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This is The GPL Podcast, sponsored by Vintage Minnesota Hockey, your exclusive source for throwback Minnesota jerseys.
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Visit vintagemnhockey.com.
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Now, here's Hammy, Vego and your host, Jupiter.
0:45
Good evening, and welcome to The GPL Podcast, episode number 143.
0:53
We are finally back after our usual close to month break.
0:58
Now, when the team's not playing, we're not doing a podcast, so, it's a little quieter on here for a few weeks, but it gives us all a chance to breathe for a little bit.
1:06
But, of course, back with me, Hammy.
1:09
You were off the last couple of weeks we did the show.
1:11
Hammy, nice to have you back.
1:14
Thanks, man.
1:14
Yeah, I had some work conflicts and stuff, but, you know, got to focus on the day job kind of stuff before the podcast gets some love.
1:23
So, good to be back, though.
1:25
Yeah, well, it's nice to have you back.
1:26
And, of course, Veegs, I see you all the time.
1:28
So, yeah, no biggie.
1:34
Well, Veegs, you know, going into this previous weekend, things were looking good.
1:41
You know, they went to Michigan at the end of the, you know, early part of the season, had a tie, had a win, you know, took four out of six points.
1:51
Things were looking up.
1:51
You know, they start off with Ferris and then they win a game.
1:54
And then all of it, you know, we're just getting built up again thinking, maybe they're just starting to get it.
2:01
And then Saturday happens.
2:04
How does that happen?
2:07
We're just getting right into it, aren't we?
2:10
Well, we'll talk about Michigan a little bit, but I'm just kind of getting the overall feel here.
2:14
You know, we were just slowly building towards the end of the first part of the season.
2:19
It went three ties in a row.
2:21
You know, considering where they've been, they were playing pretty well.
2:25
And they played pretty well against Michigan.
2:27
They lost the extra point that Friday night, won the game the next night, won the first game at Ferris, and then lost the second game to one of the worst teams in the country.
2:39
I'm just trying to get a grasp on this team.
2:43
Yeah, well, I think part of it is, you know, they had gone through a stretch where they went basically four, one and three.
2:49
So they had only one, lost one game in that eight game stretch.
2:53
And I think they were feeling pretty good about their game.
2:56
And playing against Ferris State, especially on Saturday, they were in pretty good control of that hockey game, especially five on five.
3:04
You know, they weren't scoring, but they were generating the chances.
3:08
I asked after the game, Bob Motsgot, whether it was the goalie who was playing out of his mind, or if it was the Gopher shooters not taking advantage of their chances.
3:18
I know a lot of those shots went right into his chest.
3:22
There weren't many rebounds given up all weekend, and he wasn't ready to answer at the time.
3:28
And he said, I got to look at the film.
3:30
Well, I asked again today, and he pretty much dodged the question.
3:33
It was just Minnesota not bearing down on their chances is my opinion.
3:38
There's a tendency where shooters want to either pick a spot or they end up just kind of shooting to shoot.
3:45
And that's kind of what happened, I think, on Saturday.
3:47
They knew that they were in a game where there wasn't going to be a ton of space, and they kind of took it for granted that they were going to be able to walk away with a win.
3:56
And Solomon Kangas played pretty well for Ferris State, and Minnesota took some stick penalties again, and it bit them.
4:05
You know, the penalty kill was something that had been a strength of this team.
4:09
They were in the top ten in the country for penalty kill percentage.
4:12
Well, they took five stick penalties on the weekend, and Ferris State scored on three of those.
4:19
And, Hamme, you know, I know it's tough to look back at Michigan.
4:22
They played pretty well, but it's kind of the same point to you, you know.
4:26
Did you kind of have a feeling that they were sort of building here, and then maybe could use this time off to really gel together, and then Saturday happens?
4:36
Well, I mean, I think it's one of those deals where you have a long break.
4:41
You don't always know what you're going to get in that first series when the guys get back together.
4:46
You don't know if guys are getting a little fat and happy, you know, and enjoying the time off.
4:53
So you're always a little bit interested in what's going to happen in those first couple of games.
4:58
And that's kind of why we always see them kind of tend to schedule teams that aren't the greatest over that period of time, because you don't know who you might be missing over World Juniors.
5:08
Of course, this year nobody, but really, for the most part, I should say.
5:12
But it's just a tough series to really get a gauge on what's going to happen when you have that long time off.
5:21
Well, it's frustrating, and like you said, VE, Motsko didn't really know the answer to the question, because he was even talking about, he was getting worried about the five-on-five scoring.
5:33
He likes the power play, and you even asked him, where that kind of new power play came from this weekend.
5:40
But it seems like he's really more worried about five-on-five, and he's right.
5:46
Yeah, it's kind of funny.
5:47
The power play hasn't looked that awesome all year.
5:51
They look a little finicky coming through the neutral zone.
5:55
They don't always gain the zone cleanly or have great chances, but they're hovering around 20 percent, which in college hockey today, that's a pretty good power play.
6:04
Maybe 15, 20 years ago, you're looking to get them more to 25, but 20 is usually pretty good.
6:10
And despite the hiccups they have in the power play, they've actually produced, and they got another three power play goals this past weekend.
6:18
They did come out in that 2-3 look, where they have two guys kind of offset at the D position, and then they have guys on flanks.
6:26
And Gates was really comfortable all weekend on that off wing.
6:30
He had two one-timer goals, looked pretty good there.
6:34
Mottscout did say that when the guy scores a goal from a spot in college hockey and the power play, he's going to have to find a new spot the next week.
6:41
So we'll see what they do with their power play coming up.
6:44
The one thing they have in their advantage is now Penn State's going to probably have to practice and prepare for two different power play groups.
