Latest / The PodKaz: USCHO Women's Hockey / World Championship rosters, November uncertainty and key Week 6 series

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World Championship rosters, November uncertainty and key Week 6 series · The PodKaz: USCHO Women's Hockey

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Welcome back to the podcast. Todd Molesky and Nicole Haase
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: here with you from uscho.com. Let's talk about what's coming
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: this week. And well, what's come in already this week
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: is the roster for the world championship for hockey Canada.
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: And There are five current collegiate players that are on
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: that 25-player list, and that's more, I think, than I expected. Nicole,
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: is that more than you expected? Yeah, I will.
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: Of course. And I said I would own it if
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: they took more players than I thought. If there were
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: a bunch of collegians and five, it's definitely more. I mean,
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: I think even if you give that Ev Gascon was
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: probably always going to be in the goaltending trio, that's
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: still four, which is more than they've done in years.
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: That being said, you know, they did invite 14 to camp,
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: so it was still excessive, guys. But yeah, I think
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: one of the shocking ones is probably Rosalie Tremblay. Sarah
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: Maness from Clarkson. You know, it was a week for
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: Rosalie Tremblay, who scored four goals and had an assist
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: on Saturday. And that was, you know, two days after
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: getting back from Canada camp and finding out she was
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: going to be on the world's roster. So, like, that's not.
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: She's a month past her 18th birthday. I think I
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: read that today. She's like, oh, cool.
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: Good.
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: So yeah, I think, you know, I think if you look,
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: it's twofold. I think you look at what the U.S.
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: did with their younger rosters and how they like made
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: that decision in the beginning of the four-year quad heading
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: into the Olympics. Like there was a clear choice by
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: the U.S. to do that in 2022. And you saw
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: that starting with those world's rosters. And so I do
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: think that that plays into what Canada is doing here.
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: I also think Canada's got to absolute ton of injuries
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: um we've got like julia gosling's sarah nurse natalie spooner
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: blair turnbull claire thompson eminence mashmeyer and pulian that are
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: either injured um blair is having a baby claire thompson
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: uh retired like there's a lot going on but a
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: lot of their regular sort of core is also not
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: available for this tournament and then you also have brian
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: jenner and um jocelyn rock and jen gardner not involved
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: so there was a lot of turnover um there were
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: 10 players making their first world's roster um jesse aldridge
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: makes her first world's roster in more than four years
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: like there's there's a lot of interesting stuff happening here
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: um i think it's excited uh it's exciting that we're
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: seeing some of that and um yeah like i said
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: i will definitely own a little that that there's more
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: collisions than i expected but i still think that camp
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: roster was too darn too darn big this Any surprises
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: for you on this roster?
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: I guess I didn't know when Hayley McDonald got brought in,
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: the Ohio State player, I guess I didn't know, like,
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: is that just to expose her to the camp environment?
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: Or is that a real, like, yeah, you're going to
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: be part of this now. And we saw it. She's
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: on the roster. She's part of it now. So.
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: I don't know if I'd call it a surprise, but
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: that was one that stood out to me. The other
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: one that made it as a college player, Chloe Primorano
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: from Minnesota, not a surprise there. I mean, it was
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: more of a surprise when she didn't make the last one,
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: last national team that I think that it is. She's
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: on this one now. Yeah, this is.
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: Kate and Kramer from UMD is the one we didn't mention.
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: Yes. I don't think. Yeah, I forgot that. Kate and
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: Kramer from UMD is also on the team. And so.
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: I think with Haley McDonald, like she's behind, like she's
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: being overshadowed by some bigger international names at Ohio State.
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: Well, right.
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: Not necessarily seeing her like Caitlin Kramer is the driver
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: of U.S.
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: Offense. Right.
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: Like it is clear to understand what she's doing. And
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: I feel like we just aren't seeing that from Haley McDonald.
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: And that is not a commentary on her value or
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: her abilities, but just the makeup of their team. And
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: so I feel like a watching streams is hard to
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: get the lay of the land. And B, just like
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: I said, she's just, you know, there's a lot of
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: talent on that team. And so I think she's a
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: surprise in that I don't think we, at the collegiate level,
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: have seen even close to what she's capable of.
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: We're going to get the U.S. roster sometime around Halloween,
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: as you understand. Our training camp goes, I believe, through
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: the 30th.
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: The 30th.
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: Yes. And so... The tournament starts on November 6th.
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: I mean, we are under 20 games, under 20 days
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: away from the tournament.
