0:03 This is the Gopher Puck Live Podcast, episode number six, recorded November 8th, 2011. 0:20 Thank Welcome to the weekly Gopher Puck Live Podcast. 0:24 We're on number six here. 0:25 I am your host, Jupiter, and of course, joining me as always, Hammeh and Cardinal. 0:31 Guys, what is going on? 0:34 Not too much, just happy about last weekend. 0:36 Well, who isn't? 0:37 Just living the dream. 0:39 Sioux suck. 0:40 That the cheer is true. 0:44 Gophers get the sweep against the hated Sioux. 0:48 What can I say? 0:49 I think I was a little disappointed in some of the Gophers' offensive output. 0:54 I mean, some of that could be because of Dell and the Sioux defense. 0:58 But one thing that was different is that we definitely brought a physical game to them that we have not done in quite some time. 1:06 Cardinal, what are your thoughts? 1:08 Yeah, I mean, I was, I know you predict the sweep every week a little bit tongue in cheek, but, you know. 1:15 But yeah, you've been probably more accurate than both of us this year when it comes to that, given the way the Gophers have gone. 1:20 But yeah, I mean, you know, it was a little bit lower scoring series than what we've been accustomed to. 1:25 And you kind of expected that. 1:26 And we know North Dakota's back end's been a little bit questionable this year as we talked about, but you know, you had to figure that would kind of, you know, they'd get things in order. 1:33 And you know, I thought, you know, to North Dakota's credit, they had a pretty good game plan, especially Saturday, just trying to, you know, bottle the Gophers up and, you know, make them dump it in. 1:41 And you know, North Dakota's got some mobile defensemen that can get in there, but, you know, the Gophers did a good job and, you know, they found a way to win. 1:47 And it's good where, you know, yeah, you can win the five-four shootout type games where you're scoring on the power play and everything's rolling well. 1:52 But, you know, Saturday's game, I think in particular, showed a lot of character when, you know, you're down a goal late in the game and, you know, your fourth line comes through and, you know, to help tie it. 2:00 And then, you know, you don't just settle for the tie or getting overtime or anything like that. 2:03 I mean, they pushed the issue and found a way to win. 2:06 So I think it was nice to see them win, you know, some low scoring type games versus, you know, the high scoring up and down types. 2:11 So yeah, I mean, obviously it's a great weekend for them. 2:13 Well, one thing I really liked was the excitement on the bench coming from the players, the coaches. 2:19 It seems like they were pretty excited about this sweep. 2:23 Huh, Hammeh? 2:25 Well, I mean, it's what we talked about last week when the other team has been doing so well. 2:32 And, you know, obviously we've been struggling a bit in recent years, so it's kind of a nice momentum swing. 2:38 You know, granted, it's a long season. 2:41 You can't read too much like we talked about last week in the one series, but nonetheless, it's certainly something good to see. 2:48 I think everything that we had talked about last week, you know, coming into the series about being a deeper team and being a little bit more physical and having a, you know, good goal-tending, whatever. 3:00 I mean, all that kind of came to fruition. 3:02 And, you know, I didn't expect us to sweep. 3:06 I think I picked us to have three points. 3:08 So I was close considering we won it in the last minute on Saturday, but certainly it was, you know, a great series. 3:14 I think it probably gives the guys a lot of confidence and hopefully not overconfidence, but, you know, a lot to look forward to. 3:22 You know, one thing I noticed is that, you know, they did play fairly disciplined. 3:27 There was only a few dumb penalties here and there. 3:30 And that was one of the keys that we had talked about on last week's podcast was just be smart and play the body. 3:41 And that's about it. 3:43 I mean, they did what they needed to do. 3:46 Yeah, you know, on every weekend, it's not going to be, you know, we've kind of been spoiled here for the first month where it's, you know, like I just said, you know, previously, it's, you know, four or five goals a night and the power plays is rolling along and, you know, it's always not going to be that easy, especially once they get into more conference games. 3:59 And, you know, it's going to be a lot tougher for them to score goals. 4:02 You're not going against, you know, Vermont or, you know, even Anchorage, you're going to be playing some of the more high end teams. 4:07 But, you know, I think the Gophers depth in particular, I mean, we talked about that last week as well. 4:11 And, you know, the fourth line scores a pair of goals this weekend. 4:13 And, you know, that's something that, you know, you wouldn't have been able to get the last few years. 4:17 They just didn't have that ability. 4:18 But, I mean, you look at the tying goal on Saturday, and it's a great example where Seratori gets in hard on the four check, causes the turnover. 4:24 And then, you know, guys like Boyd and Larson, they, you know, have, you know, obviously a lot more skill than Seratori does. 4:30 But, you know, they have that physical presence where Larson drove hard to the net, and Boyd's got enough skill where he conditioned the puck. 4:35 So, it's just a really nice mix. 4:37 And, you know, their depth, you know, like we thought it would, kind of showed through. 4:40 And, you know, conversely, North Dakota, especially on Friday night, I mean, you look at their line chart, and without Grimaldi out there, it was, you know, up front. 4:46 It was crystal night, and then just, you know, pretty much abysmal, you know, up and down the lineup. 4:52 And Grimaldi certainly added something to their attack, especially on the power play on Saturday. 4:55 But, you know, the Gophers, even when they, you know, whenever they play in, you know, January again, the rematch up in Grand Forks, I mean, I just don't see it on North Dakota. 5:03 I mean, they're going to have some younger guys, so hopefully for their sake, improving. 5:06 But I think especially up front, I mean, it was just night and day, you know, the Gopher depth compared to what North Dakota had to offer. 5:12 Well, for me, it was the big difference was just the fact that, you know, like you talked about the depth, but really the series, despite what the scoreboard said, it really came down to Dell's goaltending. 5:25 If you really look at it from a big picture standpoint, I mean, he played great. 5:28 You have to give him credit. 5:29 I mean, last week, that was one of the things that I had pointed out that, you know, he had kind of sucked up to that point. 5:35 But this weekend, he played great. 5:36 And the reality is, is that game could have been, you know, both of those games could have been a lot different as far as, you know, the difference in goals scored if Dell hadn't been on top of his game. 5:47 Now, granted, Patterson made some key saves, you know, specifically that one late on Saturday. 5:52 So it's not like he didn't get tested either. 5:54 But nonetheless, you know, I think that the depth was really apparent. 5:59 And on our favor, and the shots on goal on Saturday were pretty, I mean, we doubled what they did. 6:04 Not that that really means necessarily anything. 6:06 But it just, Dell played great. 6:08 You have to give that guy credit. 6:10 You know, I was impressed with some of North Dakota's guys. 6:13 You already mentioned Grimaldi. 6:14 He looked, you know, pretty slick out there. 6:17 And certainly Ben Blood, even, you know, he played real physical and was playing a lot of time on the ice. 6:22 And, you know, they have some good players there. 6:24 But from a depth standpoint, yeah, it's, I have a hard time seeing some of the, you know, I have seen some comments online from some people and I, they're going to struggle to score goals this year. 6:36 I don't think that that's really a question. 6:38 So you're going to see a lot of tight games and Dell's going to have to be on top of his game in order for them to kind of rebound and get back in the hunt. 6:45 Well, you mentioned Ben Blood and that kid was out there a lot for the whole weekend. 6:52 The kid is good. 6:53 But you look at Saturday's game, he also took three penalties. 6:58 That probably affected him quite a bit. 7:00 I mean, I think the Gophers had one power play goal all weekend. 7:03 But still, if you're killing penalties and one of your best players is not on the ice, it's not as easy to score either. 7:11 No, I mean, yeah, you're right. 7:13 He is a tank. 7:14 I know he might be the best overall defenseman even in the country, but you're right with a kid that size. 7:19 He plays a physical game and when you get on the big ice sheet, you start taking some chances. 7:24 I mean, that Saturday penalty on Raul late in the game where he, you know, tried to pinch in a little bit. 7:28 Notice he was getting caught and Raul was going to get around him and he was going to have a two on one with Buksa, I think it was, and he stuck his leg out there. 7:33 So yeah, I mean, that's going to be the good and the bad. 7:36 And I think, you know, if you're a team like North Dakota where, you know, you obviously want to have a physical presence, especially on the blue line, I mean, you'll take that with him. 7:42 It's just maybe without, you know, some of the key guys up front like a Malone and Trump and some of these other guys they've had killing penalties the last few years. 7:49 Now they have, you know, Mario Lamoureux, who is, you know, as good as they get as a penalty killer. 7:53 But after that, there's just not the depth. 7:54 So again, it's, you know, last year's North Dakota team was just stacked top to bottom. 