0:08
This is the GPL Podcast from gopherpucklive.com.
0:23
Now, here's Hammy, Vegoe, and your host, Jupiter.
0:37
Good evening, and welcome to the GPL Podcast, episode number 158.
0:45
No Hammy this week, he's got a lot of work to do, couldn't get the time away, and I don't blame him.
0:49
He's got some huge projects at work, and ends up that's more important than our little podcast here.
0:55
But as always, we do have Eric Vegoe.
0:58
Veegs, how you doing?
1:00
I'm doing great on this Halloween Eve.
1:03
Lots of excitement in the household.
1:06
Yeah, we were just talking right before the show here how, well, you said a five and a seven-year-old?
1:11
That's correct.
1:12
They're very excited.
1:14
Well, it's the perfect age.
1:17
It is the perfect age.
1:18
You know, some people don't grow out of it.
1:20
I'm expecting we'll see many, many costumes at Mariucci this weekend.
1:24
I don't think we'll see the Gophers in taconite and chrome helmets, like their football brothers, but they do want people to come in costumes for free candy.
1:35
Oh, boy.
1:36
I love those helmets that football team was wearing last weekend.
1:40
I thought it was sweet, rode the boat.
1:42
You know, PJ Fleck was on campus and on the ice this week, and he has got things going.
1:48
He does?
1:49
I just released some ticket scan data on Twitter today for the football program because there are a lot of people on Gopher Illustrated, a podcast I was on this year, and a lovely website, and they were very interested in the football data, so I grabbed that for them.
2:04
I also have some hockey data that I will be sharing here at some point.
2:07
I always love that hockey data.
2:11
Well, we don't really love it.
2:13
Well, it's interesting.
2:14
It's very revealing.
2:15
I know the entire Athletic Department is all hands on deck to make a good impression on November 9th at 11 o'clock when they take on Penn State.
2:25
I don't see the same level of effort with the hockey program, but they are trying some things.
2:30
And now, you know, about the uniforms, love the helmets.
2:35
I think the gray looked great with them.
2:37
I'm just not much of a gray person, you know, non-school color.
2:40
I would have preferred them in all maroon with that because I think that would have been just super awesome.
2:45
Maybe they'll do it on Saturday, next Saturday I should say.
2:49
But boy, the whole thing looked really nice.
2:51
I think they could just keep those gold helmets and go with it.
2:55
Yeah, I think the chrome helmets for football is amazing.
2:58
You know, Tony Dungy back when he played, he had the old gold helmet.
3:02
They didn't quite have the technology to chrome it out like they do now.
3:05
And I think just gray is the new black.
3:08
I remember in the 90s it seemed like every hockey team had a black alternate jersey or a third uniform or went with that for their roads.
3:16
And now gray is the cool color.
3:18
So, there you go.
3:20
Even the Gophers did it with that, well, sorry, that goofy Casey Hankinson designed jersey.
3:25
Had quite a bit of black in it.
3:27
Yeah, we had a lot of black.
3:28
We had dazzle.
3:29
That was a big thing for a while.
3:31
You know, the little sheen, everybody's jersey.
3:33
Yep, I have.
3:34
I've got one of those.
3:35
Got one of those block M dazzle, the kind of sheen gold jersey.
3:39
Back in the mid-90s when I was playing high school hockey, you'd always get a couple dazzle fabric teams on the schedule.
3:45
Yeah.
3:47
So, Veegs, not a great weekend for our team.
3:51
It was Friday night.
3:52
They were pretty much outplayed the entire game, got close, and when they did get close, some mistakes and all of a sudden, Duluth pulled away.
4:01
Second night, much better night, just couldn't get past that great goalkeeper up there.
4:07
But the bottom line is two losses.
4:11
Yeah, I think on Friday night, Minnesota just didn't come out with the right game plan.
4:17
You saw so many times where they crossed the offensive blue line, and you saw Fords try to make moves to the middle.
4:24
When you're playing against defensemen who have good gaps, and you're playing against teams with good back checking, that's not a recipe for success.
4:33
And that's something that hampered them a little bit, gave Duluth the puck quite a bit.
4:39
Scott Peruvich, last year when he played on the big ice, seemed to rush things and take too many chances.
4:45
He played the perfect game on Friday night.
4:48
Every time he had the puck, he held it just the right amount of time, picked some seam passes, shot through screens, just completely dominated the game.
4:58
And Minnesota made too many mistakes and he capitalized on all of them.
5:02
Should they have done more of a dump and chase game?
5:05
Well, I think once you cross the blue line, if you don't have any space, there's no other choice for you.
5:11
You're not going to be able to stick handle through one or two players, and that's the position they were putting themselves in.
5:17
It wasn't like they were getting numbers through the neutral zone and had space to make plays.
5:23
Sometimes you just have to do that.
5:25
I've locked a little bit of NHL stats, and there are teams like the Islanders and Blues who dump in the puck effectively enough and win it back that it's more effective than zone entries, and so much so that other teams give them space and allow them to get rush chances when they do have those opportunities.
5:45
And another thing that comes with that, when you're at Mariucci, it's a lake back there.
5:50
There is a ton of space and a ton of areas to go to, and you can really take advantage of that.
5:58
Well, I think the corners are so deep and big.
6:01
That's the biggest thing.
6:02
Everybody talks about the 200 by 100, so there's an extra five feet outside the dots.
6:08
Well, at Mariucci, there's probably also an extra couple hundred square feet in each corner.
6:13
Because of the radius.
6:16
So if you can get the puck there, there's a lot of space for you to get to, and it's a long way for support to help the D.
6:23
And you start making the other defensemen skate.
6:26
One thing about Duluth this last weekend, they basically played five defensemen the whole weekend.
