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. 0:40 Good evening, and welcome to the GPL Podcast. 0:45 I hope everyone enjoyed their Thanksgiving like I did. 0:48 Hammey, were you able to enjoy your Thanksgiving? 0:53 Yeah, I couldn't complain. 0:55 Pretty good meal, family and stuff. 0:57 So yeah, it was pretty good. 0:58 Well, that's good. 0:59 Veegs is putting his little baby to sleep. 1:02 He will be joining us momentarily here. 1:06 I had a great Thanksgiving. 1:08 Stuffed my face. 1:09 It was awesome. 1:11 Can't go wrong with that. 1:12 But of course, after Thanksgiving, what happened? 1:17 The old Huskies came to town and Hammey, it was ugly. 1:24 Yeah, I mean, you know, I had last week, I think I had mentioned that I thought that if, you know, they were going to be winning any of those games, that it's going to have to be that they're going to have more of a defensive focus and play smart and whatever. 1:36 And that, you know, they didn't add on Friday. 1:38 Yeah, I mean, I thought they executed relatively well, kind of what I was talking about, but obviously they flubbed it up in the third period. 1:46 But obviously Saturday or Sunday, I should say, was pretty much a debacle. 1:49 I mean, you can't give up, what was it, six power play goals on a weekend and expect to win games, you know, and especially letting the other team go four for seven. 1:58 I mean, you can't take penalties against, I mean, St. 2:01 Cloud's got a very veteran team up, especially up front, and they have a lot of guys that can put the puck in the net because of that. 2:07 And you can't be giving them those kinds of opportunities and expecting that you're going to come out with a lot of success. 2:13 And they paid the price this last weekend. 2:15 Boy, did they. 2:16 Veegs, are you there? 2:18 I am here. 2:19 My three-year-old is very excited for Christmas. 2:22 Ha ha ha ha! 2:24 What three-year-old isn't? 2:26 Ha ha ha ha! 2:28 Christmas trees and other stuff happening, so... 2:30 Yeah, but did your three-year-old like Thanksgiving? 2:34 Uh, you know, he does. 2:36 He likes seeing all the family. 2:37 Not a big eater yet. 2:38 I guess it is more of an adult thing with a few food. 2:43 Well, Veegs, what's your thoughts on the weekend? 2:45 Was it quite the debacle that Hammy says it was? 2:48 Because I think it was. 2:50 Well, I think it's just a sign that this team has a lot of inexperience to it. 2:56 Having a lead in the first game of the series and then not being able to capitalize on the third period by getting an extra goal, and then keeping St. 3:05 Cloud off the score sheet and just maintaining their responsibility. 3:10 It's something this team is going to have to learn how to take care of if they're going to have any success in the Big Ten. 3:16 And then the second game, just way too undisciplined, and they didn't learn anything from their penalty kill mistakes from the first game. 3:25 St. 3:25 Cloud has a great power play. 3:27 They move it really crisply. 3:29 But they just opened up these great big seams in the middle of the ice. 3:33 And your goaltender doesn't have a chance when a power play can move it that quickly laterally, that cleanly. 3:40 Well, speaking of Friday night, Lucia has been saying it for years. 3:43 Get the darn third goal and you'll be in pretty good shape. 3:47 And they just couldn't do it, and they paid for it. 3:50 Yeah, this team, those third periods, they've had a couple with that one. 3:53 The Mankato Series. 3:54 You know, this team just doesn't have the confidence, except for the Bristette, Fasching, Novak line. 4:02 None of the other lines have the composure to get low in their defensive zone, break out, gain each bull line, and then spend any time in the offensive zone. 4:11 Seems like every other line that gets thrown out there struggles with that. 4:15 And it makes the D look bad. 4:17 Well, the D is doing pretty good making themselves look bad right now. 4:21 Well, they don't look bad when they're out there with Bristette, Novak, Fasching. 4:24 Yeah, but... 4:24 A little bit of a combination. 4:26 There's a couple of times where I saw guys like Johnson and Glover and Collins looking for an outlet. 4:34 And there was just no forwards working to either get behind the puck or come back to the puck or slash the wall. 4:42 It's just not there yet. 4:45 Why not? 4:48 Gensel is supposed to be the magician. 4:49 Is Gensel not doing his job here? 4:52 Well, I think one of the things is we don't have very many defensemen who can skate the puck. 4:56 And that's something that they've been able to rely on in the past with Brady Shea and Mike Riley. 5:01 Those guys, when they're not getting help from their forwards, can make something happen on their own to get them in transition. 5:07 And I just don't think they have enough of those guys this year. 5:10 But, Hammy, we do have one that's been riding the bench who could probably move the puck. 5:17 Are you talking about Sadik or who are you talking about? 5:19 That's exactly what I'm talking about. 5:21 Yeah, well, I mean, he is kind of a player, but he's pretty young and green in that sense. 5:27 What have they got to lose right now? 5:29 Because they stink back there. 5:30 Well, I mean, I'm not saying that they shouldn't put him out there and give him his shot. 5:34 But I'm just saying, is he going to be a savior? 5:36 I don't want to put that on a kid that age. 5:38 I don't think that's particularly fair, especially coming right out of high school hockey. 5:47 I think Vegas touched on it for me. 5:49 I feel when this program has had strong teams, they've always had defensemen that are essentially leading the charge on both ends of the rink, where you have a guy that's playing, can gather the puck up in the defensive zone and they can lead the rush or they can skate it into the other team's zone and create things. 6:10 We just don't really have that type of a guy this year. 6:13 We have some guys that have certain skill sets that are fine, but they're just not going to be the kind of quarterback that's going to be leading things from the back end. 6:24 They have some really good players in the recruiting pipeline that can be that type of guy, but that's not going to help us this year. 6:28 It's probably going to be a struggle in that sense. 