Latest / The PodKaz: USCHO Women's Hockey / First-half surprises, question time and reflecting on the Rivalry Series

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First-half surprises, question time and reflecting on the Rivalry Series · The PodKaz: USCHO Women's Hockey

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Uscho dot Com. Hi and welcome. This is the podcast.
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: I'm Todd Malusky here with the Cole Hosey from us
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: cho dot Com. We're here to wrap up the first
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: half of the twenty twenty five twenty six NCAA women's
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: hockey season. Will have a few questions from our mail bag.
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: Later on the show, we will look back at the
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: rivalry series. But Nicole, our first real topic today is,
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: you know, just taking a glance at maybe some of
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: the things that have changed since everything got going back
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: in September. And I did a little look at the
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: the preseason USHO dot Com rankings versus the last us
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: cho dot Com rankings before the holidays, and there's a
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: few teams that have made some pretty big jumps and
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: a few teams that have made some well pretty big
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: falls compared to they're expected to be in the preseason.
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: And I mean, we know that has to do a
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: lot with the preseason. One is more about how they
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: finished the season previous for sure, but you're looking at
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: teams like Saint Lawrence ninth in the preseason, not ranked
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: right now, Boston University eleventh in the preseason, not ranked.
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: On the other side, you look at a team like
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: Princeton ranked fourteenth in the preseason now number nine, Northeastern
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: fifteenth now number seven. There's a lot of changes we've seen.
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: I wonder if there's you know, a couple that maybe
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: have stood out to you that have been especially big
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: as we've gone through this first half.
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: I think probably the two you just mentioned are the
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: biggest ones. Right like we were, we were wondering about
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: Northeastern to start, and they really you know, they took
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: a little while to put things together, but have just
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: come on so strong in the last like what six
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: to eight weeks. And I think too, I mean part
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: of me feels like the preseason and versus the Curtent
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: Pole just shows how much we're all b sing our
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: way through the preseason poll and we've just been lucky
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: before that, like parody is like not that is good
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: that you know, like the same fifteen teams have been
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: the ones that are in it, and like, I think
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: it's great for the sport. I think it's has a
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: ton about how many teams we've seen move in and
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: out of those bottom five spots. I think probably man
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: Cato is a good surprise. I think Saint Thomas is
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: a good surprise. Who else have we seen in there?
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: We see like the Browns and Darkness get their chance
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: and show off. So yeah, I guess there's maybe not
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: one huge story. I think probably the surprises arebu and
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: maybe Saint Lawrence. But I didn't I thought Saint Lawrence.
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: I'm pretty sure when I wrote the preview, I said, like, hey, uh,
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: they lost a lot to graduation, and so I thought
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: they were probably a little over estimated going in, which
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: is no offense to them, just they had a lot
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: to replace, a lot of like sort of program defining
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: players that had taken them to the NCAAs and things
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: like that, and that's just really difficult to come back
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: from when you lose those, not just the point scoring,
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: but the leadership and all that sort of stuff. I
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: think they're just in a little bit of a rebuilding era. Yeah,
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: I do you have anyone that really sticks out to you?
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: I was just looking from a numbers perspective. The biggest
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: one to slide has been Colgate number five in the preseason,
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: coming off of a really good season, now barely hanging
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: on to a top fifteen spot at all at number fourteen.
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: This it's a group that we thought, you know, maybe
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: at points in the first half, was like, Okay, well
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: there's a win they can build on, but just hasn't happened.
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: It hasn't been able to have enough connected wins to
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: make a difference. And I don't think they're you know,
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: just going back to the ECAC standings, they're not in
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: a terrible spot there, fifth place, sixteen and a half
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: points through ten games. So there's still in that mix
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: to be a top four team. It's just that it's
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: going to be a lot more of a challenge for
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: them to you know, they're going to have to win
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: a conference playoff championship to get a NCAA tournament's seed
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: this year. Spot this year at nine, ten and one
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: overall going into the second half, Yeah, so that's the
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: one that kind of stood out to me. On the
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: other on the negative side, on the positive side, you
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: mentioned that Minnesota State being a team that was not
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: ranked no votes in the preseason poll and now up
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: to number twelve after having a a couple of well
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: one real possibly season defining weekend against Minnesota gaining sweep there,
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: I think for the first time since two thousand and six,
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: and so that was a statement to me that, well, Okay,
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: something's building at Minnesota State, right, and I think.
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: The important part is that they could have sort of
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: followed it up with consistent results. You know, a lot
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: of the teams I mentioned, Saint Cloud, Saint Thomas Brown,
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: we've seen a bunch of player teams move in and
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: out of those bottom rings, But like Minnesota State, in
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: the last couple of weeks, I've really found themselves staying there.
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: They're still consistently. It wasn't it wasn't to Fluke, it
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: wasn't to one off. I've been impressed with their ability
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: to strings and stuff together. Like, obviously they're not perfect,
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: Obviously they're they're losing some games, but like that series
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: Saint Cloud State was actually one of the more surprisingly
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: fun weekends the series that I was maybe not necessarily expecting.
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: And the thing I was gonna say about Colgiate too,
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: just going back for a second, was I think we
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: all underestimated the like change of goaltending and like loss
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: of defense, or maybe that they were so good on
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: offense that like we didn't notice that they didn't have
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: a super strong defense before this. But it's not that
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: they're not scoring goals It's not that they don't have
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: talented offense. Like I think everybody's like, oh, they lost
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: Calti and that was the end of it. But to me,
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: like that's not the story, because they're like, they still
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: have really good scoring talent and those players are still
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: scoring goals. But it's sort of the overall like ability
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: to not hold on to the puck as long and
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: maybe like a lack of depth that's different. That I
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: think is really sort of the surprising part, because I
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: think if you said, like, oh, you know, Colgate graduated
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: some talent and now they're not scoring as many goals,
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: I'd have been like, Okay, that makes sense to me.
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: But if I remember correctly, like their stats aren't super
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: different on the offensive side from last season. You know,
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: they still have these like top tier players up front.
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: They're just it's the it's it's sort of the other
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: end of the ice, or maybe the more complete game
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: where things have changed. I think that, to me is
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: maybe the surprising part, as opposed to just the overall record.
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: I think maybe if there's a conference I'm surprised by,
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: it's actually it's Hockey East. We were starting in season,
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: we were talking about, well, is this a one bid
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: league again? And now we've got Yukon in the number
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: five spot in the NPI, not far behind Penn State,
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: so well, actually there is a gap there now they
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: look at it so that that's, you know, looks like
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: a pretty good spot for Yukon. You've got Northeastern at
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: six in the NPI. So these are two teams that
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: have really established themselves in the in the non conference
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: portion of their schedules and then having some success in
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: certainly on Northeastern side in conference place. So far, that
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: is looking like something that could shake up what we
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: saw balance wise of the NCAA tournament last season. In
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: terms of conference it could be having two Hockey East
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: teams or possibly more if you get another team winning
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: that conference tournament, that could shake things up in March.
• 7:55
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Absolutely, And I think it's it's a little twofold
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: which is that I think that comes with sort of
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: the inviting the ECAC and that shake up in a
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: way that we weren't expecting. Just really open the door.
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: And the Hockey East teams have taken that opportunity, which
• 8:10
  Speaker 2: is something within their conference. I've sometimes you know, sort
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: of scolded them about like not there's there's a chance
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: there and you don't take it. But overall as a conference,
• 8:18
  Speaker 2: I mean, looking at NPI with Holy Cross at thirteen,
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: I'm just like, Okay, Hockey East, Like they definitely have
• 8:25
  Speaker 2: done more than we give them credit for, Like we
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: need to own that. But yeah, I think they're it's
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: a twofold of being maybe not disappointed, but just surprised
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: at sort of what has happened in the ECAC and
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: how that has affected the ability of other teams to
• 8:40
  Speaker 2: be higher up in the NPI, and then those teams
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: taking advantage in winning the games they need to win
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: and gain all the points they need to be in
• 8:47
  Speaker 2: that conversation, but yeah, you're right, we were talking about
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: that as a one bid league like kind of as
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: a given right. And so I think part of that
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: is the resurgence that goes back to Northeastern, right, like
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: they weren't in the conversation with for us to start.
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: And so yeah, there's a lot of just really interesting
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: dynamics happening.
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Yukon was picked was number twelve in the first
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: poll of the season. They're now up to six overall. There, Yeah,
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: there's I'm one of my things I'm really looking forward
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: to the second half is to see who comes out
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: of this break and uses it to their benefit. I mean,
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: the mid season break feels overly long's it's more than
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: a month for a lot of teams that you're not playing,
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: and I when you're also going to have Olympic absences
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: starting in the end of January, those games when you
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: come back in the first part of January, to me
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: take on a real a higher level of importance in
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: terms of getting things done when you have those players.
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: And we'll talk in a while about who all is
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: going to be missing from teams or which teams are
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: going to have players missing from them for the Olympics,
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: But that to me just feels like something to watch
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: in the second half of who can get right back
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: up the speed and not have that, you know, a
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: couple of weeks to get it going again before your
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: things might get turned over for you.
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's it's who can, like you said, coming out
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: of like we see teams that have not been so
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: great just out of a bye week, so you know,
• 10:26
  Speaker 2: this compounds that. And then also who used that time
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: the best, who was able to reset maybe have some
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: players come back from injury. Just there's a lot of
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: teams that could really use as sort of like Okay,
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: that first half happened, but like that doesn't going to
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: define us, and so the teams that can really take
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: that opportunity and move forward. What I think is interesting
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: is the way you think that it's long, and it is,
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: don't get me wrong, just overall it's long, but the
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: way the holidays fall, like we're back on the ice
• 10:54
  Speaker 2: January second, which is like sometimes you would get New
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: Year's games as like a non conference type some of
• 11:04
  Speaker 2: that stuff, some little tournamenty type things, but we're I
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: mean not everybody, but we're kind of jumping right back
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: into conference play immediately following the holidays. So that to
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: me is just interesting with the way the holidays fall
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: in the week this year. So yeah, it is between
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: it and it makes sense. They're student athletes, like they
• 11:20
  Speaker 2: need exams and then it's the holidays. Like this is
• 11:23
  Speaker 2: not new we've done, we do this every year, but
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: it is a really long break, and I think it
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: is up to the coaching staffs really in the leadership
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: groups to make sure that their teams use that time
• 11:36
  Speaker 2: wisely and are prepared to come out of it as well.
