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 Welcome to The GPL Podcast, episode number 176. 0:45 Well, Veegs, we're back after a rather long layoff. 0:51 It's been a while since we've done a show. 0:54 We had a season-ending show when the COVID hit, and now we're starting a new thing here. 1:01 We're streaming live on Zoom, and we're using their feature to send it all out to YouTube. 1:07 So we're doing something a little different, trying something different. 1:09 Everyone's been doing these new meanings, so why not us do the same thing? 1:14 Yeah, you get to see us react to each other's ridiculousness throughout the season, hopefully. 1:19 It's kind of fun. 1:21 I'm excited that there is a schedule coming up. 1:24 I think a lot of us have been looking forward to sports as a little bit of an outlet during this time of lockdowns and disruption. 1:36 Disruption is, I don't know if that says enough right there because it's been more than a disruption. 1:45 It's been pretty much crazy. 1:49 All our lives have been turned upside down. 1:51 I mean, it just seems like, hey, I want to go do something. 1:54 Oh wait, I can't. 1:57 It seems like the little things that we used to do all the time, we can't do anymore. 2:01 So, and in this whole period of time of craziness, you know, one thing that's happened here at VEGES is sports started coming back. 2:10 We had a long time during the summer where nothing was going on. 2:14 And then the NHL and the NBA got together and said, hey, we're going to lock down everybody. 2:20 And we're going to finish our seasons. 2:23 And what a job those two leagues have done to keep people locked down, to not have any cases. 2:33 They really did an amazing job. 2:35 You know, the NBA is going to finish up here soon. 2:37 The NHL just finished up in their lockdown mode. 2:41 And boy, did they do an excellent job. 2:44 Yeah, I think when you look at the NHL and the NBA, those are models for how you can do this in this kind of pandemic time. 2:52 Those players have been really disciplined. 2:55 I know that there was an article that Yahoo Sports put out interviewing people in the NHL bubble about what it's like. 3:03 And it's pretty monotonous for them to live in these hotels. 3:09 It wasn't quite like what they were promised. 3:11 You know, they haven't had these golf outings to places like maybe they were shown in the brochures. 3:17 You know, some of the teams get access to the outdoor spaces at the soccer fields and things like that. 3:22 But it's been a tough grind for some of those players. 3:26 And it's been fun to be able to watch them play. 3:30 You know, it hasn't quite probably been the same without fans there. 3:34 The game has maybe had a little bit less energy, but it also revealed a lot about the game too here in the tropes on the bench and things like that. 3:44 I think Major League Baseball was a little more fortunate. 3:46 They had a lot more cases, but they were able to keep them contained. 3:50 Baseball is a game where you could play two seven inning double headers type situations and get the games in and get through a season. 3:59 There's not the physical contact like you have with a basketball or a hockey. 4:03 It's just not even close. 4:05 Right. 4:05 They've had a few more issues, I think, than the other sports. 4:08 I think you're seeing it with the NFL right now. 4:10 They're having some issues because they're not in a bubble. 4:12 They're trying to hold their season with putting a lot of responsibilities on the players. 4:17 They're doing a lot of testing and they're trying the best they can. 4:20 But in a game like football and with practicing like football players practice, it's a tricky situation. 4:27 I think they're showing almost a peak at what college could be like. 4:32 We've seen a lot of college football games get canceled, but it's a lot of responsibilities on the players for those games to be played. 4:41 So earlier this fall, BigTen pretty much came back and said, we're going to shut her down. 4:49 We're not going to have football this fall. 4:52 And when that happened, boy, it wasn't looking good for hockey. 4:57 And then some, you know, the Pac-10 followed up with football as well. 5:00 A few others and a few others are still not going to play. 5:04 But then some of the Southern schools says, hey, we're going to do it. 5:06 We figured out a way. 5:08 And according to the university and actually the Big Ten, they kind of flip flop when they learned that they could do some much quicker and much cheaper testing for their players. 5:19 And the thing is, as Coach Matsuko has been saying, what football does was going to directly affect what hockey does. 5:28 And football made changes when they learned that they could do this quicker and cheaper testing. 5:36 Yeah, I think when the Big Ten schools were looking at the financial pictures of what this was going to look like, where they're going to lose $75 million or upwards of revenue, I think it kind of got them to start paying a little more attention about what's possible. 5:55 Can we figure out this antigen daily testing? 5:57 Those test kits, I think they're like $15 a kit. 6:01 So it's still over the course of the season and it costs millions of dollars to the Big Ten. 6:06 But it's possible for them to have a season. 6:10 And if there are outbreaks, this allows them to contain it. 6:12 They'll still follow up with the PCR testing, but it makes it possible. 