0:07 This is the GPL Podcast from gopherpucklive.com. 0:16 This podcast is sponsored by Jerry Peters and First Class Mortgage. 0:19 Our expertise, your peace of mind. 0:21 Visit us at firstclassmortgage.com. 0:29 Now, let's start the show with your hosts, Jupiter and Vegoe. 0:38 Good evening, and welcome to The GPL Podcast, episode number 199. 0:47 Almost to 200 weeks, we're almost there. 0:50 We are getting there. 0:51 The season is well underway now. 0:53 It is, it is. 0:55 And now making his 10th appearance on The GPL Podcast, now taking the lead over our good friend, Frank Mazzacco, is Mr. 1:05 Todd Milewski, and there he is. 1:08 Todd, how are you doing, man? 1:09 You are now number one. 1:10 I'm feeling much better now that I know that I'm back above my buddy, Frank Mazzacco, which is probably not at all deserved from somebody who lives on this side of the border, but. 1:23 Well, you know, once we started doing all this and we got you on the podcast, it only made sense to have you on every time we played the BADgers, so you caught up real quick. 1:33 I guess I did, yeah. 1:34 And no, and you guys know I always appreciate you having me on. 1:37 Well, we love having you on. 1:39 There's much love coming from this side, so. 1:41 Well, I don't know, all I see is, you know, better dead than red in the chat and all the good stuff from our viewers right now, so. 1:52 Oh, well, it's just, that's what the border battle's about. 1:57 It's about hate. 1:58 People care, I mean, and we'll take all of that we can get right now around BigTen Hockey, right? 2:03 Well, let me tell you, Todd, I would say that I think the rest of the 10, BigTen appreciates the BADgers going in to Yost last weekend and getting a split. 2:15 I mean, Michigan's not gonna run away with it now. 2:19 Right, and it didn't look especially promising for that after Thursday night when, I mean, BADgers can't score again. 2:27 They're stuck on, after that night, 10 goals out through seven games, and it's, but they, I mean, they did exactly what they had to do on Friday and put the pressure on and get a lead, and that's, you know, that's gonna have to be their formula. 2:47 Last year was, you know, just throw Caulfield and Holloway and Weissbach and the power play out there whenever you can and get a couple goals off of that, and I would see a lot different this year. 2:57 Well, Caulfield just got sent on. 2:59 Maybe he can just come right back to the BADgers. 3:01 I mean, you take him. 3:02 He's got eligibility. 3:03 Oh, sure. 3:04 Yeah. 3:05 You know, those minors, everything's changed now, right? 3:08 The whole, you know, you've signed, you've played pro. 3:11 All these rules are changing. 3:12 So hey, yeah, it's basically like an IL deal. 3:16 Yeah, exactly. 3:19 Well, you beat the vaunted Wolverines. 3:24 You guys had a good, you guys, you know, like you said, you didn't play that well that first night. 3:29 I didn't beat anyone. 3:30 I was sitting. 3:31 Well, you know what I mean? 3:32 I'm just, you know, just Mr. 3:34 Mo came in. 3:35 He did pretty. 3:36 He kept you. 3:37 He kept that game close Thursday. 3:39 Yeah, absolutely. 3:41 Yeah, they probably I could have been six or seven. 3:44 Nothing. 3:44 And yeah, I thought I thought he played really well. 3:47 And he has for for the most part, there was a one clunker forum where he got pulled. 3:56 But all in all, he's you know, he's kind of like what we've seen. 4:00 I mean, he's pretty good. 4:02 He's maybe not great, but he's he's he's good enough to keep you in a lot of games. 4:07 He kind of reminds me of a few of the Badger goalies we've seen in the last couple of years. 4:11 Like when they're on, they're playing pretty well, but you just don't know what to expect with them consistently from night to night. 4:18 And maybe as Moe gets more work, he'll start to get more comfortable with his role and playing that. 4:24 But we kind of saw that in Minnesota with him from times he'd come in after not playing for a while. 4:30 He'd have kind of a softie get in and then all of a sudden he'd get sharp after that. 4:34 And I think that got Bob a little frustrated. 4:37 He's like, yeah, but what was some of that also to V's? 4:40 A lot of times he was letting in the first shot. 4:45 And that's really frustrating to Bob. 4:48 And so he'd recover after that, but Bob would always make some sort of comment, which I don't see a lot of coaches do when they go after their goalie, who would say, you know, if you're pining so much to get in the game, when you get your chance, you got to take advantage of it. 5:01 And I have not heard many coaches go after their goalies like that from time to time. 5:05 But Bob's a little fiery this year. 5:09 So a little that's what he's bringing. 5:12 He's definitely fiery on the flip side. 5:15 Veegs, you know, the Gophers ended up sweeping Notre Dame got a little interesting Saturday evening. 5:22 You know, Gophers take the lead and all of a sudden Notre Dame right back ties the game within 29 seconds and like that. 5:30 But then Brodsinski comes through in the end and gets that nice goal just kind of off the inside of the goalie's chest, his arm between his arm. 5:37 They get the sweep and they lead the Big Ten and really that's the important thing at the end, isn't it? 5:43 Yeah, I think they'll take the two wins as points in their pocket and just enjoy that. 5:49 The coach is looking for more, though. 5:51 He was probably not very happy after Saturday. 5:54 I think after Friday, he's a little more pleased. 5:56 They played a little bit more complete game on Friday. 6:00 They had kind of a slow start, but their goalie, Jack LaFontaine, had a real strong weekend, especially during the first periods of both games. 6:08 Gave his team a chance to find their legs, made saves when he had to. 6:13 And then the teams produced enough offense. 6:16 I think Minnesota right now has enough skill in their lineup where, you know, they're going to score three plus goals most nights they're on, you know, competition. 6:27 So that's what you're expecting out of them. 6:29 No, Brodsinski, I don't know if he's like a full 60-minute type player right now, but he's a guy who can shoot the puck and find the net. 6:37 And that's something that the Gophers need right now. 6:40 Bob's very critical of the Fords missing the net, and he called them the worst shooting team on the planet after Saturday's game. 6:50 Coach is frustrated after a sweep. 6:52 Has he watched the team that I cover? 6:56 He doesn't do that until Wednesday, Todd. 6:59 He waits to give any scouting reports until it's too late to talk to the media. 7:07 But I did do a little deep dive on some of the stats. 