0:03 This is the GO4PUK Live Podcast, Episode 25, recorded Wednesday, November 7, 2012. 0:21 Welcome to this week's GPL Podcast. 0:25 Along with Hammeh and Vegoe, I am your host, Jupiter. 0:29 It's been quite a while since we've done a podcast. 0:31 You can pretty much blame that all on me. 0:32 I've been a little sick one week, a little vacation and getting older the next week, but that's behind us now. 0:40 So let's kick off this 25th podcast, a little headline news. 0:45 Well, today, Wisconsin's Bill Butters, assistant coach, just decided to quit, move on, whatever. 0:55 Apparently he wants to pursue other passions in his life. 0:59 Hammeh, do you have any idea what's going on with Billy Butters over there? 1:03 Well, I mean, it's not really shocking. 1:06 I mean, he's a guy, he's a very religious man. 1:09 Everybody has known that for a long time. 1:12 He's been involved in different ministries. 1:16 And I think that that's a big part of, apparently the big part of the reason why he's moving on, I think is that he just feels that passion for that, which is, you know, I'm not here to judge anybody, whatever people want to do with their religious beliefs and all that, you know, more power to you. 1:31 I never felt, and I've said this for a long time, I never felt that Butters was the greatest fit for Wisconsin, or really, I don't even know if he was the greatest fit as an assistant coach any longer, not because he can't coach, but more because of this kind of a situation. 1:47 How well does he connect with the players? 1:49 I mean, you know, let's face it, most players nowadays are not, you know, they're not reading their Bible when they're going home from classes and things of that nature. 1:57 Not that none of them do, but nonetheless, I'm just saying like, you know, you have to have coaches that really connect well with players, and I'm not saying that he didn't necessarily, but I just think that there is a fit factor that you wonder about, and I've always questioned that fit there. 2:11 So, you know, it's not, I'm surprised, of course, he's doing it, you know, once the season has begun, but I'm not surprised that he would leave Wisconsin to pursue something like this. 2:21 See, that's the whole thing, though. 2:23 It's a month into the season, and it just looks a little strange, you know. 2:28 I'm just going to go with, you know, he hates Eves, or he hates the color red, he couldn't wear it anymore. 2:34 Let's get all the Badger fans pissed off. 2:36 Let's just do that instead. 2:39 Well, you're a week early for that. 2:41 I know, but no sense not reveling it, and get it going now. 2:45 Vegoe, do you got any thoughts on this? 2:48 Don't you think it's a little strange, though? 2:49 I mean, you know, he wants to change his life or not. 2:52 I mean, you would think he would have done this this summer, not a month into the season. 2:59 Yeah, the one thing about Wisconsin, Mike Eves, is I know it took him a long time to hire an assistant coach, and it was a long process trying to figure out who he was going to have on his staff. 3:11 And obviously, they didn't find the right fit and they didn't connect. 3:15 But it's just a big question mark for that program to see that happen. 3:21 Yeah, well, who knows? 3:23 You know, he'll have to find somebody else. 3:25 I'm not sure what he's going to do in the meantime. 3:28 I mean, he's just kind of... 3:29 I take that Butters coached the defense, or was he just more of a general coach? 3:34 No, he was a defensive coach there, just like he was at the U. 3:37 And, you know, I think that probably the best route that Wisconsin would probably take would be to get an interim guy on there just for the rest of the season, because you're not going to find anybody, more than likely, you're not going to find anybody that's, you know, a high-profile guy to step into that role in the middle of a season. 3:53 So you're probably better off finding somebody to step into that situation on a temporary basis, and I'm guessing then go look for a full-fledged replacement after the season's over. 4:02 That'd be my guess. 4:04 I guess we'll just have to wait and see what happens. 4:06 It's definitely just a strange little thing that happened today, so. 4:10 But on the golden gopher front, you know, it's been a while since we've talked, and, you know, last time we had a podcast, you know, the Gophers just swept away Michigan State. 4:21 We're talking, oh, this is gonna be great. 4:24 And they struggled quite a bit, couldn't score against Canisius hardly, split with Tech, split with Minnesota State, Vegoe. 4:35 You probably saw these games. 4:37 What's going on? 4:38 I thought our Gophers were gonna be pretty good this year, and they're showing quite a few vulnerabilities. 4:44 Well, I think what happened in the games that they lost, they came out in the first 10 or 15 minutes, not ready to play. 4:50 They were trying to make pretty plays to get out of the zone. 4:54 They weren't being careful with the puck. 4:56 And the WCHA is a good conference. 4:58 If you make silly mistakes at your own blue line or at the offensive blue line against good teams, they're gonna capitalize. 5:06 Even against the under 18 team. 5:08 You know, they come out, they make a couple silly turnovers. 5:11 Those guys have the skill and talent to capitalize on those opportunities. 5:15 And I think that's what happened. 5:17 And you get a team that gets a lead and you're playing from behind, it's tough to catch up. 5:23 You know, with all the talent they have, you dig yourself holes like that night in, night out, you're going to have a tough time winning games. 5:30 Well, I must say, Hammeh, that we thought the defense was going to be very strong. 5:34 And I want to say, in that Michigan Tech series, they were very suspect, I should say, in that first game. 5:44 There was lots of turnovers at the offensive blue line. 5:49 Odd man rushes, it just looked ugly. 5:52 What are your thoughts? 5:54 Well, I mean, I think, you know, the big thing for me is there's a couple of young guys on the blue line that are making some big errors. 6:02 I mean, I watched this last weekend, and Shea, you know, he had a rough time. 6:08 You've seen Riley have some rough moments. 6:11 So, you know, I don't like to pick on the freshmen, but I mean, honestly, those guys have turned the puck over more than you would hope to see. 6:17 I, to piggyback on what was said earlier, I mean, I think when I look at the problems so far, what I've seen this year, in my opinion, is that I don't think that they're just, I don't see the energy level, I don't see the readiness when we first start the game. 6:33 Because when I think back to last year, we, I mean, our first periods were generally pretty good. 6:38 I mean, we started off games very well, especially early on in the year. 6:41 And it just felt like, you know, the guys were ready to play, like they had something to prove. 