0:03 This is the GopherPuckLive Podcast, Episode number 16, recorded February 14th, 2012. 0:21 Welcome to the GopherPuckLive Podcast. 0:24 Along with Hammy and Cardinal, I'm your host, Jupiter. 0:27 Magnus Arena, a house of horrors for Don LeChi on the Gopher Hockey Team. 0:33 Since becoming the Gopher Coach, the Don is 4'12 and 2 at Magnus. 0:39 Overall, he's 14'22 and 3 against Denver since taking over for Doug Woog. 0:46 Cardinal, is Magnus a house of horrors for just the Don, or is it just a bad place for everybody to play? 0:53 Well, probably a little bit of both. 0:55 I mean, Denver's had, you know, I mean, you can make a case that over the last 10 years, which is basically LeChi's tenure, that they've been the best overall team in the WCHA over that 10-year stretch. 1:05 So, I mean, they've been a legit team. 1:06 And my point last week was that, you know, maybe this is the time where the Gophers can change it just due to the fact that they, in theory, had a goaltending edge, and, you know, that didn't exactly come to fruition. 1:16 I mean, Patterson wasn't horrible, but, you know, he's this team's best player, and we've seen him a lot of weekends where he needs to be that. 1:23 And this weekend, he was, you know, B-C+, maybe, and that just wasn't good enough against a, you know, a Denver team that is getting a little bit healthier. 1:31 And obviously, they were still missing some key parts, especially on Saturday with Zucker out. 1:34 But, you know, I think you can make a pretty strong case that they're the best team in the WCHA right now. 1:40 Sam Britton plays like he, you know, showed he was capable of last year. 1:43 So, yeah, I mean, neither game was obviously a blowout, and I wouldn't mind another crack at those guys at the final five. 1:49 But, yeah, it's unfortunate for the Gophers. 1:51 They've seen what they did to their pairwise ranking. 1:53 It's going to be tough to flip that comparison against Denver now, since those are the only two meetings, unless they, like I said, get another crack at them at the final five. 2:00 And, yeah, it was definitely a down weekend after it seemed like the team was getting a little bit of momentum going. 2:05 Now, Hammey, Don Luchias, obviously since taking over, he's been terrible against Denver. 2:12 But he's done well against other teams. 2:14 I mean, he's, you know, fairly good. 2:15 You know, at least 500 or above against most other teams. 2:19 What is Gwazdeki doing against Don to dominate him, basically? 2:24 Well, I mean, I think, you know, I don't think there's any one specific thing that you can point to. 2:29 Sometimes, you know, it's a, you know, maybe it's just a matchup situation. 2:33 They've had, you know, we've talked about last week, you know, his name slips my mind. 2:37 Their goalie that had been, you know, pretty dominant against us the last few years. 2:44 I mean, they've had some really, you know, very strong goaltending performances against us. 2:49 And, you know, we have been down the last, you know, three plus years, you know, before this year. 2:55 So that's how it's going to play a role in it. 2:57 And, you know, I don't know, you'd have to ask the players how much of an effect, you know, the whole altitude change and all that. 3:04 And I don't know if that has any effect or not on those guys, but, you know, they always talk about it in sports. 3:10 Whenever you go to, you know, Denver or whatever, in any kind of sport, you know, they always talk about that. 3:14 So, you know, at some point, you kind of have to either wonder if it's true or if it's a self-fulfilling prophecy because the guys think that way or it's hard to say. 3:23 But, I mean, you have to give Denver credit. 3:25 They're a good team. 3:25 And like Cardinal said, they're getting healthier and, you know, they got their best goalie back. 3:30 So they're certainly in a position, you know, to make some noise in playoffs. 3:34 Well, they are definitely the preseason pick to, you know, by many people, to win the WCHA and dominate this year. 3:43 Obviously with the injuries, they started off slow, been up and down. 3:47 And then obviously Minnesota comes to town and it makes them feel better real quick after a disappointing weekend against Colorado College. 3:55 But let's start with Friday night. 3:56 Obviously Friday night started very well. 3:58 We got that early goal and everything looked great. 4:01 And then it just fell apart. 4:03 You know, I remember you talking, I don't know if you were tweeting during the game, Cardinal, but I thought I recall you saying something along the lines that this is just not like a normal Gopher team. 4:15 Yeah, it was weird. 4:16 And you know, one of the reasons I kind of talked both last week on the podcast and then with PA, it was, you know, I was kind of excited about the Gophers chances. 4:23 It's just they did a lot of the little things right. 4:24 And it seemed like, you know, for the most part on the weekend, that was true. 4:28 But when they stopped doing them, Denver just completely took advantage. 4:31 And I know, you know, we touched on it on the post game on Saturday night about the face offs. 4:36 And you saw how it killed them in the game winning goal on Saturday night. 4:39 But back to Friday night, I mean, you know, so many of the goals were off, you know, just lapses in the defensive zone or, you know, like the one where Jackson had all day on the side and it seemed like nobody was going at him. 4:48 And the whole team was just kind of standing still. 4:50 And, you know, he kind of gets a seeing eye shot, but you know what, he scored. 4:53 And that, you know, again, Saturday night, the top guys kind of took over, but that was maybe the most frustrating part about Friday is that it was Denver's, you know, not the Shore guys or not Zucker. 5:02 I mean, it was the kind of meat and potatoes guys that were beating us. 5:06 And usually, you know, with this Gopher team, they've had such good depth up front that, you know, that typically hasn't been the case. 5:11 And, you know, from the second and third period on, it was a pretty even game. 5:14 And you could even argue the Gophers were the better team. 5:16 But I mean, when you give up three goals in the first period on the road, I mean, I don't know what the numbers are and whatever, but you're just not going to win, especially like you mentioned earlier, it's a place where the team generally doesn't win. 5:26 And Denver is, you know, not, this isn't one of their better, you know, the best teams they've had, but it's certainly a good team. 5:32 And they're in contention for the league title. 5:33 So this isn't a down year for them by any stretch. 5:35 It's just, you know, the record doesn't maybe indicate how good they really are due to Britain being out. 5:39 But yeah, I mean, they just got behind the eight ball and stopped doing, you know, a lot of the things that kind of made them successful, particularly in that St. 5:46 Cloud weekend where, you know, they won a couple of tight games, but they did so by blocking shots and winning face offs. 5:51 And it just seemed like all that went out the window. 5:53 Well, it seems like they got real frustrated Friday night. 5:55 Obviously after Mr. 5:57 Zucker scored a goal, he must've said something to the bench because Kyle Rau did not appreciate it too much when he decided to pretty much take a run at Zucker. 6:09 Obviously he got the five-minute major when Zucker didn't get up. 6:13 And then the WCHA felt it was enough to suspend him for another game. 6:20 This has not happened much this season. 6:22 What had happened once earlier this year to a UNO player for knee-on-knee contact. 6:27 But other than that, that's the only thing the WCHA has done all year long. 6:31 And I know, Hammeh, you've been kind of harping on this all weekend on Twitter. 6:35 It's like, you know, suspend him, it's fine, but be consistent. 6:39 And you just haven't seen any consistency all year with it. 6:42 Well, I mean, it's not like I've watched every WCHA game, but even the ones that I have seen, I've seen worse hits than what we saw on Rau. 6:51 You know, I mean, like the Crystal hit for me was, you know, on Marshall was a worse hit. 6:56 I mean, he was intentionally trying to drive Marshall's head into the boards from behind. 7:01 I mean, it's plays like that, and we've seen other plays. 7:04 In fact, that night, you know, there were a few, I think there was at least one in the Duluth-UND game that was pretty questionable that, you know, they got a five-minute major, and they got kicked out of the game, I think. 