0:08 This is The GPL Podcast, sponsored by Vintage Minnesota Hockey, your exclusive source for throwback Minnesota jerseys. 0:17 Visit vintagemnhockey.com. 0:20 Thank. 0:20 Now, here's Hammy, Vegoe, and your host, Jupiter. 0:45 Good evening, and welcome to The GPL Podcast, episode number 141 and going. 0:54 Back here for another week, another Jekyll and Hyde week for the Gophers, but we're gonna make it all a little bit better. 1:02 We have a guest this week, and you'll recognize him from BigTen Network, and probably from maybe the old school days back playing for Ohio State. 1:10 We have Paul Caponigri joining us. 1:12 Cappy, how are you doing? 1:16 Well, you're the third big BTN person we've had on. 1:19 We've had Dan Kelly on, and we had Pizzo on a couple of years ago as well, so we've almost got the whole gang on from your network. 1:27 Yeah, I mean, I couldn't let those guys get all the words in from BTN, and especially Pizzo. 1:34 We spend a lot of time in the studio together, and then we tried at the golf course quite a bit in the summertime, so I couldn't let him get all the glory. 1:43 Or you just tease him with golf courses when it's cold, like you did a couple weeks ago. 1:47 Yeah, well, he does that to me. 1:49 I know he goes down in February and covers the Big Ten, Florida, while we're freezing our butts off up north, so I got to be able to do it when I can on him. 2:01 Well, it's nice to have you on. 2:02 We'll try to get you on again sometime in the future. 2:05 But one of the reasons we're having you on is our Gophers are playing your Buckeyes this weekend. 2:11 Your Buckeyes are pretty good. 2:13 We'll get to that series in the end, but tell us your little bit of history with the Ohio State Buckeyes. 2:23 You mean my history? 2:24 Yeah, your history. 2:25 Well, my history. 2:26 Well, it took me a little while to get to college. 2:29 I was one of those 21-year-old freshmen, but I'll tell you, I was ready. 2:37 I spent a lot of time in junior. 2:40 I did three years under Mike Hastings, as probably a lot of people know, in Omaha. 2:45 I spent three years with him, and he was a great coach, and he was a great guy to repair you for college hockey. 2:54 As you can see now, what he's doing over in Minnesota State. 2:57 So I got there, and like I said, he got me going and ready for college right away. 3:03 I had a pretty good career, and we were able to get a championship my senior year, first one in 32 years. 3:10 Yeah, I know, right? 3:12 But played with some pretty good players. 3:14 I think my junior year, we had four guys that ended up playing in the NHL at some time or another. 3:22 And we even played the Gophers, I think, in the icebreaker at Excel. 3:29 Right after they had just won their first of two consecutive national games. 3:34 I think I was at that game. 3:36 You might have. 3:37 Yeah, I was probably in... 3:40 That would have been Vanik's first game? 3:43 First game, it was like 0-2, 0-2, Excel. 3:47 So they finished at the Excel and they started the next season at the Excel. 3:51 And I remember Vanik was already putting on a show and you had Paul Martin and Keith Ballard were teeing up one-timers on five on threes, I think they counted a 6-1 or something like that. 4:03 Yeah, that's actually... 4:04 That's my only go-for experience in the playing days. 4:08 It's a little different these days. 4:10 I mean, I know Minnesota did go to play Ohio State sometime about 10 years ago or so. 4:18 Just a little bit once in a while, a couple of back and forths, but now obviously they're in the same conference. 4:21 So we get to see them four times a year. 4:24 So it's quite a different story than it was back in the day when we never saw you guys. 4:30 It was just one of those things. 4:32 We only saw pretty much of the CCHA. 4:33 We'd see Michigan and Michigan State because of that old college hockey showcase. 4:40 I was always a little jealous of that, to be honest, to never kind of be able to get involved in that. 4:44 We never did see you guys or Wisconsin. 4:47 Saw Wisconsin in the NCAA tournament my senior year. 4:50 That was it. 4:50 And now it's just so weird. 4:52 You know, we're in year six of the Big Ten and it's so nonchalant now. 4:57 But you know, it's funny as, you know, you talk about maybe expansion. 5:01 How long is it going to take, you know, for the next teams to come around? 5:05 And, you know, when I was playing, I was thinking, oh man, when is the Big Ten going to happen? 5:08 You know, in my mind, from my perspective, and, you know, about, you know, eight to 10 years later, it did happen. 5:16 So what knows what will happen next with more and more teams? 5:20 Because I feel like there needs to be more. 5:22 There's just too many good hockey players out there and not enough teams. 5:26 Well, yeah, they do want to get to maybe an even least, at least to eight teams. 5:31 The odd teams just kind of, it just never quite works. 5:34 And Veegs, maybe we'll see that someday, an eighth team join the Big Ten. 5:38 You think it might be Arizona State down there? 5:41 Well, I think no one's going to take Arizona State as a team until they get their arena situation figured out. 5:47 Yeah, that makes sense. 5:48 That's just something that Penn State was able to take care of right away with a big donor. 5:53 And I think the Big Ten has the potential to wait until they get the right fit. 5:59 And I think it's better to have the right fit than the wrong fit. 6:02 Well, that makes sense. 6:03 Well, Veegs, we need to talk about our Gophers here before we get too much further because it was a, I've been calling it all season, a Jekyll and Hyde team. 6:14 Either they score or they don't score. 6:16 You know, they win big or they don't win. 6:19 And that's exactly what we saw bottled into one or two games last weekend with Michigan State. 6:25 I do think Michigan State had a little something to do with it on Saturday. 6:30 True. 6:30 Dan Cole said, Dan Cole said after the game that on Friday night, they played a great 85 foot game on a hundred foot rink. 6:39 And you can see that in the pace of play. 6:40 You know, Minnesota was able to get speed through the neutral zone. 6:44 They were able to get goals on the rush. 6:47 Their centers were able to penetrate the middle of the defense and crash the net and create some space. 6:52 You saw them be able to gain the zone, go low to high, get all kinds of different goals on the end zone game. 6:59 And then you flip that to Saturday, just about every time the Gophers were coming up across into the neutral zone, there was a forward who is keeping the puck on one side of the ice and there was a defenseman who was preventing anybody from getting a pass to the middle of the ice. 7:15 So what Michigan State really did was they isolated Minnesota to the walls and they just never adjusted. 7:22 And that was the frustrating thing to watch. 