0:05 This is The GPL Podcast, sponsored by Vintage Minnesota Hockey, your exclusive source for throwback Minnesota jerseys. 0:14 Visit vintagemnhockey.com. 0:19 Now, here's Hammy, Vegoe, and your host, Jupiter. 0:41 Good evening, and welcome to the 106th GPL Podcast. 0:47 For those of you listening live, we're on a little late tonight, because, well, people have stuff to do, and the Wild are playing the Blackhawks. 0:55 So that was more important to watch. 0:57 So that's what we did. 0:59 Well, and another thing is that Hammy's off in Phoenix. 1:02 He's on a business trip, and so he couldn't join us tonight either. 1:05 So Veegs, it's just you and I, post watching the Blackhawks beat the Wild. 1:11 Well, for you, maybe. 1:14 I'm on my own with two little kids tonight, so. 1:16 Oh, boy. 1:17 We'll see. 1:17 One of them was easy to put down. 1:20 The other one is still rolling around a little bit. 1:23 So we might be joined by Henrik at some point tonight. 1:26 Hey, let's get him started early. 1:28 Taking over for dad. 1:30 Yeah, but he's excited to go to a Gopher game here one of these days. 1:33 So yeah. 1:35 You better get him there. 1:37 Yeah. 1:39 It's tough though, these late games. 1:41 We could use a nice afternoon till one of these days. 1:45 Yeah, you're right. 1:46 It really hasn't been any. 1:47 It's usually at least one afternoon game a year, but not really this year. 1:52 Yeah, I do know that Gophers are trying to really go for their season ticket holders at Friday and Saturday night games, because they've done some polling of them, and that's what people wanted. 2:06 Yeah, but like you said, when you get any kid under five years old, that's late. 2:15 Even on a Friday night, I mean, they're going to get tired. 2:17 I mean, they're up early, then it's just not really conducive for a young family to bring their kids to these games, because they're going to zonk out, and then you're carrying a kid around the entire night. 2:29 Exactly. 2:30 I'm going to have to step away for just a minute here. 2:32 That's... 2:33 I get it. 2:34 I think you might be able to hear him. 2:35 So you're on your own for a couple of minutes. 2:37 Oh, that's quite all right. 2:39 Let me tell you folks. 2:40 I'll be right back. 2:42 It's not a problem. 2:43 It's all good, V. 2:44 I'll just talk to everybody else who's listening. 2:47 Go with some questions. 2:48 Oh, I could do that. 2:50 Well, we do have some Twitter questions from earlier that I missed last week. 2:56 We got Tommy Demartino talking about, the Gophers have had the same jerseys for a decade now. 3:02 Obviously, they've had the third ones a few times, but he thinks it's time for a new set of home and road unis. 3:10 I'm with you, Tommy. 3:14 I've liked some of the jerseys that the women's team have worn. 3:18 Not all of them. 3:19 Some of them are a little too gaudy, but I've literally liked some of the patterns they've used. 3:24 Not all of them, like I said, all the time, but I don't... 3:30 You're right. 3:30 They used to change them every four or five years, but it has been a while. 3:36 We've seen that third jersey, whether it's the white one with the Gophers going across, or obviously the gold one. 3:44 But for the standard home and road, it has really been a while. 3:47 I mean, they're wearing pretty much the same jersey they wore in the WCHA. 3:52 So, yeah. 3:55 Who knows? 3:56 I'd like to see it, but... 3:59 What can you do, really? 4:00 I mean, a lot of times, I think it has to do with their contract with Nike, and they don't... 4:05 They're just... 4:06 Nike doesn't want to do something different, so... 4:09 You know, who knows? 4:10 By the way, if you're wondering here, Hammy's out. 4:14 He's on vacation. 4:15 He's in Phoenix on business. 4:17 And Vegoe is home alone with two young kids. 4:22 And obviously, he just got pulled away. 4:24 So I'm kind of winging it here for you guys. 4:27 I mean, it's the best I can do. 4:29 What else can I do? 4:31 Just make it up as we go. 4:32 I mean, if you want to tweet at me, I'll try to talk with you. 4:34 You can just use the hashtag GPL Podcast, and I'll try to answer your questions live as we're doing this. 4:43 There's other... 4:45 Well, there's Veegs. 4:46 How are you doing, Veegs? 4:48 I'm back. 4:50 Essentially, I was just kind of going over one of the tweets we had from last week, from Tommy DiMartino saying, they've kind of had the same Holman Road jerseys for about a decade now. 5:00 No really changes. 5:01 Obviously, they've had the third uniform, but he was asking if he thought it was time for a new set, and I kind of agree. 5:06 I think it's time for a little freshening up on the standard Holman Road uniforms. 5:11 What do you think? 5:13 No, I definitely think a refresh is due. 5:15 I know some people really dislike the gold unis. 5:20 There's a couple of specific fans and one alum, Pat Nicoletti, but I like that little state logo and the V in the neck. 5:29 So I'd like to see them do some sort of New Jersey that incorporates that in white. 5:34 But yeah, I think they're due for a refresh. 5:37 I know they've been pretty bare bones over there on their budget the last couple of years, just trying to maintain their program and get their renovations on track. 5:48 So New Jersey's are due. 5:51 Yeah. 5:53 Like I was saying, actually talking about, the women's team kind of refreshes their jersey quite often. 6:01 Yeah, and they've had some sweet ones with the skating Gopher. 6:04 I was mentioning that I didn't like them all, but there was a few that I did enjoy. 6:09 And just the way they have the patterns and the colors, it's a good combination. 6:14 So I don't know. 6:18 I don't know. 6:18 I just, you know, I noticed that Goldie the Gopher, when he was at the North Star Cup, was wearing the women's jersey. 6:26 He wasn't wearing the men's jersey. 6:28 I don't know if that was just a mistake or whatever, but it's, you know, the women's team, every few years, it seems like almost every year, they've got something new. 6:38 Well, they've got their own little budget over there. 6:40 I think some of that stuff comes from internal fundraising. 6:44 And you know, they've got their locker room before the men's team did, because you know, they got some funding right away. 6:50 And you know, of course, the men were holding out for something a little bit bigger with their renovation. 6:56 So, I think that's kind of what determines some of that stuff. 6:59 You know, Nike pours money into the football program, and that's why they get so many uniforms for that, because it's a focus, because they can actually make money on a bigger scale doing football jerseys than they can hockey jerseys. 7:13 And that's why places like Vintage Minnesota Hockey pop up. 7:18 Kentucky's got that niche fan base. 7:23 Well, definitely, but the thing is, you know, we love to buy jerseys. 7:25 I've got a bunch of jerseys. 7:26 I'm sure, I know you've got a bunch of jerseys. 7:30 I have, I was able to get in, one of the few times you could get an official jersey a few years ago, the last year of the WCHA, before that season started, the university did a small order of about 30 jerseys. 7:49 They ordered extra when they ordered them from Nike. 7:52 And I was able to get a road jersey from that. 7:54 And it's a nice jersey. 7:56 It's a good quality. 