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 Bye Now, here's Joop and Vigo. 0:37 Good evening, and welcome to the GPL Podcast. 0:42 A little special Thursday edition, but sometimes you just gotta change your schedule. 0:47 This is episode number 169. 0:50 We're getting way up there, V, because I think you've been part of most of them. 0:53 I think you came in wrong, episode 25, 30. 0:56 Maybe a little later than that, but it's somewhere in there. 0:58 It's a good run we're on. 1:00 Yeah, not too bad, you know. 1:02 It's been going well. 1:04 Had people come and go, Cardinals come and gone, and Hammy's come and gone, and it's been a fun ride. 1:12 And it's not like we're stopping here. 1:14 We're gonna keep on going. 1:16 But like I said, 169 episodes, that's a lot. 1:20 Well, Veegs, boy, we saw this team really turn it around the last previous weeks, and they had kinda kept playing the same way Friday night against Michigan State, Saturday night through about two periods. 1:38 And then they ran into a little bit of trouble, maybe a little reverting. 1:43 Moscow didn't say that, but it was just kind of an ugly end of the weekend. 1:46 But all in all, it's hard to complain with a split against, which is a pretty darn good Michigan State team. 1:55 Yeah, Michigan State, probably the surprise of college hockey in my mind this season, they've been super consistent and it's kind of come down to their top line is produced and their goaltending has really stepped up. 2:12 We kind of look at their shots allowed and how much defense they're playing. 2:16 I don't think they give up a ton of quality chances, but they are a hard team to play against. 2:21 And I think that was one of my takeaways from this last weekend, is they are a big physical team and they are going to get in your face. 2:28 As Ryan Zulsor said, they've got a couple of bowling balls and they've got a couple of trees out there and they will let you feel it by the end of the weekend. 2:37 I think Minnesota just kind of tired a little bit in the middle of the second on Saturday. 2:42 They got away with it when Blake McLaughlin got the goal to kind of even things back up. 2:49 And then they just kind of pulled away. 2:51 Yeah, they did kind of pull away, but let's go back to Friday. 2:54 Friday started out as a pretty good game, a 4-1 win by the Gophers. 2:58 Solid effort all around. 3:02 We saw Moe start both games this weekend. 3:05 Moe looked pretty good on Friday night. 3:06 It might be a little different on Saturday, but I think Saturday is kind of what was the defense of support. 3:12 But Friday started off good, and they kind of extended that streak to six straight wins. 3:17 Yeah, I thought that Friday game reminded me a lot of how Minnesota played against St. 3:22 Cloud during the Marriott Sheet Classic. 3:25 We just saw the emergence of those freshman defensemen being ultra confident. 3:30 I think that was a big takeaway for me this weekend, too, is Ryan Johnson and Jackson LaCombe have arrived. 3:38 They are not playing like freshmen. 3:39 They are playing like veterans. 3:41 I think I was talking to a lot of people in terms like, or names like Mike Crowley and Brian Bonnen came up in terms of how well they control the puck in the offensive zone and coming through the neutral zone and their zone entries and it's a lot of fun to watch. 3:58 And when a team starts getting their defensemen playing at that high of a level, that's go for hockey to me. 4:05 When you have defensemen who can transition quickly and leave people in the corners, that's go for hockey. 4:12 And I think if those guys stick around for a while, Bob's gonna enjoy being behind the bench. 4:19 And that's the key, stick around for a while because we can see them starting to contribute a lot more. 4:26 They're not freshmaning more, especially those two. 4:28 We're not quite seeing it on the offensive end, assists or even goals. 4:35 And if you think of the typical Minnesota defensemen of the past, like a Ballard, a Leopold, those guys turned into the scoring guy. 4:44 So that's something we're looking forward to as these guys actually contributing on the offensive end as well. 4:50 Yeah, I think once they get even a little bit more comfortable about how to step down from the blue line and make plays in the offensive zone, you'll see even more points come out of them. 5:00 Right now, I think you're kind of seeing that first half of the game, the breaking out and maybe trying to feel out when they can join the rush. 5:07 And I think that's something that all college defensemen struggle with when they make the transition. 5:12 And so there's a lot of growth ahead for these guys. 5:16 And that's one of the fun things about college hockey to me is you get to see these guys grow so much over the course of a season or over the course of a career. 5:24 So, you know, I definitely, boy, I'm trying to forget, I might have been Johnson who he came into the offensive zone and just held the puck and held the puck and held the puck. 5:36 And nobody took it off his stick. 5:38 What was that? 5:39 That was Johnson, wasn't it? 5:41 Johnson did one of those as well in the power play. 5:43 But Jackson LaCombe did one of those. 5:45 Gotcha. 5:45 Five on five. 5:46 And I think you're going to be seeing an article in the Star Tribune from Meg Ryan tomorrow about that play and about his play in general. 