0:08
This is The GPL Podcast, sponsored by Vintage Minnesota Hockey, your exclusive source for throwback Minnesota jerseys.
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Visit vintagemnhockey.com.
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Thank.
0:31
Now, here's Cami, Vegoe and your host, Jupiter.
0:45
Good evening, and welcome to the GPL Podcast, episode number 136.
0:53
Well, we're short hammy tonight.
0:55
He's doing some business stuff.
0:56
He may join us later, but we've got Vego as always, and we got a special guest, just like last year when we played North Dakota.
1:04
We've got Brad Schlossman on from the Grand Forks Herald.
1:08
Brad, how you doing?
1:10
Doing fantastic.
1:11
I'm in Vegas, so of course.
1:15
Yeah, it must be nice.
1:17
Veegs, how you doing?
1:19
I'm doing well.
1:20
I'm looking forward to get some Gopher College Hockey action back on the agenda.
1:24
It's, you know, it has been a weird October.
1:27
We've been off for a couple of weeks here, Brad, because we have nothing to talk about.
1:30
I mean.
1:33
Yeah, it is weird.
1:34
I mean, when you start off with a series against Duluth, which is great, and then two weeks of single games against exhibition games that just mean nothing in the long run.
1:46
So it's, it's tough.
1:48
I mean, and now we have, you know, it's great that we're playing North Dakota again, but again, it's only another one game series.
1:54
So for Minnesota, it's, it's just a weird October.
1:59
Yeah, and this is just kind of the schedule that the coaching staff was left with when they took over.
2:03
You know, scheduling in college hockey is getting more and more difficult, it seems like.
2:09
And Minnesota wasn't able to, you know, get games on the schedule.
2:13
And they were lucky to get the Trinity Western and development team on the schedule as is.
2:19
You know, when they took over, you know, these were just two bye weeks.
2:23
So it was good that, you know, they were actually able to get something on the calendar because Matzka was talking about how, you know, the week ahead of the Trinity Western game, you know, it was hard to get the guy's attention.
2:35
And, you know, not much to play for.
2:38
And then on Monday, you know, when they're playing the green team from North Dakota, everybody's ears perked up.
2:44
I bet they did.
2:46
But you know, Brad, you know, North Dakota is kind of similar.
2:49
You guys have two exhibition games this year as well, don't you?
2:53
Yeah.
2:54
But you know, they had an exhibition game and then they got into the season.
2:58
Yeah, that's different.
3:00
That's kind of more routine because of course, everyone loves the first exhibition game because it's your first champion.
3:05
Yeah.
3:05
And it's to see everyone together and you've never seen the freshmen.
3:08
And then all of a sudden you get into the season.
3:09
There was one year where North Dakota did exhibition one week, exhibition the next, and then it got in.
3:15
And that was like, okay, first exhibition's great.
3:17
We got to see them.
3:18
And then the second one's like, oh yeah.
3:21
We're still not in regular season action.
3:23
So I know exactly what that's like for that second exhibition game.
3:28
You're like, okay, let's just see some real action here.
3:31
Yeah, it's tough.
3:33
I mean, Minnesota this year, and like you said, Veegs, it was kind of something a little bit out of the control.
3:37
They got lucky that they could squeeze Trinity in there.
3:40
And at least Minnesota did have some good success in these two exhibition games.
3:44
They played pretty well against both teams.
3:46
Do you have any thoughts on those two exhibitions that you know about?
3:50
I just wouldn't expect to see them score seven goals on Saturday.
3:55
True.
3:56
They've shown off some offense the last couple of games.
3:59
One of them is against Duluth in there.
4:02
And that's nice to see, you know, after last year where offense was such a struggle for this team to generate.
4:07
I think, you know, they're getting the freshmen going.
4:11
They rested some of the upperclassmen as the games went on.
4:15
It's good to see McLaughlin healthy and skating.
4:19
You know, he suffered that lower body injury on the first day of practice and just fell behind.
4:25
You know, he looked pretty good in the last game.
4:27
And what I've seen in practice, you know, he looks like he's got pretty good jumps and, you know, his vision and hands and playmaking is really his strength.
4:36
It's not so much speed.
4:38
I think if you had someone like Walker who picked up a lower body injury, it'd impact his game a little bit more.
4:44
But it'll be interesting.
4:45
They've got some depth now to work with as they get into the season.
4:49
Now you look on the opposite end and in Grand Forks, you guys had Minnesota State come up and play you last week.
4:54
And tell us about that, Brad.
4:59
Offense was not a problem for either team in that game.
5:03
It's been a weird season because the first week in North Dakota goes and plays Bemidji State and scores two goals.
5:12
And the biggest question mark before the season was probably offense.
5:15
And then all of a sudden you're thinking, okay, this could be a real issue.
5:19
And then they play Minnesota State and score eight goals on the weekend.
5:22
And it was the defense that gave up 10.
5:26
The previous weekend, they gave up only three, now they give up 10.
5:29
So it's almost like it's still too early in the season to know exactly what North Dakota is at this point, I think.
5:37
Oh boy, but it didn't take much for the fans.
5:40
I mean, as typical every year, if North Dakota is not winning every single game early in the year, it's always fire the coach.
5:49
It happens every single year.
5:51
I mean, typically North Dakota starts a little slow, not always, but it's pretty typical.
5:56
And then they just get better and better and better.
5:59
And you see a lot of fans just wanting to jump off a cliff almost every October.
6:06
Yeah, it's something.
6:08
It seems that some of the fans don't learn that very quickly.
6:15
I think sometimes at big programs, and I'm sure in Minnesota too, just some of the overreactions that go on based on one game.
6:24
But I just think it's way too early to know what this team is.
6:29
And on top of that, I think it's a team that probably would start slow.
6:35
They've got a lot of new pieces up front.
6:38
It's moving into some guys into new roles, and they're a team that's going to rely on their rookies to score a little bit.
6:43
And those type of teams usually start a little bit slower than others.
6:46
So I'm not terribly shocked by it.
6:50
And playing Minnesota State is a really good team.
6:53
Now they play Minnesota.
6:54
Then they play Wisconsin.
6:55
So it's not an easy start to the schedule.
6:58
A lot of good rivals.
7:00
One of the things I wanted to ask Brad about was the penalty kill for North Dakota.
7:05
One of their calling cards is a hyper aggressive penalty kill unit.
7:10
Usually when teams are coming through the neutral zone, they get choked off pretty quick.
7:15
And even on the dump-ins, they get beat to pucks.
7:18
The Mavericks got four power play goals last weekend.
7:22
What are you seeing with that unit?
7:24
Is it just a lot of new guys that they're trying to get into that special teams?