7:57 It has the final WCHA patch on it. 8:01 And we've talked about jerseys before, but it would be nice if they do get new jerseys, that they actually sell the new jerseys that actually look like the new jerseys. 8:12 Yeah, I think hockey fans know the difference between the replica and what's the real deal. 8:17 And there's a big difference in quality. 8:19 So it would be nice for the fans to be able to get their hands on that stuff. 8:23 Well, it would be nice if sometimes they can't even get the M right on the replicas. 8:27 They can't get the color right. 8:28 Yeah, it's just... 8:29 The M right. 8:30 The secondary stitching is always kind of questionable. 8:34 So... 8:35 Yeah. 8:36 Well, we'll get back to more Twitter questions in a minute here. 8:39 But we actually had some hockey this past weekend, Veegs. 8:42 And, you know, everyone was a little concerned with Penn State. 8:46 Ooh, they had such a great season. 8:47 But, you know, whereas I think the Saturday game was a little closer, even though the score doesn't show it. 8:54 Two solid victories by the Gophers, by 5-1 and 5-2. 8:57 I mean, Pitlick had a couple of goals Friday. 9:01 We obviously had the Bristedt hat trick on Saturday. 9:04 We had Cammarata, who's really kind of picked up his game last few weeks, is really starting to shine now. 9:09 So we've got a lot of good things going for the Gophers right now. 9:13 Yeah, it was interesting that availability today. 9:17 I didn't get Bischoff on tape for the end of the podcast, but he did speak to Chris Long a little bit for KCP. 9:24 They're doing a feature on him and Reggie Lynch on their blocks. 9:29 He had been talking a little bit about the Penn State series and said, once they just let their skill take over, they just stretched away from Penn State. 9:37 I think that's really obvious to anyone who's watching the games both nights. 9:41 It's once Minnesota settled down and started having some sustained pressure in the offensive zone, getting their D involved in the cycle, passing the puck, all five guys touching it. 9:53 They just took over the game. 9:55 They got a couple of power play goals over the weekend, and they all were very skillful power play goals. 10:02 It was just a dominating performance by them and good goaltending too. 10:06 You know, Eric Schierhorn was steady all weekend. 10:08 Penn State came into the series as one of the highest volume shot teams in the country, and Minnesota held them a little under their averages, but they still got plenty of shots both nights, especially on Saturday, and Schierhorn played really well, didn't leave a lot of secondary scoring chances out there. 10:26 Well, as a matter of fact, you know, that Friday game, they held Penn State to 29 shots, and that was their season low by, I want to say a few, I think their season low before that was maybe 32. 10:37 But they were held to 29 shots, it was a lot of good team defense that night. 10:42 But also that night, we hadn't seen much from Pitlick lately, he had been kind of quiet with just a few points in the last eight or so games, but he picked up two goals, nice greasy goals as well, and he even said that in post game, is that the coach is not only telling him to shoot more, but also to get down there and get closer in and try to get some of those nice greasy rebounds and greasy goals. 11:05 So that was one good thing to see, especially on Friday night. 11:09 Yeah, and they're getting into the area at the right time. 11:12 I think one of the problems with hockey players is they go up levels, but sometimes they skate themselves on the ice, they're so fast, they get there too early, and then they get covered. 11:25 Pitlick on those situations, he was just getting into the area around the net at just the right time, because if a guy his size gets in there, some of the big trees can tie him up and prevent him from capitalizing on those chances, but he got there at the right time and finished. 11:43 Cammarata did the same thing on Saturday, he drove the center of the net and got a goal. 11:48 It's just a player going in the right space at the right time and using their skill, which is good to see. 11:54 Well, speaking of Cammarata, he's obviously been the topic of the podcast quite often. 12:01 But from his, I would say, lack of enthusiasm, lack of competitiveness out there, but he has really picked it up the last few weeks and obviously had a big goal Saturday night. 12:16 His efforts there, his passing is there, he seems to have really turned it around. 12:24 Yeah, he seems to think he's getting a real good opportunity right here. 12:29 He's playing with Lutary and Bristedt here and there, and those guys play well together. 12:35 He's got some hardworking guys on the ice with them. 12:38 Bristedt is just a fantastic player, getting in on the floor check. 12:44 He was a player who earlier in the season was trying to do a little too much. 12:48 He's trying to make one too many moves. 12:50 When you pair him out there with a guy like Cammarata, he can give the puck to Cammie, and then Cammie can create some offense. 12:57 So he's not having to do it on his own. 13:00 So it's a good combination of players out there. 13:02 You know, Terry's shooting the puck well too. 13:05 Yeah, but I also think that Cammarata seems to have boosted his effort. 13:09 You know, he's digging in the corners. 13:12 He's not the fastest guy, but he's trying. 13:15 It just seems like he is a little faster, and he's a little more alert to what's going on. 13:19 He's just giving a better effort than he was for the past year. 13:25 Yeah, I mean, there's competition in the line up, and that's probably part of it. 13:29 He knows that if he's not engaged, you know, using a quick stick, you know, he's not a guy who's going to get real heavy on a four-check, but he's going to get in there, dart in, quick stick, and get out of there and make a play. 13:42 And he's doing that, and I think he's just more engaged right now, which is good to see for this team's future. 13:49 Well, it definitely is, because I think if this team wants to go far in the NCAAs, they're going to need players like him to kind of chip in here and there, and maybe a Connor Riley as well. 14:00 They need to kind of pick up their game towards the end of their Gopher career here, if the Gophers want to do anything. 14:06 We've seen it from Vinny Loteri. 14:08 He's been kind of on that steady upward slope his entire career. 14:12 Cammie obviously been up and down, Riley up and down, mostly due to injury, but we're going to need those older guys to contribute if this team is going to be successful. 14:23 Yeah, Don Lucia complimented Connor Riley for the way he's embraced his role that he needs to play right now. 14:30 In the audio today, he talks a little bit about what Connor needs to do to play well for this team right now. 14:37 Lucia thinks that Connor has been a little snake bit on some of his scoring chances. 14:41 I think we've seen flashes of him with that one-timer. 14:45 He does that shot and stride very well. 14:49 He's got that potential to maybe chip in a goal or two here. 14:53 But he's also a player who needs that confidence to be successful in those chances. 14:59 If he gets one or two here coming up, maybe he'll start chipping in a little bit more frequently. 15:06 Well, all in all, it was a good weekend. 15:08 I mean, obviously, at the time, Penn State was just a point, I think they were just a point back at the time, or maybe two points. 