0:03 This is The Gopher Puck Live Podcast, episode number 32, recorded Tuesday, January 22, 2013. 0:20 Welcome to the Gopher Puck Live Podcast, along with Vego and Hammy. 0:25 I'm your host, Jupiter. 0:30 Boys, it was the last weekend ever of the Sioux, and we're all very sad because we're never gonna play them again. 0:38 Oh no, we're not sad, we don't care. 0:42 Because we will play them again. 0:45 But this weekend, we got three points from them, and I think that's pretty damn good. 0:49 What do you think, Hammeh? 0:51 Yeah, I mean, I think we all called it a sweep last week, but I mean, I think when you see how the Saturday's game kind of started to turn out, you know, getting a point out of that, kind of coming back with that late rally, you can't really complain too much about three out of four, and you know, you got to like where we are in the standings and in the pairwise. 1:10 So all in all, I think it was a pretty successful weekend. 1:13 What do you think, Vegas? 1:14 What are your initial thoughts? 1:17 Well, I thought they played a great game on Friday night. 1:19 They did everything they needed to do. 1:21 It was kind of a tight game, and Minnesota started to pull away, got a little chippy. 1:25 And then on Saturday night, it was a tight game throughout. 1:28 They fell behind because I think they were pressing a little bit, trying to get that extra goal. 1:33 Everybody was fatigued as that game went on. 1:36 And you know, it was great college hockey. 1:38 I mean, that's something that a college hockey fan loves. 1:42 Both teams get tired. 1:43 They're not perfect with their systems. 1:45 It's back and forth. 1:46 Both teams had their chances. 1:48 And it was a good battle by the University of Minnesota to get the point. 1:52 And you know, I've heard a couple of different places, you know, that come back. 1:57 You know, Saturday night was kind of a big deal. 1:59 It showed some resiliency. 2:00 I think I heard Lou Nani say it today. 2:03 And that's something we might not have seen in the past few years, you know, against a good team being able to take a punch and to punch back. 2:14 So, that was definitely a good thing that we needed to see for this team to keep growing. 2:20 What do you think, Hammeh? 2:22 Well, yeah, I mean, I think part of that is that we're, you know, a little bit more of a veteran-laden team. 2:27 I mean, I think we went through some of those years where we had so many departures and we were keeping kind of chasing, you know, the departures with new guys and whatever. 2:36 And we've, you know, for the most part, pretty much kept our guys here. 2:39 And so we're a little bit more of a veteran-laden team. 2:41 And I think another part of it, honestly, is I think we match up very well with North Dakota. 2:47 I mean, this is, I mean, we talked, kind of touched on it last week. 2:50 And I think this weekend kind of bore that out, was that this isn't your typical North Dakota, you know, team in terms of the in-your-face grinded out, you know, big trees on defense and all they want to do is knock your head off. 3:04 I mean, they really only have one guy on their defense that sort of, you know, you could really classify as that classic rugged, you know, North Dakota defenseman that we've all seen over the years, and that's McWilliam. 3:16 But other than that, I mean, Schmaltz, you know, he's a big kid, but he's finesse. 3:21 You got Gleason, who's kind of a smaller kind of finesse kid. 3:25 You know, you have Matson, who's finesse. 3:27 I mean, they don't really have that kind of team that you really, you know, worry about winning board battles or you're concerned about getting your head knocked off, you know, in the slot or whatever. 3:37 I mean, they just don't have that kind of, you know, air to them like they typically have in the past. 3:43 And the Gophers are very big up front and we have pretty physical on defense. 3:47 And so I actually think that we match up very well now. 3:52 And so I think that that's kind of something that while you might not have seen that kind of come back in the past, I think that the way that we match up with them also plays into that kind of a come back situation. 4:04 We kind of lost you for a little bit there. 4:05 Oh, sorry. 4:07 We didn't miss too much, so. 4:08 Okay. 4:12 Vegoe, Nate Condon. 4:15 Just some thoughts. 4:16 He's really been picking up his game lately, and he's scoring big goals. 4:23 Yeah, the last three, four weeks, he's really stepped up and been one of the big players. 4:27 I think when you looked at the season, you kind of expected Bugstad, Howell, Rao, Schmidt to be big players, and then there was a question about who else was going to emerge. 4:38 And you can see with the ice time, I think in the last shift of the regulation, Lucia put out Condon with Rao and Bugstad, and that's just a sign that he really trusts his game, and the speed that he brings is just really, you know, impressive for the game. 4:57 The other thing I think from the weekend, Zach Budish, thought he might have had his best series as a gopher. 5:03 He created a couple of those goals, and so I think he's emerging as a player who's figuring out his role. 5:09 I think he had a little bit of a slow start this year, but he's starting to figure out how to make an impact in the game, and I think those two players were a reason they were able to get a point on Saturday. 5:23 Let's look at the Sioux a little bit here. 5:25 One player we'd love to rip on is Mr. 5:27 Christo. 5:29 Nine toes, blah, blah, blah. 5:31 But he was a minus six this past weekend. 5:34 His effort on the Condon short-handed goal Friday night was downright pathetic. 