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How will a change to the IIHF calendar impact NCAA women's hockey? · The PodKaz: USCHO Women's Hockey

0:03
Speaker 1: Usc CHO dot com. Welcome back to the podcast. My
0:12
Speaker 1: name is Todd Bluski. I'm here when Nicole Hosey were
0:14
Speaker 1: from us c HO dot com. Here talk about NCAA
0:18
Speaker 1: women's hockey. But first we have a little bit of
0:21
Speaker 1: the grander game of women's hockey to talk about, in
0:24
Speaker 1: that there's some news coming out over the last week
0:27
Speaker 1: or so that we want to make sure everyone's up
0:29
Speaker 1: to and kind of talk about what it means for
0:32
Speaker 1: NCAA women's hockey. The ILHF and the PWHL revealed in
0:38
Speaker 1: the last week or so that the World Championship is
0:41
Speaker 1: moving to November starting next season. It'll be in Denmark
0:44
Speaker 1: and run from November sixth to sixteenth. And yes, that
0:47
Speaker 1: is right in the middle of the NCAA women's hockey season,
0:51
Speaker 1: So Nicole, let's let's start there. That's a it's it's
0:57
Speaker 1: a time that already was had an international break, but
1:02
Speaker 1: this is a lot longer than just a weekend or
1:05
Speaker 1: a week international break. This is gonna disrupt a lot
1:09
Speaker 1: more of college hockey the way that it looks to
1:12
Speaker 1: me anyway.
1:13
Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely, And just so people understand, we're talking IHF
1:16
Speaker 2: International Ice Hockey Federation. They're the governing body. They put
1:20
Speaker 2: on the World Championships, the U eighteen World Championships. They
1:24
Speaker 2: also are, you know, behind their part of putting on
1:27
Speaker 2: the Olympics. Right, it's sort of the overreaching governing body.
1:32
Speaker 2: Normally Women's World Championships are in early April, there have
1:36
Speaker 2: been for the past several years, and they made this decision.
1:39
Speaker 3: It appears mostly.
1:41
Speaker 2: Based on the needs of the PWHL and their season,
1:45
Speaker 2: and I think the p WHL was probably asking for
1:47
Speaker 2: this change, But yeah, it does appear that the decision
1:51
Speaker 2: was made sort of tunnel visioned in on that one
1:56
Speaker 2: pro league and not really looking at sort of the
1:58
Speaker 2: greater women's hockey community. You know, you said to me,
2:02
Speaker 2: you know before we started the the POH everybody's wanted
2:05
Speaker 2: this one great lead to succeed, and so you can understand, uh,
2:10
Speaker 2: sort of again in that maybe like kind of neuro
2:12
Speaker 2: vision why they're that would be prioritized. But you know,
2:16
Speaker 2: I've been saying for at least ten years at this
2:19
Speaker 2: point that the the NCAA is the number one developmental
2:22
Speaker 2: body for women's hockey across the.
2:24
Speaker 3: World, and so.
2:29
Speaker 2: Generally, you know that IHF doesn't really think about the
2:32
Speaker 2: NCAA or doesn't take them into account. And I like,
2:34
Speaker 2: on the one hand, I get that. On the other
2:36
Speaker 2: I just think you can't get over the you can't
2:38
Speaker 2: ignore the fact that women's hockey on across the board
2:42
Speaker 2: at an international level isn't as good as it is
2:45
Speaker 2: without the NCIA. Like you, you don't have players capable
2:48
Speaker 2: of playing fufilling eight teams and playing in the PWHL
2:51
Speaker 2: without the NCAA at this point, not at the level
2:54
Speaker 2: that they're playing at. Like, that's the group that's developing
2:57
Speaker 2: players for several nations, you know, not the least of
3:01
Speaker 2: which are us in Canada.
3:02
Speaker 3: So yeah, it's hard not to look at it. Like
3:06
Speaker 3: on the other.
3:06
Speaker 2: Side, it is a tunnel vision of a college, you know,
3:10
Speaker 2: of college reporters, and so I yeah, you know, you
3:12
Speaker 2: talked to Mark Johnson and he expressed that he doesn't
3:15
Speaker 2: love it. But yeah, I mean I don't see it.
3:20
Speaker 2: It's one of those where it's like I don't see
3:23
Speaker 2: it changing.
3:24
Speaker 3: The IHF.
3:28
Speaker 2: Is who they are, and you know, I think whatever
3:33
Speaker 2: decisions they make, they think they are the best. There's
3:37
Speaker 2: specific word chosen there for a reason, and I just think, yeah,
3:43
Speaker 2: it feels like there's a lot of things and a
3:45
Speaker 2: lot of changes that are happening that everybody else is
3:47
Speaker 2: kind of heading to shoehorn into. And I feel like
3:51
Speaker 2: at some point we have to reach like sort of
3:53
Speaker 2: critical mass on that, right maybe, but like we're all
3:56
Speaker 2: everything has been every It feels like every women's hockey
4:01
Speaker 2: decision has hinged on what the PWHL needs and wants,
4:05
Speaker 2: and I just wonder where where the critical mass of
4:08
Speaker 2: that maybe comes in.
4:10
Speaker 1: I think when you look at it from a perspective
4:14
Speaker 1: of the stakeholders that are involved, the IH or double
4:17
Speaker 1: HF has a you know, they have a tournament to
4:20
Speaker 1: put on, or tournaments to put on because it's multiple levels,
4:24
Speaker 1: but we're really talking about the top level one A
4:27
Speaker 1: or whatever they call it. Division one. I forget what
4:32
Speaker 1: all the the letters number combination is there, but it's
4:38
Speaker 1: they have theirs. The PWHL now has entered with a
4:41
Speaker 1: desire to not stop their season in April before the
4:46
Speaker 1: playoffs and basically shut down because their best players are
4:50
Speaker 1: going to be gone for this ten days, two weeks,
4:54
Speaker 1: well really longer than that, because you're going to have
4:56
Speaker 1: a little bit of a camp before that. I would
4:58
Speaker 1: imagine most so the federations would. So I understand that,
5:04
Speaker 1: you know, that's some valuable time when you get towards
5:07
Speaker 1: the end of the season, that's you know, when you're
5:10
Speaker 1: starting to be in the spotlight. You want you want
5:13
Speaker 1: your fans to be able to have a continuous season.