6:52
When I was coaching football, you know, that was one of the things with practicing in a limited time frame, is that the more stuff somebody throws out on tape, the more stuff you have to prepare for.
7:03
So that's something that Modsco has done now for every opponent down the stretch.
7:11
I don't know, I just, well one thing that you and I even talked about this weekend after that loss, you know, unfortunately it's kind of expected, or it's still kind of expected, we just kind of see these games that are just stinkers.
7:27
But Vegs, you know and I know, this is really going to hurt them at the end of the season.
7:32
If they do get in position, when they're on the kind of that cusp of making the tournament, this is a bad loss in the pairwise.
7:40
Well, it's not just one bad loss, it's two now at the St.
7:43
Lawrence game.
7:45
True, true.
7:46
That's going to drop them into the 20s in the pairwise for a long time, unless they come up with some big wins over Penn State, who's top 10 in the pairwise right now, and goes on a run in the Big Ten.
7:56
And if they go on a run in the Big Ten, they'd probably get in anyway.
7:59
But if they're on that bubble, I think they're in a really hard spot of getting in that large bid.
8:07
Not, and it's not good, especially after what I thought was a really positive weekend, Hammy, when they went to Michigan and got four out of six points.
8:14
I mean, I thought that was a pretty good series, even though they can't seem to win that extra point in these tie games, Hammy.
8:21
But Michigan was a pretty overall, really good weekend for the team.
8:27
Well, I mean, yes and no.
8:30
They gave up a ton of shots that weekend.
8:34
They did, of course, from a scoreboard perspective, you're like, yeah, that's not a bad weekend when you get a win and a tie.
8:40
But I don't know that I would call that a great performance.
8:44
Certainly, when you split on the road at a minimum, you feel relatively good about it.
8:50
But I think you just have to look at this team and be honest about what it really has for ability out there.
8:56
And I think when I see some fans get upset about these games, I kind of have to say, well, this isn't the Gophers of 2003 where you could just kind of show up and pretty much expect the team to walk over whoever the hell they're playing.
9:12
This is a team that has to really be hitting on all cylinders just to be a real well competitive team.
9:21
And they're not going to be great in nights where they're not hitting on all cylinders.
9:25
And it doesn't matter if they're playing a team that's not the greatest.
9:29
They're going to have issues if they're not playing well in all facets.
9:34
And that's the kind of talent level we have this year, especially on defense.
9:39
Veegs, one thing I'm just kind of wondering that I know Moscow really wanted to ingrain in this team is 30 seconds of hell.
9:48
And really so far, we're not seeing that on shifts.
9:51
We don't see that that kind of extra effort, you know, chasing after pucks and, you know, a little more blocking shots.
9:59
You know, that style of hockey that Moscow wants to play.
10:04
And I have a feeling some of that might be left over from Lucia.
10:07
Maybe the senior leadership is just not really into listening to that type of talk.
10:14
But we're just not quite seeing that yet.
10:17
And it may take a couple years until we do see that kind of effort.
10:22
Yeah, I haven't seen that attitude out of this team too much.
10:26
I think the one player who can bring it right now is Sammy Walker.
10:29
And I think that's one of the reasons why he got invited to the National Junior Camp is because he has that ability to put pressure on the opponent either when he has the puck or when he doesn't.
10:40
And I don't see too many other players on the Gopher's roster who do that consistently.
10:45
There are guys who have that ability, but they just don't bring it to the ice.
10:49
I know Tyler Sheehy talked a little bit about it after the game on Saturday.
10:54
This team just doesn't always get on the forecheck like they're supposed to.
10:59
And whether that's confusion about who should be going or what system they're running, it's been an issue the first half of the season.
11:07
I know sometimes we'll see Romanko and Ramsey get out there, and both of them will think they're the F1, and they get caught with two forwards deep.
11:17
But you see it on all these other lines, just a hesitant play out there, and that allows the opponents to have plenty of time to regroup and come through the neutral zone with speed.
11:25
And it's killing the Gophers 5 on 5, because they just don't create very many turnovers and rushes off their forecheck.
11:34
So, maybe it's just kind of a culture change.
11:37
It might take a few years when Motzko gets the more type of players that he wants that will play that style of game.
11:46
Yeah, I mean, it's just a mentality out of a forechecker to be there, aggressive, with some nasty in their game.
11:54
But the thing is, if you look at this hammy, a lot of these guys want to go on to the pros.
11:59
And, you know, you kind of need that tenacity to be able to play in the NHL.
12:04
So it kind of makes me wonder, hammy, why aren't these guys even doing it now?
12:11
You need that skill.
12:12
You need that tenacity to play in the NHL.
12:14
If you're just, you know, floating it or just using your skill, that's not going to help you in the NHL down the road.
12:22
Well, I mean, I can't get into the mindset of each individual player.
12:26
I don't disagree with you.
12:27
I just, for me, I think some guys, I definitely believe in the whole culture aspect.
12:33
I think I've been thinking about it recently, just how much, you know, stuff has been going on in the program in recent years that would contribute to the way that some of the older players would really approach the game and approach the current situation.
12:49
I mean, they did, you know, I had the last coaching staff didn't really see odd eye on a number of things.
12:56
And I think the guy that had the most credibility was Gensel.
13:01
And, you know, so I think that you take some of that away.
13:07
You take what some of these guys were used to with the last staff.
13:10
I think that I see a lot of people kind of, you know, analyzing things on GPL.
13:15
I think you can't take Patoni's influence on the current roster out of the equation.
13:20
He definitely played a significant role in that.
13:23
I don't think it's any big surprise that some of the players that Moscow has cut ties on from a recruiting perspective.