5:42 Hammey, this kid's supposed to be kind of a superstar, but I don't think he's setting a good example right now. 5:51 Well, I mean, it's kind of like I joked last week. 5:54 I mean, I think I'm going to miss the kid, man, because to me, I know that I sort of said the penalty stuff, and it wasn't so much the penalties as it was just that to me, everything that I've heard behind the scenes for a long time, and I'm not saying that he's not liked by people in Grand Forks or whatever. 6:10 I'm not going there. 6:11 But he's not really a leader. 6:15 He's not leadership material. 6:17 To me, that was a lazy effort on that play. 6:20 It was beyond lazy. 6:22 Yeah. 6:22 To me, that was a huge moment in the game. 6:26 To me, that is, in my opinion, in a nutshell, what you get with Danny Crystal. 6:31 I mean, he's obviously a talented kid, very offensively talented and whatever. 6:35 But you have to say, is the kid's head on straight? 6:39 I mean, what the hell is he doing? 6:41 If I were a North Dakota fan, and I did look at their board a little bit after the series, and I could tell that some of their fans were frustrated with that effort. 6:50 Nobody's saying that he's not talented, but to me, it's those kinds of efforts. 6:55 Some of the off the ice stuff and whatever that you just shake your head and you're like, man, you wonder as an opposing fan, is it better that he's on that team than when he's not going to be on it? 7:07 I mean, we don't obviously play them for a while, I mean, unless it's in the playoffs or whatever. 7:13 But I just think that that's questionable about where his head is at sometimes. 7:18 Vegoe, any thoughts on Mr. 7:19 Crystal's performance this past weekend? 7:22 Well, he does certainly have a lot of puck skill, but his effort throughout the game is questionable. 7:28 It's even on the Russians where they have a chance to maybe have a forward drive to the net, he isn't that guy. 7:35 He's looking to hang back and look for the easy goal, sit around the crease and not quite do all the little things that you see guys like Bukestad and Budic doing to help create for their other line mates. 7:48 So I was a little surprised. 7:49 I mean, he scored some big goals for them, but he is a bit of a liability and that's what they get from him. 7:57 Anybody have thoughts on Mr. 7:58 Rocco Grimaldi? 8:02 Well, I mean, he is what he is. 8:05 I mean, I said this on GPL in the last day or so. 8:09 To me, if I were playing against that kid defensively, I would always play him to shoot because he's always looking to create his own shot and his own offense. 8:19 I think that that's kind of part of the reason why there was some issues in the World Juniors is that he is not a guy that's really going to create for teammates. 8:27 I mean, he might create because he beat somebody one-on-one and then everybody else is chasing around trying to close that down and help their teammate. 8:36 But he's not a guy that's going to like with this tremendous vision and just going to hit the open guy cross-ice for this big goal or whatever. 8:43 He's more of a guy that if he's going to get a assist, it's probably because he shoots and it rebound and somebody else knocks it in or whatever. 8:51 And so I think you kind of have to look at him the way he is. 8:54 He's obviously a talented, elusive player, can score goals, he had a nice snipe on that Saturday game. 9:02 But I do think that he does have limitations that maybe some North Dakota fans don't like to acknowledge. 9:08 I mean, of course his size is always going to be pointed out, but I just think that there are some limitations. 9:14 But obviously he's a talented kid and I'm sure that he'll be a thorn in the side of opponents the next couple of years and he'll be obviously a good player moving forward. 9:22 Well, some of the biggest controversy this weekend that all the Who fans are bitching about. 9:30 Why won't the Gophers play the Who in the coming years? 9:35 They're afraid of the Gophers. 9:38 They're lying. 9:38 They could have scheduled us. 9:41 How come Wisconsin's playing them? 9:43 Let's get this finally done and get to the bottom of it. 9:48 Hammeh, I know you've got some opinions on this. 9:53 Let's kick it off. 9:55 What's really going on here? 9:56 Do you know? 9:57 Well, I mean, I think it's obvi- 9:59 Well, you think it's- 10:01 It is obvious, but these Who fans are so blind and stupid, they just don't get it. 10:11 Including Mr. 10:11 Virg Foss up there. 10:12 I mean, come on. 10:14 Pay attention here, Virg. 10:15 I think a lot of it is they look at it from, I mean, it's sort of everybody's going to have their bias, and they're looking at it, of course, from their perspective, and they don't look at it from the other side of the coin, and it's like, look, first of all, the whole comparison to Wisconsin. 10:32 Well, Wisconsin weighted and blah, blah, blah. 10:34 Well, Wisconsin also doesn't have to think about four other in-state D1 programs to put on their schedule. 10:41 So they have the ability to sit back and be maybe a little more patient, whereas for us, it's like, well, one of the things that the Gopher program, as kind of a flagship program, it's our responsibility to make sure that hockey in Minnesota is strong. 10:56 And so playing, especially a Mankato or a Bemidji, it's important to keep those programs as strong as possible, because they give opportunities to other Minnesota kids. 11:07 And maybe they're not all Minnesota kids on those teams, but they certainly give them opportunities. 11:12 So I think keeping those in-state programs on our schedule is certainly of great importance. 