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, Vego and your host, Jupiter. 0:40 Good evening, and welcome to the season finale of The GPL Podcast. 0:47 We are here for episode number 113. 0:52 Well, it's been a long season, boys. 0:58 Well, here we are, guys. 1:01 Not exactly the kind of finish we wanted. 1:03 Gophers head out to New Hampshire, start off pretty well against Notre Dame, and then, boy, Veegs, that second period jinx just got him again. 1:16 Yeah. 1:17 The first goal by Ogilvy really just caught Shearhorn off balance, I think, a little bit, surprised him. 1:26 Then the next one on the line change just really surprised him. 1:33 Tough way to go in the second period. 1:35 The breakout pass by Peterson, always a good reminder that first four checker has to stay on the ice to keep that from happening. 1:43 Let the other four guys change and then get off the ice. 1:47 Well, he came down the right side of the ice and he sniped a nice shot and got Notre Dame into the game. 1:54 Before then, Notre Dame hadn't really been doing anything. 1:59 Yeah. 1:59 I mean, it's just one of those things where it doesn't take a lot, especially in that middle period. 2:06 It kind of tends to be a momentum swinger for the Gophers this year. 2:08 And it kind of bit them again. 2:10 And what can you say? 2:13 I mean, it was an unfortunate trend this year. 2:17 And I think the guys fought pretty hard throughout the game. 2:20 It just, Notre Dame happened to make a couple more plays and we didn't capitalize on a few at the end. 2:26 And that was that. 2:28 That's the way it is in one-and-done situations. 2:31 And that's kind of how it's been for the last few years. 2:33 You know, a lot of people are, and I could see from the Twitter questions coming towards us that obviously the fans are pretty frustrated. 2:42 We haven't made that step or, you know, it's getting, or as Eric Carlson just asked, he goes, your feelings on the alleged staleness expressed around the fan base, early exits over in regionals outside of Minnesota and whatnot. 2:59 A lot of fans are just not happy right now, Veegs. 3:04 Well, I think it's disappointing when you have a one seed loses a four seed, but in reality, this isn't really a game where it's one of the top teams in the country against one of the bottom teams. 3:13 It barely makes it into the tournament. 3:16 You know, all the teams in the NCAA Hockey Tournament are good. 3:20 And Minnesota played a nice game against Notre Dame through the first 30 minutes. 3:26 You know, they out attempted Notre Dame 68-45. 3:30 You look at the leading shot attempt guys, Clues had eight, Lottery had nine. 3:35 You know, those guys had chances during the game to extend the lead and stretch it out. 3:40 Peterson just stepped up to the challenge and met the Gophers. 3:44 I don't think this is one of those games where Minnesota necessarily played badly. 3:48 Notre Dame played well and as you could see on Sunday, they went on to get into the Frozen Four. 3:54 And I know the expectation is for the Gophers to get there, but it's not easy. 3:59 And that's why they haven't been there since Clues was a freshman. 4:03 Yeah, it's definitely not easy. 4:05 And, you know, before we go on, I just want to say if you guys, live listeners have questions for us, just use the Twitter hashtag GPL Podcast, or if you happen to be in the Mixler Chat like Tom says, you can just send something there as well. 4:21 So I can see it from there. 4:25 Boy, well, we talk about that stale-ness, Hammey. 4:29 Is it getting stale? 4:31 Is the coaching staff getting stale? 4:32 Or are the fans getting stale? 4:35 What's going on here? 4:38 Well, I mean, I don't think... 4:39 I think you'd get the same kind of attitude after any season-ending loss. 4:46 I mean, I don't care if it had been five years ago or whatever. 4:50 I mean, before the WCHA, people were complaining about these kinds of situations. 4:54 I don't blame them. 4:55 It's frustrating to a degree, but I mean, that's kind of the nature of one-and-done situations. 5:00 And I think people always are looking for reasons and scapegoats. 5:05 And is it this trend or that trend or whatever? 5:07 But at the end of the day, I just think you have to realize it's a one-and-done situation. 5:12 You're playing another good team, and it's not going to be a piece of cake every year. 5:16 And it's certainly not like it was back in the Holy Cross days, where you kind of automatically expect to win a one-versus-four situation. 5:24 And these days, it's a little bit more depth, and there aren't really any easy outs anymore. 5:31 There definitely aren't any easy outs. 5:33 I mean, unfortunately, Minnesota was the only the only number one seed to lose right off the bat against the four seed. 5:39 But it is becoming much more common ever since the Holy Cross thing. 5:44 Holy Cross was a legit upset. 5:46 But since then, really, there has been quite a bit of parity in the NCAA tournament leagues. 5:54 Yeah, every year the four seed comes out on top in one of the regions. 6:00 It just happened to be Minnesota this time. 6:03 Looking back at the weekend, some of the number one seeds did get in a little bit of trouble. 6:07 Even UMD got into a little trouble with their first game. 6:12 So it can happen. 6:14 And those teams got in troubles in the region finals as well. 6:18 It's a tough game, especially when you have teams who kind of get into the tournament by being super disciplined. 6:25 You saw against Minnesota, Notre Dame didn't really put themselves in too many bad situations down the stretch. 6:32 They weren't giving up a lot of odd man Russians. 6:35 Because all the teams that make the tournament, they're playing good hockey. 6:40 So I thought this was a pretty good roster make up for Minnesota this year. 6:45 We did see in games down the stretch where there wasn't the focus that the fans want. 6:50 But it was kind of a throwaway game that Saturday against Michigan State and then the Big Ten tournament. 6:55 Those games didn't have a lot on the line. 6:57 But you saw a lot of games throughout the entire season where they were able to respond in the third period and pull out games that in the past couple of years we haven't seen them do. 7:06 So I thought this was a pretty good roster, top to bottom. 7:09 They had good guys who developed over their careers at the U. 7:14 Guys like Kloos and Lattery who are undrafted just signed pro deals this week. 7:19 That's important for a college hockey program to have guys like that. 7:22 A lot of the teams that are in the tournament, they have those undrafted guys who have developed over the four years. 7:30 Well, you talk about those two guys signed. 7:31 I believe Bischoff also signed as well, didn't he? 7:35 Yep. 7:35 He was the seventh round pick by the Islanders. 7:39 He definitely has developed into a nice player that they didn't expect to get probably when they drafted him. 7:45 He's an all-American type defenseman and a very steady defensive pair type guy who has some offense and good breakout skills. 7:55 Every D pair you have, you need to have one guy who's a little flashier and one guy who's dependable. 