6:32
Probably a missed opportunity not making them go get more puck retrievals.
6:36
It can work for it.
6:37
Because you think about the corners of the arena, Mariucci, I want to say, is a radius of 20 feet.
6:44
So it's a deep, very sharp corner, I would say.
6:49
Compared to an NHL, which I believe is 28 feet or something close to that.
6:54
Yeah, in the NHL rink, once you start to get outside the dots, the corner disappears on you.
6:59
So it forces you back to the play.
7:02
Mariucci, that doesn't happen.
7:03
It just keeps going all the way to the wall almost.
7:06
Yes, yes.
7:07
And from when they eventually redo the rink, I believe they're not going to a full 28.
7:13
They're going to go up kind of in between to a 24.
7:16
But that will still be much better than it currently is.
7:20
Yeah, and it's just an opportunity that Minnesota missed, I think.
7:23
And it got them in trouble.
7:25
Pernovich played great.
7:26
I thought UMD was really patient on their opportunities.
7:31
They didn't fumble any of them.
7:33
Every once in a while, you'll see one of the Minnesota players get a scoring chance, but they just aren't clean on the puck.
7:38
And I think that's just that youth coming through to their play.
7:42
And it's, you know, having them grip the stick a little bit too tight.
7:45
And boy, I saw it quite a few times Friday night.
7:50
They really want to make that extra pass, don't they?
7:53
Oh boy, that is frustrating.
7:56
Yeah, Bob Motsgau brought that up to me on Tuesday when I asked him a question about balancing getting the ground game going and getting the puck below the goal line versus getting pucks on net.
8:07
And he thought that they were passing up shots that were there.
8:12
You know, it's not so much getting the puck below the goal line.
8:16
It's once there's a shooting opportunity, take it.
8:19
But you just can't pass up as many chances as they're passing up.
8:22
And I think they're kind of overthinking things here and there.
8:25
And especially when you're playing against Hunter Shepard, who's played 92 NCAA games, that gets into your head a little bit that you have to make a perfect shot.
8:34
Oftentimes, against goalies like that, you want to put the puck into his feet and get the defense to scramble a little bit and maybe get an easy chip-in goal.
8:43
And that's the one thing we have noticed this early in the season, is a lot of players, some of the younger guys and even some of the older guys, being in a perfect shooting position and opting to make that last pass instead of shooting.
8:58
And that could be just, you know, early season, kind of nervousness, I want to get my first, you know, or whatever, I want to make it look good.
9:08
But boy, Moscow's really got to get it in their heads.
9:11
You have that opportunity.
9:12
You need to take the shot.
9:15
Yeah, and it's just a mindset.
9:16
I think a couple of guys need to be a little bit more selfish out there.
9:21
You see these guys coming down the wing, McManus, Goughlin, they want to make that perfect play, Sample Ranta.
9:28
They just got to put pucks on net.
9:29
And that also allows your teammates to get a more simple mindset of crashing the net.
9:36
If they know you're going to be shooting the puck, they can go directly at the net and force their player into the crease and create a lot of traffic.
9:45
Because if you're always looking for that perfect pass, you're not driving the net because you're trying to stay open for that pass.
9:52
So it's kind of a two-fold problem when you're looking for that cute play.
9:57
No more cuteness.
10:00
Well, and you can't be cute against Notre Dame this weekend.
10:02
You know, it's another similar team where they're going to be in a really good structure.
10:07
There's not going to be a lot of rush scoring chances.
10:10
As Bob Motzkoff said this week, that's like finding a piece of gold on the ice.
10:14
Not going to happen.
10:15
So you got to take chances when you get them.
10:18
And you look at this too.
10:21
A split would have really helped Minnesota, but a sweep by Duluth could really hurt them later this season.
10:28
Well, it's not good because they're going to have to have a good weekend against North Dakota to protect their pairwise against the NCHC.
10:36
And then if they do play St.
10:37
Cloud, you know, it's another team that they would have to have a good result against to get that pairwise boost.
10:44
You know, this team has a chance to get themselves on the bubble.
10:47
But if they lose these non-conference series, it's going to be tough to pull out.
10:53
Well, before we get towards Notre Dame, I know you've been doing quite a bit of writing for the Athletic Veegs.
11:01
Some things you can't really tell us about yet, some of your future stuff.
11:04
But what have you been working on recently that you've kind of wanted to talk about?
11:10
Well, the recent thing that published today was talking about PJ.
11:14
Fleck trying out for the Gopher Hockey Team.
11:17
Yesterday, Tuesday, he stepped on the ice in full goalie gear and got the semi-circle warm-up, and then they played a little small area game with him and Ned.
11:28
And I did a little scouting report for my readers at the Athletic.
11:33
So now, did you know this was coming?
11:35
Or were you kind of out watching practice all of a sudden?
11:38
Some guy comes out in this big white jersey.
11:41
You know, when you have about 15 television cameras on the bench, something's going on.
11:48
And with the off week, PJ Flex has been telling Bob Motzko, however, since he's been on campus, that he can play goalie.
11:55
He's got experience playing goalie.
11:57
And you've got this guy who's got this long history playing at Northern Illinois, undrafted free agent, making it in San Francisco, making a bunch of coaching stops at Ohio State, Rutgers, Tampa Bay, Western Michigan.
12:10
And he's like, I can play goalie.
12:11
Bob's like, all right, let's see it.
12:13
And so they got him out there and, you know, it must be easier than it looks to PJ.
12:19
Yeah, they must have given some kind of heads up somewhere because, you know, just some of the pictures I saw, all the main TV guys were there.
12:30
Yeah, it was a bit of a setup.
12:33
And the players did not take it easy on PJ, too.
