0:03 This is the GopherPuckLive Podcast, episode number seven, recorded November 15th, 2011. 0:20 Welcome to this week's GPL Podcast. 0:23 I am your host, Jupiter. 0:24 And as usual, I am joined by Hammy and Ryan Cardinal. 0:27 How are you guys this evening? 0:30 Doing pretty good, not bad at all. 0:33 No complaints. 0:34 Y'all caught up in your sleep there, Ryan. 0:37 Long night with the Vikings. 0:39 Long night, both literally and figuratively. 0:41 He had plenty of time to sleep last night. 0:44 Yeah, I was dozing by about five minutes in the third quarter. 0:47 No, late night, but you know, it's football, so it's not really work. 0:51 So yeah, it was fun. 0:53 Lovely, lovely. 0:54 Just to let the listeners know, we record these podcasts on Tuesday nights, around 9.30 or so. 1:00 If you head over to the GPL Podcast page at that time, you can listen to us record the podcast live. 1:05 You know, that allows you to listen to us live and we'll take your questions live. 1:10 You can, you know, tweet us at GopherPuckLive on Twitter, or you can email us at podcast.gopherpucklive.com. 1:17 It's just sort of a way where you can send your questions in as we're doing the recording. 1:22 So check that out if you can. 1:25 Well, guys, our favorite team just returned from Madison with a split against the Badgers. 1:31 Ryan, let's start with you. 1:32 Give us your thoughts on this weekend split. 1:36 Yeah, you know, I think both or all of us, well, except for you, Jupe, I know you're always the eternal optimist. 1:40 And you always go with the sweet prediction. 1:42 It was going great for a while. 1:44 Yeah, it's been working pretty good most weekends, but I mean, I think most people thought that there'd be a little bit, you know, come back down to earth at least one of the nights and, you know, kind of in retrospect, the Friday night thing with, you know, Lucia talking afterward about, you know, the emotion of sweeping North Dakota. 1:57 And then you have to try to get up to play another rival and it's on the road. 2:00 And, you know, like kind of between that and just the way, you know, Wisconsin tends to play a little bit more conservative and not, you know, the up tempo game, which can kind of get you into it if you're not already into it. 2:09 So, you know, I guess Friday night, it wasn't a huge shock. 2:11 I mean, they did, you know, they were okay in parts, but I mean, yeah, it was a pretty flat effort compared to everything else, but then, you know, Saturday night, I mean, they, you know, Wisconsin had a couple of, you know, decent chances there at the end of the second, but I mean, the third period might have been the best the Gophers have looked all year. 2:24 So, you know, I think, you know, again, big picture-wise, you look at this month, they're three and one against their two top rivals. 2:30 They obviously have a ton of money in the bank already from October. 2:32 And then, yeah, I mean, I think, can't really complain about splitting up Madison any year. 2:36 Hammy, they, both coaches said they were a little bored Friday night. 2:41 I think I would agree that that Friday night game was very boring. 2:46 Well, you know, we talked about it after the Saturday game. 2:51 And I mentioned this. 2:51 I honestly feel that, and I'm sure BADger fans wouldn't like to hear this, but who cares? 2:57 I feel that we could have been playing pretty much anywhere on the road that night and we would have lost. 3:03 I mean, we were that kind of out of sync mentally, just weren't into it. 3:07 Ryan touched on, you know, how emotional the previous series was with North Dakota. 3:13 I mean, even just looking at that picture you took of the stick salute at the end, I mean, even the guys looked just super jacked up. 3:18 And I didn't really, honestly, last week when I made my prediction, I know I said a split, but I took a different take on how I thought it was gonna go. 3:27 I thought, well, we'll win the first night and then Wisconsin will come back and, you know, protect home mice the next night. 3:33 But in hindsight, you know, I should have realized that we were ripe for, you know, a letdown in that sense. 3:39 So I guess I can't say I'm surprised. 3:42 I picked it as a split and, you know, Saturday was a much better effort and something to build on moving forward. 3:47 And hopefully the guys realize that if they want to, you know, get points, they're gonna have to show up every night, both, you know, mentally and physically. 3:55 Well, it sounds like Lucia kind of gave them a tongue lashing, you know, Saturday morning, you know, I don't think they actually had a skate, but, you know, they definitely went over video. 4:04 And I think he even kind of pointed out that he talked to Mr. 4:08 Madsen and said, you need to step up your game, and he definitely did step up his game. 4:13 He was all over the place Saturday night, got them going in the third period after it kind of was starting to look like we might end up with another tie or a one goal loss. 4:23 So it was key that he did step up his game, and it seems like everyone else did in that third period Saturday night. 4:31 Well, I mean, I agree. 4:32 I think that there was that questionable call at the end of the second, and they had, we had the power play going into the third, and I'm sure that a lot of people thinking about that night would probably be like, oh, that's where all the momentum came from. 4:44 But I really don't think that had the penalty had much to do with it. 4:47 I think that quite frankly, our depth started to show, and we were just out skating them. 4:53 I mean, I think a perfect example is on Condon's goal. 4:55 I mean, he basically blew by everybody. 4:57 I mean, he had that much left in the gas tank. 5:00 And I think that the depth kind of wore Wisconsin down in the end. 5:04 And I mean, that's why you put three goals on the board in the third period of the second game of the series. 5:09 And it bodes well when you can, on the road, show that kind of speed and spirit that late in the series. 5:19 Yeah, and for the Badgers, too, I mean, talking about the depth, I mean, their top line was pretty good. 5:23 And I'm going to throw my shoulder out of place, set myself on the back. 5:26 But I know in one of the, I think it was a running with the dogs in the preseason, who's your breakout player this year? 5:33 And I went with Tyler Barnes and nobody else guessed him. 5:35 And so far, I mean, he's looking really good. 5:37 And that whole top line for them, I mean, they had that one, the two on O in front of Patterson one on Saturday night, late in the second period, I think it was Zengerle and LeBate. 5:44 But yeah, I mean, past that top line, I mean, there is just a lot of markers and grinders and not much else. 5:51 And that's the difference with the Gophers. 5:52 You see Matson and Condon, these guys on the third line, they'd have the ability to put the puck in the back of the net and that pays dividends. 5:59 We've seen it all year. 6:00 And then, like Hammeh said, case in point on some big goals on Saturday night. 6:05 Hammeh, you and I talked on Saturday night when we did that little half-hour post-game wrap-up about the call at the end of the second period on, I think it was, was it Mersh for Wisconsin who got the five-minute major for contact to the head. 6:22 And, again, it just amazes me how bad the WCHA officials can be because when you see the replay, even live, it was not even close to something like that. 6:35 There was not a, he hit him in the, probably in the body somewhere, nowhere close to the head and he gets sent off for the rest of the game. 6:45 It's just going to be like this all year? 6:50 I mean, obviously it was good for the Gophers, they didn't do much with it, but it was a brutal call and it was the wrong call. 6:58 Well, you know, I'm still trying to figure out the consistency issues with some of these calls that we talked about. 