Latest / The PodKaz: USCHO Women's Hockey / Wrapping up the 2024-25 season with USCHO's awards and storylines we'll remember

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Wrapping up the 2024-25 season with USCHO's awards and storylines we'll remember · The PodKaz: USCHO Women's Hockey

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Usccho dot com. Hi, everyone, Welcome to the podcast on
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: Todd Maleski here with Nicole Hasey, and we are here
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: for our season.
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: Wrap up episode.
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: The twenty twenty four or twenty five season has come
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: and gone a six month journey, well add to it
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: preseason and everything like that, and eight months feels like
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: more like it. We're going to get into some of
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: the highlights of what we've seen this season. We're going
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: to get into some of the departures that we're seeing
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: through the transfer portal. But first, Nicole, I want to
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: start our episode today with the uscho dot Com Awards,
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: which you have so dutifully put together again this season
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: and you can find those on the website on uscho
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: dot com. The Division one women's side, this is something
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: and I know you put a lot of work and
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: a lot of thought into every year, because I mean,
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: no one watches more games in NCAA women's hockey than
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: you do. But I know that you don't take that
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: for granted, and don't just take it as that you
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: You you put a lot of work into what these
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: you know, the first, second, third team, the rookie team,
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: the player there coaching their Rookie of the Year, all
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: these things. Mean, can you maybe just kind of give
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: us an idea of what you go through and how
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: you do this?
• 1:34
  Speaker 3: Sure? Thank you. That's so it's such a weird I mean,
• 1:38
  Speaker 3: I do. I do watch a lot of hockey, and
• 1:40
  Speaker 3: I do that on purpose because you know, like a
• 1:42
  Speaker 3: lot of the awards are voted on by people that
• 1:44
  Speaker 3: don't and I don't necessarily that's not necessarily a bad thing,
• 1:48
  Speaker 3: like coaches and things like they only get to watch
• 1:50
  Speaker 3: so much, but it's really hard to get a like
• 1:54
  Speaker 3: a mac review of everything. And so yeah, it's one
• 1:57
  Speaker 3: of the reasons I don't go to the rink as
• 1:59
  Speaker 3: much as I used to is because I realized how
• 2:00
  Speaker 3: much I can stay home, or how much I can
• 2:02
  Speaker 3: watch When I stay home. It's always better to see
• 2:05
  Speaker 3: in person. I hate, especially because some of the bad
• 2:08
  Speaker 3: streams like you just don't get the same impact. But still, yeah,
• 2:12
  Speaker 3: so for me, I mean, it's funny you ask because
• 2:14
  Speaker 3: in this year we kind of like went with what
• 2:17
  Speaker 3: the national folks went with. But in general, I just
• 2:20
  Speaker 3: try to take a look at things more than just
• 2:24
  Speaker 3: the statum lines, or at least more than just scoring
• 2:28
  Speaker 3: that it's not just about you know, how many points
• 2:30
  Speaker 3: somebody puts up. You know, we were we were voting
• 2:33
  Speaker 3: for talking about Sophie Jake's you know, the year before
• 2:36
  Speaker 3: she won it, right, we were talking about Casey last year.
• 2:40
  Speaker 3: Just trying to look at overall and really get a
• 2:44
  Speaker 3: holistic picture of Yes, you know, Wisconsin could still be
• 2:48
  Speaker 3: a very good team if you took off one of
• 2:50
  Speaker 3: these scorers. Right, Yes, you know the top teams have
• 2:53
  Speaker 3: multiple talented players, but like not having that negate who
• 2:58
  Speaker 3: the people are and just really trying to look at overall,
• 3:01
  Speaker 3: who are the impact players, Who are the players that
• 3:03
  Speaker 3: are absolutely making a difference for their team. Yeah, I
• 3:06
  Speaker 3: don't know what does that answer your questions. It's embarrassing
• 3:09
  Speaker 3: to think, like like I don't want all that power,
• 3:13
  Speaker 3: but yeah, I just really try to think about it
• 3:15
  Speaker 3: in terms of what I've seen throughout the year, how
• 3:18
  Speaker 3: I see people progress, and to some extent even looking
• 3:21
  Speaker 3: at you know, maybe like one of the things I
• 3:24
  Speaker 3: remember thinking about or talking about with Danielle Sir Daphney
• 3:27
  Speaker 3: was like the way her role changed and through her
• 3:29
  Speaker 3: time at Colgate, and to me, that really showed what
• 3:32
  Speaker 3: a strong player she was, that she could play. She
• 3:34
  Speaker 3: could be the leading scorer, she could be you know,
• 3:36
  Speaker 3: the person that was was really supporting the rest of
• 3:39
  Speaker 3: the offense. And to me, that like spoke to the
• 3:42
  Speaker 3: breath of her game and how talented she really was,
• 3:45
  Speaker 3: for example. So yeah, I just I don't know, try
• 3:48
  Speaker 3: to go beyond just the stat lines.
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: That is true, but there's also something that's say for
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: when the set lines are when you're thinking about a
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: player of the year, when the set lines are what
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: they ended. Yeah, and I think that was the case
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: with Casey O'Brien from Wisconsin, who is the USCHL player
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: there for.
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: The second straight year.
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: Last season, last season she was up there in terms
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: of scoring at the top and second in the country,
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: and this year she.
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: Blew away everyone else.
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: It was if you take out her scoring, it looks
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: a lot closer of our scoring race. But then there's
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: Casey O'Brien, what ended up seventeen points ahead of everyone else,
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: set the Wisconsin single season records, set the Wisconsin career
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: record for points. It just it felt like everything was
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: pointing that direction, especially going you know, from mid season on,
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: we knew she had a really good start of the season.
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: It was gonna be does she come back after the.
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: Break and continue that on it And I felt like
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: she maybe even surpassed it a but what she had
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: the bar she had set with what she did in
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: the second half against some really good teams when she
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: played them.
• 5:09
  Speaker 3: Right and as the sort of target on Wisconsin back
• 5:13
  Speaker 3: kept getting bigger and bigger right as that, Like, you know,
• 5:16
  Speaker 3: they didn't get their first loss till January, and so
• 5:19
  Speaker 3: I mean, it's not that people didn't know they were
• 5:20
  Speaker 3: going to be good, but I think the longer that
• 5:22
  Speaker 3: season went on, the more it was like, we want
• 5:24
  Speaker 3: to be the team to knock them off. And so, yeah,
• 5:26
  Speaker 3: she they were getting it. There was no surprises. You
• 5:29
  Speaker 3: knew that you were going to face this team that
• 5:31
  Speaker 3: was really, really good, and she was still managing to
• 5:33
  Speaker 3: do all of those things. And I think too, you know,
• 5:36
  Speaker 3: it's none of these are meant to be like career awards.
• 5:41
  Speaker 3: And yet also you can't deny that, like looking again
• 5:44
  Speaker 3: looking at that bigger picture of like what makes this
• 5:47
  Speaker 3: like the best player in the country, it's knowing what
• 5:50
  Speaker 3: she's been able to do sort of over the course
• 5:52
  Speaker 3: of a season and knowing that she's getting you know,
• 5:54
  Speaker 3: everybody's best defense, and knowing the work that she's put
• 5:58
  Speaker 3: on different parts of her game to like keep getting better.
• 6:00
  Speaker 3: I think all of those things play into it. But yeah,
• 6:04
  Speaker 3: I don't know that as much as like the other
• 6:09
  Speaker 3: three top players and her teammates and all the like,
• 6:12
  Speaker 3: I don't I don't know that you can make a
• 6:14
  Speaker 3: compelling argument that comes close to what you could make
• 6:17
  Speaker 3: for Casey this year. Like sometimes I think there are
• 6:19
  Speaker 3: really good you know, there would be no bad choice
• 6:21
  Speaker 3: sort of thing, and like I said, certainly no negatives
• 6:24
  Speaker 3: against KK or Laila or literally any of the other
• 6:28
  Speaker 3: top ten. I just think in this case, it was
• 6:30
  Speaker 3: it was pretty cut and tried.
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: Yeah, And I mean we're gonna be talking about Wisconsin
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: a lot here in this segment because it was. It
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: was a dominant season by Wisconsin. I mean, thirty eight
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: one and two end up winning the National Championship, won
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: the WCHAO both regular season and playoff. We're so far
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: ahead of everyone in the pair wise. I think that
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: gets you know, forgotten too, that they end up what
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: like seven points or an NPI I had of Ohio State,
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: and then like the gap between first and second was
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: the same between second and like fourteenth, fifteen something like that.
• 7:08
  Speaker 3: I mean they were locked in as the number one
• 7:09
  Speaker 3: overall seed, like with several weeks.
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: To play very early.
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: Yeah, So I mean that's going to come out in
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: a lot of these awards just because they you know,
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: I think we saw before the season there was potential
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: for a team of this caliber and they just did it.
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: And so that's where we get to talk about Coach
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: of the year. There there are a few names in
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: consideration here, but Mark Johnson saw this through from putting
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: this team together to keeping them on track to getting
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: you know, the the last win of the season, And
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: I wonder if you want to talk about what, you know,
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: what put him over the top for Coach of the
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: Year in your mind?
• 7:52
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I think it's it's kind of the same thing
• 7:55
  Speaker 3: I said with Casey, which is that like there was
• 7:56
  Speaker 3: that target that everybody knew what was coming, and there
• 8:01
  Speaker 3: was a lot of pressure on this team, and there
• 8:04
  Speaker 3: were times when this team was absolutely like sort of dominating,
• 8:08
  Speaker 3: and they still basically they did everything they set out
• 8:12
  Speaker 3: to do in really tough circumstances and did it with
• 8:19
  Speaker 3: the team still all liking each other at the end
• 8:21
  Speaker 3: and being happy with their coach and sort of all
• 8:23
  Speaker 3: of that sort of stuff. I mean, this is a
• 8:25
  Speaker 3: team that handled sort of all the pressure all the like.
• 8:29
  Speaker 3: They didn't lose that focus, and I think that is
• 8:31
  Speaker 3: really an underrated part of like kind of any team.
• 8:34
  Speaker 3: I mean, it would be really easy to go out
• 8:37
  Speaker 3: there and be like sort of lose, be sloppy and
• 8:41
  Speaker 3: not stick with what you're supposed to be doing in
• 8:43
  Speaker 3: these situations. I think like there needs to be credit
• 8:48
  Speaker 3: given to the fact that like sort of every game
• 8:50
  Speaker 3: they went out and executed the game plan and there
• 8:52
  Speaker 3: were bumps in the road, and there was a lot
• 8:54
  Speaker 3: of distractions and there were things that definitely started to
• 8:57
  Speaker 3: go wrong, and you know, I think it's really telling
• 9:00
  Speaker 3: that after a really easy season for them in terms
• 9:04
  Speaker 3: of not a ton of pumps in the road, you know,
• 9:07
  Speaker 3: really like leading from start to finish, Like they came
• 9:09
  Speaker 3: from behind in several games to close out the season.
