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 149. 0:56 Well, I don't know what to say, guys. 0:58 It was an ugly weekend all around, you know. 1:02 Veegs, Friday night was really bad. 1:05 We thought they might come back with a play a little better on Saturday, and in the end, they really didn't. 1:13 No, we saw a lot of the same from the Gophers all weekend in terms of where they had mistakes. 1:19 Bob Monskow said this week that they have the problem identified, and they have a glaring problem on their defensive side of the puck right now. 1:28 They're getting beat around the net, and when you play a team like Penn State, that is their forte. 1:34 It's what they did to Minnesota to end their season last year, and they put an exclamation point on their rivalry against Minnesota this last weekend. 1:44 And Veegs, we were talking about it a little bit before we started the show, that I'm just frustrated with, like you said, around the net. 1:52 It just seems like we just kind of let guys do whatever they want in front of us. 1:55 When the puck is loose, instead of getting body on somebody and just doing something, instead of just letting somebody just take the puck and put it in. 2:04 Because I thought that Robson played fairly well, and even Shearhorn played fairly well. 2:10 But you can only expect them to get the first save, maybe the second save. 2:15 But when the puck is loose in front of the net veegs, you got to get some bodies there. 2:20 Yeah. 2:21 And I think that's probably the most frustrating thing to see both as a fan, a commentator, a coach, is that the players are in the area. 2:32 On a lot of these goals, there's probably five Minnesota players between the dots, below the tops of the circles. 2:39 They are in the region where they can compete for space and prevent their opponent from getting to loose pucks. 2:47 And they just don't. 2:48 There just isn't the compete there. 2:51 There isn't the attention to detail with their body positioning to keep the opponent away from the net. 2:58 I think we saw earlier in the year, there are situations where Minnesota players were looking for the puck in the crease with their stick. 3:06 They've stopped doing that. 3:08 They're now putting their numbers to their goalie like they're supposed to. 3:11 But they're not following through on the next step, which is tying up sticks, which is getting body on body and protecting their net. 3:20 Now, Hammey, if you ask me, this sounds like a fundamental part of hockey. 3:25 These are the basics, aren't they? 3:29 Well, I mean, they should be, but I think that we all know that hockey is a game of passion. 3:34 And, you know, if guys aren't exhibiting that, it really doesn't matter how much hockey sense you have. 3:39 It doesn't really matter how much skill you have. 3:42 You really have to have that passion and work ethic. 3:46 And some of these guys aren't willing to put that in. 3:49 You know, that's what the end result is going to be. 3:51 And I think that we're kind of seeing with some of these guys for one reason or another, they're just not showing up the way that they should be. 3:58 And Veegs, I think the most frustrating part is that, you know, a lot of these guys, they want a future. 4:02 They want to go to the NHL. 4:03 Obviously, they're not all going to do that, but that's their goal. 4:07 And if you're not doing the basics, if you're not busting your ass, it's not going to be much different at the next level. 4:15 Yeah, at each level you go up, you're going to be tested at all areas of your game. 4:20 You're going to be tested offensively, defensively. 4:23 You know, the games get tighter as you move up. 4:26 And I think we're seeing situations. 4:27 These guys are all great skaters. 4:29 They all have a lot of skill. 4:30 You look at the Minnesota roster, a lot of draft picks. 4:34 But as Hammington was getting at, this is more the compete level. 4:38 When you're playing against somebody who's probably closer in skill than you're used to in the past, this is where the magnifying glass comes out on what kind of compete you have. 4:47 And right now it's just not there for them. 4:50 And I know it's got to be frustrating for the coaches because when I go to practice and I look at the drills, they are drilling this body position into the players. 4:58 They are drilling these fundamentals into them on the rush. 5:02 But it just disappears during the game for some reason. 5:06 Well, a lot of times we've talked to the past, we've complained, Lucia is not doing this, Lucia is doing that. 5:11 And it's starting to look like it wasn't just Lucia, it's the players. 5:16 The players, you got to give some effort here, guys. 5:21 I mean, I think that's what I'm the most frustrated with. 5:25 They're getting beaten at the basics. 5:27 Well, I think it's more than just effort. 5:29 I mean, I'll let Hamley talk to this, but I think it's more than just effort that comes into play in these situations. 5:35 Well, I think for me, you know, I see people commenting on, you know, well, it's essentially the same team as last year. 5:41 We just missed last year. 5:43 And you know, does Moscow deserve some of the blame now? 5:46 All that. 5:47 I think what people need to realize is that we're talking about culture change and anybody who's ever been in a business or any kind of, you know, whatever it might be, when you have change at the leadership role, especially when somebody from outside of that business, there's going to be, you know, some, I think, culture shock for some people who are really accustomed to how things used to be. 6:09 And some people are capable of adapting to it and some people aren't. 6:13 I've gone through that in the last year with seeing some coworkers have a hard time with new leadership at my business. 6:20 And I think that we're seeing that with 19 to 23 year old kids. 6:25 That some of them are capable of handling, you know, a culture change like what's happened this year. 6:31 And some of them are not. 6:32 And unfortunately, I think it's one of those things where you're not really going to see some changes until we weed out certain players. 