7:04 The North Dakota series where, you know, Ambrose got the five and the gate that night for a hit and basically not long later in the game, Rowe just got railroaded from behind on a very similar hit on our first goal and nothing got called whatsoever. 7:22 And I'm like, okay, it doesn't seem like there's a lot of consistency. 7:25 I mean, some of them are obvious, you know, where you hit a guy in the head, you lift your arm up and you hit him in the head. 7:30 I mean, those are kind of obvious, but some of these ones that are borderline, I guess they're just going to call anything. 7:35 And from what I've looked at with St. 7:37 Cloud, I mean, for this coming week, I mean, they've got majors, I think they've had like, I don't even know, four or five majors already this year or something. 7:44 I haven't followed them closely, but it just seems like, you know, they're just emphasizing it up the wazoo and anything that's even remotely questionable. 7:54 They're just calling in many cases. 7:56 They didn't in the Rao case, I guess, probably because he didn't get hit near the head. 7:58 But I don't know. 8:01 I mean, it's not something that I tend to focus a lot on because it's like I've always said North Dakota fan like to bitch about the referees, but you know, there are questionable calls in pretty much any game. 8:12 So that's the way it is. 8:15 And you could see, I mean, after the play, when he uses talking with the referees, I mean, you could read his lips. 8:18 I mean, you're in C, you know, he's doing the fact that Mersh is, you know, pretty big kid and obviously Rao is a tiny one. 8:23 But yeah, I mean, the consistency thing is huge. 8:27 I guess I don't mind if they're overly cautious with it just because, you know, that's the direction everything's going in all sports, especially, you know, the NHL level with concussions. 8:35 And now, you know, obviously, it's to a lesser degree in college. 8:37 But you know, I don't mind if they're overly cautious, but just to be consistent with it and, you know, just who knows if that's going to be the case and, you know, WCHA officials, you know, whether I sound like a Sufan or not, like Hammy said, I mean, their inconsistency is the only thing they're consistent at. 8:52 And, you know, they have a pretty poor track record. 8:54 So I think people have, you know, are very justified right now to be like, well, they might be calling it now, but is the same thing going to happen in January and February? 9:01 And history would tell us no, that whether it's, you know, the, you know, stick infractions like hooking and stuff that they always say they're going to clean up and maybe they do the first month of the year, but by the second half, you know, that's not the case. 9:11 So there's no reason to think that, you know, the calls won't be inconsistent from, you know, night to night or after after whatever. 9:17 So but again, I, you know, if they're going to be overly cautious and, you know, that's fine, but just be consistent about it. 9:25 Well, I kind of felt bad for the Merge kid because I thought it was a completely bogus call and he had been playing a great weekend. 9:30 So it was just too bad. 9:31 We have a question here from Noel. 9:35 Do you think when the Badger football team showed up with the Axe, it fired up the Gophers? 9:41 Lucia seemed to say on his evening show on Monday night that it did fire them up. 9:48 You know, I didn't catch that, but obviously the coach would know a lot better than I would. 9:52 So if he says that it did, then obviously it must have done something to get them going. 9:57 Yeah, I don't know why they wanted to spur things on at the moment, especially when they were getting pretty out of play. 10:03 I suppose they felt like it would be an inspirational moment for their team, but sometimes that stuff backfires big time, and apparently this night it did. 10:09 So hey, thanks Wisconsin Football. 10:13 And I know I mentioned this on Twitter, but I think there's probably going to be a lot of opportunities for the Badgers to parade the Axe around in future years when we play them in hockey. 10:21 So hopefully they just keep doing it year after year, so I'm sure they're going to have ample opportunities. 10:26 What do you mean? 10:27 Jerry Kill is going to turn that thing around in no time. 10:30 Oh yeah, sorry. 10:31 Hook me up to the negatrometer. 10:32 We can rewind. 10:33 I'll start over. 10:35 Any other thoughts on this past weekend? 10:37 Any of the players that stood out? 10:38 Any of the players that you think did not stand out? 10:45 You know, I don't think that there's anybody you could really single out as playing great on Friday. 10:51 I mean, there's a few guys that played a little bit inspired, but for the most part, the whole team just stunk up the place, wasn't their heads weren't there. 11:00 Like I said, for me, there's nothing that Wisconsin did that made us lose that game. 11:06 It was just the fact that we played so out of it, we would have lost pretty much anywhere. 11:11 So I don't think anybody could be praised that game. 11:13 And it was nice to see the team as a whole just have some energy and show what they're made of the next night. 11:19 Yeah, I think the one that stuck to me a little bit, especially on Saturday was Ben Marshall and just, I mean, seriously, how good was he with the puck? 11:25 It seemed like during that third period, every time he was on the ice, he was just skating circles around guys below the dots, just moving in and out. 11:34 And we've seen that from time to time so far this year, and obviously, that's his pedigree and what he was known for coming here. 11:39 But I thought, I mean, yeah, he may have some lapses in his own end from time to time. 11:43 But again, it's tough to be awesome with the puck in one end and then a defensive rock in the other, especially near that side. 11:49 So I'll take that trade off any day. 11:51 And I don't know, I just thought that might have been his best period of the year. 11:54 Just, you know, again, he didn't I don't think he had any points in it, but just the passes and, you know, just how smooth he looked out there, totally in control and, you know, for a freshman, I think that that bodes pretty well. 12:03 I think he could be a kid that really takes off once the second half of the year rolls around. 12:07 I'd agree with you there. 12:09 I thought Marshall was great in the third period. 12:13 Having a defense and be able to come into the zone and control the zone while everyone else is coming in is a great asset. 12:20 It's not just this, you know, I get in the zone and dump it in. 12:22 He was coming in, controlling it and setting other guys up and getting control in the zone. 12:27 I thought that was just great work by a freshman. 12:31 Yeah, I mean, he was, I mean, I said earlier in the year that to me, he is an all rookie team type of a player. 12:37 Now, he doesn't have quite the points that, you know, might stand out for that kind of voting at the end of the year to this point, but he's certainly getting it. 12:46 And I think that the sky's the limit with him. 12:49 I mean, he's the kind of kid that you can, you know, really expect to be a star player for three, four years. 12:56 So it's definitely positive. 12:59 Drunk Hockey Guy chiming in, how does such a great team lose to a horse crap team like Wisconsin? 13:07 Drunk Hockey Guy has not passed out in his seats at Lambeau Field. 13:10 He's actually awake to be tweeting in. 13:13 Apparently he is. 13:14 What a pleasant surprise. 13:17 If, you know, how do we lose such a crap team like Wisconsin? 