7:29
I actually think, like you said, they were really good in the neutral zone.
7:34
Once they got that first clear, they did a really good job keeping the Mavericks from setting up again.
7:42
They bottled them up at the line.
7:45
They retrieved pucks really well.
7:46
A lot of their goals came off of initial face-off wins.
7:52
Offhand, I know for sure, two of them were, they won the initial draw and they scored without getting a clear.
8:00
Another one was a five-minute power play and they got one.
8:06
I think that's been the key.
8:08
North Dakota is a very good face-off team.
8:10
It has been for the last several years.
8:14
It's not usual for them to lose a bunch of draws.
8:17
They really didn't, but they lost some key ones.
8:19
I think that initial face-off win on the power play is a huge thing for them.
8:25
When we asked Motzko about scouting a report for North Dakota, he was saying when he was watching film, you'd notice things that happened in the game, and he'd dismiss it as, well, it's pretty early in the season.
8:37
They'll get that fixed up by the time they play us.
8:39
I just wonder if that's the part of the problems with them on the face-off intensity.
8:45
Ford is sagging back to the net and not keeping their heads on swivels.
8:50
I know that that penalty kill has always been a challenge for Minnesota to play against because Minnesota is used to the big ice and all the extra space.
8:59
Then you play North Dakota and it feels like there's no space coming up the ice.
9:03
Yeah, I think if you...
9:06
I would have to research this, but I want to say that last year their penalty kill really struggled for the first month-plus of the season.
9:14
Then after that, they really got dialed in on that.
9:18
That would be something I'd have to go back and look.
9:22
Certainly, one of their biggest strengths is how they play in the neutral zone.
9:25
If they get that first clear, they've been really good.
9:28
What they need to improve on is defending once the other team has got it all set up.
9:36
Great stuff there.
9:38
I just like listening to you two talk Xs and Os there.
9:42
One thing, Brad, that you've been doing the past, well, for a long time is following the development of the NCHC.
9:50
Gosh, I'm having a hard time talking tonight.
9:52
You just recently did a multi-part series about the formation of this whole thing.
9:57
Tell some of us, our listeners, how that all came together and how it all came about for you.
10:04
Yeah, I thought since it's had five years under its belt now, basically all the athletic directors have retired.
10:14
I think Trev Alberts is the only one still at his school.
10:17
They've either retired or moved on.
10:20
And so I kind of thought, now that they're gone, they might speak a little more openly about what was going on behind the scenes.
10:26
That's kind of been the genius of ESPN's 30 for 30s.
10:31
Once you get beyond that initial stage, people are more willing to go back and tell you what was really happening.
10:38
And I thought, let's give it a try.
10:40
And the 80s were fantastic in telling me everything that happened.
10:45
And basically, not basically, everything I wrote about, I had multiple people telling me the same thing.
10:53
If I only had one person telling me something, I didn't go with it.
10:56
So I had a lot of the same thing.
11:00
So it was just interesting how what I found the most interesting was how far back the initial conversations went.
11:08
The very first meeting was actually two weeks before the Big Ten was announced.
11:13
Clearly, by that point, they knew the Big Ten.
11:16
Everyone knew the Big Ten was happening.
11:19
By that point.
11:20
And there was significant concern.
11:23
And Miami and Denver were the first two teams to talk about it.
11:29
They brought in North Dakota and Notre Dame.
11:32
And that was the first talk.
11:33
They really kind of just threw things out of the wall.
11:36
Nothing was really decided.
11:37
They just kind of went from there.
11:40
They met in person.
11:41
And then, of course, the other interesting thing was what happened at the meetings.
11:48
Down in Florida, where they were pretty contentious.
11:51
To say the least.
11:53
There was a lot of cursing at each other.
11:56
And at the end, I think that basically, from what I was told, that was kind of the straw that broke the camel's back.
12:09
Before then, they had had a meeting.
12:11
But once they went in there, there was still a chance to save what had been the setup of the WCHA.
12:20
And it just totally dissolved.
12:24
I think one of the ADs said, by pushing at that meeting, all the dysfunction in the league came out.
12:34
And that was it.
12:38
And after that, they went and started planning it.
12:40
And that was what end of April.
12:42
And by July, it was a done deal.
12:44
So that's kind of how it came together.
12:47
And obviously, it was a response to the Big Ten.
12:52
That was a significant concern and something they brought up at these meetings.
12:59
They knew that the Big Ten was going to be proactive in the way it sold its product.
13:03
It had a big name behind it.
13:05
It had big schools behind it.
13:07
And there was really two factions in the WCHA.
13:12
There were the big schools and the smaller schools.
13:15
And what I have been told many times is that oftentimes the big schools voted to spend more money and do more things.
13:22
And the small schools were, you know, for understandable reasons from their perspective, they needed to save money.
13:30
And with Minnesota and Wisconsin pulling out of the league, all of a sudden, they were shifted to the smaller schools.
13:38
And it wasn't said outright, but one of the A.D.s told me it was insinuated by some of the smaller schools that, hey, maybe it's not so bad that we lost Minnesota and Wisconsin.
13:50
And some of the other A.D.s were saying, no, this is really, really bad.
13:54
We need to do something about this.
13:58
And I think someone said, Bruce McLeod said, we'll be fine.
14:06
We'll find ways to recover the revenue.
14:08
And Brian Faison stood up and said, how?
14:11
Because I don't see it.
14:14
And so there was a lot of contentious moments.
14:17
And all of a sudden, there we have it.
14:21
NCHC is born out of that.
14:24
I thought one of the interesting things that came out of that was that Notre Dame was so involved right from the beginning.
14:31
How close do you think they were to actually joining the NCHC?
14:35
Because they ended up in Hockey East, which was not a good place for them.
14:40
Yeah, that was really interesting.
14:42
And how involved not only they were from the beginning, but all the way till the end.
14:46
They were at every one of those meetings all the way until when even when they signed their letters of agreement.
14:52
Notre Dame was there.
14:54
So they were there.
14:56
But they never really got over the Notre Dame wanted to control the TV deal in the league.
15:02
The NCHC schools didn't want to.
15:04
Multiple ADs told me that the big thing was at this at that time, there was a fracturing college football conferences.
15:16
The Big 12, especially.
15:17
There was a lot of heat over the Longhorn deal.
15:20
And Texas kind of controlling the TV rights in that league.
15:25
And that led to all of a sudden, boom, you see Missouri gone, you see Nebraska gone, and that league fractured a bit.
15:32
And they said, you know, we've got to not put any teams ahead of the league.
15:40
And, you know, Ken Ralph was one of them and Trev Alberts was another said, Hey, I give a lot of credit to Brian Faison.
