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This is a Quick Shift Podcast from gopherpucklive.com.
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Good evening, and welcome to a first for Gopher Puck Live.
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We're doing what's called a Quick Shift Podcast.
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We're just doing something different, that we bring in the guests and talk about specific things and not just do the recap and a preview of the next series.
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And to kick it off is former Gopher Mike Carman.
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Mike, thanks for joining me tonight.
0:50
I appreciate you guys having me on.
0:52
Well, you know, one of my regular co-hosts, Vegoe and I, we've been kind of debating about doing kind of short little podcasts or just specific type things in between the regular podcasts.
1:03
And then this weekend, you decided to go out on Twitter and voice a few opinions.
1:09
Yeah, I again, I don't make a habit of doing that very often, but it picked up a lot of steam pretty quickly.
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So I'm happy to come on and just, you know, it's tough to voice an opinion through a tweet sometimes, right?
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I mean, it's the only, it's a short little blurb and things get taken out of context and people, people have some interesting responses to it.
1:28
So it's nice to come on and kind of talk a little more in depth about it.
1:31
And that's exactly why we're having you on.
1:35
You know, your tweets, you know, like the first tweet, I believe this was that was it was a Saturday night or something like that.
1:42
Yeah, it was Saturday during the third period of the game.
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Gopher hockey fans need to give their heads a shake.
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You might be struggling, but leave or we might or your team might be struggling, sorry.
1:54
But leaving at the 10 minute mark of the third period in a 5-3 game is sad.
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Be a true fan and support the squad.
2:00
Lots of game left.
2:03
And yeah, you know what, when you read it back to me, you know, again, some people probably read that and I was like, you know, it sounds kind of, you know, like he's being a little bit of a jerk, kind of a malicious tweet.
2:14
But I really didn't intend it that way.
2:17
I don't think I did either.
2:18
It didn't sound that way to me.
2:19
I just, I, well, maybe it's just because I heard it back said to me by someone else.
2:23
Yeah.
2:24
Well, you get, people are obviously frustrated.
2:27
Right.
2:28
And deservedly so.
2:29
I mean, I'm not telling people not to be frustrated and things like that.
2:32
I mean, I get it completely.
2:34
Like, you know, I think as an alumni, we have a lot of pride in, you know, being former Gophers ourselves and wanting to see the team do well, right?
2:42
But it's I completely understand Friday's game was was a very tough one to watch.
2:48
I mean, we stayed till the end of that one.
2:49
And we were probably we were probably about one of a thousand people in the rink.
2:53
I get it.
2:53
When the game's out of control.
2:55
I mean, when I was a kid, my dad, we would go to games and, you know, if the game, if the Gophers had a couple of goal lead, we were doing the beat, the traffic, you know, when they used to chant that stance with five.
3:04
I remember that as well.
3:06
Yes.
3:06
Everybody's got their reasons.
3:08
I totally understand.
3:09
But it's just, it's tough when, you know, they are struggling a little bit and, you know, they're playing a good team.
3:15
Let's not take anything away from Penn State.
3:18
But just to see people leaving in a two goal game in the third period when the guys need your, you know, they need their fan support.
3:24
It needs to get louder in there, not people leaving and have it turned into a morgue in there, you know, and that makes it tough.
3:31
And since you've played for the Gophers, things have changed quite a bit.
3:36
I mean, I could see where fans were frustrated with the change to the Big Ten.
3:42
But also the thing that happened at the exact same time is that Norwood Teague thought it would be a great idea to re-seat the arena and start charging, you know, season ticket holders, you know, forcing them to do donations and whatnot.
3:55
And all of that happened at once.
3:58
Obviously, the Big Ten thing was mostly out of Minnesota's control.
4:02
But when it coincided with this decision by Norwood Teague, that really did hurt.
4:07
Yeah, and I wasn't really fully, I knew ticket prices had gone up.
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I was, you know, my first four years out of school, I just could, if I was home for Christmas, I'd try to catch a game or something quick.
4:20
But yeah, this is the first year, my actually recent fiancé, and I decided to, you know, she went to school there and we wanted to give back and support the team.
4:30
And so we got season tickets.
4:31
So I'm well aware of the donation prices.
4:33
I mean, did that go along with those?
4:35
And I get it, people like we're paying good money, we want to see a good product.
4:38
Well, and I'm sure you guys have beaten to death for the Big Ten thing, as has everybody.
4:46
And hey, I'm no different.
4:48
I complained about it immediately, and I'm still not a fan of it, right?
4:52
But, you know, I think it'd be hard, perhaps, to find a Gopher fan who is a fan of the Big Ten changeover, right?
4:58
But that being said, it's been that way for a while now.
5:01
So people just got to kind of move on, right?
5:06
And it is tough when you lose the in-state rivalries.
5:10
I get it.
5:12
You're not playing UMD four times a year, Mankato, St.
