0:08 This is The GPL Podcast from gopherpucklive.com. 0:23 Now, here's Hammy, Vegoe, and your host, Jupiter. 0:37 Good evening, and welcome to The GPL Podcast, episode number 163. 0:46 Well, I didn't get a chance to record a new beginning, but one little announcement up at the top here is that Hammy has decided to kind of retire from The GPL Podcast. 0:55 He's been with us since episode number one back in 2011, but things going on in his life, like a new woman in his life, and new job stuff, and he just wasn't going to find the time for it anymore. 1:09 So we say goodbye to Hammy, but I'm guessing he may be back here a few times in the future. 1:15 But V, now it's just you and me for right now. 1:19 You mean special guests from time to time when we're blessed to have people on with us? 1:24 Yeah, we've had a lot of guests this year so far, and we're bringing back one of our favorites, Paul Caponigri. 1:29 Cappy, how are you doing? 1:31 I'm great, guys. 1:33 Happy holidays. 1:35 Not the best holiday there last Thursday, but hopefully a better one coming for Christmas, right? 1:43 And, well, we hope so. 1:45 But, you know, Veegs, maybe that's why Hammeh. 1:48 Hammeh just gave up after he saw that Thursday game. 1:51 You know, some people when tough times come, they just throw in the towel. 1:56 They re-prioritize how they want to spend their time. 1:59 And as I've said, you know, high-profile sports, not for everybody. 2:04 There's plenty of rec league out there. 2:07 Yes. 2:09 Well, as we were alluding to, you know, that the big series of North Dakota this past weekend, Thursday and Friday, and boy, North Dakota came in Thanksgiving night, and it may have been better if Minnesota just stayed home and ate the turkey Veegs, because no matter what way you put it, that was ugly. 2:28 You know, and here's the funny thing about that game, is you look at the score, and maybe that's what you think. 2:35 You think it was the repeat of what happened against Penn State, but if you watch the actual game, it was a totally different situation where Minnesota was just not prepared. 2:47 They were careless with the puck. 2:49 As Bob Motzko said, they basically fumbled the ball on their goal line and handed five goals to the other team, and it just spiraled out of control. 2:57 And I don't think it was one of those games where the opponent necessarily put up the big numbers. 3:04 The Gophers did it to themselves. 3:06 And tough game to watch, but there were still some players who were competing. 3:11 Cappy, you played for a long time. 3:15 Is this on the players or the coaching staff when something like this happens? 3:18 I mean, a coaching staff can come in and be very prepared and say, you know, say all the right things. 3:22 But I'm thinking kind of in the end, it is on the players. 3:26 But is it on, I mean, where does this lie? 3:30 I mean, it's on both. 3:33 I mean, quite frankly, and you know, where Veegs is talking about with turnovers and stuff like that, that's more on the players because that's not an X and O thing. 3:44 You know, at some point, you know, the coaches, yes, they're supposed to motivate you and get you prepared for the game, but you gotta be prepared knowing, especially when you're going against North Dakota. 3:53 Most of these kids, whether they're freshmen or whatever, they know that this is big rivalry. 3:59 And maybe it was more nerves and they were trying to do too much to get with this big rivalry. 4:05 But, you know, it sounded like I listened to Coach Moxco's show earlier and he talked about, you know, we gave them a lot. 4:11 It wasn't that they took it. 4:14 So, you know, I think it's more on the players. 4:17 You know, maybe they just weren't ready to pull up such big hype series. 4:23 Well, and then on top of that, Veegs, it was pretty much a home game for North Dakota. 4:31 Yeah, I know that there was a lot of feedback that the local fans were not too pleased with the holiday contest, but the green were more than happy to take over the building. 4:42 I thought they did it both nights. 4:44 At least Minnesota answered the bell a little bit from a fan perspective for the second game, but on Thursday, you just heard, let's go sue often throughout the game, as they were very happy to see the big number put on the board for the big green team. 5:01 Yeah, and I would say that quite a lot of seats that might be season ticket seats were filled by green. 5:09 So I think a lot of people kind of gave up their tickets to, you know, busy on the weekend, you know, for Thanksgiving weekend. 5:16 And because, you know, there were obviously a lot of North Dakota fans on the end with the tickets easier to get, but there was still quite a bit in the middle sections there, Veegs. 5:26 Yeah. 5:26 And I don't think it was so much the traveling as Coach Bob Motzko alluded to after the weekend. 5:32 He's like, you know, you can say that they travel well, but we know a lot of those people live in the Twin Cities where all the great jobs are. 5:40 But, you know, they like to follow their team. 5:43 It's the big show in town for North Dakota. 5:45 I think it's part of the appeal to some of the players who go play there, is that is the show up in North Dakota, whereas here it's a shared environment. 5:56 A lot of the spotlight right now has been on Gopher Football, the Twins, the Vikings, even the Timberwolves a little bit. 6:02 We got our United Soccer team. 6:04 So there's a lot of spotlights here in the Twin Cities, and Minnesota probably hasn't earned a lot of the following so far under this regime, and it shows in the stands. 6:17 The fans just are not enthused to be there. 6:19 I don't think the ticket prices are as big a deal as everybody likes to make it out to be. 6:24 I think if they start winning, maybe they'll get fans back, but really, the fans have disappeared a little bit. 6:30 But, Cappy, I gotta be honest with you, I've never seen anything like that for a home game at Mariucci, where it's clear that the home fans were outnumbered by the opposing team's fans. 6:44 Right. 