Latest / The PodKaz: USCHO Women's Hockey / International absences, U.S. roster questions and what's ahead in women's college hockey

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International absences, U.S. roster questions and what's ahead in women's college hockey · The PodKaz: USCHO Women's Hockey

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Welcome back to the podcast. Todd Molesky and Nicole Haase
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: here from uscho.com.
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: Nicole, this is a week that is, again, impacted by
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: who is not around on some women's college hockey teams
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: because of international duties. We've got USA Hockey training camp
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: going on. We've got a EuroTour stop in Switzerland. No?
• 0:31
  Speaker 3: Sweden.
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: Sweden.
• 0:32
  Speaker 4: Sweden.
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: Okay. You're right. Stockholm.
• 0:34
  Speaker 3: Okay.
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: This is going to be one of those things in
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: the first half of the season where teams are going
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: to have to adjust, but we'll get to some of
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: the matchups a little later on in the show.
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: Last week we talked about the.
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: Roster for Canada for the World Championship.
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: We don't know where the U.S.
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: Is going to land yet because that camp this week
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: is going to give some final answers. We're expected to
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: know sometime by the weekend, I believe, who will be
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: part of that team that will play in the World Championship.
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: I guess, what are your feelings about where things stand
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: there and what they're looking for and what kind of
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: might be the questions that need to get answered in
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: the next few days?
• 1:20
  Speaker 3: It's so interesting, right?
• 1:21
  Speaker 4: Because they're coming off, they own the World Championship gold
• 1:23
  Speaker 4: medal and the Olympic gold medal. They have mostly the
• 1:28
  Speaker 4: same roster. You know, Canada had a bit of turnover,
• 1:31
  Speaker 4: had some people retire, had some people not be invited back.
• 1:34
  Speaker 4: They're dealing with a lot of injuries. But I feel like,
• 1:36
  Speaker 4: I mean, for the U.S., is it like mostly just,
• 1:39
  Speaker 4: you know, try not to mess up whatever secret sauce
• 1:43
  Speaker 4: you found that was already working? um this is an
• 1:46
  Speaker 4: interesting year because it's the first year of the quad
• 1:48
  Speaker 4: it's our first world championships in november so you've got
• 1:52
  Speaker 4: the sort of logistics of none of the the non-collegiate
• 1:56
  Speaker 4: players aren't the pro players are really at like peak
• 1:59
  Speaker 4: shape they're in off-season shape like they've done all their
• 2:02
  Speaker 4: work they're not out of shape but that's very different
• 2:05
  Speaker 4: from like where they're at in april of a season
• 2:07
  Speaker 4: and there's pluses and minuses to it because in april
• 2:10
  Speaker 4: they're also pretty beat up and probably playing with some
• 2:12
  Speaker 4: aches and pains and things like that but I do
• 2:14
  Speaker 4: think there's just an interesting, I think it's going to
• 2:16
  Speaker 4: be interesting those first couple games of watching everybody get
• 2:20
  Speaker 4: up to pace a little and sort of catch up
• 2:22
  Speaker 4: to the pace of the game. But it's the first
• 2:25
  Speaker 4: of a quad. I feel like the U.S. really implemented
• 2:28
  Speaker 4: a strategy in 2022 last year. John Robleski was just
• 2:33
  Speaker 4: announced to be extended through the next Olympic cycle in
• 2:37
  Speaker 4: 2022's World Championships, which were also in Denmark. He was
• 2:41
  Speaker 4: not yet hired yet. as the Olympic coach, that was
• 2:43
  Speaker 4: like an initial hiring of just through the world championships.
• 2:46
  Speaker 3: And then he got it.
• 2:47
  Speaker 4: So it wasn't the whole plan. Wasn't obviously, he didn't
• 2:50
  Speaker 4: even know that was going to be his job yet,
• 2:52
  Speaker 4: but I think the idea of bringing in the young
• 2:54
  Speaker 4: talent and finding the holes and figuring out the personalities
• 2:59
  Speaker 4: and who you need that that started in 2022. Um,
• 3:02
  Speaker 4: and that all built to 2026 and led to the
• 3:05
  Speaker 4: gold medal. So I feel like, um, you have to
• 3:09
  Speaker 4: sort of read between the lines right now and like
• 3:11
  Speaker 4: who's on the roster, what are the lines that they're building,
• 3:14
  Speaker 4: who's doing power play, what starts our goaltenders getting, all
• 3:18
  Speaker 4: that sort of stuff, I think, because now is when
• 3:21
  Speaker 4: you do that sort of tinkering. Now in the cycle
• 3:24
  Speaker 4: is when you start trying to figure that out and
• 3:26
  Speaker 4: find out who's going to work best together. Does anything
• 3:29
  Speaker 4: change with some of, like so much of that team,
• 3:33
  Speaker 4: that gold medal winning team was based on the collegians who.
