0:03 This is The Gopher Puck Live Podcast, episode number 30, recorded Tuesday, December 11th, 2012. 0:20 Hello, and welcome to The Gopher Puck Live Podcast. 0:23 I'm your host, Jupiter. 0:25 And of course, joining me again, Vegoe and Hamme. 0:30 How are you guys doing this week? 0:32 Pretty good. 0:33 Doing well. 0:34 Doing well, that's great. 0:35 Well, our Gophers headed out to Colorado Springs last weekend. 0:41 Looked like they were gonna finish off the Tigers with a nice sweep until a third period collapse. 0:48 And that sweep turned into a three-point weekend. 0:51 Obviously, it's hard to complain when you get three points on the road into WCHA and it's Colorado College. 0:59 But boy, that tie sure felt like a loss last week, didn't it, Hamme? 1:05 Yeah, I mean, it definitely did. 1:07 You know, it's one of those things where, like you mentioned, if you told us last week that, well, you're gonna come out of that series with three points, you'd be pretty happy about it. 1:16 But when you see it in hindsight and you're basically 15 minutes away from a sweep, I mean, heck, you're half a minute away from a sweep and you pull away. 1:26 And so, you know, it's kind of mixed feelings on it. 1:30 So yeah, I could see exactly where you're coming from with that. 1:33 It was definitely frustrating. 1:35 And, you know, it's amazing how, you know, granted, you can't blame one play in hockey, unless it's like an overtime play, for losing the game or tying a game in this case. 1:46 But, you know, that play by Ben Marshall, you know, they give up that shorthand and go, I mean, that just swung the momentum, you know, completely in their direction. 1:55 And it just went downhill from there. 1:57 And, you know, you can't blame the one play necessarily because they had plenty of time to, you know, keep the other two goals out of the net and do their own damage. 2:05 But nonetheless, it really hurt. 2:07 Well, it was definitely a huge turning point. 2:10 I mean, it just changed the whole game completely. 2:16 And, you know, Veegs, Marshall, he's not really, he doesn't really make these type of mistakes. 2:22 But, you know, when it happened, I saw him skating into the zone to meet the player. 2:25 I'm like, what are you doing? 2:27 You realize there's only one guy back. 2:29 And it really seemed like a bonehead play and very unlike Mr. 2:35 Marshall. 2:36 Yeah, it really surprised me. 2:38 I mean, he's been one of the steadier guys on the team. 2:40 And, you know, he was probably a little frustrated that he missed the shot, the one-timer attempt. 2:46 And he just wasn't thinking when he stepped up. 2:49 I mean, that's the only explanation I can think of for that. 2:52 But it's tough when you have a play like that. 2:54 And especially the third period, it wasn't like they were getting beat handily. 2:59 They were just making mistakes. 3:01 And, you know, a couple of mistakes led to the goals. 3:05 And that just shows you how thin the margin of error is in this league. 3:10 You know, you make a couple of mistakes and there's some talented guys in the other team and they're going to make you pay for it sometimes. 3:17 Well, that's definitely the case because giving up three goals in one period and salvaging the tie was not a good thing. 3:26 Well, let's continue with some negatives here. 3:28 Hamme, you haven't been too positive on Mr. 3:31 Shea. 3:34 I think it was Saturday night. 3:36 Shea made a couple of little errors in the second period and then I think he only saw the ice one time in the third. 3:42 He was pretty much benched. 3:45 You think he needs more time off or is it just growing pains with him? 3:49 Well, it's obviously going to be growing pains when you're a freshman. 3:52 I don't like to rag on the guy. 3:54 I do think he's got talent and certainly I think as time goes along, I would imagine he would get better. 4:01 I would hope to God he would get better. 4:03 But I don't know if he's just putting so much pressure on himself now not to make mistakes or to do things that, because for instance, when he took the puck right out in front of our net and gets railroaded into Wilcox, you're just like, what the hell are you doing? 4:20 That's the kind of play that you're taught not to do basically when you're in peewees. 4:24 You never take the puck out in front of your net. 4:26 I was just like, what is this guy doing? 4:28 And I just think that maybe it's one of those things where he's just putting, he feels so much pressure because of the mistakes he's already made that he's just kind of compounding things and to kind of, not to get off that topic, but I feel the same way about Bukstad. 4:41 I mean, I think that he's, I imagine he came into the year thinking he's just going to have these world beater numbers and whatever and he's done okay, but certainly not to the level that he, I imagine, would expect and certainly the fans wouldn't expect and it just looks like he's fighting a puck and he's really just, you know, gripping a stick a little too hard and just not letting the game come to him. 5:05 He's trying to do too much and, you know, so I just think some of these guys need to, you know, maybe just relax a little bit and maybe that time off will help matters. 5:14 But there's definitely some guys I think are putting a little bit too much pressure on themselves. 5:18 Hey Vego, what do you think about Bukstad? 5:19 Do you think it is just a little too much pressure or maybe he just needs to relax, gripping that stick too tight? 5:26 It's hard to say because he is getting opportunities. 5:28 I mean, he was five feet away from the net when he one-timed it right into the pipe. 5:35 He's getting chances. 5:37 Maybe he's just pressing a little bit too much, but sometimes those bounces go your way and sometimes they don't. 5:43 I think he's getting a lot of criticism for missing the net a ton. 5:49 If you don't get your shot off quick and all of a sudden you have the goaltender time to come out to the top of the paint, there's not much to shoot at anyway. 5:56 And so maybe those situations, guys need to start shooting for rebounds. 6:01 And maybe that will be coaching a little bit. 6:03 I imagine they'll be playing some rebound game and small ice games and trying to create goals in those situations. 6:09 But if you don't get the goaltender beat with quickness, sometimes you got to just take your chances and look for the rebounds. 6:16 See, that's the biggest pet peeve that I have with the Gophers. 6:20 And it's been that way for years is when you're shooting at least get the puck on net. 6:26 You're missing the net, you're missing chances for rebounds, and you're just missing that chance of it getting through the pad somewhere or anything. 6:33 And obviously, Bukestead's had that problem. 6:35 And one thing makes it worse with Bukestead is like on the power play, he's off to the side. 6:39 If he misses the net, it's going to hit the side boards and go all the way out to the other end. 6:44 So, that kills us, but Hammy, they got to start hitting the net. 6:49 Well, I mean, I think for me that one of the things with Bukestead especially, I mean, I saw somebody write on GPL about how he's a sniper, so he's trying to pick corners, blah, blah, blah. 6:59 But to me, it's like a sniper doesn't miss the net that often. 7:02 You know what I mean? 7:03 And I really believe that when you have a shot as heavy as his shot is, you're better off getting it on the goalie, even if you're... 7:11 Because like you mentioned, you're going to get more than likely some rebounds. 