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.
0:38
Good evening, and welcome to The GPL Podcast, episode number 194, the season premiere for, boy, this has been 11 years, Vego.
0:50
How about that, 11 years?
0:52
Pretty amazing run that we're on here.
0:54
Thanks for everyone who listens to us and keeps us going and our sponsors.
0:59
We appreciate it.
1:00
It's a lot of fun.
1:02
Well, a lot happened in the off season, Miss Captain Obvious there.
1:08
But Vegs, you know, it's, oh, boy.
1:13
Let's just say it was a tough off season for Coach Motzko on July 24th.
1:19
His son, Mack Motzko, his son's friend, Sham Shuneman, who happens to be Motzko's daughter's boyfriend, were killed in a single car accident.
1:35
I don't even know what to say.
1:36
It's just, wow, it's just devastating for the Motzko family and for the whole hockey community.
1:43
Yeah, the hockey community is something special, and we've seen the outpouring of support for people for the Motzko family.
1:51
And my heart aches just thinking about it.
1:55
Jack LaFontaine was talking this week at Availability about it, and he called Bob his papa bear to the team.
2:03
And he's such a strong, courageous man.
2:06
And Jack emphasized how he couldn't really comprehend or wrap his head around what Bob was going through because he doesn't have children.
2:16
And I don't know if I could even wrap my head even close to what it's like without having kids myself.
2:24
And I just can't imagine what he's going through.
2:27
You know, he said that the world that he had before is gone.
2:31
And my heart aches.
2:33
And Jack LaFontaine also said that Bob's a very private man.
2:40
And, you know, he wants to kind of keep this tight to the vest.
2:44
And, you know, there's a lot of people who want to do things and talk about this and try to be there for him.
2:50
But I think, you know, if Bob wants his privacy on this, you know, it's best for us to, you know, give him his space and let him be him.
2:59
And sharing one of the few photos I actually have of Mack.
3:04
I got this one when Coach Motzko was introduced a few years ago.
3:09
You could see, you know, Mack, you know, with his brother and sister, his mother and father, and Coach Woog just kind of having a moment there.
3:17
It's just a tough all-around situation, Veegs.
3:23
I mean, obviously, you know, Coach Motzko was saying that he kind of needs his, you know, his hockey family at the, you know, the players might have to pick him up this year at times, which is kind of a reversal of what usually happens.
3:42
Yeah, very much so.
3:43
And I've heard a lot around the arena already about this team feeling like a family and being close together.
3:51
And they'll have to lean on each other this year because, you know, as much as this is painful for everyone to deal with, you know, this program has a lot in front of it this year and a lot that they want to focus on and achieve.
4:07
And it sounds like, you know, the person who did this, Mr.
4:11
James Blue, you know, he's they've been they've charged him with I believe third degree murder.
4:18
There's probably going to be it'll be dragged out for a long time, unfortunately, for the Motzko and the Schueneman families.
4:25
And it's just so it's tough to move on.
4:29
But it's something we had we had to really talk about here, Veegs, because, you know, we've been off since, you know, for for six months or more close to here in this.
4:38
It's just an unfortunate situation all the way around.
4:40
Yeah, I was reading a book through this summer by John Feinstein about, you know, some of the Ryder Cup stuff and the PGA Tour and Davis Love lost his father in a plane crash when he was playing on tour.
4:54
And he said the the loss was really hard and it shook him deeply.
5:01
But one of the things that made it really hard for him was in the golf world, you know, you show up at a different city every weekend to play golf and you run into people that you haven't seen for a while, maybe not since the plane crash.
5:16
And everybody wants to let them know that they're behind you.
5:22
And for a guy like Davis Love, that was really hard because it was really hard to not dwell on the past.
5:31
And I think that's why Jack said what he said this week.
5:34
He's like, you know, give Bob space.
5:37
He knows that people are behind him.
5:41
Well, we could talk about this forever here, but there is a season coming up.
5:45
Boy, a lot of things happened.
5:50
Transfer portal went crazy.
5:52
People coming back for an extra year.
5:54
Let's just start off right at the top.
5:58
Jack LaFontaine coming back for senior year number two.
6:03
Boy, that's a huge boost.
6:06
It doesn't get any bigger than that right off the top.
6:10
Pulltending so important in hockey.
6:12
Sometimes you can call the game a hockey goalie.
6:15
It's that important.
6:16
And when you have a guy who is the Richter award winner coming back in that, that solidifies things for you.
6:23
He was so solid for this team last year.
6:26
I think even kind of coming into the year, Jack wasn't sure what to expect.
6:30
And as the games just started happening, he kept on a roll and took control of the net and never really gave it away.
6:39
And Jared Moe, I think saw that and he took advantage of the portal to go to Wisconsin because goalies like to play goalie.
6:46
They don't like to sit on the bench and practice all the time.
6:49
So you know, there's some consternation that he went to Wisconsin, maybe by the GopherPuck.
7:03
Trader Moe.
7:05
LaFontaine threw me under the bus for it.
7:06
I'm so glad he did.
7:09
Hey, it's just, hey, the fans are pissed.
7:14
And I'm guessing, you know, he's defending his guy.
7:17
He's one of his good friends.
7:18
But I'm also guessing that a lot of players aren't happy that one of their players went to the biggest enemy you have.
7:26
That will be a circle the calendar series for Minnesota, Wisconsin fans.
7:32
It'll be, it'll be great, but it's great to have Jack back.
7:34
He basically said it was never really a doubt in his mind that he wanted to be back.
7:39
He's never come into a season where he's been the clear cut number one who is going to play a lot of games.