7:58 But you knew they were going to lose the scoring from this year. 8:00 But then now you start to see some of the little other, you know, kind of cracks in the armor with, you know, not the high end guys come penalties up front of me. 8:06 You don't see a Brad Malone shipping the puck in and tying up the defense and behind the net for 20 seconds like you're used to for the last two, three years. 8:13 So, yeah, some of those little things that you don't really see from afar kind of became apparent this weekend. 8:18 Now, I don't know about you guys, but the thing that was very different for me in this last weekend was the fact that Minnesota was actually the more physical team throughout the lineup, and I, you know, you're used to seeing North Dakota be very physical, and usually they have the big guys on the blue line that throw their weight around, and, you know, outside of Blood and McWilliam on the blue, I mean, they're more on the blue line, a finesse team, I think, now. 8:44 I mean, Forber's a big kid, but he's kind of a finesse player. 8:48 He's not really the kind of guy that's throwing his weight around, and Matson's always been kind of a more finesse player, and I think, to me, that was a big difference, as well, because he just, you know, from a forward standpoint, you're not really, other than, you know, with Ben Blood out there, you're not really kind of looking out of the corner of your eye, you know, is somebody going to come and, you know, nail me here, and I thought that that was kind of a little bit different, as well, and the Gophers were a much more physical team, and that's not something that we've been used to hearing in recent years when these two teams matched up, so that was kind of nice to see. 9:20 That's definitely the truth. 9:21 They've been pushed around for the last three or four years. 9:26 Ambrose, Friday night, gets kicked out for contact to the head. 9:30 Now, I'm not sure what their definition of contact to the head is. 9:35 I saw only a couple replays, but that looked like a plain old check from behind to me. 9:40 Was there any contact to the head? 9:42 Do you think that was a legit call? 9:46 I personally did not think that that should have been a five-minute or, I mean, you know, the ironic thing. 9:52 Maybe a check from behind, but where was the contact to the head? 9:55 I didn't understand that at all. 9:57 Well, even then, here's the thing for me, is that on the power play that Bukstad scored, you saw Raoul get basically run over from behind in essentially the same fashion. 10:10 And I think it was by McWilliam, but he had taken a good three strides and just ran him over from behind. 10:15 And I'm like, how is that really all that much different than what Ambrose just did a few minutes before the game? 10:22 Fortunately, we scored or whatever, but it was like, I don't know. 10:26 Sometimes I don't know what these referees, the differences in some of these plays that they see. 10:31 And it's a hard one. 10:32 I don't like to whine about the refs. 10:33 I usually leave that to Sioux fans, but sometimes you do have to kind of wonder. 10:38 Shepard and Hunt have now refed 11 of the last 13 Gopher-Sioux games. 10:47 I find that a little rather, a bit shocking that these same two clowns are refing these two teams almost every single time. 10:58 Well, if it's 13 games and that predates the, I mean, obviously, when these teams play, it's pretty difficult. 11:03 Yeah, it was 11 of the last 13. 11:05 Okay, so 11 of the last 13, but there's so many incidents with these teams. 11:09 I mean, I was thinking like the Finley-Wheeler one at Mariucci, that one stands out good, but then you can go back when Vanelli fought, was it McMahon or Perpich up in Grand Forks? 11:18 And it seems like every time they play, even a Friday night after the game when Lucia joked about, somebody asked him, when's the last time you saw 10 guys in the penalty box? 11:26 And he's like, probably last year at Engelstad. 11:28 I mean, so I don't know. 11:29 I mean, the WCHA ref thing, it's just like, yeah, for a while it was Sioux fans, but now I don't think it's bad for people to complain about because I just think it's commonly accepted that they're horrible. 11:40 And for me, that call, the one on Ambrose, I don't have a ton of problem with it. 11:45 I mean, yeah, the contact to the head, whatever, five minutes is five minutes, but it's just the consistency of it. 11:49 I mean, it was later in that game, it might even have been that period where warning's going to chip the puck out and Panzarella pinches down. 11:56 And he made a little bit of contact to the head, but if they're trying to worry about intent and things like that, I mean, if Panzarella, who's twice warning size practically, I mean, if he connects there, I mean, warning could have been a lot more hurt than Ambrose could have done damage to the guy he hit. 12:11 So it's just the consistency thing for me. 12:13 I don't care which way they want to call it, but if you're going to, you know what I mean? 12:16 Just be consistent, whether it's game, I don't expect from series to series, but within the same night, I mean, you'd think that they'd be, especially when it's such a big rivalry series, it's five minute penalties, and it's not like it was just a random trip or something. 12:28 I mean, both of those could have been pretty bad. 12:29 So I guess the consistency thing is the thing that gets me. 12:33 Everything turned out well, you know, on that five minute power play for the Sioux, because I think the Gophers had more shots than the Sioux did. 12:42 And Raoul was all over them early in the penalty kill, and it seemed to really energize the team. 12:48 So it turned out well in the end, but probably not so good for Ambrose. 12:53 No, he's been a little bit, he's having some struggles. 12:58 He's had some penalty issues, that's for sure. 13:01 Yeah, and he's one of the, you know, it's kind of been, you know, the one guy everyone kind of points to, you know, like a guy like Talickson, where, you know, he's not as similar to Ambrose. 13:08 And then Ambrose obviously plays a little bit of a tougher game, but just, you know, bigger kids having a tougher time adjusting, especially when you go play in the Olympic Sheet. 13:15 And, you know, he's made his way to the box by more than Luchillo would want, especially out of a third-line guy who has, you know, what, two or three points on the year. 13:21 But, you know, I guess, you know, you look back at some past Gopher teams and you complain about guys not being physical. 13:26 So, I mean, you can't have it both ways. 13:28 I mean, you're going to, you know, if you want kids to be more physical, there's going to be some times where they take some dumb penalties or some unadvised things. 13:34 But, hopefully, you know, that balances out with the fact that you're adding more grit to the team. 13:37 And there'll be a lot of hits and incidents where they don't get called for stuff that, you know, guys who, you know, they wouldn't otherwise take those penalties. 13:44 Well, hey, Demarque spent four years just getting everybody up in arms at one time or another about penalties. 13:49 So, yeah, like you said, you kind of need a little bit of an edge with some guys. 13:53 I agree. 13:54 I completely agree there. 13:56 Well, the Gophers stepped on the ice Saturday with some New Jerseys. 13:59 Whites with Gophers across the front and diagonally. 14:03 You like? 14:04 You don't like? 14:05 Personally, I think they're okay. 14:07 I'm more of a gold guy for an alternate jersey. 14:09 But what did you guys think of the New Jerseys? 14:13 I'm actually different than you. 14:15 I actually like the white a little bit more than the gold. 14:18 I like the jersey, but, you know, honestly, I don't get into that stuff too majorly. 14:24 So I'm probably the worst guy to ask about that kind of thing. 14:27 Yeah, I'm kind of with Jupin. 14:29 I love Michigan. 14:30 I think they have the best jerseys in college hockey when they wear their maize ones and whatever variation they put on the front, whether it's the block M or whatever. 14:38 But I just think what a team. 14:39 I know Nashville and the NHL is doing this this year. 14:42 When you have a chance to wear gold or yellow or whatever, I think it's just kind of a cool deal to do. 14:46 And the Gophers, they've had so many third jerseys over the last 10 years or whatever. 14:50 I just like the gold with the maroon. 14:53 I think that's solid. 14:54 But these ones, I know the Gopher Facebook page put out a bunch of jersey pictures over the last 10 or 15 years. 15:01 I think it was in August or September kind of getting fan feedback. 15:04 And these are pretty similar to the ones that they wore. 15:06 I think it was it was Erman and Patelny sophomore year. 15:10 They broke those on. 15:11 I know fans love those ones. 15:13 Not even so much for the main parts of the design. 15:15 I think it's just they have that skating goldy. 15:17 These ones have it on the shoulder, but those ones had it on the front, kind of kitty corner from where like the number and the captains or alternate letters go on these current ones. 15:26 I think fans just love the fact that that was like the first time that they really used that really cool old school skating goer logo in a prominent fashion. 15:35 But no, I think these ones are fine. 15:36 I mean, I think they're better than the ones they've had the last few years. 15:38 And I agree that the gold would be cool. 15:41 But I think these were kind of a safe bet. 15:43 There's nothing too wacky. 15:44 And you know, you see some of the other stuff that, you know, like Wisconsin had those pajama jerseys from 10 years ago or whatever it was. 15:50 And so I guess, you know, if I'm going to err on one side or another, I'd rather have them be a little bit, you know, traditional. 