0:03 This is the GopherPuckLive Podcast, episode number 34, recorded Tuesday, February 12th, 2013. 0:20 Welcome to the GopherPuckLive Podcast, along with Vego and Hammy. 0:25 I am your host, Jupiter. 0:27 Well, boys, look good Friday night. 0:30 They didn't look too bad Saturday night. 0:33 I think St. 0:33 Cloud played a little better, but a split with the Huskies. 0:37 A lot of good things this weekend, a few little things that kind of bothered me, but Vego, what are your initial thoughts on the split at St. 0:45 Cloud this weekend? 0:47 Well, I think we saw St. 0:48 Cloud's a really talented team. 0:49 I mean, they stuck with the Gophers, punch for punch for the most part on the weekend. 0:54 The big players got goals for both teams. 0:57 One of the things that's really impressed me is Nate Schmidt, the way he's played the last two or three- 1:02 That's an understatement. 1:05 He's looking like one of the best offensive men in college hockey. 1:08 You know, it's impressive to see a guy like that get that many goals from the blue line. 1:14 Hammy, your initial thoughts? 1:16 You know, I was actually pretty pleased with the overall weekend. 1:20 I, you know, when you're going on the road against a team that's been playing quality hockey, especially in the last month or so, and you're in a hostile environment, to come out of it with a split. 1:31 And in my opinion, I thought that we carried the play for most of the weekend. 1:34 I thought that we certainly made some mistakes that they capitalized on on Saturday. 1:39 But if you look at, you know, the shot chart and all that kind of stuff, I thought that we played pretty well both nights, certainly Friday a little better, but, you know, we just made some key mistakes at some bad times that they capitalized on. 1:52 I mean, when Drew LeBlanc is getting a, you know, breakaway on you and that kid's not a very good skater, I mean, that tells you, you really screwed the pooch. 2:00 So, I mean, you know, we made some mistakes, made it a little easier on them in that sense. 2:04 But I think big picture, I was pretty happy with what I saw. 2:07 I guess we'll get into a little bit more of that then. 2:10 Well, I must say that I, you know, I wasn't disappointed Saturday night. 2:16 You know, they lost, you know, they gave up not the greatest goal. 2:19 But, you know, I didn't feel bad about the split. 2:22 I mean, I think they're doing well. 2:23 I think it is a process. 2:26 I'm not too concerned about, you know, winning the league. 2:29 I just want to make sure they just keep on progressing and, you know, don't have, you know, like two or three losses in a row, or, you know, just keep on progressing, keep it going. 2:40 My first thought, Friday night, you know, we've been kind of on Shea all year long. 2:48 You know, he needs to grow up, he needs to get better. 2:51 And boy, when he did that backhand saucer pass over to Schmidt Friday night, I was like, holy crap. 2:59 It was a beautiful pass, a beautiful setup. 3:02 Hammy, you've been kind of rough on him, but he is really starting to not be a freshman anymore. 3:12 Yes and no, I mean, he was also the one that was skating to the bench while LeBlanc's getting a breakaway. 3:18 You know what I mean? 3:19 I mean, now I'm not saying it's all his fault, but you know, I still... 3:23 But you know, we were looking for that pass. 3:24 I didn't like that pass. 3:26 I'll be honest. 3:28 Really? 3:29 Well, in that situation, I mean, we were up a goal at that point, four on four, so you want to make sure that you don't make any dumb mistakes. 3:39 And that was a very risky pass. 3:40 LeBlanc was like, I just missed that pass. 3:44 And you know, normally, I just don't like that kind of a play. 3:48 I know some people were like, Laudanet, and that's great. 3:50 I'm not saying anything bad about him in that sense. 3:52 I'm saying like that pass in general, I personally would not... 3:56 I mean, it worked out, but it's one of those things where, you know, if you're a coach, you're like, you know, when you see him pass it, you're like, oh, and then it works out and you're like, you know, and you're like, don't do that again if you don't have to, you know? 4:09 So I don't know. 4:10 That's my feeling on that. 4:12 Nice catch, A's. 4:13 Don't ever do it again. 4:16 That type of deal. 4:17 Well, I don't know, I'm feeling a little bit better about him. 4:20 We've been kind of waiting for a little bit of that offensive touch from him. 4:24 And that was definitely a nice touch patch, you know, D to D, technically. 4:29 Vegoe, any thoughts on Shay? 4:32 Well, just one thing, I think it was four on four when it happened. 4:35 So, I mean, you know, there's less guys to worry about picking off that pass. 4:40 If you just got to worry about one guy and you get up in the air like that with a nice sauce, you know, it can work out for you. 4:47 But I think Shay is better. 4:48 I mean, he's definitely getting more confident from the more ice time that he's getting. 4:53 He's probably gotten better because of the ice time reduction mid season and they're going to need him down the stretch. 5:01 See, my feeling on the four on four bit is that you really want to keep possession of the puck in those situations. 5:06 I mean, that's how you really, you know, when you're maintaining puck control, four on four is big key. 5:11 And I just thought that that was a little risky for that situation, especially when you're going across ice paths like that. 5:17 So, and it's on the back end. 5:19 So it's probably not going to be as strong. 5:21 So nonetheless, it worked out and we won by two goals. 5:25 So you can't complain too much, I guess. 5:28 Yeah, you really can't complain too much. 5:30 I mean, a split on the weekend against a good team on the road. 5:33 What do you think about the disallowed goals? 5:38 The first one, I completely agree with. 5:41 Once his helmet comes off, no matter when the referee blows the whistle, you know, they've got that rule of intent to blow the whistle. 5:48 So once his helmet came off, I thought, you know, the play was dead right there, no matter what happened. 5:53 The second one, I wasn't too happy. 5:57 I mean, I don't know, I could have gone either way, but you know, definitely the first one I had zero problem with. 6:03 Vegoe? 6:05 I was a little questionable on the second one too. 6:07 First one, clear cut, helmet's off, the whistle's gotta be blown. 6:11 The second one, I mean, what are you expecting? 6:13 Raul, as soon as he loses the puck to just skate back to the blue line and take up or something? 6:19 I mean, sure he's gonna hang out there a little bit, but it's not like he was flopping on, you know, Farragher and making a big scene in front of that. 6:27 He's looking for the puck. 6:30 I think that's a little too strict. 