0:08 This is The GPL Podcast from gopherpucklive.com. 0:17 This podcast is sponsored by Jerry Peters and First Class Mortgage. 0:20 Our expertise, your piece of mind. 0:22 Visit us at firstclassmortgage.com. 0:30 Now, let's start the show with your hosts, Jupiter and Vegoe. 0:41 Good evening and welcome to The GPL Podcast, episode number 198. 0:49 Well, Veegs, we start getting this new software and we're already running into problems. 0:53 So the video may be a little delayed and a little herky-jerky on you tonight, but we're just gonna do our best, huh, Veegs? 1:00 That's all we can do. 1:01 We gotta play through it. 1:02 We gotta find our B game. 1:03 Wow, you look good to me, so everything's good there. 1:07 My internet connection's fine, so maybe it's StreamYard themselves. 1:10 We'll just plug through it and do our best. 1:13 Well, we've got a former Gopher with us tonight as a guest, Veegs. 1:18 It's pretty exciting to have a recent former Gopher on. 1:21 Yeah, and now a possible member of the media. 1:24 Starting to get into the broadcasting game a little bit. 1:26 I think some people heard him on the radio on Friday night for the UMD game. 1:32 Well, yeah, let's bring him in. 1:33 And our guest this week is none other than former Gopher Eric Schierhorn. 1:37 Eric, thanks for joining us. 1:39 Yeah, Juke, Vegoe, thanks for having me. 1:42 Excited, excited to get on here and talk some Gopher hockey with you guys. 1:46 Well, like Veegs just mentioned, you kicked off your broadcasting career this past weekend, filling in for Frank Mazocco on the radio broadcast. 1:57 Initially, you had played to kick it off with a TV broadcast with Alaska Fairbanks. 2:04 That didn't quite work out. 2:05 But I'm guessing maybe starting with radio instead of television might have been a little easier to go in on this week. 2:12 I'm actually so thankful that I started with radio instead of TV because I was excited to do it either way. 2:21 But they're like, okay, yeah, granted it was a stream, right? 2:26 It wasn't on Big Ten Network or anything. 2:28 So that helps it a little bit. 2:29 But I'm sitting there thinking like, boy, I'm going from, I'm going cold turkey into TV. 2:35 Like, I don't really know about that. 2:37 It's a little bit icy. 2:38 But so I'm glad I got my, got my feet wet with, with radio instead of TV. 2:45 But I loved it. 2:46 I thought it was awesome. 2:47 I really enjoyed it. 2:48 And was out with a beer with Wally Friday night after the game. 2:52 And he thought you did an excellent job. 2:54 So right from the mouth itself, you did a great job. 2:57 So well, great. 2:58 Well, I mean, Wally's, Wally's a legend. 3:01 Hey, like Wally's so good at what he does. 3:03 So I just, I let him go, let him do his thing. 3:07 And then just tried to, you know, add whatever I could here and there. 3:12 Well, the guy you were subbing for, Frank Mazzocco, his daughter got married this weekend. 3:16 But the funny thing is he was just doing some rehearsal stuff Friday night, VEGS. 3:21 And I get a text, I'm at Maxwell's after the game. 3:24 And he pretty much said, you know, how did the team crap the bed? 3:30 Though he didn't use that word. 3:31 And VEGS, it wasn't great against the Bulldogs yet again. 3:38 No, it's unfortunately been a trend for Minnesota lately to struggle with their in-state rivals. 3:43 I think what happens in these games, Minnesota just gets too excited and they start spreading apart. 3:51 There's a lot of one-on-one hockey. 3:53 You've got players who are trying to force offense, I think, at times on the rush, and it ends up just feeding the loose game. 4:00 And then Duluth can just go back the other way, and they get a couple early goals and take control of the game. 4:06 And then Minnesota just chased. 4:10 Something we saw last year against Minnesota State was when they fell behind, they just continued to chase offense. 4:17 Some of the shifts got long. 4:19 You saw some penalties in the offensive zone. 4:22 Just things that frustrate coaches when you turn the puck over on the entries and on the exits. 4:27 You know, that leads to a lot of trouble. 4:30 Well, it turns out that, you know, Friday night, I, you know, I got to four to one, Eric, and I tweeted out that, boy, it just seems like Laffer's struggling a bit. 4:40 And, boy, Jess Myers is like, well, the fans are turning on him. 4:45 Yeah, and I'm kind of like, no, it's just, it's obvious he's kind of struggling a bit. 4:51 You know, his numbers are down. 4:53 There's a lot of pressure on him. 4:55 I mean, there's a lot of pressure on goalies. 4:56 It just seems like there's a lot of little extra pressure this season, and he is a bit off his game. 5:02 Yeah, yeah, Jess gave me the same spiel. 5:05 I can't remember. 5:06 I think it was one of the intermissions. 5:07 He's like, oh, they're all over Laffer on Twitter. 5:10 I don't know, I didn't see it. 5:11 I was the only one saying he's just struggling. 5:14 Okay. 5:15 Well, yeah, I mean, my take on it is that I just feel like Laffer hasn't been able to get into games at all. 5:23 I mean, I said it on the radio. 5:25 It's every game, it seems like this season is there's multiple great days in the first period, first couple periods, and they go in. 5:34 He's got five shots and two goals, but he's got four great day chances against those. 5:40 It's really hard to feel confident about your game when goals are going in early and you don't get a few easy ones off the pad, direct it into the corner, so you start feeling confident in your game, and it can feel... 5:56 It's easy to get behind the eight ball and start chasing it a little bit, start thoughts creeping in the back of your head of, boy, look up at the shot clock, and you're like, that's not good for the save percentage. 6:08 You see it on the pregame notes. 6:10 Oh, 88, it's far from what it was last year. 6:12 So I think Laffer will come around, or I know he will, but I just think that those... 6:20 It's so hard when you get down early in a game like that and you start fighting it, and there is a lot of pressure on him too. 6:27 How's he gonna repeat last season? 6:29 Last season was literally historical, right? 6:32 So it's like, that could be another factor too that in his head, he really wants to repeat, obviously. 6:38 Who wouldn't want to repeat that season? 6:41 You know, sometimes just everything goes right in seasons like that. 6:45 Not saying that he can't get close to what he did last year, but you know, it was special. 6:50 So I think he'll be all right, but I get what you're saying. 6:53 Well, we all hope he's gonna be all right. 6:56 Veegs, you and I were sitting there beginning of the second period Friday night. 7:01 Minnesota had gotten back into it with a late goal in the first period, a power play goal, I believe it was. 7:05 In the second period, I believe we had some coincidentals. 7:09 It's four on four, and you and I could see it coming from a mile away. 7:12 The uncovered bulldog just waiting for a pass right out in front of the net. 7:19 It's not just Laffer. 7:20 There's just, it seems like the defense plays well, and then all of a sudden, there's just a complete breakdown like that goal. 7:26 Well, I think they're getting outmanned at the net a little bit. 7:29 I think some of the Gopher forwards aren't collapsing to the house and finding players to pick up. 7:35 And so I think one of the things for Laffer is that he's making the first save on a lot of these goals, and there's just more traffic and there's players that are ready to pounce on rebounds, and there's people on the sides, and that makes it really complicated, I think, for goalie. 7:50 You're trying to read the play and figure out where the puck's going, and then you're responsible for that first save, and then get big, I think, for rebounds. 