0:07 This is The GPL Podcast from goforpucklive.com. 0:16 This podcast is sponsored by Jerry Peters and First Class Mortgage, 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 Vego. 0:39 Good evening, and welcome to the GPL Podcast, episode number 200, Veegs. 0:48 Quite the milestone, we made it to 200, man. 0:52 Yeah, 200, nice work, huh? 0:54 There he is. 0:56 You know, this is our 11th season, 200 episodes. 1:00 Had a lot of guests, a lot of fun out of all these years, even though our team hasn't, you know, it's been a little roller coaster on the team, but it's been fun, hasn't it? 1:13 Uh-oh, we're getting quite a delay there, Biggs. 1:15 Episode 200, we're going crazy. 1:17 I'm going to have to change my setup. 1:21 And that's okay because that allows me to bring in our guests. 1:25 Introduce our co-hosts there. 1:27 Well, yeah, we're going to bring them in and we're going to bring in, Cappy, Paul Caponigri, how you doing, man? 1:33 Good, good, how you doing? 1:35 We're doing great. 1:36 I can't believe we're here for the 200th. 1:37 I feel so honored. 1:39 Well, it just kind of ran into OSU week. 1:44 I'm kind of teasing that along with you. 1:46 Yeah. 1:48 Well, Veegs is having issues. 1:49 We'll get him solved there. 1:50 He's obviously got a little audio delay. 1:52 Every time I come on, I think there's a little, but I think I'm the mush. 1:59 But that's okay, man. 2:00 That's okay. 2:01 So you've always been our OSU guy. 2:06 You've been doing some BigTen stuff for a while here, but recently you've been dabbling in some radio, haven't you? 2:13 Tell us about it, Cappy. 2:16 Yeah, I've gotten out kind of way to get into the NHL a little bit with the Blackhawks. 2:22 I've been doing their little bit of color for the radio, WGN in Chicago. 2:28 It's been great. 2:29 I mean, that was my team growing up. 2:30 So, it's kind of to get in somehow with them has been fun. 2:35 And now it's great because I get to do both right now. 2:39 I'm like doing the NHL a little, and then the Big Ten will start in December for me. 2:44 So, it's kind of, hey, I love doing it. 2:46 So, give me more. 2:47 Give me all of it. 2:48 So, yeah, just kind of playing it by ear. 2:51 It's been a lot of fun. 2:52 And now I'm like watching guys that were, you know, some Big Ten guys now that are playing in NHL. 2:57 So, it's pretty cool that way, too. 3:00 Well, it's gotta be a great opportunity. 3:02 It's kind of a tryout, isn't it? 3:05 I mean, you know, the situation with the Chicago radio color, not ideal right now, but it turns out to be a little bit, quite a bit of an opportunity for you. 3:17 Yeah, I think you just, you know, I wasn't an NHL guy. 3:20 I didn't play in the NHL. 3:22 So, it's hard to break in there when you didn't do that. 3:24 But if you can get in there and people look at you, like if you're doing a good job, then that kind of gets forgotten or you hope it does. 3:32 Or, you know, it doesn't have to be, not all the players means just because he played whatever level you're going to be that good of a broadcaster. 3:39 The guy I always think of is Billy Jaffe. 3:42 You know, he, you know, he's a guy that, you know, played at Michigan, but, you know, barely didn't even play a ton of Michigan, to be honest. 3:49 And look at him now, he does NHL Network. 3:52 He does all that kind of stuff. 3:54 And he's, I think he's one of the best in the business. 3:56 So, you know, you just kind of take it as it comes and you prepare to, hopefully you're doing a good job. 4:01 That's all you can do. 4:02 And then if they like you or if someone else likes you, you go with it. 4:06 So that's kind of how I look at it. 4:08 And of course, another issue with the broadcast, Facebook's not streaming right now. 4:14 Sorry, Facebook people. 4:17 That's the 200, you think we have the stuff figured out, right? 4:19 Well, this one's not me this time. 4:21 It's just StreamYard this time. 4:22 For some reason, it's just not working. 4:24 I'm telling you, I think I'm bad. 4:26 Maybe you're bad. 4:27 Bad influence on the show, I don't know. 4:29 Thank you for joining us, Cappy. 4:32 Hey, you had your five minutes, you're good now. 4:35 No, I didn't also tweet out our live feed, so all kinds of things going on, Vego and his audio and some things not tweeting out, but everyone on YouTube seems to be seeing us knock on wood, so that's good. 4:50 I think Vego's hair is getting in the way, maybe. 4:53 It's probably some interference there. 4:54 All the strands are going in. 4:56 Yeah, I know. 4:58 That's only half the flow. 5:00 I've seen Vego with flow at least down to here, right, Veegs? 5:04 Yeah, I'm keeping it very restrained right now. 5:07 Whoa. 5:09 I remember him at a final five, it was long. 5:14 Yeah, it was long. 5:16 I couldn't let it flow out the bucket. 5:19 Well, Veegs. 5:19 Yeah, a little curls coming out. 5:21 Let them know who you are. 5:24 It's cute. 5:25 Don't even need to see the jersey, they can just tell. 5:32 Veegs, they went into Madison and they made Mazzocco mad again. 5:36 Well, I think that's kind of been a trend with this entire program for the last, oh man, two and a half, three years now, where we're seeing a lot of the same mistakes by a lot of the same players. 5:50 And I thought last year he got through to them and they had it kind of figured out and they figured out how to finish their Big Ten season and play pretty well. 5:59 They started last season playing really well. 6:01 And then again, that Minnesota State game, it all comes back. 6:04 We start to see some of the same things creep up in their game where players are turning the puck over at the blue line or they're not being safe with the puck in dangerous situations in their own end. 6:16 Or when they are in their own end, they're just waiting to go on offense and start some stretch passes. 6:21 So I think that kind of caught up to them in the Wisconsin game. 6:25 The Badgers got a little bit of energy and that gets into 3-0-3-0-T and that's kind of a crap sheet. 6:32 I was at the bar, Veegs, and it never fails. 6:36 I just am like, I literally yell at the screen, if he misses his play, it's over. 6:42 Lacombe kind of missed the play at the blue line, didn't even slow him down right around. 6:46 And one thing you notice, Veegs, how often do you see a slap shot like that? 6:52 In overtime, 20, 30 feet out. 6:55 Yeah, you know what that means? 6:56 Tired legs. 6:58 You don't see space like that on the rush unless players are tired. 7:01 And that's kind of what happens in OT, especially with these college players who aren't as experienced with it. 7:06 I think you see it now in the NHL. 7:08 Players know how to handle the shift length that's almost as important as possession in the overtime. 7:14 In the college game, the excitement of playing 3 on 3 on OT in front of fans just kind of gets you and you might be out there a little bit too long and then you get that space and the big slapper from the Badgers gets the extra points. 7:29 Oh, boy. 7:31 Cappy, what do you do? 7:32 I mean, one of the tweets I see are actually a comment. 7:36 Lacombe is a mess. 7:40 He's... 7:40 You know... 7:41 The funny thing is he plays pretty solid, but then all of a sudden out of nowhere, just kind of a bonehead play. 7:46 And boy, that can happen to anybody. 7:50 You know, he was the one guy that honestly, I was thinking about and talking about tonight in a not, or not in a negative way, but like saying what happened kind of, you know, I'm just not seeing like as confident as a guy maybe, or, you know, I'm looking at his numbers. 8:08 He's got maybe two assists and he's on the power play and he's doing all that stuff. 8:12 And he, you know, I don't, maybe, I don't know. 8:15 Is it something in his head now or something, maybe at this point? 8:19 But he doesn't look as free. 8:21 Like he came in, he was a pretty confident guy. 8:23 Like as an 18 year old, I think he's probably 18 or maybe 19. 8:26 As a freshman, he came in and just was, he looked like he was a junior. 8:31 Like he didn't care. 8:32 He could skate. 8:33 He would get up in the play. 8:34 He would make those passes. 8:36 And I think maybe it's gotta be something that is in between the years. 8:39 You've seen that before, but he's the one guy that I'm like, what's what happened? 