6:32 Well, we mentioned Jack Sadick there. 6:34 I'm guessing he will be in the lineup Friday night because Mr. 6:38 Nick Seeler will not be in the lineup, nor should he be in the lineup, after his complete cheap shot in that Sunday game. 6:47 I'm sorry, but his arm to the guy's head was pretty bush league, if you ask me. 6:54 Well, I think there's two kinds of cheap shots. 6:56 I think there's one where a guy runs somebody from across the rink. 7:00 I think this is more of a poor decision on his part. 7:04 I don't think there was intent to go after him. 7:06 It's not like he was going after, you know, Benick or Morley or Jimmy Murray. 7:13 He wasn't going after one of their star, star players. 7:17 There was a guy who likes to make contact, who realized he was a little out of position, and he made a mental mistake. 7:23 This is something where we see him do this week in, week out. 7:27 I'll change my tune, but I think it's a one-off incident of a really poor decision made by Seeler. 7:34 Well, I don't know his intent exactly. 7:36 I do think that he has a little bit of a history of not making the best decisions going back to UNO. 7:43 I do think that he's a little bit of a, sometimes lacks discipline in that sense. 7:49 It's hard for me to excuse it when it looks like a wrestling move out on the ice. 7:54 I said that online. 7:55 It's like somebody got thrown off the ropes, and then he came back with the elbow to the head. 8:00 I mean, it's hard for me to feel like, you know, I mean, it kind of looked like he was going to set him up for a hip check of sorts, and then suddenly, all of a sudden, you see the clothesline come up with an elbow. 8:15 It did kind of look like a clothesline. 8:17 And so it's like, I don't know. 8:19 I mean, I can't read his mind, but it definitely was a pretty dumb decision. 8:23 There's no doubt about that. 8:26 Wrestling, yee-haw! 8:27 That's right. 8:29 So complete debacle on the weekend was, obviously. 8:32 I mean, I think I even heard that this is the first time that St. 8:36 Cloud has ever swept at Mariucci, which is definitely not a good thing. 8:42 We've got some questions already. 8:45 If you are listening live and you want to tweet us your questions, just use the hashtag GPL Podcast. 8:50 We'll try to get to them. 8:52 Let's go with Tim Hapke. 8:53 He's always sent us questions back in the past. 8:55 He's like, is it time to move Cammie back up to the top line and move Riley down? 9:01 Cammie, Riley has not been doing so well. 9:06 Obviously, neither is Cammie. 9:09 Yeah, he's made a couple big mistakes this year, especially defensive coverage. 9:16 I don't know if the knee surgeries have caught up to him. 9:20 I don't have any idea because I expected a hell of a lot more from him this year. 9:26 He definitely has not brought the kind of play that I think a lot of us were hoping for. 9:31 We saw him kind of coming on last year and certainly had played pretty well and scoring some goals and that just hasn't been replicated this year. 9:42 It's been kind of frustrating and I don't blame him for thinking that way. 9:46 Sometimes you kind of say, what do you have to do to kind of get some changes? 9:50 As far as Cammie goes, it's like, well, it's not like he's exactly been kicking some booty back there with Vinnie and the boys on that line. 10:00 I guess you have to kind of start experimenting though because if things aren't working, you kind of have to do some of that. 10:06 Maybe that's an answer. 10:06 I guess it doesn't hurt to try. 10:08 Veegs, what I've really noticed with a lot of these forwards is that a lot of them are trying to do it themselves. 10:15 How many times have we seen Cammie lose the puck at the blue line or Clues? 10:20 It seems like these guys try to come into the zone and they forget about their teammates. 10:24 That's not helping things out at all. 10:27 No, it's definitely not. 10:28 There's a lot of guys trying to do it on their own. 10:30 And there's a lot of guys who aren't getting supported. 10:33 There's a lot of times where you look at a guy like Clues or Cammie coming up the ice and they don't have a lot of options because they're not coming up as a unit of five. 10:44 Whether it's the wings not coming to the middle or slashing open, they just don't have a lot of continuity. 10:50 I know Don Lucia said today that he's been mixing up the lines every day in practice and I think he's still trying to find the magic formula for this team. 10:59 And the only group that I think will stick together is Bristead Novak Fasching. 11:04 Well, those guys should stick together because they have been, well, I should say Bristead has actually been pretty much the bright spot of the year so far. 11:12 Fasching, I would like him to pick up his game a little more, but is there anything else that's shining out in front of us right now besides Bristead? 11:21 I think the key is that those guys support each other. 11:24 I think he set the Bristead goal on the first game. 11:29 He took advantage of a smart play by Novak to put the puck behind the net when Lindgren was out of position and create a scoring opportunity for Bristead. 11:39 You don't see those guys making bad turnovers. 11:42 I'm going to point out Cammie's turnover where he went one on five and turned the puck over at center ice and sent St. 11:49 Cloud in for about a two and a half minute stretch. 11:52 Those are the plays you don't see the Novak percent fashion line make. 11:58 They make smart plays with the puck and they support each other. 12:00 And that's something where Gensel goes crazy when he sees that happening. 12:04 Obviously he concentrates on the defense, but when he sees a forward try to bring it up themselves and lose it at the red line or the blue line, boy, he just yells out, God damn it, he just gets ticked off. 12:18 As he should because it's just not the smart play. 12:22 It's hard. 12:22 You put your teammates in a poor position. 12:25 If the defensemen are trying to get in transition with the forwards and they turn over a puck with a careless decision like that, it puts everybody in a bad spot. 12:34 Or if they're going off for a change, because a lot of times the D are going off different times than the forwards. 