0:05
This is The GPL Podcast, sponsored by Vintage Minnesota Hockey, your exclusive source for throwback Minnesota jerseys.
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Visit vintagemnhockey.com Now, here's Hammy, Vigo, and your host, Jupiter.
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Thank.
0:40
Good evening, and welcome to another GPL Podcast.
0:45
Back for another episode.
0:46
This is number 98, boys, 98.
0:50
Getting close to that big 100.
0:53
And of course, I'm always joined by Hammy and Viggo.
0:56
How are you two doing tonight?
0:59
All right, and also tonight, we've got one of our most dedicated listeners, Nate Wells, from Pioneer Press, Star Tribune, SB Nation, Nate, you're everywhere, aren't you?
1:12
Ah, it seems like it these days.
1:16
Well, first things first, Nate, what did you do to Pat McAleady?
1:23
I'm not sure, I guess that's just Hammy and Pat.
1:27
I guess it is, you know, I tweeted out to you about an hour ago, about any questions, and so did Nate, and Pat was just a little bitter that you didn't say hi to him last weekend.
1:38
I mean, what's the deal?
1:40
Oh, I totally said hi to him.
1:41
He's still on the radio.
1:44
Also, I had, this is all inside press box stuff, but I moved over to the side where the radio was on for this series, and I had him right above me, so I had about two or three times where Pat gets very excited while I was covering him.
2:00
About two or three times where his line chart just dropped on me.
2:06
Yes, but it's because you're over on the important side now where the big wigs are.
2:12
That's just, us smaller people are in the left side, you're on the right side, the important people, the radio, and whoever you're filling in for that night, whether it's the Strib or the Pioneer Press, so who knows?
2:28
Well, boys, Hammy, I know you weren't as excited as the rest of us, but North Dakota did come to town a few weeks ago and have five-five tie and a two-zero shutout.
2:42
This could be good if North Dakota gets on a roll like they usually do at the end of the year, but I'll tell you one thing, the atmosphere was definitely back up to where it used to be, especially Friday night.
2:57
Well, I mean, you kinda expect that after not having an actual series scheduled, I mean, we've played them obviously a few times since the WCHA went kaput, or the old WCHA went kaput, but yeah, you kind of expected a little bit of that life, and I didn't know if it was gonna be a little bit manufactured by the media hype, sorry, Nate, but if it was gonna be one of those things or if it was gonna be genuine, and that seemed relatively genuine, so I mean, that's always nice to see.
3:29
Well, Nate, was this your first real Mariucci, Sue, or I shouldn't say Sue, North Dakota Minnesota Series?
3:38
Oh, I know, that's a bad one.
3:40
No, I didn't, no, it was there when Kyle Rudd got the winner.
3:44
Oh, okay, yeah.
3:46
Five years ago or whatever.
3:47
Really, that long ago?
3:48
Yeah, it wasn't for that.
3:51
And the one after that where it was the last.
3:53
Yeah, you were 15 then, I'm convinced.
3:55
WCHA, so, no, this was three.
3:58
I guess I've just been there that long.
3:59
So what do you think?
4:00
Good weekend?
4:02
It was fun.
4:04
I'm actually gonna go against the grain with the media hype or so that Hammey just said, but I actually, a lot of the players and even like Lucia himself kind of mentioned where they're watching YouTube videos of like past North Dakota, Minnesota series and events to kind of get them hyped and kind of just realize like, this is what the rivalry is and has been.
4:28
And honestly, it kind of felt like it was a bunch of players on both teams acting out what a YouTube version of Minnesota, North Dakota would be.
4:37
It was, all right, we're gonna go out there.
4:39
We're gonna go out and kind of be physical.
4:42
We had like three or four different rough and after the whistle pallies, like the first 10 minutes.
4:47
And that cooled down the rest of the weekend.
4:49
We're gonna have some exciting goals.
4:52
We're gonna get feisty at the end of the weekend, which also happened.
4:57
And I think you can probably speak on this more.
4:59
You can have the Dave Haxle salute by North Dakota.
5:04
But like, everything kind of felt like it was, it was two teams that hate each other because they're supposed to hate each other, not that they hate the players.
5:13
And it didn't really, like none of the players really knew too much about the other team because they're off in different conferences.
5:19
And I'm sure that will change now that the Gophers and you and D are gonna play each other for the next six plus seasons.
5:29
But yeah, for at least this one, it was good to watch and it was great to see Mariucci alive as loud as it was and have both the fan bases excited and having the dueling chance.
5:43
But for me, it felt like just something was just a little bit off.
5:47
And I think it was just that the two teams don't know each other that well yet.
5:53
And it was just that one little thing.
5:56
Otherwise, yeah, I did enjoy it.
5:58
Well, it definitely was interesting.
6:02
It was nice to hear the crowd into it.
6:05
Plenty of people yelling, let's go, Sue, because when you do that, it's so easy to make so much noise.
6:14
Veegs, what are your thoughts?
6:16
Five-five game, very exciting.
6:19
We had come back after come back from Minnesota and then a two-nothing shutout.
6:24
It was at least decent and good hockey.
6:27
Yeah, I think if you're a Minnesota fan, you're definitely energized by watching both these games.
6:32
You saw on Friday night, they didn't get very good goal timing from Eric Shearhorn.
6:36
And yet the team was still able to respond and stick to their game and keep getting goals.
6:42
I think one of the things on Saturday is they committed to helping out their goaltender a lot more.
6:48
You saw them stay really compact for most of the game, especially on their penalty kill.
6:53
They're blocking a lot of shots.
6:55
They're making North Dakota miss on their shots.
6:57
I think they've just played real solid hockey as a team, both games.
7:02
I think the big difference was goaltending.
7:04
I thought the atmosphere in the building was great.
7:06
And I think a big reason is because there are so many North Dakota fans there that Minnesota fans, who usually can be quiet, felt like they had to have a response.
7:15
And so they actually answered back when North Dakota came up with their Let's Go Sioux chance.
7:20
And I think there's a lot of energy in the building and the players had been anticipating this series for quite a while.
7:25
And I think they delivered as well.
7:28
Hamme, what do you think about Nate's point on kind of the players kind of trying to buy into the Hatred and it's not really there?
7:36
Yeah, I can see that.
7:39
I mean, let's be honest.
7:41
We've kind of talked, first of all, that even if the series does kind of ramp up again every year, it's not going to have that same meaning that it did in the past in terms of you're competing for hardware, you're trying to do something in a big picture.
7:58
Really, if we're going to be putting it in its proper perspective, it's just another series in a sense of the big picture of the season.
8:06
So it's not really the same and it just doesn't have that kind of meaning.
8:10
So I think that's part of it and I just think, yeah, when you're not consistently playing another team year in and year out and the games don't have the same kind of meaning, I can see how they would try to be, they could be trying to manufacture, for lack of a better term, some of that hatred and dislike for the other team, even though it's supposed to be a rivalry, a lot of these guys really don't know anything about it in that sense, so they only experience it based on what they saw on TV or whatever.
8:42
So I can see how it would appear to be manufactured in some respects.
8:46
Well, one thing, Vigo, that this will do good at the end of the year is pairwise.
8:53
North Dakota might be struggling a little bit right now, but they, you know, we've seen it the last 10 years, they struggle early in the year and they do much better.