7:11 I looked in terms of shots that are missing the net, the Gophers are fifth in the nation right now in shots that are missing the net. 7:19 I think it's like 15 a game. 7:21 That's pretty consistent with the last 20 years of Higgs. 7:24 Yeah, they're just trying to find it. 7:27 And the percentage is about the same. 7:28 They're about fifth in percentage too. 7:30 They're missing about 20, 25% of the shots that they're taking. 7:34 They're just missing the net. 7:35 And so that's a lot of possession that Minnesota is just giving away. 7:38 And I know that they're working on it in practice. 7:41 They are working on avoiding shot blockers. 7:44 They're working on putting pucks on net. 7:46 That's a big message from the coaching staff. 7:48 So we'll see if they respond. 7:51 And what did the BADgers do to finally get some offense going on Friday, Todd? 7:57 I mean, boy, when they got shut out Thursday, I'm like, oh boy, it's not good. 8:02 Yeah, they had on Thursday, they really only had a handful of chances from, you know, in front of the net. 8:08 And that was different on Friday. 8:10 They were even if they weren't shooting from right there, they had the traffic there. 8:15 And they were they were making things more difficult on Portillo, which I think, you know, anytime you're in a scoring funk, that's what coaches are going to say, right? 8:25 Go to them that get some dirty goals, do whatever you have to do. 8:28 You know, don't let the goalie see the first shot. 8:32 So it's kind of went on the standard thing. 8:34 And that's that's kind of what they have to do. 8:36 They don't have the the pure scoring talent that they did last year, obviously. 8:42 They have some guys who can score, but they've all been a little snake bit early in the season. 8:48 So I think this is one of those things that they're not as bad as a team that through seven games that scored ten goals. 8:57 So maybe you start regressing to the mean or, you know, not regressing, but the other way. 9:04 Going up to the mean in that case. 9:06 You can go up or down, Todd. 9:07 Yes, yes. 9:09 So I think we're going to see them start to even out at some point. 9:17 But, yeah, it was, you know, they got a really good bounce on the first. 9:23 Let me go through the goals. 9:23 The first goal went off the player's tape of end of his stick and rolled in the net, even though it tried to make a move and it still went in. 9:30 So, OK. 9:32 Second, Tark Baker went in on a forecheck and Michigan player had fallen at the top of the crease and tried to clear the puck, hit Baker in the stomach and fell at his stick and he tapped it in. 9:43 The third one, I'm blanking. 9:46 Oh, it's just kind of a scramble. 9:49 It comes hard off the backboards back out and gets tapped out to Max Johnson and he knocks it in. 9:55 But what I like about that, Todd, is that players are there. 9:59 They are willing to get the garbage goals. 10:01 That's one thing I think Minnesota has been lacking for a long time, Veegs, is the willingness to just get the puck on net and get that garbage goal. 10:08 Yeah, another player that got called out by the coach this last weekend was Sammy Walker. 10:12 You know, Bonsko said, you know, Walker is a guy that's a culprit of going by the net and looping and circling. 10:21 On the last goal on Saturday, he stopped in front of the net, faced the shooter, made it difficult on the goalie. 10:26 You know, there's a lot of players, you know, they don't like to stop, you know, because it's just extra work to get going again. 10:32 I think for Minnesota to reach the goals it wants to reach, guys are going to have to play honest hockey. 10:39 And it starts with the captains on down. 10:42 Definitely does. 10:43 Here's Tim HVX. 10:44 Any updates on injured players? 10:46 Kester, Lucius and Cruikshank. 10:49 Kester is trying to come back. 10:51 You know, he's skating. 10:54 You know, it's an upper body injury, so it's not a leg thing. 10:56 You know, it's just, you know, maybe they're a little nervous about contact with him and how that's going to be ready. 11:02 And it's probably going to be a game time decision for him. 11:05 You know, when the trainer is evaluated on Friday, whether or not they want to clear him to play or not. 11:11 With the other guys, you know, I think it's a little bit longer term thing for them, you know, as they heal up. 11:17 I don't think it's something where they're going to be ready this weekend, but it's not going to be something that's going to hamper them long term either. 11:24 They're kind of minor things, but they're just going to be cautious. 11:28 Our good friend Jared Klein for you, Todd. 11:30 What do you think the crowds will be like this weekend? 11:32 Usually it's pretty good, but obviously we know both Minnesota and Wisconsin are not seeing crowds like they saw 10 years ago. 11:41 Right. 11:41 And Minnesota-Wisconsin series in February at the Colf Center always draws well. 11:48 You're going to get that 13,000-plus on the Saturday game. 11:51 In October, in November, during football season, it's tougher. 11:58 They're still probably going to be their best crowds of the season because there's not a lot of competition for that in terms of drawing visiting fans from other Big Ten schools. 12:09 So I would say you're probably still talking about a 12,000 announced attendance on Saturday. 12:17 You know, in the 10 range on Friday, maybe 9,000. 12:22 How many are actually in the building? 12:24 Probably significantly less than that based on what we've seen in the past. 12:30 I mean, this year and two years ago and before that. 12:33 I want to say the scan tickets for Saturday night against Notre Dame was 41, 4500. 12:40 The number was told me, I just can't quite remember, but not good, Veegs, not good. 12:47 Yeah, and it's not good. 12:48 I thought the crowds were really good for St. 12:51 Cloud. 12:51 I thought they were really good for Minnesota Duluth, not as good for Notre Dame. 12:56 Again, Halloween weekend, not always popular with the fan base with all the other commitments they have going on. 13:03 So that is definitely a factor. 13:05 You know, we'll see how the season goes. 13:07 I think the product on the ice for the Big Ten this year is going to be exciting to see. 13:11 I'm looking forward to the games this weekend. 13:14 Looks like Todd's lost his microphones, his speakers, his headphones died on him, didn't they? 13:19 You all sound like robots right now, so I can't... 13:22 Oh, no!... 13:22 try and change this here. 13:27 Well, you sound normal to us, so that's good. 13:30 So we're good there, but you can take it. 13:33 You guys are all so good to me too. 13:36 Yeah. 13:38 Okay, well, you're a little soft now. 13:39 Oh, man. 13:41 Well, it's like your video Friday night when you were super soft. 13:45 Or was that Thursday? 