12:35
You know, they were they were trying to beat the glove hand, which, you know, if you're going to give PJ a strength and net, it was probably his glove hand.
12:43
He's got pretty good hands as a former receiver.
12:46
And so they were just testing it.
12:47
And I thought Reedy was going to whistle one right off the mask.
12:51
There are many other guys.
12:54
Tyler Nanny put one glove side.
12:55
There are a couple of neck shots, but I think Brandon McManus and Bryce Bras, you can see it was an intense peppering.
13:05
It looked great.
13:06
I saw a bunch of video clips and whatnot.
13:09
You know, I think that's kind of a fun thing for the players as well.
13:14
You know, sometimes it can't be all just serious stuff.
13:17
To have a little bit of fun during the week, you know, in practice, I think can go a long way.
13:25
Yeah, I think things could get really tense here.
13:27
You know, things will continue like this, so it's good to break it up and remind them that they're a part of something big on campus.
13:34
And that's one thing that this administration under Mark Coyle really emphasizes.
13:39
You know, this is an athletic department that wants to interact with each other.
13:45
There's no eyes out there.
13:47
There's a bunch of teams that work together, putting them in the Athletes Village for meals, having all the counseling services up there, the career opportunities.
13:55
You know, they do a lot of things as an entire athletic department that's pretty unique.
13:59
Yes, that is definitely it.
14:02
I don't think we would have seen other coaches over there.
14:04
So PJ Flex kind of a, he's a different guy.
14:07
So it was kind of cool to see.
14:09
Skyumala, our boy, he wants to know, Veegs, how are the alums doing with Moscow?
14:15
We're in year two.
14:16
Are they coming back into the fold now or are they staying away?
14:20
I think some of them are coming back.
14:22
I saw Pat O'Leary in the stands checking out PJ Flex.
14:27
There's some around campus.
14:29
I know that they're trying to get those guys to get season tickets.
14:32
I think that's a big push of the M Club is to get those guys back in the building on a more consistent basis.
14:38
So they're attached to the program or around the program.
14:42
So I think it's something they're still trying to work on and build.
14:45
There's a lot of those alums who are waiting for them to start winning, which is not always the answer to building a community like this.
14:55
There's plenty of other schools that don't win all the time that have their alums around the building all the time.
15:00
But it's something here that that's what they hold to.
15:03
So we'll see if they start winning and they're still not there.
15:06
It's obviously not winning.
15:08
Boy, I saw Larry actually had a football game last year.
15:12
Actually, I took a picture of the fans and he was down there in the student section just to see what was going on.
15:17
And I'm kind of blanking on who he was with.
15:22
Well, those guys get together for the early games.
15:25
They do a big tailgate and they get all their teammates back together kind of like a mini reunion.
15:30
And they have a fun time.
15:33
I know Nate Schmitz, one of those guys who came back on campus for that.
15:36
You know, the NHL season hasn't really gotten underway.
15:39
So those guys are around.
15:41
It's always fun.
15:43
Always fun.
15:44
But PJ wasn't just there to take shots.
15:47
He also gave the team a little bit of a message about the race to maturity, like a Sky-U-Ma maturity.
15:54
And that's something that they struggled with last year.
15:58
They had so many young players who had to play and had to play key roles.
16:02
And it's not just enough to fill the role and learn on the job.
16:06
You have to step into the fire and compete and have a desire to be successful.
16:13
And that's really his message to the team because the hockey program has got so many young players now.
16:18
There are freshmen on just about every line that Bob Motzko throws out there.
16:22
On every special teams there are freshmen out there.
16:25
Two of the better defensemen are freshmen out there.
16:28
And they need those guys to perform at a high level for them to have success.
16:33
And PJ Sane, if you stick to it and you challenge yourself and challenge each other, by the end of the year, tide will turn and you might see different results on the scoreboard.
16:43
So I need you to talk me off the ledge here, Veegs.
16:48
I've been a little frustrated with Mr.
16:49
Nanny's play.
16:51
As you know, as I've been tweeting a little bit.
16:53
As if, you know, when you're frustrated, you're like, yeah, he's the worst defenseman out there.
16:57
You know, he may just be.
16:59
And then someone posted on Twitter, you know, you know, people ripping on some of the freshman defensemen.
17:04
They're like, yeah, yeah, there's six games in.
17:06
You got to relax.
17:08
And then you look at somebody like Nanny who might be making a lot of kind of freshmen mistakes out there.
17:15
Talk me off the ledge.
17:18
Well, I think one of the things with Tyler Nanny is he needs a partner who can support him a little bit.
17:24
And the situations where I feel like Nanny has been on the ice to get minuses, his teammates haven't supported him.
17:31
And they're putting him in positions where he's playing a two on one at the crease, which is just not a place you want to be as a defenseman.
17:40
He does pretty well when he gets protected by a partner.
17:43
I thought when he played with Ben Brinkman last year, they were pretty steady down the stretch.
17:48
Ben knew enough to stay back a little bit.
17:50
Maybe the forward's on the ice, knew to stay a little higher.
17:53
But Tyler is one of the fastest players on the team.
17:56
When they do the testing, he and Sammy Walker are neck and neck for the fastest player.
18:02
So he's got a lot of ability.
18:04
He's just got to find a way to pick his spots.
18:06
And that's something that Bob Motzgau and Garrett Raboyn worked really hard with him last year about trying to pick his spots.
18:13
And I don't think we're seeing him get in trouble because he's taking bad chances.
18:18
I think you're seeing him get in trouble because the team is collapsing in their own zone.
18:22
And he's the one that you see.
18:27
So hold out hope.
18:29
When the team structure gets a little bit better, it'll protect him and allow him to shine a little bit more.
18:34
When you need a defenseman to come down from the point and pinch and make a play and keep possession, he's one of their best players at that.
