0:08 This is The GPL Podcast, sponsored by Vintage Minnesota Hockey, your exclusive source for throwback Minnesota jerseys. 0:17 Visit vintagemnhockey.com. 0:32 Now, here's Hammy, Vegoe, and your host, Jupiter. 0:44 Good evening, and welcome to The GPL Podcast, episode number 154. 0:53 Well, season's over, boys. 0:58 It ended this past Saturday night in overtime against the dreaded, well, not really dreaded, but against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. 1:09 And of course, we can't have the Gopher season end without some kind of controversy, Veegs. 1:14 And we definitely had controversy Saturday night. 1:21 Yeah, I mean, just two rough calls. 1:25 The one on McManus was about 314 to go, where he puts his stick in the wrong spot, and the Guardian player makes a meal of it. 1:35 Yeah, you know, it's where you put your stick sometimes. 1:39 And Momquist made a meal of it, gets called. 1:43 You know, you can say to McManus, probably shouldn't put your stick there. 1:47 It doesn't get called if you don't put your stick there. 1:50 But it's a tough call in a game where not much was called throughout. 1:54 And then the overtime, she gets aggressive with somebody lifting the stick before the puck gets there and loses, that guy loses his balance. 2:04 And the ref decides to call that 30 seconds into overtime. 2:08 And you can say that, yes, they can kill a penalty that's called against them, but they didn't and their season's over. 2:17 Hammeh, I don't think I've ever seen Sheehee that animated in four years at the U. 2:25 He was pissed off as he should be. 2:28 Well, it's gotta be pretty rough to end your college career sitting in the penalty box, watching your team lose because of a pretty cheap call. 2:36 I'm sure it's pretty bitter for him. 2:38 I wouldn't blame him for reacting that way. 2:40 I mean, it's kinda like we talked about before the podcast started. 2:44 I mean, it's one thing when you get penalized for when the opponent's got a scoring chance and you're taking it away in overtime because you trip him or because you do something that takes away that scoring chance. 2:57 You can live with getting a penalty call there or if there's something blatant like a bad check from behind or a knee to knee or something terrible like that, you can live with those. 3:07 But the ticky-tack kind of things, I mean, in this case, it wasn't really even a penalty. 3:11 But even if you're in a call stick, things like that, I mean, that's in overtime at center ice, that's just not the time that you call that kind of crap. 3:19 And so it's no doubt that a lot of people have very good reasons to be upset about it. 3:25 And it didn't help Vs that they only got one goal in the game. 3:31 Offense was tough. 3:33 That's the other argument is that they had plenty of possession. 3:36 They even had some rush chances. 3:39 They could have generated some more offense. 3:41 It looked like there was a little bit of nervousness when they had those opportunities. 3:45 You know, they didn't want to get the shots blocked. 3:48 Maybe they held on to it too quickly. 3:49 Didn't quite go for shots through traffic and rebounds quite enough. 3:55 But when you play a game like that where it's 1-1, any call can make the difference. 4:01 And I think it's frustrating too to see these people say, oh, the people who are supporting the Gophers are just whining that a call went against them. 4:09 It's because it's one of those ticky-tack calls that's just a stick lift. 4:13 You know, I think we've criticized players this season. 4:15 A stick lift is not a penalty, is it? 4:19 Well, you could say it's a hook before the puck is there. 4:22 But he didn't hit the body, did he? 4:27 Did he? 4:28 I mean... 4:29 He's using his stick, but at the same point, it's like when there's agreed-us calls, when you are taking away scoring chances, when you are hitting people from behind, when you are tripping people, I think we've all criticized the players taking those penalties over the season. 4:44 You know, this is at a totally different level. 4:47 And that's what the frustration comes from. 4:50 And it took away a really good scoring chance for Minnesota. 4:54 Because they had an odd man rush once that puck got past that player. 4:59 What was it, two or three on one? 5:03 It was... 5:05 Well, I mean, it's like, look, I understand why some fans, especially of other teams, wouldn't say it's, you know, fans whining or whatever, Gopher fans. 5:15 Well, I mean, for me, it's like I said earlier, you know, before the podcast, if you're watching sports long enough, your team is going to have some of those crappy calls go in their favor, and sometimes they're going to go against you. 5:28 It sucks when they go against you, but you kind of have to just deal with it. 5:32 I mean, you have, you know, these judgment calls being made, and sometimes it just doesn't go in your favor, and it sucks when you lose that way, especially when you're a senior sitting in the penalty box. 5:44 I think we can all relate to what that feeling would be like. 5:49 But I don't know. 5:51 I think the reason why I'm able to look at it that way is I don't see this, I didn't see this team as going, you know, to any deep run. 5:58 I didn't think that there was the consistency factor there to be able to beat good teams like week after week. 6:05 I mean, maybe in the league, you know, that's possible when you're familiar with teams, but, you know, some of these other teams that you're not as familiar with are good. 6:12 I guess that's how I look at it. 6:14 It sucks, but I also was like, yeah, I didn't really expect them to go very far after that. 6:19 So just kind of have to deal with the bad stuff and move on. 6:24 And what's even maybe a little bit more frustrating though, Veegs, is that the scenario ended up happening that if Minnesota would have won the game, they would have hosted Penn State this coming Saturday. 6:36 Yeah, and I think it would have been a good opportunity for the school to make some decisions that would have improved the crowd, and taken away that black eye that we saw in the series with Michigan where less than 2,000 people purchased tickets. 6:53 I think you would have seen all hands on deck effort by the university to try to get as many people in the rink as possible. 7:01 I know that they had plans to do certain things to do that, like Notre Dame is doing this weekend, but it's unfortunate. 7:09 I don't know how deep a run this team could have made, but they do have a very strong special teams coach. 