0:09 This is The GPL Podcast, a production of gopherpucklive.com. 0:22 Now, let's join Cami, Vego and your host, Jupiter. 0:43 Yes, take that, you stinking BADgers. 0:47 Ah, it would be nice to have Glenn on. 0:49 Glenn would be a great guest, don't you guys think? 0:53 I don't know, would we get any words in? 0:57 You're probably right. 1:01 Who knows? 1:04 Vegoe, sounds like your wireless is a little flaky tonight. 1:07 Can you hear us? 1:08 Yeah, I can hear you, but I can tell it's already going to be an issue tonight. 1:12 That darn USB wireless. 1:14 Hey, we'll do our best, man. 1:16 I close on my place at the end of January. 1:19 Well, hey, we might just have to do a live show before that. 1:24 That'd be great. 1:25 Hit up a joint and just do a live show and see how it goes. 1:28 Excel, man. 1:29 Excel, that would be sweet. 1:31 What did you say? 1:33 You're going to come to us, right, Jupe? 1:34 We don't have to go out road tripping hour and a half out to you, right? 1:39 Hour and a half. 1:39 Thanks, man. 1:40 Appreciate that. 1:42 Appreciate that. 1:42 So what's the vehicle of choice tonight? 1:45 Back in the Equinox. 1:46 It's got the heated seats. 1:48 Yeah, it probably heats, probably starting to be an issue right about now. 1:52 Yeah, it's getting chilly out there. 1:54 It's hockey season. 1:57 It is hockey season. 1:57 The games are about to start. 2:00 Yeah, well, that's all good, man. 2:01 It's all good. 2:02 I mean, how are the Roobs doing? 2:05 Uh, season's over, actually. 2:06 We lost our playoff game last night. 2:09 We were up 4-1 and we lost 5-4. 2:12 Typical Roobs fashion. 2:15 Typical. 2:15 Sounds familiar. 2:17 Well, it looks like I left that team right at the right time then. 2:21 All downhill. 2:22 Oh. 2:25 Well, welcome, everybody. 2:26 We're back for another week here on the GPL Podcast. 2:31 Well, boys, we had a split this weekend. 2:33 One game was great and one game was utter crap. 2:37 Uh, I suppose we could talk about the great game first, uh, as, uh, I think you wrote about there, Vegoe, a lot of sniping going on Friday night. 2:48 Yeah, it was amazing. 2:49 It looked like every player for the Gophers, when they had that wide open look, they were trying to pick that top corner and they would, they were probably about four for 20 on picking that top corner. 3:00 Uh, but they, they just kept hitting that spot and it, you know, it started out to be kind of an ugly game. 3:05 That first 12 minutes was really shaky. 3:08 Um, they had players just walking right through the deep, going right in on Wilcox and Wilcox was kind of fighting the puck a little bit. 3:15 So it looked like it was going to be a tough weekend right from the start. 3:19 Then after that first TV timeout, uh, they just got three real quick. 3:23 And, uh, that kind of turned the corner for at least Friday night. 3:27 Hanny, what are your thoughts on Friday night? 3:29 Pretty good night overall, huh? 3:32 Yeah, I mean, you can't, I mean, like you said, it really didn't start off quite the way you would like. 3:36 And, you know, that was a little concerning. 3:38 But then, you know, the thing that this team has shown this year is that they can really score goals in bunches and to have that, you know, three, four minute span where they just, you know, one right after the other, you know, it just kind of turn the tables. 3:50 And then, you know, it just didn't seem from that point onward, like the game was going to be in doubt. 3:55 I mean, it was just a very weird weekend. 3:58 I know we'll get into the second game. 3:59 But for me, it was just a very, I thought it would be a split. 4:02 But I certainly didn't expect, you know, the disparity in goals, you know, each game and, you know, one way for, you know, for us and one front for them. 4:10 So, I mean, it was just really surprising weekend. 4:13 Well, yeah, obviously, overall, just like Lucia said Friday night, he said, you know, it was not a six to one game. 4:19 It seems like, you know, they just had some great shots and made, you know, took advantage of their opportunities and, and obviously, Wilcox was pretty darn good in that, you know, 36 saves, a career high. 4:30 So, everything just kind of went right for him. 4:32 But you move on to Sunday afternoon and they couldn't do anything. 4:37 And when you look at specialty teams, sure, they got a couple of power play goals. 4:45 I pretty much thought one of them was pretty meaningless. 4:48 But the penalty kill just got worse and worse. 4:51 And the dogs really took advantage of the bad penalty kill, Hammey. 4:59 Yeah, I mean, I went back today just to kind of review the goals just because I wanted to have a better feel for tonight, you know, what I actually thought. 5:07 Because, you know, it really comes down to a power play, or excuse me, a penalty kill, you just have to have good discipline out there. 