0:08 This is The GPL Podcast, sponsored by Vintage Minnesota Hockey, your exclusive source for throwback Minnesota jerseys. 0:17 Visit vintagemnhockey.com. 0:32 Thanks. 0:32 Now, here's Cami, Vegoe and your host, Jupiter. 0:45 Good evening, and welcome to The GPL Podcast, episode number 140. 0:52 Getting closer to the 150 mark, later this season, hopefully. 0:57 Well, everyone's on time tonight, which is kind of nice. 1:00 So it must have been a fairly quiet night at the Vego household. 1:03 Yeah, good teamwork tonight. 1:05 All right, all right. 1:06 Well, that's good. 1:07 I owe it to my lovely bride. 1:10 Well, that's good, but teamwork, maybe not so much on this team right now, Hammeh. 1:17 I would say a split with St. 1:20 Lawrence is really not good. 1:25 What, you weren't satisfied with that? 1:28 No, that game Friday night was really bad game. 1:33 Yeah, I don't know. 1:34 It's a little disappointing when you see a team that comes in to the game with one win and definitely not a strong team. 1:43 You watch the guys just kind of lay an egg, especially getting behind. 1:47 When you have a fluke situation happen, that's one thing, but it just definitely did not have that kind of... 1:56 I don't know, the effort just wasn't there. 1:58 I think the energy just wasn't to pretty sight. 2:01 Maybe they weren't too inspired by the competition. 2:04 As the Vikings showed with Buffalo this year, it doesn't matter who you play. 2:08 If you take them lightly, you don't really respect them. 2:12 As Motzko likes to say, get a little too cute at times, then that kind of stuff can happen. 2:17 During the second period, I want to say, Jess Myers came over and said to me, this is a terrible hockey game. 2:24 I agreed with him, Veegs. 2:25 It was just not a good game at all. 2:29 Yeah, I just didn't see a lot of energy in the Gophers game. 2:33 You saw a lot of guys standing around, not sure where to go, not sure when to get engaged, how to support each other, and it showed on the ice. 2:43 I thought it was probably one of their slowest games of the last couple years we've seen them play, and they just allowed St. 2:50 Lawrence to hang in there. 2:52 Then when they got a couple of bounces at the second half of that second period, the game got away from them. 2:57 They tried to respond in the third period because they had to. 3:01 The game got a little bit better from there, but then a mistake in overtime cost them. 3:05 I was actually at ice level in overtime in actually the third period as well. 3:10 The third period was pretty good. 3:11 They had a nice little comeback. 3:12 I didn't see what happened. 3:13 What was the mistake in overtime? 3:16 Because when you're down on ice level, you miss a lot of things when you're shooting the game. 3:19 Yeah, it was just a long shift by the guys on the ice. 3:23 Kind of a bad play coming out around the net. 3:26 Last guy back, quick turn the other way and St. 3:29 Lawrence was able to capitalize. 3:33 Well, it was ugly. 3:34 And the crowd was ugly. 3:36 They weren't into it at all. 3:39 Another concern I would say is that the students aren't showing up either. 3:45 And they're allowing students from either night to come to either game now. 3:50 And it was maybe half full. 3:53 And it's not just the regular audience. 3:55 It's even the students that aren't paying for tickets and not showing up now. 4:00 Yeah, if every student were to show up and want to see a game, they would probably fill up four, maybe five sections at every UG. 4:09 And they're barely filling up one or two. 4:12 It's something to see right now. 4:15 Kind of this malaise that's infected Minnesota athletics is taking over hockey as well. 4:21 And it's surprising to me to have students who probably don't have a ton of money. 4:28 Maybe I'm wrong. 4:30 They've got some entertainment that they paid for, and they're not using it. 4:34 I mean, I can't imagine what it's like to be a college student, have all these choices where you're just going to not use your tickets every weekend, but that's what's happening right now. 4:42 I don't know if it's just the infection of all these people who are anti-Big Ten and anti-Gopher hockey carrying over, but it sure seems like it. 4:52 Well, it's similar to football, too. 4:55 I mean, they've sold quite a few tickets for season tickets, or at least for the students for football, and boy, it gets just a little bit cold, and they just stop showing up. 5:05 Yeah, it's definitely a problem for athletics right now, and figuring out how to get people engaged into the games, and for all the people who talk about ticket prices, that's not really anything that's affecting the students. 5:16 They're selling out these sections. 5:18 People are paying money for them, and it's not a lot of money. 5:21 They're still just not showing up. 5:24 And Hammy, it's just kind of continuing on with the fans too, because they're still selling close to 8,000 tickets, but five or six maybe are showing up. 5:38 Well, I think some of it's just the entertainment factor. 5:41 I mean, you think about any... 5:42 I mean, even if you've paid for the tickets, I get it, but you still want to be entertained, and I know it's sort of a sunk cost at some point, right? 