0:08 This is The GPL Podcast from gopherpucklive.com. 0:23 Now, here's Hammy, Vegoe, and your host, Jupiter. 0:38 Good evening, and welcome to The GPL Podcast, episode number 160. 0:46 Well, it was a good weekend for our Gopher Hockey Squad out in Michigan, taking five out of six points. 0:52 So that's good. 0:53 But what's even better is that, Hammy, you're back. 0:57 Yes, the real world has actually gotten out of the way so I can be back on the podcast. 1:02 The actual money, you know, the- 1:06 The money maker. 1:06 The way that I get financed in life is finally out of the way, so yes. 1:10 Something about a new product type of thing. 1:13 I hope it all went well. 1:15 Yes, Armoral Professionals, Ceramic Seal, coming to a car wash near you. 1:22 There you go. 1:24 Well, I'm glad, well, we're glad to have you back. 1:28 I appreciate it. 1:29 So that's good. 1:32 Veegs, of course, you're back. 1:33 You're always here. 1:35 Always here. 1:37 And your dad's in the chat. 1:38 He's already here. 1:39 He wants he's he's got questions already. 1:42 Yeah, he told me he was going to have a question this week. 1:44 So yeah, well, well, let's just go with it. 1:47 Let's let's help out the Don. 1:51 And he says, what do you like about the freshman class? 1:56 Disappointments. 1:59 And how do you feel about that, Veegs? 2:01 What do you think about the class? 2:02 I do think one of the issues with this freshman class is some of the guys were rushed into college hockey. 2:09 You would have liked the entire class to have plenty of junior experience. 2:14 And the ones that do have some junior experience seem to be adjusting to the college game a lot better. 2:20 You look at the last two weekends that Jackson Nelson's had, very impressive. 2:26 You look at Purbix, you look at Myers, those three forwards are doing the best of the freshman forwards. 2:33 And they are experienced junior players. 2:35 I think some of the other younger freshmen, Bryce Brodzinski is probably the one that people are looking at the most. 2:43 He's having a little bit of a growing pain right now adjusting to college hockey. 2:47 And it's just something that he's going to have to fight through. 2:51 It's a different game going from high school to a couple of games in the USHL with Omaha to playing college hockey. 2:58 And he's just got to keep working through it. 3:00 You could see against Michigan this weekend, he did have some chances where if he was confident, if he was confident, he probably makes good scoring chances on those and maybe gets a goal. 3:11 But because he's fighting it a little bit, that's holding them back. 3:16 Oh, yeah, that big opportunity with basically an open net. 3:20 Great save. 3:21 I mean, you got to get the goalie credit. 3:24 But boy, there's a lot of goal there that he left open. 3:28 Yep. 3:29 And I think it's something he's just going to have to work through. 3:31 Bob Motzko has talked about it in the post game, his radio show availability this week. 3:35 You know, he's not just going to put those guys up with first liners and try to save them. 3:40 You know, they're going to have to fight through it themselves and earn more ice time. 3:46 Well, we'll get into some of the specifics in a bit. 3:49 But Hammy, you know, overall, I think last weekend was really good. 3:52 I mean, getting five out of six points on the road at Michigan, as the Don used to say in the past, you know, split on the road, sweep at home. 4:03 So no matter what, this was a very successful weekend at Michigan. 4:09 Well, I think everybody just has to have the right expectations going into any series this particular year, because we do have such a young roster that you can't, I don't think you can really look at things quite the same way as you might a typical year. 4:23 I mean, most seasons, the Gophers aren't this young, aren't this, you know, laden with underclassmen. 4:31 So I think that people kind of have to look at every single weekend with that kind of perspective. 4:37 And we've talked about inconsistencies. 4:40 You know, with the game I was at a few weeks ago, you know, I saw guys that I thought were just kind of thinking a little too much, probably because they, you know, they're so young and to the college game and the pace. 4:53 So I think that they overthink things a little bit and that can sometimes cause mistakes instead of kind of letting your hockey sense take over. 5:02 So when I think of Brzezinski in particular, I think he's just, from what I've seen, struggled with the pace. 5:08 I think that he, you know, he's going to have to work hard, I think, at some aspects of his game to kind of keep up with the pace on a college level because that's what I saw most from him is just seemingly struggling with the pace. 5:22 Well, one thing we did see this weekend, Veegs, are two goalies that are a really bright spot right now. 5:31 Yeah, I think we're all concerned about the goaltending coming into the season. 5:34 You know, three entirely new goalies that we had never seen much before. 5:40 LaFontaine was a goalie who struggled at Michigan to get time in the net. 5:45 And when he had time in the net, he gave it right back to his playing partner. 5:49 And they've been outstanding. 