7:15 I can't remember which player it was, but, you know, I just say to myself, well, you know, where do you say, you know, this is suspension worthy, and this one isn't, you know, is it just because the guy is down on the ice, you know, longer or something or what? 7:30 I mean, I'm not trying to make light of the fact the guy gets hurt, but, you know, I say to myself, if I'm a player out there and I get hit from behind, I'm going to be down on the ice, whether I'm feeling it or not, I'm going to be down for, you know, a couple minutes because it's like, what the hell do I have to lose? 7:46 You know, maybe I'll draw not only the five minutes, but maybe I'll get the guy kicked out of the next game, I mean, what do you have to lose? 7:53 I mean, I just think, you know, I'm not saying that, you know, the future, somebody that gets hit from behind or whatever, that they're gonna be faking it, but you have to consider that if they're gonna be suspending guys like Rau for that hit, I mean, you know, where do you start drawing the line when you haven't called some of these things earlier in the season? 8:13 So for me, it's just, I didn't think it was suspension worthy. 8:19 You know, it's unfortunate that, you know, the guy gets hurt and it was, you know, definitely a five minute major and he got what he deserved as far as the penalty goes. 8:28 But as far as getting suspended the next game, I just thought that that was pretty weak. 8:31 And, you know, considering what we've seen this year and, but it's the WCHA, you know, and we don't, that's just kind of how it's been. 8:38 You never know what the hell they're gonna do. 8:40 And this is just kind of further evidence of that. 8:44 Yeah, I really don't have a lot to add to that. 8:46 I mean, that's what I kind of, when it happened, you know, on Friday night, I went back and again, it's not to pick on North Dakota or whatever, but it's just, you know, it was against the Gophers. 8:53 And like Cami said, I mean, that Crystal hits as bad as I've seen just because it was from behind. 8:57 And he used his glove and put it right on the back of Marshall's head and put him into the glass. 9:01 And you know, what if Ben Marshall would have stayed down for 10 minutes and then, you know, not played the next night? 9:06 I mean, what would Crystal have got? 9:07 Would he even, I mean, maybe he wouldn't have even been suspended because that's just the WCHA's MO. 9:12 So I guess on one hand, it was kind of surprising to hear that on Saturday. 9:15 But then like Cami said, when you factor in just the inconsistency and this general, I don't even know what you want to call it, buffoonery or whatever that the head office has when it comes to a lot of things and especially suspensions are officiating and just the inconsistency, I mean, it seems like we've touched on that as much as anything on these podcasts this year, you know, just various times where it's just really random why, you know, this guy gets a five minute major and somebody else doesn't. 9:38 Or, you know, so again, I guess it wasn't a total shock and it's not something that's probably going to change and it's just going to be one of those things we, you know, as Gopher fans deal with for another year and a quarter or whatever and hopefully the things change when they roll over to the Big Ten. 9:51 Well, I think Crystal should have been suspended just for his little hissy fit after that. 9:56 And that was well worth it right there. 10:00 Yeah, I mean, I don't, like I said, you know, there's been lots of hits this year that I don't know about you guys, but for me were worse. 10:06 I mean, so I don't know what the, you know, as if it is it just because a guy is out the next game or he's in, I mean, what's, I would have been, you know, very interested to hear what the explanation for the, you know, the suspension was. 10:22 I mean, what made that, you know, suspension worthy compared to other situations where it wasn't? 10:27 I mean, you know, is it? 10:29 And that's one thing they need to be more public with and they wonder why we always are suspicious because we never hear anything. 10:36 We just, you know, Don got a phone call and that's pretty much all we heard is, you know, he's suspended and we never hear a reason why or anything like that. 10:44 I think that's why a lot of people get upset about it. 10:46 Well, and this year too, like with, I mean, I'm not saying they need to do what the NHL does with Brendan Shanahan, you know, doing a video on the league website, you know, but those have in general been pretty well accepted by the hockey community and obviously with fan bases there's a lot of crossover between fans of the college game and fans of the National Hockey League. 11:02 So you think that somebody in the head office would say, oh boy, well fans seem to be reacting well to these explanations and obviously it doesn't need to be a video, especially when it's the next day. 11:13 But whoever makes the decision, whether it's Papa Shepard or whoever goes into it, just in that press release they put on the website just to add a paragraph or a few bullet points and say this was suspendable because of X, Y and Z, not just Rau hit him last night and he already suspended. 11:28 But again, these are the same complaints that you started hearing not so much out of Minnesota and Wisconsin when the Big Ten thing, but once the National was formed and you hear all these complaints about the league just being kind of behind the times when it comes to a lot of different things, whether it was something as minor as the league website or something as major as officiating. 11:46 So again, it's unfortunate or unfortunate and very frustrating, but again, it's just not surprising at this point. 11:52 That's too bad. 11:53 Well, a tweet from our buddy in Wisconsin, Chuck Schwartz, he says, Rau was suspended because the game was on NBC Sports Network. 12:03 He didn't even think it was the worst hit of the weekend, you know, throughout the WCHA. 12:07 And I could see some of that, but, you know, there was a pretty bad hit, obviously, up in Duluth, and that game was on CBS Sports. 12:14 And that network is seen by more than the NBC. 12:19 Well, and the other thing is, is that the UNO player that got suspended earlier in the year for the knee-on-knee hit against UMD, he only got a two-minute minor in that game when he got that penalty. 12:33 He didn't get a five-minute, he didn't get tossed, but then they just decided after the fact that, okay, he's getting suspended. 12:41 But, you know, so I mean, there's just, I don't know what the heck, how you were going to judge these situations. 12:47 I have no clue. 12:49 I said it about when we saw Nick Oliver get just smoked against Wisconsin. 12:55 I don't even know what a good check is anymore. 12:57 I don't know what a good open ice check is anymore because it's like, you know, the minute the ref sees a stick go flying and a guy down on the ice, whether it's clean or not, the idiot's got his hand in the air and it's a five-minute major. 13:09 I mean, it's just ridiculous nowadays. 13:11 I know that they're trying to protect players and everything, but to me, that was a perfectly clean hit and he just drove right through them. 13:17 And of course, when you hit a guy that perfectly in the chest, of course his head's going to snap down a little bit and it's going to look like a head shot. 13:26 But, you know, it just, I don't know. 13:29 It seems like they're trying to take some of the physicality out of the game in general. 13:33 I mean, I understand a little bit on the high school level, but it's just like you can't, you know, you can't get rid of all of it. 13:39 And it just becomes a little bit overboard to me. 13:42 Well, moving on, obviously this weekend was not good for the Gophers in the pairwise rankings. 13:48 What are they, number 13 now? 13:49 I think it's down to 14 after the Beanpot. 13:53 Beanpot, obviously, causing more effect there. 13:57 But our buddy Fire Helmet Guy has a question. 14:02 Oh, I know. 14:05 And it could be a relevant question. 14:07 If the Gophers do not make the NCAAs, what do you think should happen with Don Lucia? 14:13 And if he is released, who would you guys like to give a look at as a new coach? 14:18 Obviously, who knows what they think about a new coach, but do you think he should be let go? 14:27 I personally do not think he should be because, you know, I don't... 14:34 the season has been, you know, because it's been a fine line. 14:37 I mean, the reason why we're where we are, as much as anything, is because of a small number of games where in non-conference, where we just didn't play well, you know, and I know that you look back in the last few seasons and say, okay, yeah, but to me, this year has been different. 14:51 I mean, you can see an improvement, despite what the pairwise might say. 14:54 I mean, you can see that the team is, you know, they're performing better, they're better defensively, they're better offensively. 15:02 You can see that there's improvements there, and certainly the recruiting pipeline, you know, what they've kind of adjusted on things, that's certainly going to be paying dividends down the road. 15:12 So I don't see, you know, that being really worthy of happening as far as if they did do that. 15:20 I have no doubt that Gensel is going to be the next head coach. 15:23 That's my personal opinion. 15:24 I don't have any insider info on that one as far as, you know, that I know anything. 