5:54 She was asking plenty of follow-up questions at availability to Bob about the play. 5:59 And I asked Bob, you know, did he have to show that one in video? 6:03 And he said, nope, everybody saw it and remembered it from the game. 6:06 And Jackson got a nice little applause from the fans in the middle of the shift. 6:10 And it was certainly fun to watch. 6:12 He even got a wraparound attempt in the middle of that skater on the zone. 6:16 Yeah, you are correct. 6:18 But so the Gophers split this weekend and boy, it's a jumbled mess in the Big Ten right now. 6:24 You know, we've got Penn State with 33 points, Michigan, Minnesota and Ohio State all tied with 31. 6:30 Notre Dame, just a couple points behind at 28, Michigan at 27 and then we got Wisconsin down at 17. 6:37 One key I think this weekend, Veegs, is just getting some points. 6:43 I mean, you've got Ohio State, this is their weekend when they kind of get equal with Ohio State on game. 6:50 So this is how we put Ohio State behind us in the standings. 6:55 Yeah, Minnesota is one of the teams that controls their own destiny in the Big Ten. 7:00 And this is an important weekend. 7:02 Bob talks about winning your series against another team to kind of put them behind you. 7:08 And this is a big one for the Gophers against Notre Dame. 7:12 I think in our last time out against them, they had the overtime to get the extra point and then they lost the next game. 7:19 So this is an important weekend for them to finish ahead of Notre Dame in the standings so they can't catch them. 7:24 Because it's gonna be a tight conference at the end. 7:28 And points like this are gonna be really important. 7:31 Frozen Four just comes right up. 7:33 Power Play is still god awful right now. 7:36 And he's not wrong. 7:37 He's not wrong. 7:39 Bob realizes this. 7:41 He wishes he had given them enough rope to figure things out. 7:45 He really wants that top group to figure it out and be successful. 7:50 But he acknowledged that they're missing something right now. 7:53 And he's been really patient with trying to give that group plenty of time together and plenty of opportunities. 8:00 But I think those opportunities have run out. 8:03 I think we're gonna see a new unit this weekend with Ranta and Reedy on the top unit. 8:08 Those are the top goal scorers for the Gophers right now. 8:11 Reedy's really showing off a good scoring touch. 8:14 Yes, some of those are coming with empty net goals, but he's also been one of those players who's been the third guy in and able to snipe corners. 8:22 So that's something I feel like they're missing on the power play is confident shooters who can catch in and shoot or one time it. 8:29 Guys who can retrieve pucks and create secondary chances. 8:33 He's one of those guys. 8:34 And I think Sample Ranta has more to add to the power play as well. 8:39 I think when you saw him in the USHL, a lot of his goals were on that off wing with one timers and using a shot. 8:45 And I think if he gets out there with maybe a little more established zone time, those opportunities are gonna come up for him. 8:54 And that also kind of covers the question on Twitter from Devin Cavernum. 8:57 I'm not sure if I pronounced that right. 8:58 He was kind of asking if they're gonna do anything different this weekend. 9:01 I just wanted to make sure I acknowledged him for that because you kind of covered that in your answer. 9:06 And remember, if you're listening later on in the week or anything like that, you have any topics or questions you want us to cover, just tweet at us. 9:15 Use the hashtag GPL Podcast and we'll try to get it and talk about it on the air. 9:21 We're open to any discussion on the air, aren't we, Veegs? 9:24 Yep, and one thing to add on that to DK, I'll just avoid the last name by going that style, is Robbie Stucker's probably gonna be the power play point player on that first unit. 9:36 The other defensemen haven't quite shown enough calm and poise back there or production to really draw Bob's praise. 9:47 So I think we'll see Stucker back there still. 9:49 So we'll probably see Sammy Walker out there. 9:52 He's been so good on the breakout. 9:54 I think we will probably see Blake McLaughlin stick on that top unit and then they'll fit in Reedy and Ranta. 10:02 I actually heard a little birdie told me that Stucker hasn't been very happy about his power play time recently. 10:09 So now that you're mentioning more Stucker back there, maybe he'll be back there a little more often. 10:16 Well, I think we saw Estatica out last Saturday. 10:21 He's not quite ready for a full-time five-on-five role. 10:24 I think he needs a little bit more time in the weight room to get a little more leg strength so he can become a better skater out there. 10:30 I think he's a little bit behind from that standpoint. 10:34 But he does have the decision-making in hands to run the power play. 10:38 And coming down the stretch here, they're going to need a successful power play to win close games, because it definitely cost him this weekend. 10:46 Oh, boy, did it. 10:48 I think also kind of what cost him was how much pressure they put on the first period of that Saturday game and only came out with a 1-0 lead. 10:57 You know, I heard, you know, Moscow's kind of saying, you know, they played pretty good, but it would have been nice to get a couple more. 11:02 And I actually heard a couple other media members saying, geez, you know, they could have put up two or three. 