5:51 I don't think Minnesota is in the position they are against Michigan without both those goalies. 5:57 I thought they both were big, athletic. 6:00 They weren't overactive like we saw in some of the games earlier this year. 6:04 They were calm and they ate up a lot of pucks. 6:08 And Mo has gotten away from his giving up the first shot into the back of the net. 6:14 Yeah, he just had to be saved by the refs overturning one of those. 6:18 And now he's got a new streak going. 6:19 You know, he's a big athletic goaltender. 6:22 I think he's going to be a good one for a while here for Minnesota. 6:26 I think he did kind of pull away there for a little bit. 6:28 That's why Monsko gave him the back to back starts. 6:33 I think after not doing so well the next night, he just kind of said, you know what? 6:38 Each guy, you're going to get one game. 6:40 Focus on that and we'll go from there. 6:44 Well, what else stood out for you? 6:45 I mean, well, OK, let's, you know, you had talked about a few things on your Twitter feed today about, you know, some of the observations from this past weekend. 6:54 Goalie's good. 6:56 That's great. 6:56 We thought it was going to be weakness. 6:58 Offense, not so great. 7:00 Special teams are definitely yin and yang. 7:03 You know, the penalty kill right now is good. 7:06 Power play, they've gone all for their last 15, I do believe you said on Twitter today, Veegs. 7:11 Yeah, over the last six games, over 15, you know, they are getting chances. 7:16 They're gaining the zone, for the most part OK, but they're just not being very dangerous with shots, with rebound chances, with traffic. 7:26 It's like you have a bunch of new players thrown together and they just don't have a lot of chemistry. 7:31 I'm not sure what the solution is. 7:34 The second unit last year, are most of the guys that are on the first unit right now. 7:38 I actually saw a unit today in practice that was Ranta, McManus on the off wings, Brodzinski in front of the net, and Lacombe and Johnson at the point, and they looked really dynamic together. 7:51 So maybe we'll see some new combinations. 7:53 I know they're working a lot on the power play in practice. 7:56 It's a point emphasis because you cannot be successful if you're going to have hard time scoring goals and aren't doing it on the power play. 8:04 And that's one thing we just kind of have to wait for Motsco to figure out there, Hammy, is like, you know, we know there's talent there, but just kind of mixing it all together the right way on the power play is kind of going to take some patience here. 8:18 Well, it definitely is a chemistry thing. 8:20 I think that that's something that you keep tinkering with until you find the right guys that complement each other's games. 8:27 So that's certainly important. 8:31 You know, I think that it's just such a youthful thing that, I mean, when we talk about, you know, what's it going to take to change certain things, I honestly just think it's experience and putting the guys out there and kind of letting them learn kind of a trial by fire thing. 8:45 And I don't think there is kind of any magic formula at this point. 8:49 I think it's just putting guys out there and seeing who works well with who and letting them gain that experience. 8:55 And, you know, we're going to have to endure some of those growing pains, and that's just the way it is. 9:02 So, you know, so far we've had, you know, some teams have played four games in the Big Ten. 9:07 A couple have played two. 9:08 We've got Notre Dame up top, 3-0 and one with 10 points, Penn State right behind them. 9:13 And then we got Minnesota with 7 points. 9:15 So, Veegs, I hate to say it, but I'm actually not too disappointed with their start so far. 9:23 I think it was just 5 out of 6 points at Michigan. 9:27 I think it's pretty huge. 9:29 Yeah, 5 out of 6 against Michigan is a great weekend. 9:33 Minnesota has had trouble going there. 9:35 They get in these track meets at times with them, and they give up leads. 9:40 I think the thing you can take away is they hung in there. 9:43 They tried to give away the game for a little bit on Friday. 9:47 They took a bunch of bad penalties. 9:49 You saw guys putting sticks in the wrong place and being undisciplined. 9:53 And luckily, Michigan's been struggling on the power play too. 9:56 I think Mel Pearson said over the week, I didn't realize how valuable Quinn Hughes was to our team. 10:05 Quinn Hughes, pretty talented guy. 10:07 He pretty much created their offense last year. 10:10 And I know I took a little flak for it last week saying, I didn't think Cam York is having a great start to his year. 10:17 If Cam York's playing well, they're not struggling on the power play. 10:20 So I think it's an adjustment there. 10:23 Minnesota got away with it, and they capitalized on their chances on Saturday and got the majority of the points. 10:30 Majority of the points, but as we've been talking about, Hammy, power play is not doing great, and just the overall five-on-five play is not that great. 10:39 It's tough to win unless you score. 10:41 Yeah, and I'm thinking, I don't want to sound like a broken record, but I think that's just a matter of what we have on this roster and the makeup of it. 10:53 We knew going into the season that we didn't have any veterans that were kind of studs from prior years. 