6:46 And I don't feel that thus far this year. 6:49 I don't, I feel like the guys are coming out sluggish. 6:52 And I mean, you look at this last weekend and basically other than the third period on Friday, they were playing catch up the whole weekend. 6:59 It was either we were behind or we were tied pretty much the entire weekend up until, you know, except for that third, you know, halfway through the third period on Friday. 7:07 And you're not going to win games that way. 7:09 And you can't really expect, I mean, I don't care who you play, if you're playing from behind or you're always like kind of in that mentality of catch up mode, it just, you're going to have problems. 7:19 So I just think that that is a big part of it. 7:20 And certainly I think that the defensive part of things, I mean, the talent is there, but I think like the chemistry and some of the pairings, you know, is a question mark yet. 7:30 I think they're kind of working that out. 7:32 So there's just something, I mean, everything is fixable. 7:35 And if you look at, you know, I'm not worried about things because you look at last, you know, over history, I mean, look at last year's BC team, they didn't play great in the first half. 7:44 You see North Dakota over the years, they didn't play great in the first half. 7:47 I mean, it's not like it's some, you know, deal breaker. 7:50 If you don't play, in fact, a lot of times, I feel a little bit more nervous if we're playing too well early because then I start to think, well, we're never going to keep this up for four or five months. 7:59 So you kind of want that, you know, balance between you're doing well enough where you're, you know, you're winning, but you don't want to feel like you're doing so well that you don't have any room for improvement. 8:09 So it's kind of a mixed bag in that sense. 8:12 So what happened with Mankato, Vegoe? 8:15 I completely missed Friday game. 8:17 I was not in the country. 8:20 I was turning 40 that night and I was having fun in Mexico. 8:24 Saturday night, I found a little hole in the wall bar that I got on to turn the game on. 8:29 So I saw the very end of this first period all the way into the third. 8:33 So I've got some opinions on that, but what was going on Friday night? 8:37 Was it a 3-2 win? 8:39 They're all power play goals. 8:40 What happened Friday night? 8:42 Well, I think the big problem is it was a physical game. 8:45 There wasn't a lot of space. 8:47 Mankato made it really hard on Minnesota to play an easy game. 8:52 And they frankly struggled with that. 8:54 They were careless with the puck early, and I think that hurt them. 8:58 And Hastings has got his team ready to play. 9:01 They weren't giving up shifts. 9:04 Every shift was a challenge, and the Gophers were getting their opportunities. 9:08 Mankato was getting their opportunities. 9:12 You're looking for a number one goalie to step forward. 9:15 Maybe that didn't happen over the weekend. 9:17 So we'll see. 9:19 The power play I did think looked pretty decent. 9:22 You know, they got some goals in the power play. 9:24 They moved the puck well. 9:25 They gained the zone well. 9:26 I think the power play isn't gonna be a big concern. 9:29 The big concern is turning the puck over. 9:31 And like Hamey was saying, you know, you got some young guys out there, and they're not making the smart play with the puck. 9:37 Well, I don't always think it's the young guys. 9:40 You know, I didn't hear the sound, but I watched Saturday's game against Minnesota State, and I, quite frankly, I thought Alt looked awful. 9:52 I saw him turning over the puck. 9:53 He was very indecisive, fumbling it. 9:58 That's what I noticed. 9:59 You know, maybe it was the beer talking too, but I wouldn't all say it's just the young guys. 10:05 Well, no, I'm not trying to pin all that. 10:06 I mean, everybody's gotta play better. 10:08 I mean, I think even if you want to look at it from a team perspective, I think that from a team defense standpoint, I feel like everybody's gotta pitch in and do a little more. 10:16 And I felt like last year, that was one of the things that really was apparent early on, was that it was a team defense situation. 10:24 And I look, you know, I know you missed the Friday game, but you know, the Friday, quite frankly, I thought the first two goals were pretty much on Shea. 10:32 And I thought that, you know, when I looked at, you know, I just watched some of the highlights just a little bit ago before we started up the podcast. 10:41 And, you know, when I think about the winning goal, I mean, that to me is a goal that, you know, you kind of look from a team defense perspective, you know, a guy floating in late, you know, when the puck's deep and yeah, when our fourth line was out there, you know, I don't know. 10:54 I mean, I got questions about some things. 10:56 And when I see it, I'm not saying that we shouldn't roll our lines, but sometimes I wonder if we try to do that a little too much when it's late in the game and, you know, we're on the road, it's a tie game. 11:07 I don't know if I want the fourth line out there, especially when you got, you know, at least one freshman out there. 11:12 And I don't know. 11:14 But any case, I do think that, yes, it's all the defense needs to clean up its act. 11:19 And like I said, I think some of it's a chemistry issue. 11:21 I am also feeling, I know in the off season, I talked about wanting the best skaters on the ice. 11:29 And if that meant moving up defense, you know, some of the defense went up to forward, that I'd be all for it. 11:34 But now I'm starting to think, you know, I don't know if I want that. 11:36 I'd rather see guys sitting and maybe keeping guys in their regular positions than to be putting guys here or there and, you know, Marshall up here or Hall up here. 11:47 I just kind of feel like let's just focus down on our positions and then figure it out from there. 11:53 What are your thoughts on that, Ham? 11:54 I mean, Vegoe, because that's the next thought I was going to have is, should we keep doing all this forwards or defensement up at forwards? 12:02 Is it working? 12:04 I think they're going to need to put Marshall back on defense. 