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 See. 0:32 Now, here's Hammy, Vegoe, and your host, Jupiter. 0:44 Good evening, and welcome to the GPL Podcast, episode number 153. 0:53 We got Hammy and Vego with us, but Vego's gonna join us in just a few minutes. 0:56 You know, he's trying to get the kids to bed, and you know, when you got young kids. 1:01 Hammy, it's kind of the same old thing with Vegoes. 1:03 It's the kids that are terrorizing him, and the kids that are gonna drive him nuts someday. 1:08 I think he's just trying to avoid all the drama that's gonna ensue later on in this podcast. 1:15 What drama are you talking about? 1:16 I have no idea what you mean. 1:18 Yeah, there's always drama on the GPL Podcast. 1:22 Well, we'll get to the drama later. 1:26 But let's start off by talking about the really, really good news, Hammy, and that's Gophers swept their opening Big Ten playoff series against Michigan. 1:38 The first game they started out slow, slowly come back, tie the game. 1:42 Well, win it in overtime, three to two. 1:47 Kind of a little bit of a roller coaster game in that sense. 1:49 But one thing I really liked about that game one, Hammy, was they got down, but they didn't fold. 1:57 They didn't fold at all. 1:58 They just kept banging it and they just started playing better defense. 2:01 They really kind of shut down Michigan the rest of the game. 2:04 Obviously, they shut them down and they got to win in overtime. 2:11 They don't get a shot in the first 10 minutes of the game and get down one nothing and then early second period, you're down two nothing. 2:17 You're like, yeah, this isn't going so well. 2:20 But then they kind of get the one and they kind of get themselves back in the game. 2:26 And then, of course, there's that great play with Sammy Walker and McLaughlin. 2:32 I mean, that was a great play by the freshmen and kind of went in nice fashion in overtime with a nice goal. 2:38 So, I mean, it was great to see them perform the way that they did and kind of show some resiliency and then to come out and play as well as they did early in the game on Saturday and kind of just take it to them. 2:52 And really, the game was never in doubt in that sense. 2:54 So that was great to watch them play that way. 2:57 And, you know, somebody on GPL said that it's great to be able to play a first round opponent like Michigan, you know, somebody that you consider a rival and beat them versus Alaska Anchorage, Michigan Tech or something like that. 3:13 And unfortunately, you know, as we'll get to it wasn't exactly seen by a lot of people, but in terms of the actual attendance of the game. 3:22 But nonetheless, it's nice to be able to beat a solid team. 3:27 I mean, Michigan hasn't been great this year, but they're a solid team. 3:29 And so to continue playing well, like they have been for the last, you know, six or so weeks. 3:36 And yeah, we'll get into the attendance a bit later, you know, kind of related to it. 3:41 You know, when I, you know, obviously, it kind of started when I posted that picture of empty Mariucci at the puck drop. 3:49 And one of the biggest things, you know, I understand people are upset, prices, blah, blah, blah. 3:58 So we're going to get into it now. 3:59 Well, no, no, no, no, I'm just going to just a little piece of it that you mentioned is that people are complaining about the Big Ten. 4:05 Oh, the Big Ten is terrible. 4:06 There's no rivalries. 4:07 And all I could think of was all weekend is that we could be playing Anchorage. 4:10 We could be playing Tech. 4:12 I mean, Tech hasn't been relevant in almost in 40 years, over 40 years. 4:17 Or even Bemidji State, I mean, yeah, in state school, but you know, whatever. 4:23 But you know what, we played Michigan. 4:25 And you know, those first round playoff games, we're playing a team that's going to always, I mean, it's going to be way more exciting than an Anchorage ever would have been. 4:35 Yeah, I mean, it's, I mean, do people really want to play those type of teams? 4:40 I mean, it's just boring as hell. 4:42 I mean, I mean, you look back at Michigan, we've been playing them since the, for almost 100 years, for as long as this, you know, the program's been around, back to the 20s. 4:53 This is a big league school. 4:56 Yeah, I mean, I think, well, look, we've had this conversation many times before in terms of the league. 5:02 And I remember even before the league started, when we knew there was going to be a transition to the Big Ten, I was like, look, you know, it's not going to be hitting gangbusters right out of the gate. 5:14 I mean, it takes time. 5:15 I mean, even North Dakota is a rival. 5:17 It's not like we played them two times and then it's like turned into this rivalry that we know today. 5:22 I mean, it takes time to build up those kinds of rivalries. 5:26 And I'm not saying that we're ever going to approach something like that in the Big Ten, other than maybe Wisconsin, of course. 5:33 But the fact is, is that, you know, it takes a long time to kind of build up that rivalry. 5:38 I mean, like Penn State's a perfect example. 5:39 I mean, they kicked the hell out of us, you know, a month or so ago. 5:43 They knocked us out of the playoffs, you know, last year. 5:46 You know, you remember those things. 5:48 And then so when you do get kind of back hitting on all cylinders, you want to kick the crap out of those guys. 5:53 And because they did it to you. 5:55 And so that's how those things kind of build some momentum. 5:58 And it was going to take time in the Big Ten to kind of get things rolling to that direction. 6:03 And, and so, you know, I don't think anybody should be shocked that there's been some lag. 6:09 I think it was always going to take, you know, maybe 10 years or so to kind of get things really rolling and humming, both from a Gopher fan perspective and the league perspective. 6:18 So it just, it takes time. 6:19 Well, I think one thing that's, that's been great for the league is that a new program like Penn State took it seriously and they got good very fast. 6:30 When you look at this league, you're going to always going to have teams that are down. 6:32 Michigan State's kind of down right now, but you know what? 6:35 A down Michigan State, you know, the worst quote unquote, the worst team in the league is much better than the worst team in the WCHA or the NCHC or I mean, I think from top to bottom, the Big Ten has much better quality teams than the WCHA ever did. 6:55 I mean, in the WCHA, you had your cream of the crop, you had your middle once in a while teams, and you had your bottom feeders. 7:03 There really isn't that in the Big Ten. 7:05 You have a teams. 7:06 I mean, the last weekend of the year, the last place team split with the first place team. 7:11 That's just something you didn't see in the WCHA quote unquote back in the day. 7:16 Yeah, I mean, I think obviously you can't have all winners in any league. 7:21 I don't care which league around the country right now, there's going to be have nots to some extent. 7:27 It's just a matter of whether or not those teams can rise up a little bit more consistently to become that middle of the road or even contending team for periods of time. 7:37 And I think that there's probably a lot more opportunity for that with Big Ten schools to be kind of rising up from the ashes, so to speak, than what you're going to probably see from the WCHA that you have now, or maybe even the NCHC that you have now. 7:55 I think that you'll probably see some of these teams like Michigan State have the opportunity to probably be a better team and contend, not saying they're going to sustain it, not saying that they're going to be that national contender every year, but I'm just saying that the ability to rise up, I think, is going to be a little bit more consistent from the bottom teams in the Big Ten than what you might see it somewhere else. 8:20 I mean, the only other kind of caveat to that is if they do add another team. 8:23 We've been hearing a lot about Illinois thinking about going to Division One in the next few years. 8:30 That could maybe cause the league to step back, but Vegas has kind of talked about it. 8:35 If a team comes in and follows the path that Penn State did in putting money into the program and putting a lot of effort into it, it's something that if you do add in Illinois, it's not going to be as much of a pain as it was or as it would have been if you do it the wrong way. 8:55 Well, I mean, I think it also, I mean, it sort of depends on which school it is. 8:59 I think in Illinois has a lot better opportunity to be successful even if they don't have great facilities right out of the gate or something, because they do have, you know, Chicago, nearby Chicago is a big hockey hotbed. 