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, Vego and your host, Jupiter. 0:45 Good evening, and welcome to The GPL Podcast, episode number 147. 0:53 Getting close to that 150 mark. 0:55 Well, Veegs is having a little kid tear. 0:58 You know, the school's being closed and things like that, so he's gonna join us when he gets the chance. 1:02 Shouldn't be too long, but we got Hamme here, and Hamme, how you doing? 1:06 Not too bad about yourself. 1:08 I'm freezing cold. 1:10 Yeah, well, me too. 1:11 I'm hoping to keep this a shorter podcast tonight, because, you know, the heat just keeps running, but my yellow office is just a little cold, so I just want to crawl into bed and go to sleep. 1:21 Well, I saw you did that whole water toss thing on Facebook where it freezes in the air, right, or whatever, so. 1:27 Yeah, I had never really done that before, so I thought I'd give it a try, and my daughter recorded it. 1:30 She's like, I don't want to do it. 1:31 I'm like, typical 18-year-old doesn't want to be on camera. 1:35 So I did that, and it was fun, you know. 1:37 Never done that before, so just having a little fun with the cold. 1:40 I mean, the cold doesn't bother me, but now when I'm just kind of sitting around in my cold little office. 1:47 Did you have to go to work today? 1:49 I've been to work every day this week. 1:51 Usually the first time in the office. 1:52 You had to drive to work, really? 1:53 I got fortunate today, I didn't have to go in. 1:55 They said, no, don't come in. 1:57 I can work from home, but I'd just rather work from work because I can just get more done, it seems like. 2:04 I need server access and things like that. 2:07 Then I don't have the dog distracting me and whatever. 2:11 I just do better at work. 2:12 Got you. 2:13 Me and half the office because most people are gone today. 2:16 Working from home, working from home. 2:19 Who knows? 2:21 Who knows? 2:22 Jess is already saying, won't tell you guys it was short sleeve weather here. 2:27 Where are you, Jess? 2:29 You've got to be in some kind of warm place. 2:32 Thing is, I wear short sleeves every day. 2:34 I'm wearing short sleeves right now. 2:35 I got a sweatshirt on over it, but I'm a short sleeve guy. 2:38 But when it's this cold, my legs are cold, my feet are cold, and I'm just... 2:43 It's the gun show like year round for you? 2:46 Definitely not a gun show. 2:49 But, you know, when you're overweight like me, you just pretty much have to stay a little cooler. 2:57 Guns out, says Tops. 2:59 Definitely no guns. 3:02 That's just how it is. 3:03 Oh, let's get the hockey because the BADgers were in town last week, Hammeh, and boy, it started off real well. 3:09 I mean, you know, Motzko didn't say that the team played very well Friday night, but and they didn't, but it sure was a fun game. 3:18 It seemed like an old school BADger game. 3:21 Yeah, it was kind of a weird game. 3:23 And I think a lot of people had a very, after the game was over and I was reading comments or whatever, people kind of had a very, like a little bit of a simplistic way of looking at it. 3:33 It was almost like the attitude is, well, if you get badly out shot, but you win the game, you score a lot of goals, that must mean their goalie sucked and our goalie played really well. 3:42 And like, that's the explanation. 3:44 It's like, well, you know, I think that game was all about how the Gophers took advantage of some great opportunities that they had and mixed with the fact that I thought Wisconsin defensively played poorly. 3:56 I don't think it was really the goaltending on Wisconsin. 3:59 I mean, I realize they haven't been great this year, but when I think of the first handful of goals, I didn't think there were bad goals at all. 4:07 I mean, Sadick picks a corner, Sheehy comes down after her turnover and picks a corner on his off wing. 4:15 You have, let's see, it was Pitlick that had the one-timer. 4:19 That's usually when you get the goalie movement, a tough goal. 4:22 A tip shot where it hits the point or the pipe, and Norman's there to clean up the rebound, and a bounce off a skate. 4:30 I mean, you can't really blame goalies for some of these things. 4:33 And I just thought that was a little bit of a kind of a weak way to look at that game. 4:38 I thought the Gophers took advantage of some opportunities. 4:41 And defensively, I was surprised at how poorly Wisconsin played. 4:44 But I guess they are pretty young. 4:45 And Osikie is not quite working his magic there yet. 4:50 Well, like you said, the Gophers started pretty well. 4:53 They ended up switching out their goalie. 4:56 BADgers got back into it. 4:57 And halfway through the third, it's a 5-4 game. 5:00 And then all hell broke loose. 5:02 All of a sudden, literally a few minutes later, it was 9-4. 5:06 And we've got Thompson in the Mixle chat. 5:08 He's listening in. 5:09 And I know they were down a person Friday night. 