0:06 14, reported Tuesday, January 24, 2012. 0:20 Welcome to the Go4Puck Live Podcast. 0:23 Along with Hammeh, I'm your host, Jupiter. 0:25 Hope all is well with you, Hammeh. 0:27 How are you doing? 0:29 Not too bad, I can't complain. 0:30 That's good, that's good. 0:31 Ryan Cardinal cannot make it again this week. 0:34 He's still on full-time baby duty at homes, but we do have someone here in his place. 0:40 You can hear him on 1500Espn radio at times, and he writes for them also. 0:45 You can hear him on Inch as well. 0:48 You can also read his little articles on those websites, and geez, he's everywhere else too, I guess. 0:53 Still recovering from his Duluth National Title last season, I give you Jess Myers. 0:59 Jupiter and Hammy, why don't I get a code name? 1:01 That's just not fair. 1:02 You don't want us to come up with a code name. 1:05 That's true, I'll go like a Delta Tau Chi name. 1:11 Good to be here, guys, and hey, congrats to Ryan on becoming a new dad. 1:17 Exciting stuff for him and couldn't happen to a nicer couple. 1:20 Yeah, maybe it'll mature him a little bit now, but. 1:24 I doubt it. 1:25 See, now you're just talking crazy. 1:30 So, Jess, how are things with you and the College Hockey and the rest of the hockey world? 1:35 I think the hockey world's great. 1:36 Well, of course it is. 1:38 Your Duluth Bulldogs are the reigning national champions. 1:42 You're still wiping away the tears from the happiness, aren't you? 1:45 I'm doing fine, but thank you. 1:47 No, I have pictures. 1:49 That was quite a thing. 1:51 It was funny. 1:51 Somebody on Twitter this week mentioned what a Bulldog fan I am. 1:55 And I said, absolutely not. 1:56 I'm a completely objective member of the media, completely neutral about all things. 2:01 And that UMD national championship banner hanging in my cabinet is just there to cover a stain on the wall. 2:09 So who don't you write for these days? 2:12 I, you know, I'm a pretty guy. 2:14 Do you still write for Inch at all? 2:16 I do. 2:17 And then obviously, you write ESPN 1500. 2:19 I write a weekly WCHA notebook for Inch. 2:23 I write Most Wild and Gopher Games for 1500.com. 2:28 And I'm on there once a week, as you mentioned. 2:30 I'm also on the pregame shows for UMD and for NAACP. 2:36 I'm in North Dakota every week. 2:37 I'm a regular radio guest there. 2:40 So you can hear me a few different places. 2:44 On formerly the Fighting Sioux Radio Network, but we don't say that anymore. 2:48 Why not? 2:49 Are they not fighting Coaseheads? 2:51 Well, oh boy. 2:53 You see, I made a joke about that. 2:54 And they didn't like it, did they? 2:57 I heard directly from one of their assistant coaches, who is a longtime friend of mine, and he made it clear in no uncertain terms that jokes about their nickname are not taken in good humor. 3:09 They're just jokes. 3:10 We're just having fun. 3:12 That's what rivalries are about. 3:14 But you know, I do see their point in some instances, just that so much of their identity is tied up in University of North Dakota hockey. 3:23 I mean, it's like what the Vikings would be here in Minnesota if they ever won a Super Bowl. 3:28 I mean, it really is the end all be all of your sports identity there. 3:31 And they just don't take it lightly in any regard. 3:35 Well, we're going to keep on making fun of them until they at least come up with a new name. 3:39 Hey, you're Gopher fans, that's your job. 3:40 That's what we do. 3:42 Well, this past weekend, our Gopher team split with Colorado College. 3:47 I know you were there on Saturday, Jess, for, that must have been the first time in like three years you've been at Mariucci. 3:52 Actually, there I was. 3:53 It seems like it's been that long. 3:55 Yeah, I needed, I got lost on the way. 3:57 I needed directions and then no, I'm kidding. 3:59 I had been there. 4:00 I had been there a few times this year, but it had been a little while. 4:03 Yeah, but probably more than a month since I'd been in that building. 4:05 So what are your thoughts on what you saw? 4:11 I'm surprised. 4:12 And if I were a Gopher fan, I would be a little, I don't want to say alarmed, but there might be some creeping concern. 4:20 The last time I saw this team live, they were scoring a lot more goals than they did this past weekend. 4:25 And it seemed to move the puck well, seemed to have things clicking offensively and seemed to be like one of those football teams that's really good at getting to first and goal and then can't get a touchdown. 4:37 Yeah, that sounds familiar. 4:40 Sound like an analogy, anybody who follows a team in purple? 4:43 Oh, don't remind me of that debacle. 4:46 I know. 4:47 Hammeh, what are your thoughts on the weekend? 4:50 You know what? 4:51 I can understand that point of view. 4:53 I mean, my feeling is that some nights you just kind of have to tip your hat to the opposing goalie, and certainly he played very well. 4:59 The Gophers, I thought, pretty well took control of most of that game. 5:06 The puck movement was good, and they were certainly... 5:08 I mean, sometimes the shots on goal stuff is a little overrated, but I thought that that was relatively reflective of the play that night, and I just felt like... 5:19 I'm surprised at the whole series in general that there wasn't as much goal scoring, because I really thought, considering the offensive statistics on both sides, I figured, well, it'll probably be one of those four to three, five to four, maybe one of those types of a series, but the goal-turning was good on both sides, and sometimes you just have to tip your hat. 5:38 It's one of those things where, if it were an NCAA game, you kind of fear those kinds of games, where you outplay the opponent, but their goalie plays well enough where they steal the game, and that's kind of how I looked at that particular game. 5:50 You're not concerned about the offense at all, Hammy? 5:52 I mean, Jess is kind of right on there. 5:55 I mean, you compare it to the offense earlier this year, and even against Duluth, they were scoring five goals a game. 6:01 And let's face it, we've seen that from their offense in three out of four games now. 6:06 That Friday night North Dakota game was that way as well, where you moved the puck well, you got a lot of good chances, a lot of good shots on goal, and for whatever reason, maybe you're not getting the goalie to move laterally. 6:17 Maybe you're just getting the puck on net, but just to the net and not with any real authority. 6:23 Or completely missing the net. 6:25 Yeah, there's that option too. 6:29 So yeah, I mean, again, it's not a reason for concern. 