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 Good evening, and welcome to The GPL Podcast, episode number 181. 0:44 10 years going, Veegs. 0:47 Going strong. 0:48 That's how we do it here. 0:50 It's been fun. 0:51 It's hard to believe how quickly that time passes. 0:54 Tell me about it. 0:55 We're getting old, Veegs. 0:58 Well, our last two shows, we've had first-time guests. 1:01 You know, we had Pat McAleady, we had Wally Shaver, and now we're bringing in a guy we've seen around the rink the last few years at Mary Uchee. 1:08 Randy Johnson from the Star Tribune. 1:11 Randy, thanks for joining us. 1:13 Oh, thanks for having me. 1:14 This should be fun. 1:15 I'm looking forward to talking a little hockey and picking your guys' brains too. 1:20 Well, tell us a little bit about yourself. 1:22 You know what I mean? 1:23 We've seen quite a few people come and go at the U. 1:26 I must say the most entertaining may have been Roman Augustovitz, but for us, it was just a miracle. 1:35 We were waiting for his pants to fall down and they just don't seem to fall down. 1:39 It was just a miracle. 1:42 And you giggle because you're like, yeah, yeah, that's Roman. 1:49 So what's your background? 1:49 How did you get sent over and on the gopher hockey duty a few years ago? 1:54 Well, you know, I've been at the Star Tribune since 2000. 1:59 Before that, I was at the Pioneer Press for five years. 2:01 But from basically 2000 to the summer 2017, I was on the copy and layout desk working that. 2:09 I was doing a lot of the hockey stuff. 2:11 Basically hockey and football were my main two things. 2:17 Things opened up where I was able to get the Gophers football beat in the summer of 2017. 2:26 Along with that went the hockey, which I thoroughly enjoyed. 2:31 I've followed college hockey since basically my college days. 2:37 Basically, it turned out pretty good. 2:41 And then a year later, we started Puck Drop, our email newsletter and website. 2:50 I'm the producer of that, which I pretty much do a little bit of everything on there. 2:55 Write, edit, coordinate, and all that. 2:59 So it's going pretty good. 3:01 What's involved in that too is a lot of college hockey coverage. 3:05 And we found that that's one area where we were probably needed to punch it up a bit. 3:12 And I think we've done a nice job doing that. 3:14 We've not only hit the Gophers, but the other schools in the state quite a bit. 3:18 And it had a good time when you look at right now, you got four of the top six ranked teams in the country from Minnesota. 3:25 So it's pretty good. 3:26 And I'll throw a plug out for our email newsletter. 3:30 It's startubune.com/puckdropsign up. 3:34 So it's a free newsletter, comes in your email box. 3:38 I'm going to have one tomorrow, basically once or twice a week, depending on the week. 3:44 And then we'll wrap it up, state tournament time. 3:46 We've done maybe three or four times a week. 3:50 So it's... 3:50 Right around noon, right? 3:53 I try to shoot for it at noon. 3:54 I mean, that was more based on, you know, downtown people in line to get their burrito or whatever for lunch. 4:01 You know, they got their mobile device out. 4:03 Well, you know, not as many people downtown in line anymore, people at home. 4:09 So you know, it's a little more flexible, but like a couple weeks ago, we waited for some news to break, which did and then went probably an hour or two later than usual. 4:20 So it's pretty flexible there. 4:23 How has your adjustment been for COVID? 4:26 I mean, we were talking before we went on the air here how you had so many interviews today, but you weren't probably going driving all over town to get those interviews. 4:35 You're probably on your laptop doing a Zoom meeting. 4:37 So it's a different world. 4:40 Sure is. 4:40 Yeah, it's I kind of miss being at the rink. 4:45 You know, not very often now. 4:46 Actually, I haven't been in Mariucci except for games so far this year. 4:50 You know, there's just no access right now. 4:53 Now that'll change, I suppose, you know, maybe high schools, things like that. 4:58 We'll do some things there. 5:00 The funny thing, it was the whole, when everything shut down last March, it was a weird situation for me because back in early January, I had shoulder surgery. 5:13 So I was out for six weeks. 5:15 You know, Deutch was, Brian Deutch, the SID, the Gophers, was quite happy that I wasn't there because he thought it would be a bit of a change early in the season. 5:26 And then I saw you in the club room one night, beer in one hand, sling in the other. 5:31 Yeah, well, you know, basically, hey, I'm eating all this year. 5:39 That's great, that's me. 5:43 Anyway. 5:43 Maybe it was your surgery that turned things around for the program. 5:49 I think we should share that with Bob next time we see him. 5:52 Yeah, I think so. 5:53 Yeah. 5:53 But when I got back, I got back in mid February and then, you know, less than a month later, basically, boom, season shut down. 6:00 So it's like, I had kind of like been on a shelf and sequestered at home for a while there to begin this, begin the year. 6:08 And then since then, it's like, okay, getting to know your house a lot better. 6:14 Yeah, I finally spruced up my office behind me, just because I was getting sick of looking at what was there before too. 6:22 But onto the team, Vegs, the last time we left, they were 6-0 heading into Michigan. 6:27 And boy, they went and took care of Michigan, even though each team was missing quite a few star players. 6:36 Yeah, I think when we first looked at that weekend on the schedule, it was going to be a really important weekend for the Big Ten. 6:43 You look at the talent on Minnesota and Michigan's rosters, it looks like it's the best in the league. 6:49 And the way Michigan was playing to start the year, it's like, oh, this is going to be something. 6:54 And then because USA Hockey bumped up their camp date with the quarantine starting earlier, all the players that we were expecting to play in that series all had to leave their teams and go to Ann Arbor. 7:06 So they were just a couple minutes away quarantining, but they missed the series. 7:11 And it was going to be curious what Minnesota is able to do losing their top three defensemen who seem to be puck moving defensemen. 