9:00
And a win and a tie is gonna make a difference when it comes to the end of the year and the pairwise.
9:06
Yeah, talking to Brad Schlossman from the Grand Forks Herald after the game on Saturday, he said that was the best North Dakotas played all year.
9:15
You know, they had to overcome playing without their big defensive player, Tucker Pullman, because of injury from blocking a shot in his wrist.
9:24
And so that team had to find, you know, other guys to fill those minutes, because he played about 30 minutes for them on Friday.
9:32
They're going to be a good team.
9:33
They play in a good conference.
9:34
And I think getting a win and a tie helps Minnesota overcome their two losses in St.
9:39
Cloud State.
9:41
You know, if Minnesota can do well in the North Star College Cup against Duluth and St.
9:46
Cloud State, they're going to be in great shape pairwise, because they did well against the ECAC schools.
9:51
So even though the Big Ten might not get a lot of respect nationally, Minnesota is going to be in good shape as long as they keep playing like this.
9:59
Well, the Big Ten is doing much better this year, though, aren't they?
10:02
Yeah, everybody except Michigan State seems to be playing well.
10:05
So there's nobody who's totally losing a bunch of games.
10:09
You know, even Wisconsin's playing well.
10:11
They're playing some competitive hockey.
10:13
I think Michigan's a little down.
10:15
Ohio State's playing really well.
10:17
So the conference is going to be in better shape this year.
10:21
One thing that kind of Nate alluded to is when North Dakota was leaving the ice Saturday night, a lot of their players were not too happy with the go-for-student section and decided to give them the old hack stall salute.
10:35
Quite a few of those players, I should say.
10:36
And I kind of liked it actually.
10:39
You know, I kind of, get something going.
10:43
Get these two teams to hate each other.
10:45
Get something going against the fans.
10:47
I kind of liked it.
10:48
Nobody got a picture of it.
10:49
I didn't have my camera up and I wasn't going to stick it in their face anyway.
10:52
But I kind of liked it, Nate.
10:55
So it wasn't such a bad thing for me.
10:58
No, I almost kind of wonder if that might become a bit more regular occurrence now that the team has to leave through the Zamboni entrance and go through the student section three, four times a day or a game.
11:11
Well, I did notice one thing.
11:12
There was quite a few North Dakota fans that were standing right by the North Dakota bench waiting for them to come out Friday night.
11:20
They had no idea and then all of a sudden they came out in the end and I saw about 10 or 15 of these fans with their arms up in the air going, what's going on here?
11:28
Why are they coming out this way?
11:30
What a shame that was.
11:32
They didn't get to see their mighty fighting hawks.
11:36
Oh well.
11:37
It was also interesting because they had a roughing at the end of the game.
11:42
Ryan Lindgren and Tyson Jost kind of went scrapping and they didn't really know what to do because there was like a second left in the game.
11:49
So they didn't want to send Jost through the Zamboni entrance.
11:52
So they just go like, well, we'll tell them it's going to be decided later.
11:57
Which I've never heard before, but I've never seen what they're going to do when that happens.
12:03
It was rather odd.
12:04
I was able to determine the penalties at the end of the game.
12:06
I'm like, really?
12:07
It was pretty odd.
12:11
He just sat them both on the bench and I was like, okay, yes.
12:17
Well, they're like the gentleman's fighting the double minor of roughing, but yeah, whatever.
12:21
Yeah, well, on Twitter, I couldn't believe how many of the Fighting Hawk fans were saying Gophers were taking dives and they had the refs all weekend.
12:32
And I hate to say it, Hammy, but boy, the Hu, Su and Fok fans really don't change.
12:43
It's just nothing about whining about the refs.
12:45
I'm sorry.
12:46
It's just, this is not, it's just just real.
12:49
They just whine.
12:53
Yeah, I don't know.
12:54
I've grown so distant from that fan base as far as, because we don't see him.
12:59
I don't even care.
13:01
You know what I'm saying?
13:02
I just, we talked about it before the series and it's just like, I don't even honestly, in the past when we would be recruiting, I mean, we still recruit against them, but it just seemed like there was this, you know, this hatred and this fierce kind of wanting to beat on them and all that and everything.
13:18
And now it's like, I barely even think about North Dakota.
13:22
I don't, I just don't.
13:24
And not to be contrary to what Veegs was saying, but I'm not convinced that North Dakota is gonna be that great this year.
13:33
I think that they're pretty top heavy.
13:35
They're not getting great defensive or goaltending play.
13:40
I'm not saying they're a crap team.
13:41
I'm not gonna say they're not gonna make the NCAAs at all.
13:44
I mean, there's a long way to go, but I think people assume because it's North Dakota, because they won a national title last year, because they have maybe the top candidate for Hobie that, oh my God, they must be this great team and whatever.
13:56
I'm not convinced.
13:58
I'm just not.
13:59
I mean, to me, I'm not sure that they're gonna continually just win in the second half.
14:04
I just think that that's, because it's happened in the past doesn't mean it's gonna happen this year or next year or in the future.
14:09
I mean, so I just, to me, the jury is out.
14:13
I'm not convinced that this is some wonderful, awesome thing for the pairwise or whatever.
14:18
Maybe it will be.
14:19
I'm just, no, I'm not saying that they're gonna be bad, but I'm just saying that I don't know that it's gonna be quite the boon that some people think.
14:29
And I, somebody was saying on GPL earlier this year, oh my God, I'm gonna use this as sort of a, where are the Gophers at and how good can they be and whatever it's like.
14:38
And I'm like, dude, it's one series.
14:40
It's one series in November.
14:43
So I just feel like people get a little bit too caught up in who it is and all this stuff.
14:47
It's a new year, it's a new team.
14:49
So I'm not convinced yet that that's gonna be quite the case.
14:54
Care to respond to that, Veegs?
14:55
Is it not gonna be as big of a deal, do you think?
14:58
Well, I don't know if they're a top seed team for a regional, but I think they're a NCAA team.
15:02
Well, they will be if they make it, though.
15:04
They'll be tough to win in Fargo, I'll tell you that.
15:07
Yep, I think they're gonna be in Fargo and I think they're gonna be in the tournament.
15:10
I think a team with Yost and Vester on the same line with Gursich, you know, those guys are dangerous and they create scoring chances in zone.
15:18
They're not just an off the rush, power play only line.
15:22
That's a line that can dominate five on five.
15:24
And I think, as we've seen in the last couple of years, if you get a line, you know, Denver had a line like that.
15:30
St.
15:30
Claus had a line like that.
15:32
You know, the top teams, they can live on one line scoring tons of points.
15:36
I think North Dakota is gonna win a lot of games because of those guys playing for them.
15:41
See, I disagree mainly because the conference is going to be tough on them.
15:45
So I don't think they're gonna win quite as much.
15:47
There's not that many easy wins in that conference for them.
15:51
They might have a couple of teams that are not very good, but they're gonna be competitive.
15:56
And I just don't see it as being they're gonna go on a roll.
16:00
And the one thing about not being a top seed is that you are going to have teams capable of matching up against your top line a lot easier because they'll have the last change.
16:11
And so, yeah, I mean, you always have a puncher's chance when you get in the NCAA.
16:15
So I'm not saying that maybe they could surprise.