6:19 So in leading to that, we ended up just yesterday, the Big Ten came out and said, hey, we're going to play hockey. 6:27 We're going to play conference only. 6:29 We're going to play 24 conference games. 6:30 Oh, by the way, we're going to team up with Arizona State. 6:34 And Arizona State is going to come to your school, all the Big Ten schools, four times, giving each team in the Big Ten 28 games for the season. 6:45 We don't know what the schedule is going to look like yet. 6:47 They're still putting that together. 6:48 We don't know what TV is going to be like. 6:50 It's speculated that we could have all kinds of different days and times and things like that. 6:57 That doesn't bother me so much. 6:58 I just love the fact that it looks like there's actually a plan now to get back to hockey. 7:04 Yeah, I think it's important for the Big Ten to do their scheduling and get ASU involved. 7:09 I know Greg Powers reached out to Red Berenson very early in all this about hoping they could be an eighth team to kind of help the scheduling and get everybody playing during the weeks. 7:19 And I think they have basically 18 weekends to play their 14 series. 7:23 So there's a little bit of flexibility there for them to figure things out. 7:27 You know, the Gophers at least have been on the ice since schools, the week after school started. 7:31 Motsgo gives the student athletes that first week to just be students. 7:35 And then they start ramping things up a little bit. 7:38 And so they are practicing. 7:39 I think you saw when Brock Faber got picked today, you know, the team announced it because they were on the ice and he did a lap for everybody. 7:46 That's what you do when you get picked. 7:48 Put them to work. 7:49 Make them skate. 7:51 And so they have a plan. 7:52 I think it was really important for them to come forward with a plan because when the Ivy League said that they weren't playing until January 1st, Harvard lost five players. 8:02 So there has been a lot of pressure on coaches and programs to figure this out or there was going to be an exodus of really talented players who did not want to miss out on a development opportunity by playing this season. 8:17 So I think that was very important for the Big Ten to figure out. 8:20 You know, you've got programs like Michigan. 8:22 They've got lots of first round talent. 8:24 Oh, boy. 8:25 And if they're not playing, guess what? 8:28 Major Junior is going to come calling. 8:30 York's going to come calling. 8:32 And those programs are going to be hurting because you can't just replace those players quickly. 8:40 No, no, you can't. 8:41 And, you know, we found this out, you know, when that was kind of the first thing that happened with football as well. 8:46 You know, what was it? 8:48 It was Bateman, wasn't it, who decided I'm going to go pro. 8:50 I, you know, there's no plan to play football until at least spring. 8:54 And then all of a sudden, you know, the Big Ten changes its mind. 8:58 And he had to get some waivers and whatnot, but now he's back. 9:02 But there was so much uncertainty with football as well. 9:07 But now things are looking up for that team as well because, you know, after this is obviously a hockey program, but obviously football had a big resurgence last year. 9:17 And football is hugely important to the entire athletic program. 9:23 And to get someone like that back and not lose him because of, you know, we're not playing a season was a pretty big deal. 9:30 And further on, the Gophers didn't have anyone sneak away for the hockey team either. 9:36 Yeah, they're very well could have been a player or two who decide not to come back. 9:42 You know, Sam Poranta, he's of that age where he's got a lot of choices for himself. 9:49 He probably could have figured something out. 9:51 Sammy Walker, you know, Blake McLaughlin. 9:57 There's a list of players who probably were checking out other options and figure out what to do with their hockey career. 10:03 So we have this Big Ten schedule with Arizona State. 10:09 Does this hint that Arizona State could be a future member or is this just a trial, just to help out another school? 10:18 Well, Tony Granado this week told Todd Maleski that Arizona State does fit the profile of a Big Ten institution. 10:27 You know, the only reason they're able to be that extra team in the schedule is because ASU can afford the testing regiment. 10:36 You'll notice that Minnesota is not going to be playing NCHC schools. 10:40 They're not going to be playing WCHA schools. 10:43 A lot of that's because I think those schools are going to have hard time meeting the same standards that the Big Ten is going to implement. 10:51 So when Arizona State says, we'll meet that challenge and do it, Big Ten says, okay. 10:58 The next big step for them, they have to get their arena thing figured out. 11:02 Jess Myers has said many times when you're in the press box at their little tiny rink, which hangs out over the benches, you can hear everything that's going on in the benches as the coaches are being very encouraging to their players. 11:18 And that's just not big time hockey. 11:21 Well, basically, it's just a tiny high school rink in Minnesota, isn't it? 11:27 It would be a very tiny high school rink. 11:29 There you go. 11:32 It's not very advanced. 11:34 They've got a lot of things there that are very nice. 11:36 Their hockey rink is not there yet. 11:38 So for them to even have a chance to be anywhere, I think that's what's been holding them back the whole time. 11:43 And you compare it to an institution like St. 11:46 Thomas, they're going to have a rink solution. 