Latest / The PodKaz: USCHO Women's Hockey / An abrupt coaching change, a top-two split and Thomas O'Malley talks Sacred Heart's 9-3 start

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An abrupt coaching change, a top-two split and Thomas O'Malley talks Sacred Heart's 9-3 start · The PodKaz: USCHO Women's Hockey

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Usccho dot com. Hi everyone, Welcome back to the podcast.
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: Todd Luski here with Nicole Hasey and Nicole We've got
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: a number one versus Number two matchup and a number
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: three versus Number four matchup to reflect upon from last weekend.
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: But I want to start off here with some news
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: that it emerged on Tuesday at Saint Thomas where Joel
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: Johnson resigned as coach after he was not on the
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: bench for Saturday's game at Bamidgie State. He was on
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: the bench in the Friday game. We've both been looking
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: into this a little bit. Not a lot of details
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: out there yet, but there's I think this is, you know,
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: just a massive change in the middle of a season
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: for a program that is building and in their fourth
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: season as a Division one program, building in a tough
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: league like the w c h A. It's going to
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: be difficult, and this is a move that really feels
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: like it makes it more difficult when you're having the
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: change directions and changed coaches in the middle of November.
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: Right no assistant coach is taking over, but I mean
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: Joel Johnson was hired at Saint Thomas on the strength
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: of his name and the draw that he could be
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: both as the former longtime assistant at Minnesota and when
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: he was hired, he was you know, the US national
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: team coach, like he coached the Olympic team, And so,
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: you know, I kind of feel sorry for some of
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: these recruits that are either you know, when this year,
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: you know, there have been a couple of big names
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: national you know, junior national team type players that have
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: have gone to Saint Thomas, and you just know that
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: that sort of the cash that Joel carries with his
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: name is part of why they went there. And so
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: you know, in that way, it's just like that sucks
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: for those players. And but yeah, when you're building and
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: you're you know, they really took a chance on him,
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: you know, sort of when he was balancing between those
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: took a chance not that he wasn't a good but
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: like between him balancing the national team things.
• 2:12
  Speaker 3: And and again I think, you know, they really, as.
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: A program starting from scratch, the opportunity to get someone
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: with that sort of name recognition was huge for them.
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: And so yeah, aside from sort of anything that comes
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: from this story breaking and all of the details we
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: don't yet know, I think just sort of losing that
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: that name recognition and that appeal of like why a
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: student athlete would pick Saint Thomas maybe over other places.
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: That's a huge setback for them, right it is.
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: And you mentioned Bethany Broughton is taking over an interim
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: position or interim capacity as head coach. She's an assistant
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: at Saint Thomas. Marty Surtage is also on the staff there.
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: But it is a something that will be interesting to
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: keep an eye in terms of where this goes, maybe
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: not this season, but through the off season. Because this
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: is a program that has a new arena coming. It's
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: being built right now. I think it's a year and
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: a half away from being done. It's that's something that
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: you can latch onto in terms of we're talking about recruiting.
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: That's that's something you can sell the players as you know,
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: you come here, you're going to be one of the
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: first groups to be in this beautiful new arena. You're
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: in the Twin Cities, You've got this is a hockey
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: culture there. But right now you've got a lot of
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: questions to answer about, well, what happened here and what
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: if you're going into a player's house, what there's gonna
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: be a lot of questions you're gonna have to answer
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: there in terms of, well, what happened, who should we
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: expect to be the next coach, what's it going to
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: look like in the next three or four years, and and.
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: And legalities wise, I'm not sure if they'll be able to.
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: Answer anything right, some of those they might not be
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: able to.
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: But particularly like you, you know, we he wasn't on
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: the bench on Saturday, and we already have you know,
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: him resigning on Tuesday. You and I had both heard
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: sort of like couldn't confirm sources, but that there had
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: been you know, he was placed on a leave and
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: that things were being looked into. But him resigning I
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: think takes away some of that investigation part of it,
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: which then I think makes probably some of the details
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: may remain private because of the sort of the process
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: this has gone through, and you know, as opposed to
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: like a huge investigation that may have happened. And so yeah,
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: having to answer those questions, uh, is just going to
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: be a problem. I think I think some of them
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: that stuff just like legalities wise, I'm not I'm not sure.
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: I would assume that there were some agreements made about
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: what couldn't couldn't be talked about as part of this,
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: and so yeah, that not being able to answer those
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: questions I think is it's going to be really tough
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: for them.
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: Yeah, again, this just just came out Tuesday afternoon. We
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: had heard a little bit about it about midday Tuesday
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: and started kind of looking into it and asking some
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: questions and it didn't kind of evolve fast from there,
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: but it's something you know, we'll kind of keep tabs
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: on here to see whether there's more to come as
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: part of this. And you know, obviously people you know
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: have have information, We're happy to hear it too, and
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: you obviously get it vetted and those kind of things
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: before it goes out. But yeah, there's there's feels like
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: there's more to come on this on both sides and
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: the what happened and where Saint Thomas goes from here.
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I would say too that like Saint Thomas has
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: been pretty active in signing players and the transfer portal,
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: but the transfer portal sort of changes this whole thing,
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: right too, Just like when when things don't go the
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: way that you expected when you sign onto a team
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: and that coach is no longer there, like that, the
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: landscape of college athletics right now is very different, and
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: so yeah, I imagine that we'll see some turnover and
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: the roster and things like that, and probably some some
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: decommits and all of that sort of things just because
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: of the change in expectations from those players. So yeah,
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: just aside from whether or not anything happened, just far
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: reaching sort of ripples when you talk about, you know,
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: a coach leaving midseason.
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so stay with us on that. More to come.
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: But elsewhere in the WCCHA last weekend, we had number
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: one Wisconsin playing at number two Ohio State. We had
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: number three Minnesota playing at number four Minnesota DULUSO. It
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: was all kind of right out there in terms of
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: the top teams in the country playing each other. Let's
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: start with Wisconsin and Ohio State. The Badgers come from
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: behind to win on the Friday and can't come from
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: behind to win on Saturday. Ohio State has a two
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: goal lead in both those games in the first period.
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: It doesn't hold up on Friday, but it does on Saturday.
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: What did you I guess what'd you learn from that
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: that matchup? Oh?
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: You were the press conference with Mark Johnson today, Wisconsin coach,
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: I'd be curious. I'd imagine he said something along the
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: lines of these are the lessons you want to learn
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: in November.
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and yeah, that's kind of the way we put
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: it to him, is, you know, the first question I
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: asked was, well, what do you know now but your
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: team that you you didn't know last week, And it
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: was about you know, taking those opportunities and those experiences
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: and you know, learning them now so you have them
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: for when the games really matter in March, and you're
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: building that collection of experiences to to have for that
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: point in the season.
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: Yeah, being able to come from behind against two top
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: teams is great, but being able to believe that you
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: could constantly come from behind is actually not going to
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: serve them very well long term. So in that way,
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: you know, sort of not digging out of that hole
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: on Saturday, I think is a good lesson for that team.
• 7:48
  Speaker 3: That team needed to learn.
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: And you just you you can't keep going down, well,
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: two goals in the first period against other top ranked teams.
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: That's that's just gonna not go well for you more
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: times than not, even though thus far the odds of
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: it on their side. Yeah, I'm not sure. I thought
• 8:05
  Speaker 2: it was interesting and telling. You know that a lot
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: of the Ohio State goals came from mckinna Webster and
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: Maddie Wheeler, both Wisconsin transfers. A good storyline there about like,
• 8:18
  Speaker 2: you know, McKenna left to be able to be a
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: two sport athlete there, So I don't think there's a
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: ton of animosity there. Maddie's might be a different story
• 8:25
  Speaker 2: just in terms of like wanting to get back at
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: her old team. But yeah, I I thought the Badgers
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: played really well. I thought they responded really well to
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: some of that stuff. I thought Ohio State played really well.
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: I thought they took, you know, advantage of their opportunities.
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: I thought, you know, scoring twice in twenty seconds on
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: a team like Wisconsin is a huge, huge thing, and
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: you know, the I thought both teams. I think there
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: were big lessons learned on special teams, like one of
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: Wisconsin's power play goals was scored on a shorty chance
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: that didn't wasn't scored by Ohio State, and that they
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: were caught even more shorthanded than they actually were on
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: the power play, you know, in that transition. And I
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: can imagine that's some tape that they'll be watching a
• 9:06
  Speaker 2: ton and then obviously, you know, the difference in the
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: game on Saturday was a short handed goal for Ohio State.
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: So not necessarily the way I thought special teams would
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: come into play in those two games, but I thought,
• 9:18
  Speaker 2: you know, good lessons for both teams to learn.
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: How about you, well it My takeaway was this is
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: pretty much exactly what we expected of the number two
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: teams in the country right in Ohio State had. I
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: think both teams kind of had the the chip on
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: their shoulder, potentially Wisconsin. I think we mentioned this last week.
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: Wisconsin had the well they lost in the championship game
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: last season. Ohio State had the well, you know, our
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: start hasn't been as perfect as theirs, so to speak,
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: but we feel like we're still a pretty and good
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: team and you know, should be right up there with them.
