0:22 Now, let's join Cami, Vegoe and your host, Jupiter. 0:37 Good evening, and welcome to The GPL Podcast. 0:40 We're back for another week of torture. 0:44 Hopefully this week, we will not have any type of smoke detectors going off, but there's no guarantee. 0:50 But at least my daughter's not cooking this week, which was the problem last week. 0:54 Yeah, but wasn't the listenership up last week? 0:56 Listenership was up. 0:57 They must have loved that god-awful piercing sound, which was, oh, that was good stuff, wasn't it? 1:05 Well, we've got a guest this week, and we've never had him on before, but I know Vegoe and I see him all the time at Mariucci, and you probably see his writing at SB Nation for College Hockey, Nate Wells. 1:18 You might know him on Twitter as Gopher State. 1:20 Nate, how you doing? 1:22 I'm good, thanks for having me, guys. 1:25 Longtime listener, first time guest together. 1:27 Longtime listener, first time caller. 1:29 Yeah, thank you very much. 1:31 Well, thanks for joining us. 1:32 I know you've been at Mariucci for what, three or four years now, covering the Gopher Hockey Team? 1:38 Yeah, I think three full years, part of a fourth. 1:40 At the very least, the guys who are seniors now are freshmen, so. 1:45 So, they're all successes because of you then, isn't it? 1:48 Apparently. 1:48 No, the first couple of games, though, I had three losses in a row, and it was two of them were the Anchorage playoff losses, so I start off as a jinx, but. 1:57 That's not good. 1:58 That's not good. 1:59 Well, I'm glad we have you aboard this week, and we'll just have you as part of our regular conversation here. 2:05 But let's start off with Hammey. 2:07 Hammey, a 3-2 overtime win over Michigan, and then a 6-2 drubbing by Michigan. 2:13 You were a little boisterous on Twitter as I was for 6-2, but let's start with 3-2 overtime victory. 2:19 Rao with the big goal to clinch the regular season title and the Big Ten. 2:25 Yeah, it was kind of your typical tight road game at the end of the season on Michigan being pretty desperate to keep their NCAA hopes alive. 2:34 So you kind of had to expect that they were going to be ready to go. 2:37 And the weekend kind of turned out the way I expected. 2:40 I think I said last week, I didn't think Wisconsin was going to sweep on the road and they didn't. 2:45 And obviously the Gophers just had to get a couple points in order to clinch. 2:49 So all in all, it was pretty much what I expected. 2:53 I won't even touch Saturday, but whatever. 2:58 Well, you had a problem with Saturday? 2:59 What's the deal? 3:03 Just putting it behind us. 3:04 I know. 3:05 I know. 3:05 You and I were both going on on Twitter about it, but let's get Vegoe's thoughts on the weekend. 3:09 No, it was a good win. 3:12 I think Friday night showed that this year's team, as they've done all season, could have won those tight games. 3:18 They fell behind and they found a way to battle back and now with the big goal, Wilcox's goaltending has just been the difference this year. 3:26 He won that player of the year award for defensive player and he deserves it. 3:31 I mean, this is definitely the difference between this year's Gopher team and a lot of the ones in the past. 3:37 And I think coming down the stretch run here in the playoffs and the NCAAs, he's going to be a huge part of that. 3:42 Well, Wilcox was the player of the year in the Big Ten, the goaltender of the year in the Big Ten, so it's definitely a big year for him. 3:50 What are your thoughts on this weekend, Nate? 3:53 I thought we had some good, some bad. 3:54 I'm going to agree with you guys with Wilcox. 3:56 For the longest time, kind of just been dismissing him as an elite goaltender just because of how few shots he has. 4:03 But just as the year goes on, he's just more and more consistent to the point where you see him do well and you just take it for granted. 4:09 Friday night was great. 4:10 Gophers struggled a little bit early on. 4:13 Thought the ice was a little chippy at Yost. 4:15 But came back and you had the Rao goal in OT, which I don't know how many times I've just seen him do that goal. 4:21 It doesn't look easy. 4:23 It never does, but he makes it look that way. 4:27 Saturday, just ugly. 4:29 First period looked good. 4:34 I watched the Saturday game after the fact, so I kind of knew what was going on and what I was in store for after covering the women. 4:43 Watching the first period, I was like, okay, this isn't too bad. 4:45 They're kind of hanging in there. 4:47 Second period, you saw a Michigan team that was just really desperate. 4:52 They knew they had to win. 4:52 Do you have any chance of that large bid? 4:54 They came out and showed that way, and Minnesota just played like a team that was still hungover from winning. 5:01 The one thing with that, though, is they did come out and play probably the first 21 minutes or whatever pretty hard. 5:08 A couple of bounces didn't go their way, and then all of a sudden they're in position to make plays, and they just don't follow through. 5:16 I'm not sure, you know, I know we've talked about this on Twitter a little bit, but I'm not sure what Lucia could have done differently. 5:22 I mean, I might have played Michelson and Ryan Reilly just to get guys in the lineup who, you know, would have something to prove. 5:30 Because the other guys, you know, they're probably not going to go all out on every play to finish out. 5:35 There's nothing at stake. 5:38 Did Lucia set the team up for failure on purpose Saturday night? 5:44 Any of you? 5:46 I don't think any did anything on purpose in terms of a negative. 5:49 But, you know, my feeling, I mean, I made it clear. 5:52 I'm a big believer in momentum going into the postseason. 5:56 I'm not saying that one loss. 5:57 I mean, we saw Yale last year lose two games right before the NCAA. 6:00 So I'm not saying that there's any one right way of doing things. 6:04 It's just my feeling and how I like to, the teams that I follow and the teams that I've been on, whatever, I just like to stay aggressive. 6:12 That's just my mentality. 