6:39 And I guess one thing that the coach has going for him for next year is we are graduating several players. 6:45 Some of them who have performed relatively well this year. 6:48 But we're going to be graduating a bunch of guys. 6:51 And they're going to be bringing in some fresh new blood next year. 6:53 And I think that will help build some consistency in some of these areas that we're seeing some weakness in right now. 7:00 Yeah, I guess I'm just frustrated because I see it as passion. 7:06 You know, if you're playing hockey, you need to have the passion. 7:08 You need to do the work to get the wins. 7:10 You see other teams doing this exact same thing. 7:13 Why are you so damn lazy? 7:14 Why can't you? 7:16 See, that's just the frustrating part. 7:18 I'm guessing it's probably the same thing with the fans. 7:20 I mean, the fans are getting pissed off, Veegs. 7:23 They see this kind of effort, and it's unacceptable. 7:26 Yeah, it was interesting when Minnesota had a little stretch there where it looked like they were going to turn the corner. 7:32 You know, you could see the effort on the ice where they were winning the one-on-one battles, where they were showing the compete, and the fans responded that, you know, when you saw the games against Michigan and Wisconsin, you know, the fans responded to that. 7:48 The Ohio State games, they got great gold tending, but they competed better. 7:53 And it's just these situations, they can snowball a little bit. 7:57 And it doesn't get any easier this weekend with Ohio State because they're a disciplined team, and they're not going to give Minnesota anything either. 8:05 Well, I don't know, a 7-2 loss, 6-2 loss. 8:08 I believe that's 6 straight at Penn State, isn't it, Veegs? 8:12 Yep, 6 straight, 2 in the playoffs and 2 down last year. 8:16 Yeah, and then I got a happy valley for the Gophers. 8:20 I know Frank Mazzocco was looking up some of the records, and I believe the record. 8:24 There's much worse records on the road. 8:26 They had some against Michigan Tech for basically the entire 70s, or they might have won one game or something ridiculous like that. 8:34 Tech was the powerhouse back then. 8:36 Yeah, they were. 8:36 Michigan Tech was obviously very good. 8:40 And then against Denver, and they had some like 10 game streaks against North Dakota where they couldn't win a game. 8:46 So they're not in that territory yet, and hopefully by next season they could turn it around. 8:50 But I think it's just disappointing because, yes, Penn State is good, but you know what? 8:55 Yes, Penn State is still fairly new on the scene, and they've just got Minnesota's number right now, Hammy. 9:03 Well, I mean, it's kind of like what we were talking before the show. 9:06 I think sometimes it's all about matchups at certain teams, and I think the way that Penn State plays the game is right now just a really bad matchup, especially defensively for the Gophers. 9:19 They get to the net, they get a lot of pucks on net, and obviously if you're not playing well in those areas, it's going to bite you, and I think that's just kind of what we're seeing. 9:28 Some teams you match up well, even if you have some deficiencies, your deficiencies aren't necessarily strengths of the other team, and in this case with Penn State, the areas that they've played well at and they do well at, we just have not been strong at this last couple of years. 9:45 I'm looking at some of the questions in the Mixler Chat, and it seems like that's where we get more of the questions these days. 9:51 You got SkyHumanLies as how many of our defensemen were recruited to be bruisers and be defensive stalwarts, and Hammy, I'll let you speak to that. 10:02 I think that's kind of what they were going for, but they're not getting offense or defense out of these guys. 10:08 Well, I mean, I don't think that Gophers ever really tend to have over the years, tend to recruit guys just to be a bruiser. 10:15 I mean, we've always, I think a lot of fans will harp on the fact that most of the guys that they've recruited tend to be more of that finesse puck moving types of guys. 10:25 Unfortunately, the current group, for the most part, they aren't physical and they're not the puck moving types. 10:32 They're just kind of mediocre all around. 10:34 I mean, they haven't progressed in one way or the other. 10:37 You know, there's some guys, some of the younger guys might still have some promise. 10:40 I think it's a little too early to write them off. 10:42 But I think some of the guys that we have seen in recent years, they just haven't been really either the physical bruising type that's a shut down defensive defenseman, nor have we seen guys that have been really great offensively and just been okay. 10:59 You can handle okay defense if they're great offensively. 11:02 Just haven't seen that. 11:04 That's something that's going to have to turn around. 11:06 On the flip side of Veegs, to have a good defense, you need to have good defensive forwards that come back and do their job as well. 11:17 Yeah, it definitely helps to have forwards, especially centers. 11:21 I think that the key forward to come back and play as defense is the center who's typically kind of that third defenseman in the zone. 11:28 What you're looking for is guys who can skate, guys who have size, and guys who have the right hockey sense. 11:35 I think right now you're looking at this group and they've got two of the three. 11:38 All the defensemen are still very good skaters. 11:42 They all have good size pretty much. 11:44 You think Nanny would probably be the only one who's a little bit undersized, and he's probably got a little bit more offensive flair to his game. 11:51 But the thing that's missing right now is hockey sense for these guys. 11:55 Knowing which position to be in, where the dangers are, where the escape routes are, and you just see time and time again that critical mistakes hurt this team. 12:08 They compounded it on Saturday night by taking bad penalties. 