• 9:12
  Speaker 3: And I think that says a lot about who they
• 9:15
  Speaker 3: are as a team, about their culture, about the way
• 9:17
  Speaker 3: that they were coached. I don't know. I for me,
• 9:19
  Speaker 3: we talked about Doug Darra at Cornell. We talked about
• 9:23
  Speaker 3: Tara Watchhorn at BU and I think both are you know,
• 9:27
  Speaker 3: at the very least honorable mention? If not, like, you know,
• 9:31
  Speaker 3: how else do you want to look at it? But yeah,
• 9:33
  Speaker 3: I think part of me in choosing, like last year
• 9:39
  Speaker 3: we chose Chris Wells at Saint Lawrence because that was
• 9:42
  Speaker 3: a team that was below five hundred the year before, right,
• 9:44
  Speaker 3: and like the way that he brought that team together.
• 9:48
  Speaker 3: But generally, I don't know, I felt like, I don't know,
• 9:54
  Speaker 3: I just I felt like the fact that Wisconsen sort
• 9:56
  Speaker 3: of hit bumps in the road, came from behind. But
• 10:00
  Speaker 3: mostly it's just knowing that you're going to have a
• 10:03
  Speaker 3: really spectacular team and getting that team to come together
• 10:06
  Speaker 3: and be better than the sum of its parts and
• 10:08
  Speaker 3: accomplish that goal. I think it's probably a pretty underrated
• 10:13
  Speaker 3: thing that Mark did, and I think everybody kind of
• 10:17
  Speaker 3: saw what kind of coach Mark is with that who
• 10:21
  Speaker 3: wants it thing?
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: Right?
• 10:22
  Speaker 3: Like that just feels like that put the exclamation mark
• 10:26
  Speaker 3: on like what makes him a good coach on why
• 10:28
  Speaker 3: his players respond so well to him. The fascinating thing
• 10:32
  Speaker 3: about that to me is that afterwards Mark was like, well,
• 10:35
  Speaker 3: I wouldn't have wanted it, and he was telling that
• 10:37
  Speaker 3: to everybody and I just like, it's fascinating to me
• 10:40
  Speaker 3: to have the confidence in your players to ask them
• 10:43
  Speaker 3: who wants it? Well, no, and you you wouldn't want
• 10:46
  Speaker 3: to be in the position of hearing that question from
• 10:48
  Speaker 3: your coach. The psychology bit of that is fascinating to me.
• 10:51
  Speaker 3: But yeah, I don't do you Do you have any thoughts?
• 10:54
  Speaker 3: I mean, you talked to Mark more often than I do.
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: I think that Mark.
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: This had to be one of his better coaching jobs,
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: and from the not necessarily from the you know x's
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: and always getting the skill players to do their things,
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: but from making sure everyone was, like you referenced before,
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: on the same page and working towards the same goal
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: throughout a six month plus season, because like I mentioned,
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: everyone thought this was a possibility of being a super team,
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: of being a team of you know stars that we're
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: going to be seeing in the Olympics next season. But
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: that doesn't always mean you're going to be able to
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: pull that together and go towards the one common goal
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: of the here and now. But I think he did
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: a pretty good job of of you know, understanding what
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: he has in the room, letting the room take care
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: of itself when it needed to.
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: And then you know, just kind of being the guiding
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: hand on the shoulder sometimes. And that's.
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: A big part of coaching we always hear is you know,
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: understanding what you're working with and not trying to.
• 12:06
  Speaker 2: Force your you know, you're you know, pre.
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: Ordained thoughts on on on the way a team is
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: to kind of let them be who they are and
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: then just kind of adjust yourself to that. And I
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: think he had to do that at some points this season,
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: and the results were, you know, obviously really strong, and
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: like you mentioned, they did it's kind of the difficult
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: way down the stretch of falling behind in a lot
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: of games and and and finding the way to come back.
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: So yeah, I mean it's I don't know that there's
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: gonna be a lot of disagreement on this one. We
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: heard from Nadine Mazarral at the Frozen Four that she
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: had Mark on her first on her ballot for a
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: Coach of the Year, and I don't think, uh, there
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: would be a whole lot of people saying, no, that's
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: a terrible pick.
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: It's for a guy in championship. Yeah, I think.
• 13:00
  Speaker 3: Both Mark having like very little ego in terms of
• 13:04
  Speaker 3: like understanding that he doesn't need to be the person
• 13:06
  Speaker 3: in the room. And then also just like managing and
• 13:09
  Speaker 3: controlling ensuring that the egos of his team didn't get outsized.
• 13:14
  Speaker 3: I think like that was That's just a really important
• 13:16
  Speaker 3: part of of what happened in that locker room this year.
• 13:18
  Speaker 3: I mean, like I remember asking Casey about like the
• 13:22
  Speaker 3: team playing free and loose and having fun. And when
• 13:26
  Speaker 3: I had asked Layla about, like, Jesus, you made that
• 13:29
  Speaker 3: looks like, uh so easy, and she was, and Laila
• 13:32
  Speaker 3: had said to me, like, it is easy. I'm not
• 13:34
  Speaker 3: worried about anything. I can play like that because I
• 13:37
  Speaker 3: trust my teammates and we're so good right now and
• 13:39
  Speaker 3: we're so deep that if I make a mistake, somebody
• 13:42
  Speaker 3: else is gonna like pick that up. And she didn't
• 13:45
  Speaker 3: mean it flippantly, but when I asked Casey about it,
• 13:47
  Speaker 3: she was like, yeah, but we just need to be
• 13:49
  Speaker 3: careful that we're still playing our game the Badge way,
• 13:51
  Speaker 3: like not losing our you know, our habits and all
• 13:54
  Speaker 3: that stuff that like even when things are going really well.
• 13:57
  Speaker 3: This was right after the Minnesota, the big Minnesota win
• 14:02
  Speaker 3: that the team should have been on cloud nine, and
• 14:04
  Speaker 3: Casey's thought was like, let's make sure that it doesn't
• 14:06
  Speaker 3: get you know, go to our heads kind of thing,
• 14:09
  Speaker 3: and that that you know shows in the good leadership
• 14:12
  Speaker 3: down from the coaching to the captains. And I don't know,
• 14:15
  Speaker 3: I just to me that was really telling about the
• 14:17
  Speaker 3: mindset of this team and like what they were talking
• 14:19
  Speaker 3: about in the locker room and like what their focus was.
• 14:22
  Speaker 3: That that should have been a big ego boost, right,
• 14:27
  Speaker 3: that should have been something that really like fluffed them up.
• 14:30
  Speaker 3: And in Casey and the coaches, we're talking about like, okay,
• 14:33
  Speaker 3: but you know, still play our games still, do you know,
• 14:36
  Speaker 3: still stick with your habits, Still make the right passes,
• 14:38
  Speaker 3: the right choices with the puck, all that sort of stuff.
• 14:40
  Speaker 3: And so that's you know of those moments that during
• 14:44
  Speaker 3: the year just made me think like, Okay, this team
• 14:46
  Speaker 3: like there's something more here again, Like the sum is
• 14:49
  Speaker 3: better than the really good parts when they came together,
• 14:51
  Speaker 3: and it wasn't just the skill, but like sort of
• 14:53
  Speaker 3: all of that, the trust, the coaching, the leadership, all
• 14:56
  Speaker 3: of that, Like that they were something special to watch.
• 15:00
  Speaker 2: Of the year. This is an award that.
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: You know, before the season, everyone has thoughts on who
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: were going to be the best rookies based on you know,
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: they're what they did and maybe the U eighteen level
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: or uh, you know, have done at the prep school level.
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: I wonder where you had Kate Kramer coming into the season.
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: Is this something that you thought was was going to
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: be a Rookie of the year kind of season for
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: the Minnesota to look forward.
• 15:31
  Speaker 3: Maybe not rookie of the year, But I did have
• 15:32
  Speaker 3: high expectations from her. But I also have been lucky
• 15:35
  Speaker 3: enough to watch her for several years at the U
• 15:38
  Speaker 3: eighteen level, like in person, right, Like I was able
• 15:40
  Speaker 3: to see what she could do with that team, and
• 15:43
  Speaker 3: so I had high expectations and I wanted to see
• 15:46
  Speaker 3: I thought, I think she fits really well in the
• 15:49
  Speaker 3: w c h A. I mean, I said my write up,
• 15:51
  Speaker 3: but you know, I think she's still got to find
• 15:52
  Speaker 3: her balance of how to be physical without drawing all
• 15:55
  Speaker 3: the penalties. But I just thought that her style of
• 15:58
  Speaker 3: play really lends itself well. And we're gonna come We're
• 16:02
  Speaker 3: gonna talk about the transfer portal. But I feel like
• 16:04
  Speaker 3: umd's in this really great position now, like they brought
• 16:06
  Speaker 3: in Josie s Martin and and have Caitlyn and like
• 16:10
  Speaker 3: that's a team that has been sort of defensive and
• 16:12
  Speaker 3: then offensive by committee. And I feel like they're in
• 16:14
  Speaker 3: a really interesting position right now to be to be
• 16:17
  Speaker 3: sort of more offensive and more forward, more forward focused.
• 16:22
  Speaker 3: And so yeah, I don't know if I thought she
• 16:25
  Speaker 3: was going to be I mean she didn't. You know.
• 16:28
  Speaker 3: Their first weekend they went and beat Ohio State. At
• 16:30
  Speaker 3: Ohio State, they swept them, and she had two goals
• 16:33
  Speaker 3: and assist in the second game, her second ever collegiate game,
• 16:35
  Speaker 3: And so it was like, you have those instincts and
• 16:37
  Speaker 3: you think someone's gonna play well and like so to
• 16:39
  Speaker 3: see and you know that young players often have transition difficulties,
• 16:42
  Speaker 3: and when she did that first weekend, I was like, Okay, then,
• 16:45
  Speaker 3: so this is where we're at. But yeah, I to
• 16:48
  Speaker 3: some extent, yes, I did have high expectations for I
• 16:51
  Speaker 3: just I like her style. I like how she uses
• 16:54
  Speaker 3: her size and her strength. She's got a great shot,
• 16:57
  Speaker 3: She's got really she's just really smart. She's got really
• 17:00
  Speaker 3: great hockey iq and instincts, and so she's also like
• 17:04
  Speaker 3: I mean, I have the pleasure of often talking to
• 17:07
  Speaker 3: teenagers when I do you eighteen right, So like anywhere
• 17:09
  Speaker 3: from from fourteen to eighteen year olds, and often they're
• 17:13
  Speaker 3: not very great in front of the media. Often it's
• 17:15
  Speaker 3: sort of their first time in front of it. And
• 17:17
  Speaker 3: Caitlyn has always been just really composed and really capable
• 17:20
  Speaker 3: of talking about her game and her team in a
• 17:23
  Speaker 3: way that I didn't often see from other younger players.
• 17:26
  Speaker 3: And so that to me, that always just sort of
• 17:28
  Speaker 3: like shows, you know, sort of how they're processing the game.