8:00 And he can be your dependable guy, I think, in at least the AHL next year. 8:05 So those are the seniors that are starting to sign. 8:07 There might be a couple more. 8:08 We'll have to wait and see. 8:09 But we've got what's going to happen to the underclassmen here, Hammeh. 8:14 We've got Jess asking, and actually Jeff Gasperd asking. 8:18 Jess wants to know from the Mixler Chat who might our early departures be. 8:22 And very similar. 8:23 Jeff Gasperd from Twitter, have you heard anyone expected to leave early this year, like Smetula or Collins? 8:31 Obviously, our biggest fear is Sheehee, but is it sounding like Sheehee's going to hang her on? 8:37 And what's going on with some of these other players? 8:39 Do we know anything yet? 8:42 Well, I think it's one of those things that I always say this on GPL or wherever. 8:46 I never really believe anything that you see in the media one way or the other. 8:50 I mean, I think people, fans tend to read too much into what's said in the media. 8:56 Now, what's said behind the scenes, I tend to buy a little more. 9:01 And I know that from what I've heard, it's looking like Sheehee is likely to return. 9:07 I think there's some question with some people, but I've heard from a couple of different people that have had discussions with his camp that sounds pretty likely that he's coming back. 9:18 So, you don't know what's going to happen over the next what, six months, but it sounds pretty good there. 9:25 I know we heard Russo on the Twitter talk about Collins potentially being signed. 9:31 So, to me, while I don't want to lose a senior defenseman, I think we can live with that one a little more. 9:40 I do think he improved this year, and certainly, I'm sure he would have a pretty good senior year if he does come back, but he's not one of those two-way star players that you're going to count on in all situations. 9:53 He's more of a limited defensive defenseman that might pitch in a little offense here or there, but he's not anything you're going to count on on both ends next year. 10:01 So, we'll see. 10:05 Those will be the two biggest ones. 10:07 I don't think that Zmatullo is really, because of his size, is not really one of those guys that's a prototypical free agent target, and I don't know that he had a good enough year to really justify that. 10:18 So I don't think it would really be those two, you know, Sheehy and Collins, and I think that Sheehy is likely to return, and Collins, I don't know, sounds like it's kind of 50-50 there. 10:29 I think I just heard also today something about that Johnson's definitely staying or something like that. 10:33 I thought on Twitter somewhere. 10:36 Yeah, I know I said on GPL, I quoted something on that, but there's another one where it's like, how big of a loss is that? 10:45 I mean, you know, it's a depth thing, but... 10:46 Definitely a depth thing. 10:48 These guys haven't really, I mean, I said this on GPL, and I'm sure we'll get into it, but to me this year, I think a great goal for teams, I think of teams that had two, three, really good two-way defensemen that you could pretty much count on, like Vig said a little bit ago, like in each pairing. 11:04 And I think the Gophers this year, they had Bischoff and a couple of guys that have the makings of that, but they're probably still a little bit young yet. 11:12 And frankly, the guys that are kind of in that junior class haven't done enough to, like we had hoped. 11:18 I mean, Collins, he didn't really expect that from, but Glover, obviously we know hasn't really developed and probably won't ever develop to that level, and Johnson hasn't gotten to that level either. 11:29 So those are the guys that I think kind of hurt more than anything is when you get those upper classmen that you kind of at one time countered on for some offense coming from the blue line and they really haven't provided it to the level that you thought they might. 11:43 Um, boy. 11:45 Let's hit some more Twitter questions here. 11:47 John Candels wants to know, is it fair for everyone to be attacking Lucia and blame the playoff losses on him? 11:56 What do you think, Veegs? 11:57 Is it fair to go after Lucia? 12:00 Well, he certainly makes enough money where that's where the finger goes. 12:04 Um, you know, the criticism is going to come with the job. 12:08 The fans of Minnesota expect this team to be in the Frozen Four pretty much every year. 12:13 Now, there's a lot of staleness because the move to the Big Ten. 12:17 There's staleness because they instituted scholarship seating. 12:21 There's staleness because there's a lot of no-shows in the arena. 12:24 You know, a lot of that blame has to go somewhere. 12:28 And a lot of people will point at Lucia. 12:30 I don't know if all of it's deserved. 12:32 I think a lot of it's, you know, the fans, I just want to be upset about something. 12:36 And so that's where they pick. 12:37 They pick a guy from Notre Dame who wasn't recruited by Minnesota, you know, not an M guy. 12:45 I don't think it's all on him that the players, you know, don't come through. 12:48 I thought this year's game was very close. 12:51 It could have gone either way. 12:52 And I don't blame the players necessarily either. 12:57 Can't win them all. 12:58 Yeah, you can't. 13:00 What do you think about that, Hammeh? 13:01 Is it all up to you? 13:03 No, I mean, I get, I mean, I understand that we all want to have things that we can point to and make the easy, you know, diagnosis of what the problem was. 13:15 But I don't think that there's, I don't think it's really, it's not like, you know, the coach forgot how to coach. 13:21 If you might be able to make the argument that the messages get a little old and maybe you kind of need somebody with a fresh outlook, maybe a fresh strategy. 13:32 And I've been saying for the last couple of years that I do believe that the Gophers need to start thinking and planning for that because I just think Lucia is kind of getting to that point. 13:41 However, I certainly don't blame him for the loss. 13:46 I think, you know, the players play and they have to execute. 13:50 And, you know, ultimately, you could have the greatest strategy in the world. 13:55 But if the players don't execute it, it doesn't really matter. 13:57 You can be a great coach. 13:58 And, you know, I think fans talk about passion and work ethic and this and that, all these kind of intangible things. 14:07 And like I saw some people question the net on GPL. 14:10 And I'm like, you got to be kidding me. 14:12 You know, this team came back from deficits this year. 14:15 They they were work hard. 14:16 They're high character guys. 14:18 They didn't get in the trouble. 14:20 I don't think anybody would question the work ethic of guys like Sheehee and Cluse. 14:25 And, you know, Bristad is a hard work. 14:28 I mean, there's a lot of good hard working guys out there. 14:30 And just because they don't execute doesn't mean they don't have heart. 14:34 Doesn't mean they don't try hard. 14:35 It just that sometimes it just doesn't happen that be your day. 14:38 So, yeah, I kind of think Hammey was, I think Hammey was pretty right on with the defensemen not having the dynamic players that we're used to. 14:47 You know, we look at the defensemen and they just. 14:51 And it's not necessarily the recruiting fault in Minnesota. 