16:18
I'm not saying that at all, but I think when you're looking at things from the perspective of October through March, regular season and post season for their league playoffs, I'm not convinced that this is gonna be some great team or even one of their best teams from the last 10 or so years.
16:37
What looks to me in the NCHC, it's Duluth.
16:40
And then there's a lot of teams in the middle.
16:43
They're all kind of there.
16:44
I think Duluth has a lot of depth top to bottom.
16:47
They've got good defensemen who can get in the play and get them in transition.
16:51
It looks like they may have found a goalie and then everybody else has a lot of questions.
16:56
So I think North Dakota is typically a team that builds throughout the year.
16:59
And I think they'll be right in it with that league.
17:02
Nate, you want to be the tiebreaker on this North Dakota talk here?
17:07
I got a little bit more of the league there.
17:09
I think North Dakota is a good team.
17:11
They're still just with all the departures from the national championship.
17:17
It's still kind of a work in progress where, especially defensively, just they're still kind of trying to figure things out.
17:26
But being without Tucker Pullman didn't help on Saturday.
17:30
But at the same time, I think Brad Schlossman had this in one of his articles over the weekend where it's like the last seven goals that North Dakota has scored, they've given up the response in less than five minutes every time.
17:46
And there's some good things to look at them, whether it's out shooting Minnesota on Saturday, whether it's being able to play with many top teams.
17:57
The past three series have been against the number one, the number two and the number seven teams in the rankings.
18:04
And it's still kind of reflects on them if you're looking at the ridiculously early pair wise.
18:09
But they're a work in progress.
18:12
They have the capability to go on that's second half run.
18:17
It's in the guarantee no.
18:20
But there are things for Brad Berry and Company to work with.
18:23
It's kind of the same thing you can say about Minnesota with the work that's kind of been done in the growth over the past three weeks.
18:32
Well, speaking of Minnesota, and actually we have a question about Cammie here, Hammie, that I want you to listen to.
18:41
Will Cammie play Friday?
18:45
If no, how bad does he have to be, or how bad does play have to be for him to see the Ice Saturday?
18:52
This is from Eric Raymond.
18:54
Cammie obviously rode the bench Saturday against the North Dakotas.
19:02
Is his career a little bit in trouble here, or is this just kind of send a message to him?
19:08
Well, apparently he lost those pictures, those compromising pictures of Lucia or something, because finally somebody showed some balls to put the underachiever in the stands.
19:22
I don't know.
19:22
I mean, I've always tried to hope and try to give the kid the benefit of the doubt, but I just started to lose it last year with that, because I understand sophomore slumps and all that stuff, but it just, I don't know, there just doesn't seem to be the improvement, the passion, I just don't see it.
19:41
And obviously, there's finally something going on there from a coaching perspective, where we're like, okay, we got to make, somebody, I don't remember who it was, had sent me a text message before, when the lineups first came out that night, and said that, I don't know if it was Cammie's dad was probably going to have a cow that his son wasn't going to be playing, I can't even remember what the comment was.
20:06
Did you get one of those dads?
20:08
Well, I don't, I'm just saying that it was somebody that knows his dad too, so I got a kick out of it, but I mean, it was just like, all right, well, I just think that it was time, I think it's been time.
20:22
He's just unfortunately one of those players where he doesn't really fit, if he's not scoring, he doesn't really fit any particular role well, because he's not a great defensive player, he's not a checker, he's not a physical guy.
20:35
And so it's kind of like if he's not contributing really a lot offensively and he's making mistakes on the other end, it's just like you have to do something about it.
20:45
And I think players get pissed.
20:47
Look, I've heard of past captains, I think Condon, I don't remember who it was, but they were pissed at the way that he approached the game, and they made their voices known.
21:01
I'm sure Clues doesn't say anything because they played together for a long time, but past captains were not happy about the way that Cammie approached the game.
21:12
To me, your teammates say a lot about what...
21:15
They're very in tune with what guys, how they approached the game or whatever.
21:19
If they're not happy with you, it says something.
21:22
Well, Veegs, Cammie being out allowed Ryan Norman to see the lineup for the first time in a while.
21:27
How do you think Ryan did Saturday night?
21:30
You know, I thought he fit his role well.
21:33
He's going to be a gritty guy.
21:34
He's hard on pucks.
21:35
He's going to get the puck from the defensive zone across the blue line.
21:40
When he's got a chance on the rush, he's not going to commit a turnover at the offensive blue line.
21:44
And that was his role.
21:46
And he played well.
21:47
He's playing with Romanko and Ramsey.
21:49
And that's what their line does.
21:52
Cammie on the other hand, for him to be effective in the lineup, he's got to score points.
21:56
And I tried to compare the two to Lucia a little bit today, and I think I caught Lucia a little bit of a bad mood about it.
22:03
But he said that guys, when they're put in positions to score points, they've got to score points, so they're going to be on the lineup.
22:11
And so I think they're not necessarily in competition with each other for scoring points, but I think they're measured different ways.
22:18
And if Cammie's not going to score this year, it sounds like the coaching staff is going to put them in the stands.
22:25
Yikes.
22:27
Nate, what are your thoughts on old Camerata?
22:30
Yeah, just like Big said, they got ten forwards trying to get into those top nine, and if someone's not producing, there is a spot and there's a player to fit in right there.
22:43
I got to watch practice today, and it looks like Cammy was in there practicing with Cluice and Smetula up on that line, so I'm guessing he's going to probably get back in the line up after a message sent.
23:01
It was after Sarah's game, which she was openly honest about.
23:06
It was a healthy scratch.
23:08
She wasn't injured.
23:09
I feel sorry for Cluice, man.
23:15
Seriously, he's been saddled with that crap for how many years in a row now?
23:18
He's got to be going nuts.
23:20
Well, I think Cluice is one of the guys that can kind of get Cammy to engage in the game.
23:25
Cammy isn't a great skater.
23:27
He's not a quick player, but he's got a quick stick.
23:30
And so as long as he doesn't get engaged with guys, he can win pucks that way.
23:35
And he's got to do that to be effective out there on the ice because he's working with two guys who are two of the hardest workers on the team in Smitula and Clues.
23:43
So if he's going to be in the lineup, he's got to be engaged as well.
23:48
Connor Riley is kind of the guy who's been flipping between first line and fourth line.
23:52
And the messages have been sent to him too.
23:54
He doesn't have a goal yet on the year.
23:56
He just has a bunch of helpers.
23:58
So if he gets in that first spot, he's got to produce as well.
24:02
But he can play a fourth line role because he plays with a little bit more grit than Cammy does.
24:14
They put Cammy on that fourth line for the St.
24:17
Clouds series and possibly the U18 exhibition.
24:21
They sent a message to see how that works.
24:26
It worked offensively.
24:27
It worked a little bit well where he and Ramsey were going there.
24:31
But yeah, the fourth line, if they can score and they're able to add offense, it's a bonus more than anything.
24:39
Is it like a goldfish on a carpet?
24:45
They're putting those tough last minute situations where they're going to go out defensively and they're going to try to shut down the other team's offense.
24:54
And with Cammy, you never know if he's going to make a player a turnover.
24:57
And that's the problem with him on that line is that's not a rule you can play where you turn the puck over.
25:04
So he's kind of like hockey's version of Brett Favre?
25:07
Ooh.