5:12 So they had to keep track of nine goals happening in a short span of time. 5:17 I think it was nine. 5:17 Was it nine goals? 5:18 It was a ton of goals that period. 5:21 And being underhanded, I'm guessing Thompson, they were a little flustered. 5:25 But yeah, he said that's what he said. 5:28 Nine effing goals in the third, nine times, he's saying. 5:32 So it was a crazy finish, but it was fun. 5:37 And but Motzko was like, we didn't play well at all. 5:41 Yeah, I mean, I think it was one of those deals. 5:43 It kind of reminded you of one of those old school, like 70s and 80s kind of a game. 5:48 You know, like when you see highlights of, you know, some of the Gopher games from like the, you know, 70s and 80s, some of which I remember being at, but we won't go there. 5:59 Anyways, we don't want to talk about age. 6:03 But yeah, it was like, that was real wide open. 6:06 You know, I mean, I realized that some of it was just, like I said earlier, sloppy defensive play. 6:10 And I thought some of the goals that the Gophers gave up, I mean, there was some really weak spacing between the defense when they did poor job on that. 6:17 And just not very good coverage. 6:20 And I just kind of feel like sometimes our defense doesn't really have very good hockey sense. 6:26 And some of the decisions that they make and the angles that they take, it's just like, what are you doing out there? 6:31 So it gets a little frustrating. 6:34 So I could see why the coach would think that. 6:36 Yeah, he wasn't happy, you know, after the game. 6:40 And the funny thing is the next night, obviously the BADgers came back, beat them in a much closer game. 6:46 And then of course, Motzko says, oh, we played way better than last night. 6:49 We played a pretty good game. 6:51 But they lost the game, and that's kind of the bottom line. 6:54 Yeah, I mean, it is kind of weird how sometimes, you know, you see a team, you know, when they don't play well on the one game, you know, the one game, they win it, and then they play better the next night and they lose. 7:05 And I mean, I've seen that before, whether it's Gophers or elsewhere. 7:08 And so I do think that they played a little bit smarter the second night. 7:13 It's just that Wisconsin also, you know, kind of did a little bit better job and just happened to get that kind of game winner in the third period. 7:21 And we couldn't just match that. 7:22 It just didn't get over the hump that night. 7:25 And of course, you know, we had Walker that was out Saturday night and it probably, you know, they had to mix up the lines. 7:32 Things got all changed. 7:33 And of course, our friend Jess Myers, who was on the podcast, just had to ask Motzko, was it a discipline issue? 7:43 And Motzko literally looked at him and said, are you crazy? 7:46 And it was quite entertaining to have Jess Myers put on the spot because we love it when he gets put on the spot. 7:54 That was my... 7:54 You mean like what he was white, wasn't he the one that wrote the article where he was complaining about the Gophers beating North Dakota or what? 8:02 Yeah, that was his article when he was a kid. 8:05 Ah, you big baby. 8:08 Get over it. 8:10 Yeah, but that was the highlight of the weekend for me was... 8:13 Well, one of the highlights of the weekend is when he just looked at Jess with a weird look at his face and said, are you crazy? 8:20 It was... 8:22 Well, did we confirm that it was like they were concerned about concussion issue there? 8:30 Did we ever have that confirmed? 8:31 That's just it. 8:33 I don't think anything has been confirmed yet. 8:36 I mean, I realize I can't talk about all the whole medical issues with the way that the legal system is or whatever. 8:43 But nonetheless, I know that the rumors tend to fly on some of that stuff. 8:47 And I didn't, I think Vegoe said something about potentially it being that. 8:51 So we'll blame Vegoe for outing people's medical problems. 8:57 Yeah, we don't know. 8:58 Actually, I have the audio bit from Jess Meyers. 9:00 We'll do this on the flyer, see if you can hear it. 9:15 Are you crazy? 9:16 So yeah, that's Motzko. 9:18 I mean, I don't think Luchillo ever acted that way, but... 9:21 Yeah, it's a way to ingratiate yourself to the head coach in his first year. 9:26 Off to just a great start there. 9:28 And the look on his face too was just precious. 9:32 It was entertaining, but you know, I was going through a couple of tweets, and I was reading, Vonder kind of has a point here. 9:40 He says, they sweep the Irish on the road, then lose three or four to Michigan State and Wisconsin. 9:45 Which is the real identity? 9:46 And I kind of responded to him, I don't think we have enough podcast time to figure out what the identity of this team is, because they are just so up and down. 9:59 And it's really weird, because it almost seems like the entire league, with the exception of Ohio State, it kind of seems like that's how everybody is. 10:08 It's like, you think, okay, they played pretty well that weekend, nah, they didn't play that great that weekend. 