5:14 I mean, first of all, we didn't really have, to me, we didn't have our heads in the game right from the get go. 5:18 I mean, I don't know if it's a let down, a whole Sunday game and just all that stuff, but they just, it was like a, you don't lose your talent and your ability in less than 48 hours. 5:30 I mean, it was definitely a game where, mentally, we just were not there. 5:34 And you got to give UMD credit. 5:36 They, you know, they have a lot of pride in their program. 5:38 And certainly they like to beat the Gophers under normal circumstances. 5:41 And then coming off of, you know, getting their doors blown off on Friday, you had to expect that they were going to come back with a lot of energy. 5:49 And we just didn't match that intensity. 5:51 And then the power pull, excuse me, the penalty kill breakdowns, you know, I think some of the defensive guys, you know, for me, we have good forwards as far as penalty kill out there. 6:03 I mean, you have Saraturi and Condon and Rao and some of those guys. 6:07 I mean, they've shown the ability to be good penalty killers. 6:09 But I think that there's just been too many breakdowns on the defensive core, you know, back by the net. 6:15 And you can't leave guys wide open. 6:18 It just, it was ugly. 6:20 I think ugly is a good word because Vegoe, a lot of those power play goals were not Will Cox's fault. 6:28 He was left hanging out to dry. 6:32 No, it really seemed like a lot of the penalty killers were puck watching and letting guys get into the passing lanes. 6:38 And the passing lanes were clear as daylight to everybody watching the game. 6:42 You don't know how the killers didn't see that they were out of position in some of those cases. 6:47 I mean, it was pretty obvious like those passes were going to be there and Duluth capitalized and didn't give Will Cox a chance to recover. 6:56 And they definitely capitalized. 6:58 But yeah, the kill had three real good games in a row. 7:02 And then Sunday, they just kind of lost it. 7:04 And, you know, the Bulldogs took advantage of it. 7:07 Yeah, I believe they had four power play goals on the night. 7:11 So, four power play and a shorthanded, so. 7:15 Yeah, it was strange because, you know, after Friday night, you know, everybody was pretty confident about the progress the penalty kill had made. 7:22 All the players were talking about how Genzel had really done a good job at telling guys, you know, how to get sticks in the lanes, how to get good positioning, how to block shots. 7:32 And then they, you know, must have spent too much time Saturday at the Gopher football game or something. 7:37 And Sunday, they were just out of it. 7:40 Well, I mean, you know, I'm not a great penalty-killing mind, but to me, it just, you can't, you have to stay disciplined in your areas. 7:48 You have to be able to understand the angles. 7:52 I thought that they were running around a little too much. 7:54 And you have to know when a guy is in a scoring area and when he's not, you don't necessarily have to go chasing a guy behind the net and whatever. 8:01 And that leaves guys open. 8:03 You know, you're just creating an odd man situation around the net. 8:07 And that, to me, is where the breakdowns really occur. 8:10 I thought there was just way too much running around and guys not supporting each other. 8:14 And, you know, UMD has got a talented team. 8:17 You know, they got some good talent offensively. 8:19 And they're going to take advantage of some of those breakdowns. 8:22 So you have to be disciplined. 8:23 And we just didn't have it that day. 8:25 Well, actually, the penalty kill went from number 39 last week to number 44 after this weekend. 8:32 So we're getting into historical badness territory for the penalty kill. 8:38 And they better do something quick, because if other teams just watch the video, they're going to be watching a lot of video of UMD this past Sunday afternoon, because they just lit us up. 8:51 It was just no contest. 8:53 Well, you know, I think the one good thing that I feel about it is that these are the kinds of things that you can teach. 8:59 You know, I mean, these are the kinds of things that it's just all about understanding and having discipline out there. 9:05 And I just didn't, you know, this was just one of those games. 9:09 I mean, I went back and looked and, you know, the 2002 title team, I mean, I think we got beat by Wisconsin one game, like seven to three. 9:17 And I know the next year we had one or two bad losses, you know, when we went back to back. 9:22 So I mean, it's not like even our very best teams don't have these kinds of, you know, lay in an egg type of a game. 9:29 And so you kind of have to put it in that perspective and not go too far overboard. 