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This is The GPL Podcast, sponsored by Vintage Minnesota Hockey, your exclusive source for throwback Minnesota jerseys.
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Visit vintagemnhockey.com.
0:19
Now, here's Hammy, Vego and your host, Jupiter.
0:40
Good evening, and welcome to The GPL Podcast, and episode number 99.
0:48
Almost to that big 100, guys.
0:54
Well, hammy.
0:57
Another inconsistent weekend for the Gophers.
1:00
Obviously started Friday night with a, I would call a pathetic performance in Mankato.
1:06
And then a little better defensive effort Saturday, but I don't know, that Friday one was just awful.
1:15
Yeah, it was.
1:16
I mean, I didn't catch every minute of the game, but the parts that I did catch, I was like, yeah, I was kind of like, you know, the goals that I saw, I'm like, you, you know, it just, it looked just discombobulated.
1:29
And I, you know, I'm not surprised because I, I mean, I said coming in the weekend, it wouldn't surprise me if it was a split or whatever, although I would have liked to have seen obviously a better performance.
1:38
I don't mind a loss if the team is playing well and the other team just, you know, executes a little better or whatever.
1:45
That's one thing.
1:45
But when you kind of just show up and pretty much lay an egg for the most part, those are the ones that really bugged the hell out of me.
1:53
Now, Vegue, I spoke to you on Saturday and you had mentioned that obviously that Shearhorn was okay, but you didn't like the penalty kill at all.
2:06
No, I think, you know, the penalty kill really came to focus to me looking back at the games against their in-state rivals.
2:13
You know, it's expected that five on five it's going to be a battle.
2:17
It's going to be tough to score goals.
2:19
The Gopher power play has always been good.
2:21
But these in-state rivalry games, their penalty kill has just been horrible.
2:25
It's a combination of bad goal-tending and guys just not working as a unit on the kill to prevent scoring chances.
2:34
Again, on Friday night, you saw a couple of opportunities where Mankato was able to get the puck from the half wall to the middle of the ice, have traffic in front, making it difficult on Shearhorn and shots that aren't really a great scoring opportunity turning into goals.
2:51
And it's just frustrating to see that in a big rivalry game for a team that knows this is an issue and has spent so much time and practice working on this to come into a Friday and a big game and just not execute.
3:05
Well, I remember another thing you mentioned too is that obviously we've kind of documented recently that Shearhorn's struggling the first game of a series, but you had mentioned to me that either once or twice he was looking the wrong way around a player in front of him and just didn't really cover all that well Friday night.
3:26
Well last year in the first part of the season he struggled as well and he kind of pended on not getting set for shots and a big problem with him this year has been over anticipating plays and then just getting caught not being in position looking around screens.
3:41
You know, if you're going to be a college goaltender and you want to be elite, you have to fight through screens, you have to be able to see around screens and you have to get on your angle on top of the crease.
3:51
That's something he didn't do on Friday, but we've seen him do that in the past and I think it's just a focus issue for him.
3:58
You know, one of the things is he doesn't have a lot of competition in that.
4:02
So I think, you know, maybe he does get a little lackadaisical with his focus.
4:07
And, you know, it's cost him a couple of times on Friday night.
4:10
I mean, does some of that also come back to the defense as well, not clearing out the guys out in front of the net?
4:16
Well, on a penalty kill, you don't necessarily want one of your defenders getting tied up in front of the net.
4:21
You don't want your defenders finishing checks on the wall because it takes them away from cutting off, you know, passes across the seam or guys on the back door.
4:30
You know, if there's a guy in traffic and one of the guys comes on the back side, if you're tied up, you're not going to be able to help on that.
4:36
So the goalie is going to have to fight through screen some of the times on the penalty kill.
4:42
Hammey, you know, one thing, it wasn't just Sheerhorn Friday night or the defense.
4:49
I counted maybe a handful of quality scoring chances for the entire night.
4:55
So they just didn't show up in any area.
5:00
Yeah, I mean, it was just one of those games where it just seemed like they left, you know, some of their game is back at home.
5:08
It just didn't seem to show up.
5:10
It didn't seem to be clicking at all in any aspect.
5:13
I mean, it was one of those nights where you're just like, God, why did I just waste all that time watching it?
5:19
Because you know what I mean?
5:20
I mean, there's been those kinds of games on occasion over the years.
5:23
And it's just like, why did I just waste all that time doing that when it was so bad?
5:27
And it was one of those games where it's pretty forgettable.
5:31
I think it's nice when it is a Friday because you have that quick turnaround the next night to be able to kind of put it behind you as opposed to waiting almost an entire week to get another game going.
5:43
So in that sense, I guess it was good to have the second game the next night.
5:47
Well, both Chris Eckes and I drove down and we're at the game in person.
5:52
Mankato always does a great job.
5:54
They always make sure they have us in the building and we've always appreciated that.
6:01
It did get to the point after the game, though, that Chris and I were the only representatives of anything to do with Minnesota.
6:09
We really didn't want to go talk to Lucia after that game.
6:12
It would have been just us two and Lucia.
6:15
And I know, Vegoe, that you liked the old Periscope interview, but it would have been a little weird with the video with Periscope.
6:22
You know, Don's gotten a little softer in his old age, you know, he's 58 now.
6:26
And it's not quite as bad as it used to be as when I made my first trip to the Minnesota State and tried to get him after a game for a quote.
6:33
So, you know, he's a little more, he's got a little more perspective these days.
6:40
Yeah, well, we avoided it.
6:43
We decided to go have a beer with a bunch of other people instead.
6:46
And that was probably the better choice.
6:48
And, you know, ended up, and did end up seeing the Don in the parking ramp as I was waiting to go meet with Ekas to go have that beer.
6:58
Don comes walking up the big stairs, took one look at me, put his head back down and just kept on walking.
7:03
He wanted nothing to do with me, I'll tell you that.
7:06
I'm sure like a lot of guys, he wanted to move on to Saturday as soon as possible.
7:10
Yes, he did.
7:11
Well, let's talk about Saturday there, Veegs.
7:15
Obviously, a better defensive performance, a better performance by Shearhorn.
7:19
I don't know if he was challenged as much, but he did not let any goals in and that's pretty good.
7:25
But the one goal by Cluse, what are your thoughts on the Saturday game?
7:30
Well, I thought Shearhorn was steadier in the first period.
7:34
He made the saves he had to make.
7:36
During the second period, the Minnesota defense was awfully tight.
7:39
They only give up a couple of shots that whole period.
7:42
Then the third period, Shearhorn started getting challenged again in those first couple pucks he looked really shaky on.
7:48
But when he needed to make saves and freeze the puck the last five minutes, he was there and he came through for the team.
7:53
So it's good to see him respond.
7:55
Five on five again, we didn't see a lot of second chances.
7:59
Off the rush, Minnesota got plenty of chances, but the Mankato goalie really came through for them.
8:05
Minnesota got their only goal on one of those opportunities where they get second, third, fourth chances at the net.
8:11
I think that's something you're going to have to see how this seemed for them to get goals five on five.
8:15
This happened to come on the power play, but that's kind of the mentality I think they're going to have to get because they're struggling to get in zone offense, a lot of undone opportunities.
8:24
So that's what they're going to have to look for.
8:26
Well one thing we did hear from Shearhorn after the game was he's not a big fan of not getting any action and he really didn't have a lot of shots in those first two periods and then maybe that's why he was a little bit shaky at the beginning of the third, but then he started getting more shots, more into the game himself and that's where he kind of picked up his game.
