Latest / The PodKaz: USCHO Women's Hockey / Playoffs start for some, others chase championship on final regular season weekend

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Playoffs start for some, others chase championship on final regular season weekend · The PodKaz: USCHO Women's Hockey

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Uscho dot com. Hi everyone, Welcome to the podcast. My
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: name is Todd Miluski. I'm here as always with Nicole Hasey,
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: and we are here to look ahead to the first
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: week of playoffs and a couple of conferences, to the
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: last week of the regular season. In three other conferences,
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: we have champions decided, we have champions that will be decided.
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: It's all coming together for us, Nicole as we expect
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: as we get towards the tail end of February. Uh
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: ECAC and Atlantic Hockey start their playoffs this weekend. Love
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: to see that getting started. It's gonna be entertaining. But
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: I also think there's gonna be some entertainment happening in
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: the final weekend of the regular season in a couple
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: of these conferences, as we get the championships decided and
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: you know positions, you know, home ice claimed on the
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: final weekend here, Yeah, I you know, for.
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: I feel like I jinxed things when I was so
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: excited about that final weekend Hockey East matchup, because now
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: be you, if they score a point this weekend, they
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: earn their titles. So they're playing Yukon in two games. Obviously,
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: you CON's not fully out of it, but I was
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: so excited for coming down head to head. So I
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: guess I, you know, learned my lesson there, should have
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: known better. But yeah, it's bittersweet, like by this time
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: of the season, I'm always like a little worned out.
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: I mean, obviously though the players are, but it's just
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: a lot. It's a long season, right, But also like, man,
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: weren't that into the regular season? When did that happen?
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: I feel like I just got back from Finland and like,
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: you know, like we still got some time. It's the
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: second half.
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: And I think people talking about this all the time
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: that as soon as you get back from the holidays,
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: you know, as soon as January comes around, it's it's
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: eight weeks rushed right to finish the regular season and
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: you don't really have time to know process that or
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: ramp your way back up into it because that's the
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: stretch run as soon as that happens. And that's kind
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: of crazy to think about, but it's also, you know,
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: the way it's always been, So it's it's, you know,
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: something you have to handle, and the best teams kind
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: of figure it out quickly and don't you know, work
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: their way back in slowly in January, because February happens fast.
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I just eight weeks feels like a long time,
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: like O two months, but like, no, that went so fast,
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: and you know every week has had you know, it's
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: up to and downs and so like it's it yeah, little,
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: you know, little mind blowing to feel like oh I
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: were in the last week into the regular season.
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: Yeah. But before we get to that, let's take a
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: look back at what we saw in last week's play.
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: And I want to start in Minnesota because Friday night
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: at Ritter Arena in Minneapolis was one of the I
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: don't know, weirdest, most entertaining final three minutes a half
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: minutes of a game. And I didn't get to see
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: it live. You did, but I went back and watched
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: all that, and holy cow, was that worth going back
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: and watching Saint Cloud say coming up with a four
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: to three win over Minnesota their first win at Ritter
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: Arena ever, which I hadn't realized but I guess makes
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: sense now. Haven't had a lot of really great years
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: at Saint Cloud, but congrats to them for that. The
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: Gophers rallied from a two to zero deficit the tight
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: early in the third period, and then it got crazy
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: as you get down into the finish. Sophia Sunderlin for
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: Saint Cloud three fifteen left, Ella Hubert don't be honest,
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: sorry for Saint Cloud three to fifteen left Ella Huber
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: with an extra attacker for the Gophers with one twenty
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: nine left, But then Ella Annik winner for Saint Cloud
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: off of a Gopher's turnover and the offensive zone goes
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: the other way. She scores thirty seconds left, and that
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: really was. It wasn't even done then. I mean, Gophers
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: the polic goalie and get it, as I remember, get
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: it chance at least and get the puck around the net.
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: But man, that was entertaining to watch.
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: It was. I think I feel like people should know, Like,
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: so Todd usually is covering uh, you know, the men's
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: hockey Wisconsin men's hockey team, and so stuff's happening. I'm
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: texting him like so and so upset so and so,
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: or like did you see the score and so? Like
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: I was like, oh my god, that was the best
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: and he's like, yeah, obviously I didn't see it, but
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: I won't go back.
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: And it's right. It's usually I'm seeing these things happen
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: as they come across X or Twitter or Blue Sky
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: or whatever I'm on that night, and I was like, oh, okay,
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: I gotta file that away to check out what happened there.
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: But the cole then chimes in with it, oh exclamatory
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: texts and with clues me in a little bit more there.
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I mean, as I said, you, like, you
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: don't often see like a team pull their goalie get
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: the equalizer and that's like there's still ninety seconds left
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: and a whole bunch is still gonna happen. So yeah,
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: it just that whole the whole game was interesting, right,
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: but like the final what are we talking like nine
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: minutes Aba Lindsay ties the game to four Minnesota at
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: ten fifty one. Then from there like it was like
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: we were was the a mini eam for the next
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: nine minutes and it was amazing. It was a lot
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: of fun. So folks, if you didn't watch it and
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: you have a big ten plus extraction, it's worth the
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: time to go back and do. But yeah, way to
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: go Saint Cloud. Just in the like the perseverance, you know,
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: they go up too. Oh they have that going in
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: the first eight minutes they're up to nothing, and Minnesota
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: just you know, starts chipping away at it one in
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: the second one or that one from Able Lindsay and
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: the third, and like Saint Cloud keeping with it and
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: being able to reply and respond and you know, that
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: sort of stuff we've been talking about all season from
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: teams that are you know, lower ranked or lower down
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: in the standings to be able to withstand some of
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: this stuff and not get in their heads and not
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: put their heads down, but just keep fighting and clawing
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: and scratching. And yeah, it was, uh, like you said it,
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: just some of the most fun hockey. I mean, I
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: imagine if you are attached to either of those two teams,
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: it was maybe not as to a fun you were
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: not laughing or smiling the way that we were. But yeah,
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: just a just a silly, fun, crazy end to a
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: really good hockey game. And also I would say, like
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: I kind of was, I was wondering if there would
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: be a weekend split just because of the way Saint
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: Cloud has been playing, but I definitely would to put
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: money on Saint Cloud winning at home. So because we
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: talked about the ice sheet and things like that, so
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: interesting to me that it was slipped it was a
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: weekend split, but Sat Cloud won in Minneapolis and Minnesota
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: one in Saint Cloud. And as you mentioned that first
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: win at Ritter for the Huskies. The other thing is
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: apparently that was the first ever four game losing streak
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: for Minnesota, which is a bonkers They were going back,
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: like as the game was going on, Dan Hammond and
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: they were going back through the various history books to
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: look at things. And then Minnesota when they won Saturday's
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: game was their eight hundredth program win. So just a
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: whole lot jam packed into that weekend.
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: Serious, Yeah, in Saint Cloud led that game on Saturday,
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: the second game of the series, won nothing in the
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: third period, Audrey Wethington tied it for the Gophers and
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: Emma Connor got the winner for Minnesota, those goals coming
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: two minutes apart. And so that was a really kind
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: of quick flip of momentum there, you know, Saint Cloud
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: going you know, twenty minutes and going to the third
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: period twenty minutes away from what would just be a
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: landmark suite for that program. Not able to get it
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: done because Minnesota and in a moment that I think
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: will be important for them as the playoffs get going
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: finds a way, because that's what you have to do
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: in the playoffs. You have to find a way. You're
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: gonna be in positions, especially when you get, you know,
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: into the semi finals or the championship of your conference
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: and then in the NCAA tournament you're playing really good teams,
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: you're gonna have you're gonna be put into uncomfortable situations.
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: And the Gophers were able to find a way out
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: of that on Saturday. And I think that's especially after
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: what happened Friday. Having the lows and the highs and
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: the Lows to come back and do that on Saturday,
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: I think tells us a little bit that, you know,
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: the Gophers were in a rough patch there, but they
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: still are a team we need to pay attention to.
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: Yeah, And I think, like converse to what I was
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: saying about, you know, Saint Cloud being able to come
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: back on Friday, like, kudos to the Gophers were sticking
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: with it. And I think too, I mean that's some
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: of that has just that experience of having been there,
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: of being a team that is used to fighting for
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: and in the postseason, and that is not something Saint
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: Cloud's done. You know, it's just it. That's one of
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: those differences when you're talking about the number three team
• 8:40
  Speaker 2: in the country and the number what are they ten
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: or eleven? Just like that's that's one of those steps
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: to what it means to be a top tier team,
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: to be an elite team that's constantly playing for postseason.
• 8:49
  Speaker 2: And I think that's just one of those things that
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: we saw that like Saint Cloud had what it was,
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: sixty one hundred minutes in them, but not one hundred
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: and twenty. Yeah, you know, so, Yeah, it's one of
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: those things where when you kind of talk about the
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: details and the little things that separate programs, it's I
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: feel like it's a good micro cause of what that
• 9:10
  Speaker 2: is when we're talking about it. Those those intangibles of
• 9:13
  Speaker 2: being able to pull stuff.
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: Like that out definitely can be and especially when you
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: talk about over the course of a season, you know,
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: it's a long season. There's a lot of games evolved
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: over a lot of months, and to be able to,
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: you know, when you're getting towards the end of it,
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: to summon that up is really important. Let's move over
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: to ECAC. Cornell wraps up the championship on Friday with
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: a six two win over Brown. Gaby Rude with a
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: goal and two assists for Cornell and that one, so
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: they wrap up the ECAC title. Colgate finished his second,
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: Saint Lawrence third, Clarkson fourth, they get the four first
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: round buys. Any surprises there for you, I think that
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: was kind of where it was trending going into the weekend,
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: and we didn't see a whole lot of movement of
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: you know, challenging the status quo as it was.
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: I mean maybe that that game was that Cornell Brown
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: game was to two with less like thirty seconds left
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: in the second and so they score Deleney flaming scorers
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: at nineteen twenty one of the second and then Cornell
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: scores three unanswered and the third, so that one, that
• 10:17
  Speaker 2: game was more of a nail bier for Cornell, and
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: then they go on and tie and get a shootout
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: loss in the second game of their weekend, So good
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: for them. Kind of the same thing, dig deep you got,
• 10:26
  Speaker 2: you know, when you're back's against the wall, you big
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: players need to stand up. And yeah, I thought, you know,
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: I was not accecting a six to two final score
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: watching this game heading into the second intermission, right but yeah,
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: it's that that third period was the difference maker. And
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: again like you don't know what's going to happen, and
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: that you don't know that Sunday doesn't go different had
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: they lost here, but like that period is the difference
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: in them winning the championship that weeken.
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: Right, Yeah, And another result that that stood out to
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: me Friday, Dartmouth, which finishes eleventh place, gets a two
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: nothing win over Saint Lawrence, which finishes in third place.
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: So that does tell you that, you know, even as
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: we get towards the end of the season and and
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: things get tougher, you're you're not gonna get teams to
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: roll over. And so Dartmouth gets a big win there.