6:32 I mean, let's keep in mind, we're in late January now, and this team is in sole possession of first place in the WCHA. 6:38 So there are teams with worse problems, but it may be an area of some concern. 6:45 Well, I think looking forward, I mean, if you look at where the Gophers, where they were really playing well, when they have played well in various games, it's always been the secondary scoring. 6:55 It's always been, you know, maybe the Howell line or Matson and Kahn and putting a goal on the board, maybe even the fourth line, chipping in a goal here or there. 7:02 That's where they've been the most successful. 7:04 And so I can understand that view. 7:06 And certainly those lines have to be more consistent, especially that Howell line. 7:11 I mean, he's, you know, we got to get that line back on track because when we were at our best, it was almost like 1A and 1B for the top two lines. 7:19 So definitely have to kick that back again. 7:23 Well, Howell was one of the leading scorers in the nation for the first month. 7:26 And then since then, pretty much nothing. 7:30 You know, and I'll tell you this, the other surprise that I had since seeing them in person the last time, on about Thanksgiving Day, I would have told you Sam Warning was a real serious candidate for Rookie of the Year. 7:44 And he has somehow played his way into the dog house or something. 7:48 But you know, he's either not dressing or just not playing a huge role in what the Gophers do offensively from, you know, from a kid that was on the second line the last time I saw him. 7:58 Yeah, I think it's just a matter of they're trying to find, you know, what combination is going to click to get that line back on track. 8:04 And, you know, I know that they put Ambrose up on that line. 8:08 Maybe they're trying to capitalize on that, you know, karma that Howell and Ambrose had. 8:12 Omaha and the USHL a few years ago, maybe thinking that that'll spark something. 8:17 I just think it's, you know, they're trying to experiment a bit and figure out, you know, what they can do to get that line back on track. 8:23 And, you know, Howell is the guy that kind of stirs the drink on that line, and he, you know, needs to wake up and play a little more consistently. 8:29 Well, Howell was definitely frustrated Saturday night. 8:33 I was in the photo box, third period, when he missed a couple good opportunities. 8:37 And let's just say his language coming back to the bench was not clean. 8:42 It wasn't in Finnish? 8:44 It was not in Finnish. 8:46 But it was definitely... 8:48 Well, it was pretty bad. 8:50 I think he's starting to get frustrated. 8:54 Yeah, he had a few nice chances on Friday as well. 8:58 You know, rushes to the net, where he comes sweeping in off that wing, and the fans start to stand up in the student section, and you think something big is going to happen, and, you know, Puck goes wide, or Thornbert was there to make the save. 9:09 You know, that's another point I want to make, too. 9:11 Keep in mind, Colorado College is a good hockey team, so this is not like struggling against, you know, Sacred Heart or Alaska Fairbanks or somebody like that. 9:21 I mean, this is the team that I picked to win the WCHA this year, and I think they've got probably more offensive talent than just about anybody. 9:30 They've surprised me with what they've done in goal, just for the simple fact that I thought Joe Howe was going to be the guy on an every night basis. 9:36 I think everybody thought that. 9:38 Yeah, and now we're to the point where, you know, he's an upperclassman, he's playing a series in his hometown and he doesn't get a sniff of the ice. 9:46 And if you watch the way Thormberg played, you know, that was obviously the right move. 9:50 Well, and he's got great numbers. 9:51 I mean, before that Saturday game, he only lost what one of the nine games he had played in and WCHA plays. 9:58 So I mean, yeah, he's definitely rose to the occasion. 10:01 And certainly, like I said, you know, I mean, sometimes you kind of do, as much as you feel like it's always about your team, sometimes you kind of do have to tip your hat to the other team and their goalie when he has a really good night. 10:13 Nico Siketty got back in the lineup and actually scored a goal. 10:19 God bless him. 10:23 God, I love the range boys, you know, play that kind of gritty hockey game and a good Italian boy from up north, man. 10:32 God bless him. 10:34 It's funny because he lives or he grew up two houses away from one of my cousins because my dad's family is from Virginia and my cousin's husband was like, yeah, I think Nico was learned at that toe drag move that he always used in high school. 10:48 It doesn't quite work as well when you get up to the college level. 10:51 So yeah, he's, you know, I'm glad to see him get a little success. 10:55 It's got to be tough when you're a senior and you're not really in the lineup that much. 10:59 So you kind of, you know, I'm glad that he had a little bit of some. 11:02 Your game's got to evolve a little bit when you move up a level, you know. 11:06 It's evolved. 11:07 It's evolved. 11:08 He keeps going down in the lineup. 11:10 That's basically what's happened. 11:12 Now on that topic, since we're talking WCHA guys, Jay Gannaway, who we all remember from North Dakota, played a good solid four years there. 11:19 And you know, great guy, great defenseman. 11:21 I talked to some folks from the wild because, you know, they've been so stung with injuries. 11:25 I said, Hey, when are we going to see Jay Gannaway getting called up from Houston? 11:28 They said, He's learning quickly that a lot of the stuff you've got away with on the college level you can't get away with on the AHL level. 11:36 So a learning experience no matter what level you go to. 11:40 Well, let's look at the rest of the WCHA this past weekend. 11:43 Your bulldogs sweep Huntsville, but it looked like it was a little more struggle than it should have been. 11:50 Yeah, you know, they say sometimes a tie feels like a loss. 11:55 No, I mean, you know, I talked to Scott Sandlin today, and he has very few concerns about where his team is. 12:01 That's obviously a pretty good hockey team and played well enough to win two nights in a row. 12:07 He did say he has no idea how that Huntsville team has only had two wins this season, because he said that is an incredibly hard-working and not a bad team talent-wise. 12:18 Both the wins against WCHA teams, too. 12:21 That's right. 12:22 That's right. 12:23 And boy, if Denver's looking at possibly being a bubble team, that one may hurt real bad. 12:29 Oh, yeah. 12:30 Well, a lot of WCHA teams could be bubble teams this year, including Minnesota, if they don't get up in those rankings. 