10:13 And it's like all over the place. 10:15 And, you know, it's very weird, because you see some results that you're like, how did that happen? 10:22 And then you kind of realize, well, oh, yeah, I guess they're just like kind of a 500 team those seasons so far. 10:27 So it was very weird. 10:30 It's very, a very unpredictable thing. 10:33 I think we've talked about, at least I've talked about last few weeks, that, you know, we're not going to get in at large. 10:38 And maybe it's at least not in terms of getting in without having won the playoffs. 10:43 And I think maybe this year, that's probably the best thing that this program would have to do. 10:48 You know, I mean, it's to at least earn their way anyway, because sometimes I feel like there's a little bit, there's a little bit too much of thinking that you just automatically deserve to be there and maybe having to win it this year is something that will be better for the program in the long run. 11:03 Yeah, we'll have to wait and see. 11:04 I mean, like you said, if they were to get an at large bid, they would have to have a lot happen. 11:09 They have to win a bunch of games and have a bunch of quirky things happen for them to get up there in the top of the rankings. 11:17 So, like you said, it's really going to be, you know, how do you finish the season? 11:22 Can you win the Big Ten tournament if they want to make the tournament? 11:26 Because without the Big Ten tournament, they're just not going to be in there. 11:31 Yeah, you know, the thing is that I know the seniors, of course, don't like to hear this up. 11:36 But for me, it's just as much as, you know, how do some of these younger guys finish out the year, especially some of the freshmen? 11:42 We've seen some improvements among some of those players as the season has gone along. 11:47 And you want to feel like, okay, you have some positive momentum as the season kind of winds down. 11:54 Even if you don't make the NCAAs, you kind of want to feel like you have some positive things to look forward to next year with some of the players that are coming back. 12:01 And, you know, I think we've seen that, and we just want to continue to see some improvements and some of the new guys coming in next fall. 12:09 You know, just having a little bit more optimism in that sense. 12:13 Veegs joins us now. 12:14 How are you doing, Veegs? 12:15 I thought I could hear something in the background. 12:18 Good evening, gentlemen. 12:20 How are you doing? 12:21 Well, you know, this whole weather thing in the school closures puts a little wrench into the plans over here at the house. 12:29 I can imagine, you know, it's putting a wrench in for anybody with kids this week. 12:34 It's just three and a half, four days off for these kids. 12:39 Yeah, there's only so much you can do. 12:41 That's pretty impressive. 12:42 We'll have to stay on schedule. 12:45 You poor guys. 12:47 That is what you get when you make that decision. 12:49 You know what I'm saying? 12:51 Wow. 12:53 Well, you're pretty much done with it, though. 12:55 Yeah, it doesn't affect me so much because, you know, they can stay home alone. 12:59 I don't care. 13:01 So you can laugh at Veegs now because you've been through it. 13:03 Well, yeah, I have been through it. 13:04 And I think as I totally understand it, too, when you got kid terrorism, no matter what it is, if it's kids not wanting to go to bed or kids that and schedule that, I feel for you, Veegs. 13:16 Thanks. 13:16 There's only so much Cosmic Kids Yoga we could get done today to tire them out. 13:23 Cosmic Kids Yoga? 13:25 Oh, man. 13:26 Yeah, we get the Apple TV going. 13:28 We stream some yoga to Moana and Frozen, and we all do our warrior pose and dog pose, and try to get our negative energy out of our body, restore our shock drop. 13:38 You should put some pumping iron on there with Schwarzenegger, and watch him tease Lou Ferrigno and all those guys. 13:47 You know, when my son gets to be 10, 11, maybe we'll get into that, but six, you know, we're still into the other stuff. 13:52 Oh, start them young, come on. 13:55 Well, Veegs, you know, we kind of already went over to Wisconsin, but I'm sure you've got a lot to say. 13:58 You know, first, we talked about how, you know, we talked about how Motzko wasn't happy about the game Friday night, but Friday night's game sure was fun. 14:06 Well, it's definitely fun to watch. 14:08 You know, both games kind of had some throwback feels to them. 14:11 You know, Friday with all the goals, and then Saturday, you know, all the extra tussles after the whistle and whatnot. 14:17 There's a little bit of snarl to the game, which was fun. 14:20 I think for all the fans, tons of energy in the building. 14:24 Right on cue with an article that I pen about, attendance issues. 14:28 We had two of the best crowds we've seen in many years with the best energy we've seen in many years. 