12:12 And usually, you don't get a coach to air the dirty laundry, but Bob Mosco hasn't been shy this week. 12:17 He's mentioned there are three penalties that killed him. 12:20 And one of them was by Tyler Nani, who cross-checked a player into the boards. 12:24 Could have easily been more than two minutes. 12:27 Sapo Ranta, his check from behind, just a check you can't make in college hockey. 12:32 And then Jack Saduck pulling down the breezer of somebody who beat him in the wall battle. 12:39 Yeah, especially on the road. 12:42 When you're on the road in the hostile environment, you've got to play smarter. 12:45 And it's clear that these guys just not gotten the message, have they? 12:50 No, it's done. 12:51 And that was a problem last year too, is the undisciplined poundies. 12:55 And you just, I don't know where the coaches are using the sticks. 13:00 Bob Mosco said early in the season that the players put a gun in his hand when they kept taking poundies like this, and he was going to take care of business, whether or not it was scratched and guys out of the lineup or take them out of some special teams or ice time. 13:14 You just kind of wonder what's going to happen this weekend against Ohio State. 13:18 Who knows what's going to happen? 13:19 I mean, right now, I mean, didn't you, you did the math and they are completely out of it unless they win their tournament, isn't that? 13:26 Well, College Hockey News did the math. 13:30 They did their 200,000 Monte Carlo simulations and Minnesota cannot get in the top 16. 13:37 Yeah. 13:38 So there's no chance for them to get in other than the Big Ten. 13:41 I think that's why you'll see both goalies. 13:43 I kind of wonder what you'll see for ice time for the defensemen this weekend as they try to figure out what they can do on the back end. 13:53 And you know what, we'll talk about it later, but we seem to match up well with Ohio State though. 14:01 We did go to two overtimes with them here at Mariucci and we did lose in the extra point, but it wasn't really that bad. 14:10 And well, the problem is that Ohio State has gotten a lot better, but still. 14:15 I do think one of the reasons they match up well against Ohio State is they're not really a high pressure team. 14:21 They're more of a team that benefits with their strong structure, and they counter-attack a little bit more. 14:27 You know, when you start going through the neutral zone against the Buckeyes, there's not a lot of space, and they're looking to create turnovers. 14:33 So it's a better matchup. 14:35 That's why I think Minnesota matched up pretty well against Minnesota Duluth early in the year and got all of our hopes up. 14:42 That was another team that didn't play a real high-pressure game. 14:46 You flip that around and you play teams like Penn State, North Dakota, Minnesota State. 14:51 Those teams are going to play in your face, and that's the style that Minnesota has struggled with, with this current culture of player. 14:58 Yeah, yeah. 15:00 Hey, I mean, I'm kind of curious. 15:01 How are you feeling about these other Minnesota schools right now? 15:03 I mean, we've got St. 15:04 Cloud as the number one team. 15:05 We've got Duluth up there playing really well as well. 15:09 Minnesota State, it is pretty much that Minnesota is the laughing stock in Minnesota right now. 15:19 Well, I mean, I guess, what do you want? 15:21 I don't know what to say. 15:22 I mean, it's not looking good for our program, but those other programs have figured out a way to really succeed while Minnesota is down. 15:33 Well, I mean, I think it's just there's been some good stability there. 15:37 I think, you know, Moscow set up St. 15:39 Cloud pretty well. 15:41 And obviously, I mean, the jury is out on what Larson is going to end up doing there in the long run. 15:46 I mean, he's basically handed out a really good team. 15:49 So we'll see how that kind of plays out as the years go along. 15:53 And Sandlin has obviously been a successful coach up there. 15:56 So you just have to give them credit for what they've built. 16:00 You know, I think Mankato has been good in the sense that, you know, regular season, obviously, they've had their letdowns when it really matters the most. 16:07 So we'll see if they can, you know, turn that around at all. 16:10 But, you know, it's just one of those things where it's not like it's the first time or this program has struggled and other teams have done well. 16:19 I think that it's just going to take a year or two for us to kind of get some guys in here and get the coach, you know, get his message across and getting the right players and right attitudes in here. 16:30 And, you know, we saw that the last time we had a coaching chain, it just took a few years before we really saw what we wanted to see. 16:37 And it takes patience and it sucks when you're in that kind of crappy zone that we've been in here in this last year or two. 16:44 But, you know, hopefully it'll be turning around next year or the year after that. 16:47 Well, I hope it does turn around because Veegs, we're in like the lowest pairwise position and wins and losses than we've been in a extremely long time. 17:00 Yeah, it's been a while since they've had a season that's gotten this pair shaped. 17:05 And I do think it's going to take a little bit more time than people want because on the back end, you know, Mike Castor looks to be the only defenseman who's going to come in next year. 17:17 Maybe there'll be another guy that they can bring in. 17:19 But to be honest, when you're recruiting in Minnesota, you need guys who can skate. 17:24 And you're not going to find a lot of 20 year olds who are uncommitted out there who can skate like the Gophers need on defense. 17:31 But Castor, he's a senior in high school right now. 17:35 Are you really want to rely on a kid right out of high school? 