12:37 Yeah, that's amazing to me. 12:38 I mean, that's... 12:39 They're third ranked in the country. 12:41 That's just people's opinions, but you look at the computer numbers, and it's not looking so good. 12:46 Right. 12:46 And then, you know, the flip side of that, the CCHA has like nine teams right now that are in the top 16. 12:52 And the one that really has us scratching our heads, Northern Michigan keeps being ranked in the top 10 in all the computer rankings, and they're like ninth in the CCHA. 13:03 It's like, that one's got me a little puzzled. 13:06 Hey, I like Walt Kyle. 13:07 I respect their program to no end, but I don't know about that one. 13:12 Well, I think that as far as from a gopher point of view, you know, the pairwise, I don't know if you guys ever look at Sue Sports. 13:19 Jim Dahl's got a pretty good idea, you know, handle on the pairwise, and I saw he put a little statistical thing together on the gophers, and, you know, the gophers still have a pretty good shot of making if they win, you know, six or seven other games, you know, remaining games. 13:35 I'm not sure how many they have left. 13:36 What is it, 12 or 10, I think, 10 games? 13:38 So, I mean, you know, six or seven wins they should be in, you know, at least as far as regular season goes, you never know what the hell is going to happen in the playoffs, but so I still think it's a pretty positive outlook for the NCAAs. 13:52 Well, looks like we got the Badgers getting a sweep over, Anchorage, North Dakota and St. 13:58 Cloud split, UNO and Mankato split, both overtime games. 14:03 You guys have any thoughts on those games? 14:07 Well, I mean, I'm a little surprised by the, I mean, you know, the Nebraska-Omaha-Mankato, I mean, I know everybody talks about how it's not a league that's going to be everybody's sweeping, you know, the people that are, you know, teams that are weaker than them, but, you know, I kind of thought that maybe, you know, having that win over UMD the prior weekend, I thought maybe that'd be a little bit of a springboard and Mankato is, you know, struggling us here and to have both those games kind of go into overtime and, you know, one team each, you know, winning one night and that's a little bit of a surprise for me. 14:40 Mankato has been one of those teams, you know, with a lot less talent than Denver, but they've had a year similar to Denver in that they've been so beat up and had so many key injuries, you know. 14:52 There was one night I think they dressed for defensemen or something like that, just ridiculous, that you keep waiting for them to get healthy and wondering if they can make any kind of run when they finally do get healthy. 15:04 I'm not convinced that they can, but this was obviously a pretty important win for them last weekend to finally get rewarded on their home ice and to get two points in the WCHA in a game like that. 15:15 You know, they're one of these teams that seems to play just good enough to lose on most nights. 15:20 You know, they take a higher rank team to overtime or they'll go on the road and play just a great hockey game and wind up with a 4-3 loss and just goofy stuff like that. 15:30 So good for try jutting to get a win. 15:33 And on the flip side of that, the other Mavs, the red Mavs, I keep waiting for them to kind of kick it in gear because I think they're a pretty good team, but we're still waiting. 15:43 Yeah, I mean, for me, it's all about goaltending with those guys. 15:48 They're so all over the board on performances. 15:51 We've talked about it numerous times on this podcast about it just seems to be a question mark with the goalies, and they have a lot of offensive ability there, and certainly Blaze is usually going to have them ready to play, so it's just a matter of what's the goaltending going to do. 16:08 The other thing for the weekend that I really was... 16:11 I mean, how about that North Dakota St. 16:13 Cloud series? 16:14 I mean, Saturday night St. 16:16 Cloud goes down, two players, and North Dakota was going into the series already shorthanded. 16:20 It's like guys out of position and short bench and all that stuff. 16:26 It was kind of interesting to watch a little bit of that. 16:29 Yep. 16:30 And there again, it's a St. 16:31 Cloud team that we keep wondering, if only this guy was healthy, if only Mike Lee was back, if only they had Drew LeBlanc back in the lineup after suffering that broken leg that he had early in the season. 16:46 So that's a team that just can't seem to put much together right now. 16:49 And North Dakota, who knows who's going to be left for them on any given night. 16:52 I mean, I have never seen a team be set with injuries like that. 16:55 And this is a team we always used to talk about. 16:57 North Dakota, stockpiling players, that they had 12 extra defensemen under some scholars. 17:06 Especially under team plays, there were all those accusations when the new rink first opened that they had all these extra players that they were... 17:13 They were dumping goalies left and right. 17:17 Right, exactly. 17:17 And now, man, they're another team that just can't seem to put a full squad on the ice any given night. 17:24 I don't feel sorry for them. 17:26 No, I mean, when they were as good as they were last year, nobody's going to say, you know, the poor North Dakota kids. 17:34 But, you know, it is too bad that we didn't get to see a kid like Rocco Grimaldi this year, because I really think he would have brought a fun element to that team and to the WCHA. 17:44 You know, now they've announced that he'll miss the rest of the year and just has never fully recovered from that injury he suffered in the preseason. 17:51 So what about your Bulldogs there, Jess? 17:52 Are they pretty much going to cakewalk to the regular season title in the WCHA? 17:57 Well, they're still in second place. 17:58 I mean, they've got two games in hand. 18:00 They do have two games in hand. 18:02 They're a fun team. 18:03 I mean, they're really... 18:05 And we got lucky, you know, as a UMD alum living in the Twin Cities, you didn't get to see a lot of the Bulldogs in past years unless you had a dish and they happened to be playing at Denver. 18:15 Well, you know, two weekends in a row on Friday night, they were on national TV, once against Western Michigan, once against Nebraska-Omaha. 18:21 Both nights they got pretty convincing come-from-behind wins. 18:25 And man, you know, we're seeing a lot of the elements that you saw last year. 18:29 You know, it's a much different team because they lost some key elements there. 18:33 But boy, when JT Brown gets the puck on his dick with a head of steam, there is nobody with wheels like that in this league. 