15:46
North Dakota was the most profitable and powerful school in our league.
15:51
And Brian put that aside and said, No, you know, we're we're all equals, so to speak.
15:57
And Notre Dame just, you know, they wanted their TV deal and they said, Hey, that's that's not the principles of our league.
16:06
And that's not going to work.
16:09
I can't remember if I got this in the story or not.
16:13
But Ken Ralph was he told me he was at a women's soccer game when he was the 80s.
16:19
See, and he got a call from Notre Dame.
16:21
I talked to him for a long time and not a long time to talk to him.
16:25
And maybe OK, now I'm confusing these things.
16:29
Maybe he wasn't on the soccer field.
16:30
But I did too many interviews.
16:32
No, but he talked to Notre Dame and they called and they gave Notre Dame a deadline and said, This is your deadline.
16:38
Make a decision.
16:39
And they called and asked for an extension and the NCHC said no.
16:44
And then I think it was just within days.
16:48
They were in the hockey East.
16:51
I'm just kind of interested because, you know, that just does it die on that hill of TV rights?
16:57
You know, how is that working out for the league now?
17:00
It seems like a lot of the teams have their own TV deals.
17:03
You know, there are the games that are on the CBS cable station.
17:10
And, you know, they split the streaming fees.
17:12
It looks like across the league, but it is kind of interesting to see how TV plays into it going forward.
17:19
Yeah, you know, I think in the streaming fees for NCHC TV, those are actually dynamic.
17:29
So when you log in and buy that, you have to select what team that you support.
17:34
And that's how revenues are distributed from the TV deal.
17:40
So that is the one thing that's not split equally.
17:43
But the revenue from the league and operations, of course, are split evenly.
17:49
As for the TV deal, that'd be interesting to talk to, you know, some of the current ADs on what their thoughts are.
17:57
You know, they weren't part of it.
17:58
So I'm sure they would be willing to be open about what their thoughts are.
18:02
But, you know, I just don't think they wanted to get into it where they're at their conference tournament.
18:08
And it's, you know, the Notre Dame TV Network.
18:10
And, you know, I just think there's some awkwardness there.
18:14
And so I don't know.
18:17
That's a good question.
18:19
I'd be curious to hear some people who are smarter than me about that stuff discuss it.
18:24
Well, it's interesting to learn about the streaming deal.
18:26
So Gopher fans, if you're buying the NCHC TV package for this game this weekend, choose your team carefully.
18:36
Maybe give it to Western Mission.
18:41
Upgrade in the press box there.
18:43
Oh, boy.
18:45
That's great stuff.
18:46
You know, it was a three or four part series.
18:48
It was a three part series.
18:51
And then on the blog, I actually decided to do a little background on what went into reporting the story.
18:57
Because I remember at that time, I heard about the tension in Florida.
19:05
And then shortly after that, I had a few sources telling me, hey, these teams are looking at going into their own league.
19:17
And I didn't run with it right away, because my original thought was that there's a chance people are purposely leaking this to me, because they want me to write a story that says, hey, these teams might leave the league.
19:32
And then that would scare the smaller teams into getting rid of Bruce McCloud.
19:37
Yes.
19:39
And so I said, I want to be sure that this is real and they're not just playing me here.
19:45
And I worked on that thing for, I mean, it was several weeks.
19:49
I talked to a bunch of people and it wasn't, you know, until I think it was January, sorry, July 1st or June 30th.
19:58
I finally called my editor and layout guy and said, all right, I'm comfortable with it.
20:03
Let's go with it.
20:05
And we rolled it out.
20:06
And it was only almost a week later that the story came out, that it was official.
20:13
I still remember getting a text that morning that said that it was a done deal.
20:20
And it actually, you know, everyone thought that my source on it was someone from North Dakota, and it wasn't.
20:27
And then I started running it by everyone, finally got a second confirmation.
20:32
That source told me the date and the time and the place of the press conference.
20:39
And so I'm like, OK, if they have a press conference date and times, we're comfortable to roll with this.
20:45
So I went into the office and usually I just run it by my sports editor because it was such a big story.
20:52
We actually had the head editor in there and reviewed my story and he said, go with it.
20:57
So we went with it.
20:58
So it was a long process.
20:59
But, yeah, I distinctly remember thinking that I could be getting played here and I want to make sure I'm not.
21:07
This is like Watergate, almost Woodward and Bernstein.
21:11
It is kind of, you know, making sure you're getting everything right.
21:14
Your sources are right.
21:15
And you definitely don't want to mess it up either.
21:19
So yeah, you know, I think sometimes nowadays, you know, press gets the rep that we throw on anything out there.
21:28
And it's been my experience, not with just reporting the story, but, you know, I see our news side and all sorts of, you know, my friends work for newspapers and I chat with them a lot of times.
21:38
And I see the care and the consideration that's taken behind so many stories.
21:44
And I don't think the general public realizes how seriously most reporters take that.
21:52
And that's not to say we don't make mistakes.
21:53
We do.
21:54
And we have to own up to it when we do.
21:56
But most reporters I know really take that seriously and go in depth into making sure they have things right.
22:02
And maybe that's something we need to do a better job of sharing with the public all the processes we go through to reporting certain stories.
22:12
Well, I just thought it was a fascinating story.
22:15
And it allows people to get a little different perspective on how the whole thing came about.
22:20
Because you know here in Minnesota country that we still have so many people bitter about the whole situation.
22:27
And I've always said, you know, it comes down to, you know, somebody decided to donate $80, $90 million to start a new program to expand college hockey.
22:37
And just that one generous thing just kind of threw everything into just chaos for a few years.
22:44
It did.
22:45
It was fascinating.
22:46
And you know how angry the people are still here in Minnesota.
22:49
They know they're not showing up because they complain about this and that.
22:52
Big Ten teams, you know, you know, I think that a lot of that's getting pretty old and you know, you either support the team or you don't.
22:57
But just this whole change has been it's just fascinating, you know, because we all know the WCHA was the cream of the crop.
23:08
It was I mean, you were there every final five.
23:11
It was spectacular.
23:13
We saw some historic games there in front of 19,000 people.
23:18
It was just crazy.
23:20
So, you know, I'm hearing a little echo there.
23:24
Somebody, sorry, it's like kind of threw me off.
23:28
So it was just it was just the place.
23:30
And obviously, a lot of fans are angry.
23:32
I'm sure you guys had it up there even.
23:34
But the one advantage you guys did have in the NCHC was your league was really good right off the bat.
23:42
And they still are.
23:43
Whereas, you know, on the Minnesota side, all of a sudden, you know, Minnesota was kind of dominating the league with mediocre teams because the rest of the league was terrible.
