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 Cami, Vegoe and your host, Jupiter. 0:45 Good evening, and welcome to The GPL Podcast, episode number 150. 0:53 Nice little milestone, guys. 0:56 And along with that milestone, I don't know if I'm shocked, but I'm a little bit surprised that, how else can I say it, Veegs? 1:08 What the hell was that this past weekend? 1:11 They go to Ohio State, which is ranked number two in the country, pair-wise, top five, you know, whatever. 1:17 They sweep them? 1:18 What is going on? 1:20 I don't know what you're talking about. 1:21 That's Gopher's hockey right there, going on the road and beating the Buckeyes. 1:26 It's not like that's never happened before, right? 1:29 Well, considering they just had their ass kicked in Penn State and they've been so inconsistent this year, swept at Michigan State, I really don't know what to say. 1:44 Well, I do think it was just one of those situations where it was a good matchup for Minnesota, a situation where Ohio State is a more passive team just like UMD was at the start of the year. 1:56 You know, they want to clog up the neutral zone. 1:59 So they give the skill players for the Gopher some time and space. 2:03 And when Minnesota's players have that kind of space, they have the talent to take advantage of it. 2:09 And I think the biggest surprising thing of the weekend was they got four rush goals on Saturday, which is something you just don't see Ohio State do very often, where they give up those chances and Minnesota capitalized on them. 2:24 And I think they were lucky to get away with the points on Saturday. 2:29 Yeah, Saturday was a little different, Hammeh, but you and I were just discussing before we started that it's just a match-up thing, just like Vig said. 2:40 Well, first of all, I'd like to say that I blamed my prediction last week on my girlfriend. 2:47 She is a pessimist. 2:48 Actually, I told her before the podcast I was going to blame her for my crappy prediction. 2:52 And her response, since she's an ex-Gopher cheerleader, she's like, cheer chicks always have faith. 2:59 And CC used cheer chicks, so obviously, she's learning our GPL language. 3:04 Cheer chicks. 3:06 Yes. 3:07 I haven't used that terminology in years, actually. 3:10 Whatever, dude. 3:11 I see people using that. 3:12 So in any case, yes, we had, I mean, it's a bipolar team. 3:18 I mean, I do agree that it is sort of a match-ups thing. 3:22 I think the years that you're a really good team, you kind of tend to be a little bit match-up proof. 3:26 I mean, you might struggle a little more against certain teams or certain styles versus others, but you're still going to be able to overcome it because you're a really good team. 3:35 But I think this is one of those years where we have enough weaknesses, where it's really match-up dependent a lot of the time. 3:41 And like Vegas was talking about it, this apparently is one of those teams that we do match up well against, even though they obviously have had a really good year and certainly a better year than we've had. 3:54 But this team is just really hard to figure out and who could have predicted that? 3:59 I mean, even an optimistic fan probably wouldn't have predicted a sweep this last weekend. 4:05 Well, if you looked at the odds makers, the Gophers were plus 400 underdogs on Friday and plus 350 on Saturday. 4:12 So if you're betting some money this past weekend, you could have made a nice little chunk of change. 4:19 Skye Malaw wants to know, can we avoid Penn State in the Big Ten tournament? 4:26 What do you think, Vig? 4:27 There is a decent chance where they're going to run into each other. 4:30 I mean, they're just both kind of in the middle. 4:32 There's a lot that could still happen here. 4:35 You just have to hope that Minnesota doesn't have to go to Penn State because that's just a recipe for disaster. 4:43 A lot of it depends on what they do this coming weekend. 4:47 But I'd like to avoid them, that would be good. 4:49 Like you said, we just do not match up well against them for one reason or another. 4:54 They're unorthodox style or whatever it is. 4:57 Penn State just doesn't have a number. 4:59 Difference is the four-check pressure. 5:02 You didn't see Ohio State send a lot of guys in on the four-check pressure in Minnesota's D. 5:07 I think we've talked about all season on the podcast that Minnesota's defense, not of strength, and when they have time and space, like they did this last weekend, Minnesota is able to break out a little bit. 5:19 They can get some speed through the neutral zone. 5:21 It's a different game when there's two guys hard on the puck every time. 5:26 Hammey, Zuelsdorf scored for the first time since the opening weekend of his freshman season at Alaska Anchorage. 5:34 Yeehaw. 5:35 Yeah, it was a nice play shot. 5:38 I mean, it was one of those deals where they got some traffic in front. 5:40 It was a nice, you know, he just placed a really good shot. 5:44 And you got to feel good for the guy. 5:45 That looked like those teammates were pretty excited for him. 5:48 Obviously, when you have that kind of a drought, you know, you're you're probably gripping the stick pretty hard when you whenever you take a shot. 5:55 So it's good for him to get that monkey off the back, so to speak. 5:58 And I think didn't I see, did he do the monkey off the back? 6:02 He did thing. 6:04 Now that I think about it, I thought I had seen that. 6:06 I'm like, did he just pull the monkey off his back? 6:08 Kind of like Steve Young back in the day when he did that. 6:12 So yeah, that was kind of funny. 6:13 But yeah, I'm glad for the guy. 6:15 I mean, that first weekend a few years ago, Veegs, he scored two goals that weekend. 6:19 We're like, wow, we might have found an offensive defenseman, and he's been quiet ever since. 6:26 Yeah, like a lot of the defensemen, they have flashes where they have something going, and then it just kind of disappears from them for a while, and they do start to press, and it was nice to see him take advantage of the opportunity he got on Friday. 6:42 And if you're listening live, obviously, you can send us questions in the Mixler chat. 6:46 Just use the Mixler app on your phone, Android, iPhone, doesn't matter. 6:53 Or you can send us questions via Twitter. 6:55 Just use the hashtag GPL Podcast, and we'll try to get to your questions. 7:01 Frozen4champ wants to know, how did Ohio State D-Man not get a penalty after he assaulted Novak? 7:08 What do you think, Veegs? 7:09 Why didn't he get a penalty? 7:10 Come on, damn right. 7:11 I don't know why. 7:13 He really went after him. 7:15 It was kind of a tough play, Novak. 7:18 Bodying someone into the boards is kind of a dangerous play. 7:20 Absolutely shocked that they didn't call a penalty, though. 7:23 Usually when you see someone, the second man in like that, it's automatic. 7:28 But there were some interesting calls all weekend, I thought, you know, being an official is a tough job. 7:34 It was especially tough this past weekend at Valley City Arena. 7:40 Yeah, a lot of a lot of GPLers were not happy about the roughing this weekend, Hammeh. 