11:00 I mean, I guess you can call Walker that, but he was a freshman last year, right? 11:04 So he wasn't an upperclassman. 11:06 We didn't really have those upperclassmen that you can rely on to say, oh, well, they'll take some of these younger guys under their wings and help them be more productive early on. 11:15 I mean, we just didn't have that. 11:18 And I think that that kind of compounds the fact that you have so many young guys that they didn't have some of those really talented scorers in that junior or senior class this year. 11:29 And that kind of makes it a little bit more difficult for the new guys because you don't like to have to put them in positions where they have to produce immediately and have that pressure. 11:39 But that's kind of what we're at and what they're going to have to do. 11:43 I also think you're seeing with Walker right now a really talented player who's struggling to figure out how to score when he doesn't get rush scoring chances. 11:52 Other teams are really focused on not letting him get up to speed. 11:56 And so he's got to find ways to produce offense when he's in the zone and has possession or have some zone time, maybe tire guys out and create a little bit more space for himself. 12:08 Well, one thing you were mentioning also today on Twitter, Veegs, is that you noticed that there might be a potential line shakeup here and there to maybe kickstart some of these kids that are maybe not doing so well and just kickstart the offense overall. 12:23 Yeah, I think they're going to split up Purbecks and Nelson for this weekend. 12:27 Both those guys have been playing very, very well, but that line hasn't really been scoring a lot of points. 12:33 So I think they're trying to get that energy maybe with some other players, putting Purbecks up with Walker and Laughlin, maybe putting Nelson with Reedy and Burke to try to get those guys going because Burke was a point producer last year. 12:47 He was able to find pucks around the net and get greasy goals. 12:51 Maybe that line can get some scoring, and then they'll have some depth with their top nine scoring some goals because it has been a little bit of an issue getting the puck in the net. 13:01 Yeah, well, I would say so. 13:04 I mean, you mentioned we worried about goaltending this year. 13:08 That was going to be our biggest deal. 13:10 Offense, yeah, it will be okay, but turns out it's the offense that's struggling, and the goaltending is doing really good. 13:16 Well, I was worried about the power play because McManus was really the only player who's had success on the power play coming back. 13:23 Otherwise, you're basically putting in eight, nine new guys on those units, and it takes some time to figure out how to score because the penalty kills in college hockey are so good. 13:33 They're disciplined. 13:34 You know, that's the spot where you have those guys who've played lots of junior hockey, now 23, 24, not afraid to block shots and get in lanes, and they know not to chase the puck, and I think it makes it a lot harder for those guys to produce offense there unless they're moving it crisply and on the same page. 13:52 Okay, well, we've got a couple Twitter questions and actually, not too much going on in the Mixler chat. 13:59 At least that's interesting. 14:00 Sorry, Yang. 14:02 You know, we had Tim Hapke asking, you know, last week I noticed Bickel behind the bench. 14:07 He assumed that, you know, Gordon was out recruiting, and he had never seen Bickel behind the bench before. 14:11 Is that something new this year? 14:14 I actually noticed that as well, is that Bickel was this past weekend and the previous weekend coaching the offense. 14:23 What's the deal with that? 14:25 Have you asked about that, Veegs, at all? 14:27 I just know that Gordon's been busy recruiting in the USHL. 14:31 I know he's been around Omaha, Des Moines. 14:34 I think Reboin's been up in Fargo. 14:35 You know, they're just trying to figure out what they want to do with their recruiting pipeline, and so they're trying to get those coaches out there. 14:41 Bickel has been a more steady presence at practice this year, and behind the bench. 14:47 He's been a little bit more vocal, whereas I think last year was kind of a learning year for him. 14:51 He was kind of that intern to just kind of sit back and, you know, learn the process and figure out where he could fit in. 14:58 But he's taken a more active role this year as a grad assistant. 15:02 Hammy, with Bickel behind the bench, isn't it a little odd that he, you know, obviously he's known as a defenseman, played defense at the U, defense in the NHL? 15:10 Is it a little odd to have a defenseman out there coaching the forwards? 15:17 I mean, I think it can be, but I mean, you know, you have enough exposure, I think, over time that that's not necessarily going to hinder you. 15:26 But certainly you'd prefer a guy that, you know, that has the instincts and has that experience over time playing that position or playing in some kind of a role that's similar to it in that role. 15:41 But it just isn't, I don't think it's anything that's insurmountable. 