5:49 Once you pay for the tickets, it's gone. 5:52 I suppose you can still scalp them, but the point is that if you give them an entertaining product and give them some excitement, I think the fans show up, but we're not giving that to them right now. 6:05 Obviously, people are not particularly excited with what they've seen thus far, and I think that the disappointing thing for me is just the fact that I don't see the upperclassmen, the leadership, the guys seemingly being capable of adjusting to kind of a new culture and a new voice. 6:25 It just seems like it's... 6:27 I guess it's the younger guys that sometimes they're not tied to anything, so they're willing to be open to those kinds of things a little bit more as opposed to guys that have been around two or three years. 6:37 And Veegs, you know, as this season progresses, and if they do improve and get themselves closer into position to possibly making the tournament, a series like this could really come back to haunt them in the end of the season, you know, in the pairwise. 6:52 Well, at least they got the split. 6:54 You know, it could have been pretty bad had they finished even worse this weekend. 7:02 But I think in the new pairwise, they do get some credit for getting to OT on the first night, so they will come out on top on the weekend, but it's definitely not the result that you're expected, and it could have been a boost to them had they won both games, because they'd win a lot of comparisons against ECAC teams and everybody else that St. 7:20 Lawrence has on their schedule. 7:22 Well, at least they did turn it around the next night, and it was on the strength of the freshmen Saturday night. 7:28 Yeah, I talked to Sammy Walker a little bit yesterday at availability, and he said it was kind of fun being on a line with all freshmen. 7:35 You know, they had no past with them to carry on to the ice, and they just kind of played free and played their game. 7:42 And Nathan Burke, a guy that Garrett Raboin saw a lot in the NHL, scored goals around the net, got two of them in his home debut, and they did look pretty good. 7:53 Walker looks really fast on the ice. 7:55 He is contributing in college hockey pretty quickly, and it's surprising. 8:02 You know, Hammy, you know, when you talk about Walker and his speed, and, you know, we've got quite a few guys that have speed on this team, and when they're on the big ice, I would really like to see some of these guys use that speed a little more often. 8:13 I mean, you know, go wide, try to go around somebody, or even throw the puck deep and go use that speed to get the puck. 8:19 We really haven't seen that as much. 8:23 Well, I mean, I think some of it, you know, the transition game hasn't been always been great. 8:28 I think that certainly, I think what you saw on Saturday is that, you know, I think that some of these guys and I think it's been brought up by the coach, you know, on more than a few occasions so far this year is, you know, I think, you know, I was thinking about it this week and I just feel like some of these guys are so used to the highlight plays when they're in high school and they see that kind of stuff on TV. 8:51 And so they're not, you know, the reality is, is hockey is, as far as goals go, a lot of them are tip shots, they're ugly goals around the net, you know, scrambles, things of that nature. 9:01 You think of like Grant Patoni back in the day, he wasn't a razzle dazzle kind of a guy, but he had a nose for the net because he knew his way around the crease in that area, and heck, he scored one of the biggest goals in the program's history and that kind of a play. 9:14 So, you know, those are the kinds of plays I feel like this team needs to do, you know, become more effective at. 9:20 I don't know that we have the personnel for it, but right now some guys probably are capable of that, of course, but I think that's part of the problem is that we just don't have some of those guys that are willing to kind of score those ugly goals and maybe pay a little bit of a price. 9:34 Well, it was a little bit of a coming out party for Burke there, Vig, since he has been. 9:38 Well, apparently we found out that he had mono at the beginning part of the season, so maybe him getting in there with his other fellow freshmen, they have a chance to kind of set an example of how this team should play. 9:53 Well, we'll see. 9:54 You know, it's hard to tell with these guys. 9:56 He's such a small player. 9:59 You see him off the ice and you think Walker looks small, you know, Burke looks smaller and he's lost, you know, 15 pounds from what he was reported at. 10:07 So instead of being, you know, 180 or so, he's probably more like around 160 right now, which should be pretty small for when you start playing BigTen teams. 10:16 So whether or not he's able to translate this, that is kind of the style we need to see out of this team to score more goals. 10:24 Cause to Hammy's point, you know, these guys are used to scoring on their rush. 10:27 They're used to scoring pretty goals. 