15:55 And, you know, the diagonal lettering, I mean, that's pretty common throughout. 15:58 You know, Wisconsin has it, the Rangers, you go out on the list. 16:01 So not a huge fan, but I'd rather have them be conservative than do something, you know, wacky and have it blow up. 16:06 Well, a few years ago, the Gophers came out in some new gold jerseys. 16:10 And you were there with me in the press box. 16:12 And you went right down to the Goldies locker room or whatever it is and bought that brand new jersey, didn't you? 16:19 I will admit to that. 16:20 I've got to try to get better over the years. 16:22 This is a little rehab stint with my addiction to jerseys, but better now. 16:26 But I can tell you this, if I would have been there, well, I was there on Saturday night, but if they would have been selling these ones at Gold Country that night, I probably would have buckled this time around as well. 16:35 And that's just the thing. 16:37 They didn't have them available for sale, did they? 16:40 Absolutely not. 16:41 Why would they? 16:42 Gold Country or Goldie's Lock Room, they're all affiliated the same. 16:45 And I guess, remember, these are the same people that sold North Dakota sweatshirts and t-shirts a few years ago when the Sioux came to town. 16:51 So clearly they're priorities. 16:54 But again, that kind of goes against what even I'm saying, because you think, hey, obviously they're doing whatever they can to make a buck, and you'd think that, hey, the team is debuting brand new uniforms, maybe we should be selling these so people see them, like them, and go right into our store and buy them. 17:06 But the you or whoever is in charge of that has dropped the ball on the jersey front on a million different ways for how many years now, so I don't think it should be a surprise to anyone at this point. 17:16 Not a surprise, but yet again disappointing that they cannot get their act together. 17:20 I mean, obviously our favorite team that we hate, the Sioux, you can buy a complete authentic jersey from their website. 17:28 $250, sure it's expensive, but it's the exact jersey. 17:34 Now what Gold Country and whoever else is selling is an awful jersey and doesn't look even close to what the current jersey is. 17:43 Just with the regular white jersey with the block M, they can't even get the block M right these days. 17:49 I think that is an embarrassment for the school, for Gold Country, and for us fans that we can't buy something that looks like the team is wearing. 18:00 Well, and even to the further North Dakota point, they have jerseys, the NHL version of the New Jersey Devil, Zach Parisi jersey up there. 18:08 I believe at least at one point they even had, obviously when kids are in college, you can't sell jerseys with their name on them, the name and number, but once they leave, you can do that. 18:17 So I know there was a point up there where they were selling Bochinski jerseys and Parisi jerseys, so these guys had already left the school, but they were only a year or two gone, and obviously they were really revered players up there, so they jumped on that and got jerseys made up with their names and numbers on it, and were selling those. 18:32 So you kind of look at one end of the spectrum up there, and you hate to say it, but down here it's the complete other end in terms of fan access and availability and just overall ability to buy cool stuff. 18:43 It's a complete joke, and the school should be embarrassed. 18:46 I could go on forever about it, but we've got to keep moving because I will just get more and more angry about it. 18:53 So let's move on. 18:55 Any other thoughts on the series this weekend? 18:56 Obviously, you know, with the wins, Minnesota moved up to No. 19:00 I don't put a lot into that this far in the season. 19:03 I'm guessing you guys probably agree it's just so early in the season, and you're going to have a new No. 19:09 1 team almost every week just from a team losing or whatever. 19:13 Thoughts on No. 19:13 1? 19:14 Yeah, I mentioned this on Twitter. 19:16 I mean, it's nice for the guys, and it certainly tells everybody, you know, it highlights the fact that they've been successful so far, but it doesn't mean diddly squat. 19:27 Like you said, I'm sure if they split this weekend, say, in Wisconsin, they'll probably drop down a few notches, and nobody will give a damn about who was No. 19:36 1 in the first week of November. 19:38 That stuff just doesn't mean anything. 19:41 Talk to me when it's March and April when you're talking pairwise, and then finally NCAA playoffs. 19:48 That's what matters. 19:49 Yeah, no, I agree. 19:50 I don't want to temper anyone's excitement. 19:53 When they won on Saturday night, that was probably a top-five Gopher game, maybe I've been to in forever. 19:58 That was amazing and a ton of fun. 20:00 You hate to pour water on it, but you look back in 08-09, a team that didn't make the NCAA tournament, and that team started 7-0-1-4 on the year, and so they were undefeated in mid-November, and that team ended up finishing 17, 13, and 7. 20:14 I'm not saying that this time around. 20:15 I really hope this team keeps this up and say, keep it up. 20:19 I mean, they're not going to finish the season with five losses or anything like that or whatever they're on pace to finish it with, but you just need to remember that it's a long year. 20:26 A lot of stuff can happen. 20:27 They've been relatively healthy so far, so like you said, it's a nice feather in the cap for the team right now, but yeah, I mean, polls really don't mean anything until mid-January or whenever the pairwise come out, and you can kind of start keeping an eye on that. 20:40 Well, the one good thing about it is that they crashed a USCHO site once the poll came out, Gopher fans apparently. 20:51 You touched on the fans this weekend. 20:53 I must say it's been a long time since Mariucci's been that loud, been that boisterous. 20:59 There was a lot of excitement this weekend, and it's something we haven't seen in a while. 21:04 Yeah, well, you know, once that final score on Saturday rolled up and they showed your goofy mug on TV. 21:10 Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey. 21:13 You couldn't see my face because the light was just shining off my bright gray hair. 21:17 Oh, man, it was embarrassing. 21:20 Oh, jeez, what can I do? 21:22 I wanted to get the photo, and I got the photo, so I'm happy about it. 21:27 So let's move on. 21:28 We've got other games that happened this past weekend. 21:31 I'd say let's... 21:33 St. 21:34 Cloud takes three points, Wisconsin, but, you know, that's obviously great for St. 21:38 Cloud, but some bad news on the injury front, huh, Hammeh? 21:44 Yeah, LeBlanc, he had... 21:47 I always say that name incorrectly, but anyways, you know, he had a bad injury, apparently broke some bones in his leg. 21:53 It was pretty... 21:54 I think it was a compound fracture, too, so it went through the skin, but in any case, it sounds like it's a pretty severe injury, and I don't know what the prognosis is. 22:03 I'm guessing it's going to be a minimum of, you know, two, three months or so, and that's a tough break for them, because he's probably their best overall player. 22:11 He's a leader on their team, and it'll be interesting to see, you know, how St. 22:17 Cloud handles that situation. 22:19 I mean, you can't just replace a guy like that, so obviously the guys on their team will have to, you know, step up and each of them pitch in a little bit more as best as they can, but we'll see how it goes. 22:30 But yeah, it's definitely a bad injury for their team. 22:32 Well, luckily, they did step up. 22:34 I mean, they did, you know, they did get three points on the weekend, so it's not always bad for St. 22:40 Cloud, huh, Ryan? 22:41 No, I mean, they've been, you know, they kind of started off a little bit slow and, you know, they're getting swept in northern Michigan, you know, that's not a way you want to start the year after they split up in Alaska at one of the tournaments, but, you know, to come home and, you know, they have, you know, New Hampshire, then up at North Dakota and home to Wisconsin, you only lose, you know, one time out of those six games, so, and you factor in the, you know, the whole Mike Lee situation. 23:01 I don't think there's any clarity on that. 23:02 I know he didn't play last weekend and I haven't heard any update on that, but, you know, I don't think he's going to be back in the near future, if at all, this season. 23:09 So, yeah, I mean, kudos to them. 23:11 And, you know, I was happy, at least, for that the Badgers were able to, you know, they lose, what, seven to two on Friday night. 23:17 And with them, you know, hosting the Gophers this next weekend, I was happy that they were able to play a better game on Saturday because you don't want to play a team coming off a pair of ass kickings or anything like that. 23:26 So it was good to see Wisconsin. 23:28 They scored about two goals in the last five minutes on Saturday to salvage the tie. 23:32 So they won't be too ornery for when the Gophers roll into MadTown this weekend, hopefully. 23:37 Well, it sounded, you know, of course, I didn't watch the game. 23:40 So this is just basic hearsay. 23:41 But it sounded as if St. 23:44 Cloud got jobbed by, you know, like the WCHA refs that we talked about earlier. 23:49 Uh-oh, here we go. 23:50 A lot of their fans were a little bit pissed off about it. 23:53 And, you know, I don't know if it's legit or not, but you do have to kind of wonder, you're getting late in the game, you get a couple penalties called, including one pretty bad one, and, you know, they come back to tie it, you know, in the last handful of minutes. 24:06 So, yeah, I could see why they'd be pissed off. 24:08 But I don't know if it's legit or not, but you're right, it's better to have a team that's at least had a little bit of success coming into a series than to have them, you know, sour about a lost series the week before. 