0:08 This is The GPL Podcast from gopherputtlive.com. 0:23 Now, here's Hammy, Vegoe, and your host, Jupiter. 0:37 Good evening, and welcome to The GPL Podcast, episode number 157. 0:43 Well, we're back to full strength tonight. 0:46 Hammey's back after a week off. 0:48 Did you have a nice little week off there, Hammey? 0:52 Yeah, well, it wasn't really by choice. 0:54 It was more work duties, the regular work duties. 0:56 So, unfortunately, I had to cut out, but yeah, it's good to be back. 1:02 Well, you actually got to a game this weekend. 1:04 You don't get to as many games as you used to, do you? 1:07 No, definitely not. 1:08 Yeah, you know, how the life, you know, creeps into the fun. 1:12 So, yeah, but my girlfriend and I went to the Friday game and it was, you know, it was good because she hadn't been to a game in a while. 1:21 I told her, yeah, you know, you might want to temper your expectations of the crowd given the opponent and, you know, some of the changes in recent years. 1:30 So, but yeah, you know, all things considered, we had a good time. 1:33 It wasn't obviously the greatest played game, but, you know, for a team that young, it was kind of nice to see them rally and then win it. 1:43 No T had a perfect view of the overtime goal, so that was cool. 1:46 And but it was a good game in that sense. 1:49 And, you know, that we're going to have to expect that with this team. 1:51 It's got some growing and some growing pains and some interesting experiences, I think, especially this first half. 1:59 And Veegs, you were there Saturday night with me. 2:02 We both I don't think we were there. 2:03 You weren't there Friday night, were you? 2:05 Nope, I was watching on the television as well. 2:07 I'd early many might practice the next day, so stayed in. 2:12 And we know that our guest this week, Bruce Ciskie was definitely not at the Gopher game last week, and he was in Madison with with his UMD Bulldogs. 2:23 And Bruce, for one thing, thanks for joining us. 2:25 So it's the first time we've had you on the podcast, which I can't believe you've done one hundred and fifty seven of these things and not had me on once. 2:33 Well, I'm sorry. 2:35 It's just how it goes sometimes. 2:37 You should be. 2:37 I mean, that's fine. 2:38 Don't be sorry. 2:40 You know, I thought about doing it last year, but it was the first podcast of the season last year when we played Duluth. 2:47 And typically we don't have guests on the first week just because we've got so much to talk about with the off season and whatnot. 2:53 But, you know, this year, you know, a couple of weeks in, I thought it'd be good to get you on. 2:56 So thanks for at least joining us. 2:59 I'm glad to be here. 3:01 Well, um, so Minnesota? 3:03 There's time for you to make me regret being glad to be here. 3:06 But, you know, for now, I'm glad to be here. 3:07 No, we're pretty tame, you know, and we know all hockey guys can take a little ribbing because they give a little ribbing. 3:14 So that it just kind of comes with the territory. 3:16 I don't know what you're talking about. 3:22 Well, you know, there might be some concerned people in up in Bulldog territory right now. 3:28 They haven't gotten off to the greatest start. 3:31 But I am personally from afar. 3:35 I don't think you guys should be concerned at all. 3:38 Typically, you haven't really started out great each season, but you end great and you've got so much senior and upper class and leadership right now. 3:49 Are the fans a little worried or are you worried? 3:52 Well, I'm not worried. 3:54 I haven't really spent a lot of time asking around. 3:57 Before I left Madison on Saturday, the last thing I said on Twitter basically was don't panic. 4:03 I can't vouch that everybody listened to me because most of the time they don't. 4:07 But I would certainly advise and maybe Bulldog fans listening to not panic right now, because we're far from any point where there should be panic. 4:18 You're four games into a minimum 36-game season. 4:21 It'll be a long way to go and a long time to get there. 4:24 This is not a finished product. 4:28 And any team that's a finished product now is going to be finished early. 4:31 Because you guys know it's a journey. 4:34 It's a long way to get there. 4:35 A lot of work to do. 4:37 And Veegs, one thing that we actually discussed a couple shows ago was Wisconsin is probably quite a few weeks ahead of everyone else when they started the season. 4:48 They've been together a lot longer. 4:51 Yeah, they took their international trip and got some team-bonded in early and got some extra games in. 4:56 And so they know a little bit more where they're going to be on the ice, the systems, how they like to work to puck off the rush in the offensive zone, a little more special teams time. 5:07 And I think that really matters early in the year. 5:09 College hockey is so weird in the fact that they do have their skills practices, which they haven't had previously until recently. 5:17 Day one, usually teams are playing. 5:20 So it takes a while to get up to speed and teams need games to get that experience. 5:26 Well, especially young teams like Wisconsin, and you hit the nail on the head. 5:29 Not only did they get those games up in British Columbia, they also got the 10 practices that go along with making that international trip. 5:36 And those practices are, as you guys know, as hockey people, because it's such a short run up to a season. 5:43 Those early practices they got are absolutely vital for how young they are. 5:48 And they look like a much more mature hockey team last weekend than one that I would expect to see as young as the Badgers are. 5:55 And I would credit a lot of that to the fact that Tony Granato got them up there in British Columbia and got those extra practices. 