10:29 They're used to scoring on the power play. 10:30 You know, that's not going to work against every team. 10:33 When a heavy team wants to lock you down, and you have to dump it in and go get it and get to the net, you know, you need some of your older players who can take it to the net, doing that, and making plays coming from the wall to the net. 10:47 And this team still needs to learn how to do that. 10:51 If you're listening live in the Mixler chat, you can just throw us a question if you want us to handle something there. 10:58 And also on Twitter, you can always just tweet us using the hashtag at GPL Podcast, and we'll try to answer it. 11:04 I can see that Skyyura wants to know, will we start to see freshmen play more prominent roles in 5-on-5 and power play? 11:11 What do you think, Hammeh? 11:14 Well, I mean, I said it on GPL this past week, and I'm like, at this point, I'm just ready to, you know, unless there's some kind of a miracle turnaround, which I don't think any of us are necessarily expecting, I would, you know, the coach better just, you know, he better just get these guys some opportunities, you know, looking in the future, and I really don't mind seeing them play some of the younger guys and giving them key, you know, opportunities. 11:41 Now, I know it's kind of a bitter pill to swallow if you're a senior, and, you know, you kind of have to balance that with, you know, how are these guys going to take it if it looks like you're playing for the future? 11:51 So it's kind of a tough balancing act, but I wouldn't mind seeing them, you know, kind of make sure that the young guys get more opportunities. 12:00 Well, if you go further on that, Veegs, you know, if the coach kind of makes it look like they're paying for the future, maybe that's some incentive for these older upperclassmen to actually start performing. 12:12 Well, I think it's a message to these older guys to change their game. 12:15 You know, we kind of make fun of PJ Flock for change your best, but that's what these players need to do. 12:21 They need to stop focusing on the rush so much and play a game that works in a tight checking contest. 12:28 And I think that message is going to come through at some point because you're seeing Moscow make moves with players. 12:34 You're seeing them sit guys for taking penalties. 12:38 He did that to Rossini, he's done that to McLaughlin. 12:41 You saw him put Sheehy and Novak at the bottom of the line chart and not play them very much early in the game, kind of sending them a message to change their game. 12:52 He's not calling guys out specifically in the media, but he'll talk about six guys who played well. 12:58 And on Friday night, that was the Gates-Pitlilic line and the Norman-Romanko-Sheehy line. 13:06 He'll call out guys specifically like that. 13:09 And I think the message is, we'll get it sent. 13:12 Each center is asking in the Mixler chat, what do you guys think of Moscow's comments after the Friday game? 13:19 He seemed dejected. 13:20 I didn't sit down and listen to him. 13:22 What did you hear from Moscow Friday night that was telling? 13:26 Well, he was just honest about it. 13:28 He said that the product that they put on the ice was unacceptable. 13:31 He was surprised by what he saw on the ice because they'd had a good week of practice. 13:37 He thought he saw signs against Wisconsin that players were getting it. 13:41 He was complimenting Novak's game. 13:43 He was complimenting Zulster's game. 13:45 And that stuff just wasn't there on Friday. 13:49 I think he talked about this week how the team maybe was overconfident about playing St. 13:54 Lawrence, maybe didn't prepare for the game properly, a couple of things like that. 14:00 And he said, we're not going to let that happen again. 14:04 Fake Bob Monsko wants to know, is this season salvageable? 14:10 I still think it's fairly early in the season, but I think it's a valid question. 14:16 Well, I mean, I think obviously it's too early to say that's not salvageable, but I think that realistically speaking, unless we see some of these seniors really turn around quickly, it looks like it's going to be more of a rebuilding season and kind of, like I said earlier, getting a little bit of the younger guys' opportunities to kind of trial by fire, maybe giving them some of the key spots because we got to start looking at the future right now and if the upperclassmen, if the seniors aren't going to really be bringing it, then we might as well be looking at things that way, so whether they like it or not. 14:57 For me, it's just a question of whether these guys have the capability of being flexible and adapting to, like I said, a new culture. 15:06 They were so used to what the past culture was like and now they have a coach coming in that wants to instill a little bit different attitude and they're just not capable of it or maybe they're not open to it. 15:17 It's no different than a new business or a business getting a new president or something, you know, that the culture changes and some people can handle it and some can't, and maybe that's what we're seeing here with some of these older guys. 15:28 One thing about the season being salvageable, Veegs, you and I both got to talk to a referee and linesman after the game Friday night, and one of the linesmen, when speaking to us, kind of said something interesting to me. 15:43 He says, you know, in college hockey, a lot of times these teams that are just trying to get together, you know, a switch kind of comes on and they just turn it around, and it can turn around, it can happen real quick. 