0:04 This is the GopherPuckLive Podcast, episode 26, recorded Tuesday, November 13th, 2012. 0:21 Welcome to the GopherPuckLive Podcast. 0:24 I am your host, Jupiter. 0:25 And of course, joining me once again is Hammeh and Vegoe. 0:28 How are you guys tonight? 0:30 Not too bad, not too bad at all. 0:33 Living the dream. 0:34 Living the dream. 0:35 Well, Hammeh, you and I picked it. 0:37 Three point weekend, up at Anchorage. 0:39 It never fails. 0:40 They played well the first night. 0:42 And second night, Anchorage wakes up, and we managed to come back and get the tie. 0:51 Yeah, I mean, I'd like to say that I'm kind of surprised, but I'm not really. 0:55 I mean, it's funny because tonight I went back and looked at like since the first NCAA title team with Lucia, like how successful or not we've been in our trips to Anchorage. 1:08 And really only four out of the nine trips that we've had up there did we sweep. 1:14 I mean, so it's not uncommon for the Gophers over the last 10 or so years to come back from a road trip from up there and not have four points. 1:32 Did we lose them? 1:33 The time changes, all that kind of good stuff. 1:36 And I'm not shocked. 1:39 We said it would be, I said, I thought one game would be kind of not competitive and one game would be close. 1:46 And that's exactly how it turned out. 1:47 So it's not really that surprising to me. 1:49 Did you lose him too, Vegoe? 1:51 I did. 1:52 We kind of lost you there for a second, Hammy. 1:54 We got you now again. 1:56 I almost wonder if it's Skype again and maybe the podcast is working. 1:59 Who knows? 2:00 Maybe the BADgers are trying to hex us. 2:03 Could be. 2:04 I don't know. 2:04 How much did I get cut out? 2:06 It doesn't matter. 2:09 This isn't what I say. 2:10 Who gives a damn? 2:12 Vegoe, how many power play goals were there last weekend? 2:17 Five out of the six? 2:19 Or something ridiculous like that? 2:21 What's going on with five on five here? 2:22 Obviously power play. 2:24 Awesome. 2:24 Great. 2:25 They're doing good there. 2:26 Five on five, not so much. 2:29 Yeah, I was talking with Jeff about this last night, and it seems like five on five, the guys are so concerned with keeping possession of the puck and not making bad turnovers all over the ice, that they're putting themselves in spots where it's hard to score. 2:46 They're on the dash, they're in the corner, they're behind the net, they're at the point on the wall, and they're just not creating the kinds of chances or getting into those soft spots five on five, like they're able to get into on the power play and on the rush. 3:03 So I think that's a big part of it, is they're just not getting in the right areas to score goals, and they are throwing pucks on that, but they're just not getting the balances on those that kind of come and go. 3:14 But you're not seeing a lot of great soft space, bit of play, five on five. 3:19 But Hammy, how about that power play? 3:22 It's really clicking right now. 3:25 Yeah, you know, when I was getting prepared for the night, I was just thinking, you know, it's always something with fans after a series, you know. 3:35 If it's not five on five goals, it's not enough power play goals. 3:38 It's not this, it's not that. 3:40 You know, I just say to myself, they're not, I mean, let's just be honest. 3:45 They're not playing to their capabilities yet. 3:48 And I don't think that that's necessarily a rip. 3:52 I don't think that that's, I mean, the funny thing is, and I'm granted some of the stats are skewed because of that Michigan State Series, but you know, they're top ten in offense, top ten in scoring defense, sixth in scoring margin. 4:04 I mean, they're like one of the least penalized teams in college hockey. 4:08 I mean, third in power. 4:10 I mean, there's a lot of things that you can say statistically look good, but we all know that, I mean, Bukestad and some of our best players haven't come close to playing to their capabilities yet. 4:20 And I guess you can look at it, like I've mentioned before, two different ways. 4:23 You can say, oh, that's not a good sign, but you can also say, well, it's early in the year, and you know that at some point, those guys are going to catch fire. 4:32 And the record's still pretty good, so we'll see how it turns out. 4:36 You know, the record's pretty good, but Vegoe, they went basically 3-2-1 against teams that have combined two wins in the league and 12 losses. 4:51 I don't think that's very positive for a great team, and I'm still surprised that they have a number three ranking in the country. 