15:16 And now they put in some decent distance between them and Penn State and actually Ohio State too. 15:22 But surprise, surprise, the Badgers are still right with Minnesota, Vig. 15:28 They are for real and they're going to be a top, they're going to be finished first or second in this league, I think. 15:34 Yeah, I think when we went into that series, we were talking about the one thing holding back Wisconsin was their goaltending. 15:41 Now, they've got some good center depth, they've got some good talent up front with Bessie as a scorer as well. 15:48 They've got good special teams. 15:50 But the problem is they're goaltending a little bit. 15:52 So they got on a little bit of a streak here, some good goaltending and now their offense took over in that Michigan State Series. 15:59 Those weren't exactly tight games. 16:01 So Wisconsin's playing fun hockey and they're going to be right in it till the end. 16:07 That series at the end of the month here with Wisconsin coming to Minnesota, it looks like it could be a division decider. 16:15 No, I definitely agree. 16:17 It's going to be a big series. 16:19 Obviously, it's been a long time since we've had a quote-quote big series with Wisconsin, but I'm thinking, like you said, at the end of the month, Wisconsin coming to town, Mariucci could be rocking again for a Badger series. 16:36 Yeah, I thought the atmosphere in the arena actually for the Saturday Penn State game was really good. 16:41 Yeah, that's what I've heard. 16:42 We've been kind of saying how bad the scandal attendance has been. 16:48 I think for that Saturday game, it probably rivaled the North Dakota game in terms of how many people actually showed up. 16:54 The disappointing thing is that the people between the blue lines are the ones who aren't showing. 16:58 For whatever reason, if those corporate seats can't get excited for two top ten teams playing, they might be able to get excited for Wisconsin when they come to town. 17:09 Well, I certainly hope so because obviously we've talked about attendance and we've been following attendance or you've been following the attendance issues for the last few years. 17:19 But you're right. 17:20 They actually did sell quite a few tickets this past weekend, 95-75 Friday and 99-63 for Saturday. 17:27 So besides North Dakota, those are definitely the top games of the year and it was against Penn State. 17:34 I mean, a team that everyone didn't want to play when we went to the Big Ten. 17:37 But it looks like the fans showed up this weekend. 17:40 Obviously, corporate seats has been a long issue. 17:45 But I thought either you said or maybe it was Nate that said that we obviously had the missing seats between the blue lines but the ends were pretty darn packed. 17:56 Yeah, the students have been good all year. 17:58 They have. 17:59 Those seats where the donation levels are pretty low or non-existent on the ends, people are buying those seats. 18:05 So, that's not been the problem. 18:08 I do think Penn State's done a nice job. 18:10 If you're looking for a model for how to build a program in Division I College Hockey, it's get a business man like Terry Pagula to give your school the $60 million or whatever it takes to build a great rink that people want to go to and endow all the scholarships and the salaries for the coaches. 18:31 It's pretty phenomenal to see what they've done. 18:34 Their top scorers are freshmen and sophomores. 18:37 So, they're going to be this team for a while. 18:41 I don't think they're probably going to schedule hard non-conference teams right away because they're still trying to build their program. 18:48 It's kind of like one of those big football programs, where they don't schedule some cupcakes here to make it so their conference schedule decides whether or not they get a bowl game. 18:58 They don't want to handicap themselves by playing the schedule like Minnesota does. 19:02 Yeah, I think definitely. 19:03 But they didn't play very well on Friday. 19:05 I thought they played better on Saturday. 19:08 Minnesota is just way more talented. 19:11 And, you know, we're going to see just in a couple of weeks because, you know, we had to Ohio State this weekend and then we're right back on the road again against Penn State. 19:18 And that's going to be a much, much tougher challenge for Minnesota. 19:23 Yeah, I mean, on the road in their building, they're going to be looking for some revenge. 19:27 I don't think they felt good about the way they played. 19:30 They're probably killed and look very good against Minnesota, even though they didn't put Minnesota on the power play very often. 19:36 So it should be another fun series. 19:38 They bring a lot of traffic to the net. 19:40 Eric Schierhorn talked about that. 19:42 He said, yeah, they just throw the puck and throw bodies at you. 19:46 So you got to be on your game when you play them. 19:47 So it could be a little bit different at the next series, but I think Minnesota can really focus on maintaining possession in the offensive zone, getting the cycle, not just taking the first chance you get, but having some sustained pressure. 20:04 They'll be successful against a team like Penn State. 20:07 Well, before we go forward with more Twitter questions and taking a look at Ohio State, let's listen or hear from our sponsor. 20:16 vintagemnhockey.com is a proud sponsor of The GPL Podcast. 20:21 Well, what is Vintage MN Hockey? 20:24 Well, it's kind of the place to get all of your history of Minnesota hockey, from the pros to the minors to the collegiate teams to even the high school teams. 20:34 All information about any of those teams can be found on vintagemnhockey.com. 20:39 They also have great interviews with some historical Minnesota hockey figures like John Mayessich and Lou Nani, Glen Sanmore, some of the greats of Minnesota hockey. 20:48 So make sure you check out those interviews. 20:50 It's a really great thing. 20:52 But as I always say, I think my favorite part is the store. 20:56 The store you can buy a custom historical jersey from the Gophers or the Bulldogs or some of your favorite high school teams. 21:02 And if you do make a purchase, just use the code GPL Podcast, all one word, and you'll get 10% off your order. 21:10 So make sure you visit vintagemnhockey.com and follow them on Twitter at VintageMNHockey. 21:17 Well, Veegs, we've got a couple more Twitter questions that were left over from last week that I missed. 21:21 So let's take a look at them. 21:24 I know Tim Hapke, this is definitely more relevant for last week, but he was wondering, is it time to move Pitlick down and try someone else with Kloos and Schierhorn? 21:33 Pitlick only has two points in the last eight games. 21:35 Norman, maybe? 21:37 Well, we found out that obviously she didn't move him down, and Pitlick had a pretty good weekend. 21:44 Yeah, I mean, Pitlick's in a pretty good spot. 21:46 You know, I responded to him, I was like, I think they like him where he's at, and you can see why, by the way, he played on Friday. 21:55 Definitely can. 21:57 Definitely turned it up. 21:59 Webster Slaughter wants to know, what's the biggest surprise so far, biggest disappointment? 22:05 And what must the team do to be considered a real NCAA threat, Veegs? 22:12 I think the biggest surprise to me is to see Latary score as much as he has. 22:18 We all kind of saw him improving and knew how hard he was working on the game. 22:21 But to actually see the numbers happen is kind of a surprise. 