15:53 I mean, he just says it's just kind of the way things go. 15:56 You'll be down, then all of a sudden, they can just kind of turn around. 15:58 I thought there was an interesting little thing we heard from them on this whole season, saying, you know, hey, he was almost telling us, watch out, it could turn around pretty quickly. 16:10 Well, and I think that's so true with college athletes in particular. 16:14 A lot gets thrown at these guys, and we like to say they have a long track record, because we've seen them play college hockey, we've seen them play some junior in high school. 16:24 A lot of this stuff is new to them. 16:26 You know, I talked to a couple players this week, and they talked about how St. 16:30 Lawrence played a more man-to-man scheme, and it kind of caught them off guard on Friday. 16:35 It might have explained why so many guys were standing around, because they weren't sure where to go. 16:40 And they made some adjustments on Saturday, they made some adjustments to their penalty kill from Friday to Saturday, and they had a 3-0 win. 16:48 They only gave up, you know, 11, 12 shots, and they were a completely different team. 16:54 So I think it might be a bit of a mistake for people to go with the fake Bob Motskow thinking, is this season salvageable? 17:03 Well, they're so early in the season. 17:05 I think that would be a question to ask kind of at the end of January, once they're kind of on their trajectory, when the pairwise is starting to get a little bit more set, and you're seeing where they're at in the conference. 17:16 So this team's got great co-goal-tending. 17:19 They have guys who can score. 17:21 It's whether or not they can get the pieces put together and play against all types of teams. 17:27 Jess wants to know, is the Finn on Motzko's bad boy list right now? 17:31 What do you think, Veegs? 17:33 Well, he wasn't on the good guy list, but also he's not the one taking too many stupid penalties either. 17:39 Exactly. 17:41 They're looking for some growth out of him, I think, in his playmaking, but he's got a shot that's hard to teach, and he's got some natural skill there. 17:49 You just hope that he kind of can figure out when to shoot, when to look for another option. 17:54 But when he does fire the puck and he gets the net, it's a dangerous place to be. 17:59 And, Hammy, Vegoe kind of touched on it there. 18:01 Penalties, still a problem with this team. 18:04 If they don't get this solved, there is no salvageable part of this season if they don't fix taking these penalties that they keep taking. 18:13 Well, I mean, it just comes down to being smart, moving your feet, showing some discipline. 18:20 You know, and sometimes when you get kind of lazy about it, that's when you get out of position, you start reaching, you start doing dumb things, that's where the problems really occur. 18:28 So, as much as anything, it's, you know, I don't know if it's just, like I said, getting accustomed to what the expectations are, any of that kind of stuff. 18:37 But it's definitely frustrating to see. 18:39 I think it's also getting in game shape. 18:42 You know, a lot of these penalties kind of happen late in the shift, and people are just lazy with their sticks at that point. 18:48 And you put your stick around someone's skates at the end of a shift, it's going to get stepped on, and they're going to draw the penalty. 18:55 And you had mentioned today, was it, was it Motsko was even saying he liked maybe one penalty on the weekend? 19:01 Yeah, he said Brinkman got a pass for his, where he, you know, aborted a guy because he was in a battle, and he liked seeing the fact that Brinkman wasn't going to step down from that confrontation. 19:11 Oh, boy, it's frustrating. 19:15 And you know what's got to be frustrating for Motsko? 19:17 Because he's just not used to undisciplined play like this. 19:23 Yeah, his St. 19:24 Cloud teams are always at the bottom of the college ranks and penalties taken. 19:28 So he's said many times this is a problem he's not used to, you know, and he's taken the whip out on guys, he's sat guys, he's had one-on-ones, he's called guys out publicly. 19:40 Now he's calling out penalties in practice and totaling them up for the end of the practice. 19:45 You know, it's definitely a focal point for him. 19:47 And they're all stick penalties too, for the most part. 19:50 Yeah, it's just not good. 19:53 Well, we'll get a few more questions to get into and then obviously the Michigan State Series, but first we'd like to hear from our sponsor. 20:01 vintagemnhockey.com is a proud sponsor of the GPL Podcast. 20:06 Well, what is Vintage MN Hockey? 20:08 Well, it's kind of the place to get all of your history of Minnesota hockey from the pros to the minors, the collegiate teams to even the high school teams. 