17:38 This is not the 90s and Mike Crowley coming in. 17:41 I mean, it's usually if you want a decent defenseman coming in, these guys need to play some juniors. 17:46 So you, I mean, we're putting a lot of pressure on a freshman coming in from Cheska High School. 17:51 Well, I don't think he's going to be the game changer next year. 17:54 I think they're going to need the returning guys to improve their games. 17:59 Castor is just going to be a piece of that. 18:01 He's not going to be a savior. 18:03 But he's the only guy really slated to come in right now. 18:06 I think the guys like Jackson Lecombe and Ryan Johnson, those are guys who are going to be draft eligible this year as well. 18:13 Those guys would be better off playing a year junior before they come anyway. 18:17 But because since we have so many guys that are going to graduate and or leave, we kind of need some of these bodies coming in next year, don't we? 18:28 Well they're going to need guys up front. 18:30 You know, they're going to lose six of them forwards here. 18:33 I think they're going to lose both goaltenders. 18:35 I know for some forward champs, this was asking about Jack LaFontaine. 18:39 He's going to be the other goalie with Jared Moe. 18:42 Both those guys will be coming in. 18:44 One will be basically a junior and the other a freshman. 18:47 So get that position back on track scholarship wise. 18:51 But there's not a lot of changes they can make on the back end right now. 18:54 They're going to need improvement to come from within. 18:57 And we had a little concern with Moe this past week. 19:00 He's injured and a lot of people thought it might have been an ACL. 19:03 But are we hearing it's not as bad as we thought it was? 19:08 Yeah, he told me it's about a six week injury. 19:10 Didn't really want to get into specifics. 19:14 I'm just laughing because everybody was panicking. 19:16 Oh my God. 19:17 You're right. 19:19 People were panicking. 19:21 All these people, it's like, dude, you don't even know. 19:24 They're looking at internet rumors and freaking out. 19:26 It's like, dude, why? 19:27 I thought that was pretty good. 19:28 I thought it was funny. 19:29 I'm glad it is shut up because I just want to watch people freak out and act like, oh my God. 19:35 Did you talk to him, Veegs? 19:37 Yeah, I talked to him and he didn't really want to get in details about it other than it was a six week deal. 19:42 He's spending some time at home. 19:45 He was at the last series for the Gophers against Michigan. 19:48 He'll probably go to the games coming up here with Notre Dame. 19:52 But he's just going to rest here. 19:54 My scientific mind would tell me it's probably something like an MCL or a strain. 19:59 If it was an ACL, he'd be done in having surgery already. 20:02 But he's looking to come back in place still this year. 20:06 There you go, people. 20:07 So Bonin21 could relax if he could ever actually relax? 20:14 I don't know because he was freaking out. 20:16 I know he was one of those freaking out. 20:18 So there you go. 20:19 Skyyma Law was just asking about Mosney. 20:21 So that's what we know. 20:22 Six weeks, hopefully, Skyyma, we'll have to wait and see. 20:26 I think the biggest concern for me right now, Veegs, is boy, we're having trouble selling tickets, we're having trouble people showing up. 20:39 If they make a quick exit at the Big Ten tournament, it's going to be a very tough sell next summer for season tickets. 20:47 And, you know, just individual tickets, isn't it? 20:51 It is going to be a tough sell. 20:53 And I don't know if there's a whole lot of benefit to them slashing prices, because I don't know if that's going to draw back people anyway. 21:01 You know, so it will be interesting to see what strategy they take, because this could be a little two year process for them to get back where they want to be, because they're top forwards right now. 21:13 You know, Sheehy and Pitlick, you know, Sheehy is going to graduate. 21:17 Pitlick, he's a junior, Nashville owns his rights, he could be gone as well. 21:21 You know, it could be another tough year coming up next year, but you never know. 21:25 Once that culture starts to change, maybe it turns around a little bit faster, but tickets will be interesting to watch. 21:33 I still think college hockey is a great entertainment value, and the people who compare it to the wild, the prices are nowhere near the same. 21:42 I don't go to the wild game, so I really don't know. 21:45 Lower level seats for a good wild game are twice as the most expensive game for the Gophers. 21:53 Like I said, I don't know. 21:57 I'm just concerned, because obviously this year, they dropped below $5,000 in season tickets, and we're finding a lot of the season ticket holders don't even show up a lot of the time. 22:07 So beyond the Wisconsin Series, which we know they sold 10,600 tickets that Saturday night or whatever, or Friday night, or whatever it was, we know there's going to be issues. 22:21 And a quick exit like last year, it could be big trouble. 22:27 I got to be honest with you, though. 22:28 Why do we care as fans right now? 22:31 To me, the reality is that until this team starts to win, worrying about tickets and all that stuff, it just doesn't matter. 22:40 You got to like fix the on ice issue first, get that fixed, and then you'll attract the fans. 22:47 I don't expect fans to show up if they don't think the team's going to be very good. 22:51 So you got to fix that problem first. 22:53 And then all the other stuff kind of hopefully falls into place if they have to run promotions, change ticket prices, whatever, then that's great. 23:01 But I just think worrying about it now, it's not really the most important thing. 23:08 I get if you're in marketing at the U or you're the AD and you want to sell tickets and make money, I get for those guys. 23:15 But for us, I feel like whether there's 5,000 fans or 9,000 fans, I don't care because first of all, it's about what's going on in the ice first. 