7:14 And I also, I mentioned this on GPL, I'd like to see him shoot low a little more often. 7:19 Because it just seems like he's constantly trying to pick upper corners. 7:22 And I mean, if I were, like I said, on GPL, if I were a goalie, I'd be like, well, I don't mind being a bother worrying about the bottom half of the net because he doesn't shoot there that often. 7:31 You know, it's one of those things where I just feel like mix it up a little bit, get your shot on net, especially low, because obviously goalies are going to have a hard time controlling rebounds with a shot as heavy as his on a low shot. 7:45 So if you have guys crashing the net, I mean, it's just going to create opportunity. 7:48 So I just feel like, you know, he's trying to do too much. 7:51 Maybe, you know, the thing that makes me think he's trying to do too much is that it seems like he's second guessing himself. 7:58 It seems like when he has the puck, he's not real quick with his decisions. 8:03 It just seems like, you know, he's just not right, where he should be. 8:08 And it's just frustrating. 8:09 And quite honestly, on that game tying goal on Saturday, I kind of feel like, you know, he screwed the pooch a little bit on that one because he had been right where that puck had went through literally a second before that. 8:22 He was right there, except he skated to a guy behind the net. 8:26 You know, that wasn't, I mean, it wasn't necessary for him to clear the slot like that. 8:30 And you could blame Schmidt. 8:31 You can blame Raoul on that one, too. 8:33 I'm not taking them off the hook. 8:35 But, you know, I think that Bukestaddy was like, why are you freelancing so much? 8:40 The slot's obviously the most important place to be in that case. 8:43 So, I don't know. 8:44 I just think he's fighting, you know, fighting things a little bit. 8:47 Especially when it's going to be a five on six situation, you're not going to be able to cover every guy. 8:52 So you got to, you know, leave the guys out of the areas where they can't score from and protect the areas where they can score from. 8:59 Yep. 9:00 Well, let's get to some more positives on the weekend. 9:03 Obviously, three points is great. 9:04 But, boy, Tom Serritori really stepped up his game recently. 9:09 He's got like four or five goals now. 9:11 He scored the game winning goal Friday night, scored another goal Saturday night. 9:16 The kid busts his ass out there and he's getting rewarded. 9:21 Hammeh, your thoughts? 9:23 Well, yeah, I mean, he's obviously, you know, you knew coming into the year that he's going to provide that, you know, defense and gritty play. 9:31 And, you know, he was one of those guys, he really didn't have to question, you know, what he was going to bring to the table and what role he was going to play. 9:38 You just knew that, you know, he'd give it his all and he'd do a good job at it. 9:41 And, you know, certainly six goals, you don't necessarily expect that from a guy that, you know, is generally playing fourth line minutes. 9:50 And, you know, so that's certainly is a nice sign. 9:54 And when you compare it, I mean, think about it, he's got as many goals as Rao does, you know? 9:58 I mean, that's, I mean, he doesn't have the points in general, but, you know, nonetheless, you know, six goals is pretty, is a pretty nice total for a guy that plays the role that he does. 10:08 And, you know, a lot of them have been very key situations as well. 10:11 And I'm certainly, it was very exciting for him to go back home, you know, and score, you know, some goals and a game winner, I think one of them. 10:18 So it's definitely a good sign for him. 10:21 What do you think, Veegs? 10:22 You think we could move him up to the first line and he'd do pretty good? 10:26 Obviously, Lucia's willing to put almost anybody up there, it seems like. 10:31 Well, you never know. 10:31 He might find himself on a shift with Bukestad and Rao, but I mean, the guy's got three game winners already this season. 10:38 And you know, he's getting those dirty, greasy goals, driving to the net and just finding a way to put the puck home. 10:44 I think that's a good example for the rest of the guys on the team that, you know, you don't have to have that perfect snipe where you just get that corner just inside the pipe, you know, ring it in. 10:56 You can drive to the net and just put it in there and give yourself a chance. 11:00 Definitely, definitely. 11:01 So I really like his game recently. 11:03 I hope he gets moved up a little bit and a little more playing time because boy, I just really like his effort. 11:11 What else on the weekend, guys? 11:12 Anything that jumped out to you? 11:13 Any other players that maybe played very well that you didn't expect, Hammy? 11:18 You know, I don't know that I necessarily saw anybody that, you know, that wouldn't play well, but, you know, it was funny because I think that people, I saw some people mention how he didn't seem to do much, but then I look at his stat line, you know, he did have, I think, a three-point weekend at least or something like that. 11:36 So, I mean, he had a quiet weekend, but I guess you can say it was somewhat effective in that respect. 11:43 You know, it's hard to really complain about anything, you know, the first five periods of the weekend, I didn't think that was, you know, I thought we did relatively well and then you just kind of have that one slip up and then there it goes downhill. 11:55 So, you know, all in all, I thought it was a good weekend. 11:57 I thought that Wilcox played pretty well in a row down. 12:01 You know, I know that some people were kind of ragging on them a little bit with some of those goals in the third period. 12:06 But you know, I don't really necessarily agree. 12:08 I mean, you have odd man rushes, you have, you know, the six on five where a guy basically is uncovered. 12:14 And I mean, so I thought he had a pretty good weekend as well. 12:17 Veegs, any last thoughts on the weekend? 12:20 Yeah, I liked on Saturday night how the Gophers got two goals off faceoff plays. 12:24 I think those can really make the difference in a season. 12:28 If you can, you know, win a draw and have a play drawn up and have a variety of plays that you're going to use in games and create scoring chances. 12:36 I think, you know, there could be some key games down the stretch where they need a goal off a draw, and they've shown they can do that. 12:43 So that's always good to see. 12:44 And they've got good center men who can win draws cleanly, which is important. 12:49 I really liked the puck movement on the power play. 12:52 I mean, some of those, you know, some tic-tac-toe kind of passing, and I'm granted, you know, they were only, what, I think, like one for ten or one for nine on the weekend or one for, I don't know, I know they only had one goal, but I thought the puck movement on the power play was pretty good. 13:04 They just didn't have a lot to show for as far as goals. 13:07 All right, let's move to the rest of the WCHA and boy, Minnesota State sweeping Anchorage. 13:15 Obviously, they swept in Madison a few weeks ago. 13:21 I think they're in a tie for third place down to WCHA. 13:24 Obviously, I think their competition has been a little less, but you know what? 13:28 They've been winning those games, Hammeh. 13:31 Yeah, I mean, that's the thing that you have to, you know, is it that they've been real good or has it just been the competition hasn't been that great? 