6:13 I understand they're trying to get guys rest and, you know, have Wilcox be fresh and warning maybe healed up more. 6:20 Although I don't know what one night is necessarily going to do. 6:23 I mean, honestly for me, if they need that much rest, then give them a practice off. 6:27 I'd rather see them play than, you know, than anything else. 6:30 But anyways, that's my feeling on it. 6:32 There's more than one way to do it. 6:35 And it doesn't mean that my way is the right way, but that's how I feel. 6:39 Who else has thoughts on that? 6:42 I just think of downing takes a shot and a run at warning and injures his upper body. 6:48 You know, we're thinking a different tune. 6:49 Or if, you know, guys start running Wilcox in the crease, you know, it's kind of a different mentality coming out of that game. 6:55 You know, I wouldn't have been upset to see more of those guys get in line up. 7:01 I think if it had been at Mariucci, they probably would have had everybody with them. 7:05 I'm not even sure if those guys traveled for the game. 7:09 So maybe that wasn't even an option. 7:11 And, you know, there's a school of thought that says, you know, if you do have injuries, you want to have a look at lines like, you know, Conor Riley with Rao and Fashing. 7:21 And it's better to do that in a game and see how it looks than have to do it, you know, because of an injury in a playoff game. 7:28 And Conor Riley has played really well the last couple of weeks. 7:31 I think he's found his game. 7:32 I think he's found his scoring touch, and I thought it was worth a shot to see how they gelled together. 7:38 Okay, but my counter to that, though, is you know in that game that that team is not going to be mentally, you know, I mean, we kind of knew it was going to be a letdown, okay? 7:48 I think we all kind of knew that. 7:49 So I can kind of forgive all the line of changes, but so you're not, to me, going to see exactly what you might get under normal circumstances with that kind of line tinkering that you might get like a few weeks ago when there was something to really play for. 8:04 So I mean, I see both sides of it. 8:05 I see what you're saying, but I'm not sure that you necessarily get a complete feel for how that line would do under injury circumstances when things are really counting. 8:16 I think the real question is, Nate, why did you bother watching that game when I told you not to via Twitter? 8:23 Well, I figured you'd have me on. 8:26 So I have to. 8:29 Plus, I'm a Minnesota sports fan, so I'm a sucker for that. 8:34 But I don't know, I didn't really have an issue with most of the changes. 8:39 I think it was a good move to have Shabrowski get the nod, be senior, get it one on the road. 8:46 He's played fine in his starts. 8:49 I was actually a little shocked that Warnie played on Friday. 8:52 It didn't sound like he was practicing much through the week up until going up to Michigan. 8:58 I guess like Vegoe said, a guy like Conor Riley has been playing well. 9:02 You might as well see how he plays up on the top six and give him that chance. 9:05 He was on the second line for parts of earlier this year when Camerata was out. 9:11 But I don't know, I just think as a whole, it kind of was more just the team as a whole just kind of... 9:20 The team came flat and Michigan Clade, to continue that, really just needed that win. 9:25 Well, you know, the other thing that kind of bothered me, and I know some of it you had to move guys around, but I don't like the idea of tinkering with lines this late in the year, you know, with putting Cami on a line and putting Leteria up, you know. 9:41 I believe you just stick with what you've got and, you know, just ride it out. 9:45 You've had, what, five losses on the year with a pretty, you know, typical line up. 9:51 And so I just, I don't know. 9:52 I don't like tinkering with the lines and whatever. 9:54 If they did it just because they had to for one game, fine. 9:58 But I'm hoping that they go back to how things have been next weekend. 10:04 All right. 10:05 Sounds good to me, boys, because all that matters to me is that we won the first regular season Big Ten Championship. 10:12 And it's a letdown. 10:14 You know, I wasn't too happy about it, but, you know, let's move on. 10:17 Yeah, we're kind of bitching a lot for considering we won the Big Ten. 10:20 Yeah, I know, but, you know, the last few years we've kind of seen a few letdowns late in the season, especially in the Final Five. 10:28 All of a sudden they just put up a stinker, and then, you know, like last year, Yale. 10:35 Yeah, I kind of wonder if that's part of it, where we're kind of looking at this a little hard just because we've seen the last few years where Minnesota's looked well and played well, and then towards the end of the year just kind of something's caught up to them or they've hit a stumbler too. 10:50 Could be. 10:51 Yeah, what can you do? 10:53 Well, Nate, I know you followed a pretty damn good team this past weekend. 10:58 You covered the women, made their way to the Frozen Four. 11:03 You were there at Ritter this Saturday, weren't you? 11:05 I was, yeah, I covered it. 11:08 It was good. 11:09 Yeah, they won 5-1, going to their third straight Frozen Four. 11:13 You know, we haven't talked about them much this year because, well, we only talked about them when they had the perfect record, but... 11:19 By the way, I was also, I covered that game, too, so... 11:21 I didn't want to say anything about Jinx. 11:26 Oh, you mean the one they lost? 11:28 Yeah. 11:29 Oh, so it is your fault. 11:32 Well, they, you know, I looked up, they tweeted out some stats today. 11:35 They're 86-1-1 in the last 88 games, which is just ridiculous. 11:41 And, you know, hopefully they'll get past Wisconsin this weekend and then take home another title because whoever's on the other side, it doesn't matter because only WCHA teams win the women's championship, so... 11:54 It's Clarkson and Mercyhurst on the other side, but yeah, basically, it's the two... 11:58 It's not going to matter. 11:59 The Gophers are basically the top end, but I don't know, Paralyze is kind of scurry with an 18 tournament, Minnesota being 36-1-1 or 37-1-1 or whatever they are. 12:09 They broke the Paralyze last year, so... 12:11 Yeah. 12:12 What can you do? 12:13 But, you know, they'll be playing this, what is it, Friday and Sunday, I believe. 12:18 You can follow them on ncaa.org. 12:22 You'll have free video streams if you want to see it. 12:25 And hopefully the women can come away with a third straight title. 12:30 We've had some kind of bad news in the Gopher community this kind of past couple weeks. 12:35 It's been kind of publicized that... 12:38 I think he's a defenseman, old Gary Shopek from the mid-80s is battling cancer pretty badly. 