5:01 Yeah, the rankings are a little surprising. 5:02 They're not moving very much. 5:04 Even Minnesota Duluth is still in the top 20. 5:09 I think they're 20 holding on. 5:11 I think they just dropped out of the USCHL poll, but it's right on the edge. 5:15 Yeah, I saw something a day where they were still giving that number 20, just holding out hope. 5:20 But it is really near, and the teams they've played haven't been the top teams in the WCHA, and I think that's probably why Gopher fans are nitpicking on the boards, is you expect a number two team in the country to go out and get four points against the teams they're playing. 5:38 They haven't, because it's a tough conference, and you have to battle. 5:41 And I think, you know, you look at their schedule coming up, you know, towards the end of the year, and it's going to be harder to win points when they play North Dakota and at St. 5:51 Cloud in their Wisconsin series in Denver. 5:54 You know, those are going to be tougher than, you know, the way the schedule looked at the start of the year. 6:00 So, I look at it differently in the sense that, look, we blew, that second game in Mankato was blown late. 6:07 Okay, that was a total screw up where we had the fourth line out. 6:10 So, I don't get too upset about that. 6:13 I mean, it was just, that happens when you have tight games. 6:15 You can make the argument that it shouldn't have been that close, but I honestly believe that those teams are going to be better by the year's end than what they've shown. 6:23 And I think that they're kind of finding, especially Mankato, I think that they're kind of finding themselves. 6:29 And, you know, they played Denver pretty close this last, they got swept, but nonetheless, it wasn't like they were a couple of blowout games either. 6:37 So, I don't, I guess I'm not ready to hit the panic, but especially in the first month, I just, I'm just, there's just too much time to be getting too worked up about anything. 6:46 So, how about the rest of WCHA? 6:47 We got Denver at five and one. 6:49 They're number two in the country. 6:50 Nebraska, Omaha, right behind them. 6:53 CC, surprisingly undefeated in the WCHA at four and oh. 6:58 And so, so what really interested you guys this past weekend? 7:01 We had North Dakota splitting with St. 7:03 Claude, you know, Denver sweeping. 7:04 What stuck out for you this weekend, Vigo? 7:07 I think what stuck out is Duluth is struggling as much as they are, and Omaha took four points from them. 7:13 I mean, I know it was, it was in Omaha, but still taking four points away from Minnesota Duluth is a nice achievement. 7:21 I'd, you know, be happy if the Gophers could come out with that. 7:24 The split with North Dakota and St. 7:28 Claude was interesting because they didn't score, St. 7:32 Claude didn't score any goals on Friday and then come out and get five on Saturday. 7:35 So those were two surprising things for me. 7:38 What about you, Hamme? 7:40 You know, for me, it was, I mean, the series that I was most interested in, besides ours, was the St. 7:46 Claude and North Dakota one. 7:49 You know, I didn't, of course, see the games, but certainly the result. 7:52 That's kind of what I expected. 7:53 I thought it would probably end up being a split. 7:55 And I was a little surprised that North Dakota shut down St. 8:00 Claude that first night. 8:01 Granted, you know, that St. 8:02 Claude is missing some guys, but nonetheless, you expect that they're going to do well at home. 8:07 It sounds like North Dakota had a good goalie performance that night, so that's part of it. 8:11 But I think, to me, that was the most interesting series. 8:14 I can't say I'm shocked about the Bulldogs getting swept, mainly because, you know, they've been kind of inconsistent. 8:23 And other than the first Ohio State game, they had a nice performance, I guess, in Notre Dame, but, you know, they haven't been playing great as it was. 8:32 So I guess I can't say I'm shocked by that result. 8:35 Okay, well, we found out today that Mr. 8:38 Wilcox was the freshman player of the week for his play up in Anchorage. 8:44 He played both games. 8:46 Is this Lucia just going with one guy, or is this just an aberration? 8:52 Well, I don't think there's any doubt that Wilcox is the man. 8:55 I mean, that's my opinion. 