7:24 They have this game plan where they want to create speed and they want to possess the puck and Michigan State took that away and there was no answer and they got really lucky with two power play goals and couldn't take advantage of it. 7:37 Well, and that comes back to maybe some of the coaching and some of the systems that Motsko is trying to push, doesn't it Veegs? 7:45 It takes time for the kids to learn this and obviously you might have some stubborn older guys who may not be on board as much, but it is going to be a process for them, won't it? 7:57 Yeah, it's a little baffling. 7:58 I mean the first 10 minutes I thought Minnesota did a pretty good job of trying to maintain possession, dump the puck every once in a while, try to get something going. 8:07 They just didn't show the patience with it and I think they got a little frustrated and kind of disappeared and it wasn't like their power play was generating great chances on the goals they got. 8:19 One of them came when a Michigan State player broke his stick, created tons of room in the middle of the zone and they were able to get a puck from the point that Sheehee got a stick on. 8:28 And the next one, Sheehee hopped off the bench, waltzed right into the zone, no one picked him up and he was able to shelf one. 8:36 So it's not like their power play was clicking either. 8:40 Cappy, you've been through this. 8:42 You've switched teams for, you've had coaches change on you. 8:45 What's the most difficult transition for a player? 8:49 Is it just their mindset or what does a player need to do to kind of absorb a lot of this stuff and what the coaches are trying to tell them? 8:58 Yeah. 8:59 I mean, I think at first when you get in there with a new guy, you're just trying to impress them. 9:03 I think that's what comes to my mind is you just want to show your game what you can do. 9:10 You're soaking in systems and what this one, and like I said, these guys that are seniors have been listening to the same thing for three years for the most part, the same voice. 9:20 And maybe a lot, it really depends on some guys, maybe we're loving it, what they were doing, and some guys, it depends on the guy. 9:30 I just think at first you're just trying to get in there and make a good impression. 9:34 So he wants to put you in and play you in all the different situations because he's seen you from afar and he's watched maybe some tape on you, but until he sees you day in and day out on the ice and what you can and can't do, it's almost like a job interview to a certain extent. 9:54 You're worried about so many different things, you're not just coming in and, okay, I know my coach, I know what we're trying to do here, we just got to get the freshmen involved. 10:02 You're actually trying to do it yourself along with the other guys. 10:06 So it can take some time. 10:08 We're December 1 now, so you should see some more consistency, but it's not something where I see that it can't come or we're too far in to see something great still happen with this team. 10:23 Well, one trouble that we're going to have here, Vegs, is that it might just start clicking maybe against Ohio State or against, I believe, the next opponent might be Michigan, but then they shut it down for three weeks. 10:36 Is that a concern at all? 10:38 Well, they deal with it in college hockey every year, these long winter breaks for exams and the holidays, and it's just something they're going to have to overcome. 10:47 I think they're a little behind the rest of college hockey because of their start, and I think that hurt them more than anything else. 10:54 This winter break is something they're used to, though. 10:57 Yeah, that weird October, we've never seen anything like that. 11:00 You had a couple of games, then a couple of exhibitions, and they didn't play a real game for about three weeks. 11:07 Cappy, that would throw anybody off, wouldn't it? 11:09 The kind of season that Minnesota started, it wasn't a start to a season. 11:13 It was kind of stumbling into one. 11:16 Yeah, I can't imagine that that's kind of scheduling will be happening ever again. 11:21 It's up to Coach Matsuko. 11:23 I mean, yeah, you played, and you got off to a great start. 11:26 Hey, you gained some momentum. 11:27 I mean, then you're talked about, wow, what a great first. 11:30 Then you had three weeks to kind of sit on it, and you're waiting for this huge rivalry game. 11:34 That's another one game. 11:36 So, in essence, you played one game in three weeks, where you're mentally in that college hockey mode. 11:44 You're playing those other ones, but it's not the same when you're playing an exhibition. 11:52 But yeah, besides the ECAC, Ivy Leagues, they probably played the least amount of games at this point, at 11. 12:00 So I think, yeah, you got four difficult games coming up here before the break, and you just want to kind of keep building. 12:08 And then sometimes it's good to have those three weeks off, like you were saying. 12:13 Sometimes you're pressing, and it's a new season when you come back. 12:18 And I do think Cappy's right a little bit about the players trying to impress the coaches and figure out what the coaches are looking for. 12:25 Talking to the guys after the St. 12:27 Lawrence weekend, I think they were a little bit surprised on Friday with what St. 12:31 Lawrence was throwing at them with their man-to-man coverage, a little surprised with what they put out on their power play. 12:38 And it was just the players and the coaches getting to know each other and trying to figure things out. 12:44 One of the goals that happened on Saturday, Motskow thought the team was kind of a little off on their game at the end of the second period, so he made a late line change. 12:53 The next line that was going to come out, he didn't want to have them out against the KHL line, so he made a late change, and so there wasn't any back pressure on that tying goal. 13:02 And I just think there's a little bit of this getting to know each other stuff still happening. 13:07 The only way that's going to happen is if they play a lot of games. 13:11 Well, one of the things we've been keeping on a tab on all season leagues are penalties, dumb penalties. 13:17 How did you assess these past weekend penalties? 13:22 How did they do again? 13:25 I thought it was better overall. 13:27 You're seeing less of the stick penalties that played them early, especially on Friday. 13:32 They didn't have hardly any during the second period. 13:36 Last week, they had a couple, but it wasn't a bunch of critical ones. 13:41 It wasn't a bunch of them in the offensive zone. 13:44 It was some penalties you start to expect. 13:47 They're still calling them out during practice every time they happen. 13:50 It's something to watch going forward here. 13:54 Well, it'll be interesting to see how this team does come together. 13:57 I think they will eventually, but I think it's just going to take some time and it's going to take some discipline. 