5:14
Cloud.
5:16
But I mean, if people really wanted to look at it, you still have Wisconsin in the conference.
5:20
You still have Michigan in the conference.
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Notre Dame's got a great team.
5:24
Ohio State and Penn State's programs have come a long way, right?
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So I just think it's kind of a BS excuse at this point to still be complaining about the conference.
5:35
Attendance, I thought it was actually pretty good at the games to start this weekend.
5:40
They were decent.
5:42
Yeah, I'm saying that in perspective, right?
5:45
It's all relative, right?
5:46
It definitely is.
5:47
You know, people complain, Oh, he missed the WCHA and a lot of people forget, you know, LA.
5:54
Anchorage wasn't always a great team.
5:55
Michigan Tech wasn't always a great team.
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And you compare those to some of the teams we have now and how those teams have improved.
6:03
You look at what Penn State has done.
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Everyone hates Penn State because it started the whole ball rolling with the Big Ten.
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But they're a damn good team.
6:13
And these teams top to bottom in the Big Ten are pretty damn good.
6:18
Yeah, it's a competitive conference for sure.
6:21
And Penn State, as I said, I didn't want to take anything away from them.
6:25
They played really well this weekend.
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They showed why they're a top ten team.
6:28
So fans that, there's probably some fans on their smaller scale that just look and they see, oh, the Gophers are getting their butt kicked by Penn State.
6:36
What happened?
6:37
In fact, one of my buddies texted me and he goes, it's funny.
6:40
So Gopher Football is now beating Penn State and Penn State is now beating Gopher Hockey.
6:45
So it has come a long ways, but you know what?
6:47
It's been great for college hockey.
6:49
I mean, it's made the parodies so awesome.
6:52
You know, there's, I always say now there's probably like the top 10 teams and the bottom 10 teams that are always going to, most likely the top 10 teams are going to win.
7:00
But the middle 45 to 50 teams, whatever you want to call it, anybody can beat anybody now.
7:06
And that's, I think that's awesome for college hockey.
7:08
And that really started when you started playing for the Gophers.
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Because, you know, you'd say in the 90s, you had your haves and have nots.
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And you would see games that are blowouts.
7:17
You wouldn't see as many upsets.
7:19
But in the 2000s, you know, parity with the rest of Division I hockey, I mean, the rest of Division I hockey really just caught up.
7:27
Right.
7:28
Yeah.
7:28
And it's not just, yeah, it's not just the Gophers, Michigan, UND, BC, BU, Wisconsin.
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Like, it's not the traditional markets.
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And I know there's people.
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And to be honest, I probably am one more one of those guys.
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Like, I love seeing the traditional teams be good.
7:42
But it is, it's crazy.
7:44
I mean, you saw it happen the year before I came into school.
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I hate to bring this up, but the Holy Cross lost.
7:50
And then my freshman year, we almost did the same thing against Air Force.
7:54
If fans remember that game, we were down 3-1 in the third period.
7:57
I do remember that game.
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We all thought, here we go again.
8:00
Right.
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So thankfully, we avoided that.
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That would have been a travesty.
8:07
But it goes to show you the smaller schools or schools that are not as traditional have really revamped their programs.
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And you know what?
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It gives kids a lot more options, too.
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Because 20 years ago, there wasn't as many D1 options necessarily that people maybe wanted to go to, right?
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Like not the schools that everybody talks about.
8:24
Well, now there are more competitive schools up and down all throughout the country.
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And it's a great opportunity for kids.
8:32
And they're more excited to have these D1 chances with schools that any given year might be going to the NCAA Touring.
8:40
So, you know, we had one of the guys I've known for many years on Gopher Puck Live, Jared Klein.
8:46
He asked me on Twitter, he goes, Why are our fans so bandwagon?
8:49
I saw that.
8:50
Yeah.
8:50
He's like, were they more fans of the conference or the team?
8:55
And I think some of this is he's got a point there.
8:58
I mean, you look at the old WCHA Final Five, I don't know if we're ever going to see anything like that again.
9:04
But it's come down to, were people fans of the team or the conference?
9:10
Yeah, and that's it's definitely, it definitely plays a factor, right?
9:13
Especially when, you know, half the conference is teams that are in state, right?
9:16
So the fans travel really well.
9:18
We all know North Dakota's fans, as much as we don't like them, travel really well.
9:23
But yeah, just when everybody was just kind of congested right there, you know, that certainly helps with attendance purposes as well and keeping the conference rivalries going.
9:31
But yeah, it has been a few years of, you know, the program is not what it used to be in terms of the success levels, right?
9:40
And, you know, unfortunately, you know, programs go through ups and downs.
9:44
Gophers, we went through, there was a long time of Gophers being a really, really good team, always in the NCAA tourney.
9:50
Well, there's a little bit of an ebb and flow to that.