11:07 It would have helped them with it. 11:09 They just couldn't quite solve Lethman, you know, in that first period. 11:12 It's very well. 11:14 Well, he's a good goalie, and he's played pretty well this year. 11:16 And I think they hit a couple pipes as well. 11:19 At least two that I remember. 11:21 Walker getting one, Bratsinsky getting one. 11:24 So those are things that held them back a little bit as well. 11:28 I thought they played a great first period, and you can't be upset coming away with a lead. 11:34 Now, you can't be upset with the lead. 11:36 That's true. 11:37 I think, you know, it would have been nice to have a little more insurance goals. 11:41 They could have probably played a different style of game after that if they had a little bit. 11:45 Yeah, if you can extend the game, maybe you quiet Michigan State's comeback attempt, and you take away their fight. 11:51 I think you heard some choice words from their leadership between periods where they knew that they still had a chance to get back in the game. 12:00 And then when they get those two soft calls in the third period on Saturday, you know, they are penalties. 12:05 You can't just get in the way of other players that don't have the puck, and you can't use your stick to impede people. 12:11 They could have probably called a few more of those if that was the line that they were going to draw, but they didn't. 12:17 They called them, and Minnesota wasn't able to kill off the penalties. 12:21 They had been working a lot on their penalty kill. 12:24 They're kind of going to this diamond or triangle in one pressure, and they just got caught a little bit, maybe with some heavy legs. 12:33 Yeah, I could definitely vouch for what you said about Michigan State. 12:37 I was photographing the first period down the ice level, and I ended up kind of following the whole team back to their locker room, and there was a lot of yelling, and it wasn't one single coach. 12:46 It was the players taking responsibility, and that's what you really want to see in a team. 12:53 You don't always want to see the coach yelling at these guys. 12:56 You want to see the players taking control, and that's exactly what Michigan State did. 13:00 Yeah, as PJ Fleck is fond of saying, elite teams, the players lead, and Michigan State has a lot of veteran players who came back and passed up pro opportunities for this chance this year to actually have some success in college hockey, and they've put themselves in that position, and when a team lets you hang around like Minnesota did, those are chances where you need to take an opportunity, and the Sparty definitely came through, and they got a draw with the Gophers on the season. 13:29 So also this past weekend, they did a lot of special ticket deals. 13:32 It was a pretty good crowd both nights. 13:35 I mean, a lot less no-shows, at least from my point of view, and this kind of leads into a Tim Hapke question. 13:40 He's like, Vigo, any word back from the you about the success of last weekend's $25 ticket slash drink deal? 13:47 He says, you know, I know the people who sat in the usually empty seats next to us did the deal, and he gives the you pretty good props for trying, for doing this. 13:58 Yeah, they sold about a thousand packages of people who hadn't had tickets going in to that promotion, so I think it obviously worked. 14:07 It's a way to get people in the building who maybe haven't been around this year, and I know that the scanned ticket numbers were up a little bit. 14:13 I don't have the specific numbers. 14:15 I'll try to get those at some point this season, but I'd say a thousand packages is pretty successful. 14:21 I don't think they sold that many for the basketball program when they did the promotion. 14:25 I think that one was more around six or 700, so kudos to the you for trying things. 14:32 I know some season ticket holders were not enthused at seeing these promotions handed out to people who haven't been supporting the program, but I think you just got to accept it, that if you want some energy in the building, you're going to have to accept that you're doing promotions like this to get people who haven't been supporting the program involved. 14:52 Well, you kind of mentioned that. 14:54 Both of us were tweeted yesterday, Jeremy Jessen. 14:57 He was asking some solid concepts by the Timberwolves for next year, some of the price guarantees, things like that, and things like season ticket holders get 50% off of concessions. 15:10 Yeah, I know season ticket holders already get some breaks. 15:14 If you spend $20 at the concessions, you get a discount. 15:17 They have their loyalty benefit program. 15:22 I know Bob Mosco had a talk with some season ticket holders before the game on Saturday. 15:27 He had some colorful stories, I gather, from what I've heard from people. 15:32 He talked about why Scott Sandlin doesn't like the Gophers. 15:36 I guess it's rumored that he was going to be on scholarship at the U until Phil Housley was guessing that he maybe wanted to play college hockey. 15:47 Then when he decided to go pro and the U came back, he'd already committed to North Dakota and felt burned. 15:52 I think that was an interesting story. 15:55 I don't think people had really heard that one too much before. 15:58 That was interesting. 16:00 Bob said that he's got two goalies who both hate him right now because he's been flipping and flopping who's starting. 16:06 I think he's got a point there. 