• 17:31
  Speaker 3: And even in college, we often don't get like the
• 17:33
  Speaker 3: best answers to like tactical questions, and she she was
• 17:37
  Speaker 3: always able to answer those, and so that, you know,
• 17:39
  Speaker 3: I think there's just like a maturity to the way
• 17:42
  Speaker 3: that she thinks about the game. And I think it'll
• 17:44
  Speaker 3: be really good for Minnesota Duluth to get other players
• 17:48
  Speaker 3: that process that same way around her. And I think
• 17:51
  Speaker 3: the well, it's gonna be a little scary, but yeah,
• 17:55
  Speaker 3: Caitlyn's just she's just really cerebral about and really like
• 17:58
  Speaker 3: open about what she needs to work on or what
• 18:00
  Speaker 3: she thinks. You know, her are her faults as much
• 18:03
  Speaker 3: as her her positives, and so uh yeah, I just
• 18:06
  Speaker 3: I was impressed prior at you eighteens, and I thought,
• 18:09
  Speaker 3: you know, it was you know, we last year's rookie
• 18:12
  Speaker 3: the year was Joy Dunn and you know, she scored
• 18:14
  Speaker 3: the goal in the National championship game. Like, I don't
• 18:16
  Speaker 3: think that we had a rookie that was quite you know,
• 18:18
  Speaker 3: that big of a splash the year before. We had
• 18:20
  Speaker 3: tested Janicky and KK Harvey. You know, I don't think
• 18:24
  Speaker 3: we had one rookie that that was the outstanding, like
• 18:28
  Speaker 3: huge impact player this year. But I do think that Caitlin,
• 18:32
  Speaker 3: you know, she led the nation and goals by a rookie,
• 18:34
  Speaker 3: And yeah, I think she's she's a player I think
• 18:37
  Speaker 3: is only going to keep getting better. I think she's
• 18:39
  Speaker 3: just got this huge ceiling and so that's what makes
• 18:44
  Speaker 3: her fun to watch.
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's gonna be fun to see where her career
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: goes from here. And really the rest of the rookie
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: team that you put together, Lindsay Avar of Cornell, Monique
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: Lyons of Brown also at forward, Tuva Kandell and l
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: Primorano from Northeastern and Minnesota respectively at defense, and Lisa
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: Johnson the goalie. I mean, that's that's a group that
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: I think we can expect pretty big things from for
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: for the next few years.
• 19:12
  Speaker 3: Yeah, like it's stand out players and names, right, Like,
• 19:15
  Speaker 3: like Chloe Premorano on that list is not surprising to anybody,
• 19:19
  Speaker 3: but you know what we saw from you know, the
• 19:22
  Speaker 3: group at Brown this year, and she really like led
• 19:26
  Speaker 3: a lot of that charge, right Like, she was an
• 19:28
  Speaker 3: important part. Monique was part a big part of some
• 19:30
  Speaker 3: of those big games. And so I just like, I
• 19:33
  Speaker 3: like that we have some of these names, like Chloe's
• 19:35
  Speaker 3: gonna be at World Championships, but we can we also
• 19:37
  Speaker 3: have players that, like I think we're gonna see help
• 19:39
  Speaker 3: build up their programs, and I think that's a lot
• 19:42
  Speaker 3: of fun. I think it's fun that like Lisa Johanson
• 19:44
  Speaker 3: didn't start in net for Northeastern to start the year,
• 19:47
  Speaker 3: but like was also in the Goalie of the Year
• 19:48
  Speaker 3: conversation by the end of it, So she's just a
• 19:51
  Speaker 3: fun player. Like I don't know, I don't know how
• 19:53
  Speaker 3: you can't look at that and be excited about what's coming.
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: You know, Yeah, it's gonna be uh good to see
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: that group continue on. You also picked the first, second,
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: and third team for the All us c Cho Awards.
• 20:07
  Speaker 2: Any thoughts on those.
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: I mean, that's a tough thing to do to draw
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: the lines between first and second and second and third
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: and third.
• 20:15
  Speaker 2: And not on the list sometimes I.
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: Don't indeed, I mean that was that was we saw
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: in the National Awards where those were all over between
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: the Goalie of the Year and the first team All
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: American then second team, and it was just.
• 20:38
  Speaker 2: Kind of all over the place there.
• 20:40
  Speaker 3: Yeah, Ultimately, I think I kind of went with my
• 20:42
  Speaker 3: gut here I actually had. So we have Kelly Kelley
• 20:46
  Speaker 3: Doyle from Quinnipiac as the thirteen goalie, and she was
• 20:50
  Speaker 3: on I think we talked about this a little bit
• 20:52
  Speaker 3: the goalie balloting. We made a top three and submitted that,
• 20:55
  Speaker 3: and then that was tallied and then the top three
• 20:58
  Speaker 3: were chosen and given back to us and we numbered
• 21:00
  Speaker 3: those three, and Kaylee was on my top three that
• 21:03
  Speaker 3: I submitted. I just think she had spectacular numbers in
• 21:09
  Speaker 3: the face of a lot of traffic in front of
• 21:10
  Speaker 3: her and on a team that wasn't like super supporting,
• 21:13
  Speaker 3: you know, with tons of offense and things like that.
• 21:16
  Speaker 3: So I thought she just had an outstanding season and
• 21:18
  Speaker 3: I really wanted to make sure she got on here.
• 21:20
  Speaker 3: That's not to say that I don't think that Amily's
• 21:22
  Speaker 3: Bergmann is also a really good goalie, like that was
• 21:24
  Speaker 3: a tough one trying to choose. Like you said, there
• 21:27
  Speaker 3: were you know, quite a few really good ones. But
• 21:29
  Speaker 3: I just thought I really wanted to point out in
• 21:32
  Speaker 3: Kelley's numbers, like wohlden't we get the Goalie of the
• 21:35
  Speaker 3: Year voting, we get sort of you know, the list
• 21:36
  Speaker 3: of their stats, and just looking at what she had
• 21:39
  Speaker 3: for sort of support, and it makes me think of
• 21:41
  Speaker 3: like like pictures who don't get run support, right, Like
• 21:46
  Speaker 3: that's where I felt where Kaylee felt fit in. And yeah,
• 21:49
  Speaker 3: my gut said I had to go with ev. I
• 21:52
  Speaker 3: just think she she had an outstanding season, and the
• 21:57
  Speaker 3: same with Ava. I know that people will think that
• 22:02
  Speaker 3: Wisconsin could have done what they did without a better
• 22:04
  Speaker 3: without a you know, like the sort of any goal
• 22:07
  Speaker 3: anyone's standing in the net could have done that. But
• 22:08
  Speaker 3: I think first of all, she had some hug just
• 22:11
  Speaker 3: like I said, the Badgers had to come from behind
• 22:13
  Speaker 3: quite a bit. She came up with some huge sages
• 22:16
  Speaker 3: there towards the end of the season. And also just
• 22:18
  Speaker 3: like the way that her team is, like, no way
• 22:20
  Speaker 3: would we be like would we feel as comfortable doing
• 22:22
  Speaker 3: what we do? All of that sort of stuff without
• 22:24
  Speaker 3: her in front of them. So yeah, tough decisions to
• 22:27
  Speaker 3: make there, for sure. But I think it's clear that
• 22:31
  Speaker 3: that Ever really had a crazy outstanding season, and she's
• 22:34
  Speaker 3: you know, sort of the only goalie in the mix
• 22:35
  Speaker 3: that had to face the Gophers, the Badgers and and
• 22:41
  Speaker 3: Ohio State. Like that's that's just to face all of them.
• 22:44
  Speaker 3: That's minimum six games, right, I'm saying that, no minimum
• 22:49
  Speaker 3: twelve games to home to away. Yeah, so she just
• 22:54
  Speaker 3: she you know, she faced the best of the best
• 22:56
  Speaker 3: and still came up with really amazing numbers.
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: All Right, we'll check out all of those stories and
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: the list of first, second, and third team on usho
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: dot com. Nicole has done a great job with those again.
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: When we come back, we will look back on the
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: season as a whole and what we're taking away from it.
• 23:16
  Speaker 2: Stay with us on the podcast. Welcome back to the podcast.
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: Todd Milltskain, Nicole Hasey with you looking back at the
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: twenty twenty four to twenty five season. I wanted to
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: start this segment with a look back at the preseason
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: poll and how things changed between that and the postseason rankings.
• 23:43
  Speaker 2: A span of more than six months.
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: Between those two and it's always kind of fun to
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: remember back to what we were thinking back in September.
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: A lot of it wasn't too far off the preseason poll.
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: Heead Ohio State at one, Wisconsin two. They finished in
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: the reverse order, and as they've gone back and forth
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: with the championship game in the last three years, a
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: couple teams made some moves up compared to the preseason rankings.
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: So Minnesota was in third, Colgate fourth, Clarkson fifth, Cornell
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: sixth in the preseason rankings, and Cornell finished third plus
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: three spots in postseason rankings, dropping Minnesota and Colgate down
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: one each, and then Minnesota d Luth moved up from
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: seventh in preseason the sixth and postseason. We saw Clarkson
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: go down from fifth and preseason to ninth. We also
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: saw Yukon go down from ninth to thirteenth. But the
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: teams that moved up that I think need to be
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: recognized as kind of some of the stories of the
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: season here. Penn State was picked for twelfth and ended
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: up in eighth. BU was not in the top fifteen
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: to start the season and ended up as eleventh and
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: got into the NCAA Tournament as Hockey East postseason champions.
• 25:04
  Speaker 2: Those are the.
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: Teams that kind of jump out to me as having,
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: you know, seasons that I think are going.
• 25:11
  Speaker 2: To be.
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: Remembered as as important in possibly important building blocks. And
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: we've seen that before from Penn State, where they they're
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: just kind of continuing the trend here. Boston University needed
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: a season like this to get back on the map
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: in some ways.
• 25:29
  Speaker 2: I mean, They've got a lot of things going for them.
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: They just had the renovation of Walter Brown Arena during
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: the season, finish up during the season.
• 25:40
  Speaker 2: What are you thinking about as I.
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: Guess those two teams specifically Penn State and BU, how
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: maybe they can use this season as a maybe it's
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: not a starting point necessarily, especially in the case of
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: Penn State, but somewhere where they can launch into bigger
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: things ahead.
• 26:00
  Speaker 3: We want to come back at you with a question
• 26:02
  Speaker 3: about Penn State, so I'm going to start with BEU.
• 26:05
  Speaker 3: I think yeah, I think, you know, we asked about
• 26:08
  Speaker 3: this at the postgame press conference with with Tara Washorn.
• 26:11
  Speaker 3: I think that there is just sort of more of
• 26:14
  Speaker 3: an excitement. I mean, we saw student reporters drive out
• 26:18
  Speaker 3: to come from Boston to Madison to cover the game.
• 26:21
  Speaker 3: I think there's just particularly on you know, sort of
• 26:24
  Speaker 3: a smaller campus, a campus that's not you know, hugely
• 26:27
  Speaker 3: known for other D one sports, Like, there's just really
• 26:29
  Speaker 3: an opportunity for for them to grow and get attention
• 26:33
  Speaker 3: and build community and bring in fans. And I think
• 26:37
  Speaker 3: the other thing is that it's it's about bringing in
• 26:39
  Speaker 3: the right recruits as well. And for a while they
• 26:43
  Speaker 3: were doing the building block thing and having to convince
• 26:45
  Speaker 3: people to come and be a part of that. And
• 26:47
  Speaker 3: I think when you break through to the tournament and
• 26:49
  Speaker 3: when you do what they did this year, like then
• 26:51
  Speaker 3: you're it's a different approach that you get to have
• 26:53
  Speaker 3: and you get people paying attention differently. So and the
• 26:56
  Speaker 3: other thing is that we as we talked about so
• 26:58
  Speaker 3: much as that hockey used to so wise open and
• 27:01
  Speaker 3: has been for for a couple of seasons now, and
• 27:03
  Speaker 3: so just the opportunities to really sort of like we
• 27:06
  Speaker 3: saw what Northeastern was able to do for a few
• 27:08
  Speaker 3: years running, right, I think it was like six years
• 27:10
  Speaker 3: to really sort of plant your flag and be that
• 27:13
  Speaker 3: very best team in your league and make waves, you know,
• 27:16
  Speaker 3: play in a national championship game, all that sort of stuff.