18:40 And he's not even the best forward on the team, obviously, because I am thinking Jack Connelly is making a pretty strong case for the Hobie. 18:49 I can't really disagree with you there. 18:50 They've lost one game since October. 18:53 I mean, that pretty much says it all right there. 18:57 And out of fairness, I am a Hobie voter this year, so I'm not going to get too deep into Hobie candidacy just out of fairness. 19:04 But obviously, he's one of the top ten players in the country. 19:07 I think that's pretty safe to say. 19:09 Definitely. 19:10 Well, it looks like we're going to have some kind of Minnesota Cup tournament coming up in a few years, once everyone's left the WCHA, kind of depending on how it's going to work. 19:22 But we're hoping that all five teams in Minnesota get to play. 19:26 Hammy, you've been tweeting a lot this afternoon talking about this. 19:30 What are your thoughts on this whole thing? 19:33 Well, I mean, I think it's interesting simply because, you know, everybody's been talking about scheduling in the future and, you know, who are we going to play and what are the ramifications of, you know, if you have 20 home games and all that other kind of stuff. 19:50 And so there's been, you know, a lot of question marks. 19:52 And, you know, I can see both sides of the coin. 19:56 You know, from a simply a gopher perspective, I like it because, on one hand, while you're, you know, what they're going to do is they're apparently, and this comes directly from Joe Matturi, they're taking two of the 20 games that they normally play at home and they're taking them away for this tournament. 20:12 So we'd have 18 games at Mariucci and two at Excel. 20:15 And granted, as Jess was joking about before the podcast, it's not like it's not necessarily close to home anyways, but nonetheless, it's not at Mariucci. 20:25 So I mean, that part of it is a little bit of a negative, but at the same time, if it's going to give you an opportunity to maintain some contact with some of the other D1 schools in the state, I think it's important. 20:36 I've had this debate with other GPLers about, well, I don't care about, some fans don't care as much about the in-state schools and they want to maintain ties with like North Dakota or whatever. 20:47 And I can understand that, but for me personally, I feel like it's always been the Gophers, well, kind of a job in a sense to make sure that the state's hockey is healthy. 20:56 And, you know, they are the flagship program, you know, despite what happened this last year. 21:01 I mean, they are the, they have the biggest following and it's, I think, their responsibility to make sure that every D1 school is, you know, going healthy and providing opportunities for kids in Minnesota. 21:14 And so I think it's very important to maintain, you know, ties with the other D1 schools in the state. 21:18 And if this is the way that they're going to do it, you know, that's probably, I guess, good. 21:23 I don't know that they were going to be able to every year schedule, you know, a UMD or, you know, a St. 21:30 Cloud or whatever in a two-game series or something like that. 21:33 You know, I don't know. 21:34 I don't know what the other schools would have demanded or whatever. 21:38 So if it's going to maintain those ties, I think it's a valuable thing. 21:42 Yeah, absolutely. 21:43 I mean, I don't think, you know, let's be honest. 21:45 You're not going to see the Gophers going to Bemidji or going to Mankato on an every-year basis. 21:50 So for fans of those teams and for all five of the Minnesota teams, obviously you've got a lot of alumni living in the Twin Cities. 21:58 So, you know, this is a chance for those people to see their team play. 22:02 You know, even if it's once a year, hey, so be it. 22:04 You know, go see your team once a year and have fun. 22:07 And we all know the XL is a great place to watch hockey. 22:12 So my only kind of snarky tweet about it today was this was something we were promised in 2001 when XL Energy Center first opened or in 2000. 22:21 That was one of the things The Wild talked about right away is, oh, yeah, we're going to have some sort of Minnesota version of the Bean Pot. 22:25 Well, what is it? 22:26 12 years later or whatever. 22:28 Now we're finally getting it done. 22:30 Well, better late than never, right? 22:33 Right. 22:33 Exactly. 22:34 Well, I think the other thing too, also from a Gopher perspective. 22:37 I'm just sad Andreas Nodal didn't get to see it or something. 22:41 Yeah, right. 22:42 Well, from a Gopher perspective as well, the other thing is that if it, like I mentioned, we're still going to have the four non-conference road games. 22:51 And if this maybe opens up opportunities to maintain ties with North Dakota or Denver or whatever, because now you're not having to use four of those road games or two of those road games a year on some other Minnesota team, base team, maybe that's a good thing too. 23:10 Maybe that'll help maintain some of the other rivalries that are outside of the state. 23:15 I mean, we'll see. 23:16 Until we see schedules, we never will know. 23:18 But I think it could be something that opens up that as well. 23:22 I got the feeling from Mike Gensel that it sounds like this tournament will be towards the end of January. 23:29 And that the Mariucci Classic will most likely disappear. 23:35 And then, you know, I'm thinking they might try to schedule it either for, you know, Hockey Day Minnesota. 23:39 You know, maybe the championship games are on that five o'clock time. 23:43 Or they might just try to hit up the All-Star weekend when they know in the wild they're not going to be around. 23:48 I went to Minnesota Duluth. 23:50 What is this Hockey Day Minnesota you speak of? 23:52 Oh, here we go. 23:53 Mr. 23:54 Bitter. 23:55 Well, you knew it was coming. 24:00 Well, speaking of bitter, Drunk Hockey Guy wants to know, Jess, if the Inch Party will be an open bar all night this year. 24:07 He's just wondering because he's making his plans for Tampa already. 24:10 We're actually going to have it in Cuba this year. 24:12 So he's going to need a passport and he's going to have to fly from Ottawa. 24:16 If he can do that, yeah, come on, come on down. 24:20 Drunk hockey guy looking for an open bar. 24:22 Shocking. 24:25 So any other thoughts in this new Minnesota Cup? 24:29 I'm wondering what happened to the DQ Cup. 24:30 You know, the trophy is probably out there somewhere. 24:33 I'm guessing and I'm in all seriousness, I think the trophy is in St. 24:36 Cloud. 24:36 I think they won it the last year. 24:40 The DQ Cup was contested. 24:41 I think the Fighting Huskies came away with the title. 