23:53
But, you know, and but we've been kind of seeing it grow, get better and better and better.
23:56
And Vegoe, we've seen it, you know, last year, three of the four teams were Big Ten.
24:00
They didn't win the national championship.
24:03
But, you know, people just said, give it time.
24:06
And it has really come to fruition that these two leagues are really good.
24:12
Well, the product on the ice is really good.
24:14
I'm not quite sure that the fans are ready to embrace it.
24:17
But I know, you know, expanding my coverage of College Hockey the past couple of years, you just see the quality on the ice.
24:25
You know, I think Penn State is one of the funnest teams to watch in College Hockey.
24:30
I think Ohio State plays a fun brand of hockey.
24:34
You know, and there's a lot of money being poured into these teams.
24:38
You know, you look at who spends the most money on men's college hockey teams.
24:43
And the Big Ten is spending lots of money, and they're catching up fast.
24:48
And if you look at how the conferences are doing and this non-conference play so far the last two years, and the West is winning.
24:56
Yeah, I think there are two factors to that.
24:59
Number one, I think it did help the NCHC teams that their schedules really weren't all that different.
25:07
Like they lost Minnesota and Wisconsin, but North Dakota is still playing St.
25:11
Cloud.
25:11
They're still playing Duluth, CC, Denver, Omaha.
25:15
They have Bemidji non-conference every year.
25:17
So like when you looked up and down your schedule, it's like it's really not that much different.
25:24
But I think like you said, a huge factor was success.
25:29
And the NCHC had it, so the fans loved it and embraced it.
25:34
And the Big Ten teams are always going to be up and down.
25:39
Like that's just the way it works.
25:42
But there was this probably historical anomaly where they were, those big schools were all down at the same time.
25:51
Like that may never happen again where you have Michigan missing the tournament three years in a row.
25:59
Going what?
25:59
Like 26 years in a row.
26:02
21, sorry.
26:03
You know, Minnesota, Wisconsin, they were really bad for a couple years.
26:08
They were.
26:09
And they're a historical powerhouse.
26:10
Michigan State's been bad for a couple years there.
26:15
And that's a team that's historically good.
26:17
And so I just think that, you know, if you realize how the flow works, it was never going to stay that way.
26:27
It's just bizarre that it happened all at the same time.
26:31
Like usually you would think, OK, well, Michigan and Minnesota is going to be really good.
26:35
Or Wisconsin and Michigan State this year is going to be really good.
26:38
But yeah, I think that really hurt the league that it just came, happened to come at that year and had it started this year when they're all pretty good.
26:49
Maybe you'd see a different attitude from the fans.
26:52
And of course, Brad, you're not as involved as us as we are.
26:55
But, you know, Minnesota went through reseeding the bull at Marriott.
26:59
They went through scholarship seeding fees.
27:01
They went through price increases.
27:03
You put all these things together at the same time.
27:05
And, you know, it's just really hurt the image of the game here in Minnesota.
27:12
Yeah, that clearly affects it.
27:14
But in the end, success trumps all, right?
27:19
You know, if they start making runs at the tournament and having 31 seasons, the fans are going to come back because fans like seeing winning teams.
27:29
It's just as simple as that.
27:31
And I don't want to say they weren't winning.
27:32
I mean, they won how many conference titles in a row.
27:35
But, you know, in the national tournament, they had the one year, the first year of the Big Ten, I think it was, right?
27:44
When they went to the championship game and then...
27:47
Oh, boy, my memory.
27:49
Everything's melding together for me these days.
27:54
That means we're getting...
27:56
Yes, we are.
27:58
Well, you know, I know we got quite a few questions from people listening here, and obviously we got to talk about the game this weekend.
28:03
We haven't talked about that yet.
28:04
But first, we need to hear from our sponsor.
28:08
vintagemnhockey.com is a proud sponsor of The GPL Podcast.
28:13
Well, what is Vintage MN Hockey?
28:15
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28:25
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28:40
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28:41
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29:01
So make sure you visit vintagemnhockey.com and follow them on Twitter at VintageMNHockey.
29:08
Thanks to VintageMNHockey for that.
29:11
We had quite a few people ask some questions for the podcast tonight.
29:15
And we had one asked me yesterday from Skyyurah.
29:18
And he wants to know, and we'll put this towards you, Brad, how has the UND fan base adjusted to the loss of the rivalry with Minnesota?
29:27
Is it a big deal or is it not a big deal for them?
29:30
It's a big deal to play Minnesota.
29:34
Fans get excited for that weekend like no other.
29:39
They want to play them.
29:42
I'm sure they would love to play them twice a year.
29:48
It's been a loss, but I think they've done okay.
29:53
They still sell out the building all the time.
29:55
But that being said, of course, they want to see this game.
29:58
It's what college sports are all about, the big rivalries.
30:03
Definitely.
30:04
The rivalries are great.
30:05
I love it when they're playing against each other.
30:08
They bring out the best and worst in each other, which is great.
30:15
You see fans getting so rude with each other on both sides.
30:19
The players, we have fights and tussles.
30:24
It's great to watch.
30:26
It's just great entertainment.
30:28
I guess the only thing for me, Veegs, is that one thing about playing North Dakota St.
30:34
Cloud, I even heard from a St.
30:35
Cloud person last year, like, you know, it's great playing them, but it's just not quite the same because there's no points on the line.
30:42
So there's that one little thing that just will kind of always suck about this rivalry now.
30:47
Yeah, it's different.
30:48
I mean, you're not battling for standing's position.
30:52
Yeah.
30:54
Go ahead, Veegs.
30:55
I almost think it's more important, though, right now.
30:58
I mean, you look at Minnesota and the Paraguay situation, you know, if they get a win this weekend over in North Dakota, it basically gives them a comparison against every NCHC team the rest of the year.
31:10
You know, because they're going to have a winning record against Minnesota Duluth.
31:13
If they were able to pull this game off, they'd have won over North Dakota.
31:17
They win a bunch of comparisons.
31:19
You know, it kind of almost gives them a little bit of bulletproofness going into the Paraguay's.
31:24
So fans probably say it's not for points.
31:28
It's almost more important because you get less chances to move ahead of one of your rivals in the Paraguay's.
31:35
You're not wrong.
31:36
But I think if you went up to fans and asked them about comparisons and how they're structured in the Paraguay's, I don't think it resonates with a ton of them.
31:47
They know what the Paraguay's is, but they don't know how it works.
31:50
And if they did, you're right on.
31:53
It's a huge game in the Paraguay's.
31:56
But, you know, I don't know, I just think for fans, it's Minnesota, right?
32:02
Yes.
32:03
It doesn't matter about the standings.
32:04
It doesn't matter about the Paraguay's.