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: Mikhaela Hesheva with a thirty six save shutout for Dartmouth
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: and setting them up for a they're going on the
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: road and the first round of the playoffs. But now
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: they they go in with a little bit of good
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: feeling anyway for uh starting a run that you know,
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: it's when you're eleventh and a twelve team conference, it's
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: gonna be a tough road. So let's see if that
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: that makes a difference for darb.
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean We've talked about it a little bit
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: in some of the freshman goalie conversations, but like Mikhaila
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: Hesheva is, what is like, you know, the record is
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: an ideal, she's but she's got eight hundred saves and
• 12:02
  Speaker 2: a nine twenty three safe percentage and they have what
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: like I'm sorry, I'm looking at two different screens here,
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: four wins or some five twenty and three. Yeah, so
• 12:10
  Speaker 2: as a freshman came in a nine to twenty three
• 12:12
  Speaker 2: saved percentage when your team has five wins like she
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: she has been massive. So she oh she has four,
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: she's four twenty and three, has two shutouts.
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: I just it feels like that was a good defining
• 12:29
  Speaker 2: win for them in terms of like something to build on,
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: and it just seems clear, I mean, unsurprising with you know,
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: what they have there and what they're being able to build.
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: But I just think you're seeing what like a peak
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: of the future for them, if that makes sense.
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: I don't know.
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: I just with Mark Croll there, we know how great
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: Moore is, and I just yeah, I wanted to shut
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: out Michaela because I just think she's had a really
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: stillar season kind of quietly because the team had. The
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: success hasn't come sort of on the scoreboard for that team.
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: But what we know is that teams building on a
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: goaltenders is the first start. So if they can you know,
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: start to bring offense into it next season, I think
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: it'll be really important. But yeah, I met Michayla you know,
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: at you eight teams a couple of years ago when
• 13:13
  Speaker 2: was really impressed with her back then, and I just
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: think she she quietly had a really amazing freshman year
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: and if you weren't paying attention, you wouldn't have noticed.
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: There've been, you know, quite a few really good goaltenders
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: this year, few really good freshman goaltenders. But just wanted
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: to shout that out because, yeah, like I said, eight
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: eight hundred saves her shot face must be massive, but
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: nine twenty three percentage with that what they've faced is
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: really really impressive.
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: Another interesting result, as we you know, kind of peeked
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: ahead a little bit Rpigan at four to three win
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: over Princeton on Saturday, and those two teams face off
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: in the first round of the ECAC Hockey Playoffs, which
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: is a single game, and so you're talking about, Okay,
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: there's a team that you know, has a little bit
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: of success anyway going into that matchup and has the
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: last win in that series. So don't take that for
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: granted either. I mean, we're seeing this a couple of times.
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: And I was talking today with people from Wisconsin about
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: the fact that they're going to be playing Bamidgie State
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: in the final weekend of the regular season and then
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: Bamigie State is coming to Madison for the first round
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: of the playoffs, and it kind of seems a little
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: bit like a a pro playoff kind of series where
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: you played two games somewhere, you travel and you play
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: two games somewhere else, and it's you're gonna get really
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: familiar with the team. Well, rense Lair and Princeton are
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: obviously already really familiar with themselves going into a huge game.
• 14:42
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Princeton is such an interesting team this year because
• 14:44
  Speaker 2: they have some amazing offensive talent and just like there's
• 14:48
  Speaker 2: been such ebbs and flows to their game, and like
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: when they're on, they're so on, and it you know,
• 14:55
  Speaker 2: we don't get to watch as much, and you know,
• 14:57
  Speaker 2: obviously can't see them week in and week out, but
• 14:59
  Speaker 2: it would be interesting to go back and sort of
• 15:00
  Speaker 2: study what is working and what isn't for them just
• 15:03
  Speaker 2: because individually, like Sarah Paul's having a great season, is
• 15:06
  Speaker 2: he Wonders having great season. We talked about them, you know,
• 15:09
  Speaker 2: out of the break with their amazing scoring output, So
• 15:13
  Speaker 2: props to RPI for that. And yeah, like you said,
• 15:15
  Speaker 2: I mean, there's no where to hide when you're playing,
• 15:18
  Speaker 2: like you were talking with Wisconsin in Pamidgy right, Like
• 15:23
  Speaker 2: it's already pretty much the case that those teams know
• 15:26
  Speaker 2: each other really well, and like obviously there's some coaching
• 15:29
  Speaker 2: changes and things, but like, yeah, there's just no where
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: to hide, there's no secrets. It's it's like an interesting
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: chess match. And I feel like that's what's going to
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: happen to your with RPI and Princeton too, Like Princeton
• 15:37
  Speaker 2: got to see what RPI exploited, but you know RPI
• 15:41
  Speaker 2: is going to come back with more more. No have
• 15:45
  Speaker 2: the momentum and the confidence, like we just beat this team.
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: Let's turn to Hockey East, which you mentioned before, is
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: you know, is coming down to the last weekend, but
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: there is a little bit of a gap now because
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: Boston University went into last weekend with a one point
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: lead over Yukon. They now have a five point lead
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: because they got four points from a home and home
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: series with U n H, whereas Yukon got zero from
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: a home and home series with Providence, And that's gonna
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: end up. You know, if Yukon comes short, comes up
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: short of of the title, that weekend is going to
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: sting because of the recency. And you know, knowing you're
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: going into the final weekend with a chance to play
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: be you if you're within you know, a two point
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: margin or something like that, you know, it's it's right
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: there for you. Now, they they still have a chance
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: to win the championship. They just need to win two
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: games in regulation, you know, no no overtime points or anything.
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: Any anything that goes to overtime for BU gets them championship.
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: So uh that's that's all it takes there. But uh B,
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: you got a two to one win at U n
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: H on Friday and then a two two tie back
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: at Walter Brown Arena on Saturday, with UNH winning the
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: shoot out in that one. Providence three to one win
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: at Yukon on Friday, four two win back at Schneider
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: on Saturday, So a really key set of results there
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: in the chase for a championship that has you looking
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: really good going in the final two games.
• 17:16
  Speaker 2: Provins apparently came back from break and was like, uh,
• 17:19
  Speaker 2: we might not be making any tournament, but we're gonna
• 17:22
  Speaker 2: sure as heck make sure you don't win it either.
• 17:24
  Speaker 2: I mean they have they have two losses in the
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: second half and one is in overtime. But they swept
• 17:29
  Speaker 2: Northeastern like they honestly, I mean, we're looking back, I
• 17:33
  Speaker 2: can't I don't remember exactly, but it kind of feels
• 17:35
  Speaker 2: like looking at their schedule, they just they ended the
• 17:37
  Speaker 2: posts or like the championship hopes of like several teams
• 17:40
  Speaker 2: in a row, like they swept North Eastern. They took
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: a win in an overtime loss against Boston College when
• 17:45
  Speaker 2: BC was twelfth in the country. Uh, they did lose
• 17:49
  Speaker 2: to Bubu was the only one that kind of came
• 17:51
  Speaker 2: out of it. And then they swept Yukon Like that's
• 17:54
  Speaker 2: that's what Providence is done with their January and February.
• 17:57
  Speaker 2: And I could have appreciate the like the sort of
• 18:00
  Speaker 2: pettiness of that, just like Nope, we're gonna like you
• 18:03
  Speaker 2: gotta get through us, and we're not gonna let you
• 18:04
  Speaker 2: have that title easily. And they really have shown out here,
• 18:07
  Speaker 2: like really impressed the stuff from them to week in
• 18:10
  Speaker 2: and week out really and it's unusual in Hockey East
• 18:13
  Speaker 2: to play two games with the same team in one season,
• 18:17
  Speaker 2: like that's e one weekend that they don't do a
• 18:18
  Speaker 2: ton of series. So the fact that they were going back,
• 18:21
  Speaker 2: you know, like they beat Northeastern five to one and
• 18:23
  Speaker 2: went back and beat them at three to two the
• 18:25
  Speaker 2: next day. You know, they did the same thing with
• 18:27
  Speaker 2: yukon this weekend.
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 18:28
  Speaker 2: I impressed with what Providence did. They're on a roll.
• 18:32
  Speaker 2: They have all the momentum, like they're there's somebody I
• 18:34
  Speaker 2: will be keeping my eye on in the Hockey East tournament,
• 18:37
  Speaker 2: particularly because that is all one and done.
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, that definitely changes things because if you're able
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: to get hot and win four games, there you go,
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: that's it's not even four games. Three games. I I
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: lose track of everything here. It would be three games
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: for them because they've uh one into the by area. Well,
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: yes it would be. Yes, I'm gonna say it is. Yes,
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: they're gonna be I don't have it in front of me,
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: but I think confident from from UH Hockey sends out
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: a playoff primer every week and it's it's incredible stuff.
• 19:22
  Speaker 2: So I will praise this up and down until every
• 19:25
  Speaker 2: conference does it. But yes, not only is it like
• 19:27
  Speaker 2: the pre up picture with team like the points and
• 19:30
  Speaker 2: possible seeds remaining opponents, but it gives a full tiebreaker
• 19:34
  Speaker 2: and then it also like, this thing is seven pages
• 19:36
  Speaker 2: long because it's cut every tie break and finishing scenario
• 19:38
  Speaker 2: for every team and just like, goodness, friends, this is
• 19:42
  Speaker 2: so much work and it makes our life so much easier.
• 19:45
  Speaker 2: So she got a big shout out for that, because
• 19:48
  Speaker 2: it is. It's real nice to have this in front
• 19:51
  Speaker 2: of us.
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: I pulled that out. Providence can finish anywhere from second
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: to fifth, so they're locked into a bye, but not
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: necessarily locked into a home ie spot. So uh, that's
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: where that we'll get into that a little bit more
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: when we talk about what's coming this week later in
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: the show. Major happenings in NEUHA last weekend impacting the
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: title race, where Long Island and Post played Thursday and Friday,
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: and then Franklin Pierce and Sacred Heart played Friday and Saturday.
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: So those are the two series that played into the
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: title race and having them split up made it kind
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: of an interesting watch of where the standings were. So
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: Long Island won the Thursday game against Posts, Long Island,
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: which was in the lead for the regular season championship
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: by one point I believe going into last weekend over
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: Sacred Heart. So they won Thursday five to three over Post.
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: But Post comes back on Friday and gets a three
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: to two win over Long Island, so opens the door
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: a little bit for Sacred Heart to you know, close
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: the gap or or well, yeah, close to gain No,
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: thank you, Sacred Heart. Well, Franklin Pierce is the one
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: that said no, because Franklin Pierce won four to two
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: and two to nothing on Friday and Saturday. Franklin Pierce
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: ran out to a two goal lead a couple of times.
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: On Friday, Sacred Heart cut at the one, but Franklin
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: Pierce was able to just kind of keep extending and
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: keep that lead, end up winning four to two and
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: then then the two nothing WI win on Saturday. Gwen
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: Bowler thirty six saves for the shutout. Massive, massive set
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: of results there leaves not only are we talking about
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: Long Island at fifty two points, Sacred Heart at forty
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: eight now going into the final weekend. But Franklin Pierce
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: is knocking on the door of second place there too,
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: forty five points, three points behind Sacred Heart. So and
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: then the stone Hill is tied at forty five points
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: as well. So that's a lot closer than I anticipated
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: being going last weekend because of some of the results
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: we've seen over the last few weeks where the leaders
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: haven't gotten full points and haven't separated themselves out from
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: the rest of them back No.