5:16
Speaker 1: So breaking it up and like we saw last year,
5:22
Speaker 1: I mean, it was okay, it worked, but it definitely
5:25
Speaker 1: seemed like that was not their preferred avenue. And and
5:28
Speaker 1: really then it comes down to does college does NCAA
5:32
Speaker 1: Hockey have any voice in this decision? I would guess not,
5:37
Speaker 1: because this is a decision that's going to affect them.
5:41
Speaker 1: But from at least the you know, the all time
5:46
Speaker 1: winningest women's hockey coach perspective, who you would imagine it
5:51
Speaker 1: has ties in with USA Hockey pretty strong. If he
5:55
Speaker 1: thinks it's a bad idea, I would imagine a lot
5:56
Speaker 1: of people around hockey are not thrilled with this. Around
6:01
Speaker 1: college hoge, you're not thrilled with the way this is
6:04
Speaker 1: shaken out.
6:06
Speaker 2: And you're talking an IHF decision made I assume in
6:12
Speaker 2: tandem with other national federations, and at this point that
6:17
Speaker 2: at least US and Canada hockey federations are inextricably tied
6:24
Speaker 2: with the PWHL like those two. You have sort of
6:28
Speaker 2: board members on pro teams and on the hockey Federation
6:34
Speaker 2: like those those interests are being represented. And I don't
6:38
Speaker 2: know that anybody from the NCAA and and you know,
6:41
Speaker 2: we could you can probably have a whole separate side
6:44
Speaker 2: argument and if they should, But yeah, I think it's
6:47
Speaker 2: very clear that the decision was made here with sort
6:49
Speaker 2: of one train of thought in mind and sort of
6:52
Speaker 2: the larger implications or who could or would be affected
6:58
Speaker 2: were wasn't necessarily on the table or have had their
7:02
Speaker 2: interests represented or or was talked about maybe even at all.
7:06
Speaker 2: So it is I think possibly two women's talking overalls
7:12
Speaker 2: detriment and not to have sort of, as I said,
7:15
Speaker 2: like tunnel vision done to this one thing, which is
7:17
Speaker 2: like we have this pro league and how do we
7:19
Speaker 2: work that in and their interests are the ones that
7:22
Speaker 2: are sort of their best interest is what being kept
7:26
Speaker 2: at heart sort of maybe to the exclusion of other stuff.
7:29
Speaker 2: So yeah, I think that's that's probably pretty fair to say,
7:33
Speaker 2: maybe taking a step path for people who aren't super familiar.
7:36
Speaker 2: The IHF puts out all of these tournaments, so there
7:39
Speaker 2: are only certain windows available for the Women's World Championship
7:43
Speaker 2: to be had in, and this November window was open.
7:45
Speaker 2: So that April window that it was in that was theirs,
7:48
Speaker 2: because there's tournaments that happened before and after that elsewhere
7:52
Speaker 2: on IHS calendar, whether it's men's, whether it's different levels
7:55
Speaker 2: of top tier, all the way down. So part of
7:59
Speaker 2: it you can't just say, like, well, then why don't
8:01
Speaker 2: they hold it in January? Whatever it is that those
8:04
Speaker 2: opportunities aren't open. The calendar isn't wide open to us.
8:07
Speaker 2: This November slot was available. We found out basically that
8:10
Speaker 2: this was available to women's hockey with the last Olympic
8:13
Speaker 2: cycle when they and some of the COVID stuff, when
8:15
Speaker 2: we were trying to find other ways to make sure
8:17
Speaker 2: the tournaments got played, and so I think ever since
8:20
Speaker 2: they played once in November, it was like, well, maybe
8:23
Speaker 2: maybe this is the answer. So just if people aren't
8:25
Speaker 2: super familiar with IHF sort of behind the scenes, that's
8:30
Speaker 2: that's why we're talking about it. It kind of has
8:32
Speaker 2: to be that April or November those are the two
8:34
Speaker 2: options because those are the open spots in the calendar.
8:37
Speaker 2: Available to the women's Senior World Championships.
8:41
Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't. It's yeah, it's just it's not great
8:44
Speaker 3: for the NCAA.
8:45
Speaker 2: I can try and take a step back and see
8:47
Speaker 2: it as good for women's hockey. But Novembers there's so
8:53
Speaker 2: much happening. You're talking right before the holiday. So in
8:56
Speaker 2: terms of like fan interest and the ability to maybe
8:58
Speaker 2: travel and go to these things, that makes it much harder,
9:02
Speaker 2: you know, for me, like I try to go to both.
9:04
Speaker 2: I try to go to the U eighteens and Women's
9:06
Speaker 2: Worlds because they are four months apart and that allows
9:08
Speaker 2: that now they're not and I can't imagine that I'll
9:11
Speaker 2: much be able to go to a senior World Championship
9:13
Speaker 2: because of my commitment to the U eighteen World Championship
9:16
Speaker 2: at the beginning of January. But I one thing completely
9:20
Speaker 2: unterlyated what I just said. But what I was thinking
9:21
Speaker 2: about when you were saying that is one thing that
9:23
Speaker 2: I've discovered in sort of like reading on social media
9:27
Speaker 2: or like maybe going looking at the PWHL read it
9:29
Speaker 2: is there's a ton of PWHL fans that were are
9:32
Speaker 2: brand new to women's hockey, like they have no affiliation
9:35
Speaker 2: to the NCAAA.
9:36
Speaker 3: They don't even have.
9:36
Speaker 2: Affiliation to like Olympics or federations or international teams. Like,
9:41
Speaker 2: there were brand new NHL fans that were genuinely annoyed that,
9:45
Speaker 2: like they're like, what is this tournament that they're taking
9:47
Speaker 2: time off for April? Like the World Championships just weren't
9:49
Speaker 2: even on their radar. So I do think that's just
9:53
Speaker 2: interesting to note and maybe think about in terms of, like,
9:56
Speaker 2: we are so inside hockey right here that like, to us,
9:59
Speaker 2: this is like about all these details. But like for
10:02
Speaker 2: a good core of Pohl fans, they are they're brand
10:05
Speaker 2: new to the sport, They're brand new to all of this,
10:09
Speaker 2: and so they just were like that, this is so
10:11
Speaker 2: stupid that we're losing players to a World championship. Why
10:14
Speaker 2: would they do that because they don't have any of
10:16
Speaker 2: the history. They don't understand that until five years ago,
10:18
Speaker 2: like that was the only thing any of these players
10:20
Speaker 2: could play for every four year, you know, more than
10:22
Speaker 2: every four years and stuff like that.