6:02 Well, I don't want to make this Badger puck lie, but Hammy, you know, they have a lot of youngsters on that Badger team that are contributing right away. 6:14 Well, I think it's just a matter of they're taking that kind of Boston University high risk, high reward kind of a roll of the dice. 6:21 I mean, they have some really talented guys that were, you know, obviously they're great pro prospects. 6:27 And it's one of those things where if you don't capitalize on it this season, you know, you might end up paying for it, you know, two, three years down the line because you don't have that continuity in the lineup. 6:38 Um, so it's, it'll be interesting to see if it pays off for them. 6:42 Not obviously as Gopher fans, we do not want anything to pay off for Badgers, but certainly, you know, they have some great young talent there and that'll be a matter of can they pull it together at the key moments? 6:56 Yeah, we'll just have to wait and see. 6:57 I mean, I really think that, you know, having those early games did help them a ton. 7:02 And sorry, but your Bulldogs may have just may have paid for it a little bit. 7:07 They're Bruce. 7:08 A lot of times it's not who you play. 7:11 It's when you play. 7:12 UMD is all banged up right now. 7:13 And, you know, and so Wisconsin came in rolling and they looked very, very good last week. 7:18 And I am intrigued, you know, when they get the Big Ten schedule, what are they going to do against the more kind of structured teams like Ohio State, Notre Dame as we get into the teeth of the season and those teams get better and better in their systems and their structure? 7:33 How do the Bachelors try to break them down and get by them in this conference? 7:38 And I do think, you know, the first game with Prudovich getting tossed out of the game so early, you know, that really throws UMD for a loop. 7:46 They count on him to generate so much offense, play so much ice time. 7:50 And then the next night, it was a pretty close game. 7:52 UMD just didn't score. 7:54 You know, they generated scoring chances, but it's always kind of been a struggle for Duluth to score goals and, you know, they just couldn't catch up. 8:03 And it's, you know, when you don't have that big time sniper, you're relying on your four lines. 8:07 And, you know, the Bulldogs had a couple of depth guys that were missing from the lineup on Saturday and key players and key positions. 8:14 And that doesn't help. 8:16 But the reality is, you know, I could dismiss what happened Friday because you lose Pernovich, then you lose Hunter Lelig. 8:23 Now you're down to five defensemen. 8:25 And they ended up playing Nick Wolf and Louis Rail a ton. 8:28 I'll bet you they were both over 35 minutes on Friday. 8:31 They had them in gas by the end of the game and it looked like they were. 8:33 And that didn't help matters at all. 8:36 Then you look at Saturday, completely different game. 8:38 I thought UMD kept their structure a lot better. 8:41 They still had too many turnovers and a couple of too many coverage breakdowns for my taste. 8:46 And I know the head coach wasn't pleased about some of that stuff either. 8:49 But you know, reality is that's a two, one game late. 8:52 And if you can crack the code and beat that goaltender once or twice, it's a completely different game. 8:58 They could not figure that. 8:59 They had chances. 8:59 They had second chances. 9:01 They had guys driving the net. 9:02 They were doing the right things offensively. 9:05 They couldn't find a way to finish. 9:07 We've already got people in the live Mixler chat. 9:10 Kind of trolling you, Bruce. 9:12 You got Jess already saying packers suck. 9:17 Hey, they're six and one. 9:18 I'm not going to say a word, it's all good, right? 9:26 People have said, I've loved the Minnesota and Minnesota-Duluth rivalry for a long time. 9:33 I think it's wonderful that Duluth has been winning in the last decade and they've been winning big time. 9:39 One of the things that got Duluth where they were, especially the last two seasons, was their defense. 9:46 We always know that in the beginning of the season, Bruce, defense just kind of takes a while to get going. 9:52 You guys survived in the NCAA tournament with low scoring because your defense was so good. 9:57 But at the beginning of the year, it's tough to get those guys going. 10:04 People think of defense, they think of the defensemen and purely the defensemen. 10:08 That's typically not been the issue for UMD. 10:10 Veegs, I remember you and I had a conversation after that Sunday game at Mariucci last October. 10:16 It was just an open season in the neutral zone for the Gophers that night. 10:20 They took full advantage. 10:21 They're generating speed up the rink, and by the time that they get across the blue line, the defensemen can't do anything about it because the forwards did nothing to stop them in the neutral zone. 10:31 By the end of the season, the neutral zone was a completely different story for UMD. 10:35 We saw it the year before as well. 10:37 That's a part of why I'm not too concerned. 10:40 There's a lot of communication and commitment that you have to have to defend the right way, the way Scott Sandlin wants these guys to defend, and it's a five-man deal. 10:48 It's not just the defensemen. 10:50 Everyone's got to be on board and know their assignments and know where they're going. 10:53 Sometimes it does take a little while to get everything going the way you want it to. 10:57 Hammey, going along those lines, that's what Coach Mosco has been preaching. 11:02 It's a process. 11:03 It's going to take us a while to get where we want to go. 11:06 It was some tight games this weekend, but I think Mosco still loves the progress of the process that's changing. 11:17 Well, I think we know with so many brand new faces in the lineup this year that it's going to have growing pains. 11:25 I mean, I said it on Twitter at the game on Friday that the chemistry obviously has had to develop because when you see poor spacing, you see guys kind of bumping into each other, you see a little bit of overthinking, overpassing, you're not really playing as much on some of your instincts. 