0:08 This is The GPL Podcast, sponsored by Vintage Minnesota Hockey, your exclusive source for throwback Minnesota jerseys. 0:17 Visit vintagemnhockey.com. 0:32 Now, here's Hammy, Vegoe and your host, Jupiter. 0:45 Good evening, welcome to The GPL Podcast, episode number 144. 0:54 Well, we've got Veegs this week. 0:56 We don't have Hammy. 0:57 Hammy, he's out a little sick and didn't even go to work today. 1:00 So I tell you, he kind of felt bad, but I'm like, yeah, we don't need you, Hammy. 1:05 And really, Veegs, we don't really need him, do we? 1:07 I guess not. 1:10 Hey, when you're not here, you get thrown under the bus. 1:12 Yeah. 1:14 That's the Rube style right there is to back up the bus on the people who aren't there. 1:17 So keep it going. 1:21 Well, if you have questions for us this week, you just send it to us via Twitter. 1:25 You choose the hashtag GPL Podcast and we'll pick it up. 1:28 I've seen a few questions in there and obviously a lot of people send questions when they're listening live on the Mixler app. 1:36 The Mixler app has got a lot of chats, so we've got people in there already asking us questions. 1:41 Moate is already pissed off that we're not going to get Hammy TMZ. 1:44 He might leave already. 1:46 Big mistake, likes our new bumper music, so that's good. 1:50 So just send us questions if you want. 1:52 We'll try to get to them since it's just going to be Veegs and I tonight. 1:56 Well, Veegs, we've always said split on the road, sweep at home, Minnesota is not quite there yet, but they played a really good team this weekend. 2:06 They did split at home to Penn State, lost four to Friday night, and win four-one Saturday night. 2:12 Granted, Penn State was missing a couple of their stars, but I would say especially Saturday, we know that Motska was really happy how the team performed Saturday night. 2:25 Well, I think he's happy with the way this team is trending. 2:28 I know the average fan might not see it, but this team is starting to generate a little bit more offense, a little more consistency. 2:37 They're showing the ability to control the puck in the offensive zone, and they're not really spending a lot of time defending. 2:44 The things that have been killing this team this year are the quick one-and-dones in the offensive zone, taking too many penalties, and not scoring enough goals. 2:54 I think we're starting to see some of those things all start to dissipate. 2:58 We saw it this weekend, where they controlled pretty much most of the play for the entire weekend. 3:03 If not for a couple of catastrophic mistakes on Friday, they could have came away from a sweep. 3:10 That's not something we've seen this season early. 3:14 One thing people love to say is like, hey, Penn State didn't have a couple of their good young stars. 3:21 I guess I've just found over the last few years that it just seems like no matter what kind of team Minnesota has, they've done a fairly good job of keeping the superstars from being super. 3:36 I mean, you look at Michigan earlier this year and their wonderful defenseman, we kind of shut him down. 3:43 Is that Hughes, right? 3:44 Yup, that's Hughes. 3:45 It's definitely a situation, I think, where Minnesota does rise to a challenge. 3:50 They'll play up to their competition. 3:53 They also play down to their competition sometimes as well. 3:56 But I think against the good teams, it gets their attention and it gets their focus. 4:00 I think one thing that happens with a program like Minnesota is usually you get your opponent's A game. 4:06 Well, when Minnesota plays an A team, they bring their A game a little bit more often. 4:12 Jess just got on, Jess in the chat was just saying he thought it was a great way to play, stayed out of the box. 4:19 You mentioned that a little bit too, but that is something they are doing better at, is staying out of the box. 4:26 We saw a couple of penalties here and there, and there are still some stick penalties, but you just didn't see them coming necessarily at the wrong time, and the penalty kill, which has been strong all year, came through again this weekend. 4:38 I thought they looked pretty solid for the most part. 4:40 They didn't give up a power play goal to Penn State, which was important in a series like this. 4:46 Bob Motzgau kind of fell on the sword a little bit for their play against Ferris State, and admitted that they didn't even practice on ice the penalty kill all week for that series. 4:56 They tried to get away with just doing it with video, which obviously didn't work, because they gave up three power play goals that weekend. 5:04 So they made sure to take care of that in Penn State, and they were a little bit more effective. 5:10 One thing that did happen this past weekend is, somebody who hadn't scored for a while actually scored, and he got two goals. 5:16 Jack Ramsey finally kind of, I don't know, maybe he found a new line mate in Novak, but he had a couple of nice goals this weekend. 5:25 Yeah, just two spectacular ones. 5:27 You know, a toe drag one, and then a nice move around the goalie in front of the net. 5:32 Some skill that Jack Ramsey does have. 5:35 You know, I talked to him a little bit about it, and you know, you just kind of get that mentality where you think your role is a certain role, and you just kind of pigeonhole yourself there. 5:46 And when I told him he only had 10 shots on the season, he was kind of startled. 5:50 He was like, wow, I need to start shooting the puck a little bit more and showing some offense, because he has shown offense in practice. 5:59 You know, he's got a nice set of hands. 6:01 When he was in the Chicago Development Camp, he was one of the top scorers one year in their little tournament that they had. 6:08 So he does have an ability to score some goals. 