32:05
It's Minnesota, and they don't want to lose to Minnesota.
32:09
I know Matsuko is really trying to frame these as, you know, this is a playoff series.
32:14
You know, if you win this one, you get to go ahead of the other team in the standings for the rest of the year.
32:18
So it's a big opportunity for them.
32:22
It is.
32:25
Well, one thing that I'm looking forward to this weekend is just it seems like these games are always played at 110 miles per hour.
32:37
I mean, it's speed.
32:38
It's hitting.
32:39
It's just fun hockey.
32:41
It's not like, you know, kind of the last, you know, 10 years when you play when scouts have the shutdown stuff.
32:47
This is fun, entertaining hockey.
32:51
Well, I think one of the things with these teams is they play so aggressive and they don't shy away.
32:56
You know, there's no trapping.
32:58
People aren't going to sit back in the neutral zone.
33:00
You know, these teams want to get after it.
33:02
They want to forecheck.
33:03
They want to create offense.
33:05
And that's one of the things that makes this game so entertaining.
33:08
Darren Romanco said, you know, the games against North Dakota have been some of his favorites because they're just so intense.
33:16
There's such a battle and it's just fun hockey to be a part of.
33:19
And, you know, when you get the fans on top of it who are invested, you know, you got BC and St.
33:25
Cloud tonight playing for nobody.
33:27
There's going to be a lot of fans traveling to Las Vegas.
33:30
They're going to be tuned up and they're going to be ready to go.
33:33
I mean, last year when the Gophers went up up north and they had all the signs for middle stat, you know, that's a lot of fun for hockey fans.
33:43
What makes you think the fans are going to be tuned up?
33:48
If they're not, we'd be disappointed.
33:51
Yeah, I'm expecting to see a bunch of empty beer cups behind Moscow at some point.
33:58
I think to your point, and I may have said it last year, but how many times have you left a Minnesota, North Dakota game and said to yourself, yeah, that was kind of boring.
34:09
Like, it's just it seems like they more than any other rivalry or game, it always is built up to be so much and it's so often just lives up to it.
34:20
You have close games, you have combat.
34:22
I mean, it's you know, they're so often extremely entertaining games.
34:27
Well, you talk about rivalries and you know, recently Minnesota has really struggled against teams like Duluth.
34:35
I mean, they hadn't beaten Duluth in four years.
34:39
But you know, one thing is even though they hadn't played North Dakota as much, it's still been a really balanced series.
34:45
They've tended, you know, since they started playing again, they've been pretty much splits, you know, you know, one win, you know, one wins there and another one's home.
34:53
And it's been really good hockey.
34:55
And another important thing is that, you know, this game could be huge at the end of the year, like Vegoe was saying with pairwise.
35:02
I mean, you know, Minnesota lost out on the tournament by 0.0001.
35:07
And you know what?
35:08
North Dakota wasn't far behind that.
35:12
They were the next team.
35:13
Yeah, they were the next team.
35:14
I mean, people don't realize it's one game.
35:17
This could be huge at the end of the year, even though it's so early.
35:20
But as Minnesota found out and just you guys probably found out, you know, maybe a goal here, a goal there, and either team could have been in the tournament last year.
35:28
And we were the first two teams out.
35:32
Exactly.
35:33
And then that just shows how close it is.
35:35
And the last team that got in was the team that won it.
35:39
So I'm sure both teams are thinking, man, one other game, that could have been us in that spot.
35:45
You know, it's just all the margins are.
35:47
And on top of the series going back and forth at times, you know, it just seems like the games have been close, too.
35:54
They've had some ties recently.
35:55
And, you know, I just think most of the games have been pretty down to the wire.
36:02
Not many games after the first period you're saying, oh, well, that one's done.
36:07
Not many.
36:08
And even though even some of them have been, you know, North Dakota in the final five, you know, came back, roaring back after being down three zip and one, six, three.
36:18
But that was a fun game.
36:19
You know, Minnesota lost four, nothing last year up there.
36:22
And then Minnesota beat them in a regional final, like five to one.
36:27
So there's a couple of these games that have been, you know, a little bit of a blowout, but they never felt that way because there's always the intensity there.
36:36
There's never like, oh, this game's over because you just never know what these two teams.
36:40
Yeah, exactly.
36:42
I think that's what makes the rivalry good.
36:44
And that's why, you know, North Dakota can sell tickets for $99 a pop and sell it out in a half a second.
36:51
So, love this game.
36:56
Now, you did...
36:56
I heard you talking to Gopher State this week, and I heard a comment.
37:02
You said that the North Dakota guys were regretting they didn't book T-Mobile after the game sold out so quickly.
37:11
Well, I think so.
37:13
I think I talked to someone...
37:17
Oh, you and he played at Madison Square Garden two years ago.
37:21
And I want to say tickets went on...
37:23
Was it right before...
37:25
I think it was right after that.
37:26
I think it was right after.
37:27
Yes, it was right after that.
37:29
Because I remember walking out of Madison Square Garden with someone affiliated with the university.
37:38
And they said something like...
37:43
I remember the Madison Square Garden game did terrific.
37:48
They drew 8,000 fans from Grand Forks.
37:52
And I said, the Vegas game is going to be even bigger than this.
37:58
That's going to...
38:00
And he kind of grimaced and said, yeah, yeah.
38:07
And the thing is...
38:10
Yeah, you probably could have sold out that arena.
38:12
But the thing is, one thing with this is, if you would have gone to T-Mobile, it would have given Minnesota, their fans, a little more chance to play.
38:23
And I think they would have been completely okay with that.
38:25
I think what happened is T-Mobile, obviously, the money that requires to reserve T-Mobile is a lot of money.
38:35
The Orleans Arena gave them a fantastic deal.
38:39
Obviously, the teams are staying there.
38:41
They probably got free or cheap rooms.
38:44
And they looked at the financial package and said, look, this is a guaranteed success.
38:50
We are guaranteed to make X amount of money on this.
38:53
T-Mobile was more of a, I don't know, if they had sold 11,000 tickets for it, it would have been less profitable than Orleans Arena.
39:09
Had they sold it out, yeah, they would have been fine.
39:12
And I think that was the balance.
39:15
Can we sell it out?
39:16
And I think what they saw in New York was when they realized, yeah, we could have sold it out.
39:24
But they had already signed the deal, and that's that.
39:31
And they're at Orleans, and now they're currently working on finalizing their next game, and that's going to be in 2020.
39:40
Nothing's signed yet, but it'll almost surely be Penn State in Nashville, and that one will be at the big rink.
39:47
So maybe made a little bit of an adjustment there.
39:50
I hear Nashville is a spectacular town, too.