7:47 Yes, when you're starting to bring up old WCHA refs, like you missed them, that's usually not a good sign that the current roughing is good for that weekend. 7:59 So, yes, they were unhappy. 8:02 Kevin Luckow wants to know, I know you guys are going to touch upon it, but does the commitment of Justin Close, I think that's how he's supposed to name it, I don't know, lead one to believe that Robson could be headed for the wild as Russo speculated on his podcast. 8:17 We were going to get to that, but I just thought pop up and they just got that commitment, I believe it was yesterday, Veegs? 8:24 Yep, and they had LaFontaine commit the week before, so they've got three new goalies all queued up for next season because they're probably going to be losing all three goalies at the end of the season. 8:36 So I think the latest one, there haven't been a lot of goalies out of that league that have come into college hockey and been prominent players. 8:45 I don't believe he signed to NLI, he might be like a low-scholarship financial aid type guy. 8:53 So the book's open there still on what his role will be. 8:57 Will he be kind of that Coutts guy? 8:59 But you do need more than just two goalies on the roster to get you through the season, give some guys break some practice here and there. 9:08 But they've got three goalies all lined up, that's for sure. 9:11 And if I recall, one of them is a transfer, right? 9:15 Well, he played at Michigan LaFontaine for two years, and then he's taken this year off and played in Penticton. 9:23 And he's from the same hometown as Matt Robson. 9:25 So those two are buddies. 9:27 He talked about how when he went to play in the BCHL, he thought Penticton was the best place to be both for living and for hockey. 9:35 And so LaFontaine went the same route, and he's now going to follow Robson's path to Minnesota. 9:41 So those two guys are in touch, which makes it almost plain and obvious that Robson's going to turn pro at the end of the year. 9:49 And you know, then we have Mo coming in as a goalie as well, but LaFontaine will be technically a junior, won't he? 9:57 No, Mo's got a serious, serious, serious knee injury, dude. 10:01 He's like, his career, it's a career ender. 10:03 Didn't you read that on GPL? 10:06 Why isn't anyone panicking? 10:08 I know. 10:10 No, yeah, they're nicely covered now. 10:12 I think we're all, remember the panic is over. 10:15 We've got three goalies for next year. 10:18 I know Ryan Cardinal is scanning box scores looking for goalies, so he should be happy now that they have three lined up. 10:23 He doesn't have to do that anymore. 10:25 I know he's like, he said he was scouring for goalies. 10:28 Now he doesn't have to worry about it. 10:30 He didn't even have to go out Saskatchewan like Ben Gordon did. 10:36 Well, there you go. 10:37 Well, Veegs, let's talk about what Russo was talking about. 10:40 I mean, he was kind of speculating on his podcast that The Wild might have interest in Robson, since he's not drafted and signed as a free agent. 10:50 What do you think about that? 10:51 Would they just kind of maybe try to sign him and send him down to Iowa? 10:55 Well, The Wild do need some goaltending depth. 10:58 They have Dubnik and Stalock right now at the pro level. 11:02 They have a Finn goalie who is in the AHL who is pretty young. 11:06 So there's spots for goalies to play in their system. 11:10 Robson did play in their development camp in the off season, so probably a good fit there. 11:15 Robson also played in the Blackhawks camp this past summer, too. 11:20 So he'll have plenty of options. 11:22 I'm sure he'll get some interest from Toronto, too. 11:26 You know, hometown kid there and Scott Bell knowing him. 11:29 He'll have plenty of options. 11:31 He's got good size and plays a sound technical game when he's on. 11:36 So are we pretty much assuming that he is definitely gone then, guys? 11:43 Yeah. 11:45 Yeah, I think it's pretty... 11:46 I mean, like you said, when you have a buddy who's coming in, that would have been obviously competing with you for playing time and likely losing the opportunity because Robson obviously would be the starter if he came back. 11:59 I mean, it kind of just makes too much sense that he's going to go. 12:03 Plus, he's at that age. 12:05 He just start thinking about those kinds of things and just the likelihood is a lot higher. 12:11 There you go. 12:12 See the season and a half of Robson, then he's going to be gone, folks. 12:16 It's just how the cookie crumbles. 12:20 This guy in my law wants to know, will Motzko keep the BMW line together? 12:24 He was really happy with their performance this weekend. 12:27 Veegs? 12:28 Yeah. 12:28 He talked about it today at availability that that line is just the one that's keeping everything going. 12:34 He's tried to split them up, I think, here and there to try to get that for check and energy and effort to be a little bit more contagious, but it just hasn't happened. 12:46 Those guys are so good five on five, and they bring so much energy to the game that I think he's going to keep them together, just like he's keeping the GPS line together. 12:55 Pitlicks cooled off a little bit here, five on five and on the power play, but he's still generating offense. 13:04 They need that line to get going if they're going to be successful here the rest of the way, but the BMW line, so talented, so much effort. 13:12 They're the guys who are on film every week when they start showing what they want this team to become. 13:18 And, Hamming, that's kind of the key for me personally is the BMW line's effort. 13:25 I mean, obviously they've got the skill, but they're out there busting their ass. 13:29 Yeah, I mean, it's kind of heartening that when you see, like I said, I think I said it last week, you know, that some of the youngest guys are the ones that I feel have had the most improvement throughout the season. 13:38 And I was just thinking about it tonight that for me, for the rest of the season, it's really about, you know, the young guys and giving them opportunities and hopefully seeing them, you know, grasp and grasp those opportunities and kind of make the most of them as the season winds down and hopefully creating momentum for next season. 14:01 Hmm. 14:02 Hmm. 14:03 Interesting. 14:04 Frank Vazakos is trying to listen to us live, but he's having problems going room to room without dropping. 14:10 Get better Wi-Fi, Frank. 14:14 Sounds like a personal problem. 14:15 It does sound like a personal problem, Frank. 14:17 Have we had Frank on this year? 14:18 I can't even remember. 14:19 We have it. 14:21 I bugged him a couple of weeks ago and he's like, eh, I don't want it. 14:23 He's just being a smartass. 14:25 Frank is just too good for us apparently. 14:28 Maybe he is. 14:28 I don't know. 14:29 Well, I guess he kind of is if you think about it. 14:33 He's big time in us. 14:34 I know. 14:35 No, I just have to bug him more. 14:37 And then he has to figure out how to do Skype again because he does it once a year and he doesn't remember how to do it. 14:44 Yeah, we're making fun of you, Frank. 14:45 Sorry. 