14:35 And so that was fun to see is, you know, Wisconsin and Minnesota, that rivalry might be something to it. 14:44 It does have some history. 14:46 Yeah, just a little bit. 14:48 I do think that this last weekend did expose Minnesota's defense again. 14:53 You know, they have issues, you know, getting transition started. 14:57 They have issues playing the opponent's transition. 15:01 I think we saw probably three or four stretch passes where Badger forwards are able to split the Gopher D. 15:07 Not sure how that continues to happen week in and week out, but it does. 15:11 Almost every game you can count on that working for the other team. 15:14 It's like terrible spacing, dude. 15:16 It's like I said earlier before you got on, it's like these dudes, I'm like, what the hell? 15:21 Where's your hockey sense? 15:22 Where's your angles? 15:23 I don't know what they're thinking. 15:24 Yeah, there's just no attention to detail on maintaining a gap, getting some speed back with players. 15:32 I don't know if they're just so cautious. 15:34 They're on their heels and they're so worried about being beat down the side that they don't play those gaps, but that's such a key factor. 15:43 I remember, when you're evaluating defensemen, one of the things you want to look at is how aggressive are they at closing their gap and playing a tight gap up the ice. 15:52 That's just non-existent at times for these guys. 15:57 Well, they're still trying to learn the system. 16:01 We knew this was going to be a kind of a process, so it just kind of is what it is. 16:06 I've seen a bunch of questions in the Mixler chat. 16:11 Which assistant coach is dedicated to the D-Corp? 16:13 That's definitely Rabin. 16:14 Raboin, isn't it? 16:16 Yeah. 16:17 I mean, Raboin is working with the D. 16:19 Motzko is working with all of them. 16:21 Anytime you ask the coaches about what they're trying to do and how they correct things, they always come back to, we've got what we've got on the roster and we'll keep throwing them over the boards and hopefully they'll get better. 16:35 I think you'll see some turn over there as the coaches get their recruits in, if the message doesn't get through to these kids. 16:43 Well, I mean, like I said, it's hard, you don't really, hockey sense, it's just like anything. 16:48 You have that innate understanding of the game and some of these guys, they might have physical talent, but sometimes I think that innate understanding of the game, that hockey sense just isn't there. 16:59 And that's where some of these think poor decisions get made. 17:04 And that's kind of where we're kind of suffering, I think, a little bit. 17:11 Well, it's hard to argue that. 17:13 Frozen Four, or Frozen Four champs, I should say in the Mixer Chat wants to know, he wants your thoughts on McManus. 17:19 Can he develop into a 20-goal guy? 17:21 What do you think, Hammeh? 17:22 Can McManus be a big scorer? 17:26 Well, I mean, I don't know that he's gonna be a 20-goal guy. 17:31 I think that he's going to be a guy that you can count on, be it somebody who's gonna consistently produce some offense for, you know, probably more for his teammates than himself, because he's never really been, other than, I mean, when he was at Shattuck, which, of course, you can't entirely count that stuff. 17:49 But, you know, when he was in junior hockey, he didn't have big-goal scoring numbers. 17:54 He had some solid numbers. 17:57 But, you know, he does have 10 goals this year. 17:59 That's pretty good for a sophomore year and we still have a lot of games left. 18:04 So it's certainly possible, given the fact that he's improved. 18:08 But I don't know. 18:10 20 goals is a pretty big number. 18:13 But at his age and what he's done so far, it's been pretty impressive. 18:16 So you never can rule that out. 18:20 Do you think Veegs McManus? 18:22 Well, I think one of the things that surprised me the most about McManus is he's turned into their net front guy on the first power play. 18:31 They've got Pitlick, Sheehy, Novak, and Gates out there kind of on the perimeter spots. 18:41 And McManus is not a big guy, yet he has kind of cemented himself in that role as that net front guy. 18:47 And he's got the ability to find the soft spots when they're out there on the power play. 18:52 And he's actually done a really nice job getting the rebounds and moving the puck in tight. 18:56 And so, you know, he's going to get opportunities to keep doing that for the Gophers. 19:01 You know, Motzko needs guys who can score goals around the paint. 19:06 And McManus looks like a guy who can do that. 19:08 You know, he's got points in his last six games and has really embraced that role. 19:12 And it's going to be hard to take it away from him. 19:15 Remember, if you have any questions for us, you know, even during the week, just use the hashtag GPL Podcast on Twitter and we'll try to get to them. 19:23 I go back and I'll look for that stuff. 