8:46
Well I think anytime a Minnesota goalie takes the net, you're going to have stretches where Minnesota is going to dominate play and you're not going to see the puck.
8:54
It's that kind of focus and that's really the concern with Gopher goalies.
8:58
We've had so many in the past where they don't see a lot of action when they're called on to make saves, they have to come through with them or the team isn't going to be successful.
9:06
So that's something he's going to have to overcome.
9:09
I don't know if it takes Nick Laird getting a few games to kind of get his attention.
9:12
That might be something Donald Lucia has to do and it's something Lucia talked about last weekend is he, after seeing that the moment wasn't too big for Nick Laird, he really considered giving him a chance in that Saturday but knows Shearhorn does come back from that.
9:28
So I think one of these Friday nights we're going to see Nick Laird between the net.
9:32
Could be this Friday night for all we know.
9:34
I mean he wasn't terrible.
9:37
No, it could be a good spot.
9:39
Northeastern is not a great team this year.
9:41
They're on the fringe of the NCAAs but could be a good opportunity.
9:46
Yeah, I've always felt like the whole not seeing shots thing.
9:49
I mean it's like I can see you wanting to face some shots early in the game just to get you into it mentally but I mean let's be honest.
10:00
I really don't, I think if you're a goalie that's really dialed in and performing, it's like you're not, you don't care if it's only 15 shots a game or 20 shots a game or whatever.
10:14
I'd rather have it be that way than have them face 30 to 35 shots a game and feel like, oh, I'm getting lots of action so I feel comfortable.
10:22
It's like I think I'd rather have the team playing tougher defensively and cutting down the shots to 20 or so a game than have it be, oh, let me find my comfort zone by facing a million shots.
10:33
So whatever.
10:37
That's funny because that's what Sherhorn said after Saturday.
10:39
He said it's a lot easier when you see a consistent attack in 30, 35 shots a game and it's harder when you don't see the puck at all for a period and then all of a sudden the last five minutes you get a big flurry.
10:51
So I do see both sides of that coin.
10:53
Well I do but I also think that comes down to the goalies' mental toughness because if you have to be sidetracked in a sense or feel like you're in the game by facing so many shots, it's like that tells me that you're not capable of staying in the game mentally if you're not getting all that action.
11:12
And to me that's a sign of not being mentally tough.
11:16
So I don't know.
11:18
Goalies are always a weird breed in general but to me it's kind of like there should be a certain amount of mental toughness that if you're not facing that kind of consistent action you're able to rise to the occasion when you are called on.
11:34
Well we did have a question.
11:35
And I think.
11:35
Oh go ahead.
11:37
I mean I do think the mental aspect is the biggest part of playing goal.
11:40
You know Blair Walsh tremendous talent for the Vikings but he just couldn't get over that mental hiccup of kicking extra points.
11:48
Chuck Knobloch tremendous second baseman you know for the twins but just couldn't get over that mental hurdle of throwing it to first.
11:55
It's a huge part of the game that's hard to anticipate and scout and know what you have until you put him in that situation but it's something this guy's got to overcome this season and he's definitely aware of it.
12:07
You talk to him after the games and he's one of the more honest goalies out there.
12:10
He doesn't shrink from it.
12:12
He knows what he has to work on.
12:14
He's definitely honest.
12:15
I do like that about him.
12:16
He'll say, you know, last night I sucked and I kind of like that honesty from him because a lot of times in the past we never heard that.
12:25
He doesn't just say he sucked.
12:27
He says, I know why I sucked.
12:29
He says I didn't control my rebounds.
12:31
I didn't look around screens.
12:32
I didn't fight through it.
12:33
I was over reading the play.
12:35
Like he acknowledges what his mistakes are.
12:37
He works hard to overcome them.
12:39
So we'll see how he responds to this challenge over the year.
12:43
Well, Todd Anderson had a question for us early in the day, kind of talking about Sheerhorn.
12:47
He says, what's causing Sheerhorn to be so inconsistent to start the season?
12:51
A sophomore slump?
12:54
I mean, he had a good basis.
12:57
I don't know if there's an easy answer to that.
13:00
You know what I mean?
13:01
I think that some of it's, I think, the mental aspect of it.
13:04
Some of it I think is, you know, I don't know how the coaches are talking about playing time.
13:11
I don't know if he feels too comfortable.
13:15
You know, I heard a lot of positive things about some of the, about the other goalies coming into their college career.
13:22
And granted, they haven't had the opportunity to really prove anything to this point.
13:27
But I've always felt, and I said this on GPL last week, that the coaches sometimes don't change their approach soon enough.
13:38
Like it's almost like they get stuck in a certain mentality and they have a hard time breaking out, at least the head coach, since he's the one that ultimately calls the shots.
13:47
I mean, we've seen it with Cami, for instance.
13:50
I mean, it seems like it's either he's on Clu's line or it's basically nothing.
13:56
You know what I mean?
13:57
It's like, yes, there's been a few situations where that wasn't the case, but I feel like it's mostly been that way.
14:03
And sometimes I feel like they get stuck on that with the goalies over the years, too.
14:09
Like it's either all one guy are pretty much, you know, it's just one guy or that's it.
14:15
So I'd like to see a little bit more of an opportunity for some of these other guys.
14:20
If nothing better than to shake things up and maybe give the guys something to really focus on as a team.
14:27
Well, who knows?
14:28
I mean, sophomore slump, competition, you know, like you're saying, Veegs, we could see him this weekend, or at least we could see Lira this weekend for the Friday night game.
14:39
I wouldn't mind seeing that.
14:41
And it's not just something for the goalie, but it's something for the rest of the players.
14:46
I mean, Lucia can only punish so many guys.
14:50
You know, up front, in front of the Sheerhorn because he needs bodies out there.
14:54
I mean, I got the feeling from the Saturday night line up when he just completely changed everything.
14:59
I even put Maroney in there who had never seen any ice.
15:03
That Lucia is getting a little frustrated with some of the players out there.
15:07
But the thing is he can't punish them all at once.
15:11
Well, I think one of the things with Sheerhorn is one of the last games Lira played was that game against Michigan, where he came in and I think he gave up three goals, boom, boom, boom.
15:22
And that was the last time he played in a real game.
15:24
So I think that was a big concern was what do we have behind Sheerhorn?
15:28
We have no idea how they're going to react in college.
15:31
Now with the rest of the lineup, I thought Maroney looked pretty solid in his first debut as a gopher.
15:37
He brings a lot of speed, you know, straight line player, Drew Paladine, thought he was hard on the forecheck.
15:43
And that's something that if you're a new player in the lineup, you're going to have to do because Lucia has said it, I think probably three times in the last two weeks.
15:51
If you're a scorer and you're not scoring, you need to find a way to have another impact in the game.
15:56
Is it blocking shots?
15:57
Is it making hits?
15:58
Is it getting hard on the forecheck?
16:00
If you're not doing those things and you're not scoring, you're going to be on the lineup.
16:05
And he said, it's hard to take guys on the lineup who are on the first power play or keep penalty killers.
16:10
And you look at the lineup and who that applies to and Camerata is probably number one in that list.
16:16
And Lucia said today that those guys might not be in the lineup for quite a while.
16:22
It's not going to be like they're going to get another chance the next weekend.
16:25
So we might not see Camerata play until January when there's a couple of guys missing for the World Juniors.
16:32
I think you like the sound of that, Hammy, don't you?
16:35
Well, I mean, look, I've never...
