UMD Athletics

Senior defenseman and journalism major Jarod Hilderman will be blogging everything Bulldog hockey (and more) throughout the second half of the 2019-20 season and beyond. You can follow him on Twitter at @J_rodHildy

April 26, 2020 - Quarantine Day 39

Boy, oh boy, things are really heating up in Kamsack. Literally and figuratively. We are cooking with gas. The wheels are turning. Blah blah blah. Lets go! 

The warm weather has the naturally occurring dopamine being produced in my brain spiking like a spikeball at a mid-August cabin party. Things are looking up! First we got the news that golf would be opened back up on May 15th. Now while that is still kind of far away, there is optimism in the air. Second, my friend and I spent a couple days of hard work in setting up our custom backyard gym. All it took was a couple ice house temporary floors, an old weight rack that was sitting in my basement, and some ingenuity in building a lifting platform. The setup is pretty sweet but the best part of it all is the equipment safety measures we put in place. Not for our safety, but for the equipments safety. Since a Saskatchewan summer can be pretty harsh, we rigged up an intricate tarp system to cover all of the stuff when it rains and overnight. After a windy night knocked our initial prototype down, we tinkered with a couple things and now that baby is locked in there. In the famous words of my father five minutes ago when he checked on the tarp, "It looks money, slash mint." Yes, he did actually say slash out loud as if he was saying money/mint. Anyway, we are pretty proud of it. 

The night we put the gym together and created the cover for it. My friend, Logan, and I were eager to break in the new gym, and that we did. We absolutely got after it! Just kidding we did a couple sets and a little bit of cardio just to get back into the swing of things because we have both been off for a little bit and we know it is still April. 

I didn't put any punctuation in that last sentence on purpose. No joke. I think it reads really well without any pauses. Try it out. Read it again. Just kidding we did a couple sets and a little bit of cardio just to get back into the swing of things because we both have been off for a little bit and we know it is still April. Rolls right off the tongue!

The workout was good for us, at the time, and my legs and other part of of my body that were worked in the workout are obviously sore. The initial soreness that you get after being bum for a while is a right of passage. You know it is going to happen and there is not a lot you can do to help it out. In my past experiences, I have felt that the more you workout, the quicker the soreness goes away. If that has any motivational merit, take what you may! Today was a nice relaxing sleep-in day and day off. Letting the legs rest up to really start hitting the workouts tomorrow. Morale is definitely high right now and I hope the weather stays nice for a little bit so that I can get out there and enjoy my new home digs. 

Things are picking up school wise, so a lot of my time from now until the end of the semester is going to be dedicated toward that. I am still going to do my best to post on here as much as I can. This is three credits, after all. They are an important three credits, so in my study break, maybe I'll just write some blog for fun, eh? Have a good week folks!


April 22, 2020 - Earth Day
Now I wasn't planning on blogging today. I really wasn't. Slept in, drank some coffee, watched a little Netflix, crushed a nice work out, don't even have any homework. Today has been a great today and I did not even want to look at my computer until something caught my attention. I was scrolling through the inter-webs of social media this afternoon when something daunted on me. It is today. One of the worst days of the year. Today, is Earth Day.

Now I know what you're saying, "Jarod, you disrespectful little nimrod, what is so bad about Earth Day?"

Absolutely nothing is wrong with Earth Day. Earth Day is a great day. When Googled, the purpose of earth day is to, "demonstrate support for environmental protection." That is all fine and dandy. The issue that I have with the day is not about the Earth, but rather the people on the Earth. Just one quick trip to Instagram and you will find every. single. person. post three or four pictures to their stories of them on vacation with the captions, "Happy Earth Day."

So really what all of these people are saying is, "Don't forget about me! Look at this cool place that I went on vacation, and littered about 20 empty cans of beer onto the ground! Isn't this place that I traveled to so beautiful?" 

They are not worried about the Earth, they just want people to see that they want on a cool vacation recently. A lot of you are probably thinking to yourselves that this shouldn't irk me as much as it does. It makes me sick to my stomach. I will not be going on Instagram all day and if you really care about the Earth, go outside and pick up some trash instead of posting an Instagram story of you in Mykonos. 



April 19, 2020 - Quarantine Day 32
So after a little bit of research and a few phone calls it has been made aware to me that unless I physically have class in the United States, I am not allowed to cross until it opens back up. A huge bummer considering it is closed for another 29 days before they assess the situation again. Who knows if they will open it up after those 29 days, but if they don't I will be royally screwed for acquiring the remainder of my things in Duluth before my lease is up on June 1st. The plan I have been trying to set in motion is if that were to happen, my wonderful girlfriend, Kate, said that she would grab my stuff for me and I would just pay Wolf and Louie for the extra work its going to take to clean the house. That is not an ideal situation, but one that I might have to make do with. Best case scenario, the border re-opens on May 18th and I can just drive down to Duluth to grab my things, clean out my house, and hopefully were allowed to start working out at Amsoil again at that time. 

Quarantine life has been same-old-same-old. The weather has been getting nicer and I can already feel my cardiovascular performance increasing by the day as I begin to get a little more active with my daily routine. My brother and I went to the sports and recreation store in Kamsack and bought all the essentials. Two baseball gloves, a baseball, soccerball, football, and a stick-handling ball for us to play with. We got our bid of catch in a couple nights ago before we dusted off my dad's fire place to sit around and feel the warmth. A perfectly timed night to have a fire as I think it was the first night of the year that hasn't been totally freezing. My friend, Logan, came over for the fire. He is a couple years younger than me but is the only one left in my age group still playing hockey from Kamsack. So naturally, we are good friends. That was the first time I have seen him since Christmas so it was nice to get to catch up with him a little bit and talk about some coronavirus summer plans. 

I noticed that people are allowed to golf again in Wisconsin and Minnesota. I am pretty jealous of that. I haven't swung the sticks for a long time and would love to get out there but unfortunately:
1. Golf is not allowed in Saskatchewan at the moment.
2. My golf clubs are in Nick Wolf's car. In Egan, Mn. I talked to him today and he said he would ship them to me so hopefully they come soon. 
Golf is a summer passion of mine. I would love to continue to play more in the winter, but for obvious time constraints, I have been unable to do so. Four years ago I do not think I was anywhere close to being a 20-handicap. I was probably closer to 30 if I am being honest. After four summers of hitting the course pretty much every day with my free time while training in Duluth, I have toiled that number down to a 7 or an 8-handicap, and hopefully after this summer it gets a little lower than that. I was pretty much self-taught. First started hitting the driving range when I was 13 or 14, so I really haven't been golfing for very long. This is probably me just being an idiot, but I find it hard to imagine that I never get to a point where I am a scratch golfer in my life. I mean like once I am done with hockey, and can devote pretty much all of my time and resources that aren't already devoted to whatever source of income I have at that time to becoming a better golfer. Who knows? I might even make it on to the Tour one day! 

The show watching business has been popping off in the Hilderman household. We fired up Rod's on demand function on his receiver and started binging some new South Park seasons and having some good laughs. Another show that I found on there which is arguably one of the funniest shows ever, Seinfeld. Seinfeld is elite and if you haven't seen it, or don't want to because it's old, just watch it because it is comedy at its purest. Anyway, the new Netflix show, Too Hot to Handle is fire dot com. The whole premise is these people are invited to this resort, but they aren't allowed to kiss or have any sort of sexual interactions. Extremely entertaining and funny, but the people are also there 'to find love' and it seems to me like some of them are making real strides towards being a legit couple after the show. Now I know that it is just a reality tv show, but it has a little more sincereness to it than others. Another thing I am excited for is the Micheal Jordan documentary called The Last Dance. It is ten parts and the first two parts are airing on ESPN. We do not get ESPN in Canada and I bet other parts in the world don't either, so the ten parts are coming out on Netflix for me to absorb all day tomorrow. Thanks, Netflix. 

Okay, last paragraph. I am looking at the amount of remaining school work that I have left to do, and it is not a lot. Only about eight more assignments left. Only two of them are going to be particularly challenging and time consuming. I can see the light at the tunnel. On the plus side, it has been keeping my mind as sharp as it could be during these countless days. I am looking forward for it to be done, but again it just brings my mental state to me missing everyone that I could have been spending these last couple weeks with. 


April 13, 2020 - SP7 HOBEY
Ewwwwwwww Scott. Just ew. Hobey Baker, are you kidding me? Is that good? I am not sure, but what I do know is that is absolutely nasty. A lot of the guys on the team and some of the staff were all on a Zoom call to watch and it was a pretty special moment. You see guys that get preliminarily nominated for the Hobey Baker like Shep and Scott have before, but it never occurs to you that someone on your team is actually going to win the Hobey, no matter how good of a season they are having. It happened and now one could argue that Scott had the best college hockey career in history. All of the individual accolades already compiled on top of back-to-back national championships ON TOP of a Hobey Baker? Sheeeeeesh. Okay, I'll hop off.

I have begun to start thinking about getting the wheels moving on me returning to the United States. ASAP. I am going stir crazy in Kamsack and frankly, the weather is warmer and the views are nicer in Duluth. It has been a nice relaxing three-plus weeks here but it's time to bounce. Don't worry folks, I will be continuing to socially distance myself in Duluth. I was worried that I would not be able to get back for a long time because of the border closure, but I figured out that since I hold a student visa I am allowed to enter the U.S. as essential travel that I am going to school. Another reason that I would consider it essential travel is because I need to clean my house out. The lease is up at the Antique Shop -- where Louie Roehl, Nick Wolff and I live -- on June 1. I brought a lot of my clothes back but I still have a bunch of valuables left in my room. You know, a couple rings and a couple watches and a couple trophies that I have accumulated over the years. The house is not being rented to a new group of hockey players so that means we need to completely clean it out and get everything out of there.  Like all of the old things in the basement, all of the couches, tables, chairs, blah blah blah. I had to do the same thing last May with the house I lived in for my sophomore and junior years. It took forever and was absolutely disgusting. It is something that needs to get done so we get our security deposits back, and we don't want to wait until the last minute so my plan is to get back to Duluth right away. I still don't have a new car so that is an obstacle that I need to navigate but it will get figured out. 