6:31 Yeah, well, for me, that's exactly my feeling. 6:34 I was like, the first call off goal, I totally agree that that was the right call to make. 6:39 The second one, I thought was a joke. 6:40 I mean, Raul follows, you know, he's gonna shoot the puck and of course he's gonna follow through. 6:45 And if you look at the play, I don't remember which defender, if it was Jensen or who it was, it was pretty clear that he bumped him. 6:51 I mean, he didn't really hit him hard, but he bumped him enough that he's gonna continue in that direction towards the goalie. 6:57 And so I thought that that was a terrible call. 6:59 So it didn't cost us in the end, but you know, certainly at the time you start to wonder, oh boy, is this gonna be one of those games where we're gonna be really frustrated because of the way things are going. 7:08 So. 7:09 Well, Hammeh, what do you think about St. 7:11 Cloud this weekend? 7:13 Well, you know, it's funny. 7:14 My feeling on it was, you know, it's kinda like I said earlier, they're playing, you know, pretty good hockey and especially in the last month or so, they've been playing much better after they got through with the non-conference part of their schedule. 7:27 You know, to go in their rank, you know, when they're playing pretty good hockey and to play that like we did this weekend, I was real happy with it because, you know, when I look at the, I kinda look at big picture stuff sometimes and I'm like, okay, well, if we're gonna play them again, it's either gonna be at Excel in a final five or potentially an NCAA game. 7:48 Both of which are gonna be on neutral ice. 7:51 Well, Excel, I mean, I know other fans think it's a gopher rank, but it's still technically neutral ice. 7:59 So it's obviously that is gonna lose some of the factor for not being on St. 8:04 Cloud's home ice. 8:04 And then in addition, I thought that one of the clear advantages we had on St. 8:08 Cloud was how we played along the boards, you know, kind of went into puck battles, those one-on-one kinds of battles. 8:15 And obviously when you're on NHL size ranks, that becomes more of a factor. 8:20 So I really, if we play them again, I feel very positive about, you know, what we could, you know, of coming out of that game with a win. 8:27 So, you know, they're a good team. 8:29 I mean, obviously you can't be a crappy team to be in first place. 8:32 So, but I think we match up very well with them, particularly, you know, potential playoff situations. 8:39 Well, Vegoe, they definitely have put themselves in a great position. 8:42 You know, they're in the lead. 8:44 They've got, you know, they're playing well. 8:48 It's something they've never done before. 8:50 So, I mean, I don't know. 8:52 What do you think? 8:53 Well, the door isn't shut on the rest of the teams in the conference. 8:56 There's still a way for teams to threaten for the cup. 8:59 But St. 9:00 Cloud's done a lot of work and, you know, they didn't blow the weekend and they've put themselves in good shape with their last six games of conference and, you know, they control their own destiny and the way they looked against the Gophers, you know, I don't see them dropping too many points down the stretch. 9:16 They control the puck really well. 9:19 They can gain the zone with control. 9:22 They don't have to chip and chase so much. 9:25 And the teams they're playing, they're gonna probably be, you know, controlling the game and dictating the pace. 9:32 See, the thing is that they did not get many shots on us this weekend. 9:35 That was the one thing that's kind of surprised me. 9:38 I mean, they got 21 one night and I don't remember what they got the other night, but I mean, they did not get many shots on us. 9:45 So from a puck possession standpoint, I'm not quite as convinced that they're that great in that sense. 9:53 I think that they certainly played well on their home ice this weekend. 9:56 I kind of thought they looked tight on Friday. 9:58 I thought they looked nervous. 10:00 And I thought that St. 10:01 Cloud to me is a team that if you get up on them, they're gonna struggle. 10:04 Cause I don't think that they're a team that seems to mentally have the, kind of like the Gophers were against North Dakota or even how they were on Saturday night where it was like a, I mean, we really came storming back late in that game and really put the pressure on them and just didn't get that tying goal. 10:18 So I kind of think that they're a team that has to have a lead in order to really feel good about themselves. 10:25 Well, besides this, the past weekend, quite a bit of full slate of games in the WCHA. 10:34 Let's start with North Dakota, Nebraska, Omaha. 10:37 You know, they had that outdoor game. 10:39 They had the Friday night game. 10:40 North Dakota pretty much may have ended Nebraska-Omah's hopes of winning the title. 10:48 They swept them. 10:50 And obviously they played pretty good Saturday in the outdoor game. 10:54 Hammeh, what are your first thoughts on that series? 10:57 Well, I think that we're just seeing that, I think that UNO is not what they, I think I was never a big UNO fan this year. 11:08 I mean, I thought their goaltending was awful, and it remains to be very questionable. 11:15 You look at their goalie stats, they're just not very, they're both under 90%. 11:18 I mean, they're just, I mean, I know they have Belfort that's popped in a few games, but I mean, their goaltending just hasn't been there. 11:26 And I just think that that's such a key factor for a team. 11:30 When you get down to the crunch time, and if you don't have that reliable guy back there, it's an uphill battle. 11:36 And what, I think they're far out of the pairwise right now. 11:39 Where are they in the pairwise? 11:40 They're like kind of down to upper teens somewhere. 11:43 So, you know, they really are, they might not make it in the NCAAs even. 11:49 So they better get something cooking quick. 11:52 Yeah, I'm looking up on the pairwise right now. 11:54 They are number 18 in the pairwise, Nebraska, Omaha. 11:58 So their margin for error isn't very big, so. 12:01 Not at all. 12:02 Vegoe, North Dakota, starting to pour it on like they do every season. 12:06 Yeah, Gothberg is really stepping up as their goalie. 12:09 I think he might be the answer. 12:10 I think he's definitely the more athletic of their guys there. 12:13 And Nebraska, Omaha, they're a one-line team. 12:17 You know, that Walters line generates a lot of their scoring. 12:20 And after that, you know, they struggle. 12:23 They've got some good defensive pairs, but you start playing a game like that with North Dakota, and North Dakota's getting good goaltending. 