0:05
This is The GPL Podcast, sponsored by Vintage Minnesota Hockey, your exclusive source for throwback Minnesota jerseys.
0:14
Visit vintagemnhockey.com.
0:19
Now, here's Hammy, Vego, and your host, Jupiter.
0:40
Good evening, and welcome to The GPL Podcast.
0:45
Back for episode number 128.
0:50
And boy, oh boy, are we having technical issues tonight.
0:54
But we do have one person on.
0:56
He's not one of the hosts, but it's Todd Milewski from the Wisconsin State Journal.
1:00
Todd, thanks for joining us again.
1:02
I'm still here, Aguapo.
1:06
It's a bad line from Three Amigos.
1:08
No, but glad I could connect eventually and be on here.
1:14
And I'm pretty much convinced that Skype is just acting up tonight because it's showing none of us is online right now.
1:20
Vegoe just tried to call me again and I can't add him to the conversation.
1:24
I don't know what's going on, but we're just going to plug through it and have some fun with it because people are waiting to hear from us.
1:30
I know Nate's sitting out there complaining to me, get going, get going, fire Jupe, you suck.
1:37
Vegoe is texting me telling me it's a Big Ten conspiracy already, that we can't get him online, probably after his athletic article today about attendance.
1:47
Who knows?
1:49
But what I do know is that Wisconsin and Minnesota are the only teams that have beaten Notre Dame so far this year.
1:59
Well, in Big Ten play, yes.
2:00
In Big Ten play, yes.
2:02
Right.
2:04
Which I think, who saw that coming at the start of the year, right?
2:12
Didn't really know what to expect out of Notre Dame, but didn't expect 16 in a row to start the 16 wins in a row for them, and then however many in a row it was in the Big Ten, but wow.
2:29
Wasn't it like 13 in a row or so?
2:30
I think it might have been 16.
2:31
That's what I wanted to say, but I wasn't really, really sure of it.
2:36
Yeah, there's some...
2:41
There's some good hockey being played, I'll tell you that.
2:43
There is.
2:44
There is some good hockey, and there's some...
2:48
The way I've been looking at it around Big Ten, there's some coaches that go in the games not really knowing what they're going to get out of their teams, which is not a great feeling in February, I've got to imagine, for them.
2:59
And no, it's not.
3:00
But it took a neutral site for the BADgers to finally break that barrier of Notre Dame.
3:07
I mean, I think Notre Dame just kind of got into it.
3:09
They got down a couple of goals, and the end of the game was a little sad.
3:12
It looks like they just stopped trying.
3:13
But it did take that neutral site, and you finally got past them, and then Minnesota got past them the next night, or the next weekend.
3:22
Wisconsin scored two in the last minute to make, you know, what was it, a 3-0 game, and a 5-0 in the final.
3:28
So maybe it looked a little worse than it really was.
3:31
But there was, I mean, you're right, Notre Dame, it seemed in the third period of that game, just kind of wasn't really there.
3:37
It's like, okay, we had our run, and this isn't going to be our day, and so packing it in, which on that stage, I mean, not to say it wasn't a frozen four atmosphere or anything like that, but it was something that both teams had built up, playing in Chicago, it was on NBCSN, and then a time slot where they're going up against the AFC Championship game that day, but so not the greatest thing there.
4:09
I think it'll be the same thing next year as well, but they wanted it to be a big, bigger deal for Notre Dame to play like they did that day.
4:20
I know they weren't very happy with that.
4:24
Well, they're probably figuring it's better now than later.
4:29
I mean, you don't want to play that kind of game in a regional.
4:33
You'd rather just get it out of the way first.
4:35
And the funny thing is that they go the following weekend, and Minnesota plays them to a 1-0 overtime win, and they hadn't scored in two games, which is very unlike Notre Dame.
4:47
Very true.
4:48
Although I will say that all the games that they had won in a row, the remarkable thing about that is how many of those games were close, and they just kind of found a way to win.
5:00
And to do that that many times in a row is remarkable.
5:05
You don't see that happen.
5:06
That just defies the laws of probability.
5:12
But for them to do that, something was going right.
5:14
And it just comes down to having players, different players make contributions that maybe you aren't expecting out of them.
5:25
And when one guy chips in one night, it's somebody else on the other night, that's a great formula for them.
5:32
Boy is it, you know, obviously they're so solid defensively.
5:35
I mean, I mean, you guys finally broke the chink in the armor, which was good, and then Minnesota did too.
5:41
But I'm really thinking for now, you know, Notre Dame has cinched up first place for all.
5:48
I mean, yeah, I mean, they play.
5:51
Ohio State still has an outside chance to catch them, but.
5:54
Yeah, but I mean, Notre Dame can win once this weekend and clinch it against Ohio State, or, you know, they've got two more weeks to take care of it if they need it.
6:06
Yeah, I don't think there's much doubt left that that's going to be Notre Dame getting that bye week.
6:13
And we'll see what that does for them going to the semifinals straight away there.
6:20
Well, you know, on the Minnesota side, you know, we had the bye week last week.
6:25
And before that, they split with Notre Dame, which, you know, going into it, people would say, you get a split with Notre Dame with how well they're playing, I'd take it.
6:34
The first game was pretty thrilling for us on the Minnesota side, you know, an overtime winner, which is, which is always fun, no matter where you go.
6:41
The next night, not so much.
6:44
You know, we'll have to see, you know, who's joining us here?
6:49
Incredibly weird.
6:50
I have too many computers, obviously.
6:53
There's Vegoe.
6:55
Yeah.
6:56
You know, don't feel bad, Vegs.
6:58
Skype is just acting up tonight.
6:59
There's just something weird going on with Skype.
7:03
Well, I tried a different computer and here I am.
7:08
Well, we're glad you're here.
7:10
We've been just kind of BSing about, you know, both Minnesota and Wisconsin, you know, actually having some success against Notre Dame, splitting with them these past, you know, couple of weekends before, you know, before last week, and I should say, since Minnesota had to buy.
7:25
But well, I'm glad you at least got to join.
7:29
Well, I'm sure you guys have been doing great.
7:32
It's kind of a weird season right now, because I look at the Wisconsin scores, and those are scores I've kind of expected to see come from Minnesota.
7:41
And the Minnesota scores are kind of ones you expect to come from Wisconsin as of late.
7:45
So it's kind of, you know, we get into this myopic state during the hockey season, when you follow college hockey and rules are reversed this season, it looks like.
7:57
I think that to this point, yeah, and I don't doubt, however, that that could flip at any moment.
8:05
Maybe it just is the way that the season is gone, but I remember last year up until about mid-February, Wisconsin had been, you know, the scoring was up and everyone was saying, well, this is a new Granada regime.
8:21
It's a new look.
8:22
And then the last couple of weeks of the season, the scoring just, the bottom fell out.
8:26
They couldn't buy a goal and they end up in a 2-1 loss in double overtime in the Big Ten championship game.
8:35
They couldn't score.
8:35
They couldn't find the guys to do it.
8:38
And so we're kind of looking this year to see, well, is that going to happen again?
8:44
Now, the signs aren't there.
8:46
They've got guys, their big players are playing their best of the season right now, which is good for them.
8:54
I mean, that's what they need to have.
8:56
They don't have incredible talent top to bottom, but they need their best guys playing well at this time of the year.
9:02
And Frederick's playing well, Ryan Wagner's playing well, Seamus Malone is doing great in the last couple of weeks.
9:09
He missed the last Saturday with an injury, but and they're finally getting some goal-tending that's maybe not great, but a lot better than it was in the first half of the season.
9:20
So you put that all together, there's some reason for them to be opportunistic.
9:25
Now, they've always kind of played at that.
9:27
Yeah, we think it's coming, but now they're seeing the results to kind of back that up.
9:33
Now, Veegs, since you've just joined us, and obviously it's been a couple of weeks since we played, but we were just kind of discussing that we were kind of in going into the series with Notre Dame, we would have been happy with a sweep.
9:49
Were you happy with a sweep?
9:51
I'm sorry, not a sweep, I should say a split.
9:53
Were you happy with a split?
9:56
Yeah, I think so.