24:20 Well, Michigan Tech, riding high in second place, beat Mankato the first night, lose the second night to Mankato. 24:30 What happened there? 24:34 You got me. 24:35 I mean, it looks like it was pretty much a shootout, you know, as far as shots on goal, it was pretty wide open. 24:40 I mean, 45 shots on for each team, I mean, geez, I mean, it's pretty up and down from the way it sounds. 24:45 And I don't know if it was an off-goal tending night, you know, or what happened there. 24:51 But yeah, it's a little bit unexpected. 24:54 You don't really, I mean, granted, tech has generally not been good over the years, but recently they've certainly been a lot better. 25:01 So it's a little bit of a surprise, especially at Michigan Tech. 25:04 So yeah, it's a little bit. 25:05 Well, it did allow Minnesota State to tie the Sioux in the standing, so that was good. 25:12 Yeah, but don't the Sioux have more WCHA games? 25:14 Yeah, details, details. 25:17 Well, they're technically in last right now, aren't they? 25:21 Actually, no. 25:22 Anchorage has zero points. 25:23 Oh, do they? 25:26 Minnesota State and North Dakota tied with two points for tenth, but like you said, North Dakota's got two games in hand, so... 25:34 Four losses for Anchorage, right? 25:37 Correct, that is correct. 25:39 So it's not all bad for Mankato, it's just a little bad for the Sioux. 25:43 We don't really care about the Sioux. 25:46 CC goes to Nebraska and splits. 25:49 Thoughts? 25:50 Well, it looks like, you know, Hammy kind of touched on this at the start of the year, and it's really come into fruition with the Omaha goaltending situation being a complete disaster. 25:59 I think what the Falkners started on Friday night, and he was awesome last year. 26:03 I mean, the Gopher fans, you know, not super familiar with Omaha, and those guys coming here at the start of last year, he's this, you know, 6'4, 6'5 guy in those black jerseys and just, you know, owned the Gophers that week, and you're like, who the hell is this guy? 26:14 And, you know, he was really good all season long, but the wheels have come off down there this year. 26:18 I mean, he gets pulled on Friday night, and, you know, Eddie Belfour's kid comes in, not even Masa, the kid that played in Fargo last year. 26:25 He played on Saturday, so I don't know if he wasn't dressed or if he gets hurt, but it's not good when you've played. 26:30 I think they've dressed four goalies and played three up to this point, and I don't think there's been a lot of injuries involved. 26:35 So, you know, Omaha, they've kind of, you know, they've been okay this year despite the fact that, you know, the goaltending's been a, you know, a complete nightmare. 26:42 I mean, they're five and five, which isn't ideal, but at the same time, with how bad their goaltending's been, you got to figure if they can, you know, write that. 26:49 It probably can't get a lot worse than what it's been. 26:51 So, you know, and, you know, for CC, I mean, yeah, you go into Omaha and they're not clicking on all cylinders right now, but, you know, anytime you go on the road in the WCHA, unless you're playing, you know, tack most years or Mankato, I mean, if you go into legit schools and get a split, you have to be pretty happy with that. 27:05 Well, and, yeah, I mean, like you talked about with the goaltending, I mean, they're below, as a team, 85% for a save percentage, which is godawful. 27:14 Yeah, yikes. 27:14 You know, they're giving up almost three and a half goals a game. 27:17 I mean, I just think that that's going to be something that they're going to have to, I mean, it kind of reminds you of the good old days of Blaze at North Dakota. 27:25 We always used to joke about them sending goalies down the Red River. 27:31 You know, I mean, you kind of wonder. 27:33 You know, it's kind of the same thing where you've got to juggle guys because there's nobody standing out, and these guys have definitely not played ball. 27:41 Speaking of that, not to throw the conversation completely off track, what was it? 27:45 It was the OT year where the Gophers played North Dakota the second half of the year, and didn't they bring in a kid just for that series? 27:50 Remember that kid, he had a white and a red mask, and he came in just for, like, he joined them that weekend or whatever? 27:57 Zimbeda, that's who it was. 27:59 He just stood on his head. 28:01 He played the Saturday game, and the Gophers were just all over him and couldn't score. 28:04 And then finally, I think the Gophers, they won what, four to three? 28:06 I'm just looking it up here. 28:07 Why will he score a late goal? 28:08 But, yeah, that's probably my favorite Blazer goal. 28:11 There's so many good Blaze goalies stories, but that one where the kid just comes in, and, you know, the middle of February, that's his first game, and he's just unbelievable. 28:18 And North Dakota wasn't all that great that year, and, you know, the Gophers would play him again in the playoffs. 28:22 But, yeah, that's a Gopher-Sumimori-Mariucci that doesn't involve gooning it up or anything. 28:28 Let's never forget that one. 28:31 Now we have Duluth, who, after losing two to the Gophers, are 3-0-1 since on the WCHA. 28:37 They went into Denver last week and took three points out of them. 28:41 Yeah, that was a pretty impressive series for them. 28:46 Denver, I think, for most of us, was going to be at a minimum in the top two or three team. 28:51 And they definitely haven't played that way so far this year. 28:53 Some of them might be a little injury-related, and some of them might be just guys not living up to expectations so far. 29:01 But, yeah, Duluth has rebounded very nicely. 29:04 You have to give them credit. 29:05 We swept them in their rink, and certainly a team could get down about getting swept in their own arena by their main rival. 29:15 And they have kind of pulled up the bootstraps, so to speak, and they've done well since then. 29:20 And they've got a couple very, if I believe, a couple winnable series coming up here. 29:26 So they could extend that undefeated streak at least three or four more games. 29:33 Yeah, to kind of go on that. 29:34 I mean, they have Anchorage and Minnesota State at home, and then they go eight straight on the road, although it's broken up by the holiday break there. 29:41 So there's four games on the road before that and four after. 29:43 So yeah, I mean, if you're Duluth, you want to make hay these next few weeks. 29:46 But the thing we had talked about last week too with the Duluth-Denver series is we thought there'd be maybe some goals on both sides just because Denver is a goaltending situation. 29:55 I know Murray played on Friday night, and then the, what is it, the Finnish kid. 29:57 I don't want to even try to say his name, but he played on Saturday. 30:01 But to see Duluth go into Denver and only allow a goal and a half a game, and Denver's offense just hasn't, it hasn't clicked yet this year, which is weird because, I mean, that's the thing, probably the main thing everyone hung their hat on with Denver was they just have a ton of talent with the Shore brothers and Zucker, and they had a solid recruiting class. 30:17 Bo Bennett, he kind of disappointed last year. 30:19 Most people thought he'd have a rebound year this year, and they just haven't got it on track. 30:23 So yeah, definitely impressive for the Bulldogs. 30:25 And like Hammy said, they have a good shot to rack up a lot of points here over the course of the next few weeks, with some pretty favorable home series coming up. 30:33 Denver bring back Sinaway while on IMO? 30:36 Yeah, right. 30:37 Maybe it's a curse because Denver and North Dakota were the impetus behind the National College Hockey Conference, and now both of them are sucking right now. 30:48 Controversy. 30:50 Just kidding. 30:51 No, you're not. 30:51 Not completely. 30:56 Well, that was last week. 30:58 This week, we've got quite a few matchups in the WCHA. 31:01 Let's start off with a strange one. 31:02 CC and DU play one game this weekend, and then they played the other game on December 2nd. 31:10 That's kind of a little strange. 31:13 Does CC or Denver win this game? 31:15 We can't really say sweep or whatever, but thoughts on that. 31:19 Kind of a strange thing. 31:21 Yeah, I don't... 31:23 They're kind of like the UND Gophers in terms of Colorado. 31:29 They have this big rivalry out there, and you can't always just look at what's been happening recently or who's got the better team that year and just automatically assume, well, that's who's going to win it. 31:41 They kind of have a similar thing like we do with North Dakota, where throw the records out, and it could be a real barn burner kind of a game. 31:48 So I would probably lean towards actually maybe picking Colorado College simply because they have been playing better, but it's really hard to say with a series like that, or at least a game like that. 32:01 Yeah, you know, I'm kind of, like Hameed just said about the rivalry and everything else, I guess I would maybe lean Denver a little bit just from a lot of averages and the fact that they haven't won a game and they're winless the last two weekends. 32:12 They do have a lot of talent. 32:14 It's a game that they're not going to have a problem getting up for, you wouldn't think, with their, you know, obviously their main rival. 32:18 And, you know, it is one of those series where there's a lot of weird games with these guys and comebacks and something. 32:23 I don't think, what, last year there was like a 9-2 game and there's just some blowouts. 32:26 So it is kind of a weird one, but I don't know. 32:28 Let's, you know, give Gwazdaki the benefit of the doubt and that, you know, he's got the horses there to do some things and, you know, maybe this will be the weekend they kind of get it on track. 