10:24
Speaker 3: So I think there's probably a.
10:26
Speaker 2: Consideration to understanding that maybe the global fan or the
10:30
Speaker 2: North American women's hockey fan isn't just is it someone
10:35
Speaker 2: that's willing to watch literally any women's hockey that we
10:37
Speaker 2: can find a stream for, like you know some of
10:40
Speaker 2: us that goes. So I do imagine that is part
10:43
Speaker 2: of the consideration too, is that like growing it isn't
10:45
Speaker 2: just about like sort of this one one narrow thought process,
10:49
Speaker 2: but sort of gaining wider fandom and like November is
10:55
Speaker 2: less busy in terms of other sports happening and other
11:00
Speaker 2: things that they are competing with for people's attention.
11:06
Speaker 1: I will say that I don't I think that NCAA
11:10
Speaker 1: hockey is going to be fine. It's gonna it'll go on.
11:14
Speaker 1: It'll you know, we'll see teams that take a break
11:17
Speaker 1: that have that November weekend off anyway, they'll continue to
11:21
Speaker 1: do that. Uh, We're gonna see that college hockey is
11:25
Speaker 1: going to get through this February, this January, and February
11:30
Speaker 1: of the Olympics this season. It's just a little bit
11:33
Speaker 1: of a you know, the reaction I had at first
11:39
Speaker 1: was just kind of a really like this is is
11:42
Speaker 1: this the especially when I was presented as being a
11:47
Speaker 1: and I want to get this out of the the
11:50
Speaker 1: press release that went out, it was it was presented
11:53
Speaker 1: as a growing the women's game, and I think that's
11:59
Speaker 1: that's true in part. I understand that, but it globally,
12:03
Speaker 1: and we're talking globally, not necessarily geographically, but all the
12:06
Speaker 1: levels we're talking about. Doesn't necessarily hit on that promise
12:11
Speaker 1: when you're when you're disadvantaging nca hockey for UH to
12:17
Speaker 1: move this to a different part of the calendar, and
12:22
Speaker 1: I think we're going to have to just see how
12:23
Speaker 1: it goes once to know what the full extent is.
12:27
Speaker 1: I mean, USA and Canada they don't necessarily need to
12:30
Speaker 1: bring in college players for the World Championship. They do,
12:34
Speaker 1: but they probably don't.
12:36
Speaker 2: Just because the current coaching US coaching staff right is
12:39
Speaker 2: high on bringing in a ton of players doesn't mean
12:42
Speaker 2: that's I mean, that's not how it's always been.
12:43
Speaker 1: A lot of the other federations do need to and
12:46
Speaker 1: will need to take players for Are we talking three weeks,
12:51
Speaker 1: four weeks, two and a half weeks. I'm not totally
12:55
Speaker 1: sure what that that length of time is going to be,
12:58
Speaker 1: but UH, it's gonna be something that we're gonna have
13:02
Speaker 1: to see how it shakes out and how much of
13:05
Speaker 1: a disruption it makes to the college game before we
13:11
Speaker 1: know for sure, I guess what, I guess how much
13:15
Speaker 1: to overreact. I'm sure there's a little bit of overreacting
13:19
Speaker 1: going on here, but I don't know how much well.
13:22
Speaker 2: I mean, my thought is that like as kind of
13:25
Speaker 2: feels like nobody is thinking or representing the interests of
13:29
Speaker 2: the NCAA game here. So I feel like that's the
13:31
Speaker 2: conversation we're having.
13:33
Speaker 1: Is like.
13:34
Speaker 2: When I say critical, I feel like there's got to
13:36
Speaker 2: be a point where somebody involved with NCAA women's college hockey,
13:39
Speaker 2: whether that is commissioners, whether that's at the nca level,
13:43
Speaker 2: like starts pushing for having a voice in this conversation.
13:47
Speaker 2: And I think that Listen, I've got plenty of problems
13:50
Speaker 2: with the NCAA is an entity, and we've got there
13:52
Speaker 2: are plenty of side conversations that could be had. But
13:56
Speaker 2: I just you cannot deny that that every federal that
14:00
Speaker 2: the i HF, that every at every level of women's
14:04
Speaker 2: international ice hockey uses the NCAA as a free development
14:09
Speaker 2: tool for their players, for their federations, for their countries.
14:14
Speaker 3: They're just there, aren't.
14:17
Speaker 2: Most of the federations don't have the resources or any
14:21
Speaker 2: of those things to be to regularly developing talent in
14:24
Speaker 2: their own countries, where Chechia is an internationally relevant metal
14:30
Speaker 2: contender because their players started coming and playing in the US.
