0:06 This is The GPL Podcast, sponsored by Vintage Minnesota Hockey, your exclusive source for throwback Minnesota jerseys. 0:15 Visit vintagemnhockey.com. 0:20 Now, here's Hammy, Vego and your host, Jupiter. 0:42 Well, we're back for another week, and things are not looking good for our Gophers. 0:47 Swept by the Bulldogs. 0:51 One goal scored on the season. 0:55 What in the hell is going on, Veegs? 0:59 Well, I think Justin Gonzalez for the Trib has put it out there best that they're going through growing pains. 1:06 It seems like every time one of the guys from the team or a coach gets in front of the media, growing pains is something that gets mentioned because they have a lot of new guys they're trying to put in the line up and they're just not playing as a team. 1:18 And it definitely showed this last weekend against a very veteran UMD group. 1:23 One goal, Hammeh. 1:26 One goal in three games. 1:29 Yeah, I mean, obviously I don't think anybody would have predicted that coming into the season. 1:34 There's a lot of talent on this team, certainly. 1:37 But like Veegs said, it's about kind of putting it all together and gelling and when you're what 0 for 12 on the power play and you know, you're trying to. 1:47 It's 0 for 12 now? 1:49 Something like that. 1:51 0 for 12 is the accurate stat. 1:53 Oh, man. 1:54 You know, and you kind of knew that it was going to have some transitions because, you know, the power play units last year to this year are different. 2:02 You're missing Riley and Rao and some of those kinds of guys. 2:05 And so, I mean, you knew that that was going to kind of happen. 2:09 But I guess the way that I look at it is, you know, it's kind of you don't know what you're going to get with the first weekend of the year with like Vermont to the first game, especially without an exhibition. 2:20 So I kind of excuse a little bit of that. 2:23 And, you know, this weekend against Duluth, I mean, Duluth is a very veteran team with good players. 2:29 And, you know, it's kind of the opposite in terms of experience level with the Gophers. 2:35 And so you're not shocked that necessarily you're going to get swept in that kind of a circumstances. 2:41 So I don't really know how to what what I think right now, because it's like, okay, I'm not terribly shocked by any result. 2:52 It's kind of like, well, we got to like young guys. 2:56 I don't know what to, I really don't even know what to think at this point. 3:00 Well, to be honest, I was away visiting my grandfather this past weekend. 3:06 Didn't see one second. 3:08 You know, I recorded it on the DVR, but I got home and I knew what the scores were and I just said, screw it, I'm not going to watch this crap. 3:14 I listened to the Friday night game because I was in a place that actually had cell reception at the time. 3:22 Oh boy, we got that one goal from Brent Gates, woohoo. 3:26 And then they come back and give up a goal right away, right after that. 3:29 And I'm like, Saturday night, I didn't even bother. 3:34 So, Veegs, did you go to the Friday game? 3:39 I didn't go to the Friday night game. 3:42 You know, two young kids, you know, you got to take some nights off. 3:45 I didn't know who was covering and I just... 3:49 Yep, Jeff was there covering and he said it was kind of a somber site afterwards. 3:54 These upperclassmen are putting a lot of pressure on themselves. 3:57 I asked Justin Kloos about that today. 4:00 He said, yeah, maybe they're putting a little too much into these first three games, considering how many new guys they have to integrate into the lineup. 4:07 And, you know, as Hammeh said, these three games are going to be tough ones. 4:11 Vermont, you know, a very good program, veteran team, a lot of older guys plays a difficult system to play against with the Trap. 4:20 And then you play a completely opposite team in UMD, who always gets up to play Minnesota. 4:26 I know their fans don't like to give Minnesota that much credit, but they play very well, especially Austin Fairley against Minnesota, or Farley. 4:35 And, you know, they came to play and it was a very fast paced game. 4:40 And once the Gophers got behind, they started to press. 4:43 They started to get into an individual one-on-one type game, and that's just not going to work at the D1 level. 4:49 Well, you know what? 4:51 Yes, the team is young, blah, blah, blah. 4:54 The bottom line is this is Minnesota. 4:57 We don't rebuild, we reload. 4:59 Isn't that what it's supposed to be, Hammy? 5:02 You know, the bottom line is, yes, there's young guys. 5:05 Yes, they're probably going to have to grow up faster, but you know what? 5:07 There's more than just young guys. 5:08 We do have some other guys on this team that aren't contributing to Jack right now. 5:14 Yeah, I mean, I agree with you. 5:17 I am, obviously for me personally, I mean, I'm disappointed with what I've seen with like, you know, like Comerada. 5:24 I mean, I said coming into the year that to me, he was going to be kind of like a lightning rod, a key factor of the team, you know, as far as their, what was going to happen, you know, if he's playing well, then the team's probably going to be playing well because, you know, he's kind of that set up guy and he does some good things with the puck. 5:43 But if he flounders and is just lost in the shuffle, you know, the team's going to struggle. 5:47 And it's not just one guy. 5:48 I mean, you know, Vinny hasn't played great. 5:51 I mean, Fashing has been, you know, up and down. 5:54 I think Kloos, you know, he's pressing. 5:56 I think that he's trying hard, but I think it's almost like he's trying to do too much. 6:02 So, I mean, I think it's just kind of a combination of some of these guys are trying to pull a little bit more than what they're used to right now and kind of trying to make up for some of the young guys that are just trying to get their, you know, their feet, you know, firmly settled on the ice and comfortable with their games. 6:19 Vegs, Lucia mentioned on his show on Monday on ESPN 1500 and probably with you guys today that, you know, when you're missing the net two-thirds of the time when you're taking shots, your temps or one-third of them are getting on net, that's a huge problem. 6:38 Yeah, it's definitely a huge problem. 6:39 It's a huge point of emphasis for him this week. 6:41 He talked about how when players are getting below the dots towards the corners of the rink, you know, you have to start thinking, just put the puck on that, you know, create a second shot opportunity. 