39:54
Is this a one-game shot just because it's the Hall of Fame game and they didn't want to try to do another one?
40:01
Do you know any of the background on that?
40:03
Yep, it's the Hall of Fame game, so it's an exempt game for both, both in an extra game.
40:09
So that is the background on why it's just a one-game deal.
40:14
Both guys should have scheduled Alaska, so they could get extra games.
40:20
I know North Dakota coaches, both Haxdall and Barry, love the exempt games.
40:26
I think the last time you and he didn't have an exempt game, you'd probably have to go back to the 90s.
40:31
I think Don LaChia has pursued that just as hard.
40:36
Yep, yep, he has a lot of icebreakers and Hall of Fame games.
40:43
Well, let's set up a few more questions from Twitter here.
40:47
We've got Mark Sund wants to know, what's the biggest reason for the slow start for UND?
40:53
Is there a consensus on the job that Barry is doing so far?
40:59
Well, for the slow start, I think that's what we're not sure about.
41:07
Because the first weekend it was because they couldn't score.
41:09
The second weekend they lost a game because they couldn't defend.
41:13
So it's been a different culprit for both games.
41:17
As far as the job Barry is doing, he's been here three years.
41:23
They won the National Championship in one of them.
41:25
I think fans are okay with him.
41:28
And the other thing that fans are pretty excited about is the recruits they've lined up to come in.
41:35
I think they could have eight guys drafted next year.
41:39
So they had a down year last year, missed the tournament.
41:43
But I think the fans see the pipeline of guys coming in, kind of starting with this class too.
41:52
It's going to take them a little time.
41:54
But Jasper Weatherby is a really good player.
41:57
Gavin Haynes is a really good player.
41:58
Jacob Bernard-Dakarand is a first round pick.
42:02
Johnny Takonic is a second round pick.
42:04
So they have a good base here, and they're going to keep building that with the next couple of recruiting classes.
42:11
Okay, Alex Carrou wants to know, well, this is a great question for anybody, but what's your favorite moment between the two schools?
42:19
And maybe what's the best fight you remember between the two schools?
42:23
V, let's start with you.
42:24
What's your favorite moment?
42:26
It's Wheeler's diving goal.
42:28
You know, just out of nowhere.
42:30
You know, that goal was a huge surprise and a fun moment for the Gophers, especially the way Wheeler reacted right after he scored.
42:38
Yeah, actually, those whole two weeks was two amazing games, two overtime games.
42:45
You know, one played and the act was 19,000.
42:48
And then, you know, the next week, Brad, they went to Pepsi Arena and played another great game in front of not very many people.
42:55
Yeah, I mean, yeah, that couple weeks there does stand out because both those teams were really good.
43:03
A lot of talents, they played great game.
43:08
Man, this is such a tough question.
43:10
I mean, the first time I covered a UND Minnesota game, I believe was the 2004 Final Five.
43:23
And that was like five to four, and it was Bochinski and Parisi going back and forth with Vanik and Grant Patalny.
43:33
And that was just an amazing game.
43:36
You know, I saw the Wheeler, Chris Porter, Aventrop,.
43:41
6, the comeback, the hack style timeout.
43:48
I always think it's funny.
43:49
All I need to do is say one name and one word, and everyone knows what you're talking about.
43:54
You are right.
43:58
And that's the, I guess that's what rivalries are made of when we can say one word and everyone knows exactly what game you're talking about.
44:10
All I remember about the Wheeler thing is that I missed the photo, Veegs.
44:14
I missed the photo because I was right behind the net.
44:17
I was right there.
44:18
And every time I see that highlight, I see myself missing the shot.
44:24
Even Minnesota's intro video, they show that goal this year.
44:27
And the view they show from Wheeler is from the ice level.
44:30
And I see myself in the background.
44:31
I'm going, how did I miss that photo?
44:34
And the thing is most photographers didn't get it either.
44:37
Nobody got it.
44:39
They got the celebration, but I think one person from maybe the audience or the fans actually got the shot.
44:46
But I'll never forget that because I missed the shot.
44:50
I'm still pissed off about it.
44:55
So I missed it, too.
44:59
Back then, this is how old we all are.
45:02
The Xcel Energy Center didn't have Wi-Fi in the press box.
45:07
You had to pay like, that's right.
45:11
So that's how I got to know all the photogs because I was the one writer that would run into the photog room at the Xcel Center and plug in because some of those hard lines were live.
45:22
Yes, they are.
45:22
And I would plug it from there.
45:26
Some of the photogs still give me crap about that.
45:30
I got to know Jim Rosvold really well down there.
45:32
A wonderful guy.
45:35
So that's actually how I really got to know him.
45:38
But our sports editor said, no, we never got your story because I had to file one at the end of regulation for our first edition.
45:45
Oh, boy.
45:47
Well, crap, I got to run down there and resend it.
45:49
And you know how you hit the basement, the doors opened up, and you know how there's that TV to the right.
45:55
All I saw was Minnesota celebrating.
45:58
So I'm like, OK, well, something happened.
46:02
The game is over.
46:02
But so I never saw the goal.
46:04
I was in the elevator during that.
46:07
So you might have thought you missed it, but I really missed it.
46:12
No, yeah, it happened right in front of me.
46:14
I saw it great.
46:15
I just I just missed a photo.
46:16
And I think that's the one part that, you know, Minnesota fans and North Dakota fans are always going to miss is that kind of potential at a final five because that crowd was electric that night.
46:29
I mean, you had 19,000 at the time.
46:31
It was the largest crowd that had ever been to the X.
46:36
Yes.
46:36
And that was the lead of my story.
46:37
Yeah, it was the largest crowd ever at that place.
46:40
And, you know, you probably had, you know, you had 10,000 Minnesota fans and about 9,000 North Dakota fans.
46:48
It was that balanced.
46:51
And then just to look at everyone's face, you know, when that goal happened, you're like, did this just happen?
46:57
It was just a crazy night.
46:59
And it was a fun night, obviously, for Minnesota fans.
47:02
But all in all, it was just that was kind of the height of the WCHA Final Five right there.
47:08
Those kind of mid 2000 years where there was just some incredible battles.
47:12
And we're going to miss that.
47:15
But we just kind of have to start a new history, Kang.
47:17
It's just the winds of change.
47:20
Sorry, Motay, that's not coming back.
47:24
We're going to see the grandpas in several years telling their grandkids when they bring college hockey stories.
47:32
I'll tell you about the time when North Dakota, Minnesota and Wisconsin all got in the same building.
47:37
It's probably going to be about 25,000 people by then.
47:42
But yeah, it was a good time.
47:44
And the funny thing is, is that quite a few times, you know, the teams played again like a week later in the regional at the X.