14:34
Speaker 2: There's just you like, that's that's not a that's a
14:38
Speaker 2: verifiable statement, Like you cannot deny that. And so it's
14:42
Speaker 2: not just that federations are sending players here, but they're
14:44
Speaker 2: seeing results because of it. And so when that is
14:48
Speaker 2: the case, I think it is probably irresponsible and probably
14:54
Speaker 2: a little bit I don't know the but like a
14:58
Speaker 2: little bit of a poke in the nose, shot in
15:00
Speaker 2: the slap in the face to just completely ignore the
15:05
Speaker 2: interests of the NCAA and what effects you could have
15:08
Speaker 2: on it. You know, not centralizing had a huge fact
15:10
Speaker 2: on the is going to have a huge effect on
15:12
Speaker 2: the NCAA this year. I think the Olympics is such
15:16
Speaker 2: a big deal that no university is going to deny
15:19
Speaker 2: their players that opportunity. But now you're adding onto that
15:22
Speaker 2: with this world in November, and honestly probably means interrupting
15:27
Speaker 2: either summer or like the stuff at the beginning of
15:30
Speaker 2: the years you're heading into it, Like the three weeks
15:32
Speaker 2: in November. Isn't the only time those teams are gonna
15:34
Speaker 2: want their players now, right, like there's gonna be so
15:38
Speaker 2: I just think that there's probably gotta be some balance
15:41
Speaker 2: that's coming, and at some point I think they'll have
15:43
Speaker 2: there'll be a tipping point that there needs to be
15:45
Speaker 2: more conversation ad or there needs to be a representative
15:49
Speaker 2: or I don't know, I don't know how you want
15:50
Speaker 2: to say it or look at it, you know, I
15:51
Speaker 2: don't know, like does the SDHL does Does Sweden's federation
15:57
Speaker 2: represent the interests of the SDHLA. I would imagine so
16:01
Speaker 2: they're pretty well, But like where where is all of
16:03
Speaker 2: that coming from? Because I think it just the nature
16:05
Speaker 2: of the PWHL and everybody wanting that lead to get
16:08
Speaker 2: off the ground meant that both federations are just super involved,
16:11
Speaker 2: and that people who serve at high levels on coaching
16:15
Speaker 2: stabs and boards at both the us USA Hockey and
16:18
Speaker 2: Hockey Canada are super involved with different roles within the
16:23
Speaker 2: PWHL and so just necessarily and like how it came
16:27
Speaker 2: about those those and just overlap and intertwine with each other,
16:31
Speaker 2: and so yeah, I don't know. I mean, I maybe
16:34
Speaker 2: I'm just talking myself in circles, but it just feels
16:36
Speaker 2: like there there, there's going to become a point, a
16:39
Speaker 2: tipping point where this conversation, like they're forcing a conversation
16:42
Speaker 2: or some demands from the NCAA. I think, and you know,
16:48
Speaker 2: nca teams don't have to be taking the international students.
16:51
Speaker 2: Like international students certainly help many of these teams be better,
16:54
Speaker 2: but at some point, does like the NCAA decide that
16:57
Speaker 2: it's not worth or does a team decide that it's
16:59
Speaker 2: not worth losing half their players for a bunch of
17:01
Speaker 2: you know, like again he said, we're catastrophizing to some extent,
17:06
Speaker 2: but it feels like there has to be there's going
17:10
Speaker 2: to be consequences of all of this at some point.
17:12
Speaker 1: Right well, I guarantee you that that is not the
17:15
Speaker 1: last words we will have on the subject as time
17:19
Speaker 1: goes on. But for right now, we're going to move on.
17:21
Speaker 1: We're going to take a break, and then we were
17:22
Speaker 1: going to come back and look back at last week
17:25
Speaker 1: a bunch of games that were really interesting and we
17:27
Speaker 1: will get into them when the podcast returns. Welcome back
17:38
Speaker 1: to the podcast, Todd Bluski and Nicole Hasey here to
17:40
Speaker 1: look back at last weekend's games. I feel like we're
17:43
Speaker 1: getting into a nice rhythm of games involving ranked teams
17:46
Speaker 1: against each other non conference or in conference, and that's
17:51
Speaker 1: continuing this coming weekend, which we'll get into a little while.
17:53
Speaker 1: But last weekend as well, we had a bunch of
17:56
Speaker 1: games with ranked teams on both ends. The first one,
18:03
Speaker 1: first series I want to check in on, was Ohio
18:05
Speaker 1: State at Colgate. Ohio State gets a couple of wins there,
18:09
Speaker 1: five to three on Friday and then a nine to
18:12
Speaker 1: four win on Saturday to take a couple of road
18:16
Speaker 1: winds that are going to look pretty good on their resume.
18:21
Speaker 1: It does feel like Ohio State's getting contributions offensively from
18:26
Speaker 1: a number of people so far. It's not just the
18:28
Speaker 1: joy Dune Show. I can't see if I can say
18:31
Speaker 1: Joy Dune Show for them. It's it's a bunch of
18:37
Speaker 1: people who were involved. And I think that that bodes
18:40
Speaker 1: well for the Buckeyes.
18:42
Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely, And I think just you know, it's the
18:46
Speaker 2: names that I talked about in the previews, right, some
18:48
Speaker 2: of their their international players. That five to three win,
18:53
Speaker 2: they had two goals from mer Yu Nucker held us
18:56
Speaker 2: fence and had to assist. Yet Roundeo had to as
19:00
Speaker 2: like that that line and that group of players is
19:02
Speaker 2: going to be really impactful. I think too, those were
19:07
Speaker 2: closer games to a point for Colgate than many the
19:10
Speaker 2: needy the scores indicate like Colgate had it felt like
19:14
Speaker 2: was really pushing in Ohio State, and I was like,
19:16
Speaker 2: this is going to be interesting. And an Ohio State
19:18
Speaker 2: railed off six goals in like thirteen minutes going into
19:25
Speaker 2: in the second period, it was like, oh, you know,
19:28
Speaker 2: Colgate ties it up like it's a three to three game.
19:30
Speaker 2: It's going to be really interesting. And then man, did
19:32
Speaker 2: did Ohio State just pull away? And several like unassisted
19:36
Speaker 2: goals like they just they found another level at that
19:39
Speaker 2: part of the game.
19:40
Speaker 1: Yeah. One of the things that's coming into mind here
19:43
Speaker 1: is we're going to get into some more of these series.
19:46
Speaker 1: But Nicole was just mentioning the non conference records or
19:50
Speaker 1: the interconference records between the leagues, and this is something
19:53
Speaker 1: that's on a page on usho dot com. You can
19:56
Speaker 1: get to it right from the D one women's menu.
19:58
Speaker 1: You scrolled down to what is it called? It says
20:01
Speaker 1: interconference then just pulls up a table of how the
20:04
Speaker 1: conferences are doing against each other, and right now, there
20:06
Speaker 1: is one conference that has a above five hundred record
20:10
Speaker 1: in non conference play, and of course that's the w
20:13
Speaker 1: c h A, which is twenty four to one against
20:17
Speaker 1: non conference teams. But I mean for there to not
20:21
Speaker 1: even be an one other conference that that is has
20:24
Speaker 1: a winning record right now is telling me that that
20:31
Speaker 1: the the top heavy or the the w c h
20:33
Speaker 1: A heavy nature of what's going to be the NPI
20:39
Speaker 1: is probably gonna be pretty strong again this year and
20:41
Speaker 1: this maybe maybe is the season where there's a fifth
20:44
Speaker 1: team from the w CHA that finds its way into
20:47
Speaker 1: the NCAA tournament.
