0:05 This is The GPL Podcast, sponsored by Vintage Minnesota Hockey, your exclusive source for throwback Minnesota jerseys. 0:14 Visit vintagemnhockey.com. 0:19 Now, here's Hammy, Vegoe, and your host, Jupiter. 0:39 Good evening, and welcome to the GPL Podcast. 0:44 Remember, for UOZ listening live, if you want to tweet us your questions using the hashtag GPLPodcast, we'll try to get you on the air and answer your questions. 0:56 Probably the biggest question is, what the heck happened, boys? 0:59 Three to nothing, Vermont? 1:01 Are you kidding me, Veegs? 1:04 Yeah, definitely not the start we were all expecting, but in their defense, they ran into a veteran team that was older and threw a 1-3 trap at them. 1:15 I think the Gophers were a little too excited to get going and played right into Vermont's hands. 1:22 Hammeh, what the hell happened? 1:23 Was it this trap crap? 1:26 Well, I think part of it was, for me, I think the fact that we had a couple of opportunities on the power play early and we didn't capitalize on them, combined with that kind of the late, everybody hates to be scored on the last minute of a period or the first minute of a period. 1:43 We kind of had that happen in that first period. 1:46 It's just one of those things where I think we didn't capitalize early on and kind of gain some momentum, get the crowd into it or whatever crowd there was, I guess I should say, since it wasn't a packed house. 1:58 But we just kind of had one go in on us late, and I guess from there, the momentum just kind of sagged. 2:04 Well, I think according to the tickets, what was it, over 9,700 tickets sold, found out later it was more like 6,600 that was scanned. 2:16 Right, so obviously not a full house. 2:19 Yeah. 2:20 Not a big Perl and Vermont crowd, I guess you could say. 2:24 I think there are quite a few ticket holders who also have wild tickets. 2:28 So the two openers happening at the same time probably doesn't help. 2:32 And I do think the University of Minnesota needs to find a way for those season ticket holders who have those conflicts to sell their seats easier. 2:40 So I think there's probably a lot of people who have a hard time selling those tickets because you can't, there isn't like a stub hub where you can have scanned tickets for a Gopher game. 2:51 So I think that might help the atmosphere down the road. 2:55 Well, we'll have to see. 2:57 Obviously, it wasn't a great crowd, but you know what? 3:00 The crowd that was there had nothing to cheer for. 3:05 For one thing, I don't recall the last time they were shut out in a home opener. 3:09 I know they've been shut out within the last ten years. 3:11 I think there was a main game they were shut out during the start of the season, but that wasn't at home and it was just nothing for the crowd to cheer for, Veegs. 3:20 No, I think the team really made a lot of mistakes. 3:24 They turned the puck over far too easily. 3:26 There wasn't a lot of puck support. 3:28 Guys weren't coming back to the puck. 3:30 They weren't breaking open areas of the ice. 3:33 The defensemen were looking up a lot of times. 3:36 Jake Bischoff said he'd look at the wing and he's covered. 3:39 He'd look at the center and he's covered. 3:41 There wasn't really another option because guys weren't moving to get open. 3:45 I think there's just a little bit of that tentative play that cost them. 3:49 I think part of that is they've got so many new guys in the lineup and so many new roles, they just weren't ready for it. 3:56 Gensel definitely was not happy with the defensive play getting the puck out of the defensive zone. 4:04 He saw just their attempts to get it up off the glass. 4:07 He was like, come on, guys, you've got to do a better job than that. 4:12 I was paraphrasing. 4:13 He was a little more rosy in his language than that, but he was very disappointed when I was down there. 4:18 Just get it off the glass. 4:21 That's what they're doing to you. 4:22 Why can't we do that? 4:23 He was very disappointed just getting the puck out of the zone. 4:26 I think there's just that unwillingness to just fire the puck and go for check sometimes. 4:31 You have all these skilled players and they think about their game as they want to come with speed. 4:37 Well, when there's three guys standing at the far blue line, you can't really go over the top of the defense like you can in football. 4:42 You've got to work a ground game and chip it in and go work for it. 4:46 I think for a lot of guys on this team, that's a different role than what they're used to. 4:51 A very structured team like that, and it's a tough matchup. 4:54 Don Lucia talked about that today, that they didn't probably do a good enough job prepping for a team like Vermont. 5:01 They were more worried about themselves. 5:04 Once they got in that situation and once they blew a few of their early opportunities, they really started pressing and getting away from what would be successful. 5:13 Well, they better get used to it because they're going to see that this season. 5:16 Teams are going to try to do the exact same thing. 5:19 Maybe not at Duluth this weekend, that's not their style, but obviously Wisconsin is going to try to do the exact same thing. 5:25 They'll see the success of what Vermont did, and they'll try to duplicate it. 5:30 Yeah, I think we'll see it with Northeastern, I think we'll see it with Notre Dame a little bit, and then we'll definitely see it in the conference. 5:38 Ug, ug, ug, ug. 5:40 Well, Hammeh, let's go to you first. 5:42 You know, people always talk about the lines, how the lines set up. 5:46 What did you think about the lines, about how he had them set up? 5:49 And it sounds like he's going to keep it the same this week, but right off the bat we had Gates, Clues and Fashing up front as the top line when we started. 5:58 Yeah, I didn't have a problem with the lineup that they put out there in terms of the lines. 6:05 I think that after seeing them for a game, I think that they should tweak a few things. 6:09 I didn't really feel Gates kind of fit in real well with Clues and Fashing. 6:14 It kind of seemed like he was struggling a bit in terms of some of his play. 6:18 You know, it's to be expected. 