15:45 I'm lucky, you know, it's not permanent either. 15:47 So I don't think it's really a big deal to have somebody fill in here or there. 15:51 And I think, you know, sometimes defensemen, they can learn the game a little bit better on the other side of the puck by coaching that side. 15:58 You know, they're familiar with what the defense are trying to do to the forwards. 16:02 So they can give that perspective, and it gets them a little more integrated in the coaching staff. 16:08 And I can't remember, did Bickle, for some reason, I want to say, didn't Bickle play forward when he was younger as well, and then change to defense at some point kind of when he got older? 16:19 For some reason, that's popping into my head, but I cannot 100% remember. 16:24 I cannot remember, Veegs. 16:26 I can't remember either. 16:27 But, I mean, let's be honest, you know, Matzko is going to be the one doing most of the forward stuff, matching lines, figuring out who he wants on the ice. 16:35 He's a pretty involved coach. 16:37 I think it just helps to have a body there, actually. 16:39 You know, because in the past, when a coach has gone out, you're short a coach, and then the head coach is going to kind of have to do a little bit more than they usually would. 16:48 So having a body there and a guy who's there at practice, I think that kind of helps to have almost like a substitute on offense and defenses for coaching. 16:57 Yeah, because you had to rely on Jupe to jump over the boards when he's taking pictures, to be behind the bench and handling that role. 17:06 Those guys stink. 17:07 They smell. 17:09 I'm just kidding. 17:10 Well, they do smell. 17:11 That gear is awful. 17:13 Oh, well. 17:14 What can you do? 17:17 So, you know, I've got a couple more questions here. 17:19 Gopher Hockey fan wants to know, can you guys comment on who has been the best looking young defenseman so far? 17:26 Hammy, who do you like so far back there? 17:31 You know, we all kind of talked about, I mean, I guess it depends on what you're talking about. 17:39 You're talking about like so far, you're talking about what you think in the long run. 17:42 I mean, to me, Ryan Johnson obviously has the most upside and the most potential to be that kind of impact player from a defensive perspective. 17:50 You know, I see flashes with Lacombe. 17:55 I think that he sometimes, I mean, they all get kind of careless with the puck here or there. 18:00 You know, and I think the pace, like I said, I think sometimes you think you can get away with certain things that maybe in the past that you did get away with, but now on this level, you just can't do that. 18:13 So I think that they're learning some of that stuff. 18:15 But I think those two guys in particular are the ones that I've been excited about. 18:20 And, you know, we'll just see how they progress as the season goes on. 18:25 Veegs? 18:27 To echo what Hammy said, each of the defensemen brings something a little bit different. 18:32 You know, Stoddicker brings some grit and defensive prowess that none of the other defensemen maybe on the whole roster really could bring. 18:40 And I thought he's looked really steady. 18:42 I think at times when Minnesota gets caught where they're doing a lot of defending, they need a guy like that on the ice. 18:50 I think Lacombe probably flashes the most puck skill and the most confident walking the blue line and doing things out there offensively. 18:58 And I think Johnson's probably the more all-around guy. 19:01 And I think he holds back on some of the offensive stuff to be a little bit more cautious and play the position. 19:08 So each kind of has their strengths. 19:10 I think Stoddicker's probably the most reliable of those guys. 19:13 But looking at the long view, Lakoma Johnson sure are talented. 19:18 Just in the mix of chat, he said he loved McManus rowing the boat after his goal on Saturday. 19:23 And as we saw from the Twitter feed, the hockey team was pretty jacked up about the football team. 19:29 And to see McManus do a little row in the boat was pretty entertaining, Veegs. 19:34 I loved it. 19:35 I was at the football game on Saturday. 19:37 An atmosphere that I've never experienced in person before. 19:42 I think that energy is carried over to the hockey team with PJ Fleck coming to practice. 19:47 And just kind of this campus is all getting excited about the football program. 19:52 Monsko said he's never seen a team get packed to come back as quickly as the Gophers did on Saturday because they wanted to get back on campus and see what was going on. 20:02 Maybe getting a little trouble, enjoyed being a college student, but everybody made it out of the weekend okay. 20:08 And everybody had a smile on their face talking about it. 20:10 You know, and I think it's great. 20:11 I mean, obviously, there's all the publicity the school gets and the hype from the football program and all that. 20:20 I think that's wonderful, but I think kind of that community feel amongst the athletes when you see those guys in a locker room getting excited about a fellow team. 20:29 I just feel like there's more of that now than I've seen in a long time. 20:35 And certainly, you know, I think that that's, I think that instills pride in all the athletes about who they're playing for. 20:44 And maybe sometimes that gets a little bit lost, I think, with the hockey program in particular. 