0:09 This is The GPL Podcast, the production of gopherpucklive.com. 0:22 Now, let's join Cami, Vegoe and your host, Jupiter. 0:44 I know that's your favorite, Hammeh. 0:47 I was gonna say, I was talking about hockey or porno tonight. 0:53 Well, welcome back, people. 0:55 This is the 62nd GPL Podcast. 0:58 Yes, I am counting. 1:00 But boys, you know, obviously we've been off for a couple weeks. 1:05 Couldn't do one show one night because my internet went down. 1:08 Yippee skippy. 1:10 But you know, it really hasn't been a great few weeks for the team as at Veegs, swept by the dogs. 1:16 Not the best game against, you know, US under 18, a good game against BC, and then a huge letdown against Northeastern Veegs. 1:25 Yeah. 1:26 I throw out the exhibition when you're talking about the stretch they're on. 1:30 But really, you know, it has been a little bit of a stretch we're not used to seeing where, you know, the team is still trying to define itself. 1:38 I think Lucia is still trying to figure out if he's got a line up where he can roll four lines and three sets of D and, you know, he's got too many guys making the same mistakes over and over again. 1:50 And when you play good teams like UMD, it's going to show up. 1:53 And then I think they had a little bit of a letdown with Northeastern. 1:57 Hammey, what's going on with this team? 1:58 Is this just kind of an early season funk? 2:00 It seems like some games they're really on, like a BC game. 2:05 But other games, they just can't get their offense going, like UMD and Northeastern. 2:11 Yeah, I mean, I think it's kind of a combination of factors. 2:15 You know, I think part of it is that we're just not finding that consistency. 2:18 Especially our last two lines, you know, the third and fourth lines have been pretty well non-existent, you know, for much of the season. 2:27 I mean, with what we got our first points from the fourth line against Boston College, I mean, that's just not going to get it done yet. 2:33 I mean, you're not going to expect your fourth line to do a lot of stuff, but they certainly have to pitch in. 2:37 I mean, all the best Gopher teams usually had a fourth line that could do something. 2:41 So that's certainly something. 2:43 I think missing Boyd, you know, has really kind of hurt that third line. 2:46 I mean, I think without Boyd, you know, we really only have two scoring lines, you know, when he's out of the lineup, he's kind of that linchpin of that third line. 2:53 So I think that, you know, that's I think, you know, some of the problems that I see. 2:58 And plus, we have some guys that just aren't they're not scoring to the pace that, you know, they did last year, you know, like warning and fashing. 3:06 And I just think that some of these guys need to pick it up a little bit in order to kind of have a team being doing well. 3:12 I mean, I think ultimately though, we're not that bad off. 3:15 It just, we haven't clicked at this point. 3:17 Obviously, you know, depth is one thing that we were supposed to have this year for the team. 3:23 So it seems like, you know, losing Boyd shouldn't have been too big of a deal, but it seems like he has been part of the glue that's kind of put them together. 3:32 Well, I think definitely, when I look at especially that third line, I mean, you know, Ambrose, for instance, he's not a guy that's going to create offense for himself. 3:39 He's a guy that's going to kind of... 3:40 He's a garbage goal guy. 3:41 Yeah, exactly. 3:42 I mean, he's a guy that, you know, he's going to get around the net. 3:45 He's going to dig for pucks, you know, around the boards, but he's not going to be, you know, skating hard up ice and, you know, stick handling around guys and creating things. 3:53 He's just kind of a garbage, you know, goal type of a guy. 3:56 And Boyd to me is, you know, he's the guy that's going to be setting all that up. 4:00 And yeah, I think we all kind of underestimated to a certain extent how valuable Travis actually is to this particular team. 4:09 It did seem you did like that Mr. 4:11 Leteri got on the board. 4:13 You've been kind of expecting a little more for him, and he has been awfully quiet. 4:17 Well, I mean, he was what? 4:19 I mean, he didn't have any points prior to Friday's game. 4:22 And, you know, for a kid who's had a decent amount of success scoring in his background at, you know, high school and junior hockey level, you expect a kid like that to be doing more. 4:34 You know, he's not a freshman anymore. 4:35 He's got some experience. 4:37 He needs to step it up. 4:38 And, you know, it was nice to see him do that this past weekend, but we need a little bit more of that moving forward. 4:44 Veegs, let's go all the way back to Duluth. 4:47 You know, they almost didn't score that entire weekend. 4:52 Yeah, I mean, it was a tough situation. 4:54 I think Duluth was really fired up to play. 4:57 I know in the first game at Minnesota, Duluth really took it to them. 5:03 They were out shooting them. 5:04 They were dominating possession. 5:06 And they weren't taking penalties. 5:07 And that's kind of been where Minnesota's been able to pull ahead of other teams, is getting on the power play. 5:14 And their power play has been really effective so far. 5:17 And Duluth played a great game. 5:19 I think this is the first time I've seen Duluth have a defensive core that is really good at transitioning out of the defensive zone and holding the offensive zone. 5:29 I think sometimes they've had guys who could do one or the other. 5:32 But now they've got a crew that makes it really hard to play against because it's hard to break out against the Bulldogs. 5:39 Well, one thing I know as you mentioned there is, you know, the Gophers have been relying on their power play. 5:43 And I think that's, you know, obviously it could be a deadly power play. 5:46 It worked against Northeastern. 5:48 That's their only two goals. 5:49 But like you said, I believe in your story. 5:51 And Lucia said, we didn't have the five on five scoring. 5:57 And they need it. 5:59 Yeah, I mean, I think part of the reason they're having a hard time getting five on five scoring is they don't get a lot of zone time right now. 6:07 I think when Minnesota plays another team, you know, the neutral zone isn't going to be there where you can gain a lot of speed. 