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Who's next.
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Now, here's Jupiter and Vegoe.
0:38
Good evening, welcome to The GPL Podcast, episode number 175, and the season finale for season number 99 in the Gopher history.
0:53
Only season nine for us, but that's okay.
0:57
Veegs, obviously we had the craziest week ever last week.
1:01
We did a special podcast on Saturday that kind of wrapped up the craziness, and obviously the sports scene has ended completely.
1:12
We might have a couple of things, we're hearing some notes about possibly some of the winter sports might get another, a little bit more eligibility.
1:20
I'm not really sure that's really gonna matter for the Gophers, but really right now, it's all about life changes and things closing down.
1:28
Sports is kind of starting to take a, it's just, it's on the back burner for everybody now.
1:35
Yeah, it's definitely on the back burner.
1:37
We're all adjusting to life with no sports.
1:40
You get to have a little bit more time to do other things.
1:44
Meanwhile, the NFL rolls on as they make trades and sign for agents.
1:49
And I think us in the college hockey world, we could start to continue to see players as they sign their pro contracts and get paid a little bit.
1:57
And we look ahead to next year and to see how teams can look.
2:01
Well, speaking of that, we had a couple Wisconsin underclassmen sign a couple of days ago.
2:08
And even UMD had a guy sign.
2:11
But I think really the most important thing is that who's probably going to be the freshman rookie of the year, Cole Caulfield, is coming back at Wisconsin.
2:21
Yeah, it's said mid-season that Mark Bergerman had a talk with him and said, it's probably best if you stay at Madison and continue to develop.
2:30
He's not exactly the biggest player in college hockey and it's going to be a tough road, I think, for him to make impacts at the professional level just because of his size.
2:40
You know, the game has been more welcoming to smaller players, but I think he's got a longer runway than maybe he's anticipating.
2:49
I know that he said to Scott Wheeler in an article in The Athletic that he's anxious to turn pro, but even if he did, he would definitely have to go to Laval and the AHL to develop a little bit.
3:00
You know, there are some holes in his game in terms of turning pucks over, but in the offensive zone and on the power play, he is a dangerous player, and that's why he's up for all those awards.
3:12
Just noticed Dennis from the Mixler chat.
3:14
Can he do a pull up?
3:16
I'm sure he can.
3:19
Oh, Dennis, we always like to make fun of people who have a separated shoulder.
3:26
It's just what we do, Veegs.
3:28
But the one thing with Caulfield is he's going to be a favorite to be a leader on the World Junior team if he comes back, so that's probably good for USA Hockey, assuming we have a World Junior Championship next year.
3:40
Oh, don't go that far, Veegs.
3:43
January too far yet?
3:45
No, it's not.
3:47
Yeah, but he's a talented player, and who knows what's going to happen at Wisconsin next year.
3:52
It feels like Granado got the vote of confidence from Barry Alvarez, according to an article that Tomaleski put together.
4:00
We'll see what happens though.
4:02
Sean Doogie has entered the transfer portal for the Badgers, so he has graduated, and the little man from Wisconsin is looking for a new home.
4:12
You know, I actually saw a question on that.
4:14
Let me see here.
4:15
I think it was...
4:17
Oh, yeah, Tim Hapke.
4:19
One of his two questions, he says, how do you find out what players are in the transfer portal?
4:25
Like the player from the Badgers is in.
4:27
Does the media get access?
4:29
Obviously, he's talking about Sean Doogie, like you just said, but how does that work?
4:34
Well, players have access to go on their own and go in the portal and put their name in there.
4:40
I think that there are a couple of people who are more than happy to leak that kind of information to the media, as all coaches would have access to that and understand that information.
4:50
And if it benefits them, they might throw that out there.
4:53
So maybe tough times in Madison and maybe another coach in college hockey is not afraid to exploit that.
5:02
I see.
5:02
I see.
5:03
So somebody is letting it out of the bag.
5:06
So I was to say, I don't think the media is really given access to that type of stuff.
5:10
No, they're not.
5:11
I know somebody with 24-7 Sports has it for college football.
5:16
And I don't know if it's because they're a former coach and their password still works.
5:20
But somehow they have access to the portal for college football.
5:25
I don't know anyone who has it for hockey that willingly shares it that freely, but it's out there.
5:30
And sure enough, last year we had Clayton Phillips leave Minnesota, but he kind of had a quick destination in Penn State and both schools came to an agreement on that one.
5:40
Worked out well for him.
5:41
He got a Big Ten championship ring.
5:43
It did.
5:45
Well, the whole situation here was unfortunate.
5:48
I haven't been brought in early on Lucia because of all sorts of bad decisions he made.
5:55
But it was unfortunate for him because he was a good kid.
5:58
Well, I think he was a kid who just always wanted to rush to the next level.
6:02
He's a player who left Edina pretty early, went to the USHL, got injured, I got passed around a little bit as he was looking for a better spot to play there.