6:21 I think we have to be careful when you have that many young guys in the lineup, and it's their very first college game that we don't obviously jump to too many conclusions. 6:28 I think that we kind of saw a little bit on GPL when people are analyzing a game and saying this and that of our players. 6:35 Yeah, I mean, it's like, I get what they're saying, and yes, it wasn't a great game by really anybody for the most part, but it's also the first game, and you have a ton of new guys in the lineup, and we're going to have to be patient this year. 6:49 It's a totally different kind of situation than last year, where you had a lot of veterans, a lot of guys kind of going to be playing a lot of the same roles or similar roles, and they're going to kind of be able to step in, and the power play was great last year, and we're going to have some growing pains overall. 7:05 And so it might be a case where we're going to see a pretty good amount of inconsistency for a little while until guys kind of find their roles and get their feet wet in terms of getting some experience out there. 7:16 Veegs, what did you think of the lineup? 7:19 Well, I thought the Clues-Fashing pair looked really good together. 7:22 Fashing did some of the best play along the wall and winning puck battles there to create some time for something to happen in the offensive zone. 7:31 I think Gates, he had that long layoff after he got injured, so this was his first game in a long time. 7:38 And then, you know, happening at a game like this with a lot of pressure on him, he didn't play his best, and that's why I think in the third period he saw Connor Riley play up there with Clues and Fashing, just to try to get a spark going. 7:53 I thought Novak had a decent game at center, and I was impressed with the fourth line. 7:58 Ramsey, you know, brought some physical edge to the game, and they created some chances. 8:04 I know Michelson had that breakaway chance early, you know, and you don't expect your fourth line to be generating some of your best zone time, but they were, because they were, you know, chipping the puck deep, getting behind the D and trying to keep control of the puck. 8:17 I think some of the other lines, the Camerata, Sheehy, the Terry line just couldn't get it going, just too many turnovers. 8:25 They played awful, I think. 8:26 They weren't coming up as a unit. 8:28 They weren't supporting the puck. 8:30 I think that was probably the worst line of the night. 8:33 You know, and Vinny and Taylor have no excuses. 8:36 Those guys are, you know, juniors now. 8:38 I mean, they got plenty of experience. 8:40 They've had opportunities. 8:42 I mean, it's just, it's not excusable for those guys to, you know, start off a season like that. 8:46 I mean, in my book, those are the kind of things you expect to see out of the real young guys, but not guys that have seen ample amount of playing time in college for two years. 8:55 I mean, that's just, I don't know, those guys need to wake up. 8:57 If it's going to be any kind of a good season, those guys have to perform a lot better. 9:01 Well, it at least gives, you know, the message board a chance to keep ripping on Camerata. 9:08 He is kind of the favorite whipping boy. 9:09 Yeah, well, he didn't exactly do anything to dispel the critics. 9:14 I mean, so it's not exactly a great start on his part as far as trying to quell the critics. 9:19 And, actually, I was a little more surprised with Latterri because he is more of a meat-and-potatoes kind of guy. 9:26 And we just didn't see any of that. 9:29 Yeah, well, I don't know. 9:31 I mean, I guess we have to say all night that you kind of have to put an asterisk by everything, and it is the first game of the season, and we didn't even have an exhibition. 9:42 So, I mean, it's kind of like you have to be careful about being too critical or jumping on things too much. 9:47 But, yeah, as far as one game goes, it is a little bit of a surprise that some of these guys would have performed the way that they did. 9:53 How about defense? 9:54 So, it's pretty much the same guys, Veegs, except, you know, we added Seeler. 9:57 What did you think about the decor? 9:59 I think it was a little bit of a difficult night for them to make that first pass because there was such a trapping team on the other side of the rink. 10:08 I thought they looked good at getting puck retrievals. 10:11 I thought they looked good playing the body and winning pucks back in the defensive zone. 10:18 It's just that first pass was a struggle for them all night. 10:22 They were having a hard time deciding whether or not they should just try to get it across the red line and dump it in. 10:28 I think that's hard for some of these skilled guys to do. 10:31 That probably would have been the best plan of attack on Saturday. 10:36 Then the other thing is they didn't get enough zone time. 10:39 Typically, in Minnesota team, you see the defensemen really active at keeping the puck in the offensive zone. 10:45 They didn't have the opportunity to do that because the offensive's plays were so limited and short. 10:52 Well, that's one thing they're going to have to fix, Hammey, because we've said it for years. 10:57 Coaches have said that first pass out of the zone is probably the most critical part of transition and everything else with the game. 11:06 Well, right, and I think the other thing is, and Vegas kind of mentioned this, I think there was a lot of impatience out there. 11:11 I think especially as the game went along, some guys I think were really trying to press and trying to make things happen almost on their own to some extent. 11:21 And I think that that's going to just kind of exacerbate the problems. 11:25 Like Vegas said about puck support and kind of creating opportunities that aren't just the kind of skating through the zone cleanly, you kind of have to make opportunities. 11:35 I don't know if it was a first game thing with so many guys in a lineup, it's just hard to say, but whatever they were trying to do, it just wasn't working. 11:44 They were trying to push it and it just wasn't clicking at all. 11:47 And as we keep on moving back, we've got Shearhorn Hammy. 