6:14 So you need to have guys get behind the puck, generate some speed behind the puck, so you can gain the blue line and then don't turn the puck over right away. 6:23 You need to kind of grind away a little bit. 6:25 And Travis Boyd is one of the best players on the team at doing that. 6:29 You know, he can protect the puck with his body and make a good play. 6:33 And I think they're kind of suffering a little bit because they don't have a lot of guys who are able to do that right now. 6:38 They have a lot of guys who are good in an up and down game or in transition with speed, but we're struggling to generate offensive chances out of possession. 6:50 Well I'm a little concerned if Boyd is the big piece here. 6:54 You know guys, I'm a little concerned. 6:58 Well I think my point is the fact that, you know, I think teams, it's a lot harder to play against a team when you can roll three scoring lines out there. 7:08 You know, I think most good teams have at least two good defensive pairings, you know, on their team. 7:16 And so when you're playing a team like Duluth for instance, that has something like that, I just think it's easier to play against the Gophers when you're essentially rolling out two scoring lines. 7:26 And you know, like Vig said, some of that, you know, is sort of how the Gophers play on some of these lines. 7:32 I mean, guys like Clues, Camerano, they're not the kind of guys that are going to be, you know, they're more the transition plays. 7:39 You know, the North-South kind of get up the ice and try to, but they're not puck possession guys per se in terms of around the boards and all that kind of stuff. 7:47 So, I mean, I think that part of it's just a combination of those factors. 7:50 And I think Boyd is just that valuable in terms of he plays all the special teams. 7:56 He does add an offensive weapon to that third line. 7:58 And so I don't I don't think it says anything necessarily bad about the rest of the team. 8:04 I just think it just shows you that he adds a tremendous amount of value. 8:08 We don't have anything on the fourth line. 8:10 To me, that's been a huge disappointment this year. 8:13 And as well as some of these guys like Fashing. 8:16 I mean, he's not scoring to the level that I kind of expected him to. 8:20 You know, Sam Warning hasn't quite, you know, he's always been streaky, but he hasn't quite done as much as I had hoped for his senior year to this point. 8:29 So some of these guys just need to step it up offensively. 8:31 I think they have the capability, but we just haven't seen that consistency yet. 8:36 And that's kind of the one thing that was most disappointing for me over these last few weeks. 8:40 You know, the sweep by Duluth, it bothered me, but the loss to Northeastern I thought was just inexcusable. 8:49 They're not a good team. 8:51 Well, I mean, I think for me, I mean, you have to look at the fact that Riley was out of the game quick, number one, and he's obviously very valuable to the team. 8:59 Number two, they hadn't played the night before. 9:01 They basically had one game for the whole weekend, and it was just the Gophers, and they had that opportunity to focus on that. 9:07 I know Lucia has mentioned that, he got out-scheduled, so to speak, and I think that that certainly plays into it. 9:16 As he mentioned on his radio show, you're going from a Boston College game where everybody's kind of ramped up, because Boston College is one of the elite programs in the country, and then the next night you're playing in front of a lackluster crowd against a team that you're really not familiar with, and it's maybe a little bit of human nature to let down a bit. 9:35 And I'm not saying that's excusable necessarily, but I understand how something like that can happen. 9:41 My problem is that they, I don't think we've seen a consistent effort game in and game out. 9:47 I mean, you're not going to get your A game every week, but I want to see the hard work every game. 9:51 And I'm not sure that we've seen that to the level we need to. 9:54 What do you think, Veegs? 9:55 Were you as pissed off as I was? 9:58 I'm probably not as pissed off as most people following the team, because what they're trying to do is they're trying to build a team for March. 10:06 They're three and one against Hockey East. 10:07 They ended up OK with the Paralyze, I think, out of their non-conference schedule. 10:12 And now they've got their two games here at the holiday and then 20 Big Ten games coming up. 10:18 And they're still building. 10:20 And I think Lucia has kind of settled on his penalty killers a little bit here. 10:24 He mentioned that this week that he gave some guys some chances, and now he's going to move forward with the guys he thinks can do the best job there. 10:33 And the special teams have been good. 10:35 It's trying to find guys who can play smart and accept the role in the third and fourth lines and maybe sacrifice trying to get that goal off the rush and grind away a little bit, get some gritty shots by the net, and give the other team a challenge rather than just coming in, turning it over, having to play defense, and then get off. 10:58 You know, Lucia did say in some of those post-game interviews that, you know, they might have a talented team, but if you don't work, you're going to get worked. 11:05 And that's what I think happened against Northeastern. 11:08 If you don't put out an effort every night, you're going to pay for it, especially in college hockey. 11:13 Well, I mean, this is such a game of goal-tending that you're going to go up against a good goal-tender every night. 11:18 And Northeastern is a veteran team. 11:20 They have a veteran goalie. 11:21 They've returned a lot of their players. 11:23 They're going to play smart. 11:25 They didn't give Minnesota a lot of shooting opportunities in that game. 11:28 And, you know, Minnesota, you know, got lucky on the power play, you know. 11:34 When you score on those power play chances, you can't generate anything out of five on five. 11:40 You're going to be in trouble. 11:42 Yeah, I guess I agree. 11:44 It was just a little frustrating, that's all. 11:46 Well, I think the thing that you need to remember is, you know, every season is going to be different. 