13:39 You know, I think it's probably a little bit of both. 13:42 But like you said, you know, you kind of have to give them credit. 13:44 They're beating teams that they should be beating, I guess. 13:47 I mean, I kind of expected Wisconsin to be better this year, but you know, going into the year, you'd expect that Mankato would, you know, sweep Bemidji and sweep Anchorage at home. 13:57 At least I would expect that. 13:58 I thought that Mankato would be a better team this year because they had some young guys really playing big minutes last year. 14:04 So, I'm not entirely surprised by it, but I think that, you know, we'll see how it goes once we get down the stretch and they start, you know, playing some road games with some tougher teams. 14:15 Vegoe, do you have any thoughts on Mankato's sweep of the Seawolves? 14:19 Well, they've got six in a row now, and we saw that Nebraska Omaha had that little streak where they put together six wins, and then they played the Gophers and lost. 14:29 So, I think UNO is going to be a step up in competition form. 14:33 You know, you got to beat the teams on your schedule who you're playing, but I think we'll see. 14:38 You know, they didn't, Mankato didn't do great against St. 14:41 Cloud, Minnesota, Denver. 14:43 So, now as they play teams like Nebraska Omaha, and then I'm not sure who they have after that, but you know, as they look at that, those are tougher games to win. 14:52 Wisconsin and Michigan Tech pair of ties at the Cole Center, and I don't believe Wisconsin has won a game yet at home. 15:01 Vegoe. 15:03 Well, they're just struggling to score goals. 15:05 I was surprised they got three on Saturday. 15:07 Exactly. 15:09 I mean, they get their guys, Cradillies and Zingerley back in the lineup, and they put them on the same line, just trying to generate chances wherever they can. 15:18 I think we're going to see Wisconsin continue to struggle to find goal scoring. 15:22 It's just their style of play right now, their defensemen. 15:25 When they played Minnesota, I wasn't seeing them generating too much offense, and that's hard. 15:31 If you can't get any flow going up the ice, you're going to have a tough time scoring goals. 15:36 I think we thought that Wisconsin had enough guys coming back where they'd be able to get up the ice, and they just haven't been able to. 15:44 Cami, what do you think? 15:46 Yeah, I mean, the interesting thing is it just seems like they're lacking some goal scorers. 15:50 I mean, I look at this last weekend, I think they had 31 shots one night, and more than that the second night, and I watched a little bit of the game. 15:59 It's not like they're not getting shots, it's just, I don't know that they have the goal scorers necessarily, and I thought that they would be better scoring this year than what they have by far. 16:09 I mean, I'm real surprised considering they returned a lot of guys, how poorly they've scored. 16:14 And so, I saw that Yves was making excuses about rink sizes from the practice rink to Cole Center. 16:22 No, no, jeez, come on. 16:24 I'm just like, you know, it's starting to get, you start to wonder when even the head coach is starting to make excuses like that, I don't know. 16:32 But something's just not right there. 16:34 And I think the effort is there, but it just seems like maybe the stick skills, you know, just aren't there. 16:40 It's hard to say. 16:42 Well, we'll have to see them. 16:44 It'll be tough. 16:45 That's going to be tough for them to even bail their way out of the bottom of WCHA, so. 16:50 All right, we've got Denver, North Dakota, and North Dakota picks up three points on the weekend. 16:56 Boy, Vegoe, Denver's kind of diving fast here. 17:01 Yeah, you hear Guazzecki talk about the team, and he's not super disappointed with the way they're playing. 17:08 Okay. 17:09 You know, going into the Ralph is a tough place to play, and Grimaldi was hitting on all cylinders. 17:14 I think he had four points the other night. 17:16 And, you know, North Dakota is a tough team, and I think Denver is not out of this. 17:20 You know, they're still atop the standings right now. 17:24 And, you know, I think they'll be fine. 17:26 I think if you can go into Ralph and get two points, you're doing great. 17:30 You know, they came away with one. 17:32 So I don't think they are super disappointed with that result. 17:38 Hammeh? 17:38 Well, you know, the thing is, I think that what I'm seeing is that this is the Denver team that I don't want to say I expected them to be losing, you know, playing like this stretch. 17:47 But they haven't been scoring as much lately. 17:50 I mean, I think they, I think what I count here is 12 goals in their last six games or something like that. 17:55 And I mean, coming into the year, you kind of knew that they were going to have good defense and they were going to have good goaltending. 18:00 But the question mark was how much offense they were going to bring to the table. 18:04 And I'm starting to wonder if that's what we're starting to see now is that maybe some of the early returns on their offense were not quite, I mean, when I look at their schedule, other than St. 18:15 Cloud, I mean, they haven't, you know, they didn't really have a, you know, a murderous schedule for the first month. 18:21 And then they had CC, and they played real well that series, a rivalry series, but ever since then, it's been downhill. 18:26 And so you kind of wonder if maybe some of those early returns were misleading in terms of the offense. 18:32 And, you know, I'm not sure, I think I said three points for North Dakota in this series last week. 18:37 So I'm not surprised by the outcome. 18:40 It sounded to me like I didn't see obviously either the games, but it sounded like North Dakota had a pretty hefty advantage both nights. 18:47 So maybe Denver still want to, you know, point out of there. 18:51 So, but they're definitely have to find some offense because it hasn't been quite as abundant lately. 18:57 Bemidji headed to Duluth last weekend and got the split. 19:01 Hammy, Bemidji finally got a win, but it was against Duluth and Duluth has been struggling. 19:11 Well, you know, I guess UMD is a slump buster for Bemidji State. 19:18 I guess that's what it is, you know. 19:20 Oh boy, here we go. 19:22 Yeah. 19:22 Well, I mean, you know, a drunk hockey guy said he was going up there for Saturday's game and they lost. 19:28 So maybe he's got the bad karma. 19:30 I think he is the bad karma because what do you say? 19:32 I don't think they've won with him watching the game live yet. 19:36 Yeah. 19:37 I don't know. 19:37 He must be some brutal bad luck for those guys. 19:41 It must be like revenge for all the trash talk that he's done over the years. 19:45 I don't know. 19:47 But yeah, I mean, I thought that I actually think I picked Duluth this week, this series. 19:52 I just thought that they'd outclass Bemidji State and I thought that their offense was, you know, it was pretty good the week before against TAC. 19:59 And I just figured that maybe they're starting to find their way. 20:03 But obviously, things are pretty ugly on Saturday, so. 20:08 Is Duluth the big slump buster vegs for the Beavers? 20:14 Obviously. 20:15 I think he's just struggling. 20:17 They've got so many holes to fill and they don't have a chance to put in there. 20:21 They're very inconsistent. 20:22 Yeah. 20:22 Well, when you're young, especially when you have young freshmen, not the seasoned ones, it's going to be hard to compete. 