7:59 And the team right now is just struggling. 8:03 I see a couple of times where the Gophers are breaking out, and it's just not smooth, and all of a sudden, you've got three forwards above the top of the circle, and the puck's going the other way. 8:13 And they're not able to get the right body position and play defense. 8:17 And I think that's something that they're going to try to tighten up. 8:21 But at the same time, you know, I think we've seen this Gopher team play pretty well in three of the four games against St. 8:28 Cloud in Duluth. 8:30 If they can outscore their troubles, they're going to be all right. 8:33 I mean, one goal game for the Gophers is not what people are expecting with that much talent. 8:40 True. 8:41 Eric, you've been part of this kind of struggle against the Bulldogs. 8:45 You know, as our friend Gopher State pointed out after this weekend, the Gophers are 1-12-1 in the last 14 against the Bulldogs. 8:58 When it comes to bragging rights, the Bulldogs have it all right now over the Gophers. 9:03 Yeah. 9:04 I mean, yeah, there's no doubt about it. 9:05 I mean, they've got bragging rights over damn near everyone in the country, right? 9:10 I mean, they've resonated the last four years. 9:14 So credit where credits do. 9:15 I mean, yeah, and they play a very specific game and they play it well every time. 9:24 And sometimes Vegoe pointed out when Gophers or teams that I was on would get behind on these guys, the individual, you start pressing, right? 9:34 And when you start pressing against those guys, that's when they hook, line, and sinker you. 9:38 Like, you start going one-on-one against their wall of four people lined up along their blue line. 9:45 Like, good luck with that, you know? 9:49 So yeah, I mean, credit to them. 9:51 They got it going on in the last few seasons. 9:53 Veegs, is it just kind of a case where, you know, they can't play gopher hockey? 10:00 And maybe it's time, you know, like, hey, when you come up against defensive teams that are older and just play well, sometimes you just got to dump and chase and just work your butt off to get what you want to get. 10:10 But bringing the puck in under control is much more difficult against these type of teams. 10:15 It's difficult against these teams. 10:16 But I think one of the things you saw Minnesota trying to do was spread out players at the blue line and create seams and creases for them to get into. 10:26 The key thing is the forwards just can't expose the puck to the defender as they get through those spaces. 10:32 And so if you can't carry it through, you have to be disciplined and chip it in a spot where the defender can't knock it down and put it back into the mixer in the middle of the ice. 10:42 But what happens so many times is players are just confident. 10:45 They feel like they can make a play. 10:47 They get a little fancy. 10:48 And then they get a long shift because they have to go defend again. 10:53 And that kind of gets you in more and more trouble. 10:56 So I think it's just a mental discipline not to expose the puck to the defender in those key spots of the ice. 11:03 And for whatever reason, that's been a trouble against Minnesota Duluth. 11:08 You know, when you see the Gophers play Notre Dame, maybe the Notre Dame players are just a little more passive with their sticks and the Gophers are able to handle that and get in the zone and get some things going. 11:20 But against Minnesota Duluth, those active sticks seem to always find the puck and turn it the other way. 11:27 It's credit to UMD. 11:29 Sandlin does a really good job with his program. 11:32 They're veteran players. 11:33 They know how to handle the speed of Minnesota and still play defense. 11:38 Well, for those of you watching live, if you have a question for us, just drop a comment with either on YouTube or Facebook and we'll try to get to it. 11:49 There was a couple of Twitter questions from earlier today. 11:53 I know you're going to love this. 11:54 I know it's a long season, but should we even concern this team's ability when big games? 12:01 That's a parody. 12:02 Steve Larson. 12:07 Yeah. 12:08 I mean, I asked Bob about this on Friday night, about the historical run of Minnesota against Minnesota Duluth. 12:18 Did you get the stink guy? 12:21 I got a little bit of a stink guy. 12:24 Bob is focused on getting the best team in March. 12:31 He made the hard decision with his roster to say goodbye to a couple of guys. 12:35 He had a couple of guys go on to assign professional contracts and he brought in some young players. 12:41 For this team to be the best in March, he's got to play them and develop them and put them in key roles. 12:46 You're seeing that with Hugh Glenn playing center. 12:49 Of the centers, Hugh Glenn and Nelson are probably two of the more disciplined guys at staying composed in the breakout and the defensive zone. 12:58 I think Myers is kind of playing through some injuries right now and it's maybe affecting his game a little bit. 13:04 And Walker, he kind of wanders a little bit. 13:07 So this team has to develop some players down the middle and that's the choice that Bob's making because that's the way he thinks they're going to be the most successful. 13:17 And when you play these non-conference games that are so important early in the year for pairwise and to the fan base and you're developing players, it's complicated. 13:28 Yeah, I got some on that though too, which that's interesting that Bob's doing. 13:33 I mean, played a long game, right? 13:34 But also too, I was looking at the loose regular season record was last four years. 13:40 You know, they're on a run. 13:40 They made whatever the Frozen Four last four years or whatever. 13:43 Their regular season records are nothing to write home about for the most part, right? 13:48 And they gear everything towards March and they have, and they've been successful doing that, you know? 13:54 And so for the fan who wrote in the question, you know, I'm sure some Duluth fans were asking that the last four years when Duluth didn't necessarily come out of the gates guns blazing, right? 14:06 So let's calm down. 14:09 Let's play a long game and have some faith in the coach. 14:12 That is true. 14:12 But you know, like Bob says, you know, we'll build them for the end of the season. 14:15 Well, every team is doing that. 14:17 Yeah. 14:18 I mean, we, I mean, Veegs, we've seen that with North Dakota teams. 14:21 Well, we've seen some North Dakota teams start real slow and they want to fire their coach right away. 14:26 Right. 14:27 And I do think the most frustrating thing with Minnesota right now is it's not the young players who are costing them games right now. 14:33 It's some of the older players who just are not sharp with their details. 14:37 You know, we've seen the blue line having some issues handling pucks there when, you know, they're getting some hand grenades thrown to them at times from the forwards who are just like, oh, we got to go low to high. 14:47 So they just flip something out to the point. 14:49 It's bouncing, it's hard. 14:51 And when you're already kind of struggling, that just gets even harder to handle. 14:54 But that's been one of the things we were looking at this year's defensive core and we're like, there are six really, really good defensemen coming back. 15:02 That should be a strength of this team. 15:05 Apparently, it's going to take some time. 15:07 I think it's tough when the speed limit goes from Mercyhurst to St. 15:11 Cloud to UMD. 15:13 That's a really tough start for them. 15:15 I think having the Alaska game would have helped. 15:18 I want to see how this team goes through this next stretch here. 15:21 We get some familiar Big Ten teams the next three weeks. 15:23 And then how do they look against North Dakota? 