25:10
Touchdown or interception?
25:13
Or maybe just interception.
25:14
All right.
25:17
Home-gunslinger.
25:21
More of a Jeff George maybe.
25:25
Not jumping on the pile when the fumble goes?
25:28
Right, just letting the fumble go the other direction.
25:30
Watch them run away.
25:33
Didn't his son just do that for Illinois when the Gophers played him a couple weeks ago?
25:40
Oh boy.
25:41
Wow, we got a Jeff George reference into the podcast.
25:44
That just says it all right there.
25:47
All right, guys, before we move on, we need to hear from our sponsor, Vintage Minnesota, here.
25:54
vintagemnhockey.com is a proud sponsor of the GPL Podcast.
25:59
Well, what is Vintage MN Hockey?
26:02
Well, it's kind of the place to get all of your history of Minnesota hockey, from the pros to the minors to the collegiate teams to even the high school teams.
26:12
All information about any of those teams can be found on vintagemnhockey.com.
26:17
They also have great interviews with some historical Minnesota hockey figures, like John Mayessich and Lou Nani, Glenn Sanmore, some of the greats of Minnesota hockey.
26:26
So make sure you check out those interviews.
26:28
It's a really great thing.
26:29
But as I always say, I think my favorite part is the store.
26:33
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26:40
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26:48
So make sure you visit vintagemnhockey.com and follow them on Twitter at VintageMNHockey.
26:55
All right.
26:56
Thanks to Vintage on that.
26:58
Boys, we've got some questions here, but some of them are kind of related to recruits.
27:02
So we want to get to those.
27:07
Hold on.
27:07
Let's...
27:09
Well, Tim Hapke is wondering about McManus.
27:13
Was he one of the guys who signed the Letter of Intent?
27:16
Correct.
27:17
Correct.
27:17
Well, there you go.
27:18
Let's go over those four guys.
27:20
Hammy, we've got four guys who signed Letter of Intent within the last week.
27:24
What do we know about these guys besides the obvious Eden Prairie superstar?
27:30
Well, where do you want to start, then?
27:31
I mean, you pick the guy.
27:34
Eliminate the easy one to go to first.
27:37
Come on, man.
27:39
No, you know, obviously, Middlestead...
27:42
He's been a great player for Eden Prairie.
27:44
He's leading the USHL.
27:45
Obviously, he's doing it before and after.
27:47
He's going to play with Eden Prairie this winter.
27:52
Where is he playing, then?
27:53
Where is he playing?
27:55
What's that?
27:55
Where is he playing right now?
27:59
Where is Middlestead playing right now with the USHL?
28:02
He's at Green Bay.
28:06
He just came back this week.
28:08
How does that work with school?
28:12
I believe he's taking online classes.
28:15
I've always kind of wondered that.
28:17
He'll start the season.
28:19
I'll be at school somewhere else.
28:20
He's going to start in the middle of a semester or something like that.
28:26
I've always been kind of curious.
28:27
I'm sorry to interrupt you, Ham.
28:28
I just kind of thought it came to my head.
28:31
He's obviously Mr.
28:32
Hockey all the way around.
28:34
He's going to lead Eden Prairie this year.
28:37
So he's the big guy, obviously.
28:39
But what else is there?
28:42
You mentioned McManus.
28:44
He's a good offensive player.
28:45
He's been at Omaha now.
28:47
He was at Shattuck before that.
28:50
He's a California kid, so that's sort of going to be, in that sense, a little bit of new grounds.
28:58
But he's a very good offensive player.
29:00
He's been good.
29:01
He's not a big guy, but I think that he's going to fit into that kind of...
29:05
We've seen some of these guys come in and have some early success.
29:09
I think he has a chance to have some of that kind of early success, especially when we know we're losing some veterans after this year, so hopefully he'll be able to step in.
29:17
Reedy and Napke are both USA team, their players.
29:24
Reedy's kind of been up and down.
29:26
He had very high expectations coming into the year, and he kind of didn't start off great, but he's been kind of coming on more lately, and he's certainly got a lot of upside.
29:36
So I think it's not a big class.
29:40
I think they still have to figure out a few things yet, but I think they have a good class coming in.
29:48
I'm excited about what they've got signed, at least so far.
29:50
And Veegs, Lucia talked about all these guys today, didn't he?
29:54
Yep, I got some quotes on Twitter about them, and they'll be in an interview at the end of the podcast.
30:01
One thing I thought was interesting was Lucia said, guys who signed the previous year, Garrett Waite and Sam Rossini, are still to be determined if they'll end up coming in or not.
30:11
So I think that's kind of an interesting thing to watch.
30:13
And they had Falstrom, the Swedish recruit who went back to Sweden as well, who was committed in this age group, but kind of TBD because he hasn't even signed an NLI yet.
30:26
He ain't going to come, I don't think.
30:27
I don't think he'll end up here.
30:29
I don't think that, I think Waite should defer another year because I don't think he's ready.
30:35
And Rossini is, he's got the, what is it, the knee injury?
30:39
I don't know what kind of injury he has.
30:41
Yeah, he tore his ACL in like September.
30:47
It doesn't make any sense to me to have him coming in after an injury.
30:53
I mean, I just think that they could figure out something else.
30:57
I think the biggest thing with this class is getting reading and middle set.
31:00
You know, two guys who are 200 pound centers who can play D1 hockey down the middle.
31:06
I think that's something that Minnesota lacks a lot is your true centerman.
31:10
You know, and these guys are both high end elite centers.
31:14
I think that's going to be huge for this class.
31:18
Hammey, we also had another commitment just yesterday, didn't we?
31:22
Is it Jensen?
31:28
Yeah, correct.
31:30
Very young kid, definitely very talented, very high demand type of a player.
31:38
Going to be at Eden Prairie.
31:41
So obviously be a kid that's going to be getting plenty of attention from Gopher fans as it is, given the fact that he's going to be on the same team as a big time recruit.
31:52
So, you know, it's always we've talked about this many times before.
31:57
It's always hard to totally buy in on some of these guys that are pretty young and still have a couple years minimum before they're going to even think about hitting campus.
32:08
So it's still, you know, to be determined how good he's going to be.
32:13
But a lot of demand for him.
32:15
So hopefully that's a good sign that he'll pan out.
32:19
Yeah, it's a Jack Jensen.
32:21
So I was I noticed that yesterday.
32:24
So I thought it was interesting.
32:26
I think even the university might have retweeted or something like that.
32:29
I'm not sure about him.
32:32
Yeah, they're like in favorite.
32:34
They can like and favorite now.
32:37
They can actually retweet to you because I actually they did it earlier in the year.
32:41
I think Lucia, I can't remember who did it.
32:44
And I actually asked one of the coaches, I'm like, is that kosher now?
32:49
And they said, yeah, the rules have changed and it's okay to do that now.
32:52
Yeah, I didn't know the rules had changed.
32:54
And I saw that right away.
32:55
I said, I'm like, can they do that?
32:56
And so I was I was a little curious myself.
32:59
So how are you know these damn, you know, rules change in the offseason?
33:06
You're like, what the hell?
33:07
I thought they couldn't even.
33:08
And there's a lot of ridiculous.
33:09
There's a lot of ridiculous rules, too.
33:11
It's right.