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: And I think both things ended up being true. You know,
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: with Sconsin was able to use that, uh that that
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: feeling from last year to carve their way back from
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: from a deficit on on Friday, and and Ohiose came
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: out again on Saturday, and and you'll put their foot
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: down and said, okay, you're in our building. This is
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: not going to be easy for you, and honestly it
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: was not at any point in in the weekend. I mean,
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: has a way of of locking down the entry to
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: the D zone that Wisconsin doesn't see a lot or
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: teams just aren't able to be as effective against Wisconsin
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: as Ohio State is at that particular part of the game.
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: And we saw that happen over and over again that
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: Wahio State was able to kind of execute that. And
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: and really that's you know, if they stay out of
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: the penalty box, if they you know, don't take a
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: few fewer penalties, it might have been a little bit
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: more lopsided towards Ohio State. And and so I think
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: that that's that's something that you look for down the
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: road too, is how how big special teams can be
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: when these two teams play. Of course, it wasn't in
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: the championship game last year because when the penalties called,
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: so that didn't get to be a factor in that,
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: but it did a little bit, uh this this last weekend.
• 11:20
  Speaker 2: Yeah, another thing I just wanted to put it like
• 11:23
  Speaker 2: maybe more than normal even there were so many bucks
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: that hit the roof in their arena, and it was
• 11:28
  Speaker 2: just so frustrating the way that it kept sort of
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: stopping the game and keeping any sort of flow. I mean,
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: it's when those two teams play it still is it
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: like nobody's puts out in the puck for a long time, right,
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: But like there was a great fast back and forthness
• 11:44
  Speaker 2: to to those games, and then then the buck would
• 11:47
  Speaker 2: hit the roof and we'd have a stoppage and play
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: and it was was just frustrating.
• 11:49
  Speaker 3: It was one of those things.
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: Where I'm like about their their arena, you know, well
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: tread path of complaining that that team deserves a better
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: place to play. But yeah, that was it felt like
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: even more than normal, and I just felt like, of
• 12:02
  Speaker 2: all the things to sort of stop the flow of
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: play or keep either team from from getting sort of
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: any rhythm, that felt like the dumbest reason why.
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: Well, maybe they should play outside this season too, well,
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: and I guess they wait, they will, right because those
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: two teams play again in January. I think it's January second,
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: Thursday night in Madison, and then it goes to Chicago
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: at Wrigley Field Outdoors on the Saturday, January fourth, I believe,
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: so obviously a big, big stage coming for them and
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: you know, I think that it'll it's built up to
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: the point where they deserve that kind of that opportunity
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: to be out there in front of everyone. Really.
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and that'll be a regular Big ten network as well,
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: And so just I'm excited for like the greater hockey
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: community to see literally, you know, the two best teams
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: over the last few years play each other in the spotlight.
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: It's not what necessarily we've always seen with some of
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: the outdoor games and things like that. So I'm just
• 13:06
  Speaker 2: really excited for that to be such a like that's
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: just such an opportunity for women's college hockey, I think.
• 13:13
  Speaker 2: And so I think if people tune in and you know,
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: see what happens when you get those those teams together
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: with that many you know, international that much international talent,
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: all that sort of stuff, I think it's it's going
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: to be a great showcase for the sport.
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: Yeah. And moving on to the other big series in
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: the w c h A. Last week, Minnesota playing at
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: Minnesota Duluth and the Gophers came away with a sweep
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: of that series, really a much needed sweep. I think
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: we talked about it last week that the Gophers kind
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: of needed to establish themselves in league play, and they
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: did that with a pair of wins four to one
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: on Friday, three to two on Saturday. That that game
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: was one to one in the second period on Friday
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: for Happy Murphy. Murphy scored Ella Huber added a couple later,
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: including an empty netter, to make that for one game.
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: It like I said, it was the kind of games
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: that Minnesota needed to win at this point in the season.
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and they played like they knew it. I felt
• 14:11
  Speaker 2: like they showed that there is a little bit of
• 14:14
  Speaker 2: gap between them and Minnesota Duluth right now. I mean,
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: ev Gusco played outstanding as expected in that for UMD
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: made a huge difference, But I just the sort of
• 14:25
  Speaker 2: scoring efficiency, the ability that the sort of they both
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: can play great offense, right but like Minnesota has like
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: what Abby Murphy can do with the puck and what
• 14:34
  Speaker 2: a few other players on their team can do with
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: the puck, and I'm not sure that that Minnesota Duluth
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: can match some of that. And so that's where I
• 14:40
  Speaker 2: think that gap is. And having that sort of player
• 14:43
  Speaker 2: that when it's when it's won one late in the
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: game is gonna sort of say screw it, I'm doing
• 14:48
  Speaker 2: it myself. So yeah, I think for me, Minnesota played
• 14:53
  Speaker 2: like the team I expect them to be at this point,
• 14:55
  Speaker 2: and maybe they haven't always shown thus far this season.
• 14:59
  Speaker 2: So much needed points as you said, and I hopefully
• 15:03
  Speaker 2: maybe a confidence boost in a reminder that like you're
• 15:05
  Speaker 2: the number three team in the country and you should
• 15:08
  Speaker 2: you should keep playing like that.
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: Yeah, And on the Delute side, it's kind of a
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: it's a little bit of a repeat of some of
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: the things that they've experienced in that you know that
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: you're close, you're you're within striking range of a really
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: good team, and it's just getting over the time.
• 15:23
  Speaker 2: Not getting Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's what I'm trying to say,
• 15:27
  Speaker 2: but not as articularly right like that little bit of
• 15:29
  Speaker 2: gap that that chows that just like in that situation,
• 15:32
  Speaker 2: they just they're not able to find that you know,
• 15:35
  Speaker 2: that magic up that extra goal or they're close that
• 15:37
  Speaker 2: gap anyway.
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: Over in Hockey East, we had the Battle of Comma
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: av Boston University and Boston College playing a home and
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: home series and the road team won both games, b
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: C winning and overtime at BU on Friday, BU winning
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: three to one in the Heights on Saturday, So another
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: series that kind of feels like a Okay, probably deserve
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: to split these games, but either those teams really could
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: have used from a national perspective, could have used the
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: benefit of two games two wins on the weekend.
• 16:15
  Speaker 2: Well, what's interesting about those games to me is how
• 16:18
  Speaker 2: sort of like almost every period was different in terms
• 16:23
  Speaker 2: of sort of like momentum, and it was not like
• 16:26
  Speaker 2: it was evenly matched. It can across six periods, if
• 16:28
  Speaker 2: that makes sense. And honestly, BC winning that first game
• 16:31
  Speaker 2: was oh gosh, my dog is attempting to climb on
• 16:35
  Speaker 2: top of the laptop.
• 16:35
  Speaker 3: I apologize.
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: Here sometimes, buddy.
• 16:41
  Speaker 3: He's like, I'm not so sure about now.
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: Ripley doesn't want to be involved.
• 16:45
  Speaker 3: Okay, there he is. He's like, you moved to the camera.
• 16:48
  Speaker 3: What's happening.
• 16:49
  Speaker 2: My husband is traveling internationally for work, and so normally
• 16:52
  Speaker 2: I would sort of be able to to lock up,
• 16:54
  Speaker 2: and but I worried if I didn't let him in,
• 16:57
  Speaker 2: he'd just make a lot of noise. There he is,
• 17:01
  Speaker 2: But are you being shy? Uh? Anyway back to the hockey. Yeah,
• 17:07
  Speaker 2: BC won that game in overtime, kind of against the
• 17:10
  Speaker 2: run of play. Be you really took over periods two
• 17:13
  Speaker 2: and three in that game and just could not find
• 17:16
  Speaker 2: the back of the net. But they were they were
• 17:19
  Speaker 2: controlling like the pace of play, they were holding it
• 17:22
  Speaker 2: in the zone. And so that was a huge win,
• 17:25
  Speaker 2: particularly knowing that B you won the second game, sort
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: of in retrospect, like huge for BC to get those points.
• 17:30
  Speaker 3: In that first game.
• 17:31
  Speaker 2: But yeah, it felt like every period I wasn't quite
• 17:33
  Speaker 2: sure exactly what team we were going to get and
• 17:35
  Speaker 2: how they were going to match up. It was considering
• 17:37
  Speaker 2: I think they're pretty evenly matched teams. The EBB and
• 17:40
  Speaker 2: flow of that game wasn't like, oh, just fighting back
• 17:43
  Speaker 2: and forth a little bit. It would be like way,
• 17:45
  Speaker 2: you know, one one way and one then hard hard.
• 17:47
  Speaker 3: The other direction.
• 17:48
  Speaker 2: So just interesting to see that and see that like
• 17:51
  Speaker 2: each team had the ability to sort of dominate over
• 17:54
  Speaker 2: the other for small stretches.
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: Yeah, in another rivalry series last week and ec AC
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: teams but playing in non conference play had Clarkson and
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: Saint Lawrence ended up in a tie on Thursday. I
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: believe the first game was there and then the second
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: game Saturday, Clarkson shut out Saint Lawrence to nothing, or
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: maybe I have the days wrong. I think that was Saturday.
• 18:19
  Speaker 2: Yeah, the first game Clarkson won outright in the second game.
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: So again big wins for Clarkson. I mean it's a
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: big win on the second game.
• 18:33
  Speaker 2: Four or six points, I think is is that's they're
• 18:35
  Speaker 2: happy with that, right.
