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, Vego and your host, Jupiter. 0:41 Welcome to The GPL Podcast. 0:44 Back here for another week, hoping that my software works a little bit better than it has already. 0:49 Because apparently the guys can't hear all the music and everything going. 0:53 So we'll just have to see how it works, guys. 0:58 Sorry. 0:59 We got bugs. 0:59 We'll fix the bugs eventually here. 1:01 So, eventually I should say. 1:04 Well, I can see exactly why you guys can't hear it too. 1:08 Because I'm a moron. 1:10 But, you know, we'll see. 1:12 What did you do? 1:13 Well, I forgot to add a garage band, which outputs the audio of pre-audio. 1:19 I forgot to send it to you guys. 1:21 I have to add that source so you guys can actually hear it. 1:25 So, yeah, that's my bad. 1:27 Sorry. 1:28 No biggie. 1:29 No biggie. 1:29 We'll survive. 1:31 We'll get it all worked out. 1:32 So, anyway, guys, the Badgers are still bad, Hammy. 1:40 I thought they had improved a little bit, but 4-0 Friday night, Saturday night, you always expect a team to come out and play much better. 1:51 I really think that goal 12 seconds in just killed them for the weekend. 1:56 Well, I don't know what it was. 1:58 I mean, well, you would think the team would have a little bit more in them than to just bail because they got scored in 12 seconds into the game. 2:05 I mean, I know it's not the greatest start in the world, but you still have 59 plus minutes to make it up. 2:10 So it's pretty brutal. 2:13 I mean, the way that they got down, you know, I mean, I don't want to say they quit, but I mean, the fact is, is that, I mean, they played pretty well in the second period, so you got to give them credit for kind of showing some spunk in that period. 2:28 But it was pretty bad. 2:31 It was pretty brutal. 2:32 And, you know, I was saying it on GPL, you know, Wisconsin is awful. 2:36 They need to do something because, as far as the conference goes, we need them to be, you know, a team that at a minimum is competing for NCAA at large spots, and they're a long ways from it right now. 2:47 And I have a hard time understanding how Yves is going to survive, you know, this season. 2:53 I'd be shocked if he does. 2:54 I would be too, but you just never know in this environment. 2:57 Obviously, he used the... 3:01 The assistant coaches were kind of the thrown to the wolves last year, but this year, it's a little different story. 3:10 Friday night, Veegs, a nice, solid 4-0 win. 3:15 Boy, even Sheerhorn took one off the mask, took a couple stitches and came right back in. 3:19 All in all, I kind of like that performance Friday night, too. 3:24 Yeah, I thought it was really impressive. 3:25 I thought Minnesota controlled the play most of the night. 3:29 I thought Sheerhorn showed a lot of toughness by fighting off that shot in the face and coming right back in there. 3:38 I thought the power play looked good. 3:40 Nice to see Fasching continue his progress this season. 3:43 I think he's really taking a step forward. 3:46 Cluse also, man on a mission, very motivated captain playing well. 3:52 So it was good to see. 3:54 I was a little surprised with Wisconsin as well because we've been hearing how they're so much better than they were last year, and it was hard to see it during the game. 4:05 Well, boy, I don't know what to say about it anymore. 4:09 I mean, obviously, a 9-2 victory Saturday, it obviously makes you feel great. 4:15 It's good for our team because it does build confidence for them, and obviously, that's a good thing. 4:22 But like you said, Hammeh, we can't have Wisconsin be like this. 4:28 They need to improve. 4:30 Yeah. 4:30 I mean, I think the thing- 4:31 I mean, it's for our own good actually. 4:33 Well, right. 4:34 I mean, first of all, the conference you think about, then you think about the rivalry aspect. 4:40 I mean, you know, when it's a rivalry, you know, historically, and you have a team that's just playing as badly as Wisconsin has for the last season and a half, I mean, that- 4:50 you know, you can't have that going on for a long period of time and expect that rivalry to continue to thrive. 4:56 And, you know, as much as we like to beat the hell out of Wisconsin, you kind of want to be able to beat the hell out of Wisconsin when there are at least a halfway decent team as opposed to a piece of crap team, you know what I mean? 5:07 So you don't get a hell of a lot of joy beating up on the Little Sisters of the Poor, and that's kind of the way that they're looking these days. 5:13 Oh, I think we get some joy out of it. 5:15 It's just... 5:16 Well, yeah, but I mean... 5:17 It's still fun. 5:19 You know, but honestly, for me, it's more like, just don't lose the games. 5:24 It's almost, you know what I mean? 5:25 It's like you're going into it where, at least when you have two good teams, it's kind of like you're like, all right, it's going to be a good battle, and you don't really know what to expect, and you feel like, you know, if you win, you kind of feel like, okay, we really earned it. 5:38 And it's not like we didn't earn these two victories, but when a team is that bad, it's almost like you go into it saying, okay, let's not blow these games, because you're almost expecting to win. 5:48 It just, it doesn't feel like the typical rivalry is supposed to. 5:52 And that's kind of how you felt, you know, last week during the podcast, you were saying that you were thinking, you know, Wisconsin would come in and win one, but just didn't quite happen. 6:02 Well, I mean, I think a lot of that was as much as, like I said, the rivalry aspect, then it's being on the road and you kind of expect in a rivalry series, you know, on the road, that you're gonna have a tough goal of it. 6:15 And I mean, what are they, I mean, I don't know why I was looking at some of those statistics, I think somebody had put it in a newspaper article online, and I don't remember who it was, but this was like the worst goal differential in Madison since the start of this. 6:29 The thirties, I think. 6:30 Yeah, something like that. 6:31 I mean, it's like, you just don't go into it these days, especially considering that games tend to be a little bit more lower scoring as compared to the seventies or the eighties or whatever. 6:43 You don't expect that kind of goal differential these days, and yeah, that's what we got, so it's kind of shocking in that sense. 6:50 But all in all, Vegoe, obviously Wisconsin's down, but it is a nice boost for the Gophers to get some other guys scoring. 6:57 Obviously, you know, Clues has been really consistent. 7:01 Oh, jeez. 7:03 Brishtead. 7:03 Brishtead. 7:04 Well, I'm just kind of blanking on names all of a sudden. 7:08 But, you know, for Vegues, really, it's, it was at least a nice confidence booster, I would say. 7:15 Yeah, I think it was a real nice confidence booster, and I think one thing that helps them play confident is to play a shearhorn. 7:22 In that second period, it looked like Wisconsin was starting to find their legs a little bit, and they got the first goal in the second period, and it looked like they were building some momentum, and shearhorn shut them down. 7:36 Talking to the players this week, shearhorn got after his teammates and said, hey, we still got some hockey left this weekend, we got to finish it out and close it out. 7:45 Then they came out in the third period, and they scored four more goals and really shut the door on them. 7:50 So I think that was encouraging to see. 7:53 We've seen that a couple of times this year, where the Gophers haven't brought their A-game, or they've kind of let the game get away from them a little bit, and they've found their legs and gotten back into games or closed out games. 8:04 So I think with this team, it's a little bit different than some of the Gopher teams we're used to. 8:09 There's so many new players in this lineup than last year, and they've got to learn how to win and learn how to close out games. 8:16 And I think we're seeing that as we get deeper in the season. 8:19 Brodzinski, a scoring machine. 8:22 Yeah, he took that retaliation penalty, came out of the box and got a real easy one, and then pumped in two more with some wrist shots. 8:30 So he's a guy who can find the net. 8:33 It was a little surprising to see all of them go in, but he's a shooter and he gets it done with a wrist shot. 8:40 Well, that probably made Papa very happy. 8:43 Because Papa is one of those dads. 8:47 If you catch my meaning, people. 8:50 Not the greatest. 8:53 Well, he's proud of his kids. 8:54 Yeah, I know, but engaging media places on Twitter, like GPO and ECOS was tweeting a few weeks ago. 9:06 As a parent, you just kind of have to let that stuff go. 9:11 It's hard. 9:12 I imagine it is, but what can you do? 9:16 But, you know, obviously the sweep was big, but the second biggest story I'd say on the weekend is one Mr. 9:24 Witko is hit on Novak, knocking him out, literally knocking him out with a, I would call, a cheap shot up the middle, a cheap shot in the middle of the ice, I should say, eerily similar to the hit he put on Brischstedt last season at Mariucci and got suspended for. 9:44 This time he got, you know, obviously he got his one game suspension and then he got two games added on after that, but, you know, we talk about rivalries, guys, and we talk about that goon who's caused trouble in Michigan. 9:57 This Witko guy, he's something that could bring the rivalry back. 10:04 Well, I mean, you kind of would hope that, you know, if you're going to talk about a rivalry, that it's going to be the competition as opposed to cheap shots. 