9:56
Based on the way Notre Dame has been playing this season, I think you just have to be happy to get the three points.
10:03
They're running away with the league.
10:05
I think they swept a lot of teams in the first half of the season.
10:09
So you're kind of trying to play catch up with them, just trying to get some points.
10:12
I thought they played the game plan that's been successful for them against the top teams.
10:18
When they played St.
10:18
Cloud State, when they played UMD and were playing well in that game, when they held on against North Dakota.
10:25
This is a team that has managed the puck very well this season, and that's the game they played against Notre Dame when they won.
10:33
I think that's kind of the recipe for them being successful going forward, is managing the puck very well, almost playing like that Notre Dame style, the style that Yves played at Wisconsin.
10:46
The time to be a really creative team and grow your game is probably gone.
10:51
You have to play now the way that you can win games, and that's the recipe for them.
10:57
Well, the one good thing right now for Minnesota is that they kind of hold their own fate in their own hands right now.
11:05
They can get the third place fairly, I shouldn't say easily, but I mean it's up to them.
11:12
I mean right now the three teams ahead of them, Wisconsin, Michigan and Penn State, all are just a few points ahead, but they also have two games in hand on all three of those teams.
11:23
So right now Minnesota is in a good spot if they want to get up to that third place spot and maybe try to challenge for that second place spot.
11:32
Well, I think they're in a great spot to get home ice for the Big Ten in the first round, and I think they're in a good spot to get potentially into a two seed in the pair wise.
11:42
I think if they have a good finish here, there's no reason they can't be in the top eight.
11:47
The way they've played out of the conference and the strength of the Big Ten this season, if they were to go on a run here and win probably five or six games, including the rest of the regular season and the conference tournament, they'd be in great shape.
12:02
They definitely would be.
12:04
Oh boy.
12:06
Here we go.
12:07
We've got Pat McAuletti asking questions.
12:12
Boy, I don't know how to pronounce that.
12:14
Paul Hauk, the best badger ever to don the red?
12:18
That's what Pat wants to know.
12:19
He wants to know if he's the best badger to ever don the red.
12:25
Well, better goalie Terry Kleinsinger or Mark Barron.
12:32
Barron?
12:34
Which part of the year do we want to talk about?
12:38
You're asking me to go to guys that played when I was one or two.
12:42
That's Pat for you.
12:44
Pat's just being a jerk.
12:46
Craig Norwich, best defenseman in red and white.
12:51
There's a pretty good argument for that.
12:56
I've been able to talk to him a couple of times in the last couple of years.
13:01
One of them was about last year, they're doing the 40th anniversary of the 1977 National Championship team that had this just ridiculous power play, 30 some percent, close to 40 percent, I think.
13:14
Norwich running the top of the umbrella on that, when that was a new concept, that was one of Bob Johnson's things he brought over from wherever in Europe, or he incorporated some different things to it, and it hadn't been seen a whole lot here at that point from what I've been told anyway.
13:37
So you have Mark Johnson, you have Norwich, you've got Eves, you got all these kinds of guys that are just incredible scorers on this power play.
13:50
I would have loved to have seen that in action, because one of the guys that had to play against it in practice, one of the guys that had to be the scout team penalty killers basically said they used to take pages out of the phone book, or phone books, or some kind of books, and just wrap them around their pads, because that Norwich Slapshot from the top would just kill their legs.
14:11
So that was, I mean, you can just imagine and picture that, those guys just dying from slapshots to the shins during practice.
14:23
But yeah, he would be, Norwich would definitely be up there as one of the top demon.
14:29
Pat also wants to know, are the BADgers moving back to the Dane County Coliseum?
14:33
I don't think so.
14:35
Maybe playoff time though, playoff.
14:39
I was just going to say, although they have something in place in case they have to, now I don't think it's obviously going to happen this year.
14:48
But because the Coliseum isn't always available, because of other events that are here, if they do have a Big Ten playoff game or series to play when the Coliseum isn't available, it would be at the Coliseum, which we've done that a couple of times.
15:08
And it's not exactly thrilling.
15:17
It's kind of cool.
15:18
There's some history to it, but man, that building has seen better days.
15:22
Well, the thing is, I believe the last time Minnesota and Wisconsin played there is not too long ago.
15:28
I mean, didn't they play there before they played at Soldier Field?
15:33
No, that game was at the Coles Center.
15:36
I thought Minnesota played them there not very long ago.
15:40
Veegs, am I just losing it?
15:43
You're probably losing it.
15:45
Yeah, I don't remember that, but I would have to check.
15:47
I thought it was not too long ago.
15:49
Well, I do know Wisconsin has played there, maybe not Minnesota, but they've played somebody there fairly recently, haven't they?
15:55
They played the last series of the regular season against SinkCloud there, so this is back WCHA days.
16:04
And it looked really empty.
16:07
Yes, it was like 2,000 people or 3,000, something like that.
16:13
And I want to say they played a playoff series there against Anchorage one year that actually had to go to three games, which we were all thankful for.
16:29
Yes, Nate.
16:30
Nate says I'm losing it too.
16:31
I just, you know what?
16:32
The funny thing is I was probably just watching that SinkCloud Wisconsin game on TV thinking, there wasn't very many people there.
16:39
So I'm losing it.
16:40
That's OK.
16:41
I'm getting old.
16:43
A lot of things in my mind.
16:44
So that's just the way it goes.
16:48
OK, well, now that we've gotten through our Pat McAleady questions, Veegs, you had a nice little article come up on The Athletic today.
16:57
You want to tell us a little bit about it?
17:00
Yeah, well, it's kind of been a history of mine to pull some data on the number of season ticket holders at the University of Minnesota for men's hockey and the number of scanned tickets.
17:13
And I've noticed over the last four years quite the decline in both those numbers.
17:18
And so I decided to do a little investigating why.
17:20
And Mark Coyle was nice out to make some time to sit down and talk with me about some of the things that he's doing, taking a close look at the hockey program.
17:30
You know, it's something that Nord Teague definitely didn't do.
17:34
Beth Getz, you know, she was kind of an interim role.
17:38
And you know, kind of that blind eye has really affected the program, I think, that's gone through so much change in the last six years.
17:45
You know, the decline of the WCHA and into the Big Ten, there's been a lot of change.
17:50
And obviously, there's been change on campus with the fundraising, with scholarship seating, Gopher points, all the new buildings going up around campus.
18:00
And they just kind of haven't been paying attention to the cash cow that has been Gopher Hockey.
18:05
And so I tried to get some answers why.
18:08
And you know, one thing that a lot of people love to bring up is that they'd like to see alcohol at Mariucci.
18:15
And a big mistake here is on Twitter is wondering, he says, maybe Coyle told you that not many people are asking for that.
18:23
Is that really the case?
18:25
Yeah, when I talked to Mark Coyle at the end of December, that's what he told me is that he hasn't heard an overwhelming groundswell support for alcohol at Mariucci.
18:36
I know it's something that they had struggles with when they first introduced it to TCF, but it's been something pretty positive to the atmosphere there.
18:45
You know, they don't have as many fan problems as they used to have when it was a dry stadium.
18:51
People don't show up, you know, 0.40 coming into the game.
18:55
Like a viking game.
18:58
Yeah.
18:59
So, you know, it's something that can work for the facility.
19:02
And there's already beer up in the club room.
19:04
So I don't think it's a huge hurdle.
19:06
So something that Coyle is really looking to do is get actionable data from people who have season tickets, people who purchase single game tickets.
19:16
He's got a fan advisory board.
19:18
And I think he's truly trying to listen to the fans to figure out what they want.
19:22
And I know there's some issues probably at Mariucci with how to structure alcohol sales there, just because the concourse is kind of tight.
19:30
But if it's something the fans want, I think it's something they'll get.
19:36
Well, I mean, we've been seeing attendance problems for, you know, like you said, the past five, six years.
19:42
Todd, you've also been kind of tracking that the last few years as well, haven't you, at the Cole Center?
19:46
Yeah, and, you know, I think it's a little bit even more dramatic here with the BADgers and their troubles on the ice have kind of magnified the pace of people not showing up for games here.
20:13
It has started to come back in these last two seasons.