6:10 And maybe that's a weekend where he kind of gets a little bit of confidence and provides that depth scoring that this team needs. 6:18 Well, one thing I've enjoyed about Jack is that he does interact with the fans and even us on Twitter, you know, when we're mentioning him. 6:27 I've noticed, you know, just a couple weeks ago, I was giving him a hard time about not having any points. 6:30 And he actually replies, he says, you know, I'm a penalty killer and things like that. 6:36 But like you said, that was kind of his role. 6:39 You know, him and Romanco and Norman were kind of the checking line quotes. 6:46 And they just really hadn't gotten the offense going. 6:48 And now with Romanco out, and I guess you could say that, you know, maybe Norman, or not Norman, I should say Novak is maybe being punished, being put back there. 7:01 I'm not really sure. 7:02 But, you know, we haven't got Novak on the scoring tally yet, or as a goal, but maybe he was the guy who opened up Mr. 7:12 Ramsey. 7:14 Yeah, maybe, you know, a guy who has puck possession skills and is looking to generate offense. 7:20 Maybe you pair that with Norman and Ramsey, who do have a history of scoring. 7:23 It's just not at the collegiate level. 7:26 They have shown in their careers the ability to score. 7:29 They just haven't done it for the Gophers. 7:32 It's there. 7:33 And so maybe playing with Novak, who's a great passer and looks to generate offense, can help them out. 7:39 And at the same time, guys like Norman and Ramsey, who could be a little more defensive minded, can help Novak out as well and keep Novak from making big mistakes. 7:50 Now, by Novak, just being at the games, watching on TV, he is getting chances. 8:01 Sometimes he's missing the net. 8:04 I think it's a little bit bad luck, and maybe it's in his head now. 8:06 But I kept thinking that I think he might break out with a goal, and his first goal of the season will be an empty net goal. 8:14 But I just have this feeling if he finally gets one, that maybe it will just take this monkey off his back, and he'll be able to start scoring and contributing more on the scoring end, not in the setup end. 8:29 Yeah, it's hard to know with him. 8:30 Ever since he's had his injuries, he hasn't really been able to score many goals. 8:36 He's just not a great shooter. 8:39 He looks to pass. 8:40 So I think sometimes when he is taking shots, it's too late, because he kind of passes first and shoots as a last resort. 8:49 So it kind of puts him in a bad spot to score goals. 8:52 But he is a player who makes the power play go. 8:55 They're playing this kind of 2-3 power play look at times. 8:59 A big reason for that is because they have Novak up top who can distribute the puck to Sheehy on his off wing and to Gates and Pitlick on their off wing. 9:09 And they're not able to do that if he's not in that role. 9:12 And he's such a good passer has such great vision that as long as he can avoid the catastrophic mistakes on the point, he can make that power play go. 9:21 And it's a unit that's clicking at over 20%, which is pretty good for college hockey these days. 9:27 And it's been something they've been able to count on for almost a goal of game here the last two months. 9:33 You know, you talked about Friday night, you know, if they could have maybe done a little better on the penalty on the power play too and the penalty kill. 9:40 You know, but I would say Friday night, they were really bailed out by their trusty goalie. 9:48 Well, that's kind of been a story all season. 9:50 It has been a story all season, but I think even Friday night, it was even more apparent. 9:56 Well, I think in the Michigan and Ohio State series, it was readily apparent in those series that they were counting on their goaltending. 10:03 And Bob Motzko was talking about this yesterday, state availability, that this is a dangerous team. 10:09 And it's dangerous not because they're playing so well. 10:13 It's because their goaltending is so strong. 10:15 It's because their special teams can be a big strength. 10:19 And this is a team that, you know, you run into a hot goalie. 10:23 Minnesota's been used to that. 10:25 You've got problems. 10:27 And when Matt Robson's on, he is a very difficult goalie to beat because he's so big and he's so sound. 10:34 And then if they need another goaltender, they've got one who's got a totally different look, who's got a little street hockey goalie in him, is a little bit more athletic and challenging than Eric Shearhorn. 10:46 And let's get back to the power play, you know, for the weekend against, you know, Ferris State, they kind of switched it up from what they were doing, a new kind of formation. 10:56 What did they end up doing this past weekend against Penn State? 10:58 Did they kind of even mix it up even a little more? 11:01 What did you see? 11:02 I think they did a little bit more of the 2-3 like they did against Ferris. 11:07 What tended to happen was Novak drifted almost more to the point from the middle of the ice, which set up Pitlick and Gates as one-time options. 11:17 And again, it really stresses the penalty kill, figuring out which paths to take away, because those are, you know, two lanes that are tough for a goaltender to stop when the puck moves across. 11:27 I think they're just looking for a little more consistency around the front of the net. 11:31 We saw a bunch of guys rotate through there. 11:34 I think Reedy, McManus, Burke, I think even Sadik got a chance in front of the net, is kind of that guy who can screen the goaltender, take away the eyes and pounce on rebounds. 11:47 Because I think Mozka sees this unit as coming together. 