• 27:19
  Speaker 3: So it just feels like, particularly because they're in Hockey East,
• 27:23
  Speaker 3: there's this huge opportunity. You know, we've talked about how
• 27:26
  Speaker 3: hard it is to be like the four, five and
• 27:28
  Speaker 3: six teams in the ECAC and the w c J
• 27:30
  Speaker 3: and break through the top, and that's just not the
• 27:33
  Speaker 3: case for them. They're they're really in an opportunity to
• 27:36
  Speaker 3: place themselves as you know, the best program in their league.
• 27:40
  Speaker 3: And so yeah, I think there's just a there's a
• 27:42
  Speaker 3: lot of belief in that room, which I think is huge.
• 27:45
  Speaker 3: I think they needed this, like the program and the
• 27:48
  Speaker 3: players and and sort of everybody there needed this run
• 27:52
  Speaker 3: and to pull off what they pulled off and be
• 27:54
  Speaker 3: able to you know, they missed out on that regular
• 27:57
  Speaker 3: season championship and that didn't like stamp in them, right,
• 28:01
  Speaker 3: and they were able to win that conference tournament and
• 28:05
  Speaker 3: with overtime games and all that sort of stuff. And
• 28:07
  Speaker 3: so I think there's just there's now a like you sometimes,
• 28:10
  Speaker 3: no matter how many times you say it or how
• 28:12
  Speaker 3: much you tell yourself, like you have to do the
• 28:14
  Speaker 3: thing to really you know, get the proof and really
• 28:17
  Speaker 3: really believe it and buy it. And I feel like
• 28:19
  Speaker 3: at this point the buy in's there and that gives
• 28:22
  Speaker 3: Terror and the rest of her staff really like massive opportunities.
• 28:26
  Speaker 2: You said you had a question come back on Penn State.
• 28:29
  Speaker 3: Well, my question is what else do you think Penn
• 28:31
  Speaker 3: State can do? Because they were a one loss conference team,
• 28:35
  Speaker 3: they continue to schedule great non conference opponents, they have
• 28:40
  Speaker 3: made the tournament. To you, like, what is at this point?
• 28:44
  Speaker 3: I don't think it's about building los. I think that
• 28:46
  Speaker 3: they're there, So what do you think they can do
• 28:48
  Speaker 3: to get past that? Because I would argue they're kind
• 28:51
  Speaker 3: of doing They've done everything right this far, and like
• 28:54
  Speaker 3: is it just a limitation of like the league that
• 28:56
  Speaker 3: they're in and how much they're able to grow when
• 29:00
  Speaker 3: you're when you're dominating your your league so much. I
• 29:02
  Speaker 3: don't know. I just am curious if there's if you
• 29:05
  Speaker 3: think there's something else that can be done here, because
• 29:08
  Speaker 3: I mean, I'd argue that they they've done all the
• 29:10
  Speaker 3: right things and it's sort of now it's two losses
• 29:13
  Speaker 3: in a row in the church, Like what what what's
• 29:15
  Speaker 3: the next thing they can do to get over that hump?
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: So I think back to I don't know, fifteen years ago,
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: ten years ago, whenever it was that Mercyhurst was the
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: force there right and and getting not only getting to
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: the tournament, but getting into the Frozen Four, getting in
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: the championship games, and you know, yes, it was it
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: was player drive.
• 29:37
  Speaker 2: It was you know, star player driven.
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: Sure, and like like we're I think we're seeing a
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: little bit right now with with Penn State. So I
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: don't know, it's tough to compare those eras though, of
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: you know, because that well also was an era when
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: you know, maybe the w c h A obviously was
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: really good but wasn't as dominant, still winning all the championships,
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: but there were a lot more other teams getting into
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: the Frozen Four in those you know, thinking you know
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: the two thousand and you know, eight to thirteen kind
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: of range.
• 30:15
  Speaker 3: I mean, there's just so much more depth on every
• 30:17
  Speaker 3: team now, so like one individual player or one individual
• 30:21
  Speaker 3: line can't make the impact that they did ten years ago.
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: So I feel like we're seeing this on the men's
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: side a little bit right now. Penn State getting into
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: the Frozen Four or the men's Frozen four, is it
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: was that next barrier for that program. They'd been in
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: that regional final a few times, had been able to
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: get the win. I think one Penn State needs to
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: get to that regional final that needs to be you know,
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: that step of saying we're not just happy being in
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: this and they're not. We've seen that last couple of years.
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: They're not just like here to be here. They wanted
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: to get past that. And so yeah, I don't know
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: that they are incredibly far away from that. But that
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: is a massive hurdle.
• 31:16
  Speaker 2: I mean it just yeah, but I just.
• 31:17
  Speaker 3: Don't know what else. I mean, they that this is
• 31:20
  Speaker 3: a team that I thought would have a better shot
• 31:22
  Speaker 3: in their tournament game this year than they ended up having.
• 31:26
  Speaker 3: And and yeah, I just like they did everything right.
• 31:29
  Speaker 3: They have this great team. They you know, they like
• 31:32
  Speaker 3: I said, they're scheduling the non conference games like within
• 31:35
  Speaker 3: the bounds of what they're doing, like they put themselves.
• 31:37
  Speaker 3: They were they didn't need to win their tournament like
• 31:39
  Speaker 3: they were. They earned a bid based on their MPI
• 31:42
  Speaker 3: and then they still went and lost their game and
• 31:44
  Speaker 3: sort of looked like they weren't maybe ready to be there.
• 31:48
  Speaker 3: And so it's like for me, I'm wondering, what are
• 31:51
  Speaker 3: the what are the things that they can Yeah, I
• 31:54
  Speaker 3: don't know, I don't know if there's an answer, But
• 31:55
  Speaker 3: I just I was surprised. I mean, I just I
• 31:59
  Speaker 3: feel like, so they need to do something to take
• 32:03
  Speaker 3: another step in their own healent it's not the right word,
• 32:08
  Speaker 3: but like the level so that they're prepared to play
• 32:10
  Speaker 3: in that NCAA game and win it. And I don't know,
• 32:13
  Speaker 3: I kind of feel like they might be at the
• 32:15
  Speaker 3: ceiling of what they can do where they are.
• 32:17
  Speaker 2: I don't know, maybe that's maybe that's the case. We'll
• 32:19
  Speaker 2: find out over the Yeah, there's.
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: Right, as as it then becomes a couple of years
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: a non test Janicke team after she graduated.
• 32:31
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and you know, it could have just been a
• 32:33
  Speaker 3: bad game this year. Like it's it's a really small
• 32:35
  Speaker 3: sample size. We're saying all this out of right. It's
• 32:37
  Speaker 3: looking at two games and being like, okay, they're they're
• 32:39
  Speaker 3: big goal is to get to the tournament. Now they
• 32:41
  Speaker 3: can't win the tournament game. But yeah, I think it's
• 32:43
  Speaker 3: mostly just that I was surprised at their showing this year,
• 32:47
  Speaker 3: and so it makes me wonder.
• 32:50
  Speaker 2: Yeah, taker picture.
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: Questions, right, I think there's a there's a path for
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: them to get into the second round and maybe then
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: eventually into the Frozen four.
• 33:04
  Speaker 2: It's gonna be about attracting more.
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: Star players to state college I mean that's really going
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: to come down to is more people will follow the
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: path of Tessa Janicky right, And as.
• 33:17
  Speaker 3: I said, I mean just that there are more players,
• 33:20
  Speaker 3: more talented players, and like it's a great time to
• 33:23
  Speaker 3: be in women's college hockey. But it does mean that
• 33:25
  Speaker 3: like every team, like you just can't you can't take
• 33:29
  Speaker 3: over a game in the same way they used to
• 33:30
  Speaker 3: be able to write with like having the one right recruit,
• 33:33
  Speaker 3: the one right line, and so it can't just be Tessa, right.
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: I think about now kind of expanding everything to you know,
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: what we saw throughout the entire season. I it really
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: you know, we've talked about Wisconsin a lot because they've
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: been a team that's just been on a roll throughout
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: the entire season. Lost once in the November and didn't
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: lose again. I had a tie in January at Regular
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: Field in Chicago, which is, you know, one of those
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: amazing kind of moments for women's hockey to be on
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: that uh that stage again, outdoor game in front of
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: you know, twenty thousand people and on Big ten network,
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: and and but.
• 34:23
  Speaker 2: You know, Wisconsin.
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: Is ends up being the national champion this season, like
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: we've talked about before because of that group of stars,
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: and I want to spin it towards next season.
• 34:35
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I guess I just want to interject and say,
• 34:37
  Speaker 3: like I hope people understand, Like I know that we
• 34:40
  Speaker 3: get crap because we're both in Wisconsin and Todd's job
• 34:42
  Speaker 3: is to cover Wisconsin, but like, I hope people appreciate
• 34:45
  Speaker 3: and know that, like this was a very special season
• 34:48
  Speaker 3: of hockey and that was a really special team and
• 34:50
  Speaker 3: like in the grand scheme of things, in a few years,
• 34:54
  Speaker 3: we're going to look back at that and be like,
• 34:55
  Speaker 3: holy crud, those are the players that were on that team,
• 34:58
  Speaker 3: or even the number of players that we're in that
• 35:00
  Speaker 3: national championship game. And so I hope people appreciate and
• 35:04
  Speaker 3: understand that, like, yes, we talked about them a lot,
• 35:07
  Speaker 3: but like that was a that was a generational team,
• 35:09
  Speaker 3: Like that's we haven't seen anything quite like that maybe
• 35:13
  Speaker 3: since like even the people that were around Minnesota for
• 35:16
  Speaker 3: that unbeaten squad looked at this Wisconsin team and went
• 35:19
  Speaker 3: holy crap. So yeah, like I just I hope that
• 35:23
  Speaker 3: people appreciate and understand that, like aside from who we
• 35:27
  Speaker 3: are and where we live and what we cover, like
• 35:28
  Speaker 3: we're this is a team that like really did something
• 35:31
  Speaker 3: special and really was something special. And I hope that
• 35:34
  Speaker 3: if you're anti Wisconsin or anti WCCHA or whatever it is,
• 35:39
  Speaker 3: which I can appreciate and understand that you get sick
• 35:41
  Speaker 3: of hearing about the same teams, but also that was
• 35:44
  Speaker 3: that was something special and it's something you know, I
• 35:47
  Speaker 3: feel like we're gonna be old people talking about remember when.
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: Yeah, right, But you look towards next season, they've got
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: a lot of those pieces coming back. Obviously Casey O'Brien
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: is has is graduating or is out of eligibility, but
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: there's a lot of that group that can come back,
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: and I believe is coming back to try and run
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: this back again.