24:48 And somewhere in the red carpet in the back room, someone has it there, but I don't know. 24:53 No, I was thinking actually that they'd probably have to work it in with all that other hardware that they've won up there. 25:04 They've got a lot of NCAA participant banners. 25:07 Isn't it one banner with a bunch of dates or do they actually have individual banners? 25:11 They did win the MIAC a few times back a long time ago. 25:15 What? 25:15 Who? 25:16 Where? 25:17 Hey, when I was in school at UMD, that was one of the things that I suggested and they actually did was back in like the 50s, UMD played in the MIAC and they won the MIAC title. 25:28 That's when you went to school? 25:30 Yeah, that's when I went to school back in the 50s. 25:33 I drove a Corvette and I was a greaser. 25:37 Anyway, no, but UMD won a bunch of MIAC titles in a row and I think went like five years without losing a conference game and I said, hey, you got to have a banner for those guys. 25:48 They're alums just like the guys who play now and they do now have a banner up at the arena commemorating their MIAC titles, so good for them. 25:56 I believe Minnesota has even got some kind of AAU title banner as well. 26:00 That's right, National Champions, 1940. 26:02 Yes, well, there you go. 26:04 Well, I mean, you know, hey, those guys work just as hard as the guys today work. 26:08 Well, Duluth had to do something because they had nothing for their men because they're women, nothing but banners with them. 26:14 It did look kind of bare there on the men's side, especially once Shannon Miller started winning titles on an every year basis. 26:20 Yeah, it was pretty bad, but they're champs, can't take it away from them. 26:26 Yep, they got one now and you can never take it away. 26:28 All right, let's look to this week in the WCHA. 26:32 We've got those Michigan Tech Huskies heading to Duluth. 26:36 Is Jim Rich coming? 26:36 No, Jim Rich is not here, but he's here in spirit. 26:39 We got Tech Huskies heading to your Duluth Bulldogs, Jess. 26:46 Any thoughts? 26:47 Well, these teams have played once already this year out in Houghton and the Bulldogs swept a series out there. 26:54 These guys are technically still arch rivals in the way the WCHA schedule is set up. 27:00 So this has got to be the big game for the Bulldog fans. 27:02 But no, Tech has come down to earth in a big way from the lofty perch they had reached by early December. 27:11 They may have come down from the earth or whatever, but they're still middle of the pack of the WCHA where they haven't been in quite some time. 27:18 True. 27:19 Just being in contention for home ice, let's face it, is a huge step forward for this program, which I don't know the exact numbers, but we're going on almost 20 years since they've had home playoff games there. 27:31 And we're going on 30 years now, or more than 30 years since they've won their own tournament, the GLI, because they went on to Detroit this year as well. 27:39 Yeah, 1981 was the last time they won the GLI, and little known fact, Mel Pearson, the coach at Tech, scored the game-winning goal in the championship game the last time they won it. 27:49 That pretty much says it all. 27:51 It's been a little while. 27:53 But no, just being in this position has got people re-excited about Tech Hockey, and that's a good thing. 28:00 With that said, I don't know that they match up very favorably with this blue team that's been so strong at home since the middle of October, or so strong everywhere, let's face it, since the middle of October. 28:13 If Tech could go in there and steal one, it would be a huge thing for them, but I don't think it's too likely. 28:20 Yeah, I would agree with that. 28:22 The one thing I did notice, granted, the games were up and houten, but they were, both of those games were tied going in the third period. 28:30 And of course, UMD is a pretty good third period team, so they pulled it out both nights. 28:35 But Tech's a pretty pesky team, and as we saw them when they were here at Mariucci, they can be a feisty group, and they're certainly not going to back down against any team, including the defending champs. 28:47 So certainly, I expect a bulldog sweep, and that's what I'm going to go with here. 28:54 But certainly, I think it will be a little bit harder fought series than maybe people might realize once you look on paper. 29:01 I think... 29:02 Interestingly, too, Jamie Russell's teams always seem to play tough against the bulldogs. 29:06 Even when they were having four-win seasons, they would somehow find a way to beat UMD every year. 29:11 So it will be interesting to see if that trend can continue. 29:15 I'm going with the bulldog sweep. 29:17 They just have too much right now. 29:19 And if they lose, I feel better anyway. 29:22 Mankato visits Bemidji State. 29:27 Hammy, do you care about this series? 29:30 Well, you know... 29:33 I like Bemidji. 29:34 They've played a relatively tough schedule this year, so I kind of tip my hat to them a little bit on how they've taken on the challenge. 29:42 But I mean, I think Mankato is only 1-7 on the road in conference play this year, and a lot of those games were against better teams than Bemidji, but nonetheless, they've not shown to be a very strong road team in conference, and Bemidji's pretty solid at home. 29:57 They're above 500 there, and I'm sure they'll be hungry after losing 2 on the road this last weekend, so I think that it might be a series where one of the games ends up a tie, but I think Bemidji will probably get 3 or 4 points out of it. 30:13 Jess? 30:14 Tom Saratori's teams work harder than anybody in college hockey. 30:19 He's never going to have the best talent. 30:21 He's usually going to have enough to be competitive, but they just outwork everybody, so I find it hard to pick against them at home, especially against a team like Mankato that hasn't been a great team by any stretch of the imagination. 30:35 All right, how about the Badgers heading to North Dakota? 30:40 Hammy, the Badgers suck on the road. 30:44 Yeah, they've only won one game on the road this year so far, so obviously North Dakota's going to be pretty desperate to hang on that last home ice spot, and they got swept to Madison earlier this year, so I'm sure that they'll be looking for a little bit of payback, and they're not quite as healthy like we've talked about earlier, and they're a little bit of a depth challenge right now, so Wisconsin will have a little bit of an advantage in that sense, and they've got probably some high-end guys that are maybe a little bit more key. 31:12 Of course, Ben Blood is certainly a good quality player for North Dakota, so he's going to be playing half the game at least, but I think that North Dakota, I just have a feeling they'll come out of it with a sweep. 