0:03 This is the Go4Puck Live Podcast, episode number 15, recorded Tuesday, February 7th, 2012. 0:19 Thank you Welcome to the Gopher Puck Live Podcast, along with Hammeh and Cardinal, I am your host, Jupiter. 0:26 Well, after taking a week off, just like the team did, and also not having Cardinal on the show for almost a month due to him becoming a father, we are now back at full strength. 0:37 Boys, how are ya? 0:39 Not too bad. 0:41 I'm good. 0:42 You're good? 0:42 I mean, that's all you're gonna say? 0:43 Tired and good. 0:45 Tired and good. 0:47 Well, why don't you give us an update? 0:49 You know, obviously we announced it on the podcast quite a few weeks ago, and actually that day you had become a father. 0:55 Why don't you tell us what's going on? 0:57 Yeah, three weeks ago today. 1:00 So he's a little bit over three weeks now. 1:02 And yeah, we, you know, it's obviously our first kid. 1:05 So nothing really to compare it to, except, you know, you hear kind of from other people, but yeah, he's a good kid. 1:11 He sleeps for the most part, although he might make a guest appearance during this at some point, hopefully not. 1:16 But yeah, you know, he's doing well. 1:18 He eats a lot, sleeps a lot and kind of does this thing, but he's definitely bigger and more awake and aware and all that kind of stuff. 1:26 Even compared to, you know, a couple of weeks ago or 10 days ago, even it seems. 1:29 So yeah, he's doing well. 1:32 I see you've been tweeting a couple of pictures of him of watching sports already. 1:37 So I see you already got him going down the right way. 1:40 Oh yeah, we got the Gopher onesies and yeah. 1:44 So yeah, he's watched the Super Bowl and yeah, you know, you got to steer him in the right direction early. 1:49 Although with me as the dad, that shouldn't be too much of an issue when it comes to watching and liking sports hopefully. 1:55 When I had our first, you know, I used to watch the Gopher hockey games with my youngest right on my lap, sound asleep. 2:01 I'd start yelling for a goal, never made a sound, never woke up. 2:05 So hopefully that's the same for you. 2:08 Yeah, we had, well, Burt IBM, or just Burt now I guess on the board, him and his wife, they were over for the Saturday St. 2:16 Cloud game and he, the little guy was asleep, so the four of us were watching and one of the Gophers had that three on one and we all like started to yell and then the kid was down there and so we all did like kind of the abbreviated scream and happiness. 2:28 So yeah, he slept through it, but he was a good luck charm, I guess. 2:31 So yeah, they have a pretty good what, three in one since he's been born. 2:34 So hopefully that trend continues. 2:37 Well, speaking of that St. 2:38 Cloud series, that was the last one that the Minnesota played before the little break here. 2:43 Obviously, Hammey, you predicted a sweep and our guest who was on the show, Jess Myers, picked the sweep, but it was not an easy sweep. 2:52 I mean, they seemed to dominate at times, but man, their goalies were good. 2:58 Yeah, I mean, that's one of the things that we always talk about, the goalie position being the great equalizer, no matter what, the other positions, if the other team has the advantage, if your goalie's having a hot night, you can always keep the games close. 3:13 And I think that that series was sort of, in a nutshell, that kind of a situation. 3:17 I mean, the Gophers, for the most part, I was pretty happy with how they played, especially at that road game up in St. 3:24 Cloud. 3:25 They pretty much dominated a lot of that game. 3:27 And, but yeah, you have to give Mike Lee and Ferger some credit as far as having good performances. 3:36 But yeah, it was definitely a successful weekend in the end. 3:38 You know, I kind of scoff at Bemingesh St. 3:42 Cloud's shorthanded, you know, and that's gonna play a part in it. 3:45 But, you know, I thought some of the fans here or there might've been a little bit, you know, thinking that we were just gonna roll over them, you know. 3:53 And, you know, I suppose in some cases we did, but, you know, on the scoreboard, obviously, is what counts. 3:59 And you have to give the Golis credit. 4:02 Yeah, the Saturday game was, I mean, obviously, the Gopher teams of the early to mid 2000s, when they, you know, back when the WCHA was a little bit more lopsided, in terms of the haves and the have-nots. 4:11 I mean, you'd see performances like that, in terms of not necessarily the score, but, you know, the ice being tilted and the shot margin. 4:18 I mean, you'd see that pretty frequently against, you know, tack and anchorage. 4:21 But for the Gophers to dominate territorially on Saturday night the way they did, like Cami said, I mean, yeah, St. 4:27 Cloud's a little bit shorthanded, but, you know, I think the biggest takeaway I had actually came from the Friday night game. 4:32 And, you know, it was kind of an ugly game, the first half, or even a little bit more. 4:36 But, you know, right away after the game, Bob Matzko, he, you know, credited the Gophers for, you know, being a different defensive team this year than they have been in years past. 4:43 And, you know, you really saw it in that game. 4:45 And, you know, it's just the little things the team does, whether it's, you know, blocking shots or coming back hard. 4:50 And he, you know, Matzko talked about how they were just aggressive to get in the shooting lanes to block shots. 4:54 And they weren't, you know, kind of going in with the flamingo feet and putting one foot up. 4:57 I mean, this team wants to block shots. 4:59 They want to get back and, you know, face-offs. 5:01 That's another thing. 5:02 I mean, I know I've harped on it for years now, but they dominated the face-off circle both nights. 5:06 And again, these are just these little things that the teams kind of seems to have gotten away from in recent years. 5:11 And I think that's really cost them. 5:13 Now they're doing the kind of things you need to do to win in the pole season. 5:16 So, you know, to be top five defensively in the country with, you know, grand, they have a really good goalie, but a defensive core that, you know, has had its issues, been very young, but at the same time, you can't argue with what they have. 5:27 So I think between having such a solid backend and the team doing the little things, I think that's, you know, really gearing them up to have some postseason success. 5:35 And that is, oh, go ahead. 5:37 Yeah, I was going to say that, you know, the defensive play, I think I said it either on the last podcast or the one before that. 5:43 I really believe that that's a really overlooked and underestimated part of the Gopher team this year. 5:50 They, you know, certainly Patterson is, you know, a very good goalie, but if you look at his save percentage, it's not, you know, out of this world, like compared to other teams, yet defensively, you know, as far as goals allowed, the Gophers are among the best in the country, and at some point, you do have to say it's more than just the goalie, and, you know, their team defense two weeks in a row now has been very, you know, has been complimented greatly by the opposing coach for the week before against Colorado College. 6:19 I know Scott Owens was very complimentary of the Gopher, you know, team defense, so you kind of have to start looking at that, and of course, it's going to be very important when we get to the playoffs and, you know, down the stretch that you kind of have that kind of defense. 6:32 Well, they gave up 12 shots Saturday night against St. 6:35 Cloud, in St. 6:36 Cloud. 6:36 I don't recall them ever doing that. 6:39 I mean, obviously, St. 6:40 Cloud did get tired out a bit at the end there, but 13 shots in a place where it can be pretty rough to play a game, that's a pretty good thing. 6:51 Yeah, I mean, you know, like we talked about, you know, to be fair, St. 6:55 Cloud doesn't have their, you know, a lineup in there with some guys being out or having left early, but, you know, you saw them kind of pretty much going to Wisconsin this past weekend and, you know, take it to the Badgers. 7:08 So at the same time, you say to yourself, well, you know, they have the capability of, you know, being a good team, even if they're shorthanded. 7:16 So you do have to give the Gophers some credit in that sense. 7:19 Yeah, and I was going to kind of touch on the same thing. 7:21 I mean, St. 7:21 Cloud's obviously been up and down and they got a little nicked up even in the Gopher series, but you look back in the series leading up to that, I mean, they split against Denver, Western Michigan, they split, split against Colorado College, split against North Dakota. 7:33 So they're playing, you know, top 15, you know, sometimes top 10 teams nationally and, you know, definitely holding their own. 7:39 So despite the fact that they are, you know, pretty banged up, they've been doing really well outside of the Gopher series. 7:44 And like Hammy touched, I went to Wisconsin and that was a Badger team that you thought would be, you know, pretty desperate coming off the heels of, you know, getting swept by North Dakota and kind of needing to save their season in a sense. 7:55 And, you know, I watched the Friday night game and that was a complete abortion for the Badgers. 7:59 But, you know, give St. 8:00 Claude credit. 8:00 They played really well out there and to hold Wisconsin to two goals in the weekend. 