0:08 This is The GPL Podcast, sponsored by Vintage Minnesota Hockey, your exclusive source for throwback Minnesota jerseys. 0:17 Visit vintagemnhockey.com. 0:31 Thank. 0:32 Now, here's Tami, Vegoe, and your host, Jupiter. 0:45 Good evening, and welcome to The GPL Podcast, episode number 142 and counting. 0:53 We are without Hammy again this week. 0:56 He's got business stuff, he's a busy guy, so he's not gonna be able to join us, but like Hammy said last week on Twitter, we have an upgrade. 1:06 And the upgrade is Jess Myers. 1:07 Jess, thanks for joining us, it's been a while. 1:10 Why do you guys all get like handles, and I have to go with my actual name? 1:13 That doesn't seem fair. 1:17 I want to be like Hockey Town or something. 1:21 Thanks, guys. 1:21 It's great to be here. 1:25 Well, what can you do? 1:27 I mean, you know, some of us had these nicknames for a long time now. 1:30 I know you have. 1:31 It just kind of stuck, you know. 1:33 A lot of them started back in the day where the internet was, you know, it started on the Pride and Ice Board and USCHO, and a lot of people were not using their real names back then. 1:43 Sure, sure. 1:45 And, you know, I just I like the planets and stuff. 1:48 I came up with Jupiter and it just kind of stuck. 1:50 You're an astronomy buff, right? 1:52 Yeah, I kind of am an astronomy buff. 1:54 That's awesome. 1:55 So I went with that back in, I want to say the 90s, sometime in the 90s. 1:59 And Vegoe, what does that mean? 2:00 That must mean, no, I'm kidding. 2:05 Oh, that was the bad guy from the Ghostbusters movie. 2:11 Well, guys, were you, were you both there last weekend for that hockey? 2:16 I know for one thing, was the hockey any better than the last time I saw you, Jessica's mid game a couple of weeks ago, you came over to me and says, this is not a hockey game or something along those lines, or this is the worst game I've ever seen. 2:28 There was a real bad first period that I think I talked to you afterwards. 2:31 Where I want to say one of the Michigan State first periods where and not a knock necessarily just on the Gophers, both teams just looked like they had no interest in really playing anything resembling offensive hockey, at least for the first 20 minutes. 2:48 And then it became a better game after that. 2:50 But yeah, you just get into ruts like that. 2:53 And I mean, not to dive into it too quickly, but that's just kind of been a theme with this Gopher team, is they take a period off every now and then, which I know has got the new coach a little puzzled, and I would imagine has got some fans a little puzzled. 3:10 Second period on last Friday night being a prime example, where they play a good first period, it's pretty even, they're playing a good Ohio State team pretty tough. 3:18 And then second period, it's just, where are you guys? 3:21 Who wants to play here? 3:23 Anybody want to do anything? 3:24 So frustrating. 3:26 Well, yeah, it is. 3:27 And Veegs, were you there last Friday night? 3:31 I mean, obviously, Ohio State's a good team, but I think Jess is kind of right on there. 3:36 It's like all of a sudden this team, the Gophers, they just don't show up. 3:41 Well, I think part of it's a little bit of confusion with how to play the style of their new coaches, asking them to play. 3:50 You know, I think these guys kind of got in their ruts at times last year where they'd be playing the way the coaches wouldn't want them to play and they were going to play that way anyway. 4:00 I think this year they're at least trying to figure it out how to play and they just forget it from time to time. 4:05 I was talking to Garrett O'Boyne this week, how the team started out playing the way he wanted them to play, reloading in the neutral zone and playing a possession game and trying to find the creases and they just got away from it and never really found it again. 4:23 And it's just a confusing thing with this year's team. 4:27 Hopefully, they'll get it figured out at some point, but it's obvious that it's going to take more time than just the first half of the season. 4:34 Well, it's hard to complain against two ties against the number five team in the country, at least these days. 4:43 In the past, people were like, two ties, Ohio State, this shouldn't be happening. 4:47 But the funny thing is that you and Caponegri called it veegs. 4:53 You guys said there was going to be some ties. 4:54 I don't know if you said there was going to be two, but you definitely thought there was going to be some extra hockey being played and even into the extra overtime. 5:03 Well, you just look at the style that Ohio State plays. 5:06 They don't give you a lot of space. 5:08 We saw that in the Saturday game against Michigan State that Jess was referencing. 5:12 That was so boring and difficult to watch that Bob Motzko apologized on his coaches show. 5:17 He's like, sorry for that. 5:19 It's just the way it happened. 5:21 We'll try to do better next time. 5:23 And Ohio State plays that style where it's hard to get anything going because they are so explosive with their veteran forwards that if you start turning pucks over, they can put them away real fast. 5:34 And I think there's just that hesitancy to make mistakes that's showing up in their game that's producing a style that's not the most entertaining. 5:42 And I think the big difference this last weekend was Matt Robson. 5:46 They would not have gotten their two ties without his play. 5:49 He definitely stood on his head. 5:51 He made a lot of saves that weren't routine saves either. 5:55 There were a lot of dangerous shots between the dots that he was freezing and not even allowing second chances. 6:01 His rebound control all weekend was really good. 6:04 And that's one of the things that's been strong with this team, Jess, is the goaltending. 6:07 I mean, whether it's Robson or Shearhorn, they're bailing this team out a lot and making these games a lot closer than they could be. 6:16 Absolutely. 6:17 And Owen, first let me start by saying I feel a little bit of sympathy. 6:21 I don't know if that's the right word. 6:22 I feel bad for Eric Shearhorn because he's gone from being the number one every night guy, which was down with Chia's style. 6:31 Like most coaches, he didn't want to think about goaltending and Shearhorn was good. 6:35 I won't say great, but he was good. 6:37 He was enough to get them a couple BigTen titles on his watch when he was a freshman and a sophomore. 6:43 And now all of a sudden, he's playing this kind of de facto backup role and he's been fine with it. 6:50 I mean, his attitude, everybody says has been fantastic. 6:54 Saturday Night in Madison is a prime example. 6:56 He played great. 6:57 He got one goal of support. 6:59 And I just feel bad for him in that respect. 7:02 Now, with all of that said, you can't argue with making Matt Robson your number one goalie right now because he's just been that good for this team in the last few games and you guys hit on it perfectly last weekend. 7:17 Those are five to one, six to one games if you don't have a goalie who's playing as well as Robson has. 7:22 Just to give a quick plug for my new venture with Forum Communications and The Rink Live, I've got a feature about Matt Robson that posted just a couple hours ago, sat down and talked to him about his long and winding road to Dinkytown, which is really a fascinating story. 7:37 One of the very, very rare players that signed a contract to play major junior hockey and actually played in an exhibition game for the Peterborough Peets in the OHL and still found his way to play college hockey at some point after going to, you know, now he's already on his second different college hockey program and, you know, seems to have found a home with the Gophers. 