7:18 They performed on the special teams all second half. 7:21 They had very strong goaltending. 7:23 Maybe if they would have gotten a few more power play chances against Notre Dame, they'd have a different result. 7:28 There was just really nothing called most of the game. 7:32 Just a couple of penalties on each side, at least in regulation. 7:36 And that's why it's so surprising to see those calls on McManus and Sheehy at the end of the game. 7:42 Walker had a chance earlier where he got a stick in the hands. 7:46 There was at least a couple others that came up. 7:49 And you know what? 7:50 Playoff game? 7:51 Most people are happy with seeing players play, and the rest not decide the game. 7:58 Yeah, and that's probably what's even worse. 8:01 You kind of let things go during the game. 8:03 The game's fairly cleanly played, and then some kind of odd decisions by the referee late in the game in an overtime. 8:09 And that just amps up the frustration even more. 8:13 I mean, we have no idea if Minnesota would have won if those two things didn't happen, but when you see a goal directly in an overtime right after a penalty starts, it's like, well, thanks for screwing us, refs. 8:28 And I can understand why people are so mad. 8:29 And then you see actually, we see the idiot fans from other schools saying, oh, you guys deserve it, finally happened to you. 8:36 But then there's quite a few people saying, what the hell was that? 8:42 I mean, there was just nothing there. 8:45 I'm sorry, there wasn't. 8:46 I didn't see a hook. 8:48 I saw a stick check when the player was about to play a puck. 8:52 And Veegs, we played hockey for a long time together. 8:55 My stick was lifted so many times, it's not even funny. 9:00 Yeah, as long as the stick doesn't get in the hands, usually you're okay there, especially with the timing there, where it's real quick. 9:07 That's a hockey play. 9:09 So I don't know what the referee saw, and he was not in the mood to explain himself or have the Big Ten force an explanation. 9:16 Of course. 9:17 And so that's difficult to see. 9:19 Even Mike Gensel, who has not been a fan of the program this year, took a shot at the rest, kind of good old boys network, will surely be working games in April. 9:30 I did find that very entertaining because, you know, we know Gensel is pissed at the school, the administration, but we know he's still a Gopher too, and he knows that his boys just got screwed. 9:44 Because, you know, he still supports those boys, and probably all the players on the team, but he's just not happy with the rest. 9:51 It was kind of nice to have a little frustration there, like we did. 9:58 Well, now what, guys? 10:01 We've got Robson. 10:02 He decided to sign. 10:03 He's gone. 10:04 We saw that coming from a long way away. 10:08 We discussed it back on the February 20th podcast. 10:13 Robson's gone. 10:14 That's why they're bringing in three goalies, blah, blah, blah. 10:16 He signs with the Wild this week, Hammy. 10:18 Probably a smart thing for him to do, isn't it? 10:22 Yeah. 10:22 I mean, I don't think it was, like you said, it wasn't really a great shock to anybody. 10:26 I mean, he kind of came in a little bit older. 10:30 Goalies, you have a limited opportunity as it is because it's not like there's an abundance of goalie jobs. 10:38 You only have basically two on a bench, unlike forwards or defense. 10:43 So if you have that opportunity, you want to make the most of it. 10:47 And certainly he played well enough to really earn that. 10:53 I thought that he was one of the things that we looked at coming into the year that we felt pretty positive about. 10:58 And I think he played pretty solidly. 11:01 Maybe he didn't always play at the top of his game, but he certainly was a good guy for us. 11:07 He'll be missed, but I think that sometimes you bring in some fresh faces and create some competition, and we'll see what happens. 11:16 Vig, it's kind of an odd thing that The Wild did here, because they sort of wasted a year of his contract, didn't they, by bringing him in? 11:26 Yeah, what they did is by keeping him on the NHL roster for the rest of the year, they'll burn a year of his entry level contract, which I think is the reason they got him. 11:38 Not only is the goaltending pipeline a little dry for The Wild, burning that year gives him a chance to get an RFA contract sooner, so I think that's a big thing for him. 11:51 The entry level contracts are pretty much the same anywhere you go. 11:55 And so staying on the roster, he gets a little bit extra money this year, and if he does do well in Iowa next year and then gets his RFA deal figured out, he could be making money sooner. 12:08 I think it's hard to fault a goalie when they see a situation like that to take it. 12:14 It was pretty obvious he wanted to pursue that option this year, and it's a great deal for him. 12:18 And now we'll see what the Gophers have in LaFontaine and Mo for next year. 12:27 I know people are nervous about it, but Mo's fairly good, and LaFontaine played college already. 12:36 We'll just have to wait and see. 12:38 Do you think that Robson, if the Wild aren't exactly playing great right now, if they end up doing bad here, is there a chance he gets into a game if they end up getting eliminated here? 12:49 I wouldn't be surprised if they're eliminated for him to get a game, just to get him that experience and let him see what it's all about. 12:56 Dubnyak's played a ton of games this year, so it wouldn't be a shame to see him get some rest either. 13:02 Yeah, especially if they're out of it. 13:04 There's no reason not to, especially if they're already paying him this year. 13:08 Hey, throw him in there. 13:11 Somebody didn't like my comment when I said that on Twitter, but right now, the Wild are going downhill fast, unfortunately. 13:19 They're putting themselves out of contention. 13:23 So we've got Robson signed, and boy, Veegs, does it look like Rem's going to sign too? 13:31 Yeah, that's kind of what I've been hearing. 13:33 I've been trying to reach out to as many people as I can right now to figure out what's going on. 13:39 I think he's going back and forth with Nashville a little bit, trying to finalize the deals. 13:44 I'm sure he would love to have a year of his contract burned as well, but we'll see what happens there. 13:51 Nashville's not exactly a clear path to the NHL. 13:54 They have a lot of good prospects, but at the same time, I'm sure the Predators don't want to get burned by Lucy, another player who returns to college, so they're going to weigh that. 14:03 But I feel like if he was coming back, we would have heard more confirmation by now than we've heard. 