20:49 You know, you have guys that sometimes come in and see, this is just a stepping stone to the NHL. 20:56 But when you see these kinds of things happen with, you know, the coach that's stopped by practice or players that you see around campus, around the athletic facilities, I mean, it builds that community. 21:09 And I think that that's really great for all the players. 21:12 And I must say kudos to the Athletic Department for stepping up to the plate and getting him on, you know, flacking an extension as well. 21:20 So I think everything's looking exciting now, and it's just got to keep plugging along. 21:26 Hopefully they keep it going. 21:28 Yeah, I got some numbers on the attendance for that game, and there are over 45,000 tickets actually scanned. 21:35 So when you look at that crowd, that was a legit big crowd. 21:39 And most of them were on the field after the game. 21:42 My goodness. 21:44 Those are some great pictures. 21:45 Did you go down there, Veegs? 21:47 I did not. 21:48 I had to head home, but I took it in, stayed till the end, took a couple of deep breaths and watched the madness out there for a few. 21:56 And Veegs, you know, what I think it comes down to, you know, I thought it's great to see the hockey team cheering for them, just going nuts in the locker room before their game and kind of going after what Hammy said. 22:06 It's just great to see school pride and not just about the hockey team, you know. 22:12 And, you know, sometimes they go to the women's team and see that, but you see that excitement and just pure school pride. 22:20 That can really kind of motivate. 22:23 Yeah, and I think Mark Coyle has done a great job of integrating all these athletes together. 22:28 You know, they have a great athlete village where all the teams can eat together, can study together, can work out, see treatment, do some networking, things like that. 22:39 It's really intentional to integrate all these sports as much as they can because there are other schools where things are really clicky and competitive and, you know, just negative. 22:50 And I think you've got everybody, you know, rowing in the same direction right now in the U of M Athletic Department. 22:56 And that's fun for all these guys. 22:58 Maybe it adds a little bit more pride to the school and something that is really good for a team that has to compete with all these other pro sports. 23:07 You know, one thing that's unique about Minnesota is there's that pride of the school. 23:11 And I think that's a message that the kids need to get and the fans need to get. 23:15 Well, I think, Hammy, that some of it too is that we have never seen this success in our lifetimes. 23:22 You know, we have to go back to our parents when they were young to see any kind of legitimate success in football. 23:31 I mean, we've seen it in other sports. 23:33 You know, hockey, you know, basketball's never got, you know, they haven't won a title. 23:37 But, you know, they've been exciting from time to time. 23:40 Hockey, obviously, we've won national championships. 23:43 But football, which is, which kind of rules the rooster on here, it just hasn't been anything since we've been alive. 23:52 Well, I mean, the reality is, is Division I football is the king of all college sports. 23:59 I don't care where you're at. 24:00 It's what drives the revenue. 24:03 It's what, you know, every athletic department, if they had a choice, they would say, I want my football team to be highly successful, even if they've got, you know, great teams and hockey or, you know, some other sports. 24:16 It's like they would pick football on a heartbeat. 24:19 And so to have, I mean, when you see, like, around the horn and like the, you know, what is it, the corn height, whatever, it was ESPN talk show. 24:30 When they're talking about the Minnesota Gophers football, you can't buy that kind of publicity. 24:37 You can't buy that kind of attention. 24:39 I mean, you're not going to get that from, you know, hockey, obviously. 24:44 You're not going to get that from some of these more niche sports. 24:47 Maybe you get it from basketball, but it's just exciting to see them doing well. 24:52 Of course, the Minnesota fan in me, you know, whether it be college or pro, is waiting for the other shoe to drop, which for all I know is probably going to happen against Iowa. 25:02 But nonetheless, it's fun to enjoy it and relish the fact that it looks like this program, you know, because they're pretty young in their own right. 25:13 And it's exciting to think about to keep the coach around and keep things going. 25:19 They could really be a power if they keep it going in this right. 25:24 Yeah, Hammy, I don't know if you knew this, but they were the youngest team in America last year. 25:28 Yeah, I know. 25:29 I just I remember hearing something along that, right? 25:32 But did Fleck always talk about that? 25:35 I wouldn't be surprised. 25:37 Every press conference, he brought that up. 25:39 And then when Moscow said, we have the youngest team in college hockey, he kind of said, I'm not trying to be like football, not trying to steal that line, but we are young. 