16:39
I don't want to beat a dead horse, and I certainly don't want to rag on one guy, but he's definitely a guy that he came in with very high expectations, high scholarship, and we all know that he was being brought in to be a scorer.
16:57
He wasn't being brought in for any other kind of a role in his team.
17:00
Sometimes guys don't score on this level, and they're forced to almost become something else, you know, like a Taylor Matson or something like that, where you're becoming more of a third or fourth line guy, because you have other guys on the team that can take on that scoring role.
17:16
But Cammie is just not that kind of a player.
17:19
I mean, he's not a grinding type of a guy.
17:21
He's not a physical player.
17:23
He's not a great defensive player by any stretch.
17:27
He is kind of a one-dimensional kind of guy.
17:30
And if he's not providing that one dimension, it's like, yeah, why would you play him?
17:35
I mean, and frankly, to me, it should have happened before this year.
17:42
I mean, it should have happened much sooner than this.
17:45
Mid-season last year, at least.
17:46
Well, I'm just saying, you know, to me, it should have happened much sooner because maybe, if anything, it maybe would have got his attention a little more.
17:55
And the off-season, it's kind of like, well, I gotta wake up and work my ass off and or at least work harder than what he has been.
18:03
And maybe it would be a different story this year.
18:05
But when he's basically been given Cart Blanche to play on a top line with the best players and he's not necessarily pulling his weight in that sense, you're not exactly telling him, hey, get your ass in gear because he thinks he's gonna have it anyways.
18:21
And so to me, it should have been a message or something that was done much sooner than this.
18:30
I think the other factor in that is that they actually have a little bit more depth this year.
18:35
They have guys who can step in the lineup and probably do some of the things that they're looking for.
18:40
I mean, having Romanko and Ramsey make the transitions they did from their freshman to sophomore year is a huge help.
18:48
Having guys like Norman and Maruni have been able to show themselves capable in the lineup, I think that's important too.
18:55
Last year, I mean, you had a fourth line that couldn't handle themselves on the ice.
19:00
And this year, I think Minnesota has four lines that can handle themselves out there.
19:05
Well, I mean, I think, you know, in my, this is my opinion, I also believe that it's hard for a coach to admit that he put down a big bed on somebody when they were, you know, a prospect and that has failed.
19:23
It's hard to admit that, hey, I gave this guy 90% or whatever scholarship to come in and be a big score, and he's essentially flopped at doing that.
19:35
And it's hard to let go of that sometimes when you've kind of already, you know, you have those sunk costs and what you've done.
19:43
And I think that there's a part of it, I think Lucia had a hard time letting go of some of that.
19:48
That's my opinion.
19:50
And I know that that's a shared opinion from some people around the team.
19:54
So hopefully this is his way of saying, okay, I have to break away from that kind of thinking and do what's best for the team.
20:02
And even if that makes me look bad in this particular instance, so be it.
20:06
Well, one thing that the Gophers didn't have last weekend, and it was kind of a surprise for some, was that Rem Pitlick did not play the entire weekend, V.
20:17
It sounds like he's going to be back this week.
20:19
It always concerns me that people are making such a big deal out of a freshman, but he can make a difference out there.
20:25
I'd like to see him actually start scoring, but it looks like he'll be back this weekend compared to last.
20:34
Yeah, he's definitely a dynamic player on this team.
20:36
He's somebody who can make things happen off the rush.
20:39
He's got good speed, he's got good size, good release.
20:42
He's definitely a player who's going to fit in the lineup somewhere.
20:45
Now where that is, it's hard to tell.
20:48
You know, they elevated Ramsey up on the gold line on Saturday during the big lineup shake-up, but he could really end up just about anywhere.
20:57
And one of the things with this year's team is they don't have a lot of righty shots.
21:01
So that's going to be a concern as they try to fit a lineup together.
21:06
You know, the one thing I'd like to see out of him more is I'd like to see him shoot the puck more because he's really a good, he really has a good shot and there are just too many guys on the team that have way more shots than he does.
21:18
And to me that should change because we need him to be a scorer.
21:22
I mean, we saw what he did in the USHL last year.
21:26
I would like to see him shoot the puck a little bit more and be more aggressive in that sense than what we've seen thus far.
21:34
Well, hopefully that's the story he's getting from the coaches because we know he could pass, we know he could set up, but as some of us saw earlier in the season with that Snipe up in Alaska and obviously from how good he was last year, the kid can score, but you can only score if you're shooting the puck.
21:55
Well, before we move on, we've got some questions here from the gang.
21:59
Let's take a listen to our sponsor from Vintage Minnesota Hockey.
22:05
vintagemnhockey.com is a proud sponsor of The GPL Podcast.
22:10
Well, what is Vintagemnhockey?
22:12
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.
22:22
All information about any of those teams can be found on vintagemnhockey.com.
22:27
They also have great interviews with some historical Minnesota hockey figures like John Mayessich and Lou Nani, Glenn Sonmore, some of the greats of Minnesota hockey.
22:36
So make sure you check out those interviews.
22:38
It's a really great thing.
22:40
But as like I always say, I think my favorite part is the store.
22:44
The store you can buy a custom historical jersey from the Gophers or the Bulldogs or some of your favorite high school teams.
22:51
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22:58
So make sure you visit vintagemnhockey.com and follow them on Twitter at Vintagemnhockey.
23:05
All right, boys, we got some questions via Twitter.
23:09
If you're listening live or listening at any time, you can always hit us up with a question.
23:15
Just use the hashtag GPL Podcast, and we will try to get to it.
23:21
Right off the bat, Pat McAleady, yes, that Pat McAleady wants to know, who is the favorite to win the Big Ten?
23:28
Obviously, we kind of started the season saying, well, Minnesota, of course, but Vig's, Ohio State's looking pretty darn good.
23:37
Yeah, that's who Don Lucia gave his number one vote to in the Big Ten coaches' poll.
23:43
They're a veteran group.
23:44
They've got great skaters, a lot of veteran players.
23:48
They are definitely the rival to Minnesota for the Big Ten.
23:51
I still think Minnesota is the favorite for this season.
23:54
I think they just have more depth at defense than Ohio State does.
23:58
I think that will come through during the Big Ten season.
24:02
What are your thoughts on Ohio State?
24:03
Or maybe someone else is sneaking up in there for the Big Ten.
24:06
Hammeh?
24:08
Well, I mean, I guess I tend to lean towards the Gophers mainly because I know that they have the experience.
24:15
They've had the opportunity.
24:17
I mean, they've had success.
24:18
Players in this team have had success winning league titles.
24:23
I think there's something to be said for having that experience.
24:26
I'm not saying that that's going to necessarily mean they're going to be the winners, but I always tend to lean towards guys that have had that experience, and especially guys that are in leadership positions.
24:38
When you have like a guy like Clues, for instance, who I think is really a top-notch kid and top-notch leader, and having those kinds of guys to kind of take charge when you really need them, especially down the stretches, you know, who knows if the league's going to be close or not.
24:54
I mean, it kind of seems like in the Big Ten, excuse me, it's like we already know within the last few weeks who's probably going to win it.
25:02
And so it hasn't necessarily been a last weekend thing in many instances.
25:07
But I think that this team with guys like Clues at the leadership helm, I think that they're still the odds-on favorite to win.
25:15
Well, we'll definitely find out in a week when Ohio State comes to town to kick off the Big Ten schedule for this year.
25:22
I mean, they're coming for a weekend series.