12:30 It's tough to stay with them. 12:32 Definitely, definitely. 12:34 Minnesota's, oh, go ahead. 12:36 I was just saying, I hope we don't see ice conditions like there were at the ballpark in Omaha. 12:43 Some of those afternoon pictures they took looked brutal. 12:47 Yeah, I mean, I read some stuff about some of that antifreeze stuff leaking and just the cooling system not being very good. 12:54 I hope, you know, Soldier Field's had their rink up for a little while now, and, you know, they probably know how to deal with the ice, but, you know, if we see sunshine like that, you know, the games might get pushed back a little bit. 13:07 Yeah, definitely. 13:09 So, Minnesota State goes up to Duluth and sweeps them. 13:15 Vegoe, are the dogs done? 13:20 You know, I would be a little nervous playing the dogs in a playoff game, if that's the way it shakes out. 13:26 I mean, they had a three-goal, or two-goal lead in the third, I think, on Friday, and they gave the lead up, and then Saturday night, they just didn't come to play and got smacked down. 13:35 You know, they've got some talent, but they are just not putting it together. 13:40 Pammy. 13:43 Yeah. 13:44 I mean, it's starting to look like UMD is everybody's slump buster. 13:48 So, you know, they're off to Babidji State this week, so, you know, who knows what's going to happen there. 13:57 But, I mean, yeah, it's, you know, we kind of knew at the beginning of the year. 14:00 They actually played a little better earlier in the year that I thought they would be, you know, considering what they lost off of last year's team. 14:08 But they've seemingly crashed to earth. 14:11 They've won five in their last six games or something like that. 14:15 And I don't remember what it is, five or six games. 14:18 But, you know, that drunk hockey guy, sounded like he was pretty disgruntled about the fan, you know, where the fans were there, especially the student section. 14:27 So it sounds like the bandwagon is emptying up there. 14:33 Well, how about Minnesota State, though? 14:35 I mean, they're in a tie with 25 points with Denver and Wisconsin. 14:39 And the way they're playing, they're going to be on home ice for the WCHA playoffs. 14:46 Well, yeah, I mean, I think that, you know, they do have a couple, you know, tough series to end the season at CC and in North Dakota. 14:53 But, you know, yeah, I mean, they've played pretty well and, you know, they've maintained it. 14:58 You know, that's the thing that, you know, I've been a little surprised is that they've maintained it a little bit better than I thought they would. 15:04 I thought they'd maybe come tumbling back a little bit, but not terribly. 15:07 But they've certainly played a lot better here in the last few months than I expected. 15:14 All right, we've got Anchorage and Tech. 15:16 Looks like a split there. 15:18 I mean, obviously it looks like Friday night. 15:19 Tech had a lead, Anchorage just came back and beat them. 15:21 And then Saturday afternoon, Tech blew them away. 15:26 You guys have any thoughts on that series? 15:28 Oh, it's Winter Carnival? 15:30 Yeah. 15:30 Oh, was it? 15:32 Well, when UAA comes to town, that's when you want to have your carnival. 15:38 It's like homecoming. 15:39 Wow, I just noticed Tech smoked Northern Michigan at night, wow. 15:44 Eight to two. 15:46 Didn't Northern Michigan sweep St. 15:47 Cloud? 15:48 I think they did in St. 15:49 Cloud too, didn't they? 15:50 I believe so. 15:52 That's a big score. 15:55 Oh, what do we got? 15:56 We got Wisconsin tying Bemidji State Friday night and getting them by a goal Saturday night. 16:01 I thought Wisconsin would play a little bit better, but they didn't, you know. 16:07 What do you think, Cammie? 16:09 Our opponent this weekend, struggling with Bemidji State and Bemidji's been bad. 16:14 Well, I think it just kind of goes to show you the margin for error for Wisconsin is very small. 16:19 I mean, I was looking at it before the podcast. 16:22 I think I saw that in eight of their last 10 games, they've scored two goals or less or something like that. 16:27 I mean, they're not a team that's gonna, you know, typically score many goals. 16:31 And so if the other team gets, pops a couple in, I mean, you can see why they wouldn't sweep, you know. 16:38 So I'm not, you know, I'm surprised they didn't sweep the series, you know, because Bemidji isn't very good, but I'm not really surprised in terms of the scores necessarily. 16:46 I expected a low scoring thing, so. 16:49 Any thoughts on that series, Vegoe? 16:51 Well, I think the interesting thing is that Wisconsin was playing with a lead both nights and they lost it on Friday in the third. 16:57 And then on Saturday, they gave up two goals. 17:00 They had a three-nothing lead and they gave up two. 17:02 And it sounds like it got close at the end. 17:04 And that's not typical for Wisconsin hockey. 17:07 And you know, they're usually, when they do get a lead, they're able to sit back and protect it and make the game choke down to a crawl. 17:14 But you know, they're vulnerable. 17:17 They're not looking like they're gonna make it in on pairwise, so they're playing for home ice right now and a chance to get to the final five. 17:23 So it's a big weekend for them. 17:24 But not being able to finish with Bemidji does not bode well for them. 17:29 Vegoe, CC takes three points from Denver. 17:34 I think that was probably the surprise of the weekend for me. 17:36 I thought Denver would come in and- 17:39 I mean, they had a low scoring affair Friday night and then it just blew open Saturday. 17:43 Yeah, and somehow Denver gets to keep the gold pan, is what I was reading, which is curious. 17:48 It must be a total goals or something. 17:52 I don't know, because I guess they won it on Friday night, so I don't know how that works, I guess. 17:56 I thought I knew more, but somehow they get to keep it, even though they blew the game on Saturday and lost in overtime. 18:03 But both games were close. 18:05 Obviously, yeah. 18:06 It just shows you that I don't think you want to be playing CC in the final five tournament. 18:12 Well, I think they won the gold pan because Denver swept the series earlier in the year. 18:18 So the overall record was 2-1-1 in Denver's favor, so. 18:23 Thank you for the education. 18:24 Yeah, there you go. 18:26 Yeah, I'm actually very surprised by that too. 18:28 I mean, you know, CC has been just sort of schizophrenic. 18:32 You just don't know what the heck you're going to get from them. 18:34 They had that bad slump for about, you know, six weeks. 18:37 And then they've been looking like they played a little better. 18:40 Of course, they played Anchorage, so, I mean, that's a slump, you know, they only tied on both games. 