16:10 Well, you'd rather have two goalies be upset about not playing than one just going back in the kennel or something. 16:20 I think that's good. 16:21 I know Bob does a really good job in those events where he gets to interact with the fans. 16:26 He's really honest about things where he can be. 16:30 I know people ask him questions about recruiting. 16:33 He plays that super close to the vest. 16:35 I don't really know for sure who's even going to be able to come in next year. 16:39 Fish is the kid from Johnson who's playing in the NHL. 16:43 He's going to be 21 next year. 16:45 Got to think he's coming. 16:47 But even among guys like Brock Faber and Mike Castor, it's hard to know for sure if those guys are even coming. 16:53 They've signed their NLIs, but I think Castor hasn't quite had the breakout season that you'd like to see. 17:00 And Faber, he's a young player. 17:02 It's hard to know what his draft status is going to be, whether or not he has to kind of force his way to a team. 17:08 But it'd probably help him if he played next year, your juniors. 17:11 And then up front, Minnesota is only going to graduate Maruni. 17:16 So there's a lot of players who could fill that spot. 17:19 And I don't even think Bob knows for sure who he wants to fill it. 17:22 Well, you and I are going to discuss a little bit this past weekend. 17:26 But we'll get to that in a minute. 17:27 I'd want to get to our sponsor first. 17:30 But there's a couple of things I kind of want to talk about with Burke. 17:34 So that kind of leads us into another question. 17:36 But before that, let's hear from our sponsor. 17:39 There has never been a better time to buy or refinance. 17:43 So call Jerry Peters, a first class mortgage in Maple Grove, for all your mortgage needs. 17:48 Interest rates are at near all time lows and property values are on the rise. 17:53 Lower your interest rate and remove monthly PMI at the same time to save thousands of dollars. 17:59 Or you could use the equity in your home for debt consolidation or home improvements. 18:04 The spring housing market is going to be hot, so make sure you're prepared by getting a pre-approved letter from Jerry Peters before you start shopping. 18:12 Mention you heard about him on the GPL Podcast and receive a $300 closing credit. 18:17 Some of the restrictions do apply. 18:20 Call Jerry at 612-940-3291 or visit firstclassmortgage.com to fill out a free application. 18:29 Jerry's NMLS number is 480200. 18:32 First Class Mortgage's NMLS number is 322842. 18:37 This is not an offer at all, and an interest rate agreement under Minnesota law. 18:40 First Class Mortgage is an equal housing lender. 18:44 Thanks Jerry, we appreciate it as always. 18:47 So, you know, you talked about we're not going to have many positions available next year up on the front. 18:55 But this kind of leads me to Mr. 18:56 Burke. 18:57 You know, we got a question from Dan Hogan. 18:59 Why do you think Burke has failed to take a step forward as a sophomore? 19:02 Only two goals in and out of the lineup. 19:05 I know he might have had some injury problems too, but is Burke going to fit in the future of this team, Veegs? 19:14 Well, the one thing I'll say about Burke is that he is still playing. 19:18 He's still in the lineup. 19:20 I think he's trying to press maybe a little bit too much to create something out of nothing. 19:26 I know we've got frozen four champs in the chat talking about how Munson's been getting some praise. 19:31 And I think that's because Munson is a guy who's accepted his role a little bit and figures out that I'm an energy player. 19:39 I'm not going to be making fancy plays. 19:41 I'm going to make direct plays. 19:42 I'm going to get the puck deep. 19:44 I'm going to stay above the puck when I'm on defense. 19:47 I don't know if Burke has figured that out yet. 19:49 He seems to be trying to make plays that aren't there, getting a little careless with the puck, giving it away, maybe looking for offense that's not there when sometimes you need guys like that to say, you know what, just a good possession in the offensive zone is good enough for my role. 20:06 If offense comes or we create scoring chances that way, that's going to happen. 20:12 Last year when he was playing with Walker and McLaughlin, there's a lot of offensive chances there, and I thought one of the things that shined with Burke was he was able to make plays around the net, and I think that's really probably where his strength lies is making plays on rebounds, out of chaos, but when you're playing a fourth-line role, those chances don't come up very often. 20:34 He wasn't exactly a player last year who was making fancy plays on the rush. 20:38 He was making nice, hard plays around the net, and that can be hard to do for a player, especially someone who's maybe rushed to college hockey. 20:46 He was going to be playing another junior year and then come to St. 20:50 Cloud until Bob offered him the spot, so I think it's going to take some refocusing on his part to find his game and find how he fits in, because I know there's a couple Gopher coaches from the past staff who said, if you don't have an A game, you better find your B game real quick and go to that. 21:08 Interesting. 21:11 We're just going to have to see where that goes, Veegs. 21:13 Well, I mean, not every player can figure that out. 21:16 Yeah, that's true. 21:17 That's the challenge for him going forward. 