8:46 Or, I mean, not what happened, but he doesn't look right. 8:49 Maybe that's what it is. 8:50 I don't, you know, I'm not trying to, you know, he's a college athlete. 8:55 I'm not trying to say he's terrible. 8:56 He's clearly not, but he just doesn't look as decisive in everything he does. 9:01 Maybe something happened earlier in the year and he's now he's like, Ooh, I might. 9:05 And look at his ice time might be down a little since they've got some pretty good other defensemen on the roster. 9:11 So I don't know, to be honest, he's the one guy that I kind of was like, you know, where are we with him? 9:19 Veegs, the one thing I have noticed is that these, you know, occasional mistakes by Lacombe tend to be not next to the net. 9:27 They tend to be a little further out, you know, on the defensive line, you know, he trying to stop a puck and it gets past him or, or on, you know, someone just coming in the zone there. 9:36 He just wasn't quite ready for it. 9:38 Player goes around them, tired legs, whatever. 9:41 I notice it's not really as much when he's protecting the net right out in front. 9:46 Yeah, and I think part of this situation with Lacombe is he doesn't have a lot of games under his belt as a defenseman, you know, he's a player who grew up a forward, transitioned to defense, didn't, didn't really play juniors, you know, came right into college as a young player. 10:01 And so he's going through all these growing pains at the Big Ten college level. 10:07 There's not a lot of easy games, a lot of reps to get your feet wet. 10:11 And when you're a team like Minnesota, you know, you have possession of the puck a fair amount of the time. 10:15 I think, you know, the shots were like 85 to 50 in attempts for the Wisconsin game, you know. 10:22 So Minnesota has got the puck. 10:24 So I think where you're seeing those mistakes are at those kind of 50, 50 decision points where you have to be in your mind saying, okay, if this is a 75-25 play, I'm going to be aggressive and make it and take all the chips. 10:39 But when there are these 50, 50 things, it's just, you got to bail, you got to extend the play and you got to play it safe. 10:46 And I think Minnesota's defense at the start of the year, they're thinking, okay, last year I had, you know, 25 points. 10:51 This year I want 35 or 40. 10:53 How am I going to get there? 10:54 Be more aggressive, be more assertive. 10:57 And sometimes that's not really the right play. 10:59 You know, Bob has talked about how lately, I think the last weekend, you know, a defenseman had points on five of the seven goals. 11:07 Those weren't flashy plays. 11:09 Those are just the defenseman playing within the system, getting to the puck to the forwards in transition, getting in the zone and supporting the play. 11:16 They're not wow, wow plays, but that's how you can be productive. 11:21 Hey, there's nothing better than getting, oh no, sorry, there's nothing better than getting an assist from your own zone. 11:27 Let me tell you, even as a forward, like that chip off a wall, like you chip it out, you nerve deep pinch it, you chip it out, and they get a two on one, and they go down and score. 11:36 You still get an assist, and you did it way back. 11:38 You're almost a forgotten guy. 11:41 Same thing for the D, you can create and get your points that way too. 11:45 I think you're right though. 11:46 I mean, it gets in your head, okay, I did this much. 11:48 I gotta do this next year. 11:49 Like that doesn't have to be the case, but that's how some guys, you know, the expectations. 11:54 But he came in as a freshman, he just went. 11:56 And there's a player who's got the right mindset for that, Brock Faber. 12:00 Even at the start of the year, he's like, I know points are gonna come, but that's not the focus of my game. 12:06 I understand my game, it's gaps, it's making the quick first short pass, it's staying with the play, it's playing a tight gap, it's shutting down rushes. 12:16 Brock Faber knows his game. 12:18 He's played D a long time at high levels, high coaching. 12:21 Guy like Jaxson Lecombe, probably not the same. 12:24 Even a guy like Ryan Johnson, maybe not the same kind of development. 12:27 He did play in the USHL, but it's not like a veteran USHL player. 12:32 So there's a little bit of a difference there. 12:35 Well, Veegs, as usual, they kind of rebounded again, played great the second game after maybe watching some video, getting yelled at a bit, but they at least did get, well, I should say four out of six points on the weekend, not a traditional split, but at least that's a positive. 12:52 Yeah, I think it's definitely positive for this team. 12:54 They do respond well to a stern film session and that's always good. 12:58 Sometimes you have players who don't learn the lesson the next night and that's a real problem. 13:04 And this is a banged up team. 13:05 Bob's talked about it at a lot of media availabilities. 13:09 He's like, this team's got a tough underbelly. 13:11 They're playing through stuff where they're hurt, they're not injured. 13:15 You can play through something where you're hurting a little bit, but if you're injured and it's gonna impact, maybe your long-term play, you don't wanna play through it. 13:21 He's got guys who say, you know what? 13:23 I'm ready to take the ice. 13:24 This isn't a big deal, it might just hurt a little bit. 13:28 Well, we've got a lot coming tonight, so we're gonna kinda get through and get to some... 13:34 Talking about this weekend, Cappy, Ohio State coming in, they just sweep Penn State. 13:40 Pretty darn good start for them this season. 13:45 Tell us what you know. 13:48 Well, I mean, they did get picked by all those smart coaches to be last in the Big Ten. 13:55 You know, I think the biggest thing, well, not the biggest, there's two factors that, you know, make them a surprise right now. 14:02 They have a couple of freshmen guys that were, I think they were hoping to be what they are, and they're actually doing it right now. 14:10 And then they have, like, three or four transfers, at least two or three, and then they have a kid that came over from Russia that was kind of a surprise addition, and it's made their forward core. 14:22 There's no, like, star guy, and it's, I think, the way Ohio State likes it. 14:25 But they have a lot of, they've got more depth now. 14:28 Like, they were, you know, you look at their lineup last year, they were struggling to get one line out there that could be a consistent offensive threat. 14:34 And now they just have a little more, and these, the goal-tenors obviously been, if you look at his numbers alone, you're like, whoa, ridiculous. 14:45 And then this freshman, Mason Lorai, is, you know, I was like, okay, he was, I didn't see him play before, but he was the USHL Defenseman of the Year. 14:54 So I'm thinking he's got to be pretty good. 14:56 And then I look back at his numbers, he had 20 goals and 40 assists as a defenseman that week. 15:01 I mean, that's, you don't see that very often. 15:06 And he's 6'4, to add into that, he's 6'4. 15:09 So you just, like, Ohio State hasn't gotten those kind of recruits a lot lately. 15:14 If you think about it, I mean, you have to almost go back to when I was playing and we had Pestler, Umberger and Stechel, we had first round draft picks. 15:22 We even, the Buckeyes haven't had many of those guys. 15:25 So to get a couple guys like they have right now, their draft picks that are kind of doing things right out of the, right out of the shoot, I think that's kind of been, you know, a good surprise for them. 15:37 Veegs, OSU is not going to finish in last place. 15:40 Nice, I don't think they will. 15:42 Well, I don't think so. 15:43 The big surprise is the goalie. 15:45 You know, somebody tried to bring that up with Bob this week and Bob was like, you know, I don't want to talk about the goalie, but that Mason kid, he is really a shining star for them. 15:55 I think Bob is like, that was a player that got away a little bit from them. 16:00 He is making a huge impact. 16:02 But I think when you have players who step in as freshmen and can fill those roles for you as a coach, it's got to just bring a warm smile to your face and just keep you happy about the season because they needed that. 16:16 I mean, they were picked last for a reason. 