9:13 They do have some recruiting grounds that are within a pretty decent driving distance of where they're at. 9:20 And of course, parents love that. 9:22 Kids love that. 9:24 So they I think a school like that would have an opportunity to be pretty successful early on because they wouldn't have to necessarily rely on flying all over the countryside to try to get good players. 9:34 I think they'd have the ability to get some relatively close by. 9:38 Skyumala wants to know, what about ASU to the Big Ten? 9:41 I don't know. 9:44 Do you want those thugs? 9:47 After all, they like were thugging it up a couple of weeks ago. 9:50 You know, I'd be a lot of fans would be happy with taking the trip down there. 9:55 That's where I'm with you. 9:55 Obviously, they need to get a building first. 9:57 And they're still quite a ways away from that until they get a building. 10:01 I really just don't think anything's going to happen. 10:03 I mean, it's they play in a place smaller than most of our high school arenas right now, or at least a lot of high school arenas. 10:10 I mean, we'll just have to see how they build things up down there. 10:14 I mean, I mean, it's a pretty nice thing to dangle in front of a kid, you know, hey, come play hockey down here. 10:25 You can go to practice and then go, you know, hit some balls on the golf course. 10:30 I mean, really, the only place you can do that is maybe what, Huntsville? 10:35 Yeah, well, exactly. 10:37 Well, I mean, you know, I do think that the, I just think the Big Ten is going to continue to get more and more entertaining. 10:44 I'm not this year, you know, it's kind of been a weird year because, I mean, other than Ohio State, nobody has sort of been like consistently good. 10:53 It's like they've shown, you know, every team, I think, to some extent has shown, you know, some signs of being really good and then it kind of fall off. 11:02 Maybe, you know, like the Gophers were more up and down early in the season and they kind of played much better the last six to, you know, to eight weeks or so. 11:09 So, I mean, I think that that's kind of what we've seen this year. 11:14 There just hasn't been that consistency with the teams. 11:17 But I think that we'll see some of these teams find that, you know, and I also think that it's going to depend on how recruiting changes with some of the recruiting roles we've talked about in the past. 11:27 I think if some of these age limits occur, I think you'll see probably a little bit more consistency because teams won't have to take as many gambles on young kids and watch them not pan out. 11:39 And I think that that tends to plague some of the bigger name schools a little bit more than kind of your typical middle size to smaller schools who maybe don't have that kind of name recognition to the same level. 11:54 So I think some of that's going to play into it as well. 11:57 Skamal reminding us that they are starting to build a 5,000 seat arena break running this fall, but that's still probably two seasons away at least. 12:06 And I'm thinking if Illinois does decide, was it the next couple of months, maybe next summer, if Illinois decides to create a team within the next few years before that ASU building gets online, Big Ten is not going to take ASU. 12:23 They're just going to wait for Illinois. 12:24 They'll have eight teams. 12:25 They'll be good to go. 12:27 And ASU will have to go to somewhere like, what was it? 12:31 They were thinking about even Hockey East? 12:33 Yeah, that would be quite the road trips for them. 12:36 That's for sure. 12:37 It would be. 12:40 I mean, I'm just, we're still hoping we get reciprocity and Minnesota's going down there next year or within the next couple of years because I think it'd be a fun road trip if you can get tickets into that, what, 200-seat arena or whatever the numbers are. 12:53 I don't know what the size is right now, but just not sure. 12:59 But kind of the basis though is that they played Michigan this weekend. 13:03 I mean, once in a while, the Gophers, if they finished a little down in the league or another team was down, we would play a decent team in the first round of WCHA playoffs. 13:14 Back in the day, I remember in 2002, they ended up playing North Dakota because North Dakota was down then. 13:20 But I think, all in all, I really like how the Big Ten will shape up when it comes to this playoffs. 13:26 There's going to be no gimmies off the bat. 13:29 We saw that last year. 13:30 They just got railroaded in Penn State. 13:33 And this year, we had Michigan come to town. 13:36 We didn't have Michigan Tech. 13:37 We didn't have Anchorage. 13:38 We didn't have Bemidji. 13:41 It was an exciting team. 13:42 Or at least it's a historical exciting team that really shouldn't have had home ice. 13:48 I mean, it was really down to that last night. 13:51 Did we see that Michigan had dropped down so far because of how close everybody was? 13:58 I think it'll be entertaining as we move forward to see the fact that these home ice games, they're going to matter more and I think during the season teams will, because when you have a final five or final four or whatever, it's a neutral ice event, so to speak. 14:21 Maybe the, yeah, you had the seedings and all that kind of stuff. 14:25 But when you can add additional home games, obviously that has more value and I think it'll add to some of the competition level throughout the season. 14:36 Some of those things will probably start to mean more because you know that that could equal more home playoff games and everybody loves that, especially, well, if you can sell tickets. 14:47 Oh, did I say that? 14:50 We can go there later, but that's going to matter more. 14:56 We could be waiting a while with his kids, who knows? 14:58 You never know. 14:59 Okay, so Gophers win, come back on Friday night after being down 2-0, win 3-2 in overtime, great plays. 15:06 Obviously, you talk about the Walker pass to McLaughlin. 15:09 That was pretty sweet. 15:11 Oh, man. 15:12 Nice no-look. 15:13 It was a no-looks backhand sauce. 15:15 Oh, my goodness. 15:16 That was pretty sweet. 15:17 Looking forward to seeing that for the next couple of years, at least. 15:20 And even, you know, McLaughlin had to actually kind of turn his body a little bit to be able to get his stick on that, you know. 15:27 Yeah, he had to get a good shooting angle at it. 15:29 I mean, it was not an easy pass to handle either, just from his angle. 15:35 Yeah, it wasn't a good shooting angle, for sure, when he first came off his stick, so he had to do a good job to position himself. 15:42 So they come back and, you know, they get the McManus goal in overtime. 15:46 You know, a great set up by Pitlick, and what a great end of the season Pitlick's having. 15:51 Come back Saturday afternoon, and like you said earlier, they kind of dominated Michigan for the most, pretty much most of the game. 16:00 I mean, it was a 4-1 victory. 16:01 They were up 4-0. 16:02 I mean, Michigan did get the later goal to ruin the shutout or whatever. 16:06 Maybe it was 3-0. 16:07 I can't even remember anymore. 16:08 It's all blank. 16:08 No, it was 4, I believe. 16:10 I don't remember correctly, 4-0. 16:12 But they came back strong that second night. 16:14 And one thing we had seen for most of the year until recently is that kind of, hey, they play one good game, they play one bad game. 16:21 But it's almost like they got that bad game out in the first 20, 25 minutes of the Friday evening game. 16:27 And then just the rest of the weekend, they just kind of rolled. 16:30 Yeah, well, it definitely wasn't pretty that first 20-some-odd minutes. 16:33 I mean, when you don't get a shot on goal in the first 10 minutes of the game, especially if that's your first playoff game, you start to cringe and think, oh, this could be a long weekend. 16:43 But fortunately, that proved to be inaccurate. 16:47 And during the rest of the Big Ten, we had Penn State going to three games against Wisconsin, actually went to overtime on Sunday afternoon and took out Wisconsin. 16:57 What a shame. 16:58 Obviously, we don't like the Badgers, but that was kind of rooting for the Badgers because I just kind of wanted to see them put Penn State in their place, but they couldn't do it. 17:10 And then you had Michigan State, boy, what happened to Michigan State? 17:15 I mean, they went into to South Bend and they didn't even score a goal on the weekend. 