0:03 This is The GPL Podcast, sponsored by Jerry Peters and First Class Mortgage. 0:08 Our expertise, your peace of mind. 0:10 Visit us at firstclassmortgage.com. 0:24 Now, here's Jupiter and Vegoe. 0:37 Thank Good evening, and welcome to The GPL Podcast, episode number 165. 0:46 Well, we're back after our kind of a short break, you know, the long holiday break we usually have, but we did have that special Doug Woog podcast, you know, a couple weeks back, and I highly recommend you check it out. 0:57 We had Frank Mazako on for that podcast, and it was great. 1:01 So it's a good thing to listen to you with a lot of the stories that Mazako has about the Wooger. 1:07 So highly recommend going back to that. 1:10 Unfortunately, we didn't plan that, Veegs. 1:12 We, you know, we usually kind of have our month off. 1:14 But how was your vacation from GPL for a little bit? 1:19 It was okay. 1:20 I got to spend a little more time on some association hockey things. 1:25 I worked on a couple stories for the athletic that hopefully I'll be able to share with everybody soon and recovered and rejuvenated for the second half of the season because it's an important one for this program right now. 1:38 It is. 1:39 Well, if you heard at the top there, you might have heard that we have a new sponsor. 1:44 We have a GPLer who's been on GPL for over eight years or so. 1:50 You may know him as Don Adams Wheel of Justice. 1:55 I can't remember what exactly. 1:57 I think he nailed it. 1:58 Yeah, Don Adams Wheel of Justice. 1:59 That's what it is. 2:01 He reached out to you and me and he says, you know, I'd like to sponsor the GPL Podcast. 2:06 I'm like, well, sure. 2:07 What you got? 2:08 And you know, Jerry Peters works at the First Class Mortgage there in Maple Grove and he's been there for a while. 2:13 And I thought this was a great opportunity to bring him on because, you know, for one thing, I'm actually looking at maybe refinancing myself, Veegs. 2:21 So it's a good time. 2:23 The market is very attractive to refinancing right now. 2:27 It is, you know, Jerry, you know, he's been there for a long time. 2:30 He's been a mortgage consultant for 23 years. 2:33 He covers all type of mortgages for you, including conventional, FHA and VA loans. 2:39 You know, the spring, you know, I've been hearing this too, actually, the spring is going to be pretty hot for the market. 2:45 Interest rates are near record lows. 2:47 Home value is on the climb. 2:49 So that might be good for me to refinance. 2:52 There's really no better time than to refinance, you know, maybe getting that PMI off of your mortgage, which actually I am thinking directly about. 3:02 So, you know, a great place is with Jerry Peters at First Class Mortgage. 3:07 You know, there are many ways to contact him. 3:09 His direct line is at 612-940-3291, or you can email him at jerry at firstclasscorp.com. 3:20 He's even on Twitter now at FCMJerry. 3:24 You know, and I'll post some links in the podcast post, you know, tonight for you to come and just check it out. 3:31 Remember that, you know, Jerry's NMLS number is 480200. 3:38 First Class Mortgage's number is 322-842. 3:43 This is not an offer to lock into an interest rate agreement under Minnesota law, and First Class Mortgage is an equal housing lender. 3:51 Well, I just can't thank you enough, Jerry, for coming on board, and we really appreciate it. 3:55 And like I said, you've got over a thousand posts on GPL, so you've been listening to us for probably quite a while. 4:02 We definitely appreciate it. 4:04 I know Veegs and I appreciate it, and welcome aboard. 4:08 One of us, one of us, one of us. 4:13 We do like the one of us, don't we, Veegs? 4:15 Yeah, we're very provincial here in Minnesota, especially the state of hockey and everything pride on ice. 4:22 So thank you, Jerry. 4:23 Yeah, thanks, Jerry, and I might be contacting about refinancing, because I think it might be time to do that myself. 4:30 Well, Veegs, you know, obviously we had our winter break broken up with the tragic death of the Wugger, and we obviously covered that and, you know, came back in the Marriott Classic and on that first game Saturday, the entire team wore their gold jerseys with the Wugger on the back. 4:50 They win that game. 4:51 The next night, they beat St. 4:53 Cloud State. 4:55 Maybe not the team we thought we would face if we won, but it was a fun Marriott Classic, and the Gophers looked pretty good, didn't they? 5:04 Well, I'll say they looked pretty good on Sunday. 5:07 I thought Saturday was a little bit of a slog for them. 5:10 I think the encouraging things you can take out of that game against Bemidji is they didn't turn the puck over. 5:18 I think all first half of the season, that was one of the big things we would focus on with Minnesota's making good decisions with the puck, avoiding offensive zone penalties and getting their ground game going. 5:30 I think Bemidji State presents a tough challenge for any college hockey team. 5:35 I think coming into that series, they'd given up two goals shorthanded and one of them was an empty netter at the end of the game, so they'd only given up one power play goal against. 5:45 So it's going to be a tough defensive matchup. 5:47 So I think that's the encouraging thing. 