11:49 And that's why the WCHA is just like, yep, we want to have the Twin Cities in our conference, and we trust that you'll get a rink figured out quickly. 11:56 And that's a great move right there. 11:59 St. 11:59 Thomas. 12:01 That wasn't really too much on our radar when we had our last show. 12:06 All of a sudden, they're going D1. 12:10 Don Lucia is like, well, let's grab this team up for our new CCHA. 12:14 He did. 12:17 What? 12:18 That happened real quick, Veegs. 12:20 It happened real quick because I think it's been in the works for quite a while. 12:24 I don't know if you've been aware of me beating the drum that St. 12:27 Thomas has not been kicked out of the MIAC. 12:29 They were pretty sure that they wanted to make this move. 12:33 When they hired Phil Esten away from Penn State, they were hiring someone who knows how to take a program from club into Division I, Big Ten Hockey. 12:44 He knows the steps that have to happen for compliance, for scholarships, for academic support, all that infrastructure. 12:53 Athletic training that you need to run successful D1 sports. 12:56 Phil Esten went through that process with Penn State Hockey. 13:00 He knows what has to happen for St. 13:02 Thomas as a whole. 13:04 Once that got motion and they got their donors lined up, they were headed for bigger things. 13:11 They are well poised to be a quick riser in college hockey. 13:17 They're in a great location. 13:18 They're going to be hiring a new coach. 13:22 There's probably a lot of familiar names in college hockey that are pining for that job. 13:27 It's going to be... 13:28 Mike Gensel? 13:31 Mike Gensel almost went to St. 13:33 Thomas Academy. 13:34 Maybe he'll be at the University of St. 13:36 Thomas. 13:37 We'll see. 13:38 He's got to be a name on the list. 13:40 Yeah, he does. 13:41 I don't have any inside information. 13:43 I think Scott Bell would be a great person to consider for that position. 13:47 He knows how to handle a school like Hamlin, very familiar with St. 13:52 Thomas, local guy. 13:54 He recruited a lot of players while at Minnesota. 13:58 That kind of youth movement that happened after Potomac left, that's a lot of Scott Bell legwork. 14:03 He was the man who was out recruiting. 14:06 He wasn't really on the coaching staff. 14:08 He was letting Don and Mike figure out what they wanted to do with the stuff on the ice. 14:13 But Scott Bell, off the ice, he delivered a lot of recruits like the Lucius Brothers to Minnesota. 14:21 Okay, well, it's going to be interesting. 14:24 If they get a rink, hopefully fairly soon, I would love to see St. 14:29 Thomas become a regional team that we could play every year. 14:35 Because you know that's going to be, it's going to, they have to do it. 14:38 You got a school literally just blocks away. 14:42 You're going to have to be playing them. 14:46 In fact, I think it should be St. 14:47 Thomas' first game as a D1 team against Minnesota. 14:51 I think that would be just perfect. 14:55 It would be great. 14:56 I think it's going to be good for college hockey. 14:58 You know, with the Alaska schools going through their demise, I think it's great that we can get another school in St. 15:05 Thomas. 15:06 Hopefully someday that other Big Ten school comes to fruition. 15:12 Well, I just think of how many schools have been added in Minnesota since I started paying attention to college hockey in the late 80s. 15:20 I mean, St. 15:21 Cloud was playing with D2 or D3 at the time. 15:24 Same with Bemidji. 15:26 Same with Mankato. 15:28 And now all three of those are in. 15:30 And now we're adding St. 15:31 Thomas. 15:34 We went from two schools to a full conference real quickly there. 15:38 In a matter of just a couple, you know, 20 years really, honestly. 15:42 So it is great to see expanding. 15:45 But then on the other side, like you mentioned, we're losing, you know, the Alaska schools. 15:52 And I know, you know, Don Lucia is heading up the new CCHA. 15:56 And that's where he got his start is up in Alaska. 16:00 It can't really be a good thing for him to see some of his old programs. 16:06 Basically, they're going to disappear. 16:09 It's too bad you never like to see opportunities disappear in college hockey. 16:13 It's a pretty special thing. 16:16 I enjoy the game. 16:17 It's fun to see the turnover. 16:19 It's fun to see how much development is now happening in the college hockey game. 16:24 The talent level is just so much better across all the teams and all the conferences now. 16:29 And it's why I enjoy watching it. 16:33 Well, that's why we all enjoy it. 16:34 I think some of it has to do, you know, I've discussed this many times in the past, is that there's mistakes. 16:43 And mistakes opens up for just a little bit more exciting brand of hockey. 16:48 And that's why I've always liked college better than the program because in the program it seems so locked down. 16:52 There's not as many mistakes. 16:53 And there's not as much back and forth. 16:55 And maybe that's why I've loved college hockey so much better all over the years. 16:59 But obviously, I still enjoy the NHL. 17:02 But it's just that slightly lower level where, well, turnover at the blue line, you don't see that as much in the higher NHL. 17:10 Oh, boy, it led to a two-on-one. 17:12 This is excitement. 17:13 The crowd's going nuts. 17:15 It's just a different thing for us. 17:17 Well, you're still in the developmental stage in college hockey. 