12:40 Just too many turnovers at the blue line. 12:42 It's just killing us. 12:44 Josh Wendell wants to know, when is the pain going to end, Hammy? 12:50 I don't think the pain is going to end this year. 12:53 Just grab yourself a bottle, man. 12:57 Numb yourself up, Josh. 13:01 I think it's just going to be one of those years. 13:03 We kind of knew that. 13:04 Let's be honest. 13:07 We have guys playing new roles. 13:09 We're having guys that are kind of being put in positions where they're having to play some of the key minutes that maybe they had somebody else playing last year. 13:17 I'm not trying to make a bunch of excuses, but these are some of the realities that this team is facing. 13:23 Like I said earlier, I think that from a defensive standpoint, we don't really have that real one dynamic guy that you can spend playing a lot of the, you know, a decent portion of the game with creating offense, you know, by leading a rush up the ice. 13:38 And, you know, I'm not saying that some of these guys are bad, but I just don't think that they necessarily have some of the dynamic skills that are going to kind of be that kind of player. 13:46 And that's not just going to magically appear in practice. 13:49 So it's going to be, you know, a tough go of it. 13:52 It'll be interesting to see what happens in Big Ten play, because let's be honest, I mean, we know the Big Ten's not strong. 13:58 So even if they start playing well, people are still going to have a lot of doubts about, you know, is this just the quality of the competition, or is this actually improved play, or what is it? 14:08 And so the reality is that I don't know what answers we're going to get. 14:13 I mean, if we happen to make the NCAAs and make a run, I guess people will be surprised. 14:17 But right now, I just think people see what they see and don't have a lot of optimism for the rest of the year. 14:24 Veegs, when is the pain going to end? 14:26 Well, temporarily. 14:28 It could be this weekend. 14:29 You know, they're playing on an Ohio State team that doesn't exactly have a lot of firepower. 14:33 You know, they're a good skating team, but they're a team that struggles to score goals and hasn't exactly had a successful start this season. 14:40 So they have a great chance, and then they'll get a good test against Michigan before they go into their winter break. 14:47 Another question from Tim Hapke. 14:50 He wants to make sure you know, he's not calling for Lucia's head here, but does the longer Lucia stay hurt Gensel's chance to take over the program? 15:01 What do you think, Hammeh? 15:03 Well, I mean... 15:04 Is it hurting Gensel's, the air of parents by him staying and, you know, maybe having bad blood with these players? 15:12 And who knows what else? 15:14 Well, I don't think that, you know, any of the players really have anything negative about Gensel. 15:19 Gensel's always been typically, even though he's kind of a, you know, he's kind of a tough coach, he's not the kind of guy that, you know, the players tend to bitch about. 15:28 He's a pretty straight shooter, and I think that generally the players like him. 15:32 I don't know. 15:32 I mean, is it going to be a question of, if things don't work out well, is it going to be sort of like guilt by association, and they're going to think like, well, you know, is he part of the problem too? 15:44 You know, is it not just the head coach? 15:45 Is it like just, we need to have a complete fresh start? 15:48 So, I mean, it's hard to say. 15:50 I mean, I've always been a big Gensel fan. 15:51 I've never made a secret of that, but even I realize that, you know, with the way things, you know, if things are struggling, I mean, you kind of are a part of the equation, you know, whether you're the leader or not. 16:03 And that might mean that they're going to try to start entirely fresh. 16:08 I don't know. 16:09 It's hard for me to say. 16:10 But I like them a lot. 16:11 But I can't say I would blame them if they kind of opened up their search and kind of looked all around if they came down to trying to find a new coach. 16:21 Veegs, I saw the stat where Minnesota is something like 1-14-1 against other Minnesota teams the last two years. 16:32 Something close to that. 16:33 I think it was like 1-10-1. 16:36 It was something really ugly, though. 16:37 Yeah, it was something like that. 16:39 Yeah, it's been a tough two-year stretch playing against the other teams in the state. 16:44 And part of that is that Duluth and St. 16:47 Cloud have been very good the last couple of years. 16:50 They've had some fortunate teams where they've had a lot of guys stick around for their senior years who sometimes don't. 16:57 And Minnesota's underperformed. 17:00 I do think that Minnesota has some good recruiting classes coming in the next couple of years, according to the verbals I see on the Heisenberg site. 17:08 So maybe this is just a temporary blip. 17:10 I'm not a big fan of just cleaning house if you don't have a good option. 17:15 And these coaches do have good talent coming in. 17:19 They've sent some guys to the NHL, and they have more talent coming in the coming years. 17:24 So I don't know if changing the leadership is the best move. 17:29 You know, the only thing that I can point to is, and I've said this elsewhere, but it's just a matter of, do the messages hit home like they did, you know, 10, 15 years ago or whatever, when you're kind of still fresh behind the bench and, you know, players, I think, naturally, when you're something new and maybe a little bit more on edge and, you know, obviously we had the back-to-back championship years and you earn a lot of credibility with players in that sense, but, you know, it's been a while since then and obviously we had that slump for, you know, a good three years or so, you know, several years ago and granted we had some success, you know, the last four years, but, you know, you start to say, is it just a matter of shelf life for a coach. 19:11 I don't want to throw one thread on GPL or, I don't know, the long whatever, road down, whatever the hell the title of that. 19:18 The long change that everybody thought was talking about the St. 19:21 Cloud game. 19:22 Yeah, well, whatever. 