11:16 Wisconsin doesn't have that. 11:18 So to me, it's not an apples-to-apples comparison. 11:22 Then you have the situation, Lucia talked on his radio show last night. 11:25 It's like, look, they had the nickname situation and all that stuff going on. 11:29 And of course, you know, we don't control that. 11:33 And if they want, you know, even they wanted to move on from that as a school, but then they had all the legalities and all that stuff. 11:39 And look, what's Lucia supposed to do? 11:41 I mean, with all this scheduling and conference stuff going on, you kind of have to take what's in front of you. 11:48 And when you have good programs like Notre Dame and Boston College, you know, willing to schedule you for three, four years. 11:55 You can't say no. 11:56 Yeah, you don't sit there and tell them, well, you know what, I'll tell you what, why don't you wait a little while till we see what happens with North Dakota? 12:03 You know, it's like basically, you're telling them they're Plan B. 12:06 Well, these are good teams. 12:07 They're not going to sit around and wait for you. 12:09 So you got to take what is there. 12:11 So Lucia did exactly what was right for the Gopher program and all the whining by the Grand Forks Herald writers and all that stuff. 12:18 They're looking at it from a North Dakota perspective. 12:21 They want to sell papers. 12:23 They know that, hey, the Gophers come to town. 12:24 That's the biggest week of the year, blah, blah, blah. 12:27 Well, yes, but you know what? 12:29 We have fish to fry, too, and it's not all about North Dakota, so get over yourself. 12:36 Vegoe, do you have any thoughts? 12:39 Well, I just think you look at two programs like North Dakota and Minnesota, and Don Lucia runs a collegiate program. 12:47 It has the very college feel. 12:49 I feel like his teams do things, for the most part, the right way. 12:53 Sure, there's a little bit smack talking by his guys, especially Colorado, but for the most part, his team plays a clean game. 13:02 Dave Haskell, his program is almost like a major junior, or like a minor league hockey program up there in North Dakota. 13:09 I mean, you look at their building, you look at their historical style of play. 13:13 You know, I'm sure Lucia just doesn't want to deal with that. 13:18 I think, you know, Wisconsin has the choice of who they want to schedule. 13:22 They have a lot more open spots than Minnesota. 13:24 Minnesota doesn't. 13:25 I think it's fine that he schedules the East Coast teams. 13:29 Well, I'm kind of in between on the whole thing, but, you know, I've been complaining for the past, you know, three or four years that we don't play the tougher teams out East, like your BCs and, you know, whatever. 13:42 So like we talked about last week, I kind of welcome it. 13:46 I want to see something different. 13:49 Now, when those contracts are done, you know, the three years or whatever, I hope Lucia does start to schedule the fighting who, you know, it would be nice every year. 14:01 That would be great. 14:02 He's saying every two years. 14:04 I'm not sure if I really agree with that, but we're done with the subject. 14:08 We're going to move on because that's what people are supposed to do. 14:11 Right guys? 14:13 Well, I will say one last thing that we're going to play them again. 14:17 I don't think that that's a question. 14:18 That's why some of the whining to me is a little bit much, but I do like the idea. 14:23 Lucia even said it might not be his decision to make because we're talking, you know, the way schedules are made years down the road now, you know, who knows if he's going to be there when ultimately some of these decisions have to be made three, four, whatever, years away. 14:38 So we'll see, you know, it might not be his decision when all is said and done. 14:42 But I don't personally want North Dakota on a schedule every year because I want some variety. 14:49 I don't want to have the same team. 14:50 So I'm glad, you know, that we'll have them in the future, but I don't want them every year either. 14:56 And I think the country would like to see College Hockey East-West play each other. 15:01 I think it's good for the pair-wise. 15:03 It's good for getting a good look at all the different programs across the country. 15:07 I mean, there aren't a ton of D1 hockey programs out there. 15:11 They should be able to play each other a little bit. 15:13 I mean, I always look forward to Division I football games where you see a Big Ten team play an SEC team. 15:19 I mean, the same thing should happen to hockey with Hockey East and Big Ten Hockey and NCHC. 15:29 Do we lose Vegoe? 15:30 No, I'm here. 15:33 He just kind of stopped real quick. 15:34 That's all. 15:36 Well, one thing I think is going to happen is when it comes to the NCAA tournament, there's going to be quite a few less restrictions. 15:44 We could easily face North Dakota in a first round game, whereas now that's just not going to happen. 15:52 So I think the NCAA is going to make things all right for you, Fighting Who fans. 15:58 You're going to see us probably every year, anyway or pretty close to it. 16:03 So let's kind of move on here. 16:05 Obviously, the Gophers, we got three points on the weekend. 16:09 Moved up into a tie for first place with St. 16:12 Cloud. 16:12 So obviously, that's a good thing. 16:14 We're in first place. 16:15 St. 16:15 Cloud's playing well. 16:17 We've got Omaha, North Dakota and Denver right behind, though Denver's heading down fast and have more games in hand. 16:25 So let's kind of look at the last week. 16:27 Obviously, the Gophers, three points. 16:30 We've got Denver getting swept at St. 16:34 Cloud State. 