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: You know, we're really not talking about points because being
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: NONO their conference teams and you know, yeah, we'll sigh
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: about that throughout the Clarkson complicated. Yes, Clarkson has to
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: show these kind of things, these wins against ranked teams
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: to to kind of keep the keep themselves in that
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: conversation for when we get down to that point for
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: being a top four seed in the NCAA tournament.
• 19:08
  Speaker 2: Yes, absolutely, And I thought one of the things that
• 19:11
  Speaker 2: that was really interesting during that game is how much
• 19:14
  Speaker 2: how well Clerkson really focused on the defense, in which
• 19:17
  Speaker 2: just generally there they are have been strong on defense
• 19:21
  Speaker 2: and maybe don't have to, you know, focus on it
• 19:23
  Speaker 2: as much where that's just how it is. And then
• 19:25
  Speaker 2: they they you know, are able to be really offensive
• 19:28
  Speaker 2: and so like they were switching up the pairs and
• 19:30
  Speaker 2: really like changing things up and really reacting within the
• 19:34
  Speaker 2: game in a way that maybe they do more often.
• 19:37
  Speaker 2: But as someone who doesn't get to watch them a ton,
• 19:39
  Speaker 2: I don't necessarily see, you know, like it's it's a
• 19:43
  Speaker 2: different thing when you're you're only you know, you've got
• 19:45
  Speaker 2: multiple games on and stuff. But yeah, you could really
• 19:47
  Speaker 2: see the way that Matters was sort of manipulating his
• 19:50
  Speaker 2: lines and really reacting within those games. And I thought, A,
• 19:54
  Speaker 2: it was just really interesting. It was obviously successful, and
• 19:57
  Speaker 2: B I think just kind of shows like that again,
• 19:59
  Speaker 2: even the they weren't conference games, like they understood the
• 20:02
  Speaker 2: import of like getting getting those points that weekend, getting
• 20:05
  Speaker 2: those results.
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: Anything else stand out to you from last weekend? A
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: lot of a lot of games that that turned out
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: to be pretty close, a lot of shutouts as were
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: I was looking through the schedule last weekend. What else
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: jumped out at you from from what we saw last weekend?
• 20:22
  Speaker 2: Well, I thought it was interesting, you know, Brown getting
• 20:26
  Speaker 2: losing three nothing to Yale on Sunday and what.
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: Was it on SAD one or one?
• 20:31
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that was not the outcome I would have expected.
• 20:35
  Speaker 2: Both because Yale is the unranked team and also we've
• 20:38
  Speaker 2: just sort of seen more from Brown, so would be
• 20:42
  Speaker 2: interesting to sort of watch, you know, the sort of
• 20:44
  Speaker 2: the different approaches and and what it was about Yale
• 20:47
  Speaker 2: that really shut down those games just because it's that
• 20:50
  Speaker 2: was not what I expected. But the rest of the
• 20:52
  Speaker 2: ECAC really sort of went out and did what they
• 20:54
  Speaker 2: needed to do right and won those games. Those ranked
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: teams went out, got the points, won the games they
• 20:59
  Speaker 2: needed to win. I think maybe the other one was
• 21:01
  Speaker 2: the sink Cloud State games, right the Saint Cloud State
• 21:06
  Speaker 2: Minnesota State. Saint Cloud needed over time to beat Minnesota
• 21:10
  Speaker 2: State on I know what are days, This is on Saturday,
• 21:15
  Speaker 2: and Minnesota State one for one on Friday, so, you know,
• 21:21
  Speaker 2: much like we were talking about, like clerks and needing
• 21:23
  Speaker 2: those those sort of winds and the resume.
• 21:26
  Speaker 3: I thought, that's a that's a tough loss.
• 21:28
  Speaker 2: It's a tough weekend for Saint Cloud State when they're
• 21:32
  Speaker 2: fighting to sort of keep themselves above that line of
• 21:36
  Speaker 2: teams that will be talking about the postseason and the
• 21:38
  Speaker 2: NCAA Tournament. Just really uncharacteristic games from them. They Minnesota
• 21:43
  Speaker 2: State outshot them, they won more face offs, just sort
• 21:46
  Speaker 2: of every every statistical category just was not Saint Cloud
• 21:49
  Speaker 2: State's game on Friday. I mean, good for them for
• 21:52
  Speaker 2: coming back and winning and overtime on Saturday. But yeah,
• 21:55
  Speaker 2: just I think probably a rough weekend, one they'd rather
• 21:57
  Speaker 2: forget and hopefully just learn a lot from and then
• 22:01
  Speaker 2: you know, sort of talking to Saint Thomas. But but
• 22:03
  Speaker 2: Midgie State looked really good this week and they got
• 22:05
  Speaker 2: their first w c h A win on the season,
• 22:09
  Speaker 2: and I think the important part for them is that
• 22:12
  Speaker 2: it's it's dynamic offense. It's not offense that's just coming
• 22:16
  Speaker 2: and transition or you know, we have the puck, we
• 22:19
  Speaker 2: go down and we shoot and that's the end of it.
• 22:21
  Speaker 3: They were they were just.
• 22:22
  Speaker 2: Doing really good stuff. I don't like it's it sounds
• 22:26
  Speaker 2: kind of sending it. It also just like really generic. But yeah,
• 22:29
  Speaker 2: I just I had that on my secondary TV and
• 22:32
  Speaker 2: just watching the way that they were moving the puck
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: up the ice, that they were catching St. Thomas sort
• 22:36
  Speaker 2: of sleeping a little bit in some of that transition.
• 22:40
  Speaker 2: So yeah, I was just really impressed. I think it
• 22:42
  Speaker 2: says good things about what can come from Amigie State.
• 22:45
  Speaker 2: We already know that even when sort of at their lowest,
• 22:48
  Speaker 2: they've been a great defensive team, but what's been missing
• 22:52
  Speaker 2: is sort of a more dynamic offense that can score
• 22:54
  Speaker 2: regularly and so it's not just that they won, but
• 22:57
  Speaker 2: it was watching them really put together more interesting and
• 23:00
  Speaker 2: dynamic offense that could you know, move through and around
• 23:05
  Speaker 2: defenders and really set up in the zone and finish
• 23:10
  Speaker 2: off when they when they're moving in transition with speed
• 23:12
  Speaker 2: and they're going with it's not just one skater, it's
• 23:14
  Speaker 2: multiple skaters, and they're passing and they're they're ending that
• 23:17
  Speaker 2: with a goal. I think it says good things about
• 23:19
  Speaker 2: what can come in the future Forbamidge State and I
• 23:21
  Speaker 2: hope it, you know, sure is what they're building under
• 23:23
  Speaker 2: Amber Frickland and what can be the future for them
• 23:26
  Speaker 2: that it's uh, you know, maybe getting too excited over
• 23:29
  Speaker 2: one or two games, but it was it was good
• 23:31
  Speaker 2: to see.
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: From them or wins last season for the Beavers. Already
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: three wins this season and a sweep, which a long
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: time coming, I'm sure felt like for them. So that's
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: a step forward for Bummidge State. When we come back,
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: we will talk with another the coach of another team
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: who is taking a step forward the season. Sacred Heart
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: is nine and three, uh and in the lead of
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: the New ha so far this season. We'll talk to
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: Tom O'Malley, a long time coach there and uh so
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: stay with us here on the podcast. Welcome back to
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: the podcast, Todd Malesky here, joined by our special guest
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: this week, the head coach at Sacred Heart University, Thomas
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: O'Malley Thomas. Great to see you, Thanks for joining us.
• 24:22
  Speaker 4: Happy to be with you, Todd. Thank you.
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: Let's talk about the start of your season. Your team's
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: nine of three, eight and two in the new hat
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: in first place. What what have you liked so far?
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: What has gone well?
• 24:32
  Speaker 5: Yeah, we just you know, first of all, we have
• 24:34
  Speaker 5: a just a great group of people on our team,
• 24:37
  Speaker 5: and you know, the locker room has come out onto
• 24:40
  Speaker 5: the ice and vice versa. You know what I'm saying,
• 24:44
  Speaker 5: Like we're deep on the ice, we have a really
• 24:48
  Speaker 5: good team, family, culture and chemistry off the ice, which brings,
• 24:53
  Speaker 5: like I said, comes out onto the ice.
• 24:55
  Speaker 4: So it's definitely shown.
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: That doesn't just happen by accident, right, those kind of
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: the kind of culture. Uh, that's something you build over
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: a long period of time. How how have you seen
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: that develop? Uh to the point that this group is
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: really showing that so far.
• 25:12
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean that's just how I've always been, you know,
• 25:16
  Speaker 5: It's not like we just get you know, players to
• 25:19
  Speaker 5: come come to Sacred Heart and just like all right, listen,
• 25:23
  Speaker 5: make sure you're at practice and get on the ice,
• 25:25
  Speaker 5: and I don't care about anything else. It's it's quite
• 25:27
  Speaker 5: the opposite, you know. So we care naturally about our
• 25:32
  Speaker 5: players as people first, you know, student athletes. I tell
• 25:36
  Speaker 5: my players schools number one, Hockey's one a you know,
• 25:41
  Speaker 5: and just you know that that whole whole thing, like
• 25:45
  Speaker 5: you know, just just a good atmosphere. Competitive, but but
• 25:50
  Speaker 5: but family, like you know, friendly.
• 25:53
  Speaker 4: You know, I want my players.
• 25:54
  Speaker 5: You might not be the absolute best friend with every
• 25:57
  Speaker 5: single kid in the room.