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I want to take a real quick spin around
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: the league's here and compare these standings to what was
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: the predicted standings by the coaches before the season. In
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: Atlantic Hockey. Penn State is running away with that again
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: as predicted, So not a lot of difference between what
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: we saw back in some timber and what we're seeing
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: now ECAC. There's Princeton up at the top and they
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: were picked the finish sixth, So kudos to the Tigers
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: for putting together a really good first half in conference,
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: you know, and overall eleven to four overall, I believe
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: it's eight and two in conference. So there's there's another
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: team that really has has been in a a a
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: good frame of mind, I guess in terms of how
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: they're going to get things done this season.
• 12:30
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I think McKenzie Alexander getting up to
• 12:32
  Speaker 2: speed and being you know, a top tier player within
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: the first month or so of play is just absolutely
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: game changer for them. I Mean, we looked at their graduation,
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: we looked at Sarah Paul leaving and everybody went, well, uh,
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: it's gonna be a little rough for Princeton, and I
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: just like, kudos to them for not like accepting the
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: premise and just really going out and sort of playing
• 12:54
  Speaker 2: their game. I feel like they really did a good
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: job of sort of pushing out the noise and just
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: just going out and playing type of hockey.
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: In Hockey East, we mentioned Northeastern leading their eleven and
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: one in conference play, they were predicted to finish third.
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: Yukon was picked for first, and by points percentage, Yukon
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: is still second. There's a different number of games having
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: been played there in Hockey East, so Ukon now in
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: fourth in by just sheer points, still in second by
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: points percentage. New ha. That's where things have kind of
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: just flipped all over the place compared to the preseason.
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: The preseason projected champion with Sacred Heart, which is currently
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: seventh out of eight teams in the standings. The team
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: that is in first place, Saint Anselm, was picked four fifth.
• 13:48
  Speaker 2: So beautiful chaotic conference.
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: No idea, Yeah right, we had no idea and we
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: maybe still have no idea. And I wonder if that
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: has a lot to do with uh, you know a
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: lot of changes in personnel, you know, players coming in
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: going out. Uh, if we really don't get a great
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: read on a lot of these scenes, this whole right
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: before the season in terms of rosters, and so even
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: the coaches are in the league probably are a little
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: like it.
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: Makes me feel better than the coaches got it right,
• 14:24
  Speaker 2: like if they don't know right, And just as in general,
• 14:28
  Speaker 2: like as the person who writes previews and thus is
• 14:30
  Speaker 2: searching out rosters the second they're posted. New Hot generally
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: is the last group of schools to post their rosters,
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: so even less time to figure that out. Usually I've
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: got my previews done and I'm just waiting for one
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: or two New Hot teams. So yeah, generally feeling like
• 14:44
  Speaker 2: I don't have any idea what's happening there. They're also
• 14:46
  Speaker 2: pulling usually some players maybe from U Sports, maybe from
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: D three, so players that were just less familiar with
• 14:52
  Speaker 2: overall as well. But yeah, I mean, like my beautiful
• 14:56
  Speaker 2: chaotic ley by the league, I love it so much.
• 14:59
  Speaker 2: They you know, if they wasn't over a few years
• 15:00
  Speaker 2: ago with that postseason where Franklin Pierce won all those
• 15:03
  Speaker 2: like double overtime games, and I've just been all in
• 15:05
  Speaker 2: after that. So I think it's you know, like obviously
• 15:09
  Speaker 2: there's a huge gap in between the you know, where
• 15:13
  Speaker 2: New High is and some of the other conferences. That
• 15:15
  Speaker 2: being said, I think it's a great thing for the
• 15:17
  Speaker 2: game that it is completely up for grabs that on
• 15:21
  Speaker 2: any given weekend, you know the team. Like the idea
• 15:25
  Speaker 2: that the team that was picked to place to take
• 15:27
  Speaker 2: fifth is was like essentially running away with the conference
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: for a while, is like absolutely bonkers, Like tell me,
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: tell me where else we were gonna see the end
• 15:36
  Speaker 2: the team that was picked first is and you know,
• 15:38
  Speaker 2: second to last. So love that I have no idea
• 15:41
  Speaker 2: what's happening. Makes it fun to watch.
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: Absolutely, you are correct there the wha. I didn't mention
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: this in terms of the poll, but the preseason Bowl
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: had Wisconsin won, Ohiose State two, Minnesota three, and well
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: that's still the way it is in the preseason Bowl
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: and Wisconsin Minnesota House State predicted to be in the
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: top three of the WCCHA. Well that's where we're at again,
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: So not a lot of surprises there. It is. We
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: talked about Minnesota State. They're the team that has climbed
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: up to the top of the second tier. As we've
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: talked about in the past, there's really tough to crack
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: that top four of the Wisconsin, Ohio State, Minnesota, Minnesota Duluth.
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: But there's Minnesota State giving it a go. So seven
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: points behind Minnesota Duluth for fourth place, but a lot
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: more than I think a lot of people thought was
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: going to be there.
• 16:38
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Absolutely, I like you said, it's nearly impossible to correct.
• 16:42
  Speaker 2: I think what's important for this conversation or for Minnesota
• 16:45
  Speaker 2: State is what they can build from this in terms
• 16:48
  Speaker 2: of recruiting and bringing in players and what they can
• 16:52
  Speaker 2: build from this for future years. It's not to say
• 16:54
  Speaker 2: that I also think that they're going to be really
• 16:56
  Speaker 2: continue to be a really good team. And I think
• 16:58
  Speaker 2: that first round wha matchup likely U M D is
• 17:01
  Speaker 2: going to be fascinating for a multi game series. But
• 17:06
  Speaker 2: I just think it's stuff like this, where this consistent,
• 17:08
  Speaker 2: where they're they're making you know, highlight reels and people
• 17:11
  Speaker 2: are talking about them. That's the sort of thing that
• 17:13
  Speaker 2: helps them pull in recruits and get you know, continue
• 17:17
  Speaker 2: to build the talent roster that they have. And and
• 17:20
  Speaker 2: then also I think just bringing in some of the
• 17:22
  Speaker 2: you know, they've they've found a couple of diamonds in
• 17:24
  Speaker 2: the rough and that you know, that makes the difference
• 17:26
  Speaker 2: and you know, making those connections and bringing in players
• 17:29
  Speaker 2: uh internationally and things like that. I just think they've
• 17:32
  Speaker 2: done a really good job. And you know, our favorite name,
• 17:35
  Speaker 2: Mercury Bischoff continues to have this spectacular season, and so yeah,
• 17:39
  Speaker 2: I think it's it's positive now and I think I
• 17:44
  Speaker 2: find a U M D. I've certainly not comfortable with
• 17:46
  Speaker 2: the idea of a three game series against them, and
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: when it gets to playoff time and then yeah, I
• 17:52
  Speaker 2: think it's it's also you have to have an eye
• 17:54
  Speaker 2: towards building and what you can show off to convince
• 17:57
  Speaker 2: people that that they should take a chance on playing
• 17:59
  Speaker 2: at MEK.
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: Know, right before we wrap up our first segment here,
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: let's talk a little bit about some of the players
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: that have stood out and that people should know. As
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: we're getting into Awards season toward the end of the
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: second half, and we've discussed this before, this is gonna
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: be a different kind of second half of the season
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: because a lot of these players are going to be
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: gone for five weeks, four weeks. I forget exactly the
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: number of weekends is and or I guess how many
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: games are involved for each of those teams, but a
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: significant amount of time so when you're looking at pure stats,
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: this year is not going to compare with previous seasons.
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: That being said, there are a lot of players that
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: have already put really a pretty good season out there.
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: Just on the basis of the first half alone, who
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: do you think, I guess if someone's asking you wish
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: players we need to look got in the second half?
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: Who is uh you know, given that context of some
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: of them may be gone, But who are we looking at?
• 19:10
  Speaker 2: I mean, I think the obvious to start is is
• 19:12
  Speaker 2: you know, it's KK Harvey, It's Abbie Murphy. I think
• 19:15
  Speaker 2: Hilda Sunson's got to be the most interesting rookie we've
• 19:18
  Speaker 2: seen maybe since Daryl Watts. You know, she's fit overall
• 19:22
  Speaker 2: in scoring twelve goals twenty one assists, but she's someone
• 19:28
  Speaker 2: that will also be gone for the Olympics. So to me,
• 19:30
  Speaker 2: it's looking at like who can make an impact when
• 19:34
  Speaker 2: you know things are scrambled a little more so someone
• 19:37
  Speaker 2: like caitlinn Lamars, who's just had that ridiculous She's got
• 19:39
  Speaker 2: twenty two goals so far this season, just had this
• 19:43
  Speaker 2: amazing breakout. I think she's got to be in the conversation.