10:11 Yeah, but it could bring the hate back, though. 10:12 Yeah, but I get what you're saying, but I don't, you know what? 10:15 I don't even know that that is going to really do a lot. 10:18 I mean, well, I guess we'll have to see how things are at Mariucci when they come to town. 10:22 But, yeah, you know, when Wisconsin is so horrible right now, I don't know that even, you know, unless it's just like guys taking runs left and right and doing cheap crap left and right. 10:32 I mean, I don't know that a few shots here or there, as bad as that was, don't get me wrong. 10:37 I don't know if that's gonna do it. 10:39 But, you know what, it's pretty sad. 10:42 I mean, some of these guys just need to learn, you know, to control themselves on the ice. 10:47 You know, we know with the way that concussions are kind of handled in all different sports nowadays, that you just cannot take the risks anymore about taking any kind of high shots on guys, you know, shoulder to the, anywhere from the neck to the head area. 11:03 I mean, you can't do it, it's really on the, the onus is on the guy that's going to be doing the hitting, and I understand that they're not going to have any, you know, they're not going to give them any leeway anymore, it's just going to be penalized, that's it, you know, and I get it, so. 11:18 Well, Veegs, you captured audio from Don Lucia yesterday when he talked about this, and let's have a listen to what Don had to say at Media Day yesterday about, you know, these high hits, or what we'd call some cheap hits. 11:32 You, no doubt, talked to somebody in the Big Ten Offense. 11:35 Do you think they heard you about the hits last weekend? 11:40 I just talked to Steve yesterday in Piotrowski, he just told me that the suspensions were coming, and, you know, I'm going to show some clips today of three of the hits from the game, just as reminders for our guys that things you can't do. 11:55 It's a different day and age. 11:58 You know, the hit on Tommy Novak for me is probably 20 years ago, you know, it was a hit you could make. 12:04 Just like in football, I mean, you go back to the days when I grew up and Jack Tatum was patrolling the secondary and, you know, what he used to do to wide receivers, and then it became, I think, a good thing, some safety issues where you do have to protect the players, and I think the hit that we saw on Novak is a hit that needs to be taken out of the game. 12:27 The idea of hitting is to, you know, separate a player from the puck. 12:31 It's not to, you know, destroy somebody. 12:34 Obviously, that was a head hit. 12:36 But even if it wasn't, guys are bigger, they're stronger, they're faster, the equipment's more. 12:43 And so the owners, I think, to the point now, especially with what we know about concussions and player safety, that the owner should be on the player making the hit if a guy's in a vulnerable position, it's one thing to separate, it's another thing to really follow through. 13:00 And I've kind of changed my tune now, I'm seeing what's the concussion issues, and my oldest son had to quit playing because of concussions at the pro level. 13:11 I think player safety is an important issue. 13:13 I think we have that obligation. 13:15 And I talked to Tom's dad, he was great about it yesterday. 13:17 And if your parents are sitting in the stands, I mean, who wants to see their son get hit like that? 13:22 That's not what you play the game for. 13:24 And I think from a player safety standpoint, some of these hits have to be looked at where I don't care if it's a legal hit. 13:33 Should that hit take place? 13:35 Because you don't want to jeopardize somebody's career now. 13:39 And that's why I think the attitudes have changed because of that. 13:45 And I think for a good thing that hitting is part of the game, but it's interesting hitting and really taking somebody out and that could really have an impact to their career, their life, all that. 13:59 And I think we've seen that emphasis with the check from behind. 14:03 And I think these open ice hits have to be looked at. 14:06 I mean, when Nick Letty was a freshman, I mean, a guy came across and broke his jaw. 14:10 He's missed a couple months of his freshman year. 14:13 So those are the hits that really have to be looked at. 14:18 Well, guys, I know that you didn't get to hear most of that because of the way I had the audio set up again. 14:23 Obviously, I got it turned on at the end. 14:24 Vegoe, you were there yesterday when he talked about this. 14:28 Obviously, Lucia is kind of that old school guy where he talks about, you know, this wasn't really an issue when I played or even when he started coaching. 14:37 But, you know, the way the NFL is now with, you know, hitting vulnerable players, he would like to see this rule in the hockey. 14:45 What do you think? 14:45 Do you think this rule should be looked at or something looked at for this? 14:50 Well, I think it's going to be hard for him to take it to the extent that he was talking about this week. 14:56 You know, he was talking about how it's going to be like the NFL. 14:59 So if a guy's come across the middle of the rink and he's in a vulnerable position, you basically have to ease up and you can't go after him. 15:07 I think hockey is kind of one of these sports where a lot of people are saying, hey, if you're coming across the middle, you got to protect yourself rather than make the play. 15:17 I think that's going to be hard to convince his peers to go with him. 15:21 He's a guy who's had his sons come up playing the game. 15:25 Tony obviously he got that concussion at Mankato when he was playing for the Gophers and then in pro hockey he got more concussions and he had to quit. 15:33 I think now seeing Mario come up through the ranks and play hockey, he's a very protective guy now when he thinks about it that way. 15:42 Some of these other coaches, they think their players have to rub some dirt in it and recover and get back on the ice. 15:48 I think that's the mentality that goes through the sport. 15:51 He's going to have a tough time convincing his open hit stuff. 15:54 We've made a lot of strides with checking from behind and boarding, but I think this one's going to be a tougher sell. 16:00 Well, you know, you talk about selling it and obviously Eaves wasn't sold on it because he's like, well, I didn't even think that was a bad hit. 16:07 But isn't one of his sons no longer playing because of concussions? 16:12 I mean, shouldn't he be concerned about this too? 16:15 Yeah, I don't remember which one of his kids, I think that one of the sons did have some concussion issues. 16:21 And I actually, I don't know for sure, but I've always thought that Eaves himself had some issues back in the day when he had concussions. 16:29 I mean, I don't know factually if that's true, but I guess the two things that I would say is that I kind of disagree to some extent that, I mean, to me, it's like when players are coming across the middle of the ice, I mean, yeah, you should teach them to keep their head up and everything like that. 16:44 But at the same time, when you're an opposing player, it's not like you have to destroy a guy in order to knock him off the puck and create the turnover and whatever. 16:55 And I think that, to me, maybe that's more of what Lucia might be thinking about is that you can still hit guys, but you don't have to like just annihilate them in order to make the play. 17:05 And I think another part of the problem is that in the NFL and even in NHL, I mean, hello, anyhow, there's a lot of these highlights that they'll actually make DVDs. 17:22 And I mean, I was growing up, they, for the NFL especially, they would have like these big hit DVDs and they would be kind of promoting that stuff, you know. 17:31 You'd be promoting guys, just killing other guys and whatever. 17:35 And we used to see that in the NHL, too. 17:36 I mean, I don't know if they do that now because I haven't paid as much attention to that. 17:40 But I think that, you know, when you're going to hype those kinds of things up and give them airtime and whatever else, it's like, well, you know, that's what you're teaching the youth, you know. 17:51 It's like watching basketball and if all they do is show guys dunk it all the time, it's like the kids don't want to learn the fundamentals. 17:58 They want to take outside, you know what I mean? 18:00 It's like kids learn based on what they're observing. 18:03 And if you're kind of promoting a lot of that violent hits, that's kind of the way guys tend to react when they get to that level. 18:12 And I just think that that's kind of some of what we see now is that we just haven't seen that kind of emphasis on the head injuries really hit until recent years. 18:20 And maybe some of these guys just aren't quite as aware of it when they're out there. 18:24 Well, like Vegas said, I think it's going to be a tough sell. 18:27 But maybe it is an education type of thing. 18:30 I mean, obviously, you don't have to go up high to hit them there. 18:35 I mean, hit them right in the chest. 18:37 Yeah, well, I think part of it, too, is that when you're younger players, you know, you kind of feel like you're invincible. 18:44 You know what I mean? 18:44 You kind of it's almost like you think everybody out there is invincible because, I mean, yeah, you know you can hurt people, but at the same time, it's like when you're a 22-year-old kid, you think you got the world by the balls and nothing's gonna happen to you physically, you're not gonna die, you know what I mean? 18:59 It's like you don't have that mentality. 