16:18 They didn't have a lot of returning stuff. 16:20 They had some glue to their team, but they didn't have players like they have in their freshman class right now. 16:30 But Veegs, you know, I have always liked the mattress of Ohio State. 16:34 It's always kind of that in between. 16:36 Sometimes it's fast paced, sometimes it's locked down. 16:39 You never know what you are going to get. 16:42 And with this Govert team, you never know what you are going to get. 16:45 I mean, they come out every weekend and even if they win, Mazzocco is not happy. 16:51 It's just always a Friday, Saturday thing. 16:55 We've seen a lot in the past. 16:56 What can we expect this weekend? 16:59 Well, I think if you're watching Minnesota, you're looking for that progression. 17:03 You're looking for them to learn the lessons that they've had to learn. 17:07 You know, coming back in the D-Zone, you know, the number one key for them is to come back to the house, protect the net, keep the puck to the outside and then extinguish the rush. 17:17 And I think the defensemen have been doing a pretty good job of that. 17:20 And certain forward lines have been doing a good job of that, but not all the lines. 17:25 Bob has been pretty critical of Sammy Walker in the media, which is pretty rare for a three-time captain, that he needs to take that more seriously in his game for him to reach the next level. 17:37 I mean, we saw some nice goals from him against Wisconsin. 17:40 You know, scoring from his knees, scoring one driving through the net. 17:43 Thank God he's okay. 17:45 I know. 17:46 He must honestly be that worried. 17:51 Yeah. 17:51 But quite a few of his goals have been those dirty goals so recently, Veegs, and that's exactly what we need from him. 17:58 Yeah. 17:58 When he gets in transition, he is probably one of the most dangerous players in the Big Ten. 18:03 So I think Ohio State is going to know that and they are not going to let him get those opportunities. 18:09 So for Walker, he's got to take his game to the next level. 18:12 When he realizes that's happening, he's got to change his game a little bit. 18:16 He can't just be looking for offense, you know, leaving the zone early, not playing below the dots. 18:22 He's got to be honest to that point in the game. 18:24 And then when he does get his chances, he's got to go and if it's not there, he's got to play possession and smart hockey. 18:31 You know, I think the other big thing with Minnesota is missing the net, shooting into shin pads. 18:36 You know, some of that is the other team forcing you to, you know, have to wait and shoot maybe from a different spot. 18:44 But it's also on the shooter to be more productive by putting pucks on pads and looking for rebounds. 18:51 So if we can see Minnesota take that next step in their game, you know, that's hopeful. 18:56 But against Ohio State, they're not going to make it easy for you. 18:59 Steve Roelich does a great job with his team's prepping structure and he knows what kind of games he has coming up this weekend with his team. 19:08 Well, I'm looking forward to it. 19:09 I love these games. 19:11 You know, the games are different times this weekend, folks. 19:14 This accommodates for TV at 630 Friday night and five o'clock on Saturday. 19:18 Personally, Veegs, I love those early Saturday games. 19:23 More time drinking at the bar afterwards. 19:24 It's become, I think, a trend in college hockey everywhere. 19:29 They're playing that, like, earlier afternoon. 19:32 Sometimes it's TV things. 19:34 Sometimes it's a football thing. 19:37 I know it is for Ohio State. 19:38 They did it last week or the week before they bumped up a game because the night game was football. 19:46 They wanted to get it in for that. 19:49 You want to be seen as much as possible. 19:51 Hockey is always battling that, whether it's football in the fall or basketball in the winter. 19:58 Find the times. 20:00 I was a big proponent of getting more games on Thursdays and Sundays because more eyes. 20:07 Look what happened to the tournament last year. 20:11 Playing it, yes, not ideal. 20:12 Obviously, there's no fans, so it cares that it's on a Sunday, Monday, Tuesday. 20:15 But it was one of the highest watched tournaments Monday and Tuesday was. 20:22 It was. 20:23 That's my thing. 20:24 I get it. 20:24 The schools and the teams want their regular week that it's always been. 20:30 The coaches, I know, like that. 20:32 But you want to grow the game popularity-wise, I think. 20:36 I've got to look outside the box. 20:37 Anyway, I'm kind of going off on a different tangent. 20:39 It's OK. 20:41 Well, hold the thought. 20:43 We're going to get back to the series in a bit here. 20:45 But first, you know, we need to hear from our sponsor. 20:48 And then we've got some special guests coming on. 20:51 So hold on. 20:52 Hey, Gopher Hockey fans, Jerry Peters here with First Class Mortgage. 20:56 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. 21:04 The VA Loan Program offers some of the best mortgage terms on the market today. 21:09 Veterans can purchase homes with zero down payment and no monthly mortgage insurance. 21:13 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. 21:23 Veterans can also use the equity in their homes to consolidate high interest rate credit cards or to finance home improvement projects. 21:30 To hear more, call or text me today at 612-940-3291 or send me an email at jerry at firstclasscorp.com. 21:41 First class mortgage's NMLS number is 322842-480200. 21:46 This is not an offer to lock into an interest rate under Minnesota law. 21:50 First class mortgage is an equal housing lender. 21:54 And of course, thank you, Jerry, for that. 21:58 Well, we've got some special guests coming on tonight. 22:01 And shocking, his video doesn't work, but it's funny. 22:05 We're going to add in Hammy real quick. 22:07 Can you hear Hammy? 22:08 Are you there, Hammy? 22:09 Look at, he's all dark. 22:10 Can you hear us, Hammy? 22:12 Yes, I have no lights on. 22:14 Actually, my camera is working. 22:18 I warned you earlier today that my IT department needs to fix this crap. 22:25 But it's not only Hammy who's coming on with us. 22:29 Ryan Cardinal, how's it going, man? 22:32 Good, how are you? 22:33 Hammy, Cardinal, both of you were here back in episode number one of The GPL Podcast. 22:41 Boy, 11 seasons later, episode number 200, it's great to have you both on. 22:46 It's good to be back on. 22:49 Hammy, what do you think of the current team? 22:53 What, are you trying to get me on an old school rant? 22:55 Yeah, that would be great. 22:57 Let's get a rant going. 23:01 You know, over the years, we've seen teams that have started off great. 23:05 We've seen teams that have started off sluggish. 23:08 I think the only thing you really don't want to have happen early in the year is to play so poorly that you're scrambling just to make the big dance at the end. 23:17 So I think they played some good competition. 23:20 They've had some moments where they've been alright. 23:23 They've had some moments where they haven't been alright. 23:25 I think it gives the coaches something to continually work on and hopefully strive for as the season goes on. 23:30 And hopefully you can peak by the time you get to that March, April timeframe working on those issues. 23:36 So we'll see how it goes. 23:38 And Cardinal, are you still feeding PA college hockey information? 23:44 I do it when I can. 23:45 I know he's usually like the first half of the year when Viking season is going. 23:48 He's got a little bit less of a focus on college hockey. 23:51 But once that wraps up, then he'll kind of turn the page a little bit. 23:54 And hopefully the Gophers will be in the thick of it. 23:57 You can talk about those guys a lot as the kind of the second half wears on. 24:01 Are you still working for the Vikings there? 24:04 I am. 24:04 Yes, sir. 24:07 Still a good gig. 24:09 You work right by me because I'm literally two blocks from that facility. 24:13 Really? 24:14 All right. 24:14 Well, no doubt. 24:15 You might run into me at the Caribou over there right off the dot once in a while. 24:20 I frequent it a decent amount. 