0:03 This is the GopherPuckLive Podcast, Episode 27, recorded Tuesday, November 20th, 2012. 0:21 Welcome to the GopherPuckLive Podcast, along with Hammy and Vegoe. 0:26 I'm your host, Jupiter. 0:27 Tonight, we have a special guest joining us for the second time in as many years. 0:31 Current ESPN 1500 writer and former Inch writer, Jess Myers, is joining us. 0:37 Jess, what's going on? 0:38 I still participate in an occasional Inch podcast, but former Inch writer, that's accurate. 0:45 I like it. 0:45 Former Inch, because you were there until this fall, and then you left, and then a month later, they're done. 0:53 They said, Myers isn't here, we just can't go on. 0:55 No, that's not what happened. 0:57 No, that's exactly what happened. 0:58 But that's what I tell the girls, anyway. 1:00 Well, we keep telling Brule over there at USCHO that it was his fault that he took on Inch, but. 1:05 That's just too easy, though, to blame Brule, isn't it? 1:08 It's fun, because he gets all nervous. 1:10 You see the look on his face. 1:12 He looks like he wants to kick my ass. 1:13 Like, I swear, I didn't do anything. 1:15 No, we had a fun and enjoyable and. 1:19 10-year run, wasn't it? 1:20 Yep, 10-year run. 1:21 And it was a great time. 1:23 And it was just one of those deals. 1:25 And we all experience this where real life just kind of creeps in, kids, jobs, all that stuff, and takes away the time we had to put into it. 1:34 And that was the reason I made for walking away. 1:38 That was my decision for walking away. 1:39 And then not too long later, that was the rest of them's decision for walking away. 1:44 So now they just kind of have a little blog going at what? 1:46 inchwriters.com or something like that? 1:48 Yep, just blogging now and then and doing some stuff like we've done in the past, found on a cocktail napkin, and an occasional podcast, stuff like that. 1:59 But as far as weekly notebooks and stuff like that, those days are done. 2:04 So that means now you're full time covering the Gophers. 2:08 I'm gone from covering 12 teams to covering one team. 2:11 And you picked the right team. 2:13 Well, I hope so. 2:13 I mean, it feels pretty good. 2:15 It would be better if it was your Bulldogs, wouldn't it? 2:18 Well, you know, hey, the Bulldogs will always have a special place in my heart and in my life. 2:24 Right now it pays to follow the Gophers. 2:25 And I've been a Twin Cityian for 20 some years now. 2:28 And you go with what you got. 2:31 You can't be with the one you love, you love the one you're with, right? 2:34 Wow. 2:35 Or something. 2:37 It's already going downhill from here, isn't it, guys? 2:39 Absolutely. 2:40 When do I get a cool handle? 2:42 Like, you know, you get Jupiter. 2:43 Well, Jupiter, I've just, that's been my internet handle forever, so I just stick with it. 2:47 We could just call you a-hole if you want. 2:49 Venus? 2:50 Can I be Venus? 2:50 No, you cannot. 2:53 No one can have another planetary handle but me. 2:57 Can I have a fictional planet? 2:58 Can I be Alderaan? 3:01 You're such a nerd. 3:03 I really am. 3:05 Well, boys, the Gophers this past weekend, three points from the Badgers. 3:10 I was hoping for a sweep. 3:12 I was trash talking last week. 3:14 Sweep all the way. 3:15 We're going to kill them. 3:16 And of course, my team showed up and played them fairly even for the whole weekend. 3:21 Hammy, what's your thoughts on the three-point weekend for the Gophers? 3:26 Well, you know, I wasn't, you know, after Friday night, everybody's, of course, you know how it is at GPL. 3:34 Yeah, I mean, I actually thought that they played relatively well. 3:37 They had some, you know, pipes here or there. 3:39 I mean, the only, I mean, the tail of the game was pretty much not capitalizing on two majors. 3:44 I mean, that's about as, that's pretty much it right there. 3:47 I mean, and I could see why people would be frustrated by that. 3:50 But, you know, just the pendulum goes all over the place. 3:52 The week before it was, they can't do enough five on five. 3:55 Then it was, they didn't score in the power play enough on Friday. 3:59 And so it's all over the map. 4:01 And on Saturday, you know, I thought they played pretty well, a little bit, you know, that I thought the key part of the game was when we killed off the five on three and then Wilcox had the big save. 4:10 And then about a minute or so later, Bukestad had, you know, tied the game up. 4:14 And it just seemed like from that point onward, the Gophers, the momentum kind of was in their favor. 4:18 And so, you know, I didn't think it was a bad weekend. 4:21 And I was pretty happy with the way they played it, but I've liked more goals, sure. 4:25 But I thought that they did all right. 4:27 Veegs, what do you think? 4:29 Well, I think they got bailed out by their goaltender a little bit. 4:32 I think in the games where they've lost, what happens is they give up an odd band rush or a real good scoring opportunity and their goalie doesn't come through the save. 4:41 And those have been some of the games they've dropped. 4:43 But against Wisconsin on Saturday, Wilcox really came through and showed his ability. 4:49 And if they've got a goalie like that, that's gonna help them throughout the season when they are playing a little bit better on the offensive end, five on five and power play. 4:59 Jess, is Wilcox the guy now then? 5:01 Absolutely. 5:02 I mean, we're not gonna see much Shabrowski. 5:03 He's obviously injured, but I think he's probably earned it, hasn't he? 5:06 Yeah, he's absolutely earned it. 5:08 And not to knock Shabrowski because I think he's played relatively well. 5:12 He's had a clunker or two. 5:14 But the telling thing for me that this is obviously the way Luchie is going is I asked Don the other night about some of those adventures that Wilcox has outside the net where, hey, sometimes he looks really good and sometimes you're kind of holding your breath, wondering is he going to get back in time before they get a shot. 5:32 And I asked Don, are you going to try and chain him to the crease a little bit more? 5:35 And Don said, no. 5:37 He creates some anxious moments and we're going to see more of those. 5:41 So if you're a coach that's absolutely willing to accept that kind of play from a freshman knowing that, hey, you take the good with the bad, this is your guy. 5:49 I think he sent that message. 5:50 Okay, did you get that from Luchie when you had pizza with him Saturday night? 5:55 No, no. 5:56 The first time ever I've ever seen Don Luchie go out after a game. 6:00 Yeah, I've seen the Gensels at campus pizza before, but to see Don and Joyce out with Carol Serratore, another coach's wife and another hockey parent was nice. 6:11 And Don is one of those very private guys and you can't really blame him. 6:16 And he said in this age of the internet and cell phone cameras and stuff, he is very guarded and just doesn't like to be out in public much. 6:24 So nice to see him out and relaxing. 6:27 And also nice that a couple fans came up and said, hey, great game, but he wasn't getting bugged or anything like that. 6:35 Two years ago it might not have been the same story for him to go out in public, but things are better now. 6:40 Yeah, well those two fans were pretty much in the tank at the time. 6:43 And I recommended that they not go over and talk to the Don, but they ignored me and did it anyway. 6:49 But they said he was very nice, which it was kind of nice. 6:52 Absolutely, and he was surrounded by friends, and it was a good thing. 6:56 Yes, he was definitely surrounded by friends at that game. 7:00 So guys, what stuck out? 7:02 What was bad? 7:02 Obviously, power play was not looking good this weekend. 7:05 Two five-minute majors, not a sniff there. 7:08 They might have got a couple goals on the power play. 7:11 And earlier this year, they have two five-minute majors, and it's going to look a lot more lopsided than that. 7:16 And they did nothing. 7:18 The Badgers shut them down. 7:19 And Vegoe, power play, what's going on? 7:22 Well, I thought Wisconsin moving to that diamond penalty kill really gave the Gophers a lot of problems. 