6:45 Well, I mean, I know I don't know the history as well, but is this the first time that they played on Thanksgiving? 6:51 I mean, that's pretty rare, I think. 6:55 I'm sure that had some things to do with it. 6:57 A lot of people, you know, maybe leave town or at least for the day, you know, they're from other parts of Minnesota and they're an hour away. 7:05 And do they want to hustle back to Minneapolis to get to that seven o'clock game? 7:10 Or do they want to spend the night with their family? 7:11 So I think probably a mixed bag. 7:13 And then you have North Dakota people that maybe made this like, Oh, we're going to spend our holiday in Minneapolis and see the games. 7:19 And nobody travels like North Dakota in the country. 7:22 I mean, as far as I know, it seems like they're on a different level from anybody. 7:27 So, yeah, for you guys, I'm sure this is like probably the toughest pill to swallow. 7:32 But I think there's a lot of factors besides. 7:36 I mean, we could start our own podcast just on this attendance thing and all that. 7:40 I mean, literally, that gets talked about more than anything. 7:43 And, you know, I'm waiting for it to happen where, you know, the Gophers get on top again and things go back to, or, you know, at some point, the Big Ten is all people are going to know because it's going to be around for so long. 7:58 So, you know, like the Cubs used to say, it's going to happen at some point. 8:03 Well, like Vig's kind of alluded to, you know, Moscow says, you know, it's not like they stay in Grand Forks when they graduate. 8:09 A lot of them grew up here, go to Grand Forks, they go to Duluth, they go to St. 8:13 Cloud or wherever, and they come back here. 8:16 And North Dakota is a very good school, you know, in aviation and many other areas. 8:21 And Vig's, they just come back here because this is where the jobs are. 8:24 And you know what? 8:24 When their team's in town, they're going to support it. 8:27 Yeah, I know hospitality is a big thing for North Dakota. 8:30 And there's a lot of places to stay here in the Twin Cities. 8:33 And they came to the building for the WCHA Final Five, I don't know, is that Excel? 8:38 And you almost kind of had that atmosphere on the Friday game. 8:43 I mean, we had more Minnesota fans there. 8:45 The game was a little more even. 8:48 There's a lot of buzz in the building. 8:49 It was one of those games where regardless of which team was scoring, there was buzz. 8:54 So there was just a constant energy in the building. 8:57 I know Chris Peters from ESPN was there and he said this is the best college hockey atmosphere he's experienced in a while. 9:04 And that just shows you what this rivalry can do to the college hockey. 9:09 And it was a great experience. 9:11 I feel bad for people who stayed away because they feel bad about the old WCHA and the Big Ten and the NCHC. 9:18 They missed out on a great atmosphere on Friday night. 9:21 They did. 9:22 And obviously the team didn't show up Thursday night. 9:25 But Veegs, we kind of talked about it last week on the podcast. 9:31 I like having this rivalry played on this weekend. 9:35 You know, maybe not a Thanksgiving, but a Friday, Saturday and maybe have it take place of what would used to be the College Hockey Showcase, which for me was one of my favorite things every year was playing Michigan and Michigan State on Thanksgiving weekend. 9:50 It was that way from 93 to 2010. 9:54 It was always full, well not always completely full. 9:57 The students were gone, but there was still a big crowd and it was something I look forward to every year. 10:02 I think if North Dakota could do this series again next year on that weekend, I think it'd be a good thing. 10:08 I would love to see that become a tradition. 10:10 Yeah, it's got potential. 10:12 It's just the one fear is you always have to deal with football if you're at Minnesota. 10:16 I mean, there were 53,000 people here on that Saturday. 10:20 And we've seen games on Thursdays, Sundays. 10:24 One of the options would have been maybe a Wednesday game this year. 10:27 And all those games have been difficult for ticket holders. 10:31 So I think it's hard to do this series in the Twin Cities on a Friday, Saturday if there's football. 10:37 Obviously, North Dakota doesn't have that issue. 10:40 I think it's a great weekend for college hockey. 10:43 It's difficult because the students can't make it as well. 10:46 But we'll see. 10:48 It's great that they're still playing each other and you get that experience. 10:51 But after seeing the results on Thursday night, it's just hard for me to see it being an every year thing. 10:59 And what's with this Jekyll and Hyde team, Paul? 11:01 I mean, how are you seeing it from a little bit from afar? 11:05 Because Minnesota will play great against Wisconsin, but the week before against Penn State, it was awful. 11:13 Giving up a ton of goals, they do the same thing Thursday night against North Dakota. 11:17 Giving up, I want to say, a record nine goals at Mariucci. 11:20 They've never given up that many before. 11:23 This team is just all over the place right now. 11:27 Yeah. 11:28 Well, I mean, it's, I guess the easy answer is, they're young, the youngest team in college hockey. 11:35 But at some point, you know, maybe not yet, but at some point you can't use that as your crutch. 11:43 You know, these guys gotta, you know, learn a lesson. 11:47 I mean, it's like a kid, you know, you do something wrong, you get punished by your dad. 11:51 You know, you learn your lesson or you don't. 11:53 You know, if you don't, you're gonna be in the dog house forever and you may not in this instance, you're not gonna be playing. 12:00 And so it's just, you know, growing pains. 