25:48 No, I mean, yeah, so I just think it's really exciting to see, you know, all that this program could turn into and how wonderful that would be for the university, because it would be huge from, you know, I mean, like I said, that's the king of all college sports. 26:06 And if you get highly successful in that sport, boy, I mean, it's an awesome thing. 26:12 And in all honesty, Veegs, Minnesota hockey is usually the youngest team. 26:20 I mean, even in good years, I mean, have we ever been, you know, the top 10 or 20 of the oldest teams? 26:31 No, you don't want to be one of the oldest teams if you're Minnesota, but you're going to have to find the balance, I think, to be successful in college hockey now. 26:38 Middle of the road would be good, yes. 26:39 Middle of the road would be good. 26:41 You look at a school like Minnesota State, you know, they're on the opposite. 26:45 You know, they're trying to get their guys all to play two and three years of juniors. 26:48 And you look at their roster now, and there's a lot of 23, 24-year-olds. 26:53 I think Minnesota, you know, you're looking for that balance of those 20, 25 players. 26:58 You want most of those guys to be entering school at 19, 20. 27:02 You'll take a handful of guys, like your Lucius kid who's going to come in. 27:07 And, you know, if he makes it on campus, he'll come in as a young player. 27:11 But for the most part, you want guys, you know, if you look at their recruiting pipeline down the road here, you know, it wouldn't be bad for Castor and Boltman and Faber and Ratzloff and Middlestadt to play an extra year and come in at 19. 27:26 Are we going to see that Lucius kid? 27:28 What do you think, Hammy? 27:30 He's been pretty good. 27:35 Well, I don't know. 27:36 I mean, I think when you get that kind of, when you're succeeding to that level, you know, and I've talked about this before, but when you have players that tend to jump around a lot, those guys always tend to make me nervous when they have that nomadic lifestyle as far as one team, one year, another team, another, you know, just completely changing things all the time. 28:01 It doesn't exactly scream, yeah, I'm going to stick around very long. 28:06 And certainly the way he's scoring and doing well, it's hard to imagine that he would be around very long even if he does come. 28:12 So I would, you know, whatever happens, I guess, I'm more concerned about what they can bring in beside him because he's going to be around for a cup of coffee at most when he comes to college. 28:27 But you hope if he does come, he's that Brock Besser, he's that Henrik Borgstrom that kind of gives you a scoring player who's over the top, who just has that natural scoring ability. 28:37 You know, you look at him right now, he's scoring over a goal a game. 28:40 I think that he's got 22 goals in 21 games. 28:44 The next number one scorer for the team has got 12. 28:48 And there are only 21 games in this thing. 28:50 He's got almost twice as many goals as the next scorer for that team. 28:54 You know, that's just a natural ability to catch and release the puck and put it in a dangerous spot that is so hard to teach. 29:02 And you'd be willing to bring that guy in early and let him play a year or two if you can. 29:08 So interesting story on the strip today. 29:11 You know, the beat a dead horse story that Michael Rand of the Star Tribune wrote, I noticed he said before we started tonight that he was at media availability this week and he's typically a T Wolves guy, but he threw in his opinion or whatever you want to call it, saying, you know, Gopher fans get over it and blah, blah, blah. 29:34 We've been saying that for quite a while here, Veegs, but he's kind of bringing it back up again. 29:42 Yeah, there are always going to be some fish that hit that trolling bait when that goes out there. 29:47 So you look at the comments and those people making the comments, those aren't Gopher fans. 29:52 Those are people who have, you know, taken this narrative hook, line and sinker, and that's what they attach themselves to. 30:00 We've talked about it a ton on this podcast. 30:03 I've written about it. 30:06 I do think that Gopher Sports needs to move on from those fans and find new fans or those fans need to figure out, do they want to watch college hockey or not? 30:16 Because if they don't want to watch Gopher hockey, they can go to Duluth or St. 30:20 Cloud or Minnesota State. 30:21 There are affordable tickets available for those games. 30:24 They're not full buildings. 30:26 There's plenty of options for them. 30:28 So basically just go away. 30:31 We're done with you. 30:33 Yeah, seriously. 30:35 It's time to support the team and just get on the bandwagon because everyone's like, oh, the NCHC, they've won the last four titles. 30:42 Yes, they have. 30:43 They've got great teams there. 30:45 Those same teams might have won if it was still the old WCHA days. 30:51 It's their time. 30:53 I still think in the long run it's going to be the NCHC and the Big Ten are going to be the king of the crop. 31:00 You think people are mad. 31:02 How do the East Coast teams feel? 31:04 They haven't had a sniff in years here. 31:08 Well, I guess my feeling on it is that I can appreciate fans that love the history and love the tradition. 