19:01 And I think once you get a little older, and especially when you're a professional, and you are actually putting other people's like livelihood at danger and whatever else because you're hitting them high and creating head injuries. 19:16 I mean, you could become a little bit more responsible, but maybe that's something that these guys need to learn. 19:21 And I think you're seeing that in the NFL. 19:23 I think D-backs are playing differently than they did 10 years ago. 19:27 And I think a lot of that is respect for the opponent and respect for the game. 19:31 It's knowing how big of an issue concussions are and the long-term impacts they have. 19:36 And so as long as the college hockey coaches can get on board with this, players will adjust. 19:43 They'll stop laying these huge head-high hits at open ice. 19:49 Well that wasn't the only bad hit that night. 19:51 Obviously we had Cavalini get busted for a check from behind. 19:55 And he got an added one-game bonus as well. 19:58 Or actually one-game bonus, one-game suspension I should say. 20:01 Funny thing is it was a check from behind on Novak. 20:04 So Novak kind of had a rough weekend. 20:06 Yeah, I mean, you know, I still to this day don't understand how some of these guys get that penalty when it's so obvious. 20:13 I mean, it's like, dude, you can see both of his numbers and you're skating up behind him and you know he's like two or three. 20:19 It's not like pinning a guy against the boards because he's like a foot away from it. 20:23 I mean, you're literally a couple feet from the boards and you know if you lay him out, he's going to go head first right into the boards. 20:29 It's like, how stupid are you? 20:30 And the thing is these days, all of those kids, all of these kids that are playing for college, played with stop signs on their back. 20:38 I mean, obviously back in our day, I don't think you had a stop sign on your back when you played Did You Veegs? 20:43 No. 20:44 So, you know, it was kind of a, was it late 90s, early 2000s thing. 20:47 So all these kids grew up with the stop sign right there. 20:51 I mean, just because the stop sign is gone, I mean, they've been doing this for, they've been playing a long time, they should know. 20:57 And I don't care if it's a Gopher, a Badger, whoever, you just can't do it. 21:02 And obviously, these kids aren't learning and maybe they do need to increase the punishment. 21:06 Because if it just keeps happening, I don't know what else to do. 21:13 Is it going to take a catastrophic injury to really get these kids to stop doing it? 21:20 You know, I don't know. 21:20 I mean, first of all, Vegas had a yield sign on his. 21:24 He didn't have a stop. 21:27 But I would say that, you know, I don't know if that's going to have anything to do with it. 21:31 I mean, we saw, you know, a lot of people around here, you know, obviously, Jack Jablonski had that bad injury. 21:37 And that was a big story around here. 21:39 But I don't know that that really, you know, I'm sure that it made people more aware for a period of time. 21:44 But I don't know that that's going to prevent anything. 21:47 Obviously, you know, it's not like Wicco, you know, didn't, I mean, he's a Burnsville kid. 21:52 So, I mean, it's not like he's not aware of Jack Jablonski and that kind of stuff. 21:56 And granted, his wasn't a hit from behind. 21:58 But nonetheless, you know, some of these guys just, I don't know if it's just like they see a rival opponent there and they just want to, you know, lose control of their mind in that second. 22:10 Or I don't know what it is. 22:11 But some of these guys, you'd think that they have their brain working a little bit more effectively in those situations. 22:17 Well, Darren on Twitter wants to know, he's thinking, what are your thoughts on coaches being suspended for players' actions? 22:27 That's a tough sell, but boy, they might stop in a hurry if that were to happen. 22:33 Yeah, I mean, I get that, but it's like, you know, I mean, to me, the only time you can, it's like fighting in the NHL when they used to, like, find coaches when it happened a certain point in the game after that or whatever. 22:46 I mean, I get that kind of stuff, because sometimes the coach actually is sending a guy out there in those situations to send a message to the opponent. 22:53 But, you know, the hitting from behind thing, a lot of times, that's just a player making a boneheaded decision in a moment. 22:59 I don't know if you can really hold a coach responsible for that. 23:01 I mean, I'm sure the coaches preach quite a bit about, you know, player safety and whatever. 23:07 It's just that players, they got to say, I mean, it's just like any other facet of coaching. 23:12 You could tell a guy, hey, you know, play your role, play your position, you know, play the system, blah, blah, blah. 23:18 But some players just start to freelance and you can't blame the coach for that. 23:21 So I don't know that I would go that far. 23:25 Yeah, Kamalini had plenty of time to make the decision about what he was doing on Saturday and he could have easily pulled off and he just chose not to. 23:33 You know, one game probably isn't enough for these guys and they all know the, you know, results of hits like that. 23:41 Everybody knows the jab story. 23:43 So you know, he's got no excuse. 23:47 I don't know what else we can do. 23:48 I mean, I hope it doesn't take someone getting, you know, injured or killed for these kids to wake up. 23:55 Obviously, that would be awful. 23:56 But I don't care who you play for. 24:00 Obviously, we support the Gophers. 24:01 But when we see Gophers do that, we give them a hard time, too, because it's stupid. 24:06 Well, I think the sealer penalty earlier this season is a perfect example. 24:10 You know, all the GPL kind of basically said, you know, that guy shouldn't be doing that. 24:16 He's got to know better. 24:17 He deserves a game penalty. 24:19 You know, everybody was on board with that. 24:21 You know, when sealer got the penalty, you saw Lucia on the bench. 24:24 He's just like, well, he got out of control there. 24:27 We'll have to kill the penalty and deal without him. 24:30 And people were even commenting this weekend that they noticed that sealer was not on the ice at the end of the game to make sure he didn't cause problems. 24:37 And it looked like one of the linesmen, a referee, also got to sealer before he could get to WITCO. 24:43 Because obviously, I love sealer. 24:45 I love how he stands up for his guys. 24:47 But he may try to kill somebody. 24:52 That wouldn't be good. 24:53 You know, on that instance, it wasn't going to be anything positive for the Gophers anyways. 24:58 When you got a lead and you're, you know what I mean? 25:01 You might as well, you know, like I said at the time, that's just tack more goals on them. 25:06 You know, if they're going to do stupid crap like that, then, you know, bury them. 25:10 So, I mean, that was the way to handle it, the way that they did, as opposed to anything else. 25:15 Yeah, like I watched Zach Parisi in the NHL. 25:18 You know, he takes a pounding, even though he's, you know, a Sioux. 25:22 You know, he reacts the right way. 25:24 He goes and tries to score goals and doesn't retaliate. 25:27 You know, I think that's the right way for hockey players to treat those situations. 25:30 I wish more players would do that. 25:34 You know, even times, you know, somebody's like, oh, you got to protect the goalie. 25:38 Yes, you need to protect the goalie, but a lot of times, you know, a guy's going to come in and slash the goalie, he's going to get called. 25:46 Your goalie is well protected. 25:48 Just keep cool, and they'll be the only ones in the box. 25:52 You won't be going into the box with them. 25:54 A lot of times, I wish players would keep their cool, but obviously, in the heat of the moment, it's tough to do, and obviously, Parisi's kind of got the skill where he's like, yep, you're going to pay for it, and I'm not. 26:05 Well, the ones that bug me are the, I mean, it doesn't happen in college so much, but the ones that bug me are in the NHL. 26:12 When you see a very obviously clean hit, it just happens to be a big hit, but it's obviously very clean, and then some teammate comes and starts a fight with the guy that had the clean hit. 26:24 It's like, dude, he had a legal hit, and you're going to start a fight over. 26:27 It's like, you know, those are the ones that really annoy the hell out of me. 26:31 I'm with you on that. 26:33 It's just like, dude, it's a part of the game. 26:35 Don't be such a Sally about it and think you have to fight just because one of your guys got hit cleanly. 26:40 It's like, one thing when it's a cheap shot, like what we saw, you know, from a hit from behind or something along those lines, that's one thing. 26:46 But when it's, everybody in the sun can see it's just a clean hit and it just happens to be, you know, send a guy to the ice or whatever, and then all of a sudden the next thing you know, two seconds later a guy gets jumped from behind, you know, the guy to hit him. 26:59 Those are the ones that to me are just ridiculous. 27:01 Well, we used to love those ballard hip checks. 27:05 I mean, in college and in the NHL, you would even see the guys in the NHL reacting to those, when they were perfect hits. 27:14 They were, you know, right at the hip, they took the guy out, no tripping, no interference. 27:20 He just went up ended in perfectly legal play, and boy, they didn't like it. 27:25 But, you know, what can you do? 27:28 It's just one of those things. 