14:54 It's almost like they needed to go outside their usual recruiting base to get somebody more dynamic, and I'm not sure who that would have been. 15:01 But I don't think they had any defensive misses in Minnesota the last couple years recruiting. 15:08 Well, I mean, you know, people like to say, well, what about this guy? 15:12 What about that guy? 15:13 But, you know, they tend to forget that recruiting a lot of time is about timing as well. 15:17 And it's a matter of, you know, what do you have for scholarship room? 15:22 You know, what do you have for availability? 15:24 I mean, we all know that there's going to be good players that end up at other schools, you know, at UMD or St. 15:31 Cloud or North Dakota or wherever. 15:33 And some of that's, you know, occasionally it's, hey, we they just got the they out recruited us on a particular player. 15:40 Might be that usually it's something else, you know, it could be timing. 15:44 It could be maybe they preferred another guy and they just made the wrong choice. 15:48 I mean, there's a lot of different things. 15:51 But I really think that that's the problem that I've seen this year. 15:57 And like I said, I think a couple of guys in particular, they probably were counting on long ago and it just didn't pan out for them and doesn't look like it's going to. 16:06 And especially when they're upper classmen, that's when it really hurts. 16:09 You don't necessarily expect guys to come in as freshmen, for instance, and be a dominant force. 16:16 I mean, it's nice. 16:16 It's not like it's impossible. 16:17 But it's usually those upper classmen guys that don't quite develop the way you want. 16:22 That those are the ones that really sting. 16:26 Tim Hapke wants to know, who has more heart? 16:29 Hammy, Vegoe, or myself? 16:34 Oh, I don't know about that one. 16:37 Not me. 16:38 Definitely not me. 16:39 We're going to go with you, Vegoe. 16:41 You have the most heart of the entire team. 16:43 Just on raw size. 16:44 I think I'm the largest individual. 16:47 So, I would be maybe a slightly larger heart. 16:52 I just saw that question, and since we were talking about it, I thought I'd throw Tim's out there. 16:56 Tim's been throwing a lot of questions to us this year. 16:58 So, we're going to go with Vegoe, Tim. 17:01 He's the guy with the most heart. 17:04 So, we've got this empty coaching job in Omaha right now. 17:12 Is there any interest in Mr. 17:13 Gensel, Hammeh? 17:16 Is this his chance to finally get out there and be a head coach in the college ranks? 17:23 I don't know. 17:24 It wouldn't surprise me. 17:29 Obviously, you saw what happened with Hastings. 17:31 So, you're getting a 10-year contract from Adam Mankato. 17:35 I think it's safe to say that a decent chunk of that is going to be because they're concerned about losing them to another school like Omaha. 17:42 So, I don't know. 17:45 I think that it's gotten to the point where you don't know because it's like, well, Lucia is essentially, I mean, granted, it's not his decision, but he's touting him in the paper as a guy he'd like to see get the next opportunity at the U and he's been around forever. 18:02 So, he's had other opportunities, and I don't know how hard he's pursued some of them. 18:07 So, it might be that he's waiting for that. 18:11 With some of these struggles, people talk about, is the message stale and is it, well, why would you hire the assistant then if it's a message thing or whatever. 18:20 But I think everybody knows that Coach Gensel is a different coach than Coach Lucia. 18:26 He's definitely an M man. 18:28 He's definitely very passionate about the program. 18:30 Not that Lucia isn't, but it's just a different coaching perspective. 18:35 Obviously, he left once and it's because he did have some different perspectives and he wasn't afraid to voice those things. 18:42 He's not just a yes man. 18:43 So, I think it's safe to say that if he did become coach here, he would have a different strategy, a different perspective, and it wouldn't just be regurgitating what Lucia has been doing. 18:56 So, I don't know. 18:57 I don't know what's on his mind. 19:00 He'd be a good candidate there certainly, but I don't know if he's just got his heart set on here and doesn't want to take a chance anywhere else. 19:06 And hey, if you lose, you go away and lose, you're not exactly making your case to come back and be that coach here, so there's a strategy behind it if you're in his shoes too. 19:19 Well, he would also have that out of his contract just like Blaze did, won't he? 19:23 If he were to go to Omaha. 19:26 Well, I'm sure he would, but if you think about it though, I mean, these contracts are not ironclad anyway. 19:34 I mean, you might have buyouts or things like that, but it's not like you don't see college coaches in different sports not change addresses, you know what I mean? 19:44 Just because they have a contract. 19:45 So I think that that gets a little bit overblown too. 19:51 That's true. 19:52 Paul in the Mixler Chat wants to know when Lucia finally retires, the slash is let go. 19:59 Should a program like you, or like do you hire a coach with no head coaching experience? 20:08 No, it's way too important of a job. 20:11 It would never fly. 20:13 I mean, let's be honest. 20:15 Fans have expectations of the team, but they also have expectations that if they're gonna bring in a head coach, it's gonna be some guy that's a well-known entity or showing a lot of success as a head coach somewhere else. 20:27 This isn't the program that's gonna be taking the risks. 20:32 A relatively unproven guy. 20:35 They're gonna expect somebody who's got a proven track record. 20:40 Some other program or maybe on the pro level or whatever. 20:44 That's gonna be the expectation and I think that's the right expectation to have. 20:49 Well, we've got a bunch more questions to get to here, but first, we've had some good news and some bad news in women's hockey this week. 20:56 Obviously, the good news is the women are gonna be playing in the World Championships coming up this week. 21:02 They got their nice, much better pay coming up. 21:07 But then, just this afternoon, sadly, North Dakota cut their hockey program. 21:14 Obviously, a big surprise. 21:18 I am not so happy with the way they handled it because it got leaked long before they could tell the players. 21:26 But no matter what, Vegs, a program like North Dakota shutting down the women's program is not good. 21:35 Yeah, it's not good for women's college hockey, that's for sure. 21:38 It's a program where they had gotten a lot of support, it looks like, from what I could tell based on the revenues and expenses that get released for the Title IX compliance. 21:48 But it's just a surprising move by North Dakota. 21:51 You almost wonder if it's made this way, knowing that they might spur change to save it. 21:59 I know when I was at St. 22:00 Olaf, they announced a plan to cut programs, and the next week, they had donors lined up to save these programs. 22:09 So maybe it's some sort of strategy that the school is going through to try to spur that action. 