25:25
And it'll, you know, sad thing is, first Big Ten series, it'll be a big series of leagues because Ohio State is kind of the other favorite.
25:33
We could put them behind the ball real quick with a, you know, a sweep or, you know, four, five, six points.
25:41
Yeah, I think it's a real important series for Minnesota.
25:43
I don't think they want to count their chickens too early on this one because they had close games with Ohio State every game last year.
25:51
All four of their regular season games are, I think, one-goal games coming down in the last minute or so.
25:57
The Big Ten Tournament game was a close one.
26:00
In Ohio State, it's a team that can skate, and if you make mistakes against them, they'll be able to capitalize.
26:06
I don't think they have the overall scoring depth that Minnesota has, but I think they have a hard-working team that's tough to play against.
26:15
It's always hard to tell within the first month or two when it comes to who has been challenged a little more, whose schedules have been, especially when you're talking about non-conference kinds of things or whatever.
26:30
And when you look at Ohio State has, as of right now, the 33rd-rank strength of schedule.
26:40
So they haven't played the hardest schedule in the world.
26:45
So to me, it's a little bit hard to necessarily read too much into anything until we start getting into the meat of the conference season.
26:52
Well, we had Mark Erickson kind of talking about the strength of schedule and pairwise.
26:56
He's wondering, you know, Big Ten Conference is decent in the pairwise.
27:00
Will it regress?
27:01
And by how much?
27:02
I mean, you know, he's got, you know, pairwise this early in the season, not always a big deal, but Penn State's number two, Ohio State eight, Minnesota 13, Wisconsin 21, Michigan 26.
27:12
And then old lowly Michigan State of 49.
27:16
Obviously, it helps for that, you know, for these teams to stay good for the entire conference and helps Minnesota.
27:23
But it's definitely going to regress, isn't it, Hammeh?
27:29
Well, I mean, I think it's always good heading into the conference season where you're going to be playing majority of, you know, in conference when you've already shown as a conference, you know, some success outside of that.
27:41
So I think they're in good shape in that sense.
27:45
It's certainly in better shape than what they've been in some prior years.
27:49
I'm not convinced we're going to be seeing Penn State as a number one seed.
27:53
And NCAA is, you know, three, four months from now.
27:56
I mean, I think that that's probably a little bit hard to believe.
28:02
And once again, that's also a strength of schedule situation.
28:05
They have the 29th rank strength of schedule.
28:08
So, I mean, I think, you know, we have to be careful.
28:11
I think in the sense that we aren't, like, saying to ourselves, oh, my God, you know, if we don't do super well in the conference, that we're totally screwed with pairwise because the conference is so weak in that sense.
28:24
It's nice that this year, it looks like it's a little bit healthier.
28:28
And maybe, you know, you do have a little bit more room for error during the conference season.
28:33
If you do tend to lose a couple of games that maybe you wouldn't normally want to.
28:41
Any thoughts, Steve?
28:42
I think last year, you know, the Big Ten did such a poor job in their non-conference schedule that it was going to be hard to get two teams out of the conference in based on pairwise.
28:54
This year, you know, they've set themselves up where they're going to be in decent shape regardless of what happens in conference.
29:00
You know, because, you know, the conference, you're going to have equal numbers of wins, losses, you know, points going that way and that way.
29:07
So, Ohio State and Penn State haven't played hard schedules, but they did take care of business.
29:13
So, I think that's set up the conference in good shape.
29:16
And, you know, I think Minnesota, as long as they can stay in those top two seeds and do well, you know, they're going to be in the tournament.
29:23
And that's been a problem in the past for Minnesota.
29:25
You know, they never took care of business.
29:27
That's why it was always so close.
29:28
They were on the edge of making the tournament.
29:30
And, you know, Penn State and Ohio State are taking care of business right now.
29:34
And, you know what, strict schedule might not be as big of a deal, but it matters.
29:41
Yeah, I think if Minnesota can take care of business against BC, you know, the number three team in the country right now, probably the best team in hockey, you know, they're going to be pretty comfortable going to the season where they don't have to win the conference title and the conference tournament to get in the NCAA tournament.
29:57
Definitely, definitely.
29:58
One more question we've got from Tim Hapke.
30:02
He wants to know, how did Szmatula end up choosing Minnesota?
30:05
Was he a teammate with a current player?
30:09
Hamme, how did Szmatula end up here?
30:13
Well, let's just say it didn't hurt that he played with guys like Clues.
30:19
You know, he's aware of that.
30:21
That was a lot of it.
30:23
I know pretty much for a fact that if Justin was going to only be around for the one year, if he wasn't going to come back for this year, I don't think Szmatula would have been a gopher.
30:35
I think that he wanted to make sure that he was going to be playing with Clues.
30:43
I'm not saying on the same line.
30:44
I'm not saying it was guaranteeing that.
30:45
But I mean, when you have guys that you really want to play alongside of, you want to make sure that they're going to be there because he had to sit out this season.
30:54
So it was important for him to make sure that he had that opportunity.
31:01
And he played in the USHL.
31:06
He was a very good player back in the day.
31:08
And so I just think that that experience and having some of those relationships with players was very important.
31:16
So that's probably a big part of it.
31:20
I think that I don't remember every single team that was in the hunt for him as he was going to be a transfer.
31:28
But I just know that that was going to be a big part of it was having some of those existing relationships and guys he felt comfortable with.
31:36
And Veegs, at media availability today, Szmatula was one of the guys who talked.
31:41
What did you hear from Szmatula today?
31:42
I mean, we'll have that audio later, but any insight?
31:46
Yeah, he had asked a couple of times about the transition from Northeastern to Minnesota.
31:50
And he's pretty cagey about the whole deal.
31:53
I get it.
31:53
He didn't want to talk badly about Northeastern at all.
31:57
But he said the coaches behind the scenes really helped him in his year off where he didn't get to play in any games.
32:03
And he was surprised how quickly his teammates brought him into the team collective.
32:09
And I think Cluse has been a big part of that.
32:11
I think without Cluse sticking around, this guy's not here and Minnesota is a completely different situation this season.
32:18
Szmatula has definitely been a big addition to this team.
32:23
He's one of those guys who's got an infectious activity around the net.
32:29
He really battles for those second, third chances and I think for this team to be successful, five on five, they need more guys playing like that.
32:37
You know, actually, I misspoke about playing together, so let me make sure that I fixed that.
32:44
That was a mistake on my part.
32:48
No, I just say...
32:49
Geez, Amy, how could you do that?
32:51
I know, I know.
32:53
But what can I say?
32:54
No, but I just know that they had existing friendships there.
32:57
Yeah.
32:58
So, that obviously, as with what we see in recruiting, that always helps matters.
33:04
It doesn't hurt matters.
33:05
Definitely does.
33:06
It definitely does.
33:07
Well, boys, it's the end of a four-year deal with Northeastern and Boston College.
33:13
After, you know, both schools coming here and us going out there one time, we finished up the four-year pact with them and we head out to Northeastern and Boston College this weekend for a Friday-Sunday match-up.
33:27
VEGs, Northeastern, you know, last year, rough start, but then they were the hottest team in the country.
33:36
What were they?
33:36
19-1 or something ridiculous to end the season.
33:41
Obviously, I don't think they're that good this year, but what do we expect from Northeastern Friday evening?
33:46
Well, they're certainly a veteran team that's going to be hard to play against.
33:52
You know, they've got a lot of returning players up front, pretty balanced overall, and they have a good power play.
33:59
You know, a lot of people make a big deal out of the penalties getting called out east.