17:20 And the coaches want the players to learn those mistakes. 17:24 You know, it's why players like Bob Motzko play so many young players early. 17:29 Because for your team to grow and get better, those players have to learn the line, you know, where they can go over it and where they have to hold back. 17:39 And it's fun to watch. 17:40 It's like why the World Juniors is one of the most exciting tournaments in hockey. 17:45 Because you have people who want to make plays in the NHL and pro hockey. 17:50 If you make too many mistakes, you might not get another chance to show what you got. 17:56 So true. 17:56 They might call somebody else up, you know, in college hockey, it's not like there's a JV that they can pull from and bury you on. 18:04 You know, they're going to give you a little bit more rope. 18:07 Well, there used to be a long time ago. 18:11 Not anymore. 18:11 That's where they put guys like Bob Motzko. 18:15 On the freshman team. 18:16 Yeah, we'll put you on the freshman team in the locker room. 18:20 Maybe we need you, I don't know. 18:22 Maybe. 18:22 I noticed we've got a couple questions on Twitter. 18:25 Remember, you could always send us questions any time of the week, but usually we like it right before the show, when we record on Wednesdays. 18:32 You know, just use the hashtag on Twitter, GPL Podcast, and we'll always try to get to your questions. 18:40 And then for those of you now watching us live on YouTube, there is a little chat window there. 18:44 I think I'll share the YouTube link a little more often than sending you to the GPL homepage, because if you come directly to YouTube, it's got that nice little chat window in there, and you can ask us questions directly. 18:57 So, you know, like, is this a fun new experiment for us? 19:00 And we're just going to just give it a try, see how it goes. 19:04 But now, you know, we have to hear from our sponsor. 19:09 Hey, fellow GPLers. 19:10 This is Jerry Peters from First Class Mortgage. 19:13 Interest rates are near all time lows and property values are on the rise. 19:17 Lower your interest rate and remove monthly PMI at the same time to save thousands of dollars. 19:23 Or use the equity in your home for debt consolidation and home improvement. 19:27 The housing market is still hot, so make sure you're prepared by getting a pre-approval letter from me before you start shopping. 19:34 Mention you heard about me on the GPL Podcast and receive a $300 closing cost credit. 19:39 Some restrictions do apply. 19:41 Call me today at 612-940-3291 or visit firstclassmortgage.com to fill out a free online application. 19:50 My NMLS number is 480-200. 19:54 First class mortgage is 322-842. 19:57 This is not an offer to lock into an interest rate agreement under Minnesota law. 20:01 First class mortgage is an equal housing lender. 20:06 And thanks to Jerry for being the GPL sponsor again this year. 20:11 He's been pretty excited about it. 20:12 He's like, when are you going to start? 20:13 I'm like, well, we don't have much to talk about yet. 20:17 So we're just going to kind of wing it here. 20:20 But we appreciate Jerry sponsoring us again this year, and hopefully it's a fun year. 20:26 Veegs, we've got a couple questions I noticed here on the Twitter. 20:31 First one is from Tim Hapke. 20:33 He's always sending us questions. 20:34 He's always reliable. 20:36 With all the defensemen on the roster, is it expected that one of them will get some playing time at forward this year? 20:42 And who would likely be the candidate? 20:46 That is a great question. 20:48 A lot of guys up front. 20:49 There's a lot of them in the back end. 20:53 Yeah, I mean, with Brock Faber joining the program, we expected Kasser and Fish to join. 21:00 Three came in. 21:02 Nanny and Zollstorff on their way out to play some pro hockey. 21:05 See how it goes. 21:06 So there's going to be opportunities there for guys to maybe play forward. 21:11 Sam Orsini played that role a little bit towards the end of the year in practice. 21:16 He got a couple of opportunities to get on the forecheck and work his defenseman in a different way. 21:24 Maybe he's an option there. 21:25 He's an older player. 21:26 He hasn't gotten a lot of looks at defense. 21:30 With this kind of season coming up, you never know if there's going to be an outbreak on the team and they're trying to scramble to figure out what can happen. 21:38 I don't expect the regular guys to play it forward, but maybe someone who's on the edge like that could get a couple shifts here and there up front. 21:47 And another thing to consider too is that they might have one, two, three guys who have already had it. 21:54 And we're just not going to know because they had it during the summer and maybe they didn't tell their coaches. 22:00 There's a lot of things that we don't know. 22:03 I'm guessing we might know during the season, but before the season, in this off season, who knows what's happened. 22:10 And the U has been pretty coy about talking about which teams are having positive cases and if players are being paused here or there. 22:21 So we'll see. 22:23 I do think there is a potential for the team to have outbreaks though over the year. 22:28 I think Minnesota is doing the best they can. 22:30 I know their team is pretty compliant wearing masks around buildings and things like that and doing their part to limit any kind of spread. 22:39 But you never know. 22:40 These are college kids. 22:42 Exactly. 