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This is The GPL Podcast from gopherpucklive.com.
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We will.
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Now, here's Hammy, Vegoe and your host, Jupiter.
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Good evening, and welcome to the GPL Podcast, episode number 162 on this Eve of Thanksgiving.
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Looks like we're, without Hammy again tonight, he's busy.
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I'm just going with he's busy.
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But we do got Veegs.
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Veegs, how you doing?
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I'm doing great.
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Looking forward to seeing what happens this weekend, as Minnesota goes from one of their many rivals to another one.
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And you know that that rival is North Dakota coming into town.
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And as we've done the last few years when they played North Dakota, we get a hold of our Grand Forks Herald.
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He's the man that they, I'm just going to call you the man there.
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Brad Schlossman, how you doing?
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Good.
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Sounds good to chat with you guys.
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Well, it's always fun to have you on because, well, you kind of get it.
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You know, there's good ribbing in between the both schools, but, you know, it all comes down to, this is one of the best rivalries there is in college hockey.
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And for me, it's one of the best rivalries in all of sports.
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It's just, it's that college hockey passion.
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And I think we're going to see it again this weekend, Brad.
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Yeah, it wouldn't be one of those great rivalries without some of the ribbing, right?
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And having some fun with it.
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And yeah, you know, I think to me, what stands out is there just have not been very many games between these teams where you walk away and you were not entertained in some way.
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It seems like they just, you know, there's always so much hype and they just always deliver.
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So that's why this is so fun.
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And get to play in front of crowds that are always crazy and into it.
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And I think that's the, that's why players come to these two schools is to play in these types of games.
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And these are the games that are fun to watch.
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And it's not always just great hockey.
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It's physical hockey.
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We've seen even just the strangest things happen in this series as well.
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I mean, we've seen fights in the handshake line.
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We've seen goals from over a hundred feet away.
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You know, you know, you got Leopold who did it when they opened up the Ralph over there.
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And you guys did the same thing to us at Mariucci on Frazee.
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It's been goofy things.
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It just has it all.
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It really does.
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It's that's kind of been the nature of it.
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And now we have something new too, I guess, a game on a holiday, a Thanksgiving Day.
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So why not?
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I guess that's there's always something new in these teams.
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But yeah, can we make a tradition, you know, if it goes well, maybe.
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I mean, I can't wait for like the families who have Thanksgiving together.
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And there are probably some split families, North Dakota, Minnesota fans.
3:25
Oh, yeah.
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You know, by about seven, they're already sick of each other.
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And then they're going to go to the rink and cheer for other teams.
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So we might see some fireworks in the stands this weekend.
3:34
That would be great.
3:35
You know, we were talking before, you know, we started recording here how Minnesota had that college hockey showcase and was always on Thanksgiving weekend, not on Thanksgiving, but that weekend.
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And it was always, I always look forward to it a lot.
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I know Vig, you loved it too.
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And you were saying that you would like, you would watch it as well because you get to see that Michigan, that Michigan State team on FSN.
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And now I would be, I think it would be fun.
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Let's move this North Dakota Minnesota rivalry to this weekend and do it.
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It would be pretty, yeah, it would be pretty fun to do something like that.
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The only drawback I can think of is that the students are always gone this weekend.
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That is true.
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So you wouldn't necessarily have that.
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Maybe you don't need it.
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But other than that, yeah, I'm curious to see how it goes.
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Back in the 90s and early 2000s when they were doing that College Hockey Showgaze, there weren't students in there, but it was full a lot and it was fun.
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Maybe it's just different these days because I do notice that a lot of students are not coming to these games on winter break and on Thanksgiving break.
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They're home to have fun.
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But I do wonder if you make it a big rivalry game like this, if you'll get more attendance because I can guarantee you that there's going to be a lot of students at the football game on Saturday.
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So I could see students making a weekend of it and saying, you know what, we're just going to commit to the thing.
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We're going to have a friends giving, sorry, mom and dad, I'm not coming home.
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A lot of kids like to go out tonight anyway.
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And so they could just make it a couple nights of having a good time being a college student.
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Yeah, you know, if they were to build something where that just was the thing where you knew, hey, Thanksgiving weekend, this is coming, you know, I could see I could see something building out of that.
5:30
And I think it's going to make for a great TV opportunity.
5:33
Looking at the ticket sales for Thursday night, probably not going to be the best.
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I think the people that are going to be there are going to be passionate.
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We've had some pretty loud crowds at Marriotchee this year that have probably only been six or seven thousand.
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And that's a lot of passionate hockey fans.
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But I think it's also a great TV opportunity for hockey.
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Since the NHL doesn't really do much on Thanksgiving, it's a chance for college hockey to be a national show.
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And I think it's something they could build on.
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Yeah, I never thought about that.
6:04
How you know, at that time, there is not much hockey going on.
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And obviously, there aren't any other college games.
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So if you're a college hockey fan, this is what everyone's going to be tuning into and following tomorrow night.
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I think if you're just a hockey fan, you know, there's always going to be enough draft picks on both these teams that you can take a little bit of an interest in.
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And it's good for exposure for these programs.
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That's a good point.
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I'm sure the folks at College Hockey Inc.
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are enjoying that aspect that fans may be tuning into this game to watch their draft picks.
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Yeah, it's either that or, you know, you got your third NFL game of the day, which might be a little bit overkill.
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So that's what I was just a good chance to over, over cover that.
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Yeah, I don't even know who's playing tomorrow night.
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I don't either.
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It's usually not a great game.
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Yeah, you always get your your Lions and your Cowboys game and then you have this afterthought night game.
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Yeah.
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The Lions game usually isn't a great one either.
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Yeah, it's a few and far between that the Lions are actually good.
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So yeah, let's make a tradition.
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You start pushing it in Grand Forks and we'll start pushing it here.
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Let's get next year's series up there.
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Yeah, that's probably already planned.
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It definitely is.
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And I don't know offhand what weekend it is, but it's entirely possible.
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It could be the same weekend, though, because this is obviously one of the weekends where very few conferences set up conference games.
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So this one's usually going to be open.
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Well let's quickly talk about what both teams did this past weekend, Veegs and Minnesota.
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I actually think they did better than we thought they'd do coming in after getting killed by Penn State.
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They get the win Friday night, they get the tie Saturday night, lose the extra point, but four out of six points on the weekend.
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I felt okay about it.
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How about you?
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Yeah, I was a little surprised how well they played.
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You saw such inconsistent play and lack of effort against Penn State.
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You just hope that that wouldn't bleed into another weekend.
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You never know where a team's head is really at during the year with college kids, but I thought they responded really well.
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Their compete level was the best.
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Maybe I've seen it all season.
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It seemed like on Friday they won a ton of one on one battles.
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They won puck races.
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They were good on faceoffs.
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They're pretty good on blocking shots.
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These are things that show how much effort your team is willing to put into the game to get a win.
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And then on Saturday, I thought they came off their pace just a little bit, maybe weren't quite as into it, maybe got heavy legs.
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Obviously, as Purbecks went down, Moscow decided to shorten the bench and roll three lines instead to try to spot Munson and Maroney in there as a fourth line.
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He just kind of cut it down to three.