20:30 And I feel bad for Sandlin. 20:32 I hope he has a happy holiday coming up. 20:37 Well, I picked Nebraska-Omaha to sweep the old Huskies up at St. 20:41 Cloud, but they did get a split, so I guess that's half right. 20:45 So Vegoe, what do you think? 20:47 You know, kind of a barn burner Friday night, six to five, and then Saturday, quite a board defensive. 20:54 Yeah. 20:54 I mean, maybe St. 20:55 Cloud is starting to figure out some things. 20:58 You know, they've got CC this weekend. 21:00 So I think, you know, they've got a chance, maybe get another split. 21:03 And, you know, it's going to be a battle for who gets home ice already. 21:08 You can already start to see a divide kind of happening. 21:11 And, you know, there's these spots, you know, three through seven that are going to be real tight. 21:17 And, you know, they're going to need to pull out points every weekend. 21:21 They can't afford to give them away. 21:23 So I think this is a big weekend coming up for them. 21:27 Well, you know, there could be a few splits this weekend. 21:29 And a gigantic logjam at the top of the WCHA hammie. 21:35 Yeah. 21:35 I mean, for me, St. 21:36 Cloud, to me, is a real big question, Mark. 21:38 I mean, they've split the last five series they've been in. 21:43 And some of those series, I mean, you know, they've been some good teams, but there's also been some pretty bad teams. 21:48 I mean, Anchorage, for instance, and, you know, I don't know what to think of them. 21:54 I mean, I think that when I look at their early schedule, they did real, you know, they played, you know, they got swept out at New Hampshire, which is a real good team this year, but then they played Huntsville and Mankato, back when Mankato probably wasn't playing as well as they are now. 22:08 And, you know, so it's a little, the early goings that looked a little better than what I think it really is. 22:13 And so I've got a big question mark in my mind about St. 22:16 Cloud. 22:17 To me, the stretch of games that they have over the next month, because they're at home basically till middle of November, or excuse me, middle of January. 22:24 And, you know, they need to make some hay. 22:28 You know, they only have, of course, only two of those four series are in the WCHA, and they're against CC and Denver. 22:33 So those are some pretty tough teams. 22:35 So, you know, it's a big question mark yet for me with St. 22:39 Cloud. 22:39 I don't know what to expect from those guys. 22:41 Well, at least the WCHA is looking pretty interesting. 22:43 You know, we've got Minnesota State up there. 22:45 You got St. 22:46 Cloud State up there. 22:48 Obviously, Minnesota State has never been up there, at least not in many years. 22:52 So first half is winding down now, and it's looking pretty exciting. 22:57 I'm kind of looking forward to a good race for the final year of this WCHA. 23:05 No argument for me. 23:06 It definitely looks, I mean, especially that top six or seven. 23:10 I mean, you kind of know, I mean, it's been sort of cliche over the last handful of years, you know, that you expect that kind of thing. 23:16 But it seems even more so this year. 23:18 I mean, the Gophers were the heavy favorites, and they haven't played, you know, to their capabilities yet. 23:23 And, you know, I think that that's something that certainly, you know, you can't complain about a 6-3 and 3 record. 23:29 I mean, it's not bad, but you sort of expect a little bit more based on what we had coming back. 23:35 Well, boys, we lost a Gopher today. 23:39 Blake Thompson decided to leave the team. 23:42 I know they're devastated. 23:44 It's going to be tough to go on without him. 23:48 Hammey, your thoughts, it's just a terrible day, isn't it? 23:51 Well, you know, I was told about it last night. 23:56 I was sworn a secrecy until they had a press release on, so I couldn't say anything. 24:00 Dun, dun, dun. 24:02 But I, you know, I mean, you can't blame the guy. 24:06 No, not at all. 24:08 The bottom of the depth chart, and we're only losing one guy, you know, to graduation at least, that we know all of them. 24:14 I mean, you might lose somebody to pros, but if you're in his shoes, you know, you really, you know, I don't blame him in that respect. 24:22 I think that, you know, he had some moments last year where I got a little frustrated, but I mean, you know, with some of the penalty stuff, but he's got good size, and I'm sure that, you know, he'll find a decent landing spot. 24:35 I don't know if it'll be, you know, well, of course, I can't say if it'll be in the WCHA, because it's gonna be a different WCHA, but, you know, I'm sure that he'll find a good landing spot somewhere. 24:44 I don't know where, you know, maybe it'll be, you know, it might be a team that remains in WCHA. 24:51 I mean, who knows? 24:53 But wasn't he always kind of a question mark in the first place? 24:56 I mean, I never thought he was a good pick up. 24:59 I just thought he was, he was not a big name. 25:02 He wasn't anything. 25:04 So I guess we're not gonna miss anything. 25:08 Well, I think it's one of those guys that, they're the physical guy, you know? 25:11 He's a big physical guy and you need that and we needed that, you know, and so I think it balances out. 25:18 I mean, you kind of like to have that, but yeah, he's not gonna bring a lot of offense, but he could have played his role, you know, kind of more of a Helgeson type of role, maybe down the road, who knows? 25:28 Bigs? 25:29 Well, I think one of the things was a couple of years ago, we saw a lot of roster turn for the Gophers, where they're getting caught with a lot of guys leaving early, a lot of freshmen being forced into big roles. 25:41 And you saw Lucia kind of go out and grab a bunch of older players. 25:45 He was grabbing the guys who had played three years in the USHL, and Thompson was one of those guys. 25:51 And I think what happened was you just run into a situation where you're not having guys leave early, like you have in the past, and you start to get that roster lock jam. 26:00 And it's hard to sit those eight guys ahead of them all the time and give them a shot. 26:06 And maybe if Riley and Shay had gone out to Ufa, Russia, maybe he could have shot in the Classic, but that might not happen. 26:15 And it sounds like they wanted to redshirt them. 26:18 So if you want to play, he probably had to go somewhere else. 26:23 Definitely. 26:24 It's a tough situation in the sense that when you're Lucia, I mean, like you mentioned, he has had guys that have left early. 26:31 And you have the guys like Alt, and you have guys like Hall, where two or three years ago or whatever, when they get drafted, they're getting drafted relatively high. 26:40 And you're like, well, what are you going to get out of them? 26:43 And certainly, considering the recent, like last five, six years or whatever, you sort of expect to err on one less year than maybe one more year. 26:53 And it just happens to be that we've kept them a little longer now than what we did a few years back. 26:58 And so it does create that log jam. 27:01 And he's just unfortunately a little bit of a victim of that. 27:04 Yeah, we got a lot of defensive guys coming in when we're only losing, well, technically one next year. 27:10 So he knew he wasn't going to be playing. 27:12 So it was a good decision for him to leave. 27:15 Maybe it's too bad he didn't, wasn't able to do it at the beginning of the year, but that's just kind of the way it went. 27:24 We have a question via Twitter. 