20:18 All information about any of those teams can be found on vintagemnhockey.com. 20:23 They also have great interviews with some historical Minnesota hockey figures like John Mayessich and Lou Nanny, Glenn Sanmore, some of the greats of Minnesota hockey. 20:33 So make sure you check out those interviews. 20:34 It's a really great thing. 20:36 But as I always say, I think my favorite part is the store. 20:40 The store, you can buy a custom historical jersey from the Gophers or the Bulldogs or some of your favorite high school teams. 20:47 And if you do make a purchase, just use the code GPL Podcast, all one word, and you'll get 10% off your order. 20:54 So make sure you visit vintagemnhockey.com and follow them on Twitter at VintageMNHockey. 21:02 Interesting tweet from Mill City JP. 21:04 He says, you know, when we criticize our upperclassmen, let's be sure to give props to those who are showing up and playing the gritty game and the system. 21:14 GrindrLion has been impressive five on five and on a penalty kill. 21:18 That play will be important deep into the Big Ten season, and I would agree. 21:23 We've seen it from Norman, Ramsey and Romanko for a few years now. 21:31 They've been solid. 21:32 Obviously, we'd like to see a little more scoring out of them, but we're always going to get that effort out of them, Veegs. 21:38 Yeah, and look for something athletic on them here shortly, probably not this week because of the Thanksgiving holiday, but I'm working on some of those guys. 21:47 You know, Romanko has a 30-goal score at one point. 21:49 It just isn't in college hockey. 21:51 He's got some of that ability to put the puck in the net. 21:55 He's just in the mindset of puck possession, be smart, play safe. 21:59 I think that line does need to take the next step and generate a little bit more offense. 22:05 Moscow said that that line led the team in scoring chances against Wisconsin a weekend ago. 22:12 So there is a little bit more growth there for them, but they played great. 22:18 Ramsey and Romanko are probably the top pair penalty killers on this team, and they do a great job at that. 22:25 But then again, Hammey, they might be the top penalty killers, which means they're out there a lot because of the penalties they're taking. 22:31 So it gets to a point where we've got these grinders out there, but they can't grind on the offensive zone because they're playing defense so much. 22:40 Well, yeah, and as far as the commenter talks about giving the upperclassmen props, certainly, I'm not trying to ream on all of them, but the fact is that if this team was going to go anywhere, it's not going to be based on the backs of fourth line guys. 22:57 It's got to be some of the key names that we mentioned earlier, the Sheehees, the Novaks, those kinds of guys. 23:06 I certainly appreciate the effort and what that fourth line brings to the table when they're called upon, but that's not going to be why we win a national championship or not in any given season. 23:18 It's going to be the top line guys that have to perform, and if they're not, that's a problem, and that's what we're seeing right now. 23:26 The university did a new thing this past weekend since they couldn't get any television. 23:30 They broadcasted on Facebook, which was a free thing. 23:33 You didn't have to be a Facebook member. 23:35 You just had to go to the page, and the broadcast quality I thought was pretty good, Veegs. 23:42 They're trying something different. 23:43 They're trying to keep the fans happy, and people complain anyway because that's just what they do, but I thought the announcers did an okay job. 23:50 They were a little more, I would say, biased, but they were open, too. 23:57 They were saying, oh, God, that was a mistake. 23:58 They were a little more open to seeing the mistakes out there, but you just tried something new because they couldn't get a broadcaster, and I think it worked out pretty darn well. 24:10 Well, I think there's a lot of competition for TV time around here, and Minnesota fans are lucky to get what they have. 24:17 I think they knew they'd get a pretty good blowback if they didn't find some way to make that happen, and the Facebook Live, I think, worked out pretty well. 24:25 I didn't hear too many complaints about having it available. 24:29 People always like to knock whatever comes out, but I thought they did a fine job as well, and I was glad that they figured out a way to do it. 24:37 A lot of schools don't. 24:39 A lot of schools wouldn't go to that kind of effort to get that game on. 24:43 No, they wouldn't. 24:45 Obviously, we've got a lot of people, oh, it's not the old days. 24:49 I went to a wedding on Saturday, and my brother came up to me and says, I can never find the channel. 24:54 I'm like, please just shut up. 24:57 It's really not that hard to find it on TV. 25:00 He kind of got quiet after that. 25:02 I'm like, he's just kind of a moron if you can't find the game. 25:04 I'm sorry, some fans can't find it, but it's not that difficult. 25:08 It takes just a little bit of effort. 25:09 It's a change for all sports. 25:11 For a football game, you've got to figure out what channel it's on. 25:15 Is it on FS1? 25:16 Is it on ESPN? 25:17 ESPN2 is BigTen Network. 25:20 Even the Vikings, you've got to figure out are they on CBS, Fox? 25:23 Are they on ESPN? 25:25 It's that way for every sport. 