18:44 So that's kind of a little bit pathetic. 18:46 But, you know, overall, I thought that that was a very surprising series. 18:53 So we've got St. 18:54 Cloud State up the top with North Dakota right behind them and Minnesota and Nebraska, Omaha right behind those two. 19:03 Any other thoughts on the WCHA? 19:05 I mean, it's, boy, I mean, we've got North Dakota 28 points, all the way down to Wisconsin with 25. 19:12 I mean, it is very close for home ice here. 19:15 There's going to be teams jockeying all over the place with, you know, CC and Minnesota-Duluth probably, you know, looking on the outside. 19:23 But what's going to happen here, guys? 19:26 Hammy? 19:27 Well, I mean, it's, I think obviously the top three are going to be in some order. 19:31 You know, the St. 19:32 Cloud, North Dakota, Minnesota. 19:34 I think Nebraska, Omaha looks like they're starting to slump a bit. 19:38 And I would expect that they're going to be one of those teams that if they don't pick it up here quick, that they might actually be one of the ones that are in the bottom half. 19:45 And which you wouldn't have thought, you know, not so long ago. 19:47 But the way that they've been playing, you know, you got to have to wonder about that. 19:51 And Denver has been really kind of hard to peg as well. 19:55 I mean, they got swept in St. 19:57 Cloud and then this last weekend. 19:58 And, you know, so it's, they're kind of hard to figure out. 20:01 I think Minnesota State's been playing consistent enough where I would expect them to get home ice. 20:06 And, you know, Wisconsin, their margin for error is just so small that you don't really even know what you're going to get from this. 20:11 So it's very tough in that little middle ground area there to figure out, you know, what's going to happen. 20:18 Vegoe, you have any thoughts on what's going to happen the next month? 20:22 Well, that whole mirror at the conference, it's just, you know, you can throw them all into a hat and put them in any order and I'd be unsurprised. 20:31 One of them is going to be left out. 20:33 Yeah, one of them is going to be left out and I couldn't tell you who it's going to be. 20:37 I think the one thing we learned this weekend is the top three is going to be St. 20:40 Cloud, North Dakota, Minnesota and that's probably all we know. 20:44 Denver is creeping up in the pairwise. 20:46 They might be battling for an NCAA spot here down the stretch and I think that probably motivates them to stay in that top half. 20:53 Yeah, they're sitting at 12th right now. 20:56 So here's my, what do you guys think about the league in general this year? 21:00 Because for me, honestly, I'm not, I mean, you look at non-conference performance and all that, I'm starting to wonder if the league is maybe is down again this year. 21:11 I think that the Gophers have been the only team that have really played well non-conference. 21:15 The other team has sort of been, you know, up and down. 21:18 St. 21:19 Cloud's been bad in non-conference. 21:21 I'm kind of wondering, you know, once we get to NCAAs, you know, are we actually going to see, you know, the WCHA not actually perform all that well as a league? 21:31 What do you think, Veegs? 21:33 Well, I do kind of wonder how St. 21:35 Cloud will play in a playoff game against a team that's physical and against a team that they have to dump and chase on. 21:41 You know, they're not the biggest team around and you get, you know, a little lull to sleep with that long hair all over the ice and I think, you know, that could be a problem for them. 21:52 I think North Dakota knows how to play that game and Minnesota, at times, they've shown that they can play that patient game, too. 21:59 The rest of the conference, I'm not sure about. 22:01 Denver's lost a lot of close games and when you're talking about a one-game elimination, St. 22:06 Cloud and Denver might struggle in that situation, but I think North Dakota and Minnesota will be fine. 22:11 You know, I love the long hair, by the way. 22:14 I hate it. 22:14 I think it looks tedious. 22:15 Really? 22:16 Oh, come on. 22:17 I know it's all for a good cause. 22:19 Oh, it was awesome. 22:19 It was like Yammer Yager was out there half the time with his hair just flowing. 22:23 No one is going to have that kind of mane, dude. 22:25 You had that kind of mane. 22:27 I've seen the pictures. 22:29 Hey, you have to admit that that was a sweet mane back in the day. 22:34 You look like you're an 80s hairband, man. 22:37 Well, I kind of, in a way, I sort of looked that part out. 22:42 I was totally distracted during the whole game by the long hair, so... 22:47 I kind of liked it. 22:48 It was very old school. 22:49 Somebody needs to go and buy those guys some conditioner, man. 22:53 That looked hideous. 22:54 Yeah, they kind of had the scruffly face, neck and beard, you know, the whole thing gone. 23:00 They could have cleaned it up a little bit. 23:03 So if you look at the pairwise right now, we've got Minnesota at 2, North Dakota at 6, St. 23:08 Cloud at 8, Minnesota State at 10, and then Denver at 12. 23:16 I'm surprised we have that many teams up there. 23:19 Denver should be a little worried. 23:19 But Minnesota State, if they keep playing solid, they're probably going to get in. 23:27 Have they ever made it to the tournament since they've been D1? 23:31 Maybe once? 23:32 I think they did one time, but I cannot remember for sure. 23:35 Was it the 2003 year? 23:37 I know they played Minnesota really well that year. 23:40 Yeah, I don't remember what year it was. 23:42 I think they got in there once. 23:43 I can't remember for sure. 23:46 So that would obviously be a big boost to them when they're staying in the league pretty much. 23:53 I don't know. 23:55 It's going to be interesting. 23:57 We might have to get Tim Bruhle on and see what he thinks in the next couple of weeks when the pairwise start to become even more and more important. 24:05 Well, tonight, boys, the Minnesota Hockey Team, our Gophers, unveiled some new jerseys for the Hockey City Classic. 24:14 Obviously, I don't know what to think about them. 24:20 They're very similar to what was worn back in the 60s. 24:23 Many of us had up jerseys made up that were almost just like this about 10 years ago. 24:32 Dark Maroon with Gophers diagonal going across. 24:34 I heard it was going to be Minnesota going across, so obviously they changed their mind on that. 24:39 Initial thoughts, Tammy, on the new jerseys that were unveiled tonight? 24:45 Honestly, I was a little lukewarm by it. 24:48 I didn't think that they were bad or anything like that, but I guess I kind of thought if there's going to be some behind the scenes hype about it and whatever else, that it would be a little more attractive than what it was. 25:02 Honestly, I just didn't feel like it was all that spectacular. 