8:04 So maybe, you know, instead of bashing St. 8:06 Claude, we just need to do more, you know, not we as us in the podcast, but just people in general, just do more praising the Gophers and the fact that they played two really solid games and got to a critical four points. 8:16 Now, Saturday night, someone we haven't heard from since very early in the season, pretty much bailed us out. 8:24 Sam Warning, that was a big goal for him Saturday night. 8:28 Hopefully it kind of pushes him along, you know, and get some scoring again, but you could really tell the way he celebrated that he needed that goal, not just for the team, but for himself. 8:39 No, absolutely. 8:40 I mean, and, you know, you hear about it in sports all the time about how, you know, momentum and, you know, confidence, it can be, you know, a fragile thing if you're, you know, on both directions. 8:50 I mean, it can certainly, it doesn't necessarily need to take much to get you on the right, you know, paths. 8:55 And so hopefully that is for him. 8:57 He was very good in the USHL last year. 8:59 He scored some goals and I, you know, had a lot of good reports on him from some of the other player parents that, you know, their kid played them. 9:07 And, you know, I just think that he's got that capability, but, you know, he had that stretch of time where he just didn't, wasn't getting anything done. 9:14 And I think he was really just lacking confidence. 9:16 And, you know, when you have that happen, especially your freshman year, it could be difficult to regain. 9:21 So, like you said, hopefully that, you know, game winning goal will keep them on the right track now. 9:27 Yeah. 9:28 And I think in general, too, just that line. 9:30 I mean, not just him. 9:30 I mean, obviously you look at the three guys he's played with for the majority of the year with Hansen and Hola. 9:35 I mean, a warning is going to be third. 9:36 And every time you talk about the success of that line, I mean, those other two guys are going to have to kind of carry the mail and, you know, those two, their play has kind of dropped off, but both Hansen and Hola, I thought, played really good series against St. 9:47 Cloud. 9:47 And then you see warning kind of be the beneficiary. 9:49 But remember even on that play, I mean, it was a great play at the defensive blue line by Jake Hansen to get the puck out and to start that play. 9:56 So I think if those other two guys kind of get it rolling again, I think, you know, warning can kind of be the beneficiary of that. 10:02 Yeah. 10:02 And I have to give Justin Hull a lot of credit on that play too. 10:05 I mean, he definitely played that one to perfection to get the goalie to bite on, you know, the shot. 10:11 And that's what really freed up warning on that one. 10:13 I've given Hull a lot of grief this year for some of his play, but, you know, you have to give him credit on that one. 10:18 So props to him. 10:21 So any other thoughts on the St. 10:22 Cloud weekend? 10:24 Anything that pops out for you? 10:26 I mean, obviously, are you worried about the lack of offense? 10:29 I mean, obviously their goalies were hot, but the offense has been kind of a story in the last month or so. 10:36 Yeah. 10:37 I mean, I don't know if I, you know, if I get too concerned about that, you know, especially in the second half, teams are going to be more accustomed to playing together in their systems and, you know, what lines they're on. 10:49 And people are buckling down more in the second half because, you know, every game means so much, especially, obviously in league play. 10:57 So, you know, I don't know that I get too worked up about, you know, the amount of goals. 11:02 It's to me, are they getting opportunities? 11:04 And it's something like we've talked about, you know, like with the week before and CC, I mean, sometimes you just have to give credit to the other team's goalie. 11:11 You know, I think fans get a little bit, you know, oh, we're always just shooting right into the middle of his midsection. 11:17 Well, I mean, if he's in position, you know, it's either that or sometimes, I mean, you know, they're in the right spot. 11:23 They're not going to give you a hell of a lot to shoot at. 11:25 So you're either going to hit them or you're going to miss the net. 11:27 You know, these guys aren't going to be plucking corners every single shot. 11:31 So you have to give them the other team credit too. 11:35 I mean, I think maybe the only concern a little bit might be Rao and just how, you know, he seems to have worn down a little bit after the, you know, he got off to such a great start and that was, you know, probably set the expectations maybe a little bit too high for people. 11:45 But, you know, since the world junior, I don't have the numbers, but I mean, he hasn't obviously been scoring as much. 11:50 And, you know, you kind of throw out some of the games at the start of the year where the offense kind of got a little inflated, you know, the Sacred Heart games and they put up 10 goals against Vermont. 11:58 And, you know, ever since then, you know, it's been a lot of, you know, two, three, four goals. 12:01 So it's not like they've been a, you know, offensive juggernaut. 12:04 But I think this team will be fine in the pole season. 12:06 I mean, obviously, Bukestead is going to be there. 12:07 And like I touched on a little bit ago with Hanson Hull kind of coming on. 12:11 And, you know, you're going to get that not necessarily an odd short-handed goal. 12:14 But, you know, Matson and Condon, I think those guys will be pretty dependable down the stretch and maybe get a goal of series from that line. 12:19 But, you know, I think, you know, Raul and then to a lesser extent, Budish, you know, in the GPL Twitter feed that is kind of going back and forth with a few people about the Budish and just the fact that a lot of people don't think he should be on that line or that he drags them down. 12:32 But I'm total opposite. 12:33 I mean, he's creates a lot of space out there. 12:35 And I think a guy like Budish will touch on it when we preview this weekend series. 12:39 But once you get on the smaller ice sheets and we know that the regional and the final five, those are all on those small ice sheets. 12:45 A guy like Budish can really open up a lot of space. 12:47 But again, back to Rao. 12:49 I just think he's a guy that can kind of regain that scoring touch and maybe get him kind of if he hit the freshman wall or whatever it is, he can kind of get that second win and get him going again. 12:57 Maybe not at the clip that he was going at the start of the year, but maybe a goal a weekend type pace, just getting that one extra goal a weekend I think is going to go a long way considering how well the defense has come along. 13:08 Hopefully the week off will be key with some of those guys getting some of the legs back. 13:14 And as far as Rowlett, I think he has, I looked at a goal and four assists in the seven games that they've had since he came back from World Junior. 13:22 So I mean, not terrible, but yeah, he's not putting the puck in the net quite at the same pace. 13:28 Well, we took a week off from the podcast and there was quite a few games that we could recap, but I figured we'll stick on the big ones that have happened in the past two weekends. 13:38 Obviously, there might be some concerns up there in Duluth. 13:42 Michigan Tech comes in there a couple of weeks ago, gets three points out of four. 13:47 Then they hit up to Anchorage and obviously, they've not always played well in Anchorage, but they were the number one team in the country and they split with Anchorage. 13:59 What's going on up in Duluth there, Cardinal? 14:02 Well, it's not to be expected, but if you take a step back for Duluth, I don't think anybody, even the great drunk hockey guy, thought that this team would be ripping through the regular season and have whatever it was, a 15 game unbeaten streak and three losses into the new year. 14:17 Obviously, they lost some pretty key parts from the team last year, and Mike Connolly and Justin Falk, but at the same time, they brought back some nice parts. 14:24 I think most people predict him to finish third, fourth in the WCHA, but I think, again, kind of like Raul, with the hot start, it might have got inflated a little bit, and it could be one of those things where these see the competition on the schedule, and Alabama, Huntsville, they kind of, a couple one goal wins against them, and then to, obviously, the weekend is before nothing ahead on Friday night, and then tonight, score a goal the rest of the weekend, and I think split up at Anchorage is fine for any team, I think, given the travel and whatever, it's pretty rare that you see a team go up there and win a pair, but I just think the team was maybe due for a little bit of a letdown and combined with who you see on the schedule, but from a Gophers standpoint, it's worked out very well because, obviously, Gophers, you want to win the league, but big picture-wise, just to finish in the top two and hopefully win your first round series and get that by at the final five, it seems like the Gophers, if they can get a couple points this weekend, they'll be in a great position to do that, thanks in large part to Duluth not really taking advantage of the soft stretch they've had here the last few weeks, and you can look at Duluth's schedule the rest of the way. 15:23 I mean, this weekend's gonna be no treat with North Dakota at home, and then they have a couple road series in state against Mankato and St. 15:29 Cloud, and in between that, a home series against Colorado College who's playing pretty well. 15:33 So, yeah, it seems like Duluth may have kind of missed out on taking advantage of that part of the schedule, and to be honest, it almost looks like the Gophers right now have an easier road to the finish line than the Bulldogs do in terms of who's on the schedule. 