13:30
Grant had a definite hand in.
13:34
I just think that there's a lot of different things culturally from a leadership perspective.
13:39
I think certainly there's players that maybe are a little bit fish out of the water in terms of what the current staff wants versus what they're capable of doing and what they've historically brought to the table.
13:52
I think that that's just something that you're going to have to weed out little by little.
13:56
It's not going to happen in one season.
13:58
I don't expect this team to be significantly different from a...
14:03
I mean, they'll be better from an attitude perspective next year because we lose players, but I don't expect it to be an overnight change.
14:10
So people who are expecting that quick turnaround, I don't think are being particularly realistic about the situation.
14:17
We've got Jess in the Mixler Trap sending us all kinds of questions.
14:21
Let's try to get to some of your stuff here, Jess.
14:24
Let's see this one to you, Veegs.
14:26
Moscow still having plans to switch Novak to D?
14:28
We've been kind of hearing rumors of him being put on D.
14:34
And those are Bob Moscow fueled rumors.
14:36
He's the one who keeps floating it out there.
14:39
And maybe it is just on the power play for now.
14:41
They put him out there at the point on the first power play unit, which is five forwards basically with Novak kind of running it up top.
14:49
I think when they go to the more traditional umbrella, it's going to be Novak up there as well.
14:54
So they're still going to work with all their different kind of power play schemes.
14:57
And he is going to be the trigger man back there.
15:00
I thought it was interesting that Clayton Phillips was scratched for the Saturday game.
15:05
He's a guy who's been given chances to run the power play.
15:08
And as Hammy is talking about how to change the culture, one of the things that's always surprised me is the biggest stick that coaches have in Division I hockey is playing time.
15:19
Is it power play time?
15:21
Is it top six minutes, top four minutes?
15:24
Those are the sticks that coaches have to take on their team.
15:29
And you just didn't see that a whole lot with Don Lucia last year.
15:33
He just kind of kept trotting out the same lineups.
15:35
You didn't see too many different guys get chances.
15:39
And I understand the message that you're not going to put a plugger up on your first line to play 20 minutes a game.
15:46
But at some point, you need to send a message to the guys up front that they have to produce.
15:53
And I'm wondering if we'll see that at times here with Motskow on this year's team.
15:58
He doesn't have a lot of ties with these guys.
16:00
If he's trying to send messages, are guys going to see less ice time or less chances?
16:05
Romanko got scratched for one of the games in Michigan, which is kind of a surprise because he's a plugger.
16:11
You're not expecting him to score 10, 15 goals and he's the guy they scratch.
16:16
It's just interesting to watch and see how this season progresses.
16:19
Romanko's hurt now.
16:20
He's got a lower body injury.
16:22
He's going to be out a few weeks, so you won't see him in the lineup for a bit.
16:26
But it's something to watch going forward.
16:29
Yeah, it definitely is.
16:30
So one thing I thought was kind of refreshing was Mr.
16:34
Stucker had quite a bit of playing time this weekend, Veegs, and he played pretty well.
16:40
Yeah, they need some guys who can move the puck and be decisive.
16:43
I think the biggest question facing the D right now is, can they quicken their decision making?
16:49
Can they push the pace a little bit?
16:51
And we saw that from Stucker.
16:53
That's one of the things that he was brought in this program to do is move the puck.
16:57
And he found some magic with Scott Reedy, who looks pretty healthy after having the high ankle sprain early in the season.
17:05
And they need that.
17:06
Scored in a bunch Friday night.
17:08
Yeah.
17:09
They need more of that going forward.
17:11
One of the biggest things this team needs to score goals is guys who can go around the net.
17:15
And that should be Scott Reedy's MO.
17:17
He's a pretty big, well-put-together guy.
17:20
And if they want to score some more goals in the paint, he's somebody they need around there.
17:25
You know, another thing we talked about, Hammeh, is we're talking about the attitude of these players and the aggressiveness and play like that.
17:34
But another thing that Frozen 4 Champs brings up in the Mixler Chat is where were Walker's teammates when he was mixing it up with three or four Ferris State players?
17:44
I mean, we've got an instance where you got one of your kind of young stars getting it in there.
17:49
And where's the rest of the team to kind of back him up?
17:54
Well, I mean, it's kind of like we've talked about it.
17:56
It does come up to, you know, where's the senior leaders?
18:00
Where's some of the guys that you would expect to kind of step up to that kind of stuff?
18:04
And I don't recall who else, who all was out on the ice at the time off top of my head.
18:09
But the reality is, is that these are the kinds of things that you expect leaders to stand up and kind of make the other team know that you're not going to take advantage of the players out there on our squad.
18:20
And it is disappointing when you see that kind of happen and you don't see players respond to it, because if there's anything that you want to feel when you're in a team environment, you want to feel like everybody's got your backs.
18:32
And if guys aren't stepping up to when you know, when you are kind of outnumbered like that and you are trying to battle, it's a little bit frustrating and disappointing.
18:42
Veegs, if you recall, Jess is reminding us there too, is that it was kind of the end of the game thing, when the whistle had blown, Walker was mixing up with a bunch of guys and there was just no one else there.
18:53
Well, all the other guys are at the top of the circle skating to the bench.
18:56
And I was surprised that no one else jumped in there.
18:59
You know, Walker is not a big guy and he's out there, you know, defending himself as he gets surrounded by four or five red jerseys.
19:07
I was surprised that no one saw that and jumped in there.
19:09
I know that Walker kind of started that and brought it on himself, but he's one of the hardest working players on this team.
19:15
And I was surprised.
19:17
Let's just say that.