7:58 So Jess, you kind of, you have been kind of a stringer doing this and that all over the place the last few years, but like you said, your new job is a full-time thing now, isn't it? 8:07 You know, I am, I got to tell you, I'm delighted. 8:10 It seemed like it. 8:11 I've been following it, you know, from Twitter to Facebook. 8:13 You know, and you're absolutely right. 8:15 I mean, for years, college hockey writing was my hobby and it was what I truly loved to do. 8:20 And just in the last couple of months, I've gotten this fantastic opportunity with Forum Communications to make it, you know, my real quote unquote, real job. 8:28 Well, this is what I do day to day, nine to five, you know, and on weekends, you know, traveling to Ann Arbor this weekend, for example. 8:35 Just a quick primer for people who don't know. 8:37 And if you live in Minnesota, you probably read a Forum Communications paper or have access to one based in Fargo. 8:44 The Fargo Forum is kind of their mothership, but the daily papers in Grand Forks, Bemidji, Duluth, Brainerd, Worthington, Wilmer, Hastings, Red Wing. 8:53 And there's an affiliation agreement with the St. 8:56 Paul Pioneer Press. 8:57 So most of my stuff appears in the Pioneer Press as well. 9:00 And what's exciting is that's just the start because in the next month or two, it's not a big secret, we're gonna be launching a website called The Rink Live, which is gonna be one kind of one stop shopping for all college hockey coverage, all high school hockey coverage, video podcasts, all of that. 9:17 So it'll be a great resource for fans. 9:19 And I hope you check it out. 9:20 If you can Google The Rink Live right now, you can put your email in and you'll get notifications when new stuff is posted. 9:26 So a lot of fun stuff going on. 9:28 So are you two competitors now? 9:33 Me and who? 9:34 You and Veegs. 9:35 You do Veegs with the Athletic, you know? 9:37 I did plenty of stuff with the Athletic previously. 9:41 So I think we're all colleagues in one manner or another, aren't we? 9:45 We're all just trying to paint a picture of our niche little sport. 9:49 That's right. 9:50 It's a lot of fun to have more people involved and grow the game and grow the interest. 9:55 Because even though BigTen Hockey is a mystery to some, it could be their website, could be their Twitter, could be all their attention on basketball and football. 10:05 We still love it. 10:07 Well, yeah, that's why we're here. 10:09 We're trying to keep pushing this thing along. 10:12 And really, it's just nice to see you run the rink a little more, Jess, because like you said, you've been doing so many other things, you know, football, basketball. 10:20 Yeah, one of my first days on the job, I was at practice, I took a picture from kind of the top row in the corner of Mariucci Arena, and I said, I'm digging the view from my new office. 10:29 So yeah, it's really cool to be able to do this and have this opportunity. 10:33 And I will say, too, the investment that Forum has made in college hockey coverage is impressive. 10:38 You know, not only bringing me on board, but Mick Hatton, who had covered St. 10:42 Claude State for a long, long time for the St. 10:43 Claude Times, is kind of editing the rink live now. 10:47 We have Brad Schlossman in Grand Forks, who I think, there's not a lot of question, is the top writer in all of college hockey. 10:53 We have Matt Wellens in Duluth, who covered a national championship team last year and has done a great job there. 10:58 So there's a lot of fun stuff going on, and it's fun to see that kind of commitment to college hockey. 11:04 You wish you were covering the Bulldogs, don't you? 11:07 You know, somebody asked me that, and I've been a Twin Cityian for a long time now. 11:14 I'm a UMD guy. 11:16 I was very happy, obviously, once I got away from the rink last April to celebrate them winning a national championship and being with old friends. 11:26 And I'll always have kind of a soft spot in my heart for the Bulldogs, but I've been a Twin Cityian for so long. 11:31 I've been close to this Gopher program for so long. 11:33 This just seems kind of a natural for me. 11:36 Well, it's nice to get you over to the dark side for a little while, at least. 11:41 Well, you know, I'll never forget, you know, that 2011 championship, seeing you down near the knocker room with a little tear in your eye, and I could tell that day, you know, you weren't a member of the media at that time. 11:54 It was just nice for you to finally relax and kind of enjoy something. 11:57 And I remember seeing that in 2011, and that was really a special time. 12:02 I'm sure last year was, too, but really that 2011 game at DX was really special for you. 12:07 Let me just say this. 12:08 I went down to the Bulldogs locker room after the 2011 championship, and I will admit, you know, sometimes you're just a human being. 12:14 Sometimes the emotions really get to you. 12:16 And standing outside the locker room are Derek Plant, who, you know, had a long NHL career, you know, probably should have won the Hobie, Tom Kerbers, who has his name on the Stanley Cup and won a Hobie Baker Award. 12:29 John Podin, whose name is on the, yeah, Jaguar, of course. 12:33 John Podin, whose name is on the Stanley Cup. 12:34 Bill Watson, who's a Hobie winner. 12:36 The four of them are standing there, and all four of them literally had tears streaming on their face. 12:41 I mean, that's what a big deal that first championship was, you know, for, not only for the program, but for alumni of that program anywhere. 12:49 And not to take anything away from winning the title last year, because that was just a fantastic run they went on. 12:55 But there's nothing like that first time. 12:58 No, there's not. 12:59 I mean, the first one I experienced was obviously 2002 with the Gophers. 13:04 And, you know, in a lot of ways that felt like the first time, because it had been a long time since, you know, there had been a generation that hadn't seen that program win a title. 13:13 And that was a pretty neat thing, too. 13:16 And now we've almost gone another generation. 13:19 I mean, was it was 23 years before and it's it's we're getting close to a we're not far off of 20. 13:25 So it's I was in Philadelphia one night when they had a fighting chance. 13:29 But yeah, I think it just didn't work out. 13:32 Gothas beer was pretty darn good that night. 13:36 People forget though, that was a one goal game with 90 seconds left. 13:39 It was a couple empty net goals and makes the final score look pretty lopsided. 13:47 And there were plenty of things that went wrong for the Gophers that night. 13:50 But 90 seconds on the clock, you're sending your goalie to the bench thinking, we got a chance here. 13:56 I mean, that was a better game than people give a crap. 13:59 And the thing is, if they win that game, Luci is probably still the coach right now, isn't he, Veegs? 14:05 It's hard to say. 14:06 I feel like he had gotten to the point where he knew he wanted to finish his career at some point here. 14:13 And if he had won another title, it might have been easier for him to be done sooner. 14:17 Because I think he was kind of trying to hold on to take one more run at it. 14:24 I'll say the opposite. 14:25 Here's my opinion, Jupe. 14:28 If the Gophers win that title on that night in 2014, Don Luci is not the coach two weeks later. 14:32 I think he might have hung it up right then and there and said, you know what, I'm going to go out on top. 14:37 I've accomplished, you know, I've hung three banners just like Herbie did. 14:41 You know, time for me to give someone else a chance. 14:43 That's my thought, but you know, and I'm not basing that on anything. 14:46 That's just my hunch. 14:48 That's interesting. 14:49 You know, I'm kind of go ahead. 14:51 You do get the feel like around that time is when, you know, recruiting was getting so young, you know, the game was changing, maybe not something he had both feet in at the time. 15:03 And that would have been a great way to go out. 15:05 Absolutely. 