• 19:46
  Speaker 2: I think Lily Shannon at Northeastern has to be in
• 19:48
  Speaker 2: the conversation. Yeah, I think it'll be very interesting. Full disclosure,
• 19:56
  Speaker 2: I'm on the Patty Committee this year. I have We've
• 19:58
  Speaker 2: had no discussions or anything like that, so none of
• 20:01
  Speaker 2: this is inside information. But I do think having done
• 20:04
  Speaker 2: this a few times, I do think the conversation will
• 20:06
  Speaker 2: be interestingly different this year as we look to decide
• 20:11
  Speaker 2: how much it matters how much time a player missed
• 20:14
  Speaker 2: and if that's going to be held against anybody consciously
• 20:17
  Speaker 2: or subconsciously. Things like that I think are going to
• 20:20
  Speaker 2: play a huge impact. And that The other thing is
• 20:23
  Speaker 2: that that like the Patty Committee gets the top ten
• 20:27
  Speaker 2: handed to them and then they choose from there. Like
• 20:28
  Speaker 2: the committee doesn't choose, doesn't narrow it down. It comes
• 20:32
  Speaker 2: from voting and things like from coaches and how many
• 20:35
  Speaker 2: times someone makes you know is listed and then they
• 20:37
  Speaker 2: narrow it down from there. And so it's not just
• 20:40
  Speaker 2: you know, the people on the committee making that, but
• 20:42
  Speaker 2: how coaches are viewing that too. And often you find
• 20:45
  Speaker 2: kind of there's usually one or two players that may
• 20:48
  Speaker 2: seem like an outlier in terms of like not necessarily
• 20:50
  Speaker 2: top ten in points or top fifteen in points, but
• 20:53
  Speaker 2: that the coaches have been really impressed with when they
• 20:55
  Speaker 2: play against. To me, that's always one of the interesting
• 20:58
  Speaker 2: things to see who comes out of that. Yeah, I mean,
• 21:00
  Speaker 2: you know, Wisconsin's had a couple of huge locating Ohio
• 21:03
  Speaker 2: state has had a couple like you've got some You
• 21:05
  Speaker 2: can't just go wipe your points, right because you know
• 21:09
  Speaker 2: Wisconsin's winning in Nashville by massive numbers. You can't put
• 21:15
  Speaker 2: too much credence into some of that. And if you
• 21:16
  Speaker 2: look at the top fifteen and scoring now, it's like
• 21:19
  Speaker 2: every the top three lines of Wisconsin are on there,
• 21:21
  Speaker 2: So like, where do you make room for someone like
• 21:25
  Speaker 2: Jessica McKinnon at Robert Morris who is currently ninth in
• 21:28
  Speaker 2: points with thirteen goals, fifteen assists twenty eight points. Like
• 21:32
  Speaker 2: that's the stuff I think we need to look at,
• 21:34
  Speaker 2: and I think it's interesting. I'm almost sad that hilde
• 21:37
  Speaker 2: Spenson is running away with Rookie of the Year because
• 21:39
  Speaker 2: I think this is one of the better years for rookies.
• 21:42
  Speaker 2: We've got Sarah Manis, We've got who else was I looking?
• 21:46
  Speaker 2: Oh ive A Thomas at BC. It's Yeah, it's just
• 21:48
  Speaker 2: been a really interesting year for rookies making strikers of
• 21:51
  Speaker 2: Blackie in Northeastern. I think I said that Kingsy Alexander
• 21:55
  Speaker 2: earlier as a rookie, and she's a soft board. I apologize,
• 21:58
  Speaker 2: but yeah, just some really interesting players making huge impacts
• 22:02
  Speaker 2: and for teams that aren't necessarily the ones that we're
• 22:05
  Speaker 2: all always talking about, and so I think that it's
• 22:09
  Speaker 2: probably it held us to lose. But again, you know,
• 22:13
  Speaker 2: she will be missing that month, and so it'll be
• 22:15
  Speaker 2: interesting to see what some of the other players that'll
• 22:17
  Speaker 2: still be here can do. But I mean, I do think,
• 22:20
  Speaker 2: I mean, kk is a generational talent. She was a
• 22:22
  Speaker 2: top three Patty Kats finalist last year. She's the only
• 22:27
  Speaker 2: one averaging more than two points a game. It's hard
• 22:29
  Speaker 2: to argue with those numbers right now.
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and she's on I think a seventeen game points
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: scoring streak, which is I believe the same number as
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: Josephine bouvang is at for Minnesota. She's also someone that
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: is kind of in that mix. But yeah, five game winnings,
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: yeah for a defender, especially too, We're we're really in
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: a different category. Here is what it feels like to me,
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: And I just don't know what the Olympic break is
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: going to mean. I hate to keep coming back to that,
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: but it just really feels like we're talking about a
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: college hockey award, But is there gonna be anyone that's
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: going to fill in that? Really, it's gonna be a
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: vacuum of talent for that month in college.
• 23:23
  Speaker 2: So yeah, and then interestingly, from like.
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: It's gonna be fascinating from.
• 23:28
  Speaker 2: A devil's advocate, like if with Wisconsin missing six players,
• 23:31
  Speaker 2: so like their top four wards and their top defenders,
• 23:34
  Speaker 2: if someone like Cassie Hall, who's currently tenth in the
• 23:38
  Speaker 2: country with twenty seven points, she just absolutely goes off
• 23:41
  Speaker 2: because she's suddenly on the top line and doing all
• 23:43
  Speaker 2: those things, Like how much credence do you give that
• 23:46
  Speaker 2: knowing that that's happening because the like does that comment
• 23:50
  Speaker 2: against KK? You know what I'm saying, Like just a
• 23:52
  Speaker 2: devil's advocate bit of like players that have a really
• 23:56
  Speaker 2: good time when their teammates aren't there any core will
• 23:59
  Speaker 2: be really interesting. Yeah, I you know, I just sort
• 24:02
  Speaker 2: of picked try the hat, but I think there's gonna
• 24:04
  Speaker 2: be some interesting you know, there's been some really stand
• 24:07
  Speaker 2: up players at Penn State too, and so with Tessa gone,
• 24:10
  Speaker 2: does that like give Grace Outwater like a chance to
• 24:12
  Speaker 2: pick up even more points. You know, she's top twenty
• 24:15
  Speaker 2: right now in points, and so yeah, I mean, I
• 24:17
  Speaker 2: think the big thing for me for KK is not
• 24:20
  Speaker 2: just the total number of points, but that like she's
• 24:22
  Speaker 2: also kind of eleven goals, which is up there among leaders.
• 24:26
  Speaker 2: Like It's not like you look at Leila Edwards's twelfth
• 24:29
  Speaker 2: in scoring, She's only got six goals, right Like, as
• 24:31
  Speaker 2: a as a defender, you're going to have fewer goals.
• 24:34
  Speaker 2: But Kyk is still scoring. And I think the game
• 24:36
  Speaker 2: winning goals is a big one for me, and so
• 24:38
  Speaker 2: is the power play goals, just because it's filtering out
• 24:42
  Speaker 2: a little bit of that everybody scored a bazillion points
• 24:46
  Speaker 2: when they ran up the score a bunch against some
• 24:47
  Speaker 2: of these teams, do you know what I'm saying? Right,
• 24:50
  Speaker 2: I think too that only eight penalty minutes is a
• 24:52
  Speaker 2: big one as well, just when't looking at some of
• 24:54
  Speaker 2: these other pedal are still minute totals for some of.
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: The horses other players, which is actually a lot for
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: her compared to previous seasons. But right, okay, that's our
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: look back at the first half. When we come back,
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: we will get to your questions and then we'll talk
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: about the rivalry series. Stay with us on the podcast.
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: Welcome back to the podcast. Todd Nicole here to talk
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: about some of your questions. We do appreciate you sending
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: them in the email address to do that is in
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: our show notes, So any questions you have, feel free
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: to send them along and we'll try to get them.
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: Our first question today from Adam Slaven's over social media.
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: He sent a question saying, any rumblings of schools considering
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: elevating their programs to D one, which is a kind
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: of evergreen topic around women's hockey. We've had a forty
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: fifth team join in Delaware this year, but there's always
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: a you know, the whispers of well, who's next or
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: who might be considering it? What do you I guess,
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: what do you hear or what do you want to
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: hear on that front?
• 26:11
  Speaker 2: Well, the evergree answer is Michigan, or maybe not the
• 26:15
  Speaker 2: state of Michigan at this point. I wouldn't wish the
• 26:17
  Speaker 2: Michigan Athletic Department on anybody, but the state of Michigan
• 26:23
  Speaker 2: needs some women talking. And then I guess I would
• 26:27
  Speaker 2: like to see not I don't. I do not mean
• 26:32
  Speaker 2: this derogatorily to anybody. I just want to be clear
• 26:35
  Speaker 2: on that. But I would like to see some more
• 26:38
  Speaker 2: teams from programs that we know can can sort of
• 26:41
  Speaker 2: elevate and really push, like when we saw from Penn
• 26:44
  Speaker 2: State or even from like maybe Syracuse or stuff. I
• 26:48
  Speaker 2: am super thankful that we have the new Hog programs
• 26:52
  Speaker 2: that we have Delaware, that we continue to seek growth
• 26:55
  Speaker 2: and I think, you know, being a state school with Delaware,
• 26:58
  Speaker 2: that's important, but just from some bigger programs that are
• 27:01
  Speaker 2: going to have the backing and the ability to provide
• 27:05
  Speaker 2: what is necessary. And I just I just want to
• 27:08
  Speaker 2: be really clear that, like I'm happy for all programs,
• 27:10
  Speaker 2: but like if if you're asking me for a wish list,
• 27:13
  Speaker 2: I think we you know, for the growth of the game,
• 27:15
  Speaker 2: like as we sort of talked about, and I think
• 27:17
  Speaker 2: we have another question about some of the blowouts from
• 27:19
  Speaker 2: the top tier versus you know, team scenes towards the
• 27:22
  Speaker 2: bottom of the overall and PI and standings. I would
• 27:25
  Speaker 2: like to see, you know, a program or a new
• 27:30
  Speaker 2: program or support from someone that can really put the
• 27:35
  Speaker 2: the the money and the backing and really put a
• 27:39
  Speaker 2: program that we're going to see elevate and be be
• 27:42
  Speaker 2: impactful and playing for you know, playing in the national
• 27:46
  Speaker 2: tournament like Penn stated, within what like tennis years or so.
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: Sure. I asked this question to our friends at College Inc.
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: Who who assist programs that are interested in finding out
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: how it might work to to launch a Division I
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: women's hockey program or just or men's hockey and women's hockey.
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: Usually it's it's both, And they said that there's been
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: three studies this year in addition to previously having Michigan
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: involved on the women's side. They typically include both men's
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: hockey and women's hockey, like I said, but one of
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: them was focused on women's hockey specifically. They can't give
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: any names because of confidentiality reasons in those feasibility studies.
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: But there are also they said, three more schools that
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: are interested or have expressed interest in doing those one
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: of those feasibility studies. So to me, that that at
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: least tells you that there's people haven't shut it off.
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: I mean, this is a really difficult time for college
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: where everyone's trying to figure out where where they are
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: in relation to all of the you know, the revenue
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: sharing and and just you know, conference changes in some levels,
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: but hockey is kind of in a different, different layer
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: of things, and I do wonder how that's gonna impact
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: just the the interest level of you know, even taking
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: a look at this. How much does it cost, what
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: is it going to mean? What's what's our opportunities for success?