12:06 I mean, he makes good decisions with the puck. 12:09 You know, he may be outsized in the corners and breaking out and whatnot, but he is one of the more solid responsible players for the Gophers, I think. 12:18 So I think, you know, with Marshall and Schmidt, if you can keep those two guys out on the ice, I think Helgeson is, you know, when he's up against some speed and pressure, you know, he'll struggle a little bit. 12:29 If the game's a little bit slower, it's an easier game for him. 12:33 But I think you want Marshall and Schmidt on the ice a lot. 12:36 They're both confident on the puck. 12:38 They're both good at escaping trouble. 12:42 They don't make a lot of problems on the ice for you. 12:44 So I think you'll see Marshall move back and stay back. 12:46 And, you know, if that seventh guy, if it's Hull, if it's Riley, you know, they might have to sit a little bit. 12:55 Well, I'll be honest with you, and everybody knows that I'm not the biggest Hull fan in the world, but I'm ready to see him step in for, you know, Shea or one of the, you know, at least one of the nights on the weekend to have him back there because he is a junior. 13:09 And one thing I will say about the guy is that he does, he has generally made pretty good plays with the puck over the years as far as breakouts. 13:16 Now, not that he doesn't ever turn it over and not that he doesn't ever make mistakes. 13:19 Of course he has, but I'd rather at this point, you know, this is a season where you kind of feel like, hey, this is a chance to make a run for a championship, you know, and there's plenty of time for the Shays and the Riley's to grow as, you know, college players, you know, so I wouldn't mind seeing a little bit more of the veteran presence back on the blue line, if that's what it takes. 13:42 I'm not at practice, I'm not the coaches, so I don't make those decisions, but, you know, I kind of feel like maybe they ought to think about that. 13:49 Well, it's tough, you know, they got a lot of guys back there and it's just kind of the way things turned out, you know, don't they have a few more defensemen coming in next year? 13:59 I mean, it's going to be the awful crowded back there. 14:02 You better hope that what people are going to leave. 14:06 What is Helgeson the only senior? 14:09 Yep. 14:09 I mean, you know, I don't know who's going to potentially leave. 14:12 And I mean, we don't know all that stuff. 14:14 So it's kind of speculation, but, you know, we'll see how it goes. 14:19 But are you guys concerned? 14:20 I mean, about the whole team in general, I mean, not the start we wanted, they're two and two in the WCHA. 14:28 That's against teams, Minnesota State and Michigan Tech, that are one and three and one and five. 14:36 I'm a little concerned. 14:39 I'm not personally, simply because like I mentioned earlier, that there's been too much, you see too much over the years of teams that end up doing big things that didn't necessarily start off the greatest. 14:52 And I think that if it was a talent issue, I'd be worried if it was some other factor that I didn't feel could change. 15:03 Like we used to blame John Hill a lot. 15:05 Well, we don't have that anymore. 15:07 Don't have him to kick her out anymore. 15:08 Yeah, you know what I mean? 15:10 Really, the coaches, I believe in the coaches. 15:13 I believe in the players. 15:14 I think that, I do believe that some of it is a little, is psychological. 15:19 I think a lot of it, quite frankly, is psychological. 15:21 I mean, when you're a team that comes into the season and you're one of the favorites, you know, I think that, first of all, other teams are going to get jacked up to play you, number one, give you their best. 15:32 But number two, I think it's only natural when it's October, November, that you're thinking, well, you know, these games don't mean as much as the games we're going to play four or five months now. 15:42 Of course, they mean something, don't get me wrong. 15:44 But I just think that that's part of it. 15:46 I just think that psychologically, they need to snap out of it early in the games. 15:51 I don't have a problem if a team gets beat, but I do have a problem if they are just mentally, they don't seem to be into it at that moment. 15:57 And that's what I've seen the last few weeks. 15:59 I just don't think that they've been mentally right. 16:03 Well, I'm concerned, but maybe that's just me. 16:05 Well, it's pretty early in the season. 16:08 There's a lot of hockey to be played left. 16:10 Both games are road games. 16:12 And typically in the WCHA, if you can do really well at home and split your road series, you're going to be in an okay shape at the end of the year. 16:20 So what about the rest of WCHA so far? 16:22 You know, we've got Denver and St. 16:23 Cloud State up at the top, you know, three and one. 16:25 And St. 16:26 Cloud's looking pretty darn good. 16:29 Nebraska and CC right behind them, Minnesota. 16:32 And then we've got Bemidji, North Dakota, Wisconsin, Falter and Quick. 16:36 And then obviously Duluth and Anchorage have not played too much. 16:39 But what are you guys' initial thoughts after the first few weeks? 16:44 Well, I mean, I think for me, I'm not, you know, I'm not surprised that St. 16:49 Cloud has played. 16:50 I kind of had them higher up than I think a lot of people might have had them. 16:54 It'll be interesting to see how they weather some of these injuries that they have. 16:59 Like I think Hanowski might be out for a little while now. 17:03 I think that Moscow's radio show or whatever he had mentioned that he might be out at least till Christmas. 17:11 That hurts. 17:12 You never know with concussions. 17:14 Those things can be all over the map as far as recovery time. 17:19 It really just depends on the individual. 17:21 That, of course, would be a huge loss to them if it's that length or even further down the line. 17:26 Concussions are not good. 17:28 Anchorage just lost a player today or the last few days. 17:34 It's certainly something that they'll have to weather. 17:38 Denver, I think most people had them in the top three or four teams. 17:43 You expect them to be good defensively, maybe not quite as potent offensively because of some of the losses they had. 17:50 I think I'm a little surprised that Colorado College went and got that sweep from Wisconsin. 17:57 Granted, Wisconsin's not been playing great, but nonetheless, you expect them to at least grab one of them at home. 18:04 That to me was a little surprising. 18:06 Maybe that's part of the reason why you see a situation like Butters happen. 18:09 He realizes that maybe he just doesn't have it in him right now. 18:13 Yeah, I think the league is proving to be really good top to bottom. 