11:50 I mean, it's funny, North Dakota fans, for instance, they're always used to their team starting off the first half slow and then ramping up, you know. 11:59 I think for Gopher fans, we've generally been accustomed to starting off pretty good the first couple months of the season, maybe having a little bit of a rough spot, you know, in that second half and then kind of getting better again towards the end. 12:12 I mean, I think it really comes down to every, we have expectations every year and we're used to certain things. 12:18 And, you know, I think we're kind of used to seeing faster starts out of Gopher hockey. 12:24 And then when it doesn't quite happen as smoothly in that regard, people start to worry about things as opposed to kind of letting things play out. 12:32 I mean, it is a long season. 12:34 You're not going to have A games every week or A series, you know, or even you're going to have weeks in a row where you're not necessarily going to play the greatest. 12:41 I mean, I think some of these teams that we've played that have played well, like Duluth, for instance, they're not going to play great the whole season. 12:47 They're going to have their situations where they're going to slump a bit. 12:51 And every team goes through that. 12:53 And I guess I would rather have that happen at this point in the year than kind of in the March range. 12:58 So we'll see what happens. 13:00 Well all games count towards the pair wise. 13:02 So in the end, it could cost them. 13:06 A game about over Northeastern or one of these Duluth games, or maybe some of the non-conference games, you know, the Minnesota Cup thing, whatever. 13:16 We all know that those games could come back to haunt you in the end, because no matter what we say, the conference stinks this year, guys. 13:23 And no matter what, they're going to be playing Michigan States, Penn States, and the Badgers, which are just so bad that no matter what, their pairwise is going to be affected in conference play. 13:38 Well, I mean, I don't know. 13:39 I don't know enough to judge about how things are going to play out. 13:43 All I know is that if they continue to win the vast majority of the games, they'll be in good shape. 13:47 I mean, they're not going to necessarily be the very top number one seed because of some of these losses that they've taken. 13:54 But nonetheless, I think that as long as they control what they have in front of them, they can control what they have in front of them. 14:01 And certainly if they win, they're going to be in good shape. 14:04 Yeah, I'm going to agree with Hamme here. 14:06 I mean, they've got two wins over Notre Dame, a win over BC. 14:10 They did beat Duluth early in the season. 14:13 They got a win against St. 14:14 Cloud State. 14:15 I think they're going to be okay in pairwise as long as they take care of business in the Big Ten. 14:21 Well, speaking of the Big Ten, guys, Bucky finally got a win. 14:26 How about that? 14:30 What do you want? 14:31 I hope you don't want me to congratulate him. 14:36 Well, as Handyman has been saying on the board, he hopes he gives Eves a lifetime contract because it's rough over there. 14:44 What are they? 14:45 One nine and one now? 14:47 Oh, boy. 14:49 Yeah. 14:49 Well, his strategy has been to load up one recruiting class and develop those guys. 14:56 But that's coming back to haunt him too. 14:58 He just lost a recruit, didn't he? 15:01 Possibly. 15:03 Yeah. 15:05 Well, I mean, I think, you know, I really, Wisconsin, just like you mentioned, they kind of just kind of load up. 15:14 They kind of have one on every four years, that really competitive, you know, title contending team. 15:19 And you kind of have to say to yourself, if you flub that one up, then you got to wait how many more years, you know, before you really get a strong competitive team again. 15:28 And personally, I am not all that impressed with what they put together for a freshman class this year. 15:35 I think it's okay, but I don't think it's anything that's going to blow you away. 15:39 And, you know, they have got some decent players, you know, some pretty good players coming up in the next few classes. 15:45 But I, I don't know, you just don't, I just don't know that I see this massive turnaround. 15:50 And it's kind of what we said last year that they didn't capitalize last year with what they had for that huge senior class and a few upperclassmen that might leave, then they're going to be hurting. 15:59 And that's exactly what's happened. 16:01 And really they only capitalized kind of at the end of the season. 16:04 They came close to the regular season title. 16:06 And then obviously they did well in the Big Ten tournament, but that was it. 16:10 And like you did predict it last year that they better do it well because they could be hurting and they are hurting. 16:18 Absolutely. 16:19 I mean, you have that many first year guys, what do you expect? 16:24 And they didn't have a situation where like we were last year, where, you know, you had Clues and Cammie and Fasch. 16:31 I mean, we had some real impact freshmen coming in that you could kind of project we're going to be scoring guys. 16:37 And they're freshmen to me this up, you know, this year. 16:40 I didn't see those kinds of players. 16:42 So I thought it was going to be I didn't know that was going to be one eight and one bad. 16:46 But I certainly didn't expect them to be going gangbusters early on either. 16:52 OK, Veegs, I've got something for you. 16:54 Arizona State. 16:57 Let's get the travel budget ready. 16:59 Let's get out there. 17:02 I bet they're wishing they could get Austin Matthews to play for them down the stretch. 17:06 But I don't think that's going to happen. 17:08 But no, good for college hockey. 17:10 I think I think it's a good addition. 17:11 It should be a fun road trip. 17:13 I'm sure they'll have no problem scheduling teams throughout the season. 17:18 And, you know, Penn State got their squad together pretty quick. 17:23 So, you know, ASU, I'm sure they can attract a lot of hockey players there. 17:27 Good scenery. 17:28 Well, definitely, yeah. 17:31 That's near Phoenix, isn't it? 17:32 I mean, hello. 17:34 Yeah, it is Phoenix, basically. 17:37 The thing for me, the big difference is what kind of an investment are they going to put into? 17:41 Are they going to get an on-campus rank? 17:43 Any of that stuff? 17:44 I mean, it sounds like that's not going to happen. 