• 26:00
  Speaker 4: There's a healthy respect for everyone in the room. And
• 26:03
  Speaker 4: you know, like I said that you bring that out
• 26:05
  Speaker 4: onto the ice.
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: So I wonder if you can share who you who
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: you select at exist year's captains and why and how
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: that process worked and where they're kind of bringing that
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: that mentality along with with the group.
• 26:21
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean I usually.
• 26:24
  Speaker 5: Every every spring after the season is over, you know,
• 26:29
  Speaker 5: sometimes before we start our postseason workouts, sometimes after you know,
• 26:36
  Speaker 5: we have a vote and you know, I give each
• 26:40
  Speaker 5: kid a ballot and they have to write down on
• 26:43
  Speaker 5: the ballot who they'd like to see who they vote
• 26:47
  Speaker 5: for as a captain would be, but they also have
• 26:50
  Speaker 5: to have to put in their own words why they
• 26:52
  Speaker 5: want that person as a captain, you know, and myself
• 26:56
  Speaker 5: and my assistant coaches will we'll.
• 26:58
  Speaker 4: Read it over, will tabulate it.
• 27:02
  Speaker 5: And we came out with two co captains this year,
• 27:08
  Speaker 5: Paige McNeil and Sydney Antonachus and then two assistant captains,
• 27:11
  Speaker 5: Kate Helgeson and Gillian Petruno. So all like really really
• 27:16
  Speaker 5: good people and very good leaders in their own way.
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: Mentioned Gillian Petruno, you don't get anywhere without really good
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: goaltending as a team. She's one of them that's given
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: you that so far. Kylie Green also throw together some
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: really good outings. How important is that for the way
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: you want to play? And how what have you seen
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: out of that group so far to help elevate it?
• 27:41
  Speaker 4: Yeah?
• 27:42
  Speaker 5: No, I mean both Gillian and Carly and and Lauren
• 27:46
  Speaker 5: and Julia. We actually carry four goaltenders. They've all competed
• 27:51
  Speaker 5: really strongly against each other, you know, in practice. And
• 27:57
  Speaker 5: the other thing too is though they all get along too.
• 28:00
  Speaker 5: As much as they compete against each other, they support
• 28:03
  Speaker 5: each other too.
• 28:04
  Speaker 4: And you know, that just adds to the overall team.
• 28:08
  Speaker 5: Family culture that we foster, and you know, it's it's
• 28:14
  Speaker 5: been clearly evident in our net this year.
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: Yeah, mentioned at the top eight and two in the
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: new ho the New England Women's Hockey Alliance, And I
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: wonder if you can speak a bit to where you've
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: seen this league develop. I mean, it's a league that
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: had to wait a long time for an auto bid.
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: That was a long five year stretch, I know, but
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: now it's there and now that there's a lot more
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: to play for. I guess when when there's that at
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: the end of the line of having an automatic bid
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: to the NCAA tournament, where have you seen that that
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: changed things? Or how have you seen the league develop
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: over the last you know, seventy years here?
• 28:50
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean at one point maybe it had the
• 28:54
  Speaker 5: halves and the have nots, but that doesn't exist anymore.
• 28:58
  Speaker 4: You know, from top to bottom, bottom to top.
• 29:01
  Speaker 5: On any given night, like, there's no way you can
• 29:04
  Speaker 5: take anyone lightly.
• 29:05
  Speaker 4: You have to bring your a game against every single
• 29:08
  Speaker 4: one of those teams.
• 29:09
  Speaker 5: And uh, you know, we were just up at Saint
• 29:12
  Speaker 5: Michael's College in Vermont this past weekend and there was
• 29:17
  Speaker 5: nothing casual about our play, like we had to take
• 29:20
  Speaker 5: it to that team, and they battled hard against us
• 29:22
  Speaker 5: as well.
• 29:23
  Speaker 4: You know. It was a good college hockey game, you know.
• 29:27
  Speaker 5: So, and that's that's just with everyone we've played so
• 29:31
  Speaker 5: far and everyone that we're gonna play.
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you're in your thirty first season as a head
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: coach at the at the NCAA Hockey women's hockey level,
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: twenty two of them now at Sacred Heart. How have
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: you seen just the game develop and change in that time?
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: We're talking about you know, multiple Olympic cycles and and
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: and players growing up being impacted by seeing that level
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: of hockey in our country and I know in Canada too.
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: What have you What have you seen develop over that
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: time to put us in a situation where we're at
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: right now.
• 30:12
  Speaker 4: Yeah, just just the strength of every player.
• 30:15
  Speaker 5: You know, years ago when I first started as a coach,
• 30:20
  Speaker 5: and actually actually I was the women's club coach at
• 30:25
  Speaker 5: Boston College for ten years before we turned at varsity,
• 30:29
  Speaker 5: and at that point we were competing against there were
• 30:33
  Speaker 5: no club leagues, you know what I mean. It was
• 30:36
  Speaker 5: just BCBU Club from MODD Club, that type of thing.
• 30:41
  Speaker 5: But you were playing against the U n HS, the Northeasterns,
• 30:45
  Speaker 5: the Providences, they were they were the king of the hill,
• 30:48
  Speaker 5: those teams, but you were battling against them Harvard as well.
• 30:52
  Speaker 5: And but just just the overall strength of the player themselves,
• 30:59
  Speaker 5: the individual and just the depth of teams now too.
• 31:03
  Speaker 5: Before it used to be you play a team that Providence,
• 31:06
  Speaker 5: you and EAH Northeast and they be a lot deeper
• 31:09
  Speaker 5: than any of the other teams. But now it is,
• 31:13
  Speaker 5: you know, one through twenty four, one through thirty, like,
• 31:18
  Speaker 5: everyone has depth, everyone has strength.
• 31:21
  Speaker 4: So I mean that's just the.
• 31:22
  Speaker 5: Biggest that's just the biggest overall, you know, strength of
• 31:27
  Speaker 5: the player hockey IQ is huge. You know, kids aren't
• 31:32
  Speaker 5: just starting to play when they're you know, hey, I
• 31:34
  Speaker 5: think I'll try this, like they're coming up as players,
• 31:38
  Speaker 5: you know, and I think that's definitely contributed as well.
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I always try to ask coaches what they're bracing
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: for in terms of the next few years of in
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: college sports, because we all know there's change coming and
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: it's going to happen. You know, maybe it happens more
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: directly in some sports than others, but it's going to
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: impact every sport, in every athlete what do you and
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: what do you how are your athletes kind of getting
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: ready for for what we still don't know exactly is
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: going to look like in the next few years.
• 32:11
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean, to be honest with you, Todd, we're
• 32:16
  Speaker 5: just staying in the present at the moment in terms
• 32:19
  Speaker 5: of just our daily, every day interaction with our players
• 32:25
  Speaker 5: and how we practice and how we move forward setting
• 32:28
  Speaker 5: up for our games. You know, we're gonna we're gonna
• 32:35
  Speaker 5: compete every every single night, no matter what the rules
• 32:38
  Speaker 5: are or what's going on with the n C Double A.
• 32:42
  Speaker 5: It's almost like, you know, we're setting ourselves up recruit wise.
• 32:46
  Speaker 5: You know, we're going out, We're getting those players, we're preparing.
• 32:50
  Speaker 5: But yeah, I mean, whatever does ultimately come about with
• 32:55
  Speaker 5: all these proposed changes and things like that, I mean,
• 32:58
  Speaker 5: we'll we'll definitely.
• 32:59
  Speaker 4: Be ready for it.
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 33:01
  Speaker 4: I hope that answers your question in some way.
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: I don't know that there is an answer to the
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: question yet. So much that needs to get figured out,
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: and I would imagine people have a lot more questions
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: than answers right now. So that's yeah, that's a lot
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: of what's taking up a lot of the air right now. Yeah,
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: you had mentioned Boston College. You also coach at Wayne State.
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: We're doing this interview on zoom and so I've I've
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: got a video of Thomas here and he's got in
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: the background is the rink Martyr Family Arena, And I
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: imagine you didn't really have a view quite like that
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: at some of your previous stops. That that just seems
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: like such a jewel for your program to have. I
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: wonder how that's helping you.
• 33:43
  Speaker 4: Yeah, it's incredible.
• 33:45
  Speaker 5: Anyone that ever asked me that question, you know, yesterday
• 33:50
  Speaker 5: last year when we first it's the same answer all
• 33:53
  Speaker 5: the time. Like I I pinched myself every day coming
• 33:56
  Speaker 5: into this build.
• 33:57
  Speaker 4: And it's beautiful. It's you know, one of.
• 34:00
  Speaker 5: The interviews when we first open it up. You know,
• 34:03
  Speaker 5: I've been around a lot, I've seen a lot of rinks.
• 34:07
  Speaker 5: This is, you know, I call it the taj Mahal
• 34:10
  Speaker 5: of women's college hockey here, you know men's hockey as
• 34:13
  Speaker 5: well too. I mean this, this arena would fit in
• 34:16
  Speaker 5: on any major college campus in the country. You could
• 34:19
  Speaker 5: put this on Michigan's campus, you know, Minnesota's campus.
• 34:24
  Speaker 4: It might not be as big seating wise as some
• 34:27
  Speaker 4: of those schools, would would need.
• 34:29
  Speaker 5: But it's beautiful, like it's just it's it's uh, it's
• 34:34
  Speaker 5: brightly lit. We have windows on on two and a
• 34:39
  Speaker 5: quarter size sizes of the building and the sun's in.