8:57 I mean, he's played very well, and, you know, I think that you kind of need, I mean, because we're not hitting on, I think we're hitting on all cylinders as far as offense goes right now. 9:08 You know, I could probably see why he might want to split the starts just to get both guys some time. 9:13 But, you know, I think there's a little bit less room for, you know, margin for error right now. 9:18 And so you kind of want to go with the guy that's playing better. 9:22 And certainly you can't argue with his statistics. 9:24 He's been great, you know. 9:25 And so I think it's the right move to make, and I would expect it to continue. 9:33 Yeah, I mean, the Gophers aren't just putting up tons of goals. 9:36 So you got to go with who you think is the best guy. 9:40 And right now Lucia thinks that's Wilcox. 9:41 And he's performed pretty well. 9:43 I think there's only probably one goal that I've seen that, you know, Wilcox would love to get back. 9:49 But for the most part, he's played pretty steady, very athletic. 9:53 I think he's helping him, you know, get pucks that are dumped in. 9:55 So it's fun to watch as well. 9:59 Okay, well, what about our stars? 10:03 How do you think they did this weekend? 10:05 Bukestead, Rao, Howla. 10:08 I noticed, Hammeh, you were talking about earlier, you were kind of worried about Bukestead not being as dominant as he was earlier. 10:16 Well, I mean, it just seems that, I mean, well, maybe it's not fair to him, but I mean, certainly when you have a guy that could have very well signed an NHL contract, and if there had been an NHL season, he very possibly could have made the NHL. 10:31 You expect a guy like that to, you know, be doing pretty well in the WCHA, and you certainly expect him to be doing better than less than a point a game, and he scored, you know, what, five goals, I think, which isn't terrible, but for a guy of his caliber, you expect more out of. 10:47 And so certainly, you know, I was glad to see, I like the fact that they've kind of reconnected that first line from last year, but, you know, Buddhist needs to step it up, certainly. 10:59 I think that he, I mean, Rao has been the one guy that, at least offensively, statistically, has, you know, kept up his end of the bargain for me, in my mind, but the other guys need to pick it up. 11:09 And I don't know what it is, but certainly those guys, you know, I think that will eventually, they'll find their way, but so far in the first month, it hasn't been what we've expected. 11:19 Veegs, does anyone else out there, do you think need a little kick in the butt? 11:24 You know, it's tough. 11:26 I mean, they're getting goals. 11:27 I mean, I was just looking at their stats today, and you compare the Gopher stats to the Badger stats, and the Gopher stars are putting the puck in the net. 11:37 Well, it is the Badgers. 11:39 I think people are looking at the team with a microscope here. 11:45 They're trying to find little things for why they didn't come out well against Michigan Tech on a Friday night, and why they let a game get away against Mankato. 11:56 Those are the two games where you just look at it and you go, man, they could have played better five-on-five and pulled away in those games, but they didn't. 12:04 So it's early. 12:05 I think the power play looks really good. 12:06 I think Bukstad looks really solid on the puck. 12:09 I don't see him making a lot of bad plays or bad decisions. 12:13 Sure, you'd like to see him be a man and take the puck to the net more frequently, but he is getting his shots, and he's got five goals already in nine games. 12:22 That's a pretty decent start in college hockey. 12:25 You're not going to see a lot of guys with nine goals right now. 12:29 So, any other thoughts on this past weekend up in Anchorage? 12:32 Probably our last trip up there for quite some time. 12:35 Honestly, I don't have anything. 12:41 It was a pretty typical weekend for the Gophers up there. 12:43 It really was. 12:45 Played really good one game. 12:47 The other game, Anchorage comes back, plays much better, and it comes out as a tie. 12:52 We kind of saw it coming, and boom, it happened. 12:54 I thought it was a very predictable weekend up in Anchorage. 12:58 I think the one thing about Saturday night was the Gophers took basically three straight penalties in the first period and let Alastair get back in the game. 13:08 That's hard to watch. 13:11 Being a college hockey team, you can't put yourself at a man disadvantage that often and expect to get away with it. 13:17 I think that was a little bit disappointing, but they looked great on Friday night. 13:23 Well, let's go ahead and look to this week in the WCHA and probably the biggest... 13:28 well, there's two big series, actually. 