34:04
That's something Minnesota definitely has to be worried about, because Northeastern's got a good power play, and if this is going to become a special teams battle, you know, they're going to have to have great rotations on their penalty kill if they're playing against Northeastern.
34:18
Well, the one thing I actually don't mind about that is that, you know what, when it comes to tournament time, those are the kind of referees you're going to get, those are the kind of calls you're going to get, and when we weren't playing these teams and not having these kind of reffing, a lot of times they'd go into the tournament and then just be completely blindsided by penalties.
34:38
The players will adjust, they'll know not to put their stick above, parallel, in the guy's hands and things like that, and they'll know that when they pin guys up against the boards, they've got to get off them quicker than they're used to out west.
34:52
So it is a good experience for Minnesota to play out east.
34:54
It's also a good experience for Minnesota to play against these eastern teams on the road trip, and that's something that Lucia likes to do.
35:01
I personally like seeing them play BUBC, schools like that.
35:05
And one thing Lucia did do this year, Veegs, was he made sure that he had a day off in between, unlike last year when he thought, or a couple years ago when he thought Northeastern had a little unfair advantage by not playing the previous night.
35:19
Well, it's happened multiple times when the Gophers have traveled out east, is it's the tradition for them not to play back to back games out east.
35:27
So that when schools like Minnesota schedule, they're used to playing Friday and Saturday, because that's what we do out west.
35:33
But out east, because you got like 20 schools within 100 miles of each other, you can kind of play whenever.
35:39
And BC has one small campus where they have everything real close and not a lot of parking.
35:45
So when they're a football team, basketball team, women's hockey teams playing, parking is at a premium.
35:50
So they got to make space for those teams too.
35:53
So you get the rare noon start on Sunday.
35:58
Hammy, do you have any thoughts on this weekend?
36:01
Let's start off with Northeastern.
36:05
Yes, I have tons and tons of experience watching both Northeastern and BC this year.
36:10
No, I don't have anything that I can say from an educated standpoint about either team because I frankly haven't seen them play.
36:19
The only thing that we've talked about before is that it's really nice to kind of have some of these series where you get to travel and play some of the programs that you don't see year after year after year for eons of time.
36:36
It's nice to be able to go and play in different ranks and experience some of that from a player's perspective.
36:43
And it's nice from a fan perspective when we do have the opportunity to see some of these games.
36:50
That's not meant to badmouth some of the other rivalries that we see every year, but to me it's a breath of fresh air when you do get to play some of these programs that you don't necessarily see all the time.
37:01
So that's kind of as much as anything, that's what I always look forward to when we have weekends like this.
37:07
The one thing about...
37:09
Go ahead.
37:10
The one thing about BC is you'll see them play a similar style to Minnesota.
37:14
You know, their defensemen like to get involved in the rush in the offensive zone, and they have elite NHL drafted talent.
37:22
Ryan Fitzgerald, Colin White, probably two of their best forwards.
37:25
Colin White, you'll probably see in the World Juniors this year.
37:28
So, they have a lot of talent at BC, and I think that's something that's fun to see when Minnesota plays schools like that.
37:34
You know, it's a very similar program.
37:37
They have guys who are looking to play at the next level too.
37:40
They also have zero juniors, I believe, right now.
37:45
Is it juniors or sophomores?
37:46
I think they had seven players go to the NHL last year.
37:51
And they were crap kind of freshmen, that's for sure.
37:54
I believe they had zero juniors.
37:54
I think they had a lot of early departures.
37:57
Yeah, like you said, I heard it on the radio show.
37:59
I think Lucia did say seven departures, you know, whether it's graduation or kids leaving early.
38:05
And the fact that they have no juniors at all kind of says that they lost quite a bit, but yet they just reload.
38:16
The one thing we thought, we haven't seen Minnesota reload in a long time.
38:23
Well, I mean, they are definitely one of those programs that recruit very well, especially, you know, just all over the place.
38:32
They do a very good job recruiting.
38:34
BC is just one of those schools that they're able to pluck kids out of Canada and other locations that, you know, I mean, if we're honest, we know that the Gophers, because of the way that, you know, the state is built being such a hockey hotbed, I mean, they tend to focus the vast majority of their attention on the local products, and there's good and bad to that.
39:00
I mean, we're obviously not going to ever, at least at this point, make a living off of trying to recruit in Canada and other places like BC or some of these other schools do.
39:11
But then again, we don't really have to in many respects.
39:15
It's nice to supplement when the opportunity is there.
39:19
So it's a little bit different recruiting philosophy.
39:22
They're more of a kind of a national and Canadian kind of ability to recruit.
39:30
But I think that the Gophers don't have to rely on that quite the same way that a school like BC does.
39:35
Not that Boston's not a great hockey place to play, but I just think that the Gophers have a lot more opportunity here for local kids.
39:44
I do think that one of the things with the school like BC is they have more of the mercenary kid.
39:50
They have the kid who plays on a select team, a drafted USHL team, something like that all the way through.
39:57
Whereas Minnesota, you get guys like Clues who have strong ties to their hockey community in Lakeville.
40:02
You get a guy like Casey Middlestad will be coming in.
40:06
Who wants to win a site title?
40:07
He's got a lot of that loyalty.
40:09
I think that's something you see in Minnesota that you don't see in a lot of these other programs.
40:14
And you hope that loyalty transfers over to your own team.
40:18
Well, I mean, some of that, too, is the philosophy change that the coaches made several years ago with the types of kids they're recruiting.
40:25
I mean, they still recruited some of the high end guys.
40:28
But we know that they kind of went for guys that looked to be more of a four year type of a player because they did get burned with that kind of mercenary situation with those classes with the Oak Posos and the Kessels and Jim O'Brien bailing after a year and, you know, they got burned by that pretty good, Eric Johnson and granted some of those guys legitimately made the right choice as far as leaving because they played pro NHL pretty quickly.
40:58
But nonetheless, it comes down to philosophy in some respects, too.
41:04
There's Nate Wells stepping up with facts again.
41:07
BC lost seven underclassmen from last year's team.
41:12
So that would usually kill any squad.
41:18
But not BC.
41:19
They're still top five team.
41:23
That's tough to compete with, guys.
41:27
Yeah, well, we're only in November, too, so we got to remember that.
41:32
Well, you know, a couple of years ago, they did go to BC and pretty much handled them pretty well.
41:39
What, they put up five on Demco?
41:42
It was an ugly night for the old Thatcher Demco and goal for BC.
41:46
Hopefully we could repeat that.
41:49
One thing that's people are starting to get used to is that there's obviously not as much games on TV this year.
41:59
This weekend, the Northeastern Feed is a free video feed.
42:03
I've got that link up on GPL.
42:05
Go to pucklive.com/media.
42:07
There will be a little icon there for the Northeastern Feed.
42:10
There will also be a link to the BC Feed, which is not free.
42:15
It's paid, but after this weekend, every single game for the rest of the year is on TV.
42:21
So please don't complain.
42:23
We still have it way better than any other school.
42:25
It's not even close.
42:28
And especially, I think every game has been available this year already.
42:34
If you wanted to see a game, you could.
42:35
You could either pay for a stream, or there was a lot of free streams out there for video.
42:42
So it's tough to complain.
42:44
But relax.
42:47
The rest of the year, everything's on TV, starting next week on the Big Ten Network against Ohio State.
42:53
So you just have to get through a couple more games.
42:56
Sometimes it's streaming, and then everything will be just fine.