15:29 But I really think that he wouldn't have come back, you know, if he didn't have a pretty darn good idea that he was going to be the next guy in line. 15:36 Granted, you know, there's going to be a new, you know, athletic director, so you kind of, that's a wild card part of it. 15:42 But I just think that, you know, he's going to be the next guy and that's pretty much what's going to happen, I think. 15:49 Well, I think that's the key here is the new athletic director. 15:52 They're not going to make any coaching changes until they have somebody in place. 15:57 And, you know, they might choose somebody soon, but that person doesn't come online until, what is it, the 1st of July? 16:03 Something like that, yeah. 16:04 And that's awfully late to make that type of decision at the end of, or, you know, the beginning or middle of the summer. 16:10 So just for that reason, I don't see them making any sort of change. 16:14 Well, right, and you know, maturing is not going to do anything, you know, while he's kind of a lame duck, so yeah, I mean, I highly doubt that there's going to be any change. 16:21 Plus with the new deal he got, even if it's, you know, kind of an easy one for the U to get out of, I just don't see it happening. 16:27 What do you think, Ryan? 16:29 Yeah, I mean, like you guys said, it's just, it's not going to happen. 16:32 I mean, they're going to finish in the top three in the conference, and you know, whether they, I mean, I, despite the fact they're 14th in the pair wise, if you look at the schedule plus factor in a, you know, relatively, on paper at least, easy first round matchup, it's not like they're going to have to go on the road or, you know, play somebody that they really don't want to. 16:49 I mean, they're, over the next eight games, they should win, what, five or six? 16:53 And I mean, at least, hopefully, I mean, it's a tough, so again, I don't think it's going to happen. 16:57 And I mean, again, with the new athletic director, who knows? 17:01 And if, you know, I don't know if anything was promised against unnecessarily, but just to kind of play devil's advocate, I guess, if they did decide to go a different direction, I think the guy out of Denver would be probably my choice because there have been rumors that he's not happy with his contract and wants to get more money, and obviously that won't be an issue here, and he obviously has a great track record. 17:20 So that's just, again, probably not going to happen, but just a different name to throw out there that could be a little bit off the board and not, you know, an M guy or whatever. 17:28 Well, I see the thing for me is I don't think that they're going to go either Minnesotan or an alum, the next head coach. 17:37 I mean, I just have a hard time believing that they're going to really go outside of that realm. 17:41 Even if there's good candidates, it just, to me, I just have a hard time believing that that's, you know, not going to be the relative. 17:48 And it's not like there's not some really good, you know, Minnesota or Gopher-connected, you know, people out there that can take over that type of a job. 17:59 So, I mean, yeah, it's nice to kind of throw names around. 18:04 And, yeah, I mean, it's an interesting discussion in that sense. 18:07 But I'd be very surprised if it's not somebody who's not tied to the area. 18:11 Yeah, a fire helmet. 18:12 He just wants to get rid of Lucia, I think. 18:14 That's all he wants. 18:16 He wants the controversy. 18:18 He's the negativity. 18:19 He is. 18:19 He wants the negativity. 18:21 He keeps texting me all the time about Lucia's wardrobe and, like, his ties and shirts. 18:25 And he's, I don't know, it's like I've kind of got an affinity for the Don's ties, and I think that's kind of rubbed off on him. 18:30 And now he's kind of into fashion and keeps talking about houndstooth and all sorts of stuff. 18:35 So I think he's just got kind of a burr in the saddle. 18:38 He'll calm down here eventually. 18:40 When they make the tournament, he'll be happier, definitely. 18:44 Well, obviously the other big weekend series was North Dakota splitting up at UMD. 18:52 What do you think, Ryan? 18:54 Well, at one point this year, it looked like I might be in the running for the preposterous statement tournament by saying North Dakota was going to win the league, but not that they're going to at this point, but if you look at their schedule the rest of the way, I mean, I feel as though we're going to be sitting here in a month talking about they're the best team going into the final five, and it's kind of a weird deal. 19:16 You thought that with the injuries they've had, and a lot of guys are done for the year, there's not anyone that's coming back to save the day at this point, but you can't deny what they've done. 19:24 I mean, since that Gopher series, they've been pretty lights out, and they split in Duluth last weekend and made a good run at them on Saturday night, and Duluth's not playing great right now, but it's still a pretty tough team to go against. 19:37 And yeah, I mean, I watched the Friday night game and the Sioux were dominant. 19:41 That decor and goaltending right now is kind of living up to what everyone thought it would be at the start of the year, and we've seen them struggle so much, and they went out to Wisconsin and got swept and swept here, and we're giving up all sorts of goals, but you look at it now, they're getting offense for some guys that they didn't early in the year, and with that top line that they have with Christo and Nelson, and what's his name, Corbin Knight, I mean, they're a legit team right now, and it sucks as a Gopher fan, because it's every year, and you thought if any year would be the year where they wouldn't turn it on in the second half, it would be this year with the injuries and losing so much from last year, but they've won 14-4 or something like that since that Gopher series. 20:20 They're doing it again, and it sucks. 20:25 I mean, I don't really have too much to add. 20:27 For me, I think Duluth, they're starting to show some wear a little bit, some cracks in the foundation, and you start to wonder if maybe, like we talked about a couple different times, is it a matter of, do they peak too soon? 20:46 And now, I don't know, I haven't seen anything, but how long is Brown going to be out for? 20:50 Is he going to be out for a little while? 20:51 Yeah, I know there was a bunch of conflicting reports on Saturday night when it happened, but I think it's a finger or something. 20:58 I think it's a month-ish. 20:59 I don't think it's into the NCAA tournament. 21:03 It's not season ending, but he's not going to play this weekend either. 21:06 It's going to be at least a few weeks, it seems like. 21:08 So is that official? 21:09 He's officially not out? 21:11 Do we know anything official on that? 21:14 I don't know if they've said. 21:15 I'm just kind of going by what the great Duluth insider, Drunk Hockey guy has relayed via Twitter and texting and everything else. 21:21 As much as people on GPL want to rip on him, he does have some pretty good sources. 21:26 I guess I haven't heard from him lately on it, but I guess as of Sunday when the dust started to settle a little bit, I think it was two to four weeks, something like that. 21:37 For me, put all due respect to Connelly, I think Brown has been playing their best hockey in the last handful of weeks. 21:49 That will be certainly a big loss to them in the coming weeks. 21:53 I don't know what you guys have, if you have looked at any of that kind of what if stuff or whatever recent, given this last few weeks, but for me, and I was talking to somebody on Twitter about this today, I think the Gophers, they need to get 10 points to ensure winning the league. 22:14 In these last three series, that's the way that I look at it. 22:17 I don't care how they get it, if it's sweeps at home and split on the road, but to me, that's the way they're going to win the league. 22:26 I think that Denver's got some tough series. 22:30 They still have UND at home, and they have UNO on the road. 22:35 They're at Wisconsin, and of course Wisconsin's down this year, but you never know what's going to happen in Madison. 22:43 North Dakota is certainly playing some very good hockey. 22:46 I think the interesting thing for them down the stretch is how they're going to perform at Denver. 22:50 That's certainly going to be a very heated series. 22:54 They don't like each other. 22:55 They're probably as close to the Gophers-SUS rivalry because of all the injuries and whatever else has gone on in recent years with players. 23:06 That'll be a very interesting series to watch. 23:09 It'll be interesting. 23:10 I think in North Dakota, I think they're only going to end up around fourth place. 23:15 But you get into the playoffs and you never know what's going to happen. 23:20 Mankato sweeping Anchorage. 23:21 Does anybody care? 23:23 No. 23:24 Well, from a Gopher point of view, you look at where the teams could finish. 