Today is the final day of the national championship anniversary tour. One year ago today, we won our second one in Buffalo, and it was two years ago on the 7th of April that we won our first one in St. Paul. Now you can see why having an April 11th birthday is so timely in the men's ice hockey schedule. Party time. The best part about having these anniversaries come up are the Snapchat memories. Now for those of you that don't know what a Snapchat memory is, it is an archive of pictures and videos that are taken on Snapchat and saved to look at in the future. Snapchat even sends you a notification with a timestamp on the video to show you what kind of shenanigans you were getting up to 1,2,3,4 years in the past. Anyway, as you can imagine, the month or so after winning the championships, and even losing the one in Chicago, the boys had some fun. Videos were taken and saved to their memories and now is the time that all of the time stamps start popping up. Hilarious videos and pictures of the guys that are now being sent into the group chats for everyone to laugh at. Just a great invention from Snapchat that creates a great way to share memories with friends. Especially in this instance. 

Every time I start to write these little bi-weekly check-ins I never know what to write. Then, eventually words start to come to me and I can get in a groove. I always see my journalism teacher, Professor Moore, tweeting that it is integral during this unprecedented time in our lives that people are documenting what is happening in our lives. It is a journalists duty to cover the news and this is the news. The life in isolation and quarantine is the news and the history books are going to want to show what everyone was doing during all of this turmoil, and possibly how people are coming out better on the other side. So that has kind of been what my mindset has been over the last month while I have been home. I haven't been doing a whole lot of exciting things, obviously, but I have been getting by and surviving just like everyone else. And I plan to continue to do so until all of this passes over. No one knows when that is going to be so it is important to just stay in the now and not fret over the uncertain future. 

April 11, 2020 - Bon Anniversaire 
It is my birthday. Last year, after my 22nd birthday, I was thinking to myself that I was officially old. Now, I am really old. 23 feels weird, especially under the circumstances that everyone is finding themselves in. Theoretically, if everything went as planned, we would be at Little Caesars Arena getting our gear on for the chance to win our third national championship in a row. Then, if everything went as planned during the game, we would be national champions again and it would be the best birthday anyone could ask for. Having a mid-April birthday and making it to three Frozen Fours in a row makes it a perfect time to celebrate. I remember my 21st birthday coming three days after we won the first championship in St. Paul. Didn't pay for a drink that night. My birthday last year was the same day that we beat Providence in the Frozen Four semifinals to make it to the championship in Buffalo. Another pretty good birthday. Today, I am having an awesome time switching couches in order to get a different view of the TV so I don't get sick of it. My drink of choice today was initially some Johnny Walker Red Label that my brother bought for me as a gift. That was until I found a bottle of tequila and a little margarita mix. Margz all day baby! Should wake up with a pretty interesting headache tomorrow morning. That's okay, though, I don't have a lot on my schedule these days. A self-isolated birthday forces the creative to be creative when trying to drum up some fun. I am taking a page out of a friend of mine's book who was in a similar situation last weekend. He told me that he just sat at his house, drank all day, and facetimed a bunch of old friends and teammates to catch up. Considering I haven't talked to, or seen pretty much anyone over the last three weeks, that sounds like a pretty good idea to me. 

Personally, this month is going to be a tough stretch of not doing a whole lot. If I was actually at school and the 'rona wasn't a thing, this next upcoming month and change would be the most fun time of the year. The hockey season had just ended, more often than not we are champions, and it would be time to let loose with your best friends. It is a time that the whole team looks forward to and talks about all season and its an absolute shame that we all can't be in Duluth for the next month enjoying each other and celebrating another championship. 

Something that we can look forward to tonight is that Scott Perunovich has a great shot of winning the Hobey Baker Award. The announcement is late this evening and the whole team is planning on hopping on a Zoom call to watch it. Not trying to brag or anything, but if Scott was to win the Hobey Baker, I would be the proud owner of a (checks notes) 567-day Snapchat streak with a Hobey Baker winner. Not a big deal, if I do say so myself. Scott is a really good friend of mine and someone that I was hanging out with a lot during the last part of the season. It would be really cool for him to win it not just for him, but for the entire team and program, and we are all looking forward to some excitement tonight. 

What else can I say on here that I haven't already? Quarantined life in Kamsack is extremely rough. We are taking the measures very seriously considering my brother and I are living in the same house as our immune-compromised dad and it is frustrating to see Instagram and Snapchat stories of people at parties or other large gatherings. It is like I am not sitting in my house, not going to hang out with anyone, limiting trips to even the grocery store, and you're out with a bunch of your friends possibly spreading this thing around. B to the S.


April 8, 2020 - Who invented running? 
There's just no feeling quite like the first time you do a cardio-vascular exercise in an extended period of time. It really humbles you. I have done a couple lifts since our season was ended on March 12, but no conditioning. I thought a very cold and windy day like today would be a good time to start my workout regiment back up would be a good idea, but it wasn't. I ran for almost 15 minutes and I think I got the coronavirus from it. Not the coronavirus but a new, mutated strain of it that still makes you cough, but also makes your calves feel like someone just stabbed them with a knife. I finished running an hour and a half ago and I am still coughing from it. I think I might need to get a test. Hopefully it is a little warmer out in a couple days when I muster up enough courage to throw one leg in front of the other for a longer period of time again. 

My brother, Hoss, has been the one getting me back into the work out fix, honestly. The guy does upper body pumps like its his day job. When he hammers the bi's, he really hammers them. Anyway, his motivation has been bringing my motivation levels up a little bit and I have decided to start utilizing a workout machine that I used when I was younger called the Powerskater. It is this metal V that has resistance cables set up so that when you stand on it with your feet in a V like you are about to skate it creates resistance and builds skating muscles without being on the ice. I feel like I did a terrible job of explaining that so next time I go to my moms to shred it I will have my brother take a couple pictures of me to show you. It has been a nice month off after the season ended, but I think its just about time to start getting after it again. With hopes of playing pro hockey next year I am going to have to have a big summer so that I am as ready as I can be. I really didn't start working out super hard until June last summer and was a beast come the start of the season, so with a month and a half head start this summer I think I will be fine. 

I am not sure if it is because were getting down to the last four weeks of the semester, but I have been swamped with school work this week. No time to rest at all. Writing papers, watching video, doing discussion posts, you name it. I can't believe I just said that. Last four weeks of school left not only in the semester but also of my life. It is really bittersweet. I remember when I graduated from high school knowing I had a year off before I was going to UMD. I was so relieved, but that year went by so fast and before I knew it I was taking my first exam one month into freshman year. This time is for good. And again, I plan on writing a huge post thanking everyone that made my four years at UMD the best they could be during finals week in a final good bye post. 


April 4, 2020 - Quarantine Day 17
I got out of bed at 12:30 p.m. and proceeded to put a pair of shorts on, which pretty much makes it inevitable that I am not going outside today. It was really nice out for about a week and almost all of the snow was melted and then it snowed all day a couple days ago and has been freezing since, bad bounce. Motivation is super low at the moment. A couple days ago I got off of my 14 day self isolation so my brother and I packed up our stuff and went over to live at my dads house. He has been kind of sick for a while but the last couple days he has been up out of his bed and moving around quite a bit so that is nice to see. My daily schedule right now is embarrassing. Wake up, do nothing, repeat. I have been trying my best to get some workouts in, but it has not been going so well. No treadmill, no stationary bike, nothing. I need to get my body moving as I am feeling extremely couped up right now. It needs to get warm ASAP. I can envision a great impromptu garage gym setup where I can mix in some plyometrics in the driveway, work on my stick handling and go for runs when it is hot out, and just make a day out of it all and burn some calories. I need it. 

The third season of Ozark is pretty good. Just a great show. Jason Bateman is an exceptional actor and Ruth has turned into one of my favorite TV show characters ever. Of course my brother has never watched it and doesn't think it would be very good, so my mom and I had to watch it by ourselves whenever Hoss wasn't hogging the TV in the living room. One thing that I am not very fond of is when a new season of a show comes out like two years after the previous one. What is that all about? I was watching the first episode of the new season of Ozark like who are these people? Oh well, figured it out. 

Hoss and I just started another show together at my dad's. The Netflix original, Altered Carbon, starring Christopher "Hawkeye" Mackey. The funny thing about that is were on the fourth episode and he is not even in the show yet. Not really sure what's going on there. So far, so good with the show. It is kind of slow but that seems to be the theme for all of the new shows these days. Which I don't really understand, but at the same time I kind of understand it. Like wouldn't you want to captivate the viewer as soon as possible? But, I guess you have to set everything up early on to blow peoples minds later in the season or even in another season. Whatever, not a big deal. We will see how a couple more episodes play out when we watch tonight. 

I eventually relieved myself of the major case of the hiccups that I had the other day. They lasted an hour and a half. Super hiccups. Not fun. I could not believe what was happening. I don't want to brag or anything, but I am like really good at getting rid of the hiccups. So when they don't go away right away then I know that I'm in for one. In for one I was. They get so frustrating. They take over your life. Like some kind of demonic entity eating your soul as every night passes. Every time I hiccuped I felt a part of me disappearing and I knew I had to take some kind of desperate action. I was doing handstands, putting knives in my mouth, blowing bubbles, burping, and chugging water. I was contemplating writing a note for my friends and family telling them that I was about to die from the hiccups when I decided to try one more last-ditch effort to get rid of them. My trusty, dusty, breathe-holding trick. Just way more intense. You just suck way in. Like way, way in. You just keep on sucking in until you can't, and then you suck in some more. Then you hold your breath until you're blue in the face. That is exactly what I did, and thank Delilah it worked. I actually got a second case of super hiccups that day, but everyone's morale is already low enough with this virus so I'll leave that out of this post. For the people. 

I am officially sick of playing Xbox, which is a good example of why I am never going to buy one. I like watching my friends play Fortnite and stuff, but I can just not stay interested for long enough! It was fun for two weeks and now it just doesn't do it for me anymore. Haven't even played for the last three days. I understand that I might like it all a little bit more if I played more and got better so that I wasn't getting absolutely toasted the whole time and could actually enjoy myself. But that would require me spending the money for and Xbox and some games, and then it would require me spending that much time to get good and that just doesn't sound appealing to me. I watched Peter Krieger play Fortnite non-stop for 9 months and still be completely terrible. Just finished watching Nick Wolff play all the time as well. He sucked. I'll just stick to listening to music and watching Netflix. 