19:22 But in any case, I was going to say in that, that we probably wouldn't even be having this discussion right now if the result of one game, that union game, if that was different, we wouldn't even be having the discussion about changing coaches and all that kind of stuff. 19:39 But sometimes the fan demands, they just rise to that level and some fans don't really see it with that kind of perspective. 19:46 And I don't blame it because we all have high expectations for the program. 19:50 And certainly when we see a year like this where it's not looking like they'll be much of a contender, you're not happy with it. 19:57 But I don't blame fans for being frustrated, but sometimes you have to look at not just the negatives, but the overall picture before you kind of jump to any conclusions. 20:07 Oh, somebody listening live on Mixler's thinks it's time to dump Don. 20:13 Well, I mean, if they can get an AD within the next six months or so and with Don's last year coming up, I'm guessing it's this offseason, whether they have an AD or not, is going to be the telltale sign. 20:27 We're going to know. 20:29 Well, I don't know his intentions either, but maybe with Mario finishing college and starting with his pro career, maybe that's a move that he wouldn't feel too bad about stepping down at that time, but I can't say that for sure. 20:44 It's not like I've ever had a conversation with him about it, but it's something to think about. 20:49 Coaches always dread coming back to coach in a final year of a contract where you're kind of a lame duck coach and usually that's something you try to avoid in college sports because you got to think about recruiting and you don't want to have any question marks when you're going into a recruits house to sell them on coming to your program. 21:08 So I just think it will be interesting to see how it's handled this offseason and whether or not they'll make any changes or any kind of additions to his contract or what they'll do. 21:18 It's just a big wait and see, folks. 21:21 Big wait and see. 21:22 Well, I don't think anybody's going to be, you know, even if they do well in the Big Ten, I mean, we all know that everybody's kind of... 21:29 We all know that the Big Ten's not strong this year, so even if they start winning games, like I said earlier, there's still going to be question marks about where do you really rank within the national landscape. 21:39 Even if you're doing really well in the Big Ten this year, you still have some of those question marks. 21:45 You know, it's great to win games. 21:47 Believe me, I still want them to win all the games that they can, whether it's Big Ten or not, but I don't blame fans for kind of wondering, you know, is this really just a quality of competition thing, or is this actually the team getting better? 22:00 We'll just have to wait and see. 22:02 Well, before we move on to this week's opponent, Ohio State, let's hear from our sponsor. 22:08 Vintage Minnesota Hockey wants you to take a step back in time and keep the memories of Minnesota hockey heritage alive forever. 22:16 vintagemnhockey.com features history from around the entire state of Minnesota. 22:21 One feature that I enjoy on a daily basis is the This Day in Minnesota Hockey History that is on their website. 22:27 They have tons of info on what's happening on any particular day in Minnesota hockey history. 22:33 One thing as a listener that you may be interested in is the store at Vintage Minnesota Hockey. 22:39 They offer all kinds of custom throwbacks from Minnesota hockey and local college teams. 22:44 And, as a GPL Podcast listener, you just need to enter the promo code GPLPodcast, one word, all or case, to get a 10% discount on any order. 22:55 So visit Vintage Minnesota Hockey at vintagemnhockey.com. 23:01 Alright boys, Ohio State. 23:04 All time, Minnesota is 19-3-1 against the Buckeyes and 11-1 at home. 23:13 Ohio State has never been a good team. 23:16 Well, they've had a few good teams, but every time Minnesota plays them, they seem to kick their butts, except for here and there. 23:23 But this season is not looking good so far for Ohio State, Veegs. 23:29 No, they've got a lot of new players coming into their defense and they've never been a high scoring team. 23:35 They've got Greco and Gus, who have performed for them offensively, but besides that, they don't have much punch. 23:43 So this is a good opportunity, I think, for Minnesota to maybe match lines with those two and maybe try to fit some good scoring opportunities in for the Bristette line against Ohio State's weaker lines. 23:58 But this is a weekend to get healthy for Minnesota and play a consistent game and stay out of the box. 24:06 Hammeh, what are your thoughts? 24:09 Ohio State, man. 24:14 Sorry, but I'm a little concerned because the team hasn't been playing well. 24:19 Yeah, I mean, I agree that it's kind of hard to feel overly confident. 24:24 I mean, granted, Ohio State's nowhere near the level of, like I say, cloud. 24:29 You know, some of the teams that we have played already. 24:31 So in that sense, I mean, I feel that we're, you know, very battle tested. 24:36 And we should, I mean, to me, there's no reason why we shouldn't sweep the series at home. 24:41 But then again, you know, we haven't exactly seen an abundance of consistent, great play. 24:47 And we definitely know we have guys that have to step up. 24:51 And, you know, maybe this will be a way for some of these guys to kind of get healthy and gain a little confidence, you know, especially some of the guys that we talked about earlier that maybe haven't been on the score sheet as much as we expected this year. 25:03 So we'll see. 25:05 I mean, I'm pretty optimistic about this weekend, but you have to consider the competition and we still have a long ways to go if we're going to be anywhere, you know, when it comes to March. 25:15 So I think the biggest thing this weekend is seeing if Lutary, Kamarada, Riley, Clues can get anything going. 25:24 This is definitely a matchup where they're going to be having the advantage shift in, shift out. 25:31 Well, I think with Clues, you know, especially that, I think that other teams know that, you know, you really have to clamp down on him. 25:37 And that essentially shuts down that that first line because they're not getting anything from Riley. 25:43 And I just don't think that there's a lot of support there. 