18:18 Every night's a battle for every team. 18:19 I think we look at the conference, and I think we kind of said at the start of the year, it looked like North Dakota and Minnesota were going to be 1-2, and then everybody else, you could throw into a hat, and they could come out 3-4-5 in the league. 18:35 And I think you're seeing that. 18:36 I think people are probably a little surprised to see Nebraska, Omaha and CC with home ice right now. 18:43 It's real early in the season, but they've looked good on the ice, so maybe it's going to be a trend. 18:50 Yeah, I just think that you have to... 18:51 I mean, we're only a couple weeks basically into the WCHAC, so it's hard to really put too much into anything. 18:58 But as far as how teams are starting off, certainly, what's the old saying? 19:04 You're not going to win the league in October, but you can certainly lose it if you screw up badly. 19:10 So as long as you're staying in the mix early on, I think that's what's important. 19:16 I would agree with that. 19:18 Well, let's look at this weekend's and the WCHA games. 19:21 We've got not quite a full slate of games, but not too bad. 19:25 We've got Denver heading down to Mankato, or out to Mankato, I should say. 19:31 And obviously Mankato coming off of the split with Minnesota has probably got some reason to play well right now. 19:40 I mean, they've got some confidence going. 19:42 What do you think, Veegs? 19:44 Yeah, I would think I'd see a split coming out this weekend for that series. 19:49 Denver's goaltending, always really good. 19:54 I don't see anything other than that coming out. 19:56 The series I'm most excited this weekend to see how it shakes out at North Dakota, St. 20:00 Cloud State. 20:01 Yeah, and that was the next one here. 20:06 No, I mean, I would agree. 20:08 I mean, I see that split with Denver and Mankato. 20:13 I mean, I'm not necessarily sold on Mankato. 20:15 They split with us. 20:17 Tip your hat to them on the Saturday game, and they did play pretty tough all weekend, but, you know, they did get pasted pretty good by St. 20:25 Cloud the week before. 20:26 It's not like the Gophers are playing, you know, hitting on all cylinders right now, so it's not like we're necessarily the greatest measure in the world. 20:33 So it won't shock me if Denver goes in there and does take two, but I agree. 20:38 I think the most interesting series will be the one between St. 20:41 Cloud and North Dakota because, you know, North Dakota surprisingly only got three points. 20:47 I thought, you know, that Saturday game, they actually tied with Anchorage. 20:52 I mean, that was kind of a surprise. 20:54 So it'll be interesting to see how that series shakes out. 20:56 Well, it's too bad, you know, that St. 20:58 Cloud has the injuries because I think without those injuries, I think they're looking pretty good. 21:05 And I think they're going to give North Dakota all they can handle. 21:11 Well, I don't disagree. 21:11 I mean, I think, you know, they've even in the years where North Dakota was clearly better, they've always played North Dakota relatively tough. 21:20 And I would say that the series to me has split written all over it. 21:24 I mean, I think that, you know, North Dakota is relying on relatively inexperienced goaltending. 21:31 And, you know, that's always something that's you have to worry about when you're on the road, especially early in the year. 21:38 So I think that's going to play a role. 21:40 And I'm sure that St. 21:40 Cloud's fans, although they haven't had quite the support, apparently, that they used to. 21:45 But I'm sure that they'll be pretty amped up for that series against North Dakota. 21:49 Biggs? 21:51 Yeah, I think the fans will probably be having an extra hairy buffalo or two before the game and they'll get their lights turned down. 21:58 And it'll be, you know, a fun, Welcome to the jungle. 22:02 street brawl. 22:02 Yeah, it'll be a nice brawl in the concrete center. 22:05 So it'll just be fun to see how that goes because St. 22:08 Cloud, they can be tough there. 22:10 And if they can get rolling and get on the power play a little bit, I think they'll be able to get some points out of that series, maybe four. 22:18 I would always like to see that, but it's early. 22:23 It's early in the year. 22:23 Well, it's a good series anyway. 22:27 Anything else interest you guys? 22:28 Bimidji at CC, UMD heading to UNO, which I think could be interesting. 22:34 UMD had a little shaky start against the Badgers. 22:38 Any thoughts on those two series? 22:40 Yeah, well, it will be interesting. 22:42 I've been interested in seeing how Duluth is going to handle the departures that they had after the season. 22:50 They've been kind of... 22:51 I haven't seen, of course, the games necessarily, but they've been very kind of up and down. 22:57 One night they might look real good, the next they're looking iffy. 23:00 I suppose that's kind of what you're expecting to see for a team that's replacing so many key cogs to their lineup. 23:08 It'll be interesting to see how they do. 23:10 Nebraska has maybe surprised me a little bit, but like we've talked about, it's pretty early yet, so it's hard to gain any real tremendous insight on their team. 23:20 I'll be interested to see if Duluth can start to get things going. 23:25 They've got so many new guys in the lineup. 23:28 Farley's been one of their big scorers so far. 23:31 He's just a freshman. 23:33 I know they've been kind of messing around with their top six here and there, so it's a big test for them, because I think UNO is going to be a home-wide team this year. 23:41 They've got more draft picks than they've ever had there. 23:45 I think they're going to be at Dark Horse this year out of the WCHA. 23:51 And then they'll lose to Bemidji again. 24:01 Maybe they'll make it to the very last Final Five. 24:03 Who knows? 24:05 All right, then. 24:06 Well, let's move right on to the big series for the Gophers. 24:08 Heading up to Alaska, 10 o'clock games this weekend. 24:12 Looks like the Gophers lead the all-time series 54-19-7, which is obviously pretty good, but it's a long flight. 24:22 They're leaving later this time than they usually are. 24:26 It's always a tough series up, but Anchorage, what do you think, Veegs? 24:31 I think it is scary going to Anchorage. 24:34 The travel can be complicated. 24:35 I know they've got a different flight plan this year, but at the same point, Anchorage got a tie with North Dakota, so it's hard to get overconfident going into a series like that, because if they come out on Friday night, like they have been coming out, and Anchorage gets a goal or two, they're going to be in for a tough weekend. 