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And I think that started to impact the game late as it looked like they got some heavy legs, especially that last power play in the third period.
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They just weren't winning any of the races and puck retrievals and getting a second chances that they really needed to pull away from Wisconsin, who does have a lot of talent.
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And I thought LaFontaine played really well all weekend, again, a couple of long shots that he didn't see through traffic.
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I think that's been an issue and it makes me a little worried and a mystery injury.
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Well, he just took a puck to the shoulder that got numb.
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And so it's just a bruise.
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So it just kind of hit him funny.
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He was fine.
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And that's good.
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And on the flip side up in Grand Forks, you had St.
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Cloud come to come to town, Brad, and you guys did a pretty good job taking care of St.
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Cloud this past weekend.
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Yeah, you know, St.
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Cloud has a lot of guys in new spots.
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They just lost so many guys from last year that I think they're going to get there.
10:03
It's just going to take them a little longer.
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You know, basically all their special teams guys, all their key situation guys, they're all new because they graduated or lost early in the case of Blake Lazotte and Ryan Palin.
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So, you know, UND took them to overtime on Saturday nights to win that game.
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But yeah, it's been a good start for North Dakota this season.
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Finding ways to win games late seems to be a trend for them.
10:37
Is it a trend for St.
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Cloud?
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Because, you know, obviously, I mean, they lost a lot from last year, but they were really good last year and then hit the tournament and boy, it's been bad ever since that game.
10:53
They just don't have the firepower.
10:55
Like last year, they had so much, so many offensive weapons, and they were going to generate a ton of chances on you every game.
11:05
And on Saturday night, when they went to overtime, St.
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Cloud State had 10 shots on goal.
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And that's just nothing that would have happened with last year's team.
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Like I said, I like some of their players.
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I think they can get there.
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It's just going to take them some time this year.
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This may be one of those teams like, you know, maybe some of Dave Hax dolls where they lost a lot.
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And once the guys figured things out, they were much better in the second half.
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I think when North Dakota sees them in the second half, they're going to be a much better team.
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The question is, how much better are they going to be able to get?
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But, you know, that was definitely a more veteran team in North Dakota, you know, taking a little bit of advantage of a younger team in St.
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Cloud State, I thought.
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And it's been kind of an odd start for you guys this year in that, you know, in like, say, the past 10 years, it's been much a 500 team, you know, that first beginning of the year.
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And then they get super hot.
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And, you know, you go to suesports.com, and you see the fire hack stall or fire berry threads right away because, you know, we giggle because it just happened every season.
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But this year, it's been, they've been really successful.
12:18
And now you hope they don't go downhill, but they just keep on going up.
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Well, yeah, I think for starters, the first thing was, their schedule wasn't super hard at the start.
12:30
But they were taking care of business and they were doing it convincingly.
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And I think at first, everyone would say, well, yeah, they've got a great record, but look at who they've played.
12:40
And sometimes my answer was, yeah, they played those same teams last year, and they weren't doing that to them.
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You know, we all know what happened when they went out to Canisius last year and scored two goals in two games and lost both of them.
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They played Bemidji State last year and scored two goals in two games.
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They played these teams last year and did not dictate the way they were doing it this year.
13:00
But I think the Denver weekend was the one that really stood out, where everyone knew they were going to Denver.
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Everyone knows Denver is a good team.
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And when they went and took five or six points from the Pioneers in Magnus, I think that's when even the UND fans and a lot of people said, whoa, like this is happening.
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They're going to be good this year.
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And it's not just the schedule.
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And for the first time, undefeated in the first half of the season at home.
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Yeah, at home.
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Yeah, the first time since 1964, they went to Christmas break with a perfect home record.
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In 2002, they had one tie.
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I think they were 11-0-1 at Christmas break.
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But this time, they have not lost or tied.
13:42
They've won two games in the five on five overtime.
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So they were pretty close to a couple ties there.
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But Jordan Kawaguchi, who's just been unbelievable in key situations for UND, UND played 16 games at home in the calendar year 2019.
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He had three overtime winners, two game tying goals in the last six minutes.
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Then I think he had another game winner with under seven minutes to go.
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So Jordan Kawaguchi at home in big moments, he's been lights out for him.
14:17
Now they got to find a way to do it on the road.
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This is a team that was like five, 11 and one on the road last year.
14:23
They just really struggled.
14:25
That's something Brad Berry has mentioned repeatedly at the start of this year, that this team needs to be far better on the road than they were last year.
14:34
Veegs, on the flip side, we've seen some moments from Minnesota that are playing the way we would like them to play, but still, it's been quite the roller coaster for Minnesota.
14:47
Well, I think they've got so many new players and new roles, special teams.
14:53
They've basically had to replace every spot except for Brandon McManus.
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I think they're still trying to figure out how to work together on those units.
15:04
We've seen some shuffling on the PK a little bit.
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It's amazing to me that some of the guys who've emerged as effective players are guys like Jackson Nelson and Jack Purbecks.
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Those are players I didn't have really high expectations for coming into the season.
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But when Monsko talks about his top six forwards, those guys are a part of the list.
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And I think it's just going to take some time for them to figure it out and get some consistency because it's going to be a tough weekend against North Dakota because they play such an honest hard game that you can't hide on the ice against them.
15:41
Brad, have you heard much on what happened to Purbeck Saturday night?
15:45
Not yet.
15:46
He wasn't skating with the team earlier this week.
15:49
He was kind of off on his own in a no-contact jersey, so it could be a little bit for him.
15:56
That's unfortunate because like you said, he was one of the bright spots.
16:00
We did see Mr.
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Brodzinski get a goal, though, and for anyone, we've seen him struggle coming in, but it's those kind of things that can really kind of ignite a kid and kind of open their eyes.
16:17
I think Brodzinski is a little bit of a lightning rod for some fans because he's not going to be a great flashy in transition kind of player right now.
16:25
He's got a little ways to go to get that added to his game, but he's making smart plays in the offensive zone with the puck.
16:33
I think if he can get some zone time, you're going to see more goals.
16:37
He scores a lot in practice around the net.
16:39
He's got good hands and a good stick and has a pretty big body, so I think that's where he can be effective.
16:45
He's just got to get some line mates who possess the puck a little bit longer.
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Well, we've definitely seen that from our little Finland boy, because he's playing darn well right now.
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Brad, I don't know how much you've seen of Sampo this year, but he is a completely different player.
17:05
He's just really taking the puck to the net.
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He's getting shots off that are dangerous, where goalies just can't freeze it.
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So there are rebounds there, and he's working really well with Reedy and McManus right now.
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And he's so strong on the puck.
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He's really good at shielding players from the puck just with strength.
17:26
Yeah, I think the difference is he actually slimmed down a little bit.
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A lot of people keep talking about how he's gotten bigger, but he actually slimmed down a little bit.
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So he's got more speed, which I think allows him to use his size a little bit more.
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I think that's something you're going to want to see in Brodsinski next year is maybe trimmed down a little bit so he can use his size and speed a little more effectively because he's a totally different player.
17:51
I'm expecting him to go to the World Juniors and really impress this year.
17:54
Yeah, I got to see him last year.
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I think Minnesota played Duluth early on right before the Vegas game, and I thought he looked really, really good against the Bulldogs.