22:14 And they saw what happened with USA Hockey this week, with the boycott threatening the women's program for the World Championships, and that paid off with some moves. 22:25 Maybe they're hoping the same thing will happen for their women's hockey program. 22:29 Well, either way, Hamme, this news got out before they informed the players. 22:34 They showed players practicing out on the ice. 22:36 They had a recruit coming in today. 22:39 It's a pretty shitty way for these girls to find out, is not from the administration, but from Twitter or somewhere else. 22:46 Yeah, it's unfortunate. 22:47 I actually don't, I don't really agree with Veegs on that one, just because I'm not saying that there might not be some kind of groundswell, but I don't think it's a strategy that they're taking to actually try to make that happen. 23:00 I think it's a situation where they actually intend on doing this. 23:04 I don't see why, because you're really gonna damage the program in some respects, because the minute that you make any recruits or any players start to think like, well, is this gonna be even around throughout my four years at college and whatever, it's gonna hurt you. 23:22 And so I'm not saying that that might not happen, but I really doubt that it's a strategy that they're trying to take, because it's gonna be a damaging thing, even if it does happen to bring them back, it's not gonna be good for them, because that kind of stuff just, it's gonna hurt your perception. 23:38 And as far as whether they get informed correctly, I mean, I don't know enough about it. 23:42 Obviously you would think that the administration would be setting people down in a room and telling them before starting to draft up press releases and whatever else. 23:52 But despite the fact that some people have big job titles, doesn't mean that they're necessarily the most intelligent at times. 24:00 Well, I definitely feel bad for those girls, because it sounds like kind of a freight train just hit them and I don't think they saw it coming. 24:08 They probably saw some other sports that were gonna get cut. 24:12 I noticed Gopher State Nate was saying earlier today, maybe if they wouldn't have spent so much money trying to keep the Sioux name, maybe they'd be able to afford the women's program, Bigs. 24:25 Yeah, I mean, there's a lot of waste up there with how they're spending their athletic department budget. 24:31 But I just have this feeling that this isn't like the Alaska program, where it's drawn out over a long, long time, where there's a lot of uncertainty about the program. 24:42 This is a sudden move, and maybe it's going to spur something. 24:45 I think there's a lot of passion with people. 24:48 You even saw Gursuch tweet today, and have it have to get taken down that he was supporting the program. 24:54 I think you might see some people step up and do that. 24:58 Really, I didn't know that Gursuch were saying that. 25:01 If they're getting support by the men's team, that could get a little ugly. 25:07 Well, I think, I mean, I don't, they don't have Engelstad sitting in the wings of this throw cash at it. 25:15 So I, you know, it'll be interesting if they had something like that. 25:18 But well, they've got some pretty wealthy hockey alums like Tays and Parisi. 25:25 There's people out there who are tied to the North Dakota hockey program who could pony up some dollars to help out if they get. 25:31 I get that. 25:32 But if you're losing one, what is it? 25:34 Over a million dollars a year. 25:36 But that's with any non-revenue sport and big institutions. 25:41 They make the money with their football and hockey program to pay for these other things. 25:46 And I get that, but they don't have the money to do that. 25:49 I mean, otherwise they wouldn't cut it in the first place. 25:53 I mean, this isn't like a Big Ten school or one of the Big Five conferences that can really afford to be kind of subsidizing all these different programs or whatever. 26:04 I mean, these smaller schools don't roll in the dough like they do at a Big Ten school. 26:09 And so even if you have donors like that, it's still, at the end of the day, they're losing millions of dollars over the course of years and years of time. 26:18 And I don't know anybody who's going to be investing money on something that is going to continue to lose millions of dollars if they, I mean, these guys can throw their money at it if they want, but they're not making it back with their athletic department. 26:32 So it's kind of like, what are they going to do in the long run? 26:36 I don't see them keeping up with it. 26:37 Should they have made the jump to D1? 26:40 Well, I think it's unfortunate. 26:41 They've certainly been competitive, you know, especially after the Lamoureux Sisters or whatever the hell their names were, you know, transferred over there. 26:50 And they've got, they've had Olympians and I mean, there's a lot that they've done and they've been competitive. 26:55 So, it is unfortunate from a Women's College hockey perspective, even though we like to beat them, you know, and everything, it's unfortunate because it's not going to help the game for the female side. 27:09 I mean, North Dakota makes $25 million in annual revenue. 27:13 You know, they're not looking to slice a huge piece of that to fund a women's hockey program. 27:22 It sounds like they're poppers. 27:25 But they also wouldn't be cutting it if they weren't having some serious problems. 27:29 I mean, you don't, it's such a drastic step to cut any kind of an athletic team. 27:34 And to be doing that, obviously, you have to feel, you have to be feeling the pain. 27:40 And so, you know, I just don't see throwing more money from alums unless you're going to throw some serious, serious cash. 27:49 And I don't mean like something to kind of bandage the wound for a couple of years. 27:53 I mean, something that's going to be a significant amount. 27:55 And they're never going to make it back because women's hockey is just not going to make money. 28:03 So, you know, unless they start finding some way to make some serious cash that isn't related to what their current sports is, if there's some kind of a media way of doing it. 28:14 And let's be honest, North Dakota isn't exactly a big media market. 28:18 So I just don't see how it's going to work there. 28:22 Well, it's, you know, obviously, the school didn't really think about it too much and they just shut her down today. 28:29 So I feel mostly, you know, I feel sorry for the players and the coaches that have dedicated a lot of time and effort behind this program. 28:37 So, you know, if somebody tries to come in to save it, good for them. 28:42 But I'm kind of with Hammy. 28:43 I think it's done up there in North Dakota. 28:46 And as one of the better programs in the country, that's just not a good thing to see. 28:52 But, you know, you look at some programs, you know, you look at Michigan and Michigan State, they never created a women's program. 29:01 I think they felt it was going to be losing proposition from the beginning. 29:05 So they just never went ahead and did it. 29:09 Unfortunately, it's just how it goes, I guess. 29:12 You know, everyone's cutting budgets. 