27:26 Mr. 27:26 Kreitzer, who loves to tweet us during the podcast, he wants to know who transitions better next year, Clues, Fashing or Camerata, assuming they are all on the team, he says. 27:38 Is there room for all three? 27:41 Oh yeah, they'll all three be on the team. 27:43 There's no doubt about that. 27:45 Boy. 27:48 Well, you've talked big about Clues so far. 27:50 Yeah, you know, I think mainly because maybe he's a little older and, you know, he's, Camerata is obviously the most, as far as stick skills go. 28:00 I mean, he's the guy that, you know, is going to probably put the most points up over his college career. 28:05 And of course, Fashing is one of those guys, you know, got the prototypical pro frame. 28:09 And, but, you know, I'm a little leery of those incoming guys that are big and they're 18, 19 years old. 28:17 And, you know, I just expect them to maybe take a little longer transition wise. 28:21 I don't know why. 28:22 I guess maybe it's just history with some of the bigger players of the Gophers that had up front. 28:26 But I think that Clues, you know, I just have a good feeling about what he's going to be able to do. 28:33 You know, he'll be a little older than these other two guys. 28:36 And so I have mixed feelings on it. 28:39 I would probably say Comerado or Clues, and I'd probably be split, you know, it depends on what day you catch me on, how I would think about that, so. 28:47 Any thoughts on that Vegoe? 28:49 Well, I just think when you have bigger guys, you know, it depends how, how much they've worked to get their legs, so that they can be explosive in the WCHA. 28:59 I mean, he's a big guy, so he's really got to work on those muscles, and it's a lot easier when you're Clues or Comerado, and you're a small guy, and you know, you don't have as much weight to support, and you know, if Ashen can get there, you know, with the experience at Ann Arbor, you know, maybe he can make that impact right away, but it is a lot harder for a guy his size to come in and play. 29:20 Well, and I think the other question is, is what's the style of play going to be in the Big Ten Hockey Conference? 29:27 You know, I mean, we know what it's like in the WCHA, but you know, you're going to have new referees, and I mean, you know, you have all this stuff going on, these changes, and you know, the Gophers obviously play on a pretty big ocean, you know, and you know, Wisconsin's close to Olympic size, you know, but then you have other ranks that aren't, you know, and so, you know, I've always had the feeling that some of these bigger, you know, like the Michigan's, they play a little bit more of a physical style, and you get some teams in the WCHA that play that way, but there's that kind of question mark in your mind about, you know, what's the style of play going to be in the league, and how is that going to play into guys' strengths or weaknesses or whatever? 30:05 So that'll be an interesting facet of it as well. 30:08 Hammey, a question from earlier today, Viking Girl 26 was asking, why haven't we seen Horn play more this year? 30:15 And I know she kind of went into it a little bit, but why don't you tell us what you think about that? 30:21 Well, I think that he kind of came in late as a little bit of an insurance policy. 30:27 That's my impression is that he didn't get a lot of scholarship at all. 30:31 I mean, he wasn't really expected to do a lot, especially considering we were a pretty veteran team. 30:38 But I just think that more than anything right now, he's sort of a little bit of an insurance policy for this season. 30:45 And if there is additional injuries and whatever, and then maybe down the road a little bit, once he kind of gained some maturity, then we'll see a little bit more of an impact than what we have seen. 30:55 So how do you think we are at this point? 30:59 You know, we're a halfway point of the season. 31:01 We're in second place in the WCHA. 31:04 You know, three losses, really not that bad. 31:07 We've been, but the expectations are really high. 31:10 Vegoe, what do you think? 31:12 How are we doing right now? 31:14 Is it looking good? 31:15 Are you disappointed? 31:16 Is it going to be built up to the end of the season? 31:19 Just what are your general thoughts on the first half so far? 31:22 Well, I think, you know, the bright side to this team is they've got great center men so that they can control games by winning draws, creating plays, controlling play up and down the middle of the rink. 31:34 And they've done that. 31:35 I think in all the games that they've played, it's not like they're going out and getting outplayed and getting, you know, a loss or getting outplayed and sneaking out a tie. 31:45 You know, most of these games, they're in control of the play. 31:49 They're looking like the better team out there. 31:51 And they definitely control their own fate in the second half. 31:54 I mean, you look at the schedule, there's the six road games and the neutral site game. 31:59 They've got an opportunity to play a lot of games at Mariucci and they play the top two teams I think in the conference at home with North Dakota and Denver. 32:07 And I think they're in great shape to compete for the McNaughton Cup and get into the tournament. 32:15 Tammy, what do you think? 32:16 What's your first half's grade on the team? 32:21 You know, it's ironic that you said grade because I was thinking about it in terms of grades. 32:26 And offensively for me, to me, they've been like a C. 32:29 I mean, to me, they should be doing much better than what they have been doing. 32:34 I mean, I don't know off the top of my head what their goals per game is, but it's definitely below what I expect to come into this year. 32:40 Now, some of it's a little bit injury related, but, you know, but nonetheless, I think that they should be much more effective than what they have been, at least putting a puck in the net. 32:49 You know, you might complement some of the puck movement and all that kind of stuff, but ultimately, you have to put pucks in the net. 32:55 So to me, that's been a bit of a C. 32:57 I think defensively at first, I was a little bit frustrated, but I think it's definitely improved in recent weeks, you know, this last third period, notwithstanding. 33:08 I think that the defense overall has been pretty good, and I would include in that Wilcox, he's definitely to me been kind of an A territory as far as the grade goes, because, you know, people were wondering, that was the biggest question mark about the Gophers coming into the season was, you know, the goaltending, you know, was that going to be up to snuff? 33:26 And so there was a lot of questions about whether Patterson would be able to replace, and certainly I think Wilcox has done that, and then some, you know, and so that's definitely been a strength, and hopefully he maintains that level of play through the second half of the season. 33:42 Well, it's definitely a decent start. 33:43 Obviously, we're a little disappointed on things here and there, but, you know, we got that break now. 33:49 Give some time to get some rest, regroup, and kick off that second part of the season. 33:55 Another team that we don't talk about much here, but we just can't ignore, that Gopher Women team, 20-0 now. 34:04 Haven't lost a game in, I think, like 28 games. 34:08 114 goals for, 12 goals against, their power play is at 38 percent. 