18:41
Yeah, well, our boy Joukrove leaned over to me after they gave up that fourth, I believe the fourth goal on Friday night when they had gotten within one.
18:48
And he's like, Geez, is Nanny the worst defenseman out there?
18:52
I'm like, well, I'm going to tweet it.
18:56
I heard an interesting story one day about Tyler Nanny.
18:59
You know, there's three things you can do.
19:01
You can do the right thing.
19:03
You can do nothing and you can do the wrong thing.
19:08
Tyler Nanny is not going to do nothing.
19:10
He's going to try to make a play.
19:12
That is correct.
19:12
Yes.
19:13
So you need that out of guys and you hope that they learn enough of the odds where they are making the right play more often than not.
19:21
Jess wants you to tell PJ that those uniforms absolutely suck.
19:27
He must be talking about the gray.
19:29
Jess, those uniforms are not for you.
19:30
Those are for all those four and five star recruits that PJ is out talking to this weekend.
19:36
Sorry, the chrome helmets are pretty tight.
19:40
Wear that with all maroon.
19:42
I think we'll see that.
19:44
It's military weekend though, next week.
19:46
Oh yeah, they'll probably have the flag.
19:48
They might have some kind of something weird going on.
19:50
So we'll have to see.
19:54
It's exciting though.
19:55
It's fun when the football team is good, which never really happens.
20:01
But we did see this team grow up on Saturday a little bit.
20:04
I thought they started the game with a couple of bad turnovers.
20:08
There were probably three or four rushes where they made that bad play as they crossed the zone and didn't really get any zone time.
20:14
But I think they started to figure things out a little bit.
20:17
During the second period, we saw breakaways for Sammy Walker.
20:21
We saw Sampo all alone, gaping that and he put it over.
20:25
There are a couple other plays.
20:27
And then they shot themselves in the foot a little bit with taking some bad penalties.
20:31
McLaughlin and Sammy Walker took some.
20:34
One that took them off the power play.
20:36
And you're just seeing those mistakes that are holding them back a little bit.
20:41
It was a growing weekend.
20:42
I thought they played better.
20:43
It's just too bad they couldn't get any points out of there for the pairwise down the road.
20:47
Was that kind of a theme Saturday night?
20:53
Full disclosure here, I didn't see the game at all.
20:56
I was at a reunion doing some other stuff.
20:58
Then when I got home, I heard the very end of the game in the car because it was a quick game, actually.
21:04
It ended very quickly.
21:07
I know some people talking about a lot of...
21:10
One team would get a penalty, another team would even it up.
21:13
You just discussed it there.
21:14
They made it sound like that happened quite a bit Saturday night.
21:19
Yeah, it happened two times.
21:20
It happened once to Duluth and it happened once to the Gophers.
21:23
I think the referees were just drawing a line in the sand, so to say, that when you're on the power play, you can't start using your stick to interfere with people.
21:33
And both penalties were stick penalties, where it's just after a face-off basically, and you're trying to slow another guy up.
21:39
Well, they're already short-handed.
21:41
You shouldn't really have to do that to get an advantage.
21:45
So, point of emphasis maybe with that crew and that team.
21:49
How was the flow of the game?
21:50
I mean, was it exciting?
21:52
I mean, for the most part, it was a 1-0 game, nothing game.
21:57
Wally and Frank were saying that the first shot went in again for Mo.
22:03
I don't know if that actually happened.
22:05
I think it was the first shot again.
22:07
It was definitely the first shift.
22:09
Oh, first shift?
22:11
Yeah, or maybe not first shift, but it was early.
22:16
It was early in the game.
22:17
We need him to make a save, that first save.
22:20
Well, he's a young kid.
22:21
He's just got to figure out how to play.
22:23
He's got plenty of athleticism.
22:25
He's looked fine after giving in that first shot.
22:29
Just got to figure it out.
22:31
He's a competitor, though.
22:33
So this weekend, we're going to do a lot more of the same.
22:35
An older team, a very good team, a disciplined team, and a team that knocked us out of playoff contention last year, knocked us out of the Big Ten tournament, on what we pretty much said is a bogus call.
22:52
Obviously, the Minnesota couldn't kill the penalty, and they lost in overtime, but hopefully the six guys that are left from that team, that's a joke, kind of put that back in their memories.
23:05
Like, hey, they ended our season last year.
23:08
Yeah, it's interesting how teams handle talking about last year and this year.
23:12
And when Tyler Nanny was asked about the penalty on Tyler Sheehy that put them in a really bad spot in their season, he said he wanted to make sure that all the young guys on the team heard about it and were familiar with it and knew how much this game meant for the upperclassmen.
23:28
You know, some teams, they say, we want to focus on this year, last year's last year, this is a new group, we don't want to talk about old experiences, we just want to form our own.
23:39
Well, they want to find a little fire here.
23:42
And they're going to need it against Notre Dame because that is a veteran group.
23:45
They've got a lot of juniors and seniors that they rely on.
23:49
Their goaltender two years ago was really good.
23:52
He's been to a couple of frozen fours, one on the bench, but one playing.
23:57
So he's a talented player.
23:59
And like Bob Monsko said, there's not going to be very many rush scoring chances.
24:04
And that's how the Gophers like to play.
24:06
They're going to have to find their ground game.
24:08
Well, the thing is they were very successful against Notre Dame last year.
24:13
I believe they were three and one in the regular season, swept at Notre Dame.
24:18
So they came into that game feeling pretty good and kind of got pulled out from underneath them.
24:23
But when they want to, like I said, I think they can play with these teams.
24:30
Yeah, I think last year, a little bit different situation with so many returning players.