19:24 And of course, all of you listening live in the Mixer Chat, you can always throw questions at us. 19:29 We'll try to get to all of them. 19:31 But before we get to all that, we need to hear from our sponsor. 20:37 Well, there was a return of sorts to Mariucciha's past weekend. 20:43 I don't know if you heard of Vegs, but Steph, one of the old super fans, was in the crowd, and she actually attempted to do the old, pardon me, sex chant. 20:56 I don't know if you heard it or not, but I heard it one time, and she was near the student section, and the students had no idea what was going on. 21:06 Well, you know, there's been a little turnover in the fan base over the years, so maybe if she can show up in the Michigan game and give another shot, they'll catch on. 21:15 Yeah, it was funny, because people could hear her over the TV even. 21:20 I know she did it one time, I think earlier in the game, I thought I heard it. 21:24 Yeah, just saying, he heard it on TV. 21:27 It was on the other side of the arena, but then she did move close to the student section and did it again. 21:32 And a couple people in the band did it, and a couple other people did it, but most of the people were kind of scratching their hands going, what is this about? 21:40 They didn't really know. 21:41 But it was a great crowd this weekend, Veegs. 21:45 The students did kind of, they did show up pretty well. 21:47 And a lot of people had $2 hot dogs too. 21:52 Well, I think the weekend shows that allowing anyone who's got a ticket for a Friday or Saturday night in that student section can show up and they can provide a nice atmosphere. 22:04 I thought the band got played out a little bit with NHL style music, but whatever gets those kids going. 22:12 But it was fun to see them in the building. 22:15 I think that's something that they're going to have to look at going forward to provide that kind of atmosphere year-round and we'll see what happens with that. 22:24 I know that they want to try to get as many students in there as they can every night. 22:27 And then of course, we had the 40th anniversary of the NCAA Championship from 1979. 22:34 Most of those guys were there hammy. 22:36 All these guys looked like they could still skate. 22:38 Some of them didn't. 22:41 Yeah, well, you know. 22:43 40 years. 22:44 Yeah, I mean, whatever that makes a lot of those guys in their 60s, right? 22:49 So yeah, you know, probably not going to be blazing up the ice like he used to at that point. 22:55 And by the way, I did manage to find my videotape with the final five with Checo scoring the game winner. 23:04 Yeah, from Rasmussen with our old buddy, Frank Mazzocco on the call. 23:10 You know, Checo! 23:12 Goal! 23:15 So yeah, that was kind of entertaining to see that because I had watched that in a long time. 23:21 A lot of the Wisconsin highlights that Minnesota was putting out last week. 23:25 We heard a lot of Frank Mazzocco and a lot of Wally Shaver, which was fun. 23:30 Frozen 4 champs said, you know, students need to come up with a better cheer than F the BADgers. 23:34 And we're all with you 100% on that. 23:38 I mean, it's... 23:42 We used to think other schools did that, but now it's Minnesota doing it quite often. 23:47 Yeah, we've heard it the other way with the Gophers quite a bit. 23:50 And I think that's what this fan base is familiar with. 23:52 When they see it, I would hope they could be a little more creative with what they come back at them with when they visit Marriott Arena. 24:01 You know, we talk about all the time how the administration shouldn't be putting the stranglehold on the student section for what they can and can't do. 24:09 But come on, find something else. 24:16 Be a little more creative, be funny. 24:18 I mean, the vulgar, I mean, you know, everyone's, you're going to hear it. 24:22 You know, somebody's swearing in the audience, oh, F the ref this, whatever. 24:25 But when it's a whole student section saying F the BADgers or whoever the big opponent is, it's just a, boy, it's time to grow up. 24:37 Yeah, I don't know. 24:38 I get it, I get what you're saying. 24:40 But I guess at the same time, I just want the students to be there and to be entertained, you know, and enjoy that, you know, because let's face it, it is supposed to be more of a student experience, even though they're not the ones that are paying the bills, so to speak. 24:53 But it is nice to have a pretty active and loud student section, and that kind of sets the tone, I think. 25:00 Especially, I think the players get a little bit jazzed up by that stuff with their peers. 25:04 So yeah, hopefully the creativity does improve, but it's good to have the students be there and be loud. 25:13 Well, before you came on, Veegs, I played the Jess Meyers audio when he asked Coach Mosco about Sammy Walker, and if he was a disciplinary, blah, blah, blah. 25:25 Bottom line is, he didn't play Saturday night. 25:27 They probably missed him because they had to shuffle things. 