9:33 But, you know, it's certainly, you don't like to see them, but hopefully they learn some valuable lessons in the long run. 9:39 You know, I agree, you know, those teams, you know, you have a, you lay an egg once in a while, bad game here and there, but do you remember those teams having such bad specialty teams on both ends? 9:51 Well, to be fair though, I think that those teams also had some really veteran talent, you know, that was, I mean, a lot more veteran talent. 9:58 You think of John Pole and you think of Leopold and some of those guys, you know, they were very senior, you know, a lot of senior leadership in 2002. 10:07 And then you had that, that big junior class, you know, in 2003. 10:12 So, I mean, I don't know that we have quite the same. 10:15 I mean, we're relying a lot more on younger guys this year to, to kind of, you know, do a lot of the carrying of the mail, as Lucia likes to say. 10:23 So, I mean, I think that that's going to be a part of it. 10:26 You kind of have to look at it from a different perspective in that sense. 10:31 So Vegoe, definitely a Jekyll and Hyde weekend, but again, the Gophers did get a Big Ten star of the week. 10:39 Mr. 10:39 Brodzinski hasn't been playing as much, but he at least put on a good show this weekend. 10:46 Yeah, they were trying them on that first power play unit, and at least on Friday night, it worked. 10:52 He looked really comfortable handling the puck on that off wings. 10:57 I think that the power play is generating some chances. 11:00 They are gaining the zone pretty cleanly. 11:02 They're able to move a puck around, but they're just not creating those two-on-ones quite as often as you'd like to see out of a unit like that. 11:11 They're pretty reliant on getting those one-time shots from the off wings. 11:16 It worked really well last year when they had a guy like Bukstad, who could just hammer those right into the upper 90 and put those in. 11:24 I don't know if they quite have a guy like that, but Brodzinski is going to get a shot because he's an offensive player, he's got good hands, and he can shoot it. 11:32 That's something they need on that first unit, at least to give that threat from that off wing, to maybe draw some guys out from the net and maybe create some chances for fashion and row down by the crease again. 11:45 Yeah, right now, the side to side movement is pretty bad on the power play. 11:50 Hopefully, that's something they're working on. 11:52 Obviously, they did improve. 11:53 They did get some goals this weekend, so that was good. 11:55 But hopefully, we'll keep seeing some improvement there. 11:59 Yeah, I'm not at all concerned about the power play units. 12:03 There's too much talent there, and they've got guys on the blue line. 12:06 They're very good at moving the puck around. 12:09 It's just a matter of building that chemistry, and I think they have improved. 12:14 I think the key, obviously, moving forward, is just continually trying to be better on the penalty kill and being more disciplined. 12:21 What did you guys think of the refing this weekend? 12:24 I thought they called it pretty tight, but I thought they were fairly consistent in the way they called the games. 12:30 Obviously, these two guys, I've never seen them before. 12:34 Vegoe, what were your thoughts on the refing this weekend? 12:36 Were you happy with it? 12:37 Was it okay? 12:38 Well, I thought it was consistently tight during the weekend, but if you compare this weekend to last weekend, completely different. 12:46 We had Marco Hunt the weekend before. 12:48 Yeah, the last WCHA. 12:50 Yeah, it was the old WCHA, and there had to be some blood, and even then, it's got to be a lot of blood, or takeaway scoring chance. 12:58 And then this weekend against Duluth, it just kind of turned into a specialty fest, especially on Sunday. 13:04 And that's tough for guys in your line up to get in the game, when guys are having a hard time adjusting to the crew. 13:12 And even when you have that off day in between, maybe they forget a little bit, and then it gets feisty because it's such an in-state rivalry kind of game, and then it just kind of gets out of hand. 13:23 And at one point in a blowout, the refs start calling everything just to get guys off the ice who are causing trouble. 13:31 What do you think, Hammeh, refing? 13:34 You know, I didn't really have any problems with it. 13:38 As long as it's consistent, I'm not going to belly-ache like North Dakota fans tend to. 13:42 I just think that you just kind of have to get a read from the refs early on in games or in a series, you know, how they're calling things, and then just kind of adjust accordingly. 13:53 And, you know, this Gopher team has enough, I think, flexibility in its game that it should be able to adjust and not have it be a problem. 14:01 I just think, frankly, that we just weren't very disciplined and smart on Sunday. 14:06 I mean, Lucia mentioned it after the game on TV that they didn't take some good penalties. 14:13 You know, they were offensive zone penalties or neutral zone penalties, just stupid things like that that you really need to eliminate. 