18:07
And then he was far quieter in Vegas and kind of was quieter the rest of the year.
18:14
But what stood out to me in looking at the numbers, I haven't seen a ton of games.
18:20
I didn't see Saturday night's game against Wisconsin.
18:24
But Sammy Walker has an unbelievable start to the year, and it almost seems like he dropped off right when Sample Ranta picked up.
18:36
You look at the stats and it's like they're almost like opposites in the way they've produced.
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I don't know if their play on the ice has been indicative of that, or if that's just by chance or what, but that was something that was really stark when I looked at numbers.
18:53
Yeah, I think Walker is one of those sophomores who's kind of got that hangover effect right now.
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Motsko talked about it with Blake McLaughlin, who finally had a good weekend where he was engaged and working both ends of the puck.
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And I think that's the case with Walker right now.
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Some guys, they come back that sophomore year, they think the game's maybe going to come a little easier to them, and they're waiting for the game to come to them.
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What made Walker so effective last year is how intense he was on the puck and how much he forced the game to come to him and how many chances he created with his speed and energy.
19:28
And I just haven't seen the same player yet this year, and we're running out of time in the first half for him to find that.
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I still thought he created a number of chances Saturday night.
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I think playing at wing and playing on a third line where he wasn't seeing the top checking lines really helped him because he can be really dangerous in transition if he's got space.
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The problem this year has been so many times the other team hasn't allowed that to happen because of their focus.
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I think playing a team like Wisconsin that's also really young, they just didn't have that same attention to detail.
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The other thing that could be interesting to follow this weekend, and this is a home game for Minnesota, so they will have last line change.
20:15
But North Dakota has had a very, very effective checking line.
20:21
Mark Sendon is centering Gavin Hayne and Cole Smith.
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And for home games, UND has, in the past, I would say they are more intent on matching up a D pair against a really good player, a top line.
20:35
But they are throwing that trio out against everyone's best line, which not only have they been good at neutralizing it, but it's opened up UND's first and second lines to play against other teams, not top players, because they are locking up the Sendon line.
20:55
Now, without last line change, they really won't have as much freedom in dictating that.
21:01
But, I'm still curious to see how the line matchups roll out and who North Dakota is going to attempt to match up with that Sendon line as much as possible.
21:13
Probably Sam Boranta.
21:14
Yeah.
21:14
And Veegs, we've seen that if you're aggressive on that Minnesota defense, you saw what Penn State did.
21:20
Penn State was very successful when they pressured Minnesota.
21:24
Yeah.
21:24
I think that's been an Achilles heel for this program in the last couple of years is how the defensemen respond under pressure and the discipline of getting back to the breakout.
21:34
That's been a challenge.
21:37
Yeah, that should be a challenge.
21:38
That'll definitely be something North Dakota is going to want to challenge them on this weekend because that happened in Vegas last year.
21:46
Minnesota had a real difficult time moving the puck out of their own end and generating a lot.
21:50
When they did get it in the offensive zone, I thought they were able to generate some looks but they just didn't have enough zone time.
21:58
This week, we've seen a lot of good videos from the past games and pictures.
22:03
One picture that caught my attention this past week was, I believe, Shep and Hunt were talking to the Minnesota Gopher and North Dakota captains and behind them, the penalty box was filled with 10 players, five on a side.
22:20
That kind of brings me to Frozen 4 Champs.
22:22
He's in the Mixler Chat.
22:24
He's asking, both Minnesota and UND don't take very many penalties, at least more recently.
22:29
Are we not going to see old time hard nosed hockey this weekend?
22:32
So he's kind of wondering, these teams do kind of bring that out in each other.
22:38
Well, we see the boxes, it may not be full of 10 guys, but it could be a little tension this weekend, couldn't it, Brad?
22:47
Yeah, you know, like I wrote a little bit this week about kind of what's the rivalry like now?
22:54
Is it the same?
22:55
Is it different?
22:56
I think in some ways it's different.
22:58
And in some ways, it's still the same.
23:02
That reminds me of, so they played that frozen four game in 2014.
23:10
And I think there were two minor penalties the entire game.
23:13
Like, neither team took a penalty, which is understandable, the frozen national championship spot is on the line.
23:20
Then they didn't play for a couple of years.
23:22
And the first time they got back together was that's, I think, 16-17 at Miriuchi.
23:28
And so I'm thinking, you know, last time they played, there were no penalties.
23:32
They haven't played in three years.
23:34
And then Ryan Langren and Gay Jasmus reminded us all very quickly that it's still North Dakota Minnesota.
23:44
So I think that the intensity of the fans brings up the intensity of the players.
23:52
And I do think we'll see a little bit of that element this week.
23:55
Because every time I'm like, you know what, maybe it's not there.
23:58
Then you go to the rick.
23:59
I'm like, oh, yeah, what was I thinking?
24:00
Of course it's there.
24:01
And then, you know, you always think in a frozen four, players are a little more conscious.
24:06
You know, we got to stay out of the box.
24:08
And as you guys know, as much as we do, how many times you've gone to the NCAA tournament and gotten Eastern refs and all of a sudden you're in the box a lot.
24:20
And you know, that didn't happen that night.
24:22
I mean, the teams played very disciplined that night and it was a wonderful game, obviously.
24:28
I'm thinking on these other kind of weekends, we're not going to see that as much.
24:32
Yeah, I don't know.
24:33
I think you can see a disciplined team not take the bad stick penalties and stuff and still take the coincidentals that we are used to in this series, you know, just like when Ryan Lindgren goes up and challenges someone.
24:45
You know, that guy's not going to skate away in this kind of series.
24:48
If someone wants to kind of send a message or send a tone, he's going to find a partner.
24:52
Yeah.
24:55
And in that case, I think we had, where is Lindgren from?
24:59
Like Lakeville or something?
25:00
I can't remember where he is from offhand.
25:04
But you know, I think he's a Twin Cities kid, right?
25:07
Yeah.
25:08
Metro kid.
25:09
Yeah.
25:09
So you have a Twin Cities kid and you have a kid from Grand Forks, East Grand Forks.
25:15
And of course, they know the history of the rivalry and they were the ones that got it started.
25:20
And, you know, if it gets started tomorrow night, there are several contenders I can think of on the North Dakota side, who will be right in the middle of the melee.
25:33
Shocking.
25:34
Yeah.
25:36
There's always a couple of those guys and they've got a couple this year that will not be shying away.
25:42
And one of them will be playing in the rivalry for the first time is Buston Machaud.
25:47
He's from Cloquet.
25:48
He's the senior grad transfer from Colorado College.
25:53
He's got a little bit.
25:55
I'm not going to say he's a Brett Hexdoller or Mike Perpek.
25:58
He's certainly not close to that level, but he's got a little bit of agitation in his game, so to speak.
26:06
But so, you know, it'll be interesting when he first gets his first taste of this rivalry, how that goes.
26:13
Yeah, but it's those agitators that have made this rivalry what it is.
26:18
There's guys on the other team everyone loves to hate.
26:23
And we've seen them all through the years from both teams.
26:27
I've always said, you know, for some of the old timers, Wisconsin is the biggest rivalry.
26:33
Well, for me, it's always been North Dakota.