25:30 Have you heard anything about his ability to play this weekend? 25:33 Is he skating? 25:35 Probably nothing official, but do we have any kind of knowledge of what's going on with him? 25:40 Well, he's skating this week, and the unsaid issue is obviously a head injury that he's dealing with. 25:48 You know, there are no such things as mild concussions. 25:52 These things can show up later, like apparently it happened to Walker, and they just want to be as cautious as they can getting him back into the lineup. 26:02 Because Motzko said many times, you know, this is a team they want healthy and playing well at the end of the year. 26:08 It's not really that important that they have their best game against Michigan this weekend. 26:14 Sure, we'd like to see them play well this weekend, and Walker is a big part of that, but you don't want this kid getting rushed back in the lineup, getting his bell rung by Wolverine, and then missing the rest of the season or something like that. 26:28 So, you know, he's skating, you know, they're not saying anything official one way or the other on A, injury, and B, if he'll play. 26:35 They expect him to play, I think, but we won't find that out until Friday night, probably. 26:41 And are we to assume that it did come from that high stick after that goal? 26:46 Or maybe it could have been a hit somewhere else, but, you know, a certain Badger defenseman was a little frustrated when he scored, and he took it out on the goalpost, and what he didn't realize on his back- 26:57 Yeah, that was Weissbach. 26:58 That was the forward who had the big night on Saturday. 27:01 You know, he probably shouldn't have been in the lineup. 27:04 Did he actually hit him? 27:05 Because I couldn't totally tell on TV. 27:09 I mean, he could some react, but I couldn't tell 100%. 27:11 He did get him in the head, but I don't know. 27:13 It wasn't. 27:14 It didn't look like a really huge hit, but if Walker did get, I mean, Walker interviewed after the game seemed perfectly normal, but like you said, Veegs, if it was delayed, you know, we wouldn't have seen it then, but are we just kind of speculating that his so-called concussion, if he has that, came from Weisbach? 27:37 Well, that's the obvious place it could have come from. 27:40 I mean, if you're a player who's taking a two-hander and trying to break your stick over the goalposts and as it's coming down, it hits someone's helmet and has a hard time getting down to the ice, I think a lot of that force must have gone into his helmet. 27:54 So, that's what I would point you to, obviously. 27:58 That's ridiculous because, you know, an accidental hit, yes, but he took a full swing in an attempt to break a stick out of frustration. 28:08 And what, he got a two-minute penalty and that was it. 28:12 Yeah, that's the kind of thing that there should be reviews and he shouldn't even have been on the ice Saturday. 28:18 That's contact to the head, you know? 28:21 That's clear as clear as day contact for that. 28:23 So that's a confusing decision on the official's part there. 28:28 And then, you know, he comes back and scores the goal on Saturday. 28:31 So tough break for the Gophers on that, both ways. 28:35 Well, yeah, it's a tough break, but it's weak leadership up at the top, if you ask me. 28:41 I mean, a lot of times- 28:42 It is, and I didn't get any- 28:44 I tried to ask the Big Ten office, did they even review it? 28:46 It was a consideration, and I got a non-response from them, which isn't surprising, but- 28:52 That's lack of leadership. 28:53 That's ridiculous. 28:55 And I would say the same thing if one of our players did it, because he was doing it completely out of frustration. 29:02 He was mad. 29:03 It was almost a very- 29:05 I remember Keith Ballard doing this when he was playing for the Florida Panthers years ago. 29:10 They gave up a goal, he took out his frustration, and on the goalpost, I think he hit his goalie, didn't he? 29:16 Yeah, it's happened before. 29:17 I mean- 29:17 It's hard. 29:18 It's frustrating to watch. 29:20 I hope those guys get the sick budget taken out of their books or whatever when that happens. 29:27 Yeah, you said or said he doesn't understand how he's able to play Saturday either. 29:30 Yeah, we don't get it. 29:32 It's just a strange thing. 29:35 Not really sure what else to say about that. 29:37 So we're just hoping that Walker's back this weekend, and hopefully it's nothing serious because like you said, there's no such thing as a mild concussion. 29:44 At least we've learned that over the last 10 years that that's just the case. 29:49 Yeah, and I'll try to swing my practice tomorrow. 29:52 So if people are following me on Twitter, if I see Walker on the ice, I'll be sure to let everybody know. 29:57 There you go. 29:59 Well, this Big Ten season has been kind of weird. 30:02 There's a lot of teams. 30:03 I mean Gophers are basically two points out of second place and four points out of last place. 