14:21 I mean, it's one thing to take a penalty when you're trying to prevent a goal, but when you're taking them in non-scoring situations, that's where you're going to hurt yourself. 14:30 And we just were stupid on Sunday. 14:33 And I would agree. 14:35 I don't necessarily think that that's a problem with the officials. 14:39 I think the players need to adjust a little bit. 14:40 I just think it's a little bit difficult when there's going to be such a variance between refs in the league. 14:46 And it's going to make it hard for guys to figure out what is going to get called. 14:50 Because everybody expects the scoring chances to get called. 14:53 But it's kind of the stuff in transition where you're maybe giving a guy a little hook. 14:58 Not every ref calls that stuff. 15:00 And it's a little bit of an adjustment, I think. 15:03 Yeah, I would agree. 15:04 I think any of the belly aching should be towards the team and the coaches, letting these guys know, hey, you could tell they're calling it close. 15:12 Be smart out there. 15:13 And if you're not smart, you're going to be in the box. 15:15 And you know, with the way the specialty teams are going right now, they're struggling. 15:20 It's going to cost you goals. 15:21 So it's definitely some things that they need to adjust to, because like I said, this is not the WCHA anymore, unless you got Marco Hunt out there. 15:29 So we'll have to see how that continues. 15:32 Like I said, I had never even heard of those two guys. 15:34 I assumed they were probably CCHA guys. 15:38 I'm not really sure. 15:40 They had Great Movember going. 15:41 I know that. 15:42 Some Great Stashes going, but. 15:43 Yeah, very impressive. 15:45 Yes. 15:46 Very porn star like on one of them. 15:48 I noticed that. 15:51 Well, boys, we kick off the Big Ten this weekend. 15:55 New conference, finally getting into conference play. 16:00 Bucky Badger coming to town. 16:03 And well, earlier this year, a lot of people put them way up. 16:08 You know, even we said, you know, we expected them to play a little better than they have been. 16:14 But so far, Hammy, the Badgers, I don't think have really lived up to what they were supposed to be. 16:23 No, I mean, I think that a lot of people were a little surprised, particularly when that trip out to Boston. 16:29 That was a pretty ugly weekend for them. 16:31 They got blown out twice. 16:33 And, you know, they've improved a little bit since then. 16:37 They had a nice split at Miami, so, I mean, that's certainly a positive for them. 16:41 It's weird because they've had a very odd schedule. 16:43 They've had already a couple off weekends. 16:45 I mean, so I don't know that they've really been able to build the kind of consistency that you would like to see. 16:51 I don't know, and I don't know what goes into all the scheduling and stuff, but, you know, to have a, you know, play a weekend, be off a weekend, play a weekend, be off a weekend. 16:59 I mean, that's got to be very challenging to build some cohesiveness. 17:02 And I mean, yeah, you have to practice, but everybody gets to practice. 17:06 So that's not really that big of a deal to have an extra practice during the week or whatever. 17:10 So it's kind of hard to get a feel for Wisconsin right now for me. 17:15 I mean, it's just, I expected them to be better because they have a lot of veteran talent. 17:19 And, you know, frankly, this is a year that they probably need to capitalize on because they're going to be more than likely losing a lot of valuable players, you know, after this year. 17:28 And they're probably going to have some issues in the next year or two with their team being young and, you know, maybe not quite having the same level of talent. 17:35 So, I would expect them to kind of start to turn it on as the season goes on. 17:40 Take that, you speaking BADger! 17:43 Yes, take that. 17:45 Vegoe, your thoughts on the BADgers so far? 17:49 Well, it's definitely surprising to see them kind of get off to a rough start, especially that series out east. 17:54 And then, you know, going up against Miami, you know, that's a tough team, you know, that's a top 10 team you expect to see in the tournament. 18:01 So, it's no surprise to see them split, but it's surprising to kind of see them go out east and get, you know, stomped like they did. 18:09 I mean, you look at a lot of teams like Minnesota and UMD and, you know, BC, and they're reliant on a lot of youngsters. 18:19 And then, you look at Wisconsin's lineup, and they've got Merch, Barnes and Zangarly, who are all seniors. 18:25 And they're all expected to be big contributors. 18:27 And then, they've got McCabe on the bull line, who is, you know, a stud back there. 18:31 And so, you expect those guys to be leaders. 18:34 So, you know, on paper, this should be a really tough contest this weekend. 18:38 So, it's surprising that they got stomped out east, but, you know, anything can happen this weekend. 