12:45 And, you know, I just wanted to kind of talk about it a little bit because, you know, he took the time a couple years ago to actually join us at Campus Pizza for a GPL outing to watch a game. 12:57 He was as friendly as ever. 12:59 And we started a thread about him on GPL. 13:03 And sure enough, the guy is sick as a dog. 13:06 And he comes on there and says his appreciation for all of us. 13:11 So we're all thinking about you, Gary. 13:14 So we know it's a tough time. 13:16 So if you want to learn more about Gary and what's going on with him, you can see his CaringBridge site at caringbridge.org/visit/gary Shopek. 13:27 And hopefully it gets better for him, but it's not looking good. 13:32 And you guys have any thoughts on Gary? 13:33 And you remember him playing? 13:36 God, it's been so long. 13:38 It has. 13:39 Yeah, it was so young that a lot of those things are a blur at that time. 13:43 Plus, it was at the old rank. 13:44 You know what I mean? 13:45 So, yeah, I can't say that I have any specific memories. 13:49 I mean, even the best players of that area, sometimes it's kind of foggy for me, even though I went to games quite a bit. 13:54 Yeah. 13:56 Well, we're thinking of you, Gary. 13:58 We hope you get better. 13:59 They're actually having a benefit for him on the same day as the regional final, Saturday, March 29th, at St. 14:05 Bridget's in Minneapolis. 14:07 And that's at 3820 Emerson Avenue North. 14:10 They're going to have it from 4 to 7 p.m. 14:12 They're going to have an auction and everything. 14:14 And I just kind of wanted to make sure we talked about it and kind of get the word out about Gary. 14:20 Now, there was a fund, right, being set up through Wells Fargo as well? 14:24 Yes, there is. 14:25 I believe you can contact Wells Fargo and you can... 14:28 You'd have to call them. 14:29 They don't have any website. 14:30 You have to call... 14:30 Not Wells Fargo, it's TCF, I believe. 14:33 Well, I knew it was one of them. 14:35 Yeah, TCF has a fund set up for Gary Shopek if you want to donate to that fund. 14:39 I highly recommend it. 14:43 Like I said, he's very sick, and he's been on GPL a couple times talking about it. 14:51 He definitely cares about the Gopher Hockey community, and we should show him that we care about him, too. 14:58 All right, boys. 15:00 We've got the Big Ten tournament, the very first Big Ten tournament coming this weekend. 15:05 We've got another tournament across town, the NCHC Frozen Face Off. 15:11 Who's going to have more attendance? 15:13 Nate. 15:15 Oh, man. 15:17 That's one of the big questions for this week is, well, one, you've got to think that the NCHC is really glad that North Dakota won on Sunday. 15:25 Oh, we were all paying attention Saturday night. 15:28 It was all like voodoo doll and it was like, okay, what's the worst attendance we can come up with? 15:32 Sunday night, we were all watching that, hoping to God they'd lose, just to see the NCHC squirm. 15:39 Oh, like you know it's bad when the WCHJ might have the best local teams in terms of, they got Ferris and Bowling Green, Grand Rapids, but... 15:49 They also lost their sponsor, too. 15:52 Oh, they lost Red Baron? 15:53 Red Baron, or no one's part of it now, so I don't find that interesting. 15:58 But we were all following the North Dakota game Sunday night, hoping they'd lose, just to screw the NCHC. 16:04 But the facts are that who the hell is going to show up Thursday afternoon and Thursday evening for the Big Ten tournament? 16:12 That's what I want to see. 16:14 The fact that everyone's kind of... 16:16 We've all known the format for the Big Ten tournament for over a year, and the fact that all six teams are going to be in it. 16:23 So I kind of wonder if there's going to be travel or not, or if they're just banking on fans in the Twin Cities. 16:29 But if the latter is the case, with Minnesota and Wisconsin having to advise, that could be ugly. 16:36 Well, and I think the other thing, whether we want to agree with it or not, there's NCAA basketball starts that day. 16:43 March Madness. 16:44 It might not be all hockey fans necessarily that are going to be watching it, but I'm just saying, that's a huge distraction. 16:53 It's almost like a national holiday starting when you got that March Madness going on. 16:57 So that's probably not going to help matters when you have two games where the teams aren't exactly drawing them in from the local crowd. 17:06 It's not like there's a huge contingent of fans locally for those teams. 17:11 So we'll see what happens. 17:12 Well, even when we're at the X, it seems like quite a few monitors right above us at the press box have the tournament on during the Final Five over the past few years. 17:24 So even at the tournaments, they've got the basketball tournament on. 17:29 Yeah, I can remember that in the Concourse. 17:31 Sometimes when those games, when there isn't a local team playing, if it's Denver and CC on the ice, there's a lot of people in the Concourse watching the basketball. 17:40 Thursday will be a tough day. 17:42 I hate it. 17:43 I haven't filled out a bracket in probably over 20 years. 17:49 It just bores the meat of death. 17:52 Yeah, but it'll be interesting to see how, as far as once those initial games go, what the attendance is going to be. 17:59 To me, the key is going to be, of course, the Friday games. 18:02 What Wisconsin is going to pull in and what the Gophers will pull in. 18:06 Certainly, it's going to be important for the Gophers to make that final game because I think we all know that Wisconsin is not going to draw a huge crowd. 18:15 It'll be interesting. 18:16 People just better get used to the fact that it ain't going to be anything like the old Final Five. 18:22 That's the thing. 18:22 No matter what league you're talking about, you know, NCHC, Big Ten or whatever, it's just not going to be the same. 18:29 So don't make any comparisons because it's just never going to happen that way again. 18:34 Yep, we pretty much knew that at the end of last year that it's never going to be the same again. 18:41 You know what? 18:41 We just have to accept it and move on because that's just the way college hockey is now. 18:47 We can just keep reminiscing about the good old days, but that's how things are going to be. 18:52 Hey guys, we got a Big Ten title now, so I don't know. 18:56 Have to go next to those WCHA Big Ten title. 19:00 Big Ten title. 19:02 Yeah, well, who knows? 19:06 Obviously we talked about some of the problems that the NCHC having. 19:11 Their whole tournament is a bunch of nobodies right now. 19:15 They are obviously very glad that North Dakota made it, but my gosh, Duluth and St. 19:21 Cloud just threw up eggs this past weekend. 19:25 That's not a good thing. 19:27 Well, to me, the St. 19:28 Cloud result was the big shocker. 