30:10 It is a busy conference except for Ohio State up top there, Hammy. 30:14 So the ending of the season could end up pretty interesting. 30:17 We could go from being home ice to on the road in just a blink of an eye. 30:25 Yeah. 30:26 I mean, it'll be like I said earlier, it's kind of been one of the seasons where it's like nobody in particular has been all that consistent one week to the next and played great other than the one team was at the top. 30:38 And so you don't really know what's going to happen at the end of the year. 30:41 I guess that in a way that like I talked about winning your way in, maybe that gives them a better shot because while Ohio State would have to be considered the favorite, it's not like they're unbeatable either. 30:52 So we'll just have to see how the guys kind of round out this last couple of months. 30:58 And maybe they'll make a run and they can kind of win their way in. 31:03 Well, it kind of starts this weekend again, another home series, the Wolverines come into town. 31:08 And last time we played the Wolverines, we did a pretty good job of shutting down their superstar. 31:14 They'll need to do it again this weekend. 31:17 Yeah, Quinton Hughes draws a lot of eyes when he's on the ice. 31:21 I didn't think he had probably his best series against Minnesota for whatever reason, whether it's the Minnesota actually taking someone really seriously and focusing and paying attention to detail, or if it's Quinton Hughes just didn't have his A-game, we'll see. 31:38 He's a dynamic player, he's a one-man power play breakout, he's dangerous when he has the puck up on top on the power play. 31:47 We'll see what happens this weekend. 31:50 There is a history of goal scoring when these two teams get into it. 31:55 Whatever it is, these guys can't hold back and play tight defense, so I think there is going to be a chance for goal scoring, and I think we've seen Minnesota generate a little bit more offense the last couple of weeks. 32:06 They've done a nice job on the power play, they've done some rush scoring, I think their defensemen are doing a good job of joining the rush at times to create some scoring chances. 32:17 You just got to hope that this coaching staff, they mentioned putting in some more ground rules for their defensemen on their puck possession and playing rushes through the neutral zone and talking to the Fords about how to handle the back check a little bit better. 32:33 And those are going to be critical things against Michigan because Michigan likes to get the play going. 32:38 So if Minnesota can be, you know, have sound attention and detail on those things, they can be successful. 32:45 Well, Hammy and I kind of touched on it a little bit earlier about, you know, the chances of Minnesota getting in as an at-large bid now is pretty low. 32:55 They would have to have, win a lot of games and have quite a bit of luck with the teams ahead of them. 33:02 So right now, you know, we pretty much said, let's just keep learning, getting through the season. 33:06 And if you want, if you're serious about it, you need to win the tournament. 33:10 And that's really has to be their goal right now, really is just get to the Big Ten tournament and win it to get to the NCAAs. 33:19 Yeah. 33:19 I mean, if they were in this pairwise position after Christmas, that's one thing, but a month later, it's almost impossible to make up this much ground. 33:29 Especially, you know, there could be a situation in the tournaments like last year where a bunch of, you know, surprises happen winning conference tournaments, because it seems like college hockey is more wide open than ever. 33:40 So that's a strong possibility. 33:42 And I think the Big Ten is wide open. 33:45 You'd like to not see Ohio State until the end. 33:48 But I think any team in this conference can beat any team. 33:54 You're right and you know Minnesota will have to get it done. 33:57 You know, if they want home ice, they've got to do some quite a bit of winning here. 34:02 And I think like you said, I think Ohio State is still vulnerable. 34:06 They, we head there in a couple weeks and we'll see how we do. 34:14 It's just a big toss up, isn't it, Amy? 34:17 It is and you know I think it's just gonna come down to who's playing pretty good hockey at the end of the year. 34:22 Obviously you can kind of get the playoffs, you throw the records out a bit and hopefully the guys, like I said earlier, the younger guys will be hitting their stride even more and maybe some of the older guys being at their last run at it will feel some inspiration and maybe they'll pull, bring it together and make us, you know, be a surprise for everybody. 34:45 So what do you think this weekend? 34:46 How do you think they're going to do this weekend, Veegs? 34:49 It's hard to think of anything else other than a split right now. 34:52 You know, I could see some games going into overtime but I just don't see consistency from any team right now in the Big Ten where you expect sweeps. 