16:36 Hammey, St. 16:38 Cloud took care of Denver. 16:41 Yeah. 16:41 I mean, it was a little bit surprising. 16:42 I actually had that series is probably ended up as a split. 16:47 I certainly expected both teams to come out with points in that series. 16:51 And I think it's one of those things. 16:54 St. 16:55 Cloud had a little bit of time to stew over kind of a lackluster performance against Northern Michigan at that extra week off. 17:03 They had played last weekend. 17:04 So I'm sure that they were pretty fired up and they practiced pretty hard and had their head on straight. 17:11 But yeah, I mean, it certainly was a very nice series for them. 17:14 And I'm, you know, Denver is a little bit to me. 17:18 I had them in the top three or four, but sometimes I question some of that. 17:22 I, there are times, you know, they had that kind of streak of time in November and December where they did not play well at all. 17:28 And then they kind of, you know, one four in a row towards the end of the year and the beginning of this year. 17:33 And you're just like, well, maybe they're kind of back on track. 17:35 Now, they're winless in their last three. 17:38 So, you know, you don't really know what you're getting with Denver. 17:41 And so that's, I know that they hadn't been swept in a very long time. 17:44 So you kind of have to give St. 17:45 Cloud the tip of the hat for that. 17:47 But I'm not really sure what to expect out of Denver. 17:50 So I don't know if I should think that St. 17:53 Cloud played great and, you know, Denver just played okay or I don't know what to think. 17:57 It's probably a little of both, I guess. 17:59 Well, Vego, you know, St. 18:01 Cloud, they have been struggling a bit on the non-conference and that's probably going to hurt them in their pairwise, you know, down the road. 18:08 But in conference, they are looking pretty good. 18:12 Yeah, I mean, they're getting a little bit more goal scoring. 18:15 I think at the start of the year, we were creating them with an improved blue line core and that was going to be a big difference maker for them and now they're able to score some goals and they're right in it. 18:27 They've got a big weekend coming up here and if they get on a run, that February 8th, 9th series with Minnesota is going to be really important for who's going to make a run for the Cup. 18:37 Yeah, I think that that's the one thing that I looked at moving forward in the league is St. 18:42 Cloud plays eight of their last 12 on the road and they're playing at North Dakota, at CC, at Wisconsin. 18:49 Those are all going to be pretty tough series and then they have all set home. 18:53 So I mean, they don't have the easiest schedule down the stretch. 18:58 Not that any schedule is necessarily easy, but they certainly have more of a road schedule in front of them and certainly three tough road series out of those four. 19:08 So it'll be interesting to see how they do on the road because they've been home for a while. 19:12 They've not played on the road since I think December 1st. 19:17 So they've been at home for a while. 19:18 Well, they would definitely take advantage of it. 19:20 So we'll see how it goes with them. 19:24 Elsewhere, we've got Michigan Tech taking three points from Bemidji State. 19:28 That's kind of how you guys called it, wasn't it? 19:32 Anyone? 19:33 I was hoping for the sweep on that one for Michigan Tech. 19:36 Because they've been on a roll a little bit. 19:39 But three out of four, that's not bad. 19:43 Still in 11th place for Tech. 19:47 Yeah, nothing too spectacular there. 19:49 I mean, you know, when they get those bottom teams, you don't really know what you're going to get. 19:53 You kind of, you know, you expect that the home team is probably going to have the advantage, you know, even in those bottom level teams. 20:00 So I guess it's kind of what you expected. 20:03 And Minnesota State headed up to Anchorage and kind of gave up a lead Friday night, ended up with a tie and beat Anchorage Saturday night for the three points. 20:14 Vegoe, any thoughts on that? 20:16 Well, I think Alaska has been having trouble on Saturday nights. 20:20 They've struggled the last couple, I think. 20:23 Good to see out of Minnesota State to get the points that they got. 20:27 I'm looking forward to this weekend's Home and Home. 20:30 Minnesota really struggled with them in their last series, I thought. 20:34 They were pressing way too much and just giving up chances. 20:39 And the Purple Navs were taking advantage. 20:42 I mean, they do have some goal scorers. 20:43 So I think Minnesota took some chances Saturday against North Dakota. 20:47 And hopefully, that's a good reminder that Gensel will take video from both of those games and show their defensemen what time to gamble, what time to bail. 20:57 Ham, any thoughts on Mankato and Anchorage? 21:01 Well, it's kind of like what I said about Anchorage after we played them. 21:05 I mean, you have to give them credit for a team that has as lousy of a record as they do. 21:12 They don't quit. 21:12 They play hard. 21:16 They might get beat by three or four goals some nights, of course. 21:18 But they're not going to quit. 21:20 And certainly, they proved that on Friday, coming back with those two late goals. 21:24 And it reminds me of kind of the Gophers when they were at CC. 21:30 It just, all it takes is one little thing, and all of a sudden, momentum goes towards the home team. 21:34 And I think that at the end of the year, people, sometimes I think that people overreact to a loss or to a tie. 21:44 But then at the end of the year, and you see how tight the standings are, in particular, you don't know what's going to cost you if you're one, two or three. 