Season 4, Episode 8 of the Chasing MacNaughton Podcast from Tech Hockey Guide; Levis and Lattes. This week, Tim Braun, Dustin Lindstrom, Rob Gilreath and Matt Cavender were guestless because they expect to win the Powerball Lottery in the coming drawings. In this episode they discussed last weekend’s series against Bowling Green, early season Pairwise rankings, Michell Miller signing with the Boston Bruins, the Joe Shawhan Hour, Michigan Tech’s incoming recruits, and Tech’s upcoming series against Lake Superior State.

Bowling Green series review

Dustin commented on Tech giving up a lot of breakaways and Matt added that Tech had a short-handed goal scored on them. Matt went on to talk about being happy with Friday’s results and how Saturday exposed a lot of Tech’s weaknesses. Matt did not agree with head coach Joe Shawhan’s assessment that Saturday was the better game on the weekend for Tech. Rob disagreed with Matt and expressed his agreement with Joe that Saturday was the better game for Tech. Rob also talked about the bad faceoff percentage for Tech on the weekend and that scoring only one goal on three major penalties is not a recipe for a successful weekend.

The guys spent some time talking about Tech’s powerplay and what they’ve seen from it. Tim thought that Jake Crespi needs to be a little more aware that he’s the last man back on the blueline, but overall thought Crespi has been pretty good. Rob pointed out that Chris Lipe and Brett Thorne have been injured and are two pretty important guys missing on the blueline. The guys then talked about the importance of having movement on the powerplay.

Pairwise before Thanksgiving

This topic was brought up thanks to a tweet by John Buccigross who claimed that the current Pairwise rankings didn’t add up or make sense to him.

The guys talked about the fact that the Pairwise is literally a mathematical formula, and Matt questioned why a passion project like THG is dunking on a pundit who’s paycheck comes from ESPN. Tim talked about the Pairwise being a relatively good indicator of who will get into the tournament beginning around Thanksgiving. The guys talked about where Tech sits in the Pairwise rankings currently and whether or not they expect the team to stay there throughout the year. Tim also talked about how the Big 10 Conference can screw up the Pairwise through the entire season thanks to having an odd number of teams.

What were they thinking?

The guys spent a few minutes discussing Mitchell Miller and the news that he was signed, and subsequently released, by the Boston Bruins. Matt thought that it was a crock that he was signed, to which Rob agreed and said people need to look into the whole saga. Matt talked about the fact that Miller has not apologized to the victim with any ounce of remorse. Tim felt that Miller does not deserve to play professional hockey until the family of the victim feels that Miller has actually changed as a person. The guys talked about the Bruins locker room and how it appears that the locker room revolted against the front office because of the signing.

The Joe Show

The guys started off the Joe Show review by talking about their coffee and tea preferences (if you listened to this week’s Joe Show, you’ll understand). Most of the Joe Show review focused on Jamie Phillips’ segment of the show. Dustin commented that the really appreciated the comments from Jamie and thought it was insightful to hear about how Jamie and Joe manage their relationship. Tim liked when Jamie talked about how he recaps games even though he’s watching from Houghton. The guys talked about Jamie’s comments regarding goaltending and how it is at it’s pinnacle right now.

The new kids on the block

Tim brought up the fact that a couple of Tech’s Finnish players are supposed to be back from injury soon and noted that Tech recently got another recruit from Slovenia. Tim then took a dive into the players Tech has recruited lately and was a little disappointed that none of them have been “kicking butt” so far this year. In the end, Tim wasn’t sure what to think of the incoming recruiting class but did say it was nice to see some variety between the forwards and defenseman. Dustin talked about not being blown away by the recruits and also commented on the lack of a big time scorer. Matt thought the recruits were nothing spectacular and said he would like to see Tech make a splash and land a big time recruit. Both Tim and Dustin agreed that the defenseman Tech has committed look good, but were both worried about the offensive prospects.

Lake Superior State series preview

Matt provided some famous last words and said he is completely looking past this weekend’s series. He thought that LSSU is a team Tech should handle and he didn’t think it would be an interesting series to watch. Matt predicted a sweep for Tech. Dustin commented on this series, and the next against St. Thomas, being a nice way for Tech to get four wins on the board. The guys then talked about how poor LSSU has played so far and where they stand in the league and Pairwise rankings. They also talked about the goalie situation at LSSU and how neither of LSSU’s goalies would be a backup to most of the other teams in the CCHA. Rob picked a sweep for the weekend but thought it would be closer than Matt’s prediction. Dustin predicted a split with two close games. Tim picked a sweep for Tech with a one goal win and a two goal win.

Cut for time

This week’s cut time for Patrons is approximately 17 minutes long. There was a discussion on the atmosphere in Bowling Green’s hockey arena. The guys talked about attending the GLI this year and how to get there. Matt talked about having a conniption while watching Alexander Ovechkin on the power play against the Detroit Red Wings. There was extended discussion of the guys dunking on Buccigross and the guys discussed the Ivy League schools hockey teams. The guys discussed the Powerball drawing. There was a discussion on tea and English Breakfast and Rob talked about buying tea in bulk. The guys discussed whether or not Slovenia names have symbols associated with them. There was a discussion on the Logan Morrel situation.

Learn More

For additional information and more episode liner notes, check out our episode overview on Tech Hockey Guide. To make sure we can afford all our fancy equipment we purchased for the podcast and the THG website in general, please check out our Patreon page and consider joining. Patrons at our Black Level or above receive an authentic MTU jersey patch and access to extra podcast content including extended versions of our other episodes. This week’s extended version is about 86 minutes.

Mitch’s Misfits Amazon wishlist is still having items added as we figure it out, but you can take a look by clicking here and a reminder, if you rate the Podcast 5-stars, we’ll read your review on the podcast. Thanks again to our sponsors, Fiebke Dental in downtown Rhinelander and Livonia Technical Services.

Follow us on twitter at ChasingMacPod. You can submit questions through our email address, ChasingMac@techhockeyguide.com. Don’t forget to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Please rate and review to help us reach more people, and tell your friends. Please check out Jonathan Zamaites’ series previews every Friday and Mike Anleitner’s Old Dog in Texas column every Wednesday and Zach Aufdemberge’s Analytics With Augie. Also, keep an eye out for new recruiting articles that Tim Braun writes occasionally. As always, special thanks to our patron saint Doc McResin for his generous donation to get this thing running, we hope you enjoy. Also, thanks to The Thank You Notes for all the bumpers in today’s episode. If you like what you hear, check them out at thethankyounotes.bandcamp.com.

Nick Holmes
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