32:37 And Denver is in the midst of a, what, a seven or eight game home stand right now. 32:40 So this is one where, you know, if you don't want to flush all those home games, I mean, you want to get them fixed as soon as possible because, you know, obviously with that many home games right now, there's going to be road games, you know, coming up eventually. 32:50 So it'd be easier to, you know, write some things, hopefully, at home for their sake. 32:54 We have Anchorage heading to Duluth. 32:57 I'm just going to go straight out and say it. 32:59 I think Duluth's going to roll in this series. 33:00 I think they're playing well right now. 33:03 Yeah, I mean, I can't argue with that. 33:04 And, you know, the other thing is they've, they have two shutouts in their last three games. 33:09 So they're getting, you know, some quality playing goal. 33:11 And I would, you know, defensively, obviously. 33:14 So, you know, you don't know what you're going to get from Anchorage. 33:17 They've lost their, the only two games that they've played outside of Alaska this year, they lost at UNO, I believe it was. 33:23 And so you'd have to suspect the way things have been going, you know, for UMD and Anchorage being off a week and having a little bit of a sour taste in their mouth. 33:32 I still think that the Bulldogs will roll. 33:35 Yeah, I mean, I think this could be kind of similar to the Bemidji series from a few weeks ago for Duluth where, you know, they're going to put up a lot of goals one night and then the next night just, you know, it's the NHL size sheet. 33:44 So maybe that suits Anchorage a little bit more. 33:46 They've got some bigger players and they'll, you know, kind of lock it down. 33:49 But, you know, yeah, I fully expect Duluth to sweep. 33:52 When you look at, you know, Anchorage, they've scored three goals in four WCHA games. 33:56 So it's kind of the same story for them. 33:57 I mean, they're always going to be OK defensively just because of how they play and having some older kids and playing that physical style. 34:02 But again, you know, you're going to need to score goals to beat Duluth. 34:05 We saw the Gophers go up there, you know, they had to score five each night and that was barely good enough. 34:09 And, you know, it's just Duluth right now with Aleksik and Connelly and Brown. 34:14 I mean, they're big horses that everyone thought, you know, that would carry them have done just that. 34:17 I mean, they were awesome last weekend, too. 34:19 So, yeah, it's just tough to envision a team that can't score going into Duluth and coming away with hard, you know, with any points. 34:25 St. 34:26 Cloud heads down to Mankato to play Minnesota State. 34:30 I think St. 34:30 Cloud's going to look pretty good in this series. 34:33 They'll definitely pick up their play with the loss of LeBlanc, but which team from Mankato is going to show up? 34:39 Well, you know, the funny thing is that it seems that Mankato is sort of a thorn in St. 34:45 Cloud's side. 34:45 You know, every team sort of has that one or two teams that they could be crappy as hell that year, and they still, you know, put up a tough fight. 34:54 They've been rivals for a long time. 34:56 Well, right. 34:56 I mean... 34:57 Yeah, I mean, longer than Division I. 34:59 Right, Northern Sun Conference or whatever that they're both in for other sports. 35:03 So, I mean, it's kind of a rivalry in that sense. 35:07 But yeah, you know, Mankato is coming off a nice win at Tech, and you know, you don't know how St. 35:12 Cloud's going to rebound from having such a major injury, and they kind of did blow that lead on Saturday, even if it was maybe referee-related, who knows? 35:22 But, you know, I'm picking the series as a split just because I've looked at Mankato's record again, St. 35:29 Cloud over, you know, recent times. 35:30 I think, let's see, it was eight, five and four in the last, oh, I don't know, five seasons, I think it's been. 35:37 So they've actually got a pretty good record against St. 35:39 Cloud, and even though they're maybe not quite as talented as St. 35:43 Cloud, of course, I just have a feeling that at least one of those games, Mankato is going to have a good game and maybe beat them. 35:50 Yeah, no, I agree. 35:51 I mean, this is, you know, obviously it's not the, you know, the Denver, Colorado College rivalry, but it's, you know, I don't mean maybe they're in St. 35:57 Cloud, wouldn't consider Mankato their main rival, but I kind of do. 36:00 I mean, there's a lot of parallels, like Jupe said, going back to their, you know, before both teams went D1. 36:05 And also with the fact that these teams have had awesome series. 36:08 I know St. 36:08 Cloud and Duluth have had some really memorable playoff series, too. 36:11 But yes, it's kind of the same bit where kind of weird things happen when these teams play. 36:15 And so, yeah, I wouldn't be surprised. 36:17 I mean, again, part of the reason Mankato has been so bad has been all the injuries. 36:20 And, you know, I'm not super lured on all of them, but you have to imagine that they're getting a little bit healthier. 36:24 You know, they got a few guys back, I think, for their series last weekend in Houghton. 36:28 So, yeah, I think they'll give St. 36:29 Cloud a game. 36:30 And, you know, St. 36:30 Cloud with LeBlanc, I mean, he's a senior, I believe, and, you know, center, first-line center. 36:34 I mean, it's not easy to lose that kind of horse out of your lineup and have to replace him. 36:38 So, yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if that one ends up being a split. 36:43 And finally, we have UNO heading to Bemidji State. 36:47 UNO was 0-6 against the Beavers last year. 36:51 Knocked them out of the WCHA playoffs. 36:54 Almost cost them a tournament bid, but not quite, but Bemidji has had UNO's number. 37:01 Yeah, I mean, like I just talked about with St. 37:04 Cloud, you know, Bemidji, that's one of those teams that maybe just has Nebraska, Omaha, and just knows how to play them, you know. 37:12 It's just kind of a weird thing where you have those kinds of matchups and you're not really sure why a certain team has that kind of success. 37:19 You would expect UNO to kind of roll, especially last year they had a very good team and as we saw, you know, they beat us at Mariucci a couple times and I do think that because of the goaltending situation at UNO, it's really kind of an up-in-the-air kind of situation. 37:35 When I've watched UNO this year, it seems like they'll have streaks of really good play, especially offensively, but then they'll go the exact opposite direction, maybe even in the same game. 37:48 So I'm kind of going to pick this series as a split. 37:52 Yeah, I would agree with that. 37:53 You look at Bemidji last weekend. 37:54 I mean, they go to Lake Superior and most of the time that's kind of a whatever series, but Lake Superior, I think there's seven and two on the year. 38:00 So I mean, they're especially playing them at home and it's not the easiest trip to headway the hell up there. 38:05 And I think Bemidji's goaltending is just far and away better than what Omaha is throwing out there right now. 38:10 But even though Omaha is probably better on the blue line and up front, you know, goaltending can be the equalizer and, you know, it's a tough thing to tell how, you know, both teams are going to react based on what happened last year. 38:20 I mean, I don't think Bemidji is going to be overconfident going against anybody, just given the, you know, a lot of other programs out right now and the flip side. 38:27 I mean, you'd assume Blaze would have them pretty motivated. 38:29 But at the same time, I mean, Blaze had a lot of chances to motivate them last year, and that was probably a better version of the Mavericks and they couldn't get it done. 38:36 So it's kind of a weird thing to get a handle on. 38:38 But, yeah, I would assume probably a split up there as well. 38:42 So that does it for the rest of the WCHA. 38:44 And of course, our Gophers head to Madison to play the Badgers. 38:48 A few notes on that. 38:51 Minnesota leads the series 158, 84 and 20. 38:55 I had no idea it was still that lopsided. 38:59 Don't forget that Saturday's game will be on the Big Ten Network, and we know how great a job they did this past weekend. 39:06 So let's hear your thoughts. 39:10 Bucky Badger. 39:11 Well, where do you want to start, man? 39:13 The reality for me is Wisconsin is a young team. 39:17 They're just like the Gophers. 39:18 They have a lot of underclassmen on the club. 39:20 I think there's a few, when I've looked at both clubs, there's a few real major differences. 39:27 The first one I look at is the scoring depth. 39:30 Wisconsin has a good first line, but they don't have the scoring depth that the Gophers have had this year. 39:38 When you look at the Gophers' top two lines, they're kind of, in some respects, a little bit interchangeable. 39:42 The Buickstead line is certainly the top line, but the Howell line has certainly been very successful in its own right. 39:49 So I think that from a depth standpoint up front, we have an advantage. 39:55 I think the real key is going to be special teams. 39:59 Wisconsin has almost dead last in college hockey for penalty kill. 40:04 It's like 69%. 40:07 I mean, that's brutal. 40:08 Minnesota took a hit last week with North Dakota, but that could be a good sign for Minnesota. 40:12 Well, yeah, so they've been very poor at the penalty kill this year. 40:18 So that's going to be, to me, a major key is how our power play, if we can take advantage of that. 40:23 I'm sure that Wisconsin is going to emphasize that in practice quite a bit this week, so I'm sure that they'll be ready for whatever we can throw at them in that sense. 