13:46 Or whatever it was. 13:47 Can't win. 13:48 No, I can hear you. 13:49 We can hear you. 13:50 We just have to be really quiet. 13:55 I feel like the rest of the family is sleeping around me here. 13:59 That's the same for Veegs. 14:00 He's got kids. 14:02 Yep, they're in bed tonight. 14:04 So that's always good. 14:06 We've got their vaccination appointments scheduled for next week. 14:09 So things are just looking up around here. 14:12 Well, that's good. 14:14 You know, we're going to have to make the trip to Madison sometime, Veegs. 14:18 But the thing is, do we want to go as fans or do we want to cover? 14:22 I'm hoping to cover when I go on the road. 14:24 It's always been a lot of fun to go on a road trip and cover. 14:27 Going down to Mankato or going up to Duluth. 14:30 It's always fun to find your way around a new building. 14:34 When I went to Soldier Field, that was quite the adventure, trying to find the Don after the game. 14:39 You're going through places you're not sure you're supposed to go through, and it's always a lot of fun. 14:45 Let's play a room for you here if you want to show up the press box. 14:50 It's been a little packed at Mariucci with these in-state games. 14:53 There's a lot of people who have been interested in seeing what the Gophers have so far this year. 14:58 I think the expectations here are really high for Minnesota's team. 15:02 I think they haven't quite met them yet. 15:06 I know the Fords have been getting a lot of critique for missing the net, but it's also the defensemen who finally showed up against Notre Dame. 15:13 You know, the first couple of weekends, Bob was joking, their brains were in dinky town, and you could see that in their play too. 15:19 They were just kind of all over the offensive zone, not being very careful. 15:24 I think you looked at how they played against Notre Dame. 15:26 That's the recipe for them having success going forward. 15:29 I think they got points on five of the seven goals. 15:31 And it all came from just normal offense, which I think is a good sign for them. 15:36 They weren't forcing things like they had been in the past. 15:41 Looks like we have a pretty good contingent heading over to Madison this weekend. 15:45 Our boy Jared Klein, this is his 23rd year heading to Madison. 15:51 Taking over the red shed Friday before the game. 15:54 That's what they love to do. 15:58 I haven't been there since Kessel. 16:02 Been a while. 16:04 It has been a while. 16:05 Oh, Jupe, no excuses for you. 16:06 Well, you know, I want to say I went to Kessel and I think I went the year after. 16:11 I think the year after is I think they won that Saturday night and it might have been Frazee kind of egging on the student section at the end of the game. 16:24 Well, here's a great question, John Doherty. 16:27 Playing across state lines, best Scani player to play for the Gophers? 16:32 I'll give that one to you, Veegs, and the best probably be Kessel, but best Minnesotan to play for the BADgers, Todd. 16:38 Let's go with you first, Todd. 16:39 Alright, who counts as a Minnesotan? 16:42 Does Mark Johnson count as a Minnesotan? 16:46 Born in Minneapolis. 16:49 I feel like you have to be born and you have to play your high school hockey. 16:54 And he didn't, did he? 16:55 Because he was already with dad down in Madison. 16:57 He moved, I think they were five or six when he moved with his dad, knew his family. 17:03 BADger Bob was a Gopher though, wasn't he? 17:06 And the North Dakota player, was he not? 17:10 Didn't he play one year for North Dakota and three minutes? 17:13 It was something like that. 17:16 It was weird back then. 17:20 Who was counting? 17:21 I don't think there was any oversight. 17:25 The best Minnesota player to play for the BADgers? 17:26 I definitely have mine picked. 17:27 The best Minnesota player to play for the BADgers. 17:30 What's that? 17:31 Ryan McDonough. 17:33 He is a steady, steady player. 17:37 Made a name for himself with Creighton Durham Hall. 17:39 St. 17:40 Paul kid. 17:41 Did very well for Wisconsin. 17:43 Has now gone on to a nice pro career. 17:45 Stanley Cup cred. 17:49 In terms of how they were in their college careers, you could put Derek Step on in there too, couldn't you? 17:57 I think you probably could. 17:58 I mean, same team. 18:01 But he had such a presence as a forward on that group, on that 2010 team. 18:10 Yeah, it's not a bad pick. 18:13 It definitely goes more one way than the other. 18:16 Yes. 18:18 I mean, going back to my era of when I was in school, you had guys like Joe Bianchi and... 18:25 Tim Krug was with him, I know that. 18:27 Yeah. 18:29 Tom Gilbert, that was pretty good. 18:31 All those Jefferson kids. 18:35 Yeah, I played soccer with Tim Krug as a kid, like third and fourth grade soccer. 18:40 Actually, I had him on my team a couple of times. 18:42 He was a big kid. 18:42 It always seemed like there's a little bit of a Hill Murray pipeline going east as well. 18:49 And Burnsville back in the old days, too. 18:51 Yes. 18:51 Look at your assistant coach. 18:53 Yeah. 18:56 He's in the struggles, right? 18:58 It's quite the pipeline. 19:03 It is. 19:04 Starting with Badger Bob himself. 19:06 Sure. 19:07 We'll just go with it. 19:08 I was surprised to see Strobel commit to Minnesota a couple of years ago after all that drama. 19:15 He had a great state tournament. 19:16 Now he's in the VCHL. 19:18 That's a little controversial, though, too, isn't it, Veegs? 19:22 I don't know if it's controversial. 19:24 I think he felt like it was a better fit for him at Minnesota than Wisconsin. 19:28 Well, I mean, it's controversial that he might not end up here. 19:32 Some of the posts I saw this week was, you know, hey, you're switching teams. 19:35 You think he's still going to come? 19:36 It's so hard to tell with Bob and recruiting. 19:41 He's very tight lipped about everything around that. 19:44 And he's got a lot of plates in the air to juggle. 19:47 You know, you've got to figure out, one, he wants to get older. 19:51 Two, he's got to figure out who's going to come back. 19:54 There are some players maybe with some extra eligibility. 19:57 And of course, now you have the transfer portal to deal with. 20:00 And, you know, I don't think transfer portal is something that Minnesota is going to be heavily involved in. 20:06 But, you know, Kurt Schenk, he was a nice addition. 20:09 He's going to miss this weekend. 20:11 I know he had this one circled on his calendar because he was one of those players that, as signing day approached, he found out he didn't have the spot that he was expecting. 