March 30, 2020 - 21 Savage
Ready for a fun fact? Okay here it is... My brother and girlfriend both were born on the exact same day. That day was March 30, 1999. If you're proficient in math, you can decipher that they both turned 21 last night at midnight. So we have ourselves a real life quarantined 21st birthday party and a virtual one. In Canada, for Hoss, it doesn't really men a whole lot as the drinking age in Saskatchewan is 19. But, it is the principle, I guess. Kate has been Facetiming me every now and then so far today giving me updates on her day. I hope she has a really good one, but I just feel bad for her as she finally turns 21 and it just so happens to be when the macaroni is hitting hard. File this one under one of the events that I said I was going to be pissed about if the coronavirus got in the way of. Pissed. 

As soon as I started writing this blog I got a sudden case of the hiccups. They have lasted about 10 minutes now and are starting to get extremely annoying. My usual go-to for curing the hiccups is just to suck in and hold my breathe for as long as I can. i think the science behind that method is that it "skips" a burp so that you just stop the cycle. That method is not working for me at all right now. I have tried drinking some more and that hasn't worked. I hate the hiccups. 

Not a lot you can do when your birthday lands on a day that you are in quarantine because of a pandemic, but Hoss is keeping it pretty quiet so far. He stayed over at a friends last night and came back around 9:30 this morning and immediately started drinking. Respect. Now he is just parked on the couch playing Call of Duty for probably the rest of that day. Exciting times here in Kamsack. I still have the hiccups. This sucks. 

I wrote a 3,000-word paper yesterday that took me four hours, and now I have another assignment due in a couple hours that I didn't do last night because I was too mentally exhausted from writing the 3,000-word paper. I guess, since I got on my computer to write some blog stuff, that I will slowly tackle the assignment that if I really put my mind to, would take 25 minutes to do. Instead, it's going to take a couple hours. Oh well. I still have the hiccups. I just tried to hold my breathe so hard that I started hallucinating. Nice. 

I was not really sure about the direction this post was going to take after the first paragraph, but I think its safe to say that these hiccups have taken over my life. What do I do? How do I make them stop? WHY ARE HICCUPS EVEN A THING. 

Five minutes later, still have them. I am about to freak out. I would have kept writing some more here but I am not really sure what is going on. So, unfortunately, 'til next time folks.

March 27, 2020 - Macaroni Quarantine Day 9
This stuff is getting old real quick. There is only so much Call of Duty to play. For some reason there isn't a show that my brother, mom and I can find that we all like and would want to watch. There aren't a whole lot of movies we are agreeing on, and boredom is surely setting in, slowly taking over my life. I feel like a total bum. I wake up to eat, then my entire day after that is pretty much just me waiting to eat again. Hoss and my mom have done a great job of cooking good meals which is a positive and I am not spending a million dollars every day so that is good as well. There is only five days left of this quarantine then we can at least leave the house and see some friends a little bit.

My dad has been pretty sick for a while and this whole week so far. Something to do with passing a kidney stone and some medication he was taking for that. My brother and I have tried to go see him a couple times, but he has been too tired to get out of bed. He did text this morning to come see him later today, so I think that would be a good thing to do to get out of the house. This quarantine makes sense because I was just in an airport and was out doing things in the Duluth community before that as well. Two quick weeks to get the virus, if you have it, out of your system and to make sure that you aren't contagious. But then after that what do we do? Do I have to be scared that I am somehow going to contract the virus, if I didn't already have it, and give it to my dad after every time that I leave the house? And how long is this going to last?

I am still trying to wrap my head around all of this and make sense of it. I was kind of a sad boy yesterday just thinking about the chapter in my life that effectively is closed for good. The people that I met, the lifelong friends that I made, the hockey, the winning, the partying. It is super tough to think about how that was all just ripped from me and a lot of other people. It is even really hard to write about all of this stuff because I juts have not processed all of it yet. I do not think the significance of all of this is even close to hitting me yet. In the mean time, I am just going to keep playing Call of Duty and stay safe.

March 21, 2020 - Journalistic Article
Hello everyone! Quarantine day three for me is off to a splendid start! I went 19 kills and 10 deaths in Call of Duty, which is a career best game for me. Just steeped a little green apple kombucha tea, which is just as good as it sounds. And, my brother is currently in the process of making a pizza from scratch, which I am sure will be dialed. I will have a more in-depth quarantine update either tomorrow or the next day. In the mean time, here is the article I wrote a month ago that I have been meaning to post for a while! 

The Mindstrong Project, paving the way for a new type of athletic training.

Everyone knows that if you want to get stronger, you lift weights. If you want to get in better shape, you do conditioning. But what 30-year-old Farmington, Michigan native, Harvey Martin, says, is that there is no one trying to figure out what it takes to sustain and progress mental performance like you would physical. 

"Training is measurable, and I wanted to extend that to sports psychology," says Martin, who has a Masters in Sports Performance from the University of Central Michigan. "Essentially, the Mindstrong Project is a human performance consulting company that works with both individuals and organizations to teach them to become better performers and people."

The methods that Harvey and the Mindstrong Project use are new and unique as opposed to other methods of physical and mental training. They take people and put them into extremes, then teach them how to slow their respiratory rate. This includes going from a hot environment, like a sauna, and hopping right into a cold tub, effectively dealing with the shock of the cold.

"When your body is put into extreme states like that, at that moment, your brain perceives it as death, so it is going to try to freeze you or flight state you as protection. You have to counter that perception with breathing and you can actually change your state and nervous system to reverse those feelings which gives you a higher threshold for panic. That gives you a competitive edge as an athlete," said Martin, as he was explaining how the process works. 

Martin traveled the world to do research on a variety of mind and body subjects. He did sauna research, breathing research, military research, and learned from all different types of communities on how to better himself so he could then share his knowledge and teach others.

"I then figured out how to stress the breath using psychology and built a philosophical approach for being a better human and athlete," said Martin, before mentioning the approach is based off of three pillars. The first pillar is self awareness, which Martin says is subjective to the athlete. The second pillar is choice making, which is building protocols. And the third pillar is balance of energy. "Everything is centered around breath control, which makes you a better manager of your reactions, which is what performance is," says Martin. 

Former Minnesota State-Mankato student, Austin Hanson, who is now a full time employee at Mindstrong, said that he also has a passion for sport psychology. After meeting Martin, he knew that what Martin was doing was something he wanted to get involved in.

"I grew up watching miracle, trying to understand how Herb Brooks used all of his tactics to motivate those players to run through a brick wall for him," said Hanson, adding that he has always been fascinated by the mental aspect of sports. After being a coach for the MSU-Mankato baseball team focusing on the niche of mental conditioning, Hanson said he got to hear Martin speak when they invited him to come say a couple words to their team. 

"Harvey and I started talking regularly every week, and Harvey took an interest into some of the qualities I had and decided to hire me in June of 2019," says Hanson, who has a serious heart condition that he says limits him to the point where he can't run a mile without stopping. 

Hanson says that he knows the physical and physiological benefits that come with Martin's work, and how they benefit the heart, but that is not the reason for his interest in this field of work. 

"In high school, I already knew I was going to do this sport psychology program at Mankato, and it just kind of rolled from there. I dove a little deeper into it and now I'm an actual professional in the field of sports psychology, and I'm really happy to say that," said Hanson. 

Martin says that more and more athletes are coming to him for training each summer and the idea is starting to pick up steam, and now Martin works with a plethora of professional athletes including NHL players James Van Riemsdyk, Brock Nelson and Vinni Lettieri. Along with NFL players Brian Peters and Kai Fairbairn. 

Former college hockey player and current University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire student, Joe Nathe, said he had his first hot and cold experience with Harvey and the Mindstrong Project a couple weekends ago. 

"The sauna was nice," Nathe joked initially, "it definitely gives your body a shock, but it really helps with Harvey standing there helping you hone in your breathing."

Some effects that Nathe said that he felt after words were that he was rejuvenated and that it seemed like he had heightened senses.

"It does take a lot out of you though, I did three rounds of it and right after I was gassed. You start feeling better a little while after you're done," says Nathe. 

When asked about the future of Mindstrong and where he sees this whole idea going in the future, Martin explained that he thinks it's going to become mainstream.
"I would be shocked if heat, ice and breath work isn't a staple in the four major pro sports in North America in the next five years," says Martin, noting that it doesn't necessarily need to be his company that is at the forefront. He just really believes in what he is doing and thinks that it's going to help a lot of athletes become better in all aspects of life. 

March 20, 2020 - I hate turbulence 
WooooooooooooOOOooowwwwwwwwwww. WOW! Just wow. This is indescribable. Cannot believe it. Today, assuming we beat Miami last weekend, would be the NCHC Frozen Faceoff semi-final game. A couple weekends from now would be the NCAA Frozen Four, and the national championship game would be on my birthday. But all of that is done now, the season is canceled, school is all online for the rest of the semester, and now I am back at home in Kamsack, Saskatchewan living out my mandatory 14-day quarantine for people that come into Canada from the United States. Life comes at you fast.  

Last Wednesday night, we were all hearing about the news that we would be playing the first round of the NCHC playoffs without fans. A weird predicament, but oh well. Then, that night, the NBA announced that it was suspending its season. That is kind of when we knew that the coronavirus was about to halt our lives. Thursday morning before practice there was a ton of speculation and buzz around the room about what would be happening to us. We went out for practice, came back into the locker room for normal Thursday pre-scout video on Miami to look on Twitter to see that pretty much everything has been canceled. Instead of us having video, we had a rather sad meeting where Coach Sandelin explained to us the decisions that have been made and that our season was pretty much over. What a gut punch. Absolutely unfathomable. The worst possible thing that could have happened, happened. 

The season cancellation sucks for so many reasons. First, the team was hitting its stride. We were feeling really good, top to bottom. The coaches were happy with how we were performing and, like I said in an earlier blog, we were built for the playoffs. So another national championship was 100% still on the table for us. Second this just absolutely blows for all of the seniors that had their seasons cut short. Not only were the seasons cut short, but the last couple months of their college experience was as well. Including mine, and the three other seniors on the team. I absolutely love those guys and the rest of the team and it just sucks that I have to be sitting in Kamsack in quarantine when I could be battling it out with my brothers at the Xcel Energy Centre tonight. It really sucks. Third, personally, I would have benefited a lot from hopefully playing well in the biggest role on the team I have ever had. I was having a ton of fun getting in the lineup and on the ice game in and game out and to have that unexpectedly taken from me was tough. I am trying to play pro hockey next season and I just think it would have been really nice to have a chance to show what I've got on big stages under a lot of pressure. Now, I missed out on potentially 8 more games that I could have really used to showcase my abilities, and am extremely uncertain as to what is going to happen to me next year. NOT TO MENTION, who even knows how long this coronavirus stuff is going to last.