• 36:12
  Speaker 3: And then we have the Yeah, and we have the
• 36:16
  Speaker 3: added wrinkle of it being an Olympic here and several
• 36:20
  Speaker 3: of those players are going to take time. As we
• 36:24
  Speaker 3: understand it right now, there will be no centralization. The plan,
• 36:27
  Speaker 3: I believe is for USA Hockey to do once a
• 36:30
  Speaker 3: month camps, and so there's going to be a one
• 36:33
  Speaker 3: weekend every month that those players are not available to
• 36:35
  Speaker 3: the Badgers and then the what month to six weeks
• 36:39
  Speaker 3: in February, January and February when they'll be, you know,
• 36:42
  Speaker 3: in Italy at the Olympics. So to me, that's like,
• 36:47
  Speaker 3: we can't talk about next year, And that means that's
• 36:49
  Speaker 3: the same for Abbie Murphy Minnesota. That's the same for
• 36:53
  Speaker 3: joint Done at Ohio State. That's the same for Testagianikiy
• 36:56
  Speaker 3: at Penn State. Like you can't talk about what next
• 36:58
  Speaker 3: season's going to look like without sort of dealing with
• 37:01
  Speaker 3: the fact that we have no idea to some extent
• 37:03
  Speaker 3: what it's going to look like with those players coming
• 37:05
  Speaker 3: and going.
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, that does make it really difficult. And I
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: think that's gonna to some degree for some weekends.
• 37:14
  Speaker 2: Even the playing field next season of yeah.
• 37:17
  Speaker 3: It should make it pretty fun and wide open.
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: It can be harder to have a super team quote
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: unquote next season when you're going to miss those players
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: for what's it going to be twelve fourteen games. We
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: don't know what that number is yet, but just for
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: or if.
• 37:32
  Speaker 3: For house scheduling will adjust for any.
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: Of that, right, I don't know if you can completely
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: adjust scheduling for that many weekends plus the entire February,
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: you know, stretch leading into the Olympics, which by the way,
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: comes right at the close of the regular season of
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: conferences and leading in the postseason. So yeah, a lot
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: that we hear kind of bits about here and there
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: of well we think it's gonna be this and this
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: that we're going to need to hear a this is it,
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: this is the way it's going to be at some
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: point as as teams, leagues, you know, everything, playing for
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: what that's gonna be next season.
• 38:17
  Speaker 3: Yeah, And I feel like even once we have, even
• 38:19
  Speaker 3: if somebody definitely told me today what the plan is,
• 38:21
  Speaker 3: I still feel like we don't know how that is
• 38:23
  Speaker 3: going to play out, like what it's going to actually
• 38:26
  Speaker 3: look like and mean for the individual teams. I will
• 38:28
  Speaker 3: say I think overall, this is an absolute season upcoming
• 38:33
  Speaker 3: of opportunity. And I mean that both for individual players
• 38:37
  Speaker 3: and for teams. I think, you know, we've talked, I
• 38:39
  Speaker 3: talk all the time about wanting players and or teams
• 38:42
  Speaker 3: to step up, like there's an opportunity there and like
• 38:45
  Speaker 3: you got to take it. That means like the Wisconsin
• 38:47
  Speaker 3: current third and fourth liners are going to get more
• 38:49
  Speaker 3: ice time, that means they're fresh, their incoming freshmen are
• 38:52
  Speaker 3: going to get more ice time. But that's the same
• 38:55
  Speaker 3: thing at other schools too, Like who is going to
• 38:57
  Speaker 3: tech step up and play a bigger role in tell
• 39:00
  Speaker 3: to Janikee's absence. Who is going to be the driving
• 39:03
  Speaker 3: force for Ohio State when Joey Dunn's not there. So
• 39:06
  Speaker 3: I think there's a chance for players that like may
• 39:09
  Speaker 3: be playing secondary or tertiary roles to really like show
• 39:12
  Speaker 3: what they're capable of, which is really exciting. And we're
• 39:15
  Speaker 3: talking right now about sort of the US players, but like,
• 39:18
  Speaker 3: you know, you've got players from all over Europe, you know,
• 39:22
  Speaker 3: like one of You've got incoming freshmen that are like
• 39:25
  Speaker 3: several teams have European incoming freshmen, big names coming in
• 39:29
  Speaker 3: that are going to be gone. And yeah, so it's
• 39:33
  Speaker 3: certainly not just those US players that it's going to
• 39:35
  Speaker 3: impact in their teams. But yeah, I just I think
• 39:38
  Speaker 3: for me, it's about the opportunity. It's that, like you said,
• 39:40
  Speaker 3: the playing field, even the little and we just like
• 39:43
  Speaker 3: we just talked about with bu like sometimes you have
• 39:45
  Speaker 3: to get those wins and you have to make the
• 39:46
  Speaker 3: push to believe it. And so if a team is
• 39:49
  Speaker 3: able to make a bigger step this season. Like, I
• 39:51
  Speaker 3: think that just makes a huge difference in their confidence
• 39:54
  Speaker 3: and their capability and in their momentum and like what
• 39:57
  Speaker 3: they would be able to do in the future and
• 39:59
  Speaker 3: maybe close some of those gaps based on like the
• 40:01
  Speaker 3: opportunities available this season.
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: Continue to kind of look around the country for this
• 40:09
  Speaker 1: season that we.
• 40:09
  Speaker 2: Just finished up. ECAC was a conference that a lot
• 40:17
  Speaker 2: of teams had a chance to win, and we saw
• 40:20
  Speaker 2: that kind of through the second half of you know,
• 40:22
  Speaker 2: there there was some bounces for a few teams. They
• 40:25
  Speaker 2: would go up, they come back.
• 40:26
  Speaker 1: Down, and Cornell is the team that ends up on
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: top of things there. I think that's and for that program,
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: that was an important step to make to get back
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: there and to get back into the Frozen four, and
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: these these kind of things that kind of tell you that, yes,
• 40:46
  Speaker 1: Cornell is still a force and can be a force
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: in women's hockey.
• 40:52
  Speaker 2: We know, how.
• 40:55
  Speaker 1: You know, disappointing that wasn't twenty twenty when they were
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: number one going into the tournament and had the recanceled.
• 41:02
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm sorry to interrupt, I just I thought I
• 41:06
  Speaker 3: thought Doug Darra talked really well about that and his
• 41:09
  Speaker 3: pressors at the Frozen four. And I think maybe even
• 41:12
  Speaker 3: I hadn't quite thought about like how far reaching like
• 41:17
  Speaker 3: that it took a good it took this whole five
• 41:19
  Speaker 3: years to really rebuild, because players, because of the because
• 41:23
  Speaker 3: of being an IVY League school. And it made me
• 41:25
  Speaker 3: think of it in the wider case of all of
• 41:26
  Speaker 3: the IVY leagues in terms of maybe certain recruits leaving
• 41:30
  Speaker 3: and going somewhere else, or players you know, aging out,
• 41:33
  Speaker 3: and the IVY League is really sticking to those four
• 41:35
  Speaker 3: years and all that sort of stuff that like, it
• 41:38
  Speaker 3: really did take a full five years for Cornell to
• 41:41
  Speaker 3: even like be in a position to be fighting this
• 41:43
  Speaker 3: battle again. And I think I hadn't really grasped that
• 41:50
  Speaker 3: full discussion until Doug talked about it.
• 41:55
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think there's a you don't know it until
• 42:00
  Speaker 1: you're actually going through it and you you see like
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: the repercussions of what happened and how a season off
• 42:07
  Speaker 1: me what that all, what that means to recruiting into uh,
• 42:11
  Speaker 1: to all of those kind of trickle down things of well,
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: you know we're not playing this season, Well, okay, that
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: that means we're going to lose not only this season,
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: but potentially you know, some of our best players for
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: coming seasons after that, and uh yeah, So to see
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: uh Cornell get back to that point was I know
• 42:33
  Speaker 1: important for them as a program, but really it it
• 42:37
  Speaker 1: you know, it adds to the uh the ECAC just
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: kind of the feeling that you know, there's so many
• 42:47
  Speaker 1: teams that can jump in there and be a champion
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: and be even when you're talking about you know, the
• 42:53
  Speaker 1: couple weeks of trying to be a playoff champion that
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: was that felt pretty open sometimes of who was going
• 42:58
  Speaker 1: to jump in and win that one.
• 43:01
  Speaker 2: So I think that's exciting. I think that's something that
• 43:05
  Speaker 2: ECAC will have for a while.
• 43:07
  Speaker 1: I mean, that's just the nature of things there is
• 43:09
  Speaker 1: that there are a lot of teams that are rotating
• 43:11
  Speaker 1: through around the top there, and all of them having
• 43:15
  Speaker 1: a chance to jump in and win a championship is.
• 43:18
  Speaker 2: A pretty cool thing going forward.
• 43:21
  Speaker 1: And for excitement and for being able to build something
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: with those teams of like, hey you can you can
• 43:25
  Speaker 1: come here and put us.
• 43:26
  Speaker 2: Over the top.
• 43:27
  Speaker 3: Well, I think too. The I mean, maybe volatility isn't
• 43:30
  Speaker 3: the right word, but you think, like Yale was a
• 43:32
  Speaker 3: frozen four team just a couple of seasons ago, like
• 43:34
  Speaker 3: Princeton was in the conversation and like those are teams
• 43:37
  Speaker 3: that finished what six and seventh that I'm countess, Yeah,
• 43:41
  Speaker 3: like the there's a lot of room for movement there,
• 43:44
  Speaker 3: and like the idea that Brown finished just below Princeton,
• 43:46
  Speaker 3: Like they're they're definitely like my feel good team of
• 43:49
  Speaker 3: the year, right, Like they're the team that I'm like
• 43:51
  Speaker 3: pulling for in terms of like underdogs and making huge
• 43:54
  Speaker 3: strides this year going from below five hundred and yeah,
• 43:57
  Speaker 3: I think, you know, one of the things I hear
• 44:00
  Speaker 3: from people so often is that they're sick of seeing
• 44:02
  Speaker 3: the same teams over and over again. And like I
• 44:04
  Speaker 3: do get that, though I you know, nobody seems to
• 44:06
  Speaker 3: be saying that about football and all looks the same,
• 44:09
  Speaker 3: so I don't know, but I like that what is
• 44:11
  Speaker 3: happening in the ECC is that, like, you know, just
• 44:14
  Speaker 3: getting that right combination of players can make a huge difference.
• 44:17
  Speaker 3: And like that's like what we saw with Yale making
• 44:20
  Speaker 3: that frozen four run. So we saw Cornell this year
• 44:22
  Speaker 3: and and I hope that it, you know, all is
• 44:25
  Speaker 3: more sustained and it's not just one or two years run.
• 44:28
  Speaker 3: But I think it's really good for the game and
• 44:31
  Speaker 3: good for that conference that like you can you can
• 44:34
  Speaker 3: you know, it's not just flags planted at the top
• 44:37
  Speaker 3: and everybody else trying to get there.
• 44:40
  Speaker 1: We saw this year where the New Haw was a
• 44:46
  Speaker 1: kind of a grab bag towards the end, it was like,
• 44:49
  Speaker 1: who's gonna figure out how to get to the finish line.