15:06 The John Elway, you know, right off into the sunset with the trophy in hand. 15:11 Nothing wrong with that. 15:12 Definitely nothing wrong with that. 15:13 Well, you know, let's, let's get back to a little bit on this past weekend. 15:19 Veegs, you know, obviously the goalie kept him in. 15:23 Robson kept him in the game. 15:24 Minnesota had a really good chance to win, I think it was Friday night. 15:28 And when their goalie basically robbed Pitlick with an amazing save. 15:33 And I was, I was, I was watching on TV, I'm like, holy cow, that kid, what, what a great save. 15:39 So it's not like Minnesota was, you know, out of these games. 15:43 There were obviously a couple of tie games, losing the second overtime a couple of times. 15:47 Goalies kept them in, but they can't come away from the weekend feeling too bad, can they? 15:55 It's, it's hard what perspective you choose to take. 15:57 I think, you know, the closer you were to the games, the harder it was. 16:01 And the further away you get, the easier it is to look back and see the positives. 16:05 Because I guarantee you that Bob Motskow isn't going into the film room, pulling up all the negatives from this last weekend. 16:12 You know, when he's talking about that game, he's talking about the positive things about not about the second period on Friday, but about the third period, you know, where they they fought through it. 16:21 They got back into the game a little bit more with the flow. 16:24 And then they got the tying goal on the power play at the end, which was just a great play by their talented players at the top of the power play. 16:32 You know, Clayton Phillips, Tyler Sheehy, Rem Pitwick, you know, the guys you want feeling good about their game were able to come through and deliver a goal. 16:39 The game on Saturday, you know, they came through again with Tyler Sheehy, Rem Pitwick. 16:45 And this time it was Brent Gates crash the net to get the tying goal. 16:49 So there are some positives with this this team that you can take out of the weekend. 16:53 You know, the fans and the negative people are going to focus on the long periods of play where they lost it. 17:01 Their goaltender kept them in it. 17:03 But at the same point, Ohio State's a really good team right now. 17:06 And Minnesota had been struggling to try to, you know, put two games together. 17:10 And they kind of did this weekend. 17:13 You know, you don't need to play a full 65, 70 minutes every weekend. 17:17 You just got to be able to find your game when you need to. 17:20 Sometimes we've got a different Jess in the chat room wants to know thoughts on the three on three gimmick. 17:29 I mean, I mean, over time format, he says. 17:32 Jess, you've been following the NCHC the last couple of years. 17:35 They've had this three on three. 17:36 The players like it. 17:38 The fans like it, according to what people say. 17:41 Coaches, maybe not so much. 17:43 We had two of them this weekend. 17:44 The first time we'd ever seen that here in Minnesota. 17:47 What do you think of the three on three gimmick? 17:51 OK, buckle up. 17:56 Last summer, while I was still doing some writing for The Athletic, I dove into this topic because if you go back to the history in June, when the NCAA Hockey Rules Committee met, they basically voted in June to get rid of shootouts, get rid of three on three and make it across the board. 18:15 All 60 programs, all six conferences would play the same way, which is 60 minutes of five on five. 18:22 If it's still tied, you play five minutes of five on five sudden death. 18:26 If it is still tied after that, you call it a tie and you go home. 18:29 This is what they do in ECAC Hockey. 18:32 This is what they do in Atlantic Hockey. 18:34 This is what they do in Hockey East. 18:35 The three Western conferences, one of which is the Big Ten, and I know you think of Western, you don't necessarily think of State College, Pennsylvania, but that's just the way things work out in college hockey. 18:46 They all do something different. 18:48 And this opened up a huge can of worms because the NCAA basically was decreeing, you know, we're going to do it one way and we're going to do it the way that Mike Schaeffer and the folks at ECAC Hockey want to do it. 19:01 There was an uproar from the NCHC commissioner. 19:03 There was a statement from the WCHA commissioner. 19:05 The Big Ten wasn't as vocal about it, but it kind of broke down into two sides. 19:10 It was really interesting. 19:11 I interviewed Mike Schaeffer, the coach at Cornell. 19:13 He was the one saying, you know, we've always played five on five over time. 19:17 We've always had ties. 19:18 There's nothing wrong with playing 65 minutes of hockey and saying, you know what? 19:22 We're even. 19:22 Let's go home. 19:24 And he made a valid point that, you know, you go on the road and you're playing a team that is completely overmatched and your goalie stands on his head and after 65 minutes it's tied. 19:33 That's a good tie. 19:34 You know, you don't need to keep playing to prove something at that point. 19:37 Fair point. 19:39 On the other side, I talked to Frank Saratori, the coach at Air Force, you know, fiery guy, you know, fun to talk to, and he basically said, look at every level of a hockey higher than high school in the world. 19:54 College, juniors, you know, women's college, minor leagues, Olympics, NHL, every level above high school has a way to break ties now. 20:06 Why are we going to force college hockey to go backwards and say, no, you have to quit playing after 65 minutes? 20:12 So both valid points. 20:15 In the end, the NCAA kind of punted and said, OK, forget it. 20:18 Whatever your conference wants to do, you can do. 20:21 But after 65 minutes, it goes in the books for RPI reasons as a tie. 20:27 And that's what it has been for the past few years anyway. 20:30 Correct, correct. 20:32 And it's interesting, too, to be covering the University of Minnesota and talking about this topic because Tom McGinnis, one of the assistant athletic directors at the U, also is the chair of the NCAA Hockey Rules Committee. 20:43 So he kind of found himself in the middle of this. 20:46 And obviously after what happened last spring, it was weird for a University of Minnesota athletic official to be talking about the very minute details that can mean getting into or staying out of the NCAA tournament because we all know that was a hot topic here for a while. 21:04 So we've reached this kind of impasse where what conference you play in determines how it goes. 21:10 Now the example Bob Motzko cited this week, and he talked about it at the time as well, first game of the season, you go to Minnesota Duluth, they raise the banner, it's a big night. 21:18 The teams battle to a 1-1 tie after 65 minutes. 21:22 The horn sounds after five minutes of overtime. 21:24 And as Bob pointed out, the players all sit there, kind of look at each other, nobody's leaving. 21:29 And we did in the stands as well. 21:30 The fans all sit there like, okay, what are we going to do now? 21:34 And then the refs are like, no, shake hands, go home, we're done. 21:37 And there was kind of this letdown, like, that's it? 21:41 You know, why don't we keep playing? 21:42 And so I guess, you know, me being a Western guy, I kind of side with, you know, everybody else is doing three on three or four on four or shootouts or something like that. 21:54 I don't see anything wrong with that. 21:56 And let's be honest, three on three hockey is incredibly entertaining. 22:00 You know, a couple of the Gopher players talked about it. 22:02 I think Gates talked about that on Saturday night. 22:06 Kind of, you know, you forget with six players on the ice plus two goalies on an Olympic size ice sheet, that's a heck of a lot of room out there to play with the puck and make plays and make rushes. 