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: And that's that's something that I think we'll talk about
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: in a minute here when we talk about New high
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: Like you just mentioned, there's another question we have. But
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: the reason to launch a women's hockey program isn't always
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: to try and win a national champnel for it's there's
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: I mean, there's some schools that could could do that,
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: and we're talking like Penn State. At at some point
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: we'll be in that conversation, and that maybe this year,
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: but there's a lot more reasons to to have that
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: opportunity and to join what might be a you know,
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: a regional kind of environment for hockey. If that's big
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: in your area, Michigan. Uh, there's reason, color I have right,
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: there's reason to have that on your campus.
• 30:25
  Speaker 2: Yeah, maybe I should have said earlier to maybe someone else,
• 30:27
  Speaker 2: lest maybe now that the Big Ten has thirty seven
• 30:30
  Speaker 2: schools we should talk about elevating a club career like
• 30:33
  Speaker 2: Oregon or or any of those schools. Yeah, I agree,
• 30:37
  Speaker 2: I definitely that was a if I, you know, had
• 30:41
  Speaker 2: to personally pick, I would love that. But I think
• 30:43
  Speaker 2: all all programs are good programs. I think all opportunities
• 30:47
  Speaker 2: for more girls to be playing and to look forward
• 30:50
  Speaker 2: to playing in college and have an opportunity. And again
• 30:54
  Speaker 2: we've seen players that weren't necessarily stand out in college
• 30:57
  Speaker 2: that have gone on now to be able to be
• 30:59
  Speaker 2: super successful the PWHL, and so you know, there's a
• 31:03
  Speaker 2: whole avenue there and more girls getting to become women
• 31:06
  Speaker 2: who play hockey collegiately. Nothing but good things comes from that.
• 31:11
  Speaker 2: I'm I like even at some point, you know, earlier
• 31:14
  Speaker 2: in my career, I was not understanding like maybe the
• 31:17
  Speaker 2: point or like should like should we be doing this?
• 31:19
  Speaker 2: And I have completely flipped and I think just the
• 31:22
  Speaker 2: idea when you know you got those numbers on the
• 31:24
  Speaker 2: feasibility study, I mean, we're not that far removed from
• 31:27
  Speaker 2: shuttering programs, and so I think there was a worry
• 31:31
  Speaker 2: for a few years that like hockey programs were going
• 31:34
  Speaker 2: to be declining, and I think once you know one
• 31:36
  Speaker 2: or two programs does it. Then I think that gives
• 31:40
  Speaker 2: athletic departments an idea that they should maybe also look
• 31:43
  Speaker 2: at that. So I'm just happy that we're we're still
• 31:45
  Speaker 2: talking about adding women's hockey, and I think, yeah, I
• 31:48
  Speaker 2: I we have seen nothing but growth youth numbers of
• 31:55
  Speaker 2: girls playing hockey in the US. In North America, we
• 31:58
  Speaker 2: see nothing but improvement when girls and women come over
• 32:02
  Speaker 2: from Europe and play here and the impact that's had
• 32:06
  Speaker 2: on the international game. Like I you know, we could
• 32:09
  Speaker 2: be bigger advocates for in SIA hockey and what it
• 32:11
  Speaker 2: can do for girls and women and so yeah, just
• 32:14
  Speaker 2: the continued growth is great and I think I just
• 32:16
  Speaker 2: think it's really cool and good. Like a lot of
• 32:19
  Speaker 2: this comes down to logistics of like they want to
• 32:22
  Speaker 2: elevate their men's football and then suddenly they have to
• 32:24
  Speaker 2: have more women's programs, and like it's a lot easier
• 32:27
  Speaker 2: to add something like track or lacrosse that doesn't like
• 32:30
  Speaker 2: require a rink, right like that, like you just need
• 32:33
  Speaker 2: a patch of grass and some locker rooms. I mean,
• 32:35
  Speaker 2: I'm oversimplifying it, but the point of the feasibility study
• 32:39
  Speaker 2: is to see, like if the university can do this,
• 32:42
  Speaker 2: like where someone with Delaware had a rink, had a
• 32:44
  Speaker 2: nice rink on campus and so like they had to
• 32:46
  Speaker 2: add some programs because of football, and it was really
• 32:49
  Speaker 2: cool that they went and said, you know, women's hockey
• 32:51
  Speaker 2: is one of the ones we want to add. Like
• 32:52
  Speaker 2: that makes so much sense for us, and so I
• 32:55
  Speaker 2: think it's really important for that to be a thing
• 32:57
  Speaker 2: that athletic departments and athletic directors are things.
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: Yeah, all right, thank you Adam for that question. Or
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: next question is from Bill Romine, who asks at this
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: time what advantage does the New HA and other small
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: school conferences have by playing in Division one hockey. He mentions,
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: you know, there are disadvantages in terms of recruiting and budgets.
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: We saw. He pointed out the Smashville showcase where Stonehill
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: lost to Wisconsin seventeen to two. He'd mentioned that as
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: being unfortunate. My first thought on this is that, well,
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: if they want to play hockey as at Division two school,
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: they have to play with the Division one division tool group.
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: They can't play down in D three. So if they
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: want to be part of it, this is it. But
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: I wonder what your I guess your feelings are just
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: in general of you know, the the place in NCAA
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: women's hockey for schools that are in the New HA
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: because we've seen that, like they have their playing for
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: their championship, and winning a conference championship is no small feed.
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: So if you're in a conference you can win a championship.
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: That's something.
• 34:10
  Speaker 2: Oh I'm not sure I have fully smart thoughts on this,
• 34:15
  Speaker 2: And if a player or a former player from newh
• 34:18
  Speaker 2: wants to talk to us about this, we'd love to
• 34:20
  Speaker 2: hear from you, because I do think it's really difficult
• 34:22
  Speaker 2: to sort of understand or justify some of that stuff.
• 34:26
  Speaker 2: I do think that Wisconsin womping on New haw and
• 34:30
  Speaker 2: the Predator's practice facility is not a good use of
• 34:33
  Speaker 2: anybody's time. I think, you know, higher ranked teams playing
• 34:37
  Speaker 2: teams towards the bottom of the NPI is not overall
• 34:39
  Speaker 2: necessarily a bad thing. I think it's good to know,
• 34:42
  Speaker 2: like what the standard is, like what you can be
• 34:46
  Speaker 2: aspiring to what. I think it's good for teams to
• 34:49
  Speaker 2: go to like Minnesota and Wisconsin and see purpose built
• 34:52
  Speaker 2: women's hockey facilities and like what, you know, what the
• 34:57
  Speaker 2: best of the best looks like. I think that's the
• 34:59
  Speaker 2: sort of important for coaches and student athletes and even
• 35:03
  Speaker 2: administrators to all see.
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: But yeah, I.
• 35:06
  Speaker 2: Sometimes I feel like that's it's just so like how disheartening,
• 35:09
  Speaker 2: how just awful for a program to you know, you
• 35:12
  Speaker 2: look at someone like Saint Michael who is struggling to
• 35:15
  Speaker 2: put together one or two wins a year, is not
• 35:18
  Speaker 2: clearly not getting institutional support like things like that. It's
• 35:22
  Speaker 2: just like, I want the sport to grow. I want
• 35:25
  Speaker 2: us to continue to have new programs, but I want
• 35:26
  Speaker 2: those programs to get the support from their schools and
• 35:29
  Speaker 2: their athletic departments that they should be getting to. You know,
• 35:32
  Speaker 2: you think back a few years, like when the Union
• 35:34
  Speaker 2: Men more than a few years at this point, but
• 35:35
  Speaker 2: when the Union Men won the national Championship game at
• 35:38
  Speaker 2: that point was when the Union women were i think
• 35:40
  Speaker 2: had their undefeated season right around that is, or I'm
• 35:43
  Speaker 2: sorry on well, no win season, And it was just
• 35:47
  Speaker 2: like such a clear showing of the difference in support
• 35:53
  Speaker 2: and ability and like what you know, the men's program
• 35:56
  Speaker 2: could recruit and who they could bring in and what
• 35:58
  Speaker 2: the Union women were capable of doing, and that isn't
• 36:03
  Speaker 2: happening in isolation. That's happening because of resources and support
• 36:07
  Speaker 2: and all those sorts of things. And so yeah, I
• 36:10
  Speaker 2: would you know, I would like everybody to have the opportunities.
• 36:13
  Speaker 2: And at last I said, I think, you know, if
• 36:15
  Speaker 2: if you love hockey and you want to play collegiately
• 36:18
  Speaker 2: and you can get scholarship and you can go play,
• 36:21
  Speaker 2: I want as many girls to be able to do
• 36:23
  Speaker 2: that as want to do it. But sometimes I don't, like,
• 36:27
  Speaker 2: do you have I don't know. I don't not sure
• 36:30
  Speaker 2: I understand the purpose of something like that Smashville game.
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: I think that the word unfortunate that Bill us there
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: is right, and we've seen a few of those games.
• 36:47
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we're certainly using that as the example, the recency
• 36:50
  Speaker 2: bias example, but there's four of them.
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly. I I do know that events like that
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: have a purpose for sure, takeing NCAA women's hockey into
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: an area that doesn't have it so that girls who
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: play in that area can see it. Yes, And I
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: just yeah, I don't know that.
• 37:13
  Speaker 2: That having been in that situe, like what girl watching that?
• 37:18
  Speaker 2: It's like I want to Stonehill, you know.
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: Yeah. I mean the thing is that there are right,
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: I mean, so there are forty five teams and there
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: are twenty twenty five you know whatever the number is
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: players on each roster. I mean not all those players
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: are going to be Olympic caliber for sure, or you know,
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: wha caliber or I mean really, I mean caliber of
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: being on maybe thirty of the forty five teams. There's
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: a lot of players that are going to be needed
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: to fill out those rosters. And so you're going to
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: get into this, well, this is an opportunity to play
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: Division one in national collegiate whatever we want to call
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: it at this level hockey as an experience for you know,
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: for life. And I think there there is value in
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: that still, even though it may be hard to see
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: you in the moment and it's hard to see in
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: the the scores and the rankings, and that is still
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: what a lot of are athletic enterprises built on, is
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: that opportunity for sure. And so I think that is
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: what it comes down to for me, is that there
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: still needs to be that that chance to have a chance, yeah,
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: to put in.