11:44 I think that there's obviously things that they have to iron out. 11:48 So we're going to have to expect that, especially when you're playing teams like UMD, that you're going to take your lumps at times. 11:56 You just got to hope that you can weather it. 11:57 And I think that's what we saw last weekend. 11:59 They certainly had some moments where you kind of just shake your head, but then they managed to do enough when it counted, especially on Friday with the game that I was at, to kind of pull, get across to what you want to do at the end of the game. 12:13 And I don't know, these guys, I think they have a lot of potential, but we just are going to have to be patient. 12:21 And I know that not everybody is that way, unfortunately, but I think they'll be good by the time of the year, kind of rolling till the end. 12:30 Skyuma Law wants to ask Bruce, what is your favorite road trip, both in the Nacho and outside? 12:41 In the league, I would say probably either Denver or Colorado College. 12:46 Depends on the weather when we go out there, but Denver is a great town. 12:49 And guys that know me know I don't like big cities very much, but I've always liked Denver. 12:54 There's something about that place. 12:56 And Colorado College is a beautiful area. 13:00 It's funny, they got the new arena coming in a couple of years up there. 13:04 And it's going to be a little weird because I've gotten used to where we are. 13:08 And the area around the Broadmoor is very nice, but very happy for them to get that on campus rank. 13:13 I think it's going to enhance things for them a great deal. 13:16 Outside of the league, boy, now with the restructuring a few years ago, going back to Wisconsin was pretty cool this past weekend. 13:24 First time there since we left the WCHA, but Michigan Tech has always been special to me. 13:28 It's the first place I called UMD Games M and it's always been a fun place to visit. 13:32 So I'd say Wisconsin, Michigan Tech. 13:34 We don't ever spend enough time at Minnesota for me to say Minnesota because it's these home and home series. 13:40 I drive down, call the game and go home. 13:41 I never spend a night down there anymore. 13:44 And Vig, you know, you and I have talked about that kind of extensively over the years that I think the home and home has kind of killed it for the fans a little bit. 13:53 Maybe a little bit. 13:54 You know, it was something where the two schools hadn't played for a little bit and they scrapped together this agreement to get these five years of home and home series just so both teams could get the other on their schedule. 14:05 I think once this expires after I think 22, 23, they'll probably get a new deal. 14:11 And I think it will go back to two games at each site. 14:13 It's just something I think it's a little bit better for the for the host team and maybe a little bit easier to develop that rivalry. 14:20 And anybody want to ask Bruce, like, what's his favorite dispensary? 14:26 Because he's named two Colorado places as his favorite road trips. 14:33 Maybe he has a favorite. 14:34 Maybe that's why he likes to go because he can be evil and do bad things. 14:38 Yeah, after all these years of doing morning radio and having to hear these lame Colorado jokes, you think I would have learned my lesson. 14:47 And I did. 14:49 I'm almost embarrassed right now. 14:51 I should have picked North Dakota. 14:55 Well, we know that would be a lie. 14:57 Come on, it's a black man. 15:00 That's true. 15:01 Again, if you follow me on Twitter, you know that I think that the Red Tappers like eating a magazine. 15:05 So yeah, what else are you going to do in Grand Forks? 15:07 Oh, I've, yeah, you know, I'm not even a huge fan of the arena. 15:13 Yes, it's big. 15:15 But I, sometimes the sight lines aren't that great. 15:18 And boy, I've been in the upper deck once where one of the sections was like 50 seats across. 15:23 And if you're in the middle, you're going across a lot of people just to get out. 15:28 I know the solitude of the visiting radio spot in the press box of Ralph Englestad Arena is one of my favorite things on earth. 15:33 It's just great. 15:36 You're off by your lonesome. 15:37 You're on your own. 15:38 You can basically say whatever you want. 15:40 The only guy that's anywhere near you is the pyro guy. 15:42 He doesn't care what you say. 15:46 Well, you know, as a fan, I really loved, you know, series up in Duluth. 15:51 Come stay in Canal Park for the weekend. 15:53 Just make a weekend of it. 15:54 You don't have to drive at all. 15:56 You can drink. 15:57 You can walk to the game. 16:00 It was just for me, it was it was my most favorite trip to take, you know, back in the old days, which would be the WCHA days. 16:08 And I know I've seen Veegs there. 16:11 You know, we've been there several times. 16:13 Hammy, I'm sure you've been up there as well. 16:14 For me, it was just always ideal because of the location. 16:17 You know, it's off campus. 16:18 It's down where all the action is. 16:21 And for me, that's just very appealing as an opposing fan coming up just to play Duluth. 16:28 Yeah. 16:28 And I think that I understand why the home and home thing got put into place. 16:34 We've talked about this from a business standpoint for Duluth. 16:37 It made a lot of sense. 16:38 And I think, you know, it's certainly, I don't know that Donald Lucia was a big fan of coming up here for a whole weekend. 16:44 So he wasn't really there. 16:46 So those that benefit the both parties, if you know what I mean, but I think that you're right. 16:51 I think it would enhance the rivalry. 16:53 If we went back to the two game series, I'm looking forward. 16:56 This year, we started doing that with Mankato. 