20:17
I can say that, but it's definitely not where it was for years at the Cole Center where you had a solid 10,000 people in the building, or at least it seemed.
20:32
Now you're getting the fives on Fridays and the six and seven and eight for Saturday games.
20:39
Now this weekend is going to be different is what it sounds like.
20:43
They've at least sold more than 10,500 for Friday.
20:48
And I think they're pretty darn close to a sellout for Saturday.
20:52
Now how much of that shows up, we don't know.
20:55
But yeah, this has been, I think, an issue.
20:59
It's an issue at these two schools, obviously, but I think it's an issue really around sports in general, where, you know, like the TV schedule or not that we all have, a lot of these games are on TV or are available on the web or, you know, you can find them without going, leaving your house.
21:18
And, you know, you're not only talking about the cost of tickets to get in to these games, talking about parking.
21:26
And at the Cole Center, it's 15 bucks to park basically two blocks away.
21:32
It's probably similar at Mariucci.
21:34
I don't remember it offhand, but you just add these costs on it.
21:39
And it just, at some point, it's like, I know you have to be pretty well off to be doing this every week and then over and over again.
21:51
So I think that's not unique to these teams.
21:58
It's not unique to college hockey.
22:00
It's not unique to hockey.
22:02
It's something that's happening.
22:03
And I've tracked this in, for the football team, here they have the same issues.
22:09
They get, they announce 80,000 for a game, but sometimes they'll have 60 or even 50 for some of the non-conference games.
22:17
So they get that ticket revenue, but they don't get that parking revenue or the concessions revenue.
22:21
And so they have a reason to want to get people back in.
22:27
They just have to find the way to do it.
22:31
And that's what no one's really come up with yet.
22:36
Well, Veegs, you know, you've been, I'm sorry.
22:41
No, that's it.
22:42
Veegs, you've been sending me some of the numbers this year, and it appears that the Notre Dame series kind of really helped them a lot.
22:50
Otherwise, the numbers would be even lower, wouldn't they?
22:54
Yeah.
22:54
I mean, I was looking at averages, you know, for actual ticket scan to be under 6,000 for pretty much the season until the huge crowds in Notre Dame.
23:04
They had 78-90 there for that Saturday game.
23:08
By far the biggest.
23:09
Great crowd.
23:10
By far the biggest.
23:11
The next biggest crowd, I think was for Army when they brought all their friends and family to the game.
23:19
It was 67-88.
23:21
The next one is Harvard at 66-94.
23:25
That's very surprising.
23:26
Beating Michigan, beating Wisconsin, beating St.
23:29
Cloud.
23:31
Pretty interesting numbers.
23:34
Well, we've talked about it at long lengths here.
23:38
It's just at least it's encouraging Veegs that Coil is getting people together and they're starting to address it.
23:44
They might not know what to do yet, but they know there's a problem and they're just not ignoring it Veegs.
23:49
Well, I think it's also difficult because what fans want is different for everybody.
23:55
I talked to Mike Weir's Bickey.
23:57
He's one of the people in marketing in the athletic department.
24:01
He's working at the fan advisory board and really it's tough because they're trying to make the building exciting for the students as well as the longtime diehards and they kind of want different things.
24:13
So that's a bit of a trouble for the people who have been following Gopher Hockey for a long time and now they've got to replace those fans because so many of the fans of the diehards and you look at the comments and the article and on Twitter and on Facebook today and it's all about I hate the Big Ten.
24:31
Well, it's not going to change.
24:33
There's no number of comments coming from people in these sources that's going to make Minnesota leave the Big Ten Hockey Conference and start something new.
24:42
That's just not possible.
24:44
So you got to figure out how to replace those fans if they're not going to come back.
24:49
And you're also not going to get them to admit that it was a mistake.
24:52
Even if someone along the way does think that, yeah, maybe we would have been better off.
24:58
Well, Don Lucia said in my article when I talked to him back in December that would have been great if Penn State would have joined college hockey and went into the CCHA and they just could have stuck together in WCHA.
25:10
That's not what happened.
25:12
They don't really have a choice in the matter.
25:14
Right.
25:15
He probably would have liked to be the same way, too.
25:17
The Final Five had a great thing going at Excel at the end of the year, probably just as good as the Frozen Four, but that's not an option anymore.
25:25
So college hockey fans, if you want to enjoy the sport, you kind of have to move on, decide whether or not it's something you want.
25:34
Now, Vig, you had been talking to me about, you know, they're kind of asking current ticket fans and people, actually, they've been sending out things to people who even bought tickets this year.
25:46
But one thing that concerned you or you had talked about is that they're maybe not reaching out to the former fans who have dropped their tickets.
25:52
And there's a lot of those people who have done that.
25:55
Yeah, I think part of that's the change in how they've done their ticket sales and how they handle calling people who are associated with the program.
26:05
And they've brought that all in house now.
26:07
It used to be outsourced.
26:09
So I think there probably is a bit of an archive mishandle there where they don't have all that information anymore.
26:17
You know, crazy things happen around the university.
26:19
I talked to Minnesota Duluth and they said they don't have a copy of their contract with the NCHC since they've had change in leadership.
26:26
Oh, jeez.
26:27
Things like that happen.
26:32
Whether or not all this is true, but there is this records retention issue at major institutions and they're just trying to do what they can now.
26:43
Well, I loved it a couple of weeks ago.
26:45
I think it was an NCHC.
26:46
Was it Duluth and St.
26:48
Cloud playing on a Thursday night or a Tuesday night or something ridiculous like that and somebody came up on Twitter and says blame the Big Ten for that as well because they're playing on odd nights.
26:57
Well, that's why Minnesota Duluth played Mankato, right?
27:02
Maybe, that was the game.
27:03
I knew it was some game.
27:05
Tuesday night college hockey.
27:08
Don't miss it.
27:09
And they're blaming the Big Ten.
27:12
Jeez.
27:12
You know, really it comes down to winning.
27:17
I mean, Minnesota's won, but they've been struggling in the NCAAs.
27:22
Wisconsin, you guys have just kind of tanked because, you know, a lot of people just didn't like the style that Yves is playing because, you know, at first it was successful, but then it became not successful.
27:33
And then when you're not winning and you're playing boring hockey, it's just not a good thing for the, you know, for the goal center.
27:42
Right.
27:42
You could get away with that style of play when you're doing well, when you're actually giving results and, you know, you know, the team is going well, you're playing important games and those kind of things.
27:55
I mean, they, you look back though, too, they had some really good players on those teams.
28:01
Oh, yeah, they did.
28:02
How many of them are in the NHL?
28:03
I mean, they're, you know, you got McDonough, you had, you know, you had Pavelski, you had Brian Elliott.
28:10
I mean, just think of these guys that have come through that, that program in those, you know, four or five or six years in the kind of the middle of the Eves era that, you know, there was some excitement on those teams.
28:29
Maybe it didn't show up in goals.
28:31
Maybe it wasn't, you know, always the greatest product to watch, but you're right.
28:38
You're right.
28:38
You can't then, you can't have a team that is perceived to be unexciting that also loses and hope to keep people around.
28:50
Well, yeah, we, you know, we've been, you know, as Minnesota's attendance has gone down, we've obviously watched your guys' attendance go down big time as well.
28:59
Really, about the only place not having attendance problems is maybe North Dakota.
29:03
Sure.
29:04
Yeah.
29:04
And I, I mean, I see St.
29:06
Cloud on TV.
29:07
Yeah, I see St.
29:08
Cloud on TV the other night.
29:10
And there were a lot of empty seats there, Veegs.
29:13
It's not just Minnesota.
29:14
Starting to dig into some Duluth data because they have a lot of unused ticket sales.
29:18
And when I talked to Mark Coyle, he said, this is a problem that pretty much every pro and college sports team is dealing with.
29:26
Cross college football, you know, they're seeing redemption stats around 70 to 75 percent.
29:32
So, you know, 60 percent is not good, but 70 to 75 percent these days isn't that bad.
29:39
I think you're seeing some of the things that The Wild do with their ticket resale system.