7:45
So he is ready for that challenge this year.
7:48
You know, he trained pretty hard so he could play a lot of games this year.
7:52
That's what he's expecting and you know, you can't take that for granted.
7:56
You know, you saw Strauss-Span leave Michigan early to try to sign a pro contract somewhere.
8:02
It didn't develop and now he's playing in Sweden.
8:06
I don't think that's what he expected when he left Michigan.
8:09
I think if he knew he would have been playing in Sweden, maybe he would have came back to Ann Arbor for another year and tried to go for a run with that group that they have coming in.
8:18
But Jack said, this is home to me.
8:21
I want to be a Gopher.
8:22
I love Minnesota.
8:23
He's going to graduate school at Paul Martin right now, working on a youth social work program.
8:31
And I think the fans and the team are lucky to have him.
8:36
And well, the whole deal was here, folks, is that anybody who was on the roster last season gets an extra year.
8:47
That's pretty much what's happening.
8:50
And that's how it happens at every school.
8:52
Anybody who participated in the last season can get an extra year if they want to, if the team works out.
8:59
We had also a couple players leave.
9:04
Besides Jared Mow, we had Nathan Burke, who was a junior, decided to go to Bowling Green.
9:10
Robbie Stucker moved on to Vermont.
9:14
You have Brandon McManus, who would have been a senior, who was a senior, getting that second year.
9:20
Not a space here for him, I guess, so he went to Omaha.
9:23
And then there were some unclaimed Gophers, Noah Webber, Cullen Monson and Sam Rossini.
9:29
Monson and Rossini also seniors that were unclaimed, but that's kind of the crazy part of the people who left.
9:40
We also had one guy coming in, and that was Grant Croshank, is that how you spell his last name?
9:45
Croshanks, yeah, out of Colorado College, decided he wanted to continue his career over here in Minnesota.
9:53
Did he speak any of the times when you were at the Mariucci this week?
9:57
He hasn't spoken yet, other than just in passing and certain things.
10:01
We've talked a lot about him and the availabilities.
10:04
He's a two-time captain from Colorado College.
10:07
When he lost his coach at CC, Havilland got fired.
10:10
He's like, you know what, I'm ready to try something different.
10:13
I came here to play for him.
10:15
And when he was looking for a place to go, Wisconsin came calling, which is kind of a funny story with him because he originally was committed to Wisconsin.
10:26
Really?
10:27
Under Mike Eaves.
10:29
And when the coaching transition happened from Eaves to Granado, the scholarship terms changed.
10:36
And I don't know how familiar everyone is with how college hockey recruiting works.
10:40
You know, there are only 18 scholarships available to spread out among your entire roster.
10:48
So a lot of times these coaches are promising percentages of scholarships to different players coming in, and it gets to be a tricky, almost a salary cap like magic for coaches to figure out how to fit guys they want to come in versus guys leaving, you know, all that stuff, you know, save scholarship, scholarship, you know, cap for later years, things like that.
11:13
And so he didn't like that.
11:16
And so I think he always saw himself maybe as a badger.
11:19
But now when it came time to transfer, he definitely did not want to go back there.
11:23
And so he wanted to play for Minnesota, and maybe stick it to them a little bit.
11:27
So that'll be a fun series for him.
11:29
It definitely will be, and also he's got some famous lineage in his family.
11:36
His mother is Bonnie Blair.
11:38
And for those of us that are a little older, Bonnie Blair was a superstar speed skater, gold medalist, all around Olympic champion.
11:49
Yeah, she's got some medals in her house.
11:51
I know there's been a few stories.
11:52
Jess Myers has written a couple of stories.
11:55
I know Dave Schwartz went into the story on that family.
11:58
They have this coffee table that's like shadow boxes of medals, which is pretty cool.
12:04
And the boy definitely got some good genes for holding his edge doing crossovers.
12:08
He is a smooth, strong skater, very stable base.
12:13
We've been joking at the stands right now.
12:15
The numbers on the back of the helmets are kind of small.
12:18
And so us guys, as we get older, it's hard to see the numbers and make sure you know who everybody else, especially with the six new forwards this year.
12:26
But you can tell Grant who he is.
12:30
He just skates, holds his edge very well.
12:33
Good, strong skater.
12:34
You know, I'm looking at the chat for the live YouTube broadcasts and Eric Brewer says, welcome to the new era of college hockey, you know, with the NILs, the no weight transfers.
12:46
It's kind of a wild west right now, Veegs.
12:49
It sure is.
12:50
And it's not going to be going away because I think we're going to see the repercussions of this for the next two, three, four years.
12:57
And you know, Minnesota was in a tough spot.
12:59
You know, Brandon McManus, I think, kind of wanted to come back, but Bob really has a full recruiting pipeline coming in.
13:08
And I think it was really difficult for him to kind of manage that and the type of player Brandon is with the roster he needs to put together.
13:16
And so that's probably why there wasn't a fit there.
13:21
Well, anyway, he was a fun kid, he had his four years here and time to move on, I guess.
13:27
Like I said, it's just the way that college hockey is now.
13:30
It's a crazy wild west.
13:31
I think initially it's going to be crazy here because, you know, so many kids have that extra year of eligibility.
13:40
So it's going to take, you know, another three years for this, I would say to settle down a little bit.
13:45
Yeah, I mean, we're seeing a trickle down effect.
13:47
It's, it's affecting rosters in the USHL, NHL high school, you know, guys typically who would play that before and after year in the USHL don't have that option because those rosters are pretty full.