14:47 That's how things are. 14:49 So this past weekend, obviously we've got two good wins on the road. 14:56 But they were really different wins. 14:59 Friday night, they kind of shut them down really well. 15:05 They had very low shots on goal. 15:10 Ohio State did. 15:12 And there wasn't this huge panic at the end compared to Saturday night where the Gophers really hung on at the end. 15:21 Yeah, they really had to hang on Saturday, I thought, because they took some penalties at the end of the second, in the third period, so they were on the penalty kill a little bit more. 15:31 And they just kind of were in that hold on mode. 15:34 There wasn't a lot of offensive zone time for them in the third period. 15:39 You know, they kind of faced that deluge of shots. 15:41 And I think one of the things we saw this last Saturday was a commitment to shot blocking. 15:47 Yes. 15:48 You know, you saw them really layer in and just sacrifice the body. 15:53 I can't remember exactly how many McLaughlin took, but I think it was like five or six that he took a couple of times, two on one shift. 16:01 And that just shows that this team really wanted to get that W and sold out. 16:07 You don't see that too often out of Minnesota teams, but it was impressive to see it on Saturday. 16:14 Hamme, are you concerned with how many times Gophers are getting out shot? 16:18 You know, we just had that question with Jess. 16:20 Weird seeing Gopher teams getting out shot. 16:22 And I would kind of agree with them. 16:24 You know, historically, Gophers are ahead or equal with shots, but there have been some games this season where they've been heavily out shot. 16:35 Well, I mean, I think a lot of it comes down to having defense that transitions the puck, makes the right decisions, and able to handle the four checks, get it out. 16:46 I just think that's just kind of how this team is right now. 16:48 I don't think it's... 16:50 I mean, obviously, it's not optimal. 16:52 You want to be at least possessing the puck more often than not, and getting more shots on goal and whatever. 16:58 But you just kind of have to make do. 17:01 It kind of reminds you of when we used to play Alaska Anchorage, and we'd be kicking the hell out of them the whole game, but it would end up being like one-nothing, and you'd be sweating it out to the last minute. 17:11 It's kind of like the roles have reversed for this team this year, and now we're suddenly playing that role of getting the hell kicked out of us most of the game, but squeaking it out at the end or something. 17:22 It has been odd, Veegs, this... 17:24 I mean, really getting outshot heavily this year. 17:28 Yeah, I think Hameed hit it right on the head with the defenseman. 17:32 They just don't transition as well as they used to, and they don't have the talent at the blue line to really have sustained pressure in the offensive zone either. 17:40 You've got to play five on five in the offensive zone, and a lot of times they're playing three on five, basically. 17:46 They're having a hard time getting those guys involved in the offense, and it's just not a strength for them this year. 17:53 So, we're seeing a little bit different take and strategy. 17:57 I think Bob Motzko's kind of realized what he's got too, and they're playing that one-two-two kind of look. 18:02 It's not something you usually see how to go for hockey, but if it's a recipe for success, they're going to go with it. 18:10 Definitely. 18:10 We got some more questions coming in via the Mixler Chat. 18:13 We're going to get to those in a second. 18:15 But first, we need to hear from our sponsor. 18:18 vintagemnhockey.com is a proud sponsor of The GPL Podcast. 18:23 Well, what is Vintage MN Hockey? 18:26 Well, it's kind of the place to get all of your history of Minnesota hockey. 18:30 From the pros to the minors, the collegiate teams to even the high school teams. 18:36 All information about any of those teams can be found on vintagemnhockey.com. 18:41 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. 18:50 So make sure you check out those interviews. 18:52 It's a really great thing. 18:53 But as I always say, I think my favorite part is the store. 18:57 The store, you can buy a custom historical jersey from the Gophers or the Bulldogs or some of your favorite high school teams. 19:04 And if you do make a purchase, just use the code GPL Podcast, all one word, and you'll get 10% off your order. 19:11 So make sure you visit vintagemnhockey.com and follow them on Twitter at VintageMNHockey. 19:18 All right, guys, we get Josh Kreitzer. 19:21 I never know how to pronounce your name, but I'm just going to say it. 19:24 He just wants to know, is Ryan Johnson expected to come in next season or not until 2020? 19:30 If not until 2020, he's worried he may flip after getting drafted. 19:35 What are your thoughts on Mr. 19:37 Johnson, Veegs? 19:39 Everything I've heard suggests that he's not going to be accelerating yet, and that he'll be here in two years. 19:47 He has connections to the program because his dad, Craig Johnson, former Gopher, he was ecstatic to play and get the offer from Minnesota, and he's pretty happy about it from what I could see, and I'd expect him to get here eventually. 20:03 What kind of player is Johnson? 20:04 Do you know, Hammy? 20:06 Well, I mean, he's a slick kind of offensive defenseman. 20:09 I mean, he's not a real big guy, you know, so he kind of fits a little bit of that mold we've seen in the past with that, you know, kind of the smooth skating, puck moving kind of a guy. 20:20 But I mean, he'll be certainly defensively responsible. 20:24 I'm not saying anything bad about him in that sense. 20:26 But, you know, I actually asked somebody about this, what was it, I don't know, a week or two ago. 20:33 I can't remember exactly. 20:36 And there was no word of him accelerating from this person. 20:39 So I think that Veegs is pretty much right on with that. 20:43 I don't think there's any sign of him doing that. 20:45 So I would expect him to come, you know, as we, as a normal graduation year. 20:52 Frozen 4, James wants to know, was Phillips' injury due to the elbow to the head that he took Friday night? 20:58 And will he be back this week? 21:00 What did Motzko say today about Phillips, Veegs? 21:03 He said, still unknown, though they won't make the call until Friday with him. 21:09 McManus, he expects back of the lineup who was dinged up, I think during the first period on Friday and then was out Saturday. 21:17 He practiced with the power play units today. 21:19 So I think they're planning as if he'll be back. 21:22 Phillips didn't take part in any special teams work today. 21:26 And we'll see what happens with him. 21:29 You know, I can't remember what, was there a penalty on that call? 21:35 Does anyone remember? 21:37 I can't remember if they called it or not, but it looked bad on the play. 21:42 Yeah. 21:43 I'm just losing my mind. 21:44 So, you know, they're just going to be cautious with things like that, I think. 21:48 So they want to be at their best by the end of the year. 21:52 One of the things they ended up doing was playing their top four quite a bit. 21:57 We saw a lot of Brinkman and Nanny and Sadek and Zulsdorf, and they handled the load just fine, it looked like. 22:05 Got a question from Frank Muzako, actually. 22:07 Question for Vegoe on shots. 