19:31 I know that Miami has been an underachiever the whole year. 19:35 I know they have some talent, of course, but to me that was a huge shocker. 19:41 Yeah, so to me that was the huge shocker. 19:45 I wasn't all that surprised about the UMD result. 19:48 I thought that they would probably win that series, but I'm not shocked that Western took it to them. 19:53 But the St. 19:54 Cloud one, that was really the shocker of all those results. 19:58 I'm kind of curious to what the ticket prices must have been because I watched those St. 20:02 Cloud games on the Fox Plus channel and the place looked very empty. 20:08 We've known in the past, you know, the WCHA playoff tickets were $20, $21. 20:14 And I realize it's spring break, but it was pretty bad in there. 20:19 It wasn't the students. 20:20 It was bad for a lot of them. 20:22 Yeah, the student section wasn't good at all. 20:24 And like I said, even the North Dakota games, their upper deck in that last game was a ghost town. 20:35 So yeah, I think it's maybe it's just they had those extra, they had the extra buy the tickets because I watched the Nebraska Omaha Denver series and they went Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and they also got kind of screwed with Craydon playing in the Big East tournament. 20:50 God, there was like 20 people and filled like in the crowd Thursday and Friday. 20:54 And I didn't catch Saturdays, but I'd kind of be shocked if it was that much more. 20:59 And yeah, I was a little surprised on Friday and Saturday for both the St. 21:04 Cloud games, although I like you. 21:07 I watched most of them on the FSN Plus channel. 21:11 Those were some great endings where Kevin Gravo scored with like 0.1 seconds Friday. 21:18 And they had Jim Rich and Mark Parrish are doing the play by play. 21:21 And I thought Mark Parrish is going to like just go. 21:24 You thought he was going to start crying. 21:27 Yeah, which is one of those things. 21:31 And Saturday it was a Miami Scarf like two seconds left. 21:35 Yeah, I have to admit I was pretty shocked by the crowd there too. 21:38 I mean, that's the one that's one thing I noticed as well too, is that I was surprised that it wasn't quite, you know, the pack audience considering, you know, St. 21:47 Cloud's had a pretty good year. 21:48 They won their league and you'd think that the fans would want to be out for that. 21:52 But I was surprised that you'd see a lot of empty seats. 21:55 Well, it's not just that. 21:57 It's the you know, when that place is packed, it's a rock and place. 22:01 It's a tough place to play. 22:04 And I don't think Miami had to deal with that factor at all. 22:09 Yeah, but we're looking at it from a Gopher perspective. 22:11 I mean, whenever the Gophers are there, it's like a madhouse. 22:14 But it's not that way for every team. 22:16 I mean, for most teams. 22:17 They really could have used that rocking crowd this weekend. 22:21 Yeah, well, I think we all would like that kind of crowd every game, right? 22:25 But sometimes it doesn't happen. 22:28 Were you about to say something there, Veegs? 22:30 Well, it just feels like with all the conference shakeup that happened this year that a lot of the ticketing situations got kind of thrown out of whack. 22:37 I think the North Star College Cup ticketing was a little off. 22:41 I think I heard people were calling the Gopher ticket office asking where their first round playoff tickets were, if they lost them. 22:48 You know, I think there's just a little bit of confusion everywhere and how best to handle it. 22:53 And I think you'll see down the road that people will include some of these things in the season ticket packages and try to get a little bit better attendance and get everybody on the same page. 23:05 Well, we've got quite a few questions via Twitter and actually via the voicemail line. 23:09 I decided to push the voicemail line earlier this evening. 23:14 A couple people called in to leave a message. 23:17 You can always leave a voicemail for us at 320-321-9584. 23:23 And let's listen to what Zach has to say about the Big Ten tournament. 23:28 Hey, this is Zach. 23:29 Just curious who you guys think is the bigger threat, the Gophers, Ohio State and Michigan State? 23:36 And do the Gophers have a chance of perhaps falling to one of those teams in the semis? 23:44 Thanks. 23:46 Nate, let's start with you. 23:48 Is that OSU or Michigan State worry you at all this weekend? 23:55 A little. 23:55 I mean, I think we've kind of learned in the Big Ten that there really isn't an easy game per se. 24:03 The Gophers can go ahead, but it's not anything you can just sit back and guarantee. 24:08 Through either of those two teams, I'd be a little bit more about Michigan State just because they're a little more defensive oriented. 24:15 Jake Hildebrand has been outstanding for them this year, and lately they've started to find a little bit more offense. 24:20 The biggest thing, actually, I just wrote about this earlier where Hildebrand had two or fewer goals on 23 times this season, and I think in the last three or four games they've gotten three or more. 24:38 And also we saw, the only good thing, at least with Michigan State, is that we don't have shootouts in the BigTen tournament, so hurray. 24:47 Vegoe, what do you think? 24:48 Is either of those teams a big threat for the Gophers? 24:52 Could it be another Final Five-like disappointment? 24:57 I feel like Nate stole my podcast notes. 25:01 I feel like Hildebrand is the big factor. 25:04 If Minnesota is playing Michigan State, I think we've seen in the past in these one-and-you're-done tournament games that a goaltender can make a huge difference. 25:13 Michigan State needs to win this tournament to get into the NCAAs. 25:20 If they really commit to blocking shots and playing defense and putting back pressure on the Gophers, it could be a problematic game. 25:28 I think with Ohio State, Minnesota has proven that they can shut down one-line teams. 25:33 I think that's kind of what Ohio State is. 25:36 I think if the Gophers draw them, I would be very surprised to see them lose to Ohio State. 25:44 Well, we've got another question. 25:46 We'll give this one to Hammy. 25:48 Our old friend Jeff Disher from The Examiner had a question for us. 25:53 He was a little concerned about the season-ending loss the Gophers had. 25:59 So let's hear what Dish has to say. 26:00 Jeff Disher or at DishintheVox on Twitter. 26:06 My question was about the final regular season series that the Gophers played in Ann Arbor. 