17:46 Certainly not in the immediate future. 17:48 And that should be a concern. 17:50 Well, that's a hell of a lot different than Penn State. 17:52 I mean, Penn State, they kind of, I think, they kind of plan their way through things a little bit more. 17:57 They didn't rush into it. 17:58 They had the financial backing. 18:00 They were going to have a nice rank on campus. 18:03 And, you know, people talk about Arizona State and all that. 18:06 And I think it's great. 18:08 Don't get me wrong. 18:09 But I think that I'd be very surprised if they transition into college hockey as well as Penn State has to this point. 18:17 Well, we know Penn State did a great job. 18:19 I mean, obviously, it caused all this turmoil in the rest of college hockey, you know, with the conferences. 18:25 But I think in long run, those are growing pains. 18:28 But like you said, no on campus arena. 18:33 I don't know. 18:34 What was the donation? 18:35 30 or 40 million, something like that? 18:38 I think it was 31 million or something like that. 18:40 Where's all the money going? 18:42 I mean, does it really cost that much to start up a program? 18:47 I don't know. 18:49 I think some of it's probably going to... 18:51 I don't know if it's all hockey related or not. 18:53 I mean, obviously, they have to start up a women's, not necessarily a hockey team. 18:58 I think it was, what was it? 18:59 La Crosse? 19:00 I don't know what it was. 19:00 They were thinking like La Crosse or maybe it was a crew or something like that. 19:03 Yeah. 19:04 I don't know if that's a part of the cost involved or not. 19:07 But nonetheless, I think to me, the big thing is their coach isn't going to be a D1 experience guy. 19:17 Now, he might hire some guys that are going to have D1 experience and have some of the recruiting ties. 19:23 I don't know what the plan is for that. 19:25 But I think certainly when you're out there recruiting, kids want to feel confident about the coaching they're going to get. 19:31 And I question if they're going to feel that confident with a man that doesn't have that D1 experience and doesn't have that experience getting guys on to the NHL level. 19:42 And so that, I think, is also something that's a little bit questionable compared to like a Penn State, for instance. 19:48 Well, it's just going to be have to wait and see. 19:50 They'll probably, I don't know what conference will go after them. 19:53 They'll have to have some kind of conference. 19:54 Everyone's saying the NCHC, but that'll put them at odd number of teams. 19:58 So we could see some more shuffling of conferences or new conferences and all that good stuff in the next few years, people. 20:06 So don't get used to what you're seeing. 20:09 I mean, it wouldn't be so bad to get a couple smaller conferences, I think, in play. 20:16 You know, it'd probably make it easier for those teams to, you know, get some money by playing a lot of road games and kind of get their feet under them and, you know, get into a conference with teams of their own caliber. 20:30 I think if you throw AF2 and NCHC, you know, that's not a good long-term solution for them. 20:39 By the way, guys, the Timberwolves just became the worst organization ever. 20:44 Did they lose the Philly? 20:46 They just lost the Philly. 20:48 I'm seeing the tweets pop up. 20:51 Unbelievable. 20:53 That is pretty brutal. 20:54 Oh, God. 20:55 T-Wolves, you suck. 20:57 Please leave. 21:00 Yeah, I'm just not a big basketball guy. 21:02 Can you tell? 21:02 Shocking. 21:04 How do you lose to the team that everyone says could lose to a college team? 21:07 That's just pathetic. 21:11 Hammy, we had a bunch of signees that officially signed yesterday, didn't we? 21:16 Yes, we did. 21:18 We have Halliday, Ryan Norman, Novak, Ramsey. 21:23 How do you say it? 21:23 Sadik? 21:25 I believe that's the case. 21:26 And Sheehy? 21:28 Correct, Sheehy. 21:29 Sheehy, well, there you go. 21:31 At least that's from my official thing from the U. 21:35 Tell us about the guys. 21:35 I know you're not much, you don't know much about the Logan Halliday. 21:38 I know you don't follow the goalies as much. 21:40 North Carolina? 21:41 I didn't know he was from North Carolina. 21:44 Yeah, I mean, from what I've, I know that he's gotten a lot of, I know that the Redline Report thinks pretty highly of his game. 21:51 I know his numbers aren't spectacular this year, but I mean, he is playing on a pretty lousy team. 21:57 I mean, I think they're expansion even. 21:59 I believe you're right, yes. 22:00 Yeah, so I mean, it's not like you're going to really go on there in that kind of a situation, expecting a goalie to be kicking booty. 22:07 So, I mean, but I know that Redline Report thinks pretty highly of him. 22:12 Sounds like he's a pretty athletic kid. 22:13 So, I think that that's, you know, he's probably going to be, you know, if all things project correctly, you know, our number one goalie of the future, at least for the next, you know, few seasons, I would suspect. 22:25 Could be next year. 22:26 Yeah. 22:28 Then we've got a forward, Ryan Norman from Maplewood, Minnesota, coming from Shattuck, and the Shattuck train jeep's coming. 22:35 Yeah, I mean, he's certainly, he's a good player. 22:38 I know he's more of a, I don't think he's going to be like that dynamic top end guy, but he's probably going to be, you know, maybe a guy that, you know, maybe fits into that kind of Travis Boyd type of a role, you know, where he's going to be a good two way player and eventually, hopefully, you know, be a contributor offensively as an upper classman. 22:56 I don't think, yeah, I'd be a little surprised if he becomes much of a big scorer in college, but I think he'll contribute, you know, pretty well. 23:04 And so I have to, you know, but he's a two way player at, I guess, I think his dad played in North Dakota for a bit. 23:09 So that's a little interesting. 23:14 So yeah, I think that he'll be a good player as far as helping the Gophers at that depth and up the middle and center. 23:21 Tommy Novak, I actually recognize that name from the state tournament. 23:25 Yeah, he was on St. 23:26 Thomas Academy before, you know, he's in Waterloo now. 23:30 Very dynamic player, very excellent with the puck on his stick. 23:34 He's, I've heard he's had a little bit of the struggles, you know, defensively. 