29:45
Some of the things you're seeing the Timberwolves do with Flash seats, you know, to try to liven up that resale market and just get people in the seats or allow ticket holders to donate their seats.
29:56
Maybe, you know, inner city hockey kids or something like that.
30:00
You know, those are the things that they can do to try to liven up the building.
30:03
But getting back to what you said about winning, you know, up until last year, Minnesota had the winningest program in college hockey for five years.
30:11
They made two frozen fours, they had three number one seeds in regionals.
30:16
I don't think winning is the issue right now with fans.
30:20
Sure they can point to they have a one NCAA title, but there aren't too many schools the last ten years that have won one of those.
30:27
I think it's four.
30:29
So I think it's more than just winning, it's going to get people back in the building.
30:34
I think your story touched on this a little bit too, that there's kind of this, what I think of as a battle for the soul of college hockey with the fans too, where you have this group, this group that's kind of gone to games for years, that wants to hear the band and doesn't, maybe like goal horns and doesn't like video boards and stuff like that.
30:57
And then, but how much can you cater to them when you need to attract a newer, a younger crowd that's going to be your fans for the next 20 years?
31:07
So there's kind of this back and forth, I think is going on.
31:10
And the same thing happens at Mariucci and at the Cole Center, where, you know, you've got the video board and all the content is, you're kind of directed to there.
31:21
Whereas, you know, the band takes a back seat and some of the supposed traditions, however you want to think of them, of crowd interactions aren't as, as maybe an important part of the game anymore.
31:37
And so I think that's, that's something to kind of consider in all this too, that there's, there's some very different groups of fans that are in play here and that they're trying to court.
31:49
And, and the dance to try and keep them both happy is really kind of delicate.
31:56
So I think there's going to be some, there's going to be more of those kind of kitschy, you know, between periods, games kind of things to, to, to, that, you know, maybe we never saw until five years ago or, or, you know, somewhere in that range that, you know, just aren't what a lot of people are looking for or some people are looking for, but are considered kind of the, the way that things are going in sports, game day presentations, I guess.
32:30
Well, the thing is with that though is that they're still doing it at Michigan.
32:35
You look at the band participation and the crowd, the student participation at, at Michigan.
32:42
And, you know, Frank Mazzocco told us on, on the podcast about a month ago.
32:47
And even though we've heard this from Wally Shaver Veegs that, you know, that the band plays all the time.
32:52
The students are all into it the entire time.
32:55
And there's very little piped in music.
32:59
So it's like, you know, it works some places and it's working well.
33:03
They're still, you know, doing pretty well with attendance in Michigan, Veegs.
33:07
So what can we do here, Veegs?
33:12
Well, I don't know if Michigan's actually the model for Minnesota.
33:15
They look at Yost, it's an older building, it's historic and it's small.
33:19
They don't need to draw 10,000 people like Minnesota does.
33:24
And, you know, no friends to Frank and Wally.
33:27
But I don't know if those are the kind of people that Minnesota needs to buy season tickets right now.
33:32
You know, they need to go after youth hockey groups.
33:35
They need to go after new young fans.
33:37
It's the same problem that Gopher football has right now.
33:40
They need to replace a bunch of season ticket holders or, you know, aging out, and they got to figure out a way to get younger people interested in the game.
33:48
And I don't know, I don't know how they're going to do that because they're going to have to blend it somehow, or they're going to have to get some students who get passionate about Gopher hockey and buy tickets when they graduate.
34:00
I know that's something they did with basketball is they did a young alumni season ticket to try to get more young people in the building.
34:09
Well, you know, you'd love to get student groups in there.
34:11
But you know what, student groups or hockey teams, youth teams, they don't buy season tickets, Veegs.
34:16
They buy single tickets.
34:18
And those single tickets are three times as much as they are at the Kohl Center.
34:23
That's a tough cost for a little hockey program to spend 60 or 70 bucks on a ticket.
34:29
Whereas it's 24 at Kohl Center.
34:31
I know youth groups are able to buy tickets to the Ohio State game for 15 to 20 bucks as a group ticket.
34:37
I know that the first responders when they had their hockey night the other day were able to get seats for 15 to 20 bucks.
34:44
I know Greek groups on campus are getting group deals 15 to 20 bucks a seat.
34:49
You look at that single ticket price that's out there for some of the big games like North Dakota, St.
34:54
Cloud, Wisconsin.
34:56
Those are kind of geared towards the general public and for visiting fans.
35:01
They are trying to work with deals to make it more affordable for groups to get that single game of experience because I don't think you're going to see a season ticket base up around 8,000 again for the public.
35:13
It's going to be a while because it's closer to five now, isn't it?
35:18
Yeah.
35:20
It's fallen quite a bit.
35:21
Yeah.
35:22
It's probably going to keep on.
35:23
Well, we have to move on with this conversation now.
35:26
We have to talk about this weekend, guys.
35:28
There's actually some games this weekend.
35:30
But before we get to that, we need to hear from our sponsor.
35:34
vintagemnhockey.com is a proud sponsor of The GPL Podcast.
35:39
Well, what is Vintage MN Hockey?
35:41
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.
35:52
All information about any of those teams can be found on vintagemnhockey.com.
35:57
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.
36:06
So make sure you check out those interviews.
36:07
It's a really great thing.
36:09
But as I always say, I think my favorite part is the store.
36:13
The store you can buy a custom historical jersey from the Gophers or the Bulldogs or some of your favorite high school teams.
36:20
And if you do make a purchase, just use the code GPL Podcast, all one word, and you'll get 10% off your order.
36:27
So make sure you visit vintagemnhockey.com and follow them on Twitter at VintageMNHockey.
36:35
Well, Mote says that everyone has ADD, so it's going to be real tough to get those young fans to pay attention.
36:44
That's just, you know, Otey, Mote.
36:48
I'm kind of with you.
36:48
I mean, some of these kids these days, they, like, I don't know, you know, like this recently, you know, at Mariucci, they've been doing that fake goal horn, which I think is just awful.
36:59
I mean, if you're going to do a horn, at least get a real horn, not a microphone or speaker one, because that's just bad.
37:09
I don't know, Vig, like you said, they've got so many problems right now.
37:13
They're just going to have to handle one thing at a time.
37:17
Yep, I think that's the way they're going to approach it.
37:19
They're going to try to get as much data as they can, and they're going to make a couple of changes every year and see where it goes.
37:25
But I do think they're going to have to figure something out with the scholarship seeding donation because the tax code changes.
37:32
You have to do something to make it more affordable.
37:35
Yeah.
37:36
One thing, I saw this on Twitter earlier this week.
37:40
Let me see if I can.
37:43
I can't quite find it.
37:44
I'll look for it later.
37:45
Well, let's talk about this weekend then.
37:47
Minnesota heading down to BADgerville.
37:51
Boy, people are saying, right now Minnesota needs to stay above 500.
37:56
That's really the biggest goal because they need to be able to qualify for the tournament because if they don't stay above 500, they're not going to qualify, Vig.
38:06
So a little bit better than a split is what they really need.
38:12
Yeah.
38:12
I think on the road that they'd still be okay getting splits.
38:15
Wisconsin is going to be a tough one this week.
38:19
You guys have talked about how Wisconsin is scoring more.
38:22
They've got good scoring depth.
38:24
Minnesota has a good defensive structure, but it hasn't been there on the road.
38:29
I think putting Ryan Lindgren out there against the Frederick line would be something Mike Enzel would like to do this weekend, but I don't think he's going to be able to do it the whole weekend.
38:38
So he's going to need better performances from the rest of his decor.
38:43
It will be interesting to see what players they pick for defense this week.
38:47
I know they've been moving Nanny back and forth between D and forward.
38:52
In a weekend like this, this might be a better weekend for him to play up with the Fords, where there's not so much pressure on him not to make mistakes.
39:00
And really the only success they've had on the road was against Michigan State.
39:04
Otherwise, they've been really bad pigs.
39:07
Yeah, I think it comes down to having a good start as well.
39:11
You can't press the game.
39:12
You got to let the game come to you.
39:15
When they've gotten on the road and gotten in trouble, it's because they turn over the puck in the wrong spots and get off to a bad start and start playing from behind.
