0:03
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0:08
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Now, here's Jupiter and Vegoe.
0:37
Good evening, and welcome to The GPL Podcast, episode number 177.
0:46
Well, Veegs, we had a month off.
0:48
They first made an announcement back, like I said a month ago, that hockey's coming back, hockey's coming back.
0:56
We'll get back to you on the schedule.
0:58
And it wasn't until very, very recently that we got our schedule, and we got our TV, and we got everything, well, at least the first eight games.
1:11
And they're not on every Friday and Saturday night at seven o'clock, we'll have an hour pregame show and have a sign with Doug Woog and Frank Bizzacco, but we have hockey coming back, and Bob's got a good team this year, and it's gonna be exciting to watch.
1:27
It is, and if you haven't noticed, some of you might be watching us live on YouTube, we're doing this YouTube thing this year.
1:34
I'm still working out the kinks and how it's all gonna work, but you can see Vegoe there in his office, you can see me in my office here.
1:40
Hopefully my dog behaves back behind me.
1:43
We'll have to wait and see, but we're hoping to use this format.
1:47
We're gonna have Paul Caponegrion on the next podcast and trying to make it a little more interactive so you can see us, because that's kind of the new thing these days, huh Veegs?
1:57
Yeah, video is king apparently in all the media, so let's give the people what they want.
2:04
Well, I've got my Gopher old school jersey here, Woogera, in honor of the New Jersey's that they showed us, and I must say, I'm liking the gold breezers that they brought out.
2:17
It's a solid look.
2:18
I think it might cry out for like a gold or a white glove, but I'm okay.
2:22
I won't push for the gold breezers and the diagonals.
2:26
Well, sometimes when you look that fancy, you just want to push it over the top.
2:29
Well, you think they'll bring out Maroon helmets like they did, about 15 years ago?
2:34
In a pandemic like this, when there's the budget, I don't think we see too much.
2:40
You know, we've already heard, you know, some Title IX things with budgeting, but now we have a pandemic.
2:44
So it's a whole nother layer on top.
2:47
So I'm just happy that they got the 100th season jerseys and that they're going to be playing.
2:53
Well, as most of you know, the season's starting tomorrow, Thursday, and then we've got a Friday game at three o'clock.
3:00
Then they're right back on Monday and Tuesday.
3:02
Then they've got some time off again.
3:03
And obviously they're doing this for television leagues.
3:08
And it looks like they're also doing it kind of as for travel as well.
3:12
Cause you know, I believe is an Ohio State going to Wisconsin this weekend or something like that.
3:17
Yeah, there are trips like that.
3:19
Yeah.
3:19
It's almost like they want to try to get the four games done in one travel.
3:23
Like when the Gophers go out for their road trip, you know, they're going to play those four games on one trip out.
3:29
And the idea is, you know, you can control a lot of things when you're on campus and you're sleeping in your own bed and you're going to your own practice rank.
3:37
But when you start traveling and you mix in airports and food and all that stuff, it gets a little more complicated.
3:43
So I think this is just one variable they're trying to cut out because I tell you, BigTen Hockey is not like the NHL bubble.
3:50
It's not like the NBA bubble.
3:52
They're putting a lot of responsibility on the players to deliver and stay healthy and stay on the ice.
4:00
They are.
4:01
And the schedulers, I think we're kind of smart.
4:04
Let's pick up where we left off.
4:05
Minnesota was scheduled to go to Penn State.
4:08
Penn State hadn't played in like a month because of the way everything came out and the buy and all that stuff.
4:15
And all of a sudden they got shut down and it seems like the players, the players were really let down.
4:21
We could see that from the media.
4:23
I mean, just Jack LaFontaine, he seemed pretty down yesterday when he was talking about it, that they just never got that chance.
4:30
They wish they could have.
4:31
But that was the beginning of the pandemic when everyone panicked.
4:35
And that's just kind of what happened.
4:36
When one sport shut down, everything shut down.
4:39
Yeah, there were a lot of dominoes that fell.
4:41
I remember even leading up to that weekend talking to the players.
4:45
They were anxious to get back and play Penn State.
4:48
That's kind of been the thorn in Minnesota's side in the Big Ten.
4:52
If you wanted to pick a villain for Minnesota, Penn State fits the bill.
4:57
They ruined the old WCHA.
4:59
They came in with this brand of hockey where shot counting is a little bit questionable.
5:05
There's probably a voting joke in there somewhere.
5:09
They are the reason we're in the situation we are with the conference.
5:14
And it was funny until they started beating Minnesota.
5:17
And they have had their number the last couple of years.
5:22
And I think we've seen it with the program.
5:25
There's a little bit of issue with the defenseman pipeline coming to Minnesota.
5:29
And Penn State does not let you hide on the ice when you're a defenseman who's not confident.
5:34
And they come right at you.
5:36
And Guy Gadowski got the right amount of offensive talent to come play his system.