14:03 And you know what, Vegs, I think it's going to take effort because one thing we've noticed over the years, a lot of times this team just doesn't quite have the effort. 14:11 Or they're trying to do the fancy goal instead of getting the dirty blue collar goal. 14:15 I think Moscow really needs to kind of push effort out there. 14:19 Like he said during his opening media conference, 30 seconds of hell, I think they really need to get and embrace that. 14:27 Well, I do think that effort can be a bit of a cliche at times. 14:31 You got to put the effort in the right spots. 14:33 If you're trying to gain the zone with possession and it's not there for you, that's wasted effort. 14:39 What they need to be able to do is show some patience in their game, get pucks deep and put some pressure on it and be patient on taking the puck to the net. 14:49 Too many times we're seeing these players fire the puck right in the goalie's glove for a whistle. 14:55 We want to see some patience and that's effort too, controlling your emotion where you want to try to pick corners and get goals on the rush. 15:04 I want to see some effort towards the ground game a little bit more. 15:08 Yeah, I would agree there. 15:11 Cappy, it's nice to have you on for the more of the outside view. 15:16 Sure. 15:17 I watched a lot of the games by the way, probably the last three games I caught quite a bit of the Gophers. 15:25 Well, no, actually what I was actually leaning towards here is the Minnesota fans here have still not really embraced the BigTen as you could see by the crowds not showing up and things like that. 15:36 I'm just kind of curious what your national perspective is on this because I think some teams embraced it, some teams have not. 15:45 Obviously, the fans here in Minnesota have not. 15:48 I mean, we've given this up. 15:50 It's like either you support the team or you don't, but it was not a good change for Minnesota. 15:59 It might have been a good change for everyone else. 16:01 I was just kind of curious of your perspective on that. 16:04 Yeah, I think everyone wanted to be like Minnesota. 16:11 Almost every game is on TV. 16:13 You're the number one sport at your school. 16:24 You're the big fish in a small pond, so to speak. 16:26 At Ohio State, we are so far behind basketball and football at least. 16:30 You'd love to have a game on any kind of TV. 16:34 So I think trying to build the sport in a national thing is what getting the Big Ten, that's what I think Terry Pagul at Penn State's vision was. 16:44 I want to invest this money in my school so we can have a Big Ten Conference and grow something that he maybe saw. 16:51 And I think with Minnesota now, you know, now their games aren't all out. 16:56 You know, I hear this a lot, you know, from hearing you guys Twitter, all our games aren't at 7 o'clock on Friday and Saturday. 17:03 You know, it's, you know, you ruffled our feathers, you messed up our regular schedule program. 17:09 We're not playing my cousins and brothers at St. 17:13 Cloud every weekend, you know, our rivals every weekend. 17:16 It's, you know, that does, that is a big, you know, it's asking someone to change something that's been happening for 30, 40, 50, whatever years it's been. 17:25 It's gonna take time and it'll never be that because of what I just said about how you're not gonna, you know, you're playing Ohio State, Penn State or top 10 teams or top five could be, you know, as good as those other teams but they don't have the familiarity with players. 17:41 You probably battled over recruiting, the coach is changing, you know, Moscow coming into Minnesota, you had, you know, Larson, was that St. 17:49 Cloud now, or is that St. 17:51 Cloud now after leaving Duluth? 17:52 You know, all that, everyone's so familiar with each other. 17:56 You know, the players from the recruiting battles, this, you know, you don't know Taro Hirose and Khodorenko come in and are great players, but you don't really know much about them other than, you know, they come in for the two games. 18:09 And I think that's, you know, some of the bigger battles to get those fans, you know, to kind of at least buy in to like, hey, this is a great conference. 18:19 You know, let's get back on top. 18:21 And also, perhaps they came in and you guys just dominated the first five years winning, you know, the first four years winning the title, the regular season. 18:30 So, there's a lot of things there. 18:36 And, you know, all you do is try to put out a good product and, you know, you try to do that again. 18:42 And Ben and Fred do a great job. 18:46 And, you know, you just, you do it, you call it the way you see it. 18:49 And hopefully, the fans start coming along. 18:52 Well, that's what we're hoping as well because, you know, from our perspective, you know, we hear a lot of people complaining about the TV. 18:59 And the facts are is that they're on just as much as they were before. 19:04 They might be on a couple different networks, but it's, I think it's come to the point where people are just, they're just mad just to be mad. 19:12 And they're just looking for excuse to just complain about it. 19:14 Because, you know, you hear it all the time. 19:17 Well, where's, how come BigTen's not showing this? 19:19 Well, you know what? 19:20 BigTen has football tonight or BigTen has basketball. 19:22 And it's just the fact of television that those two sports are going to be number one, number two, and hockey is down the line. 19:29 It's just the fact. 19:30 I mean, people really can't accept that. 19:32 So they just have to, it's not a big adjustment for television. 19:37 You just have to use your guide like everyone has and you can find the games. 19:41 Right. 19:42 Yeah. 19:42 I mean, and believe me, if I had my choice, we'd be on every game. 19:48 And we'd be doing double headers every night. 19:50 But, you know, if you got those sports, you also got, you know, I see a lot of women's volleyball. 19:54 I mean, jeez, the Big Ten has got like seven or eight teams ranked. 19:59 And Minnesota volleyball is great and they're on a lot. 20:02 So they got to, you know, they got to spread the wealth out with sports to go along with basketball and football. 20:08 So yeah, I mean, it's not ideal for anyone. 20:12 But I mean, it's still you're looking at besides Minnesota, you're looking at these other schools that are getting, you know, 10 to 12 games on national TV a year where you'd be lucky to get two or three in the past. 20:24 And these I think some people just just haven't seen the big picture yet, have they? 20:29 Well and with social media, you're going to hear the 5% that really don't like it. 20:34 You're not going to hear from the 80% who are happy. 20:37 You know, you're still seeing crowds announce about 9000 at Mary Ritchie. 20:43 I think they're probably a little under 70% scan rates right now for 10 and then some of them are even worse. 20:50 But at the same time, each BigTen school is cashing a $40 million check. 