13:22 Well, for one thing, Wisconsin is playing pretty well at home this year. 13:25 But I would kind of turn it back on him. 13:27 If Wisconsin is so crappy and we lost to them, how did they lose to us at home? 13:31 Fair point. 13:34 So, there you go, Drunk Hockey Guy. 13:35 We got you on the air. 13:36 You probably won't hear from me again for a while. 13:40 All right, well, we can go right to those bulldogs. 13:43 They swept Anchorage this weekend at home. 13:46 Friday night, seems like they pretty much just blew them out. 13:49 And obviously, it was a little closer Saturday night. 13:52 What are you guys' thoughts? 13:55 I'm not real surprised. 13:56 I mean, Anchorage, what are they, 0-1-6 in the league now? 14:00 Typical Anchorage. 14:02 Yeah, well, certainly Duluth is playing a lot better since they got swept by us. 14:07 So, I mean, that's... 14:09 Have they lost the game? 14:11 I know they haven't. 14:11 They have not lost since they played us. 14:13 I think they have one or two ties, but yeah, other than that, they've been rolling. 14:16 Yeah, so, I mean, you know, they're playing better hockey, so you have to give them credit for that. 14:20 And, you know, they'll... 14:22 I think they play Mankato this weekend, so they'll probably get a couple more wins at home. 14:27 And then I think they have like four series, four straight series or something like that on the road. 14:31 So, they've been at home quite a bit. 14:33 Kind of the opposite of the Gophers in that sense, but, you know, there's nothing you can say. 14:38 I mean, Anchorage, you looked at early in the year, you thought, well, maybe they're going to be a little different this year, you know, they won a few games and they beat our opponent this weekend, St. 14:48 Cloud up there. 14:49 But it just seems to be regressing back to kind of what we've been seeing for a number of years. 14:54 So, not surprised. 14:56 Yeah. 14:56 And, you know, I don't remember when, you know, the Gophers are getting ready to play them. 14:59 And I think Lucia said it, whether it was in his media scrum on Wednesday or on his, you know, the radio show or whatever, that he had talked with Bob Matzko, who, you know, obviously like Hammy just said St. 15:06 Cloud had played them. 15:07 And, you know, Matzko had told Lucia that this is one of the best Anchorage teams he's seen. 15:11 And now, you know, there is coach speak, but Matzko strikes me as a pretty straight shooter. 15:14 And I don't think he's the type that's just going to, you know, throw stuff like that around. 15:17 I mean, he seems pretty personable. 15:19 So, and, you know, the record on the year was really good, but they have completely derailed and, you know, I think it went kind of like we thought last weekend where Duluth has one blowout win and then one a little bit closer. 15:28 And I know off topic, I don't know if this was discussed on GPL or anywhere, but I guess, excuse me, Kenny Ryder almost had the Ron Exel style empty net goal. 15:37 I guess it was within a few feet late in the game on Saturday night. 15:41 So that would have been an impressive feat for the youngster. 15:44 But yeah, they have, like Cami said, Minnesota State this weekend and then I think they're off Thanksgiving and then it's at Tech, at Wisconsin, at Western Michigan and at Omaha. 15:53 So that'll be, you know, you don't want to say season defining. 15:56 You know, I'm sure Duluth will do just fine over that. 15:58 But you know, that's obviously a pretty tough stretch with some pretty good teams mixed in there. 16:03 Well, they get Mankato this weekend. 16:05 Last weekend, Mankato splits with our opponent this weekend, St. 16:09 Cloud. 16:09 And I thought St. 16:11 Cloud would go in there and sweep, but you guys set me straight. 16:14 You guys thought that this could easily be a split and that's exactly what happened. 16:19 Well, Mankato has typically played St. 16:22 Cloud very tough. 16:23 I mean, that's one of the, their fans seem to, you know, they get angry about, you know, why can't we beat Mankato even though they tend to be pretty sucky. 16:34 But sometimes you run into those teams that just typically have your number, you know, and I think that that kind of is what goes on with Mankato and St. 16:42 Cloud. 16:42 And I'm sure it's probably a rivalry thing to some degree with being kind of similar stature programs and they play sports and, you know, another against each other or I should say they play each other in other sports and another and another. 16:57 What is it? 16:58 The I don't even know what the league is, but in any case, there's sometimes you just don't get those those rivalries. 17:06 They don't seem that apparent on the surface, but then Mankato just seems to have their number. 17:12 Yeah. 17:12 And, you know, for St. 17:13 Cloud, there's going to be a pretty big adjustment without LeBlanc. 17:15 I mean, guys, you know, senior captain center. 17:18 I mean, I've watched St. 17:19 Cloud this year. 17:20 I'm assuming he's on the mix on the penalty kill, obviously the power play. 17:23 So you lose a key part like that and it's going to take a little bit of time to adjust. 17:26 Now, you know, on paper, St. 17:28 Cloud, it would seem like the strength of their team is up front and they have some pretty nice players and some older guys. 17:32 So, you know, there is the pieces there to fill the void, but, yeah, like Hammy said, I mean, it's a rivalry deal and it seems like the hours split or, you know, it's definitely close games and that's what we saw. 17:42 So yeah, hopefully, yeah, that continues this weekend and the Gophers can come out on top. 17:47 Yeah, I watched that Saturday game between, or at least some of it, with Mankato and St. 17:51 Cloud and it was not the most well played game. 17:54 So, and we'll see. 17:57 Well, after losing six straight to them last year, UNO goes to Bemidji last weekend and gets three points out of them. 18:05 So things are looking up for UNO when it comes to playing Bemidji. 18:11 Well, I mean, you kind of expect that a team like that's going to break through at some point. 18:15 I mean, they have some good players on that team. 18:19 Of course, we've harped on their goaltending not, you know, being a little bit iffy and some of the defensive play, but, you know, you would kind of expect a team, you know, with some good offensive talent to go up into Bemidji and, you know, take the majority of the points. 18:33 So I guess despite last year's results, you know, it's a new year and apparently Nebraska-Omaha feels a little bit better about how they performed this last weekend, I'm sure. 18:45 Yeah, and I think for them, I mean, obviously, I think you say Ryan Massa, Massa, the freshman. 18:49 I mean, he was an OK player for Fargo, but I mean, I think if Omaha is going to get where they need to this year, they need Faulkner to be closer to what he was last year, obviously. 18:57 I see he played, you know, he had rolled the bench for a while. 18:59 I think he was even, you know, the third string, you know, for at least one of the games recently after he had a lot of big time issues. 19:05 And, you know, I've seen he got the win on Saturday night, they won 5 to 1 and, you know, granted, you know, Bemidji is not an offensive powerhouse, but anytime a goalie is struggling, if you can get in there and only give them one goal and get a win, I mean, it doesn't really matter who you're playing, especially when it comes on the road. 19:17 So, you know, at least for Omaha's sake, it's probably a good sign, and they're going to be pretty good this weekend out at Denver. 19:24 And finally, we had one game between Denver and CC. 19:27 Denver pulled it out and looked like a great goal-tending this weekend for both those teams. 19:36 Yeah, I mean, it's been a very strange season for Denver. 