5:49 I think so many times we've seen Minnesota come into games like that and they give the game away somehow and they're just never able to get back into it. 5:57 I think we saw that happen to them last year and that's why they missed the tournament. 6:01 Encouraging that they escaped Saturday night. 6:04 Well, you know, for a little while there, it looked like McLaughlin was going to be the goat of the night. 6:11 Yeah, you know, when he takes a bad penalty in the late second period that puts him down, makes a bad turnover on the power play that leads to a short-handed goal, you know, those are things that can get you in the doghouse. 6:25 But he got back in the house, according to Bob Motzko, by making a great individual play late in the game to get the go-ahead goal. 6:34 That's just stuff that you need to win games like that. 6:37 You need players to make exceptional plays and he got away with one, got away with guys laterally and put one up top. 6:44 And on the other side of the bracket, we saw St. 6:46 Cloud State take on Mankato. 6:49 Minnesota State Mankato, yes. 6:52 I almost said Mankato State, but Minnesota State had been playing off the charts this year. 6:59 They're clearly one of the top three, five teams, whatever you want to call it in the country. 7:07 But they kind of ran into a buzzsaw and just it got away from them that first game against St. 7:13 Cloud. 7:14 They've kind of had some Minnesota like problems. 7:18 The Mavericks from Mankato. 7:20 Yes. 7:21 Having trouble in the tournament, having trouble in big games here and there, overlooking their opponent. 7:29 Maybe a couple of things went the wrong way there for the Purple, but St. 7:32 Cloud looked really strong on Saturday. 7:36 I was a little nervous for the matchup for the Gophers after seeing that for the next night. 7:41 I think Bob Mosco called them the 80s Russian team. 7:45 How good they looked, the Huskies on Saturday night. 7:49 They were a juggernaut and I don't think Minnesota State was quite ready for that. 7:54 Well, Minnesota State did respond the next day and did defeat Bemidji. 7:59 And then Minnesota took on St. 8:01 Cloud State and actually have a two game win streak going out for the Huskies now, don't they? 8:08 Yeah, I thought they looked really good on Sunday. 8:10 Well, I was a little disappointed with their effort on Saturday. 8:12 They didn't make mistakes. 8:14 Sunday, I thought they played really confidently. 8:17 I think they got offense from a lot of players. 8:20 The defense looked probably the best they've looked all season, top to bottom. 8:25 I think we've seen some issues with Ben Brinkman's play. 8:28 He looked fine. 8:30 We saw Ryan Zulistorp block a ton of shots and be very steady. 8:34 I think Tyler Nani had that right amount of offense to his game. 8:39 Stoddaker had the nasty, as he likes to call it, piss and vinegar to his game. 8:43 Then we saw the skill out of Lacombe and Johnson, and they looked like veteran players. 8:48 I think we saw a lot of uneven play from them in the first half. 8:52 Well, that's the best they've looked from start to finish, all seasons, that Sunday night game. 8:58 If that's the kind of game they're going to get out of them the rest of the way, it could be a great second half. 9:04 Well, that's what we hope so. 9:05 You talk about Johnson and Lacombe. 9:09 Not only did they play well, but they were getting a lot more power play time as well. 9:16 We know that Motsko wanted to be patient, putting the younger guys on the power play, and it looks like they kind of earned their way up the ladder here a bit. 9:27 Well, I actually asked Bob about that after the game because I did see him on the power play. 9:31 I've seen them in power play a lot during practice over the season where Bob's trying to get them ready. 9:37 I think it was more of a game flow situation where they got on the ice for the power play because Stucker kind of got stuck to the bench in the game. 9:46 They'd like to use him in the power play situations and they just didn't, but I thought they looked really good on the power play too as they've looked in practice. 9:53 If they get the confidence going, that could be a part of the missing formula here in the second half as well. 10:00 While the power play percentages are kind of okay, it's almost like in spite of themselves that they've been able to score on the man advantage. 10:07 I think they do fine establishing themselves in the zone, but I think once they get in the zone, they've been very mechanical all year. 10:15 It's just little individual plays that kind of get them out of that. 10:20 I know one game, McLaughlin Walker said, let's just switch spots for a little bit and see how that goes, and it worked. 10:28 You get these guys out of these situations where they're thinking too much and where they can just react, and then you get some guys with some amazing lateral skill like Lecombe and Johnson out there, and maybe things will turn on for these guys where they can use their skill, because they do get pretty predictable in the power play. 10:47 They do actually, but like you mentioned before, as you've spoken with Motsko about, it's not that these kids don't have the skill level. 10:55 It's really about building that confidence, isn't it? 10:57 That's a huge factor. 10:59 And I think that's why he's stuck with his units the way he has, because he knows the skill is there. 