39:22
So I think starts are essential for them this weekend.
39:29
Mute is not your friend, Hammey.
39:35
Damn it.
39:36
I know.
39:37
Mute is not my friend.
39:37
Here I'm talking away, just babbling away.
39:40
Don't even realize I'm on mute.
39:44
Where's Hammey to give you a hard time about that one?
39:46
I know.
39:47
Hammey just couldn't make it tonight.
39:48
He's just got a big project for work.
39:51
Like I was saying that you guys didn't hear, Todd, the BADgers have made it up to third place.
40:00
They've been playing kind of tooth and nail, playing against teams that were real close to them.
40:04
You know, Michigan jumps ahead of them.
40:07
You come back and when you jump back ahead of them, you do have a couple of games in hand among the other teams, but it's starting to move in a little better direction for the BADgers.
40:17
It is.
40:19
They still have the issue of that they haven't really played a complete weekend.
40:28
I'm going through my head here since, well, they've only won both nights once this season.
40:42
That was in October.
40:43
That was at BC and Merrimack.
40:48
They have played well for pretty good stretches, but they have these few minutes, maybe 10 minutes where they just are, they're gone.
41:04
They're not there.
41:06
And that's what cost them.
41:08
I mean, they really pay for these lapses.
41:14
And that has been, I mean, they've talked all season long about, we need to be more consistent.
41:23
We need to be more consistent.
41:24
Well, the consistency has been that they've had those stretches and those lapses.
41:30
And that's the consistency that they've had in their season, which is why they're a game of about 500.
41:38
They're below 500 in Big Ten play.
41:43
It's just, there have been a list of things that have held them back this season.
41:50
Now, lately, that list is shorter.
41:53
So they've been able to pick up some ground lately.
41:56
They played some better games, but they still have struggled to put together complete games.
42:06
Now, that Notre Dame game in Chicago, 5-0, that was it, I think.
42:12
That's their highlight game so far this season.
42:18
They're going to have to hit pretty close to that level again here with what they've gotten in their four games left in the regular season, because you've got the Gophers for two a year this weekend, a week off and then at Ohio State.
42:33
They know how much there is to play for.
42:36
It's just a matter of are they going to be able to reach the level they need to reach to do it.
42:44
Does it feel to you like the coaching staff has been kind of weird how they've handled their goalies?
42:50
I only get my perspective on the response to goaltending situation from the quotes I read you getting from Granado.
42:57
It's just like I've never heard a coach basically critique his goalie after every game as hard as he does and then switch the net the next night.
43:06
Yeah, it's been interesting to follow because you had such high expectations going into the season there.
43:16
Kyle Hayton comes in as an All-American last year.
43:19
Everyone thinks, well, this is the position they need to solidify and here's what's going to happen.
43:26
Well, they gave him a lot of chances to do that in the first half of the season and he just wasn't able to put it all together.
43:40
So they went to Jack Berry a couple of times.
43:43
He played well up at Minnesota obviously, so they gave him the next start the next week and that didn't go very well.
43:50
So they go back to Hayton.
43:52
They start the second half of the season with Berry.
43:54
He gets pulled back game, they go back to Hayton.
43:57
He has a couple of good games.
44:00
He gives up a couple softer goals against Notre Dame on Friday at Notre Dame.
44:06
They start Berry in Chicago.
44:08
He gets a shutout, so he gets a run of games.
44:10
And it's just been this, where one game now is flipping the situation upside down for these guys.
44:23
I would imagine, they haven't said this yet, but I would imagine Hayton starts Friday night because they had a little bit of success with him last Saturday.
44:36
So, it's really this, it's a roller coaster.
44:40
It's, you're finding, I can't imagine what it's like to be playing in that situation, and just kind of knowing that a couple of bad goals, and you're going to be on the bench the next night.
45:00
And that's, maybe that's a fair way of doing it, because guys do pay for mistakes in other positions too.
45:11
Just maybe not to the extent that we've seen with the BADgers this year and their goalies, but it's hard to say that the coaches could have done a whole lot differently, because if a guy's just not going, you have to do something, right?
45:30
You have to change it up and find something that works, and they've just had to try to do that.
45:36
And it hasn't really paid off yet, I guess, in the long term.
45:42
Now, Vegs is Minnesota in all that much different situation?
45:47
Well, I think they've handled it differently, because I feel like the coaching staff has gone into these weekends, you know, where they start, you know, Robson on a Friday, and he doesn't have a very good game, so Sheerhorn comes in and Sheerhorn starts the next night, and the coaches just say, well, the plan the whole time was to play Matt on Friday and Eric on Saturday, and then, you know, the next weekend they kind of reverse it around, and you know, the Michigan State weekend, you know, they wanted to start Sheerhorn first, and they've just kind of said that each guy is going to get some chances here and there, and you know, if a guy gets hot, you know, they'll go with them like they did with Robson and the two games against Notre Dame, and even after the Saturday Notre Dame game where they gave up four, you know, the coaches didn't beat up Matt at all.
46:31
They just said, you know, those were four pretty good goals against.
46:35
So I just think the coaching staffs are handling it a little bit differently.
46:39
I think Minnesota feels better about their goaltending than Wisconsin, because I think Minnesota feels like they've got two options who have proven themselves in big games for their program, whereas Wisconsin, I think they've had goaltenders that haven't.
46:54
And so they're still seeking for it.
46:55
Well, I think Minnesota has two options.
46:57
At least that's my read on it.
47:00
So who's running the show this weekend, Todd, since Granado is about to take off?
47:07
He is, well, he's, I hope he's in South Korea by now.
47:10
He left early enough this morning, from what I remember.
47:13
I know it's a long flight, but hope he's there by now.
47:16
Yeah, it's Mark Osiki will be kind of the point man.
47:21
And Mark Strobel is, they're both associate head coaches, but Osiki has been here a year longer.
47:27
And I think he's kind of seen as the guy that's, he'll be talking to us after the game.
47:36
In other words, he'll be doing the press conference.
47:39
So I think he's the guy that's really in control.
47:43
But they pretty much in everything, they divide things up even when Granado is here.
47:50
So it's not a completely challenging situation for them to be without Granado for these couple of weeks, because he's kind of prepared them for it throughout the season.
48:05
But for this weekend, V, I'm thinking Minnesota really needs to jump out this Friday night and get the win, because it's only like Saturday night, it's going to be a much fuller crowd, and it might be a little tougher to get the win Saturday night compared to Friday.
48:17
And I think they've played better on Friday nights, too, for whatever reason.
48:22
The boys said they got skated pretty hard during their bye week, because the coaches didn't think they were obviously in good enough shape on Saturdays by their performances.
48:30
So I thought that was interesting, moved by the coaching staff to really press their guys during a bye week where they could rest up.
48:39
But I think it's also a sign that they have played better on Friday.
48:42
So I think that's a game they need to have a good start.
48:44
And hopefully some of the shakeups that the coaching staff is trying, like putting Szmatula and Pitlick together and Bristette and Middleset together can pay off and maybe get those guys going a little bit.
48:57
Mike Gensel talked on Monday and the coaches show that, you know, they still are trying to get those guys going.
49:03
But if they don't find their offensive game, they're going to have to be B players and be more conservative.
49:11
Should we read into Gensel being out front a little more lately?
49:15
I mean, obviously he was out front a little bit when Lucia was sick, but I had a couple Twitter questions about that today and, you know, like yesterday.
49:23
What do you think about that?
49:25
I don't know.
49:25
I think Don definitely would like Mike to have a shot to be head coach.
49:30
I think it's a little bit out of his hands with Mark Coyle taking over the reins.
49:34
But Mike's in charge of the scheduling now for the program.
49:37
He's in charge of, you know, the penalty kill.
49:40
He's the associate head coach.
49:42
I think Don puts a lot of trust in Mike to fire the guys up and, you know, plan their situations at the end of the game when they're trying to defend a lead.
49:51
So I know Don thinks very highly of Mike.
49:55
And he's a little bit better on the quotes too.
49:58
Well, I think, you know, one of the things that this program needs is maybe someone who's a little more engaging with the fans and, you know, someone that people can connect with more.