27:29 I do think on some of those plays around the net, you know, the guy who's going after the goalie oftentimes isn't even getting the penalty though, until the retaliation happens. 27:40 So, for a lot of those situations, I don't think that guy even goes to the box, unless, you know, they step up and make an issue of it. 27:46 So I think, you know, there is some valid validity to doing things like that. 27:50 It's definitely on board with you guys, though, when there's a clean hit and someone else goes after that clean hitter. 27:56 You know, that's ridiculous to me. 27:59 Well, I've even hated it at Gopher games where someone gets a clean hit on the Gophers, and the fans start to boo like crazy as if it was a cheap shot. 28:08 When it's not, I'm like, the guy made a good play, he made an awesome hit. 28:12 Why are you complaining? 28:14 Obviously, we hear that all over, but, you know, it's just, that's hockey, I guess. 28:18 I mean, what can you do? 28:21 Well, before we move on, I know we got a question here from Bonin21 from GPL who's not on Twitter. 28:26 We'll get to in a second, but before then, let's take a listen to our sponsor. 28:31 Vintage Minnesota Hockey wants you to take a step back in time and keep the memories of Minnesota Hockey heritage alive forever. 28:38 vintagemnhockey.com features history from around the entire state of Minnesota. 28:44 One feature that I enjoy on a daily basis is the This Day in Minnesota Hockey History that is on their website. 28:50 They have tons of info on what's happening on any particular day in Minnesota Hockey history. 28:56 One thing as a listener that you may be interested in is the store at Vintage Minnesota Hockey. 29:01 They offer all kinds of custom throwbacks from Minnesota Hockey and local college teams. 29:06 And as a GPL Podcast listener, you just need to enter the promo code GPL Podcast, one word, all or case to get a 10% discount on any order. 29:17 So visit Vintage Minnesota Hockey at vintagemnhockey.com. 29:23 Well, let's get to that question from Bonin21 on GPL. 29:27 Apparently, he's not on Twitter, but he wanted to kind of know about what's going on with recruiting lately. 29:32 Hammeh, he says, I'd like a recruiting update if possible. 29:36 Moroni Expectations is noterman, expected arrival of time. 29:39 Waite's performance so far this season. 29:43 And if there's any likelihood that Waite comes in next year, what do you think there, Hammeh? 29:49 I think he should know all this stuff. 29:51 He thinks he knows all this stuff already. 29:52 So what the hell does he need us answering for it? 29:56 He's the biggest. 29:57 Obviously, noterman is brand new. 30:00 Right. 30:00 That was just earlier this week. 30:02 There was someone else this week as well, wasn't there? 30:05 He's talking about Moroni, I believe. 30:07 Yeah, Moroni. 30:08 Yeah. 30:09 As far as I'm very, I'm glad that we got noterman. 30:14 I think he's a good player. 30:16 I think somebody, I don't watch him as consistently because he's in the Northern Berbs, but somebody I know that is a GPL contributor that's in the Northern Berbs and who's, I know has got a good hockey eye, he's pretty high on noterman. 30:30 He feels like he's kind of like a similar to Taylor Matson, but in a probably a little more offensive, before Taylor Matson kind of dealt with some of the injuries. 30:40 And so in his view, he expects him to be a pretty good overall player. 30:45 Maybe somebody that would be a third line type of a guy in the first half of his college career, and then move her up somewhere in the top two lines as he gets to be an upperclassman. 30:54 So I think that'll be good. 30:57 And he's got a good work ethic, and I think he's going to be a good player as he benefits. 31:03 Yeah, he gets overshadowed and blamed because a tough D is being, he's a big player and that's going to have a lot of NHL hype and everything like that. 31:12 So he gets a little overshadowed in that sense, but people tend to forget that Norderman's actually been, offensively speaking, just as productive, and it's not all because of tough D. 31:21 So I think that that's a positive moving forward for the Gophers. 31:25 He actually might be a better college player than what tough D will be. 31:29 If for no other reason, then he's probably going to be more of a three to four year type of a player. 31:34 So tough D, he might be a one to two year player. 31:37 You don't know for sure until they get him to college. 31:39 But so in that sense, he might be more of a benefit for the Gophers in the long run. 31:45 You know, as far as Maroney goes, I don't really see that as being, you know, I think it's more of a depth move. 31:52 I think that I think somebody like Waite, I don't I haven't heard anything about, you know, I know they're kind of playing it by how we put for forms in the second half of the year and all that stuff. 32:02 And obviously he's not lighting the world on fire so far this year. 32:07 So, I mean, I think that it's probably gonna be a situation where they're probably gonna backfill with some of these guys and then kind of just give somebody like Waite some extra time. 32:17 At least that would be my hope. 32:19 But I'm assuming that's probably the route they're gonna go. 32:23 Anything else going on in recruiting lately, Hammeh, for either Minnesota or other schools of note, I should say? 32:31 You mean in what terms, like in terms of pending decisions or decisions made recently? 32:35 Current decisions, whatever. 32:36 I mean obviously Vegoe, you had mentioned somebody, was it Hayne? 32:41 Yeah, Gavin Hayne from Grand Rapids, committed in North Dakota. 32:45 I know he took a visit to Minnesota earlier. 32:49 Yeah, I mean. 32:50 Did North Dakota just get the first kid born in 2000 as well? 32:54 That's who they're talking. 32:56 Well, no, I mean that's, there's been other commits from the year 2000, but that's their first commit from that first year. 33:04 You know, I mean he's a good player and I'm sure that he'll be successful. 33:06 I don't think that, you know, it's one of those things where a lot of these young guys, you know, you don't really know for sure until they, you know, get a couple more years under their belt, you know, whether you feel that you really missed on something or not. 33:18 Sometimes you do, sometimes you don't. 33:20 I mean, it's not all those young guys work out. 33:23 We've seen that here, we've seen that in other places. 33:25 So it's hard to say for sure what, you know, if any impact that's going to have. 33:32 To be quite honest with you, I don't, I mean, I don't know about you guys, but I don't pay attention to North Dakota anymore unless it's like, I mean, unless it's a recruiting thing. 33:41 I mean, I honestly, I don't even pay, I barely pay any attention to what happens with that team because they just have so little, they don't mean anything to the Gophers these days. 33:52 I mean, yeah, we'll play them again in the next year and the year after that, but I don't know, just that. 33:56 I get it, dude. 33:58 I don't even think about them really hardly anymore. 34:00 I mean, I think more about St. 34:01 Cloud or Duluth or teams that we're playing. 34:04 I don't even, it's like North Dakota, whatever. 34:06 I mean, I don't even really, unless like I said, it's a recruiting thing. 34:10 I barely even think about them these days. 34:13 Yeah, I just bring it up because Youth Hockey Hub named him in their Bantam of the Year last year. 34:17 And I understand that the Gophers have Nelson and Brinkman and a couple other guys from that year as well, I think. 34:25 But, you know, it's surprising to lose one of those guys. 34:30 Well, I mean, I don't think it's too surprising because, you know, I mean, he is Northern Minnesota, and that's not obviously a given for Gophers. 34:37 I mean, we do, we still do pretty well up there, but it's not like that's a given territory for us to always land, Grand Rapids has been pretty good to the Gophers over the years, but, you know, I think really more than anything, it just goes to show you people will talk up, you know, when we land, young guys, but if we land too many, they'll be like, are we going too young, too much? 34:59 And I don't know if I like that, and then don't know when you lose one, they're like, oh, is there something the matter? 35:04 Why he didn't pick, you know, it's like, it's kind of like we've talked about before for a coach, it's like, you're never gonna please everybody, so it's kind of funny when, you know, one slips through the cracks to another team, people tend to hit the panic button for whatever reasons, that's kind of funny. 35:20 All right, guys, well, we need to get into the North Star College Cup. 35:26 Big games this weekend for the Gophers, I mean, pairwise ways, I mean, yeah, you know, with Bemidji, not the greatest team, but they're not terrible, they could kill the pairwise for Minnesota if they don't beat Bemidji, and then possibly face most likely St. 35:42 Cloud, so let's get your thoughts on the whole weekend, guys. 35:46 This is a big weekend for Minnesota, probably bigger than for the other schools, like St. 35:51 Cloud. 35:53 Any initial thoughts there, Veegs? 35:55 No, it's definitely a huge weekend for Minnesota. 35:57 I mean, Bemidji is kind of a scary team to play in that first game, because they're an older team, and they're not gonna wow you with anything but hard work, and so that's a big game. 36:11 And then obviously, whoever they play on Sunday is gonna be important for pairwise. 36:16 If it's Minnesota State, you know, it's good to get the win over them. 36:21 If it's St. 36:21 Cloud, it's a huge opportunity for the Gophers to prove that they've improved over the last eight weeks. 