6:54 You know, the old pass off the pads strategy is create some chaos because when you have guys, you know, getting real low in the zone and trying to pick that far corner and they miss goes right in the corner, right out of the zone, right out of the middle of the net and you got to regroup and reload and you've got everybody going the wrong way on your team and everybody going the right way on the other team and that just gets you into trouble. 7:16 So I think we're going to see an emphasis this weekend of guys, you know, putting the puck on net, changing angles, just trying to get shots through. 7:24 If they can't get shots through, you know, put shots off the back wall and try to create some chaos because, you know, this team has had too many one-and-dones in the zone. 7:34 And whether it's physical strength or lack of cohesive team play, lack of communication, you know, getting pucks to the net sorts a lot of that out. 7:43 Hammeh, obviously Duluth is no longer in the conference, but this is six straight losses to Duluth. 7:53 Well, I mean, obviously it's little sister, blah, blah, blah. 7:57 But, boy, they have our number. 8:01 Well, I mean, this year, I'm not surprised. 8:03 I mean, just because of the team make ups and just how they're, you know, very veteran and they have talent and they're a good team. 8:09 And so I'm not surprised by, like I said, the results this year. 8:13 I mean, the prior few years, obviously, it's a little different when, you know, we had much better teams in terms of veteran players and, you know, some good talent, you know. 8:22 So that, in a sense, is a little disappointing. 8:25 You know, I'm not going to go back and, I mean, I think if you look at any series, you know, against, you know, any team that we go against that's been, you know, a quality team at times throughout their program's history, there's going to be those kinds of ebbs and flows where you have their number for four or five years, they might have your number for a couple years in a row. 8:44 And, you know, just that kind of happens. 8:46 So I don't tend to read too much into that kind of stuff over the course of a long program, you know, history. 8:52 Veegs, obviously one of the positives that Lucia has talked about is Shearhorn. 8:57 Obviously it was his biggest concern coming in, replacing, you know, obviously a top-notch goalie with a complete unknown. 9:06 That's been one positive. 9:08 You know, Lucia also mentioned a couple other players that are doing better than he thought today. 9:13 Talk about that a bit, you know, Shearhorn has been good, but who else is doing something here? 9:19 Lucia was kind of adverting at mentioning the four specific guys. 9:24 And I think one of the reasons is because they're not the upperclassmen. 9:27 They're not the leaders. 9:28 I think he didn't want to add any additional pressure on those guys. 9:34 Obviously, Shearhorn would probably be one of those four that he pointed out to the team today. 9:39 You know, he's been a workhorse in the past, and I think Lucia is starting to lean on him as someone he can go to. 9:45 You know, he weathered a pretty good storm against Duluth in the 19-2 shot period on Saturday night and kept them in game. 9:55 Yes, it was 19-2. 9:56 Thank God I didn't watch that. 9:58 I would have just pissed me off even more. 10:00 Or 17-2, sorry. 10:01 Oh, what? 10:04 19 shots in the period, yeah. 10:06 But you know, it was a pretty big storm, and to be within two, you know, is a pretty good performance for Shearhorn in that hostile building. 10:15 But guys I think are playing above expectations, are probably Novak and Romanko, you know, two freshman centers playing the hardest position there is to play in college hockey. 10:25 There's a lot of ground to cover, a lot of skating, a lot of extra responsibility typically for a center, and they're sticking there. 10:34 I think Leterri is going to move to the center here this last weekend, and he'll stay there to try to solidify that spot in the lineup. 10:42 And then the other spot I think is impressing and exceeding expectations is probably Jack Ramsey. 10:48 He's beat out a couple of upperclassmen to play on that fourth line. 10:52 He's played in all three games, and I think he'll probably stay there. 10:56 He brings a lot of energy to the ice. 10:58 I think he's played the body well, and not a lot of mistakes. 11:01 That fourth line has played a pretty simple game, which sometimes I think some of the higher lines he'd think about doing is getting pucks deep, not turning the puck over, getting some good grind time in the offensive zone. 11:15 Isn't it kind of ironic, though, that you're highlighting the fourth line? 11:19 You know what I'm saying? 11:20 It's kind of like, you know what I mean? 11:22 It's like no disrespect to those guys, because it is a key part of the team to kind of grind it out and get those minutes and try to contribute some offensive opportunities from a fourth line perspective. 11:35 And that's always been something that I think for Gopher hockey fans, we've always kind of prided ourselves in seeing a fourth line that actually had some talent and some offensive ability. 11:44 But when you're highlighting half of the fourth line as the guys who are playing above expectations, it kind of tells you that the rest of the boys need to seriously pick it up. 11:57 Well, I think that's obvious. 11:58 I think those top nine forwards are trying to do too much individually. 12:02 They're missing the net. 12:03 They're turning the puck over. 12:05 Now, they're putting their teammates in tough situations. 12:08 I think they need to take some notes from that fourth line and play a little more conservatively and choose when to step into play and take chances. 12:16 Now, usually, the fourth line is where Lucia in the past would switch in a body or two of guys who are not playing. 12:26 We haven't really seen that yet, Veegs. 12:29 We haven't seen some of the other players on the team. 12:31 It's been pretty much the same lineup. 12:33 He shifted things around, but he hasn't switched bodies yet. 12:37 Yeah, you've seen the top nine kind of shuffled around a little bit the first three games. 12:42 I think it's just he's looking to try to find some combinations because the talent is there. 12:47 Lucia talks about how in practice this team looks better than a lot of his past teams look in practice. 12:53 It's just they're struggling to bring that play to the game. 12:56 So he likes these players in practice. 13:00 They have skill. 13:00 They have the ability. 13:02 I don't think effort is a question this year. 13:05 You know, even in a game where they're getting out shot and beat pretty soundly by UMD, you know, they're still making hard plays. 