23:26 And if that's not right, then all that other stuff doesn't mean anything to me. 23:30 Yeah, but the thing is that the crowds have been going down and they've still been a fairly decent team this whole time. 23:36 And now when the team is bad, I just think it's going to affect things. 23:39 I think it might just compound this problem even more. 23:43 That's just my thoughts. 23:44 I mean, you get recruits coming in and they see a half empty 10,000 seat arena. 23:54 That's not good. 23:56 It's not good, but it's also a matter of how a coach is going to sell it as they obviously know that things have been great here in the last year or two. 24:05 So they have to be able to sell the idea that you can help turn it around, get us back to where traditionally we've been. 24:13 I mean, it's all a matter of how you position it. 24:15 And the coach, they can't do anything really about the ticket stuff. 24:20 They can't really do a thing about fan presence. 24:23 They have to build a team that's going to draw those fans and to win. 24:28 And that's just not there right now. 24:31 And I think when people get wound up on tickets and all that kind of stuff, it's like I just, you know, and how much the fans are there or not there. 24:41 Like you said, they could be a great team and have a half-assed crowd. 24:47 And I'd still, I mean, we used to think, talk about what years ago when we'd have kind of a half-assed crowd, but we had great teams. 24:53 It's like, I didn't care about the crowd, to be honest with you. 24:56 Because for me, it was like, okay, we got a great team. 24:59 Maybe there's not a great fan presence this weekend. 25:02 Who cares? 25:03 For me, I can say that because I'm not worrying about money. 25:07 I'm worried about what's going on on the ice. 25:09 I think that all that other stuff will take care of itself once you have a team that's out there and is playing well. 25:16 You're gonna lose some fans because of the conference change. 25:19 Forget about those fans. 25:20 If they're gonna come back, they're gonna come back. 25:22 If they're not, they're not. 25:24 But it's, to me, the people who, you can still win back and have be engaged. 25:28 You know, they're the ones that are sitting on the sidelines and waiting for things to be better. 25:33 And that's what I would focus on. 25:36 Any thoughts, Figgs? 25:39 I just think the U has to be careful about their season ticket base and how bad it could get. 25:46 They've had declines every year of about 10%. 25:50 And those are fans that are gonna be hard to get back on a season ticket package. 25:55 So I just think they need to be cautious with how they go forward with that piece. 26:00 I agree with Hameed, the coaches, they can't worry about it. 26:04 The fans, come if you want to, stay away if you don't. 26:09 One thing that could factor into this as well is the Wild look like they're starting to go into a bit of a tailspin. 26:15 That could be good for the Gophers if they start winning again. 26:18 But it's a tough market for sports these days and the money out there. 26:24 All right, well, terrible weekend, boys. 26:27 Hopefully they do a little bit better at Ohio State, but obviously that's a tall task. 26:35 Before we move on to a few other things, let's hear from our sponsor. 26:40 vintagemnhockey.com is a proud sponsor of The GPL Podcast. 26:45 Well, what is Vintage MN Hockey? 26:47 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. 26:57 All information about any of those teams can be found on vintagemnhockey.com. 27:02 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. 27:12 So make sure you check out those interviews. 27:13 It's a really great thing. 27:15 But as I always say, I think my favorite part is the store. 27:19 The store, you can buy a custom historical jersey from the Gophers or the Bulldogs or some of your favorite high school teams. 27:26 And if you do make a purchase, just use the code GPL Podcast, all one word, and you'll get 10% off your order. 27:33 So make sure you visit vintagemnhockey.com and follow them on Twitter at VintageMNHockey. 27:41 All right. 27:41 Well, before we went on the air, I noticed there was an article from Mr. 27:45 Brad Schlossman out of the Grand Forks Herald talking about how North Dakota just bid on the 2020, 21, and 22 West regionals, and he didn't have any info on who else bid, like Minnesota or anything like that. 28:03 But I'm thinking there's a good chance Veegs that North Dakota gets it, because they may be the only people bidding. 28:12 I just think it's interesting. 28:14 The West has pretty much given up. 28:15 Some of these schools have given up. 28:18 It's North Dakota or Minnesota, and Minnesota, they'll do it if they don't have something else going on. 28:23 But they've been a little busy with wrestling regionals and basketball regionals, so they kind of avoid it. 28:31 We'll have to wait and see. 28:32 But it's possible we could have another three straight years in North Dakota here. 28:38 Yeah, it is very possible. 28:39 I think one of the big problems with the NCAA regional bidding process is that there are guarantees that the host institution has to make to the NCAA when they host. 28:51 I think it's about $150,000 that they have to commit to giving back to the NCAAs. 28:57 And a lot of schools can't risk that. 28:59 And I think for the University of Minnesota, they have positioned themselves to do these other events, which are easier for them to do. 29:08 And they're not going to be the target for when they have a half empty Excel energy center for an NCAA regional. 29:15 And the other teams in the West either need to get the NCAA to change how they do the bidding or they need to step up and do a bid. 29:26 Because otherwise, North Dakota is going to be playing in front of a lot of green every time they make it to the tournament. 29:31 Or they could just have home teams. 29:36 Well, that's what I mean by the NCAA changing the rules. 