• 3:36
  Speaker 3: Are no longer collegians.
• 3:39
  Speaker 4: That shouldn't change a ton, but their style could change
• 3:42
  Speaker 4: or based on who those were players that played together
• 3:44
  Speaker 4: for four years, you know, that were knew who they were,
• 3:47
  Speaker 4: you know, particularly the girls from Wisconsin. So like now
• 3:49
  Speaker 4: that they're all on different teams under different coaches and
• 3:52
  Speaker 4: different systems and pros for the first time, does that
• 3:54
  Speaker 4: make them different players in any way, shape or form? So, yeah,
• 3:58
  Speaker 4: I think there's, this is interesting in that there's, it's
• 4:01
  Speaker 4: different because it's now in November and sort of all
• 4:03
  Speaker 4: the assorted things that go with that, but also just
• 4:06
  Speaker 4: to probably look back in hindsight, but maybe just keep
• 4:09
  Speaker 4: a pin in some things on what you see that
• 4:12
  Speaker 4: could be interesting or different because I think this is
• 4:15
  Speaker 4: when you do some of those things building towards the
• 4:17
  Speaker 4: 2030 Olympics. We saw Layla and KK and Sims and
• 4:22
  Speaker 4: a lot of young players getting their first looks in
• 4:24
  Speaker 4: those first two years of the quad.
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: Which is such a challenge because you don't want to
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: sacrifice competing for a world championship for... growth because you've
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: got a lot of other times in the year when
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: you can try and piece those things together, but not
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: against the kind of competition you're going to face in
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: a world championship. So that balance is really tricky. I
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: have to imagine in terms of how they prioritize what
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: they're trying to get out of each, you know, if
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: you look at them kind of as segments in, in,
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: in the quad, you know, you've got a world championship
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: in each of them, but you also have other, other,
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: touch points to, to try and manage.
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: So like, how do you, what kind of pieces do
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: you try and fit in, in, in a world championship
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: lead up? Not really knowing, like you're talking about what
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: kind of shape you're going to have everyone in, uh, is,
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: is really something that I feel like is going to
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: have to get played out this year, probably next year
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: and probably the year after to, to.
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: Know what's what it's all going to mean. Because the
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: Olympics is not changing. That is going to be, again,
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: during a.
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: We're talking a few years throughout, but that's going to
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: be a February time again during the middle of the
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: season when everyone's more game-ready and game-prepared. But it's definitely
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: going to be different these next couple of years on
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: the World Championship side in terms of what are you
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: expecting from players?
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and like.
• 6:00
  Speaker 4: Maybe this is one of those times where the new
• 6:05
  Speaker 4: people to the roster, which are mostly collegians, will have
• 6:09
  Speaker 4: a transition period because, again, the game is faster and
• 6:12
  Speaker 4: all that stuff that comes with being new every time
• 6:15
  Speaker 4: you step up a level. But they also have been playing.
• 6:18
  Speaker 4: They're in playing shape. So maybe that helps them bridge
• 6:20
  Speaker 4: that gap a little more and make that seem more comfortable.
• 6:25
  Speaker 4: But yeah, I think... much like going into the olympics
• 6:28
  Speaker 4: there's a whole lot of unknowns um you know we
• 6:31
  Speaker 4: knew it was going to be weird this year being
• 6:33
  Speaker 4: in the middle of the collegiate season being you know
• 6:36
  Speaker 4: and the players not having centralized so like i i
• 6:39
  Speaker 4: don't know that we're gonna have any answers or that
• 6:42
  Speaker 4: it's much different in terms of like what's gonna happen
• 6:44
  Speaker 4: we don't know how's it gonna affect we don't know
• 6:46
  Speaker 4: but i do think you know i'll be sort of
• 6:47
  Speaker 4: taking notes and looking at at how these things play out.