24:21 I know right where you're talking about. 24:24 So it's great to have you two on. 24:27 I appreciate you two being part of the podcast over the years. 24:32 And then Cardinal, well, you would start to work for the Vikings. 24:36 Had a family. 24:36 You got kind of busy. 24:37 So then Veegs came on. 24:39 Veegs, do you remember when you came on? 24:41 Was it season two or three? 24:43 It was some point in there. 24:45 You know, from your Honda time. 24:48 From the Civic in my parking lot outside my condo. 24:52 Because I had a newborn at that time. 24:55 So that would have been about nine years ago. 24:58 Yeah, we've had a lot of fun on the podcast, folks. 25:00 And these guys have put a lot of time into it. 25:03 We've we've appreciated a lot having you guys be part of this. 25:07 Two hundred episodes. 25:09 We've had a lot of guests. 25:10 We've had a lot of fun. 25:13 Hammy, I see that a lot of players signed national letters of intent today. 25:17 Can you give us a full scoop on every single one of them? 25:19 Like about ten minutes on each. 25:22 Oh, yeah. 25:25 That's that's well covered. 25:26 I mean, if you think about it, we're back in the 90s. 25:30 That's really what I was focused on because that was the niche that was not being filled back then because college basketball, college football, they had all the recruiting information in the world. 25:42 But college hockey didn't have that, especially in Minnesota. 25:45 I mean, what would you see? 25:46 Maybe a handful of names during a state tournament, you know, being listed on the TV screen or maybe an occasional word from old Sid Hartman, probably pilfering it from somebody else. 25:57 But, you know, so I used to go to the model camps and the selects in St. 26:03 Cloud and, you know, all that stuff. 26:05 And that was really what I, the niche I felt like I could fill. 26:09 And I got to be good friends with some of the Gopher coaches over the years and other coaches around the area. 26:14 And so, but yeah, I've kind of hung up my skates, so to speak, on that stuff. 26:20 I still follow things, of course, but yeah, I don't really spend the time on energy on that stuff. 26:26 And of course, Brent Hov with the mysterious Hammy, like Tim Allen's neighbor, except mysteriouser, because we never get to see that. 26:34 Yeah, well, I mean, your picture is on your profile, but still. 26:36 Yeah, I told you. 26:37 Yeah, at least I have a picture on my Twitter, so it's not like I'm happy with it. 26:42 It's not like you have a car on there or something. 26:45 Yeah, exactly. 26:48 Cardinal, what's your future? 26:51 That's a vague question. 26:54 I did it on purpose. 26:56 I'm just trying to make it through the night and wake up tomorrow. 26:58 That's, I got to, you know, again, it's like a coach speak, right? 27:01 You can't look too far down the road. 27:02 I'm taking it one day at a time. 27:03 So did you go to Madison? 27:06 No, I did not between work and kid hockey stuff that that conflicted, but was in St. 27:11 Cloud and was in Duluth. 27:14 So kind of a tale of two nights there, but at least got to see one fun win. 27:17 And yeah, so those are enjoyable short trips, but good ones. 27:22 I didn't get a chance to go anywhere this year. 27:24 I feel sad. 27:25 It's not too late. 27:26 There's lots of trips left. 27:28 Cardinal, did you bring the boy to both of the games? 27:30 Whole family? 27:30 What was the St. 27:33 Cloud he was with? 27:34 So yeah, he got to have some fun there and then he had practice. 27:38 So he was left behind for the Duluth one. 27:41 A little bit easier to get to St. 27:42 Cloud and back in a night versus Duluth. 27:45 But Fire Helmet Guy was with for both. 27:47 So yeah, it was a good time. 27:49 How's he doing? 27:51 He's doing good. 27:51 Kind of same old, same old with him. 27:53 But he's still lurking on the board. 27:56 But does the helmet still exist? 27:58 It almost was lost. 27:59 Does it still exist? 28:00 I mean, the helmet, that thing needs to end up at Mariucci at some point along the way because it was in Lake Superior. 28:07 It got rescued the next fall. 28:09 Someone fished it out and got it back and he picked it up the next fall. 28:13 So yeah, that helmet has seen a lot through the years. 28:16 So go ahead. 28:17 Well, I was going to say, it goes, get him capped. 28:20 You update here. 28:21 We have a fan who's been a fan forever. 28:24 Fire helmet guy. 28:24 He was a fireman, has his full helmet, paint. 28:28 It's all kind of all gophered out. 28:31 He was really ticked off at a performance up in Duluth a few years ago. 28:35 Walks across, whether he walked across the bridge and he threw it out on the ice. 28:38 Didn't he, Cardinal? 28:40 Yeah, it was either on the bridge or right outside the deck where he used to, you know, kind of funnel out to walk across to the sports garden. 28:45 Yeah, right down there. 28:46 It went on under the ice and he thought that was it. 28:49 And then again, I don't want to, I don't know the full story, but I know I was with him in the fall and he got a message from somebody saying, hey, someone's got your helmet. 28:58 He met up with them like as soon as we got up there and came walking out with the helmet and never missed a beat. 29:06 I think we should all just set up, you know, if we next time there's a weekend in Duluth, everybody up to Duluth, everyone leave the kids at home. 29:12 Let's go. 29:13 Yeah, I hope there is. 29:15 And Hammy's coming with us. 29:18 You guys going to have any skates or what? 29:20 You're going to have some games like the old Pride or Nice game? 29:23 Um, actually, I was talking to Jared Bird IBM and he's thinking we need to set one up for next spring, which would be 20 years since we had that first Pride or Nice skate. 29:38 Try to get a lot of those original guys, Sal, $2 hat and goal and things like that. 29:43 Get all those old guys out skating. 29:46 It doesn't matter if you're a good skater. 29:47 You're just going to come on, have some fun. 29:48 I think that would be a blast. 29:51 That would be fun. 29:52 Those were the days. 29:53 I'm up for it. 29:54 All right. 29:55 Well, Hammy, Cardinal, I've got to thank you guys for tuning in tonight and just celebrating our 200th episode. 30:02 Thanks for coming on with us. 30:05 Yeah, well, thank you for the invite. 30:07 I can speak for all Gopher fans, Jupe, that you've done a lot with GPL, the site and the podcast and everything that you've done over the years and contributed. 30:19 I don't know that you'll get enough credit sometimes. 30:21 You probably get a lot of grief from people telling you, why haven't you banned this person? 30:25 That person's an ass, you know, or whatever. 30:28 I try to be. 30:31 I appreciate everything you did, especially after Pride on Ice kind of stepped away. 30:37 That was a well, that was a beloved board and you did a good job kind of picking up the pieces on that. 30:42 So good job. 30:43 Well, I appreciate it, Hammy. 30:44 So thanks for coming on, guys. 30:46 We're going to let you go because we've got another guest coming on. 30:49 So thanks, Hammy and Cardinal. 30:51 Take it easy, guys. 30:54 All right. 30:56 Look who we have there. 30:59 The one and only Frank Mazzocco. 31:02 Our number two guest on our second show back 2010. 31:11 And Frank, you are our first guest ever, but it was the second show. 31:17 Yeah. 31:17 Hi, Frank. 31:18 How are you doing? 31:19 I'm doing fine now. 31:20 I was starting to get a little irritated because I thought I was maroono. 31:24 And I guess I sort of was. 31:26 Well, you were the first guest, but we just didn't have a guest the first show. 31:29 And if anybody wants a good laugh, all the podcasts are still available online. 31:34 Go listen to show number one. 31:41 I sound like a robot reading off a cue card. 31:44 It's like I'm reading, blah, blah, blah, blah. 31:47 It was so bad. 31:51 And we've just learned. 31:52 There's a place for you to go for radio network. 31:55 We could use you. 31:57 No. 32:02 So Frank, how are you doing? 32:04 Good, but I just would like to follow up on what Hammy said. 32:10 Two sides of it. 32:11 One is, yeah, where should I start? 32:14 I'm going to start with the easy part, because no, we don't give you enough credit, because we would just rather poke you. 32:21 Well, that's what hockey guys do, give each other grief. 