11:06 I think Bob Motsko of all coaches knows how to coach a power play, and he's just being patient with this group and showing confidence in them and giving them a long leash and hoping it pays off. 11:17 You know, and he's got a little bit of rope for himself right now, so let's see what he does with it. 11:22 You know, I wanted to ask you about something, actually, that The Wild did not too long ago on a power play. 11:28 It may have been a five on three, I don't quite remember, but they actually had two guys behind the net during a power play, and it seemed to be very effective. 11:39 Well, I think sometimes you do that to get the penalty kill out of their structure, because sometimes you'll be up against a unit where they're just so tight and structured, it's hard to break them down. 11:51 Sometimes you can get them running out of position by putting guys in unusual spots or having unusual movement that'll drag them out of their structure and actually create more chances. 12:04 That's why sometimes you see guys just shoot the puck to shoot the puck because it might get the defensemen turning their heads and chasing the puck. 12:13 I noticed that with the Wildmen, heck, even with the Vikings this past weekend when they took their outside guys, put them on the inside, they just kind of did something different on the fly, unexpected. 12:24 And I love that type of play. 12:26 Something was just, hey, what are they doing here? 12:29 And then it can really confuse a team. 12:31 You look what happened in that particular wild power play, you look what happened with the Vikings this weekend. 12:36 They couldn't handle that kind of change that they're not used to. 12:42 Well, and I think when you have McLaughlin and Walker switch spots, that creates opportunities because people have scouted all week, especially in Western College Hockey where you scout all week for games like this. 12:53 If you see something you don't expect, it slows your brain down a little bit and you're a little bit slower to react. 12:58 And I think that's some of the things that they, as they get more comfortable, they do more switching and they can draw people out of position and then they can get quicker shots on net, get goalies moving side to side. 13:09 I think that's the sign of a successful power play, is you've got skilled players playing fast and confident. 13:16 And that's what they're looking for. 13:18 And also as part of that power play, we did see Walker get on the board again this past weekend. 13:23 It wasn't an empty net goal. 13:25 And boy, it was nice to see Walker score again because he had been in a bit of a drought. 13:31 Oh, you can just see the weight on his shoulders getting heavy this season. 13:35 And if he can get some goals, maybe it will get a little easier. 13:38 He's such an easygoing guy off the ice, and I think he's getting stressed this season. 13:45 And it wasn't one of those goals where it was an amazing play, but it went for him, and you hope it loosened things up and he can play a little bit faster. 13:54 But he's trying to do so much right now. 13:57 And maybe trusting his teammates a little bit, beat one or two guys and then look for somebody else or beat one or two guys and get the puck to the net. 14:04 You know, that might give him a little more productivity if he can figure that out to balance it in his game. 14:11 Well, you know, the Gophers only gave up three goals on that weekend at the Mary UG Classic, you know, so better team defense. 14:17 But one thing I noticed you mentioned today in your Twitter feed, you know, you really like how Lafontaine has kind of come to the front a little bit more. 14:27 And you even were posting stats about how, you know, if you remove a couple of games here or there, his stats are really good, are really comparable to a lot of the other top goalies in the league. 14:38 So do you think maybe he's turned the corner? 14:43 Well, I think goaltending, it's a lot of confidence and positioning. 14:46 And he took the break to really focus on himself and what he needs to do to be successful. 14:52 He worked a lot with the goalie coach Karl Popper. 14:56 And his focus really is to get centered over pucks and get his eyes on it and not be cheating. 15:02 And when he's dialed in, he's a big athletic goalie who reads the game pretty well. 15:07 If he's not pulling himself out of position, he'll be in good shape. 15:10 And those numbers, when he's on, he's close to a 940 save percentage, which is pretty darn good. 15:20 We'll take it. 15:22 We'll definitely take it. 15:24 We had quite a few questions here on Twitter earlier today. 15:29 Oops, I just clicked the wrong thing and lost it there. 15:31 But one of the items I did see earlier today was, what did you think about kind of the bye week in January? 15:39 Now, my initial thoughts are, we started doing this a few years ago, didn't we, to kind of avoid only having those junior players gone for maybe that one weekend and not two weekends. 15:52 So it seems like we started changing our scheduling there. 15:55 But how does this affect the team? 15:58 Well, I think it's fine because everybody's taking a break at this time, you know, with the exams. 16:03 And maybe you might like to have the break in February. 16:07 But I think for teams like Minnesota, you expect to be sending guys to the World Junior. 