29:40 And actually, I would love to see an on-campus first and second round. 29:44 Yeah, I would as well because for me, it's really about, to me, it makes the regular season, it makes the previous games kind of more meaningful because you're saying, okay, we're playing to host home games in the NCAAs. 30:00 There's some real reasoning for them to want to even be better during the season because they want to earn those things. 30:06 And I don't know, I think the whole regional thing for the most part has played out. 30:11 We know that it hasn't been great, a great success a lot of the time. 30:15 And I would hope that somebody could wake up and just be like, let's try something different. 30:19 And we used to do that, so why not? 30:22 You know, why not try that again? 30:25 I see Tom's kind of chiming in there. 30:27 And what Schlossman is saying is that Minnesota is doing the 2020 wrestling and they're doing 2021, like an NCAA basketball regional. 30:39 So in that time period, Minnesota is kind of already committing to other things. 30:44 So they may not try to bid on hockey. 30:47 Yeah, they've got the 2022 Women's Basketball Final Four, 2021 Gymnastics Championship. 30:54 They've got other stuff that they're going to be busy with at the same time. 30:58 And another thing is just a resource limitation. 31:00 And another thing Schlossman said in the article too was that North Dakota would love to see it be able to come back on campus, but it's just not going to happen right now. 31:10 And they don't see that in the near future. 31:12 So they're just going to keep bidding on Fargo and Sioux Falls and keep using those arenas, I would assume. 31:20 And just, I mean, if no one else is going to bid, more power to them. 31:24 I mean, you know, we look back on the numbers and basically Minnesota and North Dakota has been the only people bidding and getting regionals for quite a while now. 31:37 I mean, it's... 31:38 And now it's Penn State getting the Midwest regional in Eastern Pennsylvania because no one in the Midwest will bid. 31:44 Yeah. 31:45 So, I mean, and that's a problem. 31:47 We used to see some more bids in, you know, Grand Rapids. 31:51 Was it Van Andel Arena or something? 31:54 Somewhere in Grand Rapids, Michigan, we'd see that. 31:56 I mean... 31:57 The HL buildings are perfect for this. 31:59 The USHL buildings are perfect for this. 32:01 It's when you get in these NHL venues, like when they tried to do it at Pepsi Center in Denver, in Excel, the fees for using these facilities for a weekend like this are what make it unfeasible. 32:14 Yes. 32:15 But like you said, we've got AHL teams. 32:20 Obviously, we've got some in Milwaukee. 32:21 We've got... 32:21 What was it? 32:22 Somewhere in Green Bay has got a nice arena. 32:25 You've got Sioux Falls. 32:26 You've got Fargo, yes. 32:28 But maybe Bemidji could put them in a bid for something like that. 32:32 You've got Nebraska, Omaha. 32:35 You've got a bunch of places that could do this, but nobody else will try. 32:41 I mean, you've never seen other Minnesota schools try to do it. 32:45 I mean, you don't have to host at your home arena, but I could see maybe Mankato in Omaha could do Sioux Falls or something like that. 32:53 I just... 32:55 Some other schools need to step up instead of just bitching about it, because a lot of those other schools bitch about it, and that's all we hear. 33:02 Who bitches about it? 33:03 Well, you hear the fans from all these other schools complaining a lot. 33:05 That's exactly. 33:06 I mean, it's a fan thing. 33:07 The thing is, it's like, well, they're not the ones that have to do the work. 33:10 Yeah, it's for the fans, though. 33:12 The fans are coming. 33:13 You got to make the fans happy, because they're the ones paying for the tickets. 33:17 They're the ones traveling. 33:18 They're the ones coming to see these games. 33:20 And if you keep going to the same place and keep giving the tickets to the same North Dakota fans every year, these people have a reason to bitch, but they can't get their own schools to bid. 33:30 I mean, I'm sure they'd love to, but when North Dakota is the only one bidding, they're going to get all the tickets. 33:35 And that's just going to how it's going to be. 33:37 To me, it's more about the NCAA waking up and realizing that they got a situation where things are broken and doing something about it. 33:45 Yeah, but they're always too late. 33:47 Expecting everybody up. 33:48 But the fact is that you're talking about, I mean, money is tight for a lot of athletic programs and so is the ability to use people. 33:56 I mean, they have to, as Vig said, you have to decide how much bandwidth you actually have. 34:02 And if it's about trying to make schools change our alter things, I just don't think that's the wise way to go. 34:09 I think you have to look at it from the overall tournament perspective and what changes can you make to make it a more entertaining thing. 34:17 If you want to appease the fans, then why not have the home series on the first or second round of the NCAAs? 34:24 Why not? 34:26 Well, from what I heard a few years ago, I don't know if this is still true, but for the NCAA, they only make money or at the time, they only made money off of two tournaments, the NCAA basketball tournament and the NCAA hockey tournament. 34:43 Everything else, they lose money. 34:47 Obviously, they're not involved with football because it's not a football, it's not an NCAA sanction thing. 34:51 So I think NCAA thinks, you know, we're making money here, let's just keep it the same. 34:58 Hey, what do you think, Veegs? 35:00 Well, I think the other part of it too is ESPN has been pretty vocal about how they like the regionals the way they are. 35:08 I think if you're the NCAA, you're the one that's in control, not ESPN. 35:13 ESPN finds a way to broadcast all these D1AA football games at the end of the season. 35:19 They figure out how to do all these softball events. 35:23 I'm sure they figure out how to do eight hockey games. 