25:07 It's all right. 25:07 It's something different, and that's kind of nice, but I don't know. 25:11 I've seen better. 25:13 Biggs? 25:14 Well, when you do a jersey like this, there's a very high probability that you can mess it up. 25:22 I don't think they messed it up. 25:23 It's a safe jersey. 25:24 It looks nice. 25:25 It's clean. 25:27 It's throwback without being too atrocious, NFL throwback-like. 25:33 I think it's a good, classy jersey. 25:35 I think it will look nice. 25:37 Well, these jerseys, you're not going to be able to buy them, but you can auction for them because what they're going to do is these jerseys from all the guys on the team, they're going to have an online auction for each one of them that will benefit, was it Defending the Blue Line, I believe? 25:52 Yep. 25:54 So you can get your hands on a game-use jersey if you want, so you just have to pony up for it. 25:58 But I just don't see the use selling these separately anytime soon. 26:07 For some reason, they just can't get along with their Nike rep and get hockey jerseys made. 26:12 Obviously, they had those 30 jerseys made up this year, and hopefully next year they'll do the same thing. 26:19 But part of the problem with that this year is they ordered 30 jerseys, they ordered multiple sizes, but they ordered some really large sizes that still haven't been sold because they're almost goalie cut. 26:30 I mean, they're meant to have pads in them. 26:32 These are official jerseys. 26:34 And nobody's going to wear a 56. 26:36 I mean, that would be big on you, Vegoe, and you're what? 26:39 How big? 26:40 Six-something? 26:41 It would be big on you. 26:47 Vegoe? 26:51 I don't know. 26:51 I think we kind of lost them there. 26:53 All right. 26:54 Well, I'm sure that it will be good for guys like Fire Helmet Guy. 27:01 He's carrying a lot of extra padding on him and stuff like that, so that would be perfect for him, wouldn't it? 27:06 He can hide beers and hide flasks and whatever underneath. 27:10 It would be perfect for him, right? 27:12 Oh, it might be, but who knows? 27:17 That's one problem that you have, is getting jerseys out there that look good. 27:21 They're just teasing us with these jerseys. 27:24 People are going to want them. 27:27 I like the jersey. 27:30 When they're kind of teasing you about it, and like, oh yeah, we got this new jersey, that kind of thing, if you're going to tease it up like that, it better be something really spectacular in my view. 27:39 As a marketing guy, if you're going to tease something up and make it sound like it's going to be great, it better be great. 27:44 I just thought that, well, it's all right, but it's not quite as great as I would expect. 27:50 Yeah, well, we'll try to get Vegoe back here. 27:53 I don't know what's going on with him. 27:54 He just disappeared on us. 27:56 You know, like I said, we have a guy I know had a bunch of jerseys made up a few years, 10 years ago, and they were just like this. 28:05 I mean, very similar. 28:07 You know, the Gophers going across, numbers on the shoulder. 28:10 I actually like the stripes that, the way we did it back then looked a little better. 28:15 But, cause you know, instead of just, you know, equal yellow, white, yellow, or gold, I should say, it was a thinner white, a thicker gold, and another thin white, and I thought it just looked a little cleaner. 28:28 Vegoe, you back with us? 28:31 Yeah, I'm back with you. 28:32 Technical problems apparently here. 28:33 Hey, hey, hey, it's just fine. 28:34 We just kept on rolling. 28:36 Yeah, you talk about my size and my internet connection. 28:38 Oh, I know. 28:40 Well, you know, that's how it goes. 28:43 Any other thoughts on the jersey, guys? 28:47 Are you going to try to buy one? 28:48 Are you going to try to buy one? 28:50 Well, I'll try to get one in the auction. 28:53 Are you going to try it, Veegs? 28:55 No, I probably won't. 28:56 You know, I'm thinking about Hedricks College Fund, so I'll let some other generous soul donate some money to the blue line. 29:03 Man, I've got a jersey that looks just like it anyway, so I don't think I would waste my money on it myself. 29:08 Let's go through some questions. 29:10 Quite a bit of stuff going on via Twitter. 29:14 Well, there's a, you know, Joel likes hockey. 29:17 What are the chances of actually buying one of these new jerseys this weekend? 29:20 Slim to none? 29:21 None, Joel. 29:23 Nothing. 29:23 Just bid on it, Joel. 29:25 That's the only way you're going to get these jerseys. 29:27 You're going to have to be part of their online auction. 29:29 Obviously it goes to a good cause, but no. 29:32 You're not going to be able to buy these. 29:34 It's just the way that you works. 29:36 Is the auction over eBay or what is it? 29:38 I'm guessing they'll have something online and let people know. 29:42 We'll tweet it out when we find information, but I have no idea how they're actually going to do it. 29:50 Dirt43 wants to know about the WCHA race. 29:52 We kind of talked about that already. 29:55 What else do we have here? 29:57 Here we go. 29:58 This kind of gets into... 29:59 Well, we'll skip that one for now. 30:05 Yeah, I know. 30:06 One of them wants to know about the Badger defensive style. 30:08 I'm like, well, we could talk about that when we get to the game here. 30:14 Hammy, what do you think of Ryan Walters' success at UNO? 30:17 You think Don Regette is losing him? 30:19 That comes from GopherPuck. 30:22 No, I really don't. 30:24 Well, I mean, look, it's not like you wouldn't want a kid that's scoring well on your team, but, you know, I don't know. 30:31 I'm uncomfortable with the question simply because there's details I don't really want to go into. 30:36 But I can tell you that there's past issues between players that, you know, you kind of have to look at from a chemistry standpoint that I know would have been an issue had he been on this team. 30:49 And then you also say to yourself, well, and, you know, who do you, you know, whose scholarship do you take away now on the current team that we wouldn't, you know, who would we would not have? 30:59 You know, and some of these guys that are, you know, you could say, oh, I'll take one of the freshmen. 31:03 But, you know, it's not a matter, it's not that easy. 31:05 You know, you have to line up what was your needs at the time. 31:08 And, you know, so it's just, there's a lot of variables that go into it. 31:13 If you're telling me, hey, would it be great to have a kid like that as far as a production standpoint on the team, another kid like that? 31:20 Well, of course. 