• 22:09
  Speaker 2: But you know, like way to go post they're the
• 22:11
  Speaker 2: second to last team and standings and kind of like
• 22:13
  Speaker 2: we talked about St. Michael's a few weeks ago. Yeah,
• 22:17
  Speaker 2: post just was like, yeah, this isn't gonna be easy
• 22:19
  Speaker 2: for you. And they they faced one of either Lau
• 22:21
  Speaker 2: or Sacred Heart this upcoming weekend, so they also are
• 22:27
  Speaker 2: going to continue to have something to say about this
• 22:29
  Speaker 2: postseason run. But yeah, I you know, to be fair,
• 22:32
  Speaker 2: I was harping on Hockey East about nobody wants to
• 22:34
  Speaker 2: win this conference and boy, how doy this new hub
• 22:37
  Speaker 2: and like, well us neither LAU left the door open
• 22:40
  Speaker 2: for Sacred Heart, and Franklin Pierce was like, too bad.
• 22:43
  Speaker 2: So sad. And I what I love about that is
• 22:45
  Speaker 2: Franklin Pierce did this at the end of last season too,
• 22:48
  Speaker 2: and so they're like the cardiac kids here at the
• 22:50
  Speaker 2: end of this season, and I'd be scared of that
• 22:53
  Speaker 2: in the postseason as well. They had all those overtime
• 22:56
  Speaker 2: skin out of their neck wins last year, so they're
• 23:00
  Speaker 2: it's amazing to watch and just to have seen that,
• 23:02
  Speaker 2: like all of a sudden, the chaos has ensued here
• 23:05
  Speaker 2: in these last couple of weeks, and you, huh.
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: We all love chaos, right, especially as we get towards
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: the end of February and into March, because that's the
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: best time of the year, and you're if it all
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: plays out to chalk that you know it's not fun.
• 23:20
  Speaker 2: No. I sat on the Victory Press this morning, like
• 23:22
  Speaker 2: I'm like Elmo in front of the fire, like give
• 23:24
  Speaker 2: me all the chaos. I feel like it makes me
• 23:26
  Speaker 2: feel like I have no like I've been doing this
• 23:29
  Speaker 2: how many years and I have no idea what the
• 23:30
  Speaker 2: outcomes are gonna be. But well it's fun, like it is.
• 23:35
  Speaker 2: Chaos is raining and it's like team Chaos for the win.
• 23:37
  Speaker 2: I'll take it. It's always a good time. To be watching,
• 23:40
  Speaker 2: like it makes for the best hockey.
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: So we're getting into the time of overtimes and full
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: overtimes now too, and so that's always interesting to watch
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: as you as you see a game that's gone to overtime,
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: it's like, okay, check back on that. But it might
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: be a couple of hours because some games and there's
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: always that chance that you're going to multiple overtimes in
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: the playoffs, So it adds that dynamic too, which may
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: not be great for people who have invested interest in
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: those games, especially if it's part of a series, or
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: if it's game one of a potential game three and
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: you're going three overtimes. Ooh, that makes that next day
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: kind of rough. But as neutral observers fun to watch.
• 24:21
  Speaker 2: Yeah, even though one and done's right, like you're like, oh,
• 24:23
  Speaker 2: we didn't have to play a three dame series. We'll
• 24:25
  Speaker 2: get a rest. Actually you're gonna play multiple games on
• 24:29
  Speaker 2: one day. Yeah, Honestly, this is maybe recency bias, but
• 24:34
  Speaker 2: this has been the most fun kind of final weeks
• 24:37
  Speaker 2: that I remember in recent years. Like you said, you
• 24:39
  Speaker 2: know to some extent, and people you know have complained
• 24:41
  Speaker 2: to me that, like we know who's gonna end up
• 24:43
  Speaker 2: in the tournament and blah blah blah. But like, man,
• 24:45
  Speaker 2: has this been fun? Like I don't remember looking down
• 24:47
  Speaker 2: the table and being like, wow, I don't know who's
• 24:51
  Speaker 2: gonna win seventh place, and I'm excited to figure it out.
• 24:54
  Speaker 2: And so yeah, I just the bottom teams really having
• 24:58
  Speaker 2: such the bottom teams at the standings having such an
• 25:00
  Speaker 2: impact on the top teams and the outcomes. I don't know,
• 25:03
  Speaker 2: it's like, you know, we just keep calling it chaos,
• 25:06
  Speaker 2: but I just I don't remember sort of like rubbing
• 25:08
  Speaker 2: my hands together and enjoying it quite so much in
• 25:10
  Speaker 2: those final few weeks in recent years. So this is
• 25:12
  Speaker 2: it's been really entertaining, a really great hockey And I
• 25:16
  Speaker 2: love that teams who like ostensibly their season is all
• 25:20
  Speaker 2: but over, are still still fighting and clawing for everything
• 25:23
  Speaker 2: they can do.
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: Right, all right, We're going to take a quick break.
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: When we come back, we're going to talk about some
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: of the changes in the pairwise from last week and
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: what it means for a potential bracketology look, and then
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: what's a coming ahead for the first week in the
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: playoffs slash last week of the regular season. Stay with
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: us on the podcast Welcome back to the podcast. Todd
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: Maluski here, when Nicole Hasey, let's take a look at
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: this week's pairwise rankings as they stand. We're here talking
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: on February eighteenth, so any games that happened after that
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: will impact these standings. But Wisconsin and Ohio State is
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: still in the number one and two spots. But then
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: a change in number three and four, Cornell moving ahead
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: of Minnesota into number three, leaving the Gophers at four,
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: Colgate at five, Minnesota d Luth at six, Pence State
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: up the seventh, Saint Lawrence down to eighth, Quinnipiac nine,
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: and then the at large or the automatic bid teams
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: as we have them for Hockey East and New Ha
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: being Boston University and Long Island. Those teams standing in
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: for the conference champion, the playoff champions that will get
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: the automatic bids. We don't know that yet, so we
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: just use those teams as the highest seeds or highest
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: romany seed or team leading their standings in that conference.
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: So if you want to put that into a bracket,
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: it leaves us with an interesting thing that we have
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: to fix because eight Saint Lawrence versus nine Quinnipiac would
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: be a first round matchup that we have to get
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: rid of the way that seems like it makes most
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: senses swapping nine Quinnipiac with ten Boston University, which leaves
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: eight Saint Lawrence against ten BU and that game at
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: number ona Wisconsin, then Sevenpence State against nine Quinnipiac at
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: number two Ohiose State, six Minnesota Dluth versus eleven Long
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: Island at number three Cornell, and then the five to
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: four matchup Colgate at Minnesota. So there's there's the changes there,
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: meaning you're sending Dluth on the road along a road
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: to go play at Cornell instead of right down the
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: road at Briger Arena. I don't know that Duluth would
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: necessarily say no to that, given like what we've talked
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: about I think last week, with their history of trying
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: to have to get through Minnesota to get to the
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: Frozen four. But still ways away from knowing if that's
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: gonna be the case, whether Duluth stays in a sixth spot,
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: A lot can change there in these next weeks. And
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: because like you mentioned, after Friday's games, there was even
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: a different look for the pair wise when Saint Cloud
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: had defeated Minnesota moved up into the ninth spot, which
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: could change a lot of things here in terms of
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: who gets in and who doesn't.
• 28:27
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and that was after the Saint Lawrence lost too, Right, Basically,
• 28:30
  Speaker 2: Friday nights pair wise was super interesting and then sort
• 28:33
  Speaker 2: of resettled again after Saturday's outcomes. So mostly what it
• 28:38
  Speaker 2: showed us is how much we're going to keep seeing
• 28:40
  Speaker 2: like big movement off of one result. And you know
• 28:44
  Speaker 2: you mentioned Minnesota, delute, they're like they are in sixth.
• 28:48
  Speaker 2: They believe that one of the quote unquote bigger leads
• 28:51
  Speaker 2: in a like what a one point four four point lead?
• 28:54
  Speaker 2: I mean several of these places are separate by tenths
• 28:56
  Speaker 2: of a point. Yeah, at the moment, Saint cloud Is
• 28:59
  Speaker 2: is less than two tens of a point behind Quinnipiac
• 29:02
  Speaker 2: UH in NPI. So again, what will get interesting here
• 29:07
  Speaker 2: is the teams, all the top teams from the conferences
• 29:10
  Speaker 2: that are over have buys this first week. Well, you
• 29:13
  Speaker 2: know w C H A, I keep forgetting who's still playing.
• 29:18
  Speaker 2: Ec A C and H are done. So Hockey East
• 29:20
  Speaker 2: w C h A DOH are still playing, And so
• 29:23
  Speaker 2: you will see just some big movement based on the
• 29:25
  Speaker 2: fact that some teams are playing and some aren't. And
• 29:28
  Speaker 2: again there's like teams that are idle can their NPI
• 29:31
  Speaker 2: can still change because it is a math what's the
• 29:36
  Speaker 2: word that I function that goes out through all of
• 29:39
  Speaker 2: the games that they played and their opponents opponents a
• 29:42
  Speaker 2: that all sort of fi filters in there. So yeah, I,
• 29:46
  Speaker 2: like you've said before, I'm a little shocked. We still
• 29:48
  Speaker 2: see so much movement that like one game can can
• 29:51
  Speaker 2: cause sort of those kinds of ripples. But yeah, several
• 29:54
  Speaker 2: of these teams are are tens of a point a part. Uh,
• 29:57
  Speaker 2: you know, Minnesota's now just it's what to tensible point
• 30:00
  Speaker 2: behind Cornell, so that could change that They made up
• 30:04
  Speaker 2: a lot of ground by coming back and getting that
• 30:05
  Speaker 2: Saturday win. So yeah, we're both looking at where teams
• 30:09
  Speaker 2: will finish in their conference and what that means for
• 30:11
  Speaker 2: their conference tournament rankings and seeds, but also like what
• 30:17
  Speaker 2: affects those have on the pair wise, which is fascinating
• 30:20
  Speaker 2: at this point.
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's going to be. And when you talk about
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: the gaps between say, you know, Minnesota at fifty nine
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: point eight and fourth and Colgate in fifty nine point
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: five and fifth, that of course, meaning who plays, who
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: hosts that game That can change with especially if you're
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: you're you'll lose your semi final game and then have
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: to sit and wait and don't get it say in
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: what happens on the Saturday of conference championship weekend. That
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: could be a lot of nervous waiting there.
• 30:58
  Speaker 2: Right, It's it's the twofold, right, because losing is bad enough,
• 31:01
  Speaker 2: and then you you're like you're no longer on the
• 31:02
  Speaker 2: run for the autovid and you're not kidding win points
• 31:05
  Speaker 2: and all that stuff, but also ben being idle. So
• 31:07
  Speaker 2: it's just this is the part where like your I'm score,
• 31:11
  Speaker 2: I've been scored watching for two weeks, and like that's
• 31:12
  Speaker 2: how I know. Friday's Barawyes was so much fun because
• 31:15
  Speaker 2: it was like ooh, like look at what that one
• 31:18
  Speaker 2: that one thing did. And so because we're seeing those
• 31:22
  Speaker 2: ripple effects and because so many of these positions are
• 31:25
  Speaker 2: so close, I mean literally like a point and a
• 31:28
  Speaker 2: half is a big gap for a team right now,
• 31:31
  Speaker 2: which seems crazy. You know, it's like, oh they've got
• 31:35
  Speaker 2: a point and a half, they might be a little secure.