22:42 How do you keep young adults and frankly, some teenagers, it's college. 22:52 It's college. 22:53 It's different. 22:54 It's not the pro. 22:55 It's not being in a bubble. 22:57 There are going to be things that they're going to have to do with during the year. 23:00 That's why they have 18 weeks to play their schedule. 23:04 Really, it's going to be on the players to do the right thing. 23:10 It's just going to be flat out that. 23:11 Moscow has got to tell these guys, hey, if you go out and party, you're going to get COVID. 23:17 You could spread it to somebody else. 23:21 It's hard to win when we don't have you, you and you being able to play. 23:27 I would say Moscow is just kind of pushing out to them. 23:30 It's up to you to stay healthy. 23:35 It really is. 23:36 Be smart. 23:38 If you live with a certain amount, a couple of the other players, you don't have people over, don't have parties. 23:44 It's going to be kind of a common sense type of thing, Veegs. 23:48 The other name I guess I'd throw in for Dee, who might be able to play forward, might be Matt Demmon. 23:53 He's a guy who hasn't seen a lot of ice time. 23:56 He is a tough guy to play against in practice. 24:01 I haven't been able to see any practices this year. 24:03 It doesn't look like I'm going to be able to. 24:05 But it was noticeable last year that he has the ability to get under someone's skin and kind of get them going. 24:11 And he might be able to do it in a different way at forward if they need guys who can do that. 24:16 Because he's an older player. 24:18 He's done his part in the weight room and things like that. 24:21 And he's got a little nasty to him. 24:25 And that's kind of what we need. 24:28 Sometimes you need that. 24:29 You know, your bottom six players, sometimes you need to get the attention of the other team and be hard to play against. 24:34 I'm kind of curious how Sampo Ranto is going to play this year. 24:37 I mean, we kind of had that video over the summer of him just working out like a beast. 24:46 Yeah. 24:46 So hopefully that translates to the ice. 24:51 Yeah, I know when Sampo got to the U, he was a little bigger up top than Cal Dietz would like. 24:58 One of the things I was working on for a feature for the playoffs was on that transformation that Sampo Ranto made. 25:04 But when he got to the U, he was such an Olympic lifter, bench, clean, squat. 25:10 He did the traditional periodization workouts where you do three reps of eight, three reps of five, three reps of three as your training progression. 25:19 And you just kind of stick to that. 25:21 And you put on weight and you add weight to your lifts. 25:23 And you just see how much you can bench, how much you can clean, how much you can squat. 25:28 And you focus there. 25:29 When you get to a place like the U and Cal Dietz, he's like, you know, it's great that you can lift a lot, but how explosive are you? 25:36 You know, what kind of recovery do you have? 25:40 How many high efforts can you give out over a night? 25:43 And he really focuses on trying to optimize your body, not just get you as strong as you can. 25:49 You know, Bob often says, it's not bigger, faster, stronger. 25:53 You know, it's faster and explosive. 25:58 And boy, what a resource that the U has in CalDeeds. 26:03 I mean, he's a tremendous expert. 26:05 He's been doing this for decades and he is a scientist. 26:09 He captures all this data working with these athletes and he has learned how to optimize training programs for people. 26:17 Everyone at the U has a customized training program. 26:20 You know, maybe guys like Sammy Walker and Blake McLaughlin have a very similar workout, but it's a lot different than the one that Sam Baranta and Ben Brinkman get. 26:30 He specializes it to those players. 26:33 So now, are all players wearing sensor-type things during each game or is it just during practice or how does all that work? 26:41 Do you know the specifics of that? 26:43 When you're at the U, they have a big enough budget where they can put the catapult sensors on every player for every practice in every game. 26:50 Macal gets that data. 26:52 He gets enough data where he can tell when soft tissue injuries are developing but they haven't torn. 27:01 And he was telling me this one example of a high pick who was playing for the Gophers and he forgot to check the date or he didn't check data after Friday night games. 27:15 He would just have Friday night game, Saturday night game, review all the data Sunday so they could plan for the week. 27:22 Well, one of these players had a groin injury and had to miss a couple of weeks. 27:29 And when he looked back at the data, he could tell that that player was favoring one leg over the other on Friday night. 27:36 And if he would have looked at the data, he would have said, maybe we should scratch you Saturday or we should do some soft tissue massage and just be aware of it because it's at the brink. 27:49 And so now he does all that stuff. 27:51 And that's why you've seen a dramatic drop in soft tissue injuries. 27:54 You don't see a lot of Gophers with pull groins, things like that. 27:58 The things you see are ACL tears, MCL tears, shoulder injuries from contact, but you don't see a lot of soft tissue stuff. 28:08 So as someone who doesn't know, what do these sensors look like? 28:11 Is it literally, you think of somebody at a hospital getting all these little sensors on them? 28:17 Do they wear a bodysuit type of thing? 