24:35
I thought Minnesota last year in the second half was really good at playing good 505 hockey and dominating special teams.
24:43
And that's how they won a lot of games.
24:45
When they got in the playoffs with Notre Dame, I don't remember them getting very many special team opportunities that they were able to generate scoring chances on.
24:54
And that kind of let them down.
24:56
And so they get in this overtime game, and they make a mistake and it's over.
25:00
So it's difficult playing teams like this because there's not a lot of opportunities back and forth.
25:06
You're going to get a limited amount of chances.
25:09
And so the game can be decided by some weird things.
25:13
Just to say, you know, Wally sounded sick on the radio.
25:15
Yes, Wally did not have a voice for most of the weekend.
25:18
He was worse Friday night.
25:21
Saturday night, I thought he sounded a little better when I turned it on at the end of the game.
25:24
So I think Wally's just he's on the mend.
25:27
He's getting better.
25:28
And hopefully he'll be back at full strength this weekend.
25:31
I think it's hard for a guy like Wally not to talk.
25:36
He sounded better on the radio show this week.
25:38
He sounded pretty well on Tuesday.
25:40
So he might be coming around to form.
25:44
But you never know.
25:47
You can chat somebody up for a couple hours and lose his voice again.
25:51
And of course, you know, I saw it on Twitter Friday night, of course.
25:54
You know, the team loses and then people are like, that's it.
25:57
Why do they go to the Big Ten and all this?
26:01
It just amazes me how people don't let a lot of things go, Veegs.
26:05
Yeah, although it would be nice to see Duluth again in February when this team's grown up a little bit.
26:12
How about end of March?
26:15
That would be pretty rich for a lot of fans for both teams to see these two in the postseason.
26:22
It's gone Duluth's way the last couple years and they've done a good job.
26:27
But I do think scoring could be a problem for them.
26:30
I thought Minnesota got dominated in the special teams on Friday night.
26:34
But on Saturday, Minnesota stepped it up and limited Perunovic a little bit more.
26:39
So it would be a good matchup and a lot of fun to see.
26:41
Hopefully it would be somewhere close like Colorado.
26:45
Which is not that close, but I hope so too.
26:50
I mean, that would be great if our boys could get it together.
26:54
You know, they say sweep at home, split on the road.
26:58
I would be fairly happy with that in the Big Ten season.
27:02
Because right now, I want to say, who is the favorite right now?
27:09
I mean, people say coming in, it's going to be Penn State, Ohio State.
27:13
Hello, what about Wisconsin?
27:15
And then, you know, Wisconsin does wonderful last weekend.
27:17
And then they split with Clarkson, which is a good team.
27:20
But I just don't know what to expect for this Big Ten, you know, season.
27:28
Well, I mean, that's college hockey in today's era.
27:30
There's so many talented players.
27:32
And, you know, the bottom teams wait till their kids turn 20 before they let them enroll.
27:38
And some of the older teams can't help themselves, but let their high draft picks come in early.
27:44
One of the things we're seeing with Wisconsin is they've been playing for a couple weeks longer than everybody else.
27:51
And yes, they have a lot of talent, but that talent is going to see different teams as everybody starts to figure things out.
27:57
There's going to be a lot less space for those guys down the line here.
28:02
And on the special teams, they're going to have some film to know what their tendencies are.
28:07
And it's going to be a different game for them.
28:08
And it'll be interesting to see how they adjust.
28:11
I know that there were a lot of coaches who were looking forward to playing Wisconsin this year.
28:16
And they had to Penn State this weekend, which is kind of a buzz saw when you go into Pegula.
28:23
Yeah.
28:23
And we've got, I think, Dan Kelly and Dave Starman on the call.
28:26
Yeah, I know Starman is doing some stuff.
28:28
Yeah, he's cheating on the NCHC.
28:30
He must be.
28:31
Yeah, I noticed that.
28:32
I'm not sure who's coming here.
28:34
You know, because, you know, obviously Friday night's a Big Ten game as well.
28:41
So, or Big Ten Network, I should say.
28:45
Big Ten Network.
28:47
Who knows?
28:48
I chipped Dan Kelly today, but he didn't reply.
28:51
So, Starman's okay.
28:54
You know, Starman's a pretty nice guy.
28:55
You know, he visits Mariucci at least once a year if he's, you know, he's not broadcasting.
29:02
He might be going up to St.
29:03
Cloud the next night, but he has been, I want to say the last three or four years, Starman makes one appearance at Mariucci and goes around and talks to a lot of people.
29:11
So well, he had been scouting for the Montreal Canadiens.
29:15
So that was one of the reasons why he's around.
29:17
He's not doing that this year.
29:18
I think he's doing a lot more coaching for his kids and things like that as they get older, but he's around a lot of rinks.
29:24
I saw him at the NCHC Media Day and he'll be doing some of their games on CBS Sports Network.
29:31
And our boy, Dan Kelly is also going to be doing some NCHC.
29:37
Yep.
29:37
Good for those guys.
29:38
It's good to have more college hockey on TV.
29:41
I tell you that.
29:42
It is, as long as we don't have people complaining about Minnesota stuff.
29:46
Best TV schedule in college hockey.
29:48
And it's not even close.
29:51
It really isn't.
29:53
Even with St.
29:53
Cloud picking up all the games that they picked up, UMD picking up their games, they don't get a lot of road games covered.
30:00
That's local television.
30:02
I mean, you think about Minnesota, when they're on FSN, that's a five-state regional broadcast.
30:07
And you can get the regional package on all those providers.
30:11
Unless you're on Dish.
30:12
Unless you're on Dish.
30:13
But there's a way to get it.
30:15
There's always a way to find the games.
30:17
I mean, what can you do?
30:20
I was speaking with someone else the other day.