5:41
And they were difficult for the Gophers to play against.
5:44
And they took them down pretty good for a while.
5:47
That first series at the start of last year with a really young team, Penn State put up 14 goals in two nights.
5:56
Penn State at Mariucci?
5:58
Not what people were expecting.
6:01
Yeah.
6:04
I'm not really sure what to say to that.
6:05
It's just Penn State came along in a bad time with Minnesota defense because it was bad.
6:11
I mean, you say little problems here and there, but when you play Penn State, like you said, they're aggressive.
6:18
You need defensive puck handlers that don't panic and make a smart play or either the smart play, which is the safe play or whatever it may be, but we kind of lost that in those years.
6:32
And it seemed like last year, we started making a dent here and there.
6:37
I think, didn't they split here early last year?
6:39
Well, they got an overtime point at Penn State, but they swept Minnesota at Marriott Chiarina.
6:48
It was not close.
6:49
It was not close.
6:50
It was a bad series.
6:52
Minnesota looked really bad against Penn State.
6:55
My memory's gone.
6:56
It's typical old age.
6:57
You're getting old.
6:58
It's the gray hair.
6:59
It's the white hair.
7:01
Everyone can see it.
7:02
Everyone can see it now.
7:03
I don't have the highlight on it.
7:04
Otherwise, you just shine off of it.
7:07
But now Penn State, I do kind of feel bad for Penn State in the way that they had probably their best team last year.
7:15
They had a lot of leadership.
7:17
They had a lot of firepower.
7:19
And even though they did have a month off, they were gonna make the tournament no matter what.
7:25
It looked like to me.
7:28
Or very close.
7:30
And then they had the rug really pulled out from under them.
7:33
I mean, Minnesota needed to win to get into the tournament.
7:35
They needed to have a big tournament.
7:36
But yeah, I look at teams like Penn State or Mankato.
7:42
Duluth was just peaking.
7:43
North Dakota.
7:44
They all had really good teams last year.
7:46
And I think the tournament could have been just outstanding.
7:49
Minnesota or no Minnesota.
7:52
And that was all pulled out.
7:53
And now we start this season.
7:55
We've got a block of games.
7:57
The NCHC is going to do a little pod themselves.
8:02
Oh.
8:04
Out East, they're in trouble.
8:05
There's a lot of things shutting down and...
8:10
You know, we've got this first block, Veegs, but I'm not confident we're going to start back up in January.
8:16
Yeah, we'll see.
8:17
It's all kind of take what you can get right now.
8:20
I think the one thing about these college teams is they are doing the daily antigen testing.
8:26
You know, they're getting that test every day so that when there are cases, they're going to try to be able to contain them.
8:33
I think one of the problems that could happen though for college hockey is we saw it with Colorado College this week, they have to do a 14 day pause.
8:41
Because when you have cases start to come up within your team, it's really hard to contain it with hockey.
8:47
Minnesota tried to alleviate some of these problems by going into three locker rooms for much of the last, I guess it's been almost two months now where they've been practicing.
8:58
They split them up into the different locker rooms and tried to keep them separate.
9:01
But as we found out this week, they're all back in the main locker room again.
9:07
And so you'd think right now that the team is pretty secure with being able to play these next two games.
9:13
And then you'd imagine the two games after that, but you never know.
9:16
And these are college kids on campuses.
9:20
They're picking up takeout.
9:21
They're going through different places and they're college students.
9:26
So any day there could be a couple of cases and as they trace it out, and it'll be interesting to see how safe they are.
9:33
Because it looks like with football, the contact tracing is pretty minimal where they just keep testing people who are the close contacts.
9:41
And if they all test negative, they let them play.
9:44
So I think that's kind of what we'll see with the Big Ten at least.
9:50
It's gonna be interesting.
9:51
Well, like you said, we'll have to wait and see.
9:53
And like Motsko said, and actually with the players, Walker and Lafontaine, they said it's on them.
9:59
And it is, it's across all of sports.
10:03
It's on the individual players.
10:04
The coaches can't watch you 24-7.
10:07
If it's important to you, you'll stay home.
10:10
You'll wear a mask.
10:11
You'll do all that you can, or do your best to avoid it.
10:18
And that's just how things are gonna have to be.
10:19
And if they don't, they know that they're probably, their season's over.
10:23
Cause all of a sudden you get a couple guys going down, you stop playing.
10:27
Other teams could have the same thing.
10:32
And it could get really interesting.
10:35
It could be tough.
10:36
And as we look at this year's team, they'll have three extra forwards, they'll have three extra D.
10:43
Moscow's very confident in all three goalies that he has on the roster, which is a little surprising sometimes that you see the closer get some props from the coach, but the coach thinks he could play all three of the goalies.
10:56
So he's got a roster where there is some flexibility there, but if there's an outbreak, there's not that much flexibility.
11:04
Well, let's talk about Penn State coming into town.