19:40 I mean, they've been, everybody kind of expected them to be one of the top teams, and they really, to this point, haven't performed based on the hype and to what everybody expected. 19:49 And I think part of that has been their goal-tending. 19:52 So of course, CC's got a pretty good top line, although it doesn't look like they really did a heck of a lot of damage in this specific game. 20:00 But so you kind of would expect that Denver would be giving up some goals. 20:06 So I don't know. 20:07 And I'm a little surprised at how Ryan Howe has, or not Ryan, but what's Joe's last name? 20:14 Joe, I'm sorry, I'm surprised that he hasn't played quite as stellar as I really expected him to. 20:21 I mean, he's been okay, but on college, he just hasn't been what I expected him to be. 20:26 So he's not played quite as well as I thought. 20:31 Yeah. 20:31 And I think for Denver, I mean, they had the one, the 10 goal outburst against Mankato. 20:36 But other than that, I mean, they've kind of struggled to score, which most people, especially once the news came out, whenever it was in the summer that, you know, Britain was going to be out for the majority of the year, at least till January, February, that Denver wouldn't have any really issues scoring considering, you know, Zucker and the Shore brothers and, you know, they have a lot of firepower up front. 20:53 But you know, they've had issues with that and, you know, goaltending hasn't been great. 20:57 But I mean, it hasn't been atrocious for them either. 20:59 So like if you would have said that they'd get adequate goaltending so far this year, they'd be doing better than what they have been. 21:04 But scoring has been an issue. 21:05 So I'm sure for them, it's pretty key to get five goals against, even the Hallsman struggling a little bit, like Hammeh said. 21:11 I mean, still CC is one of the favorites in the league. 21:13 So they can hang a five spot on them. 21:15 And we talked about it last week, but they're in a pretty key stretch here. 21:17 And you take one point from Duluth at home and they have CC at home and then a pair against Omaha. 21:23 And then they have their holiday tournament against Princeton, Miami. 21:26 So with all those home games, they're going to come back around. 21:29 You're going to be on the roads. 21:30 They need to kind of ride the ship. 21:31 So at least for their sake, hopefully that's what happens with the big rivalry win over the Tigers. 21:37 Well, before we get into this week's games, we have a few questions via Twitter that have just come in to us. 21:44 From BW4MN, what are your thoughts on our defense up to this point? 21:51 Where do you see room for improvement? 21:53 Ryan, what do you think? 21:56 You know, it's kind of like what we thought at the beginning of the year, where you have the mindset for the defenseman with Genzel back, and you definitely want to push the play. 22:05 But there have been times where Patterson's definitely had to bail them out. 22:08 But Patterson's this team's best player probably, and he may be the best goalie in the country. 22:13 So there's nothing wrong with him having to make big saves because you're relying on him to do that. 22:17 It's not like it's back in the day or if Kellen Briggs makes some big saves, you're like, oh, boy, I don't think he's going to be able to do that again. 22:23 Like, Patterson's shown the ability that he can cover up a lot of mistakes. 22:27 And for a young defensive core that likes to play an offensive style, I think it's just huge to have that guy back there, kind of a safety net where they don't have to worry or play timidly or anything like that. 22:39 And I think we've seen some issues in their own ad in the Duluth series. 22:42 They cough some pucks up on the smaller ice sheet. 22:45 But I think, again, that was kind of the going into the year that was the book on the GopherD was, well, they're young, but they're going to make strides. 22:52 And they've had some pretty tough schedule here, and that's going to continue this week and next week with St. 22:57 Cloud and Michigan State. 22:57 So hopefully by the second half of the year, the group can take strides. 23:01 So I think they've been solid overall. 23:03 And again, there's been a few turnovers and some issues. 23:06 But I mean, Nate Schmidt's been on fire with the power play. 23:09 Now, it's tailed off a little bit the last few weeks. 23:10 But I mean, so they're getting scoring out of him. 23:12 And we touched on Marshall earlier. 23:14 And so overall, I think you have to be happy with the group. 23:19 Me, I tend to break it down by player more than anything else. 23:23 I mean, as a group, I think they've played a little bit better than I expected. 23:28 And I think that a lot of that probably has to do with Gensel being back in the fold. 23:32 But when I look at the guys, I think Marshall has basically been what I've expected. 23:38 Certainly, Ryan mentioned Nate Schmidt. 23:41 He's been much better than I think any of us really expected. 23:44 I mean, I had pretty high hopes for him with Gensel being back. 23:47 But he's definitely played better than I expected. 23:49 He's probably been our best overall defenseman. 23:53 I really like how Parenteau has been playing. 23:56 He's been solid. 23:57 I mean, he's not getting on the score sheet or anything like that. 24:00 But he's just doing his job. 24:03 And sometimes you just need a few defensemen that are out there just playing defense. 24:08 That's their focus is defensive defensemen and throwing their body around a little bit, making the smart play and doing some good things. 24:15 I was a little bit disappointed in Hull at times and certainly Helgeson. 24:21 I think they kind of came into the year as our top pairing. 24:26 And there's been times where I've been wanting a little bit more out of them. 24:29 So hopefully that'll improve. 24:32 And I think Alt I've seen on GPL has taken a little bit of heat from some people. 24:36 But I don't personally feel he's played all that badly. 24:40 I think that people need to remember he really isn't focused full time on hockey until he got into college. 24:46 I think that he's going to continue to improve and be a good player. 24:49 So I think we've done pretty solidly this year. 24:51 And actually that was one of the questions that Frozen4champ sent via email. 24:57 What are your thoughts on Mark Alt? 24:58 Seems like people are either saying he's going pro next year or others say he's regressed from his play last year. 25:06 I don't see that he's ready for the pros. 25:11 Yeah, I mean, I think some of that commentary maybe he's taking is when people talk about our future, you know, our depth chart on defense and they see, you know, some guys coming in next year and apparently going to be 10 defensemen or whatever it might be, you know, well, that's too many or whatever. 25:27 And so they start thinking about, well, who's the most likely to go pro on the blue line? 25:32 And Alt's generally the guy that people tend to think of first, I guess, because he's kind of a bigger guy and he's physical in nature and, you know, of course, he still makes mistakes and he's growing it, you know, as a hockey player. 25:44 But I suppose maybe that's where he latches on Alt's name, but I don't think he's done that badly. 25:50 So he's going to make mistakes like any other guy, but I think overall, he's done pretty solidly. 25:55 Yeah, I mean, the going pro talk with him, I mean, I just don't know where people get that from. 26:00 Again, maybe it's because of the size, but I mean, yeah, he's tall, but he's not filled out or thick. 26:05 You know what I mean, if you're going to go play, especially playing defense, I mean, it's one thing if there's a forward that's a little bit undersized, but just a great goal scorer is just fast. 26:13 Okay, maybe then you could see a guy leaving. 