15:25 Because I think that's kind of the next big measuring stick. 15:28 You did, you were mentioning that you did like Carl Fish's game, though, didn't you? 15:32 He hadn't played all season, then he came in. 15:34 You felt he did pretty well. 15:35 I thought he held his own. 15:37 You know, when you're a big defenseman like that, you know, you've got to keep it simple, and you've got to make simple plays at the puck, and you've got to keep your body in the right spot on the ice. 15:45 And I thought for the most part, he did a really nice job of staying in between his man and the net, you know, keeping his numbers to the goalie, tying up sticks. 15:55 You know, those are all the big things you're looking for, for your defenseman. 15:58 And, you know, maybe some of the other guys, they've got to look at that a little bit and say, hey, I got to simplify my game a little bit, and then it will start to come. 16:05 And that's what you could really ask for as a goalie, Eric. 16:08 You know, you don't always need the fancy play in front of you. 16:12 You just want the smart play, don't you? 16:15 Yeah. 16:16 And I loved Carl Fish's game, honestly, Friday. 16:20 Like, I thought if I was drawing up a game plan for Carl Fish before the game, I thought he played that theoretical game plan to a tee, right? 16:30 Like, he threw the body around a little bit, smart, simple plays, got the puck out on the breakout, off the glass and out if he needed to. 16:36 I thought he did, you know, that's no easy task, hopping in Duluth for your first game of the season, right? 16:43 So I thought he did really well. 16:44 But yes, I do like the simple plays in front of me. 16:47 Just get it out. 16:48 I don't care what you do. 16:50 I'm a little irrational sometimes as a goalie though, but. 16:58 Veegs, the one issue they do have on defense is lack of depth. 17:03 You know, we like their main six guys, but they've only had eight guys this year, whereas in past years, they typically had ten. 17:11 So when a guy like Kester goes down or somebody has COVID or something, they're a little thin on defense. 17:18 They are a little thin. 17:20 It could be a worry. 17:22 You know, if you pick up another injury, and now you've got Fish and Denman in there, and you're trying to figure out how to match your team out against opponents who are pretty quick, and especially this year, you know, now there's just the one media timeout per period. 17:35 You know, so the game goes pretty quick, and there's not a lot of time to rest guys. 17:39 So, you know, you used to be able to shorten your bench and rely on those TV timeouts to maybe get your top guys out a little bit more. 17:45 You can't do that this year. 17:47 So, I think they're kind of hoping that they can stay healthy here through the year. 17:52 And, you know, if something happens, they might have to grab a guy from the USHL to add to the team. 17:58 You know, you don't want to do that in the long run, but, you know, that could be an option for them if things do get better. 18:09 You hate to see that, but, you know, Veegs, you and I were kind of talking about this summer, that it looked like they weren't going to add any defense and bring anyone else in, and, you know, going from, you know, 10 down to eight, it's risky. 18:21 I mean, isn't it fairly risky, Eric? 18:24 Yeah, yeah, to be honest with you, I've never really thought about it. 18:30 But yeah, I mean, now with Kester going down and you're down to seven, yeah, that could potentially be a problem. 18:39 Yeah, I mean, it is risky. 18:40 You lose too and you're down to your eighth D now in the lineup. 18:43 So yeah. 18:44 And Veegs, it's probably going to be more of a case down where maybe he dresses seven D and that's all of them. 18:50 Yeah, it could happen. 18:51 I know at the end of last year, Colin Schmidt took some practices at D to kind of get ready in case they needed to reinforce the troops a little bit. 19:01 So maybe that's something they do. 19:02 They have, you know, one of those extra guys take some practices there to get comfortable just in case you need to do something like that. 19:10 Okay, let's do a little bit of a lighter question. 19:13 Eric, what is your greatest Gopher memory? 19:17 From Darren Bakken on Twitter. 19:20 Greatest Gopher memory. 19:23 I'd have to say my freshman year, we played Wisconsin last weekend of the year. 19:32 We needed one win to get the Big Ten regular season title. 19:37 We lost Friday, came back Saturday, won 2-1, close game, Mariuccib, I don't know if it was sold out, but it was almost sold out and the game came down to the wire the whole time we won. 19:53 I was a freshman too, so everything in your freshman year is extra cool. 20:00 That game and winning the Big Ten was extra cool. 20:05 I would say a close second would be start of sophomore year when we went up to Alaska. 20:12 I got to play in front of family and friends. 20:16 I went to Shattuck when I was in eighth grade, so I hadn't played in front of family and friends since I was 13 years old. 20:21 So that was super cool. 20:25 Yeah, I bet it was. 20:27 We actually have a Facebook question. 20:29 He says, late to the show. 20:31 Sorry if you touched on this, but what was your recruiting like? 20:34 Was it Gophers all the way or did you have quite a few schools that were interested? 20:38 Yeah, I mean, I had some. 20:41 It's so funny with goalies or just the recruiting process in general, we'd always joke about it in juniors and stuff. 20:48 The amount of teams that call you and just give you their whole spiel, like, hey, you're on our radar, we'd like to keep in touch, we love what you do, blah, blah, but it never comes to fruition or anything. 21:00 So I was, the two serious suitors were Nebraska-Almoha and Minnesota. 21:05 And then there were some lingering on the outside that hadn't fully made an offer yet, but were saying that they would in the future. 21:13 But you know, I got to my second-year juniors when I was a year out of high school then, in January, when I committed to the Gophers. 21:22 So I visited UNO first. 21:26 Coach Dean Blaise took me out to Outback Steakhouse. 21:30 And then I visited here, you know, like a month later, and it was, I mean, it was a no-brainer, like everything. 21:41 I was in awe the second I stepped on campus, and I, Grandpa told me, Grandpa told me, he dropped me off at the airport after my visit. 21:48 And he was like, said something like, I hope to, you know, we get some good news on you in the future. 21:54 And I was like, yeah, I think you will. 21:56 Like, I was ready to commit on spot. 21:58 So it was, it was a no-brainer. 22:01 I mean, I guess some of you may have helped that you actually were kind of living in Minnesota for quite a long time, you know, going to school at Shattuck for a while too. 22:10 I mean, Gophers are on TV every weekend. 22:13 You get to see them all the time. 22:14 Yeah. 22:15 And I had some familiarity with knowing guys here and whatnot. 22:20 So kind of learned about the Gopher program. 22:22 But, you know, to be honest with you, I was never drafted in the USHL or even the NAHL. 22:29 And I kind of like randomly, honestly made a USHL team. 22:36 So the fact that I was getting recruited by the Gophers now in my second year at USHL is like, wow, I would have never thought this would happen. 22:42 So it was a quick kind of path to it, I guess. 22:47 It happened pretty suddenly. 22:49 But I mean, it was a no brainer. 22:54 Well, that's cool. 22:56 We had a story of Pat McAleady saying he really wasn't even recruited by Minnesota. 23:01 What does that mean? 23:03 They all just kind of assumed he'd be coming here. 23:06 And, you know, North Dakota thought they had him. 23:09 And then he had to call, you know, Gino Gasparini and say, you know, sorry, I'm not coming there. 