21:52 And it might be just one or two points that separate you. 21:54 So you never know when a game like that can really cost you. 21:58 So it'll be interesting to see how it shakes out. 22:02 We've got Duluth and CC splitting last weekend. 22:07 Hammeh, CC kind of took it to them Friday or Saturday night, but it was a little closer on Friday. 22:14 Yeah. 22:15 I mean, Duluth is actually doing better than I kind of expected. 22:18 I mean, they're kind of right in the middle of everything, with that big mess of points and that kind of three through whatever, seven or whatever it is area. 22:29 And you have to give them credit. 22:30 They're playing a little better. 22:33 I mean, CC is really, boy, I mean, they've slumped badly since the beginning of December. 22:40 I mean, they only have two wins since the beginning of December. 22:45 And I think a lot of people kind of picked them to be the bottom half team this year. 22:51 But it's really different seeing the CC team struggle as much as they have. 22:56 And winning two out of their, what is it, last eight games or something along the line, I mean, you just don't really expect to see that out of them. 23:03 So that's a little bit interesting. 23:05 They have, they're on the road at Anchorage this week. 23:08 So it'll be interesting to see if they can kind of recover here in the last handful of weeks and maybe put on a run. 23:16 Any thoughts on that series there, Veegs? 23:19 Just the one thing I'm noticing is CC is getting into a lot of shootouts. 23:23 And sometimes they're on the upper hand, but looks like they're getting on the lower hand a lot. 23:28 But if you look at the goals for and goals against, they're among the leaders on both sides for the WCHA. 23:36 When you play them, you just know that there's going to be a lot of chances. 23:39 It's tough to be consistent when you're giving out that many scoring chances. 23:43 So good for Duluth to get two points there. 23:47 They've been struggling. 23:48 They've just got so many young players in that lineup. 23:51 I think it's really hard on them trying to replace all the talent they've lost the last few years. 23:56 Well, we'll see. 23:57 Give them a little time. 23:58 They could be quite the tough opponent at the end of the season after they've grown up a little bit. 24:03 Those freshmen are no longer 18, 19 when they come this time of year. 24:09 Looks like Wisconsin little non-conference action last weekend with Miami. 24:14 They split with them at the Cole Center. 24:18 They finally lost the game. 24:19 They had won like what? 24:20 10, 11 straight or something ridiculous like that. 24:22 So they finally lost the game in a low scoring affair. 24:25 You guys have any thoughts even though we didn't talk about it last week? 24:28 The only thing I would say about it, I mean granted Mankato is improved this year, but you know much of that winning streak was against some pretty bad teams. 24:36 I mean you have Alabama Huntsville and Anchorage. 24:40 And so there was some question marks on that winning streak. 24:43 And but certainly beating Miami, I mean both these teams are very defensive minded. 24:48 So I mean a 1-0 win for UW and then a 2-1 loss minutes, not exactly an offensive juggernaut is going on there. 24:57 So I mean I think that it's kind of a series you would expect low scoring. 25:01 And I think probably a split was most appropriate I would gather. 25:05 Anything on that series there Vegoe? 25:08 Now a lot of goals when Wisconsin is involved. 25:12 I mean it's amazing. 25:13 You just look at their games and those are the ones you want to DVR. 25:17 Boring. 25:18 Yeah. 25:20 Alright well we've got a couple of questions via Twitter. 25:24 And you can always send questions you know either at EVGOE or at Hammy Hockey and of course at Gopher Puck Live on Twitter. 25:32 What do we have here? 25:33 We've got Gopher Fan 1 is wondering does Wilcox need some rest? 25:42 You know for me we have a week weekend off coming up here. 25:48 I don't really see the need for I mean people I think they overblow that a little bit. 25:53 I mean it's like how come we never ask I mean I think even Lucia mentioned this you know how come we can't you know sit Bukestead. 25:59 Okay we can't sit Howla and whatever you know give them rest. 26:02 I mean they're skating hard and whatever and you know it's not like goalies are you know performing and they're jumping around a skating hard all over the you know the place all game long I mean certainly they'll have stretches where they're working hard and it's not like playing goalies easy but it's not like playing forward or defense is necessarily easy either. 26:20 We don't expect those guys to get you know the best players to get the games off so to me you keep playing the guy I didn't think that there was really any huge issues with his performance I know that some people were wondering a little bit about if he was you know fighting the puck and stuff but to me when I looked at this last weekend I didn't see anything terrible I thought that most of the goals were pretty much you know not really his fault I mean you know Grimaldi sniped a good one and you can't I mean that's going to be a goal on most guys you know if you're hitting your shot or you're aiming I mean that's sometimes you have to just tip your hat to the shooter so but I don't think that he needs the rest not right now at least I don't think he's been performing bad enough to really give him a night off. 27:02 Vegoe give him a night off or not? 27:05 Well the only reason I would want to give him a night off would be to get Shabowski back in the net just to kind of get the feel of the puck and the pace of play. 27:14 I know Lucia was talking about trying to maybe start him the weekend before in the Saturday game against Alaska so that's something the coaches are considering. 