31:16 I mean, we talk about that. 31:18 All they have to do is look around Mary Uchee Arena and see all that kind of tradition and history. 31:23 So I can respect the fact that they really love what used to be there. 31:29 But the reality is that it's not there anymore and it doesn't do any good to kind of linger on it. 31:37 Like I said to you guys earlier, it's like a dude who gets dumped and five years later he's still complaining about the girl that dumped him. 31:45 It's like you're not going to find somebody new that actually might even be better for you in the long run than the girl that dumped you if you can't get over the girl that dumped you. 31:55 So kind of either don't complain anymore and make the best of the situation you have in front of you or move on with your life to something different. 32:05 Like you said, don't be a fan. 32:07 Go use your money and use your time on other things. 32:12 And some of it, Veegs, is you know what, just win. 32:15 We see Chad Hartman tweeting, I believe earlier today, saying hey, the Gophers are ranked and I look at the Gopher, I look at hockey and they're not even, and also man, they're not even one of the top 20 or 30 teams. 32:30 Winning would help a lot. 32:33 Winning would help. 32:34 It would silence another squeaky wheel. 32:37 We look at the attendance, you know, lower prices, sell beer, fire it on. 32:44 Well, they've done a couple of the things that they can do. 32:47 Winning will help. 32:48 I don't think it's the only answer to getting people back in the building. 32:53 But that's the next thing to accomplish. 32:54 And this team has a lot of talent. 32:56 It's just going to take a little bit of time for them. 32:59 And they are playing one of the best schedules they've had in the last five or six years. 33:03 They have good teams coming into the building. 33:05 I think with North Dakota coming here during Thanksgiving weekend, that's another big opportunity for fans. 33:12 Maybe Minnesota will have some momentum there. 33:14 They get a bunch of games here at home in a row. 33:17 Figure things out. 33:19 Jess is asking in the Mixler chat, did we lose Pizzo and Cappy and Big BTN on intermissions? 33:25 I don't think so, Jess. 33:27 Pizzo at this time of year is typically doing a lot more football. 33:31 He's on the road doing, you know, sideline stuff. 33:36 And usually at this early point in the season, we're not getting a lot of Big Ten games. 33:42 So, you know, it's usually not until football kind of ends and the hockey broadcasts pick up. 33:49 But this year we've had a couple more broadcasts than we would typically have on BTN. 33:53 So I think we're going to see Pizzo and Cappy here fairly quickly. 33:57 Yeah, and Pizzo was on campus this week actually for the Gopher football game. 34:03 They did a tailgate show outside Mariucci. 34:06 That's one of the reasons why they shot a bunch of those videos with Cappy on different campuses, interacting with the players, doing shooting competitions, asking about the Dinah Cake Eaters stuff. 34:18 They did that to have some air mission content when they can't do the show. 34:22 Yeah, and I'm fine with it. 34:24 You know what? 34:24 We're seeing the game, so it's all good. 34:26 We'll see Pizzo back on, so that's definitely all good. 34:29 Well, let's move to this weekend, guys. 34:32 Hammy, Penn State just keeps improving, keeps improving. 34:37 People were ripping on them for all these years. 34:39 They ruined this, blah, blah, blah, but you know what? 34:41 It just doesn't matter anymore. 34:42 They're a good team. 34:43 They're getting better each year, and now they're coming into Mariucci, and they've had a lot of success against Minnesota these past two or three years. 34:53 Yeah, it's kind of interesting. 34:54 I saw what was it? 34:56 Zulsdorf was talking about it, I think, wasn't he, about how they had knocked the Gophers out a few years ago and how he remembers that and stuff. 35:05 And, you know, I think it always is, it's going to be an entertaining series, I think. 35:11 And I think that the Gophers, you know, obviously a lot of these guys weren't around for what I just mentioned since we're pretty young. 35:20 But nonetheless, I think it'll be an interesting series. 35:24 When you look at Penn State this year, I don't know that they've really played any great teams. 35:29 I mean, Wisconsin has a lot of hype in terms of some of their talents, and they beat them twice, though. 35:35 But that's kind of what Penn State's MO has been over the years, is they don't have necessarily the toughest schedule throughout, at least the non-conference part of it. 35:48 So it's worked for them, though. 35:49 I don't know if they gained steam and confidence from that or what, but it's worked for them, and it should be an entertaining series. 35:57 Frozen4Champ says in the Mixler Chat, Clayton Phillips' revenge game, Veegs. 36:04 Yeah, I don't think there's too much revenge from the Gophers towards him. 36:08 He might have some sore feelings towards the Gophers. 