19:19
And that's the way that maybe, I don't know if they're going to do some team building or whatever effort.
19:25
It was just, you know, I noticed that a couple of the people saying that at the end of the game as well on Twitter.
19:30
So it was like I said, it was a little disappointing.
19:33
You know, I was asking you guys earlier today, you know, what did we else we that kind of happened over the break?
19:39
And I couldn't remember until just a few minutes ago.
19:41
But one thing that is coming back next year, Hammy, is the Mariucci classic.
19:46
And it's going to be an all Minnesota thing.
19:50
I love the new logo.
19:51
I love that they're bringing it back.
19:52
I love that it's all Minnesota teams.
19:54
What are your thoughts on the Mariucci classic coming back after a two-year hiatus?
19:59
Well, I mean, I think it's definitely interesting.
20:03
Correct me if I'm wrong, Bigs, but this is just kind of a...
20:06
It's not like going to be this way every year, correct?
20:09
It's just something that they happen to be able to work out for this particular season?
20:13
Correct.
20:14
They couldn't get all the teams to commit to coming in every year.
20:18
So this is what it is for this year.
20:20
And they'll try to have Minnesota teams in it every year, but they just can't guarantee it.
20:25
Right.
20:25
So I mean, I think it's interesting and all that.
20:27
I mean, I never got kind of worked up over the whole North Star Cups thing and all that other kind of...
20:35
You know what I mean?
20:36
I just...
20:38
I kind of feel that sometimes some of these things are a little bit forced.
20:43
You know, people feel like, oh, well, we had rivalries at one time.
20:46
Let's continue it on this way and that way and whatever.
20:50
And I mean, I think it's great to play those teams, but I don't know that I really feel like it's that big of a deal to force things, think kind of things into existence.
21:00
So if it's something that happens organically like this and it's not like trying to be an every year thing, I don't have a problem with it.
21:08
Well, one of the problems that we had with the...
21:11
with the Mariucci Classic Vegues was that, boy, towards the end there, they weren't quite bringing in the teams that they were in previous years.
21:20
I mean, we've seen Boston College, we've seen New Hampshire, we've seen quite a few good teams come in here.
21:28
And it seems like the last few years, they're bringing in kind of the smaller end, less big name schools because a lot of these big schools are heading to Arizona or Florida and all those other places.
21:40
So that's kind of one of the things that kind of happened to the Mariucci Classic.
21:44
Yeah, and I think it's good to have local teams involved.
21:47
Bob Motsko said, you know, he was excited to get St.
21:50
Cloud in it because they weren't going to have their own tournament and he didn't want to have his guys flying to, you know, Florida or Arizona or to the Northeast every Christmas to play in a tournament.
22:00
They'd like to stay one close to home so the guys could have the holidays with their family and not have so much travel.
22:07
So I think it's a logical choice for these Minnesota schools to get together and play some games.
22:12
We'll probably not see schools like Minnesota State and St.
22:16
Cloud in there every single year, but I think you'll probably see one of them in there every year.
22:20
And, you know, I heard people complaining, why did you have Minnesota Duluth in there?
22:23
And I believe it's just because Minnesota, Minnesota Duluth kind of already have that kind of four or five-year contract.
22:30
At least they play each other twice, four out of the next five years, I believe, isn't it?
22:36
Yep.
22:36
That's kind of already set.
22:37
That contract established.
22:38
So, you know, the only teams that they didn't have games in the future established with were St.
22:43
Cloud, Minnesota State, and Bemidji.
22:46
So, yeah, there you go, people.
22:48
That's kind of...
22:49
North Dakota is locked up on the schedule, too, so...
22:51
Yeah.
22:52
They've got all those close rivals locked up to games for the next couple of years, probably.
22:58
So, there you go, folks.
22:58
The Mariucci Classic coming back, and it does have a nice, cool new logo.
23:01
I really like that, Veegs.
23:03
Yeah, it's sharp.
23:06
It's set.
23:06
It's not to hurt Brooks.
23:07
I know some people want it to be changed, but, hey, Mariucci is the guy who got Minnesota going.
23:12
Yeah, he is.
23:12
So, we are glad it's back.
23:16
So, at least there will be some good teams, hopefully some good games as well.
23:20
Well, we got a little, you know, a couple of questions, more questions for you.
23:23
We're going to talk about Penn State, a little bit of the juniors, you know, Team USA just locked up their victory a few minutes ago.
23:29
But before we get to that, let's hear from our sponsor.
23:33
vintagemnhockey.com is a proud sponsor of The GPL Podcast.
23:38
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23:41
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23:45
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23:51
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23:56
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24:05
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24:07
It's a really great thing.
24:08
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24:26
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24:34
All right, thanks to Vintage as always.
24:36
Well, one of our favorite tournaments every year is the World Junior Tournaments, except for Hammy.
24:44
But every year we have got this great tournament, Veegs, and it's going on right now.
24:49
A lot of the youngest kids with the, was it under 20, I believe it is.
24:53
And lots been going on today for one thing.
24:57
I guess the bad part is there's no Minnesota players are in it for the, you know, very seldom happening Veegs.
25:02
But, geez, a lot going on today.
25:05
Sweden losing, Canada just losing, the US just ended up winning now, and we got Russia playing here in a little bit.
25:11
So it's turning out to be pretty interesting tournament up there in Canada, now that Canada is gone.
25:19
Yeah, it's always an amazing term, I think, because you have such a high level of skill, and there's going to be mistakes.
25:25
These teams are thrown together this last month.
25:28
It's kind of surprising actually to see Canada out of the tournament because they've been practicing the whole month of December, kind of almost with their final roster.
25:36
They took an extended camp, which they haven't always done, and to see them lose early is surprising.