32:24 We would rather give you the grief, yeah. 32:26 But truly, I was thinking also 200 shows. 32:29 My goodness, you have poured a lot, not only into your enterprise here, but for what you do for Gopher fans. 32:39 That's incredible. 32:41 Well, I appreciate it. 32:42 I'm sure you're going to be very rich off of this. 32:49 It's just for fun. 32:50 And literally, it was 10 years ago. 32:53 Hey, let's just throw together a podcast. 32:55 You know, I remember that first time, the first time we had you on, we actually did some of it via, I think, Google. 33:04 We had, because we didn't record video, but we had video so we could kind of see each other. 33:12 I know you don't remember it. 33:15 So was the Pride on Ice board, I thought that was yours. 33:20 That was Matt and Kyle Barron's website. 33:24 Well, when did you post the video that got the lawyer, the Fox lawyers in LA all burned? 33:32 Where did that get posted? 33:33 Okay. 33:35 So Pride on Ice was... 33:37 Yeah, just kind of a recap here. 33:39 Pride on ice.com was a website for all Gopher fans. 33:42 And Matt and Kyle Barron, I think it was Matt's project. 33:45 He was kind of a web developer and he was learning how to program. 33:48 So he programmed a message board. 33:53 And when 2003 came along and they were in the Frozen 4, the message board crashed while they were at the Frozen 4. 34:01 So I literally put up a temporary message board in order to have the fans a place to go just for the Frozen 4 when, you know, Vanek and all that, Five One, all that good stuff happened. 34:15 I kept the board alive. 34:16 People kind of used it as a sideboard. 34:17 And then a couple of years later, they just to say they didn't want to do it anymore, so they shut it down. 34:23 At that same time, I was doing little highlight videos because there was no YouTube at the time. 34:31 And you wonder, you know, I've got like all those old clips of you or the Wuger. 34:35 And that's how I got the wheelchair comment was recording your old shows. 34:41 And I would just post it to my site and people would watch them. 34:48 Well, your call of Danny Ehrman scoring that penalty shot goal against Wisconsin became rather popular because the only place you could see it was on my website. 35:03 So Fox saw it, didn't like it, sent me a couple letters, take it down. 35:12 If it would have just made it till, you know, YouTube, maybe it would have survived, but... 35:16 I resurrected the audio last weekend. 35:19 Friday was the anniversary of the penalty shot. 35:23 Oh, really? 35:24 Yeah, 17 years, I think. 35:29 You know, the thing is, the people saved that video that I had and that video is now on YouTube, the original mixing of me putting it together. 35:37 I don't have it anymore, but the one you could see on the Internet is the original one I mixed together. 35:46 Veegs, do you want to say something? 35:48 Yeah, that's 17 years since I had my ACL repaired then as well, too. 35:52 I remember I had my ACL repaired about a week or two before that game and I was in the student section on crutches and painkillers enjoying that glorious penalty shot opportunity. 36:03 It was a lot of fun. 36:05 Yeah, it was a lot of fun. 36:06 Well, as Frank was saying during the recording, it's been a long time. 36:10 I mean, because you didn't see penalty shots very often back then. 36:15 Well, and then I did the research to find out, I think it was 12 years before that, the previous one was, even an attempt, you had to go back to the old building to get one. 36:27 And it was actually what, about a year or two, was it about a year or the next year later that Kessel had, his first goal was a penalty shot goal. 36:36 Right, against Mankato. 36:37 Yeah. 36:39 Caffe, I got to tell you that those highlight packages that you put together, that was a broadcaster's dream. 36:47 Because when I was getting down in the dumps, I'd go back and listen to the highlight package and say, gee, you know, I think I can do this job. 36:52 This is pretty damn good. 36:54 You know, you jam a bunch of goals together, you don't get all the dead air and the mumbles that are throughout the show. 37:01 So anyway, I might have even downloaded one or two of them. 37:07 Oh, God, don't tell the lawyers. 37:10 With YouTube, I don't think anyone cares anymore. 37:16 It's just it's not a huge deal. 37:18 Maybe they let writers write stories off of TV. 37:25 Oh, another great one for Brent Hoeven. 37:26 Yeah, we'll tell that story. 37:27 Broin Pains, Tyler Hirsch Aftermath. 37:32 Instant regret. 37:33 Yeah. 37:34 Cappy, you've probably seen that video of Tyler Hirsch at the final five out there by himself crashing into the boards after doing his own little penalty shot on his own. 37:48 That was sad. 37:48 That was sad. 37:50 It was. 37:50 You'll have to. 37:51 And I didn't even realize it at first. 37:52 I'm like somebody sent me the video. 37:54 I'll put this up and I'm like, you know, I better not. 38:00 Took it down. 38:02 Too late. 38:04 The next week, the next weekend for or whatever for the Frozen Four, they were talking about on ESPN and they showed that clip on ESPN. 38:12 Thanks to me. 38:16 Yeah. 38:17 Like that tweet. 38:17 Don't send that tweet. 38:18 Don't hit send. 38:22 Yeah, I want to say the video was live for maybe an hour. 38:28 Somebody was able to save it. 38:29 And later on, it got put out on other video sharing devices at the time because YouTube was around by then. 38:39 Sorry, Tyler. 38:41 I actually did apologize to him in person some years ago. 38:47 Well, on a brighter note, what are we going to talk about, Jupe? 38:52 Well, let's talk about this weekend. 38:54 I mean, we were talking about a little bit. 38:57 You know, we've been talking about Mazzocco, not Mazzocco, Mazzocco hasn't been happy with the Game 1 performances, Frank. 39:05 And so they really got to get their butts in gear the first game on a weekend now. 39:12 Yeah, you know, I didn't think they were, they weren't terrible. 39:16 They just weren't good. 39:17 They weren't as good as they can be. 39:18 I mean, the bar is higher now. 39:22 I got to thinking about, you know, whenever it was they had me start picking three stars of the game, and I would have like six honorable mentions and three stars. 39:33 I mean, I was just picking up all of these strappy little guys that were just busting their tail, right? 39:38 Well, now we've got like three bona fide stars in the game, and they're pretty much cream of the crop, you know, above and pretty obvious over everybody else. 39:49 Anyway, the bar is higher. 39:50 And he got, I mean, two weeks ago was the Notre Dame series was the classic. 39:57 I mean, I thought that team just busted their tails against Notre Dame. 40:02 Notre Dame is not an easy team to play against. 40:05 And you don't play free-form hockey against Notre Dame. 40:09 If you're going to get six points, you've worked your tail off. 40:11 And that's what I kind of thought happened. 40:13 Well, Bob comes out in the postgame show. 40:15 And the first thing he does is goes back to a blown off side in the second period. 40:23 And a turnover in the early in the third period. 40:25 I'm saying, Bob, you just came away with six points. 40:29 I mean, it's not, he says, I know, I know, that's the coach speaking. 40:33 And we did some good things. 40:34 Well, but no, they need that. 40:37 They need to answer the bell better on Friday night. 40:40 But this team historically has just had soft Friday nights. 40:44 And that goes back, maybe since this building was built. 40:47 I don't know what it is, some karma about it. 40:50 But hey, I'll tell you what, I know they had a 10-0 start last year, and it was pretty good the year. 40:58 I don't particularly like teams that get off to 10-0 starts because a lot of them just hit the wall and then just roll right off the table. 41:06 I would rather the old North Dakota formula where you start slow and you go up and then you reach your peak. 41:14 It doesn't make it good for some of the tickets early in the year because those first compressions last, but that's fine. 41:19 I'm okay with this team just getting better weekend at a time. 41:23 And I think last week what we saw was those, especially the three freshman forwards that were playing last weekend. 