28:19 Or is it just, they just kind of tape themselves in? 28:22 How does it really work? 28:23 They'll wear a compression shirt that's got a sensor. 28:26 It's what you have in your iPhone. 28:28 It's got the accelerometer, the gyroscope technology, and it can tell how your body's moving and extrapolate data based on what it's sensing from its location. 28:40 It's in a compression shirt so it doesn't move. 28:42 It can figure out where everything else is going, and it can figure out how many strides you've taken, how fast you're accelerating. 28:50 When you have collisions, how strong of an impact is it? 28:54 How many miles have you skated? 28:56 How long does it take you to get up to top speed? 28:59 There's all this stuff that they can get out of it, and Cal gets it. 29:07 Wow. 29:07 You know, I know we've talked about it. 29:09 We've touched on it a little bit in the past, and I find it fascinating how much technology is helping a basic sport where you're moving a puck around on a stick. 29:22 There's just so much more there than we never knew about until the technology was there to read it. 29:27 The players get these body scans at the start of the year when they're putting together their training programs, and it figures out their muscle mass, it figures out the fat percentage, it figures out their bone density, and then it can compare your proportions to what's the ideal for you. 29:45 To be a top elite hockey player, how does your body composition match that? 29:53 And so when they look at a guy like Sample Ranta, they're like, you're too big up top. 29:57 That means you can't turn as quickly. 29:59 Your quickness stops and starts aren't going to be there. 30:02 When you're cornering, you know, you've got too much weight. 30:05 And so they actually kind of redistributed some of his muscle mass from his upper body to his lower body and said, we're going to do light weights up top, higher rep, you know, bottom. 30:14 We're still going to focus on explosive stuff and try to get more energy there. 30:18 But they changed his body type. 30:20 And they also figured out that his recovery was a little off because he didn't have enough body fat. 30:27 And so when your body doesn't have enough fat, it eats muscle. 30:30 So they could see from Friday to Saturday. 30:33 So he was too lean. 30:34 He was too lean. 30:36 Because he couldn't recover as well for Friday to Saturday. 30:39 And then over the season, you know, he would start to eat away at his muscle for energy. 30:45 And so Cal is like, hey, you need to have a little bit higher fat percentage so you can recover. 30:51 And it's just amazing the kind of stuff Cal does. 30:56 Well, that's cool stuff. 30:57 I got to be honest. 30:58 That's pretty cool stuff. 31:00 Back to the questions here. 31:02 We got our boy, The Room. 31:03 He says, how will the pairwise work this year with all the limited schedules? 31:07 And I started thinking about this and it just gave me a headache. 31:10 It really doesn't work, does it? 31:12 It doesn't work. 31:13 You know, if you don't have those interconference games, you can't really compare teams across conferences. 31:19 If you did try to use the pairwise as is, you would have equal numbers of teams from all leagues, pretty much. 31:27 So I think there might be a return to the dark room. 31:30 I was thinking of the old smoky room in the back. 31:34 The smoky room where Don Luchia now can sit back there with a cigar and a Barolo and decide who gets the number one seeds and whatnot. 31:42 And we might see a different tournament format. 31:45 That is true. 31:48 Well, speaking of tournament formats, when they released or at least they talked about, hey, we're going to start November 13th and we're going to play 24 games and four games against Arizona State. 31:59 Oh, and by the way, we're going back to the old format of one site for the Big Ten tournament. 32:05 Where that's going to be, we don't know, but I think it's a good choice at least for this season. 32:12 Yeah, Red Beretson says, you know, it just cuts down on travel at a critical time of the year, cuts down the expense for what could be a tricky time for Big Ten institutions and it just makes it easier to get in and gives them more flexibility. 32:27 And so it's just, you know, we're not going to know probably for a while, you know, maybe until the schedule starts or the schedule is put out. 32:33 But I think in Minnesota could be a good location to have it, even if it's at Mariucci or something like that, if they're not going to have fans. 32:42 They just need a facility that could handle that many teams. 32:46 And like I said, it doesn't have to be the X. 32:48 I mean, if there's no fans, it could be Ridder for all we know. 32:53 Or one of the others, you know, on school sites. 32:57 They have a lot of flexibility there since it's not likely to be able to have many fans. 33:03 Yeah, I think you look at a place like Minnesota with Ridder and Mariucci connected, you know, they could kind of make it a bubble and figure out a way to keep all the players isolated as much as you can. 33:16 And they could practice at Ridder and Mariucci. 33:19 They could keep their stuff in the locker rooms for the whole time. 33:21 You know, limit the number of people in the building. 33:26 It's an attractive place to have it. 33:30 And you have all the suites. 33:32 So you could have coaches and team staff be able to watch the games and distance and all those kinds of things. 