15:46 Yeah, I mean, I think that the big thing, Connelly seems to have slowed down a bit in recent weeks. 15:52 I think he's got like two points in our last four games, and obviously he's kind of the straw that stirs the drink up there, so that's of course very important. 16:00 But I mean, yeah, for me, you know, obviously I'm not watching these games, so I can't say firsthand what's going on, but I would be, you know, I've talked about it before that I always get a little paranoid when my team goes on a really long stretch, unbeaten stretch during, you know, early to midseason, because you just say to yourself during that time, it's not going to last, you know, teams don't, you know, unless you're like main of whatever that year was 93, or I can't remember what it was, but, you know, you're not going to go on and rip off the stretch of just going undefeated pretty much the whole season. 16:31 And you just think like, you know, in a way it might be, maybe it's good that Duluth goes through this now, as opposed to, you know, a month from now. 16:38 But I think there's a reason to be concerned. 16:41 I mean, when you squeak by Huntsville a couple of times at home and, you know, Tech gave them all they could handle and, you know, granted it is a nasty trip to Anchorage and, you know, plenty of great Gopher teams have split up there. 16:54 Nonetheless, you know, you kind of expect that if you're, you know, Duluth's one of those teams, you kind of expect that they're just going to go up there and they're going to win. 17:03 And so, yeah, I think there's reason to be concerned. 17:05 And like Ryan touched on, North Dakota this weekend is going to be very interesting. 17:09 I think that that's going to be very hard fought. 17:12 And, you know, Mankato's can be tricky at home, although I would expect Duluth to win that kind of a series. 17:19 But, yeah, I mean, I agree that if you look on paper right now, the Gophers have a bit of an advantageous schedule. 17:26 I mean, they still have Denver and, you know, what is it? 17:29 They have Bemidji at home. 17:31 And I can't remember who else they have off the top of my head. 17:33 At Omaha. 17:34 Yeah, at Omaha and then home to the Badgers. 17:36 Yeah, and, you know, Badgers have been terrible on the road. 17:39 And Bemidji's, you know, will probably be competitive. 17:42 But you don't know what you're going to get with UNO. 17:45 I mean, they could be good. 17:46 They can be crappy. 17:47 So, yeah, I mean, I've messed around a little bit on that. 17:51 What if calculator and, you know, pretty much everything that I've come, you know, put in there. 17:55 I, you know, and I'm realistic about it. 17:57 The Gophers still come out winning the league. 18:00 So I like where they're sitting, but you still have to prove it on the ice. 18:04 Obviously, not too many other exciting series in the past couple of weeks. 18:09 Wisconsin went up to North Dakota, got swept out of there. 18:13 They come back home, get swept by St. 18:15 Cloud. 18:16 We have Bemidji still doing very well against UNO. 18:20 What are you guys' thoughts on any of the series that have happened in the last couple of weeks? 18:24 Cardinal? 18:26 Well, yeah, I mean, I think we've kind of touched on the big ones. 18:28 I mean, I think the biggest one that you briefly mentioned was the Wisconsin-North Dakota one. 18:32 And at the time, Wisconsin was kind of heading in the right direction and had a pretty good run. 18:37 Now, granted, they had some kind of softer teams built around the holidays, like a lot of teams do, including the Gophers, most often. 18:42 But they were getting going, and with this being such a young Wisconsin team, you thought maybe that things were kind of clicking for them and they have a really good top line, and they got the McCabe kid back on defense, and they were kind of getting it going there. 18:55 But the wheels have completely come off for the last few weeks, and they have a pretty difficult finish, too. 19:00 I think they're off this week, and then they're at home against Denver. 19:04 And then, as tradition, I think they always have some sort of Wisconsin high school thing or whatever. 19:08 I know Yves always complains about it, that they always have to finish the season on the road. 19:12 But they're at Bemidji and then at Minnesota, they close the season. 19:15 So I think, conversely, North Dakota, they've obviously been hot as well, and they kept it going. 19:19 So it looks like North Dakota is going to probably get home ice now. 19:23 And it looks like Wisconsin is going to be the next, is going to have their final four regular season games on the road. 19:27 But they're going to be on the road to start the playoffs as well. 19:31 Yeah, I was very surprised at how bad Wisconsin looked against, you know, St. 19:36 Cloud's undermanned. 19:38 But you don't expect to get pretty much blown out on home ice, five to one to an undermanned team, I don't care, you know, young or not or whatever. 19:46 I mean, that was a pretty shocking game for me. 19:49 I was like, wow, you know, I did not expect that. 19:51 And when I look at their schedule, it would not surprise me if they win like maybe one game for the rest of the year. 19:58 I mean, they do have, you know, they've been crappy on the road. 20:03 And having Denver at home, you know, Denver's going to be a difficult task, certainly just as difficult, I mean, going to be more difficult than the St. 20:11 Cloud you would expect on paper, at least. 20:13 And so, yeah, if I were a Badger fan, this would not be looking pretty right now. 20:19 Well, what about Michigan Tech? 20:20 They're still hanging around there. 20:22 They're tied with North Dakota right there in the middle of the pack. 20:27 You think they might still have a chance of sneaking in on one of those last home ice spots? 20:32 Well, I mean, you look at their schedule and it's not, I mean, it's four hems at home, four on the road and Omaha and St. 20:39 Cloud at home and then two really tough trips at North Dakota and then out at Colorado College to kind of close the season. 20:45 But, I mean, you look at the standings right now and Tech, obviously, like you said, they're right in the middle of grouping and they play some of these teams that they're going to have to beat out. 20:54 So, I mean, they've hung around this far and I'm getting them 10, 8 and 2, so basically a 500 team. 20:59 But, I mean, this isn't that kind of a version of the WCHA. 21:02 I mean, if you had to grade the league this year in terms of strength, I mean, I don't think there's any great teams and, you know, obviously the Gophers and Duluth and, you know, maybe North Dakota creeps into that conversation with how well they're going. 21:12 By the end of the year, they could be some really good teams. 21:14 But, I mean, you know, it's not like this league is going to get five teams into the, you know, NCAA tournament or anything like that. 21:20 So, yeah, I mean, I don't see any reason why Michigan Tech, I mean, you look at the teams behind them and, you know, Omaha and they're tied with Omaha, but, you know, St. 21:27 Claude, Bemidji, Wisconsin. 21:28 I mean, I don't see any of these teams making, you know, some huge charge to kind of overtake them. 21:33 So between the fact that Tech's been solid and there's nobody really behind them making some, you know, super hard charge to the finish line, yeah, why not? 21:40 I think that'd be awesome and good for those guys if they're able to have somebody come to Houghton for the first round. 21:45 Yeah, I really believe they're going to sneak in, you know, on that fifth or sixth spot and get, you know, one of those home ice, you know, spots. 21:54 I just really feel like, you know, for me, the one that I question the most at this point is Omaha because I just think that they're so inconsistent and up and down that you just don't know what you're going to get from them and they just don't, whenever I've seen them, they just don't look all that inspired or put together for, you know, especially a blaze-led team. 22:13 And so with the way North Dakota has been playing and, you know, Tech's going to be, you know, schedule or not, they're going to, they're a team that clearly is, got a new attitude and is going to battle. 22:24 And so I expect them to be in there for home ice. 22:27 Well, there's been quite a few little news bits that have happened in the last couple weeks since we last had our podcast. 22:34 Probably the biggest thing I would say, Joel Maturi is going to not be renewed. 22:40 He'll be done at the end of June. 22:43 What are your guys' thoughts on this? 22:45 I mean, people have been thinking for a while he wasn't going to be renewed, but it's official now. 22:51 There will no longer be Joel Maturi running the Athletic Department. 