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and so this is, you know, it's starting to
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: happen now. The U.S. and Canada are going to play
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: a couple of games pre-tournament here in North America to
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: get ready for that. But the U.S. has a 31-player
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: training camp roster to try and get down to 25
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: for the tournament, so. Uh, one of the things that,
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: that jumped out at me was, uh, in, I believe
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: in August, they took three goalies to, um, to that camp.
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: And now for this camp, they've added a fourth. Um,
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: and that to me, I, I had questions about that,
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: that fourth player being Kelly Shanahan, um, Um, the former
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: BU player, if I'm remembering that correctly, um, people will
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: let me know if I'm not. Um, but so Aaron Frankel,
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: Gwyneth Phillips have been the others. Ava McNaughton from Wisconsin
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: has been the, um, the third. She was the third
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: goalie in the Olympics. Got a couple minutes of playing
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: time and that was it.
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: Um, but.
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: Now we're seeing a fourth added. And so I don't know,
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: is that a response to a McNaughton being a little
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: dinged up early in the season? She's been run over
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: a couple of times and, and been slow to, to
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: get back up, uh, miss the game because of that
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: at Ohio state. Um, and, uh, I'm sorry, not Ohio state.
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: That was at St. Lawrence, uh, earlier in the season. Um,
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: and so I, I, I don't know. Is there an
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: opening there or are we just kind of letting the
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: goalie situation play out there for the U.S.? Yeah, it's,
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: I mean, I could.
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: See it being because she's, you know, she also was
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: injured to stay in, but she went down in another
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: game already this season in McNaughton. But also, like, my
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: read on Robleski is that, like, he likes competition and
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: he likes players sort of if you know who your
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: three goalies are and they were at the Olympics and
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: they're just your three goalies going into Worlds, there can
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: be complacency. I mean, I don't think there is from
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: players at that elite level, but I can understand the
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: coaching mindset on like, oh, everybody has to compete. So
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: I could see it being both a tryout for Shanahan,
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: but also just sort of forcing, you know, all of
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: those players haven't played in several months. And so other
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: than Ava. So it could just be about sort of
• 7:24
  Speaker 2: the I don't want to say mind games, but just
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: sort of the mentality of forcing them all to really like,
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: it's not a given that you're on this roster.
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's the, I think one of the unknowns of
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: going into a camp, like I said, there are so
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: many unknowns because of this tournament being in November the
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: first time for the first time. And because of working
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: around a schedule for a pro league that hasn't started,
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: it hasn't started training camps. And yeah, dealing with college
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: players who have started and are going to be pulled
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: away from those teams. That's, I think, to me, the
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: big picture issue here is that there's just so much
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: uncertainty of what these teams are going to look like
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: because you're dealing with it at the start of a
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: season rather than at the end of a season when
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: players are probably You know, there's the question of there's
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: no more, there's no rust, but there probably are a
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: little bit dinged up when you have a tournament at
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: the end of a season. Although, look at Canada, there's
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: players still dinged up on that side of things. So, yeah,
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: I don't know what to expect here. I don't know
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: what this is going to look like. It will be
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: fun to follow because of that. But if you're looking
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: for a lot of insight, I don't know that anyone
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: has any reliable insight right now.
• 8:49
  Speaker 2: No, and I think I'd say the other thing is
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: that just because the P-Dub hasn't started, there are players
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: internationally playing in several other pro leagues. And we've seen
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: the national teams get players to get pulled to go
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: play in the Women's Euro Hockey Tour, which is not
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: a club that's country. But still, I believe they've already
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: had two rounds of that or the second one soon.
• 9:10
  Speaker 2: And so.
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: Again, that's just more experience and more rust shaking off
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: that the North American players aren't getting. So the North
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: American pros are going into this off of the offseason
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: and haven't been on the ice for several months. So yeah,
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: it really changes the dynamic. And as we've talked in
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: recent years of that gap closing and we've seen Canada
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: and U.S. come against tougher competition from Canada, Sweden, Finland... Switzerland,
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: it makes me wonder how much that plays into things
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: when we get to this tournament. And also, it really
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: was the P-Dub that pushed for this change. If the
• 9:55
  Speaker 2: change to the beginning of the season sort of puts
• 9:59
  Speaker 2: the North American stranglehold on the gold medal in jeopardy,
• 10:04
  Speaker 2: like what do they do then? Because I feel like
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: there's going to be a lot of pushback. And again,
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: there's a lot of crossover between PWHL coaches and national
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: team coaches and coaching staff. So just, I think, something
• 10:17
  Speaker 2: to keep an eye on and hypothesize about and wonder,
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: because I certainly think if we see either North American
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: team sort of falter, it puts the November calendar decision
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: up for debate again. Let's put it that way.