11:52 He gave up two goals. 11:54 People complain, maybe it had been a soft goal, blah, blah, blah, but Lucia has always been preaching. 12:00 If our goalie gives up two goals, we need to support them, and that's exactly what he did. 12:06 Well, right, and I saw some people talking about how they felt he played or whatever, and I actually didn't think he played badly at all. 12:13 Personally, on the first goal, they had a shot from basically the face-off dot, and Brzezinski at least partially screened him on that, and he got a piece of it and just trickled in. 12:25 That was a tough goal, but I don't know that I would consider that a softie, given where it was shot and that he was partially screened. 12:32 Then on the second goal that he gave up, it was essentially a hard slap shot that he just had on. 12:38 Sometimes when you're getting that close of a slap shot, you're just not going to be able to control the rebound as easily as you want to. 12:43 Really, there was only one threat, and that was the shooter, and Gopher didn't pick up the shooter after a shot, and the puck was right back to him, and it's a goal. 12:52 I kind of blame the defensemen a little bit more on that one than I do the goalies. 12:56 I don't think he played that badly at all. 12:59 Vegoe, I remember you mentioning you're concerned about his rebounds and where he's directing the puck. 13:05 Yeah, I thought he played a fine game. 13:09 It's a freshman, it's his first game. 13:11 He's coming into a new situation. 13:13 I think it's a little bit difficult for goalies to step on the Olympic sheet and play right away and play effectively, because the size of the rink changes their angles a little bit. 13:23 But he just didn't look comfortable quite the whole night. 13:26 And it's not so much just the two goals, one that went over his shoulder, and the other one where he gave up the rebound, the shooter did a nice job following his shot. 13:34 But just the entire night, it looked like he was fighting the puck and trying to just deflect it. 13:40 He wasn't trying to freeze the puck. 13:42 He didn't look confident and smooth. 13:44 I think anytime you watch an elite goaltender, they don't give up any rebounds. 13:49 They swallow up everything. 13:50 They've got those big pillows for pads, and they get the shot, and they're able to cover it real quickly. 13:56 Santa Guida did a good job of that for Vermont. 14:00 The Gophers had very few second chances because he was swallowing things up. 14:04 It gave the Gophers a lot of offensive face-off opportunities, but they weren't able to capitalize on it. 14:10 When you're going up against a good goaltender, you're looking to create those second chances. 14:16 Scherhorn was giving those up. 14:18 It's kind of a concern if that's his style to just deflect pucks in the corner, but I think to be an elite goaltender, you need to be able to freeze the puck. 14:28 Well, we talk about the other goaltender played well, but honestly, I never saw a ton of pressure all night. 14:40 They never really had him on his heels. 14:43 I would say quality chances were very low. 14:46 I mean, obviously, Kloos did get that chance in the third period, but sailed it wide. 14:51 I just didn't think there was a lot of grade A opportunities during the game. 14:56 Well, there are certainly chances. 14:58 The Gophers didn't help themselves by missing the net as much as they did. 15:02 They didn't help themselves by not changing the angle and shooting into pads as much as they did. 15:07 So offensively, the Gophers didn't help themselves. 15:11 But at the same point, if you're a goalie, you want to be freezing the puck. 15:16 Yeah, I guess. 15:18 But obviously, it's a disappointing start for the fans and for the team. 15:21 Boy, to get shut out by Vermont, not good. 15:27 Not good, boys. 15:28 Well, I think it is kind of a worst-case situation for that first game, given the style of play, given they're a veteran team, given the fact that we have a lot of young guys in the lineup. 15:40 The first game jitters, and I think that guys are trying to do too much. 15:44 I don't want to make a bunch of excuses for them, but all those things I just said are realities. 15:49 I think it's just one of those things where obviously we all expect them to perform better than they did, and we think that's how they should be moving forward. 15:59 But I guess I can't say it. 16:02 I mean, even the best teams have bad nights, so I guess I can't be too critical in the first game of the year. 16:08 Well, besides the Gopher debacle, one thing that was kind of a story by... 16:15 was it Todd Maluski? 16:16 I don't know how you pronounce his name for Wisconsin, but their season ticket packages are way down. 16:26 And, you know, they had a record low ticket sales Friday night against Northern Michigan. 16:33 Sounds like they may have had three to four thousand show up. 16:38 We've been preaching this for the last couple years, guys, but Wisconsin's in trouble. 16:44 And the thing is, if we want the Big Ten to succeed, we can't have Wisconsin in this kind of trouble. 16:50 And it's looking like big trouble over there, Veegs. 16:54 Yeah, it's definitely shocking to see the bar graphs where it just, you know, the attendance keeps going down. 17:00 Todd does a great job of getting that information from the University of Wisconsin and publishing it and maintaining that database. 17:07 You can see it right there and playing charts. 17:11 But, you know, they don't play a very entertaining style of hockey, and they've had a lot of success on the basketball court and on the football field the last decade, and, you know, not so much on the hockey rink. 17:23 Well, their students are under 800 now. 17:27 I mean, even the student tickets, which they used to fill up the whole end of the Cole Center from all three decks. 17:35 The Gopher Sports Podcast asks Fastien and Bischoff what their favorite rinks to play in were, and Bischoff said Cole Center. 17:42 And it could be a little emptier there than usual this next year. 17:46 I mean, obviously we like to make fun of them. 17:49 It's the Badgers, but jeez Wisconsin. 