23:14 I'm going to Minnesota. 23:15 And Gino Gasparini, the old coach, just hung up on him. 23:19 So it's actually kind of interesting to hear these stories, because, you know, Pat's pretty much the only other player we've had on, isn't it, Veegs? 23:25 Well, I guess Captain Ingris was a player. 23:27 And we had Carmen on. 23:29 Yeah, we did have Carmen on. 23:31 My favorite recruiting story is Scott Bell. 23:34 He was pretty much thinking he was going to go to Colorado College. 23:37 They're going to give him like 100% scholarship to go there. 23:40 And then one night he's playing in the USHL for the St. 23:44 Paul Vulcans, and the Gophers offer him a third of a scholarship. 23:49 And he's like, I'll take it. 23:51 And I think Wuger was like, what? 23:55 You're in? 23:56 He's like, yep. 23:57 And he had to call and tell his parents, and they're like, you gave up a full, full ride to CC for a third of a scholarship at Minnesota. 24:04 What are you doing? 24:04 And he's like, I always want to be a Gopher. 24:07 So, and that's just the way it's, it's almost, sometimes it's almost like a business, isn't it, Eric? 24:12 I mean, some kids are going to get some part of a scholarship and there's just, there's only so much to go around. 24:19 Yeah. 24:19 I mean, what is it? 24:20 You only get 18, right? 24:22 You only get 18. 24:24 So, and the Gophers have a luxury kind of there. 24:28 Well, I guess all Minnesota schools really, because Minnesota schools just generally have a lot of Minnesota players, but, you know, they can kind of more get away with giving someone a little less that's from in-state, knowing that they'll get in-state tuition regardless. 24:42 You know, that's, right? 24:43 So that is something that works in favor for the Gophers, recruiting a lot of in-state guys. 24:50 But yeah, no, it's a business for sure. 24:53 And the Gophers also, being the Gophers, can get away with giving more players a third of a scholarship where, you know, they could get more elsewhere, but they want to stay home if you Gophers. 25:05 And then you look at somebody like a Tyler Nanny or whatnot, you know, grandpa can pay for the schooling, so some of the scholarships can go up. 25:15 I mean, isn't that kind of the case, Veegs? 25:18 Sometimes, but there's also some ego in there, too, I think, for players. 25:21 You know, you want to get what's coming to you. 25:23 So it's super complicated. 25:26 I think it's kind of a dark art that most college hockey fans aren't aware of about how the scholarship percentages go. 25:33 You know, it's very rare for someone to get a full ride, you know? 25:37 It doesn't happen all the time. 25:39 And what a lot of people don't know either is that percentage can change by year. 25:45 Like, that's a one-year contract. 25:46 They can rip it up and tell you you got nothing the next year. 25:49 I mean, most coaches won't do that because they honor their word and they don't want it to circulate that, you know, hey, if you commit here and we tell you it's a full ride, it's not actually a full ride type thing. 26:01 But, I mean, that is... 26:04 They can find excuses to rip up that paper. 26:06 But coaches come and go too. 26:09 Yeah, exactly. 26:10 Coaches come and go. 26:11 Yeah, you look at... 26:13 Yeah, I mean, whoever took over... 26:15 Rico Blasi at St. 26:16 Thomas, you know, granted it's a little different because he took over a D3 team, but a lot of those D3 players who were hoping to get on got the boot. 26:25 So it's a business for them too. 26:29 It definitely is. 26:30 Definitely is. 26:31 We saw Rico hanging around Marriotchi quite a few times recently in a couple of years. 26:35 Probably when you were a senior, I remember seeing him up there. 26:39 So he had to find something to do since he wasn't at Miami anymore. 26:46 Well, I remember if you've got questions, we'll try to get them on the air here. 26:49 But first we need to hear from our sponsor. 26:52 Hey, fellow GPLers, Jerry Peters here from First Class Mortgage. 26:56 Have you refinanced your home in the last 12 months? 26:58 If you haven't, chances are you should. 27:01 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. 27:09 You can also use the equity in your home to finance those home improvement projects. 27:13 Or you can consolidate high interest rate credit cards into one new low monthly payment. 27:18 To hear more, call or text me today at 612-940-3291. 27:24 You can email me at jerry at firstclasscorp.com or you could go to firstclassmortgage.com to fill out a free online application. 27:33 Mention The GPL Podcast and receive a $300 closing cost credit. 27:37 Some restrictions do apply. 27:39 First Class Mortgage's NMLS number is 322842-480200. 27:45 This is not an agreement to lock into an interest rate under Minnesota law. 27:49 First Class Mortgage is an Equal Housing Lender. 27:54 All right. 27:54 Thank you, Jerry, again for sponsoring The GPL Podcast. 27:58 Now Eric, like you said, you got your broadcast career started this weekend. 28:03 Is this something you'd like to keep pursuing and maybe one of these radio guys will retire someday or maybe these television or I've heard on the grapevine that you're working with Ben Climber. 28:15 Maybe you could take Ben Climber's spot. 28:18 Yeah. 28:19 Well, let's put broadcasting career in air quotes there please for a little aggressive term for that. 28:25 But yeah, no, I loved it and I would love to do more. 28:31 Frank and Wally are great at what they do and I would love to fill in here and there certainly. 28:37 And yeah, I do work for Ben Climber now. 28:40 And I think a TV, doing what he does is honestly perfect because he does Friday, Saturdays at home occasionally or maybe even just Fridays, travels occasionally, but not too much for it. 28:58 So I think that would be perfect. 28:59 I don't know if I'd want the full, full time gig. 29:03 Frank and Wally are at the rink a lot and they're traveling a lot. 29:07 So that's a big commitment. 29:09 So I'm not sure about that, but I would like to do more because I really enjoy it. 29:12 And I like talking to hockey and I mean, they watch hockey for a living, that's kind of sweet. 29:19 Now Vegas, you know, I always have kind of felt a little bit bad for Ben Climber because he essentially kind of took over for Doug Woog. 29:29 And that's just the hard act to follow. 29:33 It is a tough act to follow. 29:34 And then the TV landscape has changed a little bit, you know, with the BTN and Fox and now Bally's, you know, so that makes it really complicated. 29:43 I think it helps to be consistently around the program, to develop stories and learn what's going on with the team. 29:50 I think the more that you're around, the easier that piece gets. 29:54 You know, you learn a lot of stuff just by being around the rink. 29:57 And it is fun to see more people in the mix though. 30:02 Eric, I was always listening on the radio when I'm at the games. 30:05 I get to stream it somehow and figure it out. 30:08 But I thought it was interesting, you know, you talked a lot about Lafontaine, you know, freezing the puck, you know, trying to get his team back in the game. 30:16 And I thought that was an interesting perspective. 30:18 How do you choose, you know, how to get into the game and analyze it that way? 30:25 You mean from a standpoint of why I think that he, it was a good idea for him to be freezing the puck, or how just like how much goaltending insight to give during the broadcast? 30:36 Yeah, no, I try not to be too goalie heavy because not everyone wants to listen to what a goalie has to say from a goalie's perspective, which I totally get, because I mean, there's probably just not that many of them out there. 