• 38:44
  Speaker 2: I don't think anybody's questioning like whether there should be
• 38:46
  Speaker 2: new hot programs. I think it's the part where you
• 38:48
  Speaker 2: put new hogins. The reigning national champion, which is the
• 38:52
  Speaker 2: you know. Then then it comes down to like maybe
• 38:54
  Speaker 2: where the you know, we're one of these teams teams
• 38:57
  Speaker 2: affilate like who who plan this tournament?
• 39:00
  Speaker 1: Who did this right?
• 39:01
  Speaker 2: But yeah, I think I think no, I absolutely agree,
• 39:06
  Speaker 2: Like I there's so much we know, like studies show
• 39:10
  Speaker 2: how important it is for young girls and women to
• 39:14
  Speaker 2: participate in sports, what they take away from the life skill,
• 39:17
  Speaker 2: the way that it prepares them for the future, the
• 39:19
  Speaker 2: way that women that are in C suites in business
• 39:22
  Speaker 2: have almost all have, you know, high level athletic backgrounds,
• 39:26
  Speaker 2: Like there are in arguable ways for me to like
• 39:30
  Speaker 2: justify or however you want to use it to say,
• 39:32
  Speaker 2: like why these teams should be playing. I think it
• 39:34
  Speaker 2: definitely is one of those things where, uh, maybe we
• 39:38
  Speaker 2: just don't need to like publicly embarrass them in front
• 39:40
  Speaker 2: of potential recruits. So yeah, I think those are maybe
• 39:44
  Speaker 2: two separate questions. But like I personally like as someone
• 39:48
  Speaker 2: as I said, who in the past was maybe like
• 39:49
  Speaker 2: why are we adding another you know, program from a
• 39:52
  Speaker 2: small school in the same sort of area where we've
• 39:55
  Speaker 2: got a bazillion D one and D three women's programs.
• 39:59
  Speaker 2: I like, I've completely changed my tune because I want
• 40:02
  Speaker 2: every single one of those girls of women who want
• 40:04
  Speaker 2: to play to have that opportunity. And you know, those
• 40:07
  Speaker 2: girls and women aren't stupid either, Like they know what
• 40:09
  Speaker 2: they're getting into when they go to some of these programs,
• 40:12
  Speaker 2: and like that is a choice that they're you said,
• 40:14
  Speaker 2: the chance to have a chance, but also the chance
• 40:16
  Speaker 2: to have an outstanding you know, collegiate experience and be
• 40:19
  Speaker 2: student athletes and represent something bigger and make lifelog friends
• 40:22
  Speaker 2: and learn all the you know, sort of all of
• 40:24
  Speaker 2: that sort of thing. So I hope that nobody out
• 40:27
  Speaker 2: there is questioning like why those programs even exist and
• 40:31
  Speaker 2: as when we started new how it was, but what
• 40:34
  Speaker 2: four or five programs to start and here we are,
• 40:37
  Speaker 2: you know, so many more girls and women getting a
• 40:39
  Speaker 2: chance to play. I think that's the be all and
• 40:42
  Speaker 2: all of the conversation.
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: Yeah, all right, thank you to build for that question.
• 40:49
  Speaker 1: Next question from Katie and Dick. I believe it's Edie Yde.
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: I apologize if I'm not pronouncing that correctly, but the
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: question is I would be interested in having you address
• 40:59
  Speaker 1: a large gap between Ohio State and everybody else in
• 41:01
  Speaker 1: penalty minutes per game it cannot be attributed to the
• 41:04
  Speaker 1: brawl with Minnesota since they have about fifty percent more
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: than Minnesota. It seems to me that their strategy is
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: to be as nasty as possible, figuring that they will
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: get away with a lot more then they will get
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: called for thoughts. Well, I've got thoughts. I'll let you
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: go first. So if you want to have some thoughts
• 41:22
  Speaker 1: on that, well you you.
• 41:25
  Speaker 2: Did some comparison and what looked at the numbers to
• 41:28
  Speaker 2: start with that.
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: Okay, So Ohio State does lead the country at two
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: hundred and fifty five penalty minutes and with fourteen point
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: one point seven per game, but that only tells part
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: of it, because they actually have more games where the
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: opponents has taken more penalties penalty minutes than them then
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: the other way around. So there are eight games of
• 41:55
  Speaker 1: the eighteen they've played where they have been called fewer
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: penlly minutes and seven games then that they've been called
• 42:04
  Speaker 1: for more penalty minutes, the numbers being equal in three games.
• 42:09
  Speaker 1: So we really are looking at that Minnesota game October
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: nineteenth that ended with a brawl after the horn. Ohio
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: State end up with seventy five penalty minutes in that
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: game thanks to six major or misconducts or disqualifications at
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: the end. So that's sixty of those minutes right there.
• 42:33
  Speaker 1: Then there was another game November first again Saint Thomas
• 42:36
  Speaker 1: called for twenty nine penalty minutes, including one of them
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: that was a five in a game, So that's fifteen
• 42:41
  Speaker 1: of those minutes. Those things do add up fast, and
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: when you're talking about a side of the game where
• 42:50
  Speaker 1: there aren't, you know, tons of penalties called to begin with,
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: and a lot of games, for better or for worse,
• 42:58
  Speaker 1: they could you could say in some games that there
• 43:01
  Speaker 1: probably could have been a few more calls made that
• 43:04
  Speaker 1: might have prevented it from getting out of hand later.
• 43:08
  Speaker 1: We've I know, we've both seen those kind of games.
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: I still think for an average of fourteen minutes a
• 43:15
  Speaker 1: game with those outliers having been thrown in there is
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: not ridiculous have because of what you know is cooked
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: into that number.
• 43:26
  Speaker 2: Yeah, there's a couple of that.
• 43:29
  Speaker 1: That's all I've got.
• 43:30
  Speaker 2: One I would say, I think it's it's twofold. What
• 43:33
  Speaker 2: you were just saying is that, like there are plenty
• 43:35
  Speaker 2: of games where stuff goals uncalled, but also maybe because
• 43:38
  Speaker 2: of how things started this season, like that Wisconsin Ohio
• 43:42
  Speaker 2: State series, they were calling like two people looked at
• 43:45
  Speaker 2: each other in the face off their goal and they
• 43:46
  Speaker 2: were both going to the box. So there had to
• 43:50
  Speaker 2: be a ton of minutes there, but it was like
• 43:52
  Speaker 2: very little actual power playtime. It was just like a
• 43:55
  Speaker 2: pre emptory disciplinary like don't you even think about it?
• 44:00
  Speaker 2: So I do think that some of that is playing
• 44:03
  Speaker 2: into it at this point. I I think the game
• 44:06
  Speaker 2: overall has become more physical. I think, you know, the
• 44:08
  Speaker 2: SDHL and Sweden added more physical contact, and now the
• 44:12
  Speaker 2: PUB has added more physical contact. Also, the players are
• 44:16
  Speaker 2: just bigger, stronger, you know, like that's just a product
• 44:19
  Speaker 2: of how the game's going to continue to grow. And
• 44:22
  Speaker 2: so I do think there has been the way that
• 44:24
  Speaker 2: the game has called been called I think continues to
• 44:27
  Speaker 2: evolve and change. And one of the things that we
• 44:30
  Speaker 2: run into is that like the people that have always
• 44:33
  Speaker 2: called it one way or I think now struggling with
• 44:36
  Speaker 2: with finding the correct line on it, when when the
• 44:39
  Speaker 2: w c g A was very just let them play, uh,
• 44:43
  Speaker 2: and that that's not gonna fly anymore. And so the
• 44:46
  Speaker 2: refs that we're not calling much of anything are now
• 44:49
  Speaker 2: I think struggling and maybe going to be complete other
• 44:52
  Speaker 2: direction to call too much. I think there's part of that.
• 44:55
  Speaker 2: And then also I just think, you know, Ohio State
• 44:57
  Speaker 2: plays a game like they are. The are very physical.
• 45:00
  Speaker 2: They are they do that strong four check, which is
• 45:03
  Speaker 2: gonna lead to more things like trips and holds, and
• 45:06
  Speaker 2: especially if they're getting beat on that. I mean, we saw,
• 45:10
  Speaker 2: you know, some of these games where teams are getting
• 45:12
  Speaker 2: breakaways and things. That's gonna lead to a little bit
• 45:14
  Speaker 2: more penalties. And I also think, like I do not
• 45:20
  Speaker 2: think Ohio State would be offended by these things. I mean,
• 45:23
  Speaker 2: I think in the vein of Abby Murphy, they like
• 45:26
  Speaker 2: being a little bit antagonizing, right, they like they're a
• 45:28
  Speaker 2: little bit ship sterers, Like on purpose, they want to
• 45:32
  Speaker 2: get a reaction out of you. They want you to
• 45:33
  Speaker 2: do something stupid, and I think that is just gonna
• 45:39
  Speaker 2: naturally lead. Sometimes they're gonna get called fort sometimes they're not.
• 45:42
  Speaker 2: Sometimes they're gonna say something and then later they're gonna
• 45:46
  Speaker 2: get coded into something. I mean, they are all still
• 45:48
  Speaker 2: you know, twenty somethings and silly, but yeah, I think
• 45:52
  Speaker 2: you know, these are these are still kids, and I
• 45:54
  Speaker 2: think that they, you know, they Ohio State likes their
• 45:56
  Speaker 2: underdog mentality, they like to push people buttons. I think,
• 46:01
  Speaker 2: you know, they're not as over as Abby is, but
• 46:03
  Speaker 2: I do think, you know, and there's just like ongoing
• 46:06
  Speaker 2: rivalries at this point, Like I'm pretty sure half of Minnesota,
• 46:09
  Speaker 2: Ohio State in Wisconsin all would love to just you know,
• 46:13
  Speaker 2: get each other out of a game. So you're gonna
• 46:16
  Speaker 2: see Leila and enjoy Done standing up to each other,
• 46:18
  Speaker 2: and you're gonna see you know, Abby going after several
• 46:21
  Speaker 2: players and trying to you know, go them into things.