17:52 You need to turn it around. 17:54 I mean, we can't just have us in Michigan or whatever. 17:56 We need Wisconsin to be a top three team in the league for this league to be successful. 18:02 And boy, it looked like a ghost town there at Cole Center. 18:07 In fact, I even heard their announcer. 18:09 I was listening to part of their game Friday night. 18:11 Their announcer said he had never seen such an empty Cole Center for any Badger game. 18:19 Well, I guess that's what a four-win season will do for you. 18:22 And retaining the coach that was essentially a lot of people point fingers at. 18:29 He's a dead man walking. 18:30 Yeah, I don't know what's going to happen this year. 18:32 Obviously, it's so early yet. 18:34 And obviously, I would imagine at least somewhat improve. 18:39 It's not really a high bar that they set last year. 18:42 But nonetheless, they have to be a team that's got to be at least competitive for an NCAA opportunity, at-large opportunity, if the league is going to be doing well. 18:53 Because, as you mentioned, most years Michigan and the Gophers are going to be contending for at least an at-large spot. 19:02 I think that Penn State, if they keep improving, they'll be kind of in that discussion. 19:07 And we know that you occasionally see a Michigan State or Ohio State kind of pop in there once in a while. 19:12 But Wisconsin is a team that going into the Big Ten Conference, we all kind of expected most years would at least be in that discussion. 19:20 The way it's looking, it could be at least a couple years in a row that they're not going to be in that discussion. 19:26 Well, they didn't lose this weekend. 19:29 No, I mean, yeah, they certainly did better than we did, obviously. 19:32 So I guess we can't talk too much crap about that. 19:34 And they did. 19:35 They came back from, I believe, a 3-0 deficit Saturday night to at least tie the game. 19:40 I think they might have lost in the shootouts. 19:42 But obviously, as the NCAA is concerned, those were two tie games. 19:47 Well, I think the other thing we always have to remind ourselves is these early season tilts are going to be very skewed because some teams are more veteran than others. 19:57 They have more guys used to their systems, and they're playing similar roles than maybe what they had in the past. 20:04 And you kind of expect some teams to maybe hit the ice and play a little better right out of the gate than some others. 20:10 So it's not necessarily what it's going to look like when you get to January, February, March of next year. 20:16 Yeah, I mean, a team like Minnesota Duluth, you'd expect to come flying out of the gates and just power over a team like Bemidji. 20:24 Well, Duluth is who we're going to be talking about next. 20:27 But before we get for the series this weekend and talk about Duluth, we're going to have a word from our sponsor here. 20:35 I would like to welcome Vintage Minnesota Hockey as our very first sponsor on the GPL Podcast. 20:41 vintagemnhockey.com wants to take you back in time and keep the memories of Minnesota hockey heritage alive forever. 20:48 They have Minnesota hockey history from around the entire state. 20:52 Vintage Minnesota hockey is dedicated to those from Minnesota's past who have carved out Minnesota's rich hockey history from the state of hockey. 21:01 Personally, I love the online store. 21:03 I own a 2011 alternate white jersey with Gophers written across the front of it. 21:08 I love it, and I can personally vouch for its quality. 21:11 You can even get your throwback jersey customized with your name, number or patches. 21:17 And, as listeners of the GPL Podcast, you get a special 10% discount on all orders from their online store. 21:24 Just enter the code GPL Podcast, all lowercase, and one word to receive this discount. 21:30 So, visit Vintage Minnesota Hockey today at vintagemnhockey.com. 21:37 Alright, I want to thank Vintage Minnesota Hockey for being our sponsor again this week. 21:42 Boys, Minnesota Duluth comes to town. 21:46 The speed limit is going to be going up, isn't it, Hammeh? 21:50 Yeah, I mean, Duluth has got a lot of returning players. 21:53 They're a pretty good team this year, and you kind of have to expect that, you know, that they're going to come out of the gates pretty good considering that. 22:01 I mean, I was surprised that they lost to Bemidji. 22:04 You know, I guess, like I said, those early season tilts, you just never know what's going to happen sometimes. 22:08 But I suspect, you know, even last year, you know, I think the Gophers, you know, with the veteran team, we didn't particularly play that well against them. 22:17 That's an understatement, dude. 22:18 Yeah, so I mean, it's kind of like, you know, I don't know what's going to happen this year. 22:22 You'd kind of considering what happened the first week, and they have, you know, a better team, more veteran team this year than we do. 22:29 You would kind of expect it's going to be a tough series this weekend, and I don't really know. 22:34 I mean, you know, I normally, I would think that, you know, you have a home and home, you kind of pick the split, but, you know, I don't know what to really expect. 22:42 You know, with what we saw this last week, it's kind of hard to even go that far. 22:46 Veegs, boy, this Duluth team is pretty good, and they ended the Gopher season last year. 22:53 Will that make any difference to these guys, for the Gophers at least? 22:57 I think talking with the Gophers, you know, they're ready to turn the page. 23:01 This year's team is totally different than last year's team. 23:05 There's just a new leadership group in the locker room, and, you know, guys aren't really looking for revenge. 23:11 They're looking for the challenge of playing a rival like you would anytime. 23:14 I don't think they're thinking about the losses at all. 23:16 They're just thinking about one of the challenges is playing a very veteran team that's only playing, I think, two freshmen. 23:24 All their power play guys are back. 23:26 Their goalie's back. 23:28 They've got one of the most aggressive decors in the country. 