7:29 When a team gets like that, you want to bring them up high, work it down low, and then get aggressively the net with two on ones. 7:34 And they were having a hard time getting the puck cycled around from up top. 7:40 They're trying to hit the passes across the diamond. 7:43 And they finally got to get a little more movement underneath at the end of Saturday night's game. 7:49 I think it's just something they need to continually work on because they're going to see that. 7:54 I know Vermont's got a pretty good penalty kill and they're going to have to handle different kills when they're on the power play. 8:03 Hammey, thoughts? 8:05 On the power play? 8:06 Yeah, I mean, I thought they stunk. 8:08 Yeah, I mean, sometimes I wonder if they've overloaded a little too much on that top power play unit, and if maybe they ought to spread it all up, because that second unit to me, there's, I mean, even if you have those guys on the ice most of the time on that top unit, sometimes I wonder if they might want to spread the wealth a little bit on that, but I'm not the coach, so that's not my call. 8:29 But anyways, when the talent is there, I think that it just inevitably, it's going to rise to the occasion, but it just hasn't clicked consistently this year to the point that we would expect. 8:41 And when you have guys like Bukestad out there, I think sometimes teams are so, maybe you need to work on that because teams are so concerned about Bukestad that maybe you can take advantage of that and exploit some of those things and the whole one-timer and all that kind of stuff. 8:59 Maybe they need to find some different plays that they can run on the power play to be more effective. 9:04 Now, Jess, I was listening to Pat McAleady because I was in the photo box in the third period and he was saying they should just start out with the second unit because the first unit was stinking it up this weekend. 9:14 And that the second power play unit was moving the puck better and getting better chances. 9:20 Well, you know, that's an interesting opinion and you would do that for two reasons. 9:24 Number one, you know, because you want some fresh legs out there and then number two, maybe to send a message to that top unit that, hey, publish or perish, you know, in a matter of speaking, you know, put points on the board or we're gonna find somebody who is and you know, and Lucia talked about that too, both nights about still looking for that secondary scoring, that next group behind the usual suspects who's ready to step up and say, hey, I'm here to take this job, you know, you need help, I'm your guy and nobody's done that yet. 9:54 That's one of the most disappointing things for me. 9:57 The other thing I noticed and I wrote about this a little bit over the weekend was they really miss Sam Warning. 10:03 You know, you don't think of him as a superstar, but he was definitely, you know, a key cog in that top nine group of forwards that Lucia had put together. 10:11 And without him in there, it's just kind of thrown everything off. 10:14 And that's not to say they won't adjust to that or he won't get healthier or come back, but you know, right at this point, I think that's causing more problems than people realize. 10:23 Well, Jess, what do you think about Lucia putting a defenseman up and forward for pretty much the whole season so far? 10:31 I mean, we've seen Hall up there for, I would say, three quarters of the season. 10:36 What do you think about him doing this? 10:39 We've talked about it the last few weeks, and we don't think it's a very good solution, and maybe a freshman or maybe a senior on the defense needs to sit. 10:48 What do you think? 10:49 Yeah, and that's a good problem. 10:52 That's definitely his best problem to have, is the fact that he had eight or nine functional defensemen coming into the season. 10:59 He made a decision to redshirt one of them, which we kind of figured he'd do. 11:04 But then it's like, what do you do beyond that point? 11:07 Do you address seven defensemen? 11:08 Do you move somebody up? 11:10 And he's still kind of figuring that out as well. 11:12 Now again, it's a fantastic problem to have. 11:15 If I were to call Dave Shyak right now and say, I'm gonna present you with too many defensemen, how will you handle it? 11:21 He'd say, yeah, I'll figure it out, don't worry about it. 11:24 Give me as many as you want. 11:25 But it's a tough situation, and I'm not sure that putting whoever it is up and forward has worked out the way he's wanted. 11:34 But granted, it's not even Thanksgiving yet. 11:37 I think these things are gonna sort themselves out before we even see a holiday tournament here, and I think they're gonna be in good shape. 11:45 Now, Hammeh, you've kinda thought that maybe it's time to sit one or two of the freshmen, give them a night off and get more of a normal lineup. 11:52 Do you still believe that? 11:54 Oh yeah. 11:55 I mean, honestly, I don't like to pick on guys specifically, especially first year guys, but I, and this is the question I have, is Lucia gonna be able to show the guts to sit a first round draft pick in the stands and play a pretty much a guy who's getting no scholarship and is a walk on like Parenteau, you know what I mean? 12:20 I think Shea has played relatively poorly. 12:23 He turns the puck over too much. 12:25 The question on him going into the draft last year was hockey sense. 12:29 I mean, he's a talented kid as far as skills. 12:33 He's a great skater, but is the hockey sense there? 12:36 And quite honestly, I've seen too many turnovers from him this year. 12:40 He's, I know he's a minus player on the year. 12:43 Not that I put a lot of stock in plus minus, but I have not seen, for me, it's like Riley's made his mistakes, but I've seen more out of him that gives me hope. 12:55 Shea, I'm just a little frustrated there. 12:57 And I feel like I would rather have some of the veterans in there, even if they're guys that don't have quite the same upside, I want to see a steadying presence back on defense. 13:07 And a kid like Parento, he gives, he's stable. 13:13 He allows somebody that he's playing with to kind of be more aggressive with the puck and make those rushes. 13:19 And you're not worried about, even if there is a two on one, you kind of feel like he's going to be playing it correctly. 13:24 So I just feel, yeah, I like the idea of maybe sitting the freshmen a little bit, but does Lucia have the guts to do that when you have these NHL teams, they want their guys playing and nowadays guys, hey, I'm not getting enough playing time. 13:40 I'm going to go play in the WHL or whatever. 13:44 I don't know. 13:44 That's a question that you kind of have to wonder about. 13:47 Well, Veegs, he did split time with Parento and Shea Saturday night on defense, because he had listed Parento as a forward, but he didn't, did he play forward at all? 13:58 I don't think he did. 13:59 I don't think he did. 14:00 No, he didn't, but he was moving things around and the fourth line was made up of other guys to fill in. 14:06 You had documented the whole thing to me. 14:09 Yeah, it looked like Isaacson and Buxtad and maybe Boyd were getting extra shifts with Seratorian Hall. 14:17 And it looked like what Lucia was trying to do was lean a little bit heavier on Schmidt and Marshall. 14:23 And he was putting those guys out there more, which is what I think you're going to see. 14:27 You'll see that with a lot of high school teams. 14:29 They have two defensemen they really trust and they want those two guys on the ice as much as possible. 14:35 And so they split them up and just putting different pairs with them. 14:39 And I think that's what you're going to see Lucia doing, at least until Shea and Riley and Helgeson and Alter are able to minimize their mistakes a little bit more than they have been. 14:49 And I think that's a good solution. 14:51 I mean, Schmidt and Marshall both looked really good Friday and Saturday night. 