25:27 It is. 25:28 It's just the way things are. 25:29 People are a little nostalgic and they just kind of have to get over themselves, I guess. 25:35 One interesting thing we did see, and actually Sky Hurrah asked this earlier, he says, why honor the Don on a Friday against St. 25:42 Lawrence and not like a Saturday game or whatever game against Wisconsin or Notre Dame? 25:48 I don't know the backstory behind that, but I think he's kind of had a point. 25:54 Why do it against St. 25:55 Lawrence? 25:57 Less people to boo. 26:00 Just kidding. 26:02 I mean, I would have saved it for the home finale against Notre Dame or something like that. 26:08 Maybe the Don will be gone by then. 26:10 He'll be up in Alaska and he's just like, I want to get it done earlier. 26:14 And it was shocking because the Don actually did the rouser on the ice, had his arm pumping and everything. 26:20 And we actually saw a little personality out of him. 26:25 I think the Don's a little more relaxed now that he's not the head coach anymore. 26:29 True. 26:29 It would probably be easier for him to be in front of the media here someday going forward. 26:35 But for now, he's just kind of taking a step back. 26:37 And I think if you're thinking they did it intentionally for a small crowd, I think you might be reading too much into it. 26:45 They knew they wanted to do it, and this was an opportunity. 26:48 Here we go. 26:50 Tim Hapke asked earlier today, I think the Gophers need some grit. 26:54 Are there any recruits that will bring that? 26:57 Is Jackson Nelson someone who could, but will he still come here? 27:01 So that one you have, is Jackson Nelson a gritty guy, or is he even still coming? 27:07 Well, I think it's just a matter of, I think that's kind of what the coaching staff is sort of going through right now. 27:14 Some of these guys we've talked about decommits. 27:18 Some of it's do guys adapt to a new role, because let's face it, most of these guys, when they're in their youth hockey, they're playing in lead roles, and then it comes down to which guys are potentially capable of having that, you know, adapting and playing a different style of game. 27:35 So, you know, I don't think that, you know, a lot of these guys that we have in the pipeline right now are more skilled guys, so my guess is that they're probably looking into, you know, bringing some guys that maybe are a little bit more mature and bringing more of that physicality to the table, and I think we'll also see that they'll try to bring in guys a little bit later. 27:55 I mean, it's not going to be possible across the board, but I just think that you'll see kind of a little bit more of a mix, not that, you know, the past staff didn't ever bring in older guys or anything like that, but I sometimes kind of wondered if they recruited smartly enough with guys that could potentially play a different style of game as opposed to just, you know, the razzle-dazzle stuff. 28:16 So I think we're seeing some of the struggles now in the current team with guys that can't do that, and hopefully the new staff will be able to kind of bring a little bit more flexibility to the table. 28:29 Now, last Wednesday was the first early sign period. 28:34 Veegs, didn't we have a couple, at least one more signing on Thursday? 28:38 With Nevers? 28:42 Yeah, was it Mason? 28:45 Yep, Mason Nevers signed for me, Dinah. 28:48 You know, he's playing his senior year right now in high school. 28:52 I think it's kind of unclear whether or not he's actually going to come in next fall or not, but he's one of their five guys he signed. 29:01 Castor was one, Moe was the other, Myers and then Purbecks. 29:06 So those are the five. 29:08 They have a lot of spots open over the year to add more guys. 29:12 I definitely think if there's a guy like Nelson coming in or McGregor, they would prefer those guys to get older before they join the Gopher team. 29:22 You want those guys to be 19 or 20, I think, if they end up coming. 29:26 And that's probably the hard part for them, too, is do they want to wait that long? 29:29 And that's one thing about Jackson Nelson, too, is that, boy, his name's been thrown on for a long time because he committed, it seems like, a decade ago. 29:39 Yeah, but at the same time, he's only 18. 29:41 Yeah, true. 29:42 He can play two more years of junior and be just fine coming into them. 29:47 True, and you got me on that. 29:49 I'm just saying, it just seems like one of those names that have been bantered around for a long time. 29:54 Well, Garrett Waite was signed a long time ago, too. 29:56 Yeah. 29:57 He finally made it to campus, and he provides them a little bit of depth as well as an older player. 30:04 Okay, our friend Rob Shield wants to know what you guys cook in turkey for Thanksgiving. 30:11 Are you hosting or traveling, anything like that? 30:14 Hammy, what are you doing for Thanksgiving tomorrow? 30:17 God, well, I'm supposed to end up going to some place that's not like... 30:22 usually we had home cooked meals, but this year it's going to be going to some restaurant with some kind of a buffet with the family, I guess. 