13:13 It's just they're not working as a team yet. 13:17 Well, it's not good. 13:19 That's all that matters. 13:21 Well, I mean, you know, I guess the one like we said, at least Shearhorn is playing pretty well. 13:26 I feel bad for the kid because, you know, when you got a lot of pressure on you, first of all, you're a freshman. 13:31 But secondly, it's like when your team isn't scoring, it's like you have that additional pressure of, man, if I let in like two goals, you know, at the way we're going, we're going to lose. 13:41 You know what I mean? 13:41 So it's like I feel bad for the kid. 13:44 I mean, but I'm sure that at least the coaches from a long-term perspective are pretty pleased as to what, you know, his future appears to hold. 13:53 Are we going to see any other players, Veegs? 13:56 Or is he going to, you know, obviously you said the top nine, but really the 12 forwards have not changed at all. 14:04 Yeah, I think it would be tough to break up that fourth line. 14:06 Yeah. 14:07 The way they've played, I don't think any of those guys have done something that would deserve to take them out of the lineup. 14:13 In that top nine, it's hard to know. 14:15 I'm not sure who's not playing would fit in those kind of spots. 14:20 I mean, maybe Ryan Norman is a little bit of a scorer, could fit in there somewhere, but I'm not sure that Hoagland would be a skill player that could fit in there. 14:29 Ryan Riley, I'm not sure what he would add to a skill line. 14:33 I know he looks like he's working hard out there, but he hasn't got a lot of game action. 14:38 So I'm not sure how many options out front he has right now. 14:43 Well, we're just going to have to wait and see, and hopefully he gets things together. 14:47 Obviously, we had a question from one of the Twitter users earlier today asking, at this point, is Lucia just in it for the paycheck? 14:58 You know, I mean, you know, I feel, you know, I've had, you already hear the discussions about, you know, what's the future going to be with him and whatever. 15:10 And I mean, it's always, we always hear speculation pretty much every year. 15:14 I mean, I do know that what his contract is up, I think, in 2017. 15:20 So he's got this year and next year that he's under contract. 15:23 And you kind of say to yourself, well, if the team doesn't do well this year, I mean, I highly doubt that they're going to be like, going to throw more contractual years at him. 15:34 And you're kind of like, well, I don't see him wanting to be necessarily a lame duck coach. 15:40 Well, I guess you never know with administrations. 15:43 Well, I know. 15:44 I mean, look what Wisconsin did. 15:45 They extended Eves when it looked bad. 15:48 Well, right. 15:49 But then, you know, we don't know who our leadership is permanently going to be. 15:53 That's another thing. 15:53 And maybe they don't even want to deal with it. 15:55 Well, and I don't know from a booster perspective. 15:58 I mean, you know, the Lou Nannies of the world. 16:00 I mean, I don't know that they're necessarily huge Lucia fans. 16:04 I don't, you know, I can't say for sure. 16:05 But you start to say, well, what's their influence going to be in particular when there isn't a strong, you know, AED in place? 16:13 And, you know, and Mario Lucia is done with college after this year and will be starting his pro career next year. 16:19 And, you know, I mean, you start to kind of think about all these potential reasons why maybe there could be a change if this season goes south, you know, but, you know, we are not going to know for sure. 16:32 It's going to be, I still feel it's going to eventually be kind of Lucia's decision at the end of the day. 16:36 And obviously we're not speculating it's time for Lucia to go. 16:39 It's just, we're just trying to see the future, folks. 16:44 You know, we know how his contract is, and obviously this good start, or this bad start, I should say, is not helping things. 16:51 Yeah, I think one of the things is Lucia is taking the long view of this first half of the season. 16:57 Yep. 16:57 You know, he wants to get these players integrated in the style that he wants to play. 17:03 He wants to play kind of an up tempo, you know, high skating, high skill squad, where defensemen can get involved in the rush. 17:11 You know, he's not a coach who wants to put in a one, two, two trap and sit back and counter attack. 17:16 He wants a very active skating team that utilizes its defensemen. 17:20 So, you know, with the roster he has, he may be trying to fit a square team into a round hole, you know, for the first half of the season as he tries to teach everybody how to play this style. 17:33 Oh boy. 17:34 Well, you also have to remember, I mean, we are in a conference where you essentially, depending on where you end up, I mean, you only have to win a couple of games to get into NCAAs, you know what I mean? 17:45 And it's not like the Big Ten has been kicking ass, you know? 17:50 So, it might be a case where they're like, well, let's just, you know, kind of take a page out of how North Dakota had been for many years where they kind of would be mediocre, you know, towards the first half. 18:03 And then try to ramp it up in the second half. 18:05 And, of course, that never really got them a title. 18:07 But nonetheless, it did work for them to get in. 18:10 So, you know, maybe I hope that that's the playbook they're going with this year. 18:15 But so far, it's kind of hard to be super optimistic, given what we've seen. 18:20 Well, we've got a couple of questions via Twitter. 18:24 But before we get to that, we've got a message from our sponsor. 18:29 I would like to welcome Vintage Minnesota Hockey as our very first sponsor on The GPL Podcast. 18:35 vintagemnhockey.com wants to take you back in time and keep the memories of Minnesota hockey heritage alive forever. 18:42 They have Minnesota hockey history from around the entire state. 18:46 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. 18:55 Personally, I love the online store. 18:57 I own a 2011 alternate white jersey with Gophers written across the front of it. 19:02 I love it, and I can personally vouch for its quality. 19:05 You can even get your throwback jersey customized with your name, number or patches. 19:11 And as listeners of The GPL Podcast, you get a special 10% discount on all orders from their online store. 19:18 Just enter the code GPLPodcast, all lowercase, and one word to receive this discount. 