• 31:37
  Speaker 2: And again, like I think I've talked about this in here.
• 31:41
  Speaker 2: I wrote about it on Victory Press, but like it
• 31:42
  Speaker 2: really puts in perspective that seven point lead that Wisconsin
• 31:46
  Speaker 2: has above Ohio State, Like that's the same amount. Like
• 31:49
  Speaker 2: the difference between Wisconsin and Ohio State is about the
• 31:52
  Speaker 2: same as Ohio State down to like thirteen fourteen fifteen
• 31:55
  Speaker 2: an MPI. Like, so we're talking somewhere between ten and fifteen,
• 31:59
  Speaker 2: t are seven points apart together like that, it's just
• 32:04
  Speaker 2: everything is so close and so like Razor's edge, and
• 32:09
  Speaker 2: so you know, we start talking a few weeks ago
• 32:10
  Speaker 2: about like one period, one goal can make a difference,
• 32:13
  Speaker 2: but like seriously, that's what we're talking about right.
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: Now, totally that right now. Yeah, so that'll be something
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: to watch as we go on the next few weeks.
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: I want to call it a couple of things that
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: have appeared on us c h O dot com in
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: the last week or so. First off, there was we've
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: been talking about how every league playoff is different, have
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: a league tournament is different, And so I threw together
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: just the how when sometimes where the five conference tournaments
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: and then the NCAA tournament work in terms of timing
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: all that kind of stuff. Find that in us EHO
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: dot com if you're interested in when the conference tournaments
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: get played and what the formats are. But then also
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: last Friday, Nicole had a piece that up about an
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: interesting Instagram post recently kind of flowed the idea of
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: is it time to move the women's Frozen Ford to
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: bigger buildings capitalizing on what the successes that have been
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: seen with the bean pot in the last couple of
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: years playing at TD Garden. And I know you had
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: some thoughts on that. I have thoughts on that, but
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: you wrote it. Let's let's hear what you thought about
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: just the idea and and kind of what lies underneath
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: that idea too, is really kind of what it gets
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: What it gets down to is that it's not necessarily
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: just that as an idea, but there's more to it
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: about what gets done for the Women's Frozen for Yeah.
• 33:50
  Speaker 2: I mean, maybe I want to start by saying, like
• 33:52
  Speaker 2: I absolutely am in support of women's college hockey and
• 33:55
  Speaker 2: the Women's Frozen for growing. What I was trying to
• 34:00
  Speaker 2: you when talking about this was sort of highlight things
• 34:02
  Speaker 2: that people aren't all that aren't really dug into this
• 34:06
  Speaker 2: might know about what goes into deciding where that goes
• 34:09
  Speaker 2: all of the things behind the scenes. So I definitely
• 34:12
  Speaker 2: worried it, like sent this to you and a few
• 34:14
  Speaker 2: other people, like getting feedback because I don't want to
• 34:17
  Speaker 2: I don't want to poo poo the idea, Like it's
• 34:19
  Speaker 2: not about like I don't want that to happen. But
• 34:22
  Speaker 2: there's just like structural things, there's lack of support from
• 34:25
  Speaker 2: the NCAA. There's a lot of stuff, and so it's
• 34:29
  Speaker 2: sort of not as simple as like put it there
• 34:31
  Speaker 2: and people will go. Part of the problem is that
• 34:34
  Speaker 2: like we have these things every year and people aren't going.
• 34:39
  Speaker 2: Attendance has been trending upwards. To me, you know, it
• 34:42
  Speaker 2: was great that we were New Year five thousand University
• 34:45
  Speaker 2: in New Hampshire last year because generally the East Coast
• 34:48
  Speaker 2: Frozen Fours haven't been super well attended. And so this
• 34:51
  Speaker 2: idea that like, well it was in Boston, a bunch
• 34:52
  Speaker 2: of people went to the bean Pot. People would go,
• 34:54
  Speaker 2: but like we have been within a car buster train
• 34:57
  Speaker 2: ride of both New York City and Boston several times
• 35:00
  Speaker 2: in the last few years for Frozen Fours, and like
• 35:02
  Speaker 2: that hasn't led to larger attendance. So that's one of
• 35:07
  Speaker 2: those things that like trying to put myself in the
• 35:10
  Speaker 2: headspace of the NCAA. They're gonna be like, no, because
• 35:14
  Speaker 2: it's there and you're you're already not going. But also
• 35:17
  Speaker 2: just digging into the the inequality stuff. I mean, we've
• 35:19
  Speaker 2: been talking about this for a few years. You know,
• 35:21
  Speaker 2: there was the viral posts from women's basketball showing the
• 35:25
  Speaker 2: inequality of what was happening at the basketball women's tournament
• 35:29
  Speaker 2: sort of during the COVID years, and they were, you know,
• 35:32
  Speaker 2: using like a single dumb bill in a hotel ballroom
• 35:35
  Speaker 2: and it was bad. And so that started this conversation
• 35:38
  Speaker 2: about gender inequality and gender equity within the NCAA, and
• 35:42
  Speaker 2: there was a called the Chaplain Gender Equity Report. I
• 35:46
  Speaker 2: wrote about this back in twenty twenty one. All the
• 35:48
  Speaker 2: stuff that I wrote about it, it's linked in this column,
• 35:50
  Speaker 2: which again is on usho dot com. It's actually women's
• 35:54
  Speaker 2: hockey has its d one Hockey has its own homepage.
• 35:56
  Speaker 2: If you had a d usho dot com, they'll take
• 35:58
  Speaker 2: you to the d one men's page. Either need to
• 35:59
  Speaker 2: click over women or at usho dot com backslash d
• 36:02
  Speaker 2: one women just to get to the women's hockey homepage.
• 36:06
  Speaker 2: But anyway, Like I linked to the Instagram posts, you
• 36:08
  Speaker 2: can see it in there, and then read some of
• 36:09
  Speaker 2: the things that I talked about with what like digging
• 36:12
  Speaker 2: into what the Equity report said about the the inequalities
• 36:16
  Speaker 2: for the NCAA and what they do for men's men's
• 36:21
  Speaker 2: college hockey and women's college hockey. All this can get
• 36:24
  Speaker 2: really into the weeds. I'm trying to like top line
• 36:27
  Speaker 2: this for you, but for me, what I was focused
• 36:30
  Speaker 2: on when we were talking about this is so the
• 36:33
  Speaker 2: NCAA has fixed a lot of things on the women's side,
• 36:35
  Speaker 2: or at least improve them, right, Like the tournament expanded,
• 36:39
  Speaker 2: the idea of limiting flights was taken from the criteria
• 36:42
  Speaker 2: for setting postseason like there have been massive improvements that
• 36:47
  Speaker 2: came about because this Equity report called out like these
• 36:51
  Speaker 2: massive inequalities. Even things like roster size was different for
• 36:54
  Speaker 2: the women, so those things several things have changed. But
• 36:58
  Speaker 2: there were in that cap and report some numbers, some
• 37:02
  Speaker 2: spending numbers that to me were really important to this conversation,
• 37:05
  Speaker 2: which they spent sixty five thousand dollars more on signage
• 37:07
  Speaker 2: for the men's Frozen four than the women's. They spend
• 37:10
  Speaker 2: nearly it was one hundred and ninety five one hundred
• 37:12
  Speaker 2: and ninety three thousand dollars each year a promotional expensive
• 37:15
  Speaker 2: related to the men's tournament, but eleven thousand dollars a
• 37:17
  Speaker 2: year for the women And there were eleven NCAA staff
• 37:20
  Speaker 2: members who contribute to the men's tournament, including three championship staff,
• 37:23
  Speaker 2: a media coordinator, and several external operation staff members. The
• 37:26
  Speaker 2: women's tournament, however, only has two championship staff members assisting
• 37:30
  Speaker 2: with it. So using those numbers, I reached out to
• 37:32
  Speaker 2: the NCAA and said, it's been four years, like, are
• 37:34
  Speaker 2: there any changes to these numbers? The reply got really
• 37:38
  Speaker 2: didn't answer that question. It told me all of the
• 37:40
  Speaker 2: things that we already know that they changed. Here are
• 37:42
  Speaker 2: the things we improved. The roster changed, we expanded the tournament, YadA, YadA.
• 37:46
  Speaker 2: So they kind of brushed past all that sort of stuff.
• 37:49
  Speaker 2: There are more staff members now, so credit where that's due.
• 37:52
  Speaker 2: I guess there's now seven staff members for the women's tournament,
• 37:58
  Speaker 2: they tell me, But in terms of spending on advertising
• 38:01
  Speaker 2: and signage and all that sort of stuff, I don't know.
• 38:03
  Speaker 2: They didn't reply to that part. And so to me,
• 38:05
  Speaker 2: that's one of those, like moving the Women's Frozen four
• 38:09
  Speaker 2: in isolation, and like not having the support around it,
• 38:13
  Speaker 2: not having a big enough staff, not advertising it within
• 38:17
  Speaker 2: the city. Not the Men's Frozen four is a destination event.
• 38:20
  Speaker 2: Like you can talk a little bit more about this,
• 38:22
  Speaker 2: but like people buy their tickets as soon as they
• 38:23
  Speaker 2: go on sale. They don't care if their team's gonna go.
• 38:25
  Speaker 2: And when you go to a Men's Frozen four, people
• 38:28
  Speaker 2: all wear their team's gear, whether or not their team
• 38:30
  Speaker 2: is in the tournament. Like I know, friends they go
• 38:32
  Speaker 2: play bingo to like check off how many jerseys they see,
• 38:36
  Speaker 2: And so that's just not the case for the Women's
• 38:38
  Speaker 2: Frozen for. It's not an event, it's two games. Things
• 38:42
  Speaker 2: have improved the tiniest bit now that they made the
• 38:43
  Speaker 2: PATTYK has a public event, and I think there's usually
• 38:46
  Speaker 2: like a kid's UH clinic on the.
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: Autumn.
• 38:55
  Speaker 2: It's the tie like bless their hearts. It's the tiniest,
• 38:57
  Speaker 2: you know, little bit of an improvement. But yeah, so
• 39:00
  Speaker 2: for me, all of that is to say, like moving
• 39:03
  Speaker 2: the Women's Frozen for without having the support just feels
• 39:08
  Speaker 2: like this absolutely massive step and also sort of destined
• 39:11
  Speaker 2: for failure and a bit of a like we told you,
• 39:13
  Speaker 2: so if the NCAA, if it were to move and
• 39:16
  Speaker 2: it didn't go well, like the repercussions of that sort
• 39:20
  Speaker 2: of failure I think would be really bad within the NCAA.