43:00
Yeah, I think the only really annoying one was Saturday.
43:03
Having a home game at Mariucci, to me that's...
43:09
I sort of understand these road games and ranks that don't typically have that TV broadcast.
43:17
I get some of that.
43:18
When you're in Alaska, even though they do have...
43:20
We've seen Alaska Anchorage games on the web.
43:25
But nonetheless, it's like, yeah, I understand that some of those games are not being on, but it's frustrating when you do have a home game that's not televised.
43:33
I can sort of understand the frustration in those instances.
43:37
But like you said, it's nice that pretty much from here on out, it's all on TV.
43:42
Well, one thing about that too is that, you know, it was scheduled for Saturday.
43:47
FSN had The Wild and Wolves on, so TV wasn't much of an option there.
43:53
And you know what?
43:55
They weren't going to move it to a different time or a different day to Sunday, you know what?
44:00
The fans complained and bitched all these last few years of any games being moved to Sunday or weird games.
44:08
You know what?
44:09
It was a Friday, Saturday series, just like it's always been.
44:13
They're both at, you know, 7 or 7.30 or whatever.
44:17
That's what the fans asked for.
44:18
And you know what?
44:18
That's what they got.
44:19
And because of that, you know what?
44:20
Sometimes it's not always going to be on TV.
44:23
But the fans wanted games on Friday, Saturday.
44:26
That's what they're used to.
44:27
It's what they complain about.
44:28
Oh, Big Ten, they were playing on Sunday afternoons or whatever.
44:33
The fans wanted it and they got it.
44:34
So that's how things are going to be.
44:37
You know, even if there's conflict with football, like there was again last weekend, even in the North Dakota series, the fans want Friday, Saturday.
44:43
They're going to do as best they can to get to Friday, Saturday.
44:46
And if TV doesn't work out, TV doesn't work out.
44:50
Yeah, the only option this last weekend would have put it up against the Vikings on Sunday.
44:54
And people wouldn't have enjoyed that either.
44:56
So it was a tough, tough day.
44:59
It was.
45:00
But you know what?
45:01
You know, we were kind of concerned about the crowd being a little small.
45:04
It really wasn't that bad Saturday.
45:05
I thought, I thought the place was fairly full compared to what we thought it was going to be, Veegs.
45:11
Yeah, it'll be interesting to look at ticket scanned data at the end of the year.
45:15
Cause you know, they haven't played much at home, but when they have, you know, the building's been pretty full.
45:20
So hats off to the student section, especially they brought it cause they weren't at the Gopher Northwestern game.
45:27
Yeah, the students are definitely full.
45:29
And it did help that, you know, it was cold outside in the Northwestern game.
45:33
It was not very well attended.
45:36
So people could get in a little easier than they could against North Dakota a few weeks ago.
45:39
So we shall see.
45:42
You know, if there's going to be conflicts, there's going to be conflicts.
45:44
But, you know, that's what the fans want.
45:47
They complain.
45:48
They don't want Thursday games.
45:49
They don't want Sunday games.
45:50
So the Minnesotans are trying to do the best they can to keep it as normal as possible on Friday, Saturday nights.
45:56
And that's just one of the things we're going to have to deal with.
46:00
Just one of the things got to deal with.
46:03
All right, guys, do you have anything else for this week?
46:05
Any other topics?
46:06
I know, Veegs, you were at Media Day today.
46:08
Anything interesting that happened today?
46:10
And we'll add that audio at the end of the podcast.
46:12
But what can we expect to hear?
46:15
You'll just get a lot from Don Lucia talking about the season so far, what they need to do, five on five, going on their trip to Boston.
46:24
They've got a nice Thanksgiving weekend out there.
46:28
He also says some nice things about Jake Gensel, scored two goals in his debut, playing with Phil Kessel, who when he played for the Gophers, Gensel was 11 and spent a lot of time in the locker room.
46:40
So those two have a long history together.
46:42
So it's kind of fun to hear about that.
46:44
And then you'll hear from Szmatula about where to get the best clam chowder in Boston.
46:49
Chowder?
46:51
Chowder.
46:52
He says if his parents were to give him 60 bucks, he'd probably have a couple of better spots he could hit.
46:56
But the oyster bar next to the bell on hand is supposed to be the place to go.
47:03
Well, I do know a few people heading out there for the road trip.
47:06
Now that I think about it, I wish I would have gone, because it probably would have been a fun road trip to do.
47:13
But changes in life kind of prevented that, so that's just kind of how it goes.
47:18
Hammeh, any final thoughts?
47:20
Anything going on in recruiting recently?
47:24
No, nothing's been pretty quiet recently.
47:30
I'm sure that things will kind of heat up a little bit once they kind of have the break and they'll have the opportunity to be out and kind of scouting a lot of the high school games once that kind of picks up and being able to kind of travel a little bit easier during that stretch.
47:45
So I'm sure there'll be plenty of scouting going on in that time frame.
47:48
I bet that.
47:50
McManus and Phillips will play in the World Junior A Challenge.
47:53
We've got the World Juniors coming up here pretty soon.
47:56
Yep.
47:56
Lindgren, Novak, Sadak, maybe Middlestad, possibilities for that roster as well.
48:03
That's later in December.
48:06
That's always good stuff.
48:07
That's always good stuff.
48:08
Where is it this year, Veegs?
48:10
It's in Toronto.
48:11
Oh, that's good.
48:12
So it'll be a good time zone for US fans.
48:15
All the games will be on NHL Network this year again, so great chance to see some great hockey.
48:20
It always is.
48:21
I mean, the Minnesota guys, the Canadian kids, it's the next set of superstars.
48:28
It's just the next set of superstars for the NHL, so it's always a great thing.
48:33
And EP's got a great schedule this December, too, so I highly recommend seeing them, and you can see Middleset and Jack Jensen play for them.
48:42
There you go.
48:43
Remember, you can always follow Vegoe on Twitter, at eVegoe and Hammey at Hammey Hockey.
48:51
We'll be back to recap, you know, this trip out to Boston next week, and then we'll preview the beginning of the Big Ten season with Ohio State.
49:01
And also, it's the 100th episode next week.
49:04
We're going to have Frank Mazzacco on, so can't wait to have that.
49:08
So tune in.
49:09
Thanks.
49:33
What thought is it for a situation like Szmatula where you're going back to a place that you...
49:37
Well, I don't think it's difficult.
49:38
I think you're probably hungry to go back and get an opportunity to play.
49:42
I mean, we know when kids come back here and you get a chance to play back in your home state, there's a little bit extra juice.
49:49
And, you know, for him, he had two good years there, but made a decision to, you know, go someplace else.
49:56
We're glad he's on our team.
49:57
He's off to a good start.
49:58
He's a point of game guy in hockey, he's been a point of game guy for us.
50:02
If I'd have told a 20-something year old, Donald Lucia, that you're going to win 700 games as a college hockey coach?
50:07
A 20-something year old?
50:09
Or whatever.
50:09
If I had to do that?
50:10
Well, I would have said I would have, probably wouldn't have been doing it when I was 40, let alone when I'm 58.
50:15
So, you know, obviously, when you get a chance to do something as long as I have, you know, you start to build up some numbers, but it's not something you think about or even, you know, get concerned or worried about.
50:26
You're just worried about the next game and that's kind of how I've approached it, you know, ever since I started that, you know, you never looked at where am I going to be in five years, where am I going to be in 10 or 20 or certainly 30 years, as this is my 30th year as a head coach.