19:24 So visit Vintage Minnesota Hockey today at vintagemnhockey.com I'm speaking of GPL Podcast as that code. 19:34 You could use that same code as your hashtag for questions if you want to ask us if you're listening live. 19:41 Or even during the week, I'll try to save it and we'll try to get your questions on the air. 19:45 Earlier, about a half hour ago, Josh Wendell asked, considering this year could be a rebuilding season, what is the one to three year outlook for the program? 19:56 What do you think about that, Hammeh? 19:59 Well, I mean, I think a lot of it, you know, you kind of have to, there's definitely some good talent in the pipeline. 20:04 I mean, I don't think that that's ever really the question. 20:07 I mean, you know, it's like we mentioned, you know, are we going to have, you know, who's going to be on the staff if there is a change? 20:15 You know, I mean, we don't know if there will be. 20:17 And I would guess at this point, we're going to just say there won't be. 20:20 But we always know that that's a possibility is from a talent perspective. 20:25 They definitely have some very good players in the pipeline. 20:29 You know, some guys that need to kind of pick it up. 20:30 But I think for the most part, they have good players in the pipeline. 20:34 And of course, you know, you want to see progress amongst the young guys and continually, you know, improving from one year to the next. 20:44 And you know, based on, I mean, we haven't really seen a great deal of that this year, you know, as far as, I mean, it's early yet, of course. 20:51 But you know, that junior class is pretty important. 20:54 They had a really good freshman year and, you know, they were kind of up and down last year. 20:58 And so far this year, it's been obviously not nothing to brag about. 21:01 So, yeah, so you kind of have to hope that, you know, that this is just kind of a little blip and that they're going to step it up and give you a little bit more of a long-term positive feeling. 21:13 Any thoughts on this rebuilding year and the outlook in the next one to three years, Veegs? 21:18 Well, I just think it's unusual going from last year this year because there are so many players last year who played all the key roles. 21:27 A lot of the seniors and juniors were all playing power play. 21:31 They were all playing penalty kill. 21:33 They were doing all the goal-tending. 21:34 And so when you lose that, you have all these guys who are just totally in new roles. 21:39 I mean, you look at the power play. 21:40 They've got Brodzinski, Bischoff, Johnson trying to step in there for Mike Riley. 21:47 Mike Riley would stay out there for the whole two minutes of almost every power play if he could last year. 21:53 So you have guys who've gotten hardly any experience out there quarterbacking the power play. 21:58 And they've actually done a pretty good job of establishing themselves in the offensive zone with their breakout. 22:04 It's just making those quick decisions, quick passes, getting pucks on net that hasn't been there. 22:09 And it's early. 22:10 Conor Riley had one of the best one timers on the team last year. 22:13 He got hurt. 22:14 He's still trying to find that touch. 22:17 Vanilla Terry is getting an opportunity to be one of those trigger guys. 22:20 He hasn't had that kind of experience in Division I hockey before. 22:24 It's going to take a little bit of time for these guys to adjust to those roles, I think. 22:29 Well, we've been talking about the youth and inexperienced. 22:33 Boy, what can we do? 22:37 I mean, we've got another question. 22:39 Given the youth on this team, was it a mistake not to schedule an exhibition this year? 22:46 I mean, that comes from Gopher 80. 22:49 Was it a mistake? 22:51 Well, I mean, I think it was. 22:54 I mean, you always kind of want that game like that, just so you can get your feet wet and whatever and get everybody kind of acquainted. 23:01 But do I think it necessarily would have made a huge difference with what we've seen so far? 23:08 I think that's kind of questionable. 23:09 I don't know. 23:10 I don't know that I believe that one exhibition would have made this team looks a ton better right now than what it has done. 23:17 Veegs? 23:19 I don't think playing Lethbridge again would have helped this team that much. 23:23 It's a program they're going to go out against and maybe get the jitters out a little bit, but they're not going up against a BC or a UMD in an exhibition setting. 23:31 It's just not going to happen. 23:33 They could have played the U18 team and not gotten the same response that they do when they play a veteran Division I team. 23:41 The problems they're having are facing big physical players who are getting in their way and making life hard for them, and they've got to adjust to that. 23:49 I just think it's going to take a little bit of time. 23:51 We're only three games into this, and college hockey is one of the longest seasons in college sports. 23:58 They've got probably another 95% of their season ahead of them yet. 24:03 All right, boys. 24:04 Well, then let's move on to Northeastern. 24:06 Obviously, we've played Northeastern a few times over the last few years. 24:10 I mean, they came to the Marriott Classic. 24:12 Last year, we went out and played one game as part of an East Coast trip. 24:19 At the time, Northeastern was terrible. 24:21 I mean, they were really at the bottom of the league. 24:23 They beat Minnesota after Minnesota had had a successful night. 24:27 Previously, what was it, Boston College? 24:30 I think. 24:31 Yeah, Boston College. 24:32 They beat up Boston College the night before. 24:34 They go and play Northeastern and they lay an egg, lose three to two and everyone's like, what the heck is going on? 24:40 But it turns out Northeastern actually turned it around after that and played very well the rest of the season. 24:46 Now, they come back this year, come to Marriott for a series. 24:51 What do you think, Veegs? 24:53 Well, it helps that Gophers got one of their leading scorers transferring in to take them out of the Northeastern lineup. 24:59 But with Samat Tula, I haven't got that name down yet. 25:05 Yeah. 25:06 But that helps. 25:07 But it's going to be a tough challenge. 25:09 It's a middle of the pack hockey team that's going to be coming and looking to make a name for themselves at Marriott. 25:17 They returned five of their sixth defensemen. 25:19 They returned their goalie. 25:20 So it's going to be another tough challenge for Minnesota. 25:23 The schedule of Minnesota plays isn't going to get easier. 25:26 All these teams are good. 25:27 They're not just pulling kids out of the classroom and getting out of playing. 