24:54 So you hope that their lineup gets straightened out a little bit. 24:58 They lean on their upperclassmen here. 25:00 They get their defensive pair sorted out. 25:02 Hopefully Lucia rides his top players a little bit more, maybe starts to tighten the reins a little bit and tighten the ice time a little bit. 25:12 He might have to. 25:13 It is really near, and you can't just go dropping points like that on the road. 25:17 Hammey, how important is this series? 25:20 Like Vig said, they have been starting out slow. 25:23 Lucia has got to get them going a little earlier in these games. 25:26 Obviously, it is always tough up in Anchorage. 25:29 Yeah, you never know. 25:30 Even the best gopher teams, you never know what you are going to get when you go up there. 25:33 Just because of all the different factors, it is the one road trip that is so different than any of the other ones. 25:38 You just never know what you are going to get. 25:42 It seems like we will go up there with great teams and wipe them out. 25:46 6 to 1, one night. 25:47 The next night, it is a 2-2 tie. 25:49 It is so unpredictable. 25:52 North Dakota has the same problems up in Anchorage. 25:56 Yeah, even in the best of times, it is kind of a tough one to predict. 26:01 For me, more than anything else, the thing I am looking most forward to is, okay, how do they start? 26:06 What do they do in that first period? 26:08 Do they get up? 26:09 Like was mentioned, the first period on Friday, how are they looking? 26:13 I don't want to see this. 26:15 And it is not easy to generate a lot of energy on the road at a place where the crowd, frankly, sucks. 26:24 Yeah, oh, I got the cowbells. 26:26 That is about it. 26:26 It is not like you are going to UMD or North Dakota or St. 26:31 Cloud or Wisconsin where they are all amped up because the hated Gophers are in town. 26:37 And you kind of are able to feed off of that energy. 26:40 They are not going to have that to fall back on. 26:42 And so they are going to have to create it on their own. 26:44 And they haven't been able to consistently do that this year early on. 26:50 And so you are kind of like, okay, here is your chance to kind of take the bull by the horns a little bit on your own and start off well. 26:58 So are they going to do that? 26:59 I mean, that is the key factor. 27:01 I am not at all really worried about, I mean, Wilcox has played well, I think. 27:05 I haven't seen really any major softies or anything that I have been like, oh, God, you know, that was ugly, you know, his stats are real good. 27:14 So I feel confident as far as the goaltending goes. 27:16 I feel like they should, in my opinion, they should narrow down, you know, what the pairings are going to be on defense and stick with them for a little while. 27:25 And just, you know, if that means sitting, you know, one of the touted freshmen or whatever they feel is necessary, then I think that is the way to go. 27:33 I just think that they need to settle things down a bit with the lineup. 27:37 And I know that early in the season you might want to tend to experiment a little bit, but I think that, you know, let's try to get things solidified. 27:45 I like the fact that they went back to the top line from last year, and I'd like to see just a little bit more of that kind of stuff. 27:51 And, you know, maybe once we gain some momentum then, if you want to fiddle around a little bit with a spot here or there, then so be it. 27:59 Missing the last Friday's game, missing part of the first period of the second game, I did notice that they put Budish back up there. 28:07 When did that happen? 28:08 Was that a Saturday night thing, or did it happen Friday night? 28:11 I have no clue. 28:12 I thought it was Saturday night. 28:18 Was it a Saturday night thing? 28:19 Did it start that way, or? 28:21 I believe it did, didn't it? 28:23 They basically flopped Isakson and Budish, because Warning was out, so they flopped Condon around, and they were kind of shuffling things around, trying to find something that would work. 28:34 I think a little bit was to get Budish going a little bit. 28:36 He's kind of had a slow start. 28:38 He's had a tough time finding ways to make an impact in the game, and I think playing with Rao and Buxtad, it's a little bit easier to find the puck. 28:47 Well, I think that he fits them better than Isaacson does, mainly because he eats up space, he wins puck battles around the boards, and he's a good passer. 28:57 I mean, Budish is never going to be a sniper guy. 29:00 He's more the setup guy, and when you have two goal scorers like Rao and Buxtad, to me, that's the right fit. 29:08 That's nothing against Isaacson. 29:09 I think that he's been solid in the opportunity, but I just think that Budish is a better fit for that top line. 29:18 So that line's kind of back to normal. 29:20 Obviously, the other lines are mix and match. 29:22 Let's get the defense a little more solid. 29:24 That's pretty much the story of the weekend. 29:26 Let's just kind of solidify things. 29:27 Wouldn't you agree? 29:30 Well, that'd be my main goal. 29:31 I mean, of course, you want to come out of it with two wins, and, you know, quite frankly, I don't care if it's a two-to-one win both nights or if it's, you know, I mean, I would like to see better defensive play. 29:42 Now, granted, you know, it's kind of hard to measure yourself on Anchorage because they're not the greatest offensive team anyways, but, you know, I want to see better plays with the puck. 29:52 I don't want to see, you know, I want to see these turnovers and these blind passes that I've seen some of these freshmen make. 29:57 I don't want to see that crap. 29:58 I just want to see the smart play. 30:01 Well, you know, I mean, these guys... 30:03 I know. 30:03 I know what you mean. 30:05 I know it's a step up, you know, in competition for these guys, but it's not like you just started playing hockey, you know, six months ago. 30:12 You know it's a smart play. 30:13 You can't get away with that little fiddly crap, you know, when you go up to these higher levels because they'll make you pay for it. 30:19 And so I think that that's kind of something that these guys are learning. 30:22 You got to make the smart play, you know. 30:26 Once you get your feet settled and once you feel more confidence on this level, maybe you can try some of that stuff, but not when you're first starting off and finding your way on a team. 30:35 Just don't do that. 30:37 Yeah, I think one thing that's nice about this weekend is Alaska does have a big sheet. 