34:14 Hammy, these girls are amazing, and they may be the best team in the world on the women's side right now. 34:21 Yeah. 34:21 I mean, there's not much you can say that hasn't already been said about. 34:24 I mean, they played great. 34:26 The only thing that you always get a little nervous about, and I always say this, when you're looking so good the first half or whatever, you just start to think, especially when you get to the playoff time, all it takes is one bad game, and then you're like, all of that great stuff doesn't mean diddly squat now. 34:44 And so, that's the one thing you get a little bit leery of whether they're going to maybe get a little lack of days ago because of how well things have gone so far. 34:52 I doubt that'll happen, but nonetheless, they were the champions last year, so I'm sure that they know that they can't rest on their laurels, that they want to succeed and do the same thing this year. 35:02 But that's the only thing that you get a little bit concerned about. 35:06 But yeah, there's nothing to complain about as far as how they've done so far. 35:09 Pretty amazing run, huh Vegoe? 35:12 Yeah, I mean, I'm not a huge follower of them game by game, but you look at some of their stats, and Kessil's got 54 points in 19 games. 35:22 I mean, that's just amazing. 35:24 I mean, that's- 35:25 And a freshman's right behind her. 35:26 Yeah, that's the thing that to me is amazing. 35:29 Hannah Brant, she's a freshman, and she's got 50 points or almost 50 points already. 35:33 And that's pretty sick for a veteran player, let alone a freshman. 35:39 It's pretty impressive. 35:40 It's kind of like them and everybody else. 35:42 It's amazing. 35:44 It's definitely that. 35:46 Boy, I'm just looking at their stat sheet, and it is pretty ridiculous right now. 35:50 It's just, boy, you know, like I said, shots a game, they're averaging 38 shots. 35:55 It's just, wow, everything's impressive with them. 36:00 They're giving up under a goal a game, and they're scoring 5.7 goals a game. 36:05 They're just a juggernaut. 36:07 I hope they continue, because that would be a great story. 36:11 Pretty bunch of amazing girls right there. 36:14 So, we'll keep an eye on you ladies, keep playing well. 36:17 Keep playing well. 36:19 Well, let's look to this weekend. 36:20 Obviously, the Gophers and Wisconsin will not be playing WCHA games this weekend, but the rest of them will all be playing. 36:28 We'll kick it off with North Dakota heading to Michigan Tech. 36:31 And Hammy, North Dakota seems to do pretty well against Michigan Tech. 36:35 It's just one of those teams that doesn't seem to bother them too much over the past. 36:42 Yeah, I mean, I think it's a pretty good match up for North Dakota. 36:46 I think that really because I think that Tech's generally over the year has been one of those teams that tries to kind of muck it up. 36:54 And North Dakota handles that pretty well. 36:57 I don't know being that it's a road series, that I can pick them to sweep the series simply because it's, as we've seen, pretty tough to sweep on the road. 37:10 But I would probably be inclined to say that North Dakota will come out of that series with three points. 37:14 And certainly they've, you know, they're coming off of a couple, you know, three straight games where, I mean, granted, they came back late against Colorado College in that win, but they played pretty solid hockey against Denver. 37:25 And so you have to think that they'd probably continue that this weekend. 37:28 Any thoughts on that series, Vego? 37:30 Well, I'm excited to see highlights come out of it because I saw the takedown by Jujar Kara on McCabe this last weekend, and it was just a total, you know, grabbed him by the helmet and slammed him down the ice from behind. 37:45 Oh, was that that face mask one? 37:47 Oh, yeah. 37:47 And WWE. 37:48 Oh. 37:49 WWE move behind the net. 37:51 And, you know, when you're playing North Dakota, sometimes you might be encouraged to do some of that. 37:57 And I think it could get exciting. 37:59 And so I think it's split as well. 38:03 And I look forward to seeing some tape out of the Upper Peninsula. 38:08 Yeah, Hextall, he will not let his players let that happen to them. 38:12 They would definitely get back and cause some problems because that was a pretty Bush League play. 38:16 So CC heading to St. 38:19 Cloud Vegoe. 38:21 CC, they just, you know, one point against the Gopher, so they can't be too happy, but they're going on the road. 38:28 Well, I think they were happy to get the point after the way they should. 38:32 And St. 38:33 Cloud has been a little inconsistent. 38:35 We've talked about it earlier in the podcast about them getting a lot of splits. 38:39 And, you know, I could see the same thing as they still kind of tread water and try to stay in the top half, but I don't see them getting more than two out of CC, so I think a split. 38:51 Pammy? 38:53 Yeah, I agree. 38:53 I mean, I think it's going to be a sixth-grade series for St. 38:56 Cloud getting splits. 38:57 I really, you know, you know, certainly CC has to be playing more effectively early on in the games than they did against us. 39:06 And, you know, I think that St. 39:08 Cloud has the capability of taking over games offensively. 39:12 Now defensively, you know, you kind of start to wonder, they did have a pretty weak Friday game. 39:18 Now everybody has their off games, but nonetheless, giving up six goals is pretty bad. 39:23 We saw UNO has some talent, but I don't know that six goals isn't necessarily what you would expect them to get. 39:28 So, especially on the road. 39:30 So I would think that that's probably going to be a split. 39:33 Denver heading to Bemidji State. 39:35 Hammeh, I'm thinking Denver's got to sweep this, right? 39:40 Well, you would expect that. 39:41 I mean, they certainly have the talent advantage and pretty much advantage in every facet, you know, and plus those, you know, the thing about playing at either Bemidji or an Anchorage is that, you know, from what I've seen in Bemidji crowds, they've been pretty, I mean, I saw there's some articles or they've been not getting a lot of support and it's pretty lifeless there, you know what I mean? 40:02 And so you're kind of say as a road team, you almost have to create your own energy in situations like that. 40:08 And sometimes teams have a hard time doing that. 40:11 And so I would expect that they would sweep that series. 40:13 That's what I would call it. 40:14 But you never know on those kinds of series. 40:17 Vegoe, Denver Sweep? 40:20 I only think they're going to get three points. 40:22 OK. 40:22 I also read that article. 40:24 It was really interesting to see Vibinji trying to make the step up to big time hockey. 40:29 And the community really got behind them right away. 40:32 And now it's kind of faltering. 40:34 And I think we're going to be seeing a few articles like this in the years to come as some of these smaller schools who have made the investment could struggle without the support of the WCHA. 40:44 Okay, so that's something to watch. 40:48 But I think Vibinji has been taking a lot of teams to overtime this season. 40:52 They've had a couple of splits here and there. 40:54 So I think they get a point somewhere along the way. 40:58 Okay, okay. 41:00 Vegoe, well, let's continue on and talk about Minnesota State heading to Nebraska-Omaha. 41:05 Well, it's a big series for them. 41:07 I mean, Omaha has kind of been a surprise to the league. 