22:17 So, you know, that's some fun stuff to watch. 22:20 I guess I don't have a problem with it. 22:21 Yeah, it's gimmicky, but so what, you know? 22:23 So is, you know, pushing around a rubber disc with a stick. 22:28 Yeah. 22:30 Veegs, what do you think about this? 22:32 I mean, I think it's entertaining. 22:34 I think actually the fans might like it more if the Gophers actually may have won or gotten that extra point. 22:39 I mean, you know, these past five or six years, whatever, the Big Ten, they've done bad in the shootouts, and now they kind of start bad with this new thing. 22:49 Maybe they just need a couple wins this way for maybe some of the fans to kind of grasp on to it. 22:56 I don't know if the fans are going to grasp on to it if they already hate it. 22:59 I don't think Gophers winning is going to change things. 23:03 I think it's the same thing about the WCHA, the Big Ten. 23:06 You know, if the Gophers win the Big Ten, those fans aren't going to be impressed either. 23:10 They just want to be miserable because that's where they're going to go. 23:14 I thought it was outstanding hockey. 23:16 It's a lot of fun to watch. 23:17 You know, when there's three-on-three happening, you're not going to go to the bathroom. 23:21 You're not going to go get a drink or anything. 23:22 You're going to watch the game because any shift, there could be a goal. 23:26 You know, there's so much open ice. 23:28 There's so much risk of a turnover and a rush going the other way, and that's fun to watch. 23:33 And I think as a team and with players, you just have to tell them, we're just playing for an extra point here. 23:39 Don't feel bad about what you did the first 65 minutes. 23:42 That's what counts towards the pairwise. 23:46 You know, the extra points, if you're in the conference title race, it's nice, but you can't beat yourself up about it, because that system and that three-on-three format is designed for there to be a winner, and one mistake's going to be the difference. 23:59 And I think the players learned from the weekend, don't turn it over, don't take penalties. 24:05 And I think that's kind of key right there is mistake. 24:07 In the NHL, I think you don't see as many mistakes, and kind of one of the reasons why we love college hockey is because it's more up and down, there's more mistakes and a little more scoring, what not. 24:18 I think that makes the three-on-three in college even more entertaining than maybe the NHL leagues. 24:26 Well, it's not going to happen as often as the NHL. 24:28 It seems like the NHL, there are more games that go to overtime and they go straight to the three-on-three. 24:33 In college, you have to get through the five-on-five. 24:37 And hockey's a game of mistakes, and younger players are going to make more than the older players. 24:42 But it was a lot of fun to watch, and if I was giving advice to the team, I was like, don't worry about it too much. 24:47 It was entertaining, and try to get it next time. 24:50 True. 24:51 Same for the fans. 24:53 There's an interesting strategy that goes into three-on-three, too. 24:56 You're seeing this in the NHL now, as teams are adjusting to it more. 24:59 Because, as you noted, it happens more often in the NHL, because they go right to the three-on-three. 25:03 But, for example, you've got three guys out there, you've got a lot of ice to cover, they're going to get tired pretty quick, because they've already played 60, 65 minutes of hockey. 25:12 So, one thing that players have to adjust to when they're playing three-on-three is, you have to make line changes while you have possession of the puck. 25:21 You have to make offensive zone line changes, because that's a lot of times the only time you can get guys on and off. 25:28 You're not going to make line changes while you don't have possession, because basically you're creating a three-on-two if you do that. 25:33 So, that, for me, is kind of fun, too. 25:35 I got to tell you, sitting up in our perch in the press box last Friday and Saturday with that kind of bird's-eye overhead view of the rink and watching the guys move back and forth and try and figure out where each other were on the ice, and the combination of two forwards and one defenseman, which is usually the way it works out, and seeing, for example, that top line of Pitlick, Gates and Sheehy, which one gets to stay on the bench this shift, versus which two are going to go and which defense is going to be paired with them. 26:05 I think that's just great fun. 26:07 It just adds another element to the game. 26:09 If you think it's gimmicky, that's fine. 26:12 You can get up and leave after 65 minutes and say, it's a tie, I don't care what happens at this point. 26:17 I will say this, I didn't see anybody doing that. 26:21 Well, there weren't many fans there in the first place. 26:23 I didn't want to come right out and say it, but okay, yeah. 26:28 Yeah, and actually the Jess guy in chat, he says, do you guys see the Gophers doing much practice of three-on-three? 26:35 You guys both practice, do you see it? 26:37 Not full ice. 26:38 I mean, they play their small area game, three-on-three stuff. 26:41 They'll practice the shootout once a week with everybody on the team to kind of put some pressure on the guys, but I don't see any full ice three-on-three happening. 26:51 It's meant to be fun. 26:52 Yeah, it is, that's good. 26:54 We got a couple more things I want to cover here, but before we get to that, we need to hear from our sponsor. 27:01 vintagemnhockey.com is a proud sponsor of The GPL Podcast. 27:06 Well, what is Vintage MN Hockey? 27:08 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. 27:18 All information about any of those teams can be found on vintagemnhockey.com. 27:23 They also have great interviews with some historical Minnesota hockey figures, like John Mayessich and Lou Nani, Glenn Sanmore, some of the greats of Minnesota hockey. 27:33 So make sure you check out those interviews. 27:34 It's a really great thing. 27:36 But as I always say, I think my favorite part is the store. 27:40 The store, you can buy a custom historical jersey from the Gophers or the Bulldogs or some of your favorite high school teams. 27:47 And if you do make a purchase, just use the code GPL Podcast, all one word, and you'll get 10% off your order. 27:54 So make sure you visit vintagemnhockey.com and follow them on Twitter at VintageMNHockey. 28:02 All right, boys. 28:04 I got to say quickly, I was at the hockey show last year, the state tournament, and I met the Vintage Minnesota Hockey guys. 28:10 God, did they have some cool stuff. 28:11 I walked out of there with my wallet considerably lighter because, you know, they've got the World Warriors T-shirt, and I had to have that with the old classic World logo. 28:20 And then my wife is an old Burnsville Brave. 28:22 Well, they've got the old Burnsville Braves logo before they changed to the Blaze, you know, with their state championships from the 80s. 28:28 They're Braves to me still. 28:30 Oh, yeah, they'll always be the Braves. 28:32 Yeah, fantastic stuff there. 28:34 Wow, I just sounded like a North Dakota fan, didn't I? 28:38 I wasn't going to call you guys on it. 28:41 Yeah, it's just what you're used to. 28:43 It's fine. 28:45 I don't care about the high school stuff as much anymore. 28:49 One more anecdote. 28:50 So, last Friday, I run into a friend of mine who is a North Dakota alum and who played there, lifelong buddy. 28:58 And keep in mind, Friday night, Minnesota Duluth had beaten North Dakota 5-0. 29:03 And my friend says to me, boy, your Bulldogs really did a number on the suit tonight. 29:08 I related this on Twitter. 29:10 And I said, yeah, the Bulldogs are pretty good and the Hawks are pretty banged up right now. 29:14 He looks at me and goes, Hawks, F you. 29:18 Some things don't change. 29:20 It never will change. 