• 44:52
  Speaker 1: It was Long Island that that got there, but the
• 44:56
  Speaker 1: Sharks weren't able to to complete the job and and
• 45:00
  Speaker 1: get to the NCAA Tournament through the automatic bid in
• 45:04
  Speaker 1: in New Ha. I don't know if there's like a
• 45:10
  Speaker 1: epiphany here out of what we saw in New Ha
• 45:12
  Speaker 1: this season, other than you know, this is gonna be
• 45:16
  Speaker 1: something where a few different teams have a chance at
• 45:20
  Speaker 1: this going forward.
• 45:21
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I think it seeks to the parody and the
• 45:24
  Speaker 3: I mean generally those are programs especially like but that's
• 45:29
  Speaker 3: where all the new programs have been going. And so
• 45:31
  Speaker 3: the fact that we're seeing this from teams that like
• 45:34
  Speaker 3: have don't have all this history, don't have you know,
• 45:36
  Speaker 3: haven't had tons of time to do this. But also
• 45:39
  Speaker 3: you know, I like it was so cool to see
• 45:40
  Speaker 3: this sort of resurgence from Sacred Heart, right, and I
• 45:43
  Speaker 3: think it's just it's a lot of feel good stories.
• 45:44
  Speaker 3: It's a lot of showing the parody of the game
• 45:47
  Speaker 3: and like what the future can look like in the growth.
• 45:49
  Speaker 3: I mean, we talked about upsets and underdog sort of
• 45:53
  Speaker 3: way more this season than I feel like we have
• 45:55
  Speaker 3: any other year. There were a lot more there just
• 45:58
  Speaker 3: was the gaps fell bigger or smaller. The gaps felt smaller.
• 46:03
  Speaker 3: It felt like we were talking them more often about
• 46:05
  Speaker 3: you know, teams that were at the bottom parts of
• 46:07
  Speaker 3: the standings, like really giving giving it to the teams
• 46:09
  Speaker 3: at the top part of the standings, And so that
• 46:12
  Speaker 3: to me is just like sort of the lasting one
• 46:14
  Speaker 3: of the lasting things I have about this season is
• 46:16
  Speaker 3: knowing that like at any point, you know, we just
• 46:18
  Speaker 3: we saw those last couple of weekends of the regular
• 46:20
  Speaker 3: season where where teams that were who knew their season
• 46:23
  Speaker 3: was basically over, we're out there impacting the postseason. And
• 46:27
  Speaker 3: I think that's that's so amazing and says so many
• 46:30
  Speaker 3: great things about what is coming.
• 46:33
  Speaker 1: Well, we will, uh well, turn our attention to twenty five,
• 46:37
  Speaker 1: twenty six, not too long from now. Frozen four next
• 46:41
  Speaker 1: season is in state college again at Pagola Ice Arena.
• 46:47
  Speaker 1: I I don't want to like like jump into this
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: too soon. But we've talked about how the Olympics and
• 46:55
  Speaker 1: that is going to impact things. We're gonna talk a
• 46:59
  Speaker 1: little bit, uh in a little bit about how the
• 47:02
  Speaker 1: transfer portal is again impacting things. But is there something
• 47:07
  Speaker 1: you you look towards next season with, you know, maybe
• 47:11
  Speaker 1: a renewed excitement for or anything like that of that
• 47:16
  Speaker 1: women We feel like women's hockey has taken a lot
• 47:20
  Speaker 1: of steps in like you talked about before in depth
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: and having more quality players on these rosters.
• 47:28
  Speaker 2: H I we all want to see that continue on
• 47:31
  Speaker 2: and grow.
• 47:35
  Speaker 1: I'd love to see some kind of like tangible result
• 47:39
  Speaker 1: of that soon.
• 47:41
  Speaker 2: And I wonder what that is. And I'd love to
• 47:44
  Speaker 2: hear from readers too.
• 47:45
  Speaker 1: You know, there's ways of contacting us in our you
• 47:47
  Speaker 1: can find those in our show notes. You know, what
• 47:51
  Speaker 1: would you like to see in terms of that that
• 47:55
  Speaker 1: next big step for women's hockey and and and it
• 47:58
  Speaker 1: would be great for it to happen soon, but maybe
• 48:00
  Speaker 1: it's not possible to happen as quickly as we want
• 48:03
  Speaker 1: it to be.
• 48:04
  Speaker 2: But I don't know if you have any thoughts on that.
• 48:07
  Speaker 3: I thought it was great that we got number like
• 48:10
  Speaker 3: ESPN PR let us know like that they bothered to
• 48:13
  Speaker 3: even talk about the numbers, about what happened with the
• 48:16
  Speaker 3: National Championship game and the growth of viewership that's new.
• 48:22
  Speaker 3: I mean, we need to see the whole Frozen four
• 48:24
  Speaker 3: and really the whole tournament on television. The thing is
• 48:28
  Speaker 3: is like Olympic years are always such an opportunity. What
• 48:32
  Speaker 3: I would like to see is, I mean, my friend
• 48:35
  Speaker 3: Tony used the term and I think it really worked,
• 48:38
  Speaker 3: was women's college hockey broke containment with that National Championship game.
• 48:42
  Speaker 3: Like everybody was talking about it. Like we're both on
• 48:45
  Speaker 3: social media, tweeting and using blue Sky to share what's
• 48:48
  Speaker 3: going on with the game, so we're seeing the conversations happening.
• 48:51
  Speaker 3: And early in that game, my feed was not all
• 48:53
  Speaker 3: women's scholar hockey, and there was a point when literally
• 48:56
  Speaker 3: everybody I follow was talking about that game, and that
• 48:58
  Speaker 3: was just really cool to see. I use it for sports.
• 49:01
  Speaker 3: My fault by my feet is all sports, and they
• 49:03
  Speaker 3: were talking about other sports for a while and then
• 49:05
  Speaker 3: they were talking about that game. I want that momentum
• 49:09
  Speaker 3: combined with the Olympic year momentum where people pay attention
• 49:11
  Speaker 3: to women's hockey in a way that they haven't before,
• 49:14
  Speaker 3: and I think combined with the pedum, I think there's
• 49:16
  Speaker 3: just a lot of opportunity. And for the most part,
• 49:19
  Speaker 3: the college game has been left out of some of
• 49:21
  Speaker 3: that growth or most of that growth, And so I
• 49:24
  Speaker 3: don't know if that beings better marketing, better collaboration. I
• 49:28
  Speaker 3: don't you know, we could do a whole set of
• 49:30
  Speaker 3: podcasts just about the things that I think those all
• 49:33
  Speaker 3: those things could be doing together with the NCAA and
• 49:35
  Speaker 3: PWHL and the national teams. But I just what I
• 49:38
  Speaker 3: know is that we're the opportunity is there. I feel
• 49:41
  Speaker 3: like that National Championship game and the weekend as a whole,
• 49:44
  Speaker 3: it was just such great hockey. It really got people excited.
• 49:46
  Speaker 3: It's a shame that that was the end of it
• 49:49
  Speaker 3: and there was nothing for people to sort of like
• 49:50
  Speaker 3: dig right into between that and what just comes was
• 49:53
  Speaker 3: a natural boost from an Olympic year. It feels like
• 49:57
  Speaker 3: there's there's something there and we need to be talking
• 50:00
  Speaker 3: about like what comes next from that, and the very
• 50:02
  Speaker 3: basic is that it all needs to be televised.
• 50:05
  Speaker 1: I will continue to harp on that we need more
• 50:08
  Speaker 1: PWHL college collaboration.
• 50:12
  Speaker 3: It's ridiculous that there was no collaboration with the Frost
• 50:15
  Speaker 3: when we were in Minneapolis. I will yeah say that
• 50:18
  Speaker 3: to me, half the player, half the Frost was in
• 50:20
  Speaker 3: the building, right, Taylor Heisei dropped the puck. I just
• 50:24
  Speaker 3: like the lack of cohesion there is just fascinating to me.
• 50:28
  Speaker 3: There had to have been something that could have been done,
• 50:30
  Speaker 3: as simple as a signature or a skate with the
• 50:33
  Speaker 3: player anything. They're just the complete lack of cohesion between that.
• 50:37
  Speaker 3: I mean, we did see the Fleet do a college
• 50:40
  Speaker 3: hockey night, but they did it the week leading into
• 50:42
  Speaker 3: the Frozen four, and so I was like, I mean,
• 50:45
  Speaker 3: I like, I, you know, none of the local teams.
• 50:48
  Speaker 3: I guess we're in it, so that's okay, but it
• 50:50
  Speaker 3: was like they're they're just I felt like it was
• 50:53
  Speaker 3: a miss of like understanding the greater women's college hockey
• 50:56
  Speaker 3: landscape to do that college hockey night then, so yeah,
• 51:00
  Speaker 3: I don't there just needs to be more. There's we're
• 51:02
  Speaker 3: seeing this massive growth. Women's hockey is going to get
• 51:04
  Speaker 3: a bump from the Olympics. Let's make sure NCAA women's
• 51:07
  Speaker 3: hockey is part of that.
• 51:08
  Speaker 1: I would love to see some of these games that
• 51:10
  Speaker 1: the pter BHL is doing in different sites also have
• 51:14
  Speaker 1: a college component to them. I mean, it's tougher as
• 51:17
  Speaker 1: you get into February in March because you know you're
• 51:19
  Speaker 1: getting in the postseason then. But if you're going to
• 51:21
  Speaker 1: do that in uh, you know, December or January, if
• 51:24
  Speaker 1: you're going to take a game to Saint Louis, let's
• 51:28
  Speaker 1: have there be a linen would.
• 51:30
  Speaker 2: Against you know, yeah, do a doubleheader, yeah.
• 51:33
  Speaker 1: Against someone part of that as well, let's let's bring
• 51:37
  Speaker 1: in some some big rivalries into, uh, into those buildings.
• 51:42
  Speaker 3: Let's let's organically the players have their rivalries, right, like
• 51:47
  Speaker 3: we see stuff like when I mean it happened in
• 51:49
  Speaker 3: the National Championship game, but it also happened all year
• 51:52
  Speaker 3: long that when teams would play each other, you could
• 51:54
  Speaker 3: tell the players had bets and one of them would
• 51:55
  Speaker 3: have to wear something in for blockins. Like, it's organically
• 51:58
  Speaker 3: there and it needs to be tapped into.
• 52:02
  Speaker 1: All Right, we could go on and on and on
• 52:04
  Speaker 1: and on and about that, and we well, I'm sure
• 52:06
  Speaker 1: another point, but for right now, we're going to take
• 52:09
  Speaker 1: a quick break. When we come back, we will look
• 52:12
  Speaker 1: at the transfer portal, who's in there, who's going new places,
• 52:16
  Speaker 1: and what that might mean.
• 52:17
  Speaker 2: Stay with us on the podcast.
• 52:25
  Speaker 1: Welcome back to the podcast. Todd Lusky and Nicole Hasey
• 52:28
  Speaker 1: here with you. On our last segment, we're going to
• 52:30
  Speaker 1: talk about the transfer portal, which opened a few weeks ago,
• 52:34
  Speaker 1: when has had some interesting names going. More than one
• 52:38
  Speaker 1: hundred are in since, well about one hundred since the
• 52:44
  Speaker 1: end of the season, and well there's been a few
• 52:49
  Speaker 1: that have gone in before the end of the season.