20:49
Speaker 2: Yeah that that loan losses sink Cloud at yukon one
20:56
Speaker 2: goal loss, So uh yeah, I agree. I mean, you see,
20:59
Speaker 2: see is close to five, right, they're eleven twelve and one.
21:02
Speaker 2: But yeah, it's a there's gonna be a whole lot
21:04
Speaker 2: of quality wind bonus points and boosts that come out
21:08
Speaker 2: of the w c teams playing each other. Like I mean,
21:11
Speaker 2: this is it's twenty five games, you know, it's not
21:14
Speaker 2: like it's a it's a small I mean, I know
21:15
Speaker 2: it's only been a couple of weekends, but yeah, twenty
21:18
Speaker 2: four and one for the WCJ it's it's kind of
21:20
Speaker 2: like the numbers don't lie, right, Yep.
21:23
Speaker 1: Absolutely. Hockey East ECAC matchup had Clarkson playing at Yukon
21:30
Speaker 1: last week. Clarkson got a two nothing win in the
21:32
Speaker 1: opener Holly Gruber with twenty four saves there, but Yukon
21:35
Speaker 1: came back to split the series with a three to
21:37
Speaker 1: two win, Brook Campbell a goal and two assists and
21:40
Speaker 1: Tia Chan making thirty seven saves to get the split there.
21:44
Speaker 1: And that's a The first one was really important for
21:49
Speaker 1: Clarkson to get back on the win column or in
21:52
Speaker 1: the win column. And then the next day Yukon showed
21:57
Speaker 1: what it's made of and came right back and got
21:59
Speaker 1: it self back going again. And that's you can say,
22:05
Speaker 1: both those are really important for each team. But I
22:09
Speaker 1: know Clarkson would have loved to have a two win
22:12
Speaker 1: weekend coming out of out of that, Like all.
22:16
Speaker 2: Of the props to Yukon who were out shot nineteen
22:20
Speaker 2: to zero in the third frame and doubled up on
22:22
Speaker 2: shots overall, seriously nineteen to zero in the third and
22:27
Speaker 2: they held on for the win, Like that's just an
22:29
Speaker 2: amazing defensive and goaltending performance from the Huskies and got
22:33
Speaker 2: their coach there is two hundred three wins. So yeah,
22:37
Speaker 2: that's a huge boost for Yukon. I think even though
22:41
Speaker 2: they're two split series for the Huskies the last two weekends,
22:45
Speaker 2: they have to be coming out of them with so
22:47
Speaker 2: much confidence and just that ability to know that you
22:49
Speaker 2: can play with teams at the highest level is sort
22:53
Speaker 2: of you can't get that elsewhere. And like, I just
22:56
Speaker 2: I think Yukon really proved themselves over the last two
22:59
Speaker 2: week kends.
23:01
Speaker 1: And speaking of teams playing at the highest level, there's
23:03
Speaker 1: Minnesota right now, which keeps going. Uh. You know, Abby
23:07
Speaker 1: Murphy scores four goals and in the first weekend or
23:10
Speaker 1: the weekend before is like, yeah, no, not good enough.
23:12
Speaker 1: Five this this weekend.
23:14
Speaker 3: To nine goals, fifteen points.
23:17
Speaker 1: Not bad for Abby Murphy to start the season. Here,
23:21
Speaker 1: Minnesota sweeps at BU five nothing and five two. Hannah
23:26
Speaker 1: Clark got the shutout on Friday and that one, and
23:29
Speaker 1: that's a it just keeps rolling on for Minnesota here.
23:33
Speaker 1: That's a a team that's looking pretty formidable through the
23:38
Speaker 1: first few weeks of the season.
23:40
Speaker 3: That's putting it lightly right.
23:42
Speaker 2: Yeah, I just she's evertured three point seven to five
23:47
Speaker 2: points per game. Like, I get that that's going to
23:49
Speaker 2: go down, but I just like that is unfathomable. There
23:52
Speaker 2: are only three other players with more than two points
23:55
Speaker 2: per game. Yeah, so I just want to point out,
23:57
Speaker 2: like there are five players of the country that are
24:01
Speaker 2: averaging two or more points per game. We've got two
24:04
Speaker 2: or Chris person Sims with two points per game. Ava
24:07
Speaker 2: Lindsay also from Minnesota, thanks to the ninases that she
24:10
Speaker 2: has probably all on Abby Murphy goals at two point
24:13
Speaker 2: twenty five, Jessica McKinnon from Robert Morris at two point five,
24:16
Speaker 2: and Amy Murphy at three points seventy five points per game.
24:20
Speaker 1: I feel like we're going to be looking at the
24:24
Speaker 1: points per game a lot more than we ever have
24:26
Speaker 1: in the past, just because of some of these players
24:28
Speaker 1: are not going to be playing every year where they're
24:31
Speaker 1: going to be out for whatever ten games it is
24:34
Speaker 1: in February. So when we're looking towards awards season, that
24:38
Speaker 1: point per game and goal per game count is is
24:40
Speaker 1: probably going to be a little bit more valuable than
24:42
Speaker 1: maybe it has in the past. Yeah.
24:45
Speaker 3: Absolutely, I agree. That's a really good point.
24:47
Speaker 2: I mean, I think often we tend to get caught
24:49
Speaker 2: up on the point totals, but that's going to be
24:51
Speaker 2: be much more interesting and just quite frankly, it's such
24:53
Speaker 2: a huge number that like it's going to take a
24:56
Speaker 2: lot to just like dilute that right, Like she would
24:59
Speaker 2: have to have several very poor games, which we just
25:01
Speaker 2: know she's not gonna. What's interesting to me is only
25:05
Speaker 2: one of those is a power play goal. He wants
25:06
Speaker 2: an empty network goal.
25:07
Speaker 3: So yeah, they are.