25:30 Yeah. 25:32 Ami, what do you think? 25:33 Can Minnesota turn it around this weekend? 25:36 Well, I mean, I kind of expect that we'll see something better, especially I don't think there's any question that Northeastern isn't quite on the level of what we've seen thus far. 25:45 I mean, they've lost a couple of games to Bentley last weekend. 25:49 So, I mean, I don't know about that. 25:50 Well, they might be a little angry. 25:51 Yeah, well, I guess that's true. 25:53 But, I mean, nonetheless, I mean, you would at least hope that given the home ice and the fact that, you know, Northeastern hasn't necessarily looked all that great thus far, that, you know, we could be a little bit more optimistic. 26:05 But, you know, like I said earlier, I don't know entirely what to expect right now because there's just a lot of new faces. 26:12 I mean, really, all I feel confident in is I think that Shearhorn will, you know, give you an opportunity to win if you get a few goals, of course. 26:23 And I feel that the defense, you know, I think it's been all right. 26:26 I don't think it's been great, but I think it's been decent. 26:30 They've had some trouble, I think, transitioning to puck. 26:33 But as far as defensive play, I don't think it's been horrible. 26:37 You know, but I mean, it's really going to be about starting to kind of contribute offensively. 26:42 And I'd like to see the guys be a lot more aggressive around the net and just try to kind of create some chaos and not necessarily just rely on finding the open man and making the kind of highlight plays or whatever like that. 26:55 You know, it's going to have to start scoring some dirty goals in order to get on the board. 26:59 And now that's exactly what I was thinking. 27:01 Get some garbage goals, get some pucks on net, get some rebounds. 27:05 Enough of this trying to snipe and miss the net BS. 27:10 Well when you're missing the net that often, obviously, you know, it's kind of like you are trying to be too fine with the puck and trying to, and you know I know the contrary to that is people bitching and moaning about, you know, God, we're hitting a goalie right in the middle of the stomach and God, can't they pick corners and blah blah blah. 27:26 So I mean, it goes both ways, but I guess I would rather see him try to get some rebounds, you know, than just hit one off the glass, of course. 27:35 Well I hope we don't see him shooting it right into the chest of the goalie because, you know, when you're trying to create second chances, you want the puck, you know, low on net. 27:44 You're not trying to put it up high at all to get second chances. 27:48 You want to keep the puck low and give yourself a chance to get some rebounds. 27:52 I agree. 27:52 I agree. 27:53 I'm just saying I don't want him to, I'd rather have him hit the goalie, period, than to just fly one over the net is what I mean. 28:00 What did the chances look like last week? 28:02 You know, I didn't get to see the games. 28:03 Did they have any really, obviously we had one goal, but did they have any really good quality chances? 28:10 I mean, I think they definitely were creating chances. 28:12 I know Kloos had a couple of opportunities on the rush, where, you know, he's the most dangerous, I think, on the rush. 28:18 Once Kloos gets some space in open ice, the defenseman has to make a decision, how big of a gap do I try to keep with this guy because he's so fast? 28:27 And, you know, he could get some chances. 28:28 It's just the problem was, you know, they kept missing the net. 28:33 I think they outattempted Duluth like 62 to 40 something. 28:39 So, you know, they were generating enough shots. 28:41 They just weren't generating any kind of continued zone pressure. 28:45 And that's the problem. 28:47 So I think they are generating chances. 28:49 They're getting power play opportunities. 28:51 They're just not moving the puck, making decisions quick enough. 28:55 So I think going up against Northeastern, Neil, they need to focus on that. 28:59 I know Northeastern outshot Bentley, I think 51 to 11 in one of their games. 29:04 Lucia mentioned that today and they lost 3-2. 29:08 So Northeastern is playing okay. 29:11 You may look at the two losses to Bentley and think it's going to be a cakewalk this weekend. 29:15 But I think they're going to be playing a pretty good hockey team. 29:20 I don't know. 29:21 I just... 29:24 I've just never seen a team... 29:26 We've seen them go over in the history, obviously. 29:29 But one goal in three games is just not a good outlook. 29:36 Not a good outlook at all. 29:39 Well, the defense looks fine. 29:41 I mean, they're not... 29:43 But do they look fine if they're... 29:44 Because we use that defense as getting out of the defensive zone. 29:48 Sure, they might be playing defensively. 29:50 But are they making the right decisions? 29:51 Moving the puck up the ice? 29:53 When to join the play? 29:54 I mean, that's kind of always been Minnesota's bread and butter. 29:57 Defensively, they might be playing okay. 29:59 But are they doing that other stuff? 30:02 Well, I think that's going to come. 30:03 I think they're not very crisp on their breakouts, in which case they're coming through the neutral zone for most of the time slow and giving the other team a chance to get some back pressure. 30:13 I think their breakouts definitely haven't been smooth, but they're not getting trapped and getting caught in their zone either for long stretches of time. 30:21 Now, the goals against have come off of turnovers, bad line changes, and they've been good goals. 30:28 It's not like this team is just getting penned up in their own zone and not generating any offense. 30:35 I don't know, boys. 30:38 I just don't know. 30:39 It's obviously been a tough start and not much to talk about. 30:44 I mean, when the team's not doing well, nobody's scoring. 30:50 It's just kind of a wait and see and hope things turn around. 30:54 Well, that's all you can really do right now. 30:56 I mean, it's not like you can say these guys are gelling or that. 31:00 I mean, nobody has really particularly looked great on gelling. 31:04 I mean, we talked a little bit about the fourth line, and I would say that that's been a little bit of a bright spot. 31:08 But nonetheless, it's the fourth line and certainly Sheerhorn. 31:12 But from an offensive standpoint, it's hard to know right now what we have. 31:18 And it's just definitely a work in progress. 31:22 Any other thoughts on the coming weekend? 31:25 I think just look for that power play. 31:28 See if they can make some decisions a little bit quicker. 