17:22 Yeah, well, I mean, I think it kind of goes to show how, you know, that one line they were driven by that line for much the entire year. 17:28 And if they're not hitting, you know, on all cylinders with that line, it's kind of a rough go of it for them. 17:34 They just didn't have the scoring depth outside of that. 17:36 And I think that's what you kind of saw this last weekend, is that line gets shut down, the team gets shut down. 17:42 So and that's surprising because, you know, as we've talked about in the past, you know, Minnesota can, we've seen Minnesota shut down individual players many times, but they just get killed by those lines. 17:55 You know, the CCM line at Michigan and, you know, the KHL line at Michigan State just this season. 18:03 It looks like Notre Dame had a game plan to shut that line down, and that's all they needed to do. 18:09 Yeah, well, I mean, those lines have those nicknames and those, you know, for a reason, right? 18:14 I mean, it's not just the Gophers that struggle to shut them down. 18:17 So obviously a lot of teams do. 18:19 And, you know, when you have that home ice advantage, obviously you have that last change and the ability to kind of do matchups. 18:27 And I'm sure that played a role with them. 18:29 Obviously I didn't see any of the games, but, you know, I'm sure that that played a role in that particular series, giving them the ability to match up. 18:39 Well, I was hoping Veegs would be on with us by now, but he's still dealing with the kid terrors and so. 18:48 Yikes. 18:48 Just open up the can of worms, dude. 18:50 Rip the bandaid off. 18:52 Rip the bandaid off. 18:53 Well, I see Big Mistake is in the Mixler chat. 18:56 He's probably waiting for us to get to the subject. 18:59 And in case you don't know, this past weekend, which I'm not sure how you don't if you're a Gopher fan, that Friday Night Game 3-2 victory over Michigan sold 1,835 tickets. 19:16 Saturday afternoon, they sold 1,911 tickets. 19:21 I'm guessing the actual attendance was probably very close to those numbers, Hammy, when you have to sell tickets that week. 19:29 Typically, you're probably not going to have a bunch of no-shows because we probably found most of the no-shows are your season ticket holders and whatnot. 19:37 But I got to Mariucci late Friday afternoon and I was being told by a few people that they had sold 1,300 tickets pre-sale. 19:51 And I'm like, oh boy, this could get interesting. 19:55 So, you know, they obviously ended up selling 1,800, whatever. 19:58 Well, I think I hear Veegs on the other line there. 20:01 But before we get to Veegs, let's hear from our sponsor. 20:06 vintagemnhockey.com is a proud sponsor of the GPL Podcast. 20:11 Well, what is Vintage MN Hockey? 20:14 Well, it's kind of the place to get all of your history of Minnesota hockey from the pros to the minors, the collegiate teams to even the high school teams. 20:24 All information about any of those teams can be found on vintagemnhockey.com. 20:29 They also have great interviews with some historical Minnesota hockey figures like John Mayessich and Lou Nanny, Glenn Sanmore, some of the greats of Minnesota hockey. 20:38 So make sure you check out those interviews. 20:40 It's a really great thing. 20:41 But as I always say, I think my favorite part is the store. 20:46 You can buy a custom historical jersey from the Gophers or the Bulldogs or some of your favorite high school teams. 20:52 And if you do make a purchase, just use the code GPL Podcast, all one word, and you'll get 10% off your order. 20:59 So make sure you visit vintagemnhockey.com and follow them on Twitter at VintageMNHockey. 21:06 Oh, perfect timing. 21:08 Oh, perfect timing. 21:15 Zed and Eric Vegoe music. 21:16 We need the... 21:18 Well, anyway, we've kind of gone over all the games, Veegs, and we'll get back to it in a second. 21:24 I'm just introducing you. 21:24 I'm here for the good stuff. 21:25 Yeah, we're here for the good stuff. 21:29 So what happened is I decided to take a little panorama shot of Mariucci at puck drop. 21:35 Right before the puck drop, I just kind of do a scan right before the thing drops. 21:39 Posted it on the internet, and a little bit later, I'm getting yelled at by Pat McAuletty. 21:47 So let's just say that picture ended up going fairly viral this past weekend. 21:54 And I don't think the U was very happy about it, but I'm just showing a picture. 22:00 It's all I'm doing, just showing what you... 22:01 Well, let's mention that there were other media people that took their own pictures, I believe, too. 22:07 Other people, Jess Meyers did, probably about the same time I did. 22:10 I know that a few others did as well. 22:15 Right. 22:15 My point is that it's not like you were doing something that others weren't. 22:19 Yeah. 22:20 You know what I mean? 22:22 I don't want you to take all the heat as well. 22:24 Oh, no. 22:24 I don't care. 22:25 That's just fine. 22:27 It turns out that that tweet ended up having 190,000 views, and it sort of got a lot of people talking, and it wasn't positive, Vegoe. 22:38 It was not positive at all, and that's kind of what Pat Melchiletti was going after me about. 22:43 He's like, hey, you're showing the University in a negative light. 22:46 I'm like, I'm just showing a picture of what's going on here. 22:51 But there's also that kind of thing. 22:52 It's like, we need to wake up the you. 22:56 And I know you spoke to Mr. 22:57 Coyle Friday night. 23:01 How is he feeling about all this? 23:02 Because that, it was just embarrassing. 23:06 Well, I think part of what everybody needs to understand here is that it wasn't the University charging $60 to $100 for these tickets. 23:16 They made this series affordable, you know, $25, which is below average for a ticket price for a premier team that they play against. 23:26 For the season ticket holders. 23:27 For a season ticket holder. 23:29 Yes. 23:30 And they soundly voiced their opinion that they did not care to pay that money to go see that series. 23:39 And that's what that picture showed, is that a lot of the people who called themselves Gopher fans did not show up to support their team. 23:50 And Bob Otskow sent his players out to salute the fans on Saturday night. 23:55 And he said after the game, he's like, we're not playing for the people who aren't here. 24:01 We're playing for the people who are here. 24:05 So we like to say this is a big fan base. 24:09 They didn't come out to show it last weekend. 24:12 Well, you and I did talk about this a little bit, Veegs, how I just think a lot of things came together here. 24:19 I mean, like it's happened with the re-seating and all that other stuff, other problems that are kind of related. 24:25 This past weekend just didn't turn out very well because in the past, obviously the old WCHA days five years ago, they would include that first series with the season ticket base. 24:37 So that kind of solves some of those problems against those type of games. 24:42 This year, those weren't included. 24:46 Another issue that we even saw on Twitter though was the season ticket holders said, we didn't get the email telling us that these tickets were available. 24:58 The people I've spoke to about that say that's kind of one of those myths where they get data on who gets those emails and who opens them, and a lot of the season ticket holders saw at least one email, opened it, looked at it. 25:17 I don't think that's an excuse. 25:18 I don't think that's a valid argument. 25:20 If you're someone who follows the program enough to have season tickets or have Gopher points or whatever and be in the email system, you knew that they were playing a playoff series last weekend, right? 25:32 I mean, it's pretty hard not to know that they had games this weekend. 25:36 You might not have known the times, but you knew that they were going to be playing that weekend. 25:42 So I don't think that's an argument. 25:44 I think when people talk about the state high school hockey tournament taking away fans, I think they're kind of different audiences. 25:49 We've seen the Gophers go head to head with the state hockey tournament pretty much every year for the last 70 years or whatever. 25:56 Yes, exactly. 25:58 And what I was just saying is I did see people on Twitter saying, we never got an email. 26:02 And I'm thinking those are the people who unsubscribed to those emails, which people get annoyed when because if you are on the university email, you do get a lot of, hey, buy this, buy that, try this package, do this. 26:18 I think a lot of people take themselves off those lists, not realizing that when these type of things happen, they're not going to get an email because that's not just something where they opened it and didn't click. 26:30 They decided to unsubscribe to it. 26:32 I think those are people who weren't interested in buying tickets. 