47:52
But it was still, it was half full.
47:55
So many fans put, you know, the final five weekend was their weekend.
48:00
They took it off from work.
48:02
They all came down.
48:04
And that's why it was so successful.
48:05
And that's why people loved it so much.
48:07
And then, you know, they were all out of money for the regional.
48:10
They didn't have money for the regional the next week.
48:11
So a lot of times they didn't travel as much.
48:14
And that's why, you know, you see it was, you know, how empty was Pepsi Center for that game the next week?
48:21
Maybe a quarter full?
48:24
It was pretty thin.
48:26
I'm trying to remember.
48:27
But yeah.
48:29
And I think that's right.
48:30
I think people planned their years around that, that they were going to go to the final five.
48:37
And a lot of times they said about the regionals, well, I'll wait and see if they win.
48:41
If they win, I'll go to the Frozen Four.
48:44
True.
48:46
So true.
48:46
Well, North Dakota did such a good job of having all their alumni events during the final five.
48:52
And, you know, St.
48:53
Patty's Day often would fall that weekend.
48:56
No, don't remind me.
48:59
Don't remind me.
49:00
You couldn't lose.
49:03
I couldn't handle all the leprechauns in downtown St.
49:07
Paul.
49:07
Like, yeah, trying to get around down there, trying not to step and vomit on the street.
49:13
That's one thing I don't miss was St.
49:16
Patrick's Day down there.
49:18
It was a bit crazy.
49:19
Well, guys, we need to talk about the actual game this weekend.
49:23
You know, we've talked about so many great things already, but Veegs, there's an actual game that's being played at 9 p.m.
49:31
this Saturday night against the North Dakota Fighting Hawks.
49:35
I know you probably hate that, Brad, but we're just going to go with it.
49:38
I don't care.
49:39
Is there a name?
49:41
Veegs, give me your thoughts here.
49:42
What's going to happen?
49:45
Well, I think you're going to see Minnesota play a patient opening 10 minutes.
49:50
You know, it's going to be a change of pace for them having these two weeks of exhibitions and then trying to find their footing right away.
49:58
And you know, North Dakota is going to come right away.
50:00
If anybody watched the first couple of minutes of the Minnesota State Series, you know, North Dakota comes out fast, and they're going to bring two guys on the forecheck, and they're going to go to the strong side, and they're going to test you to see where you're at.
50:13
So I think it's a big test for Minnesota's young defensemen to see how they can play and move the puck.
50:19
I don't think Minnesota Duluth did a great job challenging them in the opening weekend.
50:25
So we'll see.
50:26
You know, that's the big question mark for me.
50:28
And you know, obviously seeing North Dakota's struggle on the penalty kill, that's something where Minnesota is starting to look dangerous there.
50:37
You know, Clayton Phillips looks like a changed person this year, much more confident.
50:42
And then they've got some shooters this year on the on the flanks.
50:45
So it'll be a good match up there, too.
50:48
When did you arrive in Vegas yesterday, the day before?
50:51
Yeah, I came yesterday.
50:53
So I could I went covered the Golden Knights and Canucks game with Troy Stetcher and Brock Besser there.
51:02
And lost any money yet?
51:06
You know, honestly, I have been working the entire time I've been here, so tonight will be the first time I actually go and see something.
51:16
So I will try to lose.
51:19
I will try not to lose too much tonight, but I'll lose a little bit tonight.
51:23
Now, let's hear the North Dakota perspective on the actual game here.
51:27
What does North Dakota need to do?
51:29
Because, you know, Minnesota, they had a good early time, but North Dakota, I think, really needs to kind of take advantage of Minnesota playing exhibitions for most of the month.
51:38
Yeah, you know, it's tough to say, because I just don't have a feel on this team yet.
51:44
You know, I still think offense is their biggest question mark.
51:49
I think North Dakota has really, in the series against Minnesota State, they had great scoring from their depth, which is really key for them.
52:00
You know, right now, Nick Jones doesn't have a goal yet this season.
52:03
Brett Gardner doesn't have a goal.
52:05
Jasper Weatherby doesn't have a goal.
52:08
You know, so I think that when you look at it, they've got good depth scoring.
52:13
They need a little bit from those top guys.
52:15
They need to defend a whole lot better than they did against Minnesota State.
52:20
Their goaltending needs to be much better.
52:22
I think that's probably the biggest key from North Dakota's perspective.
52:26
Their goaltenders are going to be more than they've been tested in any time this year, probably.
52:31
And they need to be able to answer the bell, because unless you have good goaltending, you're not going to have a chance to win this game.
52:37
Minnesota has had it this year.
52:40
North Dakota just needs to be better.
52:42
Well, speaking of goaltenders, I think we're going to see Robson this weekend, Veegs.
52:48
He seems to be a little more favored than Shearhorn right now with Matzko.
52:53
Yeah, Robson's the guy, unless he has an off night.
52:56
I think he's going to start most Fridays, and when he plays well, he'll get the next game between the pipes.
53:03
He's just a solid goaltender, and he's playing really well right now.
53:07
He's big, he's athletic, showed pretty good vision and traffic, picking up rebounds and things like that.
53:15
I think he probably gives them the best chance to win right away.
53:18
And Brad, this is definitely going to be a hostile crowd, and I notice you've been doing a map of people who's traveling from across the country and sometimes some international locations, but I'm hearing some people are still trying to sell these tickets and they're selling them for a lot of money here.
53:36
Are there a chance we're going to see quite a few empty seats for people who couldn't, you know, tried to maybe make a buck off this and didn't feel like traveling to Vegas?
53:44
Because, you know, I've been seeing it, you know, on the Sioux message boards and everywhere else.
53:47
You know, all of a sudden those plane ticket prices went way up and a lot of people were trying to take advantage or gouge this weekend, especially for the North Dakota fans.
53:58
Yeah, I don't think we're going to see many empty seats though.
54:02
I think there are even a bunch of people who plan to travel down here without even going to the game.
54:10
They're just people who decide, let's make our Vegas trip this weekend, go party with UND fans before and after the game.
54:17
And so I think there's enough of those people that will probably snatch up those tickets.
54:20
But there are some people that are starting to sell.
54:24
But yeah, I think they'll go rather quickly.
54:28
I looked at StubHub today and I only saw about 50 tickets.
54:32
So I think there's going to be a lot of fans there.
54:35
You know, a lot of people were saying earlier, people were saying some of those StubHub tickets were $1,200.
54:41
Yeah.
54:42
Yeah.
54:44
For one game really and it's even $1,200, folks.
54:47
Come on.
54:48
This is college hockey.
54:49
That's ridiculous.