14:10 And Moscow's tone at the availability this week was, in the future, when he has a better relationship with players that he brings in, maybe he gets that extra year out of certain guys, and he kind of promoted the fact that staying in college isn't a bad thing. 14:27 Going to the NHL is going to be tough for everybody, but he sounded kind of resigned that it was going to happen. 14:32 He said, you never know, there's a chance, because it hasn't already happened, that he'd come back, but it sounds like he's going to be on his way. 14:41 Well, I'll tell you one thing, Hammeh, if he goes now, it's much better now than, let's say September, or right before the NHL season. 14:50 Yeah, you never like to have those situations where it's a last-minute decision. 14:53 You kind of like to be able to give the coaches, you know, and nowadays, of course, they usually have guys waiting in the wings just in case, because back in the day, they used to get burned by those late summer decisions in July and August, and so nowadays, they over recruit just so they have that extra guy or two to fill in if they absolutely have to. 15:14 So, you know, as far as, you know, I'm always on the fence on some of these guys that are juniors that still, because people just assume, well, he's going to go free agent, you know, if he goes back for his senior year. 15:28 But the fact is, is that these guys in the REM situation where they start college right away, you know, they have to wait until August, you know, if they don't have it like the Justin Schultz thing where you can withdraw from school and then you become a free agent July 1st where all the other NHL actual, you know, veteran players become free agents. 15:51 It's just a little different in these situations. 15:52 So I'm not really sure I'd totally buy into the, you know, if they might lose him if they don't sign him this year. 15:59 But you can't blame him if he goes. 16:03 You know, he had a pretty good year. 16:04 I certainly think if he returns, he'd be a Hobie, you know, Hobie candidate. 16:09 I don't know how important that is or isn't to him. 16:11 And obviously he had a father that, you know, played in NHL and didn't, you know, and did play, excuse me, you know, four years. 16:20 So it was one of those things. 16:22 Different time then as well. 16:24 I agree. 16:25 I mean, yeah, I'm just saying, but you just never know how much that does or doesn't play a role and how important it is for a player, you know, to get that. 16:32 Of course, nowadays, like you said, they also can come back and get their education wherever the hell they want and get paid for. 16:38 So, you know, different ways of looking at it. 16:42 It's nice to get it over with and whatever. 16:45 And like Vig said, I don't know that he's going to be some immediate NHL guy either. 16:48 So do you really want to do that or not? 16:51 I guess there's different ways of looking at it. 16:53 And Vig, it doesn't really happen all that often that, you know, at least these days that a senior comes back just to get to that free agency. 17:03 Yeah, I don't think that's a common route these days. 17:06 The NHL teams generally, if they get the sense they're going to lose the player, make it they're worth their while to commit and join their program. 17:14 So I think it's going to be a hard sell the other way. 17:19 And the other thing, and I said this on GPL and obviously it's a case by case basis, but sometimes when guys do end up coming back for their senior year, you don't see that level of production and performance that you kind of expect. 17:32 And I think some of it's because they already mentally kind of had one foot out the door before their senior year started. 17:40 They almost signed and then, no, I'm not going to sign. 17:42 And then they play that season maybe a little bit tentatively because they don't want to get injured or they don't, you know what I mean? 17:49 So sometimes we've seen examples over the years where a guy comes back and has a great senior year than the other guys that really didn't have quite the senior year expected. 17:59 And I think a lot of times it's because almost mentally they've already checked out a little bit and they don't have quite that same energy for their senior year. 18:09 So you're saying that they get too far ahead of ourselves here, but we don't know what this team is going to look like next year. 18:15 We don't. 18:15 You know, they've got new goalies. 18:18 They're going to lose Sheehy, Gates, Novak off the power play unit. 18:23 Things are going to look very different next year. 18:25 So if he's in a good position right now and you never know what's going to happen next year, maybe it is the right thing, as Hammy is saying. 18:34 There you go. 18:36 I mean, it's just a it's a different world these days. 18:41 And like you kind of mentioned, Hammy, it's a lot easier for them to come back and go to school, you know, when it's on their own terms. 18:50 I mean, isn't Paul Martin's coming back to go to school, isn't he? 18:54 Well, yeah, we saw it this year with Bickel and Tony coming back. 19:00 And you know, you can't blame these guys for doing that if that opportunity is there and you get paid for you. 19:06 Why the heck not? 19:07 You know, so it does, you know, I guess it's nice for the players that do commit here that they can feel confident that if, hey, if I do leave early, I can always come back. 19:17 So it's good and bad in a sense. 19:19 It's good to get because it helps players feel confident about coming here. 19:22 But sometimes it might mean that they feel like they can leave early because they always have that kind of insurance at the end of the day. 19:29 Yeah, it'll be interesting to see. 19:33 It'll be an interesting few weeks because I mean, at least you anticipating it would be in the next week or so we hear about REM. 19:39 Yeah, I would think it would be before the end of the NHL season. 19:43 Yeah. 19:45 There you go, folks. 19:49 We'll see. 19:49 Hopefully it comes back. 19:52 I mean, you never know. 19:53 I mean, he hasn't signed yet already. 19:55 It's just that's kind of the vibe I'm getting from people I talk to. 20:00 Yeah. 20:01 You usually don't start negotiating with someone without the intention of following through at some point. 20:09 And like you said, the deals are pretty standard deals. 20:12 So it's not like they're arguing over contract and things like that. 20:17 It's not a huge battle like it might have been in the years past. 20:22 And there's not much risk on the NHL teams to sign these guys either. 