41:30 Wow. 41:33 With Pitlick and Hughlin and Brose, that's going to be an awesome trio. 41:41 Cappy, what are you expecting from Ohio State this weekend? 41:44 I mean, they've had a great start. 41:47 Minnesota is a good team. 41:48 They haven't really, I mean, I don't know who else they've faced, but Minnesota will be the speed limit going up, it seems like. 42:00 They played their first two on the road, then the next six were at home. 42:06 Same rink I played at. 42:07 It can be a home advantage, it can be sometimes, and it can be kind of a boring rink to play in. 42:13 There's not a crowd, but what I've seen from them is they're back to playing hard and they've got enough skill or whatever to get some goals, but they're playing hard for Rolick and they're playing that relentless, kind of frustrating game in the offensive zone, and then they're being really smart back, kind of what they were a couple years ago when they were having tons of success. 42:36 They want to blame COVID last year, they had all their training camp, all that stuff, new players, structure, it's hard to teach when you're not coaching it. 42:46 It seems like they had a regular preseason, and it started to look good, plus like I said, they've got a couple of those freshmen that have really stepped up right away. 42:57 I'm expecting them to come in and play hard. 42:59 The thing about Minnesota is people, they get the best from pretty much everyone that comes at them, because it's Minnesota, it's all like Michigan, a lot like probably North Dakota. 43:13 And it's hard to match that all the time. 43:16 You go into Wisconsin, Wisconsin is a little down this year, you get four out of six points on the road. 43:21 I think they'll take that every series all year. 43:23 Yes, you want to be perfect and play better, but it's just not how it works all the time. 43:28 And sometimes it's good to get that point on a Friday night and then get that W on the road. 43:33 So I'm seeing Ohio State, I'm not going to take my prediction out, I'm waiting for Vegoe. 43:38 I want Vegoe first this time around, by the way. 43:41 I've always go before him and he sneaks that in. 43:45 I'm watching them against Penn State after Penn State's gotten a really good start. 43:51 They beat North Dakota in that game that nobody thought they would win that game, not even close. 43:55 And they won it going away a little bit. 43:59 So to sweep them at home, any sweep in the Big Ten is great. 44:04 But to do that pretty decisively too on Saturday, they came back from down 1-0 in the third period and they scored four in the third to win it. 44:14 When a goalie gets that confidence from a young guy like that, any team, like the team in front of Jack last year, how good he was, the team in front of him makes everyone else look that much better. 44:25 So I think that builds the confidence. 44:27 They're going to come in, I think, confident off five in one home stand, so it will be interesting. 44:33 Vig's kind of a strange question for you. 44:36 Does Ohio State need a smaller arena? 44:41 I think it would definitely help. 44:44 We look around College Hockey, all the new buildings that are being built are kind of in that four to six thousand seat capacity. 44:54 You look at Arizona State, you look at Colorado College, you look at UConn, you look at what, say Thomas, what I've heard is building, it's all in that size where you can have a crowd that's loyal, consistent and loud and engaged. 45:10 I mean, can you imagine right now if the Gophers were playing at like a renovated old Mariucci, there would not be a problem having four or five thousand fans and then selling five, six hundred seats to fill in the rest. 45:24 And it would be like historic Yost, you know. 45:29 You wouldn't have all this negative stuff going on because there'd be enough fans to fill that building and provide energy and everybody would just be like, there's no attendance problem. 45:40 So it's definitely smart for schools to play in a smaller building, I think. 45:45 But on the flip side of that, Frank, when Mariucci is full, it's been a while, that place can rock as well, even though it's a huge arena. 45:56 That audio clip that I ran last week, there were 10,000 people there. 46:01 It sounded like 20. 46:02 I mean, that's how it sounded. 46:04 It was just an incredible atmosphere in there. 46:09 Yeah, I felt a little bad about running the audio because some games now sound more like they're in a Ramsey County rink or a high school rink instead of, you know. 46:23 I mean, they're quiet. 46:24 They're really quiet. 46:28 But it's not going to change. 46:29 They're not going to build another arena. 46:31 Not for a long time. 46:33 No, no, there's things they could... 46:35 When I win the big lottery, there's things I'll do in there that don't... 46:40 Frank Mazzocco arena. 46:42 They got to fix the acoustics in there and make it so you can hear what's going on instead of it just being... 46:48 Good luck. 46:49 Yeah, well, that's why I got to win the big lottery. 46:52 That is Craig Floor's biggest nightmare, is that audio system. 46:57 It's not the system so much as the roof. 46:59 Oh, yeah. 46:59 Cap, Capy, have they started doing the things where they're doing like the bar seating at Ohio State where they can maybe create more of a premium experience to get more people there? 47:11 I saw that they did that down in the far end, the non-Zambonian. 47:18 They did do that. 47:22 We haven't had any games on TV yet. 47:24 So, like, you know, you're watching on BTN Plus, you're just getting the straight on feed where you're only seeing the rinks. 47:30 You're not seeing a lot of that. 47:31 But they did build that down in the far end opposite of the Zamboni doors. 47:37 So, I mean, it's a way to, you know, maybe get, yeah, you're going to get people to pay a little money to kind of have that experience sitting at a table and you're going to get the game right in front of you. 47:46 So, I think any way to, you know, generate revenue or excitement for someone to maybe pay a little more to go see a game is big. 47:54 I just, you know, that place, when I play, you know, if we filled the bottom area, it was fun to get eight or nine, we get eight or nine thousand people, you know, come after Christmas, no more football. 48:05 And we were, we were, you know, it's a pretty solid, you know, top 15 team or so. 48:11 It was a fun experience in there. 48:15 But I do love, you know, look at Pagool. 48:17 I love going there to do a game. 48:20 It's so much fun. 48:21 It's a perfect size arena. 48:23 And you have a great student section. 48:25 Like I could see that, you know, the Gophers would, their students would come in and, you know, have fun like that. 48:32 You're right on top of the game. 48:35 But yeah, I don't know what's going to happen in Ohio State. 48:38 It's very frustrating because you see a lot of other facilities going up for other sports. 48:44 You know, as a hockey alumni there, I'm a little frustrated when I see that because I'm like, you know, people come watch hockey a little more than some of these other sports. 48:53 I'm like, where's our, where's our turn kind of thing? 48:56 But, you know, it doesn't matter. 48:59 Weren't they close like within the last year or two to building? 49:04 I've heard that too, Frank. 49:07 I've heard it. 49:07 I've been in the coaches room talking to them about it. 49:11 I could have sworn on media day, Steve Roelich said something like, you know, maybe this winter we're going to hear something. 49:18 Yeah. 49:18 So the one, the last rumor I had heard was they were going to build a kind of practice rink attached to the shot and make it like a, maybe it was going to be the women's rink, which they deserve a rink. 49:31 Hello there, top, them in Wisconsin. 49:34 I mean, look at that program. 49:35 If you get off a tangent, Ohio State Women's Program has become elite. 49:40 But they were going to build a like maybe 2000 seat arena attached to it. 49:44 So that would become the women's rink and the highest, the hockey, the men's practice rink. 49:50 And maybe they would play some of their non-conference games in there. 