11:51 They just need someone with a little more grit. 11:54 Maybe it's going to be Ramsey at some point who gets a shot out there in front of the net if he keeps scoring goals. 11:59 Well, he definitely has the size. 12:02 And what he was kind of showing us this past weekend is he may have the hands too. 12:06 Yeah, and I think that's why they wanted to put Burke there is because he has a history of scoring goals around the net. 12:12 He's been pretty slippery so far and they just need someone who's tenacious out there. 12:17 So we'll see what happens as that continues to evolve. 12:20 I'd like to get your thoughts on Ranta. 12:23 He started off pretty good this year, but has been fairly quiet the past month. 12:29 Well, just the thing with Ranta is he's got a great shot. 12:33 You know, we've all seen it in the opening weekend. 12:36 You see it in practice. 12:37 I think he's getting into a bit of a stretch where he's pressing. 12:42 He's holding on to the puck too long. 12:44 He's thinking, I've got to get a great perfect shot off. 12:47 And part of the reason that he was so successful early in the season was he was getting the puck off quick. 12:53 You know, he was either coming across the blue line and getting it quick, you know, moving laterally, changing the angle and surprising the goalie a little bit. 13:02 Now it seems to be he's kind of holding on, waiting for that perfect shot. 13:05 And that just doesn't happen in college hockey. 13:07 You know, everybody's too sound defensively. 13:11 It rarely happens that you can score on goals like that. 13:14 So I think one of the things for him to get more effective is to move the puck and trust that it's going to get back to you. 13:21 There's a lot of skilled players in the roster who can move the puck back to him. 13:25 He's just got to trust that and let it come. 13:28 It could be that he was just pressing to make the world junior team and impress his coach so much too. 13:33 That does weigh heavily on young players, especially in a country like Finland where there's so much focus on their world teams, their junior teams, making that team. 13:46 Maybe he's putting a little extra pressure on himself. 13:49 And obviously he was pretty much the last player cut from that team and that team ended up beating US for the title. 13:56 Yeah, that's got to be rough for Ranta, knowing that Union is pretty close to winning a gold medal and just giving them some fuel to work on it for the future. 14:06 Maybe they cut the right guy. 14:09 Maybe they made the right decision there, that's true. 14:13 But it was another exciting world junior tournament. 14:16 We obviously had those those upsets of Canada and Sweden early in the quarterfinals. 14:23 You had some really goofy plays where a Russian gets two penalty shots called against them in one play when they played Switzerland. 14:33 And then you have the US getting down early in the gold medal game, coming back and tying it and then losing it late. 14:39 That junior tournament just never fails to excite you and just have weird things happen as well. 14:47 Well, it's just that you've got young kids who are super talented that are thrown together and mistakes are going to happen. 14:53 And hockey is a game to capitalize on someone else's mistakes. 14:57 It's so fun to watch in the World Juniors. 15:00 This year more than ever, you didn't know what was going to happen. 15:03 I don't know what quite the deal was with Canada. 15:07 I didn't watch them very closely, but for them to go out in the quarters like they did, it was pretty shocking to me. 15:15 That's a team that's expected to win gold every year, especially on home soil. 15:19 I know that the social media reaction was massively negative with the players on that squad, and that's something they're going to have to learn to deal with as they try to make careers in hockey, but it was shocking to me. 15:33 And then Sweden, who hasn't lost a preliminary round game in I think like 60 games or something like that. 15:41 Yeah, it's a ridiculous long number. 15:43 For them to go out is surprising, too, because that's a team that's just built to be consistent, possess the puck, and it's paid off for them in the past, but surprises this year, a lot of fun to watch. 15:55 I think the US got a little bit lucky to pass Russia. 15:58 They got a great goaltending performance from their guy, and it got them through. 16:04 Well, yeah, it's hard to complain. 16:07 Well, maybe people complain these days, but you get a silver medal, and that's pretty good for Team US. 16:11 You know, considering most of our lives, we never paid much attention to the tournament, you know, back in the 90s and even early 2000s because the US team stunk, and they rarely even made it to the second round, or the medal round, I guess you would call it. 16:27 And then you compare that to somebody like Canada this year who didn't make it out of the quarterfinals after probably, you know, being the team that had been together the longest. 16:36 You know, they came together in early December, and they had the most time together, but that is a pretty big epic fail in Canada on home ice. 16:47 It's just so much pressure on those guys every year. 16:49 Obviously, it may be having a long camp for that kind of team isn't what you want to do, because it just ramps up the pressure even more, because, you know, TSN gives full coverage to the World Juniors, because the Sportsnet has the NHL rights now. 17:04 So you're just getting constant updates in Canada on their team, from that media. 17:10 Imagine if Sports Center did 25 to 30 minutes on the US. 17:14 World Junior Team every night. 17:16 Live at the place. 17:17 I mean, that's what it's like. 17:19 Yes. 17:20 It is essentially like the Stanley Cup coverage. 