22:10 Robson is facing 37 shots a game, Schierhorn only 26. 22:15 Opponents may be one factor, but a difference of 11? 22:19 Any other reasons? 22:21 Well, I think during the Michigan series earlier than the year in the Ohio State Series, earlier in the year, he had some pretty high shot totals in both those games. 22:31 We saw Minnesota just go into a shell and rely on their goaltender to pull out some points those games and he came through. 22:39 And I think, you know, small sample size, those are big factors, those couple of games. 22:45 Well, I think another difference is too, Hammey is that I think the defense in front of Schierhorn played pretty darn well this past Friday night and made it a little easier for him even though he looked great. 23:01 Maybe they're scared. 23:03 Maybe they're like, you know what, I know if I make a mistake with Robson, he might be able to erase it. 23:08 You know, I could take more risks, but I don't feel that confident with Schierhorn. 23:13 You know what I mean? 23:13 I don't know. 23:14 Maybe it's one of those mentalities that you sometimes see that you can play a certain way with a goalie behind you. 23:21 You can play more risky because you think that there's a better opportunity for them or a better chance that they're going to erase that mistake. 23:28 So maybe that's what we see. 23:30 You know, maybe a little bit more smarter conservative play at times. 23:35 I don't know. 23:36 It's hard to say. 23:37 Veegs, I think I'd like to see the defense playing the same in front of Robson. 23:43 Yeah, you'd like to. 23:44 It's just hard to get that message through sometimes to guys. 23:47 But I think one of the things with the Robson stats as well, you know, there weren't a lot of quality chances in some of those games. 23:55 You know, they were forcing shots from the outside and just the teams that are playing. 23:59 You know, that's an easy save for Robson. 24:01 And, you know, sometimes it's easy to make 40 saves when they're all from outside the dots and far away. 24:08 So we're coming down to the last few weeks of the Big Ten play, guys. 24:12 Minnesota is currently in second. 24:14 Looking fairly good, but they've played two more games than everybody except for Michigan State. 24:20 I believe, you know, Michigan State's off this weekend. 24:23 But, you know, it's not so bad, you know, that 33 points, Notre Dame's just buying them with 30. 24:30 Excuse me, Michigan with 30. 24:33 Notre Dame, Michigan, Penn State and Wisconsin, and obviously Ohio State, all have played two less games. 24:41 But, you know, you had mentioned earlier a couple of weeks ago, Veegs, that, you know, Minnesota really needed to kind of split the next two weekends in the Big Ten to have a chance of getting home ice. 24:53 You know, they swept last weekend. 24:56 You know, maybe get a split this weekend. 24:58 They're in good shape. 24:59 We've got, you know, Wisconsin at Penn State, Ohio State at Michigan. 25:05 This thing could go any way, couldn't it, Veegs? 25:08 Yeah, the Big Ten, two through seven is so tight right now. 25:12 It's a mess. 25:13 It's a mess. 25:14 I think if Minnesota gets to their 36 points here, they have a pretty decent chance to get home ice. 25:22 You know, if they get to 37 points, I think they lock it up for sure. 25:26 But it's so tight right now in the Big Ten. 25:30 And they could do themselves a lot of favors this weekend, Hammy, by just, you know what, sweep Notre Dame. 25:36 And Notre Dame is gone. 25:37 Notre Dame cannot catch them. 25:42 You there, Hammy? 25:44 He muted himself. 25:46 He pulled a me. 25:48 Yeah. 25:48 Yeah. 25:50 Sorry. 25:51 I did. 25:52 You pulled a Jupe. 25:54 I know. 25:54 Well, you know, once a season. 25:57 I'm not like every podcast like Jupe. 26:01 No, I've got. 26:01 I'll even add one tonight. 26:03 But so anyways, what did you ask me? 26:06 I was as I was fumbling with my phone. 26:09 What did you? 26:11 Well, I'll say, you know, I'm saying, you know, Minnesota can really take care of Notre Dame in this home ice thing this weekend. 26:16 You know, you you sweep Notre Dame. 26:18 Notre Dame can't catch you. 26:19 It's over. 26:21 Right. 26:21 I mean, I well, I mean, do they come and say, OK, so we have these are our last two games, right? 26:28 So, yes, they're up by two points right now, and they could be up by eight points at the end of the weekend. 26:33 And Notre Dame can't catch. 26:35 Right. 26:35 And then, you know, obviously we would want to hope that maybe Ohio State does well against Michigan. 26:41 You know, even even if that's a split, Minnesota could could wrap it up this weekend, preventing other teams from catching them. 26:53 That would be ideal, of course. 26:55 And, you know, I think if anything, too, I just think that, I mean, I know that we, you know, had some decent results earlier in the year. 27:04 But, I mean, it'd be nice to be able to kind of go in there and, you know, win two games this weekend because Notre Dame has kind of had our number in recent years. 27:14 So, I mean, like I said, I know we took care of business on the road earlier in the year. 27:18 But nonetheless, I kind of like to see more of that because we kind of owe them a little bit, I think. 27:25 And Veegs, you know, maybe other series splitting would be probably good for the Gophers this weekend. 27:31 You know, Wisconsin at Penn State, Ohio State of Michigan. 27:36 Splits would be good. 27:39 Yeah, splits are good for Minnesota. 27:41 And Bob Motzko brought up an interesting thing that he saw in college hockey was that there are only three sweeps in all of the land last weekend. 27:50 So, it's hard to get a sweep these days. 27:53 And if Minnesota can somehow do it, I think they'd get the probably the number two seed in the Big Ten. 27:59 And that would be nice because they could get two weeks at home potentially. 28:06 And I think there are scenarios right now where if Minnesota can have a hot finish here to the end of the year and then do well in the conference tournament, there's a way for them to kind of squeak up there in the pairwise. 28:19 Oh, boy. 28:21 Don't tease us, Veegs. 28:23 Well, you know, you look at the college hockey rank stuff. 28:27 You look at the college hockey news stuff. 28:30 I think that only goes through the end of the regular season. 28:33 And right now, you know, there's chances for them to get to, you know, 15 in the pairwise if they get hot here going to the finish line. 28:42 And then they get those Conference Tournament games. 28:44 You know, maybe they can creep up a little bit. 28:47 Kevin Lacau. 28:48 I thought somebody said last week or two weeks ago that there was no way we could possibly get an at-large bid. 28:53 They were doing that. 28:54 They did the math in like every scenario and we couldn't get in. 28:57 Didn't somebody say that on GPL or somewhere? 29:00 Well, I think those scenarios only go through the end of the regular season. 29:04 I don't think they take into account the Conference Tournament games. 29:10 The latest College Hockey News Predictor has low percentages, but there are chances for them to get up to I think 13 or 12. 29:23 Very small chances, but they're there. 