35:02 I think we're all shocked about Minnesota going to Notre Dame and sweeping. 35:06 And I think we're all shocked to see them go to Michigan State and get swept. 35:11 So those are possibilities but it's not what I'm expecting. 35:14 Hammeh, I'm thinking this team is so juckeling high. 35:19 It is really hard to predict anything these days. 35:23 No, it's like whatever is the most middle-of-the-road way of going at like a split like we talked about. 35:28 You know, that's kind of what you feel the most safe about because you feel like, well, I can't see them losing both. 35:35 That's too pessimistic. 35:36 But man, I don't want to be too arrogant and cocky about a sweep because man, they haven't shown us that they can really do that. 35:44 Consistently. 35:44 So hopefully it's one of those deals. 35:48 I mean, Michigan hasn't. 35:49 They've I think they're 500 since they played the Gophers last three wins, three losses, two ties or something like that. 35:55 So it's not like they've been playing great. 35:57 So hopefully having to travel and the Gophers will have an advantage there and, you know, get get a couple of wins. 36:03 But it's hard to predict that. 36:05 Each title mentions in the Mixler Chat, what's going to suck is the non-conference games versus Arizona State, while the rest of the Big Ten plays league games. 36:14 You know, with uneven teams in the Big Ten, that's just kind of how things go. 36:21 Veegs, you know, someone the last week of the season is not going to play and it's Minnesota's turn. 36:25 And I guess it's better to play a really good team than not play at all. 36:31 Well, it's good that they're playing. 36:33 You know, last year we thought they just needed to get a point out of the Penn State Series and they'd be playing at home and they couldn't deliver and that kind of hangover effect carried in over the next weekend. 36:42 So at least they avoid that scenario this year. 36:46 But they'll find out where they're at at the end of February. 36:50 And who knows? 36:52 One thing they really need to focus on, I think, is getting Matt Robson back on his A game. 36:57 You know, it's not that he played poorly the last couple of weekends. 37:00 But he's not the same goalie that was playing against Ohio State and Michigan early in the year. 37:05 You know, it's basically Minnesota could rely on him to bail them out of a lot of mistakes. 37:11 And I don't think we've seen that the last couple of weekends. 37:14 So I think that's something to watch for a little bit. 37:17 Looks like Motay joined us a little too late. 37:18 We already talked about the SEC champ, Motay. 37:21 Yes, Steph was there. 37:22 Yes, she did it. 37:22 And that's about all that's all we have to tell you. 37:26 So maybe if you get to the show earlier, you know, you would have heard this. 37:31 Being mean to Motay. 37:32 Sorry, Motay, I just had to. 37:35 Well, you know, you talk about, you know, we're playing Arizona State at the end of the season. 37:39 You know what, Veegs, if they would have won those bad games earlier this year, I think that Penn State or Arizona State could have been a huge series at the end of the year. 37:49 But since they threw away those games against St. 37:51 Lawrence and I'm forgetting it now, Ferris State, there you go, that, you know, it is big. 38:00 It's not going to be as big of a deal because they won't even be in position. 38:03 But you lose, you win those other games. 38:05 Also, you got a team against a higher ranked pairwise team. 38:09 It would have been good. 38:10 But this year, I don't think it's going to matter. 38:13 Yeah, I mean, even if they win these games and get hot, you know, Michigan's pretty low in the pairwise. 38:17 I think they're lower than the Gophers. 38:20 Penn State's kind of fallen out of the at-large bid scenarios right now for pairwise. 38:25 So there's not a lot of help right now for Minnesota to rise up. 38:30 So it's probably going to be more important for the Arizona State Squad than Minnesota. 38:36 It actually probably will. 38:37 So maybe they'll be the first at-large bid who's not a part of a conference. 38:41 It's Anchorage in the early 90s, I think it is. 38:44 So we'll just have to wait and see. 38:49 That's all we got for this week, guys. 38:51 I'm cold. 38:52 I kind of want to end the show because it's cold in my office. 38:56 Let's do it. 38:58 And like I said, we try to predict, but we can't predict this team anymore, folks. 39:02 So we're just going to go with it and we'll see what happens. 39:06 So that's pretty much our show for this week. 39:08 Be sure to follow Vegoe on Twitter at eVegoe and Hammy on Twitter at Hammy Hockey for those of you listening live. 39:15 Stay tuned. 39:15 We'll do a little bit over time coming up next. 39:17 For the rest of you, we'll be back next week to recap the Michigan Series and preview Penn State on the road. 39:25 So we'll see you next time on the GPL Podcast.