• 52:54
  Speaker 1: The rules on this are weird and getting weirder, and
• 52:58
  Speaker 1: you know, you can go in if you're a graduate's early,
• 53:00
  Speaker 1: you can go in early, if there's a coaching chain,
• 53:03
  Speaker 1: and so a lot of these these things open up.
• 53:06
  Speaker 1: But as usual, some of the most interesting potential moves
• 53:10
  Speaker 1: here are at goalie, which is a position that is
• 53:14
  Speaker 1: really hard to recruit because you only get a couple
• 53:16
  Speaker 1: of bites at the apple, uh and if you you
• 53:19
  Speaker 1: miss on that, you're as a team, you're you're in
• 53:22
  Speaker 1: some trouble.
• 53:24
  Speaker 2: But now with the portal.
• 53:25
  Speaker 1: Adding a new dynamic of that, you get a little
• 53:27
  Speaker 1: bit more another chance at landing someone uh higher quality.
• 53:34
  Speaker 2: I've I've seen it and I should say we're off
• 53:37
  Speaker 2: the battom. Using the the list that's kept by Gopher
• 53:40
  Speaker 2: Puck Live.
• 53:41
  Speaker 1: They do a great job of following, you know, all
• 53:44
  Speaker 1: areas of the portal, the men's and women's D one
• 53:46
  Speaker 1: and D three, and so they they've kind of you.
• 53:51
  Speaker 2: Know, gotten a lot of that on on a list here.
• 53:57
  Speaker 1: But seeing some of the goalies in this nicole, I'm
• 54:01
  Speaker 1: really interested to see how this can kind of change
• 54:04
  Speaker 1: around potentially some team's fortunes right away next season.
• 54:08
  Speaker 3: Yeah. Well, I'm one of the things that the goalies too,
• 54:10
  Speaker 3: is that sometimes you can see that like a team
• 54:14
  Speaker 3: is maybe filling a gap where either someone got injured
• 54:17
  Speaker 3: or they have a recruit on the horizon and they're
• 54:19
  Speaker 3: looking to get to that point. And so there are
• 54:22
  Speaker 3: several goals in here with multiple years of eligibility left,
• 54:26
  Speaker 3: but sometimes the one year can just be a difference
• 54:29
  Speaker 3: maker as well. And so yeah, I think the maybe
• 54:31
  Speaker 3: the most interesting name is m A. Sophie Nordstrom, the
• 54:33
  Speaker 3: Saint Lawrence goalie. She's a Danish national. She's got a
• 54:36
  Speaker 3: year of eligibility left, but she is she's a difference maker.
• 54:39
  Speaker 3: She keeps them in games, she gives them opportunities. She
• 54:42
  Speaker 3: was huge last year in their overtime win in the
• 54:46
  Speaker 3: NCAA Tournament. Yeah, I feel like she's probably the biggest
• 54:50
  Speaker 3: name out there and somebody that is maybe too looking
• 54:52
  Speaker 3: to bridge a gap till a recruit coming in or
• 54:56
  Speaker 3: you know, really take advantage of a senior class before
• 54:59
  Speaker 3: they graduate. She's She's a big name that's out there.
• 55:01
  Speaker 3: But Skyler Vetter, who has been huge at the University
• 55:05
  Speaker 3: of Minnesota but was injured and didn't do much this
• 55:08
  Speaker 3: last season, is out there as an opportunity. But several
• 55:12
  Speaker 3: players with extra several years like Adrianna Ducett, who was
• 55:17
  Speaker 3: Clarkson's backup as three years left. Ella Willoughby, who was
• 55:21
  Speaker 3: in the Sophie Nordstrump's backup, is also on this list,
• 55:24
  Speaker 3: So yeah, there's some opportunities. Cala Frank who has long
• 55:30
  Speaker 3: been a really good goalie and has you know taken
• 55:33
  Speaker 3: her hits, spending, you know, facing a ton of shots
• 55:36
  Speaker 3: in the w c h A. She's someone that I
• 55:38
  Speaker 3: think could could really make a change for somebody as well.
• 55:41
  Speaker 3: So yeah, the goalie is there an interesting interesting lot
• 55:43
  Speaker 3: this year.
• 55:45
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and we've seen some not a ton of it's
• 55:48
  Speaker 1: tough to see the commitments that happen without really paying
• 55:52
  Speaker 1: really close attention on multiple different platforms. But one what
• 55:57
  Speaker 1: we've seen through Gopher Punk Live porting this Jamie Nelson
• 56:02
  Speaker 1: from Minnesota State man Cato to the University of Minnesota,
• 56:05
  Speaker 1: and that's an interesting I think probably from Minnesota a
• 56:11
  Speaker 1: depth forward possibility and maybe there's you know, an opening
• 56:16
  Speaker 1: there to move up into a top six kind of role.
• 56:19
  Speaker 2: If she has a good start to the season.
• 56:23
  Speaker 3: Yeah. I mean she's been in US national team camps
• 56:26
  Speaker 3: and she's been sort of on the edges of their radar,
• 56:28
  Speaker 3: so I think it's a really good opportunity for her
• 56:30
  Speaker 3: to to sort of step up her game and show
• 56:33
  Speaker 3: out on sort of maybe a bigger platform and with
• 56:35
  Speaker 3: with a little bit more skeletoned group around her. But
• 56:38
  Speaker 3: that feels like, yeah, a really big pick up from Minnesota.
• 56:41
  Speaker 3: You know, Emma Connor went into the portal for them,
• 56:43
  Speaker 3: so you maybe maybe seeing a little bit of a
• 56:46
  Speaker 3: switch out there, but played some role, you know, when
• 56:51
  Speaker 3: Abby Murphy was wrapped up and as somebody that stepped up.
• 56:53
  Speaker 3: So I think there is we know that the Gophers
• 56:55
  Speaker 3: need more depth on their offense and to be able
• 56:58
  Speaker 3: to get more production from further down the line, and
• 57:01
  Speaker 3: I definitely think Jimmy's somebody that can really help them
• 57:03
  Speaker 3: with that.
• 57:04
  Speaker 1: The highest scorer in the portal as of right now
• 57:06
  Speaker 1: as we're recording this on April third, I should mention
• 57:09
  Speaker 1: that because this will change is is a twenty goal
• 57:14
  Speaker 1: scorer Julia Pelleran from Boston College. That's a potential big
• 57:20
  Speaker 1: pickup for for a program to get a proven scorer.
• 57:26
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and two years of eligibility left right.
• 57:28
  Speaker 1: And those aren't you know, that's not always what you're
• 57:31
  Speaker 1: getting out of the portal. Sometimes you're getting depth of
• 57:34
  Speaker 1: the portal. But this is a possibility to add a
• 57:36
  Speaker 1: scorer and that's a gonna be a coveted thing in
• 57:41
  Speaker 1: the portal this year.
• 57:42
  Speaker 3: Yeah. And clutch. She she was huge for them down
• 57:46
  Speaker 3: that stretch down the end of the season. She was
• 57:48
  Speaker 3: the one scored except of those those big time goals
• 57:50
  Speaker 3: with overtime or forcing you know, forcing over time. She's
• 57:54
  Speaker 3: just she's a she's a clutch player, and she's someone
• 57:57
  Speaker 3: I think is going to be a really important pickup
• 58:00
  Speaker 3: for someone. The other I would say is they had
• 58:03
  Speaker 3: Johansson from Mercy Hears. She had sixteen goals twelve assists
• 58:06
  Speaker 3: this year and it's been a really big impact player
• 58:10
  Speaker 3: for them since she was a freshman. And so when
• 58:13
  Speaker 3: I saw her in there, I thought, oh, that's that
• 58:15
  Speaker 3: could be a really interesting pickup for another team as well.
• 58:20
  Speaker 2: Yeah, this.
• 58:23
  Speaker 1: It's fascinating to watch how roster construction happens, and it's
• 58:28
  Speaker 1: going to be even more interesting this offseason because of
• 58:31
  Speaker 1: the the schools that are opting into the House settlement.
• 58:36
  Speaker 1: The framework of that brings a roster cap of twenty
• 58:39
  Speaker 1: six players, and for some schools that's not a big
• 58:43
  Speaker 1: deal they are under twenty six anyway. For some schools
• 58:45
  Speaker 1: there that might mean a difference of a player too
• 58:49
  Speaker 1: off of their roster. And so that's where some of
• 58:53
  Speaker 1: these you know, portal additions might be coming from, is that,
• 58:59
  Speaker 1: you know, well, maybe I don't have a spot on
• 59:00
  Speaker 1: this team next season, I have to find somewhere else.
• 59:03
  Speaker 1: And there's a potential for fewer spots on teams, which
• 59:07
  Speaker 1: is never great, and that's something that is going to
• 59:13
  Speaker 1: have to be worked through this offseason. I I am
• 59:17
  Speaker 1: hoping that as many people are as able to find
• 59:20
  Speaker 1: spots as possible, knowing that there's you know, more players
• 59:23
  Speaker 1: coming in as freshmen too, So there's it's it's tougher
• 59:27
  Speaker 1: to find a spot than ever now, it feels like,
• 59:31
  Speaker 1: and this is I guess why we need more teams
• 59:33
  Speaker 1: playing Division one women's hockey too, to help find find
• 59:38
  Speaker 1: spots for a lot of qualified players.
• 59:40
  Speaker 3: Yeah, we're you know, sort of ending that the COVID
• 59:44
  Speaker 3: extra year and so sort of the math of incoming
• 59:47
  Speaker 3: classes and all that sort of stuff definitely did get
• 59:50
  Speaker 3: mixed up in the past few seasons. And so yeah,
• 59:52
  Speaker 3: I it's one of the things I asked because Minnesota
• 59:55
  Speaker 3: d Luth has been really active in signing out of
• 59:57
  Speaker 3: the portal quickly right now, and I wondered if they
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 3: if it was just a matter of like class sizes
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 3: and like why they had the spots that they did.
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 3: And yet it's just been an interesting couple of years
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 3: of like maybe not like you don't know how long
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 3: a player is gonna stay and how then how big
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 3: of the recruiting class can you have and things like that,
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 3: So just just an interesting situation. And then I just
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 3: since we talked about the other two positions, I think
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 3: on defense, the kind of most interesting people in the
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 3: Puerto we got Andrew Trinkova, the Czech national from RPI.
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 3: She has two years left and she was a seventeen
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 3: point scorer this year. Both gadzigs Juliana and Janessa from
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 3: Minnesota State man Cato. Juliano had twenty assists last year.
• 1:00:42
  Speaker 3: Those were names that when you were watching a man
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 3: Cato game you heard Juliana quite a bit, and so
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 3: that could be an interesting pickup. And then the last
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 3: one for me is Molly Jordan out of Boston College,
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 3: who also has two years left. She's a former U
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 3: eight team player and someone who I think maybe has
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 3: not reached sort of what she's capable of thus far
• 1:00:59
  Speaker 3: and her her college career. So yeah, definitely some interesting names.
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 3: And here you know ones you didn't say. Alex Law
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 3: from be you again, another former national team player. She's
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 3: a big, strong player. Lucia d her Alamo from from
• 1:01:12
  Speaker 3: Princeton I think is a really interesting possible ad for somebody.