23:40 So I think that that's something that he'll have to improve on. 23:42 But as far as, you know, his offensive ability, you know, he's among the best, especially at that age. 23:49 He should be probably, if not a first round pick, he'll certainly be probably in the second, you know, second round, third round at worst, you know, this year. 23:58 So he's certainly a good player. 24:00 So are all these guys, you know, they sign their early letters. 24:03 Does that mean they're going to come in next year no matter what? 24:06 Or what's the deal on that? 24:08 Well, they don't always necessarily come in just because they sign a letter of intent. 24:13 For instance, Jack Ramsey signed his letter of intent last spring. 24:18 And obviously, he's not on this year's team. 24:19 So it doesn't necessarily lock a guy in. 24:22 But usually, you know, for the most part, most of these guys will end up on the next year's team. 24:29 I see. 24:30 Of course, Jack Ramsey is the son of Mike Ramsey. 24:34 And his older sister currently is the captain of the women's team. 24:37 So family tradition keeps going on there for the Ramsleys. 24:42 Yeah. 24:43 You know, he, to me, my personal opinion, and he's probably going to project into that kind of Tom Serratore type of a player. 24:51 You know, he's going to, you know, he's not going to be a scorer. 24:54 He's not, I mean, he's in the BCHL right now, which is pretty much a scoring league. 24:58 And he's not among the leaders. 25:00 He's not even a point per game guy in that league. 25:03 And so I don't think you're going to see a guy step in and eventually become like a top six forward or anything like that. 25:09 I think he's a guy that's going to provide you with, I mean, usually coaches kids have a real good head for the game. 25:15 So I'm sure he's a smart player. 25:17 I think he's a hard worker. 25:18 He's got good size. 25:19 So I think he's just going to be one of those guys that, you know, come in, play a role and, you know, you can rely on them and get kind of an effort guy. 25:27 So you're saying that his sister, Rachel, is probably better than he is? 25:30 I wouldn't go that far. 25:32 Maybe as far as for a female side of things, she's better compared to her peers than he would be for the male side. 25:39 I see. 25:40 Well, she's a giant back there on defense. 25:42 She's like six something and, oh, yikes. 25:46 Yeah, she's a tall drink of water. 25:49 Mr. 25:50 Jack Sadick, is that how you said it? 25:52 Lakefield North Kid? 25:54 Yeah. 25:55 I know that he's really one of those guys that might be a little bit of a late bloomer. 25:59 I mean, he's really come on here in the last year or so. 26:03 I know that he had a really good model camp. 26:06 Well, whatever they call it now, but the camp that Lucia and Tony and those guys do in the summer down at the U, and I know that he's a kid that's really seemingly improving, so it'll be interesting. 26:20 I think that ideally, he'd be a kid that you'd want to play in the USHL for a year, but I think because of maybe some of the numbers, I would suspect that he probably will come in next year and maybe just help for the depth department. 26:34 I don't know that factually, but that would be my guess. 26:38 And lastly, you know, from the U, Tyler Sheehy. 26:42 Yeah, you know, I'm really looking forward to him. 26:44 To me, he sort of would be kind of like a, I mean, I'm not saying he's going to be as successful as Clues has been, but, you know, he kind of is in that similar vein, you know, a good score that probably could have played college hockey this year. 26:56 You know, he had a good year last year, but, you know, returned to the USHL. 26:59 And I think that'll certainly help him be a productive player throughout his college career. 27:05 He's a real good two-way player, but he's really, you know, compared to Novak, you know, he's more, I think, defensively responsible. 27:13 And so I think that he'll add a good two-way player. 27:16 And, you know, some of these guys are going to have an opportunity to step in to the top six, because, you know, we're going to be losing guys like Rao. 27:22 And, you know, so I think that they'll be some good opportunities. 27:27 And we'll see who we're going to add. 27:28 You know, we added Brent Gates as a recruit this last week. 27:33 You know, he's a kind of a, you know, sizable forward. 27:37 I think he'll probably be a, you know, I don't know, probably, I'm sure he'll be like a third line type of guy early on and hopefully progress into more of a scoring role. 27:45 But they just added him and we know that they're still in the hunt for Boser, so I think we'll see what happens. 27:52 Well, folks, you could stock all these guys. 27:54 You could just go to the GPL recruits page. 27:57 And I think pretty much all these guys have Twitter handles and you could follow them and see what they're doing. 28:03 Stock them like Hammy does. 28:05 No, I don't quite stock them. 28:07 I'm just giving you crap. 28:09 So you mentioned we had a signing, well, not a signing this way, but we had a couple of commitments, it seems like recently, what did you say? 28:15 Isn't Gates, wasn't he committed somewhere else? 28:19 Yeah, he was originally going to go to Notre Dame. 28:22 And I don't know the reasons behind his de-commitment. 28:25 I never really asked about anything like that. 28:28 But he was originally going on. 28:30 I mean, his father, you know, when I was looking at him as a possible recruit years ago, and because his father went to the U, he was a baseball player and of course, he went on to a major league baseball career. 28:41 And then he committed to Notre Dame. 28:43 I'm like, well, I guess the family ties didn't really play into that particular recruit. 28:48 But then just kind of heard, you know, kind of deciphered a few things over the last couple of weeks. 28:53 And, you know, heard he was going to be on campus, I don't know, like about a week and a half ago. 28:58 And just kind of turned out that he wanted to be a Gopher. 29:02 So it all worked out for him. 29:04 And he's happy in the end. 29:05 So that's great. 29:07 All right, enough about recruits, guys. 29:09 Vegoe, what is going on with the WCHA this year? 29:13 They're good. 29:15 Hey, well, you know, those are some good programs over there, I mean. 29:18 Yeah, I know, but you know how, you know, they were the teams that were left out, you know? 29:25 Yeah, but they're still pretty decent teams, I mean. 29:28 This sort of state can draw some pretty good recruits. 