level was kind of the guy back in junior.
56:50
So, I mean, everyone can shoot, everyone can skate, everyone's bigger, definitely traffic in front of the net from a goalie perspective.
56:57
That's definitely one of the biggest things in my opinion.
57:00
Your friends and family back home see much college hockey?
57:03
Unfortunately, they can't, they can't watch on the Big Ten network because of something to do with like an American TV provider.
57:10
So, we're trying to find a way around that, but I mean, they obviously, they stay up to date and they come down when they can, and it's always nice to have them in town, but I wish they could see more for sure.
57:19
A lot of games available on TSN GO.
57:23
I'll let them know.
57:25
So, did you know much about the college game when you were growing up?
57:28
I mean, yeah, for sure.
57:30
I mean, my parents always kind of push it on me.
57:32
They know how important school is and education, and obviously, your career is not going to last forever.
57:37
So it's always good to have something to fall back on.
57:39
But like I said, the OHL just has such a big pull in the Toronto area and seeing so many of my teammates go that route, I kind of just felt like that was the way I wanted to go as well.
57:49
Fortunately for me, I was able to take a step back, reevaluate the situation and end up in a situation like Minnesota.
57:55
Was it tough sitting out that first half of the season?
57:57
Yeah, for sure.
57:58
At Clarkson, I had to sit out the full year as well.
58:00
I ended up with a year and a half from the NCAA for being sanctioned for that major junior contract.
58:06
But yeah, it's never easy for a player to sit out.
58:09
You always want to be in that.
58:11
I mean, now that it's over, I just want to move forward and focus on the second half of the season.
58:16
How did you stay strict and sharper in that time?
58:18
Definitely helping the goalie coach and definitely the players.
58:20
I mean, they're great at keeping you into it and being like, it's a good team around the locker room, so it's easy to come to the rink with a smile on your face.
58:27
And that's one of the biggest things when you can't play.
58:30
And yeah, like I said, working with the goalie coach Andy, I mean, he did a great job with me for the first half, keeping me sharp and working on the basics, all that sort of stuff, and just having me ready to go.
58:39
Being up that first half, did you watch the Michigan series when they were there?
58:42
Yeah, unfortunately, I couldn't go on too many road trips first half, but I was definitely tuning in to all the games with the guys who stayed behind, and we're excited to get them back this weekend.
58:51
We definitely owe them one.
58:54
Yeah, I'm just looking forward to playing them.
58:55
We're just going to see from there again.
58:56
There's a lot of goals from the Wolverines.
58:59
Yeah, just a lot of shots from everywhere.
59:00
Obviously, you got to be sharp all around the zone.
59:05
Yeah, I mean, it's Big Ten Hockey.
59:06
It's fast, it's skilled, and I'm just looking forward to getting back into it.
59:11
You and Eric have split both weekends.
59:12
What's it like sharing the crease every other night?
59:16
I mean, like I said, as a competitor, you want to be in the net all the time, but I mean, he's a great guy and he's a great teammate as well.
59:21
So, I mean, it's not hard to cheer for him when he's in the net, and I mean, he's done a great job for the first half, and I just kind of hope to, you know, kind of keep that rolling when I get my shot, and yeah, just be a good teammate.
59:33
What confidence do you take out in that St.
59:34
Cloud State shutout?
59:36
I mean, a lot.
59:37
It was definitely nice to get the first shutout and a big win against a good team like that, but like I said, you just got to look forward to the next opponent.
59:46
I mean, everyone's different, every game's different, so you just kind of got to prepare yourself mentally and be ready to go.
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