6:12
And I think he was anxious to play college hockey.
6:15
So it takes two to tango and Don needed somebody to step into his power play.
6:20
And that's how it worked out for Clayton.
6:23
It was a big jump for him.
6:24
And that was just a tough season for him to get into.
6:29
So, you know, on the show we did on Saturday, we kind of talked about how it's unfortunate how some seasons came to an end.
6:36
You know, you look at Mike Hastings down in Mankato.
6:39
He had a great team.
6:40
You know, he's got two Hobie Baker finalists out of the ten.
6:43
You know, obviously North Dakota is having a great season.
6:47
UMD is going for a three-peat.
6:50
That all kind of goes down.
6:52
But then if you're looking forward to this season, we were just talking about the Badgers.
6:57
You know, they got Cole Caulfield coming back.
7:00
But what about the rest of them?
7:02
Do they, I mean, what's their season looking like?
7:04
Because we thought they would have a pretty decent season this past year.
7:08
You know, they got started a month early.
7:10
They were ahead of everybody.
7:11
In fact, they were playing very well at the beginning just because they were ahead of everybody.
7:15
They just couldn't keep it together.
7:17
Is it like Frozen Four champs is telling us here?
7:19
Do they just need a goalie?
7:22
Well, we've certainly learned that if you don't have a goalie, it's very hard to be successful in college hockey.
7:28
The games are very tight against the defensive teams like your Notre Dames and your Ohio States.
7:35
And if you can't defend and keep the puck out of your net, it's really hard to outscore your chances because those teams just don't want to play run and gun hockey.
7:44
And if they get a lead, they're going to choke out the game and finish it that way.
7:50
We'll see what happens in Wisconsin.
7:52
They picked up a goalie from the development team.
7:55
Maybe that's going to help them out.
7:57
But until they get better play, not only from their goaltender, but their defensive end and buy in to play college hockey, it's going to be difficult.
8:05
I read the Scott Wheeler article in The Athletic, and there are just a lot of signs in the quotes.
8:10
Maybe I'm reading too much into them, that none of the players there are really there to play college hockey.
8:17
We always look at that line from Miracle.
8:19
Why do you want to play hockey in college for the girls?
8:22
No, to win a national championship.
8:25
I don't think that's why guys are going to Wisconsin.
8:28
Well, how about the rest of the league?
8:29
Are there any other teams out there that are losing as much and could actually help Minnesota?
8:35
Because Minnesota, I don't see Minnesota losing a lot, at least right now unless somebody leaves.
8:40
But how about the other schools out there?
8:41
We got Penn State who just won a league championship.
8:45
How does the rest of the Big Ten look?
8:48
Well, I think Penn State's going to lose some of their upperclassmen.
8:50
They had players who came back and turned down pro contracts to make a run this year.
8:56
They were very successful.
8:57
They did what Penn State hockey tends to do and score lots of goals and play maybe not the hardest schedule, but put themselves in a good position for the tournament.
9:07
There's teams like Michigan and Minnesota who were younger, but they came on in the second half.
9:13
I think both those programs found goaltending along the way that made a big difference for them.
9:18
And then you have teams like Michigan State and Notre Dame who didn't really achieve at high levels they maybe hoped for this year.
9:28
You know, Michigan State had those upperclassmen like Kurt Odenko, and they started off hot, but they just couldn't finish the season.
9:39
They did, and they were actually a surprise because we kind of thought that Michigan State would be a bottom feeder.
9:45
They did come out like gangbusters, and like you said, they petered out at the wrong time.
9:49
Well, I think Lethemann really made them overachieve with how well he played early on, and that was kind of an outlier to his game.
9:57
We had never seen that before from him in any of his seasons previously, so it was kind of like, well, is he going to regress the mean?
10:04
And he kind of did in the second half.
10:08
So Minnesota, we're losing the captain and nanny.
10:12
We'll have to see who else comes along.
10:14
Zulsdorf's gone, but really not losing a lot.
10:21
I look at some of the freshmen that you kind of have tagged on the recruiting page as coming in.
10:27
We know nothing's official, but as of right now, you have Brock Faber Defense, Carl Fish Defense, Mike Kester Defense, and then Rhett Pitlick at forward.
10:37
So they're kind of pushing on defense.
10:40
Who knows if that will actually happen?
10:42
But those are kind of the four that you are pretty sure that are coming in next year, aren't you?
10:47
Yeah, I think those are the ones coming in.
10:50
There's a little bit of rumor about Brock Faber about what he's going to be doing next year.
10:56
He would be 18 at the start of the season, which is pretty young.
11:01
He didn't put up a ton of points for the development team this year.
11:05
He could probably go back to Maple Grove and play a senior year high school hockey.
11:09
I think he's young enough to do that.
11:11
So there's some options there for him.