40:32 And, of course, finally, the biggest difference is what you have in goal. 40:35 I mean, the Gophers have a senior goalie, very experienced, who has been on top of his game, very successful. 40:41 Wisconsin is relying on two freshmen. 40:44 And I don't know if they're going to finally narrow it down to one goalie. 40:51 He's been the more successful of the two goalies there, so I guess we'll see if maybe he gets both starts this weekend. 40:56 But even he, with his numbers, hasn't been, I mean, he owned 91% or so, I'll say a percentage or whatever. 41:04 So, I mean, to me we have some advantages. 41:06 And I'm calling, you know, I looked at the records. 41:10 Gophers have won quite a bit in Madison just in the last 10 years. 41:15 And even the last few years when we've been kind of down, we have a 3-2-3 record of the last four years in Madison. 41:21 So we have a lot of success there for road games. 41:25 So I'm going to pick as a split. 41:27 It won't shock me if the Gophers come out of Madison with more points, but I'll go with the split. 41:33 Yeah, and you know, like Hamid just said, I'm angry with a lot of, you know, pretty much everything he said there. 41:37 And, you know, I think the biggest thing, I think it's going to be a lot like Conor North Dakota tried to play us last weekend where, you know, Yves isn't, you know, an idiot. 41:44 He knows that, you know, the Gophers have more, you know, talent, especially up front at this point. 41:48 And, you know, it's not going to be beneficial for the Badgers to try to get into a track race with the Gophers and try to, you know, win a 5-4, 6-5 type of game. 41:55 I mean, that's not a recipe for success this weekend for Wisconsin. 41:57 So, you know, you hate to kind of beat a dead horse with them in terms of talking about the try-op and playing defensive. 42:03 But I would assume that's what they're going to do. 42:04 I mean, you saw North Dakota do it really well on Saturday night, you know, and hold the Gophers down for most of the game. 42:09 And I think, you know, most teams at this point, if you can hold the Gophers to, you know, two or three goals, just the way their offense has been going all year, you'll kind of take your chances. 42:17 But I just don't know if they have the same, you know, back end than North Dakota does. 42:21 In fact, I know they don't because, you know, they're just not, you know, the same, you know, unit that North Dakota is on the back side. 42:27 So you can try to execute it. 42:28 And I think North Dakota was much better equipped to do so. 42:30 And they did a great job of it right until the end on Saturday. 42:33 But I just don't know if they're going to be able to play that kind of style, where, you know, dumping it in and, you know, they don't have the defensemen to, you know, hold the Gophers off and to get the puck out. 42:42 I mean, obviously they have Justin Schultz, and he's as good as anybody in the country, especially moving the puck. 42:46 But, you know, past that, it's just such a different Wisconsin team than we're used to seeing the last few years with, you know, All-Americans up and down the, you know, blue line. 42:54 So, yeah, it's going to be a tough weekend for Wisconsin, I think. 42:56 But, you know, we have had success out there, like Hammey said, but it's still a tough place to go and play. 43:01 I mean, the Cole Center is going to be difficult. 43:04 So, yeah, I would lean, you know, two points for the Gophers, maybe three. 43:07 So probably a split. 43:08 But again, like Hammey said, it wouldn't shock me if this team, you know, went in there and did pretty well. 43:13 And, you know, like I said last week, too, you kind of look at the bigger picture and, you know, looking at this next month with, you know, starting with North Dakota and then five of the next six on the road. 43:21 If you can, you know, kind of break it into chunks and say, hey, if we can play, you know, maybe 500 hockey over that stretch, then you come home with, you know, Minnesota State, Michigan Tech before the Christmas break. 43:30 And those are some pretty winnable games. 43:31 So, you know, in a sense, the Gophers kind of, you know, got ahead a little bit last weekend in doing, you know, sweeping North Dakota. 43:37 So they already have some money in the bank for the next month. 43:40 So, yeah, I mean, I'd be awesome if they could do the same thing this weekend. 43:42 But even if there's a little bit of a slip up, I still think they're, you know, pretty good position big picture wise. 43:47 Come on, a split again? 43:49 Well, we know what you're going to say. 43:52 Well, of course, I'm going to say the Gophers are going to sweep. 43:55 I can't, I can't say something different. 43:57 I got to keep the streak going. 43:58 Well, you got to go with what works. 44:00 I hope. 44:00 Damn right. 44:01 You guys have sucked on your picks lately. 44:03 Hey, I hope I suck from now on through the frozen forest. 44:10 Any other weird thoughts about the weekend? 44:11 Any miscellaneous things we're not thinking of? 44:15 Well, I mean, I will say this. 44:17 Wisconsin has been a little bit better offensively than I expected them to be. 44:21 I mean, not that they've been lights out necessarily, but they've definitely scored a little bit more than I expected them to. 44:28 So, you know, while they might not necessarily want to get into, you know, an up and down game with us, I do think that they have some good players that can, you know, score some goals. 44:41 And so I, you know, I don't know that they're going to necessarily play trap hockey, but I certainly feel like, you know, they'll be a little more conservative than we probably are. 44:52 But I think they have some goal scorers enough to, you know, keep up in some respects. 44:57 Just I don't think that that would be their game plan. 44:59 I think Ryan's right about that. 45:02 All right. 45:03 Well, if no one has any other thoughts, let's move on to the recruiting news. 45:07 Hammy, we had a couple of commits last week. 45:11 Why don't you tell us about them? 45:14 Well, yeah, I mean, I think the number one, you know, everybody's kind of been waiting on his Taylor Camerata. 45:19 I mean, everybody's been talking about him for ages and, you know, what's going on with him. 45:24 And over time, I mean, the Gophers were always going to be the favorite. 45:30 And he's been kind of a golfer fan growing up. 45:33 And, you know, he's participated in Vanik's summer team. 45:37 And, you know, there's a lot of Gopher influence there. 45:41 And I know that, you know, a lot of fans of other teams were kind of maybe wishfully thinking that they were going to grab him. 45:48 But he finally made it official last week and verbally committed. 45:52 It's probably, I think, one of the biggest commitments we've had in quite a while. 45:57 I mean, you don't like to put too much pressure on a recruit ahead of time. 46:01 Like, you know, remember the Dave Spiehar days. 46:04 He didn't have a terrible college career, but certainly didn't live up to what everybody expected to prior to college. 46:10 But this kid has, you know, he's a smaller kid, but has great offensive tools, a great head for the game. 46:16 You know, should definitely be a very high-impact player in college. 46:20 Probably be around, I would hope, you know, suspect, at least three years. 46:26 So it's a very big one for the Gophers, and he should be here in 2013. 46:32 The other one kind of happened late last week on Thursday night. 46:37 Mike Brzezinski, he's a kid out of Blaine who had an opportunity to play it for the National Team Development Program up in Ann Arbor. 46:46 But turned him down. 46:48 He committed to the Gophers. 46:49 He's a defenseman, very talented, kind of offensive-minded. 46:56 Not an overly big guy, but kind of a thick, he can grow into more of a physical type of a role, so he can mix it up. 47:02 I don't want to compare him to a Keith Ballard, but Kyle Ballard could be very offensive, but he was stout enough to throw some good checks and do some things like that. 47:14 I really thought, quite honestly, this kid would go to somewhere like North Dakota or St. 47:20 Cloud. 47:20 His brother is going to be playing at St. 47:21 Cloud I believe next year, and his dad played a few years there. 47:25 I just thought, well, all that, usually those family ties went out. 47:30 In this case, I guess he really didn't want to do that. 47:34 We have to give a tip of the hat to our recruiting coordinator, Vinnie Littieri, because apparently he had a little bit of an influence on this situation as well. 47:44 All in all, it was a good week for Gopher recruiting. 47:47 In all in all, it's looking good for the future, don't you think? 47:50 Oh, yeah. 47:51 You're pretty happy, aren't you? 47:54 Yeah. 47:54 I don't know. 47:56 They've done great since Gensel has been back. 47:59 When you see, to be fair, some of these young guys that are on the team now, Gensel and I have to deal with, and they're doing well. 48:05 You have guys like Raoul and Condon, and some of these guys are playing well. 48:12 You can't just say it was the change in assistant coaching that's led to it. 48:16 There's been some success with the guys that are younger on the team now. 48:20 But yeah, it's very optimistic about the future. 48:24 Well, let's move on a little bit. 48:27 A question we have, and you can always send us questions to podcast.gov4pucklive.com or if you're listening live, like we are broadcasting right now, you can always tweet us or send an email at that time as well. 48:41 But it looks like Tom Streatar, sorry, I don't know how to pronounce your last name. 48:46 He asks, with this year's early success, will that lead to early departures next year? 48:55 What do you think, Ryan? 48:58 I don't know if it's going to, I mean, I don't think there's anybody that, you know, you look at that's had a lot of success, meaning like Eric Howell. 