7:18 And that's been the key for them this year is transitioning really quickly into their offensive game. 7:24 And I was worried going in how it was going to look and they played smart hockey. 7:31 I know Garrett Raboyne talked with Jess Myers this week and he said, you know, a lot of people think we're this fancy high scoring team. 7:38 We're not. 7:39 We're a four check back check team that wins on a lot of effort and special teams. 7:46 And I think we saw that in Michigan. 7:48 And on top of that, goaltending, Jack LaFontaine went back to his first school and he really stood on his head that second night. 7:57 He did, Randy. 7:58 And you were with me when we were watching LaFontaine getting interviewed after that game and he was so emotional. 8:10 And you know, you don't see that a lot. 8:15 I was like, I was surprised, you know, that it's caught me off guard, like, whoa, okay, yeah, this moment is really him. 8:23 And I imagine it's just the, all he went through over the years, Den Pound, Michigan, the way he wanted it to, going up to Penticton and working his way back and now working his way to where he's basically top goal in the number one team in the country. 8:40 It's not being possibly his last appearance at Yostu, had to play into it quite a bit. 8:48 And Vegas, he gave up one goal on the weekend. 8:51 He played outstanding. 8:52 It wasn't, he's had some easy weekends, I think, so far where he hasn't been tested a whole lot, maybe a couple of rushes here and there. 8:59 But in that Michigan series, he was tested quite a bit and he answered the bell. 9:04 And anyone who's been around the team since he's been on the roster knows that he's a go-to guy. 9:11 If you want to get the pulse of the team or something, he's a great guy to talk to. 9:15 He's very articulate, very smart. 9:17 He wants to be a freelance writer after school while he pursues his pro hockey career. 9:22 And he's got a lot of the intangibles to do that. 9:26 Well, it was refreshing to see it. 9:29 We all were kind of taken aback by it. 9:38 But boy, you know, we've seen a few players come along the last few years. 9:44 I think of Justin Kloos, you know, he would go and swear at a postgame because he really cared. 9:50 And you could tell that LaFontaine really appreciates how he was taken in on this team. 9:57 And you know, he even put in his time, you know, Veegs, I think you've said a few times that he was helping, you know, the freshmen with all the gear and stuff last year. 10:08 And then they're like, you don't need to do that. 10:10 But he wanted to be part of the team. 10:11 And the team really did accept him in, Veegs. 10:14 Yeah, I mean, he's definitely a guy who wants to pay his dues and earn respect, however he can do it, whether it's staying late after practice when he first got to the team to give the shooters a look, working extra with the goalie coaches, helping out with the bags on the bus and picking up pucks. 10:31 And he's a guy who wants to be a good teammate and you can see it really matters to him. 10:35 And he deflects a lot of his glory onto his teammates, always commenting how good they are at blocking shots, how they keep the puck at the other end of the ice and makes his job a lot easier. 10:49 And this is a locker room that's got a lot of good things going for it right now. 10:53 I don't know if that's something we've seen a whole lot in the past decade. 10:57 You know, and this isn't a team where it's 21 Ubers or whatever, but, you know, there's definitely been some separation at times over the last couple of years. 11:05 And this team does seem pretty tight right now. 11:08 And Randy, as a reporter, Randy, you've got to love LaFontaine because he gives good quotes. 11:14 Yeah, he's a go to on that. 11:16 I mean, early in the season, he's describing Ben Meyer as a silverback, you know, the way he's pushing up doing push ups in the off season and everything. 11:31 So yeah, you've really seen how, you know, Bob's talked a lot about how much he likes this team that he going back to last year and personality's players. 11:41 And that's really coming through this year as, you know, last year, I think we saw a little bit of the humor, a little bit of the goofiness he'll talk about. 11:48 This year, we're seeing parts of that still. 11:50 But then the, you know, these guys are serious about winning. 11:52 You know, and it probably took a little bit of time for that to come out last year. 11:59 You know, they took their lumps in that pretty tough non-conference schedule early on last year, like playing the Duluths in the North Dakotas. 12:07 So it's, you know, they, you know, they had, they had to grow and they did. 12:11 And then just with the offseason, what they were able to accomplish together and just the natural improvement after from freshman to sophomore and sophomore to junior. 12:21 And you're, you know, yeah, you're, you're, you're seeing, you're seeing how serious this team is about winning, which it's, it's, it's something that's, it's noticeable. 12:31 I guess I'd say. 12:32 And Veegs, the winning, now 8-0, leading the Big Ten, has vaulted them up to the number one spot in the country. 12:40 It's been a while since I've been there. 12:43 I know you always like to say, hey, whoa, hold on, we still got a lot of season left. 12:47 But after the kind of years we've had, it's kind of nice to have Minnesota up on top right now. 12:55 It is nice for this fan base to see. 12:58 Yes. 12:58 I mean, they have gone through a lot the last couple of years with the coaching transition, seeing all the distractions in the team. 13:05 You know, Minnesota was really hit by the early departure syndrome that hit college hockey. 13:12 And that was something that no one was really prepared for, who had a team like Minnesota. 13:17 And it took a while to figure out how to handle that. 13:20 And I just felt like Lucia wanted to finish his coaching tenure at the U on a high note and just try to make it happen. 13:28 And it just wasn't, you know, the roster makeup was never quite enough to get over the hump. 13:34 And it's kind of funny, you know, this team, some of these defensemen, they were recruited by Scott Bell and Don Lucia, Mike Gensel, Grant Petone. 13:43 Some of those coaches have this roster that's been put together that is the way to win in college hockey. 