12:04 But at some point you gotta learn like, okay, we had a great game Saturday, we feel good, we had a good week of practice, but you can't just think it's just gonna happen automatically next Friday night. 12:15 You gotta, you know, have that same mental, maybe desperation after that Friday night. 12:19 You get beat badly, you come out harder Saturday. 12:22 Well, you gotta come out with that same mentality the next Friday. 12:25 And I think a lot of these guys are learning that. 12:28 And then even, you know, guys like, you know, Sammy Walker and Blake, you know, they haven't put the consistency out either. 12:36 And it's just really hard to win if you're, the guys, even if they're young, but you're relying on them to do a lot of the stuff for you. 12:44 If they're not coming out as consistent, you're gonna have a hard time winning games. 12:48 I think one of the issues for this team is the 19 freshmen and sophomores and just learning how to handle being college hockey players and how to handle success. 12:59 I think we heard after the weekend Tyler and Andy say, we just didn't come ready. 13:05 We took selfish penalties. 13:07 Ben Myers reiterated, we didn't come ready to play. 13:10 Jared Moe said, we had a lot of young guys who are here to turn around in the program, but we need to see who's committed. 13:18 So I just wonder when they come into these series, are they taking it as seriously as they need to? 13:24 Because when we talk about these veteran teams, the thing that they do is they're consistent, and they're ready to play, and they stick to their system, and they're difficult to play against. 13:33 And in these nights where we've seen Minnesota totally bomb out the first night, it's just no consistency, getting away from their systems. 13:42 And I just wonder if going into their first game every night, if Bob's going to put the lockdown on the team and take control of their schedules, and take control of their timing, and really make sure that they're dialed in to play, because I don't think they want to go through this again. 13:58 It's happened three times now. 14:00 Yeah, I mean, well, let me just real quick, if I want to piggyback off that is, I mean, it's like another, like a parent, you know, you're going to trust your kid to do his homework, but if he doesn't do it, then you're going to stand over there and watch him do it. 14:14 You know, and I think that's maybe eventually, if it doesn't change, that Bob's going to have to do that with the team to make sure, you know, he's going to have to, you know, micromanage, you know, and I'm sure he doesn't want to do that, but at some point you're going to have to do whatever it takes to get these guys over the hump, or you'll find out they're not, or they're not the guys you want to follow around with. 14:34 You got to find out one way or another. 14:36 Canopy, did you ever have teams like that where the older guys really had to, you know, lock down the young players and let them know what goes in in preparing to be a big time athlete? 14:46 I mean, so I was in a pretty similar class as these guys had. 14:52 We had 11 freshmen in my freshman class. 14:56 We had about, we had about five upperclassmen. 15:00 And so we had about seven sophomores, 11 and five. 15:02 Yeah. 15:02 So I mean, we had a, but we weren't, you know, we weren't at that point, we were rebuilding. 15:07 So there wasn't a ton of expectation there. 15:10 But what I loved about it is we got to play right away. 15:13 A lot of times when you're a freshman, and you're coming in there just trying to make the lineup. 15:18 So I don't know, maybe it's a thing of guys are getting maybe, you know, opportunity without having to work for it so much. 15:26 I, you know, I don't know if I'm not in that locker room. 15:30 But I just, you know, when I had it and we had it, we loved it. 15:34 We were like, oh, we're the underdogs. 15:36 We're going to go cause some havoc and see what happens. 15:39 And, you know, we had a 500 season, which wasn't that bad considering how young we were. 15:44 But, you know, man, every guy takes it differently, too. 15:48 The other thing with that is these guys are all coming in from successful careers before. 15:53 They were the go-to guy, right? 15:55 And now they're coming in to where, you know, they're not the go-to guy or, you know, they're like, whoa, this is difficult. 16:02 A lot harder than maybe I thought it was because I came in as, you know, an all-state guy or, you know, the high recruit. 16:10 And it kind of gives you a slap in the face like, whoa, this is hard. 16:13 I need to like figure this out. 16:16 And I've never had to go through this before, because I've always been the great player on my team. 16:21 So there's a lot of things that go into it as a young guy. 16:24 And, you know, clearly they have the talent, these guys, that they wouldn't have got there. 16:28 But, you know, at some point, you know, adversity can make, is either going to make or break you. 16:34 Just one last thing on this, this youth movement that's happening now, at Gopher's Hockey, as Motsko said after the game, he specifically started Sorensen, Myers, Nelson, Stoddaker, Johnson and Moe, all freshmen the next night. 16:48 And he did that to let them know that I have confidence in you and you are the ones who are prepared and ready to go. 16:55 And I want you to lead us out of this. 16:57 So I thought that was very intentional. 16:59 He brought it up. 17:00 He reiterated it this week again. 17:03 So I think he's trying to prod these guys almost to take a little bit more rope, as we could say. 17:12 Yeah, that's important. 17:13 I mean, like I said, nobody knows the heartbeat of the team or how they are than Bob. 17:21 So I listened to probably the same thing you did with his show. 17:26 And he talked about, yeah, you want to keep these guys confident, but it's the balancing act of yes, I want them confident, but they also be held accountable. 