Before the term is over I plan on doing a huge blog that will thank everyone that helped me get to where I am today. And to say bye to UMD and all of the people that make that place so special. Just a ton of turbulence in the world right now. I hate turbulence. 

Three days ago, I was sitting at my house with my roommate, Louie Roehl, and my wonderful girlfriend, Kate, who was the one that came up with the extremely clever title of this post. Anyway, we were just sitting at home sulking as all of our teammates and friends were leaving back to their homes for who knows how long. I just totaled my car and still don't have another one so I was just kind of sitting there not having a clue what I was going to do. Louie was going home the next day, and Kate was doing the same. One of my best friends, Joe Nathe, who was previously mentioned in the blog, is living in a bachelor pad in Eau Claire, Wis., and was doing his self quarantine by himself so I decided that I would get a ride from Kate to Eau Claire as she drives home and we would quarantine it up. So Kate did just that and dropped me off at Joe's apartment, which was a sad good bye. There was already a lot of uncertainty about when I was going to be able to see her next with her just dropping me off there. But now I am back in Canada and the borders are being closed so it could be a while before we get to see each other. Which is extremely saddening. I am going to miss her. That sadness extends out to all of my friends that live in the United States that I wont be able to see for a indefinite amount of time either. Joe was kind enough to drive me all the way back to Duluth yesterday so that I could grab my passport and some more things before hopping on a flight, and saying bye to him sucked a lot as well. Speaking of flights, my two and a half hour flight from MSP to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan was absolutely off the rails. The worst turbulence I have ever experienced. People's loose items were flying in the air. I honestly almost soiled myself. Never been so scared I don't think as there was no reason to think the plane wasn't going down. I was texting Kate during the flight telling her that all of this was going down. She did a quick Google search to ease my mind and she discovered that pilots laugh at the fact that people are scared of turbulence. WHAT?! I hate turbulence. 

So now I am back at home. Day 2 of the mandatory 14-day quarantine, and it is tough. I am staying with my mom and brother at my mom's house for the two weeks because my dad is older and is definitely immune suppressed so I do not want to get him sick. We are being extremely careful in that regard that I don't come in contact with him. Again, very saddening. He doesn't get to see me often, and now I come home and he still can't. I think that my brother, Hoss, and I are going to go over to his place a couple times to hang out with him in the garage as he sits in his house. That's the best we can do, I guess. 

For the rest of the quarantine, I will be posting updates every now and then when I get bored, which will be a lot. 

March 11, 2020 - Coffee
CORONAVIRUS RANT BEGINNING

Holy moly guacamole coronavirus. This is pure insanity! UMD spring break just got extended a couple days into mid week next week and all classes are transitioning to online until at least April 1, which is kind of tight, not going to lie. Oh, you're saying we don't have to go to class? Sure! Other than that though it's all pretty negative, obviously. Just read on Twitter that Harvard men's hockey is canceling their whole season? Nuts. They are supposed to have a playoff series against RPI this weekend, and who knows if that cancellation rumor is true or not, just something that I read. Imagine being a senior on Harvard and you're getting prepared for a couple big games, possibly the last two or three of your college career, and your university says smell you never and cancels your season. I would be choked. Another non-confirmed thing, but there is buzz that if we make it to the Frozen Faceoff at the Xcel Energy Center next weekend, we will be playing in front of no fans. That would be incredibly weird. Since all of the factories in China were shut down a long time ago and CCM makes our sticks in those Chinese factories, there is a big shortage in sticks for us at the moment. I only have a couple left and same with a lot of other guys. We aren't even allowed, or supposed to be, taking slap shots or one-timers in practice right now. 

The only positive coming from all of this, is that Nick Wolff and I are planning on going on a little graduation trip vacation once the school year is over, and flights are laughably cheap right now. MSP to Miami is $100 for a round trip. That is elite as it gets. Heck, by the middle of May the airlines might even be paying us to come onto their planes! We are not 100% sure where we are going, but we are thinking somewhere near the ocean for sure. My wonderful girlfriend, Kate, is on a family spring break trip in Phoenix, Arizona right now and she says there is pretty much no one at the resort right now other than them. Imagine being so scared about a cold that you are canceling super fun trips to Arizona. That is ridiculous. And of course this is all pretty much because of social media. How crazy do you think today's twitter would have been if the bulk of it were around for when 60 thousand people died in America from the swine flu. Judging by what is happening when 1000 people get this cold, the entire country would have been shut down. 

CORONAVIRUS RANT OVER

It's safe to say the boys are hot right now. 10-2 in our last 12 and 9-1 in our last 10.  Come on now people! 17 regular season NCHC wins, good for most in program history by two. Almost tied North Dakota for the Penrose but that isn't the end of the world that we couldn't win that one. It is a big cup, so you can drink out of it. I know that we are all more concerned about the trophy that you can't drink out of. 

Senior weekend was obviously a success. Two wins, and a great complete game from the boys on Saturday night with my mom, brother, and a bunch of friends in town to witness. 

This whole being in the lineup thing is pretty fun. Extremely happy that some family could make it up as they said to me that they haven't actually watched me play since I was a freshman. Went out there and just did my thing, which has been working really well for me. As each game goes by I am gaining more confidence and my legs feel great out there. I'm skating great and keeping it simple and just trying to play coach Sandelin's game plan to a tee and its working great for me. Really happy with myself in terms of how I am playing, and really happy with the team in terms of how they are playing. We definitely have some swagger heading into playoffs and I think that we all know when it gets to this time of the year, there are definitely no games off. We start preparing for the one game-elimination type of feel right now and when the going gets tough in the playoffs, I think this group of ours really gets going. As I've said a bunch on this blog already, two national championships in a row and we ain't done yet. There is a belief in the room right now that we can do something really special, and we're just going to go out there and focus on one game at a time. 

Not that having to play hockey this weekend is a bad thing, but being caged in Duluth while looking at a ton of snapchat stories and instagram stories of people in exotic places having a dialed time during spring break is giving me major FOMO (fear of missing out). I think that FOMO should be a legitimate diagnosable mental disorder because I might have the worst case of it the world has ever seen. I love to have fun and when I'm missing out on it, it eats me to the core. I know that there is a ton of time for us to have fun after we hopefully win again, but it still sucks to watch as I am sitting in Nick Wolff's room watching him playing fortnite while writing this blog. 

Tonight, Koby Bender and another friend of ours that isn't on the team are going to brother of Karson Kuhlman, Jack Kuhlman's house for dinner. Jack used to live with Bender and I for the last two years at our old hockey house and he just got back from studying abroad in January. So it is nice that we have some time to hang out with him. Now before the NCAA comes bursting through my door, we are all buying our own food and bringing it over to cook. We went with steaks. Each of us is bringing a side and hopefully someone brings a dessert. After we eat, we are looking forward to actually dabbling in a couple card games while having some elite conversation which usually leaves one or more of us pounding on the table because we are laughing so hard. Take that, spring breakers in Cancun going to nightclubs! 

I don't drink a whole lot of coffee as it makes me super weak and full of jitters, but lately I have been micro-dosing it a little bit and not having as much of the negative side-effects. Maybe half the amount that I normally drink. It has been making me feel pretty, pretty good. If you couldn't tell, I just drank a cup and I feel a caffeine buzz big time which definitely lead to me writing this many words. I don't want to brag or anything, but I am kind of a wizard on the keyboard. I started writing my first sentence 35 minutes ago, and THIS is my 1290th word. Not a big deal. 36 words a minute are you kidding me? Not bad. I have literally just had my head on the keyboard typing away the entire time. Feels good to get the creative juices flowing and just write. Anyway, I tried to dip into as much as I could for this post, so I hope you all enjoy it. I should be posting the journalistic article within the next couple days.

March 5, 2020 - Senior Weekend
The coronavirus is absolutely dominating the news right now, and rightfully so. A new, fast-spreading virus that is also killing people can instill fear into some people. I have done some research. After completing a 4,100-word, 20-article annotated bibliography on the coronavirus from domestic and international news sources for a class of mine, I have come to the conclusion that people need to chill out. A virus with a marginally less than 2% fatality rate that spreads slower than the common flu where most of the people that contract the virus don't even know they have it is what has the entire world stopping in their tracks? Canceled events? Shut down schools? Record breaking mass quarantines? I swear to God, if some stuff that I'm involved in starts getting canceled, I am going to be pissed. Something like the NCAA tournament or maybe even a concert that I want to go to. Pissed. I guess having school get shut down for a while would be pretty tight, but then again how am I supposed to get my degree if school is shut down? Preposterous predicament we have found ourselves in. 

Now that that's off my chest, I have another bone to pick. So on our way to Western Michigan a couple weekends ago, we were flying from the Duluth Airport to MSP for the first leg of our trip. As we are going through security, the TSA agents are giving us their standard instructions for going through the metal detector on top of what to take out of our bags etc..

"Make sure your water bottles are empty," says one of the agents as I just finished drinking the rest of mine. 

"This good?" I ask the same agent, showing her the emptiness of my bottle. She nods back to me to confirm it was, in fact, good. My bottle goes through the metal detector and a different lady pulls it out, brings it over towards where all of the guys were after they went through the screening machine, and tells us that whoever's bottle this is needs to go dump it out and then go back through security. I was appalled, and I asked if she was joking. She wasn't. I open it up and look inside where there is literally two droplets of water in there. Definitely a negligible amount. If Walter White was cooking meth in my water bottle where he needed it to be as clean and empty as possible, he would have been fine with it. I guess this TSA agent was also the water droplet police because she was not having it at all. She actually had me thinking to myself that April 1st isn't for another month and a half. So she makes me walk out some back door in my socks, go dump out the two drops of water, then go back through security. As I am dumping mine out, Nick Wolff and Nick Swaney both come behind me, citing the same issue. Like really? I'm starting to think they were just messing with us to have fun. They had to have been, because I had never seen anything like that in my entire life. I don't have an exact amount for the number of flights I have taken in my life. But it's a lot. Just such a small, very unavoidable inconvenience that will no doubt absolutely grind your gears at 7 a.m..