20:21 And so I think he was looking for a little payback in Madison this weekend, but he'll miss it. 20:30 Hi. 20:31 Yeah, we got all these nice rules, extra year of eligibility transfer. 20:35 You're not going to get younger that way, Veegs. 20:38 And the premier programs aren't going to be able to get younger. 20:42 You know, the BADgers, the, you know, BCs, BUs, even North Dakotas. 20:48 It's going to be tough to get old. 20:50 I mean, you look at Mankato, North Dakota, I mean, Duluth. 20:59 It's going to get tough. 21:00 You just have to have the right line. 21:02 You can't rush guys into roles where they're not ready and you need to have veteran teams to support young players as they come in. 21:09 I think Brock Besser going to North Dakota was probably a best scenario for him. 21:13 He was a young player who wasn't going to be relied on to play tight defense. 21:18 He was going to be able to go out and score goals, and he's a player that can push a team over the top. 21:23 You want to have guys like that who can just make that jump and are supported. 21:27 This year in Minnesota, they're trying to figure out how to get five new freshmen into the lineup. 21:33 I think you're seeing a little bit of a struggle as those players adjust to the college game because they're not being handed easy roles with veteran players. 21:41 You know, you've got guys like Huglund and Brozer trying to play regular minutes. 21:45 Huglund trying to play center. 21:48 Lucius, I think he's a player who's got a lot of talent, but he's just being counted on to provide some scoring and shooting touch. 21:55 It's difficult, I think, for him to find a fit right now on the team. 21:59 I think he's pressing a little bit. 22:02 These young players, it's not always going to be seamless when they're being counted on for big roles. 22:07 When you talk about the transfer portal and how you can remake a team in patching maybe holes that you've found, you've developed from whether it's losing a player earlier than you thought or whatever, I've been thinking about this, that the coaches that are good salesmen in recruiting, maybe they're not the same people that are going to be the right salesmen for this free agency kind of thing. 22:42 Because that's a different kind of thing. 22:45 When you're selling a 17-year-old on something that's two years away, that's a lot different than when you're selling a 19, 20-year-old something that's right now. 22:57 And I'm really curious. 22:58 And has already learned the system and how it actually works. 23:02 Who's going to be good at that as we go two, three, four, five years into this? 23:06 That's going to be interesting to me, how that shakes out. 23:09 What coaches are going to be the best at that side of it? 23:13 Well, I think it was really interesting with Kurcheng, because he's talked about how he picked where to go. 23:17 The draw for him at Minnesota was just tremendous facilities to finalize himself as a product for the NHL and tremendous competition and practice. 23:29 He was looking for that team that was kind of not necessarily looking for a lot of turnover, but looking for someone to just fit in as a piece and be a heavy forward for them. 23:40 He's obviously, I think, also going through some growing pains, figuring out how he fits in. 23:44 But that was the message to him and how he was sold on moving programs. 23:50 But in a lot of ways, if you're a team looking for a top six left winger, or maybe even a bottom six left winger, you can target someone specifically and say, look, we have a role for you on this team. 24:03 You're going to be this guy next season. 24:05 As opposed to, you know, we think you're going to be a valuable forward for us two years down the road and maybe another year if we want you to stay in the USHL another year. 24:16 Those are two different things that I think are going to require different kind of philosophies from what the coaches have to do. 24:25 It's going to be interesting. 24:27 Definitely going to be interesting. 24:29 For those of you listening live, you know, we're putting up your questions. 24:32 If you have more questions for Todd, Vegoe or myself, make sure you just send it on over to us and we'll try to get to it. 24:39 But first, we need to hear from our sponsor. 24:42 Hey Gopher Hockey fans. 24:44 Jerry Peters here with First Class Mortgage. 24:46 With Veterans Day just around the corner, I want to take this time to express my gratitude to our military veterans and the families who support them. 24:54 The VA Loan Program offers some of the best mortgage terms on the market today. 24:59 Veterans can purchase homes with zero down payment and no monthly mortgage insurance. 25:03 If you're a veteran who already has a VA loan, you may be eligible for a streamlined refinance to reduce your interest rate with limited documentation and no appraisal needed. 25:13 Veterans can also use the equity in their homes to consolidate high interest rate credit cards or to finance home improvement projects. 25:20 To hear more, call or text me today at 612-940-3291 or send me an email at jerry at firstclasscorp.com. 25:31 First class mortgage's NMLS number is 322-842-480200. 25:36 This is not an offer to lock into an interest rate under Minnesota law. 25:40 First class mortgage is an equal housing lender. 25:45 All right, thank you, Jerry, for sponsoring us once again. 25:49 All right, people with questions, start sending them to us. 25:53 Got plenty to talk about tonight because it's Badger Week. 25:58 We're heading down to Madison. 25:59 Well, the Gophers are heading down to Madison this week. 26:04 And for some reason, Todd, they were practicing at Ritter, and you questioned it and I questioned it. 26:12 Huh? 26:14 I never heard the answer on that one. 26:17 Yeah, so they start practicing at Ritter, 200 by 85, when they're going to play at Cole Center, 200 by 97, when their normal rink is 200 by 100. 26:30 I didn't, I mean, maybe there's something you're trying to establish in your game about, you know, winning small areas, even if the rink is bigger, but the corners may be big. 26:42 I do think that Bob sometimes will have these battle practices, where that's the emphasis. 26:49 And so I think that's one reason why they'll go to the smaller rink is because he wants to see them compete in tight spaces. 26:55 You know, obviously, they moved back to Marriottchi Arena this week for practices later in the week. 27:00 But I think that's just something that Bob will do from time to time. 27:03 He's very intentional, I think, about the theme of a practice, whether it's skating, whether it's battling, whether it's special teams, whether it's shooting, whether it's creativity. 27:15 He'll design a practice where that is the focus, and that's what he wants to pin down on. 27:22 Well, we thought it was goofy. 