26:14 But I mean, unless something really changes between now and the end of the year, I just don't especially. 26:19 And again, he's a Carolina product. 26:21 We've talked about that last week. 26:22 I mean, they have a couple of young guys, including Justin Falk from Duluth already in their pipeline. 26:26 And I mean, how much better Justin Falk was a man amongst boys last year, and granted, they play different games where, you know, all it's more of a two way guy, whereas Falk is, you know, a quarterback of the power play offensive guy. 26:36 But I mean, it's night and day compared to those two, where they're at in their careers and Falk left. 26:40 And again, I just don't see all, you know, be being even close to ready now. 26:44 Who knows? 26:45 Again, that could change maybe by the end of the year. 26:46 I hope it does. 26:47 I mean, yeah, if he comes on and becomes a shutdown defenseman by March, then that bodes well great, you know, great for the Gophers. 26:52 But again, I just don't see him at that point yet. 26:56 Another question via Twitter, MinnesotaBree18, why do you guys think the Gophers are so much better this year than last year? 27:07 Well, I mean, that's a million dollar question. 27:09 I think that, you know, I think part of it's the off season work. 27:14 I think that that's a big part of it. 27:16 I think Matson, you know, showed a lot of leadership leading the guys and some real good off season work. 27:22 I think that the chemistry on the team, I think, is a big part of it. 27:26 It seems like the guys are all just excited, you know, to play and they're all, you know, happy for one another. 27:32 I don't hear, really, as compared to maybe some previous years, I don't really hear a lot of the, you know, the kind of jealousy or the, you know, maybe some of the, why is this guy getting this opportunity ahead of me kind of stuff? 27:44 And of course, the biggest change was, you know, bringing back Gensel and certainly he brings a lot of energy and passion for gopher hockey. 27:54 And I think that, you know, that kind of stuff is contagious. 27:56 So that would be my opinion. 27:57 And of course, Kent Patterson has been great. 28:01 Yeah, I mean, you know, we've touched on this a few times before. 28:03 And I think, you know, it's just kind of a lot of averages where, I mean, you know, again, this team is on paper, you know, probably better than some of the last few years, but I don't think it's substantially better. 28:13 You know, I just think that whether it was John Hill leaving or Gensel coming back or, you know, but I think more than anything, it was just, you know, something got out of whack for a few years. 28:21 And you see that, you know, whether it's college sports, hockey, or, you know, even in the pros where it's just not clicking for a team and it looks like it should and, you know, for whatever reason, you know, I mean, I think we can all agree that, you know, this team should have been better last year. 28:32 There's no reason they should have been, but, you know, the, you know, the recruits who should have been great weren't and, you know, all this stuff, but this year it's coming together and, you know, again, the last few years haven't been great, but, you know, obviously over the course of history, the Gophers are one of the, you know, 10 best programs, five best programs. 28:46 I don't know where you want to put them, but I mean, you know, they're good most years and they had a few bad years, but, you know, they're not going to fall off the face of the earth. 28:53 I mean, they're going to be good at hockey until the day the program goes away and that will probably never happen. 28:57 So again, I just think they were pretty much due for it and last years were a blip on the radar more than a trend. 29:04 Well, the last, oh, you have something else? 29:06 Yeah, I mean, I think the one thing that, like I touched on with team chemistry, I mean, I don't want to mention names because it's an old, I mean, I probably shouldn't even mention it at all. 29:15 But I mean, we talked in online elsewhere about how there was a certain member of the team from the past few years that made some negative comments about Luchi even after our North Dakota sweep. 29:30 And I mean, it's to me, that's the kind of, I mean, you know what I'm talking about. 29:34 And, you know, that's the kind of thing that, you know, you know, I don't think we're seeing now. 29:38 You don't see that kind of an attitude. 29:42 And so you can't help but feel like the team, when they're all for each other and there's not that kind of drama or, you know, that kind of maybe a little bit of, well, it's not professional jealousy because they're not professionals, but, you know, there's a little bit of jealousy, I think, with some players at times in the past. 29:58 And that's just not, doesn't seem to be there now. 30:02 Well, this is kind of pertains to this weekend, but Vonner22 on Twitter asked, what do you guys think of the home and home format we have with St. 30:12 Cloud? 30:14 I personally like it. 30:15 I mean, you know, it's not like it was back in the day where, you know, before Omaha and Bemidji got added, you know, you'd play pretty much every team in the league four games a year. 30:22 Now it's a lot more watered down. 30:24 But, you know, and I know there's kind of, I know back before, like, and it might even be this way now where you can only do it if, well, it's not that way because, you know, we play Mankato, but I think both games are up here, but I know before it was like Mankato, Minnesota and St. 30:37 Cloud all had to play each other four times or else they couldn't do the home and home thing with something with the balancing the schedule or whatever, but I think it's cool. 30:44 I mean, you know, like a year like this, I mean, it would suck if I'm a St. 30:46 Cloud fan and I really like watching the Gophers at the National Hockey Center, but if both games are down in Mariucci, then I wouldn't get to see them that year and vice versa. 30:53 So I think it's a cool deal. 30:55 I think it kind of helps the rivalry and adds a kind of a unique twist to it. 30:58 So I'm, I'm all for it. 31:01 I, you know, I don't really care too much. 31:03 I understand the logic in it with, you know, trying to control expenses and all that kind of stuff. 31:08 I don't mind it. 31:09 I think that at first, you know, some of these series that are a little closer, I think from some of the fans I've read over the years, they talk about how it's just kind of nice to be able to stay in one place and enjoy the weekend there and whatever. 31:22 And you know, a lot of people like going to Duluth, for instance, of course, we don't have home and homes with them. 31:26 But the point being is that people like to go up there in part because they enjoy the whole weekend as opposed to just traveling. 31:33 Of course, St. 31:34 Cloud is a far cry from Duluth, but nonetheless, you know, I think I can understand both sides of it. 31:40 I don't really have a preference either way. 31:42 I know Lucci in the past said he wouldn't even mind having Duluth being that type of series. 31:48 But personally, I'm glad that they never did that because that's my favorite weekend of the year is heading up to Duluth. 31:54 I'm like hand in touch. 31:55 I mean, St. 31:56 Cloud and Mankato, nothing against those towns and the fine ladies of Mettler's in particular, but it's just it's not the same as a weekend up in Duluth. 32:05 I mean, obviously people listen from different places, but I assume the majority of the people from the Twin Cities and it's obviously a further drive and it just seems like there's a lot more stuff to do whether you're family oriented or whatever. 