22:56 Well, I mean, I think, I always, for the hockey fans, I mean, other than maybe some of the changes in the stands and stuff like that, that for me personally has not been a big deal, but for other people has been a big deal. 23:11 And he's been pretty good for Gopher Hockey, so I mean, he's been part of the NCAA kind of stuff, and he's always been a big supporter of the Gopher Hockey program, and of course, he is for all the athletic programs, but he's always been there for the hockey, and so I thought he did a pretty good job overall. 23:32 I mean, he made some glaring errors obviously in some of the sports, especially football, and that's going to be the one that people stick on him the most, but it'll be interesting to see what they do for the next person, if it's going to be somebody that's got any kind of hockey background or not. 23:48 I mean, we had this discussion on USCHO about the next guy, and he's going to be more focused on football and how that's going to affect hockey and whatever, and I really don't believe it's one of your cash cows. 24:03 You have three teams that are really making you money, and you're not going to ignore the ones that make you money. 24:08 So yes, football will always be the most important because it's the one with the most financial upside, but hockey will not be forgotten. 24:16 Plus, the boosters and the alumni are a way to involve with the hockey program. 24:22 They would definitely have their voice heard. 24:24 So it'll be interesting to see who the next guy is. 24:27 I think that people may have been a little too hard on Maturi when it comes to the coaching and the football. 24:34 I mean, we have not had a successful program in 50 years. 24:39 I mean, really. 24:40 I mean, they've been good a few times, but really they haven't been relevant since like 1960. 24:46 So I don't put so much on them with football. 24:50 This has been a terrible program, essentially since the Vikings arrived. 24:55 So I guess I don't have as much a problem with them on the football side. 24:59 Yeah. 24:59 And that's one thing where, you know, I don't have as big of a kind of a macro view of the U as maybe Hamme can speak to and, you know, with Maturi, but just like you said with the football thing, I mean, Sid, that's one thing where he kind of harps on it and whether he's right or wrong in terms of the, you know, kind of the president or whomever of the school, you know, actually backing the football program like other schools do in his mind. 25:18 I mean, the fact remains, like you said, that, you know, the football program has been terrible for 50 years. 25:23 And, you know, it's pretty rare where you see a terrible football program at a major conference go from being, you know, towards the bottom of the standings to consistently being in the top of the standings. 25:33 And it's kind of, that's a pretty tough thing to turn around. 25:35 And I guess that's that way in almost any sport. 25:37 I mean, you look in hockey and, you know, pretty much every year at the bottom of the WCHA, you're going to be able to peg who those teams are. 25:42 And that's the same thing for Big Ten basketball or, you know, ACC basketball or whatever. 25:47 It's just, it's a very tough thing to do and you have to, you know, really catch magic in a bottle. 25:51 And I think the way, I think the thing that hurt him the most was not that Brewster failed, but it's the way he failed with the whole rah rah and all that BS about going to the Rose Bowl and Pasadena and just the way he flamed out and how easy he was to take shots at that, that kind of came back on Maturi. 26:07 And I think if Brewster would have been, you know, more of the Jerry Killmold where maybe he'll succeed, maybe he won't, but he's not so hateable, I guess, in the eyes of fans, then, you know, I don't think Maturi would be taking nearly as much flak as, you know, he has in recent weeks or recent days, I should say, with, you know, his resignation, firing, whatever you want to call it, but obviously happening pretty soon. 26:28 Well, Maturi is going to be moving on. 26:30 Hopefully, obviously, we get somebody who's pro hockey in here. 26:33 We'd love to see many changes. 26:37 You know, a couple weeks ago, we talked about some possible changes of Mariucci, you know, scoreboard, blah, blah, blah, this and that. 26:45 And for the first time, in, I don't think I ever remember, Lucia actually mentioned this on his radio show, how it's time to upgrade Mariucci. 26:56 You know, I heard it on many different outlets. 26:58 I heard it on the radio. 26:59 I heard it on TV. 27:01 This is kind of the first time that he's spoken out about this, you know. 27:04 We need a new scoreboard. 27:06 We need a new player area, a new weight room. 27:09 Just improvements all around. 27:10 Do you guys have any thoughts on this? 27:13 I mean, is it something that Lucia is going to have to push or are we just going to be kind of hosed for a couple years because basketball is getting the big push, you know, with practice facility and everything else? 27:25 Yeah, I mean, I would definitely agree with Lucia in that, you know, I don't travel quite as much anymore due to my job, but just in going and seeing other arenas and, you know, what other programs have to offer, I mean, there definitely needs to be improvements at Mariucci even though it is, you know, relatively new, but yet, you know, what, it's 20 years old basically. 27:42 But the thing I worry about, I don't know how much of this is tied to Maturi or where this kind of gets clogged up, but it just seems like all these big endeavors by the U to do things, whether it's the baseball stadium or the, you know, Tubby Smith wanting the practice facility, it just seems like you hear about these things forever and ever and they don't get done. 27:59 Now, granted, you know, improving Mariucci isn't the same scale as a new, you know, baseball field or a, you know, new building or facility. 28:06 And you think with the money that hockey makes, I know Lucia kind of alluded to this in the, on his radio show on 1500, that it shouldn't be a huge deal. 28:15 But I, I just worry with the U and especially with the change at the top and who knows, you know, there's obviously going to be bigger fish to fry. 28:21 And I just worry that even though he's a hundred percent right, that this might not be something that comes to fruition for quite a while. 28:27 And that's been my biggest concern as well. 28:29 You know, I'm glad that he's starting to talk about it, but it might go on deaf ears, you know, especially with a new guy coming in. 28:37 It just, we might be stuck for a few more years. 28:41 Well, I mean, I think it's one of those cases where a coach has to be an advocate for what his program needs. 28:46 So speaking up, you know, I think that is very smart to do. 28:49 I mean, if he's not going to speak up and say, hey, we need improvements, then who's going to? 28:53 You know, fans aren't, you know, alumni aren't, I mean, they're the ones that use the arena every day in the weight room and all that kind of stuff. 29:01 And if they're not saying anything, obviously nobody else is going to say anything. 29:04 So yeah, it's very smart to be outspoken about it. 29:08 You know, like Cardinal touched on, the things that Lucia suggested, they're not like massive, you know, undertakings in some respects, at least. 29:17 I don't know what, when he talks about, you know, renovating things for the players, you know, downstairs in the weight room stuff. 29:23 I mean, I don't imagine that those would be, you know, that difficult to do. 29:27 I mean, the scoreboard obviously would be, you know, I would imagine a pretty pricey thing. 29:30 And, you know, so some of that stuff I think is relatively doable without a lot of push. 29:37 I mean, but then again, I'm not down there doing the pushing, so who am I to say? 29:40 But I think that, you know, I understand, I mean, obviously the baseball and the basketball stuff is going to take priority and those, of course, are going to have, going to need a lot more, you know, fundraising. 29:54 The way I look at it, though, is when you have, like, somebody like Lou Nanny that's obviously a big booster of the program and, you know, he's going to have, you know, possibly three grandsons going through the program here in the near future, you got to, you'd have to think, like, for him it would be important that they have the best, you know, opportunities for training and whatever else. 30:14 And I would imagine that, you know, guys like that would probably be able to get behind what Luci is saying and maybe help him, you know, get some of those things accomplished. 30:22 You know, I've heard some of the things that they've thought about doing, like, in the player areas downstairs. 30:27 I mean, some of that even includes possibly expanding the locker room area all the way over down towards where the visitor locker room is and move the visitors back to one of the other locker rooms. 30:39 So, they're thinking about really expanding the area down there and give themselves a little bit more room. 30:45 And the same kind of with the weight room. 30:46 You know, the weight room is kind of, it's upstairs, it's out of the way. 30:49 There's a lot of things they could probably do with that as well. 30:53 Another thing I heard was, you know, to get a sound system that would sound decent, they need to spend about a million dollars just for a sound system that would work in that arena. 