17:23 You know, they've got people on site. 17:25 They're talking. 17:25 I mean, it's a huge deal in Canada. 17:28 I don't think people really down here realize how big it is, which is why they get it every other year. 17:35 Yeah. 17:35 It'd be amazing, you know, if the NCAA Basketball Tournament, if you just focused on one team every year. 17:41 You know, that's kind of what it's like, I think. 17:45 Well, you know what? 17:46 The world's catching up, and we've been seeing that the past, you know, 30 years. 17:50 I mean, you look at the amount of Americans... 17:52 The US is catching up, too. 17:53 I'm sorry, what? 17:54 The US is catching up, too. 17:56 I mean, you look at the composition of the roster right now for the US., there's kids from all over the country, and that's just a great job. 18:03 I think we're finally starting to see the expansion of the NHL impact youth hockey, where they're starting to become 20, 24 years old, and that's helping add to the depth of the US roster. 18:17 Well, and just look what's happened over the past 30 years. 18:21 The percentage of American to percentage of Canadian players has changed a lot. 18:27 It's a huge shift. 18:28 And then you had the Europeans coming in, and then the late 80s, early 90s, you had the Russians coming in. 18:32 And so really the Canadians are still supply the bulk of the NHL kids, but they are not the huge big dog anymore. 18:44 They're not. 18:45 It's fun to see the big dog get knocked off every once in a while. 18:48 So it's hard. 18:51 They cheer so hard against the US in every game. 18:53 It's hard not to take a little bit of joy and say, oh, that's a shame. 18:59 And I'm guessing it was probably never like that in the past. 19:04 It wasn't until that team went up to Canada and beat them. 19:07 It was a little over 10 years ago now, 10 or 12 years ago. 19:12 I think once we finally started being able to compete with them, then they started to hate us. 19:17 Yeah, because I think before that, it was still Canada, Russia. 19:20 You had those Canada Cups and things like that to build up that rivalry. 19:27 It's good that the US team is starting to answer back a little bit. 19:30 It makes the tournament a lot more fun. 19:32 It does. 19:33 Parity is good for that kind of stuff. 19:35 We're seeing that in college hockey right now as well. 19:38 Well, you look at college hockey. 19:40 College hockey, we've got Arizona State in the top 10 right now. 19:45 That says it all. 19:47 Yeah, a little bit of that is scheduling and whatnot. 19:50 They do have a bunch of good hockey players because there's probably more Division I hockey players than there are Division I hockey roster spots right now. 19:59 The growth of the USHL to be as good as it is, the growth of the NAHL, that league used to be pretty far down the rung from having Division I college players, and now there's multiple players on every team, and especially the overage players. 20:17 There's not enough spots for those guys in the USHL, so they go to the NHL and they're top players in that league. 20:24 You know, if Arizona State ends up getting that rink, I wouldn't doubt if the Big Ten tries to go after them. 20:33 If they can't get other schools to come in, and you know Arizona State gets a good rink, I mean Arizona, you know, they're obviously doing some pretty good things recruiting right now. 20:42 And you know what, Arizona is a nice place to go, especially during the hockey season. 20:48 Yeah, I mean the key is getting a rink. 20:51 Penn State basically put out the template for all teams to follow in terms of get a big donation, build a nice on-campus rink, get a loyal fan base, and join a big conference. 21:04 Some people think that the Big Ten welcome Penn State because of TV rights and things like that. 21:12 Penn State joined the Big Ten so that they could have a successful program. 21:16 You know, Pugula was going to give all that money to that school, being in the Big Ten is the best way to support that program. 21:23 I was looking at attendance. 21:25 You know, their first year as a Division I school, I think they only averaged about 3,000, 2,700 fans per game. 21:34 But as soon as they joined the Big Ten, you know, they were sold out for the season. 21:38 There you go. 21:39 Obviously, we know there's a lot of hate for Penn State, but you know, as Pat McAleady has been saying for the past, you know, seven, eight years, grow the game. 21:48 And that's what they're trying to do. 21:49 You know, we've lost a couple of small teams, you know, in the last few years. 21:53 But then we've added teams like Penn State and now Arizona State. 21:56 So, like you said, oh, he grow the game. 22:01 And there's going to be shifts. 22:03 There's going to be shifts. 22:04 You know, when new teams come up, we have to do some moving around here and there, but grow the game. 22:11 Well, the only Big Ten school that's really had a decline in attendance is Minnesota. 22:15 It's actually been pretty good for just about everybody else. 22:19 Well, we know Wisconsin had the big drop as well, but they've also got a gigantic arena. 22:25 Yeah, I mean, they've got a big rink and, you know, their attendance is starting to come back a little bit from, you know, its low point. 22:32 Ohio State, you know, they are up probably 25, 30% from where they've been. 22:40 Notre Dame, you know, they're up from when they were in the CCHA. 22:44 So I think it's been good for everybody, pretty much except Minnesota. 22:49 That's just how it goes. 22:51 Well, we're going to get to a few of your Twitter questions and obviously your chat questions as well. 22:55 But first, we need to hear from our sponsor. 22:59 vintagemnhockey.com is a proud sponsor of The GPL Podcast. 23:04 Well, what is Vintage MN Hockey? 