• 39:23
  Speaker 2: So for me, like the fight is for all of
• 39:25
  Speaker 2: that other stuff, so that like the groundwork is in
• 39:28
  Speaker 2: place and it wouldn't be that much of a leap
• 39:30
  Speaker 2: from what we're doing now into a bigger place.
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: I think that's what what you wrote and what you
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: said there is really gets to the heart of it,
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: is that it's not necessarily about the the what everyone sees,
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: you know, where it is, what kind of building it is,
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: what the crowd is, those kind of those kind of things.
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: It's about what happens behind the scenes to make the
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: event work and work well. And I feel like in
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: the last couple of years we've seen and you've you've
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: seen it more than I have. But just kind of
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: going from you know, say twenty eighteen to last year
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: or twenty three, comparing years, it does feel like there's
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: there's a lot different now than there was five or
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: six years ago. In terms of you mentioned that the
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: Pattycast ceremony that I think that's been a great addition,
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: and just having that be a public event a great
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: play in there having a And I've gotten this impression
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: from players to that that it's it's taken more seriously
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: on the you know, when you get to the building,
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: do you are you recognized? Are you? You know? Is
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: does it look like a championship building? And I feel like,
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: and I've seen some of these examples, it does look
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: more like they've prepared this as a championship building. The
• 40:53
  Speaker 1: locker rooms are kind of dressed up or you know,
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: have that have the you know, the signage, the branding
• 41:01
  Speaker 1: of the event to make it kind of seem like
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: you see some of the pictures now of in uh
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: you know double IHF events where the locker rooms are
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: made up with the logos of you know, these teams
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: are even at the four nations that are going on
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: right now, that it's it's all redone with with that
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: kind of sigence that's being done now. I don't think
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: that was done to that degree five years ago.
• 41:22
  Speaker 2: But the counterpoint to that is it's all sort of internal.
• 41:25
  Speaker 2: It is in the building. You have to get to
• 41:26
  Speaker 2: the building sure to know that. So yeah, and like
• 41:29
  Speaker 2: you said from the player side, I think they are
• 41:31
  Speaker 2: treated more professionally or there's more sort of pump to
• 41:36
  Speaker 2: like having made that step right and made the championship.
• 41:38
  Speaker 2: I would agree with that, but I.
• 41:39
  Speaker 1: Think you do credit them for those kind of things,
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: And it's really it's it's finding the next layer of
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: improvement that's going to work and work within the boundaries
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: or the framework of what's what's here now, because I
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: don't see this working right now in an NHL building.
• 42:04
  Speaker 1: That's just my impression of this. I feel like, if
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: you're still only getting five thousand people in an eighteen
• 42:11
  Speaker 1: thousand seat arena, I don't know if that's a win,
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: and I don't know that you can guarantee in a
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: lot of places, you know, maybe Minnesota.
• 42:24
  Speaker 2: Yeah, So somebody replied to me on one of these
• 42:28
  Speaker 2: one of the either Blue Sky or exitbout this that
• 42:31
  Speaker 2: they would they wish this year's Women's Frozen four was
• 42:33
  Speaker 2: in Mariucci and not Ridder. Mariucci's ten thousand and Ridder
• 42:37
  Speaker 2: will be sold out. So like that to me is
• 42:40
  Speaker 2: very interesting and like would be a good sort of
• 42:43
  Speaker 2: like toe dip into like what could be done here,
• 42:45
  Speaker 2: because I do think I don't know if it would
• 42:48
  Speaker 2: fill Mariucci, but I do think it's interesting, like having
• 42:53
  Speaker 2: that right next door on site if you're not, it's
• 42:56
  Speaker 2: it's a huge step, and yet it's a much smaller
• 42:59
  Speaker 2: step than uh NHL arena, right, And like we could
• 43:05
  Speaker 2: I could get in the weeds with you guys about
• 43:06
  Speaker 2: things like all the other things that are happening that time,
• 43:08
  Speaker 2: how like NHL aren't your arenas aren't available, like TD Arena,
• 43:12
  Speaker 2: TD Big Well, I don't know the Boston NHL Arena
• 43:16
  Speaker 2: hosts the Men's Hockey East Championship, Like that's not happening,
• 43:21
  Speaker 2: that's not going away, and that's the same weekend as
• 43:23
  Speaker 2: the women's Frozen for so like that building is that's
• 43:26
  Speaker 2: like a moot point.
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: There's buildings hosting March Madness Games men's and women's side,
• 43:31
  Speaker 1: and other.
• 43:31
  Speaker 2: Men's right tournament, men's conference tournament championships, so like, and
• 43:36
  Speaker 2: then also there's the so like if the men's Frozen
• 43:40
  Speaker 2: forward recent somewhat recently started going to maybe to non
• 43:43
  Speaker 2: traditional hockey cities, and like one of the most successful,
• 43:46
  Speaker 2: based on what other media and attendees have told me,
• 43:50
  Speaker 2: is like Tampa on like the first time that it
• 43:52
  Speaker 2: was held in Tampa. It was hosted by Wisconsin, and
• 43:54
  Speaker 2: that means Wisconsin is providing all the staffing, all the
• 43:57
  Speaker 2: behind the scenes stuff, like they're the host university. So
• 44:00
  Speaker 2: all that sort of like background structure has to be
• 44:05
  Speaker 2: hosted by somebody. I went and looked like, isn't Vegas
• 44:08
  Speaker 2: hosted by North Dakota. Yeah, so all these universities are
• 44:12
  Speaker 2: putting a bunch behind these events and other cities, and
• 44:18
  Speaker 2: there's a cost to that first of all, and so
• 44:20
  Speaker 2: like until there could be proof the tickets sale like
• 44:23
  Speaker 2: that there would be a return on that investment. I
• 44:26
  Speaker 2: think it's going to be difficult to say like a
• 44:29
  Speaker 2: university should kind of put up or shut up about
• 44:33
  Speaker 2: hosting in a bigger arena. That's why I think something
• 44:36
  Speaker 2: like Mariucci is a really interesting because you're not there's
• 44:39
  Speaker 2: not the same cost of renting the reader. There's not
• 44:41
  Speaker 2: the same cost of taking a whole staff and providing
• 44:43
  Speaker 2: sort of the structure underneath. So yeah, I you know,
• 44:48
  Speaker 2: obviously it's way too late to have that conversation, but
• 44:51
  Speaker 2: I wish there would have been thought to putting it.
• 44:53
  Speaker 2: This women's rosen for in Minneapolis at Mariucci, because I
• 44:57
  Speaker 2: definitely think it would have been a little bit of
• 44:58
  Speaker 2: a good test. And then the other thing I would
• 45:00
  Speaker 2: say is that, like there were complaints in this Instagram
• 45:03
  Speaker 2: post about like it being the Frozen Fours being awarded
• 45:07
  Speaker 2: to Penn State or being awarded to delude and how
• 45:09
  Speaker 2: those places are difficult to get to. I don't think
• 45:13
  Speaker 2: that there are like thirty or twenty or maybe even
• 45:16
  Speaker 2: fifteen bids to host a Frozen four right now. I
• 45:18
  Speaker 2: think they're being awarded to the people that are asking
• 45:20
  Speaker 2: to host them. I don't think a tons of places
• 45:23
  Speaker 2: are going away disappointed they didn't get awarded a bid.
• 45:27
  Speaker 2: I would say that. I would also say that, like
• 45:31
  Speaker 2: purely from an event standpoint, both Penn State and Minnesota
• 45:37
  Speaker 2: Duluth hosted two of the best Frozen Fours in my
• 45:40
  Speaker 2: experience of I think this will be my tenth year going.
• 45:42
  Speaker 2: I've been every year, including the COVID year and Eerie
• 45:45
  Speaker 2: so put on like the most professional, like the city
• 45:53
  Speaker 2: knew it was happening. Like that's the part of the
• 45:54
  Speaker 2: thing is like what I was saying that all the
• 45:56
  Speaker 2: signages is in the one building. When we were at
• 45:59
  Speaker 2: New Hampshire last your Portsmouth is eleven miles away to
• 46:02
  Speaker 2: where the hotels, that's where everybody was staying. And like
• 46:04
  Speaker 2: I would go out with friends who were in town
• 46:06
  Speaker 2: to watch the games, and they all had their jerseys on,
• 46:09
  Speaker 2: and nobody in Portsmith knew what was happening. And like
• 46:11
  Speaker 2: even once they explained that they were there for the
• 46:13
  Speaker 2: women's Frozen form, pretty much everyone still assumed it was
• 46:16
  Speaker 2: men's hockey. But like walking around Portsmouth it with nothing
• 46:19
  Speaker 2: but people in jerseys, Like we just we saw tons
• 46:22
  Speaker 2: of people in Kogate and Ohio state in Wisconsin, and
• 46:24
  Speaker 2: so in Clerkson. And so that's the difference. That's the
• 46:29
  Speaker 2: step that has to happen, is that there has to
• 46:30
  Speaker 2: be situational awareness where the city knows that it is
• 46:33
  Speaker 2: hosting this event and like get to buy in and
• 46:37
  Speaker 2: you know we I talk about in this article. The
• 46:40
  Speaker 2: NCAA treats the Men's Frozen four like a destination event,
• 46:42
  Speaker 2: and there are like if you go to their website
• 46:44
  Speaker 2: for the Men's Frozen four, there's like information and hotels,
• 46:47
  Speaker 2: there's information on other things to do in town, Like
• 46:49
  Speaker 2: there's this whole they create packages, there's a fan fest,
• 46:52
  Speaker 2: and there's just none of that for the women right now,
• 46:53
  Speaker 2: and so like those are the things that need to
• 46:56
  Speaker 2: like take a step up and be more improved before
• 46:59
  Speaker 2: I think you can successfully have this transition that makes
• 47:04
  Speaker 2: this more of an event where you know, ten thousand
• 47:07
  Speaker 2: people are going to go and you can fill phillerinas
• 47:10
  Speaker 2: in the same way, because it's just you're just not
• 47:11
  Speaker 2: getting a larger community buy in right now.
• 47:14
  Speaker 1: So a couple of things have come to mind along
• 47:17
  Speaker 1: thinking about this along the way. One of them is
• 47:19
  Speaker 1: that there's been a lot of I don't think it's
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: ever gotten to the point of really being considered or studied.
• 47:26
  Speaker 1: But what if you put the men's and women's Frozen
• 47:30
  Speaker 1: fours in the same location on different days? You do
• 47:33
  Speaker 1: you know, you have Thursday Day, the women continue to
• 47:38
  Speaker 1: be Friday Sunday, the men being Thursday Saturday, and then
• 47:41
  Speaker 1: they just trade off and it's you know, it's a thought.