33:12
It's weird that they can acknowledge on social media, but they still can't technically acknowledge a player until they sign a NLI.
33:20
It's just the typical idiotic NCAA rules about little things like that.
33:25
Stupid.
33:28
Well, before we get into this weekend, I noticed Big Mistakes got a question.
33:33
He wants to know, what do the Gophers need to do to fill the seats on Saturday?
33:37
They can't count on 4,000 away fans like the last series.
33:42
Nate, do you think Mariusz is going to be a little bit empty?
33:45
Ah, I think at least until like the 10 minute mark, because it doesn't matter what time they start the game.
33:53
It just seems like via traffic or whatever, that fans are getting slow and are slow to get in.
34:02
And it kind of is empty at puck drop, and it fills in by about the 10 minute mark.
34:09
I don't know how well it will be.
34:11
I mean, it's not going to be...
34:14
It won't be the solid 10,000 that it was Saturday, or the Saturday before against North Dakota.
34:24
But there are Minnesota State fans in the Twin Cities.
34:29
And it seems like tickets are getting a little bit more affordable if you can swing them.
34:37
Well, Veegs, I know you had mentioned that there are a lot of tickets that need to be sold for the rest of the home games this year.
34:44
And I'm guessing this is going to be one of them.
34:47
Yeah, I mean, the season ticket base is under 6,000.
34:50
And you can look online.
34:51
They've dropped the stand-your-own ticket price for this weekend.
34:54
I think it was down to $30.
34:56
The picker packs are also down in price.
34:59
You know, the University made a lot of money on the North Dakota Series.
35:02
So now they're going to try to find ways to get fans into the building.
35:08
Well, guys, a home and home with that Minnesota State Mavericks.
35:12
I'm going to call them Mankato State because when I went to the school, that's what they were called.
35:16
Sorry, I'm going to keep calling them that.
35:21
Down there for a game, back up on Mariucci at 8 o'clock on Saturday night, another lovely conflict with football being at 2.30 again.
35:31
Hammy, obviously we've got this 1-in-14 record against Minnesota schools, and that 1 is against Minnesota State, but can they start turning it around this weekend with Mankato?
35:43
This is getting ridiculous with these Minnesota teams.
35:47
Yeah, well, I'm sure it will be a challenge.
35:53
For some reason, I've always got a kick out of this series.
35:55
I don't know how some of the fans are down there.
36:00
I know back in the USCHO days where Mote, if you remember that poster, I can't remember what the other guy from Mankato, but he used to call him Mav Stink.
36:15
This series always reminds me of some of the comedy that I used to read on the USCHO on the message board there.
36:23
Speaking of which, I haven't even been on there, I think, in a year.
36:25
I can't even remember how long it's been.
36:30
I think it should be a good series.
36:31
They've got a good team.
36:32
I think that the Gophers obviously have a pretty veteran team.
36:37
So I think it will be pretty competitive.
36:40
I don't know that I see anything.
36:41
I think it's going to be probably a split.
36:46
But it wouldn't shock me if we see something other than that, if it's a sweep on one end or the other.
36:53
You never know in these kind of, it's sort of like one of those rivalry series, even though it's not a huge rivalry.
36:59
Nonetheless, it's something that we never know when it comes to these in-state games and what's going to happen.
37:05
And so I feel it's likely going to be a split.
37:09
Nate, Minnesota has got to start winning against these other in-state schools.
37:15
Does it start happening this weekend?
37:18
Oh.
37:19
I know.
37:22
The fact that this is about the fourth or fifth time that I've had to ask players the question of, that does it in the back of your mind, that struggle in recent years against in-state teams, kind of speaks for it.
37:39
You got to think one of these times they are, and honestly of the in-state schools that they've played, the past couple of years they've matched up the best against Minnesota State.
37:52
The Mavericks are probably the least WCHA of the WCHA teams.
37:59
They're kind of a little bit more offensive.
38:04
They lost a lot of players in the past couple of years from those teams that were, that was like the number one overall a couple of years ago.
38:11
But I mean, Hastings is bringing a lot of good guys.
38:13
You still have Cole Huggins, who seems like he's in his eighth year of being out there.
38:22
But so it's the one, the one they did was down in Mankato last season.
38:27
So I think I can see them.
38:30
I can see them taking at least one of these games.
38:32
I don't know if it's down there.
38:33
I don't know if it's back up here.
38:34
I can see them sweeping.
38:37
I could see them getting swept and continuing to have to ask that question.
38:41
But it's just, yeah, it's one of those, it's one of those series where there's just, the teams just match up so well enough where it's really hard to tell.
38:50
Now, Veegs, did either you or Nate ask the players about the old one and 14 when you were at Media Day today?
38:58
We didn't quite spell it out in the one and 14 terms.
39:01
You want to get a good response instead of a guy having to climb it up.
39:06
So, you know, he introduced it in the struggles and, you know, Vinnie Lettieri says you just got to take each game one at a time.
39:12
And that's what they got to do this weekend.
39:15
I was looking back at their struggles, and Minnesota State is the one team in state that they've beat in the last 15.
39:22
And a big key for them to win these games is to kill penalties.
39:26
I looked at over these last 15 games again, in state teams, their penalty kill is only clicking at 64%.
39:32
Oh, 64%.
39:35
That's brutal.
39:37
Their power play has been fine, but it's the penalty kill that's really let them down.
39:41
So I think that's a big key for this team.
39:43
And if Gopher fans are looking for the silver lining, it's that the penalty kill has looked really good this season.
39:49
So I think that's something to keep an eye on this weekend.
39:52
I think Minnesota's power play is playing really well.
39:54
I think they're getting scoring from all lines.
39:57
That's something that hasn't happened the last three years.
40:00
I think they've got four lines that they can play.
40:02
I think their defensemen are playing better.
40:04
I know we haven't touched on Ryan Collins at all, but I thought he looked very good in the North Dakota series, taking on rushes and getting loose pucks in the defensive zone.
40:14
So I think those are some things to look for this weekend.
40:17
You know, I think the lack of talk about Collins is not such a bad thing, because you know what?
40:23
He's not making the huge mistakes that we were seeing before.
40:30
No, I think he's been better.
40:32
He gets into trouble when he tries to do too much or when he skates out of position.
40:36
He's keeping it basic.
40:38
I mean, that's all we need him to do.
40:44
That's what a good traffic cone does.
40:46
Wow.
40:50
Well, it helps to be 6'5, 2'10.
40:53
You know, that's a hard traffic cone to get around.
40:55
Veegs, who on Minnesota State should we be watching for?
41:00
Well, I think you should be looking for CJ Franklin.
41:03
You know, he's one of their drafted players.
41:06
He's their leading active scorer.
41:09
And then Parker Tuomi, he's the preseason WCHA player of the year for freshmen.
41:16
You know, he's a big recruit for them.
41:18
And he's been a little slow.
41:20
I think he's got four points so far in their first 12 games.
41:23
But he was a big scorer in the USHL last year.
41:25
Nate, are you heading down this weekend?
41:37
What?
41:37
Are you heading down to Mankato Friday night?
41:40
That is to be determined.
41:41
To be determined.
41:43
We can talk a little bit more of that off air.
41:48
Big's already heard the story.
41:51
Oh boy, it's probably something about one of the local.
41:54
We won't talk about the local papers.