26:36
It's just a different beast.
26:38
And maybe it's, you know, one of the biggest reasons is that North Dakota fans travel like no other.
26:45
And Wisconsin fans were never quite that way, or at least they haven't been that way in many, many, many years.
26:51
And basically, you know, when we got to the height of the Final Five in the 2000s, it was Minnesota and North Dakota fans supporting that 19,000 seat arena.
27:02
And it wasn't, it really wasn't, it wasn't Wisconsin at the time, you know, pushing that rivalry.
27:07
So I think that's where the rivalry really took off.
27:10
You know, I found an old video earlier this week of that 2004 Final Five championship between Minnesota and North Dakota.
27:18
And, you know, the names on that team in that game, it was amazing.
27:22
It was a great game.
27:24
Nineteen thousand fans.
27:27
And Veegs, I'm just not seeing that with Wisconsin at least recently.
27:34
Well, I think any great rivalry, it's because the fans make it a better atmosphere.
27:40
And I agree with you wholeheartedly.
27:42
That's what makes this game special is the fans will travel to these buildings and fill them up.
27:49
I know for Friday's game, you know, that's going to be a tough tougher ticket.
27:53
It's going to be packed with a lot of green and it's going to be loud.
27:58
And it's going to make the game so much more entertaining for everybody involved.
28:01
I think it gives the players a little bit of extra juice and it shows on the ice.
28:06
I think you have, when you have the North Dakota fans getting into it and getting loud, then all of a sudden you have the Minnesota fans who you want to get even louder then, and it just feeds into it.
28:20
And there is a little sense of that when UND goes to Denver, because there's such a huge alumni base of North Dakota alums who live in the Denver area.
28:30
So they all come out every time they play in Magnus.
28:34
And you see that when the UND people start chanting and all of a sudden the Denver people come back over the top and it just becomes a fun atmosphere.
28:42
Obviously that's not to the extent that we'll see this weekend.
28:45
But I think that makes the games even more fun.
28:48
Obviously when we were both in the WCHA, we had the home and away series and I think that helped as well.
29:03
It's not as fun, but damn it, it's still a lot of fun.
29:08
And I'm hoping a lot of North Dakota fans show up this weekend because it just makes the atmosphere that much better.
29:13
We've well documented some of the attendance problems that Minnesota is having and I think it's going to make for a great, lively atmosphere of leagues.
29:22
Yeah, it always brings out the best in both fans and I think it helps if Minnesota has a team that's playing well.
29:29
We'll see how they come out on the ice this weekend because I certainly think when they played in Vegas, Minnesota had its tail between its legs for most of the game and it made kind of for a frustrating experience for Minnesota fans.
29:42
I think we'll probably see a more competitive game this weekend, but we'll see what comes out.
29:50
Yeah, I think it's one of those series where both teams, no matter where they are in the standings, they're going to raise their levels.
29:59
And so I would think that even going back, we could go all the way back to the last time until last year, I guess, that UND was on the road in the first round of the playoffs.
30:10
They had to go to Minnesota.
30:12
So obviously UND had a bottom half team and they really pushed Minnesota that year, played a couple of really good games.
30:19
Minnesota came away with that.
30:21
I think it would have been 2011 or 2010 when Minnesota was a bottom half team and ended up coming to Grand Forks for the first round.
30:31
That one went three games.
30:33
So sometimes I think you're going to get the best shot no matter where the teams are in the standings, how young or old each team is.
30:42
That just kind of seems to be the way it is.
30:46
Well, let's talk about what's actually going to happen this weekend.
30:51
We saw LaFontaine play both games this past weekend.
30:57
Will we see that this weekend?
31:00
Well, I think he's going to get the first shot on Thursday, and if he plays like he did last weekend on the first night, he'll get the next game.
31:08
I think there's a little bit of frustration right now with the coach and Jared Moe, so we'll see what happens, but I think LaFontaine's definitely got the advantage right now.
31:19
Why is there some frustration going on?
31:22
Well, I just think there's been some soft goals that Moe's given up that really frustrated the coach.
31:27
Yeah, and earlier in the season, he kept letting that first shot go in.
31:33
Obviously, some of them are on him and some of them are not, but that's just a tough way to start a game when you already won goal behind Veegs.
31:43
Yeah, and there's been games where the team's playing really well and he's not.
31:47
I don't see coaches call out their goalies too often, but Bob certainly did that with Jared the other weekend where he thought the team was playing pretty well against Penn State, and then their goalie just let him down on that Saturday.
31:59
Yeah, we'll have to see.
32:03
And on the flip side, you got North Dakota coming in playing awfully well, Brad.
32:10
Not much of a mystery who's playing in goal for North Dakota.
32:14
Adam Shields played every minute.
32:16
It was actually last year, the Vegas game, where that was kind of the eye-opening like, wow, they are going to start the freshmen in this game.
32:24
They had been splitting him and Tommy to that point, and he played fantastic in Vegas.
32:32
Like I said, Minnesota didn't have a ton of great A's or a ton of possession time, but they did have some good chances.
32:37
And he was really, really sharp on those.
32:40
I think the only goal Minnesota scored was a 5 on 3.
32:42
If I remember, it was definitely power play.
32:45
I was right in front of the net.
32:48
So he's been playing well.
32:53
UND's been playing really well defensively in front of him.
32:55
I think that's been a key, too.
32:58
I think they rank first in a nation in few shots allowed per game.
33:02
So they've been effective at limiting teams' shots.
33:05
And that's definitely going to be the key this weekend.
33:08
Although this team hasn't played on an Olympic sheet this year, I think they played two games on an Olympic sheet all of last year.
33:15
So this is going to be a little bit new in that sense.
33:17
Both CC games.
33:19
Well, St.
33:20
Cloud, though, too.
33:22
They didn't play at St.
33:23
Cloud last year.
33:23
Oh, that's right.
33:25
Oh, OK.
33:25
Yeah, there's one team every year.
33:28
They don't play on the road.
33:29
And St.
33:29
Cloud was it.
33:30
So they only played at CC.
33:32
Those were their only two Olympic ranked games last season.
33:35
So it'll be interesting to see how they adjust to that.
33:41
Well, Veegs, we can't wait till that goes away.
33:44
Yeah, it's kind of funny.
33:46
I think this year's Minnesota team would actually be better on a smaller sheet.
33:51
Just the way they tend to like to play this year.
33:54
They've looked more engaged on the smaller ranks.
33:57
So it's coming at some point.
34:00
Yeah, it's all about that isn't determined yet.
34:04
No, they've got to get some funding.
34:06
And Minnesota has a lot of projects in the air and a lot of unpaid for athlete village bills still on the books.
34:16
That's not cheap.
34:18
It's definitely not cheap.
34:22
Well, it's going to be an exciting weekend no matter what.
34:25
We've got the Thanksgiving game.
34:26
We've got the day after Black Friday.
34:28
We've got the big Gopher football game on Saturday.
34:31
It's a big weekend down at the UV.
34:35
It's just all exciting all around.
34:37
Yeah, and you can just kind of tell it on campus.
34:40
The players are all, you know, smiley about game day being around.
34:44
And I know a lot of the families of the players are going to stick around for the entire weekend so they can kind of catch some of that football atmosphere.