31:08 So, obviously, that's quite expensive just for a sound system. 31:11 So, it may be a while. 31:14 Well, yeah, I mean, you know. 31:16 I mean, a million dollars just for a decent sound system. 31:19 Yeah. 31:19 Something that you would hear at, you know, like at Adam's Oil or up at the Ralph, you know. 31:24 Something that actually you can hear throughout the entire arena. 31:26 Sounds good. 31:27 You could feel it and it's not like a PA system that they kind of have now. 31:32 Well, my feeling on it, quite honestly, and this is probably not, you know, a fan friendly perspective, but the things that are more about, you know, the game environment, I think should be kind of second to what can you put into, you know, the players and what's going to attract recruits, things of that nature, because ultimately, that's what's most important. 31:54 And certainly, you want the fans to enjoy themselves, but let's face it, you know, if you're winning games, fans generally are willing to overlook some of the, you know, the negative stuff. 32:05 And so to me, investing in anything that's going to be related to the players is going to be at the top of the list. 32:10 And then, you know, the stuff with the scoreboard and the sound system that maybe takes a little more investment, I mean, that to me, you can maybe put off a little bit longer, as much as we would like to have it be great. 32:22 You know, I just think that you have to have priorities on that stuff. 32:26 I think, you know, the other side to that coin, though, and not that I have a ton of insight on this, but just working for the Vikings, you know, we face some of these same battles. 32:33 And I think if obviously the recruiting stuff and getting a weight room that's better or whatever would be better for that side. 32:40 But I think a lot of these other ones, whether it's the, you know, those ribbon boards around the inside of the arena or a new board, I think a lot of that can be, yeah, it's going to cost X. 32:49 But if it can help your advertising and you can get revenue back off that, you know, I think that might register at a higher level at the U with people that are more focused on the bottom line versus, you know, the intangible stuff of a weight room with recruits. 33:02 I mean, I know we understand that as fans that that should be more important. 33:05 But if there's a salesperson or whomever that can say, if we have this kind of, you know, nav or whatever, you know, the ribbon around the arena and we can, yeah, I can present scores, but we can sell it to company X, Y and Z and we can generate the money back quicker. 33:19 You know what I mean? 33:20 I think that kind of viewpoint can kind of hold water too with people and especially at the U where, you know, obviously these days they're looking to get every last penny they can out of the, you know, the three main revenue generating sports. 33:30 So I think, you know, I agree with you that, you know, the stuff that's more hockey related is for sure more important. 33:35 I just think the other kind of stuff that resonates with the bottom line a little bit more could be, you know, bumped up on the priority list. 33:42 Oh, I mean, I totally agree with, you know, with that take. 33:45 My, the only reason I didn't mention something like that is because Lucia, at least in the article I read, that wasn't mentioned, you know, the scoreboard, the ribbon scoreboard, whatever. 33:53 So, but yeah, I mean, anything that's obviously going to increase your revenue opportunities, certainly that would be willing to, you know, you're going to, you should invest in those kinds of things. 34:01 I mean, it's just business sense. 34:03 And hopefully, you know, the views kind of stick to their word on what they're going to do with this extra money that they're getting for all the seat money. 34:10 Well, it's, I think, starting next year with all these extra fees, you know, $200, $300 for a seat in a certain section. 34:18 I mean, they say once they start collecting that money, that they'll start making improvements. 34:22 So hopefully, they make good on that promise. 34:25 Well, they better. 34:26 I mean, you know, I mean, fans are not going to be very happy if they see the same old same old after, you know, having their prices jacked up that much for seat, you know, for the priority seating or so. 34:38 I mean, I think it would be a huge mistake if they didn't, you know, at least show some improvements, you know, after they start collecting some of this money. 34:48 Well, we've got a few questions and I thought this might lead into another topic, but Mr. 34:53 Jake P on Twitter is wondering, have you heard any more on the Excel being a possible site for the Big Ten tournament? 35:02 Obviously, some news came out this week that, you know, the Big Ten might not want to go to the arena arenas for their tournament and that they may want to go to the X. 35:11 I think this kind of started with Wisconsin having a lot of potential conflicts and stuff like that, but it sounds like that they may want to go to the X and maybe to Detroit for their tournament. 35:23 What do you guys think? 35:25 Well, for me, I always thought that that was, I didn't, I mean, I don't know how Cardinal felt, but I thought that how they originally talked about doing it was a mistake from the beginning. 35:34 I mean, I think, you know, obviously we're going to look at it from an Excel perspective, but to me, you know, we've seen, granted, you know, we can't expect it to be exactly like the final five, but nonetheless, you know, we've seen how great that environment can be. 35:50 I do believe that this is a, you know, a great college hockey market. 35:53 I can't speak for Detroit. 35:54 It seems like they have some decent attendance numbers for the CCHA tournament, but, and I don't know how they're planning on, you know, if it's going to be an alternating or if they're just going to do it at Excel for a little bit and then go, or, you know, I don't know how they're planning on doing it, but I always thought it was a big mistake from the beginning to just do it on campus sites because, you know, other conferences are not going to look at it that way. 36:16 And, you know, I think it would have been, you know, from an attention standpoint, a big mistake to have, you know, like the NCHC coming to Excel, you know, and, you know, probably getting decent crowds. 36:29 Granted, you know, we saw what they might have to face last year at the Final Five. 36:33 The attendance was way down when basically North Dakota was the biggest draw and, you know, their attendance for the Final Five was down, like, I don't know, 20 or 30,000 compared to, like, you know, three, four years ago. 36:45 But, you know, nonetheless, you're basically allowing them all the attention and one of your key markets and that, I think, would have been a big mistake. 36:53 And so the idea that they're going to be at Excel now, you know, possibly at Excel, I think that that kind of usurps any kind of competition and so I think that's a good idea. 37:03 Yeah, I agree. 37:04 I mean, I didn't have a huge problem with it either way, but I think, you know, just in kind of looking at some of the other smaller conferences, you know, when you see a conference tournament game being played on somebody's home rank, it just kind of has a junior varsity feel to it. 37:17 And even if there might be, you know, financial or logistical reasons why that might make some sense, I think, I mean, you do it in an NHL arena and be big time with it. 37:25 And like Cami said, I mean, if it kind of thwarts off the national or whatever, the fagginy, and they want to call themselves, so be it, that's fine. 37:32 But I think the bigger point is just that it helps, you know, with the Big Ten theme. 37:37 I mean, if you're the Big Ten and these schools are all printing money to some degree when it comes to the hockey programs and, you know, that it's going to be the Big Ten conference, I think it just kind of makes it seem kind of small potatoes to put it, you know, especially if it's going to be a Penn States ranked or somewhere where, yeah, it's going to be a nice rank, but it just doesn't have any cache or tradition or anything like that. 37:55 I mean, put it at the X or, you know, Joe Lewis, that's fine if you want to get in some sort of rotating deal, even, you know, nationwide in Columbus, you know, it's kind of, it's not, you know, the same as the X or the Joe, but, I mean, it's in the mix of them and in an area where, you know, you're going to have teams, you know, obviously every team is going to be there. 38:11 So, yeah, I hope they go with the bigger arena decision. 38:14 I think it'll work well. 38:16 Well, plus a lot of it has to do with planning. 38:17 I mean, you may be waiting till the last week of the season to know where the tournament is going to go. 38:24 I mean, if they wanted to do what they originally wanted to do. 38:27 So, I think at least knowing that year where you're going to go would be a big advantage over, hey, we don't know if we're going to Yost or if we're going to, you know, MUN or wherever. 38:40 That would be quite complicated. 38:42 Well, I think from a ticket sales standpoint, too, from what I saw for the setup, all six teams are going to be, you know, there. 