• 34:43
  Speaker 5: But we also have the the the tent cycle that
• 34:46
  Speaker 5: we can turn a dark one. We need to as
• 34:49
  Speaker 5: well too because in the in the winter, the sun's
• 34:52
  Speaker 5: coming right down center rice, you know, towards towards one
• 34:55
  Speaker 5: of the nets.
• 34:56
  Speaker 4: But no, it's it's beautiful, So happy with it. This
• 35:00
  Speaker 4: building was.
• 35:03
  Speaker 5: Was spoken about for twenty plus years, you know what
• 35:06
  Speaker 5: I mean. When I first started here, the vice president
• 35:08
  Speaker 5: at the time, mister Jim Barkanaro and the athletic director
• 35:12
  Speaker 5: Don Cook, you know, called me and we're going to
• 35:14
  Speaker 5: build a rink, you know, and we would talk about
• 35:17
  Speaker 5: it for two years, you know, we go away for
• 35:19
  Speaker 5: two years. We'd have an artist rendering of her and
• 35:23
  Speaker 5: architectural plans. We probably had like four or five sets
• 35:26
  Speaker 5: of plans, and it looked different every single time, you know.
• 35:30
  Speaker 4: But thank god, this all.
• 35:31
  Speaker 5: Took hold here and like I said, we're in We're
• 35:34
  Speaker 5: in beautiful place. The taj Mahall of hockey here, this arena.
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: Well and they get to show it off to the
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: college hockey community as a whole. In twenty twenty eight,
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: the building was picked to the host of the Frozen Four,
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: which I always got to be a a real selling
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: point for what you do there. And I would imagine
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: you have something like that that's easy to you know,
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: with the building itself, it's easy to point out out
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: to a recruit and say, hey, here's what you have,
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: here's what everything that we have. It's all in one place.
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: Don't have to move around place to place to do things.
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: Enjoy four years here with with this kind of facility.
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: Oh and by the way, it's going to be hosting
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: a Frozen four.
• 36:15
  Speaker 5: Yeah no, so so happy with that news. You know,
• 36:20
  Speaker 5: a lot of the different venues that have hosted it
• 36:22
  Speaker 5: over the years in their own way beautiful places, great,
• 36:26
  Speaker 5: great places to go watch a college hockey game. Uh,
• 36:29
  Speaker 5: this place is going to be unreal, you know in
• 36:33
  Speaker 5: that Frozen four when we host it here, just in
• 36:36
  Speaker 5: every every aspect for the fans, for the players, their experience,
• 36:41
  Speaker 5: you know, downstairs, beautiful locker rooms. You know, the ice surface,
• 36:45
  Speaker 5: you know, we have we have great, great ice here.
• 36:48
  Speaker 5: It's fast, you know, conducive to to to the speed game,
• 36:52
  Speaker 5: the skill game. So yeah, just we can't wait to
• 36:55
  Speaker 5: have it here.
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: Sacred Heart in nineteen three, eight and two in New
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: high again. Uh this weekend home against Franklin Pierce. So
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: that's a I know, a series that's going to capture
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: your team's attention.
• 37:07
  Speaker 4: Yes, oh absolutely, they get you know.
• 37:09
  Speaker 5: Anytime we play Franklin Pierce, we got to have our
• 37:12
  Speaker 5: a game because they're bringing their A game as well too.
• 37:15
  Speaker 4: We've gone back and forth with them. Coach Starkdale runs
• 37:18
  Speaker 4: runs a great program up there.
• 37:20
  Speaker 5: His team's coming in the here looking to play us hard,
• 37:23
  Speaker 5: and we're going to be ready to play hard against
• 37:25
  Speaker 5: them as well.
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: You're also hosting the Nutmeg Classic this year, the guest
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: tournament for for Connecticut teams. You play Quinn Back and
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: Yale and Connecticut also involved on the other side of
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: that kind of event. Is that like, what is that
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: like to make sure that women's hockey in Connecticut kind
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: of gets a little bit of a spotlight there for
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: Thanksgiving weekend.
• 37:44
  Speaker 5: Yeah, it's it's it's it's the Connecticut version of the
• 37:47
  Speaker 5: Bean Pot, so to speak.
• 37:48
  Speaker 4: You know what I'm saying. So, like, you know, all
• 37:52
  Speaker 4: all four teams are going to compete.
• 37:54
  Speaker 5: It's not a you know, especially this year, it's not
• 37:57
  Speaker 5: going to just be a shoe win for any any
• 37:59
  Speaker 5: give team because every team is going to bring it.
• 38:01
  Speaker 5: You know, everyone's very competitive against each other playing. Like
• 38:05
  Speaker 5: I spoke about, we're playing in this beautiful building here
• 38:09
  Speaker 5: holiday weekend, fans in the building, a lot of a
• 38:12
  Speaker 5: lot of our families are traveling to and from all
• 38:16
  Speaker 5: over the place to be here, and it's just going
• 38:19
  Speaker 5: to be an electric atmosphere.
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: Well, looking forward to it for you, and I'm happy
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: you've had such a great start to the season and
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: good luck and continuing everything going the.
• 38:29
  Speaker 4: Way it is, all right, Todd, thank you so much.
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: That's Thomas O'Malley, head coach at Sacred Heart. When we
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: come back on the podcast, we will talk more about
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: what's coming up this weekend about some p WHL goings on,
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: So stay with us, hi, and welcome back to the podcast.
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: Todd Lusky here with Nicole Hasey and a couple of
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: things we wanted to mention out of the p WHL
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: happening this week. There was a release of some Neutrals
• 39:04
  Speaker 1: neutral site games coming up this season. Seattle Vancouver, Denver,
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: Quebec City, Buffalo Rally, Detroit, Saint Louis. If you're a
• 39:13
  Speaker 1: college hockey fan or live in a college hockey city,
• 39:16
  Speaker 1: you're not hearing a lot of names that maybe are
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: all that close to you. But I understand where they're
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: going with this. They're going to some NHL markets to
• 39:26
  Speaker 1: try and to get that rolling a little bit, but
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: it does feel like the college markets. Hey, you know,
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: Madison would have loved to have a PWHL Neutrals neutral
• 39:39
  Speaker 1: site game with a bunch of players and slash coaches
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: that used to play at Wisconsin Will Center and probably
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: could have done pretty well with it. But Mark Johnson
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: has talked about wanting to do something like that in
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: the past and didn't happen this time around. Maybe it
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: happens in the future, but this is maybe felt like,
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: you know, maybe there could have been a a women's
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: college site somewhere in there for this mix.
• 40:05
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and you know, I think there are people would
• 40:08
  Speaker 2: who don't know better, would argue, oh, they're looking for
• 40:10
  Speaker 2: bigger arenas, but the Cole Center holds waite a few people.
• 40:13
  Speaker 2: It's bigger than probably several of the arenas they'll be
• 40:15
  Speaker 2: playing with on this tour.
• 40:16
  Speaker 3: Uh So yeah, it's uh.
• 40:18
  Speaker 2: I understand, you know, there's some places that aren't gonna
• 40:20
  Speaker 2: work and they want to be able to draw more fans,
• 40:22
  Speaker 2: but yeah, it's uh.
• 40:23
  Speaker 3: I don't know.
• 40:24
  Speaker 2: It feels like a missed opportunity, both with Madison and Chicago.
• 40:27
  Speaker 3: I'm a little surprised Chicago wasn't on the list. Just
• 40:30
  Speaker 3: a huge sort of youth.
• 40:31
  Speaker 2: Hockey market and an opportunity, And I feel like maybe
• 40:38
  Speaker 2: other people don't have this problem, but like growing up
• 40:40
  Speaker 2: in this area was always difficult, like to choose, Like
• 40:42
  Speaker 2: if you're if you don't live in Chicago, you don't
• 40:44
  Speaker 2: want to be a fan of Chicago stuff. If you
• 40:45
  Speaker 2: don't live in Minnesota, you don't want to be a
• 40:47
  Speaker 2: fan of Minnesota stuff. So you know, I'm not sure
• 40:51
  Speaker 2: that like you're getting Frost fans coming out of of
• 40:53
  Speaker 2: the Chicago area. So uh yeah, just I don't know.
• 40:56
  Speaker 2: I think it feels like they're Midwest wise. I was
• 40:59
  Speaker 2: a little surprise that it was Saint Louis sort of
• 41:02
  Speaker 2: over other options. But you know, US national team stuff
• 41:06
  Speaker 2: has done stuff in Saint Louis, done some of their
• 41:09
  Speaker 2: prep for for national team stuff through through there. So
• 41:12
  Speaker 2: I mean, I just think it's exciting that they I'm
• 41:14
  Speaker 2: glad they made it a whole thing. These aren't one offs,
• 41:16
  Speaker 2: Like they set up a tour to go to a
• 41:18
  Speaker 2: whole bunch of different places and gave a whole lot
• 41:21
  Speaker 2: of notice. And so in terms of spreading sort of
• 41:23
  Speaker 2: spreading the gospels of the pedub and women's hockey, it's
• 41:26
  Speaker 2: it's really the right thing to do. I thought it
• 41:28
  Speaker 2: was smart, you know, particularly to get out west in Canada.