• 47:45
  Speaker 1: I think it has potential to bring more people in,
• 47:52
  Speaker 1: but it also has potential to turn some of the
• 47:56
  Speaker 1: the the fans who might want to go to just
• 48:00
  Speaker 1: a women's Frozen four off from having pay the rates
• 48:04
  Speaker 1: that it's going to cost to go to a place
• 48:08
  Speaker 1: where the hotels are you know, raising them because it's
• 48:12
  Speaker 1: a it's already a destination event, like you're talking about,
• 48:16
  Speaker 1: there's there's that kind of crowd already there, and so,
• 48:19
  Speaker 1: uh that has that has come to mind a couple
• 48:21
  Speaker 1: of times, and I like I I would be planning
• 48:25
  Speaker 1: on like how it would actually work and and what
• 48:28
  Speaker 1: you could do to intertwine those and and you know,
• 48:32
  Speaker 1: you don't necessarily know you're going to have any common
• 48:35
  Speaker 1: teams between those two events. But even then, if you
• 48:39
  Speaker 1: have eight different teams, you have a lot more geographic
• 48:42
  Speaker 1: areas covered, and so maybe there's a little more I
• 48:46
  Speaker 1: know this team, and so I might be interested in
• 48:50
  Speaker 1: going to that even if I haven't ever before.
• 48:53
  Speaker 2: And men's college hockey has a larger footprints sort of
• 48:56
  Speaker 2: of the country, right, like it goes further west.
• 48:59
  Speaker 1: Right, it's not huge, but yeah, no, right farther west.
• 49:04
  Speaker 2: So uh, part of me doesn't hate the idea, and
• 49:07
  Speaker 2: part of me is like there's just something sort of
• 49:10
  Speaker 2: inherently like why do they they we don't need each other.
• 49:13
  Speaker 2: I don't know, Yeah, like there's but there there's something there.
• 49:16
  Speaker 2: I don't hate the idea and at least makes me
• 49:18
  Speaker 2: think like me and should we be doing this for
• 49:20
  Speaker 2: like an icebreaker or for a holiday tournament or something
• 49:23
  Speaker 2: to again maybe test the waters.
• 49:26
  Speaker 1: Right. The other thing is the what's worked really well
• 49:30
  Speaker 1: for the Volleyball National Championship that they they put their
• 49:35
  Speaker 1: Coaches Convention and really it's it's the entire volleyball world
• 49:39
  Speaker 1: or country convention, uh wherever the that's part of hosting
• 49:46
  Speaker 1: the Volleyball Championships, you also have to host the volleyball
• 49:49
  Speaker 1: Convention and so that brings in so many people to
• 49:53
  Speaker 1: that area that it becomes an event that you're what's
• 49:59
  Speaker 1: it called, like, you're your sports you know, you're whatever city,
• 50:04
  Speaker 1: sports foundation or sports uh you know has interest in
• 50:10
  Speaker 1: bringing in because it's going to mean a lot of
• 50:13
  Speaker 1: hotel rooms and a lot of money and a lot
• 50:15
  Speaker 1: of convention space. Now, I don't think we're going to
• 50:19
  Speaker 1: see the American Hockey Coaches Association Convention move to where
• 50:24
  Speaker 1: the women's frozen for is because they love Florida late
• 50:27
  Speaker 1: the time of the year that they get to then
• 50:29
  Speaker 1: go to Naples or wherever, and timing.
• 50:32
  Speaker 2: Would have to change, Like we don't even commissioners coming
• 50:34
  Speaker 2: to the women's roof because their men's conference tournaments.
• 50:37
  Speaker 1: But like the idea of having some kind of event
• 50:40
  Speaker 1: that could yeah, well, whether it's a youth tournament, I mean,
• 50:44
  Speaker 1: and now you know, it also does raise the risk
• 50:47
  Speaker 1: of making those hotel rooms a lot more expensive. But
• 50:52
  Speaker 1: if you're talking about in Minneapolis or a Boston or
• 50:55
  Speaker 1: a larger area, that's you know, a little bit easier
• 50:57
  Speaker 1: of a of an area to find telerooms for. But
• 51:00
  Speaker 1: if you have a girls hockey youth event that's part
• 51:06
  Speaker 1: of that weekend, I feel like that could bring in
• 51:10
  Speaker 1: you know, a lot of people that want to be
• 51:12
  Speaker 1: there and want to see that that product as as
• 51:19
  Speaker 1: just part of that event. And so I don't know
• 51:21
  Speaker 1: if that's ever come up as a possibility either, but
• 51:25
  Speaker 1: I'd love to see that that explored too.
• 51:28
  Speaker 2: Here's what I'll say, And I am incredibly cynical about
• 51:31
  Speaker 2: the NCAA, and I'm saying this without a ton of cynicism.
• 51:35
  Speaker 2: I don't think anybody there has put a ton of
• 51:39
  Speaker 2: thought into making the women's frozen for a bigger event
• 51:44
  Speaker 2: or a destination event or things like that. Like we
• 51:48
  Speaker 2: were was it last year when we suggested that maybe
• 51:51
  Speaker 2: all the quarterfinals shouldn't have the same puck drop so
• 51:54
  Speaker 2: that fans can actually watch all of these NCAA tournament
• 51:57
  Speaker 2: games because they're all happening at the same time. And
• 52:00
  Speaker 2: we told that too at the NCAA sort of look
• 52:02
  Speaker 2: befuddled for a moment, like that had never been considered
• 52:05
  Speaker 2: because they let the host team pick the time that
• 52:10
  Speaker 2: the puck is going to drop, and invariably that's all
• 52:13
  Speaker 2: at the same time. It's a Saturday afternoon when they're
• 52:16
  Speaker 2: going to be able to sell their tickets and not
• 52:17
  Speaker 2: have other stuff going on on their campuses. So I
• 52:21
  Speaker 2: just don't think that they have a whole like it's
• 52:26
  Speaker 2: a very internalized view for them, like they are creating
• 52:29
  Speaker 2: a championship for the players, and because it's not a
• 52:32
  Speaker 2: revenue event, they kind of don't care about the rest
• 52:35
  Speaker 2: of it. So the focus has been on improving it
• 52:38
  Speaker 2: for the players, and like credit given, we do think
• 52:40
  Speaker 2: that they've done that, but I don't know that like
• 52:44
  Speaker 2: there's been a single thought, much less a creative thought
• 52:46
  Speaker 2: about like brainstorm about what could be done to grow
• 52:50
  Speaker 2: this as an event and make it a bigger thing.
• 52:52
  Speaker 2: Like I just don't think they even understood sort of
• 52:56
  Speaker 2: the moment in women's hockey and like what they could
• 52:59
  Speaker 2: be taking advantage of I mean, the complete lack of
• 53:01
  Speaker 2: crossover with anything PWHL is like your number one sign
• 53:04
  Speaker 2: that like they don't they're not seeing this as something
• 53:07
  Speaker 2: that could be happening, right, Like so the what is it?
• 53:10
  Speaker 2: This ccha is at the EXL the weekend of the
• 53:13
  Speaker 2: Frozen four of the front frostert home but like what ANDHD,
• 53:17
  Speaker 2: sorry man hockey guys, this is I know they're hosting
• 53:22
  Speaker 2: a tournament there, that's but like couldn't the Frost be
• 53:26
  Speaker 2: playing at Mariucci maybe or like there's just there's things
• 53:30
  Speaker 2: that I think could and should be happening. I felt
• 53:32
  Speaker 2: the same in New Hampshire last year, like there was
• 53:34
  Speaker 2: nothing with the Fleet. Several Fleet players came to the
• 53:38
  Speaker 2: championship game like they were there because they're alumni of
• 53:41
  Speaker 2: the program, but like there was no crossover, there was
• 53:44
  Speaker 2: no official anything happening. It's like that's just such a
• 53:47
  Speaker 2: huge missed opportunity, Like they made the trip to New
• 53:50
  Speaker 2: Hampshire all on their own, when that could have been
• 53:52
  Speaker 2: like there could have been on ice thing, there could
• 53:54
  Speaker 2: have been a signature, Like just there's been no thought
• 53:57
  Speaker 2: to any of this in terms of a marketing and
• 54:01
  Speaker 2: growth mindset, and like, while I get that the NCAA
• 54:05
  Speaker 2: is supposed to be athlete first and like the focus
• 54:07
  Speaker 2: is on the student athletes, like obviously creating destivation events
• 54:12
  Speaker 2: is also what they do, they just haven't thought about
• 54:15
  Speaker 2: it with women's college hockey, and I don't know what
• 54:18
  Speaker 2: needs to be done to get them to do that.
• 54:20
  Speaker 2: I mean, I felt like we were making in roads
• 54:22
  Speaker 2: with the contact we had last year about persons not
• 54:25
  Speaker 2: doing with that job anymore, and so like I felt
• 54:28
  Speaker 2: like they hurt us when we were like, hey, all
• 54:29
  Speaker 2: the games shouldn't be happening at the same time. And
• 54:31
  Speaker 2: I actually asked in my email to the NCAA about this, like, hey,
• 54:33
  Speaker 2: we had this conversation last year about like not just
• 54:36
  Speaker 2: letting the teams pick a time, and like people are
• 54:40
  Speaker 2: interested in college hockey and want to watch these games,
• 54:42
  Speaker 2: and you're making it impossible for them to do that,
• 54:45
  Speaker 2: And they didn't even answer that they like, at no
• 54:47
  Speaker 2: point did that question even become become a part of
• 54:49
  Speaker 2: the response. Like I've pasted the whole response I received
• 54:52
  Speaker 2: into the email or into this column that I wrote.
• 54:54
  Speaker 2: So yeah, I all, that's a whole huge amount of
• 54:59
  Speaker 2: words to say that like, there's just so many barriers
• 55:02
  Speaker 2: to this, and so to me, that is not something
• 55:07
  Speaker 2: I think that can happen immediately. I think there needs
• 55:10
  Speaker 2: to be pressure put on the NCAA. There needs to
• 55:12
  Speaker 2: be conversations with them and force them to sort of
• 55:16
  Speaker 2: reckon with like you are missing the moment with this
• 55:20
  Speaker 2: and get them to see that there's more things that
• 55:22
  Speaker 2: could be done.
• 55:23
  Speaker 1: It.
• 55:24
  Speaker 2: For me, it isn't It doesn't have to immediately become
• 55:27
  Speaker 2: similar to the men's rosen fore and frankly, we have
• 55:30
  Speaker 2: to stop thinking that that's the template and where women's
• 55:34
  Speaker 2: sports need to go. But like like you said, there
• 55:36
  Speaker 2: could be there's so many ways that this could grow
• 55:40
  Speaker 2: and become more in an event than just the games
• 55:42
  Speaker 2: and could be a celebration of the sport. When you
• 55:45
  Speaker 2: were talking about the meetings when we were in Utica
• 55:48
  Speaker 2: for Women's World Championships last year, the USA Hockey held
• 55:52
  Speaker 2: some coaching symposiums and some training. They were doing work
• 55:56
  Speaker 2: with coaches from like non traditional areas and getting them
• 56:01
  Speaker 2: to connect and helping them create a network so that
• 56:04
  Speaker 2: like people that sort of live in the middle of
• 56:06
  Speaker 2: I would literally talk to women that's like I live
• 56:08
  Speaker 2: three hundred miles from anybody in Montana, but I run
• 56:11
  Speaker 2: our program for girls and so things like that, holding
• 56:14
  Speaker 2: classes or learning or workshops again a reason for people
• 56:18
  Speaker 2: to come and connect and make it more a celebration
• 56:23
  Speaker 2: and don't even know what the order, but to make
• 56:27
  Speaker 2: it the sport be the focus and growing it as
• 56:31
  Speaker 2: a whole. And I just don't know. Again, I just
• 56:34
  Speaker 2: don't think anybody the NCAA has thought about it like that,
• 56:36
  Speaker 2: and so that fundamentally has to change before anything else can.