30:25
And the more I think about it, the more I think a lot of the, shall I say, bitter Gopher fans are starting to act a little bit like the North Dakota fans.
30:37
In, you know, the North Dakota fans, people say, get over it.
30:42
Your name changed.
30:43
You just got to deal with it.
30:44
You know, it's kind of have to be, you have to say that to a lot of Gopher fans.
30:49
You know, the WCHA is not coming back.
30:51
The things are different.
30:52
TV is different.
30:54
It's time to get over it.
30:57
If I was to pin a lot of the atmosphere issues on one mistake, it wouldn't be the conference.
31:07
Can you guess what I'm getting at?
31:10
Scholarship seeding and re-seeding the lower bowl killed the season ticket base.
31:15
And those people aren't coming back.
31:19
So, Minnesota has got to find ways to get some new fans.
31:22
And if those fans who can't get over that conference decision, maybe they can get into the $400 season tickets.
31:31
Maybe they can pick up the group seats where they're $10 a seat.
31:37
Those are efforts that they're trying to make to get people back.
31:40
You know, they have the young grad ticket program for $400 a season.
31:44
They are allowing students to come to both games all season for 99 bucks.
31:53
That's such a deal.
31:57
I think about, you know, the days literally, I want to say it was 1994.
32:02
My then girlfriend, who became my wife, was a student at the University of Minnesota.
32:08
We had tickets or she had a student ticket and I was able to go on as a guest.
32:13
And it was more expensive than that for one night.
32:18
Yeah, it's a crazy deal right now for students.
32:21
You are correct.
32:22
It's a great deal.
32:23
And I like what the football program is doing for this Penn State game.
32:28
Anyone who has a season ticket can sign up a guest and bring them with to the game.
32:35
They're trying to oversell the student section and see if they can get a full building for every game.
32:41
Because that's essentially what they did at Mariucci last year.
32:45
I mean, they're trying to sell 3,400 tickets for 1,700 seats.
32:49
That's what they're trying to do.
32:51
I mean, you know, because last year, I know one night was sold out and the other one was close.
32:57
Maybe it was a lot of the same students having both nights, who knows.
33:00
But, you know, and then, you know, halfway through the season, they're like, you know what, if you have a ticket for either, you can come to either game.
33:08
And the students just aren't there.
33:11
I thought they did really well on Friday, though.
33:13
I know everyone likes to go after the students.
33:15
Yes.
33:15
The Duluth game, I thought they were there.
33:18
They stayed the whole game, even though it started to get away from the Gophers.
33:22
But that atmosphere was pretty good.
33:24
I don't think we quite had the scan number that we were expecting.
33:28
I think it was in the mid seven thousands.
33:31
But I thought the people that were there were loud.
33:34
Yes.
33:35
Yes.
33:36
It was.
33:36
It was a good atmosphere.
33:39
Well, you know what?
33:41
You know, I think for now, Leagues, it is going to come back to winning.
33:48
I mean, I think you start winning.
33:50
People start getting more excited.
33:52
And maybe they'll kind of forget all those things that were kind of done to them by the university.
33:57
As you like said, Norwood Teague is why.
34:03
Can't say enough nice things about Norwood Teague.
34:05
Let me tell you.
34:06
I know Mark Coyle says that if you point the finger at somebody, you're going to have five back yourself.
34:10
But that's I think that's a pretty easy finger to point.
34:21
And it just so happens that it happened at the same time they switched leagues.
34:27
Unfortunate timing.
34:28
Yeah, it is.
34:30
But I do think they can start winning again and build up the season ticket base back into that six or seven thousand range.
34:38
Yeah, I think they won't have as many problems getting the building full.
34:43
I find that once people have a commitment to something long term, it's a lot easier for them to plan to show up.
34:49
You know, if you sign up for, you know, one thing a month, you know, it's hard to be consistent.
34:55
But if you're going to be coming to, you know, 20 home games, you know, you start to make it part of your routine.
35:00
They just need to build that base up a little bit more.
35:02
And they're trying with these cheaper tickets.
35:05
It's hard because they do need to pay for a lot of things on campus right now with that shiny athlete village.
35:11
And, you know, they've got some renovations they want to do.
35:14
Athletics has to find a way to pay for their budget.
35:16
They can't just write big checks that they can't pay for.
35:21
That is exactly it.
35:22
And it's all the program seeing it.
35:25
You know, we've seen downturns in attendance with the men's basketball as well.
35:30
Football, that's why, you know, I really hope they can get all those tickets sold for that Penn State game.
35:37
Well, what a huge deal.
35:38
Get that place sold out.
35:39
Get 50,000 people in there.
35:41
Get, you know, almost 7,000 or 8,000 students if they want.
35:46
However many are held there.
35:49
I just hope they can do that because I think the university kind of needs it, Veegs.
35:56
Well, I think we're kind of at this strange point.
35:58
They've put all this investment in and they have a bunch of teams that are kind of on the cusp.
36:02
We're seeing it with football.
36:04
Hockey, I think, is a little bit up on the upswing right now.
36:07
You look at men's basketball.
36:09
They've been to two NCAA tournaments the last three years.
36:12
They might be able to get back again.
36:14
You look at volleyball.
36:15
They've been one of the toughest tickets in town.
36:18
Women's hockey's done well.
36:20
You looked at the run of the softball team last year and that drew a lot of fans.
36:25
We're seeing a lot of momentum here on campus.
36:27
I think if they just do things the right way here for another year or two, they could be in a better situation where there's not so much negativity.
36:35
But this is a pro town.
36:38
They jump on you pretty quick here.
36:40
It is.
36:42
Before the Vikings were here, it was a Gopher football town.
36:45
No doubt about it.
36:47
Six national championships.