26:35 If they were interested, they would have pursued. 26:38 I heard Blue Nanny on Danbrero this week say he called the ticket office to make sure he could get his tickets for this weekend. 26:45 If you're a season ticket holder and you wanted to see the games, sure, it wasn't automatic, but it wasn't that hard either. 26:52 From what I understand, if you did just log into your account, the tickets were there waiting for you. 27:00 Yep, they're waiting right there for you to purchase. 27:06 So what is this then, Vakes? 27:11 I mean, that's thousands of fans that were voicing their anger at either the Big Ten, the university, the whole system or whatever. 27:23 The fact that they had less than 2,000 fans show up for both games is historic for this team. 27:32 I don't think it's anger, though, to be honest with you. 27:34 I just think it's indifference. 27:36 I don't think it's anger. 27:37 If you're anger, you're continually bitching about something. 27:41 And we had that several years ago. 27:44 But to me now, for some of them, it's more indifference than anger. 27:47 I mean, maybe the anger part of it is price and some of that. 27:51 Maybe that I could get. 27:52 But as far as, you know, we use anger, it's a very broad term. 27:56 And I think we used to use it in the sense that, oh, they're mad that the league stuff has changed. 28:00 But I think a lot of that is either those people have either shuffled off and you don't hear from them anymore, or they're just sort of indifferent because they know it's not going to change. 28:08 So I don't know if it's necessarily anger. 28:11 At least that's not the way I would describe it. 28:15 I noticed East Cider saying in the Mixo Chat, I'll just read his paragraph here, like to hear you guys' thoughts on how local media, when discussing Gopher Hockey this week, were clueless about certain things. 28:26 Brandon Molesky basically saying Gophers chose to leave the Big Ten. 28:32 Devlin Goff on Score Commenting on the podcast that Big Ten Tourney has only been played in Detroit. 28:37 It just amazes me. 28:39 So he's basically saying there's just not a lot of knowledge going on in the local media, and I would agree with that. 28:45 I did listen to, I think it was Molesky and Dave Schwartz a couple days ago, and when they mentioned it was a $30 ticket price, I'm like, oh, geez, that's expensive. 28:57 I'm like, well, you guys don't even know. 28:58 That's the very low end of Gopher ticket prices. 29:02 So it seems like the media, the bigger media, not us, is kind of clueless about what has been going on these last 10 years with ticket prices, with now donations, with the whole switch and not knowing that they really had no choice with the switch. 29:19 It just seems like there's just not a lot of knowledge in what's going on over there at the U. 29:25 Well, I believe a lot of that is because they're not focused on it the way that we are or fans on GPL are or whatever. 29:34 I think that there's sort of a lot of them are on the fringe. 29:38 They cover other sports. 29:40 They don't have necessarily, I think that's part of it. 29:43 I'll agree that there's a certain amount of ignorance. 29:47 I listened to that same K-Fan that you did with Tenenbee and Schwartz. 29:56 I didn't think that it was quite as bad as a few people thought, at least in terms of some of the things that were being said. 30:03 There were certain things that I thought were rather uneducated. 30:10 For me, I think that there was too much blame being put on conference when I think the reality is, and I said this on GPL in that one thread that I created, I just feel that a lot of it, since the school really underestimated what they needed to do to maintain their fan base at the end of the day. 30:32 They kind of acted like it was just going to be business as usual when they changed conferences. 30:38 Really the reality is they should have done a much better job of understanding that they have to give back to the fans. 30:46 They want the fans to be there with them through this transition, then you kind of have to be able to give something back to them, make the fan experience better, do a better job with pricing tickets. 30:55 Don't gouge fans when they're not playing those same rivals like they used to. 31:01 You have to give back, and they just didn't do that enough. 31:04 They were, in my opinion, a little bit arrogant, and now it's kind of come to roost to a certain degree, and now it's up to them. 31:12 If they're embarrassed by this last weekend, good. 31:15 I totally disagree with Pat Micheletti and the mentality. 31:18 You shouldn't be pointing out some of these negatives. 31:21 To me, if you don't point out some of these things, they never change. 31:25 There's no pressure to change anything. 31:28 I have a job review every year, right? 31:30 My boss isn't going to go in there and just kiss my ass and say how great I am. 31:33 He's going to tell me, hey, you might need to do this a little better next year or whatever. 31:37 A hockey coach does that with his players. 31:39 I mean, the fans should expect the best out of this program, not just on the ice, but also what they get from the school and the stands and fan experience. 31:49 I don't think there's anything wrong with pointing out some of these flaws and expecting better. 31:54 Veegs, can we get you on Beyond the Pond this Saturday? 31:57 Maybe you can straighten some of these people out or what really is going on? 32:02 Yeah, I don't know if they're interested in having that, but I think one of the things with Pat Nicoletti is that he needs to talk to people in his own house. 32:10 We're outsiders, we're the media, but what's interesting to me is that you have people like Lou Nanny, Jordan Leopold going out on the airwaves and criticizing their program. 32:21 They're people who played for the M. 32:24 They've invested a lot of their life into supporting Gopher Hockey, and they're not doing any favors out there in the media with their friends and their group techs, talking about what an embarrassment in black eye is. 32:38 If Pat wants to get after people, those are the types of people to get after and get on the same page. 32:45 Because it is a bad look for the university, and I don't think it's something that Mark Coyle created. 32:49 I think it was well before him. 32:52 Norbert Teague obviously really damaged the program and it's almost hard to fathom how much damage he did because they've lost so many season ticket holders. 33:03 They went from the waiting list down to nothing. 33:06 Season ticket holders are now under 5,000. 33:08 And this is what happens when you irritate your base. 33:15 And it's not just hockey. 33:17 Like he said or says, right now, I think the U's focus is on football and how much bleeding they have going over there with the fans. 33:26 Yeah, I talked to some people this week and right now, the athletic department is very focused on hockey because there's a chance that they could be hosting a game here in the championship if Penn State is somehow able to get out of their semi and the Gophers take care of Notre Dame. 33:42 We've got a conference championship game at Mariucci here in a couple days. 33:47 So, they're really focused on not recreating what happened last weekend. 33:52 And, you know, they should probably be looking at football because I think they're down to about 15,000 season tickets there too. 34:00 Well, one thing that Hammeh did this week is he went out in GPL and started a new thread. 34:04 And you want something constructive, Hammeh. 34:08 What are some of these solutions that you kind of put out there? 34:11 And we've heard a lot of things. 34:13 But I like how you started her, Fred, like, give us some constructive things that could actually be done. 34:20 Well, I mean, look, I'm not sitting in the athletic department saying what is or isn't a legitimate opportunity because I'm not facing some of the financial pressures and whatever. 34:31 So I don't know what is necessarily legitimate opportunities for change. 34:38 I do, like I said earlier, I do feel like they should have. 34:41 I mean, even if it was Norwood Teague and it's in the past, the fact is, is that they have opportunities moving forward to do things. 34:48 And I don't care what happened three, four years ago because I'm more concerned about the present and the future. 34:55 And I think that if they should find opportunities to give more back to the fans, I think ticket prices are ridiculous. 35:03 They've been gouging fans for years, even before all the seat licenses and all these other crap that they, I mean, they were always on the high end in college hockey. 