11:13
Of course, he could always go to the USHL and play a year there.
11:17
But I think Caster and Fish are probably the obvious ones on defense.
11:21
You know, Caster will be 19 and a half.
11:23
Fish will be almost 21 already.
11:26
And then Rep Hiltlik, he's a little bit old for being one year out of school.
11:30
He'll be almost 20 next year.
11:32
So those are the guys that I kind of peg as ones that are ready for the leap to college hockey, but we'll see what happens.
11:38
Bob Motzko is very tight lipped on what freshmen are coming in.
11:43
He doesn't like to say when guys even sign national letters of intent when they're on visits or who they're recruiting.
11:50
So we'll see.
11:52
But there's not a lot of spots on the roster for next year either.
11:55
And that's just it.
11:56
And you know, a lot of times that we've seen, you know, when we lose a pitlick early last year, you have to bring somebody else in.
12:03
So really it's kind of, you know, we lose kind of technically three spots, two that played more often, excuse me.
12:12
But it's really, it might have to be a wait and see.
12:15
Let's say, what if somebody does leave early for some reason or another, or what if somebody decides to leave?
12:22
I mean, you think of a player like, you know, like a Rossini or a Denman that aren't getting much played in time, and they're underclassmen, do they maybe look somewhere else and maybe jump into that portal we were talking about?
12:37
Well, they do have seven defensemen coming back and what they have currently on the roster.
12:43
One of those guys surely could go and look for a chance to play.
12:47
You know, hockey players do like to play hockey at some point.
12:49
They don't like to just practice all the time.
12:52
So we could see some movement there, but I don't expect anything.
12:55
I haven't heard anything.
12:56
Anything would just be conjecture.
12:59
Everybody, from what I can tell in practice, is competing hard and wants to be there.
13:04
There's nobody I'm open about on the ice who's an obvious one.
13:07
I do think up front, in terms of early departure risk, Sampo Ranta is probably the one that comes to mind.
13:15
The most, he's a very strong skater.
13:17
He's done a lot of great work with Cal Dietz.
13:20
He's really changed his body to be more of a hockey player instead of a...
13:24
He kind of had a football player build before, and he's just done a lot of tremendous work skating.
13:30
But I think he'd really benefit from another year of developing his hockey IQ.
13:34
I think there's more there.
13:36
I mean, we saw that goal at the end of the season where he just fired a pill, and he has that ability to do that.
13:42
He's just got to figure out how to unleash that more often.
13:46
I think the one recruit in the pipeline who's probably the most ready to fill an early departure risk is Mason Nevers.
13:53
He'll be 19 and a half at the start of next season, so he's one of the older kids in the pipeline.
13:57
Aaron Huglen probably is a player to think about as well, but he's been injured all year with a weightlifting thing that has really kept him off the ice and not a training.
14:08
You'd like to see him get another year in the weight room.
14:11
But this is a program right now that has a lot of guys in the pipeline where anyone they pull in will be older than some of the ones they've had to pull in the year past.
14:19
That's exactly what Moscow's been trying to do.
14:22
I mean, you look at down there, Minnesota State and Mankato, I believe the youngest guy right now is 20 and a half.
14:30
And they were built for a run this year.
14:32
You know, they had so many mature players who stuck around and delayed their enrollments, and they were just a dominant team in college hockey this year.
14:41
Yeah, well, let's talk a little bit more about some of the freshmen we think are coming in and what they can bring.
14:46
But a little bit before that, let's hear from our sponsor.
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15:55
Obviously, we want to thank Jerry Peters for being our podcast sponsor for the second half of the season.
16:00
He sent me a note earlier this week that he wants to keep on being the podcast sponsor again next fall.
16:08
We really appreciate it, Jerry.
16:09
Jerry, Jerry, I'm looking at a thing and a thing.
16:12
But we really appreciate it and we're glad to have you on board for next season, the tenth season of the GPL Podcast starting in October.
16:21
Veegs, before we left, we mentioned a couple of possible friendships have been coming in.
16:24
You talk about favor, maybe, maybe, maybe not.
16:27
But let's get more into detail.
16:30
Rhett Petlick, we just had a Petlick leave.
16:35
Brother's coming in.
16:37
What could we expect from him?
16:38
What kind of player is he?
16:41
I think he's a skilled player.
16:43
I just don't know if he's quite the talent that his brother was.
16:47
Maybe it's just kind of the timing of their careers.
16:50
But I felt like Rem was a more polished player from what I've seen.
16:55
I'm not diving into USHL film quite too heavily as some of the other people out there in terms of scouting.
17:02
But I know that he's got a lot of skill to his game and a lot of individual skill.
17:08
It's just how is it going to translate to the college game?
17:11
He was kind of an older player in high school, so he's one of those guys who maybe had a little bit of a physical advantage in that game.
17:18
He made a decent transition to the USHL, but we'll see how he fits into the Gopher lineup.