27:24 I don't think it's so much the physical fatigue of playing the scheduled two games every weekend. 27:30 Wilcox played a much tougher schedule than that in the USHL so it's not the amount of games. 27:35 I think it's the mental fatigue and staying sharp and not dropping too early. 27:40 Because on Saturday he didn't play as sharp as he's played. 27:44 His rerounds were a little bit looser. 27:47 He got sniped at one time. 27:48 There were two posts and overtime by Christian Grimaldi. 27:53 So I mean it wasn't his best game and Lucia talked after the game. 27:57 He was happy that the Gophers got to four and got the point for Adam's sake. 28:02 He'd love to have a couple of little shots back. 28:05 But he's had a great season so far. 28:07 I mean you look at his numbers and they are impressive. 28:12 He's got low goals against, high save percentage, couple shutouts. 28:16 He's had a great season so far. 28:18 He's the number one guy. 28:21 Tim Hapke is wondering, is the plus minus an overrated stat? 28:26 Helgi is an even, while Shea is a plus four and Alt is a plus 12. 28:32 But he'd rather have Helgi on the ice than either Alt or Shea, I guess. 28:42 I'm sorry. 28:44 I was just kind of reading it around. 28:46 So what do you think, Hamme? 28:47 Is the plus minus overrated? 28:49 I mean, we kind of bagged out Alt earlier this season or is it just the way, the positions and the situations are put in? 28:57 You know, I've always had mixed feelings on plus minus. 29:00 I mean, sometimes... 29:03 It's great when, you know, when Crystal's minus six. 29:06 Yeah. 29:07 Well, I mean, I think that does tell a story. 29:10 I think when it's really bad or really good, I think that tells a story. 29:15 I think that there is some merit to plus minus. 29:18 But sometimes I think when it's sort of like on the, you know, on the, kind of like the bell curve, so to speak. 29:24 When you're kind of towards around zero or whatever, sometimes that's because, okay, maybe it's your teammate files up and, you know, I just think that some of that stuff can be a little overrated. 29:35 I do think that in my opinion, you know, I would agree with him. 29:41 I would, I don't know about Alt. 29:43 I think Alt has played better. 29:44 I know he still has his moments where he messes up, but I like the physical presence that he brings. 29:50 And when he's playing well, he plays real well. 29:53 And so I like having him in the lineup more often than not. 29:56 I've already kind of bagged on Shea throughout the year at different times. 30:00 And, you know, he did kind of make another mistake. 30:03 I know some fans said that, oh, you know, Puck was bouncing on her. 30:06 But to me, I thought that that Puck just went off a stick and then just went the other direction. 30:11 I don't think it was that bad of a pass that he got, but I would agree. 30:15 I would rather have Helgeson and, you know, and Alt in the lineup. 30:18 And I've talked about this on GPL. 30:20 I like Parenteau in the lineup. 30:23 I think that he's, you know, at defense, I think he's steady. 30:26 And I like that. 30:27 And I think when the Gophers are at their best, they're not making dumb mistakes, you know, when it comes to keeping the zone and whatever. 30:36 I think of the biggest mistakes of the year. 30:37 I think of Marshall at CC trying to keep the zone when he shouldn't have. 30:41 And, you know, on Saturday, we should, in my opinion, we should have won that game if it hadn't been for two freshman mistakes, you know. 30:49 I mean, we gambled, Riley gambled on the one, got burned, you know, trying to be too aggressive offensively. 30:55 And on Shea, I mean, you can argue both sides of that. 30:59 But I think that certainly in that play, he should have just got back. 31:02 I mean, Knight was floating back there. 31:04 I don't know if it was a late line change or what it was. 31:06 But nonetheless, you know, I like to have an alt in Prento and certainly Helgaston in the line up. 31:14 Is plus minus overrated there, Vegoe? 31:17 It is, you know, it's just a stat like any other hits, shots. 31:22 You know, they're all used one way or the other to skew guys and how their performance are, you know, is shaping up over the season. 31:31 It's just a piece of the puzzle. 31:32 I think the one thing with the ice time for guys like Shea, Alt, Riley, you know, you got to get them in situations so they learn when to step up and make plays and when to bail. 31:45 And I think having those guys make those mistakes on Saturday and for it to only cost them a point, they're going to learn from that. 31:53 And hopefully they don't do that in the final five. 31:55 If they're in a championship game or, you know, if they're in a regional and they need to make some plays, you know, they're not going to press and make those mistakes when they don't have to. 32:05 You know, late in the third period, you kind of have to start pressing the game a little bit, but at that point in the game, you could bail and recover later. 32:14 But you've got to get that experience to drill that in your head. 32:18 You know, you can be told that all day long, but until you make that mistake, it doesn't really burn into your mind like it will now for them. 32:26 Okay. 32:27 Well, let's move on to this week, a little bit lighter on the WCHA schedule this week. 32:34 If I see this correctly, it looks like we've got Anchorage heading down to Madison this weekend. 