38:50 Yeah, yeah. 38:51 That's kind of where I was going with that. 38:52 Yeah. 38:53 And so, it's like, you know, you know your team is going to be there and odds are, you know, they're going to be selling ticket packages so you know that, you know, you're going to be buying ticket packages. 39:02 So, you know, maybe the attendance, I don't know what the attendance might be. 39:05 I mean, that's pretty difficult to predict. 39:07 But, you know, you know that you're going to be selling tickets in that kind of a situation. 39:12 And obviously, from a financial standpoint, that's really what you want. 39:17 And one of the differences, though, even with the Final Five is even though, you know, Minnesota wasn't there the last couple of years and Wisconsin wasn't there as well last year, there were still a lot of Minnesota fans that were there because they buy a season ticket package. 39:31 You're one of them, aren't you, Cardinal? 39:33 Yeah, absolutely. 39:34 You were there and there's, I mean, I think a lot of Minnesota fans did sell their tickets to sue fans and whatever, but it would be a completely different thing if Minnesota was never going to be there. 39:45 So if the National tried to get to the X, it would be a completely different situation than the WCHA Final Five without Minnesota. 39:54 Yeah, I agree. 39:55 And I know we had talked last year kind of when the rumors of all this, or maybe it was the summer, I can't remember all the timeline, all that stuff went down, but just with our group that even if the Big Ten wasn't here or whatever in the National or whatever it was, that we'd probably keep our tickets for that just to watch good college hockey. 40:11 But like you said, I think we'd be in the vast, vast minority on that and that most people would rather not and they would just watch on TV or whatever. 40:19 So yeah, I think you're spot on with that. 40:23 All right, moving on. 40:24 Let's get into this week. 40:27 WCHA, obviously we've got almost a full slate of games this week. 40:32 Let's kick it off with UNO heading up to Michigan Tech, guys. 40:38 UNO up and down, Michigan Tech tied with them in the points. 40:43 I'm seeing maybe a split here or maybe even three points for Tech. 40:46 Hammeh, what do you think? 40:47 Yeah, I mean, I've obviously mentioned earlier, I haven't been a huge fan of Omaha this year in a way that they've been so inconsistent. 40:56 And it seems like, for the most part, when I look at their schedule, what they've played so far, it seems like one game they'll play relatively well, and the other game they'll play crappy, or they'll play pretty mediocre. 41:09 I think it's pretty hard to expect that they're going to walk into Houghton and sweep them. 41:17 But I would think at best it's going to be a split. 41:20 I like the way Tech plays, and they're real pesky, and certainly they have a lot more fire this year. 41:26 So yeah, I honestly would expect that Tech's going to get, you know, probably, you know what, I'll go with the sweep. 41:33 I think Tech might sweep them. 41:36 Yeah, that wouldn't be a huge shock. 41:37 I just think right now Omaha's goaltending is just so hit and miss, and if you don't have that kind of goaltending, I don't think you can really go on the road and expect to have a lot of success, especially this late in the year going against a team that's kind of equal to you or fighting for a spot, going to Mankato or somebody that's pretty much locked into the bottom of the standing. 41:55 So I'd say three points for Tech, but obviously that's not far off from the sweeps. 42:00 I think the Huskies will do fairly well this weekend. 42:02 Then we have CC heading up to Bemidji State. 42:06 Cardinal? 42:08 Well, this is kind of a, CC has been a little bit up and down, but they have kind of a tough schedule. 42:13 I mean, but you look at last weekend, they get three out of four points from Denver. 42:16 And Denver is getting health and they had Sam Britton. 42:20 We'll basically touch on that in a little bit. 42:21 But for Bemidji, they're kind of in the mix. 42:25 They need a pretty strong finish that they're going to make a push for home ice or anything like that. 42:29 But we'll see what CC is made of. 42:31 They're the goaltending, the kid that I can't forget his name, the kid that went against the Gophers. 42:41 So I think they were kind of built to go on the road. 42:43 And again, they're, I don't want to say similar to the Gophers, but they kind of have that no name decor. 42:47 They obviously have Gabe Gensel, but past that, there's not a lot of household names. 42:51 But they have some pretty high end forwards and they have a goalie who's been really, really good. 42:55 So I'd say they'll probably go up there and split. 42:57 It's kind of, you know, the small ice and CC, they're not really built for that. 43:00 But obviously the CC has the vast edge and talent. 43:03 So yeah, I'll say a split. 43:05 Yeah, I agree with that. 43:07 You know, the one thing I guard against it, and this is kind of what the Gophers will face, is, you know, what's the effect of, you know, coming off of your biggest rival series going to have on, you know, on your team? 43:19 And so, you know, is CC going to be, you know, have a letdown coming on the road against, you know, not exactly one of the WCHA powers? 43:28 And, you know, are they going to go in there? 43:30 And, I mean, I don't think they'll underestimate them necessarily, but it's only natural maybe to have a little bit of a letdown mentally, you know, after you've had a big series against your biggest rival, and how's that going to affect you? 43:42 So I would think that Bemidji should come out of that series with at least a win. 43:45 And it wouldn't shock me if they get more than two points just because I am a little bit leery of that letdown factor. 43:53 Does anybody care about Mankato heading up to Anchorage? 43:57 No. 43:58 I don't think their fans even care. 44:00 I mean, neither of them draws more than a hundred fans a game, I think, so. 44:04 Oh, you know, I did watch some of that AA Duluth games last week, and I mean, they've got the number one team in the country, in their barn, and there's nobody there. 44:16 You hear individual fans cheering, and obviously the cowbells, and it's just, they can't get anybody to show up, and obviously with Mankato, it's maybe about the same, and maybe they just don't know or care up there. 44:28 Well, I saw a little bit of the, you know, one of the recent Mankato games, and it looked pretty empty in that rink, and so... 44:36 Oh, at Mankato? 44:38 Oh, yeah. 44:38 Okay. 44:38 I mean, it was like on one of those, what, Channel 13, I don't know whatever that station is, but I mean, it was pretty empty, and I was like, wow, that's not good. 44:49 Well, let's just say split up there, then. 44:51 Sounds good. 44:53 Pretty big series. 44:54 North Dakota heading up to Duluth. 44:59 I believe their Friday game is on CBS Sports Network or something. 45:04 I believe it's on one of those national stations. 45:07 Hammeh, what are your thoughts on this series? 45:10 Well, I mean, it will be very interesting. 45:14 This is one of those things, I think, for UMD where you kind of have to, it might be one of those turning points of the season where you're like, okay, we've been kind of slumping a little bit, and here comes a team that's kind of done real well, from what I understand at least, in Duluth in recent years, and now is the time to stem the tide, and is that going to happen or not? 45:37 You know, North Dakota's obviously been doing much better, and I personally think this will probably end up being a split, but I think that UMD has to watch out in this series, because if they get swept, it's one of those things like we talked about earlier with confidence and momentum, and when you're going into the last month of the season, the last thing you want to do is when you're losing three or four out of your last five games or whatever, I'm going to say it's going to be a split. 46:12 Yeah, I'll pretty much echo what Hammeh said. 46:13 And just, you know, it's kind of anecdotally, North Dakota seems to do pretty well against Duluth. 46:18 And, you know, Duluth is obviously heading in the wrong direction right now, and the Seward kind of heading the other way. 46:23 So, you know, North Dakota had the last week off, so I don't know if that's good for a team at this point in the year, whether you're kind of getting some momentum going, if you'd rather just keep playing, and we'll kind of see how they bounce back from that. 46:33 You'd probably think it's good for North Dakota, just because they seem to have a lot of the nagging injuries. 46:37 You know, a few of the guys are, you know, like Grimaldi are for sure done for the year, but it seemed like they had a lot of guys like Forbert and, you know, Mario Lambert, who was battling something. 46:44 So some of these guys that, you know, probably definitely used the week off. 46:48 So yeah, like Hammy said, it's a tough spot for Duluth in a way. 46:51 I mean, Duluth, not that their backs are against the wall, or you don't want to overreact like that, but if things go south this weekend, you know, then I think they have four of their last six on the road and, you know, things start to get a little bit dicey. 47:02 But I think, you know, I think Duluth will be ready, and they were due for a little bit of a soft spot with how well they have been playing. 