34:51
You know, rising tide raises all boats.
34:56
And they're rowing them right now.
34:59
And that's just something we haven't seen around here, Brad, as a real football team.
35:03
Yeah.
35:04
It's been literally 50, 60 years.
35:08
So it's odd for them to be the big kid on campus.
35:14
Yeah.
35:15
I was just thinking about the last time North Dakota was here in 2016.
35:21
Football actually was home that Saturday.
35:24
And they debated it quite a bit.
35:27
I want to say they played like Illinois or someone.
35:29
And they debated it quite a bit.
35:30
And they just decided to go for it and play both on the same day.
35:34
How glad are they that they did not try that?
35:39
Wow, they must be feeling good.
35:42
Yeah, I remember that.
35:43
The campus can handle the 30,000 people crowd, whether it's volleyball and basketball and hockey or a low attended football game and something else.
35:53
But when there's going to be 50,000 plus people on campus, it's just a little bit of a headache getting in and out.
36:01
So good call the way they did it.
36:03
I think also a good call to do it Thursday and Friday.
36:06
I know some people aren't happy about having to go to games on Thanksgiving, but a Sunday game wouldn't be much of a draw either.
36:15
So I think you'd see kind of the same attendance either way.
36:18
And come on, are you still eating your turkey at 7 p.m.?
36:22
Who is not done yet?
36:24
Who's not ready to get out and do something?
36:26
Unfortunately, that's going to be me.
36:32
Yeah.
36:33
This is like the first Thanksgiving I've had since like 2015.
36:36
And I'm going to the girlfriend's brother's house.
36:41
And well, they've got some stuff going on earlier in the day.
36:45
So we're not going to be eating till about 6.
36:47
And they're like, oh, we're sorry.
36:48
You sure you want to come?
36:49
I'm like, yeah, I'll come.
36:54
So Thursday's game is going to be absolutely crazy.
36:57
Then guaranteed, it's going to be one of the wildest games we've ever seen.
37:04
Yeah, and they don't even have, I don't think they even have cable or something.
37:07
I'm going to have to stream it on my phone.
37:09
That's fine.
37:10
I can listen to Wally and Frank.
37:11
That's just fine.
37:12
Those guys are awesome, but a little delay.
37:17
It sucks, but you know, it is what it is.
37:18
I'll be there Friday night.
37:19
And I know Veegs, you'll be there Friday night.
37:22
That's the plan.
37:23
Yeah, so we'll whoop it up then.
37:27
It'll be fun.
37:30
It's the best rivalry I see out there.
37:33
I wish Minnesota would get some more rivalries like this.
37:37
I've always actually wished that we'd get this kind of rivalry with Michigan.
37:42
Michigan's had some great teams.
37:45
And in recent years, some of their guys have injured some of our players and gotten penalties for it.
37:53
And I kind of hope that would kind of stoke the rivalry.
37:56
But unfortunately, if Michigan was better, that would be great.
38:00
Yeah.
38:01
I think it's just the fans don't travel for those other teams.
38:05
They're too far away.
38:09
I think that adds so much to it.
38:11
The other thing I always said, too, is after the league split, too, is one of the things that has to feed into it is a lot of these people who work in their office jobs during the day, they know that if they go to work on Monday and their team doesn't have a good weekend, there's going to be that North Dakota alum in the office that's giving it to them or vice versa.
38:36
The North Dakota alum knows that the Gopher guys are going to be giving it to them about that.
38:41
So of course, it makes them pay even more attention to the games and I think having the proximity of everyone knows North Dakota and Minnesota fans on the other side and knows them pretty well and that feeds into the rivalry a little bit too.
38:57
So what are your thoughts, Brad, on what's happening in the WCHA?
39:01
I mean, we've obviously got a ton of schools that are saying bye-bye and I can't blame them.
39:07
I mean, when I think of schools that got really, let's just say it screwed over, you look at somebody like Bemidji State who worked their ass off to get into the WCHA because it was the league and all of a sudden they're there a couple years and all of a sudden they look around and it's not the same anymore.
39:25
Yeah, the whole thing is a little bit strange and I don't know if it's because I don't cover the league on a day-to-day basis or not, but I remember when the WCHA split up after the Big Ten had announced and they had that second split.
39:42
There were a lot of rumblings and I was hearing things behind the scenes and the weird thing to me was that I hadn't heard this anywhere before it happened.
39:53
And since it happened, I haven't heard almost anything.
39:58
And so I'm going to be doing some digging over Christmas break to try to figure out exactly where they're at with this, what exactly is happening.
40:11
I think that there may be something going on with St.
40:15
Thomas.
40:18
I ran through a lot of sources when St.
40:21
Thomas announced that they were going to go D1 in all sports and go to the Summit League.
40:30
I had a pretty good source tell me, I can't talk to you on this one, but keep going.
40:41
There must be something going on.
40:44
That was within three days of the announcement.
40:47
There's something going on behind the scenes there.
40:49
I don't know what it is.
40:52
I would assume they have had contact with some of these WCHA teams.
40:58
The weird thing to me is that, like I said, it may be because I'm just not covering the WCHA on a regular basis like I was back when they split in 2011.
41:08
There hasn't been much rumblings behind the scenes.
41:12
The big thing with St.
41:13
Thomas is I'm convinced that they have intentionally gone this public relations route so that they can get the waiver to move directly to D1.
41:25
That's why everything is phrased the way it is, and that's why the language is the way it is, so they can get the waiver.
41:31
This isn't something that the NCAA really wants to open up to other institutions to try and do.
41:38
I think that's why it's so quiet.
41:41
I think until the NCAA approves them moving from D3 to D1, you're not going to get much from people on the record on this because they're being told to stay silent.
41:50
Yeah, and I'm not expecting to get things on the record.
41:53
And even besides seeing Thomas, the weird thing to me is I'm not hearing anything about these other schools.
41:58
I'm not hearing about hires they're making.
42:00
I'm not hearing about movements behind the scenes to build the league.
42:05
And it may be happening at a great pace, and I just don't know about it.
42:08
But when it came to the NCHC eight years ago, I had been hearing about all these movements and I'm just not hearing it now.
42:17
And I don't know whether that's because I'm just not plugged into the league, or if it's because things are different, then they're moving along at a different pace, or they're moving along differently than they did eight years ago.
42:29
Well, you also got Skyny Monk kind of brought it up, you know, where would St.
42:33
Thomas play?
42:33
They need an arena.
42:35
Yeah.
42:36
You can't just have them play in something small, so they either have to build something or go somewhere.
42:42
And I see Motay saying the Fairgrounds Coliseum with a big smile.
42:45
I'm not so sure about that, but I mean, you've got that.
42:51
Really, the WCHA, the Alaska schools, they survived so far, but it's not looking good.
42:58
It's unfortunate, but they could be gone, and that's just a loss of two schools is never good for the NCAA.
43:07
And I guess they just kind of pushed Huntsville out as well, because maybe they didn't like going down to Huntsville.
43:13
I'm not really sure.
43:15
It's all kind of like, what is going on here, Veegs?