35:27 Yeah, they get little league baseball in somewhere in the middle of Texas. 35:30 They can figure out a way to do eight one-and-done hockey games, and I think it would be pretty darn entertaining for two weekends. 35:38 They could do three games, three games, two games each weekend. 35:43 It'd be great. 35:47 We can only hope, but right now, unless we hear something else, it could be in North Dakota for another three more years for the regionals, folks. 35:54 So get used to it, and for all those other schools that complain about it, get your school to pony up the money, or maybe team with another school to pony up the money. 36:06 We can easily see a St. 36:08 Cloud UMD joint bid at Excel. 36:11 That can happen. 36:12 Or even Mankato in there as well. 36:14 Yeah. 36:15 But like you said, the X is expensive. 36:20 It's not cheap for them to do. 36:23 So I don't know. 36:24 I just thought I'd bring that up because I just saw that right before we talked on the air. 36:27 So but this weekend, Veegs were heading to Ohio State. 36:32 Minnesota hasn't done too bad at Ohio State, and actually they played Ohio State fairly good these last few years. 36:38 Considering that Ohio State's been on the up and Minnesota's been on the down, but earlier this season we had two ties and then two second overtime losses to Ohio State. 36:50 But what are you anticipating this weekend? 36:52 I mean, obviously, Ohio State has really come on strong since their little weekend struggle with Minnesota a couple of months ago. 37:02 Well, I think Ohio State and Minnesota actually match up pretty well. 37:06 As I talked about earlier in the podcast, Ohio State's a really structured team. 37:10 They're a really veteran team. 37:13 Steve Rollex really split up his lineup. 37:15 He's put his top veteran forwards on different lines trying to get depth. 37:21 They've gone on quite the streak here. 37:22 I think they lost one game in their last 15. 37:26 They played pretty well. 37:27 The one thing that really surprised me, they had the 7-7 game with Michigan State. 37:31 I think we've seen how dangerous that KHL line can be for the Spartans. 37:36 But I'm expecting low scoring games this weekend. 37:39 It's going to be interesting to see if Minnesota can be disciplined. 37:44 Ohio State has a pretty good power play when they start to load up all their talent on that unit. 37:50 Minnesota can't afford to have those situations when they're playing the Buckeyes. 37:54 The Buckeyes are going to be looking to seal up the Big Ten title this weekend. 37:58 That's something for them to play for. 38:00 They've locked up their NCAA bid. 38:02 They're one of five teams to do that already for an area at large, but I'm sure they'd like to raise a banner. 38:09 Mote says, we're doomed, Hammeh. 38:12 Are we doomed? 38:14 I don't disagree. 38:15 I think we're going to get swept this weekend. 38:18 Let's be honest. 38:19 Mote, Mote. 38:21 Yeah, exactly. 38:22 I mean, they've been on a pretty nice streak here in the recent last few, what, month or two. 38:30 They've obviously played really good hockey. 38:32 We're on the road. 38:32 Gophers have been inconsistent as hell. 38:35 Of course, that's the kind of time when you all of a sudden see something shocking happen and actually win a game. 38:42 But it's after what we saw last weekend and the fact that we're heading down the home stretch and there's probably going to be, like Veegs talked about earlier, there's going to be a little bit more experimentation simply because they can't earn their way into the tournament through an at-large bid. 38:59 So it doesn't hurt really necessarily to try some different things now and experiment with different lineups or different lines. 39:07 So we'll see what happens there. 39:09 But I just can't imagine that they won't get swept this weekend. 39:13 Well, one interesting thing though, Veegs actually mentioned earlier this week is that Minnesota still has a chance to get home ice for the Big Ten tournament. 39:24 You said they need to win half of their games or something along those lines and then need to get a little help. 39:30 So is that what they're playing for right now? 39:33 Is it just try to get home ice and then just go from there, Veegs? 39:37 Well, this team definitely doesn't want to have to go back out to Happy Valley. 39:41 You can see that in their faces. 39:43 Yeah, that could easily happen too. 39:46 Yeah, and that would just be a real demoralized set up for them to finish their season because they just have not played very well against them. 39:56 They'd do much better if they could get out an opportunity here at home to keep that dream alive of extending their season. 40:06 I do remember the last series, Matt Robson played absolutely outstanding. 40:11 He was on his game and basically stole those points. 40:15 The goalies have not played very well the last couple of weeks. 40:18 I don't think that's their number one issue, but they have been giving up a soft goal or two a game here the last three weekends. 40:25 And each goalie will get a look according to Bob Motskow this weekend. 40:30 We'll see which guy gets to go first. 40:32 But Eric Sherhorn is getting a start, which I thought he was going to get last Saturday. 40:38 Motskow, the contrarian, put Robson back in there. 40:42 It was more of the same. 40:43 So, we'll see what happens this weekend. 40:45 But I think they really want to try to get a win or a point here and then roll the dice here against Notre Dame. 40:52 Now how has Ohio State's attendance been this year? 40:56 Have they gotten any better because they always have been kind of a second tier, even when they have. 41:02 I mean, they've had 4-0-4 teams in the past, but they play in that gigantic arena. 41:09 And I'm just kind of curious. 41:10 I haven't looked at their stats for attendance this year, but are they still having issues, Veegs? 41:16 Well, I don't think they're ever going to be a sellout value to the arena, but I know it's been getting better each of the last three years. 