29:22 Well, actually, what I was getting into here was Veegs, Hammy and myself have been over this again and again. 29:29 But we're going to throw this at you, Jess, and see what your thoughts are. 29:35 As we kind of alluded to a little bit earlier, the crowds at Mariucci are really bad now. 29:41 The fans aren't showing up. 29:42 They're still selling quite a few tickets, but 70% of the people that are buying tickets are showing up with a 30% not showing up. 29:52 But it ends up being 2,000 to 3,000 people or no shows a night. 29:58 You've been on the outside kind of for a while. 30:02 Boy, what's happening to you, Jess? 30:09 A couple things are going on. 30:11 Number one, it's taking longer than I expected for people to adjust to the new conference. 30:18 I still, what are we, five, six years in now? 30:22 You're still hearing the, I miss the traditional rivalries. 30:25 We don't play Mankato anymore. 30:28 And I've said this before, and I'll say it again, get over it. 30:31 Move on. 30:32 The old WCHA is not coming back. 30:35 And don't pretend you were excited to see Alaska Anchorage and Colorado College come visit, because you weren't. 30:41 You know, this is what it is now. 30:43 For years, they clamored for things like the college hockey showcase because they wanted to play their peers. 30:48 Well, now you've got it. 30:49 There's still enough non-conference games where you're going to play North Dakota now and then. 30:53 You're going to play Minnesota Duluth, St. 30:55 Cloud, Mankato, Bemidji now and then. 30:58 Get over it. 30:59 Move on. 31:00 This is your schedule. 31:01 If you're a Gopher fan, you should be buying tickets to see the Gophers, regardless of who they're playing. 31:08 And frankly, if you can't appreciate an opponent like Ohio State last weekend, I can't help you as a hockey fan because they're a very good team, they're a very good program, and it was fantastic hockey. 31:18 The other thing, and I tweeted this on Saturday, okay, here's a quick comparison of another Big Ten school. 31:23 I talked to the folks from Ohio State. 31:25 At their arena, parking is free, a cheap seat is $10, and the most expensive seat is $15, and students get in free. 31:36 The prices they're charging at Mariucci Arena, I think we've proven now the market will not support those prices. 31:43 When I went on the official Gophers site for that day's game, Saturday's game, and the cheapest seat you can buy legitimately is $40, the high-end tickets are $60, people aren't going to pay that. 31:57 I just think your average fan is not going to shell out that much to see college hockey, especially if you add the caveat that a lot of them are still upset by the conference change and they're not going to pay a lot to see Michigan State or Penn State. 32:10 They're just not at this point. 32:13 You kind of got some people going with that tweet as well, too. 32:16 That was maybe the most retweeted and commented on tweet I have ever had. 32:21 I don't do the analytics thing, but man, did I get a lot of reaction to that. 32:26 But, Veegs, we've talked about prices, we know they're high, but that's not the single problem, both, Veegs. 32:32 I mean, you're checking to ticket scans, or you've been doing this project for years now. 32:38 They just have a ton of no-shows. 32:41 And the thing that's most shocking to me right now at the no-shows is the students, too. 32:47 They've opened it up where they basically are letting their 3400 student ticket holders get into any game. 32:54 I'd be surprised if they're getting more than a thousand. 33:00 And this team has been playing one of the hardest schedules in college hockey. 33:03 I looked it up this week, number one last year, number three the year before that, number one the year before that, number one the year before that. 33:10 They're playing great teams. 33:12 They're playing the in-state rivals. 33:14 They're playing tough teams in the Big Ten. 33:17 And people are buying seats. 33:19 I think this weekend we only saw 8500 and 8100 tickets sold, which is part of that decline that's been happening. 33:27 But of those 8000 people, I think maybe 60% are showing up because it's getting smaller and smaller. 33:35 It is getting worse each year. 33:37 And your numbers that you've been gathering each year, it shows that it's getting worse and worse. 33:44 I mean, you sent me the numbers every time. 33:46 I think the average 2500 no-shows last year or something close to that, wasn't it? 33:53 I mean, that's a huge chunk. 33:55 I mean, that's a lot of tickets. 33:57 You know, the people are buying, obviously, quite a few. 34:00 Obviously, it's corporate seats, but VEGS, it's not all of them. 34:04 And then, like you said, I would be curious what the student tickets are because do they keep track of those numbers too, I hope? 34:12 I would think they'd have them separately. 34:13 You know, they sell 1700 season passes for each night for the season. 34:21 And those are pretty much sold out. 34:22 I think, you know, there's probably close to 1650 or something like that. 34:27 And they're all in that one location with the band at the one end, and they're just not showing up like they used to. 34:34 So, Jess, it's not just prices. 34:36 It's just people not showing up. 34:37 I mean, the student tickets are not super outrageous. 34:41 I mean, obviously they're... 34:42 And they're sold. 34:42 The student tickets are sold. 34:43 And they are. 34:44 They're sold. 34:45 But, I mean, the mean is to the point now where the U just says, well, if you have a ticket for either night, just show up because we need people there. 34:52 And this section might be half full, Jess. 34:56 I got to give a quick shout out to the student section, by the way, on Friday night. 35:00 And I'm sure this has happened before, but Ohio State's goalie, Sean Romeo, the student section did the whole Romeo, Romeo, wherefore out there, Romeo soliloquy from Shakespeare to him out loud at one point during the game. 35:13 I thought, man, if that isn't like the perfect college rant rip on somebody, you know, for an educated crowd who knows their Shakespeare, fantastic. 35:23 Way to go, guys. 35:24 But back to the original point, there weren't enough of you there. 35:28 What else you got going on on a Friday night and end of November? 35:32 You know, you're back from break now. 35:34 And it's not like the game is late. 35:35 You still have plenty of time to party afterwards. 35:38 Right, exactly. 35:40 I mean, we have had one late game this year. 35:42 The Saturday night St. 35:44 Lawrence game was an 8 o'clock start, but those are rare. 35:47 So, yeah, I don't get that part of it. 35:50 And, you know, this is a problem that goes back 25 years to when the new Mariucci Arena first opened, because that was the first time we saw a big influx of corporate ticket sales, you know, where you get a company to buy a pack of four seats, you know, on the red line or between the blue lines, you know, good seats. 36:08 And all too often, those tickets wind up sitting in somebody's desk drawer over the weekend because, you know, they're not necessarily a hockey fan. 36:15 The company has them. 36:15 They didn't give them to anybody. 36:17 They forgot the game was this weekend, whatever. 36:19 So that has been a recurring problem, and it creates empty seats in, you know, some of your top seat locations. 36:26 Mm-hmm. 36:27 Yeah, that has been a problem, you know, since the beginning. 36:31 You know, you look on TV and you see those prime spots, quite a few empty seats, or a lot of the gold seats would be showing up, and really, the rest of the arena would be quite full at the time, especially, you know, 10 years ago. 36:44 But now, you know, Vegoe has been tracking this. 36:46 You know, season tickets now are under $5,000 for the first time ever, or at least probably since the old Mariucci, and, you know, there's nobody showing up. 36:59 Obviously, some of this can be fixed, you know, if the team did better, but... 37:07 Veegs, is there anybody panicking over there? 