36:55
That's what everyone lived and breathed.
36:57
I just think if they win next week, have a really good season.
37:02
I think that would just help a lot.
37:04
Yeah, and I think they're at about 42,000 tickets sold for that game, trying to get to 50.
37:11
With a couple more pushes, and maybe with the student section move that they're doing, they're going to get close.
37:18
In all my stuff that I've talked to you with the athletic department, they usually get a strong push that 48 hours before a game, once people get their plans finalized and know what the weather is going to be like and are ready to come.
37:31
So I think if they can get within a couple thousand seats by that time, we could see a good atmosphere.
37:37
Big mistake says it's the hunting opener.
37:41
The lion season?
37:42
Yeah, I take it as deer hunting, I assume.
37:45
Yeah, I know.
37:46
It's probably deer hunting.
37:47
I know the bow hunting season is going on right now.
37:50
So if you're into that.
37:54
Well, I just like the excitement because if football is good, it just brings a positive vibe for everybody down to you because it is the king.
38:04
It just is.
38:05
And unfortunately, they haven't been the king for 50 years.
38:11
Well, it would help the revenue situation where they can start doing things like shrinking the ice sheet and making more efforts to improve game day experiences with parking, concessions.
38:22
If they start getting more money, they can enhance those things for everybody who has supported the program for so long.
38:28
And I think the money thing for the ice, I think also, you know, we've talked about it for, you know, years, years.
38:35
I think Lucia leaving does help in that area because we're going to see more alumni come back, get more involved, want to donate, because that has been an issue.
38:47
I mean, we know that Paul Martin did donate some things here and there, but the alumni were not really taken care of the last, you know, at least 10 years.
39:00
Well, the only thing was we'd heard so much about people waiting to give money until they made a coaching change.
39:09
Well, they made the coaching change.
39:12
I don't think they have the money yet to shrink the ring.
39:14
They are going to build the M Club room.
39:16
They are going to redo the weight room.
39:18
So that money is coming through, but they need some help.
39:23
And it's not just the people who've made it in the NHL.
39:25
It's the people who made it in business that they're trying to figure out the rampel tiers of the program.
39:33
He's the one who put together a lot of money for the M Club room up there in the suites.
39:39
They need more people like that to come back to the program.
39:42
And what the strange thing was, at least I never heard of it, they had the weight room ready to go.
39:49
And all of a sudden, that money was pulled.
39:51
And it kind of just threw everything out of whack with this whole kind of planning of doing the ring.
39:57
Because if things would have gone as planned, that weight room would have been done a couple of years ago.
40:03
Yep, they had the money lined up and it just kind of disappeared as they got close to finalizing it.
40:10
It's unfortunate for them.
40:11
It sets everything back a couple of years.
40:14
But they should be getting there soon again.
40:18
Jess, it won't be small ice.
40:20
It'll be more of a hybrid size.
40:21
It'll be like Notre Dame's.
40:23
So you're still going to see a little extra space.
40:25
It just brings the physicality into the game a little bit more.
40:29
When you have the 100-foot rink, when you go to hit someone in the boards, you're a long ways away from the middle of the ice.
40:35
And so the people who want to see more physical play, more aggressive play, it's hard to do on the big sheet.
40:43
And I think that's hurt this team a little bit sometimes when they get in the tournament, when you don't play on Olympic ice anymore.
40:49
And the game can change a little bit.
40:51
And that's been something that's maybe hampered them in the tournament since 2003.
40:55
Yeah, there you go.
41:00
We'll have to see what happens.
41:02
Just keep donating people.
41:05
Skyuma Law, I know you got all that money, Skyuma.
41:08
Why don't you start throwing it at the hockey program?
41:11
Can you do that for us?
41:12
I think the hockey program would just be fine with everybody buying tickets and showing up to start.
41:18
That's a good start for them.
41:19
That's true, but the ticket money has never gone to hockey.
41:24
And the profit from hockey has never really gone to hockey.
41:28
It goes into the big pile for the entire school.
41:32
Well, it goes into the big pile for the entire athletic program.
41:35
I mean, because if they would have taken profits from Minnesota, they could have updated that rank several times.
41:42
Yeah, it goes in the athletic department budget, and that's the way it works for football, too.
41:46
They don't get to keep all their money either.
41:49
You got to be able to support all these Olympic sports that the university does.
41:53
A lot of schools don't choose to make that decision, but Minnesota does and provides a lot of opportunities for athletes, both genders of many sports.
42:03
Exactly, and that's why you have to get the outside donations for improvements, because all that revenue that comes in from tickets and whatever it comes into, it's going to the general fund, it's got to pay for scholarships, it's got to pay for the women's programs, it's got to pay for the non-revenue men's programs.
42:20
That's why you have to go out on a separate ledge and a separate thing.
42:24
If you want improvements, you got to beg for them, Veegs.
42:29
You got to raise it yourself.
42:30
Yep, that's the only thing you can do.
42:33
And when things are going well, you're going to see great lines like Ben Myers, Sammy Walker, Blake McLaughlin out there.
42:39
I thought that was an interesting move by Bob Motzgow to take Myers out of the center of the ice and put him on that wing, but that is a fun line to watch.
42:47
And I think that's going to be one of the things to hang your hat on for the rest of the season if he can keep them together.
42:53
If Walker can stay out of the box.
42:56
If Walker can stay out of the box.
42:58
I think he will.
42:59
I think he's learned his lesson a little bit.
43:02
Last year, Bob was a little bit more vocal about guys taking bad penalties.
43:08
He's been a little quieter this season.
43:10
Trying to discipline those guys.
43:13
He's a star player.
43:14
And Walker is producing on the ice.
43:16
He's leading this team in scoring.
43:18
And he's getting it done.