50:08
And Mike is definitely very good at doing that.
50:10
I know Scott Bell is good at that as well.
50:12
So I know it's the energy of the program that's down right now a little bit in the fan base.
50:19
And Gensl is definitely a guy with a high energy.
50:22
So what are we thinking this weekend, Todd?
50:24
Thinking Splitsville?
50:26
Yeah, because I think, you know, if you look at Wisconsin, they've lost seven of the last eight series openers.
50:35
That's been another thing that's haunted them the second half of the year and will be before that too.
50:44
But they do tend to come back pretty well on the second night.
50:48
So I would say Gophers Friday, Badgers Saturday is a pretty decent guess if you're looking at trends.
50:57
But also, you know, Saturday, this is a senior weekend for the Badgers.
51:02
They'll have a big to do on Sunday or on Saturday for their eight seniors.
51:11
And I know that they'll, you know, that that sometimes gets you guys tend to take that in different ways sometimes.
51:18
Sometimes it's a motivator.
51:19
Sometimes it's a, you know, kind of clouds what you're trying to do.
51:23
But I would tend to think, yeah, we're heading towards a split kind of scenario.
51:31
If Minnesota gets swept, it could be big trouble, couldn't it, Veegs?
51:36
Yeah, getting swept in this weekend is not good for them.
51:39
Conference pairwise, you know, there's time for them to make it up, but they definitely need to win this weekend.
51:46
And everybody knows that.
51:47
And you got to think the sticks are going to be gripped pretty tight by the Gophers this weekend, because they know they're going up against a team that can score goals.
51:54
And Minnesota thinks they can do that, but they haven't shown that ability.
51:59
In these rivalry games, in the last five years, Minnesota struggled a little bit with that decision making, trying to force the game and trying to press the game.
52:08
And you hope that their leaders can get the message across to everybody to play some smart college hockey, because everybody out there on the other team can score.
52:18
They definitely can score.
52:19
Veegs, what are we going to hear from the media from today?
52:24
You'll hear a little bit from Don Lucia about the goal-tending situation.
52:29
He's talked to both goalies this week, and they understand that they're in a competition, and he thinks that's a good thing for the program.
52:36
He talks about how well UW has balanced their scoring this year with a bunch of guys who can put the puck in the net.
52:43
What he's expecting this weekend, probably a couple of four-on-four situations after some scrums, and that his team needs to shoot more.
52:51
McManus is a guy who's gotten going for them, playing on his off-wing where he's probably a little more comfortable cutting to the sun of the ice and letting go of his shot, and that the leading shooters from Minnesota are stuck around 75 shots or so, whereas the top scorers in college hockey are around 100, 120.
53:09
So he's emphasizing to his guys to stop making that pretty play, and just put the puck on that, look for secondary chances.
53:17
And I think if Wisconsin got good goaltending from either of their guys, that's a game plan is get pucks on that, maybe try to rattle them.
53:24
And make sure you guys check out Vig's Athletic article.
53:27
It came out just today, this afternoon, right?
53:30
Yep, this afternoon finally came out after the Super Bowl.
53:33
I know a lot of people have been reading the Super Bowl coverage on the Athletic.
53:38
We'll get some hockey going here this month as we get up for the Frozen Four.
53:42
Todd, I know she's been doing a little bit of Olympic stuff.
53:48
Yeah, we got obviously some representation from our area here.
53:52
I don't think as much as Minnesota does, but we tried to feature a few of them.
54:00
We actually had some of the mixed doubles curling team.
54:04
It's from one of the suburbs here, and they played tonight and they won their opener.
54:07
So I was writing a little bit about that and realizing how difficult it is to write about curling in length when you're only watching it on a webcast and don't really have any access to the athletes.
54:26
But hey, we got it done and yeah, it's the interesting way of doing it.
54:35
But hey, we got to do it.
54:38
When I road tripped up to Winnipeg last year to see The Wilds and The Jets play, the day before the game, the headline sports section was all about curling.
54:48
It was huge pictures, I mean, it was huge.
54:50
They have people following it up there like you wouldn't believe.
54:54
It's almost like the NHL Stanley Cup up there.
54:57
It was some great coverage.
55:00
Anyway, don't get me wrong, I actually really, really like curling.
55:05
It's one of those things like people can watch golf for hours and just kind of sit on the couch and watch it.
55:11
I can do that with curling and it's just different trying to actually then write something about it.
55:20
Because what I don't know is like how, what do I assume is the level of knowledge of curling of someone who's reading what I'm writing?
55:27
Right?
55:28
Exactly.
55:28
Yeah.
55:30
Do I have to describe what the house is?
55:33
Do I really have to explain how many ends there are and what an end is?
55:41
That's where I have issues of how far I need to go with that.
55:45
Got to have a reference article early in the Olympics and then just assume everybody read it.
55:50
That's where you got to go.
55:52
That's a good way of handling it, I think.
55:55
If they didn't read it, well, is that my fault?
55:59
Just link to it in every article.
56:00
Just say, hey, here you go.
56:02
Here are the rules.
56:04
Get the clicks, right?
56:06
Isn't that the game these days?
56:07
Get the clicks, get the impressions.
56:09
That's what it's all about.
56:10
Get people's eyes on the advertisers.
56:13
That's how it is.
56:16
Well, guys, I think we've got it pretty much covered for this weekend.
56:19
I mean, it doesn't really feel like a Badger weekend coming up, Veegs, but hopefully it's an exciting series.
56:26
That's all I asked for.
56:28
Well, I'm expecting good hockey and lots of action.
56:31
I think there would definitely be lots of scoring chances both ways.
56:35
Both coaching staffs want that to happen.
56:37
I think the players want that to happen too.
56:39
So one of the great things about college hockey is guys make mistakes.
56:44
And that's why we love it.
56:47
And that's why the World Juniors is so good too.
56:49
I think a little higher competition, but they're still prone to making mistakes.
56:54
It just makes it exciting for all of us.
56:56
So Todd, thanks for joining us again.
56:59
We're going to try to get you on as a regular whenever we play the Badgers.
57:02
Yeah, that sounds good to me.
57:03
I'm happy to be on with you guys.
57:06
It's a good time.
57:07
And we were off last week and unfortunately, we're going to be off next week as well.
57:12
And the reason being, I have to move.
57:15
I'm preparing for a move.
57:16
I close next Thursday.
57:17
And you know what, if we would have done it Wednesday, it's Valentine's Day.
57:21
And I'm trying to keep Veegs out of trouble.
57:26
That's a good strategy.
57:27
Nice of you.
57:28
I mean, I was initially going to move.
57:31
Initially, we moved it to Thursday.
57:32
And then it ended up, I'm closing on Thursday.
57:34
And it's just going to be a lot of stuff going on.
57:36
Like, you know what, we'll just move that episode.
57:40
And we actually moved that episode, you know, the numbers wise back into January, you know, right before St.
57:44
Cloud.
57:45
So it all worked out well with number of episodes.
57:47
But sorry, folks, we're going to be off next week.
57:50
You know, we'll just be back after that and we'll either rip on a team or hopefully things are going well.
57:57
We'll just have to wait and see.
57:58
But sorry, things happen.
58:01
I got to get got to get moved to my new house.
58:03
That's all I care about.
58:03
After that, I'll be in my nice office.
58:05
I won't be out in the open like I am in this stupid apartment.
58:08
So, okay then.
58:10
Well, guys, thanks.
58:14
I appreciate you.
58:15
We appreciate you.
58:16
Yeah.
58:17
Thanks for Vegoe for making it on after all the technical difficulties.
58:19
Thanks to Todd.
58:20
You can always follow Todd on Twitter and at the Wisconsin State Journal.
58:24
And of course, V is on The Athletic.
58:26
Great article today.
58:27
I'm hearing great things about it all over the place.
58:29
But we'll be back in a couple of weeks.
58:32
Thanks for listening.
59:07
We've still had a day where we've had everybody, I mean, since early January.
59:10
So it's like, I think we're getting to the point where who hasn't had it.
59:13
But then we've had some guys that have had it a second time, maybe they had the body aches the first time, and maybe they'll throw up the second time.