20:26 I wrote about this in my article at The Athletic last year. 20:30 When the CBA changed, there aren't big signing bonuses being handed out to these players. 20:36 I think you look back, Jeff Tafe made more money getting signed than Justin Cluse has so far playing professional hockey. 20:47 Yeah. 20:48 I remember when he had guys like Banach. 20:51 I think what their signing bonuses were close to a million bucks or something like that. 20:54 I can't remember what it was, but it was quite a chunk of change. 20:58 Nowadays, it's just not quite the same. 21:01 They can sign guys very cheaply. 21:03 Back in the day, they really had to be a lot more careful and a lot more sure that they were signing the guy at the right time. 21:11 They were pretty confident in his abilities. 21:13 Nowadays, it's sort of like chump change. 21:17 A player to make a million dollars has to play two years in the NHL. 21:21 They have to make it and they have to stick. 21:25 It's not a big risk for the NHL teams to sign these guys. 21:29 They only have 50 contracts. 21:31 If a player isn't working out, they're going to move on. 21:34 I think that's one of the reasons why Tyler Sheehy hasn't signed yet with The Wild. 21:38 It's The Wild. 21:39 They're at 48 contracts right now. 21:41 They only have two more. 21:42 They're trying to decide who else is out there that they want to sign. 21:46 Is it Jimmy Schult? 21:47 Are they going to make a trade? 21:49 Is there another player they want to sign? 21:51 So I think that cautions NHL teams and ramps up the pressure on guys who are signing these deals. 21:58 Didn't The Wild just get their rush in though? 22:01 Yep, they did. 22:02 That's a big deal. 22:04 I mean, this isn't wild. 22:06 That's another contract. 22:06 I mean, this isn't wild podcast, but I noticed that. 22:10 I mean, that's been kind of a concern the last few years, hasn't it? 22:15 How they were going to get him. 22:19 They're still waiting on Kaprasov. 22:21 Yeah, it's a different one. 22:22 Oh, it's a different Russian? 22:23 Oh, darn it. 22:23 Yeah, they have about three or four Russians down as they try to entice Kaprasov to eventually come over. 22:30 I see. 22:32 Somebody else. 22:33 That's why we're not a wild podcast right there. 22:35 Yeah, I know. 22:39 Wild, dumbest name in sports, according to Jess. 22:42 Yeah. 22:44 I saw Russian. 22:44 I saw the K. 22:45 I couldn't remember who it was. 22:46 Damn it. 22:48 It's a hard sport. 22:50 No, it's just I don't pay enough attention. 22:53 Well, what's next? 22:55 Well, we'll find out what the boys think. 22:57 But first, let's hear from our sponsor. 23:01 vintagemnhockey.com is a proud sponsor of The GPL Podcast. 23:06 Well, what is Vintage MN Hockey? 23:08 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. 23:18 All information about any of those teams can be found on vintagemnhockey.com. 23:23 They also have great interviews with some historical Minnesota hockey figures like John Mayessich and Lou Nani, Glen Sanmore, some of the greats of Minnesota hockey. 23:33 So make sure you check out those interviews. 23:34 It's a really great thing. 23:36 But as I always say, I think my favorite part is the store. 23:40 The store, you can buy a custom historical jersey from the Gophers or the Bulldogs or some of your favorite high school teams. 23:47 And if you do make a purchase, just use the code GPL Podcast, all one word, and you'll get 10% off your order. 23:54 So make sure you visit vintagemnhockey.com and follow them on Twitter at VintageMNHockey. 24:02 All right, boys. 24:02 Well, now we've come to the point of the season where it's what's next. 24:09 And I saw one question by Dan Hogan on Twitter a couple hours ago. 24:14 He says, do you think the coaches are looking at uncommitted slash flipping guys for next year? 24:20 Or are going to scout existing crop of commits to decide who is ready to come in the off season? 24:26 Do you think fans will be surprised if we were last year with Brinkman and Burke? 24:34 Because those guys are kind of late ads. 24:36 Do we see any surprises right now? 24:38 I mean, right now it's pretty quiet, isn't it? 24:42 Anyone? 24:45 Well, I mean, look, I think there's no doubt that they're going to continue to look. 24:50 And I think that there probably is some behind the scenes talk of maybe flipping a few guys that have yet to sign elsewhere that have verbals. 25:00 I think if they were really sure of what they were going to bring in, we would hear a lot more confidently about, you know, this kind of stuff. 25:09 And it's really very much up in the air yet. 25:12 I think that, you know, as Veegs, I'm sure he mentioned in his article, you know, there's a lot of new faces that are potentially going to be here. 25:21 But I don't think that they've really solidified things. 25:24 I think it's because they're going to continue to kind of look here in the next, you know, month or two before they really kind of land on exactly who they're going to bring in and, you know, what the makeup of the roster is going to look like. 25:37 And on the flip side, Veegs, you know, quite a few schools have been doing this in more recent years. 25:42 You know, the coach gets a year under his belt and decides he's going to let a few guys go. 25:47 Dude, I mean, is it possible they're going to have to replace more bodies than we thought? 25:54 What if Coach Matzko feels he doesn't like how a kid is playing and doesn't want to re-up his scholarship or what have you? 26:03 Well, I don't think any players in the Big Ten will lose their scholarship. 26:08 I think they can get encouraged to look at other opportunities. 26:13 One of the things the coach can do is take guys out of the lineup and not play them. 26:18 And eventually, if you think you're a talented enough player where you should be on the ice, you might want to go somewhere where you have a chance to play, especially if you're a drafted player or hope to play professional hockey. 26:29 You don't want to sit somewhere for a couple of years where you're never going to see the ice and not get any coaching. 26:34 So we'll see what Matzko chooses to do as the season went on. 26:41 He basically went with four defensemen. 26:44 He went with Sadik and Zulzdorf and Nanny and Brinkman. 26:49 What does that mean for other defensemen on the roster? 26:51 Will they come back next year and get a chance? 