• 6:50
  Speaker 4: But yeah, it is, it is super interesting because you
• 6:53
  Speaker 4: cannot replicate the feeling of a world championship, even if
• 6:56
  Speaker 4: it's rivalry series, even if it's, you know, some other
• 6:59
  Speaker 4: tournament and you can't replicate the Olympics, which is even
• 7:01
  Speaker 4: higher than that. And so you want to put the
• 7:04
  Speaker 4: players in those situations so that they're ready for each
• 7:07
  Speaker 4: of those next steps. You know, it's, it's like how
• 7:09
  Speaker 4: I think it was important that they put Ava McNaughton
• 7:12
  Speaker 4: in for a game in the Olympics in 2026. And
• 7:13
  Speaker 4: she saw some actual playing time. because you want to
• 7:17
  Speaker 4: have you don't want them to be coming in with
• 7:20
  Speaker 4: no experience when it comes to 2030 you know and
• 7:22
  Speaker 4: all of the goalies this in 2026.
• 7:24
  Speaker 3: Had no Olympic experience if I remember correctly.
• 7:27
  Speaker 5: Um so yeah just there's a lot of non-game based
• 7:33
  Speaker 5: things that will play into this right like that have
• 7:36
  Speaker 5: nothing to do with what happens once the puck drops
• 7:38
  Speaker 5: but yeah I think it's all makes it more interesting
• 7:40
  Speaker 5: to watch and pay attention for and I think probably
• 7:42
  Speaker 5: this Euro hockey tour this weekend would be interesting too.
• 7:45
  Speaker 3: I'll be checking on some of those results.
• 7:47
  Speaker 4: Just because again, that's where we're seeing like the best
• 7:50
  Speaker 4: look we've got at the teams before they, they actually,
• 7:53
  Speaker 4: you know, hit the ice. And it's, I think November 16th.
• 7:55
  Speaker 4: So we're, we're just a couple of weeks out.
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: I'm sorry.
• 8:00
  Speaker 3: November 16th.
• 8:01
  Speaker 4: No.
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: Six to the 16th. I believe it's.
• 8:04
  Speaker 3: The run of the tournament. That's the gold medal game, right?
• 8:06
  Speaker 3: The 16th.
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: Yes.
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: Yes.
• 8:07
  Speaker 3: I caught myself.
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: So yeah.
• 8:09
  Speaker 4: Something to watch for. But yes, and there's U.S. and
• 8:12
  Speaker 4: Kennedy games this weekend as well. The 28th and 30th,
• 8:14
  Speaker 4: I believe. And then they said they expect the roster
• 8:18
  Speaker 4: to be out on Halloween the next day.
• 8:19
  Speaker 3: So who knows? But yeah, that's where we're at.
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: All right, let's look ahead to this weekend's slate of
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: games in college hockey. A couple important ones in the
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: WCHA Wisconsin playing first place St.
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: Cloud State. The Huskies are I believe, off to a
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: 6-0 start. No.
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: Yeah, 6-0 start in conference play, having dropped one point
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: for an overtime win.
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: But 17 points is two points ahead of Ohio State
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: on a similar number, same number of games played. Obviously,
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: the challenge for St. Cloud has always been.
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: Getting the points against the Wisconsin, Ohio State, Minnesota, Minnesota
• 9:06
  Speaker 2: Duluths of the conference and not necessarily against everyone else.
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: Let's see what that looks like this weekend at the
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: National Hockey Center in St. Cloud when Wisconsin comes to
• 9:18
  Speaker 2: town off of a bye week with some players missing.
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: Is this an opportunity for the Huskies to really show
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: that this start of the season has been no joke?
• 9:32
  Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely.
• 9:32
  Speaker 4: I think there's a huge opportunity. I think they always
• 9:35
  Speaker 4: play better on their home ice. You know, we talk,
• 9:37
  Speaker 4: I don't think it's a huge thing, but we do
• 9:38
  Speaker 4: talk about they have, do they still have the bigger
• 9:40
  Speaker 4: ice or is it smaller?
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: It's bigger, but not as, not fully a hundred feet anymore.
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: It's 90 something.
• 9:46
  Speaker 4: But I think they've always been able to use that
• 9:48
  Speaker 4: extra ice really well and use it to their advantage.
• 9:52
  Speaker 4: You know, the Badgers will be missing Ava McNaughton, primarily
• 9:56
  Speaker 4: the biggest, thing for them. But yeah, that being said,
• 9:59
  Speaker 4: the Badgers have been missing pieces kind of at all
• 10:01
  Speaker 4: points so far. And I feel like it's not exactly
• 10:04
  Speaker 4: the start they've wanted to this season, but there's lots
• 10:08
  Speaker 4: of positives when you've had injuries, you've had a bunch
• 10:10
  Speaker 4: of failures missing, and your losses are to Ohio State,
• 10:13
  Speaker 4: which you wouldn't have wanted to get swept there. But overall,
• 10:16
  Speaker 4: they've come out with you know, most of the points
• 10:18
  Speaker 4: they were expecting. And so I feel like that adaptability
• 10:22
  Speaker 4: will serve the Badgers as the season goes on. But yeah,
• 10:25
  Speaker 4: I think the door's definitely open for St.