13:49 You bring in experienced players who put in their time in junior hockey, you blend them with some late ads like a Ben Myers, transfer goalie and Jack LaFontaine, who's an older kid now relatively. 14:02 And you have a recipe for success and they play great hockey. 14:07 It's fun to watch. 14:07 They don't make a lot of mistakes and they still create some offense and their special teams are great. 14:14 One thing that Randy and I kind of touched on before you jumped on Veegs is that it's going to be an interesting process to decide the teams this year for the NCAA tournament. 14:26 We've got some folks over in the NCHC who think we should do it one way and another. 14:33 Randy, what are your initial thoughts on all that's going on right now? 14:37 Well, Josh Fenton came out in the Grand Forks, Harold, and he's a very good commissioner in that conference. 14:45 Basically, he'd like to see the NCAA use a historical look. 14:51 I'll go back to say when the NCAA and the BigTen came into being in 2013-14 and go from there and do an average of number of bids. 15:06 That favors hockey with the average four year. 15:10 You round up the NCAA, it's four year. 15:12 The BigTen, you round down, it's just above two, the WCHA is just above two, so there are a couple of conferences that are sure to say, no, we don't want it that way. 15:28 Obviously NCHC has been the power in the last four and a half years, but the BigTen, a couple of years ago, 2018, they put three teams in the Frozen Four, so there's something to be said about having more than two bids for that conference for sure. 15:44 You look at the WCHA this year, they've got some contenders to put more than two into the tournament. 15:50 It's going to be interesting, I think you look at with the ECAC only playing, only having four teams this year, maybe they don't get the bids. 16:01 Maybe it's a situation where you're, Bill Robertson had thrown this out, give two bids per conference for most conferences and then add in the at-large. 16:15 But it's going to be more subjective this year, you're going to have some, since the pair wise won't work, because you're not, teams playing outside of conference to get the comparisons, yeah, it's going to be, the eye test is going to hold a lot of weight this year, I would think. 16:34 And Veegs, we have heard nothing from the NCAA. 16:38 We don't even know if they're going to even put on a tournament. 16:42 Right. 16:43 They've been very cautious on what the future looks like for NCAA hockey. 16:48 I don't think they've even really confirmed that the Frozen Four site is going to be, I think it's Pittsburgh this year. 16:55 They haven't even confirmed that that's for sure where they're going to be. 16:58 I know for the Hobie Baker, when we talked to Wally Shaver, he brought that up, that that's still kind of unconfirmed, which is kind of awkward being that it's almost January and Frozen Four comes around pretty quick after that. 17:12 So we'll see. 17:13 I can't see that ECAC making too much hay about getting a lot of their teams involved in the NCAA tournament if it happens. 17:22 I think Hockey East, it's going to be real challenging for them. 17:26 They've had so many cancellations and they've had so many missteps on getting their teams to play games so you can even get a book of record on them or a book of business, as Mike Hastings likes to talk about. 17:37 The NCHC, you know, they're beating themselves up. 17:43 So it's really hard to tell, is that fourth or fifth team going to truly be deserving because we haven't seen that team play outside the conference and yes, I totally understand what Josh Fenton is doing. 17:55 It's his job to hype up that league and he's done a great job promoting that league as the top league in college hockey and his team has proven it with their elite teams in the Frozen Four winning so many titles, but we just don't know the depth of the league. 18:09 We always know that they have at least three really good teams and with the bottom three teams that league just haven't been very good lately. 18:16 So, it is going to be curious to see. 18:18 I'm still up in the air in how good the Big Ten is. 18:20 We've seen Minnesota be so dominant and Michigan was good early, but then they had some struggles. 18:27 Who are the other teams in the Big Ten that we think are the best teams for an NCAA tournament? 18:31 Well, Wisconsin is the closest right now. 18:33 Wisconsin is playing better than we probably thought they were. 18:37 Record wise, they've been playing better, but I just I haven't seen it on the ice where I know how good they can be. 18:44 Coughfield has been very good in the World Junior for the USA team. 18:48 He's looked good for Wisconsin, but as last year showed us, you know, they struggled at times too. 18:54 They had a lot of talent, but whether or not they can put it together over a season, we'll see. 18:58 You know, it's only a snapshot this first half of the season. 19:02 There's so much to be determined in the second half. 19:05 And Randy, like Vegoe said, you know, if you look at hockey, they've had a lot of cancellations. 19:12 NCHC is going to have a cancellation this weekend. 19:14 It's, you know, Big Ten, Wisconsin's had some cancellations. 19:17 It's just a matter of time before, you know, a team Minnesota plays or Minnesota themselves. 19:22 There's going to be cancellations. 19:23 This is just the beginning. 19:26 Yeah, it's, we're not going to get a nice clean slate. 19:29 I mean, you look at the Gophers, the Gophers got through the first portion on skates and your hesitant to pat yourselves or pat themselves in the back in that situation. 19:41 Because you never know what's coming around the corner. 19:44 You look at the women's side of the WCHA, how that's been really decimated. 19:47 Oh boy. 19:49 You just don't know what's going to happen each week. 19:54 It's a mess. 19:56 We do know that the Big Ten has planned in that week at the end of the season for make ups and I think by them scheduling this back to every weekend format for their teams, they do have some flexibility to fit in extra games here and there if they need to because of cancellations. 20:12 So I'm thinking the Big Ten is going to be able to figure this out and have a second half where we can at least have some hockey and get through it. 20:21 But if it gets into a team and gets rampant, hockey is a game where you can't be missing too many players. 