32:15 I think that plays into it too, or Duluth is nicer to have a few nights and especially if it's in the fall with the colors and all that kind of stuff. 32:22 Again, there's just a lot more stuff to do up there. 32:26 St. 32:26 Cloud and Mankato, those towns just don't have the same cachet. 32:29 I actually enjoy going to Mankato because it's real close for me. 32:32 It's probably real close for you too. 32:34 Yeah, no, I don't mind the short trek down on 159. 32:38 It's 45-50 minutes for me with little back roads out of Carver County here. 32:44 Well, let's move on to this week's matchups. 32:47 We've got, let's start out with Duluth and Minnesota State Mankato. 32:53 Mavericks heading up to Duluth, what do you think? 32:58 I mean, I think, you know, Duluth, they're on a roll right now. 33:00 I mean, they've been really good all year. 33:02 I mean, you know, they look at their losses, one to Notre Dame and, you know, obviously the two to the Gophers. 33:06 So, you know, they've lost to some pretty good teams. 33:09 And, you know, I think both those teams, obviously the Gophers, I think Notre Dame is still, you know, top five team in the country right now. 33:13 And we're preseason number one. 33:15 So, you know, Minnesota State, again, they've played a little better the last few weeks, but that was against Michigan Tech and St. 33:22 Cloud, whereas now they're going to play, you know, defending national champs who are on a roll. 33:26 So, I think it could be kind of similar to last week. 33:28 I know Austin Lee has been pretty solid in that for Minnesota State. 33:31 He's got almost a 930 save percentage, which, you know, on a bad team, that's a pretty good number. 33:37 Oh, okay. 33:40 But I think it could be similar to last weekend where you see Duluth, kind of, you know, their offense clicks one night and really blows the doors off them. 33:46 And then, you know, the next night, it could be a little bit of a struggle. 33:49 You know, it will be nice. 33:50 Is Mike Doar a senior this year? 33:52 Hopefully, a drunk hockey guy and those guys will be in attendance for his... 33:56 Obviously, he never ended up there, but his fans might remember he was originally committed to the Bulldogs before coming to the Gophers and then quitting on the team halfway through. 34:04 So, hopefully, the fans up there have some good chants and signs for young Mr. 34:08 Doar. 34:08 I know the Duluth fans are always pretty good about things like that. 34:14 Yeah, I mean, I don't think that... 34:16 It's pretty tough to not say that Duluth is not going to sweep the series. 34:20 They're on a roll. 34:22 Mankato has played better, but talent-wise, there's a pretty big disparity here. 34:27 And you just have to go with Duluth. 34:29 Their goaltending has been a lot better. 34:32 So yeah, I mean, to me, it's a no-brainer pick that Duluth is going to sweep. 34:37 UNO heads to Denver. 34:40 Ryan, your thoughts? 34:43 I think this could be kind of a fun series. 34:45 I mean, Denver, we talked about earlier, I mean, they're loaded up front on paper. 34:47 They haven't been clicking a lot, but they put up five last weekend. 34:50 And Omaha, again, they kind of got things going in the right direction. 34:54 And I don't know, I just think, I don't know why I have this kind of thing with Omaha where when they play, it just seems, maybe it's just because of Blaze, but they play that, it's a tough physical style, but they're more offensive than defensive. 35:04 So I think it could be a couple of pretty entertaining games. 35:07 Both teams kind of had higher hopes in where they stand right now. 35:11 So I don't think Denver is clicking on all cylinders right now to get a sweep. 35:14 But I guess maybe three points for Denver, something along those lines, just with the way Omaha's goaltending has been just wildly inconsistent. 35:23 Yeah, I mean, for me, it's like whose team, whose goaltending is gonna show up? 35:27 I mean, neither team has had great goaltending this year. 35:30 I mean, Omaha has been pretty bad. 35:33 And so for me, that's gonna be the key, who's goaltending? 35:37 Because I expect this series is gonna be pretty high scoring, basically, because neither team's goaltending has really rose to the occasion this year to this point. 35:47 You know, I think UNO has been relatively solid on the road. 35:51 I know they won in Madison and they played relatively well at Bemidji this last weekend. 35:57 So I think I'm gonna call this series a split. 36:00 Staying out in Colorado, we have the Badgers visiting CC. 36:07 Yeah, this could be an interesting series. 36:08 I think, you know, CC, they've been, you know, it feels like they've been on the road more than they've been at home so far this year. 36:13 And, you know, they're coming off one game on the weekend and they lost to Denver. 36:17 And I don't know, I think Wisconsin, I mean, we saw that they don't have a whole lot of firepower, whereas CC is, you know, pretty loaded up front. 36:25 And, you know, CC is going to have the edge in that. 36:27 I know Rumple, you know, he's pretty solid this weekend for Wisconsin, all in all. 36:30 And the wheels kind of came off for them in general, the third period on Saturday. 36:33 But, you know, I wouldn't be surprised to see CC put the sweep on him here. 36:38 I feel as though over time Wisconsin's kind of struggled out there. 36:41 I could be wrong on that, but just, you know, kind of off the cuff. 36:44 I don't think they've had a lot of success out there. 36:45 And, you know, CC is just a much better team, I think. 36:48 So it wouldn't surprise me if they get four points from them. 36:51 Well, one thing about that is I think Wisconsin has played much better at home than on the road. 36:55 So. 36:55 Well, yeah, they're windless on the road. 36:58 Yeah. 36:58 So I think Wisconsin could be in trouble this weekend. 37:01 Yeah, I mean, that's kind of the way I looked at it. 37:04 I mean, they've been. 37:06 You know, not that I've seen every Wisconsin game, of course, but the games that I have seen, you know, they've been pretty solid at home, but, you know, they've had only four road games so far this year. 37:17 Of course, they got swept up at tack and then they, you know, got killed one night at St. 37:22 Cloud and came back to tie the next night. 37:23 And of course, I think that tie game was due to they came back late after some penalties and for St. 37:30 Cloud, so that was kind of a questionable, you know, I know some of their St. 37:35 Cloud fans were complaining about some of the calls at the end of that game. 37:37 So Wisconsin has not played very well on the road and CC is a much, you know, they're a better team, especially on the high end with Schwartz Brothers and all that. 37:47 So I really expect CC is going to sweep this series. 37:52 Fourth place, Michigan Tech heads up to Anchorage, Alaska. 38:00 Keep it short and sweet. 38:01 I mean, both, Tech's been a little bit better this year, obviously, but I mean, going up to Anchorage and again, like we touched on earlier, Anchorage started off the year well. 38:10 They've had some pretty tough series in the league so far this year and haven't had any success. 38:13 But I mean, a split probably, I don't know. 38:16 I mean, it feels like a split to me. 38:19 Yeah, I mean, how many fans are going to go to this game? 38:23 I mean, how many fans go to any Anchorage game? 38:26 Well, that's what I'm trying to say is like Anchorage barely gets much as it is. 38:31 And then you got Tech coming in there who's not exactly a Hollywood team. 38:36 So I really think, you know, I think that UAA is probably a little bit due. 38:41 They've like we've talked about earlier, they're 0-6 in the league. 