13:30 We got CC and Denver having a home-and-home, as they usually do for that gold pan thingamajiggy. 13:40 Obviously, CC is undefeated this year in the WCHA and they're a couple games behind and Denver's only lost once. 13:47 So, this is a pretty big series for so early in the season, huh, Veegs? 13:52 Yeah, I think Denver's probably the favorite coming into the series, but I think CC is surprised a little bit. 13:58 People didn't think they were going to be quite as strong as they've been in years past. 14:02 I know Hammy was kind of downplaying them at the start of the year because they just don't have the big-name talent this year. 14:08 But they're finding a way to get it done. 14:11 Well, the one thing I would say is they've played at Wisconsin. 14:15 Granted, Wisconsin at Wisconsin is tougher. 14:19 But nonetheless, they're not playing great. 14:21 Bemidji is not expected to be a great team. 14:23 So, I mean, they have had a little bit of an advantageous matchup. 14:27 Of course, you could say the same about the Gophers to an extent, so I guess I shouldn't say that. 14:30 But nonetheless, you have to give them credit for what they've done. 14:35 But yeah, I expect that Denver will probably get more of the points out of the series simply because they've been playing very well early on. 14:44 And I think that some people kind of underestimated them starting the year just simply because they had lost some key guys. 14:52 And I think it's just natural that we kind of be down on them based on stuff like that. 14:56 But they had a lot of returning talent, especially on defense and in goals. 14:59 So I'm not surprised by their start, and I would expect them to continue playing well. 15:03 So you guys seeing that as a split or maybe Denver showing their power? 15:10 Boy, and it's tough to call in those rivalry series. 15:12 It is. 15:13 It really is. 15:15 Yeah, the home and home kind of. 15:20 I would probably say the split just because of that. 15:24 I would give Denver the three points. 15:26 I think they're the stronger team, and I think they get a point on Friday and went in home on Saturday. 15:34 OK, well, of course, the other big series is Duluth headed to Grand Forks to play North Dakota. 15:41 Hammy, Duluth, 0-3-1 in the WCHA and in last place. 15:48 I know we thought they were going to have a little bit of a down year, but they better get going right now to get mid-pack. 15:54 Yeah, I mean, I have to say, I thought that they might struggle a little bit, but I didn't think that would be quite as much as what they have. 16:01 Some of their guys, like Hey Barry, I mean, I think that, you know, I really expected him to be a real good player this year. 16:08 And granted, it's early. 16:09 They've only had eight games. 16:10 So like everybody else, it's too early to make too harsh of a judgment on anything. 16:14 But some of the other guys that I kind of expected to step up, you know, haven't really quite done as much as I thought. 16:21 So I quite frankly expect North Dakota to sweep the series. 16:26 So I guess we'll see what happens. 16:28 Sorry, drunk hockey guy. 16:30 Not good. 16:31 What do you think, Veegs? 16:34 For Scott Sandlin's sake, I hope they get a point. 16:38 Okay. 16:40 Do you think he's in trouble if he does really bad? 16:43 No, I just think for Sandy. 16:45 I mean, okay, he's a kind of a grump guy sometimes. 16:48 So, you know, going 0-5-1 in the league would probably not make him too happy. 16:52 And, you know, Thanksgiving's coming up, so I'm hoping he gets a point somewhere in there. 16:58 And we don't need a drunk hockey guy even in a worse mood, because, geez, he's bad enough when they're good, but he's even worse when they're bad. 17:07 So, ugh. 17:09 What about the other series, Michigan Tech and Bemidji States? 17:14 It's kind of a snoozer, guys. 17:19 Yeah, you know. 17:21 Exactly. 17:22 It's not like I did a whole hell of a lot of research on that series. 17:27 To be quite honest with you, so, you know, I don't know. 17:32 It's one of those things where I sort of expect probably a split. 17:37 You know, I don't have much to say about it. 17:41 I mean, I'll be honest with you. 17:42 I just think that sometimes there's some series that you just don't pay a hell of a lot of attention to. 17:46 So I'll just call it a split and call it a day on that one. 17:50 What about you, Veegs? 17:51 No comment? 17:53 Well, I'm going to lean Michigan Tech. 17:55 I like the Misfits. 17:57 You like the Misfits. 17:58 I think they looked pretty good against Minnesota. 