25:46 And that's why, I mean, I'm willing to experiment, you know, when somebody mentioned that by question earlier, to try some different things. 25:52 And to me, it doesn't hurt to try something different. 25:55 And obviously, Kamie and Clues have, you know, had success in the past. 26:00 And I can't say that I feel 100 percent confident that that's going to happen moving forward. 26:05 But, you know, it doesn't hurt to try some of those kind of combinations. 26:09 Yeah, I wouldn't be so surprised if we see more of a true top six this weekend. 26:14 I know Lucia has been trying to integrate the freshmen throughout the lineup. 26:17 But it just feels like that hasn't been clicking and the guys aren't supporting each other. 26:21 So I think we might see more of a true top six where they get more ice time than the bottom six. 26:28 Well, it's gotten to the point for me that I've become pretty apathetic about the team. 26:31 I'm sitting there, I'm serious. 26:34 I'm sitting there Sunday night and St. 26:36 Cloud's putting up all these goals. 26:38 And you know what? 26:38 It didn't bother me at all. 26:41 That's kind of concerning if St. 26:43 Cloud is kicking our ass and I don't care. 26:47 It's not good. 26:49 Well, I mean, I think part of that, and I can't obviously speak for you, but I think from a fan standpoint, I think a lot of it's just, we haven't seen a lot of that consistent play throughout the year. 26:59 And, you know, I mean, it's hard when you start seeing another team get a lead on you, you know, you're not playing particularly well on the penalty kill and all that kind of stuff. 27:10 It's like, I don't know that it's necessarily apathetic as much as it's just like you're kind of being realistic about what you're likely to see. 27:18 You know, I think when you have a good team out there and they get behind, you're kind of like, okay, we could rally. 27:24 But when we're having a team that doesn't really show a lot of that ability this year, and in fact, if anything, has blown some leads in the third period, I think fans tend to get a little bit more like Scooby and get a little more pessimistic, right? 27:35 You know, so I think that's kind of what you see, I think, a little bit more. 27:39 I think fans still care. 27:40 It's just that they're more maybe realistic this year about what might be happening. 27:45 Well, I don't know, boys. 27:46 I don't know what else to say about it. 27:48 It's just a down year and that's just the way it's going to be, you know? 27:53 Well, the one thing about this team is Sheerhorn's been phenomenal for them in that. 27:58 Yeah, he has been, but they're hanging him out the dry a lot. 28:02 Well, you know, this is a team that if they get good goaltending in the Big Ten, they should be in every game. 28:08 So, you know, it's still going to be fun to see Minnesota if they can beat Wisconsin and Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State and just, you know, run the table. 28:18 Yeah, well, we'll have to see, I guess. 28:20 I know it's frustrating. 28:22 And I see all these people, you know, obviously a lot of this is compounded. 28:28 You're getting your butt kicked from former rivals. 28:32 People are still pissed about the Big Ten. 28:36 So, I mean, it's just kind of a lot of things happening at once. 28:40 You know, you've got that controversial rule that Lucia and the Big Ten came up with last week that pissed everybody off. 28:47 I mean, it's just kind of all at once. 28:48 It's just kind of a downtime right now. 28:52 Well, I mean, it sounds like... 28:54 Go ahead. 28:55 It sounds like the rule should pass in January based on what I can read into how the voting works. 29:02 Yep. 29:02 Where the Big Ten schools get four times as many votes as the other schools, and they get ASU on board, and they get Notre Dame on board. 29:09 Basically, it's getting the Division I teams on. 29:13 Yep, all the big schools are on board with this. 29:15 And the big leagues, basically. 29:17 Your Pac-10, your traditional leagues. 29:19 NCHC, sorry, they really have no say in it. 29:25 Yeah, but all those teams are represented. 29:29 Those big conferences, if the Big Ten wants something, and they're really the only major representative at the table, it's like, why should they argue? 29:38 They don't care. 29:39 What does an SEC care? 29:42 For them, it's like, hey, if that's what you guys think is best, sure, why not? 29:46 I mean, they're not going to argue that fact. 29:49 You know, I think going back to the team, I just feel like this year, you know, Sheerhorn, I think that is something to be very positive about, because given that he's a freshman and he has faced adversity and he keeps playing hard, and to me, you kind of have to, you know, moving forward, you have to build from the goalie on out, and certainly that's something to be positive about. 30:10 They're going to have to reset their goals now. 30:12 I mean, we're not going to, I mean, I don't know, I'm not paying attention to pair wise, obviously, but obviously we're pretty unlikely to make an at-large bid, so you're kind of going to have to focus on the Big Ten season and really make an emphasis out of doing well in that and positioning yourself for the playoffs, and you know, we know that you only have to win a few games to get into the NCAAs if you, you know, you win the conference tournament, so that's going to have to be their, you know, I think a shift in their goal and hopefully they'll be able to achieve that. 30:42 Not going to happen. 30:44 Well, you never know when it gets to that point. 30:45 Well, you sure you never know, but you know what? 30:48 With this team, they're not going to go very far in the NCAAs, even if they do squeak in, so. 30:54 Well, I'm not saying that, but I'm just saying people want to make the NCAAs, and so obviously you have to do that first before you try to get anywhere, and so that's really going to be, have to be their, I think, renewed focus now, is just let's do really well in the Big Ten, position ourselves for the playoffs, and then hopefully win a couple games at Excel and get to the NCAAs and let's take our shot, but I mean, obviously nobody really foresees anything of like them getting to the Frozen Four at this point, so obviously you have to be realistic. 