20:56 Each BigTen Hockey program is among the top 10 in expenses among college hockey programs in the country. 21:03 It's a pretty good deal to be a BigTen Hockey player. 21:07 When you look at people who are getting recruited, the BigTen still has that aura to it. 21:12 It's a big campus, big experience, everything you want, lots of chartered flights, great strength and nutrition, people. 21:22 So I think it's overblown a little bit, and I think it's been good for college hockey overall. 21:26 It hasn't been great for Minnesota, but I think hockey is becoming a more national game. 21:31 You look at where all the players are coming from these days. 21:34 Even Minnesota has a guy from Arizona right now. 21:37 So I think the game is growing a lot, and Minnesota will get new fans. 21:42 They'll figure it out over time. 21:44 It's like turning a big ship at sea. 21:47 They're starting to figure things out a little bit, little by little. 21:50 And Cappy, when the Big Ten started, one of the problems was a couple teams had some down years right off the bat. 22:00 You had Michigan, you had Wisconsin, had some kind of down years. 22:06 And then all of a sudden, boom, you've got your Notre Dame coming in there. 22:10 You've got Ohio State really turning it around. 22:14 Michigan's coming back now. 22:16 This is becoming a much stronger conference. 22:18 But the problem was right at the beginning, when it all started, all the big hoopla, it wasn't good at all. 22:25 Yeah, I mean, you couldn't, you couldn't, I mean, when they first were thinking about it, you're thinking like, wow, look at these five teams that are going to be together, you know, and then you had Penn State, you're like, wow, when's there going to be an easy night? 22:40 And then by the time it started, you had the, I mean, Wisconsin was good that first year, they won the playoff and then they, you know, lost everybody. 22:48 Michigan was bad, then they had the one year with the, with the big line, the CCM line, and then they dropped off, you know, you just didn't, you know, you, and then Michigan State's been fighting it the whole time. 22:58 They used to, you know, they won national championships and they used to be a CCHA perennial top team. 23:03 So it's, it's, it, I think that battle, like Minnesota feels okay, we're going to BigTen and then it was a yawn to get through it and win, win the title. 23:13 So where, you know, where's the excitement? 23:16 You know, I don't know what I'm thinking. 23:17 I'm thinking now is that, you know, they're down now, people, you know, they're looking like maybe the fourth or fifth best team in the league and hey, you know, maybe this kind of is like a way to be like a, not a Cinderella, but like, Hey, we're the underdog now. 23:30 Let's prove ourselves, let's, you know, let's charge at those teams above us and turn it around that way. 23:36 You might be able to get some fans kind of to buy in that way. 23:40 Hey, we're, you know, we're looking down on now a little bit from the outside, from those teams above us. 23:45 Let's earn our respect that way by grinding our way to get into the top, the hard way. 23:53 The biggest problem we have around here is that we do have a lot of those people who kind of romanticize like the old WCHA, the final five. 24:03 It's, it's, it's, it's hard to reproduce that. 24:06 I mean, we saw some, some quality hockey in that league. 24:11 The final five was, it was the best tournament. 24:14 It was, it was almost a letdown to have the NCAA tournament after that many times, especially, especially if the same teams played because, you know, you know, I remember that big 2007 game when Blake Wheeler scored in overtime, falling, you know, and diving in front of 19,000 people. 24:29 It was just amazing. 24:30 It was loud. 24:31 It was, it was, you know, half the fans were, you know, SU fans and then we had to go for fans and then all other fans there. 24:37 And they played to this incredible game, incredible crowd. 24:40 Then they play the next week at Pepsi Center in, in the NCAA in front of a quarter of that, no atmosphere. 24:48 So that's one problem that Minnesota has is that, you know, they were the base of that, of that tournament and, and people, they took days, they would take vacation every year on the final five. 25:02 And that part is gone now. 25:03 And I, that's, that's the one thing that's going to be tough to bring those fans back is they're just angry to be angry. 25:09 That's like support your team, but they're just angry. 25:13 Yeah. 25:13 I mean, that's like I was saying before, it's like you're, and when you go to those final fives, you are seeing a lot of the same hockey's, hockey's a great sport because it's a small, you know, it's a small group of people. 25:25 You're going to see a lot of the same people at those same final fives every year and you're going to be friends with some and you're going to hate some because they're wearing Sue stuff or they're wearing St. 25:35 Cloud stuff or, you know, and you'll never be able to get that that those emotions going when you when you sit across the aisle from a, you know, Michigan fan, you know, it's just it's, you know, that'll take years and years. 25:48 I mean, like the final five is going on for decades, you know, and it's it's a time thing and it'll never exactly be the same, but I'll tell you, I mean, we've said you said this, I've heard you and I and I, God bless you, I love listening to you when you're fighting about the TV thing and everything with fans on Twitter and stuff and I get some chuckles. 26:08 Not at any point. 26:09 It's just a funny thing. 26:10 But it's it's it's I don't even know the words to describe it. 26:16 It's just it's here to stay. 26:19 It's not. 26:19 It is. 26:20 And, you know, I don't want everyone knows that they're not naive about it. 26:24 And I get it. 26:24 People are angry at times, but I think it's a great product. 26:30 And like you said, if these teams coming on and you know, there's rumors of maybe, you know, University of Illinois getting a team, if that were to happen, that would be great. 26:37 That gets you eight teams. 26:38 And I think that just aligns things up. 26:40 And then you still get your great non-conference game, you know, which is going to make Minnesota's schedule insanely difficult every year. 26:47 But you're playing, you know, St. 26:48 Cloud or Duluth or North Dakota every year and your non-conference or Minnesota State. 26:53 You know, you're getting those games still. 26:55 So I think you can still get the best of both worlds to a certain point. 26:59 I can't disagree with that. 27:01 We got a couple questions in the Mixler Chat. 27:03 We're going to get to them in just a second here. 27:05 But let's hear from our sponsor. 27:08 vintagemnhockey.com is a proud sponsor of the GPL Podcast. 27:13 Well, what is Vintage MN Hockey? 27:16 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. 