43:19
The one thing I do think with the Alaska schools is that because the NCAA lets you get extra games on your schedule when you play them, that's a possibility for them to survive by doing arrangements with the bigger schools that can afford to do it.
43:34
It's true.
43:37
We're just going to have to wait and see, I guess.
43:40
When is the NCAA supposed to break up again?
43:41
Is it a couple more years, Veegs?
43:43
Do you remember when those schools decided they were going to pull out?
43:46
I thought it was two more years.
43:51
College hockey keeps changing.
43:55
It was consistent for so long until all of a sudden somebody decided to do a big $88 million donation to Penn State and threw everything into whack.
44:06
I wish the fans would get some hate for Penn State because that team is so good.
44:10
That could be a rival for a lot of teams.
44:14
Let's get it going, fans, because Penn State is good.
44:17
They're the reason where we're at.
44:18
Come on.
44:19
Let's get some hate going here, Veegs.
44:22
Yeah, you'd think if there would be a villain, it'd be easy to pin on Penn State.
44:26
Not only because of that, but the way they play.
44:28
They just kind of invite that kind of hate, I think, when you have a team that plays against them because they're going to play hard and sometimes a little cheap.
44:37
And they don't schedule anybody.
44:42
That is true.
44:44
I was kind of going off on a rant earlier this week when I kind of noticed Alabama's football schedule is...
44:51
Very Penn State-like.
44:52
Yeah, in hockey, yes.
44:55
I'm like, geez, you know, Alabama's played some of these big teams, but their other games are just really bad.
45:04
Well, if you know that you play in a strong enough conference, why take chances outside if you don't have to?
45:10
Yeah, I think that's it.
45:13
I guess, but you look at teams like Minnesota and North Dakota, they're playing each other.
45:19
Minnesota's played Duluth this year.
45:21
They're going to play...
45:22
Most likely they'll play Minnesota State because St.
45:26
Claude's not doing so well.
45:28
And obviously their conferences are really strong.
45:32
You're just not going to see a school like Minnesota or North Dakota, Brad, schedule a lot of cream puffs.
45:37
I mean, you got ones here and there you do, but really it's kind of about prestige and hey, we don't play the cream puffs.
45:45
Yeah, I think it's two-fold.
45:47
You want to mix a few of them in there because you need some wins.
45:53
And secondly, I think it challenges teams and makes him rise a little bit.
46:04
I think it was after a North Dakota Minnesota weekend.
46:07
I can't even remember what coach said.
46:09
I mean, it could have been Haxdahl, Lucia, Matzko or Berry, but one of the coaches had a bad weekend and said something along the lines of our team got better this weekend and they're going to be way better this season because of it.
46:25
And these are the stages you play on in the NCAA tournament.
46:28
And if your players can handle North Dakota or Minnesota, they can handle any NCAA tournament game.
46:34
If you can play in this atmosphere, you can play in anything.
46:38
And so I think it's really good for them to play these games and I think it's good to play against a good competition.
46:44
I think that's part of the reason that NCHC has won the last four national titles.
46:48
When they get to the NCAA tournament, they're not seeing anything that they don't every single game in the league.
46:57
And they're just prepared for it.
46:59
And so that's why I think it is good to play some of these high-profile non-conference games because both teams will be...
47:05
both North Dakota and Minnesota will be better on Saturday for playing these two games.
47:11
And of course, Mote reminds us that you lose to those inferior teams and it can kill your season.
47:18
Well, listen to the two teams we're talking about right here.
47:21
Who missed the NCAA tournament last year?
47:24
North Dakota's Canisius losses, Minnesota lost to...
47:28
was it Ferris?
47:29
Yep, St.
47:30
Lawrence.
47:31
And St.
47:31
Lawrence.
47:33
They're absolute pairwise killers.
47:35
Both these teams would have been in the tournament last year.
47:39
You take out those games, they're both in.
47:43
We've talked about this a little bit.
47:45
Should the pairwise be adjusted?
47:46
I mean, they really seem to overpunish teams for bad losses.
47:51
Then they would reward them for maybe a good win.
47:54
Yeah, I, you know, I'm not the greatest mathematician.
48:01
That's why I got into journalism, because I could graduate without taking a single math class in college.
48:07
So there's a couple of UND fans that whenever I have math questions, I text them and say, Hey, can you do this for me?
48:16
I can't do this, so I'm not the best source on the pairwise formula.
48:21
But I've heard that sentiment many times over the last year, especially from UND people, because they had so many really good wins last year.
48:33
You know, they beat, who were the number one seats?
48:36
They beat three of the number one seats last year.
48:38
They beat Minnesota State.
48:40
They beat, they were 500 against one seat last year.
48:43
They went two and two against Duluth, one and one against St.
48:46
Cloud, and one and one against Mankato last year.
48:49
So they had a lot of big wins.
48:52
But yeah, those two games in Canisius were exactly, you know, had they swept that series, they would have been in.
49:00
Veegs, how do you feel about it?
49:02
I know you kind of, you kind of feel that there should be maybe a little adjustment.
49:06
Yeah, I mean, I'm kind of a guy who thinks the crash and RPI type things are more effective than the pairwise.
49:14
The one thing with college hockey is everybody knows what they have to do to make the tournament.
49:19
It's very clear with the math.
49:22
So it makes it very transparent when you have things like committees and they're biased and they're trying to say who is the best team.
49:30
And then they start like with the college football playoff.
49:34
They don't even really have standards.
49:36
They're just kind of doing an eye test and picking the teams they think are the best.
49:40
And that's how Alabama can get in with one or two losses because people look at their roster and say, well, I think they're one of the four best teams.
49:49
So I think you don't want to swing too far that way.
49:53
And I think one of the nice things is like you go into the end of the season and you look at the pairwise, well, they need to win two games or one game and have this happen and they're in.
50:04
So I think you don't want to lose that part of it.
50:06
But I do think rewarding good wins is better than bad losses.
50:11
Well, what about bringing back that it used to be about 10 years ago, the last 16 games and have that more of a weight?
50:21
Do you remember that Vegas where I want to see your last 16 games?
50:24
You know, because obviously if you're playing better than you did at the earlier season, they've kind of rewarded you for it.
50:29
Yeah.
50:29
And I think basketball has gone to that a little bit too.
50:33
They've done a lot to try to figure out who the teams are that should be the NCAA tournament.
50:38
And it's a little too confusing for me because they have all these different things that go into it.
50:44
But I do think, you know, how a team is playing at the end is important.
50:47
And, you know, playing a challenging schedule should be rewarded because I think that's better for everybody.
50:54
You want to see a team take on other big name teams and challenge themselves.
50:59
I think one of the reasons why North Dakota and Minnesota and Minnesota Duluth play these tough schedules is they've got to fill their buildings.
51:07
And as much fun as it is to see the Gophers sweep Niagara, you know, if they're going to welcome in Canisius and Sacred Heart and St.
51:16
Lawrence and Ferris State for their non-conference slate, there's going to be some upset fans.
51:22
Well, you know, I see how both Minnesota and North Dakota were out last year because of some bad losses.
51:29
And then you've got a team like in Arizona State who may not have played the strongest schedule.
51:34
They played good games, but they won their games, and that got them in the tournament, you know.