31:24 Which is a shame, could send them to Tampa again, which is a fine place to see a Frozen Four, trust me. 31:31 I believe you. 31:31 It was very nice a few years ago, very nice. 31:36 Too bad my team's not going to make it this year. 31:38 At least not the way they're going now. 31:41 Oh, boys, you guys got anything else for this week? 31:43 Because I certainly do not. 31:46 Nope, you know, it's kind of a bummer after a crappy weekend. 31:49 Yeah, it is. 31:50 We're just going to have to see how it goes in Big Ten play, and I mean, like I said earlier, I don't see any reason why they shouldn't sweep this week, but it's kind of hard to be totally, as everybody says, the arrogance. 32:03 It's totally, it's not exactly easy to have that at the moment, so. 32:07 All right, well, you can always follow these guys on Twitter, eVegoe and HammyHockey. 32:15 We'll be back next week. 32:16 Hopefully, we're going to have Rick Pizzo on from the Big Ten Network. 32:20 We'll just have to wait to see based on his schedule, but we'll be back next week. 32:24 Recap Ohio State and preview the Big Series of Michigan. 32:30 Love that Big Series of Michigan, so it should be a good time. 33:00 You ready to move on? 33:01 Kind of a clean slate here with the conference schedule? 33:02 Well, you know, that's why I told some of the guys that have, you know, they're frustrated a little bit with their offensive production. 33:07 And, you know, certainly we don't have the non-conference record. 33:09 We'd like to have had a distressed point with four more games to go. 33:14 But, you know, I said to everybody, we're 0-0 in the conference and all your point totals are 0-0. 33:19 And it's an opportunity for a fresh start. 33:23 Obviously, disappointed to lose two games at home and three in a row. 33:26 And, you know, we've been so good at home over the years. 33:28 And, you know, be sick with our home record that we have right now is obviously disappointing. 33:33 So it starts by, you know, winning at home. 33:35 And that's something we've done a lot of in the last couple of years within the Big Ten. 33:38 And hopefully, that will continue this weekend. 33:41 Is it how you lost last weekend? 33:43 I mean, sort of being disciplined at times? 33:44 Yeah, I think that, you know, that was a lesson. 33:47 You know, there's lessons in every game. 33:49 And that, to me, was the biggest lesson on Saturday that, you know, here you have a team that's got the top power plays in the country and you play on discipline and give them that many opportunities. 33:58 And that's the one part that you have to give yourself a chance to win. 34:03 And when we gave them that many opportunities and you give up four power play goals, I mean, you're not going to win that game. 34:10 And so we talked about it. 34:12 I mean, even Nick's situation, and I think it was the right call, the five-minute major. 34:16 I think the extra game was the right call. 34:18 And we showed the whole team on video on Tuesday that that's the hit they're trying to take out of the game. 34:24 You know, we all know the issue with concussions and player safety, and, you know, that's a teaching point and lesson for everybody on our team. 34:33 Tell me what is the biggest difference, I guess, between playing aggressively the way Nick does and maybe crossing that line? 34:40 Well, I mean, like any player, you have to, I mean, you just can't have contact to the head. 34:44 And, you know, stepping up was one thing, but, you know, he brought his arms up and, you know, made contact. 34:49 I didn't see it right away on the bench. 34:50 I saw the hit on the guy go down. 34:53 And it wasn't until I, you know, watched later that when I looked at it, Nick came in and apologized, you know, after the game, he felt bad. 35:01 And I told him at that time, I said, I wouldn't be surprised if you're going to get an extra game for this. 35:05 And, behold, the next day I had a text message from the Big Ten and Steve Piotrowski. 35:11 And so he said, call me. 35:12 So I knew what that was, what that call was about. 35:16 But, you know what, we just told Nick that, you know, that's a boundary he can't cross, you know, play strong, play aggressively. 35:22 And we don't want to take that element of his game away because that's what makes him an effective player. 35:27 But you've got to be careful when you're stepping up in a guy. 35:31 I mean, it was Cronwell likes to come up and, you know, make those hits along the boards. 35:36 But you just, you got to be shoulder on shoulder. 35:39 You got to keep your hands down. 35:40 And if he would have kept his hands down, he would have been fine. 35:43 The PK had been so good going into last weekend. 35:46 It fell off just a little bit. 35:47 What are the changes that you needed? 35:49 Well, some of it was just positionally. 35:51 Well, two things. 35:52 I mean, St. 35:52 Claude was really good at the power play. 35:54 We saw that going in that we talked about. 35:56 We've been giving him very many opportunities. 35:58 And I think that's helped us with the penalty kill. 36:00 Usually we're only giving up about three a night. 36:03 And just, there's some positionally we could have been in better spots. 36:08 All of a sudden, they've moved it. 36:10 And that's what makes a power play really good, the quick puck movement. 36:14 And they moved the puck better than anybody we'd seen so far this year. 36:18 And they caught us in a lot of scenes. 36:20 After having a few days to look it over, what do you think worked for your power play this weekend? 36:25 Well, it was nice to get three out of four from our standpoint. 36:28 But again, we need to spend more time in the offensive zone to give ourselves a chance to draw a few more penalties. 36:33 And it was nice that the other unit ended up with all three. 36:36 So if we can get both units effective, now all of a sudden you're not caught up and you've got to start a certain unit every time. 36:44 But Bish did a good job getting some pucks off one timing. 36:48 And so much of it is just if you can get a puck through and screen situations, that's what you want to have. 36:53 And then it was a nice backdoor play to Bristol. 36:57 Monday night you mentioned third period's been an issue for you this season. 37:01 What do you need to change to be more effective? 