20:28 And, you know, the Gophers have already had some injury issues here and they've had players try to play through it. 20:33 Sounds like they get McManus back this week, but Weber is going to be gone for the year with that back surgery that he had. 20:40 So you know, there's not a lot of wiggle room there on a roster. 20:44 Well, let's get into that Arizona State Series here in a little bit. 20:47 But first we need to hear from our sponsor. 20:51 Hey fellow GPLers, this is Jerry Peters from First Class Mortgage. 20:56 Your interest rates are near all time lows and property values are on the rise. 21:00 Lower your interest rate and remove monthly PMI at the same time to save thousands of dollars. 21:05 Or use the equity in your home for debt consolidation and home improvement. 21:09 The housing market is still hot, so make sure you're prepared by getting a pre-approval letter from me before you start shopping. 21:16 Mention you heard about me on the GPL Podcast and receive a $300 closing cost credit. 21:21 Some restrictions do apply. 21:23 Call me today at 612-940- 21:26 Call us at 1-800-3291 or visit firstclassmortgage.com to fill out a free online application. 21:33 My NMLS number is 480200. 21:36 First Class Mortgage is 322842. 21:39 This is not an offer to lock into an interest rate agreement under Minnesota law. 21:43 First Class Mortgage is an equal housing lender. 21:48 And of course, we always like to thank Jerry for sponsoring the GPL Podcast. 21:52 He's signed up for the rest of this season, so we look forward to hearing more from Jerry. 21:58 And user services, he said quite a few of you have already signed up for, you know, some read the refinancing or getting a new house. 22:06 So give Jerry a good rates out there right now. 22:10 Well, it's a good economy to refinance a house if you can. 22:13 It's always good rates. 22:14 It seems like as we get older, the rates just keep going better and better down and down and down. 22:19 I mean, you ask our parents, oh, boy, it's a little different in the 80s. 22:26 I think I got down to like 9 percent. 22:28 And before that, it was like 18. 22:29 I'm like, holy cow. 22:31 So take advantage of Jerry there. 22:35 Veegs, have you seen any good questions in the YouTube chat? 22:41 You know, there's a lot of questions about whether or not the Gophers are going to add anybody to their roster. 22:48 Jess Myers has been wetting the palate of everybody over this break, hinting at someone who would commit. 22:55 I can share that I know Matthew Kniez was interested in maybe joining the U for the second half. 23:03 He's a player who's already committed. 23:05 He's a draft eligible player. 23:07 He's playing for Tri-City in the USHL. 23:08 The USHL has been a tough league to develop in this year with so many cancellations in that league of games. 23:15 I think it's difficult for players to kind of find their game. 23:19 He struggled a little bit. 23:21 He's only got a couple of points so far and a handful of games he's been able to play. 23:26 So I think he's looking at, you know, what do I need to do to get back? 23:30 Didn't really work out as a good fit for him to be at the U for a midyear player edition. 23:37 And then there was thoughts of maybe, you know, another uncommitted player coming into the program early who is also a USHL guy. 23:46 I think that's out the window too. 23:47 There's just too much going on there to make that move. 23:52 Sounds like a transfer is the one coming in. 23:54 I know he's left his other program and is already in the portal. 23:58 So those of you on GPL who've seen that thread on players in the portal, this player is in there. 24:05 We'll see if it comes to fruition. 24:09 It's not going to be a superstar, it's probably going to be an added person on the bench. 24:14 It's probably dressing if there's problems. 24:18 Is that realistic right now? 24:19 It's not somebody coming in to rescue a season. 24:23 It's not a season rescuer. 24:24 It's a depth player who wants to be at Minnesota and it's a player who could fill in and give you a solid player who's going to be able to compete hard and be difficult to play against. 24:34 You know, when Garrett Boyne talks about this team being a four-check, back-check type team, this is a player that would be that kind of guy. 24:43 He would add to that. 24:45 He's not going to be a high-scoring player. 24:47 Minnesota doesn't really need high-scoring players. 24:49 They need their high-scoring players to get going. 24:52 And so every time you hear Coach Motzko talk, he's like, we got to get Walker and McLaughlin going. 24:57 Yep. 24:59 We're halfway through. 25:00 Walker's got a little bit going. 25:02 He's got a little bit going on the special teams here and there, but I'm still looking for more from him, five on five. 25:06 He's just got so much acceleration and pace. 25:10 When he's on his game, he is picking pockets and he is putting pressure all over the ice. 25:17 I think there's at times where he gets into a little bit of a funk and having McManus on his line to kind of ease that funk and pressure is a really good thing. 25:27 And I'm interested to see how that line plays against ASU because it's going to be a more wide open game. 25:33 The Sun Devils like to put sun on the offense and not so much on the defense and it could be a fun weekend to watch. 25:41 Well, it is our favorite time of year because the World Juniors are now playing. 25:44 Have you guys been watching it? 25:46 Randy, have you been catching any of those games? 25:48 Yeah, I haven't watched every game, but I've seen all the US games and the Russia game was a little tough to start. 25:56 They rebounded obviously. 25:58 You can't take a whole lot from the Austria game, but the Czech game, you know, quite impressive I thought the way they solved that shut down Czech approach and then just took over the game in the second period and just rolled. 26:15 And these, I don't know if you remember going back, you probably do, but you know, when it was in the nineties and we'd have these players leave for the world juniors, they would come back, they'd be very tired, but they would come back early because back then the US did nothing. 