22:25 I don't think anybody was really expecting him to be one of the leading scores on this team. 22:31 Me, if you're looking for a disappointment for me, I think Steve Johnson's regressed a little bit this season. 22:38 I think last season he was really starting to become a dynamic player on the blue line. 22:43 He was able to walk across to the middle and get shots. 22:47 This year for whatever reason, he's kind of played a safer game. 22:53 It hasn't looked as good on the power play as he did last year. 22:57 So I think that's a little bit of a disappointing thing. 22:59 Then Jack Glover, obviously the shoulder injuries were a little more significant than we thought. 23:06 It's hard for him to get back in the lineup. 23:09 Yeah, that's unfortunate. 23:11 Yeah, and then the last part is, can this team be a national title contender? 23:14 For sure. 23:15 If Schierhorn is playing like this and special teams is clicking like this, they definitely have a good shot at being the number one seed. 23:22 And probably going to Providence would be a better fit for them than going to Fargo. 23:29 Oh, I definitely agree there. 23:32 And well, speaking of that, with the two wins this weekend, Minnesota did move up to number four in the pairwise. 23:39 With the USCHO Bracketology right now, that does put them as one of the number one seeds. 23:45 And they put Minnesota out in Providence. 23:50 I guess that wouldn't be such a bad thing for Minnesota. 23:53 Obviously, a lot of people probably like to travel, but I'm thinking the Fargo regionals already been sold out for a while. 24:01 So, getting tickets for that might be difficult unless you already have them. 24:05 So if you want to see the Gophers in person, one of the other regionals is a better bet. 24:10 But I mean, it's been a while since we've been high up there in the pairwise Vs. 24:15 And number four, if they can keep winning here, they'll probably stick to at least a one or two seed. 24:22 Yeah, I know that Jim Dahl's College Hockey Ranked says if Minnesota wins six to nine games, they have a chance of staying in the top four. 24:34 So that's not a whole lot. 24:37 It all kind of depends on how some of the other teams do. 24:39 But as long as they keep winning, they'll be in the argument for a one seed. 24:45 Well, that would definitely be good. 24:46 That was kind of one of the questions that State of Hockey had earlier. 24:50 He said that now there were, as of now, a number one seed. 24:54 Does this team have what it takes to win a national title? 24:59 You know, it's really just a crapshoot. 25:01 I mean, so much goes into it. 25:04 I mean, literally even a lot of luck goes into it. 25:06 A bounce here or there, we've definitely seen that. 25:10 But like Vegoe, you said, they've got the talent to do this, but it's a lot more than talent. 25:18 We know that. 25:19 Well, it takes hard work, especially in these one-and-done tournaments. 25:23 Sometimes, you don't get a chance to go on the power play, or you give up a couple of opportunities or you have to kill off penalties. 25:31 So, it's a very difficult tournament, the NCAA is for hockey. 25:36 You can't have an off game. 25:38 The one positive thing with this year's Gopher team is we're seeing them score goals lots of different ways. 25:44 You're seeing them score shorthanded, you're seeing them score in the power play, you're seeing them score five on five on the rush and off of possession. 25:52 So, this is a team that has a lot of different ways to score, and it's got a lot of scoring depth. 25:57 So, as long as they get good goal tending, they're going to be in the picture. 26:02 Via the Mixler listening app, Sioux Falls wants to know with Hammy being in those show, can we get fake Don Lucia on? 26:14 I have no idea who fake Don Lucia is. 26:16 Do you, Veegs, have any idea? 26:20 I've heard some rumors about who fake Don Lucia is. 26:23 I don't have a good guess at this point, but I know he's a very knowledgeable hockey individual. 26:30 If we could get some sort of voice scrambler for him, I think he'd consider it from what I've heard. 26:40 I know people who have said they know who it is, but they won't tell me, and that's just fine. 26:46 I kind of like the mystery. 26:48 I think if we knew who it was, it'd kind of wreck the whole joke. 26:54 I think it's an outstanding account. 26:55 It always has been, and he's pretty funny, and he sticks with it. 26:59 He does a great job. 27:00 He does. 27:01 I like spoof accounts that don't take themselves too seriously. 27:05 Obviously, fake Don Lucia's biggest concern is always his hair. 27:11 So your hair looks great, fake. 27:13 So just keep up the work. 27:16 Another Twitter question here, Vegs from Eric Graham. 27:18 He wants to know, if Schierhorn loses his stick, happens a lot, question mark. 27:23 Should one of his skaters give him their stick? 27:26 We see a forward give a defenseman a stick a lot of times when they lose their stick. 27:32 Would it make sense for a defenseman or another player to give their stick to Schierhorn? 27:37 I think it's kind of up to goalie preference. 27:40 If they would be okay with a skater's stick. 27:43 But the only way you want to have that happen is if it's a forward. 27:46 You never really want a defenseman or center giving the goalie their stick. 27:50 Because those guys are the ones that are so important at winning back possession and clearing the zone. 27:56 And on the big ice at Mariucci, those wings aren't just hanging around the net when that happens too often. 28:01 And perhaps Schierhorn is more confident just playing without it until he gets his goalie stick back. 28:06 Could be. 28:07 And like you said, it probably is. 28:08 It's a goalie preference. 28:09 So you kind of never really know what's going to go on there. 28:12 State of Hockey with another question. 28:14 What players are we going to lose off of this team going into next year? 28:18 Any early exits? 28:21 You know, that's always a hard thing to figure out. 28:24 Justin Kloos hinted that Leon Bristedt might be a four-year player today at availability. 28:32 Leon will definitely have offers to advance to an NHL contract, I think, eventually. 28:38 You know, he's a hard worker with a lot of skill. 28:41 He's been battling through injury this year and has been producing. 28:46 So I think that's a good selling point to an NHL team. 28:50 Of course, Tyler Sheehy, a drafted free agent, who's a very solid build kind of guy, top scorer on this year's team. 28:58 He'll probably get offers at the end of the year to turn pro. 29:03 So we'll see. 29:04 Some of the bigger defensemen, some of those teams decide that they need to grab players for depth, and they feel like those guys need to play a year of NHL hockey anyway to get to the pros. 29:15 And with the expansion draft coming, some teams might have holes in their line up that they want to fill sooner rather than later. 29:24 All right. 29:25 Remember, if you have questions for us during the week, or I'll run up until the show starts or during the show, just use the hashtag GPL Podcast on Twitter, and we'll try to answer them. 29:36 And obviously, I'll try not to miss them, like I did this past week. 29:40 So we'll see. 29:42 I think we're all caught up, though, right? 29:44 We might be. 29:44 I'm scrolling through here. 29:45 I think we're pretty caught up. 29:50 Veegs, you're doing a little extra writing off the side here from Minnesota Hockey Magazine. 