41:58
Well, me and Ekas are heading down, so looking forward to it.
42:03
They're always very kind to us down there.
42:05
Your old stomping grounds?
42:08
Yes, it is actually.
42:09
Exactly.
42:12
I was there when they finally went D1, so it was good.
42:16
It was definitely good.
42:21
You didn't stick with them, dude?
42:22
Well, I was already a gopher fan before that, so that's why I didn't really stick with them.
42:29
What can you do?
42:30
We got another question here.
42:31
I see Justin B wants to know, Veegs, you might know this, is there still plans to make the Mariucci Ice smaller?
42:38
I do believe the answer is yes, but it's just a few years off, isn't it?
42:44
Yeah, I think it's the third phase of their renovation plans.
42:47
The first phase was the team area downstairs, and then I think the next phase is going to be, you know, the strength and conditioning areas and the club level stuff.
42:57
The ice is kind of that third step.
42:59
They are going to have to replace the ice plant and the refrigerant there eventually.
43:02
I think by 2020 is the goal, so I think you'll be seeing it happen a few years down the road still.
43:10
There you go.
43:12
You guys got anything else for this week?
43:15
Any other nuggets you guys heard today?
43:20
Sadak is not 100%, but he's been practicing all week without no contacts jersey.
43:29
For everybody who keeps yelling at me why they're out, why he was out on Saturday compared to Collins, there you go.
43:38
Well, people like to complain.
43:42
If people aren't complaining, that's when it's really bad.
43:47
Usually when we're complaining, people care.
43:52
As long as people are complaining, that means they care.
43:55
What can you do?
43:58
All right, Nate, we appreciate you joining us.
44:02
Everybody should read Nate's feature on Rem Pitlick if you haven't done it yet.
44:05
It was in the Pioneer Press today.
44:06
Bingo!
44:07
It was yesterday.
44:10
Yeah, it's in today's paper.
44:12
It's down the bottom of the front page.
44:14
Or you can check it out at twincities.com.
44:17
It was really good.
44:18
I enjoyed talking to him and just being able to sit down and get a better picture of him, like his decision making coming in and just growing and developing as a player.
44:31
Because when he committed, he was 5'3, 120 pounds.
44:37
And just how he's made the adjustment and how Minnesota has been using him.
44:44
It definitely seems like they're trying to work around and get him to see where he's most comfortable and have him work a little bit more on his defense.
44:53
Being out in Muskegon, he's a little more offensive oriented there where he had to puck a lot, so they didn't have to play too much defense.
45:05
Having that kind of be an adjustment period in college.
45:07
It was a really good, fun feature to do, so I highly suggest you check that out if you haven't yet.
45:17
I retweeted it, but you can also follow Nate on Twitter at Gopher State, right?
45:23
Yep, still at Gopher State.
45:28
I'm also doing a Gopher Hockey Podcast over at like 1500 ESPN with Declan Goff and a couple other people called Puck Dynasty.
45:40
We did an episode last week that basically covers North Dakota and this weekend, so we're kind of figuring out what we really fully want to do in the format and all that stuff, but that's been a lot of fun and yeah, we'll try to get Viggo or any of you guys on there, too.
45:59
Not me.
45:59
I don't want to be on.
46:00
Get Vigz on.
46:02
Get Hammy on.
46:03
Don't get me.
46:05
If you want a lightning ride, I'll be on.
46:07
Oh, come on.
46:11
Oh, boy.
46:12
Andy, you had a great top of the page at the Pioneer Press North Dakota Series, didn't you?
46:18
I did.
46:19
Yeah.
46:23
Yeah.
46:23
They're doing a good job with the gopher hockey coverage, it seems like, when I'm working there.
46:27
It's been a lot of front page and several nice features there, so it's been, yeah, I can't say enough nice things about them.
46:36
Well, you know, Rachel Blount was out for the whole weekend for the Starter Tribune for North Dakota.
46:42
Even Gonzalez was back for the Friday Nights game.
46:46
Unfortunately, neither of those papers have full-time people covering the team anymore.
46:53
Yeah, none of them were there today.
46:54
They were all over there covering the new kicker for the Vikings.
46:58
Yeah, it was me, Viggo, Drew Calves, the Minnesota Daily Beat writer, and Wally and Frank, and that was it.
47:05
It did look a little thin from the U picture this week.
47:08
Yeah, we were all down there on one side.
47:10
We got more than just Viggo's arm.
47:12
That big crowd will back up and take a big angle shot.
47:17
Like I said, we got more than your arm this time, Viggo, in the picture sent out by the U.
47:23
I can fill up a frame.
47:26
That's kind of the way for a lot of us here.
47:30
All right, well, like I said, you can see Nate.
47:33
You'll see his stuff at the Pioneer Press once in a while.
47:35
He's always on SB Nation.
47:37
Follow him on Twitter, go for state.
47:41
Obviously, if you see anything related to Pitbull, make sure you tag him on Twitter because apparently you're still the person to go with everything Pitbull, aren't you?
47:50
It's died a little, but yeah, occasionally, I'll still get people sending me that.
47:56
The little chippers has picked up more and more as the season started.
48:01
And of course, you could follow Hammy on Twitter at Hammy Hockey and Vigo on Twitter at eVigo.
48:10
We'll be back next week to recap the Minnesota State Series and then we'll take a look at what's going on another East Coast trip for the Gophers.
48:19
I want to thank Nate Wells for joining us and we'll be back again next week.
48:24
Until then, thanks for listening.
48:53
We know who the hockey reporters are.
48:56
Not at that bike express conference.
48:58
I think they're right.
49:04
What are your thoughts on the matchup this weekend?
49:07
We had a good success last year when we went down to Mankato.
49:10
We're going to follow the same routine by heading down there tomorrow night after practice and getting a good skate in the morning.
49:16
I'm sure they're going to be hungry after losing and over time and tying last weekend against Bemidji State, Mankato, obviously well coached, veteran experience, older junior guys.
49:31
They play a good skating game.
49:33
They don't give you much time and space.
49:36
Two good goaltenders.
49:37
We're going to have to obviously play well.
49:40
What makes Mike Hastings a good coach?
49:42
Well, he's been doing it a long time.
49:44
He can go back to his USHL days in Omaha, so he's been coaching for 30 years.
49:51
There's probably not a lot he hasn't seen, so his team is always very well prepared and there's not many situations he hasn't seen before.
49:59
How did you use the extra time to prepare for this weekend?
50:02
Well, what we tried to do is kind of stay with our Monday through Friday routine last week, and Friday was more of a scrimmage day.
50:11
On one of the days last week, we made it just a specialty teams day and a small game day just to try to break it up a little bit.
50:17
We did give our guys Saturday, Sunday off after a hard skate on Friday.
50:22
I thought that would be good for them to try to recharge their battery.
50:25
We had a couple of guys who went deer hunting, and that's part of what the kids want to do.
50:29
So I was fine with that and get away.
50:31
I think we've had a pretty good week of preparations.
50:33
We head in with one more day to go.
50:36
Looks like Ryan Norman and Taylor Camerad are kind of competing to be in the lineup.
50:40
What do each of them do well?
50:41
Well, I don't think that's a fair assessment.
50:44
You make decisions, but they're completely different types of players.
50:48
I don't look at them as the same type of player.