31:31 Try to create some 2-0-1s up top. 31:33 Look for who's playing the point. 31:36 I think that's kind of been a topic of debate by the coaches. 31:39 And we'll see what happens this weekend. 31:40 It might be fluid. 31:42 And see what happens with the line up. 31:45 There could be a surprise this weekend. 31:48 Yeah, that's the one thing I was kind of curious about is if they were going to tweak the power play much, especially from who's quarterbacking from the point, that kind of stuff. 31:57 Because obviously when you're 0-12, it's not exactly like you're kicking some booties. 32:03 And I'll be curious to see what, if any, kind of alterations they make. 32:08 I think one change you'll see is that there could be two defensemen on the second unit this week. 32:14 I know one of them got caught at the game at Duluth on Saturday getting off. 32:19 And so there are four Fords on the ice against even strength situations. 32:24 I know a lot of teams try to put two defensemen out there in that second unit just to prevent that. 32:29 So maybe that's something we'll see. 32:31 Either Brudzinski or Bischoff on the first unit and the one who's not paired up with Johnson on the second unit. 32:38 We'll just have to wait and see, huh, fellas? 32:42 Yep. 32:42 Just have to wait and see. 32:44 Well, that's going to do it for this week's podcast. 32:48 The team doesn't play next weekend, so we'll be taking the week off. 32:51 We'll be back in two weeks. 32:52 We'll recap this series of Northeastern and preview the series with the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. 33:00 Let's just hope things get better. 33:02 Thanks for listening. 33:30 Oh, get it in the air. 33:33 Crowded. 33:35 I like that little handle. 33:36 Bob Barker. 33:39 That is the Bob Barker, Mike. 33:40 Did I come up with like an old car? 33:44 I would tell people I ripped it off of a Mercedes. 33:47 The kids today wouldn't even know what that is. 33:49 Exactly. 33:50 Wonder why I can't get FM. 33:52 Does that make your MP3 plan work better? 33:55 Well, he's doing it for you for nostalgia, but second of all, he's had that for years. 33:59 Oh, I like it. 34:00 I like it. 34:00 I'm a throwback kind of guy. 34:02 Gene Rayburn. 34:03 I prefer Gene Rayburn, not Bob Barker, but Bob Barker is awesome. 34:08 Who's the other guy? 34:09 Gene Rayburn, matching the team. 34:10 My name is 76, 78. 34:13 Oh, yeah. 34:13 I used to watch the match. 34:16 I was going to say, before your time. 34:21 Cowboy guy's head's done. 34:22 They're good. 34:23 You know what? 34:23 This team really practices well. 34:25 I mean, they practice hard every day, and that's the thing that I've been most impressed with is that we've actually practiced at times better than what we've played, and now the challenge is getting them to the way they practice to have that into a game. 34:40 Obviously, games become more difficult because you're going to, you know, there's more pushback, there's more traffic that you have to deal with coming up the rink, and for us, I think the most important thing is just getting up the rink efficiently, not choppy. 34:52 It seems like we've been choppy whether it's through breaking out or in the neutral zone regrouping, and that has led to very little offensive zone time. 35:00 Although, I thought we made some progress the last couple of periods of the game on Saturday. 35:04 We came up the rink a lot more fluid than we had done earlier. 35:08 Your zone entries, you talked about that Friday, were sloppy at times. 35:11 Do you work on just breakout patterns? 35:13 Oh, yeah. 35:14 I mean, it's still a read and react, I mean, so you have more concepts than anything else. 35:17 So we spent a lot of time on that. 35:20 I think the first drill every day in practice this week has been breakouts and just getting touches. 35:25 We got to get our guys as many touches as we can or in the offensive zone, it's missing that. 35:30 I mean, we're hitting the net a third of our shots. 35:32 I think the Duluth game, we had 21 shots out of 60 some attempts actually hit the net. 35:37 And obviously some get blocked, but over half of those, we just flat out miss. 35:42 And when you do that, there's no second shot opportunities. 35:45 There's no chance for even to create some chaos in the offensive zone. 35:49 We got to go chase down pucks and lose some of your defensive structure when you keep, when you have to play off rebounds or play pucks off pads. 35:59 What have you seen from Nick Seeler so far being a transfer in his first three games? 36:03 You know what, you know, when I talk to the guys in the locker room, I mean, I highlighted some guys that, you know, I thought that have kind of exceeded my expectations. 36:10 He was, he didn't make the top four, but he was on the cutting edge, I told him. 36:15 I think he's done a nice job for having sat out of here. 36:18 He's done, he's kept his composure, he's kept his discipline, and he brings out hard-nosed element to our team that you need. 36:28 Who have been those four players that have exceeded your expectations? 36:32 Who has been? 36:33 You know what? 36:33 I don't want to name them in here. 36:37 You know, you could probably figure out one of them. 36:40 With, thinking about football, with young quarterbacks, there's always a concern about you throw a guy into the fire and he doesn't have success right away. 36:47 And what can that do to his head? 36:49 Is there a similar concern with a young goalie like you have? 36:52 That, you know, he hasn't had wins right away? 36:54 I don't worry about it. 36:55 I mean, I don't look at it as wins and losses. 36:57 I look at it as how he's played. 36:58 And you do have that worry when they get in there, you know, they get bombarded a little bit. 37:04 But the way he's played, I think I've seen growth in his game from having JJ to be able to work with him. 37:12 And I think I've seen progress from game one to game two to game three. 37:18 And that's what's encouraging to me. 37:20 Because coming in, that was probably, for me, one of my biggest question marks was how we're going to be there. 37:26 And he's given us good goaltending, I think, all three games that he's played. 37:31 He's made some big saves. 37:32 I think he's made the routine saves. 37:34 He's shown that he can handle the puck. 37:36 And I think he's been a real bright spot for us so far this season. 37:40 Doesn't have the psyche of a freshman necessarily? 37:42 No, I think he's older. 37:43 I mean, he's one year post high school. 