47:07 And, you know, I think they'll definitely be ready, and I wouldn't be surprised if they come out smoking on Friday night and maybe North Dakota gets them on Saturday. 47:13 But yeah, I'd say a split. 47:15 All right. 47:16 Lamaroo's battling ugliness is what he's battling. 47:22 Ugly stick. 47:24 Wow. 47:26 Ugh, shutter. 47:28 Finally, that gets us to Minnesota, heading out to Denver. 47:32 Friday night, the game has been moved back a little bit due to some television. 47:37 It's going to be on the NBC Sports Network nationally and obviously on FSN all weekend. 47:43 And Jupe, real quick on that, I was doing a little inciting with a person close to the situation. 47:48 And for those that are not big fans of the FSN broadcast crew, TSN's Gord Miller will be calling the game on the NBC Sports Network. 47:56 And it will be on the air here. 47:58 I know a lot of times in a situation like this, the national broadcast is blacked out and you're forced to watch the local one. 48:03 But according to the reports, it will be Gord Miller. 48:07 So those looking for maybe the best play-by-play guy outside of Doc Emmerich, he will be calling the Maroon and Gold game on Friday night on NBC. 48:14 Well, I'm probably will listen in there then. 48:18 Actually, FSN, both games are on FSN Plus this weekend. 48:21 So have fun trying to find it. 48:25 Well, Minnesota is 92, 69 and 12 overall with Denver. 48:32 But the last 10 have been pretty ugly. 48:35 Denver is 82 against Minnesota in the last few years. 48:40 Looking at some other stats here, Lucia has not fared very well against Denver. 48:47 So we've struggled at this time of the year against Denver. 48:54 They seem to always get us pretty good there lately. 48:57 What are your thoughts, guys? 48:59 Well, I mean, I kind of touched on it a little bit earlier. 49:01 How is Denver going to react after getting close to being swept by their biggest rival this last weekend? 49:11 Are they going to be angry about it? 49:13 Is there going to be kind of a letdown emotionally because you do get up for your biggest rival? 49:20 It's difficult to say. 49:21 I mean, I was looking at their schedule recently. 49:23 They have been winning, but the teams that they have been playing have not been all that imposing. 49:28 You have Huntsville, you have Bemidji, you have Alaska before this past weekend. 49:35 So you kind of say, well, was the winning because of the competition or is it because they are actually starting to get their act together and healthier a little bit? 49:43 It's hard to know. 49:44 I mean, they didn't exactly get blown out of the rank this last weekend against CC, 2-0 in a tie game. 49:51 So I mean, it's not like they played terribly. 49:53 But I think the Gophers, they've won four out of the last five. 49:58 They seem to be finding themselves especially on defense and you kind of need that kind of a game on the road. 50:04 So I suspect that the Gophers will come out of this with a split. 50:08 Yeah, and I think one of the reasons the Gophers have struggled against Denver under Lucia is that traditionally Denver has had the edge in that. 50:15 You look at the last three-year stretch against Shevery where they got shut out like every single time and they scored one goal. 50:23 I mean, even some of the Gopher teams are actually okay and they just, whatever reason, they ran into Shevery and they just had no answer. 50:29 But you look at this time and you see Britain's played one game the last few weekends and just reading between the lines, it didn't sound like Lucia thought he'd be playing both games this weekend though. 50:39 I see he doesn't always have the complete insight on that. 50:42 But so hopefully, you know, Britain only plays one of the two. 50:45 But even if he does, I mean, the Gophers now with Patterson for sure have the edge. 50:48 I mean, Britain might be the better goaltender long term, but you know, coming off a major knee injury in the middle of the season versus a guy who's been rock solid from start to finish. 50:57 But yeah, I mean, you know, Denver has some pretty skilled forwards up front. 51:00 Their blue line doesn't have a lot of stars on it, but they seem to be a pretty solid group. 51:05 They got the Ryder kid back last week, and that's a name that seems like he's been at Denver for 10 years. 51:10 He's just one of those guys that it seems like Denver and CC, maybe because we don't see him that often. 51:15 They're not always in the kind of the news cycle like North Dakota and Duluth, that they have these guys and just seems like they're there for ages. 51:21 But you know, but he's a guy that's kind of a key guy for them to get back, just kind of a plugger back there. 51:25 But yes, I think if the Gophers can just go out there and get two points in any way, shape and form, they're in great shape the rest of the way. 51:32 Just again, you don't want to take things for granted. 51:34 But you know, they have some pretty winnable home games against Wisconsin and Bemidji and then a trip to Omaha that on the surface doesn't look like it's going to be too terribly difficult. 51:42 And again, like Lucia said, if they can get a few points from Denver and not lose four this weekend to them, they keep that space in the standings and it's going to make it pretty tough for Denver to climb the ladder and get to them. 51:53 So I think just go out there, play solid, get two points, however you can get it. 51:58 Anything more than that is awesome. 52:00 And then you come home and it's not a cakewalk to the finish line. 52:03 But I think this is easily the toughest series the team has left. 52:07 Have we heard if Bo Bennett's going to be back? 52:09 I haven't heard. 52:10 I haven't been paying too much attention. 52:12 I know he's been out for a little while and it was roughly going to be, I think, six to eight weeks when he got hurt. 52:16 And I think this is like his eighth or ninth week being out. 52:21 So, you know, he's got to be close to being back. 52:23 I haven't heard though. 52:24 Have you guys heard? 52:25 I haven't. 52:26 I'll try to just do a quick search on Twitter. 52:28 Nothing really popped up. 52:29 So I'm not sure. 52:30 I think Wednesday, I know obviously Minnesota meets the media tomorrow. 52:33 So I think I would assume that most teams are kind of on that same calendar. 52:36 So hopefully, you know, Guaz D'Accio maybe, I mean, obviously with hockey injuries, especially he gets close to the playoffs. 52:42 They always play things pretty close to the best, but, you know, hopefully there'll be some sort of news leaking out when he, he meets with the media tomorrow. 52:49 Twitter question here from Mace to Base. 52:52 Do you think having a break after the St. 52:55 Clouds sweep will take a lot of steam away from the Gophers heading into the Denver weekend? 53:01 I personally don't. 53:03 I know that sometimes, you know, there's, you see it happen both ways, so it's kind of hard to judge for sure. 53:10 But for me personally, I think that if anything, you know, it gave them a time to, you know, get their, get some rest and get their legs, you know, back to 100%. 53:19 And, you know, I think that, you know, the season's a grind and, you know, they've been granted, you know, they had just had a long break over the holidays, but nonetheless, you know, that when you're playing consistently, you know, week after week, I think that, you know, it wasn't like they were playing so hot that you're like, you know, oh, God, you know, we don't want to week off because we're just on fire. 53:39 You know, they were playing well, but, you know, certainly, I don't think it's going to be anything that should just, you know, derail their chances this weekend. 53:49 Yeah, like Hammy said, I mean, it's one of those things where if you have the week off and you come out awesome, you can say, oh, we used it to rest up and our guys are healthy now. 53:56 And if you come out poor, you can always kind of hear maybe the second or third thing Lucia would say, not making an excuse. 54:01 But the week off, we were a little rusty. 54:04 So, you know, and like Hammy said too, it's not like the team had won eight or nine in a row. 54:08 I mean, they had struggled, you know, a good deal prior to that St. 54:10 Cloud weekend and, you know, the split against CC in North Dakota. 54:13 And obviously the struggles in the non-conference games over the holidays. 54:16 So, no, I don't think it's a big deal either way. 54:20 Any other thoughts on the weekend coming up? 54:23 Not too much. 54:23 I, we talked about, you know, as far as the future goes, I'd really believe, you know, if we can split in our two road series for the rest of the season, the Gophers, you know, have a really good chance to win the McNaughton outright. 54:38 And so hopefully, you know, to me, those are the two key series, you know, left in the regular season and we'll see how it goes. 54:45 They definitely control their own destiny. 54:47 So it's been a while since that has been the case. 54:50 So that's definitely something positive there. 54:53 Hammy, do we have any recruiting news this week or anything in the last couple of weeks? 54:58 Nothing, you know, nothing too much. 55:00 You know, if you guys got to our Gopher recruits got their rights, you know, I mean, traded a bit, you know, like Brzezinski went from Des Moines to Muskegon, but nothing really serious as far as, you know, any new recruits. 