17:25
The one thing that's going to benefit him is I feel like Minnesota really has a strong returning group of Fords.
17:33
You know, they're, even if they lose a player like Rand, you know, they've got a lot of guys coming back who know how to play, and that just makes it completely easier for a younger player to step in and just have to worry about their own game.
17:47
And let's go back on defense.
17:49
We've got Mike Kester.
17:50
Just for people to know, it's spelled like Koster, see, K-O-S-T-E-R, but it's pronounced Kester.
17:58
Kid from Chasca.
17:59
I've actually heard one of the kids I've been hearing about for a couple years.
18:03
Well, he's got a ton of skill on the blue line.
18:06
He is one of those players who should be able to step in and run a power play.
18:11
Maybe one of the reasons we've seen guys like Robbie Stucker and Tyler and Annie at the top of the point is because when they get older, a player like Koster is someone who can step in and fill a role on the power play.
18:23
You know, that's really one of his strengths is his vision to run a unit from up there.
18:29
So I think he can step in and do a really nice job helping the Gopher Special teams get better because oh boy, it was a rough season for the power play units.
18:39
To say the least, Figgs, it was bad.
18:44
I don't know if it was all on players like Stucker and Nani.
18:47
I don't think it was all their fault, but I just felt like it was a tough season for them.
18:53
You know, they almost scored in spite of themselves.
19:00
Okay, well the other one we think kids think is going to come in is Carl Fish and I definitely recall this kid is a late season sign.
19:08
He has not been on the radar like somebody like Kester has been.
19:13
He's a player who's gone through a lot of injuries throughout his career, been held back a little bit, but has a lot of strong character.
19:21
He's a St.
19:21
Paul Johnson kid who grew up on the east side of St.
19:24
Paul, and all the people who've coached him and been around him speak very highly of the kind of person he is, and that's the kind of players you want to bring in at an older age, at a 20, 21 years old, is guys who can bring a lot of grit to your locker room, who can bring a lot of accountability, and I think that's what they're hoping to do with a player like this.
19:44
One of the things that Moscow and Roboin did at St.
19:48
Cloud is they brought in a lot of older defensemen, and that's what Carl Fish is.
19:52
Yeah, he definitely is.
19:54
We kind of talked about Brock Faber there a little bit.
19:57
We're not quite sure on him.
19:58
He didn't seem to have as best of a season as you thought.
20:03
Yeah, I mean, he's got a lot of talent.
20:05
He's rated highly by Central Scouting.
20:08
He's a great skater, great athlete, was a tremendous player at the Bantam level.
20:13
I think Youth Hockey Hub named him their Bantam Player of the Year.
20:17
Originally committed to Notre Dame, but hasn't quite shown as he's gotten older.
20:24
And I think sometimes when players rush to get to that next spot, sometimes they don't get the opportunity to be the number one defenseman, to be the number one power play guy.
20:34
And I think that's a little bit what's happened to him in his development, which is why it would be great for him to spend another year going somewhere where he can be that number one guy.
20:44
Because if he comes into this team next year, he's going to slot in as a fifth or sixth defenseman.
20:49
There's not going to be a lot of ice time for him.
20:51
There's not going to be a lot of power play time.
20:53
I think there's a lot of gritty defensemen who would play ahead of him on the penalty kill.
20:58
And there's quite a lot of competition on the defense next year as well.
21:02
Yeah, I mean, Sam Rossini and Matt Denman maybe didn't play a lot this year, but those guys compete their balls off.
21:08
They do.
21:09
Like, in practice, those are the guys that the forwards probably go, well, I'm going up against these guys.
21:15
They're going to give it their best because that's their game.
21:18
So it's something to look out for.
21:21
We'll see what happens in the discussions between the coaching staff and their recruit because that's always been a sticking point at Minnesota, is rushing guys along because maybe there was a spot open for them.
21:33
I think it'd be best for both parties if he took another year, but we'll see what happens.
21:37
Could you see Minnesota playing more seven defenseman lineups next year since they do seem to be a little deeper there?
21:44
Well, I think that's what Bob said he likes to do with the extra player, is have it be a defenseman, because if you lose a defenseman to a major type situation, it's a lot easier to slot somebody in there.
21:57
If you get in a tight game, it's a lot easier to shorten the bench there.
22:00
I think when you have 13 forwards, it's hard to use that 13th guy.
22:06
It's hard to use the fourth line some nights.
22:09
If you get into a special teams battle, it's just hard to put them in there.
22:12
I think we'll see a lot of seven defensemen from Minnesota with that expanded game day lineup, but it doesn't always mean there's more ice time.
22:21
Then you mentioned in case maybe a forward leaves or something strange happens, that Mason Nevers is a good possibility to come in last minute.
22:29
Yeah, he had a nice season for Des Moines.