23:31 I think it's a stiff challenge because, you know, kids had a lot of time to make decisions on Saturday night. 23:37 They're not this weekend. 23:39 They're going to have four checkers on them. 23:41 There's going to be a lot of pressure, a lot of physical play. 23:45 It's a big test. 23:47 Well, it will definitely be a wake up call because, you know, obviously, you know, it was a disappointing game this past weekend, but it's a rival. 23:56 This rival is coming into town. 23:58 We're going up to Duluth. 24:00 Hopefully, this is something that wakes the team up because obviously they weren't awake this past weekend. 24:07 Well, I mean, I don't know. 24:08 I mean, I think, you know, when I look at Duluth this year, they kind of remind me of, you know, what Wisconsin was a few years ago or the Gophers were last year where you have, you know, quite a bit of seniors, quite a bit of guys that, you know, this is probably their last year playing college hockey. 24:24 And it's kind of like you better, you know, make hay when you have that opportunity. 24:28 So it's kind of like the pressure is on this year, I think, for Duluth. 24:31 And they're going to have to make the most of it because I think if they don't do it this year, there's going to be a fall off for a little bit. 24:36 I mean, they have some good players coming in recruiting wise, but it's hard to, as we're seeing this year, you know, it's kind of hard to replace some of those talented guys right out of the gate. 24:45 So, you know, we'll see what happens this week. 24:48 And I think that the Gophers, you know, they're going to obviously have to raise their game a lot more than what we saw this last week if they're going to win at least one game. 24:55 So we'll see how it goes. 24:57 But hopefully, I'll be curious, did they say anything about, you know, who is going to be starting in goal again this week, Veegs? 25:04 Nope, they said they were going to talk about tomorrow morning conveniently. 25:07 You get the sense that Shearhorn is kind of the guy that they wanted to go to because of the experience and that, you know, his play on the ice would, you know, kind of determine how often he'd play. 25:22 Lucia was very complimentary of Shearhorn's game other than the rebound control. 25:27 And he said that he would like to get a guy in there sooner rather than later. 25:31 I don't know if that meant this weekend though. 25:34 We'll have to see because, you know, obviously, no matter what, Saturday night, they'll be going into Duluth, hostile territory, and none of those goalies have experienced that. 25:45 So it'll definitely be interesting to see what he does. 25:49 I mean, if Shearhorn's shaky Friday night, oh boy, what does he do Saturday night? 25:55 Well, I was curious, has he, like, mentioned a pecking order at all? 25:58 I'm imagining he hasn't as far as behind Shearhorn. 26:01 Has he even talked about, you know, who would be the next guy in line? 26:05 Or is it just kind of unspoken to the media? 26:08 You know, Shearhorn's the only one he's been asked about and talked about. 26:12 When he talks about the other goalies, he says we've got four talented guys back there. 26:17 So he hasn't mentioned, you know, Larry. 26:21 That's such a company line BS right there. 26:23 Isn't that kind of like saying you have two starting quarterbacks? 26:28 It's essentially saying that you don't have any starting quarterbacks because they're just both not good enough or something? 26:32 I don't know. 26:34 Oh, boy. 26:37 That just seems like such BS to me. 26:39 Well, I mean, I get what he's saying. 26:41 Yeah, yeah. 26:41 A couple of these guys are freshmen, you know, so you can't really go too far with that. 26:46 And, you know, we saw last year that outside of, you know, when Wilcox played, we didn't have a hell of a lot there that was to brag about. 26:54 So you kind of have to be careful, I suppose, early in the year when you're talking about the goalies and everything. 26:58 And just like last week, Vegoe, you recorded some audio for me and I could throw that on the end of the podcast like I did last week. 27:06 Did you say anything besides that today? 27:09 Anything good, Veegs? 27:12 Yeah, you had a funny line about having so many young guys and going up to Duluth. 27:17 And, you know, it's a real good test to evaluate who your men are. 27:21 And then the young guys, sometimes you got to pull them out from under the bench and throw them out on the ice. 27:25 So hopefully it doesn't come to that on Saturday. 27:28 Well, you know, the thing with the young guys, they should just be, to me, it's like you might as well just go balls out and not even, I mean, carry, you know what I mean? 27:36 You kind of just have to throw caution to the wind and just play your guts out because if you play timid, you know, especially in a hostile environment, you're going to get smoked. 27:46 So you might as well just say to hell with it. 27:48 I'm going to take some chances and whatever. 27:50 And if it, hey, if you're working hard and you take a few chances and it backfires on you, so be it. 27:55 But I'd rather like I'd rather see guys lose and playing aggressive than, you know, just lose and be playing timidly. 28:02 So we'll see how it goes though. 28:03 Well, it definitely feels like going against Duluth, you know, it gives you an opportunity to play aggressive. 28:09 With Vermont, the situation was if you beat one guy, you still have three guys to beat at the blue line to even make a play. 28:17 So it just wasn't a good environment for these guys to play aggressive. 28:20 They had to play a patient game. 28:22 So I think, you know, if anything, it's going to be an easier style to play against and you're going to know more about these players and what kind of skill and reactions and talent they have. 28:34 And Veegs, I understand that Duluth will be missing one of their better players Friday night due to a suspension. 28:41 Yeah, I think it's Carson Soucy who's going to be out for that contact to the head penalty. 28:46 You know, a wild draft pick player and a valuable part of their blue line. 28:50 So they'll have to overcome that. 28:53 I'm not sure who they have coming up, but I know they've got other talented guys who can probably eat up the minutes. 