9:53
And, you know, they made the move, right?
9:55
They changed coaches, you know, Don had an incredible career there, say what you want.
10:00
You know, his record speaks for itself.
10:02
But, you know, it was time for a change.
10:04
And I, so I never played for Bob when he was assistant coach of the U, but he was one of the guys that recruited me.
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So I got to know him really well prior to coming into school.
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And I always liked Bob a lot.
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Played with Gordo, played against Rabs.
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They're both buddies.
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It sounds like the coaching staff has a real good, you know, kind of base there.
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They're getting along well.
10:23
They, you know, they're good communication lines there.
10:26
So I think the right team is in place for the Gophers to, you know, but it's going to take time.
10:31
And somebody chirped me on Twitter because I, somebody else brought up PJ Fleck.
10:35
And so I responded with an analogy of what PJ Fleck has done.
10:39
And someone responds back, well, this is not football.
10:41
Well, no kidding.
10:42
Like, I'm aware.
10:44
But PJ Fleck takes over.
10:45
He goes five and seven, then he goes seven and six last year.
10:48
I mean, now look at the team.
10:49
I'm not saying the Gophers will jump to that next year.
10:53
But, you know, the Gophers were playing really well down the stretch last year.
10:57
And it's so I think you just got to give him time.
11:00
He's got to get his own guys in place and how he wants to recruit and the team he wants to set up.
11:05
So most definitely.
11:07
Well, my my co one of my co-hosts, Eric Vegoe, he had he wanted to.
11:11
He couldn't make it tonight.
11:12
Just too many.
11:12
He's actually a little coach of his of his kid.
11:14
So that takes up a lot of time.
11:17
It does.
11:17
So but he had a few questions and he just wanted to know a couple of things.
11:21
Let me see what we've got here.
11:23
He would go.
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He wants to know.
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And, you know, let me see him reading here.
11:29
What did you think of the alumni when you were there?
11:32
Did you hear from them?
11:33
What kind of noise without there did you remember?
11:36
Were the were the alumni around when you were playing?
11:42
You know, not as much, to be honest.
11:45
Um, I I obviously got to know some of the alumni because they'd come back and work out and train in the summers, the guys that were still playing.
11:54
And then, you know, every once in a while, guys would pop down and be waiting around after the game.
11:59
But in terms of actually, like, building, you know, you know, with the new additions in the rank, they're going to be building the they have temporary one, but they're building an alumni room.
12:09
And, you know, Bob has made it a very Matzko has made it a point to try and get the alumni around more, include them more.
12:18
And I think that's awesome.
12:19
And I think it's great because it gives us a chance, you know, guys that played with I don't see all the time to be around and talk about the team.
12:26
And, you know, I, so actually, for my, from my perspective, like I used to coach Sammy Walker when he was a kid a little bit and kind of skate with him when he was a lot younger, which makes me feel old.
12:37
But I, I, I checked Samuel, not all the time, but you know, I tried to like, you know, encouraging stuff, right?
12:44
And you know, if we're, you know, guys are behind you, you know, it's going to, it's going to happen.
12:48
Just, you know, positive stuff, right?
12:50
When, you know, you're hearing so much negative right now.
12:54
But yeah, going back to the alumni thing, there's, there seems to be a tighter connection in the last year or two and guys getting together.
13:00
And it's, it's really fun.
13:02
It makes it, it makes it, there's a lot more incentive for us to go to the game, right?
13:05
Knowing we're going to get together a couple of times a year and talk to guys from different generations and compare notes.
13:11
And it just, it's, it's a good environment.
13:14
Yeah, I'm looking forward to them, you know, building that down by the old media entrance downstairs to give you a place to get, you guys a place to go where you don't always have to be, you know, what the fans bugging you, because I could see a group of you guys getting together.
13:27
And boy, you're going to have a lot of fans coming up just bothering you.
13:31
You probably don't mind that so much.
13:33
But you know, when you're just, when you're hanging out with the guys, it's, it's hard to be yourself.
13:37
So it'll be nice to have that.
13:38
I, the only person I feel sorry for now is old Craig Floor, because he's losing most of his office and he's going to be putting in the corner somewhere.
13:46
But I guess I don't feel too bad for Craig Floor.
13:49
No, you got to get, you got to give Craig a hard time too.
13:51
I don't mind doing that.
13:52
He's, that's what we do.
13:55
He's been there forever and everyone loves him.
13:57
Well, that's what I was going to say.
13:58
He's been there forever.
13:59
And it's actually kind of interesting.
14:01
You know, my fiance mentioned this, the games we've been going to this year.
14:05
Like I keep commenting.
14:06
I'm like, yeah, Craig's been the arena manager here forever.
14:09
You know, Mike Chandler in the ticket office.
14:12
And I should know names here, but in the player side entrance there where you can kind of sneak out of the elevator to go up to the gold club there, I think that's the media entrance too.