54:53
That's this rivalry though, you know, and obviously in Vegas, I think everyone wants an excuse to go to Vegas.
55:02
Yeah.
55:03
I guess Vegas is not my thing, but that's just me.
55:07
You know, one question we did have earlier, there's actually Vegas odds for this game.
55:13
Yeah.
55:14
Yeah, Minnesota is the favorite.
55:18
And I'm guessing those odds are going to change here because it's at the hotel where all the UND people are staying.
55:27
The UND people are going to pump that bet, and they're all going to bet on UND.
55:32
And so I'm guessing the odds will shift a little bit here with the action getting heavy on one side.
55:42
Yeah, we had one of our listeners asking about that.
55:44
North Dakota plus 250, Minnesota minus 300.
55:49
Veegs, I know you love to follow these things.
55:51
Usually it's the offshore stuff.
55:53
This is actually a legitimate Vegas here.
55:56
I haven't seen an offshore line yet.
55:58
They'll probably wait until Saturday to post it.
56:00
I don't think the spread will be quite as big as the one that the Orleans here is showing.
56:06
This is probably going to be more of a pick-up type game.
56:09
I think Minnesota could probably stay as a slight favorite.
56:14
Probably something more like minus 150 or minus 160 is what I would think it will get to.
56:20
Honestly, I'm seeing a tie Saturday night, guys.
56:24
I don't think anything is going to be solved.
56:26
A tie is just going to throw a wrench, a monkey wrench, into the whole pairwise thing later on, I think, guys.
56:35
Yeah.
56:37
I mean, considering the last few years, they've had a couple ties in there, it wouldn't be a shocker if that were the case, I don't think.
56:45
I have no idea what to expect, honestly.
56:47
I don't have a pulse on this UND team yet.
56:49
I just don't.
56:50
And I think it's the same here on the Minnesota side.
56:53
It was a good opening weekend against Duluth with the tie up there and the win down here.
56:58
But like you said, they've played two exhibition games, they've played a lot of players, and Veegs and I, like we've been saying, the speed limit goes up this weekend, Veegs.
57:09
Yeah, it sure does.
57:10
There's going to be no place to hide when the puck drops on Saturday night.
57:14
I do think Minnesota's forwards are a huge strength for them right now.
57:19
I think if the game is at all kind of sloppy, I think that's going to stand out.
57:25
We've seen so many guys on the Gophers right now who can shoot the puck.
57:29
Ranta has just a great shot.
57:31
He hides it well.
57:33
The goalies haven't been able to pick it up.
57:36
Rem Pitlick is probably one of the best practice players I've ever seen.
57:40
If he gets a one-on-one situation and the gap isn't right by the defenseman or the forward checking him, he's pretty deadly.
57:48
Tyler Sheehy looks healthy.
57:51
He's got some good jump and he's been around the net on the power play, which is where he's most comfortable.
57:58
Tommy Novak looks healthy distributing the puck.
58:01
So I think Minnesota's got some talent up front.
58:04
So if this game kind of opens up a little bit, I think they're going to be able to get some goals.
58:09
And hearing Brad talk about where is North Dakota's offense going to come from, that probably weighs in the Gophers' favor a little bit.
58:18
Yeah, I think North Dakota would prefer this be a low score in game.
58:24
If it gets into a shootout, that's not what North Dakota wants to have happen.
58:28
They want to, I would guess they want it to be a tight check in game, not a lot of time and space out there in that type of...
58:39
Yeah, yeah.
58:43
I'm just looking forward to seeing the game.
58:45
So obviously a lot of people in the cities can't see the games.
58:48
And we've gone through all of that.
58:50
And I know people really complain here in Minnesota.
58:52
So I was like, oh, please shut up.
58:54
They don't understand how TV works anymore.
58:57
And I don't blame Midco one bit for wanting to hang on to this as much as they can because it's revenue for them.
59:07
And it's a big deal.
59:09
So go to Joe Sensor's people.
59:12
You can be there with all the other North Dakota fans.
59:14
And trust me, it's fun when you go to Sensor's with all the North Dakota fans there.
59:20
Or get the stream on NCHC TV.
59:22
They have a great stream.
59:23
I invested for the month so I could get the Duluth Games and watch the North Dakota, Minnesota State Games.
59:29
And just choose your favorite team carefully.
59:35
But I'm not sure if that works.
59:36
I don't know if it's the same for the single game or what.
59:40
So yeah.
59:42
You might be out of luck there, Veegs.
59:44
You might have to go to a bar.
59:46
No, I'll be watching on the stream.
59:48
It'll be good.
59:51
Well, Brad, thanks for coming on again on the podcast.
59:53
You were with us last year and we appreciate it.
59:55
And we always follow your work up there on the Grand Forks Herald.
59:59
And I tell you that that series about the NCHC and how it became a league, it was just fascinating for me.
1:00:06
And it was really great stuff.
1:00:09
Yeah, thanks for plugging it.
1:00:10
And I was good to chat with you guys.
1:00:12
And obviously we'll see each other for the next four years with the series being renewed long term.
1:00:20
And I know Bob Motzko and Brad Berry are pretty close.
1:00:24
And I wouldn't be surprised if it goes beyond those four years.
1:00:27
I wouldn't be surprised either.
1:00:29
And like you said, there's that new four-year contract that kicks off next year.
1:00:32
Two in Minnesota, two in North Dakota, two in Minnesota, two in North Dakota.
1:00:36
So four straight years of home and home hockey.
1:00:40
And it's going to be just fabulous, which is what we're all looking forward to.
1:00:44
Well, thanks, Brad, for coming on.
1:00:46
You can follow Brad on Twitter at SchlossmanGF.
1:00:49
And you just find him on the Grand Forks Herald website if you want to.
1:00:53
Veegs, are you working on anything for the Athletica recently?
1:00:57
Yeah, I've got something coming on the Gopher defensemen, how they're adjusting the college hockey, a little bit about how they decided to go from high school to college or high school to junior and junior to college and a little bit about college recruiting.
1:01:12
So look for that here pretty soon.
1:01:15
All right.
1:01:15
And you remember you can follow Vegoe on Twitter at eVegoe.
1:01:19
We'll be back next week.
1:01:20
We're going to be on Thursday again next week because, you know, it's tough doing it on Halloween.
1:01:28
Veegs, you've got the kids and we'll have people coming to my door and I'm like, we'll just move it out to Thursday.
1:01:32
So we're going to do it Thursday next week and we'll, you know, we'll recap the North Dakota game and then we'll talk about the new Mankato series coming up, you know, home and home with Mankato.
1:01:43
Beyond that, if you're listening live, we'll have a bit of overtime coming up, but otherwise, thanks for listening.
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