33:39 Interestingly enough, if I can spit it out, all the pictures I've seen from Gopher Hockey practice has been at Ridder Arena, it looks like. 33:49 At least for the most part. 33:51 And I saw on Twitter, we were talking about just kind of yesterday, does Minnesota move over to Ridder for this season since we can't have fans? 34:02 It makes sense to me. 34:03 It makes sense for if you're trying to prepare for a playoffs where you're not playing on an Olympic size sheet of ice. 34:12 Maybe even give some time to say, hey, this is, since we're not, since we're closed down, let's start working on that change of the rank and we have more time to change Mariucci. 34:26 Yes, it does take the cash. 34:27 You got $10 million? 34:29 No, I don't. 34:30 No, no, no, I don't have any on me. 34:36 You think they play it ridder this season? 34:39 You know, Jess Meyers asked Bob about this yesterday, apparently, and Bob downplayed it. 34:44 I think it's complicated to figure out how to make it happen. 34:49 3M obviously paid a lot of money to sponsor the rink. 34:52 I don't think it would be too complicated to say 3M Arena at Ridder works for me. 34:59 Maybe they could get some more money out of 3M to sponsor both rinks and help get that ice sheet conversion underway. 35:07 Who knows? 35:08 I think it's an attractive option. 35:10 We think we've seen Minnesota some years play better on an NHL size rink. 35:16 I think this team especially might be built for the smaller rink. 35:21 They've got some decent size and I think they've played better on the NHL rinks under Motsko. 35:27 So, it's an attractive option for me to see. 35:31 It's very complicated, but we saw Tony Granato talk about that. 35:35 They might have the option to play for their two rinks. 35:39 So, we'll see. 35:42 I'm not dismissing it. 35:45 I do think having television in Ridder is a little bit different. 35:48 They can't fit as much. 35:49 You're not going to have all the great TV angles, but I got to say, Veegs, the times I've gone over and watched games at Ridder, a lot of times one of the suites are open and you can kind of sit in one of the suites, and you're basically hanging over the ice almost. 36:06 It is a spectacular place for anyone in the media to watch a game because you are right on top of the ice. 36:14 Yeah, it's a fun place. 36:15 I've seen high school games there. 36:17 I've seen the women's team play there. 36:19 It's a good rink. 36:23 It will be interesting. 36:24 It will definitely be interesting. 36:26 Finally, Veegs, there's been a little NHL draft the last couple of days, and we do have a lot of Gophers that have already been drafted, but we had a few future Gophers and a freshman get drafted. 36:44 What do you want to say about that? 36:46 I think everyone expected Brock Faber to be a high pick. 36:51 Second round, skaters like him are very attractive to NHL teams because it's a safe pick. 36:57 He's had the right pedigree moving along. 37:00 I don't think he's projected as a top, point producing type defenseman, but he's a safe pick. 37:07 Kings will do very well to have him in their system. 37:10 I was surprised to see Jake Boltman go as high as he did. 37:13 Didn't he go at 80 or something like that? 37:16 Yeah, to Calgary. 37:19 That was unusual. 37:20 It kind of got me on Major Junior watch. 37:23 His WHL rights are owned by the Regina Pats. 37:28 It'll be interesting. 37:29 He's supposed to play for Lincoln this year in the USHL, but I will be watching that. 37:36 We all have fond memories of Chris Chukko leaving the university early to start his Calgary career. 37:43 And where'd that go? 37:44 It'll be painful. 37:46 Exactly. 37:47 So we'll see what happens. 37:50 But he's not a big point producer guy. 37:52 I know he's got a big shot and he's an athlete. 37:55 He played multiple sports like football. 37:58 I think he was a running back through high school. 38:01 So he's maybe not one of those specialized, specialized guys. 38:04 So he's got room to grow. 38:06 But I think that was a surprising pick. 38:09 Joey Miller, late pick by Toronto. 38:13 Scott Bell got him to come to Minnesota. 38:16 Now he's got him on Toronto's development system. 38:19 I wonder if Scott had something to do with that. 38:21 He probably did. 38:23 Scott's got an eye for those little Fords. 38:25 You know, Jake Gensel was a Scott Bell selection. 38:28 So if Joe Miller turns out to be a Jake Gensel, that would be pretty phenomenal for Minnesota and Toronto. 38:37 I do believe that, again, the university will have the most drafted players on their team this year. 38:46 Michigan's going to give them a run for their money. 38:49 Yeah, they will. 38:50 They might have a couple draft-eligibles on their team, too, which is interesting to see. 38:55 Michigan's going to be really good this year, if they can get it together. 38:58 We've seen freshman-dominant teams, you think a BU from a couple years ago. 39:04 Yep, and even Wisconsin. 39:05 Yeah, and Wisconsin, correct. 39:07 And it all depends on if you can get it together. 39:09 If you can get these guys playing together as a team, watch out. 39:12 And get them focused on being college athletes. 39:15 Yeah. 39:16 I think one of the things I read last year, Scott Wheeler embedded with the Badgers, I didn't think that was a very healthy college team. 39:26 I think it was a lot of kids developing to be pros. 39:30 And you just get that sense sometimes. 39:31 I remember Don Lucia talking about that. 39:33 If you have a bunch of players on a college team who are thinking about being NHL players all the time, it's hard to be successful. 