14:55 And it worked, and especially at home when you can control the matchups who the young guys are going out against, it's a great way to divide up the ice time. 15:04 Eric, I got to totally agree with you, especially in the case of Schmidt. 15:08 You know, I heard people grossing about him after the Mankato series, or you know, that his head was elsewhere, that, you know, he was making too many mistakes. 15:16 And that may be the case. 15:17 I mean, there were obviously cases, you know, the Michigan Tech series jumps to mind where defenseman got jumped at the blue line and mistakes led to goals. 15:24 And I really see Schmidte turning his game around and kind of solidifying things defensively in the last couple of weeks. 15:33 All right, guys, any other thoughts on the games this weekend? 15:37 Three points, three points is never bad, I guess. 15:41 The big question for me, and it was mentioned earlier, is some of the lower line guys, you know, how that's going to shake out as the season progresses. 15:49 I've voiced some frustration with, you know, some of the guys like Michelson and whatever. 15:54 I mean, you don't expect those guys to step in. 15:56 I mean, we didn't expect any of the freshmen to be big scorers this year, because of the way the lineup was already pretty veteran laden. 16:03 But, you know, when you're not, you played six games, you don't have any points here, minus what, three, I think it was. 16:10 I mean, you got to do better, especially in a fourth line role where it's, you know, you're expected to play at least solid defense. 16:16 And, you know, guys like that need to step it up. 16:19 And, you know, I'm not saying they have a score, but I mean, you got to step it up a little bit. 16:24 And that's to me a frustrating aspect of this year's team so far. 16:27 So what's going on with Sam Warning? 16:29 He's been out for a little while now. 16:32 What's going on? 16:33 Is it one of those hidden things, maybe a shoulder injury? 16:36 What's going on? 16:38 Well, I don't want to say too much on what I know, not in the air, at least. 16:45 Okay, just between us, what's going on? 16:49 But I, you know, that's, yeah, I don't know any prognosis information or whatever like that, but the one thing I will say, and I wonder is, if a guy like that is out for, who knows, a significant amount of time, do you think about bringing in somebody like Justin Clues at mid-season, you know? 17:10 Ooh. 17:11 I don't know. 17:12 I mean, he's already got 20 points for the season in USHL. 17:16 It's very North Dakota-like, isn't it? 17:18 Well, I mean, you know, you don't want to do that. 17:21 You don't want to do those kinds of things. 17:24 But you have to say, okay, this is a season where, you know, the Gophers have a great chance, based on at least talent, to actually win a national championship. 17:34 And, you know, if you're suddenly missing a guy who you're counting on in your top six to nine forwards and he's gone and you have somebody in the bullpen that could step in right away and probably have some success, do you do something like that? 17:48 I'm just floating it out there. 17:49 I'm not saying that that's what they're gonna do or anything like that. 17:52 I'm just saying. 17:53 I think we'd be hard pressed to see them burn a year of eligibility on a player of that quality. 18:00 Yeah, but if a player with that quality wouldn't even be here for two or three years. 18:06 Right. 18:07 He would be. 18:08 He's not drafted in the world number two. 18:09 He's smaller. 18:10 He's not one of those prototypical NHL prospects that are gonna bail after two years. 18:15 Even if he scores 50 points his first two years, each season, I highly doubt he'd sign. 18:21 He's like, kind of like a Jack Connelly for Duluth. 18:25 Great player and whatever, and very skilled and can score, but he's not the NHL type that guys are just falling all over each other to sign, so. 18:37 Mark my words, Jack Connelly will play in the NHL. 18:40 Yeah, I'm not saying he won't, but I'm just saying he will. 18:42 Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, what's the NHL? 18:44 Yeah, well, right now. 18:45 Good question, but no, I absolutely take your point that I think clues is definitely in that same mold. 18:51 Now, who knows, he could still grow some and be more of a pro prospect, but you're definitely looking at a smaller kind of playmaking forward. 19:03 All right, anything else on the weekend? 19:06 I just want to say I thought Christian Isaacson played a terrific game on Saturday night and there's some people calling for his spot on that first line, should go somewhere else. 19:17 He's doing a great job there. 19:18 I think he's gonna stay there for a while. 19:22 I actually thought Buda had a good weekend too. 19:24 I thought he played well. 19:25 I mean, I've heard rumblings that they've been a little frustrated with him so far this year and I just think that he actually had a pretty good weekend. 19:36 All right, well, let's. 19:37 One more little note. 19:39 Look out for Wisconsin. 19:41 I think that's gonna be a team to be reckoned with in the second half of the year. 19:44 They have had the worst start you can possibly imagine with off-ice stuff, with injuries, with just bewildering the way they've played. 19:54 But I saw some stuff last weekend. 19:56 I mean, hey, you don't give them, you don't put them down five minutes twice in that game. 20:01 I think they win Friday night's game the way they were packing it in around that goalie the way they were being just opportunistic enough on offense. 20:08 I think Wisconsin is going to be, I had them picked as an upper division team and maybe I look like a fool now, but I'm sticking with that prediction. 20:15 I saw the way they came together and I was impressed. 20:19 Yeah, I think I had them in like around fifth or sixth too. 20:22 So you're not alone on that. 20:25 Yeah, I'm going to think that we focus on the Gophers so much, but you have to give Wisconsin some credit. 20:29 I mean, I know we don't like to do that, but nonetheless. 20:33 Put Crudeelus back in that line up and brings Angerly back in that line up and that's, I think, a very different, very good team. 20:41 Well, you have to give them credit for how they play. 20:43 I mean, they played hard and certainly on Friday night especially, I mean, being shorthanded for as long as they were. 20:49 And I always talk about goaltending being the great equalizer and they got some very good coletending. 20:56 They got some fortuitous bounces here or there too, but nonetheless, I mean, you have to give them some credit too. 21:02 It's not just the Gophers' lack of execution, you know, the other team actually is doing some things to create problems for us. 21:11 Well, let's head up to Grand Forks where the Bulldogs played with the shoe this past weekend. 21:17 Why do we have to go to Grand Forks? 21:19 Smartass. 21:21 They're uncocky guys, Bulldogs, now 0-4-2 in the WCHA after second place finish last year. 21:29 Jess, what's going on with your Bulldogs? 21:31 Obviously, they've had a tough schedule. 21:34 Remember all those questions we had in the preseason about who was going to score? 21:37 Still got them. 21:39 They're still there. 21:40 No, I mean, you know. 21:43 And they got a tie. 21:44 Yeah, they got a tie. 21:45 They did get a tie. 21:46 It played well Saturday. 21:48 Okay. 21:49 It sounds like, you know, I didn't see the game. 21:51 Obviously, I was in a press box, but, you know, it sounds like by all intents and purposes, they deserved a better fate on Saturday night because, you know, they outplayed the North Dakota. 22:01 Oh, I almost said the S word and, you know, I don't know where this team's going. 22:07 I think they're still kind of figuring it out. 22:10 I don't know how much confidence they have in Aaron Crandall and they've been using, you know, the younger kid McNeely a fair amount and they're still looking for scoring. 