16:12 It's nice to have them ease back in rather than get back and then write into games and then just get a long stretch where they don't get to recover. 16:20 Because I think the junior tournament can be really stressful, especially for a player who's 18, 19 years old. 16:26 And while Minnesota only had the one go this year in Sample Ranta, that could have been more. 16:32 Lacombe and Johnson were prospects who probably could have helped that team. 16:38 They were looking for a little bit more dynamic offense and you put those guys in at their age group and they can be a little more impactful. 16:45 Maybe they could have helped out the team a little bit. 16:48 But I think it's fine to have a little bit slower schedule here. 16:52 I think with the exhibition game coming up next weekend, it even allows them a little more time to recover. 16:57 It might be fortunate for this team because it sounds like the flu bug is going through the team right now. 17:02 Yeah, I saw you tweeting about that earlier this week. 17:04 Hopefully, it's not too bad. 17:07 You mentioned the World Juniors there. 17:08 Obviously, not a successful tournament for Team USA. 17:12 A lot of critics online, people saying, oh, they didn't play these guys enough, they didn't play those guys enough. 17:20 What's your assessment on that? 17:22 It's tough. 17:23 The USA coaches have gotten it done before. 17:26 Matzko has done it. 17:27 Sandelin has done pretty well. 17:29 Sandelin has done very well at UMD. 17:31 It's up to the players to come through in some of these events. 17:35 They just didn't get it done. 17:36 They ran into a Finland team that had one of the best goalies in the tournament and couldn't put the puck past them. 17:42 Maybe it's not the best USA group either. 17:46 There you go. 17:48 That's my take. 17:49 I didn't get to see it because I no longer have the NHL Network. 17:53 So, I'm sitting here. 17:55 Sling is a great option for people who want to sign up and get the NHL Network during the World Juniors for future reference. 18:02 It's only like 15 bucks a month, and you can just sign it up for the tournament, DVR everything, watch it as you go, and then drop it. 18:09 I'm a little bitter with Sling recently because obviously they're connected to Dish. 18:14 We all know that Dish no longer has Fox Sports North. 18:21 Just a little thing going with me. 18:25 One other World Junior thing is I was a little surprised Sampo didn't get a bigger role with Finland. 18:30 I think they had some highly touted prospects that got put on the power play because they're more European based. 18:35 I think Sampo, if he would have been given a little more rope with that team, maybe could have produced more at the summer camp. 18:42 He was their leading scorer. 18:44 I think he's looked great for Minnesota in the first half as far as generating shots. 18:49 So I think he got pigeonholed a little bit in a lower role. 18:52 He was the player of the game for them in the bronze medal game, but they lost to Sweden. 18:58 And then next year's group looks quite interesting. 19:02 Sweden is not going to have as an easy way as they usually do. 19:09 I think their old winning streak might be in jeopardy next year with the Russians and the Americans in their group. 19:17 Yeah, it's a tough group. 19:18 I feel like the Czechs might be in there too. 19:20 I think you're right. 19:21 You're right. 19:21 Yep. 19:22 Yeah, it's going to be a tough group next year. 19:24 But with not getting the buy anymore, I don't think there's as big an advantage of finishing high in your group. 19:31 And this year burned the US probably by having to play Finland in the quarterfinal. 19:36 That it did. 19:37 We got Jess asking in the Mixler chat how we look at pairwise right now. 19:43 I mean, I'm guessing keep winning. 19:45 That's what you really got to do. 19:46 Not great, Jess. 19:47 Not great. 19:49 I actually was looking at this earlier today because I think they're in the 30s. 19:54 And I did some pairwise analysis for Minnesota Hockey Magazine last two years ago. 20:01 And, you know, if you're outside the top 24, your odds of making it at Christmas are like once in the last 20 years. 20:09 So the only way for them to really get in is to win the league tournament. 20:14 If they would have been able to split with North Dakota and if they would have been able to split with Minnesota Duluth, they'd be right on the bubble. 20:23 You know, they had those two games, that second game with Minnesota Duluth where it was 1-0. 20:27 They had that game against North Dakota where they scored the power play goal to almost take it up. 20:31 You know, if they win those two games, we're having a different conversation about pairwise. 20:36 But right now, they would have to go on one hell of a streak in the Big Ten. 20:40 I think the league is too good to do that. 20:43 Yeah, I would agree with you. 20:45 I also see a question from Frozen4Champs, who actually kind of mirrors a question from SkyURa on Twitter, basically asking, you know, we get the winter classic coming next year. 20:56 Are we going to see any outdoor college games kind of hop on the bandwagon with that? 21:00 Maybe another Mariucci Classic, like maybe afterwards or before or something along those lines. 21:08 I mean, we're always the last to hear about a schedule for Minnesota. 21:14 So maybe there's something available in there. 