36:27 Hamme, I think we need to get Connor Riley going even more. 36:31 He scored a couple goals the last few weeks, had some more points here and there. 36:37 I think it's time for him to finally wake up and contribute. 36:41 Well, man, it's been better, like you said, recently. 36:44 You know, for me, the interesting thing about the weekend is going to be, if they get to that second game against St. 36:49 Cloud, you know, what's going to be the strategy that the coaches try to employ for that game? 36:54 I mean, I said it earlier in the year when we played them that, you know, St. 36:57 Cloud's got more offensive depth this year, more firepower. 37:01 You know, it's one of those years where St. 37:02 Cloud just happens to be in the advantage in that. 37:05 Usually, it's the Gophers, but for this year, it's definitely St. 37:07 Cloud. 37:07 And you kind of have to ask yourself, OK, is the strategy going to be, especially on a smaller, you know, on an NHL rank, you know, is it going to be to kind of play more of a defensive-minded game and be a little bit more conservative? 37:20 And, you know, because if you start trying to get in a run and gun, you know, that's probably not going to play to our advantage this year, obviously. 37:26 So I'll be interested to see what kind of strategy they take. 37:30 And if, you know, they kind of take a little bit more of a conservative perspective in the game. 37:37 Well, Veegs, obviously St. 37:38 Cloud is the big team this year. 37:40 We, you know, if Minnesota beats Bemidji, it's expected we play St. 37:44 Cloud. 37:45 Motsko has obviously done a fine job up there. 37:48 You can't say enough about him. 37:50 Obviously, we hate St. 37:51 Cloud. 37:51 We kind of like Motsko. 37:52 That's kind of how it is these days. 37:54 But Veegs, they're just damn good. 37:58 Yeah, especially that power play. 38:00 Minnesota's penalty kill was just going fine this season, and then they played St. 38:04 Cloud, and all of a sudden they got lit up for a bunch of goals. 38:08 And so, you know, everybody's aware of that. 38:10 And I think the one thing about Minnesota playing St. 38:13 Cloud is you can't play too passive against this team because they've got so much scoring depth that any line of theirs can go out there and score on you. 38:22 So you can't just focus and play defense. 38:26 And when you play defense, you're going to more often than not take penalties and put them on the power play. 38:30 So I think it's really important for Minnesota to get quick transitions out of their own end, to pin Huskies up against the board and get the breakout going. 38:41 And when they're in the offensive zone, get some sustained pressure. 38:45 Don't shoot the puck wide, have it go out of the zone and have to regroup again. 38:50 Don't just shoot from anywhere to turn it over. 38:53 They're going to have to play a little bit more of a grinding game. 38:57 What about some of the other teams? 38:58 I mean, obviously Minnesota State's not a slouch team. 39:01 They've been kind of up and down this year. 39:03 And like you mentioned, Bemidji is an older team defending champions. 39:07 I mean, they came in last year when Duluth was riding high and they took care of everybody. 39:17 Well, I mean, I guess it's, you know, for me, it's hard to get too hyped up about Bemidji. 39:21 I mean, I'm not saying that they won't. 39:22 They put up def, like, you know, Vegoe said, they'll definitely put the work in and they're going to make you earn it, for sure. 39:27 That's always been their style. 39:30 But at the same time, I look at, you know, their schedule strength is 47th out of 60. 39:36 So I would say they're not exactly playing murderer's row there. 39:40 And then, you know, obviously, Minnesota state's nothing like they were prior to this year. 39:46 I mean, last year, obviously. 39:48 They were good last year. 39:49 That's why I was surprised that Bemidji won it last year. 39:53 Yeah. 39:53 So, I mean, I guess, you know, it's hard to say. 39:56 I mean, I would think it would be more than likely going to be in that, you know, second game. 40:02 That it's going to be St. 40:03 Cloud of Minnesota. 40:04 I would be surprised if it wasn't. 40:06 I think one of the big things with Minnesota state this year is their blue line just isn't as good. 40:11 You know, their defensemen aren't able to start the breakout and keep up and close tight gaps. 40:16 So I think that's the biggest thing with them compared to last year. 40:21 They are coming for you. 40:26 Well, what do you think then? 40:28 Let's just say Minnesota, St. 40:29 Cloud, Sunday afternoon, Veegs. 40:34 Does Minnesota have a chance? 40:36 It seems like we have been playing better lately. 40:37 This is obviously a good measuring stick to see the direction this team is going to go for the rest of the year. 40:44 Well, it won't end in a tie. 40:45 They are going to play NCAA rules for this event. 40:48 Which I like. 40:49 So there will be no shootouts, there will be no four on four, no three on three. 40:53 They are going to play 20-minute over times until they have a winner. 40:56 So you can't tie. 40:58 And I'm a little nervous going into this game just because of the firepower that St. 41:02 Cloud has this year. 41:04 It's fired up as I saw St. 41:05 Cloud for their series with Minnesota last time. 41:09 But on the flip side, Sheerhorns played great and he gives them a chance to win just about every night. 41:15 So I think it's going to be close, but I would give the edge to St. 41:18 Cloud. 41:19 Are you going to head down to the X this weekend, Hammeh? 41:23 I more than like, you know what, I don't know, I might because I got some stuff going on down on that side of town, but we'll see. 41:31 I don't know for sure yet. 41:32 You know, I should get you in as a meddler or the media sometime. 41:36 So then what? 41:37 So then you come hang out with us in the press box and get free food. 41:43 They do have a little bit of free food. 41:45 There are some meals in between the games this year, so that's always good. 41:49 That's always good food. 41:50 Word, I could handle that. 41:54 All right, guys, obviously, you know, I think Sunday is going to be the big test. 42:00 It's going to show, you know, if we could stay with St. 42:02 Claude, you know, whether if it is maybe a one-goal loss or an overtime loss or a win, obviously, that's positive. 42:08 They get blown out. 42:09 It might be a little time to re-evaluate the rest of the season and just kind of hope for the rest of the year. 42:14 So. 42:15 Well, I mean, I think for me, I just think I want to see, you know, definitely competitive game. 42:20 If they lose, they lose fine. 42:22 But, you know, for me, it's just it's going to be more what's the effort, how do they play? 42:27 You know, because, you know, you want to if we're going to be making the NCAAs, you know, you're going to have to feel like you can compete with the good teams this year. 42:35 And obviously St. 42:36 Cloud has proven that they're one of the better teams this year. 42:39 And, you know, I think St. 42:41 Cloud's got a lot of pressure on them this year, I think, because they remind me of kind of like Wisconsin a few years ago, where they've got a lot of senior contributors and you kind of want to take advantage during those years when you have guys that are contributing to that level that are, you know, seniors. 42:56 And if you don't, you know, you're probably going to take a step or two back, you know, the following year or two. 43:01 So you kind of want to take advantage of that when you got it. 43:05 All right. 43:05 I think that's all we have for this week, guys. 43:08 Anything else you want to talk about? 43:11 Novak has skated. 43:13 He'll be kind of a game time decision on Friday. 43:16 AJ Michelson's back and eligible for the lineup. 43:19 He's healed from his upper body injury. 43:22 Vegoe, I know you had mentioned in one of your notes, so I've talked about the starting times this weekend. 43:27 I know it's Eric Raymond's asking about it. 43:28 He's kind of like, what's up with the 1-4 start times on Saturday, probably Sunday too, but didn't Lucia kind of, he kind of addressed that today, didn't he? 43:39 Yeah, he basically just said they want to try to change it up and make it so the fans coming from outside the Twin Cities can come down without taking a half day of work off and see both games and stay maybe one night in a hotel instead of two and have to take some vacation time. 43:56 So I think they're trying to find a way to make this weekend work. 43:59 I'm a little surprised that they don't play a little bit later on Saturday and still play early on Sunday, but I think you start showing the tie between games and then you get issues too. 44:10 But they're thinking the losing team, the team that loses, the Minnesota Bemidji game, whoever loses is going to play at 1 PM the next day. 44:19 So maybe they didn't want such a short turnaround, who knows? 44:23 You know, I actually, I love the times. 44:26 I think they're perfect, so. 44:29 Yeah, and I think it will be great. 44:30 It will be a good trial run for people trying to get ready for the NCAA Regional. 44:35 Because often time you get these afternoon games for that. 44:37 So it will be a good experience for the players that way. 44:41 Well, they're just trying to help the local businesses for Saturday night, right? 44:46 All the blues and all that stuff. 44:48 You know, that's pretty legit, because by the time the game ends, it's dinner time, it's drinking time. 44:56 And it's not, you know, 9, 30, 10 o'clock at night. 