22:32
He's known as a goal scorer type guy, a guy who can snipe the puck a little bit, and that's something that the Gophers need is they need guys who can shoot the puck.
22:40
He definitely seems like a guy who can do that.
22:42
We'll see when he comes in.
22:45
I think he wants to be a Gopher, it's just they've got a lot of forwards up front right now.
22:50
True.
22:51
And is that Tommy Nevers' kid?
22:53
Yes, it is.
22:54
Tommy Nevers from the...
22:56
Didn't play a lot, but he was here in the early 90s.
22:59
Heck of a baseball player.
23:01
That's just it.
23:02
He did play baseball pretty darn well.
23:04
But he did get...
23:05
I think he played a couple of times for Woo back in the day.
23:09
Yeah, Woo was open to the two-sport athletes.
23:12
He had Brink and Nevers and wasn't afraid to try to steal an extra body.
23:18
We had a couple of questions.
23:20
Well, we've had some from Mixler.
23:22
Those guys are always sending us questions.
23:23
But a couple on Twitter earlier today, we've got HockeyFan10 very excited about next season.
23:29
I believe next year's team should be very good.
23:31
I agree.
23:32
As far as goaltending goes, do you think Jack will return?
23:35
I mean, I think he's kind of concerned that Jack might leave.
23:38
But do we think Lafontaine is a flight risk here?
23:44
I would kind of be surprised to see him leave.
23:46
You know, getting to know him this year, he's a very comfortable individual.
23:51
He's very free with the media with his time.
23:53
And I think he is a little bit of an academic.
23:56
He's a guy who likes to write, is interested in being an English major.
24:00
And I think he's taking his time being a college student, and he really enjoys that environment.
24:06
And to be honest, you know, he could probably use a little more seasoning before he competes for an AHL job.
24:12
He did a great job this year taking the net.
24:14
He's a good goaltender.
24:15
I think polishing it off with another year would be only beneficial to him.
24:20
And he's a senior, correct?
24:22
Yep, he will be.
24:23
So that's what you look for.
24:25
You want to have some depth with your goalies.
24:28
Having a sophomore and a senior goalie, that's the perfect situation.
24:32
It is.
24:33
Tim Hapke was kind of asking a little bit earlier about do you expect a departure of a depth defenseman or depth forwarder up to this point?
24:43
We kind of covered that.
24:44
We're not anticipating it other maybe than Oranta.
24:48
Yeah, I mean, the only other player I think who would fit in to play HL hockey would maybe be Scott Reedy.
24:54
He plays a pretty physical pro game, but he also sacrificed a lot of personal points and accolades playing different roles this year.
25:05
He was asked to play center down the stretch to give this team more depth, and then he stepped right into that role.
25:10
He's a good team guy, so he's a player who probably could make the leap if he wanted to, but I don't think he will.
25:18
Unless he wants to sit in the HL.
25:20
And some guys, they want to do that.
25:22
You can just tell certain guys would rather go play in the HL than come back and play another year of college.
25:27
Ryan Lindgren, perfect example of that.
25:30
As soon as he got traded to the Rangers, you could just tell in his eyes that that's where he wanted to be.
25:36
You know, Casey Middlestad, kind of the same deal.
25:38
You could just tell those guys, they wanted to be in the NHL.
25:42
I think we picked up that vibe with a lot of players at Wisconsin this year.
25:47
They would rather be somewhere else.
25:48
I don't get that same feeling from a lot of guys at Minnesota, so we'll see what happens.
25:54
We did see that Nanny did sign a contract with the Washington Capitals affiliate, didn't they?
26:01
Yeah, he filed some paperwork early in the year to become a college free agent because he was old enough, he graduated, so he didn't have to be tied to the Rangers organization anymore.
26:14
And so when Washington came calling, he yanked that deal on his birthday, and what better way to celebrate?
26:21
That is true.
26:22
It's unfortunate that some of these guys are signing, but nowhere to go.
26:27
Yeah, it's too bad.
26:29
I think all these guys would like to still be playing hockey.
26:33
Nanny talked about when he signed, that he felt like they were coming around and they had a chance to get there and do something.
26:41
But even signing, there's nowhere to go right now.
26:45
So Frozen 4 in the Mixler Chat, he's asking if McManus needs to get his scoring touch again next year.
26:49
We had a little bit of McManus down on scoring late in the season.
26:54
Burke disappeared for a long portion of the season, Veegs.
26:59
We do need some of these guys, you know, some of these guys who were just to pick it up for the next year, freshmen to sophomore.
27:06
We see a guy like Myers, and I think a guy like Myers is just going to keep skyrocketing up.
27:12
But you've got the other guys, like you said, like Burke and McManus, some of those other guys that had some struggles this season, we need to see them kind of get their game down.
27:21
Well, I think with Burke's game, he just got split up from Walker McLaughlin, and he took a long time to find himself.
27:30
He didn't have the kind of game plan to be an effective bottom six player.