30:49 But I just thought it was a little, I try to add little tidbits that maybe they wouldn't think of, that go on in a game that goalies are aware of, that, you know, the average fan might not necessarily be aware of, or might not notice. 31:02 I mean, it doesn't take a genius to know that goalies freeze pucks when their players are running around like chickens with their head cut off. 31:10 So but yeah, I don't know, I try to add little tidbits here and there that people might not notice about the goaltending position and what or why we do things. 31:24 And I'm guessing Friday night, Eric, you might have been a little frustrated, or if you were in goal, you would have been frustrated because, you know, Veegs and I saw the stats after the game that the face-offs were not good for the Gophers. 31:36 I mean, when you're losing key defensive zone face-offs, it's all, you know, that's got to be a little bit stressful for a goalie. 31:44 Yeah, well, it's I mean, it hurts the whole team. 31:47 I think I was looking at the stat pack after the first period and D-Zone draws, the Gophers were one of eight or something like that. 31:56 And, you know, I think two, I think both of them led almost directly to the goals. 32:02 So, you know, when you're losing draws like that, especially in the D-Zone, you're behind the eight ball right away. 32:08 And the Lute just attacked from there and they kept pressure up and they had, they sustained ozone pressure and the Gophers got tired and they led to goals. 32:19 So face-offs are huge. 32:22 And Veegs, we've got to talk about that for years. 32:24 I mean, sometimes face-off battles are 50-50, but really, it's key times of the game. 32:30 You know, it's maybe after an icing. 32:33 You lose that offensive zone or defensive zone face-off and you're in trouble already. 32:38 You know, I noticed that the stat pack was a little different this past week. 32:41 And when they tried to explain, you know, hey, where was it in the offensive zone, the neutral zone, the defensive zone, they kind of got creamed Friday night. 32:50 Yeah, I think the face-off percentages for in-zone draws was about 70% for Duluth, which, you know, every time, you know, you got an O-zone draw, you're trying to get your offense going again, you lose that, you have to start over play defense. 33:04 You're in the D-zone, you know, you're just trying to clear it. 33:07 Maybe you need to get a change. 33:08 If you lose that draw, you're chasing for a good 20, 30 seconds of your shift at least. 33:13 You know, and those are those are opportunities for the team to really show the intensity. 33:18 You know, that was a big Don Luchia thing. 33:21 He's like, I can tell the intensity by how we're doing in draws, how many shots we're blocking and how many hits we have. 33:26 You know, if we're winning those three areas, we're probably engaged and we're wanting to win the game. 33:31 And if you looked at the stats from Friday night, a lot of missed shots, a lot of shots are blocked, not very good on the faceoff circle. 33:41 You know, it's just signs that, you know, it's not quite there yet. 33:45 And Moscow was not happy after the game. 33:47 I know he was kind of short on the radio broadcast. 33:49 He was, he wasn't as short maybe with the media, but he was not happy at all, Eric. 33:56 No, no, he wasn't. 33:58 And he, I don't even think he tries to hide his feelings, but he doesn't hide them very well if he does, which is fine. 34:05 I mean, I get it. 34:07 I mean, if you're from a media perspective, I feel like that's what you want. 34:12 But yeah, I don't really blame him because it's a big game and it's one thing if you lose and you play well, right? 34:21 But if you lose and try not to be too critical, but I mean, the effort probably wasn't where they would like it to be or where it needs to be to go against a team like Duluth. 34:35 So I think that's especially where coaches get hot is when the effort isn't there and the result's not there. 34:45 So he was a little happier Saturday night, DelVeegs. 34:49 Yeah, I mean, I thought they played a lot better. 34:51 You know, they made better decisions with the puck in transition. 34:55 You know, you saw players making the right play to get the puck below the goal line when they had to rather than turn the puck over. 35:01 Yeah, I think you saw some more patience on the breakouts with the Fords actually waiting for the play to get started before they got going. 35:08 And they just stuck to their game a little bit more. 35:11 I think one of the things that the teams have to do is when you're playing a team like Duluth, your mindset can't change based on the score. 35:19 You know, maybe in the last minute or two, that's when you start rolling the dice and be more aggressive. 35:23 But when you play a team like Duluth, you just have to stick to it. 35:26 You know, instead of getting 20, 30 scoring chances, maybe you're only going to get 10 or 15. 35:32 And you just have to accept that and play through that. 35:36 All right, we got more of a fun question here. 35:39 This has got to be Tim Hapke. 35:41 Any superstitions you had when you were playing? 35:46 Gosh, I like to say it. 35:48 Go ahead. 35:49 Well, I was going to say, I noticed like Laffer like after every stop, but she goes kind of straight over to the sideboards every time. 35:56 Yeah. 35:56 Did you have anything quirky like that or maybe pregame or anything like that? 36:00 He's got some routines, Laffer does. 36:02 Yeah, I just tried to, I just tried to do the same thing. 36:06 Like I had the same schedule, right? 36:09 So like nap time was 2.30 to 4.30 or whatever, shower, whatever, get to the rink. 36:17 I do the same thing, same stretch routine in the same spot, go up to the weight room at the same time to do what I needed to do there, go up and play sewer ball, kick the soccer ball around at the same time. 36:31 And then, you know, I'd skate over to my blocker side every time, make sure I tap the post, tap the boards, tap the post again when I came back. 36:39 But I don't know, those to me are more routines. 36:44 Like, you know, I didn't like not wash my underwear after 10 games. 36:49 I wasn't doing that kind of thing or whatever. 36:53 I've seen some weird ones that I actually think are too more bad than good. 37:01 Okay, come on, you're supposed to be a goofy goalie. 37:03 I know, I know. 37:05 We've had pretty normal goalies coming through the program the last couple of years. 37:08 So yeah, 100%. 37:10 I would say though, Laffer is pretty outspoken, very emotional guy. 37:15 He's a great soundbite. 37:16 And he speaks his mind. 37:19 And it's good. 37:20 I mean, it's good. 37:21 He is who he is, whether you're talking to him. 37:24 If I was talking to him, you know, in the locker room, just one on one, or if he's talking to you guys with the media, I think that's awesome. 37:31 He's been great with the media. 37:32 And I think that's why a lot of times, I believe even Jess Meyer's asked Friday night, can we get Laffer? 37:38 Deutsch is like, yeah, no. 37:42 Because, you know, I'm thinking that instance, you know, he was probably frustrated too. 37:46 He would probably come out and say exactly how he felt. 37:49 Yeah. 37:50 You know, sometimes when I was struggling, I almost wanted to do that too. 37:57 You know, I almost wanted to come out and be like, I know, I know I'm sucking, you know, like sometimes it's just you want people to know that you know, that things aren't going well and that you're, you want to do better and you're trying to do better and you're working at it to do better. 38:13 Like it just, it feels like that, you know, takes like a weight off your shoulders so that you are seeing your side of things, which you shouldn't have to and you don't need to as a player. 38:27 But sometimes you just want to be like, I know, I need to be better and I'm going to be better. 