37:03 Well, for the most part, it's the offensive end of things. 37:08 We have to start scoring some goals in the third period. 37:11 And that's the difference of so many of our games that, you know, they're going to be one goal games. 37:18 You're going to be even or maybe we're going to be down by a goal, but we have to have a push. 37:21 I mean, for me there's two things. 37:22 We have to start out better. 37:23 I mean, you look at our shot tolls in the first period, we're only averaging about seven and a half. 37:28 And, you know, something we talked about that we want to try to get, you know, at least ten every period. 37:33 And, you know, the way goalies are today, you're not going to score many goals only getting 20-some shots a night. 37:39 So we've got to get, we've always been a pretty good volume shooting team. 37:44 And we've got to get those totals up, whether it's our forwards doing a better job and our defensemen doing a better job, you know, getting pucks in the blue line and then from our forwards using our defensemen and, you know, playing as a group of five. 37:55 You have a pretty young team. 37:56 Have you seen improvements? 37:57 You know what I have. 37:58 I mean, even some of the things that we track with the stats, the scoring chances for individual guys are, you know, during the course of the game. 38:05 And, you know, this past weekend, we had a lot of guys that were a lot of pluses on the scoring chances. 38:11 Last weekend, even though we didn't win, I mean, we only gave up in the teens each night five on five in shots against. 38:17 And so that's an improvement. 38:20 And we just, some of the guys, if we can get them going, like Leon's playing really well right now, we just, we have to get some other guys that, you know, especially our junior class. 38:30 I mean, there's five junior forwards and a lot is placed on their shoulders right now. 38:36 And, you know, we need them to score. 38:38 And some of them just need to get another goal just to start to feel good about yourself. 38:41 And the confidence factor that goes with it. 38:43 You mentioned Leon. 38:44 Is it just an added comfort level in the second year that's leading to success? 38:46 Yeah, I think that's part of it. 38:48 You know, he's a real cerebral player. 38:52 I know last year was not easy for him. 38:55 We talked about it, how when he came back this fall, how much more comfortable he feels, whether it's through the language, your teammates, your school. 39:02 I know being away from home like he was for the first time, and his parents. 39:05 I mean, all that was an adjustment for him. 39:08 And I think you've seen the result. 39:11 We were talking to another coach this fall who had a similar situation with a player from Europe that didn't play over here, and they said it was a big difference in his game from year one to year two. 39:21 With this being the third year of the Big Ten, kind of having the schedule set up, has your approach changed to conference play? 39:28 As far as what? 39:29 As far as preparing for it? 39:30 No, it's the same. 39:32 The way it's set up, we don't get into conference games a few games in October or November. 39:38 So you want to play good teams in non-conference, which I think we've done and will continue to do. 39:43 You hope that's going to pay off when we get into the Big Ten schedule. 39:47 Would you be more comfortable having it? 39:49 Are you more comfortable with the schedule though, having it in all the non-conference games early? 39:53 Doesn't matter. 39:53 That's the way it is. 39:56 I can't wave the magic wand. 39:57 You're sort of bugged by all these losses to the Minnesota schools. 40:01 Yeah, I mean it's disappointing. 40:02 It's something we talked about. 40:04 I think I'm most disappointed because I thought there were two winnable games, the Saturday against Minnesota State, that we had the lead, and same thing, Friday against St. 40:15 Cloud State. 40:17 When you have that lead, you want to be able to hopefully close those games out in third periods, and we weren't able to do it. 40:24 I hope that we can learn from that and score a goal in the third period, like I talked about, that separation. 40:30 You've got to get to three. 40:32 Other than next Friday, everyone's healthy? 40:33 Yeah, other than next Friday, everybody's healthy. 40:35 We've moved our lines around this week, and every day of practice we'll do so again tomorrow and then make a decision on who we want to play together. 40:44 Reaction to Mike Riley calling? 40:46 Happy for Mike. 40:47 I tech, I heard it this morning, I tech gave him a text this morning, so hopefully he'll get an opportunity to play, but you know it's always exciting, and you know a lot of kids, they come in, that's their dream, they want to get to that level, and you know certainly Mike had a great career here, and has earned everything he's received at this point of his career, and you know he's going to be playing hockey for a lot of years, but if he gets an opportunity to play tomorrow, it will be a special night for him, certainly in his family. 41:14 You had a couple of conversations with Chuck, or even Mike about Mike? 41:18 No, no, you know what, through that process, they had been around him enough, and there had been some talks with different teams over the course of summer when the process was going on early. 41:30 I actually talked to Mike more than anything else, kind of what he was thinking as he was narrowing it down, but ultimately that's the collective bargaining agreement. 41:39 It gave him the opportunity to do that, and you know what, he used it to his advantage. 41:45 What kind of challenges does Ohio State bring this weekend? 41:47 I like their team's speed. 41:49 I think that even when we played them last year, the same thing with Greco and Schilke, a couple of these guys, Weiss was a really good player from last year, that their forward group up front. 42:02 Last couple years, Ohio State was as good a skating team as we played. 42:06 They're not obviously as balanced as St. 42:07 Cloud. 42:08 Does that change the way you approach them? 42:10 Not really, because we're trying to get our own team better. 