49:04 I mean, I don't think the fact that he's, you know, off to such a great start is going to be, you know, pushing him out the door or anything after this year. 49:10 I mean, I think, you know, the Bukestead one was pretty expected. 49:13 I mean, I was a little bit surprised he came back just because he's so physically ready. 49:17 And, you know, you see kids leave here and not just here, but, you know, obviously it's been an issue for the Gophers losing kids early. 49:22 And but, you know, just the way he's looked so far this year, I mean, physically, this looks a lot stronger and quicker. 49:28 And he's going to be ready to play. 49:30 And you look at Florida, I mean, that's a team that, you know, it's not like he'd be going to, you know, Boston or somewhere that's, you know, just loaded with, you know, guys that are, you know, NHL veterans. 49:38 I mean, it seems like Florida is going to have a lot of room in the next few years for, I mean, they signed a lot of older guys this summer, but those, you know, kind of looks like they're just there to fill this, you know, space a little bit until their, you know, rebuild movement gets going. 49:48 So aside from Buigstead, I mean, again, it wouldn't surprise me if there's another, you know, kind of the oddball one like we saw last year with Gardner where, you know, it's not a huge loss. 49:57 They're the kind that add up over time, but it seems like they're a little bit more equipped now to deal with those. 50:01 But, I mean, like a guy like Budish, I mean, again, he's not, at least so far this year, it's not like he's just wowing people. 50:07 I mean, he's coming off, you know, a couple major knee surgeries in a few years. 50:10 So, you know, and I think, too, with the team's success, I mean, that might push kids to stick around a little bit more, where, hey, we've got something special going here. 50:18 There's freshmen and sophomores. 50:19 I mean, that's not an outrageous concept. 50:21 We've seen it in Grand Forks. 50:22 I mean, they had, you know, the best team in the country last year. 50:24 They just didn't win the national title, but from start to finish, they were the best team. 50:27 And a big reason for that is they had a lot of kids that stuck around and wanted to, you know, kind of see it through. 50:32 So it wouldn't surprise me if the success actually, you know, kind of turns things, and especially with a lot of the players that are, you know, with Rao and Holla. 50:39 I mean, a lot of these guys are smaller players that aren't going to be, you know, more than likely big time NHL stars. 50:43 So see what they can get out of college before they're, you know, it just seems like they have less kids coming to campus that already have one foot out the door, like a, you know, a Schrader or a Poe. 50:52 So it just seemed like those kids already had the NHL in their mind as soon as they got here. 50:55 And I just don't get that sense from a lot of the current players. 50:58 And where is Jordan Schrader? 51:00 Yeah. 51:01 Well, you know, I totally agree. 51:03 I totally agree with Ryan. 51:04 I mean, I think that Bukestad is the only one that you can really look at and say, well, he's, you know, basically a lock to leave after this year. 51:12 I think you defensively, I don't think any of these guys are necessary, are ready. 51:19 I mean, that doesn't necessarily mean anything, of course, as we've seen before. 51:22 They still might get signed, but, you know, out of the defensive group, I think ALT is really the only one that might even be remotely a risk. 51:31 And quite frankly, we've got, you know, Brady Shea and Mike Riley kind of waiting in the wings who are very, you know, good recruits. 51:39 So I don't think anything's going to happen defensively for departures, but even if something does happen, I think we're very well equipped to handle it. 51:48 And I don't think that up front other than Bukestad, I mean, you could maybe make an argument for Budish, but I don't think any of these other guys that are underclassmen or whatever are really going to be leaving. 51:57 Howell, I think that the Wild, I don't know, I think that they'll probably be patient on that. 52:03 So yeah, I think that we're not going to really see a lot of departures after this season. 52:08 And you look even with Altman, I think he's won a Carolina draft, and they have, you know, Justin Falk, who they signed early, you know, a year ago from Minnesota Duluth, and they took a Canadian kid pretty high in the draft last year that was also a defenseman. 52:19 I mean, they have a couple of, you know, kind of stud young defensemen, and especially with a position like defensemen, you don't want to have too many young kids either at the, you know, the AHL level or the NHL level. 52:28 So, you know, just something to keep in mind with all two. 52:31 And, you know, again, with a bigger kid like him who, you know, played football throughout and didn't, you know, it's not like he spent a couple of years in the USHL and he's physically ready. 52:38 I mean, that's, you know, with this Gopher team, I mean, some of these kids have played juniors, but he's not one of them. 52:42 So, yeah, I mean, it'd be, I think we can all agree at this point, it'd be pretty idiotic if somebody like Hall or All decided to bolt early. 52:50 And I don't foresee that happening. 52:52 But like Hammy said too, I mean, stranger things have happened. 52:55 Well, we've got a live question from our buddy Chuck Schwartz over there in Badgerville. 53:01 Has Kyle Rowe's success come from the positions the coaches have put him in, you know, like minutes-wise and the power play penalty kill, or is it from his talent? 53:12 You know, it's, I don't mean to interrupt. 53:14 You know, it's funny because I've looked at some of his goals, and specifically I looked at the game winner on Saturday, and I just watched him, you know, on that play, how he moved throughout. 53:27 The kid, it kind of reminds me of like when you see his zone defense and you have, you know, really good wide receivers that just know where the dead spots in a zone are, and that's how Rowe is. 53:37 He just learns, he just knows. 53:39 He's moving around, he's just kind of sneaky about how he moves around in the offensive zone, and he finds those open spots. 53:46 Of course, most of his goals, you know, have come, you know, right on that edge of the crease, you know, on the right side of the net, but he just knows how to find those open spots to make plays. 53:54 He's very heady and smart, and yeah, he's on the top line, so of course he's getting ample opportunities with power play and, you know, playing with talented guys with Bukstad and Budish. 54:06 So yeah, some of it you got to chalk up to that to a degree, but the kid is just really good at finding, you know, those open spaces and making plays. 54:14 So, you know, I guess it's just a mixture. 54:17 That's my opinion on it. 54:19 Yeah, and, you know, I think a lot of the two have spoke about this on the podcast before is just his hockey IQ and some of the little stuff. 54:25 I mean, whether it's just getting the puck out along the wall, and, you know, I mean, you know, Hamme mentioned this play earlier where, you know, it was that power play on Friday night where, you know, Lamrou took those two shots from Schmidt, and he was, you know, obviously hurting big time, and, you know, Rao had the puck along the wall, and, you know, that whole play got created because North Dakota tried to clear it, and Rao, I mean, I think it was either Blood or McWilliam. 54:42 I mean, they had a rocket of a shot to clear it, and Rao was able to stop it along the rail, and he, you know, once he contained it, you know, he's the one that centered it to Bukestead before he got leveled from behind, and then Bukestead scored. 54:52 So I think he's earned a lot of the, you know, trust from Lucia, meaning what scored the shorthanded goal late, the empty netter against Anchorage, but that just shows that there was under a minute to go, and, you know, the team's shorthanded, and he's one of the guys on the ice, and I think Lucia has learned his lesson about giving guys, you know, freshmen who haven't earned it, you know, ample opportunity, but I think Rao has proven that, you know, obviously he can score goals, and we've known that for years, and I think it's a huge surprise that that's carried over, especially with, you know, so many of them coming on the power play, and, you know, he's not Ryan Patelny-like, but, you know, just that same spot on the ice where, you know, how many Ryan Patelny goals were scored right from the bottom of that circle, where, you know, whether it was on the power play or, you know, getting a pass from Ehrman or whomever and just, you know, going top shelf. 56:02 I mean, he was great on a penalty kill. 56:04 I mean, for a guy who's that size, he throws his weight around. 56:07 I mean, he's not a guy who does, you know, I mean, he needs to get bigger and stronger, of course, like any true freshman would, but he's very much, you know, a complete player. 56:17 There's not one part of his game that's significantly weaker than the others. 56:22 He's just a very good player. 56:23 Yeah, and you can tell, you know, the respect that other teams have for him. 56:26 I know I mentioned, I think it was on Twitter or GPL or somewhere, but just in watching both the games, and especially on Saturday night where I wasn't in the press box, so I was a little bit closer to the ice. 56:34 And you see Christo and some of the guys, you know, every time they pass him, just a little slash. 56:38 I mean, not just anybody gets that attention. 56:40 I mean, there's a reason they're trying to hone in on Rao because they know how good he is and just, you know, get in his hat or whatever. 