Let’s get to know some of the Badgers key players for the 2024-25 season.
I recently had the chance to sit down with two Wisconsin Badgers pucksters, junior forward Jack Horbach and graduate senior captain forward Owen Lindmark, and we chewed the fat about a wide range of topics.
Here are five things you didn’t know about the guys. Please check out and subscribe to the podcast for many more!
One Surprising Thing About The ‘24-25 Badgers: ”How much older we’ve gotten as a team,” noted Lindmark, adding that when he got to Madison five years ago the squad was amongst the youngest in the Big Ten but now it’s one of the most senior.
“We have an older class of freshmen who clean up after themselves.”
When I asked if the younger players mow the lawn, Lindmark revealed that he, in fact, likes to mow it himself (as any good dad should).
Both Are Big Bears Fans: While it can be argued that there’s nothing inherently bad about being raised in northern Illinois, one of the common side effects is Bears fandom and both Lindmark and Horbach were stricken with this affliction at a young age.
While it surely hasn’t been easy on either one of them, they both seem excited about the future of the franchise under new quarterback Caleb Williams. They’re less thrilled about Jordan Love.
The Kohl Center Ice Surface Has Shrunk…And They Like it: Casual fans may not have noticed, but Bucky’s home rink has gotten smaller relative to past seasons, down from 200 x 97 to 200 x 85.
Horbach notes that Coach Mike Hastings has said that “hockey isn’t a contact sport, it’s a collision sport” and both he and Lindmark agreed that the shrunken Kohl ice surface is a popular move with the team, allowing for more chaos and making it easier to get under opponents’ skin, a hallmark of Hastings’ gritty style.
They Revealed The UW Sports They’d Play if Not Hockey: Lindmark opined that he’d have been a afety or quarterback (he and Horbach toss around the pigskin a lot) and Horbach cites an old hockey player standby: “I’d like to try golf. I can potentially get better and put up good scores,” casually suggesting that he’d be closer to achieving this lofty goal than Lindmark would be with football.
I even revealed my grudging respect for golf by noting that “I’m a scratch golfer in the sense that I scratch my head every time I try to hit the ball because I don’t know why it went there.”
What Brought Lindmark back to the Badgers: In the offseason, Lindmark contemplated turning pro, but ultimately chose to use his COVID year and return to Madison because, “First and foremost, I think there’s more work to be done here…and the opportunity for more development under the coaching staff was a big thing.”
After a slower-than-hoped-for start to his campaign, Lindmark has started to heat up, scoring huge goals in both games in South Bend over the weekend as Wisconsin took home four of a possible six points from No. 19 Notre Dame.