17:37 So I think it's a tough balancing act, but they're young and, you know, these are the last two games before Christmas coming up. 17:44 And hockey is that one crazy sport where you get a break and you come back and you almost feel like it's a new year, or, you know, if you're a sophomore, because you have that experience. 17:52 So that might be something that's important. 17:56 And that kind of leads us into this weekend, Veegs. 18:00 You know, Moscow has a chance to bring the kids on the road, keep them a little more focused. 18:07 But it's a different beast with Ohio State this weekend. 18:09 They're typically not your run-and-gun team. 18:11 They're more structured. 18:12 They play solid defense. 18:14 So it's kind of a... 18:15 They're going to have to come in with kind of a different attitude and a different way of handling this, won't they? 18:21 Well, I think anytime you go on the road, it's going to be more structured. 18:24 And I think when they've had a tough weekend, they've rebounded really well. 18:28 They've kind of had this Jekyll and Hyde season where they play poorly the first game, respond the next game, and then the next weekend, everything's fine again. 18:38 So I think this weekend's probably a good opportunity for them to go up against number seven, Ohio State, and put forth a good effort. 18:44 And I think they have the talent to do it. 18:46 So it'll be interesting to see what they do this weekend. 18:49 Ohio State, very disciplined senior team. 18:52 They do not give away the game. 18:53 They're very difficult to play against. 18:55 It's going to be low scoring. 18:56 They're getting good goaltending. 18:58 They've got great special teams. 19:00 So it's going to be a good test. 19:03 Well what are your initial thoughts with Minnesota coming in kind of struggling here, Cappy? 19:08 Yeah, I mean, yeah, like, kind of like you said, Ohio State's not going to blow away their doors, or at least I don't think so. 19:16 That's just not the way they play. 19:18 And I think this maybe sets up for, you know, something Minnesota can be successful in terms of, you know, Ohio State's not going to come out and run you out of the building in the first period. 19:30 They're going to, you know, they're not, they're offensively aren't, you know, up and down enough, and they don't try to take a ton of chances. 19:38 So, and Minnesota had a great series there last year. 19:41 So, and you know, half of these guys, about half, maybe a little more, were there for that. 19:45 And that helps a lot of times when you see success in road building, a lot of guys can come back with some confidence in that. 19:54 But they're just going to have to show some discipline. 19:57 Like Vegoe said, Ohio State will not make many mistakes. 20:02 Their defense is really good. 20:03 They're really good in their zone of keeping the Pucks out of dangerous areas. 20:07 And then when they are in dangerous areas, Tommy Napier is pretty darn good in that. 20:12 And even their freshman goalie came in for a couple games and beat Penn State on the road. 20:18 And then the first game against Michigan State. 20:20 So, both thinking in defense and special teams, like Vig said. 20:25 But I think this is a series Minnesota has got a good chance to get one out of there at Levee's. 20:31 I would agree with you on that one. 20:33 Coming in to Ohio State, it's that last series of the first half of the season, Veegs. 20:39 And Ohio State isn't the strongest atmosphere. 20:43 They've got a cavernous arena, holds 17,000. 20:48 They're averaging around 5,000, probably less than that actually show up. 20:51 So it won't be an intimidating atmosphere. 20:54 But you know, this like Cappy says, Minnesota's got a good chance to kind of go into this break on a pretty good note here. 21:02 Well, the interesting thing about the Buckeyes is they don't play a high pressure style of hockey. 21:08 And that's tended to be the style that's gotten Minnesota in trouble when they play the Penn States and North Dakotas. 21:14 Teams that are real in your face, that gets them in trouble. 21:18 St. 21:18 Cloud back when Motsco was there, played that style against Minnesota and it gave them fits. 21:23 Teams like Notre Dame, Ohio State, even Minnesota Duluth, most times when they play, sit back a little bit more and try to counter-attack you. 21:32 And I feel that kind of plays into Minnesota skill and allows that to shine through a little bit. 21:38 And maybe this is a weekend where we see Sammy Walker and Blake McLaughlin stay out of the penalty box and stay on the ice and produce because they've been struggling a little bit. 21:49 They're probably looking to have more points than they have right now and they're spending a lot of time in the box with bad penalties in the neutral zone and the offensive zone on the power play. 21:59 And their coach hasn't been shy about bringing that up. 22:02 He's brought it up many times. 22:04 So it's something to watch this weekend to see if they maintain their discipline and are effective hockey players. 22:11 And that could be the difference, quite frankly, in the series where it could be they could get a win, possibly more, or get nothing as penalties. 22:20 Ohio State power play is pretty good. 22:22 They do have enough skill on that side, you know, with Leszczynski and Westland and Meyer. 22:29 They are missing Matt Miller, which I think he's coming back after the Christmas break, but he's got the big shot from the point that they're missing, but they still have that and their power play has been pretty good. 22:38 So that is, you know, one of the caveats to Minnesota's success. 22:43 Can they stay out of the box? 22:45 And then obviously on the power play, maybe take advantage of one because goals are going to be kind of hard to get against the Buckeyes. 