25:42
But these teams are kind of thrown together, it's the top players in their age group, except for the guys playing the NHL, and it's a lot of fun.
25:49
People are upset a little bit that the Gophers don't have any players in there, but the Minnesota players that aren't Gophers, they were tied to other schools pretty quick and pretty young, and it's hard to know if Minnesota really got a chance at them either.
26:04
But, pailing the other night against Sweden.
26:09
Holy cow, you know, they did lose in overtime.
26:10
We were all watching at Maxwell's Bar after the Gopher game.
26:15
You know, I'm throwing out the fire Hastings tweet when it's 4-0, and then before you know it, it's 4-4.
26:21
It was quite the entertaining game, Veegs, but they couldn't quite finish it off, but Sweden has gone too.
26:30
They were ousted by Switzerland, I believe, just a little while ago, weren't they?
26:33
Yep, hard to believe Ryan Palin will look great as a grad transfer if he ever wanted to get one more year in Minnesota, but I think Montreal will have another say in that.
26:45
Now, Hammy, I know you're saying you're not as big into the tournament, you're one of a few people.
26:49
That's just fine, but one of the reasons you were mentioning earlier is that, you know, it seems like when the Gophers do go, they come back and they're just not quite the same.
27:00
Yeah, I mean, I know it's been kind of a mixed bag over the, you know, in the last, what, 30 plus years that I've really followed the team.
27:07
I mean, it hasn't always been bad news for a guy that returning.
27:09
Sometimes they come back with inspired, but there's just been so many times where I'll see a guy come back and he's like gassed because they play so many games in such a short period of time.
27:20
And of course, you know, you don't want to deprive them of the experience.
27:24
But, you know, from a selfish Gopher perspective, sometimes you're like, man, I hate seeing those guys come back and it's like they're not playing for a little bit and they're completely gassed.
27:34
You can see that they just are, you know, they just put a lot into that tournament and there's so much high-end hockey being played that it gets a little frustrating when they come back and they're not playing quite to the level that you're accustomed to.
27:48
But like I said, you don't want to deprive them of an opportunity like that.
27:51
And Veegs, you know, he's kind of got a point there because you look at a good example that was two years ago with Lindgren.
27:58
Yeah, I think Lindgren was tough because he got sick that year.
28:01
You know, that's something that's tough on players.
28:03
And, you know, it's a lot of games, a lot of time.
28:05
But for the most part, I don't think it's a big issue for college hockey.
28:09
You know, these guys are playing two games a week.
28:11
You know, going through the tournament is difficult.
28:14
But, you know, college players coming back, I know that they don't start school again here until like the 23rd or 24th of July.
28:21
You know, there's plenty of time for them to recover.
28:24
You know, I think a lot is made out of, you know, is this guy playing too much?
28:27
Is the goalie playing every night too much?
28:30
You know, these guys are used to playing 60, 70, 80 games coming through junior, and then they get to college and they play 34 games.
28:38
So I think that could be a little bit overblown.
28:41
For some guys, I think it could be their confidence gets hurt a little bit.
28:44
Like Liam Bristad, he goes to Sweden, doesn't even play.
28:48
You know, Samparanta may be expected to play for Finland.
28:52
He gets cut and gets sent home and has got to find some confidence.
28:57
Sammy Walker, not sure why he didn't make the team.
29:00
He thought he had a great camp and a great first half and disappointed.
29:04
So it's all about how those guys find the fuel to recover from it.
29:10
And I think Cammie is kind of right on some of that, though.
29:13
Sometimes these players do come back and it seems like it's happening more often.
29:16
But also remember back in the 90s and even early 2000s, we would have players leave, but they would be coming back fairly quickly because they would be eliminated.
29:26
They would not even make it to the to the medal round.
29:29
I mean, there was a time where the US.
29:32
Juniors, US team had no influence on that tournament, Amy.
29:37
Well, right.
29:38
Yeah.
29:39
Like I said, maybe I'm a little bit biased because I just remember way back into the Wug era.
29:45
I mean, well into the Wug era that there was always a mixed bag of guys playing well when they came back.
29:52
Other guys, it just seemed like they were completely out of it for weeks.
29:57
And so I probably just remember a lot of that stuff going on over time.
30:03
And so sometimes I just just like we get frustrated about that tournament.
30:06
Plus, you know, we'd lose players and not have them for, you know, a small number of games.
30:12
But nonetheless, you just worry about the impact of all that kind of stuff.
30:15
Obviously, that wasn't a huge deal for us this year.
30:17
But, you know, just historically, it's always been something that I've always thought about.
30:25
Well, it's a great tournament.
30:26
It's going to be, who knows who's going to win it now.
30:27
But you've got to look, it's kind of looking more like the US and Russia are probably kind of the teams that beat, unless, you know, some of these other upsets keep happening.
30:35
I guess the Finns, you know, the Finns have a really good chance as well.
30:38
Moving on, we got just a couple questions via Twitter today.
30:42
And let's start with you, Vegas.
30:45
We'll listen to, Tim Hapke was asking, what is Ben Gordon's role as an assistant?
30:51
Does he work with the team on the ice very often, or is he more on the road recruiting?
30:56
I think a lot of his role right now is working with the Fords and going through the video for the team.
31:02
You know, he's doing some recruiting on the road.
31:05
But I think Bob is pretty hands on with the recruiting right now and Raboyne, you know, those two have a good relationship together and how they operate.
31:14
So you're seeing Gordon on the road some, but his focus is with the Fords right now.
31:19
Now, what about their student assistants?
31:22
Are you seeing them on the ice when you go to practice?
31:25
Yep, they're on the ice for most practices, especially now that classes are out of session.