38:33 It's on me and no one else, right? 38:36 Brent Hova would think that might be the problem. 38:38 We have too many, we have too many normal goalies. 38:42 Honestly, sometimes the weirder the better. 38:46 Here's a good one for you, Veegs. 38:48 Ken Slindy, am I missing something, but the Gophers seem to collapse into the defensive zone while most other teams are meeting the Gophers at the blue line. 38:57 Well, I think part of the Gopher strategy is to get in transition hockey. 39:02 And so the emphasis from the coaching staff is everybody get back to the house, protect between the dots below the circles to the net. 39:10 And then sort it out from there. 39:12 I think they trust that they have a goalie who can make that first save. 39:16 And the thing that they're really concerned with is getting back, being hard to play against and protecting the grade A scoring chances. 39:24 That's really the emphasis for Minnesota. 39:26 I think a lot of these other teams that you're seeing, they're trying to set up a wall at the blue line for the Gophers to skate into. 39:33 And so this is a totally different mindset. 39:36 Every once in a while, you'll see the Gophers kind of line up with the 2D and a forward on the weak side. 39:41 You're trying to protect their blue line, but that's really when you can't get in on the forecheck. 39:46 I think when Bob first took over as coach, too many times there were too many players trying to get on the forecheck. 39:52 And then there'd be a big gap in the neutral zone for the other team to get some speed. 39:57 And we saw many, many times forwards get on the transition and split the D because there was no wall at the blue line. 40:05 So now I think the Gopher is a little better at win. 40:08 It's time to forecheck. 40:09 They know how to forecheck when it's time to set up at the blue line. 40:12 They do. 40:12 But when they're in transition, they're just trying to get back to the house. 40:15 But then that gives the goalie a great chance. 40:17 Like, you know, you left all alone and somebody comes out. 40:19 You get to make the great save, right, Eric? 40:21 Yeah, it's your time to shine. 40:23 Which is good. 40:24 It's good if you're making the saves. 40:25 But if you're not, then you can just blame the D. 40:28 Take all the credit for your saves. 40:31 Well, Laffer had to make a big save in Duluth early when Kobe Roth got that breakaway shorthanded. 40:36 And Laffer was there for that. 40:38 He stood tall, he outweighed the shooter, got a big blocker up there. 40:43 That's a save that can change the momentum of the game too. 40:46 Yeah. 40:47 And there was a couple, even Saturday. 40:50 I know apparently he was getting flack on Twitter for how he's playing, and his numbers aren't there. 40:55 But there were some Saturday when it was a 3-1 game, and even when it was a 4-1 game, 4-2 game, that he made some big saves where he was kind of hung out to dry. 41:05 And those are saves even in the back of your mind, you're like, okay, well, remember that one, because it's only a two-goal game. 41:12 But I thought he looked better Saturday, for sure. 41:16 He looked very solid. 41:18 I know that they track the great A's for and against. 41:21 I know that's one of the big thing that the Moscow does, and he'll associate players with creating the chance or allowing the chance. 41:30 I'd love to see how many they gave up the last two weekends, because it's got to be more than usual. 41:37 Yeah, that's something that we would track when I was there. 41:42 Coach Gensel would have for the D, scoring chances for, scoring chances against. 41:47 So that was always stressful for some after weekends, but just interesting, just to see how those stats play out. 41:59 And they post those around the team areas, right? 42:02 So it's there for everybody to see. 42:04 Yeah, I mean, that's one thing about sports is there's no hiding. 42:07 Nope, no hiding. 42:10 To say the least. 42:12 Well, now the Big Ten season opens up VEGES. 42:14 We've got Notre Dame coming into town. 42:17 I would say Minnesota has played better against their style of hockey as recently. 42:26 They do kind of like to do the trap, shut teams down, wait for you to make mistakes. 42:30 But it just seems like they're not quite on par with the St. 42:34 Cloud or Duluth. 42:37 So Minnesota has had pretty good success against them. 42:40 Well, I feel like the Fighting Irish are maybe a little less aggressive when the battles present themselves. 42:47 I think the St. 42:48 Clouds, the North Dakotas, the Duluth, when you get within range of their sticks and their bodies, that's when they're going to go on the attack. 42:56 And I think that's created some problems for Minnesota lately. 42:59 With Notre Dame, it's a little more passive, I think, and they're waiting maybe to jump a pass, or they're waiting to block a shot and get going, but they're less aggressive. 43:08 So I think Minnesota can be a little more patient against that. 43:12 Blake McLaughlin said this week, he's just like, you know, when you play Notre Dame, you have the puck a lot. 43:17 And we like that because it allows us to be creative and make plays and get on offense. 43:22 So, you know, I think it's a better matchup for Minnesota. 43:25 For whatever reason, they don't play like their brains are in Dinkytown when they play Notre Dame. 43:30 They play like they're actually at the rink. 43:32 And so it should be a good matchup for Minnesota to try to maybe get healthy and get some confidence. 43:39 Okay, I'm just going to put this out there, Eric. 43:42 Do you like the Big Ice or not? 43:44 Ha! 43:45 Um, gosh, I don't really care. 43:50 Okay, okay. 43:51 I think that it's, I mean, I don't think there's any reason why there should be Big Ice. 43:56 I get why it was in the past, right? 43:58 Wasn't it to recruit Olympians to? 44:01 Yep. 44:01 That kind of the idea, right? 44:03 Well, exactly. 44:04 I don't understand why there would be no reason. 44:08 Because too often the games end up being so perimeter because there's just so much ice out there that it just, the game gets pushed to, you know, the board side hash and above the top of the circles and whatnot. 44:21 I think it's just a better product on a smaller rank. 44:25 But as a player perspective, I never really cared. 44:28 Same game, same game to me. 44:31 Everything just happened just a little faster on the small rank. 44:36 HanVeegs, we're still waiting for the rank to be shrunk a little bit. 44:39 So everyone keep their fingers crossed, right? 44:42 Yeah. 44:44 Yeah, buy some tickets, come to the games. 44:48 There is a plan in the Regents documents to use that commercial paper program to pay for the rank. 44:54 I don't think there's a timeline yet. 44:56 It all depends on how healthy the athletic budget is, I think, this year, you know, how fast they get started with that transition. 45:04 Eric, you were lucky. 45:04 You got to play out your senior year. 45:08 And, but then I'm guessing you really felt for those players the year after when they're building up, they're playing well, they're about to head to Penn State and then COVID just shuts it all down. 45:21 Brutal. 45:22 I mean, you could say the same about so many athletes. 45:26 Yes. 45:26 You know, like, just brutal. 45:29 And I somehow lucked out more than, you know, my senior year was the year before. 45:36 My season got done in France, like March 2nd. 45:39 I was back in America March 10th. 45:42 Traveled to Europe, shut down like March 16th. 45:48 No, but that was tough because, you know, since I graduated, I've become a fan, you know? 45:57 So like, and I've never really been from Alaska. 45:59 We don't have any pro teams. 46:02 Alaska Anchorage Hockey Team has never been much to write home about. 