18:42 You know Wisconsin is going to bring their best game, and they're going to be low scoring. 18:47 You know, and the other thing is, as, you know, they did split at Miami, but the thing I've, you know, Miami's actually been struggling lately. 18:54 I mean, they've lost four of their last five. 18:56 I'm starting to actually wonder if they're, you know, kind of a bit of a one-line team. 18:59 I mean, they have some real good talent on their top line, but then it's like there's a pretty steep drop-off after that. 19:06 And so I'm kind of wondering if maybe Miami might be a little bit overrated this, you know, at least to this point in the year. 19:11 I mean, they're only one game above 500 right now. 19:13 So it's kind of interesting. 19:16 Like I said, it's kind of hard to get a feel for Wisconsin. 19:18 You know, they pulled off a nice victory on the road against Miami, but Miami hasn't exactly been killing it lately either. 19:24 So I, you know, I personally think that Wisconsin as a program, may be in trouble, not just from a player standpoint. 19:37 You know, they've got some older guys and, you know, next year could be a struggle, but you know, obviously we've talked in the past, their attendance is dropping like a rock, you know. 19:48 They've gone from 15,000 to 13,000 to 10 to nine. 19:53 And through four games so far this year, they're, you know, they've sold average of 8,500 tickets in a 15,000 seat arena. 20:04 Sure, those four games weren't great, but you know what? 20:06 Their upcoming home schedule isn't great either. 20:11 Has their fans caught up with them, Hammeh? 20:14 Are they getting sick of this type of play? 20:16 I mean, this isn't old time Badger Hockey anymore. 20:19 This is some pretty boring crap. 20:22 Well, I mean. 20:23 Well, it is. 20:24 I'm sorry. 20:26 And I've been to games at the Kohl Center, and the place is packed and the fans are crazy. 20:32 They may be as dumb as rocks, but they're there, they support the team and the place is packed. 20:39 And the last few years, it's just dropping like crazy. 20:43 What's going on over there? 20:45 Well, I think first of all, I have to remember that when you're there, the Gophers are there and obviously that's the biggest series of the year for like Wisconsin as far as home games go. 20:53 But I don't know, I'm sure it's a combination of factors. 20:57 I don't think you can say it's any one thing. 20:59 I'm sure some of it's economy driven. 21:00 Some of it's probably results driven over recent years. 21:03 Some of it's, it could be that, I don't know. 21:08 I mean, they were the leaders. 21:10 They led an average of tenets for like, I would say most of the past 30 years. 21:15 Well, I mean, the other thing is, they are, it seems like they seem to be de-emphasizing hockey a little bit there from their administrative point of view. 21:26 I mean, Alvarez, as much as he gets a lot of the grief for the Big Ten and all that kind of stuff. 21:31 I mean, it almost seems like they're not maybe treating hockey quite as importantly as maybe they did in the past. 21:38 I mean, granted, you got football and basketball are the financial drivers of any full Division I school. 21:45 So, I mean, you kind of understand that to a degree, but certainly their hockey team has been something that's provided some positives to them over the years. 21:55 So, you wouldn't want to kind of neglect that either, but it just kind of seems like the vibe is, when they're talking about removing banners and doing this and that, it just seems like they're de-emphasizing their hockey there. 22:07 And Wisconsin is not a strong hockey state. 22:10 I know their fans think they are. 22:11 But maybe we're biased here because of how great hockey is in Minnesota. 22:16 But you kind of have to look at it from that standpoint as well. 22:21 And I don't know, but it's certainly a significant problem. 22:24 I mean, you have that kind of a drop off in attendance. 22:27 I mean, that is something pretty major. 22:30 I mean, you could look at their upcoming home schedule, too. 22:32 I mean, you know, after they play Minnesota, they have Penn State at home. 22:38 They have CC coming in. 22:40 CC is awful now. 22:43 Huntsville, Anchorage. 22:45 I mean, their home schedule is pretty much crap until they face Michigan on January 10th. 22:54 It could be getting even worse there Vegoe. 22:57 What's going on? 22:59 Yeah. 22:59 I mean, I think part of it might be that non-conference schedule. 23:02 I mean, Northern Michigan, Lake Superior, the Huntsvilles and Anchorage's of the world aren't exactly going to sell tickets. 23:09 Especially when you're competing against a basketball program that has been making the tournament every year and a football team that threatens to get into BCS every year, it's probably not an easy ticket to sell. 23:21 But I'm surprised about the attendance. 