14:00
You know, there's a lot of 2001 birthdates who are still playing USHL hockey this year, which is a little unusual.
14:09
Definitely unusual.
14:12
But well, before we get more into the team here, you know, we just had a one little bit of news come out in the last week that Augustana University is looking like they're going to start a program.
14:25
Are they crazy, Veegs?
14:27
Why not?
14:28
If you can get the rink going and the funding and the funding, there are plenty of players to put together a successful D1 hockey program, especially in the Midwest here.
14:38
You know, you're going to be close to recruiting and people like new stuff.
14:43
You know, new rinks and new teams are cool.
14:46
Like we see how quickly St.
14:47
Thomas is putting together their roster.
14:49
You know, it's they're going to be competitive pretty quickly.
14:53
I think you're right.
14:54
And I actually think their women's team might be more competitive even faster.
14:59
Very much so.
14:59
St.
15:00
Thomas is an excellent school.
15:02
And I would say on the women's side, women take school a lot more seriously in their decisions to play hockey.
15:09
Sometimes you see superstars going out east and going to these high, Brown, Harvard, whatever it may be, because they know they're going to get an excellent education.
15:22
Yeah.
15:23
I think the women's team is going to do better right away.
15:26
And I think one of the things with women's hockey is the pipelines aren't as backed up as the men's ones.
15:32
Men have had players' committee at 14, 15, 16 for a long time.
15:36
I know you get some of that in the women's game, but there's more opportunity to make yourself a power quicker.
15:44
Definitely the case.
15:46
And you don't have to deal with all the junior hockey stuff with the women's game.
15:51
Yeah.
15:51
Well, that is also true.
15:56
I mean, you do have to deal with the international teams though more.
16:02
Well, for an up and coming team.
16:04
If you've got the superstars like Minnesota, Wisconsin, they tend to lose players for an entire year or two sometimes when they go play for Team USA, they go play for Team Canada.
16:15
Good problem to have though, I bet for those schools.
16:17
Yeah.
16:20
Remember that used to happen back in the 80s and the 90s?
16:24
Well, I still think it...
16:25
Every once while you'd lose a player, it wasn't Chirsky, one of those guys who went to like the Olympics and they lost a year and he was gone.
16:33
Yeah, back when they would spend the whole year playing for the Olympic team, that Herb Brooks model, they'd grab him for the whole year.
16:41
By the way, Eric Brewer, that rink is coming quick.
16:44
I think we'll get an announcement here in the next month or two.
16:47
And Brent Hoeven's got a great point to saying, hey, UND women's team is gone now.
16:52
It's a good place to kind of fill in another spot.
16:56
Yeah, I definitely think there's room for more college women's teams around.
17:00
You know, it's surprising there isn't a team in Michigan yet.
17:03
I know Northern Michigan is threatening to put together a team.
17:07
That would be good for the game.
17:10
It will be interesting to see how it does change Minnesota on the men's side.
17:16
Having a team so close, you know, similar to, you know, like the old Boston schools, you know, just up the road.
17:25
It would be interesting if they could build some kind of rivalry with St.
17:29
Thomas.
17:30
You know, I think it will take a while for that to happen.
17:32
I think Rico is going to have kind of his own recruiting plan.
17:36
You know, the waters of Minnesota are fished pretty hard.
17:41
So it might be difficult for St.
17:43
Thomas to rise and compete with that.
17:45
So I think they'll try to do it a little bit different way, you know, maybe more that Mike Hastings method of player development.
17:52
Get a lot of older kids to commit and stay in juniors longer and then come more ready to play.
17:58
But we'll see.
18:00
It's early.
18:00
You know, I think it's kind of cool that Minnesota is going to do an exhibition with them sometime after Christmas.
18:06
And that will be good for the two teams.
18:10
I'm holding out hope that it is target field.
18:12
We'll see.
18:14
That would be fun.
18:15
That would be fun.
18:17
Well, we're very happy to have Jerry Peters back this year again, sponsoring the podcast.
18:23
He leapt at the opportunity.
18:26
It was really nice of him to jump on board.
18:28
So let's hear from Jerry.
18:31
Hey, fellow GPLers, Jerry Peters here from First Class Mortgage.
18:35
Have you refinanced your home in the last 12 months?
18:38
If you haven't, chances are you should.
18:40
Record low interest rates and skyrocketing home values make this the perfect time to remove monthly PMI while improving your interest rate at the same time.
18:48
You can also use the equity in your home to finance those home improvement projects.
18:53
Or you can consolidate high interest rate credit cards into one new low monthly payment.
18:57
To hear more, call or text me today at 612-940-3291.
19:03
You can email me at jerry at firstclasscorp.com.
19:08
Or you could go to firstclassmortgage.com to fill out a free online application.
19:12
Mention the GPL Podcast and receive a $300 closing cost credit.
19:16
Some restrictions do apply.
19:18
First Class Mortgage's NMLS number is 322-842-480-200.
19:24
This is not an agreement to lock into an interest rate under Minnesota law.
19:28
First Class Mortgage is an equal housing lender.
19:31
Of course, thank you Jerry again for sponsoring the GPL Podcast.
19:40
We really appreciate it.
19:42
It's nice to have you on board again this year.
19:47
Veegs, you know, I've got some notes here about talking about freshmen and stuff.
19:50
You know, I started to think that, you know, we did talk about quite a bit, you know, of, you know, what the freshmen coming in on our last show last year.
20:00
So I thought I'd hit up a couple of questions that kind of leans towards that, you know, Steve Larson on Twitter here.
20:08
What are the early expectations for Chaz Lucius?