27:36
I think he kind of found that game a little bit in the last maybe month of the season, and he started to have a little more success.
27:44
Didn't really show up a ton on the score sheet, but he was a positive player in the game.
27:48
Now with a guy like Brandon McManus, he was second on the team in scoring, so he was contributing some offense.
27:55
I think what hurt him the most was last year.
27:58
I seem to remember him getting a lot of opportunities on the power play with rebounds and chaos around the net where he really benefited.
28:05
I thought this year there just weren't enough pucks around the net for him to shine there.
28:12
Maybe that's something with a different power play next year where he can shine a little bit more and contribute some more points.
28:19
But he played his role okay.
28:21
I think when people look at wings, sometimes they like to point the finger at them.
28:26
They're not the most important players for defense or for driving transition.
28:31
When they lose board battles and things like that, or if they turn the puck over at the blue lines, they can really put their team behind.
28:37
But I didn't see McManus doing that a ton this year.
28:43
Well, Veegs, I think the biggest thing coming this year is I think there's a lot of positivity coming into next season.
28:50
We're starting to see this team turn around, and it's the 100th season of Gopher Hockey, so it's a big year coming up.
28:58
It's a huge year for the program coming up.
29:01
You know, Mark Coyle has made some commitments to lower pricing for season tickets to try to get some more atmosphere in the building.
29:09
Again, this year was a little bit of a problem.
29:12
I haven't gotten the final numbers on ticket scans this year.
29:15
Something to have to do with the coronavirus maybe and getting responses back on that could be.
29:20
Could be they don't want to share them, but next year they have an opportunity to do something special.
29:26
And Don LaChia, he had a pretty good third year behind the bench.
29:31
Yeah, he did.
29:33
No pressure, Bob.
29:37
Yeah, no pressure at all.
29:40
The funny thing is the year I, the last year I had season tickets was actually year 75.
29:45
Oh, boy.
29:47
Feeling a little old here, Veegs.
29:50
Well, we are not getting younger.
29:52
That's for sure.
29:54
And I remember that season, the 75th season, every player one night would wear a 75 jersey.
30:02
Whether it was Crowley one night or if it was Hankinson another night, they all wore the 75 jersey at least one time during the season, which I thought was kind of fun.
30:13
That's pretty cool.
30:15
I don't think you'll see the double zeros next year, though.
30:17
I don't think so either.
30:18
That's just maybe something they could pull off for 75.
30:22
I hope they do have a lot of special things.
30:25
This is the time to maybe...
30:27
Boy, we had an alumni game, a very public alumni game, when they opened up Mariucci back in 1993.
30:38
I would love to see something like that before the season starts.
30:42
Just kind of celebrate the whole 100 years of Gopher Hockey.
30:46
Bring back these old players, get them on the ice, have some fun with it.
30:50
They seem to get away from that a little bit in the Lucia era.
30:54
It's starting to come back, but I think it would really kind of help bring some excitement to this 100th season.
31:00
Well, it does feel like to me that they are going to be able to focus a little bit more on Gopher Hockey this season.
31:07
Hopefully that football team just kind of runs itself this year, rowing the boat.
31:12
They looked really good last year.
31:14
I think there's a lot of excitement there.
31:17
There's a limited marking staff at the University of Minnesota, and so if they can turn a little more attention to a hockey team that needs it, we could see some special events this year.
31:27
It is a big opportunity for them to celebrate their program.
31:30
I think we saw a lot of that come back with the Wuger celebrations and integrating all those players back into the program with kind of the special nights where those guys would sign autographs and then be on the radio or be on TV, and I think we'll see more of that coming up this next year.
31:48
You know, Jess has mentioned, where can we get a Wuger jersey?
31:51
And, you know, in the past, we've seen, you know, once in a while they'll have jerseys made that are decent.
31:57
You know, we even had that special thing a couple years ago and they made 30 Authentics.
32:02
I think the university could make a killing if they did a special order.
32:06
And we put the names on it, put the Wuger on the back and just sell them.
32:10
I bet they could do a ton.
32:13
Yeah, and if they don't, there's always a previous sponsor of the podcast.
32:19
That's true.
32:20
They do a pretty good job with...
32:21
Kyle does a great job with jerseys.
32:23
Vintage jerseys.
32:24
I'm not sure if Vintage has the permission to do those jerseys yet.
32:28
I know he always lays them out.
32:31
I'm not sure if he can do those exact ones yet, but we'll definitely send business Kyle's way because he was a long time sponsor here.
32:44
We've talked about this for years.
32:46
We've talked about the Big Ten for years and all these same topics.
32:51
It would be nice if someone over there was listening.
32:54
I think they're listening a little bit.
32:55
I just think they just don't have the time to commit to hockey.
32:59
It's been kind of a stepchild, the redhead stepchild of the program.
33:07
Take them for granted.