23:23 I had some band members sitting behind me at the football game on Saturday, and they said, no one really cares that much about hockey. 23:32 It's a good night out, but it's not something everybody cares about. 23:36 Will this be a huge detriment to their program? 23:39 I mean, you stop filling the arena, it's going to affect the entire program pretty quick. 23:47 I mean, you're going to stop getting recruits. 23:50 It's not like they're getting the cream of the crop, but they're getting some really good players there. 23:55 Especially over the holidays when they're playing CC, Huntsville and Anchorage, they're probably going to have recruits coming in. 24:02 That place is going to be more than half empty. 24:04 It's going to be embarrassing. 24:06 How do you recruit for that when in the past the place was packed? 24:10 Well, the other thing I don't entirely understand is, you know, it seemed like Alvarez was sort of, you know, against scheduling something like the Minnesota schools, you know, the smaller, and then they add in basically these crap schools that even they have even less connection to the fan base, you know, as compared, at least they understand that, okay, these were some of our WCHA opponents in the past and whatever. 24:34 I don't really understand the thinking in that regard. 24:37 I mean, that seems a little odd to me to kind of go, you know, to say one thing, but then kind of schedule things in a different way, you know, that sort of goes against that. 24:47 It's a little weird to me. 24:48 I don't really understand it. 24:49 I think part of it, you know, from, is that they've kind of been, you know, on that bubble where they've been kind of, you know, closer to pair wise and a few losses cost them. 24:59 I think that maybe from a strategic point of view, they were like, well, you know, maybe kind of like the Gopher football program, you know, you schedule three or four Patsy's non-conference just so you can make sure that you're bull eligible by the end of the year. 25:12 And I don't know if that's the thinking there, like, okay, if we make sure that we can guarantee a certain amount of wins so then we don't have to sweat too much, you know, or as much when it comes to the end of the season with the pairwise. 25:23 I don't know. 25:24 But I mean, it just seems very odd they're scheduling in that sense. 25:29 Be aware, BADger fans, you better start supporting your team or it's going to get even worse. 25:36 And those Big Ten schools like Minnesota and Michigan and Michigan State are going to start kicking your butt. 25:42 And you've already lost to Penn State in the past. 25:46 It could easily happen this year. 25:47 You guys need to get it going or you're going to be at the bottom of the league and be an embarrassment, which after 30, whatever, how many years of leading the country in attendance, it's going south real fast, BADgers. 26:02 I thought you support your team. 26:04 Apparently not. 26:06 It's starting to be an embarrassment. 26:08 Sorry. 26:10 I just find it really weird that all these attendance problems and it just seems like it came out of nowhere. 26:16 Could it be Eves? 26:17 Who knows? 26:18 Could it be the style of hockey? 26:20 I don't know, but time will tell, guys, this year. 26:25 If they keep that attendance low, we know something's going on over there, and who knows what will happen from there. 26:31 I think the Gophers are going to sweep this weekend, boys. 26:33 I just, I don't think the BADgers will be able to keep up. 26:37 I think the Gophers hopefully will learn from their mistakes, stay out of the box no matter who's coming as refs, and take it to the BADgers. 26:46 Vegoe, how will they do? 26:49 Well, unfortunately, I think it's going to be a split this weekend. 26:51 You jackbag! 26:53 I think Mersh is one of the better players in the Big Ten Conference. 26:57 He's off to a decent start, and if it is a penalty-filled weekend, like I suspect it might be, I think the fact that the Gophers power play has been struggling a little bit, and their penalty kill has been struggling a bit, they're going to be running into a veteran team. 27:12 This is a team that's got a lot of juniors and seniors in key positions, and I think that's going to be enough to get Wisconsin one of the two games. 27:20 Don't let me down, Hammeh. 27:23 Well, I'm not calling it a sweep. 27:24 I do think we'll take three points, mainly because I do think that the veteran part of it is certainly to their advantage. 27:33 The closest team that they've played that's similar to us is BC, and BC obviously throttled them, so I do believe that they're going to probably have some issues keeping up with the pace of the Gophers, because we're obviously a very fast skating transition team, similar to BC in that sense, and so I think that certainly we'll have our opportunities to score goals, and I have faith in the guys that they'll take to heart what happened on Sunday, and that they'll be working hard on making sure that they got some of those issues cleaned up by next weekend. 