• 46:24
  Speaker 2: So yeah, I do. I think what you're saying about
• 46:27
  Speaker 2: the numbers absolutely make sense in terms of I don't
• 46:29
  Speaker 2: think they're that out of control. And I think it's
• 46:33
  Speaker 2: a product too of Ohio State is not exactly the
• 46:36
  Speaker 2: team this year that they've been in years past.
• 46:38
  Speaker 1: And so.
• 46:40
  Speaker 2: That's not to say that they're not still very very good.
• 46:43
  Speaker 2: I don't want to like no offense Ohio State by
• 46:46
  Speaker 2: any means, but I do think sometimes there are plays
• 46:49
  Speaker 2: where like maybe things aren't clicking the way that they'd
• 46:52
  Speaker 2: expected them to. They're younger this year, with their international
• 46:55
  Speaker 2: players and things like that that I think it's just
• 46:57
  Speaker 2: naturally they're used to pushing and then being able to
• 47:01
  Speaker 2: catch up to things like like maybe slip past the
• 47:04
  Speaker 2: defense and stuff, and so that's going to naturally lead
• 47:06
  Speaker 2: to some more penalties just as they sort of figure
• 47:09
  Speaker 2: out who they are this year with a younger roster
• 47:12
  Speaker 2: and having graduated a ton of the players that sort
• 47:15
  Speaker 2: of divivings for the last few years.
• 47:19
  Speaker 1: Yeah, thanks for that question, Katie and Dick. Let's move
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: on to our last one, which is from Clay Green.
• 47:25
  Speaker 1: Which w HA team is best situated to make a
• 47:28
  Speaker 1: move upward when the Team USA players leave at the
• 47:30
  Speaker 1: end of January. This might we might expand this to
• 47:35
  Speaker 1: you know, all Olympic players leaving that might are leaving
• 47:40
  Speaker 1: in the tail end of January. What what are your
• 47:45
  Speaker 1: thoughts there? There's all I mean, you can look at
• 47:48
  Speaker 1: this a lot of ways in terms of like, well,
• 47:51
  Speaker 1: there are opportunities within teams, and there are opportunities for
• 47:55
  Speaker 1: other teams that will not be losing very many, if
• 47:58
  Speaker 1: any players.
• 47:59
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I'll start this by saying that, like, sort of
• 48:01
  Speaker 2: the list I made used World Championship rosters from last
• 48:05
  Speaker 2: year and sort of what I could find from some
• 48:07
  Speaker 2: of the pre Olympic stuff. But nobody's got a roster
• 48:09
  Speaker 2: out now, So looking at current NCA rosters and guessing
• 48:12
  Speaker 2: which of those players will be missing is still an
• 48:15
  Speaker 2: imperfect science, but based you know, sort of on best
• 48:18
  Speaker 2: guests or the players that have been sort of in
• 48:20
  Speaker 2: the pre pools for US Canada and some of that stuff,
• 48:23
  Speaker 2: I show that the Gophers will be missing six players,
• 48:26
  Speaker 2: the Buckeyes will be mixing six players, the Badgers would
• 48:29
  Speaker 2: be missing six, U m. D would be missing five,
• 48:31
  Speaker 2: and Saint Cloud will be missing five, and then Saint Thomas,
• 48:34
  Speaker 2: Makato and but Nigi are not going to be missing anybody.
• 48:37
  Speaker 2: So in that group of not missing anybody, Saint Thomas
• 48:41
  Speaker 2: and Makato are the two teams that have sort of
• 48:43
  Speaker 2: created the most chaos in this conference, and so to
• 48:46
  Speaker 2: me are the two teams that have sort of the
• 48:48
  Speaker 2: most opportunity. But you know, like those top three teams Wisconsin,
• 48:54
  Speaker 2: Minnesota and Ohio State have depth, have you know, the
• 48:57
  Speaker 2: ability to sort of make up or however you want
• 49:02
  Speaker 2: to say, Like, I don't think there's going to be
• 49:03
  Speaker 2: a massive drop off from any one of those teams,
• 49:06
  Speaker 2: but I think the biggest thing will be there's going
• 49:09
  Speaker 2: to be more mistakes. The pace of play is going
• 49:11
  Speaker 2: to be slower. It's going to be players, you know,
• 49:14
  Speaker 2: maybe playing more minutes or playing in positions that they
• 49:16
  Speaker 2: didn't play in before. And that's I think where the
• 49:19
  Speaker 2: opportunity lies. Where you're Saint Thomas and man Cato top
• 49:22
  Speaker 2: lines can maybe use their speed, do some you know,
• 49:28
  Speaker 2: stealing the pock and things like that, and really push
• 49:30
  Speaker 2: against the less experienced players. And so for me, I
• 49:33
  Speaker 2: think it's Saint Thomas and Mankato. And that's kind of
• 49:36
  Speaker 2: a boring answer, but it was worn out by the
• 49:38
  Speaker 2: fact that the other five teams are missing a bunch
• 49:40
  Speaker 2: of players.
• 49:43
  Speaker 1: Yeah. The thing to keep in mind there with man
• 49:45
  Speaker 1: Cato is though even though they may not be missing
• 49:48
  Speaker 1: any of their players, they will be missing their head coach,
• 49:50
  Speaker 1: Shared Dickerman, as part of the US Olympic staff, And
• 49:54
  Speaker 1: so that you know it isn't going to reflect on
• 49:57
  Speaker 1: the ice, but you take your head coach out for
• 50:00
  Speaker 1: a long stretch that valley point, that does affect something.
• 50:05
  Speaker 1: So just to keep an eye on Minnesota State for
• 50:08
  Speaker 1: that stretch that too.
• 50:09
  Speaker 2: Yeah, And I think the the other thing I would
• 50:11
  Speaker 2: point out is that and it does we I think
• 50:13
  Speaker 2: both Ava McNaughton for the US of Gascon for Canada
• 50:18
  Speaker 2: are are possibly sort of marginal in terms of whether
• 50:22
  Speaker 2: or not they make their Olympic squads. But if they
• 50:24
  Speaker 2: are both gone, and we assume that Amelia Kirko has
• 50:27
  Speaker 2: also gone for Finland with Saint Cloud, that's three of
• 50:30
  Speaker 2: these teams missing their goalies, their starters, which is like
• 50:33
  Speaker 2: a huge, just a huge, huge difference. So Ohio State
• 50:37
  Speaker 2: and Minnesota will not be in that position, and so
• 50:39
  Speaker 2: I think those are sort of the the key components
• 50:42
  Speaker 2: there that you have to talk about, right and.
• 50:46
  Speaker 1: There are then there are a handful of other schools
• 50:49
  Speaker 1: that will be or not in w c HA, that
• 50:52
  Speaker 1: will be missing a player or two or three. It
• 50:55
  Speaker 1: looks like based on what you've you've found from looking
• 50:58
  Speaker 1: at World Championship rosters.
• 50:59
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, looks like Hockey East obviously, the wealthy sisters
• 51:02
  Speaker 2: at BU named her Zig. The Swiss player at Holy
• 51:05
  Speaker 2: Cross also Lesia Bachelor from Switzerland for Northeastern. I apologize,
• 51:11
  Speaker 2: Alexandra from Merrimack from Hungary. I will not be attempting
• 51:14
  Speaker 2: your last name because I will not do it well.
• 51:17
  Speaker 2: But she she.
• 51:18
  Speaker 1: Played Schenko maybe yeah, she played.
• 51:21
  Speaker 2: With hunger and quality. It is interesting that you because
• 51:25
  Speaker 2: we have France qualified, we have Hungary, and we'll have Italy.
• 51:28
  Speaker 2: So also just the players that people aren't necessarily used
• 51:32
  Speaker 2: to seeing being gone, Like Lynnenwood has three players, two
• 51:35
  Speaker 2: from France, one from from Hungary, Mercy Hurst has two gone.
• 51:38
  Speaker 2: Penn State will be missing Nicole Hall, Clarkson, Andrew Trinkova
• 51:43
  Speaker 2: and Manon les Godan and then Dartmouth Mikhilahesheva again a goalie,
• 51:48
  Speaker 2: a very good goalie. So that's you know, how we'll
• 51:52
  Speaker 2: see things play out in some of the other conferences.
• 51:54
  Speaker 2: Uh but I yeah it, who knows. I continue to
• 51:59
  Speaker 2: feel like I don't have we we just don't understand
• 52:02
  Speaker 2: how things are going to be affected.
• 52:04
  Speaker 1: We just like it.
• 52:05
  Speaker 2: I don't as much as we can. We could talk
• 52:07
  Speaker 2: ourselves in circles and probably still get it wrong.
• 52:09
  Speaker 1: I think I'm one of the teams that I Am
• 52:15
  Speaker 1: really going to be keeping an eye on during that
• 52:16
  Speaker 1: stretch is Penn State because we know they've they've put
• 52:19
  Speaker 1: themselves in a position where right now they would be
• 52:22
  Speaker 1: a one seed in the NCAA tournament. We know that
• 52:26
  Speaker 1: you mentioned Nicole Hall, we know they'll be missing Testigianiky
• 52:31
  Speaker 1: with Team USA when you're in kind of those those
• 52:37
  Speaker 1: narrow margins of you know, losing a couple of HA
• 52:42
  Speaker 1: games really hits you in the NPI. Yeah, so if
• 52:47
  Speaker 1: that were to happen during that stretch, that could really
• 52:50
  Speaker 1: throw a wrench into where they are in the in
• 52:54
  Speaker 1: the tournament field.