14:22
I believe it's the same people still checking tickets there that have been there since I was in college and probably even before that.
14:28
And just to see the loyalty of the staff and the people that, you know, that support the team in these little roles that people that the average fan doesn't see, right.
14:37
It's, you know, it just shows how committed that people are like that and how important they are to to our program.
14:43
Yeah, it's fun for me because, you know, I actually started covering, you know, we started getting credentialed your freshman year and we've been going there ever since.
14:51
And, you know, like you said, you come downstairs when you're checking in.
14:53
It's the same people.
14:55
You know, you've got the Craig floors and you've got the same people upstairs in the club room.
14:59
It is sort of a family atmosphere there.
15:01
Right.
15:02
It really is.
15:04
And we need to get more alumni back.
15:06
And I know maybe Coach Lucia wasn't doing as much of that and not as involved with that.
15:11
But I know Motsgo is trying to bring it back to bring it a lot stronger than it has been the past 10 years.
15:17
For sure.
15:17
And I think that's, you know, and I'm not just I'm not saying that Don should have done that or whatever.
15:23
I mean, it's but when the team is down like it has been and there's a new coaching turnover and things like that, I think now is the time that as I'm sure you guys agree, it's very important to have that network there and see for the players to see the guys there that have been, you know, playing 10, 20, 30 years, 40 years before they were there.
15:43
And you see the connection and the bond.
15:45
And it shows you what you're playing for, right?
15:47
And that's kind of that's kind of how I feel about when circling back to the people leaving the game early.
15:53
I'm like, if you're sitting on the bench, I know that feeling.
15:56
When you when you look and you see and you know you're playing that poorly that people are leaving the rink.
16:02
But I've never seen it to this extent where it's almost empty at the end of some games.
16:07
And it's and that's not how are as a player.
16:10
It's it's tough, right?
16:11
You get you're already feeling down.
16:13
You're like, yeah, we got to do better.
16:14
We're trying to fix this.
16:16
But then you see everybody giving up to and that's and believe it or not, that makes a very, very big deal.
16:20
The players, I believe it.
16:22
I mean, they they honestly won't say it publicly.
16:25
I can speak more candidly now because of course you can.
16:29
I'm not I'm not in that position anymore.
16:31
And it's kind of kind of freeing a little bit.
16:33
They have to be they have to be a little mom.
16:35
And they just say and say, hey, oh, no, we don't know us that we're too busy.
16:38
But you know, it everyone notices it and, you know, and there's there's multiple things going on there, you know, not just with people leaving early.
16:46
I mean, that's people leaving early is just definitely a sign of instant frustration.
16:54
But then you have some things where, you know, Minnesota selling tons of tickets to these games and they're having 2 to 2500 people not show up each game.
17:05
Yeah, that's the problem.
17:05
You see those empty seats, a lot of them are sold.
17:09
Right.
17:10
But, you know, you know, my buddy Eric Vegoe, he's been doing a report every year, like the past five years, showing how scammed ticket numbers have gone way down even though they're selling.
17:18
So, you know, last year or there was a year where they didn't have over 3000 people show up for a Wisconsin game.
17:29
And that's just, it just boggles my mind that so many people are not using their tickets.
17:34
And from what we've learned, it's not the what, you know, the fans would call corpies.
17:39
It's just regular people not showing up.
17:41
And it's baffling because, you know, for me, you know, if I'm paying for my tickets, I'm going to show up.
17:47
Oh, absolutely.
17:48
I mean, if I'm not showing up, I'm trying very hard to sell that ticket, you know.
17:53
But also one thing that's, you know, it's going to help.
17:55
Yes, they're young, but winning.
17:58
Hang on.
17:58
I'm going to stop you there.
17:59
Can I just go right ahead?
18:00
Yeah.
18:01
So I don't think the young thing can be.
18:05
I don't like I don't think people should like you say it as a positive or negative.
18:08
Like it's just the way it is.
18:09
The Gophers have always been young.
18:11
We've always been that way.
18:12
So it's finding people that can step up earlier.
18:15
Right.
18:15
That's the challenge, you know, at a younger age.
18:18
And I get it.
18:18
And more and more people keep leaving early, which is contributing to the young problem.
18:24
But it's, you know, there's other teams like that, too.
18:27
Granted, we're on the younger end of that.
18:29
But there's a lot of teams that are in that position, too.
18:31
Right.
18:31
I mean, it's, you know, it's just getting guys to play the right way.
18:35
Because I'm, to be bluntly honest and again, agreeing with a lot of people that tweeted, Friday night was bad, obviously.
18:41
Oh, yes.
18:41
Like you can't play that uninspired and that unmotivated in the first night of a series at home against a big team.
18:49
You just can't.
18:51
Well, and to be honest, I had never seen that before.