28:58 Are you making the trip? 29:00 I am not making the trip. 29:01 I would love to go up to Duluth. 29:03 It's a great town, but with the one-year-old and three-year-old at home, it's kind of a tough trip for me. 29:10 Yeah, you'll probably have to take a few years off for that. 29:14 We don't fire a helmet guy. 29:15 He'll be up there. 29:16 Yeah, but he's not going up today. 29:20 They used to go up on Tuesday or Wednesday, and just get smashed for the whole week almost. 29:29 I'm surprised he's not already up there. 29:33 I suppose Cardinal can't go, because it was a Viking game this weekend, or is he going to fly back down? 29:39 Who knows? 29:40 Maybe he's going. 29:41 I should find out. 29:43 The thing is, I believe Fire Helmet, they're even going up for Friday, and they're just going to watch the game up there. 29:50 That doesn't shock me. 29:51 That does not shock me at all. 29:52 Well, the hole in the hole really does ruin the whole trip. 29:56 And plus, he's kind of a closet dog. 30:02 That's true. 30:03 Unfortunately, I'm not going to get to see any of the games. 30:06 Why not? 30:07 I will not be in town. 30:10 Going to go see the grandfather down south over MEA, so the whole family's getting out of here, and I won't even see the games. 30:18 What is it that everybody I know takes a vacation on MEA week? 30:21 I guess they take advantage of the kids being out of school for a couple days. 30:26 It's one of those family-ovacated vacations for me. 30:30 It's OK, though. 30:32 Yeah, I know. 30:37 Yeah, it's Arkansas. 30:39 Luckily, we don't have to deal with too many people. 30:44 You'll probably be watching Brett Biolima try to draw a personal foul player to all these other players. 30:51 My gosh, that guy is really messed up. 30:53 I'm sorry. 30:54 Hey, if you hear any banjos playing, man, run. 30:58 Whee! 31:02 Well, do we have anything else to talk about this week, guys? 31:05 Obviously, the speed is going up with Duluth, and Duluth is going to bring it, and the boys better be ready. 31:12 And like you said, Hammeh, we needed some good effort out there. 31:16 Yeah, I mean, I think it's hard to really talk too much this week because we had just the one game, and it's just hard when it's so many young guys in a lineup that you don't want to jump to any conclusions one way or the other. 31:30 Certainly, I think the thing for me that was disappointing about the Vermont game is I just didn't feel like some of the veterans brought enough to the table. 31:37 I mean, I can understand the young guys trying to just get their bearings and trying to figure everything out in the first home game and some of the jitters that go on with that. 31:46 But some of the older guys, I kind of felt like, you know, you got to do a lot more than that. 31:50 And I think that the other thing is, you know, we did see a lot of, you know, for the defensive standpoint, I mean, if you look at it, we really only had a few guys that played a lot of games, you know, for the Gophers last year. 32:03 I mean, essentially, you know, you had Brzezinski, you have Bischoff, but, you know, Seeler was out. 32:09 Collins, you know, played some, you know, but Glover and Johnson really sporadically were in the lineup. 32:14 So, I mean, from that standpoint, you know, some guys kind of, even though they were, you know, returning another season, they didn't have a lot of experience last year. 32:22 So let's just hope they worked off some of that rust for some of those guys and that the young guys feel them more comfortable this coming week. 32:29 And one thing that Veegs and I both heard from Clues Saturday night, he's like, you know what, it wasn't the freshman at all. 32:36 It was the upper classmen that didn't perform, and he made sure that he let us all know that. 32:43 Yeah, I definitely think that top line, you know, didn't take advantage of their scoring opportunities, and we talked about that third line, you know, with Cameron and Latorre on there, they need to be able to take advantage of their chances. 32:54 The power play unit, you know, had a hard time getting going. 32:58 It looked like it was Clues, Fashing, Bristette, Brudzinski and Conor Riley. 33:02 You know, I think they'll probably get some chances this weekend to work the power play a little bit more. 33:08 I thought they broke out and established themselves in the zone pretty well. 33:13 So we'll see if they're able to get better chances this weekend. 33:17 Well, I won't be able to see it. 33:19 I'll hopefully get to watch it again on DVR, but I just hope the boys turn it around. 33:25 I don't know. 33:26 They do have the stream on BTN to go. 33:29 That's one of the benefits of being in the Big Ten. 33:31 True. 33:32 I will try to watch that, but unfortunately where my grandfather lives... 33:35 Do they have internet? 33:38 They do, but he lives in a valley down by a golf course, and the cell reception is literally not too good unless I get up on top of the hill. 33:49 Oh, ding. 33:51 Exactly. 33:53 Actually, it should be pretty beautiful down there. 33:55 It's going to be in the 80s, so I'm fine with that. 33:59 Beauty. 33:59 I'm just fine with that. 34:01 But you know, we'll be back next week. 34:02 We'll recap the Bulldogs and the Gophers, and we'll preview the next series with Northeastern. 34:10 Hopefully, at least the Gophers get a split. 34:13 That would be nice. 34:14 Until then, thanks for listening. 34:51 Who's beginning? 34:53 You are. 34:54 Opening statement. 34:54 Tough start, and it doesn't get any easier. 34:56 You know what? 34:57 Vermont, we knew, was going to be a good team, hard team to play against, because of their style. 35:01 You don't see that 1-1-3 very often. 35:03 We didn't do a great job of, you know, navigating through the neutral zone. 35:08 Two turnover roles we had. 35:10 We just didn't get bucks behind. 35:13 And, you know, we tried to plan our structure to begin the year, preparing how we want to play, not necessarily playing for Vermont. 35:22 So, you know, maybe we should have take more time to prepare for that 1-1-3. 