30:42 So that's going to obviously help the Gophers. 30:44 They looked the best against Michigan State when they had all that width on the ice and space in the neutral zone to basically carry the puck from end to end. 30:54 They weren't having to chip in the puck or make indirect plays off the boards. 30:59 They were able to get real vertical. 31:01 I would look for that on the Internet feed if the Internet connection isn't hammered on Friday and Saturday watching the game. 31:08 Which it will be. 31:09 Which it will be. 31:10 Or I'll be hammered. 31:11 I'm thinking about doing that live broadcast again. 31:13 Oh boy. 31:13 Yeah, I saw the Gopher Hockey Twitter feed put that out there. 31:19 I think they'll be able to get more vertical in the game and I think that's going to help this team. 31:23 It will make the game a lot simpler for them. 31:27 Well, Mankato has an Olympic ice and Mankato took it to them. 31:31 Well, I think that was a more physical game and just a little bit more pressure. 31:36 I don't know quite exactly what the problem was there other than they didn't come ready to play and turn the puck over. 31:42 You're seeing a lot of the defensemen when they do get the puck on the bull line moving towards the middle of the ice and they're making some sort of automatic decisions when they do that. 31:53 So hopefully they're a little bit smarter when they do that. 31:56 They can get in trouble when they fake the shot, take a couple steps in and then there's nothing there and no one's covering. 32:02 So hopefully you see a little bit more responsibility there. 32:06 I'm thinking it's a three-point weekend for the Gophers. 32:09 They'll play well one night and something goofy is going to happen the other. 32:12 It seems like that's the way that kind of always happens. 32:15 Well, the other thing I was noticing is we talked about maybe shortening the bench a little bit. 32:23 And I mentioned that goal on Saturday was against the fourth line. 32:26 Well, when I look at the statistics, Saratori, Riley, Michelson, all minus two. 32:32 I mean, most of the team is in the plus category. 32:35 These guys are in the minus. 32:36 That's your fourth line. 32:38 You know what I'm saying? 32:39 And so for me, it's like, okay, guys, you're not expecting your fourth line guys to score a lot, but you sure as hell don't expect them to be scored on. 32:47 I mean, at least not in Gopher Hockey. 32:49 You expect those guys to play smart defensively and at least neutralize the other, you know, the other team's line, whoever they're playing, and that's not happening. 32:57 So to me, those guys need to step it up. 33:00 What's your prediction, Hammeh? 33:03 Ah, boy, you know, I will, you know, I think I will go with the Gopher Sweep. 33:13 No, actually, you know what? 33:14 I'm going to say three points to you because I think that there's going to be one of those nights. 33:17 I'm sure, it just seems like one of those, I'm sure that Anchorage is probably going to play one of those styles where it's like pack it in around the goalie, make it hard for pucks to get through and, you know, try to play it tight. 33:29 Yeah, I mean, it's not going to be the most exciting game in the world more than likely. 33:33 So I think that one night the Gophers will, you know, get enough, will score some goals and they'll have, you know, maybe a two goal, three goal win or something like that. 33:43 But I think the other night is probably going to be a tight one. 33:46 Bigs? 33:48 I'm going to be the guy that's going with the sweep. 33:50 I mean, Alaska has been taking a lot of penalties so far this season. 33:54 It sounds like they're tightening the news so tight under their coach and Schiac there. 34:02 And I think the Gophers score some goals. 34:06 I think they had their power plays clicking. 34:07 I think they'll get some opportunities. 34:09 I think you got guys like Bukstad and Boyd and Budas and Hala who are driving in the net and making things happen and drawing penalties. 34:18 And I think they get ahead. 34:20 I think Lucia is going to get this team going right away from the start. 34:25 I think they kind of learned their lesson the last couple of weekends. 34:29 And I will be surprised if they don't come out to play on Friday. 34:33 Well, you know, the other thing, Bukstad is supposed to be the leader. 34:36 He's supposed to be the guy that's driving the bus. 34:39 And he hasn't looked the part. 34:41 I mean, he's played all right, but he has not been dominant enough, in my opinion, for a guy who is expected to be very dominant coming back. 34:48 He hasn't really been quite as dominant as I expected. 34:52 And so I think he needs to step it up, too. 34:55 I would agree with that, but there are times when it seems like he gets the puck and they have a hard time getting it off him. 35:02 I mean, he'll have a guy or two on him, on the boards, and he comes out with it. 35:07 It doesn't always work out, but there are times where you see this brilliance, like he's going to come out with that puck, and sure enough, he comes out with the puck. 35:15 Well, I'm talking more of a productivity standpoint. 35:18 You know, I'm not saying that he's... 35:19 Well, you mean they keep doing that same set up play on the power play, and it's really getting annoying. 35:24 I saw it quite a few times last week, you know, that it's up high to Schmidt, down to Bukestead, and the goal is already there. 35:30 He's waiting for it. 35:31 So, they need to mix it around a little bit, I think. 35:34 Well, that maybe... 35:35 You know, I was actually thinking about, because, you know, on Schmidt's goal, you know, this weekend when he scored the power play goal, I think it was the go-ahead goal. 35:46 I don't remember what goal it was off the top of my head, but in any case, he had a nice slapper from the point, and it was like, Bukestad was sitting there waiting for the feed. 35:56 And I was like thinking, that's the kind of thing where you feed it to Bukestad and he feeds it right back to you and you take a blast. 36:01 I mean, I think some of the best Gopher power plays, like I remember seeing this one highlight of the Gophers back when they won the title in 2002 with, when they were in St. 36:11 Cloud, and it was this highlight reel where it was just like, bing, bing, bing, slapper from Tafe in the slot goal. 36:19 And it was just like, wow, you know, and to me, that's what they need to start doing a little more of, just throwing, I'm not saying they're playing bad, I'm a power player, but I'm just saying like, if you want to mix it up, they need to start really passing that puck around and not just be sitting there with one guy and trying to set something up, start winging it around pretty good. 36:37 I'd like to see Condon do a little more. 36:39 I was really excited about that goal he scored Saturday night. 