29:30 I think the problem with some of those schools is, you know, they're competing with, you know, bigger teams that would roll four lines in 6D. 29:38 And I think now they're playing a little bit different level of competition and they're getting healthy. 29:44 You know, they do have top end talent who can play with everybody. 29:48 Well, you got to love what Hastings has done down there at Mankato. 29:52 Yeah, he's done a great job, you know, he knows how to develop talent and he's got a good roster. 29:58 He's got a couple NHL draft pick type guys to commit, like Plooger. 30:04 And, you know, they take off from there. 30:07 And even though it's temporary, Michigan Tech was the number one team in the country. 30:15 Just happy for them, you know, they're close to Michigan. 30:18 But it felt like it was 1975 again. 30:21 Well, I don't think it's going to stay that way forever. 30:24 It was fun to see that for the Tech fans, all those future engineers and nurses, to see their team at the top of the pole. 30:31 I think they've got something coming to them this weekend when they play the Bulldogs, but we'll see. 30:39 Well, it's good to see, you know, some of those WCHA teams who kind of been the doormat or the kind of, you know, the second thought for a long time, you know, like I said, Michigan Tech hasn't been a team for almost 40 years. 30:52 Minnesota State has been on the cusp quite a few times, but now they're number one in the country. 30:57 So it's a big thing for that new, you know, Reborn League. 31:05 Yeah, it's a fun chance for them. 31:07 Northern Michigan, Bowling Green, Ferris State, Lake State, you know, those are all teams that have their glory years behind them, and this gives them a chance to compete against more of their peers. 31:18 I mean, those schools don't compare to Minnesota, Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State, you know, it's just totally different dollars and facilities and players going there. 31:30 So I think this is good for the WCHA. 31:34 Well, it definitely is. 31:36 Like I said, it's just strange seeing teams like Michigan Tech and Minnesota State up at the top. 31:40 Hey. 31:41 Well, let's just remember we're about a third of the way into the year. 31:44 True, true, but it's something we've never seen before. 31:49 Well, and the other thing is that those polls are so worthless as it is. 31:53 I mean, even the pairwise right now is kind of worthless to some extent. 31:57 I don't know. 31:57 Well, let's just... 31:59 Everybody wants to jump to conclusions, whether it's good or bad, you know. 32:03 I mean, the way I look at it is you're not going to make your way into the NCAAs at this time of the year, but you can certainly lose your way into it. 32:13 You know what I mean? 32:13 You're not going to make it if you're at Wisconsin because you're pissing away every week. 32:18 And unless they go on a major streak, which I think we all think is not going to happen, you know, they're not going to make it. 32:25 But these teams that are winning, you know, now, if they're not winning, you know, it doesn't mean you're going to make it just because you're winning now. 32:32 So I just think that we got to be calm and not read too much into things at this point. 32:38 I think it's especially in college hockey. 32:40 I mean, the polls are pretty irrelevant. 32:42 They don't they don't weigh into anything. 32:44 It's all pair wise when it comes down to the end. 32:48 Veegs, we got the World Juniors coming up and it appears we might have a couple Gophers on the team. 32:56 Yeah, I think fashion is pretty much a lock. 32:59 USA Hockey, it's a rarity for them not to have a player back who played the year before and he'll be one of the biggest, hardest players on the ice in that tournament because he plays a heavy game and that can be really effective in the World Juniors. 33:15 Hopefully brings it back here. 33:17 That's what I was going to say. 33:20 I think people are being a little hard on him. 33:22 I think he's had a decent start. 33:24 I don't think the goals have come like you'd expect out of him. 33:26 I think he probably needs to be a little more selfish in taking the puck to the net when he gets those chances. 33:32 But I feel like his skating and compete level is still there. 33:37 He needs to start scoring. 33:38 Yeah, I mean, you're a first-line guy, you got to start bringing it as far as production goes. 33:44 I don't have any problem necessarily with the work ethic and whatever, but you got to start to produce. 33:50 If you're going to be a top-line guy, you got to produce. 33:53 I'm with you, Hammeh. 33:54 I've been a little disappointed in him. 33:56 I've been disappointed with a few players. 34:02 I think warning has got to step up a little bit. 34:06 I'm just looking for more consistency, I guess, and I just haven't heard Fashing's name a lot this year. 34:11 He was supposed to be one of the big wigs. 34:13 And he was one of the guys who might leave to the NHL. 34:16 Well, you know what? 34:17 He shouldn't be leaving because he needs to dominate a little bit first. 34:23 Well, right. 34:23 And I think that, you know, especially if you're going to play that power game in the NHL, you got to be able to show that you can do that in the college game and produce. 34:33 Because if you can't do that in college, you're not going to do it with the pros. 34:37 So, I mean, I don't really, a lot of people are sort of already talking like he's going to be gone next year. 34:42 I'm not buying it. 34:43 And from everything I'm hearing, I don't think that's going to happen. 34:46 Of course, you never know what's going to happen in the next six months. 34:49 So it's not a lock. 34:50 But I'll be surprised. 34:53 Well, I think he needs to step it up and start being a factor because we need it. 34:59 Well, I think he's one of those guys who needs a little bit more grinding, needs over time and less of that one-and-done offensive zone shift. 35:09 I think that's going to be a point of emphasis here as we get into the middle third of the season. 35:15 Well, get in there and start grinding. 35:17 I mean, that's what Lucia talks about. 