21:17 Yeah, especially since the Mariucci Classic isn't set for next year. 21:21 They don't have teams set for opponents for that event yet. 21:26 And the NHL and Wild have basically said that they're looking to make this a longer event than your typical winter classic because Target Field is a smaller venue. 21:36 They're not going to be able to sell 100,000 tickets to that and make the big bucks. 21:40 So they're going to be looking to put more events there. 21:42 I think it's going to be hard for North Dakota to be one of the teams that weekend because they're already playing that game in Nashville next year, I believe. 21:50 And I also believe they might be playing Duluth that weekend. 21:52 Somebody tweeted that out that those teams are already busy. 21:57 Yeah, but I've got to imagine we'll see Minnesota playing at Target Field. 22:01 You know, nothing official. 22:03 There's nothing that they've released. 22:04 This is all just my mind working that when the NHL says they're going to need more games, that's going to be one of them. 22:11 I have to feel like we'll probably see some high school games take place, you know, some sort of showcase there. 22:17 I know at the Cotton Bowl they did a USHL game. 22:19 I could see a prospects type tournament happening during the winter classic as well. 22:24 You know, there's going to be a lot of events and concerts going on with this year's event. 22:29 It's nice that the Wild got it and it'll be a nice showcase for the state. 22:33 And don't complain if Minnesota Golden Gophers or the like get involved. 22:38 It may not be a Friday, Saturday thing, folks. 22:42 It would likely be, you know, a Wednesday, Thursday thing. 22:46 Middle of the week, God forbid. 22:49 Because whatever's going to happen is going to happen before. 22:52 Wouldn't you think, Veegs, they're not going to do something after. 22:54 It kind of all culminates with the Classic on Friday the 1st. 22:58 Yeah, especially since the Gopher football team is probably going to be playing in the Rose Bowl that day. 23:03 They don't want to have that overlap happening. 23:09 I love your positivity. 23:10 Yeah, well, you know, flex, we're on the boat. 23:13 I'm in the boat, too. 23:14 I just renewed my season tickets for football. 23:16 So did you upgrade your seats? 23:19 Did you upgrade your seats? 23:20 Are you still in the corner there? 23:21 I am not upgrading seats. 23:22 I have a young family and we're looking to finish our basement. 23:26 So we'll someday upgrade seats perhaps. 23:29 But I like where we are. 23:30 You got those good seats and you're real close to the exit, too. 23:34 Yeah, I'm right by the plaza. 23:35 It's great to go grab a local beer when I can and get back to my seats. 23:41 No problem. 23:42 Not miss a snap. 23:44 Yes. 23:45 We should have Tim Hapke asking on Twitter, have you heard any more details on the Wuger Tribute on the weekend of the 24th? 23:52 You know, they're playing Ohio State that weekend. 23:54 I have not heard more. 23:56 I noticed that you has been putting out more video stuff, but it's going to be kind of a wait and see, isn't it? 24:01 Yeah, I think it's going to allow them some more time to do some of those video tributes, get the family on campus and do something a little more structured. 24:10 I'm sure you'll have a lot of people there for that weekend. 24:14 They couldn't really do anything for the Mary G Classic with all the funeral stuff going on in South St. 24:19 Paul, so this will give the university an opportunity to pay a little bit larger tribute. 24:24 I know some people were disappointed in the amount of production that went into the Classic. 24:29 It's because the family was already committed to their morning. 24:33 So be patient. 24:36 Coming up, they'll pay proper dues to a guy who had a huge impact on the state and the program. 24:41 He definitely did. 24:42 A couple more questions from SkyURa. 24:46 You probably saw these earlier today. 24:48 He kind of wants your thoughts on the state of Casey Middlestead and the pressure to rush the young talent. 24:58 Like you might see over at Wisconsin, there might be a lot of pressure to rush those kids and throw them in the NHL, and it's not exactly an easy ride. 25:07 I feel really bad for Casey Middlestead because he did all the right things staying in high school hockey and playing junior hockey after the high school season. 25:17 I thought he did such a great job growing himself from a kid who wasn't making the select 54 players for the state of Minnesota into a top 10 draft pick for Buffalo. 25:30 And then to throw it away by rushing himself into the NHL was just hard to watch. 25:36 I remember talking to someone who said, you know, in the Big Ten Hockey when you get on the ice and it's a tough matchup, you know, Penn State throws out Smirnoff and Sturtz. 25:49 Well, when you're in the NHL, they're going to throw out Malkin and Crosby. 25:52 It's not a fair comparison to your game. 25:57 And I just think it was probably too much for him and he wasn't quite ready for it. 26:01 And he had to change his game to compensate for the physical differences that he hadn't developed yet. 26:06 And he just couldn't play the same game. 26:09 And once you start doing that, you change your habits. 26:12 You lose your confidence. 26:13 We talk about the Gophers' confidence all the time. 26:15 You start pressing. 