11:07
They're a little bit shorthanded.
11:09
Minnesota's got a grudge.
11:13
Could be some for some fun hockey, if all the teams, all the players can adjust to a completely, excuse me, empty Mariucci.
11:21
And here comes all the jokes.
11:22
Yes, we know Mariucci's always empty, blah, blah, blah.
11:25
But honestly, even on those games when they had very little crowds, it's still loud in there, just because of the way the building is built.
11:34
But this weekend, they might have some family.
11:37
Maybe Monday, Tuesday, may have nobody in there.
11:41
It's gonna be adjustment.
11:42
The players talk about it, but it's whoever adjusts the best and whoever gets their game going.
11:47
And will this grudge work?
11:50
Is Minnesota fired up to play Penn State?
11:53
Well, I guess we'll find out tomorrow.
11:55
I guess we will find out.
11:56
There's enough returning players for Minnesota where I think they really have this game circled on their calendar.
12:02
You look at Minnesota's lineup, they return pretty much everybody.
12:07
All their special teams, a lot of their defensemen.
12:11
As I start to look at some of the lines and pairings, I'm not sure where Mason ever slots in.
12:17
He's a guy who can score some goals and he's got a lot of offensive skill, but I think we could see a lineup this weekend where it's gonna be 12 returning forwards in the lineup.
12:27
When we look at the defensemen, I assume Faber will fit in there somewhere, but otherwise you've got six guys coming back who've played a lot of hockey.
12:37
And then you've got goalies who've got lots of experience too.
12:39
So Minnesota has got that chip on the shoulder, they've all been there, they've been through this.
12:44
I'm sure those guys are tired about hearing about losing to Penn State.
12:48
You know, blowing those two third period leads late in the season last year to have to, you know, eventually go on the road.
12:56
They got lucky to play Michigan at home for that first series of the Big Ten tournament, but they had to go on the road to Penn State.
13:02
I remember us talking about on the podcast, if they just get a point here, you know, they'll get to play at home and then maybe they'll have to play someone in the championship game on the road.
13:11
But no, just like Gopher fans expect it, there's a scenario where they have to go out there and play for their pairwise lives.
13:19
And I think they remember it.
13:21
You look at Penn State though, you know, they were stacked last year.
13:25
They were clearly the favorite going to the Big Ten.
13:28
They answered the bell, they delivered, they were in really good shape.
13:32
They had the regional out in Allentown, I believe.
13:35
You know, that was their year and they lost a lot.
13:39
They still have Limoja's back.
13:41
They still have Clayton Phillips.
13:42
You know, and they have some other young players and they are starting to get a little bit more drafted talent at Penn State.
13:48
I think Guy Gadowski's offensive system is very attractive to those players.
13:53
He plays a physical style, which, you know, I think the NHL teams like as well.
13:57
So he's got a lot over there that people like.
14:00
So it's going to be a challenge.
14:02
This early in the year though, whereas last year was all Penn State's advantage, it totally flips, I think.
14:08
You know, Minnesota has got lots of motivation and lots of returning players who know what it's all about.
14:13
So we can only hope, Vegs, we can only hope.
14:16
And for those of you watching live on YouTube, you know, I see a few of you in the chat there.
14:21
We got Eric, Tim, Brent and Corey.
14:26
Yeah, send us questions.
14:27
We'll try to answer them as they come, you know.
14:29
I see Tim, Hapkey.
14:30
Guy comes across as smug to me.
14:35
I really don't know.
14:36
I haven't had much interaction with him, like after games.
14:41
I always remember Pete, he used to say that about Gwazdeki.
14:44
He comes across as smug.
14:45
And then you talk to him after these games and he's like, not that way at all.
14:50
He was very, I at least I found when I was around Gwazdeki, I enjoyed him.
14:56
I like Gwazdeki.
14:59
I get along fine with Guy when I've interacted with him.
15:02
You want a good Guy story though, you should talk to Nate Wells.
15:05
There's just something about Guy and Nate.
15:07
They've butted heads a little bit.
15:09
Really?
15:10
Yeah, there's been some salty responses to Nate Wells' questions in the scrums afterwards, which we won't have this year.
15:18
It'll all be on Zoom, which is a little different for everybody, but.
15:23
Yeah, and you and I, we're staying home.
15:28
It's not a big deal to me.
15:29
I can watch it on TV.
15:32
I don't need to be there and it leaves a spot for someone else to take in our spot or your spot at the Athletic.
15:40
And I'm fine with that.
15:43
These first couple of games, if we start up again in January, I might go here and there.
15:46
But for me, I'm fine with staying home.
15:49
I'm a hermit anyway.
15:51
Yeah, seats are gonna be very limited to the press, I believe.
15:55
You're just gonna see coverage from Pioneer Press, Star Tribune, Michael Russo, I think wants to get and see some live hockey in a while for him and he's got 153,000 Twitter followers to my 2,000.