26:31 They weren't contenders at all. 26:34 Yeah, it's a little different how much USA hockey has invested in developing the under 20 player and how much better American hockey is now for that age group than it used to be. 26:47 I felt like American hockey, you'd have a handful of guys who were Minnesota high school kids, Michigan high school kids, Massachusetts high school kids who could maybe turn into a player, but it usually took a while. 27:00 They weren't really ready on the world stage at 18, 19, 20 years old to compete against the world's best. 27:07 That's changed and USA is a medal favorite all the time and Minnesota has competition for roster spots on the US team because there's so many more hockey players now playing and the USHL and the NHL have grown so much that these players have opportunities to develop at that age level. 27:27 Well, I can jump on that. 27:29 We've got Tim Hapke asking on Twitter, have you guys heard the protocols will be for players returning from the world juniors? 27:38 Do they have to be done for two weeks, 10 days? 27:41 Do either of you know, Veegs? 27:44 I reached out to our friend over at Wisconsin land, Todd Maluski. 27:51 He heard from Granado that players will be expected to come back on Wednesday. 27:57 They will do a test on Thursday and then a test on Friday and if they clear those tests, they should be ready for that next weekend. 28:06 So while the Big Ten protocol I think is a little bit more extended because they've been in this USA Hockey testing protocol, they're going to maybe bend the rules. 28:15 I'm interested to talk to Coach Mobsco tomorrow and see if that's what he's expecting the protocol to be. 28:21 But Todd's going to be writing about that tomorrow in the paper for themadison.com. 28:27 It won't be based on school, it will be based on league because I mean, you think about that. 28:31 I mean, all of a sudden you come back next week and Coach Caulfield is back and then all of a sudden our guys aren't back? 28:39 I would think that it would be the same protocol for all teams in the Big Ten. 28:42 I think that's one of the reasons why ASU is a team that's in the non-conference piece of this schedule is because they're a team that will follow the protocols. 28:52 So I think we can expect the players to be back if they test negative those couple days, but we'll see. 28:59 Boy, it's a fun time of the year though. 29:02 It's fun. 29:03 This tournament has become just gigantic. 29:06 I mean, really in the last 10 years, it's just ramped up because it's on TV a lot more now than it was back in the day, but it's really ramped up. 29:13 And it also helps that Team USA has been competitive too. 29:17 Yeah, I think it's too bad that Austria and Germany and Switzerland don't have great teams this year. 29:21 So we're seeing a lot of blowouts in the games and that's just not good for anybody. 29:27 You know, if anyone's unfamiliar with the World Junior Tournament, the way teams get promoted and relegated is, you know, the last place finishers for one year go down to the next pool and the top teams from the pool below come up into the championship pool. 29:43 And you know, if you have a great player for one of those teams, like a Stutzel or Dry's Diddle, you know, your team can go up, but if they go to the NHL and they don't keep playing or, you know, the group below them isn't very good, that country can get blown out the next year and get relegated. 30:00 So it's a tricky thing. 30:02 When we get to the knockouts, I think it will be more exciting and more competitive and a lot more fun to watch. 30:08 And that's coming up pretty soon here. 30:10 I think we've got our last games of the pool play tomorrow and then they'll get in the middle round play. 30:15 And it's going to be fun to watch. 30:17 I think the US with their goaltending, if they can get that figured out, it'll be good TV. 30:23 Well let's move, excuse me, back. 30:25 I've got the Hockey Fan 2020 asking yesterday. 30:28 We'll throw this towards you, Randy. 30:30 Do we have any word on attendance at the games this year or is the U going to keep it shut down the entire year? 30:37 I think that's really dependent on Governor Walz. 30:42 I think it's going to be shut down until the state lifts it. 30:50 Earlier this summer, there were a lot of stuff in Canterbury and the St. 30:54 Stadium, but everything is locked down so tight that you're not going to get anything indoor. 31:00 You look at the high schools now, the players are going to have to be wearing masks playing hockey. 31:07 That's going to be interesting to see how that works out. 31:10 Yeah. 31:11 Vigz, I know she kind of smiled about that. 31:13 What are your thoughts on that? 31:15 Well, I've been coaching youth hockey all year and I have to wear a mask because I'm coaching and I've had my kids wearing masks and I've gone for my runs wearing masks because the trails can be kind of crowded sometimes and I do think some of it's overblown. 31:30 If you're having trouble breathing through a mask, to me, I think there could be some asthma things that you should go see your doctor about. 31:37 It's a little bit annoying because of the humidity and how wet masks can get. 31:42 But if you're wearing that, I think it's a little bit of an overblown thing. 31:47 Some of the things we've been seeing about hockey rinks and transmission and some of the cases that have come out, it's pretty compelling stuff. 31:56 And we're so close to having vaccines and the hospital capacity to take care of everyone. 32:04 Just be patient and please cooperate, people. 32:08 I want to be back in the rink so bad, and I want to see the players playing these games. 32:13 And we're getting close. 32:16 To see the case numbers come down like they have over the holidays in Minnesota has been nice to see. 32:21 And the pause is lifting here for U Sports, and the kids will be on the ice again. 32:27 It'll be nice to see them get back out there. 32:30 I actually, now that it's cold out, when you're inside Target or something else and you come outside and you got your mask on, it's not so bad because you're not as cold. 32:39 Well, we were at the Oval just yesterday during the snowstorm skating around. 32:43 And, you know, it was nice to have the mask on during the snowstorm. 32:47 We just needed the goggles and we would be able to skate all night. 