• 10:27
  Speaker 3: Cloud.
• 10:28
  Speaker 4: And it's not like it would be unusual. They've taken
• 10:31
  Speaker 4: points off the Badgers several times over the past few seasons.
• 10:34
  Speaker 4: And so certainly you would think Wisconsin would not be
• 10:37
  Speaker 4: looking past this, but just in case, like they definitely
• 10:40
  Speaker 4: shouldn't be because I think there's probably more firepower available
• 10:44
  Speaker 4: available at St. Cloud as there's been, you know, in
• 10:47
  Speaker 4: the past few years, it feels like a lot of
• 10:49
  Speaker 4: the stuff came together for them. So yeah, I think
• 10:50
  Speaker 4: that's going to be a super interesting series.
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: We have seven and one Minnesota at six and two
• 10:56
  Speaker 2: Minnesota Duluth.
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: That really does feel like a.
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: An important one for Duluth. We've seen what Minnesota can
• 11:07
  Speaker 2: do against Ohio state. I think I I'm, waiting to
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: see where Minnesota Duluth is going to get its offense from.
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: We know the defense is great. And if it's out
• 11:21
  Speaker 2: of Keaton Kramer, who's it going to be?
• 11:25
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 11:28
  Speaker 4: I mean, I will say, you know, Minnesota Duluth did
• 11:30
  Speaker 4: take that February series off the Gophers. I mean, they
• 11:34
  Speaker 4: were two overtime wins, but it did happen. And I
• 11:36
  Speaker 4: can't imagine that was the final weekend last year. I
• 11:38
  Speaker 4: can't imagine the Gophers aren't thinking about that. So, there's,
• 11:41
  Speaker 4: you know, sort of that bit of it all, but yeah,
• 11:43
  Speaker 4: for Minnesota Duluth, it's just proving, um, I mean, they
• 11:46
  Speaker 4: did okay when Kramer was gone, but also the second
• 11:49
  Speaker 4: she came back, she was, you know, once again, sort
• 11:51
  Speaker 4: of carrying it all. And so, yeah, it's, it's just
• 11:53
  Speaker 4: gotta be more diverse from them and they gotta be
• 11:56
  Speaker 4: able to sort of produce under the pressure, uh, the
• 12:00
  Speaker 4: loss of time and space that the gophers, um, for
• 12:03
  Speaker 4: track and is getting put on.
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: Them, you know?
• 12:06
  Speaker 2: Yeah. I had to just double check this number looking
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: at the standings. Um, Duluth's goals for goals against 21
• 12:13
  Speaker 2: to seven this season. So in eight games, they've got
• 12:16
  Speaker 2: five shutouts, uh, but they've also only scored 21 goals
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: in those eight games, which is, you know, it's been
• 12:21
  Speaker 2: enough in, in a lot of them, but it's, it's
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: not a ton. It's a, uh, when you're, the margins
• 12:28
  Speaker 2: are that thin in some of these games against really
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: good opponents. It's, it's, you're either getting a shutout or
• 12:35
  Speaker 2: you're probably, uh, asking to score two or three goals.
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: And it's, It's a tough way to go through an
• 12:43
  Speaker 2: entire season.
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: I know that.
• 12:45
  Speaker 4: Yeah, it's sort of feast or famine, right? And I
• 12:47
  Speaker 4: was just wanting to pull up stats too. I mean,
• 12:49
  Speaker 4: Caitlin Kramer has seven goals in six games and nobody
• 12:53
  Speaker 4: else has more than three in eight games.
• 12:55
  Speaker 3: So again, it's just like.
• 12:59
  Speaker 4: On the one hand, kind of like Abby Murphy last year,
• 13:01
  Speaker 4: like you knew she was going to be the one
• 13:02
  Speaker 4: getting the puck and scoring and you still couldn't stop her.
• 13:04
  Speaker 4: Like that's Caitlin Kramer, but also like Minnesota needed.
• 13:08
  Speaker 3: Scoring from other places. And I think that's where.