50:51
Obviously Norman's a gritty guy that's going to compete hard.
50:57
He's weighted in line.
51:00
We made a change the last game.
51:03
We wanted a little bit of how competitive that series was.
51:06
Obviously we need Cami creating offense if he's going to be successful.
51:13
He's not the lone ranger.
51:15
The guys that are putting those offensive positions, we expect them to contribute on a nightly basis.
51:21
Do you continue to work on that in-zone offense?
51:23
Yeah, it's something you work on every week.
51:26
There's areas of our game that we have to continue to get better at.
51:29
You watch a weekend and you play against a good team, whether it's our retrievals or getting good exits or D-zone coverage and then bowl the dots.
51:40
It's an area of our game that we've tried to put an emphasis on with video and everything else.
51:48
Now it's just repetition, repetition, repetition.
51:50
We're still only eight games in.
51:53
We've had since the beginning of the year a couple of open weekends.
51:56
We've played the US team and then the open weekend last weekend.
52:00
There's some teams that have played a dozen games at this point and we're sitting at eight.
52:05
Important four-game segment.
52:06
I mean, we're Mankato home and home and we're often Northeastern and BC., both good teams and you could see what we said at the beginning of the year that we have a difficult non-conference schedule and we have to continue to try to get as many wins as we possibly can right now.
52:21
Is there any difference or anything going from playing on the Olympic side to the NHL?
52:26
Yeah, I mean, we started on the NHL rink last Friday for our practice because the women didn't go and then we don't have the same length of practice time this week, but that can be good too.
52:38
You know, pretty much limited to a 75-minute time period because we have to be off at 2.30, but we've been at Ritter all week for that reason, that since they shrunk their rink, that, you know, we're used to being on an Olympic rink, so, you know, we'd rather, you know, flip it and make sure we're on an NHL-sized rink all this week.
52:53
And then, you know, we're going to go onto the road next week and be back in the same thing.
52:57
John, with the games after next week and Thanksgiving, it will be four out of 12 games only at home ice.
53:04
Is that a plus or a minus as far as preparations going forward?
53:07
Well, it doesn't make any difference as far as your preparation is concerned.
53:10
Obviously, you'd rather play at home than the road.
53:12
But this is, you know, a quirky year with the way the schedule was going to play out with teams coming back and owing people games.
53:19
So, you know, the opportunity to play the two extras up in Alaska rather than, you know, basically sitting open for a couple weekends.
53:26
So we want to try to take advantage of that as well and the opportunity to play good teams.
53:30
So it's just kind of the way it worked out.
53:32
I mean, you probably go back a lot of years to find out the last time we only had four home games through the month of November.
53:39
But that's, we knew that was the schedule.
53:41
We've been pretty good on the road so far and, you know, hopefully that can continue.
53:44
We had a couple injuries towards you in the North Dakota series, Jax Sadak's one.
53:48
Everyone healthy using the week off?
53:50
We still have a couple question marks on who will be in our lineup, but, you know, Jax looking good.
53:56
He doesn't have a cross jersey.
53:57
He's practicing on a regular basis, so we feel pretty comfortable that he'll be back in our lineup.
54:06
They announced the recruiting class for the early signing period for guys.
54:11
What are you kind of like about that?
54:12
Well, I think it's a good mix, obviously, that, you know, with Nate's only defenseman right now, we have signed.
54:19
I mean, we had, you know, a couple guys that signed their previous year that will decide whether they end up coming in or not.
54:25
You know, he's playing in Arbor.
54:27
We think he's progressed really well.
54:28
He's got good size.
54:30
He skates well, a good first pass kind of guy.
54:32
And, you know, we hope he can, you know, be one of those types of defensemen that will be a really good defender, hard guy to play against with his feet, and just has to continue to grow into his body.
54:42
But we really like the way he skates for a guy his size.
54:47
Up front, McManus is somebody we saw, obviously, from Shattuck when he was there, California kid, first Californian.
54:54
Somebody that wanted to be a golfer, grew up watching us play, and somebody that can score.
55:00
He was on our rookie team in the USHL last year, and he's got a really good head, and he thinks the game well, and he's got a great release with his shot.
55:10
Reedy and Middlestad, both bigger, both play center right now, but could obviously play wing, too.
55:17
It gives us a little more size up the middle with two guys that are 200 pounds at this stage of their development.
55:22
Obviously, Middlestad's electrifying with his speed.
55:26
He was leading the USHL in scoring.
55:28
Now he's heading back to high school at Eden Prairie and really desperately want to win a state championship, so a lot of credit to him that that's where his loyalty is, and we were obviously supportive of that, and hopefully that will happen for him.
55:41
Reedy, same thing.
55:42
He was one of those shadow kids we saw in Bannums, and very good player, good two-way center man, right-handed, which is kind of nice.
55:50
We have a couple of right-handed forwards coming in, and we think, like the rest of them, that he can help us on the power of play and play in multiple situations.
56:00
You announced the series with Minnesota Duluth last week.
56:03
You already have the series with North Dakota, and you have the Mary Uchee Classic.
56:06
How does the rest of your non-conference schedule look?
56:09
Well, we know the next couple years we have Clarkson, St.
56:13
Lawrence, OSE, two games set.
56:15
We still would like to try to get out east.
56:19
So all of a sudden with Notre Dame coming in, you got 24 league games, you're up to 30.
56:24
We still want to continue to play some of our in-state schools.
56:26
Now does that mean it's going to be St.
56:27
Cloud every year or Mankato every year with the four-year agreements?
56:32
It might be one or the other or two games with one and then the next year with others.
56:37
I think next year's schedule we have both Mankato and St.
56:39
Cloud, and on our schedule because we have Duluth and the Icebreaker next year, and that's kind of as far out as we are right now, and that's something we have to get to is how we want to schedule.
56:51
Now you start getting out in three years down the line, four years down the line.
56:55
Tickets went on sale for the North Star College Cup.
56:57
What's your perspective on that going forward?
56:59
You know what, it's been a plus and a minus.
57:02
I don't think it's ever caught on like we hoped it would.
57:05
So I think a lot of people are wondering, are we better off having home games than heading down to XL.
57:11
So that's something that's being discussed and I'm sure a decision will be made one way or the other soon.
57:17
So a week and a half, it will be two weeks out since the North Dakota series.
57:21
That was a big series for the team.
57:23
Did you notice a difference in the players on the ice and what they might have carried forward from that?
57:29
No.
57:29
I mean it's two weeks ago.
57:31
I think they were happy and obviously it was an important weekend and you can say what you want as far as that rivalry is still here and everybody else is here.
57:41
I mean that's just the fact.
57:43
And I think the fans obviously were into it and that's why it was important for us to get them back on our schedule on a yearly basis.
57:52
I think the players are happy to see it back and I think the fans are too.
57:58
Next year we'll head up to Engelsted Arena.
58:00
The year after we're out in Vegas and then we're back on the next couple of years, but I'm sure moving forward that there will be a two game set with North Dakota every year.
58:10
Did the series help your team grow?
58:12
Well, I think it forced you to play at a level that maybe gets you out of your comfort zone and whether it's a shot blocking or the extra effort that went through and the way you have to play to be successful against a good team.
58:27
So from that perspective it was good, but with the week off, the carryover, I don't know other than we'll see what happens with the puck drops on Friday night.