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: Well, I think they're going to have to live with
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: it for a couple of years just from how the,
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: at least a couple of years, from how the scheduling works,
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: that they will have If they want to change it,
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: they would have to unwind a lot of things. And so,
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: not to say that can't happen, but... Yeah.
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: And the IHF might just say, too dang bad, it's good.
• 10:54
  Speaker 2: But I just, I feel like this is a consequence
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: of decisions that maybe people didn't consider.
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: Yeah, well.
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: Or didn't think possible, or I don't know. But I just,
• 11:04
  Speaker 2: you look at how many people are banged up and
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: how different the rosters look and how less prepared it
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: feels the North American teams are versus... some of the
• 11:11
  Speaker 2: European teams. And it definitely means I think it could
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: be very interesting.
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: Yes, it could. Okay, we will continue to talk about
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: international play as the World Championship arrives in a couple
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: of weeks. But let's turn our attention to what's coming
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: this week in NCAA women's hockey. And I'm intrigued by
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: a series between Colgate, which has started 6-0 this season,
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: going to Ohio State. which just suffered its first loss
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: of the season. So Colgate has swept RIT, swept St.
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: Cloud State, and swept Boston University. I don't know that
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: that necessarily prepares you for going to Columbus, but I
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: think there is a little bit you can take away
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: from winning a couple of close games against St.
• 12:02
  Speaker 2: Cloud.
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: You just have to maybe turn up the speed a
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: little bit when you go to play What are your
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: thoughts on what the Raiders are going to be facing
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: this week? And really, in reverse, what Ohio State is
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: going to be facing from a team coming in that's
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: probably going to be pretty hungry?
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I feel like, much like I had kind of
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: said about Minnesota, I feel like Colgate's put things together
• 12:28
  Speaker 2: quicker than I maybe expected for them. Again, they have
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: had a lot of turnover the last two years of
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: sort of the names that really built that program. And
• 12:37
  Speaker 2: I felt like going into the season, Colgate was... sort
• 12:40
  Speaker 2: of needing to prove that they're a perpetual team, that
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: it doesn't matter who graduates, like they're a team that
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: is going to be in the mix and be ranked
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: and be playing for, you know, the NCAA tournament. And
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: thus far they have, and I've been really impressed because
• 12:51
  Speaker 2: I'm not sure if I believed on paper, but I
• 12:54
  Speaker 2: loved what they showed in that St. Cloud series. I
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: thought that was a really big defining moment for them.
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: So there's a lot of confidence. There's a lot of experience.
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: I think Ohio State, there's going to be... Part of
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: me thinks like, oh, goodness, you can't spend time looking backwards.
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: You have to look forwards. And that is very much
• 13:14
  Speaker 2: like Nadine's not going to let them dwell too much
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: because the next game is the most important one. But
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: also there's a lot of things they can learn and
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: need to learn from what they did over the weekend.
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: And so where that sort of all shifts and allows
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: them to figure out, you know, like it's a quick
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: turnaround game. Colgate's a different opponent, plays a different style
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: than a lot of the WCHA teams. Not a ton,
• 13:37
  Speaker 2: but just it's a different approach. And yeah, like you said,
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: I think it's the speed. I think, you know, playing
• 13:43
  Speaker 2: a pissed off OSU team is never good. And that's
• 13:48
  Speaker 2: scary for anybody that has to do it. But I
• 13:50
  Speaker 2: think I find this matchup more intriguing than I did
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: on paper a few weeks ago, for sure. And so
• 13:58
  Speaker 2: I think that's what makes it really fun is to
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: see how Ohio State sort of responds to their weekend,
• 14:03
  Speaker 2: how Colgate handles the step up. And if I think,
• 14:08
  Speaker 2: you know. For Colgate, it's a real sort of gut check, like, OK,
• 14:12
  Speaker 2: we came through those first games, we beat that ranked opponent,
• 14:15
  Speaker 2: but like this is the number one team in the country.
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: So where do we stand? Where do we match up?
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: I think you could say the same thing about Boston
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: College right now. three and one this season, uh, with
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: a series this week at home against number 12, Cornell, Cornell,
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: just getting started. So we're still kind of getting a
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: feel for them, but we're really still just getting a
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: feel for BC. Um, and I think that's more of a, uh,
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: not necessarily just this season sort of statement. It's a really, um, uh,
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: over the last couple of years sort of statement. Um, I'm,
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: I think we're going to know, we should know a
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: lot more about both of these themes coming out of
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: this weekend. Don't you think? Yeah.