59:20
So hopefully nobody will be sick by tomorrow.
59:23
Hope everything else is good?
59:24
Yeah, I mean, other than just dealing with the flu the month, the last six weeks, but obviously it's going on everywhere.
59:31
What did I just read in the Olympics, it's going over there now.
59:33
And it's just, I don't think I've ever seen it like it has this year across the board.
59:42
But other than that, I mean, the physical part were good.
59:44
I think last week we practiced Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, we gave them Saturday, Sunday off.
59:50
And then, you know, back at it on Monday this week.
59:54
Work on some specific things you want to do?
59:55
Well, just a little bit of everything.
59:56
I mean, you know, we had guys missing, so it's not like there were some days we maybe wanted to work on a power play, but we couldn't because a couple of guys are out with a flu.
1:00:06
But I think it was a combination of, you know, rest, but also work on some things, whether it's some face-offs or just trying to have better execution.
1:00:19
And, you know, the hard part is you get to the game and puck drops are a little rusty that first period, and that's the thing you want to get through that first period on Friday.
1:00:26
Do you feel the break came at a good time with three?
1:00:29
Well, I think it's that if you look at the timing of it, I like the fact that now there's only three weeks left before the playoff.
1:00:36
So, you know, I'd rather have it now than early January and you're going right through.
1:00:42
So, you know, from the goaltenders, I mean, they both played, so it's not like they either have had a heavy burden since Christmas time.
1:00:50
You know, we played seven defensemen most nights, 11 forwards a lot of the time.
1:00:54
And so I don't think anybody's gotten so much ice time or worn down that we have to worry about that on the stretch here.
1:01:01
Have you had a chance to analyze the goaltending and what you might do in the last six games?
1:01:05
No.
1:01:06
You know what?
1:01:07
We're just worried about Friday night.
1:01:08
And as of today, I couldn't tell you who's going to play.
1:01:11
Eric's always played, you know, well in Madison, and so he's got a good track record there obviously.
1:01:18
Robson played really well against Notre Dame and after Friday deserved to play on Saturday and I really couldn't fault him with any of the goals he gave up on Saturday as well.
1:01:26
So, you know, he's looked good, but again, Eric's played well in Madison too and he's been through it.
1:01:32
So, talk to them both to understand the situation and, you know, we'll just make a decision probably Thursday or Friday who's going to play.
1:01:40
Are you comfortable where you are with the goaltenders in terms of who you've got, those two guys?
1:01:45
Yeah, I mean, we're in a better situation than we were a year ago.
1:01:48
I mean, now we feel that we have two guys that have proven they can play in big game situations and, you know, if somebody gets hot, we might ride them for a while.
1:01:56
And, you know, so we have the option.
1:01:58
We can split, we can, one guy can play two, and it could be either one.
1:02:01
So it puts a little more pressure on each other, but competition is a good thing.
1:02:07
What do you see from Wisconsin?
1:02:09
Balance.
1:02:10
I think that you look at their group of forwards, I think they have like 30 more goals than we have as a group, you know, so far this year.
1:02:17
And I think that's the strength of their team, that they don't really have to rely on any one guy.
1:02:22
They have four or five guys with multiple 10 plus goals.
1:02:26
And, you know, the last number of four or five games, they're getting four or five a night.
1:02:29
And obviously, the way we score, we're not going to win games going to Madison giving up four or five goals.
1:02:34
So, you know, you go on the road, our score might have to be two to one or three to two.
1:02:39
The way your defense has played, credit to a lot of the seniors, I mean, Jack Glover and Steve Johnson.
1:02:44
Can you talk a little bit about them and what they've done?
1:02:46
Well, they both have had solid years, and, you know, they've done a good job defending, they've done a pretty good job with the penalty kill, they both have a lot of experience, and the strength of their game is probably more, you know, when the puck's on their stick, making a good play, they'll defend well with their stick and their feet, get us, the retrieval game is pretty good, getting to a puck and breaking us out of our zone, so, you know, they've had nice years, you know, you go back to Notre Dame, we gave up the one five-on-five goal in the whole weekend, so, you know, we've done a pretty good job all year, as far as, you know, the goal is against five-on-five, but, you know, we're still searching for the right combinations from an offensive standpoint where we can generate more, and part of it is shooting, and I went over that with our forwards a little bit today, that, you know, our leading shots on goal guy has 70-some, and, you know, the top scorers have 100, 120, and so we have to have a little bit more mentality that, you know, we need to shoot and not overpass, and sometimes we get into scoring areas and we think we have to make the pretty play instead of getting a puck on the net, and, you know, if you don't score off that, you may be creating second shot opportunities.
1:03:51
With six regular season games left, are you kind of more focused on the Big Ten, the national picture?
1:03:56
Well, they're kind of one and the same.
1:03:58
You know, the way things look right now, I mean, it's Wisconsin, Michigan, Penn State, and Minnesota.
1:04:05
I mean, those four teams are going to battle it out for, you know, three through six, and, you know, they're probably going to be playing each other in the first round.
1:04:12
It's just a matter of whether it's going to be home or on the road.
1:04:14
Now, we've got a couple games in hand on some of those teams, but you've got to win games in hand.
1:04:18
And, you know, we've got four of the six final games on the road.
1:04:21
We've got six good quality opponents, but, you know, that's been our strength of schedule all year long.
1:04:26
And you just can't look at down the line.
1:04:28
It's just, you know, it's cliche, but it's just one game.
1:04:31
I mean, you can't control what's going to happen Saturday or the week after, the week after that.
1:04:34
So, I mean, we just got to go out and play well and see where we end up.
1:04:39
You sense any extra intensity out of your team because of those Wisconsin?
1:04:42
Usually.
1:04:43
I mean, I think that you could probably bet there'll be a couple of fours and fours with some scrums after the whistle, and that's just part of it.
1:04:49
I mean, I think there should be good crowds this week.
1:04:52
I think they saw they might be sold out on Saturday night and probably 12,000 on Friday night.
1:04:56
So, I mean, that's back to the atmosphere that you want to have.
1:04:59
And it's good for us too.
1:05:01
I mean, you want to play in good atmospheres when you hit on the road.
1:05:04
How do you feel Brandon McManus has been coming along to play?
1:05:07
You know what?
1:05:07
He's a guy that seems to have really grown here in the last month, six weeks.
1:05:11
And Brandon's the kind of guy, he's real young.
1:05:13
He's the youngest guy in our team at 18 till this summer.
1:05:16
And he's got a good shot, but he's just, there's a little more confidence in his game right now.
1:05:23
And I think he feels pretty good about himself.
1:05:25
I think he's growing a lot.
1:05:26
He's learning what it takes to play at this level.
1:05:29
You know, most kids come in at 19 or 20, not just turning 18 years old.
1:05:33
And he needs more time in the weight room, and that's not going to happen now.
1:05:37
It's going to happen in the summer times, but to get stronger.
1:05:40
But he thinks the game well.
1:05:41
He can shoot it.
1:05:43
He's a guy that you watch and practice.
1:05:45
You can see that can score goals.
1:05:50
We good?
1:05:50
Thank you.
1:05:51
You're welcome.
1:05:56
It's Wisconsin Week.
1:05:58
How do you feel about going back?
1:06:00
Do you have any feelings about the rivalry, obviously, and being from there?
1:06:07
I wouldn't say since I'm really from there is a big part of it, but just being obviously it's a big rivalry, just being Gophers versus Badgers.
1:06:16
Throughout my career, we've had a lot of crazy games.
1:06:18
I think the rivalry is pretty heated right now, so it's going to be fun to go back over there.
1:06:25
Are those kinds of things that set these kinds of rugglers away, the intensity and the way that the games go down?
1:06:33
Yeah, it's just the tradition basically of it.
1:06:36
I mean, everyone knows that kind of the border battle, and people really look forward to this all year.
1:06:40
And especially the fans look forward to it, and that really makes it what it is.
1:06:45
So I think we're going to go into a pretty full barn, so it should be a lot of fun for us.
1:06:52
You guys haven't had the best success on the road this year.
1:06:55
You had the week off and everything.
1:06:56
Just, you're going in, as you said, you're going in full.