32:40 Obviously, the Badgers have been playing well against some of the lesser competition, and I see them continuing this. 32:47 Vegoe, what do you think? 32:48 You think they're gonna just kinda keep going with four points? 32:51 I have a feeling Alaska's gonna seal one on Friday. 32:55 Wisconsin is having a hard time generating goals. 32:58 Alaska's played some really good Friday night games the last couple weeks. 33:02 I think that continues. 33:03 I think they probably capitalized on a couple Wisconsin mistakes. 33:06 Maybe get two goals and Wisconsin struggles to get their two. 33:10 And we see a two-two tie on Friday and then on Saturday Alaska legs get a little bit tired and Wisconsin's able to feast on that a little bit. 33:19 Anchorage at Wisconsin, Hammey. 33:22 You know, I'm gonna call that a Wisconsin sweep. 33:26 I think that that's, I mean, I, you know, it won't shock me because, like I said, you know, Anchorage always seems to give teams at least, you know, a rough goal of one night. 33:37 And so it won't entirely shock me if they come out of that series with a point or two. 33:42 But I just think that Wisconsin's done a pretty solid job against teams that they should, you know, do well against. 33:50 And so I would call us a Wisconsin sweep. 33:54 Then we've got Nebraska Omaha heading to Bemidji State, Hammey. 33:59 And, you know, obviously you kind of look at this and you think Bemidji is going to get rolled. 34:03 But man, Bemidji has had Nebraska Omaha's number for quite a few years now. 34:08 Will that continue? 34:10 Yeah, it is kind of funny, you know. 34:12 I guess you could say that Bemidji is blazes kryptonite or something. 34:18 You know, I don't, I just think it's, it's kind of funny. 34:21 You know, they always, I mean, earlier in the year, they, they, what, they only got one point from Bemidji, I think, early in the year, and that was a home series for UNO. 34:29 And so you're kind of almost foolish to not say that Bemidji is going to come out of the series with at least two points. 34:36 I mean, so I'm going to say it's going to be a split, but I mean, God knows it could be a sweep for all. 34:43 I know it just, you know, Bemidji is the ablaze kryptonite. 34:47 So I'll go with the split though. 34:49 What do you think, Vegoe? 34:52 Well, I think with it being at Bemidji that helps Bemidji a little bit. 34:56 I think Bemidji maybe looks at Nebraska Omaha as their slump buster, as a drunk hockey guy would like to refer to. 35:03 Yeah, copyright drunk hockey guy. 35:04 Yeah, he knows about that. 35:06 So I think you probably chalk them up for two points at least, maybe three. 35:14 All right. 35:16 I'll go three. 35:16 I'll go three for Bemidji. 35:19 Bemidji. 35:20 A big series up in Grand Forks is leading, league leading, I should say, St. 35:25 Cloud State Huskies. 35:27 Head up there to play the Who, Vegoe. 35:31 You know, St. 35:32 Cloud has just really got it going right now. 35:34 I think this is a big series for them, maybe a little bit of a letdown for North Dakota. 35:41 All the players are talking about on Saturday night how they were so drained from the series that they were just giving up chances left and right. 35:48 I think they have maybe a little bit of a hangover as they go into the St. 35:52 Cloud series. 35:53 And I think St. 35:54 Cloud gets three points here. 35:57 Okay. 35:57 Pammy? 36:00 You know, I'm going in the opposite direction. 36:03 There is a little part of me that wants to say this is going to be a North Dakota sweep. 36:08 I don't know what it is. 36:09 There's just a part of me that feels like North Dakota is going to rebound. 36:12 And granted, it is a weekend after the biggest series of the year, emotionally at least for North Dakota. 36:19 So you have to have that little asterisk there when you're making your prediction. 36:26 I guess I'm going to say this is going to be a split. 36:29 I had been thinking North Dakota sweep. 36:32 I know that St. 36:32 Cloud's playing better, at least in conference. 36:35 And so there is that part of you that's like you can go either way. 36:38 So in the end, when I have a situation like that, I think that split's probably the right way to go. 36:46 And finally, we've got the big home and home with Minnesota and Minnesota State. 36:52 Friday at Mariucci, that will be on the Big Ten Network. 36:56 And Saturday down at the Verizon Wireless Center in Mankato. 36:59 And that will be on FSN North Plus, folks. 37:03 So make sure you remember that. 37:05 Vegoe, Mankato gave us fits last time. 37:10 You know, we eeked out at wind Friday last time, and then they kind of kicked their butts a little bit on Saturday down in Mankato. 37:16 What's going to happen this time? 37:19 Yeah, this series kind of frightens me a little bit. 37:21 You know, the Saturday home and home thing kind of messes with everybody. 37:25 You know, if there's a real tough demanding game on Friday nights, you know, you travel on Saturday and you're faced with a road game in that situation. 37:35 And we saw in the last series how the Gophers pressed and made enough mistakes where they just gave Minnesota State a chance to get in the game. 37:44 And I'm worried we might see that on Saturday. 37:47 So I'm thinking three points for the Gophers. 37:50 I think they win on Friday and I think they tie on Saturday. 37:53 After a minute there, I thought you were going to say we weren't going to get any points. 37:58 It's just a worry. 37:59 I had a negativity vibe on that. 38:02 I do have a negativity vibe. 38:03 But I think the Gophers are such a talented team that they are going to be able to get goals if they do fall behind on Saturday, which I think could happen. 