23:28 I guess Mankato has been a team that's been definitely trending upward kind of the second half of the year since that Gopher series. 23:34 They played the Gophers pretty tough that series, ended up getting swept. 23:37 But since then, I mean, just glancing at their schedule, there may be a game or two over 500. 23:41 And, you know, so again, it's not a team that I would necessarily fear given our, in general, our history against them. 23:47 But in recent years, the Gophers have had a little bit more of an issue with them. 23:50 And obviously, if they, you know, continue to stay strong, now their schedule the rest of the way is they're off this weekend, I believe, or they have an off-weekend mix in, but they've played Duluth in North Dakota. 24:00 So their string of playing better, you know, it's been against Omaha, Bemidji, Michigan Tech, Anchorage. 24:04 So maybe it's a little bit of a, you know, due to the schedule, but just to try to make them relevant and relate them to the Gophers somewhat here on this Gopher theme podcast. 24:13 But yeah, just something to maybe keep in mind. 24:16 Well, and I think, yeah, I mean, and I want, I hope the Gophers, you know, if they win the league, I mean, I want them to play Anchorage. 24:21 I mean, they kind of have some payback, you know, for the playoffs last year. 24:25 And, you know, it'd be nice to kind of get that opportunity to kind of end their season. 24:33 We've got UNO taking three points at home against Michigan Tech. 24:37 Any thoughts on that series? 24:40 Not too many for me. 24:41 I'm a little surprised that Tech didn't at least split, you know, because I think that they've been playing some pretty solid hockey. 24:49 But, you know, UNO is a real wild card. 24:51 You never know what the heck they're going to do from one week to the next, one game to the next. 24:57 They're very unpredictable. 24:58 They're sort of, you know, they're like Gophers light, I guess you could say, you know, in terms of unpredictability. 25:04 So it's a very interesting team. 25:07 Yeah, I mean, again, a ton to add. 25:09 I mean, was it Winter Carnival last weekend? 25:11 I think it was. 25:11 Maybe I could be wrong on that. 25:13 Yeah, I think you're right. 25:14 So maybe, I don't know, I don't follow Tech close enough. 25:17 Maybe they got caught up in the hoopla a little bit. 25:19 I mean, obviously, they're doing much better than anyone anticipated. 25:22 So maybe got a little ahead of themselves or something like that. 25:25 But again, it's not like they're in second or third place. 25:27 I mean, they were still a 500 team, essentially, in the league. 25:31 And they had played well at home as well. 25:33 Yeah, that's true. 25:34 I mean, they've been, again, at start of the year. 25:36 I mean, that's how they got going. 25:37 They need to stop Wisconsin, and I think they did decent against Denver. 25:39 So yeah, that's kind of how they got their role. 25:40 So we'll see if they can get it back on track. 25:43 Bemidji, this week's opponent for the Gophers, sweeps Colorado College. 25:49 Yeah, I mean, it's very interesting. 25:51 Bemidji's a pretty pesky team, particularly at home. 25:57 So I'm not entirely surprised. 25:59 I think it's surprising they'd sweep them. 26:01 I mean, I think I picked that... 26:02 I don't know if I said what I said last week. 26:04 I thought maybe it was a split I said. 26:06 Yeah, I mean, you can't really... 26:10 When anybody goes into Bemidji, you just can't really rule out some of the... 26:15 no matter who the team is. 26:16 Bemidji's played a pretty tough schedule this year, so you kind of have to give them credit. 26:20 They're very solid defensively. 26:22 I think they're third in the league in goals against, so defensively, they're pretty solid and they're not going to score a lot, but you're kind of looking ahead to our... 26:30 I know we'll talk about it in a little bit, but that's the way I kind of envision Bemidji winning games is usually keeping things pretty close and tight. 26:38 Yeah, I mean, you look obviously not super familiar with them just because they're not on TV a whole lot, although I guess I shouldn't say that they do make their way at least on DirecTV, the channel 22 or 23 or whatever it is, but with Gophers playing Friday and Saturday nights, no offense to Bemidji fans, but they're not on the top of my DVR list of games to catch up on. 26:55 But it's weird you look at the stats and they're ninth in scoring offense, ninth in scoring defense, but they don't take a lot of penalties, and their penalty kill is number one in the league. 27:06 So we saw the Gophers last weekend. 27:08 They struggled to a degree, and obviously, Bemidji, they're not going to roll the same type of power play that Denver does, but to their credit last weekend, I mean, yeah, CC has been playing decent. 27:19 They scored eight goals on them, which is more than the Gophers did, right? 27:21 And CC, the goalie, I think, did Howell play on Saturday? 27:24 I think he did. 27:25 I thought I saw that. 27:26 So Joe Howell got in there on Saturday after the other kid played Friday. 27:29 But yeah, Bemidji, like Hammy said, they played a decent non-coffin schedule, and we'll see how they do away from their rank. 27:36 Obviously, it's not the easiest place to go into and play up there, but you can get them on the big ice, but I'm sure I probably said the exact same thing a few years ago, and they came down here and beat the Gophers like 6-2 or whatever, so I guess we'll see. 27:48 Well, we have a full slate of games this weekend. 27:51 Finally, everybody's back and playing, and we'll kick it off with Denver heading to 11th place, Wisconsin. 28:01 Hammy, what are your thoughts? 28:03 Wait, wait, wait. 28:03 Can you repeat that last part again for me, please? 28:05 That's 11th place, Wisconsin. 28:08 Oh, okay. 28:08 I had a bug in my ear, so I couldn't quite hear that. 28:11 I know Chuck's probably listening. 28:13 He just loves that. 28:13 Obviously, Mankato's up one point on them, and they have two games on hand, but nevertheless, Wisconsin is in 11th place right now. 28:23 Yeah, I mean, you knew it was going to be a bit of a down year for Wisconsin. 28:28 You just didn't envision it being quite that down. 28:30 They had the freshman goalies, and you knew that they were trying to replace some offense and Schultz is a good defensive player, but they had some holes to fill, but you didn't expect them to be that low in the standings. 28:47 And Denver is obviously playing very well right now. 28:51 St. 28:51 Cloud went into Wisconsin a few weeks ago and swept them, so you kind of have to say, well, if St. 28:56 Cloud can do it, Denver is certainly much more capable of doing that. 29:00 Whether that will happen or not, of course we don't know, but it won't surprise me a bit if Denver goes in there and sweeps them. 29:07 I would expect with the week off that Wisconsin would be probably pretty well prepared for things. 29:15 I probably would call it a split, but it won't shock me at all if Denver sweeps. 29:20 By the way, Chuck Schwartz hates me now. 29:24 Yeah, well, join the group, right? 29:28 Yeah, I think Wisconsin might do okay. 29:30 You look at the way the two teams are going. 29:33 Like Hamme said, Wisconsin had the week off. 29:34 Say what you want about Eves, but he's a good coach, and he's going to have them ready. 29:38 They need to make a stand this weekend. 29:40 This isn't going to be their year for any big-time championship or prize, but they have Apimidjian at Minnesota to close the year. 29:48 Probably, again, it's at home against a good team, but you'd like to make some noise at home this weekend. 29:53 Denver is riding pretty high after sweeping the Gophers. 29:56 Now they have to go on the road, and they're going to, just like us, see Wisconsin at the bottom of the standings, so it's only natural to maybe have a little bit of a letdown. 30:04 The Cole Center is obviously a fun place to play, and I'm sure, despite the issues the Badgers have had this year, it will be pretty full and certainly rocking in their senior night on Saturday. 30:13 I expect a split. 30:14 I think Wisconsin will show up again. 30:15 They do have their top lines, maybe not as good as any in the league, but one of the best lines in their blue line is pretty decent. 30:21 If they can get any kind of goaltending, I think they can take a couple of points, and hopefully they do from a Gopher perspective. 30:26 I was thinking the same thing. 30:27 Well, Chuck will be rooting for the Badgers this weekend. 30:31 Just this weekend, though. 30:34 Anchorage visits St. 30:35 Cloud State. 30:38 Yeah, that's going to be a St. 30:39 Cloud sweep. 30:40 I mean, you know, Anchorage is pretty, they're obviously the worst team in the league, and St. 30:46 Cloud's getting a little healthier and certainly been playing some relatively solid hockey lately, and they've got their goalie situations pretty settled down, and it sounds like they're probably going to go, I mean, I don't know, it sounds like they'll go with Lee. 31:01 I don't know, it depends upon, I guess, who performs, if he performs well on a Friday. 