32:50 Oh, I was outside for that Jupiter Saturn thing and that was a cold night. 32:54 And I'm like, oh, I'm glad I have this thing on because I need the mask because I was freezing cold. 32:59 That was so cold. 33:02 Another question, Hockey Fan 2020, well, he's pretty positive. 33:07 He thinks he's looking at the team going 15 and 5. 33:10 I'm not sure, Randy, this team is ready to go 15 and 5. 33:13 They're going to have some definite bumps in the road. 33:15 But I do see it hard for other teams to maybe catch up to Minnesota since they've had such a good start. 33:23 Yeah, they've built a nice lead. 33:25 You know, it's one bad weekend and it can go away, but they've built a good lead. 33:29 You're going to see adversity here, you know, they haven't trailed. 33:32 They haven't a lot of power play goals. 33:35 Those things, they'll fix something, you know, sooner or later, they'll be behind in the game. 33:43 I don't think it would be time to panic necessarily if they lose a game or two. 33:50 No, it's hockey, you know, I don't think this is that main team with Paul Correa that, what was their record, you know, two or three losses all year, I forget the exact number, but yeah, it's, they'll face adversity and I think that could be a good thing too. 34:09 But I don't think we'll see LaFontaine with a 9-6-5 all season. 34:13 No. 34:14 I mean, that's, he's played really outstanding and he's a good blend of being technical and being athletic, but even those top technical goalies will have an off night here and there and we might see that at some point, but he's been very steady. 34:31 But also think of this, the team defense in front of him has been much better. 34:35 I mean, you've been talking about all this season about these defensemen, they're more patient, they look, they make the smart play out of the zone when they need to. 34:46 There's not a lot of those, you know, coming into the offensive zone, blue line giveaways that we know you really hate. 34:55 I mean, so the team defense is doing much better than previous years. 35:00 Yeah, I think Rab's hit it on the head when he said they're playing 160 foot game because they don't have to worry about that last 40 feet because their defensemen are so quick on puck retrievals and they're so adept at checking their shoulder, knowing where the pressure is and skating away from it. 35:17 Still often in the last couple of years, we've seen Gopher defensemen do the shoulder check, but it's almost like they were just doing that to show that they could do it rather than learn from it. 35:28 You know, really great players when they look over and they see that snapshot of the ice, they don't have to think about it very much. 35:35 They just get to the puck and they know what they saw and they know where to go and they know their first option and they're able to get the puck moving the other direction. 35:43 And that's been so impressive to see this year is how smoothly they get out. 35:47 And I think also we've seen the centers be connected with the D and that helps because if you can start your offensive breakout with three players below the dots, all in sync and in the right spacing, it makes it so much easier for everybody else. 36:04 And to see them be able to do that game in and game out has been impressive. 36:08 The times they've gotten in trouble, it's maybe being too quick to get the puck into the scoring areas in the offensive zone and that gets the puck going the other way and then they have to play defense. 36:18 But we haven't seen the issues at the offensive blue line where they turn the puck over and goes the other way or their own blue line, failing to get out. 36:25 And at the opposite end, Randy, their forecheck has been much improved this year. 36:30 They're doing it smarter or they're even putting the puck in better areas where they know they can get to it. 36:36 Yeah, it's just all around, you know, they've had the puck so much this year. 36:40 Yes. 36:41 Look at the faceoffs, how much they've improved in that area. 36:45 And that just flowed throughout the game. 36:47 You know, the only game, the only series that they had a little trouble that was Michigan State because Michigan State is really good on that. 36:55 But they figure out a way to negate that and basically still stuck right with them after a little struggles. 37:04 But yeah, the entire package has been fun to watch this year. 37:10 I mean, it just seems like Vegoe is saying they're reacting, then they're not having to think about what their next step is. 37:19 And they're anticipating on that four-check, you know, they're on the puck before the puck is moving to that space because they understand the four-checks and the aggressiveness needed. 37:28 I think so many times in Bob's first year, there'd be two players on the puck, which kills your four-check because now you've got two players out of the play and you've got four or five coming at your remaining three. 37:41 You don't see that anymore. 37:42 The first guy knows that he's the first guy and he's four-checker F1. 37:46 He's there. 37:47 F2 knows where to go. 37:49 F3 is there. 37:50 And the D know how to pinch and the fours know how to cover. 37:53 It's fun to watch because we haven't seen it for a while. 37:57 And they've got it going right now. 37:59 And now we've got Arizona State coming into town. 38:01 Arizona playing every game on the road this year. 38:04 Just to help out the Big Ten. 38:06 I know, Veegs, you kind of joked earlier that, well, we'll just slight them into last place this year because if we were to put them in there, they're going to end up last place. 38:16 But I don't think they'd be in last place right now, Veegs. 38:19 They're playing pretty well. 38:20 They've played pretty well. 38:22 They've caught some teams like Wisconsin when they had their COVID issues and had the short lineup. 38:27 But I think one of the things that can keep ASU and games overseas is they can score goals. 38:32 They've got a lot of veteran players who have either transferred in or committed late who are developed players. 38:38 That allows ASU to compete right now. 38:41 And I think that's the big worry for the Gophers right now is because they are still missing their three defensemen who are going to be at the World Juniors, not back for the series. 