37:09 They've got to be concerned about this. 37:10 We know Lucio was getting frustrated with it his last few years about the no-shows. 37:17 Yeah, there are definitely some worried people in charge of this thing, and they're trying to figure out what they can do. 37:23 You know, when you're talking about an institution like the University of Minnesota, change is pretty slow and it's hard to push through. 37:30 It's something that Mark Hoyle is going to have to take a look at. 37:35 They're dealing with it in football. 37:37 They're trying to do their loyalty program where they're giving more rewards to season ticket holders. 37:43 But you're just not seeing the fans come back. 37:47 I think they're focusing more on group sales and single ticket sales at this point because they have so much more inventory to deal with now. 37:55 And that was never something they had to specialize in. 37:58 You know, in the past, it was they'd have their season ticket base and then maybe they'd have a thousand seats or less to try to sell in single games. 38:06 And they were keeping those aside so they could get new fans. 38:09 Now, you know, they're looking at a situation where they've got to try to figure out how to sell four thousand tickets a game. 38:15 And it's just something they don't have the infrastructure. 38:18 They don't have the emails, the addresses to market yet. 38:22 And so it's a huge problem that they're trying to figure out how to address. 38:27 I know one thing that they're trying to do is they're partnering with a mobile ticketing company and they're in the process of negotiating a contract right now. 38:36 And that can give them some more flexibility about how to push out seats for a game when they know that they need more fans. 38:45 Well, Toms is in the chat and he's a chat I should say, and he's piping up a little bit. 38:50 He says he doesn't like the piped in music. 38:52 They got to let the band play a little bit more. 38:56 Yeah, he just said he could believe he typed it, but he did. 38:59 Does he think they should play all four of their songs? 39:04 And that kind of comes back to some of the political correctness at the U. 39:09 I mean, I heard for years that they couldn't even play the Beer in Heaven song because it talked about beer. 39:16 Well, I heard them playing it in the concourse this last weekend. 39:20 Well, that's good, but I mean, you've got one of the biggest hockey themes, the rock and roll part two, it's kind of outplayed, but they haven't been able to play that in over 10, 15 years because the writer was a child molester or something like that, but that doesn't stop. 39:33 Gary Wetter, yeah, he's got an ugly past. 39:36 Yeah, but it doesn't stop anyone else from playing it in any other school or anything to help get the fans excited. 39:43 And right now, the band's kind of handcuffed. 39:46 They've got a lot of piped-in music. 39:47 They've got a lot of advertising, so the band doesn't get to play that much. 39:51 They do have quite a few songs, but they're a little bit handcuffed. 39:56 Let me retract my statement, by the way. 39:57 That was a joke. 39:58 I'm not ripping anything. 39:59 They do a fantastic job. 40:01 And I do love the circling of the concourse before the game starts. 40:05 Oh, I do as well. 40:05 That's one of the great traditions there. 40:09 The piped-in music, I don't mind if you get some good upbeat stuff. 40:13 I do think, and maybe this is just me being almost 50 years old, my goodness, it's loud. 40:18 It's just like uncomfortably loud when they pipe in the music, and I just don't think it needs to be ear-splitting levels. 40:27 I can go to Sally's if I want to hear that. 40:29 And some of it has to do with the press box as well. 40:33 Sometimes, and there's other parts of your unit, it's not as loud, and then there's other parts of your unit where it's really loud, and the press box is one of those areas where it ends up being kind of loud, so it can be difficult to hear it, especially, you know, you got pregame music when they're warming up, and you try to talk to a fellow media member, and it's difficult because you just can't hear a damn thing. 40:53 Right. 40:56 Well, I know they're trying, you know, if you go to a game and you have an email address attached to your ticket order, as soon as the game ends, they're sending out surveys to you to fill out what your impressions were from the game. 41:08 What they're trying to do is they're trying to figure out, you know, what people are looking for from their season ticket holders, from their single game sales, and they're trying to get some actionable data. 41:19 You know, it's going to take a long time to put all that stuff to work and figure out what the right way to balance it is, but they've got their ears open, that's for sure. 41:29 One thing I do remember, years ago now, I was just happened to be at the game that year with the first time they played some piped in music, like in the second period or something like that, and the entire crowd started to boo. 41:46 They've been doing piped in music at all other places for a long time, but Mariucci was one of the places that it was the band that played and there was no piped in music. 41:53 And here comes Welcome to the Jungle being played in the second period, and the fans start to boo. 42:01 And the thing is, Jess, a lot of those fans, they are no longer there. 42:04 They're gone. 42:05 They've had enough. 42:06 They've had enough of the piped in music. 42:08 They've had enough of their ticket prices going sky high. 42:12 I mean, we all know former Gopher, well, not former fans, but they're still fans, but they can't afford to go to these games anymore. 42:19 They can't afford their season tickets because their season tickets, you know, from a long time ago, they've outpriced the blue collar crowd completely. 42:30 I guess I would agree with that. 42:32 I know the program, some of the programs they put in place, you know, like the rewards program where you had to donate a certain amount to get tickets in a certain area. 42:40 I know that turned a lot of people off. 42:42 I know another issue they've had, and I think Veegs, you've written about this, is moving people around. 42:48 You know, you had season tickets for 20 years, and you sat next to the same people week in and week out, and all of a sudden, you know, you've got new seat neighbors, and that's a big deal for some people. 42:56 Yeah, it's a huge deal. 42:59 I mean, and the problem was they did all these things at the same time, you know, with the conference move. 43:04 And if there's one thing about Minnesotans, we can be pretty spiteful. 43:08 If you turn us off, we will forget your number and block your calls and report you for spam. 43:18 Does that explain why I wasn't on the podcast for three years? 43:24 I'm kidding, of course. 43:25 Great to be back. 43:29 No comment. 43:31 A lot of love in this room. 43:36 We're hockey guys. 43:37 We give each other a hard time. 43:38 It's what we do. 43:40 Well, you know, there's just so many things, like you said, Veegs, that came together, you know, reseating, the pricing and the league. 43:47 Everything's happened. 43:49 I don't know what the solution is, and I don't think anybody knows. 43:52 Maybe they just have to do kind of one thing at a time. 43:55 But I know they love the revenue, but I think one of the big things they need to do is really slash prices on season tickets. 44:04 Well, we'll see what they do. 44:05 I mean, they've had so many problems in the athletic department the last five years. 44:09 This is probably one of the first fiscal years they've gone without a real scandal in a while. 44:15 So maybe it's going to open them up to actually do some real work rather than trying to clean up messes. 