31:31
And Bob kind of has each guy paired with an assistant coach.
31:35
And it's almost kind of like a mentorship with Ryan working with Ben and Stu working with Garrett.
31:42
And they're just kind of learning from them about how to coach, what the process is like as they finish up their schoolwork.
31:49
Bob sometimes will bring one of them on the road if they can, just to kind of get the experience of helping out on a game day and kind of shadowing the coaches.
31:57
Because both of these guys, who knows what they're going to do going forward, but this is a great opportunity for them to learn what it takes to be a Division I coach.
32:05
They're doing a lot of things that players don't see every day.
32:08
All right, Nick wants to know, and I'll throw this one at you, Hammeh.
32:11
Does the coaching staff feel an incoming player in the next year or two is a blue-chip, big-star type player at either forward or defense?
32:20
We got any big blue-chippers coming in, in the foreseeable future?
32:24
Well, I mean, it's hard to really determine how the coaching staff sees it if you don't, you know, without asking them.
32:31
But I mean, I think certainly you see a guy like, and you also have to determine, well, what does this particular person say?
32:37
Is a blue-chipper or not?
32:38
I mean, is that a guy that's, you know, gonna be a top draft pick?
32:43
You know, that kind of a player?
32:45
Or is it a guy that, you know, I mean, Ben Myers is a perfect example.
32:48
I mean, he's a guy that, you know, is doing really well.
32:53
He's had plenty of juniors' experience.
32:54
He's shown a lot of success this year.
32:57
And I think he's gonna be an impact player on the team next year.
33:01
You know, he's gonna have opportunities because of the players we lose.
33:03
But he's also, even if we had returning players, I think he would be competing for some of those top end spots.
33:09
So a guy like him would definitely be an example of somebody, at least in the short term, I think would be somebody to look forward to.
33:17
Certainly they have some other players.
33:20
It's just a matter of when they plan on coming in in the upcoming years.
33:24
That I believe will be impact players.
33:26
But that's one that immediately comes to mind in the short term that I think is gonna have an impact on the program pretty quickly.
33:34
Any thoughts, Veegs?
33:36
It's hard to know if there's any true blue chippers coming in right now.
33:40
Castor is a guy who's got a lot of ability on the blue line.
33:45
He's probably one of the more highly thought of players.
33:48
Ryan Johnson, another defenseman, is probably really highly thought of.
33:52
But I don't know if any of the forwards are really blue chip type players right now.
33:57
I think you're looking for guys who are first round picks out of that group.
34:00
But I'm not sure if there are a ton of those guys coming through Minnesota.
34:04
Probably Lucius Kidd is the one who's probably the biggest name for NHL circles right now.
34:11
He's somebody who's going to get a hard push to go to Major Junior because he is such a talent right now.
34:18
And it's like I said, I mean, it really depends on how a person determines what blue chip means.
34:24
Does that mean what you expect to see them do in college?
34:28
Because there's a big difference between, you could have guys that are going to be great college players that aren't going to have much of a sniff at the NHL.
34:37
And to me, that's more of a blue chip player to me.
34:40
I understand it for other people.
34:41
It might be draft status or a first round guy.
34:44
They might leave after a year or two.
34:47
I certainly would include those kinds of guys in on that conversation.
34:50
But I don't completely eliminate guys that aren't necessarily going to be pro players.
34:58
But they certainly could be like a Justin Clues type of a player, you know, who's going to be a three or four year guy and is going to contribute a lot offensively.
35:07
But they might not necessarily have the big name draft status that some people focus on.
35:14
And finally, we've got our North Dakota Fighting Hawks guru, Goon, wants to know, and I'm going to throw this at you, V, because you're all about attendance.
35:25
He's like, what's with the dwindling attendance at Gopher Men's Hockey Games?
35:32
I think Goon is just trolling you, but still.
35:35
Well, there's a lot of issues facing the team right now.
35:38
A lot of people like to focus on ticket prices.
35:41
I don't think that's necessarily it, because they're still selling almost 9,000 tickets a night.
35:47
The issue is getting the people to show up.
35:50
But there's a lot of issues facing the program, and winning is going to solve some of that.
35:54
But it's a complicated issue.
35:56
Look for something in the Athletic this month on it.
36:01
You know, we did see it tweeted out earlier this past weekend Friday that they were selling souvenir cups from the 2013 football team at the 2018 hockey game.
36:14
And I talked to somebody with the program.
36:17
They just were kind of scratching their heads like...
36:21
It's like they just want to keep shooting themselves in the foot.
36:24
Yeah, some of the stuff is baffling.
36:27
Part of it comes from universities, not exactly the most buttoned up ship.
36:32
It's hard to get everybody on the same page to be successful with something.
36:36
Like you saw the Udina Community Night that they had this weekend.
36:40
They've been doing that every weekend.
36:41
They just haven't gotten their act together with getting the message out and doing group sales and things like that.
36:48
I think they'll start to see some improvements there.
36:51
They're having to move a lot of single game tickets this season because the season ticket base is shrinking as much as it has.
37:00
It's a bleak future right now for attendance and until they start winning it's going to be hard to attract new fans.
37:07
But they are trying something with $10 tickets to groups.
37:11
We saw that Saturday with the Ferris State game.
37:13
I think they had a little bit better attendance.
37:15
They did.
37:16
They did a lot of sales at that $10 ticket market.
37:19
We're seeing that again this weekend with Penn State.
37:21
It's another opportunity for $10 tickets.
37:24
I know any student that has a package for either Friday or Saturday, well, that's now good for both nights.
37:32
So the 3,400 students that have those packages could show up at any given night right now and they're not either.