23:07 Well, it's kind of the place to get all of your history of Minnesota Hockey, from the pros to the minors, to the collegiate teams, to even the high school teams. 23:17 All information about any of those teams can be found on vintagemnhockey.com. 23:22 They also have great interviews with some historical Minnesota hockey figures like John Mayessich and Lou Nani, Glenn Sonmore, some of the greats of Minnesota hockey. 23:31 So make sure you check out those interviews. 23:33 It's a really great thing. 23:34 But as like I always say, I think my favorite part is the store. 23:38 The store you can buy a custom historical jersey from the Gophers or the Bulldogs or some of your favorite high school teams. 23:45 And if you do make a purchase, just use the code GPL Podcast, all one word, and you'll get 10% off your order. 23:52 So make sure you visit vintagemnhockey.com and follow them on Twitter at VintageMNHockey. 24:00 All right. 24:00 Let's get to some of your questions. 24:02 You know, if you always have questions for us, you can just use the hashtag GPL Podcast on Twitter, and we'll do it anytime. 24:08 We'll try to save it for the next show if we can. 24:11 I noticed that right before he came into the live listening, Big Mistake tweeted out, Does $10 tickets and bigger crowds worth sacrificing season ticket holders? 24:24 What do you think, Vegs? 24:27 Oh boy, this is always the tricky response because some people, they don't really care that someone's getting in the door for $10, as long as the atmosphere in the rink is good. 24:39 I've been doing ticket scan data for a while, and Saturday's Penn State game was by far the biggest crowd this season. 24:46 By almost 1800, it was by far the best crowd. 24:53 Some of that could be the $10 tickets that they were able to sell at the state fair this year on their Black Friday deals. 25:02 Could just be that people are ready for hockey now, as the Gophers play every week here on out. 25:09 I spoke with Mark Coyle a little bit this week, and the university hasn't seen a big needle move as they've dropped prices on tickets even when they have done these kinds of deals. 25:21 So, I don't know if we're going to see a lot of this in the future, or if we're just seeing some renewed energy around the program and people are finally ready to show up. 25:30 Well, one thing we have seen is, whether it's marketing or it's Brian Deutsch coming up with this stuff over there at the U. 25:37 But this past Monday, they went off to Roseville and had an open practice, and then they had a signing session, and they were actually out there skating with some kids after practice. 25:49 And then, they're doing the same thing here in St. 25:51 Louis Park this next Monday. 25:53 It seems like they're out in the community a little more. 25:58 Uh-oh. 25:58 Did I lose Veegs there? 26:02 Poor connection for Vegoe. 26:04 A lot of perfect timing, right as I talk into him. 26:11 I hope you people are still listening. 26:12 Why don't we hang up with Veegs and try to reconnect with him? 26:15 That was weird. 26:17 I'm not sure what's going on with Vegoe there. 26:20 Completely lost him. 26:28 We'll try to call him again here. 26:37 We lost you there for a second there, Veegs. 26:39 I lost you. 26:41 You know, it was strange. 26:43 It says, poor connection. 26:44 Something weird happened. 26:46 I'm not really sure what happened there. 26:49 Well, I heard the part about the outdoor skate and the new thing that they're trying here. 26:54 They're doing another one here in St. 26:55 Louis Park. 26:56 Yep, that's what I was talking about, yeah. 26:58 Yeah, I mean, I think that's great for growing the game. 27:01 I know Bob Motzgau spoke to a bunch of season ticket holders before the Saturday Penn State game. 27:06 They're trying to find ways to engage with their fans more. 27:10 And I think this is just great for the program to do. 27:13 I've often said that some of your best fans are going to be the ones who don't know anything about the old WCHA. 27:20 They're going to hear WCHA and they're going to think, what? 27:23 Michigan Tech? 27:23 Minnesota State? 27:24 Bemidji? 27:26 Why would we want to be in that conference? 27:28 I think those are probably going to be some of your best fans going forward and so this is a great way for the program to get out and connect and Bob's a perfect salesman for the job as well. 27:39 Yeah, it looks like they had a lot of fun out there with the kids and they'll be out there again. 27:45 What's the name of the St. 27:46 Louis Park Arena? 27:47 Is it just their city arena? 27:49 Yeah, I think so. 27:50 I think it's just their St. 27:51 Louis Park Rec Center. 27:52 They've got a covered sheet out there so the sun doesn't beat down on it. 27:56 Oh, cool. 27:57 We're starting to see some of those around the state. 28:00 I know Grand Rapids has one of those. 28:02 Edina has one of those. 28:04 It's a great economical way for a hockey community to get some outdoor ice that's cheaper and can get more kids on it. 28:13 I'm hoping to get out there on next Monday since it's a little closer to me and see how the whole thing is going. 28:19 Just to kind of get the whole vibe because I want to see more things like this. 28:24 And they've been doing more things like this. 28:26 After games, they've been doing more planned out sessions with players signing for the kids. 28:34 Usually before, it was kind of a free for all. 28:37 Once the players got out of the elevator, they'd be mobbed by kids, but now they're doing more actually structured things after games now. 28:44 So they are doing and trying to do a lot of different things. 28:49 I think so. 28:50 They're trying to find ways to be more than just a ticket for fans. 28:55 They want it to be an experience. 