51:40
We saw at the end of the season clearly that Arizona State team was probably not good enough for the tournament leagues.
51:48
Yeah, I was surprised when we saw them.
51:50
They were missing Johnny Walker, so, you know, you take away a player like Sammy Walker last year, Rem Pitlick.
51:57
Maybe the Gophers are a different team as well, but I was not very impressed with them when they came to Mariucci.
52:05
Yeah, it's frustrating.
52:08
I mean, what is it?
52:09
Is it two years in a row now that neither team has been in the tournament?
52:15
Yeah, I think so.
52:16
And then you add some of the other big schools that have been missing.
52:19
It seems like the last three or four years we've been hearing a lot of, oh, it's been six decades since these three teams didn't make it.
52:27
And we've been hearing a lot of that lately.
52:29
Because frankly, Brad, there is a lot more parity in college hockey these days.
52:34
For sure.
52:36
I still think people hang on to these visions of the mid-90s college hockey where you can just roll through teams and then you can play a team from a smaller conference and beat them 9-2 on a particular night where I don't care who you're playing.
52:54
Those nights just are extremely rare.
52:57
And there are just so many good players that even if you can't win recruiting battles, there are enough really good players to build good teams around.
53:09
I think sometimes fans have to look around at the national landscape as a whole.
53:17
The fans are so focused on their one team.
53:20
And all they see is Minnesota did this in the 90s and they're not anymore, so something's wrong.
53:28
But then look at everyone else.
53:29
Look at what's happening at BU.
53:32
They lost 4-0 to Sacred Heart at home last night.
53:37
Look at BC's non-conference losing streak they had.
53:40
Winless streak.
53:41
It was like four years long.
53:42
Remember, they had like a 25-game streak where they didn't win a non-conference game.
53:47
And they lost to, for sure, an Atlantic Hockey team in there.
53:52
North Dakota getting swept at Canisius.
53:55
This is happening everywhere.
53:57
It's not like, but these fans, I think, only see it's happening here, and it didn't used to happen.
54:02
Something's wrong.
54:03
It's like, well, times have changed.
54:06
Who isn't this happening to?
54:08
It's happening to everyone.
54:10
Go ahead, Veegs.
54:12
Well, I think just the growth of hockey in the US has made such an impact in college hockey.
54:17
There are so many more Division I players out there these days than there are roster spots.
54:23
And with these guys being pushed, enrollment dates back so that they're coming in at 20 and 21 in a lot of schools, you know, it just makes the game so much tougher than it used to be.
54:34
There are no easy nights, even though Penn State had an easy one at Mary Chew where they won 8-2.
54:39
They're not going to have a lot of those nights.
54:42
But in all seriousness, you know, I think it's been a big shakeup for a lot of the big schools if they've had some coaching turnover and they're starting to figure things out.
54:52
And you have to balance your roster construction to compete in college hockey these days.
54:58
You can't have easy games on your schedule.
55:00
They're just not there.
55:02
And it's not easy to balance the roster construction.
55:04
That's another thing we've seen happen.
55:07
You know, teams are losing guys early.
55:10
Teams are losing guys to major junior.
55:12
And one of the really interesting trends I think that we'll all be talking about in 10 years is BU has absolutely cleaned up on the recruiting front with so many high end guys.
55:28
You know, we rarely see teams with as many high end guys as they've had the last three, four years.
55:35
And they just have been super average.
55:38
And that makes it even harder to recruit.
55:41
And I think a lot of teams are taking a real long look at what's happened with BU and said, hey, you need to mix in older guys because even if you win every single recruiting battle, it's not enough if you're bringing in these young guys and they're all leaving right away.
55:58
And so I think that is going to be an interesting study.
56:00
I know for a fact that's something Bob Motzko wants to do at Minnesota.
56:05
He wasn't able to in year one because of all the guys they lost and he had to bring in some guys.
56:11
But he definitely will be doing that.
56:14
And if you've noticed some North Dakota recruits that they've landed the last couple of years, they're bringing in a kid named Reese Gaber and another kid, Ness, from Waterloo next year.
56:27
They're both going to be like 20.
56:28
And so I think they're trying to, both teams are trying to mix in players.
56:32
That's probably why they got Sorensen last year, an older player, because frankly that's what Minnesota State's had a lot of success with doing.
56:42
And I think teams are saying you've got two models.
56:45
You've got the Minnesota State model and the BU model, and one of them is winning out right now.
56:51
Well, we just saw a team here in Wisconsin loaded up with first round type players, and they've won one game in the Big Ten so far.
56:59
And that's another prime example of the BU example, is they've got so many high-end kids, and the fact that they're not dominating right now with all those top prospects, again, signals you've got to have that mix and find that right mix.
57:21
And I can't imagine that's easy to do, because you still want those high-end kids.
57:27
They still can be difference makers.
57:29
Obviously, Cole Caulfield is going to be a difference maker all year long, and some of these guys who may not be a difference maker in year one will be in year two, but you need some older guys too.
57:40
Well, you can't pass up a chance to have a Brock Buster on your team to kind of put you over the top, or Henrik Borstrom, but you just can't rely on four or five of those kind of guys.
57:50
Exactly.
57:51
And that Buster team, you know, he was on the line with Drake Kajula, who was a senior at the time.
57:57
That D-Corps was an old veteran group, a bunch of juniors that year, and I think that really helped propel.
58:06
That's what made that team great.
58:07
Not only did they have Brock Buster, who was sensational, but they had some older players around him that they had that great mix that year.
58:15
They had the young, super talented kids and they had some older guys.
58:19
I mean, and that's what you need.
58:20
You know, you don't want to pass up a guy like Casey Middlestad, but if you put him in a situation where he was like a Brock Buster on a team of veterans, he would have so much more success than the game would come easier for him to make those kind of impacts.
58:34
But when you're asking the guy to do everything with the puck, you know, break it out, gain the zone, set up guys, create for himself, get on the power play and be the magician back there, that's just too much for these guys at 18.
58:49
It is.
58:49
Yeah.
58:50
And so I think that'll be a trend we'll see in the coming years from a lot of teams.
58:56
I'm looking forward to it.
58:59
Yeah, I'm getting sick of everyone saying, we're the youngest team in college hockey.
59:03
So what?
59:04
You still got to get out there and you got to put a team together and play well.
59:07
So I'm kind of getting sick of that story.
59:10
Well, I think some of the things with the Gophers right now is they're young, but guys like Jackson Nelson have played a lot of hockey.
59:19
Bryce Brudzinski has played a lot of hockey growing up.
59:21
You've got guys who've got a lot of experience as well.
59:24
Staliker, he's played tons of hockey and he's probably one of the most consistent players for the Gophers right now at defense.
59:31
I asked Moscow about who's grading out the best among your defensemen.
59:35
He said Staliker.
59:36
He's creating a lot of offense and he's shutting down a lot of opportunities for the opposition.
59:41
And he's a freshman.
59:41
Yeah, he's got a noticeable plus minus.
59:46
That was one thing that jumped out to me when looking at that.
59:50
But yeah, and I think the Minnesota's team right now is young.
59:54
And that's why you're going to see some of these swings.
59:58
Really good one night, not so good the next night type of thing.
1:00:01
But if they can keep these guys around, that's got to be exciting for them.