16:58 And I think that's going to be a very good thing for the four years that we do it. 17:01 We got another question from Sky Ma La. 17:04 He wants to know who's your favorite bulldog of all time that you covered? 17:11 Boy, it's like picking between your kids, although I only have one kid, so I guess I really don't know. 17:15 Boy, spitballing on that one, I would probably offer up a boy. 17:23 That's tough. 17:24 Carson Kuhlman. 17:27 Just a tremendous individual. 17:28 Alex Stalock going back a few years. 17:31 And it's been a joy following him since he's turned pro. 17:35 You know, goalies are a little strange. 17:38 A little. 17:42 I think back to the first time I got into an elevator during a road trip, but Alex Stalock was in the elevator and I looked at him and I think I might have made eye contact. 17:50 It was one of the biggest mistakes I ever made because he was starting that night and he wanted nothing to do with talking or looking at anybody. 18:00 But he was one of the more intense individuals that I've ever met and a great guy to boot. 18:06 Al is just a super individual. 18:09 Hunter Shepard got that competitive edge. 18:11 He's a little different guy in terms of his personality. 18:14 He's not quite as regarious as Al is, but Hunter's got that competitive streak and kind of the same thing. 18:20 Just don't bug him on game day. 18:22 That's pretty typical, though. 18:24 In all, from college to the pros, that's pretty typical. 18:29 Oh yeah. 18:29 Frozen4champs asks, what's your relationship like between, or what do you think the relationship is like between Bob and Sandlin? 18:39 That's a great question. 18:40 I guess I really shouldn't try to answer it because I don't know. 18:46 I don't. 18:46 I get along with Bob. 18:49 That's all I can tell you. 18:51 You know, I would say a lot of people get along with Bob a little easier than it was with the Don. 18:56 Yes. 18:57 It's just, you know, Don's just personality is just a little standoffish and not as easy. 19:02 It even took you kind of a few years just getting in and interviewing him before you really kind of got him to open up a little ways, didn't you? 19:10 Yeah, I think he just wasn't comfortable with people he didn't know. 19:14 Bob gets along with pretty much everybody. 19:18 Scott, he's a little bit better away from game day than he is after a game. 19:23 He can be a tough cookie after game. 19:25 He's a little bit easier after he wins. 19:28 But I think they're both, you know, kind of old school coaches and they'll get along just fine. 19:33 I know they're both looking forward to this weekend. 19:35 Yeah, Scott and I get along fine. 19:37 Bob gets along with all media people, I think. 19:40 He likes to talk. 19:41 He's one of those coaches that enjoys talking. 19:43 He'll give you insight. 19:45 He'll tell you what's going on. 19:48 He'll shoot you somewhat straight and answer your questions. 19:51 And media people always appreciate that. 19:53 So, yeah, I think he gets along with all of us pretty well. 19:58 So let's get more back into the hockey here, guys. 20:02 Hammy, we have an interesting weekend coming up. 20:05 Duluth is, you know, a little bit struggling. 20:08 And Minnesota is still trying to get to where they want to be. 20:14 And another thing I would like to say is that I think Minnesota for the past ten years has kind of played to their competition. 20:20 So, you know, people say the speed limit is going to go up this weekend. 20:23 And that's typically, you know, past five, ten years, Minnesota can, you know, match that. 20:28 Not to say that they'll win, but it seems like they do fairly well in these situations when the speed limit goes up. 20:37 Well, yeah, but I also think we have to take into account that we have a ton of underclassmen. 20:42 I mean, a lot of first-year guys. 20:46 And so they haven't faced a team that's as good as UMD. 20:49 Even if UMD is not playing at the top of their game, they certainly have a lot of veterans and talented players. 20:56 So we don't exactly know how they're going to answer the bell just because they did in the past. 21:01 I mean, it's going to be that way this upcoming weekend. 21:03 So we'll see how it goes. 21:04 I think I was impressed with some of the first-year guys. 21:08 You know, certainly there's inconsistencies there, like Ryan Johnson, Jackson McComb. 21:13 I mean, I thought I saw Glimps is a really good player, but also, you know, they still had some freshman mistakes. 21:19 And you see some guys like Ben Myers that are, you know, I think are going to be really good players. 21:25 I think Sorenson played well. 21:27 I think I'm really optimistic about him as a college player. 21:29 But, you know, these are first-year guys, and you don't know how they're going to handle things early in the season. 21:35 They're going to have those growing pains. 21:37 And certainly we want to see some success this weekend. 21:42 But at best, I just want these guys to get some good experience and hopefully play well enough, or at least we're not shaking our heads after getting our ass kicked tonight. 21:51 So we'll see how it goes. 21:53 And Veegs, it sounds like we're going to have a pretty good crowd this weekend, you know. 21:57 Quite a few no-shows last weekend for Niagara. 21:59 We kind of thought that was going to happen. 22:01 I don't think that's going to be as much of the case this weekend. 22:03 There'll be quite a few Bulldog fans in there. 22:06 Yeah, you'd think for the Ticket Redemption this weekend would be the game where people who have seats are going to show up. 22:13 I know there's still probably five to seven hundred seats available for people to purchase if they're looking to go to the game. 22:19 It should be exciting. 22:21 I'm interested to see how Minnesota comes out on Friday. 22:24 I think they pressed Niagara a little too hard, especially during the second period last weekend. 