22:52 Power play has not been great for Minnesota, to say the least. 22:55 Question from 414ChampsVegues, is Noah Webber getting closer to playing? 23:01 I don't think so. 23:02 You know, he has a pretty serious eye injury that has got evaluated over the summer. 23:07 It was worse than they thought it was going to be. 23:09 It was one of the reasons he didn't want to commit to the Air Force because that might have been an issue going forward. 23:15 So he's cleared to skate. 23:16 So he's back able to get on the ice and do a little work there, but he's not cleared for contact. 23:21 He's not cleared to return for practice. 23:23 So it's going to be kind of a tough road back for him. 23:26 He did get on the ice. 23:27 So that's encouraging, but I wouldn't expect him to contribute this year. 23:31 Oh, for this year. 23:33 Yeah, I mean, those eye injuries, they can be so difficult to protect. 23:39 And it's just if you injure your eye, that's pretty permanent. 23:43 So they want to keep that safe and make sure he's healthy long term. 23:48 Well, you know, I'm looking forward to it. 23:49 I'm thinking this is going to be a little bit better weekend for Minnesota and a little more fun. 23:53 But on your end, Cappy, you've been having a lot of fun this fall. 23:57 You've been doing a lot of road trips to all the different, you know, Big Ten schools, doing a lot of video bits. 24:03 I mean, you did a great bit here. 24:05 Was it the Dinah School bit you guys did here? 24:08 That was one of them. 24:09 Yeah, that was I think that's the one that's aired so far. 24:11 Yeah, that was good stuff. 24:13 You've gotten around to all these schools and you've been doing a lot of fun bits. 24:17 Yeah, you know, kind of get some personalities out there. 24:21 Find out a little about these guys. 24:23 I mean, most of the time, all you do, it's kind of like football. 24:25 You do is see these guys behind the masks, right? 24:28 And you don't get to get to know any of them or, you know, get to see the other side of them, their personalities. 24:35 So and even with the coaches and all that, and then seeing the facilities or the three things mainly we were trying to get out is what, you know, almost like a pseudo recruiting type of tape to extend for each school to show, you know, the great things about their university. 24:51 And then talk about, you know, have some coaches talk and then just meeting some of the guys, captains, fun players, guys that like doing this stuff, wanted, didn't want guys to be, you know, the shy guys that weren't interested in it. 25:05 So we had some fun and it was great getting to know some guys a lot better. 25:11 And it was a lot of fun and got to see more of each campus. 25:14 There's some of the campus, you know, you come into town when I occasionally do games and you see, you go to the rink and you go to the hotel and back, you don't really go around campus and see the other aspects of it. 25:25 So that stuff was all gravy and tons of fun. 25:29 And it looks like you've lost part of your shot. 25:31 You don't quite have your shot like you used to because I don't remember what school it was, but you're doing a little contest. 25:40 Yeah, so we did that. 25:42 None of them have aired yet, I think, except for the one I did, the shooting room in Penn State. 25:47 Right, yes, that was okay. 25:49 That was the first trip, hadn't shot some pucks in a while. 25:52 Took you a while to warm up, off camera. 25:55 But we also did on the ice shooting, I did like a little competition with players at most of the schools, I think five of the seven. 26:03 Notre Dame and Michigan we didn't. 26:06 But I went out with Sammy Walker, we did a little three bar competition. 26:11 And there was a little, actually a little bit of a controversy in our contest. 26:19 Yeah, so we had a lot of fun with that. 26:22 And it was a blast, I mean, to get to do that stuff with all the places. 26:26 And Minnesota was great. 26:28 Walked around campus with the captain, Tyler Danny. 26:33 The Adina thing was classic. 26:35 I mean, the guys just, you know, that was the one thing like, you know, when they get a little nervous when you talk to them sometimes on camera. 26:41 But when you bring up something like that, a lot of them just then go right to what they exactly feel about the place. 26:49 So it was a lot of fun. 26:51 Yeah, the guys were just brutal on the Adina, even on themselves. 26:56 I thought I was impressed with that content. 26:59 I mean, you got as pure honesty as I have ever, you know, as you see, you know what I mean? 27:03 It just sometimes certain topics for wherever it is, the true emotion comes out and you definitely saw that. 27:11 Kathy, growing up, did you play much hockey against Minnesota kids and everything? 27:15 Now we have all these camps and things like that and AAA traveling hockey. 27:20 Felt like back in our day, it was more isolated and maybe it was Minnesota against Michigan as a whole. 27:26 But did you get any perspective going into it? 27:29 I mean, when I grew up, we didn't play against Minnesota teams much until I was maybe like 15, 16. 27:37 And then that wasn't even playing against it. 27:38 I was going to like the USA camps and all that kind of stuff. 27:41 We finally kind of meet these kids for the most part. 27:44 Like I played a team Illinois, you know, which is AAA. 27:48 We would go and play in that Michigan, the Michigan League and we play all those things. 27:52 We never went west. 27:53 We never went really even near Wisconsin much. 27:56 So I feel like now everything is so blended together that, you know, it's kind of it's it's it's changed thing. 28:05 I mean, there's always change. 28:06 But yeah, it's definitely different than growing up. 28:09 You didn't. 28:09 They're like these mythical creatures over there in Minnesota. 