20:14
I think they're pretty high.
20:15
Garrett Reboin was on Beyond the Pod earlier this year and commented that Lucius' elite score for his age group, everywhere he's been the last five years.
20:27
I show up at practice, where is he on the ice during the power play portion of practice?
20:33
On the half wall with some talented players.
20:36
I think he's going to be in the power play pretty much right from the start.
20:40
He's got the ability to catch pucks that probably shouldn't be caught and put them on that.
20:47
He has the amazing intrinsic ability to catch passes and shoot quickly.
20:55
And that is something Minnesota has missed on the flanks on the power play since they had Sheehy and Pitlick.
21:02
They have just not had guys who can shoot from the flanks.
21:06
They have trouble getting pucks off, a lot of blocked shots, and it's really hurt the power play.
21:10
Bob talked about that the other day.
21:12
He's like, what was the power play last year?
21:15
19%.
21:16
It was 17.7.
21:18
It was not good.
21:19
The power play is something that's been holding this team back and getting a guy like Lucius will change that, I think, for them.
21:26
And we'll see that pretty quickly here, I think, from the start of the year.
21:30
You know, I noticed you talked about another guy out there.
21:35
I'm going to kind of set you up here with Dale Beers asking, besides Lucius, which newcomer has the big first year potential?
21:46
Would that be Mr.
21:47
Nyes?
21:47
Because, you know, boy, he's been getting a lot of air going recently.
21:55
Yeah, Nyes apparently burned it up at the World Junior Summer Showcase and had a good finish this season with Tri-City, kind of had a tough start to his season last year, but he has just gotten better and better and better.
22:08
And you watch him on the ice in these practices, he competes, he stops and starts hard.
22:15
He bends his knees and he's another guy who is put on that power play unit with Lucius.
22:21
And you just see that work ethic and compete that you're looking for out of a mature freshman, which he is, he is all of 6'2, 200 plus, and he's ready to play college hockey.
22:33
Even Motzko is commenting what a great skater he is, not just a good skater, a great elite skater.
22:39
And that's surprising him.
22:41
So that's a good thing for Gopher fans.
22:43
He's going to step right in and make an impact.
22:46
Benny Myers says, if Bob takes them off my line, I might crap Bob on the ankles with my stick.
22:54
Don't take them away from me, I want to be on a line with that guy.
22:58
If you can imagine a guy like Jackson Nelson on a line with Nye's and Myers, that's some big heavy horses coming down the ice.
23:06
Could be a meat line.
23:08
Wow, that's a Rubes reference right there.
23:13
I'm pretty huge right now.
23:14
I guess I would fit right in on the old meat line beaks.
23:20
Oh boy, well, you know, one thing, all the freshmen, well, except for, you know, O'Gill Tender, are forwards this year, centers, you know.
23:32
All the main defensemen are back.
23:34
Nobody young, nobody young coming in, experienced, huge, obviously a great positive there.
23:42
But would you have liked to have seen Motzko maybe mix in a freshman or two on the defense?
23:47
And you know, he's right at eight defensemen right now.
23:51
So that's, that is a little tight than he's usually, than he usually has on his roster.
23:58
I think he would have liked Stucker to stick around just to have that security blanket if something does happen.
24:05
But other than that, the top six is the top six, they are going to play most games.
24:12
I don't see anybody outside the Johnson Favors, Stoddard, Kurt LeCone, Brinkman, Kester coming out.
24:19
Those are six veteran returning guys.
24:23
I don't really think there's a weak spot in there in terms of their role and their ability.
24:27
They're all veterans.
24:28
They all know what they're doing.
24:29
They all bought into a role last year and were very successful.
24:33
So I see the mindset where, you know, you could come in, but you're not really going to play.
24:40
I think that would be really hard for anybody as a selling point.
24:44
You know, they've got Fish back there.
24:45
If something does happen, he's more of that Brinkman, Stoddard, Kurt kind of player.
24:51
And maybe he's ready after some of this time.
24:55
But I don't think he'll crack that top six unless there's injury stuff.
25:00
I think they may crack the top six, maybe the first couple of weekends, just maybe just to get them in there, because after that, Veegs, whoo, it's tough slaying.
25:11
But also in college hockey, you don't have time to mess up.
25:14
You know, these aren't throwaway games.
25:17
True.
25:18
These all count.
25:19
They'll get that exhibition with the US team and they'll get the exhibition with St.
25:23
Thomas.
25:24
But there's not a lot of times to screw around in college hockey.
25:28
You know, you can't really develop players on the fly if you're not going to play them.
25:33
So I think those guys are going to have to make their mark in practice.
25:37
And I know Fish and Denman last year would do that in practice from time to time and really challenge the guys, which is good for practice.
25:46
But I think in terms of a top six, it's pretty clear.
25:50
So, you know, I'm thinking, you know, we got all these Lucius and we've got Knives.
25:56
I don't think our goalie is going to get much time.
26:00
I think LaFontaine is going to be pretty much in all the time.
26:04
But let's talk about the key returners.
26:06
I mean, we know the names.
26:09
Who needs to step it up?
26:11
Who needs to kind of pull their weight a little more than they have previously as they've been as the years have passed?
26:19
I feel like we've said this for the last two years.
26:22
But Walker and McLaughlin need to take a jump in their game.
26:26
There is a level to their game when they are playing well that is far higher than the night to night effort you see from them.
26:35
And I don't think it's a want or a trying thing.
26:38
I think it's just a stick to it thing going on.
26:44
They have another level to hit.