27:26 I agree. 27:26 Very goofy. 27:29 Is Jared the Moe? 27:30 Jared the Moe. 27:31 Geez, I can read. 27:32 Is Jared Moe the answer in Net for Bucky? 27:35 Apparently, Brevver is looking out his window at his house right now. 27:38 He's stalking Jared Moe's parents' house. 27:40 Way to go, Eric. 27:42 Is he the answer or is it going to be pretty much a split deal most of the season until somebody kind of comes forward there, Todd? 27:50 Yeah, that's everything they've kind of hinted at is that that's the way it's going to go. 27:55 It's going to be a lot like they had last season with Kamro and Robbie Badun. 28:04 If we see one of them go off and do a lot better than the other one, yeah, I don't think there would be an issue with going with that person. 28:12 And that could be Jared Moe. 28:14 I just don't know yet. 28:15 I haven't seen enough from either one of them yet to say, yeah, this is a guy that should be playing back to back every weekend, getting 90% of the games or anything like that. 28:28 It's, you know, it's not there yet. 28:30 So if you've got two guys you like, which they do, why not keep going with it and see who gets hot? 28:37 And, you know, if that ever actually happens. 28:40 Well, let me tell you, Veegs, you know, LaFontaine was talking to the media Saturday night after the game. 28:45 And just make sure you got that question in before he left because he knew we're not going to hear from LaF for all week. 28:52 But Laffer is excited. 28:55 He wants it. 28:55 It's his butt. 28:56 I mean, they're buds. 28:57 He wants to see his friend. 28:58 He wants to meet him at Middle Lice. 29:00 He wants to, you know, chalk a little trash with them because that's what friends do. 29:04 Laffer's definitely looking forward to playing against them all this weekend. 29:08 Yeah, I think there's an understanding between the players, you know, how much you just want to play. 29:13 You know, you want an opportunity to get on the ice. 29:15 You know, you put in all this time to get to college hockey. 29:18 You know, if there's not going to be a net for you, especially with goalies, you know, this transfer portal is a nice deal for him. 29:24 And I think, you know, Jack is just happy that Jared's getting a chance to play because Jared's a talented goalie. 29:31 He has a future being that tall, big kind of technical goalie where if he gets enough net time and performs at a level, he'll get a chance somewhere to keep playing. 29:42 And, you know, they're looking forward to chirping to him as well, I'm sure. 29:46 I'm sure if there's a soft goal, there will be a lot of Gophers around the net reminding them about certain little things. 29:54 Well, what did you think about Laffer this past weekend? 29:56 It seems like he got his game a little bit better together than he had previously, Biggs. 30:04 Yeah, I thought Jack was pretty steady this past weekend. 30:07 You know, he was set for shots with that. 30:10 I think it's a big thing for Jack. 30:12 You know, he starts drifting sometimes, you know, moving his head around trying to find the puck. 30:16 Or if he's, you know, kind of not ready for the shooter, he's maybe guessing a little bit. 30:22 He gets off and, you know, pucks seem to find holes that way or they bounce off him. 30:27 And one thing that was interesting that he said is, you know, when the game is going well, he doesn't like to freeze a lot of pucks. 30:34 No, he likes to deflect the puck into the corner and keep play going. 30:38 I thought that was kind of interesting because I've always seen goalies when they're on. 30:42 It seems like they just swallow everything up. 30:44 And he said that's not really what he's trying to do. 30:47 So I'm going to have to change how I evaluate Jack during the game because I always look for that early, whether or not he seems on and square to the shooter. 30:57 Here we go. 30:59 How hot is Granado seat, Todd? 31:01 Do you think there's any heat there? 31:02 I think it's pretty cool right now. 31:07 I mean, winning a Big Ten championship last year obviously helps that. 31:13 Getting an Atlanta tournament helps that because the three years before that weren't good. 31:19 And especially the year before, the 1920 season when they had, you know, Caulfield and Turcotte and Holloway and Miller and these guys that all were first round paced at the same time. 31:31 And it just didn't work. 31:33 After that season didn't go well. 31:35 Then I think it was getting warm. 31:40 But he has a five year contract that keeps getting extended every year because that's the way that Wisconsin does it. 31:49 And at 600K per, that would be a pretty big buyout. 31:56 Not saying that they couldn't do it, but these are not the times in athletic departments where you're, you know, finding a couple million dollars under the couch cushions. 32:11 So I think, you know, yeah, the start of the season has been great. 32:17 Maybe hasn't been good. 32:20 But I don't know that it's changed anyone's administration the way anyone sees him as a co-chair. 32:29 Here's a long one for you, Veegs. 32:31 The imagery of empty seats at Mariucci is being talked about almost every weekend. 32:36 Any options for getting more students in the building to fill empty seats on low attendance weekends? 32:42 Last weekend, Halloween weekend, kids are just going to be out partying. 32:47 We already know that they've oversold the student section. 32:51 So I'm guessing a lot of those students are kind of spilling out into the other seats. 32:55 But it's not like they could just say, hey, we need 4,000 students to show up because you just can't plan for that. 33:03 They are trying to do all they can to get 2,000 students there. 33:07 You know, if they think it's going to take them 2,500 seats sold to get 2,000 students, that's what they're going to do. 33:14 If they think they need to sell 3,000 student tickets to get 2,000 students there, that's what they're going to do. 33:19 You know, I think that's been a real focus for the ticket offices is to just try to get tickets in the student hands because when they're there, like they were for Duluth and St. 33:29 Cloud, the building just has a different feel to it. 33:32 So I think that's a lot of where their focus is. 33:35 Now, for the rest of the building, the other 8,000 seats, they've sold about 4,000 season tickets. 33:41 So that means that they have about 4,000 seats that they're going to be trying to move every night. 33:46 And that's going to be a big challenge, especially for a program right now that is very focused on filling Huntington Bank Stadium. 