29:26 They need some help, and they need to play the right teams. 29:27 That's it. 29:28 I'm not going to believe anything I read on the Internet anymore. 29:31 Well, there's so many scenarios still to be played out that it's hard to know, but they don't have a whole lot of margin for error. 29:42 They do not. 29:45 Although they do say they help, too. 29:46 It's 100% in now, though. 29:49 So victories over them would help. 29:51 Yep. 29:53 Even though it's already been answered in the Mixer Chat, Kevin Lookout wants to know, what are the ticket prices if the Gophers host a first round series? 30:01 And it's kind of a flat fee, I should say. 30:06 It was $25 and maybe $25 or $30. 30:10 Now, I'm getting conflicting numbers. 30:12 Yeah, there's a season ticket price and then there's non-season ticket holder price. 30:16 And those are kind of set by the Big Ten. 30:20 Minnesota would surely love to have $10 tickets and get as many fans in there as they could. 30:26 But they're kind of... 30:27 But it's at least still lower than their normal ticket prices. 30:33 So it's not bad. 30:35 And it's controlled by the league, so Gophers don't have any control over it. 30:39 And it was similar in the WCHA. 30:41 When the WCHA was at $18 or $20 or $22, something like that, and it was set by the league. 30:47 And that was it, because I believe they share all that revenue, don't they, Bigs? 30:50 Yep. 30:51 Shared revenue. 30:52 There you go. 30:53 That's the reason why. 30:54 Big Ten's open for three-game series all around. 30:59 They are. 31:00 And is the first round or second... 31:02 Is any of this included in the season ticket package? 31:05 I don't believe it is, is it? 31:07 No, they didn't want to include it, because they wanted to keep those prices as low as they could. 31:12 Mm-hmm. 31:13 Well, then... 31:14 And then if they do get home ice, it's going to be kind of a scramble to sell all these tickets, won't it? 31:21 For sure. 31:22 It's a tough draw. 31:26 Maybe we'll see some attention, but I wouldn't expect big crowds for those games. 31:30 You're going to skim the boys' hockey tournament, and that's always a tough draw. 31:34 Yeah. 31:36 Hammey, we've been hearing some more news again and again, and Jess is just reminding us in the Mixler Chat, Illinois getting a team, a D1 team. 31:48 We'll wait until it actually happens, but there is getting more buzz about Illinois moving up to D1. 31:56 Well, and I think that if they're able to put something together, I think that would be a great addition. 32:02 I mean, you have that kind of Chicago area. 32:05 There's a lot of good talent in that area. 32:07 Obviously, Wisconsin would probably be a little unhappy because they've always done a pretty good job of recruiting that area over the years. 32:13 So, but I think that they'd be able to build a pretty good team if they had some decent facilities. 32:18 And obviously, I'm not expecting them to take the Penn State, get the 80 whatever odd million and have this amazing place or whatever. 32:29 But if they can figure something out that's going to be relatively competitive, I think that they have the recruiting opportunity, the recruiting grounds there that they could build a pretty good team of some local players and then certainly supplement that with players from other areas of the US and Canada. 32:44 So I do think there's a great opportunity if they can somehow figure out a way to put it all together. 32:51 Now, Veegs, I believe a lot of the speculation is because just for that reason, I mean, they want to build a facility with hockey and actually use it for other sports as well. 33:00 So this might not be as much of a fantasy as we thought from the past. 33:06 Yeah, it's all going to come down to getting some donations to get their program off the ground. 33:12 You know, the feasibility shows that it is a viable program there and it's a great location for another hockey program in the Big Ten. 33:21 I think that's the big reason why Arizona State isn't really even an option for the Big Ten until they figure out if Illinois can add in a program. 33:30 You know, you got Chicago Steel pretty close, so all the USHL teams would be coming through that area. 33:36 You know, people like to see the Blackhawks, so maybe they could support a college team in the area too. 33:43 How far away is that from Chicago? 33:46 Is it like an hour or so? 33:49 Yeah, I've never been down in that area, so I don't really know. 33:54 But, and you're right, you know, in some of the stories we saw, like they were saying that, you know, a lot of D1 players have come out of Illinois, and they could be in a nice little hotbed down there if they could establish a program. 34:09 Well, they've got some AAA hockey there, like the Chicago Mission teams, and there's a couple other sponsored programs there that, Tommy Chicago and things like that, that get a lot of youth hockey going. 34:21 So, and they have big events there during the season for tournaments for those teams as well. 34:27 Well, let's hope that it happens, because if it does happen, that's definitely the end for Arizona State, isn't it? 34:34 Well, I saw something this week that they might even go out to Hockey East. 34:37 Oh boy. 34:37 Because Hockey East needs a 12th team, and who wouldn't want to go from the Northeast to Arizona every once in a while during the winter? 34:45 So, maybe we'll see that happen. 34:47 You know, if there was a program that could do that, it'd be a Pac-12 type program. 34:51 Have we heard any reciprocity for Arizona State coming here? 34:56 Not yet. 34:57 I should dig into that contract. 34:59 I've got all the Minnesota team contracts, so I should look for that one, too. 35:04 Because it would be interesting. 35:04 We might actually road trip that one, guys. 35:07 Podcast on the road? 35:09 Podcast from the mountains, dude. 35:13 Maybe they can have it right around the Waste Management open, and we could go do a couple hockey games and a golf tournament. 35:20 Oh, boy. 35:21 Don't tease me. 35:25 I don't know. 35:27 I think Illinois would be a great ad. 35:29 I'm not big on Arizona State. 35:32 That's just a long way to go. 35:34 Obviously, non-conference game every once in a while, that's great. 35:39 But Illinois would be a really good contender. 35:44 We shall see. 35:46 It's just quite a few years away, so don't get excited, folks. 35:50 Well, this weekend, we've got Notre Dame coming to town, guys. 35:53 We had an 8 p.m. 35:54 game on BTN Friday night. 35:57 I believe BTN is doing a doubleheader. 35:59 That's why it's a little later. 36:00 And then at 4.30 on Saturday on FSN, and FSN is doing it earlier just because of other sports. 36:07 They've got so many sports going on. 36:08 So people complain about times. 36:12 You shouldn't because it's all about television, Veegs, isn't it? 36:15 Yep. 36:16 These are TV times. 36:18 And this is kind of what you get these days. 36:20 So just be glad it's on. 36:22 Exactly. 36:25 Well, Hammy, are you going to predict a Notre Dame sweep? 36:27 Because I believe one of our chatters earlier said, please predict a sweep by Notre Dame so that the Gophers can win. 36:35 Well, that might be a good strategy. 