36:12 I know Penn State did two minutes in the box with him talking about this upcoming weekend, so they're not hiding him from the media this week. 36:20 I'm sure it's a big weekend for him. 36:22 He's a player who does have a lot of talent. 36:25 He can really move on his skates very well. 36:28 I think he just got in a situation at Minnesota where his confidence was broken a little bit and just wasn't supportive. 36:35 And there's a lot of talent coming in for Moscow's team, so they had to make a move, and hopefully it will work out well for both people. 36:45 Yeah, best of luck to him. 36:48 But I do think Penn State hasn't really played anyone. 36:51 Wisconsin playing Penn State, you know, they're going to give a lot of opportunities up. 36:56 The one game that Penn State lost, Michigan State, they took over 100 shot attempts. 37:03 And you can say what you will about the Penn State scoring and how they track shots, but attempts are usually pretty cut and dry. 37:10 Yep. 37:11 And they didn't get any goals in that game. 37:14 Their team that's going to throw the puck at the net, and it's really a challenge for goalies to maintain traffic. 37:20 I think that's been a weak spot for the Gophers. 37:22 It's been exposed by Penn State because their defensivemen have been a little shy to handle pressure around the net. 37:29 And it will be a big test for these guys, especially a guy like Lacombe. 37:33 This will be a tough weekend for him. 37:37 Well, I'm looking forward to it. 37:40 I love the type of game they play. 37:43 We know that they love to throw the puck on the net, and it's just going to be a lot of offense. 37:49 I hope, at least for Minnesota, we know Penn State is going to bring the offense, Hammy. 37:52 We just got to hope that Minnesota brings some offense. 37:58 Yeah, I mean, when you look at Penn State, they're not exactly a youthful team either, so they'll certainly have that advantage. 38:05 You know, this coming weekend, they're a pretty veteran team. 38:08 So they're just going to have to weather the storm here or there and try to take care of the puck a little bit better than what we've seen. 38:14 And some of these mistakes don't get rectified overnight, but you just kind of hope that they clean them up little by little as time goes along, and hopefully we'll get to where we need to get. 38:27 Hopefully this week they'll tinker enough that they'll find a little bit better chemistry in some of the areas that we need to improve on, like the power play. 38:34 How are you feeling about this series, Veegs? 38:37 I'm feeling a little nervous. 38:38 You know, this is a team that's given Gophers a lot of trouble. 38:42 They've got guys who turned down pro contracts to come back and try to accomplish something this year. 38:47 It's their first real road trip of the season, first real test for them. 38:51 We'll see how that plays out. 38:53 But this is a tough matchup for Minnesota, and they've had trouble generating offense. 38:58 And if you can't get to three against Penn State, you're going to have a hard time holding them under three. 39:04 So it's a good test. 39:06 I think if they can get a split here, Penn State, probably the favorite in the Big Ten to win the league. 39:12 So three points would be good for Minnesota. 39:16 What about you, Hammy? 39:17 Just overall feeling similar to Veegs, I guess? 39:23 Yeah, I can't say that I'm super confident. 39:26 And just because of all the things that we've mentioned, I kind of hope that the goaltending keeps you winning. 39:34 I am excited about what we've seen for goaltending. 39:37 I guess I wasn't quite as skeptical as you guys were, or at least have talked about. 39:41 I felt a little more confident in the goaltending. 39:46 But that's always kind of like one of those things that we talk about at the end of the year. 39:53 That's sort of the great equalizer. 39:55 If you get really good goaltending, you can beat anybody. 39:57 So we just got to hope that those guys are on their game this weekend and we can take care of business enough to pull out a victory or two. 40:05 Get her done, boys. 40:07 Get her done. 40:09 And then we'll see how we go from there. 40:11 Because then it's some fun weekends coming up. 40:14 We got Penn State, we got Wisconsin coming in, we got North Dakota coming in. 40:18 You know, people complained before, I can't get excited about for Penn State. 40:24 Well, you better start getting excited because they're a good team and it's going to be some fun hockey. 40:29 So the next three weekends are going to be just outstanding overall. 40:33 Veegs, you got anything shaking at the athletic right now? 40:36 I know you can't talk too much. 40:38 Not quite yet. 40:40 Look for something that has a North Dakota series. 40:43 Oh, there we go. 40:44 There we go. 40:45 All right, you guys got anything else this week? 40:51 Just want to wish my girlfriend Janelle a happy birthday. 40:56 She'll hear that tomorrow when it's actually her birthday. 40:59 Very smooth. 41:02 Hammy, such a good boy. 41:06 Well, that's going to do it for this episode of The GPL Podcast. 41:11 For those of you listening live, stay tuned for a bit of overtime. 41:14 The rest of you will be back next week to recap this Penn State series and preview Bucky Badger. 41:21 Until then, have a good evening.