37:46 He's been away from home since 15 years old. 37:49 When he was playing midget hockey in St. 37:53 Louis, he was in Chattuck, he's Muskegon. 37:55 So I think he's a pretty mature kid. 37:58 And I just bumped into him in the weight room and asked him how he was feeling. 38:02 He says, it feels fresh, it feels good. 38:04 And that's what you'd expect from someone who's played as much hockey as he has over the years. 38:10 Is Vinny going to stay at center? 38:12 Yeah, Vinny's going to stay at center this weekend. 38:16 We're going to keep Vinny at center. 38:17 That's what I think. 38:18 It's not easy to have three freshman centers. 38:21 So we're going to move Vinny. 38:22 I think Vinny plays a more free-flowing game in the middle. 38:25 I think he was more noticeable in the middle. 38:28 And I thought he did a pretty good job. 38:30 So we'll keep him at center this weekend. 38:33 What do you know about Northeastern? 38:38 They beat us 2-1 last week, Roy or Roy or whatever. 38:42 He put us to score a play with a couple of minutes to go. 38:46 And he's an All-American player. 38:47 And that's what you expect from them. 38:50 They're 1-2 on the year. 38:51 I think they outshot their opponent last week. 38:54 It's one of those games that makes hockey great. 38:56 You go and shoot somebody 55 to 15 and get beat. 39:00 So if you believe in possession numbers, I think they leave the country in possession numbers. 39:05 So they have a lot of guys returning from last year's team. 39:07 Five of their, six of the year back. 39:09 They lost their starting goaltender from last year's team. 39:13 They're skilled. 39:14 They can get up and down the rink. 39:16 And they have obviously some dangerous offensive players. 39:18 So, you know, we're playing a hockey team that's, you know, it's used to playing against good quality opposition and we'll have our hands full. 39:26 You talked about all the missed shots. 39:28 What's making it so difficult to get the puck to the net? 39:31 Well, a lot of times, you're just missing the net. 39:33 You know, you're trying to pick it too fine. 39:35 And another thing we can do, I think we can help ourselves. 39:38 Although at times when you're shooting from maybe distance or angles to, you know, don't worry about, you know, trying to pick a corner. 39:46 Don't, you know, let's get the puck on the net and try to create second shot opportunities. 39:51 And I think that's something that's lacking, especially from, you know, bad angles when you start getting below the dot to the goal line in those areas outside the dots. 39:58 You know, we're shooting and missing the net and it just rings around the boards and ends up at the red line. 40:02 Instead of just, you know, putting it off the pads and create second. 40:06 Try to create it and, you know, use the term pass off the pads. 40:09 And that's really what it is. 40:10 You see that, you know, at every level now, has tried to create more offenses. 40:14 That you're not necessarily trying to score. 40:15 You're trying to create a rebound for a line mate. 40:19 Do you know Todd Richards? 40:20 Have you talked to him at all today? 40:21 No, no, I don't know him that well. 40:23 I mean, it's just it's that's a tough business. 40:26 There's no question. 40:27 He's, you know, Danny Coach, I know when he was here with the Wilds, we went in and he was great. 40:33 Wallace to come in for training camp and just seems like a real class guy. 40:38 Your power play is going to be important the whole season. 40:41 What have you liked and what do you need to improve on? 40:42 Well, I mean, I think we have to move it more quickly. 40:46 Again, hitting the net. 40:48 Our entries have been fine getting set up. 40:51 But now now we're going to need a power play because, you know, I don't think we're going to be an overly high scoring team. 40:57 And so if we can score that power play goal a night, that will go a long way as helping us to try to get to three. 41:03 You don't replace Mike Riley, but how your defenseman done filling that role. 41:09 When you have Mike Riley back there, you're a lot smarter. 41:12 I can tell you that. 41:15 It just, they need reps. 41:16 I mean, like Bischoff's doing it this year and Steve Johnson and Brudzinski did it for us in a secondary role last year. 41:26 And now they're going to have to, you know, get pucks through, make quick decisions. 41:30 And I think that's the thing that at times we've been a little slow or, I mean, you saw it the last weekend a couple of times, we, you know, Connors getting his timing back with his shot that he's, he's healed a couple, you know, Vinny's all set up and he breaks a stick. 41:44 But I think we have some guys that can make some plays in the power play. 41:48 Now they just need to continue to practice and get reps. 41:52 What's the biggest improvement you want to see this week? 41:55 Well, it'd be nice to get a lead. 41:56 That's number one. 41:57 I mean, it's hard to play the game from behind. 41:59 So, I mean, obviously, we need to score some goals from a defensive standpoint. 42:02 We haven't given up that many goals. 42:06 And our goaltender's done a nice job. 42:08 Even last week, we gave up three, five on five goals on the weekend, and I'll take that every weekend. 42:14 So it's just, we've got to start to generate some offense. 42:17 And, you know, that just gets crowds into the game. 42:19 It gets your players excited. 42:21 You know, when you're an offensive player, I mean, you want to score. 42:24 You want to feel good about yourself. 42:25 And we need some guys that need to get over that hurdle. 42:31 Hey, all right, thank you. 42:36 Guys, how are you? 42:38 How are you? 42:39 Doing well. 42:40 What do you know about Northeastern? 42:43 Well, we haven't done the pre-scout yet. 42:45 We'll do some video tomorrow on Friday. 42:47 We'll learn a bit more on them. 42:49 We know they're a tough team. 42:50 We're going to have to be ready to play for them. 42:53 What's it like to finally get out there and smack some guys in different jerseys? 42:55 It feels good, yeah. 42:57 I was just saying that to one of my teammates, it's good to finally hit someone other than him. 43:02 So it's great to be out here. 43:04 It's great to be a Gopher. 43:07 You've been hitting a lot of your teammates in practice? 43:11 No, I try not to finish my checks too much. 43:14 But every once in a while, I think Lucia said pancake. 43:20 I try not to do that in practice. 43:21 But I like to play physical. 43:23 And if anything, I just want to try to help my teammates play a little tougher, play a little better. 43:29 And it's going to benefit them, I think, in the future. 