18:56
I've been watching the Procurator.
18:57
I've never seen, you know, six of the eight goals.
19:00
It was basically the first six goals were uncontested.
19:04
There was literally no one in front of the net.
19:07
Well, these goals and goalie, I don't care if you're the best goalie in history.
19:12
You're going to get, you're screwed.
19:13
It's just totally agree with you.
19:16
It was hanging out to dry.
19:17
It was like, you know, you always talk about the D-Raw, right?
19:21
You're supposed to be inside the dots, especially on an Olympic sheet.
19:24
Well, it seemed like both D were on the outside of both dots, like completely and on an Olympic sheet.
19:28
That's as wide as a normal rink, right?
19:30
It is.
19:30
So and I felt that way, too.
19:32
It was it was very it was tough to watch.
19:34
And I totally get people being frustrated with that kind of effort level and getting back to your, you know, the Gophers are too young.
19:41
We actually did talk about that on the podcast last week.
19:44
You know, people say they're young, but like you say, they're always young.
19:48
You know what?
19:48
They're always probably going to be in the bottom third or bottom quarter or even bottom, let's say bottom 10 schools when it comes to age, they're just going to be young.
19:57
It's just they can try to get older.
19:59
It's just going to be a tough thing at Minnesota.
20:02
Right.
20:02
And people talk about recruiting, you know, in recruiting older.
20:06
Well, you know, it's the market is what it is.
20:10
Like you have to commit guys early.
20:12
Thankfully, they changed that rule this past year.
20:14
Yes.
20:15
Where you can't speak to schools until like your sophomore year and you can't commit till your junior year verbally.
20:21
I mean, yeah, it was getting a little ridiculous guys verbally committing in seventh grade.
20:26
But it's, you know, it's just the way it is though.
20:30
Like the Gophers, regardless of how they're doing, are still a big name.
20:33
And if they don't take those kids, someone else will.
20:37
And so it's finding the right balance of recruiting, right?
20:39
And I think they're, again, I think they're in good hands.
20:42
I know people can disagree with me all they want, but it's, you got to give them time.
20:47
But Matsuko and his coaching staff time to do things their way.
20:50
It's a brand new coaching staff a year ago.
20:54
And to some point, you know, sometimes a good butt kicking will do you some good.
20:58
Yes.
20:59
And I thought they responded well Saturday out of the gate.
21:01
I was very like, it was like, this is a different team when they came out of the gate Saturday.
21:05
So that was that was good to see, right?
21:07
Because if you get that effort two nights in a row, then there's a problem.
21:10
It's really all about growing.
21:11
You just got to keep growing, keep getting better.
21:13
I mean, they didn't win Saturday night, but they did play better.
21:17
And please just don't let us see sick, open goals like that again.
21:21
No, I don't.
21:22
I think that was once a season, hopefully once in a decade performance.
21:27
I don't think that'll happen again.
21:29
I think it was just, you know, you're going to have an off night as a player.
21:31
And I get that.
21:32
And sometimes things just spiral out of control or as a team.
21:35
You'll have an off night, but it's just the overall effort level, the physical.
21:38
Again, it's hard to do it on an Olympic sheet.
21:40
I understand those corners are very spread out.
21:43
The drink is huge.
21:45
But there's the lack of physical play overall is kind of troubling too.
21:49
Like if you're down, your team's down, you're having a tough night, you need to go do something about it.
21:55
I know it's a little bit more old school than what happens now.
21:57
But a couple of guys need to decide, screw it.
22:01
I'm going to go bury the next guy who has the puck.
22:04
It has to be that kind of mentality.
22:07
So, I don't know.
22:08
That's a little more old school.
22:09
But it's something that wouldn't hurt.
22:12
And the thing is, they are proposing changing the Mary GI sheet, hopefully making it smaller, be more of a hybrid similar to Wisconsin size.
22:20
Yeah, that would be nice.
22:21
I mean, a lot of people don't realize how big of a lake it is out there.
22:25
If you haven't, I mean, especially playing, like we're talking about getting spread out on defense, that's very easy to have happen on a rink that big.
22:32
Well, you've also got those corners too, though.
22:34
I mean, the corner radius is 20 feet.
22:38
I mean, the radius in the NHL is 28 feet, so it's a much gradual curve.
22:42
It's not this huge corner, then a short curve and then back up again.
22:46
Well, it is huge out there.
22:47
There's a reason when we were going to play in an NHL sheet, we'd practice on Ritter.
22:51
Yeah, because it's not something you can just adjust to on the fly.
22:55
Like, it's very, very different.
22:57
And then when you have really skilled teams offensively, like Penn State, they took advantage of it last weekend.
23:04
Yeah, they're a good team.
23:06
They are a good team.
23:07
That speaks for itself.
23:09
Well, I know Vegoe has had a couple more questions.