36:42 I thought it was a brilliant goal and a brilliant pass by Howla, but I'd like to see him really just kind of break out and keep getting these kind of goals. 36:53 He hasn't played that bad. 36:54 I mean, he's, you know... 36:55 Yeah, I think he's almost there. 36:57 I really do. 36:57 I think he... 36:59 I mean, it's really close for him. 37:00 I think he's ready to kind of break out. 37:02 You know, we saw some signs of that at the end of last season, and like I said, I watched that replay. 37:08 I didn't know how his goal went in at first. 37:10 It took, you know, it was a while until they showed the replay when he, you know, went off the goalie, and then it came back to a stick, and he backhands it, and I think it went between the defenseman's legs and between the pipe. 37:19 I thought it was a wonderful effort goal, and hopefully that builds more confidence in him, because I think he's right there. 37:26 Well, he's one of my favorite players. 37:27 I mean, I really like, because he's a two-way player. 37:30 He hustles, he skates hard, he's a fast skater. 37:33 He's got some size to him. 37:35 I think he's going to make a good pro. 37:36 I mean, I really believe that he's one of the best overall players we've gotten. 37:41 So he's one of my favorite players. 37:42 So yeah, I'd like to see more, but I'm glad to see that he's doing well, and I think he's going to improve as the year goes on. 37:48 Well, Condon's going to get a good shot this weekend. 37:51 He's probably going to play with Howla again. 37:53 And if he keeps driving the net like that, Howla's going to get the puck to the net. 37:58 He's, I think, one of the leading shot guys on the team. 38:03 So if Condon's driving to the net and is able to get putbacks like that, he's going to be productive. 38:12 Howla, I thought, was great with Condon last weekend. 38:15 Like I said, on Condon's goal, it was a great pass. 38:19 He just waited the right amount of time to get it in there, and it was a great play. 38:26 Yeah, well, I mean, it will be interesting to see what they do when warning gets back if they're going to keep Condon with Howla. 38:34 I've kind of gone back and forth on that. 38:35 I was like, well, why fiddle with that second line they did pretty well last year. 38:41 But maybe if Condon makes the use of the opportunity and continues to put himself on the score sheet, then maybe you do kind of put warning back down on the third line or something. 38:53 Oh, I'd like to keep those two speedsters together. 38:55 I mean, Condon's got wonderful speed and Howla definitely has it as well. 39:02 It looks like Goon's giving you guys a hard time about the inexperience of the North Dakota goalies. 39:08 He says one of them is a Saw Junior. 39:10 He says that's experienced apparently. 39:12 Saunders? 39:14 Well, okay. 39:16 Is that the Alabama guy? 39:20 Yeah. 39:21 That's not experienced. 39:22 Sorry, Goon, you're an idiot. 39:26 That'll get him going. 39:30 Just having some fun with you, Goon. 39:32 It's okay. 39:32 You can jump off the ledge now. 39:35 Any other thoughts on this weekend, guys? 39:38 Well, I'll just say I think the power play is doing well. 39:42 I think it's near the top of the league. 39:44 And power play percentage, I think they're getting shots. 39:47 They're gaining the zone. 39:48 That's always a big thing for me when you look at a power play. 39:51 If they're able to get good possession of the puck in the zone, and they're able to break out, I think you'll see scoring chances come. 39:58 So I'm not too worried yet about that group. 40:02 I mean, there's five pretty good players on that number one group, and I think the number two group is coming together. 40:07 So that's not my big concern. 40:09 My big concern is turnovers going forward and seeing how Lucia handles the ice time for this group. 40:16 You know, there's a lot of guys who want to be on the ice, and there's got to guys who want to play, but which guys are going to be the smart players? 40:23 And those are the guys he's going to have to trust. 40:26 You know, they're going to have some big games coming up here, and they're going to need to know who they can put on the ice in the third period. 40:32 If those fourth line guys aren't going to get the job done, it's going to be a short bench those last ten minutes every night. 40:39 I would agree. 40:40 I would agree. 40:41 Well, and it should be. 40:43 Like I said, if they're going to be, you know, if they're getting ice time, you know, fourth line, you don't expect them to get scored on, you know what I mean? 40:51 To me, at least not for the gopher hockey that we've known over the years, especially under Lucia. 40:55 You don't expect your fourth line to necessarily score a lot, but you don't expect them to get scored on either. 41:00 Your job is to play defense and to, you know, at least give the other guys a shift where they, you know, they don't have to worry about anything. 41:08 And so I want to see more out of those guys. 41:11 And if they're not going to do it, then yeah, you got to shorten the bench. 41:15 It bothered me when I saw that when we, when they scored the winning goal on our fourth line, that bugged the hell out of me. 41:20 I'm like, what the hell do we have those guys out there at that point in the game, you know, on the road? 41:25 I understand that we always try to roll the lines, but it's like, come on, you know? 41:29 At some point, I feel like you got to shorten the bench a little bit. 41:32 And I think that late in the game on the road, in the tie game, that's a good time to do it. 41:36 So, but whatever, I'm not the coach. 41:41 That's why Lucia gets the big bucks. 41:43 Yes, we're idiots like me to second guess. 41:47 It's early though. 41:48 Hopefully, he's building things up. 41:51 I was a little surprised. 41:52 He didn't seem to be behind the bench. 41:54 I didn't see that kind of fire that I was hoping for. 41:59 They'd show Mankato score and he'd be back there with this whole hum look on his face. 42:04 I'm like, I hate that. 42:06 I'm not saying you got to be in the guy's ear as soon as he gets to the bench, but it bugs the hell out of me if I don't see some barking going on back there. 