28:57 They want to have reasons for fans to get to the arena early, be on time and stay late. 29:03 So I think you're just going to see more of these things come along as the program starts to figure it out. 29:09 One of the things that the Athletic Department did was they took all their ticket sales in house recently. 29:15 So they wanted to be in control of it before. 29:18 They outsourced it because they didn't have to work very hard. 29:21 It's just send out invoices and wait for the money to come back in. 29:24 And that's no longer good enough. 29:27 So fans are expecting more and they're trying to figure out what will peak their interest. 29:34 So I think this is one of the things. 29:36 Mote in the live chat is wondering, where are we in the pairwise? 29:40 Any chance of climbing into top 15? 29:42 I'm looking right now, it looks like Minnesota is number 26. 29:45 And really at this time of year, just win baby. 29:49 I mean really that's essentially what they need to start doing if they want to climb up in the pairwise, just win. 29:55 I think it's going to be tough for them to get into the top 13. 30:00 I think just based on those losses to Ferris State and St. 30:02 Lawrence, they're going to have a tough time. 30:05 And the way Bob is talking, you know, he wants to get his team ready for playoff hockey. 30:11 So that's, I think, where his focus is, is he wants to get them ready for the Big Ten tournament. 30:16 He even called it out yesterday in availability that he likes the format of the tournament. 30:21 You know, the idea where, you know, they can get maybe high enough in the conference where they get to play at home for some games, you know, get them into a championship game, a one-off. 30:31 You know, that's something they think they can win. 30:33 And here's the deal. 30:36 The Big Ten is really a toss-up right now. 30:39 I mean, it is so close. 30:41 We don't have a team just coming into the league like Notre Dame did last year and just dominating. 30:49 Yeah, I'm surprised at Ohio State. 30:51 I thought they would have a chance to maybe run away with this league this year. 30:54 But you know, they're 10-5 and 2. 30:57 You know, I don't see them pulling away. 31:00 It looks like the depth of the conference is definitely there. 31:04 Heck, even Wisconsin, who we didn't think a whole lot of at the start of the year, they're in second place right now. 31:09 Exactly. 31:10 I mean, you got Ohio State at 20 points, Wisconsin at 16. 31:14 Then you got Notre Dame, us and Michigan all at 15. 31:17 Penn State just one point behind that. 31:20 And as we've seen, Michigan State has played spoiler a few times. 31:24 They split with the Ohio State this past weekend. 31:27 Yeah, you know, Michigan State has that one line, the KHL line, and they're talented. 31:31 If you're not paying attention, they can steal a game from you. 31:35 Although it helps if you give them the seven goals. 31:40 That is true. 31:42 We've got Nick Johnson wondering, thoughts on how if the Gophers score first has led to a lot of losses compared to with scoring second leads to wins, or so it seems. 31:53 He just has this perception now, like, it seems like when the Gophers don't score first, they're doing better. 32:00 You know, it's hard to explain what this year's group, I don't know what it is. 32:03 I think this is a team where maybe if they score first, they want to sit back a little bit, and they get in this, you know, defensive posture, and that's why they can't get to three goals. 32:15 Whereas if maybe they give up that first goal, they get a little bit more juice, and they get some energy, and they're reverse. 32:21 But I think part of it is, you know, the defensemen on this team still probably have a ways to go in their growth, and you know, when you get ahead, you might be playing in your own end a little bit more. 32:34 That's not the strength of this team. 32:37 We know it's not. 32:39 Dennis Nelson wants to know, who are the better refs and linesmen in the Big Ten? 32:43 And why don't we try to have one on? 32:45 They have a difficult job to do, but only a few don't need glasses. 32:51 Well, for one thing, I really don't think they would allow the refs. 32:54 I mean, they hardly even talk to the media, do they? 32:56 I mean, we don't really have that kind of access to them. 32:58 I mean, we do sort of have access to them. 33:03 You know, obviously, we see them out after the games a lot, and we do get to talk with them. 33:07 And from what I've seen, these refs are all, they're all really good guys, really great guys. 33:13 They're not out to get Minnesota. 33:14 They're not out to get any other team. 33:17 And a lot of times, you know, when we do talk to them, they do explain, hey, why we did this and why we did that. 33:23 And then when you talk to them, you get a much more understanding of where they're coming from. 33:29 Yeah, it is a tough job. 33:30 And I actually think the Big Ten has a pretty good crew of refs compared to some of the other leagues. 33:36 I think the travel in the Big Ten is pretty nice. 33:39 And so that attracts some good quality officials. 33:43 And they are going to mess up. 33:45 It's going to be part of the game. 33:47 But I don't really know if there's a crew right now in the Big Ten that I see on the lineup sheet and I go, ooh, it's going to be a long night. 33:55 I don't know if there's anyone like that right now. 33:58 It's not like the old days of Anderson or maybe Don Adam or what it may be. 34:04 Well, I think there's pretty good, the officials don't hold grudges right now in this league. 34:08 I don't know what it is. 34:10 If there's too many eyes that you can't hold grudges or what, but it seems pretty balanced to me right now. 34:16 And these guys are truly hockey guys. 34:19 A lot of them played high school and even Division III college in this area. 34:26 They know how to hold spiel. 