26:46
And when they are on, like when McLaughlin plays Notre Dame, you see a completely different player than when you see them out there against Michigan State for whatever reason.
26:58
And I think with Walker, sometimes against the good teams, you see his best game because he is engaged at both ends of the ice and he uses his speed to get back on defense and force turnovers and then get in transition.
27:10
But you just don't see that enough.
27:12
And I think for this team to really compete at the highest level, they need those two guys going because they are important guys in the locker room, they are important guys on the bench and they are going to be important guys for the coach.
27:24
Now how much does Lucius and Anais help these kind of guys because these guys are big playmakers or even maybe a veteran like Crookchink?
27:33
It's hard to say who is going to play with them at this point.
27:36
We have seen a couple of different guys with them.
27:40
I've seen Rhett Pitlick with them.
27:41
I've seen Brodzinski with them.
27:44
So we'll see what happens.
27:46
Maybe Crookchink comes in there to give them a little stability.
27:49
I think sometimes last year they put Scott Reedy with them to try to settle them down a little bit.
27:57
But we'll see.
27:57
I think Motzko has shown he likes to pair guys together and then try to mix in one other player.
28:04
And he's tried to split up Walker and McLaughlin at times and he loses both of them.
28:10
So they get back together.
28:11
It's funny, Walker joked about this week.
28:13
He's like, they call themselves peanut butter and jelly.
28:16
You know, whatever happens, you can't pull them apart.
28:21
I don't know if I'm happy about that or not.
28:25
It's for better or worse.
28:26
I mean, if this team is going to be good, you know, you need those two guys going.
28:29
Because when they're playing well, like against Michigan, against Notre Dame, you know, this team hits another level.
28:35
When they get frustrated, like they did in Minnesota State in the elimination game last year, you know, that kind of dives into the whole team.
28:43
And the whole team starts to lose its shape and structure.
28:47
And maybe that extra year maturity keeps them from getting to that spot again.
28:52
We'll see.
28:53
Pitlick a little banged up, not going to play this weekend?
28:56
Yep, he got banged up earlier this week, so he won't be available this weekend.
29:00
So you'll see things shuffled around a little bit.
29:03
All right, let's hit up some more questions.
29:06
Steph numbers free, whatever that means on Twitter.
29:10
It's back to the old, the brink here, Veegs.
29:14
Is the goal of making Mariucci Arena NHL size still on track?
29:20
Or is the timing delayed to all the recent, you know, events and challenges funding?
29:25
Just one little clarification.
29:27
They're not going to be going to NHL size.
29:28
They're going to be a hybrid because they can't really fit it in there.
29:30
But COVID just messed up everything, didn't it, Veegs?
29:35
Yeah, I mean, the athletics budget's kind of shot right now with all the revenue they lost during the pandemic.
29:42
You know, one thing that Mark Coyle has magically done is convince the university's financial officer to allow athletics to use their commercial paper program, which is a financing option the university has to take on $500 million in debt.
29:57
And that debt only pays about a 1% interest rate, but it has to be paid back every year.
30:03
Usually that money is spent to like repair buildings and, you know, meet budget shortfalls in departments and things like that, you know, pretty small things.
30:10
Typically more emergency type of things.
30:12
More emergency kind of things.
30:14
But he's convinced the chief financial officer to allow athletics to use that money to cover their shortfall during the pandemic.
30:23
And he's allowing the athletics to use that money to do things like address the ice plant at Ritter and Mariucci.
30:32
And that's a big deal because it's not just the size of the rink.
30:35
It's actually the equipment below the ice or below the concrete.
30:40
Yeah, the refrigerant that they currently use is being phased out.
30:44
I don't think you can buy anymore.
30:46
You know, it's just an existing supply, so it's expensive.
30:50
And if there were to be some sort of leak, it would be a big financial expense for you to take care of.
30:56
So they are going to be able to use this money to redo the rink and the ice plant.
31:01
I think that means the timeline could move up as soon as next year.
31:05
But it all kind of depends on how this year goes, you know, with the pandemic and with ticket sales and how athletics does with revenues.
31:13
But I think if it's a good year, you know, we could see a smaller rink by, you know, 22, 23.
31:19
It's right on track.
31:20
It's in the six-year plan.
31:23
Oh, boy.
31:24
Look out.
31:24
It could be exciting.
31:27
Steve Larson, in your guy's opinion, what are the early expectations of this team?
31:33
For me, I think the expectations are very high, Veegs.
31:38
Returning defense, returning goalie.
31:41
You did lose a little bit on the forwards, but you're gaining a ton and you're getting more experience back.
31:46
So for me, the expectations are very high, like Frozen 4 type of high.
31:53
I don't think you can shy away from expectations this year.
31:56
They return all their centers, and they have a fifth center if they want to.
32:00
Meyers, Walker, Nelson, Purvix, Sorensen's played center.
32:04
I know they tried out Lucius there at center a little bit earlier in the season when they were training, but I think they're going to go with Vets down the middle.
32:11
And with all the D coming back, they probably have the best D-Core in the country.
32:18
And I was listening to Brad Schlossman today with Chris Peters on their podcast, and Brad was saying that, you know, when you look at teams that win the NCAA tournament, it's because of deep defensive units who can move the puck and control the game.
32:34
The Gophers have a defensive unit who can do that, and they've got some defensemen who can be a little nasty.
32:40
You know, Stoddaker and Brinkman and Fish are guys who can be nasty, but you have guys who are skilled, can shut down other teams forwards.
32:47
You know, Brock Faber has done that at the international level, every tournament he's been in.
32:52
Ryan Johnson can skate with anybody.