And just like that, senior weekend starts tomorrow and four years has come and (almost) gone. Time flies when you're having a sick time is what I always say. It is tough to pick a favorite year as they were all so great, including this one. Getting the opportunity to play a lot and contribute lately this season has been awesome and we're hoping that its only just the beginning of another special year. The team has been hot, going 8-2 in our last 10. We are looking to carry that momentum into this weekend so we can have some fun with friends and family after the game on Saturday. Then make sure that we are as prepared as possible for hopefully a final 8-game stretch for the playoffs. The games this weekend are going to be very exciting as St. Cloud State is playing some good hockey lately and so are we. They swept us in Cloud a while back and that is still in the back of our minds as they come in to Amsoil this weekend. My mom and brother are coming down this weekend to watch me play, along with a couple of other friends so it is going to be nice for them to be able to come to Duluth for my final two regular season home games as a Bulldog. Unfortunately, my dad could not make it due to a  non-life threatening medical procedure that he needs done on Saturday. That is a bummer as I would have loved for him to be here as well. I know he will be cheering me on through a TV just as loud as if he were in the building anyway. 

Saturday night is going to be fun being honored alongside the three other seniors on the team: Jade Miller, Nick Wolff and Hunter Shepard. What can I say about those three guys? If I'm being completely honest, Jade and I didn't really see eye-to-eye during our first couple years here. Not sure what it was but we just weren't that good of friends and definitely had our differences. Now I absolutely love the guy. We have a ton of inside jokes and hilarious banter that we exchange non-stop and Jade invited me up to his cabin in Detroit Lakes over the summer,  which was a blast. I actually live with Wolffy this year and that's been a riot. He's always got something going on and has one of the best bedrooms in the NCAA, which is basically has evolved into our living room so kudos to him for letting us use it like that. I'm for sure going to miss living with him once the year is up so right now, since both of us are in last-semester-of-college mode, we are just trying to live it up as much as possible. 

For right now, we are just going to focus on winning some hockey games so we can celebrate the four years we have had here in Duluth accordingly when the weekend is over. It is pretty crazy to think that, as of right now, we have a minimum seven games left. Hopefully as many as 10. Which would be nice. At the end of the day, we know we have the group to do it. All we can do is go out there and play as hard as we can to the best of our ability and pray for a couple bounces along the way and see if we can make a run at a third national title in a row, and fourth Frozen Four in four years. Which would be a pretty special feat and the absolutely perfect send off for myself and the other three seniors on the team. 

March 2, 2020 - Three puck & Juicy
I thought I would start this one off with a little update on school this semester. I have mentioned around 90 times now that this is my last semester of college and I am in last-semester-of-college mode big time. I have figured out that when I am in this mode, it is hard to say no to things. I'm spending money at a rate higher than I normally would like, but what can you do? College is awesome and I only have three more months of this stuff before its over. There was this saying that the faculty at my old high-school used to say before Christmas break or the end of the year. The saying was: Don't count the days, make the days count. To which all of us were like screw that, were are currently counting the hours! And I think its pretty safe to say that I'm making the days count right now. 

Anyway, school is going really well, in my opinion. The highlight of this semester on the school side of things has been writing this blog. I am having a ton of fun writing it and showing off my personality in a way that I otherwise could not. Another class that I am enjoying a lot is Digital Storytelling. Pretty much just telling stories digitally. Shocker. It's a long Monday night class but for the most part there has been a ton of interesting, practical work that makes the time go by fast. I'm in an online advanced writing class where I am in a group with Kobe Roth and Scott Perunovich, and we are currently killing it in that. One of the best things about being a senior in the journalism program is that I do not have one exam all semester. I suck at taking exams so that is great for me, and honestly probably had a little to do with why I chose journalism as my major. 

So I just looked to the top of the page and I titled this blog "Three Puck and Juicy." I guess now would be a good time to start talking about that. 

On Wednesday's for practice there are some things that we always do. We work on our power play and sometimes penalty kill, we do a couple other drills and, most importantly, we play three puck and juicy. 

Three puck is a game that is played at the start of every practice on Wednesdays. There are two teams. One line of forwards and all of the defenseman vs. the rest of the forwards. All of the players on each team are on the ice at once, and I'm sure that you have already deducted from the name of the game that there are three pucks. The first and second pucks scored are worth one point each, and the last puck remaining is worth two points. That gives the team that is down the possible opportunity to tie the game with one goal, leading to overtime which is just one puck sudden-death. We play a best-of-three series, or until it takes too long and the coaches have had enough. If stats were taken for three puck, I really do believe that I would be in the top 10 for points in the history of the game. Also, the defenseman win over 75% of the time. That's just how it goes. Sorry forwards.

Then comes juicy which takes place after practice is officially over. It is just a continuous shootout where the last player to score is the loser of juicy and must write their name on the juice cup trophy each week. Oh, and they must go around the room when everyone is getting undressed after practice and fill everyone's cups up with whatever they would like from the Powerade machine, which we just call juice. 

The funny thing about the shootout is that there are a lot of guys that are unexpectedly bad in the shootout and there are some that are surprisingly good. Neal Pionk, ever heard of him? 42 points in the NHL this year which is good for top 10 in defenseman scoring. Pretty good I must say. Well, my freshman year, Neal sucked at the shootout, and was continually among the last three players to score. There's really no rhyme or reason to it. Another guy this year, Cole Koepke, has an absolute bomb of a shot and is one of the fastest guys I have ever played with. He can't score on a breakaway or in the shootout to save his life! If he scored on maybe half of his breakaways that he gets in games, I have no doubt that he would be up for the Hobey Baker. I think Cole just prefers to score when there are defenders in front of him, and that's okay considering I prefer never to score. Then there are guys like Kobe Roth and Noah Cates that are pretty much automatic. Although I will say that our goalies are starting to catch on to Roth's moves and he is becoming frustrated that his go-to moves aren't working anymore.

February 24, 2020 - The Lunatics
I'm on the last season of Breaking Bad. I have figured out that if I just fast forward and scrub through all of the boring parts it makes the show much more exciting. Who would have thunk? Walt just blew up Gustavo Fring after tricking Jesse into thinking that Gustavo poisoned his girlfriend's kid. Genius! It really picked up near the end of the fourth season and I think it's pretty safe to say that Walt is a certified bad-ass, pardon my French. There's just something about him putting that black top hat on, therefore becoming his meth-slinging moniker, Heisenburg, that gets my blood boiling. Something I really want to address is Skylar White. I have hated her since the beginning of the show but she is now really making a strong case for one of the worst TV show characters in history. I didn't think Peyton Sawyer from One Tree Hill would ever be topped but Skylar White is right up there with her. I would even say that her character almost ruins the show, and that can't be said about Peyton Sawyer. Good thing I figured out that just skipping the parts with her in it is a great play. I remember when I was on season 2 and someone was telling me to just wait and see how bad she is in the last season. "She's still alive in the last season?" I asked disappointedly. Anyway, I'm almost done with the whole show and I am really looking forward to watching El Camino, the movie that is an extension from the show that is on Netflix as well. 

We were just on the road in Kalamazoo, Michigan this past weekend playing Western Michigan and it was a pretty good trip all things considered. I'll get to the actual hockey in a little bit here, but first, how about that Tyson Fury v. Deontay Wilder boxing fight. Those guys are absolutely massive! Thoroughbred monsters. I guess they each got paid 30 million dollars each to fight in the match, and that is probably the bare minimum that I would need to step in the ring with one of those guys. Just one punch and my brain would look like a plate of tuna poke at a gourmet Mexican restaurant. Jesse Jacques was kind enough to buy the fight so we could stream it at the hotel after the game on Saturday night and we had about 15 guys in a room watching it. Just guys being guys. I am not a big boxing fan as I would much rather watch the UFC, but I have to admit it was a pretty amusing fight. Wilder was getting his head beat in big time and I could not believe how he was still going back into the ring after barely being able to stand for the last three rounds before his corner eventually threw in the towel. Wilder was not too happy about that but at the end of the day when that type of beatdown is being laid on a guy, it's really a matter of life and death. On the fan side of things, I would have loved to see Wilder get absolutely knocked out, but oh well. Another thing I loved is Fury's nickname, the "Gypsy King," bringing me back to some Peaky Blinders vibes. Shoutout Tommy Shelby, the real Gypsy King.

If you look at any of my player spotlights over the past couple years you can see that I chose Western Michigan as my favorite road rink and it sure lived up to the hype this weekend. The Lawson Lunatics (the name of their student section) were absolutely buzzing and the rest of the rink was packed with normal fans as well. The decibels really got up there a couple times. They create an incredible atmosphere to play hockey in front of and it makes the pace of play and the overall game much more intense. Both games were really fast-paced and physical. A lot of emotions were running high and I absolutely love that style of hockey as it makes it incredibly fun to play. A hostile environment to say the least. Just to give you a little glimpse of what it's like there, every time  #4 Dylan Samberg touches the puck, the entire student section chants, "4's a b*****," and I'm sure you can figure out what that word is. That goes on during the entire game. 

I'm not sure the exact stat but I think the only two times that we have lost a game after leading going into the third period over the last couple years has been in Western Michigan. Once last year, then again on Friday night over the weekend. On Friday we were not playing particularly disciplined as the game was going back and forth and we were playing with fire a little too much trading chances. They score three goals over a one minute and fifty-nine second span and we find ourselves in a hole we couldn't dig out of. That was when the rink was at its loudest all weekend which gave them a ton of momentum. Going into Saturday we knew that we had to take measures to stifle some of their offense and especially their top players. Coach Sandelin drew up a game plan and we tried to carry out that plan the best we could and it worked. We gave up only one goal, Hunter Shepard played really well again, and we got a lucky goal with eight minutes left in the third period which was enough for us to hold on to. A sweep in Kalamazoo is tough to do, so we were happy with the split as we are still six points ahead of the Broncos in the NCHC standings. And only six points behind North Dakota in the Penrose race for first place. 

We now have four games left in the regular season. We take a trip over to Colorado Springs this weekend to play the Tigers. Then we finish off our regular season with senior weekend at home against St. Cloud. As a team, we believe we are hitting our stride at a good time in the year and hope to continue our hot streak over these next four games and into the playoffs. Every team in our league is capable of beating anyone on any given night so there are no nights off at all. We also know that there is a possibility that we play Colorado College in the first round of the NCHC playoffs. So our goal is to go in there and really set a tone this weekend. 