18:00 I think they're an up and coming team. 18:02 You know, a lot of people were surprised by them last year. 18:07 And this year, I don't think they're surprising anybody, but they're still playing pretty well. 18:12 So I would give them a slight edge. 18:14 Give them three points. 18:15 Yeah, I mean, I would say that it wouldn't shock me if it was a split. 18:21 I mean, if it was a sweeper, if it was something on Michigan Tech's advantage, but I don't know. 18:29 It's so early in the year that it's hard to read any kind of trends. 18:32 And, you know, you have Tech, or excuse me, you have Bemidji doing pretty well at Nebraska Omaha. 18:39 Of course, they always seem to do good against Nebraska Omaha, but then they get swept at CC. 18:44 So, I guess, you know, we'll see what happens. 18:49 All right, that brings us to Bucky Badger heading to Mariucci this weekend for a big series. 19:21 Take that, you stinkin Badgers! 19:23 Oh, Glenn. 19:25 I miss Glenn at times. 19:30 So Vegoe, Badgers, injured, not playing well. 19:35 Let's kick some butt. 19:37 Get healthy on the score sheet this weekend. 19:40 Oh, I hope so, because none of the split crap the Gophers are going to sweep. 19:44 These Badgers suck! 19:48 Yeah, they're struggling. 19:50 Looking at their score sheet, they've got one guy with multiple goals, Mersh, and all their other goal scorers, one goal apiece. 19:58 And there aren't many of them either. 20:00 What do you mean? 20:01 That's spread out scoring there, don't you think? 20:04 It's well balanced. 20:07 Well balanced. 20:09 Come on, Ami, tell me how much they suck. 20:13 Well, you know, it'll be interesting, certainly, because we don't know really. 20:16 I mean, they were off last week, so certainly they had a little extra time to prepare. 20:21 They've got all the stuff that's been going on with Butters stepping down, and they've got a key injury to Zengerleis. 20:29 I mean, you don't know what... 20:32 I don't even know really what we're going to get out of them, and I'm not sure that they even entirely know what they're going to get out of their team. 20:37 I'm sure that being at a rivalry series, they'll come in with some fire, especially that first night, I would suspect that we'll see some energy. 20:46 But it is a series the Gophers should sweep, but being that it is a rivalry series, you never know what you're going to get. 20:53 And they do have good goaltending, so that's always, like I always say, is a great equalizer, no matter what you see for forwards in defense. 21:02 So you never know, but I'll call it a sweep just because I think the Gophers have done pretty well at Mariucci against Wisconsin over the years, and they should have the advantage this weekend. 21:12 Please tell me you're picking a sweep, Veegs. 21:15 Oh yeah, I'm picking the sweep, like a Minnesota guy should. 21:19 One thing that will be interesting, I was reading some of the articles on the BADgers this year, and one of the things that Eves and Butters are getting into this year was on the penalty kill. 21:29 Eves was going after Butters about that, and we know how good the Gopher Power plays look, so that's something to watch for this weekend, is the maroon and gold putting a few in on the man advantage and looking at the Wisconsin bench and seeing how everybody's reacting over there. 21:45 I mean, that's the big thing, is you just, you know, how are they going to handle it being short-handed with, I mean, I don't know if they've done anything with the coaching. 21:53 I haven't seen anything, so I'm assuming they haven't, but you know, how are they going to handle that? 21:57 I assume that Eves is just doing more work. 21:58 Well, that would be my assumption as well, but nonetheless, you do, you know, become accustomed to having, you know, guys behind the bench and, you know, who the guy you turn to and suddenly he's not there any longer, and you know, it'll be interesting, to say the least. 22:13 And you know, my feeling with the Gophers is that they need to continue to, you know, cut down on the mental mistakes with the puck, and you don't want to give a team that's not been scoring very much a lot of, you don't want to give them that, you know, hope, and you certainly want to be able to squash things early and kind of make them get frustrated. 22:31 And if you're giving them turnovers at, you know, your own blue liner at the center ice, and they're turning into odd man rushes or whatever, I mean, that's only going to probably help their confidence to a degree. 22:43 So you got to make sure that we cut down on those. 