• 56:41
  Speaker 1: Yeah, well, we'd love to hear what you think about
• 56:44
  Speaker 1: this too. Reach out to us. You can find our
• 56:47
  Speaker 1: contact information, email, social accounts in the show notes, So
• 56:53
  Speaker 1: hit us up with that and let us know what
• 56:55
  Speaker 1: you think about what maybe the future should hold for
• 56:58
  Speaker 1: the women's rosen for because I think, you know, fan
• 57:01
  Speaker 1: import is just as important because if you're asking people
• 57:05
  Speaker 1: to show up and try to travel and show up
• 57:07
  Speaker 1: for something, you should probably listen to what they want.
• 57:11
  Speaker 1: So that's it should be part of what the NCAA does.
• 57:15
  Speaker 1: I know they do that on the men's side. There's
• 57:17
  Speaker 1: surveys every year. I hope they're doing that on the
• 57:19
  Speaker 1: women's side.
• 57:19
  Speaker 2: For you know, have we even gotten media surveys the
• 57:23
  Speaker 2: last couple of years. I don't think we have. I
• 57:26
  Speaker 2: don't think we did last year. Yeah, I guess the
• 57:30
  Speaker 2: point is all of that is to say is like
• 57:31
  Speaker 2: I wanted to write this because I think like these
• 57:34
  Speaker 2: things need to be not everybody has the background information,
• 57:37
  Speaker 2: not everybody's been to a bunch of frozen fours. And
• 57:40
  Speaker 2: also like this is how we make change. Like I
• 57:43
  Speaker 2: wanted to sort of amplify the conversation of that Instagram
• 57:46
  Speaker 2: post and like have this more out in the open
• 57:48
  Speaker 2: and like let the NCA know that we're talking about this,
• 57:51
  Speaker 2: and like we see where they're still falling short, and like, goodness,
• 57:54
  Speaker 2: we all just want this to be better. And it's
• 57:56
  Speaker 2: it's like it feels some of this stuff feels easy
• 58:00
  Speaker 2: in terms of having some of these conversations and really
• 58:03
  Speaker 2: just reframing how they're approaching this tournament and what their
• 58:07
  Speaker 2: goals are with it.
• 58:09
  Speaker 1: Right, Okay, we're going to take another break. When we
• 58:12
  Speaker 1: come back, we're going to look ahead at the final
• 58:14
  Speaker 1: week of the regular season for three of the league's
• 58:16
  Speaker 1: and the first week of the playoffs for the other two.
• 58:19
  Speaker 1: Stay with us on the podcast. Welcome back to the podcast,
• 58:30
  Speaker 1: Todd Molusky and Nicole Hosney here to wrap up this
• 58:32
  Speaker 1: week's show with a look at what's coming up this week,
• 58:36
  Speaker 1: the playoffs starting in Atlantic Hockey and ECAC Hockey. Let's
• 58:41
  Speaker 1: start there Atlantic Hockey with single game first round between
• 58:48
  Speaker 1: the bottom four teams in the standings of the six
• 58:51
  Speaker 1: team league. So we have Linnenwood at rit and we
• 58:55
  Speaker 1: have Robert Morris at Syracuse, both of those games on Saturday.
• 59:01
  Speaker 1: The the the gap in the standings would tell you
• 59:05
  Speaker 1: that you know these are they're the teams Syracuse and
• 59:10
  Speaker 1: r T. The home team's there earned their spots to
• 59:13
  Speaker 1: host these games. Lindenwood and Robert Morris have been pretty
• 59:17
  Speaker 1: far down the standings for most of the season. Uh.
• 59:21
  Speaker 1: You get in this point though that I don't know
• 59:23
  Speaker 1: that you hate some part of you hates these first
• 59:30
  Speaker 1: round games that are a single elimination, but part of
• 59:32
  Speaker 1: it is like, yeah, let's let's not drag this out more.
• 59:36
  Speaker 1: Let's put everything on the line in one game and
• 59:39
  Speaker 1: get the two teams set up the semifinals next next week.
• 59:43
  Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean, depending on what comforts are talking about,
• 59:47
  Speaker 2: I would have maybe have different thoughts, but I agree
• 59:49
  Speaker 2: with you. Yeah, like there's there's such a big separation here.
• 59:51
  Speaker 2: I'm glad that everybody gets a chance, but yeah, I mean,
• 59:57
  Speaker 2: I we the outcome here seems you know, Robert Morris
• 59:59
  Speaker 2: has two conference wins. Lynn Wood has four. It's just,
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 2: you know, not been a great year for either one
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 2: of them. They're not particularly prolific on offense, Liddedwood more
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 2: so than Robert Morris. But yeah, I expect, but you know,
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 2: I think as we've been talking about, like at this point,
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 2: expecting unexpected, know that anybody can beat anybody else we've seen.
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 2: You know, we were just you and I were just
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 2: talking before we come back for this this third you know,
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 2: like in other conference as the players or teams with
• 1:00:28
  Speaker 2: one or two wins, we're taking top teams to overtime.
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 2: So to me, I'm not ready to write anybody off
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 2: or think that anything is given. But there does seem
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 2: to be sort of a very clear line here between
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 2: these two these two sets of teams.
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 1: And Syracuse and rat swept both of the series is
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 1: this season against the teams that they're playing, So it
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 1: would be an upset, a pretty big upset to see
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 1: anything different happen there. But in the playoffs, we remember
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 1: and we love the opposet team, so that's that's always
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 1: out there as a possibility. So over in ECAC hockey again,
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 1: single games in the first round leading into a best
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 1: of three quarterfinal series next week. So but one game,
• 1:01:15
  Speaker 1: one of them happening Friday. That's RPI at Princeton. We
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 1: talked about that earlier as being a rematch of a
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 1: game that RPI just won, although that was at home,
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 1: that game being last week, and then on Saturday, Harvard
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 1: at Quinnipiac, Dartmouth at Yale, Union at Brown. I think
• 1:01:32
  Speaker 1: that Dartmouth Yale game is one too to pay attention to,
• 1:01:36
  Speaker 1: just from you've seen some better results from Dartmouth. We've
• 1:01:39
  Speaker 1: seen some good results from the Yale though, too, So
• 1:01:41
  Speaker 1: I don't I wouldn't discount Yale as being like, you know,
• 1:01:44
  Speaker 1: a team that's you know, there to be upset or
• 1:01:47
  Speaker 1: anything like that. But I do think you have to
• 1:01:49
  Speaker 1: give Dartmouth a little bit of credit for what they
• 1:01:52
  Speaker 1: were able to do last week.
• 1:01:54
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and you know, Yale's the team that tied Cornell
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 2: on Saturday. So what I will say is, you know,
• 1:01:59
  Speaker 2: I already talked about mikhaila Hesheva. But Yale's also got
• 1:02:02
  Speaker 2: a really great goalie, Piatukorich, and so that to me
• 1:02:06
  Speaker 2: is a goalie showdown and who's going to be able
• 1:02:09
  Speaker 2: to find a solution. And I don't expect that one
• 1:02:12
  Speaker 2: to be high scoring, and so I think that's going
• 1:02:14
  Speaker 2: to be a patient game and probably special teams is
• 1:02:19
  Speaker 2: going to play a part. So yeah, that one I
• 1:02:22
  Speaker 2: think could be Unfortunately, I don't want to jinxity thing,
• 1:02:26
  Speaker 2: but that could be one of those longer games you
• 1:02:28
  Speaker 2: were talking about in terms of who who plays the
• 1:02:30
  Speaker 2: just the best and who finds the opportunity to find
• 1:02:33
  Speaker 2: the back of the dead.
• 1:02:34
  Speaker 1: Yes, all right, so then let's look at the three
• 1:02:37
  Speaker 1: leagues that are into the final week of the regular seasons.
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 1: Let's start with Hockey East, where, like we mentioned before,
• 1:02:44
  Speaker 1: the championship will come down to Boston University or Yukon.
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 1: Yukon needing to sweep all six points from that series
• 1:02:51
  Speaker 1: to win to move past BEU to win the championship.
• 1:02:55
  Speaker 1: But you can get just one point to claim the
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 1: title there. But then you're also talking about some races
• 1:03:03
  Speaker 1: for well third place, be you in Profitence or b
• 1:03:07
  Speaker 1: I'm sorry, BC, and Providence are tied at forty six points,
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 1: Northeastern is at forty three, and then you have a
• 1:03:14
  Speaker 1: pretty big gap back to Maine in six. So there's
• 1:03:18
  Speaker 1: a one spot left to be claimed in the top six,
• 1:03:23
  Speaker 1: that being between Maine and New Hampshire. Maine hosts Holy
• 1:03:27
  Speaker 1: Cross for two games. New Hampshire plays at BC or
• 1:03:31
  Speaker 1: has a home and home but against BC. One of
• 1:03:34
  Speaker 1: those teams is going to avoid the opening round game
• 1:03:39
  Speaker 1: on Wednesday. Next Wednesday, one of them will be in.
• 1:03:43
  Speaker 1: We'll get to host that game, but we'll have to
• 1:03:46
  Speaker 1: play it. So there's there's a lot to be played
• 1:03:50
  Speaker 1: for there, not just at the top, but also as
• 1:03:52
  Speaker 1: you go through the standings to see who claims will spot.
• 1:03:56
  Speaker 1: And that's one of the reasons why I do kind
• 1:03:58
  Speaker 1: of like the Hockey East format of it moves quick.
• 1:04:02
  Speaker 1: They do. They do an opening round on a Wednesday,
• 1:04:07
  Speaker 1: they play the quarter finals that Saturday, they do the
• 1:04:09
  Speaker 1: semifinals the following Wednesday, and then they play the championship
• 1:04:12
  Speaker 1: the following Saturday, all single elimination, So it moves fast,
• 1:04:17
  Speaker 1: but it also allows for different levels of opportunities, whether
• 1:04:23
  Speaker 1: it's avoiding that first round, getting home rice for the
• 1:04:26
  Speaker 1: first round, getting home ice for the semi finals, and
• 1:04:30
  Speaker 1: it's it's an interesting format and I think it works
• 1:04:33
  Speaker 1: pretty well for them given the geography that they have
• 1:04:35
  Speaker 1: that they really have only you know, main being the
• 1:04:39
  Speaker 1: team farthest distant from the core there.
• 1:04:43
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it works. I mean even if we take out
• 1:04:47
  Speaker 2: the fact the stealings right now where everything is so closed,
• 1:04:49
  Speaker 2: just in general, it really works for them because generally
• 1:04:53
  Speaker 2: their standings are wide open right like we don't really
• 1:04:55
  Speaker 2: know where anyone's They're always very close. There doesn't seem
• 1:04:59
  Speaker 2: to be. I mean, Northeastern a few years ago obviously
• 1:05:01
  Speaker 2: dominated at the top, but I still felt like below
• 1:05:04
  Speaker 2: that it was still bunched together for the most part,
• 1:05:07
  Speaker 2: and teams where like anybody could take any given weekend.