32:54
Jackson Lacombe is developing his offense.
32:57
This is a deep group.
32:59
I don't think they're going to need to win shootouts because they'll be able to control games so, so well.
33:04
So, I got to thank BigTen Title, Number 1 seed, Frozen 4.
33:08
Those are the expectations for this team.
33:11
And there's also some extremely high expectations on those Michigan Wolverines, two leagues.
33:16
I mean, wow, their young lineup is quite impressive, but still got to put it all together.
33:25
Still got to put it all together, and I don't think their defensemen are as deep as Minnesota.
33:29
You know, they've done a great job over there bringing in talent, but I think Mel Pearson hasn't developed the depth of older players like Minnesota has.
33:39
I think that's what makes this Minnesota roster so unique, is they are very much a veteran group.
33:46
Even the younger guys have played lots of junior hockey who are coming in now.
33:50
You know, they've played that, you know, senior year and post-senior year of junior.
33:55
You know, they're ready.
33:57
We'll see.
33:58
I think if Strausband was back for Michigan, it would be a fair battle.
34:03
Portillo really hasn't been through the wringer like a lot of the other goalies have been.
34:07
So I think that's a big question mark for Michigan.
34:09
I'm excited about it because I've always loved that Michigan rivalry.
34:13
Maybe others haven't, but that has been one of my favorite rivalries since going back to the College Hockey Showcase days.
34:20
I would love to see both teams duke it out for the Big Ten title.
34:23
That would just be a fun, fun season.
34:26
Yeah, I think Michigan probably has the higher octane offensive players, but I think in a matchup with Minnesota, though, Minnesota has the defensemen to shut them down.
34:37
Okay, we got Todd Davis on Twitter here.
34:40
He's, although they're hosting Mercyhurst, Mercyhurst, I should say, excuse me.
34:44
Is there a lack of Eastern school?
34:46
Or why is there a lack of Eastern schools on the Gopher hockey schedule?
34:49
You know, no hockey, EAC.
34:53
Do you foresee this having a negative pairwise implications come selection time?
34:58
This has kind of been a bit of a theme for about 20 years, Veegs, you know.
35:04
We haven't seen Eastern schools as often as they used to in the 80s and the 90s.
35:10
Yeah, I think the scheduling of the Eastern schools is difficult for Minnesota, especially because the Gophers want to play St.
35:18
Cloud, UMD, UND.
35:21
They need those rivalries.
35:23
If the Gophers don't schedule those games, the fans kind of get up in arms.
35:26
It's like, I want to see them play the old rivals.
35:29
I want to see how they stack up against the MCHC.
35:32
So I think their hands are tied where they kind of have to have those three series against those three schools, Minnesota State, throwing Bemidji State every once in a while.
35:42
Eventually here it's going to be St.
35:43
Thomas.
35:44
The schedule needs those teams to make people happy.
35:48
And so I think it just gets trickier to schedule these Eastern teams, because maybe you'd like to bring them in for the holiday tournament while they've got their own holiday tournaments and things.
35:58
You don't want to necessarily always open up your schedule either with BC or BU.
36:03
That's zero to 60 real quick.
36:06
It's much different to play Alaska and Mercyhurst.
36:09
Lucia's first game.
36:10
Lucia's first game was against number one Boston College at Mariucci Arena.
36:18
It was fun.
36:19
They did beat them the second night, but it is disappointing that we don't see those teams anymore.
36:26
But like you said, it's just kind of how things are going on.
36:28
And I'm actually looking forward to, hopefully, CC coming to Mariucci.
36:33
I was hoping they would come this season.
36:34
Maybe they'll come next year because we did go out there last year.
36:36
I think the coaching change at CC might push that off a little bit.
36:41
Maybe.
36:42
And COVID and everything is just all messed up.
36:45
Because you had put together on the page the future schedules on GPL.
36:52
I just got to put a note on there.
36:54
Things are kind of up in the air right now.
36:55
We just don't know what's going to happen with scheduling.
37:00
UND is right back on and they're just following the schedule.
37:03
But some of these other games, they could be a little goofy.
37:07
I do think from a pairwise perspective, it is really important not to mess up these first four games.
37:15
If you mess up one of these first four games, it's silly to think about this early in the year, but those have pairwise implications because all of a sudden you start losing all your comparisons to those schools.
37:27
So it could impact you that way.
37:29
I think whatever happens with NCHC, your comparisons are going to be fine because that's such a strong league.
37:36
Big Ten will be a pretty strong league, I would imagine.
37:39
So I think when your schedule is mostly made up of those groups, you're fine.
37:44
But it's just when you have these four games against these small schools, you just don't want to mess those up.
37:50
No, you don't.
37:51
I don't think this will be a pairwise bubble team, but it could affect seeds.
37:57
You know, we saw Brian Deutsch tweeting the other day talking about, you know, how pairwise is starting.
38:04
I'm like, don't even worry about it, kid.
38:07
They won't have to worry about pairwise this year.
38:09
Let's just hope that's true.
38:11
We'll just be worrying about it for seeding.
38:14
Correct.
38:14
I'm looking at this October schedule.
38:16
I mean, it starts off a little slow.
38:18
You know, we've got Alaska and Mercyhurst.
38:23
Not traditional powerhouses.
38:25
But then, you know, you're right into St.
38:26
Cloud and Duluth for home and homes.
38:28
And then you open up the Big Ten at the end of October with, you know, with Notre Dame at Mariucci Arena.
38:35
It's a fun start to the season, I think.
38:37
I think it's a great start.