1:00:08
Well, what happens this weekend, guys?
1:00:11
Veegs is a sweep by North Dakota, sweep by Minnesota, or is it kind of a standard split?
1:00:18
No points this weekend.
1:00:21
I'm guessing after five minutes, they'll probably just stop the game because it's non-conference, so it doesn't matter.
1:00:29
It doesn't matter.
1:00:30
There's no points on the line this weekend.
1:00:32
It's just a shit up win-lose-or-tie.
1:00:35
I've got a little bit of a bad feeling this weekend.
1:00:39
I thought it was going to maybe show up last weekend, but I think North Dakota has got enough veteran players where they're going to give Minnesota some fits.
1:00:46
I think some of that inexperience will come out.
1:00:48
I still don't think Minnesota's power play is operating at a level it needs to win games like this.
1:00:56
It's just struggling to get their movement going.
1:01:01
It's very static.
1:01:02
When you're playing against a North Dakota penalty kill that's on you, it's going to be tough to have success there.
1:01:09
I've got kind of a gloomy picture for Minnesota fans.
1:01:12
I think North Dakota might take all the points.
1:01:15
No points, but it's a sweep.
1:01:17
Oh boy, I'm going to go with a split.
1:01:18
I'm trying to be a little more optimistic.
1:01:20
I think maybe the Gophers sneak out one here.
1:01:27
It's North Dakota and they just play above maybe this weekend.
1:01:31
Brad, what are your thoughts?
1:01:33
I've got a split too.
1:01:34
I think this has split written all over it.
1:01:36
Here's something I was looking up that's in my story tomorrow.
1:01:41
Maybe you guys can know this offhand.
1:01:45
Remember that Evan Trupp goal where he dove and knocked it?
1:01:49
That's the last time North Dakotas won in Mariucci.
1:01:52
Really?
1:01:54
They haven't won since that.
1:01:55
That was 2008.
1:01:57
They're winless in their last nine games in Mariucci.
1:02:03
That was in overtime too.
1:02:04
Yeah, it was in overtime.
1:02:07
The next night they tied, which started the nine game winless streak.
1:02:11
Five wins for Minnesota, four ties.
1:02:16
I think North Dakota had the lead in those nine games.
1:02:20
They had the lead four times with 6.05 or less remaining.
1:02:26
It's been a really tough place for North Dakota to win.
1:02:30
Part of it is, I think, North Dakota's best teams in that stretch never played there either.
1:02:38
They went to the Frozen Four four times in that stretch.
1:02:40
None of those four teams played Mariucci.
1:02:43
Even so, they had some pretty good teams that came into the building.
1:02:47
It's just been a really tough place for them to get a win.
1:02:52
Mariucci opened in 93.
1:02:54
North Dakota has swept in the building once since 93.
1:02:59
Really?
1:03:02
That was the weekend that Taves, Duncan and Oshie went nuts.
1:03:07
And Bena scored the long goal on Crazy.
1:03:10
That's the only time they've swept since 93 there.
1:03:13
So it's just been so tough for North Dakota in that building.
1:03:19
I think, you know, that being said, it's hard to see this team getting swept.
1:03:25
A North Dakota team, the way they're playing, they've been playing well enough that if they lose once, it's hard to see them losing twice.
1:03:33
And Minnesota seems to be a little bit up and down, too.
1:03:37
Or, you know, they can beat anyone on any given night.
1:03:40
It's doing it consistently.
1:03:41
That's a challenge.
1:03:42
So I think this series just has split written all over it.
1:03:45
You know, I remember that weekend pretty vividly.
1:03:48
And the reason being is that Oshie was wearing special contact lenses that weekend.
1:03:54
Do you remember that?
1:03:56
I don't.
1:03:57
He was wearing some type of amber, orange-ish type of contacts that would help him maybe see better.
1:04:04
Interesting.
1:04:05
And I actually was on, you know, I was shooting in between the benches and he was right next to me and I got some good photos of it, of his, you know, of his eyes being just kind of a slightly different color.
1:04:15
It was, I just remember someone saying he was wearing special contacts for the weekend.
1:04:19
Obviously, it was a while ago, so my memory's all gone.
1:04:21
But I remember that was a thing for like a year or two, like you get special contacts for golf or hockey or, you know, outdoor baseball and stuff like that.
1:04:30
Didn't obviously take off, but.
1:04:32
So, you want one more story about that weekend.
1:04:35
Well, let's hear it.
1:04:37
I was talking to Jonathan Taves about, it was only about two years ago.
1:04:41
And North Dakota Memories came up and, you know, we were talking about that weekend.
1:04:50
And I mentioned something about what a good weekend his line had because they just had tons of points and dunk.
1:04:58
And he said, that's not what I remember from that weekend.
1:05:01
And I'm like, well, what is it?
1:05:04
He was like, well, we got home on Sunday and that was the weekend.
1:05:08
We all went out to Judy's.
1:05:10
And if anyone doesn't remember, that's where Jonathan Taves and TJ Oshie ended up getting a minor out at Judy's and ended up blowing up and being a big story.
1:05:21
College kids drinking?
1:05:25
I said, did you hear that when Matt Green won the Stanley Cup in 14, he actually brought the Stanley Cup to Judy's?
1:05:35
And Jon, he said, I did hear that.
1:05:37
He said, maybe if I ever win it again, maybe I can do that too.
1:05:40
And maybe the cops wouldn't chase me out the back door this time.
1:05:45
And he said, you can go ahead and make fun of me for it.
1:05:51
It's good that he has a good sense of humor about that.
1:05:55
I mean, there's so many great stories that have been on with these programs.
1:05:58
I mean, you obviously have Jeff Frazee getting caught on camera at the library drinking.
1:06:04
And then obviously we have the lawnmower bits and the Bochinsky Bucks.
1:06:12
And it just goes on and on.
1:06:14
And it's just, it's not all hockey.
1:06:16
It's just all these crazy stuff around these two programs.
1:06:20
It's newsworthy, they're newsworthy programs.
1:06:24
And you know, that's what tends to happen when you've got, when you're under a microscope.
1:06:33
It is.
1:06:33
Well, thanks for joining us, Brad.
1:06:35
It's always great to have you on.
1:06:36
And hopefully it's going to be a fun weekend.
1:06:39
Yeah.
1:06:40
You guys enjoy your Thanksgiving dinner.
1:06:43
I suppose I'll see you Friday then.
1:06:45
Yeah, you will see us on Friday.
1:06:48
Veegs, what do you got going?
1:06:49
You got anything in the hopper for the Athletic this week?
1:06:52
Not quite yet.
1:06:53
We'll get to it eventually.
1:06:54
There's a lot of stuff going on in this town right now.
1:06:57
There is.
1:06:58
It'll be on there eventually.
1:06:59
Yeah, that's great.
1:07:00
Well, that's going to do it for this episode of The GPL Podcast.
1:07:04
I want to once again thank Brad for coming on the show and giving us that North Dakota perspective.
1:07:10
For those of you listening live, stay tuned for a bit of overtime.
1:07:13
For the rest of you, we'll be back next week to recap the North Dakota series and preview Ohio State.
1:07:20
Until then, thanks for listening.
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