23:11
He's just wanting to know, who do you still stay in touch with, your former teammates?
23:14
Do you still get together with the guys?
23:16
Yeah, so it's funny.
23:19
Tony, Lucia and I probably live three blocks from each other and don't see each other nearly enough in the downtown area.
23:26
But we actually had a couple of the older guys within the previous four years.
23:34
But before I got there, threw together an alumni get together for guys we'd all played together this past summer.
23:40
So we went up to Duluth for a couple of days and golfed, and it was a very good time.
23:44
So it was kind of my class, and then the two classes ahead of me, older than me.
23:49
So that's, you know, that older class, it's kind of like Peltier, Kaufman, Gordo.
23:55
And then the class ahead of that, or underneath that was like Wheeler, you know, Bustrom, Stoa, RJ Anderson, and I'm the leaving off names too, and then my class.
24:06
There's a lot.
24:07
Yeah, there was like 16 of us out there, and it was a great time.
24:09
We're going to, you know, we're trying to make it an annual thing to keep in touch, because everybody's got kids and lives and things going on like that.
24:17
But I mean, for instance, last Saturday, I hadn't seen Brent Solely in forever.
24:22
That's a name that'll go back for a few Gopher fans.
24:24
But like I saw Brent Solely, I saw him in the gold club after the game on Saturday.
24:31
So Solely was our third string goalie.
24:33
Yep.
24:35
My first few years, I was there.
24:36
I believe he also had the 35W helmet, didn't he?
24:41
Oh, God, you're testing my memory.
24:43
I remember taking a picture of that and can't catch it.
24:45
Yes.
24:45
One of the keepers back then had that dedication to the 35W collapse.
24:50
Very well, very well might have been Solely.
24:54
I can't remember that for sure.
24:55
He's a great kid.
24:56
Yeah, he's awesome.
24:58
So yeah, just running into guys at games is great, too.
25:01
So that's that's a lot of fun.
25:02
Yes, because a lot of times some of the fans don't recognize you guys after you've aged a little bit, too.
25:07
I know a couple of years on you.
25:09
Right.
25:10
Yeah, it's funny.
25:11
We, you know, we got the Gold Club seats.
25:14
And so I don't really I'm not walking around the concourse a whole lot because we kind of just go on the side door and go right up to the top.
25:20
And it's nice.
25:21
You got the bar top.
25:21
You can just kind of set your food and drink down up there.
25:23
And it's a great spot to watch from.
25:25
But I tend to see more alumni than I do just, you know, the regular fans that have been watching our games since before I played there.
25:33
Well, I've always been lucky enough as a photographer to be able to shoot between the benches, you know, quit pretty often.
25:40
And I've always told people that, you know, it's one thing to be on the glass, but it's a completely different thing to be no glass in front of you.
25:51
Oh, yeah.
25:52
You get the smells.
25:53
You hear the chirping.
25:55
It's a quite different experience.
25:58
And I try to relay that to people at times.
26:01
And I just tell you, it's a completely different experience.
26:03
It's a lot faster, too.
26:04
Yeah, it's incredible even, like, how much the glass keeps in, like, noise and different things and all the chirping that's going on and coaches yelling and whatever else.
26:16
You hear a whole different game down where you are.
26:20
Well, let's go back down memory lane, though, because you were involved in one of the best, I would say WCHA series of all time when you guys traveled down to Mankato and game two was kind of special for you.
26:35
Let's take a listen there.
26:36
Old Frank Wizocko here.
26:38
Now ahead for Carman.
26:40
Pulls back and shoots and scores by Carman.
26:44
We're going to game three.
26:49
Oh, the old Wuger with the woohoo there.
26:53
That was, you know, I remember being down there.
26:55
Actually, my camera broke the first night in overtime and I'm like, are you kidding me?
27:00
Did it break or did it run out of battery?
27:02
Because the game was so long.
27:03
My shutter failed when I was in overtime and I was shooting in that little photo box that they had, man, and my shutter failed.
27:09
I'm like, I'm screwed.
27:11
I'm not going to get it.
27:13
But I remember that goal was kind of a fluke goal because it did some kind of weird bounce off the ice.
27:18
Yeah, I mean, I got a lot of grief from my friends.
27:21
What a terrible celebration.
27:23
Well, I didn't I didn't see it go in.
27:24
So it was a weird bounce on the goal.
27:27
He didn't have it.
27:27
I mean, you bounce off the ice like that.
27:29
It's going to I mean, it was incredible that I watched the replay on it after the game when I was doing an interview.
27:37
And I couldn't do that again if you gave me a thousand opportunities like the puck glanced off.
27:45
The D started to try to go down and block it.
27:47
And it glanced off the underside of his shin pad, stayed completely flat and kept all of its velocity, hit the ice and it was like like bouncing a quarter off a table.
27:56
It just rocketed straight up and I was like, I don't know how that even happened.