56:45 And clearly it didn't work. 56:46 But, you know, tip of the captain, you know, nine toes there for giving his best effort to, you know, slash Mr. 56:53 Rao all week and on. 56:54 Wow. 56:56 I thought it was popsicle toes. 56:57 Popsicle toes. 57:02 Well, I have kind of have a question, you know, obviously Rao has been playing very well, but what about the other freshmen in scoring? 57:09 It's been a little quiet, you know. 57:11 Warning had that goal earlier. 57:13 I think, you know, Ambrose had a goal. 57:16 It's been a little quiet in the last couple of weeks. 57:20 Well, I mean, I think some of it's been, you know, you have to look at this last weekend, you know, North Dakota, you knew on their lower lines that they were going to play it pretty conservatively. 57:33 So, I mean, some of that's going to be, you know, how the other team is playing, you know, what their style is going to be in that particular weekend. 57:40 So, I mean, I think some of it plays into that. 57:42 Certainly when you go to places like Anchorage, those tend to be a little bit more lower scoring games. 57:48 So, you know, I try not to read too much into that. 57:52 I think, you know, I saw Warning making some plays, and some of these other guys were doing, you know, making plays that we've talked about. 57:57 Ambrose, he's, you know, of course, he's got to stay out of the box. 58:01 That's been his biggest issue. 58:03 But, you know, they're playing their roles, I think, fine. 58:07 Yeah, I mean, I don't think, other than Raul, I mean, there's not another guy that's been, you know, consistently in position, whether it's, you know, you don't see Warning out on the power play every single time, or, you know, I mean, that sophomore class with, you know, Budish being the redshirt, whatever, but with Bustad and Holla, I mean, that's the group that's going to, you know, and, you know, the guy I don't want to forget is Jake Hansen. 58:24 I mean, I know I was pretty tough on him the first three years just because I had pretty high expectations and, you know, he didn't live up to him at all. 58:29 I mean, not only did he not score, but he was horrendous a lot of the time in his own end, but that's a kid that, you know, again, he's doing it away from the puck this year. 58:36 And, you know, because of that, I think his game has translated where he is scoring at a pretty high clip. 58:39 But, yeah, I mean, aside from Raul, I don't think any of the freshmen are going to be, you know, big time scorers this year. 58:45 Well, don't forget Ben Marshall. 58:47 He's been very solid so far this year. 58:49 He makes the occasional mistake, but, you know, he's definitely, I mean, I was surprised he actually, you know, he's not known as a physical kid. 58:55 He was throwing his weight around a bit this last weekend in North Dakota kind of getting into the spirit of things, so to speak. 59:01 So, I mean, he's actually played rather well overall. 59:04 So, I mean, he's from the back line. 59:07 And he's getting some power play time things. 59:08 So he's been pretty solid. 59:11 Another question via Twitter from Gophers4L. 59:15 What's the future of goaltending look like for the Gophers? 59:19 I don't really know if we've got too much insight on them. 59:22 I mean, obviously we've got… 59:25 Wilcox is coming in, but it's kind of one of the unknowns with us. 59:29 We're not really big goalie knowledge guys. 59:33 Well, I think speaking of what we said earlier about defense, I mean, I think this year you see Patterson maybe bailing out the defenseman a little bit, but looking ahead to next year, if you want to talk about the future, the goaltending. 59:46 And again, who knows? 59:47 I mean, the Wilcox, he's not playing a ton. 59:49 I know he's splitting time in Green Bay with Miami recruits, so I mean, that's two pretty good schools with goaltending recruits there. 59:54 So it's not like he's playing every night, but I mean, this is his second year there. 59:58 But I think it is important to hang on to the defensive guys we have going into next year just because it could be a little bit of a reversal where the D-Core is going to have to be a little bit better and maybe help out either Will Cox or the Chabrowski kid that's backing up Patterson this year. 1:00:14 Yeah, I mean, I think that we're going to face, to a slight degree, kind of what Wisconsin's going through this year. 1:00:21 You're going to have some guys who are pretty inexperienced in net next year. 1:00:25 And I think I have a lot of faith in Will Cox. 1:00:28 I think he's played rather well in Green Bay. 1:00:31 Like you said, he's not the full-time guy. 1:00:33 They're splitting between two good goalies. 1:00:36 But I think that they'll be pretty solid in net next year. 1:00:40 And certainly not going to be Kent Patterson solid. 1:00:43 But they'll still be pretty good, I think. 1:00:46 Will Shembrowsky play this year? 1:00:49 Or will they go Patterson the whole time? 1:00:51 I would think they've got to get him in sometime. 1:00:54 I'm sure they'll throw him in around the Classic and maybe some games. 1:00:59 I don't know. 1:00:59 I guess it'll depend on what the season is looking like as we progress. 1:01:03 If we're doing real well still, maybe they'd say, hey, let's throw the other guy in a little bit and give Patterson a little rest heading into the WCHA playoffs or whatever. 1:01:15 I guess we'll just have to see how it goes. 1:01:17 Yeah, I could see maybe one of the Michigan State games. 1:01:20 All those are important in Michigan State. 1:01:22 It's not a powerhouse like they are some years. 1:01:24 But again, it's non-conference. 1:01:26 And it may be one of the home games against Mankato or Michigan Tech. 1:01:29 But again, I think the big picture with that is Lucia. 1:01:33 He's got the contract extension. 1:01:35 But still, they don't make the NCAA tournament this year. 1:01:36 I have a hard time imagining he's behind the bench come next fall. 1:01:39 And the way it's gone, it seems preposterous to say that. 1:01:42 But again, they've started well in recent years. 1:01:44 It was an 0-8-0-9 I referenced earlier. 1:01:46 And then the bottom fell out. 1:01:48 So I just think he's going to ride him. 1:01:49 And maybe one of the non-conference games are on Christmas. 1:01:52 But even that, again, we've talked about that, where you lose one of these non-conference games. 1:01:55 And with the pairwise and the way everything lines up at the end of the year, that can end up costing a team. 1:01:59 So like Hammy said, if they get to the holiday classic and they have two or three losses on the year, they do really well the next six weeks, maybe then you afford them the chance. 1:02:09 But I know Lucia has talked about it in the past when he's ridden a goalie. 1:02:12 You give the kid time off during the week. 1:02:15 There are other ways to keep him fresh. 1:02:16 It's two games a week, and yeah, it's back to back. 1:02:18 And I think if you ask Patterson, he'd probably want to play every single night. 1:02:22 As long as there are no injuries or anything, I'd be surprised if he didn't play him every night the rest of the way. 1:02:29 I would kind of be surprised, but you never know what Lucia is going to do. 1:02:34 Any other thoughts on this weekend, Bucky BADger? 1:02:39 Well, I mean, you never really know. 1:02:42 I mean, it's kind of the same concept with North Dakota. 1:02:44 I mean, when you're getting into a rivalry series, you just don't know for sure. 1:02:49 My hope is that, as nice as it is to be number one, that the guys keep things pretty level-headed and don't get too ahead of themselves as far as just feeling like they can just walk into any rink and just throw their sticks out there and they're just going to automatically win. 1:03:05 So I'm sure that they're not thinking that way, but still you just kind of hope that they're pretty level-headed about everything. 1:03:12 So we'll see how it goes, but I think this will be a good weekend for the Gophers, and it's always a nice test, I mean, to go on the road in a hostile environment. 1:03:20 So hopefully it'll be a positive. 1:03:23 Yeah, and I just think, you know, from a fan standpoint, it's just nice to, you know, look forward to weekends again and not kind of watch with one eye open and cringing and hoping for the worst. 1:03:30 I mean, you know, it's just, again, it's fun to watch again, and you saw that last weekend, now not every weekend is going to be sweeping North Dakota in dramatic fashion at home, but, you know, you just have, you know, enjoy these series a lot with Wisconsin, and then you got St. 1:03:42 Cloud State next weekend at home at home. 1:03:44 So, yeah, it's just a lot of fun right now, and hopefully the success on the ice continues. 1:03:49 Are you heading to Madison, Ryan? 1:03:51 I will not be. 1:03:52 I will be heading to the state of Wisconsin this weekend, but it will not be to Madison. 1:03:56 It will be a little bit further north and a little bit further east. 1:03:59 So, yeah, I will be in the state, but not in Madison. 1:04:05 All right. 1:04:05 Well, I think that pretty much covers us for this week. 1:04:08 Remember, you can listen to us live while we record this podcast, and send us Twitter questions during the broadcast. 1:04:16 We took a couple tonight, and you can always email us questions at podcast.gopherpucklive.com. 1:04:22 You can follow Hammy's work at Twitter, at Hammy Hockey on Twitter, I should say, and he's always posting on GPL as well. 1:04:32 Ryan, I suspect you'll be on with PAA Thursday? 1:04:36 Yep, that is the plan. 1:04:38 I believe it will be Thursday at 9.55. 1:04:40 9.55, as usual. 1:04:42 And of course you can follow Ryan on Twitter as well, at Ryan Cardinal. 1:04:46 Well, that just about does it for this week. 1:04:49 We'll be back next week to recap Wisconsin, talk about the Home and Home St. 1:04:53 Cloud series, and move on from there. 1:04:57 Thanks for joining us.