35:11 And yeah, they could get away with it when they were playing, you know, rivals or teams that had fan bases that were based, you know, in town like St. 35:19 Cloud or Duluth fans or whatever that could drive 20 minutes to get to the game and pick up some of the extra tickets. 35:25 But that's not really the case anymore. 35:29 And they just need to do a better job of kind of getting that engagement back. 35:32 And I'm not saying they have to kiss people's asses. 35:36 You know, the ones that have sort of thrown in the towel because of conference changes, they're probably gone anyway. 35:42 You know, I mean, so but the ones that still want to be a part of things, I like the fan outreach. 35:47 I like the community outreach they did a little bit of this year. 35:50 I like that mentality. 35:52 But if we're to be honest, it's winning is what counts. 35:55 And if these last month or two of Gopher Hockey is any indication of what we have to look forward to in the next two, three, four seasons, I think that winning will take care of a lot of the ill. 36:08 But I do believe that they can't continue to take advantage of the fans in the way that they have. 36:14 Well, Veegs, we know that winning would help. 36:16 They have been playing really well lately and they seem to be kind of building and building and building here. 36:22 But you've seen a lot of the suggestions people have been putting out this week, ticket prices and more things for the season ticket holders, blah, blah, blah. 36:32 But what is really realistic that you will do this year? 36:36 I mean, has it gotten to the point where they will lower ticket prices and maybe give some concessions on the season ticket holder prices? 36:43 Or is this just something where they're just going to keep doing it? 36:48 I mean, it's getting to the point here where obviously the season ticket holders have gone from $7,300 to under $5,000. 36:54 I'm anticipating if they don't change their scheme of pricing and donations or whatever combination of the two and lower them, they could go down even more this coming season. 37:08 They could go down even more for season ticket holders if they don't do anything. 37:12 I think that's one of the reasons why you haven't seen the renewal notice come out yet for hockey like it has in the past. 37:19 Usually, the season ticket renewal comes out right around the end of the regular season. 37:24 They haven't done that yet. 37:26 And I think it's because they're evaluating, you know, what are they going to do with pricing? 37:31 Because they've tried to make some concessions here and there, and it's been pretty minor. 37:36 You know, they've dropped tickets by $100 in a section. 37:40 They've expanded some of the low Zone 4 seating, but that just hasn't had an impact. 37:46 And you almost wonder, you know, is this one of those cases where the program is bleeding out and they're just putting a little bandaid on it when they really need to do stitches and a transfusion? 37:58 Because that's where we're at right now. 38:00 You know, they've lost so many fans because of their slow reaction to this. 38:06 I think they probably need to do something drastic because even if they start winning again, if this team were to go on a run somehow and get to the Frozen Four, I don't think you'd see fans come back right away. 38:18 So it's up to the administration to go, do we want a hockey program that brings in $6 million in revenue? 38:25 Or is this a program we're okay taking three and a half or four? 38:29 Well, that's to me exactly what I think is they've been trying to, the nickel and dime approach as far as trying to make things better. 38:37 And it hasn't done a lick of good for the most part. 38:40 And they have to be, they have to wake up and do some more dramatic things. 38:45 I mean, they can't just say, oh, we'll give back a little, we'll do a little, we'll do a little. 38:49 It's like, you have to do more than that because I think the fans have already shown that they're not willing to bite at things. 38:56 If it's just a little bit of an enticement that you have to go a lot further than that. 38:59 And, you know, the old adage of you have to spend money to make money. 39:05 I mean, maybe that's kind of the way they have to do it. 39:07 Spend money by giving money back, I suppose, in a sense to the fans by making a certain amount of tickets more affordable. 39:14 And I don't know. 39:16 I mean, I just think it'd be great to find different ways to get more young people engaged in games and getting more kind of your, you know, blue collar guy that's not necessarily going to be shelling out tons of money all the time to go to games. 39:31 I mean, those kinds of people, I think, have been kind of edged out, you know, for the, as they used to say, the corpies and the white collar, the more wealthy fans. 39:41 That's been unfortunate. 39:43 Well, even your student demographics have changed a little bit. 39:46 You know, the hardcore fans for the students were the ones that were there this last weekend. 39:51 And the rest of that section, you know, they could have gotten in for 10 bucks. 39:55 They weren't willing to do that to go to the games. 39:58 And the thing is, they weren't willing to show up during the season either. 40:00 It got to the point where, was it in December or sometime there, they just started saying, hey, if you have a ticket to either night, just come, we'll let you in. 40:11 And they still couldn't fill the student section when technically they had enough to fill the student section almost twice. 40:17 Because I believe one night was sold out and the other night was within a couple hundred or so from selling out this year, Vig. 40:23 Yeah, right around the Ferris State Series, they decided anyone who's got a student ticket to either night could come to both nights. 40:30 So then basically your students have gotten in for $5 a game. 40:36 Well, sometimes I think that part of the problem is that you communicate that after the fact, and that message doesn't necessarily get out to people the way that you would want them to. 40:48 I mean, I'm not trying to make excuses for it, but sometimes I think that when you have that kind of communication up front right at the beginning of the year, people understand that better make better use of it than it is if you kind of make a switch midstream and then hope that people get that message or get that mentality. 41:05 I mean, one of the things with the student tickets is they were all mobile this year, so people could just look on their mobile device and see that they had that offer. 41:14 So I think it's a little bit different with the students. 41:17 So what I will say, I don't know about you guys, but it actually kind of sounded pretty loud, all things considered. 41:24 It's, you know, like when I had heard the the rouser and whatever, I was kind of like surprised given the fact that, you know, there wasn't this huge attendance. 41:31 I'm like, it's kind of loud there for that amount of people. 41:34 So at least the people that were there were loud. 41:37 The people seem just as loud as a normal game. 41:39 Yeah, well, maybe that's something right. 41:42 One thing about the student section is that one thing that's frustrated me in the past five, ten years is that I don't think the student section is really allowed to be a student section anymore. 41:53 I don't know. 41:54 I heard a lot of F the Badgers during that series and I don't think there was any pushback from that. 41:59 Yeah, but you know what? 42:01 Those rabid so-called fans are not allowed to sit in the first three rows of the student section. 42:07 Only the well-behaved kids that agree not to say any bad words are allowed to sit in that section. 42:16 And I just think that's BS. 42:17 I mean, leave it open. 42:19 Let them be students. 42:20 I mean, come on. 42:21 I mean, obviously F the Gopher or F the Badgers, F whoever is ridiculous. 42:27 They shouldn't be doing that. 42:28 But I would love to see these kids come running down to get those first rows of seats, but they can't because they know only the special kids can sit there. 42:38 I just don't see how somebody in the first three rows, if you can't sit in the first three rows, you're not going to show up. 42:44 Is that what you think? 42:45 I'm not saying that. 42:46 I'm just saying just, you know, you go to Duluth, you go somewhere else. 42:50 Those kids are right on the glass banging at the banging on it, you know, yelling at the other, the opponents team. 42:56 It's like, no, Marietje, we want to back off. 42:58 Let's have the saw, you know, the nice kids up front. 