46:09 I mean, it was in the early 90s, but I didn't exist. 46:11 Yeah. 46:12 So I've never really had like a true sports team. 46:16 But now, like, I'm a fan. 46:19 I'm a huge fan of Gopher Hockey, and it's a new experience for me, but it's great. 46:27 So yeah, it's been fun to kind of have that transition. 46:31 I wish you could have been here maybe. 46:34 I know I'm not bringing it up in the WCHA days because it was a lot fuller. 46:40 The fans were a lot happier. 46:42 That's a whole other just huge item because it hasn't been great. 46:49 It wasn't that great while you were there. 46:51 I mean, just a full house. 46:54 Yeah. 46:56 Unfortunately, people don't necessarily want to see us play Ohio State or Penn State or Michigan State. 47:04 They want to see us play Duluth, St. 47:05 Cloud, Nodak, Denver. 47:10 Yeah, that was my favorite question to get at Skate with the Gophers. 47:13 I miss the old WCHA. 47:14 I was like, okay, what do you want me to do about it? 47:19 And a lot of old people forget though. 47:21 They're like, oh, I miss playing Michigan Tech. 47:23 Really? 47:24 Yeah. 47:24 I mean, Michigan Tech really hasn't done anything since the mid 70s. 47:28 Anchorage, whatever. 47:30 I mean, I've never liked that argument, but it wasn't just that though. 47:37 We had Norwood Teague come in and say, hey, let's re-seat the whole arena. 47:40 Now all the people have been there for 20 years. 47:43 Now you got to pay this extra 500 bucks. 47:46 That made a lot of people angry. 47:47 Wouldn't you say, Veegs? 47:49 I think that might have been the biggest reason. 47:50 Well, yeah. 47:51 And my family's had season tickets for a long time. 47:54 And you knew the people who sat around you really well. 47:58 It was just like, oh, yeah, I know them and them and them. 48:01 And you might not know their names or phone numbers. 48:03 But during hockey season, you saw them half the Fridays and Saturdays of the winter. 48:07 And so you kind of formed those relationships. 48:10 I saw Tony Lucia and Mario Lucia kind of grow up, because their family seats were right by ours. 48:17 So you could kind of have that connection with people who were on the rink. 48:21 And then the final five was just like a celebration of college hockey at Excel. 48:26 It was just perfect timing for that to come together. 48:28 And it'll never be the same. 48:31 I always thought it would be fun to have a Big Ten NCHC tournament at the end of the year or something, instead of the conference tournaments, because that would bring out the fans and some bragging rights and it'd be a lot of fun. 48:44 We're still playing all those teams we like, though, Veegs. 48:46 We're still playing North Dakota. 48:47 We're still playing UMD. 48:49 Mankato, not this year, but we're still seeing those teams. 48:54 The Crowns are actually pretty decent this past week. 48:56 And I think they had scanned over 7,400 or something like that, which is quite an improvement over recent years against UMD. 49:06 So that part is good. 49:10 I really think it was kind of like you said, you build up relationships for decades with people and all of a sudden, you're getting charged a lot more. 49:16 And a lot of those fans say, you know, I'm going to put my dollars maybe elsewhere, maybe the wild or something like that. 49:22 And that's just tough to recover. 49:23 And that's been your biggest thing. 49:25 You're like, you're not going to get those fans back. 49:27 You've got to get new fans now. 49:29 You got to get those skate with the Gopher fans who don't ask that question to the jankers. 49:35 There's a group of people, too. 49:37 They say, like, they got the jerseys that say Big Mistake or whatever. 49:41 Oh, yeah. 49:42 Those guys are classic, too. 49:44 And they sit right behind the net. 49:45 So, yeah, hard to ignore. 49:47 I still get a lot of private messages on Twitter from Big Mistake. 49:51 So he's a dedicated fan. 49:54 So yeah, we love your dedication. 49:57 We just can't do anything about it, unfortunately. 50:00 And that's just it. 50:02 Minnesota didn't want a Big Ten. 50:05 They never did. 50:06 So we just got to deal with it now. 50:09 What can you do about it? 50:10 All right, Veegs, this weekend, Notre Dame, you predicted a gopher sweep last weekend and that who I know. 50:18 I've been hearing about that, too. 50:20 I've made a lot of connections to people up in Duluth. 50:23 And I thought, you know, this might be the year. 50:25 I thought the way Minnesota played Saturday and St. 50:28 Cloud, maybe they'd be able to, you know, keep their brains in tact for the weekend and played honest hockey, as Bob likes to call it. 50:36 But that wasn't the case. 50:37 I did think they played pretty well, three out of the four games against these teams. 50:41 So, you know, the record isn't what people are looking for, but I think they've learned a lot and I think they're developing their team. 50:49 I think Notre Dame comes at the right time. 50:51 I'm going to be sticking with sweep again. 50:53 You know, I was wrong last weekend, but I think Notre Dame is a little bit different matchup for Minnesota. 50:59 And maybe the extra space allows some of their skill players to show their skill. 51:05 You know, that's something that Sammy Walker said today is like, you know, we've got lots of skill. 51:10 We've got lots of speed. 51:11 We just have to play smarter. 51:14 Definitely. 51:15 All right, Eric, what's your goalie perspective on Notre Dame? 51:18 You think they can get a sweep split? 51:20 What do you think in here? 51:21 Yeah. 51:22 Well, I thought this was interesting. 51:23 I was looking at Notre Dame start to the season. 51:27 I mean, no offense to the teams that they've played, but gosh, is that a cakewalk start of your non-conference schedule? 51:36 They played Long Island. 51:38 They played Michigan Tech. 51:39 They played Northern Michigan, and they played RIT twice, which there's two ways to do it. 51:44 There's either you book a hard non-conference schedule and you can go three and three and be fine, or you can book this and you got to go five and oh, six and oh, and one of this one RIT loss could come back to bite them big and pair wise. 51:57 So I thought that was interesting, which I don't love, but it's not my decision. 52:02 But yeah, I like The Gophers. 52:04 The Gophers have always matched. 52:05 We've always matched up well against Notre Dame, for whatever reason. 52:08 Like our style play, I think you're onto something Vegoe, where it's similar style to Duluth, where they just try to suffocate you. 52:17 They play like a one, three, one, four check. 52:19 They don't go and get the puck. 52:21 They make you come to them. 52:24 And we've just been able to make it happen against them recently. 52:28 So I like a sweep. 52:29 I think Bob probably had some choice words for them in video, certainly after Friday's game. 52:36 I'm not so sure as much about after Saturday's game. 52:40 But I think the Falls are going to come out hot this weekend. 52:44 It's all about the veterans, Vig. 52:45 It's all about the veterans. 52:46 They really, they got to show some leadership. 52:50 Kind of lead the team. 52:52 Yeah, I thought Cruikshank said something really interesting on Friday. 52:56 I asked him, in a game like this, what's the chatter like in the locker room, on the bench? 53:01 Because I know in the past, chatter on the bench has gotten kind of negative or quiet. 53:08 That was something that they really focused on a lot last year, is like, let's have positive stuff on the bench. 53:15 It can't always be coming from the coaches. 53:18 It sounded like guys like Scott Reedy were really taking a vocal role on the bench to keep things positive on the right mindset. 