• 1:05:09
  Speaker 2: Now you put in the fact that it's much closer
• 1:05:11
  Speaker 2: this year and that one and done is just like
• 1:05:14
  Speaker 2: pitch perfect for what happens in Hockey East and how
• 1:05:17
  Speaker 2: close things are, and that's what like, that's why I
• 1:05:21
  Speaker 2: really like it. Like you said it, the geography works
• 1:05:23
  Speaker 2: for them as well. It was interesting when you were
• 1:05:25
  Speaker 2: talking about like possible Blong games and having to come
• 1:05:28
  Speaker 2: out for game two or you know, a game three
• 1:05:31
  Speaker 2: and a one in a three. But I also was
• 1:05:33
  Speaker 2: thinking of Hockey East too, like doing one of those
• 1:05:35
  Speaker 2: long games to having to play again on Wednesday, Like
• 1:05:37
  Speaker 2: at least if you do it kind of is combined
• 1:05:39
  Speaker 2: to a weekend with the other conferences, but with Hockey East,
• 1:05:42
  Speaker 2: it's like also in the middle of classes and like
• 1:05:45
  Speaker 2: some travel. I mean, you know, some of it's close,
• 1:05:47
  Speaker 2: some of it's a little bit forever, and so yeah,
• 1:05:50
  Speaker 2: I just think the possibility for chaos in the Hockey
• 1:05:53
  Speaker 2: East tournament is a plus. Really excited about it. Just
• 1:05:56
  Speaker 2: think there's gonna be a lot of coming down to
• 1:06:02
  Speaker 2: one play one, you know, whether or not special teams
• 1:06:05
  Speaker 2: comes into it, how the goalies play. I just think
• 1:06:06
  Speaker 2: there's a lot more hinging here because of the teams
• 1:06:10
  Speaker 2: are so close and because we've seen them all sort
• 1:06:12
  Speaker 2: of beat up on each other. One thing I did
• 1:06:15
  Speaker 2: want to point out, just again thanks to Brian, is
• 1:06:17
  Speaker 2: that when we're talking three way tides and you were
• 1:06:20
  Speaker 2: looking in the middle there, Boston College does have the
• 1:06:22
  Speaker 2: tiebreaker over alvidence pretty much an all scenario. So if
• 1:06:26
  Speaker 2: those two end up tied in whatever position, I think
• 1:06:29
  Speaker 2: that they have that tiebreaker.
• 1:06:32
  Speaker 1: Again BC home and home with New Hampshire Providence home
• 1:06:37
  Speaker 1: and home. With Merrimac and Merrimack being the only team
• 1:06:39
  Speaker 1: that has its position locked in, they will finish tenth
• 1:06:43
  Speaker 1: and last in Hockey East. Everyone else can move up.
• 1:06:47
  Speaker 2: Or down significally. Yukon can be one to four, EC
• 1:06:51
  Speaker 2: can be two to five, Providence can be two to five,
• 1:06:55
  Speaker 2: or the Eastern three to five. Like, there's there're plenty
• 1:06:59
  Speaker 2: of chances for this to like significantly change what that
• 1:07:02
  Speaker 2: bracket looks like.
• 1:07:03
  Speaker 1: Yes, indeed, wha final weekend of the regular season. We
• 1:07:07
  Speaker 1: know Wisconsin has already won the championship. There we have
• 1:07:12
  Speaker 1: Minnesota Dluth at Minnesota. We have sink Cloud State at
• 1:07:15
  Speaker 1: Ohio State. Second not locked up, fourth is locked up.
• 1:07:24
  Speaker 1: I'm trying to think through things in my head here
• 1:07:27
  Speaker 1: where they But wha standings are? I should have done that?
• 1:07:31
  Speaker 2: Minnesota Duluth has forty eight, Minnesota has fifty one, and
• 1:07:34
  Speaker 2: they're playing each other.
• 1:07:36
  Speaker 1: So the top four are locked in. Sink Cloud is
• 1:07:39
  Speaker 1: farther down in fifth. They can't make up any more ground.
• 1:07:42
  Speaker 1: But Dluth can pass Minnesota for third. D Luth in
• 1:07:47
  Speaker 1: theory could pass Ohio State for second. They're five points behind,
• 1:07:52
  Speaker 1: but that would require a couple of sweeps there. I
• 1:08:01
  Speaker 1: guess if I'm you know, crystal balling this, I'm I'm
• 1:08:06
  Speaker 1: not thinking that we're seeing anything different after this weekend.
• 1:08:09
  Speaker 2: I feel like, no, I assume there'll be some splits, right, Like,
• 1:08:12
  Speaker 2: I mean, the most crucial one is that Minnesota Minnesota Duluth.
• 1:08:14
  Speaker 2: And yeah, I'm I think it's gonna be a split,
• 1:08:18
  Speaker 2: that's my guess. Uh, it depends on Minnesota Duluth's offense.
• 1:08:23
  Speaker 2: I think they've they've been so great on defense and
• 1:08:25
  Speaker 2: have you know, at times not been able to put
• 1:08:27
  Speaker 2: a ton of goals up. And so for them, it's
• 1:08:29
  Speaker 2: it's about being able to score. But yeah, I and
• 1:08:33
  Speaker 2: and the other thing that like for them, like I
• 1:08:35
  Speaker 2: don't think any of these teams care much about where
• 1:08:38
  Speaker 2: they end up in w c CHA cities like they
• 1:08:39
  Speaker 2: are pairwise watching and the points again we talked about
• 1:08:43
  Speaker 2: we're so close, Like there's just so much on the line,
• 1:08:45
  Speaker 2: and so that just changes the tenor of what's you know,
• 1:08:50
  Speaker 2: like what would be already be a little bit of
• 1:08:52
  Speaker 2: a rivalry game is now now just has so many
• 1:08:54
  Speaker 2: more consequences.
• 1:08:56
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so that should be fun to watch through the weekend.
• 1:09:00
  Speaker 1: New ha is The also is playing its final week
• 1:09:04
  Speaker 1: of the regular season, that championship coming down the Long Island,
• 1:09:08
  Speaker 1: Sacred Heart, Long Island playing Saint Anselm in two games,
• 1:09:13
  Speaker 1: Sacred Heart playing Post in two games, and that being
• 1:09:19
  Speaker 1: really l I used to win or you know, l
• 1:09:22
  Speaker 1: I used to lose, if you want to look at it,
• 1:09:24
  Speaker 1: that the other way four points ahead with the two
• 1:09:26
  Speaker 1: games remaining.
• 1:09:28
  Speaker 2: And again like Sacred Heart, Sacred Card can win and
• 1:09:31
  Speaker 2: also drop to third because Franklin Pierce is only three
• 1:09:35
  Speaker 2: points behind. And so if yeah, it's it's one of
• 1:09:38
  Speaker 2: those where like there's there's a lot of chances for
• 1:09:41
  Speaker 2: teams to play spoiler this weekend.
• 1:09:43
  Speaker 1: There. Stonehill's right there too, So yes, I see we.
• 1:09:46
  Speaker 2: Both have done that. It's skipped over the fact that
• 1:09:48
  Speaker 2: they're tied.
• 1:09:49
  Speaker 1: Sorry, friends, it's that part of the season here where
• 1:09:53
  Speaker 1: we're starting this kind of all the numbers together. Yeah,
• 1:09:58
  Speaker 1: with that table, the.
• 1:09:59
  Speaker 2: Twelve tab I have opened, uh posed to be looking
• 1:10:03
  Speaker 2: you know, they're like, hey, worked for last weekend, We'll
• 1:10:05
  Speaker 2: go ahead and play spoiler again this weekend. So yeah,
• 1:10:08
  Speaker 2: it's games that like on the surface, you would have
• 1:10:11
  Speaker 2: looked in like, oh, the second to last team in
• 1:10:13
  Speaker 2: the standings. That's who they're playing, Like that's a sweep, Like, no,
• 1:10:16
  Speaker 2: no easy games here, and so that's that's what makes
• 1:10:18
  Speaker 2: this fun.
• 1:10:19
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, there's give me a lot of that. And
• 1:10:23
  Speaker 1: this is a great weekend of scoreboard watching and uh,
• 1:10:27
  Speaker 1: you know, tuning in the different games throughout the day
• 1:10:29
  Speaker 1: on Friday and when you get those Friday afternoon games
• 1:10:32
  Speaker 1: and can kind of have that on while you're working
• 1:10:34
  Speaker 1: or whatever, those that's uh uh that's a pretty fun
• 1:10:38
  Speaker 1: time to uh to have that going join me.
• 1:10:42
  Speaker 2: Friends, that's what I will be doing, if not follow
• 1:10:45
  Speaker 2: along on Blue Sky in X because yeah, that's it's
• 1:10:49
  Speaker 2: we got games starting at like one Northeastern Vermonta's at
• 1:10:52
  Speaker 2: one Central. Yeah, they're the Wisconsin, the Midgey States at
• 1:10:56
  Speaker 2: three o'clock. Yeah, we got games all day.
• 1:10:58
  Speaker 1: That's like great Friday be you against Yukon is Yeah,
• 1:11:03
  Speaker 1: so that's a one with a lot of weight. You know,
• 1:11:08
  Speaker 1: you could wrap up the championship right away on Friday
• 1:11:11
  Speaker 1: or send it to Yukon, could send it into the
• 1:11:13
  Speaker 1: final day of the season.
• 1:11:14
  Speaker 2: So there's nothing worse than everybody playing at the same
• 1:11:17
  Speaker 2: time and you don't have enough screens and Also, they
• 1:11:19
  Speaker 2: all go to intermission at the same time, so I'll
• 1:11:21
  Speaker 2: love seeing these a little more spread out. And yeah,
• 1:11:23
  Speaker 2: Saturday we had games starting at noon or noon Central,
• 1:11:25
  Speaker 2: so yeah, I will have all the links to everything
• 1:11:29
  Speaker 2: over at Victory Press that will come out on Thursday,
• 1:11:32
  Speaker 2: so makes it easy to find where everything is to watch.
• 1:11:37
  Speaker 1: Sounds good. All right, there's Lenny to digest here this week,
• 1:11:42
  Speaker 1: so we hope you've enjoyed everything that we've thrown at you. Again,
• 1:11:46
  Speaker 1: reach out at the social accounts that are in the
• 1:11:50
  Speaker 1: show notes or the email address there, and if you
• 1:11:53
  Speaker 1: have any questions or thoughts, send them our way. But otherwise,
• 1:11:58
  Speaker 1: enjoy the games this weekend and enjoy the start of
• 1:11:59
  Speaker 1: the play or the last week of the regular season,
• 1:12:01
  Speaker 1: depending on what you're watching. We'll be back next week
• 1:12:04
  Speaker 1: to talk it all over and then look ahead to
• 1:12:06
  Speaker 1: what's to come for Nicle. I'm Todd. Thanks for listening
• 1:12:09
  Speaker 1: to the podcast.