33:54 You know, if there's anything that's going to make a dent in the budget, it's going to be selling out the football stadium, especially for a team that just went undefeated in October and has a big month coming up here with home games against Illinois and then again against Wisconsin. 34:08 You know, that's where the athletic department is going to be really focused. 34:12 You know, the other part is trying to sell as many basketball tickets as they can because who knows what's going to happen with that program this year. 34:20 When you look at Minnesota, they just don't have the staffing to really attack the hockey problem. 34:25 And the staffing has been cut. 34:27 I mean, well, I should say a lot of people have left, which is kind of typical in the corporate world these days, Veegs. 34:36 Positions aren't being filled. 34:37 People are being told you need to handle more and more and more. 34:40 And just similar in the corporate world, that's very difficult to cover all your bases. 34:46 Yeah, it's very difficult. 34:47 I mean, if I was, if it was my full time job to do ticketing for a marriagee, I would try to reach out to every youth of hockey association in the state and try to sell them, you know, packages of 100, 200 seats and just discount the heck out of them just to get young hockey players in the building and interested in college hockey. 35:07 But they don't even really have the staff to do that. 35:10 I know that they have sent out emails to youth hockey associations trying to do group sales, but it's not like a big discount for them. 35:18 They're just trying to sell group sales as usual. 35:20 You know, they're going to have to get aggressive here at some point because the product on the ice is pretty good. 35:25 I mean, a lot of people like to pick at ticket prices, but, you know, 25 bucks for Minnesota hockey isn't that bad of a deal, you know. 35:37 So that's what you're looking at. 35:41 But it's always what you compare it to, though, right? 35:44 If you got in for 12 bucks back in the day and that's what you have in your head, it's like, why would I pay more than that without thinking everything else that has escalated in those 20 years or whatever it's been since that, that doesn't help. 36:00 It's just the people's mindset in terms of what the right value is or what the right amount is for what they're getting to see. 36:09 Yeah, it's always tricky, I think, with ticket sales because for the University of Minnesota, their mission is way different than the Minnesota Wild. 36:19 When you're spending $200 for a lower level Wild ticket to see them play the Blackhawks, that money is going in the players' pockets, it's going in the owners' pockets, you pay 25 bucks to come see the Gophers play Notre Dame, that money is paying for student-athlete stuff. 36:35 You know, it's different. 36:38 So as the number one team in the country, you went to St. 36:40 Cloud a couple of weeks ago, how was the crowd there, Todd? 36:43 I mean, it was noisy, I give them that, but yeah, you got into those corners and there was no one there. 36:52 But I mean, that's kind of what I remember, too, from the last time I was there, admittedly, was like 2009 or 2008, something like that. 37:03 But I think, you know, when North Dakota is there, when Minnesota is there, they fill it up. 37:08 The other games, it's, you know, two-thirds full, maybe. 37:12 And that's how they roll there. 37:16 That's what the interest level is, I guess. 37:21 Doesn't matter if they're number one or not. 37:24 Maybe get a little boost from that, but you just have fans of the team that are going to get there. 37:32 Vegoe just reminded me, we had a question earlier today about Mr. 37:37 Hughlin, how has his game been so far? 37:39 He's not on the score sheet, Veegs, but I think Matzko still kind of liked how he's kind of embraced his role. 37:46 Yeah, I think they're looking at him as more of a battle player than a point scorer at this point. 37:52 You know, Bob has been fond of pointing out other sophomores and juniors and other teams who are scoring against Minnesota as, you know, their freshman year, you know, they probably had, you know, five, six points, didn't score until late in the year. 38:05 You know, it takes time for these players to develop. 38:08 And what he's looking for out of Hughlin right now is just somebody who can go in and compete and be hard to play against. 38:14 And I think he's bringing that, you know, I don't think he's one of the players who's making mistakes with the pucks. 38:18 I think he's playing honest hockey, and I think he's giving them the right effort right now. 38:23 And they need him with all those injuries in their lineup. 38:26 They need players like him to do that. 38:28 They definitely do. 38:29 So what about this weekend, Veegs? 38:31 Minnesota heading in to Madison to play a weekend series, both games on Bally Sports Plus, Bally Sports North Plus, if I can get it right. 38:42 So the games are on TV, 7 o'clock Friday, 8 o'clock Saturday. 38:48 What do the Gophers need to do to be successful this weekend, Veegs? 38:52 Well, I'll be interested to see if they put pucks on net. 38:54 You know, that's been an emphasis all week from the coaching staff. 38:57 And last weekend was stop putting the pucks into shim pads. 39:02 That was the first couple of weekends. 39:04 And now it's don't start shooting over the net. 39:07 You know, Jared Moe, big tall goalie. 39:10 Bob's been really critical about players shooting up high on big goalies. 39:13 You're just making it easy for them, putting it right in their gloves where they can catch it and freeze it. 39:18 You got to make big goalies get down in their butterfly and protect the bottom of the net and deal with traffic. 39:23 You know, that's always the key for that kind of goalie. 39:27 So that's what I'll be looking for out of the Minnesota Fords. 39:30 For the defense, I'm looking to see, can they carry over their game from Notre Dame where they're real patient and played within themselves to a game like Wisconsin? 39:39 You know, sometimes these games between Minnesota and Wisconsin lately have gotten real, you know, firewagon hockey. 39:46 I think both teams like to get into it and get up and down the ice. 39:49 Is that going to happen this weekend or not? 39:52 Because I think when Wisconsin had that veteran team last year, they were much more disciplined. 39:57 But that's really the only Granado team I've seen maybe the last, what, eight years, how long he's been there, that was disciplined like that. 40:04 Usually it's firewagon hockey with Wisconsin, so it can be entertaining, but probably frustrates the heck out of the coaches. 40:12 Okay, on the flip side, Todd, what do the BADgers need to do to be successful this weekend? 