27:26 All information about any of those teams can be found on vintagemnhockey.com. 27:31 They also have great interviews with some historical Minnesota hockey figures like John Mayessich and Lou Nanny, Glen Sanmore, some of the greats of Minnesota hockey. 27:40 So make sure you check out those interviews. 27:42 It's a really great thing. 27:44 But as I always say, I think my favorite part is the store. 27:48 The store you can buy a custom historical jersey from the Gophers or the Bulldogs or some of your favorite high school teams. 27:55 And if you do make a purchase, just use the code GPL Podcast, all one word, and you'll get 10% off your order. 28:02 So make sure you visit vintagemnhockey.com and follow them on Twitter at VintageMNHockey. 28:09 Okay, let's hit up the Mixler chat questions, you know, for those listening live. 28:13 And I know Tom is wanting to know Cappy. 28:15 He wants to know if we can get a Cappy slash Luke Stauffiger rematch. 28:25 That is great. 28:26 Where did you see that? 28:27 See, there was a rematch. 28:29 Oh, there you go. 28:30 Yeah, there is a great video on YouTube, I think, of me in a United League game in like 2008 with Luke Stauffiger. 28:46 Two lightweights, for sure. 28:50 You're not a big fighter? 28:52 Cappy, you had your share of penalty minutes all the way through your career. 28:55 I did, but they weren't all from fighting. 29:00 My Italian blood inside me, I like to talk a lot. 29:07 To be good, I had to be emotional out there, and sometimes I talk to the refs a little more than maybe I should have. 29:14 Yeah, you and Pat McGlutty, a little bloodline shared maybe. 29:18 It's the curse of the Italian blood. 29:22 I don't think a lot of fans might not hear a lot of what these players say out there, but you do hear some gems. 29:29 Were you a big talker out on there? 29:32 Yeah, I mean, I did. 29:33 I felt like I was engaged when I did. 29:36 If I was quiet, I was kind of not. 29:38 So it was always kind of trying to walk the fine line of being engaged and talking to a certain, you know, just taking it to a certain extent to get your own self going. 29:50 And then, yeah, the referee thing, too. 29:53 You know, some guys, you know, the head of officiating, Steve Petrowski for the Big Ten, he was a ref when I was going and we got off on a rough start my freshman year in the playoffs. 30:05 And by the time I was a senior, we were good buddies on the ice and we would still flare up at each other here and there. 30:11 But, you know, we'd talk before games and whatnot. 30:15 And now I see him whenever I'm on the road at a game. 30:17 I see him. 30:18 We just have a good chuckle and laugh about the past and talk about how things are going now. 30:22 Well, a lot of times, you know, I get I'll be shooting as a photographer between the benches down at the Gopher games. 30:29 And some of these kids are very original. 30:33 And, you know, I see some I see players from both teams laughing at times. 30:37 And this is stuff that the TV cameras don't pick up and the fans can't hear. 30:40 And these guys, you know, you know what? 30:45 I've noticed that a lot of the hockey community, they're out there having fun, too. 30:48 It's not just hockey at times. 30:51 Yeah, it's just it's just a hockey thing, it seems. 30:56 I mean, I've heard I've heard guys talk about. 30:58 But I've heard some guys talking about, you know, like Wheeler's sister and all this other stuff. 31:03 And it's just obviously some stuff we can't say on the air while we could, but we shouldn't. 31:09 But it's you guys are having fun out there, win or lose, it seems like. 31:16 Yeah, I actually could, you know, go for related story back in junior and I was playing in Omaha, and Grant Patolny was playing for the Lincoln Stars and, you know, big rivals, Omaha Lincoln, and we played them a ton of games. 31:29 And, you know, we we jabbed at each other quite a bit. 31:33 And he came up to I think he had just signed, you know, at the Gophers to committed there. 31:39 And you know, it's big deal. 31:40 He's I think the first one outside of Minnesota. 31:44 You know, I'm in I'm in my third year, I think. 31:47 And he's asking me at the time, this is, you know, two thousandth. 31:51 We're going back. 31:51 He's like asking when I'm going to sign with, you know, with Quinnipiac, you know, at the time they were just starting their program. 31:58 And he's giving me a hard time because I had didn't have any anywhere to go yet. 32:02 And then, you know, he jabs at one of me and I respond, hey, man, whatever you when you sign, I'm joining you there, buddy. 32:09 You know, just to try to get him off my back. 32:12 But but that's, you know, the little stuff like that. 32:14 I mean, you know, it was what makes the game great. 32:18 And the one beautiful thing about hockey is a lot of it can go undetected because you're no basketball. 32:23 You know, you're right on the sidelines, people can hear you hockey, you got facemasked on and, you know, you got the glass so you can kind of get away with a little more back then in there. 32:32 Well, we've got one interesting topic from Jess in the Mixler chat. 32:35 He wants to know, let's start with you actually, Veegs. 32:39 You know, we've talked about this a little bit in the past, but thoughts of regionals moving back to campuses and maybe having the highest seed hosts. 32:47 What are your thoughts on that, Veegs? 32:50 I really would love it if they'd go back to a first round best of three at the high seed. 32:55 You know, you'd have eight first round best of three series going on. 32:59 It'd be great TV. 33:01 I think it would be great for college hockey. 33:05 You can see all these regionals very rarely as the attendance great. 33:09 It has to be kind of a magic, you know, home seed or home host making it to the region and then some regional rivals to fill up the building. 33:18 So I think it'd be great for college hockey. 33:20 I don't know if it's going to happen, mainly because there's enough small schools that want to protect themselves in college hockey, you know, when you have to go on the road to be successful, and I think it would be great for the game to do it. 33:33 I know there are some coaches who would like it. 33:36 I think we're seeing in the BigTen tourney with these home schools having great games, great atmospheres. 33:42 You know, some of the opponents would rather do that than playing in an empty building. 33:45 You know, I think that's a good way to go for college hockey. 33:49 WCHA, BigTen, you know, they're already on board. 33:52 Wait, Biggs, are you talking about the regionals? 33:55 I'm talking the first round of the regionals, be a best of three, and then you could go into kind of a super regional before the final four. 34:03 So you're just reducing, you need an extra weekend. 34:09 Well, really, it's because the regionals are starting to become very thinly attended, even in the big cities. 