55:14 I don't know if you were going to touch on the North Dakota comments or whatever. 55:18 Yeah, actually that's, we have a question via Twitter from Minnesota State of Hockey. 55:24 He asks, can you guys discuss the recruiting changes proposed by Mr. 55:28 Haxdahl? 55:30 I don't think you're a big fan of it. 55:32 No, I mean, you know, I think, you know, basically the two things that the two major points that came out of it was, number one, you know, he wants to, you know, maybe open up the discussion to bring, you know, having major junior players available for college hockey. 55:50 And then the other factor was, you know, the gentleman's agreement, you know, kind of disregarding that, you know, or, you know, I don't have a problem so much with the gentleman's agreement thing, but I could see why a smaller school would, because they're the ones that are going to be most affected by that kind of thing. 56:06 You know, if you recruit a good guy and that the big school is missed, and, you know, all of a sudden they come poaching that player at the 11th hour, and it kind of leaves you scrambling, that's not going to be a good spot to be in. 56:20 So, you know, I don't know about the gentleman's agreement thing. 56:23 I'm very much against allowing major junior players in college hockey. 56:28 First of all, I think that you're talking about a small percentage of cases that, you know, players say, I'm going to go to this school, and then they renege and go to major junior. 56:37 I mean, when you consider the amount of times that happens compared to the amount of guys that actually keep their word, I don't think suddenly changing the whole system around is really worth it for that small number of situations. 56:48 I think that's a little bit of a knee-jerk reaction. 56:51 I also think that, you know, it would be a very negative impact thing for, like, the USHL, possibly, you know, some of the youth levels as far as high school hockey or whatever, because suddenly, you know, you're not going to lose your college eligibility if you, you know, decide to go north of the border and play major junior hockey. 57:12 And I think that that's bad and negative, a negative impact for US hockey overall. 57:17 And so I just think that's a very short-sighted idea, and I don't like it. 57:21 You know, he's a Canadian guy, so who the hell? 57:23 He's not going to give a damn about US hockey, you know, but whatever. 57:27 But I just think it's a really bad idea. 57:29 Yeah, and I agree with Hamme. 57:30 I mean, much of what he said, and you look at it from Haxdoll's point of view and both those things, you know, obviously North Dakota would, if you start allowing more Canadian recruits and major junior kids, North Dakota would probably have pretty good inroads there. 57:42 And if you start allowing the gentleman's agreement thing to go out the window, North Dakota would be in a position to steal kids away from the smaller schools. 57:49 So I'm not surprised that Haxdoll wants both those things because they would both favor his school. 57:53 So I'd be surprised if he didn't. 57:55 But again, I think he's probably in the minority and I think you're going to see some changes. 58:00 But, you know, at the NCAA level, you don't see big time changes like that allowing, you know, with the whole money aspect with major junior kids, I just don't see the NCAA switching their view completely on that. 58:10 So, you know, he touched on it. 58:12 And I know Red Berenson was on the pipeline show last weekend and he talked about how College Hockey Yanks doing a good job. 58:17 And he thinks there'll be some small changes along the way. 58:20 But I don't think you're going to see anything really widespread like Haxdall might want. 58:23 Well, that's the thing that gets me is that, you know, Haxdall, it's like how many times has Berenson dealt with this or some of the Eastern schools with, you know, the Quebec Major Junior League. 58:34 I mean, you know, he gets hit a couple of times and all of a sudden he wants to change the whole system around. 58:39 It's like, you know, he hasn't even walked in, even compared to somebody like Berenson who is, you know, getting guys plucked left and right from his recruiting classes and he's not asking to change the system entirely. 58:50 And like I said, I think it's a little bit knee-jerk and not necessary. 58:54 You know, I don't have a huge problem with the gentleman's agreement because from a Gopher perspective, it's not really going to be a damaging thing for us. 59:03 But, and I think it's a little bit, while it's nice to have that kind of close-knit hockey community that's not going to do those kinds of things. 59:12 You know, in major college sports, granted, hockey's not as major as football or basketball. 59:17 But nonetheless, you know, you see football of time, guys, you know, making last-minute changes after a verbal, I mean, I think the Gophers lost a, you know, a last-minute recruit to Iowa, you know, a defensive back or something. 59:29 And, you know, that stuff happens all the time on those levels. 59:32 They basically recruit the guy till he signs, you know. 59:35 So I don't really know if I have a real big problem with the gentleman's agreement thing. 59:39 I could see both sides of the coin on that one. 59:44 We have one question to the email from Frozen 4 Champs. 59:49 Which former gopher has surprised you in making the NHL debut this season? 59:54 Ness, Fairchild or Bickel? 59:56 Obviously, Ness just made his debut tonight, didn't he? 1:00:00 The Islanders with a, their goalie made 40-some saves against my Flyers squad who is doing their perennial tank at this point. 1:00:09 But I'll say probably Fairchild just because the Ness thing, well, Ness is with the Islanders and nothing surprises me there. 1:00:17 You know what I mean? 1:00:18 There's such a wild card organization, but you look at St. 1:00:21 Louis and Fairchild wasn't highly drafted, so the organization didn't have a lot of stock in him. 1:00:27 I think both situations were just kind of a rash of injuries, but I'll say Fairchild is based on the fact that the Islanders is always a crap shoot and you never really know what's going to happen with them. 1:00:37 Yeah, I actually will go with Ness being more surprising for me, mainly because I know that Fairchild, he was pretty dinged up the last few years at the U and he wasn't at, I don't think, full strength for much of his time at the last few years. 1:00:55 I'm not surprised that I think he's healthier now. 1:00:58 He had his surgeries and all that stuff, and so I think that he'll be able to, plus he was being coached by kind of a crappy position coach at the U at the time. 1:01:08 So you get out from underneath that, and I think he's maybe shining a little bit more and showing what he can do. 1:01:16 So I understand depth chart stuff could come into play. 1:01:20 I don't really follow that stuff as closely, but for me Ness is a little different just because he was always undersized and just didn't seem to have quite the same... 1:01:30 I'm not at all surprised about Bickel. 1:01:32 He's got the size that NHL guys like, and he certainly throws the fists and plays physical and all that kind of stuff. 1:01:40 But for me it's more Ness than anybody else, and I'm glad to see him make it. 1:01:44 Don't get me wrong, but he's the biggest surprise for me. 1:01:48 Obviously Bickel, he was only here one year, and he's been gone for a few years. 1:01:54 So he's kind of a little more out of sight, out of mind than somebody like a Ness or a Fairchild would be anyway. 1:02:01 All right, any other thoughts for this week, guys? 1:02:03 Anything else you want to talk about? 1:02:05 Real quick, not how many people will hear this before them, but Lucia will be on with Paul Allen on Wednesday morning at 9.30. 1:02:13 So I'm sure people might not hear it live, but I can definitely catch the podcast version on KFAN. 1:02:18 So a little care from the head coach heading into a pretty big series. 1:02:21 And obviously you'll be on probably on Thursday? 1:02:25 Yeah, Thursday around 10 o'clock unless I hear otherwise. 1:02:29 And of course people can always follow you on Twitter at Ryan Cardinal. 1:02:32 And Hammy, do you have anything else? 1:02:35 Nope, I don't have anything. 1:02:37 You're good to go. 1:02:38 And obviously you can always follow Hammy. 1:02:41 He's always writing on GPL and the message boards, giving updates on recruits and whatnot. 1:02:46 And also follow him on Twitter at Hammy Hockey. 1:02:50 I do have one thing. 1:02:51 Oh, what's that? 1:02:52 Penticton is going for their 30th, I believe, straight win tonight up in the BCHL, which has three Gopher recruits and a number of Minnesota kids on it. 1:03:01 So I think it's pretty special that a bunch of Minnesota kids, you know, which is the bulk of that team, is, you know, they're up 4-0 tonight, so it looks like they're going to break the record. 1:03:12 So they go up there and, you know, break a long-standing record, and that's pretty special. 1:03:17 So congrats to those guys. 1:03:20 All right. 1:03:21 Well, that's going to wrap it up for this week's GPL Podcast. 1:03:25 We'll be back next week to recap the Denver Series and preview the Bemidji State Series. 1:03:31 Thanks for listening in. 1:03:32 We'll catch you next time.