16:10
So I think it'll be good for the you to get his exposure with the program.
16:14
He's already breaking that Bob Motzko COVID story today that I think some people knew about, but Bob talked to Mike about it and put it out there.
16:25
And it was kind of an amazing story.
16:27
Wasn't interacting with players as a coach or whatever, being, you know, Bob's not a nightlife kind of guy, but he got it by being a hockey parent and being around with his kids in the association hockey deal.
16:41
And also he had his knee replaced.
16:44
And he had his knee replaced.
16:45
Motzko had quite an off season.
16:47
He did.
16:48
Yeah, I couldn't put that one off anymore.
16:50
He has the longest stick.
16:53
It's probably like a chara type model.
16:55
So he didn't have to bend over as far.
16:56
So he doesn't have to bend over as far.
16:58
Like when he goes on a shootout, it looks like he's going for a joust.
17:03
I see Cory in the chat asking, he says, only see 14 forwards in the roster, but college hockey stats as Kester listed as a forward, which would make 15, but that's an error.
17:14
Kester is a defenseman, isn't he, Veegs?
17:17
Yeah, Mikey Kester is gonna be a nice defenseman eventually at some point.
17:21
He was all world at Chaska High.
17:25
I think there was a little bit of a growing curve for him to experience in the USHL.
17:30
He's a little bit smaller guy.
17:32
He'll fit in eventually.
17:33
I don't think he'll get a lot of power play time right at the start.
17:38
Minnesota is gonna have Jackson LeCombe and Ryan Johnson, I think running a lot of power play time for them.
17:45
I do think we'll see Robbie Stucker get some power play time.
17:49
I think we saw that in a tweet or chat question.
17:52
He's one of the few defensemen who's got a big shot.
17:57
And so I think you need that on a power play to be effective.
18:00
And we'll see what else the power play units do for D.
18:04
I think the one thing is I've been going to practices for, I don't know, eight, nine years now because Don was very friendly to allow the media to do that.
18:14
Kind of just kept doing it with Bob and this year no practices.
18:18
So I don't get to see what their game plans are like I have in the past and I don't get to see preview of the units they're working with.
18:26
But last year I saw a unit with Johnson, Lacombe, Brudzinski, that was kind of like a scout power play and they were very dangerous.
18:34
They looked really creative on the ice.
18:37
They would switch positions.
18:38
They would make the killers have to trade and get them out of their lanes.
18:42
It would open up things.
18:44
If those guys are out there together this week, it should be fun to watch.
18:49
Well, now all of a sudden I ask for questions and all of a sudden they're coming through real fast here.
18:55
John Lewis, he wants to know about the postseason this year.
18:58
So many teams canceling.
18:59
Can they actually pull off a legit tournament?
19:01
I think it's all gonna depend on what happens in January, Veegs.
19:07
Yeah, Bob talked a little about this in one of his availabilities that the coaches are talking about how to do a postseason tournament.
19:14
There's a lot of things being bandied about from how to run it to how to pick the teams.
19:20
It sounds like pairwise is gonna be obviously out the window with leagues playing just conference-only schedules.
19:28
So I think it'll be kind of a on the fly postseason if we get there, but I think the full intention is to have one and they'll figure it out as we go.
19:38
It's just kind of the pandemic era.
19:41
We figure it out week by week, month by month.
19:47
Eric Brever, he's like, should we just cancel the season and crown Michigan the champs right now?
19:51
Seems like a bunch of media is already to do that.
19:54
Yeah, I don't think so quite yet.
19:56
They have a lot of talent, but I think we've seen that with a couple of Gopher teams where they have a couple big games early in the season where they show off their talent and then college players get yelled at in the film room about positioning and defense and systems and things start to tighten up.
20:13
So I think early in the year, you can see some of these high scoring games as young teams especially or unorganized teams struggle to figure out how good you have to be in college at playing your position and those things get ironed out.
20:28
I can't wait to see Michigan play a full schedule with this roster because it's got a lot of talent, but a lot of times there are growing pains with those.
20:38
The Rube, Brent Hoeven asking about, you know, a super bubble in NHL if they do that next year, how will that affect early defects, the pros, from the college ranks, you know?
20:49
I can see that happening very easily, Veegs.
20:51
If the pros start up in January and you've got a lot of colleges shutting down and kids are eligible, they may just say, screw this, I'm going to go to the pros.
21:02
The only problem is a lot of NHL teams right now are pretty cap strapped in terms of bringing up new players.
21:11
I think you're seeing it be difficult.
21:13
Then on the flip side, you could have a team that's trying to cut payroll where they would give spots to prospects to play.
21:21
So it does kind of work both ways.
21:23
I don't think you're going to see schools like Hockey East and Big Ten and NCAC have issues playing the second half of the season and have a lot of defects.
21:35
I think your Ivies and your ECAC teams though, I mean, those aren't hockey people making those decisions.