28:13 You didn't know you heard about them. 28:14 You knew they were good players that you never really saw them because we never played against them. 28:21 But yeah, they're all really good. 28:23 I mean, I think Jordan Leopold was my age group. 28:30 Johnny Pole, I think was trying to think of a few other guys. 28:34 You're dating yourself now. 28:36 What's that? 28:37 You're dating yourself now. 28:38 I mean, early 2000s, college end 2000 or so, 2001, 2003. 28:43 Yeah, it's in the 2000s, so it's not that bad, right? 28:47 Well, we know that Grant Patonley chirped you pretty hard during a junior game. 28:50 So yeah, we had a good time with that. 28:54 Told that story last time off that I was in the extended part of the podcast. 29:02 Well, and that's one thing that is different today. 29:04 Like you say, VEGs, they have all these camps, they're playing against each other. 29:07 A lot of times when these guys hit the ice against each other, they've known each other for years. 29:12 Yeah, and especially now with the Association Hockey doing all the state tournaments that they do, these kids get to play DINA in a lot of events and that builds up over time. 29:23 I did a story last year on the DINA hockey machine and how many kids they have coming out for Mites every year. 29:29 It's like 300 new players every year. 29:33 They have an association that's got 12 teams at each level. 29:38 It's just amazing the number of people they're teaching the game of hockey. 29:43 There's a lot of people that move there that want to be a part of that. 29:46 It's just amazing to watch and they've been very successful at it. 29:50 I think a big part of it is all those guys want to give back. 29:53 I think one of the things that resonated with me is when you ask the DINA guys what they think of when they hear that town, they think of it as home. 30:01 So many of those guys when they grow up and have families, they're on the ice with the 8U kids, they're teaching them how to skate, they're teaching them their edges, and that pays off down the line as those kids get older and become bannoms and start playing the state high school tournament. 30:16 Yeah, I think when you have a great experience in something, you want to go back to it or you want to be part of it. 30:23 Just like college, you go to whatever school you did. 30:25 If you had a great experience, you love the players, you love the school, you want to go back. 30:29 If you love growing up in a DINA and you are successful and all that, of course, you are going to want to go back to that. 30:36 So that just makes complete sense. 30:38 You guys are making me miss my hockey program that doesn't really exist anymore. 30:42 They are actually kind of making a comeback. 30:44 They are doing a really hard sell on their alumni to get back and be a part of their program and coach where they can and do alumni games. 30:52 Jefferson, they are trying to get their numbers up and it is effective. 30:56 It is probably going to take a while for it to pay off for the high school team, but their association is making a run for it. 31:02 That would be good because I have a lot of fond memories there at the Bloomington Ice Garden. 31:08 Seeing all those great players that came through my high school, but after that three-peat, they had some good teams after that, but they've been quiet the past 20 years. 31:18 Whereas Edina just keeps pumping them out, Veegs. 31:21 It's amazing. 31:23 We've seen the hockey move out to different rings of the suburbs. 31:28 It used to be Jefferson and Edina and Burnsville, and now it's Maple Grove and Osseo for OMG and Waisetta, but Edina, they just hang in there. 31:40 When I was in high school, Lakeville was barely... 31:43 It wasn't even really a suburb. 31:45 It was a town on the edge of the cities. 31:48 Now they've got two high schools that I believe they won a state championship. 31:51 I don't remember which school, but I know they have. 31:54 You think of those teams... 31:55 It is kind of like a ring that goes out. 31:57 You know, start with the inner city schools, and hit the Dinahs, hit the Jeffersons, and has gone out. 32:02 But Edina was able to hold on to that, while the rest of the schools have kind of lost at Veegs. 32:07 Yeah, it's always going to be changing, except for Edina, it seems like. 32:10 And come March, they're the team. 32:13 Everybody either loves to love or loves to hate. 32:16 So Cappy, are you going to be in the studio with Pizzo this weekend? 32:22 No, I don't even know if Pizzo will be there. 32:26 They'll just be running the features on Friday night, same. 32:29 It's kind of what they've been doing in the last... 32:32 They've actually played quite a few games in the first half. 32:35 I remember in the last couple of years, I think the only games that were aired were this weekend, the last weekend before break. 32:42 It was the league center. 32:43 Football was over. 32:45 But they've actually done some Thursday games. 32:48 They're trying to get more in the front half of the season, which I think is good. 32:53 I think some maybe hurts a little bit, because some people just aren't quite in hockey mode yet. 32:57 It's like they have their season. 32:58 It's like, okay, it's football. 33:00 Now once December hits, okay, hockey starts. 33:04 It's funny how people almost like are computers like that. 33:09 They're like, okay, now it's hockey time. 33:10 And they tune in looking for it. 33:13 And football kind of rules Big Ten Network in the fall. 33:16 It's just a fact. 33:17 It does. 33:18 And Pizzo will be on the road at the games. 33:20 Football rules everywhere. 33:21 Yeah. 33:22 Especially this year. 33:23 You got a team like Minnesota popping up this year doing really well in football. 33:29 And like I said, I've seen Pizzo on the road. 33:31 He's interviewing coaches right after games. 33:33 I mean, he's been a busy boy. 33:35 He's been a little less in the studio. 33:37 Yeah. 33:37 Well, yeah, I think he's been somewhere every weekend. 