26:12 How important or unimportant was the season-ending loss? 26:18 Thanks. 26:20 I hope you could hear that, Hammy. 26:21 Could you hear it? 26:22 Yeah, I heard it fine. 26:24 Well, it's kind of like I talked about earlier. 26:27 I think I'm a big believer in momentum. 26:29 However, we've seen plenty of examples where a team, last year being a prime example with Yale, they lost, I think, their final two games before the NCAAs. 26:39 They got actually shut out both games, I think, as well. 26:42 Obviously, they go on and win four straight, win the national title. 26:48 You have to look at it multiple ways. 26:50 It could mean something. 26:51 It could mean nothing. 26:53 It's really hard to say one way or the other. 26:55 I like momentum and I like trying to keep it going because it can be a fickle thing. 27:01 But you never know. 27:02 This coming weekend is going to be a big one. 27:04 Obviously, the Gophers should have pretty good crowds for their games. 27:07 And so you would expect that the team would be kind of jacked up for that. 27:11 And, you know, Wilcox is, you know, pretty much the guy, like we talked about earlier, he's the one guy that's the difference maker. 27:18 And he wasn't in there on Friday, or excuse me, on Saturday. 27:21 So all in all, I don't want to read too much into it. 27:24 It's one game. 27:25 I don't like what happened necessarily, but I think that they can recover from that and not have it be too big of an issue. 27:32 I should have had that question a little earlier, but I had forgotten he was, his question was about the previous series. 27:37 So I figured I'd play it anyway. 27:41 Here we go. 27:41 Our buddy Rob Schiel wants to know, who are you guys have as a favorite for the Big Ten tournament and who's a dark horse? 27:49 What do you think, Veegs? 27:51 Well, I think Minnesota obviously is the favorite, number one team in the country, best goaltender in the country, best defenseman in the country, I think, really balanced scoring. 28:01 I think it's going to be really hard for any team to match up against the Gophers because they begin scoring from all their lines. 28:08 The dark horse, though, is Michigan State. 28:10 I think Sparty's got that great goaltender. 28:13 If they really can commit to limiting chances and they get by Minnesota, I think they could beat anybody in the top part of the bracket. 28:22 Nate, a favorite and a dark horse? 28:26 I guess, again, I go with Minnesota as the favorite. 28:30 It's hard to not pick them. 28:32 Just basically, they won the Big Ten. 28:36 Like Vig said, there's just a lot of depth. 28:37 It's a good team to find different ways to score. 28:40 Really, I mean, besides maybe Raoul, there really hasn't been a guy all year that you can consistently say, this guy is going to be a contributor and look at it all day, every time it seems like you have a different line. 28:51 I mean, look at just this past weekend. 28:55 Brady Shea had the majority of the goals. 28:56 I like Brady Shea, don't get me wrong. 28:59 I think he's done a great job improving this year as a defenseman. 29:02 But as a defensive defenseman, he's not the guy that you look to get offensive goals. 29:07 So right there, you have that. 29:11 Dark Horse, I'd probably go Michigan. 29:14 Partially off of just what we've seen the last few weeks. 29:18 They won 7-1 over Michigan State. 29:20 They beat us 6-2, even as it is after the hangover. 29:26 But they have their team that has multiple lines. 29:29 When they've gotten good goaltending, they've played really well. 29:33 Their defense is a little young. 29:34 I'm kind of interested to see how that goes. 29:36 But at the same time, I think they have a team that they can put two, three good games together and come away with that title. 29:45 Well, Hammy, I'm sure you're going to pick the Gophers as a favorite, too. 29:48 So who is your dark horse? 29:50 Well, you know, what I was going to say is that, you know, normally I would probably say it's a little bit of a toss-up between the Gophers and Wisconsin. 29:57 The only reason I would favor the Gophers is because, if we're honest, Wisconsin has not been very good away from Cole Center this year. 30:07 And it's going to be more of a pro-Gopher crowd, and so that would, to me, kind of tip the scales for me to put them in the favorite role. 30:17 I do think that, you know, Wisconsin is going to, if we play them, I'm sure it's going to be a nip and tuck kind of a game, and the Gophers are going to have to be patient. 30:25 And so I would have them, you know, the Gophers as the favorite. 30:28 As far as the Dark Horse, I would probably go with Michigan. 30:33 I think that they have the kind of talent and they have, you know, so they have the puncher's chance to win games because they have talent. 30:41 You know, they've been really kind of schizophrenic. 30:44 I mean, when you're losing to Penn State on sometimes, but then we've seen them have some other pretty good results against other teams that are better than a Penn State. 30:51 So I mean, I would say out of all the teams, they would be the one that I would consider the Dark Horse. 30:59 All right, we got a question from Mark Erickson on Twitter. 31:03 He wants to know, does Brudzinski get any games in the national tourney? 31:08 And I guess more of that, I would think, is Lucia going to settle on 6D for the tournament? 31:16 What do you think, Nate? 31:19 I don't think so. 31:21 I'd kind of be shocked. 31:22 It seems like if he has seven healthy guys, he's just going to rotate them and play with the hot hands. 31:29 If we're being honest, Brudzinski probably hasn't helped himself with any favors in the couple of games he's been in. 31:35 But at the same time, the Bishof Brudzinski rotation, since he's come back from injury, has paid off pretty well. 31:45 And I guess, same with parental, you can throw him in there, too. 31:47 What do you think, Veegs? 31:50 Well, I think it's been a good developmental year for Brudzinski, but I think he is a little bit of a risk taker. 31:56 I think, you know, he's had a couple mistakes the last couple of weeks, and we saw this with Brady Shea last year, where after you make a couple mistakes, your decision-making process slows down a little bit, and you start losing what makes you a good player. 32:10 So I think he might be watching these next couple games, and, you know, that's not a knock on his skill. 32:17 I think he'll learn from it and be a better player for it next year. 32:20 But Bischoff has been, you know, the more reliable, steady, conservative defenseman, and I think he and Parenteau will probably be in the lineup. 