31:06 I don't know, but they went with them both games in Wisconsin, so I'm assuming he's going to be the guy moving forward. 31:13 So yeah, I mean, St. 31:14 Cloud's kind of thin with the injuries and departures at midseason, but they've been playing better, and I'd be surprised if there's anyone but a sweep. 31:23 Yeah, obviously you can't do this, but if you throw out that Minnesota series where St. 31:27 Cloud was definitely in both games, though they were, anyone who watched, they were vastly outplayed, especially on Saturday, but St. 31:33 Cloud's been hanging in there despite the injuries. 31:34 I mean, a lot of splits, but again, if you're that depleted, and you can split against some pretty decent teams like CC and North Dakota and Western Michigan, and they've kind of hung around. 31:43 So I mean, Anchorage, they've been terrible all year, but it strikes me as one of those series where it's 6-1 the first night and maybe 4-2 with an empty net or something like that. 31:53 I'm not sure if St. 31:54 Cloud's going to pull them out necessarily, but I think Anchorage will be able to hang in for one of the games. 31:59 But yeah, I fully expect St. 32:00 Cloud to lead the weekend with four points. 32:03 Well, and the thing about those series as well is, when you're playing the worst team in the league and you know that the crowd intensity is going to be pretty low and you just wonder, sometimes it happens where a team just kind of sleepwalks just enough to blow one game and you know, fans hate that crap. 32:20 And certainly we've seen that happen with the Gophers over the years on occasion. 32:24 So that's the only way I see St. 32:26 Cloud losing one, but I don't even think that will happen. 32:29 And really it's a big weekend for them. 32:30 They really need to sweep. 32:31 I mean, by doing that, they can jump quite a few teams in the standings, you know, depending on results. 32:37 But, you know, I mean, you look, they could be right on the edge of home ice if they can sweep this weekend. 32:45 I mean, it's not far away from them. 32:47 Yeah, I mean, it's going to be, you know... 32:50 I mean, that puts them at 25 points. 32:52 Yeah, the next few weeks, it's definitely going to be a battle. 32:54 I mean, I, you know, I was monkeying around with the what-if calculator, and I have them ending up, I think, in seventh place, so just missing by a couple points. 33:04 But it won't shock me if, you know, they might manage to sneak in there and grab, you know, one of the, you know, like the sixth place spot. 33:11 But, you know, I don't know what's going to happen with CC, but, you know, I think that certainly they're capable of that. 33:17 Yeah, and I think for all those teams, kind of right in that middle area, and, you know, we mentioned North Dakota earlier, and we'll see how they can finish. 33:24 I mean, obviously, they have a chance with the way they're going to really climb up the standings, but, you know, with the trip to Denver mixed in, we'll see how they finish. 33:30 But I think it's not so much of even getting home ice or whatever, but I think it's if you're one of those, you know, Michigan Tech, Bemidji, Omaha, CC, even just avoid North Dakota in the first round. 33:40 And, you know, I think any of those teams would rather, you know, let's say North Dakota slips a little bit. 33:44 I think a lot of those teams would rather go on the road to play, you know, Omaha, for instance, versus hosting North Dakota because that, you know, they're clearly the, you know, hottest team out of that, you know, really tight middle of the standings. 33:55 We also have Duluth heading to Mankato. 33:59 Yeah, this will be interesting. 34:02 I mean, Duluth, you know, they've been so up and down the last month. 34:05 And, you know, I think just in general, it feels like they do pretty well against Mankato, but like we touched on earlier, Mankato is playing pretty decent hockey right now. 34:12 And, you know, Duluth will be without JT Brown, of course. 34:15 And so we'll see. 34:17 I mean, Duluth, again, that's just one of those deals where they had that awesome run and you knew they were due for a letdown. 34:22 And it's kind of, you know, they beat North Dakota last Saturday, but I mean, splitting at home against them and, you know, almost getting shut out on Friday night. 34:30 They scored with a minute left or whatever. 34:31 And, you know, and then Saturday, you don't want to diminish the win, but then blood gets kicked out. 34:35 And, you know, North Dakota almost came back. 34:38 So it's not like Duluth got, you know, everything clicking again last weekend. 34:41 And, you know, again, just going on the road against a team that's playing well, I'll say maybe three points for Duluth. 34:46 But, you know, just right now with the way they're going and without arguably their top, you know, for sure, their top goal scorer, I would say, and one of their top two players along with Jack Connelly, it's just tough to predict a road sweep for them right now. 34:58 I mean, they split an anchorage, you know, and the anchorage is markedly worse than Mankato right now. 35:03 Yeah, I mean, I, maybe because I'm just playing it safe, but I guess I still see it as a Duluth sweep. 35:10 But, you know, it's one of those things where momentum is a very finicky thing and the minute you lose it, it's sometimes going to be tough to get back. 35:20 And I think we've kind of seen that with Duluth and, you know, ever since that streak ended in Nebraska. 35:27 I mean, I think that you've seen that they've been kind of inconsistent, you know, from one game to the next. 35:32 And it won't surprise me if they don't get all the points there. 35:37 I think that I have them, you know, when I was using that calculator. 35:40 I think I'm sweeping this weekend, but I do think that, you know, they're going to lose probably a couple games in the last few weeks. 35:46 And so, yeah, I mean, I'm calling a sweep on this one for Duluth, but I wouldn't be surprised if Ryan ends up being correct. 35:55 Michigan Tech heading up to Grand Forks to take on the Sioux. 35:59 And yes, they are the Sioux. 36:02 Wait, do we need to check that as a change? 36:05 I mean, seriously, what a joke that is. 36:07 I haven't checked the most recent emails, but I believe they are. 36:11 And remember, though, they're just doing it because the state is telling them to. 36:14 They probably don't really want to be the Sioux, but, you know, the state, you know, it's the law now, so they really need to abide by it. 36:21 I am laughing my ass off in this whole situation. 36:24 They are just screwing themselves even more. 36:27 It's quite entertaining. 36:29 I mean, it's something we could talk about forever, but they're fighting the, you know, the PC police, and that's just something that in 2012, and who the hell knows how long this is going to drag out, but you're not going to win that battle. 36:41 The sooner they give it up, the better, but it's kind of fun to watch from afar. 36:44 But then again, it's so annoying to still like hear about it all the time, and it's just back and forth and seemingly endless. 36:51 Hey, if they want to keep the Sun name, that's fine with me. 36:57 I mean, seriously, if they want to shoot themselves in the foot, not even just in their total athletic department, that's their business, but I think it's funny because I'm sure there's a lot of NDSU fans that are probably voting on those things. 37:12 Yeah, keep the Sun name. 37:16 I mean, it would be like St. 37:17 Cloud fans or Duluth fans being like, yeah, anything to hurt the Gophers' athletics, I'm sure they'd probably be all game about it. 37:25 But yeah, to me, the whole thing has gotten to the point of being ridiculous and this entity suing that entity and the only one that are benefiting are the lawyers, you know. 37:38 But yeah, if they want to keep it, have fun. 37:40 I'm sure the NCAA will be a favorite moving forward. 37:46 But anyways, as far as the actual series goes, I would probably say, given the way North Dakota is playing, I think it's kind of hard to pick against them at home, even though tech's been pretty pesky this entire year. 38:01 It'll be interesting because I do think that tech will go in there. 38:04 I mean, we saw how they were here. 38:06 They're not going to back down just because the other team has got the big name and they're more talented or whatever. 38:12 I'm sure it's going to be a feisty series, probably feistier than people might on the surface realize because I don't think tech's going to back down. 38:22 It won't be surprising to me if you see a little bit of the scrums going on or whatever because I think tech's going to go in there probably with a little bit of an edge and see if they've got the match North Dakota's physicality and see how it goes. 38:37 But I do think North Dakota will sweep it. 38:39 But who would have thought at the beginning of the year that we've got this Michigan Tech, North Dakota series, a couple weekends left in the year, and they're one point apart in the standings. 