29:14 Their budgets are getting cut. 29:15 You know, the money is much tighter than it used to be. 29:19 And it's just kind of the way it goes, guys. 29:22 Well, maybe Brock Besser and Tyson, what is it, Jost or whatever, those guys can throw some money at it now that they're pros. 29:32 We shall see. 29:34 Because, you know, you know, you know, Mr. 29:37 Besser. 29:39 I saw that clip the other day, just cracked me up. 29:41 It says, you know, 44 times in three minutes. 29:46 Yikes. 29:49 Yikes. 29:50 All right, guys, we've got a bunch more questions here from Twitter. 29:53 Let's just go right to the top here. 29:56 Brian wants to know, who do you think will be the captains next year? 29:59 Let's start with you, Veegs. 30:02 Who's kind of the obvious pick for captains? 30:05 It's so hard to tell what the leadership is like in the room, especially when you have strong veterans like Bischoff and Kluess who were right up front as the leaders. 30:17 You get the sense that Ryan Lindgren is a respected individual in the locker room. 30:22 Outside of that, it's really hard to tell because this team was so dominated by the leadership that they had the last two years. 30:29 So I'll be interested to see what the team decides. 30:33 I know they typically don't release that until later in the summer in situations like this. 30:38 You know, the coaches want to see who the leaders are in off-season workouts before naming anybody. 30:45 What do you think about Sheehee, Hammeh? 30:50 You know, I don't think he would be a bad choice. 30:52 Obviously, he's one of the best players on the team, but you never know with the intangibles that some of the players bring to the table. 31:01 It's really hard. 31:02 I mean, it's about respect from your teammates. 31:04 And so, you know, I really don't know. 31:08 I don't really see anybody who's very young that, you know, I think it would probably be an upperclassman. 31:15 You know, but I really don't know. 31:17 I mean, I think it was a little bit easier with the senior class to kind of know who was going to be amongst the leaders. 31:25 But I think, like Vig said, because they were such a strong class, they didn't necessarily, they weren't necessarily asked to play that role. 31:33 And so I think it'll be interesting to see. 31:36 I think it'll be something that's developed over the next handful of months, you know, on off-season workouts and who's going to kind of take the lead and kind of be the player, too, that's going to really push the guys to excel, you know, when it's dry land, you know, training and all that stuff. 31:51 So I think that's when we'll find out. 31:55 Taylor Kearns wants to know if there is a coaching move, who are your top three candidates? 32:03 What do you think, Veegs? 32:04 I don't think there will be a coaching move, but who would you like to see lead the team if there were to be a change? 32:11 Besides the obvious in Gensl. 32:14 Well, I mean, that's my obvious choice, I would like to see Gensl get a shot. 32:18 You know, he's done such a good job for the program. 32:21 When I did my story on him last year, all the players who are alums spoke very highly of him and thought he deserved a chance to be the head coach. 32:30 They thought he'd do a very good job. 32:32 So I'm really not one to speculate behind that one. 32:37 I think he'd be a great individual for the job. 32:39 He would put a lot of passion into it. 32:42 Hammy, anyone besides Gensl peak your interest? 32:48 Oh, you know, I haven't given a tremendous amount of thought in that sense. 32:56 I think it's going to be a case where it's going to be a few of the hot names at the time. 33:02 I mean, whenever that might be, if it's next year, you know, I think that obviously they'll go, Gensl will get a very strong look. 33:12 I think that they'll probably look at some of the other guys that have Minnesota ties, whether they're in the pro ranks or not. 33:19 And I think that, you know, obviously they'll, I think it's one of those things where it's going to be a wide net and a lot of feelers put out to see. 33:27 And you know, it's going to be just like it is for college football or some of the other sports where you kind of have like your small list of names that are kind of your wish list. 33:38 And you make those conversations. 33:40 And I think for the Gophers and hockey, of course, there's certainly going to be a lot of people on their wish list that are going to give serious consideration of that because it's one, you know, it's the highest paying gig and it's or one of the highest paying gig that will be whoever is hired next will be the highest paid coach, which I have no doubt about that. 34:00 And obviously there's a lot of great benefits to being coach at the U. 34:05 You have your pick of a lot of players in the key areas of the state. 34:10 So it's a nice job to have. 34:13 And I'm sure that they'll have a lot of great choices to talk to. 34:18 And I think by the end of next season, they're going to have their facilities done as well for not only their team areas, but their strength and condition areas. 34:26 Because that's something that's going to probably happen next fall. 34:31 Once they get through their summer workouts, they'll start the improvements. 34:34 And that's going to help them a lot, kind of get the program back on par with their competitors in Wisconsin, North Dakota, for recruits in the area. 34:45 Personally, I think Gensel is the obvious choice. 34:48 And the reason being is that one of the struggles that really Lucia has had in his tenure is, unfortunately, he's just not liked very much by his former players. 35:03 So trying to get those former players, NHL players, and more prestigious guys to come in and make donations to help improve the program has become a difficult task because they're just not big fans of Lucia. 35:18 Lucia might be a good coach, but they're just not very fond of him. 35:23 Whereas, when you hear about Gensel, you hear nothing but good things in how dedicated and how much they like him. 35:31 I'll never forget when John Pole was on the radio talking about Mike Gensel when Gensel left. 35:38 And obviously Gensel was coaching the defense, but Pole could not say enough positive things in how much of a loss that was when they lost him as an assistant back a few years ago. 35:49 So, I think it should be Gensel. 35:54 I think it would help improve the staleness of the program and also help just get those older players back in and involved in the program, whether it's donating or just supporting the team, because we just haven't seen much of that in the last 10, 15 years. 36:11 Well, you listen to Jordan Leopold on Beyond the Pond, and you almost feel like he went to Wisconsin the way he talks about Minnesota sometimes. 36:21 And I think Gensel would change that perception. 36:23 He would put a little bit more passion. 36:24 I think Lucia has earned the right to pick his exit. 36:28 He's one of the winningest coaches in college hockey history, the winningest coach in Minnesota. 36:32 Next year, with the Frozen Four being at Excel, Casey Middlestad coming in, it could be a great way for him to ease out with a championship, or at least a Frozen Four appearance. 