February 18, 2020 - Bye Week



Lets get started! 

It's been over a week since my last blog, and frankly, A LOT happened. Hence the meme from one of my favorite movies ever, "Ace Ventura." If you haven't ever watched it, I would highly recommend it. 

Where do I even begin? First off, as I'm sure some of you know if your big fans of the team, last week was a bye week for us. The last one of the season until hopefully the week in between the NCAA regionals and the Frozen Four that we are very familiar with over the last three years. The past week was long. Four practices and four workouts during the week is why I'm calling it our "bye" week and not our "off" week. It is almost more of a mental break than a physical one,  but is still nice to have nonetheless. I ended up getting an impromptu extra day off yesterday, which you will find out more about in just a second here. I have a couple more things to address first. 

One of the best things about our bye week is that we have the opportunity to get out of town and really relax mentally for a day. Last weekend just so happened to be the same weekend that my favorite DJ, Excision, was going to be in Minneapolis playing at The Armory, which is an absolutely beautiful venue. The show was everything I could have asked for -- and then some. Absolutely mind boggling. When Excision came on my jaw didn't leave the floor for a good half hour. I went to see him last year at around the same time and he was unreal then, but this year was a sight to behold. Far and beyond the coolest stage and overall production that I have ever seen at an EDM concert and that is saying something. 


















I went with my wonderful girlfriend, Kate, who I have already mentioned, and another familiar face to the blog, my friend Joe. We got a hotel room close to The Armory for a great price considering it was a Saturday night and the three of us had a great time. 

On to the extra day off. I definitely did not have a choice in the matter as I was involved in the most insane experience of my life. Here is the story:

I woke up yesterday morning to a text in our team group chat from newly-converted defenseman, Brady Meyer, saying that the highway to the rink was very icy. That's not the first time that someone has said that in the group chat and it definitely is not going to be the last. You could call it a regular occurrence. You kind of become numb to it during the winter because it is pretty slick every single morning. This morning was a little slicker than I thought, however.

I was pretty tired yesterday morning. I don't think I had a great sleep and I didn't get to bed until later than I would have liked. Don't get me wrong -- I was alert, but that recipe calls for no music on the drive. I start from Kate's house, then go down Woodland and 21st ave east, and take the exit down the ramp, on to the Interstate. Here is the weirdest part, the roads were FINE. I gave my car some gas and hit the brakes just to check it out and there was no skid or slide at all. I continue to drive under the first two tunnels and at that point I was thinking about how much of a dummy Brady was for what he said in the group chat. But, the next thing I know there is a group of cars in the right-hand lane that I was in that were stopped on the highway. 

"No problem," I thought as I gently pressed my brake and nothing happens. Turns out, in the spot where the cars were stopped and where I now was would have been good enough ice to host one of our hockey games. I took my foot off the brake to try again, this time a little harder. NOTHING WAS HAPPENING!!!!! I would even go as far to say that I was going faster as if I were pressing the gas. I've never been in that situation before. I was going about 50 MPH and it was setting in that I was about to hit one of the 20 or so cars stopped in a wall formation on the highway right before the exit to Lake Avenue and Downtown. I am not exaggerating when I say this, but I thought I was going to die. I dodged a couple cars on the right, then one parked on the left, still sliding into even more cars where it was inevitable I was going to hit one. I tried to weasel my way in between two cars that were stopped after already rear ending other cars but I was unable to do so. BOOM!



It was a surreal experience. Ramming into this car and both of the airbags go off. In that exact moment I did not know how I was still awake, or moving, or even thinking for that matter. 50 to zero in 0.1 seconds. And somehow, I am totally fine. I sat in my vehicle and watched another three cars slide into the already crashed cars to the right of me. Then a SEMI TRUCK comes flying in and hammers a truck that had somehow been spun around to face the wrong way. It was absolute chaos. 

Crazy enough, but no one was badly hurt. Me? Just a small cut and bruise on my knee that has healed up fantastically in just a day already. Nothing broken and nothing even life threatening coming from a crash that I think could have surely killed me under another circumstance. 

You want to know what I really want to give a shout out to? Seatbelts! I feel like after years and years of wearing them and never getting in accidents like that, you start to think that they aren't very significant. But I don't see a possibility where I would have still been in the vehicle if I wasn't wearing mine at the time. I had a friend when I was younger who died in an accident when he wasn't wearing his seatbelt and even then you don't think it can or will happen to you. I learned yesterday that it can, and seatbelts do, in fact, save lives. I'm feeling very thankful at the moment that no one else who was involved in the pile up was badly hurt, and that I am okay too. God knows it could have been much worse. 

** Since I am a journalism major after all, I decided that I might as well write a journalistic article or two during the semester on this blog. I participated in this exercise, if you will, that was basically just a sauna followed by a cold tub then repeat. With an extra emphasize on your mind and body, it  was a really cool experience and something that I definitely plan on doing again. I am in the process of gathering some information on it and writing the story so I hope to have that out for you to read as soon as possible. 

February 10, 2020 - (Proofreading)
Writing this blog has, so far, been a blast. Writing is something that I like to do and I believe it is something that I am good at. This platform is also serving as a good tool of practice and preparation for some possible future endeavors I might have in my life. One writing skill that I think this blog is really fine tuning is my editing and proof reading. This is something that I rarely do for school assignments -- I'm not going to lie. I could not tell you the last time I have proofread a paper or an assignment for school. I couldn't tell you because it has never happened. Ever. It's mostly because I am 95-100% confident in my writing and grammar on the fly, but also because the ramifications of a missed apostrophe or comma, in school, are minimal. A couple percent gets taken off ... maybe. Now when you are on the edge of an A or a B, then I guess you could say it's kind of a big deal. At the end of the day, it's just an assignment in school and I guarantee it is not something that I am going to be losing sleep over.

This blog is a different animal though. This is formally going onto a heavily navigated website, that potentially hundreds of people could be reading. That being said, I want my posts to be mistake free and make complete sense to the best of my abilities. Now, because of my reluctance to be diligent in my editing for school assignments, I will admit that my editing is not where I would like it to be. I am human after all, and I make mistakes and sometimes I miss those mistakes when reading them over. But I can tell you that I'm trying my best on here, and I am trying to write as much as I can, as often as I can. You never know, when it is all said and done, this body of work in my portfolio could be the reason I get a job later on in my life. That's how I am looking at this opportunity to write. I am striving to become a better writer and I think that at the end of the semester I will get a lot more than just three credits out of this whole ordeal.


February 9, 2020 - (Random Thoughts 'n Hockey)
Let's all be honest here. Electric toothbrushes are a game changer. Why go to the dentist ever when you can just brush your teeth with an electric toothbrush? I just got one for Christmas from my mother and it left me questioning my entire existence. What was I doing before? I would say that an electric toothbrush makes your mouth 147% cleaner than a normal one. Not even in the same stratosphere. 

Okay, toothbrush rant over. Time for some other ones. Ready? No? Alright, sounds good. Throughout the week I have been jotting things down in the notes on my phone for my "Random Thoughts" blog and I have some free time so here we go. Each paragraph will be a totally separate thought. 

Lizzo sucks. Is "Truth Hurts" a good song? I guess. Does the rest of her music sound terrible? Absolutely. I have to admit that she has done a great job of brainwashing the young-adult female demographic but in reality you couldn't pay me enough money to see her perform live. I would also go as far to say that this hot take of mine is a pretty popular one that no one is brave enough to say. But I am. 

Who grows up and says to themselves that they want to be the President of the United States. Or the Prime Minister of Canada for that matter. Being the head of a country sounds brutal. No matter how good you are doing, half of the country hates you. Then if you are doing not so well, you are being burned alive on Twitter 24/7. Do people really want to be President? Or do they run, then when they win they are like, "Jeez, what did I just get myself into?" Because there is no winning when you're president or prime minister. 

This next one is something I have been seeing a lot lately while playing hockey. The amount of players that are in a habit of turning their backs as an opposing player is coming to hit them is really astonishing me. Do they have any regard for the well being of their spinal fluid? Just take the hit into the wall and absorb it! I'm obviously not going to single anyone out but its just something that I have been seeing guys do lately and it has got to be the most ridiculous, unsafe thing I have ever seen. 

How about the XFL? What an electric factory. The video of that slot receiver puking on his feet before running his route is absolutely hilarious. Crying laughing emoji times 20. The kickoffs are crazy!! I have yet to physically see the double forward pass but I'm pretty excited for the Saturdays to come because as I have noted in some previous blogs, I love football. 

**End of random thoughts blog, on to hockey**

If you would have told me before the North Dakota weekend that we would go 5-1 in our next 6 against North Dakota, Denver, and Omaha, I would take that 100 times out of 100. The boys go from 12 in the pairwise to 4. As it stands right now that's good for a #1 seed in the NCAA tournament. That would make it three times out of four years that we achieved our season goal of getting the #1 seed. The job is not close to done yet though as we still have six games left. 

After a very tough stretch of games, we finally have our coveted bye-week and do not play any games next weekend. Looking at the standings and seeing Denver and North Dakota where they are is particularly fun because they play each other when we don't play. Those will be some fun games to keep an eye on as the outcomes of them could have a big impact at the end of the NCHC regular season. 

The team and I are playing some good hockey right now. I again want to thank all of the fans that are coming out to the home games that make the atmosphere incredible to play in front of. Amsoil has been juiced this year and I feel so lucky and grateful to experience it in my senior season. I can tell you that the fans are a big part of our home ice advantage. We feed off of the crowd noise and really can not thank all of you enough for taking time out of your weekends to come watch us play. We are happy to be performing for our fans during a crucial time of the season. 


February 6, 2020 - (*me looking up on Google what sound a camera makes*)
It's Thursday night, 9:37 p.m. and you already know what I'm doing. Patiently waiting for 11 o'clock to roll around so I can start listening to the absolute fire music that is dropping tonight. When I say fire, I mean FIRE. My most anticipated song of the night is a collaboration between two of my favorite DJs Slander and Nghtmre, called "Feeling Gud." The song is their first song that they are dropping together since they created a mega-banger called "Gud Vibrations." I bet you can probably catch their "Gud" drift. 