35:19 Get some effort, more puck possession in the offensive zone. 35:23 Everything he's been preaching here. 35:25 He's one of the guys who's got to get in there and do that because he's that type of player. 35:30 Well, he's got that. 35:31 I mean, that's the thing. 35:33 He has the size. 35:34 He has the physical abilities to do a lot of different things. 35:38 And so to me, Rao is certainly, for his size, is not going to shy away from the contact and mucking it up a bit. 35:48 So to me, it's not like Fashing is the only guy on that line that's willing to do that. 35:54 So you have to start bringing the production. 35:58 All right. 35:58 Well, this weekend, they head out to East Lansing to play the Michigan State Spartans, guys, opening up the Big Ten schedule. 36:07 Hammeh, to start off with you, these games with Michigan State always seem to be tight games, no matter who is good and who is bad. 36:17 Well, you know, it's funny because I think sometimes that's the perception that we have. 36:22 I was actually, before the podcast, I was kind of looking at our recent results with them. 36:28 And I was actually a little surprised at the fact that the Gophers have actually throttled Michigan State, you know, a lot in recent, you know, the recent matches. 36:38 They didn't last year. 36:38 Last year's series were tight and close games. 36:42 But prior to that, you know, I saw scores like 7-1, 5-1, whatever, you know, I think we all perceive because Michigan State tends to play a little bit more of a conservative game, like that's, the games are going to be low scoring. 36:55 And I would suspect this weekend is probably going to be like that. 37:00 But I don't expect the Gophers to waltz in there and have three goal victories or whatever. 37:06 I'm not saying that's not possible, but I doubt it's going to be that way. 37:09 I think it'll be competitive, probably one goal games or maybe, you know, two goal with an empty net or type of games and or maybe even shootout types of games. 37:18 So we'll see what happens. 37:20 But I'm sure it will be competitive. 37:22 Veegs, we're hoping that Boyd might be back this weekend. 37:26 Yeah, he skated a couple of times last week with the team. 37:30 And they said he had too much soreness to go in the BC Northeastern games. 37:36 And he skated this week as well. 37:38 And he thought they'd make a call kind of after today's practice or tomorrow morning, whether or not he'd go on the trip. 37:47 And he said they wouldn't take him if they didn't think he'd play. 37:50 So I think we'll find out tomorrow. 37:52 But he'd be a big boost to the team. 37:55 Michigan State's got a great goaltender and Jake Hildebrand. 37:59 He's had a good season. 38:00 And I think we are going to see two low scoring games. 38:04 Hopefully when it's low scoring, the Gopher special teams can take over and give them the edge. 38:10 But they need more five on five. 38:12 They need guys like Luteri to step up and play that top nine role. 38:17 And they probably do need a little bit more around fashion in that top line. 38:23 I know that Lucia keeps messing with who's on their left wing. 38:26 He's tried Camerata there this last weekend. 38:30 Conor Riley got a shot early in the year. 38:33 They put Sam Warnig there. 38:36 They put Bristette there. 38:37 So I think, you know, they've had a little bit of rotating guys on that spot. 38:42 And it'd probably be helpful for them to settle on one here. 38:46 In this last game, they put Riley up there, someone with that top line, didn't they? 38:52 Because I noticed in the box score that Riley was a minus two and it was both when Rao and Fashing were out there. 39:00 So you must have seen some ice time with them last weekend on the top line. 39:04 Yeah, Luchua has been praising Ryan Raleigh for giving good effort and making good decisions. 39:09 So I know he was one of the reasons that Gophers got a goal against BC. 39:14 He picked somebody's pocket from behind on the back check and created a scoring chance. 39:19 I was talking to Cotner. 39:20 Well, Cotner Raleigh has been up there a lot this season. 39:24 Right. 39:24 Well, he was on Saturday, though, wasn't he? 39:26 Because I saw that he was, like I said, a minus two and both times were out with, unless it was a line change. 39:32 But, I mean, I didn't see much of that. 39:35 So I don't know what... 39:37 The Northeastern game was kind of a mess from the stream. 39:39 So it was kind of hard to tell what was going on. 39:41 But, you know, there have been four or five guys who've had chances at that spot. 39:45 I had an excellent stream. 39:46 I don't know what was wrong with yours. 39:51 Hammy, is Brischdad going to keep on taking stupid first penalty penalties every game he's in? 39:58 Well, hopefully not. 39:59 I mean, you know, I... 40:00 It seems like he's been doing that a lot lately. 40:03 Well, I think part of it, you know, for him is that he never really had that transition year playing North American style hockey. 40:12 You know, it is different from where he's from. 40:14 I mean, people don't, I think a lot of fans here don't really realize that there are differences in the way that they play in Europe compared to here. 40:21 I mean, some guys do come over here and they're able to make the transition a little bit easier. 40:25 But I think for a kid that didn't get the USHL time or things of that nature, it's probably a little different for him. 40:32 And so it might be a little bit more of a transition, not just from the level he was on to now college hockey, but also just the style of play and the way things are played in North America. 40:43 So I'm sure it may be even be a little bit more of a challenge of a transition for him. 40:47 So I'm sure some of the penalties, you know, that's part of it, you know. 40:51 So hopefully he'll reduce those as time goes along. 40:54 Yeah, it almost feels like he's trying to force a physical forecheck into his game. 41:00 He's not used to doing that. 41:02 It seems like he gets a lot of his penalties on the forecheck in the offensive zone, which coaches obviously hate. 41:08 But I think he's trying to force that North-South physical play into his game. 41:14 So there's probably an adjustment there. 