21:43
Those are more academics and they're going to handle this differently.
21:47
They're not going to be investing the resources that these other schools do to making the sport happen.
21:54
I think we can talk more about that in a bit.
21:56
And also we'll get to the questions on the chat and I want to get to some Twitter questions.
22:01
But first, we need to hear from our sponsor.
22:05
Jerry is supporting us again this year and we really appreciate it, Jerry.
22:10
Let's hear from Jerry.
22:11
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23:03
First Class Mortgage is an equal housing lender.
23:08
Of course, we thank Jerry and First Class Mortgage for sponsoring us again this season.
23:13
It's always nice to have that.
23:17
Vego, let's hit up some Twitter questions.
23:19
I heard some coming in yesterday and today.
23:21
Let's start with Dale Beers yesterday asking, who will be the most impactful newcomer for the Gophers?
23:32
Oh, you're muted, Veegs.
23:35
I was doing so well.
23:36
I know, it's you.
23:38
My Zoom skills.
23:40
Who's the most impactful guy?
23:43
Most impactful guy.
23:44
I think it's gonna be Brock Faber.
23:47
He comes from the developmental program where there's a lot of work put into all the skills that a defenseman needs to play high-level hockey.
23:56
He was kind of a supporting player there, supporting an offensive partner in the system and working in that kind of role.
24:04
I think that's the similar kind of role they're envisioning for him right now at Minnesota.
24:09
And there's a lot of offensive guys on that pool line right now with Lacombe and Johnson and Castor.
24:16
So they're gonna be looking for him to fill in that role.
24:19
And I think he could play up because he's such a good skater.
24:21
You know, he wasn't drafted highly in the NHL because of his offensive ability.
24:27
It's because he's a great skater.
24:29
He's a safe pick.
24:30
He's a big body.
24:31
You know, he'll be able to fit in right away.
24:33
So I don't think you'll see him put up a lot of points, but I think you'll see him get a lot of ice time.
24:39
And I think the growing pains for him will be less than like a Castor role experience.
24:44
Okay, Hockey Fan 2020.
24:47
Do you guys believe the Gophers can win the Big Ten Conference and return to the big dance if the season is played out?
24:54
There's a lot of ifs in there.
24:55
A lot of ifs in there.
24:59
What do you think?
25:00
Cotner, what do you think first?
25:01
I just want to get your perspective on one of these first this time.
25:04
Me?
25:10
I'm not feeling too good about the season actually right now.
25:13
I feel great about the team.
25:14
I think they're going to play well.
25:16
But one of the things I'm worried about is January.
25:19
What's going to happen in January?
25:20
You know, COVID is exploding right now.
25:23
It's going to take, I mean, a huge Herculean effort to get to January and get a new schedule.
25:32
So that's kind of my biggest concern right now.
25:34
It's not even the team play.
25:35
I'm encouraged about the team play.
25:37
I think they're going to be pretty good.
25:39
And I think a lot of it will depend on what Matsuko says.
25:41
He needs those, you know, those guys who are at 20 points to get to 30 points and, you know, he needs an increase spot from everybody.
25:48
And that's going to be a big deal.
25:50
But geez, Veegs, I'm more worried about COVID than the team right now.
25:55
Yeah, I think COVID's a concern, but I think these teams with their testing and the motivated players are going to be able to get through it and figure it out.
26:03
You know, we're seeing it in college football with lots of cancellations across the country here and there, but they're finding ways to keep going.
26:12
You know, you haven't seen a team shut down their season.
26:14
Yet, you know, they're going to find ways to keep playing.
26:17
We might see some cancellations here or there, but I think the season is going to play out.
26:21
And Minnesota is going to be right there.
26:23
I think they've got too much returning veteran talent.
26:26
And it's not like these guys are coming back from injury or anything either.
26:30
You know, they were pretty healthy at the end of last year.
26:33
They were poised to make a run and maybe get in last year.
26:37
This year, they're returning so many guys.
26:39
You know, you look at the defensemen they're bringing back.
26:42
Those guys can produce.
26:43
They can all skate.
26:44
And they have veterans down the middle.
26:46
They've got four centers who played a lot of hockey last year.
26:49
I got to think they're going to be better this season.
26:52
So I think Minnesota is going to be a consistent team and it's going to be difficult to play against.
26:58
Hockey fan 2020 had a couple more questions, but let's read this longer one.
27:02
Should we be putting a lot of expectations on this year's team?
27:06
I'm ready for them to make a deep playoff run.
27:08
Any thoughts on what type of team you think the Gophers will have, speed, strength, defense, or will they just win high scoring games?
27:16
Veegs, I remember just Motzko a few weeks ago saying he wants the high scoring.
27:21
He doesn't mind those high scoring games.
27:23
He kind of likes it.
27:25
He doesn't mind high scoring games for his team.