1:07:00
What do you need to do to just be able to get that success on the road and come away with the one or two?
1:07:06
Yeah, obviously we haven't had the best success on the road, but I think we've had a week off here.
1:07:11
We got refocused.
1:07:14
We're ready to go, and I think it'll show Friday, Saturday.
1:07:18
What did you do on the week off?
1:07:21
I mean, we had a pretty tough week of practice.
1:07:23
I think the coaches kind of felt a little out of shape, obviously not playing our best on Saturdays this year.
1:07:30
So we got definitely our feet moving a lot this last week, and we kept it pretty high pace.
1:07:38
So I think we're ready to roll.
1:07:40
It's not coming to Friday.
1:07:41
It's not coming to a good time for you guys, given that it's the only week off you had all year?
1:07:47
Yeah, it's pretty crazy only having one week off this year, but yeah, it was a pretty good time, I guess.
1:07:53
We got three weeks left, and we can kind of control around destiny.
1:07:57
We dropped a lot of games this year, but we're still in a pretty solid spot for NCAA Tournament.
1:08:02
So just trying to close the season off as best we can, just get as many wins as we can here at the end.
1:08:09
You've had a lot of success in tight one-goal games, low-scoring games.
1:08:14
Is that something you guys have had to kind of learn this year?
1:08:17
Yeah, definitely not something we thought was going to happen coming into the year.
1:08:20
We definitely thought we were going to be a high-flying offensive team, score a lot of goals, and it just hasn't seemed to happen that well.
1:08:28
So when we're playing the top teams, like Notre Dame, St.
1:08:32
Cloud, we've won those one-zero games.
1:08:35
It really comes down to everyone just selling out, playing as hard as they can.
1:08:38
Obviously, we've had great goal-tening those wins, too.
1:08:42
But obviously, we know we can still score goals.
1:08:44
We can still win.
1:08:46
We can still score and win that way.
1:08:48
But, you know, it's definitely, you know, whatever works, kind of mentality for us right now, because we've been winning it in different ways.
1:08:55
You gain confidence from that?
1:08:57
You feel as a team?
1:08:58
Yeah, I think whenever you beat, like, a good team like Notre Dame, we gain some confidence, kind of, kind of a setback on Saturday night, not playing as well.
1:09:06
But, you know, we know we can beat anybody.
1:09:08
So we just got to make sure, you know, we keep it rolling and, you know, get wins where we need them.
1:09:20
Yeah, obviously, they have a lot of good players up front.
1:09:22
I think it just comes down to the same things as, you know, obviously, we got a lot of good D that can, you know, shut down their top guys and just, you know, coming back into the D zone hard and everyone doing their job defensively.
1:09:37
Sir, one or two things you could put on a wish list that, you know, to increase scoring like, as a group of 12 for the forwards, a couple things that you guys could do differently to top more goals?
1:09:50
Yeah, I think the main thing is, you know, our power play is struggling pretty hard.
1:09:53
I think if we can really get some momentum off that, you know, start scoring some goals on that, I think everyone may gain a little confidence and, you know, start putting the puck in the net a little more.
1:10:03
I think that's the first thing that really needs to get better if we're going to really win down the stretch.
1:10:06
Special team is so important.
1:10:08
You know, obviously in the playoffs, that can come down to, you know, who scores the power play goals.
1:10:11
So I think, you know, getting that going, and we've been working on it a lot this week.
1:10:15
So hopefully we can get something to show for it.
1:10:17
Do you guys have a goal over these final six games where it's just have home ice or a certain record or anything?
1:10:23
Right.
1:10:23
That's, I think that's what, you know, our goal is definitely to be at Mariucci, you know, for the Big Ten Playoff.
1:10:28
Would definitely be huge, obviously.
1:10:30
You know, our seniors don't only want to play two more games here at Mariucci.
1:10:33
So definitely that would be the biggest goal would be, you know, be at home ice for the playoffs.
1:10:39
You might have been asked this one, Wisconsin, what does it mean to you, being from Wisconsin?
1:10:45
Yeah, I said it wasn't that big for me, being from Wisconsin, since I kind of, I mean, I kind of grew up in Minnesota pretty much.
1:10:53
My parents from there, and kind of, I went to high school in Minnesota, so it's not huge for me, but there's a little, I got some buddies that play over there, and I grew up, you know, I played for Team Wisconsin and stuff, but I think it's more just a Gopher Badger rivalry, more than me being from Wisconsin, that is really exciting.
1:11:11
They recruit you, the BADgers?
1:11:14
I won't get into that, but it's, yeah, it's definitely exciting, the Gopher Badger rivalry.
1:11:21
Yeah, thank you.
1:11:22
Thanks, Tony.
1:11:25
What would you do on your week off?
1:11:28
Rest.
1:11:29
It's always nice, I think, especially late, before we start making a push here, to have a nice week off, if guys are banged up or sick and run down, so it's good for us to get a rest.
1:11:41
What's this Wisconsin series mean to you guys, rivalry-wise?
1:11:45
Obviously, the rivalry, too.
1:11:47
It's obviously huge.
1:11:48
It goes back to, you know, as far as they started playing each other, as we started playing them, and there's always that extra, you know, we want to beat them, and that's a hard place to play.
1:11:57
And also, you know, these two games are huge for us, not just for Big Ten, but for Paralyze as well.
1:12:02
So, yeah, this is, like I said, it's playoff games from here on out.
1:12:09
Have you set some goals for the final six games?
1:12:11
I know I'm talking with Gennard here this past Monday.
1:12:13
He was hoping for like a four and two finish.
1:12:16
What have you guys amongst yourselves talked about?
1:12:19
Honestly, I mean, we as players haven't set any goals.
1:12:22
I mean, we just want to make sure, you know, we're just focused on Friday.
1:12:26
Like I said, every game from here on out is important.
1:12:29
That, you know, they're going to have huge implications whether we win or lose, so we're focused just on one game at a time starting Friday.
1:12:38
Did you pay close attention the pair-wise at all?
1:12:40
Yeah, I mean, you're always taking a look at it, and, you know, I think we have a good idea of what we need to do, and like I said, it's important for us to win as many games as we can here at the end, so we're focused on Friday.
1:12:53
Just going in on the road and everything, just what are you guys kind of preparing for?
1:12:58
Well, obviously, like I said, it's going to be a hostile environment.
1:13:01
We haven't been that good on the road this year, so when you get into the playoffs and the tournament games, you have to be able to win on the road.
1:13:08
So we just want to play a good, hard game, good, hard two games starting Friday, good goaltending and good team defense.
1:13:18
And obviously, we need to put some pucks in the net, so we're going to have to be really good Friday and Saturday, so it'll be a good test.
1:13:24
Does not having that last change change everything for you?
1:13:29
I mean, obviously, they're going to play their matchup, how they want to play us with that, but like I said, I just think it's in our control what we're going to do, who we're going to play.
1:13:40
You know, we're confident in everyone out there, so like I said, we just focus on not saying when we play a good game, we just worry about our game.
1:13:47
I think we'll be just fine.
1:13:49
You guys have had to play a lot of tight, low-scoring games.
1:13:52
Is that something you've gotten a lot more used to?
1:13:54
Yeah, I think, you know, as the season's gone by, I think especially the big games against Notre Dame or St.
1:14:00
Cloud have been low-scoring games.
1:14:01
We've played really well.
1:14:04
So, you know, at the end of the year, you don't really care how you win.
1:14:06
It's just that you win.
1:14:07
So we've had good goal-turning in those games and good team defense guys blocking shots, selling out, doing whatever it takes.
1:14:15
And, you know, we haven't beaten ourselves in those games.
1:14:17
So I think we need to continue to do that.
1:14:21
Yeah, as we're through illness and just kind of mixing things up, you got to go for the guys in your line or whatever.
1:14:27
Yeah, you know, it's still trying to find that.
1:14:31
I don't even know if it's chemistry or whatever, but yeah, like, I like what we've done so far this week in practice.
1:14:38
But, you know, it'll be a telltale sign if we can, you know, pop some goals in this weekend.
1:14:42
So hopefully everything goes great.
Search Transcript
No matching lines.