31:21 But that's, it's not as black and white as that. 31:23 There's other factors involved that I don't want to go into total detail on. 31:27 But, you know, there's certainly other things beyond just looking at the goals and assists that you have to think about when you're building a team. 31:34 We'll head up that topic years down the line, and you can tell us all the big secrets. 31:38 Sounds good. 31:39 I feel like I just got teased there. 31:40 First Juke, now Hammy. 31:45 What kind of show is this? 31:47 It's a terrible show. 31:48 It's a terrible podcast with terrible hosts. 31:50 A terrible hockey town and terrible city. 31:53 Terrible uniforms. 31:56 Vegoe, do you have any thoughts on Mr. 31:58 Walters? 31:59 Well, I like a lot of the guys in the top six for the Gophers right now. 32:05 If you're putting them one-to-one against each other, the guys they have right now are doing pretty darn well at their position. 32:12 Two-way players. 32:15 It might not have worked out as well as it's working out for him at UNO. 32:17 Hopefully, he has success at the next level. 32:21 Well, that's the thing that people need to realize, is that they always act like it's going to be the exact same, like it's an apples-to-apples situation, but different teams have different needs, and different guys are going to play at different spots, and you have chemistry among teammates and line mates, and it's just not the same. 32:38 When people start bringing that stuff up, I know I had this argument on Twitter about a month ago with some people, and I was just like, well, some people don't know all the details, A and B. 32:48 It's never an apples-to-apples situation from one situation to the next. 32:53 I mean, we've seen guys get traded into NHL, you know what I mean, where they're playing great for one team, and they go to another team, and they're not playing great. 33:01 Or it's free agency. 33:02 They play great with one team, and then they get the contract, and they go to another team, and suddenly they're not performing. 33:07 So it's not as black and white as people try to make it seem. 33:12 Well, let's move on to this week in the WCHA. 33:16 Quite a few teams will be taking the weekend off, but we've got Minnesota Duluth heading to Bemidji for the weekend. 33:24 And with the way Duluth's been playing lately, and the way Bemidji's been playing lately, I think it's going to be a tie and a tie, 0-0. 33:33 Hammy? 33:35 Yeah, I mean, you know, sometimes these series are kind of like, oh, my God, you know, what do you expect is going to happen in it? 33:44 I think that this is a series where certainly UMD, which one, you said UMD, correct, that series? 33:53 Yeah. 33:54 Yeah, UMD and Bemidji, it's hard to, you know, with the way that they're slumping and Bemidji, you know, if they're going to win, it's probably going to be at home. 34:02 So you're like, oh, boy. 34:05 I would probably say that this is going to be a split. 34:07 I'm sure that Duluth will break through in one of the games. 34:10 Bemidji's played, I think, a little better. 34:12 I mean, you know, they've... 34:14 They always seem to play Duluth pretty well, too. 34:16 Yeah, and I'm sure that, you know, whatever's going to get drunk hockey guys, IR up, you know, will probably be entertaining for the Twitter followers. 34:23 So maybe that'll help things. 34:25 But yeah, I would say it's probably going to be a split. 34:28 Vegoe, splits? 34:30 Bemidji, what do you think? 34:32 I think probably a split. 34:35 I imagine that UND gets up on Friday night and almost chokes away the lead, and then Bemidji comes out Wednesday and takes them down. 34:43 You mean Saturday? 34:45 Saturday. 34:47 Wednesday, Saturday, it's all good. 34:49 Yeah, baby brain. 34:51 Michigan Tech heads to Minnesota State, and I think the Mavericks are going to sweep on this one. 34:57 What do you think, Veegs? 34:58 Yeah, I'm right with you on that. 35:00 Minnesota State's been putting together a nice season, and I think it's going to continue here. 35:04 And Michigan Tech's probably going to have that winter carnival hangover as they carry over into the next week. 35:10 Hamme? 35:12 Yeah, I think it's pretty hard to pick against Mankato in this series, given how Tech seems to be a little schizophrenic. 35:19 I mean, you know, even at home against, you know, this last weekend, you know, they're against Anchorage. 35:26 So I would probably say the way that Mankato has played consistently, you know, I think that they're going to sweep. 35:34 Nebraska-Omaha is heading up to Anchorage. 35:38 I'm thinking Anchorage is going to get two to three points out of this. 35:41 Hamme, what do you think? 35:43 I don't trust Omaha. 35:45 It's always a tough series. 35:46 It's the end of the year. 35:47 It's been a long season. 35:49 Who the hell wants to go up to Anchorage at this time of year? 35:52 Well, I mean, I definitely agree. 35:55 I will not be surprised at all if Anchorage comes out of this series with two points. 36:02 Like I mentioned earlier, UNO does not have great goaltending. 36:06 I think Anchorage has shown that they're a hardworking team that will certainly make you earn what you get from them. 36:12 And I think that one of those games, I just have the feeling that UNO is not going to play well and it's going to be Anchorage winning it. 36:19 What do you think, Vego? 36:22 Well, I still think Omaha is going to get three points here. 36:25 I mean, they're going to be coming off their games against North Dakota and they need some points and I think Blaze gets them going and they get three. 36:36 Finally, we've got our Golden Gophers heading to Madison and Chicago this weekend for a doubleheader with the BADgers. 36:44 I mean, I'm going to say sweep just because that's what I do. 36:49 But Friday night, they always seem to play pretty well at Madison. 36:56 But Sunday, I just have no clue. 36:59 The conditions, the atmosphere, none of these guys have played a real outdoor game in probably a long time, whereas the BADgers seem to do it every few years. 37:10 Hammy, what are your thoughts? 37:14 One thing, I'm not big on an outdoor game, counting in the standings, but that's just me. 37:19 But what do you think? 37:21 It's a big weekend and it's going to be a big deal in Chicago as well. 37:27 Yeah, I mean, I think that's kind of the wild card, is you don't really know how it's going to be with that outdoor game. 37:35 It's a little bit more difficult to choose what you think the outcomes are going to be when you're not playing too consecutive on the same rink. 37:42 So that's the challenging part. 37:44 I think that if you look at, statistically, this should be, even if it's a road series for the Gophers, statistically they have the advantage. 37:54 In a rivalry series, we always talk about you can throw out what's gone on already in the season and all that kind of stuff. 