44:22 I see. 44:22 Here's my question about that. 44:24 And a friend of mine in the athletic department, when I sent out that tweet, raised a question about, you know, at what point do you cut prices to the point where you're no longer breaking even? 44:33 And obviously, none of us have that number. 44:36 There's somebody with an advanced accounting degree that works for the you who I hope would have that number. 44:40 But it raised a good question. 44:42 I thought about a program like Ohio State where, again, their ticket prices are very low. 44:47 They don't charge for parking. 44:48 You know, their crowds aren't great, but they get something in the six, seven thousand range, I would say, in their building. 44:54 But is that a case where if you're Ohio State University, you are making so much money off football, where you can afford to take a little bit of a loss or operate in a little bit of a deficit for a program like Men's and Women's Hockey, because you're going to make it up every time they put a hundred and some thousand fans inside the horseshoe and not worry about it. 45:16 And that's definitely true. 45:18 Especially in Minnesota, they don't get the parking revenue. 45:22 That goes to parking and transportation, which is its own department at the university. 45:27 So it's kind of one of those weird accounting practices at Minnesota, where that's not the athletics department's bucket. 45:35 And because the football program, because the basketball program has struggled the last decade, they don't have that kind of flexibility. 45:42 Now you're starting to see the TV money really impact the conference. 45:47 I think they gained about $20 million in their revenues this last year because of the new contract kicking in. 45:53 But they've got to pay for that athletes village. 45:55 They've got to pay for the more expensive, full tuition and board and stipends now in the Big Ten. 46:02 So it's difficult for them to cut prices when they have these other problems. 46:06 And maybe over time, some of that stuff is going to sort itself out. 46:10 But I think they're going to have a real problem on their hands in the next couple of years if they don't. 46:14 Well, the problem just keeps getting worse because less people showing up and less people buying tickets. 46:18 I mean, you saw the season ticket prices go, or not prices, I should say, that the numbers are now below $5,000. 46:24 It could be easily below $4,000 next year. 46:26 And it's going to get to the point where, you know, you keep charging these prices and you're not selling the tickets, then you're kind of forced to drop prices, aren't you, Veegs? 46:36 Yeah, I think they're going to be getting to that point pretty soon. 46:38 You're already seeing the group sales, you know, for some of these games coming up with Ferris State and Penn State here, the group sale tickets are $10, $15 a piece. 46:49 You're going to start seeing that as the regular price. 46:53 Well, we could go on forever for this, guys, but we can't. 46:56 But I just wanted to get your opinion, because since I really hadn't heard it, Jess, but they're just kind of stuck. 47:04 I mean, there's a solution out there. 47:06 I have enough faith in the people in the University of Minnesota Athletic Department that somebody's got an idea that's going to work. 47:12 And part of it will be, I truly believe that this program is on the right track with a coach like Bob Motzko. 47:19 One of the most enjoyable things that I've watched on a hockey rink in the last 20 years is a power play coach by Bob Motzko's teams, not only at the University of Minnesota when he was Don Lucia's assistant, but then all those years at St. 47:31 Cloud. 47:32 That Motzko power play is so much fun to watch. 47:35 I think once that gets in gear, once they get that in place with this group of players or with the next class of players that comes through this program, there's going to be a lot more fun to watch on the ice as well. 47:47 Well, let's move into that power play, Veegs. 47:49 They've been getting a little bit better. 47:51 I've noticed they haven't been taking as many penalty kills. 47:54 Well, they're close to it. 47:55 But now they head to Michigan this weekend at Yost on the road. 48:02 Boy, Michigan's a little better this year. 48:06 What are your initial thoughts? 48:08 I think this is kind of a trap weekend for Minnesota. 48:12 Michigan hasn't won in five games. 48:15 They've been playing some frustrating weekends with Michigan State and Wisconsin. 48:20 You can't think that's going to continue forever for Michigan. 48:23 They have a lot of talented players on that team. 48:27 Quinn Hughes, probably one of the best defensemen in college hockey right now, will play probably 30 minutes a night for them. 48:34 It's a dangerous game for Minnesota. 48:36 It's going to be hard to see them coming away with too many points this weekend. 48:40 What do you think, Jess? 48:44 I'm really interested to see what this Michigan team will do, because last year, February 1st, Michigan looked like a team that didn't really know where it was going. 48:54 They had a new coach, similar to what the Gophers are now, putting his systems in place with a base of some good talent, but Michigan was a 500 team on February 1st, then all of a sudden flipped a switch and wound up making a frozen four run. 49:09 Now, again, Michigan is kind of struggling. 49:11 They're in some doldrums right now. 49:14 Talking to Mel Pearson this week, he doesn't really know if guys have kind of figured out what they have on this team yet, but as you alluded to, Veegs, the one thing they know they have, and everybody knows they have, is Quinn Hughes, who is probably one of the best defensemen in college hockey, as you said, widely considered to be a good bet to be the number one overall pick in this summer's NHL draft. 49:36 He's a guy you have to be aware of all the time. 49:38 So, you know, I'm not as pessimistic. 49:42 I could see a split this weekend just because I think the Gophers realized from last weekend's games that they can skate with anybody. 49:49 They can't necessarily beat anybody, but they're not going to get blown out of any building. 49:53 So, you know, I see a couple of close games this weekend just based on the way both these teams are playing right now. 49:59 Quick show note. 50:01 Quinn's already drafted by Vancouver. 50:04 It's Jack who's going to be the number one pick probably. 50:08 So Quinn's going to be joining Brock Besser. 50:11 My bad. 50:13 All right. 50:15 But point taken, he is a talent. 50:18 I think last year he struggled a little bit against the Gopher penalty kill. 50:24 I think he was a little surprised with what they threw at him. 50:26 I don't see that happening this year. 50:28 He's going to know what's coming at him. 50:30 And he is something else to watch. 50:32 And they've got some scores up front. 50:34 Norris is healthy. 50:35 Lockwood's healthy. 50:37 Pashilov, who played with Lindgren growing up a little bit, he's scoring well for them. 50:43 You know, it's a dangerous team to play against. 50:46 And I don't think this is a game Minnesota can take lightly. 50:49 I think the biggest thing for them is to generate lots of shots. 50:52 That's one thing Michigan is a little soft at right now between the pipes. 50:57 Neither of the goalies have played particularly well, and that's kind of been something that's hurt them the last couple of years. 51:03 So it's an important weekend for Minnesota not to lose possession of the game. 51:09 I think one thing that's important this weekend, Jess, is the Minnesota so-called fourth line, Ramsey, Remonko and Norman. 51:17 We were talking before we came on the air that you noticed that Ramsey has zero points in 13 games. 