• 41:32
  Speaker 2: It's been a little while, like those areas were hosting
• 41:34
  Speaker 2: stuff sort of early on in national team stuff, and
• 41:37
  Speaker 2: I feel like teams haven't gone out there and played
• 41:40
  Speaker 2: a whole ton recently. So I'm excited that, you know,
• 41:43
  Speaker 2: for places like BC. But yeah, you know, never gonna
• 41:46
  Speaker 2: be fully happy with any of it. And so I thought, overall,
• 41:49
  Speaker 2: it's pretty cool thing that they're doing setting up this tour.
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: When you said something about the Frost, I couldn't help
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: but thinking we need to have Brad Frost on at
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: some point, whether he's getting some of the marketing rights
• 42:02
  Speaker 1: of the Minnesota Frost, because man, I mean, here's a
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: guy who's been coaching women's hockey in Minnesota for what
• 42:09
  Speaker 1: twenty some years now, Frosting out of this.
• 42:14
  Speaker 2: Come on, I like, now I'm imagining, like the mascot
• 42:19
  Speaker 2: is actually just Frad.
• 42:20
  Speaker 3: Like it.
• 42:24
  Speaker 2: It would be bad enough if any of the teams
• 42:26
  Speaker 2: were called frost that like, because we all call him
• 42:28
  Speaker 2: Frost or Frosty and so like just already there, like
• 42:31
  Speaker 2: I have the connection with the fact that it's the
• 42:33
  Speaker 2: team in Minnesota. Yeah, every time I say I'm in
• 42:35
  Speaker 2: a Fiesoda Frost like there's a little there's so you know,
• 42:38
  Speaker 2: I guess, yeah, maybe maybe Brad's just like, oh it's yeah,
• 42:41
  Speaker 2: everybody everybody thinks of me always. But yeah, well it's
• 42:44
  Speaker 2: the point we'll have to ask about that. That's true.
• 42:48
  Speaker 2: And now I'm imagining mascot Brad.
• 42:50
  Speaker 3: So this is amazing.
• 42:52
  Speaker 1: We need to make that happen. Another thing that we
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: saw PWHL roughly some rule changes this week. I think
• 42:59
  Speaker 1: the most interesting people are talking about is that if
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: you're called for a penalty, the players that are on
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: the ice when that penalty is called have to stay
• 43:07
  Speaker 1: on the ice for the start of the penalty kill.
• 43:10
  Speaker 1: It's kind of like that if there was an icing
• 43:11
  Speaker 1: on the play, you wouldn't be able to change personnel.
• 43:16
  Speaker 1: I mean, I think there's some some real good offensive
• 43:22
  Speaker 1: opportunity generation potential in that. If you know you have
• 43:26
  Speaker 1: tired players out there, there may be a little bit
• 43:30
  Speaker 1: of you know, wiggle room of delaying, although they say
• 43:33
  Speaker 1: there there will be consequences for trying to delay the
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: face off as part of it, but in reality, it's
• 43:41
  Speaker 1: going to take a little while to get into the box.
• 43:42
  Speaker 1: It's gonna you know, you got to move the face
• 43:45
  Speaker 1: off out of the other the ice. Sometimes it won't
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: be necessarily like an icing where it happens quickly and
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: you got to get back there and you don't really
• 43:54
  Speaker 1: have time to rest. But that could be penalties, all right, Yeah, it.
• 44:00
  Speaker 2: Was it just who's on the ice when the whistle
• 44:02
  Speaker 2: is called? Or is it who was on the ice
• 44:04
  Speaker 2: when the penalty happened?
• 44:06
  Speaker 1: Good thing that needs some clarification. I guess.
• 44:09
  Speaker 2: It's like if you see the armicle up, do you
• 44:11
  Speaker 2: like immediately like, yeah, yeah, I just thought of this,
• 44:16
  Speaker 2: so I have no we will have to clarify in that.
• 44:19
  Speaker 2: That's literally I thought I just had to. I'm like, oh,
• 44:20
  Speaker 2: that's an interesting.
• 44:21
  Speaker 1: Right they call yeah, the no escape rule which is
• 44:26
  Speaker 1: I'm all for naming rules like something like the no
• 44:29
  Speaker 1: escape rule. It sounds great and it's is the take
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: the requires players on a team that take a penalty
• 44:40
  Speaker 1: which leads to penalty time on the clock to remain
• 44:42
  Speaker 1: on the ice until after the face off that resumes action. So, right,
• 44:45
  Speaker 1: if there's a you know, twenty second delayed penalty, uh,
• 44:49
  Speaker 1: and you have a chance that the pocket that team,
• 44:52
  Speaker 1: the other team is at the other end of the ice,
• 44:54
  Speaker 1: do you have a chance to hop off and get
• 44:59
  Speaker 1: somebody else on before you have to go back on?
• 45:01
  Speaker 1: Good quest?
• 45:02
  Speaker 3: So I think so there's a few more we'll talk about.
• 45:05
  Speaker 2: But I do think one of the sort of the
• 45:07
  Speaker 2: hidden parts of this is in all of them talking
• 45:10
  Speaker 2: about the rules, they created a Rules and Competition committee
• 45:12
  Speaker 2: in the off season. It's chaired by Katsey Campbell, Pascal
• 45:16
  Speaker 2: and Meghan Duggan and has players, it says, a head coach,
• 45:18
  Speaker 2: a general manager, the associate manager of player safety, and
• 45:21
  Speaker 2: a representative of the on ice officiating staff. So just
• 45:25
  Speaker 2: you know, sort of something that happened that that wasn't
• 45:27
  Speaker 2: really touted until this time. And so yeah, interesting that
• 45:30
  Speaker 2: they're gonna, you know, they're they're looking for ways to
• 45:33
  Speaker 2: to make the game more interesting and to make it,
• 45:36
  Speaker 2: you know, safer and fun for the players. But you
• 45:40
  Speaker 2: and I were talking like I'm torn between like this
• 45:43
  Speaker 2: is interesting and also like we don't need to make
• 45:45
  Speaker 2: change for change sake, and this feels like one that's
• 45:49
  Speaker 2: a change for change sake.
• 45:50
  Speaker 3: And also.
• 45:53
  Speaker 2: When the discussion is about making the game safer, telling
• 45:56
  Speaker 2: tired players they have to stay on the ice for
• 45:59
  Speaker 2: a power play where they could get.
• 46:00
  Speaker 3: Hemmed in the zone and not get to change might
• 46:03
  Speaker 3: not be the safest path.
• 46:05
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't know. I remember that being an issue
• 46:08
  Speaker 1: when the icing rule. You know, a lot of coaches
• 46:11
  Speaker 1: brought that up, as you know, this is a potential
• 46:14
  Speaker 1: to add injury to our game when you're putting tired
• 46:18
  Speaker 1: players out there. That's that's when players get hurt a
• 46:21
  Speaker 1: lot of times, is when they're when they're doing things
• 46:24
  Speaker 1: because they're tired and you know, aren't necessarily being in
• 46:27
  Speaker 1: the best form or be you know, things happen when
• 46:31
  Speaker 1: players are tight. And that was a real concern about
• 46:35
  Speaker 1: the icing rule going through what the NHL did and
• 46:38
  Speaker 1: so not allowing players to change after icing. So I
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: can see where there would be some hesitation from college
• 46:47
  Speaker 1: coaches to go to a rule like that for that
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: exact reason.
• 46:51
  Speaker 4: Yeah. Yeah.
• 46:54
  Speaker 2: So there's you know, a couple more things. One is
• 46:56
  Speaker 2: that a major penalty and game misconduct is the depault
• 47:00
  Speaker 2: penalty for all illegal checks to the head that.
• 47:03
  Speaker 3: Occurred during play.
• 47:04
  Speaker 2: Those checks or those plays will automatically initiate a further
• 47:10
  Speaker 2: review at PWHL Central Situation Room, and then the referees
• 47:14
  Speaker 2: can confirm their call, reduce the penalty of the minor
• 47:17
  Speaker 2: if a hit was accidental or recid it entirely if
• 47:19
  Speaker 2: the review determines the head was not the main point
• 47:21
  Speaker 2: of contact. So that's an interesting one. Just like that
• 47:25
  Speaker 2: it's we're default there are you know, I feel like
• 47:28
  Speaker 2: every year in college at least the rules committee changes
• 47:31
  Speaker 2: things just a little where we're talking about what becomes
• 47:34
  Speaker 2: a major penalty, and so you know, this is sort
• 47:36
  Speaker 2: of very cut and dried, like if we rule that
• 47:38
  Speaker 2: it's a contact of the head, like that's what you're getting.
• 47:40
  Speaker 2: So I do like sort of taking the ambiguity out
• 47:43
  Speaker 2: of that.