36:44 But it would be great for the program to get that energy from Gensel. 36:48 Well, speaking of Middlestad, we had Bed Gorman asking a question similar to that. 36:52 He goes, with Middlestad on board and the Frozen Four in St. 36:56 Paul next year, is it unreasonable to think national title run, Hammy? 37:03 Well, I mean, I said this on GPL, to me, it's going to depend a lot on what we see out of development from that defensive group. 37:12 Some of those young guys, Sadik and Lindgren and Zulsdorf, I think some of those guys are going to be counted on to take that next step from an offensive defenseman perspective, because Collins isn't really that type, Glover is not going to really be that type. 37:28 Johnson was brought in to be kind of that type, but he hasn't really shown enough of that yet. 37:34 So some of these guys are going to be counted on to have to step up. 37:37 And to me, that's going to be the key of the off season, is if some of those guys have great off seasons and really take a nice step forward in their development, then there is a good chance for that, because I think offensively we're going to be strong again, because I think that we see what we lost, but I think we are bringing back a lot of good players. 37:59 I think some of the young guys will step it up, and I certainly think Middlestad will be an immediate impact kind of a guy, and so will a couple of the other recruits. 38:07 So I think that that's good. 38:09 I think, excuse me, on goaltending, Shearhorn will have some, finally, some competition, and I think that that will certainly improve the goaltending and pushing those guys. 38:21 So I feel pretty good about what we have up front and what we have in goal, but it's going to matter, ultimately. 38:27 I think it's going to be the defensive group that is going to dictate how far this team goes next year. 38:33 Now, is that competition the Robson kid? 38:35 Because I see a question from Zach Wohl here saying, is Robson expected to compete with Shearhorn for starts next season? 38:44 Definitely, I think he will. 38:46 I mean, if you look at how he's played, and the BCHL has always been kind of a league where you question some of the offensive numbers, but one of the things that they've, I think, generally done over time is they've provided a lot of good goalies for college hockey. 39:00 And you look at this kid's statistics this year, and his performance has been very good. 39:07 So there's no doubt that they're bringing him in with the idea that he's going to, you know, seriously push for starting opportunities. 39:14 And I would imagine that he's going to get a decent chunk of the starting opportunities next year when he comes in. 39:20 That's not going to be all Sheerhorn like it was this year. 39:23 I have no doubt about that. 39:26 One thing about Robson is he's 6'3, so he's a little bit bigger, prototypical goalie than Sheerhorn is. 39:32 Sheerhorn's more of an athletic, you know, read the play, challenge the shooter kind of goalie. 39:37 I think Robson's going to be a little bit more of a technique sound guy. 39:43 OK, well, let's kind of go into expectations for next year. 39:47 I mean, that's what Taylor Kearns, that's kind of what his follow up question was. 39:51 What are the expectations for next year, Hammeh? 39:54 I mean, this should be another decent team, but we should be expecting another step up, don't you think? 40:02 Well, I mean, obviously, the asterisk you're putting there is, you know, depending on who returns, and if we think that everybody's going to return, I think it's going to be a pretty good team. 40:11 I mean, up front, I do think we have, you know, our top six is going to be potent. 40:16 I think getting Novak back, I think he'll be healthy. 40:20 I think you add Middlestad, you add, you know, Reedy and McManus, some of these recruits, I think, are going to be good recruits. 40:29 I think people pay a little bit too much attention to statistics, and sometimes that's misleading. 40:34 I mean, we saw how Cammie was, you know, and that didn't really pan out, but then you have other guys that maybe didn't have the greatest numbers and juniors that maybe surprised you a little bit more. 40:44 And so, not that some of our recruits don't have good numbers, but it's just a matter of, you have to kind of put things in a perspective and the opportunities they get and so on and so forth. 40:55 So I think that got some good players coming in, got some good players returning. 41:01 Just, I really believe it's going to come down to what the defensive group does, you know, the returning guys and how much they step it up and improve in the offseason. 41:10 I think that's really going to be the key. 41:12 Expectations, Veegs? 41:15 Frozen for a bust. 41:17 I think Amy is sitting right on the head, though. 41:19 The defensive improvement is going to have to come with the guys already on the roster and Tyler Nani stepping into a role. 41:26 Konepki isn't really much of an offensive guy for the development team program. 41:31 So you're going to look at Glover, Nani, Sadek, Zulstorf having to take leaps in their game. 41:39 Because I think that is the one part that was missing this year with the program was those dynamic defensemen who could turn a three on three into a four on three. 41:47 And you just didn't see that a lot this year. 41:50 You know, even Bishop is not really a guy who's going to jump up in the rush like that. 41:55 I think Lindgren got one of his few goals by doing that. 41:59 So having these young guys pick their spots and be able to do that next year, I think is the key from making this team, you know, an NCAA tournament bid team to a contender for a championship. 42:12 Yes, but will they be able to get to a frozen four if there's no regional here in Minnesota? 42:19 Well, it sounds like there's going to be a regional in Sioux Falls. 42:22 We'll find out the bids here in about two weeks. 42:25 So Sioux Falls could be a destination a little bit farther away from Fargo, so it could be a more even crowd, hopefully. 42:33 Who's trying to host that? 42:34 Is that Omaha or is it North Dakota? 42:39 I'm not sure who they got as their partner for it, but I know Sioux Falls is very confident that they're going to get one of the regionals. 42:47 The bidding process this year was pretty cloudy. 42:51 They didn't do public bids like they've done in the past, where they put the requirements out there. 42:56 And you heard Lucia talk about it going in the tournament this year, is he's in favor of having the home teams host the first round. 43:03 And while that's not necessarily the favorite to happen, it is something that a lot of coaches would like, that reward for being one of the top eight teams at the end of the year and getting that first round at home. 43:16 So it is a possibility that could come back. 43:19 That's why the bids in the regions aren't set for the next couple of years, just the frozen fours. 43:25 Yep, I believe sometime in mid-April we will find out what the next four, frozen four sites and probably at least one more year of regionals. 43:33 We are not really sure yet, so we will have to see. 43:37 More Twitter questions. 