50:39
And I just kind of do the best job we were at and, you know, whatever's going to happen, don't want it to happen.
50:47
You get a lot of experience.
50:48
How do you get your guys to have a better start on Friday as opposed to waiting until Saturday?
50:52
Well, I mean, it's actually, you know, we talked about that with the captains.
50:57
You know, Friday was probably the only, I mean, St.
51:01
Cloud at home we started out well, both Alaska games.
51:06
I thought we had good juice against North Dakota, just, you know, a couple shots went in early, and then we battled back to tie it in the first period.
51:11
So really the Friday Mankato games, the only game I'd really look at and say, you know, we just, we didn't have any energy when that game started.
51:18
And, you know, was it two weeks of practice?
51:20
Do we need a structure where we did a little bit different?
51:22
You know, the guys said, you know, at times they felt like they had dead legs last week.
51:27
And we've all been around the game enough to know that if you don't have your legs, you're not going to have great energy for the game.
51:33
So, you know, we had much better legs on Saturday than what we had on Friday.
51:37
And, you know, I'm glad we were able to bounce back like we did because that was an important game for us.
51:43
We talked about in the radio show about how close the officials are calling to hockey versus out here.
51:47
Will that be a concern, a warning to the guys?
51:49
Yeah.
51:50
I mean, I think we learned that when we went out to play in Clarkson and St.
51:52
Lawrence.
51:53
There was a few call that maybe wouldn't have seen called in the West.
51:56
But, you know, at the same time, after you get a couple months in, I think that there's a learning curve for both the officials and the players of how the game is going to be called.
52:03
And maybe the officials will let a little bit more go that doesn't need to be called.
52:10
And maybe the players learn a little bit that, you know, what if I get a stick in a guy's hands, it's going to be a penalty.
52:14
If I hold a guy against the boards, it's going to be a penalty.
52:17
So when I look at the games that have been played more recently, I think the penalty numbers are coming down.
52:23
You blew up the line combinations for last Saturday's game.
52:27
Any differences in going into the game?
52:29
Yeah, I mean, we've been blowing them up.
52:31
We haven't been offensive juggernauts as of late five-on-five.
52:35
We've scored some power play goals.
52:37
It's allowed us to win some games.
52:38
But we didn't have a five-on-five last weekend.
52:41
The weekend before, against North Dakota, we had one on Saturday and I think one on Friday.
52:47
So we've scored two five-on-five goals in the last four games.
52:50
So that obviously doesn't cut it.
52:51
So I think that there's more there from an offensive standpoint.
52:55
I think some guys can play a little bit harder on the puck.
52:58
I think we get a little bit too selective in our shots.
53:03
And I think we can play better and create more offense than what we have so far.
53:08
The five-on-five goals are down.
53:10
Do you see the scoring chances down when you chart the game as well?
53:13
Yeah, I mean, it just depends on the game.
53:17
It's game by game.
53:18
I mean, we've had games where we've had 20-some scoring chances and haven't scored.
53:21
I mean, the St.
53:22
Lawrence game was a good example that we didn't make both those goals with a pulled goalie situation.
53:27
But we probably had as many scoring chances in that game as we had all year.
53:30
But the reason why he was an All-American goaltender.
53:33
So, you know, we've seen some pretty good goalies.
53:36
But, you know, we have to do a better job of whether it's net traffic getting to rebounds, you know, shooting off the pads, trying to create second shot opportunities.
53:43
You know, there's areas that we can do a better job, too.
53:45
And I think getting on top of pucks in the offensive zone.
53:47
I think too many times we're, you know, one and done's or, you know, we get impatient, want to throw, make, try to make a play that's not there.
53:53
And all you're doing is, you know, initiating their breakout.
53:56
Sunday's game against BC, you kind of see that as a showcase game.
53:59
There's a Mount Rushmore College Hockey program.
54:01
Yeah, they're big games.
54:03
There's no doubt.
54:04
You know, we've had a lot of fun games against them the last number of years.
54:09
And, you know, I'm sure Sunday's going to be no different.
54:12
But, you know, our focus all week in our preparation has been Northeastern.
54:17
They're a team that was an NCAA team a year ago.
54:19
They have basically most of their team back from last year.
54:22
And, you know, it was about the last couple of years, it seems like it's been right around Thanksgiving when they've gotten on their runs here for the second half of the season.
54:29
So, you know, watch their games against Providence.
54:31
Their power play is really good.
54:33
They've got some real top-end players.
54:36
And, you know, last time we were there, I think we got beat 3-0, 2-0, or 3-2 gave up a goal late.
54:42
So, important games.
54:43
There's no doubt that, you know, we're sitting a couple of games over 500, two more road games against good quality opponents that were in NCAAs.
54:51
So, it's a good test for us.
54:53
Is the Frederson this year as a result of that trip last year?
54:55
Reporter-
54:55
Where Northeastern was off and before?
54:57
Exactly.
54:58
And, you know, some of those teams, you know, don't like to play back-to-back on a home on a weekend.
55:03
BC is one of them, you know, because I talked about maybe bringing another school with us originally on this series.
55:10
And they just didn't want to do that because they're just used to the one home game on a weekend.
55:14
You know, we saw it this week.
55:15
They played a midweek game up in Connecticut.
55:18
Now they come back and play a home game.
55:20
Had they played, you know, if we played BC on Friday, Northeastern had played a game on Friday, we would have played a Friday, Saturday series.
55:27
But I just want to make sure that we had a day off too in between rather than playing the back-to-back.
55:32
And it works out fine because we'll get home at a decent hour on Sunday.
55:36
We'll miss out on school.
55:37
Is that just geography, why they can do it out east?
55:40
Or is it just philosophy?
55:41
Well, I think it's a combination.
55:43
Like if you look at BC, I mean, they like us, they need parking.
55:47
So you have men's and women's hockey, basketball, football, all play out of the same site.
55:52
You have geography where, you know, go 150 miles around Boston and there's a lot of schools.
55:59
I don't know how many, but they have a lot of close road trips.
56:02
So I don't think they have to spend a lot of nights in bed.
56:05
And you know what, for the fan standpoint, it makes a lot of sense that, you know, you play a series against Providence, you play one game at home, one on the road, much like we've done with Mankato or St.
56:14
Cloud.
56:15
You know, 70 miles out there is a long way.
56:18
From Penn Lake was out last week and you expect him back?
56:21
Yeah.
56:21
Yeah.
56:21
He's practiced all week and so he should be back and ready to go in our lineup.
56:25
And you know, that's going to help us on one of our power plays, is going to help us with our skill and speed up front.
56:30
So hopefully that he can inject some offense into our lineup this weekend.
56:33
Everybody else good to go?
56:34
Yeah.
56:34
Yeah.
56:34
We're healthy.
56:35
I mean, everybody is good to go this weekend.
56:38
Big Ten schools are either number one or number two in winning percentage in non-conference games.
56:43
Does that say anything to your caliber?
56:45
Yeah.
56:45
I don't know.
56:46
I think sometimes that gets a little bit, you know, I don't want to say overblown.
56:50
I think it's important when we play each other.
56:51
But like anything, your record is going to be based on how you play.
56:56
Your record is going to be based on who you play, where you play.
56:58
I think there's a combination.
56:59
But it's obviously better for all of us.
57:02
And it's been a point of emphasis that, you know, we have to do better in our non-conference record.
57:06
It doesn't do much good to get, have a bunch of teams with poor non-conference records and then you play each other.
57:11
That doesn't help you.