38:50 That concerns you. 38:52 If we saw last year in the ASU Minnesota Series where there are a lot of penalties on a special teams time, that could be a challenge this series. 39:01 So it'll be interesting to see what Minnesota is able to do. 39:04 If they play the game that they played in the first half where they don't turn the puck over and they don't take bad penalties, it should be an easy weekend for them. 39:12 But it's college hockey and these are young kids. 39:15 So you never know. 39:16 And that's why the game is so fun. 39:17 And Randy, Arizona State does not want to get into a special teams game with Minnesota. 39:22 I mean, we've seen the power play doing pretty well. 39:26 The penalty kill is even, I mean, obviously, they haven't given up a goal yet, but they're bound to. 39:31 But this is not somewhere Arizona State wants to go into. 39:36 Yeah, I was on the Zoom call yesterday with Greg Powers, their coach. 39:41 He basically said exactly what you said. 39:43 It's like just saying the Gophers special teams have just been out of this world. 39:47 And that's something that they don't want to have to face those situations as much. 39:52 The thing this weekend is they're hopeful, not certain that they'll get Johnny Walker back. 40:00 Basically, their leading scorer. 40:05 Powers said he'll be back for sure for the Notre Dame Series the following week. 40:10 But there's a chance he's back for this one. 40:12 So that would be a big boost to that lineup. 40:15 They've cobbled together with some different folks, but I'm sure they won't have Walker in there if they can. 40:23 Go ahead, Bees. 40:24 They were missing him last year in the series against Minnesota. 40:27 And there was a lot of hype about ASU being a tournament team coming to Mariucci. 40:33 And it just wasn't an impressive weekend. 40:36 I think a lot of Minnesota fans were saying, I'll be happy if Minnesota and Arizona State don't play again, because the games got chippy and kind of out of hand. 40:45 And I think part of that was Johnny Walker was missing for that weekend. 40:49 With him back in, you'd think Arizona State could be a different team. 40:53 And Sean Doogie, who's had a lot of good weekends against Minnesota over his career, was on their roster. 41:00 So he'll be a fun player to see play against Minnesota, because I'm sure he'll be excited for the weekend. 41:07 They have a local kid, Jax Murray, who's played pretty well for him, too, Elk River kid. 41:13 He's got, I believe it's five goals and three assists on the air. 41:17 So he was looking, I talked to him earlier, he's looking forward to get back here, even though he won't be able to see his family as much as he'd like. 41:24 But it's the whole COVID issue. 41:27 Okay, so from the fan's perspective here, Veegs, has Arizona gotten any cleaner in their play? 41:35 Because you know, there were a couple of times, I mean, you got a little bad last year, but you know, even before that, we had some guys sticking out some knees and things like that. 41:43 And it has not been very clean from the Arizona State side. 41:47 No, and they've taken some bad penalties this year, too. 41:50 So it's been something, you know, I'm not going to say it's a character problem with a program or anything like that. 41:56 But sometimes when you got guys who have been passed over, sometimes when you've got guys who've been passed over for a while, you know, there's some reasons for that, where they're going to mete out some punishment when they get frustrated. 42:10 We'll see what happens. 42:11 You know, if the game's close, I don't think we'll see that kind of stuff. 42:13 If it gets out of hand, maybe we will, you know, they're a program that wants to make their mark and show that they belong and compete in this kind of game. 42:22 And compete in this conference. 42:24 And compete in this conference, because this is a team that fits financial wise. 42:29 I know Pat Nicoletti, when we had him on, didn't like the fit geographically or hockey historically, you know, reasons. 42:36 But you know, in terms of money and the kind of institution ASU is, you know, they're a fit as an eighth team for the Big Ten. 42:43 You know, they've got plenty of money, plenty of facilities. 42:46 Heck, I mean, they're on a 40 day road trip here for the hockey program, all while doing COVID testing. 42:51 You know, they want to be in the Big Ten. 42:54 You know, they're building that facility that's going to be ready in two years. 42:59 They want to be at this level. 43:01 And Randy, you know, the Strib wants to send you down to Arizona State at some point. 43:06 I would hope so. 43:08 They must. 43:08 I mean, that's only fair. 43:10 Actually when Mike Russo was working for us, he did a big, he was probably involved when they were, when the wild was down, one of the coyotes, but he did a big takeout piece on the Sun Devils as they were turning, but yeah, hey, I'm, I'm, I'm up for that trip. 43:27 I know we do our GPL podcasts from, yeah, we're going to do it from Jeremy's house. 43:31 As you, yeah. 43:32 We'll do it from Jeremy's house, maybe Bacardio's house. 43:36 One of the two, a couple of formal rooms that, uh, Veegs and I played with hockey with now living down in the Phoenix area, a bunch of jerks. 43:48 So we've got a hockey rink across the street from my house though. 43:50 I love it here. 43:52 That is one thing I think that our boy Jeremy doesn't like. 43:55 There you go. 43:56 Finding ice down in Arizona is not easy. 43:58 He probably, he should just hang up his skates because he sucks anyway, but I'm taking personal shots. 44:04 I shouldn't do that. 44:05 Um, well, let's get your predictions on the weekend here guys. 44:08 Uh, Randy, you know, we've got Arizona State, they're not a bad team. 44:11 Minnesota's got some defensemen gone. 44:14 Everyone's had some, quite a bit of time off here. 44:17 How do you predict this? 44:19 Ah, putting me on the spot here, I mean, too much on a prediction. 44:27 I'll go, uh, I'll go, the, the, the train keeps running here, um, I'll go, um, 4132. 44:36 Gophers. 44:38 He's given scores even. 44:41 We don't usually do that, Randy. 44:44 Oh, well, hey, I'm, I'm, I'm, this is not for gambling purposes, it's from that way. 44:51 Yeah, yeah, gambling is illegal at Bushwood and I always. 