35:26 But, you know, it was interesting talking to some of the guys, even like the freshmen, it just, it was a blur for them. 35:32 And even some of the returning guys, all of a sudden they're, they're put in those frontline positions. 35:38 So they're not in a position to sit back and let somebody else do it. 35:41 Now they have to do it. 35:43 So that, I think that was probably the big learning experience for our guys in game one. 35:48 Obviously, this weekend's gonna be a completely different style. 35:50 The pace, the speed of the game's gonna be different. 35:54 And now they're gonna get thrown into a different situation with a veteran team. 35:58 You know, they're lined up, but they have two freshmen in their lineup. 36:01 You know, all returning guys at every position. 36:04 So they're a really good team. 36:06 And we knew that last year. 36:07 And that's why they're, you know, picked by some to win their league and be one of the top teams in the country this year. 36:14 Well, having said that, then, do an assessment of last weekend, I mean, given the 1-1-3? 36:18 You know what? 36:19 It was interesting. 36:22 During the game, I thought, you know, we played okay. 36:25 You know, we didn't score. 36:26 We had some opportunities. 36:27 We blew a few over the net. 36:28 And then I watched the videotape. 36:30 We made too many mistakes. 36:31 Mistakes, I felt, to give ourselves a good chance. 36:34 We didn't have much end zone offensive time. 36:37 The turnovers through the neutral zone, again, part of it was the way they played. 36:41 We didn't do a great job of managing that. 36:43 And when you don't take care of the puck, it's hard to win. 36:47 And obviously, if you don't score, you're not going to win. 36:50 Going in, if you would have said, we're going to give up two goals, I would have taken that. 36:54 We were disciplined. 36:56 But I went through about ten different criteria with our guys. 36:58 We had our meeting on Friday, and then we talked about them on Monday, and we felt we only did probably two of the ten were positive, and one was probably even. 37:07 And that was specialties, because we, you know, it was an even 0-0 with specialty teams. 37:11 But that's the growth. 37:13 We're just going to have to allow the guys to get experience, to play them, and let the group grow. 37:19 What were the two positives? 37:22 Discipline. 37:23 I know we didn't take any penalties. 37:26 That was one, and I'm trying to think what the other one was. 37:28 I don't have a list in front of me. 37:31 I can remember some of the negatives. 37:32 Do you think it was more puck support, or do you think it was more decision making with the puck? 37:36 No, that's a good comment. 37:38 Some of it was puck support, that the way they were taking away the middle of the rink, that we did not do a good job of slashing to the puck, whether it was our center, slashing with better and trying to make 10 or 15 foot passes, and even the weak side wings slashing harder to try to create a little two on one or chip play into the offensive zone. 37:57 It was too much looking to make a 70 foot pass, and those 70 foot passes weren't going to work against them. 38:03 Is that more the forwards getting excited and getting too vertical? 38:06 Well, I mean, it's not so much just the vertical, it's just coming hard to the puck. 38:12 And, you know, if you get through a couple of guys, more often than not you see two guys back, not three lined up, and they play where three guys are going to be lined up, so you better be slashing to the wall in order to chip behind a guy if you're going to have a chance to get into an offensive time. 38:29 And then I didn't think our sticks were very strong. 38:31 I think that we were 2-1 and done on any battles along the wall, so our wall play has to get a whole lot better. 38:37 And that might be a strength factor with some of our guys right now, too. 38:40 It's one game, but evaluate your young goalie. 38:43 You know what, I thought he... 38:45 I like the fact that he didn't get beat on the first shot. 38:49 He's got to work on his rebound control, obviously, but he's competitive. 38:54 I think Justin's going to be great for him, because he really hasn't had a goalie coach because he's athletic and he fights in battles. 39:02 And unfortunately, Justin's not here this week. 39:03 They just had a baby this morning. 39:04 So number three for him. 39:07 Everybody's doing well. 39:10 But I think over time, you'll see him really grow, and that's what we have to do with him. 39:16 First goal, he went off the shoulder, he went to glove it, and kind of kicked it. 39:20 And the second one, I think he would have been a little bit deeper and then made that slide, moved back the post. 39:24 But then our defenseman's with the guy, too. 39:27 That's as much the defenseman's responsibility as anything else. 39:30 Do you stay overnight until the 30th? 39:33 Last year we went up Friday, and this year we're just going to go up Saturday. 39:39 These kids all play junior hockey, it's close enough. 39:40 It's two hours and 15 minutes, so we're just going to bus up in the afternoon and come back after. 39:45 With the first two games, is this a time to get a turn and try to go up on goalies? 39:50 You know what, I don't know what we're going to do yet with our goal-tenning. 39:52 To be honest, we really haven't even talked about it as a staff yet. 39:56 We'll discuss that in the morning and which direction we want to go. 39:58 Obviously, we're going to have to get somebody else we'd like to sooner rather than later. 40:05 We didn't blow up the lines or anything this week. 40:07 We just want to almost kind of restart. 40:11 You know, I thought our two best lines in the game were Kloos's line and Romenko's line. 40:17 I think Romenko, I mean, that line did a really nice job with some puck possession time and some end zone offense and did what they were supposed to do. 40:24 They were three good sized bodies and got a puck in deep and went to work. 40:28 So, whether we keep the lines exactly the same for Friday night or certainly from Friday to Saturday, we'll wait and see. 40:36 We need better production from everybody. 