44:58 So maybe they're expecting kind of a full Saturday evening down there. 45:03 Who knows? 45:04 Obviously, the parade is at, before the game, I believe on Saturday, was it noon or one o'clock, two o'clock, but there's a parade down seven. 45:12 So make sure you guys might want to get down there early or just avoid West Seventh. 45:17 Is that the one that Zwack is going to be, you know, leading? 45:20 Yeah, I think so. 45:22 So he's going to be like walking in front of everybody with his like scepter. 45:29 Oh, he's going to love it when he hears that. 45:31 Oh boy. 45:32 Oh, geez. 45:33 Well, he knows all the cute, the queens and whatever. 45:37 He's always got pictures with hot chicks. 45:39 It's unbelievable. 45:42 I went out on a date with one of the queen of, from like two or three years ago. 45:46 I can't remember what her name is off top of my head though. 45:49 She was nice, but it didn't work. 45:54 Hammy date lines up after this, so we'll have to see. 45:58 Remember, you could follow Hammy. 45:59 I don't know if he talks about his ladies on his Twitter feed. 46:01 No, I don't think he doesn't, but you can follow him at Hammy Hockey on Twitter if he lets you. 46:07 I don't know how you do that these days, but you could follow Vegoe at eVegoe on Twitter. 46:12 We're going to be back next week, hoping the Gophers come away with the North Star Cup title. 46:17 If not, we're going to recap that and preview Hockey Day Minnesota against Penn State. 46:23 Until then, thanks for listening. 46:59 You're welcome like that. 47:01 Week one, we do things. 47:02 Yeah. 47:06 Hudson must have said, yeah, we know where one of them coming in from state teams four times just in there. 47:11 Is that something you're kind of, you're putting pride on the line this weekend? 47:15 Well, it's an issue. 47:17 I mean, disappointing, obviously, that there's that state pride on the line, obviously, this weekend, and a couple teams have had our number the last year and a half. 47:28 And here's another opportunity. 47:31 You know, we played with Midgee. 47:33 Good team, very good program. 47:36 Like us, right around 500, beat some good teams and lost some games. 47:40 But they're on a very similar trajectory that we are with their January. 47:45 I think they have one loss in the month of January, and should be a good game. 47:49 And they know the defending champs, so we get the defending champs right out of the chute. 47:53 Kind of like this, that it sort of maybe is a bit of a warm-up, fairly coincidentally regional, or the timing, so and so forth? 47:58 Yeah, I mean, actually, I was talking to Bob yesterday, and he said that's the one good thing with the different times, is that that's something you do get at the end of the year, and you're not playing at 7 o'clock every Friday night. 48:09 But I think it's been good, the tournament we've had. 48:11 This is year three. 48:13 I think the teams have enjoyed it. 48:15 We're going to change the times and the days this year, just to see if that will help accommodate fans that are from outside the Twin Cities market, where you don't have to leave a half a day of work. 48:26 You don't need a hotel Friday. 48:27 So if you want to come down, maybe it's just Saturday night hotel, and you can go to two games on Saturday, and go to a couple of games on Sunday, and then head home Sunday night. 48:35 So we'll see how that works out, if it's from the fan standpoint, because that's, you know, we're trying to accommodate them the best we can. 48:42 We learned something about your goalie that maybe you guys already knew watching him go back the other day after taking that shot in the face. 48:47 You know, I'm not surprised. 48:51 I think that, you know, we've seen how competitive he's been all season long, how well he's played all season long, giving us an opportunity to win. 48:58 You know, like our team, he's growing into his role as well, and he's certainly played well this past weekend. 49:05 With a couple of years of distance now from the WCHA with the Gophers, is there any lessening of the intensity of these in-state libraries? 49:13 Um, yes and no. 49:15 I think I'd be lying if I didn't say it's a little bit different when you're not playing for points like you did within conference. 49:22 So I have sensed and felt a little different vibe to the game because of that, and not just from our perspective. 49:32 I don't know if they would say the same thing, but obviously this weekend, because you're playing for a tournament and a trophy, I think that kind of rekindles some of that a little bit this weekend. 49:41 But I mean, I think we've always been so ingrained in your own conference that there's a difference when you're playing somebody for conference points or a non-conference game. 49:54 You no doubt talked to somebody in the Big Ten offense. 49:57 Do you think they heard you about the hits last weekend? 50:01 I just talked to Steve yesterday in Piotrowski. 50:06 He just told me that the suspensions were coming. 50:10 I'm going to show some clips today of three of the hits from the game, just as reminders for our guys that things you can't do. 50:17 It's a different day and age. 50:19 The hit on Tommy Novak for me is probably 20 years ago. 50:24 It was a hit you could make, just like in football. 50:28 I mean, you go back to the days when I grew up and Jack Tatum was patrolling the secondary and what he used to do to wide receivers. 50:34 And then it became, I think, a good thing, some safety issues where you do have to protect the players. 50:41 And I think the hit that we saw on Novak is a hit that needs to be taken out of the game. 50:48 The idea of hitting is to separate a player from a puck. 50:53 It's not to destroy somebody. 50:55 Obviously, that was a head hit. 50:57 But even if it wasn't, guys are bigger, they're stronger, they're faster, the equipment's more. 51:05 And so the owner, I think, to the point now, especially with what we know about concussions and player safety, that the owner should be on the player making the hit. 51:16 If a guy's in a vulnerable position, it's one thing to separate. 51:19 It's another thing to really follow through. 51:21 And I've kind of changed my tune now. 51:25 And maybe just seeing what's the concussion issues. 51:28 And my oldest son had to quit playing because of concussions at the pro level. 51:33 I think player safety is an important issue. 51:35 I think we have that obligation. 51:37 And I talked to Tom's dad. 51:38 He was great about it yesterday. 51:39 And if your parents are sitting in the stands, I mean, who wants to see their son get hit like that? 51:44 That's not what you play the game for. 51:46 And I think from a player safety standpoint, some of these hits have to be looked at where, I don't care if it's a legal hit, should that hit take place. 51:57 Because you don't want to jeopardize somebody's career now. 52:01 And that's why I think the attitudes have changed because of that. 52:07 And I think for a good thing that hitting is part of the game. 52:12 But there's an interesting hitting and really taking somebody out. 52:16 And that could really have an impact to their career, their life, all that. 52:21 And I think we've seen that emphasis with the check from behind. 52:25 And I think these open ice hits have to be looked at. 52:28 I mean, when Nick Letty was a freshman, I mean, the guy came across and broke his jaw. 52:32 He missed a couple months of his freshman year. 52:35 So those are the hits that really have to be looked at. 52:39 There were three hits, two on Tommy? 52:42 Does that mean anything to you? 52:44 Does that say anything about the game? 52:45 No, I don't say anything about that they were targeting him. 52:50 I'm not going to go out and say that, boy, there's Tommy Novak's number. 52:54 Let's go take him out. 52:56 I don't think you... 52:57 I think in the heat of the game, when it's going on, I don't think you really consciously look at, or who am I lining up to hit? 53:07 You know, we had the same player had a, you know, hit on our guy, same type of hit a year ago with one minute to go in a five to one game. 53:13 So, you know, was he trying to do something in a six to two game at the time? 53:17 I don't know. 53:17 I can't speak for him. 53:18 I can't speak for Wisconsin's program. 53:20 I can just try to make sure I hold our players accountable. 53:23 And that's why when I show video today of some clips from the game, I start with, you know, a boarding call, a check from behind call, and the open ice hit that, you know, those are some of the things that just... 53:34 You got to be respectful of the game. 53:35 You got to be respectful of your opponent. 53:37 You've been more vocal this year than any year in the past. 53:41 Is this something that's consensus among coaches? 53:43 I don't know. 53:44 I actually did... 53:45 I think a combination. 53:46 I did talk to Steve yesterday just about that. 53:51 You know, I go back to that hit on Nick Letty. 53:53 I go back to the hit on Tommy. 53:57 I can go back to the hit on... 53:59 I think it was Kevin Weir's against North Dakota when the guy left his feet and just, you know, really took him out. 54:05 And it was penalized. 54:06 But I mean, at some point, I think the mindset has to change of, I'm going to go take somebody out versus I'm going to hit. 54:15 That's part of the game. 54:16 But I think that we have to err on the side of player safety with what we're learning, which we didn't know five or ten years ago with the concussion issue. 