38:45 And I'm sure there's some frustration and anger that they want to get out on somebody. 38:49 And, you know, Tech coming up there, they haven't been exactly great on the road. 38:53 So I'm kind of thinking that Anchorage is going to take three points in the series. 38:58 11th place, North Dakota, plays 9th place Bemidji on a Saturday Sunday series. 39:06 Yeah, I mean, both 11th place. 39:08 Well, yeah, they, you know, who knows? 39:11 They soon need to get it going pretty soon here. 39:14 They do. 39:14 I mean, it's the cliche. 39:15 I know I'm guilty of saying it all the time. 39:17 I mean, you can't, you know, win the league in the first half, you can lose it. 39:19 And, you know, they're pretty much right at that point right now. 39:22 I mean, obviously, they're not focused on, you know, taking first in the league right now. 39:25 I mean, they just want to get back to a home ice spot, I'm sure. 39:27 But, you know, again, both games are in Bemidji, but, you know, North Dakota had the weekend off and, you know, I think if Grimaldi is now healthy and who knows me, he's been in another lineup. 39:38 But he looked healthy to me on that Saturday where, you know, he scored that sweet goal and, you know, he was all over the ice. 39:42 So I think if he's there and, you know, that gives him two scoring lines versus just the one that, you know, they broke up the big line for the Gopher series. 39:49 But, you know, anytime Crystal wasn't on the ice on Friday night, they didn't have anything going. 39:53 So between Crystal and Grimaldi, those two are super dynamic. 39:57 And again, I just don't think Bemidji is going to have the firepower to score maybe one or two goals a night max. 40:02 And I just don't see how they're going to hold North Dakota down if, you know, Grimaldi is in the lineup and playing the same caliber he did against the Gophers that Saturday a few weeks ago. 40:11 Yeah, I mean, for me, Bemidji has been kind of pesky at home and they've but they don't have the talent level that North Dakota does. 40:20 North Dakota has had a week to rest up. 40:22 I'm sure some of their guys are getting a little healthier. 40:24 I'm sure they'll have obviously a little bit fresher legs after that time off. 40:29 And, you know, I wouldn't be surprised if one of the games is kind of a tighter game that could maybe go either way. 40:36 But I just can't see how, you know, UND doesn't sweep this series. 40:42 And finally, we have our home of home series with St. 40:45 Cloud State. 40:46 Just a couple notes on the series here. 40:49 Minnesota leads the overall series 48, 26 and 12. 40:55 The last 10 meetings, Minnesota is 7 and 3 against St. 40:58 Cloud. 40:59 But I must say that St. 41:00 Cloud has won 3 out of the last 4 games. 41:06 TV notes, to let people know, Saturday Night's Game will be on an alternate channel. 41:11 You can go to the, go to GPL right on the portal page. 41:14 I've got a link there for FSN to show what all the stations that the game will be on this weekend. 41:21 So make sure you check that out. 41:23 Ryan, your thoughts? 41:25 Sounds like you might be headed up there Friday night. 41:28 I will, yes. 41:29 I will be up there covering it for GPL, so I'll be tweeting and fishing for folks to come and attack. 41:35 That's one of my favorite pastimes these days when I get behind the wheels of the GPL account. 41:39 But no, it should be fun. 41:42 I love the side note from the series itself, but the arena up there is a piece of crap. 41:46 I think we can all agree on that. 41:48 Even St. 41:49 Cloud fans would say that. 41:50 Come on. 41:50 I don't know where they stand with the renovation. 41:52 I don't know if that's 100% done yet. 41:55 When that gets done, it'll be nice. 41:56 But I will say that there's probably nowhere in the league where as a fan or just being in the building, the atmosphere is completely made up with the laser lights and the lights out and the whole bit. 42:05 But it's a great atmosphere to watch a game. 42:08 Only when the Gophers are there. 42:09 I've been up there when they played Omaha and CC and some other teams and then it's garbage. 42:13 But when the Gophers are there, they love it and it's awesome and it's fun and it's a tough place to play. 42:18 I mean, you've heard Vanek talked about that when, remember when Nodal committed to St. 42:21 Cloud, he said he talked with Vanek and he said, oh, that place is amazing to play. 42:24 And it is. 42:25 It's a fun night when the Gophers are up there and they're going to be, we weren't up there last year, I don't believe. 42:30 So I mean, they're going to be pretty intense. 42:31 And again, with the whole, the national and the Big Ten and everything, who knows if we're up there next year and it could be a while before the Gophers are up there. 42:38 So hopefully fans are making the trek up 94, kind of savor the flavor. 42:42 But from an on ice perspective, you got to like the Gophers chances. 42:47 St. 42:47 Cloud's been kind of up and down and with Mike Lee out for the year now and same with LaBlanc. 42:52 So I mean, that's two pretty key parts for them that they don't have right now. 42:55 And the Gophers are, at least it appears relatively healthy and they played pretty well against St. 43:01 Cloud in recent years. 43:02 And granted, they lost a couple of the recent meetings, but they beat them what, six times two years ago or whatever it was, and they had that crazy game up there where the Gophers won what, nine, seven or something like that. 43:12 Eight, six. 43:13 Yeah, eight, six. 43:14 Yeah. 43:14 So yeah, I mean, you know, upfront, I think you could see some goals. 43:17 I know obviously Patterson, the Gophers in theory should have a pretty big edge in net. 43:20 I mean, Farragher, I think is how you say it, the kid that stepped up for in the absence of Mike Lee, he's been solid, but he hasn't gone against a team like the Gophers either that can put the puck in the back of the net. 43:30 I know North Dakota was okay, but North Dakota is not the same offensive team that the Gophers are at this point. 43:36 So, I think one of the keys is going to be the power play for the Gophers and it's been the last couple of weeks, it's really tailed off, but that was kind of expected just because it was going at such a high clip that you knew it couldn't sustain like that. 43:46 But for the Gophers, I think just getting through that first 10 minutes on Friday night where St. 43:53 Cloud is going to be pretty pumped up and bring a big charge. 43:55 But I think if the Gophers can even be scoreless after the first period on Friday night, I like the chances to get four points. 44:05 Yeah, for me, Ryan touched on some of the injury parts of it. 44:08 Those guys not only are good players, but they're leaders for their team. 44:12 You can't replace those kinds of guys. 44:15 You can try to, as a team, replace some of the statistical things. 44:19 But from a leadership standpoint, on ice, the confidence of having leaders on the ice with you, you can't replace that stuff with other guys. 44:28 So that's certainly a big loss for them. 44:30 And I think LeBlanc is probably their best overall player. 44:34 So from that standpoint, it's a big loss. 44:38 I think that from a special teams perspective, I think it's big this series. 44:44 St. 44:44 Cloud has been not very good in the power play. 44:47 They've been kind of a little bit kind of mediocre in the penalty kill. 44:54 But the Gophers have been, even though they've tailed off a little bit in the power play recently, they've been good in both departments this year. 45:01 So I think that that's a big advantage. 45:03 We talked about the goal tending being an advantage. 