21:19 I don't think Bob's going to hold his spot for him. 21:22 He's going to have to figure it out, and if he doesn't, there are a lot of players in the pipeline who could come and fill it. 21:28 So guys are brought to the U to figure it out and score goals when they can, and if you get put on one of those fourth-line energy spots, you better figure that out as well. 21:38 Yeah, because like you said, some guys thrive there. 21:41 Munson doesn't play that much, but when he does, he's not out there scoring, but he's out there causing havoc. 21:47 He's out there to make plays, and he's out there to change momentum. 21:51 I think in the third period against Michigan State on Saturday, it could have helped if they had guys like that who were able to make a play, gain a blue line, get the puck deep, and relieve the pressure a little bit. 22:03 If you have guys who are trying to do backhand clears and things like that, and giving the puck away, and not winning those wall battles, it's hard to be successful, because the team was tired at that point. 22:12 There was an opportunity there for a lower-line guy to make a play after a penalty kill. 22:19 Are you concerned with that third-period performance Saturday night and how things really went bad? 22:24 I mean, Moscow, after the game, he's like, you know, we almost got through that second penalty. 22:29 I think we would have been okay, but the fact is, that's not what happened. 22:33 I think I'm more concerned about the power play not coming through with goals, and I'm concerned about the penalty kill not making plays. 22:42 I think penalty kill was one of my biggest concerns coming into this year, because they lost their first game with their first pair killers in graduation with Ramsey Romanko leaving the team. 22:53 Those guys probably killed more penalties than any pair of players in Gopher history. 22:57 I'd love to have a stat on how many times they started a penalty kill. 23:02 Now, this year, the first guys off the bench are Nelson and Purbecks most of the time. 23:08 It's a big question mark for them, and to see them have to kill penalties back to back just exposes that depth, because killing penalties is hard work, and they just weren't able to get it done. 23:21 Hopefully they can get it figured out soon here. 23:25 And I do think we saw some of those softer goals let in as well, longer shots that you really like your goalie to get in front of. 23:34 I understand that there's traffic and pucks coming from weird angles, but sometimes there's going to be screens in college hockey, and you just have to figure it out. 23:43 And Minnesota has big goalies. 23:46 The hope is that they can get big and get in the way even when they don't see it cleanly. 23:50 So otherwise what you're saying is that LaFontaine is going to be starting Friday night. 23:55 That would be my guess. 23:58 The only concern I think there is Bob has been kind of superstitious about how he's played his goalies in these series. 24:09 Mo did give up the four goals to Notre Dame that last time they played each other. 24:14 That seems like a really long time ago. 24:17 But we'll see what happens. 24:19 He does want LaFontaine to stay in this battle. 24:22 So it seems from what we've seen so far this season that he would get a chance to redeem himself. 24:29 Of course I also heard at the Gopher engagement thing he was really high on the closer. 24:34 So we'll see if he gets a shot. 24:37 Why wouldn't that throw this thing into complete chaos if close got to start Friday night? 24:43 That would shock me. 24:44 I think this is a really important series. 24:46 I think he'd go back to LaFontaine, but who knows what's going to happen. 24:50 I haven't been able to figure out this goaltending situation all year. 24:52 I think I've been wrong about every weekend. 24:56 That's because no one has a clue. 24:59 We're just guessing at this point. 25:00 Well, the other thing is with goaltending, we are just kind of guessing. 25:06 It's really hard to evaluate goalies unless they get time in the game. 25:10 And you kind of see a long period of play to evaluate because neither goalie has really taken the thing and run with it. 25:18 So I think Bob's is unsure about things as the fans are. 25:24 So interesting weekend in the Big Ten. 25:28 We've got number one Penn State heading to Madison. 25:32 Madison is in complete freefall. 25:37 We could easily see six points out of Penn State this weekend. 25:40 They could extend the lead with kind of everyone else splitting. 25:46 We all need to be big fans of Wisconsin this weekend. 25:50 And they have the ability to turn it on. 25:52 They do. 25:53 Wisconsin's got talent. 25:55 They haven't had very good goal-tending, and sometimes you don't need that to get out of a series. 25:59 And that might be a good matchup for them as well. 26:03 And then we've got Michigan and Michigan State doing a pair on the weekend. 26:07 I believe there's a couple of days in between. 26:10 Obviously, both teams. 26:12 Michigan's really poured it on recently. 26:13 Just went to Madison Swepp last weekend. 26:16 They're 500 in the league, but they're just on the outside of home ice right now. 26:21 Yeah, it's hard to believe how tight things are. 26:23 I think Michigan's got talent. 26:24 They've got a good power play unit to go in the league. 26:28 The goal-tending was there for a little while. 26:31 I think they needed to come back for them to compete again. 