38:00 But the Gophers have generally played pretty well in Madison over the years. 38:04 So I mean, I think that there's a good chance. 38:06 And we've talked about Wisconsin, really, their margin for error in games is very small. 38:13 And the Gophers play pretty good defense. 38:15 Wilcox has played pretty good all year long. 38:19 So I don't think that we're going to end up giving up many goals to Wisconsin. 38:23 I'd be surprised if we gave up more than two goals a game in either contest to Wisconsin. 38:30 What it's coming down to is how they're probably going to play, I would guess they're going to try to play conservatively against us. 38:37 And are our guys going to be patient enough to be able to kind of just buy their time and capitalize on their chances and not try to make those mistakes where it's going to be going the other direction. 38:49 And maybe that does give Wisconsin opportunities to score more goals because you're impatient and you make bad passes. 38:54 So I think it's really going to come down to showing some patience and then of course capitalizing on special teams. 39:01 Our old friend Andy Johnson saying, apparently only a couple of BADgers have skated outdoors and we really don't care, Andy. 39:10 Vegoe, your thoughts on the weekend? 39:12 Sorry, Andy. 39:15 I think it's a good opportunity for the Gophers to get four points. 39:19 I think they've been playing solid hockey and they get in trouble when they make defensive mistakes. 39:25 And I don't know if Wisconsin even has the firepower to fire back on mistakes unless it's that top line. 39:31 You know, they just don't have a lot of goal scorers on that team. 39:34 So especially if the ice condition is bad on Sunday, I think the Gophers are going to be able to chip it deep and work the forecheck and, you know, force the play a little bit at the net. 39:45 It could play into their hands and force them to play a more patient game. 39:49 Because if the ice is soft or the blue line's not very good, they're going to have to chip it and chase it. 39:56 You could look at that different ways, too. 39:58 I mean, if it's bad ice, you know, obviously a team that's kind of more skilled-based, like the Gophers, I think it's fair to say the Gophers have more skill. 40:06 That could be a frustrating factor for them. 40:09 That could actually play into Wisconsin's hands more, simply because they want to keep it that low-scoring, kind of grind it out of fairness in some way. 40:16 So you could look at it different ways, I guess, is the way I would put that one. 40:20 And that's exactly what Tanner Hendrickson said via Twitter. 40:23 He's asking us, do you think the ice quality will favor the BADgers defensive style? 40:27 And you seem to think that it may do that. 40:31 Well, I'm just speculating. 40:33 It certainly is possible because when you're a team that's not going to be scoring a lot of goals, you're obviously going to be trying to play more conservative. 40:43 You're not going to want to be flinging around the ice a lot. 40:46 And if you're a team like the Gophers that are accustomed to scoring more goals, then that could be a frustrating package. 40:55 Ah, fatherhood. 40:56 Isn't it great, Vegoe? 40:57 Yeah, Henry just wants to say he totally disagrees. 41:00 He thinks the ice is going to work out for the Gophers big time. 41:02 Hey, that's probably what it is. 41:04 What a homer. 41:05 He's a great hockey mind. 41:07 Well, he's already got his Gopher onesie and everything, so he's on board. 41:11 So you're going to do a live report from Chicago for us? 41:16 Yep, the wife, child and I are all going down there for the weekend, and we'll be there, or I'll be there on Sunday. 41:24 So I'm looking forward to the event. 41:25 Are you going Friday as well? 41:27 Not going Friday. 41:29 I'm actually brewing beer with my father-in-law on Friday night, so I'm also excited. 41:37 Very Wisconsin-like. 41:39 Well, you know, if you can do it. 41:43 Well, you'll have to report for us about the atmosphere and everything, because I'm definitely not going. 41:50 I never even thought about going. 41:51 For some reason, it just didn't really appeal to me, so who knows. 41:55 So what do you guys think? 41:56 Four points, then? 41:57 You think we're going to sweep the BADgers? 42:00 We're just going to go with it? 42:03 Better than that red? 42:05 You know, it's so hard to pick a sweep in a rivalry series for me. 42:12 Come on! 42:13 Well, if it was at home, that would be one thing, but I'm actually going to say the Gophers are going to get three points. 42:18 I don't know which game they're going to tie, but I'm going to say that they're going to get three out of four. 42:22 Alright, same with you Vegoe. 42:26 You seem to think four points is pretty possible. 42:29 No, I think four points is in the realm of possibility this weekend. 42:34 I think both games are a race to three. 42:36 I think if you get three goals, you're going to win. 42:39 And the Gophers have been able to generate enough chances. 42:41 I think they're going to come through. 42:43 And go on a streak here. 42:45 I think we're going to see a four-game winning streak. 42:48 Ooh, really? 42:51 Sweep in the Bulldogs right after that too, huh? 42:53 Yep, sweep, sweep. 42:55 I'm thinking eight-game winning streak. 42:57 Ooh, wow. 43:00 I don't know if that will compare to the Gopher women's winning streak because they never lose apparently. 43:06 Nope. 43:07 Man, I wish we could talk about them more, but what's there to say? 43:12 They keep winning? 43:13 I don't know, they have what? 43:14 They have four regular season games left, right? 43:16 And then they basically play the rest of the season at home, don't they? 43:20 Because I think the final, whatever they call it for the women's hockey, the final five version for women, that's at Ritter Arena, and I think the NCAA is at Ritter Arena or something like that. 43:33 I'm sure there's a regional, though. 43:36 Well, I think the regional is at the higher seed's home ice, which obviously for the Gophers is going to be at Ritter again. 43:45 So I think that they're pretty much... 43:47 Yes, the final faceoff is at Ritter. 43:50 The NCAA quarterfinals, it says to be determined. 43:55 That's at the higher seed, I'm pretty sure. 43:57 And then the frozen four is at Ritter, so boy. 44:02 So if they win, I mean, they might... 44:04 I mean, knock on wood, they might go undefeated. 44:07 They finish up Bemidji State this weekend at home. 44:10 And then they had two St. 44:12 Cloud the following weekend. 44:16 Well, they should win obviously those four games. 44:19 The rest of the time they're at home and you would think, hey, you know, I know there's some teams out there that could give them a tough game in IA, like we saw in 1980, anybody can be beaten, right? 