31:27 Is this the beginning of the North Dakota rise, Jess? 31:30 I mean, typically rise at this time of the year hasn't happened yet. 31:35 I just think they're too beat up to rise all that far. 31:37 I will pick this one as a split, and I think the biggest question that we have to find answer for is, will Ben Blood or Justin Schultz leave the ice at any point this weekend? 31:50 You talk about two teams that rely real heavily on one guy. 31:56 You know, North Dakota's obviously got more offense than Wisconsin, and you look at guys like Brock Nelson and Danny Cristo, they can both do some really good things with the puck. 32:05 But these are two mediocre teams in good teams' clothing. 32:10 You think Wisconsin and North Dakota, you think, oh, they're national powerhouses, they'll be right in there in the end. 32:16 I just don't see it from these two teams. 32:20 Finally, somebody's on this damn podcast that agrees with me about North Dakota. 32:28 Cardinal picked North Dakota. 32:30 He's waiting for them to get going. 32:32 Well, they just haven't. 32:35 Yeah, I think he's just trying to hold on to that early season. 32:39 Did he pick them for first place? 32:40 Yes, he did. 32:41 He just can't let go of that. 32:44 This year, I've said this last few weeks, I just don't see that Haxdall led second half surge, the depth challenge, injuries. 32:56 They still have some tough series where they're at UMD, at Denver. 33:02 I just think it's going to be a long shot for them this year. 33:08 We have Denver going to Anchorage. 33:11 Hammy? 33:12 Yeah, Anchorage. 33:16 They've lost five straight. 33:18 Of course, they've all been on the road. 33:19 They're struggling. 33:20 They lose their leading scorer over the winter break. 33:25 Denver's starting to get a little healthier. 33:28 I think I saw that Ryder and Britton, I think Britton was back. 33:33 I think they're in practice today. 33:34 I think it was. 33:36 They're getting a little healthier. 33:37 They're coming off a sweep of Bemidji. 33:40 Granted, it's on the road. 33:41 You never know when you go up to Alaska with that trip. 33:44 Of course, it's not quite as bad for maybe Denver. 33:46 I don't know, but nonetheless, I would expect Denver to have a sweep. 33:52 Anchorage was my kind of sleeper pick. 33:56 They're sleeping all right. 33:57 Boy, they're sound asleep. 33:59 No, they had that nice run in the playoffs last year. 34:02 They upset the Gophers. 34:03 They made it to the final five. 34:05 They had a good core coming back, and man, what a disappointment they've been. 34:10 And even with the slow start they had, you look at their schedule, it's pretty loaded with home games in the second half of the season. 34:18 And I thought, man, if they can just be competitive in the first half, you make all those teams make that long trek to Anchorage in the second half of the year. 34:25 You really have a chance to pick up some points, and man, I am just not seeing it. 34:28 This is a team that has reverted to some real bad habits, one of them being not scoring goals ever. 34:36 Yeah, what's their leading score? 34:37 I think they got 12 points or something like that. 34:40 I mean, it's just terrible. 34:41 That's brutal. 34:43 Okay, well, let's finally move on to St. 34:45 Cloud in Minnesota. 34:47 Minnesota leads the overall series 49-27-12. 34:52 Let me see the last 10 games. 34:54 Minnesota leads 6-4, but it's pretty much been back and forth a lot recently. 35:01 Friday night we'll be on Big Ten Network, Saturday. 35:05 Back to FSN. 35:07 Hammy, give me your thoughts. 35:08 Home and home, Minnesota played very well at home last time against St. 35:12 Cloud. 35:13 Not so well at St. 35:14 Cloud. 35:16 Well, I mean, I guess the way I break it down is this way. 35:19 I mean, St. 35:19 Cloud is shorthanded up front. 35:21 They only have 10 healthy forwards, so they're going to have some guys playing out of position. 35:25 They're not going to have their normal array of lines, so there's going to be some interesting matchups there. 35:33 The Gophers in general would have the depth advantage up front, and certainly this weekend, with them having some injury issues, they should have a decided advantage up front in that sense. 35:44 Defensively, the Gophers, I think this is an area that I think a lot of people underestimate the Gophers. 35:49 I've heard both Scott Owens and Bob Motzko praise the Gopher defense as one of the best in the country in their opinion, and if you look at the statistics, I mean, that does bear true. 36:00 I know that a lot of people look at Kent Patterson as being the reason, but his save percentage is roughly the same as like Farragher this weekend. 36:08 I mean, he's a little bit better, but not much. 36:12 The difference is the Gophers give up less shots, and I think they have a better team defense concept, and St. 36:19 Cloud gives up almost a goal more per game than the Gophers do, so I think defensively, we've got the advantage in goal. 36:26 Patterson's got the experience, and certainly, he's got a little bit of an advantage as far as what he's done so far this year, so I expect it to be a sweep, to be honest with you. 36:37 I'll be a little disappointed if it's not. 36:39 Like I said, St. 36:40 Cloud is shorthanded, so you got to take advantage of those kinds of situations. 36:44 It's not like what they sometimes say. 36:46 It's not who you play, but when you play them, and this is one of those times where you're playing an underband team, and you got to take advantage of it. 36:53 Well, if you think about it, though, Minnesota has been a 500 team since they played North Dakota at home in November. 36:59 Their offense has gone down quite a bit. 37:03 Jess, is this a weekend they could maybe get it going again, or do you have to have it proven to you that they can be that team again? 37:10 Well, here's what I think about this series. 37:13 I was in St. 37:14 Cloud for the Friday night game a couple months ago when the Huskies kind of stole one. 37:19 Big upset for them and a big win. 37:21 The Gophers bounced back on Saturday night and got a split in the series. 37:25 That Friday night game was one of the bigger upsets I've seen this year because this is a Huskies team that, like you said, is just short-handed offensively and was somehow able to keep up with Minnesota for as long as they did and got two points out of it. 37:38 Now, I look at it this way. 37:41 I don't see that happening this Friday night. 37:43 The Gophers playing on their home rank, I think, are going to be too strong for St. 37:47 Cloud. 