39:40 Yes. 39:42 Well, one thing that happened in this off season, and we actually just had a Zoom meeting with him about a week or so ago, is Paul Martin is going to be the student coach helping out on the defense. 39:54 And boy, nothing wrong with that, Veegs. 39:59 He is definitely qualified to be back there and helping out these kids on defense. 40:05 Yeah, he's got a lot of great experience. 40:08 He's been a mentor to some great players in the NHL. 40:11 It's kind of a voice for them to turn to and grow, like Brent Burns. 40:15 You know, he has a lot of experience with that. 40:18 So he's got kind of that soothsayer experience, at least at that level. 40:23 I know it takes a while for these student assistants to figure out how to fit in with the coaching staff. 40:30 Stu Bickel that first year just kind of sat back a lot, took a lot in. 40:35 You saw last year, he was on the ice a lot, giving guys one-on-one development instruction, taking them through some extra things at the end of practice to kind of get them in the right decision-making and understand what he was talking about. 40:49 And he got very involved. 40:51 We saw him on the bench at games. 40:54 He took advantage of it. 40:56 Now he's going to be coaching the magicians in the NHL. 40:59 So I think it's an opportunity for these guys to figure out, is coaching the right thing for me? 41:03 And I think that's something Paul Martin is going to be doing. 41:05 And just get the experience. 41:08 And like Paul said on his little media meeting, he just kind of wants to see if it's for him. 41:16 See if it's something he'd like to do and what a better way to do it. 41:19 There's not a lot of pressure for a student teacher to come in. 41:23 It's more observing and saying, hey, it's just kind of helping out on the ice a little bit. 41:26 But it's not like an irregular assistant coach where there's a ton of pressure on you to, hey, got to make sure that power play is going and what have you. 41:34 It's a little different. 41:35 It allows him to just kind of sneak in there. 41:37 Yeah. 41:38 I don't think he's going to be under the gun like, hey, is Brock Besser going to come here? 41:43 I need you watching him every night this month and make sure he actually commits here. 41:50 It's not that kind of pressure on a student. 41:51 I think it will be a big opportunity and I think Bob will kind of gauge the commitment level of Paul Martin and figure out how into this is he before he gives him more. 42:01 He kind of wants him to warm up to it and figure out how he fits in and then what he's interested in and then they'll point him in the right direction. 42:10 What a great resource for them to have. 42:13 It is a great resource. 42:16 Plus, he can help out in the office doing faxing and things like that. 42:22 I just love that shredding, trying to fax a big binder. 42:27 That video with him and Ballard during the lockout is still an all-time classic for me. 42:34 I still giggle about it. 42:36 Maybe a waxing appointment? 42:38 A backwax for Grant Patoni. 42:43 Patoni. 42:44 I think you might need two sessions for him. 42:47 Oh, wow. 42:49 You said it, not me. 42:51 Hey, Veegs, anything else going on right now that you wanted to talk about while we're here? 42:55 We're probably not going to be back until about the week of. 43:00 I'm thinking around the 11th that we'll be back. 43:02 But it was, you know, we had some things going on and I thought it would be good to have a show. 43:07 So anything else on your mind? 43:09 I just think it was significant Jake Ratzloff didn't get drafted. 43:13 He is the football hockey player from Rosemount. 43:16 He had the opportunity to play for Green Bay at the end of last year, was planning on doing a before and after with them this year, you know, to try to figure out what he wanted to do. 43:28 He was projected as a second, third round talent, but he did not get selected in the draft. 43:34 So I think that means it's going to be a battle for PJ Fleck to figure out if he wants him at linebacker or if he'll go to Wisconsin. 43:44 So we'll see. 43:44 I think he's going to be headed to football. 43:47 So people who are looking at the defenseman pipeline for Minnesota, I'd probably pencil him in, maybe get the eraser ready. 44:02 We'll see. 44:04 We'll see. 44:04 Yeah, it is a big we'll see type of thing. 44:06 And the kid's got to make a decision and whatever he decides, it's all good. 44:10 It's his future and that's all that matters. 44:12 So you're not going to be successful in a sport you don't love and want to put in the time. 44:17 So if his love is football, he should pick football. 44:21 There you go. 44:24 It's hard to choose when you've put in all the time that goes into playing hockey and getting to that point. 44:29 But if you love to play football, he's a heck of a linebacker. 44:33 I know that Gopher Illustrated and Ryan Burns thinks he's a four star type recruit, which puts him in a lot of power five schools as a starter. 44:45 All right. 44:45 Well, that's going to do it for this GPL podcast. 44:48 We'll be back around November 11th for our next show right before the season starts. 44:55 Things will be much clearer by then, at least with the schedule. 44:59 For those of you watching live on YouTube, we'll have a little bit of overtime coming up next. 45:03 For the rest of you listening, we'll catch you next time on The GPL Podcast.