49:53 So really wouldn't fix the problem overall, but it would be something, you know, maybe you'd get better locker rooms or something. 50:00 I don't know. 50:00 That was the last rumor I heard. 50:02 I'm kind of done with here and that until it's put in the paper on some, you know, 40, whatever million dollars they got to do. 50:11 Yeah, it's just... 50:16 I see people commenting how bad the audio is at Mariucci and how bad it was at the old Mariucci. 50:23 We heard, I think Frank, you might have been there after a game recently when Craig Flohr was telling us that the original audio system at Mariucci was taken out of Memorial Stadium. 50:35 The speakers? 50:36 The speakers. 50:38 Yeah. 50:39 Because the Memorial Stadium was still there when they built Mariucci. 50:43 So they took them out. 50:44 They're like, sound doesn't matter. 50:46 Just grab the old speakers out of Memorial. 50:47 They're loud enough. 50:49 Yeah, right. 50:51 But that's... 50:53 I'm going to defend his soul. 50:56 That was Wuger's. 51:02 Part of the brick, if not all of the bricks, at one end of Mariucci is from the arches of Memorial, right? 51:11 Yes, the bricks are from Memorial Stadium. 51:13 Right. 51:14 I don't know. 51:14 Did they bring the... 51:15 I don't know if the arches came over intact or they reassembled them. 51:19 Okay, so he wanted that because it was called Memorial Stadium. 51:22 You're not supposed to destroy a Memorial. 51:25 And then he brought the speakers, figuring speakers are speakers. 51:29 While we're in the second or third generation of speakers by now, I think those were replaced long ago. 51:35 Yes. 51:36 The speakers are not the problem. 51:37 It's the roof. 51:38 It's a big tin can. 51:40 It is way up there. 51:42 Gaphy? 51:44 I'll say I was there doing the... 51:46 It was the finale of the season, maybe 2015-ish. 51:51 They were playing Wisconsin on the Saturday night to win the Big Ten. 51:54 They win that game. 51:55 They win the regular season. 51:57 Obviously, they're playing Wisconsin, so that's their number one rival in the league in the Big Ten. 52:03 The place was pretty full. 52:06 I want to say at least 88, 85 at least out of the nine. 52:11 Whatever it is, it's right. 52:13 I'm telling you, that place was howling by the end as they're getting... 52:19 and they're scoring late and they're chanting Minnesota. 52:22 I was with Climber and Dan Kelly, so I was between the benches. 52:25 Being down near the ice, I took the headset off to listen. 52:29 I was like... 52:33 If the fans are in it, when it's like that, you're like, whoa. 52:38 I get it. 52:39 It's not happening a lot right now. 52:40 But man, when it does, that's a home advantage right there. 52:45 I agree with you. 52:46 And a lot of times I'm doing photography along the glass. 52:51 So the near side boards there, Frank. 52:54 And that sound just comes right down, hits the glass. 52:57 And I have to wear these earbuds and turn on noise cancellation because it is still loud. 53:03 It comes right down, hits the glass and hits me right in the ears. 53:06 It doesn't even have to be a packed house. 53:08 It could be half full. 53:10 And it just shows you the acoustics. 53:11 When people want to be loud in there, it's still pretty loud even though there's not many bodies. 53:16 So, it's interesting. 53:20 I'm going to get a phone call in the morning. 53:22 I've already said more than I should. 53:23 Well, I didn't know that the Wuger was such an environmentalist. 53:33 Environmentalist, you know. 53:35 Reusing, recycling. 53:37 Reusing, yeah, right. 53:40 Should have kept the old Mary. 53:42 But how much would redoing the old Mariucci would that have cost? 53:48 Well, I mean, they've got the path there now. 53:51 Yeah, obviously they still use the building. 53:52 They still use the building and they just renovated it for volleyball. 53:56 They put in club rooms and suites and alcohol and they're doing that up. 54:01 So, obviously the building is still standing. 54:04 Well, the building is getting close to 100 years old, isn't it? 54:07 Was it built in the 20s, 30s? 54:10 Probably 30s, originally. 54:12 I just read there was an anniversary here of 75, 76 years for that building. 54:21 I think Royce wrote it, the old memorial, I think. 54:25 Oh wait, maybe he's talking about Williams. 54:28 Sorry, can't help you on that. 54:32 Hey V, I wanted to ask you, is there still a plan to shrink the rink? 54:37 There is, and it's included in the budget in the next five years to do it, and they're not going to have to fundraise for it. 54:45 They're just going to be able to use their commercial program to pay for it. 54:51 I would like them to do it as soon as they can, so potentially this offseason they could shrink it. 54:57 I do think it's an opportunity for them to, when they shrink it, they're going to be in there working the building, to kind of reconfigure some of the seats to maybe create some kind of like, you know, icebox type seating where you can have, you know, some loungy bar tables and things like that. 55:15 Some fancy high-end tickets, yeah. 55:17 Yep, you know, and then maybe you only have 9,000 seats instead of 10,000. 55:23 But I know when I was talking to people in the know who are doing that, that was about four years ago pre-COVID, so who knows? 55:30 But I do know that premium seats are much easier to sell than regular seats. 55:35 Right now, you know, the seats between the blue lines, they sell those pretty easily. 55:39 The ones in the corners that they're trying to sell for the low, low price, those are the ones that are having trouble selling. 55:46 And they are thinking of the 1928 was the year for Williams. 55:51 Yes, the Concourse could be improved. 55:54 But no, they're thinking of the bar, you know, freestanding, so you can stand and have your drinks up there. 56:02 Do they sell beer yet in Mariucci? 56:05 Oh, yeah. 56:05 Oh, yeah. 56:06 I mean, what are the orders? 56:09 All over. 56:10 I remember people saying, I'll go back to Mariucci when they start selling beer. 56:14 What's this like? 56:15 Is it going to be like the third season, second or third? 56:18 Yeah, and now you can go and you can see them play the Buckeyes this weekend for 30 bucks and you get a ticket and a beer or a glass of wine. 56:26 What's the price on beer there? 56:29 It's about eight, nine bucks at least. 56:31 That's the cheapest beer I've heard of in a stadium in a while. 56:36 Yeah. 56:41 That's a thing in nine digits or three digits. 56:44 All right, guys, let's get your predictions for the weekend. 56:48 At Ohio State, we're going to start with you, Veegs, because Cappy doesn't like the pressure of going first. 56:56 I do feel like the Gophers continue their trend of not playing well on Friday night. 57:01 I think they drop Friday and then they get a stern film session and come back and win Saturday. 57:07 I do think Ohio State is the kind of team that will present problems for Minnesota, and they've had enough time to integrate their young players. 57:15 You know, you don't really have warm-up games in college hockey, but you look at Ohio State's schedule and it kind of warmed up right into that Penn State series, and they met the challenge. 57:27 It gets a pretty good team. 57:29 So I think they'll be coming in on a little bit of a high streak, looking forward to getting on the road and playing at Marriott. 57:34 And as Cappy said, teams always give their best when they play Minnesota. 57:40 I'll be right back. 57:41 Cappy, go ahead. 57:45 He's got to check his notes real quick. 57:47 We're going to mute Frank. 57:49 We're just going to mute him. 57:51 Go ahead, Cappy. 57:53 If the Ohio State special teams are any good, then it might change his prediction. 58:00 But I was going to maybe go a little different. 58:02 All the pressure on Cappy right now. 58:03 I'm agreeing with Bigs. 58:06 I'm going to go. 58:07 I actually think I'm going to flip it. 58:10 I think Minnesota is going to surprise and win on Friday night. 58:17 And then I think Ohio State is going to win in overtime on Saturday. 58:20 So Minnesota is going to take four out of six. 58:26 I'm playing like a reverse jinx kind of. 58:28 I think you're wrong. 58:29 Gophers sweep, baby. 58:32 Shocking. 58:33 Shocking. 