34:17 Well, there's rarely a good host out west. 34:20 You know, I think some coaches might disagree, but there's Fargo and there's Sioux Falls right now. 34:24 You know, there's Penn State hosting the Midwest regional. 34:28 That makes zero sense. 34:30 You know, Notre Dame had an on-campus regional because no one else would bid for it. 34:34 You know, college hockey isn't the big sport where these schools are willing to waste money trying to guarantee NCAA revenue for a regional. 34:42 Yeah, well, I mean, I think when we look back on it and why it happened was, well, it actually was around my time in the early 2000s when Michigan was hosting a couple regionals in the early 2000s. 34:56 And they were like the number four seed, you know, I think they had Denver one year, who was the one seed, and CC, I think they were both maybe the number one overalls in Michigan, ended up coming out of both regionals both times because they were playing at home in front of 6,000 fans and had the kind of home ice advantage, and I think that kind of ruffled feathers. 35:16 That's kind of what I remembered, kind of how that kind of got, the steam got pulled ahead on that with the non-hosting at home ice. 35:28 One of the things, like you said, Veegs, is that there's not many arenas in this area that are teams that are willing to host at. 35:34 Out east, there's a lot more medium-sized arenas, not the big, like, XL energy size. 35:41 We've seen regionals here at the X and at Pepsi Center, and I believe even St. 35:46 Louis, but there's just not a lot of places to go. 35:50 Yeah, I mean, the HL building is the right size rink for a regional. 35:55 When you're playing in the big NHL buildings, it's a great experience for the athletes, but at the same time, they're going to have to put up with the crowds. 36:02 And I think if you did this on campus first round, you look at last year, some of the teams hosting would have been Cornell, Ohio State, Minnesota State, Providence. 36:15 Those would have been compelling buildings. 36:18 They could have filled it up with their fans, and it would have been a great experience. 36:22 Teams just on the outside, Northeastern, Clarkson, those aren't exactly big schools. 36:27 If they had the opportunity to host that first round series, it'd be great for them. 36:32 You look at the WCHJ when they have their playoffs at the home sites, Michigan Tech can fill a building for that. 36:39 It's great for the fans, it's great for the teams. 36:43 Well, like, when's the next time this comes up, Vee? 36:47 They kind of talk about it every year. 36:48 They want to tweak it and tweak this, but it's kind of, is it a by year or by every two years they talk about this? 36:55 Well, they haven't announced the regional host pass this year, so it's up for some conversation. 37:00 I doubt it gets to the level that I would like to see it at, but it is up for negotiation. 37:06 I know one of the big things they're looking at is the amount of guaranteed money that has to be put up by a host. 37:11 That might make it more feasible for some other schools, because a school like St. 37:15 Cloud or Minnesota Duluth just can't take the risk with their budget to try to be a host right now. 37:21 It's just not feasible for them. 37:23 And pretty much it's been Minnesota and North Dakota hosting the regionals for quite a few years, and actually it's been North Dakota what, the past, it's going to be three years in a row? 37:32 So it's... 37:33 No one else can bid on it. 37:35 And Minnesota's been busy with final fours and things like that at the time, so they've been tied up. 37:40 Yeah. 37:41 Yeah. 37:42 All right, guys. 37:42 Well, let's get into this weekend. 37:44 We got Ohio State coming into town for a Friday, Saturday series. 37:48 Note that the Saturday game's at 4 p.m., a little earlier this week, so don't forget that. 37:53 And also don't forget, there's volleyball down at the university this weekend. 37:59 There's NCAA. 38:00 So if you want to get to the games, you might want to go a little early because traffic will be a little different because the pavilion across the street will be packed as well. 38:08 So, Cappy, your Buckeyes, they're looking really good so far. 38:15 Yeah, well, I think they're back now to where they wanted to be. 38:20 I think I actually saw them in South Bend and it was kind of the beginning of where they kind of saw, you know, the team that you saw last year. 38:30 And, you know, this is the weekend after they got thumped by Bowling Green 8-2. 38:35 And I think, you know, maybe sometimes, you know, you spend the whole summer getting, you know, your back rubbed and tell how great you are. 38:44 And, you know, you have expectations that maybe none of these guys have really experienced. 38:49 And, you know, you might say the right things. 38:51 You might plan to play, you know, as well as you can. 38:55 But, you know, the game changes a little bit at first. 38:58 I think it took a little bit of, you know, a kick in the butt here early on for them to kind of wake up and get back to the game. 39:05 I know that Coach Rollick wants them to play. 39:08 And I think it was that Notre Dame series that got them going. 39:10 And, you know, you've seen now they've given up, you know, they had four or five shutouts already and, you know, that's their game. 39:17 They're going to try to play that team game and make teams, you know, these talk about the Gophers being patient and that's, I think, something that they're going to need to be against Ohio State because them like Notre Dame, they don't, you know, make a lot of mistakes, you know, they don't beat themselves off and they're going to make you earn it. 39:36 And I think that's something that they finally got back to the last three weeks, four weeks. 39:40 And I think when this year's senior class, when they were freshmen, they had no patience. 39:45 And when you played Ohio State, it was a run and gun game. 39:48 I think the change in their program happened last year. 39:51 All of a sudden, they started playing with discipline and patience. 39:54 And you saw that Frozen Four run because of it. 39:57 Yeah, I think that, you know, getting Steve Miller, I mean, that guy's track, you know, his track record has been amazing where he's gone. 40:06 I'm surprised he's not gotten, you know, looks at maybe a higher, you know, at a head coaching or whatever. 40:12 I don't know where that's got, you know, he's been with world junior teams and whatnot. 40:16 But I think he brought in some some discipline to their penalty kill and and just a mindset thing that they had to change. 40:22 Yeah, two years ago, I mean, you had their power play was great, but they were trying to win game six, five, kind of like what Penn State does a little more often. 40:30 And, you know, it had some success. 40:32 But I think you want to win league championships and national championships. 40:36 You know, it starts in the back end. 40:39 As boring as that may sound to a guy like me was a forward was a forward and some of those guys. 40:44 But when you get guys like Mason Yopps buying into that, you see your, you know, all-American leader maybe, you know, sacrificing some points. 