36:37 I mean, I guess, you know, the only reason I can't say we're going to get swept is because we did sweep them on their rank. 36:46 It's kind of hard to feel like you're going to get swept on your rank, even though God knows if there's any team that would completely screw it up and shock you would probably be this year's team. 36:57 So, but I was told that it's going to be a split, and that prediction was made by the lady. 37:06 So, therefore, any mistakes made will be attributed to her this week. 37:15 Veeegs, have we checked into what's... 37:17 Actually, you know what? 37:17 She said they're going to sweep this weekend. 37:19 So, then there you go. 37:22 So, if they win, it's all on her, not on you. 37:25 Right. 37:26 Then she's right. 37:27 If she's wrong, then whatever. 37:30 Well, I was going to say, Veeegs, do we know what kind of crowds we're going to have this weekend? 37:33 If I recall, Notre Dame is usually a fairly good crowd because there's a lot of Notre Dame people here. 37:39 Yeah, I think that's one of the things that boosts attendance for this game is all those Notre Dame alums in the area will show up and pack a couple of sections. 37:49 So I think we're expecting good crowds. 37:51 Probably not as good as the Wisconsin series because you hyped that one up so much. 37:55 But it should be good crowds this weekend. 37:58 Again, the students can come to both games whether or not they have a Friday night package or a Saturday package. 38:04 There's not a whole lot of other sports going on this weekend, so it should be good turnouts. 38:08 No, not at all. 38:09 Will Don Lucia wear a Notre Dame jacket? 38:13 I was joking about that today around the rink. 38:15 It was not taken very kindly because I know there have been some people in the press box that have worn Notre Dame jerseys in the past, so I don't think he'll be around. 38:26 Who was bitter about that? 38:29 There are just a few people who are a little better. 38:32 But who knows what we'll see for goalies this weekend. 38:35 I thought that they would probably rotate it again. 38:39 Seemed like Motzko was leaning that way last week when saying how they wanted to do things down the stretch. 38:45 Now that they swept Ohio State, I think he's having second thoughts on that. 38:50 And if someone plays really well on Friday night, they might get a look on Saturday, too. 38:57 Who knows? 38:58 It's just... 38:59 And it also depends on which team shows up in front of them. 39:03 Yeah. 39:03 And I think they're kind of figuring things out. 39:05 They're playing a lot different than they did early in the year defensively with their structure. 39:10 I think they're sitting back if they don't have a chance to get on the four check so that they can protect their D. 39:16 We saw so many times earlier in the season where the D would get caught with bad gaps through the neutral zone. 39:23 I think this new structure kind of puts some layers against the other team so they don't get exposed that way. 39:30 So I think we'll see that this weekend. 39:33 Hamme, we got Jess in the mix with Chad saying, we need to get our fin going. 39:38 Rant has started off fairly decent this year. 39:41 He has been pretty quiet lately and so much so that he's been put on to the so-called fourth or checking line last weekend, at least on Friday. 39:53 Oh well, you know, have a little faith in the fin. 39:55 Come on, you got to. 39:57 No, I mean, I get it. 39:59 I mean, you kind of want these guys. 40:03 I don't know what happens throughout the week. 40:05 I mean, I'm not there, but if it's a matter of, you know, hey, the coach wants to send a message because the effort maybe isn't quite there in practice or he's making mistakes, not learning from them, whatever it might be. 40:18 I mean, if that's what's going on, certainly, you know, that's the good sign to, you know, a good signal to send to a freshman. 40:26 And hopefully, he either learns from it soon, this, you know, for the rest of this season, or takes it to heart and it coming in the next season. 40:33 Because I certainly think he's got the talent to be a really good player in the future. 40:37 And you want to see him continue to progress. 40:40 And I mean, quite happening that way this year. 40:44 Veegs, what are your thoughts, man? 40:45 What's going on with Ranta? 40:46 Has Motzko talked about him at all? 40:49 Not too much. 40:50 I think Motzko is really disappointed with the five-minute major he took at Penn State. 40:56 That really put the team in a big hole and cost him the game maybe as they took nine minutes of penalties. 41:02 You know, that's just a mistake that you can't have, especially when you're a player who doesn't bring like a physical game very often. 41:10 There's certainly the effort there from Ranta. 41:13 It's just this might not be the season for him, which is not all too uncommon with freshmen. 41:21 It's hard to meet those expectations that people put on you when you get drafted highly and maybe this is just too much too soon for him. 41:29 We saw that, I think, with Bristette adjusting to the North American game. 41:34 You know, Ranta is a player who has played in the USHL for a while, but it's just not coming together. 41:40 I don't think he worked with the power play this week, so he'll be a bottom six player probably for the rest of the season. 41:48 Really? 41:50 Well, I think that's just the way it's going to work out. 41:52 You know, he's not producing. 41:54 I think he's putting a lot of pressure on himself to produce when he does have the puck, and I think it's just kind of impacting his game. 42:00 So he's got a lot of talent there. 42:02 He'll get it figured out. 42:04 Probably not this year, though. 42:07 There you go. 42:08 It would be nice to get him going, kind of get that freshman thing going the rest of the year, but it's just not looking like it. 42:17 Veegs, I'm trying not to get positive about last weekend because we've been, it's just been this up-and-down roller coaster, but we saw some good things last weekend, and right now I'm trying not to get excited, but if they do well against Notre Dame this weekend, and subsequently against Arizona State, how would you be feeling going into the Big Ten tournament? 42:41 Because I would be feeling pretty good. 42:44 I felt good about this team a couple of times this year, and it's never really held true to hold serve throughout the schedule. 42:52 So, you know, I'll just take it game by game. 42:55 There's a lot of talent on the roster. 42:57 It's just whether or not they can play consistently. 43:00 They still need to get more guys playing like the freshman line. 43:04 I do see the other lines too many times have one and done opportunities on the rush or quick, you know, missed shots that clear the zone and put them back on defense. 43:13 You see the defensemen struggle to get the breakout going consistently. 43:17 There's just so many issues with this team. 43:20 It's hard to be too optimistic, but at the same time, you know, they've shown that they can beat good teams and they've shown that they can score and their power play is very effective this season. 43:30 So if they can draw some penalties, it puts them in a really good position. 