29:56 More recently, you're putting together an article on Grant Petone. 30:01 So why don't you tell us about that? 30:02 When's that going to come out, and what's it kind of entail? 30:06 Well, it should be this week. 30:08 You can look for it online. 30:10 I know in the Stillwater area, they'll have printed copies here pretty soon. 30:14 You'll be able to pick up. 30:15 There's a lot of coverage in the magazine this month about Hockey Day, Minnesota and Stillwater Hockey. 30:21 So lots of good reads in there. 30:24 Basically, I talked to Petone about how he got into being with University of Minnesota as a player, and how he fit in with the school. 30:34 He wasn't a high-skilled guy when they brought him in, and then his freshman year, he scores 20 goals, and the next year he's named a captain, and they win two titles, and he grows into this role at Minnesota as being a big part of that success. 30:52 After his pro career, timing just matched up. 30:55 Lucia had a volunteer coach that was having a hard time juggling the coaching responsibilities, and then his real-life job, and it was an unpaid thing, and he thought Grant would be a great fit for that position. 31:10 A younger guy to connect with everybody on the program, and then Mike Hastings decided to leave. 31:16 So Lucia had this big decision to make. 31:19 Does he elevate Grant into that job who's got no coaching experience or do they play something safe? 31:25 And Don took a chance, and Grant has probably gone through some ups and downs of learning how to coach and be on a big time D1 staff. 31:38 But he's won two gold medals with the world junior team, and he's grown a lot as a coach. 31:46 Well, he definitely has. 31:48 Make sure you check that out. 31:49 It's Minnesota Hockey Magazine, correct? 31:51 Yeah, Minnesota Hockey Magazine. 31:53 I'll be tweeting it out when it's online. 31:55 And there's some good stuff from Leon Bristedt in there, too, about how he got recruited, because Grant was kind of his only point of contact up until his official visit. 32:06 And the way it is now with official visits, you're pretty much committed once you take it. 32:11 So it was Grant that got him here. 32:15 Thank you, Grant Patoni, for many things. 32:20 Well, here we go, Veegs, heading to Ohio State. 32:24 Obviously, it's going to be a tough weekend playing the Buckeyes. 32:27 We split with them at Mariucci earlier this year. 32:30 Pretty, pretty good game Friday night, Saturday night, they blew us out. 32:36 One thing that we always have when you go to Ohio State, you're going to have a decent team, but you're going to have a morgue as an arena. 32:44 That place is a cavernous 15,000-seat arena, and they'll probably have less than 5,000 there. 32:51 So it's not just the team you're playing against, it's the just awful atmosphere, almost like a regional atmosphere that you're going to have this weekend. 33:00 And that's something they're going to have to deal with. 33:03 Yeah, you're going to have to bring your own juice for that one. 33:06 Definitely. 33:08 Yeah, I mean, obviously, Ohio State, it's a wonderful arena, but they just don't have the crowds to be able to fill it. 33:17 And if anyone needs a smaller rink on campus, it's definitely Ohio State. 33:23 Yeah, and you think if they had a Penn State-sized arena on campus, they'd be in great shape. 33:28 It'd probably be a rocking place. 33:30 Yeah, it probably would be. 33:31 You know, a school as big as Ohio State, you could probably get enough fanatics committed in a smaller building where there's some atmosphere and it's a little bit more fun. 33:40 You know, even the Badger fans had a hard time creating the atmosphere when they had a half empty building. 33:47 So, yeah, I mean, well, what about the hockey, though? 33:50 I mean, they obviously came here and took it to us the last time we played. 33:54 The Gophers pretty much handled it well and handled them. 33:57 They beat them every game last year. 33:58 But Ohio State's a concern. 34:02 I mean, they've been up and down recently. 34:03 But down with Lucia picked them to win the Big Ten League this year. 34:09 And they've been getting some guys back from injury. 34:10 So this is not an easy weekend at all. 34:14 Well, the Gophers took care of Ohio State last year in a bunch of one goal games. 34:19 It wasn't like the Gophers were dominating this program. 34:22 Two or three overtimes too, wasn't it? 34:24 There was quite a few. 34:25 Yep. 34:26 There were a bunch of overtime games in there. 34:27 And Steve Rolex got a team that can skate. 34:30 You know, he's got a lot of skilled players, especially up front at forward. 34:35 They've got two dangerous power play units. 34:38 I think they went seven for 13 against Michigan last weekend on the man advantage. 34:43 Nick Schalke is second in the NCAA in power play goals with 11. 34:48 And he just came off of a four game injury stint and had three and three against Michigan as well. 34:54 So this is a skilled team. 34:56 Don didn't pick them for no reason. 34:59 They're tough. 35:01 Well, yeah, their power play numbers are pretty darn scary. 35:05 I mean, in the Big Ten alone, they're well over 30 percent, aren't they? 35:09 Yeah, it helps when you go seven for 13 in a league game. 35:13 That's something you could see Penn State pulling off against Arizona State or something, but to do it against Michigan is pretty impressive. 35:22 Yeah, even though Michigan is down, but to do it against Michigan, like you said, wasn't it at Michigan too, I believe. 35:27 Yeah. 35:28 So to going into Yost and having that good of a power play. 35:33 Well, having that good of a power play against anybody is pretty impressive. 35:37 They've done it all year long and they just really kicked it up a notch in the Big Ten season. 35:44 I would say Veegs, a split would be the best we could ask for now. 35:48 Obviously not the best, but I think we would be happy with a split this weekend because Lucia is always like, win most of your games at home, split on the road, you're going to have a good season. 35:58 So I'm thinking if you could sneak out and win Friday night, you're already winning when it comes to for the entire weekend. 36:06 Yeah, I think a split would be okay coming on this weekend. 36:11 Minnesota, the way they're playing right now, they're doing so well in special teams. 36:15 Their penalty kill has been outstanding. 36:17 If they can neutralize the Buckeyes that way, they could come out with two, because I think five on five, they're playing very, very well. 36:26 The one thing I'm real worried about this weekend for Minnesota is the Penn State series, the officiating, let a lot of stuff go. 36:33 The only thing they went after was the too many men on the ice. 36:39 I heard a little bit because that's because Penn State has been identified as the team that pushes line changes. 36:46 I remember seeing that last year, they've got guys coming in at one end of the bench, the guy jump on the other end, and it's like a 70 foot change. 36:54 I think Wisconsin was a team that really pushed the line on that too. 36:58 So that was really the only thing that got called during that series was too many men on the ice. 37:03 So you never know what kind of officials you'll have when you get a little bit further away from the west. 37:10 So if you see a tighter game, you could see more penalties. 