• 52:56
  Speaker 2: Right, and and the routine you know in the past
• 52:59
  Speaker 2: that have talked about like yes, you know, we can
• 53:00
  Speaker 2: win our autobid, but like we would like to have
• 53:03
  Speaker 2: our postseason taking care of regardless of that, like, no
• 53:06
  Speaker 2: matter what happens in the tournament. So I would say
• 53:09
  Speaker 2: too that there'll be plenty of teams that would like
• 53:11
  Speaker 2: to see Penn State drop below what top eighteams or
• 53:14
  Speaker 2: so like that opens up another autobid position. So yeah,
• 53:19
  Speaker 2: like they would like to get themselves higher, you know
• 53:21
  Speaker 2: what I'm saying in the NTI above Penn State. So yeah,
• 53:25
  Speaker 2: I think that's a really good point that unfortunately per
• 53:28
  Speaker 2: Penn State, like they're going to take a bigger hit
• 53:31
  Speaker 2: per loss. That's just the nature of how the game,
• 53:36
  Speaker 2: the math works in that situation, right.
• 53:41
  Speaker 1: Okay, that is our look at I guess what we're
• 53:49
  Speaker 1: going to be looking at over that month. But we
• 53:53
  Speaker 1: thank you all for the questions that you sent in. Again,
• 53:57
  Speaker 1: if you have other questions that we can adjusting the
• 54:00
  Speaker 1: second half of the season, find the email address in
• 54:03
  Speaker 1: our show notes. We are going to take a real
• 54:05
  Speaker 1: quick break, come back and wrap things up. Stay with
• 54:08
  Speaker 1: us on the podcast. Welcome back to the podcast, Todd Nicole.
• 54:20
  Speaker 1: To wrap things up for our last episode of twenty
• 54:22
  Speaker 1: twenty five. We're going to take a couple of weeks
• 54:24
  Speaker 1: off after this and get back into things when the
• 54:27
  Speaker 1: schedule starts picking up again in twenty twenty six. But Nicole.
• 54:32
  Speaker 1: The rivalry series wrapped up last weekend, the US winning
• 54:37
  Speaker 1: all four games in the series against Canada, with two
• 54:40
  Speaker 1: wins in Edmonton ten to four on Wait, what was
• 54:44
  Speaker 1: that Thursday? Wednesday? I can't I can't even remember that
• 54:48
  Speaker 1: was Wednesday? Yes, and then for to one a lot
• 54:51
  Speaker 1: closer game on Saturday. I'd like to look at this
• 54:58
  Speaker 1: starting from the ca ended a side of things which
• 55:01
  Speaker 1: could be doom and gloom at this point. If you're
• 55:05
  Speaker 1: looking at this choosy, look at it from a a
• 55:08
  Speaker 1: certain perspective, are you are you? Yeah? I mean, do
• 55:16
  Speaker 1: you think this is something they need? They need a wellness.
• 55:19
  Speaker 2: Check on I not to hedge, but so I both
• 55:24
  Speaker 2: think that, Yeah, I think there are you know, it's
• 55:26
  Speaker 2: not good, there are question marks for them. I think,
• 55:30
  Speaker 2: you know, there are people that are sort of really
• 55:33
  Speaker 2: losing their chill this week over this, and I'm not
• 55:35
  Speaker 2: sure it's that bad. I think, yeah, I I really
• 55:41
  Speaker 2: liked the bounce back from Anne Renee. She had a
• 55:43
  Speaker 2: rough game in that ten four got pulled. I thought
• 55:47
  Speaker 2: she played really well. I know what ended up being
• 55:49
  Speaker 2: for one, but she made some massive state save. So
• 55:51
  Speaker 2: I think just from ah, you know, the foundation is
• 55:54
  Speaker 2: your goaltending, and if you're worried about your goaltender, that's
• 55:57
  Speaker 2: like the rest of the conversation kind of doesn't matter.
• 55:59
  Speaker 2: So I thought that was really important for the team
• 56:02
  Speaker 2: overall and for welfare ultimately. I don't think these games,
• 56:08
  Speaker 2: the outcome of these games matter. I don't think they
• 56:11
  Speaker 2: like have a huge bearing on what happens in the Olympics.
• 56:13
  Speaker 2: I think the Olympics are just this whole other level
• 56:16
  Speaker 2: and I don't think we have a good grasp on
• 56:21
  Speaker 2: what either team is going to look like ultimately. In
• 56:24
  Speaker 2: that position, I just think that that the nature of
• 56:27
  Speaker 2: the games, the pressure of the games, the stature of it.
• 56:31
  Speaker 2: All of that makes it that I think it's impossible
• 56:34
  Speaker 2: sort of to predict, Like I don't doubt that Canada
• 56:37
  Speaker 2: is gonna play spectacular in the Olympics. That's what they do.
• 56:41
  Speaker 2: They have Marie Filipo Lan, they have tons of experience.
• 56:44
  Speaker 2: At no point do I fit like, do I have
• 56:46
  Speaker 2: a worry about whether Canada can play great hockey in
• 56:49
  Speaker 2: the Olympics. I think the question mark for them is
• 56:53
  Speaker 2: maybe some of the line makeups. I think, you know,
• 56:56
  Speaker 2: they had some younger players in their sort of well
• 57:00
  Speaker 2: that just didn't get a lot of good looks. Like
• 57:02
  Speaker 2: I think it's very strange to put John Gardner so
• 57:04
  Speaker 2: far down the line sheet that they did. I think
• 57:08
  Speaker 2: Troy Ryan maybe relied way too hard on his Toronto
• 57:13
  Speaker 2: lineups and his Toronto players, his PWHL players and like,
• 57:19
  Speaker 2: you know what they look like, you know how well
• 57:21
  Speaker 2: they played together. For me, I thought it was interesting.
• 57:23
  Speaker 2: I thought both coaches should have used these games to
• 57:28
  Speaker 2: get a read on players or different things, and neither
• 57:31
  Speaker 2: of them really did. They really kind of stuck to
• 57:33
  Speaker 2: what we've seen sort of over and over for them.
• 57:36
  Speaker 2: And so when you've got like Caitlyn Kraeber and Chloe
• 57:38
  Speaker 2: Primorano and you're not sure if they're gonna make the
• 57:41
  Speaker 2: squad or if they're you know, they're players you're gonna
• 57:44
  Speaker 2: be able to rely on in the Olympics, and you
• 57:45
  Speaker 2: don't even play them in one of the two games,
• 57:47
  Speaker 2: like they're the healthy scratches that, like, you know what
• 57:50
  Speaker 2: you're getting from so many players on that team. And
• 57:53
  Speaker 2: it seems very strange to me to, like, I guess
• 57:57
  Speaker 2: sacrife to like go for ego and the ability to
• 58:00
  Speaker 2: win a rivalry series game over like actually testing the
• 58:03
  Speaker 2: players that you have and making sure that you've got
• 58:06
  Speaker 2: the right line combinations and things like that. And it
• 58:08
  Speaker 2: felt like both coaches were more concerned with winning this
• 58:12
  Speaker 2: than what they could learn through these games about their team.
• 58:15
  Speaker 2: And I find that very strange. I think there's a
• 58:18
  Speaker 2: bigger conversation. Sorry, go ahead, no.
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  Speaker 1: I was just gonna say that I was I was
• 58:24
  Speaker 1: wondering going into this whether we would see some you know,
• 58:28
  Speaker 1: good old fashioned US Canada gamesmanship of like we're not
• 58:32
  Speaker 1: going to show you anything in this or but you know,
• 58:34
  Speaker 1: we're not going to put the lines that we're going
• 58:37
  Speaker 1: to be taking the milan out there, but I think
• 58:40
  Speaker 1: we kind of saw that. I mean, this was like nope,
• 58:43
  Speaker 1: here's our eighteen, Yes, let's go play.
• 58:46
  Speaker 2: But it was like different from the one that the
• 58:49
  Speaker 2: one the lines that worked really well at Worlds last year.
• 58:53
  Speaker 2: Like I mentioned j in Garter, I feel like maybe
• 58:55
  Speaker 2: Maal Tay and Blear Turnbull got more minutes or like, hi,
• 59:00
  Speaker 2: there's I don't know, they're just I think there are
• 59:04
  Speaker 2: times and I don't I think that Hockey Canada is
• 59:07
  Speaker 2: better about this than they were. But I think Hockey Canada,
• 59:09
  Speaker 2: particularly with their women's team and lord knows, I don't
• 59:12
  Speaker 2: play PA any attention to the men, can get very
• 59:14
  Speaker 2: stuck in their rut of like this is what works, this,
• 59:17
  Speaker 2: this is good and we aren't gonna mess with it.
• 59:21
  Speaker 2: You know. The average asia of their tweet team is
• 59:23
  Speaker 2: quite high. People are like, well, Choe Pribano's the youngest
• 59:26
  Speaker 2: player since briefly Blond. You can't say that they're not
• 59:28
  Speaker 2: bringing in young talent. And I'm like, yeah, that's one
• 59:30
  Speaker 2: person and she didn't play a bunch, so like it
• 59:35
  Speaker 2: just overall, I think, and I'm not just saying this
• 59:37
  Speaker 2: because the US goes very young. I just think Hockey
• 59:41
  Speaker 2: Canada doesn't do a great job of sort of cycling
• 59:45
  Speaker 2: in players and continuing development. I think, first of all,
• 59:48
  Speaker 2: they rely a lot on provinces and profits teams to
• 59:52
  Speaker 2: develop players before you eighteens, and then they rely on
• 59:55
  Speaker 2: colleges after you eighteens. And I think of some of
• 59:58
  Speaker 2: the players that I saw just be really stand out,
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 2: jaw dropping amazing at seventeen that then haven't been progressed
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 2: through their program, that have maybe got lost in the
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 2: NCAA system a little bit. And I just think that
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 2: there is a larger conversation that Canada and Canadians should
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 2: be having sort of about some of these players that
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 2: like we saw these standouts at seventeen years old that
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 2: just like haven't even really made a camp, haven't really
• 1:00:20
  Speaker 2: even gotten a chance. Like I'm not saying I know
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 2: that like Mackenzie Alexander would be spectacular with the senior
• 1:00:27
  Speaker 2: national team, but like you also don't know she wouldn't be.
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 2: And it seems weird to me that, like, you know,
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 2: we do the the U twenty two in the collegiate series,
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 2: and like that's kind of the end of what you
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 2: see for players that aren't are really already in the
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 2: senior national team pool, and you think about like how
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 2: long it took them to bring in Darryl Watts and
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 2: things like that. They just they have their same players.