38:39
We should see some air tanking and hockey, I think, right away.
38:41
I think my son pointed out to me that the Gophers beat Alaska 12-0 once.
38:46
Maybe we'll see something like that this weekend.
38:48
There's a lot of firepower for Minnesota.
38:50
Alaska hasn't.
38:52
We've seen some of those.
38:53
Can we get a double Culver's?
38:55
Do you get two free Culver's if they score 10?
38:59
It's a free for all.
39:02
Culver's is back.
39:03
Culver's is back.
39:04
Enjoy that.
39:05
But it looks like a fun October.
39:07
You know, Alaska is coming down this weekend.
39:11
And I don't know how many times I've been asked or you've been asked probably, what's the TV situation?
39:17
Okay, here's the deal, folks.
39:20
Big Ten has the first say on whatever games are going to be on for Minnesota and all the other teams.
39:28
They take their own damn sweet time figuring out what they want to do because they're waiting for football, they're waiting for basketball, because, sorry, those pay the bills.
39:39
Probably even wrestling down the line, volleyball and everything else.
39:44
They have to figure a lot of things out.
39:46
Then they come back with very little time left and say, here you go, University of Minnesota, we're going to do these games.
39:53
Do what you want with the rest.
39:54
Then all of a sudden, Minnesota is left scrambling with Bally Sports Network, the new name this year.
40:06
It's just not as simple as it used to be, Veegs.
40:08
It's just crazy, but we are down to the wire here.
40:12
I'm hearing one of the games this weekend will be on TV, but still nothing out yet, so maybe that's falling apart.
40:19
Help us out, Veegs.
40:20
What's going on?
40:21
We got one game this weekend on TV.
40:25
Sorry, just one.
40:27
I'm thinking it's a Sunday game, and it's probably going to be Bally Sports North Plus on Sunday at 4 p.m.
40:35
Saturday, get to the game.
40:37
Get to the game.
40:38
I think there's about 3,000 seats available.
40:42
So get to gophersports.com.
40:45
Get your ticket.
40:46
Support the team.
40:48
They could use it.
40:49
It's been a tough two years for them.
40:52
It does sound like the Mercyhurst games will be on Bally Sports North, the home game against St.
40:58
Cloud and Duluth.
41:00
That's as far as I kind of know.
41:02
Things will get back to more normal.
41:05
The university worked as hard as they possibly could to get every game that they control on TV.
41:12
They are doing everything they can.
41:14
They are signing whatever needs to happen from the University of Minnesota side to make this stuff happen.
41:20
I think Bally is kind of dropping the ball a little bit.
41:24
That's the only thing it could be to me is that there's just not enough time to get it done.
41:32
When you've got the university trying to set game times, anticipating maybe hitting TV windows, and then that TV window is no longer the one that they were trying to hit, now it's too late to change your campus plan.
41:46
It's so complex at an institution like Minnesota to get all these round things in the square holes, square things in the round holes, whatever it is, try not to blame the university.
42:01
They're doing the best they can.
42:02
Hockey is not the prime driver for the Big Ten network.
42:08
Most of the games will be there.
42:10
If you're a cable cutter, BTN Plus is going to be great.
42:13
You can get that stream all season for $50.
42:17
Isn't there a special package for $59 where you get both the men's and women's?
42:22
Yep, get all the Big Ten hockey games for the whole year for $59.
42:27
It's a great deal.
42:30
Better just get down to the arena on Saturday, folks.
42:33
Come on down.
42:36
I won't be there.
42:38
I'll be there Saturday.
42:39
It's opening night.
42:41
I'll be there Sunday afternoon.
42:43
Sunday, I've got mini mic practice.
42:45
I can't be there.
42:46
My kids need me.
42:49
Let's talk about this weekend, Veegs.
42:51
I don't know much about Alaska.
42:52
I'm guessing you don't know a lot about Alaska, too.
42:55
I'm guessing we really should be just predicting sweep and just go with it.
42:59
Let's go with two 8-0 wins.
43:02
Yeah, I think Culver's both nights is the expectation from this person.
43:07
I like that point of view.
43:09
Culver's both nights.
43:10
Culver's both nights.
43:11
I wonder how they're going to do Culver's now, because it used to be the back of your ticket.
43:19
I know, show your QR code.
43:21
I don't know.
43:24
The tickets have worked well for football.
43:26
You just put them in your Apple Wallet or your Google Wallet, and then just show them, they scan them.
43:30
I know Mark Coyle was at the first football game, helping people navigate their apps and stuff to get in, which is nice to see from the AD, man of the people.
43:38
Yeah, but you know what?
43:39
There's still a lot of people who do not have smartphones.
43:44
It's...
43:46
Obviously, you want to make the change over these years.
43:47
You want to make things easier, but there's still a lot of people.
43:51
You know what?
43:51
They don't want to mess with it.
43:52
I think poor Brent Hoeven, you know, in the chat with his flip phone, what's he going to do?
43:59
Kind of plan ahead.
43:59
Can they do barcodes?
44:00
Ticket office.
44:01
Brent, can you do barcodes on your flip phone?
44:05
Do they?
44:05
Does that work?
44:08
Is that a monochrome screen too?
44:10
Probably.
44:11
It might not work.
44:12
I don't know.
44:13
You have to print something off or we'll call.
44:15
I don't know.
44:17
Well, it is a big weekend.
44:18
Like you said, we can't have any stumbling.
44:20
There could be no stumbling.
44:21
They need to win both these games.
44:22
It would be nice if they won them both convincingly.
44:26
But just win, baby.
44:27
Just win.