34:28 I mean, they're just hockey guys. 34:30 They really are. 34:31 Yeah. 34:32 And I actually heard something interesting one of the other days was that sometimes the video guys are not hockey guys and that can impact the way the game gets run. 34:44 So when there is a review, the delay often isn't the Big Ten official in the box looking at the play. 34:50 It's the video guy queuing it up and trying to show it to them. 34:54 And so when fans get frustrated, it's not the ref's fault. 34:58 And the thing is, at Mariucci, they actually do have a pretty good crew that does that because they do have a referee or a former referee up in the video feed box to feed the referees at Mariucci. 35:12 I mean, I see Marco Hunt in there almost every weekend. 35:16 Marco's not on the ice anymore, but Marco is behind the scenes. 35:20 Yep, and they're lucky to have him because that makes that run a lot smoother. 35:24 It does. 35:25 It does. 35:25 And there's a couple other guys I've seen in there who I know that are not refs, but they have been there forever. 35:34 And they know what to do. 35:36 Mote, he likes Derek Shepherd. 35:38 You want Derek Shepherd back, Mote? 35:40 Don Adam, you want those two guys back? 35:42 They're entertaining, that's for sure. 35:43 They're showmen. 35:45 No, Don Adam, just making stuff up. 35:47 That video will live in infamy, Don Adam. 35:51 I bet you he just loves that. 35:53 I bring him out of retirement at least a couple of times a year. 35:56 It's just good stuff. 35:58 All right, what else do we got here on the Twitter questions? 36:02 We had Corbin ask earlier today, how is next year's recruiting class looking? 36:07 Any chance a player or two leaves early for the NHL? 36:11 So he's kind of wondering, you know, what's going to happen if we lose a couple of guys and who we got coming in? 36:17 Yeah, it's hard to know what's going to happen. 36:19 It's such a big senior class leaving that they are going to have to fill a lot of spots. 36:24 And what Bob has currently committed coming in won't fill all those spots. 36:29 So I'm very curious to see what happens. 36:32 I almost kind of wonder right now if Bob's got guys lined up, but he's told them to keep it quiet. 36:38 Whether or not they're flipping or whether or not they're just a late commit. 36:42 We'll see what happens. 36:44 I think the only sure things we know coming in are Purbecks, Mo, Myers, and I think Castor has to come in next year. 36:52 They need defensemen and Castor's a guy who decided to stay around for his senior year at Chaska. 36:58 He's probably their most offensively dynamic defenseman in the pipeline and probably the most ready. 37:03 He'll be a little undersized, but you know what? 37:05 He plays kind of an undersized game, so he's probably the top kid coming in. 37:11 Jess wants to know how good are the Middlestead brothers? 37:15 It's hard to know. 37:16 You know, they're so young. 37:18 They're having a good year right now for Eden Prairie. 37:21 Hammy might be more the expert on that, but I think the younger one, Luke, is probably the more talented one out of the pair. 37:29 Although John looks like he's a light bloomer. 37:31 He's really developed a lot in the last year. 37:35 Okay. 37:36 Well, we got a road trip to Notre Dame this weekend coming up for the boys. 37:39 You know, we got TV on NBC Sports Network on Friday night, and Saturday night, it's pretty much a stream only on the NBC Sports Live app. 37:51 I do believe that if you have some of the sports packages, I think SNY Network out in New York is going to be picking up that feed. 38:00 But for the most part, it'll be a stream only and I know people complain about this stuff, but it wasn't that long ago when we didn't have any streams. 38:11 So being able to see video, it doesn't bother me all that much. 38:20 Are you there, Vedo? 38:21 Just be thankful it's not Gopher Puck tape delay, right? 38:27 Or a game in Anchorage where we're listening to the radio at midnight here. 38:32 You know, I kind of like those days too, because we did do a live broadcast once for Anchorage. 38:38 Well, you practically do play-by-play at the Anchorage game room. 38:40 I almost did, and I was drinking heavily, and it was quite the interesting evening. 38:46 But you know, we also had people calling in via Skype. 38:49 I remember our good friend Mel, who lives out in Michigan now, she was driving in Wisconsin. 38:55 She calls Skype via her phone. 38:57 I mean, she's in her car talking with us. 38:59 It was almost like a real radio broadcast. 39:02 It was a fun thing to do. 39:03 Maybe we'll have to do that again sometime, just without the gin, because I was blubbering by the end of that broadcast. 39:11 Holy cow. 39:13 But anyway, there's actual hockey this weekend, Figs. 39:16 Notre Dame, I think we expect them to be a little better in the league this year. 39:22 They've been a little Jekyll and Hyde, sort of like the Gophers, but they're still high up there in the rankings, because they've done well in their non-conference games, but conference games has been a little tricky for them. 39:34 Yeah, I think we thought a little bit more of this team coming into the season. 39:38 Kale Morris was so good for them last year. 39:42 They were so good defensively. 39:44 I think they really missed the three forwards that they lost, and Jordan Gross. 39:49 I know Jake Evans for them last year. 39:51 He was pretty much on the ice for every important play, every important faceoff. 39:57 Anytime you use a player like Jordan Gross, that's going to have a huge impact on your team, because he played so many minutes for them. 40:04 So I think you're seeing some surprising things happen with them. 40:08 I saw that Penn State game. 40:09 They gave up nine goals. 