33:40 See, when you do that, you're there maybe Thursday even through Saturday a lot of the time. 33:47 So that's, yeah, I think he enjoys that and he's, you know, he's good at that. 33:50 He does. 33:51 He doesn't need to hear this. 33:52 But, you know, he does every every part of that job. 33:55 He does really well. 33:55 Well, he's in the studio or interviews. 33:58 He's even done a few play by plays, which we've talked about, hoping to get back in to do a couple together. 34:03 But there's too many other guys and he's too busy with so many other things. 34:07 But well, Pizzo was in town for a Gopher football game this year. 34:12 Did he give you any feedback on his visit to Minneapolis? 34:17 Pizzo? 34:17 No. 34:18 Well, yeah, he was there two weeks ago when they, or the Penn State game, am I correct? 34:23 Yeah, because they did a show from the stadium. 34:28 Oh, he loves it there. 34:30 He always tells me, we have this story going back to the initial year of Big Ten, when the first year of the Big Ten tournament, we had two studios, but we had like a studio on the concourse there, that he ran by himself, and then he'd have a guest come in, or I think even Climber would join him a little bit. 34:51 And then back in Chicago, I was with Mike Hall for those days. 34:55 Yeah. 34:56 And he's like, he always tells me, they just had a blast, they had a good time, and I was like, yeah, I'm kind of jealous that I wasn't from Minneapolis. 35:07 But yeah, that first year, they went heavy for that one. 35:10 I remember we had two studios going for that. 35:13 And then, of course, that was the year Ohio State upset Minnesota in the semi-final. 35:19 And so the final was Wisconsin, Ohio State, and there was nobody in the building in that. 35:26 Yeah, I got to say, we've had Pizzo on the podcast quite a while ago. 35:29 We should get him back on sometime. 35:31 But I remember that first year, like you said, they had two sets and Pizzo even registered as a user on Gopher Puck Live message board and said, hey guys, what are you looking for? 35:41 I mean, I'm asking the fans, what are you looking for in coverage? 35:44 He was actually reaching out to his audience, which you don't see that much. 35:52 Well, yeah, he's definitely a hockey guy. 35:54 He loves it. 35:54 He loves his job. 35:55 He's really good at it, so that's good stuff. 35:59 All right, guys. 36:00 Well, let's get back to this weekend, Vig. 36:02 I want to hear your prediction. 36:06 I think Ohio State is a great opponent for Minnesota right now, and I think it's a really good opportunity. 36:12 I would love to see a split at least for Minnesota. 36:17 What are you seeing right now? 36:20 You know, I picked them to get swept against North Dakota because I just saw that big green team come in. 36:26 I thought it was going to be a tough matchup for them. 36:29 I just felt wasn't going to be a good situation, but I feel like going in Ohio State with the almost complete opposite. 36:36 They play a style that fits with Minnesota. 36:39 They can have some success against. 36:41 I think they get at least four points this weekend. 36:44 Oh, wow. 36:45 I'm liking that. 36:46 I almost was leaning that way. 36:47 Okay. 36:49 Hey, now careful. 36:50 You're going against your alma mater here. 36:53 Well, right. 36:54 I'm not going to pick that. 36:58 I think it will be a split, I think, actually. 37:01 I know that's an easy thing to say, but my reasoning is a little... 37:05 I think Friday night, they should get a pretty decent crowd on Friday night. 37:10 The football game isn't until Saturday. 37:14 They'll do okay, and I think they'll come out strong, and I think they'll get Friday night, and I think Minnesota will come back. 37:21 Everybody's going to be watching this football game Saturday night, probably be a little quiet in there, and I think Minnesota will come in and get three points. 37:29 But I saw this Ohio State team play earlier at Notre Dame, and man, it was a really good hockey. 37:37 Two teams, heavy discipline, and one goal games, and Ohio State is hard on the puck. 37:42 They play hard. 37:44 That's one thing that's trumped them so far. 37:47 Their talent, their skill isn't great. 37:50 Minnesota, I would argue, is a more skilled and talented team, even though they're young guys. 37:55 But Ohio State played discipline, and they play really hard, and they're strong on pucks and hard on pucks. 38:00 I think with them in Notre Dame, they're the two hardest on the pucks, and being careful with them. 38:08 So I think that's what's gonna separate from them getting one game at least. 38:12 But I think like Minnesota's done a bunch of times, they've come back really strong the next night. 38:18 So that's where I'm at with picking this. 38:22 I just kinda think going into this weekend, this is one of those times where Mozko can really put his foot down on the pedal and press this team. 38:29 I think he's got their attention after what happened against North Dakota. 38:34 It's their last game before a break. 38:36 So I think he'll get their attention. 38:38 He's been pretty tough on them in the media and I think on the ice in practice. 38:42 I think he's trying to get the most out of them right now. 38:45 And he doesn't really care about raising the stress levels too much because they'll have their big break coming up. 38:51 So I think we'll see a real interesting weekend out of Minnesota. 38:55 Yeah, and they've had an insanely difficult schedule. 38:58 I mean, he talked about it in his show. 39:04 I mean, they're top ten teams. 39:06 I think this is their fifth time playing a top ten team. 39:09 And, you know, the record's not great. 39:11 But if you keep playing them and you get a winner at some point, you know, that can switch on you. 39:17 And, you know, they've been challenged quite a bit. 39:19 And that's building a team maybe to have a great second half. 39:23 So this weekend could be huge for them to get them ready for that second half. 39:28 But, you know, Ohio State's not going to give them anything. 