28:00
But you know what?
28:01
That's why you shoot the puck.
28:02
That is that is true.
28:04
I mean, what a what a special series that was for both teams.
28:08
I mean, you know, a single overtime game, a two double overtime games.
28:13
I've never been that tired in my life.
28:15
That was a long weekend.
28:17
And that was that was, you know, I think that was kind of the beginning of the Minnesota Mankato rivalry.
28:24
Yeah, I mean, they really I mean, Mankato was like, we're hosting.
28:28
And then they beat you.
28:29
And what was it?
28:30
I think it believed it was a shorthanded goal at first night to win in overtime.
28:35
And then your guys were against the body of mine scored that I played in high school with the guy who scored the game winner and the first game.
28:42
So it was fun.
28:46
Yeah, I remember even my freshman year the year before that, we had some nasty games with Mankato things.
28:53
It was, you know, some of the other series, like I always thought Wisconsin things never really got nasty.
28:57
I always felt like it was a really hard battle and like, you know, really good hockey Mankato.
29:03
I felt like we got into with them a little more extracurriculars and things like that and things going on behind the play for whatever reason.
29:09
But then my sophomore year, that was when Tommy Pohl got hit into the boards and, you know, God thankfully ended up being, you know, full recovery from all that.
29:21
But so yeah, I think that definitely.
29:23
And then while my freshman year, Wheeler cut, I think it was Dan Tormey was his name, something like that, the goalie.
29:30
I don't know if you remember that.
29:30
Wheeler slid into him and sliced his hand, the Mankato goalie.
29:33
I do remember that.
29:35
So yeah, so there was a couple of like big incidents that happened and leading up into that series the two years prior.
29:41
So yeah, there was a, it was a very hard fought series, very physical series, and it was a lot of fun.
29:45
I will never forget that.
29:47
And then you compare that to Michigan coming to Minnesota last spring and the fact that Minnesota decided not to put the first round series in the season ticket package.
30:00
Yeah, that's tough.
30:02
And under, I tweeted out the opening ice.
30:07
I got sent that picture by a lot of people.
30:08
And it was viewed over 200,000 times on Twitter.
30:14
Oh boy.
30:15
I didn't comment on it, but it was, well, I had Pat Micheletti coming over and yelling at me by the next period.
30:22
What are you putting that up for?
30:23
I'm like, I didn't even comment.
30:24
I just put it up.
30:25
I'm like, sorry, it was a bad decision by you to do it that way.
30:30
Yeah, it's tough.
30:32
It was bad.
30:33
I think the classic or I think the old model, I would assume was that, well, we don't need to put it in the season tickets because people buy tickets anyways for the first round series.
30:43
I would assume that was the thought process.
30:46
Yeah, it's tough.
30:48
I got texts from all sorts of people that played on the other schools making fun of us.
30:52
You guys need to go fly a kite.
30:55
But yeah, it has changed and I don't know.
31:00
I have total faith as I think most of the alumni do that.
31:05
With the changes that have been enacted and turning over a new leaf last year and just starting fresh, I think I believe they're headed in the right direction despite what happened, especially Friday last weekend.
31:19
It says a lot when there's a sophomore.
31:22
Again, I'm a little biased because I know and I like the kid a lot.
31:26
But Sammy, being co-captain as a sophomore, speaks volumes about some of your younger guys coming up that are looking up to this guy.
31:35
He's very dynamic on the ice.
31:38
He's all over the place out there.
31:40
He's got some good leadership in place, obviously.
31:44
Nanny is a senior, correct?
31:45
He graduated this year.
31:47
But you've got Sammy in place.
31:48
I don't think Sammy is going anywhere anytime soon.
31:50
Someone tweeted that at me, too.
31:51
I was like, well, maybe he is, maybe he doesn't.
31:54
But he's the right guy for the job right now.
31:57
Yeah, he is.
31:59
We just need some other guys to kind of pick up on the other lines, because if the other guys kind of don't pick it up, it is to shut down or easier to shut down one line than it is or one guy than it is when other guys are performing well.
32:14
For sure.
32:15
I actually thought I played really well on Saturday.
32:17
Kind of one of the best games I've seen in play in recent memory is Ronta.
32:21
I thought he was real noticeable and obviously scored, but he was really asserting himself out there, so it would be good to see more of that from him, for sure.
32:31
You talked earlier about your goal in Mankato.
32:34
You just shot it on net, and that's one of the frustrations I've been noticing from fans and people like this year.
32:41
A lot of guys are getting some great chances and then passing the puck, and I'm guessing you've probably seen that a few times too.
32:48
You know, Motsko's got to be saying, guys, come on, shoot the puck.
32:52
I think that's just the thing of the guys get to just kind of get it in their brain to listen.
32:55
Hey, you got an opportunity, you know, shoot low, get a rebound.