Not to get sidetracked by the music, the real reason for this post is just to get more content on here. I have been brainstorming ideas for future posts, and as I was just brushing my teeth with my brand new electric toothbrush, I was thinking to myself that electric toothbrushes are not even in the same area code as normal toothbrushes. But we will save that rant for my "Random Thoughts" post that I am slowly chipping away at in a Google Doc. 

Sidetracked again.

OKAY.... The real reason for this post is that I just figured out how to post pictures on here, as you could most likely tell from my last post. Anyway, I decided that I am going to go through the camera roll on my phone and pick out some and explain them. You know, just for fun, and because I still have an hour and fourty-five minutes 'til music listening time. So here we go. 




This is a pretty sweet picture that one of the guys took with their phones of the mountains and the sunset in Denver as we were warming up for one of the games. It looked a lot cooler in person, trust me. The locals that we were talking to explained to us that it was a beautiful sunset, even for Denver mountain standards. The orangey-red light dancing with the clouds and the powerful bright yellow bouncing off the top of the mountains was as neat as it gets. Not to mention it was like 6 p.m. and a very warm 60 degrees outside. Pretty elite climate they have down in Denver.





Remember Slander from the first paragraph? One of my favorite DJs? Well the bigger eye looking thing on the inside of my forearm there, that's their logo (its two of them). Talk about being really submersed into the EDM music scene, am I right? Slander is, for the most part, a dubstep DJ. Here is a Youtube video of one of my favorite songs from them called "You Don't Even Know Me." The other tattoo is another enshrinement of another EDM DJ duo called Louis The Child. That is their logo as well. Funny enough, both of them have designed their tour stages to look exactly like their logos which is pretty cool to me. If you're still reading this nut job of a paragraph, thank you. If you got half way through and thought that I was a big dweeb, you won't read this but you're not wrong. 




This is Gretta. She's the cutest. For some reason she has really taken a liking to me. It would no be an exaggeration to say that she is my biggest fan. It also would not be an exaggeration to say that I'm Gretta's biggest fan. We first met when I was a freshman working Bulldog hockey camps in the summer. She was really good at skating backwards and even better at listening to directions. Gretta always has a smile on her face no matter what drill she is doing and I really like that. Her and her family make it to every game that they can make it to and I make sure to give her a fist bump whenever I hear her scream, "HIIII JAROD!" from the barrier above our tunnel out to the ice. Saying that little fans like her are the reason that you play hockey and try to make it as far as possible is a little cheesy, but definitely true. This picture was taken at one of the "Skate With the Bulldogs" events that are put on throughout the season after select games. She never misses them. 



Here is a picture of my two best friends, Jake (middle) and Joe (right). This picture was taken at a music festival called Bonnaroo. Can you really, really tell I am into EDM music yet? I don't say two best friends lightly. They legitimately are. The three of us have a group chat that we contribute to regularly. By regularly I mean pretty much every day. I first met Jake when I was 16 years old. He was traded to my junior team in Penticton. We quickly became good friends as we had an older team that year and him and I were both young. When all of the older guys would go out to the bars, we would sit at his billet house and watch Gossip Girl. He was the one that actually first introduced me to one of the greatest shows of all time. Jake now attends law school at the University of Wisconsin (not a big deal). Joe is from Fergus Falls, the same town as Jake is from. I met Joe at WeFest 4 years ago and from the second we shook each others hands we became inseparable the entire weekend. Joe lives and goes to school in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. Now, whenever we get the chance to, we get together and get up to all kinds of shenanigans. Never a bad time with those two.

February 5, 2020 - (Week in the life of Jarod -- Not that exciting, but exciting enough)
"You must be so busy with school and hockey," is a sentence I hear a lot from friends and family regarding my time in Duluth and at school. While there are stretches where this is true, I admit that I generally do have a ton of free time throughout the week -- more than I know what to do with. Other than long night classes on Monday and Tuesday, my schedule is pretty free every day of the week after 3 p.m.. 

There are various activities and hobbies that guys on the team take part in to enjoy their free time. Some guys like to fish and hunt. Some guys like to play videogames. Some guys like to do nothing and watch TV. I would fall under that category. 

I am not watching Breaking Bad anymore. Well maybe I am. I am not sure if I really, really like it. My last attempt to intensely get into the show was stifled when I was made aware of The Witcher. It's a new show with just one season based on a video game. Game of Thrones-like with more magic. I have watched all eight episodes of the first season already and I would highly recommend it. It is one of those shows that you really need to follow along to know what's going on, so pay attention if you watch it or else you will miss seemingly small events that end up mattering as the series gets going. 

My usual week has its ebbs and flows just like everyone else. I am trying to figure out how to make how I live on a day to day basis sound exciting but I don't think that's possible. Other than some anomalies like the odd visit to the outdoor rink or gander to the movie theater, I pretty much just go to practice, then go to class, do some homework, and then nothing. Albeit I am pretty tired after practice most days. One might ask, "But Jarod, don't you get bored doing so much nothing?" 

The answer is simple. Yes, I would, if I was doing all that nothing by myself. I spend a ton of time with my wonderful girlfriend, Kate. She really is the best and there is never a dull moment when I am with her. I am going to leave it at that as she instructed me to not write about her, but she is such a big part of my life so how could I not? She plays for the volleyball team at UMD and just got named first-team All American after her junior year. All star, am I right? Anyway, it works out well that she has a busy schedule herself. So when we hang out we are both exhausted and just want to relax. She and I are pretty much professionals at doing nothing.

 
Here she is! She came to watch us play in Denver too! So cute, so supportive. 

Where the week starts to change from that of a normal student is on the weekends when we have games to play. It is weird how it works out that game days are the days where I get to sleep in the most out of any other day of the week besides Sunday. Nonetheless it is refreshing to be able to wake up after 9 a.m., especially on a game day. 

If the games are at home in Duluth. The weekend is normal-ish. Morning skate on Friday, then lunch, then the game. Morning skate on Saturday, then lunch, then the game. There are a lot of intricate details throughout those days like video sessions and pre-game rituals. My favorite non-hockey part about playing games is the sewerball game that we play after off-ice warmup. If the games are on the road, you can expect a travel day much like the one I just blogged about last week. Then the game days go as follows: Breakfast, morning skate, lunch, game, dinner. 

Sewerball is a soccer-like game where everyone on the team gets in a circle. The object of the game is to keep the soccer ball in the air. If the ball hits the ground, the last one to have touched the ball is then out. The game keeps going until there eventually is a winner. When I was 16 years old playing my first year of junior hockey in Penticton, British Columbia, I was terrible at sewerball. It was my first time playing and my ball juggling skills were not up to snuff. Through being the number one target as the youngest player on the team that year to becoming a real fan of the game, I would say that I am the best sewerball player on the team this year. Some guys might try to refute that but they would be wrong and would just make a fool out of themselves. 

An extremely underrated part of the weekend is Sunday. What's not to like about arguably my favorite day of the week? I guess other than the fact that the next day is Monday. Sunday, the only day of the week where I truly have no obligations. I used to dedicate the day to Scott Hansen and the rest of the NFL Redzone production crew that makes a program like that possible. The NFL season is now over so that is not possible so I basically do nothing all day. 

I am aware that the "I do nothing" count for this blog is up to six or seven now. Like I said, there are times where I am actually doing something, so I will be sure to blog about that the next time I find myself partaking in any activity other than nothing.

January 30, 2020 - (Denver Trip Live Blog) 
5:55 a.m. 
Rise and shine! Travel days are tough to get enthusiastic about, especially waking up at a time when its still going to be dark outside for a couple hours. Personally, I hate flying. Turbulence scares me and the fact that it is 900 degrees on the plane with nothing but a tiny, little hole blowing warm air at me. The whole process of flying does not please me at all. Add having to wear a suit the whole time into the equation and becomes much more unpleasant, and hot. 

First, we must go to the rink, pack the bus, and drive down to the beautiful Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport before all of the minor inconveniences that come with flying ensue. I think our hockey operations director, Christian Koelling, has lost some pull down at the airport because it takes an awful lot of time to get all of our hockey bags checked and boarding passes in hand. It used to be a pretty quick ordeal but now the airport is sending us all over the place. A lot of walking and standing around. 

10:46 a.m. 
The most relaxing part of the flying process is undoubtedly sitting in the terminal waiting for the flight. Breakfast has been eaten (even though Chick-Fil-A opens up at 11 in the airport, so I might have to get a chicken sandwich), my morning bowel movement has been had (thank God), and I am ready to tackle the rest of the day. 

11:23 a.m. 
There's just something about Chick-Fil-A that makes it elite. It could be that there isn't one in Duluth, so you have to get it when you can. Or it just could be that they pump out the most scrumptious chicken sandwiches the world has to offer. So juicy. So tender. So savory. If you couldn't tell by now, I cracked and got a sandwich. 

We have just boarded our flight to Denver and my ticket was fortunate enough to be the middle seat in between the big man himself, Hoagie, and assistant coach, Adam Krause. Krausey is one of the tightest, sleekest humans I have ever seen so sitting next to him is a breeze. It's Dale, to my left, that might rattle the entire plane with his snoring as he sleeps.

The only good thing about a further flight to Denver as opposed to more of a regional one to say, Kalamazoo, Michigan, is that there are TV screens on each seat. Divulging into a good movie is essential to making the time go by as fast as possible. What is absolutely ridiculous about the screens is that it is the year 2020 and they still do not connect to Bluetooth headphones. Two thousand and twenty! That is the year we are in. I see a robot doing parkour on my Twitter feed every two days and I can't even connect my Beats to the TV on my flight? Ridiculous. 

I have coined the phrase, "A minute while sitting in an unmoving plane is double the time of a normal minute anywhere else." It's not just something that I say, it's true. Looking out the window and seeing the workers load up the bags onto the plane while the air conditioning is off is my personal favorite pre-takeoff ritual. Others include checking the time only to realize that the plane was supposed to take off 45 minutes ago, yet the cabin doors aren't even shut, and waiting patiently for the flight attendants to come by with my snack.

1:14 p.m. 
The flight has landed, bags have been retrieved, and our bus is on its way out of Denver International. The flight was pretty standard. Not terrible, not great. Dale wasn't smelly at all and I'm happy about that. There was Imessage compatible WiFi on the flight which would have been great but my girlfriend (not a big deal) said that she didn't want to talk to me. True story. I was busy anyway playing Sudoku where I figured out I am a wizard at it. The highlight of the flight was slurping down my crisp, refreshing ginger ale that I get every single time as part of the complimentary snack. The refreshment serves as the perfect mid-flight internal body temperature cool down that is desperately needed during every flight I am on. There's also something about those Delta cookies that just hits different.