37:13 It might take the Gophers a while to adjust. 37:16 It's always easier to adjust doing more than doing less. 37:20 Well, this past weekend, the Friday night game, the 5-1 victory, it got to like the last few minutes until Minnesota saw their first power play of the game. 37:32 I was going back trying to think in my head, when's the last time that Minnesota did not have a single power play in a game, and who knows how far back that would have been. 37:41 So it got to the point, they scored a power play goal, which is great. 37:46 But what was it, like three or four minutes left in the game until they saw their first power play against Penn State? 37:51 Yeah, but it was just a crew that didn't want to be sticklers from the law. 37:57 The players didn't step over the line and egregiously start getting their sticks into bodies. 38:02 Unless you're a referee. 38:05 Right. 38:06 Well, Zach Starr is a big man, so when he puts a stick up, it's pretty easy to nick a ref. 38:11 But, you know, they didn't call very much, you know, that resulted in power plays. 38:18 They definitely didn't. 38:19 Well, I'm thinking if the Gophers get a sweep this weekend, obviously, and as you can hear, the recording just stopped on its own while we were doing the podcast, and we lost about three or four minutes of the podcast. 38:33 Sorry, folks. 38:34 It happens. 38:35 We'll just have to keep on going, and we'll pick it up where it started recording again. 38:41 People going to Ohio State, Gopher State and 8 Wells is for once not making the trip. 38:48 So I don't think we have any local people going to the game. 38:52 So watch them on Big Ten. 38:54 Big Ten Network. 38:56 And listen to Frank and Wally. 38:58 Definitely. 38:59 They'll be there. 39:00 And even better, Vegas, is that the recording stopped recording for about three or four minutes there. 39:06 So we're going to have a big gap in the podcast. 39:09 Isn't that awesome? 39:12 Computers. 39:13 I should really get a new computer here, Vegas. 39:16 Well, you know, maybe we need another sponsor. 39:19 If anyone out there wants to sponsor us, feel free to shoot Jupiter, slide into his DMs. 39:27 Well, it just means that a lot of people listening live got to hear the whole thing and some of the other parts there, some people didn't get to hear. 39:35 That's just the way it is. 39:36 You just do what you can. 39:38 Just work what we've got with. 39:40 Well, remember, you can follow Vegoe on Twitter, at Evegoe, and obviously, he's got a great article coming out real soon here on Minnesota Hockey Magazine about Grant Batoni. 39:50 So make sure you check that out. 39:51 What did you say? 39:51 Maybe this weekend, the digital version comes out? 39:54 Yeah, I think maybe tomorrow, and once it comes out, I'll probably start tweeting out some of the quotes that didn't make it. 40:00 I've got some interesting stuff in there from Leon on why he chose Minnesota and some of the things that Grant does that other coaches don't do, and the facilities that were attractive, and then some quotes on Grant on coaching philosophies. 40:16 Yeah, well, make sure you guys check that out. 40:18 And Vegoe tweeted out here once it goes live. 40:22 Now, we'll be back next week. 40:23 We'll recap the series in Columbus, and then we'll preview the series in Happy Valley, heading back to Penn State. 40:31 Until then, thanks for listening. 40:34 We'll catch you next week. 41:04 I feel like I need a blindfold and a cigarette when they come in here. 41:08 Wow. 41:08 It depends on the year. 41:09 Yeah, that's true. 41:11 What a weekend. 41:12 Right. 41:14 Eric Schierhorn, a couple of bumps that seems to be fully back in form now. 41:17 You have to be encouraged by what he's done lately. 41:19 It's something when we broke at Christmas, I know that we talked about just kind of resetting yourself. 41:25 We know he's a good goal tenor. 41:27 He had his struggles the first half of the season, but we won some games with scoring some goals, but we knew the second half of the season, if our penalty kill was going to improve, if our team defense was going to improve, that he had to have better numbers. 41:41 And since Christmas, our penalty kill is 92.5 percent, our goal is against us two, and coincidentally, a safe percentage is 932. 41:50 So there's a big reason why we haven't been giving up as many goals, or our penalty kill numbers have improved. 41:55 And that's going to be critical from here on out, is how well that he plays. 41:59 Ketten said to play Ohio State, when you do video, you just put the last game in, push play, and walk out of the room. 42:04 No, you know what, they're getting healthy again. 42:07 I think that's a big thing. 42:08 You know, I think they have six forwards averaging a point a game. 42:13 They went through a stretch the last couple of months with injuries, and you know, Schilke was out for a few weeks, and Joshua was out, and I think Jobes was out, Weiss was out. 42:22 So they're key guys. 42:23 We're out, and now they're back. 42:25 I felt going into the year, I picked them to win the league. 42:28 I think they're as talented as anybody. 42:30 Their group of forwards are scary good. 42:32 So our team discipline is going to be important. 42:34 They lead the country in their power play percentage. 42:36 I think they were 7-13 last weekend against Michigan, and I think they're 38% in the Big Ten. 42:41 So we got to do a good job in that area and play well defensively, because we just don't want to get in a running gun match with them. 42:48 How important is aggression for Schierhorn to continue making all the saves that he's doing? 42:52 Well, when he's at the top of the crease, when he's square like any goaltender, that's when he's when he's at his best. 42:58 And when you're playing in the crossbar, I mean, you're just giving up a lot more than that. 43:02 Just talking to Frank, as he observed him since Christmas time, he says, you guys are just flying since then, whatever. 43:08 Did something happen? 43:09 Is it just because it looks like you guys are in the power play all the time right now? 43:12 Well, we're getting better. 43:13 We're improving. 43:15 It took a weekend or so to just navigate now without Tom. 43:20 We had a good play out of a couple of seniors last weekend with Cammarata and Connor Riley, and I think hopefully that's a good sign for us the rest of the season. 43:28 You know, we're scoring enough right now, but from here on out, we want to continue with good specialty team play, and our goals against it will be what ultimately decides our fate at the end of the year. 43:37 Jake Bishop is playing some of his best hockey, I mean, sort of under the radar. 43:41 What do you like about his game on the ice and his leadership? 43:43 He can do it all. 43:45 You know, he's kind of like a Swiss Army knife. 43:47 He's got every tool in the box, and he can defend. 43:50 He can play in the power play, four and four, block shots. 43:55 I think he's been as good as any defenseman in our league, and certainly playing at all conference and all American level. 44:01 You mentioned block shots with him. 44:03 Is that a stat that maybe more than any kind of shows you what somebody's made up? 44:06 Oh, there's no question. 44:07 You got to take a little bowl of captain courage to go around. 