30:29 I don't know, I'm probably going to skip out early because I have some shopping to do, so go shop those good deals. 30:35 So yeah, it's going to be one of those, unfortunately, not a home cooked meal this year. 30:41 I'm actually making my own turkey. 30:43 I've got a half turkey, got some stuffing, I've got a pie I'm actually going to put in after the podcast, a little pumpkin pie. 30:51 So it will be my first experience cooking a turkey, so wish me luck. 30:56 Veegs, what do you got going on with your family? 30:58 I'm taking my family over to my parents' house tomorrow. 31:01 My father is smoking a turkey on the grill. 31:05 He's done it in the past and has a talent for it. 31:09 My household will be bringing a lot of the sides. 31:11 We're prepping a bunch of it tonight together, so should be a good meal. 31:17 That's fun for the kids, to help out with that. 31:20 Hopefully they don't make too much of a mess. 31:22 It wasn't too bad. 31:23 We were having a little bit of trouble cutting up some vegetables with the four- 31:27 and sixth-year-old, but we got her done. 31:29 All right, all right. 31:31 Well, it's kind of weird because we used to always have the Thanksgiving tradition of Michigan and Michigan State with the old college hockey showcase, and now it's kind of nice. 31:41 We're actually getting Michigan State here in the period that used to be the college hockey showcase weeks. 31:47 This team's coming in. 31:48 Expect to finish fairly low in the Big Ten, but this is a team that is, I think, slowly turning around. 31:58 Well, they've definitely got some talent up top. 32:00 You know, that top line with Corradenko and Hirose and Lewandowski, they're tough to play against, and they'll play a lot of minutes this weekend against the Gophers. 32:13 I think the key is, you know, don't let anybody else hurt you and don't take penalties to put those guys in the power play because they do have talent. 32:21 And, you know, I think Dan Cole is one of those coaches who's trying to get his team older, and he's effectively doing that. 32:26 They had a lot of guys get experience last year, and they're definitely going to be a tougher team to play against. 32:33 It's a weekend race to the bottom. 32:38 I don't know. 32:39 Minnesota, they're one and one in the Big Ten, so they're not in bad shape. 32:43 But, again, Notre Dame has come out with a fast start, even though they've played more games. 32:47 But, you know, Hammy, if they could lead, if they were to get a sweep this weekend, they would be in pretty darn good shape in the Big Ten. 32:56 The Nationals seem not as much, but they would be in good shape in the Big Ten. 33:01 Yeah, I guess about as good a shape as you can be in four games in the conference season. 33:07 So, yeah, I get what you're saying, but you kind of have to look at how guys are playing right now, and it's kind of hard to feel overly optimistic about where this team might finish. 33:18 Right now, I mean, they're looking at best the middle of the pack team. 33:22 They really have to step it up or hope that the goalies play, you know, some unconscious style of hockey where they're just, like, basically pucks are just hitting them left and right because they're not scoring a lot and the margin for error is not particularly big right now. 33:40 Apparently, we're missing the wild almost choke in this game away. 33:42 Last time I looked, it was 4-1, and now I look, it's 5-4, and what the heck is going on? 33:47 We're tied 4-4. 33:48 They scored just a few minutes ago. 33:52 I thought I saw some tweets come up. 33:54 I'm like, what the heck is going on? 33:57 Vig, so Michigan State's coming to town. 33:59 The fans don't get excited about Michigan State, unfortunately. 34:05 I always did because I always enjoyed the College Hockey Showcase. 34:09 I always loved it when Michigan State came here, and Michigan came here. 34:13 Those were some of my favorite games. 34:16 I'm kind of wishing the fans would embrace some of this Big Ten stuff, because some of this stuff is pretty darn good. 34:23 Well, I just think these next three weeks are really going to be a good time to evaluate where this team is at. 34:30 I probably watch too much practice and just get shaded by how good Rem Pitlick, Tommy Novak and Tyler Sheehy look in practice. 34:39 These guys are good practice players. 34:41 They have plenty of skill. 34:42 Whatever it is that comes out in these games where they have a tough time scoring, I just have a feeling it's going to come back. 34:49 These guys have scored at this level before in college hockey. 34:53 It's not like they're guys who scored in junior. 34:56 They've done it in college. 34:58 I think eventually it's going to come around. 35:01 You just watch these microscope games early in the season. 35:04 It's hard to tell what you have. 35:06 I think as this team gets more games on their belt, you get a little more data to evaluate, then I'll be ready to pass some bigger judgments. 35:14 But I just see so much potential up front, scoring depth for this team and so much talent and goal. 35:22 Just be patient. 35:23 Give them some time to figure stuff out. 35:25 Not optimistic. 