25:10
Speaker 2: I mean, I think we kind of all knew that
25:12
Speaker 2: looking at their roster and what they were capable of,
25:14
Speaker 2: But this has got to be the most interesting and
25:16
Speaker 2: impressive the Gophers have looked in quite a few seasons.
25:19
Speaker 2: This feels like Gophers of old Gophers of early two thousands, yep,
25:24
Speaker 2: early to mid two thousands.
25:25
Speaker 1: Yeah. We had mentioned last week Saint Lawrence needed to
25:28
Speaker 1: get back going after a tough weekend, and they did
25:32
Speaker 1: not right away. They lost one nothing to Mercyhurst last Friday.
25:37
Speaker 1: Julia Perehu's game winning goal early in the first period,
25:40
Speaker 1: three and a half minutes into the game. Then Magdalena
25:43
Speaker 1: Luggin twenty five saves. I hope I'm saying that right.
25:47
Speaker 1: I apologize if I'm not for the shutout for Mercy Heers,
25:50
Speaker 1: but Saint Lawrence came back with a three nothing win
25:53
Speaker 1: to split the series. I'm a Sophie Nordstrom with twenty
25:56
Speaker 1: four saves in that one, that the bouncing up and
26:00
Speaker 1: down for Saint Lawrence is not gonna do well. That's
26:05
Speaker 1: that's something that I think we're gonna uh, you know,
26:08
Speaker 1: we're going to see where they're impacted in the NPI
26:11
Speaker 1: and the long run for a couple of these losses.
26:15
Speaker 2: Yeah, i'd agree. I think they're you know, they're going
26:17
Speaker 2: to see see that come back to haunt them a
26:20
Speaker 2: little as as things go on, I think. But also,
26:22
Speaker 2: you know, shout out to Mercy Hurst, who you know,
26:26
Speaker 2: played the loss of Minnisota to lose in overtime the
26:28
Speaker 2: very first game in the weekend of the season and
26:33
Speaker 2: now get splitting this series like they're they're making a point.
26:37
Speaker 2: I think they play at Penn State this coming weekend,
26:39
Speaker 2: and I think that will be I'm sorry and no, yes, Friday.
26:44
Speaker 3: Anyway, I think that'll be really chilling.
26:48
Speaker 2: Yes, I've known, sorry, it'll be really telling serious in
26:52
Speaker 2: terms of I think that they've made a statement about
26:54
Speaker 2: like we're a team we're paying attention to and this
26:58
Speaker 2: isn't Penn State to run away with, but when they
27:00
Speaker 2: go to head to head is obviously the most important.
27:02
Speaker 2: And so just yeah, I think I think it'll be
27:05
Speaker 2: interesting because I feel like theyve mercy Hurst has made
27:08
Speaker 2: some pretty solid points in their own favor in these
27:11
Speaker 2: opening weekend games, these opening weekends games.
27:15
Speaker 1: Last game to mention is a first Delaware getting a
27:18
Speaker 1: two to one win over Holy Cross on Sunday. Delaware
27:23
Speaker 1: out shot fifty to eleven in that game, with Charlotte
27:26
Speaker 1: Payne forty nine saves made twenty stop twenty of twenty
27:30
Speaker 1: in the third period to lock that down after Caitlyn
27:32
Speaker 1: Charlton gave the Blue Hens the lead with the powerplay
27:36
Speaker 1: goal in the second period. So congratulations to Delaware getting
27:39
Speaker 1: that one in the win column.
27:42
Speaker 3: So amazing.
27:44
Speaker 2: It's just yeah, four games in it, they've got to win.
27:47
Speaker 2: That's such good things for their program and where they
27:50
Speaker 2: can go next.
27:51
Speaker 1: Absolutely. Okay, we're going to take another quick break and
27:54
Speaker 1: when we'll come back, we're going to look ahead to
27:56
Speaker 1: what's coming up this weekend. Stay with us on the podcast.
28:06
Speaker 1: Back with the final segment of this week's podcast, Todd
28:09
Speaker 1: Maleski and Nicole Hasey to talk about what's coming up
28:13
Speaker 1: this weekend, and we have our I believe, our first
28:16
Speaker 1: top five series of the season. Maybe it seems like
28:22
Speaker 1: it should be Wisconsin number one at or sorry, Wisconsin
28:25
Speaker 1: number one host and Minnesota Luth the number four team
28:28
Speaker 1: in the country at labon Arena Saturday and Sunday, and
28:33
Speaker 1: the first real big test for both of these seems
28:36
Speaker 1: in reality, I've gone through some well. Wisconsin's opened up
28:42
Speaker 1: WHGA play already, but also had a non conference series
28:46
Speaker 1: against Maine last week. They have three straight five nothing wins.
28:50
Speaker 1: Dluth has looked pretty good in its non conference schedule
28:53
Speaker 1: so far. Let's see what happens is kind of the
28:56
Speaker 1: way I'm looking at it. But there's also the interesting
29:00
Speaker 1: wrinkle of this week being one of the national team
29:03
Speaker 1: camp weeks, and so players will be back, but how
29:08
Speaker 1: much will they have been worked this whole week when
29:11
Speaker 1: they've been in those national camps. That's that's the unknown
29:14
Speaker 1: for me going into this series.
29:17
Speaker 2: Yeah, and then at the additional wrinkle that we play
29:19
Speaker 2: at eleven am on Saturday, a very busy sports weekend
29:24
Speaker 2: all Saturdays. Yeah, so it's not like they even get
29:27
Speaker 2: that whole like extra eight hours to recover into like
29:30
Speaker 2: a seven pm g Like we're having some brunch hockey
29:33
Speaker 2: in Madison this weekend, and yeah, I this is all
29:38
Speaker 2: of our questions that we've had about what camps look
29:41
Speaker 2: like and what it looks like for the teams, Like
29:42
Speaker 2: we're going to see some of those answers uh this weekend.
29:45
Speaker 2: And so yeah, I think it's just something to keep
29:47
Speaker 2: an eye on. I mean, for me, one of the
29:49
Speaker 2: big keys I think will be Minnesota to loose defense.