27:27
He just doesn't like it when they have a lot of goals against.
27:30
True.
27:30
He's okay with them making mistakes too.
27:33
I think that's one thing about a coach like Motzko is he's going to let his players play and develop, especially in the first half.
27:40
That's a time for him to let his team show me what you got.
27:45
And then as they get going in the season, hopefully they've got enough work so they're not on a bubble, but they start to tighten things up.
27:53
So I think this team could probably win a game anyway.
27:56
They can win a two nothing game.
27:58
I think they can win a come from behind five four type game.
28:02
This is a team that could put up six, seven goals.
28:05
They've got a lot of skill and speed and they've also got some decent size and strength.
28:10
So otherwise what you're saying is just bring it on.
28:13
Just bring on this season.
28:15
That's exactly right.
28:17
Well, Tim Hapke had some questions in the chat.
28:19
I noticed he still got one on Twitter from a few hours ago.
28:21
He's like, will Stucker be on the power play or will he be the power play specialist this year?
28:25
Or will he be more of a role player ahead of Kester and Faber?
28:29
I think he'll get some power play time.
28:31
I kind of see him as that seventh D and we'll get some power play time sometimes ahead of Kester.
28:39
I'm not sure if Faber is gonna be a power play type guy, at least right away.
28:43
I mean, he's a good skater and things like that, but I think they're looking for a little more creativity out there.
28:48
We know Bob likes offense and he's got enough options there with Lacombe and Johnson and Castor to get that done.
28:55
And then with Stucker and the big shot.
28:59
Brent Hoeven in chat, he's like, let's be, let's get the real hard hitting question going.
29:04
What beer is Vegoe drinking tonight?
29:07
I've got a Surly Abrasive chilling for me.
29:09
It's my favorite double IPA, maybe in the world.
29:13
I know that some people like the Rube don't love Surly, but Abrasive is tip top.
29:19
Yeah.
29:21
He's a little anti Surly to say the least.
29:23
It's okay.
29:24
I just like the Abrasive though.
29:26
I had a very nice beer from Portage Brewing Company this week up in Walker, Minnesota.
29:31
I was very impressed by that, but this whole hazy thing I'm done with.
29:42
Joshua wants to know, what's the biggest culture change you've seen from Don to Bob?
29:49
I think everyone's maybe a little bit looser.
29:53
I think a guy like Brandon McManus feels a little more comfortable in a Bob Motzko locker room than in a Don Lucia locker room.
30:02
You see a little bit more camaraderie between the whole coaching staff and the team.
30:08
Maybe that's because they've given them a lot of rope here to grow and where at the end, I think things were tightening up between Don and Grant and Mike Denzel.
30:19
You just felt like there was friction with frustration.
30:23
There's just that friction where not everyone's getting along.
30:26
They can see that they should be here, but they're here.
30:31
And everyone's upset about it.
30:33
And everybody's got different ideas about how to fix it.
30:37
And ultimately Don would be the hammer to make a lot of decisions on things like that.
30:42
And I think that just rubs off into the recruiting pipeline, the types of players that are coming through, the attitudes of players, kids leaving early, when there's a lot of friction, do you want to hang around with that forever?
30:56
It's tough.
30:59
And so I just sense there's a little bit more of a freeness right now and a little more happy go lucky attitude.
31:06
I think Bob can be real serious what he wants to and Garrett and Ben the same way.
31:12
They can lay it down when they need to, but I think just their overall attitude is a little bit more relaxed right now.
31:17
More relaxed and I have always thought that, Matsuko shows more personality, whereas Don really kept his personality to himself.
31:27
From what we know, Don's completely different when he's with his friends, but typically in the media, he wasn't as loosey goosey as someone like a Matsuko or somebody like Coach Hastings or even Gensel.
31:40
When Gensel, you got him, if you talk to him one on one, completely great personality, whereas Don really kind of kept it in.
31:50
I think he was just a little bit uncomfortable with some of the obligations of being a coach.
31:57
I think when you're a high profile guy at a place like Minnesota, you're almost more of a CEO than a hockey coach, and you have to be able to delegate and being with the media, being with boosters, being on TV, be on the radio, those are chances for you to grow your program and improve your brand.
32:16
And I think there's just some of that personality that wasn't comfortable doing that.
32:22
He's a guy from Alaska who likes hockey, and he just kind of pursued this path with some success along the way.
32:32
But I never think he was really comfortable in that role until maybe towards the end even.
32:37
He started to soften up a little bit.
32:39
I've seen this question a few times in the chat from various people, but they're asking about, what are the lines gonna be this year?
32:45
And there's nobody there watching practices.
32:49
We're not gonna know unless Motsgo lets us know or until they drop the puck throughout the night.
32:56
Yeah, it's complicated.
32:58
Usually we get a glimpse at what's going on or at least who's playing together.
33:01
I just have a feeling we're gonna see a lot of things the same.