37:40
They're paying about $10 a game.
37:43
Yeah, it's goofy.
37:44
Well, let's get to actual hockey.
37:46
We've got Penn State coming in here this weekend, Hammeh.
37:50
We all know at the end of last year Minnesota lost four straight.
37:54
Obviously, had a bunch of other things happen that knocked them out of the tournament.
37:58
But essentially losing four straight to Penn State was the end of their season, probably the earliest end of the season we've ever had here at Minnesota just because of the way the schedule was.
38:07
But Penn State's coming to town this weekend and they're doing pretty well.
38:12
Yeah.
38:12
I think this is kind of goes back to what we said many years ago.
38:17
I honestly expected Penn State to be a good program because they had the investment, they had I think a fan base that was hungry for something like this.
38:27
Certainly, when you have a Big Ten program, it's going to take a little time of course when you're starting a new program.
38:33
So you didn't expect it to happen overnight, but it's good for the league.
38:38
I think it's good for college hockey to see a new team that's certainly competing at a high level and being amongst the names that are going to be in that hunt towards the end of the year.
38:49
Whether it's going to be a yearly thing or a pretty regular thing, that remains to be seen.
38:54
But I think it's definitely a positive to see them doing well, and they're always throwing tons of pucks at the net.
39:02
They have some good offensive players, so I would expect it to be a pretty entertaining series from that perspective.
39:08
And the Gophers are definitely have to bring their A-game and be hitting on all cylinders, something that we haven't regularly seen this year.
39:15
And kind of going back to your point, Vegs, about those $10 tickets and the cheaper tickets, I don't know if the US figured it out yet, the leaders above them, but they're doing really cheap tickets for a really good opponent coming in this weekend.
39:29
I don't know if they realize that.
39:31
Well I think they're doing it because the school's on break and so they want to try to attract people to campus.
39:37
And this is a game that's gonna be fun to watch.
39:40
Penn State plays aggressive, hard forecheck, brings lots of offense and it should be a fun game.
39:47
Penn State's done a good job with their scheduling.
39:49
They kind of schedule like a Big Ten football team.
39:52
They've played Clarkson, Niagara, Princeton, Arizona State, Robert Morris.
39:58
They're not playing against the cream of the crop in college hockey and they've built up a really nice record that's 9th in the pairwise and they're going to be a tough team for Minnesota play against because I think they play a template last year in those four games that was pretty much the way to beat Minnesota.
40:15
Be aggressive, be hard on the defense, force the game and it was something they couldn't answer last year.
40:22
We'll see if this year's team finds any juice to respond.
40:26
And we all know that the stats of shots on goal at Penn State are a little out of line, we know that, but they still do throw a ton of shots on net just to see what's going on.
40:40
You throw a shot on net, you might get a rebound goal.
40:43
Maybe it'll go wide, so what?
40:45
We know their stats are a little high, but they still do throw a lot of shots on net.
40:51
Yeah, they still score a lot of goals.
40:53
Yeah, too.
40:55
They do produce, and they play physical style.
40:59
Their power play is clicking really well.
41:01
Their top 10 power play, their top 10 in goals per game.
41:06
They're going to be a tough opponent this weekend.
41:08
I think the one thing with Minnesota this year is they have had a good penalty kill up until last weekend.
41:14
That's something that they can rely on as a strength, and they have had good goaltending.
41:19
Matt Robson had a little bit of a hiccup, I think, on Friday night.
41:22
Because of how well Shearhorn played, he got the next night.
41:25
I expect we'll probably see Robson get the cage again, and we'll see how he responds to his first weekend really getting pulled.
41:33
And another thing, kind of getting back to the juniors hand, you know, you talk about missing players and what not.
41:37
Penn State's going to be missing a player off of Finland, since Finland continued on tonight.
41:41
They've also got a guy, a young kid, on Team USA.
41:44
So this is probably a good time for Minnesota to not have any juniors gone, because Penn State's going to have a couple of their couple young stars gone this weekend.
41:54
Yeah, for once we benefit, right?
41:56
Yeah, that doesn't happen very often.
41:58
All right, exactly.
42:00
Yeah, Evan Barrett was a thorn in Minnesota side last year.
42:04
You know, he laid a pretty big hit on Ryan Lindgren and then went and scored and showboated a little bit.
42:10
So not having him out there on the ice will be a positive for Minnesota, at least.
42:15
And then Finn Tavati, he's one of their top freshmen and they'll be missing him too.
42:22
Thank you, Finland.
42:25
Not only for reading Canada, but just for that reason as well.
42:30
So what else?
42:30
I mean, we got a couple more questions here, actually.
42:34
East Center wants to know, have you noticed any increased alumni presence this year compared to last year?
42:39
I guess I'll put that towards you, Veegs, because you're down there a lot.
42:44
Well, I think some of the alums are making more of an effort to organize, getting guys together on campus.
42:49
I don't know if they just feel a warmer presence in the building or whatnot.
42:54
I know Jordan Leopold and Tommy Pohl spoke to the team today, just give them a message that they're behind them and give them some lessons to fight adversity.
43:05
I know some of the other alums are getting together and organizing some fundraising.
43:10
No numbers yet to share, but they're making progress and I think we're going to see some new projects start for next year.
43:16
And that's kind of one of the tricky things we had, Hammeh, was with fundraising and Don Lucia.
43:24
Yeah if you want to dredge up that past, I'm sure.
43:27
A little bit.
43:28
Well we just know that he had a hard time getting players other than Paul Martin to kind of get involved in those type of projects.