43:35 Hammeh, how are you feeling about it? 43:39 I'm feeling good. 43:40 Well, there you go. 43:44 No, I mean, you know, after this last weekend, you know, it's just really difficult to really get a good feel for anything. 43:51 So, you know, I guess I'm just going to choose to go with the optimistic perspective on everything and just see how it plays out. 43:58 But, you know, if they bring the effort, good things usually happen. 44:03 And obviously, it's not quite the same team that we've had to play in the past. 44:09 So I think that, you know, good things will happen. 44:12 To me, it's more than just effort. 44:14 It's attention to detail. 44:16 And that's what's gotten this team in trouble all year, whether it's taking stick penalties in the offensive zone, being lazy with their sticks, getting them in skates, or just blowing coverages through the neutral zone. 44:29 You know, those are the things that this team should be able to do. 44:31 You know, they skate well enough, they've got enough talent. 44:35 It's there. 44:36 It's just they have to bring it more consistently. 44:39 That's right. 44:39 Effort. 44:41 Be a lazy ass. 44:43 It's more than just effort though. 44:45 It's attention to detail, which to me is more of a mental discipline thing than an effort thing. 44:52 Move your feet. 44:53 Don't be a lazy ass. 44:54 Oh, I've been hearing move your feet for a long time. 44:57 Well, I think one of the things with this team right now is you're seeing them put layers in. 45:02 And so sometimes that, if you're telling someone they got to bring more effort, when they're playing that style, effort can get you out of position. 45:11 We saw that I think with Ryan Collins a lot of times. 45:16 He'd get caught trying to give effort and it would just take him out of position and he'd get beat coming back to the net. 45:23 I think you see that sometime with the guys on the forecheck. 45:26 You know, they get a little over anxious, over zealous and they just put themselves in the wrong spot making hope plays. 45:32 Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, definitely. 45:35 Veegs, what's you're working on this week for The Athletic? 45:39 It's gonna be for next week. 45:40 Okay. 45:40 Apparently, the Minnesota Wild are doing all kinds of wheeling and dealing and they're getting a lot of focus from The Athletic this week. 45:48 Goodbye, Coyle. 45:48 So next week, yeah, Charlie Coyle's gone back to Boston. 45:52 So I'll be putting something together for next week. 45:56 Kind of about where we see this program heading in the future under Bob Motzko. 46:01 You know, what he looks for out of his offensive group, what he's looking for for his defensemen, and kind of a peek at recruiting and how he's going to build this roster. 46:09 And today, you captured audio from Coach Motzko, and we'll throw that on the end of the recorded version of the podcast. 46:16 But kind of tell us, what was he talking about today? 46:21 He talked a lot about that freshman line, about how they're the one group that brings that 45 seconds of hell. 46:27 They're the ones who can get in on the forecheck. 46:30 They're able to reload when there are turnovers, and how he needs more of that throughout the lineup. 46:36 He talked a little bit about Rem Pitlik and what's been making him so successful this season. 46:42 He's a player who's got 100 points. 46:46 I'm starting to hear that he might be back next year. 46:49 So he's a player that they can build around. 46:51 Boy, if we could get Pitlik back next year, that would be pretty nice, huh, Hamme? 46:57 It would be. 46:58 I'm counting on it. 47:01 Yeah, I mean, he's a very talented player, and I think that you could certainly make an argument for him to come back. 47:07 But you just never know when he gets to that junior year, and they've been drafted. 47:12 You just don't know how it's going to play out. 47:13 So I don't tend to fret too much over those things. 47:17 That's obviously the coach's job. 47:18 And these days, they tend to have a pretty robust pipeline. 47:22 So you might not replace them with a guy who's going to immediately produce the same amount. 47:27 But usually they're pretty well prepared for some of these guys that might leave early. 47:32 Yeah. 47:34 You just can't predict that stuff. 47:35 So we'll just have to wait and see, folks. 47:38 You guys got anything else for the podcast this week? 47:43 Bueller? 47:46 No. 47:47 Because I don't have anything else. 47:49 I think we're good, aren't we guys? 47:51 They enjoy the games this weekend. 47:52 They should be interesting. 47:54 I guess Notre Dame has been playing a little bit more aggressively this past couple of weeks with four checkers. 48:01 So you won't see that Notre Dame team sit back like some people think they do. 48:07 We'll see if Minnesota can handle that. 48:09 Because we know they didn't handle it very well with Penn State. 48:13 So that's our show for this week. 48:15 Be sure to follow Vegoe on Twitter at eVegoe and Hammy at Hammy Hockey for those of you listening live. 48:22 Stay tuned for a bit of overtime coming up next. 48:24 For the rest of you, we'll be back next week to recap the Notre Dame series and preview Arizona State coming to Mariucci for the first time. 48:33 So we'll see you next time on The GPL Podcast. 49:19 Why are you here today? 49:21 Me? 49:22 All of you. 49:23 Women canceled. 49:25 It's snowy out, like, go home. 49:27 We live in Minnesota, this is what we stand for. 49:28 I work across the street, it's easy. 49:31 We need to talk to you. 49:33 Everything feel better this week after a couple of winds? 49:36 I mean, has it changed the attitude or just kind of the way things are going, it seemed like? 49:40 It was a good weekend. 49:45 Good week of practice so far? 49:46 Yeah, well, it was, you know, the same thing. 49:49 We don't have a bye. 49:50 I mean, I'm going to repeat myself. 49:53 We're going to take Tuesday off. 49:54 We got to be off our legs here. 49:57 You know, rest is important and we jump back in it today and start moving forward and hopefully we've learned some lessons. 50:06 We've done this before. 50:07 Yeah. 50:08 And let's hope we want to learn some lessons and that we, good catch, and that we're in a way better place. 50:26 Let's hope we're in a way better place right now, how to handle things and I mean, things are ramped up right now. 50:31 I mean, this is a big series. 50:32 Our last one, important points on the line. 50:36 You got your defensive structure figured out? 50:38 You've kind of been changing some things up? 50:41 Yeah, I mean, I don't know if change is the word, but emphasizing some importance when we've been good, what we've done well, and we continue to build off of that. 51:00 I mean, you know, when we get in trouble, we do a lot of it to ourselves, and we've had plenty of lessons, hard lessons to learn that, and hopefully it's a step in the right direction. 51:15 Some re-emphasis on good structure, and when it's not there, sometimes that's what we do. 51:24 When the play is not there, we keep hanging in there to hope it's there, versus being good sound fundamentally, you know, from a defensive structure. 