26:16 And in the NHL, it's not a development league. 26:20 You know, if they don't see results and they don't see progression, they're going to go with someone else who they think deserves the chance. 26:27 And, you know, being sent back down to the NHL is a tough thing for him to take. 26:32 And I understand that he probably thought he was ready for the leap. 26:35 But, you know, there's so many times you say, yeah, you didn't leave too soon. 26:40 You could have stayed later. 26:41 No one stays too late most of the time. 26:45 And Lucia said that a lot. 26:48 Yeah. 26:49 And you feel bad. 26:50 And we're seeing, I think, with Wisconsin, with the way Granado is running his program, is he really wants to get these high-profile players because he thinks that's the best way to develop his program. 27:01 And he gives them a lot of rope and a lot of ice time. 27:04 And it's hard to win in college hockey, if that's your philosophy, especially if you don't have enough veterans in the program to support them. 27:12 I think when we've seen it work in college hockey, you see these players like Besser at North Dakota. 27:18 You know, he goes into a program where he's surrounded by seniors who are 23 years old, and he can learn to play. 27:25 You know, when you're playing with a bunch of other 18-year-olds on the ice, it's not exactly the same thing. 27:31 So it's going to be a while for these teams, I think, to figure it out. 27:34 Denver figured it out with Montgomery, with Borgstrom. 27:37 You know, they had a veteran team around him, too. 27:40 So I think that's what it takes. 27:41 If you're going to rush these kids and build it around, you have to have the support system. 27:47 And then on the opposite end of things, we see a player who was not heralded here in Minnesota until he scores a game-winning goal of.6 seconds left. 27:58 But Justin Hall just signed a nice contract with Toronto. 28:03 And you talk about a kid that bloomed much later. 28:08 Boy, what a great thing for him. 28:10 Yeah, tremendous for him. 28:12 He's a kid who had to play forward to get some ice time. 28:15 He did. 28:15 And just stuck with it, figured out his role in the AHL, paid his dues, shuffled back between being the extra guy a lot, hats off to him, and he's earned it. 28:25 And they always say in the professional sports, you earn your money on those second contracts, and he is right now. 28:32 Yeah, it was a great thing. 28:33 He was a fun kid to be around when he was at the U, and boy, he scores his first goal in his senior year. 28:40 Short-handed, 0.6 seconds, that's one of the biggest memories we've had this past decade. 28:47 That's probably the top memory for Gopher Hockey in the past decade. 28:51 Daniel College Hockey News did their top 25 moments of the decade, and that was one of the top 10, I think. 28:57 Yeah. 28:58 Well, I'll never forget. 28:59 I was screaming like a madman when that happened. 29:02 Yeah, it was fun. 29:04 Oh, well, Skyy Ross got a couple more things here. 29:06 We've already did that one. 29:08 He's saying, he's talking about a new arena being built in Iowa City, and, you know, it's going to be, it'll have ice capabilities. 29:19 You think you could see something like an Iowa starting a hockey program? 29:23 It's all going to come down to donor support for a team. 29:26 You know, in the Big Ten, that's what it's going to take. 29:28 We look at Illinois, Northwestern, Iowa. 29:32 You know, it's just going to take some money to make it happen. 29:34 It's going to take more than an arena that's not owned by the university to get it done. 29:39 But I do know that there's a lot of support in Iowa for junior hockey. 29:43 You know, so there is some grass roots base there where those teams do pretty well. 29:48 And I think that's the formula for a college hockey team these days, is to get that 4,500, 5,000 seat arena and build from there. 29:58 It might even be nice to have a non-college rink there for regionals. 30:05 Yes. 30:05 Could be nice. 30:07 I would agree. 30:07 Might be better than going to Sioux Falls. 30:10 Yes. 30:11 Skyuma Law says Illinois will be first. 30:13 And from what I've heard, Skyuma, maybe not. 30:19 Might be a Northwestern. 30:21 So we'll have to wait and see. 30:25 We know it's good. 30:26 I think it's just a matter of time, Veegs. 30:30 You know, we do have seven teams now. 30:32 Getting an eighth team would be nice. 30:36 We don't have to keep going out and looking for other schools. 30:39 We know that the college landscape just keeps changing and changing. 30:43 So who knows what's coming up over the horizon? 30:49 Yeah, it'd be nice to have some competition. 30:51 You know, the teams are being told to hold their schedules back a little bit down the line because they expect to have an eighth member soon. 30:58 And maybe having a little competition between these schools for landing that eighth spot is good. 31:04 It might get one of the donors to step forward a little faster. 31:07 Maybe. 31:09 Well, this weekend, we're heading to old Michigan State Veegs. 31:15 Michigan State's really turned it around these last few years. 31:19 Maybe not in the standings last year, but they were tough for Minnesota last year. 31:23 And this year, they've put it all together pretty well with the starting boy back in goal. 31:29 Was it Lethman? 