32:30 What do you think, Hammey? 32:31 Is Brodsky going to get some time, or is Lucia going to stick with just the six guys? 32:37 Well, it might be somewhat dictated by matchups. 32:40 You know, that could play a role in it. 32:41 I personally feel a little more comfortable right now with Bischoff in the lineup. 32:46 I think he's been a little bit more dependable and solid. 32:49 And, you know, maybe part of that is the fact that he was, you know, he didn't have that timeout like Brodsky did for the injury. 32:56 So it could be, you know, a matchup thing. 33:00 But personally, I kind of like Bischoff. 33:02 You know, I favor him a little bit more right now. 33:04 But I think that they'll both probably still play a bit. 33:07 I don't know if anybody noticed, but right after Brodsky was cleared to play, he was actually a scratch that night. 33:15 And I noticed his dad was tweeting towards me and a few other people saying that he was not very happy about it. 33:23 So it'd be kind of interesting to see how he is doing by only playing half of the games. 33:30 Well, I think his pops isn't known for his cooler head, from what I understand. 33:36 So, you know, it's hard when it's your kid, you know what I mean? 33:39 I totally get that. 33:41 I'm sure that's part of it. 33:42 He could be definitely exaggerating, saying, oh, his kid's all pissed off. 33:46 You know, he's probably a little more just upset than anything else. 33:50 Yeah, going back to what Vegoe said about Shea, I mean, it's the same thing where if you're hitting the wall at the end of the year, I think coming in being a freshman defenseman in the, well, now the Big Ten, and then WCHA is the toughest thing to do. 34:05 And if you talk to Shea or anything, he'll say that at the end of the year that having that time off to look and then develop over the summer and coming this year helped him immensely. 34:16 All right, a couple more things from Twitter. 34:19 Drew wants to know, what time does the smoke alarm go off this week? 34:23 Smartass. 34:25 Darren wants to, we've already had our predictions kind of for the Big Ten, but he'd like to know also, who do you guys think wins the NCHC? 34:34 And I would put on top of that, who wins the WCHA? 34:37 I mean, they're all kind of local leagues. 34:40 Nate, you think North Dakota is going to come out of there, or is their season going to be ended? 34:49 I feel like we get a North Dakota-Denver final, just the way that we're kind of used to in there. 34:57 I don't know, I want to be shocked in North Dakota one. 35:00 I really want to be shocked if any of the four teams won in that league. 35:04 That's just a really strange weekend last week, and the eight teams have kind of beat each other up. 35:11 And even the teams at the bottom where you saw Miami came back to win that series, and Colorado College is a team that struggled for a long time and came back towards the end of the year. 35:22 They swept Denver, they took North Dakota three, they kind of found their legs. 35:27 That's a tough lead to go with. 35:29 I'd probably lean with Denver or North Dakota there. 35:32 WCHA, I got to go with Ferris just with it being in Grand Rapids. 35:40 I think they'll have the fan base. 35:42 They'll help them. 35:44 You know, the WCHA and even both leagues, they could cause quite a few issues with the tournament field. 35:51 I mean, you know, you've got Mankato and North Dakota right on the edge of the field right now. 35:58 And if some of the other lesser teams sneak in and take out a Ferris or Mankato or North Dakota, it's really going to cause some issues with the tournament field. 36:08 So it will be interesting to see what happens this weekend. 36:11 Vegoe, what are your thoughts on both leagues? 36:14 Well, it kind of sounds like North Dakota and Ferris State are going to be having home game type crowds at each of these tournaments. 36:21 And I think that helps a lot in college hockey. 36:24 I think if you get a crowd behind you, it's a lot easier to play. 36:27 If you're playing in an empty arena, it can be kind of hard to get up. 36:31 And maybe that's why we saw so many upsets is attendance was down and the top teams weren't into it and weren't ready to play and got upset. 36:40 So I think the crowds will be in it. 36:42 And I think North Dakota has got a lot of talent and their goaltending has been better this year. 36:46 I haven't watched as much about WCHA this season. 36:49 They've kind of been tuned out as, you know, I've been focusing on Big Ten, but I think First Eight's had a good season and that hometown crowd will help. 37:00 What do you think, Hammeh? 37:03 Oh, come on, you know that I'm not going to pick North Dakota. 37:08 I mean, you know, Miami, I would not be shocked if Miami beat some of that first game. 37:13 I mean, the fact that they've been playing much better. 37:15 Miami has beaten North Dakota this year. 37:18 They did get trashed, you know, in North Dakota that last game that they played there. 37:22 I think it was like ninth to where I don't know what the score was. 37:25 But so, you know, but I think they were missing at least one of their best players for that series. 37:31 So, you know, I wouldn't be shocked. 37:33 I mean, Miami's got their backs against the wall. 37:37 They had it this last weekend. 37:38 And so it wouldn't shock me. 37:40 I kind of for some reason, I just have this feeling that Denver might surprise in that for the NCHC. 37:47 So I'll go there and that for that league. 37:51 And then I'm going with Ferris. 37:53 I think that it'll probably be them and Mankato on that final game. 37:56 And I'm picking Ferris. 37:57 Okey-dokey. 38:01 Oh, we have another question from the voicemail line. 38:06 It's Jim's got a question about the defense. 38:10 I wasn't really sure what he was asking here, but maybe you guys can figure it out. 38:15 Hi, my name is Jim. 38:16 The question is, how is Don running his D this year? 38:20 The D seemed to be a little below average. 38:24 It seems to be trading up with the two freshmen, who I think are in their top three or four Ds. 38:29 I don't know, maybe you guys can shed some light on that. 38:32 Thanks. 38:34 Now, I'm not really quite sure what Jim's asking here. 38:36 He's disappointed in the D this year. 38:40 Aren't we leading the country in kind of defense? 38:45 We're out there. 38:47 Yeah, I think the last time I looked, we were number one in a country in goals against. 