45:08 In most respects, the Gophers are the better team. 45:10 I don't have any doubt about that. 45:13 I do think that home ice plays a role, having that atmosphere behind you. 45:18 So I tend to lean towards the Gophers taking three out of four points. 45:22 So not to jump into Jupiter's chair here and play the host, but I know this gets kind of brought up with the home and home thing. 45:27 So I'll ask you guys, not from a fan standpoint, but just from a strictly wins, losses, X's and O's team, would you rather have the Friday night game at Mariucci, or would you rather play Friday night on the road and then Saturday at Mariucci? 45:43 Personally, go ahead, go ahead, Jude. 45:45 I actually like how it's set up this week, and I actually like the Friday game in St. 45:49 Cloud and finishing up at Mariucci. 45:52 That's just my personal preference. 45:54 That's the way I feel, too. 45:57 Maybe it's just sometimes your mind plays tricks on you based on the past, but it just seems like to me when I think of teams on the road, it just seems like those Friday games you just feel like you have fresher legs and maybe you're just really ready for the series. 46:16 I don't know. 46:16 It just feels like you're more likely to win on the road on Friday. 46:19 Now, there's, of course, plenty of examples where that's not the case. 46:23 But for me, I just feel like I'd rather be on the road in the first game than come back for the second game. 46:29 Well, Ryan, I think you're going to love covering the game Friday night. 46:33 You'll be at a table at the top of the student section. 46:36 Oh, good. 46:37 Yeah. 46:37 You might have a TV announcer right next to you. 46:40 Just depends on where they put you. 46:42 Most likely you'll have to stand the whole game because the students will be standing in front of you. 46:47 Otherwise, you won't be able to see the game. 46:49 But, you know what, you do have access to an elevator that has a guy operating it for you. 46:54 So, you have that to look forward to. 46:56 Well, just as long as one of Bill's auto shop banners isn't obstructing my view of the ice that they have so many of them up there. 47:03 Well, I've seen Chuck Schwartz, one of our Twitter buddies, at least for me. 47:08 He was kind of grousing about... 47:10 He was up there a couple weeks ago and the Badgers were up there and he was lamenting about a lot of the same facts you just said. 47:15 But like I suggested to him, I mean, they got TVs at the red carpet so I guess if things get really out of control, I'm only a hop, skip and a jump away from one of the best bars in the world. 47:25 So maybe if... 47:25 Hopefully the Gophers can put them away early and then maybe sneak over there quick. 47:29 You know, I've tried to shoot at St. 47:32 Cloud a couple times and I hate it. 47:34 There's just no place to get some good angles except for on the bench. 47:38 If you can get on the bench there, you could shoot pretty well. 47:40 But otherwise, not one of my favorite places to shoot, but I do enjoy going up there. 47:46 But you're solo this week and I'm not going up there with you. 47:49 So have fun with that. 47:51 Hey, bring it on. 47:52 Like I said, it's student section up there. 47:54 Yeah, they're crazy. 47:55 And I know Wooger always used to say they were hopped up on antifreeze before the game. 48:00 But hey, you know what? 48:01 They're into the game. 48:01 They're loud. 48:02 And yeah, they may not be super hockey knowledgeable or whatever. 48:04 But again, it makes for a great atmosphere when they're wild and crazy. 48:08 And yeah, that's part of the fun up there. 48:09 Well, and it sounds like there's, from what I was reading on the St. 48:12 Cloud message board, like there's a decent number of tickets available still for this game. 48:17 So go for fans if you want to take a quick trip up north to St. 48:21 Cloud. 48:22 Here's an opportunity to watch a game on the road. 48:25 Snap those tickets up and take away some of that home ice advantage. 48:29 And actually, you has a similar deal for Saturday night's game. 48:33 I put a link up on the GPL portal page. 48:36 But if you click that link, you'll get a special $15 price for general admission tickets Saturday night. 48:43 So, if you want to get down and see the Gophers, what a perfect opportunity to do it. 48:48 There's always empty seats because you know all the corpies, you'll be able to sit in the middle if you want because the corpies still don't show up. 48:54 Just love those corpies. 48:57 A $15 tickets is pretty darn good because they don't limit to how many tickets. 49:01 You can buy as many as you can. 49:02 So that's a pretty good deal. 49:03 So make sure you check that out. 49:05 Real quick too, I noticed on Friday night, I think this is, I know a lot of teams do the 7 or 7.30 start now and I think this is the first year St. 49:11 Cloud has done the 7.30 start. 49:13 So it's a little reminder for folks, obviously it's better if it's later than earlier in terms of you don't want to miss the start if you're used to the 7 o'clock puck drop but to stay kind of a reminder on that. 49:24 Any other thoughts on this weekend? 49:28 You know, I don't have anything that we haven't really touched on. 49:32 I just think that we have a lot of advantages and it's just one of those things where you need to go out there and show it on the ice, you know, it's not played on paper. 49:40 So we'll see how it goes but if the guys take kind of the same attitude they took on Saturday against Wisconsin and come out with a lot of energy and playing together, I like our chances. 49:53 All right, Pammy, do we have any recruiting news this week? 49:57 It seems a little quiet this week except for, what is it, Brady Shea actually tweeted today that he signed his Letter of Intent. 50:04 Yeah, the guys will probably be, I'm sure we'll be hearing, you know, getting the press release relatively soon on the guys that have signed their Letter of Intent and, you know, there's only so many scholarships to give out so, you know, recruiting, you're going to have probably bursts of recruiting news and then that's going to be a little quiet for a little while. 50:22 So, I mean, that's kind of how it was this summer. 50:24 It was kind of a quiet summer for a Gopher recruiting in terms of news but as we've seen in the last month or so, it definitely, you know, kicks in the gear at some point so. 50:34 And high school hockey season is about to start. 50:37 They just started practices yesterday, a lot of the high school teams so that's going to be kicking in the gear so you'll be seeing the coaches out at the rinks and all that kind of stuff so a lot more hockey coming. 50:48 Definitely something to look forward to. 50:52 Anything else guys? 50:53 That's it for me. 50:55 I'm good. 50:56 I think we are good for this week. 50:58 Remember, you can always listen to us live when we record this. 51:01 On Tuesday nights or on 930, just head over to the GPL Podcast page and you'll see a little live player at the bottom of the screen and we'll take your questions via Twitter or via podcast at gopherpucklive.com. 51:16 You can follow Hammy at Hammy Hockey on Twitter. 51:20 And you can also follow Ryan Cardinal on Twitter at Ryan Cardinal and he also obviously writes for us for GopherPuckLive. 51:28 And I'm guessing your weekly appearance is Thursday this week around 955? 51:33 Yeah, that usually, if it's tomorrow, I better find out soon. 51:37 So yeah, I believe Thursday right around 10 o'clock is usually the norm at this point. 51:41 So yeah, that's when we should be on with Mr. 51:43 Allen. 51:45 Sounds great. 51:46 Well, thank you guys for joining me this week. 51:49 We'll be back to recap the St. 51:52 Cloud series next week and preview the Thanksgiving road trip to Michigan States. 51:58 Thanks for listening in. 51:59 We'll see you next week on the GopherPuckLive Podcast.