41:25 And I know it was trending up when I looked at it back in December. 41:28 You know, it's not going to be great, but, you know, it's been better for them. 41:32 And that's where I think maybe Ohio State could be vulnerable in a Big Ten tournament is, you know, you run a one-off game at home, whereas, you know, you go to some of these other arenas, you have a one-off game. 41:48 Like, you got one-off game at Penn State, it's going to be hard. 41:51 You have a one-off game at Michigan, it's going to be pretty hard. 41:54 You have a one-off game in Ohio State, yes, they're a good team, but you know what, the crowd is not going to be as much of an issue as it would be, let's say, at a Yost or at a, in Happy Valley. 42:06 And they're not going to have much to play for, though they look like they're going to have a number one seed here locked up unless they completely fall in their face. 42:14 So we've seen that plenty of times with Gopher teams as they could get in the conference tournament. 42:20 There's not a whole lot for them to play for, so they're not as invested. 42:24 So that could very well be a scenario, but you got to get out of the first round to even have that chance, because Ohio State will probably get the buy here. 42:32 So to even get a chance to play there, you got to get out of the first round. 42:36 Yeah, Ohio State's got an 11-point lead right now and two games in hand over Michigan. 42:42 So they could easily wrap it up this weekend. 42:48 So Ham, you're thinking the Gophers are going to get swept. 42:50 I don't remember the last time you called for the Gophers to get swept. 42:53 I don't know if you ever have. 42:56 Oh, I've, well, I don't know. 42:58 You might have thought it. 42:59 I probably never have called them for a sweep, but you know, to get swept, I mean, but yeah. 43:05 I mean, I think after this last weekend, in seeing the, I mean, even if it's a better matchup. 43:11 Well, you just can't trust this team right now. 43:14 Say again? 43:15 You can't trust this team right now. 43:16 I mean, they could literally show up and give an effort and surprise us and get a win or two this weekend, and we'd be completely shocked. 43:26 But the way this team is going right now, we just don't see that. 43:31 Yeah, it's just been too inconsistent. 43:33 I think that some of the key positions, you know, some games are all right, some that are not. 43:39 It's just very unpredictable. 43:41 And I think this particular weekend, it's just a tough matchup against a very good team. 43:47 And obviously, they have something to play for. 43:50 So I just, it's hard to imagine anything positive coming out of this weekend on the road. 43:57 The one thing I'll say that's positive is that the hardest thing to teach in hockey is goal scoring. 44:04 And this year, we've seen the coaching staff able to get them putting the puck in the net a little more frequently. 44:11 We've seen a great power play this season. 44:14 You know, this is a real top heavy team in terms of scoring. 44:17 You know, that's usually the hardest thing to figure out. 44:20 You know, it's the defensive side of things that slipped away here the last couple of weeks. 44:24 Sometimes, you know, that's just a disciplined, mental focused part of the game. 44:29 I think it's easier to expect that to come back into focus than it would be if you're trying to coach your team to score three goals instead of one. 44:40 Well, it's 5 p.m. 44:41 games this weekend, folks, so make sure you tune in early if you're going to watch them on TV. 44:46 They're both on the Big Ten Network. 44:47 So hopefully they do better. 44:50 I know you're a little more positive than Hamia's Veegs just because you think it's a better match up for Minnesota. 44:56 But I think there is a good chance that this team might have already packed it in. 45:03 Yeah, we'll see. 45:04 But some guys could have their eyes on pro contracts here coming up. 45:08 That's something that can always factor in. 45:10 But it's still a team that's getting production from Sheehy and Pitlick. 45:15 They've just got to figure out how to tighten things up defensively. 45:18 They're having pretty good seasons. 45:21 If this team was at the top of the conference, those guys would be in contention for Hobie nominations, at least get in top ten. 45:30 Because this team is playing so poorly, I just don't see them getting any credit on national awards. 45:37 But they're having great years. 45:39 Sheehy's staring down Jones for that shot last week. 45:43 Pretty impressive stuff. 45:46 Yeah. 45:47 Veegs, what are you working on over at the Athletic? 45:50 Well, I'm trying to decipher what Bob Mosco's style is going to look like here at Minnesota. 45:56 What kind of team does he want? 45:58 It's really hard to tell on the defensive end right now what he wants out of his defenseman. 46:03 But I'm working on that probably another week or so away still on that one. 46:07 Okay, okay. 46:09 We'll be watching for that at the Athletic. 46:12 And, Hammeh, you got any more trips planned? 46:17 Not until after the season, at least as of this moment. 46:20 So I won't be reporting from the doing podcast from the Vegas or anything far off. 46:28 Yeah, nothing like that. 46:29 I don't think nothing. 46:30 Well, Cardinal did a pretty good job filling in for you. 46:32 It was nice to have him on for the first time in a while. 46:36 Yeah, no surprise. 46:37 I know that he's well spoken, obviously, so I'm not surprised at all. 46:41 Well, you know, that's our show for this week. 46:43 Be sure to follow Hammy at Hammy Hockey on Twitter and Vegoe on Twitter at eVegoe. 46:48 For those of you listening live, stay tuned for some overtime coming up next. 46:52 For the rest of you, we'll be back next week to recap this Ohio State series. 46:57 We'll see what happens. 46:59 Then we'll preview the home series against Notre Dame. 47:02 Until then, thanks for listening.