44:54 Oh, boy. 44:56 Don't, it's not smart to gamble on college kids. 44:59 They're so unpredictable. 45:01 So I do think the train keeps rolling as well. 45:04 I thought maybe Michigan would steal some points from Gophers. 45:08 I thought Michigan State might be able to steal some points, Ohio State. 45:11 I've been kind of hedging my bets a little bit here and there, but I was impressed with the way Minnesota played against Michigan without their top three defensemen. 45:19 You did call that sweep in Michigan, though. 45:21 I did. 45:22 I did. 45:22 I had to do it because Michigan was missing so many players as well. 45:26 But I think against ASU, Minnesota is going to be too much on the big ice. 45:31 I think last year when ASU played, it just wasn't a fair fight and Minnesota looked head and shoulders above the Sun Devils. 45:41 I think we might see something like that again this weekend. 45:44 The key thing is the layoff. 45:46 How do players come off of it? 45:49 It can be kind of tricky because I know Minnesota took a bunch of days off going into the Christmas holiday because that's when they're going to do their break. 45:57 They've tried to ramp up practices, I think, leading up to this weekend. 46:01 McManus has been playing without a cross on his jersey. 46:04 McManus is back. 46:07 He's going to be in the availability tomorrow, so that's probably a good sign of his health. 46:12 I think he's a key player to get McLaughlin and Walker going. 46:16 He just adds a little something to that drink and can stir it. 46:19 So I think we'll see. 46:23 We'll probably see one of these games get out of hand. 46:25 I could see like a five, five or six one type game. 46:29 I think we'll get one game that could be, you know, three one, you know, two nothing, something like that. 46:36 I think we probably would see that the second night. 46:39 Yeah. 46:40 I think that first night Minnesota might come out buzzing and could get out of hand. 46:44 But that second night, it's hard to sweep in college hockey because the other team gets their pride true tarnished and they want to get back and they play a little bit harder for some reason. 46:54 Well, of course, I'm going to go sweep. 46:55 I'm going to sweep. 46:56 It's going to be a sweep. 46:57 Of course, I'm going to pick that. 47:02 I lost my train of thought there, but I'm just going to sweep. 47:05 I do think Minnesota with their penalty kill, I think I've tweeted about this, written about a little bit. 47:12 The way they're rolling their top three pairs of Fords, I think is so key to that unit. 47:17 They started with Myers and Nelson a lot of the times. 47:20 Those are two guys who can win faceoffs. 47:22 They come back with McLaughlin and Walker who have so much speed, especially if you get them out there against a tired top power play unit, they can just put the pressure on. 47:32 I think that's when Walker and McLaughlin play their best, is when they can pressure and they've done such a good job of it. 47:40 I remember I was going to say, I was going to get my Jess Myers question in, is Lafontaine ever going to hit the bench? 47:47 No need now, not when you're back to two games a weekend. 47:52 That was kind of the opening. 47:53 I think the only way you do it now is if he has a game where he starts off poorly in the first period and you want to get Mo in there and see what he can do. 48:02 But I mean, the way all the chips have been pushed at the table, Lafontaine looks like the guy and this is his net to lose. 48:09 I just want to cause a controversy. 48:11 I just want to get people going. 48:14 I'm excited to see what Jess' question is for Bob that gets him going tomorrow. 48:18 It's probably going to be about this transfer coming in. 48:23 He's probably going to say the wrong thing and it's going to be awkward and fun on the Zoom. 48:28 It will be. 48:29 It will be. 48:30 Hey, Randy, so you got another email coming out tomorrow? 48:33 Yeah, I've got a puck drop newsletter coming out tomorrow. 48:37 I've still got some work to do on it tonight and in the morning. 48:42 Yeah, it's got some good stuff in there. 48:45 There's going to be some... 48:46 I wrote on Arizona State, I'm discussing the NCAA Tournament selection on there and are not going on and how lines are being drawn a little bit. 49:05 We'll have some wild stuff. 49:09 Yeah, it's a good amount of stuff in there. 49:15 And you got to subscribe to get it in your inbox. 49:17 Yes. 49:19 Again, it's startubune.com/puckdropsign up all one word is free. 49:28 What happens is you'll the number of our free articles you get per month, you'll be that'll count however many you read on this account toward that. 49:39 Now, yeah, we love for you to people to subscribe for doing this is, you know, we're a business. 49:45 We're trying to get people to buy our product. 49:48 I get my subscription. 49:49 I enjoy what you guys put together and thank you. 49:53 I appreciate the extra hockey coverage. 49:55 I'm seeing it. 49:55 Sean Sullivan. 49:56 Love the puck drop newsletter. 49:58 Jason Enberg. 49:58 Me too. 49:59 I love reading puck drop emails. 50:00 So looks like we've already subscribed. 50:03 I know I get it all the time as well. 50:06 So well, thank you for joining us, Randy. 50:08 Thanks for having me on the podcast for the first time. 50:11 Yeah, this is good. 50:12 It's good to talk hockey. 50:14 I'm learning stuff from you guys. 50:18 It's nice to have a team that's doing this well to drum up a lot of interest, that's for sure. 50:27 Vegs, are you working on anything yourself? 50:30 Or are you thinking about it? 50:30 Not at the moment. 50:32 Not at the moment. 50:33 There's some things in the- 50:34 Well, it's a holiday break, so- 50:36 Yeah, there's some things in the toolbox that we're working on right now, but nothing quite yet. 50:42 We'll have some stuff for GPLers and we'll see what happens here the rest of the way. 50:46 If the Gophers keep winning, there could be some other opportunities to publish some stories I've been working on, so stay tuned. 50:53 All right. 50:54 All right, then. 50:55 Well, that's going to do it for this week's GPL Podcast. 50:58 I want to thank Randy for coming on with us, and next week, we'll be recapping the ASU series and previewing the series with Bucky Badger, oh boy, Bucky Badger.