Season 6 Episode 14 of the Chasing MacNaughton Podcast from Tech Hockey Guide; The Kids Are Alright. This week, Tim Braun, Rob Gilreath and Matt Cavender were joined by THG’s own series preview writer, Jonathan Zamaites (JZ). In this episode, they discussed JZ’s thoughts on Michigan Tech’s season so far, Michigan Tech’s player development, the celebration of Mitch’s Misfits turning 21, the possibility of the Canadian Hockey League (CHL) players being eligible to play in the NCAA and the upcoming series between Michigan Tech and Northern Michigan.
JZ shares his thoughts
The bulk of the episode revolved around JZ sharing his thoughts on the team so far this season. He came right out and said he’s liked what he’s seen so far and told the Tech fans to wait on hitting the panic button. JZ thought the Michigan Tech’s defense has looked solid, but also said there’s still room for players to adapt to the speed of the NCAA. Tim hoped that head coach Joe Shawhan would get more comfortable with players such as Rylan Brown, which would allow for Chase Pietila to be on the ice less and avoid a burnout. JZ pointed out that Michigan Tech hasn’t lead much this season and thought that has forced Shawhan to play his more offensive-minded defensemen.
JZ was high on the entire offense, despite the lack of scoring. He specifically called out Stiven Sardarian’s play and thought he would continue to fit well in the CCHA. Matt was happy at the amount of puck movement on the power play and thought that the offense has looked better overall to start this season than year’s past. The guys talked about Michigan Tech being a young team this season as well as the lack of returning scoring on the team. The guys brought up Henry Bartle and speculated on why he hasn’t had more playing time this season.
Turning to player development, JZ voiced hope that Ryder Matter would find his direction and also talked about enjoying watching Matter get into player’s faces. JZ thought that Marcus Pederson needed to turn this around and use his size more to his advantage. The guys talked about certain players needing to be reigned in compared to certain players needing to be pushed more, and how that affects an NHL scout’s view on a player. JZ talked about Chase Pietila being a completely different person on ice versus off.
MM21 Celebration
The guys briefly recapped the shenanigan’s that happened at the MM21 celebration. Matt apparently didn’t wear upper pads during the alumni versus students scrimmage. The guys counted how many generations of Misfit’s presidents were there. Matt vented frustration at the location of his seats during the games, but celebrated getting to put on one of the panda helmets during a Clarkson penalty.
CHL and the NCAA
The guys spent a couple minutes discussing the possibility of CHL players being eligible to play in the NCAA. All of them agreed that Michigan Tech could benefit from the change. Tim pointed out that high end schools likely would not be interested in older CHL players but schools like Michigan Tech, Lake Superior State or Ferris State would be. JZ thought it might allow Lake Superior State and Ferris State to become more competitive on a year to year basis.
Northern Michigan series preview
JZ thought the series against Northern Michigan would be a tough one for Michigan Tech. JZ thought that Northern Michigan’s new coach will make his players work hard. JZ thought the games would be gritty and scary the entire time. Matt talked about throwing out the record book during rivalry games and JZ questioned whether the Northern Michigan players would have the stamina to keep up with Michigan Tech.
Cut for time
This week’s cut time for Patrons is approximately 20 minutes long. There was pre-show discussions on Tim getting hooked on caffeine again and the guys wearing Crocs. The guys discussed Minnesota State’s Rhett Pitlick. Matt talked about his “fight” with Kellan during the MM21 alumni hockey game. There was a variety of post-show topics discussed including Tim looking for advice on places to eat in Marquette, roundabouts, industrial wastelands and fact checking Michigan Tech’s hockey website.
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 75 minutes.
RAW AUDIO: This post is for patrons at the Silver Level ($25/ mo) or above which includes unedited audio and usually drops the night the podcast is recorded.
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EXTENDED AUDIO: This post is for patrons at the Black Level ($5/mo) or above which includes extended audio content and usually drops the night after or 2nd morning after the podcast is recorded.
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: Arcadia Insurance Group and Aaron Pieltia, Fiebke Dental in downtown Rhinelander, Wis. and Livonia Technical Services, and Psychobob on Whatnot.
Check out Tech Leadership 4.0: Leading in a Technologically Driven World and The Power of Deduction: Failure Modes & Effects Analysis for Design: Second Edition written by our very own Old Dog, Mike Anleitner
Follow us on twitter at ChasingMacPod. Join our Discord server for discussions covering Michigan Tech hockey and more. 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, Mike Anleitner’s Old Dog in Texas column every Wednesday, Zach Aufdemberge’s Analytics With Augie and Nathaniel Brose’s nationwide hockey columns. Also, keep an eye out for new recruiting articles that Nathan Cima writes. 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.