40:53 And he was a 50 plus point guy as a sophomore. 40:56 And, you know, you could see that he had changed his game and was, you know, buying into that. 41:02 And when you got your leader doing that, it's really hard for a younger guy or anyone else to not say that, or, you know, say that, I'm not going to follow that league. 41:11 And Veegs, I remember Media Day, you talking how impressed you were with Ohio State, how they had so much leadership coming back and that they were going to be a really strong team this year. 41:20 Well, they almost reminded me of Denver a little bit from last year. 41:23 And we saw how Denver kind of struggled a little bit to get going. 41:26 You know, you have these huge expectations at the end of the season with all these guys who definitely passed up pro contracts to come back. 41:34 And so I think it can take a little while for them to get their legs under them, get refocused. 41:39 And you're seeing some great hockey out of Ohio State, you know, they've got elite talent all the way up and down their forward lines, and they play a tough game to play against. 41:50 I think Bob Motzgau said, you know, when you've got guys who turn down pro contracts to play four years for you, that's when the magic starts happening for your program. 42:00 And he was a witness to that. 42:02 You know, we remember back in 2002, you know, Jordan Leopold decided to come back his senior season, and they needed that leadership to get through and win that title for the first time in 23 years. 42:16 Helps to be old in college hockey and, you know, Ohio State has all the experience. 42:20 One of the things I was interested in, I was looking at Ohio State, they've kind of divided up some of their big guns. 42:25 You know, Jobst and Joshua and Lozinski are all on different lines, at least last weekend. 42:30 I haven't watched all their games this season, but has that been pretty consistent for them, Cappy? 42:37 You know what, it has. 42:38 I mean, as far as I've seen it, they've tried to kind of spread out the wealth. 42:43 They've put some young guys, two freshmen that I've kind of noticed up front, Gustav Westlund. 42:49 He doesn't have a goal yet, but he's got, I think, nine assists. 42:53 Good skill guy. 42:54 Couldn't press Preston. 42:56 Doesn't have a ton of points, but, you know, I think they're, you know, they see as those guys that eventually will be, you know, they're guys and they put them on a line with, say, a Lysinski and a Gerrard. 43:08 So you got a junior, senior and a freshman. 43:09 So I think they like kind of balancing out and, you know, they're not trying to, you know, load up one line to win, you know, get those guys to get six goals. 43:19 They just need three. 43:20 You know, that's kind of where they're at right now. 43:22 And if they spread it out, you know, so be it. 43:26 And I think that's what they're kind of doing at this point. 43:28 And it seemed like they're buying in. 43:31 So, Veegs, what does Minnesota need to do to stop Ohio State this weekend? 43:35 Because right now it's looking like, you know, Ohio State's coming in with all the power, all the experience. 43:43 What does Minnesota need to do? 43:44 We've seen Minnesota play with the top teams. 43:46 But what does Minnesota need to do to play with Ohio State? 43:50 Well, I think we saw when they played Minnesota Duluth, their recipe for playing against a tough team. 43:55 You know, that first night, you know, you got to get off to a good start. 43:59 You got to have that good 10-minute game that we used to hear all the time from Donald Lucia. 44:03 Well, that's legitimate when you're playing against a top team like Ohio State. 44:06 You know, you want to feel out the game, feel where the space is going to be, understand what kind of forecheck you're going to be up against, and just, you know, get to work a little bit. 44:17 I think sometimes Minnesota gets into these games and they just want to go, go, go right away, and they, you know, play without a conscience. 44:26 And so I think they have to be real disciplined or this game could get away from them. 44:29 Ohio State can really shut you down if you're behind, and that's a situation Minnesota can't afford to get into. 44:36 And they've got to stay out of the penalty box, because it does look like Ohio State loads up those top guys when they get a power play opportunity. 44:44 Yeah, so I'll throw that at you, Capy. 44:47 What does Minnesota need to do to get it going and stop Ohio State? 44:54 Well, I think first, and maybe you saw it last weekend with Michigan State and you heard what the coach said about playing an 85-foot game is, maybe you catch Ohio State off balance. 45:06 They don't practice. 45:07 They don't get any ice time on an Olympic sheet. 45:11 So maybe Minnesota does come out and use their speed and use that extra space, maybe to their advantage to a team that hasn't seen it or skated on it all season. 45:20 I would think maybe you do want to get off to, maybe get Buckeyes on their heels early on and maybe get that first game like they did with the Spartans. 45:31 But obviously also knowing that they're an experienced team, play with discipline, staying out of the box. 45:38 So they don't need to play a perfect game. 45:40 Ohio State is not going to run you out of the ring 6-0. 45:43 Unless you're making huge mistakes, they're not going to do that kind of thing. 45:50 So you can stay in a game and you can jump on them early. 45:54 Like I said, taking advantage of the ice. 45:57 And I say this all the time, watching a power play and knowing where those hash marks are. 46:02 Guys get mesmerized, not realizing that the ice is wider and you don't be chasing out there. 46:09 And then next thing you know, your gap is too far and there's passing lanes open for one-timers. 46:13 And next thing you know, Minnesota's got cheese, hot, and that's something that's got to continue if they want to jump on the Buckeyes early. 46:23 That's totally what happened to Michigan State on Friday night. 46:26 They had guys chasing players to the wall, and all of a sudden you got two forwards eating up the rest of the ice. 46:33 And there's just so much space if you can get them to chase you to the wall, to the corners, and that's something they might be able to take advantage of. 46:41 But I'm sure Rolex is going to prepare these guys for that. 46:44 Yeah, but they will, and I'm sure they'll come in and practice there tomorrow, but it's a brain thing. 46:52 You practice every day, and you see the ice this size, and you just go, and that's your system to go, and you can try to make these tweaks. 47:00 It's just a matter of how quickly they can adjust. 47:03 They're an older veteran team. 47:06 A lot of these guys have played at Minnesota quite a few times, but I just think it's that first time out, like, oh, there's that much more room. 47:15 Am I going? 