28:07 I'll give Wisconsin some credit and think that they'll play a tough series, and I don't expect it to be any blowouts or anything like that, but I do think that one of the games they'll probably pull out a point out of it. 28:20 Just a reminder to fans, the Big Ten is going to be a little bit different than a WCHA. 28:26 A win will be three points instead of two. 28:31 A tie is still one point, no matter, you get through over time. 28:35 Teams are tied, each team will get a one point. 28:38 And then if you win the shootout, you'll get the extra points. 28:42 So, shootout win gets you two points on that game, and so it's gonna be a little different than it was before. 28:48 So, just be ready for it. 28:51 A couple notes also on this weekend. 28:54 Friday's game, 4 p.m. 28:56 ESPNU. 28:59 Also on the Big Ten or To Go. 29:02 Yeah, it will be on BTN To Go, which is a good thing for people who might not get ESPNU and HD, like I don't. 29:08 But, kind of a strange thing with ESPNU. 29:11 I don't know if they're just trying to fill the time slot or what, but we'll have to see on that. 29:18 Couple questions via Twitter. 29:20 Mark Erickson had a couple things for us. 29:24 He could kind of actually be getting back to Brodsinski. 29:26 He was asking how does he change our power play? 29:31 Or is he the answer on the power play as well? 29:33 Vegoe, what do you think? 29:35 I think he's one of the more promising players they've put there because he's able to handle the puck under a little bit more pressure, I think, than some of the other guys they've put in that position. 29:45 So, I think he's a little bit more of a calming presence, even though he's a freshman. 29:49 I think he's got the skill and kind of that low panic point that the Gopher's coaches talk about with some of their defensemen and he gives them the ability to maybe have a little bit of trading going on or with Riley up top and protecting them in transition if they do get caught. 30:06 But I thought he looked really comfortable there over the weekend and I think he's a good fit for that spot right now. 30:12 What do you think, Hammeh, Brodszynski the answer on the point at power play? 30:17 Yeah, I mean, while he's got, you know, he's much like his older brother. 30:21 They both have very good shots. 30:23 He's been known as kind of a goal scorer, you know, from that position, you know, in his past. 30:28 So I think that that's a good fit. 30:29 You know, it was unfortunate on that on Sunday, he got kind of caught flat footed on that shorthanded goal by Tanenado. 30:36 You know, I don't really entirely blame him, but you know, because it was a five on three and they're trying to be aggressive. 30:42 But so, but yeah, overall, I think that he's done really well. 30:45 I think that, you know, like anything for me, when it comes to those first year guys, I, you know, my preference is that they focus, make sure that they take care of their business on the defensive end. 30:58 So as long as they do that, you know, everything else for me is kind of gravy. 31:02 And I kind of frankly sometimes get a little bit concerned that we get too caught up offensively from the defenses, you know, group. 31:10 I know that Lucia likes those guys that can transition and push the puck up and whatever and kind of be that fourth forward, so to speak. 31:18 But sometimes I think that that opens things up a little bit too much on the other end, you know, for odd man stuff. 31:23 So, yeah, I like him on that situation and I think that he'll grow into it and continually improve. 31:29 And my hope is that him and, you know, some of the rest of the guys just start cleaning up a little bit of things on the defensive side. 31:34 No, I just want to say I think that the freshman blue liners have been very good about choosing when to be that fourth guy. 31:43 The one thing that they've kind of struggled with a little bit is getting shots blocked at the point and trying to fumble the puck at the point a little bit and getting caught there. 31:51 But joining the rush, I think they have made a lot of great decisions so far this season. 31:56 Mark Erickson also asked via Twitter, What are the chances our team slumps because they are undersized and freshmen? 32:05 I guess it sounds like pretty much they are undersized and young. 32:08 You think that's a factor, Hammeh? 32:11 I mean I do notice some of these guys, you know, they can get pushed around a little bit. 32:16 Well, I mean I think it remains to be seen. 32:19 I mean it's sort of, you know, it's one of those things where it's like, well, you can't, you know, if you can't catch it, then really what, you know, is it really going to hurt? 32:27 You know, I mean the other team still has to hit these guys and catch them and they're pretty quick and they're fast in transition. 