• 15:01
  Speaker 2: BC is a hard one for me because every time
• 15:03
  Speaker 2: I start to sort of like get on board and
• 15:05
  Speaker 2: see the flashes, it's like, okay, then they, they drop
• 15:07
  Speaker 2: a game. I don't, I don't think they should drop them. Like, okay,
• 15:10
  Speaker 2: but how do they respond? And then the second game doesn't,
• 15:12
  Speaker 2: you know, they don't like that doesn't light a fire.
• 15:14
  Speaker 2: And so, um, I, I have the hardest time predicting
• 15:18
  Speaker 2: BC or sort of, getting a read on what I
• 15:20
  Speaker 2: can expect from them. I mean, they've got a good
• 15:23
  Speaker 2: high-flying offense. I think that'll be a really good and
• 15:25
  Speaker 2: interesting matchup against Cornell's defense and against Annalise Bergman. But yeah,
• 15:32
  Speaker 2: I think it could be a very interesting sort of
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: tactical match in terms of trying to figure out who
• 15:37
  Speaker 2: can own what parts of the ice and if they
• 15:38
  Speaker 2: can hold the possession. And really, if you can set
• 15:43
  Speaker 2: up camp in Cornell's zone and get a lot of
• 15:46
  Speaker 2: shots on, they're going to block shots. And Annalise, obviously,
• 15:49
  Speaker 2: a great goalie and a big goalie, she covers a
• 15:51
  Speaker 2: lot of ground. So like what has been working for
• 15:55
  Speaker 2: BC is, is probably not going to cut it here.
• 15:58
  Speaker 2: And so, yeah, it's about, you know, how well they
• 16:00
  Speaker 2: scout each other and can figure that out. And Cordell's
• 16:03
  Speaker 2: not like a huge breakout team. They're not massively. So
• 16:06
  Speaker 2: like if, if BC is kind of constantly coming at
• 16:09
  Speaker 2: them in transition, like how does Cornell counter that to
• 16:11
  Speaker 2: be able to still play on offense? I think those
• 16:13
  Speaker 2: are the, the things that are going to, you know,
• 16:15
  Speaker 2: sort of make or break that series. Yeah.
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: There are the first ECAC hockey games of conference games
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: of the season this week with Union and RPI hosting
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: number five Quinnipiac and number seven Princeton in the alternating
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: order that they would do that. Quinnipiac looking to bounce
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: back from a tie and loss against Northeastern last week.
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: Princeton looking to extend a 2-0 start. It's, you know,
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: these are the ones that you think, You need to
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: go on the road and win for Quinnipiac and Princeton.
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: It's not as easy as it's just saying that, obviously.
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: So to get the conference season started with that, you know,
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: you only get one chance at all of these games, right,
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: with the way that ECAC schedules it. So you've got
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: to make the most of these opportunities if you're looking
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: to be at or near the top of the standings
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: by the end.
• 17:20
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's, you know, we talked about how hard it
• 17:22
  Speaker 2: is to go on your first weekend and play a
• 17:25
  Speaker 2: highly ranked team. But I also think, like, there's something
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: about having to face, you know, teams that are in
• 17:29
  Speaker 2: the bottom half of the standings, too, and putting out
• 17:32
  Speaker 2: the game you need in sort of that full 60
• 17:35
  Speaker 2: minutes we talked about earlier. So, yeah, I don't think
• 17:38
  Speaker 2: either of those are games that those teams can overlook or, like,
• 17:43
  Speaker 2: take lightly. I think, you know, the ECAC, and it's cliche,
• 17:47
  Speaker 2: but I do think that that's the type of their
• 17:51
  Speaker 2: season for everybody is like, you cannot, they're not going
• 17:54
  Speaker 2: to be able to take a game off. I think
• 17:55
  Speaker 2: even those teams in the bottom half of the standings
• 17:58
  Speaker 2: are capable of pulling points off pretty much everyone. I
• 18:01
  Speaker 2: think the spread in that conference is much smaller from
• 18:05
  Speaker 2: top to bottom than it has been in years past.
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: The Icebreaker Tournament also happening this weekend. Walter Brown Arena
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: in Boston is the site of that Friday and Saturday event.
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: Robert Morris and Minnesota State play in the first round,
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: and Yale and Boston University also have first-round games. There
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: is a championship at stake, so it's not a predetermined
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: second-day schedule, winners playoff, and then there's also a third-place game.