29:53
Speaker 2: You know, I thought they looked a little looser than
29:56
Speaker 2: I'd have expected in their first weekend. I thought they
29:59
Speaker 2: looked better in their second weekend. But this is a
30:01
Speaker 2: huge test. You know, it's just Wisconsin. Even if even
30:06
Speaker 2: if their top line or there's six Olympians or I
30:09
Speaker 2: guess five skaters don't play or don't or play limited minutes,
30:15
Speaker 2: you're still talking like their number three line is still
30:18
Speaker 2: a really like it's a heavy line that's going to
30:21
Speaker 2: score goals all season long, and so there's not really
30:24
Speaker 2: a lot of rest for an opponent. So yeah, for me,
30:27
Speaker 2: the thing that I'll be watching is Minnesota to loose defense,
30:30
Speaker 2: just because I thought that that was going to be
30:32
Speaker 2: a strong suit that and the goaltending. And you know,
30:35
Speaker 2: as we said when it happened, I'm not going to
30:37
Speaker 2: hold things that happened in the first weekend against.
30:40
Speaker 3: Them, but it does.
30:41
Speaker 2: It sort of just raises that antenna like it's a
30:43
Speaker 2: thing to watch out for and see see how they
30:45
Speaker 2: handle that.
30:45
Speaker 1: Here. Wisconsin always wants puck possession and they're usually pretty
30:49
Speaker 1: good at it. Uh the Lutha is one of those
30:51
Speaker 1: teams that can challenge that though, and I think that's
30:54
Speaker 1: that's for me is something to keep an eye on
30:57
Speaker 1: this weekend, is can the lout this rubbed a lot
30:59
Speaker 1: of those passing lanes and get in the way and
31:02
Speaker 1: just not let players have the free run up the
31:05
Speaker 1: ice to to make you know, even if they don't
31:08
Speaker 1: get a scoring chance, to get zone time and just
31:10
Speaker 1: kind of make it more difficult the defending just from
31:14
Speaker 1: a sheer amount of time you're in your own zone.
31:17
Speaker 1: We've seen where de Luths has you know, really limited
31:20
Speaker 1: that in the last couple of years, and so that
31:22
Speaker 1: that could be a really key factor. You've got two
31:26
Speaker 1: of the best goalies in the game on on either
31:29
Speaker 1: side here, I've got scoing for Duluth and McNaughton for Wisconsin,
31:33
Speaker 1: they were they traded off some of the national awards
31:38
Speaker 1: in reality last year and for for goalies, So that's
31:43
Speaker 1: that's another part of it. Yeah, should just be a
31:47
Speaker 1: really really compelling test for both of those teams. Or
31:51
Speaker 1: as we get into the you know, the more uh
31:55
Speaker 1: in into the the the middle of October, you start
31:58
Speaker 1: to see where things are really starting to shake out
32:01
Speaker 1: a little bit more.
32:02
Speaker 2: Right, Yeah, you can't sort of chuck it up to
32:04
Speaker 2: early season stuff anymore. I think another interesting point is that,
32:07
Speaker 2: I think to your point of possession is Minnesota Duluth
32:10
Speaker 2: I think is just a much better offensive team this
32:13
Speaker 2: season than maybe they've had in the past couple years,
32:16
Speaker 2: just sort of a more complete and and as opposed
32:18
Speaker 2: to sort of rushes in the ability to score that way,
32:21
Speaker 2: I think that they have an offense that is more
32:24
Speaker 2: capable of possessing the puck in the zone on their
32:27
Speaker 2: end more than we've seen in the past. And so
32:29
Speaker 2: how does that How does Wisconsin handle that because teams
32:32
Speaker 2: generally can't do that very well against them, And also
32:36
Speaker 2: just how do they like that transition? Transition was so
32:39
Speaker 2: huge for Wisconsin last year obviously a lot of that
32:42
Speaker 2: was led by the speed of Casey O'Brien. So now
32:45
Speaker 2: when we're seeing a team we're like being able to
32:47
Speaker 2: step up, pick off a puck and go down the ice,
32:50
Speaker 2: Like what does that look like with a daily shep
32:52
Speaker 2: of chef of lavova in as the center. So yeah,
32:57
Speaker 2: I just think there's there's a lot of things that
32:59
Speaker 2: we should be able to see sort of more clearly.
33:01
Speaker 2: But also I you know, I thought Maine gave Wisconsin
33:05
Speaker 2: some trouble and like they came out with the five
33:07
Speaker 2: a win, but much when we talked about like and
33:09
Speaker 2: I don't mean this to appease the opponents, you know,
33:12
Speaker 2: like we were talking about this with BC, Like that
33:13
Speaker 2: final score I feel doesn't tell the whole story of
33:17
Speaker 2: of I like Maine, particularly in that first game, really
33:19
Speaker 2: gave Wisconsin some trouble. It took them a little while
33:22
Speaker 2: to sort of undo those not and figure out what
33:24
Speaker 2: they were going to do. And so again, if if
33:26
Speaker 2: it's not the starters, that's not the top lines, like
33:29
Speaker 2: can they be patient? Can they can they figure that out?
33:33
Speaker 1: I was a big fan of after Friday's game. I
33:37
Speaker 1: believe it's kaya Latin in I don't hope that's the
33:40
Speaker 1: pronunciation of the main The main goalie stood on her
33:44
Speaker 1: head a few times, especially on the Wisconsin power plays.
33:48
Speaker 1: That did a really good job and so that that
33:50
Speaker 1: was impressive to see. Made a lot of saves over
33:53
Speaker 1: the weekend, didn't you know, it didn't get much to
33:56
Speaker 1: show for it. Maine wasn't able to get on the
33:58
Speaker 1: board but the helper out. But yeah, there was there
34:01
Speaker 1: was some impress impressive play in the main increase for sure. Also,
34:08
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, just.
34:08
Speaker 2: The improvement of from the main series last time to
34:10
Speaker 2: this time. I just thought it was I thought there
34:13
Speaker 2: was a pretty good sort of class and how you
34:16
Speaker 2: can prefer, you know, differently for a team. And I
34:19
Speaker 2: think there was probably some things to be learned from
34:21
Speaker 2: that tape for other players, other teams that are going
34:23
Speaker 2: to face Wisconsin this year. But I was just impressed
34:25
Speaker 2: with the improvement in Maine against them from from season
34:28
Speaker 2: to season as well.