32:32 So, you know, it just really depends upon, you know, how these guys take care of themselves throughout the season. 32:38 I think that, you know, we have basically this series and then Michigan, at Michigan State next week and then we're off for a month. 32:45 You know what I mean? 32:46 So they can put it all out there for the next two weekends and they basically have a month where they can rest up and everything. 32:52 So I don't know if I really buy into that being a big deal and I know that we will have a little bit of a break in February. 33:01 We'll have some time off. 33:02 So I mean, I don't really know that I buy into that entirely. 33:06 Of course, injuries are always a factor and you hope that everybody stays healthy. 33:10 But I don't know that I really believe, plus these guys have played long seasons in junior hockey so I don't know if that's going to be that big of a factor. 33:20 All right, well, remember you can always tweet us your questions if you're listening live at Gopher Puck Live and we'll try to read them if we can. 33:29 I would do the voice messages but nobody had the balls enough to call the line. 33:34 Not even Drunk Hockey Guy calling in, you know, bragging about his, well, team, I guess. 33:42 Who knows? 33:44 He didn't want to do it, Veegs. 33:45 I know you tried to goad him a little bit but he wouldn't do it. 33:49 I know, I really wasn't going to miss that now. 33:52 You know, we're in the Big Ten. 33:53 This series just doesn't mean quite as much to him as it used to be, you know? 33:58 You know, he might check in every once in a while, maybe attend a game if he gets free tickets. 34:03 But it's just not going to be like it used to. 34:06 Well, that's just too bad. 34:07 I mean, it was more important for him to go to the Packard game this weekend. 34:12 He was in Green Bay with Cardinal. 34:15 So who knows? 34:19 Isn't going to split up those two. 34:23 Boy, did he luck out with that game, too. 34:25 Oh, gosh. 34:27 That was horrible. 34:29 Why do I even watch that? 34:30 I don't even know why I waste my time with the Vikings anymore. 34:33 Got me. 34:34 It's just so bad. 34:36 Just so bad. 34:39 Oh, boys, you got anything else for us this week? 34:41 I thought we could kind of wrap it up early here. 34:44 Yeah, pretty quiet week. 34:46 Yeah, you know, next week, we'll have Michigan State and that's it. 34:50 We'll probably do a show next week and take a month off or so because there's nothing going on in December after Michigan State. 35:02 Yeah, I mean, I kind of like the time off. 35:05 I never really liked the whole... 35:07 You know, December was always so weird for Gopher Hockey. 35:10 We'd have the holiday classic and whatever and I don't know. 35:15 It'll be interesting. 35:16 Now, we're basically all the way down the stretch, you know, other than one non-conference with the North Star Cup. 35:25 North Star Cup and then we have the January 3rd and 4th games. 35:29 But everything else is Big Ten from here on out. 35:31 Now, I'm curious, when is the junior tournament? 35:36 When will Lucia be gone? 35:37 Will he miss the Mariucci Classic? 35:40 He'll miss the Mariucci Classic. 35:41 The tournament will typically go kind of that last week of December into the first week of January. 35:47 Yeah. 35:47 Okay. 35:48 Last year, they were back probably around the 7th or 8th. 35:51 Yeah. 35:52 For that Notre Dame game. 35:54 Where is it this year? 35:59 Is it in Russia this year? 36:01 I don't know. 36:03 I can't remember where it is. 36:05 I thought it was in Canada this year, but I'm not sure. 36:07 It could be back in Canada. 36:10 Who cares? 36:11 I don't pay attention to it till it comes up. 36:12 So I am assuming Gens will be the coach for a couple of games. 36:16 And it will be fine. 36:18 That's what I heard. 36:19 So it looks like it's in Sweden, I think. 36:24 That's in Sweden. 36:25 Yeah. 36:26 Malmö, Sweden. 36:28 Yep. 36:28 Not a bad spot. 36:29 I wouldn't mind going there just to see that. 36:32 Could be fun. 36:34 All right, boys. 36:35 Is that it? 36:36 Nothing else? 36:38 That's it. 36:39 Looks like we will not be on next Tuesday. 36:43 So I'll talk with you guys. 36:44 Maybe we go to Wednesday or some other time next week. 36:47 Because I'm not available Tuesday night. 36:50 So we'll come up with something. 36:52 Hey, boys. 36:53 Sounds good. 36:53 All right. 36:54 Sounds good. 36:54 Remember, you can always follow Hammy at Hammy Hockey on Twitter and of course, E Vegoe on Twitter for VEGS. 37:03 And like I said, you can always call and leave a voicemail for us. 37:07 We'll put you on the air. 37:12 320-321-9584 if you have the balls to do it. 37:14 Or else just tweet us or whatever. 37:17 But we'll be back next week to recap those stinking BADgers. 37:20 And we'll get into the Michigan State Series. 37:24 Until then, we'll see you next time.