22:45 Well, I tell you, I'm sick of these two and three points BS. 22:50 The Gophers are going to beat up on Bucky Badger. 22:54 Bill Butters is going to be glad that he left those sucky Badgers. 22:59 I see the Gophers winning by two or three each night. 23:02 We're going to have big crowds at Mariucci this weekend. 23:04 There's none of this football crap. 23:06 Big Ten Network is going to be in here on Saturday. 23:10 We're going to show the country that we're back. 23:12 None of this crappy crap that we've been playing. 23:15 I'd like to start swearing now, but this is a family show. 23:20 Well, if there is one thing that I think is important, there's nothing like getting one of your main rivals into the building. 23:26 And beating the crap out of them. 23:29 And you're not hitting on all cylinders because certainly, at least I would expect and hope, you never know for sure, but you would hope that this is one of those weeks where the players are dialed in and they're jacked up because they know they got one of their Big Ten conference rival coming in and you kind of want to put your foot on their throat and snap it, you know what I mean? 23:49 So hopefully they'll have that kind of energy this week in practice and be real excited for the series. 23:56 I want to see a Michigan State type of games. 23:59 I want to see them just come in and just, like you said, step on them and don't let up. 24:05 Yeah, it'd be nice to see the fourth line get a power play chance late in the third period again. 24:12 Well, it would. 24:13 Speaking of Michigan State, what the heck happened with them in Michigan last weekend? 24:18 Did you guys see Michigan State beat them like 7-2 or something ridiculous like that? 24:23 Yeah, I saw the score. 24:25 Amazing. 24:26 I thought Michigan State was terrible, but if you do that to Michigan, I don't care how bad they are. 24:31 They must have turned something around. 24:34 Well, I think they were kind of young and everything. 24:39 I think there's talent there, and I think that there will be a team that by the end of the year, you'll say, they're better than I thought they would turn out. 24:47 At least that's my feeling on it right now. 24:49 Certainly, they got whipped pretty good by us that first series. 24:55 I guess their expectations are starting out low based on that, but I actually think that they'll be better by year end than what people kind of expect. 25:03 Well, back to our series. 25:07 I know Adam, Andy Johnson, our favorite guy over there in badger country, also known as Chuck Schwartz, he wanted to come on tonight, but I'm like, no, I wasn't going to give him any time. 25:21 I don't want to give him any time. 25:22 It's just the BADgers are so bad, we're going to kill them. 25:27 We're just going to kill them. 25:29 It's time to open up this podcast and be a little more trash talky. 25:32 We've been too nice for too long. 25:35 The BADgers suck. 25:38 Well, maybe you should have. 25:40 You know, too bad we can't take calls or things like that. 25:43 You know, have you gotten any trash talk by Twitter yet? 25:48 They don't have any fans. 25:49 Are you kidding me? 25:50 I was going to say. 25:51 There's a couple of them, but the rest of them, they show up at the hockey games just because it's a place to be. 25:56 They don't have a message board that's any good. 25:58 There's like three of them that are on USCHO. 26:02 Well, maybe there's a fear factor. 26:04 They suck. 26:09 Damn right. 26:12 Take that, you stinkin BADgers. 26:18 Damn right. 26:20 I'm just ramping it up. 26:21 I want to get them all going. 26:25 So, any other thoughts this weekend, guys, besides us killing them? 26:29 No, I mean, I guess, you know, it will be interesting to see how things turn out, especially that, I think it will be a key to get off to good starts. 26:35 That's one of the things that, you know, I mentioned last week, is that Gophers last year when they were doing well, they got off to good starts in games. 26:41 And you don't want to give a team that's kind of been offensively challenged a lot of hope. 26:46 And if you give them that one-nothing lead early or whatever, I mean, we kind of like we did with Mankato. 26:52 We kind of both nights just kind of gave them the lead and, you know, it was like catch up the whole time. 26:57 So basically, I think that it's going to be important for them to start off, you know, the game early, do it well. 27:02 Biggs, any last thoughts? 27:05 Yeah, I think it will be interesting to see how Lucia handles the bench again. 