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 3: And then there's you know, like we talked a little bit,
• 1:01:19
  Speaker 3: but like some of the players from from maybe in
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 3: New huh in Aha that maybe are looking for more opportunities.
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 3: So someone like Rowan Ringer from Post who you know
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 3: had ten goals and sixteen assists and t has three
• 1:01:31
  Speaker 3: years left, could really be a big addition for a
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 3: team that is looking for some scoring depth.
• 1:01:36
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 1:01:36
  Speaker 1: One of the interesting things to look at is is
• 1:01:39
  Speaker 1: where a lot of players in the portal are coming from.
• 1:01:41
  Speaker 2: And if there's a.
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 1: Certain number, a number from one particular school, that makes
• 1:01:47
  Speaker 1: you what kind of turnover is happening at that school?
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 1: What's the coaching staff trying to bring in? And we're
• 1:01:54
  Speaker 1: you know, we see what was it, eleven players from Merrimac.
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's not great.
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 1: Yeah that and and that tells you that, Okay, that's
• 1:02:02
  Speaker 1: that's a group that's gonna look a lot different next season.
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 1: And be it through the portal or be it through
• 1:02:08
  Speaker 1: freshman recruiting and having a different look to that team
• 1:02:14
  Speaker 1: is something that I you know, is not always all bad,
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 1: and sometimes you have to try and shake up the
• 1:02:21
  Speaker 1: makeup of group.
• 1:02:23
  Speaker 2: And it's just when you see it on here in
• 1:02:26
  Speaker 2: a in a list like it feels yeah, it's right,
• 1:02:29
  Speaker 2: and it feels like, oh, there's there's a lot happening there.
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 2: In one off season, I think to just.
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 3: Remember that these people, these are people who are making
• 1:02:38
  Speaker 3: these decisions at sixteen and seventeen year olds to remember
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 3: what you were like at that point. Their games change
• 1:02:43
  Speaker 3: a lot. And I also think the advent of the
• 1:02:45
  Speaker 3: peed up does sort of change like what the goal
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 3: might be for having played college hockey, Whereas someone a
• 1:02:51
  Speaker 3: few years ago just wanted to go play college hockey
• 1:02:54
  Speaker 3: and and you know, sort of close out their career
• 1:02:56
  Speaker 3: that way and go on like now there's more opportunities
• 1:02:58
  Speaker 3: and more options and the like sort of bettering your
• 1:03:02
  Speaker 3: chances of getting you know, catching someone's attention and getting
• 1:03:05
  Speaker 3: drafted and that sort of stuff like that, that's going
• 1:03:08
  Speaker 3: to change, like what you're trying to accomplish, and so
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 3: even players that were recruited four years ago are it's
• 1:03:15
  Speaker 3: a completely different landscape. And so I think, you know,
• 1:03:19
  Speaker 3: there's we could do a whole series of episodes just
• 1:03:21
  Speaker 3: talking about pluses and minuses of portal and all that
• 1:03:24
  Speaker 3: sort of stuff. But you know, I generally believe that
• 1:03:27
  Speaker 3: these are players who are you know, sort of looking
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 3: for like either it wasn't the right fit with the
• 1:03:31
  Speaker 3: coach or you know, a different player stepped up and
• 1:03:35
  Speaker 3: they aren't in the role they thought they were going
• 1:03:36
  Speaker 3: to be, and they're they're looking to do something different,
• 1:03:38
  Speaker 3: But yeah, I think, you know, I just I wouldn't
• 1:03:42
  Speaker 3: have wanted to make a decision that decides the rest
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 3: of my you know, hockey life at sixteen and be
• 1:03:47
  Speaker 3: stuck in that. And so that's that's where I think
• 1:03:51
  Speaker 3: this is a really good thing for the game. And
• 1:03:53
  Speaker 3: like on the one hand, coaches hated. On the other
• 1:03:56
  Speaker 3: we're still only talking one hundred players out of what
• 1:03:58
  Speaker 3: is it, forty four teams, So one hundred is both
• 1:04:02
  Speaker 3: a lot of players and not actually all that many.
• 1:04:04
  Speaker 1: One of the things I always try and keep in
• 1:04:06
  Speaker 1: mind is that you never really know what that individual,
• 1:04:09
  Speaker 1: what their story is fully look back a couple of
• 1:04:14
  Speaker 1: years ago, McKenna Webster transfers from Wisconsin to Ohose State
• 1:04:18
  Speaker 1: for the opportunity to play both field hockey and ice hockey.
• 1:04:23
  Speaker 2: Well, first of all, shout out to McKenna for.
• 1:04:27
  Speaker 1: After the season she she posted on social media she
• 1:04:30
  Speaker 1: went through surgery for compartment syndrome, which just sounds awful.
• 1:04:35
  Speaker 2: We hope you're doing well and best for recovery.
• 1:04:39
  Speaker 3: There. The idea that she played two NCAD one sports
• 1:04:42
  Speaker 3: seasons going through that is mind blowing.
• 1:04:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah, but so you never really know there there could
• 1:04:49
  Speaker 2: be you know, academic factors.
• 1:04:50
  Speaker 1: There could be all sorts of things playing into the
• 1:04:53
  Speaker 1: decisions to go into the portal, and that's that's something
• 1:04:58
  Speaker 1: that you never fully know and you know, like them
• 1:05:01
  Speaker 1: personally and they're able to get the full uh you know,
• 1:05:06
  Speaker 1: accounting of things from them, right And.
• 1:05:08
  Speaker 3: Again, because we are talking college sports, like we don't,
• 1:05:11
  Speaker 3: they're various laws and things like people always ask us
• 1:05:15
  Speaker 3: like about injuries, we don't. Schools and coaches don't tell
• 1:05:19
  Speaker 3: us like they don't they're required to disclose any of that,
• 1:05:22
  Speaker 3: and so that comes into play here too, like anything
• 1:05:24
  Speaker 3: that's going on with these players. Like again, these are
• 1:05:27
  Speaker 3: still mostly teenagers and they've all got like all their
• 1:05:30
  Speaker 3: own reasons and it might have nothing to do with hockey.
• 1:05:33
  Speaker 3: So I guess maybe just always have a little compassion
• 1:05:37
  Speaker 3: and realize that you never know what anybody else is
• 1:05:39
  Speaker 3: going through. But yeah, we you know these are these
• 1:05:41
  Speaker 3: are eighteen to twenty two year old women, so they
• 1:05:46
  Speaker 3: are they're allowed to make these decisions and it doesn't
• 1:05:50
  Speaker 3: necessarily say anything about their school or them.
• 1:05:53
  Speaker 2: Exactly.
• 1:05:54
  Speaker 1: Well said, I think that's, uh, that's all we have
• 1:05:57
  Speaker 1: to say about the portal. Right now, there will be
• 1:05:59
  Speaker 1: more or keep your eyes open for that. Well, I'm
• 1:06:04
  Speaker 1: sure I have more more movement going on there.
• 1:06:07
  Speaker 3: It's been a couple of new nude names every.
• 1:06:09
  Speaker 2: Day, so that's yeah how it works.
• 1:06:11
  Speaker 1: And it's open through and almost the end of the month, right,
• 1:06:15
  Speaker 1: and that's uh for for people entering now. You can
• 1:06:19
  Speaker 1: be selected out of the portal anytime. That's that can
• 1:06:23
  Speaker 1: continue on through the rest of the off season.
• 1:06:27
  Speaker 2: All right. So that's our season wrap up episode, Nicole.
• 1:06:31
  Speaker 1: It's it's always an honor doing this with you as
• 1:06:35
  Speaker 1: someone who I know puts so much work into as
• 1:06:39
  Speaker 1: much as you can know.
• 1:06:41
  Speaker 2: I know this is a tradition now that I'm going
• 1:06:44
  Speaker 2: to bring out all the fields.
• 1:06:45
  Speaker 1: But it's fun doing this because I try and keep
• 1:06:51
  Speaker 1: up with a lot of this. But I know you
• 1:06:53
  Speaker 1: know everything else, and that's that's really cool, and I
• 1:06:57
  Speaker 1: think everyone appreciates that there's someone who looks out for
• 1:07:01
  Speaker 1: women's hockey the way that you do and so on
• 1:07:05
  Speaker 1: behalf of our listeners. My gratitude to you for doing everything.
• 1:07:09
  Speaker 2: That you do to kind of be a voice and
• 1:07:16
  Speaker 2: the best writer of the areas on women's hockey.
• 1:07:20
  Speaker 3: Thank you. I'm very bad at except all the very
• 1:07:24
  Speaker 3: nice people that came up at the Frozen four and
• 1:07:26
  Speaker 3: said nice things. Just know that I'm also this awkward
• 1:07:28
  Speaker 3: with somebody that I know and I'm fairly friends with,
• 1:07:32
  Speaker 3: So thank you. It's yeah, it's really on the hard
• 1:07:36
  Speaker 3: days that that's what keeps me going is all the
• 1:07:39
  Speaker 3: very nice people and and what you just said. So ultimately,
• 1:07:43
  Speaker 3: you know, I'm doing this because because I didn't have
• 1:07:45
  Speaker 3: this growing up, and so I want to make sure
• 1:07:48
  Speaker 3: that girls in sports have it better in the next generation.
• 1:07:51
  Speaker 3: So while I hate you saying nice things to me,
• 1:07:56
  Speaker 3: I do appreciate that. You know, it feels like I'm
• 1:08:00
  Speaker 3: achieving my goal.
• 1:08:02
  Speaker 2: Well, let's do this again next season.
• 1:08:05
  Speaker 3: I suppose.
• 1:08:07
  Speaker 2: Let's take a break here, but let's do Yeah, I.
• 1:08:09
  Speaker 3: Think we'reay World starting a week.
• 1:08:12
  Speaker 1: We will have a very brief episode, I think, looking
• 1:08:15
  Speaker 1: forward to the World Championship that you can look forward
• 1:08:18
  Speaker 1: to in the next uh next week or so, and uh, we'll.
• 1:08:22
  Speaker 3: Try and come up with a couple off season ideas.
• 1:08:24
  Speaker 3: But yeah, otherwise we'll see you all in September speaking.
• 1:08:28
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it'll be fun to enjoy your off season. Everyone.
• 1:08:31
  Speaker 2: Thanks for listening.
• 1:08:32
  Speaker 1: Uh, you know how much we appreciate all and and
• 1:08:37
  Speaker 1: like Nicole said, coming up to us and talking to us,
• 1:08:39
  Speaker 1: and and and saying, listen, we that.
• 1:08:43
  Speaker 3: We apologize for our awkward interactions because we don't know
• 1:08:45
  Speaker 3: what to say. But it really like it, truly.
• 1:08:47
  Speaker 2: Because it gives us more than you can know of,
• 1:08:50
  Speaker 2: you know, keeping going.
• 1:08:51
  Speaker 3: With this when I have no idea how to hitdle
• 1:08:53
  Speaker 3: it and just say thank you a bunch, but I
• 1:08:55
  Speaker 3: promise you would really needs something.
• 1:08:58
  Speaker 2: All right with that for Nicle on top Odd Talk
• 1:09:00
  Speaker 2: to you soon on the podcast