33:05
I think we'll see like that Berk Walker-McLaughlin line start out the year together.
33:10
I think Berk was pressing a lot last year and just wasn't really comfortable, but I think he gets an opportunity on that line because they have shown some success together.
33:20
Another reason I think about that is because Ranta, Reedy and McManus played really well last year.
33:25
I mean, the leading goal scorer on the team was Reedy.
33:29
And Ranta is right behind him.
33:30
It wasn't Sammy Walker.
33:32
Sammy Walker had the most points, but you look at Ranta and Reedy, they are very productive players and they're gonna be difficult to play against.
33:40
And they all need to step up, like Monsko wants them to.
33:44
I mean, all of those guys you mentioned need to jump up if this team wants to be successful.
33:49
I think part of that's gonna be a truly threatening power play.
33:54
It almost felt like last year, a lot of times they would luck into goals.
33:58
Or it wasn't like a real pretty play or puck movement that produced a lot of goals.
34:03
It was goals off the rush where you had players catching other guys out of position and taking advantage or you get kind of a block shot and they'd make a play off of that, that chaos.
34:16
It wasn't organized chaos, but they have enough talent.
34:20
When there is chaos, they can capitalize.
34:22
But I don't think that's something you can count on for a power play.
34:25
You wanna run it 30%.
34:27
That's a power play that's like 22%.
34:30
Tim Hapke asking if the BTN Ouncers are gonna be doing the games remotely.
34:34
I'm not sure on that.
34:39
They could be.
34:40
I haven't heard.
34:41
I think they might be doing it out of the Chicago studios.
34:44
Because I know radio, when the Gophers go on the road, will be doing it remotely.
34:49
Yeah, they're gonna be doing it from TCF, Bank Stadium.
34:52
So I have a feeling that's where we're headed.
34:55
I haven't heard anything one way or the other.
34:57
I know it was a little questionable whether FSN would get involved, but there's just too many moving pieces, I think, for them to dip their toe in the water.
35:06
Right now, at least.
35:08
And I'm not sure, someone's asked, do I have to suffer through climber?
35:12
People are pretty bad on climber.
35:13
But I don't believe, at least this first series, that climber will be part of the broadcast.
35:20
I believe it's gonna be our boy, Dan Kelly.
35:23
And I'm forgetting his name right now.
35:25
He was just on the media thing the other day, and I'm just totally forgetting his name.
35:31
Who knows?
35:32
But we do know that Cappy's gonna be on the other games this weekend.
35:36
Yeah, that'd be good.
35:37
We like Cappy.
35:38
Cappy's gonna join us on the podcast Sunday.
35:42
Yeah, our next podcast is gonna be on Sunday.
35:45
With this weird schedule, we wanna try to get in between, so Sunday night we'll be back, and we'll go over all this stuff and things like that.
35:52
But just kind of a heads up, we got Paul Kapanigri coming on.
35:56
He's kind of our guy to go to when we play Ohio State, and he's been more than happy to join us, so we take advantage of that as much as we can.
36:04
Veegs, let's get some predictions on the weekend.
36:07
I mean, we saw Wisconsin last week sweep Notre Dame, got to the top of the league.
36:18
Notre Dame and Arizona State now at the bottom of the standings.
36:21
Just hard code that in, just hard code that in.
36:24
I just have a feeling that Arizona State is going to struggle playing BigTen teams week in, week out.
36:31
It is relentless.
36:33
I think Bob said it earlier in the year that all seven teams in the BigTen think they can win it.
36:41
And probably all seven teams have a chance.
36:43
I mean, look at last year.
36:44
We thought Michigan State wasn't going to be very good.
36:47
They were leading the league, going into break.
36:49
Yeah, they jumped out pretty fast.
36:50
That was pretty surprising to me.
36:54
Oh boy.
36:56
I've seen all the websites not having to reprogram their standings because it's ridiculous now.
37:03
I had to go in and do some custom programming.
37:05
I looked at one site and there was just all these letters going across.
37:07
I'm like, oh my gosh, ties are gone.
37:12
It's goofy now, Veegs.
37:14
Three points for a regulation win once regulation's over.
37:17
If you win in overtime, you're not getting three points like you did before.
37:20
I think that's a good thing personally.
37:23
I want you to play for the win in regulation.
37:25
I don't want you to sit back and play to go to OT.
37:30
I do like it because it's different than the NHL.
37:33
I've always thought the NHL have always needed to go to a three point per win regulation and go from there.
37:39
They've never just, they want too much parity.
37:42
But in college hockey, I think this works.
37:44
So you've got three points for regulation win.
37:48
If you win in overtime or if you win in the shootout, you'll get two points.
37:54
If you lose in overtime or if you lose the shootout, you get one point.
37:58
So if you're getting to overtime, you're at least getting one guaranteed point.
38:01
That wasn't always the case previously in all the other iterations of Big Ten and WCHA.