40:17 Well, on the offensive side, they need to come back with what they did against Michigan the second night in that they were getting pucks in that and having the traffic in front of that. 40:31 But also that they were creating a lot of those plays out of their forecheck. 40:36 They were a lot more aggressive Friday than they were Thursday. 40:40 And fast and getting at guys and making those Michigan defensemen, who, you know, there's a lot of talent there, obviously, and just like there is with Minnesota defensemen, making them make quick passes that they might not be fully confident in and seeing where that goes. 40:55 Can you make a turnover off that? 40:57 Is it going to be a bad pass that ends up in the neutral zone and you're able to do something with it? 41:03 On the back end, they need to watch out for those quick counters by Minnesota. 41:08 I think that's something that's always given them trouble, not just against Minnesota, but against Penn State. 41:16 I remember Ohio State doing this a couple of years ago when they had Luzinski and those guys. 41:20 Just the way that when the puck turned over in the neutral zone, they were on their heels, the BADgers as a defensive unit. 41:27 And they can't allow that to happen because we've seen a lot of odd man rushes turn into goals when the BADgers and Gophers have played at the Cole Center. 41:35 I just have that in my head. 41:37 Was it nine to two or whatever, five, six years ago? 41:41 It just seemed like there was a two on one rush every four minutes in that game. 41:48 Race horse hockey! 41:51 And when that's always coming at you and you're not able to do much going the other way, that's a tough way to play. 41:58 And so they want to avoid that as much as they can. 42:00 All right, Biggs, what's your prediction for this weekend? 42:08 I mean... 42:08 He's struggling, folks, he's struggling. 42:12 I think it's going to be another sweep for Minnesota. 42:17 I'm a little nervous about how they're going to play after the coaching they're getting. 42:23 This team, I don't know if they've found kind of their rhythm yet in terms of leadership and attitude, but the talent is definitely there. 42:32 And it's almost to the point where if they don't beat themselves right now, it's going to take a good team to take it to them. 42:40 That's the risk right now in Minnesota. 42:42 When they've given up goals, it's not necessarily because they're getting outplayed. 42:47 Even against St. 42:48 Cloud and most of that Duluth series, when they were getting goals against, it was because they were making their own mistakes. 42:58 They're taking bad penalties. 42:59 They're turning the puck over. 43:01 Didn't see a whole lot of that against Notre Dame. 43:03 I thought they played within themselves a little bit better. 43:06 But that's kind of what I see coming up this weekend is smart hockey, staying out of the box, putting bucks on net, sweeping. 43:16 Bold. 43:18 Very bold. 43:20 All right, Todd, what do you think? 43:24 I think if the Gophers win Friday, they'll win Saturday. 43:30 But I'm not ready to necessarily call it that way yet. 43:36 I think that the Friday game is going to be a I just have this this feeling in my head. 43:43 It's gonna be six, five one way or another. 43:45 And but I have no reason for saying that. 43:50 I would love that though. 43:50 That's old time hockey right there. 43:52 Let's get some scoring going on. 43:54 Wisconsin hasn't scored. 43:58 True. 43:59 They're either on the five side of the six side of that. 44:02 And I just I don't know why I have that feeling based on these games and the eight games that I've seen so far. 44:12 But this is one of those weekends where it's you know, you get emotions going a little bit more than they have been for, you know, even playing against Michigan and obviously St. 44:23 Cloud and Army and Michigan Tech. 44:26 It's going to be a little bit more from Wisconsin side and you know, maybe to an extent from Michigan side or from Minnesota side with the mole thing. 44:35 There's going to be some heads that may not be in the right space, like put it that way. 44:42 So I'm going to call for a split, I guess. 44:44 I'm going to say the BADgers get the first one and Gophers get the second one. 44:48 I just have a good feeling though that we're going to see shot totals like in the 40s for the Gophers and 20s for the BADgers. 44:56 And I just don't think that's a recipe for Bucky's success. 45:02 Whoever doesn't think five goals against Laffey will happen. 45:06 But not on 20 shots either, because I don't think Wisconsin is going to be able to generate the kind of offense unless Minnesota starts taking a bunch of bad penalties, which could happen. 45:17 Minnesota, for whatever reason, doesn't seem to be drawing many penalties and seems to be taking too many. 45:23 Yeah, but the BADgers are also one for 25, 26, 25. 45:29 One for something. 45:31 Yeah. 45:32 So it tells me you're writing about that this week, Todd? 45:34 I'm not actually. 45:35 Well, it might end up in something, but I've written about it a lot and I just lost count in the last couple of years. 45:40 It was one for 20 going in the last couple of years. 45:42 You were spoiled the last couple of years. 45:44 Well, last year, I was definitely last year, I was, you know, otherworldly at some points of the season. 45:51 That that the series up at at Mariucci was one of them that they seem like they could throw out any, you know, those five guys and do anything with it. 46:02 So what are you working on for this week then, Todd? 46:05 I have a Jared Moe story coming up. 46:08 Talk to him and his dad and have some some stuff from last season from Jack LaFontaine, who is pretty defensive of of and, you know, not exactly thrilled with Gopher fans. 46:20 Do you have Jack on record going after Jupe? 46:25 I think that should be in the story. 46:27 Not by name, but you can put in the parentheses. 46:31 When I call them Trader Moe. 46:34 Let us know who he is referring to. 46:38 But yeah, I asked Jared whether he thought there was anything that was, you know, over the top. 46:45 That was too much. 46:46 And he said, no, it's, you know, I expected, you know, some heat from it. 46:51 And, you know, he I don't think he read everything, obviously, that was out there. 46:58 But and it was just a tweet for me, just a tweet. 47:03 And, you know, you're going to stir something up when you make a move like that. 47:08 And I think he knew that. 47:09 I hope he knew that because if he didn't, that's that's a bad misread of the rivalry and the situation. 47:17 But I think he's in a good place. 47:23 You know, I'm guessing his close friends are probably fine with it, but I'm guessing some of his other teammates, Figs, probably not happy, went across the river. 