53:26 And he said, guys are saying the right things, but they're not doing them. 53:32 We got to do what we say we're going to do. 53:35 And I think it's going to help if Grant Krutschank kind of takes a little bit of a leadership role with this team. 53:43 You know, Bob jokes that he's a little uncomfortable walking on eggshells, coming to a new room. 53:48 I think that kind of message needs to come out a little bit more and get this team so the players are holding each other accountable. 53:56 Because you can't have like a loosey goosey bench. 54:00 You can't have a loosey goosey attitude and freelance on the ice. 54:04 When you play these games, you have to stick to it. 54:08 So we'll see if that comes out. 54:11 I'm definitely predicting a sweep. 54:12 I know I saw Mote in the chat there saying, I'm going to the sweep. 54:17 They need it. 54:17 They need it. 54:18 This, you know, it's going to be Michigan and Minnesota there this year, Veegs. 54:23 Michigan, you know, they stumbled a little bit last weekend, but we got to get every possible point we can because we're going to need it to stick with them. 54:32 Yeah, I think Michigan is going to be a class right now in the Big Ten. 54:36 They've got just so much firepower and they're playing well early. 54:40 So, that's going to be a huge test. 54:42 You can't drop points, especially at home. 54:44 You know, you got to win your home games, you know, split on the road. 54:47 It's almost like US. 54:49 Ben's national team soccer. 54:50 It's like you got to win your home matches and the qualifiers. 54:52 And then on the road, you got to play a little more conservative. 54:55 And if you draw, you draw, you know, I think at home, you got to do really well. 55:01 Well, that's what Lucio always said. 55:02 Sweep at home, split on the road. 55:03 You're going to have a good season. 55:05 Yep. 55:06 Well, Eric, thanks for joining us on the podcast. 55:08 We appreciate you coming on. 55:10 Yeah, thanks for having me. 55:11 This was a blast. 55:12 Will you join us again sometime down the road? 55:15 If the invitation's there, yeah. 55:17 You getting assigned any more games yet? 55:19 Or is it still TVD? 55:20 No, no, no. 55:23 I can injure Frank if you want to, just... 55:26 No, so I don't know what the plan is, I think, because the Fairbanks series got rescheduled for January, right? 55:34 So, I mean, I guess maybe if they asked me to do that, I would. 55:41 But I don't know how that's going to work. 55:42 They didn't say whether we're locked into that or not. 55:46 But hopefully, I will say. 55:48 But I do have one text in question for both of you guys. 55:52 Oh, boy. 55:52 From a listener. 55:54 It says, Matzko's predecessor had a reputation of recruiting a preponderance, what a word, of offensive players who didn't have a lot of grit. 56:03 Not enough role players or guys with... 56:08 They would go into the corners and set up prima donnas. 56:12 That was sarcasm. 56:14 Any risk, Coach Matzko is doing the same. 56:17 Wow, that was aggressive. 56:20 Way to keep the anonymity, too, of this. 56:23 Listen, man. 56:27 Oh, boy. 56:28 I'd like to preface that question with how people's Twitter bios are. 56:34 That's the opinions that's expressed in that question are not my own. 56:39 I'm not trying to get in trouble here. 56:42 Veegs, that's been a problem since forever for this team, though. 56:46 I mean, really, because, oh, jeez, recruiting the Dino guys and things like this. 56:52 It's like, yes, that is the case from time to time. 56:55 I mean, some players are like that, but that's just kind of with the territory, isn't it? 57:02 Well, the reason Bob took this job was so that he could coach a team of high-end players. 57:08 He went to the World Juniors and he got his hands on some of the best talent in the United States. 57:13 And I think it was a little more complicated to get that talent to go to St. 57:18 Cloud. 57:19 So he took the job at Minnesota because he wants the Chaz Lucius. 57:23 You know, he wants the Matthew Knives. 57:25 He wants, you know, Kester and Johnson and Faber and McComb. 57:28 You know, he wants that high-end talent to be on his roster. 57:32 But putting it all together. 57:33 But you got to put it together and you got to figure out how to blend those kinds of players and protect them with experienced players who can win battles on the walls. 57:44 You know, you need enough, you know, sample rantas, Scott Reedys, you need your Jackson Nelsons, Grant Crute Shanks, you need wall battle players as well. 57:53 So it's just you got to have the right blend of players to be successful. 57:58 And you can't get into the habit of when you get your recruiting pipeline and someone departs early, you can't always just go grab your next top recruit. 58:06 Sometimes you have to grab a more veteran player who's played two years of juniors to fill that spot so you have that balance on your roster. 58:16 Yeah, it's coming, Gopher Nation. 58:21 It is. 58:22 And I'd like you to add on to that too, that if you look at last year's team, I was crunching some numbers before the game last Friday. 58:32 And last year's team, I think, had like eight games where they gave up more than two goals. 58:38 So that shows you right there that that team last year that has majority of players came back for this year, don't have to win in a track meet to win. 58:50 They can win three, two games. 58:52 They can win two, one games, which I think is a good sign. 58:55 And I think Bob's doing a great job of, I mean, look at this Matthew Nyes kid. 58:59 That guy's a player. 59:00 I like him. 59:00 That guy's so good. 59:02 I mean, I think they'll be lucky if they have him more than two years, because he's legit. 59:09 And guys like that, the Carl Fish, Purvix, Nelson, like those guys make a difference and they're not perimeter players. 59:19 Ben Meyers, example A of that. 59:23 So to answer my own question that I asked, I think Bob has been doing a fantastic job of not recruiting all of the same players. 59:33 He's recruiting guys to plug in in every role. 59:37 And he's picking guys later too, especially the defenseman. 59:42 He's not going after a lot of 16, 17-year-old guys and getting them to commit. 59:47 Just look at some of the guys he's gotten lately, like Cal Thomas, who committed, Eric Rudd, who committed. 59:54 These are guys who've played enough years of junior hockey where they can evaluate them and say, yes, they are going to go into the corner and compete and win battles. 1:00:04 When you are recruiting a bantam, the only time they get tested in the corners are maybe at the development camp during summer, when people may be taking hockey seriously or just there for the experience or in the middle of training. 1:00:18 Or, you know, they are in, you know, the state tournament. 1:00:22 You get basically two weekends to evaluate this guy for how good he actually is at battle level and compete. 1:00:28 So you are seeing a blend right now. 1:00:31 And that is going to be key for them as they continue to build their roster. 1:00:34 College hockey, it is so hard to build your roster with departures and juniors and all that stuff and the scholarships. 1:00:40 COVID. 1:00:41 You have to be patient. 1:00:42 Yeah, COVID. 1:00:45 Eric, can you stick around for a little bit of overtime after this? 1:00:48 Yeah, yeah, for sure. 1:00:49 All right. 1:00:50 Well, that is going to do it for this episode of The GPL Podcast. 1:00:53 We want to thank Eric for coming on. 1:00:55 It is nice of him to do that. 1:00:57 Next week is Badger Week. 1:00:58 So of course, when it is Badger Week, we have Tom Leskian from the Wisconsin State Journal. 1:01:02 So he will be there or he will be with us. 1:01:05 For those of you currently watching on YouTube and on Facebook, we are going to have some overtime coming right up. 1:01:10 For the rest of you, we will see you next week.