54:24 And I think we want to have our sport make sure that, you know, if you're a parent and your son or daughter has a choice to play ice hockey when they're six or seven years old, that you want them to choose that sport because of, you know, how it's played and growing up, not maybe let's put them in a different sport because it's become too violent. 54:43 The game has changed, like I said, because of the speed, the size, the impact, the strength training. 54:48 You know, it's not a, it's different. 54:51 And they said I've been through it with, maybe because I've, you know, see it from the parent side as well, that it's something that needs to be looked at. 54:58 And I know I'm in favor of, you know, that can be taught just like, you know, if you're deep back and a wide receiver's laying out for that pass, and you can't go and destroy them anymore. 55:08 And I think that needs to be taught the same thing in hockey as well. 55:12 But that's a hit that when a guy's in a vulnerable position, I'm not sure that it's good for our game to make that hit. 55:22 With the hit on Novak, are you preparing to play without him this weekend? 55:26 Yeah, I mean, we don't know. 55:27 I mean, he's, there's a protocol that he has to go through. 55:32 You know, there's tests that you take before the year begins. 55:36 There's, he's got to get to zero base, which I think as of now he is. 55:40 I know that he skated for 15 or 20 minutes today on his own. 55:44 We're not practicing, and that seemed to go fine. 55:46 So, there's a step by step process, and you know, if he goes through the steps, and he's able to play this week, and he'll play it if he's not, we don't know today, he's too early. 55:55 We may not know until Friday, but we're certainly not going to put him out there this weekend if he's at risk, that's for sure. 56:03 So you have a plan A, plan B there? 56:05 Yeah, I think we'll have, you know, if everything goes well today, then maybe he'll skate tomorrow, you know, without contact, and everything goes well there. 56:14 So you amp it up as the week goes on, and if there's any type of setback, then you know, shut it back down. 56:19 So it's just, you know, that, our trainer does that. 56:23 I mean, I had really nothing to do with it, and we want to make sure if Tom is going to play, that, you know, he's 100% ready to play. 56:30 It's interesting that, you know, some of the, you know, even talking to our trainer, that, you know, when you get knocked, I mean, out like he did, that it's almost better, your brain almost reboots, and rather than if you went to bed. 56:42 So it seems to be doing, you know, pretty well, which is great. 56:45 I'm happy for you. 56:46 What do you think has changed on offense these past six games? 56:49 Ah, you know, I think some pucks are going in that maybe didn't go in. 56:55 I do think we're improving. 56:58 We're making some better plays. 57:00 Some other guys are getting involved. 57:01 But, I mean, all of a sudden, you know, Justin Kloos is scoring in Hudson. 57:06 I mean, I didn't even realize it until I saw it. 57:08 And, you know, all of a sudden Hudson's got 18 points in 12 games. 57:11 And the light really went off for him. 57:14 I think he's playing terrific right now for us. 57:16 I think Justin Kloos is playing really well right now for us. 57:18 And not that they weren't before, but all of a sudden when you start to get rewarded, then you feel better about yourself. 57:24 It's easier to lead on a daily basis. 57:27 Same with Conner. 57:27 All of a sudden, Conner's got two straight weekends with a goal. 57:31 Camerata had a goal this weekend. 57:32 So some guys that we need to start scoring are scoring. 57:35 You know, we've worked hard on that part of our game with puck movement and making more plays in the offensive zone and, you know, down low. 57:43 So it's nice to see some of those things that you work on come to fruition in a game. 57:48 And I'm happy for our guys right now because it's fun to watch them make strides. 57:53 And that's what they've done throughout the course of the year. 57:56 We've talked about even early on that maybe we weren't winning games, but the guys came to work and practice every day. 58:03 And you hope at some point with so many new guys that they'll start to pay off. 58:10 It's unique because of the way the Big Ten is, is that you have all your non-conference games early. 58:15 So maybe taking some of those lumps helps prepare us for the league play. 58:18 Whereas before when you had 28 league games, you had some league games in October, some conference games maybe later on in the season. 58:25 But that's not how it works today. 58:27 But I'm happy for our guys that they've been able to stay with the process, stay engaged, come to the rink every day to get better. 58:36 And now they're starting to see some results. 58:39 What kind of an identity are you seeing emerge with the group? 58:42 You know, we're a team. 58:45 I don't think that, I said at the beginning of the year, I don't know if we have any superstars on this team. 58:50 You know, we have some good players. 58:51 But collectively, we have to be good collectively. 58:56 I think that's the big thing, whether it's our freshman going having a good game or, you know, some defensemen that maybe didn't play on a regular basis last year, stepping forward and having a good game. 59:07 When we're playing well, we're getting good goaltending, we're getting good specialty team play, and just the puck movement coming over our zone. 59:15 I mean, that's usually the telltale for me, are we getting out of our own zone efficiently and quickly and playing a quicker game. 59:22 It's just nice to see some of the guys get rewarded. 59:27 Don, is any of the data that Cal Dietz is collecting play into the decision on Tommy playing as we do? 59:32 No, that's, no, we don't use that, to my knowledge. 59:38 There's those protocols that you go through, and there's like 16 different questions and then parts to that that you get scored on. 59:47 I don't know, that's something to talk to our trainer about, but as we all know, I mean, you know, with the studies at BU now and what we're seeing, that it's a big topic of conversation, as it should be, because, you know, you can always say you can heal a broken arm or broken leg, but you really don't know what's going on inside the head. 1:00:08 And the more we can do to protect that, you know, I think the better off we are. 1:00:12 I mean, I'm a little bit old school. 1:00:14 I think our game would be better without the face mask, at least taking the cage off. 1:00:19 I think that's led to part of our problems. 1:00:22 So, you know, great, we were worried about a stitch in the chin, but what have we traded it for? 1:00:27 But, you know, I don't know if we'll ever go back. 1:00:29 But that would be, for me, I think it would be a good move. 1:00:34 How's AJ doing with his recovery? 1:00:35 AJ is back. 1:00:37 He's in a position to play this weekend. 1:00:39 So he's been cleared. 1:00:40 So he's ready to go. 1:00:41 Everybody else? 1:00:42 Yeah, I mean, other than Tommy, we'll probably have a better feel later in the week where he's at. 1:00:47 But other than that, everybody's ready. 1:00:49 Who's been getting Brodzinski to score goals? 1:00:52 Well, I gave him grief when I saw him. 1:00:55 I said, you know, I think because you came off that penalty, you didn't want to come to the bench, that retaliation penalty, because he did the same thing similar in Penn State and he never got off the bench the rest of the game in the third period. 1:01:06 So he ended up getting that goal. 1:01:08 And I think he was probably relieved because he knew he was in the doghouse a little bit. 1:01:14 Bye guys, I got to pull them so we can get everybody else in. 1:01:16 Okay. 1:01:16 Thanks Sean. 1:01:18 You got a lot of me today, holy crap. 1:01:20 Oh, I didn't even see you there, huh? 1:01:22 Are you the only one that's allowed to say, well it would be fun to play St. 1:01:25 Cloud this week, especially with the family relation? 1:01:28 Yeah, I mean, it's always fun having that rivalry with St. 1:01:31 Cloud, but I mean, you know, you just got to play it like another game. 1:01:34 I know my family is all from there, but I mean, it's just another game and it's another game that we got to win. 1:01:40 What was the catch? 1:01:41 What you all got into you the other night? 1:01:44 I don't mean on retaliation, I mean on the goals. 1:01:46 I actually have no idea. 1:01:47 They were just, I mean, just get to the puck, the net, and they just got lucky and went in, I guess. 1:01:52 You're smiling, team's smiling. 1:01:53 What's it feel like when you go on a roll like this as opposed to when it's, you know, a split, all that stuff? 1:01:59 You know, it's always fun winning, and I think our team is on a roll right now, and I think that if we keep it going, we would have a pretty good shot by the end of the year. 1:02:08 Did we learn something about your goalie that maybe you guys already knew when we see him going back in the game after taking that shot in the face? 1:02:14 Yeah, everybody knows he's a tough guy, and I think that really sends a message to the other team. 1:02:19 I mean, you know, he's always been great for us. 1:02:24 He's always given us a chance to win, and I think that, you know, after that play, we realized, like, this guy is a tough player. 1:02:30 He's a competitor, so. 1:02:32 What has changed for you guys over the past few weeks? 1:02:34 What are the main reasons for this success? 1:02:36 I think it's just our execution and our work ethic. 1:02:40 I think that, in practice, we've really been working hard, and I think that, because of that, our execution has gotten a lot better. 