22:19 I mean, guys like Caleb Herbert, they're relying on him to step up and- 22:24 Jefferson kid. 22:25 Yep, yep. 22:26 And he just hasn't done it to the level they need yet. 22:31 The question I have is, you know, with a kid like that, is it because, you know, some of those main colleagues, I mean, he had a great freshman year and now some of those guys that were, you know, kind of getting the attention of the opposition last year, they're gone and now it's sort of focused on him. 22:47 Is he, is this one of those cases where now you're the focus and he's not handling it well because of that? 22:54 You know, that's interesting. 22:55 And it sounded like, I didn't see any of the games between those two teams last weekend, but it actually sounded like UMD outplayed North Dakota for a healthy portion of the weekend. 23:05 So the fact that they only got one point is probably frustrating, I'm sure very frustrating for them. 23:10 And so maybe they deserve a little more credit, even though that the scoreboard says a little differently. 23:16 Ten games in for Caleb Herbert, four assists, and he and I have the same number of goals so far. 23:22 Wow. 23:23 Zero. 23:24 Which is, they expected a lot more. 23:26 Hey, maybe that sophomore jinx thing is real, who knew? 23:29 Well, it is for the Bulldogs, so that's good for us. 23:31 So far. 23:33 I have heard great things about, and granted, I haven't seen him in person, but Andy Wolinski sounds like he is what everybody expected he would be, you know, top defenseman in the USHL last year, and it sounds like he is really, you know, playing an important role in controlling the puck and playing good defense. 23:49 And Scott Sandlin is a, you know, a whole be finalist defenseman. 23:53 That's where he makes his bread and butter. 23:57 Does anyone care about Michigan Tech and Bemidji State? 24:02 Well, other than I said that I thought Michigan Tech could sweep last weekend, last week, and they did. 24:09 But yeah, I mean, I mean, it's not a great series, but, you know, Tech, you got to give them credit. 24:15 At least they got their four points. 24:17 Hey, they're back. 24:18 Let me tell you. 24:20 Oh, they are not. 24:21 I know they're not. 24:22 They're just fooling us like they do every year. 24:25 CC and DU. 24:26 Jupiter, was it you that said, someone asked rhetorically on Twitter, when did Tech become the Chicago Cubs of College Hockey? 24:34 Oh, it wasn't me. 24:37 The lovable, plucky losers that everybody is really pulling for every year. 24:41 People just love to go up there to drink. 24:43 That's pretty much all it is. 24:44 It's just a big party in Houghton when people go up there for a road trip. 24:47 They do have a guy with an unpronounceable name that was a freshman of the year or freshman of the week in the WCHA this week, though, Juhar Kahira or something like that. 24:58 Excuse you? 25:00 Yeah. 25:00 No, that's his name. 25:01 J-U-J-H-A-R, of course, I was going to name my son that as a first name. 25:05 Wow. 25:05 We didn't think it would look good on the back of a jersey, but anyway. 25:10 Spoilers draft pick, though. 25:12 Edmonton pick, isn't he? 25:13 Yeah, spoilers draft pick. 25:14 Two goals, six assists so far in ten games. 25:19 Like I say, player of the week, so God bless him. 25:23 We had a little brawl in Colorado College Friday night. 25:27 Little security issues, people throwing stuff at DU, which is fine with me, but either way, Denver gets the sweep against Colorado College, Jess. 25:37 What happened? 25:38 Denver is really good. 25:39 Yeah, they are. 25:42 No big secrets here. 25:44 We knew they were really deep in goal. 25:47 They've got three very good, very functional goals. 25:49 Okay, they've got two very good goalies and they've got Adam Murray who has been frankly at disappointment, but they've got three functional goalies and they're scoring goals is the big thing. 26:03 When you're putting up five, six goals a game, I could play in that and not do too bad, I'm pretty sure. 26:08 That's debatable. 26:11 Adam Murray was a guy that Gophers had actually recruited for a period of time. 26:17 I agree that the big surprise for me is the fact that they're scoring as much as they have because I think we all knew the goaltending was going to be there and their defense was going to be there. 26:26 But they had lost some key guys on the offseason and you kind of say, well, that's probably going to be the issues, their goal scoring. 26:33 But they've actually stepped it up in that regard. 26:37 So yeah, you have to give them credit early on. 26:38 They've certainly answered some questions. 26:40 By the way, just to rewind just a little bit, we have an update from our good friend Andy Johnson of Badger Hockey fame. 26:49 Jujar Kara, Kara is how this guy's name is pronounced for a place from Michigan Tech. 26:55 And that's Chuck Schwartz to you. 26:57 Yeah, I know. 26:58 I was so confused. 26:59 I kept looking for Chuck and then Andy lost it. 27:04 So thank you, our friend in red. 27:07 Vego, any thoughts on that series out in the West? 27:11 I'm glad the Gophers don't play Denver for a while. 27:13 It will cool off a little bit. 27:18 That could be a big series at the end of the year. 27:21 Yeah? 27:21 Do they play twice this year? 27:23 No. 27:24 Just the once. 27:25 And where is it? 27:26 Here. 27:26 Mariucci. 27:28 Let me see that. 27:29 That's a... 27:31 Great Gopher schedule this year, by the way. 27:34 March 1st and 2nd. 27:35 So it's the second to last series of the season. 27:38 So that could be McNaughton Cup on the line. 27:42 We hope. 27:43 I'm not convinced we're going to be in that hunt in the end. 27:47 My favorite stat from this year about the Gopher schedule? 27:50 They have more games in Vermont than they have in Grand Forks, Duluth and Madison combined. 28:00 Well, that's the way it goes. 28:03 That's how Don likes it. 28:05 Remember, he's afraid to play North Dakota anymore. 28:08 They want nothing to do with him. 28:10 He's afraid to go up there, and the Sioux fans, boy, they just love it. 28:15 He's more afraid to play North Dakota than Jerry Kill is afraid to play North Carolina. 28:23 I saw that stupid thread. 28:27 I went through that once, and I'm like, there's a couple minutes of my life I'll never get back. 28:35 It's true. 28:35 I saw that, and I just kind of giggled. 28:37 That's just the way it goes up there. 28:40 Well, guys, we had something new at Mario G Arena this weekend, and it seems like some people like it, some people don't. 28:46 They turned out the lights and actually had some little light show going for the player intros. 28:53 Jess, I know you love this. 28:54 Tell me you do. 28:56 Oh, why? 28:57 Exactly. 28:58 It's a player thing, I tell you. 29:00 By the way, I've made it clear to everyone who knows me over the years that when I am running college hockey, Cotton Eye Joe will no longer be allowed in hockey arenas. 29:10 Well, we're fine with that. 29:11 I'm adding that Korean whatever it is to the list now. 29:14 Gangnam style. 29:15 Yeah, that one. 29:18 If we're going to have annoying music, let's at least have it be American music because Cotton Eye Joe was by some Norwegian group too. 29:25 They didn't play Cotton Eye Joe this weekend, did they? 29:27 No, they didn't. 29:28 Why? 29:29 Were we in Mankato? 29:30 No. 29:31 I was thinking St. 29:31 Cloud actually. 29:33 Either way. 29:34 It's a big one in Mankato and St. 29:36 Cloud. 29:36 I thought it was bad enough to play Welcome to the Jungle. 29:39 That's definitely National Concrete Center material right there. 29:42 Wow, and I'm pretty sure the North Star has moved. 29:46 I heard a lot of that at Met Center years and years ago. 29:48 What did you guys think? 29:49 They turned down the lights? 29:51 They had some flashing lights on the cheerleaders? 29:53 They did the whole thing. 29:55 I'm old school, man. 29:58 I don't care about that stuff. 30:01 I've never liked the piped-in music. 30:03 I'm like, look, let the band play this, you know. 30:07 That's what I like. 30:08 I want that collegiate atmosphere. 