34:29
Speaker 1: Yes, also in the w c h A this weekend
34:33
Speaker 1: home and home series number three Minnesota and number ten
34:37
Speaker 1: Saint Cloud State. But I mean we've talked about how
34:42
Speaker 1: Minnesota has pretty much had the run of things offensively
34:48
Speaker 1: so far. This will be a pretty good challenge for
34:53
Speaker 1: Saint Cloud State to to see how they match up
34:57
Speaker 1: against such a potent offense.
35:00
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean they have stellar goaltending, which is they're
35:03
Speaker 2: going to need that, and then yeah, it's how do
35:05
Speaker 2: you handle that speed? How do you sort of the
35:08
Speaker 2: same things we're just talking about with like, how do
35:09
Speaker 2: you break up what they're doing? How do you I
35:11
Speaker 2: mean the sort of one touch game, the almost soccer
35:14
Speaker 2: esque one touch game that Minnesota has been able to
35:16
Speaker 2: play it recently is something that I think teams really
35:19
Speaker 2: are going to need to prepare for and be willing
35:21
Speaker 2: to step into those lanes and maybe just disrupt things
35:24
Speaker 2: a little more, because it was looking far too easy
35:27
Speaker 2: for Minnesota just to move the puck around and sort
35:31
Speaker 2: of make their opponents look like they were standing still.
35:33
Speaker 2: So I think that if there's a defensive team that
35:36
Speaker 2: can handle it, Saint Cloud is one of them there
35:39
Speaker 2: at least that has shown in the past the ability
35:42
Speaker 2: to do that sort of thing.
35:43
Speaker 1: Yep. Back in non conference play, there is a series
35:48
Speaker 1: between teams that could really use a pick me up,
35:51
Speaker 1: that being number fourteen Boston University at number eight Colgate.
35:56
Speaker 1: Those teams both had both suffered sweeps last week to
36:01
Speaker 1: highly ranked teams. Both need a little, like I said,
36:04
Speaker 1: a little bit of a pick me up, a little
36:06
Speaker 1: bit of a bounce back, I'm and so it'll probably
36:10
Speaker 1: end up in a split. Right, All these things tend
36:13
Speaker 1: to go is you want those teams both really want
36:16
Speaker 1: a couple of wins, and makes it really difficult when
36:19
Speaker 1: they're when they're pretty evenly mashed. Sometimes.
36:22
Speaker 2: Yes, I think one of the things Colgate and maybe
36:25
Speaker 2: they didn't anticipate, maybe we didn't all anticipate enough, was
36:28
Speaker 2: was the loss of their goalie to graduation. And so
36:31
Speaker 2: I think, you know, as we talked about in the
36:33
Speaker 2: Hockey East previews that I think scoring is just going
36:36
Speaker 2: to be at a premium for Hockey East teams. It
36:40
Speaker 2: just tends not to be that high powered offense. And
36:42
Speaker 2: so I think, and I say, this is like not
36:45
Speaker 2: to as a dig on bu but just compared to
36:48
Speaker 2: Ohio State, who they played last weekend, I think Colgate
36:50
Speaker 2: could use this opportunity to really find some confidence in
36:53
Speaker 2: a goaltender and let them sort of get things. When
36:56
Speaker 2: you're working with a new goaltender in your first two
36:58
Speaker 2: games against to Higo State, that's a that's a rough
37:00
Speaker 2: baptism by fire. So just the different style of game
37:04
Speaker 2: that bu plays and the offense that they have, it
37:08
Speaker 2: does seem like it could be a good opportunity for
37:10
Speaker 2: Colgate to just really find that equilibrium and and give.
37:14
Speaker 3: Some give to their goaltender.
37:15
Speaker 2: Is a chance to to find some confidence and feel
37:18
Speaker 2: like they can handle this, because yeah, I think we
37:22
Speaker 2: talked a lot about, you know, some of the graduation
37:24
Speaker 2: of the skaters, but it turns out it was a
37:26
Speaker 2: pretty big deal that they got to start pretty fresh
37:28
Speaker 2: in net.
37:30
Speaker 1: Indeed, New HA has a series between Franklin Pearson's Sacred Heart,
37:35
Speaker 1: Sacred Heart hosting that one. I think that's that's a
37:38
Speaker 1: couple of teams that you're expecting to be challenging for
37:41
Speaker 1: the upper spots and so to be playing early in
37:44
Speaker 1: the season and maybe getting a having one of them
37:48
Speaker 1: get a get a step above the other could be
37:51
Speaker 1: really important as we look at it later in the year.
37:53
Speaker 2: Yeah, good for standing's points and also just a good benchmark, right, Like,
37:57
Speaker 2: I think we'll be able to see where both these
38:00
Speaker 2: teams are. And it's been a rough start of the
38:03
Speaker 2: season for new hot teams, and so I think even
38:06
Speaker 2: just getting you know, seen Anselm I think is the
38:08
Speaker 2: only one that has their winning records. So just the
38:11
Speaker 2: ability to get get that winning started and get those
38:15
Speaker 2: points on the board, I think is going to be
38:17
Speaker 2: just a huge momentum shift.
38:19
Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, should be another great weekend. Anything else you're
38:22
Speaker 1: looking uh looking forward to seeing this weekend or which
38:26
Speaker 1: games we're going to be paying attention to most.
38:29
Speaker 2: I was looking at the North Oh no, I'm sorry
38:32
Speaker 2: the yeah Northeastern prop p.
38:36
Speaker 3: Yeah.
38:37
Speaker 2: I think Providence is a h in two team that
38:39
Speaker 2: is better than that that that shows and so. And
38:42
Speaker 2: I think Northeastern came out with two wins last weekend,
38:46
Speaker 2: but they were probably closer than they'd imagine with ri
38:49
Speaker 2: I T and so, I think they're That's just a
38:51
Speaker 2: good test for both of those two teams, and I
38:53
Speaker 2: think should give us a little idea of of how
38:55
Speaker 2: the rest of you know, we're kind of talked about
38:58
Speaker 2: the top of hockeys, but maybe where that middle part
39:01
Speaker 2: starts to shake out?
39:02
Speaker 1: Right, all right, that's gonna do it for us this week.
39:05
Speaker 1: For Nicole on Todd, thanks for listening to the podcast.