44:10 It doesn't feel good. 44:11 I know that even like Sunday, Jeff, our trainer texts us about the weekend who needs a lot of ice bags. 44:17 I said, well, that's a good sign. 44:18 This time of the year, you're going to need a lot of ice bags on a Sunday after two games set. 44:22 So, he's a guy that's not afraid to go around and take one at critical moments to help us win games. 44:29 What is it about Ohio State's power play that makes them so effective? 44:33 Skill, shooters. 44:37 They got two a little bit different looks in their power play, but they have such a deep group of forwards. 44:42 I think that's really the key that you throw out six or seven forwards, that can move the puck and finish like they can, and that's what a power play is. 44:48 I mean, you got to have some shooters, you got to have some passers, and they have a great combination. 44:53 They can score off the rush, they can score in the zone. 44:56 I've watched them score off face-off, so they can score in just about any manner. 45:01 The staff kind of talks about finding their B game. 45:03 Conner Riley is playing a different style than when he was scoring all those goals. 45:07 What is his strength on the ice when he's playing well? 45:10 I think his pace of play. 45:11 I mean, he can, obviously, he still has good hands, and he's been a little bit snake-bitten as far as he hasn't scored a goal in a while, but if he can contribute defensively, playing smart, I think that's the important thing. 45:22 Like, he picked up an assist last weekend, and going in, I just tell him, don't worry about offense. 45:27 Help our team win. 45:28 That's the bottom line. 45:29 What can you do as a senior and as a captain to help our team win? 45:32 And he did exactly what we wanted on Saturday night, and he continues to play like that. 45:36 I just think he'll get rewarded with some goals here at the end, too, and I wouldn't be surprised if he scored a couple really big ones here down the stretch. 45:43 Given up more than three goals only once since the last time you played Ohio State, do you think kind of defensively it's been a reaction to the last time you played Ohio State? 45:50 Well, I think it's part of it. 45:51 Eric's playing pretty well, too. 45:53 I mean, if that game we gave up eight, I think it was not a goaltending highlight reel, that's for sure. 46:01 We left him out to dry a little bit, but I think that was probably a little, maybe the punch in the nose that we needed. 46:08 We went to Michigan State after that. 46:09 I think we gave up about low 30 shots combined for the two games, gave up two each night. 46:14 And so it's been a continuation of that, but at the same time, now we're going to see a much more prolific offensive team than we've seen since the last time we played Ohio State, too. 46:22 What are your defensive points of emphasis this weekend? 46:25 Team discipline, I think that's got to be critical. 46:28 We want to give them five or six power play opportunities. 46:31 Like Penn State, we gave them two each night. 46:33 If we can keep them to two or three power plays a night, then that's something that's manageable. 46:38 Obviously, not giving up outnumbered situations. 46:41 Make sure we have a good F3 high and a good retrieval game. 46:45 Getting out of our zone clean and, you know, like any sport, you know, taking care of the puck. 46:50 You know, you got to take care of the puck to win games. 46:52 Everyone healthy? 46:54 Yep, other than Novak. 46:56 I think on Bristedt's hat trick, is that a great point for him? 47:00 You know, just a great coming out or has he been fairly consistent on it? 47:04 Well, I think he's been consistent. 47:05 I think early in the year, at times, he was trying to do too much with the puck, and he ended up, you know, turning it over all the time and killing some offensive chances. 47:12 And I think he's done a better job recently of taking care of it. 47:17 You know, we know he can score. 47:18 And we hope that, you know, that's going to be a continuation. 47:21 But, you know, that's what's at the third different player that's had a hat trick this year, a second or third. 47:26 And I think that's just our team, you know, we don't have to rely on one or two guys. 47:30 It can be a different line every night. 47:32 And I think that's a good thing. 47:33 What about his versatility in playing with many different line combinations that he has? 47:37 Well, he can play either wing. 47:38 I mean, he's got that high skill level. 47:40 He can play well in his off wing. 47:42 You know, when you come in off, like that fifth goal he scored, you come in off your weak off wing, and you're able to one time a puck in that situation for that goal off the pass from Steve. 47:50 And that's one of the positives about when you can play in the off wing like that. 47:55 But he's got enough skill, he can catch those passes on the backhand and make plays. 48:01 Has anything felt different in the last several weekends? 48:04 Because the plays look fantastic. 48:07 Yeah, I think it has felt different. 48:09 I think I've been a little more aggressive. 48:11 And that just translates to me being a better goaltender and feeling more confident in the net on just every situation really in the game. 48:19 On top of that, how important is it for the team court in front of you to be playing really, really well? 48:24 Yeah, I mean, it's important for everyone on our team. 48:27 You need a full team effort to win a game. 48:29 That's just, I mean, it's cliche, but it's a fact. 48:32 So everyone's got to be doing their part. 48:35 And they have. 48:35 Somebody mentioned the line between being aggressive and not making a dumb mistake kind of thing for a goal-tender standpoint. 48:41 You can't think about making a dumb mistake. 48:43 I mean, you just got to be aggressive. 48:46 And whatever save selection you make, whatever read you make on a play, you just got to stick with it regardless. 48:51 So you can't be thinking about, you know, I don't want to be too aggressive. 48:55 Somebody mentioned you might have changed pads. 48:56 Does that make any difference at all? 48:58 Was that superstition? 48:58 Is that function? 48:59 Is it a lie? 49:01 I did change pads. 49:02 I think it does make a difference. 49:05 I just, I went with an inch, half an inch shorter on my pads at the start of this year and I went back to my old pads and I just feel like I get better support and they're a little different and I just move better in them and just feel better. 49:18 When did you make the switch? 49:20 Christmas. 49:21 Do you guys think a lot about the Big Ten Championship, the Junior regular season champs or is it more about the NCAA tournament and how far you go? 49:27 No, we're thinking Big Ten Championship. 49:29 I mean, that's our goal. 49:32 We want to win championships at the start of every year, so we're not just thinking, looking ahead to the NCAA tournament and we want to take care of business in the Big Ten first. 49:39 Last week, part of the instruction was to get the puck, clear it safely out of the chaos zone in front of the net. 49:47 Did that lead you to playing differently, different posture, you just looked more upright and challenging? 49:56 Yeah, I don't know if it made me play any different, but you're kind of conscious of it. 50:01 So we worked a lot in practice deflecting rebounds with my stick and coaches told me, you got to cover everything, because that's how Penn State got their offenses. 