30:10 If I wanted to feel that kind of pro stuff, I'd go over to Excel or I would go to some USHL games or whatever, but I don't know. 30:17 Don't touch my college hockey atmosphere with that crap. 30:20 You know, I just don't like it. 30:21 You'd go over to Excel and watch the AHL play? 30:24 Well, this year, yeah, but I mean, in general. 30:28 I didn't mind it too much. 30:29 I thought it was subtle enough. 30:30 It's not like there was a big laser show like you have in Grand Forks, so. 30:35 What'd you think, Veegs? 30:37 You know, I don't mind the player intro video, stuff like that. 30:41 I think that's kind of fun. 30:42 You know, you have the big video scoreboard. 30:45 Might as well use it. 30:46 You know, I've been to a couple college football stadiums where they have a really cool intro where they'll have different alums kind of give the team a pep talk before they come on the ice. 30:56 You know, the fans like that. 30:57 It's a little history of the program and you spent all that money on that video board. 31:00 Probably want to use it. 31:02 During the game, I don't like the piped in music. 31:05 I like hearing the band play. 31:06 Exactly. 31:07 You know, I grew up in Ole Mary, Uchuwa where it was a little bit louder. 31:11 But the piped in music during the game is... 31:14 Which of their four songs is your favorite? 31:18 I like the Battle Hymn the best, obviously. 31:24 I'll let Skeeter know that they need to play more songs. 31:29 Just spice it up a little. 31:30 Come up with some new numbers. 31:31 I mean, the four songs they have, they play them very well. 31:34 Don't get me wrong. 31:36 I'm just looking for some new material. 31:38 Well, from what I know, Craig Flora says the players have wanted a more flashy intro for years. 31:47 I don't know about the music during the game, anything like that, but I know the players have wanted it a little more pomp and circumstance for a long time. 31:55 I think they did an okay job with it. 31:57 It wasn't too over the top. 31:58 Well, I guess what's the logic for the players? 32:02 You tell me, is it just the fact they somehow feel it's going to manufacture excitement for them? 32:07 It's like, dude, you're playing a game. 32:08 I have no idea. 32:10 They go to other arenas and they see big intros and they like it. 32:15 They seem to think it gets the fans into it. 32:17 I noticed, especially Saturday night, the lights were down before the players hit the ice. 32:23 They had the video and it seemed to build up the crowd right as the players hit the ice. 32:28 It was louder than it normally would be when the Gophers hit the ice. 32:33 If you want to get the crowd jacked up, just serve alcohol all over the country. 32:39 There's your answer. 32:40 It's a lot cheaper probably than doing that light show crap. 32:43 Booze, the answer to everything. 32:45 That's not working at TCF. 32:47 What? 32:48 That's not working at TCF. 32:50 The crowd is not as excited as they are at A&G. 32:53 Yeah, well, for good reason. 32:55 They're... 32:55 Oh, they stink. 32:57 They're just awful. 32:59 From what I understand, it took them... 33:00 They're bowl eligible. 33:01 Come on. 33:03 Don't start with a bowl. 33:03 Throw it to the Minikee Who Cares Bowl or something. 33:07 Yeah. 33:07 Okay, so what would happen if you had an AJ. 33:10 Barker situation on the Gopher hockey team? 33:14 Ooh. 33:16 You know what I mean? 33:17 I mean, I know hockey players tend to be a little different in that sense. 33:21 They're not usually quite as out there as you see with like football and basketball, but nonetheless, it'd be an interesting situation to see whether something like that would happen. 33:33 You know, the Gophers are pretty quiet on Twitter, I have noticed. 33:40 You know, some of the recruits, you know, I know Vinny Leteri and a couple others, they tweet quite often, but the current players, a lot of times they'll retweet something, but they don't really do a lot of controversial tweeting or anything like that. 33:55 That's probably because they've been given the lecture, right, at the beginning of the season, you know, what not to do. 34:02 And they listen, actually. 34:06 All right, well, should we look at this week's exciting line up of games, guys? 34:12 Like Mankato State heading to Wisconsin. 34:15 Does anybody care? 34:17 Obviously, they do. 34:20 I'm sorry. 34:20 Minnesota State. 34:21 Sorry, it's always going to be Mankato State for me, I don't care what people say. 34:25 This is the last game pre-Curduous for the Badgers. 34:30 It'll be the last time they'll see Mankato for a long time, I hope, because that's one of the reasons why Wisconsin wants a Big Ten. 34:37 They don't want to play teams like Mankato. 34:41 They don't care about Mankato, St. 34:43 Cloud, Duluth even, I would guess. 34:45 Yes, your poor Bulldogs. 34:47 They don't want to play them anymore. 34:49 No, I think you're absolutely right. 34:51 Wisconsin has kind of been, it's no secret, they've been one of the schools kind of leading the charge to play with the so-called BCS schools of college hockey on a more regular basis. 35:05 Madison is a great sports town. 35:08 Madison has never been a great hockey town. 35:11 So if they have Michigan or Michigan State or Boston College or a name school coming to town, fans get excited. 35:20 And if they have Bemidji State or Minnesota State, Mankato coming to town, fans go, eh, eh, eh. 35:25 The thing is, their fans get excited when it's a one on three. 35:32 They are the dumbest crowd in history. 35:35 I've never seen a more stupid crowd than at Cole Center. 35:40 Greatest Wisconsin hockey fan moment of my life. 35:45 You know the press box there where they don't really have a press box, but they have a few rows where they put the press. 35:51 And there are fans sitting right in front of you. 35:53 Couple years ago, they're playing Denver in an NCAA tournament game at Cole Center. 35:58 Badgers actually won the game. 36:01 So delayed penalty coming up against the Badgers. 36:04 So whoever the goalie is for Denver flies out of the net to the bench and they throw the extra tacker. 36:10 And the Badger fan in front of me stands up and yells, The net's open, shoot the puck. 36:20 He thought they were changing goalies on the fly. 36:23 He thought the goalie had just gone on strike. 36:27 You know, the Badger fans, they have a great time, they're loud, but man, they're dumb. 36:33 Their hockey knowledge is... 36:34 They're great sports fans, they're just not great hockey fans. 36:37 That's probably just what it is. 36:38 They just go there to show up. 36:40 It's not a hockey state, dude. 36:41 It's not a hockey state. 36:42 And, you know, 20 years ago, Wisconsin basketball was awful. 36:47 And football. 36:47 Wisconsin football had been awful for 40 years. 36:50 Sound familiar to anyone? 36:53 And hockey was like the shining star of that athletic department. 36:57 And it's still a very good hockey program, but everybody came out to see hockey because it was the one place that the Badgers more often than not won. 37:05 And now it's not that way anymore. 37:07 I mean, hockey's diminished just because the other sports have kind of eclipsed it. 37:11 So how do they do against this weekend with a revitalized Mankato squad? 37:19 Boy. 37:19 Exactly. 37:21 Wisconsin's going to sweep. 37:23 Really? 37:24 Wisconsin hasn't done that well at home recently. 37:26 Well, I think that if they play, I mean granted it's not as a rivalry series, so you always kind of get amped up for those. 37:33 But if they play as hard as they did against the Gophers, I mean, I don't see what Mankato is going to get out of that series. 37:42 Anyone else have thoughts? 37:44 Mankato is well rested. 37:46 He didn't play last weekend, so if that means anything, who knows? 37:51 I think it helped Wisconsin last weekend with us. 37:55 Veegs, any thoughts on that series? 37:57 Or did you fall asleep already? 37:59 No, I'm okay. 38:00 I would think three points just because I think Wisconsin could have trouble scoring goals. 38:05 They didn't generate a ton of chances. 38:08 Yves was talking about that after the game on Saturday. 38:11 Their best chances came when they were penalty killing. 