58:34 Yeah, I know. 58:35 I don't know if you know, I've been calling sweeps like the last couple of weeks. 58:38 So this is a rare for me to call a split. 58:42 Frank, you ready yet? 58:43 You got all organized? 58:44 No, I'm not organized. 58:45 I did all my training. 58:50 Checked his notes. 58:53 Some radio guys. 58:54 I don't know. 58:56 We don't have to be organized. 58:58 We just have to have a good life. 58:59 Former TV star. 59:00 Remember? 59:01 Don't you know who I am? 59:02 Frank Mazzocco from Fargo? 59:06 MSC Sports. 59:08 I don't think Steve Rollic has won two games here. 59:14 Oh, he's not. 59:15 No, he's not sweeping. 59:17 No, I feel like the Gophers though have had more. 59:19 No, I mean, never. 59:22 See, that's kind of where I'm going. 59:23 I mean, the odd, the numbers are not in the Buckeyes favor here. 59:28 I'll never find it. 59:33 Give us your professional opinion as an analyst of the Gopher Radio Network on their phone. 59:39 They don't get phone calls tomorrow? 59:42 So the boss doesn't call? 59:44 No, you won't get phone calls. 59:45 It's more popular. 59:48 The odds say go for a sweep. 59:51 I mean, I'm not talking about the Vegas odds. 59:53 I'm, okay, on paper. 59:57 They don't play the games on paper, Frank. 1:00:00 I always hedge everything. 1:00:01 Mazzocco says he's worried about... 1:00:04 Vig, did you catch his coach's show Monday, Tuesday, whenever it ran? 1:00:08 I sure did. 1:00:09 I caught it right on Monday. 1:00:11 He said, okay, the coaches picked them to finish seventh, the Buckeyes. 1:00:17 And boy is Steve Rolick and his coaching staff happy about that. 1:00:22 Because they think, and Mazzocco thinks, they're much better than a seventh-place team, and look out. 1:00:28 But he didn't think that a month ago, or two months ago, when he picked them seventh. 1:00:33 He said he wouldn't have voted him, but yeah, right. 1:00:37 Sure. 1:00:38 Somebody had to. 1:00:41 So, all right, so I'll go. 1:00:43 You know what? 1:00:43 I predicted a Gopher slaughter on Friday at Wisconsin last week, you recall, at the beginning of the show. 1:00:51 Not well. 1:00:54 So you want me to go? 1:00:54 You didn't say I had to pick. 1:00:56 You just said, come on for a few minutes. 1:00:58 They duped you. 1:01:02 Well, I was going to have you on for just a few minutes, and then you're like, what do you want to talk about? 1:01:05 All right, all right, all right. 1:01:09 So you got my word. 1:01:11 I said on paper, and you look at Talent Pool and past record, I don't think the Gophers are going to have the problem on a Friday night that Vegoe thinks. 1:01:23 I hear you. 1:01:24 I've seen a lot of parts on Friday nights, but I think it'll be a Gopher sweep. 1:01:35 All right. 1:01:37 It's always positive. 1:01:38 So Vegs is the only guy that picked the Buckeyes to win a game in regulation. 1:01:43 Let's put that on the message board tomorrow. 1:01:46 Yeah. 1:01:48 I'm already on Bob's good side. 1:01:52 He's been giving me a hard time this year. 1:01:58 Cappy, I see a question on Twitter that I didn't see earlier. 1:02:01 John Reynolds, please ask Paul one thing he likes about Big Ten Hockey and one thing he misses about his old conference of CCHA. 1:02:12 What I like about the Big Ten? 1:02:18 The youth speed and skill is pretty good. 1:02:24 I think that's where we get caught sometimes in the tournament and whatnot is we're not very experienced. 1:02:34 The recruiting is ridiculous. 1:02:36 Look at Michigan, look at Minnesota, look at all the draft picks. 1:02:39 But when you come down to grinding against those St. 1:02:43 Clouds and Toulouse, it's not going very well because those teams, they got the maturity and all that stuff. 1:02:48 But I love the speed and these young guys that come in, they're freshmen, they come in right away and they become names immediately in the Big Ten. 1:02:57 I love that kind of stuff. 1:02:59 And then what I miss about this DCHA meet for me personally is my favorite rival more than Michigan was Miami, Ohio. 1:03:08 We were both really good teams. 1:03:10 They're an hour down the road. 1:03:11 It was an Ohio battle. 1:03:13 I loved playing at the old Goggin Arena, one of the best arenas ever, so much fun. 1:03:19 And so I missed that. 1:03:20 And some of the other ones I don't miss, like Ferris State, that ranked with the best in the world. 1:03:26 But I missed that. 1:03:28 Yeah, but so many close rivalries. 1:03:30 But you had the whole state of Michigan in your conference pretty much. 1:03:33 And then everything was close. 1:03:35 Now it's Michigan and Michigan State are close. 1:03:39 I don't know. 1:03:40 We had to go to Northern Michigan and Lake Superior State. 1:03:43 Those were, you know, we also bus ride everywhere. 1:03:47 There were no plane rides. 1:03:48 Oh, here comes the bitterness. 1:03:52 No, I'm just saying like going to Michigan was 10 or 11 hours maybe, you know. 1:03:56 So I missed that. 1:03:58 And then easily the CCHA at the Joe. 1:04:02 That was the best. 1:04:03 That was the best place I ever played hockey, game in. 1:04:06 And then, you know, beat Michigan there to win the CCHA. 1:04:10 So Joe, Joe Lucerina experience was unbelievable. 1:04:14 But you never experienced the WCHA Final Five where Frank Mazzocco and Doug Wood were calling the games. 1:04:20 Hey, I wasn't asked about the WCHA. 1:04:27 Oh, fun times. 1:04:31 Well, Frank, thanks for sneaking on our 200th episode. 1:04:34 We appreciate you coming on short notice. 1:04:37 Hope I'm still around for 300. 1:04:40 Wow, that's quite a few years down the line. 1:04:42 But if we keep it going that long, I don't know, maybe. 1:04:46 Good to have goals. 1:04:49 I'm just hoping to make it to 201. 1:04:52 One day at a time. 1:04:54 I heard that on the show. 1:04:54 Exactly. 1:04:57 And Cappy, thanks for coming on again. 1:04:59 You're getting up there with number of appearances. 1:05:04 Six, five, six, something like that. 1:05:08 It's crazy. 1:05:09 I mean, we're in the ninth year of Big Ten Hockey, right? 1:05:12 Like, you know, it's it's slowly kind of crazy. 1:05:15 You know, the memory of a lot of the, you know, all the griping early on. 1:05:20 I get it. 1:05:21 But there's still a lot of it. 1:05:23 Of course. 1:05:23 But think about kids wise, right? 1:05:25 If you're a 14 year old kid, your first year was Big Ten, probably as a five year old or six year old. 1:05:32 Now you're four. 1:05:33 You know, I'm just saying it's slowly kind of building up what they're hoping it would be. 1:05:40 Yes. 1:05:40 But yes, I know you could never. 1:05:44 The kids on their analyze today were squirts when the Big Ten started. 1:05:51 You know, they were squirts and mites. 1:05:53 They hadn't gone on any road trips like Cardinal's kids went on this year. 1:05:59 You know, if these kids who are who are freshmen in college don't remember Paul Martin playing in the NHL. 1:06:11 Cappy, you've heard that story, I hope. 1:06:15 It's a good time for overtime. 1:06:18 We're going to bring it up for overtime because that's good stuff. 1:06:21 We've got a lot of good stuff. 1:06:21 Maybe I'll hang around. 1:06:27 You need help prepping for Friday night. 1:06:33 Well, thanks, guys, for all being part of this. 1:06:36 Thanks to everyone who watches and listens. 1:06:39 You know, a lot of people watch us live and, you know, in the past, they would listen live through that little Mixler sound app. 1:06:45 So we've been doing the show live for quite a long time. 1:06:48 It was only those first few years we recorded and put up. 1:06:51 But thanks, everyone, for always tuning in live, listening, giving us these questions and the newer part of having overtime that lasts forever. 1:07:00 Oh, so we just lost, we just lost Cappy. 1:07:03 What a shame. 1:07:04 He'll come back. 1:07:06 I think his data plan ran out. 1:07:08 Oh, it could be, could be. 1:07:09 He's in Florida. 1:07:10 He's living on the, he's living great. 1:07:13 So he'll come back, he'll come back. 1:07:15 But, you know, that's going to do it for this episode of the GPL Podcast. 1:07:18 We got to thank Cappy, Hammy, Cardinal, of course, Frank Mazzocco for joining us for this special episode. 1:07:25 For those of you currently watching live, we're going to have some overtime. 1:07:29 And for the rest of you, we'll see you next week.