Coming and going to and from the Denver airport I always make sure that I get a glimpse of the massive devil-eyed, blue fiberglass horse sculpture that the locals have named Blucifer. That sculpture can take you down a rabbit hole to some of the other eye-brow raising aspects of the Denver airport. If you want to check out some of the conspiracy theories, here is a link to a Youtube video. 

The bus is en route to our hotel for the weekend where we will get about an hour of downtime before we head to the rink for practice at Magness Arena in Denver.

3:09 p.m.
A hidden gem of humor presents itself at the same time every road trip. Going to the rink for practice then straight to dinner means we wear our dinner attire for practice. Dinner attire being a designated polo and our team pea coat/dinner jacket. As all of the boys gather in the hotel lobby before hopping on the bus, it is the perfect time to check if any one forgot any road trip essentials. Usually it is the freshman that will forget necessary items, but not this time. First, senior  forward Jade Miller walks into the lobby wearing the wrong jacket. Hilarious, considering he was asking his roommates last night why he would even bring said forgotten jacket. Next, a repeat offender, Justin Richards. He walks into the lobby with his own blue sport coat over his polo. The boys made sure he knew he had the wrong one on. Forgetting things on the road has been a common thing for Justin. Just a couple weekends ago in St. Cloud he was wearing dress shoes with our track suit. You would think that after two and a half years of having to pack the same things for each road trip that guys would eventually learn. I guess that just goes to show that they don't. 

5:55 p.m.
At 5,280 feet above sea level, the air in Denver is dry and thin. I could really feel it on the ice and I expect it to only get worse on the lungs and body. A big key to combat that is hydration. Then when you're hydrated, you drink some more. The air even eats at me when I'm not on the ice. I already know that my throat is going to be dryer than a burned steak tonight when I'm trying to fall asleep. 

Now we are off to one of the more anticipated road trip dinners throughout the year. For whatever reason, we get treated to a full steak, chicken, AND shrimp hibachi dinner. Not bad, not bad. I'm talking onion volcanoes and I'm talking egg juggling. Not to mention a metric ton of food. Almost too much to the point where I'm not even going to eat it all. Not because I can't, but because that big of a dinner would just slow me down big time on the ice tomorrow, and I cannot afford that. Practice is over with for the day. All we have left is a nice meal and maybe some video after, and then it is time to hop in my always comfy hotel bed and relax.

11:21 p.m. 
The hibachi steak, chicken, AND shrimp dinner was everything that we dream of. Yum-yum sauce everywhere. It was nuts in there. It literally was. We were singing happy birthday and the boys were catching zucchini and broccoli in their mouths from deep! Hoagie even almost caught one. Then they passed out some little cheesecake bites and after one of those my night was complete. 

Bed time. 

January 28, 2020 - (Ramblings)
 First off, I just want to take some time to say thanks to all of the fans that came out to support my teammates and I at both of our games this past weekend against North Dakota. I even want to extend that thanks to the North Dakota fans as well. Both games had an electric feel to them and were an absolute blast to play. It was some of the most fun I have ever had playing hockey in my life and I credit that all to the incredible atmosphere in the rink thanks to the fans. Coming back to the bench after a long shift and taking some time to appreciate the moment was a rewarding experience. My heart was racing, adrenaline was pumping, and I was out there battling tooth-and-nail to try and win a game with some of my best friends in an amazing city with amazing fans. They were very cool games to play to say the least. So thank you again to the fans, on behalf of myself and the rest of my teammates. We can not do enough to give back to the community for what they do for us.

I thought we had them. I really did. When Scotty Perunovich ripped that laser beam slap-shot bar-down to put us up 2-1, I thought we had them. The crowd was BUZZING like I have never seen it before and I thought we were going to lock it down in the defensive zone and finish out the game like we usually do with a lead in the third period. But we didn't. All it took were a couple seeing eye shots from the point that found their way into our net and we lose the game. Contrasting from the emotional high from a big win the night before, there was a lot of disappointment in the room after the loss. I think that we battled hard and put forth a winning effort. We just didn't quite get it. It sucks to think about even more knowing that we literally had them. It would have been a huge three points in the standings and in the pairwise rankings as well.

On to the next opponent, which just so happens to be a pretty good team as well. This time on the road. The Denver Pioneers have been a rival of ours since they beat us in the National Championship game during the end of my freshman year at the United Center in Chicago. Games with Denver have been tight-checking and intense since then. Which ends up becoming a recurring theme every weekend in the NCHC. There are no games off throughout the year in our league and I think that is something that really prepares us for the playoffs and the NCAA Tournament. 

Through the first three weeks of the semester here I think I have found a good grasp on when I have some free time every week to write these blog posts. My class schedule this semester is what the kids these days would call, "mint." I have figured out that I am going to have the most time to write on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so expect the blog to updated on those days. Also don't be surprised if it is updated on any other day that my creative juices might be flowing. 

We are set to have a long travel day to Denver on Thursday (January 30, 2020) and I look forward to detailing that day in my next blog post. 

January 23. 2020 -   (NoDak) 
I would say that a full hockey season can almost be more mentally exhausting than it is physically. Here we are, nearing the end of the fifth month of the season where it is possible that we could be playing for three more. It gets to a point where the weeks start coming and going like 24-hour days. Two hard practices on Monday and Tuesday. Usually a special teams (powerplay and penalty kill) practice on Wednesday. Some fine tuning on Thursday and then right into the weekend games. Repeat.

The non-stop grind and attention to detail that is asked of us as Division I college athletes can be extremely taxing on the body, but it is important to not let yourself get into a funk mentally. To me, it is important to enjoy the little things throughout the week to try and separate the days a little bit.

I am a big fan of the NFL. The Monday and Thursday night games every week serve as a perfect little thing for me to enjoy. Assuming each game takes about three hours to play, that's six hours out of my week that I set school and hockey aside to just sit there and relax. Being from Canada, I did not grow up watching the NFL , so I do not have a favorite team. I enjoy watching Tom Brady and thus have taken a little liking to the New England Patriots, but other than that I just enjoy watching the football. One more thing I will say that probably won't resonate well is that I hate the Vikings. Scratch that; I don't hate the Vikings, I hate Vikings' fans which in turn makes me hate the Vikings. The Vikes are never going to win a Super Bowl.  I'll leave it at that. 

11 p.m. on Thursday nights is another one of my times to enjoy during the week. At 11 p.m. in Duluth, which is 12 a.m. Friday morning on the east coast is when all or most musical artists drop new music of theirs. Spotify generously curates a "Discovery Weekly" playlist for me every single week at that time and I spend the next hour or so sifting through new music and finding stuff that I like. I am heavy into Electronic Dance Music (EDM), and particularly a sub genre of EDM, called dubstep. A lot of my friends and teammates call it crazy music but it is something that I really enjoy and am passionate about. I have two tattoos that are logos of EDM artists, and I attend shows and festivals whenever I can fit them into my schedule and budget. EDM music has become a big part of my life, as weird as that sounds, and the joy of new music is something that I can not wait for week in and week out. 

This week, as compared to any other week, is different down at Amsoil arena. North Dakota week. With a big rival of ours and current No. 1 ranked team in the country coming into town this weekend, things are just a little more intense; especially after getting swept last weekend. The two biggest games of the year so far and our backs are against the wall. Just how we like it, honestly. 

When I arrived at UMD, we were dab smack in the middle of a long stretch of games where North Dakota could not beat us. We had their number and they knew it. They finally cracked us during my sophomore year during the NCHC Frozen Faceoff at the "X" in St. Paul. Since then, the series' between us have been back and forth, even though they failed to make the tournament the last two years. There is a lot of dislike between us and North Dakota so seeing them fail will always be a guilty pleasure of mine. For those who don't already know, Coach Sandelin used to play at UND. He makes it very clear that his Fighting Sioux blood has drained out of his body and he wants to beat them almost more than we, the players, do. 

After a tough couple games for the team in St Cloud last weekend, the cold weather not letting up, coach being extra hard and intense on us during practice, and a top notch opponent coming up this weekend, it would be very easy for us to cave in mentally. Luckily, we have a group that has been through all of this before and knows how to enjoy the little things to stay focused when we really need to. 

January 21, 2020-  (Intro)
As I'm sitting here on a Tuesday afternoon waiting for my 6 p.m. class, I thought it would be a great time for me to write my introductory blog.

My old computer just yesterday decided that it was no longer going to work for me. My sweet, old, dusty DELL that I first bought before my freshman year after driving 11 hours to Duluth from Kamsack, Saskatchewan, a little Canadian town of 2 000 people. That is where I grew up, spending most of my time at the local rink that had Canada's version of open ice we religiously call, "shinny." It's where I then eventually grew a love for hockey and decided that it was something that I wanted to do when I grew up.

How unfortunate is it my trusty computer, that has been serving me valiantly for almost four years now, betrays me like that not even one week into my last semester of college? I explained to the computer salesmen at the store that I was a journalism major and just needed a nice, cheap computer that will get me through 'til the end of the semester. He suggested a reasonably priced lap top that would adhere to my schoolwork needs and I bought it immediately. It's great! Got Gmail, docs, My U page and canvas all one click away at the bottom of the screen. A school machine. The only downside is that it can't download any applications so I will be forced to watch Breaking Bad on the browser version of Netflix.

I'm on Season 2 of Breaking Bad, and yes, it's pretty good. It is still not living up to the emotional connection I had with Peaky Blinders, a show that my dad (Rod), and my brother (his name is Austin, but everyone calls him Hoss because of a of a character from the old TV western show, Bonanza), got me hooked on when I was back in Kamsack over Christmas break. Any show I've tried to watch after the dramatic season finale of Peaky Blinders has been a let down. I'm happy that Breaking Bad is keeping my interest, but I was obviously not able to watch last night because my laptop was broken.

I was talking on the phone with my mom (Maureen) today while I was on my way to the store to get my new computer. My mom, being the nice supportive parent she is, offered for her and my dad to pay for my new computer. A very nice gesture to say the least! 

So now I'm still sitting here on a Tuesday afternoon with a now used computer and its getting closer and closer to my night class, but at least you know a little bit about me now.