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: I like that this tournament takes place. The idea has been,
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: and this has existed on the men's side for much
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: longer than it has on the women's side, but bringing
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: together teams from four conferences to play games that might
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: not otherwise happen. It might not have some kind of
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: distribution of games between conferences and teams that don't really
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: have any other reason to play each other, I guess,
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: for lack of a better way of saying it. But
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: Yale is the only team that's ranked in that field,
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: number 14, so some eyes will be on them. But
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: you trying to kind of get the season on track
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: here and having a chance to do that at home
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: could be an opening for them. Yeah.
• 19:29
  Speaker 2: I mean, I just, I take umbrage with an icebreaker
• 19:32
  Speaker 2: tournament in week six, which I wish it was, you know,
• 19:36
  Speaker 2: an actual icebreaker.
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: But if you're going to have an Ivy and I
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: guess it has to be somewhere late in the season,
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: but based on the way that runs.
• 19:44
  Speaker 2: That makes, I suppose, valid. I just, yeah, like you said,
• 19:51
  Speaker 2: I love some of the tournaments, but much like we,
• 19:53
  Speaker 2: you know, kind of had the conversation about certain teams
• 19:57
  Speaker 2: can just really beat up on each other. And that's
• 20:00
  Speaker 2: not fun for anybody. So I waffle around. On some
• 20:05
  Speaker 2: of these where we bring in tournament, just because they're
• 20:07
  Speaker 2: all in different conferences doesn't mean that it makes sense
• 20:09
  Speaker 2: to bring them into a tournament. I'm not saying it
• 20:11
  Speaker 2: makes sense. It's a problem with this particular matchup. Just
• 20:14
  Speaker 2: I waffle on them sometimes. And so I hope they're
• 20:17
  Speaker 2: good games. I think it's cool that it's at Wally Brown.
• 20:19
  Speaker 2: I hope that people in Boston take a chance to
• 20:22
  Speaker 2: go see some different teams that don't normally come to
• 20:25
  Speaker 2: Boston and play. But yeah, we'll see. Talk to me
• 20:29
  Speaker 2: when we see some of the results, I guess.
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: There you go. Right. Well, you can see the schedule
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: for this week's games at uscho.com, along with all of
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: Nicole's content and the previous editions of the podcast. So
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: anything else you want to mention before we say goodbye
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: for the week?
• 20:48
  Speaker 2: I just want to put up that I did write
• 20:50
  Speaker 2: a column about the rules changes. So for people that
• 20:53
  Speaker 2: were listening and were like, oh, I need this visually
• 20:55
  Speaker 2: and would like the links and things that is up
• 20:57
  Speaker 2: on USCHO. So make sure that you check that out.
• 21:01
  Speaker 2: We talked about the rules changes a couple weeks ago,
• 21:03
  Speaker 2: but I know it can be hard to follow that
• 21:06
  Speaker 2: orally and not having it in front of you. So
• 21:10
  Speaker 2: all those links are available to the rule book and
• 21:12
  Speaker 2: some of the changes and so people can really see
• 21:15
  Speaker 2: some of that and follow along because I think we're
• 21:17
  Speaker 2: going to keep seeing how that plays out. The body
• 21:20
  Speaker 2: checking continues to be an interesting thing to look at
• 21:23
  Speaker 2: and pay attention to week to week.
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: I think as much as they try to kind of
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: narrow down what it is, you're still going to have,
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: you know, referees trying to adjust to that and trying to,
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: you have to see it, you have to see it
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: and react to it and understand it. And maybe you
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: get it right in the, in the moment and maybe
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: you don't. And you hope that over the weeks and
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: months and years, it starts to become more of a standard,
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: but that's going to be tough. So, uh, yeah, that's, yeah,
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: I'm good.
• 21:53
  Speaker 2: I'm trying to like hold, yeah, hold, uh, I'm not
• 21:56
  Speaker 2: going to call anything out or whatever for these first
• 21:58
  Speaker 2: couple of weeks. It's a learning process for everybody. This
• 22:00
  Speaker 2: all changed. But I do think like week to week
• 22:03
  Speaker 2: when we get to the end of the season, I'm
• 22:04
  Speaker 2: hoping that we see it even out a little more
• 22:07
  Speaker 2: that we're seeing, you know, similar calls across the board
• 22:09
  Speaker 2: because it does take experience and seeing it live to
• 22:12
  Speaker 2: know when to make that make the calls that are
• 22:15
  Speaker 2: being made. But yeah, well, we live in hope.
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: Yes, as always. All right. That's going to do it
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: for us here this week. For Nicole Haase, I'm Todd Molesky.
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: We hope you enjoy this weekend's hockey, and we appreciate
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: you tuning in to the podcast.