38:51 Of course, you had to give Wilcox a big piece of credit for that. 38:55 But you got a shitty defense in front of you, it's going to show no matter who's in goal. 39:00 Right. 39:01 No, I mean, I don't really know. 39:03 I can't say that I've been terribly disappointed. 39:06 I mean, it really depends on what this individual, what his expectations are. 39:11 Maybe there's something in his expectations like they should be more physical or they should be more this or that. 39:17 It's hard to know based on that question. 39:20 Personally, I think that they've done pretty well. 39:23 I'm sure that when it comes down to the key moments that they might shorten things up a little bit and make sure they get guys like Riley out there a lot more often and kind of ride that. 39:33 But especially with TV timeouts and whatever. 39:36 So, I mean, we'll see. 39:36 I think that they've done pretty well this year. 39:40 I can't complain with the results in the end. 39:42 Wilcox deserves a lot of credit, but I think the defense has done a lot too. 39:45 It's not just the defensemen either. 39:47 It's the forwards-back checking. 39:49 I think that they've been pretty solid all year. 39:51 And a lot of that's going against them. 39:54 I said this on Twitter. 39:56 Before he got back, we were somewhere, I don't remember where we were ranked in the country in defense, but it was pretty middle of the pack. 40:02 And ever since then, it's been, I think it was 12th, and then it was, I don't know, in the top five or so last year, and then this year right now, I think the last I looked at was number one. 40:12 So you have to give him a lot of credit. 40:14 Yeah, that was probably my favorite tweet you've put up all year. 40:16 I was like, that's great insight into this program. 40:19 I mean, Genzel has made such a huge change in the guy's commitment to investing in the game and blocking shots and back checking. 40:27 I think he's really brought that discipline to their game. 40:30 Well, you know, one thing that he also brings is that he's a Minnesota guy. 40:34 I mean, he bleeds maroon and gold. 40:38 You're not getting this John Hill, don't even get me started or whatever crap that we had back there. 40:47 Go ahead, Nate. 40:49 I'm looking at it now. 40:50 Yeah, we're presently third in the country, giving up two goals a game. 40:54 I agree with both Hammy and Vego there. 40:58 I'm very much happy with their D. 41:00 Had to replace a few big guys in terms of size. 41:05 Mike Riley has developed really well. 41:08 I was going back and forth with Vego on Twitter earlier, which I'm sure is very interesting for everyone listening. 41:14 But in terms of just him developing, and I'd say right now I think he's a little further ahead as a sophomore than Schmidt was. 41:22 And again, I think Brady Shea, he's a great skater, he takes up a lot of space. 41:29 He's a very great, good defensive defenseman, especially in terms of taking that next step. 41:33 And that's been the biggest thing with Gensler coming back, is just having these guys continue to develop and continue to grow from freshman to sophomore year, sophomore to junior year. 41:43 And heck, even having Justin Hull back on defense after spending all of last year playing forward helps. 41:53 One more question via Twitter. 41:54 Our friend from the Big Ten Network, Rick Pizzo, he wants to know where would you guys put Wilcox on a Hobie vote? 42:07 I mean, it looks like Gidro is going to win it, but would you put Wilcox in the top three? 42:12 Ami? 42:14 Well, I mean, I can't say that I have exactly researched every single solitary candidate that has been out there, but in terms of what he's meant to our team, I mean, it's hard to argue with a guy that has been as great as he's been this year, and he's been the backbone. 42:29 I mean, let's face it, whatever we do from this point forward, a great deal of that is going to rely on how does Wilcox play. 42:38 If he plays like he's been playing, the Gophers have a great chance to reach the goals that they want to reach. 42:46 Because he's basically going to more often than not hold teams down to two goals or less. 42:51 And if that happens with the Gophers' depth on offense, they're going to have a really good chance. 42:57 So I would probably put him in that top few players in the country. 43:01 I can't imagine a goalie that's done more for his team than he's done. 43:06 What are your thoughts, Nate? 43:09 I don't know if I'd have him in the three. 43:11 I'd have him in the ten. 43:14 I think Goudreau runs away with it just with his numbers. 43:18 He just tied Paul Korea's Hockey East record before Notre Dame snapped it on Sunday. 43:24 He's only not scored in two games. 43:26 One of them was the Sunday game versus us. 43:28 One of them was the last one. 43:30 So apparently it's not Sundays or something. 43:35 Greg Carey is pretty far up there from St. 43:37 Lawrence Senior. 43:40 Josh Archibald from UNO I'd have up there. 43:43 I definitely think the one that I might have him win or if not very close would be the, because we got the Mike Richter Award now for goalies. 43:55 I might have him in there more than the Hobie just because I think it's very hard to, I think it's very hard with this team just to have one guy. 44:06 No, I mean, I don't think he's, I mean, I certainly don't. 44:09 I mean, obviously we all know who's going to win the Hobie. 44:11 I mean, so I don't think that we're really saying necessarily. 44:14 For me, it's just, you know, it's hard to compare different positions and how much do they mean to their team. 44:21 I mean, for me, a lot of it has to do with not just production but winning. 44:24 And I mean, let's face it, the Gophers have been number one for the most part for the bulk of the year. 44:31 They've got a very young team, you know, and they've had to rely on Wilcox, you know, at times to kind of bail them out on occasion and kind of hold down the fort while we kind of get our bearings. 44:42 So I just think that given all those factors, he certainly deserves that kind of attention, but he's obviously not going to win it. 44:50 What do you think, Veegs, is it maybe still a bit too early, maybe more of a next year type of thing with Wilcox? 44:57 Yeah, it could be, and I think if you look at it statistically, the two goalies that come to mind who have won Hobie's that I think of are Rob Stauber and Ryan Miller. 45:06 And I think they both had significantly more shutouts. 45:10 It's hard for a goalie to really stand out statistically. 45:13 I know Wilcox has had a great year of goals against and save percentage, but I think those shutout numbers do kind of stand out. 45:20 And it's going to really be tough to overcome Johnny Hockey. 