43:39 Josh Kreitzer wants to know, do you think the team is struggling as much in second periods this year? 43:45 What do you think of that? 43:46 It seems like it was the worst period for them, Hammeh. 43:50 Why such a struggle in the second period this year? 43:52 What is going on? 43:54 I don't know. 43:55 It could be the other teams are doing a good job making that adjustment at that point. 44:01 It could be that some of the team just didn't know how to handle success very well. 44:08 There's a combination of possibilities. 44:11 Maybe psychologically you let up a little bit when you had a really good start. 44:16 I think it's fair to say they didn't show that they can handle success very well at times. 44:22 I mean, they were fortunate that they in many instances would come back and win games or, you know, so. 44:30 But yeah, definitely it's a mystery. 44:33 I mean, you really don't know it's going to be a combination of things, but I don't think it's any one factor. 44:38 Why so bad, Veegs? 44:40 Do you have any clue? 44:42 Well, I think a little bit is that the team had trouble making that first pass and exit out of their zone. 44:49 And there were so many situations in the second period where they had struggled to get out of the zone. 44:55 And then as soon as they did, they were trying to get off too quick. 44:58 You know, you need that F1 to stay out there and prevent the quick up coming back at you as you make a change. 45:04 And time and time again, that bit them. 45:07 So I think you need the defense. 45:11 Saturday afternoon, it really bit them. 45:13 Well, it bit them a lot all season. 45:15 And that's a reason why their second periods were so bad is they just had a lot of situations this year where they didn't break out smoothly. 45:23 And I know a lot of that's on the wings, you know, losing battles along the wall when they get that first pass and not being able to transition out smoothly. 45:31 Some of the other centers in the lineup not starting out low enough in the zone. 45:36 You know, that's one of the things that's really underrated about Justin Cluse's game is he starts out, you know, bottom of the circles and gives himself plenty of space to get up to speed. 45:45 And when they break in the neutral zone, they're flying. 45:48 You didn't see that so much with the other centers in the lineup. 45:51 So I think that hurt them a little bit as well. 45:56 Non-Gap, kind of a strange name, wants to know, seems like the East Coast is producing much more high-end youth talent than here in Minnesota. 46:06 Is Minnesota falling behind? 46:08 Veegs? 46:11 I don't think they're falling behind because look at Middlestad. 46:13 He's going to be a top 10 pick this year. 46:16 I think the one thing that's happening with hockey is it's growing. 46:19 It's not as regional as it used to be. 46:22 You've got guys like Auster Matthews who come out of Arizona. 46:25 There are just more good college hockey players being developed these days. 46:30 And so I think that's more of it than anything. 46:34 And Minnesota hasn't produced a ton of talented forwards. 46:37 Most of their talent has been defensemen the last decade or so. 46:42 So I think that factors into it as well. 46:43 Those guys aren't going to be as flashy in statistics. 46:46 There aren't too many defensemen winning homey-makers these days. 46:50 Well, maybe it's just an East Coast biased, huh, Hammeh? 46:54 No, I mean, look, the reality is that it's just one of those things where you're going to have various years. 47:02 It's going to ebb and flow. 47:03 I mean, some birth years are going to be really strong in your state. 47:06 Some aren't going to be as strong. 47:08 I mean, we only had, for instance, five guys from Minnesota that went off to the National Team Development Program camp. 47:16 And so, I mean, it wasn't like a banner year in that respect for Minnesota. 47:21 So, I mean, but other years, you know, you have twice that many guys, you know. 47:25 So, I mean, I don't think it's going to be, you can't take one snapshot in time and say it's this or that or whatever. 47:31 It's definitely going to be a situation where, you know, Minnesota, generally speaking, is going to be one of the top talent producers, even with the game expanding. 47:42 And, but there's going to be certain birth years that aren't going to be as good as other years. 47:46 And, you know, I think that some of those Eastern schools did a good job recruiting. 47:53 You see like a BU, for instance, I mean, they got some Minnesota kids on that team. 47:57 So, I don't think it's anything having to do with any kind of regional talent base. 48:02 I just like it's, you know, sometimes it's going to be an Eastern team, sometimes it's not going to be so much that. 48:07 So. 48:09 Tyler wants to know, you guys think there's anything to the Mr. 48:13 Hockey finalist list and only one of them committed to the U. 48:19 Ami, is there anything to that list and there, should we be concerned that only one of them is coming to the U? 48:26 No. 48:27 There you go. 48:29 I mean, the reality is this isn't 20, 25 years ago where everybody pretty much stayed home with very few exceptions. 48:37 If you looked at the Mr. 48:38 Hockey finalist list from 20 or 25 years ago, it was like a who's who of guys who went on to be really, really good players. 48:48 Nowadays, I mean, a lot of guys, you have guys going off to the national team or USHL. 48:55 In some instances, they might even be going to another junior league. 48:58 And so I don't really see it. 49:02 I mean, if you really think about it, Middlestad, he could have played at USHL this year. 49:07 He could have, I mean, hell, he could have played for the Gophers. 49:10 They were trying to get them to play at the U. 49:13 So I don't really think it has anything to do with that at all. 49:16 I just think some years, you have more of your recruits staying home to play college hockey than others. 49:21 And it's not like it was 20 years ago where pretty much all your recruits, from a Gopher perspective, were just going to stay in high school hockey and you would have half the finalists being Gopher recruits. 49:37 Well, obviously, the season's come to an end here, guys. 49:43 Boy, 100 and almost 120 days until the season starts again, so we got our six months off, but we kick off the season with, I believe, the icebreaker tournament up in Duluth in the first weekend of October. 49:56 So we've got that to look forward to. 49:59 And Veegs, are you going to try to attend that? 50:02 Yeah, I'm going to try to make it up for the weekend. 50:04 I hope the snow isn't flying yet in Duluth, so I can do a couple of rounds in at Northland Country Club while I'm up there. 50:11 I have a friend who's a member, so hopefully we're still friends in October. 50:16 And as far as we know, the schedule is set already. 50:20 I mean, well, we don't know the exact dates yet, but we do know that the future schedule is full next year. 50:27 We're not waiting on anything. 50:30 You know, we've got, let me say we've got, you know, we've got UMD, Michigan Tech and Union up the icebreaker. 50:36 You know, we've got a series with UND, Clarkson, a home and home with St. 50:40 Cloud, a home and home with Mankato, the Classic, and then we've got obviously another team coming into the Big Ten next year. 50:47 So instead of 20 games, we've got 24 games. 