50:11 They get rebounds and then they start going in zones. 50:14 So I guess I thought about it, but I didn't change my game because of it. 50:18 So you won't change again this weekend? 50:20 No. 50:20 Not change the pads back to the new ones? 50:22 No, stay and don't deal with pads. 50:24 We're doing pretty well with the new ones. 50:26 Well, Ohio State's power play is pretty prolific. 50:29 What are your keys as a goalie against that unit? 50:32 I mean, I just got to make the first save. 50:35 That's my job, and then it's kind of my defense job to clear everything and get 200-foot clears too. 50:43 So that's kind of what I'm going to focus on, I'm sure. 50:46 Coaches will get us prepped on what their tendencies are. 50:49 So once they do that, we'll kind of know what to look for, whether it's a seam pass or backdoor plays. 50:55 So let's go from there. 50:56 Is it hard to kind of prep for that until you see it? 51:00 A little bit, but I mean, we played them earlier in the year, so you kind of have a sense of what they do. 51:05 But I mean, nobody does anything different really than anyone else. 51:10 It's just a few plays here and there, so it's not too big of an adjustment week to week. 51:14 Thoughts on Leon Bristedt's hat trick? 51:16 Yeah, it's unbelievable. 51:22 For lack of a better term, he made the goal look kind of silly on the first one. 51:25 But that's kind of what Leon does, so happy for him. 51:28 What was the reaction in the room after the game towards the hat trick? 51:31 Yeah, it was big. 51:32 We knew how big it was for not just our team, but for Leon. 51:35 We're all happy to see any of our teammates succeed like that, so it's great. 51:40 Don called Jake Bischoff a Swiss Army knife of defense. 51:44 Yeah, he can do it all. 51:45 I mean, as a goaltender, you feel really confident when you see Bisch in front of you because you know he's going to lay his body on the line to block a shot. 51:54 But I mean, he also had three assists Saturday night, too, so he can do it all. 52:00 How different do things feel the way Eric Schierhorn has been playing over the last couple of months? 52:04 I mean, he had a couple adventurous games, but he seems to have a really steady thing. 52:08 Yeah, he's been awesome. 52:10 Kind of like I told you guys at the beginning of the year, we weren't worried. 52:13 He's a competitive kid, and he's gotten into a rhythm. 52:15 And he's playing very confident and really good hockey for us. 52:18 And that's the reason why we've had a lot of success, I guess, the second half of the season. 52:24 So yeah, he's solid, and we have no problems on the back end. 52:27 You guys are in a position now where we're going to start talking top seed in a region. 52:30 Are you guys starting to feel you are one of the best teams in the country? 52:33 Yeah, I mean, in the locker room, there's not really a big question. 52:37 You look at our season, we had one bad weekend early in the year. 52:42 I think it was like the second week against St. 52:43 Cloud, bad weekend. 52:44 Other than that, I mean, we've had OK weekends. 52:48 But other than that, we've just had pretty solid weekends, get a sweep or split, almost every weekend on that one. 52:53 So we're really confident in ourselves. 52:56 And we're looking forward to a big challenge this weekend, and a big challenge the weekend after. 53:01 So these next four games are going to be very important for the outcome of the Big Ten Conference Championship. 53:08 And that's our focus right now. 53:09 How important has Devon been for, you know, just the team's performance in general? 53:13 Really important. 53:15 We obviously have a lot of guys that contribute, whether it's, you know, Norm in the last couple of weeks popped in a couple of huge goals for us, or Gates coming on, you know, this season. 53:27 Obviously it hurts when guys go down as important as Tom. 53:30 But with our depth, we've been, we've found ways to win and growing, you know, we have confidence that it's growing as well with winning through, you know, injuries and, you know, tough times, people sick, stuff like that. 53:45 If you agree with this that you're playing better now than you were in the first half of the season, what's the difference? 53:51 Not you, but the team? 53:54 Both, me and the team, hopefully. 53:57 But I think, confidence, we, you know, you kind of come in the season with a little bit of, you know, last season in mind. 54:08 You know, you got to put it out, but, you know, you can't argue that, you know, we didn't want to repeat of that. 54:13 So a little bit of a slow start, but then, you know, you win a couple, you win a big one, you go out easy, you beat BC, you beat North Dakota, and you beat a couple good teams that had good years last year, and they're good teams this year. 54:27 You start building confidence, and then you start stringing wins together. 54:30 I think we had a 6-7 win streak, and you just continue that, and then you limit your losses to, you know, 3-2. 54:37 You know, just, you need to balance their losses, nothing like getting blown out, or, you know, just not showing up to play games. 54:45 And your confidence continues to grow, and you know, you're in every game, and you expect to win every game. 54:51 The Bristedt hat trick, what's it mean for the team? 54:55 Probably a little more for Leon than the team. 54:58 We had him try to make a speech after, but I think he was a little too excited, and his Swedish English didn't really make sense too much. 55:04 But no, we were pumped for him. 55:06 Leon's a total team guy. 55:08 You love when, to see a guy like that get rewarded for all of his hard work, whether it's D-zone or off the ice after practice. 55:16 Totally deserving, and I think if he sticks around to be a goal for four years, that won't be his last one. 55:23 How does physicality impact the team's overall production? 55:28 It's important. 55:28 You got to balance it. 55:30 We're not the most physical team, but you got to have enough of it. 55:33 You got to make it difficult for other teams to play in our end. 55:36 And I think that's one area that our D have really done well in the last ten games since Christmas, is battling in front of our net, not giving up the second chance that Schierhorn gives up a rebound, being able to box out and get into people on the walls. 55:51 I think that's really helped with keeping our goals against down in the second half. 55:55 Has it been easier to be a captain this year? 55:58 Yeah, probably. 55:59 Obviously, you had your ups and downs this year, but we haven't had as much heartbreak as last year. 56:07 Last year, when it came to balances, it felt like we were on the bad end of everyone, but this year, we're getting some balances, and we're playing well a lot more consistently, and there's depth, everyone's contributing, so it's been a really fun season so far, but obviously, we got some big goals ahead of us, so we'll see how we finish out the season. 56:30 You didn't mention the 8-3 loss to Ohio State here, but that does seem to be a bit of a turning point, a curve. 56:37 Yeah. 56:37 Are you taking that loss with you to Columbus? 56:40 Oh, yeah, for sure. 56:41 You never want to lose your own building, especially in that fashion. 56:45 So we're going to go in there. 56:47 We're going to play really hard and maybe return the favor, have a little chip on our shoulder, for sure. 56:55 Thanks. 56:56 Thank you. 56:57 Thanks, guys.