26:33 And then we've got Jess asking in the Mixler chat, how are we looking pairwise? 26:39 Bubble? 26:39 Well, not close yet. 26:41 It kind of hurt them. 26:42 That Saturday night hurt them. 26:44 They had gotten to, I believe, 17 after a couple games, but they really just have to stack on wins that they want to be considered right now. 26:54 Yeah, I think it's going to be tough for them unless they go on a run like they were on to get into that top 12 or 13. 27:02 It's kind of tricky. 27:03 I was just going to look at college hockey rank to confirm what I'm thinking, but I think one of the problems with Minnesota is because of their sweeps to Minnesota Duluth and North Dakota, it's really going to hurt them in any kind of comparison that they go in because they just don't have that record against the NCHC teams, and the NCHC teams are kind of dominating the pairwise again with North Dakota at one, Minnesota Duluth at four, Denver at five. 27:30 When you have three teams from a conference like that at the top, and you are losing all your comparisons to those teams, it's going to weigh you down. 27:38 So on the Gopher side, we're headed to South Bend this weekend. 27:42 In fact, they're already in South Bend prepping for the weekend. 27:46 Recently, they've done fairly well at Notre Dame, except for that little playoff game where it had that goofy ending, but you talk about structure, how Notre Dame plays. 28:00 You always like that matchup, don't you? 28:03 Yeah, I think it's good for Minnesota. 28:05 It gives them a little extra space for their skill to find a hole. 28:10 Notre Dame's got the little bit wider ice. 28:12 It's kind of what people want to have Mariucci turn into. 28:15 Not quite the Olympic, but the hybrid. 28:17 I think that really benefits a skilled team like Minnesota still, and they can find a few seams. 28:23 I thought last year when they played them in the tournament, they played a pretty solid game. 28:28 They had gotten the message, don't turn the puck over. 28:30 They had gotten the message, get the puck deep, work your forecheck. 28:34 That's Bob's system is be aggressive with hard plays, forcing the other team to make some plays maybe they don't want to, and they had got that message. 28:45 Should be a good matchup for Minnesota. 28:47 I think the big thing for them is special teams. 28:50 I think that will be a big difference this weekend. 28:53 Notre Dame under Jeff Jackson has pretty good special teams. 28:57 I think that's going to be an important piece for Minnesota to figure out. 29:01 So Friday will be a nationally televised game on the NBC Sports Network. 29:05 It looks like a 6 p.m. 29:07 game. 29:08 Saturday is a 5 p.m. 29:09 game Central Time. 29:10 It's only streamed on the same kind of sports network thing. 29:13 I believe a couple other regional networks are picking it up, but for regular TV, it's not going to be as easy. 29:19 It's going to be kind of a stream only for Saturday. 29:24 And those are rare weekends for Minnesota. 29:26 I think they've done a pretty good job getting on TV as much as possible, but this is kind of one of those deals where Notre Dame is a weird outlier and that they have their own TV deal with NBC, and this is what we get when they go on the road. 29:39 Just remember all those times they went to CC in Denver and Alaska and Tech where the games weren't televised. 29:46 And there was no stream to be heard of except for Anchorage. 29:49 Except for Anchorage because they were ahead of the curve because they had to be. 29:52 They were out in the bush. 29:53 They were and it was fun. 29:55 So just no complaining this weekend, folks. 29:58 Get on the NBC app and you can watch it there, or NBC Sports app. 30:02 You can watch it just right there. 30:04 So pretty easy. 30:06 Well, what do you think of this weekend, Veegs? 30:10 I know you like the matchup. 30:13 You want the power play to change or to do anything. 30:18 What are the other intangibles here? 30:21 Well, I also think goaltending. 30:22 We've kind of touched on it already. 30:25 Will the goaltender answer the bell? 30:27 And I have one of those feelings like if they don't, Bob goes the hook again. 30:32 I think LaFontaine gets the start. 30:34 And if for whatever reason he looks jumpy and looks overactive, we've seen Bob's not afraid to go quickly to mow. 30:42 And as much praise as he's heaped on the third goaltender, we might see him as well if there's any kind of shenanigans in that. 30:50 So I think those are the big things to watch for. 30:53 And also, you know, we've talked about Burke. 30:57 Does he figure out how to fill his role? 30:59 I'm sure he's been sat down for some of the turnovers he made on Saturday that were pretty glaring and was told, just simplify your game a little bit. 31:09 This will be a big weekend for them, I think, in the conference because you can't afford to not get points this weekend. 31:16 I think with things being so tight, you know, if you don't get any points, you're going to start looking on the outside for home ice. 31:23 And I think home ice is really important for the Big Ten, especially with Minnesota, with how they want to match up right now. 31:29 And really, it's going to be split or go home. 31:33 I mean, essentially, with the Big Ten, you have to split here or get more than a split. 