33:00
You don't always need to get that last fancy pass, and I bet you you've heard that quite a few times in your career.
33:05
Oh, yeah, actually, yeah, very specifically I have.
33:07
I was always told, because I was always trying to be a pass first guy.
33:11
It was just the way I was, and the way I was wired.
33:13
I got told plenty of times, shoot the puck.
33:16
Part of it, though, too.
33:18
Yeah, they definitely need to not be afraid to throw the puck at the net, right?
33:21
But that also plays into the Olympic sheet, too, because when you're on the boards coming down the wall, and maybe at the top of the circles, hash marks on the outside there, then that's a long way away or looks like it is right.
33:33
So you're less inclined to shoot because of all that space.
33:36
If you're on a smaller sheet, I do feel like you kind of you're thinking more about shooting, right?
33:43
Like it's not a bad shot to shoot from a bad angle at the bottom of the circle, but it feels that way sometimes in an Olympic sheet.
33:49
Like shooting that at the goalie's feet, it just feels like you're further away.
33:52
So I'm not saying that's an excuse, but it's just it's a thought process thing.
33:56
When the game's happening fast, you kind of think, well, I'm so far away, do I really want to throw the puck on the net?
34:01
So hopefully they can get past that and again, let those fly a little more.
34:05
I can understand when kids are big, they don't want to be selfish and things like that.
34:10
But you know, it's kind of a lot of times you kind of know, we're waiting for the fans to start yelling shoot, which I know you guys just love.
34:17
Maybe it will just be a little reminder, guys.
34:19
Hey, you got a great chance.
34:21
Let's get it on net and let's just let's crash that net and get a dirty goal because you know what?
34:25
We don't need to always have those fancy two-on-ones, three-on-two, fancy goals.
34:31
We know.
34:32
I agree.
34:32
Just want it in the back of the net.
34:34
Yeah, doesn't matter how it goes in, right?
34:37
No, it'll take, again, it's just, it's taking, it'll take time because again, there's plenty of guys.
34:42
Again, I said I was one of them I didn't, I wanted to pass before I'd shoot and it wasn't because I wasn't because I was trying to make a bad play, right?
34:49
It's because you think like, oh, I should be looking to pass here.
34:53
I shouldn't be taking the shot.
34:54
And like you said, being selfish sometimes.
34:56
So yeah.
34:57
Yeah, I can't disagree with you there.
35:00
Well, thanks for coming on with me.
35:01
You know, it was kind of a short notice thing and we just threw this thing together, but I appreciate you being available to come on and do this.
35:07
Absolutely.
35:09
Again, I just I appreciate kind of giving me the opportunity to elaborate a little more on what I was referring to.
35:14
And just, you know, it's sometimes the fans forget that, you know, the alumni, we care quite a bit, too.
35:21
And we're not, you know, it's I just thought it'd be nice to hear a perspective from one of us and kind of what we see out there, too.
35:28
And just kind of and also hopefully encourage some fans to maybe take a look at, you know, maybe take a step back and be like, all right, well, am I being a good fan right now?
35:37
Maybe?
35:37
I don't know.
35:40
Because again, I get the frustration and I get, you know, you're paying money and a lot of money for these seats.
35:45
But maybe that maybe you want to stay and stay and enjoy the seats for the rest of the game, too.
35:49
So you might as well, might as well, because you never know what you're going to see.
35:53
When we saw the Vikings game yesterday, team came back, things change very quickly.
35:57
It can and all it takes is one goal to spark a team.
35:59
And we've seen it in the past.
36:01
You get a flood of goals and you just never know.
36:03
And make some noise.
36:06
Yeah, absolutely.
36:07
The last thing I just want to say with that is I'm not trying to by any means rag on the fans.
36:12
We have some of the best fans in the country and we always have.
36:15
And it was what made playing at the U so great amongst a lot of other things.
36:19
But knowing you're going to play in front of a packed arena and knowing you got a great fan base behind you.
36:26
And I know those fans are still there.
36:29
But it'd be nice to, again, you got to support the team when they're struggling too.
36:33
That's when they need it the most.
36:35
Most definitely.
36:36
Well, thanks for coming on with us.
36:38
Yeah, I appreciate it.
36:39
I really appreciate you coming on.
36:41
Well, that's going to do it for our very first GPL Quick Shift Podcast.
36:46
I want to thank former Golden Gopher Mike Carman for joining me.
36:50
You can also follow him on Twitter at kangaroo underscore carmen.
36:54
And maybe I'll tweet a little more often now.
36:58
We'll see.
36:58
I don't know.
36:59
I don't know if I want to be responsible for responding to that many tweets.
37:04
Be sure to tune in later this week when we'll have Wisconsin State Journal reporter Todd Molesky on the regular weekly GPL podcast for the upcoming Badger series.
37:14
Until then, thanks for joining us.
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