44:29 But I mean, if they put their best foot forward, I mean, they might go completely undefeated this year. 44:34 They have 72 points in the league. 44:37 North Dakota second with 45. 44:41 Yeah? 44:42 Yeah. 44:43 So, they've already clinched the league, so. 44:47 And then they're playing the two worst teams, so. 44:49 They're going to have an undefeated regular season. 44:53 And there's little doubt about that, so. 44:55 We're cheering for you, ladies. 44:56 To go undefeated would be simply amazing. 45:00 It would just be a phenomenal thing. 45:02 Unfortunately, if they do get to the Frozen Four, I believe that's the same weekend as the Final Five, isn't it? 45:09 I think it might be. 45:12 It might be. 45:12 I mean, that would be tough. 45:15 Final Five weekend. 45:21 I haven't made it down to one of their games yet, but I'm going to go. 45:24 You never know. 45:25 If they go undefeated, you might never see that again. 45:30 Head down Saturday, 4 p.m. 45:32 against Bemidji State. 45:33 Good time to go down and see the women. 45:35 I mean, the general mission tickets are hardly anything. 45:39 They're very cheap. 45:41 Obviously, these girls are not like your typical women's team. 45:44 It's more like watching Team USA and the Olympics. 45:47 These girls are highly skilled. 45:49 So, I recommend you go out and see them. 45:52 And you're not saying that because they're good-looking. 45:54 You actually mean they're actually skilled in their sport. 45:58 They're good-looking, too. 46:02 I hate to tell you. 46:05 The female athletes for the women's hockey team are much better-looking than they were 10 years ago. 46:11 Because usually when they say they've got talent, you don't know exactly if you mean they're good-looking or what the deal is. 46:18 They wear makeup when they're off there. 46:20 They have their hair nice and a little ponytail. 46:22 They take it seriously. 46:25 Do they actually put makeup on? 46:27 I do see quite a few of them wear makeup. 46:30 Isn't that crap running their eyes? 46:32 I have no idea. 46:33 They know what they're doing, apparently. 46:38 Back in my hairband days, I did, but it's been a while since I've been a rock drummer. 46:44 Any other thoughts on this weekend? 46:45 Outdoor game? 46:48 WCHA, any other thoughts, guys? 46:50 Vegoe? 46:51 Final thoughts? 46:52 I'm waiting for Quinnipiac to drop a game. 46:54 I know they've got games with St. 46:56 Lawrence and Clarkson this weekend. 46:57 I'd like to see them get beat. 46:59 I think they're a little bit overhyped. 47:03 Is this going to be another Yale? 47:06 Well, they play Yale on NBC in February. 47:09 Is this going to be another team that's number one overall in the pairwise, which gives a possible team like North Dakota or even Denver or something like that an easier trek to the Frozen Four? 47:24 Yeah, if you're a two seed, you want to be in their section. 47:27 Man, I don't want to rip on them because obviously they haven't lost a game in forever, but competition isn't that great. 47:39 I think they're a bunch of whiners, dude. 47:42 I'm just sick of this whole, why aren't we number one crap? 47:45 It's like it's a poll who gives a rat's ass. 47:48 You have plenty of time to prove yourself when it really matters if you're really the top team, so quit crying. 47:53 I think they're going to lose in the first game of the NCAAs. 47:58 Could be. 47:59 See what the matchup is. 48:01 It could be somebody like a Denver. 48:02 I mean, Denver's right on the cusp right now. 48:06 I mean, I would pick Denver over them. 48:08 Yeah, I mean, it's not like I'm an expert on their team, so I can't completely judge. 48:14 But, you know, needless to say, I would take a team that's been challenged a lot more by good teams than I would a team that really hasn't played as many good teams. 48:23 I mean, they could easily face someone even like a Mankato. 48:27 Mankato, they bust their ass out there. 48:29 I think they would cause quinnipiac tons of problems. 48:33 So we'll have to see. 48:35 Any other thoughts, guys? 48:36 Let's wrap it up here. 48:39 Nope, we'll see how the novelty game goes on Sunday. 48:42 Novelty game. 48:43 Well, that's what I look at on their novelty, so we'll see. 48:46 But I mean, I hope it's fun for everybody that goes, and hopefully the Gophers will come out of it with a memorable win. 48:53 Biggs? 48:54 Yeah, I'm looking forward to see what it's like with the sidelines at Soldier Field. 48:58 I've been there for a World Cup qualifier once, and I was pretty impressed with the stadium itself, so it'll be fun to see it for hockey. 49:06 It seems like a lot of the seats are close to the field, so it should be an entertaining venue for that. 49:10 Well, yeah, it is cool that they're going to be playing at Soldier Field. 49:13 I mean, you're not seeing a lot of our rivals, so to speak, playing in that kind of an environment. 49:20 I mean, you see what happened this last weekend in Omaha. 49:23 I mean, that's a little bit piddly compared to what we're going to have in Soldier Field, so it's kind of cool from that sense. 49:30 What kind of attendance did they have, do you know, in Omaha this past weekend? 49:35 I didn't look personally. 49:37 I could probably look real quick here. 49:38 Apparently the Hockey City Classic was already 50,000 in sold, I believe. 49:45 Yeah, I think it was pretty up there. 49:47 I'm not sure exactly. 49:49 Last I saw was, and I thought it was like in the 40s, so I don't know. 49:54 The attendance was 13,650. 49:56 They could have put that in the regular... 49:59 Doesn't their place hold 14 or 15? 50:01 They've got a big rink there, so... 50:05 Oh man, that's disappointing. 50:08 Ouch. 50:09 To have to play in those kind of conditions in front of a normal crowd for North Dakota, because obviously they're always at 11 or 12. 50:16 How many of those fans were Lincoln Star fans or Omaha Lancer fans, too? 50:20 You never know. 50:21 Brutal. 50:22 Well, that's it for this week. 50:24 We'll be back next week to talk about this outdoor game and the whole weekend. 50:29 Hopefully the Gophers do well. 50:31 And we'll go into the series with the Bulldogs. 50:35 Maybe I'll talk to Drunk Hockey again. 50:37 Maybe I'll want to come on. 50:40 Be nothing but trouble, let me tell you. 50:42 He was good on here last year, so I think that would be good. 50:44 Yeah, he's kind of tame. 50:47 Yeah, he's an honest about things, so I think he'd be good on here. 50:50 You can always follow Hammy at HammyHockey on Twitter, and you can follow Vego at eVego on Twitter as well. 50:59 That's it. 51:00 We're done. 51:00 We'll see you next week on the GopherPuckLive Podcast.