• 13:11
  Speaker 4: Duluth is still trying to find find their space and
• 13:15
  Speaker 4: find someone to really step up so it's Ray Mayer
• 13:17
  Speaker 4: Molly Cole and Josie St. Martin that each have three
• 13:19
  Speaker 4: goals um and then a couple other players that have
• 13:21
  Speaker 4: a single goal each so yeah it's just it's got
• 13:24
  Speaker 4: to come together for them sort of outside of that
• 13:28
  Speaker 4: um and I don't you know and then Caitlin's gonna
• 13:30
  Speaker 4: be gone you know for several more games. I do
• 13:34
  Speaker 4: not know if she's getting pulled this weekend for the
• 13:36
  Speaker 4: Canada games. I guess we didn't... I did not look
• 13:39
  Speaker 4: about if there's U.S.
• 13:40
  Speaker 3: Canada games. Presumably the Canada players are also missing.
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: So, yeah, it's just... I believe so, but yeah, I
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: don't know for sure.
• 13:46
  Speaker 3: It would make sense, right?
• 13:47
  Speaker 4: Yeah. So, between that and the Euro hockey tour, because
• 13:52
  Speaker 4: they have a lot of European players, yeah, it could
• 13:55
  Speaker 4: be really interesting.
• 13:56
  Speaker 3: That's for sure. But, you know, Duluth, I think.
• 14:00
  Speaker 4: sort of always believes that they can pull those points.
• 14:02
  Speaker 4: And I think that series at the end of last
• 14:04
  Speaker 4: year really put a fine point on that. And so,
• 14:07
  Speaker 4: you know, there's that sort of confidence and belief that
• 14:09
  Speaker 4: you can do it and they're always better at home
• 14:12
  Speaker 4: for that as well.
• 14:15
  Speaker 2: Uh, Yale F off of winning the iceberg tournament last weekend, uh,
• 14:20
  Speaker 2: goes to Quinnipiac on Friday and Princeton on Saturday. And
• 14:23
  Speaker 2: so we'll find out, uh, we were saying we wanted
• 14:25
  Speaker 2: to know, uh, We wanted to know, we talked about
• 14:28
  Speaker 2: that in our earlier episode this week, and we're going
• 14:30
  Speaker 2: to know this weekend about the Bulldogs.
• 14:35
  Speaker 4: Yeah, that's, you know, it's a tough slate. It's a
• 14:38
  Speaker 4: tough pair of opponents. They're tough defensively, and I think
• 14:43
  Speaker 4: one of the questions that Yale has to answer this
• 14:45
  Speaker 4: year is scoring. And so I think that's one of those,
• 14:50
  Speaker 4: I mean, they do tend to score by committee, but
• 14:52
  Speaker 4: I do think they need to have somebody sort of
• 14:54
  Speaker 4: step up into that new role for them and I
• 14:57
  Speaker 4: think we'll see if that's going to be the case,
• 14:59
  Speaker 4: if someone's going to sort of take up that mantle
• 15:01
  Speaker 4: this weekend, because they're facing two tough defensive teams.
• 15:05
  Speaker 2: Eight and two Clarkson plays at three and one Harvard
• 15:07
  Speaker 2: on Friday. And that's one that, you know, in the
• 15:10
  Speaker 2: last couple of years, probably we wouldn't have circled, but I'm,
• 15:13
  Speaker 2: I'm intrigued early in the season here to see, see
• 15:16
  Speaker 2: more about Harvard.
• 15:18
  Speaker 3: Harvard's made like massive strides over the last two years.
• 15:22
  Speaker 4: I mean, they were, barely had a couple wins, like
• 15:26
  Speaker 4: two seasons ago, and then had a huge jump last season.
• 15:30
  Speaker 3: They have a great goalie in Ainsley Tuffy, right?
• 15:32
  Speaker 4: So, yeah, early on so far, they've shown, you know,
• 15:37
  Speaker 4: like we said, it was interesting going early on with
• 15:40
  Speaker 4: ECAC teams and Ivy teams and not necessarily getting to
• 15:45
  Speaker 4: figure out what we know yet.
• 15:47
  Speaker 3: But, you know, Harvard, Blew out Holy Cross 8-2. They
• 15:51
  Speaker 3: took out St.
• 15:51
  Speaker 4: Michael's, which, you know, that 12-0 is hard to take
• 15:55
  Speaker 4: a lot from. And then, you know, the 0-3 loss
• 15:57
  Speaker 4: to New Hampshire. So, yeah, I think that New Hampshire
• 16:00
  Speaker 4: game makes me wonder because I do feel like that's
• 16:02
  Speaker 4: probably a game Harvard could have won. But, yeah, I'm
• 16:06
  Speaker 4: excited for the ideas they're playing some games this weekend
• 16:09
  Speaker 4: that really give us an idea of what we're actually
• 16:11
  Speaker 4: looking at and how competitive different teams at the ECAC.