27:10 It's always hard to tell when the game's in Alaska what exactly is happening, who's on the ice, things like that. 27:17 You know, I think the move of Marshall back to D really stabilizes the puck possession game that they want to play and gets them out of the zone a little bit easier and maybe helps the younger guys in the transition to the college game. 27:30 But see how much he plays the fourth line and see how much he juggles things around back there. 27:35 I think those are the things I'll be looking for. 27:38 And if the Gophers are able to do something five on five, how aggressive they are trying to get to more of the scoring areas of the ice rather than the safe areas and the corners along the wall. 27:50 What about defensive pairings? 27:54 I really, you know... 27:56 I've still been down on alt lately. 27:59 I've just not been happy with alt's play. 28:02 I think Brady Shea should sit. 28:05 Really? 28:06 Yes. 28:06 Bring back Hall for a little more steadiness? 28:09 I just think that he needs to sit and watch a little bit. 28:13 Okay. 28:13 That's my opinion. 28:14 I don't like to single guys out, but I think that there's just... 28:18 I just think that he needs to maybe take a step back and watch a little bit. 28:25 Hammy, what's going on recruiting news? 28:27 I know, didn't we have some future recruits playing in some international play the last week? 28:32 Yeah, we had some guys playing up at the junior A tourney and up in Canada and Alec Camerata and Clues and those guys won the gold medal. 28:44 Then the Four Nations event was for Team USA. 28:48 They won as well. 28:50 It was a successful weekend for the USA teams, or I should say weak tourneys. 28:57 But other than that, it's just been business as usual as far as the recruiting trail goes. 29:03 And of course, we never talk about it, but the women Gophers team, 12-0, undefeated, they are doing tremendously well. 29:14 They are embarrassing everybody. 29:16 Yeah, it's actually for me, I mean, you know, I haven't paid a lot of attention to the female teams over the years, other than they're in a playoff time, but it's actually been kind of interesting to see. 29:27 They just have been steamrolling pretty much every team. 29:30 And they're hardly giving up any goals, and they're just doing amazingly well. 29:35 Yeah, I mean, Kessil's sister and this Hannah Brant or whoever, they're just racking up the points, so it's kind of interesting. 29:44 It'll be exciting. 29:45 Maybe one of those things where you catch a few games because you don't know if you'll see a team that good around 20 times a season. 29:52 You know, a lot of times on the Saturdays, they'll play at like 4 o'clock on Saturdays, and we get a chance to go down there and watch a good period or so before the Gopher game. 30:03 You know, they're getting really pretty good crowds the last time I saw. 30:06 Obviously, they've become extremely successful after taking the title last year, so just more power to them, because they're just playing super well right now. 30:18 All right, boys, any other thoughts on this week? 30:21 Well, it should be a good weekend for hockey with the Gophers and BADgers. 30:24 I know a lot of the high school teams are kicking off practice this week, and there's a bunch of scrimmages around town if guys are into that, and then the Arrows are playing at Excel on Sunday, I believe. 30:36 I think so, because certainly the pros aren't playing right now. 30:39 So I know wild season ticket holders can call them up and get free tickets. 30:45 Good deal there. 30:47 What a deal. 30:49 Well, I think it's like 20 bucks for everybody else, so it's a chance to see some of the wild guys. 30:54 And I think there's a Duluth player, Dylan Olson, I think, might be playing on Sunday as well. 31:02 Well, get out to the ecstasy and people. 31:05 There's nothing else going on with pro hockey leagues around here. 31:08 And it's a bye week for the Vikings, so... 31:09 Oh, oh boy. 31:12 Snoozer! 31:16 All right, well, we'll be back next week to recap the Badgers sweep that the Gophers are going to do. 31:22 Of course, you can always follow Hammy on Twitter at Hammy Hockey and Vegoe writes along with Jeff Aftos on GPL. 31:30 You can follow him on at eVegoe on Twitter. 31:35 And of course, you can send us questions here at podcast at gopherpucklive.com or tweet us live during the broadcast at GopherPuckLive on Twitter. 31:45 Well, that's it. 31:46 We'll be back next week and we'll talk about a rare trip out east when the Gophers head to Vermont. 31:53 Until then, thanks for listening.