22:31 I know you were tweeting at me. 22:33 I'm probably cringing watching the game. 22:37 You don't mess around with the puck at the blue line. 22:39 And it seemed like Minnesota did not understand that. 22:42 And it was just feeding Niagara's transition game. 22:45 If you come into a game against Duluth with that kind of game plan, you're going to get eaten up. 22:51 That's UMD strength. 22:53 I know Bruce touched on it a little bit earlier. 22:55 You know, it's a five man defense coming through the neutral zone. 22:58 And that's something that allows the Bulldogs to be such a good team in the tournament because they play against teams who are trying to force the play, force zone entry, force possession, and it just feeds right in their hands when they're on their game. 23:12 Yeah, and that's the thing is they weren't, I don't think, on their game last weekend. 23:17 I'm not going to say for certain, but I do believe that it's something that's been worked on and addressed here this week. 23:24 And I'm very interested to see how UMD looks defensively in these games this weekend because, you know, I think they were, they had some holes poked in them last week by Wisconsin. 23:35 And, you know, being down at practice a couple days this week, it looks like they're working to deal with that. 23:40 And, you know, you can look at seven goals scored in four games and think that's not very good. 23:44 But I think that the attitude is right now is that that's going to come. 23:48 But we have to get better on our own zone right now. 23:52 We've got Bulldog Lovin Eskimo asking on Twitter earlier today. 23:57 He's like, Bruce's favorite call from a Bulldog Gopher game. 24:01 Is there one that stands out in your memory? 24:04 I saw that tweet and there's two that come to mind. 24:07 There was Mike Connelly's five goal game in 11, first year at Amsoil, which was a tremendous night. 24:14 And it's a win, so that's always nice. 24:18 And then there was the boat racing of the Gophers in Manchester in the first round of the NCAAs. 24:25 And I think it was 2015. 24:26 They get up 3-0 in the first and basically put it in cruise control after that. 24:31 And the one thing that clouds that memory is the next night is the night of the Phantom penalty wait in the third. 24:37 It led to an Evan Rodriguez power play goal. 24:39 That led to Boston University going to the Frozen Four instead of UMD. 24:45 Well, one thing that these two teams are franchises, as you say, having come, is that they've both won back-to-back tournaments or titles, I should say. 24:56 And, you know, when it came from Minnesota to get that third one, they couldn't get it done, even though they had loaded team. 25:05 And this year, you know, I think Duluth's got a loaded team as well, Veegs. 25:10 But really, with Minnesota, it was just kind of a problem with some of the, you know, attitudes and some of the feelings of people, and they just couldn't put it together. 25:19 But I think Duluth's got a really good chance to do three-peat here. 25:23 The one thing about Duluth and the three-peat chance is it takes a lot of hard work to get there. 25:29 I wrote in the Athletic Today kind of ranking where the five programs, I consider them programs, not franchises. 25:37 Sorry, wrong word. 25:39 I put Duluth on top because of what Scott Sandlin's been able to get out of his team at the end of the year. 25:45 He doesn't necessarily have programs that can outscore their mistakes, but he gets them to buy into the system, and that's going to make them dangerous if he just gets the right pieces every year. 25:56 You saw last weekend, they don't have the pieces working quite right, but when you have leaders like Dominic Tomonato, Carson Kuhlman, Parker McKay, Justin Richards, those are guys who buy into the system and get their teammates to buy in. 26:12 I think when you have Minnesota teams that haven't done very well, you've got a lot of players who are distracted by other things. 26:18 They're thinking, how am I going to become a pro? 26:21 Am I getting better skill wise? 26:22 What do my zone entries look like to my pro scouts? 26:26 Things like that. 26:27 And so you have to narrow your focus to be successful in college hockey. 26:30 And one program has been able to do that lately, and it's UMD. 26:35 And I would argue that not just the two championships in a row, obviously those are very impressive and it's very, very difficult to do what they've done. 26:43 But I would throw into the fact that the last five years UMD has been at least in the round of eight. 26:48 And in a tournament where there's more parity than ever before, in a sport where there's more parity than ever before, the last five years UMD has been among the last eight teams standing in this tournament. 26:59 That's, Denver as well for that matter, that's just incredible. 27:03 And that's one thing that Minnesota is trying to get back to, Hammy, is just being more consistent and not on the edge of making the tournament, but making the tournament every year and being successful every year. 27:15 And that's kind of one thing that's been lost towards the end of the Lucia era. 27:21 Yeah, I mean, I think, you know, like Vig said, it was kind of a, I think you have players that were kind of, their tensions weren't necessarily on what they were doing right in front of them, but more one step away from a pro career or some of those kinds of things. 27:38 And, you know, I think a lot of people underestimate the fact that it's not just about talent. 27:43 It's also about team chemistry. 27:46 It's the intangibles and, you know, the work ethic of a team. 27:49 And, you know, you got to have some of the right leaders. 27:54 I think we've had some good leaders, but I don't think that we've necessarily had enough of those character guys. 27:59 And I think that what we saw last year with our coach is that, you know, he had obviously inherited most of that team, but he wanted to instill kind of a new culture. 