38:51 That is shocking. 38:51 I mean, this is a huge series. 38:54 I mean, North Dakota cannot afford to trip up now. 38:57 Obviously, they've been playing well, but unless they want to go to tech, they've got to be careful here. 39:06 I was going to say, in their pairwise, they're pretty precarious position now as well. 39:11 I mean, they're down, I think, in the 15, 16 range. 39:14 And even with their improved play of late, they have no room for error, so certainly they have to win. 39:22 Yeah, and when you brought this up, last year, these teams played the back-to-back weekends, and this is the last time they played because they haven't met this year yet. 39:29 The score is the last time these teams played the four games in a row, whereas 6-1, 11-2, 8-0, and 3-1. 39:37 So a lot of the North Dakota bodies have changed, but for Tech, it feels like they have a lot of the same players back, and it's been almost a calendar year since that happened, but at the same time, with scores like that and back-to-back weekends, it's not something you're going to forget. 39:50 And Tech, they're going to play tough, like Cami said. 39:54 I don't see North Dakota putting up five, six goals and running them out of the building. 39:58 I just think Tech, they're obviously a little bit down last weekend against Omaha, but they're going to go in there and battle, and I expect North Dakota to merge with four points, but again, it wouldn't shock me if they didn't, and if they do, I don't think it's going to be as easy as it's come in the past for them against Tech. 40:14 Well, you talked about Omaha here, and they face CC at CC, and it's another deal. 40:21 I mean, Omaha's up one point on them, so another huge series. 40:28 Well, these are two of the hardest teams for me to figure out. 40:31 I mean, when I look at the WCHA, these teams, I don't know what to expect. 40:37 I mean, we saw CC play us pretty tough. 40:40 They had some really good goaltending and whatever when they were here. 40:43 But then, of course, they go on the road, and Bemidji's sweeping them, putting four goals up each night, and you're saying to yourself, okay, wow, what's with CC? 40:52 And then they got three points out of Denver. 40:55 The week before that, we didn't get any. 40:57 So I say to myself, which CC team is this? 41:01 And then UNL has been up and down and all over the map the whole year. 41:06 So this is probably, for me, the hardest series to figure out. 41:11 I would probably say simply because of that fact, I would go with a split because I just don't know which team is going to show up which night. 41:19 Yeah, I'd say if anything, maybe give a slight edge to CC just because in general, they've had better goaltending this year. 41:26 And I think their high end players are a little bit better than what Omaha's high end guys are. 41:30 And they have home ice. 41:31 But again, it's just every time you kind of want to get on CC's bandwagon and say, you know, because they were picked reasonably high at the start of the year. 41:38 And, you know, rightfully so. 41:39 I mean, it's weird that you thought Joe Howe would kind of be the guy in that. 41:42 It's been the Thornburg kid. 41:43 But, you know, with the Schwartz brothers and Gensel and Dieter, you know, move the puck around the power play. 41:48 And it's every time you want to pick them a little bit. 41:50 I mean, they take three points from Denver and it's like, OK, here we go. 41:53 And then they get swept by Bemidji and it's kind of another step backwards. 41:57 So I'll say three points for CC. 41:59 But again, honestly, there's anything this weekend. 42:02 Omaha sweeping would be the only result that would surprise me. 42:05 Anything beyond that, it's just, you know, again, like Hammy said, it's two teams that are really tough to kind of put your finger on. 42:11 Well, and the other thing I would bring up is Nick Dineen for CC has been out ever since that Denver's. 42:16 And I did kind of hint at this on Twitter. 42:19 But I was told behind the scenes by some Gopher people that the reason why Nick Dineen was out is because he got clobbered, supposedly illegally, by Mr. 42:31 Zucker of DU the week before, and nothing got called, and of course, he didn't get suspended. 42:37 But, you know, it's kind of interesting how some of these things work out in the end. 42:41 But, yeah, you know, certainly Dineen's a loss for CC as well, and I think he's going to be out still. 42:48 So, I'm sure that'll hurt their chances a bit. 42:52 Finally, we've got Bemidji heading to Mariucci this weekend. 42:57 The series is all Minnesota pretty much, 8-1-1 overall. 43:01 They've only played 10 times, so obviously the last 10 minutes is 8-1-1. 43:06 Looks like Friday's game is going to be on FSN+, so good luck finding it. 43:11 And Saturday game back on FSN. 43:13 I don't know if you guys noticed this weekend, but it looks like FSN+, had some issues Saturday night. 43:21 They shut off the feed or switched to fishing or something like that for a lot of cable customers, and they were not too happy. 43:29 But the series, what do you think? 43:33 Well, I mean, my feeling, I said it earlier, the Gophers need, you know, to me, this is the playoff start now for me. 43:41 I mean, I think that moving forward, if you want to win the league, I mean, it's playoff hockey from here on out for the rest of the season. 43:47 And, you know, you got to start here. 43:50 I mean, there's no more excuses. 43:51 There's no more of the, you know, one night on, one night off, you know, that kind of stuff. 43:56 If you want to be a championship team and you want to be considered a contender for it all, these are the kind of series, you know, with all due respect to Bemidji, that you got to sweep at home. 44:05 And, you know, we saw Patterson needs to play a little better. 44:08 I mean, he didn't play real well on Friday. 44:11 Defensively, some of these guys, Alton Marshall didn't have a good Friday night. 44:15 Hull continues to annoy the hell out of me. 44:18 And I'll, you know, I usually don't, I don't single guys out usually. 44:22 Well, you were praising him last week, so that's funny. 44:25 That's probably the opposite this week. 44:26 Well, I give him credit for when he made a play. 44:29 I mean, I'll tell you. 44:30 But my feeling is this, is that I don't like to say this kind of stuff, but if he wants to go pro, have at it. 44:38 Because, you know, we got a couple of good recruits coming in next year, and this kid annoys the hell out of me with how soft he plays. 44:46 And I just can't, it's frustrating as hell. 44:49 I mean, I'm frustrated by that kid. 44:51 And so, but anyways, to get back on track, I feel like, you know, this is a series you got to sweep. 44:57 Gophers have more talent up front. 44:59 They're, you know, Bemidji is certainly going to be, you know, I don't suspect it's going to be wide open. 45:05 You know, they play a pretty defensive style in terms of what I see for statistics. 45:10 I mean, in WCHA play, they're third in the league in goals against. 45:14 So, you know, they're going to play, I think, pretty tight games and probably conservative. 45:19 I doubt they're going to try to get an up and down racehorse game with us. 45:22 So it's probably going to be one of those where as a Gopher fan, you have to be patient. 45:27 And, but I think it should be a sweep for the Gophers. 45:30 Not an easy one, but a sweep. 45:32 Yeah. 45:33 I echo a lot of what Hammey said. 45:34 You look at Bemidji this year and you know, Hammey alluded to it earlier, but they're 11-4-1 at home and 4-8-2 on the road. 45:40 And you look at, you know, they were swept at Colorado College. 45:43 They were swept at Duluth. 45:45 They were swept at Denver. 45:46 So a lot of the, you know, kind of the upper echelon WCHA teams have taken care of business against Bemidji at home. 45:51 And really there's no reason for the Gophers not to do the same this weekend. 45:55 I think for me, big picture wise, you know, obviously be nice for the Gophers to win a ton of games the rest of the way. 46:01 But, you know, I envision them winning four of the next six. 46:04 So, you know, obviously if that's, you know, I think if they do that, they're going to guarantee themselves the top two finish, maybe even number one, depending on how other teams do, of course. 46:11 But, and as great as it would be to win the league, I think, you know, big picture wise, you know, position yourself good in the pair wise. 46:17 And a good way to do that is to avoid having to play, you know, Thursday night in St. 46:21 Paul. 46:22 So if you, of course, can finish in the top two and then win your first round of playoffs series, you're going to do that. 46:27 So, you know, an easy way to kind of start that path this weekend is to take four, you know, get two of those wins against Bemidji, which, you know, on paper, this might be the easiest series the rest of the way. 46:36 I know Wisconsin at home is not going to be easy either, but that's a rivalry series. 