43:01 And, you know, the rest of you can just, you could stay back here towards the back of the bus. 43:06 I mean, come on, let them, let them have some fun there. 43:09 I mean, we do know the university is kind of the no fun police. 43:13 They love policing this stuff. 43:14 And that's exactly what they've done those first three rows. 43:17 Only the kids who promise not to swear or do bad things or say any of the, you know, if they say somebody sucks, they're not allowed to stay on there. 43:24 I mean, come on. 43:28 I just don't think that's that big of an issue. 43:30 If I was a student still, that would not prevent me from going and acting however I wanted to act as a 21-year-old, 20-year-old. 43:37 Well, I'm just saying it's just another one of those things. 43:42 That's because Vegoe is a boy scout. 43:48 So, I mean, what are the other solutions, V? 43:51 I mean, really, I think if the U wants to do something, they really have to cut prices. 43:58 I mean, that's one of the things people are talking about the most. 44:00 I mean, we hear the people complain about the Big Ten, and boy, I'm just really sick of that. 44:04 I mean, as Hammy and I talked about before here, I think top to bottom, the Big Ten is way better than the WCHA ever was top to bottom. 44:13 We also talked about, you know what? 44:14 We saw Michigan in here for our first weekend series. 44:19 We were used to seeing somebody like an Anchorage, a Tech, a Bemidji State. 44:23 Yes, Bemidji State is an in-school or in-state school. 44:26 But you know what? 44:27 I don't care about playing Bemidji State. 44:28 You know what? 44:28 I care about playing Michigan. 44:30 And I think that's something we need to start taking advantage of here. 44:33 I mean, that's a historic rivalry against Michigan. 44:38 Yeah, it should be a historic rivalry. 44:40 And even when the tickets are 25, 30 bucks, the fans aren't showing up. 44:44 So I don't think it's all about pricing. 44:46 I think there's other things at stake here with what's causing fans not to show up. 44:52 So I don't think hammering pricing is always the way. 44:55 Do I think tickets could be a little bit cheaper? 44:57 Probably. 44:59 But at the same time, when they've done that, the fans haven't shown up either. 45:03 That's my point. 45:06 Skymala brings up something as well as what about the band? 45:10 And we've actually complained about this last few years. 45:12 It has become more of a wild atmosphere. 45:16 A lot of piped in music. 45:18 And we do hear a lot of people complaining. 45:20 Let's hear the band more. 45:21 We know they play five songs, but let's hear the band more. 45:25 And really these last 10 years, the band has been slowly squished out about playing between stoppages. 45:34 And that's kind of the vintage college atmosphere is the band. 45:39 I'm a band guy too. 45:40 I like hearing the band. 45:41 You know, the band has been at pretty much every game this year, except for, I think, one or two. 45:45 So that's been an effort. 45:48 I give a lot of credit to the alumni band for filling in when they can. 45:52 But I think that's just something that the game day ops have been struggling with as they try to figure out what do the fans want. 45:59 And I'm sure the people who give feedback and their fan surveys after the game can let them know loudly that they would like more band, and hopefully they'll get the message. 46:10 Because I think that's part of the wild Gopher difference, is a college atmosphere versus pro atmosphere. 46:17 So I want to go back to the pricing thing. 46:21 And from an individual game standpoint, I would agree that maybe it's not about the individual game, but I think it's more the big picture effect that if you're gouging fans and having them spend more money, when they do have these opportunities to maybe spend more, they're less likely to do it because you've been gouging them all season long with other tickets being priced a certain amount. 46:50 They're just less likely to buy, I think. 46:53 You can cheapen it and make it cheaper, but it's like, hey, I've already been paying through the nose for all these other tickets throughout the season. 47:02 Now you want me to pay more. 47:03 I just feel like it adds up. 47:06 It might not be the game itself. 47:08 It might not be, oh, hey, they're cheaper this game, so then why aren't the fans showing them? 47:11 I think it's a matter of, well, if you're gouging them all season long and you're giving them a bad taste in their mouth, they're probably going to be less likely, even if they're cheaper, you're not necessarily going to buy them. 47:22 I don't know that's just the one game thing that I think it adds up. 47:28 The one thing with the Big Ten quarterfinal game is that money does go to the conference. 47:32 It doesn't go to the school. 47:33 I think Skyu Ma La asked that earlier in the show. 47:38 So they negotiated this price, which was actually below your average game price for the season. 47:48 They're trying. 47:49 Yes. 47:50 I mean, Mark Coyle is there Friday and Saturday night to take it in. 47:54 He cares. 47:55 They're trying. 47:55 They did negotiate. 47:57 Big Ten Network was there to televise the game. 48:00 That was the only game that was televised for free. 48:03 That's because of Minnesota pushing for that. 48:06 Exactly. 48:08 And we know that that's going to be the case for TV because they might not be filling the stands, but TV, the Minnesota market rules the most. 48:20 They know that most eyes will be watching any game when Minnesota is playing. 48:24 And no matter if Minnesota went to Penn State last week and if they went to Notre Dame, wherever they were going to go, TV was going to follow Minnesota, at least the broadcast. 48:34 And that's just the way it goes. 48:38 So we do have that going for us. 48:40 Because like you said, the other games were, what, BigTen Plus or something like that, Beaks? 48:46 Yep, so you have to pay a separate subscription fee to get those. 48:52 You know, I love people, they blame Barry over there in Wisconsin for the Big Ten. 48:59 I don't have a big problem with the Big Ten. 49:01 If anyone, you want to pick on somebody, it's really Norwood Teague we should really be throwing under the bus, isn't it? 49:07 Yes. 49:09 I mean, he was never over there. 49:11 No, he never was. 49:13 He didn't care about the hockey program. 49:14 He just wanted to get that $6 million for his budget. 49:17 He did. 49:18 Did you ever see him over there? 49:20 I personally never saw him there. 49:22 No, but I saw Joel there still all the time. 49:25 Joel is still there a lot. 49:26 And Coyle is there a lot of times. 49:29 He's too busy playing grab-ass. 49:32 You're probably right. 49:33 But yes, Coyle is there all the time. 49:35 And he comes down to the media scrum after the game a lot of times. 49:39 And he'll sit there and listen to what the players have to say, even when Justin Cluse is dropping an S-bomb for all of us to hear. 49:47 He's always there. 49:48 And like you said, Maturi is there. 49:49 Maturi is at the football games a lot as well, too. 49:51 Murth Turi is still very involved at the UEE. 49:53 He loves his school. 49:57 I just think it's just a huge, complicated issue. 50:00 And you're not going to be able to keep the people who complain about, oh, you should go back to the WCHE. 50:07 Those are just uninformed people who just don't get it. 50:09 But I think if they do make some concessions with prices this year, Veegs, I think it will help. 50:16 I do just wonder if Mark is going to get the point that something drastic has to happen. 50:20 You know, people aren't going to be okay with just like a 50 or $100 cut on their prices. 50:26 It's going to take something more dramatic if they want to see an improvement in people in the building. 50:33 I'm with you. 50:34 Because it's obvious that, you know, their most loyal fans who have stuck with the Big Ten here for what, six years, wouldn't buy a playoff series. 50:44 Something has to give. 50:46 Yeah. 50:48 We're almost in a Mexican standoff situation right now with the fans and the administration in the Big Ten. 50:54 And you know what? 50:56 That's all the fans can really do right now. 50:58 I mean, they've had forums where the fans have gone and given their feedback. 51:03 And really, it doesn't sound like they've been listened to because really it's about the almighty dollar. 51:08 So what the fans decided maybe, you know, this is our way of telling you we're not happy by not showing up. 51:14 I mean, that's really all they can do, isn't it? 51:19 That's exactly what they can do. 51:21 They continue to fill out their surveys. 