33:09
That's kind of what's happened.
33:10
They've been taken for granted for so long because in the past they didn't really need to do a lot of PR work, I would say.
33:19
Yeah, it used to be just send out the season ticket invoice and you had 7,700 people giving their money back.
33:26
Not that way anymore.
33:27
I know the season ticket base is under 5,000 and they need to work really hard to get that back up.
33:33
I'll be interested to see the numbers this winter.
33:37
Who knows what our world will look like then.
33:41
Exactly.
33:42
I think it's an entertaining game.
33:44
Bob coaches an aggressive style.
33:46
When it came up about talking about Notre Dame, he doesn't want to play that way.
33:52
He says when you buy a $300 hockey stick, it's not a defensive shield.
33:57
It's a thing to score goals with.
34:00
That's what he wants his players to do.
34:02
He wants players to have that 45 seconds to hell on the ice.
34:06
We saw that at times.
34:08
I think as he gets deeper into his tenure, we should see that more nights.
34:12
You talk about what the world is going to look like and it's kind of what Frozen 4 said at the same time.
34:16
We don't know what the world is going to look like in September and early October.
34:20
We could still be in lockdown for all we know.
34:24
Where did you go?
34:27
We hope that we take the measures that we're doing right now and we can figure it out by then.
34:32
Hope so.
34:33
Listen to what the people are telling you.
34:35
They tell you to stay home, stay home, folks.
34:38
We want to go for hockey come August.
34:40
I'm sorry, not August, October 9th up in Duluth.
34:44
Up at Amsoil Arena where they kick off the season.
34:47
That's what we want.
34:49
We want to face the still two-time defending national champions.
34:57
Yep, they didn't win the pairwise this year.
35:01
204 days, 22 hours, 7 minutes and 7 seconds.
35:05
It's not that you're counting.
35:08
Boy, this is the earliest I've ever put the countdown clock up.
35:13
It's fun to do.
35:14
What are the thoughts you got on your mind here tonight, Veegs?
35:18
It's the last show.
35:20
Get it all off your chest.
35:23
Well, I do think it was surprising to see how much leash the top power play got.
35:27
If that's the one surprise out of the season, that's really it for me.
35:32
I think we saw Scott Bell subtweeting.
35:35
Perhaps the coaching staff talking about a team that just continues to go back to what they do and never changes it up or puts in anything different.
35:45
I think the one time we saw a change, it was because Sammy Walker and Blake McLaughlin decided to do something on their own, basically.
35:52
Where after the game, Blake said before a faceoff, they talked to each other and said, Yeah, let's just change it up.
35:58
It's not like they stuck with that going forward.
36:00
It was just something they did that one time and it made a difference in a goal.
36:05
So I think that's the one surprise for me.
36:06
I'm not sure why they did it.
36:10
I think Bob was nervous maybe to change things up just because of the the youngness of the team.
36:17
It'd be interesting to see what he does next year and if he talks about it at all.
36:22
He's a guy who's very experienced coaching offense and power plays.
36:27
He's had a lot of really good ones.
36:29
So I think that's the biggest thing for me to look at in the offseason.
36:33
What new personnel maybe gets involved there.
36:37
I was always impressed with the way Ryan Johnson and Jackson Lacombe looked when they got on the special teams units.
36:44
We'll see if they get more chances next year.
36:47
But those two players are going to be a lot of fun to watch if they stick around.
36:50
You anticipate any assistant coach changes?
36:53
You know, we got Raboyne and Gordon there, still fairly young guys.
36:58
Yeah, I don't expect anything.
37:00
It's always hard to know.
37:02
It seems like Rabs and Bob do a lot of the coaching and Gordon did a lot of the recruiting this year.
37:09
You know, so he was on the road a lot selling the program.
37:12
I know when Bob took the job, he really wanted to have an alum or maybe he was told that he should have an alum.
37:19
One of the two, that's how Gordon got on staff and they've they've put him on the road to do a lot of the work.
37:25
Stu Bickel, I think is going to graduate this spring, assuming all of his classes go smoothly with how the school is working right now.
37:34
But I know he really would like to get into coaching.
37:37
He's been really involved with the team this year.
37:39
I think that's one of the fun things to watch, gain to practice is he does a lot of one on one coaching with the players and helping them in their individual skill work, walking them through situations.
37:51
And that was a situation that wasn't there last year.
37:54
Last year, he was basically just a guy moving pucks around the ice for practice.
37:59
Well, that would be good.
38:01
And maybe it's something where he goes somewhere else for a couple of years and then comes back.
38:06
It's always a great situation for those young guys when they're really mobile to get that experience.
38:11
And I think he's really taken advantage of this opportunity this year.
38:15
And who knows?
38:16
Maybe there are some guys associated with the program who come back to finish their degrees, who could continue to do that grad assistant role at the program.