39:30 That's for sure. 39:31 I think one thing to be aware of with Minnesota is their goal tending has not been at the level it needs to be to be successful in games like this. 39:40 So I think that's the one worry I have. 39:43 You know, Lafontaine at times has dialed in. 39:45 At times he has a hard time tracking the puck. 39:47 He talks about making saves peripherally where he's not centered over things. 39:52 And that gets him in trouble on rebounds. 39:54 We've seen Mo have a couple of issues playing pucks, communicating with his teammates, handling long shots through traffic. 40:01 I think that's something a veteran team like Ohio State is going to test him on. 40:06 Steve Rolick is a great hockey mind. 40:09 He's been watching film and I'm sure he's going to attack him that way too. 40:13 Yeah, I'll give one last thing on that. 40:15 And with this game and with the goaltending is, you know, Napier is really good playing the puck. 40:20 He comes out and gets everything and I mean, he plays it like he's a player. 40:24 So that's one thing. 40:25 So dump ins and keeping it away from him will be big for Minnesota. 40:29 And then the ice, believe me, I played on it. 40:32 It's not great there. 40:34 But it's the second half of the period, you know, even with, you know, shoveling it and everything, the pucks get bouncy. 40:40 The glass is kind of weird. 40:41 You talked about moplaying pucks, you know, on those ring arounds, the stanchions, the pucks come off there a little quirky. 40:47 So that might be some weird bounce here and there. 40:50 That's something where, you know, maybe your skill isn't, you know, you try to make that move late in the period and it doesn't work, or you try to get one out and you turn one over. 40:59 So that's another thing, you know, Minnesota will have to look for, because, you know, the ice is not going to be as good as it is in Mariachi. 41:07 Well, there you go. 41:08 I think it's going to be a fun weekend. 41:10 Cappy, thanks for joining us again. 41:12 It's always fun to have you on. 41:13 One more thing is, is Saturday's game the only game all year that Minnesota is not on TV? 41:19 It's not quite. 41:21 Not quite. 41:22 They have other ones. 41:24 You'd be surprised how much people complain about that. 41:26 But it's like, Oh, right. 41:27 No, I mean, it's pretty, it's a pretty good, you know, good deal for them. 41:32 And so only could watch it on BTN Plus Saturday. 41:35 It's a BTN Plus thing on Saturday. 41:37 I believe a second game at Notre Dame is streamed only, but that's the NBC Sports Network. 41:44 And that's free, actually. 41:45 And that's free. 41:46 You don't even have to pay for that, which is nice. 41:48 Yeah. 41:48 BTN Plus is paid, but that's not so bad. 41:50 But the Friday night, it's on Big Ten Network. 41:52 So I'm sure we're going to get to see another one of your, you know, maybe your bits at Minnesota, another bit at the Ohio State. 41:58 Yeah, I'm hoping, you know, they've done a couple replays already with some of the other schools. 42:04 I think this is because there's more games. 42:06 And they, you know, we did like about four at each place. 42:09 So obviously, you know, Minnesota is going to be on a bunch of times. 42:12 So maybe some will be a half and half because they were long enough. 42:15 We only got about two and a half minutes to show it. 42:19 So some of them might be cut in half. 42:21 You know, I don't want Sammy Walker on the ice and Tyler around campus and stuff. 42:25 So, yeah. 42:27 Well, what was it like going back to Ohio State for that one? 42:29 Do you feel at home getting getting the gear on and going on the ice with the guys? 42:34 Yeah, it was fun. 42:35 And so they're the LeAnn Parker is still the same sports SID that I had. 42:42 She was like our first year, second year doing it when I was playing. 42:47 So it's kind of come full circle because when I was playing, I always told her, hey, whenever we're doing like a TV thing or any we're on TV and they want to you to play or Mike, I told him like I want to do it. 42:59 Cause you know, I saw this for myself in the future. 43:03 And so now it's funny. 43:04 Now I go back and I bug her for stuff cause we're coming into the TV stuff. 43:08 So I always thank her for that to make sure that she prepared me for this career ahead. 43:14 But yeah, it's great going back. 43:16 Even the equipment manager, Tim Adams, is the same there. 43:18 So still a ton of familiar faces. 43:22 And you know, one of my good friends, his assistant coaching there now, JB. 43:26 Bittner. 43:26 So it's always great going back. 43:29 Ah, it's a lot of fun. 43:31 I mean, it makes you feel young, doesn't it? 43:33 Yes. 43:34 I mean, being around a bunch of college guys, you know, and chatting it up with them makes you, yeah, that found the youth for a couple of a couple hours. 43:43 Well, thanks for joining us for a couple of years, I like to say. 43:46 Yeah. 43:47 I think we're going to try to have you on again for the for the other Ohio State series later this year. 43:52 We're going to do that. 43:53 That's not too far from now, is it? 43:57 End of January. 43:58 End of January. 43:59 That's a couple of months. 44:00 So not so bad. 44:02 But it's always fun having you on and now I love it anytime guys. 44:06 Yeah, we appreciate you. 44:07 That's going to do it for this episode of The GPL Podcast. 44:10 I want to once again thank Cappy for coming on the show and giving us his perspective. 44:17 For those of you listening live, we'll stay tuned for some overtime. 44:20 For the rest of you, we'll be back next month as we now go on our winter break, but look for a few maybe special podcasts or two in the coming weeks. 44:30 Have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.