44:29
Yeah, I don't expect to see any problems.
44:31
You know, they've got so many players coming back that I don't think you'll see any kind of bowling green type let down out of the hockey program.
44:40
They know what's going on.
44:44
I'll be interested to see who gets paired with which centers.
44:50
That's the biggest surprise for me.
44:51
I think we'll see, you know, Walker McLaughlin together with Bratsinsky.
44:55
I think we'll see Nyes and Myers together to start.
44:58
But I think with the rest of the fresh men, he's going to try to sprinkle them around the lineup.
45:03
So I don't think you'll see guys like, you know, Hughlin and Lucius together.
45:07
I don't think you'll see, you know, Hughlin or Lucius with Myers and Nyes.
45:12
So you'll see guys sprinkled around the lineup.
45:15
And I think Bob will just be rolling four lines.
45:17
Because I think he basically expects all four lines to kind of compete for being the first line.
45:23
That's nice.
45:24
It's kind of one of those challenges where he's like, I kind of think all four lines are kind of even against each other.
45:30
And on top of that, no power play spots are going to be given this year.
45:37
I should never be given.
45:40
I will believe it.
45:41
I will believe it when I see it, because I saw a group of five put out there every weekend last year, pretty much regardless of what was happening.
45:51
And you ended up with 17.7%.
45:54
So we will see what happens with the power play units.
45:58
They were terrible.
45:59
I thought that Ranta Reedy unit should have started every power play last year.
46:03
But I digress.
46:06
Well, we're into season 11 here, Veegs.
46:09
We're having fun with this podcast.
46:10
We've been doing it forever here.
46:12
We're approaching 200 episodes.
46:14
We've got a nice lineup of guests coming up.
46:17
We've got Nate Wells coming in next week.
46:20
And following that, we've got Pat McAleady lined up.
46:23
We've got Sloshman from up in North Dakota.
46:26
Of course, Cappy from Ohio State.
46:31
We've just got all the regulars scheduled for this year.
46:34
So it looks like it's going to be a fun year, at least on our podcast side.
46:38
I think it's going to be a fun year all around.
46:41
We're back to doing in-person media availabilities, which is great to see everyone face to face.
46:46
We asked Bob, I thought you guys would like Zoom.
46:48
You just stay at home.
46:49
You go out to park.
46:50
It's like, Bob, I love coming to the rink, watching practice and getting to shoot the breeze with people off camera.
46:57
You know, it's just so much of a relief to see everybody that way.
47:00
And, you know, the team's 100% vaccinated.
47:03
That's great.
47:05
It's going to be a great year.
47:08
I haven't been to Mariucci since the 2019 season.
47:13
Is that that last game against Notre Dame?
47:16
It still looks pretty similar.
47:20
The mural has been updated a little bit, so there's some new faces up there.
47:25
Like you said, it'll just be nice to get back into the arena.
47:27
Masks or not, I don't care.
47:28
It'll just be nice to be back in the arena.
47:31
Like you said, kind of just see the game.
47:34
The employees you see at Mariucci every year.
47:39
Wally and Frank, you know, BSing with them.
47:43
The stats crew.
47:44
It'll just be fun to get back there, Veegs.
47:47
It will be.
47:48
And I think you'll see a little bit of normalcy back in the rink other than the mass, which they are asking people to wear in all university buildings.
47:59
But get back and see your friends.
48:01
I wouldn't mind so much because it's a little cold in there.
48:05
I noticed that when I was coaching hockey outdoors this last winter, I was like, the mask is kind of a good touch, you know.
48:10
It keeps me out there a little longer.
48:12
It keeps the frost a bit away.
48:14
I'm not sure if I would like it at Williams Arena.
48:16
It's a little warmer in there.
48:18
They've got AC in there now.
48:21
It's still warm.
48:21
It's still warm.
48:24
That volleyball crowd.
48:25
What are you working on right now, Veegs?
48:26
I mean, obviously you're heading down to Mary Uch.
48:29
You're seeing these players.
48:31
Anything you're working on right now?
48:32
You're going to see a little something on GPL this weekend.
48:35
There's going to be some information on the last time we had fans in the building.
48:41
I will share some scan ticket information with people so that they can have a little bit of insight into what they're shooting for this year in terms of tickets and numbers and attendance.
48:54
I think people enjoy that.
48:56
I'm putting together a little bit of my perspective on the Motzko family and just what the team has said about the whole situation and just give some perspective on it heading into the year.
49:08
I think it's something I just kind of want to touch on at the start of the year and then kind of put it in a box and set it aside and move forward.
49:17
But I think there's a couple of important things I've heard in the last month that are worth sharing.
49:25
Sounds great, VA.
49:26
You got anything else for our opening episode here except for excitement to be back at Mary Uji?
49:31
I'm excited to be back at Mary Uji.
49:34
The pipeline is full for the Pride on Ice.
49:37
The current roster is reloaded for this season.
49:42
And the expectations are as high as I can remember.
49:46
I mean, this is an opportunity this program has ahead of it that they have not had for a while.
49:53
They are not runner-up contenders.
49:58
They are title contenders this year.
50:00
I would agree.
50:01
Well, that's going to do it for this season 11 premiere of the GPL Podcast.
50:05
You know, we'll be back next week with Nate Wells on, Gopher State and we'll wrap up the Alaska Series with him and you'll preview the Mercyhurst coming into Mariucci.
50:17
For those of you currently watching live on YouTube, stay tuned for a little bit of overtime.
50:22
For the rest of you, thanks for listening and we'll catch you next week.
Search Transcript
No matching lines.