26:54 We'll see, but that's kind of the thing I'm looking at. 26:58 For forwards, you know, guys at the bottom lineup, Maroney and Waite, they did get some ice time here and there, but we'll see what happens with those types of guys. 27:08 But we also had guys get some ice time because other guys were sort of being punished and kind of had to sit for a little bit, don't you think? 27:16 Yeah, I don't think you want to go into the season not having options. 27:21 And those guys can all skate, they can all do things on the ice. 27:25 They just need to grow as players. 27:26 And for some of them, it's going to take playing time to learn how to play college hockey. 27:31 You know, they're all talented. 27:33 They can all skate. 27:35 That's one of the things that at Mariucci is you play on a big ice sheet for at least half your games, you need to have players who can skate. 27:42 It's hard to find those players uncommitted as 20-year-olds. 27:46 You know, if you're playing at a tiny little barn, you know, like the deck used to be, you could get away with some guys who can't skate as well if they're big enough and physical enough. 27:57 Can't hide guys like that at Mariucci. 28:00 SkyMala wants to know, any thoughts on whether Raboin and Gordon return as assistants? 28:05 What do you think, Hammy? 28:06 Do you think those guys are going to keep plugging on here or what? 28:11 Well, I know Veegs had mentioned earlier in the year that they have two-year deals, so I think that that obviously is going to be a deterrent to any change. 28:21 I think obviously Raboin is pretty connected to, you know, the head coach, so I don't think that that's really going to change either. 28:28 If there was going to be a change, I would probably be more inclined to think it would be Gordon, but even then, since he signed a two-year deal, according to Veegs, so I don't know all the contract details like he does, but if that's accurate... 28:44 I can send it to you if you want. 28:45 No, that's fine. 28:46 Don't worry. 28:46 I'm good. 28:47 I don't need to know all that, but you know, but if that's the reality, then I don't suspect we'll see anything change in that this offseason. 28:55 How about Paul Martin as another student assistant? 28:59 Well, that's always a possibility. 29:01 Ryan Patolny is going to graduate this spring, so he got back and got his work done. 29:07 Assuming he passes all of his midterms and finals here, he should have a degree in hand. 29:11 So there would be a spot for him on the roster. 29:13 I don't know how tight he is with Moscow, but it would help to have that guy on the back end, leaving those defensemen. 29:21 I mean, he knows Moscow, at least. 29:23 I mean, he was there when they were both there at the same time. 29:29 We'll have to see. 29:30 Well, it was kind of funny when I asked Moscow about Walker making transition to college hockey. 29:36 He said, you know, it's not so much that he's a forward. 29:39 Good hockey players can make the transition quickly. 29:41 And he said, Alex Galagoski and Paul Martin is two references. 29:46 So no pressure, Mike Castor. 29:51 Do we even know if he's coming in next year? 29:55 I don't think we do. 29:56 And we don't know anything right now, do we? 29:58 I mean, we have a few guys that are for sure coming, right? 30:02 Well, I think Meyers, Perbex, Mo, Lafontaine, Close, all those guys are for sure coming. 30:10 After that, kind of a mystery so far. 30:16 So we're just not going to know what we have until October. 30:21 Oh, we'll know this summer when everybody's checking out the U of M registry. 30:27 Who's registering for classes? 30:28 Right. 30:29 Cyberstocking. 30:30 Who's actually in the registry? 30:31 And then so there we go. 30:33 Although I found out this year that just because they're registered for classes doesn't mean they're in school or on the team. 30:42 So you can't stop them anymore. 30:44 Just an FYI. 30:45 Well, although it has been pretty accurate. 30:48 Well, that's because if they're registered, they're anticipating them being on the team and in school. 30:55 But there's some things that can always come up to prevent that from happening. 30:59 So to get the guys in the classes to make sure they have the places reserved, they'll do it even though they might not be sure that the players are coming. 31:08 Well, how does it work though? 31:09 Because a lot of times they register for summer courses. 31:13 So they would have to be, I would think, in class if they're registered for the summer. 31:18 If they were registered for the fall, I guess I would see that as being maybe more of a contingency plan versus guys that are on campus that are going to classes in the summer. 31:28 You know what I mean? 31:29 Just saying, even though you're registered for class, you may not actually be attending the class. 31:33 I think you're just saying that so the GPLers don't cyberstalk these dudes. 31:40 Oh, boy. 31:42 What can you do? 31:43 Well, how did Matzko feel? 31:47 You went to media availability. 31:48 How was he feeling after he's had a couple days of cool off? 31:51 Because Saturday night, there was quite a few F-bombs coming out of his mouth, Deegs. 31:57 I heard he gave the Big Ten director of officials an earful. 32:02 So he definitely had time to cool down. 32:05 And you could tell that some of the other reporters at the Scrum wanted to try to rekindle that fire. 32:12 Let me guess, Justin Meagher. 32:14 Right. 32:15 Justin Meagher wanted to get it going. 32:17 And Matzko was pretty quick to shut it down, saying, hey, said what I'm going to say, ready to move on. 32:23 Who knows if Mark Coyle said, hey, let's have a media Monday morning. 32:27 Let's cool it. 32:28 But he didn't go back there anymore. 32:31 So he moved on and wanted to talk about how he wishes all the seniors were juniors. 32:36 And he didn't have to recruit 12, 13 new players for next year. 32:42 They do have a lot of spots to fill. 32:46 I mean, that's just that's. 32:49 And, you know, LaFontaine is not going to be a freshman, but that's going to be a freshman heavy squad next year, Hammy, no matter what happens. 32:58 Yeah, I mean, I think that that's always going to be the one big question mark when you bring new faces in and goal, because you just don't know exactly what you're going to get out of those things. 33:09 You hope for the best, of course. 33:11 You hope that the due diligence has been done and you can feel confident. 33:14 And we have seen freshman goalies succeed. 33:18 So it's not like it's an impossible thing by any means. 33:21 But it is always nicer to have a little bit of that comfort zone with a returning goalie that you kind of know that they're up to the task and you can be confident in them because that's kind of the backbone, right? 