37:47 They'll have the crowd behind them. 37:49 I think Gophers get a big win Friday night. 37:51 Well, that puts you in a bad mood if you're St. 37:54 Cloud. 37:54 I don't think you can bounce back Saturday night and steal one at home like you did when it was reversed when you were at home on Friday night. 38:01 So I guess I would pick the Gophers to sweep here. 38:05 I agree with a lot of what you said, is that the Huskies just are too undermanned right now to pull one out. 38:12 Hammey, any other thoughts on this weekend or maybe the next few weekends for Minnesota? 38:17 Well, I mean, I think what we have the next weekend off, I believe. 38:20 So I mean, for me, it's got to leave it all out on the ice this weekend. 38:24 I mean, you get two important wins, hopefully. 38:27 And then you get a nice break, kind of rest up for the stretch run. 38:31 And hopefully, you know, it's a positive weekend. 38:35 So they have that, you know, they're not stewing on some negativity for a couple weeks. 38:39 So there's nothing left to really, you know, you have to leave it out on the ice this weekend. 38:45 So hopefully, it's going to be two big wins. 38:47 For me, the key, they really need to get Howla and his line mates going. 38:52 Howla just hasn't been the same since November. 38:56 And they need them to get going. 38:59 That's just pretty much what they have to do. 39:01 Without him getting his game back on, I don't think they're going to go very far. 39:07 Well, I mean, I think, you know, he's probably gripping the stick a little bit tightly right now, that's for sure. 39:14 And yeah, I mean, like I said earlier, it's one of those things where he, you know, when you have two lines going, the Gophers are pretty tough to beat, you know. 39:23 And that's why we had such success early in the years, because we had two lines that you could count on. 39:28 And this is a weekend where, you know, I mentioned that you have that kind of depth advantage and some guys for St. 39:35 Cloud are out. 39:36 And, you know, hopefully this is a weekend where he can get healthy and put some points on the board. 39:41 Agreed. 39:42 Hammeh, any recruiting news, least recently? 39:47 Not Gopher related. 39:48 The only thing I heard, well, you know, that USHL All-Star game was tonight. 39:52 And I know, you know, we've kind of bagged a little bit on AJ Michelson, but I heard he looked really good tonight in the USHL All-Star game. 40:00 So that's a positive for him. 40:02 And hopefully that'll kind of light a fire on him here in the next, you know, for the rest of the USHL season. 40:06 But otherwise, that's been relatively quiet. 40:09 A little UNO and UMD recruiting things going on. 40:19 Well, a little bitterness with some players. 40:25 Are you talking about Randolph or what are you talking about? 40:27 Which one? 40:27 Well, I mean, Randolph, yeah, I think that was, I saw that quote in the Duluth paper. 40:35 I think that was a little dig probably for the hometown team offering his linemate a scholarship and he's not getting a scholarship offer. 40:42 So yeah, he took a little dig about, you know, UNO being the best coaching staff or whatever. 40:49 And I'm sure that didn't sit too well with a lot of Bulldog fans, you know, especially considering they follow, you know, those Duluthese teams and all that. 40:57 So yeah, that was an interesting comment. 41:01 Any thoughts on it, Jess? 41:03 No, you know, I just, here's my deal with that. 41:06 And I tweeted this today, too, and I firmly believe that I may actually write something about this this week. 41:12 I've got no beef with kids who want to get out of the nest. 41:15 You know, when Dave Spehar said, I want to go to Minnesota, I have no problem with that. 41:19 When Phil Cussell said, you know, I don't want to go to college in Madison, you know, no problem. 41:24 Jed Ortmeier grew up in Omaha, decided he wanted to play for Michigan. 41:27 Good for him. 41:29 Brian Rolston grew up in Ann Arbor, went and played for Lake Superior State. 41:32 You know, just get out and see something different. 41:36 Don't be mad when a kid chooses that. 41:38 Likewise, a lot of kids want to stay close to home, want to play for the hometown team. 41:41 I mean, Minnesota wouldn't have a program if that weren't the case, but I guess I just don't fault a kid for wanting to get out and see a little bit more of the world, and I'm sure it will work out fine for Randolph at UNO. 41:56 Now, on the same day, you saw Dom, Tony and Otto, who also plays for Duluth East, say, I'm going to follow in my dad's footsteps. 42:03 I'm going to play for the Bulldogs. 42:04 So, you know, and I also heard all this, you know, chatter about Randolph supposedly ripping the Bulldogs. 42:13 Little known fact is I don't think the Bulldogs actually offered him a scholarship. 42:17 So, this was not quote unquote a loss for UMD. 42:21 It was just, you know, a kid that they weren't all that interested in who decided to go someplace else. 42:25 Well, good for him. 42:26 Well, yeah, I mean, that's the thing. 42:28 I, you know, a lot of times fans get caught up in, you know, the newspaper clippings about also interested in. 42:35 And the reality is that that, you know, those lists aren't going to be an apples to apples situation in some cases. 42:41 I mean, some of those teams might have offered, some of them don't. 42:43 And Randolph's case, from what I understand, UNO had offered him, and I think it was Northern Michigan had offered him scholarships. 42:50 Those were the two he was mauling over. 42:52 You know, I'm sure, of course, he was getting looks from a lot of different schools, but, you know, if he wanted to make a decision at that point, he had basically two to maul over. 43:00 And so, yeah, I mean, Jess is correct. 43:03 I mean, it's not like he had, you know, an offer of, you know, it's not like, and that's kind of why I was saying, you know, maybe it's a little bit of a dig at the hometown team because, you know, his linemate did get an offer. 43:14 And I think that that did play a part in that comment. 43:19 I don't know, I can't read minds, but. 43:21 You know, you gotta keep your mouth closed, though. 43:23 There's no reason to burn the bridges like that, though. 43:25 No, absolutely not. 43:26 I mean, it was a dumb comment, and that's the kind of thing that cocky 18-year-old say, you know, when they're kids. 43:33 Well, no, they do. 43:34 I mean, you're feeling full of yourself, and you know, this is one of the big moments in his life, and he just got affirmation that all his morning trips to the rink were a good thing because he got a college scholarship, you know, and then he spouts off. 43:44 I mean, kids do dumb things. 