28:08 And it's kind of hard to do that with existing players that you inherit. 28:12 But I think we'll start to see this year and the next coming years that you'll see more of those guys that have more of that mentality that UMD has been showing in recent years. 28:22 And one thing that I think will really help you this year up in Duluth, Bruce, is you didn't lose a lot. 28:31 You lost some. 28:32 You lost some. 28:33 You could have lost a lot more. 28:35 But these guys came back and wanted to play and win another championship. 28:39 I think the second Hunter Shepard said, I'm coming back. 28:42 That sealed it for a lot of guys because they know what he means to them and what he means to this team. 28:48 And the fact that he wanted to come back as badly as he did, that underscored it for a lot of people. 28:55 And I talked to Shep a little bit in September, and he said for him, it was huge to hear that Wolfie and Dillon Samberg are going to come back. 29:03 And to have that support in front of him and know those guys wanted to continue to come back. 29:09 And that's part of what's been laid here in Duluth is this culture where guys want to be here. 29:14 They want to come back and they want to have a chance to win again. 29:19 And you can't put a price on having the experience and the leadership that this group does because of everything these guys have been through the last two, three years. 29:27 I mean, Mick Wolves played in the last three NCAA championship games. 29:31 That's experience that you cannot describe in words. 29:35 Can we get that two weeks? 29:39 It's going to take a little bit of time to have relationships with your recruits where you can talk to them and convince them maybe to come back when they're not sure. 29:47 Now, there's a lot of people in players ears these days with advisors and scouts and pro teams about trying to sign and move on. 29:55 And sometimes those years get persuaded. 29:58 I'm sure even Scott Sandlin felt more comfortable coming back when he heard Hunter Shepard was coming back. 30:05 Because he was being interviewed by Anaheim and maybe he could have pushed a little more to get that job. 30:11 But when you have your goaltender coming back, maybe it makes it a little bit easier. 30:14 And then when you have an AD like Josh Berlo, who gives you a contract that raises your salary up, raises your staff salary up a little bit, gives you a little retroactive money and bonuses, that makes it easier too. 30:28 Yeah, he showed a lot of, you know, the university showed him a lot of loyalty and he has shown his staff an incredible amount of loyalty and that's also part of it. 30:35 I think a lot of that staff, you know, guys like Jason Hurd or Adam Krauss now, they want to be here too because they know that he's going to take care of them. 30:44 Well, one thing that's happened, you know, obviously Minnesota, Minnesota, Duluth, no longer in the same league. 30:53 But the old league, the WCHA, it's still churning and, you know, we've got a ton of schools ready to break away and kind of leave, you know, Alaska or the Alaska schools and Huntsville out in the middle of nowhere. 31:10 What are your thoughts on this whole situation here, Bruce, of what's happening to the old WCHA? 31:15 Well, first off, I hate it for the Alaska schools and Huntsville, although the Alaska schools have their own set of problems right now that are not related to the WCHA. 31:23 So maybe that's not an issue for them. 31:26 But I hate it for Huntsville because they're kind of left out in the dark here. 31:30 But I think it's kind of the same mentality that broke up the WCHA the first time around is you've got some schools that want to do things one way. 31:39 Other schools want to do it a different way. 31:41 And eventually, you know, you're going to have a group. 31:45 We have a majority like this, you know, seven out of ten that want to do it one way. 31:49 If they are not going to get their way, they're going to go somewhere else so they can get their way. 31:54 It does make sense. 31:55 It does. 31:56 It does. 31:57 You know, the one school that we've talked about in the past who kind of got screwed the whole way around, we thought was Bemidji State. 32:06 Yeah, Bemidji just comes into this great league with all these schools. 32:09 They're there a couple years. 32:10 And then all of a sudden they look around and it's a completely different view. 32:17 It is. 32:18 And, you know, they went, they got their building, which, you know, they were told they had to get and they worked very hard to get it. 32:24 It's a very nice building and a great spot. 32:26 And, yeah, they turn around and all of a sudden this is a completely different conference and it's not the same stature. 32:33 It's not the same level of play that it was. 32:35 And they've kind of always been forgotten, you know, even when the NCHC, all the rumors of expansion, it wasn't Bemidji. 32:44 It was Mankato in Arizona State that were getting all the buzz. 32:47 Nobody talked about Bemidji. 32:49 And I don't know exactly why that is, but I do appreciate the fact that UMD plays them regularly. 32:55 Minnesota's played them. 32:57 St. 32:57 Cloud went up there and played this year. 32:58 North Dakota's playing them again this year. 33:00 I think they're going there next year. 33:01 So if we go there again next year, it's I mean, at least you're doing your part. 33:07 But yeah, it's been kind of strange how almost forgotten about they become. 33:12 And, you know, you know, we've talked about all this change and people, how they hate Big Ten and whatnot. 33:18 That's pretty much settled, Hammeh, but the rest of college hockey is still changing. 33:23 And, you know, teams like Huntsville and, you know, the Alaska schools and even Arizona State, there's still a lot of jumbling to have go on here. 33:33 Yeah, I mean, it's tough because you can't necessarily blame anybody for trying to maximize things for themselves. 