31:31 Yeah, he's phenomenal for them. 31:33 Yes. 31:35 I mean, that's where it all starts. 31:36 Starts in goal. 31:37 And if you got a great goalie, you could win almost any game. 31:41 And here they are sitting in second place. 31:43 Did you see them being in second place at this point in time? 31:46 I did not. 31:47 I did not think they had enough scoring, especially with losing Hirose to a pro contract, that they would have enough scoring. 31:54 But they've actually cut down the goals against quite a bit. 31:57 And getting some solid goaltending is important. 32:00 And unlike some other teams who have success in the first half, Michigan State's actually played some pretty good teams. 32:05 I think Colorado College is a good team in the NCHC. 32:10 They got to split with them. 32:11 They split with Penn State at Penn State. 32:14 They did pretty well against their other conference games. 32:18 And I think they're going to be a tough matchup for the Gophers. 32:22 They're definitely an older, bigger team with a top line who can score. 32:26 And we've seen the frustrations over the years when Minnesota's had against these defensive type teams. 32:34 We almost saw it against that Bemidji State game, because they play well defensively. 32:40 They're older, and Michigan State is kind of this team, but a lot better on the offensive side. 32:46 Yeah, and I think they've gotten a little more disciplined, especially that top line is a line that you could maybe expose a little bit with some turnovers as they trade chances. 32:55 But I think as they become juniors and seniors, they've figured it out. 32:58 It's hard to believe that Lewandowski is only a junior. 33:01 It seems like he's been there forever. 33:03 But Khodorko, he's in his last year, so last chance to go see him at MUN. 33:11 Well, that was the one team that had the... 33:13 It seems like they always had the one line that just killed the Gophers, and we could never figure it out. 33:20 Well, it was weird because there would just be these game situations where I think as a player, you should know who you're out against, and sometimes it seems like they totally didn't realize that. 33:31 You're going up against a line that's hyped as the KHL line. 33:34 You think you'd pay attention to that, and it just seemed like that would disappear out of their gourds while they're on the ice. 33:40 And Bob Motzko has talked about that a little bit with this team is you have to have that shift experience, game knowledge, know how long you've been on the ice, know when you can make an extra play, know when you have to make a smart play, know who you're out against, all those things that come with experience, you're starting to see. 34:00 I thought they did that really well against St. 34:03 Cloud, and it's going to be super important against Michigan State to have that veteran presence on the ice, or you can get yourself in a hole real quick. 34:12 Well, let's just hope that the team has turned it around. 34:16 We've been saying that for a long time, Meigs. 34:19 We've seen a lot of these other teams that were below the Gophers now surpass them since Motsco's come on. 34:27 We really need to start seeing some pretty good results here. 34:30 Yeah, I think this is a real good measuring stick, because Michigan State's kind of been that rebuilding stage. 34:36 They might be a little bit further ahead in rebuilding their roster compared to Minnesota, but I think if you look at the talent, the Gophers have more talented players who can make plays like the one Blake McLaughlin made against Bemidji State. 34:50 I don't think you have as many Michigan State guys who can make that kind of play, but the problem for Minnesota has been the turnovers, and if they can cut those out, it allows their skill to shine a little bit more. 35:01 We got fake Bob Motsco asking us a little while ago, 14 games, seven series to go, all of them against the Big Ten. 35:11 He says Gopher Hockey wins three of those series, splits three, and swept in one, nine and five to finish the season. 35:18 Would be respectable. 35:20 Change my mind. 35:24 I think it would be a respectable finish to go nine and five. 35:27 I think that's probably a good aim. 35:29 I know that the current Bob Motsco, the coach, doesn't look at it in that kind of big stretch. 35:34 I'm sure he's looking at it, you know, split on the road, try to sweep it home and look at it one weekend at a time. 35:42 And that's really where their focus has to be. 35:45 But I do agree with fake Bob. 35:47 That would be a reasonable expectation for the season if they can finish that way, get some home ice, and give themselves a chance to get in during the conference tournament. 35:57 Yeah, because you never know what happens in those tournaments. 36:00 Yeah, and especially since there will be one-game shots once you get out of the first round. 36:05 I think Minnesota is a team where that's preferable for them, where they're at right now. 36:11 Well, we'll just have to wait and see, folks. 36:14 I think it's a big series against Michigan State this weekend. 36:17 Remember that the Friday game is at 5 p.m. 36:20 Central, so it's an early start, most likely for television. 36:24 Both games are on a Big Ten network this weekend. 36:26 But don't forget. 36:30 And remember, that's Michigan State's call, not the Gopher's call for all you people on social media want to go after Brian Deutsch with mean comments on Facebook. 