31:38 Otherwise, home ice could be done because it's just so tight right now. 31:42 Yeah, I was looking at the Jim Dahl College Hockey Ranked, and for the Gophers to have any chance at getting into the top 13, they pretty much have to get five wins. 31:53 So if they get four wins, there's like a 3% chance for them to get to 13 or better. 32:00 They would have to get a lot further in the Big Ten tournament, like to the championship game, to kind of make up for that. 32:06 Yeah, so if they were to get swept, pretty much eliminates any kind of, even if they were to get to the championship game and lose, they would have to win it to get in. 32:19 And the big thing sitting out there is the following weekend, on the road at Penn State, which has been nightmares for them in the past few seasons. 32:30 I hope they're not looking ahead to that weekend. 32:33 I don't think they will. 32:34 But it has been bad against Penn State, at home as well. 32:40 Yeah, and that's just the style that Penn State plays, I think, has been really hard for them. 32:44 So it would be nice for them to have a good weekend against Notre Dame. 32:49 So Johnson, LaCombe, have some confidence. 32:52 I think we'll see Stoddaker in the lineup this weekend. 32:56 I know he took a maintenance day this week. 32:58 I'm not sure if he's been practicing with the team yet. 33:01 He's dealing with a little bit of a nick he picked up against Michigan State. 33:06 He ran into a bowling ball, and sometimes that takes a little while. 33:09 But I think we'll see him in the lineup, but we'll see. 33:13 Well, we've seen them be successful there. 33:16 They swept on the road at Notre Dame last season. 33:19 I believe it was kind of when they started getting resurgent, like in January or February last year. 33:26 I think they can do it again. 33:27 It would be a huge boost if they were to sweep, because then you put Notre Dame behind you, and you still have some games in hand on other teams around you. 33:38 But boy, I don't think I can call a sweep this weekend, V. 33:43 Yeah, I mean, a sweep on the road is always tough in the Big Ten. 33:46 We've somehow seen Minnesota do it to Ohio State a couple of times, but I would be hard pressed to think that. 33:53 I feel like this is a weekend where we'll see another overtime game that just kind of seems to be the style that comes out. 34:00 I know Notre Dame has been scoring more goals this year, which has been interesting. 34:06 They're one of the teams that's really good in the faceoff circle. 34:09 So I think that's another thing to watch. 34:11 We were really critical of the Gophers on the draw, especially with Sammy Walker earlier in the year. 34:17 So Moscow has been letting McLaughlin take some draws when he's on his strong hand out there to try to help that situation out for that line. 34:27 Maybe we'll see Scott Reedy take some draws on that line if his shoulder's feeling better. 34:31 But he's pretty good in the middle, but that line has looked good together. 34:35 I tweeted about that a little bit this week, how that line just seemed to be getting more rush chances than they did in the first half of the year. 34:43 And part of that's Reedy, and I think part of that's the defensive growth that Minnesota has seen this year. 34:48 Yeah, I think really, if they make the tournament this year, this is a bonus, that would be great. 34:55 If they make some noise in the BigTen tournament, I think it's great. 34:58 I think it's really setting up for next year. 35:00 The 100th year of Gopher Hockey, I think, could be a special year. 35:06 Yeah, it is. 35:06 You just want to hope that this team doesn't get hammered by the NHL taking players early. 35:12 I don't feel like that's going to happen with their prospects. 35:16 You know, Ranta is maybe the only one who I could see wanting to go try to play pro hockey, but he seems to be pretty happy with the way things are going, and he's still pretty young. 35:25 It would benefit him a lot, I think, to have another year of confidence. 35:29 As you just see the growth in his game from last year to this year, how much he is just a man on the puck, I think he needs to develop his hockey sense a little bit more about how to move the puck and get it back. 35:42 I think the same thing is happening with Walker. 35:44 He's starting to figure it out, how to move the puck and get it back. 35:48 That's a skill those guys are going to need to learn to be successful at the next level. 35:52 I think it's really important for them to get that in college. 35:56 I know that there was some talk about Dylan Holloway for Wisconsin being hurt as a draft eligible player playing in the Big Ten because he doesn't have very many stats. 36:05 I think the NHL people realize how hard of a league it is for young players to be successful. 36:11 To see the growth of Minnesota's young players this year has to be encouraging for the future. 36:16 Keep everyone. 36:17 That would be great. 36:19 Come back for 100 years. 36:21 You only have that 100 years once. 36:24 I think Bob makes it a fun program to play for. 36:27 He has a lot of good energy. 36:29 He likes to practice offense a lot in practice other than the penalty kill, which they've been working on quite a bit lately. 36:37 But he has a lot of offensive drills to go through, which is fun for skill development. 36:42 And if they could get any kind of improvement on their power play, that would just be a bonus right now because this team is starting to come together. 36:51 If they start getting their power play and penalty kill going, they could be very dangerous come Big Ten tournament time and maybe even into the NCAA tournament. 