58:36
I watched a good chunk of the Minnesota State games last weekend and really defensive games against the Medju.
58:41
There's not going to be a lot of ice.
58:43
I think that we're back on a smaller sheet again.
58:45
We actually played pretty well up at Clarkson and St.
58:48
Lawrence on a small sheet so it can be of value to us too because you can get on people a little bit quicker, quicker strike to the net.
58:56
They do a good job of funneling pucks to the net.
58:58
Our box out game is going to be really important.
59:00
Obviously, specialty teams become a factor in these games.
59:04
It's like you look at our team.
59:07
I mean, pretty much other than one game in the last six, they've been tied in the third period.
59:11
So I would expect it to be exactly the same this weekend.
59:13
All right.
59:17
Thanks.
59:17
I guess we'll start with that.
59:20
How did you spend the week off?
59:22
It was nice to get by.
59:24
I think we got both days off.
59:25
It doesn't happen very often, but it kind of rejuvenated our legs.
59:28
And when you get back at it on Monday, I think we were all pretty refreshed.
59:33
Did this kind of come at a good time for you?
59:35
Yeah, I think definitely we were going pretty hard for a while there, so just have a little break and try to get our legs back was pretty good timing.
59:47
What were the keys to keeping the intensity up in practice this last week and just this week in general to be ready for Minnesota State?
59:54
Yeah, last week, it's kind of weird not playing a game in the weekend, but the coaches did some different things, so it wasn't just the same old.
1:00:01
We had some scrimmages and stuff, so the intensity is always there when we're battling against each other, so we had a lot of practices like that that really kept our tempo up and stuff.
1:00:11
This program's got a little history of struggling against the in-state teams.
1:00:15
What are the keys for you guys to play well against Minnesota State?
1:00:19
I would say just to stick to our game and really feed off what we did against North Dakota, I think, just to sell out.
1:00:25
If everyone works hard and we're all winning battles, I think we're in a pretty good spot.
1:00:31
Just win our battles, stick to our game, and really sell out.
1:00:35
What were the points of emphasis from the film from the North Dakota series?
1:00:40
Just some little things I think we needed to get better at.
1:00:43
There's some support things, some winning battles, some breakout stuff, and just some little things all around the ice that could be touched up on.
1:00:57
And there's some positives too, like a lot of blocked shots last weekend and stuff like that.
1:01:02
So there's a lot of things around that we can work on still.
1:01:06
Do you think blocked shots will be a big key for you guys going into this weekend?
1:01:09
Yeah, I think anytime we can get a lane and block a shot, we got it.
1:01:12
So I mean, it's always a key to win, and I think it will continue to be.
1:01:19
Moving to the smaller sheet, how does that affect your guys' game plan and your power play?
1:01:25
I don't think it changes much.
1:01:26
I mean, it's definitely moving quicker, you know, there's less time and space, so you know, just to move it fast.
1:01:32
And I think they come pretty hard on their penalty kill, so just to keep moving and look for plays right away.
1:01:39
I had a game up in St.
1:01:41
Cloud, fans were rabid in there, the place was packed, St.
1:01:44
Cloud here in North Dakota.
1:01:46
Are you going there?
1:01:46
They've been in line since Monday morning or something to buy student tickets or something.
1:01:51
Does that atmosphere charge you guys up?
1:01:54
Do you think about that ahead of time going in?
1:01:57
Yeah, it's always fun playing against the end state teams, away and home, but away is kind of fun just seeing the, you know, their student section is always there for, like, warmups and stuff, so it definitely gives a, it's fun to go around the road, you know, try to win those games and come out with a win, kind of silence it.
1:02:12
Do you go deer hunting?
1:02:15
No, not a hunter.
1:02:17
You know, anybody come back with anything, any medicine sausage?
1:02:20
I think Ramsey got one earlier this year.
1:02:22
I don't know if anyone else, Bish maybe.
1:02:28
No one seems to be bragging about it much, though.
1:02:29
Yeah, I think it's a regular thing for him, so I don't know.
1:02:34
All good?
1:02:35
All right, thanks.
1:02:36
Thank you.
1:02:38
It's been a lot of deer hunting stories.
1:02:40
What did you do on your time off?
1:02:42
I just hung out with the guys back on campus.
1:02:44
I know Bish and Kurt and some other guys went deer hunting, but finally they got something.
1:02:51
They always go in here, though, I almost got one or I almost shot one, but I'm like, I've heard that before.
1:02:56
You guys never come back with anything, but finally they got something and it was good for them, but it was good for all of us to have a bye week and get some relaxation.
1:03:05
Bringing back someone named Venison for you there?
1:03:07
Yeah, I've got to go get some soon.
1:03:09
I've sent over a couple texts to the guy, so I'll have some Vance in the next couple of days.
1:03:16
Play man Cato, each team you've kind of played before, what exactly are the points of emphasis for this weekend series?
1:03:21
It's just like any other game or any other team, we have to bring our intensity and just do what we do best and we respect everyone if you're a known one and just go out there and try to get a couple of victories out of the weekend.
1:03:32
Do you get the sense that special teams is going to be key for you guys this weekend?
1:03:37
It's been so state.
1:03:38
Yeah, that's definitely one key of emphasis that we go into every week and it's penalty killing.
1:03:43
You got to shut down the opposing team and penalty kill.
1:03:46
We got to try to get one every two power plays.
1:03:48
That's kind of our model right now just because I think we're a very skilled group and sometimes we're not going to score.
1:03:54
I mean, it's hard to score every time, obviously, or else everyone would, but there's good penalty kills out there and just the more chances you get, the more you can break down the penalty kills.
1:04:01
So we just got to get shots on that as much as we can and just go from there.
1:04:04
Your kills have been better this year.
1:04:05
What's working well for you guys?
1:04:07
I just think our details to our game.
1:04:09
I mean, we're always bringing the intensity.
1:04:11
We're always bringing the heart to every penalty kill, but the thing that messes us up and messes our penalty kill up is just the little details of where to be, where your stick should be, your body positioning.
1:04:20
So, I mean, Gennard's been working day in and day out, on and off the ice helping us out, and it's on us to listen to what he has to say and bring it to the ice every day.
1:04:28
Is it a change going to the smaller rink, your kill?
1:04:31
Uh, no, not really.
1:04:33
It's just the same intensity, same angles and stuff.
1:04:36
You just smaller ice so you get to pucks quicker, because then they're more vulnerable.
1:04:41
But the record in state opponents, is there an added emphasis this weekend?
1:04:46
I think our goal is always to be number one in the state, and we don't really worry about our pass.
1:04:51
We just worry about the games we have coming up, and in-state rivalry is always great, and I love playing Mankato, so I'm pretty excited to get up there.
1:04:58
You moved back to center and taking more draws.
1:05:00
Is that something you feel more comfortable doing?
1:05:03
Yeah, I love playing center, too.
1:05:05
I mean, it takes all three of us to win a draw.
1:05:09
I might go to the wing, and they'll help me out, but obviously I like being in the middle of the ice and getting in the puck and moving it to my wingers, so it gives me more space to be free out on the ice.
1:05:18
I'm happy where I'm at right now, whether they keep me there or move me back to wing, it's up to them, but I like where I'm at.
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