41:16 Yeah. 41:16 And I think that he, from what I understood before he even showed, I mean, obviously none of us were really all that familiar with his game before he showed up. 41:22 But I was kind of told that, you know, he brought more of a gritty element for his size, you know, prior to coming over here. 41:31 And so maybe part of it is that that's just his game and he's trying to figure out how to dial it in and to be more effective but not get the penalties. 41:39 I don't know. 41:40 Yeah. 41:40 I mean, totally a different size player. 41:42 But I think it took Seth Ambrose until his junior year to really figure out how to use his size effectively in the game and not take those bad penalties. 41:51 So I think it's an adjustment for any player whether USHL or not. 41:55 But he's going to have to figure it out because I think Lucia is struggling with where to put him in the lineup. 42:03 Well, boys, I'm calling for a sweep this weekend for the Gopher six points. 42:07 And I'm trying to be Mr. 42:10 Positive for now. 42:12 What do you think, Hammeh? 42:13 Can they get the six points? 42:14 Do you think it's split? 42:15 Do you think in maybe four or five points? 42:18 Yeah, I'm thinking probably more four or five points because it just seems like whenever we play them, we end up with a tie in some way or shape or form. 42:26 And being that it's a road series, ultimately for me, what's important is I want to see two real high energy efforts. 42:37 I want to see consistency this weekend. 42:40 I don't, honestly, I don't need to see necessarily, obviously, you want to wins, but if they play hard and let's say Michigan State's goalie just plays great one night or whatever, I can live with that. 42:51 What I can't live with is when I see kind of a lackadaisical effort or their heads aren't necessarily in the game or whatever it is, to me, that's where I get annoyed. 43:00 I don't have a problem with if a team just beats you because they're just executing better or their goalie is playing great or whatever. 43:07 But when you're not playing well because the effort isn't there, you're not moving your feet, whatever it is, that's what bugs me. 43:13 So more than anything else, I want to see some energy, I want to see some passion out of the team both nights, not just one night, both nights. 43:22 Okay, Veegs, how many points and what do you want to see this weekend? 43:27 I think we're going to see four points. 43:29 I think we'll see a win and a shootout loss. 43:33 Yeah, I don't think the Gophers do very well in the shootout, so it boggles the mind of Wilcox. 43:39 They can't do better in the shootout. 43:41 But I think that will happen. 43:43 But what I'm looking for mostly is the solid five and five play. 43:48 I'd like to see the Gophers get some speed behind the puck. 43:52 There's a tendency for players when they're not playing well to get too far up ice and get ahead of the play. 43:58 That just totally slows your transition down and you have to stop at the offensive blue line, wait for the puck. 44:05 You don't generate speed. 44:07 And then if you miss that opening shot on the rush, you have a hard time collecting the puck and maintaining possession. 44:13 I think that's what's happening a lot to this team, is that they're just coming in, turning over the puck right away with a missed shot or whatever and then having to go back play defense. 44:22 I'd like to see this team get some of that offensive zone time by getting in the zone clean and generating some sustained pressure. 44:30 I think if they'll do that, you'll see Minnesota out shoot Michigan State both nights. 44:35 I think that's what the coaches are looking for too. 44:38 Sounds good to me, but I'm more positive than you guys. 44:43 You were kind of that way every freaking week though. 44:45 Yeah, I know. 44:46 I'm trying to be more positive now. 44:49 I've been negative on the team recently. 44:50 I thought some of these losses were just ridiculous. 44:52 I was pretty pissed when they scored one goal on the weekend against Duluth, and then they struggled with Northeastern. 44:58 But that's just a fan of me being bitter. 45:01 And it happens. 45:02 You know, I think you have to look at the fact that Duluth is a good team. 45:05 I mean, there's no... 45:06 Yeah, but one goal on a weekend? 45:08 Come on. 45:10 Right. 45:10 Well... 45:11 Shut out at home? 45:13 I will say this. 45:14 I think that sometimes... 45:16 There are times where I feel like, this year especially, this team, against St. 45:21 Cloud and against Duluth, to me, it seemed like those teams were looking at it like, this is a rivalry. 45:29 And it seemed like the Gophers did not bring that same attitude to the table. 45:33 It was almost like... 45:34 You know, which is a mistake. 45:36 Of course it is. 45:36 It's a terrible mistake because you don't ever want to be... 45:40 You want to have that passion. 45:41 And we always talk about how the other teams want to beat the hell out of us. 45:46 And that's one of the reasons why we feel like we're battle tested and all that kind of stuff. 45:52 And so you have to bring that, match that energy level. 45:55 And they didn't do that in either of those series to me. 45:58 You know, whether it was St. 45:59 Cloud or Duluth. 46:00 And they didn't play great, I don't think, either of those series. 46:02 And I don't think it was a talent issue. 46:04 I think it was just, there was an intensity issue there. 46:07 And that's what we hope to change as the season goes on. 46:12 All right, boys. 46:13 It's holiday time. 46:16 We're taking a break for the show as usual, as we do in December, because there's not really any hockey after this weekend until the Mariucci Classic, which is over after the first year. 46:25 So you guys can, you know, have all your parties and, you know, raise children like Vego is doing. 46:32 Yeah, it'd be helpful. 46:36 Yeah, we'll be back after the Mariucci Classic. 46:41 It looks like right before they play Michigan in January. 46:43 So I think about January 7th, we'll be back for another show. 46:47 But until then, you know, hopefully the team plays better this weekend. 46:52 Hopefully we're a little more positive going into the break. 46:55 Remember, you can always follow Hammy on Twitter at Hammy Hockey. 46:59 You can follow Vego on Twitter as well at eVego. 47:04 Plenty of stuff they're tweeting about. 47:05 They're bitching about something usually. 47:07 I'm kidding, guys. 47:09 We'll be back in January. 47:11 See you later.