1:02:48 So it starts with practice. 1:02:50 Yeah, absolutely. 1:02:51 Everything starts in practice. 1:02:52 You got to get better in practice to be able to compete in a game. 1:02:56 Special teams worked pretty good last weekend, too. 1:02:57 It was nice to see the power play come around. 1:03:00 Yeah, power play has been getting a little better, and especially our PK. 1:03:03 We had a couple of penalty-killed goals in the last couple of weekends. 1:03:06 So I think that really helps us. 1:03:09 Is there anything different about a weekend format like this? 1:03:11 I mean, it almost feels more like an NCAA regional where you maybe don't know you're playing a second game. 1:03:15 Do you guys have a different feel at all? 1:03:16 Is it just two games in a weekend? 1:03:18 No, it's just we just got to treat it like another game. 1:03:20 And I mean, regardless of who we play, we got to come out and give it our best. 1:03:24 And I think if we do that, we'll have a really good shot at winning this tournament. 1:03:27 Is there a little bit of added incentive with the way things have gone against Hudson when he came in, must have said, we know we're one in ten against in-state teams. 1:03:34 I think he said it three or four times. 1:03:35 Is that kind of hanging there and maybe a little bit added fuel? 1:03:38 Yeah, I mean, maybe it's, I mean, nobody really wants to be one in ten in their state. 1:03:43 But I think that that really puts a little fire in everybody's stomach. 1:03:48 And I think that we want to get back at all the in-state teams. 1:03:51 How important is this weekend in terms of setting you up for the rest of the Big Ten season? 1:03:55 These are your last non-conference games and you may face a couple of ranked teams. 1:03:59 Yeah, it's huge. 1:04:00 I mean, every time we get a chance to play a ranked team, it's a big opportunity for us to get back in the high in the standings. 1:04:06 And I think that if we win this weekend, it'll really boost us. 1:04:12 Nice game, Saturday. 1:04:13 Thank you. 1:04:13 Thanks. 1:04:19 I'm going to ask some themes on this to the guys. 1:04:20 Last week, we'll ask you again, what's been different the last three weeks or so that all these goals are starting to come back? 1:04:25 Yeah, I guess the one thing that I can really relate to is just kind of how we've been building. 1:04:29 You know, we've been building from the beginning and everything's starting to come together. 1:04:33 You know, everybody knows the system at this point. 1:04:35 The freshmen have kind of fallen into their roles. 1:04:37 They understand where they're supposed to be on the ice, and it's just kind of building up, and yeah, it's everything coming to fruition for us. 1:04:42 How much do you guys look forward to this weekend with the opportunity that it brings to play some teams just up the road? 1:04:47 Yeah, yeah, I mean, everybody, you know, there's a lot of people out there that are talking about how we were one in ten against teams in Minnesota, so I think we're really excited and, you know, really motivated to, you know, do our best against some other in-state teams, and this weekend's a huge weekend for us. 1:05:02 Is that a little chip on your shoulder? 1:05:03 Oh yeah, yeah, we definitely take a lot of pride in, you know, trying to be the best team in Minnesota, and you know, the fact that we haven't done it in the past is not fun, so we're definitely trying to change that. 1:05:13 Now that you guys have been in the Big Ten for a couple of years, have these in-state rivalries cooled down at all? 1:05:18 Oh, no, no, we still know all those guys that are on those teams, and we grew up playing with them, there's still a lot of fire in those battles, and we're not happy that we're 1 in 10 in those games, and we want to come back and make sure we get a good weekend in here. 1:05:33 What kind of identity would you say this group is developing now? 1:05:36 I think we're just kind of culminating into kind of a group, just a group in general, I guess is kind of the best way to say it, that there's not one guy that really sticks out, that we're all trying to be like that guy, we're just trying to be one collective unit out there, and I think that's kind of something that we've started to do. 1:05:54 We're working really well as a team, and just playing as a team, and that's really big for us. 1:05:58 Did we learn something about your goalie that you guys might have already known that we get to see him get slapped in the face and lose that game 45 seconds later? 1:06:05 Yeah, I think, obviously that was a huge, I mean, he's just a tough guy, he absolutely battles and he's so competitive, and it was almost like, obviously that was very easy to see in that game, but I feel like in the Saturday game you could almost see his battle level more. 1:06:20 We kind of fell asleep in the beginning of the second game after we had a big lead and he was still battling, he was angry that we were kind of like letting off the gas a little bit and he was fired up about it and so you can really see how competitive he is and how much he battled. 1:06:33 In terms of his play now that he's got a half season under his belt, are you seeing him start to show some improvements? 1:06:39 Yeah, I mean, I thought he played unbelievable this weekend. 1:06:42 I thought he was our best player this weekend. 1:06:44 We talked about all the goals we scored, but he was outstanding. 1:06:47 I mean, that 4-0 win, he earned that shutout. 1:06:50 He was battling, he was doing everything he could to keep the puck out of that, and he did it really well. 1:06:56 St. 1:06:56 Cloud's the premier team right now in the state. 1:06:59 What makes them so good? 1:07:00 Yeah, they're just a really skilled team. 1:07:03 Everything between their passing and their skating, and everything they do is just crisp. 1:07:07 They're smooth, their power play, obviously, we had some trouble with that. 1:07:11 So that kind of goes along with their theme as a team, their ability to move the puck quickly and see passing lanes and see plays before they happen. 1:07:19 They're very good at that, and that's something that we're going to have to look at coming up this weekend. 1:07:22 Your penalty kill has been really good lately. 1:07:24 Is that a big challenge if you play St. 1:07:26 Cloud? 1:07:27 Yeah, yeah, because our penalty kill was doing really well until we played St. 1:07:30 Cloud the first time. 1:07:30 So that's going to be a focus this weekend. 1:07:33 Obviously, we got to beat Bemidji to get there. 1:07:36 Yeah, it's not necessarily that we're going to play St. 1:07:38 Cloud, but we're definitely going to look at that and take it into account. 1:07:43 What have you seen from Bemidji so far? 1:07:45 I know it's early in the week in terms of skill. 1:07:47 Yeah, as far as Bemidji, they're usually a pretty lunch pail team. 1:07:51 They're going to come at you and they're just going to keep coming. 1:07:54 They're usually pretty strong, physical, and we're going to expect that coming this weekend. 1:07:59 Yeah, keep your head up high out there and make sure you got good awareness when you're playing Bemidji. 1:08:04 You won the tournament your first year and you went winless in your second year. 1:08:08 How important is it to have a better performance this time around? 1:08:11 Yeah, definitely, especially with all the added pressure of the in-state battles that we've been dealing with lately. 1:08:16 So it's going to be huge for us and winning the first year was a lot of fun and it's a really good accomplishment. 1:08:21 So being able to have that opportunity again is fun and hopefully we can get a couple of wins. 1:08:26 What do you remember from Mankato, the two games you played against them? 1:08:30 Yeah, Mankato, they're an interesting team. 1:08:33 You know, it's weird. 1:08:34 I got one of my best buddies over there from England Lewis and he's out for the year. 1:08:38 Anyway, different story for a different time. 1:08:42 But yeah, no, Mankato, they've got a lot of older guys on their team, you know, their experience. 1:08:48 They know what to do. 1:08:48 They've been struggling a little bit here lately. 1:08:50 But, you know, I think that, you know, with the veteran crew that they have there, that they can easily turn it around. 1:08:54 And they're a team that, you know, you're concerned with if they turn it around because they have a lot of ability on that team. 1:09:00 You remember they came from behind to beat you? 1:09:02 Yeah, yeah, exactly. 1:09:03 Yeah, yeah. 1:09:05 That was not a fun game for us. 1:09:07 We don't like to remember that. 1:09:08 I think we kind of just erased that one from our memory if we could a little bit. 1:09:11 But yeah, they definitely, like I said, they have the ability to kind of bounce back and they just keep working because they're smart guys and they're old guys that have really good experience. 1:09:20 With three ranked teams, do you see more parity with the Minnesota team than in your past? 1:09:25 Yeah, I mean, obviously we always like to say that Minnesota is a state of hockey and that there's always a lot of talent here, but it's really been stepping up lately. 1:09:33 St. 1:09:33 Cloud obviously having a really good year. 1:09:35 Duluth's always been a big rival of ours and they're playing well as well. 1:09:40 And I think we really were also on the way up right now. 1:09:43 I really feel happy about how our team's playing and how we're developing and how we just keep getting better and keep getting better. 1:09:48 And it's really exciting. 1:09:52 Yeah, awesome. 1:09:53 Thanks, guys. 1:09:53 Appreciate it. 1:09:55 You too.