50:50 So it's a full schedule next year, Hammeh. 50:54 Yeah, I mean, one of the things that, you know, I mentioned when we made the conference changes that I was going to like was, you know, some of the flexibility and the non-conference scheduling. 51:04 And obviously when you start to add a team to the mix, there's four less non-conference games that you're going to have an opportunity to play. 51:12 So, you know, they're still going to get more opportunities than they used to, but it's shrinking a little bit. 51:17 And it'll be interesting if they add any other teams down the road, but we know they won't be next year. 51:23 So, but I'm excited, you know, I think we saw a big improvement in the Big Ten this year. 51:29 Wisconsin stepping up. 51:31 I think Ohio State showed flashes. 51:34 Penn State certainly was a good team throughout most of the year. 51:38 And they're heading the right direction. 51:39 You add Notre Dame. 51:41 The Gophers are pretty strong. 51:42 You know, Michigan, I don't know what's going to happen there with the coaching situation, but, you know, they're certainly a program that's capable of rebounding quickly. 51:51 And Michigan State will see who, you know, they end up, you know, with the entire staff and what they bring to the table. 51:59 So I think there's a lot to look forward to, and I think it'll be an interesting season next year. 52:05 Any thoughts on that, Veegs? 52:06 You know, our future schedule is pretty full next year. 52:08 That's looking like a pretty good schedule to me. 52:12 Yeah, I'm pleased to see that they're going to be an icebreaker. 52:15 And with North Dakota on the schedule, it should be fun. 52:18 And I'm glad to see that they still have the home and homes of St. 52:21 Cloud and Minnesota State. 52:23 I think the Big Ten will be interesting next year. 52:26 You know, Michigan is going to be better. 52:27 We'll see what happens with Red and the coaching job there. 52:32 But Michigan State finally has made a move for their coaching staff. 52:35 So hopefully that program can turn around. 52:38 I think the Big Ten is going to get better. 52:41 We'll see what happens with the atmosphere at Mariucci next year. 52:44 I think that's going to be an important thing for Mark Coyle to take a look at. 52:48 You're seeing the energy that they are putting into their football program right now with PJ Fleck. 52:53 Really engaged in the community, having open practices, making a lot of rounds around businesses and events in the Twin Cities. 53:01 You saw some of that last year with Gopher Hockey, getting more involved with their season ticket holders and providing an extra benefit to them. 53:08 So I think we're going to see some new things that develop some atmosphere at the rink. 53:13 It's going to be an elite atmosphere. 53:15 Oh boy, I just saw Vegoe use that word on a tweet and I'm already pissed off. 53:21 Hey, do you want to do elite things? 53:24 Surround yourself with elite people. 53:25 Oh jeez, elite this, elite that, I'm already bored with elite. 53:30 You want to go to the garbage dump? 53:31 Hang out with garbage. 53:34 Elite garbage? 53:37 Go to elite garbage dump then, is that any better? 53:40 I don't know, I'm just getting a little sick of the elite being shoved on our throat. 53:44 Win some games first, then we'll start calling you elite. 53:47 Hey, as soon as he starts winning games, you're going to be going on elite. 53:52 I'm not going to be using the word elite, sorry. 53:55 Not going to be me. 53:57 Not going to happen, boys. 53:59 Oh well. 54:00 Well, it was another good season for the podcast, don't you think, guys? 54:05 Oh, you're okay, host. 54:08 I suppose. 54:09 Oh jeez. 54:10 Well, I don't know. 54:11 Nate Wells just says, I fired Jupe. 54:15 Well, thanks, Nate. 54:16 Appreciate that. 54:19 Congrats on a show where you didn't hit mute and start talking. 54:23 Wow. 54:24 Well, I'm sorry. 54:25 They've got a nice actual broadcast studio that they get to use. 54:29 But they actually have to drive in the KSTP and do it, and we can just do it from our home. 54:33 So don't think that's going to change because this is a lot more convenient. 54:38 We do it live. 54:38 Why don't you start doing it live, Nate? 54:43 We're just having fun with you, Nate. 54:44 We'll get you on early next year. 54:45 Flubs and all. 54:46 Yeah, flubs and all. 54:47 Swear words. 54:48 We'll drop an F-bomb once in a while here, though I got me in trouble once. 54:53 We were much better behaved this year. 54:57 Speaking personally, I think I was better behaved. 54:59 Well, it was a better season too. 55:01 I didn't really curse anybody out for a player. 55:04 Yeah, but I was better this year. 55:08 As our attitude goes, the team usually goes, so. 55:14 You were going to say something, Veegs? 55:15 We know it's not your predictions. 55:17 My predictions suck, and I don't care. 55:18 Because every week, it's sweeping, and it doesn't happen, so. 55:22 Well, I... 55:24 Okay, whatever. 55:26 Were you going to say something, Veegs? 55:28 Well, the Gophers played better. 55:29 They were in the top 16 of the pairwise the entire season and ended up with the number one seed. 55:34 And as much as people want to bitch about what's going on with the program, pretty successful to win all those conference titles consecutively. 55:44 Yeah, they had six in a row, and they'll be going for seven next season. 55:49 We want to thank you for listening to our podcast, you know. 55:52 A lot of you loyal listeners and people listening live every week, and we'll be back next fall, probably the week before, or the Wednesday before they start the icebreaker in early October there. 56:06 So, we appreciate you guys listening. 56:07 You guys got anything else left to say, Hammeh? 56:11 No, I'm looking forward to the off season, get a little bit of a breather, get our wind back, and start up again next year. 56:19 I think it'll be a good season. 56:20 So, I'm looking forward to it, but yes, I need a little golf course time, a little sun. 56:25 I'm guessing you need the same, don't you, Veegs? 56:29 Yep, I'm looking forward to the Les Boulstead course opening on Friday, and I hope to get out there soon. 56:34 Before the Frozen 4, I'll post an article here, hopefully, on the scan ticket data and on some coaching contracts and cross-college hockey. 56:42 I was kind of wondering if you were going to be doing that, because I know there was some quite a few games where scan tickets was extremely low this season. 56:50 So, I will be interested to see that. 56:53 They have 10 more days to respond to my request before they break their. 56:58 Legal responsibilities. 57:00 I'm sure they'll get back to you. 57:02 They always do, don't they? 57:03 They don't like it, but they do. 57:04 So, well, that's it for this season for The GPL Podcast. 57:10 Obviously, it didn't end the way we wanted to for our team, but next year is just 100 and however many days, 119 days away or something like that. 57:19 So, we thank you for listening. 57:22 We'll be back sometime in October. 57:24 Thanks for listening.