57:12
You know, and all of a sudden, you're playing teams with, that are winning 60% or 70% of their games in the conference.
57:19
I mean, for their non-conference games, that drives your own index up.
57:22
And we've seen that over the years.
57:23
And that's, you know, you go back a number of years.
57:25
That's one of the reasons why the WCHA went from 32 to 28 games.
57:29
Because it allows teams to do better in our conference versus, by definition, those four games were going to be 500.
57:35
But you had to win them, too.
57:37
Seeing Mike celebrate Jake's goal.
57:40
Yeah, it was.
57:41
What to do with Mario.
57:42
Yeah, you know what?
57:43
It was really happy for Mike.
57:45
And, you know, Jake's been around.
57:46
And I couldn't help but thinking that, you know, back in 2000, and I think it was six when Phil was here, that, you know, Jake was this 11 year old runner on locker room.
57:55
And then, lo and behold, you know, Phil's given him the assist for his first goal.
57:58
So kind of makes me wonder what he was thinking when Jake comes waltzing in the locker room.
58:02
And he probably remembers just this little guy.
58:04
But, you know, you watch him work out.
58:06
Jake's been here in the summertime.
58:09
Certainly a very, very good player was only going to be a matter of time.
58:12
And, you know, I don't care if we were to play the game or it happened to be on a Monday that, you know, when that opportunity came, it was like, Mike, you texted me.
58:19
It's like, you get out of town, you go watch your son play.
58:21
I mean, it's a once in a lifetime opportunity.
58:23
And you can't miss that.
58:24
So, you know, to see his reaction, you know, we pimped him a little bit on the, in our video session yesterday.
58:31
So we let our video session with his goal and Mike's reaction.
58:34
So it's great to see, you know, Mike's a hockey dad.
58:37
And I think the hard part for him and all of us in our profession is, you know, you devote so much to other people's kids that you miss out on your own.
58:46
And I was really happy that Mike and his family could be there and cherish such a great moment.
58:52
How's the hair before I go?
58:54
Sexy.
58:59
Good enough for KSC.
59:00
Amazing what they can do with their hair.
59:02
How strange is it going to be going back in there, just a place that you're so familiar with?
59:06
I think it will be cool.
59:07
I have, you know, a lot of friends still back there.
59:09
So I think we're all pretty excited to go try some good clam chowder.
59:12
So we'll be looking forward to that over the trip.
59:15
And you're leading the way there?
59:17
Well, I mean, I know a couple of good spots, so hopefully we'll get some time to go out there and enjoy the city a little bit.
59:23
Don said a player will always be hungry in that situation.
59:26
Not so much for chowder, but once you hit the ice, is that a kind of a fitting description for how you'll approach the game?
59:30
Yeah, I mean, you know, it's going to be big for us, I think, especially closing out our non-conference series.
59:35
And just being back there, I always like their eggs, so we're going to try to go and get two big wins for us.
59:43
What do you remember about the game playing Minnesota a couple of years ago?
59:47
I remember Mikey Riley hit me from behind.
59:52
I might have sold it a little bit.
59:53
But no, obviously, you know, when Minnesota comes to town regardless of what team it is, it's obviously the team is going to have extra jumps.
1:00:01
So we know we got to be ready for a tough one Friday and then regroup Saturday and another tough one Sunday.
1:00:07
So a big trip for us for sure.
1:00:08
What do you attribute to the success you've been able to have this year?
1:00:10
It's tough to jump right in and be a technically a first year player and do what you've done.
1:00:15
You know, I would just say the coaching staff.
1:00:17
Yeah, they worked a lot.
1:00:19
A lot went behind the scenes last year just working with me and my teammates.
1:00:23
You know, we've I've got a good good chance to live with some of the guys and to really gel with them, especially the older guys and our team's just really close together.
1:00:31
And yeah, I thought it was going to be harder.
1:00:33
But you know, more importantly, we're starting to string some wins together.
1:00:36
I just try to contribute every night to the team.
1:00:39
Reflect back on your decision to choose Minnesota and how has it worked out for you?
1:00:44
And and and you shed any light on why you picked Minnesota?
1:00:48
And if you had any other choices?
1:00:50
Oh, I think, you know, if you had told me to play for Minnesota, I'd be shocked.
1:00:53
I was just dream come true to play for a school like this.
1:00:57
It's been nothing but great the last two years here.
1:01:00
And, you know, it's something special to wear that jersey even, you know, I know not being from Minnesota, but still just growing up knowing what a great program in history has.
1:01:08
It's a Spanish dream come true.
1:01:10
So I'm just trying to do the best I can and enjoy the moment.
1:01:13
What do you think the biggest differences are playing here versus playing in Northeastern?
1:01:17
Well, I don't think there's too much like on the ice.
1:01:19
It's just being part of something with such great tradition, which every school has.
1:01:24
But, you know, just being from Michigan, always seeing Minnesota-Michigan rivalry, two big schools going at it.
1:01:31
It's been really cool and it's been a great adjustment so far.
1:01:34
Is any of your game different from when you played in Northeastern versus here now?
1:01:38
Yeah, no, I don't think so.
1:01:39
I think you just, you tried to do what makes, made you successful your whole career, what's gotten you to the point you're at.
1:01:45
So I'm just, I'm excited how things have been going.
1:01:47
I'm just really looking forward to making a run with this team.
1:01:50
Somebody who grew up watching hockey, I'm sure, you look at Minnesota and Boston College, you see that's kind of a showcase game where if there's a Mount Rushmore College Hockey programs, Minnesota and Boston College are on it.
1:01:59
I think it'll definitely be one that people are going to watch, people are going to be watching to see, you know, it's a good test for us.
1:02:06
Boston College really did this year.
1:02:08
So we're going to be ready.
1:02:09
We've had a good week of practice and we ended good on Saturday.
1:02:13
I know we still need to get our five on five game going, but that's part of going through the ups and downs of a season.
1:02:18
And I think so far we've found ways to win, no matter what that's been.
1:02:22
And that means that guys are buying in, doing whatever it takes.
1:02:25
So we're just going to stick with it.
1:02:26
And like I said, but first, you know, we got a big one Friday.
1:02:28
That's what we're focusing on.
1:02:30
You've been pretty productive getting those second and third chances in the offensive zone, five on five.
1:02:34
What are the big keys to success in those situations?
1:02:37
I think it's pretty simple.
1:02:38
I know Coach has touched upon it continuously to us.
1:02:41
It's just, it's working hard.
1:02:43
It's getting pucks low.
1:02:44
And I think it's just being confident in your game, you know.
1:02:47
We got a lot of guys with a lot of talent in our team.
1:02:50
And you know, it kind of can get tough when you go through games where you don't score goals five on five.
1:02:53
But it's just about being positive.
1:02:55
And we've been that in the locker room.
1:02:56
We know sooner or later it's going to come.
1:02:58
So it's just about coming out, practice days, working hard, just sticking with it and staying positive.
1:03:03
You know, a lot of us around here are pretty familiar with Big Ten Conference play and WCHA.
1:03:07
But what's it like playing in Hockey East where you were for two years?
1:03:10
That's a very competitive league, for sure.
1:03:13
A lot of great teams come out of there in the NCAA Tournament.
1:03:17
I know they have a lot of good teams this year.
1:03:19
But I don't think it will be anything that guys here haven't seen.
1:03:22
We're going out there trying to showcase our league a little bit and obviously our program.
1:03:27
So like I said, just business trip and we know what to expect out there for sure.
1:03:31
So we're going to be ready to go.
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