• 47:44
  Speaker 1: I feel like that's a little bit of where the
• 47:46
  Speaker 1: college game has settled recently, where that if you see
• 47:50
  Speaker 1: that there's been head contact, it's probably going to be
• 47:52
  Speaker 1: called a major and they can go look at that
• 47:56
  Speaker 1: to take it down. No minor potentially now as being
• 48:00
  Speaker 1: something that's been added in lately or that you can
• 48:03
  Speaker 1: assess a major without the game misconducts as part of
• 48:07
  Speaker 1: things now, So that's I mean, this is part of
• 48:10
  Speaker 1: the thing. You know, pro league see things in in
• 48:14
  Speaker 1: junior leagues or in youth leagues or college that they
• 48:17
  Speaker 1: want to use in their leagues and vice versa. So
• 48:21
  Speaker 1: I know there's some coordination between the NHL and the
• 48:27
  Speaker 1: NCAA in terms of how the rule books. The NCAA
• 48:31
  Speaker 1: rule book is done, So I'd love to see there'd
• 48:35
  Speaker 1: be some coordination between the NCAA and the p WHL
• 48:38
  Speaker 1: now in terms of is you know what kind of
• 48:42
  Speaker 1: rules should should we be considering. Another one that is
• 48:46
  Speaker 1: getting more clarification and we really need to see this
• 48:50
  Speaker 1: in action, is what body checking is. I don't know
• 48:53
  Speaker 1: that anyone knows for sure what body checking is in
• 48:57
  Speaker 1: some applications, but uh, what the league, the PHL says
• 49:02
  Speaker 1: is that there's been some more clarity given for officials
• 49:06
  Speaker 1: in applying that rule. Now, what that means may may
• 49:10
  Speaker 1: depend official to official you hope not, but you obvious
• 49:16
  Speaker 1: see some consistency in what that means, getting hate.
• 49:19
  Speaker 3: How vigue that is.
• 49:20
  Speaker 2: It says the rule has been rewarded to provide clarity,
• 49:23
  Speaker 2: and I'm like, cool, provide clarity on what the rewording was.
• 49:26
  Speaker 3: Please.
• 49:28
  Speaker 1: I hope that there's a bunch of videos that go
• 49:31
  Speaker 1: along with that and say this is by checking this
• 49:34
  Speaker 1: is not, by checking this is, this isn't. And so
• 49:37
  Speaker 1: just to so that referees, coaches, players can all see
• 49:42
  Speaker 1: what that means, what the what the standard is, and
• 49:45
  Speaker 1: that would I think go a long way to helping
• 49:48
  Speaker 1: understand helping everyone understand what what's a penalty there.
• 49:54
  Speaker 2: So not to go too far in the weeds, but
• 49:56
  Speaker 2: one of the things that I did last year in February,
• 50:00
  Speaker 2: I think like by mid February was sort of track
• 50:03
  Speaker 2: officials because one of the things with the PW at
• 50:06
  Speaker 2: HLS year was just a really inconsistent application of the rules,
• 50:09
  Speaker 2: partly why this needed to be rewarded for clarity, and
• 50:14
  Speaker 2: so you know, I went through literally all the box scorers,
• 50:17
  Speaker 2: wrote down every lines person, every referee, and so by
• 50:21
  Speaker 2: February there were thirty five different reps and twenty five
• 50:26
  Speaker 2: different lines people used. I have that eighteen different refs,
• 50:31
  Speaker 2: only two of them had multiple games, and sixteen different
• 50:35
  Speaker 2: lines of people, only two of them with multiple games.
• 50:37
  Speaker 2: So like we're talking that at best, someone again this
• 50:42
  Speaker 2: was in February. At best, we had some lines people
• 50:44
  Speaker 2: that had done four and five games, and there was
• 50:46
  Speaker 2: one referee that had done four games. Every other head
• 50:50
  Speaker 2: ref there were let's see, I have one with three,
• 50:52
  Speaker 2: one with two four games, and everybody else had one
• 50:55
  Speaker 2: or two. So it was just this massive amount of
• 50:58
  Speaker 2: people not consistent getting games called. And you know, the
• 51:02
  Speaker 2: league kind of came together quickly and they needed to
• 51:05
  Speaker 2: find the correct number officials and all that sort of stuff.
• 51:08
  Speaker 3: But thirty five.
• 51:09
  Speaker 2: Different refs and twenty five different lines people, that's a
• 51:12
  Speaker 2: lot of different people. It's tempting to officiate a brand
• 51:17
  Speaker 2: new league with brand new rules that's allowing contact for
• 51:20
  Speaker 2: the first time, you know, in the women's pro game
• 51:24
  Speaker 2: in North America, I believe, regardless in a long time,
• 51:28
  Speaker 2: we're and so yeah, like that's that's gonna make it
• 51:31
  Speaker 2: really difficult to understand what is and what isn't. And
• 51:34
  Speaker 2: even if somebody did a review after their game and
• 51:37
  Speaker 2: was like, okay, yes, that should have been.
• 51:39
  Speaker 3: You know, that shouldn't have been.
• 51:40
  Speaker 2: If they're not doing another game, it doesn't matter if
• 51:42
  Speaker 2: they learned from that first one. So just that's a
• 51:45
  Speaker 2: huge thing that I'm hoping to see change this year,
• 51:48
  Speaker 2: that we just have a more consistent group of officials
• 51:52
  Speaker 2: officiating the games so that they can learn and so
• 51:56
  Speaker 2: that we're getting consistency. And you just can't get that
• 51:59
  Speaker 2: one sixteed if people are handling the games.
• 52:01
  Speaker 1: I hear some complaints sometimes from fans in college. Yeah, no,
• 52:09
  Speaker 1: exactly again, and and but I would take that over
• 52:13
  Speaker 1: and and the knowledge of how that ref calls a
• 52:16
  Speaker 1: game over not knowing who this person is and they
• 52:22
  Speaker 1: having only done a few games at this level before,
• 52:24
  Speaker 1: and and I would imagine hopefully that kind of settles
• 52:29
  Speaker 1: into something for the PWHL as we go forward and
• 52:32
  Speaker 1: through a a more predictable format for officiating. But yeah,
• 52:39
  Speaker 1: it's tough to see so many people go through it
• 52:42
  Speaker 1: like that and with their own uh, you know, they're
• 52:46
  Speaker 1: not supposed to have their own take on things, but
• 52:48
  Speaker 1: that's that's that's the human element. Yeah, right, So you
• 52:53
  Speaker 1: can't ever completely get past that, right.
• 52:56
  Speaker 2: Yeah, So I'm glad there are so many officials, and
• 52:58
  Speaker 2: glad that the women's game is drawing that many people.
• 53:01
  Speaker 2: Tons of the officials were women, like all good things,
• 53:04
  Speaker 2: just for consistency sake. It just like I said, this
• 53:07
  Speaker 2: was just me in a spreadsheet and reading a bunch
• 53:09
  Speaker 2: of box scores, so by far not a fully technical
• 53:13
  Speaker 2: data pull on this. But yeah, just you know, just
• 53:16
  Speaker 2: the month of February alone, you're talking thirty four different officials.
• 53:19
  Speaker 3: That's bad. That's bad for consistency in the game.
• 53:21
  Speaker 2: So yeah, just figured i'd share the stuff that I
• 53:25
  Speaker 2: bothered doing the data pulling on for last year.
• 53:29
  Speaker 1: Well, let's look back at the NCAA game and what's
• 53:33
  Speaker 1: coming this weekend. A couple big games to point out,
• 53:38
  Speaker 1: two of them are happening at Quinnipiac and ECAC play
• 53:41
  Speaker 1: hosting on I want to get the order of this right,
• 53:45
  Speaker 1: hosting Cornell on Friday and Colgate on Saturday. Yes, okay,
• 53:53
  Speaker 1: I fun to make sure I get that right because
• 53:55
  Speaker 1: both top ten matchups. I I feel like this is
• 54:01
  Speaker 1: the part of the season where teams need to start
• 54:04
  Speaker 1: solidifying who they are and and maybe we will get
• 54:08
  Speaker 1: a better idea of that and where they they stand
• 54:11
  Speaker 1: in the ECAC play. QUINNIPIAX got some points to make
• 54:15
  Speaker 1: up if they want to make a run at a championship.
• 54:17
  Speaker 1: Colgates five points up with the same number of games played,
• 54:22
  Speaker 1: but you can start knocking off some of those points
• 54:26
  Speaker 1: to make up in games like these.
• 54:29
  Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely, And being able to be the home team
• 54:32
  Speaker 2: makes a difference, right, Like they're they're going to be
• 54:34
  Speaker 2: comfortable and not doing any of their traveling. But yeah,
• 54:37
  Speaker 2: every one of those teams needs every one of the
• 54:39
  Speaker 2: points this weekend from that that group of three. And
• 54:43
  Speaker 2: so just as we were talking in the first segment
• 54:46
  Speaker 2: about you know, sort of their resume and getting those
• 54:48
  Speaker 2: ranked wins and how that sort of river rates down
• 54:52
  Speaker 2: their RPI, but yeah, just in standings all of it,
• 54:54
  Speaker 2: they need to be in a better position. And so
• 54:57
  Speaker 2: as we saw sort of clerks In pull away the
• 55:00
  Speaker 2: last couple of weeks and really sort of solidify themselves,
• 55:03
  Speaker 2: we need to see that from from these other top teams.
• 55:06
  Speaker 2: And I feel like I hope, I mean, I always
• 55:08
  Speaker 2: just assume these are gonna be splits, and I say
• 55:10
  Speaker 2: we're gonna learn something, and then we don't. Because what
• 55:12
  Speaker 2: we learn is that they're very close teams and they
• 55:13
  Speaker 2: split series. But I'm hoping that we see someone maybe
• 55:17
  Speaker 2: like start to pull away and really you know, show
• 55:19
  Speaker 2: themselves and we get a better understanding of sort of
• 55:22
  Speaker 2: how the standings are going to play out here.