43:32 So I might as well play a little tougher on them. 43:35 I mean, everyone's kind of described you as a physical defenseman and aggressive defenseman. 43:38 Is that a label you kind of embrace? 43:41 I've always liked the physical part of the game. 43:44 I think it's something that a team needs. 43:48 Every once in a while, a big hit can get the boys going. 43:51 And, you know, turn the momentum of the game. 43:54 So if I'm able to do that, that's great. 43:57 But my priority is tough in the defensive zone. 44:01 Good first pass and help the forwards get up the ice. 44:05 You know, after sitting out last year, how difficult was it just to practice all the time? 44:10 It was. 44:10 It was really difficult. 44:11 It got easier over the course of the year. 44:14 And it did go by fast. 44:15 It really did. 44:17 You know, and being able to sit up on a concourse and watch the games, I've never been able to do that. 44:24 So you get a better feel of the game. 44:26 You kind of learn how much space you have, how much patience you can have. 44:28 And it was nice to be able to do that, but I'm just glad I'm able to play this year. 44:34 Where are guys' heads right now after the slow start to the season? 44:38 You know, heads are good. 44:39 I mean, we're fine. 44:41 We had some growing pains, obviously, but we're ready to play for Northeastern. 44:45 We're excited. 44:46 We're not thinking too much about the past. 44:48 We're just learning from our mistakes this week, and we had a good week of practice, and we're doing well so far, so. 44:55 How long did it take you, or is it still taking you time to get your game timing back? 45:02 You know what, I think for sitting out a year, I think I played pretty solid so far. 45:07 I'm happy with the way I played. 45:10 You know, we just need to come together as a team, play as a unit of five on the ice and we'll be fine. 45:17 Is that the toughest adjustment, just getting that group of five play down? 45:21 I think so. 45:21 I think especially with ten freshmen coming in, you know, lines are going to be a little messed up. 45:27 You're just trying to find guys who have, you know, good chemistry together. 45:32 And we're finding that. 45:33 And, you know, obviously the first three games didn't go the way we wanted it to, but, you know, there's always the next day, and we're coming for a Northeastern, so we're excited to play them. 45:44 Getting shots on net has been a difficult process for you guys this year. 45:48 What's made that so hard? 45:51 You know, it's a good question. 45:54 That's just something we can work on, I think. 45:57 Like I said, yeah, we just need to change the angles of the shots, you know, get our ground game going in the offensive zone, make sure the D are getting pucks low, getting pucks on net when we can, deflecting off the sideboards if there's a guy right in front of us. 46:12 But like I said, this week of practice is going really well, so hopefully the hard work is going to pay off this weekend. 46:19 What are the main differences between Omaha and Minnesota Hockey? 46:24 That's a good question, too. 46:27 I think there's a little more tradition here at Minnesota, obviously, and you know, there's a great fan base. 46:34 Omaha is growing their fan base, so obviously, I just say the tradition. 46:43 So how's Target practice going this week? 46:46 It's been good. 46:47 The guys got back to work and kind of had to put last weekend behind us and get back to work. 46:55 And it's a long season, so we're keeping our confidence and just getting ready to go with Northeastern before our bye week. 47:03 What do you remember about that Northeastern game from last year? 47:06 I just talked to Frank. 47:07 I was going to say, I don't remember a whole lot. 47:09 I just remember we went out East and played Boston College the night before and beat them 6-2. 47:14 I remember that. 47:14 And I think we looked past them a little bit. 47:16 And it was just one of those close games, just waiting for one team to get a bounce. 47:21 I think they got a flukey goal. 47:23 And then they were able to close us out, I think, 3-2. 47:26 So it was, you know, definitely, obviously, can't look past them this weekend, especially with our slow start. 47:32 So I think they'll come in with a lot of jump, get a chance to play at Mariucci. 47:36 So we gotta, you know, be ready. 47:39 You've been putting a lot of pressure on yourself and the upperclassmen. 47:42 How do you still play loose and produce? 47:47 You know, I guess I don't have to answer that with the first three games yet. 47:50 But no, you know, I think the first couple of games, we all put a little too much pressure on ourselves. 47:57 You know, there's a new formula this year. 47:59 Last year was obviously different. 48:00 We had, you know, guys like Rao and Boyd and guys that lean on. 48:05 And this year, we just got to get used to it and not put too much pressure on ourselves. 48:10 As far as, you know, gripping our sticks a little too tight when we're in close the net. 48:14 We just got to relax and play hockey. 48:16 You know, we've been doing this for a long time. 48:18 And every day, we just got to realize, you know, we're pretty good at this game. 48:23 And we can rely on our skill and effort and make some place. 48:27 Coaches have mentioned it, but I'm sure from your standpoint, on the ice during practice, it seems like practices are going quite well. 48:34 Yeah, we got a really hard working team. 48:35 Obviously, there's no spots that are really set as far as, you know, we're on three. 48:40 So people are still competing for, you know, spots in the lineup. 48:45 So practice has been awesome. 48:49 The freshmen are working their tails off all the way up through our, I think, our captains and our goaltenders. 48:54 So it's been good so far. 48:56 And now we just need to translate that to Friday and Saturday. 49:00 Miss shots, blocked shots have been a big issue early. 49:02 How do you overcome that and what's made it so difficult to get pucks to the net? 49:06 I think just moving the puck a little quicker, making a little quicker decisions and, you know, relying on our teammates a little more. 49:13 I think a few times, plays have ended up being a little too individual and that's kind of slowed down the offense. 49:20 Even when trying to get pucks back, if, you know, everyone has to stop to watch, see what you're doing, it kind of just slows everything down. 49:26 So just moving our feet and moving the puck a little quicker, I think will open up lanes and give us opportunities to score more goals. 49:37 Thanks, John. 49:37 Thank you.