38:14 So I think they're just in the mode without their top two guys in the lineup. 38:18 They're going to have a tough time getting goals. 38:21 Alaska Anchorage heads to Bemidji State. 38:25 Oh, man. 38:26 The fans of Bemidji have really been getting some barn burners. 38:32 They put them tech in and now they get Anchorage. 38:36 There must be some sellouts and wild crowds there. 38:39 As Bill Simmons would say, Oh, no. 38:42 Exactly. 38:44 It's the benefit of being a big time college hockey conference. 38:51 I feel sorry for Bemidji because it's just going to be more of that next season. 38:56 It's going to be ugly. 38:57 Maybe that's. 39:05 Let's face it. 39:05 If you're Bemidji, you're going to have more of a chance to compete on an every year basis for a conference title. 39:12 True. 39:14 That's exactly what I was going to say. 39:18 They have a better chance now, at least. 39:21 We might actually see Tech back in the tournament. 39:24 Yeah. 39:24 Could happen. 39:25 Never know. 39:26 Mankato. 39:28 One of the Saratori brothers, and I honestly can't remember which one, told me this two years ago when I was doing a piece about kind of the changing face of college hockey. 39:36 He said, remember, and you guys are younger than me, but 20 years ago when Anchorage was an independent, and they were very good. 39:46 I mean, they would make the NCAA tournament. 39:48 They went out to Boston College and the NCAA tournament a couple of couple times and upset teams. 39:53 And I mean, that was a legitimately competitive hockey program. 39:57 And they were selling the place out every night. 39:59 There were 6,000 whatever in Anchorage. 40:02 And it was just this tough place to play. 40:05 It was a long trip. 40:06 And the fans were raucous. 40:07 And everybody said, oh, they're going to get into the WCHA. 40:11 And it's going to be the best program because it'll be sold out every night when Wisconsin and Minnesota and these big time schools come to town. 40:18 Fans will be all pumped to see them. 40:23 Well, they were for about two or three years. 40:26 And then after a while, fans said, wait a minute, they lose all the time now. 40:30 This isn't any fun. 40:32 And now they get, you know, 2300 a night. 40:35 And, you know, the novelty of seeing Minnesota or Wisconsin or Boston College or whoever comes in for that tournament has worn off, you know. 40:45 And I believe it was Tom Serritori, senior, that told me this. 40:49 He said, you know, that could change again now that they're in the new WCHA, where they might be in contention for a conference title every year and, you know, bring the excitement back. 41:01 You know, that's going to be the interesting thing about conference changes in general. 41:05 I mean, you have, like, the National College Hockey Conference. 41:09 You know, those are all pretty good teams that have had, at least at one time or another, most of them have pretty good success. 41:14 Some of them are not going to be keeping that level of success. 41:18 I mean, you're going to have to have doormats in every league. 41:21 I mean, maybe not teams that are, you know, three and 20 or something, but nonetheless, you know, there's going to be teams that are going to be seeing less success because you're going to have to have somebody who's at the bottom of the heap. 41:34 So it'll be interesting to see how that shakes out with some of these teams that have been accustomed to success and how that will change moving forward, you know, five, 10 years from now. 41:46 So what do you guys think? 41:47 Split? 41:50 Does anybody care? 41:52 I guess, who can, which team will out-and-up the other? 41:56 We'll call it a split. 41:59 This is one of those series, though. 42:00 I mean, if you're both of these teams, you're looking at it saying, you know, it's only Thanksgiving, but it's Thanksgiving. 42:06 And if we don't start putting some points in the bank in a hurry, you know, we're going to be dead and buried, especially when you're coming off, you know, getting swept at home if you're Bemidji in two games that, you know, they maybe should have won. 42:18 Well, it's Anchorage's chance to get out of the cellar, you know. 42:23 Put another team behind them. 42:26 And that's a well-rested team, too. 42:27 They haven't played since that tie with the Gophers. 42:29 Yeah, they've only played four WCHA games so far, so they've got to catch up. 42:35 St. 42:36 Cloud heading to Duluth to play the Bulldogs. 42:41 Jess. 42:42 Got to be a desperate Bulldogs team, wouldn't you think? 42:44 I would think so, but you know, St. 42:46 Cloud's doing pretty well. 42:48 Yeah, St. 42:49 Cloud's healthier, not totally healthy, because Ben Hanowski is still a little banged up, but healthier. 42:57 And after a couple years of kind of underachieving, you know, is playing much better hockey. 43:05 Wow, I just realized this. 43:06 The Bulldogs last won a game on October 18th. 43:11 That really seems like a long time ago. 43:13 Is that Notre Dame maybe? 43:14 Yeah, the Friday night game at Notre Dame, excuse me, Thursday night game at Notre Dame, because God knows they never play Friday, Saturday at Notre Dame. 43:23 They won 3-1 and they have not won a game since then. 43:26 Oh, that's got to be making for something. 43:29 So will they get healthy this weekend, at least get a split? 43:32 I could see, yeah. 43:33 I mean, I think you'd be crazy to pick anything other than a split. 43:35 I mean, they played pretty well last weekend. 43:38 Yep, knowing how even these two teams are traditionally and how kind of intense this rivalry is. 43:42 And keep in mind, these are going to be arch rivals in the NCHC, I would think. 43:48 Arch rivals to see who doesn't finish last? 43:52 Well, like we just said, that's the thing about the NCHC, is somebody is going to have to finish eighth in that conference, and that's going to be a big wakeup call for some program. 44:01 What do you think, Veegs? 44:03 You got to be crazy to go against a split, that's what I think is going to happen. 44:07 I do think UMD wins the game, though. 44:09 They get off the schneid and win a game. 44:11 I don't think there will be two ties. 44:15 Hammy. 44:17 Yeah, I actually think that UMD is going to come out and play well. 44:20 I think that after last weekend, maybe they'll be a little, even though they didn't come out of it with a lot of points, I think that they'll have some confidence from that. 44:27 They're playing North Dakota tough in Grand Forks is a good thing. 44:33 It won't shock me if they get more than two points out of that series. 44:36 They've always seems to play St. 44:38 Cloud pretty tough. 44:39 Even when St. 44:40 Cloud was the better team, they always seem to give them fits. 44:44 So it won't shock me if Duluth actually comes out on top of the series with more than two points. 44:50 Before we get to Minnesota and Vermont, we've got a few Twitter questions. 44:54 Michael Russo wants to know, why doesn't Jeff just accept that Minneapolis is mini? 45:01 Oh, goodness sakes. 45:08 A little background. 45:09 Mike, who's new around these parts, likes to refer to the city where he now lives as mini. 45:19 I always make the point that much like Frisco is what people who aren't from San Francisco call San Francisco, mini is what people who aren't from around here refer to Minnesota as more often than not. 45:31 It's like, hey, we saw Fargo. 45:33 We know all about it. 45:34 Yeah. 45:35 But yeah, Mike, you'll come around. 45:39 I promise. 45:41 You're my friend. 45:41 I'm here to help. 45:43 Okay. 45:44 Who wants to take this question? 45:45 From JJ Kreitzer, he says, if Helgeson wasn't a senior, do you think he would be the odd D out? 45:52 Seems to struggle at times. 45:53 Also, a lot of penalty minutes. 45:56 Pammy, Helgeson. 45:59 I thought he actually did okay, actually. 46:01 I've been more down on alt recently. 46:04 Well, I think the thing that I like about Helgeson is he brings that physical presence with his size. 46:09 I mean, he seems to be one of those guys that's willing to mix it up a little more. 46:13 So, you kind of take the good with the bad on that sometimes when it comes to penalties or whatever. 