47:32 Oh, yeah, I think Jack is OK with him going across the river, but I think there's some other players who are very, very excited to score on him. 47:41 Very, very much so. 47:43 There could be some skates near the crease and things like that after the whistle. 47:48 You know, it'll be a fun sideshow to watch during this weekend, I think. 47:52 I am looking forward to it. 47:53 I hope it's Friday night, Mo and Laffer. 47:58 Just let's just get right to it. 47:59 Don't let not this Saturday. 48:01 Let's start the series this way. 48:02 Let's get some bad blood going. 48:05 We need some good bad blood in this series. 48:07 Mo is scheduled for Friday. 48:11 There it is right there. 48:13 Must see TV then. 48:14 It's going to be. 48:15 I'm looking. 48:16 I'm jacked for it. 48:17 Do you think there's any chance if he played well, he'd get two nights against Minnesota, Todd? 48:23 Because I feel like Granado did that a couple times the last couple of years where he's had a bully, where he's gotten into this stretch of alternating. 48:33 And then one of them will play well on Friday and he'll give him another chance on Saturday. 48:36 That kind of backfired a couple of times. 48:38 Yes. 48:39 And I don't. 48:40 My initial reaction is no, that I think he's pretty committed and he wants to make sure Camero gets time too. 48:50 Because he thinks he's going to need both of them through the season. 48:54 He doesn't want to lose someone mentally this early. 48:59 Not to say that that's necessarily what would happen if you don't play in a weekend. 49:04 But I think that's what's been presented as this is the way we're doing it. 49:08 If you change that, it could get looked at the wrong way by whoever doesn't get that opportunity. 49:17 You know, unless you're Jess Meyers, you're not always looking to stir up goalie controversies. 49:26 Are you crazy? 49:28 I think it will be Jack Boltonites for Minnesota. 49:31 Boynton's got an illness that he's picked up now that he's come back from his nasal surgery. 49:37 Deviated septum. 49:38 Yeah, and Bob was very quick to say it's not COVID. 49:48 We will see. 49:50 Well, thanks for coming on with us again there, Todd. 49:52 We always appreciate it. 49:54 I'm honored. 49:55 I'm thrilled that you would think of me again in these situations. 49:59 We always thank you, man. 50:01 We might even have to sneak you on next week for a 200 show. 50:06 Big 200. 50:07 Doing this 11 years, Veegs. 50:09 Amazing. 50:10 Amazing. 50:11 I'm surprised. 50:12 Appreciate you, Todd. 50:14 Yeah, we definitely do. 50:15 Thank you, guys. 50:16 You're a solid guest. 50:17 Yeah, you might be for the other team that we don't like, but that's the best part about it. 50:23 He covers the other team. 50:24 He does not actually suit other teams. 50:26 No, no, no, no. 50:27 I bet you, and he was young, he was going to Badger games as a fan. 50:31 This isn't like Jeff Myers either, where he's putting on the Bulldog. 50:36 Todd's always been a journalist. 50:37 I'm not going to deny that. 50:39 I mean, when I was a kid, yeah. 50:40 But I'm not a kid anymore. 50:45 But the thing is, as a kid, you turned it into a career. 50:50 And you know what? 50:51 And that's just like the greatest thing ever. 50:53 I mean, obviously, you're covering other sports. 50:55 It's really awesome, too. 50:56 But you're a fan. 50:59 That was your team. 50:59 And now you're covering that team. 51:01 And obviously, it changes you emotionally when you cover the team. 51:04 It always kind of changes you. 51:06 But you're still doing that. 51:07 Yeah, I've had to give up a lot of fandoms in this career. 51:12 I mean, one of them I can see over my shoulder. 51:14 I still root for the Brewers. 51:15 That's my, I mean, that was my team as a kid. 51:18 I mean, I was part of the Brewer fan club from age two, you know. 51:22 So it's, that's something I haven't had to give up. 51:27 You're not going to cover the Brewers as your beat? 51:29 That's, no, I mean. 51:31 That would be his dream job right there. 51:33 Nope. 51:34 You can't do it? 51:35 You couldn't do it? 51:36 I had to for a while. 51:38 And so I had to shelve a lot of that. 51:40 That was tough. 51:43 But you're right. 51:45 I feel like so often how lucky I am to be doing this as a job. 51:55 It's kind of crazy that someone pays me to cover college hockey. 51:58 And I try not to forget that. 52:02 And yeah, I had some years there where, you know, I was covering the team for a long time, then I got taken off of it. 52:14 And that hurt, you know, because you've had your dream job and you haven't taken away from me. 52:19 That's rough. 52:21 But I got incredibly lucky again and the State Journal brought me on to cover the BADgers. 52:27 Well, it's always great coverage and, you know, we follow you. 52:30 I stalk you when you're doing your Facebook Live. 52:33 I do appreciate the comments you throw in there. 52:36 Throw a few chirps in when we can. 52:38 I was ripping on my own team. 52:40 I'm like, he's talking about how bad the BADgers were that night. 52:43 And I'm kind of like, well, at least you're not one against 12 and one against the dogs. 52:50 So I appreciate you throwing it on there. 52:51 It's always just fun just watching you. 52:53 And so it's great content you've got over there. 52:56 So as always, we really appreciate you coming on. 52:59 Thank you, guys. 53:01 Well, Veegs, what have you been working on recently? 53:03 I know you're thinking about a little Caldeet stuff. 53:06 You still kind of... 53:07 Still pending, Jupe. 53:09 Life is getting in the way. 53:10 I'm just trying to tread water and keep my kids in school. 53:13 And I had a little illness to deal with today with my daughter, but she's fine. 53:18 It's not COVID. 53:19 You know, me and Bob are both aligned there. 53:21 So we're just trying to keep things hummed. 53:23 And, you know, I try to tweet out stuff from the press conferences that I'm able to attend before and after the games. 53:29 And, you know, I hope people are enjoying that so far. 53:33 I bet you they do. 53:34 So, well, that's going to do it for this episode of the GPL Podcast. 53:38 And obviously we're going to thank Todd for coming on with us. 53:41 Always great to have him on. 53:43 Our show next week will be number 200. 53:45 So we're looking forward to that. 53:47 We've got Paul Cappenegri scheduled to come on to preview a little of the Ohio State Series and got a couple of guests scheduled to come on as well. 53:55 I'm not going to let you know who it is. 53:56 It's going to be a little surprise. 53:58 For those of you currently watching live, stay tuned for some overtime. 54:01 For the rest of you, we'll catch you next week on The GPL Podcast.