• 55:24
  Speaker 1: I have a tangent to go into quickly. I don't
• 55:28
  Speaker 1: know if I'm the only one, but the standings formats
• 55:33
  Speaker 1: I really get thrown off by them. For for instance,
• 55:36
  Speaker 1: quinnipiac is right now in e c AC play for
• 55:39
  Speaker 1: one and one and one and one and one, and
• 55:42
  Speaker 1: it takes me like thirty seconds to figure out, Okay,
• 55:46
  Speaker 1: which which category, which which one of these extra numbers
• 55:51
  Speaker 1: go is to which point value? Because the four one
• 55:54
  Speaker 1: and one is wins lost tie essentially.
• 55:59
  Speaker 2: Then over time, when over time loss shout out, when shutout,
• 56:03
  Speaker 2: loss is.
• 56:05
  Speaker 3: Shut out? I said shut out, I meant shootout.
• 56:08
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Uh, it's there's a lot the parts there, and.
• 56:13
  Speaker 3: And and then add in that the e c AC
• 56:15
  Speaker 3: uses half point.
• 56:16
  Speaker 1: Well that's not even that discussion. But but that's not
• 56:21
  Speaker 1: part of that discussion.
• 56:22
  Speaker 2: That's I just mean, when you look at their table,
• 56:25
  Speaker 2: you're like, how many different things am I parsoning?
• 56:26
  Speaker 3: I did you know?
• 56:27
  Speaker 2: I hadn't gone to look at their the conference standings
• 56:31
  Speaker 2: page until this week. There's also be an astress on
• 56:34
  Speaker 2: it that the calculations weren't working, so you looked at
• 56:37
  Speaker 2: the thing, but that it wasn't necessarily correct, and then
• 56:39
  Speaker 2: down at the bottom there's a little asterix that was like,
• 56:41
  Speaker 2: it's not calculating correctly.
• 56:43
  Speaker 3: This should actually be the case.
• 56:45
  Speaker 2: Anyway, Thank God, it's November, and I don't like, I
• 56:47
  Speaker 2: can I can live with all of that being wrong,
• 56:49
  Speaker 2: but yeah, it's it's it's been a little bit of
• 56:51
  Speaker 2: a rough go looking at the ECAC standings page to.
• 56:54
  Speaker 1: Start the season, right, right, Okay, all right? That that's
• 56:59
  Speaker 1: tangent is over resort coming up home and home series
• 57:03
  Speaker 1: in the WCHA Minnesota and Saint Cloud State, and this
• 57:06
  Speaker 1: is a opportunity for Minnesota can continue pushing forward and
• 57:11
  Speaker 1: continue building their resume, and for Saint Cloud State to
• 57:14
  Speaker 1: get I think what we would consider to be the
• 57:19
  Speaker 1: kind of win that they have to show they can
• 57:21
  Speaker 1: get against one of the top three teams in the WCHA.
• 57:25
  Speaker 1: That's one of the big hurdles for the Huskies is
• 57:29
  Speaker 1: having that on their resume on a consistent basis.
• 57:33
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and I think just it's.
• 57:35
  Speaker 2: So early to talk about rankings, but when you are
• 57:37
  Speaker 2: hovering at that you know, ten to eleven.
• 57:39
  Speaker 3: Spot, that's not the best place to hang out.
• 57:43
  Speaker 2: And so if you sort of want to secure your place,
• 57:45
  Speaker 2: you need to be doing just a little bit better
• 57:47
  Speaker 2: than that. And it's an interesting home and home too.
• 57:50
  Speaker 2: I think people hurt a little too much on the
• 57:52
  Speaker 2: fact that Saint Cloud's got bigger ice service, but really
• 57:54
  Speaker 2: interesting to play in Ritter and then at herb Brooks
• 57:57
  Speaker 2: in the same weekend. The adjustment that needs to be
• 58:01
  Speaker 2: made day to day, that's could be fun to watch.
• 58:05
  Speaker 2: I think that Saint Cloud knows how to defend their
• 58:07
  Speaker 2: wider ice really well, but I think Abby Murphy Us
• 58:09
  Speaker 2: has all that extra ice to skate around in. So
• 58:13
  Speaker 2: it could be fun to watch those two when Saint
• 58:16
  Speaker 2: Cloud is the one hosting.
• 58:18
  Speaker 1: It adds another dynamic when you you know how to
• 58:20
  Speaker 1: use that space instead of just getting lost in it
• 58:25
  Speaker 1: because you're not going to get great scoring chances from
• 58:27
  Speaker 1: that extra width. But if your defense you know, gets
• 58:33
  Speaker 1: out of you know, out of uh obviously gonna say formation,
• 58:38
  Speaker 1: but that's not really what I'm saying. It doesn't hold
• 58:41
  Speaker 1: to the middle, hold to the to the house. Yeah, yeah,
• 58:45
  Speaker 1: and then you start to see some things open up
• 58:47
  Speaker 1: through the middle, and that's where where teams can really
• 58:50
  Speaker 1: take advantage.
• 58:50
  Speaker 2: Yah No, And I was imagining Abby sort of the
• 58:52
  Speaker 2: way that she can cycle around his own and look
• 58:55
  Speaker 2: for look for the holes and look for the opportunities
• 58:57
  Speaker 2: and and sort of what opening that up if you're
• 59:00
  Speaker 2: if the defense is a little too stigment, a little
• 59:02
  Speaker 2: too used to just sort of planting themselves.
• 59:05
  Speaker 3: I think a player like her, who can.
• 59:07
  Speaker 2: Really move the pucks so well, does really well with
• 59:11
  Speaker 2: that at those extra few feet of ice.
• 59:12
  Speaker 1: Right, Sometimes the defense you have to let let them go,
• 59:15
  Speaker 1: let them, you know, tire them out there if you're
• 59:19
  Speaker 1: not going, but you can't let them get a pass
• 59:22
  Speaker 1: into where something is more dangerous.
• 59:25
  Speaker 3: Right, Yeah, the problem is with the player like Abby.
• 59:28
  Speaker 2: She goes from being not dangerous at the uh at
• 59:31
  Speaker 2: the perimeter to taking a shot from the slot pretty quickly.
• 59:35
  Speaker 2: But yeah, so that that should should be a really
• 59:37
  Speaker 2: interesting series. And I think Saint Cloud just really needs
• 59:39
  Speaker 2: to bounce back after last weekend. So yeah, you play
• 59:44
  Speaker 2: different when you know, we like we saw from Minnesota
• 59:46
  Speaker 2: last week, sort of meeting those points. I think you
• 59:49
  Speaker 2: play different when when it feels a little more urgent,
• 59:52
  Speaker 2: and so I feel like we're gonna see a really
• 59:54
  Speaker 2: good series from Saint Cloud.
• 59:56
  Speaker 1: Boston College and Yukon have a home and home series
• 59:59
  Speaker 1: as well. Those are two teams that are near the
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 1: top of Hockey East and trying to to make up
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 1: some ground on Boston University Northeastern who are up near
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 1: the top with some games in hand or with having
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 1: played some more games. So opportunity there to see someone
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 1: shoot closer to the top of the league standings.
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 2: Can I just admit as a writer who does not
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 2: math because I'm just not a math person. Like two
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 2: games difference, Like Yukon has two fewer games than BU
• 1:00:28
  Speaker 2: in Northeastern and that I can handle, but BC has
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 2: three fewer games, And then I'm like, wait, I can't
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 2: comprehend how that means, Like where that I don't know
• 1:00:38
  Speaker 2: why I'm adding that third game difference For some reason,
• 1:00:40
  Speaker 2: Suddenly I'm like, I don't know where that means they
• 1:00:42
  Speaker 2: stack up here.
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 1: We need to add a column of the points lost,
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 1: because that's really that tells you, you know, okay, where's
• 1:00:50
  Speaker 1: you know? It evens out the number of games played
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 1: really because it's yeah, you can't get back so right.
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 2: I just I think it's funny for me that every
• 1:00:57
  Speaker 2: time I look at this, I'm like, but but I like,
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 2: for some reason, that's just a it's a step too
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 2: far for me to add those extra three points to
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 2: the It's hilarious.
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 3: It just every time I look at this, I'm like,
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 3: I don't know, right, oh, not great? Not great?
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 1: He also gets to this week.
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 2: I think Franklin Pierce A Sacred Heart could be a
• 1:01:18
  Speaker 2: really interesting series. Uh, Franklin Pierce is currently third in
• 1:01:22
  Speaker 2: the see innings, but that those top three teams and
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 2: new Huts Sacred Heart, l a U and then Franklin
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 2: Pierce and uh, you know, Sacred Heart is only two
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 2: points clear of LU. They are six points clear of
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 2: Franklin Pierce. But a good week and from thank Pierce
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 2: obviously puts them in a really good position. So and
• 1:01:38
  Speaker 2: the the Ravens, you know, we've talked about them a
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 2: few times. So yeah, uh, a Sacred Heart hosting obviously
• 1:01:43
  Speaker 2: makes a difference. But I think that could be That's
• 1:01:47
  Speaker 2: the one that I think we could look back on.
• 1:01:49
  Speaker 2: It's a really important series to how this conference played out.
• 1:01:54
  Speaker 1: All Right, that's gonna do it this week on the podcast,
• 1:01:56
  Speaker 1: Thanks for being with us for Nicole Hasey and I'm
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 1: Todd Musky will talk in that way.
• 1:02:04
  Speaker 2: It