33:33 That you start from end goal. 33:36 We know that defense has not been up to the level that we all kind of expect. 33:44 Especially being two-way defensemen, we haven't seen that in recent years. 33:49 And so we know that defense certainly needs to step up. 33:52 And you feel a little bit better when you have that veteran goalie back there to kind of cover up some of that. 33:57 And we won't have that next year. 33:58 So you got to really hope that some of these defensemen that are coming back are going to really kind of take that next step and really work hard this offseason. 34:07 So they're ready to roll back when it cuts to be fall. 34:10 And they definitely improved over the year, Veegs. 34:12 I mean, at the beginning of the year, there was a lot of inconsistency in it. 34:16 And like you said, you know, towards the end of the year, we had Monsko going down to four defensemen for the most part. 34:22 He made adjustments. 34:23 The team did kind of come together the way he wanted to. 34:27 It didn't end the way he wanted to. 34:28 But there was definitely quite a bit of improvement this year. 34:32 Well, I think there is improvement in the fact that they cut down the mistakes. 34:36 I don't think they're playing the kind of style that Monsko wants to eventually be playing. 34:43 Because the only defensemen who are really taking chances and joining the rush and being the fourth attacker was Tyler and Annie. 34:52 You weren't really seeing that out of the other defensemen. 34:55 It's not that they don't have the ability to do it. 34:58 They don't just have the freedom or the decision making yet to make it a quality decision as a coach to let them have free reign. 35:07 So I think that's going to be the biggest thing. 35:09 And we're not going to see that until the season gets going and we start to see them play some games. 35:15 And the other thing with Minnesota is it's not like they're playing an easy schedule. 35:19 And there aren't many easy games in college hockey. 35:22 So it's going to be difficult to develop that thing if they're going to be on such a fine line of, you know, when you lose a game to St. 35:30 Lawrence or Ferris State, it knocks you out of the pairwise. 35:34 So this is a team that just can't take very many chances right now. 35:38 And I think that's the spot where they need to make the biggest growth. 35:43 Do they need to adjust the pairwise? 35:46 I think they need to adjust it so these bad losses don't kill a team. 35:51 It should be, are you a quality team? 35:53 Can you beat other quality teams? 35:55 That should be the reward. 35:57 Because I think having good wins should be more important than a bad loss. 36:03 Obviously, Pat McAleady and I have been going at each other a little bit with the crowd and whatnot, but I'm with him 100% and he feels that the pairwise does punish a bad loss way more than reward a good win. 36:17 Yeah, I think that quality win bonus should be increased and I think they should look at how much they're using RPI as such a key component. 36:27 Because if you lose your RPI status because of a bad loss, you just can't win those comparisons back. 36:34 You don't play enough games. 36:35 There isn't enough common opponents to make that a real, legitimate pairwise comparison tool. 36:45 So it's something that needs to be looked at, I think, because you look at Minnesota, they're always having that big strength of schedule, especially when you have a young team. 36:53 You know, you're probably going to have more inconsistency, and they just don't have time to make it up. 37:02 Yeah, well, nothing's changing this year, Hammeh. 37:08 Yeah, I mean, we all know, we talk about it, you know, kind of at the beginning of the year. 37:13 It's like you don't really know which losses are really going to kill you until you're at the end of the year, and you get to look back and say, that one loss against that team and this one loss, if we had just changed those two results, we would be in a much better position. 37:26 And it's unfortunate that it is just, you know, but everybody plays by the same rules. 37:32 You know, everybody's playing by the same kind of standards and what they're being judged on. 37:37 And we just have to kind of live with that. 37:38 I mean, if other people can make it, we can make it, you know, just unfortunate that we kind of struggled, like you said, early in the year, we had some inconsistencies and, you know, kind of going back to what you're talking about in the future, I think one of the things that I felt really good about this year is, you know, I just wanted to see this team kind of take on the coaches' attitudes, you know, get a little bit of that culture change going. 38:03 Kind of didn't really know if that was happening, especially with the seniors, throughout probably the first half or so of the season, but then this last couple months, I think we've seen, you know, that they really did take the coaches' messages to heart, and they really did play hard. 38:18 And, you know, from a senior's perspective, you're kind of a lame duck player, for lack of a better way of putting it, because you're not worrying about next year and making that great impression with the coach. 38:29 You're gone after this year, and you don't have to really take on that, the coaches' messages. 38:34 But I think we saw that these players did, and I think that that's something to feel very good about, and I think that some of our young players really came on this year. 38:42 I thought we saw improvement across the board with a lot of these young guys. 38:46 You know, the Walker Line ramp. 38:49 I mean, all these guys, I think they did pretty well, especially towards the end of the year. 38:53 So I think that's a lot we have to look forward to next year. 38:56 Well, Veegs, I would agree that they did adjust their game and they started making smarter decisions, especially when they're coming into the offensive zone. 39:04 Hey, if you don't have something, dump the puck in. 39:06 Go chase it instead of making a bad pass. 39:09 So I think there's quite a bit of improvement there. 39:11 The one thing that I still wanted to see that we didn't see as much is something that Damasko talked about, his first news conference this year, 30 seconds of hell, get out there and just go at it. 39:23 And is that one of the still missing things that Damasko wants to do that we just haven't seen yet? 39:31 Well, I think so. 39:32 When you talked about the structure that they put in midway through the year, part of the reason they had to do that is because they were having so many blown coverages through the neutral zone and transition. 