33:42 You know, it's unfortunate that it does impact a few schools. 33:47 But you also can't say to yourself, you know, that you resent that this school or that school is trying to make their situation better. 33:55 I mean, we all in life want to make our situations the best they can be. 33:58 So I can't fault certain institutions for wanting to do certain things like that. 34:03 So it's tough. 34:04 And I don't know what such a niche sport and the small amount of participants, you know, it's a tough one. 34:12 And unfortunately, it has that kind of impact. 34:15 Could we see maybe Arizona State joining these seven schools, Veegs? 34:19 I think it's more likely you're going to see St. 34:21 Thomas be the eighth program to join these schools. 34:25 I don't think what St. 34:27 Thomas has been doing in the MIAC is so much as getting kicked out, as looking for a way how to transition D1 as quick as possible. 34:35 They make a lot of sense to me as the eighth member in that new league with the school sort of trying to leave the WCHA. 34:41 They would make a lot of sense geographically. 34:44 There's plenty of players that can play D1 hockey. 34:47 It would make sense as the 61st program. 34:50 I think that's going to be the movement. 34:52 Mike Hastings was on Beyond the Pond in September with Pat Nicoletti and Brandon Miluski. 34:57 And he said he's excited to welcome St. 34:59 Thomas to college hockey if they want to make the move. 35:03 Well, I think it's a foregone conclusion at this point that St. 35:06 Thomas is going to end up Division 1. 35:08 And because they got the Summit League invite, which obviously doesn't affect their hockey because that's not a sport the Summit League offers. 35:16 But if they're going to go D1 and play at the Summit League, they're either dropping hockey or they're moving hockey to D1. 35:21 I don't see any way they drop hockey. 35:23 So, yeah, I think at this point, that's we're waiting for that to happen. 35:28 And the AD, they hired Phil Austin. 35:30 He was the guy at Penn State when they transitioned to D1 hockey. 35:33 So he's got that experience with what's necessary to build a program. 35:37 You know, they're probably going to have to look for a rink. 35:39 I know they have a couple of years left on their lease at the St. 35:43 Thomas Academy rink. 35:45 So something's going to happen there, I think, in the next couple of years. 35:48 Could this be the opportunity to get a decent 5,000 seat rink in this area? 35:56 That's not, I mean, I guess it's so. 36:01 They go into D1 and it's still not a rink. 36:03 That's one thing we're missing in this area, and it's been hurting the NCAA tournament, is we don't have any middle-sized arenas that are not associated with schools. 36:13 And, you know, if St. 36:14 Thomas goes to D1, they'll have to build one, and then people won't be able to play there, they can't play at Bigger Uchi, they can't play at Mankato, wherever. 36:23 We're still kind of left in the same situation in the NCAAs, Veegs. 36:27 Yeah, the only way to really get a rank for the NCAAs, like here for Vegoe, brings up on the live chat, would be, you know, the fairgrounds, get a new refrigeration system, upgrade the Coliseum, you know, make it where there's 5,000 seats, or if there were to be a junior team. 36:43 I know there's a lot of talk for a while about a junior team forming in, you know, somewhere like Edina and building a big rank there. 36:50 Those would be the only hopes to have a facility. 36:52 I'm so bummed that The Wilde didn't make their Trier rank a 5,000-seater, so they could have hosted regionals. 36:59 But maybe that site just wouldn't have been a good one for that many fans. 37:04 Apparently, these people who wanted a junior team in town forgot what it was like with the USHL team and Fridley and whatever else. 37:11 So those weren't, trust me, those weren't exactly well-attended games. 37:15 Yeah, the Vulcans and the Magicians aren't exactly breaking down attendance records, but I think the USHL has changed a little bit too since those programs are around. 37:24 I mean, we at least have some change this year, Bruce. 37:28 You know, there's going to be a Loveland Regional, and it's somebody that, it's a team that's not called North Dakota or Minnesota actually hosting a regional in this area. 37:38 Well, if you would call it area. 37:40 And I think Denver's already been penciled in to play there. 37:44 They're pretty good. 37:45 I'm pretty sure they'll make the tournament. 37:47 So, no, it's good. 37:49 I think that, you know, Loveland from everything I've heard, that's a nice facility and it will do well. 37:55 That's great. 37:56 I think Sioux Falls is a tremendous facility. 37:59 They did it. 37:59 You know, keep in mind, Sioux Falls had that regional and North Dakota wasn't there. 38:04 It was UMD, it was St. 38:05 Cloud State, Mankato, along with Air Force. 38:08 And I thought for when you consider, you know, the fact that North Dakota wasn't there and that was the host. 38:15 And that was, you know, they bought a bunch of the tickets already. 38:18 I thought that was a very well attended regional with a great atmosphere. 38:23 And it showed that that can work, that that type of model can work. 38:28 I think, you know, Fargo this year without North Dakota, it did okay. 38:32 And again, I think it showed that that can work. 38:34 The problem isn't that the system, the model can't work. 38:38 The problem is that in the western part of the country, there aren't enough facilities that meet the requirements to be part of that model. 38:46 And so you end up in the same two or three rinks every single year because nobody else can bid. 38:52 And V, we've also had a couple, you know, areas that have stopped bidding. 38:56 I mean, we don't see, you know, we still see some Green Bay. 38:59 We used to see in Michigan a few different places. 