46:39 And even though Wisconsin is a little bit down this year, it's still, you know, I think that's going to be a pretty tough battle. 46:44 And that can be one of those ones, too, where it's, you know, not necessarily Wisconsin season, but, you know, they're not going to have a lot to play for and, you know, coming in and upending Minnesota and preventing them from winning a league title or something like that. 46:55 You know, we've seen in the past where that can kind of motivate teams. 46:58 So Bemidji has been not great away from home. 47:01 And, you know, again, the Gophers are talented, more talented than Bemidji. 47:05 It doesn't always matter. 47:06 But, you know, in the key for the Gophers, it's going to be that top line. 47:09 I mean, Bufsted and Rau, those guys are going to need to carry him. 47:11 I mean, we've seen, you know, a couple other guys chip in here and there and, you know, but, you know, the scoring has kind of dried up a little bit from those guys. 47:18 And as a result, the teams, you know, struggled a little bit. 47:21 And I don't know how much they can count on the secondary scoring the rest of the way. 47:24 I think, you know, hopefully, you know, Holla is one of those guys. 47:27 He's probably to Holla what, you know, Justin Holla is to Hammy, what Eric Holla is to me. 47:32 And that some nights he looks really good and makes some really good plays. 47:35 And then there are other times where it just leaves you scratching your head, like, what's the guy doing out there? 47:38 And so hopefully, you know, whoever ends up on the second line, those guys can keep it going. 47:42 But, you know, at the end of the day, if Bukesta and Rau aren't scoring, I just don't know how far this team is going to go. 47:48 So hopefully, they, you know, they're at home, they can get that back on track, get those guys scoring. 47:52 And I think that if Anderson can, you know, there's no reason to assume he's going to fall off. 47:56 I think he'll be, you know, kind of back on the wagon. 47:58 And again, the Midgee is not nearly the offensive team that Denver is. 48:01 And yeah, there's really no, you know, unless it's a 50-state performance by their goalie, I don't think there's any excuse why the Gophers shouldn't get four points this week. 48:09 Now after the suspension last weekend, Coach Lucia really kind of mixed up the lines. 48:15 He didn't just replace a player. 48:16 He really mixed them up. 48:18 Do you think he'll go back to the original lines or maybe try to mix it up again? 48:25 I didn't like the fact that he mixed the lines up that much, to be quite honest with you. 48:29 I thought that was an important game. 48:31 And granted, they did play relatively well in the game, but I really didn't like the fact that they made such vast changes when they probably could have just plugged in one guy into Rau's spot and, you know, just lived with it, you know. 48:44 But they did definitely make some big changes. 48:46 And for me, it's like, why make such big changes in that game? 48:50 Because of one guy, when you've basically gone with the same lineup all year and you could have changed the other to, I don't know. 48:56 To me, it was, I didn't entirely agree with that decision, but of course, I'm not the coach. 49:03 You know, I would suspect everything will be back to normal. 49:06 I can't believe that they would not have it like it's been, you know, after all season, but who knows? 49:13 Yeah, it seems like Lucia kind of does that once a year and whether it's driven by injury or in this case suspension, but, you know, he kind of puts the, you know, not that there was necessarily one fourth line guy on each line, but, you know, kind of spread out the grinders and whether it's to spark the guys in the line or get a little bit more physical play in there, you know, there's a number of reasons why he could be doing it, but I'm with Hammy. 49:34 I wasn't a huge fan. 49:35 I mean, when I saw it, I was just like kind of sighed and was like, well, it seems like kind of an overreaction and, you know, maybe he was just trying to use it to tinker with some things or I don't know. 49:44 It seems like a weird time if he's going to do that, but, you know, again, just fit balling. 49:47 But yeah, I would assume that things will be pretty much back to normal and especially with the top line. 49:52 And one thing for me that's kind of been weird the last few weeks is the fact that Serratore has found his way out of the lineup. 49:58 And I don't know. 49:59 I mean, I know he took a few penalties here and there, but with a guy like that that plays on the fourth line and brings some energy, I think he was going to accept some penalties. 50:06 But, you know, I thought he was okay on Saturday night, but I don't know. 50:10 It's just weird that, you know, there's some other guys that, you know, like this is not a rip on Christian Isaacson. 50:15 I know he did some good things this weekend. 50:17 But again, in that fourth line role, give me Joey Miller and Tom Serratore, those type of guys on the wing and, you know, whoever you want up the middle. 50:24 But I just think that, you know, fourth line penalty killing, those type of guys are more valuable than somebody like Isaacson, who I think has a pretty bright future ahead of him. 50:32 But for crunch time with the team that's in position to do, you know, maybe not a national championship, but to hang a banner or two down the road, I'd really just go with some older guys that kind of fit that mold a little bit versus, you know, more of a skilled finesse player like Isaacson. 50:47 Well, MN State of Hockey is like, he's talking about on Twitter, you know, Jake Hansen took a couple offensive penalties in the same game this weekend that has to stop. 50:58 And I think that kind of, that was kind of the theme of the weekend, especially in the Saturday game, the undisciplined play, haul with the high stick, bootish with the inexplicable interference penalty. 51:11 These kids got to get their heads on straight and be a little more disciplined, or they are going to drop out of the NCAA tournament. 51:19 Well, it's been the Achilles heel for the team, you know, throughout the year has been some, I mean, you know, you're not going to totally eliminate bad penalties in a season. 51:28 Of course, they're going to happen near there, but when I think back on most of their, you know, struggles, it's definitely, you know, been some penalty-related issues, even going all the way back to the Vermont series when they lost that game. 51:42 I mean, it was all about penalties and, you know, some of these penalties, I mean, that haul, you know, it was a killer when he got that high stick. 51:50 I mean, you know, that's just, you got to know what the hell you're doing with your stick out there, you know. 51:54 You can't just be wildly swinging around. 51:56 I don't care if you're trying to lift a guy's stick or not, you know. 51:59 At that point in the game, you have to be careful about what the hell you're doing, and you know, that cost us. 52:03 And as far as Hanson goes, you know, on that game-winning goal, you know, he was the one who didn't get out to the point, you know, to kind of, he got interfered with a little bit on the play, but, you know, he didn't get out there, you know. 52:14 And so, you know, we gave him praise the prior weeks, I think, in St. 52:18 Cloud. 52:18 He made that nice play on Warning's, you know, game-winning goal. 52:21 But you kind of have to also critique him a little bit on that particular play, and so he didn't get out there until it was manned and stop that potentially happening. 52:28 Well, what also killed him on that play was also that Mr. 52:31 Condon did not cover the goal scorer at all off the face-off. 52:36 That just killed him. 52:38 Yeah, well, yeah, I mean, it was a team breakdown, but, you know, I'd look at it piece by piece. 52:43 You lose the draw, that's the killer. 52:45 Then you don't get out to the point fast enough. 52:48 That's, you know, and so, I mean, yeah, it's a combination of factors, but to me, that was the glaring one. 52:54 Obviously, the face-off thing is obviously a huge steel tube. 52:57 In past years, I mean, you know, their percentage has been a little low, but what we've always talked about, whether it's on the message board or whatever, is it's not just how many you're losing, it's when you're losing them and where you're losing them. 53:10 And obviously, on the game-winning goal, defensive zone loss in the face-off, game over. 53:18 Yeah, and that's, you know, again, I touched on it at the start, but it seems like that's what they were doing against St. 53:22 Cloud and some other teams recently. 53:24 And, you know, I mean, to be honest, Denver's a lot better than St. 53:26 Cloud, especially up the middle with, you know, the Shaw brothers and Ostro. 53:29 He's the guy that's been around, and, you know, those are guys that are a little bit older, stronger. 