51:23 They continue to not buy tickets when they don't come. 51:26 You know, they can get messages to the fan advisory board. 51:29 You know, this is an administration that's had a lot of issues to deal with. 51:32 When you look at what's happened to the football and basketball program over the last three years, you know, that's been a big headache to deal with. 51:39 The turnover in the AD position from Teague to Beth Getz here to Mark Coyle, you know, that took a lot of work. 51:47 They've had their scandals here on campus getting a new football coach. 51:51 You know, there's a lot going on. 51:53 Jerry Kill, the Athletes Village, there's just this library list of things that had to get taken care of. 52:00 And to hear that everybody right now is focused on what they can do about hockey has got to be encouraging for a hockey fan that they're taking a hard look at this. 52:09 They're evaluating what they can do for pricing, and we'll see what they come up with. 52:13 I just hope Pat McAleady doesn't stay mad at me for very long. 52:17 Oh, he won't. 52:18 He'll be fine next time you see him. 52:20 I hope so because he was not happy. 52:22 He was even red in the face yelling at me, you should delete that tweet. 52:25 I'm like, sorry, dude. 52:27 And I hope it ends up being good because it's obviously bringing a lot of attention to you. 52:32 And it's embarrassing. 52:32 And hopefully it does kind of kick them in the pants and saying, hey, the fans are telling you, they're speaking to you here. 52:39 It's time to do something. 52:40 Like you said, it's time to do something maybe drastic, Veegs. 52:43 We'll see. 52:45 That's the key. 52:45 You know what I mean? 52:46 It's up to you to decide whether or not that picture and what happened last weekend, if it remains some kind of an embarrassment to them, or can they turn that around and use it as a positive to make some really good changes? 53:02 Hey, maybe you look back and you say that one series, that's what got things headed in a certain direction for the positive. 53:09 It's up to them to decide how that's going to shake out. 53:14 We can only hope so. 53:16 Obviously, we can't answer all these questions because we don't know what the answers are going to be. 53:19 It's just a combination of a lot of things. 53:22 But what we do know this weekend is, boy, we've got some interesting match-ups. 53:28 We've got Penn State who could beat any team any night going to Ohio State. 53:33 Then we've got our Gophers heading to South Bend to play Notre Dame. 53:38 We don't know how this is all going to end up. 53:40 Gophers could win and they could go to Ohio State, or we could have that match back at Mariucci if Penn State could come here. 53:46 There's a lot of things going on, but it's an exciting weekend coming up. 53:51 We've got three teams that probably end their season if they lose. 53:55 There's a lot at stake for those three teams in Ohio State. 53:58 They've been off. 53:59 They don't really have much to play for. 54:01 They can't really improve their pairwise standing with a win or a loss. 54:06 Could be an interesting weekend. 54:08 Everybody's in a tight matchup. 54:10 I'm really interested to see how Minnesota plays Notre Dame. 54:14 I know that Monsko has really talked a lot this week about playing smart hockey and having a smart forecheck. 54:21 I think so many people are thinking that this new structure he's put in restricts the Gophers from being aggressive, but the key is if guys are in position, they have the green light to forecheck and they have the green light to create turnovers. 54:37 Against Notre Dame, I think that's going to be really important because they have a lot of young forwards who could get caught in transition if the Gophers are disciplined with their forecheck. 54:46 And Scamile reminds us too that Notre Dame still has an outside shot of getting in without winning the tournament. 54:54 They could win against Minnesota and we'll see how they do from there, but they still have an outside shot, don't they? 55:02 Yeah, they're going to need tournaments to go their way and I think they need a win here. 55:09 Yeah, we know that they don't want any upsides, is essentially what you're saying. 55:12 Right. 55:14 But you got Penn State going into Columbus and that's a Sunday game because some of these arenas had some conflicts and that's one issue we're having with this Big Ten tournament, is that there are conflicts with some teams. 55:28 And even if, I believe if Ohio State wins against Penn State, the championship game would be on Sunday from what I heard, which would be maybe even a Sunday afternoon. 55:41 So that would be interesting because isn't the selection show that Sunday? 55:45 Would they have to kind of delay that? 55:46 Because I heard that even the championship, maybe someone quoted something wrong, but that would be interesting to play that kind of championship game on a Sunday, Veegs. 55:55 Yeah, it would be. 55:56 And who knows what kind of crowd Ohio State is going to get for their games. 56:01 I know they do their tickets a little bit differently than Minnesota does, but they do kind of like this flex pass for tickets, kind of like a Netflix for tickets. 56:10 So it'll be interesting to see if they get fans rallying around them. 56:14 But I'm really pushing for that Penn State Minnesota championship game. 56:18 I think that would be a lot of fun. 56:20 Penn State is the team that Minnesota should hate. 56:23 They're the team that took away the WCHA. 56:26 They took away the WCHA Final Five. 56:30 And that should be a bit of a rivalry there. 56:31 And Ham, you've kind of been wanting that as well. 56:33 You kind of say, bring it on, don't you? 56:37 Well, yeah. 56:37 I mean, I feel like, hey, if you're going to start to build up some of these things, these are the kinds of teams you want to face. 56:48 When they do something that's going to knock you out for a year or whatever, or if they have your number for a bit, you kind of want to rise up and turn the tide and beat them. 56:57 So, yeah, I would welcome the opportunity to play them. 57:02 And I would just, well, I think either way, and I talked about this before the show started, Veegs, is that we really encouraged the end of the season here. 57:13 The Gophers could lose this weekend. 57:14 Their season could be over. 57:15 But really, the end of the season, the team started playing how Moscow wants them to play. 57:21 It maybe took longer than he thought, or who knows, maybe it didn't. 57:24 But this team has been slowly building up and not doing this roller coaster thing. 57:29 And even in that Michigan series, they were down a little bit in the first 20, 25 minutes, but then they just kept going up the entire weekend after that. 57:39 They didn't let it bother them. 57:41 So Hameen and I are very pleased the way the season is ending right now. 57:47 Well, and I think even when they're behind, they stick to what's made them successful the last couple months. 57:53 They don't start taking crazy chances. 57:55 They don't get careless trying to force plays to happen. 57:59 They stick to what they're supposed to do. 58:01 And I think that's been one of the biggest changes. 58:04 Last year, that was what the coaches were emphasizing. 58:07 Stick to our system, play within it, play smart, and the players just refuse to do it. 58:13 And for whatever reason, they have bought in this year. 58:16 And when you hear the players talk after the game, they talk about the chatter on the bench. 58:21 Stick to it, stick to it, we'll come back. 58:25 We've got the talent to score when we get chances. 58:27 The way we'll get chances is by sticking to our system. 58:30 And if you look at the second half, the two leading scorers in college hockey, Rem Pitlick and Tyler Sheehy, top power play, it's the Gophers. 58:39 This is a dangerous team. 58:42 But Minnesota is a dangerous team. 58:44 They know they can beat Notre Dame, but Notre Dame had an excellent weekend against Michigan State. 58:51 They shut down the entire team. 58:52 They didn't score a goal all weekend, Michigan State, which I was surprising, but they found a way to shut that team down, even though it's a one-line team. 59:01 I was surprised that they didn't give up a goal on the weekend. 59:05 Well, they've got a great goaltender. 59:07 They've got a great top pair of defensemen in Nardella and Peak. 59:10 And I think the GPS line will see those two quite a bit. 59:14 Maybe even Walker and McLaughlin will see them quite a bit. 59:17 But the key, I think, for Minnesota is to stick to their game plan and force turnovers and get in transition that way and hopefully get on the power play a little bit. 59:27 Let's hope so. 59:29 Because it could be an interesting few weeks because Minnesota wins this weekend. 