• 16:14
  Speaker 3: Are going to be.
• 16:15
  Speaker 4: Yep.
• 16:16
  Speaker 2: In Hockey East, one series that stood out to me
• 16:20
  Speaker 2: in the schedule is Vermont at Boston College. These are
• 16:22
  Speaker 2: two teams that are trying to make their way into
• 16:26
  Speaker 2: the top levels and stay there in Hockey East. I'm
• 16:34
  Speaker 2: interested to see whether either one of them can take
• 16:38
  Speaker 2: that step and win two games this week and put
• 16:42
  Speaker 2: together a complete weekend.
• 16:44
  Speaker 4: I mean, cause it does kind of feel like right
• 16:46
  Speaker 4: now it's who's, who's right behind Northeastern. And I'm not
• 16:49
  Speaker 4: sure we know who that is and that's wide open. And,
• 16:52
  Speaker 4: and both of those teams, two teams could make a
• 16:55
  Speaker 4: point of, of sort of staking claim.
• 16:57
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 16:59
  Speaker 3: I guess.
• 17:01
  Speaker 4: The other one that I think could be interesting. We
• 17:03
  Speaker 4: don't know is, is BU at Northeastern, but that one's
• 17:05
  Speaker 4: also fun. No, it's Northeastern at BU, but it's at
• 17:08
  Speaker 4: Wally Brown.
• 17:08
  Speaker 3: So it's, everybody's a home team.
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: Right. Yes, exactly.
• 17:13
  Speaker 4: But yes, I think, you know, Several of the top
• 17:16
  Speaker 4: teams in the conference playing each other this early in
• 17:19
  Speaker 4: the season really, I think, helps us get a grasp
• 17:21
  Speaker 4: on sort of how that might shake out. And I think,
• 17:23
  Speaker 4: you know, as I said in the early episode, I'm
• 17:25
  Speaker 4: always waiting for BC to make that statement, like respond
• 17:29
  Speaker 4: and just like really grab hold of an opportunity. A
• 17:31
  Speaker 4: sweep this weekend, I think, would go a long way
• 17:33
  Speaker 4: to proving that like they are a serious contender this season.
• 17:38
  Speaker 2: Anything else catch your eye on the week weekend coming up?
• 17:44
  Speaker 4: No, for me, it was the Northeastern BU that I
• 17:47
  Speaker 4: brought up. I think, too, just always, I think we're
• 17:50
  Speaker 4: not paying enough attention overall. And I mean, we, you
• 17:53
  Speaker 4: and I, and people in general to the AHA. So
• 17:56
  Speaker 4: Robert Morris-Lindenwood could be a really interesting series. And I'm interested.
• 18:02
  Speaker 4: Those are two teams that have shown they've gotten some
• 18:04
  Speaker 4: interesting results. maybe not necessarily wins, but they've shown some
• 18:09
  Speaker 4: good fights, so I'm interested to see those two against
• 18:12
  Speaker 4: each other. And they play an early game. They play
• 18:15
  Speaker 4: a noon central game on Friday. So, yes, it is
• 18:18
  Speaker 4: on Flow Hockey, so I know that's very expensive, but
• 18:21
  Speaker 4: if you happen to be paying for it already, that's.
• 18:24
  Speaker 3: One I would definitely check out.
• 18:25
  Speaker 4: Right.
• 18:27
  Speaker 2: We hope you both check out a bunch of games
• 18:29
  Speaker 2: this weekend because there are a few that are going
• 18:32
  Speaker 2: to be... consequential i would say towards yeah uh really
• 18:37
  Speaker 2: how this develops over the first half of the season
• 18:39
  Speaker 2: and and and where things get left as we uh
• 18:43
  Speaker 2: make the turn towards the the stretch run.
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: Of the season so uh gonna be some good stuff
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: we will uh have all the scores.
• 18:50
  Speaker 2: On uscho.com nicole will have the coverage over the weekend
• 18:54
  Speaker 2: uh and into next week uh we will be back
• 18:57
  Speaker 2: with you next week to wrap things up so for
• 18:59
  Speaker 2: nicole hazy i'm todd moleski thanks for joining us on
• 19:02
  Speaker 2: the podcast