38:24
I know a lot of people would be very interested to see Paul Martin in that kind of role.
38:28
I don't know if it's going to happen next year, but I wouldn't put it out of the question for some day.
38:35
I like the way that sounds.
38:39
Well, BigTen, I would ask what you're doing with the Athletic right now, but I'm guessing it's a little quiet.
38:45
Little quiet.
38:46
Mike Russo got in touch with everybody at Minnesota State this week to kind of do a recap on what they had going there.
38:53
We'll see what happens with the Athletic.
38:58
They are doing a lot of stories on things around the game and the way the future looks right now.
39:04
I think a lot of eyes are on the NFL.
39:07
We'll see what happens there.
39:08
It's an interesting time in our lives to be a part of.
39:11
And there's a lot of other news to read than just sports right now.
39:16
Yeah, to say the least.
39:19
In trying times, when you look at the downtimes around late 2000s with the economy, and you've got September 11th, sports kind of brought us all back together.
39:35
Whenever we have things happen, whether it's the economy or tragic things, and right now we don't have that.
39:44
And it's even more different because you want to bring people together, but we can't bring people together.
39:53
So it's just a weird time, Veegs.
39:56
It's a different time and I think it's an important time for people to realize that the things that you enjoy and want to have going forward, you need to support.
40:06
So if it's the athletic, if it's Gopher Hockey, if it's your favorite bar, if it's your favorite restaurant, your favorite podcast, do what you can to support those things so that they continue and they don't go by the wayside because this is a tough time for a lot of people.
40:25
Another season on the books here, Veegs.
40:27
Another season.
40:28
I would never have predicted this one ended the way it did.
40:31
Well, good.
40:34
But, you know, like we're 175 episodes in.
40:37
Still, you know, I still have fun doing this.
40:40
Are you still having fun doing this, Veegs?
40:42
I think college hockey is one of the funnest things to take in of all the sporting landscape.
40:47
You get to see a lot of top talent play at a high level.
40:52
There's a lot of competition.
40:53
I think the fans around the game are great.
40:56
I wish there were more of them at Mariucci this year.
40:58
I wish there were more of them reading things on the athletic and supporting the game.
41:02
But at the same time, it's just it's a lot of fun to be a part of.
41:06
And I appreciate everyone that listens to us and reviews us and reads us and comments on us and sends us questions and listens to us live.
41:15
It's a fun community to be a part of.
41:17
Yeah, and we really love you.
41:19
There's always people in listening live, sending us questions.
41:24
That's one thing that we feel makes us different from any other podcast.
41:27
We're live here every week when we're doing podcasts.
41:31
And all this stuff is usually part of the podcast, except for a little bit.
41:33
We don't put overtime in, but I'm not really going through and doing any editing here.
41:38
What we're putting out live is what pretty much is put on the podcast, except for overtime.
41:43
And I think that's what makes us different, Veegs.
41:47
Yep, it's good to be different, and it's always a lot of fun on Wednesday nights.
41:51
And now that I have my new finished basement room that's almost done, it'll be even more fun.
41:57
You won't hear the rambunctious little kids running around when they're all excited from the week.
42:03
Won't they become knocking on the door, you know?
42:06
Daddy, daddy!
42:08
Well, I think sometimes my son thinks he should contribute something.
42:11
He had a couple ideas this year on the way the Big Ten and NCHC should combine as a league and play each other in a head-to-head playoff bracket for two bids somehow.
42:24
He's very sold on that idea.
42:26
I think we might have a budding college hockey fan.
42:29
You may need to get him on the microphone, have a little interview with him and we could maybe play that.
42:34
Yeah, we'll do that next year.
42:35
He'll continue to develop his own voice and maybe we'll all do that.
42:40
We'll have a new co-host here very soon, won't we?
42:42
Yeah, we'll be back to a trio.
42:45
And of course, we can't forget to thank Hammy.
42:48
Hammy decided to call it quits this year.
42:50
Hammy was there since the beginning.
42:52
So Scott Hamilton, we appreciate it.
42:55
We appreciate all that you've put into this podcast.
42:57
And I'm guessing sometime we'll be able to get Hammy back on as a guest eventually, don't you think?
43:03
I think he's waiting for the program to turn things around a little bit more so he can be positive again.
43:09
Yes, I think so.
43:10
He's put in a lot of work, though, with Gopher Hockey and building relationships there.
43:14
He definitely has.
43:16
I'll raise my certainly barrel-aged darkness to him tonight.
43:19
There you go.
43:20
There you go.
43:22
Well, that's going to do it for this season of The GPL Podcast.
43:26
We really appreciate all of you that have stuck with us this season, both live and on Mixler and listening to the download on your favorite podcasting app.
43:37
For those of you listening live, stay tuned for a little bit of overtime.
43:40
I always like to have fun there.
43:42
For the rest of you, we'll see you in October.
43:47
Thanks for listening!
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