42:14 I kind of like to see a little more fire. 42:15 And I know Gensel is the fiery type, so he probably was. 42:18 I just didn't see it on camera, but nonetheless, it bugs me. 42:23 I agree with that. 42:24 I have seen Lucia go off on the guys on the bench and they've responded, but it seems like he's been Mr. 42:31 Cool. 42:32 Well, he definitely picks his spots. 42:34 Yes, I would agree with that. 42:36 I think one of the great Jacques Lemaire quotes is, you know, I yell, I yell, I yell, I yell. 42:43 It's the same thing every time. 42:45 Eventually, the guy is going to turn around and tell me to shut the... 42:52 The guys. 42:54 The guys, yep. 42:56 Hammy, we haven't had a podcast in a while, and it looks like the Gophers have gotten a few more commitments in that time, haven't they? 43:04 Yeah, they picked up a couple of real good defensive recruits, Jack Glover and Ryan Collins. 43:09 Both of them are at the US team, the under-17 team right now. 43:13 They played for BSM last year in the title team, so they're close, very good players. 43:20 Both of them are very good prospects. 43:22 Glover's probably the better all-around player right now as far as two-way player. 43:28 Collins is more of the upside guy. 43:30 He's got good size. 43:31 He's 6'5. 43:33 Obviously, being in that US program for a couple of years, he'll definitely build up his frame. 43:39 He's got a lot of upside. 43:40 So yeah, two very good commitments for the Gophers. 43:43 These guys could have pretty much picked wherever they wanted to go. 43:46 So definitely a big recruiting duo to get. 43:52 So what year would they be coming in? 43:54 Two years out? 43:56 Yeah, more than likely 2014. 44:00 They're both juniors now. 44:05 I would suspect we'll be losing a few guys to the pros early. 44:08 We've kind of got a full pipeline right now, but I'm sure we'll lose an alter, some of these other guys that have some eligibility that might be remaining by the time these guys graduate. 44:20 We'll have to see. 44:21 But yeah, more than likely 2014. 44:25 Any final thoughts, boys? 44:28 I just wanted to get Hammy's thoughts on the U18 game. 44:31 I know you don't look forward to that game very much, but I enjoy getting a chance to see all the players on that team. 44:38 Those are some of the best young players in the country. 44:41 I know they're excited to play the big college ranks and get exposed to the college game and meet the college coaches. 44:47 I thought it was a good atmosphere for them, at least. 44:52 Yeah, I mean, I think it's great preparation for them. 44:56 I mean, obviously they are shooting for the end of the year for Worlds, and of course being able to play older college teams that are very good is certainly going to make them well prepared for anything they're going to face for their own age group across the world. 45:12 I have nothing against it from the US team's standpoint. 45:15 I don't like it from the Gophers' standpoint just because I feel like if you win and you do well, it's like, ho-hum, that's what you're supposed to do. 45:22 If you don't win or you tie or whatever, everybody freaks out about it like we saw in GPL. 45:29 You know what I mean? 45:31 I also get concerned about the injury factor and all that. 45:36 I understand why the US team would want it. 45:40 From a Gophers' standpoint, I'm not a huge fan of it. 45:42 It's great for the fashions of the world, the lateres of the world, for them to be able to suit up against their future team and the rank that they're going to be playing their college days on. 45:55 I'm not saying anything bad from their experiences of it, although fashioning probably would like to remember differently than getting knocked out of the game. 46:05 I believe I saw fashioning at the Canisius game Sunday. 46:10 I believe he was down at the locker room after the game doing his little visit thing. 46:15 It looked like him, but they all look alike. 46:24 He's probably hard to miss as far as recruits go. 46:28 I believe he was down there with his parents. 46:30 I think they were just checking things out. 46:31 Does his dad have a totally shaved head? 46:34 I believe so. 46:35 Then that would be him. 46:37 There you go. 46:39 I was really impressed with Demko for the under 18 team. 46:43 I thought he was really good. 46:45 He looks like a heck of a prospect for them. 46:48 I thought Lottery was really impressed out there. 46:50 I think he has improved a lot over the last couple of years. 46:55 He is a good player. 46:56 They definitely have a lot to look forward to as far as some of these guys. 47:01 I think that it is a nice... 47:06 Next year's class has got a lot of hype to it. 47:08 I think that is for good reason. 47:10 I am very much looking forward to seeing how these guys adapt to the college game. 47:15 Of course, it will be the Big Ten conference then. 47:18 It will be a little different in that sense, but it should be very interesting to see how they transition. 47:22 They have a lot of talent. 47:24 Guys like Kamarada and Clues are doing real well in USHL right now. 47:28 They are among the leaders in scoring. 47:32 Leterri, he started off a little slow, but I think that he is starting to heat up now. 47:37 I think that there is a lot to look forward to with that class. 47:39 Gertler, I think he is, if not the leading goal scorer in USHL, he is at right at the top. 47:46 That should be a pretty good class for the Gophers. 47:49 A lot to look forward to in the future, as people like to say. 47:54 Just keep reloading. 47:55 That is what we like. 47:56 Reload, reload, reload. 48:01 Alright guys, I think that does it for this week. 48:04 Sounds good. 48:05 Hopefully we get a sweep, but not the three points I predicted. 48:09 You can always follow Hammy at Hammy Hockey on Twitter, and he's always posted on GPL. 48:15 Vegoe, you're at eVegoe on Twitter as well. 48:19 Also writing for us and previews and whatnot. 48:23 Remember, you can always email us if you want. 48:26 Podcasts go for pucklive.com, or if you're listening live, like Goon was earlier. 48:32 You can just tweet us your questions. 48:33 Goon is still a little bitter, but that's okay. 48:36 He's bitter because they blew a point to Anchorage. 48:39 At home, nonetheless, man. 48:42 That sucks. 48:47 Oh, boy. 48:47 I think we're going to get Cardinal on when we play the Sioux, you know, come up in January. 48:51 He really wants to jack up to Sioux fans. 48:54 And yes, I'm still going to call them Sioux fans because they are a girl's name. 48:59 So that will do it for this week's Go For Puck Live Podcast. 49:02 Tune in next week. 49:03 We'll recap the trip to Anchorage and we'll preview Bucky Badger. 49:08 Until then, thanks for tuning in.