43:46 I mean, don't make too much out of it. 43:49 But again, you know, was it a dig at Minnesota when Zach Parisi decided to go play, you know, up in Grand Forks? 43:55 I don't think it was. 43:56 It was just one guy's decision that I want to try something different. 43:59 Don't tell Lou Nanny that. 44:02 Oh, I know. 44:02 And you know, Toby Peterson, you know, who's still playing in the NHL was another one. 44:07 I mean, that was- 44:07 I was bitter about that because I'm a Jefferson guy. 44:09 Yeah, but you know, it seems to have worked out okay for him. 44:12 Yeah, it did work out pretty well for him. 44:15 Well, and I think the other thing is, you know, I understand kids want to get away and whatever. 44:19 But, you know, I see adults make plenty of, you know, boisterous remarks. 44:23 We see it all the time on the internet, you know, guys saying stuff. 44:27 So I don't blame them at all in that sense, but at the same time, I think, when I saw it, when I read it, I'm like, yeah, that's a little bit of a dig. 44:35 You know, I think that that was kind of a little bitterness showing up in his commentary. 44:39 I'll tell you what does disappoint me about it is, you know, knowing his father is the coach of that very prominent high school program and knowing that, you know, a lot of kids who have played at Duluth East have gone on to UMD. 44:51 I'm not saying Scott Sandlin or Derek Platt or his staff would ever do this. 44:55 But, you know, you start bad mouthing any college program and there may be a college coach out there who three years down the road is looking at a kid from that school and says, eh, no, I'll look elsewhere, you know, because coaches remember that kind of stuff. 45:09 So it just wasn't a smart move on any of these. 45:11 Plus, these guys become, you know, the national junior coaches at times. 45:15 You may have to deal with them later on down the road. 45:18 And, you know, I don't think I want that kid on this team. 45:22 You never know, you know, he slighted me last time. 45:25 We'll teach him a lesson. 45:26 You just never know. 45:27 So it's probably a little better to keep your mouth shut. 45:30 And maybe the parents should have done that in this case. 45:34 Well, I think it's an interesting dynamic when it's the coach's son. 45:39 And the coach has a lot of other D1 prospects coming through his program. 45:44 And you start to say to yourself, you know, is the coach actually going to be thinking, you know, these people didn't offer my son, you know, I don't want to help them out too much here. 45:53 I mean, I know that ultimately the decision is up to the kid and his family about what he does, but nonetheless, a lot of times, you know, that initial early stuff is usually through the high school coach. 46:04 And, you know, you start to wonder, is that going to ever play a part? 46:07 And I think quite frankly, from what I had heard, you know, some teams were showing some interest in Randolph essentially for that reason, because they were like, well, you know, we want to at least keep the good graces and keeping that, you know, communication lines good. 46:21 And even if we don't end up offering a kid, at least, you know, make it seem like there's an interest there. 46:25 So it's an interesting dynamic. 46:28 Well, like I said, kids will be kids. 46:30 There's only so much you can do and they learn. 46:33 They grow up and learn. 46:35 Jess, where can we find your work? 46:39 insidecollegehockey.com. 46:42 I'm on there every Friday morning with my WCHA notebook, at least most Friday mornings. 46:46 And you're also on their podcast pretty much every week. 46:49 Also on their podcast and a little preview. 46:52 We're taping another one of those tomorrow night. 46:53 So if you want to hear these charming insights repeated in a different way, tune in then. 46:57 You guys need to go live like we do. 47:01 Oh, you don't want us going live. 47:03 That would be... 47:04 Is there a lot of editing? 47:05 Because there's sometimes that podcast just kind of goes on and on. 47:09 There was a famous podcast where we learned what you can and can't say on a podcast. 47:15 Well, you can say whatever you want, but people at iTunes and whatever might not like it. 47:19 Is that right? 47:20 They edit that stuff? 47:21 I didn't know that. 47:22 Yeah, no, it does get a ramble on. 47:25 If you haven't listened to one of our podcasts, we're proud of the last segment in every show, which we call Deterioration, where we talk about anything but college hockey. 47:34 Like wrestling. 47:36 Oh, we've had wrestling. 47:37 We've had great players in Toronto Blue Jays history one time. 47:41 We've had travel. 47:43 All right, stop, stop. 47:44 We can't. 47:44 We're not going to let this podcast dupe to that level. 47:46 Sorry. 47:47 OK, good to know. 47:48 And you're also on 1500Espn as well. 47:51 Yeah, am1500.com. 47:53 And every Friday afternoon in the Twin Cities, I do a segment with Pat Royce called Inside College Hockey with Jess Myers. 48:00 So tune in as you will. 48:03 That must be just awful for Royce. 48:05 What's that? 48:06 That must be just awful for Patrick. 48:07 It's just talk anything college hockey. 48:10 Oh, boy. 48:11 Patrick's level of knowledge of just about every sport amazes me. 48:16 I mean, yeah, he's got he's got definite knowledge. 48:18 He's been around long enough, but boy, he loves the Gophers. 48:22 Oh, sure. 48:23 You know, and he's made it clear that he expects greatness from down which he each and every year. 48:28 And if he doesn't get it, he'll rip on him. 48:31 He'll rip them. 48:32 Put them in the turkeys or something like that. 48:34 Well, we'll be doing a show and he'll pull out a name like, you know, Garrett Smogard or something like that, that I hadn't thought of in years. 48:41 It's like, oh, where do you come up with that? 48:43 But so, no, he does a good job. 48:46 He definitely does. 48:47 And we can also follow you on Twitter at Jess Myers, correct? 48:52 That's correct. 48:53 You need more Twitter followers. 48:56 Well, I've got a nice little following. 48:59 Nice little following, of course. 49:01 And Hammeh, you can always follow you on at HammehHockey, and then you're always chirping and talking on the GPL message board, right? 49:09 You got it. 49:09 All right, well, that does it for this week's podcast. 49:13 I think we'll probably take a break next week because the Gophers will take a break. 49:17 But the week after, we'll recap the St. 49:19 Cloud series and preview the Denver series, and keep chugging along as the WCHA season comes to a close. 49:28 Thanks for joining us on this week's podcast. 49:30 See you later.