39:02 Those schools stopped. 39:03 Or not schools. 39:04 Well, actually, the schools did stop and those towns and rinks have stopped bidding as well. 39:09 Well, I think the guarantee was something that scared off some programs. 39:13 There's a lot of hockey programs that don't have the big budgets of the big ten institutions. 39:18 They don't want to put the risk out there of having a bad attendance at a regional. 39:23 And then you have buildings like Excel and Pepsi Center that don't want to give up the dates for a tournament because they know it's not going to make money. 39:31 So they're not interested anymore in being a part of a regional either. 39:34 Yeah, that's exactly it. 39:36 And I think you're, you know, what you're seeing is, you know, out east, there are some facilities that could make it work. 39:43 Having been in Allentown, it's stupid that it's the Midwest regional, but Allentown works. 39:49 It's not, it wasn't a greatly attended regional, but it was a very well run regional. 39:53 As you guys know, those could be two different things. 39:56 And of course, they're not even using a directional regional name anymore, are they Veegs? 40:04 Nope, which is a good sign for the NCAA sticking to this system where they're going to have three out east. 40:13 Until the Western coaches get together and say they're going to vote as a block to go back to campus sites, they could have a high seat host, a first round elimination game. 40:23 There's a lot of options there. 40:25 You're going to see three out east. 40:27 That's just the way it's going to be. 40:29 Well, I think you're going to see, you could, there's two things that could happen. 40:33 First, the idea of campus sites and a single round games at like eight different sites. 40:41 Well, that's going to take the involvement of ESPN. 40:43 As long as ESPN wants to televised regionals the way that they're televised in the now, we're not going to change the format. 40:51 It's going to be regional weekend, three days, the 12 games to pair it down to the frozen floor. 40:59 That's going to stay the same, but you can still allow for different sites. 41:05 For example, when Notre Dame hosted a regional, the Gophers have hosted regionals and Wisconsin had a regional at the Cole Center. 41:12 You can still allow for that without breaking down the system that ESPN likes in terms of having the predetermined sites where they can get everything set up well in advance, save some money and televised all these games over three days. 41:26 Hamme, you still there? 41:27 Nope, Hamme had to go. 41:31 He had to take a phone call, had a feeling he was a... 41:34 It happens. 41:36 It does. 41:36 He's a Wester... 41:37 I got to go pretty soon too, actually. 41:39 There you go. 41:40 Well, this is the perfect time because we kind of talked about a lot of things I wanted to talk about with you, Bruce. 41:46 It's nice to have you on and we're definitely going to have you on again because I'm sure there's another home and home next year, isn't there? 41:52 I believe you guys are up here for the icebreaker next year. 41:55 Oh, that's right. 41:58 Vegs, maybe that's a chance we can get up there and do some drinking again. 42:01 Should be. 42:04 So, okay, well, let's quick get your predictions. 42:06 I'm thinking the home teams are going to win this weekend. 42:09 You know, they'll be close games, but I'm thinking split. 42:11 Vegoe, your thoughts? 42:14 Yeah, I think Minnesota is going to win the first game on the big sheet. 42:17 I think after seeing what the Bulldogs put out last weekend, they're not quite at that level of shutting down the neutral zone like we're used to. 42:26 And I think it's going to allow Minnesota to get some off at the zone time. 42:30 They learned a lot from their series with Niagara. 42:33 But once they get up in the building, Amsoil, packed house, rowdy crowd, it's going to be challenging. 42:42 Bruce, what do you think? 42:45 I think I'm going to have to bring an extra tie for Friday because that's what the game is going to end in. 42:49 And then we'll get a home win Saturday. 42:51 So we'll turn the tables on you guys from last year, basically. 42:56 You know, that was fun. 42:57 That was the one game I went to as a fan last year was up in Duluth. 43:00 I always loved going to Duluth. 43:03 And it was a fun time. 43:05 And, you know, we went through overtime and everyone was like, is this it? 43:09 We're ending? 43:10 Yeah, that's it, folks. 43:11 You know, that's how it's going to happen. 43:14 You know, unfortunately, thanks a lot, Mike Schaefer. 43:19 That's kind of how it goes. 43:20 Veegs, I saw you just had an article out with the Athletic Today talking about them bulldogs. 43:26 What else are you working on? 43:29 I got a couple other stories looking at how some of the players train in the off season, looking at the captains of Minnesota's team. 43:36 And we'll probably have a few more things coming up here going into the holidays. 43:41 All right. 43:42 And Bruce, you're still busy with all that radio stuff, aren't you? 43:46 That's all I do. 43:51 Well, we appreciate you coming on and I'll be sure to stop by on Friday and say hello to you. 43:57 So it's a, we always have some fun, good ribbing between one another. 44:01 But you know, it's college hockey. 44:02 We all have a blast no matter what's going on. 44:05 And we have to stick together. 44:07 There's not enough of us. 44:08 That is, that is true. 44:11 Well, that's going to do it for this episode of the GPL Podcast. 44:14 I'd like to thank Bruce for joining us. 44:16 We'll be sure to have him on in the future. 44:19 Hopefully, again, it's 157 episodes before we do this again. 44:22 I'm gonna have a problem. 44:24 For those of you listening live, stay tuned for a little bit over time. 44:27 For the rest of you, we'll be back next week. 44:30 Thanks for listening.