38:13 Well, my feeling on it is, you know, the only thing that concerns me is the, what I mentioned with North Dakota is you're going to have the emotional letdown after, you know, a big series. 38:25 I mean, I kind of saw that with Anchorage on that Friday night game after having, you know, played that, you know, kind of spirited game against Notre Dame earlier in the week. 38:35 And there's kind of that letdown after winning one against BC and then Notre Dame. 38:39 And now you got Anchorage. 38:41 And not that Minnesota State's an Anchorage, but nonetheless, it's still not as emotional thing as it's going to be with the North Dakota. 38:49 So that's the one thing that kind of concerns me about a series like this. 38:54 However, I believe, given how the team has played recently, I think that, you know, I certainly expect us to win the home game. 39:03 And on the road, you know, there's, you know, it seems like Mankato's had a little bit of a struggle here. 39:10 I mean, other than Saturday, the last, you know, three out of the last four, I mean, they had a little bit of a struggle. 39:15 So I really believe that, yeah, we're going to come out of the series. 39:18 I'm thinking, what, three points? 39:20 And I expect it to be a well-played series. 39:22 And, you know, Minnesota State's better defensively than I think a lot of people expected. 39:26 They're not as talented and deep as the Gophers, you know, especially offensively, but defensively, they've been a little bit better than I expected this year. 39:35 So you gotta give them credit for that. 39:37 And it kind of makes you wonder, you know, what's the offensive output going to be? 39:41 So, but I think three points is a good barometer for the series. 39:46 Okay, well, I think that the Gophers are going to sweep the cows. 39:51 I know you guys are shocked about that. 39:55 Where's your loyalty to the alma mater? 39:56 You know, whatever. 40:01 You know how you get the Alumni Magazine next year? 40:05 You know what? 40:06 I was a Gopher fan before I even went there, so it was never a deal, and they were still kind of a D2 team at the time, and they were trying to get to D1, and it wasn't until a couple of years later that they moved up. 40:20 So there's nothing for me there. 40:24 Just nothing. 40:25 This is a big game for Minnesota State in terms of pairwise. 40:28 If they want any shot at getting into that tournament, you know, this is a game that they've got circled. 40:35 Well, I think this is also kind of what we talked about when we talked about some of that scheduling stuff with North Dakota is that I don't think that their fans understand that for the Gophers, being the weekend that is circled on the calendar, that's pretty much the norm, especially with in-state Minnesota teams. 40:54 And so that just kind of, you know, we have five, six number one rivals, at least from the other team's perspective. 41:02 So this is one of those weeks. 41:04 So it's certainly, it's one of the great things about being a Gopher is that every time you go on the road, you know, or for most places, they're amped up for you and you got to be ready and prepared. 41:13 And I expect that they will be. 41:16 Well, it's going to be a nice short drive for me Saturday because, you know, we're taking the whole family down for the Mankato game. 41:22 So road trip, road trip, going to be like a national Lampoon vacation kind of road trip. 41:30 I think it's only about takes me 10 minutes longer to get the Mankato than it does to get the Mariucci because before I live, good God, are you in a boondock? 41:39 I know. 41:40 But you know, we kind of got those back roads and I think it was zipping along those. 41:44 But I'll be in full Rube mode Saturday night with the Jersey, the kids will be screaming, yelling at the reps as usual. 41:53 I can't wait to see the tweets. 41:55 Oh, yeah, I'll be a little more available to tweet. 41:59 I think Chris is going to get, Chris Ekas is going to get a media pass and he's going to experience his first road covering of a game. 42:08 So. 42:10 Yeah, I'm partaking in the beer dabbler on Saturday. 42:13 So. 42:14 You? 42:14 Beer? 42:15 No. 42:16 I know, hard to believe. 42:17 I know. 42:18 We'll be down in St. 42:19 Paul for that. 42:20 So any other thoughts on this weekend, guys? 42:24 Hammy, you should get a ticket. 42:25 Come on down, man. 42:28 Oh, I don't know. 42:29 Ole, ole, ole, ole. 42:32 I can't handle that, man. 42:33 And I'll be honest with you, some of the Mankato's fans are some of the most irritating in the league. 42:38 I don't know what it is. 42:39 It's not because they're necessarily, it's not like they're North Dakota fans or some of these other fans that like to talk trash. 42:46 It's just more the fact that they're just annoying, you know, with that damn cowbell and all that crap. 42:50 I need more cowbell. 42:52 You know, I just, yeah. 42:54 So I don't think I can deal with that. 42:57 All right. 42:58 Well, if that's it. 42:58 That's my trip tonight, man. 43:01 Wow. 43:02 Well, that's going to be it for this week's Gopher Puck Live Podcast. 43:06 Remember, you can always follow Hammy on Twitter at Hammy Hockey and you can always follow Vegoe at Vegoe and of course, GPL on at Gopher Puck Live. 43:18 No games next week, so we'll take next week off and we'll be back. 43:24 Boy, should we take next week off? 43:26 We can figure it out. 43:27 Yeah, we'll take next week off because we'll be back after that weekend off and then we'll recap Mankato and talk about the big series of St. 43:36 Cloud. 43:38 So until then, thanks for listening.