39:44 When forwards were trying to get in on the four check with two players, now there's only three back. 39:51 Other teams are coming through with speed, blowing by our defensemen, getting clear cut breakaways going right between the D on stretch passes. 40:00 That can't happen. 40:03 Especially if you're going to play in aggressive style, you can't have defensemen who make those lapses. 40:08 And it's not because they're not physically able to skate with the players coming through the neutral zone, it's that they're not aware to keep their gaps or to pick up the checks or to close the space. 40:20 They just would lose their checks. 40:22 And so I think if you play more aggressive, you need to have players who are more aware. 40:27 And that's something that was missing this year. 40:29 And that's why they had to put in that structure. 40:31 It slowed the game down for everybody and it protected everybody as well. 40:36 And they stuck to it. 40:38 I credit the team. 40:39 You know, even when they were behind in games, they stuck to that structure. 40:43 And that's a sign that they were buying into by Moscow. 40:47 And that was very impressive to see because we've seen messages like this before. 40:53 And they didn't stick. 40:54 But they stuck this year. 40:55 And this team was playing really well at the end of the season. 40:59 Playing really well, but just couldn't quite finish it off. 41:01 And that's a shame because I think this team could have beaten almost any team in the tournament if they made the tournament. 41:08 Or at least they wouldn't be a pushover and they could give anybody a good run for their money. 41:12 Because we saw throughout the season when this team played well, they were really good, Hammy. 41:19 Yeah, I mean, I felt pretty good. 41:23 Like I said, I felt really good, especially with the younger guys. 41:27 You know, Walker obviously, I think he is potentially a really special college player. 41:32 You don't want to, you know, we saw a lot of great things. 41:35 I mean, you don't want to get too far ahead of yourself. 41:37 You know, you might get that sophomore slump or whatever. 41:40 But, you know, you feel good about what you saw out of some of those guys, that line in particular. 41:45 And I do think that if we do bring, you know, like a lot of young guys in for next year, I think that they don't know what the old ways were, you know what I mean? 41:56 I think that's kind of why we saw more consistency out of the new guys this year, is that they weren't tied to the previous staff and how they did things. 42:04 And it wasn't really a change for them, because that's all they've experienced is this current coaching staff. 42:10 So I think that, you know, next year, I really believe that we're going to see a team that plays more like they want to, you know, what the coach wants. 42:18 And it might not always be smooth sailing and it might, you know, because of the youth, there might be some problems there. 42:24 But I think that, you know, we're headed in the right direction. 42:27 I think that's the one thing I feel great about, you know, this season is that I really believe that the coach has us and they're going in the right direction. 42:35 His vision, I think, is going to be realized. 42:37 I really believe that they're going to be a really dangerous team. 42:40 And, you know, maybe not next year, but the year after that, I really believe we're going to start to see a team that's very dangerous and getting us back to where we think Gopher Hockey should be. 42:50 So it looks like we're fixing the team or in the process of fixing the team. 42:56 We're still kind of waiting for, see what the youth is going to do with season ticket renewals. 43:01 Nothing's out yet, is it? 43:04 No, nothing's out yet. 43:05 I think they were... 43:06 Are they a little behind? 43:08 Well, they're behind because they're being very planful about how they're going to do this. 43:12 And that's good to know. 43:14 That's a good thing for people who want to see a change. 43:18 I think there's this feeling at the U that maybe fans would come back if the program started winning more games. 43:26 I don't know if that's really going to happen. 43:28 I think it's going to take a dramatic move by Mark Coyle to say, okay, we're going to cut prices. 43:36 But if the fans don't come back to that price cut, they're just giving away value. 43:43 They're hurting their athletic department for the future. 43:45 And I think that's why they're hesitant to make a big decision like that. 43:50 Because you've just shown your season ticket value is half of what it used to be. 43:55 And people still won't buy. 43:56 So I think that's the fear there of jumping off that cliff. 44:00 But I think the fact that they haven't released tickets is a good sign for people who want to see a big change. 44:08 When's their first game, do we know? 44:10 Is it the icebreaker, isn't it? 44:15 Yeah, probably the icebreaker. 44:16 I haven't seen a date for that yet. 44:18 I'm sure it's kind of that first weekend in October, around fifth, sixth or something like that. 44:22 At least it has been in the past. 44:26 We've been a little quiet on what's looking like for the schedule. 44:30 I know that Matsuko wasn't too fond of what Lucia left him in October of last year. 44:37 We're not going to see anything like that, are we Veegs? 44:40 No, we won't. 44:41 That was just bad. 44:43 They're planful. 44:44 I think some of their scheduling deals right now are still being released on how they fill out the rest of their schedule, but they do have a deal with the U18 team for games over the next five years. 44:56 They have contracts with UMD, North Dakota, Minnesota State, Bemidji State. 45:03 I found out the ASU game was just a one-year deal, so we don't get to see a revenge night in Tempe, it looks like. 45:13 So I don't think we'll be seeing ASU on the schedule for a while. 45:17 Yeah, they may wait until they actually have an arena. 45:20 Right, but I think Motsgo wants to play BU, BC, I think he wants to play Denver, DC, so I think those are games you'll start to see on the schedule. 45:30 I would love to see those games as well. 45:32 Get some home-and-home years with Denver and Colorado College. 45:35 That would be nice. 45:37 Those are some old rivals, we have some fun memories with those two teams. 45:43 A lot of fun memories. 45:46 It would be nice to have them back on the schedule. 45:48 They were kind of forgotten about. 