36:41 It's not his fault. 36:42 He's trying very hard to make sure that these games get televised for all of us back home who don't travel. 36:48 Brian busts his butt. 36:50 Minnesota does a great job getting these games on TV. 36:53 That's all I can say. 36:56 And Big Ten Network does prefer to have Minnesota as one of the teams. 37:01 They know Minnesota, even in these down times, does bring eyes to the television more than any other team in the league. 37:11 So that's one good thing we have going for us, Veegs. 37:16 It's nice to be the leader for something, right? 37:19 Where everyone supports you, unlike the North Star College Cup frozen four champs, as you're pointing out. 37:27 Boy, did you see that on Twitter this week with Wellens and Myers and some others as well? 37:32 I saw some stuff where they wanted to bring it back and how some of the coaches want it back. 37:37 And I don't really know. 37:40 I don't know what happened. 37:42 Well, I think I know that the X is really expensive to rent out for games. 37:46 Yes. 37:47 And I think the league could have kept it going if they wanted to, because when you draw 11,000 fans for that like they were doing most years, that's enough to keep it going. 37:58 But what happened, I think, was that a certain coach up in Duluth decided he'd rather be playing games in his own rink and filling it and getting all the revenue rather than going to the Excel and splitting it four ways. 38:13 Yeah, well, maybe there's a reason why they didn't invite Duluth to the Marriott G Classic. 38:18 Perhaps. 38:18 Or there's a reason why Duluth didn't accept an invite. 38:22 Oh, wah, wah, wah, too tight of a fitting chance. 38:25 But I do think when we get Duluth back on the schedule, it'll be two games in Duluth, two games in Minneapolis. 38:31 Oh, that would be so nice. 38:32 So everyone will be happy about that. 38:34 Veegs, we can go up and drink for a weekend. 38:36 I know it'll be fun and you get two nights of it. 38:41 Well, I'm looking forward to that. 38:43 Well, what do you think about this weekend though, Veegs? 38:45 I mean, we've kind of talked about Michigan State a little bit there, but how are you feeling about this team? 38:50 Can we go in there and maybe get a split or maybe a little more than a split? 38:53 Maybe not a sweep, but maybe four or five points? 38:58 I could see four or five points coming out this weekend. 39:00 I think Minnesota, they just have to get some confidence with their power play. 39:05 They've got so much talent on the ice, whereas if they start playing a little freer, scoring first should be good for this team. 39:12 If they can do that against Michigan State, it might open up the game a little bit more. 39:16 But it's going to be really hard to get a split with the way Michigan State's playing defensively, how good their goaltenders looked, and how dangerous their top line can be. 39:26 Surprise us, guys. 39:27 Surprise us. 39:28 Yeah, I have picked the Gophers to get swept more times this year than in the past, but I think I might have to be going to splits and sweeps the other way now in the second half. 39:37 I just feel like there is some positive energy around the team in the locker room. 39:41 LaFontaine talked about that. 39:43 Reedy talked about that. 39:45 Guys are in pretty good spirits right now. 39:47 I don't think you have a team where everybody's looking to turn pro after the year. 39:51 I think that factors in as well. 39:53 You have a bunch of guys who are happy to be on campus and be playing college hockey, and they're treated pretty well. 39:59 They're taking those chartered flights out to East Lansing this weekend, and they're staying in a pretty nice place, and I'm sure they'll eat well. 40:07 So what are you working on at the Athletic? 40:09 You mentioned in the pre-show that you got a couple things in the hopper. 40:14 Anything you could tell us about there, Veegs? 40:16 Well, we'll get closer to it. 40:19 This Viking run that's happening is kind of damaging my space. 40:23 Yeah, I guess it was. 40:24 Of course, now the Wild have turned things around a little bit, so we'll see. 40:28 We're edging my way in there a little bit for a couple of stories. 40:31 You'll see them soon. 40:31 And thanks for the people that read the Wooger story. 40:35 That was a lot of fun to do. 40:36 Oh, boy, that was great stuff, Veegs. 40:37 You put one of my photos in there, so I really appreciated that. 40:41 We appreciate you putting it in there for us. 40:46 I had some fun pictures of the Wooger. 40:50 Still, it's tough to see that he's gone. 40:54 It's another sad thing for this program. 40:57 We need some good positivity here, Veegs. 40:59 Let's get out there in Michigan State and just kick their ass this weekend. 41:04 Be fun to see. 41:05 We'll get to see it on TV because of the hard work of Minnesota. 41:09 There you go. 41:10 That's going to do it for this episode of The GPL Podcast. 41:14 We'll be back in two weeks to recap the Michigan State Series and preview Ohio State. 41:20 Remember, get that little bye week in there again. 41:23 That's how that's going to go. 41:25 For those of you listening live, we'll have a little bit of overtime coming up. 41:29 We'll talk about a few things. 41:32 For the rest of you, we'll be back in a few weeks. 41:35 Thanks for listening.