Gophers captain Zach Budish subbed for his coach on the Don Lucia weekly radio show on Monday.
He had his last final on Saturday, so he wasn't busy studying like some of his teammates were. Finals at the U run until Wednesday for some students.
Budish said he was planning on going home to Edina for the rest of the week. The team has been off since last Thursday and won't be back to practice until Christmas night.
Budish is a redshirt junior, in his fourth year of classes at the U. He only has one class in the spring to complete before completing his undergraduate degree in business and marketing education.
"A lot of guys take summer classes," he said. "I took a couple of extra classes when I was hurt."
That was two years ago, when he took a nasty spill on his moped and needed knee surgery.
His plans after college? "I hope to play hockey for few more years," said Budish, who was drafted by Nashville in the second round in 2009. My guess is the 6-3, 214-pound Budish will sign with the Predators after this season and not come back for a fifth year as a redshirt senior. He turns 21 in May.
Budish has five goals and eight assists for 13 points, which ties him for fourth on the team. He has two power-play goals and one game-winner. But he is only a plus-2 after being a plus-20 last season.
He is on about the same scoring pace as he was last season when he had 12 goals and 23 assists for 35 points in 43 games.
GOT TO IMPROVE
Budish said the Gophers held a team meeting on Monday of last week to discuss how the season is going. "We've played good, but we are still not clicking on all cylinders," he said.
The most recent example of that was the U's last game, a 4-4 overtime tie with Colorado College. The Gophers had a 4-1 lead going into the third period.
The Gophers are 11-3-3 after 17 games. Budish called that record pretty good, but "as a group of forwards, we need to find a way to get one more goal a night."
He said the team needs to score more goals 5-on-5, and it can do that if the forwards get to the net more. He tries to that, especially on power plays, to set screens from the Haulas and Bjugstads and Raus.
The Gophers have scored 57 goals, but almost a third (17) have been on the power play. They have only 40 goals at even-strength, which is sixth in the WCHA. They are averaging 2.35 goals per game at even-strength and exactly 1.00 power-play goals per game.
Colorado College (53), Nebraska Omaha (49) are 1-2 in even-strength goals in the league. Then come North Dakota, St. Cloud State and Denver, bunched at 46, 45 and 44. The Gophers. And then there is a big dropoff to seventh, UMD (31). At the bottom is Alaska Anchorage with 23.
BRUISES ARE GOOD