45:51 We've been playing just about everybody else. 45:53 We even went up to Anchorage after the break. 45:56 Well, there's been so much pressure to play the in-state teams. 46:00 That's all Coyle hears when he goes out there, is I want to see Minnesota hockey play Minnesota teams. 46:09 They're playing him enough, though. 46:10 So they're trying to. 46:12 And I think Motska will get away from that a little bit. 46:15 And you can't play in Colorado because then the start time is at 8 o'clock and then people don't know where the game is, what time it's at, what channel it's on. 46:23 God help us if they play in Alaska. 46:26 I know. 46:26 We can't play out there. 46:27 People conveniently forget that. 46:29 We didn't play out there every year for God knows how many decades. 46:35 But somehow we managed to live and find those games on TV. 46:39 But apparently nowadays it's not possible. 46:42 It's not seven on Friday and Saturday. 46:45 We're screwed. 46:47 Those 10 BM games with Anchorage on their little web stream. 46:53 Anchorage is the first team to really do any kind of streaming. 46:56 And they were way ahead of the curve back in the day. 47:00 Yes, don't you remember watching those commercials with the most redneck of redneck commercials? 47:06 The six-wheeled buggies and whatnot? 47:08 Yes. 47:10 Seeing the same commercial like every other five minutes. 47:14 Well, what can you do? 47:16 Hey, it was a free stream. 47:18 Yes, that's true. 47:19 We couldn't complain about the price. 47:21 And it was long before any other kind of streaming services were up-vague, so they were way ahead of the times. 47:27 Had to be. 47:28 It's tough to watch hockey in the bush. 47:31 Especially when the bushes are frozen. 47:35 Very frozen. 47:36 Actual frozen tundra in Alaska. 47:39 You are correct. 47:41 Vegs, okay, the Gopher season is over, but what are you working on at The Athletic? 47:46 Well, I just posted my story today on what's ahead for the Gophers. 47:50 I did put a lot of the stuff from availability this week in there. 47:55 Also kind of looking at the timeline for recruits and what's out there right now. 47:59 As Hammeh said, this pipeline is pretty young. 48:03 I would like them to try to find some older players to fit in there, but I don't know if it's going to happen. 48:09 So, sorry, Hammeh, it's just what I'm hearing. 48:12 No, I think if they're going to do it, it would have to be somebody that's old enough obviously to play, but they maybe were pushed off a year or two by their current school and maybe the Gophers see enough talent there that they'd be willing to take a gamble on them now. 48:29 You know, maybe they're 19 but weren't planning on coming to their current, you know, committed school until they were 20 or whatever. 48:35 I'm sure they're looking at guys in those kinds of situations. 48:38 I'm not saying that's going to happen, but I'm sure that they're doing enough of their due diligence on that because I think it would be unfortunate if they did go as young as, you know, just keeping bringing these guys in because I just think that would, it might, you know, I'm just a little skeptical about doing that, but hey, I'm not the coach, I don't get paid the money, so I can second guess. 48:59 Well, he's got a five-year deal, so he's got time to make it up. 49:06 But anyway, I'm also going to be working on something covering Minnesota State here next week for the Athletic. 49:11 They are going to be playing in the NCAA Tournament. 49:14 It looks like Chad Graff is going to be doing something on St. 49:17 Cloud State, so we should have Minnesota Hockey covered for the NCAA Tournament. 49:24 Yeah, and this is where we get to hear it, too. 49:26 All the other great schools in Minnesota are doing much better in Minnesota. 49:30 Well, you know, if Minnesota played a schedule like Arizona State or Penn State, maybe they'd be in it. 49:38 So what do you think, guys? 49:38 Should we do another podcast next week or we covered most of it for now? 49:44 I don't think anything big is going to happen unless we ram Pitlick signs, but that's pretty much all we have to talk about since the season is over. 49:53 Maybe after the Frozen 4 or something, we'll see. 49:56 That might not be a bad idea. 49:57 Maybe as we get a better idea what the recruiting class is going to look like. 50:01 Yeah, that's probably the only thing that I think would be a good idea to do one is once we have a better idea of what's solidified as the roster, not that we necessarily would even know after the Frozen 4. 50:14 It's always fun to speculate. 50:17 Maybe we can do a Frozen 4 pregame show. 50:19 There you go. 50:20 That probably might actually work. 50:25 So we'll see. 50:25 We'll play it by ear, folks. 50:28 Otherwise, we're just doing what we can here just to entertain you. 50:33 Hopefully REM comes back, but it's not looking good. 50:35 There's a lot of questions, but we've got plenty to talk about because the best weekend of the year is coming up. 50:45 And it's not the tournament for all these other tournaments. 50:49 For me, it's always that regional weekend. 50:52 Regional weekend is my favorite weekend of the year, Gophers in it or not, because it's just wall-to-wall hockey from Friday through Sunday. 50:59 And it's an exciting time. 51:02 For me, it's more exciting than the basketball tournament just because I'm a little prejudiced, but I love regional tournament weekend leagues. 51:09 It's the best. 51:11 I love it, especially when those games go to overtime and you see those four seeds scaring the heck out of those one seeds. 51:17 It'll be a great time. 51:18 We'll see if St. 51:19 Cloud can get out of a regional. 51:21 They haven't done it too often, so we'll see what happens. 51:24 We'll see if Mankato can win a game. 51:27 Big challenge for them. 51:29 I'll be talking to Mike Hastings about that Monday or Tuesday. 51:32 There you go. 51:33 I won't probably phrase it quite like you did. 51:37 I like Hastings. 51:38 He's a good guy. 51:39 He's a fun coach. 51:41 He is. 51:42 Good hockey guy. 51:43 He is a good hockey guy. 51:45 Well, that's going to do it for the show for this weekend. 51:46 We'll see if we'll be back in the next couple weeks or not. 51:49 I'm thinking we will. 51:50 Remember, you can always follow Hammy at Hammy Hockey on Twitter. 51:55 And of course, you can follow Vego at The Athletic and on Twitter at eVego. 52:00 So we're just going to play it by ear. 52:02 Maybe we'll be back in a couple weeks. 52:04 Maybe we won't. 52:05 We'll just have to wait and see. 52:06 Either way, thanks for listening.