43:39
Well I mean I think it's always important for a new coach to kind of get alumni kind of engaged in what's going on and kind of try to reignite some of the passion and try to kind of connect some of that history of the program with the current players and help them understand why, you know, them playing hard and playing with pride for the program and for the university is important.
44:03
So I think that certainly these are things that you want a new coach to try to instill and this kind of goes back to our conversation about culture and maybe it, you know, with some guys it's a little too little too late because they're pretty close to be on their way out.
44:18
But for some of the guys that still have two or three years left of eligibility after this year, you kind of want to, you know, get them engaged in that and maybe that's just the way that this current coaching staff feels is a good way to build.
44:32
All right, guys, predictions for the weekend with Penn State coming to town.
44:36
We'll start with you, Hammeh.
44:39
Well, I mean, given the fact that they weren't exactly the most consistent, well-oiled machine last weekend against the team that was worse than Penn State, it's kind of hard to go with the sweep scenario even at home.
44:50
So I think it's more than likely going to be a split.
44:55
I would expect Penn State to have a pretty good offensive night, at least one of those nights.
45:00
So that's kind of the route that I would get would be a split.
45:04
Vegs, what are you thinking here?
45:06
I've just noticed that it seems like there are times where Minnesota does kind of play to their competition.
45:12
So you could see that dud like we saw last weekend, but we could see a pretty good series this weekend.
45:18
Yeah.
45:19
I mean, you've seen it a couple of times this year.
45:21
The Minnesota State Series, they had the one dud game.
45:24
They actually played pretty well the next night, even though they got swept in the weekend.
45:29
I just feel like this weekend is going to be one of those situations where they're going to need to be sharp on their penalty kill.
45:35
I think if they can get away on the weekend without giving up a power play goal, maybe they'll be able to get a split.
45:42
I'm leaning towards hoping for a point here with a tie and probably a loss.
45:47
I think that's where I'd put my money.
45:51
I got to see it out of this team before I can start predicting splits and sweeps even.
45:57
I'm kind of with you there.
45:59
Obviously, a sweep would be really good for Minnesota that could get them back.
46:04
But like you said, Veegs, it's kind of a wait and see type of thing.
46:09
Well, this is just a kryptonite matchup for Gophers.
46:13
This is a team that's not going to let any of the defensemen hide.
46:17
It's going to be a game where they're going to need to be sharp.
46:19
They're going to need to be quick on their retrievals.
46:22
They're going to need the Fords to come back deep to the zone.
46:26
And that's just not something you see consistently out of this team.
46:29
You see it out of Sammy Walker, but you just don't see it out of all the other lines.
46:34
So it'll be interesting to see what happens this weekend.
46:36
I don't see any big shakeups happening to the lines, the power play units, the defensemen.
46:42
So it's just going to be interesting to see how they respond.
46:45
And I don't know if they can do it for two nights.
46:48
And remember folks, Friday night's game is an 8 o'clock start.
46:52
And I think that's mostly because of television.
46:54
It looks like it's going to be on ESPN U Friday night.
46:58
So I'm thinking, I actually think Butcher Cross is actually coming to town too.
47:02
So it'll be at least Butcher calling the game this weekend.
47:05
I know people are kind of love hate against him, but at least ESPN is sending their hockey guy.
47:13
Well, he's got to get ready to call Penn State in the NCAA tournament.
47:18
When they host regional, the midwest region.
47:20
The midwest regional.
47:23
Out in Pennsylvania.
47:27
All right, guys.
47:28
Well, it's nice to have a break, but it's also nice to be back on the podcast.
47:34
Remember, you could follow Hammy at Hammy Hockey.
47:37
You could follow Vego at eVego, both on Twitter.
47:40
Veegs, what are you working on right now with The Athletic?
47:43
I'm working on a state of the program article right now, talking to some Athletic Department officials about what they're seeing in their ticket base and what things they're doing to improve the program and improve attendance and things like that.
47:58
And just kind of look at where this program is right now, historically.
48:03
Well, there you go.
48:04
Maybe this week, next week?
48:06
Probably middle of the month.
48:08
Oh, okay.
48:09
I've got a lot of interviews and transcriptions to do on this one.
48:12
So I'm touching base with some of the alumni who are trying to make their mark on the program.
48:18
One of the messages Motska is making right now is the donations and things that they're doing for the program aren't necessarily for him.
48:25
He's just going to be a coach at this program for a short time in the big picture.
48:30
This comes down to what do the alums want Minnesota hockey to be?
48:34
And do they want it to be in kind of this Muck and Mire right now?
48:37
Or do they want the program to be successful?
48:42
Actions speak louder than words sometimes, too.
48:45
Well, we'll keep our fingers across that these alumni got to get it together and get some of these projects kicking because obviously a lot of those kind of projects fell away recently for one reason or another.
48:55
So hopefully we'll get them reimagined and funded fairly soon.
48:59
Yeah, there are more people involved than just Lou Nanny this time.
49:02
So that's probably a good thing for Gopher Hockey.
49:06
I would agree.
49:07
It is a good thing.
49:08
When you hear that Pol and Leopold are down there this week talking to the guys, I think that's a pretty good sign.
49:15
So we shall see.
49:19
All right, guys.
49:20
Good show.
49:22
Remember, folks, we'll be back.
49:24
I think we have shows almost straight through now.
49:27
There's no more weeks off.
49:29
We got this week shows straight through to almost like the Frozen Four almost.
49:33
So we're going to be back here almost every week until the team is done.
49:38
So and that's kind of how it is.
49:40
We're going to be back next week.
49:42
We're going to recap maybe some junior stuff off to see.
49:46
Hopefully, Team USA comes through and we'll definitely recap this series of Penn State and preview the road series at Notre Dame.
49:54
Until then, thanks for listening.
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