46:20 There's been times over his college career where I've been a little frustrated with him, but of course that's not unique for me to be frustrated with a player. 46:30 I don't think he would sit. 46:31 I get a little bit more annoyed by some of the freshman mistakes than I do some of the stuff I see with Helgeson. 46:39 So, I personally think that he'd still play. 46:41 Any thoughts on that, Veegs? 46:43 Well, I think Helgeson is what he is. 46:45 He's a big physical guy. 46:46 He needs to play a simple game. 46:48 He's going to get beat with some foot speed, so he just needs to play good position. 46:52 And I think most of the time that's what he does. 46:54 He's gotten caught a couple of times when he's had forwards in the offensive zone giving him hand grenades and the puck and the forward get there about the same time. 47:04 And so, that's more on the forward than on him. 47:07 So I think he's got to be in the lineup. 47:10 Again, I think he's just going to lean on Marshall and Schmitt for ice time and work the other guys in there. 47:16 Nate Wells was saying on via his Gopher State Twitter, no talk on the goal pyrotechnics. 47:24 I don't know. 47:25 There was some, like something happened behind the nets, was there some smoke or something? 47:29 Yeah, there was some smoke. 47:30 Because I didn't see it. 47:31 I was busy taking pictures, but I heard about that what, he thought that was much worse than the lighting. 47:37 Behind the Zamboni net, the Zamboni net, they have smoke machines that shoot up now. 47:43 What's next? 47:46 Is the concert going to break out? 47:48 The other kind of weird lighting thing I noticed, did anybody else notice that when an opposing player gets a penalty, they put a flashing spotlight on the penalty box? 47:58 They're trying to make him have a seizure apparently. 48:01 Yeah, I don't know. 48:03 Well I will give the, you know, the one thing I will say is we've seen a lot of fans over the years kind of complain about how they don't try new things, or they don't do this or don't do that. 48:11 I will at least give them credit for trying to, you know, adjust, you know, and do some new things and try some stuff out. 48:18 So I give them credit for that, I mean, even if I don't like everything. 48:22 They're still tweaking it. 48:24 I know they're going to try some things, they're going to not try some other, they're still messing with it. 48:29 Here's my thought though, you're the University of Minnesota, why do you need to try new things? 48:35 Well, I'm just talking all from a fan standpoint. 48:37 You've got something that kind of works, I think. 48:40 Yeah, but, you know, I've noticed some kids talking on the thread about the new stuff at Mariucci and they said, you know what, we don't want to hear 80s music, we want to hear the newer stuff, you know, the stuff that, you know, guys like us don't want to hear. 48:54 So maybe we're just crusty and getting old and a lot of the students, they just, they want this stuff, this is a new generation. 49:01 And the game is for the students, let's never forget that, you know, it's there because of them. 49:06 And I mean that in all seriousness, I mean, you have some programs out there, you know, you have some schools out there, one of which I may have attended, where they seem to want to eliminate the students from the equation and have the game be there for the 70-year-old season ticket crowd, also known as Gopher Football season ticket holders. 49:29 And when you lose sight of that, I really think your program loses something. 49:31 So I mean, if that's what the students want, give them more of what they want because it's there for them. 49:35 Well, I've been impressed with the students. 49:37 They, you know, now that they've got them all in one section or one area of the building and they're actually seem to be showing up, I think the atmosphere is a little bit better. 49:48 Well, that atmosphere showed up on time. 49:50 That was amazing. 49:51 Fantastic. 49:52 Well, Veegs, you know why they showed up on time? 49:56 Because the tickets said 7. 49:59 Oh, no. 50:00 Did they really? 50:01 They never changed. 50:02 Well, I don't know if the student tickets did, but I hear that the main tickets, you know, for the game did say 7 p.m. 50:08 because the time was changed, you know, after they were printed. 50:13 So that may have had something to do with this. 50:15 That's a good trick. 50:16 I like it. 50:19 Friday was a disease. 50:20 I couldn't believe how bad the traffic was down there. 50:23 I'm surprised that there was even that many people that when the puck dropped. 50:26 So who knows? 50:29 Well, for the first time since January of 2005, the Gophers are heading out east. 50:38 I know they went to Ohio State, but I don't count that as east. 50:40 But it's been years since Minnesota has in the regular season gone out east to play a series. 50:47 It was against Boston University to close their old arena and open up the new Aganis Arena in 2005. 50:55 But finally, the Gophers are making a trip to Vermont. 51:01 What is the deal? 51:02 Why does it take us this many years to get on the road on the east coast again, Jess? 51:08 Why travel if you don't have to? 51:10 Yeah, I know. 51:10 But come on. 51:14 To Don Lucia's credit, talking to him the other night, he said, hey, I'm excited about this. 51:18 New place. 51:18 Haven't been there. 51:19 You know, Gutterson Field House is kind of one of those old classic rinks. 51:24 But if you don't have to travel, why travel? 51:28 Let's face it. 51:30 Mariachi Arena is a destination in college hockey. 51:33 If you're out there, this is a place you want to play. 51:35 So if people want to come and play you and let you sleep in your own bed, let them do it. 51:41 And I love, you know, that they're going out east and they're traveling to some new places and some new blood. 51:46 But I'd love it just as much if they were bringing them here. 51:49 Well, I just think that you're not challenging yourself unless you're going to these tough places and playing on the road. 51:54 Not everything has to happen at Mariachi. 51:57 Great place to play. 51:58 You're going to get your games here. 51:59 But I still think you've got to go and play at Boston College, at Maine, at New Hampshire. 52:05 It's just we hardly ever do it anymore. 52:08 Right. 52:10 Any thoughts, Hammy and Biggs? 52:12 Well, I mean, I'm glad that they're going to go out east. 52:14 And I'm glad that, you know, I mentioned this before when it came to future scheduling. 52:19 I'm glad that we're going to... 52:20 You know, one of the things about the Big Ten is being able to see some different teams out of conference. 52:26 I mean, we were limited because of, you know, we had to have a certain amount of home games. 52:31 And then with the WCHA, we only had, you know, a certain amount of games we could play non-conference. 52:36 And so to be able to kind of be a little more flexible with the schedule, I kind of like that we're going to be playing some Notre Dame's and some Boston College or Northeastern or whatever, some of these other teams, you know, so I'm excited about, you know, some variety in that sense. 52:52 And if it means that it takes away from some of these more classic rivalry series a little bit, that's kind of one of the side effects and you just have to live with that. 53:01 Any thoughts, Beegs? 53:03 I think if they're not going up to Alaska or to Denver or CC every year, you'll see them probably take one trip out east to play some of the bigger named hockey east schools. 53:13 But at the same time, they're going to get a lot of those schools wanting to play Marriotchi and the way that the athletic department's going to run the scheduling, you know, they're not going to have a ton of on the road non-conference games available. 53:26 I think it's four or six. 53:29 Yeah, it's not a big amount, you know, after you play all the in-state schools, like they said they're going to do. 53:36 So, I mean, there's not going to be a lot of opportunities and one's going to be it. 53:39 I mean, this year's road schedule is pretty favorable for the Gophers. 