43:19
But you just, you know, give a little space along the boards and don't put your stick in their skates and you'll be in better shape.
43:28
He's got to learn to play a little more defense.
43:31
Well, I'm hoping for a good weekend.
43:32
I think the boys are coming along.
43:33
And I'm thinking not a sweep for the Gophers, but like a win and a tie, maybe a loss in a shootout.
43:43
I could see two ties this weekend.
43:45
I really could.
43:46
I think the way Minnesota has been playing, they just don't quite have enough to escape from a team.
43:53
And Notre Dame's got enough veteran presence where they're going to be extra conservative on the road.
43:59
I think we could see a couple low scoring games, maybe a couple 2-2 games that go to shootouts.
44:04
And who knows what kind of shootout players.
44:06
We've got so many new guys who could get out there.
44:10
Yeah, their record's not so great in the shootouts.
44:13
But they've got so many new players.
44:15
So we'll see how it goes.
44:18
My record shows 2-10 in shootouts.
44:21
Yeah, it's not been good.
44:22
And maybe that's part of the download share too.
44:25
But we'll see Johnny Sorensen, Jackson Nelson, Scott Reedy down the middle this week, more than likely.
44:31
So a grow-up opportunity for Nelson and Sorensen, who I think have looked really good so far this season.
44:37
Those are two guys who I think do a good job puck protection and getting the ground game going.
44:43
They make patient plays, which I am a big advocate of, especially on the big ice.
44:52
Before we sign off here, I see Sky, who might want lunch to know his one goaltender starting to pull ahead of the other.
44:59
I don't think so.
45:00
I don't know if Jack LaFontaine looked as steady as he could be.
45:06
One thing he did this week was he wore some special glasses and had blinders basically on the side because he was kind of letting his peripheral vision lead him around the crease rather than getting on top of pucks and getting square.
45:21
And so I think he's trying to tighten up his game a little bit back to what it was like last year in the BCHL.
45:27
It's looked more like his game at Michigan, where he lost the starting job.
45:32
Jared Moe, you know, he's had trouble with the first shot.
45:35
When you're playing these tight teams like Notre Dame and Minnesota Duluth and later in the year when they play Ohio State, you can't fall behind to those teams because it just feeds into what they want to do.
45:46
So I don't think he's pulled away.
45:49
He's looked really good.
45:50
I think he's looked better of the two goalies, but I don't think you can really say one's pulled away.
45:56
When Jess Myers was prodding Bob to say if he's got a number one A goalie, Bob said, you know, I'm not going to make that decision until I have to.
46:07
And when I do, that's when I'll do it.
46:11
So we'll just have to wait and see.
46:14
You know, if Mo does solve his first shot thing and plays a little stronger in the first five, 10 minutes, I think he might be the guy.
46:22
Well, I think something to look for is if Mo gets a Friday start, that's a little indication from Motsko that he's pulled ahead because I think what Motsko wants to do is he wants the Friday starter to play well enough where he has no option but to give him back to back starts.
46:40
So if Mo starts on Friday, that's kind of an indication that he's ahead.
46:44
If Motsko doesn't think he's done enough to pull ahead, we'll see the veteran LaFontaine on Friday night.
46:53
All right.
46:53
You got anything else for us, Veegs?
46:56
Just stay tuned to The Athletic.
46:58
I appreciate the people who read those articles, rate them, subscribe when they read my articles.
47:04
That helps me write even more.
47:06
It's important for that publication to have active users.
47:11
I know we've got 40,000 subscribers in Minnesota, which I think is one of the leading user groups among the entire site.
47:21
That's really exciting.
47:22
We'll have some more stuff coming up here in November, probably two or three stories.
47:27
Same goes for the GPL Podcast.
47:30
Subscribe to it.
47:31
Give us ratings.
47:32
Give us a review.
47:33
We haven't had a lot of those recently.
47:36
I know you can do an Apple Podcast and other places as well.
47:39
We are on Spotify now.
47:42
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47:49
Give it a try.
47:50
Basically, if you look up GPL Podcast, you will find us everywhere.
47:56
No matter what app or what phone operating system you are using, you can find us.
48:04
The people listening live definitely know that.
48:07
We appreciate you as well because there are some of you listening live every single week and we appreciate that.
48:15
We like the interactive going back and forth with the live questions, so we appreciate you guys a lot as well.
48:21
And I do value the perspective of a big mistake.
48:29
When he's happy, I know things will be going really well with the program.
48:34
And we are still looking for a sponsor.
48:37
So if you know someone who wants to sponsor this work, it makes it a little bit easier on our families and childrens and things like that to have a little incentive to make this worth it.
48:49
So we appreciate if anyone's interested, you can reach out to us.
48:52
My DMs are open.
48:54
Yes, and Vintage, he just couldn't make it fly this year.
48:57
His costs went up and that's just kind of how it goes.
49:02
And we're still here for you.
49:04
Yeah, so we'll take we'll take sponsors.
49:06
Maybe we should have Jake Arbor.
49:08
Oh boy.
49:10
That would be great.
49:10
I would take a look at sponsorship.
49:15
And remember, you can follow Vego on Twitter at EVGO.
49:18
And if you want, you can even follow me on Twitter, Fat Planet.
49:21
But most people, most of you follow the GPL account.
49:24
So we'll have to see.
49:26
Yeah, GPL brought to you by big mistake.
49:28
Not going to happen, I don't think.
49:34
How much is your soul worth?
49:39
Entertaining.
49:40
Well, that's going to do it for this episode of the GPL Podcast.
49:43
For those of you listening live, stay tuned.
49:45
We'll have a bit of overtime for you.
49:47
The rest of you will be back next week to recap the Notre Dame series and preview Michigan.
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