45:23 There's so many voters on the East Coast who probably don't see Wilcox bail out the Gophers when they make their mistakes at the offensive blue line. 45:32 But we do and Wilcox is a big reason this team is number one in the country. 45:37 Hopefully he sticks around for a while and has a chance to be a Hobie candidate. 45:43 I would agree with that. 45:45 Obviously we love him here, but Johnny Goudreau is just a machine this year. 45:53 Like Nate said, only a couple of teams have stopped him and a couple of the top teams. 45:59 He's one of the few players I've seen that he can take over a line by himself. 46:05 At the same time, we're also getting that a lot from Wilcox, too. 46:07 I'm just looking at stats where it's a third in a safe percentage right now, third in goals against. 46:16 That is all that's pretty good. 46:17 Yeah, that's definitely, definitely. 46:21 I think one of the things about Johnny Hockey is that teams really need to focus on getting back and putting back pressure on him and not letting him float in around the net. 46:31 I think Minnesota did an excellent job. 46:33 You saw everybody in the lineup putting back pressure on him and getting him frustrated. 46:39 He started fanny on shots at the end of that game. 46:42 So I think if Minnesota were to get matched up with BC, he wouldn't scare me even though I think he's going to win the Hobie. 46:49 Well, and we have the last change. 46:51 We would if we faced them. 46:53 So that's certainly going to help matters as well. 46:55 So I'd love to see that game again. 46:58 That would be great. 46:59 I really enjoyed the Friday one and I really enjoyed the Sunday one too for two separate reasons. 47:05 But yeah, I would love to see Minnesota and BC play. 47:08 I think they're usually the two best teams in the country. 47:11 That's not to say that other teams can't win the national title because honestly, I think as we've seen. 47:17 Yale won a title last year. 47:22 It's goaltending. 47:24 That's the name of the game. 47:26 To me, it's going to come down to how does Wilcox play and also how well are we on our power play? 47:33 Because you know that teams, especially when you get against some of these better teams that play a little more defensively, they're going to want to get back. 47:41 They're going to play that kind of style where they get that extra forward back and make sure that they kind of cut down on the Gopher transition game as much as they can. 47:48 And so it's going to come down to taking advantage of those power play opportunities. 47:53 And I think we've seen the Gophers have improved, especially compared to how they were early in the year. 47:58 They've improved in the power play. 48:00 And hopefully that'll be a trend that they can rely on, you know, as the games get more important. 48:05 Yeah, I know we're kind of a little bit upset about them earlier after that Michigan game. 48:09 But yeah, I feel a lot better about this Gopher team than compared to the last couple going into the NCAA tournament just in terms of that, that death. 48:18 And I know it's I know it kind of still you want to have that momentum. 48:21 I think it's just sometimes you're a little paranoid about that. 48:23 Just seen way too many Gopher teams just look great in the regular season and not live up to their expectations or potential. 48:32 Well, let's hope they get that momentum this weekend, because, you know, I would love to see Michigan in the championship game and Canada show them how good we really are and take them out. 48:47 But this is their chance, you know, the last couple years of the WCHA Final Five, they pretty much stunk up the house. 48:53 So this is their chance to build momentum for the tournament. 48:57 The tournament is coming right back the next weekend. 49:00 And obviously the atmosphere is not going to be quite as nice, but now is the time. 49:05 It's go time. 49:07 So let me ask now, I know we kind of discussed this and I know, Nate, you were talking a little bit about this on Twitter. 49:14 Are we pretty much, I know some of it's going to depend on if there's a real huge upset winner in one of the other leagues, but are we pretty much locked into playing the winner of the Atlantic League then in that first round game? 49:26 I mean, do you think that's how it's going to shake out? 49:29 Yeah, we are completely locked in to playing the Atlantic winner. 49:33 The only three teams that can finish worse than the best Atlantic team are Miami and Penn State and Michigan State from the Big Ten. 49:43 And Miami is hosting the Cincinnati Regionals. 49:45 So they followed off while the NCAA is thanking their lucky stars for that regional. 49:53 There could be nobody at that regional. 49:56 Oh, man. 49:57 Worst part about that is they're going back to Miami in two years. 50:04 Well, boys, I think we've pretty much covered everything for this week. 50:07 You guys got any other topics or anything else you want to talk about? 50:12 Nope, just kind of waiting to see how things shake out. 50:14 And I'm sure we'll be having some complaints about who's in what region, and that's the region of death. 50:20 And, you know, I don't know that will be our region necessarily, but, you know, I'm sure we'll see plenty of fans complaining about different things. 50:27 Well, unfortunately, we're not going to be having a podcast next week because, well, I won't be here and I'll be on a beach somewhere, not caring. 50:37 So, unfortunately, we won't be able to have another show until after the regional happens in St. 50:44 Paul. 50:44 So, let's just hope the team is still alive and well and heading to the Frozen Four by then. 50:51 Sounds good to me. 50:52 Yes, definitely. 50:53 Nate, I want to thank you for joining us. 50:55 Nate Wells from SB Nation College Hockey. 50:59 You can always follow him at Gopher State on Twitter. 51:02 Thank you, Nate. 51:04 Thank you, guys, for having me. 51:06 And, of course, you can always follow Hammy at Hammy Hockey, Vego at eVego, and, of course, us at GopherPuckLive. 51:14 Like I said, we won't be back next week. 51:16 I'm on vacation. 51:18 I don't really care. 51:19 What are you going to do? 51:21 I'm going to be on a beach. 51:22 There's nothing I can do about it. 51:23 The wife planned the vacation for us. 51:26 Not good planning, I know. 51:28 But hopefully, we'll be back the following week, and we'll be talking about a trip to the Frozen Four, we hope, until then, thanks for listening. 51:37 Thanks for.