53:43 Definitely is. 53:45 I mean, after this series, they've got CC, they play one more at Mankato, a series at St. 53:52 Cloud, one game at Wisconsin, one at Soldier Field, and then they have Bemidji State the end of the year. 53:58 That's pretty nice. 54:00 So, the Gophers take on Vermont. 54:02 Vermont is 2-4 and 2 overall. 54:04 They split last season and they're only two meetings all time. 54:07 You know, the Gophers, would they blow them out one game and they stunk it up the second game. 54:13 So, Hammy, what's going to happen this weekend? 54:15 Gophers heading out east, they're taking off. 54:18 I hear Thursday morning on a charter and off they go, play Vermont. 54:25 Yeah, I mean, I remember when they last played, I was actually at that second game where they, you know, the Gophers really screwed up in terms of penalties in the second period and there's some stupid things that went on in that game and we ended up blowing the game. 54:39 And, you know, based on what we've seen so far this year, I mean, sometimes, you know, those road series, especially when it's a longer road trip, you know, that kind of brings the team together a little bit and playing in a new place, hopefully that'll give them a little excitement. 54:54 I'm sure that, you know, people in Vermont will be excited to have a good team from, you know, if they're not accustomed to seeing traveling to their rank for a series. 55:03 And I expect the Gophers to be successful. 55:05 I mean, if you look at Vermont's record this year, obviously the Gophers should be favored even as a road team. 55:11 So I would hope they would come out of the series with a sweep, but you can never count on that in a road. 55:16 So if they get two or three points, you know, well, they don't get points, but two or three points, per se, I think that's relatively quality weekend. 55:25 What do you think, Jess? 55:26 It depends on how they play. 55:27 No, it's all right. 55:29 No, I absolutely agree. 55:30 I mean, a couple of things at work here. 55:32 Number one, Don Luchia is a master of knowing what works and what doesn't in the world of the pairwise. 55:39 And these are the kind of series that people look at, the outside your conference stuff. 55:43 You know, granted, there are no conference points available, but this goes a long way in the computer rankings. 55:50 And the other thing, you know, they've had what, three road trips now and have yet to sweep a road series. 55:57 They want two wins, just to make a statement. 55:59 They want two wins badly, even if there are no points on the line. 56:04 Vegoe, your thoughts on the weekend? 56:06 You're heading out there, aren't you? 56:07 I'm just kidding. 56:09 No, has GPL got a ticket for me yet? 56:11 I wish. 56:12 You know, I was hoping this series was going to be the first series of the year, and I wanted to head out there in early October, which would have been beautiful, but late November does nothing for me in Vermont. 56:25 That's all right. 56:25 We can save the airfare budget for CC coming up. 56:30 That huge airfare budget. 56:33 But I got to think they get a sweep one of these weekends, and this looks like one they can get. 56:38 The team's playing better. 56:39 I think both Friday and Saturday night, they played fairly well. 56:43 I think we can pick holes with the power play a little bit on Friday night, but they moved the puck well in both games on the power play. 56:50 They're gaining the zone. 56:52 They're getting chances. 56:53 It's not like they're struggling to break out and control the puck and are making bad passes. 56:59 They're just not putting in the back of the net. 57:01 So I'm thinking sweep. 57:06 I'm thinking sweep too. 57:08 Four points like everyone always likes to say on non-conference weekends. 57:12 That means nothing. 57:13 Four imaginary points. 57:14 Yeah, I hate that. 57:17 All right, guys. 57:17 Anything else for the week? 57:19 I have one thing to add. 57:22 Yes? 57:23 The two newest members of the Big Ten? 57:25 Oh, God. 57:27 It's nine stops on the Metro from Maryland's campus to the home of the Washington Capitals. 57:34 In other words, you have a rink you can use. 57:37 No, they don't. 57:37 Get a hockey program. 57:38 It's not going to happen. 57:39 They're dropping programs now. 57:41 Rutgers? 57:42 Rutgers is 20 minutes from the home of the New Jersey Devils. 57:46 You have a rink you can use. 57:48 Make it happen. 57:50 Not going to happen, Jess. 57:51 I don't think it will either. 57:55 Under Armour, they want to get another hockey program. 57:58 Jersey's for. 57:59 Absolutely. 58:00 Does anybody care about either of these schools? 58:04 Several accountants in Chicago, yes. 58:06 Yeah, and that's what it is. 58:07 It's all about money. 58:08 They don't give a rat's ass about the students at all. 58:13 It's all about the millions and millions of dollars they'll make. 58:17 But that's what helps the athletics. 58:24 It helps the big schools. 58:26 It hasn't seemed to be helping the little schools that barely make a budget. 58:29 It certainly helps with the budgeting even at all the schools, and it's certainly from a standpoint of the Gopher Hockey ticket price is sky high. 58:39 Maybe that typically takes a little pressure off of raising ticket prices moving forward. 58:45 It probably won't, but nonetheless, you got to think about how that can affect the bottom line. 58:50 $55 bucks for a single game ticket for North Dakota. 58:53 Yippee skippee. 58:57 It ain't cheap, folks. 58:58 It ain't. 58:59 I'm good about the donations. 59:00 Yeah, and the donations. 59:02 Well, I think the season ticket price are closer to $35 or something like that when you average them out. 59:08 But if you were to buy a single game. 59:09 What's a student ticket cost? 59:13 I have no idea. 59:15 Interesting. 59:16 No students listening right now? 59:18 I can't get all Twitter. 59:19 I think it was about $100. 59:21 I think it's $100 maybe or $110 for one game of the series. 59:25 I mean that's for like Friday nights, it'd be over $200 for a full season. 59:31 So what does that break down to per game? 59:34 10 bucks? 59:35 Something like that. 59:36 That's I was told there'd be no math so okay sorry. 59:40 Anything else guys? 59:43 Looking forward to Turkey this week I hope. 59:47 Of course. 59:49 Stuffing our face. 59:50 I just found that you can make stuffing out of White Castles. 59:55 You may never see me again. 59:59 Yeah, because we won't be able to see past your huge gut if you do that. 1:00:02 Exactly. 1:00:05 My goal for the winter at a third chin. 1:00:09 Third? 1:00:10 I thought you already had that going. 1:00:12 No, thank you. 1:00:13 Yeah, I know. 1:00:15 Much appreciated. 1:00:16 Hey, I'm the fat planet so I know all about it. 1:00:20 I'll hand you water at mile 24 of the next marathon you run. 1:00:24 Twenty-four? 1:00:26 More like 2.4 and I'm dead. 1:00:28 Exactly. 1:00:30 All right, well, you can always follow Jess as he writes for 1500Espn or follow him on Twitter at JessRMyers, correct? 1:00:40 That's correct. 1:00:40 J-E-S-S-R-M-Y-E-R-S. 1:00:44 Thank you very much. 1:00:47 Hammy, at Hammy Hockey on Twitter, correct? 1:00:50 Correct. 1:00:51 And you're getting a little bitter on their website, I know. 1:00:53 As you haven't been posting, you get a little frustrated with the GPLers? 1:00:56 I can't deal with the whining after some games. 1:01:02 I don't blame you. 1:01:03 And of course, Vegoe at eVegoe on Twitter. 1:01:06 Of course, you can see and read his writing on GopherPuckLive. 1:01:10 And that's all we have for tonight, folks. 1:01:14 Thanks, Jess, for joining us. 1:01:16 Good to be here. 1:01:17 Good to be here. 1:01:17 Hey, we didn't go into wrestling talk, so that's all that matters. 1:01:23 That's it for this week. 1:01:24 We'll be back next week to recap the big East Coast trip to Vermont and preview Nebraska-Omaha. 1:01:30 Until then, thanks for listening.