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 2: They have these players that have been going for several years.
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 2: And it's not that I don't think that those players
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 2: are good or that they can't win. I'm just it
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 2: seems crazy to not be looking to develop and bring
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 2: in sort of new blood and see how that could
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 2: change dynamics. And they seem just really happy to be
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 2: comfortable in what they have, like these are top pier players,
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 2: we don't need anything else, and uh Iya to some point,
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 2: like it's I feel it makes me think a little
• 1:01:15
  Speaker 2: bit of a like umd under Shannon Miller, right like
• 1:01:18
  Speaker 2: she was still at the forefront for a while, and
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 2: then as other teams were catching up, she's stuck with
• 1:01:22
  Speaker 2: what she was doing and didn't also sort of develop
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 2: and grow from there. And that's kind of I feel
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 2: like maybe where Hockey Canada is right now is just
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 2: like almost a stubborn refusal to see that like just
• 1:01:34
  Speaker 2: because you've got a really good team and just because
• 1:01:36
  Speaker 2: you have Pulan and just because you've won the gold
• 1:01:39
  Speaker 2: medal A bunch doesn't mean that what you're doing is
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 2: what you should keep doing. Does that make sense Amy
• 1:01:44
  Speaker 2: saying that?
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 1: Yeah, And I think that you know that all being said,
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 1: it it's going to come down to one game again.
• 1:01:54
  Speaker 1: You know, if everything goes the way we expect it
• 1:01:56
  Speaker 1: to go, it's going to come down to the US
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 1: and Canada in a gold medal game and one score
• 1:02:04
  Speaker 1: somewhere along the line, and right, and and so they're
• 1:02:11
  Speaker 1: good enough to be in that conversation. And I think
• 1:02:15
  Speaker 1: we we know these both these teams at some level
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 1: are due for a massive overhaul of players, as as
• 1:02:23
  Speaker 1: we're seeing the p w h L kind of start
• 1:02:27
  Speaker 1: to be the you know, the the producer of of players.
• 1:02:31
  Speaker 1: Now when you know this is Hillary Knight's last Olympics
• 1:02:34
  Speaker 1: for the US, probably plays last Olympics for Canada, right,
• 1:02:38
  Speaker 1: so those that next generation is going to have to
• 1:02:43
  Speaker 1: come in at some point. We've seen that happen for
• 1:02:47
  Speaker 1: the US. I think a little bit more to your point,
• 1:02:50
  Speaker 1: and well, what's it going to take for Canada to
• 1:02:55
  Speaker 1: move it along?
• 1:02:56
  Speaker 2: Yeah? And I feel like this is all well and good,
• 1:02:58
  Speaker 2: but if Canada wins goal to get like we're gonna
• 1:03:01
  Speaker 2: they'll just it reinforces what they did, and like we
• 1:03:04
  Speaker 2: sound stupid, and you know, like all of this conversation
• 1:03:07
  Speaker 2: was for not and but if they lose, then I think,
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 2: you know, there's a lot of things that you can
• 1:03:13
  Speaker 2: point to, and it's not just this rivalry series. I
• 1:03:16
  Speaker 2: think one of the important things is that if he
• 1:03:19
  Speaker 2: really feels like USA has had whether you agree with
• 1:03:22
  Speaker 2: it or not, whether you like it or not, there's
• 1:03:25
  Speaker 2: been a plan in place for four years that, like
• 1:03:28
  Speaker 2: Roboleski started bringing in these young players, got them into
• 1:03:31
  Speaker 2: world championships, them international experience, Like this roster hasn't changed
• 1:03:35
  Speaker 2: a ton, but the point is giving that young team
• 1:03:38
  Speaker 2: a chance to work together and get that experience and
• 1:03:42
  Speaker 2: be comfortable in those higher leverage situations and sort of
• 1:03:46
  Speaker 2: all of those things. And I feel like if you're
• 1:03:49
  Speaker 2: just gonna sort of throw in a player, a younger
• 1:03:52
  Speaker 2: player late in the game, I'm not necessarily sure how.
• 1:03:55
  Speaker 2: I'm almost contradicting myself on that in terms of like
• 1:03:57
  Speaker 2: Premerano and Kramer, but I just like there needs to
• 1:04:01
  Speaker 2: be maybe some more long term planning of developing those
• 1:04:06
  Speaker 2: younger players and putting them in a position to be
• 1:04:08
  Speaker 2: able to be impactful at the Olympics. Yeah, I mean
• 1:04:13
  Speaker 2: I think about like, like Sim's making the mistake that
• 1:04:16
  Speaker 2: led to the penalty that led to the gold medal
• 1:04:18
  Speaker 2: in Utica, right, things like that, so that like she's
• 1:04:21
  Speaker 2: not in a position to maybe like make a dumb
• 1:04:23
  Speaker 2: mistake later on, right, like a mental mistake. I think
• 1:04:28
  Speaker 2: that's what I am thinking about when I think of
• 1:04:30
  Speaker 2: like the sort of the long term planning for us,
• 1:04:32
  Speaker 2: is that like understanding that mentally the Olympics is just
• 1:04:35
  Speaker 2: a whole separate ballgame and and putting your players in
• 1:04:40
  Speaker 2: the best position, and like maybe that is the mentality
• 1:04:43
  Speaker 2: for Canada, Like why would I put someone younger there
• 1:04:45
  Speaker 2: when I've got proven you know, Olympic champions so you know. Also, yeah,
• 1:04:52
  Speaker 2: like it's all speculation, and I certainly don't want to
• 1:04:56
  Speaker 2: be responsible for making either roster. So I do think
• 1:04:59
  Speaker 2: they're you know, a bigger conversation about like why some
• 1:05:02
  Speaker 2: of the very talented, very successful Canadian U eighteens of
• 1:05:07
  Speaker 2: say the last five years are not on at least
• 1:05:13
  Speaker 2: in camps and senior national team from not getting sort
• 1:05:17
  Speaker 2: of token looks once a year in the at summer
• 1:05:19
  Speaker 2: summer festivals. And things like that, you know, sort of
• 1:05:22
  Speaker 2: regardless of the Olympics. I think that's a conversation that
• 1:05:24
  Speaker 2: probably needs to be had. But you know, hindsight will
• 1:05:27
  Speaker 2: be fifty to fifty when we get to the to
• 1:05:30
  Speaker 2: the end of February and will either sound amazing or
• 1:05:34
  Speaker 2: like we have no idea what we're talking about.
• 1:05:35
  Speaker 1: So, yeah, the the tournament starts just a little over
• 1:05:41
  Speaker 1: seven weeks from now, which you know, let's hope there
• 1:05:45
  Speaker 1: is a rink to play on and that there are
• 1:05:47
  Speaker 1: seats to for spectators to watch from videos so such, yeah,
• 1:05:54
  Speaker 1: video the capabilities for broadcasts. Yes, that term is supposed
• 1:05:58
  Speaker 1: to start on You're a Fifth, one day before the
• 1:06:02
  Speaker 1: opening ceremony because it stretches long enough that they need
• 1:06:05
  Speaker 1: that extra day. So we will be talking about those
• 1:06:09
  Speaker 1: rosters when they do come out in the new year.
• 1:06:13
  Speaker 1: That is something I don't know if there's actually a
• 1:06:16
  Speaker 1: date yet set for that. Us don't be happening at
• 1:06:19
  Speaker 1: the World Earth at the Winter Classic on January first,
• 1:06:23
  Speaker 1: but I don't know that that's going to happen this year.
• 1:06:25
  Speaker 1: We'll we'll keep an eye on that, but maybe we'll
• 1:06:28
  Speaker 1: have something to talk about when we come back for
• 1:06:30
  Speaker 1: our first show of twenty twenty.
• 1:06:31
  Speaker 2: Six, and then I'll be heading to the eighteen world
• 1:06:34
  Speaker 2: so don't forget about that before we even get to
• 1:06:36
  Speaker 2: the Olympics, which got.
• 1:06:37
  Speaker 1: Lots of drama. Happens quickly after that.
• 1:06:39
  Speaker 2: Right yeah youah, three weeks or so out.
• 1:06:44
  Speaker 1: All right, Well, like I said, this is our last
• 1:06:46
  Speaker 1: show of twenty twenty five, So Nicole, I want to
• 1:06:49
  Speaker 1: wish you and your family a happy holidays, happy New Year,
• 1:06:53
  Speaker 1: and well, thank you for being you and doing everything
• 1:06:56
  Speaker 1: you do for women's hockey because we need someone like
• 1:07:00
  Speaker 1: you to rally everyone around and then to pull together
• 1:07:03
  Speaker 1: all these lists of things that you do, and thank
• 1:07:05
  Speaker 1: you look through dozens and dozens of rosters, So thank
• 1:07:09
  Speaker 1: you for always doing that, and and yeah, thanks.
• 1:07:12
  Speaker 2: For doing it with me always. Fun would not be
• 1:07:14
  Speaker 2: as near as much fun just talking to my computer screen,
• 1:07:17
  Speaker 2: so I appreciate that as well. But we hope everybody
• 1:07:20
  Speaker 2: you know is safe and warm and with their people,
• 1:07:24
  Speaker 2: no matter who they are. You know, in the coming weeks,
• 1:07:26
  Speaker 2: take care of everybody. It's really cold outside up here,
• 1:07:29
  Speaker 2: so I hope everybody else is being careful. I was
• 1:07:32
  Speaker 2: looking I'm going to you know, Kate Breton everybody's warning
• 1:07:35
  Speaker 2: me about the weather in Wisconsin this weekend. It was
• 1:07:37
  Speaker 2: negative too, while it was thirty three in Nova Scotia.
• 1:07:40
  Speaker 2: So I was pretty excited, Like, take me to Canada
• 1:07:43
  Speaker 2: right now.
• 1:07:44
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it doesn't seem right, yeah right, so we'll take that.
• 1:07:47
  Speaker 2: But yeah, everybody be safe and careful and we'll see
• 1:07:49
  Speaker 2: you in the new year.
• 1:07:50
  Speaker 1: All right. That's going to wrap it up for Nicole
• 1:07:52
  Speaker 1: On Todd. Thanks for listening to and watching the podcast.