51:33 And I think we've taken some steps to move in a better direction with that. 51:38 I was heard you kind of talked to the wall, you on the radio last weekend, you said you felt bad for the seniors that they've worked so hard but didn't have much to show for it. 51:46 Leading Ohio State and out of Ohio State is something that kind of makes them hang their hat on. 51:49 Yeah, you know, all of a sudden, you know, we're playing for something now, you know, and you can't hide from the fact we're playing to... 52:01 I've always realized that home ice, you're playing for home ice, but what you still want to be playing your best hockey at the end of the year. 52:07 And hopefully, that's an indication that we are, you know, we've made it hard for the seniors. 52:14 Maybe that's a better way, you know, I feel bad that we've made it so hard for those guys because we're not far away from being a lot better. 52:22 And hopefully, this is the direction we're moving. 52:25 How about the play of Rem Pimplick? 52:27 How would you describe what he's been up to lately? 52:30 You know, like, he's consistent, always pounding. 52:36 You know, I think players, offensive, great offensive players go on hot streaks. 52:41 And when you're not on a hot streak, you want to be consistent. 52:43 That's what he is right now. 52:44 But you know what that means, he's hot again. 52:47 They all do. 52:48 And so what I like most is when he's not on one of those hot streaks, he's still very consistent in a big part of what we're doing offensively. 52:58 And I think that's what he's in right now, which means once we head down the stretch, he's going to heat up again. 53:04 Well, he does a lot of five on five, too, which is really critical. 53:06 Oh, he's playing against other teams' top players and kills smellies on the power play productive. 53:15 I think when you look back at what he's done this season, it's been outstanding. 53:20 Burke was honored by the Big Ten this week for the weekend he had. 53:24 We've talked in the last couple of months about the skill he has and that he'll grow into that body, but are you seeing some physical changes and some growth with him that way as well? 53:32 Yeah. 53:34 Maturing, coming all that time. 53:40 He's going to score a lot of goals here and he's teased us. 53:44 So we've all seen it and he needs to live upstairs for summer. 53:50 In the weight room. 53:51 Yeah, that's upstairs. 53:52 Yeah. 53:52 You know, and because he really has a knack around the net and he's got a great field for it, but he's gaining some strength right now. 54:01 He's gaining some confidence and showing every day. 54:04 Everybody sees it, so some great things have come from him. 54:07 We need it now too. 54:09 We continue to do what that line is doing. 54:11 That line's ground game has been so consistent all season. 54:14 What makes that tick? 54:18 They've got that ingredient where they get after it and work. 54:23 If they lose a face off in the offensive zone, they jump on pucks, they get pucks deep, and then they have a willingness to just keep reloading on top of pucks and great sticks. 54:34 They're little rink rats. 54:36 They're always kind of pesky. 54:40 They just do it the right way, and knock on it. 54:44 They do it every shift. 54:45 I mean, they just don't take shifts off. 54:49 That's a great ingredient to have. 54:51 I think at the start of the season, you said you wanted your Fords to unleash 45 seconds of hell. 54:55 Is that the kind of line that you want to have out there playing? 55:00 Yeah, they're doing it. 55:02 We need more of those lines to bring that, and that's still one of our emphasis to, you know, we want to be a puck pursuit team, and that line consistency is outstanding at it, and we're still looking for more consistency from all of our lines to play that way. 55:21 You talked about the confidence with Burke, but how about with Scott Reedy, if you notice, in practice this week after getting out of the beach game? 55:27 It was amazing. 55:27 You get a couple of goals, and he's starting to get comfortable. 55:30 And I, geez, he got that injury early in the season, and you've seen that happen, and that just sinks you behind, and he was playing catch-up, and maybe right now he's catching up to where he wants to be and where he needs to be at the right time. 55:48 And he played with confidence. 55:50 Looks like you had a full group out there for practice. 55:52 Any update on McManus and Phillips, and if you expect them this weekend? 55:56 I think we expect one of them, for sure. 56:00 I think one of them will be back for sure. 56:03 I'll tell you more Friday. 56:05 Give him a few more days. 56:08 You know, I think McManus is back for sure. 56:09 Okay. 56:11 Can you remember that first Notre Dame series and how important that was to this season? 56:15 You know, what were the keys to winning that series? 56:19 Well, it was another one of, like, we've had those feel-good weekends this year, and that was one of them where we broke the one open late. 56:28 Friday night was much closer than the score, and then Saturday was a typical game, I think, you get with Notre Dame. 56:36 It was tight and tight checking, and we got great goal-tending, but we hung in there until McLaughlin made that play late in the game. 56:48 It was a big momentum boost for us, and the negative is, a great weekend, the negative, we didn't build off it, because after that weekend, we didn't do very well for a few weeks. 57:00 So that's what I say. 57:02 I hope we learned a lesson. 57:03 Notre Dame has got a lot of speed. 57:05 At least they showed that on their rink. 57:06 Strong, too. 57:08 Strong, speed, play the game the right way. 57:16 We only got two games left in the league play. 57:18 We got nothing to hold back for. 57:20 I think you said on your radio show that you've noticed Notre Dame playing a little more aggressive this year than they have in the past. 57:26 They're four-checking hard. 57:27 They're getting in, you know, they're too hard on the puck. 57:30 And I can't say it passed. 57:31 I didn't know them real well. 57:33 I'm going by more what I hear. 57:35 But I can tell you they're playing hard, aggressive, good on special teams, big, strong defensemen, strong team. 57:45 They're a good hockey team. 57:46 What are the keys for you guys if you're playing a more aggressive team? 57:50 Big thing for us is being able to break the puck out. 57:53 If we can advance the puck out, especially if we can advance it out consistently tape to tape with our group moving up without chunking it out, that plays into our hands when we can come out of the zone. 58:12 We have to put pressure on them. 58:13 We have to win the special teams battle with Notre Dame because their games historically are very tight and that becomes all important right now. 58:23 You played both goalies last weekend. 58:25 Is that another option for this weekend? 58:27 It's always an option. 58:30 Any plan there? 58:31 Always an option. 58:33 Any decision or any plan yet? 58:35 No. 58:36 But I mean, we got options, which are good. 58:40 Both of them helped us last week. 58:43 I think both of them have helped us all year long, so we're in a good spot there. 58:47 Anything else, guys? 58:48 All right, thanks. 58:49 Thank you.