40:12 That's just not something you're used to seeing out of a Jeff Jackson team. 40:17 So it's hard to know what to expect this weekend. 40:19 I think the biggest key for Minnesota is get a lead. 40:23 We were talking about how if Minnesota gets a lead, they might play too defensive. 40:28 Well, if Notre Dame gets a lead, they're going to pack it in. 40:32 It's going to be a really hard game for Minnesota to break down. 40:36 If Cal Morris finds his game, that's just not a situation you want to have to get into. 40:42 One nice thing about Notre Dame is their rink's a little bit wider than a traditional NHL rink. 40:46 So it's a nice building for the Gophers to play in. 40:51 And there does seem to be some momentum right now at the Gopher program. 40:54 So it's a big test to see if they can keep that up against Notre Dame, a team that's used to playing defense and really good at it. 41:02 And I think that's key because we kind of thought that was going to happen after the Michigan Series and then that second game against Ferris State. 41:10 We were kind of back to square one. 41:12 We know that, well, jeez, I almost said Lucia. 41:15 We know that Monsko was frustrated in how they regressed against Ferris State. 41:21 So hopefully getting into Penn State. 41:24 And another thing is hopefully now that they're playing every week, they can really get into this flow and really get to the point where Monsko wants them to be. 41:32 Well, and they can focus on hockey. 41:34 I don't think they have school again here for another couple of weeks. 41:38 So this is a team that can kind of almost take on a pro hockey schedule if they want to. 41:44 They have plenty of time to get sent extra video to look at and be on top of their game. 41:50 They can get enough sleep. 41:51 I'm sure Cal Dietz is happy about that. 41:54 I'm sure he's not so enthused about hearing about all this Fortnite and Call of Duty and NHL tournament stuff that the players are doing. 42:03 But we'll see if they can get off their technology enough for this weekend series. 42:08 Hey, you know what? 42:09 Sometimes you got to forget about hockey too. 42:12 Sometimes you got to put your mind somewhere else and just, you know, be a college kid. 42:20 Hey, that's just, at least that's what I think. 42:23 So, as long as it doesn't interfere with their hockey, I say go for it. 42:27 Exactly. 42:27 Because, I mean, you hear about even the, it's almost becoming a problem with the pro players these days. 42:33 Maybe it's overblown just because hockey can be so old school, but we'll see. 42:39 We'll see what happens this weekend on the ice now that these guys are really stretching out and enjoying the break. 42:44 Boy, I'd love to see Novak get going. 42:47 I'd just like to see him get a goal. 42:48 Just get a goal and then let's see where it goes. 42:52 I'd be happy with seeing the power play continue to work like it has. 42:55 I think in a series like this one, power play goals are going to be a premium, and as he gets used to being that high point guy, maybe he can play more confident because that power play works because he moves it so well. 43:08 Okay. 43:10 Well, what are you working on over at the athletic this week or recently? 43:14 Well, I've got something coming up here on this day of the program. 43:17 I'm trying to talk to a bunch of people around Gopher Hockey and get their perspective on ticket sales, ticket scans, things that they're doing with the loyalty program, things that they're doing with pricing, some things that they're doing with mobile ticketing. 43:33 So it should touch a lot of things that people are interested in in the future of the program. 43:38 We'll have some insights there on what facilities are next and how fundraising is going for those. 43:44 It'll be interesting because I know it sounds like they're starting to get some of these players or former players back in the fold and getting them to do some fundraising or actually donate money. 43:55 So it's looking very positive on that front. 44:00 Yes, it is. 44:00 There's just a good feeling around. 44:03 Bob likes to talk about how this is such a good team and a good feeling to be around. 44:07 I think things with the alums are picking up as well. 44:12 All right. 44:13 You got anything else for this week? 44:17 No, just looking forward to seeing how this stretch goes. 44:21 Yeah, four road games in a row. 44:23 Then it's like four home games in a row. 44:25 Then it's like they're doing four and four quite a bit to finish out the season actually. 44:30 And they're on streams or TV, which is great for us. 44:34 Yeah, it is. 44:36 People complain, but I really don't know what they're complaining about anymore because just when you said Gopher Puck tape-delayed, it used to be that little joke. 44:45 It used to put that little banner up over the GPL logo when they would have tape-delay games. 44:51 And we did see it once this year when we hadn't seen it in about 10 years. 44:56 So it's much better than people think it is. 45:00 And they found a way around it for that one, too. 45:03 So they did credit the people in the athletic department for being creative. 45:09 Most definitely. 45:10 Most definitely. 45:11 You know, well, that's our show for this week. 45:13 You know, we'll be sure to follow Vegoe on Twitter at eVegoe. 45:16 And even though he's not here, follow Hammy on Twitter at Hammy Hockey. 45:20 For those of you listening live, stay tuned. 45:22 For overtime coming up next, for the rest of you, we'll be back next week to recap this Notre Dame series and preview Michigan State. 45:33 Until then, we'll see you next time.