59:34 We know that Minnesota has to win completely all out if they want to make the tournament. 59:38 Who knows what happens after that? 59:40 Just make the tournament. 59:41 But I think just one of the positives is like someone's been, Jess is saying, Minnesota is peaking at the right time. 59:48 We have frozen four champs. 59:50 We have at least two lines that can score. 59:54 Just a lot of positives here. 59:55 I'm really liking that compared to this up and down crap we saw for a majority of the season, Veegs. 1:00:04 I mean, I don't think it's gone completely. 1:00:07 It does show up every once in a while. 1:00:09 We saw it against Irrigation State when they had the lead. 1:00:12 We saw it against Michigan during the second period on Saturday where they let their foot off the gas. 1:00:16 But I think the key is even when they let their foot off the gas, they don't start getting reckless, and they're able to find their game again. 1:00:23 I think that's because they've got some good play down the middle. 1:00:26 Right now, I think Tommy Novak's probably playing the best hockey of his career. 1:00:31 He gets a lot of flak, social media, GPL. 1:00:35 He is a whipping boy. 1:00:36 I think I'm on Novak Island all by myself because I think he's such an important driver for this team. 1:00:42 And he's playing possessed right now. 1:00:45 He is winning more pucks than I think I've ever seen him win. 1:00:49 The Frozen 4 Champs is telling us the selection show is quite a bit later on Sunday this year. 1:00:54 Instead of the 10 or 11 a.m., it's been in the past. 1:00:56 It's going to be a 5.30 local time here that Sunday night on the 24th. 1:01:02 So if they do have to play Sunday Championship game at Ohio State, it looks like it could probably be an afternoon game, if that's how it all washes out. 1:01:13 I'm not really quite sure. 1:01:13 I just heard that this week. 1:01:14 So, Motay is saying, skill and poised is Novak. 1:01:18 So, I think Motay is with you too, Viveks. 1:01:22 Yeah, I think we didn't expect that out of him this year. 1:01:26 When he's been on the point on the power play, it took him a little while to figure out how much time he could have on the puck and where his escape routes were, but he's got that figured out now and they're clicking. 1:01:37 They're scoring from both sides on the off-links, both sides are on the net. 1:01:42 Maybe we'll see Novak pump one in from the top of the umbrella this weekend. 1:01:47 So, let's hear it, Hammeh. 1:01:49 How do you think the Gophers are going to do? 1:01:50 Can they go in the single game against Notre Dame and sneak out with a win? 1:01:56 Yeah, I have the feeling that I just have a good feeling about this weekend. 1:01:59 Of course, that's probably the case of death. 1:02:02 More importantly, what does the girlfriend think? 1:02:07 I guess she just texted me, she went to bed, so I can't get an answer from her. 1:02:14 But I think it's going to be a close game. 1:02:15 I think the Gophers are going to win by a goal. 1:02:17 I just have a good feeling that it's going to be a good, solid game, competitive, but the Gophers will pull it out sometime in the third period. 1:02:26 What do you think, Veegs? 1:02:29 I think they're going to pull it out. 1:02:30 I think Notre Dame is too young up front to play that discipline and style that we've seen from them in the past. 1:02:38 They've been a little bit more aggressive this year, and I think that's going to play into the way the Gophers are playing right now. 1:02:44 The only way to hedge that is if Matt Robson has one of his off nights. 1:02:47 Don't expect it to happen, but when he's off, pucks have a tendency to slip through him, so we'll see how focused he is. 1:02:55 It helps that it's just a one-game series, I think. 1:02:57 Yes, I agree. 1:02:59 I'm thinking Gophers 4-1. 1:03:02 Ooh. 1:03:03 Yeah, Gophers 4-1. 1:03:04 The empty net goal to get number four as Notre Dame gets desperate at the end of the game. 1:03:08 4-1 victory for the Gophers as they move into the championship game. 1:03:13 I'm kind of with you, Veegs. 1:03:15 I would like to see him play Penn State. 1:03:18 I'd love that. 1:03:18 I think it would be a great opportunity for the fans, for the program, everything. 1:03:24 And then we're going to get that final game at Mariucci this year. 1:03:28 Which I'd kind of like to see. 1:03:29 And then we'll see if the fans show up. 1:03:31 Because if they're real fans, I'm thinking if it's the cheaper prices, you need to show up. 1:03:38 You've got to show up because this team is coming together. 1:03:41 And if you're a season ticket holder, it's probably going to be a similar price, 25 bucks. 1:03:47 I would be shocked if it's more. 1:03:50 I think they're going to try the best they can to keep it affordable for people. 1:03:55 We'll see what happens. 1:03:56 You saw what Western Michigan did this weekend for their playoff game. 1:04:00 They had their coach buy students some tickets and I think somebody else from their administration bought tickets. 1:04:08 We'll see what happens. 1:04:09 I'd like to see the U get creative and do something similar. 1:04:13 Just hope they get the chance. 1:04:14 Maybe we'll see a tailgate like they did for the opening game of the year. 1:04:18 There's a lot of stuff that they could do to liven up the atmosphere. 1:04:23 It should be warmer by then, so weather hopefully won't be an excuse. 1:04:25 Bring it on. 1:04:26 Let's get this thing going. 1:04:29 These players have put their heart into this team. 1:04:32 They've finally started to be molded by Monsko. 1:04:36 I think it's to the point where the players feel like the fans are letting them down. 1:04:40 The fans aren't mad at the players. 1:04:41 They're mad at the administration. 1:04:44 I hope the players know that. 1:04:46 But you know what? 1:04:47 When you look up into the crowd and you don't see much going on, that's got to weigh on the players somewhat, doesn't it, Veegs? 1:04:53 I think it bothered them maybe a little bit earlier in the year when the crowds weren't so great. 1:04:59 I think they've gotten over it now. 1:05:00 I don't think they care about it as much because they're playing so well. 1:05:04 I think if they were playing poorly, it would probably impact them even more. 1:05:08 But I think they've got some steely mental resolve right now. 1:05:13 They've shown that they're not going to fold and they're focused on what they're doing, which is kind of fun to watch. 1:05:19 We haven't seen that for a while. 1:05:21 So what are you working on with the Athletic right now, Veegs? 1:05:25 Well, we're in a little bit of a holding pattern until we see what happens with the playoffs here. 1:05:29 So we'll see. 1:05:31 It's TBD. 1:05:32 Nothing this week. 1:05:32 You're not going to write about the attendance? 1:05:35 I already wrote about the attendance way back in part one of my series, so I was ahead of the curve on that one. 1:05:41 You've been doing, you've been way ahead of the curve for years. 1:05:43 I mean, you've been doing it for GPL for years, but season tickets and scan tickets and all that. 1:05:51 So we know you're good for it. 1:05:53 Yeah, hopefully, you know, when they get to the end of this conference championship season, we'll do an update on all the scan counts and put it on GPL. 1:06:02 If anyone hasn't read the three part series, I think it's pretty good stuff. 1:06:06 It's all out there. 1:06:08 I am interested to see how this recruiting season wraps up. 1:06:12 We saw a report out of Tri-City that Mike Castor is maybe going to play next year for the storm and might not be coming to campus. 1:06:24 So that's a little bit new. 1:06:25 He said on the Youth Hockey Hub podcast early in January that he thought he was coming. 1:06:30 Now he's kind of surwonged his way back into saying now he might be playing another year of juniors, which I think would be great. 1:06:37 You know, Moscow's only had three 18-year-olds when he was at St. 1:06:41 Cloud, now Brinkman at Minnesota. 1:06:44 I think he'd prefer his defenseman to be 19-20 before they play college hockey. 1:06:48 It can only help play an extra year junior. 1:06:52 Yes, it can help, I think. 1:06:54 We'll just have to wait and see. 1:06:56 Well, that's our show for this week. 1:06:57 Be sure to follow Vegoe on Twitter at eVegoe and Hammy Hockey, for those of you listening live, we'll have a bit of overtime coming up next. 1:07:06 But for the rest of you, we'll be back next week to recap the Big Ten semifinals and preview the Big Ten Championship game. 1:07:13 We'll see you next time on the GPL Podcast.