41:12 And so has Minnesota State. 41:14 So it's kind of one of those big series where you're not sure, is it a trend or mirage or whatever it is there. 41:21 And I probably see a split coming. 41:24 I think Omaha has really impressed me in their game that they play and they're well coached. 41:31 And Mankato, I think it might be a little bit of a mirage. 41:35 I'm surprised to see them with 14 points in the league. 41:38 So I think Omaha is a better team, but I think it will be a split. 41:43 Well, Hammy, obviously Mankato has been a surprise this year. 41:46 They had 18 points all of last season. 41:48 So no matter what, the program is on the rise. 41:52 But it's definitely a big weekend for them. 41:55 Yeah, I mean, I think for a few reasons, there's the credibility standpoint that Vegoe has already kind of mentioned, and whether it's a trend or mirage. 42:04 And I tend to agree. 42:05 I think it's a little bit of a mirage. 42:07 I mean, granted, you might say that about most teams that go on a six-game winning streak, and even with the competition being relatively soft. 42:15 But that's certainly a big thing. 42:17 And I think that people, you know, one thing you have to remember is Hastings basically made his name in Omaha. 42:23 You know, I'm certain that this series is definitely going to be something that really means something to him. 42:28 I mean, he spent all those years with the Lancers and he coached at UNO himself. 42:33 And so I think that, you know, he's certainly going to have his troops fired up for this series, I think. 42:39 And so I do think that's probably going to end up in a split, even though, you know, UNO is, you know, on the whole, probably the better team. 42:45 I just think that because of the circumstances, I expect Mankato to maybe sneak out of there with one win. 42:51 Well, Mankato can get a split. 42:52 That's definitely a win for them. 42:54 I mean, obviously, this program has been on the bottom for quite a few years now. 42:58 And if they do get the split, I think it's a good thing for them. 43:02 I mean, I want to see them succeed. 43:05 So anything good for Jutting is good for me because I'm a big fan of his. 43:09 So. 43:11 Jutting? 43:12 Yeah. 43:13 No, no. 43:15 Hastings. 43:16 Did I say Jutting? 43:17 Yeah, you did. 43:18 I'm sorry. 43:19 He's on the other bench. 43:20 Yeah, I meant to say Hastings. 43:23 It's been a long week already. 43:25 Yeah, man. 43:25 I forgot about that. 43:26 Jutting is going to be excited about the series too. 43:29 Yeah, but Jutting, boy. 43:32 I don't know if he's got enough time to sneak out and get that heater during in between period intermissions. 43:38 He's not the head man anymore, so he could probably have hit it. 43:41 Oh, man. 43:42 I used to see him bolt out of Mariucci and Mankato arenas just so he can get that heater in before going and talking to the team. 43:49 I have to get your fix, man. 43:50 Oh, man. 43:51 Does he? 43:52 Finally, we got Duluth heading up to Anchorage. 43:56 I think this is not a good thing for the Bulldogs right now, Hammy. 44:01 They've been struggling. 44:03 Now, they got to go on the road and play in a lifeless arena thousands of miles away. 44:09 I think it may be a struggle for them. 44:11 Well, I guess the first question is, is drunk hockey guy going to make the trip up there? 44:15 Because that might influence how I picked this series. 44:19 No, I think that, well, yeah, we've talked about it before, that trip up to Anchorage, you just never know what you're going to get. 44:26 And I, you know, normally on a talent and everything like that, I would say, well, yeah, Duluth is going to come out of this with points, but I just don't know. 44:35 I have a hard time getting a feel for this one. 44:39 I think I'll go with the split simply because I think that's probably what you tend to see with most series up in Anchorage when you have a better team coming in there. 44:48 And it just seems like they managed to get the advantage one night. 44:52 So I'll call that series split. 44:54 I'm thinking it's three points for the Seawolves. 44:57 I think that they will not be the slump buster for the Bulldogs. 45:02 What do you think, Veegs? 45:04 I'm with you, Duke. 45:06 I really see three points for the home team this weekend up at Anchorage. 45:11 And, you know, I hope that UMD gets a good holiday break and goes to Florida and has a great time and a good new year and then comes back and we see a little bit better team in the second half. 45:23 But they've just disappointed the first half. 45:26 I think they really need to figure out who's going to be their top six and figure it out. 45:33 Definitely. 45:33 Definitely. 45:34 They've been struggling. 45:35 Well now we've got a few weeks off. 45:37 The Gophers aren't playing. 45:38 You know, no coaching, no nothing. 45:40 They'll skate on their own and things like that. 45:42 But at the end of December, we'll be back at the Mariucci Classic again and facing Air Force and the number one team in the nation, Boston College Eagles. 45:55 Hammy, Air Force coming to town. 45:58 Been a little better over the past five, six years. 46:02 What do you think? 46:03 I mean, Gophers should win that game, but it probably won't be as simple as it usually is. 46:10 Well, that's the thing about, you know, this, you know, in recent times, Gophers haven't been as dominant in this event. 46:17 And so, you know, part of it's, they've lost some key guys to world juniors. 46:21 And, you know, some of that kind of comes into play. 46:24 But you certainly think, you know, given that most, we're pretty upper class laden as far as our best players. 46:30 And none of those guys, you know, all those guys will be here for that series. 46:34 And, you know, our, you know, I would suspect that we're only going to be missing Riley as far as players from world juniors. 46:42 So I think that the Gophers should have a relatively full complement of their usual roster. 46:48 So I would expect them to come out of that game with a win. 46:50 Vegoe, Eagle or Gophers versus the, what is it? 46:54 The Air Force? 46:57 What are they? 46:58 I think they're the Eagles. 46:59 Are they the Eagles too? 47:02 I don't know. 47:03 You got me. 47:04 No, I don't remember. 47:05 I'm just, they're the Cadets, aren't they? 47:08 Falcons, that's what it, they're a bird. 47:10 Damn birds. 47:11 There you go. 47:12 Well, they're airmen, but yeah. 47:15 What do you think? 47:17 Tommy Ceratori's dad is behind the bench over there, so he's got to be good to play against his dad. 47:22 Well, yeah, and they lost to Penn State, so I don't know how great of a team they are. 47:28 I saw his rant after that game, where somebody maybe had a little bit of a lower opinion of Penn State, and he's like, these guys aren't pulled out of the classroom. 47:38 They played years in the USHL, and I recruited some of them, and they're good players over there. 47:44 But I think they're going to be outclassed. 47:47 I'm surprised that we have a Gopher roster that's going to have so few guys playing in the junior tournament. 47:53 That's fine with me, by the way. 47:55 Yeah, I love the junior tournament. 47:57 I love the turnover, but I'm glad that we're a little light on the roster this year. 48:02 Yeah. 48:02 But I'm a little sad we won't get to see Johnny Hockey in the BC game. 48:09 So that's obviously going to be a big minus for them. 48:12 So that should be a good game to see. 48:15 Well, how about that BC game then, there Vegoe? 