47:15 Am I staying? 47:16 You might hesitate, and then it might cost you one way or the other. 47:19 I think that's where Minnesota can jump on them early and try to roll some momentum, because you go into Mariucci sometimes, and the Gophers can gain some momentum and get those fans behind them, and it can get difficult for the visitors. 47:37 All right. 47:37 Well, let's hear your predictions then. 47:40 I'm thinking split just because I think Minnesota is still that Jekyll and Hyde team. 47:44 I think they could come out and win a game fairly easily and then just kind of crap their pants the next night. 47:50 It's what we've seen so far. 47:52 I'm just going to stick with it. 47:54 Veegs, what do you think? 47:57 Oh, man, it's going to be a tight series, I think. 48:00 I'm feeling like there's going to be a split. 48:03 We might see our first BigTen 3-on-3 hockey for Minnesota this weekend. 48:07 We can beat me to it. 48:10 That's why I get to go first, Cappy. 48:11 But I think we'll see a game go to overtime here. 48:14 These teams can play with each other. 48:17 I think it's good for Minnesota to play a team like Ohio State. 48:20 I don't think they play quite as heavy as Minnesota State, North Dakota. 48:25 So it's going to be a better fit for them style-wise, opportunity for both teams to show what they got. 48:31 Cappy? 48:32 Yeah, you know, we haven't really talked about this part, but the goal-tending is interesting. 48:37 They've both kind of been splitting weekends. 48:41 You know, with the Buckeyes, you know, you thought Sean Romeo was the guy, but they've got two guys in there now, and one just had three shut out, Romeo and the other guys leading the country, Napier, and Coles is the save percentage. 48:56 And then, you know, Robson, it looks like when he plays, the Gophers give up more shots. 49:03 I don't know if that's a mental thing or just luck of the draw. 49:07 But, yeah, I see maybe, you know, I see a tie and a win or, you know, maybe an overtime win. 49:15 But I think a split, I want to, you know, or maybe the Buckeyes get one and then they tie. 49:21 I think it really, I think Minnesota's game is Friday. 49:24 I really do think that, you know, they're coming off of a loss. 49:28 It seems like they've reacted pretty well to maybe a bad loss. 49:31 They did that with St. 49:32 Lawrence. 49:35 But, you know, that's what I'm thinking. 49:38 Maybe two, one, it won't be a ton of goals. 49:40 That's my other prediction. 49:41 I don't think, you know, two, one games, three, two tops. 49:45 But, you know, I've been wrong before. 49:48 But that's what I'm thinking right now is maybe a go for, maybe shootout win. 49:53 Let's go there. 49:54 I'll go there. 49:55 Friday and a Buckeye win Saturday. 49:59 There you go. 49:59 And you know what's going to happen now. 50:00 They're going to have one of those six. 50:02 Eight to five. 50:04 Three years ago. 50:05 Yeah, I was doing the reverse curse there. 50:08 Because, you know, what was that? 50:09 Minnesota had like six power play goals at Ohio State. 50:11 Was it two seasons ago? 50:12 And it was just the strangest game. 50:14 Wild game. 50:15 It was. 50:16 Yeah, you know, what is interesting is, you know, one thing that the Buckeyes did last year, their special teams were great. 50:22 Their penalty kill, I believe, was number one all year. 50:24 They have not been that good on the penalty kill. 50:27 I mean, Friday's loss to Penn State was pretty much a direct correlation. 50:31 They gave up two power play goals, two Penn State in that 4-3 loss, and they gave up, you know, another one on Saturday. 50:37 And that just last year would be a shock if they gave up a goal on the power play. 50:42 And, you know, Vig said, you know, she's worked great power play goals. 50:46 But, hey, you get power play goals, you know, it can feed some confidence. 50:51 And, you know, Tyler's obviously now got to be feeling pretty good about, you know, his game and his shot. 50:56 So, I mean, that could be a big key. 50:58 And the Buckeyes don't take a ton of penalties. 51:00 So, you know, they got to take advantage of those power plays on the weekend when they do get them. 51:05 I will say that the Gophers' power play is maybe a little deceiving on how they've gotten their nine goals. 51:12 I'd say over half of them have just kind of been great individual plays at the right moment. 51:17 You know, it's not like they're getting tons of pressure, tons of great A's. 51:21 It's just they do have some talent when they have time and space, or if a team forgets about them, they can capitalize. 51:27 Yeah, I think that's just maybe one piece that maybe the Gophers are missing is that, you know, Phillips is a really good skilled defenseman, but I guess you're spoiled when you got guys like Mike Reilly back there and you go back to the Leopolds and the Martins and stuff. 51:44 But you know, that couple of elite guys that are just that quarterback, that power play so well, they get guys in the right positions. 51:51 And then it just like it's target practice out there, seeing so many Gopher teams do that. 51:56 You know, you get the guys on the high hash marks and just one timing away across past and the seam. 52:03 And, you know, I think that's something that if they can get back to that, you know, they could have some success. 52:10 Well, there you go. 52:11 Well, we appreciate you coming on with us, Cappy. 52:13 Hey, man, I'm glad I got the invite. 52:16 I've been, you know, I've been listening to you guys. 52:17 I get my, you know, gopher information from you guys. 52:21 You guys do a great job. 52:22 And, you know, anytime you want me to come on there and jabber with you, feel free to ask. 52:27 Well, we really appreciate it. 52:28 Remember, you could follow Cappy on Twitter at CAPPY27. 52:34 Cappy 27. 52:36 So make sure you do that. 52:37 Veegs, you got anything going on with the Athletic this week? 52:40 My Romanco-Ramsey-Norman line story will be out on Friday. 52:44 So look for that on the Athletic and more stuff down the line. 52:48 And hopefully we can get them to score some goals one of these days. 52:52 Yeah, they're getting closer. 52:54 They had a great weekend against Wisconsin, not as promising against Michigan State. 53:00 There's a lot of guys on the team right now. 53:03 There's just a tentative style of player right now, whether it's on the power play, whether it's through the neutral zone, when there's not a lot of space there, it's just a lot of guys standing still. 53:14 It's a feeling-out period for them, and we'll see what happens this weekend. 53:19 We will see. 53:22 We'll be back next week to recap this series with Ohio State and preview the series with Michigan before we take our three-week or so hiatus for the Christmas break like everyone else does. 53:34 For those of you listening live, we'll have a little bit of overtime coming up. 53:37 But we'll see you next week.