40:40 I look at our team, we don't have a superstar up front. 40:43 So, we're going to have to have guys chip in. 40:47 Maybe guys that we're not looking to score 10, but when they get a chance, hopefully they can bury one like AJ when he came in all alone and he blew it wide. 40:55 We need a guy like that to chip in that goal every so often. 40:57 And that's the way our team I think is going to have to be. 41:01 One night a couple of guys are going to score, and the next night maybe some different guys are going to have to score. 41:05 Freshmen are going to have to chip in. 41:07 We've got a lot of them playing, and then certainly the guys that are being elevated in our lineup with power play time and top nine minutes, they're going to have to produce. 41:19 Given how Saturday went, is it good to actually have that first game here before you trim up to Duluth? 41:25 You know, it doesn't matter. 41:26 I mean, it's our schedule, and we'll play on Friday at home and then run up there on Saturday. 41:31 We practice in Ritter on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday because we haven't been in the small rink yet. 41:36 And then tomorrow we'll practice at Marriott Chid and we'll be back up and play in the small rink. 41:41 And that will be different too because everything is going to happen in a hurry. 41:43 Are you doing anything specific for Duluth given that you played them five times in the last year? 41:49 Well, hopefully we can score some goals. 41:52 That's a start. 41:53 We didn't score a lot against them last year. 41:55 But the difference is we're going to have to play with great tempo. 41:58 We're going to have to have a great reload game. 42:00 We've got to make sure we don't get caught. 42:01 Their D are going to jump up into the rush. 42:04 They're a very good transition team. 42:06 You know, we're obviously going to get tested. 42:08 There's no doubt. 42:09 And we'll be playing as good a team as we'll see all year this weekend. 42:14 Freshmen didn't seem to get rattled last week, but there'll be a whole different intensity. 42:18 Do you make any preparation for that? 42:20 No, I mean, you just got to play. 42:22 And, you know, I think the crowd will probably be more revved up with UMD in town on Friday, and then it'll be a whole new experience for the guys on Saturday. 42:30 You know, we go up to a sold-out building. 42:32 But, you know, it's good evaluations. 42:34 I mean, I always say, you know, you know who the men are. 42:37 Sometimes when they're real young, you got to pull them up from under the bench in the heat of the battle and get back out there. 42:42 You know? 42:44 But that's all part of the growing process. 42:46 Talking about those games against Duluth last year, I asked Hudson in the preseason about, you know, revenge or, you know, wanting to get back on the team. 42:55 He said something about turning the page. 42:57 Yeah, you know, I'm not into revenge or last year was last year, this year is this year. 43:03 I mean, we got 10 different guys in our lineup that didn't play. 43:07 I mean, last year they had a good team, and they played very well against us and deserved to win those games. 43:13 So I never look at from year to year, jeez, they knocked us out last year, so be it. 43:20 Do you do anything different this week with the smaller ice sheet on Saturday, or do you just focus on Friday? 43:26 Well, we practice at Ritter Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, trying to prepare for that, because things do happen a little bit more quickly. 43:33 Mistakes can be magnified because you have a quicker strike to the net, and so we have to be ready for that. 43:40 How encouraging was it to see Conor Riley skating so well this Saturday? 43:44 You know what? 43:45 Again, timing for Kim. 43:47 I mean, even Junior Gates, he broke his leg in January, so that was his first game since January. 43:52 That was Conor's first game since January. 43:54 You know, what Conor's look... 43:55 His timing isn't there yet, which you don't expect it to be, and that may take, but his skating... 44:00 And I told Conor, I think his skating looks better now than at any point in time he's been here, so I think he came back really, really nicely from his injury. 44:07 I know he worked really hard on that over the course of the summer in his skating and his strength, so, you know, I think he's done a really nice job with his rehab, and hopefully he can have an injury-free year because if anybody's injured, he has. 44:19 Nice milestone for Paul Martin. 44:21 Yeah, in 700 games, so, I mean, obviously a class act. 44:24 I mean, he was... 44:25 I remember when he was turning pro, I told him, I said... 44:28 He was trying to decide whether to come back as senior. 44:30 I said, Paul, you can do whatever you want, but if you don't get hurt, you're going to play 15 years. 44:36 I don't know what number he's on now, about what, 12? 44:40 Something like that. 44:41 And he's got, what, signed a four-year deal, so I guess I was smart on that one. 44:48 But he just used... 44:49 so athletic, and he doesn't really take a hit, and so fluid in how he played, and so smart. 44:55 Hey, guys like that make coaches smart. 44:58 I know you mentioned about turning the page, but did you ever sit down and watch the film from the end of last year's game, and what were your main takeaways there? 45:04 We didn't play very well, to be honest. 45:08 We had a good push early, and we didn't score, and then all of a sudden, two pucks go off us, and when you get to that time of the year, you give up goals like that, it's hard to win. 45:18 Let me follow up on the Connor Riley. 45:20 What about Seeler, in his first game in over a year? 45:23 What did you see from him? 45:26 Nick plays aggressive. 45:28 He plays strong. 45:29 He plays tough. 45:31 He's going to be an added element that's going to help our team. 45:35 But you can tell he hadn't played in a while. 45:37 I mean, again, it's getting that game timing, whether it's gapping and just getting confident in how you need to play. 45:45 But he's going to be a very effective player for us. 45:50 All right. 45:50 Thank you. 45:54 How many, come in 15 minutes. 45:56 Twenty.