42:13 Obviously, we've got to clean up our penalty kill, because we're not going to win many games giving up six power play goals, and that's probably the frustrating part, that we'd only given up three on the year up until this past weekend. 42:26 We've got to get back and make sure we're disciplined, not give many, and then do a good job killing them. 42:34 Thank you, sir. 42:38 Sour taste of last weekend out of your mouth? 42:41 Yeah, a little bit. 42:42 I think the guys were a little upset with just how we performed and giving up six goals on Sunday night. 42:48 It definitely isn't how we like to play. 42:52 I think this weekend is going to be good to get back to go for hockey. 42:57 With the conference play, it's kind of a clean slate, so it's going to be a fun weekend. 43:01 What is go for hockey to you? 43:03 I think it's a tradition of winning and it's a tradition of excellence as well. 43:08 I think there's high expectations and I think that's something we need to live up to. 43:15 How's the experience been so far for you in college hockey? 43:18 It's been pretty fun. 43:19 It's definitely lived up to everything that everybody's been telling me about it. 43:24 Coming from junior hockey, I like junior hockey a lot, but definitely being here with new guys, it's a ton of fun. 43:32 What do you think worked for your power play this weekend? 43:35 I think just communication and then moving the puck quickly. 43:39 Also, we were shooting the puck off the pass, and I think that was really effective. 43:45 Communication was kind of an emphasis going into this season. 43:48 Have you noticed a big change coming from junior to college hockey in that? 43:53 Yeah, I think so. 43:54 I think it's a little more stressed here. 43:56 I think it's a little more important just because the pace is a little quicker. 43:59 You need to know where guys are and things like that, so communication is definitely a key role in being successful. 44:05 Is it a tough adjustment with all the pressure? 44:07 I know third periods have been a big emphasis as well. 44:10 Yeah, I think that's something we need to work on definitely, but the adjustment hasn't been too tough, but again, it is a step above junior hockey, so it's definitely been something that we all need to work on. 44:24 Yeah, you know, we learn a lot every weekend, and when we lose games, we look back on it in a video, and we obviously work on the things that we feel like we need to work on, so we're excited with our week of practice, especially heading into conference play this weekend. 44:38 What are those things you have to work on? 44:40 You know, we have to work on our consistency, playing for 60 minutes, playing to our game plan. 44:47 We didn't really play to our game plan last weekend. 44:49 New St. 44:49 Cloud had a good power play, and we played on discipline, and we didn't get it done on the penalty kill, so we need to work on executing our game plan. 44:58 What slight adjustments do you have to make on the PK? 45:02 You know, one of the big things we're focusing on is seam passes. 45:06 Obviously St. 45:07 Cloud is probably one of the best power play we'll see all year, and when they get those seam passes, you know, it can get guys out of position, so we've got to work on getting our sticks in those lanes and taking away those seam passes. 45:18 I was impressed with our power play though. 45:21 It worked pretty good last week. 45:22 Yeah, you know, the same thing. 45:23 We get seam passes. 45:24 We get, you know, one, two, up the bish and shot. 45:26 It's the same thing. 45:28 When you get the penalty kill and you get the goalie's eyes moving, you're going to open up shots and open up holes in the net. 45:36 Third period has kind of been a tough spot for you guys this season. 45:39 What has to change for you guys to be more effective? 45:43 You know, again, I think it's our mindset. 45:45 You know, when we're up a goal going into the third period, we need to know that pucks are going to get out of our zone when they're near the blue line. 45:53 We're going to be simple with the puck. 45:54 We're going to get low and we're going to work them in their end. 45:57 We can't turn the puck over and give them opportunities to score by beating ourselves. 46:04 How are you approaching a conference play in comparison to opening stretches on a conference? 46:10 You know, we like to approach every game the same. 46:12 You know, we like to focus on how we need to play to win. 46:16 Every point is different. 46:18 We're excited to have a clean slate. 46:21 We learned a lot in the non-conference play. 46:23 It's exciting to get into conference play. 46:26 Ohio State is a good team, and that will be a good start for us. 46:29 Does it have a little different feel going into conference play for you guys? 46:33 It definitely does, especially for the returning guys. 46:35 We remember last season and the torch that was passed from the senior class. 46:41 They had four conference championships in their four years here. 46:45 Two the past two years in the Big Ten. 46:46 So we know heading into the Big Ten season, expectations are high for ourselves. 46:52 What kind of challenges does Ohio State bring to you guys this weekend? 46:57 You know, they have some good players. 46:59 We saw them last year. 47:01 We had some trouble with them. 47:02 I think one thing we don't want to do is underestimate a team like that. 47:09 Every team in the Big Ten, when they come to play, any team can beat any team in the Big Ten, and we need to remember that at the end of the weekend. 47:17 You made your D partner on Friday. 47:19 What does that mean for the team? 47:22 You know, obviously we'll miss Nick. 47:25 He's a presence out on the ice. 47:26 He plays a lot of minutes and plays a lot of different situations for us. 47:31 So it's an opportunity for guys to step up into that role and carry the load, share the load as a team. 47:37 So we'll miss him, but we're excited to have him back Saturday. 47:41 Was the flying elbow sort of uncharacteristic of who he is? 47:45 Yeah, you know, the flying elbow, Nick's an aggressive player, and he's going to take runs at guys, and a lot of times he's going to land that hit, and it's going to be a clean hit, and it's going to get the momentum of our team going. 47:59 So we like Nick to play physical, and it brings a lot to our team. 48:08 Thanks, Ryan. 48:09 Thanks, Ryan.