38:07
So that part's a little different and something people have to get used to.
38:10
But as far as the league, there is no more ties.
38:16
It's gone.
38:16
It's gone.
38:16
It's great.
38:17
But, the big but here, according to the NCAA, it will be slightly different.
38:24
If you win in overtime, it's considered a win.
38:29
If you make it through overtime, it's a tie.
38:32
And you know, losses and what have you.
38:34
So they're doing it slightly differently.
38:36
So there are ties when it comes to the NCAA.
38:39
And if you don't like that, blame Hockey East and the ECAC.
38:46
We like to blame Cornell for quite a bit.
38:48
So let's just add it to the list.
38:51
So it is a little different.
38:53
It's a little different than what the NCAA considers a win, a loss and a tie.
38:58
And we're just gonna have to live with that.
38:59
It's been that way recently anyway.
39:03
I mean, that part's not changing.
39:06
What is gonna change is how they're gonna pick the NCAA tournament.
39:12
Who knows what's gonna happen there?
39:14
Smokey Room.
39:14
Smokey Room.
39:15
I love it.
39:16
Dilo-Chew with a Barolo.
39:18
And just going, who's the number one seed?
39:22
We'll see.
39:23
So I'm thinking sweep this week, Veegs.
39:26
I think so too.
39:27
I think that's the right call.
39:30
Penn State, who knows what they're gonna have coming back.
39:34
I think they've got some returning players, but I don't think they have the depth.
39:38
They're gonna want to play that high-paced game.
39:40
And I know Bob doesn't like it when it's brought up, but playing that style on the big sheet at Marriott Arena, not always a great idea.
39:49
Because sometimes a shot from the corner is basically like a turnover.
39:55
So I think when Penn State plays that style here, if you don't have the horses, it's tough to be successful.
40:02
Bring it on, let's go.
40:04
We are ready, Veegs.
40:06
We haven't had hockey since, was it March 4th, something early in March?
40:11
Yeah, I remember March 12th where everything started to really get shut down.
40:15
And I think that was a week after the conference tournament started to get shut down.
40:20
So it's been a while.
40:22
I know that the players are very excited to be back and to be playing against Penn State.
40:28
I think that's a big deal for them.
40:29
So I think we'll see some motivated players and the things I'm looking for.
40:34
How does the Gopher Powerplay look?
40:36
I thought it looked very uncomfortable last year.
40:40
Well, that always takes time though.
40:42
That always takes time.
40:42
I mean, it usually doesn't go off right off the bat.
40:44
Unless you can get some confidence early with some goals.
40:47
That does take some time.
40:48
You're not gonna have to do right off the bat.
40:50
They've had about two months to work on it.
40:52
And I know Bob likes to work on scoring goals.
40:55
And so one of the drills he does is he puts his Powerplay guys out there against two defenders.
41:01
And gives them that time and space to really think through what they wanna do with pucks.
41:06
And then you add in a third killer and then a fourth killer.
41:10
And the time gets less.
41:11
But when you have that extra time, you start to have more of an ability to build those pathways about how you wanna do things.
41:19
And then when you have less space, you've already thought about the couple of options you have in certain situations.
41:24
So you should be able to execute.
41:26
And they have enough returning talent to figure it out.
41:30
So I'm just interested in the personnel.
41:32
I think the scheme is gonna be pretty similar to what they've done in the past with the three players up top, the kind of net presence guys on the sides of the net and drifting out to be that bouncer player in the middle.
41:44
But we'll see what happens.
41:46
I don't know if they had true facilitators on the off wings the last couple of years.
41:52
So I'd like to see them put some guys there who maybe are a little more comfortable.
41:56
All right, I think that's going to do it for this show Veegs.
42:00
You got anything else that you can think of right off the hand before we head to overtime?
42:04
Stay tuned to GopherPuckLive.
42:06
There will be some articles posting on there.
42:09
I know that the athletic freelance budget has been a little hurt by the pandemic.
42:13
Michael Russo is obviously doing a great job keeping everybody in the hockey world informed.
42:18
But there'll be a couple of things on GPL, at least in this first half for people to enjoy.
42:22
And of course, you can always follow Vegoe at eVego on Twitter.
42:28
He's got the scoops.
42:30
Sometimes.
42:32
Well, that's going to do it for this GPL podcast.
42:34
We're glad to be back.
42:36
And we hope you like this video format.
42:37
Just a note, due to the strange hockey schedule, we'll be back Sunday evening for another live show with our guest, Paul Caponegri.
42:46
And he'll be joining us.
42:47
And then after that, we'll kind of have some goofy schedules as well.
42:51
Another Wednesday, Sunday and a week and a half after that.
42:55
So we'll just have to wait and see how it goes.
42:56
But for those of you listening live, we'll have a little bit of listening, watching too.
43:02
I'll have a bit of overtime come up for you next.
43:05
But until then, thanks for listening.
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