48:17 I mean, obviously, they are the top dog right now. 48:20 They've been the top dog for about the past eight years. 48:25 Yeah. 48:25 Jerry York apparently knows how to mold his talent, and he's got a lot of good players there. 48:30 And even without Johnny Hockey, I think nationwide people are looking at BC as the top team to beat. 48:37 And they've won in the postseason. 48:39 So they are, but it's going to be on the big rink, which is a disadvantage, I think, for BC a little bit. 48:45 I'm excited to see it. 48:46 It's going to be a big kind of East versus West game for us to see where college hockey is at this point. 48:53 Well, I'm just hoping that the crowd shows up because typically for a Mariucci Classic game, the crowds are a little light, Hammeh. 48:59 So what do you think? 49:01 Gophers, Eagles. 49:03 Well, I think that, you know, it's going to be very interesting just simply because, you know, what kind of a mentality are the Gophers going to bring into it after, you know, what happened the last time they faced off. 49:15 Now, granted, there's nothing they can do to fix that loss, but you do feel like a sense of pride. 49:20 You want to get a little something back from that. 49:23 And I think that I would expect the Gophers to be pretty inspired if they do face off against BC. 49:31 And I think that, you know, it might be one of those games where it just ends up a tie and they go, I don't know, do they have a shootout for this one? 49:38 I don't even know. 49:39 But it wouldn't shock me if it was one of those that ended up being a tie or something that happens real late where you get a goal and, you know, and win the game. 49:48 But I think that's going to be very competitive and it will be very interesting. 49:51 I think it's, even though it is kind of a holiday event, I think you sort of a little bit of a sign of where are you at, where you need to be, you know, three, four months down the road, because we know that we're not where we need to be right now. 50:04 And it's just a matter of, you know, how much do we have to travel to get to that point? 50:07 And so we'll see how it goes. 50:09 I think that Gophers will play pretty well and maybe squeak out a win. 50:13 Now, this could be the last Mary Eachie Classic. 50:16 I haven't heard anything about the future of it. 50:19 Last year, I had heard some rumblings that this was going to be the last one. 50:23 You know, with their new scheduling and new everything, this could be the end of the Classic. 50:27 What do you think? 50:29 I thought I read that somewhere that they were going to keep having the Classic as an event. 50:34 I don't remember where I saw that, but I just know that when people were discussing the schedules and what was going to happen in the future, it seemed like people always brought that one up. 50:46 Now, I don't know if that's factual or not, but I've never been a huge fan of the holiday tourneys and stuff like that. 50:54 I mean, I think it's less important now or in the future simply because we'll have more flexibility with our non-conference scheduling. 51:03 So, whereas in the past, you're like, yeah, it's kind of nice to see some different teams coming in for a few games or whatever, but we're going to get that in the future a little more. 51:12 So, maybe it loses a little bit of that zest, even if they did keep it. 51:17 Well, I also think that the marriage classic just basically sucked because of the teams they brought in in the past five to eight years. 51:25 I mean, we haven't seen the Boston College type of teams, or at least not very often. 51:33 No, it feels like they've brought in like Cornell and Northeastern and Princeton and schools more like that. 51:39 So, I hope that they kind of take this opportunity to either make this an exhibition weekend or something like that because with the World Juniors going on, you're always going to be missing a couple of guys and be good to have that break. 51:52 And if they do decide to do some sort of holiday tournament, maybe schedule it around the World Junior Tournament so you have all the guys for the games, but I know with the final exams on the calendar, that makes things difficult for the Minnesota kids, but it's something to think about. 52:09 Well, it's also kind of diseased just because there's no students. 52:12 I mean, I don't even think they sell tickets for the students for the classic, do they? 52:17 Well, they might sell tickets, but they're not part of the season ticket package. 52:22 Kids are on break. 52:23 I think they're on break. 52:24 So, it's usually pretty light and the crowd is usually pretty light, but I hope they come out for it because obviously, Boston College is as good as it gets, and we don't see that kind of team run here too often. 52:36 So, hopefully, the crowds get out there, and Jerry York might get a big win Friday night when he plays Huntsville. 52:44 He might become the all-time winningest coach in Division I hockey, so it's a big weekend, even though it usually isn't a big weekend. 52:54 Yeah, I mean, I think, go ahead. 52:57 Well, I was just going to say, I think the games are preset. 53:00 I think it's for sure Minnesota against Air Force and for sure Minnesota against BC. 53:04 So you don't have to worry about those shootout kinds of things because I know that's come up in years past. 53:09 So I think it'll be good to see BC. 53:12 You know, it's rare for a college hockey team, I think, to have as much senior talent as they have. 53:17 I think they've got four or five seniors who are all, you know, among their top ten skaters and they have a senior goalie. 53:24 So I think it'll be good to see and it'll be good to test for them. 53:26 And it looks like it is part of the season two ticket package, according to Ryan Anderson here, who's posting in one of our little MixLR Live broadcast here comments. 53:38 So it is part of the ticket package, but they really don't ever show up to the classic. 53:42 It's Christmas break and a lot of times those kids are just not around, so. 53:48 Any other thoughts guys? 53:52 No, I'm just looking forward to the break and then hopefully they come back and start hitting on all cylinders once we get for the second half. 54:01 Well, speaking of breaks, we're gonna be taking a break here while the team is off for a few weeks. 54:07 No sense doing more podcasts if the team isn't playing. 54:10 So we'll be back sometime after the Mariucci Classic. 54:13 We're gonna have to look at some dates and times. 54:15 We might have to shuffle some things around because of Christmas and New Year's and all that stuff. 54:21 And I usually take this or record this on Tuesday nights. 54:25 Well, we're playing Notre Dame on a Tuesday night coming up right after the Mariucci Classic. 54:30 So we'll have to shuffle things around. 54:33 Check your local listings. 54:34 Check your local listings is right. 54:37 You can always follow Vegoe there at eVegoe on Twitter. 54:41 And of course, he writes for Gopher Puck Live. 54:44 And of course, Hammey at Hammey Hockey on Twitter. 54:47 And just check the message board. 54:49 He's always giving us good stuff about recruits and everything else on the Gopher Puck Live message board. 54:54 You can always tweet us during the live broadcast at Gopher Puck Live or send us e-mails at podcast.gopherpucklive.com. 55:05 And that's it for this week's GPL Podcast. 55:07 We'll be back, you know, whenever. 55:09 We're not really sure yet. 55:11 So until next time, thanks for listening.