35:27 Well, Hammy, to be fair... 35:29 I'll tell you why. 35:31 I guess for me, I don't... 35:33 Okay, so first of all, I don't buy the whole like conditioning angle because to me, it's like, what the hell are you doing all off season? 35:43 And then you bust in your ass and captains practice, and then you have early season practices. 35:47 They had weeks where they didn't play games. 35:49 It's like, what the hell are you doing if you're not prepared by now in the middle of November? 35:55 When are you going to be prepared? 35:57 And secondly, for me, older guys have no excuse for starting out slow. 36:01 I get it for young guys who have to transition from, you know, juniors to college and having that be difficult. 36:08 But guys like, you know, Chi-He, Novak, you know, I'm not saying that they have to be starting off like gangbusters, but this is ridiculous to me. 36:18 So I just don't, if you're not going to bring it by this point, then it's kind of hard for me to be optimistic that that's going to happen. 36:26 I'm sure that they'll have some decent games. 36:29 Don't get me wrong. 36:31 I'm just not seeing anything from these guys that makes me think that they're going to suddenly break out. 36:37 Veegs, is Shehee Novak maybe in the doghouse a little bit? 36:42 Well, I think they're in the doghouse because the coach knows that there's more there for them to give. 36:47 I thought they looked fine against Duluth. 36:50 I thought they played good games to open the season. 36:53 It's just I think they got a little bit frustrated in some of the games against North Dakota and Minnesota State, and they spent so much time killing penalties that they didn't have many opportunities, five on five, to get anything going. 37:06 So I think when you just reduce the amount of data you have to what's there right now, I think it's too early to take a judgment. 37:12 If this team can go through a couple of games where they're only taking one or two penalties, I think that's a fair condition to judge them on. 37:21 Yeah, yeah. 37:22 Well, I'm thinking split right away here because until they prove me wrong, I'm always going to think that this team is kind of a feast or famine. 37:31 It's just kind of how they've been so far this season. 37:33 Until they prove me wrong, it's going to be a split for me. 37:36 Hammy, what do you think? 37:40 Oh, despite my pessimism a minute ago, I'll go for the sweep. 37:46 But only because Michigan State's been pretty brutal in recent years, and if we don't sweep this weekend, it's definitely going to be Pessimism City after that. 37:56 What do you think, Veegs? 37:57 Are you going to jump on the Hammy bag and wagon and go for a sweep? 38:00 Well, obviously I'm going for a sweep. 38:02 I mean, come on now. 38:05 This team does have talent, and they're cut above Michigan State. 38:08 There's just been so much harping by the coaching staff on not taking penalties, on playing with more effort and intensity. 38:16 I think it's going to show. 38:19 We'll see. 38:21 I'm looking for Robson to start on Friday night. 38:24 If he plays lights out, I think he could get another game on Saturday. 38:28 If there's a game where he doesn't play lights out, I think Sherhorn gets the nod on Saturday. 38:33 I think that's kind of what you'll see from this goalie tandem going forward here for a while. 38:38 But I'm interested to see how they come out. 38:40 There's a lot of question marks with this team, and it's a chance for them to answer some of them. 38:45 Well, you guys are positive on the negative one. 38:47 That's kind of opposite of what it's been for all these years, guys. 38:50 I'm always, hey, we're gonna sweep, we're gonna sweep. 38:51 But I just have to be, they gotta show it to me first. 38:56 They need to really break out and just click and get it for me to get on that bandwagon. 39:04 Vig, you're mentioning you're doing some articles for The Athletic this week. 39:07 You think it's gonna come out this week, or maybe early next week, or what's going on? 39:10 Probably early next week. 39:12 We'll see what happens. 39:13 It kind of depends how they play this weekend, if there's some other storylines that come up. 39:18 But it's definitely something I'm working on. 39:21 It's an interesting crew, those three who've been playing together for a lot over the last couple years. 39:27 They're an interesting line. 39:29 And remember, you can always follow Vig's at The Athletic on GPL, and of course on Twitter at eVego. 39:37 Hammeh, what do you got going, Hammeh? 39:42 I'm just doing the daily grind of living the dream of the corporate lifestyle. 39:49 Isn't it a blast? 39:50 Let me tell you. 39:53 Well, yeah, actually, you can follow Hammeh at Hammeh Hockey on Twitter. 39:56 He's always following the recruits, and sometimes he's teasing people by following people. 40:00 You're a little devious like that, Hammeh, but I like that. 40:03 Right, right. 40:06 For those of you listening live, stay tuned for a little bit of overtime we have coming up next. 40:11 Otherwise, we'll be back next week to recap this Michigan State Series, preview Ohio State, and hopefully we're going to have Paul Cabanegri from the Big Ten Network on with us next week as well. 40:24 Thanks for tuning in.