53:33 And, you know, the thing, you know, the troubling thing is that, you know, it wouldn't shock me if the Gophers get to the final five where they need to do some damage or at least split. 53:41 You know, it could be a situation where if they lose, you know, let's say they do end up getting in a bye and they get to Friday, and they might need to win that game. 53:48 If they end up losing to, you know, whoever, I mean, with how tight things are with the pairwise, and, you know, there's a month of games to be played, but, you know, it would be a real shame if they, you know, miss the tournament again at a final five situation. 53:59 I think that happened, what was it, three or four years ago, that when they lost to Duluth in the Thursday night game, they ended up, you know, missing the tournament. 54:05 We've seen other years where they haven't made it there, and that's the reason they, you know, didn't get in. 54:09 But, you know, they're going to have to beat, you know, somebody like a Denver or a, you know, Duluth or somebody like that at the final five. 54:15 And, you know, again, they might need to do it to win the final five, but they might need to do it just to keep their season going and get an NCAA tournament first. 54:21 So, you know, you don't want to overreact too bad. 54:23 I mean, they were in both games to a certain degree, especially Saturday, and, you know, Denver is a really good team. 54:27 But, you know, they've kind of put themselves in this spot with the, you know, the poor non-conference record. 54:32 And, you know, it seems like any weekend now where they, you know, it's bad for them, it's even worse, you know, for them than it would be somebody else just because their, you know, situation of their pairwise ranking. 54:42 Well, and that's the thing, what we talked about earlier in the season. 54:44 That's why you have to take... 54:46 You can't look at those non-conference games as just throwaway games. 54:49 You know, you can't. 54:50 And that's why we're in the position that we're in. 54:52 And, I mean, we harped on it earlier in the year. 54:54 You know, you can't take those games, you know, lightly. 54:58 You have to really focus on them because, you know, in some ways, they're maybe even a little more important because of the fact that, you know, those can swing some of those, you know, some of those pairwise situations. 55:11 So, I mean, that's, to me, that was a killer, you know. 55:15 It's just something to remind ourselves when you look back on the season. 55:19 Those are the games that you let slip away that really can hurt you. 55:22 And now, you know, you're at the point where it could be just one game that just knocks you out. 55:26 And it's all because of a few games that you didn't take care of business earlier in the year. 55:31 Yep. 55:31 It's going to be an interesting few weeks. 55:35 Really, obviously, everyone on GPL was, you know, chicken little freaking out on Saturday night. 55:40 But give it a few weeks. 55:42 We'll see where we are, you know, after, you know, UNO. 55:45 I think after UNO, we'll have a pretty good feeling where we're going to be. 55:50 Well, yeah. 55:51 And like I said, for me, it's this playoff hockey from here on out. 55:53 I mean, I just, that's got to be the mentality. 55:56 I mean, I don't know what's going to happen this weekend, but for me, the one thing I do want to see more than anything else is the Gophers to come out and just play with fire, you know, play hard, take over the game. 56:08 I mean, I'm not saying that they got to blow them out on the scoreboard, but at least make it known in both games that we're the better team, you know, we're serious about making a run here, and, you know, now is the time to get down to business. 56:20 And that's what I want to see as much as anything. 56:22 Of course, I want to see two wins, and I'd rather win two games ugly than lose any of them. 56:27 But, I mean, nonetheless, I expect, you know, that they need to start really showing it on the ice that, hey, we're serious about making a run. 56:34 And, you know, one of the issues, too, for Minnesota the next few weekends is that, you know, we saw it this weekend with Denver, and again, you don't want to, I don't know if it bores people or not with the whole pairwise discussion, but, you know, these are the only times of the year they play Omaha and Bemidji, and both those teams right now are teams under consideration, so that can go one of two ways. 56:50 I mean, if you do some damage against those teams, and, you know, on one hand, that hurts their pairwise ranking, but if you can get a couple of wins, but those teams stay, you know, as teams under consideration by the end of the year, it's going to be almost impossible for you to lose the comparison against them because two of the points in the whole deal are, you know, go to your favor. 57:08 But we saw it with Denver, and like I said earlier, it's going to be tough for the Gophers to win that comparison now because they're all in two against them. 57:14 And, you know, there's only so many other ways you can swing it in such a, you know, kind of a violent fashion where you can take, you know, one or two points on the weekend. 57:21 So, you know, hopefully the team can do some damage and, you know, at least sweep one of these series just to kind of put it in your back pocket that, you know, hey, that's one comparison or for sure going to win. 57:30 And they said one comparison, you know, or two or whatever, but it's, you know, it might come down to that for this team and, you know, how bad would it suck if they, you know, lose and tie at Omaha and they end up losing that comparison and that's what cost them. 57:41 I mean, again, you don't want to get too far down the road, but with how fine the line is for this team and what it could be, I think that's a realistic scenario in a month or so when the brackets are unveiled. 57:51 And that's exactly what happened a few years ago. 57:54 Talking with the US. 57:56 College Hockey Online guys, when Minnesota just missed the tournament, all they needed to do was just get a tie against Michigan Tech up at Tech, and that was the game. 58:08 They had a flukey goal that they lost in overtime, and that pretty much cost them their tournament berth. 58:14 So it's little things. 58:17 Yeah, exactly, and that's the thing. 58:20 You really shouldn't get to that point where it's just a one-player fluke goal or whatever is what costs you an NCAA berth throughout the entire season. 58:30 If you take care of business when you should, you're not going to have to worry about those things. 58:36 But unfortunately in recent years, we've just not done enough at key times to just kind of put us over the hump and to that point where you're not going to worry about the off-flute game or whatever that's going to cost you a berth. 58:50 Any other thoughts on the weekend, guys? 58:54 That's about it. 58:55 Just want to see two good efforts and two wins. 58:58 Just for the fans out there, a good time to show up would be Saturday night early. 59:05 University is going to do a 10th anniversary celebration for the 2002 National Championship team. 59:12 Obviously, it was a pretty big, pretty big accomplishment for the team since they hadn't won in 23 years. 59:21 And yes, it's already been 10 years. 59:23 So they're going to do a pregame ceremony, so get there early. 59:28 I understand right now you can get tickets for 15 bucks, standing room. 59:35 So take advantage of it. 59:36 Yeah, and for those people that either can't get there this Saturday or live out of town or whatever, you know, gophersports.com has had some cool videos this week. 59:44 I think yesterday was they talked with Lucia for two or three minutes and asked some various questions about it. 59:49 And then I think Grand Patoni was today, and I think Gensels tomorrow, I want to say. 59:54 But yeah, I mean, there's just a lot of, you know, they kind of say the standard answers. 59:58 Grand obviously talks a little bit more, kind of opens up a vein more than Lucia did. 1:00:01 But just as a fan to see a lot of the highlights and images again, and you know, it's definitely a huge thing. 1:00:07 And it's weird that it's been ten years. 1:00:08 But yeah, definitely head over to gophersports.com and check those videos out. 1:00:12 I think it's really worthwhile. 1:00:15 Anything going on in recruiting news, Hammy? 1:00:19 Not so much with us. 1:00:21 So I don't have much to say about that. 1:00:24 We talked a little bit about the fun North Dakota stuff today, but other than that, no. 1:00:32 Alright, well I think that pretty much does it, unless you guys have anything else. 1:00:35 Nope, that's it. 1:00:37 Good. 1:00:38 Alright, that's it for this week's GopherPuckLive Podcast. 1:00:41 We'll be back next week and hopefully be talking about a Bemidji series sweep. 1:00:48 We'll just have to see. 1:00:48 For the Gophers, that is. 1:00:51 Well, we hope so. 1:00:53 And favor us. 1:00:56 And obviously we'll preview the UNO series as well. 1:00:59 Well, thanks for tuning in.