51:24 I know these are the guys who are killing a lot of penalties and the checking line or so-called, but these are some seniors here. 51:35 They need to start contributing on the offensive side. 51:40 Absolutely. 51:40 And you wonder if those are guys who are having... 51:45 Keep in mind, if you're a senior, you played under the Donald Lucia system for three years. 51:49 So you've got some habits pretty well ingrained in you that may be harder to break. 51:56 Now, that doesn't explain Brent Gates, who I think is off to a fantastic start this season. 52:01 And he's a senior, obviously, who played under that system. 52:06 But you look at that with Tommy Novak maybe a little bit too, who hasn't had the start that you would have expected him to have with his reputation as a point producer. 52:17 I think that might be what's going on with those guys. 52:19 But yeah, you look at the point total so far, I think Romanco has one point. 52:24 Norman, I believe, has one or two goals. 52:26 And Ramsey without a point so far, which means, of course, I'm tied with him. 52:30 So are you at this point in the season. 52:33 I'm confident he'll probably finish with more than me, but that's all right. 52:40 Yeah, go ahead. 52:40 I was just going to say one interesting thing I saw on Twitter this week was there's a young man named Kyle Young who's tracking some advanced stats right now with Gopher Hockey. 52:50 And I think you retweeted them this week. 52:53 I was kind of taking a look at him. 52:54 And it was interesting to look at that. 52:57 He's tracking a lot of stuff about, you know, Corsi and Fenwick. 53:01 One thing that the Romanco, Ramsey, Norman line has done is they've drawn a lot of penalties. 53:06 I think they've drawn about ten. 53:08 A lot of the other lines haven't, you know, drawn that many penalties. 53:12 But one player who has is Tyler Sheehy. 53:14 He's drawn eight all by himself. 53:16 So I think, you know, some of these guys, they just have to learn that, you know, sometimes possession and taking the puck to the center of the ice is a good way to get your team on the power play. 53:24 And, you know, against Michigan, that's a good strategy. 53:27 All right. 53:30 So do you think and maybe struggle to get a split this weekend, Veegs? 53:35 I know it sounds like Jess is on the split bandwagon. 53:38 What about you? 53:39 I always take the easy way out. 53:41 Well, I think we'll probably see some more overtime this weekend. 53:46 I think this is the kind of weekend where you could see a team get a tying goal in the closing seconds. 53:53 Look for the Gophers to shake up their lines a little bit, even though there's been a couple groups that have had some stability. 53:59 I think I've been trying a bunch of different combinations this week and I think we'll see some new ones this weekend. 54:05 Power play units, I'd expect to see the same though. 54:08 One other thing to bring up is Sammy Walker is going to be camping with the USA Hockey Junior Camp this December, which is good for him. 54:18 He's been one of the most consistent players for the Gophers this season. 54:21 It really surprised me how quickly he acclimated to the game. 54:25 If he's doing well up against college players, he should do great against his peers in a tournament like that. 54:30 And that's actually one of the things you mentioned the last month or so. 54:33 You said there was a good chance he would get invited. 54:37 Yeah, it's kind of surprising. 54:38 He didn't get to go to the summer showcase, so I think he got overlooked a little bit. 54:42 But after the first half he's had, I'm sure Bob Motsgau's been doing some campaigning to his good buddy Mike Hastings to make sure he at least gets a look on that team, because I think he could be a big help for them. 54:55 Jess, what are you working on for your stories this week? 54:58 You mentioned a little bit about Robson there. 55:00 Is that a story that's out yet? 55:02 Yeah, I wrote about Robson. 55:03 That story's been posted for a couple hours now. 55:05 Check it out at inform.com, and don't forget to follow The Rink Live. 55:08 I'm going to write a little bit about that Michigan team tomorrow. 55:12 Mel Pearson obviously has roots in Minnesota. 55:14 He was an Edina kid in high school. 55:16 Funny story I heard from him that probably won't make it into the story, so I'm not spoiling myself here. 55:24 His final season at Edina, when he was a senior, they played Grand Rapids in the state tournament. 55:30 Now, Grand Rapids had won the two previous state championships. 55:35 This would have been Don Lucia's senior year. 55:37 Edina plays Grand Rapids in the state tournament, and Edina wins the game. 55:40 So Mel Pearson said for years he had this fun rivalry with Don Lucia, where Mel would point out the fact that, hey, I ended your high school career, and Don would always respond with, I'm sorry, I can't hear you, I have state championship rings in both of my ears. 55:54 What did you say? 55:55 It's a little shocking because we're just not used to Don having some kind of personality there. 56:04 Oh, come on. 56:05 I'm sorry, I can't help myself. 56:08 Don's got a good personality. 56:09 He's just an introverted guy that doesn't show it to everyone. 56:11 He always shows a personality that people like. 56:14 Oh, sorry. 56:15 That's fine. 56:16 I don't even think he knows who I am. 56:17 He knew you, Veegs, though. 56:19 It took a while for him to warm up, but he did at the end. 56:23 We're buddies now. 56:24 Well, what about you, Veegs? 56:25 What are you working on for the Athletic this week? 56:28 I'm working on a story about the defensemen with Minnesota. 56:31 It's something that Bob Moscoe said he won't give up on this year, trying to get them to play at a higher level, and kind of what goes into them playing at a higher level. 56:40 I talked to a couple of defensemen, Garrett Raboyne and Bob Moscoe about it, and I'll look for that sometime tomorrow, midday probably. 56:49 That's when we'll get out on the Athletic. 56:52 Well, remember, you could follow Vegoe at eVegoe on Twitter and at the Athletic. 56:59 Jess, you're at Jess Myers on Twitter, correct? 57:03 Another shout out, by the way, for I think the fourth consecutive year now. 57:07 There's a woman in Toronto named Jessica Myers, who owns at Jess Myers. 57:12 I think she last tweeted about two and a half years ago. 57:15 So thanks, Jessica. 57:16 Hang on to that handle. 57:18 Make me keep using the middle initial. 57:20 Hey, I had something similar. 57:21 I had something similar with GPL for years. 57:24 I mean, somebody wasn't using GPL, and all of a sudden they sold it to the Poker League. 57:29 I'm like, you got to be kidding me. 57:31 Well, she's from Toronto. 57:32 Maybe Matt Robson knows her. 57:34 I might have to talk to him about that. 57:35 Use those connections. 57:38 Thanks for joining us, Jess. 57:39 It was nice to have you back on. 57:40 It's been three years. 57:43 We'll try to get you on at least once a year now that you're more full-time. 57:49 Good stuff. 57:49 I'm happy to talk hockey anytime. 57:51 Call me. 57:52 We appreciate it. 57:53 This is our last show for 2018. 57:57 We take our holiday break just like the Gophers will. 58:00 In between here, you've got the World Juniors. 58:03 You've got the little Ferris State action. 58:05 But we won't be back until, I think, January 2nd. 58:09 So we're taking our little hiatus. 58:10 I hope you guys have a nice Christmas and whatever you like to celebrate. 58:16 We'll be back then and we'll kind of recap some of this Michigan and we'll see how the team is doing by then. 58:22 We're hoping that they start to absorb some of this Matzko, I don't know, just some of Matzko's stuff, I guess. 58:31 But we will have to wait and see. 58:33 But we really enjoyed having you here, Jess. 58:38 Veegs, you have a nice Christmas and we'll catch you guys in 19 or 2019. 58:45 Geez, I said 19, I'm getting so old. 58:47 Later.