37:01 It's crazy. 37:01 I feel like they're clicking at about 17% right now, which is very un-Minnesota and very un-Bob-like. 37:09 It looks like it's dripped down to 16%. 37:12 That's just not very good. 37:14 When I looked at who's been scoring goals for Minnesota this year, it's been Ranta and Reedy. 37:20 Those guys aren't typically on the first unit for Minnesota, so I think you need to find ways to get them out there and get the opportunity to score goals in those situations. 37:30 Because you look at the top scores in college hockey, they usually get a healthy amount of their points on the power play, and that just hasn't been there for them. 37:38 So we'll see what happens this weekend, but changes are coming, I think. 37:44 Mote is correct. 37:45 Sealing is higher for this team. 37:46 We're hoping so, Mote. 37:48 That would be nice. 37:49 What are you working on at the Athletic right now, Veegs? 37:53 We're finally thinking that we're going to get my feature on Cal Deitz and Sample Ranta out there for the masses. 38:00 I've written about the kind of changes that Sample Ranta has made to his body that have made this year possible and kind of the philosophy behind how Cal Deitz helps these players realize what they have to do. 38:13 And it's pretty interesting, the stuff that Sample has done this offseason. 38:18 He was kind of your standard almost weightlifter that every kid grew up doing, where you do periodization, where you kind of do your sets of 10, your sets of five, your sets of three, and do more and more weight. 38:31 Well, Sample had gotten pretty big by the time he had gotten to Minnesota, and some of the things he did in the offseason was cut some weight in his upper body, put a little bit more weight in his lower body, and actually let himself put on a higher percentage of fat to help his recovery. 38:48 And I think you can see out there on the ice it's made a big difference. 38:52 He's now able to turn the corner a little bit better, and it's been fun to watch. 38:57 And I think the ceiling's pretty high for him as a player now that he's figured that out. 39:02 He's kind of gone beast mode. 39:04 He has. 39:04 And he really has. 39:05 You know, Malkin comparisons, I know some people don't like Ben Clymer between the benches and when he comes up on things, but when I heard that, I'm like, he does kind of have that wide base, big body puck control that Malkin has. 39:21 He's a big kid, and he's figured it out, but he's gotten smaller, I think, in many respects. 39:27 So it's not necessarily size that allows these players to be successful. 39:31 It's pretty impressive to watch out there, and he's really committed. 39:36 There you go. 39:38 Anything else you want to talk about this week, Veegs? 39:41 Well, I do think, you know, if there's any fans on the sideline right now, that Michigan game is going to be important for this team. 39:49 I think they need to have a good crowd. 39:52 I think it's something they notice. 39:54 So if people are on the fence, keep an eye out for promotions. 39:57 I think the U is going to try to do what they can to fill the building for that last weekend and get some momentum for them going in the playoffs. 40:03 And if that Michigan team sweeps this weekend, they are right in the thick of it. 40:09 Well, pretty much if anyone sweeps in the Big Ten right now. 40:13 If you get six points, you climb up that standings pretty close to the top right now. 40:17 It's that tight. 40:19 So it will be a fun finish. 40:21 And I think that's one of the things about the Big Ten that people have to remember is there's a lot of resources being poured into all these programs. 40:29 It's not like any of these schools have a very small budget, like a Bowling Green or a Ferris State. 40:36 These are all Big Ten institutions that are putting plenty of money into their programs. 40:41 I just saw that Wisconsin approved a renovation of their strength and conditioning and team areas at the Cole Center. 40:48 These teams are going to continue to pour money into their programs. 40:51 So you're not going to see too many guys have down years. 40:55 Get some points this weekend, Badgers. 40:57 We're rooting for you. 40:59 Yeah, I want to see Caulfield score a couple goals. 41:03 Maybe they'll get Turcotte back. 41:05 I think that's something that's been hurting them. 41:08 You can't have these young teams and then miss your top players. 41:11 Did OSU really bust Mariucci? 41:16 I could see that happening. 41:17 That's what Frozen Forest says. 41:20 He says he couldn't believe they bust. 41:21 Are you sure they weren't just bussing to the airport or something? 41:26 Could be. 41:27 I know that the Gophers bust home from Notre Dame last year. 41:31 Blake McLaughlin talked about that a little bit in availability this week. 41:35 Cowan, she said, yeah, let's just take the bus because they missed their flight. 41:39 Yeah, Wally and Frank were telling us about that Saturday night, and that was a long bus ride. 41:47 Yeah, Notre Dame is on a short trip like it is to Madison, so. 41:51 Oh, boy. 41:52 All right, well, that's going to do it for this week's GPL podcast. 41:58 We'll be back next week to recap this Irish series and preview that big trip to Penn State. 42:07 For those of you listening live, stay tuned for some overtime. 42:10 For the rest of you, we'll be back next week. 42:14 Thanks for listening!